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�Once in his life, every man is entitled to fall madly in love with a gorgeous redhead�
-Lucille Ball
"To announce that there must be no criticism of the President, or that we are to stand by the President, right or wrong, is not only unpatriotic and servile, but is morally treasonable to the American public."
--Theodore Roosevelt, 1918
REGISTER TO VOTE
"The time is always right to do what is right"
- Martin Luther King, Jr.
"The "seven social sins": Knowledge without character,
Science without humanity,
Wealth without work,
Commerce without morality,
Politics without principles,
Pleasure without conscience,
Worship without self-sacrifice."
--Gandhi
"We have not inherited the world from our forfathers -
We have borrowed it from our children."
--Kashmiri, proverb
Sept. 16, 2003:
President Bush Shortchanges Funding for His Own Emergency AIDS Program
The President heavily promoted his emergency relief for AIDS after announcing it at this year's State of the Union speech, signing a $15 billion law to be spent over five years. But while the President is publicly calling for full funding, he's actively seeking to underfund his own program.
The President said in Africa this July that "The House of Representatives and the United States Senate must fully fund this initiative, for the good of the people on this continent of Africa," Less than a week later, he sent a letter to Congress asking for 1/3rd less than full funding.
The law that Bush signed authorized $3 billion a year, but President Bush has requested only $2 billion in his 2004 budget. Despite the claim to fully fund the program in the State of the Union, the Bush Administration is now claiming that AIDS service organizations cannot absorb full funding immediately. The service organizations themselves disagree with the White House's position.
The Republican-led Foreign Operations subcommittee also disagreed when it approved a doubling of the commitment for the Global Fund to Fight AIDS from $200 million to $400 million, despite a letter from the White House requesting the lower figure. It was later scrapped by the full committee under White House pressure.
And the bottom line? The president's push for $1 billion less than authorized by Congress (and promoted by the President himself) blocks 1 million people from treatment and nearly 2.5 million new HIV infections that could be avoided.
Sept. 17, 2003:
President Bush Undermines Clean Air Act with New Source Review Decision
President Bush's final New Source Review (NSR) rule will harm the environment, despite what he claimed in his speech Monday at a Detroit Edison Monroe Power Plant in Michigan. The site of the speech was chosen as a model plant that would benefit from the new NSR rule; however, the rule would enable the Monroe plant to dump at least 30,000 more tons of sulfur dioxide emissions each year [1].
The Monroe plant is the eighth largest emitter of sulfur dioxide in the country [2]. President Bush talked at length about a 1999 request Detroit Edison submitted to the EPA debating whether its planned upgrade would constitute a major modification that would require it to improve its pollution control devices.
The President tried to argue that the EPA's decision was too "complicated" to implement quickly,"[3] but the EPA's response letter clearly gave the company the go ahead and in fact encouraged it to begin its upgrade project: "Detroit Edison has been free to proceed at any time with the Dense Pack project without first obtaining a PSD permit as long as it adheres to its stated intention to not increase emissions as a result of the project. Indeed, EPA encourages the company to proceed with the project on this basis, since it appears to both reduce emissions per unit of output and not increase actual air pollution."[4]
The outcome for the Monroe plant under Bush's new NSR rule means that it can increase emissions by more than 30,000 tons a year, a 56 percent increase over current levels.[5] And in Michigan, where as many as 22 counties may have air too dirty to consistently meet new federal clean air standards, state environmental officials are concerned about overall air quality. "The challenge we are facing is new ozone (smog) regulations, and counties that will be designated as being in nonattainment," said Patricia Spitzley, spokeswoman for the Department of Environmental Quality. "That's a huge issue."[6]
Sources:
1. Bush Defends New Environmental Rules, New York Times, 9/16/03
2. Clean Air Markets, Data and Maps, Environmental Protection Agency
3. President Visits Detroit Edison Monroe Power Plant in Monroe, Michigan, 9/15/03
4. EPA Letter to Detroit Edison Counsel, 5/23/00
5. Bush Defends New Environmental Rules, New York Times, 9/16/03
6. Bush links clean air rules to jobs, Detroit News, 9/16/03
New Source Review Background: The Administration's final NSR rule changed the requirement that facilities upgrade pollution controls when they replace equipment if the upgrade increases pollution. The new rule exempts factories and power plants from upgrading their pollution controls if the cost of modification is less than 20 percent of the plant's total cost, regardless of its impact on emissions. ("States to Fight Easing of Rules on Pollution by Power Plants", New York Times, 8/29/03, p. B1; Natural Resources Defense Council)
Sept. 18, 2003
Bush Administration Miscalculation in Iraq Leads to Calls for Accountability
President Bush's administration has consistently miscalculated the post-war commitment required and Iraqi resistance to the point where a growing number of members of Congress who voted for the Iraq war resolution are now calling for accountability at high levels.
