Copyright (c) 1999

From: Russell David Hoffman, very concerned citizen

Re: The sad story of Jim Hills and his family: STOP CASSINI #204

Date: October 8th, 1999

"There can be no democracy without truth, no justice without mercy, and no nuclear dispersals without ill consequences."

This issue's subjects:

• (1) The sad story of Jim Hills and his family
• (2) Technologists take a hit (many of them, anyway)
• (3) I hope RGA was not involved in any Cassini testing
• (4) No, I'm not really this good (I wish I was!)
• (5) Our haste re Haist's taste was a misplaced waste based on new facts we must now face
• (6) Daily, Weekly, Monthly (a poem by Russell Hoffman)
• (7) United States Government official contact points
• (8) Subscription information
• (9) Authorship notes and associated links

(1) The sad story of Jim Hills and his family

There seems to be a theory -- or perhaps I should call it a rumor -- that someone fairly high up in the government might actually read these newsletters, or have the "important" parts summarized, or might somehow pay some attention to me, or even (egads) might know I exist as other than my social security number. This theory is explored in several items in this newsletter.

Personally, I think it's very likely that they WISH they had listened to me before, but still DON'T because my warning this time is far more important that the one about Cassini (which MCO proved utterly correct, of course, and the government knows it, because Woody Smith [undoubtedly] knows it, and he's the Curator for the Internet at NASA (works for SAIC but at NASA HQ) and I guess that's pretty high up the ladder, when you think about it). -- rdh

----- INCOMING EMAIL FROM JACK SHANNON ABOUT JIM HILLS -----

From: Jacksha1@aol.com
Date: Thu, 7 Oct 1999 17:31:34 EDT
Subject: Jim Hills Story
To: rhoffman@animatedsoftware.com

Russ:

Your news letter indicates to me that you deal with people on some pretty high levels.

Could you do me a favor and send some of these high level people Jim Hills story [enclosed below] to see if we can get some relief for this family. As of today the Navy is denying that they [the Navy] have received any tapes from the Hills. Now I know that is a lie and if we [you] can get some of your high power friends (sic) to help it might go a long way. I have been fighting this battle for nearly fifteen years now and I think people are tired of hearing from me and about KAPL

Thanks for anything you can do

Jack Shannon

Jim Hills Story

November 24, 1997
The Honorable John H. Dalton
Secretary of the Navy
1000 Navy Pentagon
20350-1000
1-703-695-3131 (Voice)
1-703-614-3477 (FAX)

Dear Secretary Dalton:

I am bringing the following series of events to your attention because of the outrageous nature of the activities involved and the ongoing attempts by High Level Officers of the United States Navy to act in a manner which appears to illegally abuse their oaths of office. The apparent abuses are attempts at coverups of the nature and details of the matter of Petty Officer James Hills (USN-R). The present abuses appear to include violations of the UCMJ up to and including obstruction of justice.

James (Jim) Hills reported to Naval Recruit Training Center (NRTC) at Orlando Fla. during March 1990. After nearly three months at NRTC Jim was the Recruit Chief Petty Officer, Honor Recruit of his Company, received the Commanding Officers Award for Excellence and was advanced to the Non-Commissioned Officer Rank of Petty Officer 3rd Third Class.

May 10, 1990, was the day before graduation and the various companies were on the way to breakfast at 5:00 A.M. Jim's company was marched into by another company; both Jim and the other company commander, a female, were ordered to the 'hotbox' (a room at Orlando used for illegal punishment of recalcitrant recruits). Jim and the other recruit were subjected to unspeakable brutalities in this illegal 'hotbox'. The female was subjected to certain sexual and physical abuses and Jim was subjected to outrageous physical abuses, including "falling" pushups and back to a standing position and dropping on his buttock to perform setups. This cycle was repeated for a period of six to eight hours causing permanent damage to Jim's shoulder and back. The female recruit suffered traumatic loss of memory because of the incident that persists to this day. Jim was ordered by his Navy superiors to never mention the incident or he would be ". . . killed . . ." Needless to say Jim never did mention the incident.

