Coastal
Post Online
June, 2003
Letters To The Editor
Thanks for Free Speech!
Thanks for still believing in
free speech!
Two books I thought you (and
your staff) might find of interest: Them: Adventures with Extremists by Jon
Ronson (2001), (Picador, Pan Macmillan, 20 New Wharf Road, London NI9RR) and
Harry S. Truman & the War Scare of 1948 by Frank Kofsky (1993) (St.
Martin's Press, NYC).
They just seemed kinda
interesting in light of current events.
J.E. Baylie
Berkeley
New Ordinance No Accomplishment
On April 15, the Marin County
Board of Supervisors voted 4-1 in favor of an ordinance banning possession of
firearms and ammunition on county property effective May 15.
Aside from putting an end to gun
shows on county property, this ordinance will not accomplish what it set out to
do, is discriminatory against lawful free trade, and may be illegal.
If the intention of this
ordinance is to curtail the availability of guns, then supervisor Cynthia
Murray, who cast the dissenting vote, is right when she said, "I don't
think this ordinance addresses or solves the problem." Limiting
availability of guns is a good idea but, as we learned from prohibition days,
not a workable one.
This ordinance is discriminatory
to lawful free trade because if both guns and knives have a connection with
violence, and both are lethal when misused, then it follows we are
discriminating against one and not the other.
This ordinance may become
illegal, depending on how the US Supreme Court rules. Although the California
Supreme Court recently upheld (6-1) a similar ordinance at Alameda County
Fairgrounds, the US Supreme Court will be faced with making a decision very
soon on this question: does a California Supreme Court have the final authority
to take away the federally protected constitutional 2nd amendment right to
carry a gun anywhere. Federally protected rights vs. state rights have never
been litigated.
If this ordinance has percolated
on the desks of supervisors Brown and Rose since 1999, why the rush to pass it
now? In this time of fiscal crisis, the county does not need lawsuits stemming
from an ordinance ruled illegal by the US Supreme Court and subsidized by
taxpayer money.
Our new supervisor, Susan Adams,
heartened by her emails running 2-1 in favor of this ordinance, voted for it.
We don't know how many she received by this is hardly a true indicator that the
majority in her district support it, and I am hoping that she doesn't use
polling by emails as her basis for making future decisions for our county.
Basia Crane, Director
Marin United Taxpayers
SARS And Live Animal Food Markets
Well, it seems the chickens have
finally come home to roost. The BBC news and others reported on 4/30/03 that
pet dogs and cats of SARS patients are being confiscated and killed in China,
despite no evidence linking the disease to domestic pets.
Chinese police have raided
15,000 animal fairs and 70,000 hotels and restaurants, confiscating more than
825,000 endangered animals destined for the cooking pots. (I presume all have
been destroyed.) The list sounds like a Noah's Ark gone made: anteaters,
pangolins, songbirds, turtles, lizards, frogs, snakes (some poisonous), badgers,
porcupines, deer, flying squirrels, along with the usual mix of dogs, cats,
rats and guinea pigs ("Chinese Viagra").
Some in the World Health
Organization believe SARS may have emerged in humans by jumping the species
barrier, from either wild or domestic animals. The disease originated in
China's Guansdong Province, where endangered/wild animal markets are common,
often crowded together with humans in unsanitary conditions.
Are we are risk here in
California, where similar live animal food markets are found? An Oakland
seafood wholesaler testified before the State Fish & Game Commission that
she imported four tons of bullfrogs every week from Taiwan for resale
throughout California. That's about a million animals annually!
Six years ago the San Francisco
SPCA had 19 necropsies performed on market frogs and turtles. They routinely
found salmonella, E coli, pasturella (all of which can kill you), giardia and
various blood parasites, even one case of malaria. In the recent past, raccoon
meat has been sold in these markets. Last year I saw illegal Asian softshell
turtles in the SF markets. Last week I found whole, frozen armadillos in an
Oakland market, a species known to carry the leprosy bacillus, which is
believed to be transmitted to humans via nasal droplets, much like SARS. It is
illegal to sell diseased or parasitized animals for food, yet the practice
continues unabated. Is anyone minding the store?
Hopefully, local health
authorities are taking the necessary preventive measures to see that the frightening
situation in China is not repeated here in the US. The public and the animals
deserve better.
Eric Mills, coordinator
Action for Animals, Oakland
Biased, Slanted & One-Sided
Terri Alvillar, the widow of
Fairfax Police Officer Ric Alvillar, could not have written the story on her
late husband's death any better than Jim Scanlon did in the May edition of the
Coastal Post.
I have never seen a story so
biased, so slanted, so one-sided as that story was.
I am a retired reporter from a
major San Francisco newspaper where for more than 50 years I covered and wrote
many, many controversial subjects pertaining to the police departments around
the Bay Area.
Many of my stories were based on
material supplied by the police themselves, many from other parties involved,
and many from what I actually observed.
