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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2003-10-16 Info Packet~ CITY COUNCIL INFORMATION PACKET CITY OF IOWA CITY October 16, 2003 www.icgov.org I , scE..^.Eous ..EMS I IP1 City Council Meeting Schedule and Work Session Agendas IP2 Memorandum from City Manager: Iowa State/Local Government Conference IP3 Memorandum from Human Services Coordinator to City Manager: First Quarter Status Report for FY04 Pre-Employment and Employment Skill Training for At-Risk Youth Program IP4 Letter from Adam Matlock to City Manager: Ramifications of Actions Taken by University Heights IP5 Letter from Irene Klingman to Steve Gent (IDOT): Highway 6 Safety IP6 Iowa City Police Department Monthly Liquor License (OFF PREMISE SALES) Report - September 2003 IP7 Minutes: August 21 PATVV Board of Directors IP8 Article (Truthout I Perspective): The Mission [Pfab] ~ City Council Meeting Schedule and c~ OF IOW^ C~T~ Work Session Agendas ootober ~6, 2003 www.icgov.org TENTATIVE FUTURE MEETINGS AND AGENDAS · MONDAY, OCTOBER 27 Emma J. Harvat Hall 6:30p Special Council Work Session · TUESDAY, OCTOBER 28 Emma J. Harvat Hall 7:00p Special Council Formal Meeting · MONDAY, NOVEMBER 10 Emma J. Harvat Hall TBA Special Council Work Session 7:00p Special Formal Council Meeting · TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 11 Emma J. Hah/at Hall Veterans' Day Holiday - City Offices Closed · MONDAY, NOVEMBER 24 Emma J. Hat,at Hall 6:30p Special Council Work Session · TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 25 Emma J. Harvat Hall 7:00p Special Formal Council Meeting · THURSDAY, NOVEMBER27 Thanksgiving Day Holiday - City Offices Closed · FRIDAY, NOVEMBER28 Thanksgiving Day Holiday - City Offices Closed · MONDAY, DECEMBER 15 Emma J. HarvatHall 6:30p Council Work Session Meeting dates/tirnes~opics subject to change FUTURE WORK SESSION ITEMS Regulation of Downtown Dumpsters Downtown Historic Preservation Stormwater Utility Historic Preservation Issues West Side Plan City of Iowa City MEMORANDUM Date: October 15, 2003 To: City Council From: City Manager Re: Iowa State/Local Government Conference The firm of Public Strategies Group (PSG), which was involved in many of the recommendations to the State legislature concerning funding of local governments, has convened a meeting with representatives of the Iowa League of Cities. The purpose is to discuss the issues associated with financing of local governments and the State's involvement. The Iowa League of Cities selected 15 mayors, managers, and other Iowa League of Cities participants to be involved in this conference. I was selected to be a participant. The meeting is to be held the evening of October 20 and 21 in Des Moines. The specific purpose is to have an inventory done of not only the issues associated with financing of local government but determining the role of the State. The governor and other legislative leaders are expected to be involved. Date: October 14, 2003 To: Steve Atkins, City Manager From: Lind~ Seven, on, Human Services Coordinator Re: First Quarter Status Report for FY04 Pre-Employment and Employment Skill Training for At-Risk Youth Program Employment training for at-risk youth had been identified as a gap in services available in our community. The City Council set aside $15,000 (from Aid to Agencies) for a one-year grant to a local agency to develop and implement employment training for at-risk youth. These youth may include, but are not limited to, school dropouts or students with repeated school conflicts; economically disadvantaged; pregnant or parenting teens; crime victims; or students with parental substance abuse or mental health issues. Pre-employment skills include career exploration; job shadowing; identifying sources of employment opportunities; completing job applications; practice interviewing and appropriate references. Employment skills include attendance; reliability; communication, initiative; appropriate social relationships; how to deal with problems; job coaching and skills for a specific job. United Action for Youth (UAY) and its partner Goodwill Industries were selected to implement this program. Attached you will find the first quarter report. The program has gotten off to a slow start, in part due to a UAY staffperson being on extended medical leave. During the first quarter, staff from UAY and Goodwill have been organizing materials and recruiting youth for participation. The first class is to start on October 21. I am in communication with UAY and Goodwill staff at least bi-weekly. They assure me that they will be able to serve the number of youth as stated in the grant application. If you have any questions or need additional information, please contact me at 356-5242 or linda-severson~,iowa-city.orq. cc: Jeff Davidson Karin Franklin I n dexbc\mernos\2-1LS,doc YOUTHWORKS Report to Iowa City Staff from UAY and Goodwill met in July and August to organize materials and