photos by Gary D. Brune (c) copyright 2008

The gravity of 9-11-01 still rings through this country as we honor the people who lost their lives on this day. The Paradise Veteran’s Council will set up a circle of flags at the Veteran’s Hall today.

The gravity of this day is personal for me, as the radio reminds me what happened seven years ago, just like it reported the events that Monday. My wife and I were as shocked about the events as they transpired as the rest of this country, just as those of us who do remember where we were when President John F. Kennedy was assassinated.

The gravity of 9-11 reverberates through the land today. One of the first actions congress subsequently took was to pass the Patriot Act. A mindset was imposed on us -national security is now as much a concern as the Bill of Rights. Our computers and emails are monitored, cheaper high definition cameras are now on the street, in police officers’ badges, and will soon be linked with their tazer weapons.

The result is that technology has, in effect, obsoleted the Constitution of the United States. The citizens are still afraid, and think nothing of going through airport screenings. Their common line of reasoning is that as long as they do nothing wrong, they have nothing to worry about.

Balderdash! The privacy of the American citizen should be more precious than their paycheck, more guarded than our borders, and more of an ideal to them than the Bill of Rights.

photo by Gary D. Brune copyright (c) 2008

it crossed the New York Times silicon this morning that they have a new security program under the headline of "City Would Photograph Every Vehicle Entering Manhattan and Sniff Out Radioactivity". Project Sentinel will install over 3,000 public and private security cameras to keep track of traffic in the moneyed section of New York City, Manhattan.

This isn't any different from the new camera badges approved for Paradise Police. While the official excuse for both is Homeland Security, which will satisfy most of the pigeons out there, the real reason these measures exist is to collect information and intimidate the citizenry. As long as the powers that be can keep the masses at arms length from the classes, they can exploit the masses without worry.

I've already written on this as all of the technology used here, until directly challenged in the United States Supreme Court, has in effect obsoleted the Constitution of the United States. When did security become one of the Bill of Rights, or for that matter its need become part of the Constitution? Is life more important than honor?

Or more likely, is all this a means to keep the people in control so that any possible objection to what they want to do will be flagged for early warning so that they can do something about it without difficulty, or without serious consequence to the uber-rich?

One of my jpgmag correspondents calls pigeons rats with wings. but as this picture shows, even they have concerns. Well, if the shoe fits...

photo by Gary D. Brune copyright (c) 2008

My favorite point of irony just changed hands. The Money Saver on Fair Street in Chico is now a Beacon to the ongoing rush to $5 a gallon gasoline. It's starting out with a comparably low price, but that won't be around long.

As Toni Scott reported in the Enterprise-Record yesterday “Regardless if you are a same-sex couple or a traditional bride and groom, the Butte County Clerk's Office is one place where you can no longer get married.

“Butte County Clerk Candace Grubbs said the action has nothing to do with gay marriage and everything to do with money. “

The problem is this decision made Statewide news reports on KGO radio out of San Francisco. Last night Christine Craft did an hour on Grubb's announcement. Craft called this an act of prejudice and excoriated Grubb, suggesting she should resign her post and hire on as a church clerk,

In the only time that Butte County makes statewide news aside from the Oroville fire, this decision makes us a laughing stock. As Craft said Grubb is not working for a religious organization, but for the government which represents everybody, and is responsible to all citizens of Butte County.

Grubb is right about one thing. This is about money. Same sex marriage is a new funding source for local government, as Craft pointed out. So one of the poorest counties in California is doing this?

It is interesting when a note from Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger appears in the morning email. He wrote me in response to a dispatch I sent concerning the budget issues concerning California State University, Chico. He made a few points beginning with;

“California is blessed with one of the world's most dynamic and diverse economies, but when it comes to the state budget process, we are highly dysfunctional. The economic slowdown and autopilot state spending have created a budget shortfall of $3.3 billion for the current fiscal year, and it could grow to an estimated $14.5 billion by July 2009.”

photo by Gary D. Brune copyright (c) 2008

His main concern seems to be, after two attempts to reform the budget process, to deal with fixed expenditures which are part of this process. He believes that these elements are the main reason the budget is out of balance. He proposed a 10 percent across-the-board to nearly every General Fund program from 2008-09 levels.

