The ever-lying Bill Clinton is still going around acting and sounding like the complete fool he is. That’s far from “news” of course, until one stops to consider that the Clinton administration is directly responsible for most of the major problems our nation experiences today.

The economy took a downturn soon after Clinton’s Treasury Department stopped artificially (and illegally) pumping up the bond, money and stock markets with billions of dollars of federal money. Readers of this newsletter might remember that we started harping about the disaster that ploy could cause long before Dubya even announced as a Presidential candidate. That action by public officials was criminal. Now, here come the results and we all must pay.

Under Clinton, the Justice, Immigrations, and Customs Departments were all very negligent. Instead of protecting the American people, they allowed all sorts of riffraff to enter the country and stay illegally. It’s not just the tens of millions of illegal Mexicans we must now pay to keep in sustenance and free medical treatment, there were also a few hundred illegal aliens with strong terrorist connections the Clinton administration allowed to take up residence here. Clearly, federal officials did not obey their own laws, rules and regulations. Again, we are all paying for that official dereliction of duty.

These public officials were, in fact, criminally negligent. They should be made to account for their actions. From the leaders at Justice and the FBI to the lowest Customs agent and police officer on the street; if they let an illegal alien go without apprehension, they were criminally negligent. It’s time they pay, too.

It’s either that, or the laws do not really count and we need only obey the ones we agree with. It can’t be both ways. Illegal aliens should not have more leeway in violating our laws than the American citizens who pay the bills around here.

Congress is no better. Recently, a bill called the “Uniting and Strengthening America by Providing Appropriate Tools Required to Intercept and Obstruct Terrorism Act.” -- also ironically known as the “USA Patriot Act” -- passed the House and the Senate. Nat Hentoff described it in the Village Voice, November 9, as “Terrorizing the Bill of Rights”(1):

“Congress has overwhelmingly passed, and the president has enthusiastically signed, an anti-terrorism bill that, as the ACLU says, gives ‘enormous, unwarranted power to the executive branch unchecked by meaningful judicial review.’ Moreover, ‘most of the new powers could be used against American citizens in counterterrorism investigations and in routine criminal investigations completely unrelated to terrorism.’ Also likely to be subject to this law: ‘those whose First Amendment activities are deemed to be threats to national security by the attorney general.’”

In effect, that new law is to our Constitutional and civil rights as water is to fire. Such laws were common in the Soviet Union, Nazi Germany and communist China, but have no business being passed by a government still claiming it represents a free people.

We had a lot of respect for Attorney General John Ashcroft. But, after Ashcroft proposed this abortion of our rights, we must reconsider. We should all remember that every public official takes an oath of office in which they promise God and the American people that they will “support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic” and “bear true faith and allegiance to the same.”

There is no way whatsoever that atrocious “Patriot Act” comes anywhere close to supporting and defending what the Founding Fathers directed in our Constitution. Just the opposite, in fact. We didn’t really expect any better from Capitol Hill. We were, however, trusting in a strong display of honor from this new administration. That law is a gross violation of our trust.

It took the FBI two weeks to round up a few hundred of the aliens with strong terrorist ties who were living here -- most were here illegally. But, it took the tragedies of 9-11 before the FBI, Customs and INS would enforce the law they are sworn to uphold. Their dereliction of duty is directly responsible for the deaths of many thousands of American people. So, we have just one small -- yet ever so inconvenient -- question: Why are these negligent bureaucrats still drawing a federal paycheck instead of being arrested?

The negligence of those in the Clinton administration is responsible for most of the major problems our great nation realizes today. It also follows that many of the “mistakes” made by members (and lower bureaucrats) of the Clinton administration were also direct violations of the laws, rules and regulations of the federal government. These violators should, then, be apprehended and prosecuted.

Federal law (5 USC 3331) requires that: “An individual, except the President, elected or appointed to an office of honor or profit in the civil service or uniformed services, shall take the following oath:

“I, (name), do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; that I take this obligation freely, without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion; and that I will well and faithfully discharge the duties of the office on which I am about to enter. So help me God.”

A few hundred federal bureaucrats are culpable for allowing the terrorists free passage around our country. Now is the time for that be corrected.

Besides, if every public official were required, under pain of imprisonment, to obey every law completely, we would soon have a lot fewer laws.

1. http://www.villagevoice.com/issues/0146/hentoff.php

Over the years, I’ve had the bad and the ugly. Finally, mostly by mistake, I got the good.

