It really is that stupid:
(added 10MAR2010) and then there's this:
News Archive
Media
News Critique
Humor
Pork Meat Crime
This is one of the craziest stories I've heard in a long time:
A burglar who broke into a home just east of Fresno rubbed food seasoning over the body of one of two men as they slept in their rooms and then used an 8-inch sausage to whack the other man on the face and head before running out of the house, Fresno County sheriff's deputies said Saturday.
Lt. Ian Burrimond, describing the crime as one of the strangest he's ever heard of, said a suspect was found hiding in a nearby field a few minutes later and taken into custody on suspicion of residential robbery.Deputies, he said, had no problem linking the suspect to the crime.
"It seems the guy ran out of the house wearing only a T-shirt, boxer shorts and socks, leaving behind his wallet with his ID," Burrimond said.
Arrested was Antonio Vasquez Jr., 21, of Fresno.
Burrimond said deputies headed to the victims' home in the 300 block of South Thompson Avenue near Kings Canyon Road shortly after 8 a.m. Saturday regarding a burglary in progress.
The victims, both farmworkers, told deputies they were awakened by a stranger applying "Pappy's Seasoning" to one of them and striking the other with a sausage.
Both the spices and the sausage, Burrimond said, reportedly were obtained from the victims' kitchen.
After the man fled, the victims discovered the home had been ransacked and that some money was taken, Burrimond said.
Burrimond said the money was recovered, but that the piece of sausage used in the attack was discarded by the suspect and eaten by a dog.
"That's right, the dog ate the weapon," Burrimond said.
"I tell you, this was one weird case."
Clearly, the dog is a student of the Monty Python defense against criminals armed with foodstuffs:
Sergeant: Where's all the others, then?All: They're not here.
Sergeant: I can see that! What's the matter with them?
2nd man (MP): Dunno.
1st Man (GC): Perhaps they've got 'flu.
Sergeant: 'Flu!? They should eat more fresh fruit! (rolls neck strangely.) Right! Now, self-defense! Tonight I shall be carrying on from where we got to last week, when I was showing you 'ow to defend yourselves against anyone who attacks you armed with a piece of fresh fruit! (rolls neck again)
(Grumbles from all)
2nd Man: You promised we wouldn't do fruit this week.
Sergeant: What do you mean?
3rd Man (TJ): Well, we've done fresh fruit for the last nine weeks.
Sergeant: What's wrong with fruit? You think you know it all, eh?
2nd Man: Can't we try something else?
4th Man (EI): Like someone who attacks you with a pointed stick?
Sergeant: Pointed stick? Oh, oh, oh. We wanna learn 'ow to defend ourselves against pointed sticks, do we? Getting all 'igh and mighty, eh? Fresh fruit not good enough for you eh? Oh, oh, oh. Well let me tell you something my lad! When you're walking home tonight and some great 'omicidal maniac comes after you with a bunch of Logan berries, don't come crying to me! Right, and now, the passion fruit! (He does a leaping about-turn.) When your assailant lunges at you with a passion fruit, ah thus...
All: We done the passion fruit.
Sergeant: What?
1st Man: We've done the passion fruit.
2nd Man: We done oranges, apples, grapefruit...
3rd Man: Whole and segments.
2nd Man: Greengages, pomegranates...
1st Man: Grapes, passion fruit...
2nd Man: Lemons...
3rd Man: Plums...
1st Man: And mangoes in syrup...
Sergeant: How 'bout cherries?
All: We done them.
Sergeant: Red *and* black?
All: Yes!
Sergeant: All right then. (pause) Bananas. We haven't done bananas, have we?
All: (Dejectedly) No.
Sergeant: Right! How to defend yourself against a man armed with a banana. Catch! (He throws a banana to 1st man.) Now, it's quite simple to deal with a banana fiend. First of all you force him to drop the banana; then, you eat the banana, thus disarming him. You have now rendered him 'elpless!
2nd Man: Suppose he's got a bunch.
Sergeant: Shut up!
For a Democracy to be healthy, there needs to be a thriving, strong, and adversarial media that forces truth out from the dark corners of the government and keeps the people informed so they are capable of making educated decisions about who should be running the country (and, notably, who shouldn't). Our current media establishment has failed in this regard. You want proof? Go no further than that many people in this country still think Saddam Hussein had something to do with 9/11. If the media was doing it's job, any myths which the government tries to peddle would be scoffed at and debunked immediately. Instead they fester like open sores on the body politic and are perpetuated by a broken, corrupt system that instead of questioning the powerful, allows itself to be coddled by it.
If you want to keep up with latest stories of our corrupt media, the best place is Glenn Greenwald's Unclaimed Territory on Salon.com. Greenwald, a former constitutional law and civil rights lawyer, writes with rapier like precision about the failings of our media, the corruption and lawlessness of our government and the hypocrisy of our leaders. Most of the stories he covers are completely ignored by the mainstream media, so if you want to stay informed about these topics which the media talking heads want to ignore or wish away, Greenwald is the best place to start. I've linked to some of the more recent media critiques below the fold.
Continue reading Greenwald on the Media.
News
Anarchy in Holland?
Everyone is talking about the fall of the Dutch government. I suspect it won' change ery much. Tourists will continue to come and go. Trains will run on time and life will go on much as normal as it can here in Amsterdam.
Political crisis in the Netherlands as government resigns
The Netherlands is facing a political crisis and early elections after the centre-right government of Prime Minister Jan Peter Balkenende announced it is resigning.
It comes after a row over the immigration minister prompted the D66 party to quit the ruling coalition.
It withdrew its support over Rita Verdonk's tough stance on the citizenship of a Somali-born Dutch politician.
She had threatened to strip Ayaan Hirsi Ali of her citizenship for lying about her refugee status on arrival in the country in 1992.
Balkanende made the resignation announcement in parliament and afterwards said it was regrettable as the government was making progress with reforms.
Elections, initially scheduled for May 2007, could take place in September at the earliest.
Hirsi Ali resigned from parliament last month and said she would leave the Nethernlands after Verdonk threatened to withdraw her citizenship.The minister reversed her decision after Hirsi Ali submitted a statement saying she had not intended to lie to the authorities.
Politics
No Trace of Irony?
In this place where valor sleeps, we are reminded why America has always gone to war reluctantly, because we know the costs of war. We have seen those costs in the war on terror we fight today. These grounds are the final resting place for more than 270 men and women who have given their lives in freedom's cause since the attacks of September the 11th, 2001.-- George Bush, Honors Memorial Day at Arlington National Cemetery, 29 May 2006
Reluctantly? Does he seriously think that anyone believes him when he says that? Yes, we releuctanly went into war with Iraq. Reluctantly. That's the word I'd use. We reluctanly invaded the country only after we'd exhausted all diplomatic channels. We relunctantly invaded because Iraq had links to al Qaeda. And we reluctanly invaded because Saddam was going to nuke us. And we reluctanly invaded because people of the Middle East deserve freedom, the Almighty's gift to everybody who lives in the world (unless your country isn't sitting on a pile). Reluctant. Indeed. Reluctant.
Books
How Would A Patriot Act?
If you want to keep up to date with the all the legal machinations of the Bush Administration and the twisted logic of his one-eyed defenders, there is no better place than Glenn Greenwald's Unclaimed Territory. Glenn's insightful commentary rooted in his remarkably deep understanding of constitutional law and keen eye for hypocrisy makes for some of the best reading on the web.
His entries are not short, so you'll need to devote some amount of time to keep up, but it will be time well spent, because a few years from now when our rights and the democracy that we are so proud of and zealously try to "export" are appreciably eroded, you'll wonder how it happened. But only if you do not read Glenn religiously, like so many people who are worried that our country is headed in a radically wrong direction.
If you like what you read there and want to support him, pick up a copy of his recently published book, How Would A Patriot Act?. I ordered from Amazon. It just came. I haven't had a chance to read it yet, but I will very shortly and let you know what I think.
News
Fuck Ya!
A lifetime of sodomy, a deserved reward for fucking over so many people. (I guess we have to wait for the sentencing, but this is a great start).
Just like this. A picture really is worth 1000 words.
News
Cheney's Got A Gun
Apparently Vice President Dick Cheney shot someone over the weekend in a bizarre hunting accident.And now iIt seems that the boys at The Daily Show have manged to find some humor in it. Shit, can't we let the VP maim people in peace?
News
Awesome!
New tomb found in the Valley of the Kings. Not royal, just connected. How cool is that?
A friend forwarded me this story this morning about Moustapha Akkad's death in the hotel bombings in Jordan. What's the big deal, you say? Well, his daughter Rima was also killed in the bombings. Rima Akkad was a member of my tiny 60+ person graduating class at Brentwood School in 1988.
Were Rima and I close? Not really. I don't even think I ever had a class with her, which is hard to believe. We'd probably fall somewhere between friends and casual acquantainces. I haven't talked to her or seen her since graduation and all the news that she was living in Beirut married with 2 sons is all literally news to me.
However when you have a high school class that is as small as mine, whenever something like this happens, it can't help but touch you.
There's a quote in the article from her mom Patricia:
"Rima is a totally American girl. Here's an American who was over there and innocently killed for no reason."
Here's a story about Rima that I remember which belies the quote. When she was 16 and got her driver's license, her parents bought her a new white Audi Quattro. She then proceeded to rack up so many speeding tickets that the car was yanked from her. Did she then have nothing to drive? Of course not. This is Los Angeles we're talking about here. Her parents gave her a black Jeep Wrangler as a replacement. Someone asked her about it and she said that the Quattro was just too fast, taking absolutely no responsbility for the fact that it was her foot on the gas that made the car go. How more American can you get?
Rima was a nice girl. She could have been a horrible stuck snobbish bitch like a lot of my classmates, but she wasn't. She was down to earth and sweet and an asset to our class.
