2008 Beijing Olympic Games - Musings

A record 205 countries took part in the opening ceremony to the Beijing Olympics when it took place at 8pm local time today (1pm BST).

The organizers were confident it will be a spectacular curtain-raiser to what will be judged one of the great Olympic Games.

Competition in 16 of the 28 sports begins tomorrow. Players in the football tournament, which is already under way, will also take to the field. Seven golds will be available on day one of the Games.

There are nearly 11,000 athletes competing for more than 1,000 medals in 302 events. China is fielding its biggest ever Olympic team with 639 athletes competing in all 28 sports for the first time, in a bid to top the medals table.

There has been growing concern about the poor quality of the air in Beijing but the president of the International Olympic Committee, Jacques Rogge, declared Thursday that athletes would not be at risk.

China has spent $22 billion on hosting the Olympic Games - three times more than Greece did in Athens four years ago - and when the opening ceremony was staged no expense was be spared. It featured 15,000 performers and 29,000 fireworks.

Under the guidance of the film director Zhang Yimou, the three-hour ceremony began at 8pm on the eighth day of the eighth month of 2008 - eight is a lucky number there.

It ended with the lighting of the Olympic flame. There is no sign of a cauldron on the steel structures of the iconic "Bird's Nest" Stadium, the focal point of the dazzling array of new facilities that have been built here.

Despite worldwide protests over China hosting the Games because of its human rights record, about 80 heads of state, including George Bush, Vladimir Putin and Nicolas Sarkozy, will join 91,000 spectators at the ceremony.

The order of countries in the parade will be dictated by Chinese characters rather than European alphabets. Attempts to persuade South and North Korea to march as one, as they did in 2000 and 2004, have failed because the two governments were unable to reach agreement.

Security was intense and the weather was the biggest threat to the smooth running of the opening ceremony. The last week has been dominated by concerns over the smog that continued to hang over the city yesterday, but the problem could now be rain, which is forecast to be falling for the next few days.

I know of many people who refuse to have anything to do with the Olympic Games let alone the Olympic Spirit. Yes, these are troubling and serious times that offer a clear and present danger to the everyday Joe: worldwide economy, fuel, food, disease, etc. But in the tradition of the Olympic Games, I think it's truly amazing to get all these countries with their exceptional athletes in a friendly spirit of competition all under one roof. Think about it - nobody can get along, but here we are playing (or trying to play) nice together.

The ones I know who don't like the Olympics have various reasons such as they have no clue how to think globally - as if they are the only ones on the planet, or they disagree with China's human rights record, or even they are suffering severe bouts of paranoia with the whole new world order thing.

Well, we are not the only ones on the planet. Americans don't rule the world and everyone isn't Christian and democratic, loves red, white and blue, hot dogs and apple pie. Get over it. Such a limited view of the world is, well, either ignorant or arrogant. And while China has it's share of understanding what human rights is in a communist society, give them time. Just about every country on earth has done the same. Read world history so I won't have to rehash it for you. And the New World Order? Well, it's coming whether you like it or not, but in doing so, the world ushers in dramatic and swift changes that will finally culminate in what I believe will be the appearance of the Messiah. I know it's strange - a scientist talking about the end of the world and the Christ coming back to pull out a can of whoop-ass on evil and saving humanity from it's own sin and (well deserved) destruction, but it's what I believe, so deal with it. Anyone who is familiar with good ol American football knows nothing good will happen unless you can get that pigskin through a mean defensive line for 100 yards. Folks, we haven't even come out of the huddle yet.

I am really looking forward to the gymnastics, equestrian and swimming - 3 of my favorite events from the 1996 Atlanta Games. Fun times in the town Sherman burned!

So sit back, grab a loved one and enjoy the games; revel in true-to-life, reality TV, and root for your team. Otherwise, go find something constructive to do for the next 16 days.

Walter

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Anthrax Maker's Suicide: Doesn't Add Up

Like Lee Harvey Oswald, another alleged government stooge is dead. Was it really suicide or murder?

The suicide of Dr. Bruce Ivins, a prime suspect in the 2001 anthrax mail poisonings will certainly give the conspiracy jobbers something to wag their tongues about for a few days. But until a little more information becomes available, I would hold to the facts and not speculate too forcefully – yet. Meanwhile, American authorities have said they are "firmly convinced" that a government bio-weapons expert who committed suicide last week was the only person responsible for the 2001 deadly anthrax attacks.

Ivins, 62, a microbiologist at an Army bio-defence research laboratory in Fort Detrick, Maryland, died from a suspected overdose of prescription drugs (Codine 3) as investigators were preparing to charge him with murder.

There are certainly troubling aspects to the idea that the anthrax attacks were planned and carried out by an employee who works in a government lab. And the strange way the investigation was handled by the FBI and the Army leaves many questions unanswered.

There is also the timing of the attacks – so soon after 9/11 that at the time, it was easy to believe America was under attack by Islamic militants on several fronts.

To those inclined to believe the worst of Bush and the American government, the answer is simple; Ivins was a tool of the Administration and that the "Hawks" sought to gin up fear of terrorism to pass their dictatorial agenda that included the Patriot Act and other domestic spy initiatives. He didn’t commit suicide but was killed to keep him quiet.

Nice movie script but several problems are immediately apparent. First, according to this LA Times article, Ivins had been depressed for months, had run out of money to pay for legal fees, and actually told his therapist he wanted to commit suicide.

Secondly, there’s the FBI. Reviewing the investigation of the anthrax attacks until 2006 is a study in incompetence by the FBI and the Army. Is it possible they deliberately blew the investigation in order to keep the plot from being exposed? Conspiracists will make that argument. I reject it because all too often, human error and coincidence is the much simpler and therefore more realistic explanation. It may very well be that the Army didn’t want to know if anyone from their lab was involved – a plausible explanation when considering the bureaucratic mindset at work in the lab’s own investigation of Ivins for an incident regarding a possible anthrax “spill” that the suspect never reported to his superiors. Covering up lax safety at the lab by not disciplining Ivins is perfectly in keeping with the way some in the Army bureacracy might operate. If that reflects badly on the Army, I’m sorry but we have seen similar cover ups over the years.

Soon after the government’s settlement with Hatfill was
announced June 27, Ivins began showing signs of serious strain.

One of his longtime colleagues told The Times that Ivins,who was being treated for depression, indicated to a therapist that he was considering suicide.

Soon thereafter, family members and local police officers escorted Ivins from USAMRIID, where his access to sensitive areas was curtailed, the colleague said.

The FBI, however, knew of Ivins activities in cleaning anthrax from lab areas at Fort Detrick and still never made him a focus of the investigation. It wasn’t until FBI chief Mueller kicked out the agents heading the inquiry in 2006 and replaced them that movement towards Ivins began.

Why did the FBI concentrate their investigation instead on Stephen Hatfill, recipient of more than $5 million in a settlement agreed to just a few months ago and another employee at the lab? While demonstrating a breathtaking incompetence,this fact alone absolves the government of any conspiracy in my mind for the simple fact it would be stupid to make someone from the same lab as Ivins a suspect if there was a plot afoot. There are other labs they could have grabbed a patsy from while deflecting attention from Ivins. Therefore, we can almost certainly conclude that the FBI would not be part of any plot.

