The crickets have another gig…

Happy first Monday after of a long ass vacation, y’all!

Thanks the gods for coffee.

Shall we?

A bitch read that many man-on-woman married couples are citing Facebook in their divorce filings and I’m waiting for the marriage protectionists to respond.

***crickets warm up with vocal exercises***

Will marriage protectionists kick off a state-by-state anti-Facebook ballot initiative campaign?

Perhaps they’ll begin to incorporate Facebook abstinence pledges into their man-on-woman marriage preparedness classes.

***crickets take the stage***

Or maybe they’ll try to address the threat of Facebook to sanctified traditional one woman and one man marriage on a federal level.

***and then the crickets sing “Our D.I.V.O.R.C.E becomes final today. Me and little J.O.E will be goin’ away. I love you both and it will be pure H.E double L for me. Oh, I wish that we could stop this D.I.V.O.R.C.E.”***

Blink.

Crossposted from the Angry Black Bitch.

Sphere: Related Content

Will the new Bagram detention facility be humane?

The old detention facility was a nightmare that many referred to as Gitmo II and most enlightened individuals considered worse than Gitmo. From Jurist:

International human rights officials toured the new US detention facility in Parwan, Afghanistan, at the edge of Bagram Air Base on Sunday. The new facility [NYT report], which has room for 1,400 detainees, is part of the Obama administration’s wider efforts to improve its Afghan detainee system and will eventually be controlled by the Afghan government. Officials have promised greater transparency based on a case management system, which will allow detainees to be informed of the charges against them and provide them with the right to challenge government witnesses. Amnesty International, Human Rights First, and Human Rights Watch called on the Obama administration Monday to make sure its detention policy conforms to international law.

Last week, HRF urged the US to reform its detention policy at Bagram in order to combat counterinsurgency. In September, the American Civil Liberties Union filed a lawsuit [seeking information related to the treatment of prisoners at Bagram, citing fears that is becoming the “new Guantanamo.” Earlier that month, the Obama administration issued new guidelines allowing Bagram detainees to challenge their indefinite incarceration. Detainees will have access to members of the US military who would be able to gather classified evidence and question witnesses on behalf of any detainee challenging his detention. The military officials would not be lawyers, but they are expected to provide detainees, some of whom have been held for more than five years without charges, better representation before military-appointed review boards. The changes come amidst ongoing protests by prisoners. Hundreds of Bagram detainees have been refusing shower and exercise time and have ceased participation in a family visits and teleconferences program set up by the International Committee of the Red Cross.

As for transparency..The Big O hasn’t been doing much to further the cause either, in my humble yet vocal opinion. Only time will tell us how different Obama’s prison is to BushCo’s prison.

Sphere: Related Content

Unfair to Halliburton? Our WTF moment for this week.

Jeff Sessions, asshole  for Alabama said that about Al Franken’s amendment to the defense appropriation bill recently voted on. From Politico:

Sen. Al Franken (D-Minn.) offered an amendment to the Defense Appropriations bill that would withhold defense contracts to companies who prevent victims from filing lawsuits against sexual assault and harassment.

Franken proposed the amendment after hearing the story of Jamie Leigh Jones, who alleges that she was brutally raped while working a contractor for Halliburton/KBR in Iraq.

But Jones was unable to press charges in court because her defense contract stipulated that any such allegations can only be heard in private arbitration.

Franken’s amendment, which passed 68-30, received the support of 10 Republican senators. However, most Republicans opposed the amendment because it went against the wishes of the Defense Department, and argued it gave Congress too much influence in altering defense contracts.

I can not believe that even Rethugs would put the needs of Halliburton and KBR ahead of human beings, specifically women, on this issue. I can not believe it. But then..I can, ya know?

Fucking douche nozzles like Vitter and Sessions need to spend a month in Iraq..as a worker for KBR and Halliburton. Fucking pigs..make me physically ill. From Current, a list of the fuckwits and fucktards that put corporate needs above human needs:

Franken’s amendment ended up passing, 68-30. Here’s a list of the Senators who showed broad support for Roman Polanski by voting against it:

