We worked last night and were fast asleep during the upset victory by the team that plays in New Jersey but is called the New York Giants.  We like the Super Bowl because at its end we know that we are little closer to the day when pitcher and catchers report.  But we are interested in the results in the score pool at the Dutch Tavern.  We'll find out today at about noon if we won five big ones.  Now that would be an upset.

UPDATE:  We didn't win.   Now, if our candidate wins today, that will be some consolation.  

UPDATE:  Well, yes, our candidate did win but also lost.    Such is life.  Pitchers and catchers still will be playing in the next two weeks and we can't wait.       

Two encounters with government:  the Postal Service and the Connecticut Department of Revenue Services

We went to the post office in New London for our mail.  The box is 1841 and we had two pieces of mail.  One was junk which we put into the recycling bin.  The second was what appeared to be a form letter from Greenville, South Carolina.   We didn't open it because it wasn't address to us.  It was address to a woman who also lived in Greenville, South Carolina.  We don't think we've a lot in common with the woman in South Carolina although we might.  What we do have in common is the Post Office Box 1841.  Our box is in New London, Connecticut.  Her box is in Greenville, South Carolina.   That is where the similarity ends, so far as we know.  We gave the letter to man at the window who said he would send it back down to South Carolina.  It was a computer mistake, he said.  We wondered how much of our mail has ended up at P.O. Box 1841, Fargo, North Dakota or elsewhere.  They can have the bills, but please forward the checks.

We filed our 2006 Connecticut Income taxes on April 15, 2007.  We had over paid the good folks at the Connecticut Department of Revenue Services and we were due a refund of $114 or that's what we figured.  While not a great amount, a hundred bucks is a hundred bucks.   As the months went by and the check didn't show up, we thought we had made a mistake on our return and expected an audit letter or other such worrisome notice.   On January 23, 2008 we received a letter from the department.  Opening it with some trepidation, there was our refund of $114 for our 2006 taxes .  The check was dated January 17, 2008 or nine months after we filed our return.

Perhaps next year we should contact the lady in South Carolina to see if she has our money.

Yes, things are just smooth as silk here in America.  At least the numbers of people running for president is getting down to a more manageable size. 

Peter J. Roberts 

So, now it is a horserace.  But think about this,

One of the two major political parties in the United States currently has two frontrunners for its nomination for president.  One is a black man and the other is a white women.  That's a start on making history.   

As we said before the vote in New Hampshire

And now the Granit State

It will be warm today in New Hampshire as it will all over New England.  We don't believe today's warm temperatures are a direct link to global warming but they could.  We know that one or two or ever a few warm days do not make for a season or a weather age, but they could.   The warm days could be nothing more than a modest aberration, meaning less and less, measured over time.

Many people in New Hampshire will vote today.  We're told that, like the temperatures, the turn out will above the norm.   We know a little more about people than we do the weather-or we like to think we do-but the increase in turn out might be related to the increase in temperatures and good January weather.  Another, modest aberration on a human scale.  Placed on the history books, it may be just another year in a string of predictable votes held in the Granit State every four years.

Or it might be something different.  It might be the melting of the ice that has frozen the republic and our politics for more than a decade.  It is possible that our long Ice Age is coming to an end, drop by drop and vote by vote.

Peter J. Roberts 

Mike Huckabee and a few others running for office should do some Carl Sagan

We were shopping at our favorite store, the Salvation Army Thrift Shop in downtown, when we discovered a complete set of the Carl Sagan TV program Cosmos.   It is a little dated but still rings true and is wonderful to watch again.   

Sagan was one of our few heroes who died far too young in 1996.  He was gentle, literate astronomer who brought the vastness of the universe into our living rooms and, more important, into our minds.   It was he that taught us that we are all star stuff.   We're  all linked to the soup of the infinite.   

So when we hear Mr. Huckabee and others put down the facts of science for their own political and religious reasons, we want to sit him and them down in our living room to watch Cosmos and listen to the late, great Carl Sagan.   They could do worse.

They could also visit The Carl Sagan Portal and The Planetary Society, founded in 1980 by Carl Sagan.