This is not to say that a thorough investigation shouldn’t immediately be undertaken by either a bi-partisan Congressional or independent panel that would examine all aspects of the case - including possible conspiracies. This matter went unresolved for entirely too long and whether it was incompetence or just bad luck, answers must be found regarding the Army and the FBI’s investigation of both Hatfill – whose case is strange indeed – and Ivins.

This case is far from closed. But I would urge everyone to wait upon the facts before connecting any dots – even if those dots are tempting one to posit conspiracies about the matter. Because at bottom, in order to believe in a government conspiracy to ratchet up fear following 9/11, one must suppose something so monstrous at the core of our government that if proven correct, will bring the United States to ruin.

Walter

NSA: Giving Out U.S. Names

The National Security Agency is not supposed to target Americans; when a U.S. citizen's name comes up in an NSA "intercept," the agency routinely minimizes dissemination of the info by masking the name before it distributes the report to other U.S. agencies.

But it's now clear the agency disseminates thousands of U.S. names. U.N. ambassador nominee John Bolton told a Senate confirmation hearing he had requested that U.S. names be unmasked from NSA intercepts on a handful of occasions; the State Department said he had made 10 such requests since 2001, and that the department as a whole had made 400 similar requests over the same period. But evidence is emerging that NSA regularly supplies uncensored intercepts, including named Americans, to other agencies far more often than even many top intel officials knew.

According to information obtained by NEWSWEEK, since January 2004 NSA received—and fulfilled—between 3,000 and 3, 500 requests from other agencies to supply the names of U.S. citizens and officials (and citizens of other countries that help NSA eavesdrop around the world, including Britain, Canada and Australia) that initially were deleted from raw intercept reports.

Sources say the number of names disclosed by NSA to other agencies during this period is more than 10,000. About one third of such disclosures were made to officials at the policymaking level; most of the rest were disclosed to other intel agencies and, perhaps surprisingly, only a small proportion to law-enforcement agencies. Civil libertarians expressed dismay at the numbers.

An official familiar with NSA procedures insisted the agency maintains careful logs of all requests for U.S. names and doles out such info only after agency officials are satisfied "that the requester needs the information [and that it's] necessary to understand the foreign intelligence or assess its importance."

Walter

My Take On The News...

A lighthearted commentary on the not-so-serious news headlines.....

Children have lost touch with the natural world and are unable to identify common animals and plants, according to a survey.

Half of youngsters aged nine to 11 were unable to identify a daddy-long-legs, oak tree, blue tit or bluebell, in the poll by BBC Wildlife Magazine. The study also found that playing in the countryside was children's least popular way of spending their spare time, and that they would rather see friends or play on their computer than go for a walk or play outdoors.

OK, so first let me say the obvious: I was well past 11 years old before I saw my first blue tit despite all my efforts to the contrary.

Secondly, kids need to get out more, there’s no doubt, and parents need to relax and let their kids roam more too.

Of course, there is the larger question of “what is natural?”

For example, some people are claiming the Montauk Monster is a hoax, some kind of TV promotion or some such. I think that dismissal is premature. Newsday.com confirms

Something really did wash up in Montauk, one sunny day, two weeks ago.

More than four people saw it. More than one person photographed it.

The surf was rough, flipping the thing, over and over, and over again.

Jenna Hewitt, of Montauk, and three friends crept up to examine one side. And Hewitt snapped the camera shot heard 'round the world.

But here's the rub.

Her group was the second on the scene that afternoon.

The first was a quartet of sun-worshipers from western Suffolk and New York City.

"It looked like nothing I'd ever seen before," said Ryan O'Shea, of Brooklyn. "It looked like it died angry."

They were so puzzled by what they saw, they left and came right back, with more friends. The second time around, Christina Pampalone, of East Northport, borrowed O'Shea's camera. She aimed and kept on firing.

The result is lots of - ewwwwww - gross photos of a carcass that looks more domestic than exotic, a bloated dog, not the Hound from Hell.

It shows ears. A big swatch of fur. And its proportions appear to be less distorted -- making the head appear to be a suitable complement to the body.

"I was telling people, all day (Wednesday), that I had better photos," Pampalone said.

"Everybody I showed her pictures to said it looks like a dead dog," O'Shea said.

"But looking at the claws, and at the teeth in the front, it looked like it could be something else, something vicious."

Not long after, a local real estate salesman, grabbed the carcass and put it in the back yard of a friend. BUT, 24-hours ago the body was stolen, allegedly by a Hollywood production company. WTH?!

Well, don’t give up on the proof of the existence of the Yeti yet, either:

This week, claims that Yeti really do exist took a giant step forward.

Scientists have used microscopes to analyze of strands of hair found caught on some rocks in jungle near the India-Bangladesh border.

The tests showed the thick, wiry hairs do not belong to any of the most common wild animals known to live in the area.

Instead, they bear a 'startling resemblance' to some collected half a century ago by Everest conqueror Sir Edmund Hillary.

Researcher Ian Redmond said: 'The hairs are the most positive evidence yet that a yeti might possibly exist. It might be that the region this animal is inhabiting is remote enough for it to remain undiscovered so far. We are very excited.'

The 54-year-old primate expert said that he and his Oxford Brookes University colleagues had ruled out the possibility of the hairs coming from animals known to roam the area, including black bears, macaque monkeys, dogs and wild boar.

'The hairs are complete with the cuticle, and between 3.3cm (1.3in) and 4.4cm (1.7in) long and thick and wiry and curved,' he said.

'We haven't found a match with the most likely contenders,' he said. 'But there is a resemblance with the hairs brought back by Sir Edmund Hillary. There is the exciting prospect that these could turn out to be something very dramatic.'

DNA tests could help solve the yeti mystery. Mr Redmond said: 'Even if the DNA test cannot identify the creature, it should be able to work out what it is related to. It could easily be an unknown primate even if it is not a yeti.' However, he admitted that his excitement at a potential scientific breakthrough was tinged with fear.

How cool would that job be? Yeti hair analyst. Of course, you might not work that often but when you got a call, how cool would that be! Anyway, “yeti hair analyst” wouldn’t be the most unusual job out there these days:

Meanwhile......

What do badger consultants, dog psychologists, and painting authenticators have in common?

They're some of the unusual and quirky jobs that are becoming more commonplace in modern society, according to a British insurance company.

The company says it has seen a steady rise in the number of non-traditional businesses looking for insurance policies to cover these unusual jobs.

They include badger consultants, who advise people how to keep within the laws protecting the nocturnal animals. Dog psychologists analyze the behavior of troublesome dogs, and saddle consultants help horse riders find the most comfortable ride.

Which reminds me: Can you tell which of the following jobs I made up? (The answer is at the end)

a) Gerbil Whisperer

b) Project Manager of Diarrheal Studies

c) Medical waste biohazard cooker

Speaking of biohazard medical waste:

From the Associated Press comes....

Michigan police are looking to the British Columbia RCMP for help identifying the source of a detached foot found washed up on a Lake Huron beach, around 45 miles from the Canadian border.

But U.S. investigators said yesterday the foot may be from a Detroit lawyer suspected drowned in a mysterious incident from August, 2005, that still puzzles police. Other possibilities include the pilot of a plane that crashed last summer, and a so-far-unidentified torso discovered nearby in May.

The foot was found this week by a resident of Alpena, Mich. It was clad in a sock and size 10 Reebok sandal.

