Why Al Franken Should NOT Be Riding Private Planes

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Published on Wednesday, December 24, 2008 by CommonDreams.org
Why Al Franken Should NOT Be Riding Private Planes
by Bob Fitrakis and Harvey Wasserman
The tragic and suspicious death of Karl Rove's election thief in chief should send a clear message to Al Franken and other key liberals: don't be riding in any small private planes.

Death by air crash now seems to be the favored means of ridding the Rovian right of troublesome characters.

The most recent is Michael Connell, who died Friday night when his private plane crashed near his northern Ohio home. Connell was the information techology whiz kid who helped Rove steal the 2000 and 2004 presidential elections, along with a few in between--possibly including the 2002 senatorial campaign in Minnesota that followed the death of Paul Wellstone.

Connell was an expert pilot whose plane crashed in clear weather. He held virtually all the secrets to how George W. Bush was illegally foisted on the American people--and the world--for eight horrifying years. By manipulating computerized results in Florida 2000 and Ohio 2004 Connell made history. By some accounts, he was about to tell the attorneys in the on-going King-Lincoln-Bronzeville federal civil rights lawsuit how he did it. He also approached expressed a willingness to appear under oath before Congress. But now he is dead.

Current cover stories include the possibility that his plane ran out of fuel. But its crash was accompanied by a very large fireball explosion that burned for more than ten minutes. A trooper on the scene immediately identified Connell, but newspaper accounts say his body was charred beyond recognition.

Connell told various sources that he was being threatened by Rove. He canceled at least two previous flights due to mechanical failure. A father of four, his decision to fly from a highly restricted airport in Maryland remains a mystery. Connell reportedly did contract work for security-industrial agencies, like the CIA. Connell also openly acknowledged that he was the first IT contractor to move his servers behind the firewall of the US House of Representatves where he oversaw the websites of the House Judiciary Committee, Intelligence Committee, Ways and Means Committee, and Administrative Committee, arguably the four most powerful committees in the House.

He now joins such critical players as Paul Wellstone, Mel Carnahan, Ron Brown, Mickey Leland, John Tower, John F. Kennedy, Jr., and many more critical public figures who have died in small plane crashes at questionable moments.

In all cases there are non-nefarious potential explanations for their deaths. Conspiracy theories can, indeed, be frivolous.

But so can their out-of-hand dismissal by coincidence theorists. Both Wellstone and Carnahan died two weeks before critical Senatorial elections they were favored to win in a divided Senate. In 2000, Carnahan's Missouri seat was taken by his wife, who subsequently lost it.

Wellstone, the leading liberal light in the US Senate, had been personally threatened by Dick Cheney for opposing the Iraq war. Wellstone's plane crashed under dubious circumstances, carrying himself, his wife and daughter. In an extremely questionable outcome, Norm Coleman got his seat.

Coleman was hand-picked by Karl Rove to run against Wellstone. His ensuing victory over stand-in candidate Walter Mondale was the highly unlikely outcome of a messy, manipulated election that coincided with equally dubious senatorial vote counts in Georgia and Colorado.

Al Franken may now be poised to take back the Wellstone seat for the Democratic Party. As an Air America talk host, he repeatedly mocked those who were investigating the theft of the 2004 election.

But he now owes the possibility of being elected to the diligent work of election protection activists who have fought all these years for fair, open and reliable vote counts. Had former Ohio Secretary of State J. Kenneth Blackwell been in charge of this year's Minnesota election, Franken would not even be in the running.

Ironically, a brutal right-wing hate campaign is now being waged against Franken, charging him with election theft. Among other things, it claims he "went to Hollywood" for money to steal his way into the Senate.

Were it not for the deaths of so many others before him, such talk could be dismissed out of hand.

But under the circumstances, we would strongly urge Al Franken not to be flying in any small planes.



Bob Fitrakis & Harvey Wasserman have co-authored four books on election protection, including HOW THE GOP STOLE AMERICA'S 2004 ELECTION..., and AS GOES OHIO, available at www.freepress.org, where this article was first published. They are attorney and plaintiff in the King-Lincoln civil rights lawsuit pursuing Michael Connell. This article originally appeared at http://freepress.org.
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skeezyks December 26th, 2008 4:02 pm
I agree with the authors, Al Franken should NOT fly on small planes. I'm from MN, and I've always been suspicious of the Wellstones' crash.

