via Independent Clearing House, Jack Dalton writes, in this excerpt:
"A few days ago, these Democratic Party voices of opposition had the chance to, in part, show “what they are made of” and take a stand against the $82 billion supplemental earmarked for Iraq , and everything it represents. Not only would passage of the supplemental throw additional huge sums of “good money after bad,” but tucked away inside it is an amendment that will allow the Department of Homeland security the power to waive laws with no oversight what-so-ever.
“A stroke of the pen makes it final: President Bush signed into law the Iraq war supplemental, which includes a controversial provision giving the secretary of homeland security the power to waive all law when securing U.S. borders.” Now here’s the kicker—when the Senate votes were tallied up, the supplemental and all the tucked away provisions like the one above, the vote was unanimous--100 to 0.
If ever there existed a time the mandated a strong, determined and uncompromising voice of reason in our congress, especially the Senate, it is now—but they were nowhere to be found.
At the same time the Senate Democrats, in total, were joining their Republican comrades in passing this piece of “legislation”—again a term used loosely—it was simultaneously announced by the Pentagon they would be back in August for more.
I’ve said it many times and repeat it again, we only have one political party in this nation with two ends of the very same pole—the one that we, the people of this nation keep getting in the back..."
Wrap...
Wednesday, May 18, 2005
With translations, too...
Video: Mosaic: World News Reports from Middle East TV For 05/17/05: The nation's only uncensored compilation of daily television news reports from more than 15 countries in the Middle East. QuickTime Video.http://snipurl.com/ezlb
***********************
Want to see/hear what they're saying? Here's the place.
Wrap...
***********************
Want to see/hear what they're saying? Here's the place.
Wrap...
So absolutely delicious....
...that I have to post every word the man said (courtesty of Truthout.org):
Galloway vs. the US Senate: Transcript of Statement The Times UK
Wednesday 18 May 2005
George Galloway, Respect MP for Bethnal Green and Bow, delivered this statement to US Senators today who have accused him of corruption.
George Galloway after arriving in the Senate committee room to give evidence. (Photo: Jonathan Ernst / Reuters)
"Senator, I am not now, nor have I ever been, an oil trader. and neither has anyone on my behalf. I have never seen a barrel of oil, owned one, bought one, sold one - and neither has anyone on my behalf.
"Now I know that standards have slipped in the last few years in Washington, but for a lawyer you are remarkably cavalier with any idea of justice. I am here today but last week you already found me guilty. You traduced my name around the world without ever having asked me a single question, without ever having contacted me, without ever written to me or telephoned me, without any attempt to contact me whatsoever. And you call that justice.
"Now I want to deal with the pages that relate to me in this dossier and I want to point out areas where there are - let's be charitable and say errors. Then I want to put this in the context where I believe it ought to be. On the very first page of your document about me you assert that I have had 'many meetings' with Saddam Hussein. This is false.
"I have had two meetings with Saddam Hussein, once in 1994 and once in August of 2002. By no stretch of the English language can that be described as "many meetings" with Saddam Hussein.
"As a matter of fact, I have met Saddam Hussein exactly the same number of times as Donald Rumsfeld met him. The difference is Donald Rumsfeld met him to sell him guns and to give him maps the better to target those guns. I met him to try and bring about an end to sanctions, suffering and war, and on the second of the two occasions, I met him to try and persuade him to let Dr Hans Blix and the United Nations weapons inspectors back into the country - a rather better use of two meetings with Saddam Hussein than your own Secretary of State for Defence made of his.
"I was an opponent of Saddam Hussein when British and Americans governments and businessmen were selling him guns and gas. I used to demonstrate outside the Iraqi embassy when British and American officials were going in and doing commerce.
"You will see from the official parliamentary record, Hansard, from the 15th March 1990 onwards, voluminous evidence that I have a rather better record of opposition to Saddam Hussein than you do and than any other member of the British or American governments do.
"Now you say in this document, you quote a source, you have the gall to quote a source, without ever having asked me whether the allegation from the source is true, that I am 'the owner of a company which has made substantial profits from trading in Iraqi oil'.
"Senator, I do not own any companies, beyond a small company whose entire purpose, whose sole purpose, is to receive the income from my journalistic earnings from my employer, Associated Newspapers, in London. I do not own a company that's been trading in Iraqi oil. And you have no business to carry a quotation, utterly unsubstantiated and false, implying otherwise.
"Now you have nothing on me, Senator, except my name on lists of names from Iraq, many of which have been drawn up after the installation of your puppet government in Baghdad. If you had any of the letters against me that you had against Zhirinovsky, and even Pasqua, they would have been up there in your slideshow for the members of your committee today.
"You have my name on lists provided to you by the Duelfer inquiry, provided to him by the convicted bank robber, and fraudster and conman Ahmed Chalabi who many people to their credit in your country now realise played a decisive role in leading your country into the disaster in Iraq.
"There were 270 names on that list originally. That's somehow been filleted down to the names you chose to deal with in this committee. Some of the names on that committee included the former secretary to his Holiness Pope John Paul II, the former head of the African National Congress Presidential office and many others who had one defining characteristic in common: they all stood against the policy of sanctions and war which you vociferously prosecuted and which has led us to this disaster.
"You quote Mr Dahar Yassein Ramadan. Well, you have something on me, I've never met Mr Dahar Yassein Ramadan. Your sub-committee apparently has. But I do know that he's your prisoner, I believe he's in Abu Ghraib prison. I believe he is facing war crimes charges, punishable by death. In these circumstances, knowing what the world knows about how you treat prisoners in Abu Ghraib prison, in Bagram Airbase, in Guantanamo Bay, including I may say, British citizens being held in those places.
"I'm not sure how much credibility anyone would put on anything you manage to get from a prisoner in those circumstances. But you quote 13 words from Dahar Yassein Ramadan whom I have never met. If he said what he said, then he is wrong.
"And if you had any evidence that I had ever engaged in any actual oil transaction, if you had any evidence that anybody ever gave me any money, it would be before the public and before this committee today because I agreed with your Mr Greenblatt [Mark Greenblatt, legal counsel on the committee].
"Your Mr Greenblatt was absolutely correct. What counts is not the names on the paper, what counts is where's the money. Senator? Who paid me hundreds of thousands of dollars of money? The answer to that is nobody. And if you had anybody who ever paid me a penny, you would have produced them today.
"Now you refer at length to a company names in these documents as Aredio Petroleum. I say to you under oath here today: I have never heard of this company, I have never met anyone from this company. This company has never paid a penny to me and I'll tell you something else: I can assure you that Aredio Petroleum has never paid a single penny to the Mariam Appeal Campaign. Not a thin dime. I don't know who Aredio Petroleum are, but I daresay if you were to ask them they would confirm that they have never met me or ever paid me a penny.
"Whilst I'm on that subject, who is this senior former regime official that you spoke to yesterday? Don't you think I have a right to know? Don't you think the Committee and the public have a right to know who this senior former regime official you were quoting against me interviewed yesterday actually is?
"Now, one of the most serious of the mistakes you have made in this set of documents is, to be frank, such a schoolboy howler as to make a fool of the efforts that you have made. You assert on page 19, not once but twice, that the documents that you are referring to cover a different period in time from the documents covered by The Daily Telegraph which were a subject of a libel action won by me in the High Court in England late last year.
"You state that The Daily Telegraph article cited documents from 1992 and 1993 whilst you are dealing with documents dating from 2001. Senator, The Daily Telegraph's documents date identically to the documents that you were dealing with in your report here. None of The Daily Telegraph's documents dealt with a period of 1992, 1993. I had never set foot in Iraq until late in 1993 - never in my life. There could possibly be no documents relating to Oil-for-Food matters in 1992, 1993, for the Oil-for-Food scheme did not exist at that time.
"And yet you've allocated a full section of this document to claiming that your documents are from a different era to the Daily Telegraph documents when the opposite is true. Your documents and the Daily Telegraph documents deal with exactly the same period.
"But perhaps you were confusing the Daily Telegraph action with the Christian Science Monitor. The Christian Science Monitor did indeed publish on its front pages a set of allegations against me very similar to the ones that your committee have made. They did indeed rely on documents which started in 1992, 1993. These documents were unmasked by the Christian Science Monitor themselves as forgeries.
"Now, the neo-con websites and newspapers in which you're such a hero, senator, were all absolutely cock-a-hoop at the publication of the Christian Science Monitor documents, they were all absolutely convinced of their authenticity. They were all absolutely convinced that these documents showed me receiving $10 million from the Saddam regime. And they were all lies.
"In the same week as the Daily Telegraph published their documents against me, the Christian Science Monitor published theirs which turned out to be forgeries and the British newspaper, Mail on Sunday, purchased a third set of documents which also upon forensic examination turned out to be forgeries. So there's nothing fanciful about this. Nothing at all fanciful about it.
"The existence of forged documents implicating me in commercial activities with the Iraqi regime is a proven fact. It's a proven fact that these forged documents existed and were being circulated amongst right-wing newspapers in Baghdad and around the world in the immediate aftermath of the fall of the Iraqi regime.
"Now, Senator, I gave my heart and soul to oppose the policy that you promoted. I gave my political life's blood to try to stop the mass killing of Iraqis by the sanctions on Iraq which killed one million Iraqis, most of them children, most of them died before they even knew that they were Iraqis, but they died for no other reason other than that they were Iraqis with the misfortune to born at that time. I gave my heart and soul to stop you committing the disaster that you did commit in invading Iraq. And I told the world that your case for the war was a pack of lies.
"I told the world that Iraq, contrary to your claims did not have weapons of mass destruction. I told the world, contrary to your claims, that Iraq had no connection to al-Qaeda. I told the world, contrary to your claims, that Iraq had no connection to the atrocity on 9/11 2001. I told the world, contrary to your claims, that the Iraqi people would resist a British and American invasion of their country and that the fall of Baghdad would not be the beginning of the end, but merely the end of the beginning.
"Senator, in everything I said about Iraq, I turned out to be right and you turned out to be wrong and 100,000 people paid with their lives; 1600 of them American soldiers sent to their deaths on a pack of lies; 15,000 of them wounded, many of them disabled forever on a pack of lies.
If the world had listened to Kofi Annan, whose dismissal you demanded, if the world had listened to President Chirac who you want to paint as some kind of corrupt traitor, if the world had listened to me and the anti-war movement in Britain, we would not be in the disaster that we are in today. Senator, this is the mother of all smokescreens. You are trying to divert attention from the crimes that you supported, from the theft of billions of dollars of Iraq's wealth.
"Have a look at the real Oil-for-Food scandal. Have a look at the 14 months you were in charge of Baghdad, the first 14 months when $8.8 billion of Iraq's wealth went missing on your watch. Have a look at Haliburton and other American corporations that stole not only Iraq's money, but the money of the American taxpayer.
"Have a look at the oil that you didn't even meter, that you were shipping out of the country and selling, the proceeds of which went who knows where? Have a look at the $800 million you gave to American military commanders to hand out around the country without even counting it or weighing it.
"Have a look at the real scandal breaking in the newspapers today, revealed in the earlier testimony in this committee. That the biggest sanctions busters were not me or Russian politicians or French politicians. The real sanctions busters were your own companies with the connivance of your own Government."
*************************************************************
Now this is courage rampant, and he deserves not only a Knighthood but a lion rampant on his shield. Just a damned shame our own people don't flat lay it out like this...
Wrap.
Galloway vs. the US Senate: Transcript of Statement The Times UK
Wednesday 18 May 2005
George Galloway, Respect MP for Bethnal Green and Bow, delivered this statement to US Senators today who have accused him of corruption.
George Galloway after arriving in the Senate committee room to give evidence. (Photo: Jonathan Ernst / Reuters)
"Senator, I am not now, nor have I ever been, an oil trader. and neither has anyone on my behalf. I have never seen a barrel of oil, owned one, bought one, sold one - and neither has anyone on my behalf.
"Now I know that standards have slipped in the last few years in Washington, but for a lawyer you are remarkably cavalier with any idea of justice. I am here today but last week you already found me guilty. You traduced my name around the world without ever having asked me a single question, without ever having contacted me, without ever written to me or telephoned me, without any attempt to contact me whatsoever. And you call that justice.
"Now I want to deal with the pages that relate to me in this dossier and I want to point out areas where there are - let's be charitable and say errors. Then I want to put this in the context where I believe it ought to be. On the very first page of your document about me you assert that I have had 'many meetings' with Saddam Hussein. This is false.
"I have had two meetings with Saddam Hussein, once in 1994 and once in August of 2002. By no stretch of the English language can that be described as "many meetings" with Saddam Hussein.
"As a matter of fact, I have met Saddam Hussein exactly the same number of times as Donald Rumsfeld met him. The difference is Donald Rumsfeld met him to sell him guns and to give him maps the better to target those guns. I met him to try and bring about an end to sanctions, suffering and war, and on the second of the two occasions, I met him to try and persuade him to let Dr Hans Blix and the United Nations weapons inspectors back into the country - a rather better use of two meetings with Saddam Hussein than your own Secretary of State for Defence made of his.
"I was an opponent of Saddam Hussein when British and Americans governments and businessmen were selling him guns and gas. I used to demonstrate outside the Iraqi embassy when British and American officials were going in and doing commerce.
"You will see from the official parliamentary record, Hansard, from the 15th March 1990 onwards, voluminous evidence that I have a rather better record of opposition to Saddam Hussein than you do and than any other member of the British or American governments do.
"Now you say in this document, you quote a source, you have the gall to quote a source, without ever having asked me whether the allegation from the source is true, that I am 'the owner of a company which has made substantial profits from trading in Iraqi oil'.
"Senator, I do not own any companies, beyond a small company whose entire purpose, whose sole purpose, is to receive the income from my journalistic earnings from my employer, Associated Newspapers, in London. I do not own a company that's been trading in Iraqi oil. And you have no business to carry a quotation, utterly unsubstantiated and false, implying otherwise.
"Now you have nothing on me, Senator, except my name on lists of names from Iraq, many of which have been drawn up after the installation of your puppet government in Baghdad. If you had any of the letters against me that you had against Zhirinovsky, and even Pasqua, they would have been up there in your slideshow for the members of your committee today.
"You have my name on lists provided to you by the Duelfer inquiry, provided to him by the convicted bank robber, and fraudster and conman Ahmed Chalabi who many people to their credit in your country now realise played a decisive role in leading your country into the disaster in Iraq.
"There were 270 names on that list originally. That's somehow been filleted down to the names you chose to deal with in this committee. Some of the names on that committee included the former secretary to his Holiness Pope John Paul II, the former head of the African National Congress Presidential office and many others who had one defining characteristic in common: they all stood against the policy of sanctions and war which you vociferously prosecuted and which has led us to this disaster.
"You quote Mr Dahar Yassein Ramadan. Well, you have something on me, I've never met Mr Dahar Yassein Ramadan. Your sub-committee apparently has. But I do know that he's your prisoner, I believe he's in Abu Ghraib prison. I believe he is facing war crimes charges, punishable by death. In these circumstances, knowing what the world knows about how you treat prisoners in Abu Ghraib prison, in Bagram Airbase, in Guantanamo Bay, including I may say, British citizens being held in those places.
"I'm not sure how much credibility anyone would put on anything you manage to get from a prisoner in those circumstances. But you quote 13 words from Dahar Yassein Ramadan whom I have never met. If he said what he said, then he is wrong.
"And if you had any evidence that I had ever engaged in any actual oil transaction, if you had any evidence that anybody ever gave me any money, it would be before the public and before this committee today because I agreed with your Mr Greenblatt [Mark Greenblatt, legal counsel on the committee].
"Your Mr Greenblatt was absolutely correct. What counts is not the names on the paper, what counts is where's the money. Senator? Who paid me hundreds of thousands of dollars of money? The answer to that is nobody. And if you had anybody who ever paid me a penny, you would have produced them today.
