The FReeper Foxhole Presents the Saturday Symposium - "Over There"? July 30th, 2005

see educational sources

[snippy_about_it]

Lord,

Keep our Troops forever in Your care

Give them victory over the enemy...

Grant them a safe and swift return...

Bless those who mourn the lost.
.

FReepers from the Foxhole join in prayer
for all those serving their country at this time.


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Are You Watching "Over There"?



TV review: Over There

The first TV drama based on a war still in progress follows the trend of recent war movies where patriotism is a joke, leaders are corrupt, and idealism is a foolish illusion | by Gene Edward Veith

Over There (FX, Wednesdays, 10:00 p.m. ET), the new dramatic series about American soldiers fighting in Iraq, is supposedly neither pro-war nor anti-war.



"I don't think you have to deal at all with the politics of it," producer Steven Bochco told Reuters. "Ultimately, a young man being shot at in a firefight has absolutely no interest in politics." Of the soldiers, he told The New York Times, "they're not fighting for an ideal, they're fighting to survive. It irises down to issues that are completely nonpolitical."

But to portray a war without any of its ideals is to portray that war as meaningless. If the reasons for the war are just "politics," if war is nothing more than a struggle for survival, who could support it?

Michael Medved has pointed out the change in war movies. The movies about World War II made five decades ago did not necessarily glamorize war or shrink from how terrible it is. But they presented the GIs as fighting for a cause that gave meaning and value to their sacrifices. The old war movies—think The Longest Day—were on the side of the Americans and of America. The soldiers were heroes because the war was worth fighting.

But with the Vietnam War, Mr. Medved observes, that all changed. With the anti-war sentiments of the cultural elite, Hollywood began portraying war—even "good wars" such as World War II—as meaningless and absurd. The soldier was portrayed as an existential hero, struggling—and often failing—to keep his humanity in a world of senseless violence. (Think Catch-22 for World War II; M*A*S*H for the Korean War; Apocalypse Now for Vietnam.) In the more recent war movies, patriotism is a joke, leaders are corrupt, and idealism is a foolish illusion.

In the new mindset, even pacifism changes. The old pacifism was based precisely on moral ideals. The new pacifism is grounded in cynicism. Ideals and moral values do not exist, so there is nothing worth fighting and dying for.

Over There is definitely in the post-Vietnam school of war movies. "Shut up and stay alive," the sergeant tells the terrified young men and women under fire for the first time. "Your job is just to survive."

In accord with the anti-war movie cliché, the officers are indifferent and incompetent. The men complain about how an image-conscious general 75 miles away is making decisions based on making the war look good, while causing the grunts on the ground to get killed.

But for all of the series' ostensible sympathy for the front-line troops, it treats them with palpable condescension. One of the men in the squad has the nickname "Doublewide," expressing the bigotry of the upper middle class for people who live in trailers. A bespectacled young soldier has the nickname "Dim" because he was a college student and thus "stupid to join the army."

Most real recruits cite patriotic motives to serve their country. Not in Over There. One soldier needs the GI Bill so he can go to college. Another had auditioned for a national choir, but when he failed, he enlisted to avoid facing the folks back home. Others are escaping bad family situations. One soldier does say, "I love the army," but his gung-ho attitude earns him scornful looks, and he will no doubt learn his lesson.

Ironically, even anti-war war stories exploit the action and excitement of war. The combat scenes in Over There are excellent. Gun battles—with flashing machine guns from a mosque—are shown in the green light of night-vision goggles. The camera bounces along with the men as they run. Scope shots show the targets—enemies who silently fall when shot—putting the viewer behind the rifle.

In a signature scene, an insurgent charges, whereupon he is shot with a grenade launcher. His body blows up, but for a while his legs keep running. Such excruciating violence, plus the graphic profanity allowable on basic cable, earn the show a rare TV-MA rating.

