July, 2004 Week 4

Monday  July 19 , 2004

He who begins by loving Christianity better than truth will proceed by loving his own sect better than Christianity and end in loving himself better than all.

Samuel Taylor Coleridge

Water under the 'Floating Floor" I am having a hard time figuring out where it's coming from... I thought it might be condensation from the AC but, now I am beginning to suspect the dishwasher... damn... I hope my floor isn't ruined.

I canceled my appointment for a 'Sleep study' at Neurology at the Hollywood Kaiser Hospital... Kids are home, leak in the kitchen, fire snarling traffic at the 5 & 14 Freeways... not worth the trouble.

The leak is in some plastic tubing associated with the water purification system... the hole was so tiny that I couldn't see where it was spraying out against the inside of the sink cabinet...

Arnold called the Democratic State Senators 'Girlie men' I thought it was funny... unfortunately the Democratic Senators are acting like they are offended... I suspect the obvious opposite is true, they are ecstatic, they were looking for a way to delay the budget vote and Arnold handed it to them on a platter... so petty. I think that if you are in politics you had better invest your integrity and indignation on something more substantial than some wise crack by an actor... damn. If all they can find to humble Arnold is their wounded egos then we've got big trouble when the next election comes around... unfortunately they really ARE acting like Girlie men.

Tuesday  July 20 , 2004

Those who profess to favor freedom and yet deprecate agitation, are men who want crops without plowing the ground.

Frederick Douglass, abolitionist, editor and orator (1817-1895)

It's about 1300, I am looking out my office window at a big fire down in the valley, about four miles away. The wind is blowing from right to left (Northwest) that makes three fires in the last six days... about ten miles behind us is the Pines Fire by Lake Hughs, and the Santa Clarita fire started on Sunday...it shut down the main freeway leading out here, it's about 25 miles south. I sleep with one eye open in fire season.... I have one friend in the path of the fire and another over near where it started... so far so good for both of them.

I did a little shopping and finally picked up Monica's medicine. I tried to get two more cartons of floating floor to re-do the kitchen floor but they have to be special ordered now.

Picture taken about 1600...Monica, "B" and I went out twice to look at the fire... it was really moving fast. by four PM it was pas Aliso Canyon Road... 7 helicopters and 5 fixed wing aircraft flitting about... it was quite a show, about four hours ago it passed Angeles Crest Hwy and moving along Mount Emma road Angeles Crest is closed and so is Mt Emma... It was spectacular at night but I couldn't hold the camera steady enough to get a decent picture.

Wednesday  July 21 , 2004

Statistics are like a bikini. What they reveal is suggestive, but what they conceal is vital.

Aaron Levenstein

Fire is still the "News of the day.", it has moved past Acton and is now on it's way to Littlerock, it is still hugging the foothills on the Northern Slope of the San Gabriel Mountains. it appears to have been broken up by the terrain into several independent fires, this is truly a 'Wildfire'... Monica and I went into Palmdale for breakfast and then Lancaster to shop. I took a picture from about Ave N The one with the Joshua Trees, the other was from the Acton side, taken from Crown Valley Rd, about 3/4 of a mile south of my home.

Someone asked if it was my "Mobil Home" that got burned... well... no, it wasn't. But it could have been, We could have been an insignificant statistic "12000 acres, 1 mobile home, and 5 outbuildings - now news from Sacramento, Arnold Schwarzenegger said in a meeting with........" It's hard to think about the pain and suffering and disruption folks who have lost everything have to go through to rebuild their lives.

Thursday  July 22 , 2004

The WaterSoft person will be here before 1300. My kitchen floor is a mess, the base flooring is warped, I have had the fan on it for two days... it has made no appreciable difference in the buckling. This guy is going to charge me $79 to fix the flawed tubing they installed. My floor is ruined and I have no idea how I am going to fix it yet...

There was a sobering question asked in the Washington Post;

 "Who was Ottilie Lundgren, Kathy T. Nguyen, Joseph P. Curseen, Thomas L. Morris Jr. and Robert Stevens"

They were the five people killed by Anthrax, the Media and 'Authorities' convinced the world that they were victims of Al Qaida Terrorists. Well, they got the Terrorist part right, but we still don't know who did it, it was almost definitely not a foreign terrorist, it was an American, another Home Grown loony-toon,

We don't know who sent the Anthrax, We don't know who half the Hijackers were, We don't know where Osama bin Laden is, there are no weapons of Mass Destruction, We are still in Iraq almost a year after George Walker Bush declared victory, 900 men are dead. The Economy is still in the toilet compared to where it was when George Walker Bush took over, Job numbers are going up but wages are going down, we are still down ,

Friday  July 23 , 2004

God says do what you wish, but make the wrong choice and you will be tortured for eternity in hell. That sir, is not free will. It would be akin to a man telling his girlfriend, do what you wish, but if you choose to leave me, I will track you down and blow your brains out. When a man says this we call him a psychopath and cry out for his imprisonment and execution. When God says the same we call him 'loving' and build churches in his honor.

