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2006, THE LONE STAR ICONOCLAST
Vol. 7, No. 36
SEPTEMBER 27 2006
$1.00 Per Copy
CRAWFORD, TEXAS
We could be facing the biggest cover-up andthe biggest crime of
our century in regardto 9/11 and whats going on here.
Byron De LearW
Page 3
ByronDe Lear
e could be facing the biggest cover-up andthe biggest crime of
our century in regardto 9/11 and whats going on here.
Byron De Lear
Bell SpeaksTo DentonDemocrats
Page 6
Chris Bell, CandidateFor Texas Governor
Actual Costs,True Costs,
Net Costs Of WarPage 8
Presenting ANew Version OfRocky Horror
Page 11
Declare PeaceFor Crying Out Loud!
That WhichThinking
People FearPage 14
Page 11
AlternativeTorturePage 13
Page 13
GUESTCOMMENTARY
The Devil InGeorge W. Bush
ByCaptain
Eric May
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2 Wednesday, Sept. 27, 2006 THE LONE STAR ICONOCLAST Online:
www.lonestaricon.com
Iconoclast Hard Copy To Go Monthly
U.S. Billionaires Pledge $50 Million To Nuclear Reserves
Venezuelan President Refers To Bush As Devil At U.N.
Hazardous Liquid Spill Causes Evacuations In CrawfordCRAWFORD A
train de-
railment that caused hazardousliquid to spill in Crawford led
tothe temporary evacuation ofroughly half the citys popula-
tion last Tuesday.The 300-plus of the 700 resi-
dents returned to their homesby 10 p.m. four hours after
thederailment occurred. No inju-
ries were reported, according tothe railways spokesperson.
At about 6:20 p.m., 23 cars ofa southbound Burlington North-ern
Santa Fe Railroad freight
train jumped the track.An initial report stated that
the chemical was a vinyl acetate,a corrosive chemical used
tomanufacture other industrial
chemicals in paints, glues, andplastics.
However, in a later report,railroad officials said that the
liq-uid was ethanolamine, a chemi-cal found in
herbicides,cosmetics, and textiles.
Regional hazardous-materi-als teams contained the spill,and
through the clean-up pro-cess, the air quality was moni-tored.
Crawford residents have be-come used to disruptions totheir
smalltown life-styles in theyears since President George W.Bush
purchased on his nearbyvacation ranch.
The president was not vaca-tioning there when the
accidenthappened.
Joe Faust, spokesman forBNSF Railway, said that corpo-rate
investigators were stillstudying the cause of the derail-ment
Wednesday.
The crash site was also exam-ined by state and federal
envi-ronmental authorities.
CRAWFORD Beginningsoon, THE LONE STAR ICONO-CLAST, which began
publicationin the winter of 2000, will alterthe frequency of its
hard copy(print edition) to monthly,while at the same time
ex-panding material of its onlineedition.
According to publisher W.Leon Smith, More and morereaders are
going online toread THE ICONOCLAST, whilefewer are reading the
printedition, which has promptedthis change. After analyzingour
product and our reader-
ship, it is our feeling that thewave of the future on
publica-tions such as THE ICONOCLAST iswith the Internet.
Smith explained that manyreaders who subscribe to theprint
edition also read the pa-per online, because they donthave to wait
sometimes two orthree weeks to receive the hardcopy in the mail.
Once we postthe latest edition online, itsavailable immediately, he
said.
We still want to maintain ahard copy presence, and thereare some
items that can per-haps best be handled with ac-
tual paper in hand, he said, sowe plan to revamp the contentof
the print edition, while at thesame time increasing materialto be
consumed online. Too, thisallows us to shift more attentionto a
product people will be ableto access sooner.
The subscription price ofTHE ICONOCLAST print editionwill be
decreased to accom-modate 12 issues a year whilesome content on the
onlineedition will become fee-basedto provide revenue to help
payexpenses. Current subscrib-ers of the print edition will
have their subscriptions ex-tended in time to make upthe
difference in number ofcopies received, unless theyrequest a
partial refund.
We look forward to provid-ing additional postings, per-haps
daily, said Smith, whichshould make for a fresherproduct.
The newspapers online edi-tion can be accessed at.
Smith noted that nextweeks ICONOCLAST will be thefirst monthly
edition, for themonth of October.
UNITED NATIONS Thepresident of Venezuela referredto the
president of the UnitedStates as a devil and the U.S.as an empire
during a speechbefore the United Nations Gen-eral Assembly last
Wednesday.
The devil came here yester-day, Venezuelas Hugo Chavezsaid,
referring to George W.Bushs speech on Tuesday. Hecame here talking
as if he werethe owner of the world.
President Chavez added thathe believed President Bush sup-ported
a false democracy of theelite. He also suggested thatthe U.N.
representatives con-sider reading a book by Ameri-can leftist
dissident NoamChomsky called Hegemony orSurvival: Americas Quest
forGlobal Dominance.
The American empire is do-ing all it can to consolidate
itshegemonistic system of domina-
tion, and we cannot allow themto do that, said Chavez. We
can-not allow world dictatorship to beconsolidated.
Chavez continued called the60-year-old U.N. system worth-less
because of the U.S. govern-ment influence over it acriticism echoed
by IranianPresident MahmoudAhmadinejads speech to the as-sembly
late on Tuesday.
As long as the UN SecurityCouncil is unable to act on behalfof
the entire international com-munity in a transparent, just
anddemocratic manner, it will nei-ther be legitimate nor
effective,Ahmadinejad said in a speechhours before Bush spoke.
Ahmadinejad also defendedthe nuclear energy aspirations ofhis
country as peaceful. Iran is amember of the U.N.s nuclearenergy
watchdog group, the In-ternational Atomic Energy
Agency (IAEA). Iran has en-riched only 3.6 percent of
itsuranium-235, according toIAEA. Weapons-grade ura-nium must be
enriched tocontain at least 90 percenturanium-235.
In his speech Tuesday, Presi-dent Bush defended himself,saying
his Middle East policieswere effective in marginalizing
terrorists and supporting democ-racy.
Afghan President HamidKarzai said in his speech to theU.N.
Wednesday that military at-tacks alone would not would notstop
terrorists operating in hiscountry. He also called for
moreinternational aid for Afghanfarmers to curb to drug trade.
The presidents of Pakistan,
Afghanistan, and the UnitedStates are to meet on Sept. 27 totalk
about how the three coun-tries can work together, theWhite House
said late last week.
Pakistani President PervezMusharraf and Afghan PresidentKarzai
have disagreed on howeach country is dealing withTaliban militants
on their sharedborder.
VIENNA U.S. billionairesTed Turner and Warren Buffethave pledged
$50 million for thecreation of an alternative reserveof enriched
uranium for use by theinternational community.
The reserve itself is intended toprevent individual countries
fromoperating their own enrichmentprocesses which could fall
intomilitaristic hands.
The Vienna-based nuclear
watchdog, the InternationalAtomic Energy Agency (IAEA), isto run
the proposed reserve.
The billionaires donation de-pends on the agencys ability to
at-tain $100 million in credit or inlow-enriched uranium from
mem-ber states.
IAEA member countries haveexpressed support in the
nuclearreserve, but say that the nuclearfuel market will still be
controlled
by dominant powers.Argentina, Australia and South
Africa have plans to start their ownuranium production. Iran has
al-ready done so to the chagrin of theUnited States and Israel.
Former U.S. senator and cur-rent head of the Nuclear
ThreatInitiative Sam Nunn said the re-serve would be an important
toolto increase global security fromnuclear weapons.
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Online: www.lonestaricon.com THE LONE STAR ICONOCLAST Wednesday,
Sept. 27, 2006 3
Repeal The 22nd Amendment?Congressional Candidate Byron De
LearTakes On Bush War Machine In California
Byron De Lear
BY W. LEON SMITHICONOCLAST EDITOR-IN-CHIEF
STUDIO CITY, Calif. As theNovember general election rollsnear,
some perplexed voters areattempting to ascertain the dif-ference
between Democratsand Republicans, especially indistricts where the
lines be-tween the two are becomingblurred.
In Southern California, in-cumbent U.S. Rep. HowardBerman (D)
has adopted muchof the neoconservative policythat even some
Republicanshave come out against. Here,some deem Berman
theLieberman of the West.
According to the Green Partycandidate for the 28th
Congres-sional District of Southern Cali-fornia, Byron De Lear,
hisDemocratic opponenthas distanced himselffrom progressives by
vot-ing with Bush to block atimetable for troop with-drawal from
Iraq, andeven more telling, in 2005co-sponsored legislationto
repeal the 22ndAmendment to the Con-stitution, which setsterm
limits on the presidency.
De Lear wants the GreenParty to be represented in Con-gress to
clean up the prob-lems deposited byunaccountable office holders
ofthe two major parties.
Never has a philosophy of acountry shifted so radically asit has
under George Bush whohas championed the use of tor-ture, secrecy,
and military pre-emption. With the potentialthreat of nuclear war
facingAmericans today, a new voice oftempered reason is needed,said
De Lear, the son of an op-era singer father and concertpianist
mother who in 2004 quithis job in production for 20thCentury Fox
and founded Glo-bal Peace Solution, an organiza-tion committed to
brokeringpeace resolutions throughoutthe Middle East.
De Lears television talkshow, Global Peace Network,has been
broadcast via satellitethroughout North America, Eu-rope, and the
Middle East. Now,De Lear has shifted his focus toending the war in
Iraq, invigo-rating the American economy,and taking a full court
pressapproach to tackling the ill ef-fects of global warming.
De Lear says that the UnitedStates is headed down a path
ofdestruction, but that the upcom-
ing mid-term elections canmake a difference.
As we move forward into the21st century and embrace anewfound
ability to foster coop-eration with our global commu-nity in ways
and means neverseen before, a great manypeople around the world
aretalking transformation andchange, making human rights,dignity
and humanitarian idealsthe primacy of good governance.It is
imperative for America totake part in this change. On theother
hand, George Bush is try-ing to set up an Imperial Presi-dency with
unconstitutionalactions such as unwarrantedwiretapping of
Americans, devi-ous signing statements, and jus-tifying torture. My
opponent,Rep. Howard Berman, not only
marches in lockstep with Bushswar in Iraq, but has even
co-sponsored legislation (H.J. RES25) last year to repeal the
22ndAmendment to the Constitutionremoving term limits from theWhite
House. It is time for thepeople to stand up and stop thedismantling
of core Americanvalues before the coup is com-plete. We must
act.
