November 30, 2004 - The California Missions Preservations Act granting $10 Million in matching funds to the California Missions Foundation has passed Congress and is awaiting the President’s signature. The money would go to refurbish and restore the 21 missions that played a central role in the development of Spanish Colonial California. All of the buildings are in need of restoration and the cost is beyond the local resources available. Three of the 21 missions still see Roman Catholic Mass celebrated on Sundays and therein lies a controversy.

Americans United for Separation of Church and State is raising the alarm. If President Bush signs the bill the organization threatens to sue to prevent what it sees as a violation of the First Amendment’s establishment clause. “We think that churches ought to pay for their repairs rather than look to the taxpayers to do it. We recognize that these are historic buildings, but you certainly don't scrap the Constitution to do it. There's a very bad trend under way here asking taxpayers to pay for religion. We think that trend has to stop," Joe Conn, spokesman for American United said...click here for entire article

November 29, 2004 - If Senator John Kerry read the lead article in this morning’s New York Times it had to prick his memory. So much of the 2004 campaign was focused on images from thirty-five years ago; fast boats carrying small units made up of local and US troops up river to clean out nests of enemy guerrillas armed with AK47s and RPGs. He had to wonder if 35 years from now a boat commander on Sunday’s SURC raid up the Euphrates would see his courage questioned, his tactics second guessed, and his integrity slurred to the degree that we saw in this year’s Presidential campaign. He had to have mixed emotions as the Marines and Iraqi Commandos adopted the tactics that he was a part of working out in the Mekong Delta three decades ago. There had to be a measure of pride mixed with concern as memories of his local successes on the Mekong reminded him that they had little effect on the big picture of Vietnamese insurgency.

Four SURCS overloaded with 80 Marines and 20 Iraqi commandos swept up the Euphrates to the village of Chard Duwaish. As the troops waded through the waist deep mud British light armor provided support from the opposite bank. Drones and Helicopter gun ships flew air cover. There was supposed to be a massive arms cache in the village. A day long operations scoured three miles of river bank and netted one shotgun, three Kalashnikovs and two sets of ID documents of high ranking Ba`athist official. That was it. No shots were fired. A convoy of trucks and Humvees picked up the troops to take them back to their base at Camp Kalsu. Near Latifiya a roadside bomb exploded but there were no casualties. Two Iraqis suspected of having set off the bomb. One was killed and the other captured. He had a cell phone...click here for entire article

November 26, 2004 - It is called RFID and it is the technology that the State Department will soon use to track American citizens through their passports. . If you live near Chicago, use the Illinois Tollway to commute, and wave an I-Pass instead of tossing coins in the basket you already use this technology. If you work in a building with a security system that controls access with ID badges or cards that you pass over a sensor you are familiar with how the system works. Business is beginning to use it to track assets. With a network of sensors a tag placed inconspicuously on a laptop computer can transmit the precise location of that piece of equipment to a central database in real time. It is not science fiction – it is available now. (for more information on RFID technology: http://www.rfidjournal.com )

The Government Printing Office has awarded contracts to 4 manufactures to design new passports incorporating RFID chips containing the printed data in the document as well as the holder’s digitized passport photo. When the system is fully implemented an immigration agent will be able to simply wave the passport with its imbedded information at a terminal and the data and photo will be instantly available to a central database for comparison and recording. Of course that is just one of many possible security applications of the technology. As with the inventory-asset control systems marketed to business an imbedded RFID chip can be queried by a remote sensor, silently, unobtrusively and in real time. Sensors installed at the entrance to airports, train stations, or in subway turnstiles would permit instant comparisons with a database of terrorist suspects providing a level of security not possible with the print media technology now in use....click here for entire article

November 25, 2004 - Was it a case of cold blooded murder? Was it a case of self defense? Was it a fire-fight in the Wisconsin woods or a frustrated deer hunter stalking human prey? We don’t know and will probably never be able to reach a definitive answer to those questions. We only know now that opening day of the firearms deer season in Wisconsin left four men and one woman dead on the forest floor and another man died in hospital the next day. Two more men were wounded and being treated in hospital.

