Can we please get a grip?

I've done my best to reserve judgment on President Bush after the Senate Intelligence Committee reported impairments in the intelligence he used to take the nation to war. I can bite my tongue no longer.

Tenet resigns "for personal reasons" one week, and the next, the Intelligence Committee releases a negative report (careful not to criticize Bush personally). We can set aside for a moment all of the irrefutable facts repeated in the movie “Fahrenheit 9/11”.

Hello!

I think people have to trust their instincts on this one. Sure, we want to believe we have a president that has integrity; that's a natural desire. But we also have to use the facts to come to some thoughtful judgment. After all, it's our job, as tax payers and citizens, to make judgments which have consequences on our elected officials. It is not our job to trust them, a fact our forefathers tried to spell out for us.

I know no one really wants war. There is nothing good about it, even though there can be times I believe you, as a sovereign nation, may have no choice in the matter. Such was the case when the Japanese government ordered the bombing of our bases on December 7th, 1941.

But the president used bad information to make the choice in Iraq, and that’s an established fact. There was no imminent threat to US soil. No one bombed our bases and the threat against our country was unclear at best.

I have a few thoughts...

The costs of taking preemptive measures were predictably high.

The activist world is largely venomous toward the US. The war didn't help.

To say, "The terrorists hate us", has no meaning to me. People hate what the US government did, and it's hard to find fault with that considering I also hate what the US government did.

The US government does not represent my values as a people, collectively, or as an individual.

Most of us can agree that Hussein had to be removed. The right answer, however, was to use a competent force to remove the Iraqi leader from power -- without catastrophic loss of life.

In bringing down the bully, there is no question in my mind that you have to identify Saudi-Americans or trained seem-alikes who have the ability to enter into sleeper-like cells in the region, gather usable intelligence and bring force to bear which has a high probability to terminate the dictator's ability to strike American soil, with as demonstrable minimal loss of life as possible. Failing that, if war occurs despite your best efforts, then you still have to take a similar course to squelch the threat -- with which we assisted in the creation -- on an even more monumental scale than would have otherwise been necessary.

Yes, an error in judgment was made. A bad choice resulted. Catastrophic human casualties ensued.

Both of the viable presidential candidates have to promise the American people that peace is a primary goal, and spell out the process by which they will ensure that peace. Send a clear message to the world that the US government is committed to the first goal, which is to live and let live; that we have no business interfering in affairs that do not have a direct impact on our mission as a country; and the second mission, to help in the world, where we can, through peaceful means, where ever we have reasonable assurances that catastrophic loss of life or critical human rights violations will not result.

Walk softly, but carry a big stick.

In the seventies, the DOD adopted the Air Land Battle doctrine. It is an outdated piece of work. If the last two national quagmires have taught us anything, it should be that we need to retire the battle dress uniform and the notion that ground troops can win a war. We have unmanned aircraft and amazing aerospace and airborne robotic technologies with pinpoint accuracy that should instead be utilized. We should recognize when a traditional "police action" doesn't work. Can you say Korea, Vietnam, Afghanistan, Somalia, Iran and Iraq?

I think that's important advice, but no more important that the step which must be taken before any other: secure the perimeters!

I'm having a difficult time swallowing the recent news reports that there are actually orders that prevent police from acting on illegal immigration, limitations placed on border patrol officers and rights being given to illegal aliens that supercede the safety of Americans on our own soil.

There are a dozen technologies that exist right now that can nearly guarantee the borders will not be penetrated. We have to develop and implement that technology beginning right now. We also have to use our law enforcement intelligence to identify people in our country that do not belong here legally.

How have we, for this long, been able to rationalize immigration without also expecting integration, assimilation into our society?

Let's get a grip!

Fahrenheit 9/11 --

Saw the movie Wednesday night and have been processing it last couple days. It didn't change my mind -- and from the movie I can draw no conclusions. I was against Bush in 2000 and against the war in 2003. I think Bush is a poor leader and his circle engages in questionable practices. Will Conservatives stay with Bush? Of course they will. Will the movie convert a few conservatives into independents? I hope so.

Ellisblog

Ellisblog

Gas, oil movement in US more important than water

The nation obviously regards piping petroleum and natural gas products as more critical to human
sustenance than water.  We spends billions on pipelines to deliver fossil fuels that destroy our environment and bring man to war, yet oxygen and water are given a backseat.

On
the other hand, why should I be surprised that government leadership that can't create a safe and reliable
transportation infrastructure would act differently in this case?

Sasser not traditional email worm

If your computer’s acting up today, showing errors or shutting off completely, it might be infected with “Sasser”, a worm that hit computers this weekend. It does not use email to propagate, but it copies itself onto random vulnerable computers directly.

Industry analysts suggest Sasser may have started in Russia. Microsoft is offering 250-thousand dollars in reward money for the identity of the author.

Last year’s Blaster worm cost companies millions to fight, but Sasser may not have it so easy, due to acute awareness of such threats. In fact, Microsoft released a patch more than two weeks before the worm struck, that protects Windows computers from the worm.

Speculation abounds that the very act of publishing a patch alerts would-be hackers and inspires attacks.