De Lear agrees with the wis-dom of retired military leadersJohn
Murtha and John Kerryand calls for a responsible,phased withdrawal
from Iraq.He understands that the Iraqipeople cannot stand up until
theU.S. military stands down. Headds, While Americans havecalled
for Congress to hold theBush Administration account-able for crimes
and abuses ofpower, Howard Berman hasbeen silent.
In an interview with ICONO-CLAST publisher W. Leon Smith,De Lear
explains why the fed-eral government needs to beheld
accountable:
**********ICONOCLAST: Ive been
reading a lot of your campaignliterature and it looks very
ex-citing.
DE LEAR: Were running areal viable, green-blooded cam-paign and
were working with aton of the progressive Demo-
crats down here. Youre wellaware that Howard Berman hasshown
himself to be a real Bushsupporter and supporting hisagenda in the
Middle East andvoting to repeal the 22ndamendment to the
Constitution,which would, of course, createa bit of an imperial
presidency.
ICONOCLAST: Im sure itwould.
DE LEAR: Just inexplicableactions. He needs to be held
ac-countable for them.
ICONOCLAST: Ive workedup a list of questions. Would youlike to
give them a shot?
DE LEAR: Sure.ICONOCLAST: Most of your
campaign literature focuses onyour battle with Democratic
in-cumbent Howard Berman forthe 28th California Congres-
sional District. You describehim as the Lieberman of theHouse.
Do you feel that he isaligning himself with the Presi-dent in order
to stave off votesgoing to the Republican, StanleyKesselman, in
this race, or hashe indeed moved into the neo-con camp?
DE LEAR: Well, in this dis-trict here in Southern Califor-nia,
the 28th CongressionalDistrict, it winds up votingabout 75 percent
of the timeDemocrat. I would consider himnot necessarily to
triangulate, ifyou will, with StanleyKesselman. I think that
HowardBerman has a personal pro-waragenda and I think he is
for-warding the neo-con agenda inthe Middle East and this
istransparent in his voting recordand vote after vote in regard
tothe over-militarizedunilateralism that is being ex-pressed in the
Middle East. Hehas shown himself to be sittingwhere Lieberman was
sitting,right next to Bush. Indeed, I re-member hearing, recently,
thatthere was an event in Washing-ton D.C. I forget what the
par-ticular event was, but it was aRepublican sponsored eventand
Berman and Liebermanwere the only two Democrats atthe event.
ICONOCLAST: Why do you Continued On Next Page
Why shouldnt our votes becounted as religiously asthe I.R.S.
counts our taxdollars?
Byron De Lear think he would advocate theabolition of the 22nd
Amend-ment?
DE LEAR: This is a truly in-explicable event for him to wantto
repeal the 22nd Amendmentof the U.S. Constitution. The22nd
Amendment of the U.S.Constitution, of course, is theterm limits on
the White House.I think that Howard has a sensethat this kind of an
authoritar-ian or totalitarian expressionout of the Executive
Branch istolerable. I consider this to bedirectly antithetical to
progres-sive ideology. I think term lim-its is a necessary
component,especially when youre talkingabout the
Commander-in-Chiefof this nation.
ICONOCLAST: The wordsprogressive and Democratused to be
generally regardedas somewhat synonymous, butwe are hearing more
and morehow many Democrats are aban-doning that descriptive term.Do
you feel that the Green Partyis in some ways expressing thevalues
that the DemocraticParty used to espouse?
DE LEAR: Yes I do. Yes I do.And I think that it really comesdown
to the fact that as GreenParty candidates we do not takemoney from
corporations. NowI take it even one step further. Iidentify with
the Latin definitionof the word corporation, corpus,meaning body.
So I did not take
money from 527 tax. I did nottake money from unions. And Ido not
take money from multi-national conglomerates. But,increasingly,
weve seen howthe Democratic leadership is asjust as corporate
handled as theRepublican leadership. Now, Iconsider this to be the
preemi-nent issue for our nation to con-tend with. It is
thecompromising and polluting in-fluence of big money in our
cor-ridors of power.
Recently there was an articlethat talked about how themoney on K
street youreobviously familiar with the JackAbramoff scandal, how
he hadthese Republican operativesgoing to Indian tribes and
pull-ing money out of the Indiantribes in order to finance
theRepublican agenda. Well, I readan article recently that themoney
now is shifting on Kstreet. The money now is notgoing behind
Republican candi-dates, but rather, in anticipationof a Democratic
success in themidterm elections. The moneynow has shifted to the
otherside of the aisle. We make theargument at Green, and I makethe
argument as a real progres-sive, that America should nothave a K
street.
ICONOCLAST: In the GreenParty rebuttal to the 2006 Stateof the
Union Address, you
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4 Wednesday, Sept. 27, 2006 THE LONE STAR ICONOCLAST Online:
www.lonestaricon.com
Repeal The 22nd Amendment?pointed to a need for account-ability.
You also went into eco-nomics, saying that the moneyspent in Iraq
could have gone toguarantee Social Security andprovide universal
health care,and you blame Democrats forendorsing the war. Can you
ex-plain this further?
DE LEAR: I think that youconsider the amount of moneythat is
being spent in Iraq, itsbetween $250 million a day tohalf a billion
a day, depending onestimate you use. With half abillion dollars a
day spent on acompletely dysfunctional andnon-sustainable policy,
we aretruly shortchanging the peoplehere at home. The United
Stateis the only industrialized nationthat doesnt have
universalhealth care and yet we spendtwice as much on
universalhealth care than any other na-tion. And, thats obviously
get-ting back to the strangleholdthat the pharmaceutical andmedical
industries have uponour political structure. So, weneed to break
that strangle holdand I consider this to be a trans-partisan issue
and most Ameri-cans are aware that corruptionhas been
institutionalized.
Now, in the case of the Iraqwar, weve got a lot of big
corpo-rations that make money off ofthat war. In fact, the
corporationthat Dick Cheney used to be theCEO of, right,
Haliburton. Theseare very well known concepts,but the idea is that
instead ofjust complaining about it, andrailing against it, we
actuallyneed a plan to sever those fis-cal appendages that have
at-tached themselves to ourpolitical system. A
legislative,incremental step that gets ustowards separation of buck
andstate is what I like to call it an incremental legislative
stepwould be the clean money effort,which has come on-line inMaine,
a blue state, and in Ari-zona, a red state.
So, you have this trans-parti-san aspect where clean moneyhas
come on-line in Maine andin Arizona and in those states,60 percent
more women run foroffice; 40 percent more minori-ties run for
office. It has com-pletely shown itself to be acontribution to a
reinvigorationof our democratic structures.What clean money
provides foris public financing of cam-paigns. You dont have to go
tocorporations to get your money,but rather, you get it from
thegovernment because youvegone out and gotten like $5 do-nations
from like 2,500 peoplethat you come to and they write Continued On
Next Page
From Previous Page
$5 checks for you. What it does,the effect, is that it
reattachesthe politicians directly to thepeople.
ICONOCLAST: In Texas, themiddle and lower income fami-lies are
suffering financially, butwe never hear the word reces-sion
anymore. According to ourgovernment, the economy isbooming. There
seems to besome sort of disconnect be-tween the classes. What is
theeconomic climate in California?
DE LEAR: Well, you hit itright on the head, Leon. Its afamily
feud is whats going on.And, outsourcing is a perfectexample of
that. Theyll talkabout the economy booming,but whose economy are
theytalking about? Theyre not talk-ing about the middle and
lowerincome wage earners, are they?Theyre talking about the
factthat in the 80s, I believe, the ra-tio between a CEO and an
aver-age worker in a corporation wassomething like 40 or 50 to
one.Now its upwards of 600 to one,that a CEO is making 600
timeswhat the average worker forthat corporation is making.
You have Wal-Mart, whodoesnt let the workers unionizethere and
60 percent of everysingle American walks throughWal-Mart once a
week. Seventypercent of the products in Wal-Mart are made in China
by ques-tionable labor practices, sowere being forced to
subscribeto a system of consumerism thatis making us buy products
thatare made by virtual indenturedservants. This is something
thatwe need to face. We need to facethe music of this.
I mean, in California, for ex-ample, Howard Berman, my
op-ponent, was a strong endorserof NAFTA. NAFTA has been
anunmitigated tragedy for this na-
Green Partys Byron De Lear says Democrat is in league with
GOP.
tion. California has lost morejobs to NAFTA than any otherstate
in the union. And in addi-tion to that, it put two millionMexican
farm workers out ofwork, which has completely ex-acerbated the
immigration situ-ation. So, we have these tradeagreements that are
written byfinancial ministers or the folksthat are sitting in
corporateboard rooms, authorizing thesetrade agreements and
wereleaving the people behind. Ithink that outsourcing is an
un-American activity. And, withouta truly humanitarian and
fairtrade version of these interna-tional trade agreements,
weregoing to continue to fractureand pull our nation apart.
ICONOCLAST: If Neo-consare run out of Dodge during themidterms
elections, do youthink that the issue of impeach-ment will become a
dominanttheme in the months that fol-low?
DE LEAR: If elected, I willforward the call for impeach-ment
proceedings to begin be-cause there is a laundry list
ofillegalities and unconstitutionalactions taken by this
adminis-tration, and, as I said in thatstate-of-the-union rebuttal,
wehave mechanisms to deal withpoliticians and their highcrimes.
One of the high crimes that Italk about is the usage of
de-pleted uranium as a weaponssystem. Depleted uranium is atoxic
and radioactive ordinance.Its used to destroy tanks. Itcomes out of
Apache helicop-ters. But, this is a waste by-product of nuclear
power. Whenthere is a depleted uranium spillin the United States,
space suitscome out to clean it up. And yet,were spraying it
indiscrimi-nately over the Middle East un-
der the illusion that were pro-tecting ourselves against
weap-ons of mass destruction. But, inthe end, depleted uranium
couldbe collected as a substance inthe Middle East and redeployedon
our own shore because it istoxic and it is radioactive. Itcauses
birth defects. It causescancers. It could be the ingredi-ents of
dirty bombs.