Alexander (R-TN)
Barrasso (R-WY)
Bond (R-MO)
Brownback (R-KS)
Bunning (R-KY)
Burr (R-NC)
Chambliss (R-GA)
Coburn (R-OK)
Cochran (R-MS)
Corker (R-TN)
Cornyn (R-TX)
Crapo (R-ID)
DeMint (R-SC)
Ensign (R-NV)
Enzi (R-WY)
Graham (R-SC)
Gregg (R-NH)
Inhofe (R-OK)
Isakson (R-GA)
Johanns (R-NE)
Kyl (R-AZ)
McCain (R-AZ)
McConnell (R-KY)
Risch (R-ID)
Roberts (R-KS)
Sessions (R-AL)
Shelby (R-AL)
Thune (R-SD)
Vitter (R-LA)
Wicker (R-MS)

ADDENDUM: It’s been pointed out to me that the U.S. Chamber of Commerce lobbied against the Franken amendment as well:

Republicans point out that the amendment was opposed by a host of business interests, including the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, and applies to a wide range of companies, including IBM and Boeing.

I guess we must cover up crimes like rape in order to save capitalism.

I guess capitalism IS more important than human rights for the bags of batshit above.

Sphere: Related Content

summer of discontent

mmm…. i haven’t been in the thick of things much this summer but things do appear to be heating up. it has been a cool, wet summer here in upstate new york thus far- leading to lots of mildews and fungal issues with plants- and tomato and potato blight spread by big corporate box stores. yeah! so, my garden is rather small and poor and it has me a wee bit worried.

the natives are growing restless– and quite a bit bolder. heady off the success and taste of power under the cheney/rumsfeld regime- the right wingers are truly unhappy about losing to a black man. i mean really- how are we supposed to keep minorities and women in their place behind white men if we elect a black man and he appoints a latina to the supreme court? not to mention that neither are probably even really american. he was born in hawaii/kenya and she is from puerto rico- those aren’t americans! and they want to take our guns and ammo- so we had better horde, horde, horde so the hordes of minorities don’t come breaking into our mcmansions and stealing our big screen tvs and loading them into our ford expeditions.

at any rate, all i have heard about lately are the completely irritating faux town hall meetings that are merely photo ops for the winger tea bag nut jobs with guns. the health care ‘debate’ is not even really- i mean the politicians barely even give the little people lip service anymore. they don’t need us. seriously. there is so much money in the status quo that nobody in a position to change anything is going to. not obama or pelosi or reid- and certainly not the corporatist rethugs- excuse me- i mean capitalists.

the ignorance and bile i have heard and seen is staggering. it overwhelms me that there are so very many people with so many negative emotions living in this country. the country that is supposed to be the best on the planet. you have gun toters at presidential functions- and while i secretly applauded the iraqui who threw a shoe at bush- i did not publicly condone it because that is a line really no one should cross. we have gotten to a place where there is no respect for anyone or anything. these asshats can proclaim to be proud and respectful of the american flag or the troops or whoever and whatever they want to- it’s a lie. respect is wanting the best for your family and friends- but also other people’s families and friends. there is no respect from the right for anything or anyone- not even themselves. there is absolutely no respect from the left for the constituents who voted them into positions of power to force a change.

there has been minimal change- and almost none where it truly counts. that tells me that the corporates have indeed won. the foxes are in charge of the henhouse and we, the people, are just sitting there laying golden eggs for our overlords. with this health care bill the way it is- you will be forced to have it whether you want it or not- unless you already have insurance. in that case, it’s simply a different master fleecing you.

enjoy the rest of the summer. can’t wait for congressional recess to be over and the circus to begin again. oh wait…..

Sphere: Related Content

Nobel Peace Laureate Mairead Maguire Detained by US Homeland Security

USA Homeland Security detained Nobel Peace laureate Mairead Maguire in mid May as she entered the US at a Houston airport. According to information provided by the Free Gaza Movement, Maguire was returning home to Northern Ireland from a three day conference she hosted in Guatemala with three sister Nobel Peace Laureates: Rigoberta Menchu, Jody Williams and Shirin Ebadi.

Officials held Maguire for two hours. They questioned her, fingerprinted her, photographed her and questioned again in a second session. Due to the insistence of the Nobel Women’s Initiatives representatives, she was released; however, because of her detention, she missed her flight.

Maguire had just finished hosting a conference concerning “Redefining Democracy, Human Rights and Peace” that one hundred fifty international women activists attended.

Maguire released the following statement about the incident:

This kind of behaviour and treatment is unacceptable. They questioned me about my nonviolent protests in USA against the Afghanistan invasion and Iraqi war. They insisted I must tick the box in the Immigration form admitting to criminal activities. I am not a criminal, my nonviolent acts in USA opposing the war on Afghanistan, and Iraqi, are acts of conscience and together with millions of USA citizens, and world citizens, I refuse to be criminalized for opposing such illegal policies. Every citizen has a right, indeed a moral obligation, to nonviolent civil disobedience in the face of illegal and unjust laws, especially war. If anyone is to be criminalized for these illegal and immoral policies it is the USA Government, who must be held accountable before the International community for these acts of crime against humanity.

