A Great Air Rendezvous Weekend

Now that 2005's Air Rendezvous weekend has come, and passed, I thought I'd share some nifty photos I took at the event! As whenever the Blue Angels show up an event there was quite a crowd. This year instead of scorching heat it became positively cold with the steady wind (not breeze), and overcast sky.

Still it was a great outing!

The photo below was taken from the cockpit of a cargo plane. Looking through the cockpit window we see another cargo plane taking off at a nearly verticle angle. I took another photo of the same aircraft using a rocket assisted take off a few seconds later (see insert). It was a neat experience being inside one cargo plane's cockpit while watching another cargo plane rocketing skyward.

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Before we made it into the cockpit we found this injured soldier on a stretcher in the hold of the cargo plane. I asked the pilot if the plane had been in Iraq, and he said the aircraft was brand new, and hadn't had time to see any service in Iraq yet.

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Photo: This F-18 made a slow pass right over the runway, pouring out a trail of exhaust.
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Photo: The Blue Angel then zoomed off thunderously.

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Photo: A Blue Angel's pilot walks away from his F-18 shortly after landing. I was using a zoom lens, and accidently cut off the pilot's head. Still, I like this photo.

Not Possible! No Way!

The ruling elite needed to create a feeling of panic in the masses so they allowed "911" to take place.


Image: Lord Bush

I keep hearing about this conspiracy scenario in which the ruling elite tacitly approved of an attack upon the "homeland" in order to create fear in the general population. The conspiracy theorist argue that the attack on the Twin Towers enabled the GOP to shift the U.S. back onto a wartime economy.

These conspiracy junkies have implied that this shift in focus hasn't secured the nation, nor was that ever the concern. That the real objective was to enable the floating of hundreds of billions of dollars to the defense sector. This money being stolen from our children and grandchildren in irresponsible, corrupt, no bid deficit spending. They believe that this wreckless project was undertaken not to save the nation from islamo-facist, but to slush money into the coffers of the GOPs biggest campaign contributers.

They're convinced that the war in Iraq is a massive fraud perpetuated upon the american people in order to steal its treasure in war profiteering schemes carried out by well connected power elites within the political, military, and industrial sector.

They believe that Bush is an instrument of these special interest, and that he doesn't have the best interest of americans, or America at heart - unless they are the rich, well connected americans Bush has admitted are his real constituency. That he is a deviously evil, and morally foolish man, a man who was instrumental in tricking a psychologically vunerable America into a war that has cost nearly two thousand american lives.


Image: Star Wars III

These conspiracy types repeatedly point out that there never were any weapons of mass destruction, nor was there ever a link between Iraq, and the events of 9/11.

They present the case that there exist documentary evidence which proves that the Bush administration wanted to invade Iraq BEFORE the attack on the Twin Towers.

They continually exclaim that significant, and documentary evidence indicates that intelligence was being "doctored". That CIA analyst were being intimidated by crooked sleezy politicians (Dick Cheney, and his minions who stand to make millions of dollars from their actions). That these cronies lurked around the halls of the CIA (unheard of in previous administrations) in a direct effort to manipulate the analysis process, and to help in the fabrication of lies.


Image: "Evil" Dick Cheney

These skeptics further suggest that this trumped up evidence was fed to the media, congress, the american people, America's allies, the United Nations, and the peoples of the world - all to justify invading Iraq on false premises.

They say it has to do with oil. Their accusations include that the President, Vice President, their friends, and families will stand to make hundreds of millions of war profit off of the war, a war which they personally started. They even recall how the Bush family has repeatedly profitted from wars in the past, and even aided, and assisted the enemy in times of war.

They cry out where is the head of the man who organized, financed, and ordered the attack upon our nation? Why wasn't he captured? Why does our "friend" Pakistan allow him safe harbor? They suggest that the only reason why the United States of America, the most powerful nation in the world, hasn't captured Osama Bin Laden is that he is being retained as a modern day Bogey Man - one which chimed right at the moment needed - to help Bush win reelection.

These slanders argue that this growing list of corrupt , and unjustified actions has caused increased disaffection, and even hatred among hundreds of millions of peoples around the world - even in nations which had been friendly, and sympathetic to America before the invasion of Iraq. They believe this will only lead to increased terrorist attacks upon americans, and America in the future.