Resquiet in pace, Rima.
Here's the whole story from the Associated Press:
Continue reading War on Terror Touches Home.
My brother Brian has been going down to Tampa to cover the al-Arian trial for the Investigative Project.
If you want to see his write ups on the closing arguments in the case, they're here:
Per Brian:
They're long - and maybe boring if you're not into this kind of thing - it's mostly for our donors, who love this stuff...
Personally I don't think these sort of stories get enough coverage in the mainstream media. Hardly any in this case. Definitely worth skimming over if you're not familiar with Sami al-Arian, former University of South Florida Professor who was (allegedly) leading a dual life as the leader of Palestinian Islamic Jihad in America. Frightening if true (and it is).
This is just despicable, plain and simple. Sort of makes flushing a Koran down the toilet seem like child's play.
The only question now is how the administration and the right wing press is going to spin this. Chances are, they will just ignore it like all the other bad news that has been generated by our endless "War on Terra" or blame the New York Times for reporting the story in the first place. See how they hate America? Because clearly this is just the work of a few bad apples, depraved individuals, working independently of the administration and it's strict policy that does not condone torture.In U.S. Report, Brutal Details of 2 Afghan Inmates' Deaths
Even as the young Afghan man was dying before them, his American jailers continued to torment him.
The prisoner, a slight, 22-year-old taxi driver known only as Dilawar, was hauled from his cell at the detention center in Bagram, Afghanistan, at around 2 a.m. to answer questions about a rocket attack on an American base. When he arrived in the interrogation room, an interpreter who was present said, his legs were bouncing uncontrollably in the plastic chair and his hands were numb. He had been chained by the wrists to the top of his cell for much of the previous four days.
Mr. Dilawar asked for a drink of water, and one of the two interrogators, Specialist Joshua R. Claus, 21, picked up a large plastic bottle. But first he punched a hole in the bottom, the interpreter said, so as the prisoner fumbled weakly with the cap, the water poured out over his orange prison scrubs. The soldier then grabbed the bottle back and began squirting the water forcefully into Mr. Dilawar's face.
"Come on, drink!" the interpreter said Specialist Claus had shouted, as the prisoner gagged on the spray. "Drink!"
At the interrogators' behest, a guard tried to force the young man to his knees. But his legs, which had been pummeled by guards for several days, could no longer bend. An interrogator told Mr. Dilawar that he could see a doctor after they finished with him. When he was finally sent back to his cell, though, the guards were instructed only to chain the prisoner back to the ceiling.
"Leave him up," one of the guards quoted Specialist Claus as saying.
Several hours passed before an emergency room doctor finally saw Mr. Dilawar. By then he was dead, his body beginning to stiffen. It would be many months before Army investigators learned a final horrific detail: Most of the interrogators had believed Mr. Dilawar was an innocent man who simply drove his taxi past the American base at the wrong time.
Education
Christian Jihad: Evolution Under Attack
I shouldn't be surprised as I watch the Christian Jihad in America weave its nefarious way from one aspect of society to another, but this "debate" over evolution is shocking. I just saw a report on the NewsHour about the so called conflict over Evolution. I have no idea how PBS correspondent Jeffrey Brown could keep a straight face listening to high school students in Kentucky talking about how evolution is just a "theory". That kills me. It just a fucking semantic game put into the heads of these sad, sad victims of the absurdist right wing religious agenda makers.
A theory in science is not like a theory you or I might have about, say, why people in this country are such fucking idiots. (I have a theory that people in this country are devolving, by the way). It's not a hypothesis. A theory is an explanation of a set of related observations or events based upon proven hypotheses and verified multiple times by detached groups of researchers.
Relativity. Gravity. These are theories. A theory is more like a law than a hypothesis, which is like a hunch based on previous observations. Thusly, Evolution, based upon a set of related observations based on proven hypothesis is a theory. In fact, a scientific theory is even more complex than a law. While a law governs a single action, a theory explains a whole series of related phenomena, such as, um, Evolution. There is no debate in the scientific community. None. It might as well be the fucking written in stone.
Unless, that is, you're an idiot who thinks that the earth is less than 10,000 years old, carbon dating is complete rubbish (perhaps even a theory) and that man was placed on the earth full form, like Adam and Eve. Someone exactly like Kevin Ham, who's building the Creation Museum in northern Kentucky, as if people in this world needed another reason to think Kentucky is Darwin's waiting room. Why is this necessary, you ask? Well you can find the answer right in their handy FAQ. It turns out that our increasingly anti-Christian country must return to a belief in the authority of the Bible and be presented with the life-changing Gospel message. Evolutionary indoctrination has undermined the Christian foundations in America.
Our increasingly anti-Christian country? Is that some sort of joke? It's like these people are living in a bizarro world where the exact opposite of reality is happening. For more laughs go here or here.
Then there's the whole Intelligent Design scam. Basically Intelligent Design says that some "Creator" (not god, don't say god, but something omnipotent like god) created everything in the universe. Why? Well, darn it all, the universe is just too fricken complicated for it to have "evolved" to its present state. This is just a well funded attempt to try to hijack science in the name of religion and force creationism back into the classroom. Will it work? The fact that it's being talked about on the NewsHour is enough for me to want to keep my unborn children out of the public education system.
One thing is for certain. There's very little intelligent design evident in the classrooms in Kentucky. I weep for anyone who graduates from high school in this country and does not believe that Evolution is as true as Gravity, as true as the Earth revolving around the Sun. Clarence Darrow must be spinning in his grave.
News
Tidak Bagus
The poor little island of Nias can't catch a break. It got hammered by the tsunami last December. It's probably barely recovering and it' been hit by an 8.7 magnitude quake that has killed around 2000 more people.
I spent almost a month on Nias back in 1995 when I was traveling around Southeast Asia. The island is so isolated. You have to take an overnight boat from Sibolga on the west coast of Sumatra to get there. And getting to Sibolga is no picnic, believe me.
Most westerners are drawn to the perfect waves of Lagundri Bay in the southern part of the island, and I was no exception. It was heaven waking up to 90 degree weather at sunrise and padding out into perfect sets in 90 degree water. The fact that my room cost 25 cents a night was a bonus. I would have paid twenty times that. Maybe a hundred.
It's hard for me to believe that it's been 10 years. I had a great time there and it wasn't all about the surfing. The people on island are about the nicest, most genuine you could hope to meet anywhere. Nias has an ancient culture that has all but been untouched by modern society. I only hope the damage has been overstated and that most of the people are ok.
Man peed way out of avalanche
need I say more?
Thanks to Jen for this tidbit.
Continue reading Just When You Thought Beer Couldn't Possibly Be More Useful.
I'm trying to find words to accurately sum up this story on the AP wire about using women to "break Muslim detainees at the U.S. prison camp in Guantanamo Bay by sexual touching, wearing a miniskirt and thong underwear and in one case smearing a Saudi man's face with fake menstrual blood." Here's what I've come up with so far:
Makes You Proud to an American
We'll Show Them the Meaning of Freedom
The New Freedom Initiative: Become a Terrorist, Get a Lapdance.
Read the whole thing and decide for yourself.
Thank you Condoleezza Rice, Alberto Gonzales and expecailly George Bush for making it extremely unlikely that I will return to travel in a muslim country any time soon.
Guantanamo Bay: Female interrogators' tactics aired
Female interrogators tried to break Muslim detainees at the U.S. prison camp at Guantánamo Bay by sexual touching, wearing a miniskirt and thong underwear and in one case smearing a Saudi man's face with fake menstrual blood, according to an insider's written account.A draft manuscript obtained by The Associated Press is classified as secret pending a Pentagon review for a planned book that details ways the U.S. military used women as part of tougher physical and psychological interrogation tactics to get terror suspects to talk.
"I have really struggled with this because the detainees, their families and much of the world will think this is a religious war based on some of the techniques used, even though it is not the case," the author, former Army Sgt. Erik R. Saar, 29, told AP.
Saar didn't provide the manuscript or approach AP, but confirmed the authenticity of nine draft pages AP obtained. Saar, who is neither Muslim nor of Arab descent, worked as an Arabic translator at the U.S. camp in eastern Cuba from December 2002 to June 2003. At the time, it was under the command of Maj. Gen. Geoffrey Miller, who had a mandate to get better intelligence from prisoners, including alleged al-Qaida members caught in Afghanistan.
Saar said he witnessed about 20 interrogations and about three months after his arrival at the remote U.S. base he started noticing "disturbing" practices.
One female civilian contractor used a special outfit that included a miniskirt and thong underwear during late-night interrogations with prisoners, mostly Muslim men who consider it taboo to have close contact with women who aren't their wives.
Some Guantánamo prisoners who have been released say they were tormented by "prostitutes."
In one case, Saar describes a female military interrogator questioning an uncooperative 21-year-old Saudi detainee who allegedly had taken flying lessons in Arizona before the Sept. 11 terror attacks.
One suspected Sept. 11 hijacker, Hani Hanjour, had received pilot instruction in 1996 and 1997 at a flight school in Scottsdale, Ariz.
"His female interrogator decided that she needed to turn up the heat," Saar writes, saying she repeatedly asked the detainee who had sent him to Arizona, telling him he could "cooperate" or "have no hope whatsoever of ever leaving this place or talking to a lawyer."'
The man closed his eyes and began to pray, Saar writes.
The female interrogator wanted to "break him," Saar adds, describing how she removed her uniform top to expose a tight-fitting T-shirt and began taunting the detainee, touching her breasts, rubbing them against the prisoner's back and commenting on his apparent erection.
The detainee looked up and spat in her face, the manuscript recounts.