plan actual staffing. UAY had an unanticipated staff vacancy due to a medical leave that delayed some of the planning and launch of the program. Announcements of the program were sent to each United Way agency, the ICCSD secondary schools and Regina. Initial response towards Youthworks has been very positive. Fourteen youth were referred for the first class to begin October 21, 2003. Two of those were not Iowa City residents, and have been put on a waiting list. Ten were referred by the Senior High Alternative Center, one by the UAY Teen Parent Program, and one by the UAY Transitional Living Program. Applicants are receiving interviews this week. Final decisions about who will be accepted into the first class will be completed October 16, 2003. Selected participants will attend six hours of classroom training in Phase I: · Orientation and pre-testing · Employer expectations & work environment (Guest: HyVee Supervisor Tiffany Yoder) · Active listening skills · Communication skills · Assertiveness training Phase II will combine individually scheduled work practice at the Youth Center with daily evaluation and feedback. Participants will also attend four hours of classroom training: · Problem-solving · Conflict resolution It is expected that Phase Ill, unpaid internships will begin November 5, 2003 with individual interviews and placement. United Way agencies have been solicited to provide internship sites. Participants will attend a Job Search & Portfolio Prep class, prior to beginning the paid internships in Phase IV: · Resume writing · Application completion · References · Work permits and identification · W-4 completion · Personal record keeping · Job seeking tips (Workforce Development field trip) · Post-test Advertising for the second class will begin October 21st with flyers, public service announcements, and visits to school counselors. The second class is scheduled to begin November 18, 2003. IP4 Adam Matlock / 3121 Huxley Lane SW Cedar Rapids, IA 52404 City of Iowa City 410 East Washington Street Iowa City, IA 52240 October 7, 2003 RE: Ramifications of Actions Taken by University Heights Dear Sir or Madam: Recently the City of University Heights chose to block parking along the 200 block of Marietta Avenue. This was done very quietly - then vehicles were towed. The problem with this policy is the demand and stress it puts on the rest of Iowa City around University Heights. Some 60 parking spaces, used daily, have been removed from service. Most of those people are parking on already crowded Iowa City streets, creating havoc on many side streets. This is dangerous for both pedestrians walking along the sidewalk trying to cross a street where the oncoming vehicle cannot see them because of the excess of vehicles parked on the side streets and dangerous for the parked cars possibly getting hit as people try to create 3 lanes (2 driving, 1 parking) on narrow Iowa City streets. I recommend the City of Iowa City flex its political muscle and try to make the streets of Iowa City safer by allowing employees and consumers of the Iowa City businesses to park in these parking spaces. I do not believe the City of University Heights fully understands/understood the ramifications of these actions and the impact on its neighbor on all sides, the City of Iowa City. Sincerely, Adam Matlock CC: City of University Heights FILED October 9, 2003 21103 OCT I 0 PM 3:1 6 Irene Klinzman 9 275 Paddock Cr. · CiTY CLERK IoWa City, Iowa [,~ iOWA CIT , IOWA Steve Gent P.E. - Traffic & Safety IoWa Dept. of Transportation 800 Lincoln Way Ames, Iowa Sir, Serious consideration should be given to making Highway 6 a safer route into and out of Iowa City on the east side. The intersection of Highway 6 and Lakeside Dr. heading east narrows from two lanes to one. There are drivers who think the road was put there just for them and speed up before the road narrows to pass drivers who are in the proper lane. Have you ever hit the shoulder to prevent someone from running you over? Not fun! Not safe! There are at the present time two communities on the south side of Highway 6; Modem Manor Mobile Home Park with more than 900 individuals; Saddlebrook, which is a combination of Modular home, Apamnent, Condo, and Townhouse residents, with an approximate population of more than 900 and growing. Further down the road iS the Moose Lodge which generates a lot of traffic all week long, Fareway Grocery Store and in the very near future a Goodwill Store and a Systems Facility Home. This will also generate many more vehicles. Scott Boulevard comes to a T intersection with Highway 6 a short distance from the Moose Lodge. This is used by many large tracks coming fi.om and going to Interstate 80 doing business with the various factories located along Highway 6. There have been close calls around this area all the way from Lakeside Drive to Scott Boulevard. In my opinion, traffic lights are badly needed at this intersection as well as Highway 6 and Heinz Road. Scott