The New York Times has revealed at least 121 veterans of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan have been charged with committing murder after they returned home from duty. The Times said the numbers indicated a nearly 90 percent increase in homicides involving active-duty military personnel and new veterans since the 2001 invasion of Afghanistan.
The Times said about one in three of the victims were spouses, girlfriends, children or other relatives and while many of the killer veterans showed signs of combat trauma, most were never evaluated for or diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder until after the homicides.
Couple this with the alarming truth of an unprecedented suicide rate among soldiers both in the field and upon returning home. 6125 soldiers took their own lives in 2005. Thats 120 suicides per week!
Now put this in perspective with the stories you heard a year ago of this administration cutting funding for our medical hospitals, privatizing veterans benefits programs and denying coverage for PTSD thereby insuring most returning vets never receive the care they were promised by recruiters and it becomes clear that this administration has never cared for its soldiers or its citizens. Citizens produce children to be consumed as cannon-fodder for the elite multinational corporation's quest for world domination.
In fact if you look at the staggering migration of multi-national corporation's assets and workforces outside the US, it might become clear that Corporate Citizens are the only ones this administration has been serving and when the dust settles, they will be the only "citizens" left standing.
Our economy is descending into a recession the likes of which it may never recover... The Bush Administration has spent $1.6 Trillion dollars on the war thus far and is likely to double that before the next president leaves office. Thats more than $40,000 owed by each family in the US.
Meanwhile our currency, which is based on debt and our ability to pay it.... is in serious jeopardy. The credit industry is writing off billions of dollars in bad debt and selling off huge sums to foreign interests. Mortgage failures coupled with sharply rising energy costs and subsequent rising prices for all our goods and services have us teetering on the brink of total economic collapse. And if the world economy decides to switch to the Euro as its world currency because the Dollar is so devalued, we will become the next third world nation... in the giving up our last rights and liberties for assurances of protection and safety...
... like the ones they've given to our young men and women as they recruit them into service.... get the picture? Uncover the secrets... Connect the Dots.
Tuesday, January 15, 2008
Friday, January 11, 2008
Charlie Wilson's War- the sequel
I recently went to see the Tom Hanks film Charlie Wilson's War. Last summer I shared a room with a fellow activist who, like me, was given a chance to lobby our Congress for the Alaska Wilderness Coalition. I noticed a thick book he was engrossed in and asked him about it. He was reading the best-selling novelby George Crile, Charlie Wilson's War and said it was a chilling revelation into the inner-workings of the Congress we were to meet with the next three days.
We talked into the night of the startling truths behind the veil of righteousness that was either required to keep our world at peace-or was the very reason for it being so horrific. Oddly enough, the book, and now movie mirror exactly the same conundrum... but as usual.. only a few will be privy to engage in such discussion. Privy-perhaps the wrong word for it infers elite or special when what I mean is few will have an opportunity to realize that there are deeper questions that need asking after watching this film.
Film Critic James Rocchi said it best-
I didn't leave Charlie Wilson's War, the new film from director Mike Nichols, dissatisfied or unamused. I walked out of Charlie Wilson's War angry. No reasonable person expects a film -- any film -- to capture the complexity and scope of real events with absolute precision; adaptations are translations, and as the old Italian saying goes, "The translator is a traitor." It's one thing to compress, combine and fictionalize a story to fit the sprawling, ugly mess of it onto the big screen; it's another to take only the best, shiniest parts of a real, ugly story and turn it into a feel-good comedy. Translation may be traitorous, but Charlie Wilson's War feels like a conscious act of treason against reason itself. As film critic David Thompson has said, "We learn our history from movies, and history suffers ...." Charlie Wilson's War isn't just bad history; it feels even more evil, like a conscious attempt to induce amnesia.