They predict that all of the money spent in Iraq will have been wasted, and that if we ever leave Iraq that it will fall into civil war, and that whatever government, or governments which will remain after that civil war will most certainly become hostile to the U.S.

They ask, How many more american soldiers will die not simply for a lost cause, but for a false cause? They point out that not one son, or daughter of a U.S. Representative, Senator, or ranking member of the Bush Executive Office is serving in combat. They're asking why president Bush's daughters haven't enlisted?

They wonder why if the Bush administration was concerned about terrorism that it would have spent so much time, and money on Iraq, instead of building up our security here at home.

They say that they don't feel any safer since the day after 9/11, and wonder if HomeLand Security money is somehow being allocated properly, or if it too is being slushed around for political purposes.

I just don't get it!

How can people let these kind of thoughts in their head? Don't they know there's a war on? A never ending war on terror!

Don't they know that asking these types of questions could be construed as an act of treason? Don't they fear that they could be monitored, rounded up, secretly detained, never given a trail, and even have their citizenship taken from them? Is that what they want?

Soon, very soon, these types will be taken care of, mark my words. Then we'll see just how long these liberals who control the media in America, and who infectiously spread their subversive thoughts to our war-children, our future soldiers - we'll see how these traitors, these rebel scum like it when they feel the full wrath of the dark side!


Image: Star Wars III

All images used in this posting were taken from various websites. They are not the intellectual property of JeromeProphet, and may be copyrighted by their owners. I used the images here within this post under "FairUse" rules for literary purposes.

Text for this post is covered by copyright, and may be reproduced under the rules of the copyright restrictions.

Artstruction

The photos below are of a construction project on south sixth street in downtown Springfield, Illinois. The crews are installing new sewer lines. I took these photos in front of The Hoogland Center for the Arts on the afternoon of August 3rd, 2005.

Phote Above: Now Here's An Artist At Work!

Siciliano Construction has a crew of workers out braving the hundred degree plus temperatures which are beaming off the pavement, and concrete. While I enjoy the sun during my brief lunchtime constitutional the construction workers are out in the boiling heat, and humidity all day long!

Photo Above: Clash of Cultures - Foreground To Background!

I'm dedicating this post to another blog, which I just discovered, titled La Lubu! The blog's author is located in Central Illinois, is a mother, and also a union construction worker.

She's very good at expressing herself, and has many interesting post Although she appears to be on hiatus, I suspect it's because of the overtime she has mentioned she must work. She's worth a read! Click here to surf to her blog!

PCCCART

Image: Prarie Capital Convention Center Springfield, IL

I liked photographing this vanishing point. I ran the image through some digital processing to create the painting effect. This image was captured August 2005 on the west side of the Prarie Captital Convention Center which is located in downtown Springfield, Illinois. The convention center is located between Washington, and Adams Streets just west of Ninth Street.

Image Title: PCCC Art - by JeromeProphet, of Jerome, Illinois

Steven Vincent Killed

Photo: Steven Vincent

Being a freelance journalist living in Iraq, Steven Vincent was fully aware of the risk to his life. Steven was writing a book on Basra, as well as posting to his blog. This Sunday an op-ed which he wrote appeared in the NYTIMES (see below). Some feel this cost him his life. For a man like Steven Vincent it was only a matter of time. Over sixty news-gathers, and reporters have lost their lives in the last two years since the Iraq war began.

Steven Vincent was brave enough, or some might argue foolish enough to step outside of the greenzone - into the redzone as his recent book with the same title describes. He was seeking the truth, and perhaps the thrill that goes along with the risk to find it.

He was our ears, and eyes in a place where most would be too frightened to venture, and he paid the ultimate cost for the role he chose to play.

I'm including one of his last postings below. Toward the end his post, the cat is most certainly exploding out of the bag - boy could he write!

SONG OF BASRA

Dear Lisa,

Located about five miles south of central Basra, it is a large, partially-tended expanse of nebk trees and palm groves, the last bearing clusters of unripened dates high amidst their spiky green leaves. Intermingled among weeds and foot-high grasses are small vegetable plots--cucumbers, okra, red pepper, figs and bamber--an Indian fruit about the size of a cherry tomato.

