July Week 2, 2006

Monday  July 3 , 2006

Freedom for the pike is death for the minnows."

Isaiah Berlin

More on Libertarians... I am trying to understand why I like most of what they preach but what is wrong with the part I don't like really scares me. It seems as though they believe that everyone in the world should think like they do. They seem to be saying to themselves, "The problem with the world is that everyone isn't just like me." If everyone was self motivated, inspired, aggressive, industrious, moral, compassionate, honest and educated then there would be no problem. It appears that they are comfortable with the idea of letting all the ignorant, uninspired, passive people perish while they await being destroyed by the dishonest, and ruthless. Silly people... Ayn Rand utopianism. Ayn Rand left no room in her world for people like me, either do Libertarians.

I think that the problem with all governments, religions and philosophies is that none of them will accept that what is good for one is not necessarily good for another. We are different, we see the world differently and we have different goals and needs, trying to cram everyone into one idea, no matter how well intentioned, is a crime. American founders had an Ideal, and that was for there to be a place on this planet where people can live freely without fear of being persecuted for any reason... 

We went to Spokane and picked up Shoen, Christian's friend from Acton...

Tuesday  July 4 , 2006

Independence Day

Lord Acton, historian (1834-1902)

We went to the Fourth of July Picnic and Fireworks at the Metaline Community Park... there was a good crowd, the beef was excellent, Rick, the local constable, started cooking about 6 huge roasts over an open pit early in the morning... people were bringing Pot-luck stuff by 1630 and the line was moving at 1700... I didn't think folks did this sort of stuff any more... I was in LA too long I guess. It will be good to spend the rest of my life being reminded that there are still good people in the world... and that "Nice matters"

Wednesday  July 5 , 2006

We must not allow other people's limited perceptions to define us.
Virginia Satir. American Psychologist and Educator, 1916-1988

Rested today... it's hot... lots of driving for the rest of the week and all of next week.

Thursday  July 6 , 2006

Grandma and Grandpa go in for some heart tests, one is a chemically induced stress test. Christy drove them in because she wants to be with them when they visit the Doctor. I will take off about 0930 with Autumn because she has an appointment with a Neurologist because of her seizures and the affect of growth and maturity and the ramifications on her future.

I want to trade in my BMW too...  $3870 trade in and & $5695 resale, add 'em together and divide by 2 = $4782. Considering I spent $6800 for it 3 years ago I think that's a more than fair price... I took it into the Kawasaki place in Spokane, about 2 months ago I had talked to a salesperson and she said they would take a trade in... the boss tols me , we don't take in BMW's, "I don't know noth'n about em." So, now I just have to convince some one to buy it.

We were an hour early for Autumn's appointment... we liked the Neurologist, he was very receptive to all of our input and is comfortable trying to wean Autumn off one of her medications... Tranxine.

Grandpa doesn't need a pacemaker yet, his heartbeat is slow but it's strong and regular, Grandma has a leaky heart valve in the back of her heart but it's just something that needs to be monitored... so... good news from the Cardiologist.

Another trip to Spokane today, CT Scan... Christy has to drink that awful chalky crap and then get her insides photographed again... bummer.

A letter to Media Matters:

Media Matters;

I think what you are doing is amazing, I have no idea how your team and contributors can stay on top of things so thoroughly.

 

It does occur to me that you could free up some time by not wasting your energy on Ann Coulter. Energy spent debunking her may even be a bit counter productive. If the Media was the LA County Zoo she would be the  the Chimpanzee flinging excrement on the crowd. She is nothing but a cheap-shot opportunist who spits her venom to incite the dim-witted. No one but the most die-hard neo-conservative ditto brained flag waver lends her any credibility. People of that ilk are irredeemable and don't read Media Matters anyway.

 

Coulter admits to being a "personality", she is hired to be controversial, she likes to think of herself as a satirist. In a way she is a little like a comedian, a Mort Saul without the wit, humor, relevance or conscience. The fact that you and others are outraged by her bile lends her credibility. Same goes for Limbaugh, he doesn't care who he instigates to do what (I am sure that he could count Timothy McVeigh as one of his slavering Ditto Brains) as long as he gets high enough ratings to stay on the air...