Both Vice President Cheney and Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz argued publicly before the war that American forces would be greeted as liberators,1 including Wolfowitz's assertion less than two weeks before the war began that, "Like the people of France in the 1940s, [the Iraqi people] view us as their hoped-for liberators."2
The consistently rosy scenarios articulated by Deputy Secretary Wolfowitz and the administration about much of the war in Iraq, from the required troop strength3 to the length of stay4 ignored potential results manifesting themselves today in the form of additional funding requests beyond original estimates, extended troop deployments, and skeptical allies from whom the U.S. is now seeking assistance to stabilize and rebuild the country.5
The intelligence community, including that of the Pentagon, concluded last fall that "there would be resistance . . . They [Defense Intelligence Agency analysts] said it would be hard to keep the lid on and to keep the various areas of the country from falling apart."6
While the administration insists that acts of violence and terrorism against American forces in Iraq are at the hands of a select few of "dead-enders, foreign terrorists and criminal gangs," some defense officials are also now claiming "it was a mistake for the administration to discount the role of ordinary Iraqis".7
With the recent announcement that called-up reserves will be required to serve an extra tour of duty, senior Army officials are publicly saying that "the Army is strained and stressed."8 Rep. John Murtha, a member who voted for the war resolution, said, "Poor planning by Administration put American lives at risk . . .The architect of this post-war plan has to go."9
Sources:
1. Meet the Press, 3/16/03
2. "Pre-War Predictions Coming Back to Bite", USA Today, p. 8A
3. "Cost of War Remains Unanswered Question," Washington Post, p. A13
4. "A grand plan to bomb Baghdad and impose stability on Kirkuk", Financial Times, 3/1/03, p. 11
5. "Powell in Baghdad: Too soon for self-rule", Chicago Tribune, 9/15/03, p. 1
6. "Spy Agencies Warned of Iraq Resistance," Washington Post, 9/9/03, p. A1
7. "Iraqis' Bitterness Is Called Bigger Threat Than Terror," New York Times, 9/17/03
8. "Iraq Takes A Toll on Rumsfeld," Washington Post, 9/14/03
9. News Conference with Representative Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) and Rep. John Murtha (D-PA), U.S. Capitol, 9/16/03.
~~~
While we�re on the subject of Big Fat Liars, I urge everyone to go read this piece from the Star Tribune, which relates to a recent appearance by one Dick Cheney on Meet the Press; an appearance during which he repeatedly lied to the American public about Iraq...again.