The reason why I bring thisup, Leon, is because lack of
fore-sight in the Bush administrationis no excuse for what I
wouldconsider treasonous behavior ifwe ever saw this material
rede-ployed on our own shore. Thatmaterial could make the
basicingredients for dirty bombs andthat would be cause for an
im-peachment as well. The reasonwhy I just bring up the D.U.
situ-ation is because nobody evertalks about this.
ICONOCLAST: I was going toask what are your thoughts onissues
that are not currently inthe public eye, such as depleteduranium
poisoning and whatmany deem as a Federal Re-serve System that
caters tocorporatism?
DELEAR: Yes. I was on thefirst military tour of Los Ange-les,
conducted by the Citizensfor Social Responsibility. In thatmilitary
tour, we went to severalmilitary sites. During the 50sand 60s, Los
Angeles used to bethe recipient of 10 percent of theentire
Department of Defensebudget for the United States be-cause of all
the military relatedindustries in Los Angeles. Wevisited several of
the sites herein Los Angeles and many ofthose sites are
contaminated.Indeed, Los Angeles is home tothe worlds only
uncontainedpartial nuclear meltdown. AThree-mile Island is right
herein our backyard and nobodyknows about it.
But, what we learned on thattour is that the Pentagon is
theworst polluter on the planet. ThePentagon pollutes more,
pro-duces more hazardous waste,than the top five
petrochemicalcorporations in the United Statecombined. The
situation that wehave is that the environmentalimpact of the
Department ofDefense is regulated by itself.
Now, I spoke with an EPA, En-vironmental Protection
Agencyexecutive, whose in charge ofcleaning up sites she wantedto
remain anonymous, for obvi-ous reasons, because the EPAoperates
under the purview ofthe Bush Administration, cur-rently. She said
that the solutionis, and its kind of a no-brainer,is to have the
Pentagon regu-lated by an independent agency.Not to have the
Pentagon regu-
late its environmental impact byitself. These are the kinds
ofbroad-stroke changes that weare going to need to invest in
andvote for in order to reconstituteour nation into a
sustainableexpression and more impor-tantly, the kind of government
ofthe people and for the peoplethat the framers intended.
Right now, its a governmentof the dollar. Im not
necessarilysaying that corporate interestsand the peoples interests
do nothave some overlap, but increas-ingly, day by day, as we move
for-ward into the 21st century, thoseinterests are separating. I
thinkit can be seen clearly, that whenyou have multi-national
con-glomerates that have offices inall the nations all over
theplanet, that that isnt necessar-ily the decentralized
Americaninterests anymore. It becomesan interest in an agenda that
hastranscended our sovereign in-terests as Americans. I believethat
98 percent of the politiciansthat get elected wield the larg-est
campaign war chest. Itsbegging the question, why arewe even
counting votes any-more?
ICONOCLAST: Thats an-other question, about the voting.You know
that voting machinesare being demonized as unreli-able. Do you
think that paperballots ought to be used?
DE LEAR: Yes, I do. I actuallyhave made the call for a
consti-tutional amendment that thesacrosanct institution of ourvote
is the foundation of our Re-public. Its a cornerstone of
ourRepublic and it needs to be se-cured and protected. In the
in-terest of securing the vote, weneed to do two things, in
myopinion. We need to provide forindependant verification of
bal-lot results, in other words, weneed to know that what the
bal-lot results say are verifiable byan independant means.
Now,about a third of the votes cast inthe United States are done on
avoting machine and those votingmachines are run by
proprietarycomputer codes that are ownedby private interests.
Theyreowned by the corporation andwe have no opportunity to lookat
that computer code. This isunconscionable. This is un-American.
In addition to that, voting stan-dards are as wide and varied
asthe states are themselves. Iveheard that in some circles,theres
upwards of 13,000 differ-ent voting standards across theUnited
States. When youre vot-ing for various singular federaloffices like
in the form of thePresidency, why should you
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Online: www.lonestaricon.com THE LONE STAR ICONOCLAST Wednesday,
Sept. 27, 2006 5
Repeal The 22nd Amendment?From Previous Page
Byron De Lear (second from right) stands by rights at theSouth
Central Farm, May 26, 2006, in California.
have such an unequal playingfield? Why is it that
African-Americans have to wait sixhours in the rain in Ohio?
Andhere in Sherman Oaks in Cali-fornia, I just go walk in and
walkout and vote. Well, there needsto be an effort to level the
play-ing field. We need to standard-ize the American
votingexperience.
Of course, that standardiza-tion also must be rigorously
andindependently implemented sothat we can actually verify
thosevotes. This is worthy of a con-stitutional amendment, Leon.Why
shouldnt our votes becounted as religiously as theI.R.S. counts our
tax dollars?Overnight, we saw how ATMmachines and UPC
barcodemachine have completelyproliferated all over the land-scape
and in our stores andin our banks and now we justaccept them as an
everydayfeature in our lives. I believethat we should have the
samekind of mot ivat ion thatbrought those devices andinnovative
technologies intoour lives. We should have thesame motivation to be
ap-plied to securing and edify-ing the American vot ingexperience
by providing forindependant verification ofballot results and
standard-izing it nationally. When youbuy a 2x4 in St. Louis, its
thesame 2x4 in Los Angeles. Adollar in New York is worththe same
dol lar inSacremento . Our vote isworth this kind of treatmentto be
protected and it needsto be protected by a constitu-t ional
amendment . Theamendment to the Constitu-tion should be protecting
andsecuring this most sacro -sanct institution of our
Re-public.
ICONOCLAST: Regarding9/11, there is a big movementon r ight now
to have anindependant reinvestigationof what happened. Do youthink
that that should takeplace?
DE LEAR: Oh, absolutely.I found it shocking that in
thecommission report on 9/11that we didnt find any sub-stantive or
detailed descrip-tions of what had occurred onWorld Trade Center
buildingnumber 7. Now, if your read-ers or audience doesnt
know,building number 7 was a 42-story office building that wasa few
blocks away from theTowers. In the afternoon of 9/11, this office
building fellcompletely straight downinto its footprint, exactly
as
if it had been demolished.And yet , nothing had im-pacted on
this office building.
Now, we heard that the rea-sons why it had done thiscompletely
symmetrical freefall at almost the rate of freefall as if you
dropped a steelI-beam free falling just to theground. I think it
was just al i t t le b i t s lower. In otherwords, the only thing
thatwould created that kind ofspeedy free-fall would be anoffice
building that had beenpre-prepared with demoli-tion. But, the
reason why weheard that this building fell isbecause there was a
fire onthe 12th floor. And, yet in thehistory of the planet, we
havenever seen just a mere fire onthe floor of a
steel-enforcedoffice building would cause itto fall. Especially in
the man-ner in which it fell, which wasstraight down,
symmetricallybalanced, completely free-falls, as if it had been set
upby demolition. So, that wasthe real smoking gun to me,Leon. When
I realized that, Isaid that there is somethingodd here. There is no
waythat this building could havefallen in this manner. You
cangoogle it on the Internet andyou can see the footage frommany
different angles of thisbuilding, how it completelyfell just
straight into its foot-print.
When I realized that therewas something odd in regards
tobuilding seven, then what cas-caded and fell forth from
thatdisconnect in the logic was thatmaybe these other buildingswere
prepared with demolitionexplosives as well. Then whenyou start to
connect those dots,you realize that there are someserious holes in
the investiga-
tion of 9/11. And, I think that thefirst thing that the
Americanpeople deserve is a trulyindependant investigation. If
itwere up to me, I would focus onbuilding number seven and ex-plain
why that building camedown in the manner that it did.
Certainly, on the day of 9/11,there was mass chaos going onand
there is no way that workerscould have gone into that build-ing and
prepared it for demoli-tions on that day. That obviouslymeans that
the building had to bepre-prepared.
Thats my attitude on 9/11. Wecould be facing the biggestcover-up
and the biggest crimeof our century in regard to 9/11and whats
going on here. But,Im not willing to make the as-sertion that this
is the case.What I am willing to say is thatwe need to have that
investiga-tion reopened and like I men-tioned earlier, I would have
itfocus on what is referred to asWTC7, or World Trade
CenterBuilding 7.
ICONOCLAST: Is there any-thing that you would like to addthat I
havent asked you?
DE LEAR: Were interestedin sending the first Green toWashington
D.C. We think thatthis would be a huge boon fornot only the
Democratic Partyand the Republican Party, butfor planetary
civilization. Itwould be a huge boon for every-body to break the
kind oftweedle dee left, tweedle dumright partisans rancor
betweenthe Im right, youre wrong poli-tics that are going on in
D.C. to-day.
Please encourage support ofour candidacy to help get themessage
out with campaign do-nations. As I mentioned earlier,we do not take
money from cor-porations. So, we need the
peoples help to send the firstGreen to Washington D.C. andwe
have a confluence of issuesin this district that has put to-gether
this anti-war coalitionmade up of progressive Demo-crats; made up
of Green; madeup of community leaders thatcan get together the
50,000 votesor so that would actually suc-ceed in sending the first
Greento Washington D.C.
We always hear about the glo-bal war on terrorism. We alwayshear
that this is the greatestthreat right now to our nation.But, there
are a great many in-tellectuals and scientists andacademicians
around the planetthat know the truly most dan-gerous catastrophe
looming onhumanitys horizon is globalwarming and we need a new
breed of legislator to comeonline to tackle the ill effects
ofglobal warming on the scale ofFranklin Delano Rooseveltsnew deal.
Our wartime mental-ity needs to be directed to thatthreat, not at
the concept thatour foreign policy in the MiddleEast for the better
part of 80-90years has caused this clash ofcultures right now.
I think we need to redefinewhat our relationship is to
theinternational community. Reat-tach ourselves politically to
theinternationally community andrise to the dream that thedreamers
dreamed when theythought of the concept ofAmerica in the first
place. Ithink that this is going to comefrom a new breed of
legislatorto get that done.