Boy did we screw up.

We were tempted many times to plunge, BIG TIME, into real estate but we didn't.  We thought that all the mail and emails we received from lenders sounded a little too good to be true.   Most of them started, as they still do, with Don't miss out on the boom, or Here's your chance to make real money in real estate.   And the thing that worried us was the idea that they were willing to lend us hundreds of thousand of dollars without us putting up any money or them having any idea of just how much we could afford to spend on this big opportunity.  So we didn't.  We're still right where we were before the real estate boom.

But now we're learning that all the folks to took the plunge, BIG TIME, into real estate, and are looking to loose their shirt, among other things, may get a free ride.  The Bush administration, with the help from some financial sharpies, has come up with a plan to cut the folks, and the folks who lent them money in the first place, some slack.  It's a win/win for everyone, except for some of us who didn't take the come-on in the first place.

No, we don't want more homeless people.  We've too many already.  But we do think that the bankers, brokers, investors and financiers who profited to the tune of hundreds of billions of dollars should be put out onto the street to see how it feels.

Our second play 

Last spring we submitted our first play to the Temple Players of Stratford, Connecticut for their one act festival, A Biblical Sense of Humor.  Our play, Job's Job Interview won, was produced along with six other, one-act plays  in the festival.  

Inspired by this success, and with more time on our hands than we should, our next play is ready for reading and we hope, production sometime early next year.  We are looking for actors in the New London area to perform a staged reading in December or early January.  

The play, Furniture, is on the internet, with a few typos and always subject to revisions.   It calls for five actors, one of whom plays a desk.   We'll let you figure it out from there.

Comments, kind and unkind, are welcome.  

Washington, D.C.
October 3, 1863

By the President of the United States of America.

A Proclamation

The year that is drawing towards its close, has been filled with the blessings of fruitful fields and healthful skies. To these bounties, which are so constantly enjoyed that we are prone to forget the source from which they come, others have been added, which are of so extraordinary a nature, that they cannot fail to penetrate and soften even the heart which is habitually insensible to the ever watchful providence of Almighty God. In the midst of a civil war of unequaled magnitude and severity, which has sometimes seemed to foreign States to invite and to provoke their aggression, peace has been preserved with all nations, order has been maintained, the laws have been respected and obeyed, and harmony has prevailed everywhere except in the theatre of military conflict; while that theatre has been greatly contracted by the advancing armies and navies of the Union. Needful diversions of wealth and of strength from the fields of peaceful industry to the national defense, have not arrested the plough, the shuttle or the ship; the axe has enlarged the borders of our settlements, and the mines, as well of iron and coal as of the precious metals, have yielded even more abundantly than heretofore. Population has steadily increased, notwithstanding the waste that has been made in the camp, the siege and the battle-field; and the country, rejoicing in the consciousness of augmented strength and vigor, is permitted to expect continuance of years with large increase of freedom.

No human counsel hath devised nor hath any mortal hand worked out these great things. They are the gracious gifts of the Most High God, who, while dealing with us in anger for our sins, hath nevertheless remembered mercy. It has seemed to me fit and proper that they should be solemnly, reverently and gratefully acknowledged as with one heart and one voice by the whole American People.

I do therefore invite my fellow citizens in every part of the United States, and also those who are at sea and those who are sojourning in foreign lands, to set apart and observe the last Thursday of November next, as a day of Thanksgiving and Praise to our beneficent Father who dwelleth in the Heavens. And I recommend to them that while offering up the ascriptions justly due to Him for such singular deliverances and blessings, they do also, with humble penitence for our national perverseness and disobedience, commend to His tender care all those who have become widows, orphans, mourners or sufferers in the lamentable civil strife in which we are unavoidably engaged, and fervently implore the interposition of the Almighty Hand to heal the wounds of the nation and to restore it as soon as may be consistent with the Divine purposes to the full enjoyment of peace, harmony, tranquility and Union.

In testimony whereof, I have hereunto set my hand and caused the Seal of the United States to be affixed.

Done at the City of Washington, this Third day of October, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty-three, and of the Independence of the Unites States the Eighty-eighth.