The movie is ridiculously nearsighted and does a great disservice to our historic perspective. Summed up with the movie's final sentences spoken by Hanks which perfectly illustrate how the truth, like so many headlines, can be manipulated to tell only the part that paints the best reflection of what we want reality to be, rather than what it truly is. Sort of a Dorian Grey Portrait-this story snapshots a moment in time showing the best image possible, while the real truth lies buried, like the portrait hidden in the attic, in the untold history that followed those final words.
“These things happened. They were glorious and they changed the world. And the people who deserved the credit are the ones who made the sacrifice. And then we fucked up the endgame.”
Does anyone realize the endgame was us disowning Afghanistan after arming it to the teeth and training its citizens to be efficient terrorists? That the subsequent struggle for power amid the aftermath, created the Taliban, bin Laden and alQaeda? At least there was a moment, originally in the film, but left on the cutting room floor by the producers, where Gust contacts Wilson years later to tell him to turn on his tv to see the 9/11 attacks.
gee-kinda wrecks the warm-fuzzy afterglow of the film doesn't it?
Charlie Wilson's War stops being funny
...when you realize we're living in the sequel.
We talked into the night of the startling truths behind the veil of righteousness that was either required to keep our world at peace-or was the very reason for it being so horrific. Oddly enough, the book, and now movie mirror exactly the same conundrum... but as usual.. only a few will be privy to engage in such discussion. Privy-perhaps the wrong word for it infers elite or special when what I mean is few will have an opportunity to realize that there are deeper questions that need asking after watching this film.
Film Critic James Rocchi said it best-
I didn't leave Charlie Wilson's War, the new film from director Mike Nichols, dissatisfied or unamused. I walked out of Charlie Wilson's War angry. No reasonable person expects a film -- any film -- to capture the complexity and scope of real events with absolute precision; adaptations are translations, and as the old Italian saying goes, "The translator is a traitor." It's one thing to compress, combine and fictionalize a story to fit the sprawling, ugly mess of it onto the big screen; it's another to take only the best, shiniest parts of a real, ugly story and turn it into a feel-good comedy. Translation may be traitorous, but Charlie Wilson's War feels like a conscious act of treason against reason itself. As film critic David Thompson has said, "We learn our history from movies, and history suffers ...." Charlie Wilson's War isn't just bad history; it feels even more evil, like a conscious attempt to induce amnesia.
The movie is ridiculously nearsighted and does a great disservice to our historic perspective. Summed up with the movie's final sentences spoken by Hanks which perfectly illustrate how the truth, like so many headlines, can be manipulated to tell only the part that paints the best reflection of what we want reality to be, rather than what it truly is. Sort of a Dorian Grey Portrait-this story snapshots a moment in time showing the best image possible, while the real truth lies buried, like the portrait hidden in the attic, in the untold history that followed those final words.
“These things happened. They were glorious and they changed the world. And the people who deserved the credit are the ones who made the sacrifice. And then we fucked up the endgame.”
Does anyone realize the endgame was us disowning Afghanistan after arming it to the teeth and training its citizens to be efficient terrorists? That the subsequent struggle for power amid the aftermath, created the Taliban, bin Laden and alQaeda? At least there was a moment, originally in the film, but left on the cutting room floor by the producers, where Gust contacts Wilson years later to tell him to turn on his tv to see the 9/11 attacks.
gee-kinda wrecks the warm-fuzzy afterglow of the film doesn't it?
Charlie Wilson's War stops being funny
...when you realize we're living in the sequel.
Army finds itself Not Guilty
Army throws out conviction of Abu Ghraib commander.
The US army has thrown out the conviction of the only officer court martialed in the Abu Ghraib scandal. Lt. Col. Steven Jordan, Commander of Abu Ghraib during the prisoner abuse exposure was instead given an administrative reprimand. Barring any new information, the decision means no officers or civilian leaders will be held criminally responsible for the prisoner abuse.
