Thank You Gilligan!

Certainly there are many important issues I could discuss today. But much discussion of New Orleans, the Rehnquist death, Iraq or other issues are posted all through the Web on various newsblogs and Websites. Today I want to honor a very funny man who I enjoyed since I was a little kid.

When I was a little guy, Bob Denver first appeared on TV as the funny beatnik, Maynard on Dobie Gillis. I immediately wanted to be a beatnik when I grew up, because I admired Maynard so much I couldn't wait to grow facial hair and be a beatnik too.

But when Bob Denver, became Gilligan, he really shined. No one wanted to be a Gilligan, but everybody loved and admired him. He was a decent, honest young guy, but just as funny as The Three Stooges all folled into one great actor, Bob Denver.

When Gilligan's Island aired from 1964 to 1967, I never missed an episode. And after school I always caught the syndicated reruns and loved and loved each and every one. The whole cast was excellent, but Bob Denver was a comic genius. The writing was hilarious, and Gilligan's screwups were a riot. The critics hated the show as did many at CBS management, but to the public Gilligan's Island was a cult hit.

My favorite episode was the one with the rapid aging meteorite that landed on the island, and the great dream sequence. But the scene with the lead makeup, seemed like a cool "new wave" look to me. Absolutely cool and funny.

In later years, Bob Denver appeared in the awful 1973 TV series, Dusty's Trail, which was simply a really bad lost wagon train version of Gilligan's Island, with Forrest Tucker playing a Skipper-like role, and Bob Denver playing a Gilligan-like role. Other actors played bad versions of the rest of the Gilligan's Island cast. It was perhaps the worst TV show ever aired, and one review even claimed that it made Gilligan's Island look like Citizen Kane by comparison. But it seemed that Bob Denver was type-cast, and Gilligan was always to be his greatest acting role. And that's just fine with the millions and the generations who just loved Bob Denver in this great role.

Thanks so much for the laughs, Bob Denver. You were a great actor who will always be loved.

Halliburton, Ebay, Others Profit From Katrina Disaster

While most Americans are deeply touched and opening their hearts and pocketbooks to help, some others are disgustingly profitting from this disaster. Ebay for example is encouraging listings to help with Katrina relief, however only a few of the listings qualify for Ebay to donate "ad insertion" or "final value fees", so Ebay will profit from many of the listings intended to help the disaster refugees. But for one of America's most greedy companies, this should only be expected. To list an item that sells for a mere 99cents on Ebay, between the Ebay, Paypal(another Ebay owned company that handles cash transactions electronically), and Ebay "final value" fees, Ebay only leaves about 11cents left for the seller or for Katrina relief. On higher priced items, the profit margin for sellers or disaster relief improve, but also so do the Ebay fees. Selling an automobile on Ebay can cost $40 just to list, regardless of whether the car sells or not. If someone wanted to sell a car for Katrina relief, Ebay would come in for plenty of fees from the listing, final value, and from Paypal. This major Wall Street company manages to turn a handy profit, even when it comes to encouraging others to sell for Katrina relief so it can profit from the disaster.

And in a new act of outrage, Paypal(the Ebay owned company) froze the account of Somethingawful.com that raised $30,000 in a matter of hours for Katrina victims. Somethingawful.com is now fighting with Paypal to have access to the funds or a refund to the donors. It is estimated that Paypal has profitted from these Katrina donations by charging an outrageous $1,188.37 in transaction fees. But because Paypal is not FDIC regulated, they can freeze or seize any accounts that they wish.

Halliburton not only figured way after way to profit from the Iraq War, but will turn a handy profit as it charges to repair damaged oil platforms in the Gulf Of Mexico. The Port Of Houston is experiencing a surge in business as damage in Louisiana creates a port traffic boom. Major real estate firms are making handy profits from leasing high priced office space to businesses displaced by the Katrina damage. And businesses all the way from hardware stores to hotels are profitting from the crisis.

But fortunately, many are not profitting from the Katrina crisis, but are instead offering help. When Pat Robertson attacked the President of Venezuela, Hugo Chavez, recently, he failed to note that the Venezuela owned Citgo has offered $1 million in aid a few days later. The small but oil wealthly state of Qatar has promised $100 million in aid. Israel has offered help. And Russia offered rescue team help, but Bush refused the offer. Even Wal-Mart, of which I've been a critic of some of their business and labor practices, has stepped up with the promise of millions of dollars of help, which is highly commendable. It may be a fact of life that many will seek to profit from a crisis, including price gougers, con artists and thieves. But still many right thinking decent people and nations will step forth and offer help. God bless all the good people who have stepped up when the chips are down for some.