By the President: Abraham Lincoln

Another nail in the coffin of Western Civilization

According to press reports, baseball's general managers voted 25-5 to allow instant replays, at least for now, to judge home runs.   The move still must be approved by the clubs, players and umpires among others.

What's next; cheerleaders and pom-poms? 

The board of Merrill Lynch announced that E. Stanley O’Neal, chairman and chief executive of Merrill Lynch, stepped down from the brokerage firm today. Mr. O’Neal would retire immediately.   According to news reports, Mr. O’Neal is expected to receive at least $159 million in severance and retirement. 

I'm available.  Heck, a month or two on the job, and I'm set.  

You could do worse.

Peter J. Roberts

NewenglandWOW.com

The Norwegian Nobel Committee has decided that the Nobel Peace Prize for 2007 is to be shared, in two equal parts, between the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) and Albert Arnold (Al) Gore Jr. for their efforts to build up and disseminate greater knowledge about man-made climate change, and to lay the foundations for the measures that are needed to counteract such change.   The Official Web Site of the Norwegian Nobel Institute

If Al Gore can have this kind of influence for good as a private citizen, we wonder what things would have been like had he been president.  We're a Supreme Court late on answering that question, but we think it is well worth pondering.  

Congratulations to Mr. Gore on a recognition that is nearly eight years too late for him.  We hope it is not too late for us.

Peter J. Roberts

A heart beat for the GOP?   Or just an aberration?

There is a congressman by the name of Ron Paul who running for the republican nomination for president.  He has no chance what-so-ever. He is a doctor and according to his bio, the Texas republican has delivered over 4,000 babies.   That's a lot of babies.  He is also the only republican candidate who was and is opposed to the war in Iraq.  Lately he has stunned republican party leaders by raising over $ 5 million in the last three months, mostly in small contributions.

The war in Iraq was sold to us with false information. The area is more dangerous now than when we entered it. We destroyed a regime hated by our direct enemies, the jihadists, and created thousands of new recruits for them. This war has cost more than 3,000 American lives, thousands of seriously wounded, and hundreds of billions of dollars. We must have new leadership in the White House to ensure this never happens again.   From War and Foreign Policy, Ron Paul 2008

We take some heart from the knowledge that not all party members are marching in lock steep with the foolish ones now contending for the republican nomination.  Perhaps it is indeed, David's time with the sling. 

Congressman Paul, we wish you luck.  Your courage, at that of many others, may yet save our republic.

Peter J. Roberts 

Health Care hits home...again!

A week and a half ago I got cut on.  It was done by a doctor, in a hospital and I was invited to stay the night.  I did.   While the operation was not for any life threatening ailment and the area of concern is not normally visible to me, let alone to others, the condition had progressed to the point where an operation was called for.  And that's the point.

I could have opted out of the operation and still gone about my daily life at home and at work.  I would have been in pain or at least considerable discomfort, but I could have kept on.  There would have been some things I would have avoided-riding a bicycle, attending a long meeting or going to church (pews are not designed for comfort, especially the ones without cushions.  It has something to do with sacrifice.) but I could have "lived" without the operation.  But instead of living poorly I took the option to improve my health.  (This aspect I'm still waiting for although progress, I'm told, is apparent.  I haven't looked and don't want to.)

I had the operation for two reasons.  First, it was deemed necessary.  Second, I had health insurance to cover a considerable amount of the expenses.   It's going to total out at a few grand and like most folks, we just don't have an extra few c-notes sitting around for medical expenses.

Which naturally suggests the topic of health care in America.  After providing for shelter and with the exception of sending young people to college-another important issue-providing some sort of health care, any sort of health care, is the most expensive things we Americans do with our money, or more candidly, our ability to go into debt.

Is this how we want to run our country and care for our people?  Some think things are just fine and maybe, from their view from the hospital bed, things are.   But for all too many Americans, having health insurance is like owning a prized antique that's been passed from one generation to another.  Others look on it with envy and wish they had been so fortunate.  