Unlike Jim Scanlon's story, my
stories were based on facts and truth, not innuendoes or based on one person's
version.
If an officer, or more than one
officer as it occasionally was, deserved to be raked over the coals, then it
was done, regardless of their rank.
There has already been two
independent investigations conducted-plus one supposedly done by the FBI- as
ordered by the Fairfax City Council and presumably at the insistence of the
widow-and neither of these investigations has sustained any of the charges that
she has leveled against any of her late husband's colleagues.
It is true that these
investigations were done by former police officers from other departments-but
ask what, if anything, they would gain by reporting anything but the truth in
their reports? The probability that these investigators knew any of the
officers involved in the Alvillar case is remote, but wouldn't they have also
known Officer Alvillar?
What made Officer Alvillar "the
nicest cop in Fairfax" and who, besides his widow, called him that? What
did he do that other officers didn't do to deserve that title?
All of the stories in both the
Coastal Post and the Marin Independent Journal have originated from one
source-Terri Alvillar. No one else, including any lawyer or any citizen of the
town of Fairfax, has been quoted in any of the stories as saying anything
relating to the charges against Ric Alvillar.
Neither Police Chief Ken Hughes
or the Town Administrator can discuss the case because it involves a
"personnel matter" but from what I have read in your own paper, based
upon a number of charges that were being considered as the basis for the firing
of Officer Alvillar-as reported by Terri Alvillar-they included
"lying" to his superiors and to the investigators.
A police chief must have the
confidence and be able to trust his officers.
If an officer lies to his
superiors, how can he be trusted to testify in court where he is under oath to
tell the truth? A defense attorney would have a field day and the district
attorney would have to review every case the officer worked on to see if the
evidence and testimony may have been tainted.
No, I'm sorry but if Ric
Alvillar lied then he should have been terminated, no matter how "nice of
a cop" he was.
Mrs. Alvillar is accusing Police
Chief Hughes and Sgt. Providenza of being responsible for her husband's death.
Her version of what happened reminds me of another reporter in San Francisco
who in years gone by had a reputation of "never letting the facts
interfere with a good story."
If my memory serves me
correctly, the Marin County Coroner determined that Officer Alvillar had a
history of a bad heart condition and died as a result of that ailment, coupled
with the fact that he had consumed considerable alcohol prior to his death, and
that the charges that were pending against him had nothing to do with his
death.
I believe that Chief Hughes and
Sgt. Providenza-both veteran and professional officers-only had one thing in
mind when these charges were drafted and that was to improve the Fairfax Police
Department.
I doubt whether you will print
this letter but I'm getting tired of reading so much biased reporting regarding
this particular case.
I realize that Terri Alvillar is
a member of your news staff but I do believe that that too should be mentioned
in any articles so that people can judge for themselves as to veracity of the
story.
Malcolm Glover
San Rafael
Proposed GG Bus Curtailment
Last night I attended the San
Rafael Public Hearing on bus curtailment. I expected to see someone else from
Sausalito, but was disappointed. As a bus rider, I am depressed and angry that
Sausalito is being isolated by these transit cuts. Routes 50 and 20, the lines
to The City, are being discontinued. Since I do not have a car, I can no longer
go into The City for evening functions. All buses going directly into San
Francisco are cut except for the Number 2 Line (6-8 a.m. and 4-6 p.m.). In
order to get to San Francisco, one will have to take a Number 10 to either
Marin City or to the Bridge. At the Bridge, you get a 70 or an 80; and it is a
cold place to wait. Many buses will be cut from half-hourly to hourly; and I
can tell you that after working 8 hours, waiting in the cold and dark for an hour
is not doable. I worked at the San Rafael Library; and, as the Library closes
at 9 p.m., I was unable to work an evening shift due to the bus schedule as it
is now.
There will be many of us who
will not be able to get to their jobs at all if the foregoing changes go
through. Furthermore, the District does not care at all about such results.
In my view, the major cities in
Marin need to have a joint meeting to discuss the adverse affects of such
schedule changes on Fairfax, San Anselmo, Kentfield, Tiburon, Belvedere, San
Rafael and Sausalito, All tourism will be adversely affected: restaurants and
other businesses which depend on bus service will suffer. The effect will fall
mainly on the elderly and the young. I am reminded of Marie Antoinette's
famous, "Let them eat cake!" Well, "Let them drive cars."
Many people said last night that they would drive, since commute time would
increase by 36% with the changes. For night workers and the carless, there is
no alternative. I do not have to have a car. I would rather travel farther and
take longer.
I have just returned from
Australia-Melbourne, my favorite city, is voted The Most Livable City in the
World, or one of them. Why? One reason is efficient transit: Trains, Trams and
Buses. Riders there complain if they have to wait ten minutes! Another reason
is public toilets-spotless, always with paper-everywhere. An excellent
Visitors' Center, friendly people. No homeless and excellent health care.