Multnomah County, Oregon's Answer To The New Orleans Refugee Crisis:Put Them In Jail

The Sheriff of Multnomah County, Oregon, Bernie Giusto has come up with a novel approach to house up to 2,000 New Orleans hurricane refugees; put them in jail.

Like many states that have had budget problems, Oregon is no exception. And in Multnomah County, in North Portland, a brand new jail, the Wapato jail sits empty and unused because after the construction was completed, budget money to run the jail ran out. But compared to other jails this is a very modern facility with no bars on the windows, comfortable beds with mattresses, modern medical and dental facilities. On one hand, this new facility would appear to be a good choice, but the on the other hand many poor people from New Orleans would likely feel deeply insulted by housing them at a jail, even if no door is locked behind them and they are free to come and go at any time.

Portland will put up at least 1,000 refugees in the fomer Washington high school site, with the funding by the Red Cross. And because the crisis is expected to last for weeks or months, Mayor Tom Potter, the former Police Chief, has planned for integration of students into local schools, and job plans for the adults able to work. And as many as 2,000 more hurricane refugees may be put up in the Wapato jail site if approved.

Many other states such as Texas, have put up far more refugees. Texas currently has 139,000 New Orleans flood refugees. If the city of New Orleans is not habitable for months, many of these 139,000 will become residents of Texas for at least a time.

This hurricane and resulting flood has not had the shock value of 9/11, yet the images are shocking in their own way. And even though the President built so much of his 2004 re-election campaign on the ability of the administration to better handle homeland security issues, and has shown a compassionate response to the disaster, still his administration is being heavily blamed for inept handling of the crisis. And while local official's planning also shares much blame, yet the magnitude of the crisis blew away any local emergency planning contingency plans.

The best that can be done is for better planning for a future crisis, such as another natural disaster or a major WMD attack by a terrorist organization in a major American city. The current finger-pointing to blame the crisis is only worthwhile if the next crisis is better planned for.

The Rehnquistion Ends

On one hand one feels badly for the illness and eventual death of Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist. On the other hand, it is the end of one of the worst chapters in American law, where the Supreme Court was routinely abused by Rehnquist to promote his own politicial views, and a close reading of the Constitution or Bill Of Rights was routinely ignored. This was hardly a period of any judicial brilliance, but rather a period of right wing judicial activism.

From often a lonely vote of often goofy dissent, Rehnquist's vote gradually grew on the court as more far right justices like Scalia and Thomas joined the court, gradually building a far right majority of 5-4 on many issues.

On one case Rehnquist decided that even though an attorney for a client on death row had presented last minute late evidence that probably proved the innocence of the client that should have allowed for a new trial, Rehnquist decided that new information was not presented in a more timely manner, and the client should suffer the death penalty anyway. And Rehnquist even noted that client may very well have been innocent of the crime charged, yet wrote the decision allowing for the execution of a man that Rehnquist thought may be innocent of the crime. For Rehnquist, some state evidence deadline was far more important than the fact the man on death row was probably innocent and falsely convicted and about to face execution.

In the 1990 case of Dowling v. United States, Rehnquist sided with the 6-3 majority that decided that a Federal law allowing evidence of a previous trial in which the defendant was acquitted on all counts could be used to help identify the defendant and charge and convict them of another crime using evidence identical to the case in which they were acquitted. Previous rulings related to double jeopardy did not allow this standard.

In Maryland v. Buie, a 7-2 majority with Rehnquist siding in decided a "protective sweep" of a residence could be used to gather evidence by a search of other rooms and areas not covered in an arrest warrant.

In the case of Illinois v. Perkins, a 7-1 majority with Rehnquist in concurrence, decided that police may pose as a fellow inmate to secure a confession and seek evidence and a Miranda notice does not have to be given.

Certainly being tough on crime is one thing, but many rulings that Rehnquist were involved in involve a chipping down of civil liberties that harm all Americans. On Michigan Department Of Police v . Sitz, Rehnquist was part of a majority that decided that police roadblocks could be used to stop all motorists, even though not suspected of any crime, and police could use the roadblock to look for evidence of any crime, including drunk driving.

There were many areas not involving criminal cases in which Rehnquist made an ugly mark on the court and the legal environment.

Even though it was known that Rehnquist supported the racist segregationist standard of "seperate but equal" for education of young Black students, Rehnquist was both nominated for the court by Nixon and confirmed by the Senate. As a justice, Rehnquist continued this racist legacy by weakening the Brown v. Board Of Education ruling by cutting back on enforcement of desegregation, weakened the enforcement of the Voting Rights Act, and hurt the goals of Affirmative Action by limiting the ability of minorities to better themselves.

