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Letters To The Editor
Grab a shovel and dig a grave. Here comes democracy all gift wrapped in a 1,000 pound bomb. We like you Uncle Sam. Leader of the free world. Protector from "evil." But please don't be so benevolent next time. Bypass us and take your "democracy" to the next country around the bend.
My Mom, dad, sister and brother are unable to celebrate the anniversary of their freedom and the election with you as they were part of your "collateral damage" in the bombing of Fallujah with a bouquet of "burning white phosphorus."
My brother and sister are enjoying Iraq's new found freedom in the amputee ward of the local hospital and my Mom and dad are awaiting burial in the nearby cemetery.
The next time your gas tank is empty...go elsewhere please!
David A. Whelan
P. O. Box 446
Forest Knolls
BOA Bank Float
Starting February 1st, Bank of America customers won't be able to retrieve their own money immediately after making deposits. BOA has reinstituted the nefarious practice called "bank float" which means the bank gets to use your money right away but you don't.
How about a little investigative reporting? The public has a right to know.
Eileen Siedman
Mill Valley
To All Those Who Possess a Heart and a Conscience,
This most disconcerting news is of utmost urgency, importance, and concern. I suspect strongly that there are few of us who doubt any longer our controlling powers' desire to wage more wars against innocent people of more nations who have done us no harm. Someone, anyone, please write and tell me what we are going to do to stop this - our nation - from striking and ruining forever yet one more area of the world in the next couple of months? Since ulra-tiny particles of radiation travel through the atmosphere in the winds and the clouds, the use of any type of radioactive uranium does eventually hit "home" to roost upon us here, in the United States, right in our own kids' and grand kids' backyards. Although we may take comfort by telling ourselves that these wars are taking place "over there" someplace, across some distant sea... the fact of the matter is, the radioactivity we use "over there"... eventually comes back to harm us all, right here in the US. Right where our kids play. Right where they try to breathe.
Friends, these wars are Personal. Extremely Personal, in fact. We may not realize it, but eventually the poison our military uses affects each and every one of us. As they say, what goes around comes around. And what comes around to haunt us from these wars is, quite literally, a toxic, radioactive mess that gets into the air that we breathe, the soils that support our animal and plant life we use for food, and the water that we drink.
What can each one of us do to stop this War-Making Madness before our rulers in power strike out at the Asian world, and eventually ourselves, yet again?
Please, for the sake of our kids - for the sake of all of us - please pass the article below around.
Cathy Garger
Maryland
Deadly Message
This is a deadly message to Southeastern Asian Countries about the upcoming IRAN War and the monsoon rains depositing deadly radiation in the environment.
The message is from Leuren Moret, a world famous geoscientist and radiation expert and myself, Bob Nichols, newspaper correspondent and writer.
I request that you send this to everyone in your address book and that you "Be the Media". Help us stop the Fifth US Nuclear War in 15 years from even starting.
Bob Nichols
Project Censored Award Winner
Correspondent, San Francisco Bay View newspaper
To: All People concerned about American Wars Worldwide
From: Leuren Moret
Subject: Warning to SE Asian countries about Iran war and monsoon rains depositing radiation in environment
Dear Editor and Staff,
The United states has now caused depleted uranium illnesses in more than 50% of our soldiers who have served on the depleted uranium battlefields in Iraq, Yugoslavia and Afghanistan. "Depleted Uranium: Dirty Bombs, Dirty Missiles, Dirty Bullets" http://www.sfbayview.com /081804/Depleteduranium081804.shtml
People at the top of the US govt and Military know this: "Terrell E. Arnold, who has been responsible for training our most senior and most promising military officers as chairman of the Department of International Studies at the U.S. National War College in Washington, reports that Coalition dead and wounded may actually be twice what the US government admits and that, including the effects of our use of depleted uranium and other toxic weapons, "a long-term casualty rate for American forces of 40-50 percent appears realistic."
The US and Israel are threatening nuclear war on Iran.
