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Polls Show Many Americans are Simply Dumber Than Bush  

Blind Ignorance

By Paul Craig Roberts (previously - Assistant Secretary of the Treasury)

Two recent polls, a Los Angeles Times/ Bloomberg poll and a New York Times/CBS News poll, indicate why Bush is getting away with impeachable offenses. Half of the US population is incapable of acquiring, processing and understanding information.

Much of the problem is the media itself, which serves as a dis- information agency for the Bush admin. Fox "News" and right-wing talk radio are the worst, but with propagandistic outlets setting the standard for truth and patriotism, all of the media is affected to some degree.  

Despite the media's failure, about half the population has managed to discern that the US invasion of Iraq has not made them safer and that the Bush admin's assault on civil liberties is not a necessary component of the war on terror. The problem, thus, lies with the absence of due diligence on the part of the other half of the population.

Consider the New York Times/CBS poll. Sixty-four percent of the respondents have concerns about losing civil liberties as a result of anti-terrorism measures put in place by President Bush. Yet, 53 percent approve of spying without obtaining court warrants "in order to reduce the threat of terrorism."

Why does any American think that spying without a warrant has any more effect in reducing the threat of terrorism than spying with a warrant? The Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, which Bush is disobeying, requires the executive to obtain from a secret panel of federal judges a warrant for spying on Americans. The purpose of the law is to prevent a president from spying for partisan political reasons. The law permits the president to spy first (for 72 hours) and then come to the court for permission. As the court meets in secret, spying without a warrant is no more effective in reducing the threat of terrorism than spying with a warrant.

Instead of explaining this basic truth, the media has played along with the Bush administration and formulated the question as a trade-off between civil liberties and protection from terrorists. This formulation is false and nonsensical. Why does the media enable the Bush admin. to escape accountability for illegal behavior by putting false and misleading choices before the people?

The LA Times/ Bloomberg poll has equally striking anomalies. Only 43 percent said they approved of Bush's performance as president. But a majority believe Bush's policies have made the US more secure.

It is extraordinary that anyone would think Americans are safer as a result of Bush invading two Muslim countries and constantly threatening two more with military attack. The invasions and threats have caused a dramatic swing in Muslim sentiment away from the US . Prior to Bush's invasion of Iraq , a large majority of Muslims had a favorable opinion of America . Now only about 5 percent do.

A number of US commanders in Iraq and many Middle East experts have told the American public that the three year-old war in Iraq is serving both to recruit and to train terrorists for al Qaeda, which has grown many times its former size. Moreover, the US military has concluded that al Qaeda has succeeded in having its members elected to the new Iraqi government.

We have seen similar developments both in Egypt and in Pakistan . In the recent Egyptian elections, the radical Muslim Brotherhood, despite being suppressed by the Egyptian government, won a large number of seats. In Pakistan elements friendly or neutral toward al Qaeda control about half of the government. In Iraq , Bush's invasion has replaced secular Sunnis with Islamist Shia allied with Iran .
And now with the triumph of Hamas in the Palestinian election, we see the total failure of Bush's Middle Eastern policy. Bush has succeeded in displacing secular moderates from Middle Eastern governments and replacing them with Islamic extremists. It boggles the mind that this disastrous result makes Americans feel safer!  What does it say for democracy that half of the American population is unable to draw a rational conclusion from unambiguous facts?
Americans share this disability with the Bush administration. 

According to news reports, the Bush administration is stunned by the election victory of the radical Islamist Hamas Party, which swept the US-financed Fatah Party from office. Why is the Bush administration astonished?


The Bush admin. is astonished because it stupidly believes that hundreds of millions of Muslims should be grateful that the US has interfered in their internal affairs for 60 years, setting up colonies and puppet rulers to suppress their aspirations and to achieve, instead, purposes of the US government.Americans need desperately to understand that 95 percent of all Muslim terrorists in the world were created in the past three years by Bush's invasion of Iraq.

