Politics Jan 2005

1/26/2005 Politics / Odd Happenings Fear Makes Humans Dangerous. Teachable moment. God. Sadly, the odd story below demonstrates a point I've been making for years. US "leaders" have become dangerous and destructive due to false fears, for example, of WMDs. Have we killed more Iraqi's than Saddam yet? How about our own people? This insane and costly war was begun because crazed politicians were (purposefully?) blind to good intelligence BEFORE our invasion.

Now, a true Sacramento, CA story:

(SacramentoBee) "Man fires shots, breaks into senior complex. A blind, terrified 29-year-old Pocket man who was mistakenly convinced he was being pursued by angry neighbors, broke into a senior housing community before dawn Saturday, screaming for help and shooting a gun at his imaginary pursuers.

... Convinced they were coming after him with a gun, Savage leaped from the second-floor balcony of his apartment, armed with a handgun and began running, Risley said. Shooting wildly behind him, Savage raced across a field and into The Fountains at Greenhaven, a new upscale apartment complex for seniors at 1180 Corporate Way, where he broke in through a tenant's apartment window, cutting himself badly, Risley said.

"He's bleeding significantly, and he's running down the halls, banging on doors, asking people to help him," Risley said.

"Unfortunately, he's got a gun and he thinks people are chasing him. And he's legally blind. So he fires a couple of shots down the hallway. Fortunately, he doesn't hurt anybody."

When officers arrived, Savage told them he was shooting in self-defense. But when officers retraced his steps, they could find no evidence that anyone other than Savage had fired a gun.

That sums it all up. Stupidity, blindness and false fears of non-existant weapons = Real danger to yourself and others. Savage should obviously be made the new Sacramento Chief of Police. That's the way we do things in my country. The Bush mob now says a lack of human intelligence was the reason for the invasion of Iraq. Indeed. You don't say?

1/24/2005 Politics / Health (ZD) Homeland Security Documents Leaked. A freedom of information / anti-government secrecy web site published months of "confidential daily briefs" from the Dept. of Homeland Security. "According to the Web site hosting this information, the Department of Energy accidentally published the documents online." I'm always curious about what my govt. is up to, so I checked them out. Lots to read, but here is a summary: Dates posted range from 27 September 2004 to 14 January 2005. Topics include: Fake IDs, suspicious video taping and photography, concealed weapons at airports, bomb threats, gang symbols, chemical spills, stolen vehicles, people denied entry on watch lists with possible links to terror groups, discarded weapons, explosives found including an anti tank rocket, power transformers destoyed by gunfire, and so on. Assuming the briefs are legit ( and not clever a plant ... wink wink), I now have a lot more confidence that this new agency is hard at work doing exactly what it should.

One brief says, "on 21 December, at the Electro-Plates of York Inc. in Wrightsville, a fire broke out in the facility releasing ... highly toxic chemicals (including) Cyanide Gas ... into the air and the local river system ... The population of Wrightsville (PA), approx 3000 persons, has been advised to take shelter indoors. "

Noteworthy: 1. Homeland Security had a typo in the company name. "Electro-Plates of York Inc" should be "Electro-Platers of York". One paper also uses the wrong name. "... acids in the water and air were initially higher than normal but dissipated within hours after the 1:15 am fire at Electro-Plates Inc. of York was extinguished ..." - lancasteronline (now removed) Other sources say "Electro-Platers of York" is correct. I recommend that Homeland Security have an even better and more detail oriented fact checking team than newspapers.

2. Either cyanide gas was released or it wasn't. Several news stories cover the fire (1, 2, 3) and in one we hear that, "According to the Wrightsville fire chief, the plant held at least a dozen chemicals, including sulphuric and nitric acid, but: "[The fire] was so intense, it incinerated the chemicals and prevented cyanide gas from forming." Two fire-fighters had minor injuries, but no one else was hurt. Fifty-five employees were laid off and factory owner David Sollenberger has promised to rebuild as soon as possible. The cause of the fire is still under investigation.

1/12 - 1/19/2005 Politics: Update: Tomorrow is the Not One Dime Day Boycott protest of the Bush inaguration and war in Iraq. This movement has been falsely attributed to Bill Moyers. Bill Moyers, according to truthorfiction.com has issued a statement that he is not involved. The boycott is still happening, nevertheless. There seems to be some worry in Washington beyond the boycott since missiles have been deployed for the event! More about the boycott:

Not One Dime Day - Jan 20, 2005 Since our religious leaders will not speak out against the war in Iraq, since our political leaders don't have the moral courage to oppose it, Inauguration Day, Thursday, January 20th, 2005 is "Not One Damn Dime Day" in America.

On "Not One Damn Dime Day," those who oppose what is happening in our name in Iraq can speak up with a 24-hour national boycott of all forms of consumer spending. During "Not One Damn Dime Day" please don't spend money. Not one damn dime for gasoline. Not one damn dime for necessities or for impulse purchases. Not one damn dime for anything for 24 hours. On "Not One Damn Dime Day," please boycott Wal-Mart, Kmart, Target, the Post Office.... Please don't go to the mall or the local convenience store. Please don't buy any fast food (or any groceries at all for that matter). Please alert your teenagers, your children, your workplace associates. This is passive resistance at its keenest and most effective, and everyone in the U.S. can participate. Do you have the courage to make an impact on this nation?"

It might make news if enough people do it, but I don't see how it can have any real economic impact.