State police investigators said they don't know how long the decomposed foot had been there, but said tests yesterday showed that it belongs to a man 35 years of age or older. There were signs of arthritis in the bone samples, he said.

Dr Brian May confirmed as the new Chancellor for Liverpool John Moores University.

The founder of the legendary rock band Queen had completed his doctoral thesis in astrophysics after taking a 30-year break to play some guitar.

Brian May's thesis examines the mysterious phenomenon known as Zodiacal light, a misty diffuse cone of light that appears in the western sky after sunset and in the eastern sky before sunrise. A Persian astronomer who lived around the 12th century referred to it as "false dawn" in a poem.

May said. "I've been fascinated with astronomy for years, and I was happy to finally complete my Ph.D. last year and record my studies of the Zodiacal Light in this book."

Should anybody be surprised that the guitarist for Queen should be into astronomy. He spent 30 years staring at “Mercury’s moon”!

Oh, and by the way, as far as I know there are no "gerbil whisperers" out there. There are job openings for "Project Manager of Diarrheal Studies" and "Medical waste biohazard cooker."

Let's keep that line for applications orderly and make sure you have an updated resume ready to go.

Walter

360 Degrees: Blog Sponsor Ad - August 08

Lecturer of "The Last Lecture" Passes

To some, this is old news, Carnegie Mellon Professor Dr. Randy Pausch succumbed to pancreatic caner on July 25th. His book "The Last Lecture" inspired many with his "love story for your life."

On his homepage, he writes: "I am flattered and embarassed by all the recent attention to my "Last Lecture." I am told that, including abridged versions, over six million people have viewed the lecture online. The lecture really was for my kids, but if others are finding value in it, that is wonderful. But rest assured; I'm hardly unique. Send your kids to Carnegie Mellon and the other professors here will teach them valuable life lessons long after I'm gone. "

How many of us could/would see life, love, the world through his eyes and walk in his shoes while having his positive and graceful perspective of reality, of fate? I'm currently about to finish his book - you'll see it on my reading list. I hope that it's on yours as well and I hope we can all learn from his experience and insight.

You'll find more links about him, his life, his book with interviews and pictures below....

Rest in Peace, Dr. Randy

Walter

http://www.thelastlecture.com
http://abcnews.go.com/GMA/LastLecture
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Randy_Pausch
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Last_Lecture
http://download.srv.cs.cmu.edu/~pausch

360 In-Depth: American Prison Camps Are on the Way

Kellogg Brown & Root, a Halliburton subsidiary, is constructing a huge facility at an undisclosed location to hold tens of thousands of Bush's "unlawful enemy combatants." Americans are certain to be among them.

The Military Commissions Act of 2006 governing the treatment of detainees is the culmination of relentless fear-mongering by the Bush administration since the September 11 terrorist attacks. And keep in mind, I'm not a Bush-hater. I just think Bush is neither Republican not a Conservative.

Because the bill was adopted with lightning speed, barely anyone noticed that it empowers the ruling shadows to declare not just aliens, but also U.S. citizens, "unlawful enemy combatants."

The feds have portrayed the bill as a tough way to deal with aliens to protect us against terrorism. Frightened they might lose their majority in Congress in the November elections, the Republicans rammed the bill through Congress with little substantive debate.

Anyone who donates money to a charity that turns up on the government's list of "terrorist" organizations, or who speaks out against the government's policies could be declared an "unlawful enemy combatant" and imprisoned indefinitely. That includes American citizens.

The bill also strips habeas corpus rights from detained aliens who have been declared enemy combatants. Congress has the constitutional power to suspend habeas corpus only in times of rebellion or invasion. The habeas-stripping provision in the new bill is unconstitutional and the Supreme Court will likely say so when the issue comes before it.

Although more insidious, this law follows in the footsteps of other unnecessarily repressive legislation. In times of war and national crisis, the government has targeted immigrants and dissidents.

In 1798, the Federalist-led Congress, capitalizing on the fear of war, passed the four Alien and Sedition Acts to stifle dissent against the Federalist Party's political agenda. The Naturalization Act extended the time necessary for immigrants to reside in the U.S. because most immigrants sympathized with the Republicans.

The Alien Enemies Act provided for the arrest, detention and deportation of male citizens of any foreign nation at war with the United States. Many of the 25,000 French citizens living in the U.S. could have been expelled had France and America gone to war, but this law was never used. The Alien Friends Act authorized the deportation of any non-citizen suspected of endangering the security of the U.S. government; the law lasted only two years and no one was deported under it.

The Sedition Act provided criminal penalties for any person who wrote, printed, published, or spoke anything "false, scandalous and malicious" with the intent to hold the government in "contempt or disrepute." The Federalists argued it was necessary to suppress criticism of the government in time of war. The Republicans objected that the Sedition Act violated the First Amendment, which had become part of the Constitution seven years earlier. Employed exclusively against Republicans, the Sedition Act was used to target congressmen and newspaper editors who criticized President John Adams.

Subsequent examples of laws passed and actions taken as a result of fear-mongering during periods of xenophobia are the Espionage Act of 1917, the Sedition Act of 1918, the Red Scare following World War I, the forcible internment of people of Japanese descent during World War II, and the Alien Registration Act of 1940 (the Smith Act).

During the McCarthy period of the 1950s, in an effort to eradicate the perceived threat of communism, the government engaged in widespread illegal surveillance to threaten and silence anyone who had an unorthodox political viewpoint. Many people were jailed, blacklisted and lost their jobs. Thousands of lives were shattered as the FBI engaged in "red-baiting." One month after the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, United States Attorney General John Ashcroft rushed the U.S.A. Patriot Act through a timid Congress. The Patriot Act created a crime of domestic terrorism aimed at political activists who protest government policies, and set forth an ideological test for entry into the United States.

In 1944, the Supreme Court upheld the legality of the internment of Japanese and Japanese-American citizens in Korematsu v. United States. Justice Robert Jackson warned in his dissent that the ruling would "lie about like a loaded weapon ready for the hand of any authority that can bring forward a plausible claim of an urgent need."

That day has come with the Military Commissions Act of 2006. It provides the basis for the President to round-up both aliens and U.S. citizens he determines have given material support to terrorists. Kellogg Brown & Root, a subsidiary of Cheney's Halliburton, is constructing a huge facility at an undisclosed location to hold tens of thousands of undesirables.

In his 1928 dissent in Olmstead v. United States, Justice Louis Brandeis cautioned, "The greatest dangers to liberty lurk in insidious encroachment by men of zeal, well meaning but without understanding." Seventy-three years later, former White House spokesman Ari Fleischer, speaking for a zealous President, warned Americans "they need to watch what they say, watch what they do."

We can expect Bush to continue to exploit 9/11 to strip us of more of our liberties. Our constitutional right to dissent is in serious jeopardy. Benjamin Franklin's prescient warning should give us pause: "They who would give up an essential liberty for temporary security, deserve neither liberty or security."

LOCATION OF FEMA CONCENTRATION CAMPS

There over 800 prison camps in the United States, all fully operational and ready to receive prisoners. They are all staffed and even surrounded by full-time guards, but they are all empty. These camps are to be operated by FEMA (Federal Emergency Management Agency) should Martial Law need to be implemented in the United States and all it would take is a presidential signature on a proclamation and the attorney general's signature on a warrant to which a list of names is attached. Ask yourself if you really want to be on A-list.