The interrogator left the room to ask a Muslim linguist how she could break the prisoner's reliance on God. The linguist told her to tell the detainee that she was menstruating, touch him, then make sure to turn off the water in his cell so he couldn't wash.
Strict interpretation of Islamic law forbids physical contact with women other than a man's wife or family, and with any menstruating women, who are considered unclean.
"The concept was to make the detainee feel that after talking to her he was unclean and was unable to go before his God in prayer and gain strength," says the draft.
The interrogator used ink from a red pen to fool the detainee, Saar writes.
She put her hands in her pants and the detainee then saw what appeared to be red blood on her hand, he says.
"She said, 'Who sent you to Arizona?' He then glared at her with a piercing look of hatred.
"She then wiped the red ink on his face. He shouted at the top of his lungs, spat at her and lunged forward" — so fiercely that he broke loose from one ankle shackle.
"He began to cry like a baby," the draft says, noting the interrogator left saying, "Have a fun night in your cell without any water to clean yourself."
Events Saar describes are similar to two previous reports of abusive female interrogation tactics, although it wasn't possible to independently verify his account.
In November, in response to an AP request, the military described an April 2003 incident in which a female interrogator took off her uniform top, ran her fingers through a detainee's hair and sat on his lap. That session was immediately ended by a supervisor and that interrogator received a written reprimand and additional training, the military said.
In another incident, the military reported that in early 2003 a different female interrogator "wiped dye from red magic marker on detainees' shirt after detainee spit on her," telling the detainee it was blood. She was verbally reprimanded, the military said.
Sexual tactics used by female interrogators have been criticized by the FBI, which complained in a letter obtained by AP last month that U.S. defense officials hadn't acted on complaints by FBI observers of "highly aggressive" interrogation techniques, including one in which a female interrogator grabbed a detainee's genitals.
About 20 percent of the guards at Guantánamo are women, said Lt. Col. James Marshall, a spokesman for U.S. Southern Command. He wouldn't say how many of the interrogators were female.
"U.S. forces treat all detainees and conduct all interrogations, wherever they may occur, humanely and consistent with U.S. legal obligations, and in particular with legal obligations prohibiting torture," Marshall said late Wednesday.
The book, which Saar titled "Inside the Wire," is due out this year with Penguin Press.
Eyewitness to a failure in Iraq
by Peter W. Galbraith | October 27, 2004
from the Boston GlobeIN 2003 I went to tell Deputy Secretary of Defense Paul Wolfowitz what I had seen in Baghdad in the days following Saddam Hussein's overthrow. For nearly an hour, I described the catastrophic aftermath of the invasion -- the unchecked looting of every public institution in Baghdad, the devastation of Iraq's cultural heritage, the anger of ordinary Iraqis who couldn't understand why the world's only superpower was letting this happen.
I also described two particularly disturbing incidents -- one I had witnessed and the other I had heard about. On April 16, 2003, a mob attacked and looted the Iraqi equivalent of the Centers for Disease Control, taking live HIV and black fever virus among other potentially lethal materials. US troops were stationed across the street but did not intervene because they didn't know the building was important.
When he found out, the young American lieutenant was devastated. He shook his head and said, "I hope I am not responsible for Armageddon." About the same time, looters entered the warehouses at Iraq's sprawling nuclear facilities at Tuwaitha on Baghdad's outskirts. They took barrels of yellowcake (raw uranium), apparently dumping the uranium and using the barrels to hold water. US troops were at Tuwaitha but did not interfere.
There was nothing secret about the Disease Center or the Tuwaitha warehouses. Inspectors had repeatedly visited the center looking for evidence of a biological weapons program. The Tuwaitha warehouses included materials from Iraq's nuclear program, which had been dismantled after the 1991 Gulf War. The United Nations had sealed the materials, and they remained untouched until the US troops arrived.
The looting that I observed was spontaneous. Quite likely the looters had no idea they were stealing deadly biological agents or radioactive materials or that they were putting themselves in danger. As I pointed out to Wolfowitz, as long as these sites remained unprotected, their deadly materials could end up not with ill-educated slum dwellers but with those who knew exactly what they were doing.
This is apparently what happened. According to an International Atomic Energy Agency report issued earlier this month, there was "widespread and apparently systematic dismantlement that has taken place at sites previously relevant to Iraq's nuclear program." This includes nearly 380 tons of high explosives suitable for detonating nuclear weapons or killing American troops. Some of the looting continued for many months -- possibly into 2004. Using heavy machinery, organized gangs took apart, according to the IAEA, "entire buildings that housed high-precision equipment."
This equipment could be anywhere. But one good bet is Iran, which has had allies and agents in Iraq since shortly after the US-led forces arrived.
This was a preventable disaster. Iraq's nuclear weapons-related materials were stored in only a few locations, and these were known before the war began. As even L. Paul Bremer III, the US administrator in Iraq, now admits, the United States had far too few troops to secure the country following the fall of Saddam Hussein. But even with the troops we had, the United States could have protected the known nuclear sites. It appears that troops did not receive relevant intelligence about Iraq's WMD facilities, nor was there any plan to secure them. Even after my briefing, the Pentagon leaders did nothing to safeguard Iraq's nuclear sites.
I supported President Bush's decision to overthrow Saddam Hussein. At Wolfowitz's request, I helped advance the case for war, drawing on my work in previous years in documenting Saddam's atrocities, including the use of chemical weapons on the Kurds. In spite of the chaos that followed the war, I am sure that Iraq is better off without Saddam Hussein.
It is my own country that is worse off -- 1,100 dead soldiers, billions added to the deficit, and the enmity of much of the world. Someone out there has nuclear bomb-making equipment, and they may not be well disposed toward the United States. Much of this could have been avoided with a competent postwar strategy. But without having planned or provided enough troops, we would be a lot safer if we hadn't gone to war.
Peter W. Galbraith, a former US ambassador to Croatia, is a fellow at the Center For Arms Control and Non-Proliferation. In the 1980s, he documented Iraqi atrocities against the Kurds for the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.
News
What's This About?
Powell's China Comments Anger TaiwaneseTAIPEI, Taiwan - Secretary of State Colin Powell (news - web sites) has angered Taiwanese officials and lawmakers by making unusually strong comments denying that the island is an independent nation and suggesting Taiwan should unify with China.
Washington usually avoids weighing in on the touchy split, which arose when Mao Zedong's communist army won control of the Chinese mainland in 1949 and anti-communist forces took refuge on Taiwan.
But Powell waded into the unification question Monday in interviews with CNN and Hong Kong-based Phoenix Television during a one-day visit to China.
According to a State Department transcript, Powell told Phoenix: "There is only one China. Taiwan is not independent. It does not enjoy sovereignty as a nation, and that remains our policy, our firm policy."
That was a departure from the U.S. government's longtime "one China policy," a purposely fuzzy approach that merely "acknowledges" people on both sides of the Taiwan Strait agree there is one China. Washington also insists differences should be settled peacefully and in recent years has emphasized that the Taiwanese people should have a say in the matter. [more]
I suppose Powell is out there in the continued attempt to repair Sino-American relations after W appeared on Good Morning America back his first 100 days in office and gave away the diplomatic store on Taiwan:
GIBSON : I'm curious, if you, in your own mind, feel that if Taiwan were attacked by China, do we have an obligation to defend the Taiwanese?BUSH : Yes, we do, and the Chinese must understand that. Yes, I would.
GIBSON : With the full force of American military?
BUSH : Whatever it took to help Taiwan defend herself.
Bush's comments marked a clear reversal of 30 years of American policy in relation to China and Taiwan based on a doctrine known as "strategic ambiguity" and the first (i think) major gaff in a long line of foreign policy mistakes from this administration.
from the Des Moines Register:
One of the latest incidents came when John Sachs, 18, a Johnston High School senior and Democrat, went to see Bush in Clive last week. Sachs got a ticket to the event from school and wanted to ask the president about whether there would be a draft, about the war in Iraq, Social Security and Medicare.But when he got there, a campaign staffer pulled him aside and made him remove his button that said, "Bush-Cheney '04: Leave No Billionaire Behind." The staffer quizzed him about whether he was a Bush supporter, asked him why he was there and what questions he would be asking the president.
"Then he came back and said, 'If you protest, it won't be me taking you out. It will be a sniper,' " Sachs said. "He said it in such a serious tone it scared the crap out of me."
Sachs stayed at the event, but he was escorted to a section of the 7 Flags Events Center where he was surrounded by Secret Service and told he couldn't ask questions. "I was just in a state of fear," he said. "I was looking at the ceiling and I didn't know what to expect, I was so scared."
They actually threatened to shoot him because he wanted to ask a question of the president. [when I wake up from this nightmare, will Bush go away?]
Read the whole story at the from the Des Moines Register.
380 tons of powerful conventional explosives --MISSING.
When Scott McClellan, the president's press secretary was asked about this, he said that not only did we only find out about the theft in the last few weeks, but "that the sites now are really -- my understanding, they're the responsibility of the Iraqi forces." I guess the buck doesn't stop at the president.
The problem is, according the NYT article, the US was informed by the IAEA about the explosive caches prior to the invasion.
The International Atomic Energy Agency publicly warned about the danger of these explosives before the war, and after the invasion it specifically told United States officials about the need to keep the explosives secured, European diplomats said in interviews last week. Administration officials say they cannot explain why the explosives were not safeguarded, beyond the fact that the occupation force was overwhelmed by the amount of munitions they found throughout the country.
I can hardly believe what I read in today's McClellan briefing. When asked about Senator Kerry's remarks calling this one of the greatest blunders in the Iraq mission and this presidency, here's how McClellan responded:
Well, Senator Kerry has a strategy of protest and retreat for Iraq. It is essential that we succeed in Iraq, because Iraq is critical to winning the war on terrorism. The President will talk in his remarks today about how the terrorists understand how high the stakes are in Iraq. They are doing everything they can to try to disrupt the progress we are making toward free elections in Iraq. And this is a critical difference in how the two candidates view the war on terrorism. Senator Kerry has a strategy for retreat and defeat in Iraq. The President has a strategy for success in Iraq.
