The Dope and the Pope

FYI, today is international “Talk Like A Pirate Day”. This holiday encourages everyone to get in touch with their inner pirate by wearing pirate dress, speaking pirate speech, walking around with a parrot on you shoulder and drinking alcohol. Yarrrgh.

Speaking of pirates, the Department of Justice and the Bush administration have floated what they refer to as a “compromise” bill pertaining to the redefinition of the Geneva Convention to include allowing torture in CIA secret prisons. Although the details of the bill haven’t been made public, whenever the Bush administration starts talking about compromise, watch your wallet. The initial Bill was so contemptuous of judicial review that any replacement bill proffered by the administration should be closely and skeptically examined. Even if this bill is marginally better, I can confidentially state even without seeing it that it will still include an end-run around the Courts and will leave the definition of what constitutes torture subject to Bush’s discretion. Lest we forger, no one has legally challenged Bush’s signing statement and one can guarantee that one won’t be appended to this bill. Remember, Bush announced the other day that if he doesn’t get his bill through Congress the CIA will stop interrogating people all together. I am less than sanguine about the potential for a milder bill.

If the Democrats had any cohesion they would get together and call the President on his fear-mongering. There isn’t any urgency to pass this bill, or the other bill on wiretapping that is also up for a vote this week. The only urgency here is on the part of the White House who knows that when they lose Congress in November they won’t have a chance of getting another bill through. One important feature of the current bill regarding the Geneva Convention, at least from the administration’s perspective, is that it immunizes individual actors from criminal prosecution. This is important because of the administrations clear violation of the Convention, and the possibility that a newly energized Democratic Congress will bring charges against administration officials for violating the treaty. Far from a necessary power the President needs to fight the war on terror, this legislation is really a giant CYA for members of the Bush administration who are looking at the possibility of jail for their past human rights violations.

On other fronts, it has been interesting to watch the media drop the ball on the Pope/Islam story. Rather than concentrating on defusing tensions by trying to explain the context of Benedict’s remarks, the mainstream media has discovered a heretofore unknown solidarity with Islamic terrorists at the same time it exhibits a pent up anti-Catholicism. The Pope’s speech was a lot longer and a lot more detailed than the incessant repetition of the two most inflammatory lines by the media would have one believe. On the News Hour last night Gwen Ifill practically accused George Weigel, a senior fellow at the Ethics and Public Policy Center and quasi-official Vatican spokesperson of racism because he averred that the reaction to the speech “underscores the truth of what the pope was trying to put on the table, namely, that there are, unfortunately -- but in a widespread way -- currents in the Islamic world which attempt to justify violence in the name of God.” And that “[t]his is not the way rational, serious, civilized people conduct serious arguments. That's not a contribution to any sort of serious inter-religious dialogue”.

It appears as if a number of Christian clerics at least have an understanding of what is really happening. “We are faced with a media-driven phenomenon bordering on the absurd,” Cardinal Jean-Marie Lustiger, the former archbishop of Paris, told Le Monde. “If the game consists in unleashing the crowd’s vindictiveness on words that it has not understood, then the conditions for dialogue with Islam are no longer met.” Exactly so.

FISA on the Wire

Here is an excellent article form Slate on the wiretap bills crawling through Congress like e-coli through a bag of spinach.

The Pope Smokes Dope

Those peace-loving Islamist’s are at it again:
“We will break up the cross, spill the liquor and impose head tax, then the only thing acceptable is a conversion (to Islam) or (killed by) the sword." -The Mujahedeen Shura Council, an umbrella organization of Sunni Arab extremist groups posted on their web site. Reaction in the Moslem world over a speech that really had little to nothing to do with Islam has been completely over the top, not to mention a gift to the Bush administration who has been laboring with great resolve to get Congress to legalize torture and thus sink into the gutter along side the rest of the world’s religious extremists.

Although one can argue that the Pope should have vetted his speech through his ministers to remove language likely to be misconstrued, my personal belief is that once we start self-censoring our speech to avoid offending the religious nut jobs we have already lost the battle. Someone should come out say what we’re all thinking: burning papal effigies and threatening to kill Christians who don’t convert to Islam only makes you look like the violent extremists you claim have no place in Islam. Your position is inconsistent. The moderate mullahs should come out and demand that the people stop the wanton destruction of property and cease issuing threats directed at the Pope or anyone else.

A Sunday Sermon

Can't we all just get along? Apparently not. The one thing George Bush and I agree on is that there is a war raging for the ideological conscience of the world. However, while Bush frames the struggle as democracy versus "Islamo-facism" whatever that is, I see the war as a reprise of a war already fought in the Enlightenment; a war of reason against superstition and fable. The current row between Pope Benedict and the religious fundamentalists in the Islamic world is a perfect example of how the battles of this war are being waged. The Pope’s words were clearly taken out of context. He apologized, which in my opinion he shouldn’t have done, and now the political leaders in the Islamic world are whipping their people into a frenzy by claiming that the apology wasn’t good enough and that the Pope has committed a grevious sin against Islam. People are starting to speak of this controversy as akin to the cartoons of Mohammed posted by the Danish press last year. Since the political leaders of Jihad aren’t really interested in whether the Pope has been sufficiently contrite for speaking what is essentially the truth about Islam, no apology issued from the Vatican is likely to be thought of as adequate. The Pope is about to learn something that we on the American left are all too familiar with; you cannot reason with crazy people. People who run their lives according to mysterious teachings handed down in sacred books are not prone to listen to reason. The Pope must find this lesson particularly ironic considering his own sermon of several days ago in which he chastised the west for relying too much on reason and not enough on faith.

Perhaps ontologically there isn’t much difference between the religious myths of Christianity and Islam, but Catholics aren’t rioting in the streets, burning mosques and killing mullahs. Islamic leaders need to realize that until they can bring their fanatical followers under some semblance of control, the Western leaders will be issuing more pronouncements along those of 14th century Byzantine Emperor Manuel II Paleologus, which I repeat here: "Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached."

The Islamists argue that the violent teaching in the Koran have no place in Islam today but of course this is complete nonsense. The reaction to the Pope’s statement by the Islamic masses has largely consisted of burning Churches, rioting in the streets and killing nuns as opposed to starting a dialogue on differences in matters of faith. This, to me is not a religion of peace and non-violence. But then again, I suppose it is a matter of degree. One could make the argument that invading a soverign nation without provocation for the purpose of imposing your political ideology is also emblematic of a sort of religious-centered violence which only appears as rational because you believe God is on your side. If the leaders of this country truly believe that God is calling the shots and that he prefers the United States to other countries, then how can anyone expect the Islamists to believe that this isn't a crusade by the West to, in essence, take back the holy land?

Organic Spinach

This just in…forget the war and the taking away of your privacy rights and all of that other bullshit. What we really have to fear in America before the election isn’t George Bush and the Republicans, its ORGANIC SPINACH.

Power Run Amok

The Patriot would love to take a day off from chronicling the systematic attempt by this administration to dismantle our civil liberties, but as he was told be a boozy friend last night, “People lose interest if you don’t post every day”. So here goes:

The New York Times did a great job of crystallizing the second anti-freedom bill worming its way around Congress this week. Seemingly unsatisfied with its dismantling of our own Constitution, the administration is sharpening its long knives in preparation for the ritual gutting of a few choice sections of the Geneva Conventions, namely, the pesky provision that prohibits “outrages upon personal dignity, in particular, humiliating and degrading treatment.” The President says that he finds this language “too vague”, and I find his legal analysis wanting. The President is uncharacteristically opposed by his military lawyers as well as the usual array of civil libertarians and peaceniks. His military lawyers fear that United States soldiers could be subjected to the same treatment if captured as the torture we are currently inflicting on untold numbers of prisoners held at secret CIA bases around the world. As the Times noted in its editorial, “The idea that the nation’s chief executive is pressing so hard to undermine basic standards of justice is shocking.” Not all that shocking to those of us who were warning about this slippery slope when the President was given carte blanche in his “war on terror” shortly after 911. Of course, one can take the position that a certain amount of secrecy and latitude should be permitted the chief executive in these matters since the enemy is unlikely to be a regular army and any American servicemen unlucky enough to be captured in Iraq would probably end up meeting the grisly fate of Danny Pearl irrespective of any Geneva convention. One could argue this position. However, the administration, as usual, is not looking to confine its legislation to the jihadists captured on the fields of battle. Rather, the “White House bill also includes anyone who gives “material support” to a terrorist group or anyone affiliated with a terrorist group. Legal experts fear this definition could cover people who, for example, contribute to charities without knowing they support terrorist groups, or that are not identified as terrorist fronts until later. It could be used to arrest a legal resident of the United States and put him before a military commission.” (Again from the Times). This President is obsessed with spying on Americans and for the life of my I don’t understand why. All most of us do is eat, shop and watch television anyway.

I guess the most disturbing effect of both this White House sponsored Bill and the Arlen Specter Bill discussed yesterday is the denigration of the separation of powers these Bills represent. By shoving this totalitarian nightmare of a Bill in Congress’s face the President is essentially usurping the legislative function of Congress and paralyzing the body into inaction. Why is the White House sponsoring legislation? Why is Congress seriously considering it? Well, Congressmen and Senators are tripping all over themselves to not look soft on terror for the fall elections and the Bush administration has, once again successfully set the terms of the debate on the issue by the use of fear and intimidation. Believe me, the alternative Bill being floated by Senators Warner, McCain and Lindsey Graham (all Republicans, btw) while keeping the Geneva convention intact draws the definition of “unlawful enemy combatant” so broadly that it could cover almost anyone that the particular administration decides is a threat, leading to his removal from the judicial system and subject to a military trial.

