observer

2004-12-24T19:23:00.000-08:00

observer

Apologies to Vagus N if he thought I meant all docs to be sued. No. Not when I once had my life saved by some. Not hardly. But the idea that my little sis could have lost hers due to those particular docs at that particular hospital did not set well with me. Additionally, that situation so upset my writer/RN friend that she brought the legal side up originally. In any case, it's not my decision to make. Still if it happened to little sis, it could happen to anybody. As the writer/RN said, "They'd better get people who can read results in there." In that, I agree.

The New Yorkers, Ted and Nina, and their kids and grandkids were on the patio having breakfast when I got there this morning. Nice family they have, truly. A doll of a granddaughter, I'd guess about three years old, was enchanted with the birds who fly over to get their daily biscuit crumbs. Eyes huge, finger pointing, she said, "Bur...bur...burd?" Had to laugh. They were off to Legoland. Granddad Ted was not impressed...but he was going. Had to laugh again. Told him that Legoland sponsors a contest every year that he, as an architect, might want to consider. "Huh," said he, eyebrows raised, and left J and A and I laughing again.

So here it is, Christmas Eve and we have a full moon. Had pizza too. Who could ask for more? We all could...like our troops home from all over the world so they too could be with families and friends. Peace and quiet, so the world could enjoy that full moon in contentment. Ain't gonna happen.

Just for the record: San Diego has not settled the Mayoral election yet. Sheesh! Washington state looks closer to getting their Governor election settled than we do with our mayor mess.

In any case, I wish you all the most enjoyable holiday season. :)

So that's a wrap for tonight!

observer

2004-12-23T22:16:00.000-08:00

observer

I sit here, totally torqued. Sister back east crashed in their van. One of the rare times she didn't wear a seat belt. Black and blue from shoulder to knee on left side. Off to hospital. Docs say she has a cracked vertabrea...just a tiny one. They keep her for about a week and at the end of it, she's up and walking, but with pain. They send her home. Few days of intense pain. Back to hospital. They call in a bone doc. Guess what? She has a broken neck, broken back, and cracked sternum. Bone doc had her air-lifted out of that hospital to a good one in another town. He's planning surgery on her neck.

RN here says she's lucky to not be paralyzed like Christopher Reeve. Says she has a no-lose suit against the first docs and hospital if she chooses to pursue one. And right there is where lawyer jokes end....as is always the case in shit like that. Tell me that trial lawyers aren't necessary for this type of thing...

I want either John Edwards or his clone.

And then there's Rumsfeld's visit to Mosul on the news today. I noticed that he visited patients and staff. Didn't see a damned word about visiting the troops who weren't in the hospital.

J and I had just finished breakfast this morn when the man and woman a couple of tables away on the patio struck up a conversation with us. Glad they did. Invited them over to join us. They're an architect and his wife, a real estate agent, from NYC, staying at the hotel. Their adult kids are coming in from LA and San Francisco and will also be at the hotel over Christmas. So they wanted to know where the nearest grocery store was. They planned to, when the kids arrive today, go to the Zoo. Seems the architect had something to do with our downtown construction when the high-rises first started going up. Look forward to seeing them in the morning.

And that's a wrap for today!

observer

2004-12-22T17:09:00.000-08:00

observer

In 25 more minutes, the sun will be gone. Man, the days get short in winter. I've got the 2005 calendar ready to hang next to the desk here. Already have some to-do stuff marked on it.

And Workaholic, you're right. The guy in the car could have run the trucker over. Seemed like it happened so fast, and no doubt the guy thought the trucker was coming after him, and by then it really was a done deal.

Yesterday morning at breakfast on the hotel patio, another writer--let's call her J--had a tale to tell. She has two businesses. One is helping other writers rewrite their books and get them not only publishable but saleable. The other is transcribing and editing videos and audio tapes for various clients. So night before last, she's sitting at her desk in an office she shares with a guy who does the same thing. That office is in the front part of his home. In the home there are three cats, and I swear they're all insane.

Anyway, the guys have gone off to Vegas for the holidays and it's about 10-11 o'clock, house is dead silent, and she's intently working away. Behind the guy's desk is a window with thin wooden shutters. And all of a sudden this cat explodes through the shutters, lands on the guy's desk and off on the floor and away! J about went through the roof. She had no idea he was even in the room. Cat had been sitting lower than the top of the desk, on the window sill. Must have seen something that really spooked him.

Gave Archie the load of cookies this morning. He had them on his desk when the meeting he'd called began. He came out laughing. Said his staff had attacked those cookies like locusts. Who is there that doesn't like cookies?

Havin' a beautiful sunset outside this window here. Pink to blue to purple. Shaft of sunlight hit and those huge red-orange blossoms on the coral tree went to flame. Only a few left at the top of the tree, and they're only there because the Santa Ana has warmed the place up so much in the daytimes.

The Chargers won. Hot damn! Of course they want a new stadium. Want the city to give them the land in Mission Valley between I-8 and the river. Uh-huh. And now they've moved their practice field back down to Mission Valley from Anaheim. Let 'em buy the land. The city can use the cash, lemme tell you.

Just found out that San Diego has the same auditors looking over that pension fund that just screwed up Fannie Mae in DC. Now that's cheerful news. KPMG. Press conference. SEC and FBI and the new City Attorney in the audience. Asses need kicking until noses bleed.

Am upset about that suicide bomber who blew up the mess hall in Mosul, I kid you not. Anytime we think we're the only ones who can infiltrate the enemy camp, we need our heads examined. But blowing up your own people as well as ours is not a good thing. However, they're seen as enemy collaborators, so there it is.

Nothing merry about this holiday season....

observer

2004-12-21T20:34:00.000-08:00

observer

So the writers gathered again this eve as we do every Tues unless a major holiday falls on Tues, when we don't. Talk about withdrawal pains! For the last few weeks, one or the other of us has brought along some kind of goody to share. Tonight, one of the writers came with an absolutely huge chocolate, chocolate cake. A four-layer job. One of the best chocolate cakes I've encountered in a long while. Impossible to finish, even after everyone taking some home, so the staff at the restaurant gets the rest...as they have with the goodies brought in previously.

Went to a kosher bakery today. Found it by accident, but having encountered kosher food before, considered myself lucky. Bought four dozen cookies--half a dozen of each kind--and will deliver them to the Gen Mgr down at the hotel for their staff. After all, they feed us breakfast every morn. We felt the least we could do was feed them back. The clerk at the bakery said he and his dad had just baked them this morning, and gave me a coconut macaroon to try. Couldn't eat it all, but man, I tried.

Had an email from a writer who sailed her boat up to Nova Scotia. Come Jan, she'll be driving back here across country. Should be one hell of a trip, given the snow and ice she's gonna encounter on the way. Says she has to come back to get a new server for her computer. I'm thinking one excuse is as good as another. And maybe she likes driving cross country as much as I do.

Turns out that all of the writers there tonight, but one, prefers to drive when it comes to long distance trips. And she likes to fly into the midst of a city to be able to be immediately immersed in the life there. The rest of us want to really see the nation close up. Every place has a different smell, different light, different feel. One guy loves Santa Fe, New Mexico. I liked Rawlins, Wyoming on sight, another will be leaving for Reno, NV in two days. Amarillo, Texas has the best cheeseburger I've ever tasted in a cafe near a military base. I damned near got blown off the street in a sand storm full of flying tumbleweeds in Albuquerque, New Mexico one trip.

Which reminded me of a long-haul semi driver who told about being followed halfway across Illinois by a car driver who had his bright lights on the whole time, and who the trucker couldn't get out from behind his truck. Finally hit Chicago and a stop light, where he got his hammer, went back to the car and knocked both the guy's headlights out.

Life is damned interesting.

observer

2004-12-20T17:17:00.000-08:00

observer

A John Denver album is playing...one of a writer friend's favorite voices. Must tap into her Tennessee roots. And one of the waiters on the hotel patio is just crazy about Lorretta Lynn. He's from N Carolina, and is down there visiting family right now for the holidays. Another writer, posted in Frankfurt Germany, just emailed that he's now in N Carolina too, after a ten hour flight between two screaming babies, neither one his. Says it's freezing cold outside and freezing cold inside and he can see his breath. I say I'm staying right here!

Just had an email from a cousin in Canada. Said his neighbors had recently moved to Idaho and just love it. Said he'd thought about doing the same cause he can't stand the Government Canada has! Guess one of the main problems up there is lack of jobs, but he doesn't have to worry about that, being a farmer with sections of land. Not sure what a "section" is in acres. But big, I know that much. He's in Calgary.

Struck me funny, with US citizens thinking Canada is golden, and Canadian citizens thinking the opposite.

Gawd! Just had an email from another writer with a notice:
Electors across US break traditional pro forma ritual to use electoral
>college to protest election violations
>
Across the US electors in at least five states, for the first time in
>history, turned the heavily scripted and ritualized electoral college
>proceedings into a forum for political action. Frustrated by the relative
>inattention to wide spread real voting violations now numbering in the tens
>of thousands, Electors called for congressional investigation and
>legislative action."

Five states?!!! Including California! Who did it? These folks:

>Truth in Elections*
>49 Francesca Ave.,
>Somerville, MA 02144
>617-625-3166

Be like Karl Rove to turn the heat on Rumsfeld to take attention off all the problems with voting. It's call "misdirection", and so far, it's worked like a charm.

Amazing number of people down in the Gaslamp Qtr last night for a Sunday night. Soft summer-type eve. Just enjoyed having dinner at the sidewalk cafe and watching the strolling folks as they wandered past. Had a chicken rissotto and it was very damned good. Had to bring half of it home. They don't just feed you there, they try to fatten you. Excellent coffee, excellent crusty Italian bread. Who could ask for more?

observer

2004-12-19T12:39:00.000-08:00

observer

Sunday morning coming down...Kris Kristofferson did a great job with that song. Exactly the right voice for it.

Another few hours and will be motoring down to the Gaslamp Qtr downtown for dinner on the sidewalk cafe at Trattoria Mare & Monte. Looking forward to everything about that except for the initial search for a parking space. May just park at Horton Plaza and stroll over one block to 5th Ave, then hang a right for another block or so and there it is. Damn, they do know how to cook there.

More good news via mail call yesterday: Gayle Lynds' new thriller, "The Last Spymaster", will hit the bookstores in August, and the paperback version of "The Coil" will be available in July. She's on a roll! Additionally, Dennis Lynds (who also writes under the pen name, Michael Collins) has just finished the manuscript of a brand new thriller, "The CEO". Those two are some kind of a pair of writers.

Now if some publisher would have the good sense to publish Jerry Hannah's "Holy City Zoo" set of short stories featuring characters, two of whom are named Hoover and Old Ralph, in book form, I'd head for the bookstore so fast hell wouldn't have it. Hands down, the most hilarious, outrageous set of characters ever encountered in print. Yeah, there's a bar in San Francisco named Holy City Zoo, but the stories were there before the bar was...and no, Jerry is innocent. Has nothing to do with said bar.

Jerry wrote about 100 or so short stories a year or two ago and every damned one of them was published in magazines. The man knows what he's doing. Every time I think about the Holy City Zoo stories, I get torqued cause I can't get them all in a book.
Sheesh!

Downtown is a sight to see these days. Cranes all over..and I'm not talking about birds. Old buildings, long trashed, going down overnight and next thing those incredible construction workers have put elegant hi-rises in their places...or 6-7 story parking garages with retail shops at street level. Or a little park...they call them "pocket parks". And a very very tall office building has just topped off on Pacific Hwy. Two new hotels coming behind the Convention Center, one a Hilton. Next to a new parking garage there. Now they're wrestling with the plans for a pedestrian walkway above the railroad tracks and Harbor Drive, at the foot of 8th Ave (which runs beside the new ballpark). From what I'm told, this walkway will rise at the foot of 8th, cross the tracks and Harbor Drive and exit into that new parking garage.

At the 8th Ave end, they have to install an elevator for the Disabled, obviously. Can't have them trying to roll up a steep walk in their chairs or with crutches. The garage at the other end has elevators already.

There's been a problem with the conventioneers at the Conv Ctr. Lunch break comes, and if one of the Santa Fe freight trains is doing their back and forth and stop stuff on the tracks, people pour out of the Conv Ctr, cross Harbor Drive and climb right over, or crawl under the couplings between freight cars, heading for the restaurants in the Gaslamp Qtr. Doesn't take a rocket scientist to know it's just a matter of time before one of those fools gets mangled when the train suddenly moves.

Don't want to see it!

observer

2004-12-18T13:16:00.000-08:00

observer

Had another thought. Having never worked in the construction field, I've always been fascinated watching those guys do what they do, to the point that when I was doing some photography (was once hung in an International Exhibition) I'd grab the camera and go take photographs of them on the job. Have some beauts too, but that's another story.

Anyway, the people who, a couple of months ago, bought the house across the street, are doing extensive remodeling. So, just parking the car after breakfast on Marie's patio this morn, I see two of those remarkable people on ladders in the front of the house. Apparently, since I don't know the layout of that house inside, they'd installed two new bedroom windows. The guy on the left was outlining the left window with red tape. Being very careful about it too. Very exact.

At the same time, the guy on his right had some kind of tray with a pile of what I believe they call "mud" on it, and a trowel. He was troweling this mud in the area between the two windows--a very rythmic motion--and when he'd put enough on the wall to satisfy himself, he takes a short board and smooths the mud off, removing the excess.

There has to be a reason for this work on the wall between the windows, but I'm damned if I know what it is. These guys never do something for no reason. I was mortally tempted to march over there and do a close up inspection, but restrained myself. But damn, it's easy to spot the guys who know exactly what they're doing cause they do it so well.

I'm getting out the camera when the guys come to put on our new "copper penny" colored, metal roof. Gonna be some dramatic shots, cause that metal will reflect sun. Hot damn!

observer

2004-12-18T12:46:00.000-08:00

observer

And yet more good news!