We know that at least one hunter was armed with a SKS military style semi-automatic rifle with a 20 round clip. We know that he took six human trophies with that weapon. We know that when he was apprehended without incident 4 hours after the incident his rifle was empty. We know that at least one shot was fired in his direction. We don’t know who fired first. That is in dispute and the resolution of that dispute may well determine the outcome of the case against him....click here for entire article

Just last week outgoing Secretary of State Powell told reporters that he had seen intelligence linking Iran’s acknowledged medium range missile program to the development of a nuclear weapons delivery system. Today the CIA posted a declassified version of the classified “Report to Congress on the Acquisition of Technology Relating to Weapons of Mass Destruction and Advanced Conventional Munitions” on its public website. The CIA reports that the underground network operated by Pakistani nuclear scientist A. Q. Kahn sold Iran plans for what the report calls “weapons components” advancing Teheran’s quest for the bomb by several years. The CIA intelligence is said to be an accumulation of operations to penetrate the Kahn operation dating into the mid 90s and shared only with Presidents Clinton and Bush....click here for entire article

No less authority than Charles Barkley, who in his playing days told us that he was not a role model, claimed a player’s right to go after an aggressive fan and beat the crap out of him. This morning the talk show circuit is filled with hand wringing about the incident that cost Artest about $5 Million and the Pacers an aggregate of two seasons of highly paid play. They all express shock that violence has marred the usually gentlemanly conduct of the League’s players and fans....click here for entire article

November 21, 2004 - And, behold, one came and said unto him, Good Master, what good thing shall I do, that I may have eternal life? And he said unto him, Why callest thou me good? there is none good but one, that is, God: but if thou wilt enter into life, keep the commandments. He saith unto him, Which? Jesus said, Thou shalt do no murder, Thou shalt not commit adultery, Thou shalt not steal, Thou shalt not bear false witness, Honour thy father and thy mother: and, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. The young man saith unto him, All these things have I kept from my youth up: what lack I yet? Jesus said unto him, If thou wilt be perfect, go and sell that thou hast, and give to the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven: and come and follow me. But when the young man heard that saying, he went away sorrowful: for he had great possessions.
Matthew 19 – 16:22....click here for entire article

November 19, 2004 - The trouble with Fed Chairman Greenspan is that he is part of the reality based community. What is worse he talks about it. Just a few hours after the House of Representatives passed the Senate Bill raising America’s credit limit by $800 Billion Greenspan warned Europe’s Central Bankers not to expect relief from the declining Dollar any time soon. Our current account deficit taken with unrelieved budget deficits meant that sooner or later foreign investors were going to be reluctant to finance our growing debt – and Greenspan thought it would happen sooner than later.

Outgoing Treasury Secretary John Snow is not part of the reality based community. Despite his departure for the second term his allegiance has been to the faith based community of the Bush Administration, a community that believes that the Bush Administration can create its own realities by simply wishing it so. Speaking in London the day before Congress raised the limit on the National credit card he ruled out any effort by Washington to help Europe’s Central Banks in their efforts to stem the Dollar’s free fall. He and the Bush Administration have faith that if we just make the Bush Tax Cuts permanent and continue to borrow the costs of our preventative wars, the economy will right itself and the Dollar will again surpass the Euro as the world’s bench mark currency...click here for entire article

November 18, 2004 - It is starting all over again. The United States has been sounding the alarm that Iran is embarked on a program to build Weapons of Mass Destruction (or is that Distraction in light of the good progress we are making house to house in Iraq). Iran denies it and says it is only embarked in a nuclear power program. IAEA inspectors on the ground find that the Iranians are indeed working to develop an enriched uranium capability but there are no weapons programs going on.. The US urges IAEA to recommend sanctions to the Security Council but does not seem to be making good progress on that front. With America gearing up for a confrontation with old Persia Britain, France and Germany start talks with Teheran. They cut a deal. Iran will suspend its enriched uranium program, permit international monitors and in return will be spared from UN sanctions and get international assistance for its nuclear power program...click here for entire article

November 17, 2004 - “I have been characterized as a reluctant warrior; the general that doesn’t want to go to war. Well, you are right. Say it again. Please, write it down – ‘a reluctant general.’ I don’t want to know any generals who ain’t reluctant. I don’t want to have anything to do with them. War is a very serious matter.” Secretary of State Colin Powell – May 2004.

