June Week 3, 2006
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June Week 3, 2006
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Monday June 12 , 2006 People are like stained-glass windows. They sparkle and shine when the sun is out, but when the darkness sets in, their true beauty is revealed only if there is a light from within. Elisabeth Kubler-Ross. Swiss-American psychiatrist and author I went to Colville to get a vacuum pump replaced in the Chevy... The Cruise Control works now, and the brakes have improved a lot, they aren't like toggle switches at low speed any more. Grandpa had some moles biopsied and one removed... Christy told me that I overdrew the Mountain West Bank by $500... I had to look at the checks and ATM receipts to believe it... It is hard to reconcile how fast you can go through that much money these days. A trip to the grocery and a few fill-ups can wipe you out as fast as you can blink. One of Autumn's meds cost $1123... we still have not reached our Co-pay limit of $10,000 yet... This living in the real world is an expensive proposition. When we computed what we spent at Kaiser it would come up to almost the same amount only it was spread out over the whole year and Nickel and Dime'd us... even when there were no big medical problems we would spend $7- $8k a year. We learned a while back to make all purchases at Kaiser with the ATM, it takes less than a half hour to compute how much we spent there by querying our account on the Net. We will crack the $10k level by the end of the month this year. Tuesday June 13 , 2006 Knowledge speaks but wisdom listen.
Jimi Hendrix
Calie was awarded her 'letter' today, the last person to Letter in my family was my father in 1938... He was a Football, Baseball, Track & Field jock... I have lots of pictures of him doing all sorts of things, Broad Jump, High jump (with a bamboo pole). I have wondered what he could have done with one of the carbon-fiber poles they uses today. I also wonder what he could have accomplished on the football field using today's equipment... Back to Calie, I am very proud of her accomplishments, she really tries hard and it is beginning to pay off. She is going to Basketball camp at Soap lake on Sunday. Three full games of basketball a day with practice during the breaks, they will be staying at Soap Lake High School and sleeping in the classrooms. We took Christian into Colville last Friday, we figured out we didn't know what to expect or how long to wait till we can expect to see a change... we called the Dr. and told his nurse what our concerns were and she talked to the Dr and called us back, she said to not take Christian off Effexor all at once, what we are witnessing now are withdrawals we need to take him off slowly, we need to use half strength tablets, she said they had enough samples to get us through, the nurse lives in Ione, she said she would take them home with her... We met her at her house... is that cool or what... I love this place. Christian had some fleshy looking fungus growing out of the wall in his bedroom... I asked him when he was going to tell me about it... he just didn't care... I pulled the wall down and I think I found the leak in the floor of the shower. I have to clean it with Windex let it dry completely and caulk it real good. I told the lady down at the Mini Mart and she said she didn't have fungus she had slugs crawling out of the shower drain... I guess I should count my blessings. We meet with the surgeon tomorrow... we're both apprehensive...
Wednesday June 14 , 2006 Let the gods avenge themselves. Roman law maxim, on blasphemy It rained all day... no break ... first time I have seen that here. We walked in to the office and sat with the nurse and the nurse scheduled us even before the surgeon arrived... I like the surgeon, except for the fact that she has a hint of a Texas accent she sounds and looks like my sister Leigh. Christy is having a double simple mastectomy. Though there is nothing wrong with her right side we decided that it should be removed also, for several reasons, most of them obvious. One plus that the doctor mentioned is 'no more Mammograms! We bought gas again last night, brutal... I heard a guy on the radio talking about living in a society based on a doomed economy because the economy is based on a doomed resource... oil... he is right. Anyone with half a brain knows that Oil is only a renewable recourse if you have a couple hundred thousand years to wait for it to regenerate.... Eventually we will have to find a new source of power to get around or go back to some sort of Feudal/commune type system. We have to go back into Spokane tomorrow to have the doc look at her toe... Thursday June 15 , 2006 Not ignorance, but ignorance of ignorance, is the death of knowledge. Alfred North Whitehead, mathematician and philosopher (1861-1947) Christian still hasn't gone to school... Christy's toe was pronounced 'out of danger' and she can relax and wait for a new toenail to grow back. I fixed the hole in the shower and re-caulked it. I still need to replace all the drywall I tore down in Christians' room. We have no place we need to go tomorrow so I can fix it then... Mosquitoes are thick, too much rain lately, we have set records for the month of May and June. Good thing there is no such thing as Global Warming or I would be worried... Friday June 16 , 2006 You need only reflect that one of the best ways to get yourself a reputation as a dangerous citizen these days is to go about repeating the very phrases which our founding fathers used in the struggle for independence. Charles A. Beard, historian (1874-1948) I got the drywall up and taped... it looks better having the hole covered. I still have to do a little calking in the shower Christy is in Colville with Calie and Cindy buying clothes.