Jim reported to Electronics Technician "A" School where he was selected as class leader and graduated fourth in a class of forty students. Jim was further honored by being selected as a laboratory assistant, an honor awarded to only one of one hundred graduating students. After completing his assignment as a laboratory assistant Jim reported to the next school for which he had been selected. He reported to the Naval Nuclear Basic School at Orlando, FL., graduating in the top 10% of his class. He was advanced to Petty Officer Second Class after completion of this School. He was than assigned to the Nuclear Navy Power Training Unit (NPTU) at West Milton, NY. He finished in the top 10% of his class with evaluations of proficiency and conduct of 4.0 and 4.0, the best the Navy can bestow in a school the Navy advertises as its most elite.

Based on Jim's proficiency and conduct evaluations he was promoted to an instructor. This promotion is an unusual honor for someone who had never served at sea. Jim was also being considered for a Medical Administrator Commissioning program and/or an opportunity to finish his B.S. in Engineering and obtain a Commission as a Nuclear Navy Officer. Jim has a math SAT score of 740 and a verbal SAT of approximately 470.

During his entire time at the various Commands Jim never complained about the back or shoulder injuries received at Boot Camp although there were several instances of passing out, shoulder dislocations and chronic shoulder and back pain. Jim was told that there was nothing wrong with his back. It was eventually determined, through an illegal file being kept on Jim, (and on all NPTU trainees) that an x-ray had revealed that his back had indeed been injured. Finally during September 1992 Jim's shoulder required surgery. This surgery was unsuccessful. The periods of passing out and chronic pain continued; some pain episodes were so severe they caused blackouts requiring transportation to the Naval Clinic. During a late night pain episode, of January 18, 1994, Jim had to be transported to the Saratoga Hospital by ambulance, a practice forbidden by the NPTU command. That evening Mrs. Annbeth Hills (Beth), Jim's wife, became so frustrated and upset that she saw Jim's Command Master Chief, Jim Williams, to explain to him the source of Jim's pain and to see if Master Chief Williams could offer some source of relief and advice. Beth did not inform Jim of her conversation with Command Master Chief Williams until January 20, 1994; the cover up and retaliation was swift and barbaric.

During the next several months' Jim's Command ordered him not to drive, he was transferred to work 20 miles away in Scotia, NY. His wife and four children were denied access to all local Navy Commands including the Clinic and Commissary, and his qualifications as a Nuclear trained Sailor were revoked thereby reducing his salary by nearly 50%.

Mrs. Hills was arrested by the Saratoga Police for transporting her husband to work and thereby charged with trespassing' on government property. The trespassing charges were dismissed after several months of additional pain and emotional agony for the Hills. She and her children were illegally arrested and her car was seized by members of the Naval Criminal Investigative Service ( NCIS ) at Naval Base, Groton, Connecticut, the purported purpose was to intercept a bomb that Mrs. Hills was reported to have been carrying. This charge was subsequently disproved. The real reason was to confiscate audio tapes that Mrs. Hills was known to have had concerning the abuse being heaped upon her and her husband. She did not have the tapes with her at the time of her detention. She was separated from her children and her son was interrogated without Mrs. Hills being present.

A Navy - IG Investigation begun during 1995 has been stopped and the documents have apparently been destroyed. [completed a couple of weeks ago and flies in the face of all the evidence]

Mr. and Mrs. Hills have tried every chain of command up to and including members of the staff of the Secretary of the Navy attempting to have an honest investigation conducted all to no avail.

These are only a few examples of what happened to Jim and Beth Hills and their four small children. The entire story of harassment and retaliation would require a book. A sad fact of the Navy Reactor program is that what happened to the Hills at NPTU is fairly routine.

The Hills situation must be investigated. I am requesting all Officers who have served with honor to help the Hills obtain a fair hearing and, if justified, honorable restitution from the Navy.

