Dear-Editor

The real cost of a gallon of gas

2007-02-21T15:34:00.000-08:00

The war in Iraq has cost the people of Thurston County nearly $300,000,000 (three hundred million dollars) and the costs go up every second. That's not just a number, each of us owes our share of that amount.

Given that many people believe the war in the Middle East is over oil. How much does that REALLY make a gallon of gas?

In Thurston County, we could have paid for 39,584 children to go to Head Start, or we could have insured 178,960 children's health, or give 14,488 students four-year scholarships to public universities.

Pierce County is bigger, so it's costing nearly $980,000,000.

Looking forward to Wal-Mart coming?

2007-02-21T15:32:00.000-08:00

It will be nice not to have to drive to Lacey to shop, but take care not to get caught up buying more than you really need and spending more on products made in China than you can afford. Most of us have debt. As a nation we seem to have followed our administration right off the debt cliff and for the first time in our history we are at a minus individual savings level.

We are all inundated with subtly tempting credit card offers. Our students who have no income and no training on how to manage money are offered cards and although building credit is important, having a $500 line of credit seems to make more sense than a $5000 line of credit. Who is going to explain to our students that they are not getting FREE FAKE money. Even Warren Buffet, the multi-billionaire says don't use credit cards!

We are no longer a manufacturing economy, we have become a consumer economy. In fact 2/3rds of our economy is built on consumerism. Consumer debt in America is over $18,700 a household. The business world doesn't see us as citizens, we are called consumers. Until recently the word consumption was an illness, maybe it still is!

If you have a $5000 credit card debt and pay it off at the minimum, at 25% interest it will take you 20 years to pay off and will cost you over $12,000. The credit card industry is making $30 billion in profits in excess fees. The credit card industry and it's supporters spent $154 miilion to pass the bankruptcy bill. It's our lives against the corporations and their mighty buck.

As consumers, we are being bombarded with advertisements on TV, in print media, on billboards etc. The ads are aimed at our unconscious mind. They are also aimed at our children. In fact they are stealing our childrens minds. There are many Christian groups, consumer groups, Republicans and Democrats who are working to help people get out from under. To learn more, read Lynne Twist's book the Soul of Money www.soulofmoney.org and watch the Myth of Money on LinkTV on DirecTV channel 375 or Dish Network 9410. www.linktv.org
I just invested in buying all of LinkTV's DVD's and books and would be happy to share them with any group who is interested. Please contact me to show these to your group. 360-894-5683.

Iran - Fooled you twice?

2007-02-21T15:31:00.000-08:00

Fooled you twice?

Michael Gordon, the same New York Times reporter that along with Judith Miller, got Saddam's WMD wrong, has a front page story that Iran is supplying arms to the Shiites in Iraq. As with the run up to the war in Iraq, there are inconsistencies.

A fairer report from the Washington Post says, "Yesterday, Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates said serial numbers and markings on some explosives used in Iraq indicate that the material came from Iran, but he offered no evidence." The media were shown the weapons, but weren't allowed to take cameras or cell phones and weren't allowed to name the military briefers.
Did you see the pictures? Did you think it odd that the letters and numbers on the weapons were in English, not Arabic and that the dates are in American, (month, day, year), while every where else in the world the day comes first. Newsweek reports that the weapons parts can be found cheaply in Iranian markets, giving lie to the fact that they are expensive, special and come directly from the Iranian government.

Why would the Iranian government need to supply the Shiites with arms, when the Shiites are already in control of the Iraqi government.

How come we don't hear the media saying that Saudi Arabia has been fundraising to give money to the Sunnis who are responsible for 99% of American deaths?

The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) still hasn't found final evidence that Iran is tying to build nuclear weapons, while the CIA says that Iran has 10 more years before it will have the capability to make nuclear weapons.

Both the Vice President and Condoleezza Rice have argued that Iran has enough oil and doesn't need nuclear energy. It turns out that when Cheney was chief of staff to President Gerald Ford, he and then-Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld persuaded Ford to give the Shah a nuclear program to meet its future energy requirements. Energy experts now note that Iran is already near peak and that the country will need alternatives to oil in the coming decades.

Update on Global Warming

2007-02-07T15:37:00.002-08:00

The IPCC, a 154 government global scientific research panel report states that there is 90% agreement that global warming is created by humans and their activity. It was 99% before China put pressure on the panel. The report underwent 4 days of intense secret word-by-word editing, lobbying and bargaining.

Now it appears that ExxonMobil is offering $10,000 to anyone who can write an article to debunk the panel's research. Of course they aren't paying it directly, they are offering it through the American Enterprise Institute, one of the think tanks they have funded for years. This comes on the heals of Exxon's latest profit report. Their 2006 profits surpassed their 2005 profits, both years being the largest profits ever recorded in the history of the world!

The weather will become more changeable, more volitile. The report says sea levels will rise anywhere from 6 inches to 2 ft without taking into account such ice melting as Antarctica's 1,255 square mile Larsen B ice shelf that broke off and disappeared in just 35 days in 2002. Many scientists feel the levels will rise between 2 ft and 6 ft. These levels would wipe out many island nations and badly damage U.S. coastal areas and cities.

All over Greenland and the Artic, rising temperatures are not only melting ice, they are changing the coastlines by exposing new chains of islands. While this might seem exciting to some, it isn't the natural order of things.

Stem Cell Research

2007-02-07T15:37:00.001-08:00

Stem cell research could benefit millions of Americans currently suffering from Alzheimer's, Parkinson's, and diabetes.A 2006 poll indicates that 72% of Americans support embryonic stem cell research and the scientific community agrees that federal funding is critical to this research. The only major interest group in America opposing this research is the religious right and their friend President Bush.

Life is precious, but hundreds of thousands of stem cells are flushed down the toilet every year. Isn't it a little heartless to throw them away instead of using them to help already living Americans live a better life?

The House should support an override of the president's impending veto.

Our Budget

2007-02-07T15:35:00.000-08:00

The president says that he plans to balance the budget by 2012. It certainly sounds good, but how will he do it while maintaining the average tax cut of $162,000 to people who earn more than $1 million dollars a year. Apart from cutting funds to Headstart, Hospitals, Housing to Seniors in need, Energy assistance to the elderly, the VA and increasing Medicare premiums, he's going to borrow it from Social Security at a rate of 200 billion a year for a total of 1 trillion dollars.. Of course no one will know about it as Social Security isn't in that part of the budget and the media isn't going to tell.

In the conservative world view, corporations are important and good. It sees the strength of the nation in it's powerful companies and billionaires. It likes big orders going to weapons corporations but has no money set aside to pay for the 92,00 new soldiers and marines the president wants, or to support our brave veterans.

The democratic world view wants a healthy business landscape, but sees that our forebears came here with very little and struggled for years until the New Deal gave them equal opportunity and helped them get a leg up with free education and a retirement safety net. The democratic model believes that investing in infrastructure brings the country prosperity and which has created the clean air we breath, the roads we drive on, the safe drugs we use, the healthy food we eat. Wages were good because we set up collective bargaining that raised wages for everyone. Over the last 26 years all these rights and wages have been under attack.

Doesn't the bible instruct us to care for all? Let's not give handouts, let's give a hand up and let people like Condoleeza Rice, John Edwards, Joe Biden and Colin Powell who all came from poor homes make it on their own.

Real cost of a gallon of gas

2007-02-07T15:34:00.000-08:00

Should local mayors join Mayors Climate Campaign?

2007-01-22T19:18:00.000-08:00

Is it time for Yelm and Rainier's Mayors to join 369+ mayors in the Mayors Climate Campaign 2007? Will they join Seattle's Mayor Greg Nickels and pledge to take meaningful steps to reduce emissions of greenhouse gases that are disrupting weather patterns on the planet.

Nickels says they've got the Republican mayors of Arlington, Texas, Akron and San Diego. Big cities like Chicago, New York, Los Angeles and little ones like Shishmaref, Alaska (population 562), Sykesville, Maryland (4,197) and Huron (11,086).

Some major industry groups like the Chamber of Commerce and National Association of Manufactures continue to oppose so-called 'cap and trade' proposals to cut climate changing pollution, mainly carbon dioxide from burning fossil fuels.

It's no wonder you're confused!

ABC reported that since 2000 ExxonMobil pumped more than $19 million into more than 40 think tanks; media outlets; and consumer, religious, and even civil rights groups, including the American Enterprise Institute, the Competitive Enterprise Institute and the Heritage Foundation, that preach skepticism about the oncoming climate catastrophe using tobacco like disinformation campaigns.
Organizations that have supported novelist Michael Crichton who inspired President Bush to doubt global warming.

But now, 10 executives, representing major utilities, aluminum and chemical companies and financial institutions, said mandatory reductions are needed and that "the cornerstone of this approach" should be a cap-and-trade system. The officials include the chief executives of Alcoa Inc., PB America Inc., DuPont Co., Caterpillar Inc., General Electric Co., Duke Energy Corp, Lehman Brothers, PG&E Corp., PNM Resources, FPL Group and four leading environmental organizations. Big corporations like Wal-Mart, Dupont and GE say saving energy is saving them billions.

It's past time. Let's lead. Let's do it.

Are we going the war with Iran?

2006-12-22T23:55:00.000-08:00

Are we going to war with Iran? It looks like we are being set up to accept it as inevitable. With no real reporting on the situation, the American people have no choice but to believe what they are told as the President goes for another regime change. It seems a shame as the moderate voices in Iran just won in the country’s local elections.

There are voices speaking out, one of them is Scott Ritter, the U.S. Marine and United Nations Weapons Inspector who warned us about going to war with Iraq. He was right then. Is he right again?