Saturday June 17 , 2006 Listen to the mustn'ts, child. Listen to the don'ts. Listen to the shouldn'ts, the impossibles, the won'ts. Listen to the never haves, then listen close to me... Anything can happen, child. Anything can be. - Shel Silverstein. American poet, cartoonist and composer best known in children's literature for his poetry, 1930-1999 Malinda Marie Newman was put to rest today, Monica Calie and I went to the funeral... quite a crowd, she was only 24, had three small children and one stepdaughter, Jessilyn, Monica's best friend. Sunday June 18 , 2006 Everyone needs recognition for his accomplishments, but few people make the need known quite as clearly as the little boy who said to his father: Let's play darts. I'll throw and you say 'Wonderful!' The Best of Bits and Pieces Fathers Day Hubba Hubba, I know nobody reads any of the articles I post below the 'link-bar', and that's fine, I put them there for me. There are many more that I read or partially read that don't get put there because they are either redundant or poorly done. I save the articles that strike a chord I can identify with. I also put them here because they get lost if I don't save them, some columnists have archives and that's great but I can't depend on them and I really don't want to wade through 200 articles to find a particular piece.. I know that many of the readers are polar opposites of me politically and I know that Molly Ivins and others of her ilk that I enjoy reading grate on them as much as Rush Limbaugh, Ann Coulterm and the rest on the endless list of self righteous, self promoting, shills make me livid. Everyone has an agenda I guess. I think I am on the 'right side'... so do they... right and wrong appear to be subjective concepts The shrieking cacophony from the 'Right' is getting even more strident and desperate to incite their 'dittohead' following. Coulter, Malkin, Schlussel, and O'Riley
The weekly update from Media Matters for America The defining issue of our time is the media. Whatever issue you care most about, media coverage of that issue is likely a key stumbling block to real, progressive change. On May 26, we wrote that "The dominant political force of our time is the media." Last week, we elaborated on that, looking back over the past dozen years to establish that "[no matter who emerges as a progressive leader, or a high-profile Democrat, they're in for the same flood of conservative misinformation in the media." This week, we turn our attention to another point we outlined on May 26:
What we meant by that, but didn't fully explain, was that more than any other issue, the media affect everything else. The Iraq war, for obvious reasons, is incredibly important, but it has little impact on outsourcing. Global warming may be among "the biggest moral challenges facing our global civilization," with dire consequences for the survival of the planet -- but we won't face that challenge as long as the media continue to falsely portray global warming as a matter of serious scientific debate. Perhaps no recent issue offers a better example of how much flawed news reporting can shape the decisions we make as a nation than does the Iraq war. Six months into the Iraq war, a study by the Program on International Policy Attitudes (PIPA) at the University of Maryland found that most people who get their news from Fox News, CNN, or the three broadcast networks had serious mistaken beliefs about Iraq -- that U.S.-led forces had already found weapons of mass destruction (WMD) there, that links between Iraq and Al Qaeda had been found, that world public opinion approved of the war in Iraq, or some combination of the three. Eighty percent of Fox viewers held at least one of these mistaken beliefs, as did 71 percent of CBS viewers, 61 percent of ABC viewers, and 55 percent of NBC and CNN viewers -- clear majorities in all cases. Nearly half of those who got their news from the print media held one of these mistaken beliefs; among consumers of public broadcasting, only 23 percent did. These mistaken beliefs had serious consequences: People who believed Iraq had weapons of mass destruction were more likely to support the war; people who supported the war were more likely to vote for President Bush, and so on. The world's greatest democracy made a series of decisions about war and peace; life and death; and about the world we will pass on to our children, all based on faulty information. In April 2004, PIPA released the results of a new study (PDF):
By August 2004, the percentage of the public that still falsely believed that Iraq had WMD, or that it had worked with Al Qaeda, had dropped (PDF):
Still, less than three months before the 2004 presidential election, more than half the country still falsely believed that Iraq had WMD or a major WMD program -- and people who believed that were much more likely to vote for President Bush than people who didn't. In the middle of October 2004, just a few weeks before the election, PIPA released another study:
So, on the eve of the 2004 presidential election, about half of all Americans still believed the false claims that Iraq had WMD and had provided significant support to Al Qaeda. Those who held those false beliefs were, by an overwhelming margin, more likely to support President Bush than Sen. John Kerry (D-MA). And how did they come to believe these false things? Bush administration lies and misstatements surely played a role. But so did news organizations that repeated those lies and misstatements, either in their own voice or by quoting administration officials and war proponents, without correcting the misstatements. News organizations that, long after it had been established that Iraq did not have WMD, treated it as an open question with two equally valid viewpoints. News organizations whose coverage was "strikingly one-sided" and that refused to give "the same play to people who said it wouldn't be a good idea to go to war and were questioning the administration's rationale," as Howard Kurtz and Leonard Downie of The Washington Post described their newspaper's coverage of the run-up to the Iraq war. News organizations that falsely told viewers that WMD had actually been found. Reporters who have so thoroughly absorbed the prevailing spin that they robotically repeat it even in 2006. That's why conservative misinformation in the media is the most significant issue of our time: Because the media shape our understanding of every other issue. Because the world's greatest democracy made a decision to go to war, and to re-elect a president, based on false information -- false information spread by the media. Because as the weblog Think Progress has noted, "Science Magazine analyzed 928 peer-reviewed scientific papers on global warming published between 1993 and 2003. Not a single one challenged the scientific consensus the earth's temperature is rising due to human activity" -- and yet a recent study found that the majority of news stories about global warming are "structured on the journalistic norm of balanced reporting, giving the impression that the scientific community was embroiled in a rip-roaring debate on whether or not humans were contributing to global warming." Because news organizations continually repeat bogus right-wing talking points about Social Security and advance the anti-environment arguments of "Washington think tanks" that, in reality, are little more than energy industry front groups. Because media outlets hype bans on abortion and gay marriage as "religious issues" but ignore religious groups that protest right-wing budget cuts. Because they peddle the Bush administration's claims about tax cuts and misleading claims that the rich are shouldering a larger tax burden. Because whatever issue you care most about, media coverage of that issue is likely a key stumbling block to real, progressive change. To illustrate just how much conservative misinformation the media spread, and how it affects the public's understanding of every issue, every topic, every challenge America faces, we spent a little time browsing through Media Matters' archives for examples. For those of you unfamiliar with the "Issues/Topics" browse structure of our site, it lets you quickly locate items we've posted on whatever issue you're interested in; from "Access to Abortion" to "War in Iraq." We don't have any Zs yet, but that'll change as soon as Fox figures out how to blame liberals for Zoolander. Following, then, are some highlights of media misinformation about a range of issues: George Will downplays the potential changes to abortion law if Roe v. Wade is overturned. Chris Matthews understates public support for Roe v. Wade. Bill O'Reilly smears Planned Parenthood, falsely claiming it "encourages" abortions among teens because it gets "paid for every abortion." O'Reilly compares opponents of parental notification laws to Nazi Germany, "where the state tells the child, 'Inform on your parents.'" The Wall Street Journal downplays Supreme Court nominees' hostility to abortion -- making their confirmation, and the eventual overturning of Roe, more likely. Anti-abortion activists get away, unchallenged, with falsely claiming majority support for their positions. News organizations legitimize fringe anti-abortion activists, giving them valuable attention while ignoring their credibility problems. Limbaugh declares that women "live longer than men because their lives are easier." But right-wing media figures routinely denigrate women as "witches" who are "not that bright" and "want girl talk all the time" rather than news. They treat female colleagues as objects and claim women want to be "hired as eye candy" and that they "actually wish" for sexual harassment. Feminists are mocked as "feminazis" and "grouchy