Could You Imagine...

Waking up and reading about this happening at an American university? (other than after a football game, of course)...

Report: Clashes in Lebanon kill at least four
Dozens injured as government and opposition supporters battle in Beirut

BEIRUT, Lebanon - Government and opposition supporters clashed at a Beirut university campus Thursday, battering each other with sticks, stones and even pieces of furniture in new violence spilling over from Lebanon’s political crisis. Four people were killed, an opposition-run television station reported.

I just watched video of STUDENTS throwing rocks at point blank range with intent to seriously injure each other... at a Beirut university. This is the kind of thing we see all the time in the middle east. Differences being solved violently! Everyone likes to say that it isn't endemic to middle eastern cultures, but I continue to look at the acceptance, acquiescence and tacit support given by the societies at large. They may not be throwing the rocks (or beheading the journalists), but they do little to stop it.

Almost every "political" group in the middle east is formed around... a militia. As Americans, we can understand that. The birth of our country is owed to a militia lead by George Washington. When George Washington was offered "unlimited power" to prosecute the war, his response was "Instead of thinking myself freed from all civil obligations by this mark of their confidence, I shall constantly bear in mind tht as the sword was the last resort for the preservation of our liberties, so it ought to be the first thing laid aside when those liberties are firmly established."

Put simply, at some point... the fight has got to stop for stability and civil society to flourish.

I have always understood middle eastern anger at our country. They feel controlled by our exploitation of the oil resource beneath their land, enraged by our support of their sworn enemy and in societies ruled by militias... impotent in the face of our military might. If I were a young man in any of those countries, I would be lead to feel the same way. The story takes a sad turn when the violence becomes sunni on shite... sunni on sunni... shite on shite... and palestinian on palestinian. Middle eastern societies never seem to advance to that point so eloquently realized by George Washington. The sword is never laid down If there isn't an oppressor to throw off... "solving" differences with violence is simply turned inward.

The kharmic justice of societies that see only violence of submission destroying themselves is sad and pathetic. All that makes it dangerous for the rest of us are the radical islamists who wish to export this "problem solving" method around the globe. Their goal has nothing to do with conversion of infidels to islam and more to do with having nothing better to do... no better cause for one's existence... than to fight. The tendancy that radical islamists (and I will always maintain that it is with at least the acquiescence and/or tacit support of majorities in the societies that spawn them) is like that age old game of "turf" wars played by small groups of American youths in neighborhoods all over this country.

The difference is that these are youthful, marginalized groups that usually outgrow the absurdity of ONLY "solving" problems with violence. Most grow up and realize that it is silly to fight over a neighborhood and start to see the commonalities they share with their former "enemies". Only the most socially retarded and immature members will carry this behavior into adulthood. As a society we reject this behavior, and at a certain point treat its continuance as criminal behavior.

Far from getting to that point, the most serious and powerful adults in middle eastern societies act no wiser than the most immature children and youths in America and never develop or evolve beyond having a reason for living other than hating those with whom they have differences and the biggest point I have been trying to make for a long time... is that it is with the passive, tacit or active support of the vast majority of ALL the citizens of the societies that spawn them. Stability and civil society are not a priority in middle eastern culture. I think part it's roots can simply be traced to the "bazaar" mentality where the haggling can go on interminably and that there is always a "winner" and a "loser".

I just wish the whole middle east could grow up. Their whole governments act the same as the most marginalized and unhealthy individual members of civil western societies. We regard as criminal or at least emotionally retarded or insane (engaging in the same action ~ violence... and expecting different results) the rationals by which whole societies are governed in the middle east. Ultimately, what little legitimacy there is for their violence against us should be overruled by the insanity of their inability to find any other solution for themselves.

Morning Fog

I wish I had taken the shot from the top of the hill, but going down the hill towards Olema the view of the fog was lovely...

 

Yeah... Yeah We Are

Glad I had my camera and took this...