Americans need desperately to comprehend that if Bush attacks Iran and Syria , as he intends, terrorism will explode, and American civil liberties will disappear into a thirty year war that will bankrupt the United States. The total lack of rationality and competence in the White House and the inability of half of the US population to acquire and understand information are far larger threats to Americans than terrorism.  America has become a rogue nation, flying blind, guided only by ignorance and hubris. A terrible catastrophe awaits. © P.C.Roberts


Paul Craig Roberts was Assistant Secretary of the Treasury in the Reagan administration. He was Associate Editor of the Wall Street Journal editorial page and Contributing Editor of National Review. He is coauthor of The Tyranny of Good Intentions.He can be reached by email








































 

Venice Outlaw RV Reporting Request and More
(This email is in circulation among Venice residents who want
to criminalize poor people who are living in their vehicles. Editor)

Hello,  Claudia Martin is our
Venice area LA City Neighborhood Prosecutor. She is working with our LAPD Senior Lead Officers, Heidi Llanas, Theresa Skinner, and Robin Richard to try to help Venice clean up our continuing problem of illegal RVs/campers/vans/vehicles parked on our city streets and used as living quarters. She is asking us to help her. We need to witness these acts and document them and then report them to her as she is creating a running log of these acts for use as evidence as cases come up when arrests are made.

If you wish to help in this endeavor, the first thing to keep in mind is PLEASE BE SAFE. DO NOT PUT YOURSELF IN DANGER. We are witnesses not enforcement people. Ms Martin is asking concerned citizens to record and email her as much of the following information you can concerning people lodging in their RVs and other vehicles:

1) license plate number.  2) vehicle description.  3) street address location.  4) description of person(s) living in vehicle.  5) detailed information of activities.  6) time of activities.  7) if the vehicle has moved, does it have a schedule?  8) how long has it been parked in this location?  9) as much other pertinent information as possible.  A couple more things: 

1) Ms Martin is asking us to become witnesses. That means putting our names on our reports and being willing to testify if needed. You can still do anonymous reports to add to the data base. However actual witnesses carry much more weight with all city agencies involved.  2) keep copies for your own records.

3) reports from multiple sources are great, especially if they track the movements of the vehicles.   Thank you, 

L.A. City Council considers revising Ocean Front Walk vending ordinance by Vince Echavaria 
The Los Angeles City Council is considering repealing specific sections of a city ordinance that is being challenged in federal court that regulates vending and the time, place and manner of public expression activities on Ocean Front Walk in Venice. The City Council voted 14-0 Tuesday, July 3rd, to approve a motion presented by City Councilman Bill Rosendahl requesting the city attorney to prepare an ordinance repealing certain portions of Los Angeles Municipal Code section 42.15, also known as the Venice Boardwalk Vending Law.  The specific sections that the council is considering repealing prohibit the vending of items that have more than nominal utility apart from their communication and relate to the regulation of noise on the Boardwalk.  As part of the motion, the council requested that the city attorney's office work with Rosendahl's 11th District office, the city Department of Recreation and Parks and the Los Angeles Police Department to create new and revised sections of the vending law.  The new ordinance should create additional or enhanced zones for performers, provide additional and more stringent restrictions on commercial vending and restore restrictions on noise in a "constitutionally compliant" manner, according to the council motion.

Mike Bonin, chief of staff for Rosendahl, said council representatives are still discussing exactly how the new ordinance will be different.  "We're still engaged in the settlement
talks," Bonin said.  Under the current ordinance, which went into effect on the Boardwalk in March last year, vending activity — defined as selling, offering for sale, soliciting offers to purchase or bartering — on the west side of the Boardwalk is prohibited. The provisions do not apply to certain exemptions, such as performance artists, people vending newspapers and items created by the vendor, or any other item that is "inherently communicative and has nominal utility" apart from its communication.  According to the ordinance, examples of items that have "more than nominal utility" and may not be sold include housewares, appliances, articles of clothing, lotions and jewelry.

