About: A Guest Commentator

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“Sara tongued-tied” explains Bush Doctrine

September 15, 2008 |
 

When Sarah Palin told a group of graduating Missionaries that government leaders were sending troops to Iraq as part of “God’s Plan,” she really didn’t mean that government leaders were sending troops to Iraq as part of “God’s Plan.”

What she really meant was that God “has a plan” and that this “Plan” includes rightness, goodness, and “certain inalienable rights” including “life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness”.

I wonder if the missionaries took it that way?

I also wondered, immediately, how Palin could possibly expect anyone with three live brain cells to believe that “God has a Plan and it includes a war in Iraq” … means anything other than, “God has a Plan and it includes a war in Iraq.”

Palin repeated the “inalienable rights” comment at least three times during phase one of her interview with noted softball pitcher, Charlie Gibson. Interestingly enough, Johnny McSame used the exact language on several occasions during the course of his “prepared remarks” to what at least the freshmen in the audience at Columbia University thought were cold questions, during the course of his portion of a Forum on Public Service, where McScripted appeared in advance of Barack Obama. «Read the rest of this article»

Sections: Issues, News, Opinion, Politics | No Comments
 

A Candidate speaks: On Democracy

September 12, 2008 |
 

David Cutting is a candidate for Ward 8 City Council. This is his second position paper.



Ward 8 City Council Candidate David Cutting

City Code Section 1-204(c), as copied below, is anti-democracy, and the new members, hopefully including this writer, must vote to repeal it.

A public comment period is conducted prior to each regular session of the city council from 7:00 p.m. to 7:30 p.m.. Any person wishing to address the council shall make such request to the city clerk by noon on Wednesday prior to the regular session and shall submit their name and the topic of said comments. Each person shall be allowed a maximum of five minutes to speak during the comment period. No public comments concerning any zoning amendment to be considered by the city council at such regular session shall be received during this period.

We must encourage, not restrict, resident participation in our city government. It should suffice for persons to sign up for comments between 7:15 and 7:30, as they enter the meeting, and to do so without stating a topic. The council should hear the five-minute comments, in the order in which people signed in, at the end of the regular session. This will help ensure that the public will have the opportunity to address items of current concern, rather than stale issues that may already be resolved. «Read the rest of this article»

Sections: Issues, News, Opinion, Politics | No Comments
 

Americans: Victims of 9-11 polarization

September 11, 2008 |
 

We suffer in our remembrance of 9/11, because of the terrible loss of innocent lives on that grim day. We also suffer because 9/11 was seized as an opportunity to run a political agenda… It is not simply 9/11 that needs to be remembered. We also need to remember the politicization of 9/11 and the polarizing narrative which followed… As we were all victims of 9/11, so we have become victims of the interpretation of 9/11. ~~ Dennis J Kucinich, 9.11.08

This is a reprint of Mr. Kucinich’s Op/Ed statement:

America must move from the errant, retributive justice of 9/11 to a healing, restorative process of truth and reconciliation.

Before the Congress adjourns, I will bring forth a new proposal for the establishment of a National Commission on Truth and Reconciliation, which will have the power to compel testimony and gather official documents to reveal to the American people not only the underlying deception which has divided us, but in that process of truth seeking set our nation on a path of reconciliation.

We suffer in our remembrance of 9/11, because of the terrible loss of innocent lives on that grim day. We also suffer because 9/11 was seized as an opportunity to run a political agenda, which has set America on a course of the destruction of another nation and the destruction of our own Constitution. And we have become less secure as a result of the warped practice of pursing peace through the exercise of pre-emptive military strength. «Read the rest of this article»

Sections: Events, Issues, News, Opinion, Politics | No Comments
 

Knoxville dumps Redflex red light cameras

September 9, 2008 |
 

Clarksville wants to install red-light cameras at four to six Clarksville intersections in what is basically a dangerous revenue generating scheme. These cameras result in more accidents not less. The damage rear end accidents cause often costs more to repair. There is also an increased likelihood of injuries and even death to those who are involved in these red-light camera triggered rear-end accidents. Let’s not even talk about the fact that city-wide insurance rates will likely end up going through the roof even if you never get one of these tickets.

