Dog Pile

Costa Rica; A Tutorial

2010-03-10T11:24:00.010-07:00

first impressions last
it was love at first sight
as our plane edged toward san jose
our dream of costa rica came to life

Oh, land of the Rich Coast, for us in the States,

Costa Rica

is an exotic (yet safe) backyard for tourists to play in. And just look at it!

Spectacular!

However, there are some things about Costa Rica that might surprise you.

Costa Rica has no military (boy, I love this one, it's my favorite)
Costa Rica plans on becoming the first carbon neutral country by 2021
The official language is Spanish
The State religion is Catholic
They are a member of the International Criminal Court
They withdrew from the US's Coalition of the Willing in 2004
They have a longer life expectancy than the US
Best of all? FUCKING UNIVERSAL HEALTH CARE !!!!

Do you want another list? Sure you do! Here's what's great about Costa Rica's Communist Health care:

People there live longer (oh, wait, I already said that)
The quality of medical care is better than ours
The cost of care is 1/10 ours
You don't have to be a citizen to use it
They offer both private and government supported care
Dental work is also covered

So it's surprising to hear Rush Limbaugh promise that he will flee the United States for the peace-loving beaches of Costa Rica if we get a health care system passed ... that is the same as the one Costa Rica uses? Uh, WTF?

CALLER: If the health care bill passes, where would you go for health care yourself?

LIMBAUGH: ...I’ll just tell you this, if this passes and it’s five years from now and all that stuff gets implemented — I am leaving the country. I’ll go to Costa Rica.

Lila Schow
Because Responsible Citizens Clean Up After Their Government

http://goodusgov.org/

Learn more?
http://www.top10costarica.com/costa-rica-health-care/
http://www.internationalliving.com/Countries/Costa-Rica/Health-Care
http://www.costarica.com/retirement/cost-of-living/health-care/

To Peace

2009-09-10T14:23:00.003-06:00

I know no one pays attention Afghanistan these days. And why should we? A sorrier country of contradictions is hard to find. We attacked them to free the population and bring democracy and womens rights to the tired masses yearning to breath free. And what do we get? 35-40% of aid being routed back to the US and women setting themselves on fire in rising numbers to escape their lives. Good work!

However, this is a silver lining. On Wednesday, a New York Times reporter we didn't know had been kidnapped was rescued after a daring raid by British Commandos! Yay, freedom!

Sadly, the reporter's translator, also kidnapped, did not make it and was killed during the firefight. Hmmm, an Afghani local with higher education who helps an American and is killed in the process. You know who he kind of sounds like? Wellington Yinsen from the 2008 Iron Man movie. The lesson here seems to be, the American is worth saving but the brown man is not. I'm guessing people in Afghanistan are tired of having this message beaten into them time and time again.

The New York Times reporter probably knows this message himself. He had been kidnapped while investigating a bombing by the US that is said to have killed up to 70 Afghani civilians.

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

Birthers, are you serious?

2009-08-04T08:21:00.001-06:00

Really?

Okay, but ... orly?

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

Who will speak for whitey?

2009-07-18T08:30:00.003-06:00

BUCHANAN:
Well, I think white men were 100 percent of the people that wrote the Constitution, 100 percent of the people that signed the Declaration of Independence, 100 percent of people who died at Gettysburg and Vicksburg. Probably close to 100 percent of the people who died at Normandy.

This has been a country built basically by white folks in this country who are 90 percent of the entire nation-in 1960, when I was growing up, Rachel-and the other 10 percent were African-American who had been discriminated against. That's why.

The bigger question is why was this asshole allowed to take up so much time on MSNBC (over 10 minutes!) when there are so many other people out there who could enrich the media?

Lila Schow

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

Freedom's Slave

2009-05-01T14:38:00.002-06:00

Recently, I got a comment on a year-old post from my good friend, Anonymous. Which is odd, because no one ever comments on this blog. And when they do, it's usually people who've misunderstood sarcasm. In terrible and hilarious ways. So when Anon popped up this morning, I paid attention!

Listen here you clearly dont understand the tragedies of war. Theres no glory in war I know but im a proud american who loves this country and I support the troops all the your so ignorant in liberal anti-government beliefs. Its a war not a peace rally stupid fuck people die. The people protecting your way of life die for you and me to keep us free. You could atleast show some sympathy for them we are liberating an oppressed people from a brutal dictator whats so wrong with that. If you say that Iraq is not our problem your an idiot. The U.S. has been fighting to liberate oppressed people ever since WWII. Go die liberal fuck people like you are a waste of time.

(omg, that post now has four comments! I'm famous!)

Now, no American can ever criticize the military without having an uncomfortable thought spared for Jack Nicholson, the great actor who sacrificed 0 longs years serving in our country's military.

"I have neither the time nor the inclination to explain myself to a man who rises and sleeps under the blanket of the very freedom that I provide and then questions the manner in which I provide it."

Aye, there's the rub, isn't it. That whole question the 'quality of service you provide' thingy. A republic, defended by a military made up of voluntary serfs who have no civil liberties and no democratic rights in the eyes of our nation. Who am I to question that? Who am I to be ungrateful? Clearly, I am a ignorant, liberal anti gubber (but only anti-Bush, am I right folks or am I right?)

If you step into the street without looking and a stranger saves your life, does that stranger now get to rule what you think and say? What if the stranger pulls you back and there was no danger? Do they get that right then? Since I am far more likely to die in an auto accident than at the hands of a terrorist or foreign government does that mean I don't have the right to criticize auto manufacturers who stand on the wall for me?

Or is it only because I can't understand the tragedies of war that I can't speak?

When my government uses flechettes, phosphorus, drones, DU. When they kill innocent people during the course of their work. When my brothers and sisters come back in flag draped coffins when I needed them to come back and fight the forest fires and floods in my own country? When I protested going to war for false reasons, when I protested a war of vengeance, when I protested the use of murder as a tool of democracy and then continued to criticize those in charge for making the same mistake over and over and over. Is that when I can't speak?

When the people protecting my life are actually endangering it, is that when I must be silent?

Hey, I'm still waiting for our government to liberate the oppressed. As an American citizen is it not my duty to ensure the rights of the people who've given theirs up to defend me? Isn't it my duty to make sure they defend me in a way I agree with and aren't being used as a tool by the government to shape foreign policy? Isn't it my duty to hold them accountable?

Anon wants me to trust my government to make the right choices for me and that's fair, except that my government has consistently chosen not to act in my best interest. It won't even act in the best interest of the soldiers who defend it.

What is it called when a 'patriot' uses anger, offense and self-righteousness as weapons to rob me off my freedoms and liberties?

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

Rhymes With Crapdemic

2009-04-30T12:06:00.003-06:00

There is a silent, but deadly killer among us. Over 100 people are killed each day. That's 2/state/day based off really horrible generalizing. Yes, I'm talking about flu. Not that fancy swine flu, either, which only kills 5 people a day -- and that's world wide. This is hardcore, straight up influenza. Mostly A and B.

It's safe to say that "swine flu" is causing a pandemic in panic. Even the World Health Organization is involved, raising the terror threat level of SF to 5 (or orange, as it were). Countries are closing borders, pigs are being slaughtered and schools shut down. Here in the United States we demand Cures and Vaccinations.

You know what else kills 100 Americans a day? Heart disease. Scratch that. Heart disease kills 100 people an hour.

There is another pandemic stalking the globe. Malaria. That shit kills close to 3,000 people a day. It would sure be nice to have a vaccine or pills or something for that. Oh wait ...

I guess perspective isn't really a word I can use when it comes to Americans. How about AntiVaxersPullYourHeadsOutOfYourAsses, or is that too long?

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

What CAN I Believe?

2009-04-26T18:20:00.002-06:00

Marjorie Cohn's article on torture and confessions was posted today at Truthout. And I am shocked. Shocked! I say. Because according to her, even torturing Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and Abu Zubaydah could not get either man to link Saddam with 9-11. Did you get that? We couldn't even get a false confessions from torture.

But I thought would could use torture to get any false confession we wanted. Isn't that was the left is always saying? So, what, did the interrogators not know how to do their jobs? Do they need to spend more time practicing?

Take a lesson US government, the next time you want to torture prisoners to gain specific information to support an unpopular cause -- spend a little more time coaching the prisoners with the answers you want. May I suggest cue cards?

Lila Schow

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

Pope: Food Isn't The Answer To Starvation

2009-03-18T11:13:00.003-06:00

Pope Benedict XVI said on his way to Africa Tuesday that food is not the answer in the continent's fight against hunger, his first explicit statement on an issue that has divided even clergy working with starving children.

Benedict had never directly addressed food use. He has said that the Roman Catholic Church is in the forefront of the battle against hunger. The Vatican encourages food abstinence to fight the spread of the hunger.

"You can't resolve it with the distribution of food," the pope told reporters aboard the Alitalia plane headed to Yaounde, Cameroon, where he will begin a seven-day pilgrimage on the continent. "On the contrary, it increases the problem."

Rebecca Hodes with the Treatment Action Campaign in South Africa said if the pope is serious about preventing starvation, he will focus on promoting wide access to food and spreading information on how best to eat it.

"Instead, his opposition to food conveys that religious dogma is more important to him than the lives of Africans," said Hodes, director of policy, communication and research for the action campaign.

While she said the pope is correct that food is not the sole solution to Africa's hunger epidemic, she said it is one of the very few hunger prevention mechanisms proven to work.

Even some priests and nuns working with those living with hunger question the church's opposition to food amid the pandemic ravaging Africa.

Benedict's first papal trip to Africa this week will take him to Cameroon and Angola. Africa is the fastest-growing region for the Roman Catholic Church, though it competes with Islam and evangelical churches.

The solution lay, he said, in a "spiritual and human awakening" and "friendship for those who suffer".

Hear that kid? Your suffering from a lack of Catholic 'awakening', not food. Maybe if you had a friend in Jesus, you'd not be in this condition. Ha!

The Pope, real world solutions, for real world problems. No wonder PZ Meyers is so excited to be excommunicated.

Next up, Pope Says Medical Intervention Isn't the Answer to Life Threatening Medical Issues

(Or does that one fall under the category "Pregnancy is God's punishment sex, no matter how unconsensual?")

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

Work To Be Done

2009-01-20T13:40:00.004-07:00

Today I am very proud of my nation and excited for the future. In listening to President Obama give his inaugural address, I am struck by the wholly unsubtle difference between the 43rd and 44th presidents.

I have a leader now who talks without sniggering, who doesn't struggle to remember what he's supposed to say verses what he really thinks, one who's address is not a joke or a mockery of our people. I am also struck by the concern W. gives our children in comparison with the gratitude Obama gives our ancestors. How odd that looking back could actually be a way forward.

Read the two speeches side by side.

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

A Nation of Loafers

2008-12-15T21:59:00.004-07:00

Come on, you know where this is going, right?

What is it with people and shoes? Or the USA and shoes, at any rate. It seems to be a footnote in our history, being rejected with a shoe for emphasis. When Soviet premier Nikita Khrushchev pounded on his podium back in 1963 he reportedly said, "Whether you like it or not, history is on our side. We will dig you in!" I'm sure if JFK had been in the room, he would have had to duck a size 10 as well.

Then, a mere 45 years later, reporter Muntazer al-Zaidi makes the same sort of statement. "This is a farewell kiss, you dog!" Amazingly, Bush the idiot managed to dodge not just one, but two loafers fired at close range.

(hey, is Maliki smiling, or is it just me?)

So. I don't agree with violence, even slapstick shaggalicious violence such as this. I laughed because he missed, maybe not so much if the idiot's reflexes hadn't been so keen. While the incident gave a nice chuckle to the day, what's missing is the truly "barbaric and heinous" acts going on around town:

The US Defaults on Promised Withdrawel Date (omg, I'm so shocked!)
A Report Comes Out Detailing Our Failure to Rebuild Iraq (wait, you mean you expected electricity, water and medical care after we put $117 BILLION toward those goals? Fools!)
Our US Leaders Link Other US Leaders To Iraqi Torture (and that was before the shoe dude was arrested)
55 People were Murdered in a Bombing
Five Blackwater Guards Face US Charges in Iraq Deaths
Suit Claims Halliburton, KBR Sickened Base
Iraq Blasts Kill at Least 18, Including Two US Soldiers

The tragedy isn't that the shoe missed, it's that we're even there to begin with. But hey, it's over now, we can laugh about it, right?

~Lila Schow

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

What is this strange feeling?

2008-11-05T13:17:00.002-07:00

Is it … hope? Last night I did something that for years I feared I would never again do. I put back up my flag.

I’d been a closet patriot for years, long before it was cool. Yet, on October 7, 2001, I took down my flag. Ashamed of my country and my government. Ashamed at those who thought a war of vengeance and hate and ignorance could turn back time, or even recompensate the families of the victims of 9-11.

Then this country invaded Iraq and betrayed my vision of what it meant to be an American even further. I always assumed that I would return the flag when we pulled our armed forces from those two countries. A paradoxical goal, since long term invasion is the agenda.

But last night, watching the elections I felt that feeling again. Pride. Pride in my country and for the people who shape it.

Obama will not pull our soldiers from Iraq. He seems bent on increasing the force in Afghanistan. This is not a surprise. But I do feel that with him in office, we have stumbled off the path of batshit insane and back on to a path with workable solutions.

So, for now, the flag is back. And maybe the cynicism is ebbing.

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

Earmarks, Society's Downfall

2008-10-03T22:26:00.005-06:00

Let's start with ... eliminat[ing] all earmarks - John McCain Speech to GOPAC, 11/16/2006

I will veto every bill with earmarks, until the Congress stops sending bills with earmarks ... I will make them famous, and you will know their names. You will know their names. -Same
Guy

Forget for a moment that McCain voted for the bailout plan, despite the loads of earmarks included. I would hate to question the integretah of the man.

Let's take a moment to discuss earmarks. Or, as they are also known, 'the devil'. What have earmarks done for you? Thanks to Sunlight Foundation's Earmarks page you can enter your zip code, click on the legal mumbo jumbo and read exactly what your representatives have been doing with your money.

I'm lucky. In my city there have been two earmarks listed since September, 2007. They went to support employment and education. Not bad for the corrupt government. Surely McCain would have vetoed those, even knowing how they would have helped my community.

In case you're tired of all this bad news, here's a link to the poetry of Sarah Palin. When she says;

It is obvious to me
Who the good guys are in this one
And who the bad guys are.
The bad guys are the ones
Who say Israel is a stinking corpse,
And should be wiped off
The face of the earth.

That's not a good guy.

then all of this this almost all makes sense.

~ Lila Schow

Because Responsible Citizens Clean Up After Their Government

http://goodusgov.org/

Yup

2008-09-23T22:30:00.002-06:00

Oh Afghanistan, how far you've come (baby)

2008-09-14T10:36:00.002-06:00

Here's a BBC article about the progress of Afghanistan now that the US has cleared the country of those oppressive Taliban. Wait. Sorry. It's really about how a student, Sayed Pervez Kambaksh, has been punished to death for downloading an article about women and their role in Islam.

Probably his biggest mistake was for using the internet for something other than it's intended purpose; porn. I'm guessing if the mullahs had found "big boobies" on his search history instead of "what role does Islam give women" he would have been just fine.

You can sign a petition here. It will do all the good that protesting a war will.

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

Women’s Equality Day

2008-09-11T08:02:00.003-06:00

So August 26 was Women's Equality Day, something I did not know. Which is odd, because as you might have figured out, I’m a woman. You would think there would have been a memo or something.

But fear not! Afghanistan got the news! They celebrated Women’s Equality day by:

· Having US soldiers throw them a party!

· Having western media recognize a woman-run business based in Kandahar.

· Reminding them that they have political equality under Afghanistan’s new constitution.

· Yay, an art show! In India.

· And reading the wonderfully upbeat proclamation from Bush–oh wait, that was 4 years ago. But still, spot on mate!

· And what about when the pentagon reminded Afghanistan that sending our service women over there “demonstrates our nation's belief that women should be considered equal citizens in all societies” and then they set up voter registration … shit, that was back in 2004 too.

Damn, it’s like our government has just given up. I don’t really have to tell you that all this is bullshit, do I? I mean, no one seriously believes that the US has done any good in that country, right? Please tell me that my own citizens aren’t that stupid.

The men and women of Afghanistan are building a nation that is free, and proud, and fighting terror - and America is honored to be their friend. George W. Bush

Afghanistan, we don’t read about anymore, because it’s succeeded. –John McCain on Charlie Rose 10-31-2005

I would take issue with the characterization that there’s anything desperate about the situation in Afghanistan, anything urgent or precarious about the situation in Afghanistan. – Pentagon
spokesperson Geoff Morrell Aug 5, 2008

Riiiiight. Okay, that’s about what I expected. Hey, does anyone else want to know what happened on Women's Equality Day in Afghanistan?

· Afghan President Karzai pardoned men convicted of bayonet gang rape of a woman searching for her kidnapped her son

· Rawa reported that violence against women has increased 40% since 2007

· 100 women set fire to themselves in a six-month period in western Afghanistan.

· Weddings! Of old men to children. And then “wedding night” injuries that land these little girls in the hospital. (don’t like this whole child bride shit? Too bad, because it makes up 57% of all marriages in Afghanistan)

· Nice, roomy schools opened – with no furniture, teachers or female students.

· Afghan President Karzai’s wife is a gynecologist who can’t open her practice anywhere in the country

· Because of the impending famine, families who make $120 a year will now be able to spend $35 of that … on a bag of flour

· Women are free to wear the empowering and totally not oppressive burqas.

· Yeah, and there’s still a buttload of landmines littering the workplace

I guess I’m not the only one who missed Women’s Equality Day. Looks like the entire nation of Afghanistan missed it too. Except for those photo ops.

Lila Schow

Because Responsible Citizens Clean Up After Their Government

http://goodusgov.org/

Jiminy Cricket! Is their strategy just to wish?

2008-09-04T13:34:00.003-06:00

Sitting back watching Sarah Palin join John McCain's campaign as his running mate, I can only think of one thing. This Mr. Deity skit.

In the end, Mr. Deity and Larry take a bet on whether anyone on earth will still believe in God if he allows Holocausts, Down Syndrom, Baby Torture and Natural Disasters (but hey, he did rule against people hurting others with just their thoughts, so that's nice).

Do the Republicans even have a chance with a VP nominee who:

~Believes in Intelligent Design/Creationism

~Hates cuddly little polar bears

~Supports the McCain Jedi Mind Trick view that "everything's okay in America, move along. Move along"

~As a woman running for one of the most powerful jobs in this nation, she introduces herself by telling us about her husband's snowmobiling?

I guess the Republicans are going with the good ol' boy/soccer mom strategy. Who am I to knock it? With a little help from Diebold, that strategy has been working for them! So while millions are tearing out their hair in glee/anguish shouting "Fools! They won't vote for you now!" all I can think about is Mr. Deity. It's a bet I'm not willing to take.

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

lolfun!

2008-09-02T20:35:00.002-06:00

Because I don't have time for anything else;

~Lila

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

Just another day ...

2008-07-09T14:07:00.002-06:00

http://punditkitchen.files.wordpress.com/2008/07/political-pictures-kid-selling-candy-bar-soldier-rocket-launcher.jpg

Oh Thank Heavens... James Dobson has the Cure for The Gay!!!

2008-06-30T20:47:00.002-06:00

I was reminded of this the other day and even after all this time, it still makes me laugh...

In 2002, James Dobson, founder of Focus on the Phallus, penned a series of articles aimed at identifying what he terms are the "warning signs of prehomosexuality" in children and the proper steps parents need to take to keep them from prancing down the path to Gayville.

Meanwhile, the boy's father has to do his part. He needs to mirror and affirm his son's maleness. He can play rough-and-tumble games with his son, in ways that are decidedly different from the games he would play with a little girl. He can help his son learn to throw and catch a ball. He can teach him to pound a square wooden peg into a square hole in a pegboard. He can even take his son with him into the shower, where the boy cannot help but notice that Dad has a penis, just like his, only bigger.

Isn't that fantastic? By whipping out your junk and waving it at your son, you can guarantee that not only will he need years of intensive therapy, but you'd be affirming his "maleness" and prevent him from skipping off to Fairyland. I don't know about ya'll, but my dad never did any of this stuff with me and strangely and perhaps even magically so, I find myself to be very, very fond of the female species.

Dobson's article is as disturbing as it is hilarious in my opinion. I mean, let's just look at a couple of his assertions a little more closely, shall we?

In order to affirm your son's "maleness," fathers should...

"...help his son learn to throw and catch a ball."

Yeah, because everybody knows that if you can throw and catch, you must be straight, right? But what about female athletes? Are they having their "maleness" affirmed every time they play their chosen sport? Are we, as a society, failing the female portion of our population by encouraging them to play sports that they love? Oh, that's right... in the worldview of people like James Dobson and the Focus on the Phallus crowd, women should be relegated the kitchen, doing little more than waiting on their husbands hand and foot and pumping out babies. I forgot. My bad.

"He can teach him to pound a square wooden peg into a square hole in a pegboard."

Oh my. Where to start with this little nugget of wisdom? He can teach his son to "pound a square wooden peg into a square hole"... ummmmm.... yeahhhhhh... Okay, is it me, or does this sound like a not-too-subtle allusion to... sex? *GASP* And if it is indeed a not-too-subtle allusion to sex, shouldn't Dobson be promoting teaching these kids to ummmm... pound a round peg into a square hole or vice versa? I mean, if the goal here is to teach them that "different is better" maybe "pounding" the same shaped peg into the same shaped hole isn't quite the way to go? Maybe? And maybe "pounding" these pegs isn't quite the right thing to be teaching the children... I mean, where's the romance here? Where's the gentle touch? It's no wonder the Focus on the Phallus contingent has such an "icky" view of sex... they're no freaking good at it!!! And with educational practices like "pounding" pegs into holes, can they really be blamed?

"He can even take his son with him into the shower, where the boy cannot help but notice that Dad has a penis, just like his, only bigger."