Another provision of the law is that noise generated on the Boardwalk must be limited to a distance of 50 feet from the source.  Persons engaging in the exempted activities must hold a valid public expression permit issued by the city Department of Recreation and Parks, with spaces allocated in a lottery system. Several months after the ordinance went into effect, two lawsuits were filed challenging the constitutionality of the law. n a lawsuit filed in federal court by attorney Carol Sobel, the plaintiffs, including Boardwalk activists, alleged that the ordinance violates both the First and 14th Amendments of the U.S. Constitution. The plaintiffs specifically challenged the sections dealing with the definition of nominal utility and the 50-foot noise restriction.  In a separate action, plaintiffs Michael Hunt and Matthew Dowd, both Boardwalk vendors, filed a preliminary injunction, also challenging the constitutionality of the ordinance.  Hunt, who sells shea butter, a product from West Africa, claimed that he should be permitted to vend because the product is "inextricably intertwined" with a political or religious message. Dowd, who sells incense, also claimed that his product has religious significance. Federal court Judge Dean Pregerson has not made an official ruling regarding the lawsuits but has indicated to city officials that the ordinance sections dealing with nominal utility and noise restrictions are questionable, Bonin said. "We're very happy to have the judge's assistance in the settlement process," Bonin said.  Based on the judge's input regarding the two sections and in an effort to "better position the city in the litigation," the two ordinance provisions should be repealed, according to the City Council motion.  The city wants to ensure that the ordinance is "enforceable," as well as that it protects free expression, restricts commercial activity and protects neighbors from excessive noise, the motion states.

Linda Lucks, chair of the Venice Neighborhood Council Ocean Front Walk Committee, said the City Council was taking a "proactive move" in considering to repeal parts of the ordinance. "I'm looking forward to some final resolution on this," Lucks said. Plaintiffs Hunt and Dowd, who have expressed their frustration with the vending law at numerous City Council meetings, said they were pleased to see that the council agrees that changes should be made, particularly regarding nominal utility.  "It's long overdue," Hunt said of the council vote July 3rd.  At Argonaut press time, Sobel, who filed the lawsuit in federal court, had not returned phone calls seeking comment. When Sobel's lawsuit was filed last year, city attorneys said the ordinance specifically defines what items are allowed and not allowed to be vended on the Boardwalk.  City attorney spokesman Jonathan Diamond said the city attorney's office "felt strongly" about how the ordinance was crafted.  But now that the City Council has requested an ordinance repealing portions of Municipal Code section 42.15, city attorneys will work on preparing a new and revised version of the law, Diamond said.  ©  Argonaut Newspaper

George Bush’s New Executive Order July 17, 2007 Executive Order: Blocking Property of Certain Persons Who Threaten Stabilization Efforts in Iraq
By the authority vested in me as President, by the Constitution and the laws of the United States of America, including the International Emergency Economic Powers Act, as amended (50 U.S.C. 1701 et seq.) (IEEPA), the National Emergencies Act (50 U.S.C. 1601 et seq.)(NEA), and section 301 of title 3, United States Code, I, GEORGE W. BUSH, President of the United States of America, find that, due to the unusual and extraordinary threat to the national security and foreign policy of the United States posed by acts of violence threatening the peace and stability of Iraq and undermining efforts to promote economic reconstruction and political reform in Iraq and to provide humanitarian assistance to the Iraqi people, it is in the interests of the United States to take additional steps with respect to the national emergency declared in Executive Order 13303 of May 22, 2003, and expanded in Executive Order 13315 of August 28, 2003, and relied upon for additional steps taken in Executive Order 13350 of July 29, 2004, and Executive Order 13364 of November 29, 2004. I hereby order:

Section 1. (a) Except to the extent provided in section 203(b)(1), (3), and (4) of IEEPA (50 U.S.C. 1702(b)(1), (3), and (4)), or in regulations, orders, directives, or licenses that may be issued pursuant to this order, and notwithstanding any contract entered into or any license or permit granted prior to the date of this order, all property and interests in property of the following persons, that are in the United States, that hereafter come within the United States, or that are or hereafter come within the possession or control of United States persons, are blocked and may not be transferred, paid, exported, withdrawn, or otherwise dealt in: any person determined by the Secretary of the Treasury, in consultation with the Secretary of State and the Secretary of Defense,  (i) to have committed, or to pose a significant risk of committing, an act or acts of violence that have the purpose or effect of:  

(A) threatening the peace or stability of Iraq or the Government of Iraq; or (B) undermining efforts to promote economic reconstruction and political reform in Iraq or to provide humanitarian assistance to the Iraqi people;  (ii) to have materially assisted, sponsored, or provided financial, material, logistical, or technical support for, or goods or services in support of, such an act or acts of violence or any person whose property and interests in property are blocked pursuant to this order; or (iii) to be owned or controlled by, or to have acted or purported to act for or on behalf of, directly or indirectly, any person whose property and interests in property are blocked pursuant to this order.  (b) The prohibitions in subsection (a) of this section include, but are not limited to, (i) the making of any contribution or provision of funds, goods, or services by, to, or for the benefit of any person whose property and interests in property are blocked pursuant to this order, and (ii) the receipt of any contribution or provision of funds, goods, or services from any such person.

Sec. 2. (a) Any transaction by a United States person or within the United States that evades or avoids, has the purpose of evading or avoiding, or attempts to violate any of the prohibitions set forth in this order is prohibited.  (b) Any conspiracy formed to violate any of the prohibitions set forth in this order is prohibited.

Sec. 3. For purposes of this order:  (a) the term "person" means an individual or entity; (b) the term "entity" means a partnership, association, trust, joint venture, corporation, group, subgroup, or other organization; and (c) the term "United States person" means any United States citizen, permanent resident alien, entity organized under the laws of the United States or any jurisdiction within the United States (including foreign branches), or any person in the United States.

Sec. 4. I hereby determine that the making of donations of the type specified in section 203(b)(2) of IEEPA (50 U.S.C. 1702(b)(2)) by, to, or for the benefit of, any person whose property and interests in property are blocked pursuant to this order would seriously impair my ability to deal with the national emergency declared in Executive Order 13303 and expanded in Executive Order 13315, and I hereby prohibit such donations as provided by section 1 of this order.

Sec. 5. For those persons whose property and interests in property are blocked pursuant to this order who might have a constitutional presence in the United States , I find that, because of the ability to transfer funds or other assets instantaneously, prior notice to such persons of measures to be taken pursuant to this order would render these measures ineffectual. I therefore determine that for these measures to be effective in addressing the national emergency declared in Executive Order 13303 and expanded in Executive Order 13315, there need be no prior notice of a listing or determination made pursuant to section 1(a) of this order.

Sec. 6. The Secretary of the Treasury, in consultation with the Secretary of State and the Secretary of Defense, is hereby authorized to take such actions, including the promulgation of rules and regulations, and to employ all powers granted to the President by IEEPA as may be necessary to carry out the purposes of this order. The Secretary of the Treasury may re-delegate any of these functions to other officers and agencies of the United States Government, consistent with applicable law. All agencies of the United States Government are hereby directed to take all appropriate measures within their authority to carry out the provisions of this order and, where appropriate, to advise the Secretary of the Treasury in a timely manner of the measures taken.

Sec. 7. Nothing in this order is intended to affect the continued effectiveness of any rules, regulations, orders, licenses, or other forms of administrative action issued, taken, or continued in effect heretofore or hereafter under 31 C.F.R. chapter V, except as expressly terminated, modified, or suspended by or pursuant to this order.

