STAFF SGT. JOSE A. LANAZARIN

Taking the Mac. in for a little repair. Be gone for a few days.

Scandal Jack is Back

White House-Abramoff Contacts More Extensive Than Thought, Report Says : Congressional Report Finds Convicted Lobbyist Had Contact With Karl Rove, Ken Mehlman By GEORGE STEPHANOPOULOS Sept. 28, 2006 — A Congressional report due out tomorrow is expected to show now-convicted lobbyist Jack Abramoff and his associates had far more extensive contacts with the White House than President Bush's staff ever acknowledged. The report from the Republican-led House Government Affairs Committee will state that Abramoff had as many as 450 contacts with the White House, and prime among his lobbying targets was former White House political director Ken Mehlman, and Bush's adviser Karl Rove. Mehlman is now the Chairman of the Republican National Committee, which issued this statement in response to the report: "In his capacity as Political Director of the White House, it is not unusual that Mr. Mehlman would be in contact with supporters who had interest in administration policy."........ click here

THE WHEEL IS TURNING, BUT THE HAMPSRERS DEAD

I'd like to give a big shout out to the Weekly Weather and Crop Bulletin a US government publication. Careful it's a big file.

HERE'S WHAT MEN LOOK LIKE :

Rumsfailed poked his finger in this man's chest .......

MY FEUD WITH GEORGE WILL

Note : This is a companion to the post that follows this one . My email to Mr. Will this morning : Mr. Will, I figure it's about time for you to offer one of your well crafted poo poos on Global Warming .  As I mentioned a few months ago, I would endeavour to enlighten you about the error of your ways on this subject . These are from the last month  : Scientists issue strongest coral warning http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060926/ap_on_sc/caribbean_coral_ warning;_ylt=AuSPsyiJa_UFm2X4TmF0ZxoiANEA;_ylu= X3oDMTA3MzV0MTdmBHNlYwM3NTM- Earth may be at warmest point in 1 million years http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20060926/sc_nm/environment_ warming_dc_3;_ylt=AvskUA7KId.eEwghDGGJUPZxieAA;_ylu= X3oDMTA2ZGZwam4yBHNlYwNmYw-- Study Says Methane a New Climate Threat http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/wireStory?id=2402638 Arctic ice melt shocks scientists September 20, 2006 http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,20867,20448107-23109,00.html Experts get shrinking feel about Alaska glaciers Most along coast are receding faster than earlier estimated, they find http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/14927175/ Study: Greenland ice sheet loss speeding up http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/14924663/ Three of these deal with , "It's much worse than we thought " findings.  Dr. Hansen calls these the "Monsters Behind the Door ". You know Dr. Hansen, he's the one Mr. Bush sent a Texas A&M dropout to muzzle. He's over at the Goodard Space Flight Center . Get out of the Belt Way for a day and go see him. There's a column in it I'm sure . Sincerely, COLORADO BOB

MORE GOD DAMN DOORS & MORE MONSTERS

EARTHRISE ON THE MOON I was posting at The Storm Track yesterday......I like those boys, their link is in the pile on the left. And as I said there, we're in the reporting season related to climate , That's why we're seeing these items pop-up lately. September, time to autopsy the summer and spring readings. Time to see how much the Arctic retreated. With that said, here's todays items to add to Dr. Hansen's Hallway of doors with monsters .... By the way, he;s the reason this first story got written. Earth may be at warmest point in 1 million years ....By Deborah Zabarenko, Environment Correspondent 2 hours, 32 minutes ago WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Earth may be close to the warmest it has been in the last million years, especially in the part of the Pacific Ocean where potentially violent El Nino weather patterns are born, climate scientists reported on Monday And then there's this story, this monster is way under reported ..... Scientists issue strongest coral warning .....Waters have reached 85 degrees around the U.S. Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico — temperatures at which coral can be damaged if waters do not cool after a few weeks — said Al Strong, a scientist with the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's Coral Reef Watch, in a telephone interview Monday. Now, in 19 days I have posted 5 stories about Dr, Hansen's Monster Mash . Two about Ice, Two about water, and One about tundra . If you think you're going to get a pass for a few years on this, before one of these monsters comes running down your street, think again. I gotta buy more chin straps .