I am most disappointed at this harassment which I believe is because I do not remain silent on USA Foreign Policies which I believe to be causing a great deal of suffering around the world. I stand in solidarity with many Human rights defenders, whose only crime is to stand for the dignity and right of everyone to life, freedom and human and civil liberties. Many people in the USA, voted for President Obama (and millions around the world supported him) on the promise that changes would be made, civil and human rights be upheld, and today we await the fulfilment of these promises. We hope that President Obama will not disappoint the millions of people around the World, like me, who believed in him when he said we can change things, YES WE CAN.

The world looks to him to give moral and political leadership by upholding Human rights and International Law, and leading America to live fully by its Constitution and commitments to freedom and democracy for all. I have travelled to USA many times in the past 30 years to share the message of peace and reconciliation, but I have also undertaken my world citizenship responsibility to join with the American peace movement in protesting USA foreign policies which are causing much suffering in the World. I will continue to visit and plan to return to USA in August to join with the American Peace Movement at Los Alamos, New Mexico, in protesting USA Nuclear Weapons Programme.

I have always been inspired by the American Peace Movement and consider an honour to be able to support them in their work for a peaceful humanity, truly in the spirit of the American people and their inspiration Constitution of freedom and justice for all.”

Mairead Maguire, Nobel Peace Laureate

Sphere: Related Content

Nuremberg for the Defense

The recent release of CIA memos that graphically details US government directives in prisoner of war (POW) torture, has caused a great deal of controversy and sparked vitriolic debate. The rancor lined up (as expected) straight along partisan lines, with the right vehemently defending the Bush policies and the left demanding justice. The fact that Bush and Cheney pursued a legal justification for their policy torture should come as no surprise to anyone. It is actually quite amusing (a term I use loosely) to watch the shock and surprise from the media as these revelations have been made public. What a bunch of phonies.

What is not phony is the fact President Obama stated he has no intention to go after the people who actually inflicted the Bush/Cheney led policies of torture on POWs. He is giving them the benefit of a “get out of jail free card” without any public debate. What is still left up in the air is the potential prosecution of those who formulated, justified and institutionalized these policies. On this, President Obama has been vague and changing.

It is frightening that we actually have government officials (like Senators Bond, Ensign, Representatives Bachmann, Thornberry, Pence among many others) that are going out of their way to defend (or spin) policies of torture for purely political reasons, even if it obviously goes against every principle this country has stood and fought for. It seems that many of the defenders of torture and apologists for Bush/Cheney have conveniently forgotten there was a time 60-odd years ago that US-led international court proceedings did not allow politics to pre-empt basic human rights. We as a country did not permit institutionalized criminal activity and rights abuses to be chalked up to “just following orders.” Loyalty to a political cause could not triumph loyalty to human rights.

Sadly that appears to have changed according to the rules of 21st century American politics. Defending (or sweeping under the rug) the abuses by party leaders like Bush, Cheney and their henchmen have become more important that defending the basic human rights we claim to live by. And the media’s lack of calling people out for their hypocrisy has made a big problem even more cancerous.

As a nation the professed laws and principles, the US was one of the countries that demonstrated how vital and essential it was after the defeat of Germany in 1945 to not let war crimes get swept under the rug or passed off as somebody else’s fault. At the International Military Tribune for War Crimes in Nuremberg, the Americans were very careful and explicit in not allowing prisoners a “get out of jail free card”. The Allies would not allow anyone to use “just following orders” as an excuse for war crimes. There would be no Nuremberg Defense.

This included torture.

After the defeat and unconditional surrender of Germany in 1945, the victorious allies held of series of tribunals to prosecute the leaders of the National Socialist Party. The most prominent of these was the trial of the highest Nazi military and political principals before the International Military Tribunal from November 1945 to October 1946.

The process of creating an International Military tribunal had never been attempted before. Some people argued for immediate military execution without a trial. The primary reasons given for pursuing immediate justice as opposed to a long trial were both political and emotional – to move on with the de-nazification and rebuilding of Germany, to prevent the rehashing of the tragedies of the war from dragging on, and finally to prevent the potential of turning the Nazi leaders into martyrs. The Allied governments knew the trials would be controversial and fraught with many unknowns. In the end they agreed that the best road to take was one of due process and openness, even if it looked like victor’s revenge.