Had a Xmas card from Jean Graham yesterday, and she wrote: "I should have 3 or 4 stories coming out in anthologies next year. Two will be in a book called, "Vampires & Werewolves & Monsters, Oh My!", due out next summer. Be really interesting to see the cover on that book!

The writers are having great Xmas news with all those sales.

And now I find out that James Goldsborough, who for years has written a weekly Opinion political (Dem) column for the San Diego Union-Tribune (U-T as it's commonly known) paper, has been asked to hook up with a new online paper, "VoiceofSanDiego.com". Background on the "Voice": A year or so ago, the city's favorite columnist, Neil Morgan, lost his job at the U-T, and so, with Barbara Bry, a former writer for the LA Times, and one other guy whose name I forget, have combined to produce the "Voice". The "Voice" isn't going to rev up till sometime in January, but I wasted no time getting on their email subscriber list.

Both Goldsborough and Morgan's leaving the U-T caused subscriptions to that newspaper to be cancelled and angry letters from the readers to be sent to the editor. Not that the U-T paid any attention, of course. Bet they'll pay attention now. :)) The U-T has a website: www.signonsandiego.com and they'll be going up against the "Voice". The U-T, a Copley paper, is a Repub paper. The "Voice" is Dem. Shit's gonna hit the fan in this town. I look forward to it. Hah!

Some years ago, I wrote a column for "Writers West" mag. Column consisted of notes on what writers (published and not yet published) here were writing or selling or doing. I'm thinking that if I'm not careful, I'll find myself doing the same thing here. Not my intention, really, but it's my opinion and belief that writers are important for civilizations, and the more of them, the better.

One of the problems (?) with writers is that they pull up the shades and invite the public to take a look at what's trying to be hidden. And then they think about that...on paper...and that causes readers to start thinking and one thing leads to another. Good example from another writer's email last night:

"But you gotta love it. I heard this morning that George II wasn't
going "to let people take risky chances." They'd have a list from
which they can select investments. Now think about it. If there's a list, how come he knows what's on it, and no one else knows? The man who helps us handle our meager resources doesn't know, so he helps us spread it out to hedge our bets. Ray Luchia doesn't know -- he suggests three buckets, and only one is the market, and he doesn't name any specifics, even narrow ones.

P.T. Barnum (sp) was right -- there's a sucker born every minute, and it appears they're all Rs. Of course, if they, themselves, don't move their prodigious accounts into George II's narrow range, I can't call them suckers, for they see through it all. No, they'd be bastards, worse, but the words are too harsh even for this audience, because they're promulgating the myth, knowing it's a myth, to the sorry minds on the other end of their microphones, ready, of course, to tell the investors they're slothful and immoral because when it comes time to retire and their investments in George II's narrow range failed them, they'll have to take from the public trough, and you know what Rs think of such people. George, though, won't face the doggy cookies and cardboard retirement because you know the dollars he got from his daddy won't go into that silly narrow range. But what the hell -- by then he'll be gone and those still around, if there is an 'around,' will blame whomever is in office. Ain't it grand?"

It's no wonder dictators lock up all the writers in jail as soon as they take over. Sheesh!

observer

2004-12-16T22:11:00.000-08:00

observer

Huh!!! How'd that underlining get on there? Very strange.... :))

observer

2004-12-16T22:09:00.000-08:00

observer<

Now I'm gonna have to worry about "Workaholic" freezing to death. Sheesh! It was 77 degrees here today, once the fog burned off. We have the Santa Ana winds blowing out to sea from the desert. Skies are clear as a bell. Crescent moon riding high. Ahh.... :)

I'm done talking about this blasted Mayoral election. Not only did Tony Perry have another article about it in the LA Times today, but the editorial was about the same thing. San Diego is now in a state of disgrace, big time. Fine state of affairs. When the thing is finished making its way through courts, then I'll say something more.

An email from one Tom Waters today with super news. Dutton has just taken his novel for publication. I can hardly wait to read it. Title is "Class 11". Tom signed up and was in the first new class at the CIA after 9/11. Have no idea when it will be available in bookstores. Average time between the publisher buying the rights to publish and the actual appearance of the book on the shelves can be up to 18 months. Let's hope "Class 11" will be moved up as much as possible, otherwise it's gonna be a long wait, and I'll pitch a bitch.

And yesterday, Roger Conlee emailed that his novel, set in WWII with the Marines' battle on Guadacanal is just out and available on Amazon and in Barnes & Noble, et al. I've read some of that in manuscript and it's really a good one. Take a look at it on www.rogerconlee.com and there's an excerpt there. Mark Clements (horror novelist and artist) did the cover of Roger's book.

Now here's a tale of emails asking for help: I've just emailed two SDPD guys about this. A writer who works in intel emailed me about it. A former CIA guy emailed her about it; a friend of his from the NYPD emailed him about it...And the guy who emailed him is in the military and about to return to Iraq and is asking for any info on how to get used body armor to so he can get it to the guys he knows who are still fighting in Iraq. This surely was a well-planned war, wasn't it?

observer: observer

2004-12-15T20:43:00.000-08:00

observer: observer

Hah! http://txcatholic.blogspot.com says that it's dipped below freezing down there on the Gulf Coast and he's liking the cold. Hoo-boy! I sure don't like cold weather one bit, which is a major reason I left northern Illinois. People sure have different opinions about what they like or don't like when it comes to weather. Skiiers have to be outta their minds to deliberately drive or fly to snow like that! Tell you one thing..I don't live in San Diego for nothing. :)))

So we have fog last night, but when it burned off early in the morning, it was 70 degrees and gorgeous. I can live with that. San Diego has ruined me for other climes. If I want snow, I can drive up into the mountains to a little old gold-mining town by the name of Julian, about an hour's drive, eat apple pie (they're famous for it), drink coffee, see the snow, and drive right back down the mountain to the coast and sunshine and roses and palm trees and whatever. More, we have very few bugs. I think I saw one mosquito all summer. Even better, there's very low humidity. This is desert country, but overgrown with trees and bushes, plants of all kinds. No alligators, thank heavens. Warm days, cool nights. Who could ask for more?

But we know the seasons. Right now there are gorgeously decorated homes for Christmas...and all those lights reflect off the hills and water. This is a water city, for sure. Clean too. Hardly any trash at all along the roads, highways, freeways, streets, which is really nice.

What we have here is this: Donna Frye has won the mayor's race by popular vote, but because those bubbles weren't filled in on 5000 ballots and so are (maybe) no good, Dick Murphy has been sworn in as Mayor. It ain't over till it's over here though. The bubbles are a mechanical requirement for the scanner to be able to count the votes. They have zip to do with who that voter wanted to vote for. Which is more important? So still more legal stuff in court will be up-coming. Fun.

Gonna get food!

observer

2004-12-14T21:32:00.000-08:00

observer

First: Thanks Dan. That's a very nice compliment, and I appreciate it.

Second: Just back from the Tues eve writers' gathering down in Old Town. Strictly a social thing. Very rare when we discuss writing. Mostly talk politics.

So tonight there was the news that they'd counted those ballots where Donna Frye's name was written in, but the bubble not filled in. San Diego has had more damned problems trying to get this Mayoral election settled than we need. It's driving everybody up the wall.

The City Charter says one thing, the Municipal Code says another and State law agrees with only one of those. The info on voting first sent out had nothing about filling in the bubble. They reprinted and the second info booklet says the bubble must be filled in next to the write in candidate's name.

The present mayor, Murphy, won by a couple thousand votes, after the write-in ballots without the bubble being filled in were discarded. So Murphy was sworn in for a 2nd term. And now, here are 4000-plus ballots with Frye's name written in, but with the bubble not filled in. And it goes on. Either the Charter or the Code doesn't allow for a write-in. Gawd! So we wait...and wait...and wait.

Worse in the state of Washington, where the Repub candidate for Governor won by 42 votes. 42!!! Recount, of course.

I'm not about to bring Ohio and Florida's voting up. Got enough problems of our own. Sheesh!

What gets me is that, here the US is, running around the world telling other people how to run elections when we're not doing worth a damn ourselves, starting with the Presidential election in 2000.

One of the writers said they'd heard that Bush has nominated Asa Hutchinson to head up Homeland Security, now that Kerik is definitely on Bush's list...and maybe Guillani too. Which led to Hutchinson's part in the impeachment of Bill Clinton when Clinton was prez.

One of these days...

observer

2004-12-13T20:38:00.000-08:00

observer

We're having breakfast on the hotel patio this morn when a man in casual dress walks from the driveway into the alcove which has a gate into the patio. There, he sets against the wall a black backpack...and walks away.

We look at each other, the other writer checks the time and says, "If he's not back in fifteen minutes--" "Report to the desk," I say.

Having left the alcove, the guy next appears in the lobby, which we can see through the double glass doors between patio and lobby. A few minutes later, out he comes with a paper cup of coffee. Few seconds later, he picks up the backpack and walks back down the driveway, the way he came. Apparently he does what several people in the neighborhood do.

At the end of the lobby are restrooms. At the end of the lobby is also a table with two vacuum pots of coffe and one of hot water. Tea bags sit beside some rows of paper coffee cups and lids. Free to hotel guests. Some of the folks in the neighborhood are aware of this and drop into the hotel to use the facilities and/or get a cup of free coffee or tea. The hotel, being a Marriott, considers this to be a good neighbor policy. I do like that hotel.

observer

2004-12-12T23:40:00.000-08:00

observer

Okay...a fact, then a question:

Escalators are extremely dangerous in many many ways, to children, men, women, and dogs, whether they're helping dogs or not.

Does anybody know whether the ADA (American Disability Act) has addressed the question of safety regarding someone with a disability, who uses a helping dog, using an escalator?

Fact: An escalator can tear the toes right off a dog's paw, for one thing. Or your foot, if you put it in the wrong area. Or your long hair if you bend down and it gets caught.

Warning: Those brushes along the bottom edges of the steps are a warning to stay away from those edges. Hold the handrail and stand in the middle of the step. Do not run up or down the steps. Escalators are moving machinery...and they are dangerous.

observer

2004-12-12T20:23:00.000-08:00

observer

Polished off "Executive Actions" about 1 this morning. Damned good. A bit of a slow start...lots of characters to intro...but the rest of that novel is hot. Still, Deutermann's "Darkside" is the one that stands hair on end. Lee Childs writes some real beauts too.

Some very interesting blogs being written by some very interesting guys these days. Found one this afternoon by a sniper. Stephen Hunter writes a hell of a fine series about his main character who is a sniper. Hunter, oddly enough, is also a film critic for the Washington Post. Makes me laugh. What a contrast!

There is this business about ghosts...are they or aren't they? In this case, I'm thinking about a police Sgt here who, with his partner, got a call about an open door in a house. So they go to investigate. Was an older house. A craftsman model. They go up on the porch, step through the door into the front hall, call out. No answer. They split up, one taking the room on the right, the Sgt taking the room on the left, both off the front hall. No electricity, so they're using their flashlights. Sgt gets to about the center of the room and feels something icy cold "pass right through" his body. This bothers the hell out of him. Back to the hall and there's his partner, who says, "Sarge, I just...there's something..." And sure enough, he'd had the same experience. Upshot is that they cleared the rest of the house, closed the front door and got out of there. Sgt says nothing...absolutely nothing...would get him inside that house again. Partner says the same.

And to think our Marines are walking the same ground in Babylon now that Alexander did over 2000 years ago. Wonder what they've felt?

observer

2004-12-11T19:39:00.000-08:00

observer

And...not only are people leaving for Canada, a group in Vermont is of the opinion that Vermont ought to leave the US and annex itself to Canada. There are a hell of a lot of very unhappy citizens in this nation, who flat don't like the way BushCo is changing the country and they're not gonna take it anymore.

Notice I'm saying nothing about the over 5000 soldiers who have decided this Iraq war is not theirs, and they ain't goin'.

Thick fog tonight covering San Diego...and I do mean, thick. Fog horns in the harbor, for sure. Bad news, fog is.

So I'm going to go read some more of Gary Grossman's novel, "Executive Actions", wherein a hitman is doing his job entirely too well. The question is, for whom does he work?

observer

2004-12-11T16:01:00.000-08:00

observer

Tom Watson (http://tomwatson.typepad.com ) is madder than a wet hen over Rummy's answer to Specialist Wilson's question about having to dig in a dump for metal to up-armor their vehicles. And he's not the only one. As he says, "This is a national disgrace." That's not all he says, and it's all worth reading.

The bloggers are terrific, in that once they get aggravated over something, they continue to pound away on whatever has torqued them until the media take it up again. For instance, why the hell isn't Novak in jail for outing Valerie Plame? And why the hell hasn't Bush really raised hell with whoever it was in his White House who committed a Federal crime by passing Valerie Plame's name and occupation on to Novak?

And why isn't hell being raised about Bush's attempt to turn this nation into a theocracy? A form of fascism? His and the religious Repubs' version of a Taliban country?

I asked a few people who voted for him why they'd done that: We own a ranch; security; protect our investments; he's a regular guy; he's religious, etc. Main reason, in the national polls: Leadership. Ha. If the way Bush behaves is what they think is leadership, they've never met a real leader.

If he's such a damned good leader, then why are people heading for Canada?
I'm disgusted.

observer

2004-12-11T13:05:00.000-08:00

observer

Well hell! I posted here on Friday and the post never showed up! Ah well.

observer

2004-12-09T21:43:00.000-08:00

observer

The roof guys came this morning before I got back from breakfast and left a card and the news that everything looks fine so far. This is good.

So okay. I hit Horton Plaza about 3:30 this afternoon and picked up a batch of Xmas gifts. One more trip ought to do it, and I've done my required part. Sheesh!

Rewarded myself with a quick trip to the Napa Valley Grill...they make one hell of a fine soup...and kicked back with coffee and a smoke before launching out on Pacific Hwy towards home. When I paid my check, the waiter hands me this small two-sided, sealed card. Until Jan 1st, he explained, that card is to remain sealed until I'm back at the Grill and then it's opened in front of the waiter...to see whether I get $20.05 toward that meal, or 12 meals free in 2005, or lunch or dinner for two on the house no matter the cost.