"Now you refer at length to a company names in these documents as Aredio Petroleum. I say to you under oath here today: I have never heard of this company, I have never met anyone from this company. This company has never paid a penny to me and I'll tell you something else: I can assure you that Aredio Petroleum has never paid a single penny to the Mariam Appeal Campaign. Not a thin dime. I don't know who Aredio Petroleum are, but I daresay if you were to ask them they would confirm that they have never met me or ever paid me a penny.
"Whilst I'm on that subject, who is this senior former regime official that you spoke to yesterday? Don't you think I have a right to know? Don't you think the Committee and the public have a right to know who this senior former regime official you were quoting against me interviewed yesterday actually is?
"Now, one of the most serious of the mistakes you have made in this set of documents is, to be frank, such a schoolboy howler as to make a fool of the efforts that you have made. You assert on page 19, not once but twice, that the documents that you are referring to cover a different period in time from the documents covered by The Daily Telegraph which were a subject of a libel action won by me in the High Court in England late last year.
"You state that The Daily Telegraph article cited documents from 1992 and 1993 whilst you are dealing with documents dating from 2001. Senator, The Daily Telegraph's documents date identically to the documents that you were dealing with in your report here. None of The Daily Telegraph's documents dealt with a period of 1992, 1993. I had never set foot in Iraq until late in 1993 - never in my life. There could possibly be no documents relating to Oil-for-Food matters in 1992, 1993, for the Oil-for-Food scheme did not exist at that time.
"And yet you've allocated a full section of this document to claiming that your documents are from a different era to the Daily Telegraph documents when the opposite is true. Your documents and the Daily Telegraph documents deal with exactly the same period.
"But perhaps you were confusing the Daily Telegraph action with the Christian Science Monitor. The Christian Science Monitor did indeed publish on its front pages a set of allegations against me very similar to the ones that your committee have made. They did indeed rely on documents which started in 1992, 1993. These documents were unmasked by the Christian Science Monitor themselves as forgeries.
"Now, the neo-con websites and newspapers in which you're such a hero, senator, were all absolutely cock-a-hoop at the publication of the Christian Science Monitor documents, they were all absolutely convinced of their authenticity. They were all absolutely convinced that these documents showed me receiving $10 million from the Saddam regime. And they were all lies.
"In the same week as the Daily Telegraph published their documents against me, the Christian Science Monitor published theirs which turned out to be forgeries and the British newspaper, Mail on Sunday, purchased a third set of documents which also upon forensic examination turned out to be forgeries. So there's nothing fanciful about this. Nothing at all fanciful about it.
"The existence of forged documents implicating me in commercial activities with the Iraqi regime is a proven fact. It's a proven fact that these forged documents existed and were being circulated amongst right-wing newspapers in Baghdad and around the world in the immediate aftermath of the fall of the Iraqi regime.
"Now, Senator, I gave my heart and soul to oppose the policy that you promoted. I gave my political life's blood to try to stop the mass killing of Iraqis by the sanctions on Iraq which killed one million Iraqis, most of them children, most of them died before they even knew that they were Iraqis, but they died for no other reason other than that they were Iraqis with the misfortune to born at that time. I gave my heart and soul to stop you committing the disaster that you did commit in invading Iraq. And I told the world that your case for the war was a pack of lies.
"I told the world that Iraq, contrary to your claims did not have weapons of mass destruction. I told the world, contrary to your claims, that Iraq had no connection to al-Qaeda. I told the world, contrary to your claims, that Iraq had no connection to the atrocity on 9/11 2001. I told the world, contrary to your claims, that the Iraqi people would resist a British and American invasion of their country and that the fall of Baghdad would not be the beginning of the end, but merely the end of the beginning.
"Senator, in everything I said about Iraq, I turned out to be right and you turned out to be wrong and 100,000 people paid with their lives; 1600 of them American soldiers sent to their deaths on a pack of lies; 15,000 of them wounded, many of them disabled forever on a pack of lies.
If the world had listened to Kofi Annan, whose dismissal you demanded, if the world had listened to President Chirac who you want to paint as some kind of corrupt traitor, if the world had listened to me and the anti-war movement in Britain, we would not be in the disaster that we are in today. Senator, this is the mother of all smokescreens. You are trying to divert attention from the crimes that you supported, from the theft of billions of dollars of Iraq's wealth.
"Have a look at the real Oil-for-Food scandal. Have a look at the 14 months you were in charge of Baghdad, the first 14 months when $8.8 billion of Iraq's wealth went missing on your watch. Have a look at Haliburton and other American corporations that stole not only Iraq's money, but the money of the American taxpayer.
"Have a look at the oil that you didn't even meter, that you were shipping out of the country and selling, the proceeds of which went who knows where? Have a look at the $800 million you gave to American military commanders to hand out around the country without even counting it or weighing it.
"Have a look at the real scandal breaking in the newspapers today, revealed in the earlier testimony in this committee. That the biggest sanctions busters were not me or Russian politicians or French politicians. The real sanctions busters were your own companies with the connivance of your own Government."
*************************************************************
Now this is courage rampant, and he deserves not only a Knighthood but a lion rampant on his shield. Just a damned shame our own people don't flat lay it out like this...
Wrap.
Kiss it goodbye...
When it's tacked onto a big $$$$ bill, nobody pays attention...well, almost nobody. This one stands my hair on end:
===== Mark Morford's Notes & Errata ===== SFGate.com - Wednesday, May 18, 2005
They Really Are Watching YouReady for your own all-new, sinister ID card, courtesy of Homeland Security? ShudderBy Mark Morford
Well, now we've done it.
Congress just passed it and Dubya has promised to sign it and the Homeland Security Department is giddier than Mel Gibson in a nail factory over it and marketers nationwide are salivating at the groin at the prospect of it, and the next big step toward America becoming an even more delightfully paranoid and draconian Big Brother wonderland has now officially been taken.
It's called Real ID. It is, in short, a new and genetically mutated type of driver's license for all Americans, replacing your current license and replacing your Social Security card and replacing your sense of well being and privacy and humanity and part of a new, uniform, deeply sinister, national uniform card system whereby every person living and breathing in these paranoid and tense times shall henceforth be much more traceable and watchable given how we will all soon be required by law to carry this super-deluxe computerized ID card with us at all times, packed as it will be with more personal, digitized info about you than even your mother knows. ...
(click here to read the rest)
(Full URL: http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/gate/archive/2005/05/18/notes051805.DTL&nl=fix)
Wrap...
===== Mark Morford's Notes & Errata ===== SFGate.com - Wednesday, May 18, 2005
They Really Are Watching YouReady for your own all-new, sinister ID card, courtesy of Homeland Security? ShudderBy Mark Morford
Well, now we've done it.
Congress just passed it and Dubya has promised to sign it and the Homeland Security Department is giddier than Mel Gibson in a nail factory over it and marketers nationwide are salivating at the groin at the prospect of it, and the next big step toward America becoming an even more delightfully paranoid and draconian Big Brother wonderland has now officially been taken.
It's called Real ID. It is, in short, a new and genetically mutated type of driver's license for all Americans, replacing your current license and replacing your Social Security card and replacing your sense of well being and privacy and humanity and part of a new, uniform, deeply sinister, national uniform card system whereby every person living and breathing in these paranoid and tense times shall henceforth be much more traceable and watchable given how we will all soon be required by law to carry this super-deluxe computerized ID card with us at all times, packed as it will be with more personal, digitized info about you than even your mother knows. ...
(click here to read the rest)
(Full URL: http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/gate/archive/2005/05/18/notes051805.DTL&nl=fix)
Wrap...
Tuesday, May 17, 2005
This poor guy...
From the LA Times this morn came this sad, but fascinating story:
May 17, 2005
In England, a Silent Stranger Comes to Life at the Piano
By John Daniszewski, Times Staff Writer
LONDON — The 6-foot stranger was found wandering in a rainstorm on the Isle of Sheppey in a dark business suit and tie. He was drenched to the bone and wouldn't speak a word.
But on a sheet of paper provided by hospital workers, he drew what looked like a flag of Sweden and an elaborate rendering of a grand piano.
Hospital workers led him to the piano in the facility's chapel, where he seemed to play flawlessly. He has been playing since, bits of Tchaikovsky's "Swan Lake," and long, sad compositions apparently of his own making for up to four hours at a time. He protests when he is forced to stop.
Newspapers call him the "Piano Man," and nearly six weeks after he was found, the nation wonders: Who is this shy virtuoso? Is he British or a foreigner? Did he fall off a ship? Or did he try to drown himself? Is he an amnesiac? Or is he suffering mental trauma?
During the weekend, authorities launched a public appeal to try to identify him. A haunting photograph of the man, who appears to be in his 20s or 30s and is clutching a plastic folder containing sheet music, appeared in national newspapers Monday. Television news was filled with pleas for any information. Officials at a missing-persons help line said they had received more than 150 calls from people who thought they might have information.
Some newspapers compared the man to the hero of the 1996 Australian movie "Shine," about pianist David Helfgott, a child prodigy stricken by mental illness in his 20s who later recovers and returns to the concert stage.
Karen Dorey-Rees, a care manager at the Little Brook Mental Health Hospital in Dartford, where the man is a patient, said he was found on a wind-swept road in Sheppey near the mouth of the Thames about 35 miles east of London. The labels had been removed from every item of clothing the man was wearing, Dorey-Rees said, according to BBC News. He was taken at first to the Medway Maritime Hospital in Gillingham, where doctors found no signs of physical illness or injury. To their astonishment, the man remained silent and shrank away in apparent fear of other people. That seemed to dissipate when he sat at the piano. Canon Alan Amos, the hospital chaplain, told the Guardian newspaper that music appeared to calm the troubled young man. "He likes to play what I would call mood music — quite circular in nature without defined beginnings or endings," he was quoted as saying. "Playing … seems to be the only way he can control his nerves and his tension and relax. When he is playing, he blanks everything else out. He pays attention to nothing but the music."
Dorey-Rees said the public's help was needed because any information would aid doctors in their treatment of the man. "We know nothing more about this man and are keen to identify him, as this will help us to better care for him in the future," she said. "We are just aware that he is a very vulnerable man and we would be putting him in a dangerous situation if we let him go."
Michael Camp, the social worker first assigned to the man's case, said the hospital accidentally stumbled on the stranger's musical ability. "Because there was no communication with him, we had to find ways of communicating with him. So we gave him pencils and paper hoping that he would write something," he said in an interview with the BBC. "Unfortunately he didn't write anything for us, but he did start drawing pictures, and his pictures were of keyboards and pianos." "When you see him normally he avoids eye contact with you," Camp said. "You can't get within a few yards of him without him moving away from you to the other end of the room. But on the piano he is unaware of anyone around him."
The patient has since been transferred to the psychiatric unit at Little Brook. The unit's manager, Ramanah Venkiah, said he also has access to a piano there. "He has been playing piano to a very high quality and staff say it is a real pleasure to hear it. But we don't know what his position is, because he is not cooperating at all," Venkiah told the Guardian. Adrian Lowther, communications manager for the West Kent National Health Trust, said the patient remained under observation. "He's keeping himself to himself, but he is eating and washes every day. He is still in his own clothes that he was wearing when he was found."
******************
That is a hell of a thing to have happen to anyone. Sure hope someone recognizes him. Hope that somehow treatment will bring him back to himself....though it sounds more as though he's protecting himself from whatever happened and just blanking it all out...with the piano his only voice. At least he's safe now. Wish him well....
Wrap.
May 17, 2005
In England, a Silent Stranger Comes to Life at the Piano
By John Daniszewski, Times Staff Writer
LONDON — The 6-foot stranger was found wandering in a rainstorm on the Isle of Sheppey in a dark business suit and tie. He was drenched to the bone and wouldn't speak a word.
But on a sheet of paper provided by hospital workers, he drew what looked like a flag of Sweden and an elaborate rendering of a grand piano.
Hospital workers led him to the piano in the facility's chapel, where he seemed to play flawlessly. He has been playing since, bits of Tchaikovsky's "Swan Lake," and long, sad compositions apparently of his own making for up to four hours at a time. He protests when he is forced to stop.
Newspapers call him the "Piano Man," and nearly six weeks after he was found, the nation wonders: Who is this shy virtuoso? Is he British or a foreigner? Did he fall off a ship? Or did he try to drown himself? Is he an amnesiac? Or is he suffering mental trauma?
During the weekend, authorities launched a public appeal to try to identify him. A haunting photograph of the man, who appears to be in his 20s or 30s and is clutching a plastic folder containing sheet music, appeared in national newspapers Monday. Television news was filled with pleas for any information. Officials at a missing-persons help line said they had received more than 150 calls from people who thought they might have information.
Some newspapers compared the man to the hero of the 1996 Australian movie "Shine," about pianist David Helfgott, a child prodigy stricken by mental illness in his 20s who later recovers and returns to the concert stage.
Karen Dorey-Rees, a care manager at the Little Brook Mental Health Hospital in Dartford, where the man is a patient, said he was found on a wind-swept road in Sheppey near the mouth of the Thames about 35 miles east of London. The labels had been removed from every item of clothing the man was wearing, Dorey-Rees said, according to BBC News. He was taken at first to the Medway Maritime Hospital in Gillingham, where doctors found no signs of physical illness or injury. To their astonishment, the man remained silent and shrank away in apparent fear of other people. That seemed to dissipate when he sat at the piano. Canon Alan Amos, the hospital chaplain, told the Guardian newspaper that music appeared to calm the troubled young man. "He likes to play what I would call mood music — quite circular in nature without defined beginnings or endings," he was quoted as saying. "Playing … seems to be the only way he can control his nerves and his tension and relax. When he is playing, he blanks everything else out. He pays attention to nothing but the music."
Dorey-Rees said the public's help was needed because any information would aid doctors in their treatment of the man. "We know nothing more about this man and are keen to identify him, as this will help us to better care for him in the future," she said. "We are just aware that he is a very vulnerable man and we would be putting him in a dangerous situation if we let him go."
Michael Camp, the social worker first assigned to the man's case, said the hospital accidentally stumbled on the stranger's musical ability. "Because there was no communication with him, we had to find ways of communicating with him. So we gave him pencils and paper hoping that he would write something," he said in an interview with the BBC. "Unfortunately he didn't write anything for us, but he did start drawing pictures, and his pictures were of keyboards and pianos." "When you see him normally he avoids eye contact with you," Camp said. "You can't get within a few yards of him without him moving away from you to the other end of the room. But on the piano he is unaware of anyone around him."
The patient has since been transferred to the psychiatric unit at Little Brook. The unit's manager, Ramanah Venkiah, said he also has access to a piano there. "He has been playing piano to a very high quality and staff say it is a real pleasure to hear it. But we don't know what his position is, because he is not cooperating at all," Venkiah told the Guardian. Adrian Lowther, communications manager for the West Kent National Health Trust, said the patient remained under observation. "He's keeping himself to himself, but he is eating and washes every day. He is still in his own clothes that he was wearing when he was found."
******************
That is a hell of a thing to have happen to anyone. Sure hope someone recognizes him. Hope that somehow treatment will bring him back to himself....though it sounds more as though he's protecting himself from whatever happened and just blanking it all out...with the piano his only voice. At least he's safe now. Wish him well....
Wrap.
A book here, a book there...
Today's selections from Publishers' Lunch are sure a mixed bag, but plucked a few out and here they are:
NON-FICTION:
McSweeney's columnist and Loser Goes First author Dan Kennedy's untitled comedy of errors chronicling his stint working for a major record label during its sale and takeover, to Antonia Fusco at Algonquin, by Arielle Eckstut of the Levine Greenberg Literary Agency (world).