The Chinese intelligence have already warned countries that will be contaminated with radiation from monsoon rainout of nuclear materials: http://www.waynemadsenreport.com/dec30-jan606.htm Page Down the page for the article on Chinese Intelligence.
"Southeast Asian intelligence sources report that Burma's (Myanmar's) recent abrupt decision to move its capital from Rangoon (Yangon) to remote Pyinmana, 200 miles to the north, is a result of Chinese intelligence warnings to its Burmese allies about the effects of radiation resulting from a U.S. conventional or tactical nuclear attack on Iranian nuclear facilities."
"There is concern that a series of attacks on Iranian nuclear installations will create a Chernobyl-like radioactive cloud that would be caught up in monsoon weather in the Indian Ocean."
"Reports from Yemen indicate that western oil companies are concerned about U.S. intentions in Iran since the southern Arabian country catches the edge of the monsoon rains that could contain radioactive fallout from an attack, endangering their workers in the country."
"Low-lying Rangoon lies in the path of monsoon rains that would continue to carry radioactive fallout from Iran over South and Southeast Asia between May and October."
"Coastal Indian Ocean cities like Rangoon, Dhaka, Calcutta, Mumbai, Chennai, and Colombo would be affected by the radioactive fallout more than higher elevation cities since humidity intensifies the effects of the fallout. Thousands of government workers were given only two days' notice to pack up and leave Rangoon for the higher (and dryer) mountainous Pyinmana."
Moret continues: I have been on SAHAR TV - Teheran Office - warning about this radiation and discussing other issues. Please contact Afsaneh Ostovar, the Producer of the programs if you would like more information. You should do a big story on this coming nightmare from the "Infidels". I have lived in Iran briefly. I love Iran and the people. This cannot be allowed to happen to Iran by the people of the world. It will make the country radioactive forever. Please do what you can to help.
Alito's Got To Go
The following is a direct quote from Barbara Boxer's speech pertaining to her opposition to the nomination of Justice Alito:
"Will Justice Alito vote to protect Americans from unconstitutional searches? Judge Alito's record says NO.
In Doe v. Groody in 2004, he said a police strip search of a 10-year-old girl was lawful, even though their search warrant didn't name her. Judge Alito said that even if the warrant did not actually authorize the search of the girl, "a reasonable police officer could certainly have read the warrant as doing so..." This casual attitude toward one of our most basic constitutional guarantees -- the Fourth Amendment right against unreasonable searches -- is almost shocking. As Judge Alito's own Third Circuit Court said regarding warrants, "a particular description is the touchstone of the Fourth Amendment." We certainly do not need Supreme Court justices who do not understand this fundamental constitutional protection."
Clearly, the stakes are very high. We, the People, must act to preserve our freedom and safety. If all we do is sit and talk, we are not being responsible. Please call or write your Senator to express your concern and your opposition to their vote for Judge Alito.
Drina Brooke
Novato
Reform Corporation Laws
Listening to Governor Schwarzenegger's state of state, I expected to hear about reforms of corporation laws.
All I heard was a long repair-list, spending borrowed money and interest, without any anti-dotes that fix "root-causes".
Please "reform" corporation laws.
¥ Move shareowner to first-in-line, ahead of creditors and officers.
¥ Require shareowner approvals, in-advance of attempts, by corp- oration executives: to influence public policy; to grant bonuses/incentives/inordinate salaries: to indemnify officers; and prior to borrowing any corporation funds.
¥ Stabilize market basis, by prohibiting stock-option issuances.
¥ Shrink balance-sheet footnotes. Home-state incorporating.
¥ Raise the-esteem for the word "public" of public corporations.
¥ Require public-bidding, in advance of contracts.
¥ Cancel bonuses, incentives, etc., upon law-violation.
¥ Require availability: Board of Director meeting-minutes.
¥ Designate each shareowner, as a corporate insider.
¥ Require annual financial-disclosures by corporation officers.
¥ Shrink acceptance of multi-corporation "directorships".
