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A Remembrance of Iraqis

     (Photo by: Ahmad Al-Rubaye)

An Iraqi  girl is helped across spilled oil in Baghdad on Wednesday.

An Iraqi girl gingerly makes her way through oil spilled on a Baghdad street on Wednesday.

Also posted at DailyKos. (Link)

Native American Day in South Dakota (Irony & Vulcan Proverbs)

(Also available in Orange at Daily Kos)

Ironically, it’s Native American Day in South Dakota, but not in the United States as a whole.

South Dakota History

In 1989 the South Dakota legislature unanimously passed legislation proposed by Governor George S. Mickelson to proclaim 1990 as the “Year of Reconciliation” between Native Americans and whites, to change Columbus Day to Native American Day and to make Martin Luther King’s birthday into a state holiday. Since 1990 the second Monday in October has been celebrated as Native American Day in South Dakota.

Perhaps it’s time for a new twist on that old saying in United States poltics – As California South Dakota goes, so goes the nation.

Or to put it another way, why is South Dakota so far ahead of the rest of the country in recognizing there’s a problem and seeking to rectify it?

Swedes: US troops storm Afghan Hospital

(Cross-posted in OrangeSwedish Charity: US troops stormed through Afghan Hospital )

A Swedish charity that runs a hospital in Afghanistan is accusing the US military of storming into the hospital, breaking doors, and tying up staff while searching for militants.


KABUL (Reuters) – U.S. troops burst into a Swedish charity-run hospital in Afghanistan and tied up patients’ relatives and staff, the charity said on Sunday, in what it called a breach of deals between the military and aid groups.

Murder Trial for officer in Oakland BART Killing is on

(also Also diaried at dkos.)

Despite what has been at times a cluster-fuck of an investigation (see below the fold), the murder trial is on.

The BART police officer caught on video shooting and killing 22-year-old Oscar Grant while Grant laid face-down on the ground, will stand trial for murder in Oakland.


After hearing seven days of testimony since May 18, Superior Court Judge C. Don Clay said prosecutors had presented ample evidence to show that (ex-BART police Officer Johannes) Mehserle could be found guilty of murdering Oscar Grant, 22, at the Fruitvale Station in Oakland.

Video of Grant’s January 1, 2009 killing has been widely distributed on the internet.

Chicago Police Kill Labor Activists (Not Breaking)

(Orange version of this diary.)

The immigrant labor movement in this country has come full circle. The immigrants are from different countries and the jobs have changed some but the issues are the same as they ever were.

AriamendiOn a sunny April day, I paid a visit to my favorite bakery in San Franciso, the Arizmendi Bakery. Amongst the the beautiful baguettes and the sumptuous scones, I saw a sign stating that the bakery would be closed on May 1 to celebrate Labor Day – the same day it is celebrated in Europe and many other places.

Since Arizmendi Bakery is a worker owned cooperative it didn’t surprise me that they would chose the May 1 observation. (I always figured the US had a different date for cold-war reasons). It turns out there’s an important reason why the world celebrates Labor Day is on May 1:

It’s to commemorate a hard fought, yet forgotten victory for American and immigrant workers that took place right here in the United States: the May 1, 1886 Haymarket Protest in Chicago.

So why doesn’t the US celebrate this?

Murder Charge for Officer Arrested in Oakland BART Killing

(Originally posted (link), on DailyKos. It was an “in-process” story, so it has lots of updates. Please excuse the disjointedness, thanks!)

America is Blue, Baby!

DKOS Version: Debunking RedState America -v.2008.  

cartogram America

Is

Blue,

Baby!!!

(Credit: University of Michigan)

What happened to this map?????  All is answered after the fold!

(Hint: It’s Cool Map thingy time! 😉 )

Why the Callout Diary on the Dkos Reclist Won’t Suceed

I was going to post this at dkos, but I simply don’t have the energy to respond to comments to it there.

So I’ll try it out here 🙂 Maybe you guys can tell me what you think. Or not 🙂

*****

There’s a call-out diary on the rec list.

I sincerely believe its author hopes it will solve the current dkos controversy about criticizing the candidate over FISA and other issues.

The diarist concludes:

I hope it gets those who are so upset about FISA to take action where action will matter

It won’t.

And that’s too bad.

Picture this: 69 Times the Number at Normandy

(As we stagger into year 6 of the war, it seems appropriate to re-post this diary from last April –BL)

News item:

A team of American and Iraqi epidemiologists estimates that 655,000 more people have died in Iraq since coalition forces arrived in March 2003 than would have died if the invasion had not occurred.



It is more than 20 times the estimate of 30,000 civilian deaths that President Bush gave in a speech in December. It is more than 10 times the estimate of roughly 50,000 civilian deaths made by the British-based Iraq Body Count research group.



(update)The survey was done by Iraqi physicians and overseen by epidemiologists at Johns Hopkins University’s Bloomberg School of Public Health

655,000 Iraqis are dead.

That’s a scary number. And a big number. I tried to comprehend how big it is, but my imagination failed me. What’s needed is a visual model that illustrates the enormity of the situation.

The Anti-Impeachers were Dead Wrong

Give me Liberty, or give me Death!

Patrick Henry

I have not yet begun to fight!

John Paul Jones

Impeachment is off the table.

Nancy Pelosi

Federal Fuel Standards Tossed for Ignoring Global Warming

Bravo to the Judiciary branch for doing what the other two can’t or won’t do!

Since the U.S. government announced new fuel efficiency standards in March of 2006, environmentalists and 11 states have argued that the standards do not go far enough to combat the harmful emissions that lead to global warming.

Today, the Ninth Court of Appeals gave a victory to environmentalists and a “rebuke” to the Bush administration in ruling that regulators “failed to properly assess the risk of global warming” in part at least for exempting larger SUVs and trucks.

The court decision is a rebuke to the Bush administration and its refusal to make meaningful steps to reduce global warming pollution from our automobiles,” said Pat Gallagher, director of environmental law at Sierra Club. “The decision tells the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration that it can’t monkey the numbers when it sets fuel economy standards by ignoring the cost of carbon emissions.”

The court’s action invalidates the March 2006 fuel standards for minivans, light trucks and smaller SUV’s.

Jesus of Mesopotamia

There are two major classes of falsehoods the U.S. government uses to justify its incursions into the Middle East and occupation of Iraq.

The first is a contrived threat to the U.S., like Saddams’s cache of WMD’s or links to Al-Qaeda, desgined to invoke fear and patriotism in mainstream Americans. Though much discussed and long ago debunked in the liberal blogosphere, it’s being dusted off and reused for Iran.

The second class of lies is aimed at a different group – the Christian right-wing of America. This catergory of lie says that the U.S. must invade and occupy the Middle East because America’s Christian way of life is threatened by “Islamo-Fascists.” (Any liberal who objects is fascist too.)

The standard m.o. for this class of lie is to denigrate Islam by equating it with terrorism and to paint a picture that shows Muslims hate America for its Christian beliefs. This 2nd class of lies is designed to rally the Christian right to support war and the Republican party – and is the focus of this diary.

Like the first, it allows them to kill with impunity.

Photo Collage © 2007 BentLiberal

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