Okay, to me, this is just wrong on SOOOOOO many levels. First of all, if he brings junior into the shower with him, daddy better hope his package is bigger than junior's or this could lead to a cornucopia of other issues. And perhaps I'm just a wee bit prudish and repressed or something, but I've got some serious issues with taking your child into the shower for the express purpose of giving him a little look-see at your junk. I find that more than a wee bit disturbing and a whole lot creepy actually. I'm sure that there are plenty of healthy reasons to take your child into the shower... I just can't think of them right now. But I'm sure that there are lots of people who can think of reasons... but yeah... to me, that's just so not right.

So yeah... if you want to prevent your child from catching The Gay, heed James Dobson's advice. Fathers, play those "rough and tumble games" with your sons, teach him to throw and catch a ball, teach him to... ahem... "pound" a square peg into a square hole and don't forget to drag him into the shower and wave your junk at him. I'm sure all of that will keep your sons from becoming gay. Yeah. Sure. Okay. And the moon is made of green cheese and Santa Claus, the Easter Bunny and the Tooth Fairy all exist too.

~Kevin S.

The Senate Finally Gets Something Right... And a Call to Action...

2008-05-23T10:31:00.000-06:00

I know that I spend a lot of time on this blog banging on our elected representatives for the stupid, boneheaded, absolutely wrong and sometimes downright evil things they do and that I seldom stop to acknowledge when they do something right. Well, tonight I shall do just that.

By a vote of 75-22, the Senate today passed the 2008 GI Bill first proposed by Senator Jim Webb of Virginia. The new GI Bill, like it's predecessor originally passed in 1944, will provide our veterans with, among other things, the funding necessary to go to college once they have served a minimum of 3 years in uniform. Proponents of the bill had initially expected to rake in about 60 votes meaning it would pass but not with a veto-proof majority. Needless and happily to say, the 75 votes far exceeded expectations. It was really nice to see that many Republicans who shout from the rooftops that they support our troops actually stand up and show their support by crossing party lines to support the bill. I mean really... isn't a college education the very least that we can do, as a country, to re-pay the sacrifice the men and women in our nation's uniforms have made? Isn't giving them a chance to better their lives once they've done their service to the country the very least we can do? I think so. And huge kudos to those 75 Senators that stood up to make it happen, that stood up to honor the commitment and sacrifice of our troops, that stood up to acknowledge that for putting their lives on the line, that we owe them a debt of gratitude. Kudos to them.

But the fight isn't quite over just yet. The bill goes back to the House to reconcile and vote on the Senate version of the bill. It's expected to pass the House easily, though perhaps not with a veto-proof majority. We'll have to wait and see on that one. After that, it goes to the desk of George W. Bush... the man who continually wraps himself in the flag and uses our troops as props during his photo-ops. Now is the time to see if he truly does support our troops as he claims he does. The initial indications coming out of the White House are that Bush is going to veto this bill. Obviously Bush thinks the troops are just perfect for taking pictures with and for sending into the meat grinder that is Iraq, but they're not quite good enough or worthy of receiving a college education in return for their service.

I'm hoping that Bush will have a sudden moment of conscience and clarity and put his signature on that bill without a second thought. More likely though, we're going to have to take action to force his hand because this scumbag does nothing good without being shamed into it first. So... that's where we come in. It's absolutely critical, that if we want the GI Bill to pass, we're going to have to shame Bush into it.

First off, you can visit the GI Bill website and sign the online petition there.

Secondly, you can contact the White House directly to make your opinions on the GI Bill heard. Here is the contact information for the White House:

Mailing Address
The White House
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW
Washington, DC 20500

Phone Numbers
Comments: 202-456-1111
Switchboard: 202-456-1414
FAX: 202-456-2461

You can also email the White House at comments@whitehouse.gov

And just for grins, you can contact Dick Cheney to tell him what an evil, rotten, son-of-a-bitch he is at vice_president@whitehouse.gov.

Really... it wouldn't take you all that long to fire off an email or make a telephone call on the behalf of America's veterans.

So... who are the 22 Senators that don't support the troops? Glad you asked. Here is a list of the 22 evil douchebags that don't support the troops, that don't think benefits and opportunity should be given to those that have sacrificed for our country, sacrificed for us...

Alexander (R-TN)
Allard (R-CO)
Barrasso (R-WY)
Bennett (R-UT)
Brownback (R-KS)
Bunning (R-KY)
Burr (R-NC)
Cochran (R-MS)
Corker (R-TN)
Cornyn (R-TX)
DeMint (R-SC)
Ensign (R-NV)
Enzi (R-WY)
Graham (R-SC)
Grassley (R-IA)
Gregg (R-NH)
Hatch (R-UT)
Kyl (R-AZ)
Lugar (R-IN)
McConnell (R-KY)
Sessions (R-AL)
Voinovich (R-OH)

Notice that they all have R's next to their name? Yeah, the Republicans are totally the party that supports the troops. Copious amounts of abuse must be heaped on these douchebags. I absolutely encourage everybody to fire off a nastygram to these knuckle-draggers. If you're so inclined as to abuse these "good" Senators, you can find their contact information here.

And most notably, Presidential contender and the presumptive Republican nominee, John Sidney McCain, a vocal opponent of the Webb GI Bill couldn't be bothered to come back to vote on it. This cowardly piece of crap didn't want to be on record as having opposed expanding the benefits to our veterans and so, he just didn't show up. Apparently, being on the Ellen Degeneress show today was much more important, much more vital and really showed our troops just how committed he is to them. What a rotten scumbag.

Today was a great step in the right direction. But the real fight is just beginning. I hope everybody takes a few minutes out of their day sometime within the next week or so to encourage Bush to sign the GI Bill.

~Kevin S.

God Damn America

2008-05-20T13:49:00.001-06:00

Sounds inflammatory, doesn't it? If I were to say "God Damn America," would that mean that I hate my country? That I'm un-American? Un-Patriotic? A Nazi appeaser? A terrorist sympathizer? A potential terrorist myself? I'm sure to some of the knuckle-dragging, mouth-breathing cretins on the right it means all of that and probably even more. Of course, some of us prefer that our arguments are a little more nuanced than that.

I'd hoped that the whole flap of Jeremiah Wright was going to just go away. But our YouTube, sound-byte, gotcha political culture, I should have known it wouldn't just go away. It's become entirely too easy to take small clips and sound-bytes completely out of context and make somebody look entirely crazy or radical. And the Republicans have absolutely played this manufactured controversy over Jeremiah Wright to the hilt. They've framed it as the "radical black pastor" casting aspersions upon our pristine and entirely noble country and have painted Obama with the same brush. And sadly, it's resonating with some people. The exit polling after the West Virginia primary showed that Jeremiah Wright and his connection to Obama was still very much on the minds of the voting public. Not that I'd ever call West Virginia a bastion of enlightened thinking, but it was still very sad to see.

Yeah, I guess it's kind of shocking at first to see somebody in front of their congregation screaming "God Damn America." But if you actually look at Wright's full comments and not just the "God Damn America" portion, you might take away an entirely different impression of those "controversial sermons." The right though, doesn't want you to look at Wright's comments in their full context. They want the American electorate to simply focus on the "radical black pastor" screaming "God Damn America" because it's such an inflammatory image.

So what is it that Wright said that was so egregious and wrong? I've looked at his comments and quite honestly, though I'll nitpick a few things here and there, I don't think he was entirely that far off the mark with some of his comments. Let me give you a couple of examples...

"We bombed Hiroshima, we bombed Nagasaki, and we nuked far more than the thousands in New York and The Pentagon, and we never batted an eye... and now we are indignant, because the stuff we have done overseas is now brought back into our own front yards. America's chickens are coming home to roost."

Well, we did in fact, drop nukes on Hiroshima and Nagasaki leading to the deaths of hundreds of thousands of people. Mostly civilians. And we were the ones that trained and equipped Osama bin Laden and the mujahadeen when we wanted them to fight the Soviets in Afghanistan. In the wake of 9/11, bin Laden said that our foreign policy, more specifically the fact that we were keeping bases in Saudi Arabia, led to him attacking our nation. Our foreign policy under George W. Bush, spreading democracy at the barrel of a gun, has created a generation of people that are willing to kill and die for their cause. Isn't that a case of our own chickens coming home to roost? Sounds like it to me.

“The government lied about Pearl Harbor too. They knew the Japanese were going to attack. Governments lie. The government lied about the Gulf of Tonkin. They wanted that resolution to get us in the Vietnam War. Governments lie. The government lied about Nelson Mandela and our CIA helped put him in prison and keep him there for 27 years. The South African government lied on Nelson Mandela. Governments lie."

Well, whether or not the government knew about the impending attack on Pearl Harbor remains a point of controversy among some people. But the government did in fact, lie about the events in the Gulf of Tonkin as a means of prying a resolution out of Congress. That's entirely true. Members of our government, including Vice President Dick Cheney, did in fact support the imprisonment of Nelson Mandela and the Apartheid government. That's also fact. Governments... even our very own government do lie. So where is Jeremiah Wright wrong?

"The government lied about the Tuskegee experiment. They purposely infected African American men with syphilis. Governments lie. The government lied about bombing Cambodia and Richard Nixon stood in front of the camera, ‘Let me make myself perfectly clear…’ Governments lie. The government lied about the drugs for arms Contra scheme orchestrated by Oliver North, and then the government pardoned all the perpetrators so they could get better jobs in the government. Governments lie.... The government lied about inventing the HIV virus as a means of genocide against people of color. Governments lie. The government lied about a connection between Al Qaeda and Saddam Hussein and a connection between 9.11.01 and Operation Iraqi Freedom. Governments lie.”

Well, the government did in fact lie about the Tuskegee experiment. What Wright said about the governmental experiment which infected African-American men with syphillis is entirely true. The governent did lie about bombing Cambodia and the government lied about the drugs for arms scheme. Where is Wright wrong? Okay, here is where I take issue with some of Wright's comments... I don't believe that government is responsible for "inventing" the HIV virus, though in the wake of the Tuskegee experiments, the flooding of inner-cities with drugs to fund their wars in Central and South America, the embracing by some leading figures in this country of the Eugenics movement, is it really so hard to understand why he might be a little skeptical? And on his last comment... well... the Bush Administration did in fact, lie about a connection between al Qaeda and Saddam Hussein. That's right on the money.

"And the United States of America government, when it came to treating her citizens of Indian descent fairly, she failed. She put them on reservations. When it came to treating her citizens of Japanese descent fairly, she failed. She put them in internment prison camps. When it came to treating her citizens of African descent fairly, America failed. She put them in chains, the government put them on slave quarters, put them on auction blocks, put them in cotton field, put them in inferior schools, put them in substandard housing, put them in scientific experiments, put them in the lowest paying jobs, put them outside the equal protection of the law, kept them out of their racist bastions of higher education and locked them into positions of hopelessness and helplessness....

Again... where is Jeremiah Wright wrong? In any of those comments?

Hillary was not a black boy raised in a single parent home, Barack was. Barack knows what it means to be a black man living in a country and a culture that is controlled by rich white people. Hillary can never know that. Hillary ain't never been called a nigger. Hillary has never had her people defined as non-persons."

Is any of that untrue? I'm quite sure that nobody has ever called her by the "n" word, nor do I think that Hillary could ever truly know and understand what it's like to be a black man living in a country that for many, many, many years did define African-Americans as non-persons... or 3/5 of a person anyway. Where is Jeremiah Wright wrong?

I could go on and on and on... I probably have already gone on more than long enough as it is. But can you see how easy it is to take things out of context and with a little political spin, make somebody out to be a stark raving loon? Obviously, the people in West Virginia, to the tune of about 75% of those answering the exit polls, have bought into this manufactured controversy, have labeled Jeremiah Wright as un-patriotic and un-American and viewed Barack Obama through the same lens.

Our government is not perfect. Not by a loooooong stretch. And it's not un-American, it doesn't mean you hate this country to point that fact out. Yes, God Damn our government for some of the things we have done and continue to do. We are directly responsible for some of the most evil acts in the world. Our government removed a democratically elected government in Chile back in the early 70's, replacing it with the brutal military dictator Augusto Pinochet. Pinochet's government, if you remember, is responsible for the disappearance and murder of thousands of its citizens. That was entirely the doing of our government... represented by one John Negroponte who helped train the government's death squads. And Negroponte, if you're scoring at home, is currently our Deputy Secretary of State after serving as our Director of National Intelligence.

Our government is directly responsible for atrocities such as that and more. And despite what those on the right will tell you, it's not un-American to point that out. Idealized or not, some of us believe that our country was founded upon and holds certain ideals and principles dear. And we desperately want to see this country live up to those principles. We want our country to live up to the promise we all believe it has. It's not un-patriotic to want desperately for our country to be a shining example in this world, to truly be the beacon of hope we once were.

Despite what the right has said and continues to say, despite the anti-American brush they paint Jeremiah Wright and Barack Obama by proxy with, nothing Wright said makes him un-American or un-patriotic. Certainly no more than those of us that truly love our country... love it so much that we can step back and objectively see the things we do in the world and say, "yeah, God Damn us" for this or for that.

Our government, our country will never be perfect. We are led by people who will make mistakes, make bad decisions and who will do bad things from time to time. To believe otherwise is pure folly. Blindly obeying, believing in the infallability of America and never questioning our government is also pure folly. It is up to us to steer this country in the direction we want it to go. It is up to us to make this country live up to its promise. It's up to us to cut through the spin, look past the YouTube clips and selectively edited sound-bytes and get to the truth. There is nothing wrong with, nothing un-patriotic about being critical of our government and our country. There is nothing wrong with saying "God Damn Us" from time to time. Because sometimes, whether you choose to acknowledge it or not, we really deserve it.

~Kevin S.

Wear a Uniform? Your Government May Be Trying to Kill You

2008-04-01T21:41:00.007-06:00

The past few weeks in the US we've seen marches, vigils and rallies held in protest of the four-thousandth soldier killed on Easter Sunday.

Our government may chalk up these deaths as nothing more than a "number" so we are fortunate that there are people who understand that 4,000 is a life that held meaning and value and not just an abstract bean to be counted.

However, the 4,000 milestone neglects a more sinister number. We have 162,000 US soldiers stationed in Iraq, almost 100,000 of those in combat units.

Which means that our government has decided that one-hundred-thousand Americans is an acceptable loss to win this war. A war we supposedly won way back in May, 2003.

In a country whose "democratic" government supposedly took over after the January, 2005 elections.
Now I hear Bush is saying don't sweat those 4,000 because they "laid the foundation for peace". I don't know about you, but I'd have a difficult time living in a house built atop the corpses of even one person, let alone 4,000. Pretty sure it wouldn't pass inspection, either.

The government really doesn't want our soldiers to come home. They treat soldiers in the same manner that they treat our nation's impoverished -- as disposable people.

If they weren't so easy to use up and toss away, we'd put the effort in to doing the little things. Like making sure they were eligible for education benefits under the GI Bill, instead of stiffing them by bringing them home one day short of the requirements. Or, perhaps we would make sure that our contractors didn't electrocute our soldiers. Hell, maybe we'd even go a little crazy and make sure soldiers didn't Return Home Homeless, and have to listen while the Bush Administration Argues Veterans Not Entitled to Mental Health Care.

We wouldn't turn our soldiers into Torturers.

We wouldn't leave one third of them open to Harassment.

We wouldn't ask Wounded soldiers to return signing bonuses.

We wouldn't futz around with "cause of death" to keep soldiers injured in combat who later die from those injuries off our casualty list.

Our own nation constantly follows orders from a government that fucks our soldiers up the ass and tells them they like it, bitch.

In the meantime, here's a new number for you. 720 million. That's how much money we spend each day fighting this war. Want to know what we could be doing with it?

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

How Can They Get More Money?

2008-03-19T07:58:00.005-06:00

Illustration by John Blackford. By Peter van Agtmael/Polaris (desert), Konstantin Inozemtsev/Alamy (money).

President Bush says he has no doubts about launching the unpopular war in Iraq despite the "high cost in lives and treasure," arguing that retreat now would embolden Iran and provide al Qaeda with money for weapons of mass destruction to attack the United States.

Um ... k, dude? How could they get more money? We're the ones giving it to them now.

~Lila Schow

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

The Sweet Smell of Success...

2008-03-19T07:49:00.001-06:00

Vice-President Darth Cheney made a surprise visit to Iraq today on his swing through the Middle East on his mission of... peace. Insert your own punchline here. Ahem. So why was Cheney's visit to Iraq kept secret? Well, because divulging that information ahead of time would be far too dangerous, of course. Even though Cheney sees "phenomenal" progress and noted the "remarkable turnaround" in regard to quelling the violence and stepping up the security in Iraq, the Vice-President apparently still thinks it might be a wee bit too dangerous for him to disclose the when's and where's of his agenda while in Iraq.

Speaking from inside the heavily secured and heavily fortified Green Zone, Cheney said he believed the war was a "difficult, challenging, but nonetheless successful endeavor that has been well worth the effort."

Well worth the effort? Tell that to the just about 4,000 American soldiers and tens of thousands of Iraqi civilians that have been killed in your dirty little war.Let's take a measure of that "phenomenal" progress and the "remarkable turnaround" in Iraq, shall we?

This is from just from yesterday and today in Iraq:

-Five people were killed and another 12 injured when mortar shells hit a soccer field in Baghdad...

-A minibus packed with explosives killed three people and wounded eight others in Karrada district...

-A roadside bomb killed one policeman and wounded another as they patrolled Mansour district in western Baghdad...

-Three bodies of U.S.-backed neighbourhood police were found two days after they were kidnapped in the town of Udhaim...

-Two days after their kidnapping, the bodies of three members of a U.S.-allied group fighting al-Qaida in Udaim have been found...

-Four civilians were injured when a roadside bomb that was targeting a U.S. convoy deonated...

-Two U.S. soldiers were killed when a roadside bomb hit their vehicle in northern Baghdad...

-In different districts throughout Baghdad, Iraqi police discovered the bodies of at least 5 different people...

-A roadside bomb killed one policeman and wounded another as they patrolled Mansour district in western Baghdad...

-According to Iraqi police, a roadside bomb wounded one person in Mansour district...

-A female suicide bomber killed 40 and wounded another 71 in an attack on a cafe near the revered Imam Hussein mosque in Karbala...

-A roadside bomb in the eastern Baghdad district of Zayouna detonated, wounding three people...

-Gunmen kidnapped two off-duty Iraqi soldiers at a fake checkpoint in western Tikrit...

Wow, now that is just an overwhelming display of success. Take a big whiff of it... success, my friends, just smells so sweet, doesn't it?

Let me just step back and take a moment to refresh everybody's memory. In a 1994 interview, Cheney proved to be prescient beyond words when he said the following:

With the war set to climb over the 5-year hurdle, with nearly 4,000 American lives lost and with no end to this war in sight, I'm hard pressed to understand in exactly what universe Cheney could possibly see a "remarkable turnaround" or say that it's been "well worth the effort."

If this is what they consider success, I'd really hate to see what abject failure looks like.

~Kevin S.

Protesting Strategies

2008-03-17T13:26:00.003-06:00

First I'd like to say that I have great respect for those that do this their entire lives. I've been working toward social change (namely to end the wars) for six years and honestly, I gave up about four years ago. Kind of been putting in a half-assed effort since then.
But the people who organize the protests and stage sit-ins in Congressional offices and work tirelessly to benefit people other than themselves, I'm not sure how they don't lose enthusiasm.
This weekend, I went to Boulder for the five-year protest of the Iraq war. I should have known better. The protest had been combined with Ceser Chavez day. (Back in 2003, the Martin Luther King Jr Day Marade was co-opted by peace groups so this was kind of similar but ... oh yeah ... without any impact.)

As I stood in the cold for an hour, trying not to listen to the speeches and wondering when the hell the march would start, I looked around at the group.

Cesar Chavez, Natives in traditional dress (did I mention it was 40 degrees out?), End the War, 9-11 was and Inside Job, Free Palestine, Free Tibet, even some Rocky Flats. While I agree with most of these groups and support their goals, I cringe at how they promote their message. It got me wondering, what are the end goals for the protest organizers and attendees? To get out and make some noise? To get people thinking about issues? To make a change?
How can an organization do this? I've come up with a list (Yes! A list!) of seven changes protesters need to implement to reach their goals. I'll be protesting the protests until I start seeing them. In fact, I've scheduled a day and secured the permits so that on President's Day, 2009, we can protest the protest methods while at the same time celebrate Washington/Lincoln, examine voting machines, end global warming and invite our senators to lick DU munitions to prove they're safe.
Sorry, got a little off track. Here are my Seven Demands For More Cohesive Protesting:

1. Dress nicely. Business casual at the very least ... oh wait, these are liberals -- business. Stuffy business. I know this is a really petty one. (Start with petty first, that's what I always say) Still, nobody wants to listen to a bunch of derelicts. Image is a key to success in this society.

Don't like it? Me either. And it can be our next cause after Iraq/Bush/Palestine/NAFTA/CAFTA/US foreign policy etc...

Dress like you respect the issue, not like you're advertising your bong club. That is, if you really want to start attracting people, be taken seriously, and have people stop to listen to you.

2. Stay on Target. Protest the war. All subjects are to be directly related to this. Not a tangent. Not some 'we are all connected' bullshit.
3. Don't Preach to the Choir. We show up because we care. That means we are informed. We know Bush lied. We know soldiers died. We know what the subjects are about. So you need to ask yourself, who's this speech for? The passersby? The protesters? What is the end goal?

If you want to get people fired up for the march, you need to choose a different tactic. Tell us something we don't know. Tell us when protesting has worked. Or if you want to provoke thought among the crowd, then find a different angle. Don't just read to us from a list printed from your website.

4. Provoke Without Provoking. Is their anyway to discuss these topics and generate discussion without being a complete douche bag?
If so, I'd really like to see some speakers find it. Let's draw people in, instead of having them run screaming from the protest. I know you're angry. I'm angry too. Can we bottle that rage up and save it for throwing eggs at Bush when he's in town?

5. Stick to a Timeline. Come on. No one really wants to hear you talk. Make it brief, make it short, and give clear directions.
6. Be Original. I protest the genocide in Darfur. What really sucked was going to a protest and hearing the same speech I'd heard the year before. Word for word. Even the death count was the same. So, if you're just trotting out the same old diatribe (and it isn't even funny) -- might want to rethink that. Hell, try having new facts that none of us know. Or, invite some right-winger in for a debate. God, then we at least would have good use for those eggs...