MANY THANKS to corporations already on-board. Other corporations need re-birthing. Voters must defeat delaying lawmakers. We are Ruled by Laws, not by CEO's and executives.
John Bauer
Martinez
The $2.37 Million Council
Town Council member Wayne Cooper would only say that no Town money will be spent on Red Hill Park recreation development.
The December 2005 Financial Report to the Town Council shows a line item of $2,367,887. Undesignated Fund.
Where did this money come from? How can it be legally spent? Is it just an accounting fabrication or are there actual dollars in the bank? Which council members voted to divert tax dollars into the line item, Undesignated Fund? The Town Council already has the Undesignated: Excess Revenue and the three Reserve account; Committed and Uncommitted and the Pension.
What does an Undesignated Fund enable Town Council and Town Administrator Stutsman to do that the Undesignated: Excess Revenue dollars and the other three funds do not?
Old-times that attend Council meetings to cheer employees and council members as they receive a plaque when they part ways with the Town of San Anselmo may be certain that there is no slush fund, no embezzling, no fraud, no malfeasance, no siphoning. Perhaps they have forgotten San Anselmo's recent history.
Undesignated Fund. What is it about this revenue that the Town Council does not want to discuss? $2.37 million according to Town officials as of December 31, 2005.
When was the Undesignated Fund inspected as part of the Town's Annual Audit?
Where did $2.37 million come from? Where should it not go?
Louise L. Mathews
San Anselmo
Good For The Goose?
Calvin Seimer Hearst Corporation Attorney (San Francisco Chronicle: Employment Affairs) used to be Vice President of New York NABET-CWA Local 11.
He was getting financial aid from his employer NBC to attend Fordham Law School. When NBC found out he had taken a leave of absence to become Vice President of Local 11 they pulled his financial aid.
He complained to the Union and the Union decided to pick up the remainder of his financial aid. The Union did not expect him to turn his law skills against his benefactors. Instead of becoming a Union attorney he joined the Hearst Corporation and was instrumental in getting the Guild leadership at the San Francisco Chronicle to push through a Union Busting contract. Pay cuts up to 40%, loss of jurisdiction over as many as 40 jobs, loss of one weeks vacation, sick leave cuts, and a NO STRIKE clause! Just to name a few of the give backs. He did such a good job screwing some of the Unions at the Chronicle that rumor has it that they will be sending him on tour to negotiate other contracts for the Hearst Corporation. Instead of joining the fight against Corporate greed that is ruining this country he decided to line up at the trough to line his own pockets with gold.
Let's face it, Union attorneys are not into it for the money! The sad part of this is that Local 11 has a Calvin Seimer Scholarship named in honor of its past Vice President. God Bless America!!!
Bruce Carlton
Mill Valley, CA
In Solidarity
What Is The Most Responsible Position On Undocumented
Immigration?
Or, to rephrase the same mindless guilt and/or red neck rage inducing question:
What is the most responsible position on our government's 50+ year foreign policy keeping a violent, poverty-producing resource strangle-hold on the southern countries from whence the majority of our new neighbors have run?
So, I'm bump'n along down the highway one day with my undocumented friend (perhaps you'll find your own - the experience may prove more mind expanding than Don Juan's cactus special). He turns to me and says, "Steve, what do you think of illegal immigration?".
I tell him that the only ones deported should be those succeeding by-way-of human misery-be they carjacking gang-bangers, those (red, yellow, black, brown, white or day-glow orange)-bankrupting and closing-down our hospital emergency rooms with growing families-without first building the earning capacity to responsibly support, native-born Vioxx sales reps, or miserable ad agency hacks selling socially unconscious depreciating crap to the empty, viciously competitive, and spiritually disconnected.
A primordial, unitive stillness settles over the truck cab.
Fernando looks ahead and smiles broadly.
Steve Brooks
Mill Valley
LOWE LETTERS
Ignorance Never Learns
Over the holidays I had the chance to ponder a 2000 year-old mystery. Who were the people who lined the path of Jesus as he bore his cross to crucifixion? Who were those who reviled, spit on, and spewed out hate on the Lord of Love?
