Bamboo - a year after planting

Bamboo, one year later Almost a year ago, Ben and I dug this 50 foot long trench, lined it with metal roof flashing, mixed in some compost, and planted 10 bamboo plants. A few weeks ago, we noticed new shoots finally poking up from the ground, and now they are growing like crazy. Another year or two and this will be a beautiful stand of bamboo.

Here's the view from the pool area today.

And here's what it looked like just after planting a year ago.

Republican Culture of Corruption - deeper and deeper

I try to read a lot: the newspaper, several periodicals, news web sites, blogs, emails. I follow links from the various sites and try to verify references and check sites like Snopes and FactCheck, or search the web for the US government sites that have the actual law referenced, or locate the original news story or actual film footage when possible. And there is a LOT of stuff that's going on and has gone on in the past several years that has me believing that the Bush administration is comprised of the most dishonest, unethical, misleading, hypocritical slime this nation has seen.

Often I'll skip blogging because I need to read something more uplifting. It becomes a matter of maintaining sanity. There's still plenty of good in the world, and we all need to expend the effort to realize that, and to be very conscious of the positive. But I'll let you do that as a homework assignment. Here are a few of the things that have me pissed off at the Bush Republicans and their Culture of Corruption of late:

• Diebold Whistleblower Facing Three Felony Counts
• Bush administration's NSA spying and refusal to comply with FISA (Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act). As I read it, the Attorney General has failed to meet the requirements to report to the court and to the Senate. Either George W Bush broke the law, or John Ashcroft and Alberto Gonzales broke the law. Quite possibly all three. So does Gonzales, to perform his duty, need to file charges against himself?
• Did 308,000 cancelled Ohio voter registrations put Bush back in the White House? OK, I don't really believe that. I believe that this is just one piece of the rampant electoral fraud - very well-executed - in the past 2 presidential elections. Read the post at The Brad Blog and download the PDF of the Affidavit. Read the report from Rep John Conyers (House Judiciary Committee) and read the blog about the hearings.
• Just how much did the Bush Administration know - or allow (or worse) regarding the attacks of 11 Sept 2001?
• Bush chose to wage an unnecessary war on Iraq, ignoring the CIA, resulting (so far) in close to 2,300 deaths and nearly 17,000 wounded military persons. And then there are the tens of thousands (or many times more) of Iraqis killed. We send our troops over there ill equipped, and render the National Guard units here at home ever more-depleted in their supplies (we're talking really fundamental supplies like rifles!)
• The Bush policies have plunged the USA into incredible debt while cutting taxes for the wealthiest Americans. He has ignored the true conservatives that had belonged to his party in the past, and has instead reduced taxes during a time of war. It would appear that the notion of a balanced budget and fiscal responsibility has become, as Alberto Gonzales referred to the Geneva Conventions in a 2002 memo to Bush, "quaint".

Bush is, without a doubt, the worst president ever. I love this country and I truly am afraid of how much longer this can go on.

Word for the day: Kakistocracy

As in:
Here in the USA, we live in a kakistocracy

(courtesy of my buddy JL, up in Washington state)

Voting irregularites from Florida machines

OK, for anyone who still doubts that there were serious problems (if not more nefarious issues) with the "election" of 2004, read this latest story about Sequoia voting machines in Palm Beach County, Florida. The election was on 02 Nov 2004. But somehow there were votes recorded as cast before the early voting had started, and even some data that was dated 2010!

Fortunately, we've been told that everything was fine. I feel better knowing that, because otherwise I would be concerned about the over 100,000 errors on the machine logs just in that one Florida county.

PROOF: Invasion of Iraq forgone conclusion

"What the hell!  What are these guys thinking about? . . . Can't you get these guys back in the box?" - Secretary of State Colin Powell to General Hugh Shelton after Rumsfeld had
brought up the possibility of attacking Iraq in a September 16, 2001
National Security Council meeting.

This and several other Quotes on Bush's Policies are posted on Thad Anderson's site (with references). So what's this have to do with "proof"?

Well, Anderson posted last March about a CBS story of 2002 talking about Donald Rumsfeld meeting with staffers the afternoon of Sept 11 2001 and trying to dredge up some way to use the murders and devastation of that day to justify invading Iraq. But Anderson didn't stop there. In July 2005, he filed a Freedom of Information Act request with the Department of Defense to get copies of the handwritten notes of Stephen Cambone - a staffer who was in the meeting with Rumsfeld. And 2 weeks ago Thad Anderson received the material from the DoD. Anderson has posted PDFs of the notes, and has also made these available on Flickr.

The fact is that the USA invasion of Iraq was decided ...I don't know when. But it was before 11 September 2001. It was a war waiting for a reason ...a reason that has been - and is still - lacking.