He has delved deeply into Israeli and U.S. CIA covert operations and shows that Iran is not building nuclear weapons but that they have other reasons for an attack. He lays it out in his new book ‘Target Iran’.

Ritter says that Iran has learnt from Saddam Hussein and that within two days of the U.S. attack, we will feel it in our pocketbooks, as Iran closes down its own oil exports and disrupts oil from Saudi Arabia & Kuwait and then closes down the oil shipping lane, the Strait of Hormuz.

Maybe the President is moving more aircraft carriers into place to frighten the Iranians from starting a new Oil Bourse using Euros instead of Dollars. Many countries are already trading oil in Euros and this is removing the world’s need for PetroDollars. Seeing as the U.S. owes money to just about every country in the world, including Mexico, this could be problematic for the U.S. economy. As it is, Microsoft’s Bill Gates and the Google founders have been selling out shares in their own companies at massive rates. Warren Buffet, chairman of Berkshire Hathaway and the second richest man in the world has been buying foreign currencies since 2002 because of the threat of the U.S. deficits.

Aren’t “We the People” supposed to be in charge? How can we be when we aren’t being told any facts? Call your Congress people and ask them not to follow the President off this cliff.

Iraq's Dollars and Oil?

2006-12-11T01:11:00.000-08:00

How come so many informative TV programs come from other countries? DirecTV’s Link TV just showed a BBC documentary on what happened to the $22 billion dollars that belonged to the Iraqis from the UN Oil for Food program.

For some reason it was given to the Pentagon and they can’t account for most of the $19 billion dollars spent. They tried to spend it all but couldn’t so they handed over what was left to the Iraqis. $3 billion. There’s hardly anything to show for the $19 billion as the Iraqis have less electricity, running water, supplies or better hospitals. It showed the rampant fraud and how bricks of $100 dollar bills just vanished in a greedy free for all.

The Pentagon also managed to loose most of the $22 billion dollars that we gave the Iraqis.

On top of that $22 billion, this war has cost the U.S. over $450 billion, the state of Washington $8.7 billion and Thurston County $378 million.

No wonder the Iraqis want us out of there. They were once looked up to by other countries in the area as having top class doctors etc but they have become a 3rd world country and to top it off, the new Iraq Study Group suggests we bring in the multi national oil companies and privatize their oil! They mention it dozens of times in the report while mentioning schools a couple of times. Not surprising when you realize that James Baker III who heads the group, works for Saudi Arabia, Halliburton and many of the big corporate oil players.

And you thought the Election was Over?

2006-12-11T01:10:00.000-08:00

Did you know? That many races in Florida that were deemed by polling to be even with a 2%-4% spread. Amazingly were lost by the Democrats by 60%-40% points!!!!
Only in a few races did Democrats win.

This is outrageous.

Many voter rights organizations and candidates are trying to bring this into the news cycle and are trying to take this to court. The media is not picking this up so the nation is unaware.

We need to get rid of voting machines with no paper trail. We have got to bring back our democracy.

How do our legislators look after the troops?

2006-12-11T01:09:00.000-08:00

The Veterans Watchdog Organization (www.vawatchdog.org) finds that in 2006, WA Democrats Jay Inslee, Rick Larsen, Brian Baird, Norm Dicks, Jim McDermott & Adam Smith supported the troops 100%. Patty Murray & Maria Cantwell supported them 80%. Republicans Dave Reichert, Doc Hastings & Cathy McMorris supported them 66%. These figures were similar all over the country.

2006-11-11T05:27:00.000-08:00

The elections were an emotional roller coaster for me! I was so focused on them that I didn't have time to blog. As it is, my blog isn't personal. My blogging is born of my passion to bring forth the facts as I find them. I am developing a new way to get information out. Just because the Democrats took control of the House and Senate doesn't mean that we are done.

It seems to me the difference between Republicans and Democrats is that Republicans toe the party line, while Democrats continue to question their leadership, always wanting to make things better. It's a strength and a liability!

So that's what happened to the media!

2006-10-26T23:57:00.000-07:00

Watching Democracy Now! this morning, I saw veteran investigative reporter Bob Parry discuss his experience covering the Iran-Contra Scandal.

As he talked it became clear to me that after Nixon and Watergate, the Regan Administration was very nervous of the media. In fact as they saw reporters investigating what was going on in Nicaragua they started to lean on the press. Those that didn’t fold ended up having their careers virtually ruined, whereas those that toed the line were promoted.

So the years slipped by and we now find those same toadies in control of the nations media. Is it any wonder that when leaned on again, they are happy to toe the line one more time?

Are the Republicans helping small business?

2006-10-26T14:15:00.000-07:00

Not as far as 13 federal investigations are concerned. They say that this administration has been cutting funding to the Small Business Administration for the past 5 years and will continue to do so.

I understand that by law, the government has to give 23% of all money given in federal contracts to small businesses with 100 or less employees. They aren’t getting it. It’s fraudulently going to big corporations and it doesn’t look as if the chambers or small business organizations are doing anything to help.

The Democrats are trying to get Transparency in Contracting passed so that we can find out where $79.6 billion that was announced by the SBA went. In fact, Lloyd Chapman of the American Small Business League www.asbl.com has offered $10,000 to anyone who can tell him what has happened to the money!

Electoral Rx

2006-10-25T22:46:00.000-07:00

Pharmaceutical & Drug companies hold our fate in their hands.

The Wall St Journal reports that pharmaceutical corporations are panicking as Nancy Pelosi says if she takes over as Senate Majority leader, one of the first things she will do, is have Medicare negotiate with the drug companies for discounts.

The Veterans Association bargains and pays $120 a person a year for High Blood Pressure medication, yet that same medication costs Medicare $1000 per person a year. That pure profit goes straight to each company and rich investors.

These companies are funding all the Republicans that are in close races. Rick Santorum created those favorable rules for them, so his campaign has been given $500,000 plus more for TV ads. 7 others like Oren Hatch and Joe Lieberman are getting from $370k to $170k. These corporations know who will look after them

The Difference in Ititiatives

2006-10-15T17:36:00.000-07:00

It is quite frustrating to see all the ‘Yes on I-933 It’s only fair’ signs around because I know that every signature that put the initiative on the ballot was paid for by property developers and their cohorts.

Unlike the Renewable Energy Initiative ‘Yes on I-937’ where thousands of us went out and volunteered our time for months to gather over 175,000 signatures to get it on the ballot. That’s the people of Washington State seeking to do what 20 other states have already done and where research has found that it makes plus or minus 1% difference to energy costs.

I also know from research that I-933 goes too far. Anyone will be able to build a strip mall, gravel pit or adult video store on their property and we won’t be able to stop them unless we pay them for their profit lost. No city could afford to do that, so our taxes will go up and funding to our schools, police & fire will get cut. Real farmers hate this bill as they see the countryside being chopped up into housing developments and farmers livelihoods being ruined. Don’t be fooled by the signs. Vote No on I-933.

What you won't hear in the U.S. Press

2006-10-12T14:22:00.000-07:00

Newsweek International explains what is really going on with North Korea, but you won’t see it in the U.S. media.

On Sept 19th 2005, North Korea signed a denuclearization agreement with the United States, China, Russia, Japan and South Korea to “abandon all nuclear weapons and existing nuclear programs.” In return, Washington agreed that the U.S. and North Korea would “respect each other’s sovereignty, exist peacefully together and take steps to normalize their relations,” but the U.S. negotiating team was divided about this.

Four days later, the U.S. Treasury Department brought huge financial sanctions on North Korea, stopping them from accessing international banking systems. The administration says it’s was a coincidence.

The North Koreans saw it as the start of a process to cut the Sept 19th accord and squeeze the regime and ultimately bring it down. They saw it as a direct threat to their national honor and hoped that their recent missile tests and nuclear test would jump start direct two way talks with the U.S. to stop the financial squeeze. The way they see it, they have nothing to lose. Read the whole story. http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/15175633/site/newsweek/

No on I-933

2006-10-08T00:48:00.000-07:00

Watch out for Initiative I-933. We are being told by the building industry that funded the signature gathering that “It’s Only Fair”. It is, as long as you don’t care about your neighbors or are an unscrupulous building developer.

Let’s say you have 5 acres, and so do your two neighbors. One of them decides to turn their mobile into an office and open a gravel pit, or use it to open an adult movie store or put up 12 houses or a strip mall. Your choices with I-933 are either let your neighbor do any of the above, or pay what your neighbor will loose by not going ahead. The initiative is unfunded and cities won’t be able to afford it, so they will have to either put up our taxes or cut down on services to pay for it, or just let your neighbor do what they want.

Cities across the state are in panic and are saying NO to I-933 and so are farmers who fear neighboring land will be turned into housing tracts, making it impossible for them to farm. I-933 is far worse than Oregon’s Measure 37 and has been projected to cost Washingtonians anywhere between 4 and 8 billion dollars.

In Oregon, Measure 37 (The Fairness Fix) has been on the books for 2 years. It’s resulted in 2,940 filed claims for almost 4 billion in what has become a high stakes development bonanza. One resident is rethinking his position after his neighbor filed a claim that will allow him to convert a 40-acre berry farm into almost 300 homes if he is not compensated. Another Measure 37 supporter now wishes he could vote again - as his neighbor is taking steps to open a gravel mine on property right next door to him.

Farm Bureau leaders who support I-933 say that “if it’s worth it, taxpayers can chip in to compensate affected landowners”. I understand that farmers are concerned about off-limits streamsides, but do we have to put the whole state up for sale to fix that problem?

Why does sex trump all else?

2006-10-08T00:45:00.000-07:00

Lot’s of important things get done on a Friday afternoon in Washington DC because everyone knows that it will probably get lost in the weekend news cycle. While this news cycle has been completely taken over by the Foley sex scandal, we missed a lot.