A well placed kick in the ass of the spineless Democrats is also warranted. Despite the threat to civil liberties, not to mention the erosion of commonly accepted standards of decency that this Bill represents, the Democrats, as usual, caved into administration demands. Many military lawyers appeared before the House Armed Services Committee and testified that they strongly opposed the rules of evidence and other due-process clauses in the White House’s bill. The committee passed it anyway with only eight of the 28 Democratic members voting “no.” Is it any wonder the foxes rule the hen house? I am starting to come full circle on my regret for voting for Nader in 2000. What is the purpose of an opposition party if they fail to oppose?

Finally, stripping the federal courts of the power to review the detentions of Guantánamo Bay, which the Bush Bill proposes is another assault on the judiciary, the third co-equal branch of government. The entire piece of legislation is specifically designed to circumvent earlier Court rulings by getting Congress to declare legal what the Supreme Court did not. This is an abuse of power of the most egregious sort. Unfortunately, the Congress has been bought and paid for and the legislators crave power more than they are interested in preserving our way of life. Folks, what we are witnessing here is nothing less than the potential end of the American experiment. Our civil liberties are what make this country different from the rest of the world. Unfortunately, as we become paranoid and aggressive on a diplomatic level at the same time we espouse the free flow of goods and ideas on an economic level, we come across as inconsistent and deranged to our quickly diminishing circle of allies.

It kills me to think that 230 years of progress can be destroyed in six years by 19 morons from Saudi Arabia and one jack-ass from Texas. Unbelievable.

Anyway y’all have a nice week-end. Feel free to flame, disagree and/or support anything I say. And write your legislators to tell them how much they suck.

Fun FISA Facts

This hasn’t been the greatest week for our civil liberties. The Arlen Specter bill made it out of committee and a full vote is expected on the floor of the senate as early as next week. Specter’s bill, portrayed by the media as a compromise between the White House and so called “moderate” Republicans on the issue of secret surveillance on American citizens is actually a Trojan horse bill whose effect will be to strengthen the President’s ability to spy on United States citizens without the approval of a court and without a valid warrant. The committee approved S.2453, the "National Security Surveillance Act." By a vote of 10-8. The bill was authored by Vice-President Dick Cheney and Committee Chairman Specter. It gives the president the option of complying - or not - with the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act and the protections of the Fourth Amendment.
From the New York Times:

“The intensity of feeling aroused by the Specter-White House version (of the bill) was illustrated in the reaction of the American Civil Liberties Union. “Today, the Senate Judiciary Committee acted as a rubber stamp for the administration’s abuse of power,” said Caroline Fredrickson, head of the A.C.L.U.’s Washington legislative office, in urging defeat by the full Senate.
Under the agreement reached by the president and Mr. Specter, the bill includes language implicitly recognizing the president’s “constitutional authority” to collect foreign intelligence beyond the provisions of the 1978 law that created the F.I.S.A. court.”

And from the ACLU’s press release:
“The bill would also: vastly increase the government’s statutory power to examine all international phone conversations and emails, making warrantless surveillance of Americans’ conversations the rule rather then the exception and expand the ability to conduct warrantless physical searches of Americans’ homes.
Senator Mike DeWine’s (R-OH) "Terrorist Surveillance Program Act of 2006" (S. 2455) was approved by a vote of 10 to 8. This bill would weaken the probable cause requirement for spying on people in the US - sweeping in innocent Americans - allow extended warrantless surveillance, limit judicial review and punish whistleblowers.”
The Democrats, their usual craven boot licking in full effect, sponsored a slightly less offensive bill that while requiring the president to follow the procedures set forth by Congress for wiretapping Americans, it streamlines (i.e. makes easier) the procedures by which one may seek a FISA warrant.

Maybe I’m old fashioned but to me the FISA courts very existence is an affront to a free society. If the DOJ wants to perform surveillance on an American citizen then let them make an in camera application to a regular judge; not a secret cabal of people whose identities are unknown and loyalties to the principals of liberty suspect. Though the this Court’s rulings may result in criminal charges, convictions and prison sentences for US citizens, their activities are permanently sealed from review by those accused of crimes and from any substantive civilian review. During the 20-years of its existence, the FISC received over 10,000 applications for covert surveillance and physical searches. To date, not a single application has been denied. Way to go Senator Feinstein! Teach those Republicans that they have to obey the law by facilitating their access to our secret Court!

The upshot of all this is that the democrats are ultimately to blame for creating the FISA court in the first place. The sponsor of the enabling legislation was, drum roll please, none other then Edward Kennedy, the esteemed senior Senator from Massachusetts. One would think that the Democrats learned their lesson that compromising your values in the face of immoral opposition is a slippery slope to hell, but there are a lot of short memories in Washington. The FISC concept was a compromise between legislators who wanted the FBI and National Security Agency (NSA), the only two agencies affected by the FISA statute, to follow the standard procedure for obtaining a court order required in criminal investigations and legislators. The federal agencies believed that they should be completely unfettered in conducting their foreign intelligence surveillance work inside US borders. The “compromise” was the creation of a secret Court which answers to no one, including the Congress that created it. It is also noted that the FISA legislation was introduced at a time when the White House and both houses of congress were controlled by Democrats. But that’s not all...

Bill Clinton greatly expanded the Court’s power when he signed Executive Order 12949 mid-way through his first term. His order granted the Court legal authority to authorize Department of Justice to approve so-called "black-bag" operations within the United States, to approve requests to conduct physical as well as electronic searches without obtaining a warrant, without notifying the subject, and without providing an inventory of items seized. Interestingly enough, the targets need not be under suspicion of committing a crime, but may be investigated when probable cause results solely from their associations or status: for example, belonging to, or aiding and abetting organizations deemed to pose a threat to U.S. national security. (This seems to include just about everyone except members of the Republican Party these days) Furthermore, despite a lowered standard for applying the Fourth Amendment against unreasonable search and seizure than is necessary in other U.S. courts, under the 1995 expansion, evidence gathered by the FISA court may now be used in criminal trials. Previously, evidence was collected and stockpiled solely for intelligence purposes.

Perhaps the next time the Republicans accuse the Democrats of being soft on terrorism the Democrats can point to the FISA Court as proof positive that they are just as susceptible to irrational fear mongering as their apocalyptic fundamentalist-freak friends across the aisle.

Smoke Screens

In another whack at our Civil Liberties, a Federal Court in San Francisco, rejected an appeal from a blogger who has refused to turn over a videotape he shot of a protest last summer. A conservative three-Judge panel of The Ninth Circuit, (the August Motions Panel) reaffirmed a contempt charge against free-lance journalist Josh Wolf, seemingly contradicting its image as one of the more “liberal” courts, at least considering the high numbers of decisions reversed by the Supreme Court. The decision was unpublished and the judges deemed the issue in the case too easy to merit oral argument.(More on this soon).

Josh’s trouble with the government began last summer when he was videotaping some of the more aggressive protests at a protest in San Francisco timed to coincide with the Group of Eight economic summit in Scotland. Purportedly he took some video which would reveal the identity of some of the protestors, one of whom is suspected of placing a smoke-bomb or other device underneath a car.

Josh’s lawyers unsuccessfully argued that the blog was a form of journalism and therefore protected under the First Amendment. I read the reply brief which is published on Josh’s blog. Not a bad piece of work: “[A]a fair reading of Supreme Court precedent requires a finding that there is a “substantial connection” between the information sought and the criminal conduct under investigation before a witness may be held in contempt for refusing to answer question (sic) that implicate First Amendment rights. Bursey v. United States (9th. Cir. 1972) 466 F.2d 1059, 1091, overruled on other grounds, In re Grand Jury Proceedings (9th Cir. 1988) 863 F.2d 667, 669-670.” Josh’s counsel pointed out, quite reasonably in my opinion, that in order for the lower Court to determine whether the substantial connection exists they have to actually watch the video, which they didn’t. Clearly, holding Wolf in contempt without even making a deminimus attempt to determine whether any nexus existed between the video and the government’s investigation was an abuse of discretion by the lower Court.

The sole federal offence under investigation by the government involved allegations that unknown persons damaged, or attempted to damage, “by means of fire or an explosive,” a police vehicle owned by an entity receiving federal funds under 28 U.S.C. §844(f)(1). In other words this is a case of vandalism involving a police car. Except for the fact that it took place at a rally to protest globalization. Oh, and the vehicle sustained no apparent damage. Anyone see some selective prosecution here? To be fair, the initial investigation was apparently launched because of the aggravated assault on a San Francisco police officer, but the grand jury proceedings solely related to the “damage” to the car. The FBI assisted the investigation under the Joint Terrorism Task Force, which is now apparently assigned to investigate political protests.

In their amicus brief, the ACLU noted that every television and online journalist with a video camera who covers a public protest will end up with hours of footage of the crowd including individuals alone and in groups. If the protest turns hairy, these photographers may also have footage of crimes like vandalism, or worse. The government predictably argued that in such a case all video footage of the entire event – not just that related to the crimes – immediately becomes the government’s property so that it can catalogue the attendees and develop a record of who attends public demonstrations. Clearly this position violates a number of constitutional rights, and had the Ninth Circuit written on it I don’t think you would have liked the outcome.