Here in Marin, I step over the
homeless to get to a bus which comes no more than every hour or even two hours
at night. The bus stop in Corte Madera across from the town center smells like
a urinal: which it is! It has become a Third World Country here. Even Mexico
has better buses with new Mercedes in La Paz.
There is such a thing as Quality
of Life. To live in a fortress and never get out of a car is not my idea of
living. To have wealth and see others in misery is not good. I hate to see this
county so abused.
To curtail the already limited
public transportation system will cut deeply into the Quality of Life here.
Charlotte Bertran
Sausalito (18 year resident)
The Most Destructive Addictions
After moving from West Marin to
Novato, I missed many things. The Coastal Post stands in the top of the list. I
recently renewed my subscription. Happily, the feelings of isolation and doubt
as to whether I know what I know have lessened since my first issue arrived.
Addiction! The mass media comes
up with a new addiction on a regular basis. One of the most recent being
cosmetic surgery. Media also tells us endlessly that "scientists"
have discovered another food, drink or activity that is bad for us. If we
believed all of it, we would be afraid to get out of bed in the morning. We are
awash in opinions of dubious experts giving us advice on every facet of life.
How strange that the most
serious destructive addiction on planet earth gets no mention in the media. The
twin evils of greed and power and the addiction of so many to them puts life
itself at risk. That so many of our fellow citizens workshop at the shrine of
these evils making heroes of those who have the most power and the most money
is a testimony to the state of the nation.
The truth of the old clichˇ
"power corrupts, absolute power corrupts absolutely," has never been
more apparent. The president, in cahoots with corporate and military
establishments as well as right-wing Christian fundamentalists, has stolen the
minds and spirit of the people. Tell a lie 1,000 times and it becomes truth. I
see George Bush as a pathetic figurehead so addicted to the perception of his
own power that he does not see himself as a puppet. The true power lies behind
the throne, pulling the strings while George dances to the tune. If we read the
history of countries drunk with the perception of their power busily empire
building, it's clear where the course of our ship of state is taking us.
The public will remain lost and
asleep swimming in the propaganda and brain washing until reality begins
hitting them personally. We can be certain much of the legislation he pushes
through are debts he owes to those who put him where he sits. Mr. Bush makes
the devastating mistake made by other leaders in the past. He buys his own B.S.
(bullshit). Money and power, power and money-the most destructive, immoral
addictions on the planet.
My heartfelt thanks to Don
Deane, owner and publisher of the Coastal Post for his courage. For being a
voice for reason and sanity crying in the wilderness of a country that no
longer knows it ever had a soul, and hey, whatever happened to Jesus, the
Prince of Peace? Apparently, only God speaks to George. My hope and prayer is
that I live long enough to see the corruption take us to a place where the
consequences will wake us from the trance. It will happen for we are prisoners
of a pattern other countries have followed. The cost of maintaining an empire
inevitably bankrupts the country who walks the path we now walk. Keep the
faith.
Shirley Inman
Novato
The Tax Cut Question
I have not seen the Republicans'
explanation as to just how a huge tax cut would stimulate the economy. Did I just miss it?
This is the picture I see. Millions of dollars go back to the
millionaires, who appropriately pay the highest taxes. Do these wealthy run to
spend these new funds on much needed consumer items from neighborhood retail
stores selling hardware, televisions, computers, books, and shoes? Or, being wealthy, do they have these needs
already filled? Then what? They may
well invest the tax-returned money in stocks and bonds, real estate, political
donations. Do these create more jobs? I was under the impression that employers hire new help only when
needed to effectively conduct their business, not as a philanthropic gesture to
the economy
If the same billions, intended for tax
cuts and rebates, were to be spent for the well-being of the American people's
transportation, education, health care, environmental protection and
restoration, homes for the homeless, and medical research, then millions of new
consumers would emerge.
From the millions of formerly
unemployed would sprout the badly needed teachers, constructors of new schools
and laboratories, park rangers, doctors, nurses, producers and operators of
rapid transit and planes. With new money in their pockets these ordinary folk
would hurry to the retailers to fill waiting needs. Retailers would boost their orders to distributors, on to
wholesalers, on to manufacturers. All the wheels of the economy would begin to
turn and pick up speed.
Guy Meyer
Inverness
Back In The USSR
The history of the twentieth
century might be characterized as the universal imposition of the central
planks of the Communist Manifesto on a sleeping population under the guise of
"democracy." A central bank
(Federal Reserve) with the power of fiat money creation, a graduated income
tax, state controlled education, government intervention in the economy
(transportation/labor/industry/medicine/agriculture), a standing army, elimination of religion from public
life, etc., etc., are straight out of
Karl Marx and are ideas that when fully exposed have traditionally been
revolting to the American public, and certainly to the Founding Fathers. To those who think that the United
States government at the highest level has always been the sworn enemy of communism, and that such a form of
government couldn't happen here, be not deceived, it can and to a great extent
it already has. Sure, things could be a
lot worse and, yes, it is (fortunately) still better here than anywhere else,
but consider the following:
FACT: 1913. Passage (virtually in
secret) of the Federal Reserve Act, which removed the constitutional restraints
on monetary creation, allowing for unlimited proliferation of government
spending and growth of the war-making power. Soon followed by the 16th
Amendment authorizing a first-ever direct Income Tax, starting Americans on the
road to serfdom. (How did this country ever survive (and thrive) without it for
its first 130 years?)
