NASA Blasts off with Lockheed Martin

NASA Blasting off With Lockheed Martin
He walked into the White House on 9/15/2005 and presented his plan to replace the dangerous space shuttles. Two of the shuttles disintegrated and exploded killing their occupants.
Mike Griffin is a rocket scientist and has an MBA, which is a Masters Degree in Business Administration.
That may be why his new plan is to use rockets to replace the poorly designed shuttles. It may also be why approval was given without any figures or information on how to pay for it.
Mike Griffin?s new fleet of rockets will be a rework of rockets used during the moon shots in the 1960?s. There will be a large rocket for sending cargo into space that will tower 350 feet off the launch pad. A smaller rocket will speed humans into space.
The rockets will draw on design information and experience the United States has had in building and deploying nuclear weapons.
Mike Griffin served as CEO of In-Q-Tel. In-Q-Tel is described by it?s first CEO Gilman Louie as being formed "...to ensure that the CIA remains at the cutting edge of information technology advances and capabilities."
Space planes and lighter than air craft that can lift loads faster and far heavier than those planned for by the obsolete rockets have been sidelined as Mike Griffin takes NASA ?Back to the Past?.
Several board members of In-Q-Tel have connections with Lockheed-Martin Corporation.
Expect most of Mike Griffin?s ?new? old rockets to be produced by Lockheed-Martin.

Darkest America

The Nairobi Museum in Nairobi, Kenya is closing for renovation and houses art and science exhibits.
Included are fossils that the Leakey’s dug up in the Rift Valley.
The Great Rift Valley extends from northern Syria in Southwest Asia to central Mozambique in East Africa. It was created by the separation of the African and Arabian tectonic plates beginning about 35 million years.
While Kenya strides forward the United States continues to slip back into the Dark Ages.
One American roadside attraction displays dinosaurs with Adam and Eve.
Ken Ham, president of Answers in Genesis has been quoted as saying, "We're putting evolutionists on notice: We're taking the dinosaurs back.” He has built a $25-million creationist museum in Petersburg, Ky.
In Pensacola, Florida tourists can stop at Dinosaur Adventure Land whose slogan is, "Where Dinosaurs and the Bible meet!"
According to their account, God created the world in six days and dinosaurs were vegetarians until Adam and Eve sinned. That is when they started being meat eaters.
Thousands of evangelical preachers insist that 4,500 years after Adam and Eve arrived dinosaurs entered Noah's Ark, later repopulated earth and were killed off by Christian knights.
Unlike the Nairobi Museum which hunts down fossils the Creation Evidence Museum in Glen Rose, Texas hunts living pterodactyls in Papua New Guinea.
The director of the Creation Evidence Museum said five of his friends spotted the flying dinosaurs, "but all the sightings were made after dark, and we were not able to capture the creatures."

Profiteering from Katrina

Haley Barbour is the Governor of Mississippi.
Shortly after Hurricane Katrina left the state of Mississippi in a shambles Haley Barbour flew along the coast in a helicopter and viewed the devastated casinos.
His plans have included tax give-aways to casinos and Toyota which runs a large auto plant near Canton, Mississippi.
He encouraged gambling casinos into becoming the main breadwinner in coastal areas. Halliburton, the company Vice President Dick Cheney use to be in charge of is going to help rebuild Mississippi.
Federal contracts for rebuilding after Hurricane Katrina have pushed Halliburton’s stock price to a new high.
Haley founded Barbour, Griffith and Rogers around 1991. They say "our firm is actively involved in the shaping of public policy issues that dominate the American political and corporate agenda. We serve as advocates in federal government relations, a vital link to state governments, and an ally in business development anywhere in the U.S. and in markets around the world."
Joseph Allbaugh, who was President Bush’s campaign manager and the director of FEMA set up two companies with the help of Haley Barbour. One is New Bridge Strategies and assists companies secure contracts in Iraq while Blackwell Fairbanks works for Lockheed Martin.
Lockheed Martin maintains facilities in :
New Orleans, Louisiana, Stennis Space Center, Mississippi, Pascagoula, Mississippi, Keesler AFB, Biloxi, Mississippi, Meridian, Mississippi, Enterprise, Alabama, Anniston, Alabama, Huntsville, Alabama, Ponchatoula, Louisiana.
Joseph Allbaugh’s wife, Diane, previously worked at Haley Barbour’s firm and lobbied on behalf of Native American tribes and casinos.
Ask yourself this question – how much money would the friends of Dick Cheney, George Bush, Joe Allbaugh and Haley Barbour have lost if the Gulf Coast had been adequately prepared for Hurricane Katrina?