Congress voted on a Homeland Security Bill that said because of the Hurricane Katrina fiasco, “it is imperative for the head of FEMA to have knowledge of emergency management and not less than 5 years of executive leadership”. On Friday, the President signed the bill while adding yet another signing statement, saying that he could ignore the new restrictions.

On 28th September the U.S. Constitution as we know it, ended. The Military Commission’s Bill now allows the President at his pleasure to put any American citizen, legal U.S. resident or green card holder in prison for as long as he wishes with no ability to have their day in court, (Habeas Corpus). Non-citizens could be held until “the war on terror” is over!
Sen. Arlen Specter, R-Pa., chairman of the Senate judiciary committee, announced, "I'm not going to support a bill that's blatantly unconstitutional ... that suspends a right that goes back to the Magna Carta (Habeas Corpus) in 1215." He then went ahead and voted for it!

Straight through to the North Pole

2006-09-22T23:44:00.000-07:00

The Europeans are worried, maybe because they are closer to the North Pole than we are, but for the first time satellite images from the European Space Agency (ESA) show a surprise opening in the Artic ice cover that is larger than the size of the British Isles. This is unlike anything seen before. It is now very possible for a ship to pass in the summer, from Northern Siberia through what is normally pack ice to reach the North Pole without difficulty.

Buying the Courts

2006-09-22T23:42:00.000-07:00

The Olympia Master Builders has committed over $100,000 to buy a seat on the Thurston County Commission and to pass the outrageous Initiative 933. Statewide the Builders Industry Assn. of Washington has committed $1,000,000 to buy one or more seats on the Washington Supreme Court.

But, the media ads don't say where the money comes from because both the local and state land developers and builders groups have created several PACs with nice sounding names like Time For a Change and Thurston County for Affordable Housing.
Don’t be fooled, it’s unlikely we will get anything affordable from these folks!

The Path to 9/11

2006-09-22T23:41:00.000-07:00

Given that in 1994 ABC's corporate parent Disney wouldn't allow Farenheit 9/11 to be shown on any of its attractions, (as Disney "did not want a film in the middle of the political process where we're such a nonpartisan company and our guests, that participate in all of our attractions, do not look for us to take sides,") it is hugely hypocritical to see ABC planning to continue with the showing of the program The Path to 9/11 which is full of errors and inaccuracies in order to blame the Clinton administration for September 11, 2001.
I was particularly upset that the series was planned to be sent out to schools to be shown as factual to our easily manipulated children. If it was supposed to be a 'drama', why was it being given to schools?
This is very badly done.

Weyerhaeuser is Two Faced on Energy

2006-09-06T19:58:00.000-07:00

Dear Editor

I was excited to hear that Weyerhaeuser took out a full page ad in the New York Times to pledge to reduce greenhouse gases by 40%.

But it seems they aren’t serious, as they turned around and gave $45,000 to the campaign opposing I-937, the Washington State Initiative to guarantee that by 2020, 15% of the electricity from Washington’s largest utilities will be supplied by sources that do not pollute the air.

We can’t keep pace with the Washington’s growth, and rather than build more dirty coal or fossil fuel plants, let’s use the wind and the sun.
The decision about our clean energy future should be left up to the people of the state of Washington, not corporations like Weyerhaeuser.

Did the Tax Cuts Work?

2006-09-01T12:45:00.000-07:00

We have been told that trickle down economics is the way to go, but according to reports, Dick Cheney, who may be worth as much as $100 million, has invested a large amount of his wealth overseas, in markets that do not fluctuate based on the U.S. dollar: That’s what millionaires and billionaires do, they invest their money, so there’s little to trickled down!

The New York Times reports the median hourly wage has declined by 2% in the last three years, although since 1980 the real income of the richest 1% has increased 135%. Real median income has dropped nearly $1,300 a year since 2000.

Economists say the drop is unprecedented because overall productivity has risen over the same period of time. Wages and salaries now account for the lowest share of the US economy in over half a century while corporate profits have reached their highest share over the same period.

With cuts of 12 billion from Pell Grants/Student loans, it will now cost $50K to get through college. Students are asking, “Is it worth it anymore”? Will I have a good enough job waiting for me? Don’t worry, if we don’t have well educated Americans, we can always import them from India and China where we can pay them much less!

WA Voter Registration Info.

2006-08-24T14:52:00.000-07:00

Just a note folks about voter registration. I called the Auditor’s Office yesterday to make sure I had the information correct.

Anybody who wants to register to vote in the 9/19 primary election needs to hand carry their voter registration form to the Auditor’s Office and be prepared to show proof of identity. Anybody who wishes to register for the general election (which will occur on 11/7) needs to register by 10/7 unless they hand carry it to the Auditor’s Office.

Please remind people that if they’ve moved or changed their name they need to re-register. Many people don’t realize this, thinking they’ll just go to their old polling place.

The only way we’re going to get the people we want in office and the policies we want approved is to get the people who are disillusioned with government to REGISTER and VOTE. Thanks for your work.
(Suzanne Nott)

Populists, Corporatists & Theocrats!

2006-08-18T23:12:00.000-07:00

Are you a Populist? Do you support the workers, small business and small farmers? Do you believe that people should be able to discuss and mold their own future?

Are you a Corporatist? Do you support big corporations? Many feel that big business has too much control over our government. This has been called Fascism. From 1922 to 1943 Benito Mussolini in Italy formed a coalition of big business and government. He called it Fascism. Adolf Hitler in Germany also came to be called Fascist and included radical totalitarianism, authoritarianism, extreme nationalism & militarism.

Are you a Theocrat? Theocracy describes a government in which a religion plays the dominant role. It sounds like this is what is happening in Islamic countries.
Maybe we should call them Islamo Theocrats, not Islamo Fascists

It's all about Fear

2006-08-18T21:59:00.000-07:00

I think it’s interesting that there are only two countries that have stopped people taking liquids onto planes, Britain and the U.K. After all, Spain had their terrorist train bombing and France had huge Muslim riots but no other country in Europe or anywhere else is doing it.

Could it be that both Bush and Blair have a lot of people unhappy with them, and that to stop people focusing on what is going wrong, they need to keep their citizens focused on terror?

Interesting that right after Lamont beat Lieberman in Connecticut, the alleged London plane terror plot surfaced, even though the UK police wanted to leave it a good bit longer so that they could get more proof and be certain of making a conviction stick. It also turns out it would be virtually impossible to build the sort of bomb they were talking about on a plane.

Equally interesting is the day that a federal judge in Detroit ruled that the NSA wire tapping program violated the Constitution, we find JonBenet Ramsey completely taking over the news cycle. Now it looks like John Mark Karr may by a weirdo and not the killer.

Be wise, don’t be suckered!

Stop the IRS outsourcing the collection of our taxes

2006-08-15T13:56:00.000-07:00

Call your Senator to tell them to stop the IRS outsourcing the collection of our taxes. This is not the best use of our tax money as private companies will be paid a percentage of what they collect and have executives to pay and advertising to do.

The IRS isn’t telling us that on Aug 31st they will be turning over the first 40,000 taxpayer files to 3 private sector debt collection companies who will receive a bounty of up to 24% of the money they collect. This means that our very private information will end up in easily accessed expensive public companies rather than with cost efficient federal career professionals.

In pilot studies, people were subjected to harassment from companies that were looking to pick up their bounty. Check out: National Treasury Employees Union www.nteu.org

This Administration is also trying to cut in half the amount of IRS agents that look into trusts and the wealthy, while paying these private bill collectors to focus on middle class families! It’s all part of the ‘powers that be’ plan build up the wealthy class while drowning the Government.

Blame the Republicans, not the Democrats

2006-08-15T13:54:00.000-07:00

Dear Editor (The Olympian)

Republican political attacks on Democrats during last week’s terror threat were outrageous.

Let’s not forget that 9/11 happened on Bush’s watch, that the CIA went to Crawford while the president was on vacation to discuss the reports that Al Qaeda was about to attack, and was told “all right, you’ve covered your ass now”. They have just disbanded the special Bin Laden unit.

The 9/11 commissioners said Iraq is distracting from security at home and the Republican Congress hasn’t followed through on their recommendations. We still don’t check baggage in the cargo hold of planes and only 5% of cargo ships are being checked. Katrina showed that we’re not safe.

Iraq has inflamed the whole Middle East and is attracting new Al Qaeda recruits.

Response to Commentary on I-937

2006-08-07T22:12:00.000-07:00

Dear Editor

In his Guest Commentary last week entitled, Three Words: Location, tradeoff, cost, Don Brunell cautions moving ahead too quickly on Initiative I-937 for Clean Renewable Energy. Never-mind the 3500 people who volunteered to collect signatures, the 336,000 that signed the initiative and the Washington Public Utility Districts Association, League of Women Voters, former BPA Administrator Randy Hardy, U.S. Reps. Jay Inslee and Adam Smith, Audubon WA, NW Energy Coalition and the state's Lutheran Public Policy Office who all thoughtfully endorsed it.

Washington State voters are not alone in wanting cleaner energy. 20 other states (including Texas) have already passed similar initiatives and are either meeting or exceeding their goals with no more than 1% fluctuation of prices.

The initiative would require we get at least 15% of our energy from renewable sources like wind, solar and conservation by 2020. That gives us FOURTEEN years to do this!

Brunell mentions that Hydropower is excluded from the Initiative. That was done for a reason. We need other sources of energy because snow-pack levels are fluctuating, and with population growth, hydropower is under pressure.

Location: As for ruining scenic vistas, I doubt that conservation groups like the Audubon Washington would have endorsed the Initiative if they felt wind farms would cause an environmental nightmare.