MEMOIR:
Lawyer by day and Snarkywood.com blogger by night Martha Kimes' IVY BRIEFS: A Privileged and Confidential Law School Story, relating her humorous adventures as a Midwestern girl struggling to survive at Columbia Law School, to Suzanne O'Neill at Atria, in a pre-empt, by Laurie Abkemeier at DeFiore and Company (world English).lma@defioreandco.com
POLITICS:
Washington Post political reporter and author of Chain Reaction Thomas B. Edsall's FORTRESS RED AMERICA, on how the realignment now creating a Republican majority is both more deliberate than in the past and also more wide-ranging, including efforts to remake institutions such as the courts, the foreign policy establishment, the media and the universities, to William Frucht at Basic, in a nice deal, for publication in fall 2006, by Christy Fletcher of Fletcher & Parry (NA).jamie.brickhouse@perseusbooks.com
HUMOR:
The writers of the parody website LandoverBaptist.com's WELCOME TO JESUS LAND! (Formerly the United States of America): Newsletters from America's Favorite Church, addressing such critical issues such as how to prevent Satan worshippers from coming down your chimney at Christmas, how to properly report atheists to the authorities, and how to organize a proper book burning, to Jason Pinter at Warner, in a pre-empt, by Giles Anderson at the Anderson Literary Agency (world).
Wrap.
NON-FICTION:
McSweeney's columnist and Loser Goes First author Dan Kennedy's untitled comedy of errors chronicling his stint working for a major record label during its sale and takeover, to Antonia Fusco at Algonquin, by Arielle Eckstut of the Levine Greenberg Literary Agency (world).
MEMOIR:
Lawyer by day and Snarkywood.com blogger by night Martha Kimes' IVY BRIEFS: A Privileged and Confidential Law School Story, relating her humorous adventures as a Midwestern girl struggling to survive at Columbia Law School, to Suzanne O'Neill at Atria, in a pre-empt, by Laurie Abkemeier at DeFiore and Company (world English).lma@defioreandco.com
POLITICS:
Washington Post political reporter and author of Chain Reaction Thomas B. Edsall's FORTRESS RED AMERICA, on how the realignment now creating a Republican majority is both more deliberate than in the past and also more wide-ranging, including efforts to remake institutions such as the courts, the foreign policy establishment, the media and the universities, to William Frucht at Basic, in a nice deal, for publication in fall 2006, by Christy Fletcher of Fletcher & Parry (NA).jamie.brickhouse@perseusbooks.com
HUMOR:
The writers of the parody website LandoverBaptist.com's WELCOME TO JESUS LAND! (Formerly the United States of America): Newsletters from America's Favorite Church, addressing such critical issues such as how to prevent Satan worshippers from coming down your chimney at Christmas, how to properly report atheists to the authorities, and how to organize a proper book burning, to Jason Pinter at Warner, in a pre-empt, by Giles Anderson at the Anderson Literary Agency (world).
Wrap.
In the case of Dr Laura...
...the talk show "psychologist", consider what this writer friend of mine emailed:
My personal opinion: Dr Laura is in need of professional help...like a psychiatrist. Based on the way she answers problems and her treatment of the people who ask her opinion, she has more problems than any of her callers.
That was about as ridiculous an answer as this one from a person on the street approached by one of the Street Smart TV show people:
Then this little item that concerns two of the former contestants (the hot tempered guy and the lawyer with the long blond hair guy) on Trump's TV show, The Apprentice: Seems the hot tempered one got into a brawl in Florida and hired the blonde lawyer to defend him. Made me laugh.
Something more to think about: the Newsweek article which said that interrogators at Gitmo had flushed a Koran down the toilet. Every day something new... In any case, the article writer had run that paragraph past the Pentagon...and the Pentagon had no objection! I find that very interesting, to say the least, since the admin is now howling like banshees at Newsweek, to the point the mag has retracted the article. I doubt this will never be sorted out, since something new is liable to attract attention and the Newsweek article will fade into the background...just as the memo from Blair's report on the meeting with Bush will no doubt do...even though that one is the smoking gun that should be leading to impeachment.
Wrap.
Sometimes I listen to classical music. Sometimes I listen to whatever station the radio was left on. Just now I flipped the switch and Dr. Laura was on.
She was incensed about some or other question a caller had had the nerve to call and ask. Somehow a dad had promised his kid something without consulting the mom first. Laura's answer was, "promises made that never should have been made should not be kept." According to her a promise made by one parent without consulting the other "breaks the covenant of the relationship" therefore said promise should never have been made.
My personal opinion: Dr Laura is in need of professional help...like a psychiatrist. Based on the way she answers problems and her treatment of the people who ask her opinion, she has more problems than any of her callers.
That was about as ridiculous an answer as this one from a person on the street approached by one of the Street Smart TV show people:
Question: "What former dictator was pulled out of his hole in Iraq?"
Answer: "Bill Clinton."
Then this little item that concerns two of the former contestants (the hot tempered guy and the lawyer with the long blond hair guy) on Trump's TV show, The Apprentice: Seems the hot tempered one got into a brawl in Florida and hired the blonde lawyer to defend him. Made me laugh.
Something more to think about: the Newsweek article which said that interrogators at Gitmo had flushed a Koran down the toilet. Every day something new... In any case, the article writer had run that paragraph past the Pentagon...and the Pentagon had no objection! I find that very interesting, to say the least, since the admin is now howling like banshees at Newsweek, to the point the mag has retracted the article. I doubt this will never be sorted out, since something new is liable to attract attention and the Newsweek article will fade into the background...just as the memo from Blair's report on the meeting with Bush will no doubt do...even though that one is the smoking gun that should be leading to impeachment.
Wrap.
Monday, May 16, 2005
Sinner Visits Red State and...
I now have the pleasure of introducing an article written by a great guy who is a friend of mine, and who has something he wants to say.... so he's saying it here. I must say I'm glad that my former home state is the Blue State of Illinois, which allows me to visit without the accompanying desire to pound heads against walls until sense is regained. So here we go:
So thanks, my writer friend, for letting me post your work! I'm glad you're back safe in California. And believe me, no matter how aggravated I get with San Diego's financial and political situation, I ain't leavin'. No way, no how.
A SINNER VISITS A RED STATE AND LIVES TO TELL ABOUT IT
Every San Diegan, Republican or Democrat, ought to visit a red state now and then. I did just that recently when I spent a week in my home state. My part of Indiana couldn’t be redder if it was on fire. About the time I start believing Mike Royko’s old saw about California being the land of fruits and nuts I go back to the land of my childhood. A few days there and I feel better about my adopted state and about myself -- but about not my country.
Some of my old Hoosier friends, many dating back three-quarters of a century, are sure I’ve gone completely off the trolley and become a one of "those loonies from California." They were wary when I became a dreaded liberal and when I expressed doubts about religion. They started speaking circumspectly in front of me when I admitted that I voted for Bill Clinton. My explanation that I just couldn’t accept that Bible story about a woman who talked to a snake shocked them beyond belief. Some things aren’t to be questioned in Indiana.
But now, as a freelance writer, I have the temerity of putting my heretical notions in writing. That’s just plain awful in the land where James Dobson and Pat Robertson – not to mention Rush LIMBAWWW -- are revered. According to their lights nobody should be allowed to criticize religion, or any silly aspect of any of it, including the notion that we should go to war because god wants it.
Of course it's still all right to criticize religion as practiced by papists, Muslims and followers of other false gods.
For the fundamentalists, things have gotten so far out of hand that their preachers have urged their congregation to vote folks out if they support the wrong candidate.
Still I don’t think many were shocked at what that North Carolina preacher suggested. After all the “wrong” candidate in this case was one who didn’t oppose stem cell research and other forms of killing unborn babies. As for me, the humanist and the skeptic, I’m glad that the right to attend church in California isn’t decided by popular vote. I wouldn’t be able to go to the weddings of my grandkids or the funerals of many of my friends.
For all the hand wringing piety and overbearing sanctimony I didn’t find myself feeling inferior to those who accepted a vengeful God without reservation or a modicum of evidence. I certainly don’t feel inferior to an old classmate who went along when his church excommunicated his teenage daughter because she had a baby out of wedlock. I learned that they not only tossed her out, they hauled her up before the congregation and humiliated her for flaunting god’s law, this at about fifteen years of age.
A rebellious child thus became an incorrigible woman, and how ironic that the two institutions touted as being necessary for stability, religion and family, were the very institutions that turned their backs on a teenager struggling to find her way in this world.
When I paid my toll the lady in the booth said "Did you enjoy your visit to Indiana?" I replied, "Mostly but it has too much Jesus, too many Republicans.”
Believe me, I’m glad to be back in the land of fruits and nuts.
So thanks, my writer friend, for letting me post your work! I'm glad you're back safe in California. And believe me, no matter how aggravated I get with San Diego's financial and political situation, I ain't leavin'. No way, no how.
Nudist camp at airports...
Sure hope you all are ready for this one. I wonder if it keeps the pics it takes....
Can we get bodysuits? On the other hand...if you got it, flaunt it! Does it matter? We don't seem to have a choice. If we fly, we've automatically taken the stage at the airport strip club. Don't forget the "no touching" rule....
Wrap...
Air travelers stripped bare with X-ray machine
By Thomas Frank, USA TODAY
The agency in charge of the nation's air security expects later this year to begin using a controversial X-ray machine that will show airport screeners a clear picture of what's under passengers' clothes — whether weapons or just bare skin.
The new system makes it easy to see possibly dangerous devices.
Rapiscan Systems Screeners plan to test the "backscatter" machines at several U.S. airports, the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) says. The refrigerator-sized machines are considered a breakthrough in scanning technology but have been labeled "a virtual strip search" by the American Civil Liberties Union. (Related story: Airports test 'futureworld' devices)
Security workers using the machines can see through clothes and peer at whatever may be hidden in undergarments, shirts or pants. The images also paint a revealing picture of a person's nude body.
The devices can potentially be used to screen hundreds of millions of air travelers each year, although TSA says more study is needed to determine how the devices may be used at U.S. airports. The agency declined to say when and where it expects to test the machines.
Backscatter technology has been waiting on the sidelines for nearly four years but seems poised now to move to the forefront of aviation security. The machines are already used by U.S. Customs agents at 12 airports to screen passengers suspected of carrying drugs. They're also getting a test run at a terminal in London Heathrow Airport, the first major airport to use them.
The ACLU says the scanners invade personal privacy. "This leads directly to a surveillance society," says Barry Steinhardt, who runs the group's technology program.
But Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff told a Senate subcommittee last month that he wants to employ the technology and doesn't want an "endless debate" over privacy issues.
Security consultant Douglas Laird says the machines are essential to spot explosives, which aren't detected by metal detectors.
The $100,000 machines bounce low-radiation X-rays off a person's skin to produce photo-like computer images of metal, plastic and organic materials hidden under clothes, says American Science and Engineering. The TSA is testing its BodySearch machine.
Can we get bodysuits? On the other hand...if you got it, flaunt it! Does it matter? We don't seem to have a choice. If we fly, we've automatically taken the stage at the airport strip club. Don't forget the "no touching" rule....
Wrap...
Sunday, May 15, 2005
Cruisin'...
Gorgeous day! Off I went to go strolling around Seaport Village early this afternoon. People everywhere. Music at both ends. Restaurants busy. At the Pier Cafe end, people were walking around enjoying little ice cream cones from Ben and Jerry's. They were giving them away free. I did manage to keep from going into the Fudge Factory. Now there's a miracle. Kids of all ages riding the carousel. No music though cause it would have interferred with the Mexican band just outside.
So strolled on down the boardwalk. Big nuclear aircraft carrier docked at North Island across the bay, as was an oiler. Sailboats, small yachts, water taxis, jet skiers, and across the water, the SEALs skimming along in their craft. Saw no little motorboats nor row boats, nor kayaks. One huge pale tan cargo ship heading out to sea. Everybody got out of the way for that one. Helicopters (military) making runs either to or from North Island, and every now and then the major roar of the jets as passenger planes took off from Lindbergh Field. Can't see 'em, but can sure hear 'em.
Painters, caricature artists, tatoo people, fortune tellers, T-shirt sellers...all scattered around on the grass next to the main boardwalk, midway through Seaport. Walked out on North Embarcadero island, all the way to its grassy lawn end. First passed people just lying around on the grass, then the kite fliers, then the trucks being unloaded. Big party out there this eve. No doubt for the International Trademark Assn. People have come, I'm informed, from 136 countries to attend, and they're meeting at the Conv Ctr. Between meetings, they flood Seaport and the Gaslamp Qtr and take tours around the city...and party every night.
Anyway, definitely a party on North Embarcadero. From what I could see it looks as though they're gonna have casino-type gambling with an Egyptian theme. Egyptian statues from pyramid days all over the place. Big ones. White-clothed tables with stacks of chips, various gambling games here and there. Bars being set up. Buffet tables. Think they'll start meetings a bit late in the morning.
So back down the sidewalk with the Marriott Marina on my right. Full of all kinds and sizes of yachts...and the big Hornblower party yacht at the end of one of the docks. People on the top deck taking pics of the party/casino set-up. That Hornblower yacht is so big there's no way to turn around in the marina. They'll have to back out to get back in the harbor. I notice that the stage on the tip of South Embarcadero is up for Summer Pops. Lots of entertainers, lots of music. Can take a blanket and sit on the end of North Embarcadero and hear the whole thing. Can't see them, but can hear everything...and no crowds.
Came to the main boardwalk and hung a right toward the Yacht Club patio at the Marriott Hotel. On the way, a tour shuttle passes and I hear the driver/guide say, "Over there, on the other side of the harbor, four point five acres of aircraft carrier." Never explained that's the size of the flight deck and didn't slow down enough for people aboard to have a look at it. Detoured off the boardwalk to interior of Seaport Village to stroll past the band playing in the gazebo. The gazebo sits in a large circle. Tables and chair ring the outside. Band is gettin' on with it, playing rock 'n roll. The circle around the gazebo is jammed with dancers. They're havin' a hell of a good time. Big audience watching and listening.
I pass the Hyatt Hotel's harborside patio. Lots of folks dining, talking...and then the bar, with its outside patio. More folks up there. And continue to the Yacht Club patio. One of my favorite places. Climb a short flight of stairs to the lower half of the patio, and a couple more steps up to the upper half. Take a small table for two. Lucky find. Both patio levels are full of folks. Waitress brings coffee. I light up a smoke and stretch my legs out. Ahhh... Life is good.
Night shift is not on yet, and I know not one of the day shift, so I watch them work. See how good they are. Things are going very smoothly. They're busy but doing fine. Hostess passes by, and says, "I'm getting tired. Long day." We smile at each other, and I ask if Juan still rules the bar inside, nights. She laughs. "As always," she says, "but he doesn't work weekends anymore." Which I knew. He hasn't for a long, long time.
After about 45 minutes, I head back, detouring to the gazebo again. This time they're playing "Good Golly, Miss Molly" for all they're worth and the dancers are just having a great time. Just about when I hit the main boardwalk, they begin "Unchained Melody" to let the folks cool down a bit. Easy stroll back to the other end of Seaport where the people are still eating ice cream cones and applauding the Mexican band, and on out to my car in the parking lot.
Smooth drive down Pacific Highway, past the airport and Old Town, past Perry's Restaurant, the Highway Patrol, over the river, onto Mission Bay Drive, past the Hilton Hotel, up the hill, and on home. Absolutely relaxed, soul satisfied. A very good day....
Wrap.
So strolled on down the boardwalk. Big nuclear aircraft carrier docked at North Island across the bay, as was an oiler. Sailboats, small yachts, water taxis, jet skiers, and across the water, the SEALs skimming along in their craft. Saw no little motorboats nor row boats, nor kayaks. One huge pale tan cargo ship heading out to sea. Everybody got out of the way for that one. Helicopters (military) making runs either to or from North Island, and every now and then the major roar of the jets as passenger planes took off from Lindbergh Field. Can't see 'em, but can sure hear 'em.
Painters, caricature artists, tatoo people, fortune tellers, T-shirt sellers...all scattered around on the grass next to the main boardwalk, midway through Seaport. Walked out on North Embarcadero island, all the way to its grassy lawn end. First passed people just lying around on the grass, then the kite fliers, then the trucks being unloaded. Big party out there this eve. No doubt for the International Trademark Assn. People have come, I'm informed, from 136 countries to attend, and they're meeting at the Conv Ctr. Between meetings, they flood Seaport and the Gaslamp Qtr and take tours around the city...and party every night.
