Former President Manages Gas Station
by leveymg
Sat Apr 29, 2006 at 07:29:11 AM PDT
Former President and Secret Service Detail
- leveymg's diary :: ::
'TBH Politoons'
Baron Dave Romm
Refugees
By Baron Dave Romm
Well, I haven't gotten the left angry at me in a while...
The right asks, "What part of "illegal immigrants" don't you get?" My response is, "what part of "illegal wiretapping" don't you get. The double standard from the sphincter conservatives is disgusting. Bush has declared himself above the law, so none of his slavish followers can complain about anyone else. But that shouldn't stop us from dealing with the issue.
America is the Land of Opportunity. We're so rich, even our neighbors are envious, especially our poorer neighbors. NAFTA is a necessary tool to help balance out the economic disparity between close neighbors, though I don't like many of the implementation details. For now, the US is where to go, and families risk life and limb to get here, hoping that they can work their way up the ladder of success. Heck, many illegals are already paying taxes to get on Uncle Sam's good side.
Many estimate more than 11 million illegal immigrants are currently in the US. I have a feeling the high end is more likely. Official estimates vary and I don't trust them much: No one in the Bush administration can count to three if you spot them the one and the two. Among other people the stat doesn't count (I suspect) are legal visitors who have stayed passed their visa. I wonder how many expat Iranians are still around from the 1979 revolution? But they have money, so we're not worried.
The Republicans are trying to drag the Latino population into their party. They claim a natural constituency: Most Latinos are socially conservative, religious and hard working (and don't like immigrants). One of the main reasons it's not working is the political truism: A conservative is a liberal who's been robbed; a liberal is a conservative who's been arrested. The immigrants, among other minorities, see first hand the abuse of power and are attracted to the Democratic Party's insistence on accountability. Bush said many of the right things in 2004, with an election coming up. After the election, he proved he didn't give a damn.
Bush is saying many of the right things again, and no one believes him. Immigrants legal and otherwise are here because they're smart enough to want a new life in America; they're too smart to be fooled by Republican lies.
I don't have a perfect solution. I'd like to welcome immigrants, but I don't want to reward anyone for breaking the law. The current proposals seem a good step, involving work permits, paying fines and overcoming bureaucratic hurdles. Punishing employers who knowingly hire illegals would be a good idea, but those are the people who vote Republican and Republicans are always soft on crime when it's theirs. Look for a solution that makes it harder for those without political power.
We can't just open the gates, but it's too late to close the door. The current crop of immigrants are people who like it here and, for the most part, we like them too.
Meanwhile...
Israel faces a very different set of problems from people who didn't want to be there, aren't wanted anywhere, and have gotten kicked out of everywhere they've tried to go.
Critics of Israel try to defend their position: "Not all criticism of Israel is anti-Semitic." This is entirely true, but ignores the fact that MOST of the criticism IS driven by religious hatemongering. You might equally say, "not all fatal traffic accidents involve alcohol." It's true, but ignores the fact that roughly half off all traffic fatalities DO involve alcohol. Traffic safety is important, and the number one problem to address is alcohol abuse.
I've been a critic of Israel, when I've disagreed with policy or practice, as have most of my fellow Jews in the country and out. Far more and far more pointed criticism can be found in Israel than in America. The difference is the historical background and a larger appreciation of the total situation. The arab refugees in Gaza and the West Bank are not free to criticize their leaders -- they get tortured to death if they do -- and they don't have a free press. So we never hear from arab refugees critical of their situation. We only hear all sides taking the anti-Israel positions.
Zionism refers to the political movement and ideology that supports a Jewish homeland in the land of Israel. Other uses are simply incorrect. "Palestine" is a political term. The area West of the Jordan River was known by many names over the years, including Palestine, derived from the Phoenicians (so named for their purple dye) and the Philistines mentioned in the Bible. None of the refugees are related to either group. Only the Jews have an historical claim to the land. Religiously, almost everyone has some sort of toehold. Under arab rule, Jerusalem and other religious sites were closed to non-Muslims. Under Israeli rule, Jerusalem is an open city.
