NRC/international: A 25-year-old film student from Amsterdam has taken on Fox News anchor Bill O'Reilly over his misrepresentation of the Dutch capital.
It is a much-belated response, but 25-year-old Robert Nieuwenhuijs' July 27 video reply to Fox News' description of Amsterdam as a "cesspool of corruption" has nevertheless become a hit on the video-sharing website YouTube.
Guantanamo inmate to be released Unaccountable flesh and bone and greed and cruelty mixed in with the fineness of a discarded spider’s leg and everything else that we’ll soon release of ourselves.
Iran to release prominent reformist from jail Stride slowly now, warrior, on the sidewalk toward your battle. It will be this taste, this air that you shall carry for others to breathe.
House Democrats clinch healthcare deal There is still a little life left in you, inside thy sacrosanct chamber a small portion of duty and sympathy. It is this tenacity we desire; decency, within each of you singing stridently. Now get back to the people's business, there's much more work to do.
Mayan Calendar Spurs End-Of-The-World Debate This is what I know of ancient thought- It is a map of the world best not read with certainty. These things have myth and wonderment attached to them. History for them has already moved on. They wept. They danced. They dreamed.
If you’re like most Americans, there’s nothing more important to you about health care than peace of mind.
Given the status quo, that’s understandable. The current system often denies insurance due to pre-existing conditions, charges steep out-of-pocket fees – and sometimes isn’t there at all if you become seriously ill.
It’s time to fix our unsustainable insurance system and create a new foundation for health care security. That means guaranteeing your health care security and stability with eight basic consumer protections:
No discrimination for pre-existing conditions
No exorbitant out-of-pocket expenses, deductibles or co-pays
No cost-sharing for preventive care
No dropping of coverage if you become seriously ill
No gender discrimination
No annual or lifetime caps on coverage
Extended coverage for young adults
Guaranteed insurance renewal so long as premiums are paid
Over the next month there is going to be an avalanche of misinformation and scare tactics from those seeking to perpetuate the status quo. But we know the cost of doing nothing is too high. Health care costs will double over the next decade, millions more will become uninsured, and state and local governments will go bankrupt.
Iran 'releases 140 demonstrators' Was it dark in there? Were you in pain? Is it light outside on the path to sovereignty? Do you have the same evil upon your streets as we? Why does gloom sit with you on the crimson sidewalk? Careful that you not tarry long, for wickedness Will surely wipe the efforts of tyrants upon your joy.
Gates says U.S. urban pullout in Iraq going well Are you proud? Rush to war has made us slaves, not free men. America, listen to this- the clack of warfare and greed Are noiseless compared to the sharp whip of slavery Which is giving birth to a world that will soon bow to tyranny.
Iraqi Forces Reportedly Open Fire, Beat Iranian Exiles Has it endured our stay? Has it remained; death? Through the liquid sidewalks and solid air I can see The faces of those still trapped there staring out with Astonishment that their brother had come to kill them.
Suspect In Abortion Doctor's Death Pleads Not Guilty How does it feel to be "not guilty"? Yes. You're not guilty of aborting a fetus Or guilty of abandoning your tired faith Or guilty of rising above your ignorance. You’re not guilty, but you are a murderer.
Study: Tanning beds up cancer risk New study just released says that Nearly all findings in studies like this Are known to people with a heart beat. Another study filed under “No shit!”
And in a surprise to everyone present, Her farewell speech was chock full’a Status Quo Wingnut “Pay Attention to Me” Paranoia (Here’s an Excerpt)-
Friends, and fellow Self-Righteous, Mud Humping, Haven’t a Fucking Clue About Jack Shit Creationist Whack Jobs, I stand before you today, Proud. Proud to know that I, like you, am not a Mean Old Liberal Meanie Pants. Proud to know that I am not part of the Elite Establishment Hell Bent on being Really Mean, and Nasty, and Hurtful toward people like Myself who are simply trying to Improve their Standing in life by Grifting the plethora of Mouth Breathing Goobers in this country Desperate for a Messiah, No Matter How Absurd, to save them from the Mundanity of their Sad, Meaningless Lives. (Read the rest at Jonestown...)
anyone else notice the uptick in murders, assaults and break ins lately? economic downturns do tend to move populations in that direction- especially given the housing situation. there was an article from colorado that highlighted troops who have come home from iraq and afghanistan and their propensity towards violent crimes. it's an interesting and fairly scary read.
which got me musing about how truly violent a nation america is- and has been from the start. for the most part, the nation hasn't warred on itself- officially- but there is the daily violence of citizen against citizen that goes on. the ugly, hate filled rhetoric we witness on the internet and the tv news shows bombard us with overt and subtle messages that it's an 'us against them' world.
which doesn't bode well for this country. i hope that there won't be an all out civil war again in this country in my lifetime. i do see it coming though. it isn't enough to agree to disagree anymore- opposing sides line up like gladiators and tear each other down- for now it has been fairly verbal. with the advent of the 'birthers' and the 'tea bag parties' though, what was underground has bubbled to the surface. the left is woefully unprepared and make no mistake- it will be a war of ideology- and perhaps geographic area. i have no words of wisdom other than- forewarned is forearmed. keep eyes open and just know what is coming. americans are violent folks. "
The Merida Initiative, a 3-year, $1.4 billion counternarcotics aid package, is the US's current program of assistance to combat the drug-fueled violence that has turned Mexico into a war zone. It tries to help Mexico take the offensive and win the fight against the powerful drug cartels by strengthening the Mexican police and military. That is the same sort of strategy as is Plan Columbia, a strategy reaffirmed by Bush in the 2008 National Drug Control Strategy.
However, the Merida Initiative won't likely have a meaningful, long-term impact in restraining the drug trade and drug-related violence as it is currently set up, according to a paper published by the US Army War College entitled "Mexico's Narco-Insurgency and U.S. Counterdrug Policy." Because it focuses primarily on security, enforcement, and drug prohibition issues, the Merida Initiative fails to give adequate attention to the deeper structural problems that fuel the situation.
Those problems include
* official corruption, * widespread poverty and inequality, * weak governance, * high demand for illegal narcotics in the United States, and * the flow of illicit arms across the U.S. border into Mexico.
Because these factors have frustrated Mexican attempts to rein in the cartels so far, it's quite likely that they will also limit the effectiveness of the Merida Initiative.
To make U.S. counternarcotics policy fully effective, it is absolutely necessary, the study says, to create a more holistic and better-integrated approach to the "war on drugs." This would go beyond the politically popular aspects of counternarcotics-like drug prohibitions--and attend to the root issues: honing in on more controversial issues like guns and the US demand for street drugs.
The focus needs to include
* anti-corruption initiatives, * economic and social development, * institution building, and * efforts to restrict U.S. domestic demand and lessen illicit arms trafficking into Mexico.
Because international drug trade is so entrenched, even a "perfect" counternarcotics strategy will not work in the short-run. Results will be seen only on a long-term basis.
President Obama has made it very clear that passing meaningful health care reform is his top priority this summer - but on July 23, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said the full Senate wouldn't vote on a bill until the fall.
This is not only disrespectful to the millions of Americans who can't afford private insurance, it's bizarre considering Speaker Nancy Pelosi announced just days prior that she would keep the House in session through it's August recess if that's what it takes to pass a bill.
So what's the problem in the Senate?
The problem is Montana Democrat Max Baucus.
We already have a good health care bill in the Senate from Sen. Kennedy's HELP Committee - a bill that includes a public option. We need the Finance Committee to pass a bill that will fund the HELP Committee bill, and Baucus says he needs time.
Time is one thing. But it's well known that Baucus is planning to pass a bill that won't include a public option. And Reid shouldn't let him.
Sen. Reid shouldn't give Sen. Baucus the time he needs to eviscerate real health care reform - not when Americans' lives are on the line.
Unconvicted war criminal John Yoo probably thought he'd be getting out of the limelight when he temporarily relocated from Berkeley, where he holds a tenured professorship at prestigious Boalt Hall School of Law, to the friendlier surroundings of Orange County and little-known Chapman University. Alas, it was not to be. (Link)
This quiz is 100% accurate! Don't let the Briggs-Meyer's test fool you into believing you're anything more or less than is decided here! (100% accurate does not signify 100% satisfaction...)
From The Lead: Horace Boyer, editor of the Episcopal Hymnal, Lift Every Voice and Sing, a beloved musician who loved teaching others to sing with passion, enthusiasm and excellence, has died at age 74.
I found YouTube links to two songs featuring the Boyer Brother --
~thepoetryman's ode, The Sword of Damocles, to the Iranian people~
The demoralizing phantom holding the cudgel can strike us Like a rapist would, or screech like an injured swine, Or reflect our disgraced and beaten will, as the ghouls have. The vapors cannot cleave from our hearts our children’s dawn Or their passion, tendered willingly as falling rain from heaven, Like Gibran’s silver thread’s fetching them laughter in front of misery.
They are the heirs, the warriors to lift Damocles’ blade from the sky and Mightily point it as proof they’ll not breathe another minute next to fear. They will evermore admonish the failing ghosts of this day’s shadow And fend off the hounds of cruelty with the strength they’ve resurrected. There will be no reason to shrink from this; their destiny; they’ve seen her Floating over their heads, grace and harmony hanging by a thread.
I am not afraid if in the turmoils of these conspicuous times I will be accused of conspiracy.
I am not afraid to be accused of stirring unrest, but you cannot deny that I am a mother; not only the mother of "Tandis & Baran" [refering to her daughter Baran Kowsari], but also the mother of all that youth who has been witnessing their own mothers through the windows of my films; mother of "Touba", "Gilaneh", "Forough", "Narges", "Seema" and ... [names of female protagonists of her films]
I am the mother of all those who have opened their homes to me; who have told me their suppressed pains of years, such that I can depict their life sufferings on film.
Out of respect for the trust of all my audience, I feel entitled to the right of seek justice for all these mothers who, in the chaos of this crisis, are helpless and vulnerable, either having lost their children, or frantically and frightened seek the missing ones in the four corners of the city. [I feel entitled] to writing this open letter to say that no law, no concern, and no politics justify the pain they are suffering.
In a condition that no media is there to report the truth and no official takes the responsibility of helping the killer anxiety of these parents, how can we not tremble on every rumor of the torture of killing of a young son or daughter?
Give my camera a break to provide you a naked picture, perhaps you do not know what is really happening under the skin of the city.
*And here is a translation of her first public statement on this matter: Open[+/-]
We are documentary filmmakers.
Our job is to uncover and express truth. expressing truth from several points of view. In the events of the past few days, by hiding reality, the national media is making it impossible for the members of the society to have access to the reality.
We are documentary filmmakers, our job is communication.
Iranian national TV belongs to the whole of the country and is obliged to reflect the opinions and the events of society, hence it must not be the mouth peace of a specific faction and exclude a large portion of the society.
We are documentary filmmakers, and our job is art, committed to culture and the language of our country. Reporting language has to be the guardian of the dignity of the nation. By censoring, spinning and using an inappropriate reporting languahe, the national TV has on the one hand, made lying a norm in the society, and on the other uses disrespectful language against people and in so doing provokes people into chaos and revolt.
We warn you that at the current inflamed situation, depriving the society from ability from peaceful expression of their demands draws the society into violent reactions in people who prior to election were expressing their opinions on their favorite candidates, peacefully side by side.
We warn that these actions [of the national TV, Seda o Seema] lead to violence and unrest and makes them liable for any massacre and chaos in the society and endangers a country that if guaranteed of justice, can reach a true national unity.
Every single one of these people, in every single day of every single year of the past 30 years have been compassionate to each other's sorrow and happiness. They have fought next to each other and have given martyrs and victims.
We are a people of thousand years of history. We are all together, we all share the history of this land. Don't break us apart! June 16, 2009 Translated from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_2VFBWRJfAQ
This quiz attempts to educate those that wrongly think Iran is a nation of people who want nothing more than to destroy the people of Israel (the Jews) and the people of the United States of America (pick a religion, if you must).
It also gives a few valuable facts about Iran, and her people, that the " faux news" networks don't seem to be privy to or that their corporate overlords won't let them reveal.
Dear BG,
Your "New Preamble to the Constitution" is steeped in soft-shoe racism and ignorance, but there I go repeating myself.
You say there are those among us that are changing the heritage of our nation... Who's changing the heritage of this country? (Maybe it's you.)