Jesus was a Jew and his teachings of caring and sharing and love your neighbor as yourself was disruptive to the Church's doctrine of division and separation. Religious extremists were already hard at work 2000 years ago.
We have the modern day equivalent in the religious extremists who spew out hate, spit on and swear at women entering abortion clinics; and stalk doctors and staff. And yes, the Bible has several passages that refer to Jesus being followed by a nefarious group of people.
Ignorance never changes, rests or learns.
The Criminalization Of Your Mother, Sister, Daughter, Wife
George W. Bush showed on Roe v. Wade day what is important to him; His religious base to the exclusion of all else. Is George W. the president for 295 million Americans or an overzealous mulla playing to religious extremists as he says "We shall overcome."
Remember Bush's campaign slogan in the 2000 presidential election "W is for women"? What a joke! Bush, Republicans, and new Supreme Court justices will criminalize your mother, sister, daughter, wife and girlfriend for having an abortion, if given the chance.
George W. continues on his goal of denying a woman's freedom of choice, feeding the frenzy of the faithful, and demonizing the opposition. Americans need to understand that anti-abortion politics is the be all and catch all for most abortion opponents. It borders on fanaticism.
Ron Lowe
Nevada City
Mr. War President
Atta boy, George, tell the Veterans of Foreign Wars that no one is to criticize your war with Iraq. Apparently, our soldiers are fighting for a dictator style of government and not for the freedom and right of Americans to express their political views? King George III was sent back to England 250 years ago because of the same restrictive government.
You were so combative in your remarks last week castigating the critics of your illegal invasion into Iraq. I realize that you might have a guilt complex concerning your war with the Iraqi people, but I never thought you would criticize the very freedoms that the military forces have fought and died for over 250 years.
You claimed in your speech that no one is to criticize your war? That it wasn't because of oil! That it wasn't because of Israel! That you didn't mislead the American people with trumped up false charges!
What a sorry and sad example you are showing for the Iraqi people. You pound the podium time and again exclaiming that our soldiers are dying with honor to bring democracy to the Iraqi people. Is restricting freedom of speech here at home a good example of that?
I don't think so.
David A. Whelan
Forest Knolls, CA 94933
Above The Law
Now that Bush has declared that he is above the law and he refuses to obey the law I think that we as a nation should deal with that rather than confirm any new Supreme Court nominees who might support Bush's position that he has the powers of a king. We need to put a stop to Bush and his lawless behavior now before The People decide to rise up and restore a Constitutional government. I'm not as concerned about civil war in Iraq as I am about civil war in America. No new justices until Bush is impeached.
* * * * *
The Darkside
Is America going to the dark side? The US Senate is about to confirm a new justice who supports the idea of giving the president the power of a king at a time when the President is openly breaking the law and asserting the power of a king. When criminals like Bush get to appoint their own judges then the future of freedom itself is in jeopardy. We should impeach Bush before we vote in any new justices.
Marc Perkel
San Francisco, CA.
Veterans And Asbestos
California has more active residents serving in the military today than any other state. It's no surprise then, that we have a strong history of supporting our military community. I hope Senator Dianne Feinstein and Senator Barbara Boxer can continue this tradition and provide aid to sick veterans by voting for the Fairness in Asbestos Injury Resolution (FAIR) Act when it comes to the Senate floor in early 2006.
There are roughly two and a half million veterans in our state alone. During the years between the Second World War and the Vietnam Conflict California was a major center for military shipbuilding and repair. From 1941 to 1974, for example, Hunters Point Naval Shipyard in San Francisco and its annexed site concentrated on building craft and modifying or repairing naval ships and submarines.
Unfortunately, the military and private shipbuilders used asbestos in ship construction up until the mid 1970s. When inhaled, this material, can cause horrible life-threatening diseases like asbestosis and mesothelioma.