Maybe we can't prove anything, but remember: Forewarned is forearmed.

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wc652 December 26th, 2008 12:13 pm
A fine news commentary from Bob Fritrakis and Harvey Wasserman, as always.

What does this say of us?

Despite this mounting body of evidence, we the American people continue to allow this smallminded political hack to violate our trust and our laws, and we are helpless to stop him.

He helped engineer two wars in the Middle East because they were politically popular in 2001 and 2003, and they continue to sap us to this day.

As the American economy spirals downward, we can at least thank Rove and Bush that they made conditions so wretched for so many that people responded in numbers too great to be rigged.

Rove also helped bury the noxious terms, "compassionate conservative" and "pro-life". Good riddance.

Yesterday I saw the movie, Doubt. Tremendous presentation, a psychological thriller. Is there any doubt of Rove's responsibility in half of what Fritrakis and Wasserman present here?

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Kurt December 26th, 2008 4:13 am
Connell's body charred beyond recognition? So how was a positive ID made? Dental records? DNA? Do we know?

I'd like to know what percentage, based on FAA/NTSB crash records, of all known crashes for this and similar types of single engine small aircraft on final approach, are characterized by an engulfing fireball which not only continues to burn, but ends up charring the pilot's body beyond all recognition. I'm no NTSB investigator, but I would venture to guess this occurs less than one tenth of one percent of the time (less than 1 in a 1000) for these type of crashes. And it does occur to me, in consideration of Ohio presidential election '04, that statistical anomalies in the Buckeye State, which just happen to conveniently serve the needs of our current administration, seem not nearly so much the exception as the rule.

Yes, I'll come right out and say it, I'm suggesting, but am by no means sure, that Mr. Connell's death may have been staged.

If they'd simply chosen to murder him, what insurance would they have against the 'dead-man-switch' being triggered, where a few of Connell's trusted friends anonymously mail prepared CDs to the DA's office full of evidence incriminating Rove and associates? Wouldn't they have been taking quite a gamble? A staged death in cooperation with Mr. Connell would conveniently make this problem go away, as well as the need for him to testify.

Just thinkin' out loud again.

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Siouxrose December 26th, 2008 2:31 pm
Sioux Rose

KURT: That was my visceral reaction, and I have developed intuition.

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Obedient Servant December 25th, 2008 9:12 pm
If only Bruce Ivins had had access to a small plane-- he wouldn't have had to commit suicide!

· Yr Obd't Servant

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SuperNova December 25th, 2008 8:52 pm
Does anybody know if his deposition has been made public by any chance? What about his wife. Is she willing to share what personal knowledge or sentiments she has either way? Has she given any public statements? We certainly feel bad for his children leaving so many kids without a father. Terrible.

http://www.bccmeteorites.com/misconduct-planetary.html

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J4zonian December 25th, 2008 4:32 pm
As if we needed another reason to take the train... like imminent collapse of civilization into war, tyranny and chaos and the possible extinction of all life on earth bigger than a breadbox isn't enough...

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hoytdouglas December 25th, 2008 3:05 pm
It is odd that people believe in the Christ story, but will dismiss the political assassination stories.

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Alice in Wonderland December 25th, 2008 1:38 pm
Something that no one has mentioned yet is that the story about Mike Connell's suspicious death has not hit the corporate press at all except for this one piece on the CBS website: http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2008/12/23/cbsnews_investigates/main46844...
The Velvet Revolution issued a press release about Connell's death, and the testimony he had been about to give, and that was published only on the New York Times' PR page on-line; these are the only main-stream stories available. The blogosphere and the alternate on-line media, on the other hand, have covered the Connell story from the very beginning, and thus were appropriately suspicious at the news of Connell's plane crash.
So the question is, why is the corporate press not covering this important story? Three guesses.

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BeForKids December 25th, 2008 11:42 am
Ray L, I'm not ready to malign Obama yet. If I were, I would not have voted for him. But if he's trying to change this system, he's treading dangerous ground (think 19). I believe he's trying to galvanize the people to push for change, and he will support that (think Chicago Republic Window and Door Company). Granted, they only got what the law allowed, but they were on the way to getting nothing until the sit down occupation. And he strongly supported them in that. Have you ever heard a President - or President-Elect do that? Ever? As soon as Obama spoke up for them BofA said "Oh, all right, here's your money". We have hard times and interesting times coming.

