For the next few weeks I’ll be doing some globe hopping so I’ll be depending on everyone here to take care of the country while I’m away. I expect to return to find the country no worse than I left it – considering the current sad state of affairs that shouldn’t be a difficult task.

I do have a round-trip ticket so treat any rumors to the contrary as you would any of those media reports.

The Asbury Park Press, the sole remaining newspaper in this part of the state, published Hermann Winkelmann's Saga.

At age 65, Hermann Winkelmann is still a formidable character, bigger than life, from the top of his Stetson to the tips of his boots.

...

This isn't impeachment so the pro-impeachment crowd here needs to settle down for a minute. :)

It is taking action to hold Bush accountable. New Jersey's governor, Jon Corzine, sent this email out today:

Dear Barry,

George Bush wants to take away health insurance from tens of thousands of New Jersey's poorest children. It's not right, and I won't let it happen.

I'm sure you've heard about Bush's recent veto of extra federal funding to the SCHIP program that provides health insurance to America's most needy families. But before all that even happened, he had already issued an illegal proclamation that would immediately cut health care coverage for over 10,000 New Jersey kids.

It's absolutely outrageous. George Bush and the Republicans in Washington are taking an indefensible stand against health care for kids. They'd rather put political and ideological gamesmanship ahead of bipartisan solutions to protect our most vulnerable children.

That's why I filed a lawsuit on behalf of the people of New Jersey. I know George Bush thinks he can do whatever he wants to defy the wishes of the American people and a bipartisan majority in Congress. But the truth is, we have rules and laws in this country. He can't just do whatever he wants. So I'm taking him to court to hold him accountable.

A fellow who worked for the same NGO in Viet Nam as I did has posted a blog on Iraq. You can, and should, read his entire blog at Peace Talk.

He's not retired but until his retirement he headed Christian Peacemaker Teams which worked in Iraq both before and after the invasion. In July of 2003 he traveled to Iraq and his blog has many interesting observations.

"After the Jordanian officials were done with us, we went on. At the technical border we were greeted by the first fruits of occupation, a massive broken down monument to the Iraqi state and several more dilapidated buildings. No one could tell us where to go. Just as I was deciding to look like I knew what I was doing and keep walking to the place where you find the taxis and buses to Baghdad I saw the real border - two American soldiers sitting at a broken down old table, head in hands and fast asleep. “So this is the New Border,” I thought. Hardly a picture of the great awakening to the age of democracy.

On Wednesday August 22nd at 9 p.m. on PBS (as always check your local listings) a new documentary will premier. Its about a time that your history classes may have skipped over and with that oversight contributed to the misunderstandings of today.

Over a thousand years ago, the sun-washed land of southern Spain was home to Jews, Christians, and Muslims, living together and flourishing. Their culture and beliefs intertwined, and the knowledge of the ancients was gathered and reborn. Here were the very seeds of the Renaissance.

I spent a good part of last week in Washington with some of our students at the United States Institute for Peace (USIP). I will get my notes together and post something about our discussions there soon. But there are other things happening that are worth reporting on first. USIP works quietly and often behind the scenes in conflict resolution.

Ok, trying again to reply using Microsoft's new gadget. It may be that you can only reply using IE.

Barry 

It does look interesting, but it requires jumping between Writer and the browser to read the blog. It does have spell check but not as you type. You can either ask it to spell check or go to tools/preferences and select automatically spell check before posting.

Barry

The World Wide Web is 15 years old today.

On August 6, 1991 Tim Berners-Lee released his web software.

December 12, 1991 first web server outside of Europe.

November 1992 there are 26 web servers on line.

April 1993 Mosaic browser released for Windows.

May 1993 The Tech published by MIT, the first web newspaper.

February 1994 the precursor to Yahoo goes on line.

October 13 1994 Clinton puts whitehouse.gov on line.

October 13 1994 Netscape released.

October 23 1994 AT&T has first banner ad.

February 1995 Radio Hong Kong becomes first full time web radio station.