Sec. 8. This order is not intended to, and does not, create any right, benefit, or privilege, substantive or procedural, enforceable at law or in equity by any party against the United States, its departments, agencies, instrumentalities, or entities, its officers or employees, or any other person.  ©  GEORGE W. BUSH,  THE WHITE HOUSE

Bush To Veto Ban On Mercury In Vaccines
Clear links to neurological disorders ignored, removed from animal vaccines but fine for babies Infowars.net | July 20, 2007  Steve Watson
President Bush is to veto a bill that would ban mercury in flu vaccines for children despite its known links to autism and other neurological disorders and despite the fact that he pledged in 2004 to support such a move when campaigning for re-election. The White House stated on Tuesday that President Bush would veto the FY 2008 HHS-Labor-Education Appropriations Bill because of the cost and "objectionable provisions" such as a measure to ban the use of childhood flu vaccines that contain thimerosal, a mercury-based preservative, a press release from Autism advocacy group Safe Minds on the PRNewswire-USNewswire states.  Bush is calling for an amendment that would remove the children's safety provision from the bill.  

Safe Minds warns:  "Under the current administration, mercury has been and will continue to be knowingly injected into the youngest of American citizens. The controversial mercury-containing preservative thimerosal has been linked by thousands of parents as being the cause of their children's mercury poisoning and autism." 

The flu vaccine, which continues to be manufactured with mercury, is recommended for all pregnant women, infants and children despite the fact that the Institute of Medicine in 2001 recommended against the policy of  exposing these same sensitive groups to thimerosal containing vaccines.  Mercury is the second most toxic metal known to man behind Uranium. Thimerosal is used in vaccines not because it is good for you, but purely because it prevents vaccine contamination. Yet some have questioned why thimerosal is even considered for vaccines because there are obviously safer alternatives to preventing contamination. Questions also remain about how pharmaceutical companies conduct vaccine research and how the government regulates those companies. Despite these facts, sickening reports such as the one below continue to make out that injecting the second most poisonous substance in the world into babies is actually GOOD for their health: 

During Bush's reelection campaign in 2004 he stated:
"I support the removal of Thimerosal from vaccines on the childhood national vaccine schedule. During a second term as President, I will continue to support increased funding to support a wide variety of research initiatives aimed at seeking definitive causes and/or triggers of autism. It is important to note that while there are many possible theories about causes or triggers of autism, no one material has been definitely included or excluded."   Despite this he now plans to veto a bill that would remove Thimerosal because of "costs". What costs would these be? Do the costs of big pharmaceutical companies and fat government kickbacks outweigh the costs of the healthy brains of every child in America? Seemingly so. 

Furthermore, though Bush stated that the evidence for links between mercury laden vaccines and autism are not concrete, there are scores of studies and testimony from credible figures asserting the exact opposite.  Starting in the early nineties, government regulators dramatically increased the amount of Thimerosal exposure to babies by adding two new vaccines to the roster of mandatory immunizations children must have before enrolling in school. The combination of the Hepatitis B vaccine and the HiB vaccine more than doubled the amount of mercury children.  Mercury expert Dr. Boyd Haley of the University of Kentucky has testified before Congress and the Pentagon as well as the FDA as one of the nation's leading experts on Thimerosal and mercury poisoning, revealing that his research leads him to believe that some children are genetically predisposed to storing mercury in their brains, leading to neurological disorders, including autism. 

The combination of the Hepatitis B vaccine and the HiB vaccine more than doubled the amount of mercury children in the 90s. "If you take a ten-pound baby in, and it gets four shots on that one day, which is a common practice - that's equivalent to giving a 100-pound person forty shots in one day," said Haley.  Haley has also proposed that Thimerosal in infant vaccines was also the most likely toxic agent involved in Gulf War syndrome and autistic spectrum disorders. Think about this, they are injecting into babies something that is breaking down the bodies of full grown combat veterans.
 