The Rex 84 Program was established on the reasoning that if a "mass exodus" of illegal aliens crossed the Mexican/US border, they would be quickly rounded up and detained in detention centers by FEMA. Rex 84 allowed many military bases to be closed down and to be turned into prisons.

Operation Cable Splicer and Garden Plot are the two sub programs which will be implemented once the Rex 84 program is initiated for its proper purpose. Garden Plot is the program to control the population. Cable Splicer is the program for an orderly takeover of the state and local governments by the federal government. FEMA is the executive arm of the coming police state and thus will head up all operations. The Presidential Executive Orders already listed on the Federal Register also are part of the legal framework for this operation.

The camps all have railroad facilities as well as roads leading to and from the detention facilities. Many also have an airport nearby. The majority of the camps can house a population of 20,000 prisoners. Currently, the largest of these facilities is just outside of Fairbanks, Alaska. The Alaskan facility is a massive mental health facility and can hold approximately 2 million people.

Let's take a look where these camps are...

ALABAMA
Opelika - Military compound either in or very near town.
Aliceville - WWII German POW camp - capacity 15,000
Ft. McClellan (Anniston) - Opposite side of town from Army Depot;
Maxwell AFB (Montgomery) - Civilian prison camp established under Operation Garden Plot, currently operating with support staff and small inmate population.
Talladega - Federal prison "satellite" camp.

ALASKA
Wilderness - East of Anchorage. No roads, Air & Railroad access only. Estimated capacity of 500,000 Elmendorf AFB - Northeast area of Anchorage - far end of base. Garden Plot facility.
Eielson AFB - Southeast of Fairbanks. Operation Garden Plot facility.
Ft. Wainwright - East of Fairbanks

ARIZONA
Ft. Huachuca - 20 miles from Mexican border, 30 miles from Nogales Rex '84 facility.
Pinal County - on the Gila River - WWII Japanese detention camp. May be renovated.
Yuma County - Colorado River - Site of former Japanese detention camp (near proving grounds). This site was completely removed in 1990 according to some reports.
Phoenix - Federal Prison Satellite Camp. Main federal facility expanded.
Florence - WWII prison camp NOW RENOVATED, OPERATIONAL with staff & 400 prisoners, operational capacity of 3,500.
Wickenburg - Airport is ready for conversion; total capacity unknown. Davis-Monthan AFB (Tucson) - Fully staffed and presently holding prisoners!!
Sedona - site of possible UN base.

ARKANSAS
Ft. Chaffee (near Fort Smith, Arkansas) - Has new runway for aircraft, new camp facility with cap of 40,000 prisoners Pine Bluff Arsenal - This location also is the repository for B-Z nerve agent, which causes sleepiness, dizziness, stupor; admitted use is for civilian control. Jerome - Chicot/Drew Counties - site of WWII Japanese camps Rohwer - Descha County - site of WWII Japanese camps Blythville AFB - Closed airbase now being used as camp. New wooden barracks have been constructed at this location. Classic decorations - guard towers, barbed wire, high fences. Berryville - FEMA facility located east of Eureka Springs off Hwy. 62. Omaha - Northeast of Berryville near Missouri state line, on Hwy 65 south of old wood processing plant. Possible crematory facility.

CALIFORNIA
Vandenburg AFB - Rex 84 facility, located near Lompoc & Santa Maria. Internment facility is located near the oceanside, close to Space Launch Complex #6, also called "Slick Six". The launch site has had "a flawless failure record" and is rarely used. Norton AFB - (closed base) now staffed with UN according to some sources. Tule Lake - area of "wildlife refuge", accessible by unpaved road, just inside Modoc County. Fort Ord - Closed in 1994, this facility is now an urban warfare training center for US and foreign troops, and may have some "P.O.W. - C.I." enclosures. Twentynine Palms Marine Base - Birthplace of the infamous "Would you shoot American citizens?" Quiz. New camps being built on "back 40". Oakdale - Rex 84 camp capable of holding at least 20,000 people. 90 mi. East of San Francisco. Terminal Island - (Long Beach) located next to naval shipyards operated by ChiCom shipping interests. Federal prison facility located here. Possible deportation point. Ft. Irwin - FEMA facility near Barstow. Base is designated inactive but has staffed camp. McClellan AFB - facility capable for 30,000 - 35,000 Sacramento - Army Depot - No specific information at this time. Mather AFB - Road to facility is blocked off by cement barriers and a stop sign. Sign states area is restricted; as of 1997 there were barbed wire fences pointing inward, a row of stadium lights pointed toward an empty field, etc. Black boxes on poles may have been cameras.

COLORADO
Trinidad - WWII German/Italian camp being renovated. Granada - Prowers County - WWII Japanese internment camp Ft. Carson - Along route 115 near Canon City

CONNECTICUT, DELAWARE
No data available.

FLORIDA
Avon Park - Air Force gunnery range, Avon Park has an on-base "correctional facility" which was a former WWII detention camp. Camp Krome - DoJ detention/interrogation center, Rex 84 facility Eglin AFB - This base is over 30 miles long, from Pensacola to Hwy 331 in De Funiak Springs. High capacity facility, presently manned and populated with some prisoners. Pensacola - Federal Prison Camp Everglades - It is believed that a facility may be carved out of the wilds here.

GEORGIA
Ft. Benning - Located east of Columbus near Alabama state line. Rex 84 site - Prisoners brought in via Lawson Army airfield. Ft. Mc Pherson - US Force Command - Multiple reports that this will be the national headquarters and coordinating center for foreign/UN troop movement and detainee collection. Ft. Gordon - West of Augusta - No information at this time. Unadilla - Dooly County - Manned, staffed FEMA prison on route 230, no prisoners. Oglethorpe - Macon County; facility is located five miles from Montezuma, three miles from Oglethorpe. This FEMA prison has no staff and no prisoners. Morgan - Calhoun County, FEMA facility is fully manned & staffed - no prisoners. Camilla - Mitchell County, south of Albany. This FEMA facility is located on Mt. Zion Rd approximately 5.7 miles south of Camilla. Unmanned - no prisoners, no staff. Hawkinsville - Pulaski County; Five miles east of town, fully manned and staffed but no prisoners. Located on fire road 100/Upper River Road Abbeville - South of Hawkinsville on US route 129; south of town off route 280 near Ocmulgee River. FEMA facility is staffed but without prisoners. McRae - Telfair County - 1.5 miles west of McRae on Hwy 134 (8th St). Facility is on Irwinton Avenue off 8th St., manned & staffed - no prisoners. Fort Gillem - South side of Atlanta - FEMA designated detention facility. Fort Stewart - Savannah area - FEMA designated detention facility

HAWAII
Halawa Heights area - Crematory facility located in hills above city. Area is marked as a state department of health laboratory. Barbers Point NAS - There are several military areas that could be equipped for detention / deportation. Honolulu - Detention transfer facility at the Honolulu airport similar in construction to the one in.Oklahoma (pentagon-shaped building where airplanes can taxi up to).

IDAHO
Minidoka/Jerome Counties - WWII Japanese-American internment facility possibly under renovation. Clearwater National Forest - Near Lolo Pass - Just miles from the Montana state line near Moose Creek, this unmanned facility is reported to have a nearby airfield. Wilderness areas - Possible location. No data.