Anyway, definitely a party on North Embarcadero. From what I could see it looks as though they're gonna have casino-type gambling with an Egyptian theme. Egyptian statues from pyramid days all over the place. Big ones. White-clothed tables with stacks of chips, various gambling games here and there. Bars being set up. Buffet tables. Think they'll start meetings a bit late in the morning.
So back down the sidewalk with the Marriott Marina on my right. Full of all kinds and sizes of yachts...and the big Hornblower party yacht at the end of one of the docks. People on the top deck taking pics of the party/casino set-up. That Hornblower yacht is so big there's no way to turn around in the marina. They'll have to back out to get back in the harbor. I notice that the stage on the tip of South Embarcadero is up for Summer Pops. Lots of entertainers, lots of music. Can take a blanket and sit on the end of North Embarcadero and hear the whole thing. Can't see them, but can hear everything...and no crowds.
Came to the main boardwalk and hung a right toward the Yacht Club patio at the Marriott Hotel. On the way, a tour shuttle passes and I hear the driver/guide say, "Over there, on the other side of the harbor, four point five acres of aircraft carrier." Never explained that's the size of the flight deck and didn't slow down enough for people aboard to have a look at it. Detoured off the boardwalk to interior of Seaport Village to stroll past the band playing in the gazebo. The gazebo sits in a large circle. Tables and chair ring the outside. Band is gettin' on with it, playing rock 'n roll. The circle around the gazebo is jammed with dancers. They're havin' a hell of a good time. Big audience watching and listening.
I pass the Hyatt Hotel's harborside patio. Lots of folks dining, talking...and then the bar, with its outside patio. More folks up there. And continue to the Yacht Club patio. One of my favorite places. Climb a short flight of stairs to the lower half of the patio, and a couple more steps up to the upper half. Take a small table for two. Lucky find. Both patio levels are full of folks. Waitress brings coffee. I light up a smoke and stretch my legs out. Ahhh... Life is good.
Night shift is not on yet, and I know not one of the day shift, so I watch them work. See how good they are. Things are going very smoothly. They're busy but doing fine. Hostess passes by, and says, "I'm getting tired. Long day." We smile at each other, and I ask if Juan still rules the bar inside, nights. She laughs. "As always," she says, "but he doesn't work weekends anymore." Which I knew. He hasn't for a long, long time.
After about 45 minutes, I head back, detouring to the gazebo again. This time they're playing "Good Golly, Miss Molly" for all they're worth and the dancers are just having a great time. Just about when I hit the main boardwalk, they begin "Unchained Melody" to let the folks cool down a bit. Easy stroll back to the other end of Seaport where the people are still eating ice cream cones and applauding the Mexican band, and on out to my car in the parking lot.
Smooth drive down Pacific Highway, past the airport and Old Town, past Perry's Restaurant, the Highway Patrol, over the river, onto Mission Bay Drive, past the Hilton Hotel, up the hill, and on home. Absolutely relaxed, soul satisfied. A very good day....
Wrap.
Say What?!!!!
Top Stories - Reuters
Newsweek says may have erred in Koran report1 hour, 6 minutes ago
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Newsweek magazine on Sunday said it may have erred in a May 9 report that said U.S. interrogators desecrated the Koran at Guantanamo Bay, and apologized to victims of deadly violence sparked by the article.
View: Headlines Only Include Summaries Include Photos
Oh this is a good one. Know that apology is really gonna mean something to the families of the dead and the military accused. I cannot imagine what the hell Newsweek was thinking to publish that "story" without making damned sure that every word was accurate. So here we are, with millions more believers in the Koran hating our guts and wanting us dead.
Yeah, I see they said they "may have errerd.." May have?!!! Let's find out who their no-doubt unnamed source or sources were. Hah. Fat chance. I don't want to hear "may have.." I want the truth for a change. Did US interrogators desecrate the Koran or did they not. "may have.." is nowhere near good enough!
Wrap...
Newsweek says may have erred in Koran report1 hour, 6 minutes ago
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Newsweek magazine on Sunday said it may have erred in a May 9 report that said U.S. interrogators desecrated the Koran at Guantanamo Bay, and apologized to victims of deadly violence sparked by the article.
View: Headlines Only Include Summaries Include Photos
Oh this is a good one. Know that apology is really gonna mean something to the families of the dead and the military accused. I cannot imagine what the hell Newsweek was thinking to publish that "story" without making damned sure that every word was accurate. So here we are, with millions more believers in the Koran hating our guts and wanting us dead.
Yeah, I see they said they "may have errerd.." May have?!!! Let's find out who their no-doubt unnamed source or sources were. Hah. Fat chance. I don't want to hear "may have.." I want the truth for a change. Did US interrogators desecrate the Koran or did they not. "may have.." is nowhere near good enough!
Wrap...
Saturday, May 14, 2005
The writers' affair...
Do I intend to see the Jane Fonda film, Monster? No. Do I intend to see Kiss, Kiss, Bang, Bang with Val Kilmer? Yes.
Just glanced out the window and see the air is full of motes. So many it looks the same as one of those light rains that are like heavy mists. Still, motes are not usually so very visable unless they cross the path of sunlight. It's twilight time and the sun is about to disappear into the Pacific. Only light from it is reflecting off the low clouds of the marine layer.
Saw some kind of affair involving writers that I thought looked rather worth attending...then I saw that Richard Lederer--ahh, the affair is the Eleventh Annual Book Awards celebrating the "achievements of the San Diego literary community in 2004"--is going to play host. They now have a website: www.sdbookawards.org and looks like Bradley Steffens has taken the outfit over. Has always been a dress-up occasion and that hasn't changed. Am I going? No.
Cannot abide Lederer. And why is it being held at the AMN Healthcare Building up in either the University Hts area or Sorrento Valley area? Wherever High Bluff Drive is in this town...
Doesn't help, I suppose, that before the book awards were put together, the founder, Chet Cunningham, phoned to see if I thought it a good idea. I did, and was on the original committee he put together. Chet is a terrific guy and one hell of a prolific writer. At this point, he's published well over 250 books. Almost all in mass market paperbacks. The guy can write anything. Gave himself a female name, Charlene something, and wrote a series of romance novels. Wrote a series--and still is, I believe, of SEAL novels. Wrote western novels. Wrote adventure novels. And on and on. The man can really turn 'em out, and they sell like crazy.
In any case, Chet kicked the book awards off. Always was a formal affair, always held in good hotels, always cocktails, dinner, speaker, then awards. Great fun gathering up with all the San Diego writers who attended. The famous Dr Suess was the speaker one of the few times I attended. Don't know how many of those crooked red and white striped hats I saw guys wearing that night. Had a blast. But that caliber speaker, and they had as much fun as everyone else, wandering around and talking and laughing up a storm.
Now I look at this invitation, read between the lines (and the lines as well) and know I'm not going near this thing. Don't know when Chet left or why. May have to phone him up and find out. Could be he just burned out after doing it a decade or close to it. He may not be well, or his lovely wife may have taken a turn for the worst. Or he may be too busy with too many books. I do know this...lose him and you've lost a lot. He really cared about writers. Lederer, in my opinion, cares about himself and his image and not much else. Will go and look at that website.
It's not that I don't care about the writers being honored. I do. Always have. The good writers speak for those who have no avenue to be heard. They're a part of civilization no country can afford to be without. Words are more powerful than bullets any day. Don't believe it? Did Bush talk this nation into war or not? Words...
No. Not going because this is more for self-aggrandizement of those like Lederer than the writers. Just that simple. It's a shame and a loss to the writing community. Of course I may well be in the minority. Doesn't matter to me. I just hope the writers benefit most in the end.
I'll know by who gets the most attention in the papers...and I'll be watching after this affair goes down the evening of May 21st.
Wrap.
Just glanced out the window and see the air is full of motes. So many it looks the same as one of those light rains that are like heavy mists. Still, motes are not usually so very visable unless they cross the path of sunlight. It's twilight time and the sun is about to disappear into the Pacific. Only light from it is reflecting off the low clouds of the marine layer.
Saw some kind of affair involving writers that I thought looked rather worth attending...then I saw that Richard Lederer--ahh, the affair is the Eleventh Annual Book Awards celebrating the "achievements of the San Diego literary community in 2004"--is going to play host. They now have a website: www.sdbookawards.org and looks like Bradley Steffens has taken the outfit over. Has always been a dress-up occasion and that hasn't changed. Am I going? No.
Cannot abide Lederer. And why is it being held at the AMN Healthcare Building up in either the University Hts area or Sorrento Valley area? Wherever High Bluff Drive is in this town...
Doesn't help, I suppose, that before the book awards were put together, the founder, Chet Cunningham, phoned to see if I thought it a good idea. I did, and was on the original committee he put together. Chet is a terrific guy and one hell of a prolific writer. At this point, he's published well over 250 books. Almost all in mass market paperbacks. The guy can write anything. Gave himself a female name, Charlene something, and wrote a series of romance novels. Wrote a series--and still is, I believe, of SEAL novels. Wrote western novels. Wrote adventure novels. And on and on. The man can really turn 'em out, and they sell like crazy.
In any case, Chet kicked the book awards off. Always was a formal affair, always held in good hotels, always cocktails, dinner, speaker, then awards. Great fun gathering up with all the San Diego writers who attended. The famous Dr Suess was the speaker one of the few times I attended. Don't know how many of those crooked red and white striped hats I saw guys wearing that night. Had a blast. But that caliber speaker, and they had as much fun as everyone else, wandering around and talking and laughing up a storm.
Now I look at this invitation, read between the lines (and the lines as well) and know I'm not going near this thing. Don't know when Chet left or why. May have to phone him up and find out. Could be he just burned out after doing it a decade or close to it. He may not be well, or his lovely wife may have taken a turn for the worst. Or he may be too busy with too many books. I do know this...lose him and you've lost a lot. He really cared about writers. Lederer, in my opinion, cares about himself and his image and not much else. Will go and look at that website.
It's not that I don't care about the writers being honored. I do. Always have. The good writers speak for those who have no avenue to be heard. They're a part of civilization no country can afford to be without. Words are more powerful than bullets any day. Don't believe it? Did Bush talk this nation into war or not? Words...
No. Not going because this is more for self-aggrandizement of those like Lederer than the writers. Just that simple. It's a shame and a loss to the writing community. Of course I may well be in the minority. Doesn't matter to me. I just hope the writers benefit most in the end.
I'll know by who gets the most attention in the papers...and I'll be watching after this affair goes down the evening of May 21st.
Wrap.
Nukes..There or not there?
In addition to Pakistan saying that today's news that a CIA Predator killed one of bin Laden's men is false, BushCo claims this former Marine lies.....
Ex-marine claims nuclear weapons stored at Nfld. baseLast Updated Tue, 10 May 2005 20:23:31 EDT
CBC News
FT. LAUDERDALE, FLA. -
An American veteran who says he guarded a secret stash of nuclear weapons in Newfoundland claims his government would rather see him dead than admit to violations of international law.
Almon Scott, who worked as a guard at the Argentia military base between 1963 and 1965, claims that years before Ottawa allowed nuclear weapons on Canadian soil, he was guarding them at a secret weapons lab in Placentia Bay.
Scott, who is dying, blames the cancer in his blood and bones on his duties four decades ago.
He claims the U.S. government is not only refusing to help him, but will not give the veteran his own service records because that would mean admitting to its ally that it had nuclear materials on Canadian soil without informing the government.
Scott, now 65, said that when he was a young marine assigned to duties at the military base in Argentia, he did what he was told.
"It was a different time. We did our duty, and we didn't ask questions," he said.
With top-secret clearance, Scott said he was assigned to guard duty at a heavily barricaded weapons laboratory.
It was there, he claims, that he was exposed to nuclear weapons.
The U.S. government says there is no proof Scott was exposed to nuclear material at Argentia.
The Department of Foreign Affairs told the CBC any questions about nuclear weapons at Argentia would have to go through the Access to Information Act.
Like other American military facilities in Newfoundland and Labrador, the U.S. naval base and air station at Argentia was built during the Second World War.
Strategically important to North Atlantic activities during the war, the base was also key during the Cold War, with many of its activities considered secret.
The base closed in 1994. Cleanup efforts are still continuing.
My question: Yeah? What they cleanin'???
Wrap...
Ex-marine claims nuclear weapons stored at Nfld. baseLast Updated Tue, 10 May 2005 20:23:31 EDT
CBC News
FT. LAUDERDALE, FLA. -
An American veteran who says he guarded a secret stash of nuclear weapons in Newfoundland claims his government would rather see him dead than admit to violations of international law.
Almon Scott, who worked as a guard at the Argentia military base between 1963 and 1965, claims that years before Ottawa allowed nuclear weapons on Canadian soil, he was guarding them at a secret weapons lab in Placentia Bay.
Scott, who is dying, blames the cancer in his blood and bones on his duties four decades ago.
He claims the U.S. government is not only refusing to help him, but will not give the veteran his own service records because that would mean admitting to its ally that it had nuclear materials on Canadian soil without informing the government.
Scott, now 65, said that when he was a young marine assigned to duties at the military base in Argentia, he did what he was told.
"It was a different time. We did our duty, and we didn't ask questions," he said.
With top-secret clearance, Scott said he was assigned to guard duty at a heavily barricaded weapons laboratory.
It was there, he claims, that he was exposed to nuclear weapons.
The U.S. government says there is no proof Scott was exposed to nuclear material at Argentia.
The Department of Foreign Affairs told the CBC any questions about nuclear weapons at Argentia would have to go through the Access to Information Act.
Like other American military facilities in Newfoundland and Labrador, the U.S. naval base and air station at Argentia was built during the Second World War.
Strategically important to North Atlantic activities during the war, the base was also key during the Cold War, with many of its activities considered secret.
The base closed in 1994. Cleanup efforts are still continuing.
My question: Yeah? What they cleanin'???
Wrap...
Now I'm REALLY interested!
It looks as though these guys have already read my previous post...posted just minutes ago! Herein are directions for getting questions answered:
So what happens next? Damned if I know. What am I gonna do? Nothing. Just watch and wait. Interesting? To me, it surely is. The government works in strange ways.
Wrap...
Sat, 14 May 2005 16:16:34
Your messageto DEFENSE-PRESS-SERVICE-L-request@DTIC.MIL has been forwarded to the "list owners" (the people who manage theDEFENSE-PRESS-SERVICE-L list). If you wanted to reach a human being, you used the correct procedure and you can ignore the remainder of this message. If you were trying to send a command for the computer to execute, please read on.The DEFENSE-PRESS-SERVICE-L list is managed by a LISTSERV server. LISTSERV commands should always be sent to the "LISTSERV" address, ie LISTSERV@DTIC.MIL. LISTSERV never tries to process messages sent to theDEFENSE-PRESS-SERVICE-L-request address; it simply forwards them to a human being, and acknowledges receipt with the present message. The "listname-request" convention originated on the Internet a long time ago. At the time, lists were always managed manually, and this address was defined as an alias for the person(s) in charge of the mailing list.You would write to the "listname-request" address to ask for information about the list, ask to be added to the list, make suggestions about the contents and policy, etc. Because this address was always a human being, people knew and expected to be talking to a human being, not to a computer. Unfortunately, some recent list management packages screen incoming messages to the "listname-request" address and attempt to determine whether they are requests to join or leave the list. They look for words such as "subscribe," "add," "leave," "off," and so on. If they decide your message is a request to join or leave the list, they update the list automatically; otherwise, they forward the message to the listowners. Naturally, this means that if you write to the list owners about someone else's unsuccessful attempts to leave the list, you stand good chances of being automatically removed from the list, whereas the listowners will never receive your message. No one really benefits from this. There is no reliable mechanism to contact a human being for assistance, and you can never be sure whether your request will be interpreted as a command or as a message to the list owners. This is why LISTSERV uses two separate addresses, one for the people in charge of the list and one for the computer that runs it. This way you always know what will happen, especially if you are writing in a language other than English.In any case, if your message was a LISTSERV command, you should now resend it to LISTSERV@DTIC.MIL. The list owners know that you have received this message and may assume that you will resend the command on your own. You will find instructions for the most common administrative requests below.********************** TO LEAVE THE LIST **********************Write to LISTSERV@DTIC.MIL and, in the text of your message (not the subject line), write: SIGNOFF DEFENSE-PRESS-SERVICE-L********************* TO JOIN THE LIST *********************Write to LISTSERV@DTIC.MIL and, in the text of your message (not the subject line), write: SUBSCRIBE DEFENSE-PRESS-SERVICE-L************************* FOR MORE INFORMATION *************************Write to LISTSERV@DTIC.MIL and, in the text of your message (not the subject line), write: "HELP" or "INFO" (without the quotes). HELP will give you a short help message and INFO a list of the documents you can order.
