Under the Microscope
by Glynn Wilson

It’s sort of like hell to be a writer and find yourself almost without words as one year gets ready close with explosions and another is about ready to come in with a bang. Keeping up with all the scandals is mind numbing enough after a while, and all you want to do is munch through a big jar of chocolate chip cookies - and ignore the shocks with very little awe on the TV news.

Who wants to spend the Christmas Holidays worrying about nukes getting into the hands of madmen in Pakistan, while right here at home, we have democracy to save and an all important election hanging in the balance in a field of genetically altered corn?

Is it the role of a newspaperman blogger to give us the video of his grandmamma saying grace at Christmas dinner? Or is the role of the independent Web Press columnist to ruin your dinner by telling you all that is wrong with the world?

Picasso’s depiction of Don Quixote

The reliable old army of reporters over at the Associated Press will tell you all about how global warming, strange weather and the drought are the top stories of the year. You have to dig a littler deeper into Web journalism to see an inkling that the Bush administration’s lying about knowledge of destroying CIA torture tapes could be the scandal with a cover-up that trumps all other scandals.

We still don’t have those gay sex tapes from Jeff Gannon in the Lincoln bedroom. But if Bush is lying about viewing those tapes, he may need to think about escaping to that ranch in Paraguay, although we suspect the much maligned CIA would not let that happen.

No American president has ever been forced to live in exile. Here we just shoot them - or allow them to retire as bumbling fools with Alzheimer’s who “can’t recall” any wrongdoing.

Will Bush be so lucky? We will see…

If you come asking around Locust Forkland about the top story of 2007 in Alabamaland, there’s no contest. The affidavit of North Alabama attorney Dana Jill Simpson shook the earth in the Southland, giving legs to the story that former Alabama Governor Don Siegelman was railroaded politically after all.

The drought will continue to be a story into 2008, but so will the falling house of cards built by Karl Rove running from the Texas statehouse through Alabama’s courthouses to the White House.

One of Rove’s good old buddies down in Montgomery, Bob “Cowboy Boots” Riley, must be feeling at least a mild case of indigestion from the Christmas feast, what with new allegations about misusing planes and hiding corporate campaign contributions under individual names. That’s the easiest investigative story for any Alabama newspaper to do on any governor here, and if anyone had been truly interested, they could have gotten former Alabama Governor Guy Hunt for worse abuses than “love offerings” and taking inaugural money.

There’s more on the editorial calendar about the Riley’s coming up in 2008, but we’re mostly waiting patiently on the lawyers and the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals in Atlanta to see how long a leash they will give federal judge Mark Fuller to stall in the Siegelman case. And we’re waiting to see the House Judiciary Committee juggle all the investigations on its plate, including the Bush Justice Department scandal.

We also have a surprise or two in store for the local press and Alabama Power Company, along with the Alabama Department of Public Safety’s “Take Back the Highways” campaign.

And with any luck, we’ll avoid the homegrown terrorism act’s provisions killing dissent here in the US of A and get on down the road for more van camping trips and our never ending search for beautiful birds to document with a digital camera - before they all disappear.

If the muse strikes again anytime soon here in Picasso’s bunker, where we love to tilt at windmills, we’ll let you know…

Hear the voice of the Bard,
Who present, past, and future, sees;
Whose ears have heard
The Holy Word
That walked among the ancient trees;

Calling the lapsed soul,
And weeping in the evening dew;
That might control
The starry pole,
And fallen, fallen light renew!

‘O Earth, O Earth, return!
Arise from out the dewy grass!
Night is worn,
And the morn
Rises from the slumbrous mass.

‘Turn away no more;
Why wilt thou turn away?
The starry floor,
The watery shore,
Is given thee till the break of day.’

One source for Blake poems

The Electronic Frontier Foundation is now accepting nominees via e-mail until Jan. 1 for the 2008 Electronic Pioneer Awards, established to recognize leaders on the electronic frontier who are extending freedom and innovation in the realm of information technology.

This is your opportunity to nominate a deserving individual or group to receive a Pioneer Award for 2008.

The International Pioneer Awards nominations are open both to individuals and organizations from any country. Nominations are reviewed by a panel of judges chosen for their knowledge of the technical, legal, and social issues associated with information technology.

How to Nominate Someone for a 2008 Pioneer Award:

You may send as many nominations as you wish, but please use one email per nomination. Please submit your entries via email to pioneer@eff.org. We will accept nominations until January 1, 2008.

Provide this information in the e-mail:

1. The name of the nominee,
2. The phone number or email address or website by which the nominee can be reached, and, most importantly,
3. Why you feel the nominee deserves the award.

Nominee Criteria:

There are no specific categories for the EFF Pioneer Awards, but the following guidelines apply.

1. The nominees must have contributed substantially to the health, growth, accessibility, or freedom of computer-based communications.

2. To be valid, all nominations must contain your reason, however brief, for nominating the individual or organization and a means of contacting the nominee. In addition, while anonymous nominations will be accepted, ideally we’d like to contact the nominating parties in case we need further information.

3. The contribution may be technical, social, economic, or cultural.

4. Nominations may be of individuals, systems, or organizations in the private or public sectors.

5. Nominations are open to all (other than current members of EFF’s staff and operating board or this year’s award judges), and you may nominate more than one recipient. You may also nominate yourself or your organization.

6. Persons or representatives of organizations receiving an EFF Pioneer Award will be invited to attend the ceremony in San Francisco at EFF’s expense.

More on the EFF Pioneer Awards

Benazir Bhutto is the latest victim of the deadly mix of George W. Bush’s wishful thinking and his obsession with Iraq.

U.S. officials encouraged the former Pakistani prime minister to return to her homeland to help counter Islamic extremists when there was no way the over-stretched U.S. intelligence agencies could give her much protection.

To read the full story, go to the independent ConsortiumNews.Com