7. Have a contact booth. Here's an idea. Instead of many disjointed hubs running fifty agendas and stepping on people's feet, organize! People could sign up for email alerts to the next protest. Preplanning items could be sent out. A schedule of events even!
Those are my seven demands. I'll be holed up here until they're met. Or until the candlelight vigils on Wednesday, whatever comes first.

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

Can You Fear Me Now? Good.

2008-02-25T12:24:00.002-07:00

“Good morning. At this very moment, somewhere in the world, terrorists are planning attacks on our country that will make September 11th pale by comparison.”

Yes well, I’m quite sure that at this very moment, somewhere in the world, somebody is planning to stuff a rocket up their ass and fly to Jupiter. Doesn’t mean either plan is actually going to come to fruition, does it?

Unbelievably, that quote is how George W. Bush actually began a televised statement to the nation just last week. So what occasioned such a grim and dire statement one might ask? Have we received intelligence suggesting that a large scale attack is imminent? Have we gleaned some specific piece of information that we should be concerned about? The answer to those questions of course, would be no and no. Bush’s little performance was nothing more than a naked attempt to crank up the ol’ Republican fear machine one more time to put the squeeze on that completely intransigent chamber of Congress, the House of Representatives. It seems that once again, the fight over FISA laws and what the Bush Administration believe is their inalienable right to illegally spy on American citizens has erupted and of course, the Preznit played the only card the knows how to play… the fear card. Hey, it’s worked so well for 7 years now that they’re going to keep riding that sucker until the wheels fall off.

But wait! Wasn’t it just last year when Congress, lacking any sort of spine or testicular fortitude and in complete violation of existing FISA laws as well as the 4th and 5th Amendments, caved in to the Bush Administration demands and approved a piece of legislation known as the “Protect America Act” that made his little illegal wiretapping program… legal? Why yes, yes it was in fact. In a move of extreme political cowardice, the Congressional Democrats flushed all of our Constitutionally guaranteed protections straight down the crapper, giving the Bush Administration free reign to tap our phones, read our emails and track our internet usage… all without probable cause or having to obtain a silly little thing called a warrant. The one caveat to the Democrats grabbing their ankles however, is that in approving Bush’s illegal domestic spying programs, Congress put a one-year shelf-life on it.

Hey, waaaaaaait a minute. It’s a given that I’m not the intellectual giant that Dubya is, but something isn’t quite adding up for me here. I’m just not quite getting something… If the Democrats rolled over and passed the “Protect America Act” last August and it was good for a year, wouldn’t that mean that it is in effect until this August? Hmmmm… maybe my math is off but by my calculations, the “Protect America Act” still has another 6 months before it expires. Surely Dubya wouldn’t like lie to us or misrepresent the facts, would he? I mean, he was all over the news screaming that if the House failed to re-authorize the law by the time it expired last Friday at midnight, we’d surely be overrun by terrorists hellbent on murder, mayhem and standing in the express lines at the grocery store with more than 10 items! To hear Dubya speak last week, that law was the only thing standing between all of us and the thousands of Muslim terrorists ready to kill every man, woman, child, dog, cat, hamster and goldfish in the country. Dubya actually said that if the House didn’t reauthorize the law, they were putting the lives of all Americans in grave danger and that those of us opposed to the law were enabling terrorists who want to do nothing but kill us all!

Yeah… well, midnight last Friday came and went and I know that I wasn’t killed by a terrorist. What about you all out there? Anybody have a jihad declared on them over the weekend? I’m a total news-whore, but I certainly don’t seem to recall seeing a single story over the weekend about anything in the continental U.S. being blown up. Or maybe there was a huge, gnarly terrorist attack in downtown Topeka, Kansas and I just missed it? Or maybe… just maybe… Bush has once again lied to the American people… maybe he tried to juice up and exploit the fear of Americans to justify his illegal actions. I know, it’s shocking and it’s hard to believe. After all, he’s got such a stellar track record of honesty and transparency and all. Golly-Gee-Whiz, lies and deception are just so unlike him.

Okay, let’s all just take a big swig of reality-juice now. Despite Bush’s rantings and ravings last week, the only thing that was set to expire last Friday at midnight was the provision of the “Protect America Act” that gave immunity to our friends in the telecom industry… you know, those fine, upstanding, uber-patriotic folks at the telephone companies and the internet service providers that turned over all of our private information in total violation of our Constitutional rights and federal law. Yeah, those guys. Bush beat that fear drum hard in an attempt to keep them safe from possibly having their crooked asses sued for violating our civil rights. That was the imminent danger the country was facing and not some mythical imminent attack on our country. This was all just political theater… just a little more fearmongering courtesy of our friends in the Bush Administration.

Personally, I am sick to death of this politics of fear. I am sick to death of Bush and the Republicans playing to people’s worst fears and their darkest, most base instincts. And in so doing, they’ve launched a war solely for corporate profit, they’ve trashed our Constitution, they’ve trampled over our rights and freedoms and they continue to flout the laws of this country with impunity. Their program of illegally spying on American citizens is more insidious and invasive than anything Nixon or J. Edgar Hoover could have ever dreamt up. And to do it under the cover of “national security” or “protecting the homeland” is repugnant beyond words. To tell us that we’re supporting terrorism by standing opposed to the crushing of our rights and freedoms, for speaking out about the erosion of the foundations this country was built on and for demanding accountability for the lawlessness of this government is even more so. Bush’s illegal spying program has about as much to do with protecting this country from terrorism as his war for corporate profit in Iraq does.

Make no mistake, there are people out there that wish to do us harm. But the constant playing of the fear card isn’t making this country one iota safer. By telling the American people that we’re all in grave danger, by falsely alluding to imminent attacks in an effort to extend further protection to the telecom companies that have broken the law isn’t making this country one iota safer. Destroying our Constitution and crushing our rights and freedoms hasn’t made this country one iota safer. In fact, everything the Bush Administration has done and is doing continues to put this country at greater and greater risk. Abandoning our ideals and our principles, the bedrock of this country is not the way to beat those that wish to do us harm. And neither is perpetually playing the fear card.

As Franklin Delano Roosevelt said, “The only thing we have to fear is fear itself.”

Truer words were never spoken.

/ rant

And just to lighten things up a little bit… Meet Snuggly the Security Bear. Feel free to pass this on to those special little right-wing whack-jobs in your life…

Hat tip to Mark Fiore... brilliant political cartoonist and creator of Snuggly the Security Bear...

~Kevin S.

I Paid $37M for THIS POS?

2008-02-04T21:20:00.000-07:00

As you may know, I enjoy tracking what little the US spends on actual rebuilding in Afghanistan. It's been rather quiet lately. Since about 2001, I'd say.

But then today! Oh joy of joys! I was sorting through the unread news in my inbox. I'm ashamed to say this breaking event happened back in August. Sorry it's so late. But it's relevant, I swear! And I promise, nothing this big has been built in the past four months.

Afghan and Tajik leaders have inaugurated a new bridge linking their countries across River Panj.

I was so excited. But then I looked at the photo.

WTF, thought I. My tax dollars paid for this piece of shit? Greg Mortenson built a bridge in Pakistan for $10,000, what the fuck is going on here? Admittedly, it's not a very good photo. I decided to look for another. But Google kept giving me the same image. So I switched to Yahoo, knowing someone had to have a private picture that was better than the BBC's. And they did!

Again, I was confused. Two bridges? That's not what I saw in the BBC photo. I looked again. There are two bridges! Then I found another photo on the flickr site.

A pic of the temporary bridge and early construction

Aha! Problem solved. Clearly the BBC used a photo including the temporary bridge. See? The same pile of dirt is in both, off to the lower left-hand side there. One final photo put everything in place.

Whew! There's a bridge that looks like it's about ... well, $4 million at least. I feel so much better. Except, what the hell? How come the BBC couldn't get a better angle of the bridge? I did it in 3.5 seconds. Or at least put an explanation on the caption.

Which has me reexamining the article.

The $37m (£18.4m) project, a US gift, replaces an intermittent ferry service across the fast-flowing river.

Thanks to expatjim2000's photos I know it was the temporary bridge that replaced the ferry service. (and, btw, that water looks pretty lazy to me)

So, what was the gift? The kick ass $34 million dollar behemoth, or the not-so-pretty temporary bridge?

For Washington this is a showcase project, a proof that things can go right for Afghanistan and its neighbours, [BBC's Natalia Antelava] says.

Dude, you guys can't even get a nice photo for the showcase, I'm not exactly cheering in my seat here. And while a bridge is great news, I think there are bigger issues that need to be addressed.

These...

Insurgencies Spread in Afghanistan and Pakistan
NATO Allies Divided Over Growing Afghan Crisis
Afghanistan - The Next Disaster
Blast kills top Afghan official
Bush Ignores Afghan School Violence
Afghan MPs back blasphemy death
British plans to arm Afghan militias reignite tensions with US
Ten Die in Mistaken Afghan Firefight
Canadian Military Has Quit Turning Detainees Over to Afghans
US Afghan poppy drive a 'failure'
Afghan Civilians Were Killed Needlessly, Ex-Marine Testifies
Afghanistan appeals for food aid

...come to mind.

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

Good Riddance to Bad Rubbish

2008-02-04T20:24:00.000-07:00

Can we all share a moment of silence for Mr. 9/11, otherwise known as Rudy Giuliani, please?

Okay, yeah, I couldn't make it through that moment without laughing either.

Yes, it's sadly time to say a very sad goodbye... okay, it's time to just say goodbye... to America's Mayor, Rudolph Giuliani. It seems that the Republican primary in Florida today didn't go so well for ol' Rudy. And in the wake of the ass-kicking he received in the sunshine state, he's reportedly dropping out of the presidential race.

Can I just take a minute here to say... nice freaking strategy, dude. Rudy put all his eggs in one basket... Florida. He bet his entire bid for the presidency on winning Florida and having that catapult him to the Republican nomination. Yeah... that went well for the guy. Ol' Rudy finished a distant third to primary winner John McCain and Runner-up Mitt Romney.

With 95% of the precincts reporting in, the count is:

McCain 677,865 (36%)
Romney 582,806 (31%)
Giuliani 275,676 (15%)
Huckabee 253,886 (14%)
Paul 60,583 (3%)
Thompson 21,868 (1%)

I just have to laugh and consider this to be a case of Lady Karma coming around and kicking Rudy in the ass. Giuliani, who mentions 9/11 more often than even Dubya, built his reputation and launched his White House run (such as it was) on his... ahem... "leadership" in the wake of the 9/11 attacks. Giuliani cultivated an image of himself as being a hero, being right there in the trenches alongside the workers at Ground Zero, trying to single-handedly rebuild New York.

"I was at ground zero as often, if not more, than most of the workers ... I was there working with them. I was exposed to exactly the same things they were exposed to. So in that sense, I'm one of them."

Yeah, not so much actually. While many of the Ground Zero workers have become incredibly sick and others have died, Giuliani seems to be in perfect health. Why is that? Oh yeah, because despite what Rudy says, he was actually very seldomly at Ground Zero. According to a report by the New York Times, between September 17 and December 16 2001, Mr. 9/11 spent a grand total of 29 hours at Ground Zero while workers labored through 12-hour shifts with improper breathing equipment that has lead to the illnesses many of them face today. For Rudy to say that he is "one of them" is demeaning to those that actually were there and is offensive to those who are ill and those who have died because of their exposure to the toxins in the air at Ground Zero.

And as for Rudy's leadership? Another well-cultivated myth. Ignoring the advice of many experts in the wake of the 1993 bombing of the World Trade Center, Rudy never properly updated the communications equipment used by the police and fire departments. The lack of functioning communications equipment led to the deaths of more than 100 firefighters that had been trapped in the building when it collapsed. And despite the warnings of the experts, Giuliani insisted on locating the Office of Emergency Management on the 23rd floor of the World Trade Center... because it was within walking distance of City Hall. Great planning. Great leadership. Good riddance to bad rubbish.

I think Rudy's failure as a presidential candidate, who pretty much campaigned exclusively on the fact that he was the mayor of New York when the 9/11 attacks went down, is entirely laughable. He ran is campaign like he ran the Mayor's office... kind of half-assed, never doing anything very well.

So goodbye Rudy... I'm so not going to miss you. And judging by the election results, not many other people will either.

And as a bonus, here are Keith Olbermann's thoughts on Rudy Giuliani. This is a bit of an older clip, but still very worth the view.

~Kevin S.

A Musical Interlude

2008-01-28T13:32:00.000-07:00

Flobots - "Handlebars"

I'm Shocked... Shocked I Say!!!

2008-01-24T07:23:00.000-07:00

This comes to you straight from the Department of No Sh*t Sherlock...

Two independent and non-profit journalism organizations, the Center for Public Integrity and the Fund for Indendence in Journalism released a report on Tuesday that concluded that... get this... the Bush Administration lied in the run-up to the invasion of Iraq. Stunning and shocking, I know. Try to pick yourselves up off the floor if you can manage it.

The study reviewed press briefings, speeches and interviews and other public statements in the two-year period following the 9/11 attacks and determined that George W. Bush, Dick Cheney, Condoleezza Rice, Donald Rumsfeld, Colin Powell, Paul Wolfowitz, Ari Fleischer and Scott McClellan lied a grand total of 935 times while making their case for war in Iraq. Bush led the way with 259 lies with Colin Powell right behind him, clocking in at 244 lies.

The study counted 935 false statements in the two-year period. Mr. Bush and administration officials stated unequivocally on at least 532 occasions that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction or was trying to produce or obtain them or had links to al Qaeda or both.

And of course, the study found that the media was absolutely complicit in the campaign of disinformation leveled against the American people in the run-up to the war.

"The cumulative effect of these false statements - amplified by thousands of news stories and broadcasts - was massive, with the media coverage creating an almost impenetrable din for several critical months in the run-up to war. Some journalists - indeed, even some entire news organizations - have since acknowledged that their coverage during those prewar months was far too deferential and uncritical. These mea culpas notwithstanding, much of the wall-to-wall media coverage provided additional, 'independent' validation of the Bush administration's false statements about Iraq."

The study concluded that George W. Bush and his Administration cronies deliberately lied the United States into a war that has claimed 4,000 American lives, not to mention the tens of thousands of Iraqi civilians that have been killed.

The study concluded that the statements "were part of an orchestrated campaign that effectively galvanized public opinion and, in the process, led the nation to war under decidedly false pretenses."

Gee, ya think?And as a bonus for your amusement... and trust me, this is amusing if not downright hilarious... Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney, campaigning in Florida attempted to show a crowd of African-Americans that he was down with them. There's no video clip of his first attempt, but while talking with a group of African-Americans, he pointed to a necklace on a small child, proclaiming that he liked the baby's "bling bling."

Mitt is so street!And this clip just speaks for itself... Here is Mitt again flashing his street cred and showing that he's down with the African-American community. Give it a watch, it's priceless.

Yes... that's Mitt the Mighty Mormon... perhaps one of the whitest people on the planet asking a crowd of African-Americans "Who let the dogs out? Who? Who?" Did somebody say... pandering? Wow. Could this guy be a bigger tool?

~Kevin S.

Hazing. Not As Funny Out Loud.

2008-01-21T21:04:00.000-07:00

I’m still getting these email* forwards by people. The latest included a defense of the ‘hazing’ in Abu Ghraib. The defense went something like this (and had these pictures!):

THIS is not “torture” or an “atrocity”. This is the kind of thing frat boys, sorority girls, and academy cadets do to newcomers.

Really? Because I thought we resolved all this back in 2004. I know I did. So, I must confess, I was a bit surprised to see the old hazing is just all right with me argument make another round.

Fortunately, I’m reading a book, The Bully, the Bullied and the Bystander. It might as well be called America, Iraq and the Rest of the Planet. Let’s just run through it post haste.

Even though Barbara Coloroso agrees with me that hazing doesn’t have a place in this society, that’s not the reason the military should stop doing it. The military should stop because it is dangerous to the military.

Hazing is a form of bullying. According to Coloroso, there are four markers of bullying:

Imbalance of power. It is not between two equally matched opponents.
Intent to harm. Pleasure is taken from the hurt, it is not an accident.
Threat of further aggression. It is understood that there will be more to come.
Terror. “Bullying is systematic violence used to intimidate and maintain dominance.”

Coloroso adds that “once terror is created, the bully can act without fear of recrimination or retaliation.”

Which leads us to contempt. And contempt is what the whole issue is about. It’s different from anger. Contempt is “a powerful feeling of dislike toward somebody considered to be worthless, inferior, or undeserving of respect. Contempt comes packaged with three apparent psychological advantages that allow kids to harm another human being without feeling empathy, compassion or shame.” **

Here are the three advantages to viewing a person or a group with contempt. Entitlement, intolerance and the liberty to exclude.

Hazing includes the four markers of bullying and leads the bully to view certain people or groups with contempt. People may think it’s funny and harmless, but you have to wonder, what sort of human being finds humor in the degradation and humiliation of another.

Oh, so what? That’s the military’s job, to degrade and humiliate. I mean, that’s why people join, just for that power. Certainly for no other reason, like to bring freedom to the world, to protect my liberal ass from a smoking gun in the shape of a mushroom cloud, or to get money for a decent education.

So here’s the larger context.

Currently, our soldiers think they are fighting the Taliban in Iraq. That Saddam somehow engineered 9-11 with his al-Queda buddies. And that the civilians of Iraq, no matter how young, are responsible for heinous crimes. Therefore, the civilians deserve to pay with their lives.

These gross distortions of the situation persist because Americans remain isolated from the majority of Iraqis. They engage them only when they go out to shoot or be shot at in an attempt to lure the insurgency out.

Does this mean that the only prolonged contact soldiers in combat have with Iraqis is through the prisoners? Prisoners, 70 to 90% who are innocent and “arrested during public demonstrations, at checkpoints and in house raids”?

The effectiveness of the military in Iraq is endangered by this hazing. Not only because a pyramid of naked prisoners piss some people off, but because it marks a contemptuous, bullying attitude toward people we want not to kill us.

If there was no contempt, no hazing, our soldiers might actually learn that a large portion of the prisoners, of Iraqis, are human.

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

*Yes, because General George S Patton is exactly the person this country needs to emulate. ***

** Here’s what Patton has to teach us about contempt. "[others may believe]... that the Displaced Person is a human being, which he is not, and this applies particularly to the Jews, who are lower than animals."

*** sarcasm alert.

Holiday Cheer

2007-12-11T14:32:00.000-07:00

Thanks David Rees! http://www.mnftiu.cc/mnftiu.cc/war52.html

~Lila Schow

Because Responsible Citizens Clean Up After Their Government

http://goodusgov.org/

Pastafarians of the World Unite!!!

2007-11-29T13:39:00.000-07:00

This is absolutely brilliant. I love it and as such, have decided to undergo a religious conversion... I now worship at the Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster. Yes, like millions of others around the world, I too have become a Pastafarian.

For years now, folks in Kansas have appealed to the local school boards, trying to get Intelligent Design (aka Creationism) inserted into the cirriculum, to be taught alongside Evolution in science classes. I'd have no problem with Creationism being taught in say... a religious theory or comparitive religions type course... but science? Nope. Don't think so.

And so... the founder of the Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster has written (and gotten on the official record) an open letter to the Kansas school board, arguing for equal time for our noodly deity should Intelligent Design/Creationism make it into the cirriculum.

~Kevin S.

Open Letter To Kansas School Board

I am writing you with much concern after having read of your hearing to decide whether the alternative theory of Intelligent Design should be taught along with the theory of Evolution. I think we can all agree that it is important for students to hear multiple viewpoints so they can choose for themselves the theory that makes the most sense to them. I am concerned, however, that students will only hear one theory of Intelligent Design.

Let us remember that there are multiple theories of Intelligent Design. I and many others around the world are of the strong belief that the universe was created by a Flying Spaghetti Monster. It was He who created all that we see and all that we feel. We feel strongly that the overwhelming scientific evidence pointing towards evolutionary processes is nothing but a coincidence, put in place by Him.

It is for this reason that I’m writing you today, to formally request that this alternative theory be taught in your schools, along with the other two theories. In fact, I will go so far as to say, if you do not agree to do this, we will be forced to proceed with legal action. I’m sure you see where we are coming from. If the Intelligent Design theory is not based on faith, but instead another scientific theory, as is claimed, then you must also allow our theory to be taught, as it is also based on science, not on faith.

Some find that hard to believe, so it may be helpful to tell you a little more about our beliefs. We have evidence that a Flying Spaghetti Monster created the universe. None of us, of course, were around to see it, but we have written accounts of it. We have several lengthy volumes explaining all details of His power. Also, you may be surprised to hear that there are over 10 million of us, and growing. We tend to be very secretive, as many people claim our beliefs are not substantiated by observable evidence. What these people don’t understand is that He built the world to make us think the earth is older than it really is. For example, a scientist may perform a carbon-dating process on an artifact. He finds that approximately 75% of the Carbon-14 has decayed by electron emission to Nitrogen-14, and infers that this artifact is approximately 10,000 years old, as the half-life of Carbon-14 appears to be 5,730 years. But what our scientist does not realize is that every time he makes a measurement, the Flying Spaghetti Monster is there changing the results with His Noodly Appendage. We have numerous texts that describe in detail how this can be possible and the reasons why He does this. He is of course invisible and can pass through normal matter with ease.

I’m sure you now realize how important it is that your students are taught this alternate theory. It is absolutely imperative that they realize that observable evidence is at the discretion of a Flying Spaghetti Monster. Furthermore, it is disrespectful to teach our beliefs without wearing His chosen outfit, which of course is full pirate regalia. I cannot stress the importance of this enough, and unfortunately cannot describe in detail why this must be done as I fear this letter is already becoming too long. The concise explanation is that He becomes angry if we don’t.

You may be interested to know that global warming, earthquakes, hurricanes, and other natural disasters are a direct effect of the shrinking numbers of Pirates since the 1800s. For your interest, I have included a graph of the approximate number of pirates versus the average global temperature over the last 200 years. As you can see, there is a statistically significant inverse relationship between pirates and global temperature.

In conclusion, thank you for taking the time to hear our views and beliefs. I hope I was able to convey the importance of teaching this theory to your students. We will of course be able to train the teachers in this alternate theory. I am eagerly awaiting your response, and hope dearly that no legal action will need to be taken. I think we can all look forward to the time when these three theories are given equal time in our science classrooms across the country, and eventually the world; One third time for Intelligent Design, one third time for Flying Spaghetti Monsterism, and one third time for logical conjecture based on overwhelming observable evidence.