William C. Easttom II, skeptic@icon.net

The big fire is finally out, I saw some helicopters carrying water fly in and out of the mountains... hot spots I guess...Monica and I went to Denny's for Breakfast... I did a little shopping.

I believe in the sun even when it is not shining. I believe in love even when not feeling it. I believe in God even when he is silent. Anonymous Inscription On The Wall of A Cellar In Cologne, Germany Where Jews Hid From The Nazis

I just read the chronology of the events leading up to and after the 'riots' in Chicago in 1968... I had forgotten much of it. I remember being upset by the whole affair, I thought the Hippies were just doing something counter productive for their cause, and I thought the Chicago Cops were America's answer to the Brown Shirts of Pre-war Germany... what they did was reprehensible, but I didn't think it concerned me, I never got on the Anti War bandwagon till after the Kent State Massacre. What was done to those kids in the name of America made me sick to my stomach. Chicago was just Mayor Daily and his personal Gestapo, I had two run-ins with Chicago Cops when I was a kid... they were frightening...

After some introspection it seems appropriate to try to make my position clear on Religion... My position is that I couldn't care less about Religion one way or another, I do bristle at being accosted by people who feel it's their role in life to inflict their rapture on others, but everyone hates that I think, at least I have never met anyone who looks forward to encounters with Krishna's or the door to door Charismatics.

What also gets me is folks who claim that America was founded on "Christianity". America was not founded on Christian Principals, Every time people used Christianity to justify their right to power in America someone got hurt and they tried to take power by depriving others of theirs. The Witch Trials in New England was perhaps the most dramatic but the KKK was founded on Christian Principals, Persecution of Mormons, Jews, Blacks and Moslems, All of the paramilitary groups in America praise God and the Stars and Stripes.

Saturday  July 24 , 2004

The fact that a believer is happier than a skeptic is no more to the point than the fact than a drunken man is happier than a sober one.

George Bernard Shaw, writer, Nobel laureate (1856-1950)

I would love to go back to Boston for the Convention... the whole affair will be watched closely, Democrats to see if Kerry can amp up his image, Republicans to see if they can find a crack that they can launch an attack thorough.

Christy will be home late tomorrow, she will leave early but she promised the kids she would take them to the beach. I talked to her today and she says that they have been excellent, they only raised their voices a couple time but quit as soon as she told them to stop.

To the world you might be one person, but to one person you might be the world.

I don't know which side of the political spectrum you deem yourself to be on. I am definitely a political junkie, I never used to be but I am now. I used to call myself a "Pragmacrat" because I found out I voted for the guy who appeared to best express my vision of the world regardless of his party. I was doing OK in the 90's but I seem to be backing the the guy who comes in second lately. 

The power of Corporate America over the Party's and of the Party's domination over the candidates frightens me a lot. If the party can't control the man they run then they remove their backing and go with the guy who salutes the party flag. I watched it happen in California too many times... the latest example being Reardon, Reardon had so many crossover votes he was a cinch to win but the Party dropped him and went with the hack, Simple Simon and lost to Davis, who was so battered that Donald Duck could have beaten him. Now we have Governor Arnold 'Der Gropen Fuhrer' Schwarzenegger ... he's got some good people on his team but he is just a figurehead for lord knows what, he has really got Sacramento intimidated... he will eventually go the way of Jessie 'The Body' Ventura but the transition will be painful

When I talked to folks during Clinton's 'Lewinski Troubles' I had a hard time understanding why people would hold Clinton to a higher standard than they would they would hold themselves or their friends. Eventually they would concede that if I had managed to seduce or be seduced by a 21 year old girl they would consider me one lucky dude, even if I lied about it to protect my marriage, job and reputation, I may have been a little sleazy but was still an OK guy... and lucky.... but... since it was the "President Of The United States" they act like he's supposed to be some combination of Santa Clause or Jesus. Clinton should have beaten her off with a stick or had her arrested or something. I kept hearing that; "The President should be held to a higher standard"... They couldn't accept that he is just a man, they acted like the Tooth Fairy had taken a dump under their pillow, or that Easter Bunny had seduced their mother.