Decades later, many veterans are now being diagnosed with these asbestos-related diseases. They face staggering medical bills because their avenues for obtaining compensation are limited. Under the law, veterans exposed during their military service can't sue their employer, the federal government.
The Senate has a chance this January to finally help these sick veterans, while also aiding all victims who suffer from asbestos-related diseases. When the FAIR Act was considered in the Judiciary Committee, Senator Feinstein, who sits on that panel, worked hard to get this important bill, which would establish a defendant-financed asbestos victims' trust fund, approved.
The FAIR Act would once and for all pave the way for quick payments to flow to victims, including US. veterans exposed during service.
Asbestos litigation has become a sinkhole for almost all of those involved. The courts are inundated with lawsuits and can't act quickly to help sick victims. Government action is necessary. There are over 730,000 people who have filed lawsuits nationwide. These cases drag on for years and as a result, critical compensation is delayed.
In effect, the FAIR Act would remove the problem from the overloaded courts. By establishing a standard procedure for all those who are sick from asbestos exposure, the FAIR Act would save on administrative costs and ensure that the money would go straight to victims, and not to trial lawyers. And sick veterans would be able to apply for compensation without affecting their current Veterans Administration Benefits.
The VFW and more than a dozen other national veteran's organizations support this legislation because it is the only solution to the asbestos litigation crisis that will ensure sick veterans receive the compensation they need and deserve.
Brave men and women have answered the call to service in our country and now they deserve our help and support. Senator Feinstein is to be commended for her work on this critical legislation for vets. I urge both Senators Feinstein and Boxer to consider the benefits this legislation will provide to sick veterans and vote yes for the FAIR Act.
Henry H. Wadahara
Past State Commander
California Department of the Veterans of Foreign Wars
San Jose, California
Worry About An Incoming
After the Indian Casino plans were successfully scotched, I thought I would be living Halcyon Days from now until I tumbled insouciantly into my grave.
Unfortunately another fly has embedded itself in my Jello: Asteroid Collisions.
While it one thing to watch an Indian croupier scoop up the last of your IRA with his mini-rake, it is another thing all together to look up, into the sky, and see something the size of New Jersey descending toward you at nearly the speed of light.
Now that I own property, the threat of objects falling from space has become real.
In the past, I imaged myself running, swimming or driving away from ground zero.
Naturally I still have my escape routes charted, but what do I do about my condominium and my Franklin mint collectibles?
As worst case scenario, imagine what happened in Virginia, fewer than 35 million years ago: an object presumably from space, or beyond, slammed into the ocean along the coast.
The tsunami, which closely resembled a tidal wave, was estimated to be nearly three miles high; all water front property, from Nova Scotia to Key Biscayne, was almost certainly destroyed or badly damaged.
Although the collision is not specifically mentioned in most Bibles, the billions of tons of water, which were vaporized at impact, enveloped the entire planet with clouds and resulted in rain as far away as West Virginia and Antarctica.
Elsewhere the weather was unbearably muggy.
If scientists are correct in their estimates, the object hit the earth at a speed of 60,000 miles per hour.
Without early warning radar, such impact speeds, leave nearly no response time, especially at night.
Because the object was destroyed by the impact, nobody knows whether the projectile was a errant comet, a falling dwarf star or a disabled space ship.
Most New Age theologians argue that the object was a crude weapon deliberately fired at Earth to warn its inhabitants, both reptilian and mammalian, not to attempt to colonize space.
The Virginia impact crater has been measured as 53 miles in diameter and was found to extend as deep as 6 miles beneath the surface of the Earth.
Were a similar object to hit California, where the real estate prices are the highest in the nation, the cost of back filling the hole, without the landscaping, would be in the millions even with imported labor.
Because of poor planning, most water mains, sewers pipes, telephone wires, and TV cables, lie only a few feet below the surface of the Earth; an impact of the Virginia proportions would leave hundreds, perhaps thousands of people without running water or cable service.
Everyone in the impact area will probably wish he or she had gone with satellite TV instead of cable.