"This land has been in my family for seven centuries," says Samir, walking along the banks of the Ahsahraji River, its still green waters streaked with the copper glow of sunset. "That is nearly half the age of Basra itself."

A stocky, dark-skinned, middle-aged Iraqi with soft, sympathetic eyes, Samir is the editor-in-chief of one of Basra's largest newspapers. A secular man, he is nevertheless respectful of, but not beholden to, the religious parties that currently run his native city. "I am a real Iraqi," he is fond of saying. "Not Sunni, not Shia, not Christian, not Arab or Kurd--Iraqi." He's also as native a son of Basra as you can find--not only has his family resided in the city since the days of the Mongols, but twelve generations of his fathers have dwelt in the very house he lives in today.

We met in his downtown Basra office last week for an interview, after which he invited me to visit his 5,000 square-meter "farm"--refuge is more like it I jumped at the invitation. If anyone knew the answer to a question that has increasingly obsessed me, this tolerant, urbane, surprisingly Western Basrawi was the man.

"You want to find the 'soul' of our city?" he repeats, as we sit on the edge of a shallow irrigation channel running through his property. "This is difficult. Basra is a mixture, ever-changing. Like it's weather. Do you know," he adds, picking an emerald green squash from a patch beside him, "that people have called this city 'The Idiot' because it's character is so unstable?"

As if to underscore Basra's turbulent reputation, Samir outlines its history. Founded in 637 AD as a military outpost for the expanding Muslim empire, Al-Basrah (the name has many translations --my favorite is "black specks," referring to distant palm groves rising from the desert, the first sign that approaching caravans had of the city) has experienced pillage and plunder, wealth and renown, neglect and decrepitude at the hands of numerous powers--Persians, Turks, Mongols, Portuguese, British, Baathists and, most recently, Americans.

"But will this bring you to an understanding of Basra? Not quite." To the west, the sky takes on a silver sheen, as the air seems to weave a thickening skein of dusk among the palms along the river. Overhead, a few stars begin to appear.

I ask about Shia Islam. "Of course," he nods. "After all, it forms the personality of southern Iraq, and the Shia have waited 1,400 years to rule this area." Visions fill my imagination of black flags fluttering in the desert, armies of men chanting Ya, Hussein!, bearded mujtahids preaching sacred blood and holy martyrdom. But Samir shakes his head. "No, no...for most of its history, Basra was not Shia, but maintained loyalties to Sunni caliphs. It even revolted against Imam Ali! Basra didn't become Shia until the 19th century, when people from Amarra and Nasiriya began immigrating to the city. No," Samir says again, "Shiism is not the place to search for Basra's soul."

The modern legacy of war, revolt and impoverishment? My host nods again and begins to describe the effects of Saddam's military adventuring--the nearly incalculable death and destruction unleashed by his megalomania, the coarsening of Basran society and the nightmares that the survivors of that period carry with them. Samir himself witnessed the death of his own brother during the Iran-Iraq War, when they were both serving near Fao.

"I saw him enter an Iranian mine field, where an explosion sent a piece of shrapnel into his spine. It took our troops ten days to fight our way to the area, and by the time I found my brother, his corpse was thick with worms and maggots." He relates the story with the impassive tone of someone who has long ago buried the pain of his memories.

But the obscenities didn't end there. As the night darkens, and the cooling earth causes a soft breeze to stir, Samir describes Basra during the "Intifada" of 1991, when Shia Muslims, encouraged by the White House, rose up against Saddam, only to encounter the full might of his security forces. The stories are gruesome--mass executions at the university, corpses torn apart in the street by feral dogs, the legless torso of a man lying in a gutter, his face staring wide-eyed at passersby too terrified to move or bury him. I ask him to stop. Is this where I'll find the soul of Basra--in the trauma inflicted on the city by Saddam Hussein?

Samir shakes his head no, then, after a pause offers his answer: "Walt Whitman." Chuckling at my reaction, "Yes, your country's poet--you are perhaps familiar with his book 'Leaves of Grass?'" Cormorants, bedding down for the night, flit from palm to palm. From a concrete block house nestled in the underbrush a generator coughs and sputters, and a small trickle of water comes splashing down the irrigation channel.

