Justice, Democracy & Sovereignty

Those in the US military (and their superiors who are responsible) who debased Iraqi prisoners must be handed over to the World Court together with Saddam Hussein.

However, if it is true what the White House says -- that they want democracy and sovereignty for Iraq -- then the debasers of humanity need to be handed over to the Iraqi courts.

One people's liberators are another people's terrorists.

How do we think Muslims would respond to our handing over debasers to a court in Iraq?

Would this step on our part bring US and Arabs closer?

What would be the response of the Arab world?

Do we desire an endless clash of civilizations?

Olga Goldsmith

San Rafael

Nader: Rebel Without a Cause

When the small gaggle of deluded Nader supporters deem it necessary to justify their ego-driven candidate's run for the office of US President, there is always one obvious reoccurring problem that none of them want to address: Nader is a self-appointed rebel without a cause who lacks the backing of a legitimate political party. Even the Green Party refuses to do a repeat performance. It's just plain Ralph, charging windmills and dragging the politically naive with him. Show me a Nader supporter and I'll show you a person who would rather destroy the chances of a person who will vote their way 80 percent of the time for supporting a person who talks their talk 100 percent of the time, but lacks any reasonable chance of getting elected. Then again, if their guy gets elected, he and they may have to climb off the soap box and get to work. Actually getting the job done is an alien concept to the Nader supporter. It's talk-talk-talk and no walk-walk-walk.

Nader and his sorry sophomoric sillies twist, spin and distort reason and reality to enhance their vacuous arguments. Good old Ralph did no cost Gore the past election, nor will Ralphy-Boy have the slightest affect on Kerry's chances this time around. You Betcha! I suspect the Tooth Fairy will soon be Nader's running mate.

Of course, with the Nader supporter, it's not winning that is important. In fact, if Nader won he might actually have to produce something more than hot air, and they can't have that. Jawing and writing about unachievable goals is really the main turn-on for Nader and his gaggle. Re-electing the most worthless president in American history may be the result of their folly. As a consequence, the gaggle and their exalted leader will have four more years to issue their simplistic rhetoric and naive nonsense.

Richard Salton

San Rafael

The Uniform Code of Military Justice

Some commentators have suggested the soldiers and civilians involved in grossly mistreating Iraqi prisoners are somehow less culpable because they were (or claimed they were) never instructed on the Geneva Convention regarding treatment of prisoners. That's irrelevant. Every soldier, within six days of entering service, receives instruction on the punitive article (Articles 77 through 134) of the Uniform Code of Military Justice (UCMJ), and again six months later, and again when he re-enlists. "Ignorance of the law is no excuse."

The UCMJ adequately covers those reported disgusting offenses. Persons subject to the UCMJ include, among others, ¥ all military personnel of the armed forces, ¥ "prisoners of war in custody of the armed forces," and ¥ "all persons serving with or accompanying an armed force in the field."

Any hard labor confinement sentence of one year or more is also accompanied by a dishonorable discharge and forfeiture of all pay and allowances. The UCMJ table of maximum punishments provides for the following maximum sentences of confinement as hard labor for certain offenses:

¥ Article 93, "cruelty toward or oppression or maltreatment of any person subject to his orders".....1 year

¥ Article 125, sodomy .....5 years

¥ Article 128, assault (consummated by a battery) .....6 months

¥ Article 134 (the catch-all General Article), "all disorders and neglects to the prejudice of good order and discipline, all conduct of a nature to bring discredit upon the armed forces, and crimes and offenses not capital," -- when consisting of "indecent assault".....5 years

We trust that those found guilty of such abhorrent actions as those currently in the news may receive the appropriate maximum sentences.

Fielding Greaves

LTC, USA, Retired

Planning Incentive in San Anselmo?

Consent Agenda items are considered to "be neither minor in nature of non-controversial."

On April 19, the San Anselmo Planning Commission Consent Agenda included two commercial conditional Use Permits: Peet's Coffee & Tea Store/Cafe Use Permit and Safeway.com delivery service.

None of the commissioners pulled these items for discussion. As a clarification, Commissioner Harris asked Planning Director Tom Bell why the Design Review excluded Peet's exterior signage from the design review application. After answering in a verbal style akin to stumbling, Director Bell said the signage application would be considered at a future meeting.

Why does Planning Director Bell administer a department policy that routinely fragment applications that frustrate a comprehensive planning review?

Peet's and Safeway.com will impact traffic, parking, noise, and impose a negative influence upon the nearby residential neighborhood.

The traffic generated to and from Red Hill Shopping Center will increase the traffic on Sunny Hills Drive, which intersects into the daily traffic pattern of an estimated 35,000 vehicles traveling on Sir Francis Drake.

Peet's may adversely impact the revenues of the existing specialty retail coffee and tea stores at Red Hill Shopping Center. If not, then Peet's, with its seating for 23 Peetniks, may detrimentally impact by being too successful in generating new customer car and bike traffic into the shopping center between the proposed operation hours of 8 a.m. to 8 p.m.

Safeway.com, on the other hand, is an expanding multi-billion dollar grocery industry model, click and mortar, designed to solve the distribution problem that faltered WebVan.

Customer grocery orders are pulled from the local Safeway store shelves, delivered to internet customers, and then the inventory, especially perishables, are routinely semi-trucked back into town to restock the local Safeway store shelves that will supply the demand of both the in-store and internet customers.