In the past 10,000 years, more than 500 comets and meteor fragments have slammed into Earth.
British Anthropologist Benny Peiser warns, "The past 300 years have been a period of cosmic calm, lulling humanity into thinking the heavens have nothing much in store for us."
He predicts that, "at least 110 death-dealing impacts will occur during the next 10 millennia."
Due to so many base closures, the Air Force can no longer provide sufficient interception coverage, even with its advanced, MACH 3, fighter jets.
Even slow speed cosmic projectiles spend less than three to four seconds within the Earth's atmosphere, hardly enough time to launch a jet, let alone take aim and fire an interceptor missile at it.
How many of us have the money to dig bunkers six miles beneath the surface of the Earth?
And if we did, what about ground water and moisture constantly seeping into our subterranean shelters?
As for me, I have my escape routes planned out and I am not sharing these plans with anyone outside my immediate family, the last thing you want is to be stuck in panic traffic with a small planet hurling down on you.
Warning people about the perils of space is a two-edged sword: on one hand, they can prepare for the eventuality but on the other foot, they may react like me and lie awake at night visualizing every thing they own being damaged by supersonic cosmic objects from who knows what solar system.
Jeffrey R Smith
Alameda
The Scoop On Creationism
There has been much in the media lately on the fundamentalist drive to suppress evolution in particular and science in general. The current movement against science is structured much like that which developed in the 18th and 19th centuries in Europe and the USA. In both cases the basis is a response to modern society and a formulaic desire to return to ancient religious values and social relationships.
The present debate over Creationism and Intelligent Design vs. Evolution should be regarded by devout people with a certain degree of dread.
Creationism as described by the Watch Tower Bible Tract (1985), for example, or Intelligent Design, involves the adherence to a number of blasphemous ideas. First, the proponents of these beliefs argue that they know what god thinks. They state that they find in scripture proof that contradicts evolution, but since there is no one bible and no copy of an original which everyone can refer to, they insist that their interpretation be accepted as fact. Paul Kahle, one of the major interpreters of biblical scriptural history in his book, The Cairo Geniza, 1959, clearly demonstrates the lack of an original biblical document especially regarding the New Testament or the Dead Sea Scrolls.
I summarize the reasons for this in my articles in Radiocarbon and Library History in 1994, some other related information appeared in an earlier article by Caldararo and Kahle in 1986. Second, this view requires us to believe that an all-powerful and all knowing god would produce mistakes, that is, animals that become extinct. We do not have to contend with them over the idea of fossils, since they argue that "extinct" animals really only died in the biblical flood.
We need only point out that thousands of animals have become extinct in recent decades. The debate over Creationism and Intelligent Design was argued in the 18th and 19th centuries and the amassing of fossil evidence demonstrated the clear foundation in fact of evolution long before Darwin described it and Wallace supported it. This story is told in Wendt's book, In Search of Adam.
However, we do not have to argue over the fact of evolution, and this is why devout people should be fighting against Creationism and Intelligent Design. The application of this reasoning is blasphemous for another reason.
If the logic of Creationism and Intelligent Design is applied to religion, especially the Christian religion, one is forced to ask how intelligent is the creation of Christianity when we apply these measures to it? If the godhead designed the past 2,000 years, why is it that they have been less peaceful and more violent than before Christianity? Why have all the weapons of mass destruction been produced since Christianity became dominant? The Intelligent Design people and Creationists retort that the devil is responsible, but again, why would an all-powerful god allow it? Would not a god of love produce a world of love and order? Why has Christianity produced the opposite? The Gnostics came to this contradiction with a different reasoning. They argued that Christians worshipped the devil and the real god was absent. Hence their definition of the god of Christianity as encompassed by the theory of the alien god as described by the great religious scholar Hans Jonas in the last century.
Unfortunately, this debate on the reason for the existence of evil ended with the extermination of the Gnostics by the Christians.
Niccolo Caldararo, Ph.D.
Dept. of Anthropology
San Francisco State University