In the area of States Rights, Rehnquist limited the ability of citizen legal actions against a state that blantantly disregards Federal law. And other cases protected outrageous local or state laws that were in conflict with Federal law.

In the case of Bush v. Gore, Rehnquist and the 5-4 majority did not indicate any constitutional support for their decision claiming that equal protection was violated and allowing the stop to a recount in a Florida county that impacted the outcome of the 2000 Presidential election. Al Gore had won the national popular vote by 500,000 votes but scored a narrow 500 vote loss Florida, and thus in the electoral college, and this loss was made more questionable because of ballot problems in Florida where many older voters mistakening ly voted for two candidates due to the wording and layout of the ballot. In 1972, thousands of voters in Arizona mistakeningly voted for both Richard Nixon and Linda Jenness, the Socialist Worker's Party candidate, and a judge was forced to rule that both votes should be counted because of the confused ballot status.

Despite laws against political activity or interference in the election process, supporters of Bush held a noisy demonstration that interferred and created a stop to a recount in a Florida county that was mandated by a Florida State Supreme Court ruling, and the Supreme Court case halted any recount efforts and made Bush president, although he lost the national popular vote. Rehnquist supported "State's Rights" when it weakened Federal law or individual rights, but opposed the Florida Supreme Court when it violated his own support for George Bush. And Justice Thomas's own family was involved in the Bush efforts, yet Thomas did not recuse himself from involvement in the case. There was no intent to fairly decide this case. It was a mere rubber stamp for the politics of Rehnquist.

In other cases, such as Freedom Of Expression, Rehnquist has consistently sided with government controls on free speech that clearly violate the clear language of the Bill Of Rights that specially does not allow for any controls on speech no matter how tasteless or offensive, and specifically the wording not allowing any such laws by "Congress" to restrain such speech. Rehnquist consistently voted his own political leanings, rather than relied on the Constitution or the Bill Of Rights for guidence on his decisions. This is merely right wing judicial activism.

One feels very sad and sorry for the family of Mr. Rehnquist. Yet his rulings had a rotten impact on America. He was not a brilliant justice by any means. He merely used the court to rubber stamp his own political leanings into law regardless of whether constitutional support could be found or not. That is hardly the role of a fair and impartial judge, who fairly rules on cases. Without a doubt the Rehnquist legacy was indeed a rotten one. Rehnquist should never had been nominated to court, let alone made Chief Justice. Next to Watergate, Rehnquist's nomination to the court rated as one of Nixon's worst acts in office.

The Dress Rehearsal For The Four Horsemen Of The Apocalypse

The book of Revelation is perhaps the most mysterious book in the Bible. And to many offers far-fetched images of doom, gloom and destruction. Yet the events in New Orleans clearly prove how quickly a great American city can be reduced to similar ruin, famine, pestilence, death and even war as gangs of armed thugs are roaming the wreckage. In a single day of storm damage, a great city has become entirely desolate, with most in the city homeless or displaced. It is much like a dress rehearsal for the Four Horsemen of the Apocalyse, or even like a Mad Max film of a post nuclear world of survival by any means necessary for some.

There are several lessons to be learned from the New Orleans disaster. One is that major projects such as levee systems should be strengthened wherever conditions exist that a natural disaster could create a similar flooding disaster. Another lesson to be learned is that a nuclear war or even a number of terrorist nuclear attacks in the U.S. could reduce American cities to similar destruction as New Orleans faced this week. This is a frightenening scenario. More Mad Maxlike scenes of armed thugs looting the wreckage of ruined cities with many refugees needing food, water and shelter could be multiiplied.

All efforts to prevent a similar levee disasters as well as a constant vigilance for world peace as well as efforts to constructively undermine terrorism must be undertaken. There were many past efforts to strengthen the levees that Congress failed to fund in the past. But fingerpointing does no good unless lessons are learned to try to prevent such future events and better disaster management planning is undertaken. Mr. Bush has tried his best today to be compassionate and attempt to offer as much Federal help as possible. And many cities and individuals have offered their best efforts as well. Certainly there were mistakes made in the past. But good efforts to right those wrongs are now very sincere.

Houses Of Worship Are The Frontline Of Disaster Relief

As in any major disaster, houses of worship are stepping up as the frontline in the Katrina disaster relief effort. Many organizations such as the Salvation Army and Feed The Children are well known for being the fastest to put boots on the ground when disaster strikes.

Other notable disaster responders include Catholic Charities USA, Samaritan's Purse, the organization run by Billy Graham's son, Franklin. Lutheran World Relief, United Jewish Communities, Nation Of Islam and other religious organizations. Lakewood Church, the single largest church in America are major partners with Feed The Children, and will raise significant food at upcoming events and from members.