"In his poem," continues Samir, eyes gleaming in the dark, "Whitman talks as if his soul were a part of nature--free, filled with love, encompassing every aspect of life. I think of this often." After weeks of experiencing little but shortages, poverty, frustrations and dysfunctionalities--Iraqis' and my own--this evocation of the great American Bard startles me. Kafka, yes--but narcissistic, homoerotic, barbarically yawping Walt?

"Yes, you see, Basra was once like that. It is, you know, a port city. Open to influences from around the world--Asia, Europe, Africa, America. In the 50s, 60s, 70s, life was here--if you went to the Corniche, you found bars and casinos and nightclubs. People gambled, drank Arak, had sex and prayed. They may have sinned, but they did it indoors, with the result that Allah forgave them."

This last theological point is lost on me, but I understand Samir's general meaning. Again and again, I've heard similar sentiments from Basra's intellectual class: the "turbans" who are imposing their Islamic beliefs on the city--often at the barrel of an AK--are not Basrawi, they are an aberration, a glitch in the city's history, a "transitional" phase from 35 years of Saddam's tyranny to a truly democratic future. It is dangerous--possibly fatal--to express these thoughts too forcibly in public, but they exist on the minds, lips, tongues and soon the voting fingertips of thousands of Basrans come the next round of elections this December.

"This is what I look forward to. That someday, insha'allah, I will live in a country without any differences from any other country. Just a normal place where my family and I can live normal lives. You ask about the soul of Basra? Look for it in the humanity that your poet, Walt Whitman, expresses."

It's late. I must return to house arrest in my downtown funduk. We stand, brush the dirt off our trousers, walk back to the car. Through a picket-line of palms I see the rising moon, hanging full and yellow in the blue-black sky. With the trickling sound of water in the background and the gentle whisper of the breeze, the scene approaches a tranquil beauty I've yet to encounter in Basra. For an instant, you can almost imagine the world inviting you to lean and loaf and observe a spear of summer grass. The moment contains multitudes. Walt Whitman would love it.

Yours, camerado, from where the wisteria falling over a Basran wall satisfies more than the metaphysics of the mullahs.

June 26-27

Posted by Steven Vincent at 06:17 AM | Permalink | Comments (18)TrackBack (2) |

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There's a richness, and texture to his writing that invokes an almost primordial memory of the ancient story teller at work within us all. In another age I see Vincent sitting at the edge of a camp fire, the sound of wood crackling, and a soft night's breeze stirring ambers while he, the storyteller, the traveler, would share wonderous tales of far away lands with we lucky villagers inspired with awe.

Some are speculating that Steven was killed as a result of this (see below) Op-Ed article appearing in the NYTIMES just two days before his abduction, and murder:

Op-Ed Contributor

Switched Off in Basra

• The New York Times

By STEVEN VINCENT

Published: July 31, 2005

Basra, Iraq

THE British call it being "switched on" - a state of high morale and readiness, similar to what Americans think of as "gung ho" attitude. During the 10 days I recently spent embedded with the British-led multinational force in this southern Iraqi city, I met many switched-on soldiers involved in what the British call "security sector reform." An effort to maintain peace while training Iraqis to handle their own policing and security, security sector reform is fundamental to the British-American exit strategy. As one British officer put it, "The sooner the locals assume their own security, the sooner we go home."

M.K. Perker

From this perspective, the strategy appears successful. Particularly in terms of the city police officers, who are proving adept at the close-order drills, marksmanship and proper arrest techniques being drilled into them by their foreign instructors. In addition, police salaries are up, the officers have shiny new patrol cars, and many sport snazzy new uniforms. Better yet, many of these new Iraqi officers seem switched-on themselves. "We want to serve our country" is a repeated refrain.

From another view, however, security sector reform is failing the very people it is intended to serve: average Iraqis who simply want to go about their lives. As has been widely reported of late, Basran politics (and everyday life) is increasingly coming under the control of Shiite religious groups, from the relatively mainstream Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq to the bellicose followers of the rebel cleric Moktada al-Sadr. Recruited from the same population of undereducated, underemployed men who swell these organizations' ranks, many of Basra's rank-and-file police officers maintain dual loyalties to mosque and state.

In May, the city's police chief told a British newspaper that half of his 7,000-man force was affiliated with religious parties. This may have been an optimistic estimate: one young Iraqi officer told me that "75 percent of the policemen I know are with Moktada al-Sadr - he is a great man." And unfortunately, the British seem unable or unwilling to do anything about it.