I�ve already loaded this entry with a lot of information, most of which is sure to be boring to anybody but me. Therefore, I will not copy the entire article. Here are a few hi-lights, though, for posterity:
In his appearance on "Meet the Press" Sunday, Cheney fell woefully short of truth. On the subject of Iraq, the same can be said for President Bush, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and his deputy, Paul Wolfowitz. But Cheney is the latest example of administration mendacity, and therefore a good place to start in holding the administration accountable. The list:
� Cheney repeated the mantra that the nation ignored the terrorism threat before Sept. 11. In fact, President Bill Clinton and his counterterrorism chief, Richard Clarke, took the threat very seriously, especially after the bombing of the USS Cole in October 2000. By December, Clarke had prepared plans for a military operation to attack Osama bin Laden in Afghanistan, go after terrorist financing and work with police officials around the world to take down the terrorist network�Clarke briefed national security adviser Condoleezza Rice, Cheney and others. He emphasized that time was short and action was urgent. The Bush administration sat on the report for months and months. The first high-level discussion took place on Sept. 4, 2001, just a week before the attacks. The actions taken by the Bush administration following Sept. 11 closely parallel actions recommended in Clarke's nine-month-old plan. Who ignored the threat?...
Cheney said that "we don't know" if there is a connection between Iraq and the Sept. 11 attacks on the United States. He's right only in the sense that "we don't know" if the sun will come up tomorrow. But all the evidence available says it will -- and that Iraq was not involved in Sept. 11...
In trying to make that link, Cheney baldly asserted that Iraq is the "geographic base" for those who struck the United States on Sept. 11.
No, that would be Afghanistan.
� On weapons of mass destruction, Cheney made a number of statements that were misleading or simply false. For example, he said the United States knew Iraq had "500 tons of uranium." Well, yes, and so did the U.N. inspectors. What Cheney didn't say is that the uranium was low-grade waste from nuclear energy plants, and could not have been useful for weapons without sophisticated processing that Iraq was incapable of performing...
~~~
I�ll make a real entry, one of these days. I am rather...out of sorts in many ways. And extremely busy to boot.
Peace, love and smooches, kiddies.
~~~
Dear MoveOn member,
The US occupation in Iraq has left American soldiers unprepared and vulnerable, the country degenerating into chaos, and the Iraqi people embittered and hostile. Now the President is asking Congress for a staggering $87 billion blank check to fund more of the same. Until he takes strong steps to correct this failure, Congress shouldn't give him a cent. President Bush needs to fire the team responsible -- starting with Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld -- and transfer authority to the United Nations.
Please join us in telling Congress to hold on to our money until President Bush changes his team and changes his course in Iraq. You can send an email to your Member of Congress and sign our petition here.
Then please pass this message along to your friends and colleagues.
Here's the situation:
� 155 U.S. soldiers have died in Iraq since President Bush declared "Mission Accomplished." Since the beginning of the war, over 300 soldiers have given their lives, more than in any U.S. conflict in decades.
� There are 140,000 troops in the country now. According to General Tommy Franks, those levels won't be reduced "in the foreseeable future." "The Army is strained and stressed," said another general last week. (Washington Post, 9/14/03)
� The U.S. occupation of Iraq now costs about $1 billion a WEEK -- as much as the Federal Government spends on after school programs for the entire year. Those are just military costs -- not including any money for rebuilding in Iraq.
� Suicide attacks and bombings throughout Iraq are becoming a daily occurrence; they show no sign of slowing.
� Iraqis resent the U.S. occupation. The headline of an article in today's New York Times is "Iraqis' Bitterness Is Called Bigger Threat Than Terror." (New York Times, 9/16/03)
� No weapons of mass destruction have been found, nor have we seen any evidence of an active weapons development program.
� And there's no exit strategy: the Administration has yet to present a realistic plan for how the occupation of Iraq will end.
But Donald Rumsfeld and the team that took us to war remain unwilling to concede that anything's wrong. Thomas White, a retired Army General, noted that "[Rumsfeld] is absolutely convinced that he is right, that his view is correct, so all the rest of this stuff that is floating around is kind of noise, a lot of which he just dismisses out of hand, or he rationalizes somehow as consistent with this plan of his." (Washington Post, 9/14/03)
While Rumsfeld rationalizes, we're paying for the mismanagement of Iraq in money and in blood. The President, Secretary Rumsfeld, and the rest of the team distorted evidence to get us into this war. They told us that they had a plan for getting out of Iraq. But so far, the President hasn't done anything to demonstrate that he's going to pull us out of this mess. He should start by hiring a new Defense Secretary. Then he should repudiate the failed unilateral approach and transfer authority for the rebuilding of Iraq to the United Nations.