Red Hill Safeway will become an "order fulfillment warehouse" for the delivery service, GroceryWorks.com, which was bought by Safeway and U.K.'s e-commerce grocery leader, Tesco. The customer delivery area is unspecified in the Use Permit, but a finite circular area of 20 miles or 20 minutes has been used by GroceryWorks.

After I pulled the Consent agenda items for discussion, the commissioners made two points to support the Safeway.com Use Permit that confounds logic:

Safeway grocery internet sales will decrease the existing customer traffic into Red Hill Shopping Center to shop at Safeway. Safeway.com will only use two 21' delivery vans (holding approximately 15 grocery orders) and therefore will not impact traffic.

Planning does not have to be a no-win situation, it is up to the Planning Commission to examine the project and mitigate plausible impacts, especially when the Planning Department does not provide competent direction.

Louise L. Mathews

San Anselmo

Ripe for Another 9/11

When the performance rating of President Bush was plunging a year after he stole the 2000 election, we got hit by the 9/11 tragedy, and lo and behold, his performance rating suddenly sky rocketed. From an illegitimate president, he was catapulted to a more exulted position of a "war president." The American people did not mind that the disaster occurred in his watch and was the direct result of his bungling Middle East policy, where he literally provoked the Islamic fundamentalists to hit us, facilitated by a clear invitation to do so in the face of an unbelievable incompetence on the part of his administration to protect our homeland. In other words, the loss of more than 3,000 innocent American lives was the price we had to pay for the criminal negligence of this celebrated "war president."

As an aftermath of 9/11, we lost no time attacking Afghanistan, breaking the back of the Taliban government and promised to capture Osama Bin Laden, who apparently financed and masterminded the 9/11 attacks. When Bin Laden could not be captured despite his continued efforts to defiantly lead the Al Qaeda network in his vow to kill more Americans, President Bush's performance rating took a plunge again. Before we knew it, our "war president" got us to support him in another war adventure. This time, despite the refusal of the UN to buy his arguments on Iraq's immediate threat to mankind with his purportedly amassed weapons of mass destruction, we again supported him in his decision to declare war and preemptively attack that country.

Lo and behold, our "war president's" performance rating rose again to stratospheric heights. The preemptive strike in Iraq was a resounding success. It was a piece of cake. In no time, the vaunted military might of Saddam Hussein was routed, his sons were killed and the modern Hitler was captured cowering in a spider's hole like a scared rat.

Lo and behold, our "war president" appears to be in the apex of his war mongering triumphs. But as always, truth and justice prevails. The UN was proven right. There were never weapons of mass destruction in Hussein's captured arsenals. The whole brouhaha was a concocted justification to go to war and take control of this oil rich country's black gold. It was our "war president's" friends in the oil industry with the collaboration of a coalition of economically intimidated countries that perpetuated a pack of lies to preemptively attack Iraq. The vanquished Iraqis, however, did not prove to be that vanquished after all. They want us out and are proving their point with a steady stream of home coming, flag draped coffins of our loved ones who have offered their lives as the price to pay for our "war president's" follies.

"Bring them on" is the battle cry of our "war president" in the face of our heavy casualties. It is difficult to ascertain what he means by it. But there is an alarming pattern that is emerging. Every time his performance rating goes down, we invest American lives to bring it up again. The current Abu Ghraib prison scandal has brought his performance rating to its lowest level. We are at a point where something as horrible and earth shaking as 9/11 can bring this president back to his high perch as a "war president" and he knows it. He cannot hope to be re-elected this year with a 42 percent (and dropping) performance rating. Let us hope and pray that he is enlightened enough to understand that American cannot keep on sacrificing the lives of our youth simply to keep him as a "war president." It is time for him to revert to his old image as a compassionate president and forget about his mission impossible to rid mankind of terrorists. He may lose the presidency as a result but considering that he did not really win it fair and square in the first place, who cares? Easy come, easy go.

Antonio Serna

Rohnert Park

Oh, Did I Say That?

"It is amazing how these facts are unimportant to so many, and how soon they forget to read through to the bottom."

"Subject: Oh, Did I Say That?"

The fourteen leading Democrats firmly expressed their beliefs that weapons of mass destruction existed in Iran. They are listed below:

Bill and Hillary Clinton, Madeline Albright, Sandy Berger, Tom Daschle, Bob Graham, Nancy Pelosi, Al Gore, Ted Kennedy, Richard Byrd, John Kerry, Jay Rockefeller, Henry Waxman and Carl Levin.

Examples:

"Iraq's search for weapons of mass destruction has proven impossible to deter and we should assume that it will continue for as long as Saddam is in power." Al Gore, Sept. 23, 2002

"We have known for many years that Saddam Hussein is seeking and developing weapons of mass destruction." Sen. Ted Kennedy (D-MA), Sept. 27, 2002

"I will be voting to give the President of the United States the authority to use force -- if necessary -- to disarm Saddam Hussein because I believe that a deadly arsenal of weapons of mass destruction in his hands is a real and grave threat to our country." Sen. John Kerry (D-MA), Oct. 19, 2002

"He will use those weapons of mass destruction again, as he has ten times since 1983." Sandy Berger, Clinton National Security Advisor. Feb. 18, 1988

"We are in possession of what I think to be compelling evidence that Saddam Hussein has, and has had for a number of years, a developing capacity for the production and storage of weapons of mass destruction." Sen. Bob Graham (D-FL) Dec. 8, 2002

The entire list of Democrats who believed that Iraq possessed weapons of mass destruction may be obtained from bboissevain@yahoo.com. Her e-mail message to me closed with the following statement: "Every one of these same Democrats say President Bush lied -- that there never were any weapons of mass destruction and he took us to war unnecessarily."