Good to hear from you, Siouxrose. So many of the oldtimers have told me they've been knocked off and can't get back on. Don't know what's going on there.

kathyodat

When the people fear their government there is tyranny,
when the government fears the people there is liberty.
~ Thomas Jefferson

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Siouxrose December 26th, 2008 2:33 pm
Sioux Rose

KATHY O DAT: Good to see you, too... and where is our old friend Kem? I felt "excommunicated" shall we say for a number of days, then once again was able to make "contact." I have heard from a few that indeed they were not so lucky. I wonder if the powers that be did this to protect some? Or what other motivation was at work?

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BeForKids December 25th, 2008 11:28 am
Well put, clovis.

azjoe, the ratio is not 2:1, it's 6:1. There is something to be said about the danger of small planes, but also something to be said about fortuitous timing. And I've long noticed it's much more dangerous to be a Democrat than a Republican - unless you're a Republican about to spill the beans.

ericf, Wellstone was behind until shortly before the election he announced he had to vote his conscience, even if it meant losing the election. No need to murder a loser. But Minnesotans turned toward him for his integrity, even if they didn't agree with his position on Iraq. Suddenly he was ahead, then dead. I lived there for 5 years. Integrity means a lot to them (and to me).

For those writing of stolen elections, you're leaving out 2006. I think the reason Republicans stumbled around looking stunned after that loss is because they misjudged voter anger and didn't steal enough votes. I think in an honest election, the Democrats would have won a lot more seats. But I doubt there's ever been an honest election in this country. Maybe the first one.

kathyodat

When the people fear their government there is tyranny,
when the government fears the people there is liberty.
~ Thomas Jefferson

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azjoe December 25th, 2008 12:45 pm
Hi BeForKids, I checked my ratio on Google and found it substantiated twice. "From a historical standpoint, Democrats are twice as likely to die as Republicans in plane crashes, 14-8." That would not factor in Connell of course.

Stats be darned, Wellstone was murdered and AF needs to take commercial flights.

Merry Christmas!

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snydly December 25th, 2008 9:42 pm
snydly
Hi.
Repubs that go renegade don't get on planes---they know the score.

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NYCartist December 25th, 2008 1:09 pm
azjoe:egads. I always "knew" it was more Republicans, but ....proof makes it more weird. And I'd like some stats on CIA in re heads of governments around the world.

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Ray L. Phenicie December 25th, 2008 11:35 am
The article points to a fundamental question in American life.

The question before us in America is “What kind of people populate the upper echelons of the political culture?” “Who are they?”
These questions are not about demographics, curriculum vita, or inquiries into family backgrounds although those are relevant. The questions are aimed at showing up a deeper psychological probing into the moral, ethical and political values that are held by those who make up the culture of the American elite.

Currently my opinion about this elite is:
1. They are totally committed to staying in power at all costs as long as they don’t destroy the underlying culture of wealth and connectivity that keeps their power hungry life style in place. After all- if you’re lord of a pig pen, that ain’t much is it? But all of today’s political elite (including Barack Obama) can be seen as a cadre of the willing-willing to sacrifice much, force others to yield much, and circumnavigate personal integrity to gain entry to the palaces of power.

2. How are the values of this cadre displayed? The wars in Iraq and Afghanistan are two telling examples and show: Washingtonian elites will set up killing fields , Gulags, death camps, torture chambers, and spend the accumulated wealth of the ages to arrive at their mad destination-total domination of the world’s mineral and human resources.
(Oh, I know, Saddam Hussein was a murderer, but Iraq is pretty much ours now isn’t it?)

3. Many can pretend that my second item is an overstatement; that’s perhaps the case if one only reads or listens to the filtered news coming from CNN, ABC, and PBS (yes, Bill Moyers was and is part of this overly esteemed elite that some progressives delight in following as though this or that hagiographer’s mighty tribute can erase the sins of the vaunted persona and turn them into a leader of the lost tribes of liberalism). We need to move out of the land of enslaved political naiveté and admit that we have been and continue to be led by a group of murdering, thieving, back stabbing, grunting, delusional, folks who suffer one and all from misdiagnosed borderline personality disorders.