Real Estate
FOR SALECRAWFORD GIFT SHOP Excellent location. Proprietary
products. Moti-vated seller. 817-980-5317.
w38
-
6 Wednesday, Sept. 27, 2006 THE LONE STAR ICONOCLAST Online:
www.lonestaricon.com
Chris Bell Speaks To Denton DemocratsBY STEPHEN
WEBSTERINVESTIGATIVE REPORTER
DENTON On Saturday,Sept. 16, Chris Bell, Democraticcandidate for
Texas Governor,made a stop in Denton for theannual Donkey Festival,
put onby the Denton County Demo-crats. The festival attracted
atotal of 225 people and offeredhome-style barbecue and
re-freshments, live music, dancing,and speeches from state and
lo-cal candidates. It was the mostwell-attended,
profitablefundraising event the Demo-cratic Party has had in
DentonCounty, a Republican strong-hold, in over a decade.
Bell was not the only state-wide candidate to stop at theevent.
Texas Attorney Generalcandidate David Van Os, whohas been on a
county-by-countyWhistle Stop Tour for the lasteight months, gave a
speechand served up brisket while alocal country band crooned.Fred
Head, running for Comp-troller of Public Accounts, alsospoke to the
crowd, primarilyaddressing the issue of inflatedhome appraisals in
the state.
Im making a pact with thepeople of Texas, said Bell dur-ing his
speech. The moms anddads who get up every morningjust trying to
make the lives oftheir children a little bit better.They need a
governor who under-stands that a budget is a moraldocument. If you
give me thebully pulpit and the veto pen, I willlead a new Texas
revolution!
Rick Perry can run aroundthe state saying hes proud ofTexas
until hes red in the face,continued Bell. But until wemake
improving public schoolour number one priority; untilwe get serious
about providinghealth care insurance for everyyoung person growing
up here;until we get serious about stop-ping the Trans-Texas
Corridor,which is eating up our land andsetting up a new toll
system;Texas will continue to be mor-ally out of balance.
Bells speech went on for about15 minutes, and he was
regaledrepeatedly with cheers from theaudience. Afterward, he
tooktime to speak with THE LONE STARICONOCLAST about his
campaignfor the office of Governor.
**********ICONOCLAST: Your former
seat in Congress, in Houston,was eliminated by Tom DeLaysvoter
redistricting in Texas.How did you feel about thatwhen it
happened?
BELL: Well, redistrictingwas a very long, drawn outbattle. It
was bad for the stateand unprecedented when it oc-curred. There had
never been amid-decade redistricting in our
Chris Bell, Democratic Party Candidate For Governor
history. It was bare-knuckle poli-tics and I understood that.
Ivealways sort of had an opinionthat, if it is politics, law or
sports,if you beat me fair and square, Iwont like it, but Ill
accept it. Inthat particular case, to comeand find out that the
deck wasstacked before the game everbegan, was incredibly
upsetting.That is what lead to me filing anethics complaint
[againstDeLay] about the way he con-ducted himself in order to set
upthat redistricting.
ICONOCLAST: Were littlemore than six weeks away fromthe
election. How do you feelabout your chances?
BELL: I couldnt be anymore pleased with the cam-paign so far. In
the most recentstate-wide poll, I am only fivepoints behind Perry.
We werehoping to be in second place bythis point in the campaign,
andwe are. Were doing a lot betterthan we thought we would. Ithink
everybody is waking up tothe fact that Rick Perry is
ex-traordinarily vulnerable. If wecan keep the Democratic
baseunited and bring over some dis-affected Republicans and
Inde-pendents, and there are a lot ofthem out there, were going
towin in November.
ICONOCLAST: What is thenumber one issue for your cam-paign?
BELL: Education. If Imelected, we will draw up a plan
to give Texas the best publiceducation system in the
nationwithin 10 years. I think it is areachable goal, but only if
youhave a governor who is willingto lead. We need to move awayfrom
the high-stakes nature ofstandardized testing. Folkshave had it
with our over reli-ance on the TAKS test.
ICONOCLAST: Do you wantto get rid of it?
BELL: I dont think we canget rid of it entirely, but we
cancertainly get away from thehigh-stakes nature of the test-ing.
It is not the test itself thatis causing the problems; it is allthe
things that are tied to it. If itis a question of a child movingon
through school, and how theschool will be ranked, andteacher merit
pay So muchis riding on that test. Obviously,an overabundance of
time isgoing to be spent drilling thekids on the test, not
necessarilythe subject matter.
Nothing is going to changeuntil you say, Look, were notgoing to
make all these deci-sions based upon the TAKS testany longer. If it
is just a stan-dardized test that provides asnapshot of where these
kidsstand, I dont see any big prob-lem with that. I dont think
wehave to be spending millions ofdollars on the TAKS test. I
thinkthere are other standardizedtests that will do the job. I
alsowant to give teachers an across-
the-board raise of $6,000. It is notmuch, but it is a good
start.
ICONOCLAST: How do youfeel about the Trans-Texas Cor-ridor; the
plan to expand Inter-state 35 and turn it into amassive toll
road?
BELL: I oppose it. I want tosee it brought back to the
legis-lature. I think if it is, it will bevoted down and will not
go for-ward. I think it is a gross mis-use of the Eminent
Domainprocess, which is supposed to beused for the public good, not
forthe good of multi-billion dollarboondoggles that primarily
ben-efit European contractors. Mostpeople see it as a giant
landgrab, and it wasnt studiedenough before it was voted on.A lot
of my friends in the legisla-ture werent given enough infor-mation,
and there wasntenough time to study it. Thereis lots of secrecy
shrouding thecontracting process. The factthat the person who was
repre-senting the major contractor inthe Trans-Texas Corridor
cycledback onto the Governors staff,to me, means the anger
peopleare feeling about the project isvery well justified in this
case.
ICONOCLAST: Recently youropponent, Kinky Friedman, cameout in
favor of legalizing mari-juana to reduce prison popula-tions. How
do you respond tothat?
BELL: I dont support the le-galization of marijuana. I thinkyou
can lower the prison popula-tion by providing more
treatmentprograms. I do think way toomany people are in prison
be-cause they are addicted to drugs.I think we should be trying to
treatthose people for that addiction sothat we wont be spending
mil-lions of dollars for those individu-als to be taking up bed
space. Ithink that is the responsible wayto approach that
issue.
ICONOCLAST: You said youwant to bring in disaffected Repub-
licans. How are you swaying themfrom voting for Carole
Strayhorn, aformer Republican?
BELL: First of all, Im run-ning as a Democrat. If Republi-cans
are looking forcommon-sense leadership, Icertainly invite them to
checkout my campaign. Im the can-didate who is out there trying
toput common-sense solutions onthe table. I think many Republi-cans
will be looking at theDemocratic column this elec-tion. Meanwhile,
the Republicanslice of the pie will be dividedthree ways. I think
it is prettyclear that Kinky Friedman istrying to run to the right
of[Strayhorn and Perry], and ob-viously Strayhorn and Perry
areRepublicans. Im the onlyDemocrat in the race, and I amthe only
one that stands for re-storing common-sense to theGovernors office
of Texas.
-
Online: www.lonestaricon.com THE LONE STAR ICONOCLAST Wednesday,
Sept. 27, 2006 7
Quit Denying Climate Change,Say British Scientists To Exxon
Edwards SupportsImmigration Reform
WASHINGTON U.S. Rep-resentative Chet Edwards to-day supported
House passageof three immigration and bordersecurity bills HR 6094,
HR 6095,and HR 4830 to deter illegal im-migration and bolster
bordersecurity. Many of the provisionsin the bills passed today
weretaken from HR 4437, the BorderProtection, Antiterrorism,
andIllegal Immigration Control Actwhich passed the House
withEdwards support in Decemberof 2005.
I believe these bills are apositive step in the right direc-tion
to protect our borders andto reduce illegal immigration
bytoughening penalties againstsmugglers, by making it easierto
deport alien gang membersand by clarifying the right of lo-cal and
state law enforcementofficials to work with federal of-ficials on a
voluntary basis onimmigration cases, saidEdwards.
HR 6094, the Community Pro-tection Act, prohibits alien
gangmembers from being admittedinto the United States and al-lows
certain gangs to be auto-matically eligible fordeportation. It also
allowslonger detention of dangerousaliens and ensures the removalof
criminal aliens. Its provisionsare identical to parts of
theHouse-passed immigration andborder security bill, HR 4437.
HR 6095, the ImmigrationLaw Enforcement Act, declaresthat state
and local law enforce-ment officers have the inher-ent authority to
voluntarilyapprehend any illegal immi-grants and transfer them to
fed-eral custody. The current law,the Illegal Immigration Reformand
Immigrant ResponsibilityAct of 1996, supported byEdwards in 1996,
already saysthat state and local police canchoose to assist in the
enforce-ment of federal criminal immi-gration laws. Edwards has
alsovoted to end the policy of catchand release for illegal
aliensunder HR 4437 and voted to de-port criminal illegal aliens
un-der the Illegal ImmigrationReform and Immigrant Respon-sibility
Act of 1996.
HR 4830, the Border TunnelPrevention Act, creates newcriminal
penalties for con-structing illegal tunnels underthe U.S. border,
and doublespenalties, up to 20 years impris-onment, for smuggling
illegalimmigrants, drugs, weapons ofmass destruction, or other
ille-gal items if done through an il-legal tunnel. Edwards voted
toestablish the same criminalpenalties for smuggling people
under HR 4437 last December,but this bill extends those
pen-alties to the smuggling of drugs,weapons of mass destruction
orother illegal items.
Edwards concluded, Istrongly believe that Congressshould pass
these measuresinto law this year and not post-pone final action
until next year.Securing our borders againstunlimited illegal
immigrationand potential terrorists must bea top national priority,
and weshould work on a bipartisan ba-sis toward that end.
Edwards is a member of theHouse Homeland Security
Ap-propriations Subcommittee,where he has been active infunding an
increase of 1,500 Bor-der Patrol agents and new bor-der technology.
In 2005, he ledthe fight to add $16 million forwork at L-3
Communications inWaco to prevent the groundingof the Customs and
Border Pa-trol surveillance fleet of 16 P-3aircraft.
LONDON Britains top scientific academytold the biggest oil
company in the world to quitfunding organizations that fight the
majorityof scientists whose evidence supports the ideathat humans
effect climate change.
The Royal Society scientists also chastisedExxonMobil in a
letter to its UK branch for itsinaccurate and misleading statements
onglobal warming, including its own corporatecitizenship
reports.
These statements are not consistent withthe scientific
literature. It is very difficult toreconcile the misrepresentations
of climatechange science in these documents withExxonMobils claim
to be an industry leader,states the letter.