President Bush recently suggested that the health care system in America was fine since anyone could go to the emergency room.  That of course assumes there's one that people can get to; that the hospital with the emergency room accepts everyone; that the health providers are willing to take the loss on a poor patient and finally, that the condition was truly an emergency.  In my case, the latter didn't apply, as it does for ten of millions of other Americans.   Under our present system, I would have been out of luck.

If one values health care as a service for everyone, regardless of the ability to pay, health care in America is a sham.   

There is absolutely no other reality-based conclusion that one can make.

Peter J. Roberts 

On August 19, 2007 we read a moving and well thought-out Op-Ed piece in the New York Times by seven soldiers stationed in Iraq.  The War as We Saw It  was written from the point of view the lower ranks in the Army-no charts or graphs-but simply expressed candid view of war by some of the people who were actually fighting it.  The soldiers, none above the rank of staff sergeant, were assigned to the 82nd Airborne Division.  

On Monday, September 10, while most of official Washington was considering the finer points of the "serge" and just how long we will be at war in the country, two of the soldiers who wrote the piece, Staff Sgt. Yance T. Gray, 26, and Sgt. Omar Mora, 28 were killed while on duty in the war.   The details of their deaths was printed on the Time's Op-Ed page 2 G.I.’s, Skeptical but Loyal, Die in a Truck Crash in Iraq on September 13, 2007. 

Some should stick  to acting.  Some should stick to holding office.  Others should stick to just running for office or acting.   Another boob tube master for the White House!   We've got one now.  Please, history does not need to repeat itself so darn soon.  Life, real life, is way too short. 

Health care hitting home

We're not sick or ill but we do have a problem with our anatomy.  While not going into details, suffice it to say that in the early part of September we will the object of a surgeon's tools of the trade.   We will report early to the hospital, after starving for at least twelve hours, and will go under the knife.  We've been told that we should expect to stay the night, which is rather unusual these days.   

We of course played by the rules, as we understood them, in getting health care for our problem.  We went first to our primary care physician.   He took a look, poked around and wrote our a few prescriptions.  He also said we need to see the surgeon and that his office would make the appointment.   We have been down this road before but knew that had we called the surgeon first, then the insurance people would have been very upset and might have said to us, "if you want to see the high-priced guy, go right ahead, but you pay for it." 

We figure the bill, or rather the bills, will come to a few grand.  There's the guy with the knife.  Someone, we hope will be near by to assist him and the chap who is going to put us to sleep while our privates are on display for all the world to see.  Then there is the recovery room, the machines that we'll be hooked up to before, during and after all this is going on and bunk and room they will take us to after the operation.  Again, this is very minor surgery but a few thousand dollars is a conservative estimate of what this will cost.  

Well, we do have health insurance but it is by no means free ride.  We will have to pay a certain percentage of the bill or bills and that's where the worry comes in.  In all candor and despite going over all the clauses of our insurance policy, we've no real idea of just how much all this is going to cost.  Not a clue.

So in early September we're going to hope for the best of two counts....that our surgeon had a good nights rest and that when our part of the bills hits the mail box, we will still be able to eat with the lights on for the rest of the year. 

Peter J. Roberts

And the walls came tumbling down

From the Congressional Budget Office comes: Testimony on Estimated Costs of U.S. Operations in Iraq and Afghanistan and of Other Activities Related to the War on Terrorism
Since September 2001, the Congress has appropriated $602 billion for military operations and other activities related to Iraq, Afghanistan, and the war on terrorism. In addition, although not explicitly appropriated for that purpose, an estimated $2 billion has been spent by the VA for war-related benefits. Specific appropriations, which averaged about $93 billion a year from 2003 through 2005, have risen to $120 billion in 2006 and $170 billion in 2007.

The report, as these things go, is usually brief.  We'll not make the connection with the bridge failure in Minneapolis, except to note that no where have we read a report praising the condition of this nation's infrastructure.   We do suggest that what has been spent already on the war in Iraq would be but a down payment on fixing America.

Have we squandered the trust placed in us?