“ I am proud that higher education spending will still increase”, he wrote, “by $1.6 billion-bringing its total funding level to $21.7 billion. This includes $5.5 billion for the University of California System, a net increase of $81.3 million; $4.4 billion for our California State Universities, a net increase of $35.1 million; and $9.1 billion for our California Community Colleges, an increase of $146.5 million”

In order to fix what he calls a budget mess, Governor Schwarzenegger wants to propose an automatic mechanism that would trigger lower funding levels already approved by the Legislature equivalent to the deficit.

This is another case of fixed programs not addressing the problems that inevitably occur during the budget year. It takes judgment out of the hand of the people we elect to fix California's difficulties.

Has this country gone completely daft? While riding the B-Line this morning, I caught this price on the corner of Skyway and Wagstaff, a sure indication that the $5 end of summer price prediction is likely to be reality.

photo by Gary D. Brune copyright (c) 2008

As a starving student at Chico State, I haven't had the money to run a car for quite some time. Still, I held onto the hope that such a convenience would come my way. Prices like this completely dash the dream and confine me to a bus driver as chauffeur for the foreseeable future.

While walking slowly on the streets of the Ridge, I see all these bricks with wheels speeding past and muse on how they can afford to keep their piece of the road running. The traffic hasn't seemed to have diminished over the last couple of months so there must be an out somewhere.

Another writer I read this morning ranted about the increased cost of corn flakes. With me it's wheat bread and meat, but everything else I can eat increases its presence in my budget as well. And yet there is no movement yet to do anything about this.

The sign I pictured here is from Conoco/Phillips Union 76, all of which used to be separate service stations. Isn't this the way things got out of control a hundred years ago when the reformist movement broke up Big Oil? I fear what will happen when the American people reach their breaking point this time.

photos by Gary D. Brune copyright (c) 2008

This is a thank you to Bob Barrett, whose information proved to be correct, Commander Thor Sparre of American Legion Post 259 who put me on this story, and David Little of the Enterprise Record, whose timely Blog Log post got Jay Sulzmann from Representative Wally Herger's office to overcome technical difficulties and relay the report that H.R. 3380 has been passed by Congress and was signed into law

Yes Mr. Barret, veterans can now salute the flag in or out of uniform.

Veterans in Paradise celebrated Memorial Day by raising 13 flags at the Veteran's Hall and firing off a 21 gun salute at the Memorial Day ceremonies at the Paradise Cemetery.

To quote from Sulzman's dispatch this morning; "I wanted to let you know that the text of H.R. 3380 has actually passed Congress and become law. It was included as Section 594 of H.R. 4986, the National Defense Authorization Act for fiscal year 2008, which was signed into law by President Bush on January 28 of this year. I believe the language was originally added as an amendment by Senator Inhofe of Oklahoma when the bill was going through the Senate.

This information is a wonderful way to celebrate Memorial Day, originally called Decoration Day

San Francisco Radio Station KGO has announced the former and long time talk show host Bernie Ward has, on advice of his attorney, agreed to plea guilty to the charges filed against him on December 7 by the Bush Justice Department.

The effect of this federal victory is that significant criticism of the federal government has been quashed, our rage over being screwed by high gas prices has been silenced, and any voice of protest has been muted. The conservatives and republicans have won with their complete domination of the media.

And this is supposed to be the land of the free and the home of the brave?

photo by Gary D. Brune copyright 2008

For those who remember when I first started this weblog, back in September I wrote on the upcoming Chico Transit Center. At the time it seemed to be political costume jewelry, with a major oversight built into it.

As this afternoon's storm ushered in the new transit center, which the B-Line started using yesterday, the disparity between the city bus passengers and their county brethren is even more apparent. To the left of this shot, we have the transit center, while to the right we see a county passenger on one of three green benches set down on Normal last week.

photo by Gary D. Brune copyright 2007

The bear above supervises the upcoming California primary, but the fix may have already been laid in for the citizens of my state and this country. When we vote in November, my prediction is that we will have a race between Republican John McCain and Democrat Hillary Clinton.

If New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg enters as an independent, he will siphon those votes from the Clinton campaign, just as his predecessors did in 1988 and again in 2000. That will lead to Senator McCain raising his hand over the bible on January 20, 2009, and being sworn in as the 44th President of the United States.

That will benefit the uber-rich, because the Congress shall remain Democratic and we will end up with four years of stagnant government. The result that none of the damage that George Bush, our generation's Calvin Coolidge (the president who put us into the Great Depression) will be overturned, Silicon Slavery shall fall upon the land, and those in power shall celebrate the Roaring Teens.

And may God have mercy on our souls.