Coastal Post Online
MARIN COUNTY'S NEWS
MONTHLY - FREE PRESS
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(415)868-0502(fax) - P.O. Box 31, Bolinas, CA, 94924
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Letters To The Editor
Protest
Over Crime And Corruption In Marin Probate Court
This letter is in protest of what has transpired in the Marin County Probate
Court. I am the daughter of Sophie Tucker Greenberg whose will leaving me her
house, the house I shared with her after the death of my father, the house I
lived in as I grew up, was hidden from the court for nearly five months by the
attorneys and administrator brought into this probate case under false and
misleading pretenses, their modus operandi in this and previous cases.
They were brought in to protect the estate; they did not. They fed from it
like a bottomless trough until it was nearly empty. They forced me from my
house and sold my house out from under me, illegally, turning a cold heart and deaf
ear to my protests.
They went through the money as if my mother (parents) had left it to them.
Commissioner Harvey Goldfine, who inherited this less than honorable work in
progress from the court of Commissioner Mary T. Grove, had an opportunity to do
the right thing, to right the wrongs of those who have used the court to act as
if above the law in order to rob the deceased of their wishes and their
fortunes, small and large. He did not.
He had the opportunity to be the light in a system darkened by greed and
disrespect for the laws of this country for which many fought and lost their
lives. Perhaps the commissioner was up against a wall of deceit built by his
predecessors which was too well-constructed for even him to bring down.
My sweet mother's voice was silenced by those who were overpaid to protect
and uphold her wishes. They did not, and so I am the voice for my mother, my
best friend, and I scream out loudly, SHAME ON YOU MARIN COUNTY PROBATE COURT
and the lawyers and administrators who use it for personal profit, shamelessly
and endlessly.
Susan Elliot Greenberg
Marin County
We Need The Alternative
Thanks for all you've done. We need the alternative view of news events that
the Coastal Post provides-always thought provoking. Enclosed is my subscription
for 2005, a "mean" $24.00.
Patricia A. Diluzio
San Anselmo
Happy To See You
Of course 30 years is a long time, but we only discovered you about 5 years
ago (Oliver's Books in San Anselmo-no longer in biz). Oh well, time marches on
and we all gotta do what we gotta do. We are always so happy when your paper
arrives. We enjoy reading about subjects most people are afraid to even
discuss. We hope you will continue to write. It gives us hope.
Judd & Mary Jane Brown
La Jolla
Wonderful Paper
You are indispensable. The Coastal Post is the most wonderful paper in
Marin. Readers will not let you down, because you and people like you will save
the republic. Thank you, thank you, thank you.
The Coastal Post should not be free. Charge 25¢. Install a collection box
next to every news stand, store or restaurant. Voluntary. But every little bit
helps. Try it.
Paul B. Torikian
Forest Knolls
"Getting The Job Done"
Getting the job done used to mean doing things like cleaning the garage, tidying
the kitchen, or mowing the lawn. "Getting the job done" now means
dropping thousands of "shock and awe" bombs on a country, killing
thousands of its people, destroying its infrastructure, killing our own young
servicemen and wounding thousands. The "Dogs of War" have made a
grave mistake in thinking they can lead nations into democracy by first
destroying them.
Catherine Davis
San Anselmo
Thanks For Being There
May you all thrive in five. Thanks for being there and being you.
Sarah Nome
Kaiser Hospital
The Union?
The Federal Government is spending all our hard earned tax dollars in all
the wrong places. Instead of making life better for all of us they are making
the rich richer by spending more money on the War. The men and women in the
military are sure as hell not getting rich.
How does underfunding the Veterans Administration support the troops?
As for the War on terror, that is ridiculous, how can you win a war against
a word that is up for interpretation. It will never end. Guess that's why they
wont say it is a war against Al Qaeda or Iraq.
That would be doable.
They don't want to capture Ossama Bin Forgotten. If they captured him the
public might get the idea that the war on terror has ended. We can't have that,
there is too much money to be made.
Everything was in place before 9/11, they just couldn't connect the dots.
Now they want to spend billions more while cutting Federal Grants to the
States, and Federal spending for social programs. Putting the States in a
financial position that they will be forced to cut State and Local social
programs.