In more recent times, politics trumps race. The area had many people, including a large percentage of Jews. And that despite restrictions against us. Politically, most of the people considered themselves part of what is now Jordan or Syria, and left during the Post WWI-British Mandate in the 1920-1948; the Jews didn't displace the arab population, but they were the ones called "Palestinian". What we now call "Palestinian arabs" which then became "Palestinian" to only refer to the arabs is completely incorrect and didn't come into common useage until much later. Palestine was not an empty land when Zionist immigration began. The British Mandate started around 1880; Jerusalem had a Jewish majority from the mid-1890s on. As the Ottoman Empire was drawing to a close in the late 19th and early 20th centuries CE, they imported arab workers into Transjordan, including tens of thousands of illegal immigrants. When you see someone saying their family has been their for "hundreds" of years, they are almost certainly lying. Almost none of the arab population in Gaza or the West Bank can trace its ancestry back before about 1880. Ask, they'll tell you about their great great from around WWI, but don't want to admit where he came from.
To crunch a lot of history: The arabs in the Middle East did not participate in the Holocaust, but they were friends with the people who did. The Ottoman Empire was an ally of Germany in WWI, and in WWII many of the arabs states in the Middle East were aligned with the Axis. They are the losers. The winners draw the map. In much the same way that Poland now exists because they were an historical country which was gone and is now back, Israel is an historical country which was gone and is now back.
The arabs in the Palestine section of Transjordan had their chance in 1947 to become a country, and they blew it, bigtime. During the 1947 war, the arab states refused to let the illegal immigrants back into their home countries. After the war, there was only Israel. No one else has any legal or moral claim to the area. The illegal immigrants have been refugees ever since; they have been political pawns ever since. Now, three generations later, they refuse any political settlement, torture and kill any of their own people who want peace and teach their children to blow up other children. They remain refugees; they are not a people and don't deserve a country. The arab states, the land of their grandfathers and great-grandfathers, should take them back.
The refugees incorrectly called "Palestinians" don't even have Israel on their maps. Before 1947, none of the arab nations considered giving the land to the arab immigrants. As mentioned above, before 1947 "Palestinian" referred to the Jews in the area, many of which could trace their ancestry back several thousand years. The arabs in the area were imported by the Ottomans around the turn of the 20th Century as workers, much like the latinos in Southern California. They had families in other arab states; Yassir Arafat was born in Egypt. But there's a big difference: Mexico wants (or at least is willing to accept) back it's citizens. The arab countries refused to let their countrymen return. It was all the politics of hate. Arabs hating other arabs, and hating Jews almost as much as other arabs. The same wave of violence that Israel faces has affected most of the Middle East countries from Egypt to Morocco and back to Jordan. This is not an Israeli problem, it is an arab problem.
Having a huge number of refugees in Israel is a major political plus in the politics of oil. Palestinian refugees were neither compensated nor allowed to return. Arab countries, with the exception of Jordan, refused to absorb them, preferring to maintain the refugee camps for more than half a century as a way of keeping the issue from fading away.. Everywhere the refugees tried to go, they were kicked out. Some tried to go back to Jordan; they tried to overthrow the government and were tossed out, with many killed by fellow arabs. Jordan is Palestine for most of the refugees, but the thugs that make up Hamas weren't welcome. Man more "Palestinians" have been killed by arabs than by Israelis. They were thrown out of Lebanon and Tunesia. Israel, reluctantly, let them come back. Israel is a democracy and has a large arab constituency, which has political power. Israel listens to the world. The refugees are not a democracy and don't listen to anyone but their hatemongers. It's a bad situation.
While it may seem counter-intuitive, given the strife: Israel is the safest country for these refugees. Israel is the only place where fellow arabs aren't trying to kill them, the only place that let peace attempt to break out. If the refugees can't live in Israel, it's entirely their fault.