Now I'm for defending the troops... but this is getting a bit ridiculous. Now a full two years after those horrid pictures were released, just weeks after learning the CIA destroyed (some) of the tapings of interrogations there and the FBI releasing documents chronicling two dozen incidents, after this administration has overturned centuries of law (Habius Corpus) and ignored UN policy regarding torture and abuse, with NO convictions of any suspects to any plots on US soil and NO ability for detainees to have a fair trial or even free speech (Maher Arar)... , six months after another commander of Abu Ghraib, Col. Janis Karpinski, provided proof that Sec of State Donald Rumsfeld sanctioned torture under her watch to German Courts (cuz our wouldn't allow it)...
...the ARMY BRASS decides upon its own investigation, that its done no wrong and should exonerate everyone except the unfortunate ones caught on film at Abu Ghraib! ! ! ! !
Like that stupid banner ad on this site constantly says... HELLLLOOOO!!!! ? ? ? is anyone paying attention? So the actual troops following order... are in jail... but the ones GIVING the orders are free to move about the country... Rumsfeld... Cheney... Tenet... Ashcroft... and now all the way through the ranks up to the folks that were caught on camera... are okay in the eyes of THIS legal system???
I think it WELL PAST time for a change... don't you?
The US army has thrown out the conviction of the only officer court martialed in the Abu Ghraib scandal. Lt. Col. Steven Jordan, Commander of Abu Ghraib during the prisoner abuse exposure was instead given an administrative reprimand. Barring any new information, the decision means no officers or civilian leaders will be held criminally responsible for the prisoner abuse.
Now I'm for defending the troops... but this is getting a bit ridiculous. Now a full two years after those horrid pictures were released, just weeks after learning the CIA destroyed (some) of the tapings of interrogations there and the FBI releasing documents chronicling two dozen incidents, after this administration has overturned centuries of law (Habius Corpus) and ignored UN policy regarding torture and abuse, with NO convictions of any suspects to any plots on US soil and NO ability for detainees to have a fair trial or even free speech (Maher Arar)... , six months after another commander of Abu Ghraib, Col. Janis Karpinski, provided proof that Sec of State Donald Rumsfeld sanctioned torture under her watch to German Courts (cuz our wouldn't allow it)...
...the ARMY BRASS decides upon its own investigation, that its done no wrong and should exonerate everyone except the unfortunate ones caught on film at Abu Ghraib! ! ! ! !
Like that stupid banner ad on this site constantly says... HELLLLOOOO!!!! ? ? ? is anyone paying attention? So the actual troops following order... are in jail... but the ones GIVING the orders are free to move about the country... Rumsfeld... Cheney... Tenet... Ashcroft... and now all the way through the ranks up to the folks that were caught on camera... are okay in the eyes of THIS legal system???
I think it WELL PAST time for a change... don't you?
Thursday, January 10, 2008
Police State Video
This is actual f police footage from the 2002 WTO summit... not liberal media.
Its taken dozens of FOIA requests (Freedom Of Information Act) to finally show-by their own video that no bottles were ever thrown, no violence was ever perpetrated by the protesters, none of what the media told viewers ever happened.
By their own words, the riot police attacked peaceful protesters exercizing their Constitutional Right to protest policy and government.... s Previously a vangard of the USA... we were not like those foreign governments who attack their citizens... we do not brutalize and torture....
what a difference the Bush Administration has made.
Its taken dozens of FOIA requests (Freedom Of Information Act) to finally show-by their own video that no bottles were ever thrown, no violence was ever perpetrated by the protesters, none of what the media told viewers ever happened.
By their own words, the riot police attacked peaceful protesters exercizing their Constitutional Right to protest policy and government.... s Previously a vangard of the USA... we were not like those foreign governments who attack their citizens... we do not brutalize and torture....
what a difference the Bush Administration has made.
AT&T 'Ready to Filter' the Web
During a panel discussion at the Las Vegas Consumer Electronics Show, AT&T’s top lobbyist said the company was ready to implement new technologies that would allow it to inspect and filter Web traffic.