Tradeoff: We will definitely need more energy. Apparently littering the landscape with pollution-spewing coal plants is more environmentally friendly! Personally, I would rather see a vista of majestic wind turbines using free energy than huge offshore oil rigs.

Cost: Puget Sound Energy recently purchased two wind farms after determining that doing so would save $170 million over the next cheapest new power source of any kind - so much for penalizing ratepayers.

Clean coal technology is very expensive, the government is dropping the ball on funding it with only one prototype planned to be up and running by 2008 -- and it cannot be used everywhere. The ground under some coal mines won’t take the carbon being pumped back into it. Nuclear sounds clean, but it’ll take 10 years, a lot of subsidies and dirty energy to make it happen and then what do we do with the spent fuel. (Whose back yard can we dump it in for 10,000 years and whose going to pay for it to be guarded? Oh, I know, let’s use it as depleted uranium and fire it at unarmed civilians in other countries and ruin their DNA and our troops DNA while we’re at it - not printed).

I-937 will not “force” any utility to buy tidal or ocean power. It is an option that has plenty of time to work, along with wind power, solar, biomass, landfill gas, geothermal, biofuels and most importantly “conservation”.

Can we do it? I should think so. There’s a huge surge in businesses looking to get into the field. That will mean lots of new good paying jobs for Washingtonians. Farmers can earn $5,000 per windmill per year and they can farm the land below if they want. There are solar water heating & electricity technologies that homeowners and businesses can use that will cut their need for power. These technologies will be very appealing as they come with rebates, no sales tax and will cut electricity bills and thanks to I-937 they can sell electricity back to the grid. This is already happening in Germany and other countries. How about local communities creating their own solar collector stations where they can create energy for their towns and again sell unused energy units back to the grid, keeping money in the local economy. The PUD’s will be able to count on those sources of energy.

Let’s not give in to a “sky is falling” attitude when we have 14 exciting years to create this new technology.

Philosophy versus Ideology

2006-08-05T21:41:00.000-07:00

Thanks to John Dean’s latest book, Conservatives without Conscious I am beginning to understand what is pulling this country apart. Dean was former White House counsel to President Nixon.

In the early ‘50’s Barry Goldwater helped define the Republican Party. He was seen as a radical reactionary saying “We must assure a society which, while never abandoning the needy or forsaking the helpless, nurtures incentives and opportunity for the creative and the productive”, and “this is a party, this Republican Party, a Party for free men, not for blind followers, and not for conformists”.
He philosophy energized the conservative grass roots movement which helped nominate Ronald Reagan. He ended up criticizing the influence of the Christian Right. We seem to have lost track of Goldwater’s party and Dean says that Goldwater would now be seen as center left.

It feels like we are being asked to focus on only divisive issues in black and white, like the war, abortion, birth control, stem cell research, Terri Schiavo and gays, when there are so many issues we as a nation are likely to agree on.

How about following the true teachings of Jesus to help our fellow man by, as an example, raising the minimum wage across the country from $5.15 an hour, (it’s over $7.50 in WA) instead of only supporting the top 7500 families in this country by cutting the Estate/Death Tax.
Let’s discuss Health Care for all, as seen in every other industrialized nation, and what about cheaper Medications?
How about substantial federal support of Renewable Energy instead of even more incentives for dirty technologies?
Should we have federal money spent on Port Security, on well outfitted Military and well looked after Vets?
Shouldn’t small business rebuild New Orleans rather than Halliburton & friends? We could have had Iraq rebuild itself. Let’s not allow war profiteering.
Let’s have non-partisan Government accountability, honest lobbying and less corporate money in our elections which would mean our congress people could spend more than 80 days working on the people’s business and less days scouring the country for contributions.
Let’s give real incentives to small family farms and not to hugely profitable farm conglomerates. Having privatized everything and let monopolies reign, we watch prices get higher with no competition. Let’s have more real free market capitalism with less corporate monopolies.
How about a non-partisan well funded FEMA, EPA, FDA, funding of PBS & NPR, federal help for more rounded and interesting education for our children, not promising funds and then leaving states to foot the bill.
Let’s not give tax breaks to already hugely profitable corporations when we all pay our full share. Let’s have some oversight on the $8.4 trillion deficit and let’s have an economy that really works for all hard working families not just the wealthiest amongst us.
How about Freedom from being spied on by our government, and most importantly, a free press rather than biased corporate owned press & media?

This Republican congress has been in power for 12 years and the administration for 6 years. They have moved from Barry Goldwater’s philosophy of “It is the cause of Republicanism to ensure that power remains in the hands of the people” to an Ideology that this country should be governed by a small group of wealthy people and corporations so that the decision making of this county is concentrated in wealth and power, not in We The People.

It works the same in every country, says Goering

2006-08-05T21:40:00.000-07:00

“Naturally, the common people don't want war, but they can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. Tell them they are being attacked, and denounce the pacifists for lack of patriotism and endangering the country. It works the same in every country”. - Herman Goering, Hitler's Reichsmarschall at the Nuremberg trials

What can Yelm do?

2006-08-05T21:39:00.000-07:00

What can Yelm do to join the rest of the World?

Republican Majority Whip Roy Blunt says: “If I Stay In Charge, Congress Won’t ‘Do Anything Meaningful’ On Climate Change”.

In spite of him, 61 House members – including Rep. Jim Leach (R-IA) – have co-sponsored Henry Waxman’s Safe Climate Act which is a serious and practical effort to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Britain’s Prime Minister Tony Blair joined with California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, and dozens of mayors from some of the world’s largest cities to announce an initiative to combat climate change and increase energy efficiency. London Mayor Ken Livingstone says “Our goal is simple. We want to change the world”.

At least Washingtonians are on the front lines having put I-937 for Renewable Energy on the ballot this November.

Sen. Maria Cantwell on Net Neutrality

2006-07-30T13:03:00.000-07:00

Although I don't agree with all Sen. Maria Cantwell's stances, I am totally behind her on Net Neutrality. She is one of a few brave senators who are trying to keep the Internet available to regular citizens. In so doing, she is angering all the major phone and cable giants who are spending millions on local ads. Washington DC lobbyists are trying to persuade her to back down and allow their bad legislation through the Senate. I want her to know that I'm right behind her on this one.

Iraq

2006-07-30T13:02:00.000-07:00

Dear Editor
Did you know that in early 2005 a Harris Poll found that 36% of Americans thought there were WMD found in Iraq? In 2006 Harris finds that 50% think it. Why is that? Could it be that certain media and congressmen have been saying they’ve been found? And of course they are right, they have been found, but they don’t tell you they have been finding these seriously degraded and unusable as weapons components in ones, twos & threes since 2003 across Iraq. They’ve found about 200 of these old weapons. Don’t they make it sound as if they just found tons of new useable ones? I think it’s called “Spin”.

Will we ever find out what is really going on?

2006-07-14T23:03:00.000-07:00

Will we ever get affordable health care with the drug corporations and HMO’s running our health care system via lobbyists?
Will we ever get clean air (less asthma), or good mileage cars with the coal & oil industries running our energy policy via lobbyists?
Will we ever get toxic free food with chemical corporations running our food supply via lobbyists?
Will we ever get honest representation at the EPA and similar government regulatory bodies, when all their managers come from the opposing industries?
Will we ever get honest government with corporate lobbyists out-numbering our lobbyists around 10 to 1?
Will we get the best representation in government when corporate money runs our elections?
Will we get honest elections with two private companies running our voting machines?
All the above is happening, but will you ever hear about any of it with corporations focused on money rather than truth running our media? It’s tragic.

Who knew about SWIFT?

2006-07-14T23:02:00.000-07:00

The right leaning Wall Street Journal says that the Department of the Treasury asked them to write about the SWIFT searches of American bank accounts. They wanted it out there, it was a fully sanctioned leak. The WSJ didn’t know that the same Administration had asked the left leaning New York Times not to print, knowing full well that they would. Was it because “it’s an election year and beating up on the New York Times is prime red meat for the conservative base”?

Why can't we have cars like the Chinese?

2006-07-14T23:00:00.000-07:00

Did you know that the United States is at the bottom of the developed world fuel economy charts? Did you know that we can’t export cars to China because their fuel requirements are already way above ours? I believe that California has a plan to lift their fuel requirements to match China’s over the next 15 years and that the U.S. automakers are trying to stop them.
Of course GM and Ford are opening up factories in China to build cars to the higher standards for the Chinese market! Why can’t they do the same thing here? Are the oil companies stopping them?

Western States Governors & Global Dimming

2006-06-21T19:07:00.000-07:00

Dear Editor

Better late than never! A resolution was agreed by all the Western State Governors to look into Global Warming. Conservative Republicans, John Huntsman, UT, Jim Risch, ID, Frank Murkowsi, AK, Arnold Schwarzenegger, CA joined Democrats Christine Gregoire, WA, Janet Napolitano, AZ, Brian Schweitzer MT and David Freudenthal, WY. Let’s hope they do more than just talk.

PBS Frontline did a fascinating program called Global Dimming, which talked about particulates from airplane contrails and industrial smokestacks etc., that rise up to become clouds, only the extra large particulates make the clouds heavier than normal and bounce the suns rays back at the sun. This has a cooling effect on the planet.

This means that the true results of global warming are being hidden by this cooling phenomena and that global warming could be much worse than previously thought.

Lloyd's of London & Global Warming

2006-06-21T18:44:00.000-07:00

Lloyd’s of London, the oldest insurance market in the world urged its members to start taking global warming more seriously or they will be destroyed. They recommended raising premiums or even classifying some risks as uninsurable due to greenhouse gases and rising sea levels in their report Climate Change, Adapt or Bust.

