from last night's program:
La Jolla Landslide ...
“Landslide”
“Take my love, take it down
Climb a mountain and turn around
If you see my reflection in the snow covered hills
Well the landslide will bring it down”
Music & Lyrics by Stevie Nicks
I know that has nothing to do with houses falling into sinkholes, but it’s one of my favorite songs and the music just kept going around in my mind during this entire segment ...
So what would be going through your mind right now if you had spent several million dollars on a La Jolla home (and believe me, it’s required that you have a net worth of at least $25M to even enter those kinds of neighborhoods) – only to see it sink into the ground? And – if you recall back to last night and the insurance practices piece – also know that since “acts of God” are not covered – you won’t be able to collect a dime from your insurance company? YIKES!!!
Now I’m not a civil engineer, but just from a visual perspective (see below) – would you buy a house – any house – that was built within the “cut and fill” construction method? Doesn’t that defy common logic? Yet – that’s the way that many communities have been built – especially in Southern California.
Mine Collapse ...
At last – a mine collapse report with a positive outcome. It would have been too disastrous for words if over 3000 people had perished over one mile underground – while mining for gold. Mining for coal is dangerous enough, but coal is still a crucial commodity for survival. It would be a difficult, though not impossible, justification to make to say the same about gold. Good job by the rescue teams in Johannesburg, South Africa to get these miners back to safety as relatively quickly as they did!
Adoption Investigation ...
Harris Whitbeck and producer Rose Arce reported on the potential trafficking of Guatemalan babies, particularly by an agency called “Casa Quivira”, which operated with minimal oversight in that country. And if I’m not mistaken, I think there was just a bit of ‘squirming’ on the part of Clifford Phillips, Director of Casa Quivira, during his questioning by Anderson last night. I just hope that this won’t put an unnecessary “freeze” on legitimate global adoptions, whether in Guatemala or elsewhere. There’s more information here about Harris Whitbeck’s investigation.
Airport Passenger Death ...
The story about the death of Carol Ann Gotbaum at the Phoenix airport just gets more convoluted as each day passes. And I had the feeling that would happen, which I think is why I haven’t said much yet. It’s so sad to know that she never even really needed to be at that airport in the first place, but chose the stopover to be able to see her children before she continued on to her rehab facility in Tucson. I’m sure there will be much more coming to light about this event in the near future.
Burma crackdown ... continued
Anderson’s interview with Shari Villarosa, the Acting US Ambassador in Burma, was enlightening, albeit not in the positive sense. Among other items discussed, she said that of the monasteries she’d been able to see, most were either vacated or had military barricades placed around them. And those that were still open had fewer monks inhabiting them, which indicates that numerous monks have been, at a minimum, detained – and most likely imprisoned. She went on to say that she had heard reports that many arrests were being conducted during the relative secrecy of the night, and she suspects that thousands of protestors are now being detained. It was interesting to hear her say that the junta government believes that it can keep power by controlling the flow of information. You know – this is 2007 – not 1907. Information is going to get into, and get out of, the country in much more sophisticated ways than Than Shwe is prepared to combat. The story continues ...
Child Health Insurance Bill ...
What a coward. Is there much more that can be said? The “leader of the free world” told four million American children yesterday – “No health care for you” – by vetoing the child health insurance bill in private, absent the television cameras and other media coverage that normally attend even routine presidential actions. Sometimes I just can’t say it as well as others – this is an excerpt from NPR’s coverage:
Asked why the president has also issued veto threats against almost all the spending bills this year, White House spokeswoman Dana Perino said the president has a role to play in the legislative debate.
"One of the things the president can do is say, 'I'm not going to sign a bill that comes to me with extraneous spending. I'm not going to sign a bill that has policies in it that should not be a part of the United States policy,'" Perino said. "And so I would hope that we wouldn't have to do veto threats, but I think that the Democrats have shown that these are the types of legislative angles that they're going to take, and that's why the president has to send some veto threats up."
At issue is the fact that, added together, the spending bills exceed the president's own budget by some $23 billion.
But Dan Mitchell of the libertarian Cato Institute says that amount is paltry compared with the amount of excess spending that Bush signed during the Republicans' control of Congress.
"There certainly does seem to be a legitimate argument that the president only objects to new spending when Democrats are doing it, because he certainly wasn't objecting when Republicans controlled Congress," Mitchell said.
On Tuesday, the chairman of the House Appropriations Committee said that if there is a spending problem, it is the White House asking for nearly $200 billion in war funding.
"If the president is really concerned about stopping red ink, we are prepared to introduce legislation that will provide for a war surtax for that portion of military costs related to our military action in Iraq," Rep. David Obey (D-WI) proposed.
“If President Bush does not like that cost”, he added, “he can shut down the war.”
- A few “Anderson appearance” notes to finish this entry – other than Sesame Street (obviously), they’re to promote the upcoming “Planet in Peril” documentary:
October 15th – “Late Night with Conan O’Brien”
October 16th – “Sesame Street” – Grouch News Network (GNN)
More appearances are certain to follow ...
Thanks for visiting – updates posted as needed – have a terrific day!
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