Meanwhile, the flames of hate have been fanned. The refugees were on the side of Saddam Hussein in 1991 and cheered the SCUDS heading for Americans and Israel. Later, they cheered the news of 9/11. Their leaders don't give a damn about their people: Arafat stole almost a billion dollars that could have fed the poor. For some asinine reason, he's still considered a hero. Like the Mujuhadeen in Afghanistan, they might take our aid but they are NOT on our side. The election of Hamas is the most recent example. The US should not support these people in any way, and should treat them like the terrorists they insist they are. Arab refugees are an arab problem, and we should let them reabsorb their people.
Illegal immigrants to the US are here for a better life. We here in the US should treat these people humanely, and deal with them according to the laws of this great country. Arab refugees in Israel want to kill all Jews and, ultimately, kill all non-believers. We here in the US should treat them as terrorists, and deal with them according to international law against terrorist organizations.
No, it's not that simple. But let's not forget who is trying to kill us.
Baron Dave Romm is a conceptual artist and a noble ofLadonia who produces Shockwave Radio Theater, writes in a Live Journal demi-blog, plays with a very weird CD collection and an ever growing list of political links. Dave Romm reviews things at random for obscure web sites. You can read all his music recommendations from Bartcop-E. To receive the show as podcasts go to Shockwave Radio Theater Podcast or paste the following string in your podcast software: http://www.romm.org/podcast and if that doesn't work try the link from Podcastalley.com's listing. All podcasts also on the Shockwave Radio audio page.
Thanks to everyone who has sent me music to play on the air. --////
Recommended Reading
from Bruce
RYAN J. DONMOYER: 18 families fighting estate tax, study says (BLOOMBERG NEWS)
Eighteen families, including the owners of Nordstrom Inc., The Seattle Times Co., Mars Inc., Koch Industries Inc. and Wal-Mart Inc., that stand to save $71.6 billion in taxes are financing lobbying efforts to repeal the estate tax, according to a study by two groups.
Brent Hartinger: Silence is part of speaking up (Advocate.com)
The author of the gay teen novel Geography Club and a resident of Tacoma, Wash., hails Wednesday's Day of Silence-and questions whether all the talking expected on the Christian right's "Day of Truth" on Thursday can really counter the power of silence to support equality for LGBT students.
Karman Kregloe: Hillary Carlip: Lesbian Queen of the Oddballs
In her charming new memoir, Queen of the Oddballs, Carlip writes about her Hollywood teen exploits, which include taking dance classes with the children of movie stars (such as Jamie Lee Curtis), hanging out in Carly Simon's dressing room at The Troubadour, sleuthing her way to the home of folk singer Carole King, and teaching her hero Lucille Ball to juggle-even if only by proxy (through screenwriter Bob Carroll, Jr.).
David Kennerley: Guys and Balls: A Gay Soccer Movie Scores (afterelton.com)
One of the hottest trends at queer film festivals these days is sports. And it's no surprise, really, since there are shamefully few male professional athletes who are openly gay, particularly in team sports that require sweating and showering together.
Stardust: The Bette Davis Story (out.com)
... it's the first time that a mainstream account of Davis' life has significantly discussed the star's status as a gay icon
MICHAEL SVOBODA: Flower Power: Meet the women of the LOTUS Society, a very unconventional sorority (frontierspublishing.com)
"Anecdotal data leads us to believe that around 80% of trans wom[e]n have sex work as their primary source of income," she says. She looks me in the eyes: "It's hard for trans women. I don't think anybody says, 'I wanna be a prostitute when I grow up,' but employers aren't rushing to hire transgender people."
Jenny Halper: On the Road to Family Values (beliefnet.com)
Robin Williams, Kristin Chenoweth, and Jeff Daniels talk about 'RV'-- and the joys and challenges of family road trips.
Hubert's Poetry Corner
CONVERSATIONS OF BOBBIE JANE GAUDETTE
An anniversary NOT to be celebrated!
Manages Gas Station
Former President
Former President and Secret Service Detail
TULSA, January 27, 2008. AP - One year after he resigned his office in disgrace over the Valerie Plame spy scandal, former President George W. Bush starts work at a local Chevron station. When asked about his new job as Assistant Retail Outlet Manager, Mr. Bush said, "I know there've been questions about whether this job is real suitable for me, and all. But, I'm pretty well qualified for this. I've worked for the oil industry almost my entire career."