It's Congress's duty to keep the President accountable. You can tell Congress to hold on to the $87 billion until the President changes his team and changes his course here.
There's a lot at stake. We have to do this right.
Sincerely,
--Carrie, Eli, Joan, Noah, Peter, Wes, and Zack
The MoveOn Team
September 17th, 2003
~~~
"Pass It On..." Looking ahead...(from Kucitizen Volunteer Newsletter Tuesday September 16, 2003 Issue 4)
September-May: School Days! - Volunteer at schools and youth clubs to help with special events throughout the year. Help teachers to correct papers. Tutor children. In some communities teachers are talking strike. Stand with them in solidarity.
October 25: On this day in 2002, Minnesota Sen. Paul Wellstone, his wife Sheila and daughter Marcia along with Mary McEvoy, Will McLaughlin, Tom Lapic, Richard Conry, and Michael Guess were killed in a plane crash near Eveleth, Minnesota. In their memory, find out what you can do throughout the year to help women and children living in shelters.
November 11: Veteran's Day. Support the troops! While a Minnesota reservist was building bridges in Iraq, at home his buddies from the volunteer fire department put up a swing set for his young children. What are you doing to transform empty clich�s into real action?
November 27: Thanksgiving Day. Have an open house for college students and others who can't go home for the holidays. Contribute food, clothing and supplies to shelters.
~~~
Below is text of collage handout distributed first in 1998 and used as the cover page of briefing book hand-delivered to Rep. Thomas' Bakersfield District Office, September 15, 2003, to Staff Assistant Kati McKeown who gave assurance that she would give it to "the right person" along with accompanying copy of Jeane Manning's 1995 overview book on this new energy technology field, "The Coming Energy Revolution" from Avery Publishing.
Most contents of that briefing book, excluding graphics pages, are archived, and more, future updates etc, for public review here.
Two copies of this briefing book were also hand-delivered that day at California State University at Bakersfield to David Laughing Horse Robinson, one for his gubernatorial campaign use and one for him to take to Santa Barbara when he speaks there sometime soon.
------retyped text of Congressman Thomas' 1998 letter of response to his receipt of extensive briefing materials submitted that year as public comments in Sacramento at US DOE CNES public hearing, and the following Washington DC final public comments hearing on CNES:
William M. Thomas
21st District, California
Committees:
Chairman, House Oversight Committee
Chairman, Ways and Means Subcommittee on Health
Member, Ways and Means Subcommittee on Trade
2208 Rayburn House Office Building
Washington, DC 20515-0521
(202) 225-2915
Congress of The United States
House of Representatives
Washington, DC
June 16, 1998
David Williams
20411 Steeple Court
Tehachapi, California 93561
Dear David:
Thank you for your thoughtful letter regarding the global environment and your concerns about replacing our current energy sources with others. You also raise some interesting points about hemp cultivation that I know is gathering a gread (sic) deal of interest in the scientific community.
I have spoken to Members of the House committtees (sic) than handle science and energy issues about these ideas and encouraged their consideration. You may know that I am a big supporter of renewable energy. California and Kern County have many innovative recycling and alternatives energy facilities such as geothermal and wind energy in addition to the more traditional oil sources.
Best regards,
[signed] Bill
William M. Thomas
Member of Congress
WMT/dkk
-------------end retyped letter text (with typos included)
The handout composite referenced above centerpieces this letter headed by lettering copied from the DOE CNES final report sent to Congress and the President, in various type sizes as on report:
------begin text of composite additions from CNES report
Comprehensive National Energy Strategy
DOE/S-0124
National Energy Policy Plan
Pursuant to Section 801
of the Department of Energy
Organization Act
Washington, D.C.