" Donuts , is there anything they can't do ? "

A software experiment.

HISTORY TELESCOPES

Think of looking at history as a collection of telescopes....many that have cracked, missing, or dirty lenses...and most have no taper ...so it's easy to look in the wrong end.....There's some with very sharp detail in them......We all have to be looking through the right telescopes to be on the same page of that giant textbook in the sky. The one that's got ALL the history in it. Right down to the last birthday and treaty. I love the subject...got that from my mother. So I decided to do a little writing about my home. That map is called The South Plains today, once it was called the Comancheria . { Even my spell checker doesn't like the word } It was the last great stronghold of " The Antelope Eaters ". And they were the last hold-outs in Texas . From the time that Chiristo Columbo saw his first Arawak until the Mexican Revolution of 1821...The Spanish in the New World met and defeated every Indian group they came in contact with ....except one. By what ever reasons ....they won those contests. That one group of Indians stopped them cold. That one group of Indians are the reason that St Louis was a French town & not a Spanish one. And from St Louis all the points west to California, should have been little Spanish towns at the important places, when the Northern Europeans came floating by. Souix Falls S.D. should have been Estacado de Gudalupe'. But the Spanish ran into this buzz saw on horse back around 1700 and those Indians kicked everybody's ass until the year 1847 exactly ! That year, Major Walker of the Texas Rangers received his first shipments of the Model 1847 Walker Colt revolver. That shipment shattered nearly 200 years of power on the Southern Plains. I owned a reproduction of one those Colts. They are the biggest, heaviest {5lbs.}, and most powerful guns made in the 19th cenutry...They will blow the doors off a Volkswagen.....they roared flame, smoke, and thunder. Now the Rangers, soon took to carrying as many as 3 of these things. That's 15 shots per ranger . " The Shootist " was right .....with these guns the hammer is always resting on the empty chamber. ...."so you won't shoot your leg off". Why did this happen ? Well those Indians had a tactic that simply over came everybody else. They rode straight at you and showered your position with arrows...Anyone from central Asia, at any time from history, sitting on a horse on a hill top watching this would have smiled...... But in 1847 the Rangers began showering them with lead. Last bands held out until 1874 up here in the Comancheria . But it was really over the day those Colts got to Texas. To learn more about these Indians I recommend "Comanche Moon " by T. R. Farenbock..He's one of the great Texas writers. The history he writes gives you a look through just one telescope of what it was like in Central Texas in the early spring of the 1830's and you knew the Comanches were coming down from the Comancheria with the full moon and there wasn't a damn thing you could do about.

ANOTHER DOOR.....ANOTHER MONSTER

A little over a week ago, I wrote about Dr. Hasen's fears of " The Monsters Behind the Door ". That was about the news coming out of Siberia .....Just a few days later, and a little farther down the hall, another door swung open. There's another monster behind this one too. Consider the leed paragraph from this article in the 9/20/2006 edition of The Australian : " EUROPEAN scientists voiced shock today as they viewed pictures which showed Arctic ice cover had disappeared so much last month that a ship could sail unhindered from Europe's most northerly outpost to the North Pole. " That's "Europe's most northerly outpost" above Norway, Finland, and Sweden. That has never happened before. That is so outside mankind's experience, words to describe it are not in the dictionary....any bloody dictionary.... Think of it, if Henry Hudson had encountered these conditions when he was looking for England's route to the Spice Islands and China, that river in New York might be called, " The Bob River ". He tried going this way on his first trip . It was frozen shut . And here in America, barely a ripple . Yesterday, when news broke that the wacky billionaire Richard Branson was getting onboard Bill Clinton's effort to curb Global Warming, now that was "News". " Neil Cavoodo " had Mr. Branson on. { He thinks Branson needs his head examined. } Tucker Carlson { He thinks there's nothing we can do, so lay back and enjoy the ride } had a cable news food fight. His conservative scarecrow guest told us that since this Atlantic Hurricane season has been slow...it's proof that G W is all a big to do about nothing . Well, the big hurricanes haven't stopped, they just moved into the Pacific, and are wearing typhoon name tags. Since January 1st there have been five cat 5 typhoons out there. Dr. Hansen told Tom Brokow that these monsters are what truly scare him. They scare me too. Now, where's my chin strap ?