Over There is the first TV drama based on a war still in progress. But this did also happen in World War II, to keep up morale on the home front. Those movies are often dismissed today as propaganda. So what is Over There? •

sym·po·sium : a social gathering at which there is free interchange of ideas

So now let's get on with the discussion. Pull up a chair or grab a spot on the floor around the virtual Foxhole Cabin and let's chat.

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FReeper Foxhole Armed Services Links

[snippy_about_it]

Come on in!

Tuesday, July 26, 2005

These soldiers say 'Over There' is 'bogus'

By M.L. LYKE
SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER REPORTER

A truck tire hits a flagged wire, a roadside bomb explodes, a handsome private with shredded leg screams in agony. In the bloody chaos of the moment, his soldier buddies panic. One pukes.

Stop the cameras! Sir!

"People don't act like that when an i.e.d. (improvised explosive device) goes off. They make us look like idiots. We're not idiots!" said a first lieutenant previewing "Over There," the new TV series from Steven Bochco ("NYPD Blue," "Hill Street Blues") that debuts tomorrow night on FX cable network. It's set in Iraq, hyped as "true to life" by producers and hailed by critics as "unflinching" and "gut-wrenching."

"Bogus" was the preferred adjective among the eight soldiers -- most of them Iraq vets -- viewing the series pilot last week at Camp Murray, headquarters of the Washington State National Guard in Tacoma.

"Thank God that's over," said a master sergeant as the credits rolled.

The uniformed skeptics dissected the series pilot scene by scene, beginning with the roadside bombing and panicked soldiers. Who, they asked, was pulling security? And what kind of idiot pulls off his helmet after a bombing attack? "In real life, training takes over. Not in Hollywood," said Sgt. Dan Purcell.

The flags on the trip wires got an "F": roadside bombs in Iraq are typically hidden in watermelons, hay stacks, animal carcasses -- not marked for easy viewing. "A flag to mark an i.e.d.? What is that -- like don't land here?"

Truck drivers also got eight thumbs down. "You do not, under any circumstances, pull off on the side of the road. You stop in the middle."

The TV series, filmed in California, follows an Army infantry squad, flashing between soldiers' experiences in-country and the impact of their deployment back home in the States. It's billled as the first war drama built around a U.S. military conflict still in progress, a war with death tolls mounting daily.

Bochco, who co-created the series with Chris Gerolmo ("Mississippi Burning"), has stated in interviews that the show is apolitical. "Ultimately, a young man being shot at in a firefight has absolutely no interest in politics," he told Reuters news service.

But some camo-clad critics at Camp Murray were left wondering just what the message was in "Over There." One said a young soldier who brags about slitting the throat of a child sentry "makes us look like murderers."

Master Sgt. Jeff Clayton complained that cameras deliberately dragged out the death scenes of Iraqi insurgents after a firefight, lingering unnecessarily on the carnage. "It made me sick."

And where, soldiers asked, were the scenes of soldiers building schools, Iraqi kids waving American flags?

The fast-paced premiere is packed with sex, drugs, rock 'n' roll; cool explosions and close-up gore; cussing and wrought emotion. It opens with the soldiers' goodbyes to family and a nervous flight to Iraq. In an instant -- "Yeah, right" -- the new dudes are belly-down in sand in front of a mosque full of insurgents, with two women accidentally trapped in the trenches, one with a big attitude and little common sense.

"I can do it myself!" she yells at a soldier who tries to help her dig a trench. "You deaf soldier?" It's night, she's totally exposed to enemy fire and, when it starts, it's boy-soldier who has to push her head down to save her.

No wonder the men keep asking, "What do we do about the women?"

"I did not like the way the show presents men's opinion of women -- they act like the women were some other species," said Lt. Connie Woodyard, who returned from Iraq earlier this year. "We're not cowards. Women in Iraq are doing amazing things."

The Camp Murray soldiers dismissed the military firefights as "bull---- " ("Where is the air support? Where is the armor support?"), the dialogue as contrived ("It sucked") and plot drivers as pure Hollywood.

In the script, characters are thrown together for the first time. They constantly ask each other to explain nicknames. In real life, soldiers are sent to Iraq in units. "They don't have to ask each other's nicknames. They all know each other."