Concerns have been raised about the ability of the Secret Service to provide adequate protection to the former President, who is deeply disliked by most Americans. Critics have questioned whether Bush's proximity to the public might be a problem for his security detail. Mr. Bush dismissed such concerns, saying,
"I'm inside that little booth most of the day, and it's got real thick glass and a lock on the door. I feel like a fish in there, and it does get kinda hot. When I have to go to the little boy's room, the guys walk me over there. They blend in real good, wearing jeans and tee-shirts. They stand guard until I'm done and escort me back again."
"After a few days, after you reporters are gone, nobody'll even notice that I'm here."
####
Former President Sets Gas Station on Fire. Secret Service Officer Hospitalized
TULSA, February 27, 2008. AP
George Bush, 62, accidentally set the Tulsa gas station he manages on fire, Saturday. Two Secret Service officers rescued Bush, sustaining non-life threatening injuries to themselves.
The gas station surveillance video shows them pushing Bush out of the attendant's station in which he was working Staurday as it was engulfed in flames. Agents rolled Bush on the ground and removed the former President's burning shoes.
Police say Bush had assisted a motorist to gas up an SUV, spilling some of the fuel on his clothes, and then went back inside the attendant's booth. According to witnesses, Bush then lit a cigarette, dropping the match that ignited his shoes. Bush's injuries were described as very minor, and he was treated at the scene.
###
Ex-President Fired as Manager of Gas Station:
Competence and Insurance Risk Cited by Owners.
TULSA, February 29, 2008. AP
SNIP
###
Former President Buys Own Gas Station: Saudi Backers Expect "Handsome Return on Investment"
Former President takes up new duties as CEO of El Busto Oil
TULSA, March 14, 2008. AP
Selected Readings
from that Mad Cat, JD
In The Chaos Household
Last Night
Mostly a sunny day.
There's a show on KABC (channel 7 in LA) - 'American Latino' at 12:30am Sunday.
For the last month (or so), there has been a Volkswagen commercial in the end break - a commercial that stars banished Warner Brothers cartoon character Speedy Gonzales.
Last week Speedy was run over by a VW. This week he was driving one.
Sí, se puede.
Added a new flag - Faroe Islands 
Expresses New Orleans' Pain
Bruce Springsteen
New Jersey's favorite son was adopted by New Orleans on Sunday, as Bruce Springsteen - through speeches and song - vocalized the anger, frustration, pain and resilience of this hurricane-battered city at the annual Jazz & Heritage Festival.
Decrying what he called "criminal ineptitude" in Hurricane Katrina's wake, Springsteen jabbed at the political powers he deemed responsible for New Orleans' slow recovery.
Perhaps the most pointed moment came as he prepared to sing an old song that he had rewritten lyrics to for New Orleans. Noting that he visited the city's ninth ward, perhaps the most devastated area in the city, Springsteen said: "I saw sights I never thought I'd see in an American city," and added: "The criminal ineptitude makes you furious."
With that, he launched into a song titled "How Can A Poor Man Stand Such Times and Live?" and dedicated the song to "President Bystander." Its lyrics included the lines: "There's bodies floatin' on Canal and the levees gone to hell ... them who's got out of town, and them who ain't got left to drown, tell me, how can a poor man stand such times and live?"
Bruce Springsteen
Struggle for Survival
TV Newsmagazines
The appeal couldn't be any more plain, or plaintive. Broadcast network newsmagazines are at a low ebb - with likely even fewer hours on the air next season - and the popularity of reality television is chiefly to blame.
The struggle at newsmagazines to compete with this threat seems ultimately what's behind some stories that drew unwanted attention during the past month. "Dateline NBC" raised ethical questions by paying an outside organization to set up a sting operation for pedophiles. Its producers also angered NASCAR officials by trying to send Muslim-looking men to an auto race to illustrate a story about increased anti-Muslim sentiments.
