When will they ever learn?

The recent publication of the emails showing Alberto Gonzales’s involvement in the firing of US Attorneys, will be the final nudge to push him out of his office. He lied to the Congress and the press, as nobody can challenge the veracity of emails.

As an Information Technology professional, I find it amusing that most of the high powered executives and politicians still have not understood the tremendous risk of using emails to communicate. Why is email so risky? First, all emails are permanent. It never goes away. Of course, you and the recipient can delete it; but a copy of it is saved forever in the mail severs which transmitted it. Once your email address is known, it will take an IT expert only a few minutes to retrieve all the emails you have ever sent and received! As one columnist wrote, ‘Don't ever put anything in an e-mail that you wouldn't want to read on the jumbotron at Times Square’. Second, email is a ‘discoverable’ document. In other words, email is a valid legal document which can be submitted as evidence in the court. Imagine you being held to account for all the exaggerations and vague promises you have made in your emails. It is not a pleasant thought. Wonder why many of the high profile cases now a days quickly come to an admission of guilt? It is because there invariably is an email trail breaking the case wide open. People like Former Congressman Mark Foley and Boeing ex-CEO Harry Stonecipher, will attest to this fact.

Blind ambition?

I am very sorry to hear that Elizabeth Edwards, wife of John Edwards, has been diagnosed with cancer at stage 4 which is the final stage of the progression of cancer in ones body. Of all the spouses of the Presidential candidates in 2004, I liked Elizabeth the best as she came across quite genuine (no plastic surgery, not on perennial diet, no fancy wardrobe, so on). I am amazed at how calm, and even cheerful, both the Edwards looked in their news conference today. I guess it is a trait of politicians. Nothing appears to rattle them. They also have a strong desire for power, and determination to achieve it whatever the obstacles may be. This may come across as ‘blind ambition’ to many. So, I understand John Edwards’s decision to continue with his Presidential campaign. Still, I feel that he should give up his campaign for Presidency, and concentrate on his family in the coming months. Democrats have strong and highly capable candidates for Presidency this time. He is not going to be missed, unless Hilary and Obama destroy each other in their campaigns!

Could have solved the Chandra Levy case also!

I just heard that Al-Qaeda No. 3, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, has confessed to all the terrorist attacks from 1990 onwards. He has even claimed that it was he who beheaded WSJ columnist Daniel Pearl, although somebody else is already sentenced to hang for it! Ever wonder who put up the infamous ‘shoe bomber’ to his primitive attempt to blow up a plane over Atlantic? It was Khalid, of course. He has confessed. Obviously the ‘special treatments’ he received from the Americans in undisclosed locations around the world, have done wonders to his willingness to confess to any charge brought against him. Too bad they did not ask him about the Chandra Levy murder mystery which had transfixed the news media in the months before the 9/11. He would have confessed to that also, clarifying that it was a ploy to distract the FBI from the warning signals of the 9/11 attacks. I am sure that the clueless Washington D.C. police would have loved to get that confession!

There is a new sheriff in town

There are a number interesting Congressional Hearings going on Washington D.C. - about treatment of injured soldiers in Walter Reed Hospital, about firings of U.S. attorneys, so on. The next sensational one is going to be about the outing of the CIA agent Valerie Plame. Looks like for any whiff of scandal in the Bush administration, there is an Investigative Congressional Hearing. What a difference from the last four years! The Republican controlled Congress used to quash any challenge to the policies or the working of Bush and Co. It is no longer the case under the Democrat controlled Congress. We have a new sheriff in town!

The numbers do not add up!

I was listening to the speech Barack Obama gave in Selma last week to commemorate a major milestone in the Civil Rights movement – The Selma-to-Montgomery March for voting rights. In his speech, Obama claimed that thanks to ‘something stirring across the country’ after the Selma march, his mother got the courage to meet and marry a black man from Kenya. ‘So they got together and Barack Obama Jr. was born'. 'So don't tell me I don't have a claim on Selma, Alabama. Don't tell me I’m not coming home to Selma, Alabama’, Obama continued with a thunderous applause from the audience.

The only problem here is that Obama was born in 1961, way before the 1965 Selma March. Little bit of shading of the truth for maximum impact, may be? I am bothered. I hope Obama is not becoming like other politicians – who say anything to get votes. (I am willing to ignore his exaggerated southern accent in the speech!).

Where have you gone, Al Gore? 'Our nation turns it's lonely eyes to you.'