Posts Made By: Tom Rodstrom

It appears that North Korea is about to give up it's nuclear weapons program in return for oil and aid. This is a result of an international diplomatic effort, but this administration was a key part of the process and deserves plenty of credit.

Did I say that? 8O

I just picked up an 8" F8 Optical Craftsman. It looks like a very well made scope. The mount is stable and smooth. The 1.4" secondary is on a spider made from very thin banding. The coating on the primary is 40" gone, it is missing the finder scope, and the metal ring is missing on one end of the tube, but other than that is seems to be in very good condition.

I think that this will be a great planetary scope and hope to get the recoating done in a hurry since Mars is here.

Does anyone know the history of this manufacturer? Did they make their own mirrors? Where is a good place to get the mirrors recoated?

Ray & everyone else, if you use quotes on the Subject line everything after the first quotation mark will be dropped in the reply.

I also have no idea what you are talking about with this message.

Jim Babcock said:

I have read through the posts and the only thing I have to add is Bennett should have known from history that libs take cons words out of context and their friends in the media will repeat them as if they are fact. As one good example, the statement by Gingrich implying that cons wanted SS to wither in the vine.

Come on, Jim, you know as well as I do that both sides like to use that trick.

It really bothers me how much lobbyists are involved in government. They write bills for congress and at least one went on to an important position in government. I really don't care whether this one in convicted of a crime or not, but I just don't think that lobbyists should be allowed to work directly for the government. Thir job is to influence government for special interests and I think that there is NO WAY for them to avoid conflicts of interest.

Former Bush Official Indicted in Probe
By MICHAEL J. SNIFFEN, Associated Press Writer

The Bush administration's former chief procurement official was indicted Wednesday by a federal grand jury on charges of making false statements and obstructing investigations into high-powered Republican lobbyist Jack Abramoff.

Safavian, a former lobbying associate of Abramoff, is the first person beyond Abramoff himself to face charges arising out of the probe of the lobbyist, who is a major Republican fundraiser with close ties to GOP leaders in Congress.

The indictment covers May 16, 2002, until January 2004, when Safavian was chief of staff at the General Services Administration, the government housekeeping agency. From November 2004 until late last month when he resigned three days before his arrest, he was the government's top procurement officer, in the Office of Management and Budget.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/lobbyist_probe;_ylt=Asdh4xDlBvpfpUO2_8IKnJYDW7oF;_ylu=X3oDMTBiMW04NW9mBHNlYwMlJVRPUCUl

If you knowingly use information from a suspected liar and call it the truth are you a liar?

That is the question I have about this administration. Pushing the bogus claim that Iraq had bought uranium from Niger is one example, claiming aluminum rocket casings were for centrifuges is another. Here is yet another case of the administration claiming a known or suspected lie was the truth:

Source of Iraq-Qaeda link suspected liar: report

A top al Qaeda operative in U.S. custody was identified as a probable liar months before the Bush administration began using his claims as the basis of its contention that Iraq trained al Qaeda members to use biological and chemical weapons, The New York Times reported in Sunday editions.

Here is another suspected liar used by this administration to push the Iraq war. I believe that when all the truth comes out, there will be a very good criminal case against this administration for lying to Congress. I don't think that Bush knowingly lied, I believe that he was lied to by Cheney and his operatives. I think that it will eventually become clear that Cheney deserves to spend a lot of time in a federal prison.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20051106/ts_nm/security_qaeda_report_dc;_ylt=AoUHBUqGukO_8pVJOSgTJdkEtbAF;_ylu=X3oDMTBiMW04NW9mBHNlYwMlJVRPUCUl

It looks like Reuters picked up the story with more information:

US used white phosphorus on Iraqi civilians-report

ROME (Reuters) - U.S. forces in Iraq have used incendiary white phosphorus against civilians and a firebomb similar to napalm against military targets, Italian state-run broadcaster RAI reported on Tuesday.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/iraq_usa_weapons_dc;_ylt=AtIMXrN7rw1PGH0lyRBo62Vhr7sF;_ylu=X3oDMTBiMW04NW9mBHNlYwMlJVRPUCUl

The short answer is that Ray never asked a moderator to have the name or the post removed.