Madness and civilization seem to go hand in hand, since at least the 1600’s, but let’s not pretend that insanity is the norm.

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OleManRiver December 25th, 2008 9:55 am
To Rich Coleman---

Let's ask Cokie Roberts of NPR/ABC, who is Hale Boggs' daughter, what she thinks happened to her father!

She is now a corporate toady.

This business of convenient deaths by "accident" of people who actually made waves certainly deserves more investigation and deliberation. I'd hate to be Caroline Kennedy...

-30-

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ardee December 26th, 2008 8:34 am
.Perhaps you might enlighten me as to what Caroline Kennedy has done to be considered a threat to anyone? Her life to date has been one of secrecy and privilege, and her current "getting acquainted tour" of upstate NY includes a proviso that she will take no questions from anyone....Hardly an opportunity to get acquainted....
.
We see things, not as they are, but as we are.
Anais Nin

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Rich Coleman December 25th, 2008 11:33 am
Unfortunately, your second sentence answers your first!

I think the advent of Caroline is very interesting. I would judge that giving her an "accident" at this time would create a national uproar that would put "them" in alot of danger.

Speaking of ms Kennedy...there are still important JFK assassination-related documents which the CIA is adamantly refusing to release even though the JFK Records Act of 2003 requires that they do so. They relate to the activities of a CIA case officer who ran a violent anti-Castro Cuban-exile organization which had contacts with supposedly pro-Castro Lee Harvey Oswald. Would Senator Caroline ;^] try to help get those files released?

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EKATON December 25th, 2008 2:56 pm
Would Senator Caroline try to help get those files released? Not if she wanted to stay alive.

-- ekaton aka d.k.shaw

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clovis December 25th, 2008 9:26 am
To ericf: When someone who had been about to testify, and who additionally had said he was afraid and being threatened, suddenly dies in ambiguous circumstances, the chances are pretty good he was offed. Why is it that when such things happen during organized crime investigations we don't doubt for a minute that foul play was the cause, but when it has to do with our government (which most of the time is just another form of organized crime, especially the Bush gang), we go through all manner of logical contortions to allow for "accident"? Why when we read histories of past epochs and we are told of assassinations by Nazis, Soviets, papal conspirators, medieval English royals or Italian Renaissance nobles, do we take the historians' word for it and not chalk it all up to coincidence?
As with Boggs (as mentioned above) and, more recently, with the still unelucidated death of Barry Jennings, the NYC emergency responder whose eyewitness testimony as to what happened in WTC7 many hours before collapse would have been paramount in any new 911 investigation (and who also had said he'd been threatened), when the motives for murder are considerable and the authorities appear to stonewall any attempt at serious investigation, it behooves us to consider foul play by the government, or by people protected by the government, as foremost among the hypothetical causes of death. Why do we still not know the cause of Jennings' death? Does anyone posting here know at least if any "official" declaration has been made?
I am amazed at how many of my leftist friends claim that there is nothing to be gained by pursuing such questions as the 9/11 coverup and voter fraud in 2000/2002/2004, that one should pursue concrete goals rather than try to prove conspiracies that, even if likely, cannot be proved. But the fact is that, even with the massive coverups, even with the removal of evidence (at Ground Zero, that is), even with universal media and government stonewalling, there remain mountains of evidence--circumstantial, forensic, and eyewitness--pointing to criminal conspiracies in these events, and there can be no redemption of American society from the murders and lies of its power elite unless these horrors are exposed and at least some of the culprits are brought to justice. Otherwise the evil wins out, the wheel keeps turning.
A happy winter solstice to all. May the reborn cycle bring renewal.

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funeocons December 25th, 2008 4:55 am
I think this is a very revealing article http://onlinejournal.com/artman/publish/article_4158.shtml.

Is Spoonamore next? He was the one that outed Connell. The fact that the two worked together on international election-rigging operations -- and CIA projects, makes the "conspiracy theory" about his death more probable than not.

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dagger December 25th, 2008 1:34 am
I would not recomend anyone using small planes because they are natorias for crashing, remember the basket ball players from Oklahoma? The twin engin King Air is the worst, you fly in one of those, you taking your life in your hands.