Information Floating Around

President Bush went through New Orleans.
First of all he had his ‘Blame Game’ phrase changed to ‘The storm didn’t discriminate and neither will the recover effort.’
When asked about what he thought went wrong with the disaster response he said, ‘Well, there’s a lot of information floating around out there.’
Get it?
‘A lot of information floating around out there.’
Other notable figures had things to say.
"It makes me think of what my friend Rev. Goat just told me: 'Let me say this before it goes any further; New Orleans didn't die of natural causes, she was murdered.'", said Dr. John.
The President’s mother, Barbara Bush, was memorable with this gushing of weak kneed, blue blood gibberish, “"What I'm hearing, which is sort of scary, is they all want to stay in Texas."
Ex-FEMA Director Michael Brown said, ‘"This story's not about me. This story's about the worst disaster of the history of our country that stretched every government to its limit. And now we have to help these victims. " He apparently helped Lockheed Martin through Mississippi Governor Haley Barbour and his old boss man Joe Allbaugh.
Al Sharpton said, "No one in America should feel comfortable sleeping, unless we know that plans are in place that will protect the cities of this country, because it could have been us."
Nancy Pelosi, House Democratic leader said, "The president said he's going to lead the investigation into what went wrong. He needs to look only in the mirror."

Smokey the Bear Showed Up, where was Uncle Sam?

Lt. David Shand and Lt. Matt Udkow piloted H-3 helicopters out of Pensacola, Fla., having been ordered to deliver emergency food, water and other supplies to Stennis Space Center in Mississippi on Tuesday, August 30, the day after Katrina.
After dropping their loads they picked up a Coast Guard call for helicopter assistance in New Orleans. They rescued 110 people.
When they returned to base they were reprimanded.
I think their superior should be stripped of his rank and they should both be promoted.
What do you think? Why don’t you let your government representatives know how you feel?
Why not question why the vast resources of the American military (which has been held in reserve because the National Guard was sent to invade and occupy Iraq) were not put in use to assist in the immediate aftermath of the Hurricane disaster?
Advantages to the nation would have been an exercise for the military which is presently pretty much sitting around doing nothing and it would also have shown to the world the ability of the United States to respond effectively anywhere anytime in a compassionate manner. Did you know that the Mexican military has entered the United States and is bringing aid to the Gulf Coast?
It is a fact that within three days a very effective force of helicopters from as far away as Camp LeJeune could have reached the stricken areas and swooped thousands of people out with mind numbing swiftness. It is also a fact that the Navy helicopter ships that were sent from the east coast could have launched their helicopters to fly over Florida, refuel and arrive at the disaster area a week before their ships did. Instead their helicopters remained secured and they still have not been put into the field.
I am afraid that what happened in the Gulf Coast is a direct result of the political ideals of what this Administration feels is the role of the Federal Government in such cases. This might have been fine had the three stricken states (and their neighbors) had their National Guard units at full strength rather than occupying and rebuilding a foreign nation and if more than 10,000 Americans had not lost their lives.
Now they tell us it might not be 10,000. It could be much less. They have also forbidden photographers. It is a foolish set of circumstances.
If this is a failure of their ideals what will they do to us next?
More information about the role of the military for peacekeeping duties inside our borders is at :
globalsecurity.org/military/library/report/1995/SLP.htm
It is written by Major Stawicki of the United States Marine Corps.
I wonder what use George Washington would have put our military to following Hurricane Katrina considering he invaded Pennsylvania because a bunch of backwoodsmen didn’t want to pay tax. I also wonder what President James Madison would have done to repay the action on behalf of the United States by the ancestors of these people who have been so devastated by this natural disaster. I also wonder what President Andrew Jackson would have done had he known that President George Bush was going to abandon the men and women who helped him secure victory during the war of 1812.
