The Roadkill Prayer

For all animal lovers! Really! En route to work, a passing motorist holds a funeral for a squirrel hit by a car... the Roadkill Prayer.

So, I turned around and drove back. I parked. I got out and searched through the trunk, coming up with some cardboard and a plastic lid with which to move his body. As I moved toward his body, one squirrel was trying to move his body, little legs widespread, pushing the body toward the curb with great difficulty. I paused as a truck approached, put my hand up to indicate slow down, and waived the driver around. I turned back to the body. He, for he was clearly male, was dead. I was relieved for that much for his own sake and for mine, as I do not know what I would have done if he were still alive and suffering ever so slowly to death from crushed innards. His right-hand eye was popped clear out of its socket. His teeth were pushed clear forward nearly out of his mouth, blood beginning to dry on his lips. I stooped down and scooped his furry tan-and-black body onto the hard plastic lid using the piece of cardboard. I moved his body to the side of the road beneath a three evergreen trees.

I placed his body on the ground, resting his paws in his breast, and having no spade with which to dig, I did my best to cover his body with earth using the plastic lid which I’d used to move his body. And with one squirrel on the ground to my left observing, another nearby in a tree chattering, and the third to my right up another tree, I made the Sign of the Cross, paused with them for a moment of silence, and then raising my hands in the orans position, I chanted aloud a version of my “Roadkill Prayer”:

Blessed are you, O God of all creation, we give you thanks for the life of this squirrel, your creature. Now receive him into your eternal care where he might enjoy you forever according to his estate; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

I closed with the Sign of the Cross. Yes, it all felt a little silly at near 8:00 AM on a workday morn. A man was mowing his law across the street. What must he have thought as I stood there praying with three very twitchy squirrels momentarily still? Another Bay Area freak?

But the gesture was profoundly right. I was changed. It is as if scales began to fall from my eyes just a bit. Who pauses to mourn a squirrel? To think anew about how we drive without care of our surrounds and those who inhabit them with us? There are countless millions of these pesky rodents. Yet, this squirrel was a fellow creature, a unique creation of flesh and blood whom God declared “good, indeed, very good.”

With thanks to Episcopal Cafe. Cross posted at The Peace Tree.

Dutch MPs vote against staying in Afghanistan

Apparently, the Dutch parliament has outmanoeuvred the foreign minister in the center-right government. If only our warmongering US congressional representatives would do the same with Obama and his administration--and listen to the American people!

From DutchNews.nl:

MPs voted by a large majority to pull Dutch troops out of Afghanistan as planned in August 2010 during a debate on Tuesday night.

The motion, drawn up by Labour and ChristenUnie from the ruling coalition, was not supported by the biggest coalition party, the Christian Democrats.

Labour introduced the motion following hints from CDA foreign affairs minister Maxime Verhagen last week that the Netherlands may stay after the planned withdrawal date.

According to the Volkskrant, Verhagen is furious at his coalition partner parties' action. The US and Australia are keen to keep the Dutch involved in the southern province of Uruzgan and pressure is mounting on them to stay.

The Netherlands has some 1,500 soldiers on active service in the southern region of Uruzgan. In total 21 Dutch soldiers have been killed in the province since the mission began in 2006.

Guffaw of the Day

This morning, on exiting our Socialist City Market-our local co-op-I saw an advertisement posted on the foyer notice board:

LAUGHTER YOGA

"Gimmick Yoga," more like.

The plight of millions of unemployed and the folly of gifts to spenthrift banks

"The politicians and the media can be counted on running to protect the banks in their hour of need. While tens of millions of people losing their jobs or their homes is just an unfortunate aspect of the modern economy, the collapse of Citigroup, Goldman Sachs, or Bank of America is a tragedy that our elites just can't fathom.

So, be prepared to endure many more years of high unemployment, under-employment and declining real wages. Upwards of two million people are likely to lose their homes in 2010 and 2011. But the good news is that the economy is recovering and the banks are alright."

Vincent van Gogh Letters

At the Van Gogh Museum tomorrow, HM the Queen will open (Dutch) a special exhibit of over 900 letters written to and from the artist Vincent van Gogh.

The letters project is result of 15 years of research by the Museum and the Huygens Institute of the Royal Dutch Academy of Sciences. They tell the fascinating story of Vincent and the close bond with his brother and confidant, Theo. After October 8, the English translation of the letters will be available on-line.

Real News video - summary of this past week’s events in Honduras

From the Real News Network – as usual putting corporate media to shame on Honduras.

Last surviving member of the Warsaw Ghetto uprising has died

With thanks to RickB at Ten Percent.

Tributes have flowed for Marek Edelman, the last surviving leader of the 1943 Warsaw Jewish Ghetto uprising, who died on Friday aged 87. The revolt broke out in protest at the mass transportation by the Nazis of Jews from the ghetto to concentration camps. With about 60,000 people still in the ghetto’s walls, young Jewish fighters battled for nearly a month against German troops.

Mr Edelman, then aged 23, took command of the struggle after the deaths of other leaders and fought until the end when the Nazis brutally finished off the uprising by razing the ghetto. Mr Edelman escaped through the sewers and participated the following year in the city-wide Warsaw Uprising, which also ended in tragedy when Stalin banned the advancing Soviet armies from aiding the Poles.

“He reached a good age. He left as a contented man even if he was always aware of the tragedy he went through,” said Wlady slaw Bartoszewski, a former Polish foreign minister. “I don’t want to say he was irreplaceable. Nobody is. But there are few people like Marek Edelman.”

Mr Edelman was born in the Soviet city of Gomel before moving to Warsaw in the late 1920s. His parents both died when he was young and he was left to make his own way. When the war started, he co-founded the Jewish Combat Organisation and became its last leader in the ghetto uprising.

Later, Mr Edelman told a biographer: “Humanity has decided that it is more beautiful to die with a gun in your hand than without. So, we went along with this decision.”

After the war, most of Poland’s surviving Jews emigrated to the new state of Israel. But Mr Edelman stayed behind and became a leading cardiologist. He refused to leave even during the Communist party’s 1968 anti-Semitic purge when he temporarily lost his job. To the annoyance of many Zionists, he remained to the end a faithful Jew and a Polish patriot.

From the 1970s, Mr Edelman supported the growing anti-communist protests in Poland and later become a staunch backer of the Solidarity movement. After the fall of communism, he became a revered figure – an icon of Poland’s Jewish heritage and of the country’s repeated struggles for freedom.

World Animal Day

Today is World Animal Day and Animal Welfare Sunday.

Some liturgical churches also celebrate October 4th as the Feast of St Francis of Assisi with blessings of animals. Writing in the Church Times from the UK, Revd Professor Andrew Linzey, Director of the Oxford Centre for Animal Ethics:

The Church of England has spent decades in liturgical renewal, but does not offer even one prayer for animal welfare. We pray as if God were uninterested in the millions of other species. There is, of course, plenty of sensitivity for the misnamed “our environment”, but when it comes to confronting our responsibilities to individual crea­tures, official publications fall silent.

A classic example was when the Church of England published prayers this summer for those suffer­ing from swine flu. Here was an opportunity to also remember the thousands of pigs suffering appalling conditions, since their maltreatment was one of the causal links to the disease from which human beings now suffer. In the words of one scientist at the United States Food and Drug Ad­min­istration, “high-density inten­sive animal operations” are “hotbeds for pathogens”.

Some note of penitence that our gastronomic greed might have helped land us in the mess in the first place would have been wholesome. More....