feminists with mustaches" whose purpose is "to allow unattractive women easier access to the mainstream of society." Bill Bennett recklessly links race and crime -- and gets hired by CNN as a reward. John Lott gets caught using fraudulent data to support his discredited theories about guns and crime and invents a fake internet persona to hype his own falsified work -- but still is given a platform to peddle his misinformation by the Los Angeles Times. Bill O'Reilly claims the homeless "will not support themselves" because "they want to get drunk" and "high," or they're just "too lazy." Sean Hannity falsely credits George Bush for a low unemployment rate, even though it has increased on his watch. New York Times columnist David Brooks falsely claims the unemployment rate dropped eight percentage points under President Reagan, nearly quadrupling the actual decrease. Fox News host Neil Cavuto falsely tells viewers that real wages for American workers have increased; in fact, they have decreased each of the last two years. The nation's leading news organizations suppress news that the Bush administration may have improperly delayed a congressionally mandated report on outsourcing until well after the 2004 elections, then edited the final report to remove anti-outsourcing findings. Rush Limbaugh says the minimum wage is "seven bucks an hour" and claims it "has gotten so high that it's paying people that are not skilled to do anything"; in fact, the federal minimum wage is $5.15 per hour -- and has been since 1997. Limbaugh also tells his listeners that "75 percent of the people earning minimum wage" are teenagers; in reality, only 32 percent are. Bill O'Reilly claims taxes are responsible for high gas prices, suggesting that state and federal governments have an interest in gas prices rising: "[T]hey're making more money, the government's making more money now that the uh, gasoline prices are higher, because their tax goes up." That's false: The federal government and three-quarters of state governments assess gasoline taxes on a per-gallon basis, not as a percentage of sale prices. Rush Limbaugh pretends high gas prices are a temporary blip, claiming gas was only $1.29 a gallon "seven months ago." At the time, it had been three and a half years since gas cost as little as $1.29 a gallon. Countless news organizations overstate -- or allow conservatives to overstate without correction -- the amount of oil that drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge could produce, furthering drilling proponents' false claims that drilling in ANWR would lower energy prices. Leading news organizations all but ignore a peaceful religious protest against Republican-sponsored budget cuts to social programs. The Washington Post doesn't cover Democratic budget proposals, and omits mention of the impact Bush's tax cuts would have on the deficit. Chris Matthews ignores the fact that budget deficits declined -- and even became surpluses -- under President Clinton before ballooning under Bush, declaring: "I don't think the Democrats are any better" than Republicans at being fiscally responsible. Rush Limbaugh goes one step further, insisting that "there never was a surplus" under Clinton. There was. Limbaugh tells listeners the federal government spends as much on the environment as on defense and homeland security and that "we spend over two times on education already, what we spend on defense." Both claims are breathtakingly inaccurate. ABC repeats Bush's claims that his tax cuts "have helped expand the economy and create jobs" while omitting contrary views. In an article about a Republican tax cut proposal, The Wall Street Journal fails to mention that the bill would confer disproportionate benefit on the wealthy. The Journal, the Associated Press, and USA Today all covered the House of Representatives' passage of tax breaks -- without noting that the tax breaks far exceeded recent spending cuts, meaning that they would add to the deficit, (notwithstanding Sean Hannity's false claims that Ronald Reagan's tax cuts "doubled revenue.") Media falsely claim that Health Savings Accounts yield "high customer satisfaction"; falsely claim that countries with government-run health care spend a larger portion of their gross domestic product (GDP) on health care than the United States does; falsely claim that drug re-importation would not reduce prescription drug costs; and falsely claim (or repeat the false claims of others) that malpractice lawsuits are responsible for rising health care costs and vaccine shortages. Media figures overstate public support for the conservatives' scheme to privatize Social Security; falsely characterize that privatization plan as an addition to the current system, rather than something that would be carved-out from it; repeat the Bush administration's widely-debunked claim that the Social Security system will "run out of money" in the early 2040s; repeat bogus claims that Social Security shortchanges minorities; and endorse flawed descriptions of the Social Security trust fund. They hype other nation's failed privatization schemes, pretending they have worked. They give extensive coverage to Republican front-groups as though they were a real grassroots seniors organization. They commit "premeditated, historical fraud" in claiming Franklin Delano Roosevelt would support privatization. Well, you get the picture: Whatever issue you care most about, the media are likely skewing the public debate badly. But there's another way the debate is skewed. The major media give a megaphone to every hate-filled third-rate intellect the conservative movement has to offer, allowing the likes of Michael Savage and Ann Coulter to shape the national discourse. Coulter has said she wished the United States military would kill American journalists. She has suggested beating liberals with baseball bats. She has said her only regret about Timothy McVeigh is that he did not blow up the New York Times building. She suggested assassinating a sitting president of the United States. As a reward, she got a nearly 6,000-word cover story in Time magazine -- an article that whitewashed her habitual lies and downplayed her grossly inappropriate rhetoric. She was invited to appear on NBC's Today show -- not once, not twice, but three times in only eight months. And when she (predictably) used that forum to engage in even more hate speech, NBC acted shocked -- shocked! -- that Coulter could be so crass. In her new "book," Coulter angrily smears 9-11 widows:
Yet after Coulter's June 6 appearance on the Today show, in which she stood by her claim that the widows are "enjoying" their husbands' deaths, NBC Nightly News anchor Brian Williams reported that Coulter had gone "over the line -- the line that is shared by just about everybody because some things, it turns out, are still sacred." What the heck did NBC think was going to happen if it gave Coulter access to the airwaves? This is a person who says 9-11 widows are "enjoying their husband's deaths"; who has suggested assassinating a sitting president; who has repeatedly called for violence against liberals and journalists. And NBC wants you to believe it is shocked and dismayed that she would cross "the line," piously telling you that some things "are still sacred." Coulter's calls for violence -- assassination, even -- against liberals and journalists didn't clue them in to the possibility that she went "over the line" (not to mention 'round the bend) years ago? Of course NBC knew Coulter was "over the line" before it invited her: She didn't say anything in her appearance that was further over the line than what she wrote in her book -- a passage Today host Matt Lauer read on-air. NBC just didn't care. And, as Greg Sargent reports, NBC may host Coulter again:
This is what NBC and the rest of the media have made of our public discourse: They routinely confer legitimacy on venomous, hate-filled right-wing pundits. Uber-pundit Howard Fineman, for example, said on the June 7 edition of MSNBC's Hardball: "I think Ann Coulter often has interesting and provocative things to say about the clash between liberalism and conservatism." Interesting? Which part: Her desire for the military to kill U.S. journalists? Or her suggestion that Bill Clinton be assassinated? When an Ann Coulter appears on NBC or in Time magazine, those news outlets not only tell the world that Coulter is someone to be taken seriously, they nudge the bounds of acceptable discourse a bit further to the right. Suddenly, far-right politicians appear mainstream by comparison. Suddenly moderates appear liberal, and liberals appear extreme, and people who are VERY liberal ... well, you don't see them on television at all. Sure, Bill O'Reilly will tell you that "[n]o doubt some far-left pundits have said far worse things than Ann Coulter will ever say, and the mainstream media often celebrates them." But he's lying. There simply is no progressive pundit who has mused publicly about killing a U.S. president; called for violence against American reporters and conservatives -- and been a guest on the Today show three times in eight months. It doesn't happen. Nor should it. But why the double-standard? Why do the media define the acceptable rightward bounds of public discourse to be Ann Coulter and her bottomless reservoir of hate, and, by doing so, pull the discussion of serious issues further and further to the right? *** So, what can be done about the problems we've outlined? We'll touch on some answers next week. Until then, posters on blogs such as Firedoglake and Greg Sargent's new The Horse's Mouth have recently offered some excellent ideas.
The Specter of Command Cowardice by Greg Foster As further details emerge about the alleged massacre by U.S.