Now that's hot!

observer

2004-12-09T21:30:00.000-08:00

observer

Nice. Now the two astronauts up in the space station have been told to cut back on eating because their food supply is running low. They do have a for the moment sufficient supply of water. And if the next Russian supply ship isn't able to take off or crashes, then the astronauts ride that little ship down to earth. All because the US Space Shuttle is still a no-go.

And of course there's still a great debate about the Hubble Telescope...let it die, send up a robot, send up humans, build a new one and send it up.

We won't even get into the Afghanistan and Iraq situations where all BushCo gives us is happy news.

And now one of the better people at Homeland Security has been fired for being honest about the many screw-ups over there.

It's happy news from now on, people. Ain't life grand?

observer

2004-12-09T14:28:00.000-08:00

observer

I absolutely hate shopping...and I'm running out of time. Only two and a half weeks till Xmas. Blast! Worse, stuff has to be shipped all over the blasted country. And the Gen Mgr came out on the hotel patio this morning and admitted to us that his shopping was all done. Agghhhhh! Well, at least the weather has turned just beautiful. Sunny San Diego is back.

Rumsfeld asked for tough questions from the Marines at Pendleton. He got 'em. Good.

I'm outta here. Humbug.

observer

2004-12-08T20:03:00.000-08:00

observer

The guy is coming over tomorrow afternoon, who will shortly be putting a new roof on the house. A metal one. The shade is "copper penny" and will shine like a new one. Rather looking forward to that. Will have to decide on a color for the exterior walls that will match the roof, next. Am thinking a pale, neutral shade. After seeing the houses burn down in the wildfires, especially the Cedar Fire, this past fall, there was no way a new roof wouldn't be a metal one.

Been cruising around taking a look at www.wikipedia.org for the past half hour. Fascinating, the way that's put together. After having seen the film, Alexander, I took a look at the extensive info on Wikipedia on Babylon. Very pleased with what I found. Very unusual encyclopedia that is. Since readers can add info, one added the photo of the Marines walking those grounds. Very strange to have just seen Alexander there, and then the US Marines. Added it to my Favorites list.

Going to be most interesting to see what the Supreme Court will have to say about this Emminent Domain lawsuit. Cities and States are, I think, going too far in taking people's properties under the current laws. For instance, downtown in the Gaslamp, a guy had remodeled an old building into a very successful small business on the corner of the block. Then here comes a major hotel chain wanting to build a hotel there...but they want the entire block. They offered to buy the small business guy out, but
he doesn't want to sell. So the Center City Redevelopment Agency invokes emminent domaine--he'll be offered what they consider a reasonable price and he'd best accept that offer or they simply condemn the property and take it anyway. Same with private homes. Now one thing to do it for the public good if it's a blighted property, but another to do it for a private corporation for purposes of increasing the tax base of the city. I'm keeping an eye on this one.

observer

2004-12-07T14:33:00.000-08:00

observer

http://medicalmadhouse.blogspot.com/ This is one of the best blogs out! The doc is a resident at some hospital somewhere in the states and he just has an on-going fit about this and that...and I enjoy every damned one of them, unless he's feeling blue, bless his heart. We should all have such a doc.

observer

2004-12-06T21:26:00.000-08:00

observer

Finally, a sunshiny but chilly day. The hemotologists down at the Conv Ctr were thrilled.

A sailor aboard the Bonhomme Richard is refusing to go to Iraq, where the ship is now headed. He says he's not about to help transport the Marines over there to be killed. Says he's willing to go to jail...and he will most certainly go there for desertion and refusal to obey a lawful order at the least. More, he's refusing in time of war. A very tough situation to be in.

And the Congress has settled on an acceptable, they say, 9/11 Intelligence Committee's bill for reorganizing under one Intel head. Only Duncan Hunter and James Sensenbrenner had held out, but now Hunter has wording that's acceptable, so it's a done deal once the bill is sent to Bush and he signs it.

Just wonder who that person will be.

observer

2004-12-05T20:16:00.000-08:00

observer

Nothing like weather for screwing everything up. Pouring rain this morning. Off we go, late, heading for the hotel patio. Just made it in time to get breakfast...which they stop serving at 10:30AM and they don't serve lunch.

Back home for about an hour and a half. A Professor friend is in town for a conference and wants to get together to catch up before he heads back to Lakewood. We agree to meet in Old Town on La Pinata's patio at 2. I call the guy at the Conv Ctr to let him know where we'll be. Leave my number on his pager. He's expecting the call. Off I go to La Pinata, only to discover there's a private party and they've taken the entire patio. I write a note for the Conv Ctr guy to meet us at the hotel patio. Then go outside to stand...it's still colder than hell and raining...and wait for the Professor to walk over from the Bazaar del Mundo across the street.

Umbrella in hand, here he comes. We hop in my car and head for the Marriott Courtyard's patio. Eventually the Conv Ctr guy shows. By then, the maintance guy has turned one of the patio heaters on, and I have coffee from the lobby pots.

The staff, who all know me and I, them, are getting a kick out of all this. At the same time, they're being just terrific getting the heat lamp going, cups to the coffee pot table in the lobby and such. It's a Marriott hotel...no question about it!

So we chat, see the Prof's pics. He has a set that are just marvelous. Not the pics, the event shown in them.

Old cemetary up in Long Beach. Historical group dons costumes of the times and go stand by very old grave headstones during Halloween Day. Visitors get to listen to the stories of the people whose names are on those headstones...who they are, where they came from, their lives, how they died. I was fascinated. What an absolutely terrific idea! Here are some incredible histories, just for the listening.

About quarter to 4, we all headed out in three directions and made our ways home. And it was still raining! Still colder than hell. I dislike this weather entirely. Sheesh!

Front page story...big one...on the King Hospital in LA in today's Sunday LA Times. People call it Killer King, and the police all know that if they're shot, their people know not to take them to the trauma unit there. The County Supervisors responsible for that hospital are doing a pitiful job on behalf of the citizenry up there in dealing with that place. Go in with scratches, bruises and the loss of a couple of teeth as one child did after an accident and you're likely to come out dead just as that kid did, because of the multiple screw-ups of that horrible staff of docs and nurses. It is a total and tragic disgrace any way you want to look at it. We have here a clash between PC and death. It's a black-staffed hospital in a black neighborhood. Try and shut it down and the neighborhood goes nuts. They want no other races to work there. They'd rather die. So they are.

observer

2004-12-04T17:12:00.000-08:00

observer

Went off to see the film, Alexander, this afternoon. It ran from noon till 3PM. Was fascinated with Babylon--which Alexander conquered some 300+ years BC. Oliver Stone did his homework on that place and did well recreating it as it was.

And all the time I'm thinking of our Marines going there and walking that ground. Saddam built a new Babylon atop the remains of the old one against much protest from the archeologists. But the old foundations, some of them, still exist. The Babylonians drew pictures, made maps, and wrote descriptions...and from those, Stone recreated it...including the Hanging Gardens and the Tower of Babel. Just an incredible and very ancient place. First laws came from there--Hammarubi's Code. The Babylonians divided the day into 24 hours, the hours into 60 minutes, the minute into 60 seconds. And we still use their time and some of their laws. We're not even born compared to those people.

I immediately hit this machine to do some research on Babylon once home. I am extremely impressed with those people, I kid you not. And now here we are, like Alexander, another invading Army. Trust me, with a history like theirs, soon as our boots are off their ground, they'll just continue on in their ways as they always have, Army after Army after Army.

And don't forget that it's BushCo's intention to "bring freedom" and unity to the entire Mideast. Guess what? That was Alexander's intention too. See how far he got. Ha. History repeats.

Talk about Close Quarter Combat (CQB)! Bloody beyond belief then and the same now. Just different weapons most of the time. They don't carry knives for nothing. And to what end? This grand plan, like Alexander's and all the rest, is doomed to failure sooner or later. In that respect, a Vietnam repeat, with the same lesson: It's THEIR land.

Lesson: Do not elect meglomaniacs.

Mortals are indeed fools on the stages through time.

Some of the most gorgeous scenery in the world in that film. The guy playing Alexander did a fabulous job. And Alexander was indeed a blond. He was Greek. Don't mess with the Greeks. Nor the Iraqis. :)))

Was a guy on the patio this morn in worn uniform fatigues--t-shirt, desert boots, camo pants. From Ft Bragg. Had to either be or have been a Sgt. Nice guy. In his 40's or early 50's, I'd guess. Not sympathetic to the Army Reserves. Gonna do some research on Ft Bragg now. See who and what operates/trains out of there.

observer

2004-12-03T20:26:00.000-08:00

observer

Things are moving faster. Now Bush admin people are naming replacements before people have even said they're going to resign. It's beginning to look as though the Bush broom is about to sweep damned near every current appointee out...and they're trying to sweep Kofi Annan at the UN out as well. Actually, it's not just Annan. What they'd like is to run the UN itself out of business. I'm just amazed at their audacity, but having watched them go for four years, I shouldn't be. They've been that way since the start.

Cold as hell here still...and it's supposed to rain as well on Sunday. We're in total disgrace with the tourists and conventioneers at this point. Sunny San Diego ain't. In addition, the Appeals Court said they'll need several days to decide the Mayor case--whether to have Murphy and Roberts do a run-off that would eliminate Frye from contention or not. They also said that there would be no swearing-in ceremony as scheduled on Monday. So we're still hanging in the wind. No mayor.

Five of us at breakfast on the hotel patio this morn. Just never know who will show up. Was fun.

More photos of SEALs with Iraqi prisoners. Not good. Damn!

observer

2004-12-02T21:52:00.000-08:00

observer

Don't know about anybody else, but I'm seeing a pattern in the goings and comings of Bush's cabinet people. It seems that once Bush has decided who he's going to replace somebody with, then that somebody lets it be known that he's resigning on a certain time in the future. A day or two later, Bush names the replacement. The resigning one has just long enough to clear up business that must be dealt with and to clean out his/her office and they're gone.

In all cases, it also seems that the replacement is worse than the original. I sure as hell don't like this admin's way of doing business. But then, I remind myself, Bush 43 was enforcer for Bush 41. Kept everybody in line. I can see him strutting around now, flaunting his power over them. Nothing's changed. What a lousy crew. Think we're being punished for past sins or some damned thing. Bush 43 operates as though he got 95% of the vote, when in reality, he barely squeaked back into office. Half the voters in this nation did not and do not want him representing them. He's an embarassment.

Tomorrow (Friday) it's back to Fed Court for a continuation of the Mayoral election fight. Whoever is responsible had blasted well better get the Municipal Code and the City Charter rules/laws to match up to each other and the State laws on voting and write-ins and such. Damned negligent to not have taken care of those problems already.

And now Gov Arnold wants a new redistricting to take place in California. Apparently he thinks that if Tom DeLay could pull it off and increase the Repub seats in Congress by five, he can. At least Arnold wants judges and not legislatures to do that redistricting. I'll give him that much credit. And in fairness, I think it's probably a good idea. There's just no way to remove an incumbent now. They, both Repubs and Dems, have their districts so nailed down it's pathetic. And that's not fair. I don't care if the current majority are Dems. Let's have a little balance here.

And so, goodnight.

observer

2004-12-01T19:32:00.000-08:00

observer

"Meanwhile, to all the “moral value” Republicans who won last week: You now have the Presidency, the Courts, the House, and the Senate. If by the end of January we do not have prayer in schools, gay marriage or civil union permanently outlawed, the end of safe and legal abortions, gun control repealed, and a flag-burning amendment, then you might consider the fact that you’ve been used."

So says Juanita at www.brazosriver.com on the blog that she calls the most dangerous beauty parlor in the world. And so it is. And she's right. However, BushCo is slicing hunks off Roe-Wade, very very quietly. Behind our backs. Idiots. Can't think further ahead than their noses about the consequences. Their answer for both abortion and AIDS--is...abstinence. You gotta be kidding.

observer

2004-12-01T19:13:00.000-08:00

observer

Was 49 degrees this morning when I headed out for breakfast on the hotel patio! Thought I was gonna turn into a popsicle. Damned good heaters on that patio. Saved me until the weather warmed up to the lower 60s before noon. But still. The other writer in for breakfast had on those fleece-lined Ugg boots. Said her feet were icy cold in spite of them. Toxic amounts of coffee and heater later, all was well.

Glad the big comforter is on the bed as of this afternoon. You bet.
Along with the electric blanket, not gonna feel shiver one.

Political stuff is enough to piss off the Pope. Not a straight bone in most of those people's bodies when it comes to money or perks or power. Term limits have got to go in this state. Tried it, don't like it. Everybody is so focused on winning their next election that they've little interest in really studying complex legislation that they won't be around long enough to do anything about, if necessary, later. What a mess.

Something wrong with the margins on this blog form. They're too tight. Have no idea how to go about changing them. Looks like it's fine when it's posted on the actual blog though.

Trekked down to Horton Plaza downtown on Monday afternoon. Went to the Napa Valley Grill on the top floor, across from Doubleday's Bookstore, to buy half a loaf of the focaccia bread they bake fresh every day. Best I've ever tasted. It wasn't out of the over yet, the host (a dead ringer for Sean Connery) told me. Wouldn't be for 15 minutes. Naturally then had to run over to the bookstore. Immediately found a PT Deutermann novel, "Darkside", that I hadn't read. Bought it. Back to the Grill to pick up the bread.

I'm thinking it's gonna be the size of a normal loaf of bread. Wrong. Out comes two plastic takeout boxes, about 9x12 inches. Full of that bread. And that's their idea of half a loaf! But man, that is good bread. Kept one. Took the other to the writers' gathering. Between us and the staff, ate almost all of it. Rest went home with the waitress who puts up with us every week. Good woman, that!

observer

2004-11-30T19:45:00.000-08:00

observer

Listening to a news station in LA on the way home. Seems somebody checked and learned that 1 in 10 teens in San Diego attempt suicide. Sounds like we have a mess of drama kings and queens living here.