“Although it’s almost two decades since the UN recognized that climate change was a catastrophic threat to the Earth, it's clear that the insurance industry has not taken catastrophe trends seriously enough. Climate change is today's problem not tomorrow's. If we don't take action now to understand the changing nature of our planet we will face extinction," said Lloyd's director, Rolf Tolle.

Lloyd's noted that high sea temperatures are a key ingredient in wind storms… Increased hurricanes, such as Katrina, which devastated New Orleans last year, should not have been a surprise since academics had warned in 2001 of this kind of weather pattern. "Recent temperatures are probably outside the range of past oscillations and seem to suggest we will be caught in an upward cycle for some time to come," Lloyd's predicted.

The market also noted the speculation about the polar ice cap melting and warned that a 12 foot rise in water levels worldwide would inundate almost every coastal city. Rising sea levels should encourage insurers to consider how much business they wanted to have connected to vulnerable coastal areas. They might consider withdrawing or restricting cover in flood-prone "hotspots", it suggested.
Terry MacalisterTuesday June 6, 2006The Guardian

Clean Money for Financing Political Campaigns.

2006-06-21T18:18:00.000-07:00

Clean Money is when the public finances political campaigns. Polls show that there is strong bipartisan support across the nation for publicly-financed campaigns, especially in the wake of recent scandals involving such infamous characters as Randy "Duke" Cunningham, Jack Abramoff, and everybody's favorite, Tom DeLay.

3 out of 4 voters support a voluntary system of publicly funded campaigns. 78% of Independents & Democrats and 65% of Republicans. This is across all gender lines, age groups and regions.

82% believe that candidates will then win on their ideas, not because of the money they raise. 81% believe they will be more accountable to voters instead of large contributors.
Voters are unhappy with Congress and Lobbyists ethics.

See the movie The Big Buy. July 7th at 7.30 pm at the Blue Bottle Café in Yelm.
Call Florence 446-1230

The Emperor goes to Austria

2006-06-21T12:43:00.000-07:00

Austria hosts Heads of State every week as they have the European Headquarters of the United Nations in Vienna. Recently they hosted 65 Heads of State at one meeting with little disruption to the everyday life of the city. Imagine their astonishment when they saw the whole city brought to a close and 3000 Austrian security guards called to protect the President of the United States. As if that wasn’t astounding enough, Bush brought 1000 of his own security team, his own car, ambulance, doctors and blood. It took a 60 car convoy to go from the airport to the hotel and Austrians were asked to cough up $1.26 million for the ½ day event! 15,000 Austrians protested the visit.

What's in a barrel of oil?

2006-06-21T12:26:00.000-07:00

Did you know that over half of each barrel of oil is used to make pharmaceuticals, plastics and nylons, and that the rest of the barrel is left over waste from that process. That left over waste is too toxic for them to use, so it is made into gas for our cars. The first process is worth $25,000 to them. The rest of the barrel that is used for gas is worth $250 to them. It looks like we have been conned into paying them to get rid of their toxic waste!

Using Alcohol in a car can improve the cars life an extra 3 years. No wonder the car companies don't want us using it!

Did you know that it only costs an extra $50 on the assembly line to change a car to take an alcohol/gas blend. (It's just a software change). David Bloom www.permaculture.com

Crime rate goes up.

2006-06-15T00:22:00.000-07:00

Dear Editor
FBI records just came out and show that the crime rate went up 2.5% in 2005, the first time in 15 years. What is the administration doing about it? They are calling for 52% cuts of the COPS program, (local law enforcement programs), and it’s the 4th year in a row of cuts. Now they are calling for 76% cuts in the 2007 budget and they have eliminated ALL funding for hiring. Why has crime gone up? Crime goes up when poverty goes up, and we now have less police to deal with the situation.

Why are they discussing a marriage amendment?

2006-06-11T22:18:00.000-07:00

Why is congress spending THREE precious days discussing the marriage amendment when they haven’t spent THREE days discussing Iraq, Health Care, Medicare, Gas prices, Education or Global Warming. I know that the amendment is important to some, but given that it has no chance of passing, why are they doing this. They are going to do the same thing to flag burning when they have so few days left to work on important issues.

Are we the Centrists?

2006-06-01T00:15:00.000-07:00

Did you know that if you agree with the majority of Americans, in the eyes of the main stream media, you are a left wing extremist! The polls tell a different story. It looks to me like we are the center. Why is the minority being called the center when they are acting like extremists? Why are they forcing an agenda that is so uncomfortable for most of us?

IRAQ WAR: In a CNN/USA poll 66% of Americans feel that the Iraq war has made them feel less safe.
SOCIAL SECURITY: In two 2002 polls from the Los Angeles Times and NBC News, both found 55% of the public opposed the concept of private accounts. In 2005, after the president had spent months selling the concept, a CNN/USA poll found 59% of Americans were opposed to change.
HEALTH CARE: In a 2003 Washington Post/ABC poll, 62% of Americans think we should have U.S. government guaranteeing health insurance for all citizens, even if that meant repealing most of the recent tax cuts. (36 of 37 industrialized nations have universal health care – the U.S. is the only one that doesn’t).
DRUGS: In a 2004 Harris poll 60% of Americans favor price controls, In 2005 the Kaiser Family Foundation notes that 70% feel that when the government funds research (which they do a lot), they should dictate prices, not the drug companies.
NAFTA, WTO & CHINA: In a 2005 PIPA poll, 56% of Americans weren’t satisfied with the way the US government is dealing with the effects of trade on American jobs, the poor in other countries and the environment, while 90% feel we need stronger labor laws, 93% feel there should be stronger environmental protections.
TAX CUTS: With a whopping $42,000 going to each millionaire and just $10 going to those that earn under $50,000, it’s no wonder 90% of Americans are against tax cuts
PENTAGON BUDGET: Anywhere between 55% and 75% of Americans, depending on the poll, believe there should be deep cuts in Pentagon spending, and that the money should go to health care, education and veterans.
CONGRESS: As a 2005 poll by the Feldman Group showed, 72% of Americans believe that elected officials in Washington do not see the nation’s problems and opportunities in the same way they do. (Thanks to Thom Hartmann/Air America www.thomhartmann.com www.am1090seattle.com and David Sirota http://davidsirota.com/index.php/2006/05/30/joe-lieberman-the-hostile-takeover-of-centrism/

Will it be cheaper and safer to stay home?

2006-05-12T22:38:00.000-07:00

Dear Editor,

Gas prices are beginning to keep people at home and now that the government is trying to bust the Air Traffic Controllers union, will it be too dangerous to fly?

Graduates of the FAA Academy have been paid around $34,000. The FAA is now paying some students $8 an hour or around $18,000 a year, (just above minimum wage in some states).

The FAA is proposing to cut wages by 30% and start a 5 year pay freeze, prompting 4000 senior controllers to retire, which will result in serious delays. This has got to be one of the most important and stressful jobs in America. Please contact your congress people before June 5th to stop this madness. http://www.fairfaa.com/

NSA illegal phone record sweeps.

2006-05-11T19:52:00.000-07:00

Dear Editor,

The NSA collecting records on 200 million phone customers is an illegal invasion of privacy. More power to Qwest for saying no. With 298 million people in the country, deduct 61 million children and the elderly and that's everyone! Was it more dangerous when the British were attacking us, or when the Nuclear Cold War was going on? We didn't have to give up our rights then.

Telecom Giants move to Control how you surf the Web.

2006-05-01T16:19:00.000-07:00

Last Thursday afternoon, a House committee caved to the narrow interests of companies like AT&T, Verizon and Comcast and voted to strip Net Neutrality from a bill moving through Congress.
The bill will allow them to restrict or slow down your access to certain websites. Last year, Canada’s Telus blocked their customers from visiting a web site sympathetic to workers who they were negotiating with.
The bill would mean these companies could control how well or poorly specific websites worked. Pay and you get good service, don’t pay, well good luck to you.
So big corporations will do just fine while small businesses and nonprofits will just have to hope that people don’t mind waiting for their web sites to load!
We can stop it from going further. At the moment, the internet is a level playing field, and it’s Net Neutrality that keeps it that way.
Contact your WA State Congress people to stop this from happening. Sen. Patty Murray: (202) 224-2621 Sen. Maria Cantwell: (202) 224-3441 Rep. Adam Smith: (202) 225-8901. Check out: www.savetheinternet.com for more help.

Is Port Security important to you?

2006-04-27T11:53:00.000-07:00

Why in Heaven’s name did the Republican led House of Representatives just vote down scanning for nuclear weapons on ships coming into our ports? Was it the money? It would cost less than one week in Iraq. The technology is available. Where are their priorities?

Can you get your head around A Trillion Dollars?

2006-04-26T21:45:00.000-07:00

It is so far out of everyday living, most people have no concept how much it is.

I think it's important to get a grasp of it given that we are about to spend that much on the wars in Iraq, Afganistan (and Iran), and our national debt ceiling is now 9 trillion.
Look at it this way.

1 million seconds equals 11.6 days
1 billion seconds equals 31.7 years
1 trillion seconds equals 317 centuries

What is the real price of oil?

2006-04-20T12:55:00.000-07:00

In 1999 when oil was around $30 a barrel and gas cost us $1.30 a gallon, the actual cost of the oil was around 10 cents a gallon. The refining, distribution and profit was $1.20.

Now that oil is $70 a barrel, the actual cost of that oil has gone up to around 25 cents. The refining, distribution hasn’t changed that much, but the profit sure has!

If the oil companies kept the same profit ratios as in 1999, a gallon would be costing us $1.35!

Are the oil companies taking advantage of us? You bet. Could it have started when Cheney had his Energy Task Force!

Would you like to own a Voting Machine Company?