 

Maybe just a once a month bulleted list of her latest outrages... Lush Limpbough too.

 

Just a thought...

 

Thanks for your time

 

Pete Daggett

Friday  July 7 , 2006

"The power of the executive to cast a man into prison without formulating any charge known to the law,and particularly to deny him the judgment of his peers, is in the highest degree odious, and the foundation of all totalitarian government whether Nazi or Communist."

Winston Churchill

I was talking to Smoky, nice fella. He said he was workiing with a couple Canadians on a project at the dam and when the job ended one of the guys cam over and said "Hey Smoky, we're head'n back home. It's been fun work'n with ya... eh, so just in case I never see ya again,,, So what eh."

Back to Spokane at 10:00, have to be there at 12:30 to start the IV at 13:00, she has to start drinking the Barium at 11:00...

Saturday  July 8 , 2006

The single biggest problem in communication is the illusion that it has taken place.
George Bernard Shaw.  1925 Nobel Prize for Literature, 1856-1950

Tthe dogs are a nuisance, the bark a lot at night and they scare people who come by. When we lived in Acton it was not as big a problem because we were so far from town, but here it is beginning to be a problem. We have them on an electronic leash but they can still scare people. The boys and I moved them down to the shop to see if that would help.

Sunday  July 9 , 2006

The dogs went through the electronic boundary and were up on the porch by morning... I give up.

Shadows on the Wall

by Sheila Samples

 "The power of the executive to cast a man into prison without formulating any charge known to the law,
and particularly to deny him the judgment of his peers, is in the highest degree odious, and the foundation of all totalitarian government whether Nazi or Communist."

Winston Churchill

And so we sit, shackled by self-imposed chains of fear, captivated by shadowy forms that move discordantly across the walls of our perception. Once again we are eager to accept appearance for reality. The Supreme Court ruling last week rejecting George Bush's military commissions to try Guantanamo detainees casts a huge shadow on the wall. Many are saying it not only curbed Bush and Cheney's unlimited presidential power grab, but absolved us of the responsibility of having to do anything about it.

Everybody's talking about this stunning victory for democracy. That'll show Bush that he doesn't get to decide everything. The New York Times opined the victory would "likely force negotiations over presidential power." In a separate editorial, "A Victory for the Rule of Law," the Times wrote the decision "is far more than a narrow ruling on the missue of military courts. It is an important and welcome reaffirmation that even in times of war, the law is what the Constitution, the statute books and the Geneva Conventions say it is -- not what the president wants it to be."

The Washington Post chimed in with, "For five years, President Bush waged war as he saw fit. If intelligence officers needed to eavesdrop on overseas telephone calls without warrants, he authorized it. If the military wanted to hold terrorism suspects without trial, he let it...Now the Supreme Court has struck at the core of his presidency and dismissed the notion that the president alone can determine how to defend the country."

The Post's David Ignatius writes, "The Hamdan ruling should be a cause for celebration, at home and abroad, because it demonstrates that the self-correcting mechanisms of American democracy remain healthy." Thanks to checks and balances from the courts, Congress and the press, Ignatius believes "this administration's mistakes are being reversed."

And you have to smile at the Post's wonderfully talented Eugene Robinson, whose relief was palpable when he wrote, simply, "Finally. It seemed almost too much to hope for, but the Supreme Court finally called George W. Bush onto the carpet yesterday and asked him the obvious question: What part of 'rule of law' do you not understand?"

Such giddiness -- wishful thinking -- can almost be excused when you consider this is the first time in more than five years Bush has been confronted with a single check or balance. Almost excused. The media's refusal to delve into the shadows and ferret out the reality behind them is cowardly, dishonorable -- a blot on the Fourth Estate. Anyone who thinks this Straussian pack of jackals whose thirst for power borders on madness will back up and adhere to the rule of law or obey the Geneva Conventions doesn't know Jack about George. Or Alberto. Or Donald.

