The Jordan Fiasco

The stakes could not have been higher today for both Bush and Maliki. To grease the wheels of this high-stakes meeting, the Bush administrationi leaked a highly critical letter from Stephen Hadley about Maliki and his advisors. Then to help matters more, as if they needed more help, the meeting between King Abdullha, Bush, and Maliki got quickly cancelled. And for a final act of support, Sadr and his allies have threatened to pull out of the Iraqi government. With statesmanship like this why should we worry.

Can any of these guys ever to ANYTHING right? Can we not even have a simple meeting without tripping over our own feet? Oh yes and now I find out the my States Governor has spent 2 days in Iraq. Thats right folks, the Governor of Oregon has now spent more time in Iraq than our President.

Getting back to Hadley's memo, his decription of Maliki as being surrounded by people who limit the information he gets to make decisions, sounds earily familiar with another leader we know. The only good thing about the memo is that it shows that at least Hadlely sounds like he has his head on straight in viewing the problems. However the solutions he offers are straight out of some kind of crack-pipe.

Thankfully the illustrious Republicans now say that Bush will have a big announcement on how to go forward with Iraq. All I can say is "whatever"

Bush continues his tough no-decision stance!

The little dear, known as the President of the United States, continues to be stuck on the highway of life looking into the oncoming headlights of an Iraqi civl war. He asked for NATO members to be more willing to take on hard missions in Afgahnistan and did not get much for it. The biggest casualty in the Iraq War is very probably Afgahnistan. The resurgence of the Taliban has only be possible thanks to the stupifying lack of rebuilding and money for that torn up nation.

Diplomacy is really too little too late. It is as if Bush smeared his own crap all over his bedroom walls, waited a few months, then decided to ask other people to help him clean it up. Why would people be willing to do that? Clean up your own crap Bush!

The Democrats need to start demanding action from the White House. Not pussyfooting around and trying to act like Republican-light. It is clear that Bush has no clue as to how to proceed with the war. He has been effectively canned by our enemy. We need a radical redirection and Bush, and I fear our new Congress, is not going to get us there. The US is bleeding power in fighting an unwinable, and ill defined war. Not only is Iraq wrong, so is the entire conceptual strategy of the war on terrorism. The leadership of our nation is monstrously pathetic in their non-intellectual approach to almost every major problem that we face. It really makes little difference whether you listen to republicans idiots or democratic idiots, the words are basically the same. "We will give you a slogan and then beilieve our own BS." Hitler would have kicked our ass if Bush and the leaders of today were in Washington.

If our current leadership continues to bleed power away like they are now, they should all be gotten rid of in a legally binding way. This is serious. I for one do not wish to live in a has-been nation. We have the intellect to do this, but the smart people are not in Washington. We don't need all the smart people, only a about 600 of them. Is that too much to ask?

Are we all taken care of?

Do you believe in an omnipotent God? If you do then don't start squaking about the big fight between God and the devil. That dog don't hunt. The only reason to put forth such crappola is a selling tool for the weakminded to get them to come to church. Scare them to church. This has worked quite well. However it is really not necessary. God has created everything and has it all under control. So stop worrying about raptures or end-times blah blah blah. Christ even opened the gates of hell to retrieve the damned, remember? I know there are lots of nasty things that happen to us, but really all the years of war, famine, and other such crap-going, is only a mere instant in eternity. So start rejoicing! If we all did that and there would be no more bad stuff. It is because we are waiting for something that has already happened that we languishing in pain.

Polonium 210

I heard on NPR how Po210 is tough to get a hold of and how only people at a nuclear facility could concoct it. This is obsurd to anyone familiar with this substance. It is the main substance in a product called the Static Master Brush. This is a anti-static brush widely used in the graphic arts and photography. You can by a brush for less than $30 over the web. What follows is a copy of text from the manufacturer:

"Some additional words about safety:
We must not lose sight of the fact that Po210 is highly toxic, emits alpha particles and is regulated by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC). Fortunately, the matrix in which it is encased, renders probability of exposure extremely small unless the matrix is damaged by abration or grinding so as to generate dust particles that may be inhaled.

