Since credibility is the talking point of the day for the tag team of unrepentant liars and frauds presently infesting the White House, it would be less than patriotic not to examine their own record of ever-changing rationale for pre-emptive war on Iraq. Let’s review the history of their attempts to shamelessly manipulate public opinion.

1) Saddam Hussein has weapons of mass destruction and "we know where they are."

2) Iraq is a big country. We don’t know where the WMDs are. They might have been destroyed during the first Gulf War, or smuggled into Syria during the Clinton administration.

1) There is a long history of cooperation between secular despot Saddam Hussein and religious fanatic Osama bin Laden.

2) Gotcha! We were just kidding. Nobody, except Dick Cheney and the genuflecting media, ever really believed that one.

1) We deposed a brutal dictator and eradicated state-sponsored terrorism in Iraq.

2) In our crusade against global terrorism, we welcome into our coalition the freedom-loving, human-rights-embracing democracies of Pakistan and Saudi Arabia.

1) We will create a model democracy in Iraq.

2) Based on the U.S. model, the government will be run by leaders appointed, not elected. Majority rule will be denied.

1) Grateful Iraqis will throw bouquets of flowers at the feet of their benign liberators.

2) More than 600 American soldiers have been shipped home in body bags. They were hit by flying rose petals.

George W. Bush is our "war-time president."

Mission accomplished.

Robert Baruch
Goleta

‘Beach community’ requires beach access

I am a 20-year resident of Goleta and have raised three children here. I chose to raise my family here because of the quality of life that the ocean and mountains provide us. There is no place like it.

Kids, taxes and a mortgage in this area don’t leave a lot of money left over for vacations, so surfing has become a family sport for all of us. Once you have a wetsuit and a board, you pretty much are ready to go. Surfing has not only kept us healthy, but has brought us together in that we all share the same passion for it.

Devereux Point, Sands, Campus Point and Haskell’s have all been very special places we have shared this passion for surfing.

In the past two years, sharing surfing with my family has become an expensive and sometimes precarious endeavor. Ridiculous parking fees at Campus Point, beach access at Haskell’s (or what they call it now, "Bacara Beach"?), and now this proposal to limit parking at Devereux Point have worsened the situation.

I have been alarmed and concerned over access to these surf spots and the inaction of the county to stand up for the residents’ right to have free access to them.

I have also been disappointed by the actions of UCSB to make its beaches inaccessible to their neighbors, the local tax-payers, and to put their poor growth planning on the backs of local residents. Seems they only see the local families and surfers as a source of income through parking tickets and ridiculous parking restrictions and fees.

UCSB and the county are now in cahoots to clean up this mess in I.V. They want to limit or charge for parking to keep overcrowding and partying in control. But in doing so, they are locking out tax-paying residents from the beaches they are entitled to enjoy for free.

Street pollution from I.V. fouls beach waters, and students parking at Goleta Beach Park restrict local access to some of Goleta’s best surfing beaches. It’s time to stop punishing tax-paying residents to fix the university’s past poor planning. UCSB acts as though it is a sovereign nation and need not have the public approval for unchecked growth and development. I don’t expect the university to put out a good-faith effort to provide a free beach environment for the local tax-paying residents, so my plea will be directed to the county and the city of Goleta.

The area adjacent to Devereux and Sands is mostly single-family homes and should remain a park-for-free area that local families can use to enjoy these beautiful beaches. Goleta’s natural resource is its beaches. Like Pearl Chase’s vision for Santa Barbara beaches, Goleta’s beaches should be free and accessible for all residents and not just for the lucky kids at UCSB who can walk to these beaches.

The county should be mandating UCSB to rectify their I.V. parking problems by providing paid over-night and weekend parking on their campus for students and guests, not our county property.

While the county spends thousands of dollars this year to try to save a shifting river-mouth sandbar called Goleta Beach, wouldn’t it be wise to take that money and purchase free access and parking at other sites like Devereux and Haskell’s, where locals could spend their time enjoying the natural resources we have in our community? How can you call Goleta a beach community if the residents can’t get to the beach?

Thank you, Surfrider Foundation, for bringing a voice to the minority of local surfers and beach-going families who are hurt by unchecked growth and restricted beach access.

What’s ironic about this whole parking issue is that while UCSB officials sit in the background not claiming any responsibility for this mess and letting the county do the dirty work for them (in taking away the rights of free beach access from long-term residents), they have posted a beach camera at Campus Point Beach. This camera, the view from which is available to anyone with access to the internet, is bringing surfers from as far away as Thousand Oaks and Pismo Beach to East Campus seven days a week. They arrive only to find that parking is not available. On land it’s a mess, and in the water the crowded surf is making it dangerous and aggressive.

All this from some of the brightest minds in the country?