A great example of flip-flops!

Dell D. Blodgett

Fairfax

Stanford Prison Experiment in Iraq (writ of habeas corpus).

I was in "Shock and Awe" over the recent 60 Minutes episode on the brutality of prisoners held captive by our soldiers. Although, the current administration displayed disappointment with the atrocities committed by a select few soldiers, the issue is much more complex.

Consider the fact that our secondary purpose was to go in and liberate a country and promote the concept of freedom. History has proven however, when a dominant country forces their ethics and values on another country "war" is inevitable, and all wars endure global "backlash."

The photos depicted in the episode showed US Soldiers physically, emotionally, and sexually abusing Iraqi captives. Some of the abuse included; writing "Rapefest" on a prisoner and proceeding to force naked adult men into human pyramids, forcing them into simulated oral sex, blind-folding them and attaching "fake" electrical wires, and forcing "fight club" tactics (i.e. Prisoner on Prisoner).

How can we instill our constitutional / liberating agenda while not allowing the invaded country to figure it out for themselves (i.e., freedom of religion, due process, writ of habeas corpis, etc.)?

It seems as though the current administration in bent on disregarding or disrespecting many of our global and domestic "human rights."

Consider many of the issue our county is facing. Do we want to drop out of the "UN?" or, should we be as "free and open-minded" as we proclaim to be? And, how about all our other enemies; (Axis-of evil countries; Iran and North Korea)? Should we continue to give Israel as much money as they request, how about Columbia (war on drugs), Somalia, Nicaragua (Iran-Contra), or any other country that is facing economic / socio - political strife.

My suggestion is that we focus more on domestic issues such as ( jobs, schools, housing, etc.), and on community issues such as poverty and homelessness, and not put too much emphasis on "liberating" or "fighting" foreign countries.

Jeff Charles

San Rafael

Literary Coup For Homestead And The Surf

In a blatant act of self promotion, could I entice your fine publication into mentioning that Homestead Valley/sometime Bolinas surfer Carl Keane has scored a literary coup-publication of a short story in the prestigious Surfers Journal, a reader supported quarterly which buys only one fiction piece a year.

The story is titled Home of Oil and Water and it appears in the late spring edition which should be out this week... as a subscriber, I've already received mine.

As the story is propelled against a back-drop of beach town gentrification, I think (hope) your readers might relate.

The Surfers Journal is available at Borders, some surf shops or online at surfersjournal.com

Thanks for the help.

Carl Keane

Mill Valley

Dismisses Fisk Diatribe

What a shabby, poorly written, poisoned diatribe Mr. Fisk wrote! His logic is typically porous, his hate so obvious and his moral center so obscure, I dismissed his entire argument. He entirely missed the historical precedent that the conqueror in battle takes the spoils. Land changes hands over time, less often now that the world community has become so transparent. In fact, now that we have "world police", the borders of the world may finally be etched in stone. Not the case centuries, or even generations ago.

From whom do you suppose the American Indian stole this land? Who's bones washed up on the shores of the Columbia River near Kennewick, Washington? A Meso-American pyramid builder, perhaps? Do you suppose the Indians of the 21st Century are the descendants of those builders? Or, the descendants of a warlike people who prevailed in battle and displaced them?

I support the President in the war on terrorism and hope that his successors have the capability and foresight to take it to its completion. It was so rude of Mr. Fisk to compare early American rebels battling a distant king to terrorists who distinguish themselves by murdering innocent people. They murder, and then frequently take their own lives in the act so that they can't be held accountable for the horror they peddle. Although, as a man with a stable religious foundation, I'm confident that they will be accountable later.

As for the journalistic efforts of Mr. Fisk, I hope that you may become accountable for the distortions you promulgate and for the confidence you reinforce in the terrorists of the world, in this life and the next.

Perhaps you should consider sports reporting. Maybe in Boston.

* * * *

Doesn't Believe DU Danger

What is the foundation for your editorials and why is Google pasting a headline from your illegitimate publication on my computer. I personally discredit Ms. Hiller (is there no hyphenated suffix in her name?) and her sources. I don't believe she has convinced me that we build munitions, vehicles and other war materials from spend uranium. From whom do the contractors who make the tainted equipment buy their spent nuclear waste that they supposedly uses to make things that conform to military specifications? Where are the symptoms of the thousands of American soldiers who have spent years training with the same equipment here in the US and elsewhere?

Didn't the President, the Secretary of State or the Governor of California get the message that the area was contaminated before they went there and breathed the air and ate the food? It's a source of solace to know that Leuren Moret has personally sealed the fate of the President of the United States in her Tokyo condemnation. I guess I'll see her on the TV with the arresting UN soldiers when they come to take him into custody. Say, isn't she French?

Doug Barnes CF

Ed. Note: Thanks for sharing.

Check Out The Legs

The masked man in the beheading video claims to be the infamous terrorist Abu Musab al-Zarqawi. Initially CNN said that the voice doesn't match him. They said he didn't even have a Jordanian accent. However the CIA confirms that it is him. But - are they correct?