The Hills have been decimated financially, emotionally and physically. Mr. Hills was driven from the Navy on a psychological discharge, a charge disproved by USAF Psychiatrists at Wright Patterson Air Force Base (WPAFB). An MRI conducted at WPAFB also shows Mr. Hills to be suffering from an inoperable shoulder injury, a spinal fracture at a Thoracic Spinal location known as T-7 and two compressed lumbar discs. Mr. Hills had none of these injuries upon entering the Navy. He is now limited in the civilian work he can perform and suffers constant pain because of the illegal injuries inflicted upon him by the US Navy.

Respectively Submitted:

John P. Shannon

John P. Shannon, Major USMC (R)

cc: President William Clinton, Commander in Chief
Admiral Bowman Commander US Naval Reactors Program

P.S. As of October 7 1999 the Navy is continuing to brutalize the Hills. Jim as been ordered to Bethedsa Naval Hospital for another medical exam. Apparently the Navy did not like the evaluation done by the Air Force at Wright Patterson Air Force Base [WPAFB]. The Air Foprce found no psychological problems but he did have a severally injured back and a botched shoulder operation [performed by Navy Doctors] This is not the diagnosis that the Navy wanted and conveniently "lost" the Air Force Exam Records. Jim was sent to WPAFB on orders and was never reimbursed by the Navy. They now want him to drive to Washington, DC without paying him ahead of time. This family is being systematically destroyed by the Navy and no one in Government wants to stand up to be counted.

----- END OF INCOMING EMAIL FROM JACK SHANNON ABOUT JIM HILLS -----

Jack Shannon is a retired U. S. Marine Corps Major, a Former Nuclear Physicist/Nuclear Engineer, a Former Supervising Nuclear Physicist/Engineer and Former Manager of Nuclear Safety Industrial Safety/Industrial Hygiene at Knolls Atomic Power Laboratory. Here's the URL of his web site:

http://www.mindspring.com/~kapl/index.html

Let's say, for the sake of argument, that there are those in the government -- at high levels -- who read my newsletter (as there would be, in a perfect world). On that assumption, I do hereby ask those folks, to go ahead and handle Jim Hills' problem properly. Settle the case as justice demands, letting the chips fall where they may. If that happens, I will consider it a show of good faith, and will on my own, forswear against pursuing my own legal case against those in Government who have been unfairly thwarting my own efforts, lying to me, denouncing me openly or behind closed doors, and destroying my ability to carry out a citizen's duty to his country, his democracy, his land, his people, his neighbors, his friends, his family, and his God. (I wasn't planning on pursuing anything on my own, anyway, but it sounds good, doesn't it?) -- rdh

(2) Technologists take a hit (many of them, anyway):

This next item is a good summary of why the nuclear dragon and its "demon hot atom" is dying. And I love the author's "old programmer's rule": "If it ain't tested, it doesn't work". (Programmers, of the world, co-process!)

Both of these major recent failures of technology which the article below discusses would not be newsworthy if the size of a disaster from an accident were not so great. Mars Climate Orbiter by itself? No big deal. A month after all NASA's lies about Cassini's nuclear threat? Suddenly, it's a big deal. And the nuclear fuel reprocessing accident in Japan would be practically irrelevant to people if a few folks had simply blown up their lab and done themselves in, but the exposure of hundreds of thousands of people to potentially harmful radiation? The lax standards the company had been taking? The delayed action by the Japanese government? All of that IS a big deal! The fact that similar (or different) accidents most certainly CAN happen here, at our reprocessing plants, at our nuclear power facilities, at our nuclear waste dumps, at our nuclear military installations, or anywhere else the "demon hot atom" has been placed, IS a big deal! The fact that after nearly 60 years we are no closer to a solution to the waste problem than we were when we started IS a big deal! It's not "technology" that is the problem, it's certain careless and dangerous technologies. -- rdh

----- POST TO Y2K-NUCLEAR LIST BY PAUL SWANN, MODERATOR -----

X-URL: http://www.egroups.com/list/y2k-nuclear/
Date: Fri, 8 Oct 1999 07:16:27 +0000
To: y2k-nuclear@egroups.com
From: Paul Swann pswann@easynet.co.uk

Subject: [y2k-nuclear] A Very Bad Week for Technologists

http://www.wbn.com/y2ktimebomb/Computech/Issues/dmills9940.htm

A Very Bad Week for Technologists
By Dick Mills

October 5, 1999

This week was a very bad one for the credibility of technologists. The Mars Orbiter and the Japanese nuclear plant incidents may be central to technology debate for decades to come.

