Is the Administration Telling Us Anything?

Are They Going To Tell Us Anything?...

Or, when their time is up, are they going to just leave the White House and turn off the lights?

Witness the recent revelations in the Tillman Scandal and the Lynch Rescue. (From the BBC) URL: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/6588611.stm.


AND how many times is Mr. Gonzalez going to respond "I can't recall. I can't recollect". Another 116 times?

Maybe not, Congress has just granted immunity to Monica Goodling. URL: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070425/ap_on_go_co/congress_subpoenas;_ylt=ApbEGJkWOI9RdwTbGWnaxBKs0NUE.

Public Safety and Gun Violence in America

We didn't really want to touch this...

But one of our editors comes from a family with a death in the same due to gun violence. She was young, a college student and it was many years ago. But the family still remembers. The man who shot her (not pictured - the photo is of the alleged gun man from the Virginia Tech shootings /massacre of yesterday), was let go by the judge in a bench trial after he told the judge he believed the gun wasn't loaded. This happened in Detroit.

Supposedly, the man was a heroin addict and robbed her for money to obtain the drug. Supposedly, this same man went to work for two very big and notorious gang leaders at the time. Supposedly, one of the gang leaders found out about this and beat the gunman to death with a baseball bat for his "disloyalty". So much for "street justice".

We figure the story is much different here. But, we feel the same sense of horror and emptiness at the loss of so many innocent lives. One of whom, Professor Liviu Librescu, is said to have given his life so that his students could escape.

What is the future of gun violence in America? We are fairly certain the next lone gunman (or team) is out there waiting for his/hers/their time - like a ticking time bomb. But, where is this person? How do we defend innocent lives against this/these person(s)?

Will the campus bookstores have to start selling/issuing Kevlar underwear? Will armed police, soldiers and/or marines have to be posted at all centers of education? Can a device be invented that prevents a gun from being used in an offensive situation as opposed to a purely defensive measure (say, an artificial intelligence chip)? Will guns be banned from the public use and ownership (not now, but in the far future)?

What might have been encouraging (or not - depending on your feelings or point of view) was that no other students were equipped with a weapon to counter this madman. Had any one student had chosen to carry a weapon on their person, would we have seen a less tragic event? Will gun violence awareness be educated at any and all public institutions to stop the spread of this violence?

Of course, we don't know. We hope that if anything can be learned from this tragedy, that this is a real wake-up call for awareness against the next tragic incident.

Updated 4/22/07: Based on the Virginia Tech Massacre, we are starting a movement for "World Anti-Gun Violence Day".. the suggested date is April 6th based on another gun violence tragedy. See our posting at: http://theantizenhandbook.blogspot.com/2007/04/another-tragedy.html.
Contact your senator, representatives, or other government officials to help get this movement going. Thank you for your support.

Food Safety and Dangerous Food imports

Why Are We Importing Unsafe Food?...

With the recent imported pet food scares, now we are reading reports of the problem of unsafe food imports overall. See URL: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070416/ap_on_go_ca_st_pe/imported_food_safety_8.

Based on this article, some of the food (wheat gluten) has been found to contain melamine. According to the hyperlinked article and the Material Safety Data Sheet (MSDS), melamine is well-known to be harmful to animals and humans. This is from the Wikipedia article: "Animal studies have shown that ingestion of melamine may lead to kidney stones, cancer or reproductive damage.[5][6][7][8]". One of your editors is a chemist, and does not doubt the accuracy of the Wikipedia in this instance. According to the same article, imports of this suspected food source have now been blocked. Knowing the uses for melamine, its difficult to understand how this chemical could have contaminated a food product.

Unless the source is the Yangtze River, or other polluted water sources in China. Another article has recently appeared describing the Yangtze as being "permanently polluted". See URL: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/china_yangtze_pollution.

WHY are we doing this to our own country? WHY all the imports? Should the Homeland Security Agency be involved in the cases of unsafe food imports?

Here's something else that we learned by looking at the numbers. Of the $ 21 billion dollars (US) in food that are being imported, the FDA and USDA (combined) only have a dedicated budget of approximately $ 750 million. A budget, we feel, that should be more like $ 45 billion.

As impractical as it may sound, should America start relying on its internal sources and begin stopping the importation of all foodstuffs from China?

Write your congressman and/or senator.

Updated 4/17/07: And more chemical dangers from China...

As a chemical plant releases a "huge" cloud of sulfur dioxide into the atmosphere, thus sickening over a hundred nearby school children. URL: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070417/ap_on_re_as/china_chemical_discharge.
Updated 4/28/07:

And now we're finding Perchlorate (a chemical in rocket fuel) in the food supply?
URL: http://cosmos.bcst.yahoo.com/ver/228/popup/index.php?cl=2537747

Updated 5/05/07:

Chickens are being kept out of the market. See: melamine now found in chicken feed.

The Governor Has His Doubts...

To His Credit...

Governor Ted Strickland (Ohio, D) has protested the planned deployment of his National Guard troops to Iraq. He has called upon the administration to give adequate planning to the 37th Infantry Combat Brigade Team (Columbus) and adequate equipment (e.g., body armor, night vision equipment, etc...). He has noted that this is the second time the 37th will be called up in two years. Deployment was originally scheduled for 2009.

Also, there is a report circulating in the media that an active-duty four star general has stated about the Irag War that "we don't where the hell we're going...". Sounds like the disastrous Varus Teutoburg Wald campaign of ancient Rome.