As a result of the Nuremberg Trials, a several sets of guidelines that laid out the definition of international law were established. These include the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in 1948 and the Geneva Convention in 1949. The US is a party to both of these.

Another set of principals structured from the tribunals was the Nuremberg Principles adopted by the UN General Assembly in 1950. Again, the US is a party to this document. I urge you to read them, especially number IV.

They are:

Principle I
Any person who commits an act which constitutes a crime under international law is responsible therefore and liable to punishment.

Principle II
The fact that internal law does not impose a penalty for an act which constitutes a crime under international law does not relieve the person who committed the act from responsibility under international law.

Principle III
The fact that a person who committed an act which constitutes a crime under international law acted as Head of State or responsible government official does not relieve him from responsibility under international law.

Principle IV
The fact that a person acted pursuant to order of his Government or of a superior does not relieve him from responsibility under international law, provided a moral choice was in fact possible to him. [This is known as the Nuremberg Defense - "I was just following orders"].

Principle V
Any person charged with a crime under international law has the right to a fair trial on the facts and law.

Principle VI
The crimes hereinafter set out are punishable as crimes under international law:

• Crimes Against Peace: Planning, preparation, initiation or waging of a war of aggression or a war in violation of international treaties, agreements or assurances. The participation in a common plan or conspiracy for the accomplishment of any of the acts mentioned.
• War Crimes: Violations of the laws or customs of war which include, but are not limited to, murder, ill-treatment or deportation of slave labor or for any other purpose of the civilian population of or in occupied territory; murder or ill-treatment of prisoners of war or persons on the Seas, killing of hostages, plunder of public or private property, wanton destruction of cities, towns, or villages, or devastation not justified by military necessity.
• Crimes against Humanity: Murder, extermination, enslavement, deportation and other inhumane acts done against any civilian population, or persecutions on political, racial, or religious grounds, when such acts are done or such persecutions are carried on in execution of or in connection with any crime against peace or any war crime.

Principle VII
Complicity in the commission of a crime against peace, a war crime, or a crime against humanity as set forth in Principle VI is a crime under international law.

As a signor of many international treaties regarding torture, human rights abuses and as a party to the Nuremberg principles – in seems pretty clear what we have to do.

If the Obama Administration does not pursue the truth, we are in essence negating the very authority we have tried to espouse. We have a duty to get to the truth and expose all the offenses, even if no one actually goes to prison. For the US to continue on as a society that proclaims moral authority, righteous behavior and acts a model to the rest of the world, we have no choice.

Crossposted at DistributorcapNY.

Sphere: Related Content

Israel denounces Gaza war crimes investigation by UN

And this really, would be laughable if it wasn’t so damn disgusting. It is also a high-irony alert. From Jurist:

In an interview with a reporter, Foreign Ministry spokesman Yigal Palmor said the probe is an attempt to demonize Israel and that it has no moral ground. Palmor also condemned the UNHRC as unreliable and having the worst history of all the organizations within the UN. The criticism came the same day that the UNHRC announced the appointment of South African judge Richard Goldstone to head the fact-finding mission. Israel has not said if it will cooperate with the probe, which was originally approved by the UNHCR in January.

The impetus for the probe was a report [authored by UN Special Rapporteur Richard Falk], which criticized Israel for failing to take adequate precautions to distinguish between civilians and combatants in their offensives in the region. Both Israel and the US criticized the report, calling the rapporteur’s views “anything but fair.” An internal Israeli military investigation found earlier this week that war crimes had not been committed in the offensive despite individual reports by Israeli soldiers. Israel has already disputed a previous report to the UNHRC that accused it of human rights violations. In January, the International Criminal Court (ICC) said that it lacked standing to investigate possible war crimes in Gaza.

Sweet Jaysus in a speedo..demonize Israel and that it has no moral ground? Dude, you are so full of shit, your eyes better be brown. Morally, Israel is so bankrupt, when it comes to Palestine..I can’t even begin to point out the obvious here…but let me try..

Letting Israel’s military investigate their own war crimes is tantamount to the fox guarding the henhouse.

Their own soldiers reported various war crimes during the latest Gaza seige.

Plenty of news reports are out there..including numerous videos of Israel bombing civilians homes.

More civilians were killed than Hamas soldiers in Gaza, by all news accounts. This one alone states 1,434 Palestinians, including 960 civilians were killed.