There is no longer a place for Colin Powell in a Bush Administration. There is no longer a function for the face of reason; for the reluctant warrior. The second term is won and there is no re-election campaign to be won. The President has collected all of the political capital he is likely to garner. He is free from the bonds of political expediency and is free to pursue a course to the place in history he chooses for himself; to build the Bush Legacy. He has no need for a reluctant warrior or a voice of reason as he tailors his cabinet for the second term....click here for entire article

November 16, 2004 - The wounded man is lying on the stone floor. He is not moving. He is unarmed. His wounds have been treated with his enemy’s field dressings. An enemy soldier, part of the occupation, stands over him, rifle at the ready. “This one is f***ing faking being dead”, he shouts, “He’s breathing. He ain’t dead!” A shot rings out. “He is now”, says another voice. We saw scenes like that in World War II movies with the executioner dresses in SS black with the silver lightening slashing the points of the color but this is not one of those films. It was shot by the embedded NBC cameraman in a Fallujah Mosque. The screen blacks out as the rifle cracks. Some things are too gruesome to be broadcast so we don’t see the bullet smash into the wounded man’s body or the blood splatter on the wall. When the image returns he lies there as the US Marines go about the business of checking the other bodies lying about on the stone floor....click here for entire article

November 15, 2004 - It is getting downright dangerous in Washington to engage in independent thought; to do your job according to the rules; or speak your mind about anything. It used to be that Senators who occasionally strayed from the party line and did and said what was best for the country – the job they were elected to do – earned a grudging respect from the leaders of their party and the respect of the people. Not any more. Statesmanship is out and rubber stamp loyalty to the party base is in. The Republican controlled Senate is preparing to sidestep its own rules to frustrate Arlen Specter’s ascendance to the term limited chairmanship of the Senate Judiciary Committee. His crime? Saying in public what everyone with an ounce of sense knew; that if the President sent up judicial nominees who had signed on to the Christian Radicals’ anti-gay agenda and promised to repeal Roe v. Wade it would bring down any semblance of bi-partisanship and plunge the Senate into bitter confirmation fights. Speaking of political truths is not a path to popularity with the Bush Administration....click here for entire article

November 14, 2004 - They claim to be Christian and demand that the United States is a Christian nation and must embody what they call Christianity in its laws and public institutions. They demand that the administration appoint judges who will regulate the most intimate of human intercourse. They demand that medical science not explore embryonic stem cell research likening a zygote frozen in a Petri dish to a child. They demand that we erect graven images of the Ten Commandments in our public places. They demand that our children be taught in our public schools to pray to their God and that they be kept ignorant of scientific truths. They would have the law cast out those who they indict as sinners. They make all of those demands in the name of Jesus Christ.

If we are a Christian Nation to be governed by Christian principles should we not look to the teachings embodied in His ministry to guide us in the conduct of our public life? Standing outside the Temple in Jerusalem He taught that should we fail to feed the hungry; to slake the parched throats of the thirsty; to give shelter to the stranger; to comfort the sick in their illness; and to relieve the oppressed in prison we condemn ourselves to eternal punishment. Matthew 25 - 31:46. In what part of the Christian Right’s political agenda are those prescriptions reflected?....click here for entire article

November 12, 2004 - "They went where they were sent. They did what they were told. They prayed they would survive.", Illinois American Legion Sr. Vice Commander Eugene Thompson told the folks who gathered to dedicate a new memorial to Walnut, Illinois men and women who served in the nation’s wars from the War of 1812 to the present Second Iraqi War. Those succinct three sentences described the lot of the ordinary people called upon to fight in mankind’s wars since the dawn of history. Circumstances thrust the mantle of hero upon some of them. Some failed and donned the shameful costume of coward. Each of them prayed earnestly to survive and did what they had to do.