The best defense against such threats? Keep your security patches up to date, use anti-virus software and put a firewall between you and the Internet.

Tucows Downloads - Download freeware and shareware software

A good download site...Tucows Downloads - Download freeware and shareware software

Open Letter to an Iraqi

I want to tell an Iraqi person how I feel as an American. I am naive. I learned about America in text books. I learned about the world from text books.

I have been given so much by our society and have put back so little in comparison. I volunteered for our military service as a promise and comitment to defend freedom, liberty and our American values. Luckily, I was not asked to fight in any war. I am truly a lucky individual. I was born into and inherited the principles of The New World, a place where freedom was born.

We are not an old European country. We make no apologies for that. We are America! We are the United State of America. We are free people because our fathers and forefathers fought and died to establish it and maintain it. Freedom and liberty were gifts left by generations past. We came here to escape many injustices and built a land that is the envy of people of many lands. I am proud of my heriatage and I couldn't imagine living in another.

I don't think people kill Americans for who they are so much as for what they do. I think Islamic funamentalists attacked the US on September 11, 2004 because Americans took a proverbial whore into the church of Islam and offended its sensibilities. The US Government tried to integrate American into Iraq and the Middle East which are incompatible with Muslim beliefs. I draw no correlation between September 11 and the US Government's attacks in Iraq.

Please be clear on this. America is a population of American Citizens who are human beings like you. One has to be able to draw a distintion between Americans and the US Government. I am not among the Americans who did this. I am not against you. I am for you. If you ask for my help, I will be happy to help you. I do not want to occupy your homeland. If you would rather I stayed home, that is what I will do. Americans do not speak with one voice unless that voice speaks for Liberty and Freedom.

There is a double standard between America and Iraq today. We have said many times in our history that we would rather die on our feet than live on our knees. We are proud people and have a strong desire to live free. These aren't just words to us, to make us feel good. We honestly believe them as others believe in their guiding principles. We do, however, sometimes forget that you most likely have prinicples that you would would die to defend. Thereinlies the rub. It may seem like America wants to force on you its own beliefs without regard for your own. But I, an American, say here and now that I do not want to force my beliefs on you. I want to you live by your own principles, happily so, in the place of your choosing.

Understanding my own resolve, I imagine yours is just as strong, and I can respect you for that.

I think burning fossil fuels is a bad plan for our whole planet, so the possibility that there may be some oil interests that motivated a few Americans to visit Iraq and do battle is very disturbing.

I want to live a simple life and to be able to support my family and raise my children in a safe, healthy environment. I detest war, the slaughtering of innocent people, corruption among world leaders and the greed that feeds them. I think Michael Jackson acts like a jackass. Are we so different?

I want to reach across the lands as one person to another person, transcend the conflict that divides us and give you a gift: my respect.

Monsters live in the dark

I was reading THE JEFFERSON MUZZLES the other day and it brought back a Dr. Phil quote from a couple years ago that has stuck with me, and it goes to the heart of secrecy.

The thing that protects our liberties and freedoms most of all is the free speech principles of the First Amendment, which is responsible for keeping the government out in the open for all to observe, and thereby keeping it honest. If the government is permitted to operate under a veil, then it will most certainly be corrupt. One of the underlying themes of our form of government is distrust. Maintain a healthy distrust for the government, because when you start to trust it to provide for you, it will take away from you. Freedoms, liberties and money.

But wait. That's already happening!

News vs. Lies

When a popular voice tells a lie, the passive majority among us will begin to promote it until it is perceived as the truth. Inundate sheep with manure long enough and they'll wallow in it.

Case in point: A recent poll indicated most people believed weapons of mass destruction were found in Iraq and that the dictator had indeed been linked to the 9-11 terrorists. While facts showed otherwise, popular media, through vague and ambiguous "analysis",
propagated those perceptions.

Walter Cronkite was once quoted as saying, "The news is what I saw the
news is."  That seemingly arrogant remark has been taken several steps
further by today's so-called news organizations.  Just because you report
it, people do believe it.  There are a growing number of
"analysts" who purport to be "journalists", and while news
and commentary were once divided, today, opinion-based content is pervasive in
popular media.

Diane Sawyer was on Letterman recently and she made a comment that everyone
should hear: "Journalists don't make commentaries."  Thank you,
Diane!

"The Fox Commentary Channel" would be a much more fitting name for
Murdock's conservative media property.  href="mailto:danny@radiowiseguys.com">What do you think?

First Bubba, then Howie. Am I next?

How long will Clear Channel tolerate my style of broadcasting?  When
will Mark Mays announce a zero-tolerance policy against the likes of me and my
standards?  When will "href="http://www.greaseman.org/wp_19970515.html" target="_blank">Greaseman"
be heard in our market?

Is this really news?

While the movie¹ (and I know you know to
which I'm referring) and gay marriage² dominate
the headlines, what isn't being covered?  Mel Gibson was apparently try to
make a great movie, and I think he managed to do that.  ¹Opponents
of the film sound as though they want to hear themselves talk, and those who
favor it are quite passionate in their remarks.  ²Regarding
Bush's assertion that a constitutional amendment is needed, the Federal
Government needs to get a life.  Now can the media move on and begin
covering the news?