I can't be the only one...

When I read this:

Pentagon Confirms It Sought To Build A 'Gay Bomb'

I thought of this:


Anyone else?

~Lila Schow
Because Responsible Citizens Clean Up After Their Government
http://goodusgov.org/

Brownback, Sudanese for WTF?

Try to ignore that George Clooney and Barak Obama are in this photo. It's hard, I know, but just try anyway. That rabbity-looking guy sliding off the left side of the photo? That's Senator Sam Brownback.

Brownback is perhaps the most outspoken member of Congress when it comes to demanding an end to the Genocide in Darfur. Indeed, Brownback has been involved in Sudan for years, before the genocide and during Sudan's 20+ year civil war.

He's sponsored and pushed numerous Peace Acts over the years. True to his morals, he's divested his personal finances from any company doing business in Sudan.

And then, today, this: Brownback Questions Abortion For Rape Victims

Rape is terrible. Rape is awful. Is it made any better by killing an innocent child? Does it solve the problem for the woman that’s been raped?

I should not be surprised at this statement. After all, Brownback is the poster-child for conservative Christianity. No gays, no evolution and for god's sake, no stem cell research.

However, for a man who's visited Sudanese refugee camps to then question abortion, it makes me wonder what exactly he saw while he was there.

Did he see the massive starvation of children?

The mutilation and disfigurement of the victims?

The denial of prenatal care? The denial of health care?
Did he even question the lives these children of rape face, the menacing retribution in their future?

Or do these not matter because he was talking specifically about American women?

In Sudan, boys are also raped by gangs. But as there is no living reminder, these crimes are ignored. Would Brownback like to draft a new law punishing male survivors of rape for engaging in homosexual activities?

It's not the hypocrisy that bothers me so much as the absolute lack of compassion from a man who claims to want to end human suffering.

~Lila Schow
Because Responsible Citizens Clean Up After Their Government http://goodusgov.org/

Iraq, Our New Saudi Arabia

Oh the fuss that has been made over the Democrats' various war funding bills that include timetables for troop withdrawal in Iraq. On May first, using only his second veto since taking office in 2000, Bush deep-sixed a bill with a set deadline for bringing our soldiers home claiming;

"I believe setting a deadline for withdrawal would demoralize the Iraqi people, would encourage killers across the broader Middle East and send a signal that America will not keep its commitments. "

Well of course he would say that, after all, Bush wants our soldiers stationed there for another FIFTY YEARS.

Setting aside the awful ironies and hypocrisies in that statement, let's take a closer look at the situation. It doesn't matter who the president is; Bush, McCain, Clinton, Obama or Al Gore. It doesn't matter what Iraq itself wants. Yeah, they can pass legislation blocking the occupation phase of our war, but our troops are still going to be there.

It doesn't matter because the US is not going to leave Iraq. Here are the top 6 reasons why:

1. The people who pay taxes in the United States have agreed to spend at least one billion of that money building a fabulous new Embassy in the Green Zone (pardon, I mean the International Zone.)
Here's how it looks now. Nice, eh? I hope you like it for it will cost $1.2 billion a year to operate.

Oooh, here's some pictures you're not supposed to see.

My favorite thing about the US Embassy in Baghdad is what Senator Patrick Leahy (D-VT) had to say about it;

Now, having said over and over again that we don’t want to be seen as an occupying force in Iraq, we’re building the largest embassy that we have — probably the largest in the world — in Baghdad. And it just seems to grow and grow and grow. … We agree that we should focus our aid locally not in Baghdad, but we have 1,000 Americans at the embassy in Baghdad. You add the contractors and the local staff it comes to 4,000.

I know our government likes to burn money like we like to drop phosphorous bombs on noncombatants, but I doubt we will just drop $2+ billion and just leave it for the insurgents to piss on.

2. Fourteen permanent bases being built in Iraq. The Bush Administration calls them "Enduring Bases," as in Enduring our Freedom, perhaps?

With Halliburton engaged to build and maintain these bases, you know a change in leadership is not going to be enough for the US to leave them, especially since work from Halliburton doesn't come cheap.

But we should probably keep that a secret from the people in our military. If Halliburton runs the bases like they ran the bases we're going to need some big tablets of chlorine.

3. Now that the Bush Administration has caved to the demands of Osama bin Laden and withdrawn our soldiers from Saudi Arabia, we need to base them somewhere in the vicinity.

It's alright, its not like our soldiers were any safer in Saudi Arabia.

4. Leaving Saudi Arabia for Iraq should be viewed as a step up. At least, tactically. Saudi Arabia only borders the 'safe'* ** Arab nations. Iraq bumps against Iran, Syria, Turkey, Jordan and ... Saudi Arabia, which is no longer safe for Americans.