After one week in-country, the soldier-actors mull life and death and war in eloquent speeches home to loved ones, talking about how war unmasks the monster within. "Nobody is that reflective after one week in-country. It's more like, "Ohmigod, we're in Iraq. Hi. What the hell am I doing here?"

A few scenes passed muster. Heads nodded when a soldier opened up a packet of Taster's Choice freeze-dried and downed the whole thing. Nice detail. Ditto the scene of the earnest soldier describing the horrors of war via computer video e-mail as his adulterous wife is writhing in ecstasy with lover-boy back home.

"But after only a week?" commented one soldier.

"It usually takes at least two," added another.

One scene hit home for the tough audience: an intimate close-up of two African American soldiers talking band-of-brother bonds. Says one: "If you're looking for another fool to risk getting shot to cover your fool behind, I'm right here beside you."

Correct! Sir!

Only one of the camo-clad critics, Sgt. John Figueroa, who is awaiting call-up orders to Afghanistan, said he'd watch it.

"Hey, I'm into Hollywood," he said, shrugging.

Good morning everyone. Enjoy your Saturday.

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Educational Sources:

http://www.worldmag.com/displayArticle.cfm?ID=10880 http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/tv/233932_over26.html

[snippy_about_it]

Showcasing America's finest, and those who betray them!

Please click on the banner above and check out this newly created (and still under construction) website created by FReeper Coop!

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Veterans for Constitution Restoration is a non-profit, non-partisan educational and grassroots activist organization.

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Actively seeking volunteers to provide this valuable service to Veterans and their families.

Thanks to quietolong for providing this link.

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We here at Blue Stars For A Safe Return are working hard to honor all of our military, past and present, and their families. Inlcuding the veterans, and POW/MIA's. I feel that not enough is done to recognize the past efforts of the veterans, and remember those who have never been found.

I realized that our Veterans have no "official" seal, so we created one as part of that recognition. To see what it looks like and the Star that we have dedicated to you, the Veteran, please check out our site.

Veterans Wall of Honor

Blue Stars for a Safe Return

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NOW UPDATED THROUGH JULY 31st, 2004




The FReeper Foxhole. America's History. America's Soul

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Good Saturday Morning Everyone.

If you want to be added to our ping list, let us know.

[Soaring Feather]

Good morning everyone.

[Aeronaut]

Good morning Snippy. I got the "new computer reconfiguration blues."

[Professional Engineer]

Good morning ladies. Flag-o-Gram.

U.S. Army Spc. Tim "The Toolman" Taylor Alan D. Pascua, a 298th Engineer Detachment electrician from Waipahu, Hawaii, evens the roofline edge of a newly constructed porch at the 173rd Support Battalion Headquarters at Kandahar Airfield, Afghanistan. U.S. Army photo by Sgt. 1st Class Stephen M. Lum

[alfa6]

It is a Saturday bump for a Saturday Freeper Foxhole :-)

Go to...http://www.blackfive.net/main/2005/07/over_there.html#comments for some intersting comment regards "Over There"

I have not nor probaly will not see it FWIW

Regards

alfa6 ;>}

[E.G.C.]

Good morning, Snippy and everyone at the Freeper Foxhole.

[Valin]

On This Day In History


Birthdates which occurred on July 30:
1818 Emily Bront‰ England, novelist (Wuthering Heights)
1815 Thomas Jackson Rodman, Bvt Brig General (Union volunteers)
1837 Elon John Farnsworth, Brig General (Union volunteers), died in 1863
1855 James Edward Kelly US, sculptor "Sculptor of American History"
1857 Thorstein Veblen US, economist (Theory of the Leisure Class-1899)


