July 2008 - Posts
Austin, TX - Tonight the peace and quiet of my hotel was disturbed by loud voices and some yelling in the hall. At first I thought we had your basic drinking problem. But some of what was being said didn't quite add up. Opening the door showed me a scene that took me a minute to comprehend.
A man, wearing nothing but boxers, shoving two other men backwards down the hall way is not what I expected to see. One of the men on the receiving end of the shoving was recording the entire event on a hand held camcorder. The man in boxers continually threatened the other two men while delivering some really impressive shoves and trying to grab the camcorder.
A woman, apparently accompanying the two men with the cam corder, yelled at the man in boxers about his sins and not coming home again... ever. A movement through the open door to the room across from me drew my attention. My disbelieving eyes beheld a lovely rear end rapidly disappearing into a pair of violet bikini shorts. That rear end and the lady it was attached to disappeared out of my line of sight, probably in search of the rest of her clothes.
The man in the boxers gave up trying to grab the camera and stormed back to the room, pursued by the lady we now now as his wife. He tried to slam the door but she got in the way demanding to know who was in there with him. Now wearing more then her violet bikini shorts, she came around the corner and showed herself.
The women apparently know each other. They called each other by first name, along with other terms of endearment. The two men escorting the aggrieved wife attempted to quiet her, but she was not having any part of that plan. The aggrieved wife was no where near finished having say on the matter. Through all this, boxer shorts man was trying desperately to get the hotel room door closed.
This went on for around five minutes until the first of the police showed up. At this time the two men identified themselves as armed private investigators to the policemen. Boxer shorts man began yelling at the police officers. He wanted the two men arrested for identifying themselves as hotel employees to gain access to his room. The police officer nearest boxer shorts man told him to quiet down and they would talk with him. Boxer shorts man got louder and said he would quiet down only after the two private investigators were under arrest and that cam corder was turned over to him.
Upon hearing that was not going to happen, boxer shorts man went ballistic. Not a good call with the police present. We are talking body slam and cuffs!
In the meantime violet underwear and aggrieved wife are still yelling at each other in spite of the second officer's best efforts. About this time the elevator released several more police officers into the hall including a grizzly looking gray haired old sergeant. He addressed the two women in a quiet voice, getting their attention. In that quiet voice he said, "The next one of you that opens your mouth is going to jail." Aggrieved wife began to open her mouth. The sergeant raised his finger and said, "I am serious about that." She closed it again.
Once peace was more or less restored to the hallway, with the women glowering at each other and boxer shorts cuffed and face down on the floor, the sergeant was introduced to the two private investigators. They offered up their video camera and played the tape of the entire event for the sergeant.
After a review of the instant replay, boxer shorts was placed under arrest for assault, threats, disorderly conduct and something else I didn't catch. Aggrieved wife began to make some noise but was silenced immediately when the sergeant raised one finger while looking her in the eye. The officers stood up our now humbled boxer shorts man and told him it was time to take him to jail. His request put on more clothes was denied, something about an attitude problem. Wearing nothing but cuffs and boxers he and his escorts disappeared in the elevator.
The sergeant held a brief conversation with the private investigators where he was assured they would to prosecute. The private investigators, aggrieved wife and the remainder of the police officers headed for the elevators leaving violet shorts standing in the doorway of the room. She looked at me, kind of shrugged and said, "Sorry" then closed the door.
Where were Jerry and Steve when we needed them?
Divorce is probably of nearly the same date as marriage. I believe, however, that marriage is some weeks the more ancient.
- Voltaire
South Padre Island, TX - This ought to be good for a laugh...
The first rule of hurricane coverage is that every broadcast must begin with palm trees bending in the wind.
- Carl Hiaasen
The conversation began with one of my offspring saying, "I can no longer vote for John McCain."
"Why is that," I ask.
"Because John McCain said he would spy on US Citizens," my offspring said.
Then my wayward child sent a link to an interview in Wired, "
McCain: I'd Spy on Americans Secretly, Too."
My offspring's cries of outrage that a secret court exists for the purpose granting wire tap warrants without the oversight of the general public were long and loud. The fact that Sen. McCain would support such a thing makes McCain completely unacceptable as a candidate to this member of my family.
The howling about how rights have been abridged was incredible. I asked, "What can you not do now that you could do on September 10, 2001"
My offspring said, "I can't make a phone call without fear of the someone listening in."
That makes me wonder what is being discussed during those phone calls. I said that unless he had gone out of his way to bring himself to some agency's attention, he was being a little over the top on the paranoid scale.
My offspring went on to explain that there was no way to know for sure because even if a warrant is obtained, it is done through a secret court.