Josh is taking the defeat in stride. Unlike the do-nothings in Congress, this guy showed some back-bone. “Nothing the government can do,” he said, “will coerce me into submitting to their demands. I intend to appeal this through every measure possible.” If only the Democrats would show the same resolve against the Bush Administration. Please visit www.joshwolf.net and drop the man a note of support or contribute to his legal fund. He deserves it.

911

I thought it interesting that Bush came to town to celebrate the fifth anniversary of 9-11 on 9-10, at night, when he wouldn’t have to face crowds of angry New Yorkers asking uncomfortable questions about Iraq. All the local politicians were there except Hillary and Schumer. So much for a non-partisan approach to the holiday.

I went over to the WTC site today at lunch to have a look at what was going on. I try to get over there every anniversary of the event to mourn, to remember, and to see what sort of off-center folks an event like the 911 anniversary brings out. This year there were an especially large number of evangelical “Christian” groups aggressively handing out their tracts. I asked one of them if God had taken a vacation five years ago. He had no answer. Perhaps he was fighting for the other monotheist team that day. I was also surprised to see at least 30% of the people down there at about 1:15pm had on t-shirts calling for a further investigation into the attacks. Far from being ignored or sidelined (besides by the mainstream media), I saw a number of them having in-depth engaged conversations with firemen and police officers about the inconsistencies in the official story about what happened. Strange this isn’t getting more coverage.

I stopped into St. Peters, across the street from the WTC and stayed for the end of the mass. I suppose that behavior is inconsistent with the comments above, but I have a history with St. Peters and being raised a Catholic, old habits die hard. I also find Catholics to be, on the whole, more sensible about issues like peace and inequity. Anyone remember Dorothy Day?

Have a nice day everyone.

911 Five Years On

So tomorrow marks five years since the day that changed all of our lives. Here is my story, one day early since I don't know that I'll feel like writing about it tomorrow:

On the morning of September 11, 2001 I and a number of other newly hired attorneys were due to have our picture taken with then Mayor Rudy Giuliani on the steps of City Hall. We were all supposed to meet on the second floor of the Law Department and then proceed to City Hall as a group. I was running late that morning and didn’t get to 100 Church Street until shortly after 8:30am. The first plane must have struck the tower when I was in the elevator because I don’t recall hearing any explosion. When I arrived on the second floor, I was somewhat surprised that no one else was there yet. Apparently the folks who were on the floor at the time the first plane hit had immediately gone downstairs to see what was happening. I grabbed a co-worker and went back to the lobby of my building. As I was pushing through the front door of the building the second plane hit the tower. There was a tremendous explosion and flash of light reflected in the windows of the building across the street which promptly shattered due to the explosion. A piece of the plane’s engine (I could see the flywheel clearly) tore through a section of roof of the next building north of 100 church and landed with a tremendous thud about 20 yards from where I was standing. It was still there, smoking, when I ran up Church Street later on that morning.

Immediately after the second plane hit I bolted back into the lobby which was already full of FBI agents who were screaming at everyone to evacuate the building because it was about to collapse. I remember thinking at the time that this fact was kind of curious since only about 20 minutes had passed since the first plane struck the tower. To my knowledge the only tenants of 100 Church Street at the time were the Bank of New York, the City Law Department and a private law firm. At this point I still didn’t know what had happened; my first thought was that someone had blown up the Federal building next door. It was only when I exited the lobby into the street that I saw the towers burning for the first time.

Instead of leaving the area immediately as many of my colleagues did, I bummed a cigarette from a co-worker and stood in front of my building watching the tragedy unfold. I saw many, many people jumping to their deaths from the holes where the planes went into the tower. Fortunately, the Federal building blocked any view of them landing. The streets were full of paper blowing from the Trade Center offices like it was a perverse ticker-tape parade.

There were a lot of people on Church Street and the rumor mill was grinding out information every second; there was a third plane, the Met Life Building had also been hit, etc. At some point before the first Tower collapsed a fighter jet appeared in the sky which started a panic because people thought it was another hijacked plane. When the first Tower collapsed I was standing on the corner of Church Street and Chambers Street. I remember very clearly thinking and telling a number of friends and family that additional explosives must have been placed in the Tower because I saw puffs of smoke emanating from several stories below the fire just prior to the building collapse. I also thought I heard an explosion but I can’t be sure if this is a real memory or not. I watched the implosion and then ran for my life up Church Street with thousands of my fellow New Yorkers to try to avoid the cloud of ash.

I was much further away when the second tower collapsed; on Canal Street actually and I could only see the top of the building as it disappeared.

We were shut out of the building for eight months as it was inside the frozen zone. We returned in April of 2002. Meanwhile life changed for me and for everyone else in the world. Anyway that’s the outline of my story. Hopefully many of you were a lot further away and only had to watch it on TV because, frankly I have had a difficult time processing all of that destruction. The fact that our government has seen fit to expend all of the world’s positive feelings toward the United States by waging war on the entire world saddens me beyond all description. Peace.

News Flash!

Guess what? The CIA released a report today which concludes that Sadaam Hussein had no ties with Al Qaeda. This conclusion is not particularly earth-shattering to those of us on the left who never believed any nexus existed between the erstwhile Iraqi president and the Saudi Arabian terrorists ostensibly responsible for the 911 attacks. In fact, the absence of a link between Hussein and Bin Laden should surprise no one but a right-wing Ostrich who has had his head up his ass for the last four years. The report discloses for the first time, an October 2005 CIA assessment that prior to the war Saddam's government "did not have a relationship, harbor, or turn a blind eye toward Zarqawi and his associates”. A Washington Post poll taken in 2002 revealed that 67% of American’s thought Hussein had something to do with 911. They could perhaps be excused for thinking so in light of the fact that the 911 attacks had everyone thinking that there was a terrorist under every rock, but three years later the figure is still hovering at an unbelievable 45%. Who are these people? Did they all vote for Bush? Do they read and are they capable of critical thinking? These people scare me. Even Bush is sort of distancing himself from linking the two. It would be so convenient for the government if Saddam had something to do with 911 but it just ain’t so. As far as I can see the major flaw with the 911 conspiracy theories is that if the crazies helped plan and execute the attacks to drum up support for an Iraqi war they probably should have made a few of the hijackers Iraqi.

False Flag

Lately I’ve started to become interested in some of those 911 conspiracy theories rattling around the internet. The web site loosechange911.com is an especially interesting repository of paranoia. Like Fox News, I report, you decide:

March 13, 1962: Lyman Lemnitzer, chairman of the joint chiefs presents a proposal for a so-called “false flag” operation to Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara. The proposal includes a plan to create a fictitious terrorist attack in and around Guantanamo Bay such that the action would appear to have been done by Cuban forces, thus giving justification for the Unites States to invade Cuba. I have read the un-classified report (available at loosechange's web site) and some of the suggestions for the types of attack are pretty off the wall. They include lobbing mortar shells and napalm into Guantanamo from the outside and blowing up an American ship in Guantanamo Harbor. This operation the report describes as a “Remember the Maine” incident. The military also considered “developing a communist Cuban terrorist campaign in the Miami area, in other Florida cities, even in Washington”. (Emphasis added). As part of this manufactured campaign the government considered setting off a number of bombs in American cities. The use of airplanes was also considered, including destroying an airliner and blaming the Cuban government. Read the report, it will freak you out.

December 1984: NASA flies and deliberate crashes a Boeing 720 by remote control while conducting fuel research.

September 2000: A report by “Project for New American Century” a conservative neo-con think tank authored in part by Dick Cheney and Paul Wolfiwitz entitled “Rebuilding America’a Defenses notes that “the process of transformation, even if it brings revolutionary change, is likely to be a long one, absent some catastrophic and catalyzing event - like a new Pearl Harbor.” (Page 50-51)

Octobor 2000: The Pentagon conducts two days of tests simulating what would happen if a Boeing 757 crashed into the Pentagon. (Project MASCAL). Participating in these exercises was Charles Burlingame, an ex-Navy f4 pilot who worked at the Pentagon. He retired from the service shortly thereafter and took a job with American Airlines where he enjoyed working as a commercial pilot until the Boeing 757 he was commanding on September 11, 2001, crashed into the Pentagon.

September 10, 2001: San Francisco Mayor Willie Brown receives a phone call warning him not to fly the next morning. Pacifica Radio later reveals that this phone call came directly from National Security Advisor Condoleeza Rice
There is more along these lines. The strange movements of American Airlines and United Airlines stock the day before 911, the fact that most of the fighter jets assigned to protect the United States were called away on training missions. Kind of makes you wonder, doesn’t it?

Democracy on the March in Iraq

See, they're becomming just like us. Secret courts, torture and executions, redefining the term "terrorist" to include domestic criminals, etc. They are learning their lesson well. from the AP wire:


September 07,2006 | BAGHDAD, Iraq -- Iraq has executed 27 "terrorists" convicted by Iraqi courts of killings and rapes in several provinces, the government said Thursday. They were executed in Baghdad on Wednesday, the government's media office said in a brief statement. It did not provide further details.

A senior justice official said all 27 were Iraqis, and two had been convicted of terrorism-related charges. The other 25, including one woman, were convicted of murder and kidnappings.

The sentences were carried out by hanging, the official said, requesting that his name not be used because he was not authorized to speak to the media about the executions.