Thanks to Episcopal Cafe's Speaking to the Soul offering a perfect reading meditation for today from Ask the Animals: Spiritual Wisdom from All God’s Creatures by Elizabeth Canham

The Hebrew Scriptures offer many poetic images of creation and the Creator’s purpose and joy in all that comes to be. As each new phase of creation unfolds, God proclaims, “It is good.” And when humanity arrives on the scene, the Creator entrusts the care of all that has been made into our hands.

Animals especially invite our attention and honor because their essential nature is mostly devoid of the kind of pretense we have learned to practice in cultural and religious life. If they are angry, they express anger; when joy fills them, they live their joy; and when danger approaches, they recognize it for what it is and take action. Animals express deep care for their young, know how to find and enjoy food, accept their limitations, and live in harmony with the rhythms of day and night, times and seasons.

My love for animals was a gift from my mother, who tenderly lifted earthworms from harm’s way, though she feared their wriggling bodies. This love that my mother taught me was kept underground for many years as I defended an infallible Bible and the Sovereign God who authored it. My spiritual journey has led me away from this early, rigid approach to Scripture, but my joy in the sacred text increased as I learned to allow the various writers to inhabit their own time and culture. With this fresh understanding of Scripture, I also learned to read from God’s “other book”—creation. I now understand how St. Anthony could point to the rugged mountains surrounding his cave-dwelling and answer a philosopher who asked how he would pray without a copy of the Scriptures, “Creation will be my book.”

In the last few years, animals have increasingly arrested my attention and taught me more about the Creator. When I have preached or offered retreats, I have felt compelled to share stories of animal encounters to illuminate Scripture. Many I speak with have a tenuous relationship with organized religion, often because they have felt abused by a church that used the Bible moralistically and denied the value of personal experience and questions. They have turned to God’s other book, preferring time in the midst of creation to pew-bound Sunday mornings. Others who have remained in the church ask why we have often been so self-focused that we have failed to recall and receive the wisdom of the whole created order. Both groups know that each of us, through animal encounters, may deepen our relationship with the Source of all Being. “God saw everything that he had made, and indeed, it was very good.”

Anne Frank on YouTube

A first...A 13 year old Anne Frank is filmed, seen leaning over her balcony in Merwedeplein in July, 1941 to get a good look of the bride-to-be next door.



Many thanks to RickB, who writes

[I]t’s very effective, ties her into the here and now which will hopefully help keep the message alive, the lesson of the Holocaust is that this must never happen again to anyone.

The Anne Frank House has also established a YouTube channel.

[It} shows existing and new images about Anne Frank, including excerpts from interviews with Otto Frank and witnesses like Miep Gies, as well as previews of the virtual museum of the Anne Frank House, soon to be opened to the public. With this Anne Frank Channel, people around the world will be able to explore the life and significance of Anne Frank through unique images. Would you like to stay up to date? Subscribe to this channel.

Dutch F-16 attack on Afghan civilians

While plans are being made for the presence of Dutch military forces to be removed from Afghanistan next year, Radio Netherlands reports today that a Dutch F-16 jet has killed Afghan civilians during a strike against the Taliban. Typical of Western military reactions to these kinds of killings, the Dutch commander in that country has blamed the Taliban, regretted the civilian deaths and has called for a thorough investigation. We'll see about that.

Challenging US officialdom

With all the sabre rattling and threats from our government towards Iran, the MSM journalists aren't doing their job, so leave it to Juan Cole to provide us with "Top Things You Think You Know About Iran That Are Not True." Go:read, s.v.p.

Vermont Labor News: Workers get entitled back pay

Burlington Free Press reports today that 272 Vermont-based immigration workers will get $1.5M in back pay. They were misclassified & not paid proper prevailing wage they were legally entitled to receive.

UPDATED - The Professor as Entrepreneur: Chief virologist in Holland under fire over drugs firm link

UPDATE BELOW

I am not sure which is wackier, the disaster politics of the H1N1 vaccine or ethics standards at Erasmus University Medical Center, a teaching hospital in Rotterdam. Ab Osterhaus, chief virologist at Erasmus, has advised the the Dutch government and international agencies (WHO, for one) on approaches to fighting the flu pandemic and has even recommended that the government purchase flu vaccines. DutchNews.nl reports he works part time for—and has a 10 percent share in—the university-owned ViroClinics which is researching a flu vaccine.

Anton Westerlaken, chairman of Erasmus MC, told the Telegraaf professors have to become a shareholder in any company set up under university auspices to exploit a patent. Any profits are divided 80% to the university and 20% to the professors involved, he said.

Osterhaus told the paper he had done nothing wrong. 'I have always said I am involved in that company and shares are all in the game,' he said.

Earlier this year Osterhaus denied having shares in the companies making vaccines.

Of course, as a powerful institution clearly worried about its reputation, Erasmus has covered its ass today with a perfunctory statement (Dutch) stating that there is no conflict of interest. But it owes the public a thorough explanation of how and why Professor Osterhaus' initially lying about his connection to profit-making companies did not violate medical center ethical guidelines. Was Erasmus aware of that? If so, why didn't they do something about it?

Cross posted at Antemedius and The Poetry Tree.

UPDATE

This story is becoming worthy of a Molière farce. Professor Osterhaus' interests and influence are a tangled web indeed. Erasmus MC may want to revise its statement. DutchNews.nl cites reports today in Financieele Dagblad that he

is also chairman of Belgian foundation ESWI which promotes the use of vaccines and is sponsored by the global vaccine industry, the paper says.

GlaxoSmithKline and Novartis, the two companies which are supplying the Dutch government with 34 million swine flu doses on Osterhaus' recommendations, are both among the sponors, the paper says.

In addition, Osterhaus is an advisor at Britain's Jenner Institute which develops animal vaccines and has close industry ties.

Good on the FD's investigative journalism! So, Erasmus gave Osterhaus a pass and a nod. How many members of the hospital's ethics board are linked to BigPharma?

Well, kiss my wooden shoes

DutchNews.nl

Religious schools can ban gay teachers

Tuesday 29 September 2009

Religious schools will be able to continue refusing to employ homosexual teachers, despite home affairs ministry plans to amend discrimination laws, it emerged on Tuesday.

The government is to scrap a clause which bans discrimination against people simply on the grounds of sex, race, sexual orientation or nationality because it is 'confusing', home affairs minister Guusje ter Horst told MPs on Tuesday.

And schools will still be able to refuse to employ gay teachers who practise homosexuality because it conflicts with their religious beliefs.

The change in the law maintains the balance between anti-discrimination laws and freedom of education and religion, the minister said.

Fundamentalist Christian

The Netherlands has dozens of fundamentalist Christian schools which oppose homosexuality on Biblical principles. While funded by the government, they are run independently. Such schools may not discriminate but are free under European rules to determine their own 'professional demands' for teachers, the paper says.

In May a strict Protestant primary school in Gelderland suspended a teacher because he was gay and lived with another man. That case is being taken to the equal opportunities commission.

Gay rights groups said they are very disappointed at the decision. There is a real chance that certain schools will feel their anti-gay stand is now legitimate, Wouter Neerings, of the COC lobby group told Nos tv.

MPs are due to debate the issue on Wednesday.

New England: Brides' march against domestic violence

From Lawrence, MA, the North Andover Eagle Tribune reports,

Women dressed in bridal gowns, and men, many clad in black, walked from
114 Plaza to Campagnone Common on Saturday to mourn victims of domestic
violence. The 150 walkers in the seventh annual Brides' March were
joined by Miss Massachusetts 2009, Amanda Kelly.

