Life in OUR America, Volume 2, The Livyjr Files Options

[jeffmoskin]

Well, jeffmoskin, you might be right, there, anyway, about SMERSH really being just a front for SPECTRE!

OH NO.

SPECTRE is an acronym for "The Special Executive for Counter-intelligence, Terrorism, Revenge and Extortion"

SMERSH is a contraction for "Smiert Spionam (meaning "Death to Spies")"

What is BUSH an acronym for?

[Livyjr]

What is BUSH an acronym for?

A person without credibility, because he appears to have absolutely no integrity whatsover?

"They have miscalculated me as a leader!'

- George W. Bush, Westminster, California; September 13, 2000

Ah, no, George, I don't think I have miscaluclated you as a leader at all, because I never actually thought that you were one, and nothing that you have done to date has disabused me of that notion!

To the contrary, by your actions and bumbling on a day-to-day basis here in OUR America, and out there in the world as well, places like Afghanistan, and Iraq, and Uzbekistan, of course, where you appear to be the best buddy of the THUG who has allegedly just machine-gunned a bunch of innocent people over there in what is being called by some wags, anyway, the "Bush-style" of democracy, you just keep on reinforcing the impression that I have that whoever really did vote for you, if anyone outside of some electronic noise in a computer somewhere really did, that is was they who very seriously miscalculated how very incompetent and inept and unworthy the REPUBLICAN PARTY IS to have anything at all to do with OUR self-government in this REPUBLIC of OURS, including catching its stray dogs when they are on the loose!

RESTORE INTEGRITY TO GOVERNMENT, HERE IN OUR AMERICA!

REPUBLICANS OUT!

Pass it on!

[Livyjr]

"They have miscalculated me as a leader!'

- George W. Bush, Westminster, California; September 13, 2000

Ah, no, George, I don't think I have miscaluclated you as a leader at all, because I never actually thought that you were one, and nothing that you have done to date has disabused me of that notion!

To the contrary, by your actions and bumbling on a day-to-day basis here in OUR America, and out there in the world as well, places like Afghanistan, and Iraq, and Uzbekistan, of course, where you appear to be the best buddy of the THUG who has allegedly just machine-gunned a bunch of innocent people over there in what is being called by some wags, anyway, the "Bush-style" of democracy, you just keep on reinforcing the impression that I have that whoever really did vote for you, if anyone outside of some electronic noise in a computer somewhere really did, that is was they who very seriously miscalculated how very incompetent and inept and unworthy the REPUBLICAN PARTY IS to have anything at all to do with OUR self-government in this REPUBLIC of OURS, including catching its stray dogs when they are on the loose!

RESTORE INTEGRITY TO GOVERNMENT, HERE IN OUR AMERICA!

REPUBLICANS OUT!

Pass it on!

"Karzai Wants More Control of U.S. Forces"

By DANIEL COONEY, Associated Press Writer

22 minutes ago

KABUL, Afghanistan - Hours before flying to Washington for talks with President Bush, Afghan leader Hamid Karzai demanded greater control Saturday over American military operations in his country and called for vigorous punishment of any U.S. troops who mistreat prisoners.

He also said he wants the United States to hand over all Afghan prisoners still in U.S. custody.

In a volatile southern province, meanwhile, a U.S. soldier was killed and three were wounded in the latest in a string of attacks launched by loyalists of the ousted Taliban regime.

Speaking to reporters before his first visit to the United States since he was installed in December as Afghanistan's first democratically elected president, Karzai demanded more say over operations by the 16,700 U.S. troops still in the country, including an end to raids on the homes of Afghan unless his government was notified beforehand.

"No operations inside Afghanistan should take place without the consultation of the Afghan government," he told reporters.

Karzai — seen by his critics as an American puppet — issued the tough statement after fresh reports of prisoner abuse by American forces at Bagram, the main military prison north of Kabul, and anti-U.S. riots that broke out across the country earlier this month, leaving at least 15 people dead.

The unrest was triggered by a Newsweek magazine report, later retracted, that the Quran was defiled by interrogators at the U.S. prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and likely further fueled by long-standing complaints of heavy-handed search operations and the deaths of civilians in U.S. operations in Afghanistan.

There were fears a report in Friday's New York Times, based on the Army's criminal investigation into the December 2002 deaths of two Afghans at Bagram, could re-ignite anti-American manifestations.

Karzai said he was "shocked" by allegations of prisoner abuse by poorly trained U.S. soldiers at Bagram and vowed to raise the issue during his four-day U.S. visit that begins Sunday.

"We want the U.S. government to take very, very strong action to take away people like that (who) are working with their forces in Afghanistan," Karzai said.

"Definitely ... I will see about that when I am in the United States."

Responding to the abuse allegations, Col. James Yonts, the U.S. military spokesman in Afghanistan, said:

"The command has made it very clear that any incidents of abuse will not be tolerated."

In Washington, White House spokesman Trent Duffy said the president was "alarmed by the reports of prisoner abuse," and wants them thoroughly investigated.

Duffy said seven people were being investigated about abuse at Bagram.

The Times' allegations of maltreatment were supported by Human Rights Watch, a New York-based watchdog, which said that at least six detainees in U.S. custody in Afghanistan have been killed since 2002.

"U.S. forces in Afghanistan were involved in killings, torture and other abuses of prisoners," it said in a statement.

"These crimes, known to senior officials in the military and Central Intelligence Agency, have not still been adequately investigated or prosecuted."

In December, Pentagon officials said that eight deaths of detainees in Afghanistan — including the two mentioned in the Times report — had been investigated since mid-2002.

Hundreds of people were detained during and after the campaign by U.S.-led forces to oust the hardline Taliban regime in late 2001.

After the outcry over abuse at the Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq, the military also initiated a review of its detention facilities in Afghanistan and later said it had modified some of its procedures, although the review's findings have not been made public.

Also, an Italian aid worker kidnapped in Kabul spent her sixth day in captivity on Saturday, still with no clear word on her fate.

Taliban-led rebels kept up assaults in the south and east of the country.

A roadside bomb killed one U.S. soldier and wounded three others as they patrolled in an armored vehicle in Zabul province, the U.S. military said.

A purported spokesman for the Taliban claimed responsibility.

A mine explosion in southern Kandahar province wounded four Afghan soldiers, while a two-hour gunbattle between Taliban rebels and Afghan forces in Zabul left two insurgents dead, officials said.