PIXEN

This is a screen shot of PIXEN new software for image production......Bill O'Reilly's head on a goats body ..with horns. Get ready folks it's coming. That's Louise Brooks the very first flapper... Is'nt she a dish.

A Letter from Fallujah

I was going to write about something that happen this week and we all barely noticed it..... It's not small either, it's something that's never happened in the whole history of mankind on the Earth boys and girls. Like the Moon Landing or the invention of glue { 7,000 years ago in Iraq of all places } In fact it's a bigger deal than all the big deals than have ever come over the transom . But Larry Johnson has put up a letter from a Marine in Fallujah......Do yourself a favor, and read it. It's a letter from " The Front " that historians will long use as an example of the War in Iraq...........From the Marine who's name we don't know : Most Surreal Moment - Watching Marines arrive at my detention facility and unload a truck load of flex-cuffed midgets. 26 to be exact. I had put the word out earlier in the day to the Marines in Fallujah that we were looking for Bad Guy X, who was described as a midget. Little did I know that Fallujah was home to a small community of midgets, who banded together for support since they were considered as social outcasts. The Marines were anxious to get back to the midget colony to bring in the rest of the midget suspects, but I called off the search, figuring Bad Guy X was long gone on his short legs after seeing his companions rounded up by the giant infidels. Most Profound Man in Iraq - an unidentified farmer in a fairly remote area who, after being asked by Reconnaissance Marines (searching for Syrians) if he had seen any foreign fighters in the area replied “Yes, you.”... Tomorrow I'll get to that Big Deal.

Bob TV Promo

It's My Birthday

To celebrate I bought the pro version of the Image Wizard. Lot's of bells and whistles in the thing.......I'm not sure where to put this power source though.

" THE DECIDER " BRINGS BUSINESS GROWTH TO THE WORLD

VOA........9/2/2006 A United Nations report says opium production in Afghanistan has jumped to record levels this year. U.N. officials warn the booming drug trade is fueling instability throughout Afghanistan and threatens the country's fragile democracy. The report, released Saturday by the U.N. Office on Drugs and Crime, says poppy cultivation in Afghanistan has increased nearly 60 percent in the past year.............click here NBC NEWS.....9/18/2006 "Only one business benefits from this strife — the coffin maker, Suhail Gergis. He's been making coffins since 1983, and for the first time he cannot keep up with demand. "We turn on the generator and keep working until late at night," he says. They are building a coffin for a small child. In Iraq, in this chaos, this business has the biggest increase in manufacturing here. The United Nations estimates that 100 Iraqi civilians die violently each day. The coffin makers will have to work harder" ........click here Will somebody give George an " ATTA BOY ' I'm all out.

" WAIST DEEP IN THE BIG MUDDY " - 2006

SEE THE 1968 PERFORMANCE OF PETE ON THE SMOTHERS BROTHERS HERE, THANKS TO : cdmaven

" AFTER ALL THE JACKS ARE IN THEIR BOXS AND THE CLOWNS HAVE ALL GONE TO BED......."