A couple of things. Let's get one thing straight. Is Kerry's strategy "protest and retreat" or "retreat and defeat"? We need to settle that once and for all. If the president has a "strategy for success in Iraq" it's about time we see it, huh?
Say it with me:
Wrong War. Wrong Place. Wrong Time.
Once more for emphasis:
Wrong War. Wrong Place. Wrong Time.
Remember what Bush said in the first debate:
I know how these people think. I deal with them all the time. I sit down with the world leaders frequently and talk to them on the phone frequently. They're not going to follow somebody who says this is the wrong war at the wrong place at the wrong time.
Yes, they are. They are not going to follow someone who ignores and distorts reality and fails to admit a mistake.
A report from the Program on International Policy Attitudes graphically illustrates how the support for President Bush regarding the war in Iraq is based largely on innaccurate information. Big surprise, considering much of Bush support is not rooted in anything close to reality.
Here's how the report begins:
Even after the final report of Charles Duelfer to Congress saying that Iraq did not have a significant WMD program, 72% of Bush supporters continue to believe that Iraq had actual WMD (47%) or a major program for developing them (25%). Fifty-six percent assume that most experts believe Iraq had actual WMD and 57% also assume, incorrectly, that Duelfer concluded Iraq had at least a major WMD program. Kerry supporters hold opposite beliefs on all these points.
Possibly even more interesting is when asked if the United States should have gone to war with Iraq if US intelligence sources had agreed that Iraq was not making WMD or providing support to al Qaeda, 58% of Bush supporters said the US should not have, and 61% assume that in this case the President would not have. Therefore, the only way for them to continue to support the president is through a cloud of cognitive dissonance that shields them from having face difficult facts aka reality.
And you wonder why the country is so divided?
Read the entire report from the Program on International Policy Attitudes.
Religion
God: The Ultimate Flip-Flopper
[File this under funny if it weren't so damn scary]
There's this extraordinary story on CNN where the founder of the U.S. Christian Coalition Pat Robertson describes a conversation he had with George Bush prior to the start of the war in Iraq in which he delivers the following anecdote:
"You remember Mark Twain said, 'He looks like a contented Christian with four aces.' I mean he was just sitting there like, 'I'm on top of the world,' " Robertson said on the CNN show, "Paula Zahn Now.""And I warned him about this war. I had deep misgivings about this war, deep misgivings. And I was trying to say, 'Mr. President, you had better prepare the American people for casualties.' "
Robertson said the president then told him, "Oh, no, we're not going to have any casualties."
Then Robertson went on to say, "I mean, the Lord told me it was going to be A, a disaster, and B, messy. I warned him about casualties."
Now, who are we to believe here? Is "God" speaking to Robertson or Bush? Is he speaking to both but giving them opposite and contradictory information?
Based on this limited information it would appear that Robertson has the ear of "God" while Bush is still getting disinformation from the Almighty. What I want to know is has "God" told Robertson who is going to win Game 7 between the Yanks and the Sox?
Politics
Sinclair Getting Hammered
Sinclair Broadcasting Group (SBGI), the conservative publicly traded owner of over 60 local television stations which plans to air the anti-Kerry film "Stolen Honor", is getting hammered in the market, down yet again, and trading at or near 52-week lows. SBGI is suffering from a multi-pronged attack from stockholders and institutional investors, from the progressive blogosphere which is going after advertisers and from the inside with Jonathan Lieberman, their Washington Bureau chief (that is until yesterday when he was canned), bravely criticizing his employers for not offering equal time to the opposition.
The stock has lost more than 100 million in market cap since the decision to air the film, which is looking worse by the day, was made a few weeks ago and stirred up a hornet's net of controversy. The closest SBGI market to me is in Sacramento, so if SBGI decides to go ahead with the plans to air the film, I won't be able to see it, but their network of stations, the largest in the nation by the way, reaches 25% of the American public, many in the so-called battleground states.
This story raises so many issues, about election law, about the public airwaves and broadcaster responsibility, but most importantly and frightening, if you believe that the Sinclair's obvious agenda to see Bush re-elected is not merely ideological, is the problem of media conglomeration. Personally I think the large scale media holdings in the hands of fewer and fewer companies is dangerous. Right now the law, which I believe is damaging enough, allows for a single corporation to own no more than 2 stations in any given market. I don't think they should be able to own more than one. Clearly, SBGI was hoping to help swing the election towards Bush who is in favor of less government central and weaker regulations.
Hopefully, the downward trends of the stock and other efforts will stop Sinclair in its tracks. Right now the market cap has been driven so low, beneath 300 million, that someone like George Soros could come in and buy the damn company and stop this madness.
You're looking at him.
I didn't really know Gordo Cooper, but I felt like I did. Almost everything I know about this man comes from reading Tom Wolfe'sThe Right Stuff and repeatedly watching the movie in which he was played with great charm by Dennis Quaid. The power of both the performance and the time have etched Gordo Cooper indelibly in my mind.
Gordo Cooper died yesterday. Via Con Dios, Hot Dog
Black Gay Republicans Break with Log Cabin Republicans, Endorse Bush
As they say in Samoa, e moi which means either, are you serious? or you've got to be shitting me. Black and gay and republican? How large of a group could that possibly be?
In the article, Don Sneed further qualifies the group as "young black gay republicans". Even if they are a large group (which they are not) or had some resources (which they don't) how many of them live outside of Noe Valley, West Hollywood, Chelsea or any other place in a state that has a snowflake's chance in hell of voting red?
I'm not black. I'm not gay. And I'm not a republican but I have the sense to know that a vote for George W. Bush is not, as the ALBRC would have you beleive, "a vote for economic, social and political self-upliftment," unless I've been living in a parallel bizarro universe while, back in reality, the republicans have become the party that cares about people.
Continue reading It's All But Over Now.
Just down the street from where I'm sitting at Chiron in Emeryville is the corporate offices of Pixar. Yes, that Pixar. Monsters, Inc. Finding Nemo. Infinity and Beyond. and Steve Jobs.
There's a interesting article in one of the local papers about how a small group of citizens in Emeryville is strong-arming the animation studio that wants to triple the size of its corporate campus.
It's sort of a reversal of fortune for Pixar which has been used to running roughshod over local authorities. So what's the beef of these local citizens? Well, apparently Emeryville has created so many jobs by being "business-friendly" that they haven't been able to keep on the housing front (this despite Emeryville creating more affordable housing than its neighboring cities).
Just when you thought people had nothing more to complain about, they complain about having too many jobs. Power to the people, baby!
News
Wed Britney Wed
Two times in one year. Pretty impressive, Britney. It has be some sort of a record. It had to have least tied the record. No one could marry 3 times in a year, could they?
I wonder what odds the bookmakers are giving in Vegas that their wedded bliss will last the year. I think the over/under has to be 6 months, with the under being a fairly heavy favorite.
(Thank god, republicans are keeping marriage safe).
News
I Want My AK-47
On the day that President Bush, by virtue of not insisting that the House act on the Assault Weapons Ban, is letting the bill lapse because of his allegiance to the NRA, I get this email from my former housemate in Vail about our landlord Jeff who lived with us:
hey remember when I said I was staying at the trailor...yeah...oops...i am moving out tomorrow. I have reciently discovered that jeff has been going into my room and searching through my stuff on a regular basis. I also made the mistake of telling him that my knee was sore the other day. He proceeded to mix up some tiger balm and demand to rub my knee. so an hour and a half later I am offering him a dollar to get the hell out of my room. He threatened to jump on me, pin me down, and force me to let him rub my knee. I told him that if he did I would file assault charges against him. so he bared his teeth and started growling at me. freaked me out a little bit. so the next night he starts yelling at me. then he tells me that he has been a father figure to me and that on monday he is going to buy an m-18 assault rifle with a grenade launcher to fight the bad guys and any terrorists who try to terrorize the trailor park. oh yeah and now he used to be a runner for the mafia and was shot 9 times...and he has reciently signed up to be in the national guard. okay..that is only a fraction of the entire story but you get the idea...he has become completely dilusional and I am a little affraid for my own safety. You are really missing out not being here...and soon I will be missing out too.
that came the day after KC sent me this email:
still living in the trailor. jeff is crazier than ever. but i have a vacation comming up so it will give me a chance to get out of here. I got drunk and yelled at him twice...I think I questioned the statute of limitations regarding bragging rights...and I probably told him to get humble and shut up for once in his life...it is all a little hazy...either way...I accidently have a lease...oops...so i guess i am stuck here until april...oh and get this...he is trying to raise my rent. he told me that he could rent my room for $600.00 to somebody else...and i wonder on what planet that would ever happen. Your room has been empty since you left except for one guy who moved out after 3 wks. I think that things around here are about to reach critical mass so who knows what might happen. p.s. jeff is wasted and screaming at his wasted friend and I am hiding in my room...wish you were here.
I didn't write much about Jeff in the month or so that I lived in the trailer park near Beaver Creek. I don't know why. It wasn't for lack of material. I moved in there because it was the only option for me. KC, a chef at one of the high class joints in Vail Village, lives there because he's cheap and he because he thrives on Jeff's special brand of weirdness.
Continue reading I Want My AK-47.
There's a story on the wire today about Schwarzenegger signing a bill barring necrophilia. That's not a problem. Those fuckers are sick and need to be put away. It's the inspiration for the original bill that is really sick and twisted.