New England as a place for people has been around for a few thousand years.  It's only been in the last three hundred or so  that we call it New England and for good or ill, the name has been passed down to us by the millions who lived here before us.  While much of course has changed, again for good or ill, there is still something special about our region and its people.  We can thank those who came before us, natives and immigrants, for what they passed on us.  Our history, traditions, culture and the grand variety of "places" that are New England were given or entrusted, to us who live here today.   Some no doubt, gave us scant thought while others kept us in the forefront of their efforts to make New England.

It is the height of summer and the forecast is for more hot and humid weather.    This is not a surprise.  We expect hot and humid days in July as we expect cold, snowy ones in January.  This is the way things are in New England for us and for the millions who came before.

But perhaps not for the New Englanders who will follow us.  We may not pass on the grand variety that is New England and if we don't, it will be largely our fault.  We will have squandered the trust placed in us.  

Until recently we had some luxury in accepting the blame.  The damage, if any, was generations away, so the thinking went, and by then they would have the technology and smarts to fix it.  We figured that the year 2207 would take care of itself.  We were off the hook, or so we thought.

Not anymore.  Global warming is real and it is happening right now in New England.   Children growing up today in Maine will not live in the same wonderful place that we hold so dear.   The same will be true for children living in Green Mountains of Vermont, the coastal cities and towns of Connecticut, Rhode Island and New Hampshire or the farming county of interior New England.  Our entire region and every place in it will be different.  So will Long Island Sound, our coastal bays and the Atlantic Ocean.  

And the changes are not likely to be for the better.    That's the report issued on July 8, 2007 by the Union of Concerned Scientists.   The Union has been researching and reporting on climate change for decades as have many other professional scientific organizations.     While there are still a few who think all the "talk" about global warming is just that, the vast majority of the scientific community has come to accept the facts of increased air and sea temperatures and an equally significant majority of this community accepts the facts of human activity in promoting these temperature increases.  Everyone-you, me, your family, my family, all of us-is causing the problem.   

The finding of the report, Global Warming Will Hit U.S. Northeast Hard Unless Action Taken Now doesn't pull any punches and makes it all too clear that we, all of us, are very much on the hook.  

We face a choice.   We can work now, today, to stop our greedy and wasteful ways and help pass on the New England that was given to us.  If we don't, we should all take a last glance at our inheritance.   Soon, it will be gone.

What shall we do?   What will you do?

Peter J. Roberts

A nail in the coffin of Western Civilization-the news of Paris Hilton's release from jail

made page one of the New York Times web site, 8:26 a.m. on June 26, 2007.

Another nail in the coffin of Western Civilization

No more Schaefer Beer at the Dutch Tavern.  The Wall Street Journal may be next.

"Schaefer, is the ,one beer to have when your having more than one. Schaefer, pleasure, doesn't fade even when your thirst is done.  The most rewarding flavor in this man's world -- for people who are having fun.  Schaefer, is the, one beer when your having more than one."

A buck and a half is what a 16 oz. Schaefer draft goes for at the Dutch Tavern on Green Street in New London.   At least until the last keg is dry.  We watched the last keg being delivered the other day and for all we know, it may be empty now.  

New Yorkers of a certain age know Schaefer even if they don't drink beer.  Schaefer IS THE one beer to have when you’re having more than one…But not any more.  

First brewed in New York in 1841 and at one time one a leading sellers of beer in the world, the brand has been peddled and, if you will, watered-down to the point of vanishing, which it is.  The company closed its brewery in New York in 1976-the bicentennial no less-and was bought by the Stroh Brewery Company.  Then just before the turn of the century Stroh was purchased by the Pabst Brewing Company.   While still making Schaefer Beer, Pabst was itself purchased by Miller Brewing Company which was, in 2002 merged with the South African Breweries forming something called SABMiller   It is a huge, multinational company headquartered in London.

We don't expect to understand this history, only its ramifications to us.  Someone, perhaps sitting in front of a computer in London has decided that instead of a Schaefer draft at the Dutch, we should drink a Miller or a Pabst.  That same person we suspect, has never heard Schaefer IS THE one beer to have when you’re having more than one.  We of course are the lesser for the loss, but at least we know what we're missing.  That chap in London will never know the simple, grand glories he's stolen.