So what happens next? Damned if I know. What am I gonna do? Nothing. Just watch and wait. Interesting? To me, it surely is. The government works in strange ways.
Wrap...
True? Who the hell knows?
Given this ultra-secretive administration, notices like this always cause me to question what's really going on. The question is, is the correction correct? or was this info NOT to be released and somebody goofed. Next question: Who the hell knows? And how does one find out? So take a look and decide--legitimate or not?
Looks to me as though there are too many Chiefs and not enough Indians, huh?
Wrap...
Please disregard subject story, titled "DoD Proposes Policy to 'Thin Out'Overmanned Career Fields," by Sgt. 1st Class Doug Sample, datelined May 13,2005.'
The subject-matter expert quoted in the story said that the information uponwhich he based the information in the story during the interview process isno longer correct.The American Forces Press Service apologizes for any inconvenience.
-----Original Message-----From: Press Service [mailto:afisnews_sender@DTIC.MIL]Sent: Friday, May 13, 2005 4:18 PM
To: DEFENSE-PRESS-SERVICE-L@DTIC.MIL
Subject: DoD Proposes Policy to 'Thin Out' Overmanned Career Fields
By Sgt. 1st Class Doug Sample, USAAmerican Forces Press Service
WASHINGTON, May 13, 2005 - The Defense Department is drafting a proposal seeking congressional approval of separation incentives and forced-retirement authority to "thin out" overpopulated career fields, a top personnel official said here May 12.
Bill Carr, acting deputy undersecretary of defense for military personnel policy, said the legislative proposal, referred to as a "force reshaping initiative," would help DoD ensure the military has a "proper balance" and experience in certain military occupations, while at the same time targeting over-strength career fields that can slow down promotions. "Depending on how we recruited in a particular year, we could have a pretty sizable group moving along," he said, "and if it's sizable enough, it can retard promotions." The goal, he explained, is "to try and keep the experienced cohorts about where you expect them to be, and therefore you want to create some exit incentives when they get too large."
The proposal comes at a time when the Pentagon is also struggling to keep up recruiting and retention. But, Carr explained, the department is not contemplating a "large-scale exodus."
"Its entirely possible that recruiting can be having a tough time and yet you're still looking to make targeted separations," he said, "simply becauseo ccupational patterns don't line up." If Congress were to approve such authority, he said, the Air Force and Navy, which are decreasing in size, could each put the policy to work as soon as this fall. Carr pointed out that each service is already looking to reshape its force to keep promotion rates progressing and readiness up.
According to the policy that's being drafted, before involuntary separation takes place, or servicemembers are asked to leave, DoD's plan is to first try to shift personnel from overmanned skill areas to those that are undermanned through retention and lateral conversion. Another plan under the policy is to transfer active component personnel to the reserve components, or for members of one service to transfer to another. Air Force personnel, for example, are joining the Army through the"Blue to Green" program now in place.
If neither plans works, Carr said, the services would look at targeted voluntary separations as the next step by offering servicemembers incentive-based options to leave the service voluntarily. Those options could include offering servicemembers with at least six years, but fewerthan 15, of service a lump-sum buyout based on numbers of years and rank at separation. For example, payments could range from $20,000 to $100,000 for an E-6, and $50,000 to $300,000 for an O-4. Another option would offer servicemembers with at least 15 years of service but fewer than 20 either a lump sum or annual installments over a 10-year period, or a combination of both. Retirement-eligible servicemembers with more than 20 years of service who leave voluntarily would get six months of basic pay in a lump sum.
Carr said the policy also would offer some transition benefits, such as use of military exchange and medical care facilities for a limited period after separation.
If force-reshaping goals were not met through voluntary means, Carr said, as a last resort the department would look to involuntary separations to meet its goals.Included in the proposal, he said, is the authority to re-establish mandatory retirement dates to be used when the number of voluntary separations did not provide the balance needed by a particular service.
"Not unlike the 1980s, the spirit that guides us is the wish to allow it to be a voluntary choice so that people can seek their own comforts and their own career options," he said. "In the event we did not get enough takers, then we'd have to go through some other selection of those whom we would prefer take an incentive and depart."Though he said such action by the services would be "pretty rare," he noted that involuntary separation could become an issue if the services see a"definite problem" that's clogging up promotions or having a negative effect on readiness.
Looks to me as though there are too many Chiefs and not enough Indians, huh?
Wrap...
Friday, May 13, 2005
Juanita bites DeLay...again!
If you don't know Juanita, you need to. The lady lives down in Texas in Tom DeLay's district...and he irritates her beyond her ability to keep her mouth shut about his doings. So she doesn't. And doesn't mince her words either. Of course DeLay doesn't think it necessary to listen to the folks back home. Oh, no. But he should...especially when it's Juanita and her friends in the "World's Most Dangerous Beauty Parlor" talking. Cussing him, mostly. Being verbally abusive. Much to my delight.... So here on Off The Kuff's blog comes word on Juanita:
"Been meaning to mention that Juanita is back in business out in Fort Bend after a couple of months' hiatus. She's clearly in fine form, so drop by and catch up on the latest from the World's Most Dangerous Beauty Salon:
May 6 - (Pssst. Over here. Hush. Keep it down. Okay, so here's the plan. We say that Tom's only sin was pride and Tom's got God working on that. We take Tom down to The Brazos River and dunk him a few times, saying he's been born-again-again and God wants him to stay in office now that he's been washed clean of the sin of pride. Of course it'll work! It worked with the bimbo problem in Austin. It worked with the heavy drinking. It worked with cussing and fistfighting on the House floor. I'm telling you, this born again again again thing is perfect.
( Keep it quiet, though. We don't want folks figuring it out.)"
Wrap...
"Been meaning to mention that Juanita is back in business out in Fort Bend after a couple of months' hiatus. She's clearly in fine form, so drop by and catch up on the latest from the World's Most Dangerous Beauty Salon:
May 6 - (Pssst. Over here. Hush. Keep it down. Okay, so here's the plan. We say that Tom's only sin was pride and Tom's got God working on that. We take Tom down to The Brazos River and dunk him a few times, saying he's been born-again-again and God wants him to stay in office now that he's been washed clean of the sin of pride. Of course it'll work! It worked with the bimbo problem in Austin. It worked with the heavy drinking. It worked with cussing and fistfighting on the House floor. I'm telling you, this born again again again thing is perfect.
( Keep it quiet, though. We don't want folks figuring it out.)"
Wrap...
"Government proved Iraq war illegal"
Navy Judge Finds War Protest Reasonable By Marjorie Cohn t r u t h o u t Report
Friday 13 May 2005
"I think that the government has successfully proved that any service member has reasonable cause to believe that the wars in Yugoslavia, Afghanistan and Iraq were illegal." -- Lt. Cmdr. Robert Klant, presiding at Pablo Paredes' court-martial
In a stunning blow to the Bush administration, a Navy judge gave Petty Officer 3rd Class Pablo Paredes no jail time for refusing orders to board the amphibious assault ship Bonhomme Richard before it left San Diego with 3,000 sailors and Marines bound for the Persian Gulf on December 6th. Lt. Cmdr. Robert Klant found Pablo guilty of missing his ship's movement by design, but dismissed the charge of unauthorized absence. Although Pablo faced one year in the brig, the judge sentenced him to two months' restriction and three months of hard labor, and reduced his rank to seaman recruit.
"This is a huge victory," said Jeremy Warren, Pablo's lawyer. "A sailor can show up on a Navy base, refuse in good conscience to board a ship bound for Iraq, and receive no time in jail," Warren added. Although Pablo is delighted he will not to go jail, he still regrets that he was convicted of a crime. He told the judge at sentencing: "I am guilty of believing this war is illegal. I am guilty of believing war in all forms is immoral and useless, and I am guilty of believing that as a service member I have a duty to refuse to participate in this War because it is illegal."
Pablo maintained that transporting Marines to fight in an illegal war, and possibly to commit war crimes, would make him complicit in those crimes. He told the judge, "I believe as a member of the armed forces, beyond having a duty to my chain of command and my President, I have a higher duty to my conscience and to the supreme law of the land. Both of these higher duties dictate that I must not participate in any way, hands-on or indirect, in the current aggression that has been unleashed on Iraq."
Pablo said he formed his views about the illegality of the war by reading truthout.org, listening to Democracy Now!, and reading articles by Noam Chomsky, Chalmers Johnson, Naomi Klein, Stephen Zunes, and Marjorie Cohn, as well as Kofi Annan's statements that the war is illegal under the UN Charter, and material on the Nuremberg and Tokyo tribunals.
I testified at Pablo's court-martial as a defense expert on the legality of the war in Iraq, and the commission of war crimes by US forces. My testimony corroborated the reasonableness of Pablo's beliefs. I told the judge that the war violates the United Nations Charter, which forbids the use of force, unless carried out in self-defense or with the approval of the Security Council, neither of which obtained before Bush invaded Iraq. I also said that torture and inhuman treatment, which have been documented in Iraqi prisons, constitute grave breaches of the Geneva Conventions, and are considered war crimes under the US War Crimes Statute. The United States has ratified both the UN Charter and the Geneva Conventions, making them part of the supreme law of the land under the Supremacy Clause of the Constitution.
I noted that the Uniform Code of Military Justice requires that all military personnel obey lawful orders. Article 92 of the UCMJ says, "A general order or regulation is lawful unless it is contrary to the Constitution, the laws of the United States...." Both the Nuremberg Principles and the Army Field Manual create a duty to disobey unlawful orders. Article 509 of Field Manual 27-10, codifying another Nuremberg Principle, specifies that "following superior orders" is not a defense to the commission of war crimes, unless the accused "did not know and could not reasonably have been expected to know that the act ordered was unlawful."
I concluded that the Iraq war is illegal. US troops who participate in the war are put in a position to commit war crimes. By boarding that ship and delivering Marines to Iraq - to fight in an illegal war, and possibly to commit war crimes - Pablo would have been complicit in those crimes. Therefore, orders to board that ship were illegal, and Pablo had a duty to disobey them.
On cross-examination, Navy prosecutor Lt. Jonathan Freeman elicited testimony from me that the US wars in Yugoslavia and Afghanistan also violated the UN Charter, as neither was conducted in self-defense or with the blessing of the Security Council. Upon the conclusion of my testimony, the judge said, "I think that the government has successfully proved that any service member has reasonable cause to believe that the wars in Yugoslavia, Afghanistan and Iraq were illegal."
The Navy prosecutors asked the judge to sentence Pablo to nine months in the brig, forfeiture of pay and benefits, and a bad conduct discharge. Lt. Brandon Hale argued that Pablo's conduct was "egregious," that Pablo could have "slinked away with his privately-held beliefs quietly." The public nature of Pablo's protest made it more serious, according to the chief prosecuting officer.
But Pablo's lawyer urged the judge not to punish Pablo more harshly for exercising his right of free speech. Pablo refused to board the ship not, as many others, for selfish reasons, but rather as an act of conscience, Warren said.
"Pablo's victory is an incredible boon to the anti-war movement," according to Warren. Since December 6th, Pablo has had a strong support network. Camilo Mejia, a former Army infantryman who spent nine months in the brig at Fort Sill, Oklahoma, for refusing to return to Iraq after a military leave, was present throughout Pablo's court-martial. Tim Goodrich, co-founder of Iraq Veterans against the War, also attended the court-martial. "We have all been to Iraq, and we support anyone who stands in nonviolent opposition," he said. Fernando Suárez del Solar and Cindy Sheehan, both of whom lost sons in Iraq, came to defend Pablo.
The night before his sentencing, many spoke at a program in support of Pablo. Mejia thanked Pablo for bringing back the humanity and doubts about the war into people's hearts. Sheehan, whose son, K.C., died two weeks after he arrived in Iraq, said, "I was told my son was killed in the war on terror. He was killed by George Bush's war of terror on the world."
Aidan Delgado, who received conscientious objector status after spending nine months in Iraq, worked in the battalion headquarters at the Abu Ghraib prison. Confirming the Red Cross's conclusion that 70 to 90 percent of the prisoners were there by mistake, Delgado said that most were suspected only of petty theft, public drunkenness, forging documents and impersonating officials. "At Abu Ghraib, we shot prisoners for protesting their conditions; four were killed," Delgado maintained. He has photographs of troops "scooping their brains out."
Pablo's application for conscientious objector status is pending. He has one year of Navy service left. If his C.O. application is granted, he could be released. Or he could receive an administrative discharge. Worst case scenario, he could be sent back to Iraq. But it is unlikely the Navy will choose to go through this again.
Marjorie Cohn, a contributing editor to t r u t h o u t, is a professor at Thomas Jefferson School of Law, executive vice president of the National Lawyers Guild, and the US representative to the executive committee of the American Association of Jurists.
Wrap...
Friday 13 May 2005
"I think that the government has successfully proved that any service member has reasonable cause to believe that the wars in Yugoslavia, Afghanistan and Iraq were illegal." -- Lt. Cmdr. Robert Klant, presiding at Pablo Paredes' court-martial
In a stunning blow to the Bush administration, a Navy judge gave Petty Officer 3rd Class Pablo Paredes no jail time for refusing orders to board the amphibious assault ship Bonhomme Richard before it left San Diego with 3,000 sailors and Marines bound for the Persian Gulf on December 6th. Lt. Cmdr. Robert Klant found Pablo guilty of missing his ship's movement by design, but dismissed the charge of unauthorized absence. Although Pablo faced one year in the brig, the judge sentenced him to two months' restriction and three months of hard labor, and reduced his rank to seaman recruit.
"This is a huge victory," said Jeremy Warren, Pablo's lawyer. "A sailor can show up on a Navy base, refuse in good conscience to board a ship bound for Iraq, and receive no time in jail," Warren added. Although Pablo is delighted he will not to go jail, he still regrets that he was convicted of a crime. He told the judge at sentencing: "I am guilty of believing this war is illegal. I am guilty of believing war in all forms is immoral and useless, and I am guilty of believing that as a service member I have a duty to refuse to participate in this War because it is illegal."
Pablo maintained that transporting Marines to fight in an illegal war, and possibly to commit war crimes, would make him complicit in those crimes. He told the judge, "I believe as a member of the armed forces, beyond having a duty to my chain of command and my President, I have a higher duty to my conscience and to the supreme law of the land. Both of these higher duties dictate that I must not participate in any way, hands-on or indirect, in the current aggression that has been unleashed on Iraq."
Pablo said he formed his views about the illegality of the war by reading truthout.org, listening to Democracy Now!, and reading articles by Noam Chomsky, Chalmers Johnson, Naomi Klein, Stephen Zunes, and Marjorie Cohn, as well as Kofi Annan's statements that the war is illegal under the UN Charter, and material on the Nuremberg and Tokyo tribunals.
I testified at Pablo's court-martial as a defense expert on the legality of the war in Iraq, and the commission of war crimes by US forces. My testimony corroborated the reasonableness of Pablo's beliefs. I told the judge that the war violates the United Nations Charter, which forbids the use of force, unless carried out in self-defense or with the approval of the Security Council, neither of which obtained before Bush invaded Iraq. I also said that torture and inhuman treatment, which have been documented in Iraqi prisons, constitute grave breaches of the Geneva Conventions, and are considered war crimes under the US War Crimes Statute. The United States has ratified both the UN Charter and the Geneva Conventions, making them part of the supreme law of the land under the Supremacy Clause of the Constitution.