It's just been colder than hell yesterday and today. Somebody had better pay closer attention to Global Warming...like BushCo for instance. There's no doubt whatever in my mind that they're certainly paying close attention to the recent news that because of global warming they've learned that the Arctic Sea may have oil under it.

Meanwhile Bush is up in Canada being kept away from several thousand protesting Canadians. Good idea to keep him away from them. They are not happy.

The way things are progressing, we may never get our Mayor's race settled. Fed court heard some arguments today from the folks who believe Frye's write in should be thrown out and Murphy and Roberts should have a race by themselves. They'll decide this coming Friday, supposedly. And they stopped the Registrar from certifying the vote count. One certainly hopes we'll end up with a Mayor sooner or later, since the swearing-in date is next Monday! Sheesh!

observer

2004-11-27T21:38:00.000-08:00

observer

Meanwhile, in India, the powers that be told the snake charmers along a street that they could no longer be there. The snake charmers, in essence, told the powers to leave them alone or they'd turn 5,000 of their snakes loose on them. Cobras, that is. I, for one, would cease trying to mess with those guys. Right now.

Just wonder what can be done to eliminate street gangs. I lost count of how many people the paper reported being shot by a car full of gang members today. Where are their parents? This is domestic violence of the worst kind. Obviously, the parents have lost control of their kids over time. Why?

Sort of ironic that our military in Iraq is trying to bring back security in that country when we can't even secure our own. I'm wondering what goes on in our prisons and jails that return people to the streets in worse shape than when they went in. Los Angeles has released thousands of people early--some, sentenced to months in jail have served only a day or two before being released because the jails have simply no room to accommodate them due to the number of newly convicted coming in. Will we see concentration camps soon because there's no place else to put them?

I've read that Iraq is now covered with grafitti too. Those ancient, precious historical sites like Babylon, for instance. For years, the gangs have been furious because, as they said, they get no respect. Is lack of respect for them as human beings what drove them into gangs?

If that's part of it, then we're in for a rough ride from our Congress too because the members are showing each other less and less respect...and the Vice-President telling a congress member to go fuck himself, on the floor of the House or Senate, whichever it was, is the perfect example of that.

We are an angry nation. This is not good. Why?

observer

2004-11-26T15:04:00.000-08:00

observer

Just wanted to let you know that this doc's blog is well worth taking a look at if you're interested in what happens in a doc's mind when you come tearing into a hospital.

http://medicalmadhouse.blogspot.com/

observer

2004-11-26T13:42:00.000-08:00

observer

It's as though the world and half the nation is holding their breath, waiting to learn what horrid thing BushCo will come up with next. Nobody trusts this administration. With cause.

Here's a worry. Scalia may become the next Chief Justice on the Supreme Court. So he's just made a speech against the separation of church and state. Says the Constitution is based on God. This is "strict constructionism". And mentions the Pledge which has the words, "under God". Well that's certainly not in the Constitution. Those words were added during the Eisenhower administration in 1956. All of which pisses me off no end.

I am not religious, but I'm of the firm belief that everybody is entitled to be religious and to practice their religion, whatever it is, in peace. It's their business. But it becomes mine when they think it's fine to cram their version down everybody's throat whether they like or agree with it or not. That infuriates me. This administration is in the cramming stage and has been since they took office. All because Bush was a drunk and the evangelist, Billy Graham, got him to accept religion and quit. Graham's version, that is. Scalia is a Catholic. Both see themselves as moralists. Both are blind as bats if they think everybody has the same idea of what is moral and what is not.

There was a saying, "You can't legislate morality". Well, they're doing their best. And we're gonna pay dearly if they succeed, I kid you not. It's an abuse of both privacy and freedom. And, I submit, an abuse of the Constitution and the Bill of Rights.

Gonna pour another cup of coffee and light a smoke and fume awhile.

observer

2004-11-25T13:07:00.000-08:00

observer

First and foremost, Happy Thanksgiving to everybody! We're heading downtown to the Gaslamp Qtr and Trattoria Mare E Monte to eat Italian on their sidewalk patio this afternoon. Gorgeous sunny day out, though another writer and I did have a heat lamp on the hotel patio this morn at breakfast. Lots of folks out there too. Dining room was half deserted. One of the waiters is from a small mill town in N Carolina. Seems that movie starring Sally Fields as a union worker some years ago was shot there. The waiter's mother worked in that mill...which has long been shut down and the jobs gone overseas. Outsourced, that is, as so many many others have been.

The writer and I entered into a long discussion about which creates wealth--labor or investment. I'm of the opinion that labor comes first, else what is there to invest in? Sort of like Bill Gates in his garage, working away to create Microsoft. That's creative labor. Then came investment. Same thing with the Google guys. Without their labor, what is there for investors to invest in?

I think it's time for more movies on labor, to counteract this admin's tax cuts for the rich so that the rich will invest more...and the economy will grow. Right now the corporate profits go into overseas accounts which don't pay taxes to support the nation...and the jobs are outsourced, the dollar is falling because we're so in debt, we're buying more from overseas that overseas is buying from us, and the countries overseas, with the dollar falling are beginning to think twice about the return on the money they're supporting us with. If we can't borrow more from them because we're already so deep in the hole, then how will we support the nation's needs?

So Bush's economist guy quit. No doubt to spend more time with his family. May they have a happy turkey day too.

observer

2004-11-25T12:52:00.000-08:00

observer

2004-11-22T14:59:00.000-08:00

observer

So here two other writers and myself happily are, sitting on the hotel patio, talking, finished with breakfast. I'm kicked back, having a smoke with my coffee. Out of the dining room comes our waiter, followed by a couple with about a six year old child. They head to the far side of the patio. They have oatmeal. Back into the dining room they go, and out into the lobby. Our waiter returns, truly aggravated.

Seems that when he opened the patio door and came out with a pot of coffee for us, the female side of that couple stopped him, all upset. She'd gotten a whiff of my smoke and immediately demanded to be reseated...on the far side of the patio from us. Shortly, in she went, asked for the dining room manager, and demanded he move the three of us to a different table, further away from them. He told her No.

When the waiter asked if they'd like coffee, she told him No!!!
They quickly finished their oatmeal, trapped the manager again, complained that the waiter, by offering coffee, was harassing them and demanded to speak to the Gen Mgr, where she listed all her complaints. What she didn't know was that his office was just down the lobby and around the corner and his door is always open.

Ended up, they got what they wanted. The hotel picked up their tab. They ate free.

Going to be interesting to see what happens in the morning, since they're booked in for another day or two. I can hardly wait.

observer

2004-11-20T20:37:00.000-08:00

observer

"The bill included] a potential present for Bush himself, $2 million for the government to buy back the presidential yacht Sequoia. The boat was sold three decades ago."

So says www.mydd.com

That is some spending bill. Goodies for all. Sheesh!

observer

2004-11-20T19:59:00.000-08:00

observer

When the CPU on your computer set-up begins emitting groans, you know there's something not right going on. Turns out the fan needs replacing. Gonna take it over to the computer guy on Monday--and get my documents downloaded to a CD while we're at it. Was my machine until I rec'd this one, so my old one went to oldest daughter.

There was a bookstore I'd been hearing about for a long while, so she and I hopped in the car and drove over to University Ave to take a look. And we looked...and looked...and never could find that bookstore. Did find a small cottage with that address though. Two guys were moving furniture into it. Went to inquire about the bookstore. One of the guys whipped out his cell phone and dialed up information...who said there was no listing whatsoever for it.

Been about a week since a couple of other writers and I had been talking about going over and investigating that place. Other writers had raved about it. Now it seemed to have disappeared.

Once home again, I emailed yet another writer who'd given a talk there to find out where the hell it was. It's now in Palm Springs. Moved there about a year ago, he said.

I blame my ignorance on election season entirely. Have been so engaged in that, that I hadn't realized what was going on while I wasn't looking. I now think I'd best do some floating around town and see what's been happening.

Senate got right into it today, over the bit in the finance bill that okayed certain Congressional Committee folks the right to tap into anybody and everybody's IRS business. The House passed the bill. So it went to the Senate and somebody discovered that little bit and the shit hit the fan. It will be removed. Both Repubs and Dems were mad as hell that such was even in that bill.

Also, the 9/11 Commission's Intel bill came to a dead halt. The Pentagon wishes to retain every bit of its intel power and money and got Sen Duncan Hunter (Dem, CA) and a few others to go along with them. Result: no bill passed. Even Bush wanted it passed.

And DeLay is an on-going ethics/legal problem. Right now, his cronies down in TX are trashing the DA down there, trying to put a halt to his investigation. DeLay has made sure all the Repubs in the House owe him. Crooked s.o.b. that he is.

And Peter Jennings caused Bill Clinton to lose his temper last night as well. A very rare thing. Interesting times, indeed.

observer

2004-11-18T20:34:00.000-08:00

observer

Horrendous fiery 3-car crash, 2 dead, others injured during commuter traffic this eve. Seems that 3 cars, headed east, suddenly crossed over the meridian into westbound lanes. Why they did that is not known. Only thing I can think of is some kind of sudden obstruction in the eastbound lane, and they had no where else to go. Read nothing about any car or cars in the westbound lane being the cause of the first three crashing. Just really strange.

So here we have different and various facts to analyze...and none of them point to a solid conclusion. Sounds like the same kind of thing, on a much much smaller scale, as the CIA Analyists encounter on a daily basis. And boy are they in trouble for not being more precise and certain. Heads are rolling all over the place.

Given such problems, here comes the word that Iran is getting ready to put nuclear warheads on missiles. True? Says who? On what information? Consider Iraq's WMDs. Consider this admin's hard-on toward Iran. And the one they had toward Iraq. Is the Office of Special Plans in the Pentagon involved once more? Once again, I say, prove it. Show 'em to me. After Iraq, I am the great disbeliever, and that's an understatement.

Right now, I'm more concerned with Russia's new nukes. If Russia says they've got 'em, far as I'm concerned, they've got 'em. Now Bush says he and Putin have a great relationship, he's not worried about it. I recall his looking into Putin's eyes and seeing his soul...or so he said. I don't consider that evidence of benign intent. Saw a cartoon of Putin looking into mirrors and Lenin looking back out at him. Things are leaning that way in Russia. Not a good sign.

No question but that N Korea, Pakistan, India, all have nukes. Russia has nukes. But Iran? Show 'em to me. They well may have blueprints from Khan in Pakistan, but the Iranians say they want only to build nuclear power plants, not nuke missiles. Yeah? Let the inspectors in. They at least know what they're seeing when they see it.

Does the CIA have boots on the ground in Iran? Not an easy thing to accomplish. Do we have the military available to take Iran? Only if we're going to do it strictly through air power..whether missiles or planes delivery. And even then, that would be asking one hell of a lot. We're having trouble even supplying the military in Iraq with enough bullets at this point.

Meanwhile, I'm still trying to find out what's going on with Taiwan.

And what's happening in Afghanistan, really. And how is Iraq gonna be solved and ended? Not easily.

Meanwhile, the Clinton Presidential Library had its grand opening today. Astounds me how civilized those affairs can be. And I'm most impressed with the military's part in such events. They give them the dignity and grace required....in pouring down rain today. Much credit is their due.

observer

2004-11-16T20:54:00.000-08:00

observer

Another gorgeous day. Weatherman says some clouds may drift over. Crescent moon, lots of stars. I'm liking this. Major subject at the writers' gathering this eve had to do with what's happening at the CIA, Colin Powell's resignation, Condi Rice's immediate nomination, and how to crack a safe. In addition, the business of trying to persuade these various people who show up at the SD Conv Ctr, wanting to know where their convention is inside that huge building, that their convention is not there. And they will insist it is too in there. If they happen to have their conv info with them, then it's simple. The doorman just has them read it. Many, having flown across country to attend, don't have the info with them. More, they don't realize that they're surrounded with large hotels that have their own conv. ctrs, and that's where their convention is. Argue like hell, they do. Oftentimes, they're not only at the wrong place, they've arrived a week or a month early or late. But damn, they're sure they're at the right place at the right time. Talk about stubborn.

Reminds me of Bush saying he never second-guesses himself.

observer

2004-11-15T20:54:00.000-08:00

observer

Real last item...Some folks are mortally offended regarding that wonderful photo of Lance Corp Miller, battle-weary, with his eyes narrowed and a cigarette in his mouth. What offends them? The cigarette, of course. It's lit. There's smoke drifting. He's really smoking it. Horrors! One guy berates his hometown newspaper, congratulating the paper because 10,000 kids are now gonna smoke having seen that photo. He's damned sure that kids read newspapers isn't he? And that they know a hero when they see one.

observer

2004-11-15T20:46:00.000-08:00

observer

I don't recall who said that power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely, but he/she knew what they were talking about. In today's LA Times Opinion section, Richard A. Viguerie (google him and see what you get) and David Franke, authors of "America's Right Turn: How Conservatives Used New and alternative Media To Take Power", have written a piece entitled, "The Democrats' Self-Created Hell". They point out that America is the most religious nation on earth; that Dems are pro-choice; that Conservative Christians have made magnificent use of all forms of communications technology (political direct mail, talk radio, cable TV and the internet), "...to promote their social and political agenda." True. Once Repub Senator, Arlen Specter, next in line to chair the Judiciary Committee by reason of seniority, remarked that Bush might find it hard to get a pro-life nominee confirmed to the Supreme Court, the shit hit the fan with these people. Congress has been swamped with protests against Specter gaining the chair of that committee. So this pair end their piece by writing, "The conservative Christian community knows it made the difference this year. Now it expects Bush and the GOP to deliver what it was promised, and there will be political hell to pay if they don't."

That's power. One promise earns another. I hope they tear each other to shreds.

Meanwhile, it's like rats leaving that sinking ship, what with SecState, Colin Powell, resigning, but saying in his announcement of same this morning that he would continue to do his job during the weeks or months that follow until Bush nominates someone else to fill his position. Uh-huh. Except that Bush has already decided to fill it with his Nat'l Security Advisor, Condi Rice. Given her piss-poor job before 9/11, that's a brilliant move. Word is that she coveted being the new SecDef. Much,much more power and money there. Problem is, Rumsfeld ain't goin'. Stephen Hadley, her #2, is moving up to take her place, it seems.