A couple of days later it was gone. I thought it might be a permanent installation. This is the corner near the construction site I am working on these days. Bolinas residents ARE very lucky. Bolinas is a VERY laid back community set in an amazingly beautiful natural area. I thought this was a nice expression of gratitude and though I don't live on the coast in quite as dramatically beautiful area.. it was very easy to translate the sentiment to my life. As long as I get out of my own way and dedicate my life to going with the flow... I am L U C K Y too! 

I Love This Guy...

On Jan. 2, Wesley Autrey, a 50-year-old construction worker, was taking his two daughters, Syshe, 4, and Shuqui, 6, to their mother’s home before he went to work. Around 1 p.m., they were waiting for the subway train at 137th Street and Broadway in Manhattan, when Cameron Hollopeter, 20, suffered a seizure and fell onto the subway tracks. The No. 1 train was fast approaching and, leaving his daughters in the care of strangers, Autrey jumped onto the tracks and covered Hollopeter with his body in a space less than two feet deep, as the train roared over them. The passing train covered Autrey’s blue knit cap with grease, but otherwise miraculously left both men untouched. Autrey refused medical help, because, he said, nothing was wrong. He did visit Hollopeter in the hospital before heading to his night shift. “I don't feel like I did something spectacular; I just saw someone who needed help,” Autrey said. “I did what I felt was right.”

There Is Really...

Too much insanity for me to even process right now, but here is just a small start...



In October the maniac in the white house said, " Absolutely! We are winning in Iraq!!!"



A few short months later... after the November landslide against his satanic mission... tonights breathtaking, straight faced hypocrisy ~ acknowledging that we were NOT winning.




What created the insurgency in the first place was his policy of debathification and American soldiers invading neighborhoods and kicking down doors.



Now the answer is REbathification and American soldiers invading the most dangerous neighborhoods and kicking down doors backed up by the totally ineffectual Iraqi armed forces.




Where are these Iraqi forces coming from? The Iraqi "government" promises they will be available and effective.



The same Iraqi "government" that has not followed through on anything it has promised so far. Just a few months ago Iraqi leaders were actively preventing us from going after the worst offenders in the violence, but now they are dependable partners to "secure, hold and build."




There is more, but I am too tired. This is just scratching the surface of how little sense increasing American troops and not withdrawing makes! This is beyond incredible. Congress is like a deer caught in the headlights. They are saying they are against the escalation, but what are they actually going to do to change it? What are they actually doing? Don't count on them to do the right thing!!! As long as we keep going shopping instead of SCREAMING at them to do the right thing... they will just keep feeding the meatgrinder in Iraq that DOES create and strengthen our enemies and DOES NOT protect our security and national interests.



Write your representatives, especially if they are republicans!!! The republicans have failed us by giving this maniac's treasonous foriegn policy a carte blanche. ONLY if they cross the aisle and show much belated leadership to stop the insanity will the weak, sad democratic gas bags stick their necks out enough to do what is necessary. Tell them you are not only against funding more American troops... you are against funding the troops that are there!!! This is not what our troops were meant to do. They can win any conventional war against any conventional opponent in the world. Shoving them into a meatgrinder that shreds our ability to do what we really need to be doing to defend ourselves and actually strengthens our enemies is obscene misuse of one of our nations most valuable and courageous resources.



Just as only when the Iraqi government and people see American troops leaving will they be forced to fix their own problems (which I don't think they are capable of, by the way, and that is why I think we need to get out now!)... the only why this psychotic, evil policy can be put to death is IF congress DOES withhold funding FOR EVEN THE TROOPS THAT ARE THERE NOW! Only under those circumstances will the meatgrinder be turned off, true Middle East "democracy" (killing eachother until one is left standing)will run its course, and we can reload on a new strategy to deal with whoever is left.

Back At the Gas Station...

Nice view of Mt. Tam...


Whistling while putting the gas in the Old Volvo...


The moon...


I wish I could describe the amazingly beautiful 45 minute commute from where I live out through gorgeous valleys, huge Redwood groves and out to Bolinas on the coast. Just putt along in the Volvo enjoying a great cup of coffee and meditating. Today I saw a coyote cross the road. Neat animal. I drive real slow and enjoy the drive. I don't think it is enough that I don't hit a deer... I try to drive in a way that gives me every chance to prevent it. I think fast driving is a form of violence whether you hit anything or not. Blessings and Love... 