I noted that the Uniform Code of Military Justice requires that all military personnel obey lawful orders. Article 92 of the UCMJ says, "A general order or regulation is lawful unless it is contrary to the Constitution, the laws of the United States...." Both the Nuremberg Principles and the Army Field Manual create a duty to disobey unlawful orders. Article 509 of Field Manual 27-10, codifying another Nuremberg Principle, specifies that "following superior orders" is not a defense to the commission of war crimes, unless the accused "did not know and could not reasonably have been expected to know that the act ordered was unlawful."
I concluded that the Iraq war is illegal. US troops who participate in the war are put in a position to commit war crimes. By boarding that ship and delivering Marines to Iraq - to fight in an illegal war, and possibly to commit war crimes - Pablo would have been complicit in those crimes. Therefore, orders to board that ship were illegal, and Pablo had a duty to disobey them.
On cross-examination, Navy prosecutor Lt. Jonathan Freeman elicited testimony from me that the US wars in Yugoslavia and Afghanistan also violated the UN Charter, as neither was conducted in self-defense or with the blessing of the Security Council. Upon the conclusion of my testimony, the judge said, "I think that the government has successfully proved that any service member has reasonable cause to believe that the wars in Yugoslavia, Afghanistan and Iraq were illegal."
The Navy prosecutors asked the judge to sentence Pablo to nine months in the brig, forfeiture of pay and benefits, and a bad conduct discharge. Lt. Brandon Hale argued that Pablo's conduct was "egregious," that Pablo could have "slinked away with his privately-held beliefs quietly." The public nature of Pablo's protest made it more serious, according to the chief prosecuting officer.
But Pablo's lawyer urged the judge not to punish Pablo more harshly for exercising his right of free speech. Pablo refused to board the ship not, as many others, for selfish reasons, but rather as an act of conscience, Warren said.
"Pablo's victory is an incredible boon to the anti-war movement," according to Warren. Since December 6th, Pablo has had a strong support network. Camilo Mejia, a former Army infantryman who spent nine months in the brig at Fort Sill, Oklahoma, for refusing to return to Iraq after a military leave, was present throughout Pablo's court-martial. Tim Goodrich, co-founder of Iraq Veterans against the War, also attended the court-martial. "We have all been to Iraq, and we support anyone who stands in nonviolent opposition," he said. Fernando Suárez del Solar and Cindy Sheehan, both of whom lost sons in Iraq, came to defend Pablo.
The night before his sentencing, many spoke at a program in support of Pablo. Mejia thanked Pablo for bringing back the humanity and doubts about the war into people's hearts. Sheehan, whose son, K.C., died two weeks after he arrived in Iraq, said, "I was told my son was killed in the war on terror. He was killed by George Bush's war of terror on the world."
Aidan Delgado, who received conscientious objector status after spending nine months in Iraq, worked in the battalion headquarters at the Abu Ghraib prison. Confirming the Red Cross's conclusion that 70 to 90 percent of the prisoners were there by mistake, Delgado said that most were suspected only of petty theft, public drunkenness, forging documents and impersonating officials. "At Abu Ghraib, we shot prisoners for protesting their conditions; four were killed," Delgado maintained. He has photographs of troops "scooping their brains out."
Pablo's application for conscientious objector status is pending. He has one year of Navy service left. If his C.O. application is granted, he could be released. Or he could receive an administrative discharge. Worst case scenario, he could be sent back to Iraq. But it is unlikely the Navy will choose to go through this again.
Marjorie Cohn, a contributing editor to t r u t h o u t, is a professor at Thomas Jefferson School of Law, executive vice president of the National Lawyers Guild, and the US representative to the executive committee of the American Association of Jurists.
Wrap...
Thursday, May 12, 2005
Our very own terrorists.
Man, I'm just full of good news today! Just consider the prez, the members of the admin, and the members of Congress when you read this one. We know who they are, but we'd better damned well pay more attention to what they do and how they do it....or we can kiss it all goodbye.
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article8816.htm
Wrap...
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article8816.htm
Wrap...
Tell me again it's not like Vietnam
Add this to the entire wipeout of a Marine unit in the last few days...all gone. Either dead or wounded. So here we are in the midst of the Iraqi Civil War. Now didn't BushCo, Rummy and the rest predict we'd be welcomed with flowers and hugs? They absolutely did. So much for their ability to know what they were forcing us into. Some planning. So just add this info to the latest news on the Bush/Blair secret memo. Lyin' sacks of shit!!! Read on:
Go to Original
Experts: Iraq Verges on Civil War By Timothy M. Phelps Newsday
Thursday 12 May 2005
Washington - An unchastened insurgency sowed devastation across Iraq Wednesday as experts here said the country is either on the verge of civil war or already in the middle of it.
In the course of the day: Four car bombs detonated in Baghdad; a man wearing explosives at an army recruitment center in Hawija, north of Baghdad, blew himself and many others up; a car bomb exploded in a marketplace in Tikrit, north of Baghdad; and the country's largest fertilizer plant was heavily damaged by a bomb in the usually quiet southern city of Basra. Meanwhile, U.S. Marines were winding up a remarkable pitched battle against surprisingly well-equipped and determined insurgents on Iraq's western border. Some 76 Iraqis were reported killed and more than 120 wounded in the one day of violence.
With security experts reporting that no major road in the country was safe to travel, some Iraq specialists speculated that the Sunni insurgency was effectively encircling the capital and trying to cut it off from the north, south and west, where there are entrenched Sunni communities. East of Baghdad is a mostly unpopulated desert bordering on Iran.
"It's just political rhetoric to say we are not in a civil war. We've been in a civil war for a long time," said Pat Lang, the former top Middle East intelligence official at the Pentagon.
Other experts said Iraq is on the verge of a full-scale civil war with civilians on both sides being slaughtered. Incidents in the past two weeks south of Baghdad, with apparently retaliatory killings of Sunni and Shia civilians, point in that direction, they say.
Also of concern were media accounts that hard-line Shia militia members are being deployed to police hard-line Sunni communities such as Ramadi, east of Baghdad, which specialists on Iraq said was a recipe for disaster.
"I think we are really on the edge" of all-out civil war, said Noah Feldman, a New York University law professor who worked for the U.S. coalition in Iraq.
He said the insurgency has been "getting stronger every passing day. When the violence recedes, it is a sign that they are regrouping." While there is a chance the current flare of violence is the insurgency's last gasp, he said, "I have not seen any coherent evidence that we are winning against the insurgency."
"Everything we thought we knew about the insurgency obviously is flawed," said Judith Kipper of the Council on Foreign Relations. "It was quiet for a little while, and here it is back full force all over the country, and that is very dark news."
The increased violence coincides with the approval of a new, democratic government two weeks ago. But instead of bringing the country together, the new government seems to have further alienated even moderate Sunnis who believe they have only token representation.
"That is a joke," said Sunni politician Saad Jabouri, until recently governor of Diyala Province, in an interview here. "The only people they allowed in the government are ones who think like them," he said of the majority Shia faction, who mostly come from Islamic parties.
Military and civilian experts said the insurgency seemed designed to outlast the patience of the American and Iraqi peoples.
"I just think this Sunni thing is going to be pretty hard," said Phebe Marr, a leading U.S. Iraq expert reached in the protected Green Zone in Baghdad. "The American public has to get its expectations down to something reasonable."
Lang said there is new evidence that Saddam Hussein's regime carefully prepared in advance for the insurgency, with former Iraqi officers at the core of each group. They are well coordinated and have consistently adjusted their strategy, he said.
Now the 140,000-plus U.S. troops in the country are mainly "a nuisance" factor in the insurgents' overall goal of preventing the new government from consolidating.
"They understand what the deal is here," Lang said, "to start applying maximum pressure to the economy and the government and make sure it will not work." Their roadside bombs are intended to keep U.S. forces inside their bases, he said.
All the while the insurgents are gaining strength, he said. "The longer they keep going on the better they will get," said Lang, a student of military history. "The best school of war is war."
The Sunni insurgents could win the battle if they persevere long enough to sour U.S. voters, Feldman said.
He said, "There is no evidence whatsoever that they cannot win."
Sure, we could win if we dropped THE bomb on them...maybe two or three bombs, just to make sure, once we could manage to get our people the hell out. Bet Bush and cohorts would just have an orgasm if they got to do that...and who's gonna stop 'em? Should we have a party line vote in Congress? Seems easy enough to do. Nobody with a lot of integrity there. Just need a bit of Rove's special propaganda and more PANIC PANIC CRISIS CRISIS FEAR FEAR FEAR and they'll all bend over.
Wrap.
Go to Original
Experts: Iraq Verges on Civil War By Timothy M. Phelps Newsday
Thursday 12 May 2005
Washington - An unchastened insurgency sowed devastation across Iraq Wednesday as experts here said the country is either on the verge of civil war or already in the middle of it.
In the course of the day: Four car bombs detonated in Baghdad; a man wearing explosives at an army recruitment center in Hawija, north of Baghdad, blew himself and many others up; a car bomb exploded in a marketplace in Tikrit, north of Baghdad; and the country's largest fertilizer plant was heavily damaged by a bomb in the usually quiet southern city of Basra. Meanwhile, U.S. Marines were winding up a remarkable pitched battle against surprisingly well-equipped and determined insurgents on Iraq's western border. Some 76 Iraqis were reported killed and more than 120 wounded in the one day of violence.
With security experts reporting that no major road in the country was safe to travel, some Iraq specialists speculated that the Sunni insurgency was effectively encircling the capital and trying to cut it off from the north, south and west, where there are entrenched Sunni communities. East of Baghdad is a mostly unpopulated desert bordering on Iran.
"It's just political rhetoric to say we are not in a civil war. We've been in a civil war for a long time," said Pat Lang, the former top Middle East intelligence official at the Pentagon.
Other experts said Iraq is on the verge of a full-scale civil war with civilians on both sides being slaughtered. Incidents in the past two weeks south of Baghdad, with apparently retaliatory killings of Sunni and Shia civilians, point in that direction, they say.
Also of concern were media accounts that hard-line Shia militia members are being deployed to police hard-line Sunni communities such as Ramadi, east of Baghdad, which specialists on Iraq said was a recipe for disaster.
"I think we are really on the edge" of all-out civil war, said Noah Feldman, a New York University law professor who worked for the U.S. coalition in Iraq.
He said the insurgency has been "getting stronger every passing day. When the violence recedes, it is a sign that they are regrouping." While there is a chance the current flare of violence is the insurgency's last gasp, he said, "I have not seen any coherent evidence that we are winning against the insurgency."
"Everything we thought we knew about the insurgency obviously is flawed," said Judith Kipper of the Council on Foreign Relations. "It was quiet for a little while, and here it is back full force all over the country, and that is very dark news."
The increased violence coincides with the approval of a new, democratic government two weeks ago. But instead of bringing the country together, the new government seems to have further alienated even moderate Sunnis who believe they have only token representation.
"That is a joke," said Sunni politician Saad Jabouri, until recently governor of Diyala Province, in an interview here. "The only people they allowed in the government are ones who think like them," he said of the majority Shia faction, who mostly come from Islamic parties.
Military and civilian experts said the insurgency seemed designed to outlast the patience of the American and Iraqi peoples.
"I just think this Sunni thing is going to be pretty hard," said Phebe Marr, a leading U.S. Iraq expert reached in the protected Green Zone in Baghdad. "The American public has to get its expectations down to something reasonable."
Lang said there is new evidence that Saddam Hussein's regime carefully prepared in advance for the insurgency, with former Iraqi officers at the core of each group. They are well coordinated and have consistently adjusted their strategy, he said.
Now the 140,000-plus U.S. troops in the country are mainly "a nuisance" factor in the insurgents' overall goal of preventing the new government from consolidating.
"They understand what the deal is here," Lang said, "to start applying maximum pressure to the economy and the government and make sure it will not work." Their roadside bombs are intended to keep U.S. forces inside their bases, he said.
All the while the insurgents are gaining strength, he said. "The longer they keep going on the better they will get," said Lang, a student of military history. "The best school of war is war."
The Sunni insurgents could win the battle if they persevere long enough to sour U.S. voters, Feldman said.
He said, "There is no evidence whatsoever that they cannot win."
Sure, we could win if we dropped THE bomb on them...maybe two or three bombs, just to make sure, once we could manage to get our people the hell out. Bet Bush and cohorts would just have an orgasm if they got to do that...and who's gonna stop 'em? Should we have a party line vote in Congress? Seems easy enough to do. Nobody with a lot of integrity there. Just need a bit of Rove's special propaganda and more PANIC PANIC CRISIS CRISIS FEAR FEAR FEAR and they'll all bend over.
Wrap.
Hey Bloggers...
What the hell is this? http://blogshares.com/blogs.php?blog=http://aggravated.blogspot.com%2F
Anybody know?
Wrap...
Anybody know?
Wrap...
1st you, then me, then...What Rights?
This excerpt from USA Today:
This is not about health. This is about $$$$ for the health agencies and the insurance companies and saving the corps even more. And then there are the true believers who want everyone to live and behave according to their dictates. Little Hitlers, one and all.
Wrap.
The outright bans raise new questions about how far companies can go in regulating workers' behavior when they are off the clock. The crackdown is coming in part as a way to curb soaring health care costs, but critics say companies are violating workers' privacy rights. The zero-tolerance policies are coming as more companies adopt smoke-free workplaces.
• Weyco, a medical benefits provider based in Okemos, Mich., this year banned employees from smoking on their own time. Employees must submit to random tests that detect if someone has smoked. They must also agree to searches of briefcases, purses or other belongings if company officials suspect tobacco or other banned substances have been brought on-site. Those who smoke may be suspended or fired.
About 20 employees have quit smoking under the policy, and a handful were fired after they opted out of the testing. "The main goal is to elevate the health status of our employees," says Gary Climes, chief financial officer.
• At Investors Property Management in Seattle, smokers are not hired. Employees who smoked before the ban was passed about two years ago are not fired; however, they can't get medical insurance through the company.
• Alaska Airlines has a no-smoking policy for employees, and new hires must submit to a urine test to prove they're tobacco-free.
"The debate has gone from where they can smoke to whether they can smoke," says Marshall Tanick, a Minneapolis-based employment lawyer.
Such bans are not legal everywhere: More than 20 states have passed laws that bar companies from discriminating against workers for lifestyle decisions.
There are other ways that companies are taking action against off-duty smoking, such as raising health care premiums for smokers.
Employers say it's about creating a healthy workforce. But it's also a bottom-line issue: Tobacco causes more than 440,000 deaths annually and results in more than $75 billion in direct medical costs a year, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Some smokers' rights groups are vowing legal action.
"These matters will be decided in the courts," says Redmond, Wash.-based Norman Kjono, with Forces, a smokers' rights group. "You're creating a class of unemployable citizens. It won't stand."
And legal experts fear companies will try to control other aspects of employees' off-duty lifestyle, a trend that is already happening. Some companies are firing, suspending or charging higher insurance premiums to workers who are overweight, have high cholesterol or participate in risky activities.
This is not about health. This is about $$$$ for the health agencies and the insurance companies and saving the corps even more. And then there are the true believers who want everyone to live and behave according to their dictates. Little Hitlers, one and all.
Wrap.
Wednesday, May 11, 2005
FYI: Make Notes...