While everyone is listening to the voice they are ignoring a bigger clue - the legs. Two years ago Abu Musab al-Zarqawi had one of his legs amputated. Since then he's never adapted to a prosthetic leg. The terrorist who did the killing had two legs and as rather nimble on them. The terrorist has the wrong number of legs. So-in the debate about the identity of the killer-I'd say the CIA doesn't have a leg to stand on.

Marc Perkel

San Francisco

Supports Bush's Environmental Stands

I am writing this because I feel strongly about our environment. And to that point I urge everyone to read President Bush's' stand on this issue. President Bush is tackling the real challenges to our environment with focus and clarity. His comprehensive approach cleans our air and water by focusing on proven methods and results.

Michael Galea

Calistoga

Wants Bush To Get On With It

We hear you. We know you don't approve of American soldiers mistreating enemy prisoners. Who does?

But do you also know that this is war, that we're currently losing--at least so far as the majority of the country is concerned?

Do you plan to concentrate your efforts on making a decision about whether it is our job to smash terrorist regimes--something we did with great success in both Iraq and Afghanistan, and now need to do in North Korea, Iran, and Syria? Or is it our job to stay in Iraq until the Iraqis become like the American Founders, deeply committed to reason and individual rights rather than primitive religion and rule by sects?

In short: do you plan to get to the real issues? Or do you plan to make it more dangerous for our soldiers by over-apologizing for what you repeatedly point out are the mistakes of a few? Do you plan to continue your own agenda, to implement the Bush Doctrine? Or do you plan to implement John Kerry's agenda, to fawn and apologize to the rest of the world for America's rare, daring move to assert its power for a change?

President Bush: Please get on with it.

Michael J. Hurd Ph.D.

Author GROW UP AMERICA,

Chevy Chase MD

Ancient Ancestors

I'm trying to put together my Bolinas ancestors and I was wondering if you can help. Can an ad be place in your paper inquiring about my McGovern, Stephen and wife Bridget Leonard and Francisco Sibrian (Sebrean or Cibrean, Cebrian) how ever he spelled it. He married Maria De Jesus Briones about 1850... I would also like to know when he died and where buried.

If I take a trip and come to Bolinas, do you have any genealogy records at your local library? I have inquired several times and received no answer.

My lines run from Lauff, Nott, Strain, McGovern. Its quite a big part of Bolinas back in the 1850's on.

Sally Staley

smotorhomer@sbcglobal.net

Here Comes The Draft

President Bush will reinstitute the draft when and if he is re-elected and you can be darn sure he won't tell America this vital bit of information before the 2004 election. George W. and his right-wing warhawks will kidnap our children the minute they graduate from high school and make them kill people they don't know - why are there no Democratic voices being raised about this issue.

When the draft is reinstated by W., the first ones drafted should be the children and grandchildren of those politicians who vote yea for the measure; children of corporate war industry CEO's who are reaping huge bonanzas; and kids of gung-ho right-wingers who have war drooling out of their mouths. But alas, after all is said and done, we know whose kids will be sacrificed for the Bush/Cheney, all war all the time.

* * * *

Following Orders

The accused Germans involved in the Holocaust atrocities said, we were only following orders. The accused Americans after the Me Lei massacre in Vietnam said, we were only following orders. The accused Americans involved in the Abu Ghraib prison humiliations say, we were only following orders. Whose orders? The higher ups giving the orders need to be held accountable. Why is it that the little guys always get the shaft?

* * * *

Rader Nader

Will Ralph Nader's candidacy for president affect the election by siphoning off votes from John Kerry. Yes, of course. In the 2000 presidential election 537 votes separated Bush and Gore in Florida. Nader garnered 97,000 votes in Fla. The intervention of Nader - with no chance at all of winning (ditto in 2004) deprived Gore of the success he deserved. Ralph Nader could have the same affect on John Kerry's chances. Republicans know this all too well. So who are deep-pocket Republicans helping?

The latest USA Today, Washington Post, and New York Times polls have Nader at 4 to 5 percent, almost all of his votes coming from Kerry. The various anti-war factions supporting Mr. Nader could well help re-elect George W. Bush who led the country into war in the first place. Add to this, the staunchly conservative Reform Party, started by Ross Perot, has thrown its support behind Nader.

Does anyone one wonder what Bush campaign strategist, Karl Rove, is up to?

Ron Lowe

Nevada City

Disdain For The System; Hooray For Scanlon

Jim Scanlon is a hero in my opinion for his in depth reporting about the nightmare of Family Law, formerly 'Father' Law, Court and specifically Dufficy's fourteen years as a Marin Family Law judge. It is correct to make the buck stop at the Judge, however he is not the only one guilty, almost everyone in the community is guilty. The problem is the community cannot ask the judge to stand between a victim and a batterer, so most side with the bad guy. Many prominent members of the community probably paid Dufficy off to make sure the bad guys don't go after them. Monkey see monkey do in the most biological sense.

When will more chivalrous men like Jim Scanlon take a stand and make it absolutely base to mistreat women and children? It seems that this culture makes money off of perpetuating conflict. In the case of family law, almost every domestic assault and battery (including rape, sodomy, sexual abuse..) of women and children is dismissed and sent to the Family Law entourage! These "helpers" of the court are really not helping at all. They are people making money perpetuating conflict. Most of them side with the batterer. Most people feel much more comfortable going with the one in power because that means they do not have to do anything to solve the problem.