Newsmagazines once filled the networks' need for relatively cheap prime-time programming to counter expensive comedies and dramas. Reality now does this, with the added advantage of having the potential to become a big hit if all the stars align.
With the notion of public service all but gone, newsmagazines feel the pressure of having to compete with entertainment programming.
TV Newsmagazines
Ex-Stripper For Jesus
'Holy Hottie'
Heather Veitch, a tall, shapely blonde, made a career out of baring it all at strip clubs. Now when she walks in a club, it is just to deliver her naked truth about God.
"If you are a Christian, see us in ACTION," she says in a faith-based tease on her website, www.JCsgirls.com, geared toward women in the sex industry as well as men who turn to it.
Last month she was introduced on evangelist Pat Robertson's "The 700 Club" as a "holy hottie."
'Holy Hottie'
Women Break Bra World Record
Cyprus
Women on the Mediterranean island of Cyprus created the world's longest chain of bras of Sunday, linking together nearly 115,000 of the garments covering 111 km (70 miles), organisers said.
The group of Dutch, British and Cypriot organisers took nearly nine hours to create the chain at the harbour in the resort of Paphos, following a year of painstaking planning.
Their success will shove Singapore, which had held the record since 2003 with 79,000 bras, off the top spot in the Guinness Book of World Records.
Cyprus
Conflict Over Accident
Keith Richards
Keith Richards fans gathered outside a hospital Sunday where the Rolling Stones guitarist was believed to be undergoing treatment for a mild concussion reportedly suffered when he fell out of a palm tree on vacation in Fiji.
One newspaper also reported that Richards, 62, got on a Jet Ski after the fall and had another accident. Several Australian and New Zealand media outlets reported the fall from the tree.
Band spokeswoman Fran Curtis has said only that Richards was injured earlier this week and flown to New Zealand with his wife, Patti, for observation. Her statement Saturday did not comment on Richards' condition or how he was injured.
Keith Richards
Baby News
Unnamed Boy Johnson
Don Johnson and his wife, Kelley, celebrated their seventh anniversary with the birth of their third child, a spokesman announced Sunday.
The baby boy, who is yet to be named, was born Saturday morning at a Los Angeles hospital. He was 27 1/2 inches long and weighed 7 pounds, said Elliot Mintz, a spokesman for the star of TV's "Miami Vice" and "Nash Bridges."
The couple also have a boy, Jasper, and a daughter, Grace.
Unnamed Boy Johnson
May 19 Appeal
Gary Glitter
Disgraced British "glam rocker" Gary Glitter's appeal against a three-year jail sentence for molesting children in Vietnam will be heard by a court next month, a Vietnamese newspaper reported on Sunday.
Thanh Nien (Young People) newspaper quoted an official of the Ho Chi Minh City Supreme Court as saying that the appeal would be heard on May 19 in Ho Chi Minh City in southern Vietnam.
Gary Glitter
The Bosnia-Atlantis Connection
Bosnian Pyramid of the Sun
The world's oldest and largest pyramid found in Bosnia? It sounds incredible. The story has swept the media, from the Associated Press and the BBC, from papers and websites in the U.S. to those in India and Australia. Too bad that it is not a credible story at all. In fact, it is impossible. Who is the "archaeologist" who has taken the media for a ride? Why did the media not check the story more carefully? ARCHAEOLOGY will address these questions in depth in our next issue, July/August, but for now let's at least put the lie to the claims emanating from Visoko, the town 20 miles northwest of Sarajevo where the "Bosnian Pyramid of the Sun" is located.
Semir (Sam) Osmanagic, a Houston-based Bosnian-American contractor first saw the hills he believes to be pyramids last spring. He is now digging the largest of them and plans to continue the work through November, promoting it as the largest archaeological project underway in Europe. (His call for volunteers even slipped into the Archaeological Institute of America's online listing of excavation opportunities briefly before being yanked.) He claims it is one of five pyramids in the area (along with what he calls the pyramids of the Moon, Earth, and Dragon, plus another that hasn't been named in any account I've seen). These, he says, resemble the 1,800-year-old pyramids at Teotihuacan, just north of Mexico City. Osmanagic maintains that the largest is bigger than the pyramid of Khufu at Giza, and that the Bosnian pyramids date to 12,000 B.C.