ExxonMobil confirmed that it received theSocietys letter on
climate change, but refutedclaims its reports were inaccurate.
The academy has reported that the Irving,Texas-based company
last year sent almost $3million to about 40 groups to askew the
factsover climate science.
However, the academy has never challengeda company on its
scientific claims head-on be-fore.
In related news, UK billionaire Sir RichardBranson pledged $3
billion to fund renewableenergy projects that global warming.
The money, Branson said, would be funneledfrom his five airline
and train companies overthe next 10 years. He said a conversation
withformer U.S. Vice President Al Gore and the $1billion in fuel
costs his companies have paidover the last three years drove him to
this newfinancial commitment.
Bransons announcement occurred duringan annual conference of
business and politi-cal leaders thrown by former President
BillClinton, called the Clinton Global Initiative.
Branson isnt the only business owner con-cerned about global
warming. The latestVistage Confidence Index found that
abouttwo-thirds of American CEOs who run smalland medium sized
businesses fear climatechange, too.
The question is whether that concern willtranslate to the
willingness to support legisla-tion and regulatory requirements
that impacttheir businesses, said Dan Barnett, chief oper-ating
officer of Vistage International, the worldslargest CEO membership
organization.
To The Editor:Does this make any sense
to you????I have to have insurance on
my car the government says,but I dont have to have anyinsurance
on my child.(carworth more than kid?)
If I carry a switchbladeknife I go to jail buty car-rying a gun
is just fine.
At 18 I can enlist in thearmy and go overseas and getshot at.
But at 18 I cant get ashot of gin.
The whole countr y wi l lpanic if a cute kitty falls downa well,
but we dont seem tocare when homeless live un-der our highways,
We will take vitamins anddo power walks, and swim tostay healthy
and in shape.Then we will get in our SUV,go on a cell-phone and
yackwhile cutting thru traffic at 80miles per hour.
We will get on the internetand talk to some person inAustralia
for 2 hours, thenignore our neighbor whenthey wave at us.
We will yawn and flip thechannel when they are talk-ing about
Enron cheating thegovernment out of millions,but get hot under the
collarwhen someone gets $75 too
LLLLLETETETETETTERS TO THE EDITORTERS TO THE EDITORTERS TO THE
EDITORTERS TO THE EDITORTERS TO THE EDITORmuch on welfare.
I f that other presidentfrom the political party wedont like
made a mistake wewould shout shame on himfrom the highest rafters
anddemand action be tken. Buti f our guy messed up b igtime, it is
just a mistake andno actions have to be taken.After all, no one is
perfect.
We will not blink an eyewhen some politician says hewants to
spend a b i l l ionbucks per plane so he canbring a few hundred
jobs tohis congressional district.But we go tsk tsk tsk whenwe read
that our young mili-tary recruits are paid so lowthey qualify for
food stamps.
We go ye-hahhaa when ourhigh school footbal l teamgets a new
stadium andlocker rooms. But boy do wegripe when we get the tax
billfrom the School District.
We feel sorry for the poor,as long as they do not moveclose to
us.
We watch TV and see an ar-t ic le about a Union andspend 5
minutes raving toour spouse about Unions be-ing l iberal and r
uiningAmerica, then we go down toWalmart and buy a ChineseTV made
in a Communist
Country.We want to cut government
spending down to nothing,but by golly our Social Secu-rity check
had better be thereby the 3rd..
We will go out to Las Vegasand loose $500 on the craptable
without raising an eye-brow, then walk 3 blocks far-ther to save a
dollar on thebuffet.
We wil l buy the kids of fbrand soda, and immatationorange
juice, but spend $4.00at an ice house to get ourbrand of
cigarettes, when youcan get a package ofSMOKES for $1.49.
A lot of men will take careof their car perfectly, but putoff
going to the doctor whenthey have chest pains.
Some folks will tip a cock-tail waitress $10, but closethe
window when a streetperson tries to bum 50cents.
And where is the brains ofa parent who dresses nice togo to a
store in cold weatherwearing a jacket and slacks,but is carrying a
baby with nojacket and no shoes . Andthen they wonder why thelittle
one comes down withanother cold
And....am I the only personwho ever wondered aboutthem putt ing
aspir in in aplastic wrapped child-proofbottle that old people
cannotopen, but then they put bul-lets in a paper box?
Kennsabe
Dear Editor:Selling America Piece by
Piece
As our Federal Govern-ment moves us c loser tobankr uptcy,
Americanswould be shocked to learnthat foreign organizationsare
buying our infrastruc-ture at an alarming rate.
Recently a Spanish-Aus-tralian group paid $3.8 billionfor the
rights to lease an In-diana toll road. This vitallyimportant asset
built by U.S.taxpayer dollars will now bestuffing the coffers of
foreigninterests. Indiana residentswill be facing higher taxes
toreplace this lost revenue.Most likely, this will come inthe form
of floating publicbonds.
Other states have partici-pated in sel l ing off
infra-structure, for example, anAustralian companys leaseof a
Virginia highway, and aSpanish-American partner-ship leasing a
Texas toll roadfrom Aust in to Seguin .Americans were infuriatedto
learn of the Dubai portsdeal , however, only s ix-months later
congress al-lowed the Arab nat ion ofOman to operate U.S. ports.To
learn more about this sell-out o f America v is i
twww.thenewamerican.comand read the art ic leAmerica For Sale for
moreinformation on this danger-ous practice.
We must immediately con-tact our representatives anddemand they
oppose thissel l ing of in frastr ucturepiece by piece.
Lawrence L. Swanberg,Victorville, CA
-
8 Wednesday, Sept. 27, 2006 THE LONE STAR ICONOCLAST Online:
www.lonestaricon.com
Actual Costs, True Costs, Net Costs Of WarIn the fall the war
was always there but we did not go to it any more.
Ernest Hemingway, In Another Country
BY BONHOMME RICHARDSPECIAL TO THE ICONOCLAST
Congressman Chet Edwardsswirled the ice cubes in his tea,glanced
at the ceiling, andframed his next thought.
He behaved as if he could stillhardly believe it, that which
hadhappened in his latest re-elec-tion bid.
He spoke with incredulity ofhis latest opponent,neoconservative
State Legisla-tor Arlene Wohlgemuth.
She just isnt smart enoughto be a Congresswoman...Hereshe went
to the state AmericanLegion convention and toldthose people that if
elected toserve in the House of Represen-tatives, she would go
after thisbloated tax and spend VeteransAdministration system.
He rattled the ice cubes againand took a quick gulp of the
tea,glancing at the ceiling and its airconditioning ducts that
werechoogling frosty air over hissweat-soaked dress shirt. Helooked
at the people in thissmall Central Texas town thathad contributed
time and effortto his re-election bid two yearsago, putting out
signs, answer-ing phones, stuffing envelopes.
They had gathered in a bar-becue restaurant on Highway 6to visit
with the newly re-elected Congressman. Edwardsshrugged again,
looking as if hejust couldnt believe thatWohlgemuth would actually
ap-proach the oldest and most pow-erful lobbying organization
forveterans benefits in such a way.
Originally known as theGrand Army of the Republic, theAmerican
Legion members inCongress that had beenwounded and maimed in
theCivil War would stand in the wellof the House Chamber andwave
the bloody shirt whilemaking their pleas for veteranspensions and
health care. Theywould literally stand there withthe bloody tunic
or trousersthey were wearing atGettysburg or Shiloh, Antietam,or
Manassas when they lost thatarm or leg, long before the vot-ers in
their district sent them toD.C. to look after their interests,vote
their consciences, serve onkey committees, ride herd onthe Federal
budget.
Thus accoutered, they wouldwave, or simply hold aloft thebloody
garment as they spoke ofthe need to augment, bolster,increase,
authorize, or approvegovernment spending to carefor Americas
veterans that hadsuffered wounds and survived.
Hence, journalists and oppo-sition members seeking to
bowdlerize, parody, or mimictheir remarks often called
theirtactics waving the bloodyshirt.
Certainly, the reality of theFederal budget shows whichside of
the dispute won the con-test. The VA enjoys the largestslice of the
pie after the Depart-ment of Defense each year.
Freedom isnt free,Edwards concluded, giving hisshoulders a quick
shake underthe restaurants busy air condi-tioning system, so taxed
underthe late fall conditions of nearone hundred degree days
thatlingered and lingered and lin-gered, a system that madepeople
shiver when they drankthat ice cold iced tea after com-ing in
parched and overheatedfrom the world outside.
He could have been a mer-chant in a Broadway delicates-sen or a
grower in a big valleyCalifornia coffee shop, a lumber-jack in an
Oregon tavern or coalminer in a Pennsylvania restau-rant.
Heres a man that under-stands, and lives by, the num-bers.
As a member of the key com-mittee that writes the checks forVA
budgets, a subcommittee ofthe House Appropriations Com-mittee, he
gave a quick and dirtyexplanation of the true costs ofwar. Its the
kind of question thatalways comes up when thosefaced with the
reality of makingbudgetary matters come trueare asked how some
compli-cated goal shall be accom-plished.
How indeed? The moneydoesnt just fall out of the sky.
Its the old, old story of howmuch did it truly cost to put
thatglass of lemonade on the plankout front of the suburban
Jonesresidence on that happy sum-
mer day when Billy and Susiehad the lemonade stand.
Well, you know, they usedMoms sugar and lemons, Dadpaid the
water bill, the rent andproperty taxes, and, truth betold, he even
mowed the lawnwith a mower he bought atSears and had furnished
withgasoline. Then he turnedaround and edged the curb witha weed
whacker he got at AceHardware, pruned the shadetrees and watered
the grass.
This is not to mention the in-tangible costs such as Dads
ex-pertise with tuning the mowersengine, changing and gappingits
spark plug, cleaning its airfilter, and sharpening its blade,or
Moms ability to keep a cleankitchen with no roaches in spiteof the
use of granulated refinedsugar with which to make lem-onade!
After all, while Billy and Susiewere playing lemonade stand,Mom
and Dad were not gettingany younger and they needhealth care as
much as Billy andSusie.
They were playing with realmoney.
True cost for a 10-cent glassof lemonade: Twenty-five cents.