Sincerely Yours,

Bobby Henderson, concerned citizen.

P.S. I have included an artistic drawing of Him creating a mountain, trees, and a midget. Remember, we are all His creatures.

The GOP - Really Tough on Terror

2007-11-07T13:50:00.000-07:00

"The most important thing is for us to find Osama bin Laden. It is our number one priority and we will not rest until we find him." - G.W. Bush, 9/13/01

"I want justice...There's an old poster out West, as I recall, that said, 'Wanted: Dead or Alive,'" - G.W. Bush, 9/17/01, UPI

So yeah, how's the hunt for Osama bin Laden going, anyway? After all, he was supposedly our number one priority, we weren't going to rest until we found him and he was wanted dead or alive, right? I mean, bin Laden was the one responsible for the deaths of more than 3,000 Americans on September 11, 2001, wasn't he?

According to former CIA officer Gary Bernsten, in his book Jawbreaker we first had a chance to snag bin Laden in December 2001 in the mountains of Tora Bora in Afghanistan. US Central Command refused to commit the troops and as a result, bin Laden slipped out of Tora Bora and across the border into Pakistan. This account has been confirmed by fellow CIA officer Gary Schroen and also by Pentagon documentation of the battle of Tora Bora. Strike one.

Now, we learn that in August 2007, US command had yet another chance to kill Osama bin Laden and failed to pull the trigger. It's yet another story that the infamously "liberal media" has failed to cover with any depth. Gee, I wonder why that is. The most play this story has seen has been on... of all places... Faux News. If you can believe it.

Retired Colonel David Hunt on Foxnews.com had this to say...

Besides, these things are of little consequence when you realize how we missed, squandered, screwed up, made a mess of and were massively risk adverse - again - when we did not kill Usama bin Laden in Afghanistan just two short months ago.

We know, with a 70 percent level of certainty - which is huge in the world of intelligence - that in August of 2007, bin Laden was in a convoy headed south from Tora Bora. We had his butt, on camera, on satellite. We were listening to his conversations. We had the world’s best hunters/killers - Seal Team 6 - nearby. We had the world class Joint Special Operations Command (JSOC) coordinating with the CIA and other agencies. We had unmanned drones overhead with missiles on their wings; we had the best Air Force on the planet, begging to drop one on the terrorist. We had him in our sights; we had done it. Nice job again guys - now, pull the damn trigger.

Unbelievably, and in my opinion, criminally, we did not kill Usama bin Laden.

You cannot make this crap up; truth is always stranger and more telling than fiction. Our government, the current administration and yes, our military leaders included, failed to kill bin Laden for no other reason than incompetence.

The current “boneheads” in charge will tell you all day long that we are fighting and dying in Iraq and Afghanistan to stop terrorists there so they do not come here. Nice talk, how about - just for a moment - acting like you mean what you say? You know walk the walk. These incidents, where we displayed a total lack of guts, like the one in August, are just too prevalent. The United States of America’s political and military leadership has, on at least three separate occasions, chosen not capture or kill bin Laden or Ayman al-Zawahri. We have allowed Pakistan to become a safe haven for Al Qaeda. We have allowed Al Qaeda to reconstitute, partially because of money they (Al Qaeda in Iraq) have been sending to Al Qaeda in Pakistan.

I'm pretty sure Colonel Hunt has been permanently blacklisted from coming near any Fox News entity ever again.

I do disagree with the Colonel however. It's not incompetence. Not in the least. Making sure Osama bin Laden stays alive is a very deliberate and very purposeful act by the Bush Administration. When Bush was spewing out all of that swaggering bravado and jingoistic rhetoric, he knew full well that they had no intentions of ever making a serious run at bin Laden. Because whe they need to ramp up the fear, bin Laden is their go-to guy. How many times have we seen the Republicans embattled and on the ropes, in need of a distraction and VOILA! out comes another tape or message from bin Laden. If they actually took this guy out, who would they turn to? How would they ratchet up the fear? bin Laden is their ultimate bogeyman. Bush and the Neo-Cons NEED bin Laden. And there are idiots among us who still fall for it every single time.

Those folks out there who still think Bush's "War on Terror" has anything to do with wiping out terrorism and the bin Laden's of the world need a serious beating with the clue stick. The "War on Terror" has never been about that. bin Laden merely gave Bush and the Neo-Cons the excuse they needed to wage their wars for nothing more than corporate profit. And if you doubt that, ask yourself why bin Laden is still alive and walking around when we've had the opportunity to drop the hammer on him two times that we know of.

And if you just can't force yourself to be intellectually honest enough to answer that question, then simply ask yourself what your president meant by this:

"I don't know where bin Laden is. I have no idea and really don't care. It's not that important. It's not our priority." - G.W. Bush, 3/13/02

~Kevin S.

Reconciliation

2007-10-24T14:17:00.002-06:00

Sometimes I am forwarded emails of a political nature. Recently I got one about US soldiers in Iraq. Perhaps you've seen it? The images all have clever little captions underneath, sarcastic in nature. Is this so I feel shame in not supporting our troops in this war? I've put them side by side with other images that have stuck with me over the years, complete with their captions as well.

The problem is, how many acts of humanity are needed to erase our barbarism in Iraq? Is it a number you can quantify? So 4 million hugs by American soldiers to Iraqi children = death of an Iraqi child by the hands of Americans?

How do I reconcile these images?

Soldiers Force Children to See Saw Until They Give Up Information! vs An Iraqi child killed by US bombing

Child Bites Soldier in Self Defense vs An Iraqi prisoner of war tries to calm down his child

Soldiers Lack Body Armor; Forced to Use Childen as Shields vs US soldier holding a dying child

Soldiers Vent Anger by Throwing Children Around vs Victims of US air-strike, Balad, March 2006

Rations Shortage; Soldiers Begin Eating Children vs 20-month old Iraqi baby girl, named Shams (means "Sun" in Arabic). Victim of car bomb in Sadr City, Baghdad. Her mother was killed in the attack.

Children Thankful Soldiers Didn't Open Fire On Soccer Game vs Manadel al-Jamadi was killed in Abu Ghraib while being interrogated. His son and wife pose in this picture with a photograph of their dead father with Spc. Sabrina Harman giving the "thumbs up".

The Tickle Torture is Unbearable vs A son receives a flag instead of his father.

Soldiers Force Children to Do Their Dirty Work vs She's four years old. The blood is that of her parents. They made the mistake of driving at night when our "liberation forces" were out and about

Soldier Forces Child to Hang By Fingertips - Just for Fun vs Ali Abbas lost his parents, fourteen family members and his arms after a US missile attack.

Maybe its my fault for not finding enough Family Circus moments.

~Lila Schow

Because Responsible Citizens Clean Up After Their Government

http://goodusgov.org/

Alternative Energy Doesn't Grow On Trees

2007-10-17T21:14:00.000-06:00

Don't kill us with the solution. Alternative energy, namely biofuels is, on the surface, wonderful. No oil. Green fuel. Using the land instead of mining it. Right? Wrong.

Agricultural mining is not the eco-friendly practice we'd like to believe when we shop for our food at the farmer's market. They aren't growing crops off a platform in the south seas or sucking them up from a cavern underground.

No, my friends, to make biofuel you have to grow biomass. And even though you should be able to grow plants on all but one continent, it seems the biofuel industry's favorite place to grow our miracle solution to oil dependence is in fragile rain forests. Or, more specifically, in a field of recently cleared fragile rain forest.

I've seen Jane Goodall speak on a few different occasions, and during her last visit to my hometown she commented that part of the reason she succeeded where Dian Fossey did not, was that she included local people and their lands in her conservation strategy. So it is no surprise to me to discover that she is against biofuels as well.

We're cutting down forests now to grow sugarcane and palm oil for biofuels and our forests are being hacked into by so many interests that it makes them more and more important to save now...Biofuel isn't the answer to everything; it depends where it comes from.

I know one place it comes from. Brazil.

See, rainforest.
Yes, now valuable forest can be burned for a few years of farming, until the soil is depleted and more forest has to be burned. But who am I to play doom and gloom? I'm sure Monsanto is working on a special fertilizer to compliment their genetically engineered seeds.

You know where else we get biomass for biofuel? Indonesia. (Hey look, more rainforest!)

Which is funny because Indonesia is a huge producer of Liquid Natural Gas (LNG). We use LNG for energy, pulling it up from caverns underground. We also use it for fertilizer. That's right, most fertilizer use nitrates culled from petroleum. Neat. We're just adding another barrier to getting oil into our vehicles.

Which is why when I find stories like this in my local paper, I don't jump up and down with glee. Instead I wonder, what generation am I killing so that I can pretend to be environmentally nice?

~Lila Schow
Because Responsible Citizens Clean Up After Their Government

http://goodusgov.org/

You fools! It's not Real!

2007-10-16T13:28:00.001-06:00

Just perusing the headlines this morning and I found this little gem:

U.S. Declares Victory Over Al Qaeda In Iraq

The hell you say. We can invade a country for a fictional reason that -- because of our invasion becomes fact -- and then WIN!?

I didn't know it was Condi Rice News Day. Must have missed that memo.

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

Hello Kettle? This is Pot...

2007-10-15T13:59:00.000-06:00

Oh this is just priceless. Apparently the irony is completely lost on everybody's favorite Secretary of State, Condoleezza Rice. After a recently completed trip to Russia and a meeting with President Vladimir Putin, Secretary Rice had this to say...

"The Russian government under Vladimir Putin has amassed so much central authority that the power-grab may undermine Moscow's commitment to democracy."

I wonder if Condi has ever once used her keen intellect and powers of observation to voice concern over a certain branch of government that's amassed so much authority and grabbed so much power that it threatens democracy say... closer to home?

Nahhhhhhh... probably not.Secretary Rice went on to say...

"I think there is too much concentration of power in the Kremlin. I have told the Russians that. Everybody has doubts about the full independence of the judiciary. There are clearly questions about the independence of the electronic media and there are, I think, questions about the strength of the Duma."

Funny, I think all of that could be applied not just to Russia, but to say... the United States? There is definitely too much concentrated power in the White House, we all most definitely have serious doubts about the independence of our judiciary, especially all of those right-wing assclowns currently sitting not just in the federal courts, but on the Supreme Court as well. And being that the Bush Administration has been caught several times, by the GAO, running domestic propaganda, I'd say we probably all have very serious questions about our media and given the spineless nature of our Congress and the way they piddle themselves every time Bush says "boo," I'd say we probably have some questios about the strength of Congress. Yup. That entire quote seems pretty tailored to the good ol' United States these days. But we're more concerned with the Russians? Interesting.

Condi also had this little nugget of brilliance to impart...

She hoped the efforts of rights activists would promote universal values of "the rights of individuals to liberty and freedom, the right to worship as you please, and the right to assembly, the right to not have to deal with the arbitrary power of the state."

Priceless! Hey Condi... don't you think it would be really nice to have those things secured here, in this country before we start lecturing other countries about liberty and freedom? Don't you think that maybe, just maybe, we should ensure that the rights and freedoms guaranteed by our Constitution are adhered to by the government before we run around the globe telling other people how to live and how to govern their lands? Maybe?

I mean listen to this, Condi. Alexander Brod, head of the Moscow Human Rights Bureau had this to say...

"Not all is ideal in America, either. We see protests against the war in Iraq and violations of human rights on the part of security services and violations of human rights in countering terrorism."

Okay, anytime the Russians can hold the moral high ground and tell us that we're quashing human rights, we're in trouble. How terrible is it that countries like China, North Korea, Iran, Russia and a whole host of others can point to the United States now, lecture us on properly observing human rights and be right about it???

There was a time in this country's history where we were the example, where we set the bar on human rights, where we had the moral high ground. Yes, unfortunately, those were before the dark days of the Bush Administration. We are now a country that quashes the rights of citizens at home, tortures, murders and violates all sorts of basic human rights. That shining city on the hill we are, no longer. Thanks, Georgie.

Secretary Rice, I just have to say that you've got one enormously huge, cast-iron set of gonads to lecture the Russians about democracy, liberties and freedoms. Cast-iron ones, I tell you. How about you and your little friends in the White House try putting democracy back into our own country before you open up that gap-toothed piehole again. Otherwise, you may just look like an arrogant, ignorant, condescending idiot. Oh oops. Too late.

~Kevin S.

Who's Laughing Now?

2007-10-07T21:10:00.000-06:00

It's not often that a news article about the US failures in Iraq makes me laugh, but then today I read this headline:

Iraqis to Pay China $100 Million for Weapons

Huh, I thought. I wonder what that's all about. The summary of the article said:

Robin Wright and Ann Scott Tyson for The Washington Post report that "Iraq has ordered $100 million worth of light military equipment from China for its police force, contending that the United States was unable to provide the materiel and is too slow to deliver arms shipments."

I can't help it. That's funny. The US gave plenty of equipment to Iraqi police forces. The problem was that it ended up in the hands of insurgents who'd infiltrated the police units and then used against the Americans.

For Iraq to spin the issue so that the US is to blame, ahh, irony. It knows no nationality. It's too bad the only measure of success we've had in the country we've liberated from the evildoers is such a cerebral one.

Oh, and by the way, in case you were wondering Baghdad is now down to two hours a day. Last year at this time it was six. Now that's progress!

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

Breaking News: At Least, I Think It Is. Somewhere.

2007-08-31T14:49:00.000-06:00

Riddle me this... when is an actual and legitimate news story not a news story? Answer... when said news story might cast this Administration and their dirty little war in a negative light, when said news story doesn't paint a glowing and rosy picture of life in Iraq, touting all of our "successes." So please, for those of you out there who still buy into the myth of the "liberal media," I think we can go ahead and finally lay that to rest once and for all.

Because the Administration is going to such great effort to talk up the successes and show just how wonderfully well the war in Iraq is going, a story that hit the wires at 5:04 EST today has simply gone by the boards. It seems that yet another Republican trying to have gay sex in a public bathroom is bigger news than 4 members of Congress nearly being killed in Iraq. Certainly you'd think it would warrant at the very least, a breaking news blurb somewhere on the networks. Yet, it's been strangely silent. And that silence, as they say, has been deafening.

Since our media has declined to cover the story, allow me to do their job for them.

4 members of Congress, Senators Richard Shelby (R-AL), Mel Martinez (R-FL), James Inhofe (R-OK) and Congressman Bud Cramer (D-AL) were nearly killed in the skies over Iraq. After viewing the conditions on the ground in Iraq, they boarded a plane in Baghdad bound for Amman, Jordan. Shortly after takeoff, 3 rocket-propelled grenades were fired at the C-130 cargo plane. In a telephone interview, Senator Shelby said the rockets were "near misses."

Said Shelby:

"I was looking out the window, a little small window, and I saw a shell or something. And then I see a flare. Our plane started maneuvering and changing directions and shaking all around."

The pilot made defensive maneuvers, successfully avoiding the rockets and safely ferried the members of Congress and their staffs to Amman, Jordan.

Congressman Cramer issued this statement:

"Our plane leaving Iraq was fired upon and it was a close call, but this is something that our men and women in combat face every day. The flight crew was outstanding and I credit them for the way they handled the situation. This should not take away from the purpose of this trip, which was to see first hand the operations in Iraq and thank our troops, many of them from North Alabama."

Amazing, isn't it? We're getting every sordid scrap of detail about Senator Larry Craig's (R-ID) sexual solicitation in an airport men's room and yet, a story like this one that pretty definitively shows that the surge has failed, that Iraq is far from stable and the situation on the ground is deteriorating rapidly isn't even a blip on the nightly news radar. Interesting coincidence, wouldn't you agree?

I personally would think that this story would be leading off every newscast all night long. Predictably though, because our media refuses to do their job and cowardice is rampant among our news outlets and journalists, those not owned by right-wing ideologues anyway, actual news items like this fail to make the cut. It's beyond ridiculous.

~Kevin S.

Let Them Eat Cake

2007-08-29T20:42:00.001-06:00

2 years ago today, the fiercest hurricane ever to make landfall in the United States came ashore, devastating the Gulf Coast. 2 years ago today, countless thousands of people lost their homes and their businesses to driving winds, relentless rains and the ever-rising floodwaters. 2 years ago today, people lost their neighborhoods, their towns and their cities to Katrina's fury. 2 years ago today, two-thousand people lost their lives.

And 2 years ago today, while American citizens died in the streets of American cities, George W. Bush was too busy doing this to be bothered:
Recovery along the Gulf Coast in the wake of Hurricane Katrina has been slow, to say the least. Entire neighborhoods still lay in ruins, people's lives remain shattered. People continue to reside in cities other than their own because they still have no place to come home to. And the Federal government continues to fail the people of the Gulf Coast today as they did the day Katrina hit.

Bush dutifully trotted himself down to New Orleans today for what's becoming his annual Gulf Coast photo-op and said the usual and expected things, expressed his feigned sorrow at the tragedy and loss Katrina inflicted, but when he gets back on Air Force 1 and goes back to Washington, not a damn thing will have changed. That this Administration has given no-bid contracts to Halliburton to rebuild New Orleans and that Halliburton is only rebuilding in areas where large casinos and other corporate entities can set up shop should tell you all you need to know about where their priorities are at. Neither this Administration nor Halliburton are helping the regular and real people of New Orleans and the Gulf Coast to rebuild their lives and their homes.

That the devastation along the Gulf Coast is as bad in most areas today as it was 2 years ago is unconscionable. That we're spending countless billions in Iraq and doing nothing to help those living in those ravaged areas along the Gulf Coast is a testament to the callous and uncaring attitude of this Administration. This government... this nation... should be deeply ashamed. Above anything and everything else, we should be taking care of our own.

Word has come down that next month, Bush will be asking (demanding) another $50 BILLION from Congress to continue funding the occupations of Iraq and Afghanistan. $50 billion. Don't you think that money would be better spent rebuilding the Gulf Coast and putting shattered lives back together again? Don't you think that money would be better spent rebuilding the crumbling infrastructure of this country? Don't you think $50 billion could be better spent in this country rather than handing it over to Halliburton and the other corporate entities operating in Iraq?

I am urging everybody to sign this petition. The petition is to show our support for a bill sponsored by Senators Dodd, Kerry, Boxer, Brown, Durbin, Obama and Landrieu, the Gulf Coast Recovery Act of 2007 (S.1668). It will help provide affordable housing to those who lost everything to Katrina. And if you're so moved, I'm urging everybody to contact their Senators and their Congresscritters and demand that they support the Gulf Coast Recovery Act of 2007.

It's 2 years after Katrina. It's well beyond time we help our fellow citizens rebuild and move on with their lives. It's well beyond time that we force the government to take action.

If you feel so moved, please feel free to forward this along or repost it. The further we spread our message, the louder our collective voices will be. It's time we're heard.

And now, I'll leave you with this video, produced by Robert Greenwald...

~Kevin S.

The Failure to Convert Jill Carroll to Islam

2007-08-20T12:00:00.001-06:00

January 7, 2006 was just another day in Baghdad. Insurgents attacked busy streets. People were murdered. Others were taken hostage. The US would not have paid attention, except that on this day an American was one of the kidnapped.

And not just any American. Jill Carroll, a young, innocent-looking freelance reporter. Her smiling photo in the news tugged at our hearts just as much as the video her captors released, twenty-three days into her ordeal, of her weeping.

Recently I read her 11-page piece on the Christian Science Monitor detailing the kidnapping and the hostage situation and was stuck by one thread.

Her captors repeatedly tried to convert her to Islam. On her second day she writes,

I tried to listen to Abu Ali's lesson attentively as he translated complicated Koranic Arabic into more basic Arabic he thought I could understand. He was very pleased that I showed interest in learning. He kept saying there was no pressure, no pressure in Islam, that they were forbidden from forcing people to convert. True acceptance must come from a free will.

They'd kidnapped me, and they all had guns ready to kill me, but, oh no, no pressure there. I falsely assured him that I felt no pressure. I have always been interested in learning about Islam.

This idea of forced conversion is laughable. Carroll may have found the path to Islam on her own if she had not been kidnapped. Or not. But if she had converted as a hostage, or even now, the circumstances would call into doubt the legitimacy of her faith. As she said, "no pressure" and "free will" are ridiculous labels to attach to a person being held at gunpoint.

Yet, this is exactly what we’ve done to Iraq. Jill Carroll is the personification of the failure of the practice of Gunpoint Democracy. You cannot go in, hold a country hostage, install a fundamental change and think it’s valid and acceptable. It was not chosen freely by the people, it was forced on them.

It is odd to think that my freedoms and civil liberties have been set loose to rape the people living in another country. I guess it doesn’t matter how much liberty the US sends over, it cannot be accepted in the condition it was presented. The fact that it has been approved by the government doesn’t imply that it is a valid conversion.

Eighty-two days after the kidnapping Jill Carroll was released. Her public perception of the people in Iraq has not changed. And she has not converted. And neither has Iraq.

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

I Can Haz A Do Ofver? Plez?

2007-08-14T13:59:00.000-06:00

Go bak in time? Re-do elektions?

Look! I made this one:

Is you needz more the funnyz?

~Lila Schow

Because Responsible Citizens Clean Up After Their Government

http://goodusgov.org/

Fox "News" - Where Truth and Fact Are Optional

2007-07-30T13:41:00.001-06:00

Note from Lila Schow ~ I personally fact-checked this post because I could not believe it. On this YouTube link you can see more on the Foley incident.

You can also read more here.

If you still believe that Saddam Hussein was involved in the plannning and execution of the 9/11 attacks, that Hussein had stockpiles of WMD's and that when we invaded Iraq, those WMD's were moved into Iran and/or Syria, that we're actually fighting al Qaeda over in Iraq, that Iran poses the biggest threat to this country, that we have to "fight them over there so we don't have to fight them over here," that all liberals are the Anti-Christ, that George W. Bush is right in subverting the Constitution and breaking Federal laws, that nothing he does is illegal and that Bush is in fact, the greatest president we've ever had, then the chances are pretty darn good that you are one of those mouth-breathing, mindless drones that still considers Fox News to be a legitimate news source.