They call Liberals "Idealistic" when it's Conservatives who have the unattainable unrealistic ideals. Bush says he supports the Veterans in speech after speech, and they believe him... even after he cuts the VA budget by 36 million. They say, over and over, "Well, Bush was mislead by the FBI and the CIA, he really believed that Sadaam was a threat, that he WMD's and was in cahoots with Al Q'aida... By the time Colin Powell did his "Mobile Chemical Labs, Radio Controlled Drones, Yellow Cake Uranium speech over 50% of America knew it was all a con job and either Bush was too stupid to figure it out or he was in on the con himself. (see "CIA DID NOT FAIL" below) Clinton's lie got him impeached, Bush's lies have gotten over 1000 coalition forces killed and thousands maimed and wounded... still they praise him, and make excuses for him and demonize Clinton. I don't think I will ever understand where they are coming from....

Why should he reinstitute the Draft and be unpopular when all he has to do is to wrap himself in the flag say that the patriotic thing to do is to call up reservists and extend the enlistment of the poor kids already fighting. Politics is beginning to be really easy to figure out, just pick the sleaziest most self serving motive and the most cowardly action and you will know what to expect.

Sunday  July 25 , 2004

It is not the strongest of the species that survive, nor the most intelligent, but the one most responsive to change.

Charles Darwin, naturalist and author (1809-1882)

It bothers me that folks can't see the rise in the cost of living is a direct result of the 'Tax Cuts' of G. W. Bush's Administration. George gets to make his cronies happy, he gets to brag about cutting taxes, he does not have to assume responsibility when the Governor's in all the States nave to raise taxes, fees and fines. The wealthy really have benefited from the cuts, If all you look at is Income Tax then even the middle class has done OK, some of the poorer folks with no children and no property to speak of have even made a couple hundred bucks, but most of us are really losing money. Schools have to be maintained, cops firemen and the lady at the DMV still have to be paid, Roads built and resurfaced, the infrastructure of our cities and government still needs to function. Our Income Taxes are siphoned off to pay for Homeland Security, the War's in Iraq and Afghanistan, the money has to come from somewhere, so unless you are extremely wealthy you are probably either breaking even or losing money, Property Taxes are up across the country, registration fees, gasoline taxes, even the moving violation fines are up.

This is from my Niece's (2nd from the left... I think) aptly named CD "Anaclastic", they are an a'cappella group, this is the lyrics from one of the songs... a powerful little ditty:

The Christians and the Pagans

Amber called her uncle, said "We're up here for the holiday,
Jane and I were having Solstice, now we need a place to stay."
And her Christ-loving uncle watched his wife hang Mary on a tree,
He watched his son hang candy canes all made with red dye number three.
He told his niece, "It's Christmas Eve, I know our life is not your style,"
She said, "Christmas is like Solstice, and we miss you and its been awhile,"

So the Christians and the Pagans sat together at the table,
Finding faith and common ground the best that they were able,
And just before the meal was served, hands were held and prayers were said,
Sending hope for peace on earth to all their gods and goddesses.

The food was great, the tree plugged in, the meal had gone without a hitch,
Till Timmy turned to Amber and said, "Is it true that you're a witch?"
His mom jumped up and said, "The pies are burning," and she hit the kitchen,
And it was Jane who spoke, she said, "It's true, your cousin's not a Christian,"
"But we love trees, we love the snow, the friends we have, the world we share,
And you find magic from your God, and we find magic everywhere."

So the Christians and the Pagans sat together at the table,
Finding faith and common ground the best that they were able,
And where does magic come from? I think magic's in the learning,
'Cause now when Christians sit with Pagans only pumpkin pies are burning.

When Amber tried to do the dishes, her aunt said, "Really, no, don't bother."
Amber's uncle saw how Amber looked like Tim and like her father.
He thought about his brother, how they hadn't spoken in a year,
He thought he'd call him up and say, "It's Christmas and your daughter's here."
He thought of fathers, sons and brothers, saw his own son tug his sleeve, saying,
"Can I be a Pagan?" Dad said, "We'll discuss it when they leave."

So the Christians and the Pagans sat together at the table,
Finding faith and common ground the best that they were able,
Lighting trees in darkness, learning new ways from the old, and
Making sense of history and drawing warmth out of the cold.