Yesterday evening ABC television broadcast Saving Private Ryan just as it was shown in the theatres with all the blood and expletives intact. The expletives were not deleted. It was not The Sands of Iwo Jima where heroes died without bleeding as John Wayne postured for the camera. It was not The Green Berets where a sanitized war was filmed in living, not dying, color. When it first appeared in theatres those who had lived through the Normandy invasion told us that it showed war as it really was. So real a picture of war, in fact, that ABC followed it with a notice that gave a Veterans Administration telephone number should a vet need to talk about his combat experiences....click here for entire article

It was the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month and they told their stories from the flag draped steps of the Court House and a small boy perched on the mouth of the Civil War cannon on the corner listened as they marked the end of the Great War; the War to Save Democracy; the War to End all wars...click here for entire article

November 10, 2004 - The American assault on Fallujah is in its third day. At least 11 Americans and 2 Iraqi troops are reported dead in the first day of fighting. The brute force of air strikes and artillery are making images of the city of a hundred mosques resemble those of Berlin in April 1945. US military spokesmen in Baghdad are estimating that the resistance has suffered up to 500 casualties – though they have long denied being in the “body count business”. I guess they aren’t counting – just guessing at their estimates. They are not estimating the collateral damage – guessing that fewer than 100,000 non-combatants were still in the city when the division size assault began.

Abu Musab al Zarqawi and the other leaders of the resistance guerrilla campaign apparently slipped out of Fallujah while the US and Prime Minister Allawi were talking to the Fallujah insurgents stalling the assault until after the US Elections to reduce the political consequences to President Bush. The Seventh Cavalry is in the fight riding to Fallujah’s center accompanied by a psy-war Humvee blaring the Ride of the Valkyries – as if we needed another reminder of Vietnam....click here for entire article

November 9, 2004 - In April 2004, two months before the American Occupation handed modified sovereignty over to a provisional Iraqi government the US Marines had put Fallujah under siege and were poised to retake the city from the Sunni resistance that had taken control of it. The word came from Washington to stand down. US forces would not enter the city. Washington would not permit the inevitable images of urban warfare and its casualties to taint the President’s re-election campaign.

The President’s man in Baghdad, J. Pail Bremer cobbled together a deal. US forces would lift the siege, permit travel in and out of the city and would withdraw to bases on the perimeter. The job of policing Fallujah would be turned over to something called the Fallujah Brigade made up of the very fighters who had been firing on Marine patrols. The Brigade was armed with captured weapons and put under the command of experienced officers who had served with Saddam Hussein’s elite Republican Guard. The deal and the Fallujah Brigade disintegrated almost as soon as it was made. Fallujah became a no-go zone for American troops – Indian Country....click here for entire article

November 8, 2004 - We Democrats recognize that the first duty of Government is to provide for the safety of its citizens. We also recognize that it is the duty of Government to do so without doing violence to the individual citizen’s rights under the Constitution and our body of laws. We cannot make Americans secure by making them less free. Nor can we make America secure by isolating her from the world and extinguishing the Lamp of Liberty that has beckoned the rest of the world to our shores.

We recognize that in the struggle against international terrorism we cannot rely upon military might to extinguish the threat. We do not face regiments and battalions poised to attack. The dramatic destruction of the World Trade Center was prepared by 19 dedicated men anxious to die to do America harm. They came to the United States separately. They spread out across the country in ones and twos. They prepared for their task in the United States and came together only when it was time to execute the plot. They feared no punishment because they knew when their plot was executed they would be beyond the reach of American justice....click here for entire article

November 7, 2004 - Sooner or later the bill comes due. It always does. For a while you can put one thing off and pay another but the balance you put off just gets bigger. We have been doing that with energy prices. When the price of gas peaked in September so did consumer spending and so did consumer reliance on plastic as we slid cards in to the “pay at the pump” slots on the way to the grocery store. It was all so convenient. We cussed at the number on the credit card receipt and went on about our business. When the bill came in October we winced, paid the minimum monthly payment and moved on while the finance charge was tacked onto the price at the pump.

