(Long Island, NY) Another phase in the controversial Broadwater Liquid Natural Gas project has begun with the filing of an application with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission. According to a Newsday report, Broadwater’s filing with the FERC brings it a step closer to a proposed 2010 start-up when, if all goes according to plan, the project would supply natural gas to New York and Connecticut residents. Broadwater is a joint operation between TransCanada and Shell.

Part of the controversy involves the “floating terminal” which would operate in waters between Wading River and New Haven, Connecticut. Local residents are concerned over issues including the environmental impact such an operation would have, plus accusations that the floating facility would spoil local scenic views.

According to Newsday, Broadwater consultants have spent the last fifteen months in discussions about such issues, and have agreed to scale down the “visual impact” of the floating facility. Broadwater officials have also taken steps to reassure local residents of the safety of the LNG operation.

As part of that reassurance, a press statement was issued by Broadwater officials to address some of the concerns. According to the Newsday article, those behind Broadwater present a high level of confidence in the floating facility’s ability to withstand natural disasters. “The design of the mooring system” the article states, “will allow it to withstand wind and wave conditions beyond any experienced in Long Island Sound history.”

Such statements are typical in a public relations context, but in the wake of Hurricane Katrina, are they to be taken seriously? The citizens and governing officials in New Orleans may have had the same level of faith in that city’s levee system, but once tested in a critical situation, the people of Louisiana learned that faith was severely misplaced.

If TransCanada and Shell are serious about getting Long Island residents on board with the Broadwater project, a more concerted effort is required to demonstrate the safety of the entire operation. 2010 is not far away. Until Broadwater does more than issue press releases glad-handing its floating platform, it is unrealistic to expect anyone concerned about the safety of Long Island and the surrounding areas to be convinced the LNG project is anything less than a complete liability.

TransCanada and Shell must, at the very least, go public with any contingency planning it may have for the inevitable wreck, spill, accident, fire, explosion or collision which may occur in Long Island Sound. Anything less than full disclosure of such planning should be viewed with suspicion. If TransCanada and Shell expect Long Island residents to believe there are no accidents on the horizon, they should not be allowed to operate in the Sound until they can demonstrate reasonable preparation for such events. The mere availability of such information is NOT enough. A corporate effort should be made to educate people living near the affected areas on safety concerns and preparations.

Accidents WILL happen at both the floating platform and with the pipelines connected with the Broadwater project. If the company is not prepared for them, again, permission should not be granted permission by the federal government to operate in Long Island Sound. If TransCanada and Shell does have contingency plans, it should inform the citizens of Long Island and Connecticut what exactly will be done when the time comes. It can’t be repeated too many times; if Broadwater cannot operate informed by the lessons learned from Hurricane Katrina, it should not operate at all. These corporations intend to run a facility that processes hazardous materials within range of sensitive environmental zones and populated areas. Those who live near such facilities have the right to demand a full accounting of what is planned to protect them and the places they live.

(Long Island, NY) Ever watch ESPN’s coverage of the World Series of Poker? Players like Annie Duke, 2004 Tournament Of Champions winner or 2004 World Series of Poker Champion Greg Raymer are becoming household names in some areas, thanks to a growing popularity of games like Texas Hold ‘em. It’s all on cable TV—the thrills of high stakes gambling.

In light of the growing popularity of both ESPN’s poker broadcasts, and games like Texas Hold ‘em, the recent Farmingdale headlines about illegal gambling raised many eyebrows in the Long Island community. The busts come as a surprise to some who didn’t think illegal gambling was happening so close to home, and an even bigger surprise to ESPN fans who wonder what all the big deal is—after all, don’t they do this on TV all the time?

According to a Newsday.com report, Nassau County police staged a raid on what is being called an “illegal Texas Hold ‘Em game”. Six players, said the Newsday.com story, were arrested and released without bond. Let’s see if we’ve got all the facts right here. Six people were rounded up by the police for playing cards for money in a game that was advertised by word of mouth according to the news story. Six hardened criminals (if they are indeed guilty) who endangered public safety and broke with society by playing a game popularized on cable television.

Obviously, all the facts in this story are NOT in, and we don’t really know whether this illegal game was rigged by professional card sharks, or if the gambling money was stolen out of Sunday school coffers or taken out of the hands of little children standing in line to eat lunch at a public school somewhere in the inner city. Maybe the players were sitting around smoking opium out of pipes made out of endangered elephant tusks, who knows?