I am mad as hell and I’m not going to take it anymore!

After the November elections… after the Iraq Study Group report… after the firing(?) of the disastrous don rumsfeld and the selection of the realistic Robert Gates… I actually held out some vestige of hope that sanity might prevail over the most flawed, dangerous, failed foreign policy decision in our countries history.

Far from being learned from, the mistakes of the disaster are instead being repeated with the expected announcement this week of AN INCREASE in U.S. troops being sent to Iraq. I can’t take it any more and am going to start sending letters to congress and editorial pages.

If you agree with me, I encourage you to do the same. I am attaching a copy of a letter I am sending, and here is an easy website you can use to get a mailing address for your elected (bleh… shudder…) “leaders”.

http://www.visi.com/juan/congress/

If you don’t agree with me, at least it might engender a little open-mindedness and honest debate.

Here is the letter...



Sunday, January 07, 2007

Christopher S. Bond, U.S. Senator
274 Russell Senate Office Bldg
Washington, D.C. 20510-2503


Sen. Bond~

I was raised in Missouri and lived there until my late thirties. I was a republican all the way back to Richard Nixon and remember wanting to vote for you as a little kid. The last ten years I have gotten sick of both parties. I am NOT against the use of American troops to defend our country and even in some extreme cases secure our national interest, but I voted democrat in the last election for the first time in my life to protest the decision by the current administration to invade Iraq and unleash its aftermath.

I am mad as hell, and I’m not going to take it anymore!

Haven’t we been here before?

Now there is a “New Way Forward”… a strategy is being proposed to militarily overcome a threat to our security and national interests in Iraq. Republicans (and even Democrats) warn of the dire consequences of inaction. Before it was “weapons of mass destruction and links to al Quaeda and 9/11”… now it is “failed state, open civil war and regional conflict”. We opened this Pandora’s box with military action. Ever since, we have been unable to mitigate the disastrous repercussions militarily. Now, more military… increasing troops… escalating the war (I refuse to use the touchy~feely, sanitized term “surge”) is being packaged by the President and his supporters as a “new strategy”.

While defenders of the administration keep denying this… it seems pretty conclusively documented (I have read and watched a TON of well sourced material about this) that what has gotten us into this mess was “cherry picking” intelligence and tailoring to fit into a predetermined plan to overthrow Saddam Hussein. Every “threat” justifying the invasion and the “evidence” supporting that conclusion (ALL of which turned out to be false) was MAXIMIZED and acted upon. Conversely, every single caution and concern expressed about invading (ALL of which have turned out to be painfully, disastrously accurate) were MINIMIZED and dismissed. This week Generals George Casey and John Abizaid who opposed more troops are out and replaced by General David Petraeus and Admiral William Fallon who support the administrations plan to increase troops.

There is a gravity in the Middle East, and you can’t defy gravity. Look at the governments that exist there. Other than Israel, which is as artificial a creation as any of the imperial lines drawn in the sand turning arbitrary sweeps of desert into “countries” ~ there is not now, nor has there ever been… anything remotely resembling a democracy we could recognize, nor has there even been the slightest vestige of societal underpinnings that could grow into one. The much referenced elections in Iraq a year ago were NOT democracy… the vast majority of Iraqis just voted for who the imam told them to. Far from being a hopeful sign of a democratic toehold, the Iraqi elections were just a headcount of the sectarian lines that are currently tearing the country apart.

The Republicans and supporters of this President, whose best judgment got us into this mess, solemnly and ominously intone about “What will happen if we do nothing?” I worry about the flip side of that coin. The same rational, sane thinking that would have predicted this disaster in the first place now counsels against continuing the mistake of applying a military solution to a hopeless project. I think the only sane response is to get out right now. There is no will in Iraqi society or the Middle East in general to solve problems through political processes… there is only the centuries old dedication to overcoming intractable differences by domination and killing. The question that should be on everyone’s mind is what do we do when the “New Way Forward” fails? The answer I have heard consistently is a serious commitment of military and economic involvement for 10 to 20 years!