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MikeCorbeil December 24th, 2008 11:33 pm
I disagree with people who've posted referring to Republicans, instead of those specifically referred to in this FreePress.org article. The article speaks of Rove and Cheney, f.e., but they don't necessarily represent the Republican Party, overall; and even if many members of the Repub. Party who disagree with Rove, Cheney, and likes still go along with them because they're the presidential administration pin-heads, this is nothing to fault the Repub. Party for. After all, the Dem. Party did just as much the very same thing and still remains corrupt as hell even after Obama won the presidential election on Nov. 4th.

Ron Paul's a Republican Party member, pretty much always has been, but is of the true strain of Repub.; not the perverted, corrupt, ... kind that Cheney, Rove, and so on purportedly represent. The latter don't really represent anyone but themselves; they hijacked the Repub. Party, in a sense anyway, got to the top ranks of it, and perverted it totally.

As for the authors saying deaths of key people were suspect, to say the least, the authors are right to say this. So I also disagree with the naysayers posting on this article; naysayers who seem far more likely to be the kind of people to support the orchestrators of such opportune deaths. After all, such supporters will always maintain their support, including by denying that what they support is true or real. The FreePress.org authors are right.

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J4zonian December 25th, 2008 4:25 pm
The only way Republicans will be absolved is for them to repudiate the members of their party who have clearly committed crimes, and to prosecute or actively aid prosecution of those particular Republicans, and cooperate fully with complete investigations into the large number of suspicious events that a significant and powerful portion of their party may be and may have been involved in.

If they are unwilling to do this, they are complicit in those crimes (as are Democrats who supported and allowed them and refuse to prosecute them). Two men alone did not lie about war and WMD, ignore environmental regulations, destroy the science infrastructure of US government, create a virtual dicatorship and ignore thousands of other laws, regulations and provisions of the constitution. Nor did they personally sabotage planes to kill enough high-ranking members and future members of the US government to constitute a coup, an act of treason punishable by death. Many people were involved in these crimes; we know some of them were Republicans, and we can presume some of the ones we don't know of were, too. Where are the calls for investigation from Republicans?

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jclientelle December 24th, 2008 9:15 pm
I am so happy that Santa is taking a sled. I wish that tonight he could bring a bag full of peace, clean air and wind, water and food, love, light, energy, music, shelter and joy to all people of all nations and all religions.

Joe

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NYCartist December 25th, 2008 1:05 pm
jclientelle:Joe, wonderful!

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Rich Coleman December 24th, 2008 7:20 pm
Let's not forget Congressman Hale Boggs of Louisiana, the most vocal critic among Warren Commission members. Boggs became frustrated with the panel's total reliance on the FBI for information. Speaking of the 'single-bullet theory,' Boggs once commented, 'I had strong doubts about it.' On April 1, 1971, House Majority Leader Boggs delivered a blistering attack on [FBI Director] J. Edgar Hoover, charging that under his directorship the FBI had adopted 'the tactics of the Soviet Union and Hitler's Gestapo.' Boggs, who undoubtedly would have become Speaker of the House and a powerful ally in any reopening of the JFK assassination investigation, vanished on October 16, 1972, while on a military junket flight in Alaska. Despite a massive search, no trace of the airplane or of Boggs has ever been found.

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jclientelle December 24th, 2008 7:01 pm
These deaths are of the trout in the milk type. Maybe we will finally get more action on improving rail travel.

Joe

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mwildfire December 24th, 2008 6:53 pm
Come now, people. Don't be so paranoid as to imagine that the Republicans would deliberately kill political enemies. That would be naughty, mean and illegal, and I'm sure they are all very nice men so it couldn't be true. Just a long string of coincidences, like the election problems that always favor the Republicans. It's not a conspiracy--it can't be, since conspiracies can't happen. It's just that the Republicans have a dandy little device that allows them to skewer the laws of averages during election seasons, so that bad weather and bad luck only happen to Democrats.

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ericf December 24th, 2008 4:08 pm
Let's not go off the deep end. Go look at the craziness on conservative sites, then before commenting, ask if we sound the same way. Before assuming anything, look for alternate explanations that might make more sense. For example, could all these people be dying in small plane crashes because small planes are very dangerous? How many non-politicians or political operatives died in plane crashes? I'm guessing a lot. The fact is there is no evidence Wellstone was assassinated, but plenty of evidence it was weather. If it was assassination, it didn't have to be done right before the election. It could have done before Ventura became governor, thereby guaranteeing a Republican governor picked his replacement. Polls in 2002 indicated Pawlenty was going to win, so again a Republican would have picked Wellstone's replacement if the assassination waited in 2003. There was no need to do it two weeks before the election. As much as we miss him, and don't want to believe things like this just happen and no one can control them, they do. Wellstone died in an accident.