Finally – the cities. Mobile, Biloxi and New Orleans. I can’t believe some of the chatter about New Orleans. I remember being taught in elementary school that New Orleans was important as a shipping port and because it guards the mouth of the Mississippi. Grocery prices are inching up now because imports have been halted or redirected. Natural gas prices are spiking and fuel oil and gasoline have been affected. The drought on the Mississippi has caused massive problems this year because the soybean, corn, wheat and other crops can’t be moved properly but after Katrina, now that the harvest is coming on there is going to be a bigger problem if New Orleans port is not operational. There will be starvation and hardship around the world because of the slow down.
I don’t think the enormity of what is happening has settled in yet. I am horrified by the lack of response. Did you know that it appears that the Louisiana Fish and Wildlife service saved more people than any other group? They brought people in from as far away as Kentucky and they just did everything they could. The Forest Service was called in to put out the fires and they did their job.
Smokey the Bear showed up but where was Uncle Sam?
What will happen if North Carolina needs help? There have been hurricanes so fierce through there that islands were moved around and the coastline changed. (see Oregon inlet)
What will happen if California needs help? Or Kansas? Florida? - oh, sorry, Florida is okay. The President’s brother is the governor. They were already settling insurance claims there as Katrina raged through the Gulf Coast.
I myself called the Red Cross and about eight other relief agencies on behalf of my company looking for ways to help. The people here wanted to volunteer and help out the volunteers that were being overwhelmed. You know what I was told? Either the agencies rejected the offer outright or they rejected it and asked for cash.
But it doesn’t end there. One my co-workers located 200 families near our company and another 3 in another town. After talking with local representatives we found out that those folks needed EVERYTHING domestic we could give them. So now we have things going there and I am trying to find out if they need other services we could render.
As I consider what is happening and what I have seen (a lady I know was at two hotels in Arkansas and the only people that came around were local churches to see about the families and kids) I am beginning to believe that the reality of this bungled mess has been driven by a high level racism or some kind of sick and out dated class division where the rich not only refuse to help the poor they refuse to acknowledge that they exist at all.
I have heard and read and talked with people that have said that New Orleans was 80 percent black. As if that makes it okay. As if that makes it alright to ignore them. As if the plight of these Americans stuck in Alabama, Mississippi and Louisiana were not deserving of immediate action because of the color of their skin.
When I have not heard the stink of racism raised I hear some sort of American Apartheid argument whereby they are judged unworthy of aid because they had no money. Their pocket books were not green enough to warrant concern.
Some of these people had no money, sure. Others did. Why did they stay? Things happen. I am sure that not all who stayed intended on staying. They had a short time to get out. The people going out on Highway 10 missed a massacre by 4 to 6 hours when the massive traffic jam was finally broken up (by private citizens using cell phones).
Some of these people had no cars. Some of my friends have no car. Does that mean they are less entitled to common human decency and the effective action of our expensive and mighty military forces?
What happened there? What happened?
I am so outraged myself that if I could raise my voice to a hurricane wind I would blow this nation clean.
As for the ethnic makeup. It was an American city. It was all mixed up and everyone was there. Generally living in peace. Generally good and decent people. :
Wikipedia tells us this about New Orleans :
As of the census2 of 2000, there were 484,674 people, 188,251 households, and 112,950 families residing in the city. The population density was 1,036.4/km² (2,684.3/mi²). There were 215,091 housing units at an average density of 459.9/km² (1,191.3/mi²). The racial makeup of the city was 67.25% African American, 28.05% White, 0.20% Native American, 2.26% Asian, 0.02% Pacific Islander, 0.93% from other races, and 1.28% from two or more races. 3.06% of the population were Hispanic or Latino of any race.