All we can hope for is that the terrorists don't demand we leave Iraq, at least not while Bush is in office, because he tends to give in to these demands (see #3). The next attack on the US might then be made of up actual Iraqis and, in the words of Dick Cheney, "not a matter of if, but when."

5. I can't leave out oil. Whether you think we are there to take it or to keep it off the market, oil is the lifeblood for Iraq. And I think Iraqis know how American's feel about spilling their blood. What do we call it? Oh yes, collateral damage. Would any Citi offshoot give you a loan without collateral? Of course not. Just as our government would not wage a $432 BILLION dollar war without some good collateral. It might not make your gas any cheaper, but it will definitely ease the heartache for some of this country's ailing corporations.

6. Suppose the impossible does happen. Suppose the next president actually finds their humanity and withdraws our troops. We're gone, right? Just kidding! Thanks to Blackwater, Custer Battles, Dyncorp and many other "private security" firms, soldiers who stop volunteering for service can now enjoy the same type of job they trained for and at triple the salary. Can I get a BOOYAH please?

So take the timetable off the table when deciding your future vote. Because no matter how loud a candidate is about withdrawing our troops, there's no way that will happen.

*If you click on this link it's #9
**Saudi Arabia does not border Pakistan. Just so we're clear on that.

~Lila Schow
Because Responsible Citizens Clean Up After Their Government

http://goodusgov.org/

Health Crisis in Guantanamo?

The news has been a-buzz this past week with stories about Andrew Speaker, the 31 year-old man with an aggressive strain of TB. Despite the fact that his father-in-law works for the CDC and specializes in TB, there is a more interesting TB case that is being overlooked by the media.

Saud Memon died May 18, 2007 in Pakistan. His name might become more familiar in late June with the release of A Mighty Heart, the Daniel Pearl Story. Memon owned the property (a shed and nursery) where Pearl's body was eventually found.

Caught in 2003 in connection with Pearl's murder, Memon was quietly shipped to Guantanamo. He was held in the detention center for four years, then returned to his home in Pakistan the month before his death. No charges are known to have been filed against him.

His death was ruled as a result from a combination of TB and meningitis. It is not surprising that he died, his family claims that he weighed only 40 pounds when returned to them.

Yet, no investigation of Guantanamo exists. The abuse and torture of detainees has been decried around the globe since prisoners were first shipped to the island. Now, it appears logical to assume there could be multiple raging epidemics in the prison. Epidemics that endanger more than just 550 dirty "enemy combatants."

Soldiers, lawyers and humanitarians working and visiting the prison can be infected and unknowingly spread TB to the general population here and abroad.

The prison has offered nothing but shame for the United States. It's time to close Guantanamo and treat the inmates to the respect they deserve under our nation's laws.

~Lila Schow

Because Responsible Citizens Clean Up After Their Government

http://goodusgov.org/

The "Normalcy" of America Today

According to some self-described conservatives I've recently been sparring with, there is nothing wrong with the state of our nation, everything is hunky-dory and above all else, everything in this country is "normal." I'm not sure how they're defining normal and quite obviously, I heartily disagree, but it did get me thinking about how life in this country has changed. Because rest assured, it has.

Most of the changes in this country since 2000 aren't easily quantifiable. We all still get up every day, go to work, pay our bills and carry on with our day to day routines. On the surface, it seems that little has changed. And in the minds of some, if it's not overt and in-your-face, everything is normal and there's nothing to worry about. What they either fail to grasp or are willingly ignorant to is the fact that the changes that occur below the surface, out of sight, can be far more insidious and far more damaging. Everyday life carries the veneer of normalcy and sadly for many of us and for the state of this nation, that is enough for them.

I know that most people don't trust the government and haven't for a good, long time. And for good reason. Politicians, liberal and conservative alike, for the most part are only out for themselves and could care very little for we, the little people. It's a perception that's been fostered for decades and one that is not without merit. But the problems that have arisen over these last 6 years go well beyond fat-cat politicians looking to line their own pockets at our expense.

How many of us truly believed that we'd ever get to a point where we had to actually fear our government? Did we ever believe that we'd see a time when our government sought to destroy the very foundations of this country while some amongst us applauded and encouraged it? Did we ever truly believe that we'd see so many people willingly acquiesce to the erosion of our rights, the very freedoms and liberties that are the bedrock of this country?