ILLINOIS
Marseilles - Located on the Illinois River off Interstate 80 on Hwy 6. It is a relatively small facility with a cap of 1400 prisoners. Though it is small it is designed like prison facilities with barred windows, but the real smoking gun is the presence of military vehicles. Being located on the Illinois River it is possible that prisoners will be brought in by water as well as by road and air. This facility is approximately 75 miles west of Chicago. National Guard training area nearby. Scott AFB - Barbed wire prisoner enclosure reported to exist just off-base. More info needed, as another facility on-base is beieved to exist. Pekin - This Federal satellite prison camp is also on the Illinois River, just south of Peoria. It supplements the federal penitentiary in Marion, which is equipped to handle additional population outside on the grounds. Chanute AFB - Rantoul, near Champaign/Urbana - This closed base had WWII - era barracks that were condemned and torn down, but the medical facility was upgraded and additional fencing put up in the area. More info needed. Marion - Federal Penitentiary and satellite prison camp inside Crab Orchard Nat'l Wildlife Refuge. Manned, staffed, populated fully. Greenfield - Two federal correctional "satellite prison camps" serving Marion - populated as above. Shawnee National Forest - Pope County - This area has seen heavy traffic of foreign military equipment and troops via Illinois Central Railroad, which runs through the area. Suspected location is unknown, but may be close to Vienna and Shawnee correctional centers, located 6 mi. west of Dixon Springs. Savanna Army Depot - NW area of state on Mississippi River. Lincoln, Sheridan, Menard, Pontiac, Galesburg - State prison facilities equipped for major expansion and close or adjacent to highways & railroad tracks. Kankakee - Abandoned industrial area on west side of town (Rt.17 & Main) designated as FEMA detention site. Equipped with water tower, incinerator, a small train yard behind it and the rear of the facility is surrounded by barbed wire facing inwards.

INDIANA
Indianapolis / Marion County - Amtrak railcar repair facility (closed); controversial site of a major alleged detention / processing center. Although some sources state that this site is a "red herring", photographic and video evidence suggests otherwise. This large facility contains large 3-4 inch gas mains to large furnaces (crematoria??), helicopter landing pads, railheads for prisoners, Red/Blue/Green zones for classifying/processing incoming personnel, one-way turnstiles, barracks, towers, high fences with razor wire, etc. Personnel with government clearance who are friendly to the patriot movement took a guided tour of the facility to confirm this site. This site is located next to a closed refrigeration plant facility. Ft. Benjamin Harrison - Located in the northeast part of Indianapolis, this base has been decomissioned from "active" use but portions are still ideally converted to hold detainees. Helicopter landing areas still exist for prisoners to be brought in by air, land & rail. Crown Point - Across street from county jail, former hospital. One wing presently being used for county work-release program, 80% of facility still unused. Possible FEMA detention center or holding facility. Camp Atterbury - Facility is converted to hold prisoners and boasts two active compounds presently configured for minumum security detainees. Located just west of Interstate 65 near Edinburgh, south of Indianapolis. Terre Haute - Federal Correctional Institution, Satellite prison camp and death facility. Equipped with crematoria reported to have a capacity of 3,000 people a day. FEMA designated facility located here. Fort Wayne - This city located in Northeast Indiana has a FEMA designated detention facility, accessible by air, road and nearby rail. Kingsbury - This "closed" military base is adjacent to a state fish & wildlife preserve. Part of the base is converted to an industrial park, but the southern portion of this property is still used. It is bordered on the south by railroad, and is staffed with some foreign-speaking UN troops. A local police officer who was hunting and camping close to the base in the game preserve was accosted, roughed up, and warned by the English-speaking unit commander to stay away from the area. It was suggested to the officer that the welfare of his family would depend on his "silence". Located just southeast of LaPorte. Jasper-Pulaski Wildlife Area - Youth Corrections farm located here. Facility is "closed", but is still staffed and being "renovated". Total capacity unknown. Grissom AFB - This closed airbase still handles a lot of traffic, and has a "state-owned" prison compound on the southern part of the facility.

UNICOR
. Jefferson Proving Grounds - Southern Indiana - This facility was an active base with test firing occuring daily. Portions of the base have been opened to create an industrial park, but other areas are still highly restricted. A camp is believed to be located "downrange". Facility is equipped with an airfield and has a nearby rail line. Newport - Army Depot - VX nerve gas storage facility. Secret meetings were held here in 1998 regarding the addition of the Kankakee River watershed to the Heritage Rivers Initiative. Hammond - large enclosure identified in FEMA-designated city.

IOWA
No data available.

KANSAS
Leavenworth - US Marshal's Fed Holding Facility, US Penitentiary, Federal Prison Camp, McConnell Air Force Base. Federal death penalty facility. Concordia - WWII German POW camp used to exist at this location but there is no facility there at this time. Ft. Riley - Just north of Interstate 70, airport, near city of Manhattan. El Dorado - Federal prison converted into forced-labor camp, UNICOR industries. Topeka - 80 acres has been converted into a temporary holding camp.

KENTUCKY
Ashland - Federal prison camp in Eastern Kentucky near the Ohio River. Louisville - FEMA detention facility, located near restricted area US naval ordnance plant. Military airfield located at facility, which is on south side of city. Lexington - FEMA detention facility, National Guard base with adjacent airport facility. Manchester - Federal prison camp located inside Dan Boone National Forest. Ft. Knox - Detention center, possibly located near Salt River, in restricted area of base. Local patriots advise that black Special Forces & UN gray helicopters are occasionally seen in area. Land Between the Lakes - This area was declared a UN biosphere and is an ideal geographic location for detention facilities. Area is an isthmus extending out from Tennessee, between Lake Barkley on the east and Kentucky Lake on the west. Just scant miles from Fort Campbell in Tennessee.

LOUISIANA
Ft. Polk - This is a main base for UN troops & personnel, and a training center for the disarmament of America. Livingston - WWII German/Italian internment camp being renovated?; halfway between Baton Rouge and Hammond, several miles north of Interstate 12. Oakdale - Located on US route 165 about 50 miles south of Alexandria; two federal detention centers just southeast of Fort Polk.

MAINE
Houlton - WWII German internment camp in Northern Maine, off US Route 1.

MARYLAND, and DC
Ft. Meade - Halfway between the District of Criminals and Baltimore. Data needed. Ft. Detrick - Biological warfare center for the NWO, located in Frederick.

MASSACHUSETTS
Camp Edwards / Otis AFB - Cape Cod - This "inactive" base is being converted to hold many New Englander patriots. Capacity unknown. Ft. Devens - Active detention facility. More data needed.

MICHIGAN
Camp Grayling - Michigan Nat'l Guard base has several confirmed detention camps, classic setup with high fences, razor wire, etc. Guard towers are very well-built, sturdy. Multiple compounds within larger enclosures. Facility deep within forest area. Sawyer AFB - Upper Peninsula - south of Marquette - No data available. Bay City - Classic enclosure with guard towers, high fence, and close to shipping port on Saginaw Bay, which connects to Lake Huron. Could be a deportation point to overseas via St. Lawrence Seaway. Southwest - possibly Berrien County - FEMA detention center. Lansing - FEMA detention facility.

MINNESOTA
Duluth - Federal prison camp facility. Camp Ripley - new prison facility.