While the FDA questioned thimerosal's safety in the 80s, noting that it was "not safe for 'over-the-counter' topical use because of its potential for cell damage", and while it was removed from animal vaccines for the same reason, the government regulatory committees did nothing to question its use in childhood vaccines.  It's too dangerous for cats and dogs but the government is happy for our babies to be pumped full of the stuff on a regular basis.  Dr Haley has also pointed out that it is also well known by any good biochemist that thimerosal and aluminum react dangerously when combined together. Given that Aluminum is a compound added to many vaccines as a catalyst you would think the government would have heeded this warning, yet it has still done nothing. 

Despite the continued reports doubting the link between Thimerosal and autism, more studies have continued to verify the link. As reported in the Capitol Times recently:  A study done at the University of Washington in 2006 showed that baby primates exposed to injected thimerosal (50 percent mercury), at a rate equal to the 1990s childhood vaccine schedule, retained twice as much inorganic mercury in their brains as primates exposed to equal amounts of ingested methylmercury. We know from autometallographic determination that inorganic mercury present in the brain, following the dealkylation of organic mercury, is the toxic agent responsible for changes in the microglial population and leads to neuroinflammation. 

In other words thimerosal, inorganic mercury, leads to neuroinflammatory disease which is proven to be the underlying medical condition of autism. Furthermore In a study done at the University of Arkansas last year, autistic children were found to have significantly lower levels of the antioxidant glutathione. Glutathione is the major antioxidant needed for the elimination of mercury at the cellular level.  Moreover, Professor Philippe Grandjean, from Harvard University and the University of Southern Denmark, considered the foremost scientific authority on the development of children's brains, has recently claimed that the average human IQ is plummeting primarily due to IQ points in the population being chemically destroyed via low level mercury exposure in children.  The links between the ingestion of mercury and neurological breakdown are clear and proven. Professors all over the world are telling us outright that it is literally destroying people's brains. Even if you choose to believe, in the face of all the evidence, that the links are still somewhat questionable, the solution is still obvious. GET IT OUT OF THE VACCINES NOW. 

Safe Minds also point out that according to the EPA, one in every six women of childbearing age already has blood levels of mercury high enough to cause neurological damage to their unborn children due to environmental exposures alone. "Injecting even more mercury into the bodies of pregnant women, infants and children when it is not a necessary component of vaccines is just bad medicine," said Lyn Redwood, president of Safe Minds and parent of a mercury-injured child. "It defies logic that a flu vaccine must be disposed of as a hazardous waste if it is not used, but somehow injecting the same mercury-containing vaccine into a baby is safe." 

Yes it defies logic to someone who believes in the unabated progression of the entirety of the human race, however, to an elite devoid of all morality and interested only in the endgame pursuit of their own biological, spiritual and financial monopoly over the whole planet, it makes perfect sense. ©  infowars.net



Web spiritofvenice.com
The price of loving Venice By Carla Hall
A real estate broker who is an integral part of the colorful beach town embraces its diversity, even though it nearly cost him his life.  The confrontation took place just inside the front entrance of the dream house in Venice that Jack Hoffmann had been painstakingly renovating for three years.

A homeless man, strong from bodybuilding, whipped out a knife and thrust it twice into Hoffmann's chest. Then he sliced across Hoffmann's throat. When Hoffmann raised his arm defensively, the man cut across it as well. Then he speared Hoffmann's back with the knife, nicking his liver.  Hoffmann wondered: Is this it? And then: I haven't even finished the house. He chuckled softly at the memory. "I thought, yeah, I'm not ready to go."  Hoffmann is the owner of the Venice Properties real estate brokerage, a purveyor of cutting-edge lofts, houses and studio and commercial spaces that sell for millions. And he is part of the cast of characters that has made Venice the colorful mix he has loved so much — and still loves, despite his violent encounter. Hoffmann represented architect Frank Gehry when he bought Venice land for his own dream house; he counts artists among his friends and collects their pieces for his home; and he presided over the Venice Action Committee in the early 1990s when the group of local business owners and residents wanted to beautify Venice and lobby for better services from the city of Los Angeles.