In Ghazni province, four people driving to a wedding were killed and four others were wounded when an old land mine exploded under their vehicle, said police chief Gen. Abdul Rahman Sarjang.

[Livyjr]

"Karzai Wants More Control of U.S. Forces"

By DANIEL COONEY, Associated Press Writer

KABUL, Afghanistan - Hours before flying to Washington for talks with President Bush, Afghan leader Hamid Karzai demanded greater control Saturday over American military operations in his country and called for vigorous punishment of any U.S. troops who mistreat prisoners.

He also said he wants the United States to hand over all Afghan prisoners still in U.S. custody.

In a volatile southern province, meanwhile, a U.S. soldier was killed and three were wounded in the latest in a string of attacks launched by loyalists of the ousted Taliban regime.

Speaking to reporters before his first visit to the United States since he was installed in December as Afghanistan's first democratically elected president, Karzai demanded more say over operations by the 16,700 U.S. troops still in the country, including an end to raids on the homes of Afghan unless his government was notified beforehand.

"No operations inside Afghanistan should take place without the consultation of the Afghan government," he told reporters.

Karzai — seen by his critics as an American puppet — issued the tough statement after fresh reports of prisoner abuse by American forces at Bagram, the main military prison north of Kabul, and anti-U.S. riots that broke out across the country earlier this month, leaving at least 15 people dead.

Karzai said he was "shocked" by allegations of prisoner abuse by poorly trained U.S. soldiers at Bagram and vowed to raise the issue during his four-day U.S. visit that begins Sunday.

Karzai said he was "shocked" by allegations of prisoner abuse by poorly trained U.S. soldiers at Bagram and vowed to raise the issue during his four-day U.S. visit that begins Sunday.

Poorly trained United States soldiers are alleged to be abusing prisoners in Afghanistan, now, and George W. Bush is shocked, probably because the news got out!

WHY ARE UNITED STATES SOLDIERS POORLY TRAINED TODAY, WHEN WE ARE SPENDING MORE MONEY PER SOLDIER NOW, THAN EVER BEFORE IN THIS NATION'S HISTORY?

Because we have AN INCOMPETENT SECRETARY OF DEFENSE, IS WHY!

Donald Rumsfeld is not fit to be Secretary of Defense in OUR America, and he should be immediately fired from that position BECAUSE OF THESE VERY ADMISSIONS ABOVE HERE, where it is admitted in print by OUR government that OUR troops are very poorly trained, and led, for that matter!

Thanks to George W. Bush and the REPUBLICAN PARTY, we have an incompetent, poorly trained military that is now thug-like in nature, CREATED IN THEIR VERY IMAGE!

WHO'S PROUD OF THAT?

Anyone?

[Livyjr]

Thanks to George W. Bush and the REPUBLICAN PARTY, we have an incompetent, poorly trained military that is now thug-like in nature, CREATED IN THEIR VERY IMAGE, a military that will end up with a worse reputation in history than the Hessian animals that the English tyrant George III had over here at the time of the American Revolution, to terrorize OUR forebears! 

WHO'S PROUD OF THAT?

Anyone?

Besides RUSH LIMBAUGH and the 20 million listeners a week who hear him on nearly 600 radio stations, that is?

"Prosecutors Seek Sealed Limbaugh Records"

By The Associated Press

1 hour, 21 minutes ago

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. - Palm Beach County prosecutors who want to examine Rush Limbaugh's medical records for their prescription drug abuse investigation are going to court Monday in hopes of having that evidence released.

The records were seized in late 2003, as prosecutors looked into allegations that the conservative commentator went "doctor shopping" to illegally acquire pain medication.

Limbaugh, 54, of Palm Beach, has not been charged with any crime and has denied any criminal wrongdoing.

Limbaugh's attorneys fought the seizures, claiming a violation of privacy rights.

But last month the Florida Supreme Court declined to hear his appeal, clearing the way for prosecutors to finally look over the records.

The records are under seal in the possession of Palm Beach Circuit Judge Jeffrey Winikoff.

A hearing on the issue is scheduled for Monday.

Prosecutors went after Limbaugh's medical records after learning he received about 2,000 painkillers, prescribed by four doctors in six months, at a pharmacy near his oceanfront mansion.

Limbaugh acknowledged his addiction to pain medication in October 2003, blaming it on severe back pain, and took a five-week leave from his radio show to enter rehab.

The show has 20 million listeners a week and is heard on nearly 600 radio stations.
___

On the Net:

Rush Limbaugh: http://www.rushlimbaugh.com

[Livyjr]

Karzai said he was "shocked" by allegations of prisoner abuse by poorly trained U.S. soldiers at Bagram and vowed to raise the issue during his four-day U.S. visit that begins Sunday.

WHO'S PROUD OF THAT?

Anyone?

How about you, Tony Blair?

YOU PROUD?

"British officer could be tried for Iraq 'war crimes': report"

6 minutes ago

LONDON (AFP) - A British commanding officer decorated for his service in Iraq could face court martial for alleged war crimes following the death of an Iraqi detainee, a report said.

Colonel Jorge Mendonca, who was awarded the Distinguished Service Order for his actions in Iraq, is being investigated over the death of Baha Mousa, an Iraqi hotel clerk allegedly beaten to death in 2003, the Mail on Sunday said.

Mendonca, 41, was the commanding officer in charge of the Queen's Lancashire Regiment, the army unit linked with Mousa's death in British custody in Basra, southern Iraq.

An army investigation into the death had centred on ordinary soldiers from the regiment, but was then expanded to senior officers amid allegations the entire chain of command was complicit in the abuse, the report said.

Earlier this month, following a 10-month inquiry, military police investigators handed their files on the death of Mousa to the Army Prosecuting Authority, who must now decide whether to court martial Mendonca or others.

If he is charged, it would be the first time since the 1950s that a British commanding officer has been implicated in alleged criminal misconduct, the newspaper said.

Mendonca completely rejects the allegations, and was "furious" at the investigation, it added.

In February, two British soldiers were found guilty of abusing Iraqi civilians at a base in Basra known as Camp Breadbasket, while a third pleaded guilty.

The mistreatment -- including one Iraqi being suspended from a forklift truck and others forced to simulate sex acts -- was captured in photographs that were published around the world after they were released as evidence.

[Livyjr]

"They have miscalculated me as a leader!'

- George W. Bush, Westminster, California; September 13, 2000

Ah, no, George, I don't think I have miscaluclated you as a leader at all, because I never actually thought that you were one, and nothing that you have done to date has disabused me of that notion!