Interesting too is that on this latest mess of resignations, the dates are all different. Looks as though Bush is lumping a few together here and a few together there, and parsing them out at his pleasure. Interesting placement. Wonder why he picks this one to put in this group, and that one in that group? I know! It's just that he's making his choices by gut instinct, exactly as he said he did to Bob Woodward. That is, of course, if his "Higher Father" hasn't already given him instructions. And no, I'm not being sarcastic. Just repeating Bush's own words. That's power.

And then there's Arnold, Governor of California, who wants to be president of the US if a Constitutional Amendment can be passed okaying a foreign born citizen to take that position. Right now, the Constitution says, No Way! Have to be native born. I agree that being a Hollywood star can take a politician a long way--it sure did do well by Ronald Reagan--but there are limits. I have no problem whatsoever with a 2nd generation, born here, becoming prez. Born here is fine. That's Constitutional. My problem has to do with a "sleeper" (a foreign agent/spy) becoming prez. I doubt that Arnold fits that catagory. But being an actor sure fits what sleepers are...and all spies are actors, pretending to be what they are not. We pass an Amendment like that, and we're askin' for it.

Besides, Arnold isn't doing all that great as a Governor. Better than Bush did though.

That Chef down at the hotel patio is more devious than I realized. He had an ulterior motive in putting together a perfect breakfast sandwich for me on Saturday and again this morning. Says he, "Now you don't have to go to that other restaurant for your sandwich on weekends. You can come here every day of the week." :))) Said Chef likes to run out when he can and talk politics with me. More, he's only there Friday through Tuesday. On Wed through Thurs, the other Chef takes over. I have a feeling that I'm gonna be eating the breakfast sandwich when he's cooking and only getting the scrambled eggs and biscuits when the other Chef is cooking...regardless.

Almost last item...the lawyer who brought the case to court about it being illegal for Donna Frye to be a write-in candate for Mayor here, faced the judge this morning and the judge threw his case out of court. So much for that. One down, one to go.

Last item...The Green and Libertarian parties have gathered enough money from their supporters to pay for a vote recount in Ohio. :))) Now the fun begins....

observer

2004-11-13T14:49:00.000-08:00

observer

On the bottom of the LA Times' front page today is a story about Marine Lance Corporal James Blake Miller, a Kentucky 20-year-old, whose photo (by Luis Sinco, LA Times photog embedded with the Marines in Fallujah) has now been featured on over 100 newspapers and shown by Dan Rather on TV. Rather wanted to know who he was. The photo is hot. It's a full frame of Miller's head. There he is, a cigarette dangling from the corner of his mouth, camo streaked from sweat on his face, eyes narrowed, helmet battered. The New York Post had a banner on its front page: "SMOKIN'" and the story headline, below the full front page photo of Miller, reads: "Marlboro men kick butt in Fallujah". :))) Miller's unit is Charlie Company, 1st Battalion, 8th Marine Regiment, and his officers loved that pic.

Problem is, according to the LA Times article, that Miller had a stash of smokes and now has to share with Charlie Company and he only has three packs left and is about to have a fit and wants to know if Marlboro can't send some more. Marlboro would be damned foolish to not get a plane load headed over there right quick, and kill themselves to get the right to put that photo on every billboard and ad across the US that they can possibly find.

I said that photo was hot the minute I laid eyes on it. As his coach in high school said when he saw it, "He had that stuff on his face. And the expression, that look...Those are not the eyes I'm used to seeing in his face." Exactly so. The man is no longer the boy they knew. Cleaned up and back home in civvies, he may look like it, but he isn't and never will be again. More, he has three more years in the Marines to go. Add to that the fact that he's gonna have a hell of a time relating to old friends. Those paths have diverged, big time. And he'll no doubt wonder either why they've changed or has he? If his folks are wise, they won't touch a thing in his room so something will have stayed the same as his memories, so he'll feel home again. It is a "sea change" and sometimes it's very hard to get one's bearings again. The challenge for Miller is to live long enough to return. Iraq is not a fun place, nor is Afghanistan nor anywhere else our military is stationed.

Meanwhile, changes are occuring on the hotel patio. New furniture, new fan lamps overhead, and new strip lighting is coming. Very fancy. The sconces are black metal, as is the metal on the furniture and fan lamps. The new tables are square, the new chairs black webbed. Elegant, I tell you! If you look up the Marriot Courtyard, Old Town, San Diego on the web, you can see the patio as it is, but with the old furniture.

It was raining this morn, so down to that wonderful covered patio at the hotel we go. Chef comes out to find out what we're doing there on the weekend cause he knows we usually go to Marie's patio...and he wants to know what I eat at Marie's. So I tell him: The chef there fixes me a sandwich: one egg over hard, cheese, extremely crisp bacon, on well-toasted rye with mayo. I also tell him that the only other chef that can do it right is the one at the Hilton Hotel on Mission Bay Drive, and that the other chef here can't do it. We have a short Q&A about just how crisp that bacon is, and I settle down with the breakfast I have every morning there and that they fix the minute I walk across the parking lot and they see me...scrambled eggs and two hot biscuits with strawberry jam, which I'm just starting to eat when he came out. Away he goes.

A little aside--this chef also cooks for the Marines at MCRD just down Pacific Hwy a piece. Few minutes later, out he comes again--with two pieces of very crisp bacon to make sure that's how I like it! And a few minutes after that, out he comes with the breakfast sandwich I'd just described to him, and he wants me to check it and see if it's just right. Man, it was perfect! He grins and hands it over. :))) I ate it. Brought my bicuits home. Managed half the scrambled eggs. Drank coffee. Read the paper. Felt like I'd had enough food for three people. Chef is mightly pleased and says, "Okay. Monday morning." I said, "Wonderful!" The people in that place are amazing!

And I know I'm gonna hear about it come Monday, when another writer or two and the other waiters and the Gen Mgr of the hotel spot that breakfast sandwich. Every damned one of them will want details about how this change in food came to be...especially the writers. Sheesh! No matter. I like the hell out of it. :)))

observer

2004-11-10T21:33:00.000-08:00

observer

Almost forgot. Happy Birthday, Marine Corps! :))

observer

2004-11-10T21:27:00.000-08:00

observer

The world keeps turning.... Arafat has just died at 75 years of age. Bush has nominated his legal counsel, Alberto Gonzales, to take Ashcroft's place as Attorney General. Seems as though most of the Iraqi insurgents escaped from Fallujah and are now raising hell in Ramadi. No sign of Zarquwi--or however his name is spelled. Like Mullah Omar and Osama bin Laden, he's turned into another invisible man. Maybe they're all hiding out in South America like the Nazis and Carlos the Jackel did. Who knows? The world is a big place.

San Diego still has no winner in either the Mayor's race nor the City Attorney's race. Like many other areas in the US, they're having one hell of a time trying to get the ballots all counted. Worse, a lawyer has brought suit to stop the counting and to have a run-off between the present mayor and another guy who has already conceded. Problem is, the guy did concede. Problem is, a write-in candidate is, so far, winning. Major problem is that the Municiple Code and the City Charter have different rules. And on and on. Eventually...we may know. One hopes.

Sitting here eating peanut butter cookies. Two of them. Not my favorites, but very acceptable. :))) Learned today that a very intelligent friend voted for Bush. Asked why, the answer was, "Security". I need those cookies. To console myself. Why, oh why.....

Bush now wants the line-item veto returned to the presidency in spite of the fact that the Supreme Court said it was unconstitutional. So he's instructed Congress--the Republican part--to come up with a line-item veto that will pass constitutional muster. He wants those huge tax cuts made permanent. He's ready to go get that Alaskan oil. He wants to move on privatizing Social Security. All he wanted before, he wants now. Now. Not later. Yep. I need cookies. At least.

New writer added to the group. Wrote a book on gangs. Neat guy. Good addition.

observer

2004-11-09T21:16:00.000-08:00

observer

So...drove on down to the usual Tues gathering of writers this eve, listening to the traffic report, and I can say this: if it ever snows out here I'm not goin' anywhere near a freeway, cause sure as hell some fool will try to outrun the police and cause a pile-up of monster size. And they're always trying to outrun the police. An idiot in a red pick-up truck tried it today. Goin' like hell, he turns off onto a side road, then a dirt road, then drives into a utility yard, goes completely around it, trying to find a way through a very sturdy chain link fence, roars out, barely missing the police car blocking the gate, tries to pass several police cars blocking the road by passing them on the side, gets into a ditch, can't get out. They got him out. Last seen, he's flat on his face, handcuffed.

About the same time, another fool sets his house on fire up toward LA, jumps into his truck, drives like a maniac down the freeway heading south, a police car rams him from the rear before he can kill somebody, his door swings open, he closes it, keeps going, then pulls over and jumps out with a gun. He gets shot. Last seen, he's in an ambulance on his way to the hospital. Meanwhile, in both cases, the freeways were shut down and there everybody sits...waiting...and waiting...and finally they get to continue to where they're going. But they're late, they're angry, they begin to drive like nutcases. Personally, I prefer cruising along on surface roads and enjoying the scenery.

San Diego is a water city, and the scenery is well worth looking at.

And I'm thinking about Ed Fitzgerald's book, Bank's Bandits. Ed was one of the original Green Berets...and none of them knew what this new outfit was that they volunteered to join. Has to be one of the most hilarious tales I've ever read, and I've read a lot.
Who would ever dream that this tough group would set up to steal the 82nd Airborne's chicken dinners...while the chickens were still alive and squawking at the same time the 82nd was sweeping the hills trying to find and capture those same Green Berets? I was on the floor, laughing.

No way does that book leave my possession.

observer

2004-11-08T15:15:00.000-08:00

observer

So go on over to www.latimes.com and scroll down the the "World" news, and read about those guys who would choose a weekend with a really hot sports car over a weekend with someone like Britney Spears. Nothin' like men and toys. :))) And then go here:
http://medicalmadhouse.blogspot.com/ and see what this guy wants, and why. Flatly, I'm with the doc. :)))

So the debate over the election results goes on. This is obviously gonna take awhile to shake down...if it does. The 2000 election has never come to a conclusion that satisfys most on both sides, and I don't believe the 2004 election will either at the rate things are going. As the military says, "Bite the bullet" and carry on.
Have some excellent minds trying analyze this one, and get ready for the next one in 2006...when the politicos in the House, especially, are gonna be moving the earth to be re-elected. They won't be happy if Bush doesn't give them full support in what he does and says between now and then.

Have to go now and separate the books I will keep from the books I'm willing to give up. Ouch!

observer

2004-11-07T20:52:00.000-08:00

observer

Well hell. Wrote a post a few hours ago and since it has yet to appear, I have to assume something has destroyed or lost it. Frustrating as the devil, that is.

It seems that the battle for Fallujah has begun. If we think our election was bad, just think what the Iraq election in January will be. The voters might well be shot or blown up just standing in line to vote, to say nothing of the polling places themselves. And how long will these guerilla insurgent fighters continue to fight? As more and more Iraqis die in "collateral damage", in spite of our soldiers trying not to kill them, the more furious the Iraqis will be.

So tonight our side has captured the hospital and two bridges and the city continues to be fired upon by planes and helocopter gunships, as it has been for days. I just hope Bush, now that he has "capital to spend" doesn't decide to just turn various Iraqi cities to glass or flatten them totally.

As I said in the missing post, the division here at home is between cities all across the nation voting Dem and the great majority of populations outside the cities voting Repub. Interesting.

observer

2004-11-06T18:37:00.000-08:00

observer

The movie "Ray" on Ray Charles is top quality Oscar material. Just so you'll know.

The British newspapers are giving us all hell for re-electing Bush. They're not one bit happy.

The lawyer from next door came over this afternoon just to pace around my office and berate the re-election of Bush. The writers here are doing the same, only they're doing on the emails they send.

So I did settle down and read the LA Times last night...and in the Calendar section they had side-by-side photos of Kerry and Bush. I have never seen a more powerful expression of sadness than Kerry had. Red rimmed eyes. Just so sad. As are we all.

I think he's going to be a force hard to deal with when the Senate..now with a stronger Repub majority..tries to pull another fast one. He's sad now, but he'll shortly get to the damned mad stage regardless of what he said about bringing the nation together.

Kevin Drum, on his Washington Monthly blog, has an 1860 map of the nation which shows the portions of the country who were 1) against slavery, 2)owned slaves, 3) not sure. Looks very like the red/blue electoral maps of this election. Don't much like the looks of that.

I see no reason whatsoever why we Dems should even consider the idea that no candidate who is not from the South should be nominated to run for president. That's absurd. Not everybody in the South voted for Bush by a long shot. After the next four years, the ones who did will have cause to rethink their position, I'd bet.
I base that opinion on the absolute disaster Bush has been in his first term, when he was not able to pull off a goodly amount of the shit he'd like to get away with but couldn't because he had to face another election. Well now he doesn't, so he's been set loose with a Congress and a Supreme Court on his side, so watch out.

observer

2004-11-05T16:52:00.000-08:00

observer

Seems that everybody and their brother--including me--has spent the days since Tuesday either trying to come up with what went so wrong that Kerry lost, or happily enough, trying to come up with a path to future success. I've come to the conclusion that in the former case, historians will come up with the complete answer, and in the latter case, it's gonna take some time. Personally, I'd like to have it take enough time that Bush supporters begin to really take a hit from their decisions.

In the meanwhile, we have to live with the idea that the rest of the world believes we've lost our senses...and Canada says their website is suddenly getting an enormous amount of visitors. Not good to cut and run. Haven't had time to really think about this election yet...and we surely do need to.