Approximately.So, his opponent had walked
right into the haymaker, thatperennial conundrum, thatgreat
equalizer that seeks itsown level and puts reformersand crusaders
both great andsmall in their places withaplomb.
It was one of many harbin-gers of the beginning of the endfor
that energetic crowd ofneocon world beaters. Therethey went,
shaking up a littledust in a blaze of glory, that newmajority of
the Texas Republi-can Congressional delegation.They left the Lone
Star State
with a fire in their bellies andcame back home, many of
them,people like House MajorityLeader Tom DeLay,
Sugarlandexterminator extraordinaire - awell known and
self-admitted St.Andrewss Old Course golf en-thusiast, with mud in
their eyes.
Congressman Edwardsspoint was simple and straight-forward on
that day two yearsago as he celebrated the goodresults of a tough
campaignagainst a tough opponent.
If the major employer in town,the one that provides the
bestprospects of a career with re-tirement benefits, health
care,and an opportunity for advance-ment on merit with no
barrierserected by the vagaries of a cor-porate global market
place, is tobe the Armed Forces - and it is -then, The potential
recruits willbe watching to see how the sys-tem treats the veterans
of theArmed Forces.
Another quick rattle of the icecubes and subsequent crunchby
healthy molars in a thirstymouth. Hed been riding andguiding,
walking and talking allday long in his district up anddown the
Brazos River valley.He still had stops scheduled inMeridian,
Cleburne, and Burle-son. He had started with anearly breakfast at
Bryan nearhis old alma mater in Aggieland.
If the veterans are treatedwith dignity and respect, equita-bly
and fairly, if their needs aremet without a lot of problemsand
friction, then the potentialrecruits for military service willbe
motivated to take advantageof employment with that largestof
corporations, the U.S. Depart-ment of Defense.
If not, Edwards concluded,shrugging and rattling the icecubes
again, glancing aroundthe assembled crowd drawn uparound the tables
amid the nap-kin holders and ketchup bottlesand barbecue sauce
dispensers,
Then you wont be getting thecream of the crop, to say
theleast.
And what of the back endcosts of war?
One had best believe, if war isthe major employer in town,
thatthey are calculable and predict-able, part of a cost of doing
busi-ness, the casualties andfatalities to be regarded as
in-dustrial accidents.
According to the VAs own fig-ures published on the internet,of
26 million veterans in the U.S.,five million rely on VA
MedicalCenters for health care, up from2.9 million in 1995.
That increase represents awhopping 58 percent growthrate - one
that is explosive, tosay the least.
In 2005, the VA forecasted a$2.6 billion shortfall for
meetingthe growing healthcare needs ofU.S. Veterans. The VAs
patient-to-doctor ratio has grown from335 to 1, to 531 to 1,
between 2000and September 2004.
That ratio represents an evenmore explosive 63 percentgrowth
rate of patients to doc-tors.
On any given night, there arean estimated 200,000 to
250,000homeless veterans living on thestreets, in their cars,
publicparks, river banks, creek bot-toms, bayous, and national
for-ests.
More than 500,000 will expe-rience homelessness over thecourse
of a year. Seventy per-cent of these are chronic alco-hol and
substance abusers, 45percent suffer from mental ill-ness, and 56
percent are AfricanAmerican or Hispanic, accord-ing to the VA.
Reports of veterans living intent cities in the public squaresof
Philadelphia, New York, andWashington that have appearedin THE NEW
YORK TIMES andWASHINGTON POST represent
Continued On Next Page
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Online: www.lonestaricon.com THE LONE STAR ICONOCLAST Wednesday,
Sept. 27, 2006 9
Actual Costs, True Costs, Net Costs Of WarFrom Previous Page
nothing particularly new.After all, the graves of Conti-
nental Soldiers of the AmericanRevolution form geometric
pat-terns in the squares of Philadel-phia. They were buried a
fewfeet from where they died oftheir wounds, gangrene, orpneumonia.
Similar graveyardsand similar camps existthrough the eastern U.S.
Takea look. You will find them every-where from Bunker Hill to
Chat-tanooga, Vicksburg and NewOrleans.
To be considered homeless bythe VA, an individual must nothave a
roof over his head. Thismeans that residence in ahomeless shelter,
SalvationArmy or rescue mission, sub-standard housing such as
acheap hotel or motel, a campershell, a barn, or a shed in theback
of someones propertydoes not qualify ashomelessness.
VA qualifies its analysis bystating, Many other veteransare
considered near homelessor at risk because of their pov-erty, lack
of support from fam-ily and friends, and dismal livingconditions in
cheap hotels or inovercrowded or substandardhousing.
Now, why would a veteranchoose to live in a cheap hotelor
motel?
They dont.Society has made that choice
for them. As a chronic alcoholor substance abuser, many
areconvicted of felony DWI or drugpossession and sent to
punitivetreatment centers or statejails. Most big city landlord
as-sociations do backgroundchecks on prospective tenantsand reject
those applicants withfelony records involving sub-stance abuse.
Most major profitcenters, the ones likely to bepaying enough of a
living wageto attract a veteran to the workforce, are located in
major met-ropolitan regions, ergo...
According to the U.S. Bureauof Justice Statistics 225,000
Vet-erans were incarcerated as of1998, according to a
websitemaintained by the National Vet-erans Foundation.
Who killed Cock Robin.How has the Bush adminis-
tration and the Republican ma-jority Congress responded tothese
seemingly emergent con-ditions?
According to RosemaryMetrano, one of many counse-lors at the
Benefits Section ofthe VAs ubiquitous toll-freenumber -
1-800-827-1000 - thepurse strings were tightenedconsiderably in
2003, the year ofthe Bushite Invasion, the yearthe Iraq War began
in earnest
with the no-bid private sectorassistance of Kellogg, Brown
&Root, et. al.
Congress restricted incometo $32,285 for a married veteranand
$26,902 for a single veteranhoping to receive medical carebenefits
if they are are not adju-dicated service connected ata percentage
level of zero to l00percent with an injury or expo-sure to chemical
agents.
A recent study of inpatientsat VA facilities indicates
thatnearly all have annual incomesof $15,000 or less, according
tothe National Veterans Founda-tion website.
Todays veterans of the IraqWar are limited to two years
ofmedical services, not a lifetimeguarantee of a medical safetynet,
the kind Congress providedby public law to World War II,Korean, and
Vietnam-era vets;after two years, veterans mustre-apply for
benefits.
The best strategy, then, is tomake a claim for service
con-nection.
That may be done at any time,but Its better to do it as soonas
he feels there may be some-thing wrong, Ms. Metrano toldTHE
ICONOCLAST.
One clue she offered is to getcopies of ones service
medicalrecords and medical reviewboard, if any, on the day of
sepa-ration. These are often goldmines of information for
thoseinitiated in the significance ofcertain types of
notations,things the veteran himself maynot have understood at the
timethey were made.
Not everyone is in agreementwith the figures provided by theVA,
however.
Kirt P. Love, director ofDesert Storm Battle Registry,an outfit
founded in 1997 to co-ordinate Gulf War records,medical data,
veteran advocacy,and deployment health, claimedin an interview at
Camp Caseythat homeless veterans nownumber in the neighborhood
ofabout 300,000 each night.
A self-described gadfly ofCongressional committees thathas given
intereviews to everypublication from Time to THEWALL STREET
JOURNAL, Love nowgives a Crawford address aftersix long years of
living in Wash-ington influencing thegovernments policies
regard-ing the returning veterans of themideast wars.
I spent two years living in myVolkswagen beetle, he said atone
point. After six long years,Ive come home. Im going tocontinue to
work, but Im goingto work from behind thescenes.
At Camp Casey?Thats what the man said.
His goal: To acquire about 250acres of land on which to
houseveterans for their readjustmentto society. Some would
adaptreadily, some would with a littlehelp, and others would need
tobe allowed to live in the backof the property for awhile, ormaybe
the rest of their lives.
In any case, this proposed tri-age would be allowed to
workaccording to the rules of theranch, or camp, or self govern-ing
veteranss community, how-ever it may evolve.
One problem with the VA isthat They insist on a
turnkey,finalized plan. Tentative plansor proposals are out of the
ques-tion as far as the VA is con-cerned, Love said.
Love is a native of the Cop-peras Cove area, a veteran ofthe
Desert Storm war, and anessentially no nonsense, hu-morless young
man that definesVA and governmental policies interms of the games
people play.
If they can make you angry,they can make you leave, eitherwith
security guards or by de-mand. Either way, you dont gettheir
services.
He explained that the VA isone hundred percent open toextending
its health services toveterans that will admit to men-tal problems
or substanceabuse addictions.
In the absence of anger, VAtypes perceive no threat of
vio-lence, and hence become muchmore open to providing
services.
But at what cost?In other words, those that will
bear the stigma of these condi-tions - habitual drunkenness
ordrug addiction or both - are ableto obtain assistance with
littleformal resistance. Neverthe-less, the waiting time for an
ap-pointment for medical care atmost VA Medical Centers isabout six
months due to the doc-tor-to-patient ratio traffic jam.
Is this dynamic relevant? Ac-cording to a New England Jour-nal
of Medicine survey, 60percent of those returning withsymptoms of
PTSD are unlikelyto seek treatment due to fearsof stigmatization or
loss of ca-reer advancement opportuni-ties.
In any case, mental healthspending adjusted for inflationhas
increased by 25 percentsince 1999.
The end result of substanceabuse treatment in a VA Medi-cal
Center, said Love, is ratherunderwhelming in some cases.After an
extended stay in a do-miciliary, the impaired veteranis sent out on
the streets againto make his way.
He claims its more of thesame, by and large.
Clean? Sober?
Love is skeptical as to howlong a vet can hold out under
theconditions of homelessness andlow pay.
Asked, then, if mental andsubstance abuse impairment iscaused by
homelessness, or ifhomelessness is caused bymental and substance
abuseimpairment, he looked puzzled,then responded with a sigh.
I guess that after awhile aman gives up hope and his re-sistance
to...Oh, I dont know. Itsa tough question to answer.
How about Hemingwaysdouble dicho, Man can be de-feated, but not
destroyed; mancan be destroyed, but not de-feated.
That ones a little bit easierto answer.
A present dispute, he says, isthe VAs insistence that it willpay
no more than seven dollarsa night to shelters that acceptveterans
in their domiciliaries.