To the contrary, by your actions and bumbling on a day-to-day basis here in OUR America, and out there in the world as well, places like Afghanistan, and Iraq, and Uzbekistan, of course, where you appear to be the best buddy of the THUG who has allegedly just machine-gunned a bunch of innocent people over there in what is being called by some wags, anyway, the "Bush-style" of democracy, you just keep on reinforcing the impression that I have that whoever really did vote for you, if anyone outside of some electronic noise in a computer somewhere really did, that is was they who very seriously miscalculated how very incompetent and inept and unworthy the REPUBLICAN PARTY IS to have anything at all to do with OUR self-government in this REPUBLIC of OURS, including catching its stray dogs when they are on the loose!

"Karzai Wants More Control of U.S. Forces"

By DANIEL COONEY, Associated Press Writer

KABUL, Afghanistan - Hours before flying to Washington for talks with President Bush, Afghan leader Hamid Karzai demanded greater control Saturday over American military operations in his country and called for vigorous punishment of any U.S. troops who mistreat prisoners.

Speaking to reporters before his first visit to the United States since he was installed in December as Afghanistan's first democratically elected president, Karzai demanded more say over operations by the 16,700 U.S. troops still in the country, including an end to raids on the homes of Afghan unless his government was notified beforehand.

"No operations inside Afghanistan should take place without the consultation of the Afghan government," he told reporters.

Karzai — seen by his critics as an American puppet — issued the tough statement after fresh reports of prisoner abuse by American forces at Bagram, the main military prison north of Kabul, and anti-U.S. riots that broke out across the country earlier this month, leaving at least 15 people dead.

In Washington, White House spokesman Trent Duffy said the president was "alarmed by the reports of prisoner abuse," and wants them thoroughly investigated.

The Times' allegations of maltreatment were supported by Human Rights Watch, a New York-based watchdog, which said that at least six detainees in U.S. custody in Afghanistan have been killed since 2002.

"U.S. forces in Afghanistan were involved in killings, torture and other abuses of prisoners," it said in a statement.

"These crimes, known to senior officials in the military and Central Intelligence Agency, have not still been adequately investigated or prosecuted."

South and Central Asia

"Afghanistan's Karzai 'shocked’ by abuse report - Bush hails ties ahead of Afghan leader's visit to Washington"

Joe Raedle / Getty Images file
Soldiers stand by as a helicopter lifts supplies from Bagram Air Base in Afghanistan during Operation Anaconda in 2002. Two Afghan detainees died at the base in the same year and a report on the Army probe into their deaths was published Friday.

Updated: 3:14 p.m. ET May 21, 2005

KABUL, Afghanistan - Afghan President Hamid Karzai said Saturday he was shocked by a U.S. Army report on abuse of detainees in Afghanistan, saying his government wanted custody of all Afghan prisoners and control over U.S. military operations.

The abuse described in the report, including details of the deaths of two inmates at an Afghan detention center, happened in 2002 and emerged from a nearly 2,000-page file of U.S. Army investigators, The New York Times reported Friday.

"It has shocked me thoroughly and we condemn it," Karzai said at a news conference.

"We want the U.S. government to take very, very strong action, to take away people like that."

Karzai, a staunch ally in the U.S.-led war against terrorism, was due to leave on a U.S trip Saturday and meet President Bush for talks.

Karzai wants to forge a broad long-term partnership with his most important ally but he said he would also reiterate a request for the return of Afghan prisoners and control over U.S. military operations.

The United States commands a foreign force in Afghanistan of about 18,300, most of them American, fighting Taliban insurgents and hunting militant leaders, including Osama bin Laden.

Karzai's visit to Washington follows violent anti-American protests in Afghan cities prompted by a Newsweek report that U.S. interrogators had desecrated the Koran.

Sixteen people were killed and many wounded in the violence.

Newsweek retracted the report, but the International Committee of the Red Cross subsequently said it had told the Pentagon of allegations U.S. personnel had mishandled the Muslim holy book.

In his weekly radio address, Bush emphasized close ties with Afghanistan and said he would discuss with Karzai progress his country has made since the ousting of the Taliban by U.S. forces in 2001.

He did not mention the protests or the abuse report.

"We're helping Afghanistan's elected government solidify these democratic gains and deliver real change," Bush said.

"A nation that once knew only the terror of the Taliban is now seeing a rebirth of freedom, and we will help them succeed."

House searches criticized

Many Afghans have criticized U.S. troops for what are seen as heavy-handed tactics, such as breaking into people's homes in the middle of the night in their search for militants.

At the news conference, Karzai said searches should be carried out in cooperation with Afghan forces.

"No operations inside Afghanistan should take place without the consultation of the Afghan government," he said.

"They should not go to our people's homes any more without the knowledge of the Afghan government."

"... If they want any person suspected in a house, they should let us know and the Afghan government would arrange that."

Karzai said he would also ask for "the return of prisoners to Afghanistan, all of them."

The United States is holding more than 500 prisoners from its war on terrorism at the Guantanamo Bay naval base on Cuba.

Many of them were detained in Afghanistan after the Taliban overthrow.

U.S. forces are also believed to be holding several hundred Afghans in Afghanistan.

The U.S. Army report centers on the death of a 22-year-old taxi driver known only as Dilawar and that of another detainee, Habibullah, who died at the U.S. base at Bagram, north of Kabul, six days earlier, in December 2002.

According to the report, Dilawar was chained by his wrists to the top of his cell for several days before he died and his legs had been pummeled by guards.

"The file depicts young, poorly trained soldiers in repeated incidents of abuse.

The harsh treatment, which has resulted in criminal charges against seven soldiers, went well beyond the two deaths," The New York Times said.

In sworn statements to Army investigators, soldiers described mistreatment ranging from a female interrogator stepping on a detainee's neck and kicking another in the genitals to a shackled prisoner being made to kiss the boots of interrogators, according to the newspaper.

U.S. officials have characterized incidents of prisoner abuse at Bagram in 2002 as isolated problems that were thoroughly investigated, the newspaper said.

Two army interrogators have been reprimanded and seven soldiers have been charged, the newspaper said.

[Livyjr]

What is BUSH an acronym for?

"Bush gets mixed reception at Christian college"

By Caren Bohan

1 hour, 49 minutes ago

GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. (Reuters) - President Bush on Saturday championed faith in American society, but ran into some criticism as courted his Christian base in a commencement speech at a Michigan college.