Our tax dollars are only being spent for monetary gain, not social. If it
hadn't been for meals on wheels my father would have passed away 10 years
before his time! We should send our Federal tax dollars to the States instead
of supporting the Bush Administrations' effort at making the divide between the
wealthy and the working class even wider. If we really don't want to be a part
of this mess maybe we should secede from the Union!
Bruce Carlton
Mill Valley
The Farewell Party
How will the hippies do it I had wonderedÉ.I was finding out, too
soon.
There was a jazz band, a roaring fire, a magician and as the guest of honor
walked slowly into the room he was preceded by an ex warden of San Quentin
playing bagpipesÉ there were huge photos on the wall of the honored, lively
life imagesÉ there would be no long speeches from all the loved onesÉ that we
would save till after his death. For now he just wanted to thank usÉ and
propose marriage, it turned out.
February 16, 2005 I attended my first farewell party of this sort, I say
'first' in hopes that more of us will be as generousÉ An ex beau had sent out a
group email, the Subject of the email was: "PASSING THROUGH-IT'S PARTY
TIME" I'm writing to you because in some way or another you have touched
my life... perhaps I've admired your contribution to the human condition, maybe
we shared a good joke, or maybe we mighta just had a particularly great beer together.
Whether our connection was mundane or profound, I want an opportunity to thank
you in person for what you've given me before I pass from sight." He had
just received the news the week before that he had pancreatic cancer---late
stages, too late
He asked us to bring our humor and liquor, We obliged. The parking lot in
the Marin County clubhouse was filled when we arrived on the dot of the
party start time, suddenly there was nothing fashionable about arriving late.
But where was he?, While we were popping champagne he and his girl friend were
trying to figure out if he was capable of making it at all for this last
hurrah. How many parties, invitations I've turned down É.oh, I'm tired, low
energy, not in the moodÉ.he was balancing, pain, morphine, death. All at once,
a friend said, 'he's here".
Our friend was not the kind to be fawned over, he lives a life helping
others, as one of the states' greatest defense attorneys, one of the strongest
warriors in the fight against the death penalty. We greeted him briefly, a
kiss, a light hug, an I love you, as he moved along past the tables filled with
food, the bunches of people, streams of crepe paper to the main room. In a
quiet voice he tried to smile, "this is funny isn't it, funny,
right?"
ÉIt wasn't a voice I was used to with him, he is the voice for people who
have no voice, who would not be heard, if not for him, because of their skin
color, income, circumstance, They used our friend's voice, our friend, Kim
Kruglick had a voice you couldn't ignore, he seemed just slightly dizzy moving
through, he was used to standing firm, even swaggering, in the face of
injustice- he would not back down, he was used to facing cruel odds, The odds
he now faced were the cruelest, as he said in his email: "I'm not afraid
of dying, just a bit sad about not being around to cause more trouble for those
who promote bigotry and arrogance and hypocrisy."
A magician was on the stage, making a smashed Budweiser can come back alive,
pulling money out of lemons, he was so good I wanted to shake him and say,
"come on do it- do it, make the cancer disappear, isn't that why you're
here?" No. Illusion is delusionÉ.our friend was dying for real. The music
played on, we laughed, talked, and hugged when the damned gravity brought down the
tears.
On the walls were the photos of his motorcycle racing days, move aside,
young Marlon BrandoÉ our friend exuded all that life asked of us, to live, to
give with all we got. One photo had him in a t-shirt, "NO HONOR IN
CRASHING WITH THE BRAKES ON!"
There were sky diving photos, and the photo from when I'd first met him, a
newspaper clipping of him trying a high profile case.
He stood next to the Magician, our friend still the quickest wit in the
room, making us laugh. another lawyer standing near in case he fell, everything
was done with an ease, because that is how love between friends goes down,
simple and easy.