How can we do that? When have we ever done that before? Afghanistan is the country which DID harbor the terrorists who actually attacked us. The chaos that nurtured our enemies was there and we dealt with it. Instead of consolidating that victory and safeguarding our national interests, we adventured militarily in Iraq… and created the chaos that nurtures our enemies there. More troops, economic aid and sustained effort would have helped in Afghanistan. It is too late for the application of those solutions in Iraq. What should we do? Make it the 51st state? Impose “democracy” at the point of a gun? FOR DECADES??? That is the option we will be left with when this latest effort goes the way of all the others before it. We cannot afford militarily or monetarily to do that!!!

The voices of moderation in Iraq, if they exist at all… hold no power or sway. We should get out completely right now. Do NOT increase the troop levels! Start the phased withdrawal of American military forces as soon as possible… two to three months… four to six months… no longer. With each division that leaves the pressure will grow on the only people who can make a difference in this disastrous situation. This isn’t about “emboldening the terrorists” or “cutting and running” or “losing”. Any thinking person could see we lost the moment our invasion succeeded. The smartest policy is to let them decide whether they want to solve things without killing each other or let them follow that hell-bent desire until the party we will be stuck dealing with is left standing.

With what little respect I can generate for a politician~

Well, At Least...

After the years of Clinton scandal, he restored dignity to the office of the presidency..

White House pact cloaked visits amid scandal
Accord with Secret Service locked up records during Abramoff imbroglio

WASHINGTON - The White House and the Secret Service quietly signed an agreement last spring in the midst of the Jack Abramoff lobbying scandal declaring that records identifying visitors to the White House are not open to the public.

The Bush administration didn’t reveal the existence of the memorandum of understanding until last fall. The White House is using it to deal with a legal problem on a separate front, a ruling by a federal judge ordering the production of Secret Service logs identifying visitors to the office of Vice President Dick Cheney.

In a federal appeals court filing three weeks ago, the administration’s lawyers used the memo in a legal argument aimed at overturning the judge’s ruling. The Washington Post is suing for access to the Secret Service logs.

The five-page document dated May 17 declares that all entry and exit data on White House visitors belongs to the White House as presidential records rather than to the Secret Service as agency records. Therefore, the agreement states, the material is not subject to public disclosure under the Freedom of Information Act.

In the past, Secret Service logs have revealed the comings and goings of various White House visitors, including Monica Lewinsky and Clinton campaign donor Denise Rich, the wife of fugitive financier Marc Rich, who received a pardon in the closing hours of the Clinton administration.

The memo last spring was signed by the White House and Secret Service the day after a Washington-based group asked a federal judge to impose sanctions on the Secret Service in a dispute over White House visitor logs for Abramoff.

The chief counsel to another Washington-based group suing to get Secret Service logs calls the creation of the memo “a political maneuver couched as a legal one.”

“It appears the White House is actually manufacturing evidence to further its own agenda,” Anne Weismann, a Justice Department lawyer for 19 years and now chief counsel to Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, said Friday.

The White House and the Secret Service declined to comment.

Last year in the Abramoff scandal, the Bush administration, in response to three lawsuits, provided an incomplete picture of how many visits Abramoff and his lobbying team made to the White House.

The task of digging out Abramoff-White House links fell to a House committee that collected the lobbyist’s billing records and e-mails. The House report found 485 lobbying contacts with presidential aides over three years, including 10 with top Bush administration aide Karl Rove.

After the scandal~ridden, unseemly pandering and sophmoric shenanigans of the clinton white house, I did actually think that bush had at least a chance to deliver on his promise to restore dignity to the office. I don't know about you guys, but I think it should be MANDATORY for ALL visitors names to the white house be in a public record. This sick, psychopathic despot masquerading as president seems oblivious to the ideal that... he works for US!!!