"We need to support and encourage the institutions and pursuits that bring us together."

"And we learn how to come together by participating in our churches and temples and mosques and synagogues," Bush told graduating seniors at Calvin College, a Christian liberal-arts college.

The college describes itself as a "center of faith-anchored liberal arts teaching and scholarship," and Bush has aggressively sought to reinforce his support among religious conservatives who helped deliver him a reelection victory in 2004.

But anti-Bush ads that ran in the local newspaper, protests outside the event and buttons worn on graduates' robes made clear that many students and faculty objected to Bush's policies.

"We believe your administration has launched an unjust and unjustified war in Iraq," said a letter signed by about one-third the college's 300 faculty members and published in Saturday's Grand Rapids Press.

"As Christians, we are called to be peacemakers and to initiate war only as a last resort," it said.

The letter criticized economic policies that it said favored the wealthy over the poor, and faulted Bush for mixing religion and politics and exhibiting and "intolerance" for others' views.

It cited "conflicts between our understanding of what Christians are called to do and many of the policies of your administration."

The letter followed an earlier ad by students, alumni and faculty who said they were troubled that Bush was to be the commencement speaker.

Bush's speech emphasized community service and he urged graduates to volunteer.

"This isn't a Democrat idea."

"This isn't a Republican idea."

"This is an American idea," he said.

Some graduating students wore buttons that said "God is not a Democrat or a Republican."

A few dozen protesters gathered outside, carrying signs that read, "Conservatives and moderates reject extremism" and "Thou shalt not torture."

But there were also many Bush supporters, with placards that said, "We love Bush" and "Cutie pie."

Bush, a Methodist, often talks of the importance of faith in his life.

Some critics see this as crossing a line between religion and politics.

Bush said his emphasis on religion does not make him intolerant of those who do not share his beliefs.

"I don't condemn somebody in the political process because they may not agree with me on religion," he said.

Calvin College is the venue for one of two commencement speeches Bush will be delivering this year.

He is scheduled to speak at the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis on Friday.

(Additional reporting by Alister Bull)

[Livyjr]

And here, you are right, jeffmoskin!

Eliot Spitzer is on a "Crusade" of his own, to line his pockets with as much of the bounty of the tri-partite god "GEETUS, MOOLAH, and MAMMON", as he can, so that he can be Governor of the corrupt Empire State of New York, and really be tapped into the graft.

Talk about a hypocrite, our Eliot is one.

And he is raking in the big bucks, at last counting!

And talk about an association with Eliot Spitzer being the "kiss of death", sounds like this Brodsky just caught a dose himself, which is going to make this an intereting race indeed!

"Attorney general campaign heats up - With 17 months to go before election, hopefuls line up endorsements"

By ELIZABETH BENJAMIN, Capitol bureau, Albany, New York Times Union
First published: Thursday, May 19, 2005

ALBANY -- An endorsement war has blown up between two of the seven Democrats competing to be the next state attorney general -- and the race is 17 months away.

On Wednesday -- two days after state Assemblyman Brian McLaughlin, D-Queens, a New York City labor leader, endorsed former U.S. Housing Secretary Andrew Cuomo's likely bid for the office in 2006 -- another candidate, Assemblyman Richard Brodsky, D-Westchester, announced he has the backing of all five of his Democratic Assembly colleagues from Westchester County.

Assemblyman Adam Bradley called Brodsky "a leading reformer" and said he "most embodies the style" of crusading State Attorney General Eliot Spitzer, who raised the office to new heights with investigations of Wall Street and the insurance industry.

Spitzer is the Democrats' leading contender for governor in 2006.

Assemblywoman Amy Paulin echoed that, adding: "If you liked Eliot, you'll love Richard."

Assembly members Sandy Galef, George Latimer and Gary Pretlow rounded out Brodsky's endorsement list Wednesday.

This latest back-and-forth between Cuomo, son of former Gov. Mario Cuomo, and Brodsky, a former Westchester County legislator, follows their dueling announcements of union endorsements late last month.

First Cuomo won the support of the politically potent Service Employees International Union/Local 1199, which represents some 250,000 health care workers.

One week later, Brodsky revealed he had been endorsed by the 75,000-member Communications Workers of America union, which backed Cuomo's aborted gubernatorial bid in 2002.

Other Democrats interested in the attorney general's office include former New York City Public Advocate Mark Green; Assemblyman Michael Gianaris, D-Queens; Sean P. Maloney, a lawyer who worked as an aide to President Bill Clinton; Denise O'Donnell, the former United States attorney for the Western District of New York; and Charles King, who had two unsuccessful campaigns for lieutenant governor -- once as Cuomo's running mate.

Among Republicans mentioned for the attorney general race are Westchester County District Attorney Jeanine Pirro, state Sen. Michael Balboni, R-Nassau, and former U.S. Rep. Rick Lazio, who ran for the U.S. Senate against Hillary Clinton in 2000.

[jeffmoskin]

What is BUSH an acronym for?

BUSH


Belligerant

Unhelpful

Spendthrift

Hazardous

or... the obvious:

BU**SH**

[Livyjr]

B.U.S.H., try it and see!

Belligerant

Unhelpful

Spendthrift

Hazardous

or... the obvious:

BU**SH**

Well, jeffmoskin, as you know, being trained as a traditional engineer here in OUR America, I have only received a second-class education, quite deficient in culture, for no one really wants or desires cultured engineers, or at least, don't want to have to pay to "culture" them, anyway, I guess, and so, the other day, when I said George W. Bush would be equated with "an alleged leader without a shred of credibility whatsoever", I was dangling participles all over the place, and most blatantly, I was confusing a synonym with an acronym!

Thanks for setting me aright here!

I think that is the "civilizing" effect of your being a Californian now, that is showing through here!

I think that more progressive "nation" out there in California does have some empathy for the plight of the uncultured engineer, and so, as you have demonstrated here, somehow the "aculturizing" that an English major would experience as a result of being an English major has bled off over into you, through your long years of being out there, among them, and then, through the miracle of modern technology in here, over into me as well, and whoever knows where that is all going to go, eh?

[Livyjr]

And here, Mr. A.B., I have to say that the one "quality" that both you and jeffmoskin bring to this picnic, is your "outlook" on life, and politics, and history!

You have both sat by the side of the dam long enough now to know, and therefore not be excited or distracted by the fact that not the same amount of water is always flowing over it!