Starvation and Loss Follow Katrina

The American harvest season for wheat, soybeans, cotton, corn and other major commodities begins shortly. The farmers that will be pulling in this year’s harvest in the central states rely on barges to carry their corn, soybeans and wheat down the Mississippi River to the Port of New Orleans.
New Orleans is a crucial link to export markets but was badly damaged by Hurricane Katrina. Local officials are hopping mad from Minnesota all the way down to Mississippi.
The Midwest has experienced the worst drought in 20 years.
The storm destroyed sugar cane and rice fields across the southeast.
As a result of the damage to pipelines, oil platforms and refineries in the Gulf Coast farmers are forced to pay more for fuel to harvest and transport crops. This has impacted their profits and the financial markets.
Commodity exports and imports are slowed. Bananas, orange juice, apple juice and other materials imported from Central and South America are delayed in pick up or delivery. The ships are turned away because the secondary ports cannot accommodate the ships. Prices are already rising in supermarkets.
Midwestern farms have been shipping stored corn and soybeans to make room for this year's harvest but damaged waterways and grain handling facilities have left the barges stuck on the river.
Secondary markets and aid shipments of grains and beans will not be moving any time soon and will worsen the hunger crisis in Africa and southeast Asia.
There has been no response from the White House.

American Apartheid

American Apartheid

“Hello? I’d like to volunteer to work for the American Red Cross and help the victims of Hurricane Katrina.”
“Sorry, we have all the people we need. You can send cash, though.”
This exchange and many others like them take place frequently in the United States.
My friend works at a large international company. Hundreds of her co-workers want to do something to help the victims and our neighbors.
These feelings of neighborly love and patriotism however are cast aside with alarming frequency.
She contacted several different national agencies.
All of them without fail either rejected her offers of assistance or rejected the offers and asked for money.
Meanwhile public calls from Mississippi and Louisiana and some parts of Alabama continue to be sent out to the nation.
Why aren’t offers of assistance and aid getting through?
Why was the American military ordered not to help?
Lt. David Shand and Lt. Matt Udkow are Navy pilots. After using their multi-million dollar helicopter to drop off food and water to a damaged base in Mississippi they answered a call for help from the Coast Guard in New Orleans and rescued 110 people.
They were reprimanded by their commander.
Why did so many Americans die?
They were living under American apartheid.
The racism that America used to swear by has given way to economic racism.
Whether you live or die, enjoy life or suffer is determined by how green your wallet is.
The bodies are appearing above the waters now.

Tom Delay Afraid

Tom Delay, representative from Texas, has been complaining about local officials in Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama.
He says Hurricane Katrina is their fault.
Why is Tom Delay saying these things?
He is afraid.
Across the nation phone calls offering support and volunteers to national organizations like the Red Cross are met with this response : ‘No thanks, we don’t need any help, but we’ll take money.’
Donations pour in and Americans are still being evacuated from the Gulf Coast and resettled around the nation. The local officials in Louisiana have put out a call for assistance and goods. Why are national agencies not helping?
Hundreds of thousands of Americans are helping their neighbors Tom Delay and the Bush Administration don’t seem to be among them.
Just after the storm passed two Navy pilots brought food and water to a damaged base in Mississippi and then answered a Coast Guard call for help in New Orleans. They labored over 14 hours and rescued 110 people. When they arrived back at base they were reprimanded.
Back to those local officials – Tom Delay has led the effort by the Bush Administration to keep money away from engineering projects in New Orleans for years while showering federal money on bus stops in Alaska. The Bush Administration has most of the Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama National Guard in Iraq getting shot at.
Lt. David Shand and Lt. Matt Udkow are American heroes.
Tom Delay and President Bush do not deserve the respect due their office.

Hooray for John Roberts

When John Roberts is made the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States there will be a great reason to celebrate.
Finally there will be four Catholics on the Supreme Court at the same time. If everything proceeds normally President Bush will nominate a fifth Catholic to the position vacated by Sandra Day O’Connor.
That will mean that there will be a majority of Catholics on the Supreme Court.
This will finally break the evil Protestant stranglehold that has been dragging down the United States for nearly a century and a half.
With the cool considered experience of the Catholic Church behind them these justices will be able to clear away the evil webs of abortion and corruption that the Protestants have filled this nation up with.
The evil protestant influence has given American abortion on demand, leisure drugs, organized crime and legalized gambling.
The evil Protestant influence has allowed our government to deteriorate and lose the power to protect our citizens. Guns have become commonplace and even welcomed in Protestant churches.
Our borders have been abandoned and remain unguarded as Protestant judges and politicians continue to sell the land out from under our feet.
The protection of the Holy Roman Catholic Church can now descend upon the people the United States. The people can now turn their eyes away from the Protestant abominations. They can now hear the voice of reason and close their ears to the Protestant lies.
Finally John Roberts will set us free.

Underprivileged Anyway - Barbara Bush

The last I heard the reverend George W. Bush had refused offers of international aid to help with relief effort following Hurricane Katrina.
He turned down offers of assistance from Germany and Venezuela as soon as they were made – so the story goes.
Apparently Pastor Bush hasn’t been as honest with the American people as he has led many of them to believe or he didn’t have any concept of what was going on in his own country.
As of this writing the United States government has requested aid from Europe and NATO.
The Vatican is preparing to coordinate Catholic aid.
The president of Jefferson Parish in Louisiana had this to say, “We have been abandoned by our own country.”
Great Britain is sending 500,000 military ration packs. Over the past 2 decades British companies have extracted tens of billions of dollars from Louisiana in oil and gas.
Germany and Italy prepared military shipments of their own that can help alleviate the crisis.
The United States, which is occupying Iraq and Afghanistan, has requested blankets, first-aid kits, water trucks and food.
Condoleezza Rice, who was raised in Alabama stated, "Nobody, especially the president, would have left people unattended on the basis of race."
The response to Ms. Rice : Truly, many times in history people have been slaughtered based on race. In this case it seems that some people were left unattended on the basis of race, but the vast majority were left unattended on the basis of income and wealth.
Barbara Bush, former first lady and mother of the President said that the relocation for those Americans forced out of Louisiana is "working very well" in Texas. She said many of the people at the Astrodome were "underprivileged anyway."
There is no response for Ms. Bush.