From today's BBC web site..... 1970: Rock legend Hendrix dies after party Guitarist Jimi Hendrix has died after collapsing at a party in London. Police say there was no question of foul play. JIMI HENDRIX IN ONE MINUTE * Spent time in the American army as a paratrooper (honourably discharged after hurting his ankle) *Served his musical apprenticeship in the backing bands of Little Richard, The Isley Brothers and Ike & Tina Turner *Set fire to his guitar at The Monterey Pop Festival *Deconstructed the 'The Star Spangled Banner' at Woodstock *Lemmy, of Motorhead fame, was a roadie for "The Experience" *His London home now features a "Jimi lived here" commemorative blue plaque *Left-handed, he played a re-strung right-handed Fender Stratocaster upside-down I was at a cider mill outside of Rockford Ill. when I heard this news, where were you ?

THE MORNING SCREEN SHOT...9-17-2006

For those of you not familiar with Mac's...The new ones have a dash board icon on the tool bar. Click it, and a smokey transparent screen pops-up over what you're looking at....At bottom of this screen are a row of widgets, one can add what ever one want's ......there are over 2,240 downloads now. The Oregon Coast webcams, NASA TV, cooking tips, George Bush counters...it goes on and on. Click the widget and up pops the subject on the smoky screen. Here's the body count from Iraq widget.

" WHY THEY HATE US "

Thanksgiving at the Como Springs Resort

If you're west bound on the Eighty, the last town in Wyoming is Evanston, home of the Whirl Inn. Their motto was, "Whirl Inn, and stumble out". As you proceed west past the Utah scales, a rather nice canyon takes you to Echo Junction. A place where the Reed/Donner party made the fatal decision to follow the advice of a tinhorn, and turn to the left. That route today takes one up to Park City, Immigration Canyon, and on into Salt Lake City. The right hand way follows the Weber River down to Ogden. A few miles past the junction on the left is the little town of Morgan. In 1978 it was the largest mink farming center in the US. It also was home to the Como Springs Resort. A place that had see much better days, but with a charm that was appealing never the less. The fall of that year it was the base of operations for Mountian Geophysical. A company that I had hired on with in September. My friend Lewis, had been driving a truck for the lumber yard at Estes Park, Colorado, when one day he up and disappeared. After months of no Lewis.... he shows up in the Wheel Bar, drinkin' Michelob with a thousand dollars in his jeans. Over the jukebox's blaring David Bowie's "Fame" I said, "Lewis, what you been doin'"? His reply, "Robert I'm jumpin' outta helicopters in Utah, and scarin' the shit out of the wildlfe". That's how I found myself at the Como Springs Resort that Thanksgiving of 1978. That fall our crew worked 75 days in a row, cause the weather was clear and crisp. I really didn't give any thought to Thanksgiving other than the idea of sleeping and callin' momma. When I woke up that afternoon, it slowly became apparant that everything was closed. I mean everything. The crew had split for all points on the compass, and I was alone. I read a little, but as the day moved on I became more and more hungry. Laying on the bed reading, I reached up to the headboard, and fumbled for the little plastic bear that contained the only food in the room.... honey. I stuck the nozzle in my mouth and squeezed out a shot of the stuff. Now, I knew that honey, if it sits will sometimes crystalize, so the crunchy part in the stuff didn't bother me on the first go round. The second time however, I stopped reading and looked in the bottle. There, floating in biblical food were 3 flies, who had met their end along with the 3 or 4 I had just had for Thanksgiving dinner. And that boys and girls is how I had flies and honey for Thanksgiving in 1978. colorado bob Nov 24, 2005 -- 05:58:21 PM EST