I've been watching the Olympics for three days now and there's the awful trend that is really sad for the organizers of the games in Athens. After an Opening Ceremonies where the stadium was packed full of enthusiasts, athletes have been laboring in the obscurity of empty arenas all across Greece. From beach volleyball, to tennis, to rowing, the crowds have been sparse and the venues have been empty.
It's not just a matter of a seat here or a seat there. Huge blocks of seats are empty. It's eerie. The biggest surprise is at the gymnastics arena. Gymnastics is typically the jewel of the Olympics. But in the prelims, just like everywhere else, except maybe swimming, the fans are staying away in droves.
It's sad that even if terrorists don't manage to disrupt the games with a bomb or some other incident, their impact on these games is felt nonetheless. They have succeeded in sowing fear so deep in the rest of the world that people are staying away from one of the greatest sporting shows on earth.
When I heard about how the Feds had arrested an Imam and an accomplish for laundering money through their pizza parlor to buy a shoulder fired rocket to assassinate the Pakistani ambassador to the UN, my first thought was not shock that a religous leader would be implicated in an assassination, nor praise for the FBI to capture these two before they could hatch their nefarious plot. My first thought was, isn't odd that an Imam owns a pizza place? It's sort of like a rabbi owning a kebab shop. Or as my brother put, sort of like a rabbi who's trying to buy a shoulder fired missle who has a kebab shop.
News
Upping the Ante
FOX Sports Net is showing the American Poker Championships LIVE from the Turning Stone Casino in upstate New York. It's down to two players, Phil Ivey and John D'Augustino playing for half a million. How long will it last? Who knows, but it's amazing to watch it live despite the less than inspired commentary from Barry Tompkins, Howard Lederer.
John D'Agostino is a 21-year old Mike Piazza look alike who learned poker by playing online. He's a relative novice, but he's playing great especially considering that he's up against Phil Ivey one of the best high stakes players around.
Check it out.
When I was listening to General Richard Cody or some other member of the Joint Chiefs talking about the need to call up these musicians after being questioned by a Democatic congressman (thank you, CSPAN), I couldn't believe the answer.
The bands are being stressed quite a bit. They do an awful lot of burial services.
Thankfully, we're not having that many funerals in this unfortunate war (most are for WWII vets). I wonder what the hell the Army did during WWI when we had battles where over a million soldiers (from each side) were killed? Comparatively the war in Iraq is a picnic. However, if we can't prosecute the "War on Terror" without 15 previously discharged band members, we're in a lot of trouble.
WE'RE NOT ON A MISSION FROM GOD
News
Kenny-Boy, Finally
Former Enron Chairman and CEO Kenneth Lay pleaded not guilty today to 11 criminal charges related to the company's 2001 collapse into bankruptcy. Lay was released on a $500,000 bond. In a related move, the Securities and Exchange Commission accused Lay in a civil complaint that seeks more than $90 million. (from CNN)
It's about time, isn't it?
Forget Farenheit 9/11, if you want to see a fascinating, unbiased documentary about how America got involved in the war with Iraq check out Frontline's "The War Behind Closed Doors". The movie takes a hard look at "the people, the events, the major statements, and the internal policy battles in the development of the Bush Doctrine" specificially vis a vis Iraq and the Neo-Conservatives that helped forge the policy that led us to war. It should be interesting to anyone no matter what your political affiliation is.
This is just one of almost 40 films that you can view online at the Frontline website.
At first I was listening to it on the local NPR station, but at 7pm they decided to pre-empt the president for their regular classical music programing. Colorado public radio, like many other things in this fakakta state is a disgrace.
Anyway, I switched on the TV and watched as the leader of the free world dodged questions in fumbled answers full of pregnant pauses and mistakes in subject verb agreement. The guy is a disaster as a public speaker. Yet Sean Hannity praised W's performance as "articulate". I supposed that's a more fair and balanced summation of my own.
Of all the president's gaffs in the press conference, the worst has to have to been his inability to respond to a question refelecting on a point where he might have made a mistake. I think this arrogance from the administration, this inability to admit any wrongdoing whatsoever will be undoing of the president and will result his being booted out of office after one term. All he had to say was something like his failure to recognize the problem of communication between counterterrorism departments prior to 9/11. Simple as that. Done. Everyone would accept that. But not this president. He could never make a mistake.
I'm embarassed to say that sometimes I do shop at Walmart. It's just the cheapest place around to buy cat food. And, you know, when I'm in there, I might pick up a few things for the house, groceries, whatever.
Then I hear a story on NPR this morning about how Walmart "accidentally" overcharged customers 2 or 3 times for transactions made on the 31st of March.
Shit. Did I go I to Walmart on the 31st? Probably. I go online and check my credit card statement and sure enough, there's a charge for $30.72. But what the hell did I buy? I can't remember. I can barely remember what I did yesterday let alone last week. Did I keep the receipt? Hell no. I use the Walmart plastic bags when I clean the litter box, so the receipt is probably decomposing with a bunch of litter encrusted cat fecal matter.
Hopefully Walmart will correct it's little problem shortly.
News
Zionist Pigs
My brother sent me a link to this page of pictures from an anti-war rally in San Francisco. Now I'm all for rallies of any sort and freedom of speech. I'm even liberal enough to not have a problem with the ALCU defending the rights of Nazis. That's the price of democracy.
But this picture is digusting and the reference to "counterfeit jews" hiding behind or in kahootz with the devil is alarming. It's one thing for people to think these things. You're never going to stamp out ignorance even with our brilliant new "no child left behind" plan, but you should be able to do something about proliferating these ideas to hoi polloi idiots who can't think for themselves.
Oh, Happy Passover. Remember Passover. That's the celebration and remembrance of the Exodus story from the bible when the Zionist Pigs escaped from the bonds of slavery in Egypt, crossed the Red Sea and headed for the Promised Land.
News
Chinga te, Espana
Let's look at this chain of events:
Spain was holding an election and the ruling party was winning in the polls
There was a bomb in Madrid that Killed 200 people
The bomb was blamed on the Baque separtists ETA
Al Queda took responsibility because Spain backs US policy in Iraq
There was upset in the election and the incumbent was sent packing
The new prime minister has said that he will pull Spanish troops from Iraq
Way to capitulate to terror. Does anyone think that there won't be another massive election eve bombing, say some time before the 1st Tuesday after the 2nd Monday in November?
Great job, Spain! Mucho Gusto!
News
Spalding Gray's Body
In a morose end to the story of the missing monologuist, Spalding Gray was found dead today, his body pulled from the East River in Manhattan.
It's very sad to read that this great artist is now dead of an apparent suicide, just a few months after I saw his last experimental monologue. The story he related was about this car accident he was involved in on a trip to Ireland that left him severely disabled. My sense during and after his performance was that he was massively depressed and when he walked off stage he looked like a broken man.
News
Give Me Some Money
The most secure currency in U.S. history was introduced into the economy on October 9th, as a newly redesigned, colorful $20 bill was issued by the Federal Reserve System.
You can find this blurb on the U.S. Bureau of Engraving and Printing website.
It took a week for counterfeit 20s to start showing up in circulation. Some woman named Margretta Saffold from Missouri was caught passing fake twenties back on the 16th October. God bless the heartland of America.
News
Two State Solution?
"If the Palestinians would adopt the ways of Gandhi, I think they could, in fact, make enormous changes very, very quickly. I believe in the power of individuals demonstrating peacefully."
This is a quote from Paul Wolfowitz, probably the most hawkish member of the war mongering Bush administration. Hey Paul, how about we adopt the ways of Ghandi?
The story from which this quote derives is actually a positive development. It's about how Wolfowitz is bringing together Jeiwsh and Palestinian moderates in an unofficial drive for a two-state solution to end the conflict in the Middle East.
Personally I don't think a two-state solution is going to work. An effective nation of Palestine cannot be built out of two discontinuous units. There is no great love between the people of the West Bank who were part of Jordan before 1967 and the people of Gaza who were part of Egypt.
Instead of a two state solution, I think the warring parties ought to consider a three state solution. The major problem is that whatever plan you come up there are psychos on both sides who will accept nothing but a one state solution.
"The Europeans killed 6 million Jews out of 12 million, but today the Jews rule the world by proxy. They get others to fight and die for them."
Mahathir Mohamad has really lost the plot. Yes, he actually said this quote above. Apparently he's trying to do as much damage as possible before he leaves office at the end of this month. Not a moment to soon, if you ask me.
It's amazing that I can find the time to update my website when I'm busy running the banks, controlling the media and, apparently, ruling the world by proxy.
Read the whole story here:
I think you can safely files stories entitled, "Tourism a Huge Threat to Global Environment", under "Duh!"
As more and more people have the wherewithal to travel beyond their borders to check out the wonder that is the rest of the world, they tend not to follow the backpackers motto of "leave only footprints and take only pictures". Nor do they follow the golden rule as in treat another country as you would treat your own. (Or maybe, they do, which would explain a lot about where you come from).
Travelers, tourists, visitors, whatever, tend to treat other countries like garbage dumps. Tourists sites around the world are littered with rubbish. We've been hearing for years about trash left behind by climbers at Everest base camp. I've been some awful stuff in my travels from pits full or plastic waters bottles in Thailand to totally wrecked coral reefs in Indonesia to piles or trash left by pilgrims on Mt. Sinai (Yes, that Mt. Sinai).
Everywhere you look you'll find examples of tourism destroying the environment and you don't need fancy multi-million dollar investigations or UN sponsored reports to see it.
And this is just the phycial damage. The psycological impact is probably far worse. The damag sone to indigenous culture by the pollution of western media is immeasurable and, sadly, irrevocable.
The big question is what is to be done about it. Certainly, you're going to have a hard time stopping tourists.
You can read more about it here:
News
Go Slugs!