Years ago, I laid out a thousand bucks for Radio Shack’s TRS-80 -- later called “Trash-80.” We actually did real work on that little computer. That is, after a week or two of programming, one was used for a few years in a major medical institution as a very fancy calculator. That machine did, in fact, save medical personnel many thousands of hours of work.

Later, I spent $5,000 on a fancy DOS machine with two floppy disk drives and a big printer. I still have a copy of the DOS 1.2 disks and the manuals someplace. That, with the MultiMate word processor, became a very well used computer.

Later came the more familiar DOS 3, 4, 5, and 6. Then Windows 3, Windows 95, Windows 98, Windows ME -- and always, the “Blue Screen of Death.” The fact is, if I had a buck for every time I rebooted over the years because of software errors, I could probably buy a new Lincoln Town Car today.

The truth is, these operating systems worked most of the time, but they could also do some very strange things at very inappropriate moments. In fact, the frequency of complete system lock-ups often seemed to be directly in proportion to the importance of the work being done. It often seemed that way, anyway. Writing grants or articles on deadline always seemed to crash Windows. Normal e-mail chitchat never did. Go figure!

One major problem, of course, was that Microsoft kept changing the operating system. So, as soon as we learned one operating system and got most of the problems ironed out, the new one was out and it had its own new set of peculiarities -- and yet a new set of reasons for causing system crashes. So, the whole learning procedure began anew.

To say that I wanted yet another new operating system would be like taping a “kick me” sign on my shirttail! But, I needed a computer. Bummer. So, what to do?

Looking around, everything available had Windows XP installed. I wanted Windows 98. Besides, my Internet provider clearly states that the modems we use are not supported by the new Windows XP operating system and will not work. Double bummer!

Then, a “deal” on a computer popped up. A new computer was available that had everything (and more) that I wanted at a very reasonable price that I was willing to pay. But, it also had the Windows XP Home operating system installed. On the other hand, having a copy of Windows 98 at home, I was in a position to correct that anomaly. So, I bought the beast and took it home.

Well, inquisitive minds want to know. So, I thought I would give the new Windows XP system an evening of my time just to see what all the hype was about. But, I wanted it operating on the Internet -- no matter what my ISP said.

Out of the box, there was a keyboard error. A little message implied something about “fixing it” and I agreed. Keyboard error disappeared. Then I had no sound.

So, I went into the trouble page and it asked a few questions about sound. Suddenly, sound worked.

This was getting interesting!

So, what the heck: I loaded the software for my Internet provider. As they said, I had no driver for my modem. So, I told XP that I had a generic cable modem. That’s when something very strange happened:

I fooled around for another minute or so, and apparently XP was also doing its thing in the background. Because, suddenly a little message popped up informing me that I was on line.

Loading a browser confirmed that, indeed, XP had created a path to the Internet and my connect speed was well over 1,000 Mbps. There has never been a problem with anything since.

At one point, I was listening to a radio program on Netscape Media Player while I was typing in a word processor, had both Netscape and Explorer open and the silly browser for my Internet system opened when I clicked on a link from e-mail. That’s a lot, even with 512 MB of Ram. But, still nothing crashed.

I have now spent a week with the new Windows XP Home edition. I planned to list all the problems I found with Windows XP here, then reformat the hard drive and use Windows 98 from then on. But, there were no problems. Nothing crashed. Nothing didn’t work. Nothing needed extensive setup. The system just works as I intended. No fooling around was necessary.

I’m keeping XP. But, certainly not because I want another operating system to learn. I’m keeping it simply because it has caused me zero problems in its first 60 hours of use. What’s not to like here?

The impression is almost that all those other Microsoft operating systems were little more than aggravating toys and now we get to use the real thing. So, my next step will be to network the two computers -- which is also a function that comes with the XP system. That done, I will revert to being a computer user and leave all the “system management” problems to Windows XP. Because, the computers will then be doing every little thing I want my computers to do. Fast, too!

Truly, this was the fastest I have ever gotten a computer set up and running properly. Within two hours, all my software was installed and I was on the Internet reading news. I expect there may be some sort of problems develop in the next couple weeks, but I have no idea what they might be because everything I use installed properly the first time and works great.

Sure, I have heard a few gripes about XP. I don’t have any yet, though. Someone also mentioned “Product Activation” -- calling Microsoft for permission to use your own operating system. However, I was already up and running before that was mentioned to me. Too late now. . . .

The downside, as I see it, is that when XP makes repairs/changes, it does not inform the user what it did. The upside is that everything works and I didn’t have to do any fooling around whatsoever to make things work properly. For the latter reason, so far, I like XP Home a lot -- and I have never said that before about any operating system in the first week of use. Never!