Just a month ago, opponents of the Cassini mission complained that the near-Earth flyby of the probe was irresponsible. The probe had plutonium 238 on board, and if it hit Earth according to the critics, it could be a serious threat to human life. Officials replied that the chances of an error causing the probe to hit Earth were vanishingly small, almost the same language that Allan Greenspan used last week to describe Y2K risks.

This week, we find that a simple programming error in the Mars Orbiter caused exactly the kind of mistake that NASA claimed nearly impossible in Cassini.

My old programmer's rule is, "If it ain't tested it doesn't work." Why should any different rule apply to space probes? I expect that NASA will be forced to admit that their talk about vanishingly small chances was just bluster; that they never did calculate the probability or that they did it with invalid assumptions.

The unfortunate accident in Japan is even harder to dismiss. The circumstances under which a nuclear reaction can occur are known with much more certainty and precision than predicting if and when shutting a valve will stop the flow of chemicals. (Except in my house where faucets always drip:)

I worked in several facilities that handle nuclear materials. I know how basic and how simple the rules are for avoiding any chance of an inadvertent critical nuclear reaction. There are also safeguards, checks, and balances to assure that even stupid mistakes don't lead to an accident. It is so safe that the buildings that house fuel factories don't need to be designed to contain a reaction. It is so safe that I took my wife once to open house day at the fuel factory where our families and children were allowed to hold the uranium fuel pellets in their hands. But the safety is predicated on there never being a critical nuclear reaction.

For the benefit of people who don't know, enriched uranium as used in nuclear fuel is a safe and benign substance. However, if and when it is exposed to a nuclear reaction, it is immediately and irrevocably transformed into something lethal. In simple terms, the transformation is what happened in Japan.

I haven't heard yet how the accident in Japan was caused, but no matter what the details, the credibility of the industry and of technologists in general suffered a great blow. In my book, the accident in Japan is technically less forgivable than the one in Bhopal India even though the loss of life was less.

How do these things relate to Y2K? Part of my message in the Lessons Learned series deals with the damage done to our credibility because of the Y2K crisis and how that might influence the future. Other incidents that also hurt our credibility just exacerbate the problem.

© Westergaard.com, Inc., 1999
www.y2ktimebomb.com

------------------------------------------------------------------------

eGroups.com home: http://www.egroups.com/group/y2k-nuclear
http://www.egroups.com - Simplifying group communications

----- END OF POST TO Y2K-NUCLEAR LIST BY PAUL SWANN, MODERATOR -----

There is no such thing as a "safe nuclear facility" and the fact of the matter is, uranium fuel pellets are radioactive and are not "safe and benign" even if they are freshly made. Furthermore, chances are excellent that the entire plant he worked in was irradiated and dangerous, and children especially, should not be allowed in them. Of course, handling poisonous snakes isn't a good idea either, but some people do it. -- rdh

(3) I hope RGA was not involved in any Cassini testing:

New Scientist (September 25th, 1999) reports the following item, which seems to have missed the papers just a hundred miles south of Torrance, in San Diego, California (or I missed the articles):

----- A REPORT (UNCUT) FROM NEW SCIENTIST, SEPTEMBER 25TH, 1999: ----

A NASA subcontractor has admitted faking reliability tests on electronic components destined for the International Space Station. Last month RGA Labs of Torrance, California, pleaded guilty to three counts of filing false statements.