Waist Deep in The Big Muddy

Waist Deep In The Big Muddy by Pete Seeger 1963, planned for the Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour in 1967 but CBS objected to the blacklisted Seeger making obvious references to the"big fool" in the White House, finally sung by Seeger on the Comedy Hour in 1968 as the finale in a medley of anti-war songs It was back in nineteen forty-two, I was a member of a good platoon. We were on maneuvers in-a Loozianna, One night by the light of the moon. The captain told us to ford a river, That's how it all begun. We were -- knee deep in the Big Muddy, But the big fool said to push on. The Sergeant said, "Sir, are you sure, This is the best way back to the base?" "Sergeant, go on! I forded this river 'Bout a mile above this place. It'll be a little soggy but just keep slogging. We'll soon be on dry ground." We were -- waist deep in the Big Muddy And the big fool said to push on. The Sergeant said, "Sir, with all this equipment No man will be able to swim." "Sergeant, don't be a Nervous Nellie," The Captain said to him. "All we need is a little determination; Men, follow me, I'll lead on." We were -- neck deep in the Big Muddy And the big fool said to push on. All at once, the moon clouded over, We heard a gurgling cry. A few seconds later, the captain's helmet Was all that floated by. The Sergeant said, "Turn around men! I'm in charge from now on." And we just made it out of the Big Muddy With the captain dead and gone. We stripped and dived and found his body Stuck in the old quicksand. I guess he didn't know that the water was deeper Than the place he'd once before been. Another stream had joined the Big Muddy 'Bout a half mile from where we'd gone. We were lucky to escape from the Big Muddy When the big fool said to push on. Well, I'm not going to point any moral; I'll leave that for yourself Maybe you're still walking, you're still talking You'd like to keep your health. But every time I read the papers That old feeling comes on; We're -- waist deep in the Big Muddy And the big fool says to push on. Waist deep in the Big Muddy And the big fool says to push on. Waist deep in the Big Muddy And the big fool says to push on. Waist deep! Neck deep! Soon even a Tall man'll be over his head, we're Waist deep in the Big Muddy! And the big fool says to push on! Words and music by Pete Seeger (1967) TRO (c) 1967 Melody Trails, Inc. New York, NY

TYKO..This never stops amazing me........{ The internet that is.}

BLOWBACK*: may refer to one of the following.

< Best Buddies >Any negative effect one suffers from one's own weapons, such as the possibility that one's own weapons used in a nuclear war could create fallout that could be blown onto one's own troops or nation. >Blowback is a term now broadly used in espionage to describe the unintended consequences of covert operations. Because the public generally is unaware of secret operations, the consequences transpire as a surprise, apparently random and without cause, and blowback results. See also Manchurian blowback deniability Reagan Doctrine Office of Public Diplomacy Chalmers Johnson João Goulart Mohammed Mossadegh * The folks at Wiki may want update this entry.........

"ALAS POOR "SLAM DUNK" I KNEW HIM WELL"

" IT WAS A DARK AND STORMY AND NIGHT " ..........That's how bad it was for Metal of Freedom winner and all around good guy Young George Tenet on the Sunday talk shows. Yes, after keeping Young Tenet in chains in the hold for months on end, the crew of the Bush privateer Raging Stem Cell finally was forced to bring him up on deck to serve his last useful purpose. Taking the fall for the Invasion of Iraq. Navigator Rice led the way up on deck in a smart pants suit with matching eye patch, and brandishing a stunning cutlass by Cartier. The growling first mate, " Dead-eye Dick " was finally seen and heard from on board another ship, the bulk cattle carrier The Pressed Meat . Reports from that quarter were of much bobbing, sneering, and weaving with some slipping and sliding. So, it was left to Navigator Rice to the deed and finally send Young Tenet over the side to his fate. But fear not.... The Raging Stem Cell, was anchored in shallow waters near shore. Young Tenet is plump he'll most likely float to shore, where he hopes to finish writing his book. The captain of The Raging Stem Cell, was seen ashore polishing his halo in a memorial service for the Victims of 9/11.

BUTTONS

Here's the link for generating the images for these.....80x15 Brilliant Button Maker Here's the link for generating the color numbers.......ColorMatch 5K

RADIO IO

In no way am I getting paid for this. But these guys are just top drawer, and I'm gonna give them another shout-out. I've been meaning to do this, but today Tom spun out....."Stupid Girl" by Garbage and then played "Hot Smoke and Sasafras" by Bubble Puppy ! Bubble Puppy....No one plays Bubble Puppy ! This site is one of the best places in Senator Steven's Plumbing*. Still in doubt, RADIO IO'S PLAYLIST FOR 9/9/06 CLICK THE BIG RED BUTTON * SENATOR TED STEVENS (R) of Alaska= " I know what the internet is, internet is a series of pipes."