This product is generally recognized as being safe because the potential for exposure is extremely low. Obviously, we can not keep someone from trying to cut this product open and perhaps metallographicall polishing it. So there are limits to what we can guarantee. When all factors are considered, we truly believe this product to be safe if used as instructed. 1" Wide Brush by Staticmaster®"

I forwarded this not only to NPR but also Scotland Yard Drug Directorate.

Remember Occam's Razor?

HO Scale Trains on G&G Railroad

This is a photo of a 4-8-4 Northern locomotive. This, and a 4-6-6-6 challenger, is what hauls big loads on our main line. We also have EMD SW-7 switcher and an old 0-4-0 switcher for branchline service. This is not a prototypical railroad. It is total fantasy. Keep you posted as it progresses.

Happy Turkey Day

Hey! What the? Who put this photo of Turkey here for Turkey day?

HO Scale Trains

My dad, God rest his soul, while dying of cancer created the beginings of a large HO scale 1:87th train layout in his basement. That was back in 1998. After many years of sitting unfinished my daughter Trudy decided to start back up on finishing it. She was about 1 year old when last she saw anyone working on it. Here it is today with the detritus of American consumerism around it; the boxes of used stuff, the old computer, etc. More photos to come as we progress!

Abizaid Disappointing

To here General Abizaid talk the only concern we have is Iraq. It is taking place in a bubble. He spoke as if the situation was all part of the plan of "campaign" as he put it. His assertion that we have to "embed" our forces into the new Iraqi security forces seems like a rehash of the old policy of: train the Iraqis to fight the war we pushed them into.

I would argue with Mr. Levin that we gave the Iraqis really NO opportunity to advance a democracy because we NEVER gave them a stable nation in which to build such a state. Our war-on-the-cheap has led directly to the current situation. Now the political will is no longer there to take the costs of finishing the job we started for ourselves. It is pretty piss poor to blame the Iraqi's since we are the ones who started this ball rolling not them.

The problems of controlling the civil war in Iraq are now so monumental that I can see no way to accomplish that goal. Unless massive troop deployments were to occur. This is not likely to happen. Again I would say that Carl Levin et al need to ask the question is the situation winnable, or solvable? What will it cost to solve it? And do we want to spend what it will cost? Of the answer to either the first of last question is no then the troops need to be withdrawn right now. Despite the catastrophe that would happen, since it already seems to have happened.

Get To Work!

The Democrats, a party traditionally held together with duct tape and bailing wire, with a few rubber bands for good measure, is now going to be in the drivers seat. My advice to my party is to keep together, but not at the expense of credibility. We need leaders who are unassailable from an ethical point of view. Thus if a member of either Senate or House is problematic they should not be in positions of leadership. Murtha seems to have some trouble. I like what he says and I think is a good egg. However he does not have to be majority leader. At this time personalities like Murtha need to play a background roll as rabel rouser, this is not condusive to majority leader. They position needs to be more cohesive and less bomb-thrower. A Murtha leadership will only lead to more squabbling and accomplish nothing that Murtha wants.

Remember "We Hate Bush" is not a policy.

Syd Mead

I think I have pigeon hold Mr Mead. He is the artist that has created Leisure Suit Chic. His designs, for the most part, glorify suburband futurism with all its consumerism. But unlike some artist who try to show how silly total consumerism is, Syd Mean goes out of his way to lionize it. His worlds are total make-overs. His cities are glorious only from a distance. On the streets the place is a total mess, totally non-people freindly. Ug. If his stuff didn't look so damn cool, even now, I would not think much of it. But it is cool and he is a favorite artist.

Veterans Day

Rumsfeld and his pathetic former boss

Today Donald Rumsfeld resigned. A day after the President's party took a beating at the polls. Only a fewdays after the president said that Rumsfeld was the right man for the job. As an American I am sickened by Bush. What did it take to get the President to sack Rumsfeld? 2800+ dead soldiers? No 10,000+ wounded soldiers? No. Millions of shell shocked, brutalized and torn up Iraqis? No it took his party losing an election.

The resignation of Rumsfeld is the Bush administration at its clearest. Bush does not care one bit about our brothers and sisters off at war. If Bush was a real man and leader he would have sacked Rumsfeld a year ago. But not Bush. The Presidents loyalty to our troops is only surpassed by his loyalty to his party, his friends, and himself. I continue to be stunned by and ashamed of the behavior of our President.