As to why Carnahan also died close to an election, admitting I don't know the circumstances, it makes sense to me that candidates travel extensively during campaign season. An accident would be more likely than at other times.

In the case of Connell, the weather had turned bad. I find icing believable. Certainly it needs investigating, but if it is icing, then it was just a terrible coincidence. Or not, since I reiterate, small planes are dangerous.

Focus on where the real story is. The efforts to get rid of the e-mail suggests there is evidence of something in there, and the hiding itself was illegal. Their willingness to risk breaking archiving laws indicates there is evidence of bigger wrongdoing inside. Follow that, and don't obsess over plane crashes with no evidence of sabotage.

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ardee December 25th, 2008 11:55 am
.Please do not attempt to inject rationality or sanity into these proceedings. Are you trying to spoil the fun? Almost weekly a small plane crashes somewhere it seems, these guys fly in a lot of such craft, thus any reasonable approach to the facts might consider the statistical inevitability that more who ride frequently in private planes would also die in them.

If anyone has hard evidence of conspiracies, or continual assassinations of potential key witnesses or trouble making politicians then bring it forth. Until then I'll just file this with the legion of stuff about 9/11 if you don't mind. I notice that , among some, it is far easier to speak to flights of fancy than it is to enmesh oneself in the minutia of facts and deductions, the real work that might, eventually, lead to improvements..

But, fo rth erest of you, please don't let me stop the fun.
.
We see things, not as they are, but as we are.
Anais Nin

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NYCartist December 24th, 2008 6:14 pm
ericf:How many Republicans (aside from Connell) have died in plane crashes (and excluding Ted Olsen's wife on Sept.11,2001,which wasn't a small plane) in the last 20 years? How many heads of state have the CIA acknowledged "helping" their planes crash:Lumumba..

I am not saying Wellstone and Connell were deliberate, but it does look odd.

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ericf December 24th, 2008 9:06 pm
I'm not suggesting foul play is impossible, just that coincidences do happen. For example, Republicans consider it suspicious that in Minnesota, corrections to election night tallies tend strongly to improve the vote counts for the DFL (Democratic Farmer Labor Party). Does that mean foul play by Democrats? The DFL has nothing to gain by these slight improvements in election results since they're so small, they affected no races until this senate race which is why this statistic was just discovered by Republicans looking for evidence the DFL is stealing the election. Coincidences like that do happen. What I am suggesting is look beyond the numbers, and into the causes of the crashes. The numbers merit looking at, but if the evidence points to weather, then so be it. Some other explanation is needed. Do Republicans fly in more corporate jets while Democrats take more private planes? Do Democrats represent areas with more dangerous weather? Do small planes have much higher accident rates than cars or airliners? Actually, I'm sure the answer is yes to that last one, so I endorse the request to Franken to avoid small planes.

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Siouxrose December 24th, 2008 5:19 pm
Sioux Rose

ERIC: It can be cast off as coincidence if it happens once or twice, but once you hit that magic 3, PATTERN begins to emerge. If there is a Divine intelligence, would it be so stupid as to favor republicans riding in planes over democrats? Would it have made the seminal event, the necessary domestic Pearl Harbor THAT easy for the very neocons praying for such a thing in order to obstruct justice with their nifty little "unitary executive," king by any other name agenda and immediate call to arms and suppression of civil liberties?

The logical mind may look for what's ostensible and term it mere coincidence, but those who are aware can't help but notice the preponderance of evidence in the form of many events falling into a design, an incredibly sinister one at that.

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ericf December 24th, 2008 9:13 pm
There's nothing magic about three, other than it's larger than two, but not necessarily enough for a pattern. Since I don't believe there is a divine intelligence, chance could favor more Democrats dying than Republicans, just as you can flip a coin five times and get heads each time.