2006-04-18T15:02:00.000-07:00

What would you do if you owned a Voting Machine Company?

Did you know that Chuck Hagel, republican of Nebraska owns a voting machine company? It’s a privately owned corporation so he doesn’t have to tell anyone! Could that be why he won the vote in Nebraska, twice? The second time was with 83% of the vote, in a state that hadn’t voted republican in 24 years, with many heavily black communities voting overwhelmingly republican for the first time in history!! Why do we have private for profit corporations handling our votes?

Does Hagel want to be president? It looks like he is positioning himself for that, as he is now running against Bush, agreeing with the generals who aren’t happy with Rumsfeld. Watch for the new strategy, as republicans go against Bush to keep power. It would be safer to do that than loose power. If they loose, a legislature with checks and balances will look into what Bush, Cheney, Rove and Rumsfeld have been doing these past 6 years!

Are you sick, or is the system?

2006-04-18T15:00:00.000-07:00

Dear Editor

Are you affected by health insurance price hikes? Well Dr. William McGuire of United Health Group isn’t. According to the Wall Street Journal he earns $1.6 billion, yes that’s Billion with a B. He is the first CEO to earn that sort of money, and what does he do to earn it? United Health Group pushes paper around. They handle payments for healthcare. They are the 2nd largest company in their industry and they made a 21% profit in the last 3 months.
They made 1.2 billion more due to the new Part D paperwork that 4.5 million seniors are now using!

And that while 46 million in the U.S. lack any health care at all. If we had a national health care system this guy wouldn’t be in business at all. The only people that this works for are the investors and CEO’s. Our health care system is badly broken and we need to do something about it!

Doctors are dictated to by the Insurance Companies. Many are being forced to take less money. There is a law that says doctors can’t unionize, in some cities, nurses are earning more than doctors!! Don’t forget that the federal minimum wage is still $5.15 an hour, if we took inflation into account, it should be $8.88 as we’ve lost 42% in value since1968.

Immigration & Average Incomes 3/27/06

2006-03-27T17:56:00.000-08:00

Why are immigrants coming here? Could it be because of what is going on in their countries? Have we anything to do with it?

Could it be that multi-national corporations aided by successive U.S. governments have raped those lands for their resources, creating havoc and war, putting their desperate people into total poverty and forcing them to come here?

NAFTA, CAFTA and the WTO have made this situation worse, and are now bringing down the average income of U.S. workers too. We are told that the economy is doing well and average incomes are going up, does that feel right to you?

Here’s an example: If a group of middle class people and one rich man were together in a room and their combined incomes divided between them became the average. What if that rich man went away to be replaced by Bill Gates, it would look as if average incomes as a whole had gone up, when of course they hadn’t.

Nothing is quite as black and white as it seems.

Earmarks 3/20/06

2006-03-27T17:55:00.000-08:00

Congress has ways of getting projects funded. One of them is called Earmarks and it’s being abused. In 1995 there were 1,439 earmarks, in 2005 there were 13,997! In fact there have been some 66,000 earmarks since 1991.

This is where the word “pork” comes from, where the $231 million for the Alaskan "bridge to nowhere" and the $50 million dollar “rain forest” project in Iowa comes from, when our soldiers need armor, VA funding is being cut, homes need to be rebuilt in New Orleans etc.

Earmarks are put into Conference reports, where they can’t be removed, the reports can be up to 280 pages long and are purposely brought to Congress for vote that day, with no time to read them, so they go through with no oversight.

This is corrupting the legislative process, as it uses up so much of congresses time, one sub committee alone got 15,000 requests!!

Everyone is encouraged to put in their pet projects so that they can bring back money to their constituents, thus helping their own next election. What happens is that members won’t vote for bills unless their earmarks are in them. It also means that they are forced to vote for bills that they would never normally vote for, or that their constituents would never want them to vote for.

Law makers are trying to make changes to this corrupt system.

America being sold from under us! 3/26/06

2006-03-27T17:48:00.000-08:00

It came as a great surprise to me to find out how much of America is owned by other countries. I was alerted to this by the concern brought on by the UAE, Dubai Ports World purchase of 6 U.S. ports.

(Having been told over and over for the past 5 years about terror and to be fearful, it is hardly surprising that the country turned against this idea so strongly).

Why have we sold off so much of this country? Could it be that other countries own so many of our dollars, (we just keep on buying things from them), so these countries need to spend their dollars, and the only things for sale are our industries and utilities.

This is an interesting turnaround, as for decades, U.S. administrations and their corporate benefactors have gone into countries full of mineral wealth and taken that wealth from the people who live in those countries.

The only people who benefited from those transactions were the multi-national corporations and the ruling elite that ran those countries. The result of so many years of this misuse is now showing as many countries are turning away from America. For how this went down, read The Confessions of an Economic Hit Man by John Perkins.

Now it looks like the tables are being turned on us and we are being bought out. Is it the multi-national corporations and the ruling elite that are benefiting again? Are we going to end up a 3rd world country having sold out?

Is WA State going green? 3/16/06

2006-03-27T17:46:00.001-08:00

Dear Editor,

Are we joining the rest of the country and going green?

There are so many of us being hosted by this planet. We take care of our houses, our desks and our cars, how about our planet? It looks like it’s going to happen.

A poll conducted this year by the Pew Research Center found that nationwide some issues go down well with everyone. Republicans, Democrats and Independents were all in favor of “requiring better fuel efficiency for cars, trucks & SUV’s” (86% for, 12% against), and “increasing federal funding for research on wind, solar, and hydrogen energy” (82% for, 14% against). There was even bipartisan support for “spending more on subway, rail and bus systems” (68% for, 26% against).

This is exciting as we have an Initiative to go on the ballot this November in Washington State. It’s I-937 and it’s for 15% of our energy to be from wind, solar and conservation by 2020. Amazingly all the Public Utilities have signed up for it. It is going to create thousands of family supporting jobs, stabilize household electric bills, support clean air and wean us off foreign oil.
We need 160,000 throughout WA State. Sign the Initiative at Mail Unlimited in Yelm or the ITEX office in Rainier, and help get the Initiative on the ballot.

Are you a good citizen? 3/13/06

2006-03-27T17:46:00.000-08:00

Dear Editor,

Are you a good citizen?

Do you pay for what you use? If you damaged a neighbor’s property, would you fix it?

It’s been 16 years since the Exxon Valdez oil spill, and Exxon Mobile hasn’t paid a penny to those devastated communities in the Prince William Sound! Instead, they spend millions on court appeals to delay payment. Why aren’t they doing the right thing? Having made more money than any company in history, it isn’t as if they are short of money!

Exxon Mobil also under reported the amount of oil they drilled from Alabama state lands. Once they were found out, they were taken to court and charged. Again they appealed the charges and have yet to pay a penny. That money belongs to the people of Alabama, and don’t you think they could really use it in the aftermath of Katrina?

Our Children Are Our Future 2/18/06

2006-03-27T17:43:00.000-08:00

Dear Editor,

Our Children Are Our Future

In the biggest international study ever conducted; U.S. high school seniors ranked near the bottom in math and science.

More worrying, is that even the American students taking advanced courses could not measure up to students from other nations. In math, they ranked 15th out of 16 nations. In physics, they ranked dead last. In general math and science, they ranked near the bottom among 21 nations.
Japan and China, who are the best, didn’t even take part in the multiyear study. Instead, U.S. seniors were beat in basic math by Sweden, Switzerland and Germany; in science by Canada; and in physics by Russia, the country that is supposed to look to us for scientific expertise!

It’s a crisis in American education. Are we loosing our position in the world community?
These are the fields where the good paying jobs are and it’s our generation's responsibility to make sure that we don’t have to bring in kids from other countries to fill these places. We certainly can’t blame the kid’s.

Bruce Alberts, the disappointed president of the National Academy of Sciences says “Only 10% of high school graduates qualify for even entry level jobs”.

About 55% of students taking physics in the U.S. are taught by people who never majored or minored in the subject! The dismal results point out the urgent need for stronger graduation standards and much improved teacher education.

Scientists & Church Leaders on the Climate 2/9/06

2006-03-27T17:41:00.000-08:00

Dear Editor,

Scientists & Church Leaders come together over the Climate.

Top Scientists agree with 85 evangelical Leaders that they don’t want to destroy the Creation, because that's what’s happening, and at an accelerating rate. They’ve started a new coalition called “Creation Care”, a major initiative to fight a global warming catastrophe.

Scientists agree that rising temperatures are caused mostly by man-made greenhouse-gases from burning fossil fuels, and will devastate the poorest on Earth first and, in the coming decades, have a catastrophic effect on civilization itself unless emissions are sharply cut.

In the past two years, two major glaciers in Greenland are melting at double the rate to the ocean, after years of slow movement. We have underestimated the problem as millions could drown from 23 foot high rising sea levels as the ice sheet melts. The ice sheet contains one-tenth of the world's freshwater reserves. Global average temperatures will rise by between one and six degrees Celsius this century unless urgent action is taken to reduce carbon emissions. Even a rise of three degrees could result in cataclysmic results.

Scientists say that if we don’t stop these emissions within two decades, we will watch the planet spiral towards destruction. Annual global temperature analysis showed that 2005 was the hottest year since records started in the late 1800s.

The Gulf Stream water current raises temperatures in northern Europe by some 18F -8 degrees by pumping warm water from the tropics and the Gulf of Mexico, up into the colder waters around Scandinavia. But researchers have discovered that the circulation has slowed by 30% over the last 12 years. If Europe freezes, the Inuit Eskimos loose their ability to live and island nations are drowned, will we take in 25% of the world’s inhabitants, given that we create 25% of the pollution?