Shared Sacrifice

Apparently the death of wild-life provoker and self-promoter Steve Irwin has led to an outpouring of grief across the world with many devastated fans leaving flowers and other mementos at the gates of his zoo in Australia. According to an article on CNN.com the media experts are surprised by the attention paid to Irwin’s demise “especially given the glut of long-anticipated celebrity news, such as Katie Couric's debut anchoring the "CBS Evening News," Rosie O'Donnell's arrival on "The View" and the first photographs of Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes' daughter, Suri.” Does this sort of thing make anyone else want to vomit their breakfast? As of yesterday 2,658 young men and women have been killed in the administration’s disastrous invasion and occupation of Iraq. While the actions of these soldiers haven’t been as entertaining as feeding angry crocodiles they are trying to make the best of a horrible situation and there isn’t exactly a parade of American citizens with bouquets of flowers marching up to lay them at the feet of the tomb of the unknowns. In fact, the bodies of dead Americans soldiers are brought home secretly, in wooden crates, at night, lest the American public be disturbed from their orgy of eating, following the inane lives of celebrities and buying a whole lot of crap they don’t really need. Where is the shared sacrifice which war demands of a population? No where around these parts. Bush is employing the rhetoric of WWII without asking the population to do anything in support of this war which, according to Bush, is the most important struggle since the Allied powers took on the Nazi’s. Yeah, right. I think if I see one more “I support the Troops” ribbon on a car at the Staten Island Mall I’m going to shove it up the driver’s ass. How, exactly are you “Supporting the Troops”? By taking mass transit? By helping to break our dependence on foreign energy? By volunteering your middle-class sons and daughters to go to the Persian Gulf in lieu of heading off to their liberal arts college in New England? Let’s not kid ourselves. This war, like most wars in this country’s history is being fought by the working class. The idea that we should start drafting middle class children to get blown up in the middle-east is anathema to Republican politicians whose principal concern is stopping gay marriage before Jesus comes back. (Which according to their calculations should be within the next few years).

Activist Judges

Well, I think its safe to assume after two weeks of waiting breathlessly by the phone that the New York Times won't be publishing my letter to the editor. I composed it in response to conservative law professor Ann Althouse's op ed piece* which excoriated Judge Taylor's decision to invalidate the Bush Administration's evesdropping program. Here it is:

A useful gauge of the health of the conservative movement in America is the extent to which it blames activist judges for the failure of its agenda. Clearly, the conservatives have seen better days. What is especially curious about Ann Althous’s op-ed piece is the fact that she breaks out the tired old saw when the only thing Judge Taylor’s decision does is to interpret and ultimately uphold the FISA “secret court” statute which was duly passed by a Republican controlled Congress. The term “activist Judge” as I understand it implies that the Judge does more than interpret the law, rather the Judge creates a legal structure out of whole cloth to support his or her ideological predilections. A recent example of judicial activism can be found in the Bush v. Gore case where a conservative Supreme Court exhibited a shameful abdication of judicial restraint by throwing the election for George Bush while dressing up its poorly reasoned decision in flowery rhetoric which is now disavows. Could Judge Taylor have spent a little more time developing her Fourth Amendment analysis? That straw man really isn't the issue here. Was her decision to strike down the administrations eavesdropping program an act of judicial activism? No way. While reading Ms. Althous’s article I was reminded of the definition of an activist judge that I was taught in law school; an activist judge is simply defined as a judge with whom you happen to disagree.

*Sorry there's no link to the op-ed but you need to be a NYT gold select member or something like that to read it.

The Workers, Divided

As early as the 1950s sociologists were beginning to recognize that feelings of alienation and anomie at the work place were not restricted to assembly-line and factory workers but were also being experienced by the burgeoning white-collar workforce. C Wright Mills in his seminal work White Collar argues that office workers in American have undergone a form of proletarianisation. In essence, white collar workers sell "pieces of their personality" by adopting certain personality characteristics that do not reflect their true personalities. Consequently, society is filled with these workers and the attendant hypocrisy, deceit and insincerity that comes with their alienation. Since white collar workers manipulate others to earn a living, they experience alienation. Although I haven’t seen any date to suggest it, I believe that this sense of alienation exists irrespective of the type of white collar work being performed.

The current climate of layoffs and uncertain job security has exacerbated these feelings of alienation and almost turned them into overt paranoia. The corporate culture of the 21st century is very different from that of the mid to latter half of the last century (and vastly different from the century before). Robert Goldman from Louis & Clark University has an excellent web-site where he does a content analysis of the way advertising has portrayed work over the last several decades. Especially interesting is his commentary on the way work communities are portrayed in beer advertisements. In the not too distant past, friendship relationships formed at the work-place often carried over to the bowling alley and the golf course. In the present era of corporate downsizing and deindustrialization, one wonders how much occupational community has survived. While not discussed by Goldman, one can theorize that this lack of occupational community goes a long way toward explaining why the white collar proletariat is seemingly disinterested in organizing itself into labor unions when they would clearly benefit from doing so. The current trends of deindustrialization, rapid job shifting, “relentless corporate downsizing” and polarization of wealth have led to a climate of fear at the workplace and the realization that the guy in the next cubicle might be in competition for your job so perhaps its best to keep your distance. Goldman opines that large corporations exacerbated this lack of worker cohesion through so-called “slice of death” advertising which first appeared in the late 1980’s. This type of ad depicted the corporate world as cold and unforgiving and gave the impression that the fastest way to the corner office was to accurately pick the speediest over-night package carrier and the fastest way to the unemployment line was to make a wrong decision. Curiously, these ads have almost disappeared because, Goldman theorizes, in this era of hyper-competitiveness and global movement of labor, being good at your job is no longer correlated with job retention.

What does all this mean for the modern corporate employee? A climate of fear and paranoia is guaranteed to benefit the employer when it comes to lowering salaries and slashing benefits. Employees are deluded into thinking that their co-worker is more of a threat to their job than is the CEO and Board of Directors. The result: a weakened and compliant labor force that is very difficult to organize. Your thoughts?

Big Oil Slick

With the fall elections only a month away and the crazies facing the possibility of losing both the House and Senate, the administration received an early Christmas present from their buddies over at Chevron. A spokesman for the giant oil company claims that it successfully extracted oil from a test well in the deep waters of the Gulf of Mexico. CNN dutifully framed the discovery as “an achievement that could be the biggest breakthrough in domestic oil supplies since the opening of the Alaskan pipeline.” Are we still looking to break our addiction to oil before the election? Someone better hurry off to an OA meeting because I think we're about to have a relapse. By the way, prior to becoming a Sith Lord, Condaleeza Rice spent a decade on the Board of the Chevron Corporation, and apparently was so well thought of that she earned the honor of having one of its supertankers named "Condoleezza". (See picture; btw, the double-hulled, Bahamian-registered oil tanker carrying the moniker of Bush's national security adviser was eventually renamed the Altair Voyager in 2001 after the media had the temerity to question its appropriateness). I’m sure there is no connection between the timing of this discovery and the dear Madam Secretary. Surely the announcement of this discovery wasn’t timed to counter all of those “Voters are very angry with the incumbants” headlines that have been popping up in the papers the last few days.

Rice’s presence on the board isn’t the only connection between the administration and the lucky oil giant. After reviewing roughly 1,500 documents obtained from the Energy Department related to Vice President Cheney's energy task force back in May of 2002, the Natural Resources Defense Council uncovered evidence showing the Bush administration implemented several energy policies requested by Chevron Corporation in its unofficial "advisory" capacity to the President's energy committee. The company provided several recommendations, ranging from easing federal permitting rules for energy projects to relaxing standards fuel supply requirements, which ultimately were included in the president's national energy plan. In a February 5, 2002, letter to President George Bush and copied to Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham, Chevron CEO David J. O'Reilly recommended four short-term actions the administration should take to "eliminate federal barriers to increased energy supplies."

Another Chevron Corporation giant in the Bush administration is Vice President Dick Cheney former Chairman and CEO of everyone’s favorite corporate bogeyman Halliburton Corporation, the world’s largest oil field services company with multi-billion dollar contracts with oil corporations including Chevron. Halliburton's global network of investments includes projects in politically volatile areas including the Caspian Sea region. Dick Cheney was instrumental in negotiating the construction of a Caspian Sea pipeline for Chevron.

Wall Street Oil analysts also took the opportunity presented by the discovery to wag their collective fingers at the consumers who dared to question the oil compamies record profits at a time when people were struggling to fill their gas tanks; Fadel Gheit, an oil analyst for Oppenheimer made the argument that it is only with oil at its current historically high prices that exploration depth really became economically practical.

"This is the silver lining of higher oil prices," he said. "If we didn't have higher oil prices, they wouldn't have dared to risk this much capital here." Yes, every grey cloud of smog has silver lining the pockets of the oil executives.

Anyway, it looks like more lies and deception from your friends in Washington and Texas. My prediction is that in the next couple of days Bush will start talking about this “discovery” at press conferences and questions about the timing of the announcement will be ignored by the mainstream media even as the discovery of an enormous amount of unknown oil is revealed as a fake. We’ll see…

Labor Day

Why is Labor Day in the United States celebrated on the first Monday in September as opposed to the first day in May, the day internationally acknowledged as the worker's holiday? If you suspected it had something to do with anti-communism you would be correct.

The original idea for Labor Day originated with an organization known as the Knights of Labor, an early precurser of the AFL-CIO. The first Labor Day parade was held on September 5, 1882 in New York City. Several years later the first Monday in September was chosen as the national holiday because in the aftermath of the Chicago Haymarket riots in 1886 President Grover Cleveland didn't want a May holiday to become day of commeration.