There he was big as life, talking to us, telling us the different ways this
illness would take himÉ and how long it may take. He told us the story that
started him on his life path. Kim had been 7 or 8 when his father took him for
a drive around Phoenix, Arizona where they lived. His father was pointing to
this store, that restaurant, that clubÉ.pointing to places they couldn't go,
because they were Jewish. Kim said he saw the depth of sadness on his father's
face and that moment made a silent vow. He would spend his life making sure an
end would come to such bigotry, an end would come to such cruel injustices, at
least, he would live that work, and yes die trying.
He thanked everyone in the room for continuing to work for the betterment of
the human condition, he started to walk away and then stopped. "I would be
remiss if I did not introduce, LisaÉ.she began as my assistant two years ago,
became my lover and my girlfriend and hopefully my wife next week"É..she
was standing in the middle of the room, in front, it was his proposal; he put
out his hand for her to join him on stageÉ.as he told of her care, of how he
would already have been dead without her.
It was getting late, people were tired; maybe more so because of the exalted
energy of a brand new kind of celebration---how grateful I was for his courage
to face his death in front of all of us, not even a snivelÉ at most just an
aching kind of sigh at the beauty of being alive, at the inevitable end we'll
all face. His most said saying played in my mind, "it is what it is"É
this time I couldn't argue, there are no words.
He was right when he wrote in the invitation, "I can promise you it
won't be maudlin and will be one very strange conglomeration of folks "
the place was filled with judges, lawyers, old employees, I'd like to
say pimps and whores and thieves but I really don't know, doesn't matter, it
only mattered that we were there... Everyone I knew who I'd talked to before
the party, "are you going?" "fo' sho'" "only this
could get me out on a week night."
"I wouldn't miss it" all said with a huge sense of strong life
current carrying us to the 'death party'.
Some of us lined up to meet his wife to be, what could I do but hug her and
say, "congratulations and I'm sorry". Then there was time to enjoy
our friend, to reminisce at first meetings, the good stuff of being human that
we'd shared.
There was a guest book to sign on the way out, as well as colorful 'goody
bags' to pick upÉ filled with things like bubbles, rainbow colored pin wheels,
cookie boxes that read, "these made me throw up a little' and in each bag,
there was a t shirtÉ on one side it read, "Kruglick's Farewell Tour
2005" I joked, "huh, my friend went to the other side and all I got
was a t shirt?" but no, much more. On the front of the t shirt in bold
black capitals it read, "NO HONOR IN CRASHING WITH THE BRAKES ON!" Full
speed ahead then man, to carrying your work on, to improving the human
condition; to living while we're here. Thank you Kruglick for helping us to not
only face the truth of life, but to celebrate itÉ.it endsÉ.it ends, and no
mother fucking brakes will stop deathÉ..so Godspeed my friend, to whatever it
is next.
Sandra Fish
Mill Valley
Homeland Security At Drake High School
I am not a parent of a student, but in my extreme concern regarding (placing
a police officer on the Drake High School campus) this matter, I accessed the Drake site, and read
the Principal's letter. In it he clearly states that:
1 "The Officer will be an employee of the Town of San Anselmo." and "... not an agent
of the federal government..."
As we well know, this position is funded to a very large extent by The DOJ
and Cits COPS program. It seems clear to me that Principal Drake's letter is
deliberately misleading.
2 Principal Drake justifies the presence of a gun by claiming that
"...police officers have extensive training in firearm use and safety..."
All we need to do is read any local newspaper to witness the true
story-especially regarding the use of Tasers on young people nation-wide, many
of whom have died or suffered serve injury at the hands of these
"exhaustively trained" policemen.
3 If one reads the official Homeland Security Dept./American Red Cross
guideline publication and directive-
http://www.redcross.org/services/disaster/beprepared/hsas/schools.pdf
For the html version of the file use the following url: http://www.google.com/search?q=cache:NaIIcgpslUAJ:www.redcross.org/services/disaster/beprepared/hsas/schools.pdf+homeland+security+schools&hl=en
One can see that the FIRST priority, is to induce students, faculty and
staff to " Be alert to suspicious activity and report it to proper
authorities immediately..."
This insidious government program to promote snooping and spying will
combine with a Federally funded armed "security" officer-and can only
create a poisoned atmosphere-where fear and armed authority reign.
Hopefully, this can be stopped right now before it goes further.