“You gotta feel sorry for Al Gore. It’s bad enough that you lose a close election, but then every couple of months somebody calls up and says, ‘Hey, Al, guess what. You lost again!’” -- Jay Leno

In no state at any time has an invalid ballot ever been legally acceptable. Florida is no exception. Ballots, as a breed, do not invite creativity. Improperly- cast ballots are trashed. Hanging chads, multiple votes, dimples ... there are very few ways to invalidate a ballot and they are amply documented in the rules.

Here in California -- where many localities use “butterfly” ballots similar to Florida’s -- the rules are very clear. As in Florida, they are presented to the voter weeks in advance, along with a sample ballot. If anything is unclear to the voter, they have ample time to request clarification or, if necessary, assistance. There are phone numbers to call, and the personnel at the voting place are friendly, accessible, and have time on their hands.

Much is being made this week regarding Florida’s instructions to “vote every page”. For example, see the Palm Beach Post article: “If Clearly-Marked Overvotes Had Counted”(1). Now, if one is to believe this week’s commentary, this directive led some voters to think they needed to vote for a major-party candidate and minor-party candidates on successive pages. (I'm all for an intelligence test as a prerequisite for the right to vote, and this works for me!)

It gets worse. While most major-media headlines reasonably conclude that, on the basis of the 23,432nd recount this week (as in the 23,431 recounts that preceded it), Bush squeaked out a small but conclusive victory over Gore in Florida, the co-founder of the 30,000-member-strong Democrats.com, Bob Fertik, goes so far as to shriek that the headlines have it all wrong. In an astonishing article on CNSNews.com’s website(2), Fertik claims the media “chose to validate Bush’ theft of the presidency rather than look at the facts.” He goes on to say: “If you count the votes, Gore wins. If you don’t count the votes, Bush wins.” In this (and, one suspects, many other reasonings), the furtive-looking Fertik (3) has much in common with Josef Stalin, who noted: “Those who cast the votes decide nothing. Those who count the votes decide everything.”

How true. For example, the Palm Beach Post article explicitly supposes that a ballot with chads punched “for Gore and any combination of third-party candidates” actually indicates a vote for Gore. How they came to this conclusion is undisclosed. Clairvoyance? Might not the case have been made just as well that the vote belonged to, say, Buchanan? As it is, the Palm Beach votes for Buchanan were significantly fewer than he polled in the 1996 primaries. To what might this discrepancy be attributed, if not rank theft by Gore voters?

And nothing is said of the military votes that were excluded early in the count through the Gore campaign’s artfully-orchestrated and well-documented lawyerly efforts to suppress them, with handy-dandy brochures on legally- incorrect exclusionary tactics complete with pre-printed ballot-protest forms. This succeeded to the tune of 1,527 rejected military ballots.(4) Let’s not let that be forgotten, not with our men and women in uniform putting their lives on the line today after the Clinton/Gore Administration’s ineptitude, indifference and inattention to our nation’s defense facilitated the horrors of 9/11 … and whatever’s yet to come.

If the Democrat Party is eager to dredge up the whole recount matter and call Bush’s legitimacy into question once again, it is well within our rights to spotlight that outrage again, too. Memo to Ari Fleischer: Next time the Florida race comes up in a press conference, don’t just wave it away as old news. Show your teeth. Just say, “Don’t forget those illegally suppressed military votes. The media statisticians apparently have.” That would end the topic in a heartbeat. C’mon, Republicans, sprout a pair!

Meanwhile, back to the Florida voters. The Palm Beach Post article states, “Republicans apparently found the ballot design less confusing.” Well, that is a polite way of saying what we’ve all suspected but been too polite to say: If there’s one thing the Florida episode proved, it’s that stupid people preferred Gore.

1. http://www.gopbi.com/partners/pbpost/news/overvotes.html

2. http://www.cnsnews.com/ViewPolitics.asp?Page=\Politics\archive\200111\POL20011113a.html

3. http://www.fringefolk.com/fringepage17.html

4. The Drudge Report (http://www.DrudgeReport.com) was first to publish the text of the five-page military ballot-disqualification instruction pamphlet from Democrat Party lawyer Mark Herron to Florida Democrat Party lawyers. It is archived at <http://zog.to/2/Vscam/absent.htm> .

Besides working as a scientist and engineer in real life, Scott Jordan is Chief Cook and Bottle Washer at the Silicon Valley chapter of the Republican Liberty Caucus. Visit them at: <http://www.SiliconValleyRLC.com>

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