FACT: 1915. American International
Corporation was formed to fund the Russian Revolution. Its directors
represented interests of the Rockefellers, Rothschilds, DuPonts, Kuhn, Loeb,
Harriman, and the Federal Reserve.
FACT: 1917. Kuhn Loeb deposits $50
million in Swedish bank for Lenin and Trotsky. Woodrow Wilson arranges passport
for Trotsky, who trained revolutionaries at Standard Oil plant in New Jersey.
Lenin given safe passage through Germany on private railroad car arranged by
banker Max Warburg, Rothschild front man in Germany and brother of Paul Warburg,
who coincidentally had arranged for the creation of the Federal Reserve.
(Warburg's son James worked with William Donovan in the O.S.S., forerunner to
the C.I.A., and is credited with saying, "we shall have a world government
whether or not you like it-the question is whether it will be by conquest or
consent."). Funny how the same families seemed to be involved in
everything dark.
FACT: 1919. Elihu Root takes $20
million in cash to prop up the collapsing Bolshevik regime. The money is taken
from a $100 million Special War Fund appropriated to President Wilson by
Congress (as stated in the congressional record).
FACT: 1945. Mass murderer "uncle" Joseph Stalin (killed
20,000,000 of his own people) is allowed by FDR to take over eastern Europe;
unbelievably, he also presides over the Nuremberg "show" trials,
passing judgment on war criminals.
FACT: 1954. Congressional Reece
Committee investigates tax-exempt foundations and finds their purpose is
to favorably massage public opinion to promote war (Carnage
International Endowment for "Peace")
and support a socialist/communist coalition working towards global
centralized control. Committee head Norman Dodd interviewed H. Rowan Gaither of the Ford Foundation who said his
organization was under directions from the White House to "make every
effort to alter life in the United States to ensure a comfortable merger with
the Soviet Union."
FACT: 1991. George H. W. Bush
publicly mentions "New World Order" for the first time. Repeatedly
uses the term "democracy,"
which is the now the politically correct code word for "global
socialism." (Whatever happened to
"constitutional republic?" Anyone heard that mentioned lately?
Didn't think so. Constitutional republics are founded on the supremacy of
individual rights and not the supreme power of the state or media manipulated
majority rule).
FACT: 1990's Joint training sessions
held between US and Soviet police forces. Why?
FACT: 2003. Gen. Yevgeni Primakov,
former head of the KBG, has been hired as a consultant by the Dept. of Homeland
Security for a new program called CAPPS II to prepare US citizens for domestic
"internal passports," supposedly under the guise of fighting the war
on terrorism (Primakov admitting when interviewed, however, that terrorism had
nothing to do with it). Also hired was Gen. Karpov, foreign KBG chief at the
Washington embassy and first director of the Russian Federal Security Service.
Under CAPPS II citizens will routinely have
their "credit history" accessed, secretly revealing an SS CTF, or State Security Citizen Threat
File, stored in an Office of Internal Security database and containing credit, medical, and military
history, political and religious affiliation, and potentially other information
such as attendance at anti-government rallies, politically incorrect exercise
of free speech, etc. Apparently a
National Identity Card Act (NICA) along with new identity features on driver's
licenses are in the works. According to an
article in the American Free Press (April 21, 2003), Gen. Primakov
reportedly laughed when saying that once these measures were passed the White
House would have more control over the American people than the Kremlin had
over the Russian people under Stalin. He further stated that he had been hired to consult with various offices of
government that HAVEN'T EVEN BEEN CREATED YET to further restrict the rights of
the citizen and expand the powers of
government.
It seems we have truly come full
circle now, with formerly anti-Communist conservatives being duped by a neo-con
"born-again" administration powered by an Orwellian media campaign
into supporting a state policy of internal passports/national registration,
ever-increasing surveillance and narrowing of the freedom of the American citizenry.
Will the United States end its proud history with this grim vision of a
"jackboot in the face," or will its people wake up in time and say
"enough?"
Peter Holleran
San Rafael
Charade On The Flight Deck
It is inconceivable that the flagrant
and costly photo-op of Bushes carrier landing in full flight suit, actually
impressed some people, His apathetic abandonment of his military duties alone
should have been sufficient to disqualify him from such theatrics.