OTHER "DECIDERS" FROM HISTORY......The French Generals of " The Great War "

For six years, the Bush administration has painted Mr. Bush as a "Strong Leader". They never fail to remind us that our boy George is a man who makes a decision, and never looks back. Case closed. Doubt is for pussies. Doubt is for weaklings. After all...... he is the " Decider ". Well, here's three other " Deciders "......The fellow on the left, was FRENCH GENERAL CASTLENAU. C.1916. Castlenau was a leading exponent of the "offensive spirit" which dominated French war policy until 1917. {3 years} How about that term..."offensive spirit". Pretty good huh, right out of Karl Rove's dictionary. "Offensive Spirit" meant that if one just got enough men to charge into the teeth of 300 dug-in German machine guns ....the day would be won. These guys "decided", and that was it. Several hundred thousand lives were shoveled into this decision. Being a square jawed decision maker is certainly a virtue, of that I have no doubt. But history is full of more Blunders, and just plain dumb luck, than square jawed decision makers. Now...... should I have another cup of coffee ? "Oh. fiddlely-dee ...I'll think about that tomorrow." Prints by J.F. Bouchor, official painter to the French Armies.

THE FOG OF WAR

It's Mad Mustards fault....He thins out a bit, the hard drive on my old Mac "egg" dies, and when I come back. He's got this Jetson's type design on his place, and he's watchin' videos with weird little detachable players that float all over the screen...What the Hell is That ? So last night he says, "That new Mac outta make some pretty good videos," And I'm thinkin' this thing is like the Mandrin alphabet. But I went and opened "I Movies" this morning, and sure enough...it does make videos. So here's the first web video I ever made.....Tell me what you think.

YOU'LL NEVER WATCH PICTURES OF KITTYS AGAIN.....GOD..DO I LOVE THIS MACHINE

SEPARATED AT BIRTH ?

It's new software, I couldn't help myself.....

" MONSTERS BEHIND THE DOOR "

I know....you think this is about Dick Cheney and his presidential hand puppet George Bush. We'll your wrong, it's a phrase I caught a few weeks back from the Tom Brokaw special on Global Warming. Tom plowed a lot of the same ground that's been in the news for the past few years, but the show was notable for the above phrase, and what it describes. Dr. Hanson from The Goddard Space Flight Center used it. And like the 50's SiFi movies it's the things we don't know that scare him about Global Warming. One of those doors is beginning to open now, and behind it is the thawing of the permafrost. An emerging subject that's going to get a lot more attention, and the permafrost in Siberia in particular. The ground is frozen deep and it's "Bigger than Dallas" there. What we're talking about is the release of billions of tons of Methane, and CO2 gas that has been stored in the ground for hundreds of thousands of years. Well, boys and girls the door just swung open a little more and there seems to be one of those monsters there........ Scientists Find New Global Warming 'Time Bomb' _ Methane Bubbling Up From Permafrost TODAY IS BUDDY HOLLY'S BIRTHDAY He would have been 70 years old if he hadn't played that gig at The Surf Ballroom.

"HELP !..I've fallin' into the Style Sheets and I can't get up!"