This "president" has expanded the power of his office in ways the Framers had never intended and the Constitution specifically forbids. He has trampled over our rights and our freedoms with impunity and an imperial attitude that can be called nothing other than un-American. The government is free to open our mail, to listen in on our telephone conversations, read our emails, access our medical, financial, even our library records or enter our homes without our consent. Saying the wrong thing or belonging to the "wrong" group can land you on some nebulous governmental "watch list" or even a "no-fly" list. This goverment believes that it can do whatever it deems necessary to "protect" us, the Bill of Rights be damned. And instead of speaking out, instead of vehemently opposing this, there are millions of us throughout the country that see nothing wrong with it. Millions of our countrymen are willing, even eager to sacrifice our freedoms and our liberties for the illusion of safety. And illusion is precisely what it is. If we couldn't stop one man with tuberculosis from entering this country, knowing that he was coming, how can we really believe that we could stop a group of terrorists determined to strike us? Yet the fearful and the cowardly that would trade in everything that made this country what it was, believe just that.

The cowardly among us continue to deny, rationalize and justify the radical abuses of power this Administration is guilty of. They insist that in this post-9/11 world, everything has changed and the president can and should have limitless, unchecked power to do what he needs to do to protect the country. But as has been said, "absolute power corrupts absolutely." And we are indeed, seeing that in action today. And we are not one iota safer today than we were before 9/11.

There is a sickness spreading throughout this country. It is slow, it is creeping and insidious. But it is persistent and it is deliberate. It slithers along, under the surface and out of sight, like some leviathan that will one day swallow us whole. My biggest fear is that our rights and freedoms will continue to be eroded, will continue to be stripped from us while they justify it by claiming they are protecting us. Millions throughout the country will continue to live in fear and continue believing the intentions of the government are noble and honorable when they are anything but. I fear that one day, we will wake up and totalitarianism will somehow come to be accepted. I fear that one day, fascism will be deemed "normal."

Things in this country are most definitely not "normal" right now. And no matter how much these people want to believe it to be otherwise, they're just plain wrong.

~Kevin S.

Concrete -- More Dangerous than Nuclear Radiation?

On May 24, 2007, it became official. Felicia Dunn-Jones, a civil rights lawyer is the first person to die from the dust she inhaled during the collapse of the Trade Centers in New York City in 2001.

The dust from the WTC was largely comprised of the cement floors, 220 total. Well, that's not entirely true. It also contained lead, mercury, fuel, PCBs, vinyl, cleaners, bleach, fiberglass and asbestos.
As early as two days after the September 11th attacks, government officials began reassuring the millions of people in and upwind of New York City that the dust was harmless. The highest level of precaution cleanup crews were given were paper masks and hoses.

Some of the first responders and members of cleanup crews requested better respiratory protection. The response was very Bush Administration -- ridicule, assaults on patriotism or manhood, and threats of being fired.

Yet, despite the best efforts to downplay and discredit dangers from the WTC dust, people are just not buying it. Perhaps it's because so many of us saw the cloud and worried about what it contained. Or because so many had to wash it off their bodies and properties in the weeks following 9-11.

It is not because of the massive testing done by the government. The EPA didn't even begin testing sites until June of 2002. The only analyzation has been to see what elements were in the samples collected. No lab recreation, animal or tissue tests have been performed to conclusively link the dust with the health issues that are cropping up in the millions of people affected.

Yet, the public seems to accept the cause without demanding this proof.

Let us switch to another dust.

On April 29, 1999, Terry Riordon died from Gulf War Syndrome. An independent autopsy showed Riordon had high levels of Depleted Uranium (DU) in his body.

Used to harden tips in munitions so that they can pass through virtually every barrier, DU disintegrates upon impact, releasing a fine ceramic dust. These particles give off Alpha, Beta and Gamma radiation. Thousands of tons of American-fired DU litter Iraq. The dust poses a serious health threat to the people. It dates back to when the first rounds were used in combat in 1991 up to it use in today's skirmish. And tomorrow's.

Like with the WTC dust, the government was quick to deny any danger posed by DU. The harmful radiation could be blocked with a single sheet of paper, they bragged. And although military protocols were put into place for how to handle DU munitions, it soon became obvious that these protocols were either ignored or untaught.

This is where the stories of the two dusts differ. WTC dust is recognized by the general public as harmful, DU is not. WTC is accepted without testing, DU is not accepted even after a decade of research. Part of this is that the dust from New York was (hopefully) a one time event. The dust from DU is ongoing and hidden from Americans. The government is extraordinarily reluctant to disclose areas that have been exposed to DU munitions, either in the US or abroad.

Another factor is the visibility. There can be no doubt the impact the falling Trade Towers had on America. A round fired from a Abrahms tank doesn't cause the same feeling.

Unlike the WTC dust, DU cannot merely be washed from porches or used to fill potholes. It is not a one time event. It can not be segregated from the environment or cleaned up. It needs to be taken out of service by our military.

~Lila Schow

Because Responsible Citizens Clean Up After Their Government

http://goodusgov.org/