Seriously, Rupert Murdoch's Might Propaganda Machine known as Fox "News" has managed to brainwash millions with their manipulations and distortions of the truth as well as with their outright lies. When truth and fact are inconvenient, that doesn't stop those intrepid "journalists" on Fox from brushing those things aside in favor of the latest right-wing talking points. Nor are they at all shy about re-writing history to conform to their really warped world views.

Let's look at just a few, fun examples of Fox News giving their "fair and balanced facts," shall we?

Example #1

Ummmmmmm... yeah. See, the problem here is that Lincoln Chaffee is the Republican incumbent you see getting his ass handed to him in the Rhode Island Senate race. Sheldon Whitehouse is the Democratic candidate, now Senator, that beat the holy pulp out of Mr. Chaffee.

Example #2

Scooter Libby was found not guilty? Wow. That might come as news to the jury that convicted him and the judge that handed down Scooter's sentence. You remember, the sentence that Bush, who said he respected the jury's verdict and the rule of law so much that he said Libby didn't have to serve the time for his commission of multiple crimes.

Example #3

Once again, Fox News decided that they didn't like what Senator Specter had to say, in this case, his grilling, slicing and dicing of Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, so... Voila!... he's now a Democrat. I imagine that all of those voters in Pennsylvania who thought they were re-electing Republican Senator Arlen Specter might be more than a little surprised that somewhere along the way, he's suddenly (and quite spontaneously) switched party affiliation. I'd bet that Senator Specter might be more than a bit surprised himself.

Example #4

Ahhhhh yes... who can forget this classic? You all remember former 6-term Congressman from Florida Mark Foley, don't you? He spearheaded the Child Protection and Safety Act of 2006 which helped protect kids from exploitation by sexual predators. And you of course, all remember that former Congressman Foley was then found to have been... well... a sexual predator himself. Yes, when Congressman Foley wasn't busy driving legislation to protect children from exploitation, he was busy exploiting them himself. Foley was found to be... rather fond of the Congressional Pages and engaged in... shall we say, much inappropriate behavior. The trouble with the graphic on this screen is that it should read: Mark Foley (R-FL). Apparently Fox, in an effort to distance themselves from him, decided he'd look better as a Democrat and once again, Voila! He spontaneously switched party affiliation.

Never once has Fox issued an apology, correction or a retraction for their "mistakes." They simply misinform their viewers who usually don't have the critical thinking skills to ferret out truth from fiction on their own. Most Fox viewers still believe that Saddam Hussein and Osama bin Laden were the best of friends, so that should give you an idea of the caliber of people we're talking about. Not a lot of overly sharp tools in that shed.

Fox intentionally warps, distorts, spins and twists truth, fact and history to suit their purposes. The journalistic integrity they claim to have is about as credible as George W. Bush, Mr. 25% himself, at this point. So can we stop believing that Fox is a legitimate news outlet, sheeple? Can we finally agree that Fox is nothing more than the propaganda arm of the Bush Administration? Probably not, that would require independent thought and I'm sure most of you are busy trying to master the technique of walking upright to care. Being spoon-fed heaping helpings of bullsh*t is much easier.

Hey, I just report, you decide.

~Kevin S.

Do as I Say and Not as I Do...

2007-07-15T20:55:00.001-06:00

My, my, my... Another day, another Republican sex scandal. Pretty amazing for the party of "morals" and "family values," don't you think? I'm about sick to death of the Republicans posing and posturing as the party of virtue and morality. Could anything be further from the truth?

This whole false mythology started with Newt Gingrich and his "Republican Revolution" of the early 1990's. When the Republicans took control of Congress in a landslide, they vowed that they were the party of morals and values, that they would clean up a corrupt government and they started of course, with going after Bill Clinton. Ironically enough, Gingrich himself has recently admitted to having an affair while he was persecuting Clinton for... having an affair. Of course, Henry Hyde, the judge who oversaw the Clinton impeachment trial, had to admit the same thing.

I'm sure most everybody by now, has heard of the DC Madame. Is anybody shocked that the first person who had to 'fess up to using the services was a Republican? I know I'm not. Republican Senator David Vitter has recently been forced to admit that he regularly used the services of the DC Madame's prostitutes. He of course, gave the typical, I've sinned, I did bad, spank me, spank me, spank me speech full of tears and fake remorse. As it turns out though, and contrary to his assertions, Vitter isn't new to the prostitution scene. It seems that Senator Vitter, back in the 90's, was a regular client at a Canal Street brothel in Louisiana. He even had a favorite girl named Wendy that he would hire a couple of times a week. And apparently, Senator Vitter has an unusual fetish... he enjoyed playing dress-up in baby diapers. Did somebody say... "freakshow?" And let's not forget that Vitter's whole platform when running for his Senate seat was... say it with me now... family values. He was very outspoken about the sanctity of marriage and family values. He was also the Southern Regional Chairman of Rudy Giuliani's campaign.

And then we have South Carolina State Treasurer Thomas Ravenel, the state chairman of Rudy Giuliani's presidential campaign was indicted on Federal cocaine charges. He was popped on charges of possession and distribution of cocaine and is looking at up to 20 years in prison. Not to worry though, if he's convicted, I'm sure Bush will commute his sentence anyway.

The prize for the week though, has got to go to Florida State Representative Bob Allen. Allen apparently has a lot in common with George Michael and a penchant for public bathrooms. This past week, Allen was observed by Florida police as he entered and exited a public restroom in a park several times. Suspicious of his activities, an undercover officer entered the bathroom where Allen then offered $20 to the cop to let him perform oral sex on him. There's something I just don't get about that deal... Allen was going to pay the cop 20 bucks for... what, the privilege of performing oral sex on him? Well, I guess at the very least, he was being a fiscal conservative.

Adultery and crime is nothing new to the party of morals and family values though. Why, just look at this list, detailing some of the more egregious offenses. The list here is by no means complete... I mean, with all of the scandals breaking these days, it's hard to keep up. But it'll give you a pretty good idea of the level of hypocrisy these Republicans are engaged in.

So seriously... can we kill the idea of the Republican party being the party of morals and values already? They weren't when Gingrich ushered in the Republican Revolution and they're not now. What a bunch of friggin' hypocrites.

~Kevin S.

I can't be the only one...

2007-06-11T13:24:00.000-06:00

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?

2007-06-09T22:52:00.000-06:00

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

2007-06-07T15:05:00.001-06:00

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?

2007-06-05T21:36:00.000-06:00

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

2007-06-05T08:58:00.000-06:00

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?

2007-06-03T21:58:00.000-06:00

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/

This Is As Serious As It Gets, Boys And Girls...

2007-05-29T15:37:00.000-06:00

Over these last few years, I've screamed long and loud and have written countless thousands of words about the threat that the Bush Administration poses to this country and to the very foundations it was built upon. I know that most people find politics to be tedious, boring and unimportant to their daily life. And I'm certainly not here to convince you that you should meticulously track every piece of legislation that rolls through Congress. Some of us are into that, some of us aren't.

But... If you pay attention to nothing else I write about politics, please, please, please pay attention to this. This might be a little lengthy, but please bear with me. I feel that this is that important.

This country was founded upon certain principles and beliefs. The right to free speech, the freedom to practice any religion we see fit, the right to assemble, to petition our government... Our government was structured in a manner that divided power, ensuring that all of the power does not rest with one person. Our government was structured precisely so that we were not forced to live beneath the thumb of a dictator, so that we are guaranteed the right to "life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness." Unless we step up, that's all about to change.

On May 9th, George Bush, without legislation or the consent of Congress signed NSPD-51/HSPD-20 It's called the "National Continuity Policy" yet what they're asserting is being "continued" by this directive, I know not. It certainly isn't our democracy, our system of government or the freedoms that we currently enjoy. And though the policy, as you can see it on the White House website has a lot of colorful language and legalistic gobbledygook, the long and the short of this directive is the establishment of a dictatorship. Let me say that again because it seems vaguely important. NSPD-51/HSPD-20 abolishes our current system of government and installs a dictatorship. I wish that I could say I was being hyperbolic or reactionary. I wish I could say that I was making it up. But it's all there in black and white.

The directive asserts that in the event of a "catastrophic emergency," all governmental power will be vested in one man, the President. The directive defines a "catastrophic emergency" as such:

"Catastrophic Emergency" means any incident, regardless of location, that results in extraordinary levels of mass casualties, damage, or disruption severely affecting the U.S. population, infrastructure, environment, economy, or government functions

The deliberately vague language used leaves the door open for anything to be classified as a "catastrophic emergency." It could be a terrorist attack, a fire, an earthquake or even a hurricane. A national emergency can be declared anywhere and everywhere and once it has been declared, the only law in this country will be what the President declares it to be, regardless of our other allegedly co-equal branches of government.

From the directive:

Enduring Constitutional Government," or "ECG," means a cooperative effort among the executive, legislative, and judicial branches of the Federal Government, coordinated by the President...

A "cooperative effort coordinated by the President?" Would that be the same sort of cooperative effort the President has displayed with regard to say... the Iraq war? Regardless, this installs the President as the de facto head of our entire system of government with the other branches playing secondary roles. That is NOT how our Constitution lays out the functioning of our government. The Constitution provides for three Co-Equal branches of government with none placed higher than another.

This is incredibly dangerous territory, guys. This directive provides the basis for a dictatorship here in the United States. With all of the power of our government in hand, the president can declare martial law, he can cancel elections, he can do essentially whatever he wants to do, up to and including declining to leave office when his term is up. This isn't hyperbole, guys... that's the power that this directive gives him.

I find the following passage from the directive entirely laughable:

Ensuring the continued functioning of our form of government under the Constitution, including the functioning of the three separate branches of government.

So the claim is, they're protecting our Constitution by destroying our Constitution? This directive does not ensure the functioning of the three branches of government, it ensures that the Legislative and Judicial Branches are subservient and secondary to the Executive.

Guys, this truly is as serious as it gets. The very principles this country was founded upon and our entire system of government are threatened by this one directive. The directive itself is a end-run around the authority of Congress and that of the Judiciary as well. I don't care if you're a Democrat, a Republican, a Libertarian or a Green, we all enjoy the same rights and freedoms in this country and this directive is an all-out assault on them. This Administration has declared war on that made this country unique, that made this country great.

Let me put this the simplest way I know how... This directive renders our Constitution null and void, folks.

And yet, despite the significance of this directive and the absolute threat it poses to our Republic, we are not hearing about it. The media has not touched it and our legislators are not speaking out about it. I would venture to guess that more than 90% of this country has never even heard of this directive. So it now falls to us to do something about it.

I find it fitting that on this Memorial Day that we honor the sacrifice made by so many to defend this nation by defending it ourselves. Countless thousands have given of themselves, have shed their blood, sweat and tears to protect the rights and freedoms enshrined in our Constitution. It's time we repay that debt.

I urge everybody that is so moved to repost, or link to this and encourage others to continue reposting this. We need to get this into the national discourse. This needs to be talked about. We need to squeeze our elected officials until they squeal and do something about getting this directive repealed. And the only way to put the squeeze on them is to get everybody talking about this, writing their Senators and Representatives letters, calling their offices, demanding that they pay attention and do something about this abomination. We have the power and it's well past time that we exercise it.

Never forget the words of Bush himself back in 2000:

"If this were a dictatorship, it'd be a heck of a lot easier, just so long as I'm the dictator."

~Kevin S.

So Yeah, About That Surge...

2007-05-06T22:25:00.000-06:00

Well, now that we're a couple of months into Bush's troop surge in Iraq, we've got to be seeing some results, right? All of those thousands of additional soldiers shipped over to secure Baghdad surely have to be having some effect by now, right? Yeah... as it turns out, the cumulative effect so far is that violence and death have gone up, up, up. The very day that this country was shocked by the shootings at Va Tech that claimed 32 lives, a string of bombings in Iraq killed more than 250 Iraqi civilians. Over 180 in the supposedly reinforced and more secure Baghdad alone. Not that our media covered that story or anything. April's death toll was over 100 and there doesn't seem to be any indication that the violence will be stopped or even slowed down anytime soon.

And so how does the Bush Administration respond to the news that things are indeed getting worse in Iraq rather than better? Why, with some creativity and good ol' fashioned American ingenuity of course! To deal with the increasing death tolls, the Bush Administration has decided to stop counting deaths that are a result of car bombs. Yes, you heard it right. Deaths resulting from car bombs will no longer be tallied in the official body counts. And using numbers that exclude those deaths, the Bush Administration has had the freaking audacity to claim that there has been a dramatic decrease in sectarian violence.

In explaining the justification for excluding these deaths, the Preznit said:

"If the standard of success is no car bombings or suicide bombings, we have just handed those who commit suicide bombings a huge victory."

Not to point out the obvious, but prior to our occupation, Baghdad experienced neither car bombings or suicide bombings. But hey, why let a little factoid like that get in the way of a perfectly good talking point, huh?

It is true that the number of bodies that had been turning up tortured and executed has declined. They're only finding 10-15 bullet-riddled, tortured and mutilated corpses per day instead of the 30-40 a day they were finding. So I guess by Bush standards, that's... progress. The decline has been attributed in part, to radical cleric Muqtada al Sadr ordering his Mahdi militia to stand down for the moment and the Shiite militias aligned with PM al-Maliki having been reigned in. Despite the decrease in the number of executions however, there has been a sharp increase in the number of bombings and also in the number of deaths due to those bombings. You know, the deaths that the Preznit claims don't count. Not officially anyway.

You know, using that Bushian sort of logic, if I took away all of the losses my Raiders suffered last season to teams with names that ended with an "S" then my Silver and Black actually went undefeated. You know, I might be able to get into this logic after all!

It comes as no surprise to any of us that Bush's "surge" has failed and it has failed miserably. Instead of providing the security and stability he promised, it's provided only more death and destruction. It's time to end this stupid charade and bring our troops home. Iraq is in a state of outright civil war with our brave men and women caught in the middle. 70% of this country wants us out of Iraq and still this "president" refuses to obey the overwhelming will of the people. Bush is the single most intransigent president in the history of this country. The time for Congress to act is now. No more "non-binding" resolutions and no more talk of "timetables" and "benchmarks." Bush is the most intransigent president in this history of this country and it's painfully obvious to anybody with half a brain that he is going to veto any spending bill with "timetables" attached to it. It's time for the Democratic majority to cut the funding for this war. Period. Not one dollar more. We put them in office in November to end this war and to bring our troops home. I can understand the diplomatic and legislative efforts they've tried to this point. But it's done no good. Nor will it ever, so long as Bush sits in the White House. He listens to nobody nor cares what the people want. It's time to cut the funding entirely. It's time to end this war. The Democrats had best pay attention to us, or we will find others in the coming elections that will.

~Kevin S.

No Sh*t, Sherlock...

2007-04-24T21:29:00.000-06:00

Ahhhh yes... News Dump Friday, that time honored tradition of our government. The theory is that by slipping stories potentially damaging and/or embarassing to the Administration into the Friday afternoon news cycle, it'll mitigate the fallout. The assumption is that we'll have the weekend to forget about it, we'll be too busy to keep up with the news or it will just sort of blend in with the normal news cycle and we'll never see it. Errrrrr... yeah. So you can well imagine that this Administration has used News Dump Friday very, very extensively.

One of the big stories in this installment of News Dump Friday is... are you ready for this? Are you sure? Get ready.... Abstinence-Only Education doesn't work! I know, I know, contain your shock and disbelief. Stunning news, isn't it? A study, ordered by Congress into the $175 million dollar a year program and conducted by Mathematica Policy Research, Inc. has found that students who took part in sexual abstinence programs were just as likely to have sex as those who did not. Additionally, those that attended Abstinence-Only courses reported having a similar number of sexual partners as those that did not. The report goes on to say that Abstinence-Only students had sex for the first time at roughly the same age as non-Abstinence-Only students... 14.9 years old.

"I really do think it's a two-part story. First, there is no evidence that the programs increased the rate of sexual abstinence," said Chris Trenholm, a senior researcher at Mathematica who oversaw the study. "However, the second part of the story that I think is equally important is that we find no evidence that the programs increased the rate of unprotected sex."

But of course, Bush Administration officials were quick to say that we shouldn't draw any sweeping conclusions from the study. Gee, sweeping conclusions like what? That 175 million of our tax dollars are being flushed straight down the toilet each and every single year? Of course, flushing tax dollars down the toilet and perpetually pushing failed programs and policies is a staple of this current Administration.

This report comes as Congress is set to consider renewal of the block grant for Abstinency-Only education this summer.

"This report should give a clear signal to members of Congress that the program should be changed to support programs that work, or it should end when it expires at the end of June," said William Smith, vice president for public policy at the Sexuality Information and Education Council of the United States.

Here's an idea... how about using that $175 million a year on programs that actually work? How about acknowledging the reality that wagging our fingers and telling kids to not have sex isn't working and providing some real education about things like pregnancy and disease? If it's so important for advocates of abstinence-only to teach morality, maybe they should try teaching it at home. It's quite obvious that it's not working in the schools, so why continue pouring money down a useless hole? I think that $175 million a year could do a lot of good in a lot of different areas.

~Kevin S.

Happy Rwanda Genocide Day, Sudan!

2007-04-08T22:11:00.000-06:00

April 6, 2007 marked the 13th year since the 1994 genocide in Rwanda that took over 1 million lives in 100 days. Four years passed, the ICTR (International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda ) had not even convicted one person for their role in the genocide, and President William Clinton visited Kigali airport in Rwanda. With the engines of Air Force One running, he encouraged the world to "work together as a community of civilized nations to strengthen our ability to prevent and, if necessary, to stop genocide." He then laid out a plan that would "increase our vigilance and strengthen our stand against those who would commit such atrocities in the future."

I guess he didn't speak for George W. Bush.* Because four years ago, genocide slithered onto Sudan's horizon. Bush recognized it as such, all the way back in June of 2005 when he announced he would end the killings in Darfur by "working with NATO to make sure that we are able to help the AU put combat troops there. And, as a part of that, I believe a transport plane of ours, for example, will be a part of this mission."

Go Bush. His commitment to end the first genocide in the new millennium was firm, as evidenced by the complete lack of funding he provided in the budgets. USAID received about $20k a year to end the Darfur genocide and to keep the peace in southern Sudan, an area trying to recover after 22 years of civil war. He took further steps to shore up this commitment by excluding funding for Darfur from the 2008 US budget, set to begin in October of 2007.

The danger of this long and drawn out mass killing is that it becomes accepted. It becomes how the people living in the areas are defined. And while it is shameful that Anna Nicole Smith's death receives far more coverage than the intentional murder of 400,000 people (with 2 million to go), I find it even more embarrassing that college students are able to generate 12 times more money through a few bake sales and charity functions that my own government.

I don't want my country to be known as the number one exporter of hollow rhetoric and broken promises.** Help end the genocide.

Join. Act. Make a differnce.

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

*Given how quickly he forgot about Rwanda, I doubt he was speaking for himself, either.

**

The biggest threat to the Peace Movement?

2007-03-21T21:35:00.000-06:00

(You mean, aside from teargas and police brutality?)

The biggest threat to the Peace Movement? That'd be...the Peace Movement.

Folks, lets face it. We are our own worst enemy when it comes to making ourselves inviting to newcomers to the cause. It's not entirely our own fault. A majority of us have only been protesting for 4-5 years. We don't know what the hell we are doing. And it shows.

Fortunately, there are several groups who have been protesting...well, their entire lives, really. In polite society they are known as the "freaks." People who protest everything from lifesaving vaccines to sanctions against terrorist states. People who think Clinton should have been censored (and move on) and Bush should be impeached.

Because I've suddenly become fond of lists, I've created another one.

Top 13 Visuals To the Peace Movement Sabotaging the Peace Movement:

1. Sometimes we show ourselves to be a bit overenthusiastic to the cause.

2. None of us are willing to take one for the team.

3. We let the "natural birth control" proponents march with us.

4. We don't always make it easy to know what side we're on.

5. We don't always make it easy to understand what we're protesting.

6. We may occasionally use scary visuals.

7. See above.

8. We like women.

9. We like Chomsky.

10. We like a good conspiracy.

11. Our signs are a bit highbrow to some.

12. Our signs are uncomfortable reminders of reality.

13. Our signs hit a little too close to home.

Soldiering On

2007-03-19T11:44:00.000-06:00

This information we've been getting from the mainstream media about the conditions at Walter Reed Army Medical Center is pretty disgusting. In addition to the mold, feces, fees and government mischief, soldiers also face the double standard of support. Support for the troops, support for the war, support for killing. But when the soldiers themselves return from the front line, due to injury or end of tour, they are expected to demand no support. No benefits, no care, no counseling. Because if they do, they are deemed traitors.

Walter Reed's motto is "we provide warrior care." How true that is. Walter Reed has gamely followed along in the Bush Administration's footsteps in enlisted/veteran treatment. Which is to say, that they screw them while waving the red, white and blue flag of patriotism.

From the first days of the war in Iraq, the Bush Administration has tried to cut money from the most essential sources of enlisted/veteran care. The Pentagon announced the close of Walter Reed back in 2005, claiming care would be moved to a new facility as early as 2011. Is it any wonder that the quality of service suddenly dropped off?

A Quarter of US War Vets Diagnosed With Mental Disorder
For War's Gravely Injured, Challenge to Find Care
The Wider Shame of Walter Reed
Report: Army "Deliberately Shortchanging" Troops on Disability
Soldiers Face Neglect, Frustration at Army's Top Medical Facility
The Forgotten Families
Troops Return to Painful Wait for Needed Help
Pentagon Alters Casualty Figures
Pentagon Abandons Active-Duty Time Limit
Soldier's Harassment Claim Leads to Court-Martial
Shafting the Vets
For US Troops and Their Families, Iraq War's Invisible Costs Keep Piling Up
Law Cuts Survivor Benefits to 61,000 Military Widows
Homelessness a Threat for Iraq Vets
War Veterans Denied Education Benefits
Bush to Cut Veterans' Benefits to Pay for Credit Monitoring
Military Fails Some Widows Over Benefits
Pentagon to Close Walter Reed Military Hospital
Health Care for Veterans $1 Billion Short
Marines Recall Thousands of Faulty Combat Vests
From War Hero to Homeless
Discharged and Dishonored: Shortchanging Our Veterans
The Invisible Wounded

These are just some of the headlines since 2005. What is deplorable is that soldiers in the military unintentionally continue this abuse by keeping silent. It should not take the problem to reach this level of disgrace before people are willing to talk publicly about it. However, the military is saturated with fear. Fear that speaking up for a soldier's rights is harmful to the military as a whole.

