In case you don't remember, the picture in the banner is one of several photographs of Janet Reno's special strike force executing her intemperate order to seize little Elian Gonzales and send him back to Cuba. Some folks in this country have an over-powering urge to get along with Castro. Could it be because he still has all those nuclear medium range ballistic missiles Nikita Khruschev installed after JFK blew the Bay of Pigs operation? (See Loose Ends http://www.aventuraproductions.net/) Not to worry. We don't mean to threaten you with such violent reprisals you break our rules. But it's sure a good example of how irrational and brutal some authorities can be. Remember Ruby Ridge and Waco? Just consider the absurdly aggressive dress and posture of Janet Reno's agent show above and the sheer terror on the child's face. What on earth have our authorities come to? Well, at least that palsied puppet isn't with us any longer. Nevertheless, unpleasant though it may be, it is ob- vious this website must have some rules or, because of the vital and hotly argued issues upon which we are inviting comment, chaos surely will reign. Of course we do have some ideas about what rules will be needed to make this site run smoothly, but we would like to get some input from you who are watching this site grow. As you can readily see from the horizontal and vertical link boxes, this is going to be a huge site just in its static applications, and certainly will spill out all over the place when you start posting your thoughts on this and that. Which means an enormous amount of work on our end and some rather significant financial expenditures to get it all set up and running smoothly. So let us offer some comments on how we see it shaping up at present and give us your feedback so that we can create a layout we can all be comfortable with. CHAT ROOMS We propose one chat room for the Howard Beale home site and one for each of the four sub-sites: The Angry Prophet, The Democratic/Republican Coalition, New Horizons in Politics, and Thersites the Truth-Sayer -- all listed in the top horizontal link bar. Because each of these sites have different purposes, we expect that the subject matters of submissions to each of the five chat rooms will be substantially different than to the others. However, as you might have gathered, we are serious about attaining more constructive objectives than just pure opinion. Many chat rooms quickly become meeting places for people to parrot doctrinaire rhetoric origin-ating with the various media and partisan propaganda mills, euphemistically called "think tanks," that abound. Which is fine -- we are all for free speech (see Thersites) -- but talk-talk and name calling never leads to constructive results. So, in addition to the usual rules restricting abusive retorts and foul language, we propose three rules regarding chat submissions: (1) each chat submission should be limited by word count, say, 100 words, which should be sufficient to vent one's feelings on any particular subject; (2) the same submission may not be posted in more than one chat room; and (3) chat will be deleted on some reasonable basis, such as, first in, first out. We want our space to be utilized for more constructive exchanges of ideas. LETTERS & ESSAYS In addition to having fun by indulging in partisan politics, this website is about focusing attention on some very serious business. We're looking for practical solutions to immediate problems of national importance, and the methods by which such solutions may be impressed upon our reluctant politicians. In addition to the many blog sites and sources of information the internet can provide, there are organizations, such as AARP, that support huge chat rooms and are sources of information on virtually every subject under the sun provided by people who have a wealth of practical information at their disposal as well as an over-abundance of stridently stated political opinion. But we have found that it is almost impossible to navigate around such huge sites, and that they tend to have pockets of people who, essentially, are only talking to each other, not the public at large. And, of course, there are many sites that simply will not publish contra views, particularly those that are outlets for the Liberal and Conservative self-styled "think" tanks which are merely professionally maintained propaganda organs presenting a narrow point of view. By encouraging submissions of specific practical solutions -- not mere rhetoric -- in the form of tightly crafted letters and essays, we hope to accumulate a library of useful and well organized information to present to our viewers and for them to pass on to their friends and neighbors. Which is why we propose to provide rooms for the posting of letters, limited to, say, 250 words, that are (a) logically organized, (b) concisely written, and (c) in for mats that will be acceptable to other publications, such as Letters to the Editor columns in newspapers and magazines. We want to encourage reasonable, carefully thought-out material that can be used by our NETWORKS to pass on to their friends, local papers, and magazines, and as ammunition to be used in contacts with radio and TV talk shows, in order to make an indelible impression on our indifferent or inept politicians. We also propose to provide rooms for the posting of essays limited to, say, 1000 words, which should be enough for one to develop a plausible thesis on just about any subject. And we propose to provide a program by which these writers can copyright, if they want to do so, and submit their work to appropriate magazines for publication. These materials, accumulated around a broad spectrum of matters of public interest and urgency, will provide a reservoir of information for the education of our members and readers, which also can be picked up by teachers and passed on to their students as a source of rational material bearing on public policy. Thus we most earnestly solicit your feedback on these matters before this site gets fully operational because it will affect the way in which we develop the interactive, content managed sections of this site. It will also provide us with a body of material to publish and get the ball rolling as fast as the supporting pages can be created. So please let us hear from you via e-mail to our contact address below. Lew Warden | 