The faux credibility gained from this
charade will surely now be used to assist him further his adverse agenda, along
with the secrecy & misinformation that he has used to foster it--just as he
had used 9/11 and the Iraqi war. It may
even enhance his egregious accusations of non-patriotism against those who
raised legitimate concerns regarding administration policies. Sadly such tactics have succeeded--even
unseating an honorable triple amputee
Vietnam veteran senator for another draft dodger
GWB's unethical (if not illegal)
dealings before being wrongly dealt the presidency by the Supreme Court are a
matter of record. He has sold out to big oil, tobacco, industrial
polluters, auto makers and other special interests on crucial environmental,
conservation, family planning, health issues, and corporate reform, often in
secretive manners on scales I have not
found for any past presidency.
His destruction of worldwide
environmental, health, and social reforms have caused damage that will prevail
for years, even if corrective measures were now to commence. His bellicosity and disregard for treaties
have generated an unprecedented international distrust for the USA, even
despite the apparent victory in Iraq (which still requires much explanation).
Far too few of our legislators have acted
to curtail these contemptuous policies. Those who continue inaction must know
that they will be replaced if they continue to neglect these essential duties
that are prescribed in the constitution, and entrusted to them by us.
Robert H Settgast
San Rafael
Dangerous Abuses Of Judicial Selection Process
If Americans really understand the
long term dangers stemming from the Bush team's intimidation tactics, against senators who voice
legitimate concerns regarding their judicial selections, this national
complacency would be reversed.
Clearly Bush has been stacking the
courts with those who not only are tolerant to his unprecedented &
clandestine sellouts against environmental, health, and social reforms-but also
back his theocratic right wing agenda.
With so many outstanding
candidates, such inferior selections
are indefensible.
Only two Bush nominations are now
being held up, while over 100 have been approved, despite their conspicuous
tolerances to his contemptuous policies and their unbalanced right wing agenda.
Our senators have not only the right, but a sworn duty, to counteract such
abuses. Had the entire senate placed principles over partisanship, they
would have rejected most of these
appointments, rather than succumb to flagrant accusations of non-patriotism
from one who had himself shunned the military.
Our constitutional framers feared
such presidential abuses in judicial selections, and understood their long term
consequences. This is precisely why
they required the senate's advice and
consent.
Robert Settgast
San Rafael
Anyone Deserve To Be Fired?
If it is true that US says that the
Saudis ignored requests for heightened security than whoever was in charge
after the first ignored request should have ordered all the American personnel
out. I would be ashamed to report this fact. This is tantamount to the ignored
warnings of impending disaster of 911. Some one must be responsible for the
bungled operations which put Americans at risk or it will just keep happening
over and over again.
Dr. Norman Mann
San Diego
Where Are The WMD
So far no weapons of mass destruction
have been found in Iraq. This is troubling enough given that George Bush
assured us we were in imminent danger from such weapons. This was his
justification for preemptive military action.
More disturbing is the slow pace of
searching for these weapons since the fall of Baghdad. According to Stephen
Cambone, the Under Secretary of Defense for Intelligence at the Pentagon, only
about 70 of 600 suspected sites have been visited so far. At the same time,
know nuclear facilities where radioactive materials are stored were left
unguarded for weeks.
According to a Washington Post report,
the Pentagon failed to secure Iraq's nuclear facilities at Kut and al Tuwaitha.
As a result these facilities have been looted.
Dangerous radioactive materials such as
cesium, cobalt and partially enriched uranium appear to have been taken.
How is it that we could successfully
implement a complex plan to save the vast oil fields of Iraq from destruction
yet fail to conduct a quick search and seizure operation of suspected locations
of weapons of mass destruction?
How could we fail to secure known
nuclear facilities? Perhaps the
administration doesn't believe its own hype.
It would be a hollow victory to topple
Saddam Hussein only to speed up the spread of deadly weapons to our terrorist
enemies.
Brian Lynch
Mine Hill, New Jersey
Can Justice In Marin Only Be Obtained In San Francisco?
If our case is a sordid indicator of
the way judicial business is conducted in Marin, justice cannot be obtained
without appealing a Marin judge's decision to the State Appellate Court in San
Francisco.
The short version of our case against
the Town of San Anselmo reads thus: We opposed a single-family development next
door to us at 24 Knoll Road. The project clearly violated two of San Anselmo's
ordinances (based on California law).
The Town ignored our issues --
principally, its violations of its slope ordinance and merger ordinance-and
left us with no recourse but to sue if we wanted justice. We sued and got Lynn
O'Malley Taylor as the judge.
Ironically, at first, things looked
bright, perhaps too much so. Taylor continued the initial court date of March 5
until March 20, presumably to give herself more time to consider all the
evidence in the administrative record. Taylor's tentative ruling, issued March
19, 2003, granted our petition for writ of mandate -- that the project should
be stopped because it violated laws. The judge overwhelmingly agreed with us on
all key issues.
Taylor's opening sentence read:
"Slope Density Limitations: The Town Council's decision not to apply
section 10-3.409 of the San Anselmo Municipal Code (SAMC), specifically the
slope density/lot area table was not supported by the evidence."