So I escaped. I've spent the morning over on the US Navy's SEAL Team's base attending the graduation of a young man who is one of the 33 out of 125 who managed to make it this far. Quite a formal and happy affair. Now that he's finished Basic Underwater Demolition/SEAL training, he still has six months to go until he's truly a SEAL and entitled to wear that precious Trident they call the Budweiser. :))) Next step is schooling. He wants to be a medic. Then he'll be assigned to a full fledged SEAL Team for six months and if he passes muster with them, then he'll finally get that pin. Since he's gone through hell to get this far, I have absolute faith he'll go the whole way. Am very proud of him, but not as proud, I'm sure as he is of what he's accomplished.

Damn! I believe it's started to rain again. And this is sunny San Diego! We're in disgrace with the tourists once more.

Had no time to read the LA Times and the Union-Tribune this morn, so will do so now. And thanks, Dave B, for your astute comments and wishes of good luck.

observer

2004-11-03T20:09:00.000-08:00

observer

It's a sad day for the nation and the world, though the Bush voters obviously don't realize that fact. Truly amazing the way Rove et al managed to make culture issues the number one concern to their people and by doing so caused them to ignore life and death matters--their own welfare as well as the world's. There's something very naive about those voters, that they can't get past relatively minor matters to see the abject failure BushCo's policies have been. And now they'll reap what he has sown...and sadly, so will we all.

observer

2004-10-30T23:18:00.000-07:00

observer

Damn! It doesn't do for me to be reading about and thinking of writing. I believe I've just started a new book. Shocked the hell out of myself. But a scene sticks in my mind long enough and sooner or later, I'll put it on paper. Be interesting to see where this goes.

observer

2004-10-30T22:14:00.000-07:00

observer

Have been reading the fall issue of the Authors Guild Bulletin. Quite a magazine. All writers should have the pleasure of those pages, but you can't join the Authors Guild--and get the Bulletin--unless you've published a book with a major publisher, etc. which, happily, I have done. No self-published books. In any case, I had, as I have now, a CD playing: Ray Charles' "Genius Loves Company". I can listen to Ray Charles by the hour...one of my top favorites. Do plan to see the film about him: "Ray", too. It opened here this weekend but will see it later when the theaters won't be so jammed. Nothing gives me chills like hearing Ray Charles sing "America, the Beautiful".

Meanwhile, I'm about to go to Amazon.com and order up a copy of "USS Constellation: Pride of the American Navy". I know the Connie, been aboard the Connie. It was home-ported here. Hell of a fine ship. About kills me that she has been de-commissioned. I miss seeing her anchored across the harbor at North Island. Really do. I'm in mourning.

observer

2004-10-30T12:34:00.000-07:00

observer

No question that the political situation is close to the number one topic across the nation and the world. The countries of the world, by the way, are two to one in favor of Kerry as president. Certainly that fact says a lot about how the world regards Bush. If we want a safer America, then he has to be fired from office come Tuesday.

Think it will be a weary nation awaking on Wed morn in spite of the extra hour of sleep some of us will get due to the time change tonight. I know I will be watching C-Span at least for the election results...or lack of them. I do hope Kerry wins by a very large margin to preclude one hell of a battle between sides.

observer

2004-10-28T14:19:00.000-07:00

observer

The spin right now is just too disgusting to live with. Sheesh! Whatever happened to just the truth?

observer

2004-10-24T13:28:00.000-07:00

observer

This is the time when all good citizens come to the aid of their country...and in this case...to the aid of the world, when they cast their votes. It's far past the time when individuals can feel okay by voting for their own interests. The issues are much much wider than that. Life and death. Not only for our own military, but for others, for entire countries. So don't think small and personal--think worldwide.

A most excellent article has hit front page, center, in today's LA Times: www.latimes.com , and it's a must read if you really want to know why we're in the position we're in in Fallujah. And inside is a big rundown on the Sinclair broadcasting corp. Both very much worth taking the time to read.

Have spent the week covering the news intensely...and getting my hair stood on end over the possibility of a battle over election disasters that might not be settled until May, 2005. The lawyer next door says, "Depend on it. We're going into battle all over the nation." Far as I can see, the only thing that might cut short that scenario is a landslide in one direction or the other. The most hopeful thing I've seen are the major newspapers endorsing Kerry,
and the new voters registering and the overseas voters demanding to get their votes counted.

Personally, I'm dreading having to get up at 5AM tomorrow morn to get downtown to the courthouse for jury duty selection. If I'm not put on a jury, I have to serve only tomorrow. It sure would help if they'd pay for parking, but no. And I'll have to find a place that opens early for breakfast, for sure. Last time I went to the restaurant in a hotel and sat on the patio overlooking the sidewalk and could read the paper and keep an eye on others heading for the courthouse. Damn, I'd best check and make sure I'm not carrying something that won't pass security. Would you believe that some damned fool actually tried to carry a simitar about four feet long through security check? Now that's flat out stupid.

Sunny days have returned after those fiercely rainy days when a water spout roared ashore in Coronado and made a hell of a mess. Good thing the sun's out. There are 32,000 neuroscientists meeting at the Conv Ctr. They arrived from all over the world, yesterday, for a five-day session. Hotels are mostly full. Eleven bus routes running from those hotels to the conv ctr all day and into the night. Our brains have drawn some incredible interest and some incredible knowledge. I would love for that knowledge and the abilities that go with it to be used for only peaceful purposes, but know it's only a matter of time before the military finds something useful to appropriate. For instance--put sensors on someone's head and they can move the cursor on a computer screen just using their mind. Oh yeah. They can do it. A friend of mine has done it in a lab at UCSD. Which caused me to recall the "magician" who bends spoons using only his mind. Forget his name though. And to think of the S/F novel, "The Ship That Sang" in which a brain was linked to the space ship's computer and ran the ship. The thing about S/F writers is that many of them have scientific backgrounds--so they take today's hard science and extrapolate into the future and write about what today's science becomes then.

observer

2004-10-19T13:27:00.000-07:00

observer

Have a rainstorm going right now--which means vehicles of all kinds and sizes, including semis, are stacking up all over all freeways. Never fails. Drivers out here, unless they've spent at least one winter in the east, think they can drive in the rain as well as they do on sunny days. Wrong! Gets hot and sunny and oil rises to the surface on all roads. Then it rains, so there's water on top of oil, and that is some truly slick stuff. And there the drivers go, driving 70 as always, which is not okay, especially when they want to make a sudden stop. Right then, it's away we go!!! Leaving those of us who have lived in winter territory previously, just shaking our heads in disbelief.

Cannot believe that Jacksonville, Florida, a very good sized city, was so stupid as to have one, and one only, place where people can vote! So much hell was raised that the guy in charge has resigned. His replacement is frantically trying to get at least six more polling places set up. I do have to wonder what the hell the former guy's motives were. He cannot possibly believe one polling place could serve that entire city! Glad he's out of there.

People are allowed to vote early in quite a few States this year, and they're taking advantage of it. This is good. Apparently the staffs are going to verify the ballots, but not count them until election night. Think we're gonna wait a bit until we learn results once again. That's okay. The bottom line is that people get to vote and that their votes are counted and not thrown out due to some bullshit law that makes no sense, but is still in effect. We do not need a repeat of 2000.

observer

2004-10-17T16:41:00.000-07:00

observer

Ginmar is in the Army Reserves, stationed in Iraq. Below is her latest post. It's on voting. It's on freedom. It's a wonderful piece. Go and read it.

http://www.livejournal.com/users/ginmar/

observer

2004-10-17T14:11:00.000-07:00

observer

Well, hell. I wrote a post last night about midnight, but there was a problem with the blog server and since I don't see it, I have to believe it was deleted. I was waiting for the forecasted rain to begin. We haven't had any for somewhere around 180 days. Getting even drier out here in SoCal. In the end, sometime after midnight, enough rain fell to dampen the ground. Now we have big fluffy clouds in a blue sky, and the Miramar Air Show--Blue Angels flying--continues today. Had an email this morn from Julian--a small 1800's gold-mining town up in the mountains, and they had an inch of rain last night and it continues misty today. The result is that emails from EDIS warning of floods arrived. Lots of East County places in danger of flooding--including the areas that were burned to the ground a couple of months ago. And that means mudslides as well as floods. Not here on the coast, happily enough. I'm not inclined to go wading around on the sidewalks.

When a friend who has worked undercover for much of his adult life tells me that that bulge under Bush's jacket is definitely a receiver, I damned well believe him. So forget the black/white photos of people on the street in the Wash Post yesterday. My friend knows what a bulge is when he sees one...and what's making it. So that's that. No way to prove it though, unless there'd have been a way to strip Bush of his jacket at debate's end. Just too bad somebody didn't find a way to jam his frequency.

Tried to get a sitemeter installed on this blog. Was curious if anyone was reading it. Really doesn't matter--just a fun thing. Until I tried to do it. Sheesh! I can travel around the internet just fine, but I do not understand most programming language. So, no sitemeter. I did, however, manage to get a code word and a password, for all the good they'll do me. :)))

Seems there is something both sides agree on in Congress. The United States is in serious financial trouble. Duh!

Happy Sunday!

observer

2004-10-15T16:03:00.000-07:00

observer
I think the following article from this morning's NY Times says something extremely important that voters ought to be aware of before voting in this presidential election.

It has long been my opinion that Bush is a danger to our nation and a danger to the world, given his policies. The policies of our government have a tremendous impact on other countries. There's no question about that. When they turn hostile to us, it's good to remember that there are more of them than there are of us. Further, our military and our tourists and our ex-pats are out there, and bad policies can and do affect their well-being. More, this Bush principle of unilateral war--especially one like Iraq, for no good reason--causes countries to not support us, nor should they...not when we attack before being attacked...or even threatened openly.

I'm very pleased to report that I voted today. Dropped my completed ballot off at the main Post Office here. This is the first time I've ever used an absentee ballot and voted by mail. It's a mighty sad day when someone like myself, who has always enjoyed going to the polls and doing my small part on voting day along with others, feels that discretion is the better position to take--that I have to do such to ensure that my vote is counted and that nothing gets in the way of my voting. I am furious that here, in this nation, there are people who are doing all they can to disrupt the vote, keep people from voting, mess with the voting machines, etc. I can think of nothing that is more un-American. Nothing.

I'm a bit distracted today. The Air Show is on at Miramar Marine Air Station and the Blue Angels are flying. Miramar is just a few miles away, so once those pilots take off and head up, I can see them out of my office window. And even when they're low to the ground out there, I can certainly hear them. Love it! That far-away, deep, growl of those jet engines begins to build, and suddenly they're near, up, and doing incredible things in the sky. A couple of years ago, I hear a jet engine like no other--and I'm pretty familiar with their sounds--ran out in the front yard just in time to watch a huge, black, stealth jet fly low right over our roof. Another time I was on the waterfront when the very air began to vibrate. No sound, but a line of "popcorn" contrail very very high in the sky. Twas the secret Aurora jet--a ram jet, and I knew it. People around me were going nuts trying to guess what it was. I grinned and walked on. First and last time I've encountered the Aurora. Talk about power!

Anyway, here's the New York Time's article.
October 15, 2004
International Poll Finds Support Ebbing for U.S. Policy
By PATRICK E. TYLER

ONDON, Oct. 15 — It is getting down to the wire and the rest of the world is still trying to elbow its way into the American presidential election.

With the professed goal of showing how the United States "is perceived by the rest of the world," 10 leading newspapers around the globe today published the results of public opinion surveys in their countries, where residents in eight of them said they strongly favored Senator John Kerry in the race for the White House.

The surveys also found that opinions of the United States had worsened during President Bush's tenure in each of the countries except Israel.

"Clearly, if the world had a vote, the result on Nov. 2 would not be in doubt," The Guardian said in an editorial on the polling result.

The surveys found that while a majority of opinion in those countries is still strongly disposed toward Americans in general, and that 80 to 90 percent of respondents said it was important to maintain good relations with the United States, there was sharp disagreement with American foreign policy under President Bush, as other international surveys have found.

In Japan, South Korea, Mexico, Russia, Spain, France and Canada, residents said the United States was wrong to have invaded Iraq. And by large margins, those surveyed in Canada (86 percent to 11 percent), Britain (73-17), Mexico (66-30) and South Korea ( 87-11) said the United States wielded excessive influence on international affairs.

Organized by the newspaper La Presse in Montreal, the surveys were conducted in Britain, France, Spain, Russia, Israel, Japan, South Korea, Mexico, Canada and Australia, a sampling of countries with strong historical ties or alliances with the United States.

Support for President Bush was strongest in Israel and Russia, according to the polling in those countries, with 50 percent of Israelis favoring Mr. Bush's re-election and 24 percent favoring Mr. Kerry. In Russia, Mr. Bush was a 52-48 favorite.

But elsewhere, Mr. Kerry was a strong favorite, leading in percentage terms among Britons by 50-22, Mexicans by 55-20, Japanese by 51-30, South Koreans by 68-18 and among the French by 72-16.

The Guardian newspaper, which participated in the survey in Britain, pointed out that while Mr. Bush and Mr. Kerry had emerged from their three debates neck and neck in the contest for votes in America, the rest of the world "has already made up its mind," said an editorial.

But the newspaper went on to note with some concern that young Britons were turning against Britain's strongest ally in large numbers, pointing out that among Britons under 25, some 77 percent express a dislike for Mr. Bush.

"Young Britons, avid consumers of Big Macs, Starbucks and `Friends,' are now hostile to American culture on a scale traditionally associated with the French," The Guardian asserted.

The surveys were similar, but not identical. Most were conducted in late September and early October, but the Russian survey, for instance, was conducted between Sept. 3 and Sept. 10 among 1,050 Russian respondents. The survey samples varied in size from 522 in Israel to 1,417 in Australia. Not all of the questions were identical, but pollsters in each country all reported results for the first five questions relating to support for Mr. Bush and Mr. Kerry. Margins of error varied from 2.6 percent (Australia) to 4.38 percent (Israel).

In an e-mail message this week to newspaper editors participating in the poll, Jean-Pascal Beaupré, the assistant managing editor of La Presse, said, "Thanks to you, people from around the globe will know how the United States are perceived by the rest of the world, two weeks before the U.S. presidential election."

