In Praise of Osama bin Laden

Credit where credit is due, the murdering SOB did get off one good line in his new video:

"If I hate freedom, why didn't I attack Sweden?"

Your Vote Will Be Counted Here, At Least

At US-election.org, they have taken on the thankless task of listing all the candidates for President, not just those two guys (and not just those two guys and the other one).

The Green Party! The Constitution Party! The Libertarian Party! The Peace & Freedom Party! The Personal Choice Party (hey, Marilyn Chambers is their VP candidate -- how cool is that?)!

If only some sort of clerical error were to erase the Republicrats from the ballot, and we could choose between candidates who actually have something to say, and whose guiding principles include something besides "Power!"

In Praise of Dick Cheney

No, seriously.

The other day on the radio, I heard some people chewing over Dick and George, bitch-slapping them for everything from lying about John McCain's war record to lying about Bush's debate wire.

Well, that's all true, but I had to differ with them when one of them mentioned Cheney's calling up the Air Force on September 11th, 2001, ordering them to scramble fighter planes to shoot down the fourth hijacked plane (not yet aware that it had already crashed). This, the indignant person declared, was somethinghe had no authority to do.

Well, yes, I expect that's correct, but given the circumstances it was surely the right thing to do. And (again, given the circumstances) the Air Force officers and pilots who carried out that illegal order also did the right thing. I think it's very cheap and shabby to call Cheney a megalomaniac or a usurper for having taken such a decision upon himself in those confused hours.

Of course, the question of why those hours were so damned confused, and why nobody, civilian or military, seemed to have a clue what to do, is another matter.

Seems to me that the biggest lesson of September 11th is that the people at the top should be holding what the nuclear industry calls "unexpected event" drills.

I'm picturing a Secret Service detail driving onto an airbase, accompanied by a WHite House typist with a sticker scrawled "President" on his lapel. The bodyguards commandeer a plane and convey the pretend President to the Secure Undisclosed Location, while the NSA proves that they can stay in touch with the plane, transmitting updates on the simulated crisis, without giving away the President's location.

Matt Love's "Instant Karma"

To Matt Love, lovematt100@yahoo.com

Mr. Love:

In Sunday's _Oregonian_, you talk movingly of the pleasure you take in Oregon's public beaches, and your loathing for people who drive recklessly on them. In these sentiments, I completely concur.

But you don't seem to know your Oregon history when you praise the wise progressives of a previous generation and then say "Now it's legal to drive on the beach".

The beaches of the Oregon coast are publicly owned because some decades ago the state legislature declared the beaches to be a state highway. This was done partly to preserve the beaches as public land, but also because the packed sand of low tide really was the longest stretch of drivable surface in the state.

Seems to me that you can't have one (public beaches) without the other (the tradition of driving on the beach).

As for your (tempered) relish at the fate of the witless driver who buzzed you and then promptly got his brand-new Tahoe stuck in the sand with the tide coming in, again I concur.

-- John M. Burt

I Have Gone Over to the Dark Side

I have used a leaf blower.

All right, it wasn't a real leaf blower, just the vacuum cleaner with the hose connected to the exhaust, and I didn't try to clear the whole yard, just blow the leaves off my rock garden (a space no bigger than a queen-size bed), but even so, it made me feel . . . creepy.

Sunday, the 31st

The newspapers have dutifully reported the fact that some folks are alarmed at the idea of Halloween falling on a Sunday.

More than one person is quoted to the effect that this is "giving the Lord's Day to the Devil".

I'm disappointed that nobody was quoted as pointing out that All Saints' Eve is the night before the day when Christians honor their brethren who have preceded them into Heaven.

". . . and, declaring an emergency . . ."

Kathe-my-sweetie (that's how I usually refer to her when I'm in a situation where there might be some confusion about which Kathe I mean) used to attend Portland City Council meetings, and she was amused by one of their little rituals:

A member of the council would read the text of a proposed resolution:
"Blah blah blah . . . and, declaring an emergency, move that this go into effect immediately."

Over and over, an emergency was declared. Portland was a flash point of crisis, with all the emergencies being declared.

For all I know, they're still at it.

This comes to mind in the context of the current Oregon elections, in which various ballot measures propose not just state laws, but amendments to the state constitution. In one case, an amendment is proposed to declare that double-wide manunfactured houses don't have to have license plates. This is a constitutional amendment because the constitution already dictates various rules about vehicle licensing.

I have never read the Oregon constitution. I kind of think I don't want to.

This is Unworthy

but I'm going to post it anyway.

Today I drove past the Corvallis Republican headquarters and saw a sign asking for volunteers to distribute "liturature".

I told Kathe's friend Eli about it. He expressed surprise that Bush didn't delegate the job of signmaking.

They took the sign down later that afternoon, but by then I'd already photographed it and delivered prints to Democratic headquarters.