The reality is that no one wants a bad guy after them. 'Hey! This guy's dangerous!' It just feels better to blame the victim. Out of sight, out of mind is the typical situation. No help is rendered except large bills and financial ruin to the victim and tokenism. The victim is injured again and again in an escalating pattern.

A sociopathic batterer will keep the object of his abuse in court forever! The courts come up with all kinds of icky terms to label the victim: histrionic, narcissistic, ick, ick ick! That is the name of the game. Each time they go to court they consult their entourage of Father's Right Club, disenfranchised males, a lot like the savage, kicked out male chimps in the jungles. They go about terrorizing, killing and maiming for fun, raping the females and the children! Sound familiar! Sounds a lot like the war in Iraq. Same, only on a larger scale. Fact: No court worker including the health workers make money resolving the conflict. I would theorize that under Dufficy's rule, as under the rule of other high rent court districts, there is cronyism in the court system. The war machine makes no money if people are not at war.

The evidence was in the I.J. before the election. There was one article which appeared on the front page declaring how much money was spent on campaigns. Two lawyers spent a lot of money. Dufficy's name did not even appear in the article. Dufficy got his own article in the business section days later. Dufficy lists all the lawyers and judges and politicians that gave him money. They were buying protection from the batterers!? It is hellish, scary to have a batterer mad at you. It could be someone like the murdering sniper and his hostage. He acted out when he lost in Family Law Court. He took the child hostage after he lost custody of his own children because of battery... He kidnapped his kids and took them to Jamaica. If a woman takes her child to protect them from a batterer she does fifteen years in federal prison! If she mentions battery in Civil Court she is charged with contempt. They try to treat people who are not civil like civilians. Restraining orders are for civil people.

My friend said, "Everyone keeps treating me like I'm having my period; I had a hysterectomy! Everyone is worried about the women in Afghanistan who had to paint their windows black; I couldn't even open my curtains or he would slug and sodomize me! Then they treat me like I have a relationship problem! Hey, this relationship problem raped my two year old after he was barred from seeing the four year old because he beat and molested her!" The batterer poisoned her with her own medication. He took $100,000 of her stock portfolio, all her retirement. She paid $120,000 to the lawyer who put forty thousand pro bono. (Hey wouldn't you?) He crushed her hands! She is now disabled.

Another friend describes her nightmare. It started with words, then pushing and shoving. She phoned 911 for help fourteen times starting when the law changed in 1997 and she was four months pregnant. He wanted her to have a second trimester abortion, threw the phone at her, bruised her arm and threw her down. The cops said that if they did not get along they would both be assaulted with a broom. This was not in Marin.

The cops came to her house twenty times including delivering subpoenas and searching for her (and drugs) in the closets (and drawers? "No evidence of drugs or their use was found.") when her parents said she had been assaulted. Over seven years he was arrested twice. Both times he got off. He bought a car with the bail money his mother sent since he decided to stay in jail for another day.

He came back to my friend's house each time he was kicked out of his rentals for inappropriate anger. She tried three times to get restraining orders. Even though he was arrested twice, they denied her a restraining order. Once he broke her rib. The next time he separated her shoulder. After that the tables turned. He was able to arrive unannounced at her house and disable her putting her out of her $60,000 a year teaching job. She lost her house in the ordeal. She had saved for thirteen years on a teaching salary to afford her own home. He tried to mess up the sale of the home with is gang. They smashed windshields, threw eggs, urinated and left dead rats. He also ranted and raved at the daycare and her job.

In all she lost $250,000 and the use of her hands. She says she chokes on the pain in her hand every day. She tries to get help but most people just think she is crazy because she starts to cry when she has to tell what happened. She still does not have a restraining order. She still does not have a job. He never paid her any rent. He forced her to go to work and he took care of the child. He has never paid a dime of child support even though she left him and took the child when it was eighteen months old.

He crushed her hands in 2001 and one still hurts. She had to leave the area and is afraid to go to the women's centers because of the predatory nature of the culture. She tried to get child support but he called her saying exactly the same things he said when he was hurting her shoulders. She was a rescuer and told him the shoulders were the hardest injuries to manage as an EMT. He ripped her rib right out of her sternum twisting her arm trying to take her keys to keep her from leaving. The two batterers described were from the same county and the same Father's Rights club. The first batterer said that he was going to blow up my friends apartment building. She asked about all the other people in the building. He said if they died, it would be their fault for being there! He was sexually abused. Both batterers were trained to deny everything. They do not pay child support.

The 'Fathers' have A LOT of money! If they have to take batterer's treatment, 98% recivit, they repeat the crime, only they do it better. They commit criminal felony assault and do it seven to nine times before they are reported or arrested. Nine out of ten women do not report domestic assault. Our own Trailia Twitty had the guy who assaulted her arrested four times. They blamed the couples alcohol use and relationship problem. But he was on the wagon when he strangled her to death. My friends insist that the batterers were much better batterers sober and that blaming alcohol or drugs is just off. Sometimes drugs and alcohol are involved and may be a symptom but never the cause of assault and battery. Most people think domestic violence is about alcohol and drugs. They are wrong!