troops of some two dozen civilians in the Iraqi town of Haditha, the largely
unacknowledged crisis that afflicts U.S. civil-military relations today assumes
growing proportions. Nuking Iran -- John Bolton, a notorious neocon warmonger who could not be
confirmed as America's ambassador to the UN by even the compliant and corrupt US
Senate, got the job as a recess appointment. He is using the platform to push
America into war with Iran. Support The TroopsBy Sheila Samples
And it's up against the wall American Muthers, Once a year, George Bush shows up at Arlington National Cemetery and tells a tightly controlled, thoroughly vetted audience that he 'preciates the sacrifice of those who volunteered to die "in freedom's cause." There, surrounded by silent tombstones and armed Secret Service Police, this most infamous of military deserters befouls not only the hallowed ground, but the very air, as he regurgitates words he babbled the year before...and the year before. He reminds us that America is a "reluctant warrior," but we are resolved; our will must not be broken, no matter how many sacrifices it takes. During the annual photo-op, Bush reads exerpts of farewell letters allegedly from fallen soldiers and marines, all apparently honored to have died in Bush's noble cause. Their words passed on to us by Bush are eerily familiar -- stay the course -- complete the mission of ridding the world of evil -- spread freedom and democracy to the four corners of the earth. Then, after hoping that the slain heroes made peace with their Maker before being blown to bits, and a final admonishment to "support the troops," Bush cuts out until next year. The camera never strays from Bush's twitching mouth, darting eyes -- never scans the audience so we might see who these people are who applaud him so vigorously. It must be members of his administration and those legislators who follow him around like whipped pups, for I cannot imagine mothers willing to either sacrifice their children to bolster Bush's poll numbers in a barbaric slaughterhouse that grows more bloody and chaotic every day, or to cheer him on. Somehow I cannot conjure up an image of mothers offering up their sons and daughters to a pathological narcissist killer, knowing if they are returned at all it will be either in pieces or in boxes. Hiding the Troops Either way, Bush is determined to protect us from seeing the steady stream of ghastly homecomings. That's what mothers are for. Bush says he wakes up every morning trying to figure out how to protect the American people, and -- like his mother says -- folks shouldn't have to worry their beautiful minds with such depressing images. So Bush not only banned the media and the public from Dover Air Force Base in Delaware where dead soldiers are secretly shuttled back in country in the dead of night, but from military installations around the world. Bush also restricted the media from covering funerals at Arlington, apparently deciding that the best way to support the troops is to "disappear" them from our view forever. Besides, if you've seen one aluminum transfer tube covered with the old red-white-and-blue, you've seen 'em all. Why bother parading 2,500 of them past a bored, disconnected, disinterested citizenry, most of whom have no children in this fight and could care less about other people's children... General Tommy Franks, former Central Command Commander, who developed and executed the bloody Iraq fiasco, recently told the National Rifle Association that it wasn't important how many Americans died -- that those who count the increasing number of American soldiers killed in Iraq are missing the bigger picture. "What we're talking about is neither 2,400, 24,000 or 240,000 lives," Franks said. "Terrorism is a thing that threatens our way of life. It doesn't have anything to do with politics." Americans fail to realize that words mean far different things to Bush, and apparently to Franks, than they do to coherent, rational people. To Bush, "support the troops" means don't criticize him when thousands of Americans and hundreds of thousands of innocents die in an illegal, bloody mess that he lied to get us into. Bush brags that he's a war president. He says he sits in the Oval Office with war on his mind. He doesn't read --- doesn't need to because his gut makes all the decisions, and anybody who doesn't like that is aiding and abetting the terrorists. So -- stick a yellow ribbon on your vehicle, shut up, and support the troops. Supporting the Troops In the only evidence of support I am aware of, just months after getting his war on, Bush opened a new $30 million, state-of-the-art, 70,000 square-foot mortuary at Dover to support the troops, or what is left of them, when they are sneaked back to the states under cover of darkness. Since then, he has sent America's sons and daughters unprepared and unequipped into a raging guerilla insurgency with orders to kill anything that moves. Bush and his entire Iran-Contra war-criminal chickenhawk administration are devoid of ethos; incapable of empathy or compassion, and could care less about supporting troops. Bush has said on more than one occasion, "My attitude is, any time we put one of our soldiers in harm's way, we're going to spend whatever is necessary to make sure they have the best training, the best support and the best possible equipment." That may be his attitude, but it is not the reality on the ground in Iraq or Afghanistan. Far too many Americans Bush has put in harm's way are trying unsuccessfully to stay alive in soft-armored Humvees while wearing Vietnam-era flak jackets. Far too few of them have the Intercepter Vest designed in the late 1990's to protect its wearer with Kevlar lining and ceramic plates in front and back pockets to shield vital organs. Day after grinding day