First Lady Laura Bush Reading to the Kids

Some folks in American Politics are just so nice, we thought they too are deserving of mention. For video of the current First Lady reading "Duck for President" to the kids, go to URL: http://cosmos.bcst.yahoo.com/ver/225/popup/index.php?cl=2331292

The American Political Handbook Scorecard (III) Revised and Updated

The Google Spreadsheet version (of the combined cards, with the headings and hyperlinks, as above) can be found at URL: http://spreadsheets.google.com/pub?key=pVGqbjCOdJmtRtb0dBUfCSw&output=html.

The Democratic Field still appears to be in the lead (687, 500 points) over the Republican Field (- 323,875 points) with a total advantage of approx. 1,011,375 points.

The Lead Candidate Overall appears to be John Edwards with 300,000 points.

The Lead Republican Candidate appears to be Tommy Thompson with 82,525 points.

The Bottom Democratic Candidate appears to be Hilary Clinton with - 51,000 points. (Note: Barack Obama has almost double the lead over Hilary Clinton).

The Bottom Republican Candidate now appears to be Mike Huckabee with -40,000 points.

Why isn't the current Vice President officially running (Dick Cheney)? - 300,000 points.

Independent (undeclared) Ralph Nader has only 5,000 points.

For a bit of an explanation on the point system used in the APH Scorecard, see the Anti-Zen Handbook posting of Oct. 6, 2006 re. "The Sleazedown Game". URL: http://theantizenhandbook.blogspot.com/2006/10/hey-everybody-lets-play-sleazedown.html

For obvious reasons, some of the candidate point totals are not used in their respective point totals. One notable exception being Dick Cheney, as the Republican V.P. is an "automatic" nominee for the Presidential Convention and ticket.

"FAQ": How do the money announcements from the big Democratic campaigns affect these point totals? Actually, we feel that they don't. We feel that the big news media networks are missing the point and overlooking the major issues by focusing on the sensationalistic attributes of the money side of the campaign. The money issue can be a trap - look at Howard Dean. Also, the campaign money issue has taken the focus away from some of the major issues - this is another trap. We might examine more of the "traps" created by the money issue later, time permitting.

Websites to visit:
1 http://www.joinarnold.com/site/c.jkIVLdMTJrE/b.1804725/k.BE28/Home.htm, 2 http://www.joebiden.com/, 3 http://www.ceooftheusa.com/, 4 http://www.hillaryclinton.com/splash/, 5 http://www.chrisdodd.com/home, 6 http://johnedwards.com/splash/, 7 http://newt.org/, 8 http://www.joinrudy2008.com/, 9 http://www.algore.com/, 10 http://hagel.senate.gov/, 11 http://www.mikehuckabeepresident2008.blogspot.com/, 12 http://www.johnkerry.com/, 13 http://mccain.senate.gov/, 14 http://www.nader.org/, 15 http://www.barackobama.com/, 16 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pat_Paulsen, 17 http://www.voteforbillrichardson.com/e107_plugins/newsfeed/newsfeed.php?show.1, 18 http://www.youtube.com/mittromney 19 http://web.archive.org/web/20021127085410/http://thompson.senate.gov/, 20 http://www.tommy2008.com/Home.aspx.

The American Political Handbook "Scorecard" (II)

The APH Scorecard (II)...

To see the Scorecard complete with links go to URL: http://spreadsheets.google.com/pub?key=pVGqbjCOdJmvOLr87vTcrSQ&output=html&gid=0&single=true

The Democratic Field appears to be in the lead (691, 500 points) over the Republican Field (- 312,475 points) with a total advantage of approx. 1,003,975 points.

The Lead Candidate Overall appears to be John Edwards with 300,000 points.

The Lead Republican Candidate appears to be Tommy Thompson with 82,525 points.

The Bottom Democratic Candidate appears to be Hilary Clinton with - 51,000 points. (Note: Barack Obama has almost double the lead over Hilary Clinton).

The Bottom Republican Candidate appears to be John McCain with 0 points.

Why isn't the current Vice President officially running (Dick Cheney)? - 300,000 points.

Independent (undeclared) Ralph Nader has only 5,000 points.

For a bit of an explanation on the point system used in the APH Scorecard, see the Anti-Zen Handbook posting of Oct. 6, 2006 re. "The Sleazedown Game". URL: http://theantizenhandbook.blogspot.com/2006/10/hey-everybody-lets-play-sleazedown.html

Websites to visit:

1 http://www.joinarnold.com/site/c.jkIVLdMTJrE/b.1804725/k.BE28/Home.htm, 2 http://www.joebiden.com/, 3 http://www.ceooftheusa.com/, 4 http://www.hillaryclinton.com/splash/, 5 http://www.chrisdodd.com/home, 6 http://johnedwards.com/splash/, 7 http://newt.org/, 8 http://www.joinrudy2008.com/, 9 http://www.algore.com/, 10 http://hagel.senate.gov/, 11 http://www.johnkerry.com/, 12 http://mccain.senate.gov/, 13 http://www.nader.org/, 14 http://www.barackobama.com/, 15 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pat_Paulsen, 16 http://web.archive.org/web/20021127085410/http://thompson.senate.gov/, 17 http://www.tommy2008.com/Home.aspx.

Also, Thanks to JR for his suggestions on how to upgrade the Scorecard. We've got some more repairs to do before we can implement those suggestions.