The company our city is currently favoring is Redflex, an Australian company. They have been the vendor in charge of the City of Knoxville’s red-light camera system that is until August 1st. Redflex missed a filing deadline to renew their contract. Reflex lays the blame for the missed deadline on the Federal Express package courier company.

The City of Knoxville has had mixed results with their experience with Redflex and could have opted to allow Redflex to file their bid late but chose specifically not to do so. This is a clear indication of their dissatisfaction with the company.

Clarksville frequently holds the city of Knoxville as an example the city of Clarksville should aspire to. So perhaps we should delay awarding a red-light camera enforcement contract to a company that they are in the process of dumping. «Read the rest of this article»

Sections: Issues, News, Opinion | No Comments
 

Ward 8 Candidate David Cutting speaks out on public safety issues

September 5, 2008 |
 

David Cutting, candidate for Clarksville Ward 8 City Council, in his first position paper, targets the issues of Public Safety. Cutting is seeking the seat currently held by Councilor James Doyle.

I choose to write my first position paper, Public Safety, as a brief narrative, derived from my personal observations.

The current City Council systematically denies pay increases for our firefighters and police officers by first telling them they must accept salary reductions, so that when their current salaries remain uncut they feel good that at least they did not lose anything. However, the public loses, when seasoned officers leave for smaller cities, such as Ashland City and Oak Grove, for higher pay. We must then recruit and train replacements, at significant cost, when those funds, plus revenue from an increased property tax base (not increased property taxes) should have been used for parity increases to our already trained and devoted men and women. «Read the rest of this article»

Sections: Issues, Opinion, Politics | 3 Comments
 

Amy Goodman, two producers arrested, released at RNC convention

September 2, 2008 |
 

ST. PAUL, MN—Democracy Now! host Amy Goodman was unlawfully arrested in downtown St. Paul, Minnesota at approximately 5 p.m. local time on September 1st. Police violently manhandled Goodman, yanking her arm, as they arrested her. She had approached the police line to inquire about the status of two Democracy Now! producers who had been previously arrested.



Goodman is being charged with obstruction; while felony riot charges are pending against both of the producers. All three were violently manhandled by law enforcement officers.

«Read the rest of this article»

Sections: Issues, News, Politics | 1 Comment »
 

It’s all about the money: Revenue drives red-light cameras, not road safety

August 22, 2008 |
 

“Revenue seems to be driving the red light camera rage,” said Eric Skrum, Communications Director for the National Motorists Association. “If cities were truly concerned about intersection safety, their engineers would be applying sound engineering practices that improve compliance with traffic laws and traffic signals while reducing accidents rather than installing ticket cameras.

Skrum continued:

I find it very revealing that Lockheed Martin, one of the biggest manufacturers of red light cameras in the U.S., has included clauses in their contracts that prohibit city engineers from applying engineering practices that improve compliance and reduce accidents, apparently to maintain the flow of ticket camera revenue. Lockheed Martin specifically prohibits cities, such as San Diego, California, from changing the timing of yellow lights in intersections that host their cameras, even though increasing the yellow light time has proven to dramatically decrease red light violations.

«Read the rest of this article»

Sections: Business, Issues, Politics, Technology | 1 Comment »
 

Cautionary “Words of warming” as the world heats up

August 14, 2008 |
 

In her periodic newsletter and update, Goddard College Professor Catherine Lowther circulates these “Words of warming”. With her permission, we pass this item to our readers.




James Hansen, director of Nasa's Goddard Institute

As the world hots up, so does the market for books about climate change. Tim Flannery, author of The Weather Makers, looks at the latest works on the crisis, and sizes up their solutions, from nuclear energy to genetically engineered trees.

(August 9) — Most of those interested in climate science nowadays access information online, and one of the most significant of such contributions was recently posted by James Hansen, director of NASA’s Goddard Institute, and his colleagues, who have provided a partial explanation for these changes. They revisited a key piece of science underpinning the IPCC’s work - the findings about how much warming a given amount of atmospheric CO2 pollution would produce - and discovered that, when viewed over the longer term, Earth’s climate system is about twice as sensitive to CO2 pollution as is illustrated in the panel’s century-long projections. «Read the rest of this article»

Sections: Business, Education, Issues, News, Opinion, Technology | No Comments
 

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