The fact that the British are in effect strengthening the hand of Shiite organizations is not lost on Basra's residents.

"No one trusts the police," one Iraqi journalist told me. "If our new ayatollahs snap their fingers, thousands of police will jump." Mufeed al-Mushashaee, the leader of a liberal political organization called the Shabanea Rebellion, told me that he felt that "the entire force should be dissolved and replaced with people educated in human rights and democracy."

Unfortunately, this is precisely what the British aren't doing. Fearing to appear like colonial occupiers, they avoid any hint of ideological indoctrination: in my time with them, not once did I see an instructor explain such basics of democracy as the politically neutral role of the police in a civil society. Nor did I see anyone question the alarming number of religious posters on the walls of Basran police stations. When I asked British troops if the security sector reform strategy included measures to encourage cadets to identify with the national government rather than their neighborhood mosque, I received polite shrugs: not our job, mate.

The results are apparent. At the city's university, for example, self-appointed monitors patrol the campuses, ensuring that women's attire and makeup are properly Islamic. "I'd like to throw them off the grounds, but who will do it?" a university administrator asked me. "Most of our police belong to the same religious parties as the monitors."

Similarly, the director of Basra's maternity hospital, Mohammad Nasir, told me that he frequently catches staff members pilfering equipment to sell to private hospitals, but hesitates to call the police: "How do I know what religious party they are affiliated with, and what their political connection is to the thieves?"

It is particularly troubling that sectarian tensions are increasing in Basra, which has long been held up as the brightest spot of the liberated Iraq. "Are the police being used for political purposes?" asked Jamal Khazal Makki, the head of the Basra branch of the Sunni-dominated Islamic Party. "They arrest people and hold them in custody, even though the courts order them released. Meanwhile, the police rarely detain anyone who belongs to a Shiite religious party."

An Iraqi police lieutenant, who for obvious reasons asked to remain anonymous, confirmed to me the widespread rumors that a few police officers are perpetrating many of the hundreds of assassinations - mostly of former Baath Party members - that take place in Basra each month. He told me that there is even a sort of "death car": a white Toyota Mark II that glides through the city streets, carrying off-duty police officers in the pay of extremist religious groups to their next assignment.

Meanwhile, the British stand above the growing turmoil, refusing to challenge the Islamists' claim on the hearts and minds of police officers. This detachment angers many Basrans. "The British know what's happening but they are asleep, pretending they can simply establish security and leave behind democracy," said the police lieutenant who had told me of the assassinations. "Before such a government takes root here, we must experience a transformation of our minds."

In other words, real security reform requires psychological as well as physical training. Unless the British include in their security sector reform strategy some basic lessons in democratic principles, Basra risks falling further under the sway of Islamic extremists and their Western-trained police enforcers.

Steven Vincent, the author of "In the Red Zone: A Journey Into the Soul of Iraq," is writing a book about Basra.

Here's a link to his blog:

http://spencepublishing.typepad.com/in_the_red_zone/

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Life in Jerome

This is my first blog post. I'm a relative of the JeromeProphet.

There's not much to say about this place. The park is filled with screaming little children, and none are my age. There are a couple of other things I can complain about. The fact that the roads are really junky, and that there are no sidewalks for people to go on a safe little jog without getting run over, and killed. Those are the only complaints I have with Jerome. It's a quiet little village. Everyone is friendly, and is welcoming to new visitors .

Bring Out Your Bed! Bring Out Your Bed!

Taking a walk through the Village of Jerome is somewhat more interesting of late. It's a chance to stroll down memory lane. Jerome is in the midst of The Village Clean Up! Stacked at the curb in front of nearly every house can be found a myriad of reusables (junk); Love Seats, Couches, Chairs, Lamps, Vacuum Cleaners, Shelves, Computers, Computer Monitors, Television Sets, Matresses, Desk, Windows, Window Frames, Dish Washing Machines, Clothe's Washers & Dryers, Beds, Garden Hoses, Fencing, Microwave Ovens, and the list goes on, and on.