Boulevard is slated to be extended across Highway 6 to the south which will only compound the problem. It makes sense to me to do 'something' with Highway 6 BEFORE a tragedy occurs. Residents of Saddlebrook would gladly welcome a representative of the Highway Commission to be our guest at one of our resident/community meetings held on the 1st Thursday of each month. Please contact me via e-mail if this could be a possibility. I perhaps could also arrange for some of our city council members to be present at the same time, if I know far enough in advance. Looking forward to heating from you soon Thank you for your consideration. Regards, Irene Klinzman e-mail: Mommato6@aol.com Phone#: 319-338-0765 cc: Kevin Mahoney P.E. Director Emie Lehman - Iowa City Mayor Iowa City Police Department Monthly Liquor License (OFF PREMISE SALES) Report IP6 SEPTEMBER 2003 YEAR 2002 Monthly Total Year to Date Totals I Arrest/Visit Business Name ~ B ~ A _B~ i YTD A&J MINI MART-2153 ACT CIR. I ~ 0.00 AAJAXXX LIQUOR STORE 2 7 ~ 0 ~ 0.00 DAN S SHORT STOP CORP 0 ~ 0.00 DELMART-E BENTON 2 18 0 ~ 0.00 -- 0 0 O0 DELI-MART- MORMON TREK 1 18 DELIMART-LWR MUScATINE 1 5 ~ 0.00 DOC'S STANDAR~ 1 0 ~ -- 0.00 DRUGTOWN ; ~ 0.00 EAGLE FOOD CENTER- N.DOD 0 0.00 HANoIM,~- DUBUQUE ST. '- i} 13- HANDIMART- N.DODGE Iii 5 0 ~ 0.00 HANDIMART- WILLOWCREEK I~i /~ 4 ~ 0.00 HARTIG DRUG- MORMON TREK /~ 4 0 ~ 0.00 ~AW-KEYE CON ST- Commerce 1!!I? ~ 0.00 KUM&GO-W.B- -' '"~JRLI~'~TON ST 4 il 19 0.0~ L&M U GHTY SHOP NC 2 14 i--0 '~ 0.00 L QOUR HOUSE , 1 __2 ,,, ~0 0 00 LINN STREET CAFE 0 0 00 MN MART ' : U ~ ~u~O iNEW PIONEER COOP ~ 0.00 NORTH DODGE EXPRESS 1 5 ! 0 ~ 0.00 ON THE GO CONV. STORE INC. , 1 0.00 Column A is the number of times a license holder is visited specifically checking for underage sales. Column B is the number of people charged with possession under the legal age. Note this is not the total number of charges. Iowa City Police Department Monthly Liquor License (OFF PREMISE SALES) Report SEPTEMBER 2003 YEAR 2002 Monthly, Total Year to Date Totals Arrest/Visit Business Name i YTD OSCO DRUG 0.00 PANCHEROS PETRO-N-PROVISIONS i PIZZA PALACE RUSS' AMOCO SERVICE SUBURBAN AMOCO SUBURBAN AMOCO-KEOKUK T&M MINI MART TOBACCO OUTLET PLUS- S, RIV WALGREENS TOTAL 0.00 Column A is the number of times a license holder is visited specifically checking for underage sales. Column B is the number of people charged with possess[on under the legal age. Note this is not the total number of charges. IP7 PATV Board of Directors Meeting Thursday, August 21, 2003 7:00 pm PATV- 206 Lafayette Street 1. Call to order. Present are John C., Jack F, Sing L., Mike P., Phil P., Steve N., Tom N. and Carrie W. Also present from the public Jon Van Allen. And also from ICTC is Brett Castillo and PATV Director Rene P. At 7:10 pm Tom N. calls meeting to order. 2. Consent to agenda: Approved 3. Approval of July Minutes: Phil P. proposed a revision of Item 7, Pare 4 and Item 8. Para 4; second by Sing L. Carrie W. moved and Phil P. seconded to approve as amended. 4. Old Business: None. 5. Short Public Announcements: John V. expressed interest in greater involvement at PATV. He also participated in some of the discussions. 6: New Business: Rene P. -Answered a question from Carrie W. explaining the refianchising activity currently going on. She also explained that one request is that PATV is supposed to make a list of priorities that will display the value and goals of PATV. Discussion: Funding decisions of the ICTC were reviewed in a discussion of vadous administrative policies. Some of this had to do with procedures to use the "franchise fees" and "pass-through funds" in decisions by the City of Iowa City. There was some discussion of getting the CTG (Community Television Group) together again to work with the consulting that will be part of refi'anchising. Rene P. suggested we nccd to set up a committee on the PATV Board to do outside work on the refranchising process. Tom N. agreed that following the board meeting tonight, a committee would be put together to begin to support this concern. 7. Reports: ICTC: Brett Castillo - explained we just new received the letter that begins the new refranchising process. The first step in the process will be consulting on the needs for the agreement. He suggested focus on long term issues in the goals for the refianchising. Committees: Outreach and fundraising committee Tom N. said the committee will sat a date for a next meeting. Building and Grounds: Tom N. went up to the Evert Connor Center and they agreed that PA'rV does not have to do anything more on their changes, and that they will work on it for themselves. Jack F. said he called last week and got some mom information to create the mural. Also Mike P. and Jack F. suggested that if Brad W-G could bring the paint to the PATV office then we could get the parking spaces marked. Evaluation Committee: Phil P. presented the I page forms to process on the Director's Eval. process which will be due