Candles were lit as the names of victims of domestic violence were read. [...]
The ceremony concluded the walk, which is held annually in memory of Gladys Ricart, a Dominican immigrant, who was murdered on her wedding day by her estranged boyfriend 10 years ago in New Jersey. ... more

H/T to Episcopal Cafe's The Lead.

Local: ReCycle North is ReBranded

Call it reBranding for a reLaunch: Burlington's famous ReCycle North on Pine Street has seen its mission expand in the eighteen years since it was founded - and as the economy has worsened. As of today, it's now officially called ReSOURCE with the help of a local marketing firm with a mouthful of a name, Brandthropology. There are two other similarly focused organisations using the same name in Colorado and Minnesota. From today's BFP:

“It became more and more apparent that so much of what we do and who we are is misunderstood. In some ways our name had become a hindrance.” [says exec director Tom Longsreath]

To remedy the situation, ReSOURCE spells it out with five sub-brands:

• ReSTORE — the retail operation in Burlington, and more recently, the Barre branch — where people can find deals on everything from washing machines and furniture to paperbacks;

• ReBUILD — incorporating the recycled building supply depot at 339 Pine St., as well as a deconstruction/salvage service and Waste-Not-Products — all three of which highlight creative re-use of cast-offs;

• ReTRAIN — a job training program that teaches skills through YouthBuild, internships and on-the-job experience;

• RePAIR — a certified appliance and computer repair service; and

• ReLIEF — which provides necessities for needy residents through voucher-for-merchandise agreements with local and regional service providers.

Ongoing: The Siege of Tegucigalpa

The situation in Honduras is getting worse indeed. Why doesn't our Dear Leader speak out?

From The Real News Network



My friend RickB at Ten Percent updates for us:

As the Peruvian government threaten to sue Narcosphere for reporting what appear to be Peruvian police munitions used by the Honduran coup regime more detail of the weapons being deployed against the Brazilian embassy (and for that matter G20 protesters in Pittsburgh) even after the UN condemned them-

Narco News and its team of technical engineers and counter-surveillance consultants has identified the apparatus as the LRAD-X Remote Long Range Acoustic Device, manufactured by the American Technologies Corporation.

The coup regime held a “cadena nacional” (mandatory broadcast on all radio, TV and cable channels) this afternoon to deny having engaged in any chemical warfare and to say it would allow the international Red Cross and Dr. Andres Pavon, a human rights leader, into the embassy to check the health of those inside. A group of doctors, including Pavon, just emerged from the examinations and reported the following:
That the symptoms were definitely caused by some kind of “contaminant.” Upon review of the photos of the unidentified device in the final photograph above, Pavon concludes that it is a humidifier and that the plastic bag contained some kind of liquid to put where water usually goes, and that it was the likely cause of the contamination of the embassy. It was not concluded whether the contaminant weapon was chemical or biological.
The doctors also confirmed, for Radio Globo, that UN officials had entered the Embassy with them to participate in the investigation.
The coup regime has just called a military curfew for most of the country’s population from 8 p.m. to 5 a.m. tonight.... more

Flu Nightmare: Officials ponder extreme triage measures UPDATED

UPDATE BELOW

Thanks to Edger at Antimedius for bringing this news to our attention. (Today's post can also be read at The Peace Tree.)

Sheri Fink recently wrote an in-depth article about post-Katrina deaths at Memorial Medical Center. Now she - pardon the pun - ventilates proposed shocking plans in ProPublica, September 23, 2009 (view source). Oh my, talk about government death panels... during a severe flu pandemic, a family's advance directive plans ensuring their loved ones' end of life and other critical healthcare decisions will not be honored [my emphasis in bold]:

With scant public input, state and federal officials are pushing ahead with plans that -- during a severe flu outbreak -- would deny use of scarce ventilators by some patients to assure they would be available for patients judged to benefit the most from them.

The plans have been drawn up to give doctors specific guidelines for extreme circumstances, and they include procedures under which patients who weren’t improving would be removed from life support with or without permission of their families.

The plans … more…

UPDATE

This morning I spoke with a person in the Advance Directives section at the Vermont Department of Health. Here's the current Vermont Statute about them. She was unaware of this story and was understandably perplexed by it (I sent her the link.) She promised to get back to me about the VT DoH's stance. Developing...

Right before Yom Kippur, too

A mitzvah this ain't. From Politico -

A White House official told Jewish leaders on a conference call today that the U.S. will use its veto in the U.N. Security Council, if necessary, to block the international body from acting on a report accusing Israel of war crimes in Gaza, according to two people on the call.

[Jay V edit: it's the 575-page Goldstone report by a fact-finding mission organised by the Geneva-based UN Human Rights Council.]

The National Security Council's Dan Shapiro said President Obama assured the Israeli Prime Minister yesterday of the U.S stand on the Goldstone Report to the U.N. Human Rights Council, which has been a source of major concern for the Israelis. Shapiro said the U.S. agrees with the Israeli view that the report is one-sided, and would block a referral to the International Criminal Court.

The U.S. pledge comes as the Israeli side was already declaring victory in avoiding a total freeze on settlements, and it's likely to further alienate Palestinian leaders whom the U.S. is simultaneously trying to lure to the negotiating table.

The JTA, which broke the news, has more background on the subject.

Cross posted at Antimedius and The Peace Tree.

Obama's Wars: It's shades of Vietnam as U.S. commanders beg for more troops to fight in Afghanistan

Cross posted at The Peace Tree.

Four quotes from an article by Eric Margolis in the Toronto Sun show how Americans don't know their history of failed imperialism when they plan their wars of occupation.

'Each time the U.S. sent more troops and bombed more villages, Afghan resistance sharply intensified and Taliban expanded its control, today over 55% of the country.'
[...]
'Any student of Imperialism 101 knows that after invading a resource-rich or strategic nation you immediately put a local stooge in power, use disaffected minorities to run the government (divide and conquer), and build a native mercenary army.'
[...]
'Such troops, commanded by white officers, were called "sepoys" in the British Indian Army and "askaris" in British East Africa.'
[...]
'The American command, deprived of men and resources by the Bush administration, only managed to cobble together an armed rabble of 80,000 Afghans. The Afghan army, like the post-Saddam Iraqi army, is led by white officers -- in this case, Americans designated "trainers" or "advisers."

'Afghanistan keeps giving me deja vu back to the old British Empire, and flashbacks to those wonderful epic films of the Raj, Drums, Lives of a Bengal Lancer, and Kim. The British imperialists did it much, much better, and with a lot more style. Many of their imperial subjects even admired and liked them.'

Kissing Ass: Vermont's Faux Alternative News

Good analysis from my friend Michael Colby. If only Seven Days - Vermont's faux-alternative news rag - had writers like Mr Colby to keep our Vermont politicians honest.

Willy Ronis: Un photographe exceptionnel

In the mid-1990s I spent several weeks in Paris and made a point of walking the neighbourhoods, especially the area around Belleville-Ménilmontant - on the eastern slopes of the city. Willy Ronis photographed the people who lived in this area. (The neighbourhood was working class and still inhabited by Cambodians and Vietnamese and other ethnic groups from former French colonies in the 1990s, but already high rise flats were quickly changing the atmosphere; now it's full of trendy bars and student hang-outs.) Mr. Ronis died on September 12. Serge Bavard (sergelebombe on YouTube) has made a lovely hommage - an Internet retrospective with many photographs:



Thanks to Christophe Renoux for featuring an interview (French) with the photographer on his blog. (Also, a remembrance here.)