What we DO know is this—ten thousand dollars got confiscated in the raid. A small fortune to you and me, just handful gambling money for the players who got raided in Farmingdale. If they can afford to play with those stakes, and the game isn’t rigged, what exactly is the problem here?

Gambling is a major source of trouble for many people, hence the proliferation of organizations such as Gamblers Anonymous (http://www.gamblersanonymous.org/). Gambling can take a hold of some people in the same way that drugs control addicts. Clearly, those people should not be playing card games, just as people with diabetes issues shouldn’t be horking down candy bars and ice cream on a regular basis. At last check, nobody proposed making Ben and Jerry’s a controlled substance in spite of the obvious dangers to the diabetic population at large.

While gambling—legal or not—brings with it a particular set of social concerns and problems (much like the once-banned demon rum), the real issue for Long Islanders should be one of priority. The U.S. Department of Justice reported in 2004 that roughly fifty percent of all high school seniors polled said they could easily obtain amphetamines and cocaine. More than twenty five percent of those surveyed said they could easily obtain crystal meth. (Source page http://www.ojp.usdoj.gov/bjs/dcf/du.htm)

With statistics such as these, does the Nassau County police department have any business at all devoting resources away from interdicting drug sources in the local community? Six bozos in a warehouse playing cards hardly seems like much of a problem compared to the idea that even as you read this, someone out there is bagging up another batch of coke or pills to sell to a teenager someplace.

Yes, gambling is illegal. So is graft, bribery and misappropriation of taxpayer dollars. Until some more attention is paid to these issues, and especially the availability of drugs to Nassau County teens, perhaps the six bozos should be left to play their Texas Hold ‘Em games in peace.

After all, they were only imitating what they saw on TV, anyway.

(Long Island, NY) A political blogger friend of mine dropped me a breathless email today. “Did you see the ABC News piece on Iraq?” he said, “The mission in Iraq is doomed!” I was slightly disturbed by what seemed to be a gloating tone in the email, but I read on as my blogger buddy quoted ABC. “Lt. Gen. Ray Odierno, the top commander of U.S. ground forces in Iraq,” the ABC quote stated, “says the current surge of 21,500 troops is not “open-ended” and warned that ‘time is running out’ for the United States to turn things around in Iraq.”

Strong stuff. Especially for a line officer to be saying in a media interview. Generals who value their careers don’t go spouting off in the media without getting clearance ahead of time. I should know, I spent more than 13 years covering military affairs. I can promise you that 99% of everything that comes from the mouth of a high-ranking someone in uniform with regard to military service has been thought about quite a lot.

This little quip all by itself wouldn’t have bothered me as much, except for what I heard on NPR recently about the troops surge. Much has been made about the additional forces going in to Iraq. There has been debate about the “escalation” and other semantics, but one very important fact has been missing from much of this talk.

Most people are aware of the troop surge. Fewer people are aware that UK officials are discussing a major drawdown of its troops in Southern Iraq. The U.S. troop surge could wind up being negated by a British pullout. Critics of this way of thinking point out that the Brits are stationed in the more stable southern regions of the country, but is that really going to make much of a difference? A security hole will be left in the wake of the departing British forces if and when they do leave. Sectarian bombers know how to exploit security holes.

In the event that the UK forces do leave, all this talk of troop surges becomes tricky. The additional forces could be distracted by problems in the south, should the violence spread to those areas. Will they? Are these southern areas less vulnerable to sectarian problems based on the makeup of the tribal influences in the region? I don’t know enough about Iraqi politics and tribal issues to make the call.

Does George Bush? He’s blundered so much of Iraq at this stage where simple matters of war and peace are concerned that we can hardly trust him to make the right call as commander-in-chief on this. To top it all off, we have Iran and Syria complicating the whole mess. Sabre rattling on both sides is creating a high-stakes game of poker, and Bush’s poker face is laughable. “The Decider”? He proclaimed, “mission accomplished” on that aircraft carrier, in case anyone forgot.

For a mission that’s been “accomplished,” Bush has eaten a tremendous amount of crow about recent operations and their lack of effectiveness over there.

At this stage in the debacle, Iraq seems doomed no matter what happens. It’s Viet Nam all over again, and unfortunately the only thing left is a modern day humiliation like we suffered as we fled from ‘Nam by any means available. How will we run away from this one? What happens when the American media finally recognizes a civil war in Iraq, one that America is powerless to stop, short of a full-scale, WW2-style occupation similar to the one we did in Japan?

