Posts Made By: Tom Rodstrom

This link is to a site which predicts observing conditions. You can find a "Sky Clock" near you and look at the "seeing" conditions. This is a measure of turbulence.

http://cleardarksky.com/csk/index.html#clock_list

Note: After you click the link, go to the top of the page where "Clear Sky Clock" is explained.

I'm a little (lot?) twisted, but I have a VISION.

I can see him sitting at his desk in the Oval office, smoking a cigar, working on the opening of his next speech: "I did not lie, my aids forced me into this war, I did not know anything." He smiles a little after the last part, knowing it's believable.

In the mean time, hidden under the desk, a short, Democratic dog named "Hi Buddy", is busy humping his leg.

It's humor born of desperation. It will be another eighteen months before we know the true consequences of our (his) actions. I'm terrified.

Oops, got to go, there's a Humve with men in black out front...

Oil money is the problem as I understand it. Long ago the Saudi Royal family made a deal with the religious leaders of the country that was basically: Leave us alone and in power, and you can administer Islamic law and do whatever you want "educating" the people.

The Royal family is obviously corrupt since SA has a huge debt even with all the oil revenue (Congress would have trouble pulling that one off). The mullah's couldn't speak out against the Royal family so they have spent years bashing the US.

We are supporting a corrupt government in SA in return for lucrative development contracts for the oil fields and a steady flow of oil. That's what we do, and that's what we are trying to do in Iraq.

I believe that Bin Laden, being in the privileged elite, saw the corruption and decided to do something about it. I think that he used the hatred stirred up in SA as a weapon to attack the US which he saw as the root cause.

Naturally the government is quiet about SA. If it became common knowledge that our support for a corrupt regime in SA was a direct cause for 9/11, it would be bad for the oil industry and George's friends would be angry with him.

The troops in SA were his stated reason for switching. That makes sense if he was looking for support from SA radicals. It doesn't seem to be a good reason if his primary goal was to bring down the governments in SA and Egypt.

A plot by the Saudi government does seem like a long shot to me, but I've heard mention of "Saudi government agents" involved in funding 9/11. These little bits of information have had a habit of growing with time. Perhaps one of the "sympathetic idealists" worked in the Saudi government. If that came out, there would be trouble.

Is that not the problem?

We don't want to "sink to their level" and they look at that as being weak.

I'll work out and eat healthy.

Not really, I would be happy with the ethical integrity of the average lawyer turned politician. I think it would be MUCH better than the integrity of the average CEO or Board Member who buys a place at the head of the government line and leads us down his ethical path.

In my opinion there are few politicians that would dare pull some of the stunts that are regularly done by corporate leaders in the name of "God and Company".

It is my understanding that Powell was the only voice for moderation in the Cabinet. In the end, Powell "serves at the pleasure of the President". He was probably assigned that nasty job which he did to the best of his abilities.

Bush did take responsibility after being cornered. His statement; "I analyzed a thorough body of intelligence -- good, solid, sound intelligence ..." makes one wonder what his standards for good, solid, sound intelligence are. He certainly seems to have set the standard about as low as it can go.

Now, we find out that those "high tech aluminum tubes" that were purported to be for processing Plutonium, are useless for nuclear applications and that the government knew it.

This administration seems to have a record of distorting data. In this link to the house of representatives, the link to Lead Poisoning is particularly blatant example.

http://www.house.gov/reform/min/politicsandscience/

If you increase the contrast 50%, up the resolution about the same, and brighten the ice cap you get the view I had Saturday with very good seeing (stable but poor transparency) and my Questar 7.