Violations of the Geneva Conventions which require the military to distinguish between military targets and surrounding civilians.

From The Guardian:

The Guardian has compiled detailed evidence of alleged war crimes committed by Israel during the 23-day offensive in the Gaza Strip earlier this year, involving the use of Palestinian children as human shields and the targeting of medics and hospitals.

A month-long investigation also obtained evidence of civilians being hit by fire from unmanned drone aircraft said to be so accurate that their operators can tell the colour of the clothes worn by a target.
*snip*
Some of the most dramatic testimony gathered by the Guardian came from three teenage brothers in the al-Attar family. They describe how they were taken from home at gunpoint, made to kneel in front of Israeli tanks to deter Hamas fighters from firing, and sent by Israeli soldiers into Palestinian houses to clear them. “They would make us go first so if any fighters shot at them the bullets would hit us, not them,” 14-year-old Al’a al-Attar said.

Israel isn’t above the law or the Geneva Conventions. That they would kill more civilians than Hamas soldiers and use children as human shields turns my stomach. Watch all three parts of The Guardians investigation into Israel war crimes here

.

Related articles by Zemanta

• UN judge to investigate alleged Israeli war crimes in Gaza (cbc.ca)
• Israel and the problem of Gaza war-crime charges (guardian.co.uk)
• ‘Long list’ of alleged Gaza war crimes probed (msnbc.msn.com)

Sphere: Related Content

“Sliding Scale Bake Sale” Reveals Plight of World’s Women

I attended a local event at the Women’s Intercultural Center for Women’s History Month/International Women’s Day that paired a special movie screening with a “sliding scale bake sale.” Cupcakes and drinks cost a dollar each. But women got a special deal: those without children paid $.90, married moms paid $.73, and single moms paid $.60 for those same $1.00 items.

A sign explained what was happening:

——————————————————

“WHY THE DIFFERENT PRICES?

We don’t mean to discriminate. But this is a

SLIDING SCALE BAKE SALE

The prices reflect the REAL WAGE GAP

between men, women, and women with children.

Even today, for each dollar that a man earns, a woman can expect to earn $.90, a married mom can expect to earn $.73, and a single mom can expect to earn $.60.

If this seems unfair at a bake sale, imagine how it feels in the real world, WHERE RENT AND FOOD ARE NOT SOLD ON A SLIDING SCALE.

Info source: www.momsrising.org”

—————————————————–
cross posted on The Peace Tree

Sphere: Related Content

More Immigrant Abuse At The Hands Of Government

The case of Jason Ng and his abuse, neglect and death at the Donald D. Wyatt Detention Center in Central Falls, Rhode Island described in my previous post here this week and my post last August was not an isolated incident.  A consistent pattern of delays of or a lack of adequate health care and mistreatment of persons held in federal detention is widespread, throughout the country.  In an article titled: “Report Faults Treatment of Women Held at Detention Centers”, Dan Frosh writes in the New York Times:

Some 300 women held at immigration detention centers in Arizona face dangerous delays in health care and widespread mistreatment, according to a new study by the University of Arizona, the latest report to criticize conditions at such centers throughout the United States…

Researchers examined the conditions facing women in the process of deportation proceedings at three federal immigration centers in Arizona. An estimated 3,000 women are being held nationwide.

The study concluded that immigration authorities were too aggressive in detaining the women, who rarely posed a flight risk, and that as a result, they experienced severe hardships, including a lack of prenatal care, treatment for cancer, ovarian cysts and other serious medical conditions, and, in some cases, being mixed in with federal prisoners.

True to form for any bureaucratic functionary caught apparently sanctioning (by allowing it to occur on her watch) the abusive practices, Katrina S. Kane, the local director of detention and removal operations for ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement) in Arizona tried to deflect the truth in a statement she made:

Katrina S. Kane, who directs Arizona detention and removal operations for Immigration and Customs Enforcement, dismissed the study as unsubstantiated accounts from a limited number of detainees and their advocates.

“Reports such as this, while alleging to be unbiased, do great harm to the public’s understanding of the complex issues involved in immigration law enforcement,” Ms. Kane said.

Ms. Kane’s blatant stone walling does not hide the truth, nor does it offset incidents of abuse of immigrants at the hands of our government such as that suffered by one West African woman as reported by Dan Frosch:

In one of several cases documented in the study, a woman being held at the Central Arizona Detention Center in Florence who experienced excruciating abdominal pain for months after she had been forced to undergo female genital mutilation in West Africa was told by the center’s staff to “exercise and watch her diet,” her lawyer at the time, Raha Jorjani, said. After nearly six months, the woman, who had been convicted of a nonviolent crime, was taken to a hospital where an ultrasound revealed a cyst the size of a five-month-old fetus, Ms. Jorjani said.