Despite periodic encouragement by labor to move the holiday to early May, the government has always resisted, fearing the solidarity with internationalist socialism that might result from aligning the workers of the United States with those of the rest of the world. The government has clearly acheived its objective since there is nary a mention of labor right on labor day. In the United States the day is customarily filled with the American activities of shopping and eating processed meat.

Meanwhile, as the quality manufacturing jobs are sent overseas and replaced with low-wage service industry employment, membership in labor unions is at an all time low. American's have become so individualized and self-absorbed that they are completely unable or unwilling to see how much they are being exploited by their government and their corporations. If any era cried out for a return of a strong labor movement it is this one. Unfortunately right now the traditional staid labor movement as represented by the AFL/CIO has forgotten how to speak for the American worker and the largely unanswered attacks by the current administration on overtime and wages is ignored.

As a result of traditional labor's abdication of the responsibility of defending the American worker, the workers themselves have started to rise up and demand higher wages and better working conditoins. This past May day, millions of workers took to the streets in cities across the United States in spontaneous protests that were largely ignored by the main-stream media. In recognition of this organic movement by labor,and in fear of being left behind, the AFL/CIO has started to change its tune. The following is from their labor day message 2006:

"Ironically, "May Day" was founded by U.S. workers-and taken away from them as a day to celebrate by a federal government fearful of the wave of large demonstrations for the eight-hour day and massive strikes for justice on the railroads, in the mines and factories that had begun in 1877.

Such an action may seem quaint now. But the symbolism of May Day-working people challenging corporate power-still causes fear among the top elite.

Just ask George W. Bush and the Republican extremists in Congress.

In 2003, Bush proclaimed May 1 as "Loyalty Day" when U.S. citizens should express allegiance to our nation and its founding ideals, we resolve to ensure that the blessings of liberty endure and extend for generations to come.

That same year, Congress, designated May 1 of each year as "Loyalty Day."

I propose that after digesting our hot-dogs and hitting the "back-to-school" sales we get together and make sure the next "Loyalty Day" celebration clearly demonstrates to the Bush administration just how happy we are with the way he has treated the American worker.

In the words of the IWW, "Workers of the world unite, you have nothing to lose but your chains." "An injury to one is an injury to all".

Come you masters of war
You that build all the guns
You that build the death planes
You that build the big bombs
You that hide behind walls
You that hide behind desks
I just want you to know
I can see through your masks

You that never done nothin'
But build to destroy
You play with my world
Like it's your little toy
You put a gun in my hand
And you hide from my eyes
And you turn and run farther
When the fast bullets fly

Like Judas of old
You lie and deceive
A world war can be won
You want me to believe
But I see through your eyes
And I see through your brain
Like I see through the water
That runs down my drain

You fasten the triggers
For the others to fire
Then you set back and watch
When the death count gets higher
You hide in your mansion
As young people's blood
Flows out of their bodies
And is buried in the mud

You've thrown the worst fear
That can ever be hurled
Fear to bring children
Into the world
For threatening my baby
Unborn and unnamed
You ain't worth the blood
That runs in your veins

How much do I know
To talk out of turn
You might say that I'm young
You might say I'm unlearned
But there's one thing I know
Though I'm younger than you
Even Jesus would never
Forgive what you do

Let me ask you one question
Is your money that good
Will it buy you forgiveness
Do you think that it could
I think you will find
When your death takes its toll
All the money you made
Will never buy back your soul

And I hope that you die
And your death'll come soon
I will follow your casket
In the pale afternoon
And I'll watch while you're lowered
Down to your deathbed
And I'll stand o'er your grave
'Til I'm sure that you're dead

The Big Queasy

I developed a wicked ear infection from the Shark River Dive. Lord only knows what sort of bacteria is floating around in New Jersey channel water, despite the fact that sea life was abundant and the water clear as anything you would find in the Caribbean. After suffering silently for three days I had a doctor friend prescribe some Cipro-strength antibiotics. I looked them up on line and saw that they are usually used to treat things like the clap and other nasty bacterial infections. The ear feels somewhat better today but no diving for a couple of weeks for me. I even cancelled my NITROX class on Thursday because the thought of doing anything involving diving gives me an earache.

On the political front, Bush accepted “full-responsibility” for the post Katrina government failures which have delayed the rebuilding and intensified the suffering of the poor folks in the Big Easy. Unfortunately it is abundantly clear that “taking full responsibility” is a concept devoid of meaning for this president. While Bush spits out platitudes about rebuilding, the IRS has been instructed to audit the tax returns of thousands of New Orleans’s residents who claimed hurricane damage as a deduction on last year’s taxes, further delaying the refund checks desperately needed to assist residents in rebuilding. In fact, taxpayers form New Orleans were instructed to write “Hurricane Katrina Loss” in big red letters across the top of their tax returns, presumably so they could be more easily singled out for audits. (For more on this, click here.)

I guess the disturbing part of all this is the fact that while Katrina refugees are still sitting in the rubble of their houses anxiously awaiting federal rebuilding funds and tax refunds, information continually comes to light about how much chicanery was going on with the contracts doled out to the crazies’ friends by the Iraq Provisional Authority after the invasion. The government certainly wasn’t asking the hard questions then, were they? 60 Minutes ran a story a few weeks ago about a contract for security at Baghdad Airport that was paid for with two million dollars in cash, transported through the war zone in a duffel bag. In fact, nearly $12 billion in cash was shipped to Iraq and disbursed with virtually no financial controls or reliable accounting. The Administration also cannot account for over $8 billion transferred to Iraqi ministries.

Coalition Provisional Authority employees were seen tossing around football-sized $100,000 bricks of 100 bills inside the Green Zone, withdrawn from Federal Reserve accounts and flown to Iraq in the final days of the CPA’s control over the funds. That kind of money would have rebuilt a lot of houses in the Ninth Ward. Unlike the bureaucratic maze that poor, mostly black and uneducated Katrina survivors were forced to navigate to obtain rebuilding assistance, in Iraq, payments were made from the back of a pickup truck and cash was stored in unguarded sacks in Iraqi ministry offices…”
(Statement by Rep. Henry Waxman, June 21, 2005).

Once the corruption pertaining to these contracts came to light, did the government “take personal responsibility” for the problem and demand an internal audit like it anxiously audited Katrina victims? Not exactly. Paul Bremer’s first action after all of this nonsense came to light was to issue a CPA order immunizing U.S. contractors from any legal liability for human rights, labor or environmental violations stemming from their work in Iraq. According to the 60 minutes report there are currently 50 ongoing investigations involving suspected "fraud, kickbacks, bribery, waste."

Meanwhile, down in New Orleans, a number of reports have recently been released in a wierd sort of commeration of the one year anniversary of the disaster. Oxfam's report points out that $17 billion has been approved by Congress to rebuild homes in Louisiana and Mississippi, yet not one house has been rebuilt with that money in either state.

So where is this personal responsibility the President is taking and what form does it take? Is he grabbing a hammer and rebuilding houses like another (ex)president is in the habit of doing? Is he greasing the wheels of bureaucracy like he did for his contractor buddies in Iraq? Nah. He gave a speech that was long on rhetoric and short on substance then when the lights were turned off he split for higher ground.

Fundamentalist Fascism

Hussein's buddy Donald Rumsfield’s bizarre attack on the critics of the Bush administration exemplifies exactly how desperate the crazies have gotten as they careen deep into their second term. Rumsfeld has taken to framing the administration’s debacle in Iraq as a fight of freedom versus fascism. There is only one problem with the analogy; it isn’t accurate. A generally agreed-upon definition of fascism is "a form of political behavior marked by obsessive preoccupation with community decline, humiliation, or victim-hood and by compensatory cults of unity, energy, and purity, in which a mass-based party of committed nationalist militants, working in uneasy but effective collaboration with traditional elites, abandons democratic liberties and pursues with redemptive violence and without ethical or legal restraints goals of internal cleansing and external expansion." Paxton, Robert O. The Anatomy of Fascism. (Knopf Publishing Group, 2005). To me this sounds far more like the shenanigans going on in and around the White House than in the theocratic totalitarian regimes of Iran and Saudi Arabia. The unwillingness of the administration to frame its enemies as religious fanatics is disturbing. Perhaps because here at home we have a government run by violent religious fanatics? One wonders.

Radical Rant

When I was in college I was a fringe member of various subversive communist groups including the League for the Revolutionary Party and the Workers World Party. Eventually I had to decide whether to go out and join the world or continue on with the class struggle. I was no big fan of communism; I found the people humorless and the ideology stifling, although as a sociology student I thought and still think that a lot of the Marxist critique of Capitalism is right on the money (haha). Most monolithic ideologies are stifling, come to think of it. Anyway, when I decided that I could stomach being a left-wing democrat, even though it meant accepting the obvious systemic inequities of capitalism, I consoled myself with the thought that at least in America we have a constitution with a fourth amendment and freedom of speech and that although the government is for the most part corrupt and self-interested, at least the judicial system is a check on the robber baron tendencies of the millionaires in Congress and the White House. I was able to cruise along with this happy fiction intact until I graduated law school and saw first hand the mockery the judicial system makes of the concept of justice, as the term is classically understood. The bias against the people is more clearly seen in the criminal justice system where young black men are sent to jail for five years for crimes that if they had occurred at Columbia wouldn't have even resulted in an arrest. Bail set on marijuana dealers at thousands of dollars, 5 years state prison for shoplifting, etc., etc. After 911, this country went bonkers. Completely mad. The government, which can't muster up enough energy to ensure that everyone in the richest country on earth has affordable healthcare, was able to overnight throw a net of security over this country so that any movement through the system can be, and probably is being monitored. We are now engaged in an endless war against "terrorists" and the government's legal arguments for why torture is acceptable conduct are actually being carefully considered by the Courts. We are over in Iraq for no apparent reason yet we can't spare enough National Guard troops to rebuild New Orleans because they are all over in Iraq torturing people and ensuring that the Islamic world will be waging jihad against the United States for the next ten generations. Perhaps that is why I want to run away to the woods. I find it harder and harder to justify American action since we are starting to resemble what we always excoriated in the rest of the world.