HERITAGE: 1.Property that is or can be inherited; an inheritance.2.Something that is passed down from preceding generations; a tradition.3.The status acquired by a person through birth; a birthright: a heritage of affluence and social position.SYNONYMS:inheritance, legacy, tradition.
~~~
What if we, which is within our rights, decide to leave our inheritance to a traditional Latino/American family, or an African/American family or a Jewish/American family or a Muslim/American family or a Russian/American family or a mixed race American family, etc? Bet you never thought of that one did you?
~~~
INHERITANCE: -The rules of inheritance differ between societies and have changed over time.
Inheritance of what, stolen land? Inheritance of property (land) is one thing, but inheritance of ignorance is the death knell for the republic, or even for democracy.
~~~
LEGACY: 1.money or personal property left to someone by a will.2.something handed down to a successor.
You're repeating yourself.
~~~
TRADITION: 1.The passing down of elements of a culture from generation to generation, especially by oral communication. 2. (a) A mode of thought or behavior followed by a people continuously from generation to generation; a custom or usage. (b) A set of such customs and usages viewed as a coherent body of precedents influencing the present: followed family tradition in dress and manners.3.A body of unwritten religious precepts. 4.A time-honored practice or set of such practices.5.Law. Transfer of property to another.A specific practice or thought pattern of long standing.
~~~
You do realize that our "traditions" were either stolen, co-opted or developed using the talents, blood sweat and tears of our ancestors, don't you?
~~~
ARTICLE X: "This is an English speaking country. We don't care where you are from, English is our language. Learn it or go back to wherever you came from!"
Our ancestors, for your information, were all from different lands (aliens), aside from the traditions of the aboriginal North Americans (which we've been content with simply destroying) and whom, by the way, did not speak a lick of The King's English, until that is, they had to speak it to protect themselves from English speaking barbarians!
~~~~
IGNORANCE:the state in which one lacks knowledge, is unaware of something or chooses to subjectively ignore information.
Ignorance is a tradition most utilized by we the people.
It will be to the detriment of her sovereignty if it remains thus.
This quiz will likely shatter the idea you have that you think you know everything, or anything, about me... If it doesn't, then I will have to get a restraining order against you!
To whom it may concern at the RNC, I have, for some time now, watched you go from outright lies and fear mongering, straight into bigotry, obfuscation, outright lies and fear mongering. Will you stop at nothing short of treason? Is that your plan, to destroy America? If not, there is little evidence to the contrary.
Your new site, GOP.com (the blog in particular), has this in red on the front page- 5/15/09 Update: What you see here is a placeholder between what was and what is to come for GOP.com. Don't get too used to this page--the complete rebuild is around the corner. Soon we'll have a new look and a more enjoyable, modern, open and participatory way to share our ideals with the Country.
What I see is a placeholder between the truth and deceit, What was the GOP and what has become of the GOP. What I see is a placeholder between the people and the facts, A wall of separation so thick your constituents are as blind as justice. Duped by the modern GOP, no longer the party of Lincoln, Roosevelt, Ike and Dewey. No. This new party has morphed into something akin to a Dominionist frat house…
It is not your website that you need rebuild; it is your party. It will take great courage and willpower to bring the GOP back from its collapse; Back to a more enjoyable, modern, open and honest party, But it is something that must be done to be the party of the open door; The party of liberty, the party of equality, the party of bipartisanship, and the party of opportunity for all.
I wish you luck with such a tall order, but I’m an optimist. I just know that you can take back the GOP from the charlatans that have surreptitiously slipped it from out of your hands.
mmmm.... the computer gods hate me. i wrote a post last night and apparently, it didn't schedule. c'est la vie. i'll give it a go and see if i can put most of it back. i am not an overly social person- never have been- so it's through that lens that i view the world and american culture at large. lately, however, i have been out and about more having people from hubby's work over and us visiting with family and friends. from what i can see- american culture is in real trouble.
whoever i talk to- no matter where i go- at the grocery store; on the phone; via email; in person- folks have been complaining about the same thing- entitlement. there's this feeling of entitlement. people my age or older complain about the younger folks wanting the good life but wanting it handed to them as if they are owed. they want the house, kids, car, gadgets- but don't want to work for it. and yet, almost to the person, these younger folks have it. why?
ahhh..... this is where the story gets good- the folks who are complaining continue to hand it to them. almost to a person, the folks i have talked to have purchased or given these folks exactly what they wanted so as not to let their children's children suffer. uh huh. so, my thought on the bigger picture- i don't see anything in america changing anytime soon.
the lack of introspection and the ability to see that you are the issue and you are creating the problem- well, it perpetuates the other's feeling of entitlement. and let's face it- the folks who feel entitled in positions of power aren't anymore inclined to give up their lifestyle than the young folks who misuse public assistance because they want to stay at home and play house without working for it. and we complain a blue streak. and we perpetuate the problem....
Assennara [Arab Israeli journal] learned from reliable sources that the Israeli government in the late 50s and early 60s prepared a plan to limit the "birth rate" of the Arabs who remained in the country [after the 1948 war] in an effort to solve the demographic problems resulting from the increasing growth ratio among Arabs; which the Israeli government though of as a security danger that threatened the demographic balance in the country.
There will be a day that all that is left is one Palestinian woman holding her baby at gun point on the beach and the paper will read... Palestinian woman swears to drive Israel off the map...__TnHilltopper
Saturday July 18, 2009 07:19 EDT Celebrating Cronkite while ignoring what he did
"The Vietcong did not win by a knockout [in the Tet Offensive], but neither did we. The referees of history may make it a draw. . . . We have been too often disappointed by the optimism of the American leaders, both in Vietnam and Washington, to have faith any longer in the silver linings they find in the darkest clouds. . . .
"For it seems now more certain than ever that the bloody experience of Vietnam is to end in a stalemate. . . . To say that we are closer to victory today is to believe, in the face of the evidence, the optimists who have been wrong in the past" -- Walter Cronkite, CBS Evening News, February 27, 1968.
"I think there are a lot of critics who think that [in the run-up to the Iraq War] . . . . if we did not stand up and say this is bogus, and you're a liar, and why are you doing this, that we didn't do our job. I respectfully disagree. It's not our role" --David Gregory, MSNBC, May 28, 2008.
When Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist David Halberstam died, media stars everywhere commemorated his death as though he were one of them -- as though they do what he did -- even though he had nothing but bottomless, intense disdain for everything they do. As he put it in a 2005 speech to students at the Columbia School of Journalism: "the better you do your job, often going against conventional mores, the less popular you are likely to be . . . . By and large, the more famous you are, the less of a journalist you are."
In that same speech, Halberstam cited as the "proudest moment" of his career a bitter argument he had in 1963 with U.S. Generals in Vietnam, by which point, as a young reporter, he was already considered an "enemy" of the Kennedy White House for routinely contradicting the White House's claims about the war (the President himself asked his editor to pull Halberstam from reporting on Vietnam). During that conflict, he stood up to a General in a Press Conference in Saigon who was attempting to intimidate him for having actively doubted and aggressively investigated military claims, rather than taking and repeating them at face value:
Picture if you will rather small room, about the size of a classroom, with about 10 or 12 reporters there in the center of the room. And in the back, and outside, some 40 military officers, all of them big time brass. It was clearly an attempt to intimidate us.
General Stilwell tried to take the intimidation a step further. He began by saying that Neil and I had bothered General Harkins and Ambassador Lodge and other VIPs, and we were not to do it again. Period.
And I stood up, my heart beating wildly -- and told him that we were not his corporals or privates, that we worked for The New York Times and UP and AP and Newsweek, not for the Department of Defense.
I said that we knew that 30 American helicopters and perhaps 150 American soldiers had gone into battle, and the American people had a right to know what happened. I went on to say that we would continue to press to go on missions and call Ambassador Lodge and General Harkins, but he could, if he chose, write to our editors telling them that we were being too aggressive, and were pushing much too hard to go into battle. That was certainly his right.
You know "Monty Python's Flying Circus", the British television comedy sketch show? Yes, those Pythons. This quiz will test your knowledge, perhaps reveal your age, and most certainly make you mad! Do enjoy! Know what I mean? Know what I mean? Nudge nudge. Nudge nudge! Know what I mean? Say no more...Know what I mean?
Aside from "repetition" She displays nothing that nears poetry. No form, no rhythm, no rhyme nor reason. No ambiguity, symbolism, or irony. No other stylistic elements. No metaphor, simile or metonymy.
She is rhythm(less), meter(less), thoughtless, And without an nth of metrical pattern. Her words possess no alliteration, Assonance nor form!
The distinction between historian and poet is not in the one writing prose and the other verse... the one describes the thing that has been, and the other a kind of thing that might be. Hence poetry is something more philosophic and of graver import than history, since its statements are of the nature rather of universals, whereas those of history are singulars. ~Aristotle, On Poetics
A poet's work is to name the unnameable, to point at frauds, to take sides, start arguments, shape the world, and stop it going to sleep. ~Salman Rushdie
There is poetry as soon as we realize that we possess nothing. - John Cage _________________________________________________________________
Sarah Palin"s the antithesis of a poet. She's a blank sheet of paper waiting to be written upon or discarded altogether as contrivance. ~thepoetryman
Below is a video featuring Sarah's speechwriter and it certainly gives valuable insight as to why she was always so "poetic" in her speeches. Seriously. Watch it and see for yourself...
This quiz will, beyond the silhouette of your cynical mind, let you know if you spend too much time scoffing at the authors of silly quizzes because you believe they've shattered five minutes of your shabby life, or if you’re in fact just a quiz taking tedious buffoon without much of a life to speak of. Believe me, the answers divulge one or the other. Good luck!
This quiz will tell you within .2 centimeters if you know your geography... This quiz is not for the faint of heart or the weak-kneed or anyone that flunked out of Algebra. Yes! It's that complex! So if you’re any of the above try doodling or whistling to pass the time.
The phrase “knowledge is power” is a cliché in our culture. Yet as often as we hear it from others or speak it ourselves, how often have we contemplated the process of acquiring knowledge? Is there a blueprint for obtaining knowledge and wisdom? Are we encouraging children to be intellectually curious or merely teaching them that every question has an instant and obvious answer?
“Why is the first question most children ask. With this question we express, to the delight and chagrin of our parents, our power.
In my life, questions have always been power. Asking them enabled me to overcome the challenges I faced as a young woman sitting at tables where I didn’t automatically belong.”
Although only thirty-two, Schlesinger has operated in the arena of policy debates locally in New York City and nationally for over a decade. Since 2002, Schlesinger has applied her background in public policy, politics, and communications to transform the Drum Major Institute (“DMI”) into a progressive policy think tank with national impact. During her tenure as Executive Director, DMI created its Marketplace of Ideas series which highlights successful progressive policies from across the country and launched two public policy blogs that reach several thousand readers a day; and embarked on a national program to nurture careers in public policy for college students from underrepresented communities.
Recently, Schlesinger took a leave of absence from DMI to serve as a senior policy adviser to the re-election campaign of New York City mayor Michael R. Bloomberg – a decision that is controversial among New York City liberals like myself. Prior to joining DMI, Schlesinger directed a national Pew Charitable Trusts campaign to engage college students in discussion about the future of Social Security and served as the education adviser to Bronx borough president and mayoral candidate Fernando Ferrer.
The one life lesson Schlesinger has learned above all others in her career and promotes passionately her book is that questions equals power. It is Schlesinger’s contention that our culture promotes instant answers at the expense of inquiring.
With this book, Schlesinger has four primary objectives:
1) Convince readers of the importance of inquiry in our democracy
2) Illustrate how the very institutions that should be encouraging inquiry such as schools, the media, and government, the Internet are instead undermining intellectual curiosity in our society;
3) Inspire readers with hopeful examples of people working to restore inquiry to its rightful place of importance;
4) Convey a sense of urgency among citizens to develop effective “habits of the mind” and not be easily seduced by instant easy sound bite answers to complex challenges such as global warming.
Death of Why, is a well researched and scrupulously sourced eleven chapters and 215 pages of text. Where Schlesinger’s book is especially provocative is when she takes bloggers like me to task for engaging in robotic group-think and avoiding engagement with people possessing different viewpoints.