They also call it a cycle of abuse. The way I understand it, it is more like an escalating incidence of haphazard, beatings and varied abuses, so unpredictable that there is no way to tell whether something you are doing will have a positive or negative effect on the abuser. The fact is it does not matter, the batterer is in charge and without conscience. I believe the only thing predictable about battery is that it escalates. The words pattern and cycle are very misleading. People think that somehow we have to break the cycle! No we have to love our enemies. Batterers need help but they have the most dismal prognosis of any mental aberration. They are very hard to love. Who knows how to help, what to say? Who wants to give a battered woman a home when a sociopath is out there searching for her so he can follow her home and wreck it? Didn't think so...

As a parent they tell you to get the kid in the supermarket who is running down the aisle pulling stuff off of the shelf. Don't get the stuff, get the kid! So my point is that the courts get the stuff. They bring in all the stuff, everybody's stuff! Everybody makes big money off of letting the batterer go around pulling stuff off of the shelves and making a mess. They have a saying, "He's hanging himself!" at the crisis centers and in court. It is so easy to spot a batterer. They have a variety of tell tale characteristics. You can pick up a Power and Control Wheel on line or out in the Domestic Violence Prevention Sector. The problem with the way things work is that the workers burn out. They DAs pass the cases along. The cops hate it because they have to see the injuries get worse and worse. Everyone is in denial. They cycle the judges, the mediators, the shrinks...

The fact is, sad to say, women are the problem too because most women are not battered, only one third. Two thirds of women are not battered and those women absolutely have to believe that it cannot happen to them. The culture is in denial that battery even happens. They still call it fighting. The problem is that when a little guy says he got beat up by a big guy you usually know who started it. We have twice as many stray animal shelters as battered women's shelters. They lecture the victim, "Why did you let him do that to you?!" Blaming the wrong one to tears.

Half of the nation's homeless are battered women and their children! Almost half of all married women in this country are raped at some point with a weapon. And the criteria for rape was very strict in this study. The women had to out right refuse. The courts go by anecdotal records: he said/she said. In reality it is women and children who are injured; the children part is what makes it a community problem.

The number one reason women visit the emergency room is because of injuries from a boyfriend or spouse! More than all the other reasons combined! The problem is the community is blind. Notice the closed records. And the politics is cruel. The court workers do not want you to know how many of the assault and battery cases end up in Family Law court. But we can find out! I just wonder how much money all the cronies reported in the I.J. gave to the battered, homeless people shelters compared to Dufficy's campaign.

It reminds me of the litigious school districts that announce teachers will be getting a raise of 3% over the next three years! Wow, everyone says... But the cost of living is rising 6% a year! That puts the teacher fifteen points in the red and they call it a raise. That is not a raise it is a slap in the face. That is what the courts give women, children, families and the community when they toady to violent criminals and make money off of conflict. It is worse than the gladiators because there are no witnesses. This is the problem! If they had been stopped in the first place neither of my friends would have been disabled. If the courts had followed the law and the will of the people, both criminals would be given life in prison for three or more (dozens) of felonies. But they get away with it and that is what keeps them assaulting: It works! Assault and battery works! It can get a batterer what he wants, power and control.

The victims have to talk. The problem is talking puts them in more danger because then the gang comes! They are charged with contempt! They are threatened. They do not arrest him over and over, just a couple of times. Then they start denying it and continue blaming the woman who by this time is in chronic post traumatic stress disorder with all it's blatant symptoms of an angry, distraught, mentally ill woman. In fact all injured animals in pain react with some form of aggression. Crying out, crying or being angry is not allowed in court They are accused of 'fighting'. They are told to not talk and keep your head down (guilty?)

Like they say they are fighting in Iraq! That is not fighting it is assault and bombery. The Iraqis are defending themselves; and right they should. That is the Cradle of Civilization and the Garden of Eden they are destroying and starving women and children to death. The US. is attacking and calling it fighting. It is not a fair fight! These people have been starved for ten years.

When a man twice a woman's size attacks and injures, the men in Father Law call it fighting. Go figure. I call Dufficy and all his cronies guilty and in violation of Article Four, Section Four of our Constitution. The people pay for the system to protect the community against domestic violence; but obviously no one makes enough money creating harmony between a power and control problem and the object of his abuse. Too bad so many people make so much money perpetuating destruction and misery. There is money in their accounts and proverbial blood on their purses, the blood of innocent women and children whose only crime was, reporting domestic violence. The worst thing you can do to a sociopath is criticism. You cannot criticize the sociopathic court system and expect to be treated well. The courts call the victims 'scorned women seeking revenge'. They say they are making it up to get money. The truth is almost zero percent make it up, and almost zero percent are icky in the way the courts say they are. Unfortunately, many never realize they are O.K. and commit suicide or are murdered to make it look like suicide or just murdered. However, I would venture to say that I do believe that death is not the goal but torture. That is the nature of the court system: torturous!

One friend was gang raped at knife point when she was young. She said being battered and going to court was a thousand times worse. She envies the woman in the movie The Piano because she just got her little pinky fingertip cut off by the guy who battered her. My friend says she wants to be pain free but the last time I checked, she was crying and gagging, she cannot afford the vioxx. She should have gotten $400.00 a month in disability but she chose to hide instead. She cannot take the sexual abuse or the memory of when he poisoned and killed the baby she was pregnant with in 1998. I do not wonder why a lawyer told her to hide.

Thank you for your brave reporting!