Yet the streets and highways,the bridges and river banks arenot
safe places for the veteranto stay.
Love insists that illegal aliensthat are flooding the
nationalong the I-35 and U.S. 281 ac-cess corridors are often
verycriminal in their nature. He andhis colleagues see a very
realthreat in the competition be-tween illegal aliens and home-less
veterans for availableresources.
Theyre drug dealers anddrug smugglers. They will nothesitate to
kill the homeless vet-eran, just in competition for aplace to
stay.
Another major dispute Loveharbors for local VA policy isthat the
Waco VA Medical Cen-ter insists that PTSD patientsmust accept care
for substanceabuse, when they often feel nopersonal need for any
suchthing. Love claims those thatwill not admit to a drinking
ordrug problem receive little pa-tience or cooperation from
thecenters administrators andmedical staff.
After all, staff members runthe place and they see it thatway.
They are backed by VA poli-cies. They say they cant domuch for
those that wont get offthe booze and the dope. Lovesays he doesnt
see where that
is always the problem, that ab-stinence is offered as a
pana-cea, a golden bullet, somethingthat cant hurt, but often
doeslittle good in solving the rootproblems he sees among
fellowveterans.
His plans for the next day in-clude attendance at a seminarand
panel investigation at Ft.Hood into the state of the PostTraumatic
Stress Disorderproblem among returning IraqWar veterans.
Its somewhat of a struggle tochange public perception to
anacceptance that PTSD is a com-bat injury, not a mental
defect,though it is an injury of a psy-chological nature.
Men that are normal in allother ways still suffer the ef-fects
of survivor guilt, exagger-ated startle effect, suspicionand
hostility toward strangers,a reluctance to form
personalrelationships with the newguy, difficulty maintaining
amarriage or intimate relation-ship, and a seeming inability tohold
down jobs when there arepersonality clashes with thosein
authority.
Does he know of any home-less vets that would be availableto be
profiled by THE ICONO-CLAST?
He glanced around CampCasey, its tents, its neat rows ofcrosses
and freshly rolled creekgravel drives.
If I see any, Ill send themyour way.
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10 Wednesday, Sept. 27, 2006 THE LONE STAR ICONOCLAST Online:
www.lonestaricon.com
Record Number Of Hispanic, African AmericanStudents Enrolled At
The University Of Texas
Military Coalition PresentsAward Of Merit To Rep. Edwards
Congressman Chet Edwards (second from right) receives award.
WASHINGTON, D.C. TheMilitary Coalition (TMC), an in-fluential
Washington, D.C.-based consortium of 36 militaryand veterans
groups, presentedits highest award on Sept. 14, toU.S
Representative ChetEdwards who has championedthe causes of health
care andsurvivor benefits for militaryfamilies. The awards
ceremonywas held at the Veterans of For-eign Wars Memorial Building
onCapitol Hill.
Representatives ChetEdwards (D-TX) and WalterJones (R-NC)
received TMCs2006 Award of Merit for sponsor-ing bipartisan
legislation to pro-tect military beneficiariesagainst large,
unwarranted feeincreases for military healthcoverage. Joe Barnes,
also aTMC Co-Chairman and Na-tional Executive Secretary ofthe Fleet
Reserve Association,praised Edwards and Jones fortheir role in
convincing Con-gress to find other ways to re-duce Defense health
costs otherthan dramatic increases in ben-eficiary fees.
Theyve set a great examplein working closely together
tohighlight this as a bipartisan is-sue thats important for
thecountry, said Barnes. With re-cruiting, retention and readi-ness
already at risk in this timeof war, their efforts have
helpedCongress maintain perspective
on the reality that military fami-lies already pay large,
up-frontpremiums in service and sacri-fice for their health
coverage -premiums far larger than anycivilian will ever pay.
Congressis now rightly examining optionsto contain military health
costswithout shifting so much ofthem to beneficiaries.
Edwards said, It is a greathonor to be recognized by theMilitary
Coalition who fights ev-eryday for our military and vet-erans. I
believe our nation has amoral obligation to keep ourpromises to
those who havekept their promise to defend ournation. We cannot
attract thebest and brightest to fight ourwar on terrorism in the
yearsahead if they see us breakingfaith with those who served
inyears past. To win the war onterrorism, we must keep faithwith
our warriors.
TMC also presented its an-nual Freedom Award to Mr.John Conger,
RepresentativeEdwards legislative director, forhis work in
promoting supportfor military benefits issues be-hind the
scenes.
TMC represents the interestsof more than six million mem-bers
around the world, includingactive duty, National Guard, Re-serve,
and retired members andveterans of the seven uniformedservices,
plus their families andsurvivors.
AUSTIN A record highnumber of Hispanic and AfricanAmerican
students are enrolledand attending classes at TheUniversity of
Texas at Austin forthe 2006 fall semester, accord-ing to a
preliminary report bythe universitys Office of Insti-tutional
Research.
Total enrollment of all stu-dents of all ethnic groups thisfall
is 49,738, slightly higherthan the 49,696 recorded for the2005 fall
semester. This total,based on preliminary figures,
includes 37,069 undergraduate,11,361 graduate, and 1,427
lawstudents, said Maryann Rud-dock, associate vice presidentand
director of institutional re-search.
Included in the 2006 total fallenrollment are the highest
num-bers ever recorded for Hispanicand African American
studentpopulations on campus - 7,453Hispanics (15 percent of the
stu-dent population) and 1,939 Afri-can Americans (3.9 percent
ofthe student population). The
previous record high enroll-ments for these two ethnicgroups
were 7,289 Hispanics in2002 and 1,911 African Ameri-cans in
1996.
The 15 percent Hispanic fig-ure for the 2006 fall semester
re-flects a 6.3 percent increase overfall 2005, when 7,013
Hispanicsaccounted for 14.1 percent of thestudent population.
The preliminary fall 2006 fig-ures show a 5.2 percent increasein
African American studentsover fall 2005, when 1,843
AfricanAmericans accounted for 3.7percent of the student
popula-tion.
White students remain a ma-jority on campus, accounting for56.6
percent of the student popu-lation. The 28,132 white
studentenrollment total for fall 2006 re-flects a 1.4 percent
decreasefrom fall 2005, when 28,537 wereenrolled. The 7,181 Asian
Ameri-can students enrolled this fallsemester represent 14.4
percentof the student population, a 0.8percent increase over fall
2005.
Texas Landowners FileOpen Records Request
AUSTIN Over 175 Texaslandowners Open RecordsRequests were hand
deliv-ered to the Texas Departmentof Transportation today
de-manding the release of thesecret contract to constructthe Trans
Texas Corridorsigned betweenTxDoT and the foreign ownedConcesiones
deInfraestructures deTransporte, S.A. and ZachryConstruction
Corporation.
If they are going to paveover my land, I have everyright to know
whats in thatsecret deal, said Carol Fox,a landowner in
ruralWilliamson County.
On Tuesday of this week,over 125 landowners met inJonah, Texas,
to discuss astrategy to protect their landand their homes from
beingdestroyed by the new superhighway.
TxDoT and the Spanishcompany signed the agree-ment over a year
ago. The At-torney General has ruled it isnot protected information
andmust be released to the pub-lic, but both the State
andCintra-Zachry sued to keep itsecret.
We believe governmentshould be transparent andanything they
agree to do thataffects our land should bemade public, said Dan
Byfield,one of the organizers of the
event in Jonah. If they aregoing to condemn my land, Ihave a
right to know, Byfieldsaid.
For over a year, the AG andCintra-Zachry have been incourt
battling over whetherthe contract is public informa-tion. On Oct.
10, there will be ahearing to decide that very is-sue. The
landowners that havefiled the open records requestwant to place
themselves inthe position to intervene inthat lawsuit so their
interestsare represented.
Construction for the new su-per highway, set to begin nextyear,
will take up to 146 acresper mile and with 4,000 milesbeing built,
that translates into584,000 acres needed that willaffect close to
one million Tex-ans. Most of those acres will betaken by
condemnation plac-ing thousands of Texas citi-zens in the position
of havingto go to court to fight the State.
Landowners are under-standably upset. Im willing tofight the
state on this becauseits possibly my private prop-erty theyre going
to take,stated Fox. Ill be there nextmonth, if the judge allows
it.
If allowed to intervene,Foxs legal fees will be paid byStewards
of the Range and theAmerican Land Foundation,two private, nonprofit
groupsthat support private propertyrights nationwide.
Perry Announces $1.8 MillionFor Statewide Child ID Program
WACO Gov. Rick Perry hasannounced the award of $1.8million to
the Sheriff s Associa-tion of Texas to provide ChildIdentification
Kits that will allowTexas parents to easily recordand store their
childs finger-prints, DNA and physical char-acteristics. This
informationcan save precious time in assist-ing law enforcement
authoritiesin the event that thechild goes missing.
Through a collaborative effortwith the National Child
Identifi-
cation Program, the AmericanFootball Coaches Associationand the
Texas Association ofSchool Administrators, Child IDkits will be
disseminated acrossthe state to K-6th grade stu-dents with a letter
to their par-ents explaining the significanceof the kit. Each kit
will containan inkless fingerprint card, twoswabs to obtain a
childs DNAfrom their saliva, and a lami-nated wallet card to keep
an up-dated photograph and physicaldescription of the child.
Nearly 800,000 children gomissing every year acrossAmerica, most
of whom areteenage runaways.
Since it was founded in 1997,the National Child ID Programhas
distributed more than 15million ID kits throughout theUnited
States, making it thelargest program of its kind andthe only Child
ID program togain the backing of the FBI.
The grant, along with private
donations, will support the dis-tribution of 2 million kits to
par-ents and guardians of schoolaged youth from Kindergartenthrough
the 6th grade. Thesefunds are awarded under theState Criminal
Justice PlanningFund and are distributed by theGovernors Criminal
Justice Di-vision. The funds support pro-grams that enhance
thecriminal and juvenile justicesystems.
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Online: www.lonestaricon.com THE LONE STAR ICONOCLAST Wednesday,
Sept. 27, 2006 11
Declare Peace For Crying Out Loud!
Presenting A New Version Of Rocky HorrorAs Uncle Hugh used to
say, Lawmen interrogate you. Out-
laws just beat hell out of you.
The disconcerting thingabout being a writer is, theresa chance
youll never die.
