Wednesday, December 31, 2008

Commission of Inquiry

After George W. Bush leaves office it is possible, albeit unlikely, that he could be prosecuted for criminal acts performed during his tenure. If so the most likely charge against him or others in his administration would be torture. Harpers Magazine notes the most recent uses of "commissions of inquiry". The Warren Commission in 1963 investigated the assassination of JFK. The Kerner Commission in 1967 reported on the race riots in US cities (I am not sure who appointed those commissions). Some commissions are appointed by the President. For example the Rockefeller Commission in 1975, appointed by Ford, investigated the CIA's use of domestic spying. The Robb-Silbermann Commission in 2004, appointed by Bush II, looked into why no WMD's were found in Iraq. In the mid 1980's the Tower Commission, appointed by Reagan, dealt with the Iran-Contra scandal. Some commission are a "hybrid" of both legislative and executive origin. The National Commission on Terrorist Attacks on the US or better known as the 9/11 Commission. The problem with presidential commissions is they "...can easily be accused of covering up for previous administrations, or conversely, of seeking 'victor's justice'".
(Source: "Justice After Bush" by Scott Horton in Harper's Magazine from December 2008).

Friday, December 26, 2008

"Mr Lincoln's slaves"

In a story about the CSS Shenandoah it is noted that General Lee had a need for multilingual officers due to the fact that “a large percentage of the Union Army was made up of foreign mercenaries-some voluntary, but most conscripted by their local governments for large amounts of money…” making them “Mr. Lincoln’s slaves”. It is assumed the southern need involved being able to question captured Union officers who spoke other than English.
(Source: “The Invincible Confederate” by Egon Richard Tausch in Southern Partisan Volume XXVI, Number 3, date unknown. The article refers to the “War between the states” and not the Civil War so the bias here is most likely pro-southern.)

Sports racism ?

In the 1940's, Carlos Manuel Sandiago played baseball in the "Negro Leagues" for the New York Cubans. In 1951 he was invited to try out for the Cleveland Indians, however, he was drafted into the US army and sent to Korea. (Was this just a coincidence, or was there a pattern of keeping black ball players out of the majors? OK, so I am a conspiracy theory nut).
(Source: The Record newspaper Obituary section on December 22, 2008)

Miners 1830's

Miners in Colorado, Idaho and Nevada were mostly from Cornwall in Great Britain. They were Cornish and were Celts like the Irish, Bretons and Welsh. They were called “cousin Jacks” as in “me cousin Jack” needs a job. Cornish lead miners in the 1830’s in Wisconsin were called badgers, thus Wisconsin is called the “Badger State? Some believed that the spirits of departed miners, called “Tommyknockers”, who died in the mines would warn miners of danger.
(Source: “Me Cousin Jack” by Robert Joe Stout in Wild West magazine Feb 2001)