Princeton Review has released its rankings for American Universities, and UC Santa Cruz, not any big surpise here, is ranked number one for best campus. It's an amzaing place, situated on the hills amidst the redwoods overlooking the Monterrey Bay. It's also the largest campus in the country by quite some margin.
In something of a coup Santa Cruz finished out of the top ten (13th) in the "Birkenstock-Wearing, Tree-Hugging, Clove-Smoking Vegetarians" category. The place must have gone through some kind of transformation since I graduated.
You can find the Princeton Review rankings here
News
Spectacular Mars
Never again in your lifetime will Mars be so spectacular!
In August, the Earth and Mars will culminate in the closest approach between the two planets in recorded history. The next time Mars may come this close is in 2287.
Due to the way Jupiter's gravity tugs on Mars and perturbs its orbit, astronomers can only be certain that Mars has not come this close to Earth in the last 5,000 years but it may be as long as 60,000 years.
The encounter will culminate on August 27th when Mars comes to within 34,649,589 miles and will be (next to the moon) the brightest object in the night sky. It will attain a magnitude of-2.9 and will appear 25.11 Arc seconds wide. At a modest 75-power magnification Mars will look as large as the full moon to the naked eye.
Mars will be easy to spot. At the beginning of August, Mars will rise in the East at 10 p.m. and reach its azimuth at about 3 a.m. But by the end of August when the two planets are closest, Mars will rise at nightfall and reach its highest point in the sky at 12:30 a.m. That's pretty convenient when it comes to seeing something that no human has seen in recorded history.
So mark your calendar at the beginning of August to see Mars grow progressively brighter and brighter throughout the month. Share with your children and grandchildren. No one alive today will ever see this again.
Continue reading Spectacular Mars.
I love that "The Terminator" could possibly be the next governor of the great state of California. Arnold hasn't make a decent movie in a long time and he needs a new gig, so this makes perfect sense. We also have a long history of bad making actors making their way into the Governor's Mansion. He can't possibly do a worse job than the current holder of the office.
To get the feeling of the effect of Schwarzenegger in office, look into the mirror and say the following in your thickest Tyrolean accent:
"I wrote the legislation. I directed the legislation. I am the legislation".
Continue reading Fiddling, Fumbling and Failing.
Father of fire-knife dance dies
By Terry Tavita
24 July 2003
The man credited as the father of the fire knife dance, ailao afi, has passed away peacefully in Hawai’i.
American Samoa paramount chief Olo Letuli, 84, was a close friend of the Head of State, His Highness Susuga Malietoa Tanumafili II.
A former Senator and a successful businessman, Olo, as he is commonly known, arguably was the first to add fire to the traditional Samoan ailao(knife dance).
As the story goes, Olo, in his days as a young entertainer, did this at a performance in Hawai’i in 1946 because he was bored with his routine.
The ailao, a fierce traditional dance that involves the constant twirling of the adze-like weapon, nifo oti, was a pre-war ritual to psyche up warriors.
Continue reading Father of Siva Afi Dies.
News
Cat Talk
I have a pretty good idea of what my kittens are thinking, but how cool would it be to know for sure?
Now if only they could come up with a gagdet that could translate human speech into meows. Then we'd really have something. How do you say, "don't piss on my mattress again or I'm going to feed you to the dogs" in meow?
Japanese toymaker offers cat-language interpreter
TOKYO (AFP) - Takara Co. of Japan will launch a device that translates cats' meows into human speech in November after the smash-hit dog-language electronic interpreter Bowlingual, a spokeswoman said.The nation's number two toymaker aims to sell 300,000 units of the hand-held gadget by March 2004.
"We do not have an immediate plan to sell (the product) overseas but this could be a possibility," said the spokeswoman.
Shares in Takara soared 42 yen or 5.68 percent to end the morning at 781 yen on the Tokyo Stock Exchange, in contrast to the key Nikkei-225 average, which slipped 0.9 percent to 9,663.07 points.
Meowlingual shows "translations" of cat language on its liquid crystal display when held close to the animals, the spokeswoman said.
The device will be priced at 8,800 yen (75 dollars), less than the 14,800 yen dog owners pay for Bowlingual.
Bowlingual has sold 300,000 units in the six months to March 2003 since its launch last September, and would have sold more had supply kept pace with demand.
The 120-dollar gadget ventured overseas to South Korea in late May and is set to make its US debut in August.
There's a copy of US magazine floating around the Peace Corps office here in Samoa. While I was waiting to get on a computer, I flipped through it's pages and came across this brilliant piece of journalism:
Whitney's Wacky Israel Visit "It's home, it's home!", proclaimed, Whitney Houston, 39, about Israel on her first trip to the Holy Land. During her six-day visit, she, husband Bobby Brown, 34, and daughter Bobbi Kristina, 10, stayed with the Black Hebrews, a sect of 2,000 vegan polygamists.
Call me crazy, but the real wacky story isn't Whitney et al visiting Israel, it's that there are fucking 2,000 vegan polygamists in the Holy Land.
Is it me?
Continue reading Whitney's Wacky Israel Visit.
Peace Corps Program to Reopen in Jordan
WASHINGTON, D.C., July 22, 2003 – Peace Corps Director Gaddi H. Vasquez announced today that Peace Corps volunteers would return to Jordan as early as January 2004. The program was suspended in November 2002 due to security concerns in the Middle East. The situation has recently been reassessed and determined safe for the return of Peace Corps volunteers.
Director Vasquez went to Jordan in December 2002 to meet with and thank His Majesty King Abdullah II for his support of the Peace Corps and his continued dedication to the work of volunteers in Jordan.
“We are extremely excited about returning volunteers to Jordan. The Jordanian government is extremely supportive of the Peace Corps, and they have been instrumental in the timeliness of Peace Corps’ return to their country, “ stated Director Vasquez.
Peace Corps began service in the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan in 1997. Since then, 216 volunteers have worked in the areas of community development initiatives, micro-enterprise development for women, environmental management and awareness, and teaching English as a foreign language. Volunteers in Jordan also participate in special education programs that support hearing and visually impaired students.
Since 1961, more than 168,000 volunteers have served in the Peace Corps, working in such diverse fields as education, health and HIV/AIDS education, information technology, business development, the environment, and agriculture. Peace Corps volunteers must be U.S. citizens and at least 18 years of age. Peace Corps service is a two-year commitment.
News
We're #73
In the recently released human development index , part of the Human Development Report for 2003 released yearly by the UNDP, Samoa is number 73 out of 173, middle of the pack.
Acccording to the site, the index "measures a country's achievement in terms of life expectancy, educational attainment and adjusted real income". The whole report is something like 7 megabytes which is too much for me download tonight, but I'm going to try to plow through it at the office tomorrow.
It's really interesting to look through the list. Norway and other Scandanavians top it, with the Africans languishing at the bottom. There are only a few "Peace Corps" countries ahead of Samoa, a reasonably well-developed place with 100% literacy. Those that I know of are Panama and Bulgaria. There's probably a few others. Down at the bottom of the list are a score of African countries, many of which host PCVs. It's a difficutl life, but I'm sure it's very rewarding. In some ways I envy them.
Samoa, apparently guitly (along with 31 other nations) of supporting the International Criminal Court while not being of importance to US national security, has been cut off from military aid.
How much military aid Samoa receives from the US is unclear, however considering there's no standing army in this country and only one modest patrol boat, it can't be a hell of a lot.
That said, this country survives on handouts, so whatever meagre amount it is that the US is going to withhold, will be damaging to some extent.
Continue reading U.S. Cuts Miltary Aid to Samoa.
What is going on over in Germany? This would be an interesting story if this was an isolated incident, but Reuters reports that:
Germany often reports cases of people lying dead in their homes for months or years before discovery, a phenomenon sociologists attribute to mounting social isolation and the disintegration of the family.
Often? How often is often? Germany must smell pretty damn bad these days if, often, corpses are lying dead for years before discovery. I know what this says about German social structure, but more importantly, perhaps, what does it say about German olfactory senses?
Amazingly, authorities have found and arrested a suspect in this murder. Say what you want about Germans, they are a damn efficient lot.
Man Lies Dead in Bed for Nearly Three Years
Mon Jun 30, 8:54 AM ET
BERLIN (Reuters) - A German man lay dead in his bed for almost three years before being found, police said Friday.
Continue reading Can You Imagine the Smell?.
Why does it seem incredible to me that we can find buried treasure hidden in a vault inside sewage water yet we have been unable to hunt down any "weapons of mass destruction." Am I alone in this?
Treasures of Nimrud Found in Iraqi Vault
Sat Jun 7, 5:40 PM ET
By HAMZA HENDAWI, Associated Press Writer
BAGHDAD, Iraq - The world-famous treasures of Nimrud, unaccounted for since Baghdad fell two months ago, have been located in good condition in the country's Central Bank — in a secret vault-inside-a-vault submerged in sewage water, U.S. occupation authorities said Saturday.
They also said fewer than 50 items from the collection of the Iraqi National Museum's main exhibition are still missing after the looting and destruction that followed the U.S. capture of Baghdad.
The artifacts — gold earrings, finger and toe rings, necklaces, plates, bowls and flasks, many of them elaborately engraved and set with semiprecious stones or enamel — were found several days ago when the vault was opened, according to an official of the Coalition Provisional Authority, the official name of the U.S.-led occupation force.
Continue reading Iraq's Hidden Treasure.
The government of Samoa has finally wised up to the fact that the mass consumption of low-grade fat-ridden imported meats from New Zealand and elsewhere are having huge, long-term detrimental effects to the health of many Samoans.
To combat this, the government is bringing in 1,000 head of sheep from Fiji. Personally, I'm thrilled for both the Samoans and myself. Samoans can't keep eating this crap and I never started, but I would love to get a nice cut of lamb every now and again. And if someone wants to want into a vindaloo and serve it up with some naan and a mango lassi, well I'll be first in line.