April 1998
--------Summary of Public Comments
[excerpts:]
One commenter recommended that DOE look into zero-point energy and referred to a specific technology for harnessing this energy source called the "N" machine. He challenged the Secretary of Energy to fully investigate this technology and let the American public know about it.
Another commenter encouraged DOE to form an office for emerging technologies. The commenter explained that truly new groundbreakding (sic) technologies would emerge only when an office is established to engage scientists and researchers who are on the fringe of technology. The commenter explained that much of the research that is currently done in DOE is mainstream and these fringe researchers need an environment in which their work is taken seriously to flourish and publicize their achievements.
--------end composite handout DOE CNES report titles and text excerpts
Bottom right of composite handout has same business card that I gave to Congressman Thomas' Staff Assistant with the briefing book etc, text:
David Crockett Williams
General Agent
Chartered Life Underwriter
Bachelor of Science, Chemistry
General Agency Services
Phone 661-822-3309
Fax: [eFax number, no longer valid] 20411 Steeple Court, Tehachapi, CA
93561-8712 USA
Global Emergency Alert Response
[email protected]
Capital Hills Research Center
-----------end 1998 business card text
COMMENTS:
The first commenter referenced was David Crockett Williams and the second commenter referenced was Thomas Valone, President of Integrity Research Inc., in Washington DC, who at the time was a Patent Examiner with the US Patent and Trademark Office, who claims that from his personal and professional knowledge there are over 4, 000 patents locked in a vault at the Patent Office, un-numbered, confiscated from their sumitters due to dual-use secrecy restriction orders, and that among these are new energy technology patents. http://www.erols.com/iri
The reference to zero-point energy in this report is apparently the first such public reference in history by the DOE in an official public document to the very existence of this theory. The "N" machine referenced is the invention of the late Bruce DePalma, former senior scientist at Polaroid Corporation and lecturer in electrical engineering and photographic science at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
Since this public comment submission it has become clear that the operation of this invention cannot be explained adequately vis a vis "zero-point" energy theory, although top DOE consultant in this area Dr. Harold Puthoff, is still working on applications of this theory for understanding the various reported successful new energy tech experiments, per collaborations last few years via Internet Science Education Project, and a few emails we have exchanged personally.
As a result of alerting some collaborators, additonal (sic) oral input was given at final public hearing on CNES by William Thomas of Proposition One in Washington DC who secured a letter of acknowledgement from DOE as a result verifying their awareness and investigation of "zero-point" energy technologies as "....the holy Grail of energy research." His story of this saga and that letter are posted on Prop1 website accessible via circuituous links from the "Energy" button at bottom of this page.
Also, additional written public comments were submitted to DOE at that time by other collaborators including Thomas Bearden , and by Dr. Eugene Mallove which resulted in DOE looking deeper into the cold fusion phenomena at that time but with strong pressure from higher up in the DOE bureacracy (sic) not to take it, or any of our submissions, too seriously, according to our liaison at that time per his confidential phone calls to me, for fear of their careers being adversely impacted by such serious discussion of these reported results which seemed to "contradict the laws of physics".
For an overview of my input thesis, ie, the grave dangers to the environment posed by threats of climate destabilization, and ozone layer depletion predicted to destroy all oceanic phytoplankton (one-celled plants at start of oceanic foodchain and source of over half Earth's oxygen supply) by the year 2008, according to 1988 prediction of reknown climatologist and new energy inventor Adam Trombly, a prediction that he said on the phone in May 1997 was "on target," see my brief overview writeup on the nature and scope of related problems and solutions here.
In that writeup will be found logic and arguments for emergency global level industrialization of biofuels industry during transition period until best of these new energy technologies can be implemented, hemp being the optimum source for biofuels and hence Congressman Thomas' reference to hemp in his letter after his review of the copious documentation provided him to which he responded with this letter.