You both are "observers" of the human condition, and over time, you have become what I will call "expansive" in your outlook, which means that you have risen above provincialism, and being parochial!

Being expansive means that you have room in your minds to both assimilate new data, and to consider it, without it "blowing you clean away".

At the same time, you have both escaped, in large part anyway, having becoming jaded or cynical, which tend to close people's minds right on down to a pinpoint smaller than a DelMonte pea!

History IS PEOPLE!

Politics IS PEOPLE!

Therefore, whatever people have done, they just might do again, in a different place, or a different day and age, and that is where both you and jeffmoskin serve to bring balance into here, BECAUSE YOU BOTH KNOW THIS, and hence, you do not get so excited about the fact that a mosquito just landed on a dog's nose, and therefore might bite the dog.

You wait; you observe, because you know just as well that the dog might swat the mosquito, and end its biting days forever!

The give and take of life in motion .......

Except the water is going away, so what will happen to those who have to depend upon it, for their sustenance?

"Mideast water shortage could fuel political tensions: experts"

Sat May 21,10:04 AM ET

SHUNEH, Jordan (AFP) - The Middle East is faced with the prospect of a serious water crisis that could lead to political tensions and hamper prosperity, experts told a session of a World Economic Forum (WEF).

"We are not secure about water supplies."

"Supplies are simply not enough ..."

"This is a scary issue," Hazem Nasser, former Jordanian water and irrigation minister told the session.

He said that with the current population growth rate in the Arab world, the picture looks even more gloomier.

"In 1950, the Arab population was 75 million."

"In 2,000, it was 300 million, and is expected to grow to 600 million by 2025."

He said the deficit of water in the region was 30 billion cubic meters (approximately 7.95 trillion imperial gallons) last year and is expected to grow to 175 billion cubic meters (46 trillion gallons) in 2025.

"Most of the countries in the region have exhausted their water resources," he said, adding the only hope is costly desalination of sea water.

With new technology advances, desalination costs have dropped to 53 cents per cubic meter from two dollars a few years ago, Naser said.

But the cost has now increased again due to skyrocketing oil prices.

He said a proposed project to link the Red Sea to the Dead Sea with a canal is "an excellent platform for stability" as it can secure sufficient water supplies to Jordan, Israel and the Palestinian territories.

Avishay Braverman, president of Ben-Gurion University in Israel, said current shortages in those three areas amount to 3.5 billion cubic meters (920 billion gallons) annually.

"You have two options, either you import water or desalinate, and I say desalinate," he said.

He said water shortages should not be used as a pretext for war because "investment needed for desalination of sea water for 40 years equals spending on defense for one year."

The experts warned that Dead Sea level has dropped from 392 meters (1,286 feet) below sea level a few years ago to 416 meters (1,365 feet) now.

They called for quick solutions.

end quotes

Reminds me of a bunch of locusts who are standing around after having eaten up all the grain in sight, wondering what they are now going to do, like maybe learn to eat dirt, since they have caused so much of it to be all that is left for anyone!

Or a bunch of hogs at the empty trough, maybe, wondering about converting themselves over to eating pork, because that is in abundant supply, and nothing else is left!

[jeffmoskin]

Well, jeffmoskin, as you know, being trained as a traditional engineer here in OUR America, I have only received a second-class education, quite deficient in culture, for no one really wants or desires cultured engineers, or at least, don't want to have to pay to "culture" them, anyway, I guess, and so, the other day, when I said George W. Bush would be equated with "an alleged leader without a shred of credibility whatsoever", I was dangling participles all over the place, and most blatantly, I was confusing a synonym with an acronym!

Thanks for setting me aright here!

I think that is the "civilizing" effect of your being a Californian now, that is showing through here!

I think that more progressive "nation" out there in California does have some empathy for the plight of the uncultured engineer, and so, as you have demonstrated here, somehow the "aculturizing" that an English major would experience as a result of being an English major has bled off over into you, through your long years of being out there, among them, and then, through the miracle of modern technology in here, over into me as well, and whoever knows where that is all going to go, eh?

I are an engineer, too.

Got learned in the Empire State.

Except the water is going away, so what will happen to those who have to depend upon it, for their sustenance?

"Mideast water shortage could fuel political tensions: experts"

Sat May 21,10:04 AM ET

SHUNEH, Jordan (AFP) - The Middle East is faced with the prospect of a serious water crisis that could lead to political tensions and hamper prosperity, experts told a session of a World Economic Forum (WEF).

"We are not secure about water supplies."

"Supplies are simply not enough ..."

"This is a scary issue," Hazem Nasser, former Jordanian water and irrigation minister told the session.

He said that with the current population growth rate in the Arab world, the picture looks even more gloomier.

"In 1950, the Arab population was 75 million."

"In 2,000, it was 300 million, and is expected to grow to 600 million by 2025."

He said the deficit of water in the region was 30 billion cubic meters (approximately 7.95 trillion imperial gallons) last year and is expected to grow to 175 billion cubic meters (46 trillion gallons) in 2025.

"Most of the countries in the region have exhausted their water resources," he said, adding the only hope is costly desalination of sea water.

With new technology advances, desalination costs have dropped to 53 cents per cubic meter from two dollars a few years ago, Naser said.

But the cost has now increased again due to skyrocketing oil prices.

He said a proposed project to link the Red Sea to the Dead Sea with a canal is "an excellent platform for stability" as it can secure sufficient water supplies to Jordan, Israel and the Palestinian territories.

Avishay Braverman, president of Ben-Gurion University in Israel, said current shortages in those three areas amount to 3.5 billion cubic meters (920 billion gallons) annually.

"You have two options, either you import water or desalinate, and I say desalinate," he said.

He said water shortages should not be used as a pretext for war because "investment needed for desalination of sea water for 40 years equals spending on defense for one year."

The experts warned that Dead Sea level has dropped from 392 meters (1,286 feet) below sea level a few years ago to 416 meters (1,365 feet) now.

They called for quick solutions.

end quotes

Reminds me of a bunch of locusts who are standing around after having eaten up all the grain in sight, wondering what they are now going to do, like maybe learn to eat dirt, since they have caused so much of it to be all that is left for anyone!

Or a bunch of hogs at the empty trough, maybe, wondering about converting themselves over to eating pork, because that is in abundant supply, and nothing else is left!

Hey!

We got water.

They got oil.

Maybe we can make a deal here.

[Livyjr]

Hey!

We got water.