James Cicconi, AT&T’s senior vice president for external and legal affairs, said that the time was right to start filtering for content at the network level. “We think a network-based solution is the optimal way to approach this,” Cicconi said, according to a New York Times reporter who attended the panel.
It’s no secret that major ISPs have been working with technology companies such as Cisco to filter content with deep-packet-inspection software. Last year, AT&T revealed its plans to work with MPAA, RIAA and broadcasters to use and deploy “digital fingerprinting techniques.
According to public statements, their rationale for playing traffic cop is to ferret out pirated content: sniffing through our digital packets for material that infringe on copyright.
Can You Trust the Filter?
But the technology can be used for other purposes, and the phone giant has shown that it has no qualms invading our communications to hand over our private records to government, or censor speech or block service “without prior notice and for any reason or no reason.”
AT&T has also touted plans to become gatekeepers to the Web with public relations bromides about “shaping” Web traffic to better serve the needs of an evolving Internet.
In reality, Cicconi and his cohorts within the entertainment industry are waging a quiet campaign to control how video and other rich content gets distributed via the Web. The popular trend in video, however, is streaming in the opposite direction. More and more people are becoming their own creators and distributors of homespun video content. YouTube now boasts more than 100 million views each day, but it is just the beginning of this revolution.
Peer-to-peer traffic is spreading via popular technologies like BitTorrent and Gnutella, which allow users to upload and share videos, music and other rich media without a middleman or content gatekeeper. The bulk of this traffic is legal.
Peer-to-Peer Traffic ‘Not Acceptable’
Also at the Las Vegas panel was NBC Universal’s general counsel Rick Cotton, who told the Times that the volume of peer-to-peer traffic online was “overwhelming.”
“That clearly should not be an acceptable, continuing status,” Cotton said, and AT&T seems more than happy to step in.
These executives’ vision of a better Internet ” AT&T’s “Your World Delivered” ” is not one that is shared by the more than 1.5 million people who have spoken out in favor of a neutral, open and free-flowing Internet.
For us, the Internet isn’t about one company delivering our world or filtering our content. It’s about simply offering a high-speed connection at reasonable rates ” and then getting out of our way.
This article is from SavetheInternet.com. If you found it informative and valuable, we strongly encourage you to visit their Web site and register an account, if necessary, to view all their articles on the Web. Support quality journalism.
James Cicconi, AT&T’s senior vice president for external and legal affairs, said that the time was right to start filtering for content at the network level. “We think a network-based solution is the optimal way to approach this,” Cicconi said, according to a New York Times reporter who attended the panel.
It’s no secret that major ISPs have been working with technology companies such as Cisco to filter content with deep-packet-inspection software. Last year, AT&T revealed its plans to work with MPAA, RIAA and broadcasters to use and deploy “digital fingerprinting techniques.
According to public statements, their rationale for playing traffic cop is to ferret out pirated content: sniffing through our digital packets for material that infringe on copyright.
Can You Trust the Filter?
But the technology can be used for other purposes, and the phone giant has shown that it has no qualms invading our communications to hand over our private records to government, or censor speech or block service “without prior notice and for any reason or no reason.”
AT&T has also touted plans to become gatekeepers to the Web with public relations bromides about “shaping” Web traffic to better serve the needs of an evolving Internet.
In reality, Cicconi and his cohorts within the entertainment industry are waging a quiet campaign to control how video and other rich content gets distributed via the Web. The popular trend in video, however, is streaming in the opposite direction. More and more people are becoming their own creators and distributors of homespun video content. YouTube now boasts more than 100 million views each day, but it is just the beginning of this revolution.
Peer-to-peer traffic is spreading via popular technologies like BitTorrent and Gnutella, which allow users to upload and share videos, music and other rich media without a middleman or content gatekeeper. The bulk of this traffic is legal.