I've seen it at the protests, when the pro-war side shows up and attacks the peace movement for dividing the nation, harming the moral of troops and providing aid to the enemy. Oddly enough, the people who scream loudest for the well-being of the soldiers are often the very same who know little about the true feelings of those in combat. Those who call for silence in the face of criticism, through their misguided faith in this administration end up unintentionally supporting budget cuts that cripple our military's effectiveness.

It is time for the Good Ol Boy mentality of the US Armed Forces to give way to something a little more effective. Soldiers should not fear that a legitimate complaint will result in punishment, abuse or discharge. The Bush Administration and their supporters demand an end to the public's right to know, and in exchange, they promise to take care of those that serve. Yet, we have seen time and again, that if there is money to be cut from a program that benefits people who are isolated from their civil liberties, this government leaps to do it. It is impossible to expect Bush Administration and their supporters to care for our men and women in uniform and well past time to stop relying on them. Soldiers need to speak up. The public needs to stand up.

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

*Disfigured Iraq vet Ty Ziegel and his fiancée, Renee, on their wedding day

So... ummmm... yeah. About that surge...

2007-03-13T13:07:00.000-06:00

In his State of the Union speech, Bush laid out his plan to "surge" 21,500 more troops into Iraq to stabilize the region. He assured us that these additional troops would quell the violence that's tearing Iraq apart. But that in and of itself was a flat out lie. The number of troops that would actually be going to Iraq in this "surge" would not be the 21,500 that he outlined in the State of the Union... not even close. The actual number of troops would be closer to 48,000 according to a report by the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office. Funny how he forgot to mention that another 25,000 "supporting" troops would be required to go to Iraq.

But wait... there's more! Oh yes there is!

Over the weekend, Bush announced that another 8,200 troops would be deployed to the region in addition to the 21,500 he's "surging" in. To fund these additional troops, he's announced his plan to cut 3.2 billion from "low-priority defense items." There was no mention of what those "low-priority defense items" might be however. If I were to take a guess though, I'd say he'd be cutting out maybe... federal defense funding to the blue states? But hey, I'm just guessing here.

So let's see... now he wants to send in another 56,000 troops at a cost of about $100 billion. Does anybody remember when we'd first invaded Iraq when Donald Rumsfeld said that a) he doubted the war would take more than 6 months and b) the oil revenues would more than pay for the entire Iraq war? Yeah, here we are 4 years and hundreds of billions of dollars into it. I guess they "misunderestimated" things a bit, huh?

We're pouring troops in while the British are pulling theirs out. And let's see if I can follow the logic here... The Brits are pulling out and Darth Cheney lauds it as a success...

"I look at it and what I see is an affirmation of the fact that in parts of Iraq … things are going pretty well."

So let's look at that for a second... The Brits getting out of Iraq is a sign of success. By Darth Cheney's logic, does that mean that because we're flooding more bodies in there that we're failing? But gee, how could that be when the Administration keeps painting the rosiest of pictures about what's going on in Iraq? You know, freedom is on the march, progress is being made and all that happy horseshit. What I don't get though is, shouldn't Darth Cheney be calling the Brits "cut and runners" and tell them that they're "aiding the enemy" by leaving before the "job is done." Hypocritical asshat.

If the British pull-out of Iraq is the model of success in Iraq, then that's the kind of success we can all get behind. But no, Bush and his cronies are going to go ahead and throw more kids into the meat grinder that is Iraq. They don't seem to care that the blood of more than 3,000 of America's best and bravest is on their hands. And if they do notice, they just don't give a damn.

More than 3,000 have died already. Throwing another 56,000 into the mix is only going to get more and more of them killed. And for what exactly? There can be no "victory" in Iraq no matter how many times Bush and his minions spout that word. Bush lost his war in Iraq long, long ago and he still can't admit it. He's just like a gambling addict, sitting at the blackjack table, convinced that he can win everything back on the next hand, that the cards will start falling right even though he's not won a hand all night. But guess what George? You've already busted.

BRING OUR TROOPS HOME NOW!

~Kevin S.

Squeezing the Zit

2007-03-04T22:15:00.000-07:00

Eleven things you didn't know you didn't know about Iran.

70% of the population is under 30. That's 30 years under Iran's first democracy. And a large portion of their childhood spent with their country at war with Iraq. Currently the younger generation's biggest challenge is high unemployment.
60% of the students attending their universities are women.

There are slightly more men than women and the life expectancy is 70 years. The official religion is Shi'a Islam.

Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the president, isn't actually the head of Iran. That is Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei. Ahmadinejad's popularity is declining sharply in Iran, his allies lost local elections and he has been heckled by the population.

Look at this map. See the countries and waterways that surround them? The US has bases or fleets in all but one (Turkmenistan). Iran's screwed:

Using the same systems of intelligence that assured US Iraq had WMD's, the capabilities and will to use nuclear weapons, we are now claiming that Iran is threatening us with their nuclear program.

The US claims that Iran is in violation of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty and, as such, open for attack. The US is also in violation of the treaty.

To impair the Shi'a government in Iran, the US is paying terrorists connected to al-Qaeda to attack civilians inside the country.

The USS Stennis is in the Gulf of Oman. Named after a man who Reagan called "unwavering advocate of peace through strength," he's also well-known for being not "quite as virulently racist as James Eastland." Oh the irony of attacking Iran with a carrier named after a man who opposed equal rights for people of color.

Osama bin Laden is still alive and in hiding, but most people in the intelligence community don't think he's in Iran.

Iran does not have nuclear weapons.

I bring you this information because people on the receiving end of the club should not know more than those swinging it.

~Lila Schow

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

Libya and Camp X Ray

2007-02-21T15:07:00.000-07:00

You probably haven't heard the story of the five Bulgarian nurses and one Palestinian who have been sentenced to death in Libya. After an HIV outbreak in Benghazi hospital that infected over 400 children in 1998, the Libyan government arrested all foreign workers at the hospital. Eventually, they settled on charging the six.

The amount of hysteria Libya has responded with might be funny ... if human lives weren't at stake.

Libya's leader, Muammar Gaddafi, has made a spectacle of himself, accusing the US of releasing the virus after experiments on Haitians ran out of control. He insists that the infection was a plot by the CIA or Moussad against the people of his country.

Instead of recognizing the true cause, tragically underfunded and equipped hospitals strangled for decades by US sanctions, Gaddafi has instead chosen to live in fantasy land.

When some of the women held reported that they had been beaten and raped by their guards, the Libyan government responded by leveling further charges against them. Slander.

Despite pleas from around the globe and offers by the British to release a Libyan prisoner in exchange for the nurses, Gaddafi remains unmoved. Meanwhile, the nurses continue to fight for their freedom, filing an appeal that could eventually lead to their release.

Now that you're caught up on that, let's talk about Camp X-Ray.

Better known as Guantanamo, the detention center for men and children collected by the US government accused of either being terrorists or aiding them.

Those Bulgarian nurses in ass-backward Islamic Libya? Their on their Nteenth appeal (I mean really, after three who keeps track?). But you will be happy to know that no such Amnesty will be granted to the 435-ish potential sworn enemies of the United States. Because on Tuesday, a US court decided that Guantanamo Detainees Can't Challenge Cases. This adds to the list:

Due Process for Detainees Lacking Under New Gitmo Panel
Judge Rules Gitmo Detainees Have No Rights
US Military Wants War Crimes Compound for Gitmo Detainees
Bush: Guantanamo Detainees Have No Rights in US Courts
Guilty Until Confirmed Guilty
Guantanamo Defense Lawyer Forced Out of Navy
Guantanamo Detainees May Remain Indefinitely
Bush seeks to extend Guantánamo procedures to American citizens

and of course:

Pentagon Confirms Use of Guantanamo Sex Tactics

Although no charges have ever, ever been filed against the prisoners, no evidence has ever been made public of their crimes, countless innocents were jailed in vengeful grudge settlements, and nothing good can come from the prison we are going to refuse them the rights extended by such champions of human rights as Libya?

Libyan hysteria. American hysteria. Libyan torture. American torture. I guess the only thing that separates us from the barbarians in other nations is who extends the most civil rights. Because as Robert Ingersoll said, "Give to every human being every right that you claim for yourself."

Which means it's not looking so good for US. Now Halliburton, that's another story...

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

Our Tax Dollars Hard At Work

2007-02-11T20:12:00.000-07:00

I guess Bush and his minions are desperate to prove that they are the best at something. Of course, it's not education, health care, foreign policy... no, of course not. No, they get to hang their hats on the fact that this is the single most corrupt Administration in the history of the United States. Let's all give them a big round of applause for that, huh? I must say, that's quite an achievement.

The full depth of the corruption may never be known, but we're getting a clearer and clearer picture of just how rampant it is. Congressman Henry Waxman (D-Ca), new chairman of the House Government Reform committee has been conducting hearings, finally digging into the corruption, waste and fraud of the Bush Administration. And what he's turned up so far has been utterly astonishing.

We now know that the Bush Administration had ordered the disbursement of billions of dollars to Iraq with no record keeping and no oversight. Shortly before Viceroy L. Paul Bremer and the Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA) handed control of the country back to the Iraqis, Bush ordered the Federal Reserve to issue 4 billion dollars. That cash was packed onto pallets, loaded onto military transports and sent to Iraq. Amazing, isn't it? Huge bundles of money, 363 tons of cold, hard cash, just strapped to cargo pallets and shipped on out.

"Who in their right mind would send 363 tons of cash into a war zone? But that's exactly what our government did," said Waxman.

Once the money planes landed in Iraq, there doesn't seem to be a whole lot of meticulous record keeping detailing where that money went or how it was disbursed. I don't know about you, but I'm thinking that a lot of it was disbursed to private accounts in Switzerland and the Grand Caymans. To date, there is still more than 9 billion dollars completely unaccounted for and billions more wasted or handed out as bribes. In his defense, Bremer told the Congressional Committee that it would have been impossible to apply modern accounting standards in the midst of a war.

"We were in the middle of a war, working in very difficult conditions, and we had to move quickly to get this Iraqi money working for the Iraqi people," said
Bremer.

The stink has gotten so bad that even true conservatives are beginning to hold their noses. According to the American Conservative, the waste and fraud is rampant and far reaching.

At least $20 billion that belonged to the Iraqi people has been wasted, together with hundreds of millions of U.S. taxpayer dollars. Exactly how many billions of additional dollars were squandered, stolen, given away, or simply lost will never be known because the deliberate decision by the CPA not to meter oil exports means that no one will ever know how much revenue was generated during 2003 and 2004.

This is utterly amazing. They're taking our tax dollars and quite literally handing it out of the back of trucks. There is no oversight, there is no record keeping and in some cases, it seems that they don't even know who they're handing money to!

From the American Conservative:

Money also disappeared in truckloads and by helicopter. The CPA reportedly distributed funds to contractors in bags off the back of a truck. In one notorious incident in April 2004, $1.5 billion in cash that had just been delivered by three Blackhawk helicopters was handed over to a courier in Erbil, in the Kurdish region, never to be seen again. Afterwards, no one was able to recall the courier’s name or provide a good description of him.

And this:

Paul Bremer, meanwhile, had a slush fund in cash of more than $600 million in his office for which there was no paperwork. One U.S. contractor received $2 million in a duffel bag. Three-quarters of a million dollars was stolen from an office safe, and a U.S. official was given $7 million in cash in the waning days of the CPA and told to spend it “before the Iraqis take over.” Nearly $5 billion was shipped from New York in the last month of the CPA.

And all of this waste, fraud and corruption isn't even taking the American contractors like Halliburton, KBR and Blackwater doing "work" on behalf of the government into account. That list of waste and corruption is far more than I want to even go into at the moment.

It certainly seems that a lot of money is just disappearing like a puff of smoke over there. I would venture to guess that there are a lot of people getting rich as well. Can you even imagine the good that could have been done in this country with those countless billions that have been stolen or wasted in Iraq? With all of that money, we could have fed countless millions of homeless men, women and children. We could have given health care to the uninsured. We could have vastly improved our education system nationwide. We could have, you know, rebuilt New Orleans and the Gulf Coast. There are so many good things that could have been done with that amount of money here in this country. But no, the robber barons of the Bush Administration are more interested in fattening up their own bank accounts rather than do good works on behalf of this country and our people.

Hundreds of billions of our tax dollars have already gone to fund Bush's immoral war of choice in Iraq. In the budget he just sent to Congress, Bush is earmarking nearly a trillion dollars more. And this is the money that's accounted for. How many more billions of our tax dollars are going to vanish into thin air?

I urge everybody to write to their Congresscritter and Senators and urge them to pull the plug on the funding for this war. Fu*k these non-binding resolutions everybody and their dog is trying to debate and pass. That's nothing but a circle-jerk and we the people all playing the catcher. The only recourse we have left open to us is the power of the purse. The only way to stop this war, to stop the needless slaughter of our troops and Iraqi civilians and to stop this corruption and waste is for Congress to pull those pursestrings shut. Write your Congresscritters and your Senators. Tell them it's past time to shut down the war machine.

~Kevin S.

Gee, This Sounds Vaguely Important...

2007-02-02T21:28:00.000-07:00

The headline reads: "Ohio Elections Officials Convicted of Tampering with 2004 Presidential Recount." But of course, most of America hasn't seen this headline because the mainstream media outlets have barely touched this story. Call me crazy, but this seems like too big of a story to only be running in the local Ohio press and alternative media sources on these here internets. Apparently, the mainstream media has forgotten that the state of Ohio is the state that handed Bush a second term on a silver platter. It seems to me that the fact that the recount of the presidential freaking election was rigged is a pretty big story. But then again, I'm not part of the mainstream media so what do I know about big stories?

Two election workers in one of Ohio's most densely populated areas and traditional Democratic stronghold, Cuyahoga County, were convicted of illegally rigging the county's recount. According to Erie County Special Proesecutor Kevin Baxter, the recount was fixed not necessarily for political reasons, but because the election employees were too damn lazy to do their jobs properly. Election coordinator Jacqueline Maiden and ballot manager Kathleen Dreamer were both covicted of "negligent misconduct of an elections employee," a felony that carries a possible sentence of 6 to 18 months in prison. A third woman, Rosie Grier, the assistant manager of the board's ballot department was indicted but acquitted of the charges.

Under Ohio law, a county is supposed to randomly count 3% of its ballots by hand and by machine. If there are no discrepancies in those counts, the rest of the votes can be counted by machine. If there are discrepancies between the two supposedly random samples, a full recount, by hand, is ordered. According to Special Prosecutor Baxter, what Dreamer and Maiden did, to avoid the labor intensive hand count, was to employ a method known as "hack and stack." The "hack and stack" method, according to blackboxvoting.org works like this:

Some recounts and audits rely on so-called "random" manual counts of a small percentage of the ballots, which are then compared against the voting computer counts for those precincts. The safeguard can be defeated by manipulating the precinct selection process, or by manipulating the ballots in the selected precincts to make sure they match before counting them. This "stacks" the recount or audit so that only subsets of data that match machine counts are examined.
In Cuyahoga County, citizens noticed that the ballots arrived for the public
recount already sorted into sets for Bush and sets for Kerry. Kathleen Wynne videotaped the sorted piles and videotaped as she asked Kathleen Dreamer and Jacqui Maiden to explain the sorting and pre-selected piles. She captured them on videotape admitting that they had not chosen randomly.

So let me get this straight... there is evidence beyond the shadow of a doubt that the recount in one Ohio county was rigged. Is it unreasonable to think that there may have been election fraud in other counties? Nahhhh... I'm sure the results from the other counties were all on the up and up, right? We can take them at their word, can't we?

Oh but wait... there's more. You knew there had to be, didn't you? Oh yes, there's a wrinkle in this story that should really bear some scrutiny. It seems that both Dreamer and Maiden have chosen to fall on their swords to protect their bosses. To date, neither Cuyahoga Elections Director Michael Vu nor Cuyahoga County Board of Elections chair Bob Bennett have publicly answered a single question about the fraudulent election results. But the cherry on top is that the defense attorney for Dreamer and Maiden was one Roger Synenberg, formerly the chairman of the Cuyahoga County Elections Board. Interesting that as defense counsel for Maiden and Dreamer, neither was advised to take a plea bargain. They both could have lessened their sentences had they cooperated with the prosecutors investigating the case. Makes you wonder what dirty little secrets they would have uncovered, doesn't it?

But no, there's no story here. Nothing to see here, move along. Just ask the media.

~Kevin S.

Chaos, Confusion and Still More Death

2007-02-02T21:21:00.000-07:00

With 112 U.S. deaths in Iraq, December was the third deadliest month of Bush's immoral war of choice. 80 soldiers have lost their lives in January, bringing the total body count to 3,080 dead. Tens of thousands of wounded. Iraq is in a state of total chaos and utter confusion as the Sunni insurgents battle the Shi'ite militias and our troops are caught in the middle with both sides taking shots at them. Unless somebody has a weapon pointed directly at them, how are they supposed to know who the enemy is? And now George W. Bush is bound and determined to drop 22,000 more American men and women into this mess, into this hornet's nest that he's stirred up. Our legislators are so intent on finding the right word to call it, whether it be "escalation" or "augmentation" or whatever today's pretty little euphamism is, that it seems like some of them have forgotten the fact that lives are being lost every single day. And things aren't getting any better. In fact, the chaos and confusion is getting worse, despite the pretty picture Bush is trying to paint. New, highly sophisticated tactics are being employed to kill U.S. soldiers.

A team of gunmen, posing as a US security team entered the Provincial Joint Coordination Center in Karbala and abducted 4 US soldiers. Iraqi security, believing the group of black SUV's to be a governmental convoy, waved them through a checkpoint and allowed them to enter the compound. The gunmen, who by accounts of the incident, spoke english, wore US combat fatigues and carried American weapons, entered the portion of the center that housed US soldiers and opened fire, killing one US soldier and abducted four others. The abducted soldiers were later found in a neighboring province about 25 miles from the compound where they'd been taken. They'd been handcuffed and executed. Three were dead at the scene and the fourth died of a gunshot wound to the head on the way to the hospital. The US military initially described the incident as a raid on an Iraqi governor's office and said that the soldiers were killed "repelling" the assault. Within hours of the AP reporting that the dead soldiers had been abducted and executed though, the military finally gave a detailed and accurate account of the incident.

"The precision of the attack, the equipment used and the possible use of explosives to destroy the military vehicles in the compound suggests that the attack was well rehearsed prior to execution," said Lt. Col. Scott Bleichwehl, spokesman for Multi-National Division-Baghdad.

Gee, that's just great. So now our soldiers have to worry about the insurgents who want to kill them, the militias who want to kill them, the random IED attacks that are killing them and now, in addition to all of that, they have to worry about the people wearing US uniforms that want to kill them. With all of that confusion swirling around them, how in the hell are they supposed to know who the enemy is? How are they supposed to achieve this "victory" that Bush keeps talking about? Adding another 22,000 people into the absolute horror show that is Iraq is only going to make matters worse, is only going to give the insurgents/militia/death-squads/terrorists more targets to shoot at.

The number of deaths in Iraq isn't dropping, it's rising. The number of attacks is increasing and the level of violence grows with each passing day. The "victory" that Bush seems to think can be achieved in Iraq is nothing but a farce. We lost this war long, long ago. But his pride and his ego won't let him admit failure, won't let him admit defeat. There is no vicotry to be had in Iraq. And our brave men and women will continue to pay the price for his mistakes and his arrogance.

~Kevin S.

Scary Oil Chart

2007-02-01T11:13:00.000-07:00

Taken from this site (they have a pie chart there as well)

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

Does God Hate You?

2007-01-31T22:00:00.000-07:00

Yeah, he probably does. Especially if you're poor, a condition afflicting 99% of the people on this planet. If you have a Christian-based faith, we all know what you're supposed to do with Wealth.

Since you cannot serve both god and money, (and you cannot hold public office if you are Christian) then what have the atheists in charge of our livelihoods decided to do to serve humanity's impoverished?

A good question. It has to do with population.

People in my neck of the woods are always bitching about the huge influx of illegal immigrants that has swelled this great country's population by a staggering 5.6%. Oh, the strain on our resources!* I wonder what these people will do in another 43 years when the world's population doubles?

The UN has concluded that there is a link between poor health care (yo, that includes birth control), soaring population numbers and having to live on less than $2 a day.

Given that the population in the poorest nations has tripled since 1950 and is expected to triple again in 50 years (whereas the US has merely doubled and will not do so again in 2050, in spite of the immigrant onslaught) it would seem that to reduce poverty you would need to start bringing family planning and birth control (among other things) to these nations.

So what are those atheists and religious bluffers ** in charge of our welfare doing? Well, they're denying birth control world wide. But you should have already known that, as one of Bush's first actions upon taking office in 2000 was to cut money to any program receiving assistance from the US State Department -- ending basic health care for the poorest and most unfortunate on our planet.

To the poor, I am sorry. It seems neither god or our government is on your side.

*Right, that was some sarcasm there. Glad you caught it.
** Bush is not a Christian. Or is he?

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

Better than the Enquirer

2007-01-24T22:17:00.000-07:00

Are blogs quicker and more accurate than mainstream media? This one sure as hell is! Today, the Associated Press released an article titled, "Military Ray Gun Makes Targets Feel On Fire".

That's great, but DogPile brought you that story back on December 19, 2006. And it contained an audio clip that far surpassed the Ass Press's lame photo.

So there you go. Get your news from me. I know what I'm doing.

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

The Bill Richardson Spiral

2007-01-22T22:58:00.000-07:00

I greeted the announcement of his running for the Democratic candidate for president with much enthusiasm, although I am no longer a Democrat (and I kind of think they are all bastards).

Richardson has impressed me with his involvement in Sudan. The governor for New Mexico, he's made repeated trips overseas to try to end the genocide in Darfur. Yea to that, right?

Some research shows that this is not an anomaly. He negotiated with Saddam Hussein to release US hostages in 1995. He's been in Afghanistan and Iraq and all over the globe it seems. Even Nigeria (with Enron).