Pride in our Veterans 2/7/06

2006-03-27T17:39:00.000-08:00

There are 57 Iraq and Persian Gulf War veterans entering congressional races for government positions in 2006. At least one of them is running as a Republican, the rest are running as Democrats. (There are more now! FV)

Freedom of Speech for Senators? 1/19/06

2006-03-27T17:37:00.000-08:00

OK, so you and I won’t get to speak in the halls of Congress, but surely it’s OK for our Senators to do so! Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist won’t allow any time for speeches regarding Samual Alito until Jan 25th, the day after the Senate Judiciary Committee votes on his nomination. It is normal practice for the majority leader to give senators time to make speeches about the nominee, but Sen. Patrick Leahy, Sen. Ted Kennedy & Sen. Dick Durbin are being forced to make statements every other place to get heard.

The right wing media machine is telling us the nomination is a done deal, but there are many people who are deeply worried. In 1984, as assistant to the U.S. solicitor general, Alito started the ball rolling by writing that government officials should be able to order domestic wiretaps without fear of legal retaliation. He also found more power for the government and doesn’t seem to be interested in individual rights. I thought that was what American history is all about.

Do we really need to give up our rights? Are we in more danger today than when the British Army surrounded our American ancestors fighting for the Republic, or in more danger than during the 1st and 2nd world wars, or in more danger than when the Soviets had nukes aimed at us? We didn’t give up our rights then, why are we being terrified and brainwashed into allowing it now?

National Health Care 1/14/06

2006-03-27T17:35:00.000-08:00

We are the only country in the industrialized world that doesn’t have a national health system.

A reporter from the San Francisco Chronicle who lived in Canada and in the U.S. tells the story of two female friends that both had the same devastating cancer. The difference was profound.

His Canadian friend was able to focus completely on healing her virulent cancer, because she was completely supported by the government and the Canadian health care system, whereas his American friend spent all of her time worrying and had to focus on paying bills and fighting the health care system, instead of healing her cancer.

Another Side to Abortion 1/10/06

2006-03-27T17:28:00.000-08:00

Dear Editor,

An ethical dilemma? Another Side to Abortion.

The U.S. Territories Northern Marianas Islands have weaker labor laws than we have on the Mainland, due to Jack Abramoff’s lobbying and Tom DeLay’s actions. Abramoff gave nearly $9 million in lobbying money to stop the House from strengthening those laws. Now happy garment industry owners bring in Chinese and Asian labor, keep them behind barbed wire, in rat infested labor camps where they work for 12 hours a day and are paid $3.05 an hour, even though the products they make say ‘Made In America’. Some are forced into prostitution.

Abramoff invited DeLay and his family to a fun 1997 New Year’s trip. While there, DeLay approved these immigrants working and living conditions. ABC News shows DeLay complementing these factories as a model of capitalism.

So bad were these working conditions that in 2000 the U.S. Senate unanimously passed the Murkowski worker reform bill, but DeLay, as House Republican Whip, stopped the U.S. House from even considering it.

So here is the ethical rub! ABCNews 20/20 investigation finds that if a woman gets pregnant there, they are made to have an abortion. There are 11,000 Chinese women and no babies.

Thoughts on Abuse of Charity 1/8/06

2006-03-27T17:25:00.000-08:00

Dear Editor,

Don’t let Spin Dilute the Facts

There were many Republicans that took money directly from Jack Abramoff.
Both parties received donations from lobbyist Jack Abramoff’s CLIENTS. Although that is NOT a crime, many lawmakers are paying back these donations to charities in the wake of last Tuesday's guilty plea to corruption charges by the lobbyist.

Which brings me to, The Abuse of Charity. Donating to charity is one of the best things American’s do. When we hear that Abramoff’s Capital Athletic Foundation took in millions but spent less than 1% on it’s stated purpose, with the rest given to his pet projects, like overseas golfing trips and sky-boxes; or that a lot of the $4.4 million World of Hope’s money went to Dr. Bill Frist’s political friends, it stop’s us from trusting charities.

Many of these charities employ family and friends. Tom DeLay’s wife Christine earned $3,200 a month for 3 years for a total of $115,000 for making lists of favorite charities of members of Congress. She and her daughter were also paid more that ½ million dollars since 2001 by DeLay’s political action and campaign committees, (per documents filed with the Federal Election Committee).

In 1998 DeLay wrote, “We are for full and immediate disclosure” regarding campaign contributions. So let’s apply what he said about campaign contributions to charities connected to politicians.

Wire Taps 1/2/06

2006-03-27T17:18:00.000-08:00

Did you ever call or email a friend and say something like, “Did you see the report on TV of the latest Bin Laden tape?” If you did, there is every possibility that your call or email was data mined. As things stand at the moment, we have no idea if this is true, but how does that make you feel? We already know they have been listening to Quaker meetings and groups that are against the war. What’s to stop them from listening to other political parties? (Watergate again?)

Do you really think that our enemies don’t know that we wire tap? After all, they were clever enough to plan 9/11? Every kid in the world who ever watched TV or a movie knows about wire tapping!

If this is now such a terrifying specter that we need an urgent criminal investigation into who leaked “national security information” to the Times, then why wasn’t an investigation called a year ago when the administration first found out about the story. Instead of calling for an investigation, the president asked the Times to not publish. How come, now that it’s public, we suddenly need an investigation?

Why is the administration and media telling us we need no oversight over the NSA (National Security Agency)? In 1978, the congress passed the FISA laws. The FISA law allows wire tapping for days before having to tell the court. The court said yes to virtually everything. What was being tapped that they needed go around the court?

Let’s not loose this Republic.

Theodore Roosevelt 11/22/05

2006-03-27T17:17:00.000-08:00

"People ask the difference between a leader and a boss . . . . The leader works in the open and the boss in covert. The leader leads and the boss drives."
Theodore Roosevelt

General Accounting Office to Congress 11/6/05

2006-03-27T17:06:00.000-08:00

Report from the Non Partisan General Accounting Office to Congress in September 2005.

“The United States is the only major democracy that allows private partisan corporations to secretly count and tabulate the votes with proprietary non-transparent software. The CEO of one of the most crucial suppliers of electronic voting machines, Warren O'Dell of Diebold, pledged before the 2004 campaign to deliver Ohio and thus the presidency to George W. Bush.”
http://www.freepress.org/departments/display/19/2005/1529No

This GAO’s report raises questions about the results in Ohio, Iowa, Nevada and New Mexico where last minute shifts changed the results of the election.

“Examples of Voting System Vulnerabilities and Problems
• Cast ballots, ballot definition files, and audit logs could be modified.
• Supervisor functions were protected with weak or easily guessed passwords.
• Systems had easily picked locks and power switches that were exposed and unprotected.
• Local jurisdictions misconfigured their electronic voting systems, leading to election day problems.
• Voting systems experienced operational failures during elections.
• Vendors installed uncertified electronic voting systems.

While electronic voting systems hold promise for a more accurate and efficient election process, numerous entities have raised concerns about their security and reliability, citing instances of weak security controls, system design flaws, inadequate system version control, inadequate security testing, incorrect system configuration, poor security management, and vague or incomplete voting system standards, among other issues.

For example, studies found
(1) some electronic voting systems did not encrypt cast ballots or system audit logs, and it was possible to alter both without being detected;
(2) it was possible to alter the files that define how a ballot looks and works so that the votes for one candidate could be recorded for a different candidate; and
(3) vendors installed uncertified versions of voting system software at the local level.
It is important to note that many of the reported concerns were drawn from specific system makes and models or from a specific jurisdiction’s election, and that there is a lack of consensus among election officials and other experts on the pervasiveness of the concerns. Nevertheless, some of these concerns were reported to have caused local problems in federal elections—resulting in the loss or miscount of votes—and therefore merit attention.”

2GAO’s Executive Council on Information Management and Technology is made up of
leading executives in government, industry, and academia.

What is happening to this country? 10/30/05

2006-03-27T17:03:00.000-08:00

Dear Editor,

Why are we letting Congress cut $50+ billion from Medicare, Food Stamps, Heating Assistance, Farm Subsidies and Student Loans while giving the wealthiest another tax cut?

Will you get Tax Cuts? More than 70% of benefits go to the top 20%, and more than 25% go to the top 1%.

Tax Cuts over Time? 54% of some benefits would go to those earning more than $1 million a year. Another 43% of benefits would go to those earning between $200,000 and $1 million. Thus, 97% will go to the 3.7% earning $200,000 or more. Virtually none of the benefits go to families with incomes under $100,000.

In 2018, the year we are told Social Security will be in crisis because it will pay out $23 billion more in benefits than it will receive in revenues — the tax cuts would cost $323 billion
1.1 million more Americans slipped into poverty in 2004. The 4th year the rate climbed. The increase was borne completely by whites, the only group that saw its poverty rate rise! Poverty starts at $13,020 for a single parent with one child and $19,157 for two adults with two children.
These are people who have to choose between paying rent, heating their homes or buying food. Are we going to sit by and watch old people die of the cold this winter, and even more children go hungry?

Genetically Modified Foods 10/23/05

2006-03-27T17:01:00.000-08:00

Dear Editor,

I was enchanted with the delicious pictures on page B2 Nisqually Valley Spice. Taste of the Future. It wasn’t until I started reading, that I realized it was a virtual advertisement for the Biotech/Genetically Modified food industry. Rather than take what was said as fact, I would like to counter their comments.