Many thanks for everything you are doing.
David Rubinson
Mill Valley CA.
Reforming Social Security
Bush is reforming social security the same way he reformed the economy and
everything else he's done as president. He's changing it from working to
broken. We went for the biggest surplus in the history of the world to the
biggest deficit in the history of the world. Now he's going to destroy social
security the same way. It's all about giving tax cuts to the rich while old
people live in poverty and eat dog food.
Marc Perkel
San Francisco
Anti-Semitism, Anti-Zionist? History And Perspective
Prince Harry "the thoughtless" of England may serve as a catalyst for change within the European
Union. Reacting to Harry's swastika escapade, the European Union is not only
contemplating a ban on the twisted cross, it may even go so far as to outlaw
anti-Semitism (excepting of course that which is spewed down upon Europe from the al-Jezeera satellite).
Having recently read Ernest Abel's THE ROOTS OF ANTI-SEMITISM, it does seem
that anti-Semitism is an anachronism, desperately in need of abandonment,
particularly in secular Europe.
As rational beings, people who entertain prejudices against target groups
feel an obligation to objectify their subjectivity, ethnocentricity and
xenophobia. No one wants to look like an unsophisticated red neck, an ignorant
cracker, nor a racist thug. Rationalizing ones biases is a way of gussying up
hatred to look like ideology.
Traditionally, for anti-Semites, a major plank in the objectification their
bias has been the allegation of deicide: the Jews killed God. Ironically, I
know of many atheists and agnostics who level this charge against the Jews. Mel
Gibson's recent opus did its best to lug this accusation back from
obscurity.
Forgetting that the executioner, Pontius Pilot, was Italian, one has to ask
oneself, how would the Christian Plan of Redemption have come to completion
without Jewish complicity? Do professing Christians indirectly have the first
century Jews to thank for their Plan of Salvation? How do Christians
conveniently discount the Old Testament talk about the Jews and the Promise Land a.k.a. Israel?
As a trendy liberal, I have always blamed either Nietzsche or the French
Existentialists for the death of God: depending on whom I was trying to impress
at the punch bowl. Given that fashion conscious Europeans, steeped in humanism
since the days of Erasmus, are not confessing Christians, how can they argue
that the Jews killed Jesus, Son of God, if they scarcely believe in God, let
alone an incarnate Son of God? Rational people demand cognitive consistency,
if not from themselves then at least from others.
Vogue Europeans are smart to abandon a 2000-year tradition of anti-Semitism.
Time to call it a wrap. The days of pogroms, expulsions and things too cruel to
mention here, are rightfully over. But how does one allay a gnawing sense of
bourgeois mediocrity and retain a smug sense of cultural and etiological
ascendancy over the Jews? Simple: Anti-Zionism.
Anti-Zionism is anti-Semitism repackaged in a stilted mantle of political
correctness, hypocrisy and double standards myopically applied to human rights.
While Israel occupies a minuscule one percent of
the Arab Middle East, to see the international news coverage and vilification
that it garners, one would think Israel was as big as the entire state of New Jersey and not merely half the size of Delaware.
If the Jews really control the media as the anti-Zionists banally repeat
with metronomic regularity, why does the whole planet know where the Gaza Strip
is and yet no one knows or cares about the exact location of Darfur? Why are we briefed daily on the
deaths of teenage rocket launchers and mortar operators, yet are never
confronted with the images of the 30,000 people killed in the last two years in
Darfur? Does killing only count if the
Israeli Defense Force can be implicated?
Zionism is about a Jewish homeland. I do not know whom on planet Earth is
entitled to a homeland. The Kurds? The Basques? The American Indians? The
Koi? The French Canadians? The Irish Protestants? The Armenians? The
Hispanics of Alta
California?
There are certain ships that argue the case for a Jewish homeland: There
was the St. Louis that left Hamburg, Germany in 1939 and ricocheted around the ports of the western
hemisphere looking to unload 937 Jewish refugees. Its human cargo rejected,
even in America, the St. Louis was forced to return its passengers to imperiled Europe. Why could they not have
disembarked in British held Palestine?