I Knew They Were Up to Something

The other day, walking across the central courtyard of Linn-Benton Community College, I was approached by a smiling young man with a clipboard, inviting me to "sign a petition to help crack down on child molestors".

I relied, "With a come-on as wholesome and all-American as that, you're obviously working a scam, but I don't have time to figure out what."

He answered with an embarrassed smile and I walked on.

Now I learn that their scam was worse than I'd supposed: they weren't just after money, they were trying to trick people into changing their voter registration to Republican.

I'm not exactly sure who they thought this would benefit. If they were trying to prevent people from voting in the primaries, that would make a certain amount of sense. Or if (as other Republicans have done) they pretended to be registering people to vote but shredding all the non-Republican ones, that would be logical (though loathsome). But I don't see the advantage they gain by this particular scam.

News From Crawford (Sorry)

Randall Hugh Crawford had this to say in an e-mail to me today:

http://tampatrib.com/News/MGBU3UEHF0E.html

The traditionally conservative newspaper the Tampa Tribune, which has
endorsed the Republican presidential candiate in every election in the
post WWII era (except for 1964, when they endorsed neither Goldwater or
Johnson), has arrived at and announced the decision to endorse neither
candidate in the 2004 race.

They devote a great amount of column space to Bush's mishandling of the
Iraq war, his deficit and the other major issues of the race. They wrap
up in the matter of a paragraph or two the fact that they have certain
reservations about Kerry as well.

First Bush's Crawford county hometown paper choses not to back him, now
a major conservative paper in Brother Jeb's state (which help shoehorn
Dubya into office in '00 ) has nothing good to say abut the President*.

Somehow pollsters keep finding groups of people in which nearly equal
numbers of voters support the Shrub and his opponent. I don't know where
they keep finding these people, who seem to still be wrapped up in the
post 9/11 patriotic fervor that allows them to support anything our
former President's son says or does. But clearly the people who think
for a living, and now including the ones that do not support Kerry,
clearly do not support Bush Junior.

-- Randall Hugh Crawford

To which I add that this is indeed a strange election. Millions hate Bush, millions more strongly distrust him, nobody cares about Kerry. This ought to be a perfect opportunity for Badnarik, Peroutka or Cobb, but alas, you probably can't even assign those three guys to the correct political parties (I could only name all three because I Googled them).

With ballot access difficult for alternative parties and our ballots themselves imperilled, our electoral system is broken, and it needs a major fix. That was obvious in 2000 and we did nothing. I fear it's going to become PAINFULLY obvious next month. Will we do anything about it?

Has Blogger Messed With Your Comments?

Several people have complained to me that they tried to post comments here and were unable to -- the "post anonymously" option was not offered, or the "Publish" button didn't appear, things like that.

If you have had any trobule of that kind, please p/o/s/t/a/c/o/m/m/e/n/t/ e-mail me:

john_m_burt@hotmail.com

The Stolen Honor of Sinclair Broadcasting

This morning, I visited

http://www.freepress.net/sinclair/dn.php?zip=&h=t

in order to confront Sinclair Broadcasting about their decision to pre-empt normal programming in order to show the film "Stolen Honor", a product of the group called "Swift Boat Veterans For Truth".

This is the same outfit that blocked a special episode of _Nightline_ this spring, on the grounds that honoring the war dead was "too political". Apparently giving 45 minutes of air time to the Swiftettes, commercial-free and at no charge, is just good journalism, no politics involved.

Porn Filters

The Corvallis - Benton County Public Library is trying out filtering software, inspired by a Federal blunt instrument. Results so far:

sites blocked: 113

actual porn sites blocked: 16

Library users who tried to access porn online: 0.004% (I'd like to know what that is in absolute numbers: Two? Four?)

Library users in the children's section who tried to access porn: none

The Library Board have decided to try a different software package. Hmph.

Something tells me that my brother David, who works for a filtering software company, isn't going to like this news item. But, he's had plenty of time to get used to results like these.

Are You Sure You're Registered?

I knew this was going to happen.

All those people with their clipboards and their voter registration forms, eagerly signing people up.

Only some of them were taking those filled-out forms and throwing them away.

Apparently, somebody thought it was in their interest to prevent people from registering to vote.

I wonder who that could be . . . .

In my e-mail inbox

> > Subject: Bush Camp Conclusions ---

> > Dan Rather, CBS News Anchor
> > 1) given documents he thought were true
> > 2) failed to thoroughly investigate the facts
> > 3) reported documents to the American people as true to make his case
> > 4) when challenged, launched an investigation, quickly apologized
> > 5) substance of the bogus documents appears to have been true anyway
> > 6) cost to the world in lives and money: zero
> > 7) Bush camp conclusion: should be fired as CBS News Anchor

> > George W. Bush, President of the United States
> > 1) given documents he thought were true
> > 2) failed to thoroughly investigate the facts
> > 3) reported documents to the American people as true to make his case
> > 4) when challenged, stonewalled an investigation, never apologized
> > 5) substance of the bogus documents appears to have been . . . bogus
> > 6) cost to the world in lives and money: incalculable
> > 7) Bush camp conclusion: four more years!