"The road to wisdom is asking 'why'? Andrea Batista Schlesinger has been asking 'why?" and supplying her own bright and thoughtful answers for long enough so that some of us suggested she write a book. It's foruntate for all of us that her answer was 'why not!'"
The publisher of The Nation, Kathleen vanden Heuvel added that,
"From her start in politics as a teenager Andrea Batista Schlesinger has asked the important questions. Now she asks her most important: are we teaching young people to value inquiry, and if not, what hope can we have for the future of democracy?"
Schlesinger graciously agreed to a telephone podcast interview with me this afternoon about her book. She was engaging and assertive in a conversation that was just over forty-six minutes. Among the topics discussed and debated is her contention that we’re ideologically segregated, her argument that the Internet has reinforced a destructive group think mentality in our society, her advocacy for civics education and objection to teaching “financial literacy” in public schools and we closed by discussing her decision to join Mayor Bloomberg’s re-election campaign as a senior policy adviser.
Please refer to the flash media player below.
This interview can also be accessed at no cost via the Itunes Store by either searching for the “Intrepid Liberal Journal” or “Robert Ellman.”
JUAN GONZALEZ:In terms of the—to get back again to other issues right now, I’d like to ask you about the continuation and expansion of the American war in Afghanistan. Do you have concerns about—that this is becoming really President Obama’s war—
HOWARD DEAN: It is.
JUAN GONZALEZ: —and the impact on our country in the future?
HOWARD DEAN: Look, again, you know—and I don’t have to say anything nice; I’m not in the administration. But I’m with Obama on his conduct of the war. I always said, when I was running against the Iraq war, that Afghanistan was different.
Let me tell you what the stakes are now. And what I find incredibly refreshing about this president is he uttered words that Lyndon Johnson never said, which is that we cannot win this war militarily. He knows that from the get-go. Here’s what’s at stake. It’s not just the Taliban. I think we could probably control the Taliban and the al-Qaeda in the Northwest territories by doing some of the things we’re already doing—drones and air power and so forth. Roughly 50 percent of the Afghan people are women. They will be condemned to conditions which are very much like slavery and serfdom in a twelfth century model of society where they have no rights whatsoever. So, I’m not saying we have to invade every country that doesn’t treat women as equal, but we’re there now. We have a responsibility. And if we leave, women will experience the most extraordinary depredations of any population on the face of the earth. I think we have some obligation to try and see if we can make this work, not just for America and our security interests, but for the sake of women in Afghanistan and all around the globe. Is this acceptable to treat women like this? I think not.
AMY GOODMAN: We just interviewed an Afghan parliamentarian, Dr. Wardak. She said the opposite. She said, yes, she agrees with you on the way women are treated, but that this is worsening the treatment, that the increased number of civilian deaths in Afghanistan, the huge number of troops that are coming in right now, are alienating the Afghan population.
The above is an extract from an interview last week on Democracy Now! with Howard Dean, former Governor of Vermont and establishment Democratic celebrity. It was also included in a post at Ten Percent, which I also recommend to readers of The Peace Tree for further context on the escalating, brutal war in Afghanistan.
Jewish Voice for Peace is a diverse and democratic community of activists inspired by Jewish tradition to work together for peace, social justice, and human rights. We support the aspirations of Israelis and Palestinians for security and self-determination.
We seek:
* A U.S. foreign policy based on promoting peace, democracy, human rights, and respect for international law * An end to the Israeli occupation of the West Bank, the Gaza Strip, and East Jerusalem * A resolution of the Palestinian refugee problem consistent with international law and equity * An end to all violence against civilians * Peace among the peoples of the Middle East
We are among the many American Jews who say to the U.S. and Israeli governments: "Not in our names!"
JVP supports peace activists in Palestine and Israel, and works in broad coalition with other Jewish, Arab-American, faith-based, peace and social justice organizations.
FOR A CHANGE IN U.S. POLICY
Jewish Voice for Peace calls for a U.S. foreign policy that promotes democracy and human rights. The United States must stop supporting repressive policies in Israel and elsewhere. U.S. military aid to countries in the Middle East must be based on rigorous enforcement of the Arms Export Control and Foreign Assistance Acts, which mandate that military aid may be used for only defensive purposes within the recipient country's borders, and that aid may not be delivered to countries that abuse human rights.
Under these guidelines, U.S. military aid to Israel must be suspended until the occupation ends, since the occupation itself is in violation of these guidelines. Military aid allows Israel to avoid making serious efforts to resolve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, as well as conflicts with its other neighbors. It enables the occupation, contributes to the devastation of Palestinian society and fosters the increasing militarization of Israeli society.
JVP also calls for suspension of military aid to other human rights abusers and occupiers in the Middle East. This aid helps prop up autocratic and repressive regimes, promotes violations of human rights and international law, obstructs democratic movements, prolongs the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and fosters militarism and violence at home and abroad.
FOR PALESTINIAN-ISRAELI PEACE
Israelis and Palestinians have the right to security, sovereignty, and self-determination within political entities of their own choosing.
Israel must end its occupation of the West Bank, Gaza Strip, and East Jerusalem, completely withdraw from these Occupied Territories and relinquish all its settlements, military outposts and by-pass roads.
Jerusalem has to be shared in a manner that reflects its spiritual, economic, and political importance to both Israelis and Palestinians, as well as to all Jews, Muslims and Christians.
The plight of Palestinian refugees needs to be resolved equitably and in a manner that promotes peace and is consistent with international law. Within the framework of an equitable agreement, the refugees should have a role in determining their future, whether pursuing return, resettlement, or financial compensation. Israel should recognize its share of responsibility for the ongoing refugee crisis and for its resolution.
The parties must equitably distribute water and other natural resources.
Diplomatic negotiations between the two parties must be held unconditionally. Countries other than the U.S. should be involved in peace negotiations. An international peacekeeping force should be established to protect all civilians.
FOR HUMAN RIGHTS
All people of the Middle East deserve the right to democratic participation and equality within their societies, regardless of religion, ethnicity, culture, national origin, language, race, sex, gender, sexual orientation, or other status.
Israel must cease its use of military force against Palestinian civilians, including attacks involving American-supplied F-16s and Apache helicopters. Moreover, Israel must stop land seizures; destruction of homes, infrastructure, orchards and farms; arbitrary arrests and imprisonment; torture; assassinations; expulsions; curfews; travel restrictions; abuse at checkpoints; raids; collective punishment; and other violations of human rights.
Palestinians must stop suicide bombings and other attacks on Israeli civilians.
The international community must support Palestinian efforts to promote democracy and human rights, while understanding that this aim cannot be fully achieved under occupation.
Racism and bigotry cannot be tolerated, whether in the U.S. or abroad, whether against Arabs or against Jews.
reposted from Grassroots Press, Las Crucis, NM July 14, 2009:
Here is where our stimulus money is going: Kirtland AFB to Gain 430 Positions in FY10 Force Restructuring
KIRTLAND AIR FORCE BASE, N.M. – As part of the U.S. Air Force’s force structure changes for Fiscal Year 2010, Kirtland AFB is set to gain 243 military and 187 civilian positions beginning Sept. 30, 2009.
Many of these additional positions will go to strengthen and support the Air Force’s nuclear mission, either directly or indirectly. The Air Force Nuclear Weapons Center at Kirtland will continue its focus on the nuclear sustainment, acquisition and logistics mission. Reinvigorating the nuclear enterprise remains the service’s No. 1 priority. Through a back-to-basics approach, the Air Force is re-emphasizing accountability, compliance, and precision in the nuclear mission.
Following is a detailed breakdown of Kirtland’s force structure changes by organization:
Unit Name/ No. of Military Positions / No. of Civilian Positions
377th Air Base Wing / 5 / 2 377th Force Support Squadron / 0 / 3 377th Security Forces Squadron / 134 / 0 498th Munitions Maintenance Group / 0 / 2 498th Nuclear Systems Group / 1 / 2 498th Nuclear Systems Wing / 6 / 11 708th Nuclear Sustainment Squadron / 1 / 13 709th Nuclear Systems Squadron / 4 / 14 710th Nuclear Systems Squadron / 10 / 9 898th Munitions Squadron / 3 / 2 Air Force Nuclear Weapons Center / 33 / 86 Air Force Inspection Agency / 46 / 19 Other commands at Kirtland / 0 / 9
On June 7th, 2008 Sarah Palin interrupted her schedule of state business and spent Alaska state taxpayer money to fly down from Juneau to the Mat-Su Valley where she attended on June 8th two religious events dominated by the Wasilla Assembly of God, which is demonstrably Palin's key Alaska church.
At the end of one those events, young adults in a church Palin had attended for over two decades were presented with Samurai swords. "Warriors of old were considered undressed if they were without their sword... Swords were worn in service to the lord of the realm. Some of the most renounced swordsmen were the Samurai," intoned a church member officiating the sword ceremony, who then quoted Psalms 149 verses 6-9: "May the praise of God be in their mouths and a double edged sword in their hands to inflict vengeance on the nations, and punishment on the peoples, and to bind their kings with fetters, their nobles with shackles of iron, and to carry out the sentence written against them."
Better to have given them muskets knowing more of their use than the sword. Should have given them a rifle having witnessed how they can persuade. Better to have given them tanks so they could flatten the dying to ashes. Should have given them grenades to lob into the center of a growing crowd.
Better to have given them truth to plunge inside their own empty spirit...
Yesterday, DutchNews.nl ran a story which appeared in the Dutch daily AD about Albert Heijn railway station shops banning Moroccan youth from working in them.
[S]everal branches of AH To Go in Amsterdam and at the Hague's main station include the words 'No Moroccans' in bold letters on a list of times and days when extra staff are needed.
The list was emailed to 31 AH To Go shops on June 4, the paper says. Branch managers who asked if this was correct were sent another email the same day with the text 'urgent, No Moroccans', the paper says.
AH To Go shops are small supermarkets where people can buy a sandwich or salad as well as essential supplies. Albert Heijn is part of the bourse-listed Ahold supermarket group.
If you read further, you'll see it's garnered quite a few comments.
That is REVOLTING. I have also seen many places where it's made clear only men or young ladies wanted. They put the AGES and AH has done that as well right in the window!
Some aspects of life here are NOT advanced.. and open discrimination is one of them. ++++++++++ It's not only AH there are many other areas racial discrimination is going on (for confirmation please check it with the Human Rights Organizations, the UN department of human rights/Netherlands etc).
Yes, for me also its a shocking news that very openly extreme discriminating employment policies were shown even at the window's)
Discrimination is in every human society,country and continent.It's not only here in the Netherlands.
If the political leadership doesn't realize their responsibilities to unite Dutch Nation under the motto " We are one nation with different colours and traditions",then many more incidents are knocking at our door step. Which will effect every body!
We all have to condemn any discrimination by any one including the criminal acts by any one,with out naming a particular ethnic group.
We all know that whatever our actions or right or wrong,positive or negative at the end we have to receive back good or bad.
We all have to become a nation a force against those elements willing to disturb peace and harmony in our country.
The focus has to be positive,constructive and productive and that's the only way to obtain positive Civic Results.
++++++++++ As always, the Netherlands shows the world that it is a bastion of racism underneath its image of tolerance and weed smoking. Te UB needs to step in and make the Dutch government invest at least 3% of its GDP in anti racism education in schools, universities, workplace. The culture that was at the origin of apartheid and horrors in the spice islands of Asia has a long way to go in educating its Caucasian aborigine population about accepting others. Affirmative action is the only solution: at least 10% of gov employees and professionals in firms should be of non Caucasian origin in the Netherlands for the next 2 decades. The Obama meter says that the Netherlands is 300 year away from having an Obama as a president if things remain as they are.
The AD's story about branches of Albert Heijn's To Go stores being told not to employ Moroccans is a slap in the face to children prepared to work for less than €4 an hour, says Robin Pascoe.
Supermarkets are currently engaged in yet another price war, based on the myth that food should be cheap.
And one of the results of that is pressure on wages - paying your staff as little as you can get away with and preferring cheap youngsters who earn less than the official minimum wage.
There is a reason, therefore, that Holland's supermarkets are full of teenagers doing the repetitive, physical and never-ending job of stocking the shelves or manning the tills.
Working in a supermarket is very badly paid. As a 17-year-old, you will be lucky to earn more than €3.60 an hour. No tips.