If Rumsfeld's handling of the war was a problem before election day why did the President keep him around? Obviously he felt that Rummy could hlep him garner votes for his faithful. Then when Rumsfeld proved otherwise he was cut loose. But what are the soldiers supposed to think about that? Their needs for victory were secondary to Republican electioneering? And why the big wait on the new plan from Baker? If the situation on the ground is deteriorating is it not mandatory for the President, the commander of the army, to do what it takes to lead our soldiers? Over and over againt our soldiers have had to wait, fight, kill, die and get wounded, because their commander is too busy with his parties politics to really waste time on his "comma"

Bush is disgusting. The Democrats should impeach him and send him to Iraq as a private looking for IED's. That would be just. But they won't do that. They will not waste time on him. They will consider him as one considers the dead, already gone. Unfortunately for our soldiers he is not gone. He is there, and they are stuck in Iraq because of him.

Blame Bush..and conservative hypocrites

Republicans should real do some soul searching. You should dump the conservatives in your leadership and get wit hthe program.

Alright alright lets stop back slapping and get to work. I know we are still counting votes but the world waits for no one. The turd has now been cut in half and the Democrats now have to have the guts to deal with it. Remember ANTI-BUSH is not a policy. We have a war to win, or at least stop. We also have a lot of economic oversite to deal with. We have a budget to get back into balance. Remember the dolts we are replacing. Unless we can do better we may get swept out in 2008. So let us not have that happen. Dump the Delay style political mumbo-jumbo and get back to basics. Lets work for the good of the people.

Good Luck Democrats! God bless you and may He grant you fair wind on your quest to make America better. Let you all stay true to the best interests of America.

More Philosophy on Good and Evil

You will have to bare with me. I was thinking last night on the subject. So here I go again. My argument, that has been developing for a while now, is that good and evil is a human construction not an actual thing. The reason I say this is that each act considered good or evil is only that way because of the viewpoint of the entity saying an act is good or evil.

The only way to really know for certain that an act is good or evil is to understand it within the total confines of causality. Unless you know 100% of the causality of the universe you cannot say for certain if an act is good or evil. All you are able to do is say that given a set of local circumstances, from a particular viewpoint, at the certain moment, an act is good or evil.

This would mean that only a God that had total awareness of all causality could possibly know good and evil.

This does not mean that I am saying that everything is permissible or even desireable. What I am saying that using the term good or evil is not sufficient to explain the necessity of actions. My example right now is the War on Terror. The President uses the term good and evil a lot. This is not good enough and has not really worked in keeping us on task.

The reason for this, I think, is that subconsiously we know how shallow the terms are. We need a more indepth reason to sacrifice in a war. There are real reasons that religious extremism should be faught against. But good and evil are not reasons they are viewpoints.

A better argument would be to start at the beginning. The meaning of life is to create more life. Within that outter sphere is an inner sphere of human hirarchy, all human societies rely on some form of hirarchy into order to exist. We cannot exist outside either of those two outer spheres. Then it is a matter of determining what form of hirarchy is most benificial. It is demonstratable that extremist hirarchies do not last long. The devolve into chaos then reorganize. This is not condusive to the expansion of the spieces. Nor is it condusive to mental expansion. This is very important since I would posit that human intellectual expansionism is most important to spieces survival, and indeed life survival of all life on Earth.

So only societies that have dispearsed power, limited government, and diametrically opposed forces can allow humans to think freely. Free thought flows into scientific, social, and philosophical progress and that is good since it allows humanity to better coexist with its neighbors and live on the Earth without destroying it. Extremism, of any kind, puts out of bounds certain thought so that potential answers to important questions are never brought to fruition. As messy as western liberal democracy is, it is the best hirarchy that has yet been developed to advance the spieces. That is a reason to fight against religious extremists.

My Two Cents Worth on Oregon Vote 2006

1: Vote by mail, though convinient, is crap.

It is crap for the following reasons. It requires you to spend money to get to vote. A 32 cent poll tax. It is also NOT vote by mail up until election day. In Oregon a post mark does not count. If you mail your vote and some dufas miss handles your ballot and it does not get to the elections office by 8pm of elections day you have NOT voted. It doesn't matter if your ballot is post marked a week before the election. So drop it off in a ballot box. Don't mail the damn thing in. It also saves you having to pay the poll tax.