in the filth and horror of a war with the "front line" anywhere the enemy decides it will be, ill-trained and ill-equipped Americans are losing the battle to stay alive -- and there is no end in sight. Most Americans neither know nor care about what is going on, but the mothers know. They are not only spending thousands of dollars sending critical armor, night-vision goggles, and other needed equipment to their children, but are sending food as well. Journalist Bob Kerr writes in The Providence Journal that Marine Nick Andoscia called and asked his mother to send food. Kerr said Nick told his mother that he and the men in his unit had shed about 10 pounds in their first few weeks in Iraq. They were pulling 22-hour patrol shifts, and were getting only two meals a day -- not meals to remember. He said they were going to the Iraqis and literally begging for food. The lack of support this administration gives its uniformed personnel is monumentally ruthless and evil. Since Bush's unprovoked attack on Iraq, nearly 12,000 soldiers have been evacuated because of disease. Some of the sickness can be attributed to Halliburton-KBR serving tainted water and rotten food in the mess halls, but most is undoubtedly from radiation poisoning due to the widespread use of the deadly Depleted Uranium. Blaming the Troops One of the more frightening things about wars, especially immoral wars like this one, is the enemy must be dehumanized so soldiers and marines can be kept under control and "up" for the killing they must do. Normal human beings can't turn cruelty on and off like a faucet; therefore, the troops must be also be dehumanized to the point of madness. They become predators without conscience -- drugged and brainwashed into a continuous white rage, not only willing, but eager to kill. Their commander-in-chief is a ruthlessly self-centered, single-layered demon whose hypnotic cadence of kill, kill, kill, kill, kill, kill has succeeded in turning them into the monsters they must be for his world dominance aspirations to succeed. The US military are victims of a cruel fascist regime. They are used, then tossed aside to come to terms with what they have become on their own. It is a rare soldier who returns to find professional help available. For many, the final battle with their predator leader is one too many. Because of the values they were taught from birth -- it all comes crashing down. Many can't cope with the magnitude of sheer evil that envelops them. Some commit suicide. Others become alcoholics, drug addicts, homeless, the walking dead. When torture, murder and war crimes committed by Americans in places such as Guantanamo, Haditha, Abu Ghrab, Ishaqi and Fallujah, as well as in Afghanistan, comes to light, Bush and his criminal defense department initially try to conceal the atrocities. If forced to investigate themselves, they find no wrongdoing. When all else fails, Bush comes out, blames the troops and says the few bad apples will be brought to justice. Commanders stand silent, refusing to defend or protect those for whom they are responsible -- mute acknowledgement that, as Henry Kissinger said, "Soldiers are expendable -- dumb, stupid animals to be used as pawns in foreign policy." Every single member of Congress, every single member of this filthy administration, every single commander on the ground, and every single member of the shameful corporate US media must be blamed for allowing George Bush's rampant maiming and destruction of American citizens and for the genocidal murder waged against innocent Iraqi men, women and children. Every single one of them should be forced to don Vietnam-era flak jackets, crammed into unarmored Humvees and ordered to drive across Iraq, fighting to stay alive while choking on depleted uranium dust. Then they might acknowledge who is to blame for this fiasco. Is it the troops? No way in hell.
Sheila Samples is an Oklahoma writer and a former civilian US Army Public Information Officer. She is a regular contributor for a variety of Internet sites. Contact her at: rsamples@sirinet.net . © 2006 Sheila Samples A ludicrous debate
Tuesday, June 13, 2006; Posted: 10:15 a.m. EDT (14:15 GMT)
AUSTIN, Texas (Creators) -- Iraq and the media, the media and Iraq -- over and over. Last week was supposed to be a good media week for Iraq -- Abu Musab al-Zarqawi was dead. Taken out, we said, by a combination of American and Iraqi troops with Jordanian intelligence. The churlish might note this was the second time the American military had announced Zarqawi's death -- but, hey, we've announced the capture of Osama's No. 2 guy at least seven or eighth times. Others claimed Zarqawi was never that important to begin with, indeed had been built up by our side. Still, that's a goal for our side, as they say in World Cup play. Then reality got a bit bumpy. Zarqawi wasn't exactly dead when we found him. We put him on a stretcher and cleaned him up -- the fog of war intervened. I distinctly remember people predicting the first time we killed Zarqawi that it wouldn't make much difference, so I presume they did it again. Thus, we get to revisit the old cackle over whether we are fighting international terrorists who have flocked to Iraq or a native uprising against our occupation of the country. Can't even agree on what's going on. I'm so used to one side saying this and the other side saying the opposite that I didn't even blink over the differences. I did, however, come to a screeching halt over the right's reaction to news of a triple suicide at Guantanamo. A great chorus of, "How dare they?" seemed to follow this dismal news. My local paper said, "Detainees hid their plans to die ... Guantanamo officials were fooled ... Inquiry looks at how to prevent other deaths." Now it seems to me one might have any number of reactions