at the next meeting. Treasurers: Financial report was reviewed. Mike P. said that the budget is on target so far. Management - Iowa Shares: 14 Sept in Des Moines is the HomeFest event. There was a retreat on the 26th of July for Iowa Shares and planning ensued for the next year. There was a meeting with Drew. There was a meeting with UAY. Carrie and Adam are working on something with the Alternative High School. There is a new program for Live N Local this fall with showing some of the campaigns for the coming election. Friday 12 September will be the sand off for the fundmiser, 13 September will be the Art Auction day for PATV. Then from 4 to 9 PM on Sunday, 14 September will be the Dinner and Dancing. There is a conference for non-profit organizations and the pamphlet will be provided to PATV Board of Directors to attend. 8. Board announcements: The 12 September 8PM fundraise~ Program of Prof. Noodle will be billed as Prof. Noodle's 40th Birthday Extravaganza with a live band perfOrming funky jazz f~sion. Jack F. also said that along with the other band he would be coordinating to bring a band to play at the Sunday Dinner/Dancing festival in the PATV Parldng lot on 14 September at the designated times between 4 and 9 PM. 9. Adjournment: Tom N. moved to adjourn, seconded by Phil P. and unanimous at 9:00 pm Notes by SWN ~ William Rivers Pitt I The Mission Page 1 of 3 Marian Karr From: Irvin Pfab [ipfab@avalon.net] IP8 Sent: Thursday, October 09, 2003 8:02 PM To: Iowa City City Council Subject: 101003fw: The Mission: truthout.org, by William Rivers Pitt- Perspective The Mission By William Rivers Pitt t r u t h o u t I Perspective Friday 10 October 2003 "The right-wing politics that had forced the scandal were alien and unknown to much of the White House senior staff. To them, what the right was doing seemed so far-fetched, so impossibly convoluted, that they couldn't quite credit it. The self-enclosed hothouse nature of the right-wing world made it difficult to explain what was going on to those who lacked contact with it. Many had never even heard of people like Scaife." - Sidney Blumenthal, 'The Clinton Wars' I am writing this essay from an internet cafe nestled in a blue-collar neighborhood in Berlin, Germany. I have been, in the last week, to Amsterdam, Antwerp and The Hague. I will go from here to London, Oxford and Paris. I have been giving talks to ex-pat American groups and large crowds of confused Europeans. The Europeans are not confused because they are ill-informed; they are, in fact, far more aware of what is happening in America than most Americans are back home. These Europeans know all about the Project for The New American Century, they know all about the Office of Special Plans, they know all about the lies that have been spoon-fed to America and the world. They know all of this, simply, because the news media in Europe is not owned and operated as an advertising wing for General Electric, AOL/TimeWamer, Viacom, Disney or Ruppert Murdoch. What these Europeans don't understand, and what they keep asking me, is why. "America had everything going for it," said noted Dutch author Karel von Wolfen to me the other day. "America had the respect of just about the whole world. No one here can possibly fathom why they would so quickly and so brazenly throw that all away." Explaining this whole phenomenon is a bit like trying to unravel a Robert Ludlum plot. It is part fantasy, part madness, part greed, bound together with the barbed wire of an unyielding ideology. I try, again and again, to make it all clear. I tell them that all this started in 1932 with the election of Franklin Delano Roosevelt. This election ushered in the phenomenon known as the New Deal - the rise of Social Security, the eventual rise of Medicare, the development of dozens of other social programs, and the enshrinement of the basic idea that the Federal government in America can be a force for good within the populace. Even in 1932, such an idea was anathema to unrestricted free-market profiteers and powerful business interests, for the rise of a powerful Federal government also heralded the rise of regulation. Within the ebb and drift of American politics, those who stood agains tthe concepts espoused by FDR and his adherents drifted inexorably into what is now the modern Republican Party. This drift was aided by the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which motivated the last vestiges of the old, racist, Confederate Democratic Party to bolt to the right. Lyndon Johnson's Great Society plan further widened the rift, and the progressive activism in the 1960's and 1970's solidified the battle lines. Once the shift was completed, the stage was set for the kind of political to-the-knife trench warfare that has been happening to this day. Many issues were bandied about in the no-man's land between the lines, but at the end of the day, the issue to be tested was that basic premise brought by FDR: What will the place of