From Publishers' Lunch: Here's a few of the books and films that will appear sometime in the next year...or maybe even sooner! I must say, Publishers' Lunch has highlighted some winners, so this is advance notice. More, you can get on their email list and get these advances two or three times a week. A good outfit...and good information for readers and writers. I will star * the titles I find particularly interesting. Here we go:
Mystery/Crime
Noreen Wald writing as Nora Charles's fourth and fifth books in the Kate Kennedy senior mystery series, to Tom Colgan at Berkley, by Peter Rubie at Peter Rubie Literary Agency (NA).peterrubie@prlit.com
ThrillerJonathan Stone's PRIME TIME, about a television reporter covering a sniper's rampage who becomes trapped in situations beyond his control, and begins to see a way out as he becomes more intimate with the sniper's work, to John Parsley at Thomas Dunne Books, in a nice deal, by William Clark at William Clark Associates. Andrew Nurnberg Associates handle translation rights; Joel Gotler handles film rights (NA).john.parsley@stmartins.com
Women's/Romance
C.T. Adams and Cathy Clamp's TOUCH OF EVIL, the first in a new vampire/shapeshifter world, plus two more in their award-winning Sazi shapeshifter series, again to Anna Genoese at Tor Romance, in a very nice three book deal, by Merrilee Heifetz at Writers House. Mheifetz@WritersHouse.com
Young Adult
Suzanne Phillips' debut novel CHLOE DOE, in which a 17-year-old girl making a living as a prostitute recounts the tragedies in her past that led her to life on the streets and then to a treatment program, where a battle of wits between her and a psychiatrist turns into a life changing experience, to Andrea Spooner and Sangeeta Mehta at Little, Brown, in a pre-empt, and to Harriet Wilson at Macmillan in the UK, in a pre-empt, by Jodie Rhodes.jrhodes1@san.rr.com
*Film rights to Will Beall's LA REX, to Scott Rudin Productions, by Shari Smiley at CAA, on behalf of Marc Gerald at The Agency Group.marcgerald@theagencygroup.com
NON-FICTIONGeneral/Other
National Book Award-winner Jonathan Kozol's LETTERS TO A YOUNG TEACHER, to Ellen Garrison at Basic, for its Art of Mentoring Series, for publication in fall 2006, by Lynn Nesbit at Janklow & Nesbit (world).rights: isabelle.bleecker@perseusbooks.com
*Secret Service trained graphologist and professor at Duquesne Michelle Dresbold's THE HANDWRITING DETECTIVE, about her own and other famous cases where handwriting profiling solved the crime -- a true-life CSI at work -- plus tips for readers on how handwriting can catch culprits in their lives, to Liz Stein at the Free Press, by Agnes Birnbaum at Bleecker Street Associates (world English).bleeckerst@hotmail.com
Health
Founding member of the UCLA Center for Brain, Culture, and Development Daniel J. Siegel's MINDSIGHT: A New Vision of the Brain that Can Transform the Way You Think, Feel, and Live, to Toni Burbank at Bantam Dell, by Douglas Carlton Abrams of Idea Architects (world).bburg@randomhouse.com
History/Politics/Current Affairs
Senior editor at The New Republic Jonathan Chait's HOW WASHINGTON LOST ITS MIND: The Strange Triumph of Right-Wing Economic Hucksters, about how a small group of economic extremists assumed control of the Republican party and now dictate the country's policies, from corporate welfare to tax cuts for the rich, to Webster Younce at Houghton Mifflin, for publication in 2007, by Gail Ross at Gail Ross Literary Agency (NA).lori_glazer@hmco.com
*True crime
Journalist and TV producer John Huddy's STORMING LAS VEGAS, a true crime account of a string of violent casino heists, centering on a Soviet-trained Cuban who used his military expertise and the experienced detective who took him down, to Mark Tavani at Ballantine, at auction, by Simon Green at POM (world).
Film rights are represented by CAA, and Brett Ratner (Red Dragon) is attached to direct.Rights: ctisne@randomhouse.com
Enjoy! Wrap...
Mystery/Crime
Noreen Wald writing as Nora Charles's fourth and fifth books in the Kate Kennedy senior mystery series, to Tom Colgan at Berkley, by Peter Rubie at Peter Rubie Literary Agency (NA).peterrubie@prlit.com
ThrillerJonathan Stone's PRIME TIME, about a television reporter covering a sniper's rampage who becomes trapped in situations beyond his control, and begins to see a way out as he becomes more intimate with the sniper's work, to John Parsley at Thomas Dunne Books, in a nice deal, by William Clark at William Clark Associates. Andrew Nurnberg Associates handle translation rights; Joel Gotler handles film rights (NA).john.parsley@stmartins.com
Women's/Romance
C.T. Adams and Cathy Clamp's TOUCH OF EVIL, the first in a new vampire/shapeshifter world, plus two more in their award-winning Sazi shapeshifter series, again to Anna Genoese at Tor Romance, in a very nice three book deal, by Merrilee Heifetz at Writers House. Mheifetz@WritersHouse.com
Young Adult
Suzanne Phillips' debut novel CHLOE DOE, in which a 17-year-old girl making a living as a prostitute recounts the tragedies in her past that led her to life on the streets and then to a treatment program, where a battle of wits between her and a psychiatrist turns into a life changing experience, to Andrea Spooner and Sangeeta Mehta at Little, Brown, in a pre-empt, and to Harriet Wilson at Macmillan in the UK, in a pre-empt, by Jodie Rhodes.jrhodes1@san.rr.com
*Film rights to Will Beall's LA REX, to Scott Rudin Productions, by Shari Smiley at CAA, on behalf of Marc Gerald at The Agency Group.marcgerald@theagencygroup.com
NON-FICTIONGeneral/Other
National Book Award-winner Jonathan Kozol's LETTERS TO A YOUNG TEACHER, to Ellen Garrison at Basic, for its Art of Mentoring Series, for publication in fall 2006, by Lynn Nesbit at Janklow & Nesbit (world).rights: isabelle.bleecker@perseusbooks.com
*Secret Service trained graphologist and professor at Duquesne Michelle Dresbold's THE HANDWRITING DETECTIVE, about her own and other famous cases where handwriting profiling solved the crime -- a true-life CSI at work -- plus tips for readers on how handwriting can catch culprits in their lives, to Liz Stein at the Free Press, by Agnes Birnbaum at Bleecker Street Associates (world English).bleeckerst@hotmail.com
Health
Founding member of the UCLA Center for Brain, Culture, and Development Daniel J. Siegel's MINDSIGHT: A New Vision of the Brain that Can Transform the Way You Think, Feel, and Live, to Toni Burbank at Bantam Dell, by Douglas Carlton Abrams of Idea Architects (world).bburg@randomhouse.com
History/Politics/Current Affairs
Senior editor at The New Republic Jonathan Chait's HOW WASHINGTON LOST ITS MIND: The Strange Triumph of Right-Wing Economic Hucksters, about how a small group of economic extremists assumed control of the Republican party and now dictate the country's policies, from corporate welfare to tax cuts for the rich, to Webster Younce at Houghton Mifflin, for publication in 2007, by Gail Ross at Gail Ross Literary Agency (NA).lori_glazer@hmco.com
*True crime
Journalist and TV producer John Huddy's STORMING LAS VEGAS, a true crime account of a string of violent casino heists, centering on a Soviet-trained Cuban who used his military expertise and the experienced detective who took him down, to Mark Tavani at Ballantine, at auction, by Simon Green at POM (world).
Film rights are represented by CAA, and Brett Ratner (Red Dragon) is attached to direct.Rights: ctisne@randomhouse.com
Enjoy! Wrap...
Dean paid Kos? NO..
From Daily Kos:
The lie that won't dieby kos Wed May 11th, 2005 at 11:52:45 PDTEvery week, some journalist somewhere writes that "Dean bloggers were paid to promote his candidacy", and breathlessly reports the "disclosures" that outed said agreement.
Of course, this stemmed from a Wall Street Journal hit piece written by Bill Bulkeley, James Bandler and edited by Alix Freedman. As a result, I refuse to speak to WSJ reporters (as one learned today). But still the story, discredited within 48 hours, still lives on.
So don't spread this bullshit any further.
Wrap...
The lie that won't dieby kos Wed May 11th, 2005 at 11:52:45 PDTEvery week, some journalist somewhere writes that "Dean bloggers were paid to promote his candidacy", and breathlessly reports the "disclosures" that outed said agreement.
Of course, this stemmed from a Wall Street Journal hit piece written by Bill Bulkeley, James Bandler and edited by Alix Freedman. As a result, I refuse to speak to WSJ reporters (as one learned today). But still the story, discredited within 48 hours, still lives on.
So don't spread this bullshit any further.
Wrap...
How low will they go for Bolton?
So far, the Repubs have virtually ignored the many and serious flaws in John Bolton's behavior--both with co-workers and bosses. On the diplomatic scene, he's been a walkin' talkin' disaster. But now, in our moment of need, Larry Flynt strikes again, bless him. Seems Bolton's first wife had more than enough cause to dump his ass. She didn't much like the idea of group sex in a nightclub, whether he did or not. Guess he did. Flynt has chapter and verse, from divorce papers to witnesses nailed down.
So...will major media sit on this info? Raw Story broke that story and Ed Schultz of Air America talked considerable about it. Bloggers have it and are running with it. The major media have to know about it. I have no doubt Congress is getting the word. Congress will be behind a bit in learning about Bolton because of having to evacuate today due to the private plane that invaded the DC airspace.
Have no doubt but that Repub talking heads on radio will devote themselves to trashing both Flynt and Bolton's ex-wife in an attempt to make listeners forget the individual who is responsible for the news is Bolton himself and nobody else.
Just read that Sen Chaffee is gonna vote FOR Bolton. Now that's bravery. Right? Wonder just who got to him? Anybody keeping an eye on Rove? And what's Sen Hagel gonna do now?
So the question is, in spite of the sleasebag that Bolton is, do the Repubs want him to be our nation's ambassador to the UN that badly? And if so, why? To prove their loyalty to Bush/Cheney/Rove/Rice? They gonna be rewarded? Or are they shit-scared not to vote for Bolton for fear of what Bush/Cheney/Rove/Rice will do to them if they don't give Bolton the stamp of approval.
And then....what will the Repubs do to clean the vomit off themselves?
Wrap...
So...will major media sit on this info? Raw Story broke that story and Ed Schultz of Air America talked considerable about it. Bloggers have it and are running with it. The major media have to know about it. I have no doubt Congress is getting the word. Congress will be behind a bit in learning about Bolton because of having to evacuate today due to the private plane that invaded the DC airspace.
Have no doubt but that Repub talking heads on radio will devote themselves to trashing both Flynt and Bolton's ex-wife in an attempt to make listeners forget the individual who is responsible for the news is Bolton himself and nobody else.
Just read that Sen Chaffee is gonna vote FOR Bolton. Now that's bravery. Right? Wonder just who got to him? Anybody keeping an eye on Rove? And what's Sen Hagel gonna do now?
So the question is, in spite of the sleasebag that Bolton is, do the Repubs want him to be our nation's ambassador to the UN that badly? And if so, why? To prove their loyalty to Bush/Cheney/Rove/Rice? They gonna be rewarded? Or are they shit-scared not to vote for Bolton for fear of what Bush/Cheney/Rove/Rice will do to them if they don't give Bolton the stamp of approval.
And then....what will the Repubs do to clean the vomit off themselves?
Wrap...
Tuesday, May 10, 2005
One hell of a Senator!
STATEMENT OF SENATOR BARBARA BOXER
FISCAL YEAR 2006 BUDGET CONFERENCE REPORT
Mrs. BOXER.
Mr. President, I oppose this budget and will vote against it. All of my colleagues should. It sets the wrong priorities. It breaks promises to the American people. And it is the height of fiscal irresponsibility.
Let me begin with the priorities. The priorities of theAmerican people are not the priorities of this budget.It is quite clear what the priorities of this budget are: taxcuts for the wealthy. In just one year, this budget provides a tax cut for millionaires totaling $32 billion. Meanwhile, education funding is cut almost $1 billion below the services we are providing now. A total of 48 education programs are eliminated. The promise that was made in the NoChild Left Behind Act is broken by $12 billion. Mr. President, we should be increasing our commitment to our children, not cutting it.
Veterans programs – for those brave men and women who served our country and are currently serving our country in Iraq andAfghanistan – are cut $500 million. As more and more veterans return to this country, the demands on the VA system will only grow. This budget ignores them.This budget provides no funding for additional police officers on the street. And two major programs to help local law enforcement are eliminated.
Medicaid – the health care program for the poor and disabled, a large portion of whom are children – is cut $10 billion. Funding for the Centers for Disease Control – to prevent diseases and to fight outbreaks – is cut 9 percent.The promise we made to our farmers in 2002 is broken with cuts of $3 billion.
Mr. President, what is going on here? Our children, our veterans, the safety of our streets, and the health of our people – all are taking a back seat to tax cuts for millionaires. This budget helps the wealthiest 1 percent ofAmericans at the expense of 99 percent of Americans. Now, you would think that with all of these cuts in spending for important programs, at least the budget would be balanced –or at least would be more fiscally responsible than it has beenin the past four years. You would be wrong.
This budget increases our debt by $3.1 trillion over the next five years. In 2010, the federal debt will be over $11 trillion.That figure is so high, it is nearly incomprehensible. So let me put it another way: $11 trillion is $1 million every day for 30,000 years.
And, Mr. President, $11 trillion in debt is not the whole story. This budget does not include the almost $400 billion in costs for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. This budget does not include over $700 billion in costs for the President’s plan to privatize Social Security. This budget does not include over $700 billion to ensure that middle-class Americans are not hit with the Alternative Minimum Tax.
Why aren’t these included? Because it would mean even more debt. Debt upon debt upon debt upon debt. And most of it owed to those from foreign countries. We are borrowing from the Japanese, the Chinese, the British, and others – and sticking the bill to our children and grandchildren.
And speaking of the President’s plan to privatize SocialSecurity, I find it ironic that the President again tonight tried to scare the American people by saying that SocialSecurity was going “bankrupt,” when at the same time, this budget steals $2.5 trillion over 10 years from the Social Security Trust Fund. Instead of tax cuts for millionaires, we should be paying back the Trust Fund.
Finally, Mr. President, this budget sets the stage for opening up the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to oil drilling. It has nothing to do with the budget. It has nothing to do with increasing our energy independence. It has everything to do with destroying one of America’s most environmentally pristine areas.This budget has the wrong priorities, bankrupts our country, and destroys our environment. It should be soundly and overwhelmingly rejected.
Wrap.
FISCAL YEAR 2006 BUDGET CONFERENCE REPORT
Mrs. BOXER.
Mr. President, I oppose this budget and will vote against it. All of my colleagues should. It sets the wrong priorities. It breaks promises to the American people. And it is the height of fiscal irresponsibility.
Let me begin with the priorities. The priorities of theAmerican people are not the priorities of this budget.It is quite clear what the priorities of this budget are: taxcuts for the wealthy. In just one year, this budget provides a tax cut for millionaires totaling $32 billion. Meanwhile, education funding is cut almost $1 billion below the services we are providing now. A total of 48 education programs are eliminated. The promise that was made in the NoChild Left Behind Act is broken by $12 billion. Mr. President, we should be increasing our commitment to our children, not cutting it.
Veterans programs – for those brave men and women who served our country and are currently serving our country in Iraq andAfghanistan – are cut $500 million. As more and more veterans return to this country, the demands on the VA system will only grow. This budget ignores them.This budget provides no funding for additional police officers on the street. And two major programs to help local law enforcement are eliminated.
Medicaid – the health care program for the poor and disabled, a large portion of whom are children – is cut $10 billion. Funding for the Centers for Disease Control – to prevent diseases and to fight outbreaks – is cut 9 percent.The promise we made to our farmers in 2002 is broken with cuts of $3 billion.
Mr. President, what is going on here? Our children, our veterans, the safety of our streets, and the health of our people – all are taking a back seat to tax cuts for millionaires. This budget helps the wealthiest 1 percent ofAmericans at the expense of 99 percent of Americans. Now, you would think that with all of these cuts in spending for important programs, at least the budget would be balanced –or at least would be more fiscally responsible than it has beenin the past four years. You would be wrong.
This budget increases our debt by $3.1 trillion over the next five years. In 2010, the federal debt will be over $11 trillion.That figure is so high, it is nearly incomprehensible. So let me put it another way: $11 trillion is $1 million every day for 30,000 years.