Peer-to-Peer Traffic ‘Not Acceptable’
Also at the Las Vegas panel was NBC Universal’s general counsel Rick Cotton, who told the Times that the volume of peer-to-peer traffic online was “overwhelming.”
“That clearly should not be an acceptable, continuing status,” Cotton said, and AT&T seems more than happy to step in.
These executives’ vision of a better Internet ” AT&T’s “Your World Delivered” ” is not one that is shared by the more than 1.5 million people who have spoken out in favor of a neutral, open and free-flowing Internet.
For us, the Internet isn’t about one company delivering our world or filtering our content. It’s about simply offering a high-speed connection at reasonable rates ” and then getting out of our way.
This article is from SavetheInternet.com. If you found it informative and valuable, we strongly encourage you to visit their Web site and register an account, if necessary, to view all their articles on the Web. Support quality journalism.
Wednesday, January 09, 2008
Congressional Aide Tracker
Mr. Duke goes to Washington. Sixty-four of the members of the last Congress resigned, retired, were defeated, are now sitting in jail or have received pardons from pResident Bush. As last Sunday's Doonesbury cartoon featured above points out, many of them are on their way to fulfilling the grand Washington tradition of hiring themselves out as lobbyists to lean on their former colleagues. Ever since Grover Norquist and Tom Delay's 1995 "K Street Project" brought about the GOP takeover of K Street, its been hard to keep track of all the folks cashing in after public service. What often flies below the radar, however, are the huge number of congressional staffers who take the opportunity of their bosses leaving to join the lobbying corps themselves. They are prized by K Street not just for their insider knowledge of how Congress works, but also for the extensive contacts they still have with their former coworkers and subordinates as well as the lack of oversight and attention given them by anyone.
click to enlarge.
click to enlarge.Now it's time to drag them into the sunshine, both Democrat and Republican alike. The Sunlight Foundation, CMD's partner in the Congresspedia project, has developed a cool distributed research tool to marry citizen brain power with a fancy new database to figure out who exactly is hiring these insiders, and they want you to participate. Like so many other participatory projects, many hands can make this formerly daunting task light work.
Once the results are in, the CMD staff will work with the participants to get the results entered into the SourceWatch profiles of the corporations and lobbyists, ensuring that professional reporters and citizen journalists alike will be able to use the information to perform some high-caliber muckraking on the DC influence scene. Even Craigslist's Craig Newmark is participating because, as he says, "This 'revolving door' thing is of great concern since some staffers, working for shadowy politicians, might do more damage as lobbyists."
Everything you need to know is at Sunlight's website. This is your chance to become vigilant citizens by participating in Democracy in an unprecedented way
Featured Participatory Project: Find the Newest Congressional Staffers-Turned-Lobbyists
Tuesday, January 08, 2008
Movie Industry Lobby Censors for Bush
The Motion Picture Association of America, lobby for big media, doesn't like showing picture the Bush Administration doesn't want you to see. Once again, the myth of liberal media stands exposed to truth... what do you think?
Alex Gibney's new, critically-acclaimed documentary Taxi to the Dark Side follows the path of Afghan taxi driver Dilawar, who was wrongly accused of terrorist ties and was tortured to death by interrogators in the U.S. prison at Bagram Air Base. The film critically examines the Bush administration's torture doctrine at Guantanamo Bay and Abu Ghraib.
The Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) has rejected Taxi's poster as being not suitable for all audiences. The poster for the film simply shows two soldiers walking away from the camera, holding a hooded detainee between them.
The Taxi ad art is an actual photograph taken by Corbis Photographer, Shaun Schwarz, who's original image was intentionaly deleted by the military- but not before he transferred a copy to his flash drive. The original shot was of only one soldier and the hooded detainee, a second soldier was added digitally for balance and effect.
According to ThinkFilm, which produced the documentary, the MPAA objected to the image of the hood.
Last year, the MPAA also censored censored the poster for the documentary The Road to Guantanamo, because it showed a detainee hanging by his handcuffed wrists, with a burlap sack over his head and a blindfold tied around the hood.