1863 Henry Ford Dearborn Township, Mich, auto maker (Ford)


1880 Robert Rutherford McCormick US, editor/publisher Chicago Tribune
1887 Timothy Mara NFL owner (NY Giants)
1889 Vladimir Zworykin electronics engineer/inventor, father of TV (invented the iconoscope)
1890 Casey Stengel NY Yankee (1949-60) & 1st NY Met manager
1899 Gerald Moore England, pianist (Am I Too Loud)
1909 Cyril Northcote Parkinson England, historian (Pursuit of Progress)
1924 William Gass Fargo, ND, novelist, philosopher (Omensetter's Luck)
1929 Christine McGuire Middletown Oh singer (McGuire Sisters-Sugartime)
1929 Sid Kroft Athens Greece, puppeteer (Barbara Mandrell Show)

1930 Thomas Sowell, author/activist/really smart guy

1933 Edd "Kookie" Byrnes LA, actor/comb owner (77 Sunset Strip, Jack the Ripper)
1934 Bud Selig, owner (Milw Brewers)/acting baseball commissioner
1934 Ben Piazza Ark, actor (Blues Brothers, Ben Casey, Dallas)
1936 Ralph Taeger Richmond Hill NY, actor (Klondike, Acapulco, Hondo)
1936 George "Buddy" Guy, US blues guitarist (Stone Crazy)
1939 Eleanor Smeal heads National Organization for Women
1939 Peter Bogdanovich director/producer (The Last Picture Show)
1940 Patricia Schroeder (Rep-D-Colo)
1941 Count Desmond (Edward Benjamin) Binghamton NY, sword swallower
1941 Paul Anka Ottawa Ontario, singer (Put Your Head on My Shoulder)
1945 David Sanborn saxophonist (David Letterman)
1947 Arnold Schwarzenegger Austria, body builder/actor/politican (Commando, Terminator)
1947 William Atherton Ct, actor (Real Genius, Ghostbusters, Class of 44)
1950 Frank Stallone NYC, actor (Barfly, Outlaw Force)
1956 Delta Burke Orlando Fla, actress (Suzanne-Designing Women)
1958 Daley Thomas London, Decathalete (Olympic-gold-1980, 1984)
1963 Monique Gabrielle LA Cal, actress (Bad Girls 4, Amazon Women on Moon)
1977 Suangsuda Rodprasert, Miss Thailand Universe (1997)

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Deaths which occurred on July 30:
0030 BC Mark Antony commits suicide (Following his loss at the battle of Actium)
0579 Benedict I, Italian Pope (575-79), dies
1718 William Penn, English Quaker/colonizer
1771 Thomas Gray, English poet ("Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard"), dies at 54
1863 George Crockett Strong, US Union mjr-gen, dies of injuries at 29
1865 George Wright, US Union brig-general, dies at 61
1898 Otto von Bismarck, German "Iron" chancellor, dies at 83
1912 Mutsuhito, 122nd emperor of Japan (1867-1912), dies at 60
1914 Jean Jaur‚s leading socialist, assassinated in Paris
1918 Chaim Soloveitchik, Rabbi of Brisk, talmudic scholar, dies
1967 Alfried Krupp, German industrialist, dies at 59
1983 Howard Deitz MGM executive, dies at 86 of Parkinson's disease
1983 Lynn Fontanne Broadway's premier actresses, dies at 95
1993 Edward B A M Raczynski, Polish pres-in-exile (1979-86), dies at 97
1996 Claudette Colbert, actress (Happened One Night), dies of stroke at 93
1998 “Buffalo Bob” Smith, the cowboy-suited host of the Howdy Doody Show from 1947-1960, died at age 80
2003 Sam Phillips (b.1923), founder of Sun Records (1952), died in Memphis. Phillips produced Elvis Presley's 1st record, also Johnny Cash, Carl Perkins, Jerry Lee Lewis.