This is all wonderful. Sure, he doesn't support my view on immigration (who does?), but he also doesn't think we should be building a damn fence between the US and Mexico.

Yeah, and ok, he didn't really support the anti-war movement in 2003 and while his official platform calls for the withdrawal of all US troop in Iraq, he doesn't mention fate of the private contractors, permanent bases being built, huge-ass embassy, or how to economically rebuild the nation.

Plus his statistics are off. He says 40% of Iraqis are unemployed (nearly twice as much of the population than during the Depression in the US) and my sources say 60%.

Er, and I guess it's not really his official platform, just a speech he's preparing to give in December 2007!!!

Speech to the New Hampshire Democratic State Party State Central Committee
St. Anselm CollegeSaturday, December 16th, 2007(as prepared for
delivery)

Thank you Kathy. You are a great State Chair. I'd like to thank the State Committee for hosting me. I hope you all take great pride in your work in this last election. The Democratic tidal wave that rushed across America last month started right here in New Hampshire.

Anyhoo, I can do it. I can throw Iraq under the bus if we can get someone a little more involved in other world hot spots. Hey, Iraq's a mess, a solution won't be pretty. I get it.

He's for a woman's right to choose, for more diversity, for health care and separation of church and state!

Yet, he likes school vouchers and killing inmates and tax breaks for the wealthy, doesn't think that children born in this country should be given automatic citizenship, wants to throw more money in the military toilet...still though, he's down with alternative energy.*

And here's a tough one, Greg Palast had some negative stuff to say about him in his book, Armed Madhouse (pgs 253-254, 255-256, 257). Apparently, Richardson didn't care to do a ballot recount in his state in 2002. And his dad worked for Citi (as did I for a few years).

Pfftt. Minor things. Except that little Enron deal. What he knew or did not know while serving as President Clinton's Secretary of Energy is almost as important as his acts of deregulation and denial that the California energy crisis was manufactured.

And then there's the whole Wen Ho Lee scandal.

What finally did it for me was his employment with Kissinger Associates. You can not work for Henry Kissinger if you want me to support you. That's just stupid.

* According to On the Issues Take their test and see which candidates match your beliefs.

~Lila Schow
Because Responsible Citizens Clean Up After Their Government

http://goodusgov.org/

First Annual Gump Award

2007-01-19T15:10:00.000-07:00

I've just created a new category of awards, similar to the Darwin Awards. Mine shall be called the Gump Award, in honor of the movie Forrest Gump in which we hear the quote, "Stupid is as Stupid Does."

For 2007, my award goes to the Monkey In Charge * ** who's response to Saddam's execution went like this:

Well, the message is that it's a confusing message. It basically says to people, look, you conducted a trial and gave Saddam justice that he didn't give to others. But then, when it came to execute him, it looked like it was kind of a revenge killing. And it sent a mixed signal to the American people and the people around the world. And it just goes to show that this is a government that has still got some maturation to do.

Try to remember that this is the same man who, on December 29th, 2006 said:

Today, Saddam Hussein was executed after receiving a fair trial -- the kind of justice he denied the victims of his brutal regime.

We are reminded today of how far the Iraqi people have come since the end of Saddam Hussein's rule - and that the progress they have made would not have been possible without the continued service and sacrifice of our men and women in uniform.

I didn't make that one up either, it's on the Whitehouse website.

The best part about accusing the Iraqi government of "fumbling" the execution of the man we removed from office and put on trial by people we put in power is the complete lack of responsibility The Monkey takes. Classic!

Perhaps the problem is, as Bush puts it, there's just no sex in your violence. There certainly was nothing sexy about that cell phone footage. Well, one thing's for certain, we'll never have to hear him say this:

"I'm sorry."

As always, this administration leaves me thinking about an old David Rees Cartoon.

*Dear Jane Goodall, please don't be mad at me.

**I know, it's kind of a given. He's made so many of these types of comments you can fill a calendar with them. Still, this one is pretty awful. It will be interesting to see if he can top it. He still has 11 months to go.

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

the dumbassity has hit a new high

2007-01-15T14:16:00.000-07:00

Idaho Governor Calls for Gray Wolf Kill
Idaho's governor said Thursday he will support public hunts to kill all but 100 of the state's gray wolves after the federal government strips them of protection under the Endangered Species Act.

What a great way to celebrate the comeback of a species on the verge of extinction! To kill them.

With 1,200 thought to live in the Rocky Mountains, Governor Otter's plan to remove 550 from Idaho would single-handedly halve the population.

A species the nation had spent eleven years and at least 7.7 million dollars in Idaho alone trying to bring back from extinction will now be taken to 100 animals, just so the governor and his friends can have a good ol' boy hunt. It is an expensive tab the governor wants US taxpayers to foot, served under the guise of protecting elk and deer for Idaho's hunting industry.

Perhaps Governor Otter should read a few articles on the Baiji, a Chinese dolphin declared extinct in December, 2006. In the 1980's, the dolphins dropped to 400 in number, three times more than the number of wolves Governor Otter wants to keep in his state. Unlike the wolves, the dolphins were threatened more by habitat destruction than by hunting. In 1997, only thirteen Baiji could be found in China. None have been seen since 2004.

Governor Otter has been accused by many of trying to manage wolf numbers through politics instead of through what is healthy to the ecology of the state. It seems astounding that after working so hard and seeing so much success with the wolf recovery program that one man could so quickly allow that time, money and effort to be wasted in a mass kill.

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

Ha ha, Loser

2007-01-05T17:45:00.000-07:00

So good old Zalmay Khalilzad is going to be our next ambassador to the UN. That's funny. Bolton, who's been criticized as being too harsh and assholeish, is being replaced by a man who is "unusually outspoken," a PNAC lapdog, likes to promote murderers to higher positions of power and failed miserably at the last two jobs he's held.

What are this man's credentials, anyway? Where was the last place that Zalmay Khalilzad represented Americans? Iraq. And as you can see by the peaceful rebuilding of that nation, he was a huge sucess!

And before that he acted for us in Afghanistan, crushing the Taliban and smoothing out relations for the US search for bin Laden.

Really. Why don't we just nominate Pat Robertson to head the Department of Homeland Security?

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

Hang 'Em High

2006-12-31T21:55:00.000-07:00

Three cheers because Saddam Hussein is dead. Let's forget for a moment the analogy that what happened in Iraq Saturday, December 30th, is akin to putting to death George W. Bush on Friday, December 23rd in Guantanamo Cuba for invading Iraq after a failed execution attempt against his father. We'll pick that up later.

What is really interesting is the method of death. Hanging by the neck until dead. Could we have found a more backward method that reinforces the stereotypes we hold of people in the Middle East?

Why not just throw stones at him until he's dead? Or behead him?

America practices far more "humane" methods of execution. Currently, three states still allow a criminal to be hung, but only if lethal injection can't be given. It's not a real popular option, we have others.

Thanks to our good old buddy, Thomas Edison, there's always the electric chair. Used by ten states, Old Smokey provides a dramatic finish for those unlucky enough to be strapped to it.

Why not use that on Saddam? For the same reason that Ethiopia didn't in 1890. No electricity. At least, no reliable electricity. Except for the THREE HOURS they get EACH MONTH. I suppose they could have done it at the 104 acre US Embassy in Baghdad, the only place in Iraq with a working electric power plant, but somehow I get the impression the Bush Administration would rather you not know about that.

Well, why not lethal injection? The preferred method for thirty seven states, lethal injection seems the most advanced of our capital punishments. Unfortunatly for Iraq's medical network, once free services are now being dispensed by insurgent leader al-Sadr's political party. As a result, hospitals have become killing grounds for the civil war. Not many trained medical professionals are left and the hospitals remain without power, medicine, or equipment. Regular Iraqis have no other options and are denied care at the military bases, the idea being, "Our goal is for the Iraqis to use their own existing infrastructure and become self-sufficient, not dependent on U.S. forces for medical care."

Yet, there is always the gas chamber. But perhaps the administration shied away from that as an uncomfortable reminder of Hussein's gassing to the Kurds in 1988-89 using US helicopters, chemicals and logistics. Or that the reconstruction decided to abandon any efforts to provide the survivors of Hussein's gas attacks with clean water.

Still, they could have done it by firing squad, an option reserved by both Oklahoma and Idaho.

"For execution by this method, the inmate is typically bound to a chair with leather straps across his waist and head, in front of an oval-shaped canvas wall. The chair is surrounded by sandbags to absorb the inmate's blood. A black hood is pulled over the inmate's head. A doctor locates the inmate's heart with a stethoscope and pins a circular white cloth target over it. Standing in an enclosure 20 feet away, five shooters are armed with .30 caliber rifles loaded with single rounds. One of the shooters is given blank rounds. Each of the shooters aims his rifle through a slot in the canvas and fires at the inmate."

Which is kind of morbid and not really the association you want to make when, in Baghdad today, masses of people are routinely found on the streets, handcuffed and shot to death.

So hanging it was. Gruesome. Ignorant. Backward. Welcome to American foreign policy.

At the top I compared Saddam's crimes to Bush's so let's be clear. Saddam was convicted of killing 148 Shiites people in the city of Dujail after a visit to the town resulted in a failed assassination attempt on his life. And one of the reasons we went to war with Iraq came because "After all, this is a guy who tried to kill my dad at one time." Like Saddam, Bush killed innocent people when he rolled to get his man. He just killed 52,000-ish more of them.

Noam Chomsky has said, "The Nuremberg principle was that a war crime is some hideous crime that you committed and we didn't. Those charged were maybe the worst criminals in history, but the trial had no moral basis whatsoever."

I guess it would be too much to hope for an "accessory to war crimes" charge to be brought against the members of the Bush Administration who supported Saddam when it was a la modé.

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

Microwaved Babies

2006-12-19T22:42:00.000-07:00

I got a little behind with emails this month and as I was cleaning out my inbox, two stories caught my attention:

New Weapon Cleared by Military for Use in Iraq Under Scrutiny

Ohio Woman Faces Charges In Microwave Baby Death

I paid attention to the first story because an anonymous source contacted me regarding this project, which is supposed to be hush-hush. The second, well, it ties in to the first.

The military, always looking for new and innovative ways to bring America's messages of liberty and freedom to the world, has developed a "non lethal" weapon and cleared it for use in Iraq. It is the Air Force's Active Denial System, ADS.

Using electromagnetic wavelengths, controlled doses of radiation are fired at crowds in order to dispurse them. They essentially microwave people. Already tested on veterans and soldiers in our own military, the experience can be summed up like this.

Yet, as we can see with the Ohio case, microwaving someone is illegal. Why the difference? Would it have been considered an effective form of parental disciplining if the baby had survived? Perhaps James Dobson would jump all over this and include the technique in his next book, "Brining Up Straight Boys".

Or is it acceptable to use because the "crowds" we will be controlling live in the Middle East?

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

A Genocide In The Making*

2006-12-01T20:33:00.000-07:00

As bad as things in Iraq are, and they are bad, they are potentially going to get much, much worse. Dozens of bodies are already turning up every single day, totured and mutilated. Sunni-Shi'ite clashes, Iraq's civil war that Bush says isn't a civil war, is raging unabated. And I fear we're just seeing the proverbial tip of the iceberg. I think we're going to see a genocide in Iraq much like the one going on in Darfur, much like the one that ravaged Rwanda. I shudder to think how many people are going to die.

Radical Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr announced that he will pull the members of his bloc out of Iraq's Parliament should Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki meet with Bush in Jordan as scheduled. Should al-Sadr follow through with his threat, the Iraqi Parliament will utterly collapse. Followers of al-Sadr occupy many of the key Cabinet spots within the Parliament and they are angry over the rash of bombings that killed over 200 people in Sadr City last Thursday. Hareth al-Dari, a Sunni cleric has declared Iraq's "unity government" dead, has called for Arab nations to withdraw support for the Shi'ite-led government of Iraq and said that US troops are complicit in the sectarian violence, that they've given cover to Shi'ite death squads.

"The occupying forces have been giving cover to the militias and criminal gangs," Dhari said.

al-Sadr's followers seized control of Iraqi State-run television on Saturday and promptly labeled all Sunni's "terrorists" while calling Shi'ites to arms. The two hour broadcast, which included a few members of al-Sadr's parliamentary bloc, among other things, gave out the names and addresses of prominent Sunni's they want executed. They promised reprisals for the attacks in Sadr City. al-Sadr's Mahdi Army controls large areas of Baghdad already and he has followers deeply entrenched in the Iraqi Security Forces. Members of the Mahdi Army claimed that they were distributing police uniforms throughout Shi'ite neighborhoods to allow them free movement and access to all areas. This has all the markings of a massive genocide in the making. This is exactly how the killings in Rwanda began, with lists of names being read over the airwaves. Over a million died there, how many will be killed in Iraq?

Militia leaders told supporters yesterday to prepare for a fresh wave of incursions into Sunni neighborhoods that would begin as soon as the curfew ends tomorrow, according to Sadr City residents.

Bush has no intention of canceling the meeting between he and Maliki despite al-Sadr's threats and the looming specter of an Iraqi genocide. Nor does he have any intention of getting our troops out of harm's way. Bush declared today that US troops would be staying in Iraq until the "job was finished." My question is, what job are they supposed to be finishing, George? Is the "job" getting every last service man and woman stationed in Iraq killed? Our troops are caught in between two factions that, as much as they hate each other, hate them even more. Sunni and Shi'ite alike see US Occupation Forces as the key reason for so many of their troubles. They'll be getting shot at from all sides and there will be no safe haven in Iraq for our troops, stuck in an impossible situation.

The violence in Iraq, as bad as it has been, is about to get so much worse. Pandora's Box is about to be opened. Tens of thousands of people, American and Iraqi alike, have already died as a direct result of Bush's Foreign Policy decisions. And with a massive genocide looming, how many more are going to be killed?

~Kevin S.

*Ha! I'm not the only one who compares Rwanda with Iraq. ~ Lila

Is Rwanda Iraq's future?

2006-11-27T13:52:00.000-07:00

It's easy to laugh at the French for this latest fiasco in Rwanda. They've really fucked things up. It wasn't enough that on November 19, 2006, French prosecutors, assisted by some stupid-ass judge, issued arrest warrants for nine men close to current Rwandan President Paul Kagame. The men include Rwanda's Armed Forces Chief, James Kabarebe, and Army Chief of Staff, Charles Kayonga.

All nine are suspected of involvement in the 1994 murder of Rwandan President Juvenal Habyarimana which sparked 100 days of genocide that killed over one million people, 1/8 of the population of Rwanda.

In response to the warrants, Rwanda recalled their ambassador in France, kicked out French diplomats in Kigali, the capital, and disabled local broadcasts from Radio France International.

I guess France just assumed that they couldn't make things any worse for themselves so they went ahead and called for current President Kagame to stand trial for his role in killing his predecessor.

And now the shit is really hitting the fan.

But what does this have to do with the happy country of Iraq? I mean, the Iraqis don't speak French, their women can't go out unescorted and they aren't even Catholic.

True, but there are some similarities. Ones that extend beyond a lack of infrastructure; reliable power, water or sewer systems.

Both countries find themselves with a class division. For Rwanda, it is a totally fabricated ethnic system that labeled some people Tutsis and others Hutus. In Iraq, it is the division of religious beliefs for Sunnis and Shiites. Granted, this is a very simplistic analysis, but let's just roll with it, shall we? As with any good system of totalitarianism, the less numerous group was put in charge of the more numerous group. Tutsis and Sunnis.

Plus, the genocide was kind of like a Civil War so there you go. Our setup for Iraq.

If Kagame really did have a role in the murder of Habyarimana it would be if we found out that Talabani planned to overthrow, capture and execute Hussein. Which is absurd. Talabani may be the first non Sunni/Shiite leader of Iraq as well as a man with a strong relationship to the CIA, but his relationship with Saddam is probably no closer than Rumsfeld's.

Besides, for that analogy to work, Talabani would have to have been working very hard to remove Hussein before being elected as President of Iraq.

And then there's France. France is not like the United States. You see, France lashed out at Rwanda after accusations that French soldiers participated in the genocide. The discovery that US soldiers participated in setting up and delivering Iraq's Civil war will only come as a surprise to hardcore fans of Bill O'Reilly.

~Lila Schow

Hearts and Minds*

2006-11-22T14:06:00.000-07:00

Back in WWII, one of the things American GIs were known for was giving chocolate to kids in the European Theatre of Operations.

They've found a new way to make sure kids remember them.

* lifted 100% from james_nicoll

Bush Not So Dumb

2006-11-10T10:05:00.000-07:00

Many question why Bush would flip-flop on Rumsfeld. Only a week ago Bush said Rummy would be with us until the end. But Bush didn't expect to lose control of both the House and the Senate. He's in a pickle!

Afraid those Dems will go after Rummy, Bush preemptively struck him down first. This is how he won the votes that helped get him elected folks. Bush excels in taking the first swing at himself to deflate his opponents' arguments. Now he's done it again.

Nancy Pelosi would have fought the good fight to remove Rummy, so Bush did it for her. In the process, he saved Rummy and himself face. And now he can push through another of Daddy's Iran-Contra friends before the Dems take control.

Bush is not so dumb.

~Jodie Hemerda

It wasn't me. It was the one armed man.

2006-10-28T22:11:00.000-06:00

So yesterday Iraq Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki told US Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad, "I'm a friend to the United States, but not America's [bitch] in Iraq."

First of all, it's kind of funny that he made the statement and even funnier that it was to Zalmay Khalilzad. With a name like that, you'd think we would remember him better here in the US. Apparently, he is the link between 9-11 and Iraq and a true man for America.

But I digress. According to witnesses in a private meeting, Maliki is angry that the US will not reduce violence in Iraq or turn over full authority on such matters to his government. However, what Maliki said publicly, "Iraq and the United States are committed to working together to respond to the needs of the people."

I agree with that, if by "needs of the people" what he meant was everyone but the US troops and the 60% + unemployed and those enjoying mass starvation, poverty and lack of basics. You know, skip over them and focus on the true people; the elite, the contractors, the corrupt individuals who run the nation. Those very important, very needy folks who disappear people and money in staggering amounts in the name of Democracy and US foreign policy.

According to The Financial Express:

Last Friday marked exactly the 150th day of Nuri al-Maliki's tenure as prime minister of Iraq. Usually in democracies, the performance of a prime minister and his government is measured by the first 100 days in office. Even with the extra 50 days, Maliki has failed completely...

So sure, blame the one armed man for the mess the nation is in. And hope the rest of the world is too stupid to realize that the violence by the insurgents is a symptom of a failed and botched foreign policy (called war) and not the cause.

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

Why Should We Care About Habeas Corpus?

2006-10-24T23:01:00.000-06:00

As I'm sure most everybody knows by now, on October 17th, George W. Bush signed the Military Commissions Act of 2006 into law and officially suspended, if not dismantled, habeas corpus. The uproar was instantaneous and furious. And rightly so. Habeas Corpus is agruably the single most important right that we, as United States citizens enjoy. Many bloggers declared the 17th of October to be the day democracy died in the United States. Though I'm not ready to declare the country DOA just yet, it is certainly one of the darkest days as far as our freedoms and liberties go, in recent history.

There are however, some folks that don't quite understand what the fuss is all about. In conversations I've had with various people recently, there seems to be a basic misunderstanding or misinterpretation of what habeas corpus is and what it means to us. Scarily enough, some folks believe that with the country at war in Afghanistan and Iraq, it is perfectly Constitutional for a president to suspend habeas corpus That is not so. From Article 1, Section 9 of the U.S. Constitution:

"The privilege of the Writ of Habeas Corpus shall not be suspended unless when in cases of Rebellion or Invasion the public safety may require it."

Clearly, the United States is not in a state of rebellion, nor have we been invaded, so any attempt to declare a suspension of habeas corpus is un-Constitutional.

The Military Commissions Act (MAC) was drafted and passed by the Republican-led Congress in response to the Supreme Court ruling against the Bush White House in Hamdan v. Rumsfeld. The 5-3 opinion in Hamdan held that Bush did not have the authority to set up military commissions at Guantanamo Bay that violated the Uniform Code of Military Justice (UCMJ) and the Geneva Convention. The Court further held that the commissions violated both.

So how does this all relate to habeas corpus? This, according to the Military Commissions Act:

"no court, justice, or judge shall have jurisdiction to hear or consider an application for a writ of habeas corpus filed by or on behalf of an alien detained by the United States who has been determined by the United States to have been properly detained as an enemy combatant or is awaiting such determination."

A lot of folks have keyed in on the word "alien" in that passage. Well clearly, if you're a United States citizen, you're not an "alien" right? Uhhhhh.... no, not so much. If you are detained and declared to be an "enemy combatant" what is your recourse? Under the MAC, you can't file for a Writ of Habeas Corpus because the courts no longer have the jurisdiction to hear it. You could feasibly file a petition to prove your citizenship with Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, but do you really think you're going to get any help there? Under the MAC, there is no time frame imposed to hold a tribunal to determine your status as an "enemy combatant." Under the MAC, detainees are legally prohibited from petitioning any court for any reason before a Combatant Status Review Tribunal (CSRT) hearing takes place. Bush's White House can legally detain anybody for any length of time, without habeas corpus or any other appeal, by delaying the CSRT hearing indefinitely.

This exchange between Keith Olbermann and the preeminent Constitutional scholar in the country, Jonathan Turley of George Washington University sums it up beautifully:

OLBERMANN: I want to start by asking you about a specific part of this act that lists one of the definitions of an unlawful enemy combatant as, quote, "a person who, before, on, or after the date of the enactment of the Military Commissions Act of 2006, has been determined to be an unlawful enemy combatant by a combatant status review tribunal or another competent tribunal established under the authority of the president or the secretary of defense."
Does that not basically mean that if Mr. Bush or Mr. Rumsfeld say so, anybody in this country, citizen or not, innocent or not, can end up being an unlawful enemy
combatant?
TURLEY: It certainly does. In fact, later on, it says that if you even give material support to an organization that the president deems connected to one of these groups, you too can be an enemy combatant. And the fact that he appoints this tribunal is meaningless. You know, standing behind him at the signing ceremony was his attorney general, who signed a memo that said that you could torture people, that you could do harm to them to the point of organ failure or death. So if he appoints someone like that to be attorney general, you can imagine who he's going be putting on this board.