The Court's ruling offers no relief to the more than 450 prisoners serving life sentences at Guantanamo, nor does it address the hundreds -- perhaps thousands -- of those detained without charge in Orwellian Room 101 prisons in other countries. These poor creatures are being held like caged animals in countries infamous for torture without legal consequence. They are of no further use to Bush. They cast no shadow on Congressional or media radar screens.

Guantanamo Bay is but a mere scab on the corrupt boil of secret CIA "rendition" operations. In a revealing Jan. 14, 2005 piece in the UK Guardian, Jonathan Steele writes that one CIA officer told the Washington Post, "The whole idea has ecome a corruption of renditions. It's not rendering to justice. It's kidnapping."

Steele says, "The administration sees the US not just as a self-appointed global policeman, but also as the world's prison warder. It is thinking of building jails in foreign countries, mainly ones with grim human rights records, to which it can secretly transfer detainees (unconvicted by any court) for the rest of their lives -- a kind of global gulag beyond the scrutiny of the International Committee of the Red Cross, or any other independent observers or lawyers." Since then, with The Decider's enthusiastic approval, Donald Rumsfeld, Alberto Gonzales and the CIA have done exactly that.

So, what was the Supreme Court really up to in its shadowy 5-3 decision that did not challenge Bush's policy of indefinitely detaining enemy combatants -- the worst of the worst -- forever, if need be, without access to due process? It was simply telling him it was time for him to cover his ass by forcing Congress to make tribunals legal and then he could continue to do whatever the hell he wants. It provided a distraction from the torture, murder and suicides that have become hallmarks of the Guantanamo Bay gulag and of the United States itself. It placated the media, and calmed things down for the upcoming elections. Democracy is alive and well. Why change horses in the middle of the stream in a time of war?

When news of the ruling broke, a tight-lipped Decider stared woodenly into the cameras, saying only that he would look at the findings of the court "very seriously," while working with the Congress to continue the tribunals. Bush watchers, however, know that behind the shadow of this concession lies the stubborn insistence that he is the Commander-in-Chief; a war president who is not just above, but outside the law. Bush is prone to brag that he is the most powerful man in the world and, as such, will accept no limits on his power. Back off? Cut and run? Not likely.

The "Military Order" Bush issued two months after 9-11 concerning detention of non-citizens and their trials, if any, by military tribunals in his war on terror remains in effect. In that order, Bush flatly states that any non-citizen whom he determines from time to time in writing caused -- or even "aims" to cause -- adverse effects on the US will be detained and will "not be privileged to seek any remedy" in any court of the United States or any court of any foreign nation or any international tribunal.

The Congress was dragged reluctantly from the shadows to perform a nonpartisan role foreign to them, that of oversight. The Republicans chose instead to attack the "traitors" on the Supreme Court and the cowardly "cut and run" Democrats who are on the side of the terrorists.

Kansas Senator Pat Roberts,Chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee and 9-11 Commission cover-up chief, was visibly angry. He shouted indignantly at CNN's Wolf Blitzer, "The Supreme Court gave the protection of the Geneva Conventions to people who don't qualify -- the Supreme Court made a pact with Al Qaeda -- it ursurped presidential authority!"

The Democrats scrambled to assert their total alligience, not to the US Constitution and the rule of law, but to The Decider, and promised to give him everything he wants to continue his perpetual war against enemy combatant plotters and planners and killers.

And so it goes. We are oblivious to the reality of impending martial law, strict media censorship, and the vanishing power of any government entity over The Decider and his minions. We are blissfully unaware that we have been transplanted into another realm -- a dark place from which there is no escape -- and nothing to do but sit here and watch the hideous shadows on the wall.

_____
Sheila Samples is an Oklahoma writer and a former civilian US Army Public Information Officer. She is a regular contributor for a variety of Internet sites. Contact her at: rsamples@sirinet.net. © 2006 Sheila Samples