Willy Ronis
by raph66

We don't live in a post-racist society

Gosh, with Obama's election almost a year ago, after his election, people were saying that we now live in a post-racist society. But with the Limbaughs, Roves, Becks, fuckin' teabaggers et al.

and this most recent (diversionary) attack on Acorn

(and not to mention ...Vermont's oh so wonderful -- according to Seven Days -- Rep. Peter Welch doing the Racist Republicans bidding in voting against funding of that agency)...

just watch today's DN! interview with Bertha Lewis, the CEO of Acorn

and say it ain't so.

Your Tax Dollars at Work

Broadcasting & Cable:-

The FCC has reasserted its power to regulate fleeting nudity and says it wants to further investigate "whether CBS' indecency violation [in the Janet Jackson/Justin Timberlake Super Bowl reveal] was willful."

"The evidence in this case strongly suggests that CBS had access to video delay technology at the time of the 2004 Super Bowl," the commission said Tuesday in a brief to the Third Circuit Appeals Court in the Janet Jackson Super Bowl reveal case. The FCC asked the court to remand the decision back to the FCC so it could investigate further its assertion that the violation was "willful."

The Third Circuit, in reversing the FCC's fine against the broadcast, said the evidence that delay technology was available at the time was "scant." The FCC disagrees and wants the chance to determine "whether CBS was reckless not to use video delay technology for this broadcast."

R.I.P. Mary Travers

Well, what a bummer at finding out today that Mary Travers has died. PP&M--my absolute favorite group in High School--saw them almost every time they came to Houston when they got back together. Definitely the end of an era.

"Let's not let volume beat reason."

Yes, it's a a fine line that separates madness from sanity, and these people have clearly gone over into a retrograde nihilism. Here's a brilliant new video production of disturbing interviews at the clam bake last Saturday in DC.



I hope we'll see more from this NewLeftMedia.

Father Roy Bourgeois in Burlington, Thursday, September 17th

Father Roy Bourgeois, Founder of the School of the Americas Watch, will speak on Thursday September 17, 7pm
First Unitarian Universalist Society at the top of Church St.

In 1990, Fr. Roy founded the School of the Americas Watch,
an office that does research on the US Army School of the Americas (SOA), now renamed the Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation or WHINSEC, at Fort Benning, Georgia. Each year the school trains hundred of soldiers from Latin America in combat skills - all paid for by U.S. by US taxpayers.

Admission is FREE.

Obama's Wars: Victims' families tell their stories following Nato airstrike in Afghanistan

As far as I know this has not been reported in US media. 'I took some flesh home and called it my son.' The Guardian interviews 11 villagers

'"We didn't recognise any of the dead when we arrived," said Omar Khan, the turbaned village chief of Eissa Khail. "It was like a chemical bomb had gone off, everything was burned. The bo...dies were like this," he brought his two hands together, his fingers curling like claws. "There were like burned tree logs, like charcoal."'

'"A man comes and says, 'I lost my brother and cousin', so we gave him two bodies," said Omar Khan. "Another says I lost five relatives, so we gave him five bodies to take home and bury. When we had run out of bodies we started giving them limbs, legs, arms, torsos." In the end only five families went away without anything. "Their sons are still missing."'

"Mr Public Option Now" is cool in the furnace

The man was at an anti-health care reform rally in DC on Saturday and required police protection.



H/T to FDL

The Big Fool says to push on with "overseas contingency operations"

As we celebrate Perpetual War Day, I am reminded of this song sung by Pete Seeger.



Cross posted at The Peace Tree.

Episcopal Bishop Gene Robinson on Democracy Now!

"The fact of the matter is, we all know that we have faithful Christian gay and lesbian people in all of our denominations, no matter where they stand on this issue. The question is, are we going to affirm them the way that I believe God affirms them, affirms us? And I believe the Episcopal Church has stated quite clearly, yes, we are. And I think other denominations are looking to see, you know, are we going to come apart over this issue? No, we’re not going to come apart. Are we going to be stronger because of it? Yes, we are. And I believe you’ll see other denominations, just as we saw the Lutherans do a few weeks after our convention, following suit." - ++ V. Gene Robinson, Bishop of New Hampshire on Democracy Now! (September 8, 2009)

Amsterdam versus O’Reilly 2

Here's another video - take 2 - from the two guys from Amsterdam. Robbert and Elian have started a site, The Truth about Amsterdam. I've added their blog to the list in the sidebar.

Self-serving PR Stunts

So much for respecting the dignity of every living thing. Hypocrites among us: the mysogynists at People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals have given Price Chopper a"Compassionate Action Award" for removing its sponsorship of a lion and tiger act at the Champlain Valley Fair.

"Drinking vodka out of each others butts"

Sounds like an ad on craigslist. But it's another kind casual encounter, as Rachel Maddow reports, funded by our taxes.



Also from Democracy Now! today:

Danielle Brian: “This involves supervisors, it’s not just a bunch of guys who are blowing off steam. It’s supervisors who are really sort of predatory, who are engaging young recruits into this really weird, deviant behavior. And if they refuse or complain about later, they’re retaliating against them. So it’s way more than just a party.”

Wednesday Music: Quick Tempo for Marriage Equality!

Yes, it's been quite a week in Vermont. And the celebration continues with this by Saint-Saens: "Wedding Cake," played by Daniel Chorzempa with Edo de Waart conducting the Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra. I love this piece. It's usually played in about eight minutes; Chorzempa whips through it in just under six minutes.

Vermont: Happy Marriage Equality Day

In honour of today, here's State Rep. Jason Lorber's speech to the VT Statehouse on same sex marriage.

Vermont: Solidarity in the Face of Hate Speech

Convened by members of local religious congregations, there will be a Community Meeting of Solidarity in the Face of Hate Speech Monday, August 31st, 2009, 7:30 pm, at the First Congregational Church in Burlington. On the eve of the implementation of Vermont's marriage equity law, this will be an opportunity for Vermonters to share in reflective and prayerful affirmation of human equality and free and fair speech. For more information, please contact Rabbi Joshua Chasan, rabbijoshua@ohavizedek.com, 864-0218.

Houston, we have a problem

DutchNews.nl

A lump of rock from moon given to prime minister Willem Drees by the US ambassador in 1969 is actually a piece of petrified wood, the Parool reports on Monday.

The piece of rock, which was kept on the prime minister's desk and later donated to the Rijksmuseum, was given to the Netherlands by ambassador J. William Middendorf II to commemorate the first moon landing, the paper says.

But Rijksmuseum scientists say the rock is simply fossilised wood. And, the museum's Xandra van Gelder points out, the accompanying document did not state it was moon rock, but simply 'to commemorate' the landing.

The Parool says a space expert had already pointed out that the stone could not be real during an exhibition in 2006. 'Neil Armstrong was only on the moon for 30 minutes and gathered up a few moon rocks which are all now with Nasa,' he was quoted as saying at the time.

The paper says the US ambassador does not remember anything about the rock apart from that it had been given to him by the state department and that Drees was extremely pleased with it.

Van Gelder says the rock will remain in the museum's collection but its value has been revised down from €50,000 to a few euros.