These are jobs which in the big cities at least are largely done by children from an ethnic minority background. Middle-class white kids don't want to dirty their hands for such a trivial amount.
And yet, here we have a company - a division of Dutch Rail - which has decided some of its 'to go' stores at stations should not take on any more Moroccans. And why? According to one nameless individual, customers feel threatened.
There are two main points to be made here. Imagine if the company had said no Jews, or no Blacks, or no Germans? There would have been an outcry.
But no Moroccans? Well, there has been a bit of muttering about taking action against the staff involved and about apologising. But the follow-up coverage has been muted.
And where are the MPs demanding to know why people working for a state-owned company think this is acceptable and calling for heads to roll? Nowhere, so far at least.
It's hard enough to be a Dutch teenager with Moroccan roots in foreigner-hostile Holland. And this ban is not only racist, but it's a slap in the face to a group of youngsters who are prepared to work for such poor pay.
COMMENT: "... prepared to work for such poor pay."
Yeah, you can say that, as if they have a choice. I would suggest the youths are forced to take these jobs because there is nothing else for them.
Mr Pascoe has written about exploitation of workers. And he alludes to xenophobia and racism, but doesn't go deeper; he mentions neither the inherent systemic (covert) white privelege nor the growing Islamophobia throughout the country.
Taliban threatens to kill captured GI A colossal, gloom stuffed breathing thing Moved over the land with a push from inadvertent liberty. They said they weren’t sure if it was from this world And begged the hostage to find the nearest well hole and Drag it kicking and screaming down with him...
Chaos besets 9/11 court hearing O, thank you, lords of turmoil, Thank you for this stunning day; How bone quaking hideous it must be.
Judge Sotomayor and My Lesson From Eighth Grade The little girl wore her best outfit to school. Her mother knitted it for her in much the same way She had woven the sweet child from birth, Knowing it would never be enough for some.
There are three separate pages for poetry at this juncture, accessible on the "Poetry" (page) link at top of page. 1. Tree Verse 2. Head-Lines 3. Amerotica
Unity Music Group held a charity concert to benefit Benny Nickerson in his battle with cancer, and many groups turned out. This is part of the set from Matt Pless. JTMP was there to film it all, and urges everyone to check out and support the Unity Music Group and all the artists who participated. For more information, go to their MySpace site at MySpace.com/UnityMusicGroup.
‘We will not eat, meet or stay in the Disney Hotels until the workers invite us back.’ - Bishop Gene Robinson of New Hampshire at a protest for Disney hotel workers rights, July 15, 2009
I love what Bp Robinson said, because his words respect the dignity of the workers who have cared for the delegates.
Elizabeth Kaeton was there, too, and reports that a "somber," lower-level Disney management type accepted the petition. Embarrassing for Disney to get bad PR from this action, no doubt. I suspect the corporate big-wigs are just smiling with relief back at headquarters: Phew! there was no strike!!
But, if the workers had decided to go on strike or had been in the midst of one, what would TEC do/have done? It could have got real ugly quickly. Would the clergy and lay delegates have still supported the workers?
What is TEC's and Integrity's policy when vetting convention locations? Before a booking confirmation, do they investigate how the workers' rights are respected by the corporations/municipalities that own/manage the hotels and convention halls? What about assurances of a liveable wage for workers?
You’ve all heard about Disney’s support for LGBT – they’ve were even subject to a nine-year boycott by ultra-conservative American Family Association because of their ‘embrace of the homosexual lifestyle’. But their embrace no longer encompasses their employees – LGBT or straight.
If I were to book into one of the Disneyland hotels across the street – just a standard room for one person for one night – it would cost me $310-$425 plus tax. This is not cheap accommodation. Someone earning minimum wage would have to work between 48 and 66 hours just for a room – no food, no tickets. The 2150 employees of the three Disneyland Hotels have been working without a contract since February 2008. These are the people who clean the rooms, cook the meals and carry the luggage. They’re the ones doing the grunt work that makes the magic possible.
Even though Disney earned $1.46 billion in the first half of 2009, and its CEO made $30.6m, Disney plans to reduce benefits for their lowest paid employees. We all know health insurance keeps costing more – but Disney wants its employees to start paying for family coverage, and it wants to reduce full-time positions, thus forcing employees to accept positions with no benefits and no rights.
Several bishops joined the rally at the beginning, including Jon Bruno and Sergio Carranza from Los Angeles who prayed for and blessed the assembled crowd which included workers from other hotels and hospitality businesses in the area. After over a thousand people marched from the Anaheim Arena to the Disneyland gates, they were addressed by both Bishop Gene Robinson and Bishop Barbara Harris who said honest workers should get honest wages, honest benefits and honest opportunities to support their families.
Caroline Hall for IntegrityUSA
Yesterday, I blogged about this action, as soon as it was announced.
English composer Gustav Holst composed The Planets between 1914 and 1916. The Birmingham premiere of the suite took place in 1918, fifteen years before Pluto was discovered. Though the Planets became by far the most popular work of Holst's and one of the most known pieces by an English-born composer, Holst did not consider the piece one of his finest. Partially because of this, he never wrote an eighth movement, though unexpectedly the IAU relegated Pluto from its status as planet proper in 2006.
From Anaheim, California - Elizabeth Kaeton blogs at TEC General Convention & will participate today in an action to show solidarity with hotel and convention workers.
This afternoon at 4:30, I will join hundreds of other Episcopalians here at Convention as well as other religious leaders from the area in supporting the Prayer Vigil and March organized by the group "Disney Be Faithful," representing 2150 employees of the three Disneyland Hotels: Paradise Pier, Grand Californian and Disneyland Hotel.
These workers clean the rooms, cook and serve the food, wash the dishes, and carry the luggage.
Disney wants to take away from its employees union family health insurance. They also want to take away full-time jobs, forcing many into positions with no health insurance at all, no vacation and less than full rights.
Disney's net income in the first half of the Fiscal Year 2009 was nearly $1.46 billion. In Fiscal Year 2008, Disney CEO Robert Iger made $30.6 million.
When I signed up to march last Monday, I was approached by one of the organizers with a request I agreed to but I'm still processing.
"Mother," he said (as I winced), "would you stay with us at the end of the march? We're asking some of the clergy to anoint the workers, and it would be wonderful to have you with us."
I was initially taken aback. 'Anoint' he said. What did he mean, really? Did he mean anoint with holy oils or just extend a hand in blessing?
I wanted to make certain I had a correct translation from his Hispanic, Roman Catholic culture to my progressive Western European, Anglo-Catholic understanding.
So, I asked.
"While we are marching," he said softly, "some of the people from Disney will be standing along the sidelines, filming us as we pass by. They will use that film as evidence to get us fired or to have our positions eliminated or downsized."
"You may not be aware, Mother," he said politely, "that for the workers, this Prayer Vigil and March is a big risk. We need to be anointed for the work of justice, after this event, so that we will find the strength to go back to our jobs. Just a little sign from God that He will continue to be with us after the support of this event."
"We know you have probably not brought your oils with you to this place, so we will have some for you. Will you help us? It would mean so much to some of us for a woman to anoint us for the work of justice."
"Anointed for justice."
I continue to find myself deeply moved by that request. There is something that strikes a cord of authenticity with the core values of what the church professes to be, but often is not.
I ask you, wherever you are, to pray with me and for me, that I may be a worthy vehicle of an anointing of God's healing and enabling power upon these workers.
Pray that we may catch a glimmer of God's justice promised of the Realm of God for these workers and their families.
Disney be faithful! Disney is Faithful to its Shareholders:
• Disney’s net income in the first half of Fiscal Year 2009 was nearly $1.46 billion. • Disney’s leaders are among the highest paid in the world. In Fiscal Year 2008, Disney CEO Robert Iger made $30.6 million.
Disney, Be Faithful to your Employees:
• Disney wants to take away our union family health insurance. We will be forced to pay up to hundreds of dollars per month for family health insurance. Many families will lose their insurance.
• Disney wants to take away full-time jobs and forcing many of us into “casual regular” positions with no health insurance at all, no vacation, and less than full rights.
as i read through the news or go about my daily routine, i try to wrap my mind around how the human brain works. i still haven't really figured it out. at the risk of sounding 'bushian', i am beginning to believe that humans can be broken down into 'black or white'- meaning those who think and those who don't. how else to explain how a contingent of folks can buy into the idea that it's ok for the government to have a secret organization or two that aren't really accountable to anyone? how else to explain away the support for secrecy and spying and the erosion of civil liberties in the name of security? how else to explain sarah palin fans? i mean seriously.
i like to believe that there was a time when americans would not have ceded their civil liberties so cavalierly; wouldn't have cowered in fear of a phantom bogeyman 'terrorist,' but i believe it was franklin who commented on keeping the republic if we could. we no longer have a republic- if we ever really did in the first place- but many folks are so blissfully unaware. i don't have any answers really- there is a small minority of folks who would fight to the end for truth and building a new republic but the majority rules. we as humans cling to what we know- and at this point, i am inclined to let us. americans want to believe we are still the idea of america- liberty and freedom for everyone who comes here. the reality couldn't be a starker contrast. but we cling...
Blasts kill 2 Marines in Afghanistan As we stand near the afternoon window and the sun dances Through the glass, someplace a marine gets lifted and Children lose their mom or dad in the crowd While our hearts pound out misery’s song.
Children die in harsh Peru winter The snow unfastens a child’s fortress and a bluebird’s Song- their expression moves through the Inca Empire Where an enduring chain of anticipation Shadows a cruel, beautiful landscape.
Two Held in Murder of Fla. Couple With 16 Kids Murder, must you rear your monstrous head within this? Must you grin with such pride at having triumphed? Soon you shall be asked, “Is death done with you?”
6 Baghdad churches bombed; 4 dead Why must they weep so? Aren’t they proficient at grieving Like a child that’s never dreamt? I shall ask this of them when death is done.
Eugenics – Making a comeback? ~ Future Man - Eugenics We are your only decent invention! Your only certainty! We’ve feet of your entrenched and scornful history! We are not leaving, So stand still thy bias, we to more honest slaves conceive.
Been reading a lot about World War II lately. My father fought in that war. He lost the hearing on one side thanks to shrapnel that perforated his eardrum. He lost many of his friends. He nearly lost his life.
But my reason for reading is both greater and lesser than a desire to know a little piece of my father's history: I am writing a novel set in that period.
And today, I came across something that encapsulates very nicely the malaise that the reading of the past several weeks has engendered in me. FTA:
WAR is a racket. It always has been.
It is possibly the oldest, easily the most profitable, surely the most vicious. It is the only one international in scope. It is the only one in which the profits are reckoned in dollars and the losses in lives.
A racket is best described, I believe, as something that is not what it seems to the majority of the people. Only a small "inside" group knows what it is about. It is conducted for the benefit of the very few, at the expense of the very many. Out of war a few people make huge fortunes.
In the World War [I] a mere handful garnered the profits of the conflict. At least 21,000 new millionaires and billionaires were made in the United States during the World War. That many admitted their huge blood gains in their income tax returns. How many other war millionaires falsified their tax returns no one knows.
How many of these war millionaires shouldered a rifle? How many of them dug a trench? How many of them knew what it meant to go hungry in a rat-infested dug-out? How many of them spent sleepless, frightened nights, ducking shells and shrapnel and machine gun bullets? How many of them parried a bayonet thrust of an enemy? How many of them were wounded or killed in battle?
Out of war nations acquire additional territory, if they are victorious. They just take it. This newly acquired territory promptly is exploited by the few – the selfsame few who wrung dollars out of blood in the war. The general public shoulders the bill.
And what is this bill?
This bill renders a horrible accounting. Newly placed gravestones. Mangled bodies. Shattered minds. Broken hearts and homes. Economic instability. Depression and all its attendant miseries. Back-breaking taxation for generations and generations.
While Japanese farmers, office workers, and civilians were restricted to the grayest of lives by the sumptuary laws enforced before and during WW II, while Japanese intellectuals trembled under the heavy hand of the thought police and suffered torture by the Kempeitai, while Chinese peasants starved and their children were forcibly inducted into the military to fight against superior armies and lose their lives for a pittance, the wealthy crooks who engineered these wars became wealthier still. Come rain or shine, they continued to find ways to profit from the vast human suffering.