On the website Nature.com, they discuss the fact that in 2003 99% of all GM foods were grown in just 6 countries. Although there are field tests in 34 other countries, the rest of the world’s 153 countries feel that the technology is not trustworthy, and many see it ruining their farming communities? (The profit-hungry GM industry would require third world farmers to buy their expensive seeds every season instead of using century’s old seed saving methods).
There have been huge battles as companies like Monsanto & DuPont have unsuccessfully tried to lobby and bribe other countries. (Six government scientists testified before the Canadian Senate that a Monsanto official offered them a bribe of $1-2 million, if they approved the company’s GM bovine growth hormone (rbGH) without further study).
Most Americans don’t know that most of the rest of the world won’t eat genetically modified food, and that just about all the milk on our shelves has rbGH in it.
Yes it is true that 70% of food in American supermarkets is already genetically modified. Monsanto once claimed that PCB’s, DDT and Agent Orange were safe! Are we part of a huge secret health experiment?

Ask people if they would rather buy regular food or genetically modified food, most would rather buy food that hasn’t been messed it.

This is why companies like Monsanto, and Syngenta, lobbied for food on our supermarket shelves not to be labeled as genetically modified.

Big money talks. Monsanto, one of the largest corporations pushing this technology has had an interesting group of employees. Working for it, or one of its subsidiaries have been, Supreme Court Judge Clarence Thomas, U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Anne Veneman and Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld. Receiving large donations were U.S. Secretary of Health Tommy Thompson, Chairman of the House Agricultural Committee Larry Combest and John Ashcroft.

As usual, spin is all important. It hasn’t been proved that yields are greater, in fact other countries are finding that organic methods are more productive, and although they say that GM foods resist pests and weed killer, they have the pests and weed killer in them, which you then eat! Over time pests and weeds get used to them and create super bugs and super weeds, which is a real problem for farmers who have to use even more weed killer.

Farmers have cross pollinated plants for centuries, but they always crossed same species, like roses with roses or tangerines with oranges.

These corporations say there is no difference, but research disagrees. Does it feel right to implant fish genes in tomatoes, or root worms in your corn. If God had wanted to cross fish and tomatoes, he would have made it easy to do. The technology pushes unnatural modifications. The process of gene insertion creates dangerous gene mutations and is consistently uncertain and may be dangerous.

Personally, I feel these foods are more difficult to digest. It would be interesting to see if this nation’s digestion problems have been worse since these foods appeared silently on supermarket shelves. Research by Russian scientists showed that GM Soy flour caused 46.6% more deaths in rats that regular soy! http://www.regnum.ru/english/526651.html Although there was no follow up tests, soon after GM soy was introduced to the UK, soy allergies skyrocketed by 50%.
The World Health Organization developed a list of criteria designed to minimize the likelihood that a foreign protein from a GM crop will be allergenic. Unfortunately, the GM soy, maize, and papaya already on the market fail those criteria, (and they are all in last weeks recipes)!
For more information read: Seeds of Deception by Jeffrey Smith, or go to http://www.organicconsumers.org/

Let's Pardon all our Meth Users? 10/1/2005

2006-03-27T16:58:00.000-08:00

Dear Editor,

September 28th, CBS and the Associated Press reported that the President granted pardons to 14 people, amongst them was a bomber, a counterfeiter, a bootlegger, people committing mail fraud and felonies, a person delivering LSD, a cocaine distributor, importers and users of marijuana, and selling Quaalude tablets, embezzlement, illegal firearm possession. It’s an interesting list. What does it mean for us?

Moral Values? 9/26/05

2006-03-27T16:57:00.000-08:00

Dear Editor,

September 21st, the Washington Post reported that the President has decided to waive any financial sanctions on Saudi Arabia and Kuwait for child trafficking! So these counties can just go ahead and bring in as many little boys and girls for sex as they please, and it’ll be ok with us!

Thanks to The Nisqually Valley News 9/10/05

2006-03-27T16:56:00.000-08:00

Dear Editor,

I want to thank the Nisqually Valley News for being a beacon of democracy. By printing all letters to the Editor, you are giving your readers a more diverse understanding of what is going on.

Most television and radio is owned by a few huge corporations who have a very one sided view of what is going on. As much as we are always being told the media is liberal, this administration finally admits, they are not. “We own the media” they now say.

The death of the media is the biggest disaster to hit this democracy. An uninformed public have no idea what is going on, so they are unable to make well reasoned judgments. People are being forced to go to foreign news media, or the internet, to find out what is really going on.

It is fascinating to me to see how a disorganized response by the government to Hurricane Katrina enabled the press to be embedded with the hurricane victims, whereas in Iraq, the press was only allowed to embed with the troops.

Look how the Katrina reporting and pictures affected us as the facts were before our eyes. Now that the government is back in control of the situation, we hear that reporters are being stopped from reporting the full recovery efforts, with reports of film being confiscated and cameras being smashed.
I suppose the idea is to stop pictures of bodies being found, just like we aren’t allowed to see the flag draped coffins of our U.S. war hero’s.

Reckless Energy Agenda 8/29/05

2006-03-27T16:53:00.000-08:00

Dear Editor,

We know that maintaining our national security will require reducing our dependence on foreign oil. But the Administration is using the current crisis to push through a reckless energy agenda, that gives billions to the already unbelievably mega rich oil companies and the nuclear industry, but gives little to the alternatives.

They want to drill in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, which will not improve America's security. Even the conservative Cato Institute has called President Bush's claim that Arctic oil would reduce gas prices or American dependency on foreign oil "not just nonsense, but nonsense on stilts."

There is a quick and easy way to reduce our dependency fast. Since 40 percent of the oil used by America, fuels light trucks and cars, an increase in mileage per gallon, called CAFE - could have a dramatic impact, but the Administration has offered nothing but platitudes in this area. In the late 1970's, President Jimmy Carter implemented CAFE standards to combat an oil shortage driven by policies OPEC. The standards raised fuel efficiency in American cars by 7.6 miles a gallon over six years, causing oil imports from the Persian Gulf to fall by 87 percent. Our economy grew by 27 percent during that period. Detroit, predictably, figured out how to build more fuel-efficient cars largely without reductions in size, comfort or power. The CAFE standards worked so well that they produced an oil glut by 1986. That's when the Reagan administration intervened to rescue America's domestic oil industry from gasoline price collapse. Ronald Reagan's rollback of CAFE standards caused America, in that year, to double oil imports from the Persian Gulf nations and to burn more oil than is in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.

Mercury 8/7/05

2006-03-27T16:51:00.000-08:00

How can an administration that professes to value every life, turn on unborn children in this way?

Did you know that Mercury is a potent neurotoxin that has been shown, even in minute doses, to seriously harm young children? The largest source of mercury in our environment is emissions from coal-fired power plants. Incredibly, this administration now wants to relax the rules and allow these plants to continue polluting our environment with high levels of mercury.

Pregnant or nursing women, childbearing aged women, and children are now advised not to eat ANY of the high-mercury fish species such as tilefish, shark and swordfish, and no more than two servings of other types of fish (such as tuna) per week. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, one in 12 women of childbearing age currently has a mercury level in her blood that is unsafe for a developing fetus!!
Yet in response to this widespread public health threat, this Administration has proposed a ten-year delay in implementing regulations designed to cut mercury emissions by 90 percent. They also want to remove coal-fired power plants from the list of mercury sources that can be regulated under the Clean Air Act. In response, Senators Snowe and Leahy have introduced a bipartisan resolution of disapproval to prevent these proposals from going forward.

Is Our National Security At Risk? 7/25/05

2006-03-27T16:49:00.000-08:00

I was TV clicking and came across a Joint Senate & House Committee Hearing on CSPAN, (go to www.cspan.org, Hearing on Security Implications etc). Two of the speakers, where highly respected former Republican CIA operatives. They shared their concern about current events pertaining to the revealing of Valerie Plame, as a covert CIA operative. (She is the wife of former Bush Senior’s Ambassador to Iraq Joseph Wilson).

They feel that because this Administration now allows CIA operatives to be revealed, operatives no longer feel supported by this Administration. (Federal law forbids government officials from revealing the identity of an undercover intelligence officer). This is an extremely serious situation. They say that operatives no longer trust that they are safe, and are fearful that they will be undermined, putting themselves and their families at risk. These people are now afraid to come forward. It also means that informants around the world will think twice before offering the sort of information that is vital to our security not being compromised.

Bill Clinton was impeached, not for what he did, (which was awful), but for lying to the American people.

This administration told us in September 2003 that Karl Rove had nothing to do with Plame’s outing. Now, after Bush’s special prosecutor, Patrick Fitzgerald’s inquiries show that Rove did leak her identity to Robert Novak, even though Rove knew she had Top Secret clearance, “We The People” are being lied to again. Will there be any ramifications this time? Last time, it affected a few people, this time it will effect our whole nation at a time of war.

Interestingly enough, George Bush Senior’s Administration actually fired Karl Rove in 1992 for leaking information to, would you believe it…..Robert Novak!

First letter. On Global Warming 6/17/05

2006-03-27T16:34:00.000-08:00

Letter to the Editor

The time has come to take real action on this issue. As the USA Today summarized in its June 13 cover story "The debate's over: Globe is warming." We have a responsibility to leave our children a healthy, clean world.

On June 9, the heads of twenty-three global companies called for strong action to mitigate climate change. These leaders from companies such as BP, Ford and British Airways urged the world's leading industrial nations to set up a global system for curbing heat-trapping emissions.
As reported in the New York Times, a former oil industry lobbyist Philip Cooney, who once headed the oil industry's lobbying on climate change, and was the chief of staff of the White House Council on Environmental Quality, left Friday, two days after it was revealed that he had removed or adjusted administration reports on climate change/Global Warming in 2002 and 2003. Saying he left because he wanted to spend more time with his family, Cooney as been hired by Exxon Mobil who has long financed advertising and lobbying efforts that question whether warming caused by humans poses risks serious enough to justify curbing carbon dioxide, the main greenhouse gas emitted by smokestacks and tailpipes.