Christopher Reeve

I was surprised. I really did think he was going to walk again. He was so insistent.

Then I found out he died of heart failure, due to an infection, caused by a pressure sore, and I was really surprised.

A BEDSORE!?

He had a loving wife. He had a close family. He had money, which ought to have ensured that he received nursing care from competent people. How could he possibly have gotten a bedsore?
I have worked in nursing homes. I have provided home health care. I have worked on the crowded, understaffed wards of military hospitals. NO PERSON UNDER MY CARE EVER DEVELOPED A BEDSORE.

But Christopher Reeve got a bedsore. And it killed him.

Biftu Is Legal

Kathe and I have adopted four children together. Three of them were the surviving members of an Ethiopian family who came to us together, ten years ago. Tesfaye (also called Abdi), now 18, is now a U.S. citizen. Mestowet (also called Michu), now 24, renewed her green card awhile back. Asnakech (also called Biftu), now 22, didn't renew until just yesterday, leading to a certain amount of nail-biting on our part.

The matter was complicated by the fact that Ash now lives in Portland, which is good because the nearest office for La Migra is in Portland, but bad because we still live some 83 miles away in Corvallis. Having come to the U.S. at a fairly advanced age, Ash's English is imperfect, especially her writing, so she was having trouble navigating the bureaucracy.

Kathe's daughter Sarah (from her first crop of kids) also lives in Portland, however, and when the situation grew dire she threw herself into the breach, spending a day in the Federal offices straightening things out.

Thank you, Sarah. That's another one we owe you.

President* Bush Says

that the real, honest, no kidding this time, reason for invading Iraq was . . . Saddm Hussein was abusing the U.N. Oil for Food program.

This must be Bush's biggest flipflop ever.

Sloganator

I'm sorry, I'm sure everybody else has already seen this, but I only just found out about it:

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/bushcheneysloganator

Tee hee.

First Rain

Unnaturally enough for the Willamette Valley, we have only tonight had our first rain of the season.

Usually, there are plenty of clear days in September and October, but not a total absense of rain. It was getting downright eerie.

The new section of roof is working just fine, no leaks showing so far. And I like the new skylights. There was something charming about having two sheets of plastic layered in with the shingles, serving as windows in the attic, but the charm wore off after they began to leak. The storebought blister-skylights Jake installed don't have as much character, but they look all right, and boy do they just sit there and not leak.

SpaceShip Which?

All appropriate congratulations to the builders and pilot of "SpaceShip One", and I sincerely hope this is the start of big things, but really, folks, the first spaceship orbited on April 12th, 1961.

And again I say, this could be the start of something big. In spite of many years of disappointments, I still cling to be belief that one day we will look around, startled, and say, "Hey, when did the sky crack open like that? People are spilling out in all directions!"

Lawn Signs

We're only hosting one lawn sign this year, opposing Oregon Ballot Measure 36 (see several posts below).

So far our sign has been:

stolen -- once (replaced with a home-made one)

kicked down -- twice

pissed on -- once

I'd be writing to our local paper with this story, but I suspect it might encourage more energetic political action upon our house and grounds.

It Makes Me Wanna . . . .

The Olsen twins are doing Happy Meal commercials on French TV.

Mary-Kate Olsen, in recovery for an eating disorder, is selling over-salted, over-sugared, fat-drenched food.

Question: Who is being more shameless and irresponsible, the girls or McDonald's?

Traditional Marriage

"To the Editor, Portland Oregonian:

"The definition of marriage changes with each generation.
"In 1857, when Oregon adopted its Constitution, a married woman could not own property, could not enter into a contract without her husband's permission, and could lawfully be beaten by her husband. Divorce was illegal in most states, and was only granted on grounds of adultery in others. A hot topic of debate at the time was whether a widow could lawfully marry her late husband's brother -- quite a change from Biblical times, when such a marriage was required.
"In 1857, not all marriages in Oregon were between one man and one woman. There were already quite a few Mormon settlers in the southeastern counties."

U.N. Takeover Plot!

Good Heavens, I hear tell that John Kerry wants the U.S. government to abide by the United Nations charter, as though it were some sort of solemn treaty obligation!

That would mean having to go to the U.N. for permission to defend our nation against foreign attackers!

Oh, it wouldn't? Article 51 of the Charter specifically enshrines the right of self-defense? Well, never mind.

Diversion

Was the invasion of Iraq a diversion away from the campaign to shut down al-Qaeda?

The thousands of intelligence operatives, Special Forces and other people who were urgently needed in Afghanistan (obvious at the time, and all the more obvious given the current state of the country), and who were pulled out and set to work on the invasion, certainly think so.

But what do they know?