Last Thursday At Shark River

Last Thursday we all met at the Cheesequake rest-stop on the Garden Sate Parkway for our eagerly anticipated Shark River Inlet dive. Ryan was late because he was nabbed by the cops for speeding on the 440. Despite his impressive collection of badges and PBA cards the Highway cop gave him a ticket. In hindsight we should have recognized this as a harbinger of things to come. We proceeded to caravan down the GSP, past Asbury Park, exiting at 100b the exit for Ocean Grove. The best part of this dive is setting up tanks, weights and equipment right on the boardwalk where the wealthy summer people perform their after dinner saunter. You can see the envy and interest on their faces when we tell them that yes, we are not only going to dive where others are not even allowed to swim, but we are going to wait until dark before we enter the water.

We were suited up and ready at 8:30pm. The tide was supposed to be slack at that time but there was a noticeable inward current pushing legions of translucent jellyfish up the inlet towards the multi-million dollar homes that line the shore. We waited as the tide kept coming. Eventually we decided to splash in because if we waited too much longer, the tide would reverse, pushing anything in the water, including us, out to sea. I was the second one in and it became apparent to me right away that I was under-weighted. I had 24 pounds of weight on my belt but with the salt water, aluminum tank and 7mm wetsuit it wasn’t enough. I would get down to 20 feet and then immediately start to “cork” to the surface. Jane was having a similar problem. I had a fisherman under the bridge throw me an extra three pounds of weight which I stuffed into my BCD. It was enough for me to get down but just barely. Unfortunately, Jane was similarly underweighted and unable to stay under and she had to abort the dive. Once safely huddled on the bottom I realized that the current had indeed reversed and was pushing us toward the ocean at a rather rapid clip. This in itself was not much concern, we simply drifted along the bottom taking note of the lobsters, crabs, flounder, eels and other unidentifiable but prolific marine life trapped in the penumbra of our dive lights. Unfortunately, when doing an out-and-back dive the pleasant tumble in the direction of the tide eventually comes to an end and the return to the entry point is characterized by a vigorous attempt to swim against the force of the Atlantic Ocean as it rushes back from the inlet into the sea. This is difficult, to put it mildly. Add in five other relatively unexperienced divers and two dive-flag ropes which inevitably snared several of our limbs and pieces of our equipment, and a normally challenging underwater swim becomes a rugby-like free-for all with divers clambering over the rocks on the bottom and each other in a dash to get to the exit point and untangled from the ropes before the air runs out. Ok, it wasn’t quite that dramatic but it wasn’t the smoothest dive either. Louis lost a fin which immediately sank to the bottom and went skipping off down the sand in the general direction of Great Britain. Despite Ryan and I going in for another dive and trying to locate it, Loius ended the evening out a $150 set of fins.

Despite the mishaps, seeing the underwater life at night in the Atlantic is fascinating and quite humbling. You realize just how much else is going on in the world and how small a part of our planet we actually see from day to day. Every time I dive in the ocean I think of how privileged I am to be living in the 21st century and have access to the technology which allows me to remain under the sea for far longer than the millions of people who have lived on this planet through the ages. I never understand people who don’t find diving fascinating. To me it is akin to going into outer space, yet in a manner accessible to almost everyone. I highly recommend it to those of you who read this.

From an Agrarian Utopian:

Ever wonder what the framers, in this case Thomas Jefferson would have thought of the banning of books on evolution from the public schools?

"I am really mortified to be told that, in the United States of America, a fact like this [i.e., the purchase of an apparent geological or astronomical work] can become a subject of inquiry, and of criminal inquiry too, as an offense against religion; that a question about the sale of a book can be carried before the civil magistrate. Is this then our freedom of religion? and are we to have a censor whose imprimatur shall say what books may be sold, and what we may buy? And who is thus to dogmatize religious opinions for our citizens? Whose foot is to be the measure to which ours are all to be cut or stretched? Is a priest to be our inquisitor, or shall a layman, simple as ourselves, set up his reason as the rule for what we are to read, and what we must believe? It is an insult to our citizens to question whether they are rational beings or not, and blasphemy against religion to suppose it cannot stand the test of truth and reason. If [this] book be false in its facts, disprove them; if false in its reasoning, refute it. But, for God's sake, let us freely hear both sides, if we choose." --Thomas Jefferson to N. G. Dufief, 1814. ME 14:127

One Last New York Moment

New Yorkers have a strange and irrational compulsion to defend their City against any sort of criticism, valid or otherwise and the facts be dammed. Of the two people who responded to my comment that I was looking to move out of the City to a more rural area, one compared me to the Unabomber and the other predicted financial ruin should I dare to try to make a living as an attorney anywhere outside of the First or Second Appellate Division. Listen guys, despite what you think the world does not cease to exist west of the Hudson River or north of the Bronx, (although I question whether anything except knuckle-dragging NASCAR loving inbreeds live in a variety of southern and some western states) and millions of people enjoy quite meaningful lives in the world beyond New York. Yet another friend of mine epitomized the insanity of the New York centric philosophy when he tried to argue with me that the food in Italy wasn’t really that good compared to some of the restaurants in Manhattan. Another guy I know on Staten Island basically dismissed the rest of the world with the comment: “Europe? I went there. I didn’t like it.”

40 Acres and a Mule

This afternoon I will be cutting out of work early to dive the Shark River Inlet on the Jersey Shore. Ryan has set a meeting at the Cheesequake rest-stop on the Garden State Parkway at 5:30pm, too early in my opinion. The dive itself is only 18-24 feet deep and it is in a channel with quite a bit of boat traffic. Last year the dive was my first ever outside the quarry and it will be a good opportunity to get into some salt water. It is always a little strange to be at the shore during the work-week but I guess it beats watching tv.

Speaking of not watching television, I have been exploring the possibility of homesteading in either Pennsylvania, Maine or the Finger Lakes region of New York. The final location will depend on the job market of course but we are shooting for a target date of next October when I’ll be able to obtain my license to practice by waiving in on motion. In order to prepare for the rigors of country living I have been researching the art of making cheese and wine and reading about various utopian socialist communities from the 1800s. Books written about the back-to-the-land movement of the 1970s have provided a few hours of amusing reading; most hyper-educated city kids who bought their 40 acres and a mulecame back from the woods after a few years when they realized how difficult it is to make a living from black land dirt. Land is much more expensive these days, now that the entire country is being inexorably turned into a collection of sub-divisions and malls. For very cheap land one has to go to the smallest corners of Maine and there aren’t too many opportunities to practice law up there. We’re going to head down to the southern Pennsylvania area this week-end to gauge the real estate market near York. That way we’d be close to Becky’s parents for child-care and within commuting distance of Harrisburg yet we would still be in farm country.

Happy Monday

A couple of fun, albeit short dives at Dutch Springs over the week-end. The visibility there seems to deteriorate as the season goes on despite the presence of Zebra mussels in the water. When you are hanging at a buoy looking down the visibility seems endless and the water aqua blue. However, when you hit the first thermocline at 45 feet the water becomes viscous and those green algae particles start to thicken. Once you hit 65 feet viz is down to 10-15 feet and it gets dark. Oh well, the Caribbean it ain’t. The second dive was back to the copter, although we didn’t do more than touch it before two of the divers I was with ran low on air and we had to call it after only 30 minutes. Tagging along with the advanced open water students gets me into the water but the diving is very restricted. A lot of the students in this class have issues with buoyancy as well. And what’s with not diving the plan? I was paired up with Arthur, who I knew, and this other dude, who I didn’t in a three-man buddy team. Arthur and I dive well together, but this other student was too green and kept swimming off to do his own thing. Personally, I try to keep within 10’ of my buddy all the time because I look at that tank on his back as my secondary air source should something go wrong. I probably should have said something but I didn’t. I had my first Nitrox class on Sunday night and I’m looking forward to that certification so I can stay down longer. Its all about staying down longer.

The NYC Scuba meet-up is tomorrow night. I think I’ll go and check it out although this week is kind of busy. Shark River on Thursday night with the same cast of characters from this week-end. At least I’ll be diving with one other person who doesn’t need the dive for an AOW certification. Hopefully the drive to the Jersey Shore will be worth it. It is a great night dive but being at the tail end of a group of divers may impact visibility. This year I am grabbing that lobster if I see him.

Shark Attack Summer

So tomorrow its off to Dutch Springs. I’ll be accompanying Ryan and his AOW students while they do a wreck and a neutral buoyancy dive. I’m not so thrilled about yet another dive at Dutch Springs but it will be better than sitting at home watching the grass grow. Going out there is actually a very nice way to spend a Saturday. The early wake-up, the drive through New Jersey on traffic free Route 78, stopping at the bagel and sandwich stores, then laying around the Pennsylvania countryside talking about diving in-between dives. Still, the Atlantic beckons. I have to get in a bunch of dives this fall since next year may be a tad hectic with little Wexford arriving in February. How soon before they start diving? Can I log a baptism as a first dive? Many questions need to be answered in this area.