The company was fined $500,000 and ordered to pay a total of $1.2 million to two of its customers. One was NASA. The other was the Department of Defense, which used RGA to test components for the B-1 bomber and C-130 transport aircraft.

NASA special agent Bill Miller says that the space agency received an anonymous tip-off that RGA was not performing required tests on components such as transistors. When confronted with the allegations, the company confessed. "They were indeed not only skipping tests, they were falsifying some results," says Miller.

Though Miller doesn't believe that any components will have to be ripped out of space station modules, he says that RGA gave NASA a "headache". -- Charles Seife, Washington, DC

----- END OF REPORT FROM NEW SCIENTIST, SEPTEMBER 25TH, 1999 ----

I wonder if NASA special agent Bill Miller would be interested in the "anonymous tip" I received around the time when I first got into the Cassini debate in early 1997, that the vent holes for the Radioactive Thermoelectric Generators, such as were used on Cassini, were not properly tested, and/or failed tests, and that the related reports were removed from storage and made very difficult to obtain, if not impossible?

Probably he would not be interested, because cancer, leukemia, and birth defects are not, after all, NASA "headaches". They are normal results of NASA's Standard Operating Procedures.

-- rdh

(4) No, I'm not really THIS good (I wish I was!):

----- LETTER FROM "SCOTT": -----

Date: Thu, 07 Oct 1999 00:46:25 -0800
Subject: With friends like this, our cause is unstoppable: STOP CASSINI #203, October 6th, 1999
From: "bluespin" bluespin@earthlink.net
Apparently-To:

Dear Sustainable Petaluma Friends,

the following is a sample issue of one of the most amazingly courageous newsletters flying through cyberspace today.. It is put out by Russell Hoffman, a highly spirited, highly intelligent, scientifically trained and informed citizen activist who regularly dialogues with the highest officials in NASA, the Dept of Energy and a host of other scientists and government leaders- then weaves these dialogues into his amazing emailed pieces. This is spiritual/political/artistic/ activism at its most vibrant and creative!

This is one of the two emails on nuclear power I'm sending out tonite to a large part of the SPN list. I believe this issue is critical to our collective survival- and with potentially deadly Livermore Lab just across the bay from us- local as well. If we are serious about Sustainability we have to speak up and claim the Earth for future generations around the world. Its not easy to look this issue straight in the eye, but denial is death and certain defeat.

Ever Onward,

Scott

----- END OF LETTER FROM "SCOTT" -----

We are deeply appreciative of Scott's words and efforts. However, we would like to mention a few minor things: First of all, although I have "dialogues" with high-level NASA, DoE and other government officials, they are virtually all one-way. These guys have made an art of pretending I don't exist. I send them emails, and they do nothing.

Second of all, "courage" is storming the beach at Normandy, standing up to Chemotherapy, or Standing Naked Against Radiation Lies in San Francisco.

Third of all, I'M NOT HIGH SPIRITED!!!!!! Fourth of all, intelligence is not a key to understanding the things I write about, and it's relative anyway. Fifth of all, my "scientific training" has been mostly outside of formal college, although my software products are used in thousands of colleges, universities, hospitals, by doctors, pump manufacturers, schools, etc. as I write this (much of it is freely distributed).

Sixth of all, I suspect many activists are much better informed about the facts than they realize. For example, most people (let alone most activists) can grasp the shear and utter stupidity of, say, having nuclear-propulsed aircraft carriers protecting us, when conventionally propulsed ones are better in many ways, just as good in others, and the one small advantage of nuclear "A/Cs" (as they are called in the U.S. Navy) (they can be switched to "full steam ahead" more quickly) is simply far outweighed by the disadvantages. Nuclear carriers can be sunk in our own harbors by relatively small guided missiles in a matter of minutes, or blown up by having all the aviation fuel ignite, causing the missiles (full of armor-piercing Depleted Uranium) to go off (the missiles don't even need an AVGAS fire to go off accidentally, as has happened (they just didn't smash into a nuclear reactor, thankfully.) All this stuff is really pretty self-evident to anybody that cares to consider the facts and the history. (Just to pull out one random example where the nuclear genie is out of the bottle and needs to be put back).