MISSISSIPPI
These sites are confirmed hoaxes. Hancock County - NASA test site De Soto National Forest. "These two supposed camps in Mississippi do not exist. Members of the Mississippi Militia have checked these out on more than one occasion beginning back when they first appeared on the Internet and throughout the Patriot Movement." - Commander D. Rayner, Mississippi Militia

MISSOURI
Richards-Gebaur AFB - located in Grandview, near K.C.MO. A very large internment facility has been built on this base, and all base personnel are restricted from coming near it. Ft. Leonard Wood - Situated in the middle of Mark Twain National Forest in Pulaski County. This site has been known for some UN training, also home to the US Army Urban Warfare Training school "Stem Village". Warsaw - Unconfirmed report of a large concentration camp facility.

MONTANA
Malmstrom AFB - UN aircraft groups stationed here, and possibly a detention facility.

NEBRASKA
Scottsbluff - WWII German POW camp (renovated?). Northwest, Northeast corners of state - FEMA detention facilities - more data needed. South Central part of state - Many old WWII sites - some may be renovated.

NEVADA
Elko - Ten miles south of town. Wells - Camp is located in the O'Niel basin area, 40 miles north of Wells, past Thousand Springs, west off Hwy 93 for 25 miles. Pershing County - Camp is located at I-80 mile marker 112, south side of the highway, about a mile back on the county road and then just off the road about 3/4mi. Winnemucca - Battle Mountain area - at the base of the mountains. Nellis Air Force Range - Northwest from Las Vegas on Route 95. Nellis AFB is just north of Las Vegas on Hwy 604. Stillwater Naval Air Station - east of Reno . No additional data.

NEW HAMPSHIRE / VERMONT
Northern New Hampshire - near Lake Francis. No additional data.

NEW JERSEY
Ft. Dix / McGuire AFB - Possible deportation point for detainees. Lots of pictures taken of detention compounds and posted on Internet, this camp is well-known. Facility is now complete and ready for occupancy.

NEW MEXICO
Ft. Bliss - This base actually straddles Texas state line. Just south of Alomogordo, Ft. Bliss has thousands of acres for people who refuse to go with the "New Order". Holloman AFB (Alomogordo)- Home of the German Luftwaffe in Amerika; major UN base. New facility being built on this base, according to recent visitors. Many former USAF buildings have been torn down by the busy and rapidly growing German military force located here. Fort Stanton - currently being used as a youth detention facility approximately 35 miles north of Ruidoso, New Mexico. Not a great deal of information concerning the Lordsburg location. White Sands Missile Range - Currently being used as a storage facility for United Nations vehicles and equipment. Observers have seen this material brought in on the Whitesands rail spur in Oro Grande New Mexico about thirty miles from the Texas, New Mexico Border.

NEW YORK
Ft. Drum - two compounds: Rex 84 detention camp and FEMA detention facility. Albany - FEMA detention facility. Otisville - Federal correctional facility, near Middletown. Buffalo - FEMA detention facility.

NORTH CAROLINA
Camp Lejeune / New River Marine Airfield - facility has renovated, occupied WWII detention compounds and "mock city" that closely resembles Anytown, USA. Fort Bragg - Special Warfare Training Center. Renovated WWII detention facility. Andrews - Federal experiment in putting a small town under siege. Began with the search/ hunt for survivalist Eric Rudolph. No persons were allowed in or out of town without federal permission and travel through town was highly restricted. Most residents compelled to stay in their homes. Unregistered Baptist pastor from Indiana visiting Andrews affirmed these facts.

NORTH DAKOTA
Minot AFB - Home of UN air group. More data needed on facility.

OHIO
Camp Perry - Site renovated; once used as a POW camp to house German and Italian prisoners of WWII. Some tar paper covered huts built for housing these prisoners are still standing. Recently, the construction of multiple 200-man barracks have replaced most of the huts. Cincinnati, Cleveland, Columbus - FEMA detention facilities. Data needed. Lima - FEMA detention facility. Another facility located in/near old stone quarry near Interstate 75. Railroad access to property, fences etc.

OKLAHOMA
Tinker AFB (OKC) - All base personnel are prohibited from going near civilian detention area, which is under constant guard. Will Rogers World Airport - FEMA's main processing center for west of the Mississippi. All personnel are kept out of the security zone. Federal prisoner transfer center located here (A pentagon-shaped building where airplanes can taxi up to). Photos have been taken and this site will try to post soon! El Reno - Renovated federal internment facility with CURRENT population of 12,000 on Route 66. McAlester - near Army Munitions Plant property - former WWII German / Italian POW camp designated for future use. Ft. Sill (Lawton) - Former WWII detention camps. More data still needed.

OREGON
Sheridan - Federal prison satellite camp northwest of Salem. Josephine County - WWII Japanese internment camp ready for renovation. Sheridan - FEMA detention center. Umatilla - New prison spotted.

PENNSYLVANIA
Allenwood - Federal prison camp located south of Williamsport on the Susquehanna River. It has a current inmate population of 300, and is identified by William Pabst as having a capacity in excess of 15,000 on 400 acres.
Indiantown Gap Military Reservation - located north of Harrisburg. Used for WWII POW camp and renovated by Jimmy Carter. Was used to hold Cubans during Mariel boat lift.
Camp Hill - State prison close to Army depot. Lots of room, located in Camp Hill, Pa. New Cumberland Army Depot - on the Susquehanna River, located off Interstate 83 and Interstate 76.
Schuylkill Haven - Federal prison camp, north of Reading.

SOUTH CAROLINA
Greenville - Unoccupied youth prison camp; total capacity unknown.
Charleston - Naval Reserve & Air Force base, restricted area on naval base.

SOUTH DAKOTA
Yankton - Federal prison camp
Black Hills Nat'l Forest - north of Edgemont, southwest part of state. WWII internment camp being renovated.

TENNESSEE
Ft. Campbell - Next to Land Between the Lakes; adjacent to airfield and US Alt. 41.
Millington - Federal prison camp next door to Memphis Naval Air Station.
Crossville - Site of WWII German / Italian prison camp is renovated; completed barracks and behind the camp in the woods is a training facility with high tight ropes and a rappelling deck.
Nashville - There are two buildings built on State property that are definitely built to hold prisoners. They are identical buildings - side by side on Old Briley Parkway. High barbed wire fence that curves inward.

TEXAS
Austin - Robert Mueller Municipal airport has detenion areas inside hangars.
Bastrop - Prison and military vehicle motor pool.
Eden - 1500 bed privately run federal center. Currently holds illegal aliens.
Ft. Hood (Killeen) - Newly built concentration camp, with towers, barbed wire etc., just like the one featured in the movie Amerika. Mock city for NWO shock- force training. Some footage of this area was used in "Waco: A New Revelation" Reese AFB (Lubbock) - FEMA designated detention facility.
Sheppard AFB - in Wichita Falls just south of Ft. Sill, OK. FEMA designated detention facility.
North Dallas - near Carrolton - water treatment plant, close to interstate and railroad.
Mexia - East of Waco 33mi.; WWII German facility may be renovated.
Amarillo - FEMA designated detention facility
Ft. Bliss (El Paso) - Extensive renovation of buildings and from what patriots have been able to see, many of these buildings that are being renovated are being surrounded by razor wire.
Beaumont / Port Arthur area - hundreds of acres of federal camps already built on large-scale detention camp design, complete with the double rows of chain link fencing with razor type concertina wire on top of each row. Some (but not all) of these facilities are currently being used for low-risk state prisoners who require a minimum of supervision.
Ft. Worth - Federal prison under construction on the site of Carswell AFB.