George W. Bush paid for the war in Iraq by borrowing billions of dollars from the Chinese. Now your grandchildren will have to repay that debt. I hear some people say Obama is creating a huge debt by borrowing additional monies to stimulate the economy. Unfortunately, the hole that Bush left has to be patched before everything else leaks out of it. And the only way to patch that hole is to stimulate the economy into spending.
People forget that the U.S. economy runs on consumer spending. Before George Dumbya left office, the Iraq war had already cost us three TRILLION dollars. We are bringing our troops back now, but that costs money too. Then there's the issue of reintegrating them into the smashed civilian economy. All the while, the war profiteers like Dick "Dick" Cheney sit back on their seats and bwa-ha-haaa themselves into something like an orgasm. I wish it were an organism. Something intestinal and painful and lengthy.
How many kids have lost their parents in this war? Iraqi kids? Somewhere between one and five million? American kids? Somewhere between three and ten thousand? Nobody really knows. In 2004, when the total casualty figures were around 2,000, Scripps stated that 900 American children had lost a parent to the war. However, the casualty toll has doubled since then, and most of the soldiers in this war have been professional military and reservists, which means they tend to be older, married, and have more children.
How many kids are getting back parents who are not the people they used to be? Broken in body or mind or both? How many kids have to grow up really fast, to become caretakers to their parents instead of being children any more? Smedley Butler was right. War IS a racket.
Blackwater mercenaries made two to three times the salaries of military men for the same work. No-bid government contracts made a lot of people very rich. The wholesale plunder of Iraqi oil made other people (or sometimes the same people) very rich. To us, the taxpayers, is left the broken mess, the debris, the tortured, the cripple, the lame, the halt, the blind, the miserable, people who are still fighting the war in their heads, crying themselves to sleep or drinking or drugging to forget. And they are living among us as are their suffering parents and spouses and children.
The dividends of peace are happy human lives. However, these do not represent adequate profits to those whose greed drives them to profit above all else. And to achieve those profits they will willingly sacrifice every last man, woman, and child of us upon an altar of blood.
It seems no matter which political party in America holds the majority, a Washington/Wall Street corporate centric axis dominates policy making. Indeed, Illinois Democratic Senator Dick Durbin recently observed that banks, “Frankly Own the Place.” Among liberal-progressive activists like myself, this condition has facilitated a confrontational mindset.
Our experience suggests that the power and wealth concentrated in the hands of a few will not be voluntarily relinquished. Hence, everything from healthcare reform to bankruptcy protection for aggrieved homeowners is perceived by many of us as a high stakes pitched battle between struggling families and feculent corporate behemoths. Although activism has certainly facilitated important victories on behalf of working people, fighting for economic justice often seems analogous to climbing an endless wall.
Veteran activist Wade Rathke has been steadily climbing that wall on behalf of working people for forty-years. As the founder of the Association of Community Organizations for Reform (“ACORN”), Rathke has a unique perspective about what community organizing strategies work best to empower working people that are struggling to save and accumulate wealth. Rathke is also an assertive advocate for welfare benefits on behalf of people out of work. He’s both won and lost more than his share of battles. Both he and ACORN have the battle scars of scrutiny liberals typically receive from standing up for America’s poor and disenfranchised.
In Citizen Wealth: Winning the Campaign To Save Working Families, (Berrett-Koehler), Rathke writes,
“We need to create a national economic and political consensus that increasing family income, wealth and assets is not `welfare’ or an entitlement ‘give-away’ program but an investment in the public good and well-being.”
His book is an accessible thirteen chapters and 171 pages of text presenting his blueprint to organize regular folks to win economic and political power. Rathke’s book also contains revealing anecdotes about ACORN’s negotiations with corporate entities such as H&R Block and their bank, HSBC, to end the predatory practice of Refund Anticipation Loans. Perhaps the most compelling topic in his book is covered in chapter nine when Rathke laments how millions of citizens eligible for Food Stamps, Medicaid and the State Children Health Insurance Program (“SCHIP”) are disenfranchised from participating in the very programs designed to help them.
Rathke has remained involved with organizing activities after leaving ACORN in 2008. He is the founding board member of the Tides Foundation as well as the chief organizer of SEIU Local 100 in New Orleans and publisher of Social Policymagazine. He posts regularly at the Chief Organizer blog.
Rathke agreed to a telephone podcast interview with me about his book and among the topics covered is the meaning of citizen wealth, why economic justice has lagged behind expanded civil liberties for minorities and women, the methodology of ACORN’s approach to fight H&R Block’s predatory practices of Refund Anticipation Loans, the criticisms ACORN and the Community Reinvestment Act have received about the housing crisis and his belief that worker/labor organization is imperative for all segments of society. Our conversation was twenty-eight a and half minutes.
Please refer to the flash media player below.
This interview can also be accessed at no cost the Itunes Store by searching for either the “Intrepid Liberal Journal” or “Robert Ellman.”
Something there is that doesn't love a wall, That sends the frozen-ground-swell under it, And spills the upper boulders in the sun; And makes gaps even two can pass abreast. The work of hunters is another thing: I have come after them and made repair Where they have left not one stone on a stone, But they would have the rabbit out of hiding, To please the yelping dogs. The gaps I mean, No one has seen them made or heard them made, But at spring mending-time we find them there. I let my neighbor know beyond the hill; And on a day we meet to walk the line And set the wall between us once again. We keep the wall between us as we go. To each the boulders that have fallen to each. And some are loaves and some so nearly balls We have to use a spell to make them balance: 'Stay where you are until our backs are turned!' We wear our fingers rough with handling them. Oh, just another kind of outdoor game, One on a side. It comes to little more: There where it is we do not need the wall: He is all pine and I am apple orchard. My apple trees will never get across And eat the cones under his pines, I tell him. He only says, 'Good fences make good neighbors.' Spring is the mischief in me, and I wonder If I could put a notion in his head: 'Why do they make good neighbors? Isn't it Where there are cows? But here there are no cows. Before I built a wall I'd ask to know What I was walling in or walling out, And to whom I was like to give offense. Something there is that doesn't love a wall, That wants it down.' I could say 'Elves' to him, But it's not elves exactly, and I'd rather He said it for himself. I see him there Bringing a stone grasped firmly by the top In each hand, like an old-stone savage armed. He moves in darkness as it seems to me, Not of woods only and the shade of trees. He will not go behind his father's saying, And he likes having thought of it so well He says again, 'Good fences make good neighbors.'
Crashing into the surface of the icy terrain, liberty gasps in prayer, then splinters, bowed inward by a moral arrogance unable to free its own dying plea…
'Imagination is the word that Reeves uses with most enthusiasm to summarise his work and belief, “the view that there is always something new waiting to be born” — whether in a London parish or a Bosnian town. “And imagination for me is the entry into religion,” he adds, an imagination that combines clarity about where society is and a vision of change.' - From The Times, July 10, 2009
In The Times (UK) - a Murdoch paper! - yesterday, there's a profile of Donald Reeves, former vicar at the landmark St James's Church - designed by Christopher Wren - in London's West End, promoting his new book, Memoirs of a Very Dangerous Man. I was a member of SJP for a year in 1999; although Reeves was no longer vicar, his mark on the parish was evident in its inclusiveness in celebrating other faith traditions and in its social justice ministries to the marginalised in greater London. St James's, Piccadilly continues to do good work with asylum seekers. In 1999, we were actively assisting Albanian and Bosnian refugees to adjust to life in a strange city and battling with the increasingly hostile UK authorities to prevent their deportations. One Sunday evening, I joined fellow SJP friends to hear Reeves give a talk at Westminster Abbey about his work, just starting to take root in the Balkans.
So, this post is an appreciation of Donald Reeve's life and work.
(I learned some facts about his earlier life in yesterday's article, too.)
When Donald Reeves, then Rector of St James’s Church, Piccadilly, was told that Margaret Thatcher had described him as “a very dangerous man”, he remembers being “rather pleased . . . it felt like a natural title”. With it he became part of the prominent Anglican tradition of “troublesome priests”, apt to turn their critical fire not only on the world around them but also on the Church that employs them.
And yet the man who enjoyed excoriating Thatcherite political views and episcopal complacency in the 1980s, emphasises his role these days as peacemaker rather than as trouble- maker. Through the Soul of Europe project that he co-directs, Reeves spends much time in the Balkans, attempting to build durable trust between communities only nominally at peace after terrible conflicts.
He is currently most engaged in Kosovo, talking to local Serbs and Albanians, seeking to “dismantle the fear each has of the other” and to break down the isolation of minorities — in this case the Serbs, and their ancient religious institutions, living under armed guard.
Before his work in Kosovo, he was in Bosnia:
Progress was uneven and inconclusive, as Reeves and his colleagues experienced how deeply rooted was the mutual suspicion and resentment of communities where, within such recent memory, co-existence had been replaced more or less overnight by murderous hatred. They had to listen patiently to “raw memories” and accept that there could be “no short cuts, no quick fixes”.
But persuading anyone from the various communities to engage at all was an achievement in itself, a crucial first step in peace-building that others had failed to try. He is scathing about the official peacekeepers, the cynical UN and EU bureaucrats “with their expat salaries and weekends in Vienna” who feel two years in Bosnia is good for their CV.
Reeves's work to enliven a nearly-dead London parish:
But it was his next appointment, to be vicar of St James’s Church in Piccadilly in 1980, that would really make his name. It was not, at first, an auspicious place, known for society weddings but with little evidence of a congregation rooted in the community: “On my arrival,” he said, “I could see no justification for keeping the church open.”
But gradually he turned it into a thriving institution, closely linked to locals, rich and poor, and, above all, a place for the exploration of ideas.
“Jesus wasn’t exactly into garden parties, He was regarded as a nuisance,” Reeves says. “The churches shouldn’t be creating little managers of sectarian communities but should be places of dissent.” His own dissenting challenge to Thatcherism was overt. He sparked lively debate by preaching against the invasion of the Falklands, and he helped the miners’ wives during their husbands’ bitter strike. But debate across boundaries was encouraged — invited speakers included Norman Tebbit as well as Tony Benn, non-believers as well as believers. And, in anticipation of later work in the Balkans, he began to explore the idea of peace-building, inviting Chinese and Russian visitors. Bishop Trevor Huddleston, a veteran campaigner against apartheid, who lived in the St James’s vicarage for many years, was another significant influence.
This quiz tells everyone what theatrical play script they would be if play scripts had a torso, legs, arms, a brain, (and all of those other icky human parts).
I lived in Houston for over twenty years and still never cease to be amazed at what happens in the Lone Star State. A few weeks ago, on the 40th anniversary of the Stonewall riots, there was police violence against LBGTs in Fort Worth. Now there is this ridiculous - and most likely illegal - police behaviour in west Texas:
At about 12:30 a.m. on the morning of June 29, the five men were placing their order at the Chico's Tacos on Montwood when the two men made their public display of affection, sparking the ire of two contracted security guards at the restaurant, police and witnesses said. After the group sat down, the security guards told them "they didn't allow that faggot stuff to go on there," and made them leave, de Leon said.
An officer arrived at the restaurant about an hour later, after police received five calls, including from the security guards and de Leon. The men were told to leave the restaurant and had anti-gay slurs directed at them while they waited for the police.
"I went up to the police officer to tell him what was going on and he didn't want to hear my side," de Leon said. "He wanted to hear the security guard's side first."
The officer informed the group it was illegal for two men or two women to kiss in public, de Leon said. The five were told they could be cited for homosexual conduct - a charge the U.S. Supreme Court ruled unconstitutional in 2003 in Lawrence v. Texas. That same year, the city of El Paso passed an ordinance banning discrimination based on sexual orientation by employees of the city and by businesses open to the public.
"The security guard received a complaint from some of the customers there," Carrillo said. "Every business has the right to refuse service..." ... Briana Stone, a lawyer with the Paso del Norte Civil Rights Project, disagrees. She said city ordinance protects people on the basis of gender identity and sexual orientation in public places, including Chico's Tacos. Perhaps more troubling, she said, is that the police officer chose not to enforce that ordinance and may have contributed to discrimination.
"This is such a blatant refusal to uphold the law on account of discrimination," she said. "The result is devastating. The police department is allowing that and even participating in it by refusing to enforce an anti-discrimination ordinance, which is what their job is."
Lisa Graybill, legal director for the ACLU of Texas, said businesses can ask patrons to leave for lewd conduct, but those standards would have to apply to all customers.