18 July 2004

NEW YORK - Having presided over the two worst intelligence disasters since Pearl Harbor — 9/11 and the misbegotten invasion of Iraq — the Bush Administration and its apologists are now whining, `OK, we were wrong about Iraq's weapons and supposed threat, but so was everybody else. Besides, it was all CIA's fault.?

No so. The Iraq weapons fiasco was absolutely not caused by an `intelligence failure,? as the White House and the recent Senate whitewash claim. It was not an understandable mistake made by all, as a rigged British `inquiry? concluded.

US national security and CIA were corrupted and blinded by extremist ideology, cowardice, and careerism. The failure at CIA was not of the organization, but its leadership.

Nor was everyone wrong about Iraq. The UN's arms inspectors (those that were not spies for the US and Israel) declared Iraq had no WMD's. Scores of Mid-east professionals, this writer included, insisted from Day 1 that Iraq had no weapons of mass destruction, posed no threat to the USA, and had no link to al-Qaida. The Bush Administration had documents confirming destruction in 1992 of all of Iraq's chemical and biological weapons (supplied by the US and Britain for use against Iran).

Britain's Foreign Secretary, Robin Cook, had the courage and integrity to resign in protest over Tony Blair's rush to join the Bush Administration in a trumped-up war.

Here's what really happened. In 2002, Cheney thundered that Iraq was seeking nuclear weapons. A month later, Secretary Colin Powell proclaimed `no doubt he (Saddam) has chemical weapons.? Shortly after, President George Bush assured the UN that Iraq had biological weapons.

National Insecurity Advisor Condoleeza Rice warned a `mushroom cloud? threatened America. Britain's glib prime minister, Tony Blair, made similar ludicrous claims.

Many veteran CIA officers dismissed these alarms as politically-motivated propaganda. The US State Department, Air Force, and French intelligence challenged claims Iraq had threatening offensive weapons systems. Many senior Pentagon military officers opposed invading Iraq.

But the word went out: Now here this. If you value your job and pension, do not, repeat, do not contradict the boss.

The president is hell-bent on invading Iraq. Make it so.

Cheney repeatedly visited CIA, intimidating staff and demanding evidence be found of Saddam's weapons of mass destruction and links to al-Qaida. Oblivious to all facts, Cheney keeps warning Iraq still threatens the USA. He appears increasingly out of touch with reality.

CIA director George Tenet, a political apartchik, not an intelligence professional, undermined his agency's ethics by eagerly pandering to all of Bush and Cheney's prejudices — over his subordinate's protests. Careerism and hand-licking took precedence over professionalism. Those with dissenting views were ignored, shunted aside, or fired.

This column has long reported smoldering anger among veteran CIA officers over Bush's deeply flawed policies towards Iraq and the Muslim World. In late 2001, I was shocked and horrified to hear a distinguished member of CIA's founding families actually claim a `fifth column? had taken control of Iraq policy and was driving the US to war.

But even the obsequious Tenet failed to satisfy Bush and Cheney's growing demands for more damning `evidence,? so Cheney and Defense Secretary Don Rumsfeld created two independent intelligence units, Office for Special Plans, and `Team B,? packing them with far-right neoconservative militarists from the Wolfowitz, Feith, Perle faction. Their mission: find the smoking guns to justify immediate war against Iraq.

These two intelligence units became the main conduits for disinformation about Iraq, confirming every rumor or lie the White House and media wanted to believe, no matter how absurd.

Iraq-exile Ahmad Chalabi, created, financed, and managed by Pentagon neocons, was the main lie-producer. His tales were trumpeted by the White House and media. Israeli and British intelligence provided more faked material to whip up war fever.

This was no intelligence failure. This was strategic deception, a combination the Soviets KGB called disinformatzia and maskirovka. This was facilitated by an ideologically and religiously extreme president; a Dr Strangelovian vice president lusting for war and oil; neocon ideologues determined to advance the Greater Israel cause of PM Ariel Sharon; and a cowardly Congress that gravely violated its most basic responsibility to the nation by giving President Bush a blank check to go to war. And a national security establishment that lacked the cojones to tell superiors or Americans the truth.

Purging CIA is not the answer. If anyone should be held accountable, it is the politicians and neocons in the Pentagon and media, who willfully misled the US into a catastrophic war that has so far cost the lives of over 880 Americans, 13,000 Iraqi civilians, US $200 billion, and ruined the good name of the United States around the world.

They and Britain's Tony Blair must not be allowed to escape full blame and retribution by hiding behind the sophistry that everyone — and thus no one — was responsible.