1/18/2005 Politics. Video MSNBC. CA Senator Barbara Boxer and Condi Rice exchange sharp words at Rice's confirmation hearing. Boxer tells Rice that she is on record contradicting both herself and the president. She has played both sides of the issues of Saddam's WMDs. Boxer says the original reason we went to war was statements that Saddam had WMDs.

Rice says, "Yes, we thought he had stockpiles which we did not have" but there were other reasons for going to war such as getting rid of a bloody dictator and Saddam had SCUDS that could hit Israel. Bingo. I told you this years ago folks. Saddam was not a threat to the USA. His weapons couldn't reach us. In other words, we were tricked into fighting someone else's war. Rice blames faulty intelligence. But the faulty intelligence was a deception provided by Israeli interests in the Pentagon's Office of Special Plans according to Mother Jones. ( See the graphic. Also the NewYorker, and supposedly even a CIA investigation found this to be true.)

Boxer says on point about Rice's first deception, saying Rice shifted the reasons. Boxer tells Rice to read what congress voted on, that the reason congress voted to support the war was WMD, period. True. This fact makes the war illegal, but Boxer didn't point that out.

According to Section 3, paragraph B, of the JOINT RESOLUTION To authorize the use of United States Armed Forces against Iraq. Bush was required to prove to the Congress that Iraq was in violation of UN Resolutions by still being in possession of weapons of mass destruction, and secondly, that Iraq was behind 9-11. Both claims have since been disproved and discredited." -wrh

Rice says Boxer should not imply that she takes the truth lightly. Boxer says she is only showing Rice her own words.

This fight is just like the death penalty issue. One side has faulty logic. Saddam was killing his people so we have now killed over 100,000 of his people. That will teach him to stop killing his people. Look, if Iraq's problems were all caused by this "bloody dictator," this "most dangerous person in the world," why is Iraq still a nest of violent death now that Saddam is completely out of the picture? "Duh, I don't know bubba. Change the channel, would 'ya? All of this is boring."

Everyone thinks they have the moral high ground and that therefore the killing THEY do is justified, good and right. God is on OUR side. Yes, oil resources are key.

1/18/2005 Politics. California will murder a murderer at midnight tonight. (Follow up: they did.) It makes me sad that my species is so dumb and violent. State sponsored murder is morally wrong, but also, practically, it isn't worth it. It costs California tax payers $100 million a year. (see 1, 2, 3, 4) Capital punishment is unnecessary and inappropriate in our modern society, and is opposed by lawyers, actors, groups such as amnesty international, citizens groups, murder victim's families, and many more.

Statistically the death penalty does not reduce violent crime. "According to the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s statistics, the murder rate in some states, which use the death penalty, is twice that of some states that do not use the death penalty."

Think about it. If violent retribution reduced violence, the Middle East would be the most peaceful place on earth. Instead, the cancer of hate and revenge there has made the Middle East one of the most violent places on earth.

Get a clue. If you kill to prove that killing is wrong, you only teach that killing is right for those who have the moral high ground. Because everyone including killers believe that they are in the right, state sponsored death penalty teaches murder.

1/17/2005 Politics. (commondreams) Bush’s Choice for Energy Secretary Was One of Texas’ Top Five Worst Polluters.

"... one of the President’s most outrageous decisions (besides naming Alberto Gonzales, who concocted a legal case for torturing foreign prisoners at Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo Bay, Attorney General) has got to be choosing 66 year-old Sam Bodman to serve as Secretary of Energy. This is a guy who for a dozen years ran a Texas-based chemical company that spent years on the top five lists of the country’s worst polluters. It’s not just a few clouds of smoke emanating from an oil refinery or a power plant that got Bodman’s old company, Boston-based Cabot Corporation, those accolades. It was the 54,000 tons of toxic emissions that his company’s refineries released into the air in the Lone Star state in 1997 alone that made Cabot the fourth largest source of toxic emissions in Texas. Cabot is the world’s largest producer of industrial carbon black, a byproduct of the oil refinery process. In 2000, the year Bodman left Cabot to join the Bush administration as Deputy Commerce Secretary, Cabot accounted for 60,000 of the more than half-a-million tons of toxic emissions released into the Texas air, according to report by the Texas State Summary of Emissions. "

Not surprising. Expect more foxes in charge of hen houses under Bush. Why would the next four years be any different from the first?

1/17/2005 Politics. This morning MSNBC flashed a poll showing 74% of 25,463 responses were feeling hopeful about Pres. Bush's second term agenda. Only 26% were not feeling hopeful.

A few minutes later the newscaster reaappeared and said they'd made a mistake, the poll numbers were reversed. Oops.

Actually, 78% of the country was NOT feeling hopeful about Pres. Bush's second term agenda. If a large majority of the country is pessimisitc about Bush's second term, and he lost the debates, and the exit polls showed him losing the election ... how in the heck did he get re-elected?

Some are certain the 2004 US election was rigged. Read about vote fraud. Kerry (also a Bonesman like Bush) folded, they say, without a fight as if it was all part of the plan. I predict the "swearing in" of GW Bush in three days on Jan. 20 at noon will have a lot of Americans swearing alright.

1/13/2005 Politics: WMD Hunt Ends; Bush's Spin Goes On. "It was President Bush's chief argument for waging war with Iraq -- claims that Saddam Hussein was stockpiling weapons of mass destruction. But now, nearly two years after he ordered the U.S. led invasion the search for WMDs has ended without success." - wtnh

Yup. Told you so years ago, right here. Some of you faith-in-Bush folk still won't listen. Incredible. Can't accept that you were completely faked out. Face it. You were tricked. Ha ha. Who cares? Not Bush.

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