Hemp has been outlawed as marijuana since 1937 in what history will eventually record as the greatest fraud on the US Congress of the 20th Century where an uninformed Congress was hoodwinked by the then "drug czar" corrupted by competing monopolistic interests resulting in hemp being outlawed by the Congress outlawing marijuana without knowing it is the same plant, ie, cannabis sativa. Details and authenticated historical evidence for this claim are copiously provided, again, online now here, although one must filter through his political hyperbole to understand the "truth of the matter" which he well presents there now online referenced to many scientific and governmental documents.
The simple chemical fact is that the outlawed ingredient in cannabis, which was the number one medicine in the US until the invention of aspirin in about 1900, ie, THC, or delta-9 etrahydrocannabinol, is an intoxicating alcohol (chemical names ending with -ol are alcohols) but unlike the simple ethanol or grain alcohol molecule, THC has a long chain complex carbon molecule attached to the alcohol (-OH) active site and the activity of another part of this THC molecule stimulates brain activity similar to a "waking dream" state as per melatonin neurochemical pathways discovered in recent years in similar effects of the anti-addiction African rainforest root bark extract Ibogaine proven to end heroin and cocaine addiction but still not yet passed FDA bureaucracy. This new result from my participation a couple years ago at New York Ibogaine Conference at a University Medical School Psychiatry Department. Details see link.
In order to implement the necessary global level crash program for biofuels and atmospheric carbon fixing during transition from fossil fuels to new energy tech, because of its many uses and economic benefits, hemp is far and away the best plant to heal the atmosphere and save the remaining trees because of its prolific growth per acre, so is essential to re-legalize this plant after adequate public debate and understanding of the truth of the matter, re-legalization either by a Supreme Court order that THC falls under exemption of Constitution Amendment (22?) ending prohibition on "intoxicating liquors" or by Congressional Act to remedy 1937 fraud on Congress.
Hence, agenda for Drums of Peace overture to Congressman Thomas' office, et al, should now include:
ITEM 5 "The Hemp Issue" and its relationship to development of American and Kern County biofuels industry.
David Crockett Williams 661-822-3309
Chartered Life Underwriter
BS Chemistry
www.angelfire.com/on/GEAR2000/vision.html
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/new-energy-solutions
~~~
Quote A Day:
The block of granite which is an obstacle in the pathway of the weak becomes a stepping-stone in the pathway of the strong.
--Unknown
Inspiration of the Day:
It's a university where less than 1% of its applicants get accepted; most hopefuls don't even apply and those that attempt it get tons of extra coaching. Girijesh Gupta recently topped those IIT entrace exams, which shocked many considering that he lived in the slums, came from a very poor family and didn't have any professional help. Instead of staying at the college dorms, he's gonna continue living in the slums with his family.
Be the Change:
Sponsor a child's education in an developing country.
~~~
Word of the Day for Wednesday September 17, 2003:
canard kuh-NAHRD, noun:
1. An unfounded, false, or fabricated report or story.
2. A horizontal control and stabilizing surface mounted forward of the main wing of an aircraft.
3. An aircraft whose horizontal stabilizer is mounted forward of the main wing.
last / next
~~~~~~~~~~~peace, love and smooches~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Don't know why you'd wanna, but on the off-chance you may feel tempted to steal any of my words and claim them as your own, please be advised:
All material
Copyright 2002-2005, Howl-at-the-Moon Words
***DISCLAIMER: These are my thoughts and my thoughts alone. If you know me in my "real life" off the net and have come across this page purely by accident, please keep in mind that you were not invited here and I would suggest you leave this page now. However, should you choose not to do so, please be warned that reading my thoughts here is not an invitation to discuss them off-line. You may discover things you do not know about me and may not like very much. Such is life. Again, this is MY space and I will use it as I see fit. If you are offended by anything here, well that's pretty much your own fault at this point.
I say all of this with love, of course, but there it is.