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GWOT Casualties

Iraq
30-Jul-2003 1 | US: 1 | UK: 0 | Other: 0
US Captain Leif E. Nott Belaruz Hostile - hostile fire


Afghanistan
A Good Day

http://icasualties.org/oif/
Data research by Pat Kneisler
Designed and maintained by Michael White
//////////
Go here and I'll stop nagging.
http://www.taps.org/
(subtle hint SEND MONEY)

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On this day...
0579 Benedict I ends his reign as Catholic Pope
0657 St Vitalian begins his reign as Catholic Pope
1178 Frederick I (Barbarossa) Holy Roman Emperor crowned King of Burgundy
1419 Anti-Catholic Hussites, followers of executed reformer Jan Hus, storm townhall in Prague and throw Catholic councillors out the windows
1619 House of Burgesses Virginia formed, 1st elective US governing body
1729 City of Baltimore founded
1733 Society of Freemasons opens 1st American lodge in Boston
1792 French national anthem "La Marseillaise" by Claude Joseph Rouget de Lisle, was first sung in Paris
(No French national anthem is NOT "I Surrender Dear")
1799 The French garrison at Mantua, Italy surrenders to the Austrians
1822 James Varick becomes 1st bishop of Afr Meth Episcopal Zion Church
1836 1st English newspaper published in Hawaii
1839 Slave rebels, take over slaver Amistad
1863 Pres Lincoln issues "eye-for-eye" order to shoot a rebel prisoner for every black prisoner shot
1864 Confederate troops attack Chambersburg, Pennsylvania. The town was burned by Union forces under McCausland
1874 1st baseball teams to play outside US, Boston-Phila in British Isles
1878 German anti-semitism begins during the Reichstag election
1878 Russian assault on Plevna Turkey, 7,300 Russian casualties
1889 Start of Sherlock Holmes adventure "The Naval Treaty" (BG)
1902 Anti-Jewish rioters attack funeral procession of Rabbi Joseph (NYC)
1908 Around the World Autombile Race ends in Paris
1909 US Army accepts delivery of 1st military airplane
1911 J Palisa discovers asteroid #716 Berkeley
1913 Conclusion of the 2nd Balkan War
1916 German saboteurs blow up a munitions plant on Black Tom Island, NJ (a commission in 1939 ruled that Germany was guilty of sabotaging Black Tom and another plant in Kingsland, NJ, and awarded $50 million to the claimants. In 1953 the new Federal Republic of Germany began making payments. The last payment was made in 1979.)
1928 George Eastman demonstrates 1st color movie
1932 G Van Biesbroeck discovers asteroid #2253 Espinette

1935 1st Penguin book is published starting the paperback revolution

1942 FDR signs bill creating women's Navy auxiliary agency (WAVES)
1942 German SS kills 25,000 Jews in Minsk, Belorussia
1943 Last Judy Garland-Mickey Rooney movie released (Girl Crazy)
1944 US 30th division reaches suburbs of St-Lo Normandy
1946 1st rocket attains 100 mi altitude, White Sands, NM
1948 Professional wrestling premiers on prime-time network TV (DuMont)
1949 British warship HMS Amethyst escape down Yangtze River, having been refused a safe passage by Chinese Communists after 3-month standoff
1951 Ty Cobb testifies before the Emanuel Celler committee, denying that the reserve clause makes peons of baseball players
1951 E L Johnson discovers asteroid #2718
1954 Elvis Presley joins Memphis Federation of Musicians, Local 71
1956 US motto "In God We Trust" authorized
1960 1st AFL preseason game Boston Patriots defeat Bills in Buffalo (28-7)
1963 British spy Kim Philby discovered in Moscow
1964 US naval fire on Hon Ngu/Hon Mo North Vietnam
1965 LBJ signs Medicare bill, which went into effect following year
1966 US airplanes bombs "demilitarized zone" in Vietnam
1966 Beatles' "Yesterday... & Today," album goes #1 & stays #1 for 5 weeks
1967 Race riot in Milwaukee (4 killed)
1968 Beatles' Apple Boutique closes, entire inventory is given away
1968 Wash Senator Ron Hansen makes 1st unassisted triple-play in 41 years
1969 Barbra Striesand opens for Liberace at International Hotel, Las Vegas
1971 George Harrison releases "Bangladesh"
1971 Japanese Boeing 727 collides with an F-86 fighter killing 162