the Federal government be in the lives of the American people? Can that government be a help? Those who argued against this idea had ample rationales for their resistance, some of them uncomfortable to hear in the light of day. The activism of the Federal government brought about racial desegregation and the rise of minority rights, something a segment of the right finds unacceptable to this day. The activism of the federal government made it difficult for unrestricted free-market loyalists to secure the privatization of available mass markets like health care, insurance and Social Security. The activism of the Federal government kept mega-businesses from the ability to grow to whatever size they pleased, even though such growth was death to the basic capitalist concept of competition. The activism of the Federal government forced these businesses to spend a portion of their profits on pollution controls. The list of complaints went on and on. In a corner of their hearts, many who stood against FDR's plans did so because the rise of an activist Federal government smelled a little too much like Soviet-style communism for comfort. And so the trenches were dug, the bayonet's were fixed, and the war dragged on and on. The right howled that such an activist government would require the American people to be taxed to death. The right howled that public schooling did not work, and they de- funded public education on the state and local levels to prove their point. The right invented bugaboos like the "welfare queen," with her 10/10/03 William Rivers Pitt [ The Mission Page 2 of 3 Cadillac and ten children, who avoided working and lived of the sweat from the honest man's brow. Often, the American people listened to their arguments. The rise of Ronald Reagan is evidence that their message had strength, if not merit. The problem, as ever, became clear before too long. Unrestricted free-marketeering, deficit spending, tax cuts for the richest people in the country which would purportedly cause the trickling down of monies to the rest, unrestricted polluting, unrestricted defense spending, and the deregulation of absolutely everything, is poison to any economy that is subjected to it. George Herbert Walker Bush was left holding this particular bag in 1992, and he was not enough of a salesman to convince the American people that it was still working. This, I tell my European counterparts, is when all hell really began to break loose. Many people believe the statement that "Bill Clinton was the best Republican President we've ever had." There are a great many facts to back this assertion, but it begs the question: If Clinton was the best Republican President we've ever had, why did the Republicans work every night and every day for eight years, why do they continue to work to this day, to destroy him and the economic legacy he left behind? The answer is complex. Clinton is labeled 'Republican' by the Left because of the passage of NAFTA, of GATT, of the Welfare Reform Act, of the Telecommunications Act, and for a variety of other reasons. In many ways, however, this does not tell the entire story. The passage of these rightist packages came, in no small part, because Clinton had no hard-core activated base pushing him in the proper direction. After twelve years of warfare against Reagan and Bush, a massive swath of the progressive community saw Clinton's victory in 1992 and felt like they had at last won the fight. They threw their activism into neutral, leaving Clinton with no army to back him up. One can hardly blame them for doing so after such a protracted struggle. But this left Clinton exposed. The onslaughts of the right pushed him inexorably in their direction, because there was no powerful progressive network there to push back. Only after the impeachment mayhem broke loose did the tattered threads of progressive activism come back together again, but by then the damage had been done. Certainly, there were many progressives in America who fought the good fight every step of the way, but there were not enough of them. Progressives in 2003 who label Clinton as 'Republican' should take a long look in the mirror, and remember what they were not doing from 1993 to 1998, before casting final judgment. I am, sadly, one who has trouble facing that mirror. An analysis of the facts, and the record, reveals Clinton to have been one of the most effective progressive Presidents in American history. By 1998 he had managed to create an economic system that filled the Federal treasury with unprecedented amounts of available money, and he had also managed to pass a variety of progressive social progrems that benefited vast numbers of middle- class Americans. When Clinton stood up in 1998, with a massive budget surplus waiting in the wings, and cried, "Save Social Security first!" he was roaring a battle cry across the trenches that had been there since 1932. Such a surplus would fund social programs all across the country. Such a