Until there's evidence a plane was sabotaged, no theory regarding murder by small plane is going to amount to anything. Connell is the only case that looks at all suspicious, and since the "facts" came form the first reports, which are usually wrong, I suggest demanding an investigation while withholding judgment. I repeat, there is so much stink from the missing e-mail and breaking of archiving laws, that we don't need anything that merely seems suspicious.

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Siouxrose December 26th, 2008 2:38 pm
Sioux Rose

ERIC F: There are invisible powers associated with numbers. "To everything there is a number and a time for every purpose under heaven." How about Pi and the circle? How about mathematical formulas? On the number 3, here are some of my favorite:
A. The Trinity Jesus referred to
B. Unconscious, subconscious, conscious mind.
C. Ego, super-ego, id
D. Jupiter/Zeus, Neptune-Poseidon, Pluto-Hades: 3 brothers that run our world according to Ancient Romans & Greeks
E. 3 branches of power in U.S. because the 3, makes a triangle, where each point of expression is equal or equivalent to the other 2.
F. The 3 fates.

There are no doubt others... but those come to mind. And as far as magic goes, feel free to argue against it, you only limit your own world and world view.

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NYCartist December 26th, 2008 4:00 pm
Sioux Rose:I love doing triptych xerographic multiples and have done sculpture triptych.

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azjoe December 24th, 2008 5:06 pm
But ericf, of these crashes, by a factor of 2 to 1, Democrats are going down.

Though the planes are/have been smaller, reasonable, the 2 to 1 ratio in radically suspicious circumstances necessitates we go off the deep end.

Merry Christmas Eve, Happy Hanukkah,

May Al Franken stay safe.

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ezeflyer December 24th, 2008 3:18 pm
It's very possible that knowing he was under threat, Connell left incriminating information somewhere.

My first suspects would be those carrying out the investigation. Maybe I've been watching too many movies.

How is Hawaii's weather?

28 more days.

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ClassAct December 24th, 2008 3:12 pm
I have heard that since 1981, 22 congresspersons have died in place crashes – 19 of them Democrats, and 3 of them Republicans … and one of those being John Tower, who was preparing to write his book on Iran-Contra. This imbalance seems striking considering this has been a period when Republicans have held the majority in Congress.

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Margalo December 24th, 2008 3:02 pm
Kudos again to Fitrakis and Wasserman for pointing out the unpleasant truth. They are among the most courageous of Americans, and I'm sure they won't be riding in private planes either.

It would be a welcome change if the crash of Connell's plane would be investigated properly and the true cause revealed. But I'm not holding my breath on this one. I'm still waiting for the accurate truth about the deaths of JFK and RFK and MLK, as well as the deaths listed in their article, to be revealed by the federal officials.

Margalo

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socrates2 December 24th, 2008 2:57 pm
Or, as U.S. Representative Sonny Bono could have remarked, "You can't see the trees for the forest." He was well-stoned alright.
Seriously, we live in an era where tech advances and stealth assassination techniques can make a murder look like a suicide and a plane crash can be attributed to either mechanical failure or pilot error. Everyone and anyone can be assassinated/murdered by anyone with forensic/medical expertise. The homicide can usually be made to look like accident or suicide--unless someone profits and another individual blabs. And in politics the former is obvious; as to the latter, well, that's why we have National Security "classifications."
As smarter heads than mine have remarked, National Security covers a variety of sins from mere negligence and incompetence to outright treason.
Word to the wise.

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Webber December 24th, 2008 2:34 pm
Dont ride Rove airlines.
Not the friendly skies.

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herbruhs December 24th, 2008 2:20 pm
Wellstoned! Yes, let all of us gnomes of the blognet start using this word.

herb

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NYCartist December 24th, 2008 1:47 pm
Like many, I have been following the story of election theft by Republicans since 2000. No doubt, there's a little "tongue in cheek" by these two really fine journalists, who have done GOOD work, particularly in Ohio. Every time Obama got into a private jet, I said, "private plane?". I'd like more on Connell and refreshers on how he fits in. There's a good segment on DemocracyNow with Mark Crispin Miller, as others have pointed out www.democracynow.org I heard it Dec. 22,2008 "Republican IT Specialist Dies in Plane Crash", transcript is online,free.

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curmudgeon99 December 24th, 2008 1:45 pm
I guess we have a new verb for such deaths - Wellstoned!!!

But I could be wrong !

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