Immigration officials then suddenly released the woman with no money or health insurance to treat the cyst, Ms. Jorjani said.

The three detention centers that the University of Arizona report focused on, like the Wyatt detention facility, are operated by contractors for the feds, the Pinal County Sheriff’s Department and the Corrections Corporation of America.   This has been the pattern in various cases of abuse of individuals detained by ICE throughout the country ever since the Bush administration began reacting to the 9/11 attacks.

This is the kind of human rights abuse that we are used to reading about occuring in third world countries, but instead, over zealous, some could say, sadistic, low and middle level government functionaries, with the tacit encouragement of the former corrupt administration have made our own country a Hellish pit of human misery.  In many cases, people who looked to the United States as a beacon of freedom, as a place where they might be able to make a safe and productive life for themselves and their families, have instead become victims of a callous government, that at least for the past eight years, had seemed unaccountable to the laws and moral values of  its people.

Let us not be complacent though.  Do not think that just because we have spoken and have seen a new administration that is committed to following the rule of law, and responding to the majority of the people, that the pockets of abuse, incompetence and mismangement throughout the federal bureaucracy will automatically self-correct.  It is incumbent upon all of us to still raise the alarms when these issues are uncovered, and make our voices heard, to keep the pressure on our representatives and leaders to always respond appropriately to these issues.

Sphere: Related Content

The Cost of War- Guest Featured

I have been away from the blogs for quite a while. Summer has been very busy for me. A lot of travel and family business to take care of, a move from Northern Wisconsin back to St. Paul, MN and dealing with the tragedy that has struck some great long time cherished friends.

One of the projects that I was involved with was The Longest Walk II. This is a commemorative walk from San Francisco to Washington DC of the original walk that took place in 1978. The purpose of the walk was to bring forth, in a positive way, concerns about pollution of Mother Earth, the idea that all life is Sacred, Peace and Justice, the degeneration of the people from sickness, the failure of the government to adhere to treaties and to keep Sacred sites Sacred.

Read all about the Longest Walk II, see the pictures and read the stories at this site:

the longest walk

One of the purposes of the walk was to assemble a Manifesto and deliver this document to Congress. The ideas set forth in the Manifesto were from the actual lives of people across the United States as we walked.

As a Veteran, my duty was to prepare a piece to address the growing concern over benefits and benefit changes to soldiers returning home from the Afghanistan and Iraq theaters of war.

The entire Manifesto is also available to read at the above listed site. Here is the article I presented to Congress on behalf of my Veteran Bothers and Sisters:

ADDENDA

to

Manifesto For Change

“All Life Is Sacred”

THE COST OF WAR: Message from a Veteran

By Joe Spado, member of Veterans For Peace, Vietnam Veterans Against the War and The American Patriot Institute.

As we crossed the United States, we on The Longest Walk II heard many concerns from a wide variety of citizens. Most of these concerns dealt with environmental problems like poisons or cancer causing substances in the drinking water, or pollution of water supply reservoirs and air quality. Problems related to health issues and access to adequate healthcare. Problems with the cost of food, gasoline and drugs. Problems dealing with discrimination based on skin color or spoken language for jobs and/or housing opportunities. Problems with the treatment of areas and sites that are considered Culturally Sacred, or actual burial sites of family members and ancestors of the Native Indigenous people of America.

These matters are of extreme importance to the individuals that are exposed, but affect all people in one way or another. Another problem that needs to be addressed is the treatment and access to benefits for Veterans who served in the armed forces of the United States. The Veterans from wars of the past, World War II, Korea and Vietnam and returning Veterans from the current war activity in Afghanistan and Iraq.

As I spoke with Veterans I heard their accounts of rejection for benefits and the long waiting period even the denial takes. One Veteran told me he was refused health care as his home was being foreclosed upon.

It is hard to get benefits. The application process is flawed and inaccessible to many. The bureaucracy and long waiting periods, rules and regulations make it hard for Veterans to make and keep appointments or persevere in their attempt to see their claims through to a fair conclusion.

In most cases, the burden of proof lies on the shoulders of the Veterans to prove they were even in a battle zone or that they were injured while on active duty. Laws have been changed and benefits have been reduced or taken away from Veterans.