Every year I find myself wondering when I'll give into temptation, pick up a peice of junk, and take it home. I have at various times taken home perfectly good vacuum cleaners, and then taken them down the very next year to be picked up (of course they disappeared before the pickup day). I believe I spied one of those very same vacuum cleaners down the street - it probably still works. I see so many computer monitors that I no longer blink. I recall when Super VGA made my mouth water, and now it too is considered junk. Our neighbor threw out a nearly complete computer peripheral set, printer, mouse, and monitor. I was informed that the inkjet printer doesn't print photo quality, which is why they were tossing it out - but it still worked perfectly well for printing text documents - sorry it's already gone.

Last year we picked up some very nice shelves made of varnished pine. They are well constructed, and it is in use today. So many television sets are out in front of houses this year that I can't help but wonder if Santa didn't bring thin screen sets to those lucky folk now in need of a little space.

We live in the land of plenty here in Jerome. While none of us here are well to do, we have so much junk we trade it among ourselves, and arrange for the Village to take it off of our hands. I often wonder what an immigrant from a poor nation would feel if he walked down our Village's streets during these weeks?

These crazy Americans!

For those living in the Village time is running out - see the schedule I lifted from Jerome's official website below!

Jerome Bulletin Online Special Edition July, 2005
Village Clean-up PLEASE READ THE FOLLOWING CAREFULLY AND COMPLETELY: NO BRUSH, TREE LIMBS, GRASS OR LEAVES WILL BE PICKED UP DURING CLEAN-UP DATES. NO LIQUIDS, PAINTS, OILS, CAR BATTERIES, TIRES, NEWSPAPERS, CONCRETE OR LOOSE CARDBOARD WILL BE PICKED UP. ITEMS SUCH AS SHINGLES, BROKEN GLASS OR SMALL METAL ITEMS MUST BE IN CONTAINERS SUCH AS CARDBOARD BOXES, NOT JUST DUMPED IN THE DITCH. EVEN THOUGH ITEMS MAY BE IN CARDBOARD BOXES, LOOSE CARDBOARD WILL NOT BE PICKED UP. FOR THE PROTECTION OF SMALL CHILDREN, PLEASE REMOVE DOORS OF ALL AIRTIGHT CABINETS, REFRIGERATORS AND FREEZERS, AND LAY THEM DOWN SO THEY WON’T FALL OVER ON A CHILD AND TRAP THEM. HAVE ITEMS NEXT TO THE STREET ON THE MONDAY OF THE WEEK YOUR STREET IS SCHEDULED FOR PICK UP. DO NOT PUT ITEMS OUT UNTIL THE WEEKEND BEFORE YOUR SCHEDULED WEEK. ITEMS PUT OUT AFTER THE FIRST DAY DESIGNATGED FOR YOUR STREET WILL NOT BE PICKED UP. HOWEVER, DO NOT BE CONCERNED IF EVERYTHING YOU PUT OUT IS NOT PICKED UP AT THE SAME TIME. WE PLAN TO MAKE SPECIAL LOADS OF SIMILAR ITEMS. THE VILLAGE RETAINS THE RIGHT TO REFUSE ANY OR ALL ITEMS. PLEASE NOTE THAT THERE WILL BE NO CHARGE FOR LARGE ITEMS SUCH AS APPLIANCES, MATTRESSES, COUCHES AND OTHER FURNITURE. Following is the schedule for pick up. Please keep this schedule as it is the only notice you will receive. WEEK OF JULY 18, 2005 HOMEWOOD AVE.; HOMEWOOD COURT; BARBARA COURT; REED AVE.; REED COURT; 2800 BLOCKS OF WELCH, LEONARD AND FILLMORE WEEK OF JULY 25, 2005 VERNON; JEROME; WEST GRAND COURT; 2900, 3000 AND 3100 BLOCKS OF LEONARD, FILLMORE AND CORBIN ST.; RESIDENTS ON WABASH AND CHATHAM ROAD WEEK OF AUGUST 1, 2005 CALLAND DRIVE; PARK AVE.; URBAN; MAPLE; LINCOLN; 1300 AND 1400 BLOCKS OF GLENN, AND ALBERTA LANE WEEK OF AUGUST 8, 2005 ILES AVE.; 2600 AND 2700 BLOCKS OF WELCH, LEONARD AND FILLMORE; OWENS LANE; SCOTT COURT; AND 1500, 1600 AND 1700 BLOCKS OF GLENN AVE.