Then, Taylor wrote that re: Merger
Requirements, "The Town Council did not address the evidence indicating
that section 10-3.2703 of the San Anselmo Municipal Code would require the
merger of 24 Knoll into 75 Jordan.?
Taylor's three-page tentative ruling
used the phrase "nothing in the administrative record" six
times.
Ironically, and to our chagrin and
utter bafflement, Taylor reversed herself two weeks later after an oral hearing
in which nothing new was introduced or could have been introduced BY LAW.
Bizarrely, Taylor did an 180-degree flip on her tentative ruling -- basing her
judgment, or so it seems to us, on the erroneous opinions of San Anselmo's Town
Attorney, while she acknowledged that "opinions by counsel" are
"not part of the administrative record."
Go figure.
Lujza and Herman Mehling
San Anselmo, 415-456-5225
Stop Subsidizing Oil
For a remote area closer to the
Arctic Circle than Washington's Inner Circle, the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge is on DC minds far too often. The
Earth Day Crowd consumes its limited resources and is kept way too busy
fighting this battle every few months.
Americans simply do not want to trade their Serengeti for six months of
oil 10 years from now. Can we stop
subsidizing oil and start subsidizing non-polluting/non-global warming
renewable energy? It is scandalously
shameless to commercialize this national treasure for corporate profits and
future campaign contributions. The US has only 3% of the world's oil reserves
but consumes 25% of the world's oil so the notion that we can drill our way to
energy independence makes as much sense as driving 125 MPH for safety's sake
since I'll be on the road for only half the time.
Jay Lustgarten
San Anselmo
Love It Or Lose It
I love this great country, I just
don't like what is happening to her. We are allowing this to happen. Wake up
America or we will lose it! I hang my American flag upside down. We are in
great distress and if we don't act soon we will lose all we have.
In four years it will all be gone.
Let's get together and do something about it. How about you? We have it in us,
but we are stagnant so let's get together and put a stop to it.
When Clinton was president we wanted to
know everything, with Bush nothing! It is that "nothing" that is so
dangerous! What we can't see is what is so very sad. If it were good, Bush
would tell everyone. Have you heard anything?
Willits
Mad Old Lady
I hear a lot of people yelling for
peace but I have not heard of a plan for peace. So, here's one plan:
1) The US will apologize to the world
for our "interference" in their affairs, past & present. We will
promise never to "interfere" again.
2) We will withdraw our troops from
all over the world, starting with Germany, South Korea and the Philippines.
They don't want us there. We would station troops at our borders. No more
sneaking through holes in the fence.
3) All illegal aliens have 90 days to
get their affairs together and leave. We'll give them a free trip home. After
90 days the remainder will be gathered up and deported immediately, regardless
of who or where they are. France should welcome them.
4) All future visitors will be
thoroughly checked and limited to 30 day visits. No one from a terrorist nation
would be allowed in. If you don't like it there, change it yourself, don't hide
here. Asylum would not ever be
available to anyone. We don't need any more cab drivers.
5) No "students" over age
21. The older ones are the bombers. If they don't attend classes, they get a
"D" and it's back home, baby.
6) The US will make a strong effort
to become self sufficient energy wise. This will include developing
non-polluting sources of energy, but will require a temporary drilling of oil
in the Alaskan wilderness. The caribou will have to cope for a while.
7) Offer Saudi Arabia and other oil
producing countries $10 a barrel for their oil. If they don't like it, we go
someplace else.
8) If there is a famine or other natural
catastrophe in the world, we will not "interfere". They can pray to
Allah or whomever, for seeds, rain, cement or whatever they need. Besides, most
of what we give them gets "lost" or is taken by their army. The
people who need it most get very little, anyway.
9a) Ship the UN Headquarters to an
island some place. We don't need the spies and fair weather friends here.
Besides, it would make a good homeless shelter or lockup for illegal aliens.
9b) Use the buildings as replacement
for the twin towers.
10) All Americans must go to charm
and beauty school. That way, no one can call us "Ugly Americans" any
longer.
"The Statue of Liberty is no
longer saying 'Give me your poor, your tired, your huddled masses. She's got a
baseball bat and she's yelling, 'You want a piece of me? '
Now, isn't that a winner of a plan?
If EVERYONE who likes this plan would
CUT IT OUT OF THE PAPER and MAIL IT to the president at:
President Geo. Bush
The White House
1600 Pennsylvania Ave. NW
Washington DC 20500
We may get something done to correct
the problem, but EVERYONE must do it,
for it to work. Lets cover them up with mail.
L.J. Hodgkinson
Orange, TX
Daredevil President
Mr. President:
I saw you today, you daredevil. What
a thrill seeing you land on the carrier USS Abraham Lincoln, so daring and
dashing, stepping out on to the deck in that aviator flightsuit.
I got the chills just watching. A
Cecil B. DeMille production worthy of an academy award for choreography and
chutzpah. Kudos to Karl Rove.