#43 Parental Notification: NO

I am sorry but there are lots or parents out there who are not much more mentally mature than their teenaged offspring and are no better at decision making. If a teen seeks an abortion that requires a level of forethought that is beyond the norm. The number of teens stupid enough to ruin their lives with kids when they are 15 is much higher than the number who seek out an abortion. This is basically not a problem so lets not solve the non problem.

#40, #45, #46 #48: NO

No reason to ammend our Constitution. It has done fine since 1859.

#44: NO

Sorry. I would love to vote for this but until we really totally rethink our whole healthcare nightmare I do not want to joepardize what we already have.

#47: NO

We need 100% public financing of elections but until this happens it would be silly to pass this. All it would do would be to further limit the power of people to advocate for change.

#39: YES

This could cut both ways but it should be the law anyway. It just makes sense.

This has been my two cents worth. As for the people on the ballot. Vote for those people you feel least likely to screw you over.

Sadam found guilty! Duh. Who else is guilty?

"As a result of the openings created by Rumsfeld's diplomatic triumphs, U.S. companies were recruited and encouraged, both covertly and overtly, to ship poisonous chemicals and biological agents to Iraq, by the administrations of both Reagan and George Bush Sr.. Care packages to Saddam included sample strains of anthrax and bubonic plague, and components which would be used to develop nerve poisons like sarin gas and ricin." -

Support the Troops!

For people who like to say how Iraq is only going badly because the news media concentrates on only the bad things here is what the American people of 1861-1865 go to look at on a daily basis. Not in some other nation but in their own backyards, farms, and church grounds. The difference is that in the Civil War there was a reason to fight. Iraq is a war without a purpose, at least not one that doesn't change with the polls Bush claims not to watch.

In 1863 there were massive demonstrations and draft riots in New York. Mainly because the rich and powerful could simply buy their way out of it. They would hire people called proxies that would go and fight instead of themselves. The common people thought this disgusting, as did many soldiers who had returned from the carnage.

Bush and his family are cut from the cloth of those who send people to war but who do not go themselves. Kerry did not have to see combat either. With his connections he could have easily gotten out of it. No he sought it out. Like many many Americans in the 1860's who could have easily hired proxies he too went forth.

What has Bush and his Bushleage done? Northing.

Boehner needs to appologize!!!!!

BOEHNER: Wolf, I understand that, but let's not blame what's happening in Iraq on Rumsfeld.

BLITZER: But he's in charge of the military.

BOEHNER: But the fact is, the generals on the ground are in charge, and he works closely with them and the president. We've seen this run up in violence as we get closer to the election, as we get closer to Ramadan, same thing we've seen over the last couple of years.

Me: So Mr Boehner is now saying basically don't blame Rumsfeld for Iraq. Blame the military. So he is blaming the troops on the ground and their commanders instead of those planning (haha) the war.

Just when I get pissed off I read this and think...He is a pretty good talker, just not a joker.

John Kerry -

“If anyone thinks a veteran would criticize the more than 140,000 heroes serving in Iraq and not the president who got us stuck there, they're crazy. This is the classic G.O.P. playbook. I’m sick and tired of these despicable Republican attacks that always seem to come from those who never can be found to serve in war, but love to attack those who did.

I’m not going to be lectured by a stuffed suit White House mouthpiece standing behind a podium, or doughy Rush Limbaugh, who no doubt today will take a break from belittling Michael J. Fox’s Parkinson’s disease to start lying about me just as they have lied about Iraq. It disgusts me that these Republican hacks, who have never worn the uniform of our country lie and distort so blatantly and carelessly about those who have.

The people who owe our troops an apology are George W. Bush and Dick Cheney who misled America into war and have given us a Katrina foreign policy that has betrayed our ideals, killed and maimed our soldiers, and widened the terrorist threat instead of defeating it. These Republicans are afraid to debate veterans who live and breathe the concerns of our troops, not the empty slogans of an Administration that sent our brave troops to war without body armor.

Bottom line, these Republicans want to debate straw men because they’re afraid to debate real men. And this time it won’t work because we’re going to stay in their face with the truth and deny them even a sliver of light for their distortions. No Democrat will be bullied by an administration that has a cut and run policy in Afghanistan and a stand still and lose strategy in Iraq.”