The long answer is on it's way.

Here's the story folks (my side).

1. Ray posted a thread which IMO was a troll in that the title "The sky's the limit" and the body of the post gave no hint what the link was about.

2. I very politely asked him to edit his post to make the subject more clear.

3. Ray then sends a very nasty private message to Rick McCallum claiming that Rick complained to me.

4. Rick sends me a message with the text of Ray's message for my opinion.

5. Private Astromart messages are simply messages that do not post on the forum. Much like e-mail, the recipient is free to pass the message to anyone he pleases.

6. Here is the text of the message Ray sent to Rick. No one can reasonably expect a message like this not to be discussed between moderators:

Subject: Get this thru yer skull

I do not, repeat, do not read what you say in ANY post.

I assume you complained and Tom sent me a post on that. I changed my post header.

Wah wah!

7. I responded with this message which was stronger than I really intended, but I was very unhappy about his message to Rick.

Ray,

This crap it totally INTOLERABLE. If you question my motives, contact me. Do not send an abusive notice to Rick, just because you disagree. This will eventually get you room next to Holzer at some vacation site.

I did not contact Rick before I asked you to edit your post. I politely asked you to clearly state your subject when you post a link. I was polite and did not say the obvious, your post was a troll. The whole article is a bit shaky given the source and that it has not hit the mainstream press in the year since the attack on Fallujah. Furthermore, if I am not mistaken, the Independent which published the story is known for sensationalism.

You should know by now that I am a liberal and agree with many of your premises including corruption of the press so I am not out to get you. I am only asking you to conform to the standards expected from everyone, left and right.

Clear Skies
Tom

8. Ray then started complaining about the post with his name on it saying "Rick responds and yet as a moderator he does not remove the thread."

http://www.astromart.com/forums/viewpost.asp?forum_post_id=380427&poll_id=&news_id=&page=

9. I said that I didn't delete it either and "It's an informal agreement and we're not perfect." I also pointed out that it was Rick Margolies not Rick McCallum the moderator who responded and that the other moderators did not delete it either. I also said "I didn't delete the post because of Margolies' comment. It served as a reminder and a lesson."

10. Ray then said that it should have been deleted and that he thought there was a double standard and said that I couldn't speak for the other moderators.

11. I told him that I didn't speak for the other moderators, I was just explained my thoughts on the subject. I told him that I hadn't seen a complaint about the post and did not think that the other moderators had received any complaint from him either.

12. Ray responded: I didn't complain on 10/15 because I wanted to see if anyone EVER would remove it. Thanks Tom for showing me that you fit right in with the rest of them. I have been slighted and you have approved it.

At least I know where you stand!

13. I told him that was childish and that if he wanted something done, he needed to speak up like any normal adult. I also said that I was a liberal and had nothing against him.

14. Ray posted his Goodbye post.

I now recall exactly what happened with the "Hey Ray" post. I read it and I read Ricks response about names not being used in headers. I decided to wait to allow Patrick some time to edit the header. Nobody else responded to the post and I forgot. For that I guess I owe Ray an apology. In my defense during the week of 10/15 I was moving my business, moving the furniture out of the house I own and leaving the house where I was living so it could be tented for termites. The "Hey Ray" post was not one of my top 10 priorities.

The really sad thing is that I agree with Ray and have consistently defended him privately to other moderators. The last thing I intend to do is single him out for a "double standard". As a moderator, I do my best to abuse everyone here in the Politics Forum, left or right, equally. Somebody has to do the job, but trust me, I have better things to do with my time.

The Vatican has come a long way since Copernicus:

Vatican Official Refutes Intelligent Design

"The Vatican's chief astronomer said Friday that "intelligent design" isn't science and doesn't belong in science classrooms ..."

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20051118/ap_on_re_eu/vatican_evolution;_ylt=Ao1rTk0d1elBCw.X9j5aGckDW7oF;_ylu=X3oDMTBiMW04NW9mBHNlYwMlJVRPUCUl