I hated bill clinton from the get~go, and thought that we had hit the bottom of the barrel for presidential timber. I had no trouble coming up with negative characterizations for bill clinton, but I have run out of them for bush. I cannot convey in words how sick... soul~sick he makes me. Suffice to say that I think he makes bill clinton look like he deserves to be on Mt. Rushmore! I'm sorry ,but I hate living in a country that is content to do enough shopping that it doesn't occur to millions to take to the streets SCREAMING AT A FEVER PITCH for at least the impeachment of this psychopath, if not actually trying and convicting him of treason.

I.

Just.

Don't.

Understand.

New Year's Day Hike...

Enjoyed a great hike out at Pt. Reyes with my buddy Robert, who lives out there. Fantastic day. (Note: my timestamp is off... it really was New Years Day) 

This Is...

The street corner where I am going to be carrying my sign. These folks were out New Years day.

These are the ones I am considering...

OUT NOW!!!
They’ll kill each other now…
Or they’ll kill each other later!
NOT ONE MORE AMERICAN
SHOULD DIE IN IRAQ!!!



Is Iraq the way it is because
of the way Saddam was?
Or
Was Saddam the way he was…
Because of the way Iraq IS?!?!?
NOT ONE MORE AMERICAN
SHOULD DIE IN IRAQ!!!


OUT NOW!!!
WE DID NOT VOTE
FOR MORE TROOPS
TO DIE IN IRAQ!!!


“SURGE”?!?!?
OUT NOW!!!
NOT ONE MORE AMERICAN
SHOULD DIE IN IRAQ!!!


Democrats…
You Can’t Be “Against”
The War AND Spend
$150,000,000
To Continue It!!!

DISTRACTED FROM OUR
REAL ENEMIES...
MESS BEYOND BELIEF
IN IRAQ...
MILITARY STRETCHED
TO THE BREAKING POINT...
IMPEACHMENT!!!

 

There Is NO Connection...

Between rap "music" and violence....

Busta Rhymes arrested in New York
Rapper charged with assault after man complains he was beaten

NEW YORK - Rapper Busta Rhymes was arrested after a man complained that the hip-hop star had beaten him up in a dispute over money, police said.

Rhymes, 34, turned himself in and was booked on a misdemeanor assault charge at a Manhattan police station Wednesday night, police Lt. John Grimpel said. The rapper was to be taken to court Thursday, Grimpel said.

One of Rhymes’ lawyers, Scott Leemon, declined to comment.

This Is A Riot...

Lawmakers' January junkets curbed
Lobbyists look at other ways to educate members of Congress

WASHINGTON - The January junket to warmer climates, a postholiday tradition of sorts for some members of Congress, could be headed to the wayside. An accelerated work schedule set up by the new Democratic leadership has put a halt on many January excursions funded by lobbyists. Given that Democrats are taking over the House and Senate in part because of GOP ethics scandals, some lawmakers are fearful of the voters' wrath anyway if they go on the trips.

"I think members are looking more closely at privately funded travel, and I think ... many of them are being careful and avoiding it," said Rep. Charles Dent, R-Pa.

The last time members had to work much of January was 1995, when a newly Republican-led House took control, recalled Todd Hauptli, senior executive vice president of the American Association of Airport Executives.

For the past 21 years, except for 1995, his organization paid for members to fly to Hawaii to discuss airline issues at a conference. This January, members are declining the offer and will participate by videotape.

So in other words, the last time congress made a show working hard and rejecting lobbyists was when the republicans threw the democrats out in 1995 because the democrats were viewed as out of touch and corrupt. Now the democrats do it to the republicans.

What do you want to bet that things are back to normal by NEXT January?

This endemic to what makes me sad about the current state of our political "leadership". Sure, the republicans have been sucking, but watch the democrats. I haven't looked at it closely enough, but read it here now that pelosi and the rest of the democrats aren't up to the job. They will implode and miss every opportunity to do the right thing. They are already doing it by refusing to stand up to the request from the a.o.c. (administration on crack) for $150,000,000 to continue to fight the war they now say they are against. This is just the start. I don't know the details, but don't be surprised by the counterproductive infighting and complete failure to get their act together on anything that matters.