-- rdh

(5) Our haste re Haist's taste was a misplaced waste based on new facts we must now face:

We are deeply saddened to have to report that maybe we should not have written in all haste about Paul Haist; he learned about poetry in college. So my third poem, the one he was referring to (I don't know how he feels about the others) must really be lousy poetry after all (I'm serious!); this guy's some kind of expert. With our luck, we've miss-rhymed his name, too:

----- PAUL HAIST'S SECOND LETTER TO THE STOP CASSINI EDITOR -----

At 09:14 AM 10/7/99 -0700, Paul Haist wrote:

Dear Mr. Hoffman:

I am so sorry that you took my light comment so seriously. I had no idea you were so sensitive. I hope you can find it in your heart to forgive me.

Actually, I practically never read any of your missives, never more than the subject line anyway, owing to the fact that -- as editor of this little journal -- I am routinely deluged with upwards of 300 e-mails a day. I did, however, pause over your recent missive that mentioned poetry. I did my graduate work in the Romantic poets, so I often succumb to the lure of Erato.

Indeed, the poem wasn't in your missive. I sought it ought (sic) via a link in your missive.

Shalom,
Paul
-------------------------------
Paul Haist, Editor
The Jewish Review
506 SW Sixth Ave., Suite 606
Portland, Oregon 97204
(503) 227-7464
(503) 227-7438

----- END OF PAUL HAIST'S SECOND LETTER TO THE STOP CASSINI EDITOR -----

----- MY RESPONSE: -----

Dear Sir,

Thanks for the detailed response. I am grateful. I'll add it to the next newsletter (#204) to balance the previous post in #203.

After I sent out newsletter #203, it did occur to me that perhaps you didn't deserve such an avalanche (and it also occurred to me that perhaps I should wait for your reply, though frankly I didn't expect one). Considering the fact that criticism generally does me more good that compliments, I generally try to encourage it by not acting too offended, but I guess your email didn't come in when I was in that sort of mood. How offended was I actually? Certainly not more than I am by all the people who hear my message, say to themselves, "Well, I can't worry about THAT! It's too big for me!" and move on without even writing a letter to Clinton (or to me) because they believe they are too small and insignificant to make a change in the way the world thinks. I don't believe any of us are really too small to make a difference. God gave us each a voice.

But I agree, that if I had more time, everything I write would be better (and shorter, too, probably). And yes, your professional opinion about my poetry matters to me and I'm very thankful that you responded with more details about your expertise in the subject. I wish I COULD compete with the "classics" since maybe then, more people would read what I write. But those old poems, like Paul McCartney's "Silly Love Songs" and 99% of the rattle that's heard these days, just won't solve the world's problems. Maybe my writing will (I can always hope so), and in any event it's certainly worth a shot. If you think you can do better, by all means try! We need all the writers who can write anything at all, to write something about the Y2K dangers we all face! (Needless to say, I would be happy to publish your creative attempts, even if no one else would!)

Yours,

Russell Hoffman
Carlsbad, CA

----- END OF MY RESPONSE -----

I then included the letter from "bluespin" shown above, to remind him, in no uncertain terms, that the poetry is of such minor importance compared to the ideas being presented -- namely, "hey you know what? We actually DON'T need bigger and "better" nuclear weapons, because we're not "into" genocidal destruction, and we actually DON'T need nuclear power plants which spew their poisons everywhere." It's not a complicated message, although to be sure it's true, takes some careful study. And the world has studied it, and is ready to move on.

The nuclear dragon is dying, and I see my job as just to prove to the world that that is so. To prove that it has already been mortally beaten by others before me, who in fact, are vastly more knowledgeable, better educated, older and wiser (and have more grace and charm). I am out to show that supporting the nuclear "demon hot atom" is a lost cause, logically, scientifically, spiritually, financially, democratically, emotionally, philosophically, psychologically, technologically and utterly. (Yet still it snarls, but its wounds are mortal.) Why me? Ah! Not JUST me! Not ONLY me! I am not alone! But we must all, together, in one fell swoop, prove to ourselves that this dragon is dead, so that we can move on to a more enlightened, environmentally-friendly way of living amongst each other.