Hundreds of the refugees ultimately fell victim to Hitler's final solution. Was
this negligence, anti-Semitism or anti-Zionist?
Then there was the Struma, a refugee ship carrying 778
Romanian Jews that was deliberately and inexplicably sank by our W.W.II allies,
the Russians, in the Black
Sea in 1942. The Struma too was destined for British
Palestine. Was the sinking of the Struma a capricious act of anti-Semitism or political act of
anti-Zionism?
And finally, as recently as 1985, there was the hijacked cruise ship the
Achille Lauro. Leon Klinghoffer, an American Jew, an aged cripple in a
wheelchair, was tossed overboard by terrorists. Was this an act of
anti-Semitism or anti-Zionism?
I don't pretend to be au currant in Middle Eastern affairs. I have an
inkling, that the Palestinians are currently allotted three homelands: Jordan (80% of which was carved out of
British Palestine with 70% of its population being Palestinian, albeit under a
Hashemite yoke), the West
Bank, and the Gaza
Strip. If the bible is to be trusted, Israel is the Promise Land and Jerusalem is a Jewish capital dating back to
when voyeur King David spotted Bathsheba in 1003 B.C.E. Who then is entitled
to have Jerusalem as a capital city?
Modern thinkers would see anti-Semitism as rooted in biblical mythology. On
the other hand, Anti-Zionist is an expression of double standards, special
pleading and false hopes. The anti-Zionists of the western world entertain the
notion that terrorism will go away when Israel is re-absorbed by the followers of Mohammed. Not likely. Osama Bin
Ladin is a historian. He holds a map of Europe circa 732; it shows the followers of Mohammed in possession of all the
lands around the Mediterranean: from the gates of Vienna to the gates of Tours. If terrorism works for
anti-Zionists, then the weapon will not be retired: the reclamation of southern
Europe will be next on the terrorists'
agenda.
Jeffrey R Smith
Alameda CA
Saddam or George?
I believe that we are more than even now. Almost 3,000 persons were lost in
the 9/11 Twin Towers tragedy and it is estimated that more than 100,000 Iraqis
have been killed in the Iraq war just to get one guy President Bush wanted dead
or alive... Saddam Hussein.
Having our troops remain in Iraq for any
longer period of time will prove as fruitless and tragic as the years the United States over extended its welcome in Vietnam.
The insurgents, over half of who are Iraqis, just don't like the Americans
occupying their country. Now that the election is over in Iraq they desire
that the U. S. just put humpty dumpty back together again after demolishing
many of its cities and go home.
Since President Bush's attempt to spread democracy in the region, many
Iraqis ponder who has contributed most to their graveyard industry: Saddam or
George? And now that the election is over they would like the industry to
suffer hard times...no more corpses please.
David A. Whelan
Forest Knolls
Redhill Field: Controversy Is Good
Behind Red Hill Shopping Center 5 acres is being developed into a recreation
area by the Tamalpais and Ross Valley School Districts and the Town of San Anselmo Town Council.
It is named Red Hill Community Park and will be the home field for Drake High School boy's and girl's soccer and lacrosse teams practices and
MCAL games. The Community Park will also include a major league 90' ball
diamond for league play- boys ages 13-14 and ages 15-16 that currently have to
be driven to West Marin to play in that League.
An acre will be a natural Bermuda grass on which people can exercise and
play with their dogs off-leash within a fenced area. Additional off-leash dog
walking (when no "organized sports" are on the field) will be allowed
on the 8' wide decomposed granite walking track.
A variable 8'-12'-20' height black chain link fence will surround the
synthetic surface soccer-lacrosse-ball diamond field. A 30' backstop canopy
will presumably protect spectators, vehicles, and Safeway store employees from
errant flyballs.
This is Red Hill Community Park. But there is more. Picnic tables, a concession stand,
restrooms, terraced seating for more than 100 people, and one multi-use court
where team sport basketball and volleyball can be played. Tamalpais District
Measure A bond proceeds are being used to renovate only the athletic field
portion of the public school property owned by Ross Valley School District.