At least your work wont.And some of it needs to die.In fact
theres a large body
that ought to be shot.Thats usually the stuff that
lives forever, and your childrenread it when you grow old,
thensay in disillusioned, whisperedtones among themselves,
onceyouve gone to bed, that you area moron.
I realized that this week whilethe Congress of my native
landdebated just how much torturewas enough.
Essentially our benevolentleadership decided that we canonly
torture a little; you cant killthe suspect, but you can makehim
wish he were dead.
But, if you accidentally domake him dead, its okay.
Just dont do it again.If you can help it.And for this John
McCain is a
hero?It is, indeed, strange to be a
lonely voice crying in the intern-ment camp, trying to point
outthat if the enemy thinks he willbe well treated, well fed and
wellrested, that he will be restoredto the safety and comfort
heknew before he faced the peril-ous distress of war, he might,just
might BE MORE WILLINGTO SURRENDER, YOU SLACK-JAWED,
HAM-HANDED,BEETLE-BROWED, GAP-TOOTHED, RIB-GNAWING,IMBICILIC
THUGS!
But if hes going to be sub-jected to greater horrors thanthe
face of war, why not, Kipling-like, simply go to his God like
asoldier?
Who elects these mad clowns,anyway?
The monthly meeting of Idi-ots Anonymous?
High there. My name isGeorge, and Im an idot.
Hi, George . . . uh . . . thatsidiot, George. But thats
okay.Nobody here can spell, either,Gorge.
Second, there was neighborBushs embarrassing babblebefore the
U.N.
(No, Hugo. Hes not the devil.The devil is a lot smarter
thanthat.)
We are not at war with Islam?But Islam is definitely at war
with you, George.Considering how hes man-
aged Iraq, he doesnt seem tothink hes really at war
withanybody.
Look, you dont get to pickwho goes to war with you.
Just ask Pope Hindenburg I.Its not how you meant it; its
how they took it.And it just may be that no one
believes that you harbor no Wit-ticisms of Mass Destruction.
I swear, that boy must havebeen wormy when he was achild.
All this reminded me of myfirst post-World Trade Centerattack
column, and what a naveprophetic dunce I was when Isaid.
Kill them all.I know you are too decent to
say it, even though you mightfeel it.
But I can say it for you.You pay me to say the things
you would not ordinarily think. Iam not a nice guy.
So . . .If they would make of us
Rome, let us be Romans.Crucify them.From Kabul in the east to
Tri-
poli in the west, let the fires oftheir burning cities and
townsilluminate our banquets. Leavenot one stone standing
uponanother; sow the earth with salt.Boil their armies in flaming
oiland harry their widows and or-phans into the desert wilder-ness
so nothing remains buttheir bloody footprints etchedacross the
endless sands totheir bleached white bones.
Show neither mercy to theguilty nor compassion for
theinnocent.
Tear the pages from their li-braries, bring down their placesof
worship and obliterate theirseats of learning.
Then rip out the tongues andhack off the thumbs of those
whospeak and write their lan-guages, so that a generationhence,
passing strangers willstand amazed at the desolatewastes that were
once theirhomelands and wonder to them-selves, What men were
these?
But we wont.Thank God.We know better, I hope, than
to make manifest the evil thatthose hateful broadcast
imagesdredged from our souls darkestplaces, and we will push
themback into our nightmares.
The gentle reason that holdssuch thoughts at bay will de-mand
again that we be betterthan our enemies, and ourhearts will emerge
from the bit-ter crust where we would like toencase them.
We know better.
We will pity the oppressedcountrymen of our enemies,and when the
war is over, we willgive them succor.
We will do as decency de-mands.
If they had the capabilities todo as I have suggested,
theywould. We have those resourcesin abundance, but we wont.
Atleast I hope we wont.
Not for their sake: for ours.Whether they know better, we
do, and that makes all the dif-ference.
It is my fervent prayer thatwe will not let them win. Thatfor
the most part, we will go on,saddened, but essentially un-changed;
our society will re-main open, mobile and free. Ourstyle, our
attitudes, our way oflife will not be diminished.
And they will continue to envyus.
We will treat those respon-sible as they are: criminals,
psy-chopaths no different than theneighborhood gun thug whoshoots
down an unarmed con-venience store clerk for a hand-ful of change.
We will find them,arrest them, try them and treatthem no less
decently that wetreat any other criminals.
We will even defend them.Because we are not the
people they believed they wereattacking.
We, those they so contemptu-ously hurled from the brokenskies,
are their sole appeal froman unimaginable agony. We willcontain
ourselves and continueoffering a reasoned defense,even from
ourselves.
Unless they have pushed usbeyond the brink of the decencywe live
by.
Then we will bombHiroshima; we will eviscerateNagasaki; we will
rain hell itselfon Hamburg.
For the sake of their children,they should pray we do not
for-get who we are.
Yeah, pretty stupid, hunh?Those who say everything
changed after that day are right.September 12, 2001, dawned
on the birth of a cringing, vi-cious cowardice, of a moral
andspiritual decline from which wemay never recover.
But on that day, when I wrotethe above column, I was
stillhopeful.
It never occurred to me thatfive years hence we would bedebating
whether the GenevaConvention was a good idea.
That mere suspicion shouldconsign the noble aims ofLocke,
Jefferson, Franklin,Madison to the garbage heap ofa pitiful
history.
That we would usher in a newInquisition in the name of the
Prince of Peace.That we learned nothing from
Bataan or Burma.That a former guest of the
Hanoi Hilton would compro-mise on the ethics of torture.
That the collective voice ofthe Democratic Party would
bethankful that, thanks to this ca-pitulation of Republican
reason,they do not have to take a standon the morality of torment
forfear of losing an election.
I may seem strange to quote
the Rocky Horror PictureShow at this point, but the fi-nal
verses of that farcical com-edy have been going throughmy head all
week.
And super heroes?Come to feast?To taste the flesh?Not yet
deceased?And all I know?Is still the beast isFeeding
Richard OBrien
The majority of Americanswant their troops out of Iraq ina safe,
timely fashion.
Despite its unwillingness tobring them back home, the
U.S.government has the power todo so.
The main obstacle for troopwithdrawal has been the
Bushadministration and its Repub-lican allies in Congress.
The administrations argu-ment for keeping troops in Iraqis that
civil war would immedi-ately break out there once ourforces leave,
and overtime, ter-rorists would use thiscrumbled Middle Eastern
na-tion to launch more attacks onus and our allies.
So the choices President Bushgives us are we either stay
thecourse or cut and run.
But who does he think weare? Are we not adults?
Why must policy choices al-ways be between two violent,cynical
options?
No, the real choice is be-tween the death process andthe peace
process.
The death process continuesa war that destroys Iraq quicklyand
the United States slowly.
The peace process, on theother hand, rebuilds Iraq andthe United
States throughmore responsible, fair, and se-cure means.
The latter choice has beenstrongly championed by theDeclaration
of Peace, a nation-wide campaign calling for Con-gress to take a
stand for a morehumane policy toward Iraq.
According to its website, theplan Declaration of Peace
hasbrought to the table includes:
Establishing an Iraqi-ledinternational peace process tocreate a
roadmap to peace andsecurity;
Bringing U.S. troops homeand closing the U.S. bases;
Reconstruction and rec-onciliation in Iraq; and
Creating a peace dividendby diverting funding for war tomeeting
human needs at homeand abroad.
The Declaration of Peacesnon-violent campaign kickedoff with
candlelight vigilsacross the 350 U.S. communi-ties last Thursday on
the Inter-national Day of Peace.
For the last seven days, thecampaign which boasts 400 re-ligious
groups as members hasseen its participants hostmeetings, mass
bicycle rides,dances, nonviolence teach-ins,fund-raising dinners,
congres-sional lobbying, and civil dis-obedience.
Organizers say that so far,the Declaration of Peacedocument has
received over12,000 signatures online andthousands more from
signersin person. Eight Democraticmembers of Congress but
noRepublicans have signed on tothe pledge.
The organizers also say thatif by Thursday, Sept. 28, Con-gress
fails to establish a planto end the U.S.-led occupationin Iraq,
more nonviolent ac-tions will resume.
And when this peace move-ment succeeds, it will join thegood
company of other nonvio-lent power movements such asthose in
Serbia, Georgia,Ukraine, Beirut, and Bolivia.
However, real success de-pends on sustaining this peaceparadigm
worldwide over thelong haul.
Let us hold steady this lightof hope, and declare peace for
crying out loud!
Nathan Diebenow
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12 Wednesday, Sept. 27, 2006 THE LONE STAR ICONOCLAST Online:
www.lonestaricon.com
How Lucky Can One Buffalo Hunter Be?Billy Dixon and his four
sur-
viving companions waited forhelp on Sept. 13, 1874, or the
re-turn of the huge war party,whichever came first.
For the second time in threemonths, the 23-year-old
WestVirginian was up to his ears inIndians. Buffalo, not frontier
im-mortality, was Dixons game,but he had an uncanny knack ofwinding
up in death-defying di-lemmas.
By the winter of 1874, thenorthern tip of Texas wasswarming with
buffalo hunterseager to collect the four-dollarbounty for every
shaggy hide.Old Adobe Walls, site of a fiercefight with five tribes
a decadeearlier, sprang to life with a gen-eral store, blacksmith
shop, andsaloon.
This alarming activity at-tracted the attention of QuanahParker,
the Quahadi Comanchewar chief who grasped the stra-tegic
significance of the HighPlains. If the white intruderswere not
evicted immediately, itwas only a matter of time untilthe prized
hunting groundswere lost forever.
Parker rallied the same affili-ated bands that had driven theKit
Carson-led column back toNew Mexico in 1864. To boostthe braves
morale, the cleverchief supplied them with thebullet-proof war
paint recentlyperfected by his medicine man.
At the crack of dawn on June27, 1874, 700 Indians struckAdobe
Walls intent on slaugh-tering the hated hunters in theirsleep. But
most of the 29 tran-sients had been up for hours fix-ing a roof
that collapsed duringthe night. Booming volleys fromtheir
50-caliber Sharps repelledthe attack and held their owncasualties
to three men trappedin a wagon.
Rather than risk a second all-out assault, the Indians re-sorted
to hit-and-run raids forthe next two days. Superior fire-
power and abun