In other news, war is raging over seas, terrorists are plotting the end of the human race, global warming is cooking the planet like a Pillsbury biscuit, yet the top news story this morning…Jon Benet Ramsey. Yes, just in time for the fall elections, a break in the ten year old child murder case threatens to distract an unfortunate number of already disinterested voters in swing states from paying attention to what is going on in the world outside of their television sets. Fifty-thousand dead Iraqi children barely merit a yawn from the overfed masses, but one dead white six year old beauty queen pushes the war right off the front page. I’m sure that lunatic they picked up in Thailand had something to do with it, after all he confessed! Why is the press so fucking stupid? Even the New York Times had the damn story above the fold this morning. Doesn’t anyone realize what is going on here? How easily Americans are distracted. We can’t handle negativity. The minute something inane and meaningless, yet titillating and perverse comes along, down the rabbit hole we go. Doesn’t anyone remember ‘shark-attack summer’ that enraptured America in the months prior to 911. I don’t give a shit who murdered Jon Benet Ramsey. There. I said it.

DOJ: 25, ACLU: 1

It seems as if at least one member of the federal judiciary is finally crawling out from under her desk to wag her finger at the administration for its totalitarian program of random unauthorized surveillance of American citizens. District Judge Anna D. Taylor of Detroit Michigan proved that the third “co-equal” branch of the government can do more than throw an election for the Republicans. Taylor, 75, was obviously, not appointed by a Republican.She has been on the Eastern District of Michigan bench since 1979. Appointed by President Carter, she became one of the first African-American women to sit on a federal court.

In a lengthy opinion, surprisingly devoid of emotion, Judge Taylor found that the Surveillance program was a clear violation of the Fourth Amendment and that despite Congresses deferring to the Executive by the creation of the FISA Court and by allowing the President great latitude to fight the war on terror, “ all of Congress’s concessions to Executive need and to the exigencies of the present situation as a people have been futile”. The President, she noted, is created by the very same Constitution which also includes the Fourth Amendment.

Judge Taylor then goes on to find that the surveillance program is also unsustainable under the First Amendment the FISA enabling statute clearly states that that no American is to be considered an agent of a foreign power solely on the basis of activities protected by the First Amendment, like speaking on the telephone.

She further declared that the program "violates the separation of powers doctrine, the Administrative Procedures Act, the First and Fourth amendments to the United States Constitution, the FISA and Title III." As much as I’d like to continue to parse the decision and comment on her arguments more I just had a horrible flash-back to law school and I better stop now before my brain explodes.

Back to Diving:

I suppose I should write something about scuba diving since this blog was supposed to be about scuba diving. In fact, I am going scuba diving this Saturday at the quarry. I joined a meet-up group today for divers in the New York City area and they are running a boat dive to the wreck Iberia from the dive boat Karen. The Iberia is a French wood-hulled steamer that was sunk in November 1888 after colliding with the freighter Umbria in heavy fog off the southern coast of Long Island. She was owned by the Fabre Line and displaced 1,388 gross and 943 net tons. The Iberia was 255 feet long and had a 36 foot beam. From the book Wreck Valley:

"The Iberia, under the command of Captain Sagolis, was bound from the Persian Gulf to New York with a cargo of 28,000 crates of dates, a few bales of hides, and coffee, all consigned to Arnold & Cheney Inc. of New York. She developed engine trouble just a few miles off Long Island, New York where she lay at anchor for three weeks awaiting repairs. Once repairs were made she slowly started to make her way to New York. Meanwhile, on Saturday morning, November 10, 1888, the 520 foot long Cunard luxury liner Umbria, bound for Liverpool, encountered dense fog as she sailed out of New York harbor. The Umbria, which was under the command of Captain William McMickan, was sailing with 215 first class passengers, 67 second class, and 429 steerage class passengers. Captain McMickan reduced the Umbria's speed, posted a lookout, and began to blow the vessel's fog horn.
According to eyewitness accounts listed in a NEW YORK TIMES article "At 1:18 PM the form of a strange steamer loomed out of the fog, lying across the Umbria's path and headed northward. The Cunarder's wheel was reversed at full speed, but not withstanding the precautions that had been taken on board to prevent an accident, the Umbria had headway enough to ram her sharp steel nose into the stranger's port quarter and carry away the greater part of her stern. The piece sliced off included the overhanging part or 'counter,' and measured lengthwise on top, 14 feet". "This section holding the flagstaff with colors flying, drifted away on one side of the Umbria and the bulk of the disabled steamer floated away in an opposite direction".

Fat Bastard II

One of the perks of this otherwise incredibly boring job is that occasionally a lawyer who is on the panel will come by and take a few of us adjusters out to lunch. Today 9 of us were whisked off to a fancy Italian Resturaunt where my dietary resolve collapsed under the weight of a nice tellagio cheese and a salad of summer figs accompanied by a scoop of home-made ricotta and several slices of prosciutto di parma. This was followed by a fresh sea bass cooked in a herb wine and butter (of course) sauce paired with some fresh clams, mussels and calamari. Mercifully, no one had the temerity to order dessert. I so infrequently get to eat anywhere where a lunch entrée tops $6.95 so I immediately justified breaking my diet for the indulgence. Was it worth it? I don’t know, I’ve been unable to keep my eyes open this afternoon to give the matter much thought.

Fat Bastard

So I went shopping for a suit yesterday and I had to confront the undeniable fact that since graduating from law school I really have turned into a fat bastard. I exercise often, at least 45 minutes of aerobic exercise (running or elliptical) four times per week but it hasn’t been enough to ward off the effects of declining metabolism and crappy diet. I must have gained about 30 lbs in the last five years. Of course, the major change in my diet from five years ago is that I am no longer a vegetarian. I was a vegetarian for almost ten years and I think it had a lot to do with keeping my weight in check; well, that and running 50 miles per week. I guess when you run that much you can eat everything you want. If I thought me knees and feet could handle it I’d up my running back to 1995 levels, but I feel every mile much more now. I’ve been forced to replace a lot of those road miles with the elliptical machine and even with walking on some days. I think I’m going to try an experiment and revert back to a vegetarian diet for a month. I will also increase my aerobics to five days per week and try to use weights three days per week. Perhaps by the second week in September I’ll be able to get into some more of the clothes in my closet. So far I ate yogurt for breakfast and a large salad for lunch. Kill me now.

With the baby coming though I can’t really be so selfish as to carry around a spare tire and so naïve to think that it isn’t having an effect on my heart and overall health. Plus, it will probably help my diving. Looks like it’s off to the quarry this coming Saturday for some semi-deep wreck diving. Shark River next week.

Working 9 to 5

The last hour of work on Friday afternoon has to be the longest 60 minute period of time known to man. It is impossible to engage your work in any meaningful way with the specter of the week-end perched on your shoulder like a drunken parrot. My big dilemma today is what to do after the whistle blows. In the scheme of things this is a relatively small problem when compared to the challenges facing the working poor and Joe Lieberman. I am sure I’ll come up with a creative and amusing way to spend Friday night; I always do. I went to the C&D party last night. It was good seeing all my former co-workers, but they all seemed a little too tightly wound. Maybe its me. After all the biggest decision I make all day is what to have for lunch. Life in the slow lane.

The Lieberman juggernaut has taken a page from the Dick Cheney playbook and is fear-mongering on the war. I suppose Joe’s best strategy is to try and peel off all the Republican votes from Schlesinger. Lieberman all but accused Lamont of treason yesterday. With the shampoo bandits freshly apprehended at Heathrow, Joltin Joe obviously thought it a good time to put a plug in for the White House’s war on terror. I don’t know why Lieberman gets under my skin so much; maybe because there are so many Americans that still hew to his center-right ideology and that fact I find intensely irritating. I find myself shouting at the television whenever I see his wrinkly face.

Snakes on a Plane

Here it is August 10, 2006 and we are getting the first report that Al Qaeda was planning a 911 celebration involving toothpaste and hair gel. I suppose I should be outraged but the discovery of this latest plot merely depresses me. More long lines at the airport, more privacy restrictions, more infringements on my civil rights. I also suspect we will be uncovering a few more of these plots in the run up to the fall elections. (see this). If I sound cynical please forgive me, I suppose I shouldn’t expect my government to manipulate information to perpetuate its hold on power. Unfortunately, this government has lost all of its credibility on this issue. Nevertheless, if it weren’t for our invasion and occupation of Iraq and the monstrous propaganda machine required to keep the public support (Just who makes all those yellow “support the troops” ribbon magnets, anyway?) we could have been focusing our efforts on the eradication of Al Qaeda as an institutional threat. We will never be able to eradicate hatred, but it takes planning and no small amount of organization to pull off an attack. If we had spent a small percentage of those hundreds of billions of dollars we spent running around in the desert on say, training a generation of Farsi speaking operatives or even propagandizing a generation of Islamic youth, we might be better equipped to handle these matters before they get to the operational stage.

The Sadness of Lieberman

I’ve been mulling over Lieberman’s defeat all day. Thinking about it too much, actually, if the growing pile of actual work on my desk is any indication. Lieberman clearly deserved to lose this election but it wasn’t because of his support of the Iraq war. Lieberman deserved to lose because in the end he was unable to distinguish Washington D.C. from Connecticut. The erstwhile Senator from the Nutmeg State is completely unable to accept the fact that his center tightrope balancing act was not welcome in the current political climate. As Sydney Schanberg put it on Salon today, being a moderate is only effective if your opponent is willing to compromise. Clearly, this gang of thieves running the Whitehouse is disinclined to compromise about anything. When your opponents won’t even take baby-steps in your direction, what you as a senator think of as compromise appears to your constituents as capitulation. Lieberman first began to lose his Joementum when his constituents realized that Joe was obviously relishing his role as the right wing moralist of the party. (This was at some point in the year 2000 right about when he decided, along with Gore, to allow the contested Bush ballots to be counted in Florida.)