Poster images for Taxi and Road are based on factual evidence. But interestingly, many horror films released for Christmas... as well as several slasher films shown on TV during the christmas holiday... show hoods, torture, dismemberment and far more horrific imagery.... but thats okay... cuz the Bush Administration doesn't mind showing images that create terror and fear... just not the ones they're actually doing in our name!!!
A look at some of the posters the MPAA has approved as suitable for all audiences this holiday season.
Alex Gibney's new, critically-acclaimed documentary Taxi to the Dark Side follows the path of Afghan taxi driver Dilawar, who was wrongly accused of terrorist ties and was tortured to death by interrogators in the U.S. prison at Bagram Air Base. The film critically examines the Bush administration's torture doctrine at Guantanamo Bay and Abu Ghraib.
The Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) has rejected Taxi's poster as being not suitable for all audiences. The poster for the film simply shows two soldiers walking away from the camera, holding a hooded detainee between them.
The Taxi ad art is an actual photograph taken by Corbis Photographer, Shaun Schwarz, who's original image was intentionaly deleted by the military- but not before he transferred a copy to his flash drive. The original shot was of only one soldier and the hooded detainee, a second soldier was added digitally for balance and effect.
According to ThinkFilm, which produced the documentary, the MPAA objected to the image of the hood.
Last year, the MPAA also censored censored the poster for the documentary The Road to Guantanamo, because it showed a detainee hanging by his handcuffed wrists, with a burlap sack over his head and a blindfold tied around the hood.
Poster images for Taxi and Road are based on factual evidence. But interestingly, many horror films released for Christmas... as well as several slasher films shown on TV during the christmas holiday... show hoods, torture, dismemberment and far more horrific imagery.... but thats okay... cuz the Bush Administration doesn't mind showing images that create terror and fear... just not the ones they're actually doing in our name!!!
A look at some of the posters the MPAA has approved as suitable for all audiences this holiday season.
Saturday, January 05, 2008
Morality of Politics
Adelheid Meirs created some excellent charts visualizing much of the teachings of George Lakoff regarding the differences between liberals and conservatives in todays... newspeak. What do you think?
heres one that focus's on the differences in educational concepts:
and another charting the differences in government spending ideology:
heres one that focus's on the differences in educational concepts:
and another charting the differences in government spending ideology:
Tuesday, December 25, 2007
Who Killed John O'Neil?
Who Killed John O'Neil?
Heard of it? its an art-film made by a couple guys (ty rauber and ryan thurston) who do such a wonderfully disturbing job of not only connecting the dots of the whole conspiracy concept, but effectively showing the downside of such a rabbit-hole experimentations.
Not for your average citizen as its stark set and characterizations force the viewer into the data-intense dialog. Also important in viewing this film is the ability to pause and replay... as some of the connections require a near paradigm-shift to comprehend.
Have you seen it yet? http://www.wkjo.com
I've not been one to advocate for much discourse about this topic as it inevitably illicits a dramatic cessation from what we believe to be true... but that said, I found this very compelling and wonderfully creative in its aesthetics... let me know what you think.
c
Heard of it? its an art-film made by a couple guys (ty rauber and ryan thurston) who do such a wonderfully disturbing job of not only connecting the dots of the whole conspiracy concept, but effectively showing the downside of such a rabbit-hole experimentations.
Not for your average citizen as its stark set and characterizations force the viewer into the data-intense dialog. Also important in viewing this film is the ability to pause and replay... as some of the connections require a near paradigm-shift to comprehend.
Have you seen it yet? http://www.wkjo.com
I've not been one to advocate for much discourse about this topic as it inevitably illicits a dramatic cessation from what we believe to be true... but that said, I found this very compelling and wonderfully creative in its aesthetics... let me know what you think.
c
Saturday, December 15, 2007
Wednesday, December 12, 2007
Democracy v Despotism
Democracy vs Despotism... you decide which way this nation seems headed.