When I speak of benefits, I am talking about health care as a priority, but also benefits relating to job seeking and job keeping skills, the teaching of real life technical and liberal education and readjustment counseling after a Veteran has served in a combat zone or in any theater where combat and the violence and destruction that goes along with it are present. I speak of housing benefits, educational benefits, mental health treatment benefits and other benefits that were implemented to help the Veteran get back to a normal life after serving in the military.

I speak of legal help and relief from creditors. Many Veterans were taken from their everyday routine and put into repeated tours of duty, disrupting their income. They return to face bankruptcy or credit problems so severe there is no escape.

Obviously, one solution is to sign onto law the needed bills to rectify these problems for Veterans. This would cost money to the taxpayers. In an attempt to keep taxation low, benefits were cut and measures taken to reduce the cost of care for any Veteran. But spending less on war and war related armament and activities would offset the additional cost that would be needed to take proper care of our Veterans.

Another solution is to work harder and create laws that allow for peace and peaceful settlements of disputes with other countries and adopt this as a main ideal in our framework of foreign policy.

As a member of Veterans For Peace and Vietnam Veterans Against the War, and having fought as a combat infantry soldier in Vietnam, I speak from the first hand experience of being in war and seeing it up close. Peoples’ lives are shattered, both the lives of the soldiers on both “sides”, and the lives of their close friends and family members. The lives of the civilians caught up as war has its collateral damage and their close friends and family members.

The death and destruction to people and property. The after effects of wounds received and inflicted, both physical and emotional wounds. The obvious and blatant war profiteering by the arms companies and others that partake in such crime. The continuing effects of weapons and arms left behind like unexploded bombs and depleted uranium armaments. The destruction of lives from the behavior that results from such trauma, like drug addiction and alcoholism, spousal brutality, anxiety, anger, depression and panic attacks.

Society decides and allows war, through the officials they elect. It is societies burden then, to pay for it before it starts, while it is happening and when the conflict is over. The cost of war isn’t the billions that the President asks for from the legislature to fight the war. It is ongoing as the wounds of war to the people of the world never cease, even years after the conflict.

A first shot should never be fired by our Nation. We should stand ready to defend, but not be the reason for war. Standing as the worlds strongest Nation has a responsibility to the rest of the world, and that is to help promote peace at all costs.

The cost of war is staggering in dollar value, but the cost to humanity is even more as lives lost and the lost lives of the survivors can’t be counted with dollars. The best and easiest investment is in real peace through diplomacy and negotiations. The best and easiest solution to the problem of providing for our Veterans is peace.

Sphere: Related Content

Just who is “illegal” here? House Committee reviews ICE Raid on Postville, IA

Lawyers and professors testified before the House of Representatives Committee on the Judiciary on Thursday, July 24 that the government process used to arrest and convict undocumented workers in Iowa in May was illegal and violated the immigrants’ due process rights, reports Jurist Legal News and Research. On May 12, US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officials raided an Agriprocessors Inc. meatpacking plant in Postville, Iowa and arrested 389 undocumented workers. Over four days, 270 of those arrested were each sentenced to five months in prison and 27 more received probation after pleading guilty to the use of false immigration documents. Following the sentencing, a New York Times report suggested that it was uncommon for illegal immigrants to face criminal prosecution as opposed to civil charges and deportation. During the Committee hearing Thursday, American Immigration Lawyers Association (AILA) vice-president David Wolfe Leopold reiterated the group’s previous criticism of the convictions process, saying:

A prosecutor’s professional, moral, and ethical duty is to do justice, not merely to convict. This cardinal principal was ignored by the government in its zeal to criminalize undocumented workers. In essence, the expedited justice or “Fast Tracking” system concocted by the government, with the willing assistance of the US District Court for the Northern District of Iowa, was a conviction / deportation assembly line which could not be burdened with protecting the fundamental rights of the defendants, mostly poor uneducated Guatemalan farmers.

Interpreter Erik Camayd-Freixas also criticized the system, saying that the immigrants were unable to understand their rights, the charges against them, or the plea bargains to which many finally agreed. The Washington Post has more.

Not surprisingly, representatives from both the Department of Justice (DOJ) and ICE defended the government’s arrest and conviction processes, saying that the immigrants’ constitutional rights were strictly applied. Howeve, the Jurist notes that, in general, US immigration prosecutions continued to increase in March 2008, jumping nearly 50 percent from the previous month and nearly 75 percent from the previous year, according to a report released by the Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse (TRAC) at Syracuse University. Federal immigration prosecutions have risen since February, when such prosecutions hit a record high. TRAC attributed the increase to Operation Streamline, a joint federal program under which federal prosecutors levy minor charges against illegal immigrants crossing the US-Mexico border.