High Tone Bush

Hurricane Katrina ran through Mississippi, Alabama and Louisiana.
It left tragedy and horror behind.
President Bush flew over the disaster area.
He flew in at a very high altitude.
He said, "It's totally wiped out. ... It's devastating, it's got to be doubly devastating on the ground."
His next action as Commander-in-Chief was to appear on ABC's "Good Morning America" to discuss the tragedy and recovery efforts.
Not long ago he said, ‘I am optimistic that we can change the tone in Washington, D.C."
What tone was he talking about?
The other day George Will wrote in the Washington Post about the ‘shrill’ voice of the Democratic Party. It seems people like George Will, were under the impression that George Bush intended to lower the tone. George Will has offered little in the form of news for some time - he’s Rush Limbaugh with a typewriter.
Bush was born with a silver spoon in his mouth though. Americans didn’t notice this one came with a top hat and cane.
Bush is what is known as high toned. That is, for all of you high-brow conservatives, affectedly stylish or genteel.
For everybody else we get an idea of what high-toned is from Hank Williams (Sr). from his song ‘Mind Your Own Business’.
‘Mindin' other people's business seems to be high-toned, I got all that I can do just to mind my own. Why don't you mind your own business. If you mind your own business, you'll stay busy all the time.’

Hastert Wants to Bulldoze New Orleans

Dennis Hastert, Speaker of the House of Representatives, just said that it makes no sense to spend billions of dollars to rebuild a city that's seven feet under sea level.
"It looks like a lot of that place could be bulldozed," the Illinois Republican said to The Daily Herald of Arlington, Ill.
Hastert said, "We ought to take a second look at it. But you know we build Los Angeles and San Francisco on top of earthquake fissures and they rebuild too. Stubbornness."
He didn’t mention the fact that legislation that he had sponsored and signed had given money to the Army Corps of Engineers to build the ‘Industrial Canal’ in the center of the city.
The Industrial Canal was the first structure to fail.
He also did not mention that other legislation he has sponsored and signed helped to cut funding to the Army Corps of Engineer by nearly 40% over the past two years.
Maintenance of the levees, pumps and other systems has been neglected.
Loss of coastal areas that usually reduce the impact of such storms was due in no small part to legislation that Hastert sponsored and signed that loosened development rules along the Gulf Coast.
Hastert said nothing as thousands of technicians and engineers were sent to rebuild the entire country of Iraq.
It seems to me that Dennis Hastert makes no sense.
He also assisted this President in sending over 245,000 National Guard troops out of the country.
Instead of chipping in to help he has hindered. What‘s with Hastert?

Katrina and Money

Apparently there have been racial differences in police searches around American according to a report published by the Justice Department.
The results were apparently going to be tampered with but the author, a Mr. Greenfield, refused to change the data or censor the report to make the politicians in charge happy.
The report noted that it had "uncovered evidence of black drivers having worse experiences - more likely to be arrested, more likely to be searched, more likely to be have force used against them - during traffic stops than white drivers."
Mr. Greenfield has been forced to move to another job as a result of his refusal to cover this information up.
At this time Hurricane Katrina has devastated large parts of the Alabama, Mississippi and Louisiana coastlines.
Most not ably it has nearly destroyed New Orleans.
New Orleans is a predominately black city.
The response from Washington has been agonizingly slow. Even though nearly 18 percent of American oil production has been impacted and nearly 25 percent of American refining capacity has been affected by the disaster the response has been lackluster.
The levees in the center of the city have failed and due to no small coincidence that money to maintain them has been reduced in recent years.
Millions of Americans have seen their lives disrupted and the nation’s fuel supply has been threatened. The response has been slow and fraught with incompetence already.
Where hundreds of millions of dollars in aid and equipment and personnel were made nearly immediately available to the predominantly white and Cuban neighborhoods impacted in Florida (where the President’s brother is governor) the process for relief and action has stagnated in the Gulf Coast region and predominantly black and lower class neighborhoods.