The home affairs editor of The Guardian, Alan Travis, said the editors decided to participate as a means of communicating world views to Americans.

"We are acutely conscious that the outcome of the American election has an impact on the rest of us," he said. "If we can articulate the views of the outside world to the American political debate, that is a useful addition to the quality of democracy."

On the other hand, he acknowledged, "Some might regard it as outside interference, but the rest of the world should get a chance to be heard."

The newspapers that commissioned polls for the survey included Le Monde in France, Asahi Shimbun in Japan, JoongAng Ilbo in South Korea, Reforma in Mexico, Ha'aretz in Israel, the Moscow News in Russia and El Pais in Spain.

The polling confirmed the results of other international surveys that have plotted a decline in support for American foreign policy and a worsening view of the Bush administration.

"In recent years, the perception of the United States among many Koreans has changed drastically," wrote Young Hie Kim of JoongAng Ilbo in South Korea. "This is especially the case for the younger generation."

South Korea is among America's strongest allies in Asia since the Korean War, and Washington continues to guarantee the country's security with the deployment of more than 30,000 troops there.

"Less a benevolent friend, the United States is seen as a hegemonic power that takes unilateral military action without regard to enormous consequences," he added.

At the same time, Israelis by a margin of 2 to 1 expressed their support for Mr. Bush.

Shmuel Rosner, a columnist for Ha'aretz, summed it up as: "Israel loves the U.S. president because he holds the umbrella that protects it from its enemies."

In Russia, the survey was conducted in the wake of the terror attack on the school in Beslan, and Mr. Bush was seen as a strong supporter of President Vladimir Putin in antiterror efforts.

Copyright 2004 The New York Times Company |

observer

2004-10-10T16:13:00.000-07:00

observer

All right, now I'm seriously torqued. Have spoken with a Fed undercover guy. That bulge under Bush's jacket is a receiver. A wireless hookup with the tiny ear piece Bush would wear to hear whoever is talking to him. It is not any kind of armored vest nor any other thing. It's a receiver so he can be fed lines and info.
Let's hope that communications people who know what they're doing can interrupt the frequency of that device so that Bush will have to know the facts and the lines and the slogans and spin during the 3rd and last debate this coming Friday. We'd get a repeat of the 1st debate's poor performance, for sure.

I checked Google and there's much on there about this, but not much in the major media. Why the hell not? They should have top investigative reporters all over this dishonest, unethical, sneaky and cowardly behavior. Far as that goes, I think the Washington Post should have fired Robert Novak for outing Valerie Plame, the CIA covert operator. That's a flat out Federal crime.
That was a deliberate outing. He had no need to use her name or position but he sure did use them.

Pitiful.

observer

2004-10-09T12:59:00.000-07:00

observer

An interesting 2nd debate between Bush and Kerry last night, done in a town hall format. But what fascinates me is the wire debate. In the first debate, a box could clearly be seen under Bush's jacket on his back. In last night's debate, a wire, running from his belt to his shoulder on the left side, under his jacket, could clearly be seen. Consensus seems to be he's wearing a wire and that someone off-stage is secretly coaching him. If that's true, that's a major ethical problem for me, to say nothing of how unfair that would be. The New York Times has asked the White House for explanations. They have none.

Now I'm amazed, that if indeed they've wired Bush, the ones who did it, did it in such a sloppy fashion that it could be detected. A friend who has worn such wires in undercover work is similarly amazed. What I would really like is to get a look at the notes Bush was making while Kerry spoke. Perhaps there's a clue there.

And once again, the bloggers are the ones who picked this up and ran with it.

Then there's the matter of Tom DeLay, one of the Repub leaders in the House of Representatives. Four ethics charges over a short period of time...and he's reprimanded by the ethics committee. Here's where money talks tough: DeLay has given more funds to other House Repubs to help in their campaigns than any other member of the House. They mess with him, he'll cut off those funds, and they know it, so they're defending him for all they're worth. However, law enforcement has taken hold of several of DeLay's people in Texas. If things go as they usually do, the law takes the underlings, turns them, and the big fish go down last. We'll see.

Am also waiting to see why the medical Fast Unit (sort of a MASH Unit), who have been in Afghanistan for seven months already, have suddenly been jerked out of that country and re-assigned to Iraq. This does not bode well, in my opinion, for whatever Op is coming in Iraq.

Speaking of Afghanistan, heard on the radio this morn that when the Afghanis vote, their hands are stamped in recognition of that fact. However, the stamp ink is NOT indelible and can be rubbed right off, allowing those voters to go vote a second or third time. This, of course, is illegal...fraud...and negates their being able to pronounce the election, fair. Damned shame. More, women are being dissuaded from voting at all by husbands, Taliban types, etc.
A screwed up election seems unavoidable. Still...it's a start.

Big family reunion at the hotel yesterday--the Cody family reunion! Yep--family members related to Wild Bill Cody of wild west fame. I consider that to be very cool indeed.

observer

2004-10-03T15:52:00.000-07:00

observer

Went to see "Ladder 49" today. Most excellent film. If you get a chance...

So the NYT puts three writers on the main evidence for our having gone to war with Iraq--the matter of the aluminum tubes, and the matter of the forged yellowcake letter from Nigeria. And here and there throughout today's article there are mea culpeas from the NYT for not examining those matters earlier...before we headed for Iraq. General reaction seems to be: Now they tell us. It seems the CIA and the Energy Dept did tell the admin in 2001, but were pretty much ignored because the admin was cherry-picking what aided their case. Rice, the prez's #1 National Security Advisor, says she hadn't read those reports. Neither, apparently, had her #2, Stephen Hadley. So what's her job, anyway? Don't ask.

Halliburton is in trouble again--more illegal things happened while Dick Cheney was running that corp. Also on the front page of the NYT today. Paying out $132 million to "get things done" by their lawyer....Money means everything and nothing at the same time to those major international corps. No ethics, those people.

Enron and Tom DeLay are examples in point.

Am looking forward to the Edwards/Cheney debate come this Tues eve. Their townhall audience will be the questioners--but their questions have to be approved in advance...by the people who set up this debate, I think. I hope those are the people, and not the Edwards/Cheney people. Will have to check into that. Do know that if they don't ask the previously approved question, they'll be stopped in mid-word by the moderator.

And then comes Friday when Kerry/Bush Debate #2 takes place in Missouri, and the two men clash once again. I'd expect that Bush's coaches will have him watch himself in the 1st debate, and make sure he doesn't make the same verbal/physical errors in the 2nd debate. Surely he's intelligent enough not to screw up so badly twice. However, he's the guy who flatly said he could say whatever he wanted to as prez and nobody could question why he said it. No? The public can damn sure question him. They are, and they will. It's a matter of the public asking, "Who the hell does he think he is? He works for us. We put him in and we can take him out." Caveat: Can take him out unless there's fraud in the election. Now is when we depend on lawyers, big time.

New guy on Air America--Elliot. Heard a bit of his broadcast today. Wanted to hear Gen Clark on his program, but off to the movie and missed him. That guy is hard to catch up with.

This election is also the time to protect the Supreme Court from being taken over by the hard Repub right...which will be damned difficult if Bush is re-elected. Can't have it.

observer

2004-10-01T22:19:00.000-07:00

observer

Been quite a day trying to get through all the articles, polls, talk from the 1st Debate last night between Kerry and Bush--which Kerry certainly won. It would be hard for anyone to be more Presidential than he appeared. The spin...and it's gonna keep going...is mind-boggling. Just read that someone said that the reason Kerry did so well is that he had the questions in advance and Bush didn't, which is flatly untrue and ridiculous. Just try getting Jim Lehrer's list of questions away from him before he asks them!

Put a couple of bumperstickers on my car's rear window yesterday. Today an older guy in a big white pickup truck, coming up on my left as I drove down the avenue, let loose with a very loud and long blast of his horn and raised his hand as he passed. At the stop light, we were again side-by-side. He rolled down his window and I rolled down mine. He yelled, "Some people shouldn't be allowed to vote!!!" and rolled his window up...but not before I began to laugh. Stone-faced, he stared straight ahead until the light changed, then roared off. Definitely a Bush voter. A credit to his party. Bush's performance last night must have upset him something terrible.

observer

2004-09-30T13:47:00.000-07:00

observer

RE: car bombings that killed 35 Iraqi children....

Republican Sen. Saxby Chambliss, of Georgia, said that Thursday's bombings are a sign that the United States is winning the war in Iraq. He told CNN that if the United States weren't winning the war, the insurgents wouldn't be carrying out attacks like these.

What an incredibly stupid thing to say! If we were "winning" there would be more and more peace. But of course one must remember that Chambliss won his seat in Congress by accusing Max Cleland, who lost both legs and an arm in battle in Vietnam, of being unpatriotic. Chambliss has not served in uniform, but I would not say that because he hasn't, that he is unpatriotic. But it follows that in his eyes, if you're a vet who's been severely wounded, then you're unpatriotic. What an asshole.

observer

2004-09-30T13:18:00.000-07:00

observer
Preparation is good. From American Progress comes this info. Be ready when you watch the debate tonight.

The Debates: What President Bush Will Say ... What You Should Know

September 30, 2004

"There are a handful of people who are willing to kill in order to stop the process in Iraq."

FACT: The number of Iraqi insurgents has quadrupled over the past year. [Time, 9/20/04]

FACT: Insurgent attacks on U.S. forces are up 20 percent since the spring and 100 percent since last winter. Last month, attacks on U.S. troops averaged 90 a day, five times as many as last winter. [Brookings, 9/17/04]

FACT: "One by one," Iraqi cities are becoming "no-go zones" controlled entirely by Bush's "handful" of insurgents. [New York Times, 9/5/04]

FACT: "Over the past 30 days, more than 2,300 attacks by insurgents have been directed against civilians and military targets in Iraq, in a pattern that sprawls over nearly every major population center outside the Kurdish north." [New York Times, 9/29/04]

"We've already spent more than a billion dollars on urgent reconstruction projects in areas threatened by the insurgency."

FACT: Congress has allocated $18.4 billion for desperately needed reconstruction in Iraq; ongoing instability coupled with inexperienced management means only $1 billion – or 5 percent -- has been spent. Sen. Dick Lugar (R-IN) blamed this on "the incompetence in the administration." [St. Louis Post Dispatch, 9/25/04; Boston Herald, 9/20/04]

FACT: Iraq's largest source of electricity, the Baiji power plant, "produces less than half the electricity it generated" two years ago; the Bush administration "vastly underestimated the time, money and effort needed to restore the country's power grid." [LA Times, 9/12/04]

FACT: Less than 30 percent of reconstruction money in Iraq reaches Iraqis. The rest is going to security, U.S. government overhead, contractor profits, insurance, foreign workers' salaries, corruption and mismanagement. [LA Times, 9/26/04]

FACT: The deterioration of water and sewage systems in the past year has led to the spread of a virulent form of hepatitis. In 2003, there were "70 percent more cases of hepatitis of all types reported across Iraq than in the year before." The collapsed water system also led to outbreaks of typhoid fever. [New York Times, 9/24/04]

"Nearly 100,000 fully trained and equipped Iraqi soldiers, police officers and other security personnel are working today."

FACT: Last Monday, the Pentagon said that "only about 53,000 of the 100,000 Iraqis on duty have now undergone training." According to Pentagon documents obtained by Reuters, of the 90,000 in the police force, "only 8,169 have received full training." [ABC News, 9/24/04]

FACT: On Sunday, the U.S. military "arrested a senior commander of the nascent Iraqi National Guard." The commander was arrested on suspicion of "having associations with known insurgents." The move raised concerns "about the loyalty and reliability of the new security forces just months before general elections are scheduled across the embattled country." [New York Times, 9/29/04]

"We gave [Saddam] a last chance; he ignored the last chance. And then I had a choice to make: take the word of a madman, forget the lessons of September the 11th, or do what's necessary to defend this country."

FACT: Bush didn't have to listen to the "words of a madman" to know Iraq did not possess weapons of mass destruction. In February 2001, the CIA delivered a report to the White House that said: "We do not have any direct evidence that Iraq has used the period since Desert Fox to reconstitute its weapons of mass destruction programs." (CIA, 2001)

FACT: In February 2001, Secretary of State Colin Powell said Saddam Hussein "has not developed any significant capability with respect to weapons of mass destruction." (State Department, 2/24/01)

FACT: In 2002, the Defense Intelligence Agency submitted a report to the administration finding "no reliable information" to prove Iraq was producing or stockpiling chemical weapons. (DIA, 2002)

"[Sen. John Kerry] said his answer to why he voted the way he did, he said, I actually did vote for the $87 billion before I voted against it."

FACT: John Kerry voted against the funding package because Bush didn't provide a way to pay for it. His concerns have been proven well founded. This year, the nation's deficit is expected be over $400 billion. The bill Kerry preferred would have simply passed the funding but offset it by rolling back tax cuts for those making over $200,000 a year. If Kerry's position had prevailed, the troops would have still received full funding; the only difference is the nation would have done it in a fiscally responsible way. [Cox News, 4/11/04]

FACT: George Bush threatened to veto the $87 billion before he supported it. Bush said he would veto the bill if the money wasn't provided in exactly the way he requested. Bush did the exact same thing that he is criticizing Kerry for doing. Bush argued for a particular set of requirements for how the money would be appropriated and was willing to oppose the funding package if he didn't get his way. [CBS News, 11/30/03]

"Iraq is headed towards free elections…elections are going to be held in January."

FACT: Top officials and foreign leaders seem to disagree. Last week, Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld admitted the violence in some parts of the country was so bad that the election may have to be held "in three-quarters or four-fifths of the country." [Washington Post, 9/23/04]

FACT: Jordan's King Abdullah recently said the "chaos currently reigning in Iraq" would make it "impossible to organize indisputable elections." [CNN, 9/28/04]

FACT: "Leading Shi'ite Muslim cleric Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani has expressed concern that Iraq has not yet met conditions for fair elections in January." [Reuters, 9/28/04]

"Because of the war in Iraq, Americans and the world are safer."