Thank you for justifying in your
speech that the Iraq war was a "just war" and that we prevailed. I
feel better about that but let's see if I got this right:
You were going to capture Saddam
Hussein...but you didn't.
You knew he possessed weapons of mass
destruction and where they could be located...but no one can find them.
You said you liberated the Iraqi
people...but they apparently disagree with their supposed imprisonment. The
raucous demonstrators in Baghdad keep shouting, "Killers go home!"
You said the war on terrorism isn't
over: "Suit up again, George, we patrol at dawn..."
David A. Whelan
Forest Knolls, CA
Not So Unbelievable Beliefs
There were some interesting
statistics in a recent article by Jim Scanlon (a friend of mine) regarding the
Christian beliefs of many Americans and, specifically, of the President and
some members of his cabinet. Just for the record, I am not at all religious
myself. However, I wanted to make some
comparisons of the religious beliefs Jim pointed out with some of the even
nuttier orthodoxies of the political left.
Is it any less crazy to believe that
miracles actually happen than to believe that people who hate America and want
to murder Americans will change their minds and stop being so mean if we are
just more understanding of their views and are nicer to them?
Is it any crazier to believe in the
Devil than to believe that the entire American justice system is secretly
organized and operated to incarcerate black men for crimes they did not
commit-and the large army of reporters, bloggers and activists in the US is
unable to find any evidence of this continent-wide conspiracy?
Is it any crazier to believe in the
virgin birth of Jesus than to believe that all human beings have precisely
identical levels of intelligence, passion, ambition, energy and strength and
that any differences in the material success of individual people must be
attributed to another conspiracy hatched by corporate executives, the defense,
tobacco, firearms and fast food industries, and white men?
Is it any crazier to believe the
world will end in an apocalyptic war between Jesus and the Antichrist than to
believe that America is engaged in yet another secret conspiracy to impoverish
people living in third world countries by trading with those countries and
encouraging them to adopt open, rational economic systems governed by the rule
of law instead of the whims of tyrants?
One last point. Although it is
certainly inflammatory to call Mohammed a "pedophile and terrorist",
it's not wildly inaccurate. It is an historical fact that Mohammed took
numerous wives (certainly with their uncoerced consent) and that one of them
was nine years old when taken by him. Today, that would qualify as pedophilia
and would land the prophet in jail. The term terrorist is a modern term that
would have no application in seventh century Asia or Africa. Nevertheless,
Mohammed was certainly violent and spread his rule (and religion) by the sword.
Loosely speaking, he forced people to convert to a religion in which he was the
central figure of worship by terrorizing them with violence. Not exactly the
same as modern day terrorism, but not so terribly far off the mark.
Eric Salthe
Louisville, Kentucky
President Is No Authority On Science
The New York Times
229 West 43rd Street
New York, N.Y. 10036
Letters Editor
In a speech to graduates of the US
Coast Guard Academy, President George W. Bush pointedly criticized the European
ban on genetically modified food produced in the US. (Bush Links Europe's Ban
on Bio-Crops With Hunger, NYT May 21, 2003). He stated: "They [France and
Germany] have blocked all new bio-crops because of unfounded, unscientific
fears."
It is manipulative, misleading and
inconsistent for President Bush to dismiss European concerns about genetically
modified plants and animals as "unscientific." when he himself does
not accept the neo-Darwinian evolutionary synthesis, the foundation principle
of the sciences that comprise biology.
The science of genetics evolved
during the 1930s and 1940s when dedicated investigators reliably demonstrated a
mechanism by which variations are passed on naturally, and also with human
intervention, to subsequent generations. "Darwinism" led to genetics
and the knowledge generated supported and still supports the neo-Darwinian
synthesis. This synthesis works for us now, even thought it will most likely
change as our society changes and new insights are gained.
I wonder what the president and his
advisors think of the evolution of matter, nucleosynthesis, the belief that the
atoms that we are composed of and which compose our world, originated during
explosions of gigantic stars? And I wonder what they think of endosymbiosis,
the belief that the cells of all multicellular organisms (including
homosapiens) are made up of tiny ecosystems, communities of once free living
bacteria that joined together eons ago?
It has been upsetting and difficult
for many religious people in the United States such as President Bush and Ronald
Reagan, to accept biological evolution. They may reject it if they wish, but if
they do, they would not have any authority to lecture others as to what is, or
isn't, "scientific,"
Please note that the crucially
important science of Petrology which is at odds with most creation myths, is
firmly based on a detailed understanding of organic evolution in operation over
hundreds of millions of years.
James Scanlon
Rigging the Vote
I'm including a copy of a letter I
sent to Barbara Boxer and my other representatives with the evidence
accumulated of a potential 'November surprise'-- the rigging of the next
Presidential vote by private, inaccessible, untransparent voting machines that
leave no paper trail. For a fuller discussion of the issue and links, please go
to: CommonDreams.org Published on Friday, January 31, 2003.