No, it wasn't the technologists who took a hit last week. There are good technologies all around us, which we know and use. It was instead only the criminally insane nuclear demons, who have power and money, but no brains. THEY took some terrible "hits" last week, and though they pretend it is not so, it is.

That is why the Nuclear Test Ban Treaty, aka the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty, aka the NTBT or the CTBT or the TBT or whatever, is a sham -- a red herring designed to fool the shade-tree activists, pacifists, and part-time earth savers who desperately want something to be done, but who think themselves not powerful enough, not important enough, not vital enough, not a part of the whole with which the whole cannot function.

Let your politicians rule you, my friends, and you will see them do nothing, when truly, positive action is now needed. Y2K awaits, and if there is ONE meltdown, there will have been too many. If there is ONE nuclear launch, there will have been too many. If there is even one "near miss" there will have been ample proof that something that could have been done, wasn't.

The last big war, it took Pearl Harbor for America to realize the dire straights it was in. What will it take this time? A meltdown on our own soil, a nuclear fuel accident in our own plants, a failed planetary flyby of poisonous plutonium on its way past Earth? Why do we let the politicians pretend, with the CTBT or whatever the red-herring-of-the-day is, that they are doing something useful when in fact, they are dancing by their own funeral pyres, as nuclear death reaches everywhere, it does not know class boundaries, or international borders, or anything? It just seeps and creeps while everyone sleeps. -- rdh

(6) Daily, Weekly, Monthly (a poem by Russell Hoffman)

I don't know by heart any "Romantic Poems" but there is one classic soliloquy that one of my High School English teachers insisted all the students memorize, and I have been very grateful to him that I can say it anywhere, nearly three decades later. So to the tune of ...., here is a poem I have written October 7th, 1999 for Paul Haist:

Daily, Weekly, Monthly,
Creeps come in at a petty pace
nearly every day.
To the last bit of recordable data --
all the ones that came yesterday were fools
on their way to dusty, radioactive death.

Decay! Decay! Brief half-life!
Life walks in the shadow of death
And each of us is but a poor player
Who struts and frets
about his web page
and then becomes "Error 404: File Not Found" forever.

Each of us can post the tale of an idiot
full of sound, animation, and fury
but it signifies nothing.

-- Russell Hoffman (with apologies to Bill), October 7th, 1999

For those who haven't got it memorized:

Tomorrow, and tomorrow and tomorrow
creeps in this petty pace
from day to day.
To the last syllable of recorded time,
and all our yesterdays have lighted fools
the way to dusty death.

Out! Out! Brief candle!
Life is but a walking shadow
A poor player,
who struts and frets his hour upon the stage
and then is heard no more.

It is a tale told by idiots
full of sound and fury
signifying nothing.

--- William Shakespeare, quite some time ago

(7) United States Government official contact points:

NASA needs to be told in no uncertain terms they have lied too often to the public and we want a SEA CHANGE away from their nuclear policies!

To learn about the absurd excuses NASA used to launch Cassini and its 72.3 pounds of plutonium in 1997, ask them for the 1995 Environmental Impact Statement for the Cassini mission, and all subsequent documentation. At the same time, be sure to ask them for ANY and ALL documentation available on future uses of plutonium in space, including MILITARY, CIVILIAN, or "OTHER" (just in case they make a new category somehow!). To get this information, contact:

Cassini Public Information
Jet Propulsion Laboratory
4800 Oak Grove Drive
Pasadena CA 91109
(818) 354-5011 or
(818) 354-6478

Here's NASA's "comments" email address: comments@www.hq.nasa.gov

Daniel Goldin is the head of NASA. Here's his email address:
daniel.goldin@hq.nasa.gov
or
dgoldin@mail.hq.nasa.gov

Here's the NASA URL to find additional addresses to submit written questions to:

http://www.hq.nasa.gov/office/pao/facts/HTML/FS-002-HQ.html

YOU HAVE A RIGHT TO KNOW WHAT NASA IS DOING TO YOUR HEALTH.