At that point I finally figured out that my offspring was suggesting that the US Government should be completely transparent. No secrets what so ever. At least as far as conducting investigations and tracking of potential terrorists. With shaking head, I began to point out how completely ridiculous those arguments were. Alas, another phone call came in before I could get into it. So I'm going to finish it here.
For the next six paragraphs I grant my offspring's wish. For our purposes, an alternate universe is formed...
The United States intelligence operation is now completely open source. There are no secrets. Anyone with a connection to the web can look and see what our intelligence people are doing from anywhere in the world.
Someone in Iran can see if their spy at a US Nuclear Weapons Maintenance facility is under scrutiny now. Someone from China can get the latest data on our operatives working in their government.
A terrorist sleeper cell leader in Pakistan will find out immediately if any of his sleepers are being tapped. Another terrorist leader in Iran would instantly know that all e-mail to and from the members of his latest US operation are being copied and forwarded to the NSA. Based on the affidavit for that warrant, the terrorist leader now knows who to kill for blowing his operation.
Somewhere in Geneva, a Swiss Bank account is being emptied and the funds scattered across other banks in several countries with no ties to the United States. Why? Because the Death-To-America group that owned the account discovered some of their financial transactions were monitored though a quick warrant search at the court house.
The TSA took a warrant out on Ahmed Patel in the small town of Anywhere USA. It is public record and the local news paper got hold of it. The fine upstanding members of his community showed their displeasure at having a potential terrorist in their midst by burning his house. His children were attacked at school and his wife was threatened in their convenience store. All this happened because someone with a "dirty phone" in Iraq got a US area code wrong.
Lets not overlook this open source intelligence bonus: Once a week or so, something in this country explodes and people die because any terrorist that wants to get to us can. It is really easy when they know what the United States is and is not doing to stop them.
Only the most naive of humans cannot see why the above scenario is a problem. In order to operate any effective intelligence operation you have to keep your operations a secret. Letting anyone outside the operation in on who you are tapping dooms the operation.
The fact that Sen. McCain is willing to continue watching the bad guys without telling them is a point in his favor as far as I'm concerned.
We must win in Iraq. If we withdraw, there will be chaos; there will be genocide; and they will follow us home.
- John McCain
Earlier this week Sen. Obama gave a speech stating exactly what he has in mind for Iraq. Now that he set his policy he is now on his way to talk to the commanders and see things for himself.
A normally thinking human might have done that the other way around.
It's not surprising, then, they get bitter, they cling to guns or religion or antipathy to people who aren't like them or anti-immigrant sentiment or anti-trade sentiment as a way to explain their frustrations.
- Barack Obama
Reading some of the things written about Tony Snow brought me to an
Associated Press article by Douglass K. Daniel. Let me quote from the sixth paragraph in that article:
With a quick-from-the-lip repartee, broadcaster's good looks and a relentlessly bright outlook — if not always a command of the facts — he became a popular figure around the country to the delight of his White House bosses.
The Associated Press: Former Bush press secretary Tony Snow dies
Writing those words after his death is possibly the only way Mr. Daniel could get the last word without Tony challenging him on trivial matters like the facts.
Maybe Mr. Daniel didn't care for Tony's low tolerance of members of the White House Press Corps that preface their questions with a small speech. It could be that Mr. Daniel got tripped up when Tony interrupted some of those long winded speeches to correct a fallacy. My guess is that he is buying into the same line of crap some of those speech making correspondents are serving up.
In all the years Tony Snow was a reporter, commentator and then White House Press Secretary, I never once heard him utter anything remotely deceptive.
For this columnist impersonating a journalist to imply that Tony Snow is a liar, especially now that Tony is no longer here to defend himself, enrages me beyond words. I would label Mr. Daniel a low life, bottom feeding, scum sucking ***, but my wife said I'm not allowed to say "***" anymore, so I won't.
"Helen, when I'm your age I want to be sitting right there, just like you, making life a living Hell for some press secretary."
- Tony Snow to Helen Thomas during a press conference
Tony Snow left this world early this morning. Very few from the journalistic field earned the kind of respect that Mr. Snow got from me. Though I only met him once, he left a lasting impression. His standard for doing the job right and doing it in a fair manner was unwavering. His reputation was of tough but fair. He never took a cheap shot and always let the other side of his argument be heard.
President Bush saw Tony Snow's value and tapped him for the job of White House Press Secretary. Even though Snow was tough on the President in some instances, the president still recruited him for the job. Mr. Snow took the job only after the President agreed to bring him to the table and keep him in the loop on all policy decisions.
Some of his best work came from his time as White House Press Secretary. To watch him take on the White House Press Corps was a truly awesome experience. It was somewhat humbling for some of the more misinformed members of the corps too.
If the Gods need a press secretary, a damn good one just walked in the door.
It is a common mistake these days to politicize anything and everything, including music.
- Tony Snow