I consider this a critical issue and
if you agree urge you to disseminate this widely and write a personal letter to
your representatives: NOT AN E-MAIL. If you need their address go to:
http://www.house.gov/writerep/ and for
the Senate go to:
http://www.senate.gov/general/contact_information/senatorscfm.cfm
Senator Barbara Boxer
112 Hart Senate Office Building
Washington, DC 20510
Dear Barbara,
I'm writing to you about a situation
of the greatest urgency. Last year, I narrated a film called
"Unprecedented" by American journalist Greg Palast (currently writing
for the London Guardian). This film documents the illegal expunging of 54,000
black and overwhelmingly Democratic voters from the Florida rolls just before
the presidential election. We interviewed the computer company that did the
work, filmed their explanations of the instructions they received and their
admissions that they knew that their instructions would produce massive error.
That figure has now been revised to 91,000.
Jeb Bush was sued, and was supposed to
have returned these voters to the rolls, and did not, which explains his last
re-election. The Republicans have something far worse in mind for the next presidential
election and Democrats need to be prepared.
The recent elections of Nebraska
Republican Chuck Hagel, the loss in Georgia of Max Cleland, wildly popular
Vietnam vet, and the victory of Alabama Governor Bob Riley, along with a
handful of other Republican victories, (all predicted to have been losers by
straw polls which our nation has refined to a high-art) points to an ominous
source: corporate-programmed, computer-controlled, modem-capable voting
machines, recording and tabulating
ballots.
You'd think in an open democracy that
the government---answerable to all its citizens, rather than a handful of
corporate officers and stockholders---would program, repair, and control the
voting machines. You'd think the computers that handle our cherished ballots
would be open and their software and programming available for public scrutiny.
You'd think there would be a paper trail of the vote, which could be followed
and audited if a there was evidence of voting fraud or if exit polls disagreed
with computerized vote counts. You'd be wrong.
The Washington, DC publication The
Hill
(www.thehill.com/news/012903/hagel.aspx) has confirmed that former conservative radio talk-show host and now
Republican US Senator Chuck Hagel was
the head of, and continues to own part interest in, the company that owns the
company that installed, programmed, and largely ran the voting machines that
were used by most of the citizens of Nebraska. When Democrat Charlie Matulka
requested a hand count of the vote in the election he lost to Hagel, his
request was denied because Nebraska had a just-passed law that prohibits
government-employee election workers from looking at the ballots, even in a
recount. The only machines permitted to count votes in Nebraska, he said, are
those made and programmed by the corporation formerly run by Hagel. When Bev Harris and The Hill's Alexander
Bolton pressed the Chief Counsel and Director of the Senate Ethics Committee,
(the man responsible for ensuring that FEC disclosures are complete), asking
him why he'd not questioned Hagel's 1995, 1996, and 2001 failures to disclose
the details of his ownership in the company that owned the voting machine
company when he ran for the Senate, the Director reportedly met with Hagel's
office on Friday, January 25, 2003 and Monday, January 27, 2003. After the second meeting, on the afternoon
of January 27th, the Director of the Senate Ethics Committee resigned his
job. Hagel's surprise victory is a
trial-run for the presidential
election. Election 'reform' laws
are now prohibiting paper ballots (no trail) and exit polls, effectively
removing all trace and record of votes, making prosecution of voter fraud
virtually impossible.
For whatever reasons, the Democrats
decided not to pursue the issue of
fraudulence in the last Presidential election. The three Supreme Court Justices
who should have recused themselves
(Scalia, Thomas, and O'Connor) were allowed
to stand unchallenged and pass a bizarre one-time-only ruling. That they were in place long before the election,
demonstrates how clearly the end-game
of such moves was thought out.
Unless the issue of voter fraud is
elevated to an issue of national
importance, not only is it highly probable that Democrats will lose again and
again, but eventually voters will "sense" even if they cannot prove,
that elections are rigged, and the current 50% of those boycotting elections
will swell to the majority.
Privatization of the vote is tantamount to turning over the control of
democracy to the corporate sector. I
urge you to use your considerable powers and influence to address this issue.
Peter Coyote
WTC Built Lacking
Not only were the twin towers of the
Port Authority's World Trade Center built without adequate testing of their
novel structural steel elements, but, I believe a simple investigation will
show they were built without sprinkler systems, which were added only after
occupancy, and after several fires. There should be ample confirmation in the
records of the Fire Department and in the memories of retired firemen and
employees of the WTC.
The sprinkler system which was
installed, was, of course, rendered useless by the tremendous damage caused by
the impact of heavy jets fully loaded with combustible fuel, and perhaps
nothing could have saved the towers and the men and women on the upper floors,
but nevertheless, the failure to install such a basic component of fire
protection as a sprinkler system illustrates an unimaginable failure on the
part of everyone involved in the design, construction and oversight of those
buildings.
Jim Scanlon
cc: Dr. Glen Corbett. Mark S Moller, Skyscraper Safety Campaign, Dr. Sivaraj
Shyam-Sunder