UTAH
Millard County - Central Utah - WWII Japanese camp. (Renovated?)
Ft. Douglas - This "inactive" military reservation has a renovated WWII concentration camp.
Migratory Bird Refuge - West of Brigham City - contains a WWII internment camp that was built before the game preserve was established.
Cedar City - east of city - no data available. Wendover - WWII internment camp may be renovated.
Skull Valley - southwestern Camp William property - east of the old bombing range. Camp was accidentally discovered by a man and his son who were rabbit hunting; they were discovered and apprehended. SW of Tooele.

VIRGINIA
Ft. A.P. Hill (Fredericksburg) - Rex 84 / FEMA facility. Estimated capacity 45,000.
Petersburg - Federal satellite prison camp, south of Richmond.

WEST VIRGINIA
Beckley - Alderson - Lewisburg - Former WWII detention camps that are now converted into active federal prison complexes capable of holding several times their current populations. Alderson is presently a women's federal reformatory.
Morgantown - Federal prison camp located in northern WV; just north of Kingwood.
Mill Creek - FEMA detention facility.
Kingwood - Newly built detention camp at Camp Dawson Army Reservation. More data needed on Camp Dawson.

WASHINGTON
Seattle/Tacoma - SeaTac Airport: fully operational federal transfer center
Okanogan County - Borders Canada and is a site for a massive concentration camp capable of holding hundreds of thousands of people for slave labor. This is probably one of the locations that will be used to hold hard core patriots who will be held captive for the rest of their lives.
Sand Point Naval Station - Seattle - FEMA detention center used actively during the 1999 WTO protests to classify prisoners.
Ft. Lewis / McChord AFB - near Tacoma - This is one of several sites that may be used to ship prisoners overseas for slave labor.

WISCONSIN
Ft. McCoy - Rex 84 facility with several complete interment compounds.
Oxford - Central part of state - Federal prison & staellite camp and FEMA detention facility.

WYOMING
Heart Mountain - Park County N. of Cody - WWII Japanese interment camp ready for renovation.
Laramie - FEMA detention facility
Southwest - near Lyman - FEMA detention facility
East Yellowstone - Manned internment facility - Investigating patriots were apprehended by European soldiers speaking in an unknown language. Federal government assumed custody of the persons and arranged their release.

OTHER LOCATIONS IN THE UNITED STATES
There are many other locations not listed above that are worthy of consideration as a possible detention camp site, but due to space limitations and the time needed to verify, could not be included here. Virtually all military reservations, posts, bases, stations, & depots can be considered highly suspect (because it is "federal" land). Also fitting this category are "Regional Airports" and "International Airports" which also fall under federal jurisdiction and have limited-access areas. Mental hospitals, closed hospitals & nursing homes, closed military bases, wildlife refuges, state prisons, toxic waste dumps, hotels and other areas all have varying degrees of potential for being a detention camp area. The likelihood of a site being suspect increases with transportation access to the site, including airports/airstrips, railheads, navigable waterways & ports, interstate and US highways. Some facilities are "disguised" as industrial or commercial properties, camouflaged or even wholly contained inside large buildings (Indianapolis) or factories. Many inner-city buildings left vacant during the de-industrialization of America have been quietly acquired and held, sometimes retrofitted for their new uses.

CANADA
Our Canadian friends tell us that virtually all Canadian military bases, especially those north of the 50th Parallel, are all set up with concentration camps. Not even half of these can be listed, but here are a few sites with the massive land space to handle any population:
Suffield CFB - just north of Medicine Hat, less than 60 miles from the USA.
Primrose Lake Air Range - 70 miles northeast of Edmonton.
Wainwright CFB - halfway between Medicine Hat and Primrose Lake.
Ft. Nelson - Northernmost point on the BC Railway line.
Ft. McPherson - Very cold territory ~ NW Territories. Ft. Providence - Located on Great Slave Lake. Halifax - Nova Scotia. Dept. of National Defense reserve.... And others.

OVERSEAS LOCATIONS
Guayanabo, Puerto Rico - Federal prison camp facility. Capacity unknown.
Guantanamo Bay, Cuba - US Marine Corps Base - Presently home to 30,000 Mariel Cubans and 40,000 Albanians. Total capacity unknown.

Scary stuff, folks. But the faithful and the prepared will be ready!

Walter

Further reading:

http://keepittrill.blogspot.com/2008/08

http://www.prisonplanet.com/articles

http://www.apfn.org/apfn/camps.htm (complete with video and pictures)

Thoughts on the first week of August

Much has happened since my time away. It may take me some days to catch up and write my thoughts on these things as well as catch my readers up on what's been happening in my neck of the woods, in addition to the usual news you expect from 360.....

I was reading about long-time Braves announcer Skip Caray passing away recently.

I remember going to many Braves' games with my dad, radio and earplugs in hand. We always went to the game on weekends and during special events like fan Appreciation Day, or Bat Day, or even Picture Day at the old Atlanta-Fulton County Stadium.

Skip Caray made the call when the Atlanta Braves won the World Series in 1995: "Yes! Yes! Yes! The Atlanta Braves have given you a championship! Listen to this crowd!"

He made the call when Sid Bream scored on Francisco Cabrera's pinch-hit to win the National League Championship Series for the Braves in 1992: "Here comes Bream! Here's the throw to the plate! He iiiiiiiisssssssss ... safe! Braves win! Braves win! Braves win! Braves win! ... Braves win!

And he made the call in the late innings of a lousy game in the lost season of 1979: "You have our permission to turn off the TV and go to bed now ... as long as you promise to patronize our sponsors."

Harry Christopher "Skip" Caray Jr. moved from St. Louis to Atlanta in the 1960s partly to escape the professional shadow of his father, the iconic and inimitable baseball broadcaster Harry Caray. Over the next four decades, with a style very much his own, Skip Caray became as much the voice of baseball in the Southeast as his father had been in the Midwest.

Caray apparently was trying to feed the birds in his backyard when he collapsed and died Sunday, said his wife of 32 years, Paula Caray. He was 68.

"I got to talk to him yesterday and I told him I loved him and he started laughing because I was stuck in New York," said Chip Caray, who flew from New York to Atlanta after he got the news on Sunday, rather than joining the Braves in San Francisco. "It was our own private little joke. I at least got to tell him I loved him which was the last thing I said to him, so I'm grateful for that." How many of us hope for that as well?

Chip Caray said the thought of his father with other relatives who had passed away gave him some comfort. I like that thought. The idea that my mother, grandparents, great-grandparents, aunts. uncles and great-aunts & uncles are all now together in one place we all finally hope and pray to be, give me peace.

"I hope and pray he's not hurting anymore," Chip Caray said. "I hope and pray he's sitting on a barstool somewhere with his dad arguing about baseball." I think he is probably is.

Skip Caray first came south to broadcast Atlanta Crackers minor-league baseball games in 1964, returned for good to broadcast Atlanta Hawks basketball games in 1968 and made his mark broadcasting Braves games on radio and television from 1976 until his death. This season was his 33rd in the Braves' booth. He was inducted into the Braves Hall of Fame, along with long-time broadcast partner Pete Van Wieren, in 2004.