Your Friend In Hiding

Marin County

Nobody In Palestine

This is regarding Robert Fisk's article, "By Endorsing Sharon's Plan Bush Has Legitimized Terrorism." While I agree with many of Mr. Fisk's criticisms of Bush and Sharon's policies, he needs to make sure he keeps his facts straight: Palestinians have never owned land in Israel or Gaza or the West Bank. There has never been a Palestine, just a UN mandate in 1947 ensuring an Arab state and a Jewish one. Editorials should refrain from rewriting history.

Robert Wittenberg

Ed. Note: Please include your town and state with your letter to the editor.

New Nuclear Insanity At Livermore Lab

They're at it again! DOE and Livermore Lab plan to:

¥ More than double the plutonium limit at the lab from 1,540 to 3,300 pounds.

¥ Manufacture prototype plutonium bomb cores (pits) on site.

¥ Heat plutonium and shoot multiple laser beams through the vapor cloud, in an attempt to create a nuclear explosion.

¥ Manufacture tritium targets (radioactive fuel pellets).

¥ Undertake a speedy return to full-scale nuclear testing.

¥ Import live anthrax, plague and other pathogens, co-locating a bio-warfare agent research facility with nuclear weapons.

There is already an increase in cancer rates around the Lab. Furthermore, the Lab sits on two earthquake faults.

Every 10 years the Department of Energy (DOE) must produce an Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) for Lawrence Livermore Lab's planned operations for the next 10 years. The law requires DOE to seek public input before moving forward.

Written comments can be sent to: Mr. Tom Grim, DOE, NNSA, L-293, 7000 East Ave., Livermore, CA 94550; by e-mail to tom@oak.doe.gov; or by fax to (925) 422-1776.

This is a once in a decade chance to make our voices heard! The deadline is May 27. I hope Jim Scanlon can get a word in. He has scientific credibility.

For a copy of the Executive Summary of the EIS, and also a link to the full 3-volume document, go to www.trivalleycares.org

Carol Kuczora

Grass Valley

Tentacled Zionism

It is distressing to me that there are many persons who search the Internet to find information to discredit others but do not use that same source of seemingly infinite material to learn the history of the subject before they shoot from the hip. I refer specifically to Rich Walko and his letter in the May issue of the CC Post that details the high rate of votes against the USA in the UN by "various Arabic/Islamic States" where he claims "90% of terrorists originate."

As an American born Arab Muslim I can tell you assuredly that there are no Islamic states. They are all under the control of totalitarian dictators, self-appointed ruthless and corrupt absolute monarchies, and despicable despots that most fearful subjects under their rule would drive out of office had they means to do so.

When Muslim-ruled Spain (711-1492) fell back to Christian control it was Arab Muslims who sent ships to rescue the Arabs and Spanish Jews from the horrific Spanish Inquisitions. Jews were given safe haven in places like Morocco, Turkey, Iran, Iraq, Egypt, Syria, Lebanon, Jordan, and yes, Palestine. Their appreciation for their lives being saved and their welcome among Arabs and Muslims was their eventual theft of Palestine where they continue to inflict the most heinous atrocities and war crimes against the indigenous Muslim and Christian Arab population, and their 1982 destruction of Lebanon where over 20,000 innocent human beings of all ages perished. The United States enjoyed amiable political relations with twenty-two Arab and many other non-Arab governments, such as Iran, Turkey, and Afghanistan for many years. If I recall correctly, Morocco was the first country to recognize the United States at the UN.

Then along came tenaciously tentacled Zionism, far more menacing to world peace than communism, nazism, or fascism could have hoped to have been. Its increasingly strangulating choke-hold that its lobbyists wield over our Congress and Oval Office led to the unilateral support of unquestioned, alibied, and excused war crimes at the hands of Israeli war criminals such as Arik "Ariel" The Butcher" Sharon (sic; "Ariel" is Hebrew for "Angel") severed the close relationship between the US and most of the fifty-seven predominantly Muslim Arab and non-Arab countries today.

Walko's assertions are invalid since he does not inform us of the types of US issues that Arab governments voted against. Does the list include concerns such as the US vote against global warming? Is Walko aware of the fact that our UN Ambassadors have consistently used its veto power to excuse Israel's refusal to withdraw from illegally occupied lands and its numerous crimes against humanity? Would he really expect Arab governments to vote at the UN in favor of US policies? Is he aware of the fact that with the approval of Washington the Israelis continue to refuse to comply with about seventy UN Resolutions and that its officials poke their bloodstained thumbs in the eye of the Fourth Geneva Convention accords? Wasn't Iraq decimated twice for refusing to comply with a mere half of a handful of UN Resolutions? Why do we excuse Israel? Is our government not complicit in their crimes against humanity by doing so?

Walko is wrong by alleging that 90% of so-called terrorism emanates from Arab countries. Violence from those countries is minuscule compared to other countries, and since Israel is a signatory of the Fourth Geneva Convention that guarantees the right of all occupied peoples to use any means at their disposal to dispel their occupiers then there is no such thing as a Palestinian "terrorist" if his land is under occupation.

I agree with Walko's suggestion that we cease all foreign aid and assistance to all foreign governments, including Arab, and most especially the so-called state of Israel that uses American-made weapons and our tax dollars to commit murder, mayhem, destroy homes, desecrate Islamic holy places, conduct state-sponsored torture, beat, maim, and humiliate Arabs on a routine basis. Would Walko be outraged by the unrelenting and unfathomable pain, misery, and suffering of aggrieved Palestinians? Why is the world not condemning the US-televised atrocities committed by Israelis over the past six decades with the same indignation as the despise we now hold for what was recently committed by Americans to Iraqis in their country where we keep boasting about liberating them from Saddam Hussein?