1971 US Apollo 15 lands on Mare Imbrium on the Moon

1975 Teamsters Pres Jimmy Hoffa disappears in suburban Detroit ("I don't need no bodyguard" J Hoffa)
1976 Kate Smith made her last public appearance, singing her trademark number, God Bless America on a TV program honoring the U.S. Bicentennial.
1976 Japanese beat Russian for Olympic gold in woman's volleyball
1980 The Israeli Knesset passed a law reaffirming all of Jerusalem as the capital of the Jewish state
1980 British New Hebrides becomes independent & takes name Vanuatu
1983 Official speed record for a piston-driven aircraft, 832 kph, Calif
1983 Weight lifter Sergei Didyk of USSR jerks a record 261 kg
1988 Jordanian King Hussein renounces sovereignty over West Bank to PLO
1988 Ronald J Dossenbach begins world record ride, pedaling across Canada from Vancouver BC, to Halifax, NS (13 days, 15 hr, 4 min)
1990 5 Bank of Credit & Commerce (BCCI) (hereafter known as The Bank of Criminals & Crooks Incorporated) members found guilty of money
1991 MTV announces it will split into 3 channels in 1993
1995 Richie Ashburn and Mike Schmidt enter basaeball's Hall of Fame
1996 Tommy Lasoda retires as LA Dodger manager
1997 Terrorist double suicide bombing in Jerusalem, kills 14
1997 Muslim terrorists in Algeria massacred over 80 villagers in recent attacks in apparent retaliation to a government offensive.
1998 13 Ohio machinists step forward to claim the $295.7 million Powerball jackpot. The workers opted to take the cash option: one payment of about $161.5 million.
1999 Linda Tripp charged with illegal wiretapping of Monica Lewinsky. Prosecutors later dropped the charges.
2000 The last nuclear test facility was destroyed with a controlled detonation of 100 tons of explosives in Kazakstan
2001 Intel rolls out its new Pentium III-M processor based on .13 micron chip technology
2002 Pope John Paul II begins a three-day visit to Mexico to canonize Juan Diego, the first Indian saint
2004 Abdurahman Alamoudi pleads guilty in a Virginia court to moving cash from Libya and involvement in a plot to assassinate Saudi Prince Abdullah.

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Holidays
Note: Some Holidays are only applicable on a given "day of the week"

Cuba : Day of Martyrs of the Revolution
France : Marseillaise Day (1792)
Thailand : Asalha Puja
Virginia : Crater Day (1864)
Vanuata Independence Day (from Britain and France).
International Paperback day
National Cheesecake Day
Father-in-Law Day
National Lamb and Wool Month

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Religious Observances
Buddhist-Bhutan : Buddha's 1st preaching
Christ : Commemoration of SS Abdon & Sennen, martyrs
RC : Memorial of Peter Chrysologus, bishop & doctor
Ang : Commemoration of William Wilberforce

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Religious History
1629 The Puritans of Salem, Mass. appointed Francis Higginson as their teacher andSamuel Skelton as their pastor. The church covenant, composed afterward by these two men,allowed into communion only those who could prove a sound doctrinal knowledge and anexperience of grace in their lives.
1718 Death of William Penn, 74, English Quaker and founder of American colony ofPennsylvania. Penn permitted in his colony all forms of public worship compatible with monotheism and religious liberty.
1822 Pioneer church founder James Varick, 72, was consecrated the first bishop of the African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church.
1956 By an act of Congress, signed by President Eisenhower, 'In God We Trust' becamethe official U.S. motto.
1976 Death of Rudolf Bultmann, 92, German Bible scholar and one of the three majorpioneers of modern form 'criticism' (i.e., 'analysis') of the New Testament Gospels.

Source: William D. Blake. ALMANAC OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH. Minneapolis: Bethany House, 1987.

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Squirrel Tale Has No End in Sight
The county has ordered Santa Monica to cut the animal's population at a popular park. A furor halted poisoning; now the city is stumped.

July 29 2005

An explosion in the ground squirrel population is driving Santa Monica officials a little nutty.