$300,000 funding by Tam District will give the District on-going use of the
field on a priority basis for the duration of the 20 year Lease. The estimated
cost to develop the Red Hill Community Park property which is owned by Ross Valley School District will exceed $2.5 million dollars.
The San Anselmo Parks & Recreation Commission will set fees and charges
for the public's use the facility, for sport camps, tournament team play,
adult league play, and recreation classes. Fee generation is expected to pay
for the annual park maintenance.
The synthetic turf are will require replacement in ten years, approximately
$500,000. The natural Bermuda grass dog park may require annual re-seeding,
just like Robson Park.
Where is the controversy in Red Hill Community Park? Tam Trustee John Wright spoke the words
"Controversy is good" at the February 1 Joint Powers Authority Board
meeting.
Perhaps Trustee Wright is concerned about the limited parking at the site.
68 parking spaces are available for players and spectators attending a MCAL
soccer game or a lacrosse show-down Drake vs. Branson, the dog park users, the
picnickers, the class attendees at Alive & Well, and the basketball teams
using the muli-use court.
Perhaps it is the poorly executed vehicle access to and from the site that has
Trustee Wright concerned. Blind curve, no pedestrian crosswalks, not enough
sidewalks, and no authoritative traffic impact study developed for Plan Scheme
2.
Perhaps it is a controversy as to how to develop the completed project when
only modest funds have been publicly reported. If the funding is there, then
why is the reporting deficit?
Perhaps it is a controversy of how to restrict adult leagues and outside
area teams from renting the site while encouraging these same groups to donate
to the fundraising effort.
Perhaps it is a Revenue Bond, an Urban Park Assessment, or an additional
increase to the proposed San Anselmo Municipal Services Tax that may create the
controversy that Tam Trustee John Wright makes reference.
Perhaps Tam Trustee Wright is concerned that there may be controversy when
the Lease Agreement with Ross Valley School
District is not
specifically amended to prohibit the installation and use of field lighting and
the sound amplification equipment at the Site.
Perhaps Tam Trustee Wright is not really concerned at all about controversy
because the Joint Powers Authority Agreement and Lease is a game all of its
own, to be played when and how it chooses.
The Red Hill Community Park Joint Powers Authority Board of Directors is anxious
to get Design Plan Scheme 2 approved and finally get the plan outside the box
of the public's right to explore all unanswered controversies of the planned
development.
Louise L. Mathews
San Anselmo
Social Security-Grand Theft
The so-called privatization of social security is misnamed. Instead, let's
call it what it is: Grand theft.
We, the People, work hard for our money. The intention of this privatization
is to grant OUR money to Wall Street, while OUR brows sweat. Elderly people who
are ill or disabled, would probably be on the streets. There ought to be class
action lawsuits filed.
Guess what. Feel free to do a Google search: The proposed Class Action
Fairness Act would make class action lawsuits almost impossible to be heard in
court. The Act would push class action lawsuits to the already over-burdened
federal courts, assuring that hearings would be delayed for years, if even
granted at all. If YOU have a legal challenge to a company's unfair employment
practices, YOUR class action claim will not be heard. Please see
www.consumerfed.org/020503classaction.pdf. OR
http://www.ourfuture.org/Security_NotForSale.cfm
In my own opinion, it sounds like class action lawsuits, and its members,
are being discriminated against.
Go, Go, People! Sign, sign, petitions! E-mail, e-mail, your Congressperson!
Let's go, let's go!
Drina Brooke
Novato, California
Hard For Disabled And Elderly To Get Help
Shortly after my last letter to the Coastal Post, a gentleman, an insurance
salesman, wrote me offering to help. I am still attempting to obtain more
reasonable housing-the rent here is killing me. But thankfully I do not have
to pay a co-payment now on my medical and IHSS. Took a great effort to
accomplish this.
The following has also occurred.
I requested a Hearing with Medi-Cal (County), and IHSS (Sacto) to object to
the injurious decisions made by these agencies. I obtained the assistance of a
very knowledgeable Advocate in these matters as well as the assistance of Bay
Area Legal Aid. I was fortunate to have a Medi-Cal Eligibility Worker who was a
very caring, compassionate and extremely well versed on the different Medical
programs (about 90 in all). With the guidance of this Worker and my Advocate we
were able to solve the problem to my benefits with out going to a
Hearing.