With his nasally voice, wry and witty delivery, and tongue often in cheek, Caray became an enduring sound of summer in the South. He described more than 4,000 Braves games from the last-place finishes of the 1970s and '80s through the 14 consecutive division titles of the 1990s and beyond.

He often said he would think of truck drivers as he called a game, doing his best to keep them entertained — and awake — as they made their way across the South.

Caray missed several weeks of work late in the 2007 season because of mounting health problems, and he reduced his broadcast schedule to home games at the start of the 2008 season. He was battling diabetes, congestive heart failure, an irregular heartbeat and reduced kidney and liver functions, he said in April 2008.

"I almost died in October [2007]," Caray told an Atlanta Journal-Constitution reporter at the Braves' 2008 home opener. But he was on the air that night, vowing to call as many games as he could for as long as he could do the job well.

"When I'm working, I'm fine," he told the AJC. "You know intellectually that you're exhausted, but so what? Concentrate on the game. I know this: I'm not going to embarrass myself. If I can't do this, I'll be the first to know it. I've had a hell of a run, so I've got nothing to complain about. If I die tonight, I've had a great life."

Over the decades, Caray was both the opinionated curmudgeon and the fun-loving prankster on the air. In the 1970s and '80s, he got a kick out of ridiculing the TBS movies that followed Braves telecasts. In the '90s, he was famously impatient with callers on his pre-game radio show before eventually declaring himself a changed and mellowed man. In recent years, he continued his shtick of pretending to know the hometowns of fans who caught foul balls in the stands.

Caray swore off alcohol as he became concerned about his health in 2000. But seven years later, amidst yet another meltdown by the Braves bullpen, he said: "The bases are loaded again, and I wish I was, too."

Although clearly a Braves fan, prone to refer to the team as "we" -- Caray could be tough on the club. Once, decades ago, his boss Ted Turner told him he was being too tough. Caray pointed out the team's last-place record. "Good point," replied Turner, then the Braves' owner. "Say whatever you want." And he did.

"Skip was always off the wall," his long-time friend and broadcast partner Ernie Johnson Sr. once said, recalling their years together in the booth. "You never knew what he was going to say."

There was another side of Caray not necessarily known to TV viewers, Johnson noted when Caray was inducted into the Braves Hall of Fame: "a bigger heart than anyone can imagine."

Stan Kasten, former president of the Braves and Hawks, once observed that Caray reveled in "testing the boundaries" but always stopped well short of malice.

Born Aug. 12, 1939, in St. Louis, where his father was the voice of the baseball Cardinals, Skip Caray knew from childhood that he wanted to go into broadcasting. His father often took him to spring training and on summer road trips, and as a kid he was on a first-name basis with Cardinals players, including the great Stan Musial. By junior high school, he was on the air, doing high-school sports reports on the powerful radio station, KMOX, that carried Cardinals games.

His first job after earning a journalism degree from the University of Missouri was calling the games of the Tulsa Oilers minor-league baseball team. The station didn't send him to road games, so Caray would recreate the action on the air from pitch-by-pitch details provided by a Western Union ticker tape.

To simulate the sound of bat meeting ball, he'd tap a piece of balsa wood with a pencil. He came to Atlanta in 1964, two years before the Braves, to call Crackers games from old Ponce de Leon Park, across the street from the old Sears building, in what is now a Home Depot. But the funny thing is the old magnolia from the old base park is still there. He returned in 1968 to call the games of the city's new NBA franchise, the Hawks, who like Caray moved here from St. Louis.

"I've just kind of grabbed on to the people of Atlanta, and they've made me feel at home," Caray said in 2000.

He recalled in a later interview that one reason he moved here was to find an audience, pre-cable-TV, largely unfamiliar with Harry Caray, the late legendary voice of the Cardinals, Chicago White Sox and Chicago Cubs. As much as Skip Caray idolized his father, he wanted no part of ceaseless comparisons to him.

"I wanted to be judged for my own ability, my own style," he once said.

While Harry Caray, who died in 1998, was known for a bombastic style that included cries of "Holy cow!" after home runs, his oldest son became known for a lower-key style punctuated by dry wit and caustic humor. Or as Skip Caray once described it: "I'm the wise-ass cynic."

He was wrapping up his first season as a Braves broadcaster in 1976 when Turner had seemingly zany idea of bouncing the games off a satellite and airing them on cable systems nationwide.

"I said, 'You want to do what?' " Caray recalled decades later. " 'Are you nuts?' "

Beginning with the 1977 season, Caray and fellow TBS announcers Ernie Johnson Sr. and Pete Van Wieren helped make the Braves "America's Team," drawing large coast-to-coast audiences in the days before ESPN and FSN and the like.

The team was bad, but the broadcasts were good.

"It's like we were on the first wagon train west," Caray recalled in a 2007 interview. "We didn't know where we were going, but we were having a lot of fun getting there."

It was a trip that lasted for 30 years, from the last-place finishes of the 1970s and '80s through the pennant races of the 1990s and beyond. On Sept. 30, 2007, the Braves played for the last time as national programming on TBS, their long run ended by the very trend they started: a proliferation of baseball on cable TV. Caray got the last word, struggling to say goodbye to fans who had watched for three decades in 50 states:

"The people all over the country who send you Christmas cards every year; the people who when Dad passed, 5,000 of them sent notes or condolence cards; when I lost my brother the people all over the country who sent condolence cards as well -- how do you thank those people, and how do you say goodbye to those people? I don't know, but I'm going to try."

"... To all you people who have watched the Braves for these 30 years ... thank you. We appreciate you more than you will ever know. ... When we first came on the air on TBS, which was then WTCG, the big TV shows were 'M.A.S.H,' 'Dallas,' 'Laverne & Shirley,' 'Happy Days' and 'Charlie's Angels.' We outlasted them all. The only one that beat us was '60 Minutes.'

"We don't want to get all maudlin here, but thank you folks and God bless you. And we're going to miss you every bit as much as you miss us."

Caray and Van Wieren's popularity with Braves fans was conclusively proven in 2003, after Turner Broadcasting executives benched the duo from the national TBS telecasts and relegated them to radio and regional television.

The theory was that Caray and Van Wieren were too identified with the Braves and that the telecasts needed a more neutral, national feel.

But the fan backlash was so severe that, halfway through the season, TBS reversed itself and returned Caray and Van Wieren to the national telecasts. In recent years, his biggest professional thrills seemed to come from working with family.

Oldest son Chip rejoined the Braves broadcast lineup in 2005, often working with the man he called "my dad and my hero." Youngest son Josh became the radio announcer for the Braves' minor-league team in Rome in 2007.

One Sunday, Caray and his wife of 32 years, Paula, drove from their Atlanta home to Rome so that Skip could join Josh in the booth to call a minor-league game. "I've got to be able to say I've worked with all of them," Skip Caray said that day, referring to his father and both sons. "I just hope I don't cry, to be honest with you."

He said he tried to pass along to his broadcaster sons the same lesson his father emphasized to him: "My dad always told me to be honest on the air -- and to be yourself. Don't try to be anybody else." Great advice, I say.

Skip Caray: one of a kind. Rest in Peace, my friend.

Walter

......more musings and thoughts to come....

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