Dumbed Down Democracy at its Worst

Grandmère Mimi has written about a health care town hall meeting in Louisiana hosted by Sen. Mary Landrieu. Lord have mercy! It's a lengthy post. She's a brave soul. Here's the gist of her afternoon experience:

I asked her if she thought health care was a moral issue, and she told me that she did and that her husband made quite a lot of money and why should her tax money go to pay for the health care of others, including deadbeats? That was the moral of her story. I tried to explain about what insurance was for, that it was about spreading cost and risk, but that got nowhere. She continued to get angrier and angrier and more and more in my face, until she was screaming and waving her sign so close that I thought she would hit me.

Chomsky meets Chavez

Mérida, August 27th 2009 (Venezuelanalysis.com) -- 'U.S. author, dissident intellectual, and Professor of Linguistics at the Massachussetts Institute of Technology Noam Chomsky met for the first time with Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez in Caracas and analyzed hemispheric politics during a nationally televised forum on Monday'.... more

The Allure of Top Gun Video games as Anodyne

David Sirota in Common Dreams:-

"New polls show the country strongly opposes the Afghanistan and Iraq wars - but military officials want to preserve the possibility of an escalation in Afghanistan and a permanent deployment in Iraq. So the Pentagon is ...seeking an opiate to placate the war-averse populace. What better anodyne than a marketing campaign implying wars are fun video games?"
---
"While sanitizing ads play to the country's growing disgust with militarism, they could ultimately lead us to be more supportive of militarism. How? By convincing us that violence can be just another innocuous expression of adolescent technophilia.

If we end up thinking that, we will have once again forgotten what all wars, even the justifiable ones, always are: lamentable human tragedies."

Related, Thom Engelhardt on the G.I. Joe phenomenon:

Nobody's mentioned it, but the most impressive thing about the new movie, G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra, comes last -- the eight minutes or so of credits which make it clear that, to produce a twenty-first century shoot-em-up, you need to mobilize a veritable army of experts. There may be more "compositors" than actors and more movie units (Prague Unit, Prague Second Unit, Paris Unit) than units of Joes.

As the movie theater empties, those credits still scroll inexorably onward, like a beachhead in eternity, the very eternity in American cultural life that G.I. Joe already seems to inhabit. The credits do, of course, finally end -- and on a note of gratitude that, almost uniquely in the film, evokes an actual history. "The producers also wish to thank the following," it says, and the list that follows is headed by the Department of Defense, which has been "advising" Hollywood on how to make war movies -- with generous loans of equipment, troops, consultants, and weaponry in return for script "supervision" -- since the silent era.

Laura Dekker's solo voyage around the world is on hold

NRC/international

The Utrecht district court On Friday put 13-year-old Laura Dekker under the supervision of a youth welfare organisation, but it stopped short of divesting parental authority.

With the support of her parents, Laura wants to sail around the world solo for the next two years and become the youngest person ever to do so. But the Child Protection Authority filed for custody over Laura in order to stop her.

Laura's lawyer Peter de Lange has advised her to stay ashore for now, and cooperate with the two-month investigation the juvenile court has ordered.

Laura herself was not present at the court in Utrecht. "Because of the media madness. You can't do that to a young girl," De Lange said.

Dozens of reporters, photographers and camera crews from the Netherlands and abroad showed up at the ruling. Laura's father and caretaker Dick Dekker attended, but he let his lawyer do the talking.

The court said a solo sailing voyage around the world deviates so far from what is normal for a 13-year-old girl that it could be a severe threat to her development. It also voiced doubts that she will be able to sustain the extreme conditions on the oceans.

However, it also said that "parents have a large degree of freedom when it comes to raising and looking after their children. Only in exceptional situations is the government allowed to intervene."

The court ruled this is not a case of "gross neglect" and chose not to divest parental authority. "The way Laura's father raises her has been the topic of intense public debate, but that doesn't make him a bad father," the court said.

Laura lives on a boat with her father. Her parents are separated and her mother and younger sister Kim live in another part of the Netherlands. The mother has chosen to stay out of the picture, but she did give a statement before the court explaining she considered the plan "scary", but doesn't want to stand in her daughter's way.

For the next two months her parents' authority will be limited by the provisional supervision of a youth welfare organisation. A guardian will be appointed to make all the important decisions for the girl, such as matters of schooling, heath and - of course - traveling around the world on a boat.

The Child Protection Authority will investigate Laura over the next two months and the court has assigned her an independent child psychologist who will investigate whether the teenager can deal with the psychological pressure and if she would be able to educate herself on board.

Laura's case was brought to public attention by a school official who observed that Laura would be missing school for two years. All Dutch children are obliged by law to attend school until they are 16 years of age. Their parents are required to ensure they are enrolled in school and actually attend classes.

Based on the results of the investigation, the court will rule again in October. It is then up to the CPA to demonstrate why it believes Laura should not be allowed to make the journey.

Laura initially planned to leave the Netherlands around September 1 in order to break the world-record set by 17-year-old Mike Perham, who completed his trip on Thursday.

Dekker and her father had also said they would deregister her from the Netherlands to circumvent the Dutch authorities, but officials in New Zealand - of which she is also a citizen - have said they too would try to stop her.

Her lawyer said she now plans to depart from Portugal if the supervision is terminated in two months, in order to avoid the heavy storms in the Bay of Biscay during the fall.

"If Laura ends up winning this case, she can be an example to all young athletes," De Lange said.

UPDATED: Well, Kiss my Royal Wooden Shoes!

UPDATED (Update below)

NRC/international

Pictures of the Dutch crown prince Willem-Alexander and his family on vacation in Argentina can no longer be distributed by the Associated Press, the Amsterdam district court ruled on Friday.

The US press agency last month released four shots of Willem-Alexander, princess Maximá and one of their three daughters while they were on a ski vacation in Argentina. The court ruled this has put "an unacceptable pressure" on their family life.

"They should not have to constantly be prepared that private photographs will be offered to media," the court ruled. Only if the images have news value or contribute to the public debate about a social topic, can an exception be made, it said.

AP had argued that it should be able to distribute photos of a public figure made in a public place, claiming the images were taken from a "respectful" distance" and outside the Netherlands.

Dutch media have agreed to a so-called media code, which says that only pictures of Willem-Alexander and Maximá taken while they are "in function" may be published. In exchange, the royals regularly pose for pre-arranged "photo ops".

Several Dutch newspapers published the AP photos. Dutch public broadcaster NOS said it only showed the pictures after they had become a topic of public debate in their own right.

UPDATE:

From CBS News, Associated Press filed report. AP statement embedded in the report:

The AP expressed disappointment and said it would "review this ruling with its counsel and evaluate appropriate next steps."
---
In its response, the AP said it believed the decision "failed to give due weight to the importance of freedom of information in a democratic society, particularly with respect to the public actions of public officials and public figures."

In a statement from its New York headquarters, AP said the ruling "would have the unfortunate effect of unduly restraining the exercise of freedom of information globally, and seeks to create a real risk that the public might be kept in the dark in relation to activities about which it has a right to know.

"The decision also seeks to impose an undue and unprecedented burden on a global news operation like the Associated Press and fails to recognize that individual publishers make the actual and final determination whether publication of particular information is justified within any given jurisdiction," it said.

Democracy Now! 'Pentagon Hires Rendon Group to Profile and Rate Journalists Covering Afghanistan War'

Democracy Now! has the story with video:

The US Army in Afghanistan has admitted it pays a private company to produce background profiles on journalists covering the war. The Pentagon has been on the defensive ever since the Army newspaper Stars and Stripes revealed this week that journalists were being screened by the Washington-based public relations firm, the Rendon Group, under a $1.5 million contract with the military. Documents obtained by the paper reveal journalists were evaluated with pie charts breaking down their coverage into percentages of “positive,” “neutral” or “negative.”