"If a straight couple wouldn't have gotten kicked out for it, a gay couple shouldn't," she said. "That's general jurisprudence."
This story gives new meaning to the state's tourism slogan used for over twenty years, "Texas: It’s Like a Whole Other Country.” Why don't they just follow Gov. Rick Perry's advice and secede, goddamit!
"White on white crime is destroying the very fabric of our nation and producing an entire class of white career criminals. While the media is quick to report every little statistic and/or event relating to the black on black crime phenomenon, the words “white on white crime” are spoken with a frequency of slim to none, and slim disappeared when he was two months old, murdered by his depressed mother, wrapped in plastic, and buried in the backyard.
Indeed, many white people pay absolutely no attention to crime or other manifestations of less than decent behavior in their neighborhood until someone of another race arrives on the scene. Crime is a natural characteristic of people of color. In fact, William Bennett, who was the education secretary under Ronald Reagan, the drug czar under George Bush Sr. and a staunch Republican conservative, used his radio show to make the suggestion that if people wanted to reduce crime they could abort every black baby in the United States. However, although it might be reprehensible to some people and totally impossible to pull off, if one was truly interested in reducing crime to an even lower level here in the United States, all one has to do is abort every white baby and exterminate every white man and woman. But to seriously make such a suggestion invites ridicule, hatred, and possibly invoke the ire of some latent white criminals."
"The likelihood of committing and falling victim to crime also depends on several demographic characteristics, as well as location of the population. Overall, men, minorities, the young, and those in financially less favorable positions are more likely to be victimized by, as well as commit, crimes. Crime in the US is also concentrated in certain areas. It is quite common for crime in American cities to be highly concentrated in a few, often economically disadvantaged areas. For example, San Mateo County, California had a population of approximately 624,000 and 17 homicides in 2001. 6 of these 17 homicides took place in poor, largely African and Hispanic American East Palo Alto, which had a population of roughly 30,000. So, while East Palo Alto accounted for 4.8% of the population, about one-third of the homicides took place there."
“A February 1997 report on rape and sexual-based crime published by the United States Department of Justice stated that of the crimes surveyed, 56% of arrestees were White, 42% were Black, and 2% were of other races; though it should be noted that "Hispanic" was not recognized as a racial category, with Hispanics predominantly being grouped together with Non-Hispanic Whites. The report additionally noted that "victims of rape were about evenly divided between whites and blacks; in about 88% of forcible rapes, the victim and offender were of the same race.”
"Overall the financially disadvantaged, males, those younger than 25 and non European-Americans were more likely to fall victim to crime. Income, sex and age had the most dramatic effect on the chances of a person being victimized by crime, while the characteristic of race depended on the crime. In 2005, 27 out of 1,000 African Americans became the victim of a violent crime, compared to 20 out of every 1,000 White Americans." ________________________________________________________________________
And “white-collar” crime (a statistical nightmare for white males being nearly all of those perpetrating the crimes) isn’t even factored in when it comes to causing disadvantage weighing greatly upon the non-white population.
Depending on the statistics and the socio-economic factors we’re all black now, eh?
We are all connected, right? The human race is failing, my friend. Not the black or Latino human race, but the human race….
Arizona state Senator Sylvia Allen (R) voices support for opening up uranium mining in the state. Sen Allen responds to statements by environmentalists by assuring them that the "Earth is 6,000 years old..." Twice.
I decided to let Lewis Black take it from here......
"there was a time when i was guardedly optimistic about change in america and when i tentatively wore hope on my sleeve. the death knell has sounded- i am no longer optimistic or hopeful. not just because of what i hear or see in the media- surges in afghanistan, wall street and corporates still ripping us off unchecked, federal mandates flying off the pens of the dems just itching to put them into laws- but also because i actually was forced to venture out into humanity for a week and i learned much. i hated it but i learned much.
i learned that there are far more non thinking people out there than ones who think. these folks can be decent human beings but prefer to 'just live' and continue to do so without giving the future a thought. some of them happen to be friends and family of mine and hubby's. i also learned that when push comes to shove, people won't do the right thing. myself included. and i have been thinking a bit about human nature as a big picture because it's easy to get caught up in the now believing this time to be so very different than any other. it is in one regard- global warming.
when everything boils down to its basest nature- people haven't changed in milennia. we keep repeating history over and over and simply tweaking it a bit to make it the present. we keep clinging to our selfish, greedy, lazy ways and are content to do so even if it means killing people around the globe for profit. we have gone so far as to create an economy around doing so. i am not certain of the future- no one really is- but i don't see a rosy one. perhaps it's the pessimist in me- or perhaps simply the realist. the only thing i do know- i cannot fight for a country that no longer exists and i won't fight for clueless 'morans' who won't think for themselves. "
Historic Bible pages put online Will this tell us what we yearn to know; Ancient text translated into languages Unknown to the earth’s mortal choir, Source of so much grief and slaughter?
America is the land of promise. Perceived promise, broken promise, and most of all promise for the future of all who want to call America home. We are still the country most other people in the World want to come to, to live. Broken promises to be sure, but we have the courage to try and fulfill those promises, even at the expense of the pain and death of our fellow citizens.
Immigrants are the life blood of our society, without which, it would not be America. Immigration is not just a tradition in America, it is the essence of America. Those who want to wall off the flow of immigrants, are anti-American. We are nothing but a collection of immigrants, a society of people who chose to leave their mother land to come to America and seek a better life. We are a true example that collectively we can do better than individually.
It is not the tradition of America to be a wealthy class society. It is in the tradition of America to work to achieve a better position than you had when you started out. It is in American tradition to accept those seeking to escape oppression and lack of opportunity to make a better life for themselves and their families.
Capitalism is a system that not only meets the needs of people better than anywhere else in the World, but also allows those who work hard, to keep the fruits of their labor. That system and the people who benefit from that system; does not deny, but engages in and pays taxes for the practice that builds a society for the benefit of all, and most of all, for those less off still working hard to improve their lives. This is not socialism. It is decent people coming together to build a decent society. A society that respects the humanity of all people, rich, poor, any religion, any color.
If liberty, freedom, and free choice are our goals, and is our motto, then we must reject those who claim in the name of patriotism, to deny those rights to anyone in our society. We have learned from our own mistakes the harm we cause by discriminating against those who are new to our country. We need to try harder to fulfill our good words.
France had a clarity of what America was and is, seemingly better than we ourselves comprehend. Maybe because they are on the outside looking in, reflecting what millions around the World understand as the promise of America.
The Statue of Liberty Poem
By Emma Lazarus, 1883
Not like the brazen giant of Greek fame, With conquering limbs astride from land to land; Here at our sea-washed, sunset gates shall stand A mighty woman with a torch, whose flame Is the imprisoned lightning, and her name Mother of Exiles. From her beacon-hand Glows world-wide welcome; her mild eyes command The air-bridged harbor that twin cities frame. "Keep, ancient lands, your storied pomp!" cries she With silent lips. "Give me your tired, your poor, Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, The wretched refuse of your teeming shore. Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me, I lift my lamp beside the golden door!"
Starting Saturday, July 11: A historic new web-only series that features a behind-the-scenes look at "boots on the ground" testimony from American soldiers and veterans who have served in Iraq and Afghanistan: "This is Where We Take Our Stand."
The series tells the story of last year's Winter Soldier Iraq/Afghanistan hearings from the inside -- going beyond the testimony to the people whose lives, experiences, and struggles made that historic event possible. The six-episode series will be posted consecutively, every two weeks, throughout the summer. Each of the episodes presents key testimony and tells a vital and powerful part of this story. http://thisiswherewetakeourstand.com/
Their commentary on the trailer embedded at the top of this post:
Where’s the debate?
Are we watching passively while Barack Obama carries out the same policies as George W. Bush?
When an American bombing raid this May killed over two hundred civilians in a village in Afghanistan, it was met with a deafening silence. When Obama’s promised “withdrawal” from Iraq leaves 130,000 troops there for at least two more years and 50,000 permanently, it’s hailed as an end to the occupation. And who is demanding to know just what the mission really is when 30,000 more troops are sent to Afghanistan?
Where’s the debate?
In March of 2008, two hundred and fifty veterans and active duty soldiers marked the fifth anniversary of the invasion of Iraq by gathering in Washington, DC, to testify from their own experience about the nature of the occupations of Afghanistan and Iraq. It was chilling, horrifying, and challenging for all who witnessed it. Against tremendous odds, they brought the voices of the veterans themselves into the debate. That was then.
This is now. Today, we present to you This is Where We Take Our Stand, the inside story of those three days and the courageous men and women who testified. And we present this story today, told in six episodes, because we believe it is as relevant now as it was one year ago. Maybe more.
Here is our challenge to you: Watch the series; spread it far and wide; and ask yourself is this about the past, or the present and future. Then add your voice.
If you are a veteran or active duty, present your own testimony. If you are not, but you are still a living, breathing member of the human race, then do whatever you can to join and fan the flames of debate.
As Americans pursue Happiness today - on this most sacred of holidays - reveling in American exceptionalism, eating hot dogs, potato salad and ice cream, they also rage war to foster "democracy" in an occupied Iraq and Afghanistan:
Yeah, PP&M, Baez, Kingston Trio they've all sung it, but Dietrich's extraordinary rendition is the best IMNSHO! Ausgezeignet! I first heard Where have all the flowers gone? in 1964 (remember Vietnam?) in my high school German class. Pete Seeger preferred the German version rather than his English version; especially the lyrics. Seeger said often that the German version sings better.
Wann wird man je verstehn?
Sag mir, wo die Blumen sind, wo sind sie geblieben? Sag mir, wo die Blumen sind, was ist geschehn? Sag mir, wo die Blumen sind, Mädchen pflückten sie geschwind. Wann wird man je verstehn, wann wird man je verstehn?
Sag mir, wo die Mädchen sind … Männer nahmen sie geschwind.
Sag mir, wo die Männer sind … Zogen fort, der Krieg beginnt.
Sag, wo die Soldaten sind … Über Gräbern weht der Wind.
Sag mir, wo die Gräber sind … Blumen wehn im Sommerwind.
Sag mir, wo die Blumen sind … Mädchen pflückten sie geschwind.
I still believe in NAMI but I no longer believe in the NAMI Veterans Council. The decision to award Dr. Ira Katz for suicide prevention is akin to awarding a vampire for testing blood. Katz, as reported here (on Wounded Times) countless times, was refusing to admit there was a problem with veterans committing suicide. Everything he did, what they are awarding him for, he was forced to do. The Veterans Council is giving him an award for what it took an act of Congress to do!
This is one of the stories about a soldier that committed suicide.
The Life and Lonely Death of Noah Pierce text and photos by Ashley Gilbertson, from the Virginia Quarterly Review
Noah Pierce’s headstone gives his date of death as July 26, 2007, though his family feels certain he died the night before, when, at age 23, he took a handgun and shot himself in the head. No one is sure what pushed him to it. He said in his suicide note it was impotence—one possible side effect of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). It was “the snowflake that toppled the iceberg,” he wrote. But it could have been the memory of the Iraqi child he crushed under his Bradley. It could have been the unarmed man he shot point-blank in the forehead during a house-to-house raid, or the friend he tried madly to gather into a plastic bag after he had been blown to bits by a roadside bomb, or it could have been the doctor he killed at a checkpoint.
Noah grew up in Sparta, Minnesota, a town of fewer than 1,000 on the outskirts of the Quad Cities—Mountain Iron, Virginia, Eveleth, and Gilbert—on the Mesabi Iron Range. Discovered on the heels of the Civil War, the range’s ore deposit is the largest in the United States. Around the clock, deep metallic groans come out of the ground and freight trains barrel through, horns screeching. Locals are proud of their hardworking, hard-drinking heritage. There are more than 20 bars on Eveleth’s half-mile-long main street. On a typical night last May, loudspeakers affixed to lampposts blared John Denver’s “Take Me Home, Country Roads,” and Harleys thundered through town. One bar closed early, when a drunk got thrown through the front window.
Noah was a quiet, sensitive kid. He kept a tight circle of friends and passed time with them building tree forts and playing army in the woods. Noah’s biological father separated from Noah’s mother shortly after she became pregnant, but Tom Softich, Noah’s stepfather, treated the thin-skinned boy as his own. When Noah turned 6, Tom took him hunting, and by 13 Noah had his own high-powered rifle. For practice, they went rabbit shooting together at a small clearing a mile from their house. It became such a regular place to find Noah that his family and friends began referring to the clearing simply as “the spot.”