to news of suicides at Guantanamo, but righteous indignation is not one of them. Most of these prisoners have been held for four years now without possibility of charge, trial or parole. I should think they would be suicidal. I'm sorry we failed to prevent it, but I'm not sure that's possible. "They hid their plans to die?" Gee, the sneaks. You know what? This is getting silly. The debate over this war is unrealistic and even ludicrous. A) It is not going well. B) It keeps getting worse. C) Yes, it is possible that if we stay there long enough, it will get better eventually. D) There is no evidence suggesting that beyond hope. A particularly acrid growth from this fruitless debate is the contempt for and dismissal of public opinion in other countries. "So what if we have alienated public opinion in nations throughout the Middle East?" seems to be the attitude. "Who cares what they think?" If I wanted to win a global war on terror, I'd sure be concerned about what they think. I would hope the right would at least be concerned over the damage being done to the American military by this war. Morale, my ass. Excuse me, but our government doesn't even seem to be able to pay these people on time. Not to mention stretching them past the breaking point in Iraq, leaving them without adequate mental care when they come home, endlessly extending their tours, bribing them to re-up, and so forth and so on. Then, of course, something like Haditha happens, and they all get a black eye out of it. I think it's time the antiwar side in this country started using a few threats of its own -- specifically, about who's going to take the blame for this when it's over. Forget the liberal tradition of forgiveness. I say, hold this grudge Meaningful Lives
by
Charley Reese
Ann Coulter, to use one of her favorite words, is an over-40 smart "broad" who makes a ton of money out of being controversial. She laughs all the way from her Palm Beach, Fla., mansion to the bank when Democrats and liberals get outraged by something she says or writes. A former corporate lawyer, she's a regular on Fox News and collects big fees for speaking engagements. She's at the height of her fame. In a way, she's the Republican equivalent of Michael Moore, who, despite his costume of working man's clothes, also lives in a mansion. If you play your cards right, you can get rich being a polemicist for the poor or a polemicist for the rich. Calling some of the 9/11 widows harpies and witches who enjoy their husband's deaths is no more tasteless and cruel than many of the other things Coulter has said or written. She is, after all, a verbal exhibitionist. The fallacy of her vituperation is that the widows did not choose to become celebrities. The media chose them. And who is surprised that people from New York City and the New Jersey suburbs are liberals? Most people who live there are. The prize for the dumbest remarks, however, goes to Sandy Rios, described as a Fox News contributor, who said that just because the widows lost their husbands to an accidental bombing "does not give them license to then criticize their commander in chief." Error No. 1, it was not accidental; error No. 2, it was not a bombing; error No. 3, George W. Bush is not their commander in chief (he's commander in chief only of the armed forces, not of the civilian population); and error No. 4 is that nobody needs a license to criticize any public official. That's the right of every American citizen. The real question is, Does all of this vituperation and nasty name-calling contribute to anyone's understanding of the issues facing this country? I think not. People who are inclined to substitute vituperation for argument – whether from the left or the right – are people who already have their minds made up and believe either no explanation is necessary or that the truth will collapse their position. The whole talk phenomenon, which includes television and radio, has more to do with entertainment than with either politics or public enlightenment. One establishes oneself as a "personality" and plays the role. Who knows what these people really think, or if they think at all about the topics they are so bombastic about? I suspect they think mostly about book contracts, book sales and ratings. Argumentum ad hominem, which is what name-calling is, is a dead giveaway that the person wishes to avoid a rational discussion. We would all do better to ignore the entertainers and concentrate on civil discussions. After all, good people can disagree, and on most issues there are pros and cons. It's all right to skewer your opponent's arguments, but personal attacks only reveal you to be a yahoo. Of course, there has always been a yahoo element in the population, but at least in the past, most of them did not become rich and famous. We have reached a point in our present culture in which if anybody can make money, it's OK, no matter how the person makes it. That's probably inevitable in a society in which leadership has nothing to offer but materialism. Materialism is no good as a life's philosophy. In the first place, most of us will not accumulate that many toys, and even those who do have to turn them all in at the cemetery gate. Being acquisitive is a poor substitute for a life with meaning. I suspect the widows who have been motivated to correct the political errors that led to the 9/11 attacks will have much more meaningful lives than Ann Coulter. Fifteen years from now, nobody will remember Coulter.
June 17, 2006 Charley Reese [send him mail] has been a journalist for 49 years. © 2006 by King Features Syndicate, Inc. Weekend Edition May 15 / 16, 2004 Taking a Closer Look at the Patriot Act Where Are You Heading, America?
The parallels with 1930s Germany are ominous . .
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