This is just too good not to Blog:

Libertarian Amendments to the US Constitution

by Anthony Gregory

http://www.lewrockwell.com/gregory/gregory19.html

****This is a letter from Rick, who's in Baghdad for Fox News*****
 
You know, I wanted to write you something every day, but it's hard when nothing's going on and we do the same thing every day.  There are only a few live feeds, usually, and hardly ever on my shift, which is days here but the middle of the night in NY.  Of course, we don't worry about shifts too much.  I'm usually in here from about 7:30 in the morning until 9 or 10 at night.  That's just because it's air conditioned in here, and that's why the other guys are always in here.  We read (I've gone through six novels in a little less than three weeks), we check email, surf the web, play PC games, watch PC movies from the web, listen to PC music, and take digital pictures of each other which we then edit on Adobe photoshop.  Sever walls on this floor are covered with pictures of crew, documenting coverage of the war from the beginning.

One of the Jordanian techs has been trying to get the hotel to fix the A/C in my room, but I don't think that's going to happen, because most of the rooms are broken.  They did fix the water leak from the chiller pipes, so I took the plastic off the floor, but I don't hold out much hope for the new fan motor.  Apparently they got some new motors, but they are not the proper phase for the electricity.  The hotel is doing renovation to the second floor, tearing everything out and rebuilding.  They make tons of money every month off of Fox and the rest of the companies in here, just for the room rental.  They are still open for business, but I don't know how regular people put up with the security outside in order to get in.  There have been two weddings here since I've been here.  I looked down into the lobby the other night and saw a beautiful bride in a fantastic white American-style wedding dress as American soldiers walked by in full battle dress, shorty M16s slung under their arms.  Of course, people here are long used to armed soldiers everywhere - these are just different uniforms.

I read an article in the Rolling Stone about this hotel just before I left the States.  It talked about how often this place gets hit ("becaus it's the tallest building in the city," which it's obviously not if you even look out of the window of the airplane coming in), and how an attack damaged the lobby, which was being repaired.  I got the impression from that article that the place was in a shambles and under a constant barrage, sort of like the bombs bursting over Ft. McHenry.  Turns out the place has only been hit a handful of times, and with stuff that bounces off like bullets off of Superman.  (I met one of the Fox guys that got "quoted," and he said he was mis-quoted by the author.  When he saw the copy before it went to print, he told the editor, but the quote never got corrected.  He can't live that down.  Everyone told me not to mention it to him, so of course I asked him about it right away.  He's not happy.)  Anyway, I'm not sure what lobby damage the author was talking about.  It's virtually untouched by anything.  The hotel hardly got damaged in the war, let alone after.  There is a Plexiglas roof covering the whole lobby space, and some of the panels broke out during the war when a shell hit up somewhere on the sixth floor and concrete chunks fell down.  Those are replaced.  I don't know why you'd put an uninsulated skylight roof over several thousand square feet of space in a desert climate anyway.  That thing collects heat like you wouldn't believe.  The A/C in the rest of the hotel is no better than in the rooms, because when the local power fails the hotel generator isn't big enough to run the A/C plant.  That's in terrible shape anyway, a bunch of the gear broken and corroded.  Not damaged in the war, just never maintained.  Some local guys working with us say it's because the managers always pocketed the maintenance money; others say it's because of the embargo after the first war.  They say Saddam took what little came into the country to fix the one hotel where government people and other important outsiders stayed.  The truth is probably some of each.  So now at least, they can take Fox money and fix things as they are able to find and purchase parts.

There's also one broken elevator that got damaged during the war.  Probably the same shell that dropped debris on the Plexiglas roof.  The elevator cable broke and the elevator is sitting on the bottom floor.  No one hurt, they said.  Elevators are supposed to have emergency brakes if the cables break, but I don't know if those are even installed here.  The elevators are glassed in and on the outside of the building once you get above the sixth floor, so I try not to think about it when I have to go to the 19th floor to work on gear on the roof.  The dead elevator didn't get smashed or anything, although the doors are askew, so either the brakes worked or it wasn't very high. 

This place is built like a fort, so it would take quite a bit to hurt it, even during the war.  They like having all the media and such here to pay the bills (otherwise they wouldn't have many paying customers), and the staff makes out well by liberating some of our supplies for themselves.  I didn't appreciate that at first, but I would probably do the same thing in their position if I had a family to take care of.  Besides, I imagine Fox figures that into the cost of doing business here, and it keeps the wheels turning smoothly.  A little skimming keeps the big theft out - there's a lot of gear here just laying around that never disappears.  Still, the hotel management and the new government can't wait until the roads are reopened around the hotel and they can get back to normal.  Or at least show the citizans an appearance of normal, and not an armed camp in the middle of town.  The biggest complaint from the townspeople is that they need the road open to cut down on traffic jams during rush hour, which gives you some insight into how regular folks are responding to the situation here.  I don't know what's normal for this town, anyway, either before or after the war.  I hope regular folks can get something like free trade working beyond the black market economy.