Suddenly it is November and the statement is coming in the mail. The balance will be higher, the finance charge will be higher, and the minimum payment will be a bigger bite out of the paycheck. The miracle of compound interest has made the price of that gasoline you burned getting to work in September just a little higher yet and the credit available on the account just that much lower...click here for entire article

November 5, 2004 - Both the President’s party and the Democratic Party are agreed that the method of financing the Social Security System is in urgent need of reform. We have made a contract with American working men and women that if they worked hard, played by the rules, and paid a mandatory contribution out of each paycheck the United States would insure that they were able to live in dignity and free from want when they were no longer able to work. The system has served our grandparents and our parents well for nearly seventy years. Like all insurance programs benefits paid to qualified beneficiaries have come from the participants FICA contributions to the Social Security Trust Fund and the Fund’s investment income. Changing demographics are such that the FICA deductions from the paychecks of active American workers are no longer adequate to fund the benefits that retired workers have earned by their lifetimes of labor...click here for entire article

During the long campaign the President attacked Senator Kerry for having a “September 10th mentality” in his plan for prosecuting a war on terror. Dick Cheney kept telling us that if we voted “wrong” we would insure another attack on the American homeland more devastating than that we suffered on 911. They chanted the mantra “everything changed on 9-11”. The war on terror became the campaign of terror and it worked...click here for entire article

November 3, 2004 - Last time it was Florida. This time it is Ohio. Last time it was Katherine Harris. This time it is Kenneth Blackwell. According to the Ohio’s Republican Secretary of State it will be eleven days before provisional ballots, absentee ballots and overseas ballots are examined and counted. If, as seems likely, Kerry takes Wisconsin and Bush carries Iowa and New Mexico those absentee and provisional ballots in Ohio will be the deciding factor that awards the Presidency to one or the other contestant. No one knows as I write this morning how many uncounted provisional ballots are out there. Ten of Ohio’s counties have not reported the number of those votes outstanding. According to the State’s Secretary of State 175,000 provisional and absentee ballots have been reported to his office. According to the Kerry campaign staff at least another 100,000 provisional ballots will be added when the most populous counties report – more than enough to overcome the apparent 140,000 vote lead the unofficial election night count gave President Bush...click here for entire article

November 2, 2004 - It has begun. As the sun speeds its way from the easternmost tip of Maine in the Atlantic to the westernmost island shore in Hawaii Americans will go to their polling places to cast their ballots renewing the experiment our political ancestors started in 1787. Only once in the history of the Republic has a divided people refused to accept the result of the quadrennial renewal of the American Revolution. No matter what the result of today’s poll of our citizens; whether it is a continuation of the present administration’s stewardship of the American dream or a new beginning under a new steward; we pray that 1860 will continue to stand alone as the only time that the result of a Presidential election was bitterly rejected in a resort to bloodshed. Seldom has the country been as deeply divided as it is on this Election Day. Seldom has the political rhetoric of the Presidential campaign been so bitterly divisive.

Forty-four years ago I cast my first ballot in a Presidential election. That was a century after the result of an election was Civil War. Then, as now, the nation was sharply divided between the continuation of the old regime and the commencement of a new era.. Even in the long hours we waited out the counting of the votes in 1960 did we consider that the result of our election might once again drive America apart...click here for entire article

November 1, 2004 - One hundred fifty years and one week ago a British brigade of light infantry charged the Russian guns at Balaclava. Alfred Lord Tennyson memorialized that military blunder in the poem that every English speaking student since has been assigned to read. Perhaps we should read it again. It would be well if the former students who occupy the White House and Number Ten Downing Street would recall and apply its lesson. It is, of course, a lesson in the consequence of slavish adherence to a flawed plan in a war fought to no discernable purpose other than the inevitable clash of imperial ambition.

'Forward, the Light Brigade!'
Was there a man dismayed?
Not though the soldier knew
Some one had blundered:
Their's not to make reply,
Their's not to reason why,
Their's but to do and die:
Into the valley of Death
Rode the six hundred...click here for entire article