CLIP TEXT FOR TROLLS......a handy retort for when your just too tried to type

In the interest of speeding retorts to trolls, STAYING ON MESSAGE, and speeding up the flow of electrons through Senator Stevens plumbing....Mart posting at No Quarter has got the ball rollin' with a handy cut and paste, which he got at RAW story, which clipped it from who knows where, which I clipped at No Quarter, and am passing along here...... Mart and I were dealing with a particularly dense and pointy headed one. You know the ones. The "Freedom's on the March", "Freedom's Not Tidy ", "Last Throws", "No One Could Have Imagined........" , etc., etc., etc., kind. The ones that are so breath-takenly dense, that if you were in a room with one, they would suck all the oxygen out of it. Anyway....Just run your little cursor over the following text, highlight , clip, and .....well you know. ____________________________________________________________ SOS { ENTER TROLLS NAME HERE }: I have pinpointed where things seem to go horribly wrong, and I'm sure it's when you begin to write words. Your words look around and have no idea what they are doing next to each other, a jumbled mixture of random one-liners and utter incoherence, unrelated and contradictory. Your bewildering posts, eerily similar to a GWB speech or a Rummy rant, have the same feel as what is on the ground in Iraq. ____________________________________________________________ NOTE : If the original author of this gem should come across this in Senator Steve's plumbing, feel free to cut n' paste your name here. * This is also helpful for carpal tunnel sufferers.

FEAR AND COLD ROOT BEER

One of the fellows who worked on The Manhattan Project, I forget which one, came up with interesting idea. It was later in the "Nuclear Age" when things were really getting cranked-up with Soviets, and we were locked into a real thermonuclear pissin' contest with them, and the Commies tested a 50 megaton device named Tsar Bomba. It was capable of 100 megatons, but they dialed back it's power shortly before the shot. Even as fired, it was capable of producing 3rd degree burns at 100 kilometers {60 miles}. This was the largest man made explosion in history. This all took place on Oct. 30, 1961, just under one year before the Cuban Missile Crisis. Today, when those times are put up on TV, lazy producers go to the vault and pull out that stupid "Duck and Cover Turtle" clip to show what things were like. I was 12 years old when this thing was tested. I never saw that goofy turtle, but I remember this bomb. And I remember what happen the following Oct..... As both sides worked on "improving" these things, there was an on going struggle to limit their testing in those years, with a partial test ban being ratified in 1963. It banned their testing in the air, sea, or space. But that was a year in the future that Oct. day in 1962 when I got out of 7th grade football practice. The high point of my afternoon was just ahead of me, an ice cold root beer from the Coke machine in the Owens grocery store. It was a real twofer, the air conditioned comfort of Owens, and a Coke machine turned down so cold that ice formed in the root beer as soon as the cap came off. But as I stood there taking my first gulp, the cheap AM radio behind the cashier was rattling out something about President Kennedy addressing the nation later that day about missiles in Cuba. A wave of fear washed over me as I headed home thinking the flash of gamma ray radiation might get me before I saw my mom again. We all know now how close we really were, and I wasn't being "alarmist" swillin' that root beer and heading out the door home. What I didn't know then was that the architect of the fire raids on Japan, General Curtis LeMay was urging Kennedy to strike the Soviets in Cuba. What LeMay didn't know was that the Soviets had tactical nuclear warheads in Cuba and the orders to use them if we attacked. Which brings us to that interesting idea the old Manhattan Weaponeer came up with. When he heard that there would be no more above ground tests of these terrible things, he proposed an exception to the ban. He saw into the future, and that as time pasted the fear that those above ground tests had put into me would be lost in us all. His idea was really simple, every 5 years in some remote location, the leaders of the world would be brought together. There they would be forced to strip to their underware, and a small atomic device be fired off so the all might be reminded of just what we're talking about. I think that the time, the old weaponeer foresaw, has come. These things are not just a bigger boom. I think we've all maybe forgotten that. I think I'll have a root beer.