Hopefully Walko read David Stone's quote by John Sheehan in the same issue of this journal: "Anytime anyone says Israel is our only friend in the Middle East, I can't help remembering that, before Israel, we had no enemies in the Middle East."

Lastly, the European Union recently declared that among the five countries that pose the greatest threat to world peace, the Number One threat is Israel (sic; Israel refuses to declare its borders and therefore cannot be classified as a legitimate country). I share that conclusion.

Yousef Salem

Santa Clara

Wait A Second, That's A Lie!

I just read your article about the comparisons between what the Jews are doing to the Palestinians and what happned to the Jews by the Nazis. I never realized just how similar they are, this article really helped me.

Wait a second, that's a lie, like the article. There are abosulytely no compartisons that can be made between the Nazis and the Israelis. There are no comparisons between those monkeys who blow up buses and the jews who resisted. there are no compariosns between the warsaw ghetto and gaza or anything else. the sooner you idiots realize this, the sooner you can be incorporated into the context of modern discourse. till then, enjoy your mud-puddle and have fun with the nader campaign.

Ben Woodfern

woodfern01@hotmail.com

Youth Commissioners Sought

I am a junior at Redwood High and am currently serving my third term on the Marin County Youth Commission. We are a body of youth appointed by the Marin County Board of Supervisors and a program of the Youth Leadership Institute. The twenty-member commission informs the local government concerning youth issues and promotes youth governance. The school year will be ending soon and it is an objective to recruit applicants who can represent the county's true diversity. Therefore, I am writing to inform the community that we are looking for new commissioners to fill the seats of those students graduating.

As a Youth Commissioner, it allows a student to become greatly involved in the community and work hands-on on projects relating to governance. We learn life long skills and are able to use them now and in the future. For the coming year we will conduct YouthVOTE¨ and create a public policy aimed at bettering youth relations in Marin. A student can obtain community service for their involvement and a small stipend is also given for their valuable participation. In order to join a student must live or go to school in Marin and be 12-21 years of age. The commission prides itself in having members of different genders, ethnicities, religions, sexual orientations, and interests in order to effectively represent the youth of the entire Marin community. To apply, please contact the Director of Community and Civic Engagement at (415) 455-1676 or by email at bskolfield@yli.org.

Alicea Cock-Esteb

Marin County Youth Commission

Media and Public Relations Officer

Voting Machines Are About The Recount

Yesterday CSPAN showed some of the hearing held by the United States Election Assistance Commission last Wednesday. This commission, established by HAVA 2002 but not staffed until very recently must decide the issue of whether or not Direct Recording Entry (DRE) voting systems must also produce a paper audit trail. There was a panel of critics followed by a panel of vendors. They argued back and forth in learned tones using terms like perception of a problem, risk assessment, security indices, independent studies, and a bunch of other totally irrelevant nonsense. The critics could not explain their concerns cohesively and the vendors simply lied, albeit using very cleverly constructed statements that in themselves cannot be proven false, but that are not responsive to the question.

At no time in any forum that this issue has been discussed have I ever seen the main point as I see it spelled out. So here is what I think is the point. The issue is a voting system in America must provide the capability of a recount. The law defines the right of a candidate who loses a close election to demand the appropriate government official conduct a recount of the votes to verify the announced results.

A vote recount is NOT a tally of how many votes were cast on a specific machine. It requires that the INDIVIDUAL VOTER INTENT be determined after the fact by some third party by a totally independent process that does not involve the voting machine or the voter. Everyone seems to admit that the DRE's without the printer simply will NEVER allow that because there will be nothing to count.

Then they try to redefine "recount" into something their system can do. No. The voting technology itself cannot do the recount. But it must provide captured data at the time of the vote that will allow third party independent determination of the outcome. A recount is not a test of the reliability or security of the voting technology. It is a process to determine if there was any hanky-panky that took place. The recount procedures we have defined over the history of our countries existence are certainly not foolproof. They did not allow Coke Stevenson to successfully challenge Lyndon B. Johnson when he stole the senatorial race in Texas in 1948. That 58 vote "victory" is where LBJ earned the moniker "Landslide Lyndon." But the existence of a separate audit trail at least allowed historians to prove what happened. If you throw out the audit trail on the voting systems you throw out our history. You throw out the only barrier to complete voting fraud. You throw out the only thing those who would subvert democracy fear the most, and that is the truth.

All the advantages of DRE's are undeniable. They are wonderful inventions and I cannot wait to use them. All HAVA 2002 said is when that next recount takes place you had better found a more reliable way to do it that those punched cards and their hanging chad. There is nothing in HAVA 2002 that says henceforth no losing candidate shall ever have the ability to challenge the results. There is nothing in the Constitution that provides that product vendors to the government shall have the authority to rewrite the laws of the land when complying with those laws does not suit their purposes.

The debate must be brought back to what the real issue is. Shall this government allow its laws to be changed without any legislative process whatsoever, without any governmental process whatsoever. The answer is immediately obvious and it is NO!! So add a printer to each system and start installing those puppies.

Robert W. Dickie

Point Reyes Station

Not Enough Room For All The Letters

The Coastal Post lacked the space to publish all of the letters to the editor this month which we try to do. Appologies.

Don Deane

Editor