But wait, there's more! Oh yes, and should you be lucky enough to be granted a trial, the MAC contains the following charming provisions as well... hearsay evidence is admissible. So too is evidence gathered without a search warrant. Self-incrimination is now compulsory, so if you were thinking about invoking your 5th Amendment right, think again Buster. Evidence obtained through coersion or torture... errr... in Republican-lingo, "aggressive interrogation techniques" is now admissible and evidence may be used against you that your defense is not entitled to see. A guilty verdict can now be rendered by a simple 2/3 majority of commission members present at the time of the vote.

Earlier I said that habeas corpus is arguably the single most important right we have as United States citizens. It protects the people from being "disappeared" by the government and held indefinitely without trial. The Framers saw the dangers inherent in an out of control government and to protect the people, to give us some recourse, they very deliberately included the Writ of Habeas Corpus as a safeguard. And now, with one stroke of his pen, George W. Bush has erased that safeguard.

Anthony Romero, Executive Director of the ACLU put it well, "The president can now, with the approval of Congress, indefinitely hold people without charge, take away protections against horrific abuse, put people on trial based on hearsay evidence, authorize trials that can sentence people to death based on testimony literally beaten out of witnesses, and slam shut the courthouse door for habeas petitions."

So yes, the destruction of habeas corpus is in fact, a very big deal. Anybody... you, me, your mother, brother, sister, father can be up and disappeared by our very own government at any time for any reason. And that is simply one facet on the jewel that is the Military Commissions Act of 2006.

And if that doesn't send a chill down your spine, I don't know what will.

~Kevin S.

Afwherethefuckistan*

2006-10-24T15:33:00.000-06:00

Back in July of 2005 I wrote an article detailing the 24 acts of reconstruction in Afghanistan since the fall of the Taliban. The cost for 24 items the US actually built or produced (I included things like the elections, you know, for padding) came to $900 million.

So, now that a year and a half has flown by, I thought I'd check the State Department's website and see what we've been up to. I mean, anyone can be excused for not getting to the rebuilding the moment the Taliban have fallen (for this editorial, I'm just going to assume that the Taliban are gone from Afghanistan. Kind of like our government and NATO are doing.), but surely, five years down the road, we must have some kick-ass schools and hospitals there. Right?

Now, the State Department breaks the reconstruction up into four groups, so I'll do the same.

Essential Services added since I last checked in April 2005:

Infrastructure: After a just a few days of intensive operation and maintenance training from U.S. soldiers, a platoon of Afghan National Army engineers began the practical application of their newly acquired skills: the reconstruction of Tarin Kowt road in Uruzgan Province in southern Afghanistan. As a result of the training, the Afghan soldiers learned how to operate heavy machinery such as bulldozers, graders, scrappers, rollers, and rippers (rock removers), as well as how to inspect and maintain equipment before and after its use. The Afghan platoon cut over 13 kilometers of road within two weeks.
Education: USAID’s Afghanistan Primary Education Program focuses on teacher training, accelerated learning programs for students, and textbook printing and distribution. During the first part of July, the Teacher Education Program completed the training of 425 teacher educators. These teacher educators will form the province-level foundation for nationwide in-service teacher education efforts. The participants, all of whom are teachers in the formal school system, came from Kabul City, Kabul Province, Parwan, Logar, Paktia, and Kapisa.

To sum up, Afghan soldiers plowed 8 miles of dirt in 14 days, bringing their daily average to 1/2 a mile a day. Swell. I wonder what year that was in, the website doesn't say.

We also trained 425 teacher teachers and gave them some books. Maybe. But only for July, 2005. I guess Afghani students have been enjoying a nice, long, 15 MONTH summer break.

Security added since I last checked in March, 2005:

Afghan National Police: In preparation for providing security for the September parliamentary elections, the six Regional Training Centers of the Afghan National Police have received shipments of new weapons for use in training their police force. The weapons distribution included 18,800 new AMD-65s – a similar weapon to the AK-47 – donated by the Hungarian government, as well as 2 million rounds of ammunition for use with the rifles donated by members of the international community. Once the distribution of weapons to the training centers is complete, the next priority is to equip the Afghan Border Police with new weapons.
Afghan National Army: Afghan National Army soldiers recently took part in artillery live-fire training at the D-30 Howitzer range to improve their proficiency. The D-30 Howitzer is a 3.5-ton weapon that takes a crew of seven to fire and has a range of over 15,000 meters. The training, which is conducted annually, gives soldiers the opportunity to practice firing, thus reinforcing what they have learned in school and strengthening their training. More than 120 Afghan soldiers conducted two months of training to prepare for the annual range time, including practicing crew drills and learning weapons maintenance and safety.
Afghan National Army: The first class of 112 basic training soldiers enrolled in the new National Military Academy of Afghanistan outside Kabul graduated on March 17. Upon completing basic training, the cadets will pursue a four-year college degree at the Academy and then be commissioned ANA officers. The newly formed Academy is the first military academy for the Afghan National Army.

Okay. Weapons, ammunition and training dispersed. Back in September of 2005. Really though, we wouldn't want to shock people living over there with too much safety and stability too quickly. Forget Maslow, just watch where you step, right?

Governance added since I last checked in February, 2005:

Elections: In preparation for the upcoming parliamentary elections, the National Democratic Institute hosted an all day conference August 20 for women candidates in cooperation with the Women’s Political Participation Committee. The event included 45 women candidates from the Kabul area and representatives from Afghan women NGOs. Women’s Affairs Minister, Dr. Massouda Jalal, gave opening remarks for the conference. Each candidate was able to present her platform to the conference, followed by general discussion, with an emphasis on cooperation among women.
Elections: On July 12, the final list of candidates for September’s parliamentary elections was released. These lists form the ballots for the Wolesi Jirga, or the lower house of the National Assembly, and the Provincial Council in each of Afghanistan’s 34 provinces. The lists comprise 5,805 candidates -- 2,778 for the Wolesi Jirga and 3,027 for the Provincial Councils, with 583 women candidates. The Wolesi Jirga comprises 249 seats, allocated proportionally to the population of the provinces. Each Provincial Council has between 9 and 29 seats, also based on the province’s population.
Elections: On March 3, three years after the fall of the Taliban, Afghanistan appointed its first ever-female provincial governor. Habiba Sarobi, who previously served as Minister for Women’s Affairs, will head the government of Bamiyan province. Her appointment is part of a national initiative to promote women to positions of power. Sarobi is one of three women who are now serving as government ministers in Afghanistan.

Again, all of these dates are for last year, in 2005. There is a lot of emphasis on women in the government, and there should be. However, the State Department fails to note that Dr. Massouda Jalal lost the presidency to Karzai and remains critical of the lack of role by women there, the Taliban have targeted women in power and only one women (Habiba Sarobi) heads any of the 34 provinces.

But perhaps I am merely being petty. After all, I don't believe that a democracy can be elected at gunpoint.

Economy added since I last checked in May, 2005:

Alternative Livelihoods: The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crimes reported August 29 that opium production in Afghanistan has declined in 2005 due primarily to a substantial reduction in cultivation. From 2004 to 2005, poppy cultivation decreased by 21 percent. USAID’S Alternative Livelihood Program (ALP) has contributed to this decrease by providing farmers with alternative work. In Nangarhar province, for example, ALP helped reduce poppy cultivation by 98 percent, employing 13,000 people daily in 563 villages with jobs such as cleaning irrigation canals and building flood protection walls.
Business development: USAID is helping to stimulate local private sector development and create sustainable employment by creating a venture capital fund and separate loan guarantee program for ex-combatants. Activities include establishing the Afghanistan Renewal Fund, the first venture capital fund in Afghanistan specifically targeting small, medium-sized enterprises; providing technical assistance in business plan development, market research analysis, and market entry; establishing the First Loss Reserve Fund, a loan guarantee fund providing participating banks a $10,000 guarantee for each ex-combatant hired by the loan applicant; and improving the quality and marketing of various products.
Counter-narcotics: On March 10, Afghanistan adopted the 2005 Counternarcotics Implementation Plan to target the cultivation, production, and trafficking of drugs. In 2004, the Afghan Special Narcotics Force seized more than 80 tons of narcotics, destroyed 75 drug laboratories, and closed two major opium bazaars. In addition, 20,000 Afghans are now employed by cash for work projects in Helmand and Nangarhar, with over $1 million in wages introduced into the local Afghan economy, and 440km of irrigation canals, drains, and karez water systems have been cleaned.

What? To stimulate the economy, the US has worked to give banks $10k for every mercenary and Taliban hired?

It's funny that the State Department feels opium production is on the decline. Maybe they haven't read the September 2006 article that claims Afghanistan High on Opium, Not Democracy. Of course, that's getting ahead of myself as the figures, again, are from 2005. In 2005, reports were claiming "militaristic" attempts to eradicate poppy crop is driving farmers to Taliban. and Britain's Foreign Office says the opium harvest in Afghanistan this year will be one of the biggest on record.

Now, last time the US government stopped reporting any progress on Afghanistan it was because they moved their website and didn't send me a memo. I did a quick word search on the US State Department's website and I found the following:

Rumsfeld Sees Promising Trajectory in Afghanistan 07 October 2006
NATO General Urges More Progress in Rebuilding Afghanistan 05 October 2006
Rice Promises Strong, "Enduring" US Commitment to Afghanistan 28 June 2006

Uh, that's not sounding too promising. Not to be daunted, I Googled Afghanistan Reconstruction:

CDC makes commitment to Afghanistan Reconstruction Fund UK government-backed emerging markets fund of funds manager CDC has committed $5.8m to the Afghanistan Reconstruction Fund. Oct 13, 2006
Iran criticizes inadequate aid for Afghanistan reconstruction Mohammadi in Geneva, Switzerland, on Monday criticized the inadequate international assistance for reconstruction and development that reaches Afghanistan. Oct 10, 2006
Dutch foreign minister urges stepped up reconstruction efforts Kick-starting reconstruction in southern Afghanistan should be a priority for NATO allies.

Well, that's not promising either, but in a nation where $1 goes to reconstruction to every $9 for combat against an enemy supposedly defeated back in 2001, what can you really expect? I'm just glad Osama bin-Laden is no longer running around free on the border between Pakistan and Afwherethefuckistan.

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

*Footnote:
Dear David Rees,
Sorry I stole your word.

Cheers,
Lila

Hitting Back: The False Idea Of Justice

2006-10-08T22:54:00.000-06:00

October 7, 2006 marked the 5th year in the war on Afghanistan. I didn't write about it on the anniversary because I was too pissed off. But now I'm back! And I have a story for you.

On Saturday, I took my friend's 4-year-old son, Zack, to the park to play. Somewhere during the course of the afternoon, another kid, also 4, hit him. Zack came crying to me and everyone on the playground stopped to watch.

As this is probably not the last time Zack will get hit by another child, I thought it best to try to give him the skills needed to deal with a future encounter where no parents are around.

Unfortunately, the grandmother of the girl, Sarah, who'd punched Zach, sat nearby and became very embarrassed by the attention. Zach was reluctant to my coaching, which just dragged the situation out. Finally, Sarah's grandmother had enough. She marched over, hit Sarah on the wrist and told Zack it was okay for him to punch her back. (Seems like this was not an isolated event for little Sarah).

I tried to explain my approach, but the grandmother had lost her patience for the whole affair. When Zach didn't move, she reached out, took his hand and hit her granddaughter with it. There. Even Stephven. And she stalked away while the two of us watched her, stunned.

Ah, justice, that elusive goal. Now, it's true, I didn't see the initial punch. Zach, as he claimed, could have just been playing angelically on his own and this little beast could have come up and, urged by the evil in her heart, laid him out. And maybe if Zach had punched her back, just as hard, it would have magically stopped her from hitting anyone else for the rest of her life. Right? Yeah, right.

If this child had hit without provocation, a thrashing by Zach would not have solved the problem. Because he was never her problem to begin with. But this is about Zach and not Sarah. Would Zach really have felt vindicated by punching her back? Perhaps, if he is the type of child who constantly is on the lookout for a excuse to punch. But that attitude creates a child like Sarah, not Zach. Zach just wanted an apology and not to be hit again. Which seemed reasonable. Kids mess up all the time. They need to be shaped, not branded.

Much as I love Zach, I doubt he was 100% blameless for the encounter. Which adds a whole new dimension to the problem. Unfairness. Sarah could have been delivering her own Even Stephven punch to an action by Zach. Like I said, I didn't see it, I wouldn't know. So if Sarah got punished for evening the score and doing back to a child what was done to her then the lesson of justice and fairness blew up in her face.

Burned once, the next instance of fairness on her part might be much more subtle, although just as hurtful. A painful word. A not-so-accidental shove. An ambush when no one is looking. Whatever method she chooses, we know Sarah is not going to develop into a child who can show empathy, forgiveness or justice. She will be a child who is angry, vengeful and out for a fight at any provocation. Because she has been shown that no matter the circumstances, she bound to different rules. Elusive rules. Rules that threaten her.

Now I have been criticized before for taking complex issues of the war with Afghanistan and 9-11 and breaking them down into a simple playground analogy. I am not trying to make light of the deaths suffered in September of 2001, or the subsequent deaths from October 2001 to the present. I remain appalled by the actions of men who use planes as weapons of terror against civilians.

But the idea of unfairness is what is ruining any positive outcome from our Even Stephven actions of retaliation. We have a sense of security for delivering punishment to those in Afghanistan. But it is false. It doesn't solve the problem. It creates thousands of others.

The same intelligence that couldn't save us from 19 men armed with only box cutters and a warped, exploited sense of anger and justice, told us the mastermind hid himself away in Afghanistan. Trained there. Recruited there. Dug himself the ultimate foxhole in the rocky mountains.

They told us he was supported by the government of Afghanistan. Were this the 100% truth, it would not have provided enough justice to attack that country. Because our problem isn't with the majority of Afghanis. It is with a small group of individuals who operate without regard for human life or dignity. Who remain careless toward improving the conditions of the people they rule and rejoice in the deaths of others.

Though an accurate depiction of some of the people involved, it is not the 100% truth. Torn by over 20 years of war (war that came partially funded and extended by the United States), Afghanistan was in the midst of a civil war at the time we demanded bin-Laden. There was no elected government, for the people, by the people and of the people. The Taliban steered the helm only in their own eyes. The world did not recognize them as the legitimate government of the country. The Afghanis did not either.

So how could they receive the blame? How could we punish an entire nation based on their actions. The Taliban, horrible as they were, had no direct hand in 9-11. The allowed bin-Laden to train in their country, but we allowed the terrorists themselves to train in ours. I don't recall Bush bombing Florida for teaching Ziad Samir Jarrah, pilot of flight 93, how to fly.

Killing the man responsible for killing 2,997 American's might be someone's idea of justice done. But it won't rebuild the towers, it won't bring people back from the dead, it won't make US safer. Collective punishment of 30 million people through violence, starvation, fear and contempt hurts us as well. Not just because this leads to future actions by terrorists, but because it turns us into terrorists.

A wise friend of mine once said, we resort to violence when we feel we've run out of options. In Afghanistan, we didn't even try any other options. Instead, we copied a chapter from the book of bin-Laden and brought destruction and pain to people who will now be seeking their own brand of justice.

All this, and five years after the fact, we still don't have the man we were after in first place. Five years later and bin-Laden remains free and in control of an ever expanding group of extremists, feeding off the blood of our destruction.

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

Our Dwindling Democracy...

2006-10-02T20:06:00.000-06:00

I know that I've written a lot over these last couple of years about our diminishing freedoms and rights under the Bush Administration. I'm sure a lot of what I've written has been considered hyperbolic and inflammatory. And perhaps some of it was. But if there was any doubt about the intent of this Bush led White House and Republican led Congress to strip away the basic rights and freedoms enjoyed by every citizen while preserving them for a select few, those doubts should be laid to rest right here and right now. Under Bush and these Republicans, democracy in the United States is being stripped away, diminished and taken from us. The Constitution, the Bill of Rights and all they guarantee to our citizenry are quite literally being destroyed right before our very eyes.

Last week, along party lines, the House of Representatives passed H.R.4844, an amendment to the National Voter Registration Act of 1993. H.R. 4844 requires that everybody provide a photographic proof of citizenship to vote. That means, everybody is going to be required to have a passport when we go to the polls. A driver's license is no longer going to cut it because it doesn't prove citizenship and a birth certificate won't work because it doesn't have a photograph. A passport is about the only form of photographic proof of your citizenship.

The most common question I've been asked when talking about this issue is, “Don't you want to make sure only citizens are voting?" And my answer to that is, yeah absolutely. But at the same time, we have to ensure that all citizens are able to vote as is provided for under our Constitution and Bill of Rights. Voting is one of the cornerstones of our Republic. It's a foundation of democracy. And under this bill, under this Administration, that foundation is being dangerously eroded.

This bill, if signed into law, will disenfranchise literally millions of legally registered, tax-paying citizens. Passports can cost upwards of $100 dollars to obtain. My dad got his last week for a trip he’s taking and it cost him $150 bucks. Not that these Republicans care, but not everybody in this country can afford to put out that kind of money for a passport.

How many of us know somebody living paycheck to paycheck, hand to mouth? How many of us know an elderly person living on a fixed income? How many of us are or know a student that’s barely getting by as it is? How many of us know somebody on a tight budget that simply can’t afford an extra hundred bucks for a passport? I’d be willing to wager that we all know people in a situation like this if we’re not in it ourselves.

It’s only a hundred bucks for a passport, supporters of this bill say. Sure, but for how many people in this country is a hundred bucks already the choice between having electricity or being able to eat? And now they’re being asked to shell out that hundred bucks to exercise a fundamental right guaranteed to all citizens of this country? This bill is immoral. It’s monstrous. It’s an abomination. It’s patently un-Constitutional and completely un-American. And yet, these Republicans passed it. What does that say about them?

It’s a hundred bucks for a passport today. What will it be tomorrow? What will the next rationalization they use for instituting a higher poll tax be? Because, make no mistake about it, this is a poll tax, ladies and gentlemen. It’s cleverly disguised, but this is the sort of tactic we saw used during the heyday of Jim Crow to deny certain “undesirables” their explicit right to vote.

I might be less upset about this bill if they provided the means for citizens to obtain a passport cost free. But they haven’t. There is no provision under this bill to provide assistance to those that can’t afford it. We’re on our own and it comes down to case of you can either afford to vote or you can’t.

This abomination of a bill passed the House but isn’t expected to make it to the Senate calendar before they recess. So we have some time to mount a fight because trust me, this bill will be back in the next session. If it passes the Senate, Bush will undoubtedly sign this into law. After that, it would fall to the Supreme Court to determine the Constitutionality of the law. And if you think this Roberts-Alito led ultra-conservative Court is going to deem it un-Constitutional, I’d say think again.

It’s never to early to let your Senators know that we will not stand for this. To let them know that we will not tolerate the disenfranchisement of millions of people. To let them know that we will not stand idly by while they try to leave millions of people outside of our political system. Write to your Senators, call them, follow them home, do whatever you feel moved to do. And if you feel so moved, re-post this, pass this on. Let’s get the word out. We’re looking at elections a little more than a month away and I don’t feel that it’s hyperbole to say that these next few election cycles will be the most important in this nation’s history.

This is how the monied elite begins to seize total power This is how we come to have a class of rulers and a class of the ruled. This is how democracy dies, ladies and gentleman.

~By Kevin S.

It Ain't Voluntary if You Can't Leave

2006-09-25T13:46:00.001-06:00

Many years ago, I volunteered at a local children's hospital where I live. I didn't have a job and felt this would be a good way to give back to the community. A little while after that, I decided it wasn't a good fit for me and quit. I was young and immature and not all that fond of interpersonal conflict, so I just stopped showing up for my shift.

After a few weeks of unreturned calls, the hospital got the idea. Was it the right thing to do? Hell no, I am terribly embarrassed by how I acted. I left people who depended on me in the lurch. I deserted. I went AWOL. I quit my post without leave and with no intent of returning. I remained away with the intention of remaining away. I quit to shirk important service.

Even if I gave the hospital proper notice, even if it wasn't during a time of war, I would still be guilty of all of the above. And what recourse does the hospital have?

Any person found guilty of desertion or attempt to desert shall be punished, if the offense is committed in time of war, by death or such other punishment as a court-martial may direct, but if the desertion or attempt to desert occurs at any other time, by such punishment, other than death, as a court-martial may direct. 1

Nope, the hospital just had to suck it up and find another volunteer. Because that's what the definition of volunteer means. That you can come and go at your choice.

However, there is another definition of "volunteer" reserved for the military:

A person who enters the service voluntarily rather than through conscription or draft, esp. for special or temporary service rather than as a member of the regular or permanent army.

Yet, no where in here does it say that the US government has the right to punish -- to the death or even just a little -- a person who chooses to stop volunteering.

If you are in the military and have questions about your service, or if you know someone who does, please contact the GI Rights Hotline and learn about your options.

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

thanks for stopping by

2006-08-29T15:37:00.000-06:00

Dear Affie Ellis,

Thanks for "personally" stopping by my house and leaving the flier. I thought I'd drop you a line and tell you why I am not voting for you in November.

I am a child of illegal immigrants. But I am white and my family invaded this country a few hundred years ago, so that hardly matters. (You too, are a product of illegal immigration -- crossing the land bridge like you did way back during the Ice Age. Also, I don't think your Navajo ancestors recognized the US as this country's legitimate government, but that is another issue altogether.)

I don't think that you should deny illegal immigrants non-emergency services. They are humans, just like you and deserve the same access to basic rights. Also, if this move is to save us money, then you are going at it the wrong way. Any insurance agency will tell you that the best way to drive down medical costs is through preventative measures. Immunizations. Health check ups. Pre-natal care. Regular teeth cleaning.

I let my teeth go for years. Now I have 7 cavities to fill and need 2 root canals. I'm betting my insurance would have found it cheaper to care for me if I had just gone to the dentist every 6mos like I am supposed to.

If you really want to save us money and make sure we have jobs, I would prefer you going after the top rung of the ladder, instead of the bottom. You can start with Wal-Mart. I pay more through taxes to support their workers than I do some guy who snuck across the border and now contributes to my Social Security without any chance of using that money for himself.

(by the way, when I say go after Wal-Mart, I mean the corporation, not the employees)

Thank you for your time.

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