Billy Sunday

"Our Lord Jesus Christ does not stand for peace at any price. . .Every true American would rather see this land face war than see her flag lowered in dishonor. . .I wish to say that, not only from the standpoint of a citizen, but from the standpoint of a minister of religion. . .I believe there is nothing that would be of such great practical benefit to us as universal military training for the men of our land." -Rev. Dr. William T. Manning, Rector of Trinity Parish, New York City.
Up until that point in time that Billy Sunday began actively deriding Christians that believed in peace and not war Christians would go to war with a heavy heart. They knew that they were doing wrong but they knew they had a job to do that had to be done. When those soldiers and sailors returned from some such duties, their churches and their neighbors would open their arms and doors to them and welcome them back.
They would be congratulated and loved and honored for what they had done –what they had given up and sacrificed in order to preserve our union, our strength and our gallant nation.
When Billy Sunday began his vicious oratory and actually had military recruiting stations set up outside his tabernacles where he was preaching the line between church and state was crossed.
Billy Sunday once had a 16 year old Billy Graham in his audience – Sunday’s shrieking paranoia frightened the young Billy Graham – frightened him so much that the scared young boy has turned into a frightened old man. He is churning out the same message of hatred and anger and militarism disguised as faith that Sunday did.
It is time to rip up the line of hatred that was sown during World War I. It is time to rip up the clinging and grasping association of evangelical churches to our government. It is time to rip up the regimentation provided by the military which turns men into killing machines but is not able to turn them back into men.
A Christian can never be a soldier first.
Sometimes a Christian needs to suspend Christian beliefs and take up soldierly duties – but a Christian will never do those things willingly that a soldier needs to do.
When a man or woman returns to home – and this has happened more often since Korea and Vietnam – they never really come home. They are always in battle. There is no harbor for them to find shelter from the blasting winds of guilt or from the raging fires of fear.
They were sent off from their churches – who ‘remember’ them, and who ‘support’ them and who pretend they never really left and that all is well in the world.
It is time to rip up the paranoia and the shrill hatred that sends these men off to war and has no means of bringing them back.
The way things are now these men and women in Iraq will come back with their minds and souls shredded and many Christians will want to help them but they will find it to be impossible – because after all – they are Christian soldiers and can take care of themselves – all they need do is accept Jesus Christ as their Savior.
Men and women that joined the National Guard to find something interesting to do in their boring lives or to earn money for school were sent into the military and accepted there as doing their Christian duty.
Your Christian duty is to be a good Christian – not to earn money for school or fill in your spare time playing with guns.
So – there is a big job ahead of us.
This field of ours is filled with weeds – the weeds of hatred, and neglect, and sorrow, deceit and lies.
We must clear this field in the manner that we know in our hearts is the correct way.
We must clear out these noxious weeds and plant and let grow kindness, sincerity, forgiveness, patience, charity and love.
Else we shall all die of starvation and our churches will fall to the earth like so much powder – to be taken up by the mighty and the violent and stuffed into cannons that they will turn upon us in our homes.
There is a great work to do.

Sir Cyril and the Arabs

I read recently a long winded complaint by Sir Cyril Townsend.
He wrote about the situation in Sudan and came down heavily on the side of his
Arab friends in Khartoum.
At one point he accused John Garang of using child soldiers and then stated that the Lord’s Resistance Army was glad to be rid of him.
Sir Cyril Townsend then blamed the United States for problems in Sudan because of ignorance and prejudice and that there were rumors of American ‘Special Forces’ operating in southern Sudan.
Sir Cyril Townsend made an attack on Africans by stating that the nation of Sudan must be put before the tribe and the region.
I got the feeling he believes everything could be put right by handing out some beads and chocolates to the Sudanese Africans on behalf of his Arab masters.
Cyril is the Director of the Council for Arab-British Understanding and has loudly denounced Israel on several occasions. He says nothing about his own countries strong ties with the backward Arab rulers that have been causing grief and strife in Africa for centuries now.
Sir Cyril is one of those stuff shirts who believes that an active diplomacy is an effective diplomacy.
Where does he get his support?
CAABU was founded in 1967.
Their website tells us this : “In 1998, CAABU came near to closure due to dwindling funds. After appeals for help in the Arab press in particular, we were saved mainly through two very generous and anonymous donations.”

Crawford Texas

The County Board of McLennan Country has been asked to extend an ordinance that does not allow parking a few hundred feet from President Bush’s ranch.
It’s clear to everyone that he is not officially on ‘vacation’ and is, indeed, carrying on business and government activity at the ranch. He has been leaving the ranch to attend political fundraisers, has had his working assistants visit him and has even, apparently went for a walk holding hands with the King of Saudi Arabia.
Please consider that he should be in Washington DC doing his job and that your ordinance would be a waste of the time and money of McLennan County.
Perhaps prior to extending the ordinance and making more laws for yourself you might ask the President why he is running the government from his ranch in Crawford rather than from the lawfully designated area located at Washington in the District of Columbia.
The McLennan County Commissioners will be doing themselves, McLennan County, the State of Texas and the United States of America a disservice by making laws as a result of whim and mob rule.
Several people have asked that he return to Washington in the District of Columbia to carry out his duties but he has apparently either been afraid or unwilling to go stay there.
It is the right and duty of all American citizens to be involved in their government and when the President decides to hide someone should ask him to knock it off.