Sphere: Related Content

8 CHILDREN A DAY

Choosey Mutha’s choose….PEACE

Eight children a day are killed by guns in our country — for a total of almost 3,000 a year — and another 13,000 a year are wounded. Nearly 1.7 million children under the age of 18 live in homes with firearms that are both loaded and unlocked.

The Million Mom March will be focusing on this topic on Mother’s Day.

8 CHILDREN KILLED A DAY ~ NO WAY!

Sphere: Related Content

Tibet

Tibetan National Snow Lion Flag

We are all a part of the Global Community. The people of Tibet are not allowed to protest. For them to protest means they literally risk their lives, and or imprisonment, which makes me feel even more strongly that those who can speak out, have the duty and obligation to do so.

What is it the people of Tibet are protesting about anyway? I happened to find a publication that shed light on the matter. Tibet press watch- Political Prisoners~ The truth about their lives. Here are some examples of why the people of Tibet are willing to risk their lives to protest.

“Splittism”- The People’s Republic of China imprisons Tibetans whose actions are perceived to be in support of Tibetan independence from China. Accusations of trying to “split” Tibet from the “motherland”, separating the country and destroying national unity can be levied for simply possessing a tibetan flag, making pro-tibet statements, hanging pro-independence posters, or speaking favorably of His Holiness the Dalai Lama.”

“April 25th is the birthday of Gedun Choekyi Nyima, recognized by the Dalai Lama as the 11th Panchen Lama. But there was little to celebrate. His whereabouts and welfare have remained a mystery since he was taken into custody by China at the age of six, after the Dalai Lama announced that he was the reincarnation of one of Tibet’s most important religious leaders. Nyima will turn 19 this year. In a meeting in 1996 of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, the Chinese government that it was holding the boy and his family in “protective custody”.

Ani Choeying Passang, her crime “Splittism” sentenced 4 years in prison. recently released.

Read more

Sphere: Related Content

Beyond Beijing..

For Enigma at WaterGate Summer. Hugs, from Dusty

We can protest without fear..the monks in Tibet and Burma..not so much.

Sphere: Related Content

Wisdom Taught Naturally

cross posted from round circle

As I mentioned in an earlier post, The Longest Walk started in San Francisco. We quickly moved away from the urban clutter of the bay and traveled south through the central valley from Sacramento, CA. Our route closely followed US Highway 99. The towns all had a common thread, agriculture. Each area known for one specialized crop. Walnuts, almonds, grapes, olives, melons.

We wanted to get to Bakersfield as we knew our route would turn east at that point, towards Arizona and New Mexico, heading us to our ultimate goal of Washington DC by summertime. We were enjoying the weather. It was nice, with temperatures in the 60’s and 70’s during the day. But when the sun dipped low in the sky, the nights turned cool. And with the wind brought outright cold. I was camping and sleeping in my van, using the fold out sofa that turns into a bed. I left it a sofa and slept on my side, being careful to park so the blood wouldn’t rush to my head or I wouldn’t roll onto the floor.

It wasn’t windy in the van, but it wasn’t warm either. I was careful to not allow myself to start the engine to run the heater. There was no such luxury for the tent campers, and I wasn’t going to waste precious expensive gasoline when I had a good sleeping bag and a Hudson Bay blanket to keep me warm.

We spent four full days and nights in Bakersfield. In Delano, just North of there, some folks told us some stories about the Bakersfield area. A Native woman told us that her family, her ancestors, came from Bakersfield and that at one time, the north end was Indian land. She described the river winding through along a cliff and the hills grew from there to the North. “This was our homeland” she exclaimed, “And they took our land and made us move. Now, the area is all oil wells. You’ll see them when you get to where you’re going tomorrow”.

As she described, when we got off the highway and turned left at Seventh Standard Road, we took another turn on China Grade Road and saw them, the oil wells, as she told us. You could see the curved cliff with the river flowing, then the foothills rising. I saw the people of long ago living there. The Sacred land of the people, now choked with oil wells. The irony is that we were paying well in excess of $3.30 per gallon for gasoline, and the oil was right there. It’s all about money you know, and man’s greed.

Read more

Sphere: Related Content

Next Page »