THis is a 1946 film... but surprisingly on point today.
THis is a 1946 film... but surprisingly on point today.
Sunday, November 18, 2007
Psychological Torture Okay?
On Wednesday November 7, 2007, the primary operations manual for running of the US detention facility in Guantanamo Bay named Camp Delta Standard Operating Procedure was published by the government transparency group Wikileaks. The 238 page manual clearly exposes among other things, systematic methods for extreme psychological torture and stress as well as clear instructions not to allow prisoners to meet with humanitarian agencies like the International Red Cross- in violation of international law. Even the American Psychological Association, the only remaining body of medicine NOT to condemn these practices is having to re-evaluate its policy and participation.
What the manual also describes are the details to the so-called "Leave No Marks" interrogation techniques that were confirmed recently by release of a handwritten memo by then Sec of Defense Donald Rumsfeld. As Sen John McCain, a vietnam POW who co-authored the McCain-Feingold torture law that was ignored through executive signing instruction by this pResident once said, " I would have gladly chosen physical torture to psychological...mental torture is far more inhumane"
With the release of yet another document clearly illustrating the Bush administration lied to the public on several occasions how has the government responded? The Pentagon is actively seeking to censor the document under the States Secret Act and the Whitehouse spokesmen are backpedaling and avoiding direct questions. Can Congress get to the bottom of yet another clear violation of the peoples trust? We'll have to see how the Bush team spins a cocoon around this story and buries it into its web of lies, distortions and blatant abuses of power. We'll also have to see how the media covers the details. Is this the kind of Leadership you think best emulates Freedom and Democracy?
At a time when we are supposedly trying to help Pakestan's fledgling democracy to be more like us, is this the us we mean? Musharif may already consider himself to be a student of George W Bush.
What the manual also describes are the details to the so-called "Leave No Marks" interrogation techniques that were confirmed recently by release of a handwritten memo by then Sec of Defense Donald Rumsfeld. As Sen John McCain, a vietnam POW who co-authored the McCain-Feingold torture law that was ignored through executive signing instruction by this pResident once said, " I would have gladly chosen physical torture to psychological...mental torture is far more inhumane"
With the release of yet another document clearly illustrating the Bush administration lied to the public on several occasions how has the government responded? The Pentagon is actively seeking to censor the document under the States Secret Act and the Whitehouse spokesmen are backpedaling and avoiding direct questions. Can Congress get to the bottom of yet another clear violation of the peoples trust? We'll have to see how the Bush team spins a cocoon around this story and buries it into its web of lies, distortions and blatant abuses of power. We'll also have to see how the media covers the details. Is this the kind of Leadership you think best emulates Freedom and Democracy?
At a time when we are supposedly trying to help Pakestan's fledgling democracy to be more like us, is this the us we mean? Musharif may already consider himself to be a student of George W Bush.
Support our Troops?
Do we really care about our Troops? Talk is cheap and our actions of late, even cheaper.... So many citizens, veterans and politicians wrap themselves up in the flag and talk tuff for the troops.... but the reality is far from the rhetoric.
On friday, Congressman Lindsey Graham of South Carolina cackled from the Senate floor against the $87 Billion Dollar troop funding bill with a timeline attached. Citing "our troops are winners, not losers". Veterans and citizen-bloggers have constantly taken to flag-waving and tuff talk about our "supporting our troops" and continuing the constant clammer against "cut and run".
New figures released this week site nearly 4700 troops deserted their posts this year alone, up from 3300 last year. This represents an 80% increase in the desertion rate and is the highest in nearly 30 years— and the pace is accelerating. Additionally figures showing one in four homeless people in the US are war veterans, a point relegated to minor news clips buried in the media. Troops in record numbers are returning home with PTSD and are finding inadequate -if any- treatment or help from the Government. A study yesterday reported that more than 6000 soldiers took their own lives in 2005.... thats 17 soldiers a day!