Even though I had excellent support, this experience proved to be extremely
frustrating, laborious, frightening and time consuming. I am a person of
average intelligence, but lack the physical ability to address this
complicated, confused system that makes no sense to the average person.
One can see how so many of those in need (disabled, elderly) fall between
the cracks and go without the medical and other care they need.
In the case of In Home Support Services that keep people in their own homes,
it is more economical than placing them in a Nursing Home at much greater cost
to the Tax Payer and a loss life quality for the one placed there.
If the Tax Codes are in need of reform, Medical Codes are in need of reform
also, at least made understandable. But this may be impossible for the
government to think in a logical and understandable manner I am doing a lot of
Internet work for my different groups and people. Keeps my phone busy most of
the time.
Jerry R. Bakken
Novato
Social Security Change And Trillions In Debt
Vice President Dick Cheney is honest enough to say that startup costs for
Social Security private accounts will create trillions, not billions, of
dollars in new debt. This is a sticking point. Federal Reserve Chairman Alan
Greenspan is OK with this. Greenspan backs private accounts. His only
reservation is that there needs to be a slow and cautious advance. Where will
these trillions in Social Security funds go? To new private accounts and the
investment brokerage industry. And where will these trillions come from? Future
retiree benefits and FICA taxes. This sounds like a diversion of wealth, but
Mr. Greenspan is OK with this?
There has been almost mute silence from the Bush administration about the
fact that private accounts will be predicated on the whims of the stock market.
Does anybody remember Black Monday, Oct. 87, or the stock market crash of '29?
It took years to recover investments if you ever did; and President Bush wants
you to stake your future and retirement years on this?
* * *
Starve The Monster
Governor Schwarzenegger's true colors seem to have sufaced: Make up for lost
tax revenues by sticking it to the poor, elderly, disabled and society
programs. Isn't that just the way of the " I've got mine"
Republicans. Broken promises, reneged pledges, it sounds all too familiar. As
above, so below. Bush's dirty laundry and ethics are being hung out to dry in California. The Guv's "Starve the
Monster" policy targets the public, you and me. The mint julip country club
set are exempt from the enforcer's stringent new rules. Society services and
needs take the brunt of Arnold's sweeping fiscal sword. Starve the
public sector and privatize everything is the continuing GOP mantra.
* * *
Social Security Fix Fixes Nothing
The Social Security "fix" is in and the numbers don't add up. What
our alarmist President isn't telling Americans about privatizing Social
Security. First, benefits that retirees receive now will gradually be reduced
to pay for the implementation of the Bush overhaul. Will you as a Social
Security recipient be able to live on significantly less than you live on now?
Second, the new Social Security would divert two-thirds of an individuals payroll
taxes into private accounts which will drain trillions from the Trust Fund. The
trillions of borrowing would be needed to pay current benefits as workers
direct some of their payroll taxes into the stock market.
What Bush-Cheney want you to do is give up a Social Security guarantee and
replace it with private risk accounts fixed on the swings of the stock
market.
Bush's plan is so outlandish that he is having trouble finding members of
his own party to wholeheartedly support him. The issue is a 'hot potato' if
you're a politician looking forward to the 2006 elections.
The easiest way to fix Social Security into perpetuity is to lift the limit
on income subject to payroll taxes from the current $90,000 to $200,000 or
eliminate it altogether. But oh no, anti-tax Republicans won't hear of it. They
would rather create trillions of dollars of new debt than to inconvenience
their rich constituency.
* * *
War Happy Face
In Brussels Belgium President Bush is urging allies to move beyond Iraq. Is that the Iraq
that has collapsed into a terrorist breeding ground?
58 percent of Americans now disapprove of the way Bush is handling Iraq yet the Bush administration continues to labor under
the same delusions as fellow Viet Nam
compatriots.
Three blasts kill at least 27 in Baghdad. Bush says war in Iraq has made America safer. This doesn't compute. Car
Bomb kills 17 outside of Iraq hospital; Attacks kill 21 at Shiite
sites. Everyday 20, 30, 40 Iraqis are killed in gruesome carnage. Is this what
the President wants Europeans to look beyond? How would you like to live in
this type of environment? Iraqis have traded in one kind of fear and loathing
for another kind.