When Noah went missing in July 2007, after a harrowing year adjusting to home following two tours in Iraq, police ordered a countywide search. His friend Ryan Nelson thought he might know where to look. When he pulled up to the spot, he immediately recognized Noah’s truck. Inside, Ryan found his friend slumped over the bench seat, his head blown apart, the gun in his right hand. Half a bottle of Jack Daniel’s Special Blend lay on the passenger seat, and beer cans were strewn about. On the dash lay Noah’s photo IDs; he had stabbed each photo through the face. And on the floorboard was the scrawled, rambling suicide note. It was his final attempt to explain the horrors he had seen—and committed.
In April 2008, Ira R. Katz, deputy chief patient care services officer for mental health at the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, became embroiled in scandal when a memo surfaced in which he instructed members of his staff to suppress the results of an internal investigation into the number of veterans attempting suicide. Based on their surveys, along with tabulations from the National Center for Health Statistics and the Centers for Disease Control, Katz estimated that between 550 and 650 veterans were committing suicide each month. It pains Noah’s family and friends that the Pentagon will never add him—nor the thousands like him—to the official tally of 4,000-plus war dead.
Likewise, PTSD and minor traumatic brain injuries (MTBI) are excluded from the count of 50,000 severe combat wounds—even though PTSD and MTBI often have far greater long-term health effects than bullet wounds or even lost limbs. A study by the RAND Corporation found that approximately 300,000 Iraq and Afghanistan veterans—one in five—suffer from depression or stress disorders and another 320,000 suffer from MTBIs that place them at a higher risk for depression and stress disorders.
Noah’s mother, Cheryl Softich, believes her son’s death could have been avoided had he received counseling. Statistically, veterans outside the VA system are four times more likely to attempt suicide than those within the system. Now Cheryl’s mission is to have a clause inserted into every standard military contract that would require veterans to visit a therapist every two weeks of the first year after a combat deployment. “Soldiers are taught to follow orders,” she says. “It needs to be mandatory. Noah was an excellent soldier, and if it was mandatory, he would have gone faithfully to every appointment.” http://www.utne.com/print-article.aspx?id=25408
Yet this is what the Veterans Council released for the award to Katz
NAMI Veterans Council Dedication To Veterans Mental Health Care Award
Ira Katz, MD
Dr. Ira Katz left a comfortable position at the University of Pennsylvania and the VA Medical Center in Philadelphia to join the Department of Veterans Affairs. Within two years of his arrival, members of Congress and the press were calling for his resignation or termination over the issue of rising suicides among veterans, especially veterans of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. In spite of blistering criticism, Dr. Katz worked tirelessly behind the scenes to launch the VA's first ever suicide prevention initiative, including a nation wide crisis call line in conjunction with SAMHSA that has intervened in thousands of potential suicides by veterans. While managing this delicate task and fending off critics, Dr. Katz spearheaded VA-wide approval of a dramatic reform of its mental health programs to embrace recovery principles. All veterans receiving mental healthcare in the VA are better served today because of the work of Dr. Ira Katz. We are proud to honor him for his dedication to improving the mental health and the mental health care of veterans. NAMI Convention
I am so furious over this that yesterday I resigned from the Veterans Council. I can no longer participate or support any group so oblivious to the facts, they saw fit to award Katz for this. NAMI giving award to Dr. Katz for being forced to change?
When you read the stories about other people in NAMI and how much they are doing for the veterans, this is an appalling decision. Matt Kuntz is a member of NAMI. He has done more for the troops and the National Guard, in turn, for the veterans as well. We tend to forget that when the members of the National Guard come back they are once again citizens and fall into the veteran role. This is what Matt Kuntz did.
Thursday, April 9, 2009 Support the The Post Deployment Health Assessment Act of 2009 Matt Kuntz, the keynote speaker at our upcoming Annual Education Conference, has asked us to take a few minutes to contact our Congressional Representatives and Senators to ask them to support comprehensive mental health screenings for our returning soldiers.Two years ago, Matt, the Executive Director of NAMI Montana and one of President Obama's "18 Ordinary Americans Making an Extraordinary Difference," lost his step-brother Chris Dana to a post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) induced suicide sixteen months after he returned from Iraq.
The events around Chris’s death led Governor Brian Schweitzer and the Montana National Guard to develop the premier program in the country for caring for National Guard members suffering from PTSD. Matt says, "The foundation of this successful system is a series of five face-to-face mental health screenings that every returning service member must complete upon their return home from combat."This broad screening program overcomes the traditional barriers that have kept service members from receiving treatment for PTSD. Over forty percent of the individuals that have completed the screening asked for help in dealing with their combat stress injuries.
Senator Max Baucus introduced “The Post Deployment Health Assessment Act of 2009” to implement this common sense screening program throughout our fighting force. The Act would require face-to-face screening before deployment, upon return home, and then every six months for two years. This basic and effective program will help safeguard the mental health of our entire fighting force for approximately the same price tag as a single F-22 Fighter. The Act is supported by the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI), Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America (IAVA), the National Guard Association, and the Veterans of Foreign Wars (VFW).
Please take a few minutes out of your day to contact your Congressional Representatives and Senators to ask them to support this critical legislation. Our military suicide rates are at record levels and climbing. We can’t afford to wait any longer to help our heroes get the care they deserve. You can follow this link to find your Representatives’ and Senators’ contact information: http://www.visi.com/juan/congress/.
President Obama met with Matt while he was still a senator.
Senator Obama spoke to a group of veterans and military families yesterday at Riverfront Park in Billings. He spoke at length on the failures of the current administration to take care of the nation’s veterans, before taking questions from the audience on a variety of issues. You can watch his remarks about veterans, energy, and the VA systemhere.What's going on right now, the simple fact is we're not doing right by our veterans. Not here in Montana, and not anywhere in the United States, and I want you to know that one of the reasons I'm running for president of the United States is because I want to make sure that today's veterans are treated like my grandfather was, when he came home, he got the GI Bill and was able to go to college and got FHA loans to go to school and was treated with honor. As President I'm going to make sure that the VA system in Montana gets the oversight, direction, and resources it needs to do the job. [Watch the video]
Then Senator Obama laid blame where it belonged
In Billings, Obama blames GOP for veteran troubles In Billings, Obama blames GOP for veteran troubles By TOM LUTEY Billings Gazette BILLINGS - Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama, speaking Wednesday in Billings, faulted Republican leaders for chronically underfunding veteran services for troops returning from Iraq and Afghanistan.“I have some significant differences with McCain and George Bush about the war in Iraq,” Obama said. “But one thing I thought we'd agree to is when the troops came home, we'd treat them with the honor and respect they deserve.”Several trends indicate veterans are not getting the health care and other benefits they need to succeed at home, Obama told a group of around 200 people during an invitation-only morning listening session in Riverfront Park.
Armed services veterans are seven times more likely to be homeless than Americans who don't serve. In Montana, roughly half the veterans suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder go untreated for the psychological condition, Obama said.
Before speaking, the candidate met for several minutes with the family of Spec. Chris Dana, a Montana National Guard veteran suffering from PTSD who committed suicide in March 2007, several months after returning from Iraq. Dana's stepbrother, Matt Kuntz, became a vocal advocate for better treatment of PTSD after Dana's death.
Jess Bahr, a Vietnam veteran, drove more than 200 miles from Great Falls to hear Obama. Before being bused to the event with a veteran-heavy crowd, Bahr said the number of homeless U.S. veterans was inexcusable and that the needs of retired warriors across the country were being ignored by communities.“In Great Falls, they're building a $6.5 million animal shelter and we don't have a shelter for veterans. What does that tell you about priorities?” asked Bahr, a 1967 Army draftee who survived the Tet Offensive, a nine-month series of battles that resulted in more than 6,000 deaths and 24,000 injuries among American and allied troops during the Vietnam War. click post title for more
If you ever listened to the hearings on CSPAN, you would know what kind of a crisis the veterans were in. Joshua Omvig was one more of many committing suicide because the help they needed was not there. The suicide prevention Katz is being award for took and act of Congress to begin.
Tuesday, November 6, 2007 Bush Signs Joshua Omvig Veterans Suicide Prevention Bill into Law With the stroke of a pen President George W. Bush signed the Joshua Omvig bill into law, ending a drawn-out political chapter that overcame a procedural hold in the Senate. The bill was introduced in the House by Rep. Leonard Boswell, D-Iowa, who named the bill after one of his constituents, Joshua Omvig of Grundy Center. Omvig committed suicide in Dec. 2005 after returning from an 11-month deployment in Iraq.
“By directing the Veterans Administration (VA) to develop a comprehensive program to reduce the rate of suicide among veterans the law will help thousands of young men and women who bravely served our country,” Boswell said in a press release following Bush’s Monday signing. “The Joshua Omvig Veterans Suicide Prevention Act not only honors Joshua’s service to his country but ensures that all veterans receive the proper mental health care they need.”
The Joshua Omvig Suicide Prevention Act (H.R. 327) is designed to help address Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) among veterans by requiring mental health training for Veterans Affairs staff; a suicide prevention counselor at each VA medical facility; and mental-health screening and treatment for veterans who receive VA care. It also supports outreach and education for veterans and their families, peer support counseling and research into suicide prevention. The VA had been implementing a number of these programs, but not in a timely manner, whereas the Joshua Omvig bill mandates these programs and subsequent deadlines as a means of expediting the process for returning veterans.
It took law suits from groups to do, like Veterans for Common Sense, to call attention to the pain and suffering the veterans were going through.
With all of this, awarding Katz for what he was forced to do ignores what he did not do when he had the chance. Did he answer reporters questions honestly without trying to cover up the facts? No. He had the chance right there to fight for the veterans he was supposed to be working for instead of the administration causing the problems. All it would have taken was honesty. Imagine what that would have done for the veterans! If Katz put the veterans first instead of his job, he would have been a hero and truly deserving of such an honor. His courage would have caused such and uproar in this nation that there would be no way possible for him to be fired for doing the right thing for our veterans. He decided instead to fight for the administration and the veterans paid the price.
Tuesday, July 22, 2008 Tim Bowman Mitchell takes on the stigma of vets' mental-health issues The message reads: "It takes the courage and strength of a warrior to ask for help."It goes on to list the VA's suicide prevention hotline number: 800-273-TALK (8255).Mitchell takes on the stigma of vets' mental-health issuesby E.J. Montini - Jul. 22, 2008 12:00 AM The Arizona RepublicLate last year at a congressional hearing in Washington, Rep. Harry Mitchell listened to a couple named Mike and Kim Bowman tell the story of their 23-year-old son, Tim, a soldier who had returned safely from his yearlong deployment in Iraq only to commit suicide at home."We already were hearing that suicide among veterans who were between 20 and 24 years old was 2½ times higher than non-veterans," Mitchell told me. "And I remember thinking to myself: 'We can't do this again.' "
July 20, 2008, Spokane, Washington - A distraught 26-year-old Navy veteran who had a history of mental illness hanged himself within three hours of seeking help at Spokane Veterans Affairs Medical Center. The July 7 death of Lucas Senescall was the sixth suicide this year of a veteran who had contact with the Spokane VA, a marked increase in such deaths.
Last year, there were two suicides among veterans treated at the local VA.
Last year I went to the NAMI convention and then interviewed Paul Sullivan over the law suit filed against the VA.
What caused Veterans for Common Sense to file the law suit against the VA?
Jonathan Schulze and Jeffrey Lucey, two Gulf War combat veterans with PTSD, were refused VA medical care even though they physically came to VA medical facilities with their families and told VA staff they were suicidal. Congress may legislate and perform oversight, yet the Court can force immediate action: one of our top priorities was to force VA from turning away suicidal veterans.
VCS initially filed Freedom of Information Act requests earlier in 2007 about suicides, and VA responded that they had no information. VCS also filed suit because the number of disability claims waiting for review has doubled in the past few years, and the length of time has increased from five months to more than six months.