And, Mr. President, $11 trillion in debt is not the whole story. This budget does not include the almost $400 billion in costs for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. This budget does not include over $700 billion in costs for the President’s plan to privatize Social Security. This budget does not include over $700 billion to ensure that middle-class Americans are not hit with the Alternative Minimum Tax.
Why aren’t these included? Because it would mean even more debt. Debt upon debt upon debt upon debt. And most of it owed to those from foreign countries. We are borrowing from the Japanese, the Chinese, the British, and others – and sticking the bill to our children and grandchildren.
And speaking of the President’s plan to privatize SocialSecurity, I find it ironic that the President again tonight tried to scare the American people by saying that SocialSecurity was going “bankrupt,” when at the same time, this budget steals $2.5 trillion over 10 years from the Social Security Trust Fund. Instead of tax cuts for millionaires, we should be paying back the Trust Fund.
Finally, Mr. President, this budget sets the stage for opening up the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to oil drilling. It has nothing to do with the budget. It has nothing to do with increasing our energy independence. It has everything to do with destroying one of America’s most environmentally pristine areas.This budget has the wrong priorities, bankrupts our country, and destroys our environment. It should be soundly and overwhelmingly rejected.
Wrap.
They said...
From Independent Clearing House:
The Roots of Violence: Wealth without work, Pleasure without conscience, Knowledge without character, Commerce without morality, Science without humanity, Worship without sacrifice, Politics without principles: Mahatma Gandhi: Indian leader, 1869-1948===
The greatness of every mighty organization embodying an idea in this world lies in the religious fanaticism and intolerance with which, fanatically convinced of its own right, it intolerantly imposes its will against all others: Adolf Hitler (German chancellor, leader of the Nazi party, 1889-1945)===
I know what I believe. I will continue to articulate what I believe and what I believe-I believe what I believe is right. George W. Bush: 43rd President of the United States
Wrap...
The Roots of Violence: Wealth without work, Pleasure without conscience, Knowledge without character, Commerce without morality, Science without humanity, Worship without sacrifice, Politics without principles: Mahatma Gandhi: Indian leader, 1869-1948===
The greatness of every mighty organization embodying an idea in this world lies in the religious fanaticism and intolerance with which, fanatically convinced of its own right, it intolerantly imposes its will against all others: Adolf Hitler (German chancellor, leader of the Nazi party, 1889-1945)===
I know what I believe. I will continue to articulate what I believe and what I believe-I believe what I believe is right. George W. Bush: 43rd President of the United States
Wrap...
This is EVIL!!!.
Who runs this agency? Who are its members? They oughta be shot. Aha! Stephen Johnson...yet to be confirmed. See below.
"Distressing" he says? It's worse than distressing. And if they can't get enough civilian volunteers who will they be going after? Foreign citizens? The military? They want to do this shit, let 'em do it to themselves.
Wrap.
Washington, DC - In the wake of the recent cancellation of the CHEERS study in which parents were to be paid to expose their infant children to pesticides, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is finalizing a new policy that encourages the same type of human dosing studies by industry. Today EPA closes public comment on its "no safeguards" policy of accepting all human subject experiments submitted by industry, according to a filing today by Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER).
Under its new policy, EPA would accept all human chemical dosing studies "unless there is clear evidence that the conduct of these studies was fundamentally unethical… or was significantly deficient relative to the ethical standards prevailing at the time the study was conducted." Since industry is not required to disclose the conditions under which experiments were conducted, it is not clear how EPA will ever learn of "fundamentally unethical" practices. Moreover, EPA is unwilling to define what ethical lapses would disqualify an industry submission from being used for regulatory purposes.
"The Bush Administration is setting the ethical bar so low that only the most sleazy cannot limbo under it," stated PEER Program Director Rebecca Roose. "The basic problem is this: the safeguards that apply to experiments involving development of drugs to help people are far more stringent than EPA's standards for experiments to determine how much commercial poisons harm people."
EPA's refusal to adopt basic safeguards requiring proof of informed consent, independent review or protections for children is part of a Bush Administration drive to liberalize rules on human testing of pesticides and other chemicals. Without actual human experimental data to justify higher chemical exposures for children, industry must abide by the 1996 amendments to the Federal Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act setting ten-fold stricter exposure standards for children.
At the same time it is encouraging industry to expose human subjects, EPA itself is conducting similar experiments that serve to provide a template for industry. Last month to avoid a hold on his confirmation, EPA Administrator Stephen Johnson reluctantly cancelled a controversial study financed jointly by EPA and industry called CHEERS (Children's Environmental Exposure Research Study) that would have paid Florida parents to apply pesticides and other chemicals in the rooms primarily occupied by their infant children. During his confirmation, Johnson disclosed that EPA is also conducting more than 250 other human experiments, several of which involve chemical testing on children, including
Exposing children (ages 3 to 12) to a powerful agricultural insecticide (chlorpyrifos) to test absorption in their systems through "urinary biomarker measurements";
Paying "young male volunteers" to inhale methanol vapors at levels described as "a worst case scenario"; and
Having asthma sufferers inhale potentially harmful ultrafine carbon particles.
"The need for safeguards is particularly acute because EPA is giving industry an economic incentive to push the edge of the ethical envelope," Roose added. "It is distressing that a federal agency is using tax dollars to write a primer for commercial exploitation of human subjects."
"Distressing" he says? It's worse than distressing. And if they can't get enough civilian volunteers who will they be going after? Foreign citizens? The military? They want to do this shit, let 'em do it to themselves.
Wrap.
Lots of talk among the writers this morning about the Discovery Institute (the intelligent design fools), Ahmanson, Gates, Diebold voting machines, Scott Rider on Iran's nuclear capabilities, Bill O'Reilly's stupidity, and then wondering if the capability of plutonium research is a topic in the upper etchelons of NSC and DIRNSA, plus the ability--or lack of--our aircraft carriers to defend themselves from Iran's Exocet missiles when the carriers are within the Persian Gulf, and the CIA establishing an operating post in Denver, to say nothing of the idea of drilling for gas in the radioactive center of an 8000 foot deep hole made, on purpose, by a nuclear bomb...also in Colorado.
All the above at breakfast on the patio. This while other guests and hotel staff are going nuts over a Bernice Mountain puppy, 8 weeks old...the property of one of the writers.
Wrap.
All the above at breakfast on the patio. This while other guests and hotel staff are going nuts over a Bernice Mountain puppy, 8 weeks old...the property of one of the writers.
Wrap.
Monday, May 09, 2005
Quiet....
Not much going on with the writers here today. K and S have both returned from forays into red country. K went off for a week in Indiana and S simply drove 25 miles away to Santee. K may have an article about his trip published soon. S, being a delegate to the CA Dem Committee may make ripples in another way. Hard to tell.
Hard to tell too, why BushCo supporters remain supporters after all that's gone on. Very hard. Probably as many reasons as there are people. One, of course is that they consider Bush a good Christian man because he says he is. If they examined his deeds, they'd see that he's anything but.
I'd forgotten about Reagan having the solar panels removed from the roof of the White House the minute he became prez. Jimmy Carter had them installed because he recognized oil and gas supplies were going to mighty scarce in the future, and he was pushing for alternate energy sources. That came to a screeching halt with Reagan and Bush Sr. Started up again with Clinton and back to a halt with Bush Jr.
Arianna Huffington's big blog is up and running as of today. It looks great. Some very talented and expressive and well-informed writers have articles on that blog. Talk about having something to read! There's plenty there, I'm happy to report. I've just moved it up near the top of my Favorites list.
Speaking of Favorites list...mine is getting so long it takes forever to move something from the bottom to the top. Finding something takes a whole lot longer. Know I could alphabetize it, but I prefer the ones I read most frequently to be up top. Has to be a better way, but damned if I can think of one.
Wrap...
Hard to tell too, why BushCo supporters remain supporters after all that's gone on. Very hard. Probably as many reasons as there are people. One, of course is that they consider Bush a good Christian man because he says he is. If they examined his deeds, they'd see that he's anything but.
I'd forgotten about Reagan having the solar panels removed from the roof of the White House the minute he became prez. Jimmy Carter had them installed because he recognized oil and gas supplies were going to mighty scarce in the future, and he was pushing for alternate energy sources. That came to a screeching halt with Reagan and Bush Sr. Started up again with Clinton and back to a halt with Bush Jr.
Arianna Huffington's big blog is up and running as of today. It looks great. Some very talented and expressive and well-informed writers have articles on that blog. Talk about having something to read! There's plenty there, I'm happy to report. I've just moved it up near the top of my Favorites list.
Speaking of Favorites list...mine is getting so long it takes forever to move something from the bottom to the top. Finding something takes a whole lot longer. Know I could alphabetize it, but I prefer the ones I read most frequently to be up top. Has to be a better way, but damned if I can think of one.
Wrap...
Sunday, May 08, 2005
Tennessee Blogger Conference
The LA Times reports in today's paper:
From Times Wire Reports
More than 300 bloggers came to Nashville for a two-day conference that was heavy on teaching techniques used by journalists in what bloggers term "the mainstream media." One class at the conference taught students how to access and analyze government statistics. Conference organizer Bill Hobbs called blogging "citizen journalism." There are more than 8 million bloggers, said Bob Cox, president of the Media Bloggers Assn.Blogs, short for Web logs, are running commentaries on whatever their authors are interested in. Content often focuses on politics or media criticism.
Now that's interesting...and a good thing for bloggers to be aware of.
Wrap.
From Times Wire Reports
More than 300 bloggers came to Nashville for a two-day conference that was heavy on teaching techniques used by journalists in what bloggers term "the mainstream media." One class at the conference taught students how to access and analyze government statistics. Conference organizer Bill Hobbs called blogging "citizen journalism." There are more than 8 million bloggers, said Bob Cox, president of the Media Bloggers Assn.Blogs, short for Web logs, are running commentaries on whatever their authors are interested in. Content often focuses on politics or media criticism.
Now that's interesting...and a good thing for bloggers to be aware of.
Wrap.
Frustrated to the max..
Give the benefit of the doubt....be polite....suffer in silence....stick your head in the sand....hope for the best....trust your government....say your prayers.... . Right. And as citizens, get your ass kicked until your nose bleeds. And still we refuse to pay attention if the news doesn't involve sex or murder. Or both at once. Especially with celebrities. Give 'em bread and circuses, and you can do anything and get away with it. Does it work? Watch TV news and see. Here are Bush and Putin meeting in Russia, and what does the caption on the picture on the front page say? "Bush drives Putin's car" (whatever it is) and there they are in a shot taken as car proceeds toward camera. OH! That's important to know, all right.
There are folks out in this countryside who are so frustrated with today's ignored facts, they can barely stand to be civil. Here's one of them:
The above comes courtesty of the brilliant http://morialefaka.blogspot.com That gentleman sometimes speaks my mind better than I do.
Wrap.
There are folks out in this countryside who are so frustrated with today's ignored facts, they can barely stand to be civil. Here's one of them:
What is going on in our country? Everyone in the world, and in the United States, except apparently for members of the Altogether Loony Churches Association, has to be aware that Bush/Cheney/Rumsfeld/Rice et al are clearly guilty of WAR CRIMES. Members of the House of Representatives, unless they are stupid or uninformed beyond belief have to know this. Members of the Senate also have to be aware of this. There is plenty of evidence, hard evidence, that this is so. So why does nothing happen? Why are members of the House not talking impeachment? Why do leaders of other nations continue to meet with Bush as though he is somehow legitimate? Why have people not taken to the streets in huge numbers to demand justice? Or at least a change of Administrations?
I cannot believe the deplorable state my country has fallen into. I cannot believe there are apparently NO honorable politicians in either party. Why do they go on endlessly turning a blind eye (if not a sympathetic one)to scandals being constantly covered up? Why do they not speak out against the litany of lies that emanate from the Bush/Cheney Administration?Is my memory so bad that I cannot remember what actually happened in the last four years? Was it not the case that the Supreme Court, considering the controversy of Cheney's secret energy meetings, returned the matter of the lower court for a decision? And did the whole matter subsequently just disappear? Do you remember hearing anything more about it? Did they in fact act on it? As far as I know they did not. Why not?What about the Plame case? What about Gannon/Guckert? What about the 9/11 questions? What about Sibel Edmonds? What about the Bush/Blair conspiracy to attack Iraq and manufacture false reasons for doing so? What about Falluja? Torture? The permanent U.S. bases being built in Iraq against their wishes? What about the de facto civil war raging in that unfortunate country, in which U.S. troops are playing a part? What about the cost of continuing in Iraq? What about..., What about...,
Has a majority of U.S. citizens simply gone stark, raving mad? How can we stand for this? What is the matter with everyone? Have the Fascists already won? When can we expect our daily ration of black bread and water? All hail your eminence, Lord of all, Master of the Universe, Divine Messenger of God, Masta belong mipela, King of Kings, Emperor of the World, Wisest of the Wise, Conqueror of all, and whatever.
God! What a mess!!
The above comes courtesty of the brilliant http://morialefaka.blogspot.com That gentleman sometimes speaks my mind better than I do.
Wrap.
Saturday, May 07, 2005
Accountants? Hah.
The nuclear scientist bloggers over at Los Alamos have succeeded in ridding themselves of their Director, Nanos. Now they're raising hell over the Dept of Energy and UCLA paying no attention to finances. So here, from http://lanos-the-real-story.blogspot.com , they say:
I'd say those questions are pertinent. Yes indeed. So where are the investigative reporters? They were certainly all over the mistaken rumor that one of the lab's hard disks had disappeared. Certainly all over the poor scientist in that department. Ah, but energy questions stop with Cheney, do they not? And Cheney gives no info on what arrangements he makes behind closed doors with the energy giants....like Enron.
Wrap.
“The Energy Department has questioned $14 million worth of shutdown costs as unallowable under its contract with the university. In an unrelated audit, the agency’s inspector general found that the Energy Department and the university miscalculated fixed payments allowed to government contractors for home office expenses. For the last five years, the overpayment has totaled $21 million and escaped the government’s attention in part because it never asked the university for itemized expenses, according to the inspector generals audit. For that same reason, the government never noticed that it mistakenly had agreed to pay $8 million in university operational expenses of no benefit to federal taxpayers.
Energy Department officials appear inclined to surrender any claim to the $21 million but may seek reimbursement from the university for about $880,000 in clearly unwarranted university charges to the government. These included $140,000 in costs for student recruitment and donations.”
Excuse me. Did I read this correctly? DoE, because of its sloppy oversight, let UC get away with $28 million in unallowable charges, and now doesn't intend to ask for them back…and Congress is going to let them get away with this?? Is there a sweetheart deal going on between DoE and UC? If so, just how fair is the lab recompetiton?
You reporters out there reading this ought to follow this up. Something very, very fishy is going on in the DoE, and perhaps in Congress. Is there a quiet deal with the California delegation somewhere? If a company doing business with the government was found to have overcharged by $28 million, you better believe the GAO would want it back, with interest and perhaps even penalties. So how come the DoE gets away with it?
Which leads to another related question: Los Alamos Lab and the University of California have come in for a good deal of public criticism from Congress and others, some of it fair, some not. But conspicuously absent in this finger pointing has been the DoE.
In the end, the DoE owns the lab, UC just managers it. So the DoE is ultimately responsible for the poor management of the labs, and has clearly been complicit in covering up problems there for years. And the DoE concurred on the long lab shutdown, which must have cost the taxpayers close to a billion dollars, though the DoE is trying to low-ball the costs by not counting everything.
So how come no one is talking about firing the DoE staff that is supposed to have managed the lab and UC? How come no one is proposing closing down the DoE, who after all haven't invented anything of use yet?Seems to me the real ire of Congress and the public ought to be focused on the DoE, where the buck really stops, rather than on UC and the labs.
I'd say those questions are pertinent. Yes indeed. So where are the investigative reporters? They were certainly all over the mistaken rumor that one of the lab's hard disks had disappeared. Certainly all over the poor scientist in that department. Ah, but energy questions stop with Cheney, do they not? And Cheney gives no info on what arrangements he makes behind closed doors with the energy giants....like Enron.
Wrap.
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