Joe, in this, the Republic’s darkest hour your thoughts aren’t even with the people. We don’t want to compromise, we want a fight. We want to wrest this country back from the religious crazies and war mongers and give it back to the people. It is very telling that you named your new campaign. “Connecticut for Lieberman” rather than “Lieberman for Connecticut”. Kind of says it all right there. Because its all about you Joe, isn’t it? Who are we that we deign to think we can knock a sitting senator off his throne because he doesn’t represent our interests. My goodness, isn’t this the Democracy you and your Republican amigos are trying to shove down the Iraqi’s throats at the point of a gun? So now you’re pulling a Rudy Giuliani and trying to make an end-run around the legislative process because it doesn’t suit your personal interests. You are willing to take a hacksaw to the Democratic party by ignoring the voters (remember the voters Joe? ) and continuing this campaign because, in your words, we need less partisanship in Washington, not more? Well bugger-off Joe. You lost. If you keep going with this campaign the only winners will be the Republicans in November.

Ok, Ok

I'm going to lay off the City for a while. New York has exasperated untold millions of people since Peter Stuyvesant was pegging around the downtown area. Here's some quotes rom the movie "Blue in the Face":

"I think one of the reasons I live in New York is because...I know my way around New York. I don't know my way around Paris. I don't know my way around Denver. I don't know my way around Maui....I've been thinking of leaving for...35 years now. I'm almost ready."-- (Lou Reed)

"I'm scared in my own apartment. I'm scared 24 hours a day. But not necessarily in New York. I actually feel pretty comfortable in New York. I get scared...in like Sweden. You know, it's kind of empty." Lou Reed

On to other things.

Lost His Joementum

First step toward taking back the House and Senate accomplished. Lieberman shows how self-absorbed he is by taking a page from the Republican play-book and ignoring the law by asserting he will run as an "Independant Democrat". Hopefully his amigos in the Democratic party will crush this before it gets started. He really should just get the hell out of our party and run as the Republican he is.

Things I learned on the Bike Path

On Sunday I went for a 5 mile run followed by a 30 mile bike ride. I rode from the Staten Island Ferry Terminal, up the West Side greenway, across the top of Manhattan on Dykman Street, then down the East Side. I came to several realizations along the journey. The first is that it is always a good idea to bring a spare tube when riding through the trash and broken glass strewn across the bike path at 155th Street and Edgecomb Avenue. I learned the hard way that patching an inner tube while the neighborhood crack-heads cruise by looking for something to steal is not fun. For everyone who has argued with me over the last week that New York has become a safe comfortable place to raise a family I dare them to go for a leisurely walk in East Harlem and then tell me that the bad old days are a but a memory.

The second thing I learned is that paying $10 for a rear derailleur adjustment does not guarantee that said adjustment will hold through 25 miles of urban riding. A tip of the hat to the Tribeca Bike shop for doing the adjustment while I waited, a wag of the finger for being so sloppy as to not check their work before letting me out the door.

I also learned that many people with bicycles, especially the bikes that have all that stuff on them, many, many of those people are absolutely fucking crazy. When I was disembarking form the ferry I accidentally nudged, and I do mean nudged, a guy’s bike which was in the rack next to mine. I immediately apologized to the owner who glared at me and then shot me the finger. Well, ok, whatever, I replied and then walked away. Another lesson: don’t turn your back on an angry lunatic. As we were getting off the boat he came up behind me and slammed the font tire of his bike into my rear derailleur (which, as I note above, was not working so well already) and then stood there staring at me. I just said, “whatever, dude” and got on my bike and rode away. There are a lot of angry morons in this City. Maybe some of you accept this sort of behavior as normal for New York, but it pissed me off. That man belonged in a jail cell, far away from civilized people who do not incite physical altercations with random strangers over non-events.

So, Sunday was full of learned lessons. A few more: No one fat, ugly or poor apparently resides on the West Side of Manhattan between the Battery and Fairway at 125th Street. However, when I got above 125th Street throwing garbage in the park and drinking in public are much more prevalent Sunday activities than the running or bike riding done in the lower half of the island. What is wrong with people? Why do people think that they can trash their surroundings? Does no one give a crap that we all have to live in this City together? I wish we could bring back public flogging for littering; it really is a criminal activity when you live in a city of 10 million people all sharing the same spaces.

My Precious

This is deeply disturbing, yet at the same time it looks totally natural.

I'm Back

Sorry friends, I’ve been a lazy blogger this week and I know how much you all hang on the edge of your seats awaiting the latest installment of the ZOS. Frankly I’ve been feeling a bit under the weather this week; I’ve caught a nasty cold, in August, and I ate a Canadian bacon cheeseburger the other night that has been killing me, literally I think. Why did I order medium rare ground beef in a diner with questionable air conditioning on the hottest day of the last 50 years, you ask? I’m afraid I don’t have an answer, but boy I wish I had ordered the Turkey Club instead. Apparently the worst of the heat is over, although today’s 87 degrees is still hot enough to drain the life out of you. Becky has gone to her 20th high-school reunion in Buffalo this week-end which leaves me free to prowl about the bowels of the City, assuming my own bowels can hold out until quitting time today. (Sorry, I’m about as funny as Mel Gibson at a bar-mitzvah today, ba-dum-bump!).

Usually I see these week-ends sans-a-wife as periods of personal enrichment and relaxation but they invariably end up with me marinating in something or other and then neurotically cleaning the house. I have received several objections to my characterization of New York as a shit-hole so I’d like to clarify: It is an over-priced, over-crowded, dirty shit-hole full of self-absorbed, self-aggrandizing people for the most part oblivious to the world beyond its borders. Fortunately, it is also a wonderfully diverse colorful place where anything can happen and where I can get anything I want at any hour of the day or night. So, I guess it is a mixed bag after all.

New York, Love it or Hate it?

Here's another weigh-in from Mr. X of middle-east fame taking issue with my description of New York as a "shit-hole". My answer follows:

"A wasteful bloated state government yes. A government of three people yes. The most dysfunctional state government in the U S - I wouldn't argue over that. Under the last two mayors city government has run reasonably well, been trimmed down and has been scandal free. The mayor has made some political missteps recently (the Con Ed deal, and the unsurprising disclosures about the 2004 convention).
But a shithole? Even with all the waste, the amount I pay in state and local tax is at least commensurate with the value of not having to own an automobile. The staggering list of museums which have their own cultural affairs budget line are required to have 'pay what you wish' admission, it doesn't take much courage to visit the Metropolitan or Museum of Natural History for 25 cents, I know someone who regularly does it. Just think - I can trace my lineage back to Adam and Eve (they didn't eat pork, and Adam was circumcised!) and none of my ancestors have ever owned an automobile. I am the first in the line that ever learned to drive.
How about those Adirondack campgrounds you like so much. How much public open space does this state have compared to neighboring ones? I bet we are close to the highest per capita in the U S. It is sad how little there is, for example, along the spectacular Maine coast.
You should have seen the Times article about property taxes over the weekend. You are better off living here - the average home in northern new jersey is subject to about $6,000 in property taxes, and what do THEY get for it??
It was fun seeing New York through the eyes of my Viennese friend. We didn't discuss it, because my friend is increasingly oblivious to anything that doesn't involve opera, but the middle class standard of living here is so much higher and the cost is so much lower. Born in Minneapolis, we went to College together at Columbia ca. 1970. He comes back about every two years. I think he is amazed by the cultural diversity, both high and low, and the clean and more ordered place that it has become even over the last ten years. How would you like to live in a city with a summer climate roughly like ours, where virtually nothing is air conditioned? "

I say:

If you lived in any boro other than Manhattan, which many millions of New Yorkers do, you would not only own a car but would also be subjected to random ticketing and towing, often without an actual reason. Dave has gotten at least 4 tickets for failing to display a muni-meter receipt right side up in his windshield, when the ticket has in fact been present and right side up. Simple corruption on the part of the brownies but a real expensive hassle for the recipient of the ticket. As far as property taxes go, explain the difference between paying an average rent of $2,700 for a small one bedroom apartment in Manhattan versus paying $6,000 in property taxes for a spacious home in new jersey. The museums are nice but again for those middle class New Yorkers who can't afford to drive in and park in a garage they might as well be on the moon the way "mass transit" runs on the week-end. I agree, Manhattan is a wonderful place but it is really a wonderful place for two types of people, the very well off and those who were lucky enough to secure a rent controlled apartment back in the day when such things existed.
As for the wild-life and the Adirondaks, ok I'll give you that one, although I have visited other states that do a nice job with their parks without an income tax (New Hampshire). As for "clean and orderly", read one-dimensional and boring. The entire City is becoming one large New York related theme park from Times Square to the East Village, from Williamsburg to the Seaport. I suppose there are some native New Yorkers around, somewhere, perhaps on the Upper West Side, but they have for the most part been replaced by 20-something year-olds from Ohio who come here, not with dreams of making it in literature and art, but with goals of partying in wall street bars and then moving to the exurbs to raise a family. The sense of community is gone (with exceptions, always there are exceptions). It is frightening to me that I find Staten Island to be the most authentic New York experience left in this City. So sad, so sad.