The Church Of Jesus Christ Of Latter-Day Saints has reported to be in process of providing relief to some of the hardest hit victims of the disaster. And a number of Baptist organizations can be counted on to provide relief efforts. Pat Robertson's Operation Blessing can be counted on for assistance to storm victims as well.

The Jehovah's Wittnesses find an unique way of providing disaster relief. From the 2004 hurricane that hit part of Florida, Jehovah's Witness volunteers pledged to rebuild 1,700 homes, and 700 have been completed so far. Many Jehovah's Witnesses are skilled at construction skills and are known to build their own houses of worship. Often they can assemble a major church building over two weekends.

There are many other Christian, Jewish and Islamic organizations that are also involved in disaster aid. New Orleans is 67% Black, and 28% live in poverty. Many are complete refugees who have no savings in the bank or ability to help themselves. Bodies are found floating in the streets of New Orleans. Some elderly persons died at the refugee center. One elderly woman in a wheelchair died, and her wheelchair was simply rolled towards a wall, and a sheet placed over her head. One reporter noted this poor woman was probably someone's mother or grandmother. The need is great, and houses of worship are responding.

China Issues New White Paper On Arms Control

Claiming that the role of the People's Liberation Army is meant to be for merely defensive purposes, China issued a new White Paper on arms control issues today. While the text seems to support the role or responsibility of nuclear weapons states not to provide nuclear technology to developing or other nations, and other goals that one would expect of a state with responsible rather than reckless military goals, still the Chinese definition of term "defensive" use of military power gives one pause.

In the postWarsaw Pact days of 2001, the Russian Federation sought to forge a new military alliance with other states to counter the military dominance of the U.S. and the growing membership of NATO states. China, along with the Russian Federation, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan signed the Shanghai Coooperation Organization. Last week, two member states, China and the Russian Federation held joint naval war games.

The naval war games were interesting in that they appeared to be a dress rehearsal for a Chinese naval assault on Taiwan, in that the only probable navy or air force that could challenge the People's Liberation Army Navy would be the U.S. forces. In the naval exercises, "enemy" submarines were supposedly sunk by use of deck landing anti-submarine helicopters and depth bombs. Air to air missiles were launched to repell "enemy" aircraft. And infrared, photo electric and plantinic devices were used to block "enemy" missiles. While the claim is not to threaten any third party state, but rather military cooperation of the two nations, yet the U.S. is the only likely adversary if a conflict should ever come to pass.

China has long considered Taiwan to be a "breakaway republic". An asault to retake this area by force could unfortunately be considered under this Chinese view of "defense" that the U.S. would consider to be a more of "offensive" effort.

China has recently added six new naval destroyers to the People's Liberation Army Navy, including two Russian purchased ones with Sunburn nuclear tipped antiship missiles. These antiship cruise missiles could kill American aircraft carriers with a 100% crew mortality.

While the People's Liberation Army has been in the process of downsizing manpower since 1987, still the goal of cutting an additional 200,000 in manpower still leaves China with a very formidable force of 2.3 in manpower. But in this age of push button warfare, where less and less manpower is needed on the ground, replaced with weapons launch crews and technicians.

There are many positive values dedicated to the goals of nuclear nonproliferation and other admirable goals in the new Chinese White Paper. But as always the devil is in the details. The Chinese definition of "defense" cannot accept an offensive military role against Taiwan. The entire range of this conflict should be between peaceful negotiations between China and Taiwan to meet a peaceful resolution of this conflict. And the Chinese National Nuclear Corporation (CNNC) which is responsible for both the civilian use if nuclear power as well as military use of nuclear weapons technology cannot use this agency to sell technology to states like Iran in exchange for the huge natural gas deal recently struck, or other fuel source arrangements. The two main world fuel consuming nations are the U.S. and China, and China cannot let the fuel appetite to support their booming economy lead to military transfer technology compromises that allow for more world nuclear arms. The Chinese government CNNC has long been implicated in nuclear weapons related technology trade with Iran, despite the claimed goals of nonproliferation by China in their new White Paper.

All superpowers should commit themselves to sincere nonproliferation of both nuclear as well as conventional weapons curbs and military arms sales sanity. Massive arms sales to Iran, Africa or other states do not support the goals of world peace, and all superpowers including the U.S., Russia and China should support the goals of concern about the spread of weapons throughout the developing world. The new Chinese White Paper is a positive document it the reading of it's text. But actions will speak louder than the printed words. Agencies of the Chinese government such as the CNNC deserve close scrutiny whether they will live up to the claimed nonproliferation goals stated in the White Paper, or whether it will be nuclear related technology transfer to states like Iran business as usual. If so, then this new White Paper was hardly worth the effort.