Lt. Ehren Watada has received a new and additional Charge of Conduct Unbecoming of an Officer.

...

"It is unknown if the military intends to hold another Article 32 pre-trial hearing to review the new charge, or simply railroad it directly to court martial. A final decision on the forwarding to court-martial on all seven charges now pending against Lt. Watada remains forthcoming from Fort Lewis Commanding General Lt. Gen. James Dubik.

If convicted of all charges, Lt. Watada could now face over eight years in prison, more than six of them for publicly voicing his opposition to what he considers an illegal and immoral war.

...

Link: http://thankyoult.live.radicaldesigns.org/content/view/188/

Of course there are some major differences between Iraq and Vietnam. Geographical and political differences certainly exist. But there are also some major similarities between the two conflicts. Think of the way American forces became bogged down in Vietnam, fighting a seemingly endless conflict, sinking lower along the way. Iraq is not unlike that scenario.

Think also of the deception that was used by the executors of the war effort in both Vietnam and Iraq. This common character of the two wars is not by coincidence. The nation's office of president had to lie and mislead the American people and congress into the Vietnam war. And they had to lie, mislead and deceive the American people and congress into the Iraq war.

Daniel Ellsberg, who was responsible for disclosing many of the lies and distortions that enabled the office of the president to wage an unjust war in Vietnam, has an article in the October issue of Harper's Magazine. If you don't subscribe to Harper's, this is a good excuse to pick up a copy. Otherwise, it's worth a visit to the library.

Ellsberg essentially argues for why a person with access to inside information would do well by him or herself to leak the information - to expose the lies, the deception and misleadership of the executive branch - so as to have an opportunity to put a halt to another war (speaking mainly to the potential for a major long term bombing campaign against Iran) before they get a chance to start one.

Sounds good to me. By all means, leak away.

This is a somewhat regular review of the city council packet available at the city's website every Friday, pretty close to 3p. In no way is this everything in the packet, just what caught my eye.

Yeah, and I missed last week. I'm not the Olympian. The city council meets on Tuesday nights.

1. First on tap for Monday, September 18 is a public hearing on the Chambers Lake area building moritorium. This is an important issue, that area down there is pretty flood prone, being a large historic wetland. And, some folks want to build more homes, which is understandable because it is probably the least built up part of the city.

Anyway, look for talk on that Monday night at 7p downtown at city hall.

2. 1 million gallons of water is a lot of water to be perched up on a hill on the Westside, so its pretty important business for the city to keep the Bush Avenue Resevoir from, you know, not resevoir-ing anymore.

To that end they bid out the contract to replace the big honking piece of metal, but all of the bids came in over, so they want to go out again. The bid estimate was $1.4 million and the lowest bid was about $200k over that.

3. $37,000 for using a t.v. camera to explore sewer and storm pipes. Somewhere there is a cable tv chanell that will pay for that kind of footage. Maybe get some of that money back.

Access Newspaper Archive

Historical archives of national and local newspapers, with coverage as far back as 1759 up through 1977. Not every paper has this extended coverage. Does not include Washington State newspapers.
(This database is only available if you are in a Timberland library. It is not available to patrons outside the library.)

I found two articles with mention of my ancestors: one with some gossip from the Klondike Gold Rush, the other with a description of seeing a soldier off to war.

I hope this is okay to post. I am having a garage sale tomorrow from 9 to 3 p.m at 1405 Glass Avenue NE, on the eastside of Olympia, off Central St.  I will have mostly clothes, music and books.  The clothes is mostly on the plus-sized end, with sizes around 12/13/14.  It is also quite nice stuff.  I hope to see you there.

Dioxin taints Budd Inlet - The Olympian

The discovery of dioxin in the marine sediment of lower Budd Inlet has derailed a Port of Olympia dredging project scheduled to begin next month.

More than half of the 458,000 cubic yards of sediment to be dredged from the port's shipping channel and marine terminal area is too polluted with dioxin to qualify for open-water disposal at a site near Anderson and Ketron islands in South Sound, Army Corps of Engineers officials said Thursday.

It means a $1.5 million maintenance dredging project funded by the port and Corps is now a multimillion dollar sediment cleanup project, too.

It could be a year or so before the port, state and federal officials figure out how to proceed with the revised project.

The Tacoma/Pierce County Progressive Roundtable presents the Tahoma Progressive Media Conference, BECAUSE…

• Democracy needs good information, like a car needs oil
• Corporate media owners don’t have the same interests as the rest of us
• Progressive coverage in Pierce County is almost non-existent

DON’T HATE THE MEDIA -- BECOME THE MEDIA!

Including:
Mike honey, Tacoma AUTHOR, ACTIVIST/PERFORMER
geov parrish, FOUNDER OF “EAT THE STATE!

McCleary Community-wide Garage Sale -- 3rd Saturday in September -- September 16, 2006. 18 mi. west of Olympia on Highway 8. McCleary is caiman-free town, so your pet nutrias will be safe.