The city is under order from the Los Angeles County health department to reduce the number of the chubby rodents in a popular seaside park, to lessen the chance of people contracting plague.

But some local residents, unhappy with the lethal-bait boxes at the 26-acre Palisades Park, fear that pets and wildlife are being put at risk.

This week the animal rights organization People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals weighed in with a letter to Mayor Pam O'Connor accusing the city of illegally misusing the pesticide by placing the poison where other animals could get to it.

Non-targeted animals could eat poisoned carcasses or get into the bait boxes, PETA said.

"Failing to follow the product label on a pesticide is a violation of federal law," wrote PETA representative Mylie Thompson.

City parks chief Joe McGrath, who suspended use of the poison in late June because of citizen concerns, has been searching since then for a practical alternative, which he says seems to be unavailable. "We're willing to try anything," he said.

Many of the bait boxes remain in the park, but they are not being replenished.

Ground squirrel extermination has been undertaken at the park off and on for at least 20 years with little attention, but citizen reaction in recent months has been "off the charts," McGrath said.

Tree squirrels, slimmer and with curlier tails than ground squirrels, do not pose a plague problem and are not targeted, officials said.

The mayor was not available for comment Thursday, but city spokeswoman Judy Rambeau said the poison method used by the city was safe and legal.

Longtime park user Diane Shackelford was horrified Memorial Day to see a flock of crows "picking off sick squirrels" near bait boxes along a well-traveled path.

"I think we've come far enough that we don't have to be putting poison in a public park," she said.

Early this year, county health officials counted 146 active burrows in the park. McGrath estimated that more than 1,000 squirrels were living in the labyrinths.

The county Department of Health Services monitors parks for plague bacteria, which ground squirrels can harbor and transmit to humans through fleas. Disease control supervisor Gail Van Gordon said a July inspection showed acceptable progress in ground squirrel reduction but that the effort must continue.

"I know there are a lot of concerns in the city of Santa Monica," she said. "Our intentions are not to eliminate all ground squirrels in Palisades Park."

She added that the department does not give advice on how to limit the squirrel population.

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Thought for the day :
"Laws are like sausages. It's better not to see them being made."
Otto von Bismarck

[Valin]

Strange. He doesn't look like he ready to panic. But then he's probably busy building Haliburton world headquarters.









Back later.

[alfa6]

Howdy there Ms bentfeather !!!

Out of sunrise "cat" pics how about a B-17 one instead?

Hat tip to ( 447bg.com)for the pic.

Regards

alfa6 ;>}

[Soaring Feather]

WOO HOO wonderful, love it.

Gooday to ya mate.

[alfa6]

1930 Thomas Sowell, author/activist/really smart guy

Also a Graduate of the Universirty of Science, Music and Cultre.

Regards

alfa6 ;>}

[alfa6]

Regards the squirrell problem I suppose this might work

better than this

Just my humble .02$

Regards

alfa6 ;>}

[Professional Engineer]

Bittygirl in her "Quiet knubskulls, I'm broadcasting" pose.
The "mouse" next to the microphone is a custom morse code key.
Mr. 6, please note wallpaper above the antique boom box.

[Soaring Feather]

Bittygirl broadcasting live from PE's basement.
Please enter the secret code for "Girls In Pink".
That's a Roger--Over and Out

[alfa6]

You and the Mrs do good wotk P.E.

Are those plans for a bunkbed on the left side of that pic?

Regards

alfa6 ;>}

[PAR35]

Are You Watching "Over There"?

No. I hadn't even heard of it until this thread. And after reading the reviews, I probably won't look for it on TV.

[SAMWolf]

I have to sadmit the promos for "Over There" looked interesting and Made me think that maybe it would be worth watching.

I ended up not seeing it but from reviews and USMCBOMBGUY's remarks it looks like my "It's gonna end up being PC and have an agenda" thought was correct. But since I didn't actually watch it, I'll concede to the views of the Vets who were/are "Over There".

[SAMWolf]

Nice one !!