I stopped by a friend's house today, to chat, and while I was there, I was watching the weather channel, which is really quite interesting to watch when it shows the various satellite pictures for the United States, region by region by region!

When we are talking in here, of course, we are virtual, and in many senses, that makes us from nowhere, since in here, we don't have weather, or water, to worry about and so, it is largely out of sight and out of mind, except for the rare times that I get an article like this one above to post!

It's nearing the end of May up here where I am, OUTSIDE OF VIRTUAL REALITY, and so far, it has been dry and cool!

In fact, just a few days ago or so, we had a hard freeze that killed all of my friend's tomatoes, peppers, egg plants, etc., all of which were set outside AFTER Mother's Day, which is considered to be the "safe" date for setting such perishables outside, based on long-term experience up here with the vagaries of the weather in the north-east.

What was so fascinating on the weather channel today was the fact that out near Chicago, maybe a thousand or so miles away, maybe less, the air flow was west to east, while here, to the east of Chicago, on the same latitude, give or take, so due east, the air flow was the exact reverse, east to west, so that between Chicago and here was somewhat like the place between a hammer and an anvil, with two huge air masses coming at each other like freight trains, head-on!

The end of May, and we are having a classic Nor'easter up here, TODAY, as I write these words, which is what the winter blizzards are called when they turn west over the coast of Massachusetts and head inland in a counter-clockwise rotation that buries us under feet of snow where I am!

It's cold up here.

My friend had his wood stove going today, and boy, did it feel good!

In the meantime, down in Arizona, it was above 100 degrees Fahrenheit, and to the west of us, it was maybe twenty degrees higher in temperature, where the air was flowing from west to east, as it normally does, here in OUR America.

On the satellite loop, my "weather" could clearly be seen coming northwards up the Atlantic Ocean to Massachusetts, where in classical Nor'easter fashion, it then turned westwards, to have it be rainy here all day today, and cold, which is now to continue on out for the next several days, at least!

And this is the end of May!

Us older folks up here who can remember the last fifty years or so of weather in this area find this all to be quite interesting, as OUR seasons up here are shifting in the time of year that they are occurring, which is a direct function of the amount of water that there is in the environment in its three states at any given time.

It is as if OUR seasons up here have shifted phase by so many months, so that in March, the weather that we are having would normally be associated with some other month, and so too now in May, and in November, on the other end of the spectrum!

And on the weather channel today, they were showing tornado ravaged areas in OUR America, and there is something that never happened up here when I was young, and now even in New York State and neighboring Massachusetts, tornados and violent winds more normally associated with states and areas far to the west and south of us are becoming commonplace occurences, which has me personally building a house that I have designed for high wind loads and heavy ice loads, both of which are becoming just the way it is anymore up here, instead of what it used to be, before the world went crazy and began to destroy itself, somewhere back in the 1970's perhaps, when it began to do so in earnest!

WATER!

Such a simple thing, and yet, so very dangerous a thing, when it is in the control of a furious and violent nature that has been upset, yea, literally up-ended by US, the ones who will now do some suffering for OUR collective witlessness and stupidity in the face of that nature, which we thought we were the masters of!

Yeah, right!

Go to the weather channel and tell the wind here to quit acting like it is winter, and have it turn back to a westerly flow again!

Or have George W. Bush do it for you, if you are unable!

And if he can't, oh well!

[Livyjr]

NO BIASED AND PREJUDICED CONSERVATIVE JUDGES in OUR America, please!

Pass it along!

Thank you!

And to tell your Senator, click on this url, now:

http://www.congress.org

SO!

SHOULD THE FEDERAL COURTS IN OUR AMERICA CATER TO ONLY THOSE WITH THE MONEY TO BUY THEMSELVES A FANCY LAWYER, AS THE "CONSERVATIVES" WOULD HAVE IT BE, OR SHOULD THE COURTS OF OUR AMERICA BE AS OPEN TO THOSE WITHOUT MEANS, AS THEY ARE TO THE RICHEST AND MOST POLITICALLY POWERFUL AMONG US?

The question of the moment!

To be continued ....

Updated regularly!

Please, stay tuned!

INTERNATIONAL STUDIES

http://www.sanjuan.edu/schools/miraloma/isweb/mont.htm

The Spirit of the Laws

By Charles de Secondat, Baron de Montesquieu

1748

In every government there are three sorts of power; the legislative; in respect to things dependent on the law of nations; and the executive, in regard to things that depend on the civil law.

By the third, he punishes criminals, or determines the disputes that arise between individuals.

The latter we shall call the judiciary power...

The political liberty of the subject is a tranquillity of mind, arising from the opinion each person has of his safety.

In order to have this liberty, it is requisite the government be so constituted as one man need not be afraid of another.

When the legislative and executive powers are united in the same person, or in the same body of magistrates, there can be no liberty; because apprehensions may arise, lest the same monarch or senate should enact tyrannical laws, to execute them in a tyrannical manner.

Again, there is no liberty, if the power of judging be not separated from the legislative and executive powers.

Were it joined with the legislative, the life and liberty of the subject would be exposed to arbitrary control, for the judge would then be the legislator.

Were it joined to the executive power, the judge might behave with all the violence of an oppressor.

[Livyjr]

INTERNATIONAL STUDIES

http://www.sanjuan.edu/schools/miraloma/isweb/mont.htm

The Spirit of the Laws

By Charles de Secondat, Baron de Montesquieu

1748

The political liberty of the subject is a tranquillity of mind, arising from the opinion each person has of his safety.

In order to have this liberty, it is requisite the government be so constituted as one man need not be afraid of another.

"U.S., Iraq Troops Launch Baghdad Offensive"

By PAUL GARWOOD, Associated Press Writer

13 minutes ago

BAGHDAD, Iraq - Seven Iraqi battalions backed by U.S. forces launched an offensive in the capital on Sunday in an effort to stanch the violence that has killed more than 550 people in less than a month, targeting insurgents who have attacked the dangerous road to Baghdad's airport and Abu Ghraib prison.

Aides to a radical anti-American Shiite cleric, meanwhile, sought to defuse tension between Sunnis and the majority Shiites after a recent series of sectarian killings.

Iraq's government took the diplomatic offensive, joining the United States in its oft-repeated demands that Syria close its porous border to foreign fighters.

A senior Iraqi Trade Ministry official was killed in an ongoing terror campaign that has killed more than 550 people in less than one month.

Iraqi authorities also announced that Ghazi Hammud al-Obeidi, 65, one of the most-wanted officials from Saddam Hussein's former regime, had been released last month apparently because he was apparently terminally ill with stomach cancer.