surplus would, at long last, settle the argument: An activist Federal government can be a force for good within the American populace, and once more, can be paid for with extra left over. The New Deal/Great Society wars seemed to be coming to an end. This was why he had to be destroyed. The rest is coda. The impeachment, funded by right-wing activists and business interests, stormed along by a mainstream media whose Reagan-era deregulated status led to a complete breakdown in journalistic ethics, and all buttressed by years of unsubstantiated scandals pushed along by congressional zealots with subpoena power, left the American population exhausted enough to vote against their own best interests in 2000. Too many didn't vote at all. The "Clinton! Clinton! Clinton!" drumbeat that lasted over 2,000 days drove the voters into thinking a change was required. Though Gore wen the election, the margin of victory was small enough to be exposed to theft by a partisan Supreme Court which, by rights, should not have come within a country mile of touching that case. A corrupted news media, again, pushed the whole farce along. Now, we have a nation run by profiteers who preach the gospel of privatization in all things. When Bush, on October 4, 2001, argued that more massive tax cuts for rich people were needed to "counteract the shockwave of the evildoer," while a pall of poison smoke still hung over New York City, the truth was there for all to see. Now, pollution controls have ceased to exist, and the private realm of defense contractors are seeing more money than they ever dreamed they could. The simple truth that the Federal government can be a force for good within the American populace, a truth realized in 1998, has been flushed down the toilet by a pack of right-wing activists who are links in a chain of warfare that stretches back to 1932. Mission accomplished indeed. The fallout from this has been extreme. Trickle-down economics have returned to America, with the inevitable economic downturn and unemployment riding sidecar. The Federal Treasury, once full to bursting, has been looted completely. This, in the end, was the mission. That money could not be allowed to stay in the Treasury, because the American people would have expected it to be used to fund the programs they depend on. The Bush administration moved every penny of that money into the wealthiest portions of the private sector, using September 11 and terrorism and fear and war as an excuse to storm the trenches their forefathers had been shooting into for over 70 years. It was a smash-and-grab robbery writ large. 10/10/03 William Rivers Pitt I The Mission Page 3 of 3 When I explain all this to these Europeans, they want to know if the war is over. Not hardly, I tell them. The hubris of these zealots has led to economic problems in America that are quickly moving beyond the reach of spin. The hubris of these zealots has caused the Central Intelligence Agency to act in their own defense, a deadly turn of events for the Bush administration. The last two Presidents who found themselves on the bad side of the CIA, Kennedy and Johnson, did not end their terms comfortably. The war in Iraq, begun in no small part to further loot the Treasury, has loosed a tiger with very sharp claws. Internationally, the realization that the Atlantic Alliance is gone has begun to take root, and forces beyond the control of the Bush administration are coming together globally to act as a counterweight to all that is happening in America. The laughable irony of it all, also, may come to aid their undoing. Consider the fact that the Bush administration worked hammer and tong to discredit the work of the weapons inspectors in Iraq in the run-up to the war. Fast-forward to today, and the administration is telling everyone to be patient, be trusting, be faithful in the weapons inspection work being done by Dr. David Kay in Iraq on behalf of the administration. The massive stockpiles of weapons we heard about ad nauseam are still missing, with the sole exception of a vial of botulinum toxin that was found, sitting spoiled in the refrigerator of an Iraqi scientist for ten long years. The essential contradiction is so blatant that the evening comedy programs in America are making hay out of it. When this kind of silliness makes prime-time, the writing is on the wall. The corrupted media is stilt there, of course. The zealots hold all the high ground for the moment. Ending this massive catastrophe will cost oceans of blood and sweat and tears. But it can and will be ended. You can bank, I tell these Europeans, on that. VVi/liam Rivers Pin is the Managing Editor of truthout, org. He is a New York Times and international best-selling author of three books - "War On Iraq, ~ available from Context Books, "The Greatest Sedition is Silence," available from Pluto Press, and "Our Flag, Too: The Paradox of Patriotism, ~ available in August from Context Books. © Copyright 2003 by TruthOut.org 10/10/03