FACT: America is less safe because of the war in Iraq: for a fraction of the $150 billion America has spent in Iraq, we could have secured vulnerable ports, railways and airports from terrorist attack. [Opportunity Cost of War]

FACT: U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan publicly disagreed with Bush in July, saying, "No, I cannot say the world is safer today than it was two, three years ago." [Seattle Times, 7/22/04]

FACT: The world is less safe because of the war in Iraq: The occupation of Iraq has helped al Qaeda recruit more members, and turned Iraq into a "dynamic new battle ground" for al Qaeda. [BBC, 5/25/04; British House of Commons Report, 7/21/04]

FACT: The war had galvanized terrorists against America and the West. The LA Times reports Iraq has emerged as a "rallying point for a seemingly endless supply of young extremists willing to die in a jihad, or holy war." [LA Times, 9/28/04]

FACT: "Among national-security professionals…one view prevails: [the war] has increased the threats America faces, and has reduced the military, financial, and diplomatic tools with which we can respond." [Atlantic Monthly, 10/04]

"In order to have credibility with those people who are fighting for freedom, the leaders of this country must not send mixed signals."

FACT: Bush sent mixed signals through his ambivalent approach to Fallujah. Marine Commander Lt. Gen. James T. Conway said, "When you order elements of a Marine division to attack a city, you really need to...not vacillate in the middle of something like that. Once you commit, you have to stay committed." [CNN, 9/14/04]

"[The] Taliban no longer is in existence."

FACT: The Taliban have been making a steady comeback since the U.S.-led coalition removed their government from Afghanistan in 2001. The Afghan death toll attributed to the Taliban rose by 45 percent this year. More than forty election workers have been killed or wounded in the past four months. [WSJ, 7/14/04; New York Times, 8/24/04; NPR, 8/3/04]

"Today in Afghanistan…10 million people have registered to vote."

FACT: Election officials in the country have acknowledged the number of voting cards issued in Afghanistan has "far exceeded the estimated number of eligible voters" and that voter fraud is rampant. A new report by Human Rights Watch this week states the number of registered voters is probably much, much lower than the 10 million President Bush cites. According to the United Nations, there are only 9.8 million total eligible voters, many areas of the country are still too dangerous to register. [Toronto Star, 8/14/04; Human Rights Watch, 9/28/04]

FACT: Fourteen Afghan presidential candidates met last week in Kabul to air complaints about U.S. Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad's interference in elections scheduled for October. [Los Angeles Times, 9/23/03]

"You cannot lead when people don't know where you stand."

FACT: Bush has flip-flopped on at least thirty major policy issues since the beginning of his presidency. [Center for American Progress, 9/2/04]

"We're determined to prevent proliferation."

FACT: President Bush threatened Iranian hardliners rhetorically by naming Iran part of the Axis of Evil in his 2002 State of the Union address; the White House then did nothing to curb Tehran's nuclear ambitions. At a military parade earlier this week, the Iranian president announced the country would openly defy the U.N. nuclear agency. The Iranian government announced "that it had begun converting tons of uranium into gas, a crucial step in making fuel for a nuclear reactor or a nuclear bomb." [National Journal, 6/29/04; New York Times, 9/22/04]

FACT: Under Bush's watch, North Korea's nuclear arsenal is thought to have quadrupled. Charles Pritchard, formerly Colin Powell's top official dealing with North Korea, has warned for months that "the White House lacks an effective strategy to dissuade North Korea from building up its nuclear arms." And, according to Pritchard, the situation has deteriorated because "the administration has neither offered much of a carrot nor wielded a stick." [New York Times, 5/7/04]

FACT: According to a recent Harvard University report titled "Securing the Bomb: An Agenda for Action," "less fissile materials were secured in the two years after Sept 11 than in the two years before." [Harvard study, "Securing the Bomb"]

observer

2004-09-29T21:05:00.000-07:00

observer

Found an interesting website this afternoon. Neil Hopper goes walking--long walks--around Los Angeles and posts photos he takes as he goes on his website: www.walkinginla.com and also posts a street map marked with the route he took that day. His walk around Disneyland is certainly filled with unusual sights.

I've cleared the decks to watch the first of three Presidential Debates tomorrow night. One of the rare times I watch television, though I do watch various news reports online. I haven't watched a talk show or local news or a sitcom nor a movie on television since I don't know when. I'm thinking I'll probably watch the debate on C-Span for uninterrupted coverage.

It will be interesting to see if network or cable camera people turn away from the speaker to see the listener's reaction. The "rules" the campaigns agreed to forbid that, but the stations cite freedom of speech and say they'll ignore that rule.

Tonight, I intend to continue reading the book I've started as soon as I finish skimming through the Union-Tribune, so I'll sign off for tonight.

observer

2004-09-28T15:09:00.000-07:00

observer

...and if that isn't enough, it's pretty damned pitiful that, after all these years, the citizens of this United States are once again having to fight to be able to vote...in SEVERAL States!!! People need to pay attention to our disappearing rights!

observer

2004-09-28T15:03:00.000-07:00

observer

Certainly is enough scandal to go around. Aggravates me cause there are serious matters that should be getting every bit of available attention both nationally, internationally and local.

Speaking of local, it seems Donna Frye, on the City Council, is being urged to run for Mayor as a write-in candidate by her constituents. She's a Dem, but damned if I'll vote for her. I'm voting for Repub Ron Roberts. At least he knows something about finances, which neither the current Mayor nor the Council seem to know how to manage. Besides, he's a nice guy. :)))

I doubt if we'll find out who told Novak about Plame until after the election...and if Bush is elected, we ain't never gonna know.

Would you believe that the story about Conan O'Brian being picked to take Leno's place in five years is considered front page news in the nation? What bullshit.

On the other hand, there's hope. Bush's hometown paper down in Crawford TX has come out supporting Kerry. :)))

Sen Kennedy just raised hell with Bush when he spoke at George Washington University yesterday. Just watched his speech on C-Span. It's gonna be more informative than anything we hear from either candidate in the Pres Debates. Those debate rules are so restrictive that about the only thing we'll hear, we've heard before in their campaign speeches. They'll be the equivalent of very long TV ads unless the moderators ask some wicked questions. We'll see.

observer

2004-09-27T21:08:00.000-07:00

observer

Interesting column Robert Novak had today. Bush, saying the latest CIA assessment on Iraq in future was "just guessing", seems to have torqued some folks over in that organization. Torqued them enought that one of their senior people went to a gathering on the West Coast and said flatly that the assessment was not the product of guesswork. And added that the assessment they gave Bush about what would happen in Iraq before we invaded it wasn't guesswork either, and in fact what they said would happen, has happened and is happening. Now Bush has said that he guesses that "guessing" was not the right word, but.... Keep in mind that the man never admits to being wrong except in the most obscure way.

Sly Stallone ("Rocky") has a mother who says her two dogs are psychic and tell her things. One of the things they've "told" her is that Bush will win this election by about 15%. Now we get to watch and see.

Read a milblog last night in which a soldier just had a furious fit over a piece his brother had posted on his website. The brother had posted Zell Miller's Keynote speech that he gave at the Repub Nat'l Conv. The soldier believed what Miller said--his brother obviously did--about Kerry voting against equipment for the troops. If they understood about how bills get passed in Congress and how Miller twisted what happened, they'd know that was absolute propoganda--spin of the worst kind. People are too busy tending to their own lives to keep an eye on Congress long enough to know how it really works.

Same with gerrymandering. Every ten years, after the census is taken, each State's legislature has the opportunity to change the boundries of districts within the State so that districts better represent the citizens. So say one party wants to insure that members of the party not only ensure that those members' districts continues to vote him/her in, but that they can create another district who will elect a member of their party to represent them. They get out the voter roles, learn in which areas of the State the citizens vote their way, and change the district lines to capture those citizens, and many times that means they completely eliminate the opposite member's district. This way, incumbents save their seats. Mind you, the districts are meant to include an even percentage of the population according to the census. Well, to do that and increase the numbers of their party's voters, some of the boundary lines are such that the district takes on the shape of a jigsaw puzzle piece. It's very dishonest, but it works. There's nothing impartial about gerrymandering, and it needs to stop so that people of all parties at least have a fair chance to be elected.

It's definitely autumn in San Diego. Santa Ana winds have quit, the marine layer moves in off the Pacific early morning and late night, there's been fog the last couple of mornings, leaves are changing colors, and I've had to wear a sweatshirt to go to breakfast on the patio since this past Saturday. Then the sun disappates the marine layer, the sky goes clear blue, and when I get home, I immediately exchange the sweatshirt for a T-shirt.

This morning, the Gen Mgr of the hotel comes wandering out on the patio to talk politics, sits down and we grill him about his vacation. It's his first day back from two weeks in Maui. :))) Don't think I've ever seen him so relaxed. Awhile later, he's cruising through his hotel like a shark, checking to see what's happened while he's been gone.

We've now trained the little chickadee birds to eat their biscuit crumbs from a saucer on our table so as not to make a mess. One seems to be the leader--we call him "Flathead"--and once he decided it was safe to get up on the table, the rest have hesitantly followed. The reason we put out the crumbs is this: One morning, I'm sitting there reading the paper when I detect movement on my left atop the table. Flathead had snuck up behind the paper (which I prop up against the vaccum coffee pot), had taken hold, with his beak, of half of my biscuit and was doing his damndest to drag it off, his little feet skidding on the slick table top. What I mean, he was giving it all he had. Right there I learned it was better to break off some crumbs and set them out for him. So now, the minute I get sat down in my chair, he's up on the arm of the empty chair on my left, peering all over the table to find out where the biscuit crumbs are. Sheesh! The nerve of some bird's children! :)))

observer

2004-09-26T13:28:00.000-07:00

observer

On Saturday and Sunday mornings, I kick back on the patio at Marie Callendar's restaurant and have conversation with the Manager. Mgr is a faithful Republican, whom I very much enjoy, and I'm a pretty faithful moderate Dem. He decided, one day, that in future, I would be Pres and he VP and we'd debate the problems of the world. Hah. This, of course, to take place only after I handed over the Sports sections of both the LA Times and the San Diego Union-Tribune--the latter a pitiful paper if ever I've seen one. Read them both daily. The only reason to read the U-T is for local news. Most everything else I've read on AP, UP, the NY Times and Wash Post online the night before. In any case, Mgr gets the sports pages...and if I manage to get through it, the front section of the LA Times.

So this morn we're discussing San Diego politics. On the ballot, come Nov, we vote on whether to have a "strong Mayor" system or stick with the City Manager form of gov. San Diego, right now, is in deep shit financially, thanks to the last two City Mgrs and a pretty damned negligent mayor and city council. Wall St has lowered our credit rating--since these idiots made the decision to not pay into the pension system, then fudged the figures. We already have 3 council members under indictment by the Feds. One just died, so now there's a great battle going on in that district of town over who's gonna take his place on the council.

The MC Mgr was unclear about the relationship between the appointed City Mgr and the mayor and city council. I pointed out that right now nobody takes responsibility--lot of finger-pointing going on. Strong mayor, and he or she has to take responsibility. Therefore.... On the ballot will be two Repubs running for mayor--the former Judge we have and a County Supervisor. The judge knows law, the CS knows finances. Choice is pretty obvious to me.

On the national level--Kerry is the obvious choice as far as I'm concerned. I've like Kerry since the beginning. He's a deep thinker, very intelligent and a serious man. To get out of the mess we're now in, we have to have someone who first understands that a mess exists. In more that one area of the world--we're not sending warships toward N Korea for the fun of it right now. Bush, and his admin is, in my opinion, a danger to both the nation and the world...and I base that not only on his record but on his intentions. He's done enough harm to our military and to our people. He's two-faced. Says one thing and does another. With him, you'd best watch what he does and not what he says. Forget Nadar. He's a wasted vote, a walking ego.

And then there's the CBS/Dan Rather thing. This is a minor event blown up into a scandal, but it sure as hell takes the spotlight off everything else that truly is major, doesn't it? That's what I hate--purposeful misdirection for political reasons.

Okay. Enough for a Sunday. We're going downtown so I can catch up on the latest construction projects--of which there are over 100 at present. Half the skyline is cluttered with huge cranes. But at least the new Padres ballpark is terrific. Which reminds me--both teams are playing today--the Chargers football team at Qualcom stadium down in Mission Valley, and the Padres baseball team at Petco Park downtown. Mess of folks, including the Kawasaki dealers and others at the Conv Ctr. The Gaslamp will be jumping. :)))

observer

2004-09-25T16:49:00.000-07:00

observer

Well I'll be damned! Seems a couple of guys spotted this blog long enough to cut an order: "Write!" :))) So just because of them, I'm sitting here trying to figure out just what they want to hear about. I usually do one-on-one emails. Only time I speak to the world is when I write a book or something for a magazine. Most times I'm listening to people, observing...and most times end up laughing. For instance, let it be known that I eat breakfast on a hotel's spacious patio every morn. Hilarious things can happen. Couple mornings ago, the most excellent waiter, Geraldo, brought out an ashtray and a pot of coffee as always. Set down the ashtray, arranged the cup in the saucer, then poured coffee in the ashtray. Both of us let out a howl, then laughed like loons. Not to my knowledge, nor his, had he ever done such a thing before. Good thing he's about to leave on vacation in Mexico. Do believe he needs one. One of the other waiters, Jerry, just left on vacation for...Florida! As did a former CIA guy. They're both nuts, with the current hurricane just hitting. Gimme an earthquake any day. Just so you know, I read the hell out of milblogs...and usually end up having a flippin' fit over what's happening on the ground in Iraq, Afghanistan, at bases here, to everybody. I am not pleased with this administration's execution of their responsibilities in any way, shape or form to take care of military people wherever they are, and it totally torques me. Bottom line is, I can talk happy or flamin' mad. The question is, what do you want to hear about?

migf

2004-08-14T13:57:00.000-07:00

test