Al-Obeidi had been regional chairman of the ruling Baath Party in the southeastern city of Kut.

He was detained May 7, 2003, and released April 28, making him the first of the 55 most-wanted Iraqis to be freed.

He was No. 51 on the most-wanted list.

The U.S. military said the offensive in the west of the capital had been set in motion to root out insurgents, especially those who have staged bloody assaults on the U.S.-run Abu Ghraib prison and the notoriously dangerous road from downtown to the airport.

Without providing numbers of troops, U.S. officials said four battalions of Iraqi soldiers and three battalions of police launched the offensive with the support of an unspecified number of American military personnel, although a total of about 2,500 personnel were believed involved.

"They are searching for gunmen and weapons believed to be used to target airport road and Abu Ghraib prison, which has come under regular mortar fire," said police Lt. Akram al-Zubaie.

Suspects were detained but the military gave no numbers.

"Iraqi army and ministry of interior forces worked very well together and demonstrated good, solid fundamental skills today," said Col. Mark A. Milley, commander of the 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 10th Mountain Division.

Also Sunday, three Romanian journalists and their Iraqi-American guide were released after being held captive for nearly two months.

Iraqi insurgents had demanded Romania withdraw its soldiers from Iraq.

Bucharest rejected the demand.

Separately, Iraqi security forces captured Ismail Budair Ibrahim al-Obeidi, a "terrorist" close to the network of the Jordan-born militant Abu Musab al-Zarqawi on Tuesday in Baqouba, northeast of Baghdad, a government statement said.

The terror suspect, also known as Abu Omar, planned car bomb attacks in Baghdad and rigged booby-trapped cars for foreign fighters, the statement said.

In charging Syria with failing to stop the influx of foreign fighters, Baghdad was restating a routine U.S. complaint.

"Syria can do more," government spokesman Laith Kuba said at a news conference.

"It has a regime based on security, intelligence and police" he said, arguing that Damascus must know of the presence of the foreign fighters.

"It is impossible for about 2,000 people coming from the Gulf to pass through Syria and cross from Qaim or other border points without being discovered, despite our repeated calls," he said.

Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari said during a trip to Turkey last week that he would soon visit Syria to discuss the issue of foreign infiltration.

Syria has been coming under pressure to stop foreign fighters infiltrating into Iraq, where violence has drastically increased since the April 28 announcement of al-Jaafari's Shiite-led government.

Syria has always denied the charges.

Senior aides of anti-U.S. cleric Muqtada al-Sadr met a key Sunnis group in a bid to soothe tensions that have flared and resulted in the death of 10 Shiite and Sunni clerics in the past two weeks.

"There is a wound that needs to be treated and Muqtada was the first to offer his medicine," said Sheik Abdul Salam al-Kubaisi, spokesman for the Sunni Association of Muslim Scholars after the talks with the al-Sadr delegation.

The association's leader, Harith al-Dhari, last week pinned the killing of several Sunnis, including clerics, on the Badr Brigades, the military wing of Iraq's largest Shiite party, the Supreme Council of the Islamic Revolution in Iraq.

Brigade general secretary Hadi al-Amri has denied the charge and accused the Sunni association of wanting to "push Iraq into a sectarian conflict."

Al-Sadr, a burly, black-bearded cleric, said in a television interview aired Sunday the talks were aimed at settling the feud between the association and the Badr Bridges.

He resurfaced this week after lying low following fierce battles last year in the southern holy city of Najaf and Baghdad's impoverished Sadr City between his supporters and U.S. forces.

Al-Kubaisi, the Sunni association official, said he handed al-Sadr's delegation a document committing his group to certain steps, but he did not elaborate.

More meetings with al-Sadr's group will be held in the future, he said.

Sunni leaders announced Saturday they had formed an alliance of tribal, political and religious groups to help Iraq's once dominant minority break out of its deepening isolation following a Shiite rise to power after Saddam's ouster.

Kuba said Sunni Muslim leaders should take a strong stand on the killing of security forces and others at the hand of the insurgents.

Sunni extremists are believed to be driving Iraq's relentless insurgency.

"They should also give their opinion about the killing of civilians," he said.

"The Iraqi people want to hear that."

Sunnis are believed to make up the bulk of Iraq's raging insurgency, which claimed more victims Sunday, including Trade Ministry official Ali Moussa and his driver.

They were killed in a drive-by shooting while heading to work, ministry spokesman Faraj al-Jaafari said.

Moussa ran the ministry's auditing office and was a junior official during Saddam's regime.

A suicide car bomber also blew himself up near a U.S. convoy and police station in Tikrit, 80 miles north of Baghdad, killing one American soldier and wounding two others along with and two Iraqi policemen, the military said.

Also Sunday, a U.S. soldier was killed in a vehicle accident near Kirkuk, 180 miles north of the Iraqi capital, the military said.
___

Associated Press writers Bassem Mroue, Qassim Abdul-Zahara and Sinan Salaheddin in Baghdad contributed to this report.

[Livyjr]

And once again, another day in OUR America dawns, and what will it bring?

Well, that remains to be seen, of course, but as for me, well, life goes on, whatever it may bring, and that is just how it is, as I see it anyway!

The ebb and flow of life in this world of OURS, and we are its observers!

This morning, on the radio news, they were remarking on the heat down there in jeffmoskin country, and the cold up here in Livyjr country, and all I could think was, "oh well", because folks, here is where we actually are!

Life is not what we think it is going to be, it is what it is going to be, and then, it is up to each of us to position ourselves where and how we think we should be, to survive, and/or thrive, in what is to come!

When I was young, 1957, to be exact, there was quite a drought up here, and I just happened to be at my grandfather's farm when a photographer from the now defunct Albany Knickerbocker News came by, to photograph my grandfather's hands holding that dry soil, and all these years later, I still have that news article, to remind me of the uncertainties and vagaries of life out in the country, where it is still better to try and understand nature, and to co-exist with it, than to climb way up on one's high horse, and start thinking that one is some kind of "master of the universe", as I hear a lot of these young corporate MBA types calling themselves, as if it could be so!

"Make it rain" is what I would say to them, if in fact you are really this "master of the universe", as you claim, or make it stop raining, when too much has come!

And of course, they can do neither, so why make the claim in the first place?

But that is just me, an old country folk, thinking out loud!

Ah, well .....

[jeffmoskin]

It's cold up here.