And to make matters worse, not only is The Wall Street Journal, a great newspaper with an editorial policy that sends our blood pressure into the stratosphere, in the cross hairs of Rupert Murdoch but it is raising its price to the price of a draft at the Dutch.  This fifty percent increase may well mean that the owners of the tavern, who provides newspapers to customers, may well stop buying the Journal.  Since we are not of a mind to shell out our money to support either the Journal or Mr. Murdoch, we may have to travel to the library to read it, where beer of any kind is not served. Or we may just have do without.

It may be good for our blood pressure.

Meanwhile, the Schaefer song on YouTube.   Yes, we plan to have more than one today.

The official postcard for the  Fourth Annual  New London Declarations  July 4, 2007

Past Page One News and Views 

We attended the wake for our friend's son but were unable to attend the Mass on Friday.  The huge crowd at on both days was a testament to the young man and fortunately, there were no protests or other disturbances.  There was only much pride and grief. 

To honor one of the fallen-First Lieutenant Keith Neil Heidtman 

Calling hours will be held on Thursday, June 7, 2007, at the Norwich Free Academy Alumni Gymnasium from 6 to 9 p.m. A Mass of Christian Burial will be celebrated on Friday, June 8, 2007 at the Cathedral of Saint Patrick in Norwich at 10 a.m. with a burial service to follow at the St. Joseph Cemetery in Norwich.

The family requests that in lieu of flowers, donations be made in memory of Keith Heidtman to The Hole in the Wall Gang Camp at 555 Long Wharf Drive, Department W, New Haven, CT, 06511 (203-772-0522).

Today we bought the newspaper and came close to crying.  

Among the 127 service members killed in Iraq in May was 1LT Keith Neil Heidtman from Norwich, Connecticut.   He had been in Iraq since December and we well remember when he arrived.  His father told us.   His father is a friend of ours and was very proud of his son for graduating from flight school and becoming an Army officer.  

We spoke often about his son last fall and winter as he was learning the ropes of Army life in preparation for deploying to the war.   As the days and weeks passed, he would keep us up on the news from the front.  He was worried about his son so we tried to reassure him, based on our experience in the Army and from what we knew about the fighting there, that ground troops were often in more danger than what we called the "bird men" in helicopters.    

We were wrong.  First Lieutenant Heidtman's helicopter was shot down on May 28, killing him and his copilot, Chief Warrant Officer Theodore U. Church.

We had all sorts of things we were going to do today but we're not going  to do any of them.  We're trying to deal with a loss of someone we didn't know and try to understand the grief of a man we hold dear.   We have no words of comfort that will ease his pain.  We have no way of understanding the loss he suffers.  We would like to scream.  

First Lieutenant Keith Neil Heidtman, United States Army, was 24 years old when he died.  Twenty-four.     

Peter Roberts

May 31, 2007

While America had its picnics, parades and a day off from the usual responsibilities, the tragic adventure in Iraq continues.  May 2007 is the 2nd deadliest month for our service members since the war began in March 2003.

We've only listened to Mr. Imus briefly when he was inflicted on us by others, but even with this very limited exposure we were not surprised by his comments.   

He may think he is not a racist but if enough people tell you it's raining, you'd better grab your umbrella.  The sad thing is that he has plenty of company in the media and it took a racial attack on some young and extremely gifted college students at one of the nation's most selective university to bring out the distain for Mr. Imus and other so called shock jocks.  Millions of others who've not been in the spotlight of a national basketball championship game, feel the brunt of these kind of comments, and worse, everyday.  No, we're not surprised.  While we'd like to think that this may bring an end to such behavior, we know better.  These people, and the companies that employ them, make too much money from Americans who find their programs entertaining.

The news of late is the number of Americans who are losing their homes in foreclosure.  

The lending practices of many banks and financial institutions have become newsworthy for some of the practices that many employed, especially in the sub prime market.   Brokers used the principle of greed to entice people into taking on loans that they simply could not afford to repay.  They made the assumption that real estate values would continue to rise and that should the borrower have difficulty in repaying the ever increasing payments, a quick sale would bail them out.   The commission for the broker was paid upfront and for many, was the over riding reason for making the loan.   Learn more at the Center for Responsible Lending.  It is an eye-opener. 

