Posts Made By: Tom Rodstrom

The press's addiction to Abu Ghraib is a tribute to the producer. The Bu$h administration produced a worldwide blockbuster viewed by billions in nearly every language on earth. I congratulate them, and think they should be nominated for an Enema award as thanks for all the BS they are foisting on this country and the World.

1. Bush can use God if he is so inclined - no problem.

2. If Christians (or any other group) are trying to directly effect elections by doing more than addressing their members (campaign donations, advertising, etc.) they should lose their tax exempt status and register as a lobbiest.

3. I have no problem with "under God", but that is a personal preference. It is up to the courts to determine it's Constitutionality.

There good Clerics and bad Clerics, just like there are good Priests and bad Priests. Ask any Catholic.

Many, if not most, Muslims condemn the acts condoned by some of these Clerics. In fact there were many many Muslims who initially did not believe that 9/11 actually happened. The reason that they did not believe it happened is because they simply could not believe that ANY Muslim could do such a terrible act.

Old news - March 18, 2004 - and your link does not work.

Jim, I must admit that I am not one that looks forward to reading your posts, but it wold be easer if you did not put your link to an article at the beginning of a post. When you do that, the Astromart software does not create the necessary code for a reader to just click on the line to read it. I will give four examples.

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/06/11/international/middleeast/11POWE.html?ei=5062&en=91e713e937349805&ex=1087531200&partner=GOOGLE&pagewanted=print&position=

The separation of church and state has been a cornerstone of this democracy.

I think it is shameful what the current batch of Republicans will do for a few votes.

You may think it is a little chickensh_t for me to bring it up, but this may be one more reason that Bush rushed us into this war. Specifically, he was possibly starting to realize that his intelligence was faulty and wanted to start the war before more intelligence was disproven.

I feel that it has been pretty well shown that the administration had Iraq in its sights long before 9/11. The 9/11 attack gave them the perfect excuse. Lets look at the players:

For the rush to war:

Bush - He had motive to avenge his father and for making up for his father's mistake in not taking out Hussein when he had the chance.

Cheney - He was an architect of outsourcing military support and certainly wanted to see how well it worked. He also had close ties to Halliburton, one of the obvious contractors.

Rumsfeld - He was the inventor of the smaller faster army and wanted to show how well his ideas work.

Rice - I'm sure she saw the Iraqi, American and Enron flag, flapping in the breeze together in a free and profitable Iraq.

Perle - He's the "father" of this war and, along with the other neoconservatives, has been pushing to attack Iraq for more than a decade. Part of his motivation is to protect Israel as he stated in a strategic plan he developed for the Israeli Prime Minister.

Wolfowitz - Another neoconservative.

Feith - Yet another neoconservative.

Against the rush to war:

Powell - The only one who had been to war.

Jim, I know the feeling. I'm really motivated myself and I have no use whatsoever for Bush and crew. I think that they are a disaster for this country. That being said, there are a lot of good republicans out there, my father and my business partner are a couple. There are also a lot of Republican astronomers here too. Most of them are good people. I just disagree strongly with some of the beliefs that are dear to them.

Sadly, name calling and angry rhetoric have become the standard for politics and do not serve any good purpose. I think that if we can leave the worst of the name calling out, we will be surprised to find that there is a lot of common ground between the extremes of left and right. For myself, I've am trying to come down a couple notches and to let the highly paid professional mud slingers (on both sides) do the dirty work.

On Edit: My effort to show proper respect to the other side will not keep me from cheerfully presenting what I believe to be factual information about the foibles of the Washington gang in order give those on the other side the opportunity to make a rebuttal (or not). 8)

You lucky dog!. I should have used the pray as you go plan with God. Tonight he is taking back one of his IOU's. I just sent a friend who works for Scope City up to a dark site with my Q7, my new Quickset tripod (with EQ5) and my new (to me) set of UO eyepieces. The sky clock says seeing should be very good and this is one of those days where the marine layer of fog comes in and covers the city lights making the mountain sky very dark.

Me, I'm sleeping on a pad in my warehouse, pistol in hand, hoping to catch the person(s) who has been breaking in and stealing from us. I'd complain, but it's just Karma from a misspent youth. (On Edit) It just occurred to me that this is a terrible thing for an accused wuss from the left to be doing for the evening. Perhaps I am like most people, complex and with wide ranging views, not a caricature defined by one party's political label.

Clear Skies

I'm not from the area, but I wonder if they all followed the jobs to India.