Venice - 1 Bedroom 1.5 Bath Condo For Sale  $1,199,000
"It's like he's the mayor of Venice or something," his friend artist Chuck Arnoldi said.  But it's a town with rough edges where diversity among residents means artists and entrepreneurs rub elbows with hard-toiling renters, gang members and troubled, sometimes drug-addled, street people.  Hoffmann's attack rattled friends and neighbors accustomed to convenient, even self-conscious, relationships with the homeless who frequent the streets and alleys of Venice, often acting as informal security for homes and businesses. The incident was a raw reminder that Venice's gritty street chic sometimes gives way to violent crime.  More
© L.A. Times

Local Builder Makes Case Against Granting Any Height Variances to Ray Hotel Developers by Marta Evry, Venice Forum
Dennis Hathaway, a local builder, makes a case against granting any height variances to the Ray Hotel (planned for the corner of Abbot Kinney and Main). The city planning department has recommended allowing the proposed Ray Hotel in Venice to be built to a height of 45 ft., (40 ft. for the main building, 45 ft. for a roof deck with pool and patio) which is 50 per cent higher than the 30 ft. limit set by the Venice Specific Plan. The department’s report says that this exception to regulations is justified under legal criteria for granting variances because the project site presents difficulties that developers of similar sites in the area would not encounter. According to the report, the major difficulties are:

1. That the developer will preserve and incorporate into the hotel lobby part of an existing warehouse on the site that was used by Charles and Ray Eames as an office and studio for a number of years. This (according to the developer) entails technical difficulties that require extra height.

2. That someone building a purely commercial project on the site would have an easier time, because a hotel requires deeper lot line setbacks and therefore the added height is justified in order to achieve a desired density.

3. That the proposed project is “green,” proposing energy and water conservation, recycling, and preservation of significant open space.

Unfortunately, none of these justifications holds water. Firstly, the so-called Eames studio as it now exists is 654 sq. ft. and 12 ft. high, and the developer is proposing to only preserve 1/3 of that building’s length. So it’s obvious that it will be a very small part of the overall hotel complex, and therefore the claim that its preservation requires the hotel to pushed upward the equivalent of another story is hardly credible.

Secondly, the setbacks for a hotel building are clearly more restrictive than those for a purely commercial building, but these regulations don’t just apply to the Ray Hotel property, they apply to any property on which a developer wants to build a hotel. City ordinances say that an exception to Specific Plan, such as added height above the limit, can be granted only if conditions unique to the subject property make it impractical or unduly difficult to comply with regulations. There is no such unique condition on this property. In fact, to adopt the planner’s logic is to reach the conclusion that a developer wishing to building a hotel on any commercially zoned property in Venice is entitled to an exception from Specific Plan regulations. This is completely contrary to the letter and spirit of the regulations, and in fact absurd.

Thirdly, none of the justifications related to the “greenness” of the project have any legal standing as to the granting of relief from height limits and other regulations of the Specific plan. Furthermore, one might ask why developers should be given major concessions for doing something that is socially responsible. Given the realities of our environment, it might be reasonable to wonder why all developers shouldn’t be voluntarily doing these things on all projects, or even why they aren’t required to as a matter of law without any quid pro quo. ©  Marta Evry

