THE FOLLOWING IS A REPRINT OF A BLOG FROM MY OTHER COMMENTARY BLOG SITE (The Full Course) WHICH I FELT SO STRONGLY ABOUT I DECIDED TO AIR OUT MY OUTRAGE HERE AS WELL. THANKS FOR LISTENING!:
Something Is Terribly Wrong With This Picture
Imagine setting at your computer, sipping coffee and contemplating your futures investments. For you investor light weights out there, "futures" are investments that hedge on the value of certain commodities like oil, or sugar or wheat to name a few. Basically what you are doing is betting that the prices of a given commodity will do something within a certain time. This is a legitimate form of investing. The risks are high... hence the rewards can be hefty. So can the losses.
Now take your mind back to our origional setting. Your morning coffee, in front of your computer and you are contemplating what to invest and you see these options:
1. Yasser Arafat is assassinated by March 1st 2004
2. Jordanian King Abdullah is overthrown by May 31, 2004
3. N. Korea launches a missile attack against allied targets by October 2004
4. Terrorists attack tourists in Israel marketplace by January 15, 2004
You select one or more of these and basically you purchase futures contracts on them. If the specified event occurs you win. If the time passes and the event hasn't occurred, you lose the entire investment.
If this all sounds too absurd to be real, guess again. Not only was it a real idea, but it was a plan in progress. And further, the Pentagon spent taxpayer dollars to fund it and budgeted $8 million for it through 2005. A web site had already been set up, and registration was to begin this Friday with trading set to start on October 1.
What on earth were these people thinking?
The whole idea was view by the Pentagon as a way of using the predictive ability of markets to anticipate terrorist events or crises. Given this hair-brained idea, it is even more discomforting to think how American intelligence is used in military planning by the Bush administration.
Of course I was anxious to know who the cast of characters were in this mess. It seems Tony Tether is director of the agency responsible for overseeing the program. Retired Adm. John M. Poindexter supervised the program. Poindexter served as national security advisor under President Reagan. He was convicted for involvement in the Iran-contra scandal in the '80, however his conviction was later set aside. Both Tether and Poindexter had reviewed the project and evidently saw nothing wrong with it. Even Deputy Secretary of Defense Paul D. Wolfowitz smiled when he admitted that perhaps they got carried away with their imaginations.
Thankfully the program is dead. Shock and outrage was swift from Democrats and Republicans alike. Sen. Thomas Daschle (D-S.D.) called it a "plan to trade in death" and said the Bush administration should make a "public apology, especially to the families of the victims of September 11." Senators Byron L. Dorgan (D-N.D.) and Ron Wyden (D-OR) denounced it at a news conference as "morally offensive." Senator John W. Warner (R-VA) called Tether directly to express the need to halt the program. Senator Barbara Boxer (D-CA) called it "sick" and said the people who planned it should lose their jobs. She noted that terrorists could have participated in the investment program, "knowing they were planning and attack" and collected a lot of money as a result.
All of this causes me to wonder what other things are being cooked up by these guys at the Pentagon? It causes me great concern that there is little oversight of much of the intelligence operations. Thankfully, we have people in Congress who have more upstairs then some in this administration and can stop some of the damage before matters get too out of hand. Still, money is wasted and I remain convinced some of these lapses of mental and moral fiber do fall through the cracks. They say what you don't know won't hurt you... but once we do know it can be too late and quite devastating.
"Then there is the listening at the gates of the heart, which has been closed for so long, and waiting for that mysterious inner voice to speak. When we hear it, we know it is the truth to which we must now surrender our lives."- Beth Ferris
The past two days I have been able to accomplish some writing. Not really anything extraordinary or that I am focused one doing anything with. This has been more in the realm of simply getting me creativity going without the pressure of a specific project. I've used an idea from the "Writers Guide To Creativity" as the basis of some exercises to get me to thinking and lighten up a bit. It's been good.
I think one of the great things about just writing at times and not setting out to expound on some point or issue (which I do get enjoyment from) allows you to do as Beth Ferris suggests above. To take the time to listen to your own heart. Listen... and hopefully hear that great "mysterious inner voice."
While it is important in writing to set some goals and push yourself to meet your deadlines and establish a pattern or habit of writing... almost as though it were a daily ritual, it is good too that we can simply allow life to happen through our pen.