Meanwhile, with a huge budget for slick ads, flashy powerpoint presentations, uncensored access to our High School and University Student personal records and cafeterias...our proud military has taken to preying on youth through profiling and false advertising. With budgets of between $1600-4000 per recruit, the military sees no reason to invoke the draft.
I don't know about you all, but if thats the pride to which we want to defend our troops, then there is something terribly wrong with this nation and the conditioning these vets, politicians and gung-ho citizens have gotten from the media and the deceptive administration who to this day, says we are winning the war on terror.
Defending our troops... more correctly, our children and loved ones... means being certain our cause is just, our methods are above-board, our treatment of them upon returning is truthful and comprehensive and our media or information is honest and trustworthy. Anything less than that is not only a slap in the face to every soldier who ever served, but a reason to stand up and fight for our soldiers!
Certainly there is an allegiance to our troops from our veteran population, and certainly our citizens owe them a deep debt of gratitude for their service whether in the gulf or at any other time, but allegiance and ignorance are not compatible. The longer we allow our elected leaders to beat their breasts about troops being winners- while waging a war of aggression that we all agree was not started in good faith (no connection to 9/11-no WMDs, no alqaeda)...The longer we accept daily revelations of the staggering costs of this war both in loss of life and loss of integrity to our nation and its allies... The more we continue to listen to the mainstream media make headlines of success while barely covering their redactions and truthful statements of record losses... the more we truly disrespect our troops today, and the honor and dignity of our nation and its armed forces.
On friday, Congressman Lindsey Graham of South Carolina cackled from the Senate floor against the $87 Billion Dollar troop funding bill with a timeline attached. Citing "our troops are winners, not losers". Veterans and citizen-bloggers have constantly taken to flag-waving and tuff talk about our "supporting our troops" and continuing the constant clammer against "cut and run".
New figures released this week site nearly 4700 troops deserted their posts this year alone, up from 3300 last year. This represents an 80% increase in the desertion rate and is the highest in nearly 30 years— and the pace is accelerating. Additionally figures showing one in four homeless people in the US are war veterans, a point relegated to minor news clips buried in the media. Troops in record numbers are returning home with PTSD and are finding inadequate -if any- treatment or help from the Government. A study yesterday reported that more than 6000 soldiers took their own lives in 2005.... thats 17 soldiers a day!
Meanwhile, with a huge budget for slick ads, flashy powerpoint presentations, uncensored access to our High School and University Student personal records and cafeterias...our proud military has taken to preying on youth through profiling and false advertising. With budgets of between $1600-4000 per recruit, the military sees no reason to invoke the draft.
I don't know about you all, but if thats the pride to which we want to defend our troops, then there is something terribly wrong with this nation and the conditioning these vets, politicians and gung-ho citizens have gotten from the media and the deceptive administration who to this day, says we are winning the war on terror.
Defending our troops... more correctly, our children and loved ones... means being certain our cause is just, our methods are above-board, our treatment of them upon returning is truthful and comprehensive and our media or information is honest and trustworthy. Anything less than that is not only a slap in the face to every soldier who ever served, but a reason to stand up and fight for our soldiers!
Certainly there is an allegiance to our troops from our veteran population, and certainly our citizens owe them a deep debt of gratitude for their service whether in the gulf or at any other time, but allegiance and ignorance are not compatible. The longer we allow our elected leaders to beat their breasts about troops being winners- while waging a war of aggression that we all agree was not started in good faith (no connection to 9/11-no WMDs, no alqaeda)...The longer we accept daily revelations of the staggering costs of this war both in loss of life and loss of integrity to our nation and its allies... The more we continue to listen to the mainstream media make headlines of success while barely covering their redactions and truthful statements of record losses... the more we truly disrespect our troops today, and the honor and dignity of our nation and its armed forces.
Friday, November 02, 2007
Wednesday, October 31, 2007
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