However, VA executives paid themselves nearly $4 million in bonuses for their dismal performance. Furthermore, VA’s IG reported three times that 25 percent of veterans waited more than one month to see a doctor. VA testified under oath twice that the figure was less than 5 percent. Clearly, VA has a capacity crisis – too many veterans and not enough doctors or claims processors. Furthermore, the 23-page claim form and several healthcare enrollment forms are overly complex, especially for our veterans with PTSD or TBI. For more detailed information, please go to http://www.veteransptsdclassaction.org/.
What caused Veterans for Common Sense to join forces with Veterans United for Truth?
VUFT is another non-profit veteran advocacy group, and they are based in California.
How were the emails from Dr. Katz discovered?
After more than 8 months of delays, the Federal Court ORDERED VA to turn over the e-mails to our attorneys in our lawsuit as part of the discovery process.
What did Dr. Katz say to explain these emails?
He admitted they were true and that he wrote them. You can read his testimony at the SVAC web site where he offers evasive explanations.
What were the facts discovered as a result of these emails being found?
1. VA says they are monitoring completed and attempted suicides to see if there is a difference in suicide rates between veterans, war veterans, and non-veterans.
2. VA essentially confirmed the CBS study that found veterans are more likely to complete a suicide, and for younger veterans aged 18 – 24, they were three to four times more likely to complete a suicide..
3. VA completes “suicide incident reports” and “root cause analysis” reports for each completed suicide, yet then declares them confidential “quality assurance” and places them off limits to Congress, veterans’ families, and attorneys. It is very important for Congress and the Courts and the public to see these reports (with privacy protections of course) so that we can better understand why the veterans killed themselves, and how VA can be improved to prevent and reduce suicides.
How many suicides does the VA know about since the beginning of the occupations of Afghanistan and Iraq?
There is no national “veteran completed suicide” reporting system now, yet VA is under considerable pressure to begin working to identify all of them. VCS provided a methodology to Congress to identify as many as possible by starting with the list of 1.7 million deployed and then checking all federal, state, and local death certificates.
Currently, VA looks at death certificates where the document reports the person as a veteran. This is incomplete because many families do not know if a person was a veteran or the funeral home / coroner don’t ask. DoD only reports active duty suicides and excludes Reserve and National Guard suicides because they are not on Active Duty.. Our VCS methodology would identify all completed suicides among all 1.7 million, not just the incomplete pieces of the puzzle the DoD and VA currently look at.
How many attempted suicides does the VA know about during the same period?
See above. VA knows about attempted suicides only among those veterans receiving VA care, and that is about 1,000 per month, or 12,000 per year, based on Katz’ e-mail.
How did the emails end up with Senator Akaka and his committee?
The Katz e-mails were produced at trial in April 2008, and then journalists reported them to the public. I not exactly sure, yet I believe Sen. Akaka’s staff saw them in the widely reported press accounts of our trial.
Do you know about the Freedom of Information request to the VA by CREW and VoteVets?
Yes. It is too bad that VA still plays games with FOIA. VA should be forced to turn over the information. Embarrassing information is never a reason to deny a FOIA, as VA frequently does.
How did the email from Norma Perez end up in the hands of congress?
The Perez e-mail discouraging diagnoses for PTSD among veterans was sent by Perez to several VA staff, who in turn sent it to other VA staff, who in tern sent it to a veteran advocate in Texas. That person turned it over to VoteVets and CREW. VCS did not play a role in uncovering the e-mail, yet VCS did play a role in publicizing the e-mail.
What did the entire email suggest?
I would suggest reading the e-mail, as it speaks for itself.
How did that email end up with the congress and then incorporated into the law suit filed by Veterans For Common Sense?
The Perez e-mail and news articles were forwarded from me to our attorneys with a request that they investigate it. They did investigate it by sending a letter to the Dept. of Justice, who then authenticated it and confirmed that VA Secretary James Peake’s office knew about the Perez e-mail on April 7, 2008 – a full two weeks before our trial began, yet VA failed to provide it to our attorneys under discovery. Our attorneys then asked the judge to add the Perez e-mail to the body of evidence we introduced at trial. At a hearing earlier this month, the judge agreed with our attorneys, and the judge also admitted the entire Senate hearing transcript about the Perez e-mail into evidence – a victory for veterans. Sen. Akaka would know for sure, yet I believe he and his staff learned of the Perez e-mail from the press.
What is your view of these findings regarding the treatment of our veterans by the VA after these emails were discovered?
Nearly all VA employees are well-intended and want to assist veterans. I know this because I worked at VA and still know many VA employees. However, the system is overly complex, the system is overloaded, and the system is mired in a deep financial, leadership, and capacity crisis.
Compounding the problem is the disappointing fact that the current political appointees in Washington are incompetent at best, and malicious toward veterans at worst. This combination causes very serious adverse problems for VA, veterans, and families. The solution remains the obvious. VA needs an massive overhaul immediately.
VA needs new leaders, full mandatory funding, and significantly streamlined procedures so veterans can get fast and high-quality medical care and benefits. The situation is bad now, with 325,000 new and unplanned casualties from the Iraq and Afghanistan wars flooding into VA hospitals and clinics, plus 288,000 unanticipated disability claims from recent war veterans. If the crisis is not addressed immediately with aggressive action, the current administration will be held responsible for crashing VA on the rocks.
Although VA had systemic problems in the 1990s and early 2000s, the situation spiraled out of control when Jim Nicholson became Secretary in early 2005. Nicholson, who had no experience with VA, healthcare, or disability claims, served as Karl Rove’s and Grover Norquist’s personal partisan wrecking ball to tear apart VA, bust up the unions, and privatize it. In the end, our only recourse was to file suit because veterans were literally completing suicide, yet VA leaders appeared oblivious to this life-or-death crisis.
In my view, we can learn the lessons from the Vietnam and Gulf wars, where many veterans with psychological trauma were neglected, and improve the situation. Or, we can take the current approach by VA: pinch pennies, bury your head in the sand, and leave the disaster to the next administration. The decision to fix VA was straightforward, yet the battle to fix VA is very hard.
Paul Sullivan Executive Director Veterans for Common Sense Post Office Box 15514 Washington, DC 20003 (202) 558-4553 Paul@VeteransForCommonSense.org http://www.veteransforcommonsense.org/
I want to thank Paul for his time and for all he has done for the veterans in this country. Think about the numbers of veterans his actions will make a difference for. He doesn't want more families to have to bury another son or daughter because the VA just didn't have room for them when they needed their wounds to be treated. We've all read too many stories like Jonathan's and Jeffrey's, or Tim Bowman, or Joshua Omvig, along with the hundreds of others we found in the media. Far too much suffering that did not need to happen.
Saving lives because it was the right thing to do came from other people and not Katz. By the interviews he had done, it's obvious that had he not been forced to act, he would have been happy denying the problem and "staying the course" as Bush often loved to say.
So what exactly is behind this award? Why award it to Katz of all people? Can the NAMI Veterans Council be so oblivious to the facts and what was behind what Katz was forced to do, they think he's the one to glorify? Can they be that ignorant? I doubt it. I met a lot of the people on the council and they are bright as well as deeply committed to our veterans. There are heroes all over this country doing great work for our veterans and they are on the council. So what is behind all of this? Are they sucking up to the VA? If this was the case then I'm sure they could have found someone else more worthy of this award in the VA. Whatever the reason behind this, whatever excuse for it, they have just done more damage to our veterans and slapped suffering families in the face. They have just decided that families like the ones you just read about are insignificant. If they really wanted to give an award to a hero they could have picked Matt or Paul Sullivan or any of the families with the courage to stand up and talk about their heartbreak. cross post on Peace Tree and Wounded Times"
And he thought of those he angered, For he was not a violent man. And he thought of those he hurt, For he was not a cruel man. And he thought of those he frightened, For he was not an evil man. And he understood. He understood himself.
Upon this he saw that when he was of anger or knew hurt or felt fear, It was because he was not understanding, And he learned, compassion.
And with his eye of compassion. He saw his enemies like unto himself, And he learned love. Then, he was answered.
"i am not an extremely social person. i usually don't do events or soirees or parties and i have tended towards reclusiveness in recent years. i don't care for humanity at large. on an individual basis, we, as a race, can be aware and compassionate and show that we have common sense. put us in a culture setting and forget it.
lately, i have been social. hubby and i have had folks from work over and some out of town friends plus, we visited family while we were away the first part of the month. i have run the gamut from not having a clue about the world around them to awareness with a belief that we can't do a damned thing to save the world. and through everything- we all go about our lives as usual because we haven't any idea what to do about anything.
what struck me most about a couple of the groups of folks we know- parents complaining to hubby and i about offspring who feel entitled; who are lazy and unwilling to help; who expect others to take care of them and give them the life to which they have become accustomed- was the apparent lack of understanding of where said offspring came from in the first place and the fact that these people continue doing for said offspring and perpetuating the cycle.
we have a nation of entitled folks. and everyone complains about them but they seem to be making out just fine in spite of the recession/depression, wars and conflicts, etc.. without some introspection and some understanding of our personal lives and how it affects the world at large, i simply don't see much changing. if we can't make changes within our own families, how are we going to effect change globally? the folks in charge certainly are unwilling to change the status quo-
the feel entitled to profit at the expense of everyone else on the planet. and we continue to indulge them. "
NewMarket Naturals, Inc. Greetings Senator Lincoln, As one of the owners of NewMarket Naturals, a “green” business here in Fayetteville, I see the urgency that the green energy / green jobs bill passes the Senate and begins to put our country on par with other industrialized countries around the world. I ask that you put aside your allegiance to any PACs or other lobby folks that may have contributed to your campaigns and vote for what is best for all of us Arkansans and Americans. We appreciate that this may be a difficult choice because money has a very loud voice in Washington but we implore you to take a bold step, as President Obama is doing, and vote for the bill, trusting that it is the right thing to do that will also translate into support at the ballot box. With President Obama’s leadership we have the vision and with your leadership we can have the means to a sustainable future. The bill that came out of the house is the first step toward independence and sustainability: • Clean energy: promoting renewable energy, low-carbon transportation fuels, electric vehicles, and the smart grid and electricity transmission; • Energy efficiency: increasing energy efficiency across all sectors: buildings, appliances, transportation, and industry; • Global warming targets: placing limits on emissions of heat-trapping pollutants with a goal of reducing carbon emissions by 80 percent by 2050; • Economic transitioning: protecting U.S. consumers, and promoting green jobs during the transition to a clean green economy. Myself along with thousands of other green business owners hope that you and other members of the Senate will strengthen the bill with the following: • Greater funding and a faster timetable for a transition to clean energy sources, particularly solar and wind, which will reduce carbon emissions and increase green jobs. • Retain or expand the EPA’s authority under the Clean Air Act to clean up dirty coal plants. • Reduce allocations for polluting companies. Polluters need to pay for their pollution in order to fund increased investment in clean energy and green jobs. • Greenhouse gas emissions caps should be set that achieve a 25% reduction below 2005 levels by the year 2020. • Nuclear power needs to be excluded as a clean energy source. Nuclear power is low-carbon, but with environmentally damaging uranium mining, radioactive waste, proliferation potential and safety hazards, it is not clean energy.
Senator Lincoln, I am counting on you as a Democrat to vote for this bill and be on the right side of history in doing so.
I am not afraid.
I am not afraid if in the turmoils of these conspicuous times I will be accused of conspiracy.
I am not afraid to be accused of stirring unrest, but you cannot deny that I am a mother; not only the mother of "Tandis & Baran" [refering to her daughter Baran Kowsari], but also the mother of all that youth who has been witnessing their own mothers through the windows of my films; mother of "Touba", "Gilaneh", "Forough", "Narges", "Seema" and ... [names of female protagonists of her films]
I am the mother of all those who have opened their homes to me; who have told me their suppressed pains of years, such that I can depict their life sufferings on film.
Out of respect for the trust of all my audience, I feel entitled to the right of seek justice for all these mothers who, in the chaos of this crisis, are helpless and vulnerable, either having lost their children, or frantically and frightened seek the missing ones in the four corners of the city. [I feel entitled] to writing this open letter to say that no law, no concern, and no politics justify the pain they are suffering.
In a condition that no media is there to report the truth and no official takes the responsibility of helping the killer anxiety of these parents, how can we not tremble on every rumor of the torture of killing of a young son or daughter?
Give my camera a break to provide you a naked picture, perhaps you do not know what is really happening under the skin of the city.