Of course, when the sheep are coming, the sheep jokes can't be far behind. Maybe we can import some of those from New Zealand as well.
Health Worries Behind Move to Import Live Sheep
By Lave Tuiletufuga
Imported mutton and lamb flaps from New Zealand, blamed for contributing to health problems here, may soon be a thing of the past.
Better meat could be produced locally if all works out as hoped following approval for importing a trial shipment of sheep. Government is looking at import substitution but more particularly healthier meat than the flaps presently imported from New Zealand.
Continue reading Live Sheep Coming to Samoa.
As someone who sees geckos on a daily basis (usually frantically running away from my kittens), I love this story.
Gecko tape will stick you to ceiling
18:00 01 June 03
NewScientist.com news service
A new material covered with nanoscopic hairs that mimic those found on geckos' feet could allow people to walk up to sheer surfaces and across ceilings, say researchers.
Andre Geim and colleagues at the UK's Manchester University say covering a person's hand with the material would be enough to let them stick to the ceiling. The tape could be detached from the surface by simply peeling it slowly away from one side.
"Spiderman is science fiction and will remain in comics," Geim told New Scientist. "But hopefully 'gecko-man' will become less science fiction and more a reality in the near future."
Geckos can climb even the most slippery surface with ease and hang from glass using a single toe. The secret behind this extraordinary climbing skill lies with millions of tiny keratin hairs - called setae - on the surface of each foot. An intermolecular phenomenon known as van der Waals force is exerted by each of these hairs. Although the force is individually miniscule, the millions of hairs collectively produce a powerful adhesive effect.
Continue reading Gecko Technology Comes to the Masses.
On the Home Front
Rudolph in Custody
It's amazing. The feds finally caught up with Eric Robert Rudolph, the so-called Olympic bomber. When I was living in Atlanta, just after the Olympics, and Richard Jewel was still the suspect everyone was talking about, Rudolph was bombnig abortion clinics and gay bars.
The guy in affront to every decent person in the world. Hopefully he'll spend the rest of his miserable life in federal ass-pounding prision somewhere where the weather in miserable, maybe upstate New York or North Dakota. Bon Voyage, Eric.
Here's the story from MSNBC:
Olympic Bombing Suspect Captured
Eric Robert Rudolph, on the lam for years after being charged in deadly bombings at the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta and elsewhere in the South, was arrested at gunpoint early Saturday as he foraged for food in a trash bin in North Carolina. “The most notorious American fugitive on the FBI’s most wanted list has been captured and will face American justice,” Attorney General John Ashcroft said.
RUDOLPH, 36, WAS captured after a young rookie cop in western North Carolina spotted a man digging in trash behind a grocery story in the small town of Murphy about 3:30 a.m., said FBI Special Agent Chris Swecker at an afternoon press conference. After first giving police a false name, he revealed his true identity, which was confirmed through fingerprints, investigators said.
Continue reading Rudolph in Custody.
These are the famous words of Sir Edmund Hillary after he returned from conquering Mt. Everest. It would be great to be that non-chalant after becoming the first person (along with Tenzing Norgay) to climb the highest mountain on earth. I've always appreciated Hillary's understated modesty. For some one in a field for of braggarts along the lines of Rienhold Messner, Hillary is refreshingly different.
Hillary is back in Nepal celebrating 50 years since the great expedition.
Click on the more link for the full story from the Associated Press
Continue reading Well, George, We Knocked The Bastard Off.
I'm joking, of course. This story is absolutely incredible. I can't imagine what I would have done in a similar circumstance. Most likely I would have starved to death. Here's the full story from MSNBC:
Climber recounts canyon ordeal
(MSNBC AND NBC NEWS)
DENVER, May 8 — Aron Ralston should be able to go home from the hospital this weekend, doctors said Thursday. He wants to have a margarita, if the doctors say it’s OK. Odds are, if he could muster the courage to hack off his own arm with a souped-up pocketknife after being pinned by an 800-pound boulder in the remote Utah desert, he can probably have a margarita.
Continue reading Yes, but Does He Have What it Takes to be a Peace Corps Volunteer?.
News
Passover in Baghdad
This is a great email story from a jewish soldier in Iraq that was sent to me by my cousins from Arizona:
Dear family and friends,
This morning started with a cold rain. This was a blessing, as it padded
the loose sand and made for a clear, crisp day. For me and two other Jewish
soldiers, the wonderful duo of Chaplain Yacovac, 3rd Infantry Division and
Chaplain Waynick, 24th Support Command, gatherer the necessary six security
personnel and four vehicles to convoy us the 40 minutes from our classified
base at Logistics Support Area Dogwood to Objective Grady for a Passover
seder in the desert.
As we arrived, we were warmly greeted by ten other Jewish soldiers from the 101st Airborne Division and Chaplain (Rabbi) Carlos Huerta. Together, we made a motley group of infantrymen, pilots, medics, and truck drivers into a minyan. Into a family. Our table was meager but festive. Dispel all rumors of Army soldiers having seder in palaces. That was not us. Our tent was small and non descript from the outside. We used mess hall provided paper plates, flatware, and cups. No meat or main course. The simple Passover supplies of Matzah, gefilte fish and grape juice from the Aleph Institute and the Jewish Welfare Board, combined with generous packages of cookies, dried fruit, and candy mailed by Lynne from Arizona and my cousin
Stephen Hirsch of Long Island, NY constituted a table fit for a meal. We even used Army issued Louisiana hot sauce for the bitter herbs.
Continue reading Passover in Baghdad.
I put this up because I saw this picture on the front page of New York Times Online. What a brilliant portait. The shot was taken by one of the many great photographers at the Agence France-Presse. The cigar smoking Aziz, whisps of smoke trailing off in the distance, pictured in front of a massive yet blurry mural of Saddam. Fantastic!
Here's a bit of the story
Tariq Aziz, the deputy prime minister of Iraq under Saddam Hussein, has been taken into custody, the Pentagon said late this afternoon.
Mr. Aziz had been the principal international voice of the Hussein government for a decade and was one of the most familiar figures to American television viewers, in part because he often spoke for Baghdad's interests at the United Nations.
Mr. Aziz was number 43 on the list of the 55 most-wanted members of Saddam Hussein's aides. (He was the eight of spades on the cards distributed by American forces.)
You can read the rest of the story by clicking on the MORE link.
Fast food comes to Iraq
Basra, Iraq (April 21 2003) -- Fastfood giants Pizza Hut and Burger King have set up their first franchises inside war-torn Iraq, even as many aid convoys waited on the borders for the war to officially end.
The arrival of the two restaurants - sited inside giant trailers on a British military base near Basra - won a rapturous welcome from soldiers, whose limited range of rations lost their appeal many weeks ago.
But some officers were less keen on the new arrivals, which are due to start selling food tomorrow.
"I would prefer we got decent showers and toilets sorted out first," muttered one high-ranking officer.
Fastfood outlets are common in US bases, including Camp Doha in Kuwait, but it is believed to be the first time they have been sited inside a British military base.
Another officer, who was directly involved in the franchise process, said: "It's an Americanism, we usually have them off the base, but because it is still a war zone we have to give them protection."
Permission to open the restaurants was granted through the British Army and they will be run by existing franchise holders from Kuwait, with a percentage of any profits going to charity.
But soldiers waiting for a brewery franchise to be awarded are set for a disappointment as military chiefs have already vetoed any alcohol being sold on the base, which is home to almost 8000 British soldiers.
The Kuwaiti franchise holders provided staff and raw materials and the Army escorted them into Iraq, although it is understood it will not provide constant escorts for the supply runs.
A spokesman for the two restaurants, Atef Bassent, said: "I hope we will do good business here."
from the Sydney Morning Herald:
(http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2003/04/21/1050777195239.html)
On The Rocks bar, no Palagi mafia haunt
by Afamasaga Toleafoa
11 April 2003"This is not a Palagi Mafia haunt," Peter Blain, owner of 'On The Rocks Bar' in town said to me, as we sat down in the bar area during the middle of the day. I declined Mr Blain's offer of a drink, but I couldn't help noticing the dark and stale smell of alcohol that seems to inhabit all bars and drinking places in the daytime.
I was also reminded how the staleness and the atmosphere change miraculously it seems, once the sun goes down and the lights and music go up.
But I went there because Mr Blain was upset at allegations made against his bar, although it had not been identified by name by Mr Baukes when he came to our office last week to complain about the appointment of a Mr Roy Aylloff as the engineer for the new government T$5 million dredge.
Mr Baukes told the Samoa Observer that a certain bar in Apia was the home of a Palagi mafia group who used their contacts and network of mates to obtain business for themselves at the expense of Samoans.
And he gave as an example the case of the recently appointed engineer for the brand new government owned dredge.
"What Mr Baukes has said is defamatory," said Mr Peter Blain. "And I simply want to have the right of reply to correct the misconception people will get from these allegations."
Mr Baukes had not named the bar, On The Rocks, but its clear to anyone reading what he said which bar he was referring to," Mr Blain continued.
"Mr Baukes never sought any comment from me before he made these allegations to the paper. It is true I recently warned Mr Baukes about his behaviour and threatened to bar him from coming here again if there was any repetition. But this is the fifth time I have spoken to Mr Baukes about abusive and aggressive behaviour.
The first time was when he was very loud and abusive particularly about Jews, and repeatedly threatened to kill a certain Melbourne solicitor. The second was when he threatened a local Swiss man over the Second World War. The third time also involved abuse being shouted at another Swiss man. The fifth time involved an actual physical attack on a customer. Each of these involved shouted abuse and swearing.