I don’t know what my political blogger friend thinks of any of this, (he has yet to reply to the email I sent him on all this) but I have a feeling he’d label me a gloom-and-doomer in spite of the fact that he, too disagrees with Bush.

I hate to say it, folks, but a full-scale occupation is the only way I can see that we’re going to get anything done over there. I don’t condone it, or approve of it, but I do recognize that it’s the only real option with ANY hope of lasting success. It worked for Japan. It could work in Iraq, if properly administered. But America simply does not have the will, and that’s why Iraq will succumb to a civil war as we hurriedly try to escape the mess we created after the fall of Saddam.

(Long Island, NY) Recently I stumbled across an old press release from Long Island University announcing an MFA program in writing featuring a workshop by Kurt Vonnegut. I had been searching for a Long Island connection with Vonnegut, beyond the summer cottage, location settings in his novels, and the other well-known facts.

When I found the LIU press release, I felt envious of those people who could have enjoyed that workshop back in 1997. I was in Texas at the time working as a regional reporter, bouncing from San Antonio to Grand Forks, North Dakota and other freezing cold mountain states with alarming regularity. It’s ironic that at the time Vonnegut would have been giving the workshop, I was just getting acquainted with his fine work.

In 1997, I became addicted to his books Breakfast Of Champions, Cat’s Cradle, and Bluebeard. If I’d only known he was doing college work at LIU that year! I could have dropped everything, made an excuse to get an assignment on Long Island, and had a nice chat. And why not? We’re both veterans, we both have the writing game in our blood, and we’re both convinced that nobody will care much about our work in, say, ten million years.

Of course, some people would get the mistaken idea at this point that I consider myself and Vonnegut to be peers. Don’t you believe it. It’s just not possible for the two of us to walk on a level playing field. The idea the he and I are peers is as absurd as the notion that Britney Spears has something relevant to say. About anything. Well, she might have a few words of wisdom about how to match tube tops with Capri pants, but we won’t hold our breath for a dissertation on the literary merits of James Joyce and Henry Miller, now, will we?

Kurt Vonnegut hasn’t written the most IMPORTANT book ever written, but he has written the BEST, at least in America. Breakfast Of Champions is, in my own opinion, the best American work of fiction available.

I won’t waste time telling you what it’s about. I won’t bother you with details. I’ll just say that I would like to have that book tossed into my coffin before they close the lid.

As I was digging into my Long Island/Vonnegut research, I remembered a recent major interview done on Long Island. A Rolling Stone correspondent had contacted the author at his Long Island summer home to ask about the state of America, our addiction to gasoline, and whether or not it was the end of the world as we know it. Kurt Vonnegut was adamant that gasoline will be our final doom, one way or another. Too true. I wish he would write a full-length non-fiction book with wall-to-wall observations like these.

I’d write one myself, but it would be dismissed as the ravings of a crackpot, and there would be exactly five sales: one to my parents, two to my siblings, and another two would come from those I hold dear outside of family. The rest would wind up remaindered, and my name would go on an FBI watch list for a few years until they decided it wasn’t worth the money to look at me any more.

Vonnegut is probably convinced that such a book coming from him would be dismissed as the ravings of a crackpot, but the major difference here is that people would definitely buy this book, and consider it his most relevant work to date. I, for one, would call it a nice epitaph for the American Century.

There’s some tiny little part of me that hopes the man would somehow stumble across this rambling screed, get inspired enough to write the damn thing and put it out there, but I know writers all too well. We read the praises of our work, smile briefly, then shake our heads. We say to ourselves;

“Wow. Sure fooled ‘em that time.”

It’s the writer’s curse. We’re absolutely driven to get words down on paper, but we have little confidence in them once they are there. Maybe this goes away after you’ve written say, your fourteenth novel. Vonnegut’s was Timequake, what he may or may not have described as his “victory lap” as a novelist. I found it ironic that the book was published in 1997, the same year he did the workshop at LIU, the same year I should have dropped everything and flew out to LI for a chat.

In spite of the 1997 coincidences, wishful thinking, and all the rest of the info I dug up, I had to give up the notion of writing a Long Island article about Kurt Vonnegut. I figured that what was already known is too well known to be of any interest, and the minor stuff was, well, too damn minor. Instead, I find myself here on a rambling screed to encourage anyone and everyone with two brain cells to rub together to go out and find a copy of Breakfast Of Champions. It should be considered a national treasure, though Kurt Vonnegut probably wouldn’t think so.