Stars and Stripes 08/27/09: 'Files prove Pentagon is profiling reporters' and updated in the same paper 08/28/09: 'Pentagon: Reporter profiling under review'

Klein disowns Winterbottom adaptation of 'Shock Doctrine'

FROM THE INDEPENDENT

Neither is afraid of controversy. So when the filmmaker Michael Winterbottom was picked to direct a storming screen adaptation of Naomi Klein's book The Shock Doctrine, which takes a hatchet to free market capitalism, Ms Klein heartily approved.

But Winterbottom's work, which is to be broadcast on Channel 4 on 1 September, has led to such insurmountable creative tensions that Klein, who originally came on board to narrate the film and act as a consultant, does not appear in the credits as a writer or consultant, or act as its narrator.

Klein, who is believed to have wanted more interviews and have less narration in the film, was not present at its premiere at the Berlin Film Festival earlier this year and does not mention the film on her website. She conceded yesterday that there had been major differences in opinion as the project developed. "I can confirm that the original idea was for me to write and narrate the film," she told The Independent. "For that to have worked out, however, there would have needed to be complete agreement between the directors and myself about the content, tone and structure of the film.

"As often happens, we had different ideas about how to tell this story and build the argument. This is Michael's adaptation of my book, and I didn't want there to be any confusion about that. I wish the film success."

Johann Hari in the same newspaper writes 'Klein's account of this "disaster capitalism" is written with a perfectly distilled anger, channelled through hard fact. So what happened to the film? Winterbottom serves up a cold porridge of archive footage and soundbites that have some vague link to the book, without the connecting spine of Klein's explanations. It is as though an idiot has explained the book to another idiot, who then made a film.'

New in town

Just added to the side-bar is a new local - Burlington - blog, Suburban Empire, written by luke. Good snark, well-researched, too. I like its first post about security alarm rip-offs. Go:read.

Scientists uncover new ocean threat from plastics

THE INDEPENDENT:- Scientists have identified a new source of chemical pollution released by the huge amounts of plastic rubbish found floating in the oceans of the world. A study has found that as plastics break down in the sea they release potentially toxic substances not found in nature and which could affect the growth and development of marine organisms.

Until now it was thought that plastic rubbish is relatively stable chemically and, apart from being unsightly, its principle threat to living creatures came from its ability to choke or strangle any animals that either got caught in it or ingested it thinking it was food.

But the latest research suggests that plastic is also a source of dissolved substances that can easily become widely dispersed in the marine environment. Many of these chemicals are believed to toxic to humans and animals, the scientists said.

The last of the progressives

Dennis Perrin lays it out.

You can say a lot of negative things about Ted Kennedy that were true, but the man was as much of a progressive force as this rotten system allows. With his wealth, Kennedy could've easily been a Republican and pushed for more perks for the rich. Instead, he championed the powerless and left behind. Maybe he was sincere. Maybe not. But to me, Ted Kennedy was one of the few politicians who genuinely lifted my spirits, and dare I say it, hopes. Another part of my youth has died. RIP Senator Kennedy.

Connections Count in Obamaland

According to the website of the Dutch Royal House (Dutch), U.S Ambassador to The Netherlands, Fay Hartog-Levin, has presented her credentials to the queen today. NRC/international reports today that Ms. Hartog-Levin has traveled a very interesting road indeed. She has Dutch roots.

Hartog-Levin's parents were Dutch Jews who lived in The Hague and owned a meat-processing factory in Oss. When World War II broke out, they fled to Suriname, then a Dutch colony, where her father served in the Dutch army. In 1948 the family emigrated to the US, where daughter Fay was born shortly afterwards.

Those Dutch family roots notwithstanding, the newspaper highlights her connections to the Chicago elite and US pols.

She became acquainted with Obama through her membership on the board of Chicago's Field Museum of Natural History.

She is also connected to the president through her husband, Daniel Levin, who founded a real estate firm, The Habitat Company. Habitat's CEO until recently was Valerie Jarrett, a good friend of the Obamas and currently a senior adviser to the president for public engagement and intergovernmental affairs. Jarrett was also on Obama's transition team.

Levin, who is a cousin to both senator Carl Levin and congressman Sandy Levin, was also on the board of the Chicago sports club where president Obama often worked out and played basket-ball. The Hartog-Levins were contributors to Barack Obama's campaigns for both the US senate and the presidency.

Not surprising at all, Hartog-Levin's new position is typical of US ambassadorial appointments. Even Obamafreaks who rallied for his message of change will find that money trumps merit.

From the sidebar in the NRC report, a list of previous ambassadors to The Netherlands:

All the president's men and women

Most US ambassadors to the Netherlands have come from a business background and were involved in fundraising for their respective presidents' election campaigns.

Fay Hartog-Levin replaces James B. Culbertson as US ambassador. Culbertson was only in office for six months; he replaced his predecessor Roland Arnall who suddenly died in March last year. Arnall left the Netherlands after two years just weeks before his own death because his son had taken seriously ill. Arnall was controversial because his company, Ameriquest, was the market leader in the high-risk subprime mortgages which led to the current economic crisis.

Arnall's predecessor Clifford Sobel was a donor to former president George W. Bush's campaign.

The last female US ambassador to the Netherlands was Cynthia Schneider (1998-2001), an art historian specialised in Rembrandt, and a personal friend and fundraiser to president Bill Clinton.

Cross posted at Antemedius and The Peace Tree.

No Give, No Take and No Cigar

Why the fuck did this guy even want to be President?

Privately, White House aides have communicated to the House leadership that the onus on changing minds about the public plan is on Congress, not on the president.
...
The president continues to operate under the belief that liberals will warm to the bill when presented with a goodybag that includes includes an individual mandate, community rating, guaranteed issue, and a minimum required package. There's no chance, really, that a bill WON'T feature these reforms. Quietly, to secure and keep Democrats on board, the White House is going to bargain, providing inducements, like more money for favored projects, etc., in order to secure individual votes.

Ironic Quote of the Day

In an article in yesterday's New York Times, Republican senator Chuck Grassley wants to prohibit medical ghostwriting and force changes in corporate pharmaceutical companies’ involvement with research papers.

A growing body of evidence suggests that doctors at some of the nation’s top medical schools have been attaching their names and lending their reputations to scientific papers that were drafted by ghostwriters working for drug companies — articles that were carefully calibrated to help the manufacturers sell more products.

Experts in medical ethics condemn this practice as a breach of the public trust. Yet many universities have been slow to recognize the extent of the problem, to adopt new ethical rules or to hold faculty members to account

Wait, here's the irony - quoting the NYT story by Natasha Singer - who's she fooling? (my emphasis in bold)

With a letter last week, a senator who helps oversee public funding for medical research signaled that he was running out of patience with the practice of ghostwriting. Senator Charles E. Grassley, an Iowa Republican who has led a long-running investigation of conflicts of interest in medicine, is starting to put pressure on the National Institutes of Health to crack down on the practice.

I just wonder if he'll call for an investigation into himself. The senator, a staunch opponent of health care reform, in his career has received his most campaign donations from the insurance industy, health care professionals, hospitals/nursing homes, health services/HMO's - and Big Pharma. I'm running out of patience with sen. Grassley. He's a crooked pol.

Water Crimes

Clever anti-water fluoridation video/song by a New Zealand singer.