My friend had his wood stove going today, and boy, did it feel good!

In the meantime, down in Arizona, it was above 100 degrees Fahrenheit, and to the west of us, it was maybe twenty degrees higher in temperature, where the air was flowing from west to east, as it normally does, here in OUR America.

On the satellite loop, my "weather" could clearly be seen coming northwards up the Atlantic Ocean to Massachusetts, where in classical Nor'easter fashion, it then turned westwards, to have it be rainy here all day today, and cold, which is now to continue on out for the next several days, at least!

And this is the end of May!

Us older folks up here who can remember the last fifty years or so of weather in this area find this all to be quite interesting, as OUR seasons up here are shifting in the time of year that they are occurring, which is a direct function of the amount of water that there is in the environment in its three states at any given time.

It is as if OUR seasons up here have shifted phase by so many months, so that in March, the weather that we are having would normally be associated with some other month, and so too now in May, and in November, on the other end of the spectrum!

And on the weather channel today, they were showing tornado ravaged areas in OUR America, and there is something that never happened up here when I was young, and now even in New York State and neighboring Massachusetts, tornados and violent winds more normally associated with states and areas far to the west and south of us are becoming commonplace occurences, which has me personally building a house that I have designed for high wind loads and heavy ice loads, both of which are becoming just the way it is anymore up here, instead of what it used to be, before the world went crazy and began to destroy itself, somewhere back in the 1970's perhaps, when it began to do so in earnest!

WATER!

Such a simple thing, and yet, so very dangerous a thing, when it is in the control of a furious and violent nature that has been upset, yea, literally up-ended by US, the ones who will now do some suffering for OUR collective witlessness and stupidity in the face of that nature, which we thought we were the masters of!

Yeah, right!

Go to the weather channel and tell the wind here to quit acting like it is winter, and have it turn back to a westerly flow again!

Or have George W. Bush do it for you, if you are unable!

And if he can't, oh well!

This morning, on the radio news, they were remarking on the heat down there in jeffmoskin country, and the cold up here in Livyjr country, and all I could think was, "oh well", because folks, here is where we actually are!

Life is not what we think it is going to be, it is what it is going to be, and then, it is up to each of us to position ourselves where and how we think we should be, to survive, and/or thrive, in what is to come!

When I was young, 1957, to be exact, there was quite a drought up here, and I just happened to be at my grandfather's farm when a photographer from the now defunct Albany Knickerbocker News came by, to photograph my grandfather's hands holding that dry soil, and all these years later, I still have that news article, to remind me of the uncertainties and vagaries of life out in the country, where it is still better to try and understand nature, and to co-exist with it, than to climb way up on one's high horse, and start thinking that one is some kind of "master of the universe", as I hear a lot of these young corporate MBA types calling themselves, as if it could be so!

"Make it rain" is what I would say to them, if in fact you are really this "master of the universe", as you claim, or make it stop raining, when too much has come!

And of course, they can do neither, so why make the claim in the first place?

But that is just me, an old country folk, thinking out loud!

Ah, well .....

We humans, having noticed a few thousand years back an object which we chose to call "THE SUN," have become solar-based in our thinking as well as in our living. The so-called seasons we plant and harvest by are set by the sun (or sun and moon if you want greater accuracy).

Mother (or father?) nature, however, has different seasons, since, in addition to being influenced (but not controlled) by the earth's daily and yearly rotation cycles around the sun, the earth is also influenced by small perturbations like...

volcanic eruptions!

In 1980, Mt. St. Helens blew up, scattering volcanic ash into the stratosphere.

That event changed the prevailing South-Easterly flow of air here in Kah-Lee FAWN-Yah to North-Westerly. That is a rather profound event. The effect is finally starting to diminish now after 25 years.

In 1992, Mt. Pinatubo blew up, scattering volcanic ash into the stratosphere, too, only this event made St. Helens look like a pop-gun.

For the next two years, the average temperature of the world was two degrees Celsius LOWER than average. TWO DEGREES CELSIUS. By comparison, global warming has been less than 1 degree over the past 100 years.

Global Cooling! Caused by NATURE.

We six billion souls can screw up the environment; we can poison the air and the water; we can increase the "greenhouse effect;" we can dam up the canyons and kill off marine life.

But we are little league compared to nature. We are just here for the ride.

Fasten your seat belts.

[Peggy]

We six billion souls can screw up the environment; we can poison the air and the water; we can increase the "greenhouse effect;" we can dam up the canyons and kill off marine life.

But we are little league compared to nature. We are just here for the ride.

Fasten your seat belts.

I like the way you said that (little league). It's always interesting to hear people after hurricanes, for example, say, "I can't believe it..." Then, the next year, they rebuild in the same stupid spot right on the beach-- as if to tell nature that it won’t happen again!

People tend to underestimate the power and fragility of nature.

This post has been edited by Peggy: May 23 2005, 09:50 AM

[Livyjr]

I like the way you said that (little league). 

It's always interesting to hear people after hurricanes, for example, say, "I can't believe it..." 

Then, the next year, they rebuild in the same stupid spot right on the beach-- as if to tell nature that it won’t happen again!

People tend to underestimate the power and fragility of nature.

Well, Peggy, first of all, welcome aboard!

And thank you for your thoughts and comments on "nature", which is, as you say, both powerful, and yet, quite fragile in many ways, all at the same time, which is something I thought we all knew, but what a pipe dream that was, on my part, because so many people don't even seem to have a clue these days, especially all of these people who lately have been moving up here to my area, following this plague of "land development" that has been going on up here since the late-1970's, give or take, and escalating with ever more speed since then, to the point of where it is now insane, and there just is no other word for it, insane!

In a place where the temperature extremes are about 130 degrees Fahrenheit, from 100 degrees above zero, to 30 degrees or so below, we have people building huge Mediteranean style houses, with flat roofs, and in places where the snow mounts up, and the water flows when it melts.

People are building these things right where the wind blows the hardest, because of the view, so that in the winter, when the wind blows during a blizzard, they are drifted in so tight they can't get in or out!

And then they complain about the weather, as if it never snowed up here before, or got cold!

And houses are being built right in the courses of intermittent streams, and today, I saw some fool putting a foundation for a house right in a settling basin for a subdivision storm-water management sytem!

And the town is letting this all go on, for the money!

They don't care!

If the houses flood, it don't affect these town officials, who only want the taxes that they can get off of the "developments".

Incredible!

Just incredible is all I can say about it!