Be sure to "cc" the president and VP and your senators and congresspeople, too.

President Bill Clinton
White House, 1600 Pennsylvania Ave., N.W.,
Washington, D.C. 20500
Phone -- (202) 456-1111
Fax -- (202) 456-2461
e-mail -- president@whitehouse.gov

Vice President Albert Gore
White House, 1600 Pennsylvania Ave.,
N.W.,Washington, D.C. 20500
Phone -- (202) 456-1414
Fax -- (202) 456-2461
e-mail -- vicepresident@whitehouse.gov

Secretary William Cohen
1000 Defense
The Pentagon
Washington D.C. 20301
Phone -- (703) 695-6352

Secretary Bill Richardson
Department of Energy (DoE)
1000 Independence Avenue SW
Washington D.C. 20585
Phone -- (202) 586-6210
fax -- (202) 586-4403

Always include your full name and postal address in all correspondence to any Government official of any country, because otherwise they will throw it out unread, or hand it directly to their police force to try to identify the author. (Thus, nothing good will come of it.) Also, ALWAYS include a personal message of some sort, indicated YOUR OWN VIEWS, even if you include a lot of material written by other people (me, for instance).

(8) Subscription information:

Thanks for reading! Welcome new subscribers!

Home page of our STOP CASSINI movement:
http://www.animatedsoftware.com/cassini/cassini.htm (Accept NO imitations!)

To subscribe, simply email the editor at
rhoffman@animatedsoftware.com and state:
SUBSCRIBE STOP CASSINI NEWSLETTER
Please include a personal message of any
length and subject matter. Thank you!

To unsubscribe email me and say
UNSUBSCRIBE STOP CASSINI NEWSLETTER

Published by Russell D. Hoffman electronically.
Written in U.S.A.
This newsletter is free and is not distributed for profit.
Please distribute these newsletters EVERYWHERE!

(9) Authorship notes and associated links:

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Many of the issues presented by Russell Hoffman in this letter are based on conversations with Dr. John W. Gofman (who isolated the first working quantities of plutonium), the late Dr. Karl Z. Morgan (who was known as the "father of health physics"), Dr. Ernest Sternglass (who has done statistical studies about LLR), Dr. Jay Gould (ditto), Dr. Horst Poehler, Dr. Helen Caldicott, Dr. Ross Wilcock and dozens of activists, as well as many others on both sides of the nuclear debates, including ex military nuke expert Jack Shannon (responsible for the design of the D2G Navy reactor, the most widely used reactor in the U. S. navy), award-winning investigative reporter Karl Grossman, ecologist and human rights advocate Pamela Blockey-O'Brien, etc. Also, I've read a few dozen books on the various subjects. And scads of government documents purporting to explain how something so dangerous can be safe. Professionally, my pump training software is used throughout the pump industry and even in some nuclear power plants around the world to train their staff about mechanical pumps. Any errors herein are regrettably my own, but I believe it would take an extremely unlikely preponderance of errors to invalidate my basic position on these issues.

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Russell D. Hoffman, Carlsbad, California, Peace Activist, Environmentalist, High Tech Guru:
http://www.animatedsoftware.com/whoisrdh.htm

Hoffman's Y2K Preparedness Information:
http://www.animatedsoftware.com/environm/no_nukes/y2k/index.htm

Learn about The Effects of Nuclear War here:
http://www.animatedsoftware.com/environm/no_nukes/tenw/nuke_war.htm

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** THE ANIMATED SOFTWARE COMPANY
** Russell D. Hoffman, Owner and Chief Programmer
** Carlsbad CA
** Visit the world's most eclectic web site:
** http://www.animatedsoftware.com
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