Streamlined Sales Tax Project

I understand that in the name of simplification, a group of cash-strapped states is proposing the Streamlined Sales Tax Project (SSTP).
The goal of the SSTP is supposed to be simplification but it does not succeed in simplifying state and local tax laws sufficiently to ease the collection burden on internet or eBay sellers.
The State Simplification Tax Project (SSTP) is a crime against logic. It does not reduce the 7,600 different state, county and city taxing jurisdictions.
The SSTP allows for a different rate for each zip code. Nearly 49,000 different jurisdictions. Does that sound streamlined to you?
Small business owners will be disadvantaged by a distant sales tax collection regime that forces them (and me) to comply with thousands of different tax rates, local laws, filing instructions, and audit
procedures.
Offline competitors being only required to collect and remit taxes in one jurisdiction would then be awarded unfair advantages. This could force tens of thousands of Internet businesses to shut down.
The Congress is being asked to subsidize the Sears and JC Penney catalog business.
There should be no increased tax burden on small business.
Now is definitely not the time to impose new tax burdens on American consumers and small business owners, or do anything to hamper the growth of e-commerce.
Tax administrators and State Senators and Representatives from around the nation are involved in the Streamlined Sales Tax Project. Don’t they have enough work to do without having to try to throw Americans out of work?

John Birch Society

A group of people calling themselves ‘Move America Forward’ has recently been in the forefront of attacks on Cindy Sheehan and her very simple question for the president.
A woman identifying herself as the group founder, Deborah Johns, has a son in the Marines and is featured in an attack ad on Cindy Sheehan and her very simple question.
Deborah Johns says that Cindy Sheehan’s very simple question discredits the soldiers serving in Iraq.
Deborah Johns says, "Cindy Sheehan certainly doesn't speak for me, our military families or our men and women serving in Iraq and Afghanistan."
The ‘Move America Forward’ website at http://www.moveamericaforward.org/ doesn’t confine itself to attacking Cindy Sheehan and her very simple question. It also features attacks on the United Nations and various activists that have involved themselves in the recall of California Governor Gray Davis and an organization known as the ‘Defend Reagan Organization’ which sells bumper stickers of the ‘Gipper’.
Their attacks on the United Nations are interesting as they resemble the same materials and positions that are posted on the John Birch Society website at http://www.getusout.org/ .
The John Birch Society claims to strenuously defend the original intention of the U. S. Constitution. The group believes America is founded on Christian principles. It has a conspiratorialist view of history. It is anti-globalization and for immigration reform. They advocate the abolition of income tax, and the repeal of civil rights legislation, which it sees as being communist.
Sounds like John Roberts’ resume, doesn’t it?

No One Wants to be an Iraqi

The Iraqi problem seems to be that no one in Iraq wants to be an Iraqi.
With an independent Kurdistan and Shiastan the United States will get the oil it wants and the Kurds and Shiites that have suffered in poverty will get a piece of the action. As for the Sunnis, after their brutal collusion with the Turks and the British they deserve to get a desert kingdom. They will need to learn to cooperate in order to prosper. They will no longer be able to rely on weapons, violence and intimidation to get their way.
The area known as Iraq has been under foreign control for a long, long time. Much longer than the United States has been in existence.
In the north are the Kurds. In the south are the Shiites. In the west are the Sunnis.
The Kurds want to declare independence and form Kurdistan.
The Shiites think that is a great idea and want to form Shiastan.
The Sunnis used to run Iraq and they are hopping mad about being invaded – they aren’t clear about what they want but if they ended up with their own country they would have nothing to complain about.
Why not let them have their own nations? Why insist on pasting a constitution on them that is offensive to them and to the rest of the world. I think everyone will agree that a national constitution that enshrines allowing a man to have 4 wives is offensive. It’s offensive to everyone who believes in ‘one man, one woman’ as being a marriage and it is offensive to everyone that would like to have more than 4 wives.
The United States is a country composed of 50 states. States as in countries or nations. If the other 49 were removed the last one around would be a country.
Why not have a union of Kurdistan, Shiastan and Sunnistan? Dedicated to their common defense in the event that Iran decides to attack. It would essentially stay out of the way of the activities of the three nations that make up the country.
It is a ridiculous proposition to have Great Britain and the United States impose a democracy based on common experiences between them that the Kurds, Sunnis and Shiites have never experienced.
Iraq was cobbled together from provinces that had been included in the Ottoman Empire when the British turned out to be victors in World War I. The British then treated Iraq as a province and strongly put down any hint of independence the people might have had. Winston Churchill even advised using gas against the rebels. That is, if you can call people fighting for independence from a brutal empire rebels.
In the end when independence was granted Iraq was the result. A nation containing three little nations.
The only reason the United States does not support independence for Kurdistan is because of interference from Turkey. The United States is afraid of Turkey. The Kurds are not. The United States is imposing its will on Kurdistan, Shiastan and Sunnistan because of a lack of understanding of the situation.
The backwoods boys from Texas are little interested in the realities in Iraq. They just want the oil.
Iran will be contained by a bunch of greedy and wealthy Kurds and Shiites and the United States can truly say that Iraq has been liberated and our troops can leave.
All it will need is a new name.
Iraq is dead. Long live the KSSA. Kurdish-Shia-Sunni Alliance.