Time and again the media reports say that Osmanagic has spent 15 years studying the pyramids of Latin America. What is not included in the reports is how Osmanagic interprets those structures and the cultures that built them. Had anyone bothered to investigate, they would have found rather bizarre notions in Osmanagic's book The World of the Maya (Gorgias Press, Euphrates imprint, 2005; $29.95). I had a look at the online edition of it (accessible on Osmanagic's "Alternative History" website).
For an interesting read, Bosnian Pyramid of the Sun
Egyptologists Launching Online Encyclopedia
UCLA
Frustrated with the poor quality of many Web sites dealing with ancient Egypt, a professor at the University of California has decided to create a massive online encyclopedia devoted solely to Egyptology.
Willemina Wendrich, a professor of Egyptian archeology, had watched in dismay as the best resource for her subject, a seven-volume encyclopedia in German got more and more out of date because of the prohibitive cost of updating it.
Meanwhile, her students at the University of California Los Angeles were doing research for papers on the Internet, and being led astray. "The Web has a lot of wonderful information and a lot of horrible information," she told Reuters in a telephone interview on Thursday.
The UCLA Encyclopedia of Egyptology, which will go online in 2008, will be peer-reviewed and will update constantly when there are new discoveries, said Wendrich.
UCLA
Hit Vulture
Discovery
NASA is trying to rid the Kennedy Space Center of vultures after the shuttle struck one of the large birds during lift-off last year on the first flight after the Columbia disaster.
The space center has set up what it calls a "road kill posse" to quickly clear as many carcasses as possible from the 6,000-acre site, in hopes of encouraging the vulture population to relocate by cutting off its food supply.
When shuttle Discovery lifted off the launch pad last July on the first flight since the 2003 Columbia accident, it hit a vulture during its climb to orbit.
Discovery did not suffer any damage that time, from the vulture or from the chunks of foam that fell off its fuel tank during launch. But NASA fears collisions with the large, carrion-eating birds could damage shuttle heat shields, leaving the spacecraft vulnerable to an accident like the one that killed Columbia's seven astronauts.
Discovery
In Memory
John Kenneth Galbraith
John Kenneth Galbraith, a Harvard economist and behind-the-scenes political adviser to Democratic presidents, died late Saturday of natural causes, his son said. He was 97.
His influence remained relevant long after his 1958 work "The Affluent Society" argued that the American economy produced individual wealth but did not adequately address public needs such as schools.
The Canadian-born economist and unabashed liberal served as adviser to Democratic presidents from Franklin D. Roosevelt to Bill Clinton and was John F. Kennedy's ambassador to India.
After graduating from the University of Toronto in 1931, Galbraith moved to the U.S. where he earned his Ph.D. in economics from the University of California. He taught at Harvard from 1934 to 1939 and at Princeton University from 1939 to 1942.
Galbraith returned to Harvard in 1948, remaining active on the faculty until his retirement in 1975.
Galbraith was married in 1937 to Catherine Atwater. They had three sons, Alan, Peter and James.
John Kenneth Galbraith
In Memory
William Durkin
William Durkin, the Marine who pulled Howard Hughes from the wreckage of a plane he had been test-piloting over Beverly Hills, has died. He would have turned 90 Sunday.
Durkin was on his way to meet a date on July 7, 1946, when he saw the fiery wreckage of Hughes' XF-11 reconnaissance plane and rescued the eccentric billionaire. Hughes was burned on 78 percent of his body and mangled from his forehead to below his knees. He hovered near death days later, but rallied to fly again.
The crash was the centerpiece of Martin Scorsese's acclaimed 2004 film "The Aviator," which starred Leonardo DiCaprio as Hughes.
William Lloyd Durkin was born on April 30, 1916, in Oil City, Pa. After serving in the Marines, Durkin worked in the food and beverage industry. He retired in Palm Springs.
He is survived by his wife, Diane, daughters Kimberly and Denise, and several grandchildren.
William Durkin
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