Suicide bomber kills 18 in Iraq. For
Iraqis in their homeland every day has become a Bloody Sunday. 50 die in eight Iraq suicide bombings.
The President can't confuse Americans any longer about his Iraqi war so now
he's off trying to play Europe. The Bush administration has a
deadly serious problem on their hands no matter what kind of happy face they
try to paint on their war.
Ron Lowe
Nevada City
Support A Fair Tax
On the national level, we have heard President Bush talk of a change to the
tax code. While it is a great idea, the chances are the changes will be minimal
- and probably screw us average wage earning folks again anyway. There has got
to be a better way!
I think FairTax is the most logical tax plan I have ever seen. FairTax main
plan is to flat tax everyone at the point of sale rather than through payroll
tax deductions. The master stroke of the FairTax plan is that EVERYONE is taxed
equally. There are no dodges, nothing to hide behind. FairTax taxes everyone
equally on the items that they purchase.
This seemingly simple plan does not discriminate against anyone - if
anything, it stops the finger pointing. FairTax allows for taxation of
immigrants. Rather than immigration being a burden on our country, FairTax
makes it so that immigrants would be paying their fair share. In addition, the
so-called underground money from borderline or illegal activities would also be
taxed. The people who deal in these trades also buy goods and services and they
would be taxed at the point of sale!
I believe that FairTax is a plan whose time has come. We need to write to
our President and members of the legislature and have them invoke FairTax.
Visit their site - www.fairtax.org for more information on what is to me an
amazing idea!
Dan Dressler
Dublin CA
Smoking Again
But the exit polls, viewed across the world as the results of infallible
science, fell apart at the last minute.
"Infallible science?" What have you been smoking?
David Malbuff
Strasburg, Virginia
malbuff@aol.com
Lifetime Ban On The Coastal Post
Are you serious journalists who boldly go where mainstream media dares not
tread? Are you heroic roosters crowing the previously hidden truths, urgently
trying to wake the oppressed masses from the obedient sleep imposed by
corporate masters?
Readers who want to hit the snooze alarm will look for an excuse to see you
all as just a bunch of whackos. Those who want to believe that reasonable
people can ignore the Coastal Post will feel validated by Stephen Simac's
rambling, offensive, self-congratulatory article, "Affordable Housing: An
Idea Whose Time Has Past (sic)." His racist remarks about Native
Americans, "fort injuns on firewater" and "scalping each other with stone
tools," are certainly cause for a lifetime ban from your pages.
Kevin Lawson
Point Reyes
U.S. Bias An Obstacle To Mideast Peace
Isn't it amazing how the Bush Administration acted so fast in calling its
ambassador to Syria, inferring that its government was
responsible for last week's car bombing that killed Lebanon's Former Prime Minister, Rafik
Hariri? In addition, the U.S. demanded
that the Syrians immediately remove all its troops out of Lebanon--all this without one shred of
evidence proving Syria had anything to do with this deadly
attack.
On the other hand, we have the Israelis who attacked the USS Liberty in 1967
that killed 34 American sailors and wounded another 171 with evidence that
could fill the Oval Office but, to this day, the U.S. Government has yet to
condemn the Israelis for this attack.
Isn't it also strange that for 22 years the Israelis occupied Lebanon without the U.S. once demanding Israel to leave? The Israelis have been occupying Palestinian land since 1967
without any threats from the U.S. But the
most ironic tale of all, is that while the U.S.
demands Syria to leave Lebanon, the Israelis have been illegally
occupying Syria's Golan Heights for nearly 40 years, and as usual, receives no demands from
the U.S. to leave.
Is it any wonder that according to the U.S.
government, the high moral ground in the Middle East belongs to Israel? Is this what you call a Balanced
Middle East Policy?
James J. David
Marietta, GA
James J. David is a retired Georgia National Guard Brigadier General and a
native of Hopewell who served nearly 3 years of active
duty in and around the Middle
East.