Our Awful Dilemma by W. George E. K. French

Now, today, our Country faces the most horrifying enemies we have ever encountered, enemies who would destroy our land from within.  In the past there have been threats to our future, but never anything to rival this.  I want you to forget, for the moment, what Bush and his gang have done so far.  What is done is done, and we cannot change it.  Therefore we must look to the future, and what we CAN do to save our nation. We must now use logic, and what little brains we have left to resolve the situation. For the past six years, Bush has had the CIA and other agencies crawling through the private lives of every member of Congress.  Politics being the dirty business that it is, you may rest assured that every single member of Congress has had some sort of indiscretion.  Now we have Bushes blackmailing bastards looking into EVERYTHING.  Then
comes Carl Rove, probably the top spin-master of all time.  This man could make a Sunday school picnic look like an Indian Massacre.  You wonder just why Bush runs around with that insufferable smirk all of the time, looking like the cat that swallowed the canary, and ignoring not only all of our laws, but also all Congressional subpoenas and requests?  It’s because he has enough dirt on every member of Congress to totally destroy them. True, some of it might be just the Spin-master, Rove, at work, but a lot of it is not. There is simply no other reason for the Congressional boys and girls to fear this creep.  They would never allow these things to continue if they could put a stop to it without ending their own careers at the same time. This situation is NOT
going to change.  Every member of the Senate or the House who might hurt this thieving cabal is living in fear, every day.  Without destroying themselves, they cannot move against Bush and Co.   This is the only logical conclusion that we may draw from the facts.  Knowing that the Congress can do nothing to remedy this matter, and that it will simply get worse and worse as time goes by, what options do we have left?

The Bush bandits are destroying our military, digging us so deep in debt that our grandchildren will be trying to dig us out fifty or a hundred years from now.  Bush is making a mockery of our entire legal system, and is destroying our Constitution as well. He has pocket billions, personally, and so have his closest supporters. His corporate cronies have profited to the tune of trillions, at our expense.  Since our Congress people do not dare to attempt to stop him, he will now try to clinch his dictatorship by declaring a catastrophic situation, and taking complete control of all government functions.  This is NOT an idle threat.  He deliberately put forth an attachment that will allow him to take over.  He plans to do exactly this, and he will defy any and all attempts to stop him.  It is now time for the people of this country to rise up and put this man and his bandits where they can no longer imperil or endanger our country or ANY of our people.  To wait for this action is to give him all of the advantages.  We cannot wait.  If we do not stop him now, we will NOT be able to stop him later. This country will become a dictatorship.  There will be no way to get to any of the Bush Bandits.  Once they are in control, we, our children, and their children will be slaves in every sense of the word.  There is a very simple way to make sure that this happens.  Do nothing!  That’s right, just do nothing.  If we do not organize to stop them now, it will be too late.  Since the day when this man stole the presidency from those who fairly won it, and from the American people, he has waged war against us all. What do you think Bush would do if Congress DID issue articles impeachment against him?  ©  W. George E.K. French  (Well, we should just try it anyway, and SEE what happens!  Editor.)

Dick Cheney has admitted that he was "wrong" when he said two years ago that the Iraqi insurgency was in "its last throes". The trouble is that Dick Cheney has been "wrong" about almost all his statements concerning Iraq. When does he stop being considered "wrong" and start being considered a liar?


"My estimate at the time - and it was wrong, it turned out to be incorrect - was the fact that we were in the midst of holding three elections in Iraq, elected an interim government, then ratifying a constitution, then electing a permanent government, that they had had significant success, we'd rounded up Saddam Hussein. Cheney said in an interview on CNN's "Larry King Live"

"I thought there were a series of these milestones that would in fact undermine the insurgency and make it less than it was at that point. That clearly didn't happen. I think the insurgency turned out to be more robust."  Shortly after Cheney's original remarks in 2005, the violence in Iraq sharply increased and he received criticism to which he responded:

"If you look at what the dictionary says about throes, it can still be a violent period, the throes of a revolution," he said. "The point would be that the conflict will be intense, but it's intense because the terrorists understand that if we're successful at accomplishing our objective -- standing up a democracy in Iraq -- that that's a huge defeat for them."  What else has Dick Cheney been "wrong" about concerning the war in Iraq?   ©   Infowars.net

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