ABOUT HALOSCAN

I installed Haloscan on the comments page. I've always liked using it, and this latest has some new features. They are the ? and the little computer screen icon you see to the right>>>> The question mark is a no brainer, click it and you see the creepy little faces and the swell little thumbs>>>>>> Type along click one of the icons, and it beds the code on the page....You can stick them in the post any where. The computer screen is the cool deal...Click it and you'll see this >>>> This is a Free photo hosting site. I don't know all the formats they do....I always use jpg.It works on everything I've come across and this is no different. Get a jpg picture of your cat on the desk top for example. Click CHOOSE FILE., then highlight your cat file in the new screen. I don't know what windows will show, but apple shows choose in the bottom of the screen. Click it, and your file name will appear where "No File Selected" is. Then click, "Upload Image" and out pops a new screen. That new screen will have the picture AND the new http code. Paste it the comments box and we all can see pictures of your cat. It's a Hot Link just like your use to.... on Haloscan, and it works on Mustard's elegant comment page. It's not live on the Blogger comments, but it can be pasted into the browser on the main page and that will show your cat. In Haloscan if you run your cursor over the link, a little preview window pops up, and you can see the image with out even clicking the link. Like I said it's pretty cool. I'll do ads on my comments pages for it any day. One last thing when I switched to Halo from Blogger. The old comments didn't come with it. So if you change, save any comment gems first !!!

" LET'S ALL TIGHTEN THOSE CHIN STRAPS BOYS AND GIRLS "

"So I'm looking at the site tracker map, and I find someone as far away as Beijing has looked at this page, and I'm Wow. Then, I install Techorati and find out my ranking is 1,076,236...... and perspective raises it's ugly head again. Then I installed Haloscan, and Mad Mustard says I'm braver than he is....There's that sinking feeling again. That sinking feeling. Have you got a bad case of it too ? Cause that's what I'm thinking we all got. Unless I'm that guy in Beijing. If I'm him, I'm out shopping for a new car, and adding a page in my country's 5,000 year history. But I digress. Last night, Juan Cole posts some more of that relentlessly bad news from Iraq. But this one is different, it's another one of those " Turning Point " items we've seen from Mess-o-potamia. It's up there with the bombing of the Golden Dome Mosque, or the attacks on the U.N. headquarters & the Jordanian embassy in 03'. You see the Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani has thrown in the towel. That's right boys and girls, he's retired from politics. Why ? Because nobody is paying any attention to him any more. And with that act, one of the last brakes on the run-a-way-train that is Iraq is gone. The train will be picking up speed now, we ain't see nothin' yet. We're already doin' 70 down the back side of the El Cajon Pass to that 45 m.p.h. curve at the bottom in " San Berdo ". No way to jump now, and no way to crawl over the potash cars to the caboose. So, tighten those chin straps boys and girls.....this is going to be one hell of a train wreck.

WOULD YOU BUY A USED CAR FROM THIS MAN ......." THERE CAN BE NO DOUBT "

From David E, Sanger of the Times: Cheney's August of 2002 speech In August of 2002, seven months before "Operation Iraqi Freedom" was launched, Cheney gave a widely covered speech to the Veterans of Foreign Wars' 103rd National Convention in Nashville, Tennesee which argued that critics were wrong to suggest that deposing Saddam Hussein might spark more unrest across the Middle East region or prove counterproductive to the "war against terror." "Another argument holds that opposing Saddam Hussein would cause even greater troubles in that part of the world, and interfere with the larger war against terror," Vice President Cheney had said. "I believe the opposite is true." "Regime change in Iraq would bring about a number of benefits to the region," Cheney had contended. "When the gravest of threats are eliminated, the freedom-loving peoples of the region will have a chance to promote the values that can bring lasting peace." In the same speech, the vice president had also predicted that Iraqis would "erupt in joy" after Saddam's regime was overthrown. "As for the reaction of the Arab 'street,' the Middle East expert Professor Fouad Ajami predicts that after liberation, the streets in Basra and Baghdad are 'sure to erupt in joy in the same way the throngs in Kabul greeted the Americans," Cheney had said. "Extremists in the region would have to rethink their strategy of Jihad," added Cheney. "Moderates throughout the region would take heart." "And our ability to advance the Israeli-Palestinian peace process would be enhanced, just as it was following the liberation of Kuwait in 1991," claimed Cheney back in August of 2002.

THIS NEVER STOPS AMAZING ME

WHO IS IN BEIJING ?