Doctors for Single Payer

Summertime, the Weather is Hot & Blood Donors are Needed

Blood banks across U.S.are seeing a decrease in donations. It's been a perennial challenge to maintain blood on the shelves in the summer months.
Some of the blood banks operating in Wisconsin, Iowa, Florida, Georgia, California and Illinois have reported a decline in blood collections because of the cancellation of company drives. The decrease in blood drives held in conjunction with businesses will have a serious effect because donors like to give blood at locations that are convenient for them, AABB spokeswoman Jennifer Garfinkel said, but for now the nation's blood supply is keeping up with demand, without resorting to emergency appeals.

(Source: USA Today)

Episcopal Church and Health Care: Read. Mark. Learn. Inwardly Digest. And Write your Congressional Rep!

I think sometimes that resolutions voted on at church meetings can be ineffective. Regarding health care initiatives, the Episcopal Church is "on record" on this issue ... passing these two resolutions in Anaheim:

C071: Health Care Coverage for All
D048: Adoption of a "Single Payer" Universal Health Care Program

Faithful Episcopalians who take their Baptismal Covenant seriously should
write their reps today.

Yee Haw! (UPDATED)

UPDATE: The UFW has a petition you can sign.
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Even when I lived in Texas, I was shocked by the absolute power the Texas Board of Education have in choosing books for the schools curricula. Ten years later, it's still influenced by conservative ideologues. It's extremely embarrassing at times to tell people that I lived there.

From Religion Dispatches, a story about the Christianist Texas Taliban at work.

Texas Board of Education Wants to Change History

If any question remains about the religious and political motivations of certain members of the Texas Board of Education, one need only read the words of their social studies curriculum experts.

Rev. Peter Marshall (one of their appointed academic experts), for example, wants to restore America, according to the Web site of his Massachusetts-based ministry, “to its Bible-based foundations through preaching, teaching, and writing on America’s Christian heritage and on Christian discipleship and revival.” He also believes that Hurricane Katrina, Watergate, and the Vietnam War are the result of divine wrath.

As part of his curriculum review for the Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills process, Marshall issued an assessment of a Grade 5 history section in which students are asked to “describe the accomplishments of significant colonial leaders such as Anne Hutchinson, William Penn, John Smith, and Roger Williams.”

Marshall, along with his fellow reviewer David Barton, did not believe that students in the public education system should learn about Hutchinson:

Anne Hutchinson does not belong in the company of these eminent gentlemen. She was certainly not a significant colonial leader, and didn’t accomplish anything except getting herself exiled from the Massachusetts Bay Colony for making trouble. (emphasis added)

One of the original Puritans, Hutchinson disagreed with some of the scriptural teachings of the religious leaders and began hosting her own Bible study classes in her home. For this crime, Hutchinson was placed on trial and banished from her community. Later, she and her exiled family were killed in a Siwanoy attack.

“This is a prime example of somebody who believed in religious freedom and was persecuted for that,” said Rob Boston, a spokesman for Americans United for Separation of Church and State.

Certainly, there can be legitimate debate regarding the amount of prominence Hutchinson should receive in the Texas educational system. But describing a woman kicked out of her community for wanting to worship God in her own way as “making trouble” reveals much about what Marshall and his supporters really think about the principle of religious freedom.

The irony, of course, is that these are the same men who argue forcefully that educators must do a better job at teaching this nation’s Christian heritage.

Read all of "Texas Board of Education Wants to Change History"

IRAQ : Disastrous and Shocking Official Statistics...

Via Media Lens MB and I have no reason to doubt these stats.

August 07 ,2009
By Sabah Al-Baghdadi

Translated and adapted from Arabic by Khalil Nakhleh

The following official governmental statistics, up to December 2008, show the disastrous conditions prevalent in Iraq since the American invasion and occupation of that country.

1. One million widowed Iraqi women (according to Iraqi Ministry of Women Affairs).

2. Four million orphaned Iraqi children (according to estimates by the Iraqi Ministry of Planning).

3. Two and a half million (2,500,000) Iraqis killed (according to the Iraqi Ministry of Health and Forensic Medicine).

4. 800,000 Iraqis have disappeared in secret holding places connected with the different ruling parties (according to registered complaints at the Iraqi Ministry of the Interior).

5. 340,000 Iraqi prisoners, detained without charge, in U.S. army prisons, the prisons of the Iraqi government, and the prisons in the Kurdistan District (according to Iraqi, Arab, international and UN human rights organizations and agencies). US occupying forces admit officially that the number of Iraqi detainees in their prisons is about 120,000.

6. Four and a half million (4,500,000) Iraqis are refugees outside Iraq (according to statistics of those seeking passports (category C) from the General Directorate of Passports.

7. Two and a half million (2,500,000) Iraqis are refugees inside Iraq (according to the Iraqi Ministry of Refugees).

8. 76,000 registered Iraqi cases of AIDS; this number did not exceed 114 cases before the invasion and occupation of Iraq (according to the Iraqi Ministry of Health).

9. Frightening spread of the use of addictive drugs imported from Iran, among youth (according to the Iraqi Ministry of Health and the Center for Combating Drugs and Addictions). I have written a series of well-researched articles about the various methods used to smuggle drugs, some of which are highly toxic, and how they are collected in different storage places in the southern districts, under the total control of some of the parties and the militias participating in the government, and how the profits from these drugs are used to buy (pay off) government officials, in order to gain their support and silence, and to finance their election campaigns.

10. Three out of every four marriages end up in divorce since the invasion and occupation of Iraq (according to Iraqi Ministry of Health).
.............

Read full article.

Cross posted at Antemedius and The Peace Tree.

UPDATED: Democratic Dog Daze & Health Care

SEE UPDATE BELOW

Exerpts from commentaries by bloggers I read regularly and trust:

Louis Proyect

When the evening newscast the other night was showing footage of the chaos at another one of these town meetings, I told my wife that it reflected the basic difference between the Democrats and the Republicans. The Democrats do everything they can to demobilize their base, who are seen as inconvenient and extraneous to their main way of getting things done, namely through closed door meetings with corporate executives and nonprofit honchos over how to screw the American people while giving the opposite impression. Meanwhile, the Republicans are much more reliant on an activist base because their social support is much narrower. As a party that rules directly and openly in the interests of the moneyed elite, it requires all sorts of grass roots organization to push its filthy agenda forward.
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Obama will do everything in his power to convince those who voted for him to remain patient while he carries out what amounts to a third Bush term, but there will be more and more defensive measures by the poor and the working class in defense of its own class interests. One can be reasonably assured that the level of discontent in the US will rise despite the African-American President’s clear gift for demagogy and deception.

Richard Estes at American Leftist:

But there are exceptions. Jane Hamsher and the gang at firedoglake don't just put out a liberal line on issues like the wars in the Middle East and health care reform, they urge their allies to lobby and protest in support of those issues. Now, mind you, as a leftist, I have some significant disagreements with the people who post at firedoglake. After all, I'm a leftist, and they are liberals. However, I respect the fact that they are actively challenging the Democratic Party, as represented in the White House and Congress, to adopt their perspective. They don't play the game of talking liberal and then letting elected Democrats vote moderate to conservative. For example, they call out people who try to create the appearance of supporting progressive health care reform, while facilitating the opposite.

As you might have guessed, the people at firedoglake have selected health care reform as the make or break issue for the Obama presidency. They have organized a focused effort to pressure Democrats in the House to demand a strong public option as an essential component of any health care proposal that goes to the President. Now, they are encouraging people to attend town hall meetings this month to counteract the presence of right wing protesters. This is a critical issue, because a strong public option, one that gives people the opportunity to select a government operated plan instead of ones provided by the insurance industry, is necessary to pressure insurers and health care providers to keep costs down. Even opponents of the public option acknowledge it. Indeed, they believe that the government option would be so efficient as to result in the de facto creation of a single payer system.