The War in Iraq is now in its fourth year.   What, we ask, have we gained and what have we learned?   Hubris comes to mind as does the concept of tragedy.

This old soldier has had enough of the hubris and the tragedy.

Peter J. Roberts      

Looking for some good work from this administration.   

Lemont wins, as does Connecticut.  Before the vote, this is what we had to say about the primary.

Ned Lemont for Senate in the Connecticut Democratic Primary, today, August 8

...we must now develop a sound strategy to extricate ourselves from this nightmare of twenty-first century, American hubris.

We’ve supported Senator Joseph Lieberman before and if he wins the primary, we may do so again in the November election. The Senator has a long history of supporting issues with which we agree and while he is somewhat short of charisma, he is hard working and has decidedly “common man” roots. He is noted for a certain amount of whining, but as had been said, sometimes one must take the good with sound of fingernails scraping on the blackboard.

Your tax dollars at work.

$202 or $406 billion   Estimated Costs of U.S. Operations in Iraq Under Two Specified Scenarios  from the Congressional Budget Office July 13, 2006. (in PDF format)

The Big Dig  The Central Artery/Tunnel Project in its final stages of construction remains the largest and most complex highway and tunnel project in the nation's history. There is broad input and oversight of the Project by numerous entities, and Project managers prepare an extensive monthly report, the Project Management Monthly (PMM), to track the $14.6 billion budget and schedule. The PMM, the annual Finance Plan, a timeline/schedule and other reports and publications are presented in this Project Update section.MTA - Project Updates   An actual quote from their web site

Then there's FEMA  Release Date: February 4, 2002
Washington, D.C. -- The director of the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) announced today that the Bush Administration is asking Congress for Fiscal Year 2003 budget authority of $6.4 billion.  

George discovers Geneva   Prodded in unequal parts by poll numbers, the upcoming elections, allies who've had enough and the Supreme Court,  the administration has decided that we will follow the Geneva Convention with regard to the prisoners held in Guantánamo and perhaps other undisclosed locations around the world.   Among the prohibitions on the treatment of prisoners include;

a) violence to life and person, in particular murder of all kinds, mutilation, cruel treatment and torture;

(c) outrages upon personal dignity, in particular humiliating and degrading treatment;

(d) the passing of sentences and the carrying out of executions without previous judgment pronounced by a regularly constituted court, affording all the judicial guarantees which are recognized as indispensable by civilized peoples.

Read more about the Convention (III) relative to the Treatment of Prisoners of War. Geneva, 12 August 1949.   International Humanitarian Law - Third 1949 Geneva Convention  which is part of  the International Committee of the Red Cross  web site.

JUST STOP  Noon Friday-Our modest effort to protest the war in Iraq.  We're asking everyone to just stop what they are doing every Friday at noon for sixty seconds.  Sometimes, doing nothing is doing something.

As goes Brookline....Among the issues discussed at the 2006 Brookline, Massachusetts Town Meeting was the following;

ARTICLE 31 To see if the Town will adopt the following resolution:  A Resolution in Support of the Impeachment of President George W. Bush

Whereas, President George W. Bush has repeatedly violated his oath of office by failing to uphold, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States, in particular by directing and countenancing numerous violations of the Constitution and Laws of the United States, and by purposely misleading the citizens of the nation so as to cause the United States to commence war in Iraq; therefore be it

Resolved, that this Town Meeting urges our Representative in Congress to introduce and/or support a resolution impeaching President George W. Bush; and be it further

Resolved, that the Town Clerk send notice of the adoption of this resolution to all members of the Massachusetts Congressional Delegation within two weeks of its adoption.
or act on anything relative thereto.   

The results of the vote can be seen here at Town of Brookline.  The measure passed.

Did you make the call to Aunt Millie?  President Bush and his agents want to know.

THE COUNTRY'S IN THE VERY BEST OF HANDS