Rep Cox and the SEC

Here comes Representative Cox from California jumping into the Securities and Exchange Commission with both feet.
Who is this guy and what background does he have?
In the 108th Congress Christopher Cox sponsored the following legislation :
Ending Discrimination Against Students Enrolled in ROTC. H.R. 3966
Allowing More Americans to Use EZ Tax Filing.
Commemorating the 15th anniversary of the Tiananmen Square Massacre. H.Res. 655
Restoring the Mission at San Juan Capistrano.
No Double Rail-Tracking Along Orange County Coast. H.R. 2165
Defending Freedom of Thought in Hong Kong. H.Res. 277
Death Tax Repeal.
Repeal the "Luxury Tax" on Beer.
Ensure the Continuity of Congress in Case of Terrorist Attack.
Ensure the Continuity of the Presidency in Case of Terrorist Attack. H.R. 2319 Bob Hope American Patriotism Award. H.R. 2087
Renewal of Successful ‘Smart Metric’ Law. authorizing the use of metric measurements for federal building construction that include both round numbers and fractions.
In the 107th Congress he sponsored :
Ensuring the Government Can Continue to Function in Case of Terrorist Attack.
Cleanup of Contaminated Groundwater at El Toro Base.
Death Tax Repeal.
Educational Use of El Toro Base. Worked with the Department of the Navy to permit Cal State Fullerton to open a satellite campus on the site of the former El Toro Marine Corps Air Station.
Restoring the Great Stone Church at Mission San Juan Capistrano.
Bob Hope Veterans Chapel.
No New Taxes on Toy Telescopes.
Recognizing the 90th Birthday of President Ronald Reagan.
Honoring the Anaheim Angels's Historic World Series Victory.
In the 106th Congress he sponsored :
Repeal of the “Spanish-American War” Tax.
Cleanup of Contaminated Groundwater at El Toro Base. (Again)
Death Tax Repeal. (Again)
Reduce Death Taxes for Leisure World Residents.
Restore the Mission at San Juan Capistrano. (Again)
Outlaw State Discrimination Against California Wine.
Continued Community Access to the El Toro Base Property.
Prevent Y2K Injuries.
Promote Democracy and Free Enterprise in Russia.
Protect Human Rights in Communist China.
Taiwan Security Enhancement Act.
Combat North Korean Nuclear Blackmail.
No Taxpayer Bailout of North Korea Nuclear Accidents.
In the 105th Congress (1997-98) he sponsored :
Iraq Liberation Act.
Policy for Freedom in China.
In the 104th Congress (1995-96) he sponsored :
Increased Deportation of Illegal Immigrants.
Demilitarization of Russian Troops in Kaliningrad.
Mexican Peso Bailout.
Boy Scout Land Swap.
Helium Reserve Privatization.
In the 103rd Congress (1993-94) he sponsored :
Abolishing the Government-Run Strategic Helium Reserve. (Again)
Reuse of the El Toro Marine Base. (Again)
Religious Freedom Restoration Act.
Death Tax Repeal. (Again)
Make the Losing Party Pay the Winner's Attorneys' Fees. H.R. 2880
Promoting Iraqi Freedom.
Creation of Radio Free Asia.
Turbocharged Enterprise Zones.
Incentives for Earthquake Insurance. H.R. 3756
Retired FBI Agent Self-Defense Act. H.R. 3971
In the 102nd Congress (1991-92) he sponsored :
Helping Orange County Aid in the Reconstruction of Kuwait.
Commending Hungary on its Transition to Democracy.
Aid to Former Soviet Nations.
In the 101st Congress (1989-90) he sponsored :
Allow Local Control over John Wayne Airport Noise.
Aiding Lithuania's Transition to Democracy. H.Con.Res. 257
Encourage Private Capital Investment in Businesses in Hungary and Poland.