Unfortunately, it's not going to happen, because the President doesn't want it to happen. Nor does his chief of staff, Rahm Emanuel. The consequences of this failure, as noted by Hamsher last Monday, are serious:

According to the North Carolina Institute of Medicine, there are 52 million Americans currently without health insurance. We are a country in crisis. If the government cannot respond by delivering a public plan with a President who campaigned on creating one, a 60 vote Democratic majority in the Senate, a Speaker of the House who has committed to doing so and majority support in both parties among the public, then we do not live in a representative democracy any more. The country is ungovernable.

libhom at GLH

We are allowing ourselves to be backed into a corner by the far right tactics. There must be another way, and there is.

We need to strongly attack and condemn the far right for what they are doing. But, that must not stop us from speaking out against policies of center right Democrats that are far too similar to the corporatist agenda of the last 29 years. Speaking out against conservative policies pushed by Democrats also has the beneficial tactic of raising questions in the minds of some of the rightists as to just how "liberal" the Democratic Party leadership really is.

We are in a difficult situation, but losing our nerve only makes things worse. Failing to learn from our mistakes during the Clinton Administration is not a luxury liberals or this country can afford.

UPDATE - With thanks to Broadsides (also recommended), I'm adding some well-chosen thoughts by David Lindorff

This is not about civil discourse. This is about propaganda. The Obama administration and the Democratic Congressional leadership have sold out health care reform for the tainted coin of the medical-industrial industry, and are holding, or trying to hold, these meetings around the country to promote legislation that has essentially been written for them by that industry--legislation that will force everyone to pay for insurance as offered, and priced, by the private insurance industry. What a deal for those companies--a captive market of 300 million people! There will be little or no effort to control prices, and the higher costs will be financed through higher taxes, and through cuts in Medicare benefits.

This isn't "reform." It's corruption, pure and simple.

Any mention of a system that works--single payer--the system we already have in the form of Medicare for the elderly and disabled, and the system that has proved successful for almost four decades in Canada-- has been systematically blocked and censored out of the discussion. Every effort has been made to bury an excellent bill, HR 676, offered up by Rep. John Conyers (D-MI), which would cover every American by simply expanding Medicare to cover everyone.

The only proper response at this point is obstruction, and the more militant and boisterous that obstruction, the better.

Instead of opposing the right-wing hecklers at these events, progressives should be making common cause with them. Instead of calling them fascists, we should be working to turn them, by showing them that the enemy is not the left; it is the corporations that own both Democrats and Republicans alike.

Last night in Sheikh Jarrahm, East Jerusalem

In Sheikh Jarrahm, East Jerusalem 100s of people gathered on August 10th for a candle light vigil in solidarity with Palestinians who have lost their homes. The director of Rabbis for Human Rights was arrested violently along with another women. Here's a video report by Joseph Dana:

Yes, it's the anniversary of Hiroshima

John Pilger has written a terrific article to commemorate the anniversary of the dropping of the atomic bomb on Hiroshima (6 August, 1945).

Streetwise Dogs

The unique relationship between humans and dogs provides the opportunity to infer details about ancient people.

Watch this from the National Science Foundation about streetwise dogs.

Burlington Politics: No Show Officials

"The City Council Public Safety Committee reviews and makes recommendations to the City Council regarding issues of the health, safety and welfare of City citizens."

I am extremely disappointed that only one of the three public safety committee members was in attendance at last night's fluoride hearing. Especially since board of health members showed up to speak to their resolution passed by the board in January to remove fluoride from the city's water supply.

The Board of Health has limited statutory responsibility for the “prevention, removal or destruction of public health hazards and the mitigation of public health risks.” The Board of Health receives its authority from Vermont statute, Title 18, as well as from several sections of the Burlington City Charter. - Burlington Board of Health Statement of Purpose

My remarks last night to the public safety committee:

We can make resolutions, enact laws to regulate, even decrease the ppm of fluoride in our water,- as the city council has ordered - just to be safe. But we need to start looking at fluoride not just as a medication, but as a dangerous industrial product being added - untested - to our water. There have been no toxicological studies done on hydrofluorosilicic acid.

The following are questions that you and the other councilors should consider when you review our resolution and take your decision.

Why contaminate Burlington’s high quality drinking water with hydrofluorosilicic acid and its known co-contaminants
when other abundant, higher grade sources of fluoride remain available through toothpaste, mouthwash, and dental-fluoride treatments, all of which we do not swallow?

Keep in mind that fluoride has never been approved by the Food and Drug Administration for swallowing.

As it is illegal to dump hydrofluorosilicic acid anywhere in our environment, how are we justifying dumping it into Burlington’s drinking water supply? Aren’t our residents entitled to safe drinking water?

Are we honestly interested in the health and well-being of Burlington’s children when we take the cheapest industrial man-made toxic waste fluoride we can find, and dump it into our children’s drinking water?

Why are we listening to local dentists, Vermont Dental Society members, about systemic ingestion? This is a question I pose to my own dentist at each visit: Shouldn’t we be seeking advice from leading chemists, toxicologists, neurologists, endocrinologists, epidemiologists, oncologists, pathologists, and so forth – who are shedding new medical light on the dangers of artificial water fluoridation, and the synergistic health harms these chemicals pose in our water?

Why are we listening to the ADA, the Vermont Dental Society and other dental associations - all heavy
promoters of water fluoridation - when they hold no official responsibility or accountability for Burlington’s water fluoridation practice, policy or chemical additives? Doesn’t responsibility for what Burlington ultimately chooses to put into the drinking water rest squarely with the city?


Another question I pose to my dentist on each visit - and now ask you: What formal training do dentists have about the effects water fluoridation is having on our body organs and tissues, beyond the oral cavity? What formal training do dentists have concerning hydrofluorosilicic acid?

What gives Burlington the moral, ethical or legal right to inflict admitted mild to moderate dental fluorosis on any person, due to its water fluoridation practice at the ‘optimal’ level? What is your municipal financial plan for Burlington, should affected people pursue and achieve legal class action status and monetary award?

How will Burlington address the problem of known elevated blood lead levels due to accelerated lead leaching from leaded solder, leaded pipes and leaded brass fittings – caused by the highly corrosive hydrofluorosilicic acid put in the water distribution system at the suggested concentration?

Where has Burlington provided any cost accounting to offer ongoing fluoride-free bottled water, or home distillation system, or home reverse osmosis system; to those persons or families paying for municipal drinking water, but unable to drink fluoridated water? As a member of the local City Market co-op, I can refill my empty containers with fresh, filtered fluoride-free water at no cost. But not all Burlington members are co-op members. Does the municipality only value equality and equity for certain identifiable groups, but not others?

In Praise of British GI Resister Joe Glenton

Any really successful anti-war movement requires this kind of dissent.

The deepening environmental crisis

Sunday Herald (Scotland): "A new report highlights the biggest problems now facing the world. It warns that the environmental crisis is deepening every year. Human consumption is now 30% larger than nature’s capacity to regenerate. By 2015 the number of people suffering climate-related disasters could mushroom to more than 375 million a year. By 2030 as many as 660 million people could be affected, with economic losses rising to $340 billion a year. There are currently 15 wars taking place and the report predicts that 3 billion people will have no access to water by 2025."

Recommended that you click the link above to read the entire article.