The latest occasion once again involved abusing and swearing at a customer. This time I issued Mr Baukes with a written warning that if repeated, will be asked not to return. A few days later, the Samoa Observer article appeared making allegations about me being a member of a palagi Mafia.
There is no palagi mafia except in the imagination of bitter and aggressive man who cannot control his temper. My bar is a peaceful and congenial establishment. It is open to all kinds of people with all kinds of opinions. I only ask that they behave in a reasonable way. If they do not, I have a responsibility to the public to deal with the situation."
On The Rocks Bar is among a group of drinking places and restaurants that has become quite a feature of Beach Road day and night. In fact only last week, we had someone, a respectable local resident comment on the danger the area was beginning to pose to the public and passers-by especially later in the evenings.
Apparently, a lot of the drinking starts spilling onto the footpath and the road, and could be quite threatening for people, especially visitors.
Mr Blain agreed that this was getting to be the case, and is something that the Police should look at.
" Its true the place is getting very rowdy at night. A lot of people are seen out there in the public area with bottles of beer in the hand, Mr Blain agreed. " That is why I close the Rocks at ten o'clock in the evening to avoid that kind of behaviour. My place is for a quiet and convivial evening. We have a pool table and people can buy food from the restaurants next door and have it here."
Mr Roy Aylloff the man Mr Baukes had accused of incompetence was also there. He too had been put out by the allegations.
"At no time did I approach Mr Baukes for a job. But I offered to help him with his machine as a friend, which was not an $80,000 machine as claimed, but a Chinese 'Hobby' that can be had in Australia for $5000". Mr Aylloff said. "I told him I had no experience on milling machines. But once the machine was damaged, Mr Baukes lost his temper and started yelling abuse and telling me to get off the premises. So I did."
Asked about his employment at Samoa Ports Authority, Mr Aylloff said he had not been employed as engineer for the dredge as claimed.
Apparently, there is an engineer that comes with dredge. But there is a position or positions for someone to operate the dredge. And that was the position Mr Aylloff was interested in.
But he said that he was no longer interested after what appeared in the paper. The Samoa Observer had however received word Mr Aylloff "had lost his job." And had been seeking confirmation for two days from the Samoa Ports Authority of whether Mr Aylloff had been laid off and why. The Samoa Observer did finally get the truth from the Minister himself, Hon. Palusalue Faapo II.
In any case, I concluded that On the Rocks Bar looked harmless enough, at least during the daytime. It's hard to imagine this being associated with any kind of mafia. But it's clear from the feuding among some of the patrons that old and forgotten wars are still being fought over in there.
That was it, I thought. This may not be a palagi mafia haunt, but much more like a place for old soldiers to meet and reminisce about old battles fought, and mostly lost.
News
Peace March
Samoans March for World Peace
By Terry Tavita
15 March 2003An estimated 1,500 people marched through Beach Road yesterday afternoon to show their support for a world of peace.
Waving banners and singing peace songs, Church leaders, women’s groups, public servants and school children were among the procession which congregated in front of the Government building.“Let’s build weapons of mass salvation,” read one streamer.
“No more war, Know more peace!” screamed another.
Among the marchers were Catholic Archbishop, His Eminence, Father Alapati Mataeliga and Chairman of the Council of Churches, Rev Oka Fauolo.
Though the march had a collective theme in promoting peaceful solutions to the various hotspots around the world, there was no doubt it was predominantly aimed at the proposed US-led invasion of Iraq.
“Samoan students for peace in the Middle-East,” read a banner carried by several students from St Joseph’s College.
“Give peace a chance Mr Bush,” read another.
Prime Minister Tuilaepa, who received the marchers, reiterated his support on efforts to bring peace around the world.
He also exemplified the merits of good governance and the need for government’s to head down the peace road.
March coordinator, Mr Raymond Voight was quite pleased with yesterday’s turnout.
“We were expecting about 500 people and I estimate well over a thousand people marched took to the streets today.”
Yesterday’s march is the first demonstration against war to be carried out in the Pacific Island region.
The scary thing about this article is that is does not mention this freaky scene before the march when the Samoan police swarmed through the throngs of students who were preparing to march and ripped up any sign that contained the word "war". It was hardly a glowing example of freedom of speech in a country that apparently thinks it can't afford to offend the USA. The truth is that even if one person in the States had noticed which is doubtful there wouldn't have been been a ripple of ramifications.
Peace mission remembered on Peace Corps anniversary
by Afamasaga Toleafoa
02 March 2003
This week marked the 42nd anniversary of the American Peace Corps movement. And to mark the occasion, I visited the offices of Mr Stacy Plemmons, country director for Peace Corps at Matautu-uta.
Mr Plennons business card said he was Faatonu Sili of Pisikoa, a title that sat well with his Samoan attire of ie faitaga and leather sandals.But most people in Samoa are familiar with the Pisikoa, if not with the story of how a young and inspirational President Kennedy started it in 1961, with a mission to promote peace and understanding in the world.
The Peace Corps may have grown and changed over the years, but the mission remains the same.
According to the organisation's Fact Sheet, creating mutual understanding between Americans and the people of the world is still the core of its mission.
And as any good fact sheet should do, this one also provides interesting information about Peace Corps.
Like the fact for instance that some 168,000 volunteers have served for the Peace Corps in 136 countries. That is about the current population of Samoa, and the number of known countries in the world today.
Or that it has a budget of US $275 million, which is more than Samoa's annual budget every year.
But Mr Plemmons says that in Samoa, the Peace Corp carries out peace missions by providing technical assistance at the request of the Samoan government to help Samoans plan and map out their own future.
"The Peace Corps is a hand-up, not a hand-out," Mr Plemmons said.
We do not give out money. We are not an aid agency. Our value is in providing and helping with human resources."
Consequently, education has played a large part in the Peace Corps role in Samoa, a fact that will be attested to I am sure by whole generations of Samoans who have at one stage or another received an education from Peace Corps volunteers.
According to Mr Plemmons, the Peace Corps program in Samoa has five major components at present.
Since 1968, the Peace Corps volunteers have served as teachers under the NUS scheme. Having Peace Corps teachers means Samoan teachers can take time out to pursue further studies, or follow other higher education options.
Capacity building in information technology is another important area of Peace Corps involvement with government departments and schools, also with no-government schools.
Peace Corps volunteers also help out with special needs education, helping in the teaching of disabled children and those with learning disabilities.
The Peace Corps last year began a village based capacity building program to give village communities the skills to plan, design and manage projects.
Agriculture as a first choice profession, and helping communities provide an integrated approach to coastal and watershed management are the other major parts of the Peace Corps program in Samoa today.
But after 36 years in Samoa, the Peace Corps have become a part of Samoa The full extent and impact of the Peace Corps contribution to nation building can not possibly be accurately assessed, but it can still be seen in many ways. Apart from the obvious areas such as education and skills transfer, the Peace Corps contribution may also be seen in the arts, music, plumbing, and lifestyle.
Mr Plemmons was reluctant to speak about any individual success stories. Development and the transfer of skills are long term and almost imperceptible processes, but he said their Volunteer of the Year last year was an example of the contribution individuals can make as volunteers.
"Ralph Daley was our Volunteer of the Year in 2002. He was a teacher at Paul VI School at Leulumoega, teaching business courses. As part of the course on how to start and run a business, Ralph had the students to start a pop corn selling operation which in its first year made a profit of $ 1700.00
In his second year, Ralph started then started a hot lunch program at the school which has become part of the school.
He was also made Vice-Principal, " Mr Plemmons said
"But after 36 years of service in Samoa, Peace Corps Samoa are now having a reunion to coincide with Teuila Festival week.
And we are inviting all volunteers who have served in Samoa to come back for the reunion.
But also as part of that, we invite all Samoans who were taught or worked with a Peace Corps volunteer to write something about their experience with Peace Corps.
Our postal address is US Peace Corps , Private Bag, Apia. Samoa. So we hope as many people as possible will write."
There are fifty volunteers in Samoa at present. The movement has no problem attracting volunteers although it can be difficult at times to attract technical people."
Mr Plemmons himself comes from a strong business background having worked for Hewlett Packard, one of the computer giants. He served mainly in America, and then in India. Later he was Hewlett Packard manager of the South East Asia region, and based in Singapore.
"I had had a wonderful career and wanted to give something of what I had been given back to the community. I knew this would have to be by way of service.
So took early retirement so I could pursue this and also I wanted to do something different
I applied for the Peace Corps in September 2001, was accepted in June 2002 and arrived in Samoa to begin what I'm doing now in August 2002. My term is for two and a half years. Another term of the same duration is possible. But after that, new blood is brought in.
Many aspects of Samoa intrigue me. I also find Samoa a well functioning. Society we are certainly not here to change anything, but only to assist Samoa to change in ways they may wish to change.
I believe President Kennedy never intended to change the world when he set up the Peace Corps in the first place.
But he did want to encourage a two way process of mutual understanding. The Peace Corps was a means to an end. That end was understanding, and with understanding comes peace."
President Kennedy's vision couldn't have been recited at a more poignant moment, as the world is poised right now on the brink of war.
Mr Plemmons is in Samoa with his wife Nancy, but has two sons staying behind in his home state of Colorado.
One is a surfboard instructor and the other a business consultant.
News
But Seriously Folks
Here's the story from the Samoa Observer about the computers donated to the DOE by ANZ. I love the part about the computers being in "very good condition". That's sort of like saying someone who's dying of cancer is in very good condition. It's an absolute joke. The compters were a complete mess, full of dust, no cd-roms, about a third of the hard drives were hosed. It's a feel good story for ANZ and the Samoan government, but in truth, these computers will likely do little good other than giving ANZ a fat tax write off.
Continue reading But Seriously Folks.
