April 17, 2008 archive

I quote Noam Chomsky & Bill Moyers. (Media issues)

 (I couldn’t think of a title for this ‘essay’. But I like Noam Chomsky and I quote him 🙂

It is obvious our corporate controlled media often fails in its job of keeping the public informed and holding those with power accountable( i.e Iraq). All too often the media is willing to carry the water for the Power elite.

As Noam Chomsky said

We live in an era of media concentration, vast efforts on many fronts (political, economic, military, ideological) to insulate state and private power from critical discussion or even popular awareness, and to reduce citizens to isolated atomized creatures restricted to satisfying personal ‘created wants.’ This massive and coordinated campaign has been partially successful, but only in a limited way.

Four at Four

  1. Why we fight

    Bloomberg reports “Iraq will open at least six major oil and natural-gas fields for exploration and production in its first licensing round since the U.S.-led invasion in 2003, as the country seeks to raise output without a national energy law. Iraq, which pre-qualified international oil companies this week for the bidding round, will open the southern Rumaila, West Qurna and Zubair fields for exploration, Oil Minister Hussain al-Shahristani said in an interview in Brussels today. In the north, international oil companies will be invited to develop the Kirkuk oil field and the Akkaz gas field.”

    Here are some of the pre-qualified companies: Exxon Mobil, Royal Dutch Shell, BP, ConocoPhillips, Chevron. and Total SA. “Others were Russia’s OAO Gazprom, the world’s largest natural-gas producer, and OAO Lukoil, the Russian oil producer with the most overseas assets. Mitsubishi Corp. and Inpex Holding Inc. of Japan and China’s Sinochem Corp. were also accepted.”

  2. Our military men and women pay

    The Los Angeles Times reports 18.5% of Iraq, Afghanistan veterans have depression or PTSD. “Nearly one in five veterans of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars is currently suffering from depression or stress disorders, according to the latest and most comprehensive study of current and former military service members, released today. Less than half of those 300,000 veterans have received care for depression or post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), according to the study, signaling significant problems with the U.S. mental healthcare system.”

    Meanwhile CommonDreams notes that Vets have to press McCain to back greater benefits.


    The McCain Hypocrisy

    According to Disabled American Veterans (DAV), McCain voted almost a dozen separate times against spending additional money on veterans’ health care in 2005 and 2006 – even as hundreds of thousands of soldiers and Marines were returning from Iraq and Afghanistan and filing disability claims with the Department of Veterans Affairs.

    During that time, McCain voted against expanding mental health care and readjustment counseling for returning service members, efforts to expand inpatient and outpatient treatment for injured veterans, and proposals to lower co-payments and enrollment fees veterans must pay to obtain prescription drugs…

    McCain’s vote also helped defeat a proposal by Democratic Senator Debbie Stabenow that would have made veterans’ health care an entitlement programme like social security, so that medical care would not become a political football to be argued over in Congress each budget cycle.

    John McCain supports the troops like George W. Bush does.

Four at Four continues below the fold with news of peace in Iraq and Afghanistan and the booming U.S. economy.

It’s About Freaking Time!

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ABC is the network that BROKE the story of the Torture Conspiracy for gawds sake. But somehow, in spite of the efforts of non-Villagers….the subject never came up.

Pony Party, Phone it in Friday

I never get tired of this one

On the road again……..

New Orleans: Canary in the Coal Mine

(Part of the NOLA/GULF BLOGATHON now ongoing at Dkos, see below for the schedule)

Priorities.

“Our” government is spending $434 million per day, $3 billion per week and $13.2 billion per month on Iraq. And still no one can tell us why, not even it’s architects

As Americas infrastructure crumbles, as the Iraqi government builds a surplus. As New Orleans languishes, still destroyed, still hanging on by a thread, still essentially abandoned by both government and the Republican lauded “private sector.” (Please read commonscribes diary

on the insurance industry and NOLA!)

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Do something on Friday to end the war

Not even General Petraeus can see any light at the end of the tunnel.

There’s no exit plan, no timetable, not even any criteria to know when we’ve achieved the “victory” that George Bush keeps promising.

The Pentagon keeps sending the same troops into the combat zone, over and over and over.

And as long as that continues, the antiwar effort must continue just as doggedly, month in and month out, over and over and over.  There is no other choice except to surrender to the warmongers.

Friday is Iraq Moratorium #8, a day to do something to show that you want the war and the occupation to end.  Please do something.  

300,000 troops had Brain Injuries

Posted, with sadness, anger and frustration:  A just released study from RAND reports more about the costs of our continuing wars.  The mounting cost of war include this:   Study: 300,000 US troops from Iraq, Afghanistan have mental problems, 320,000 brain injuries:

“…Some 300,000 U.S. troops are suffering from major depression or post traumatic stress from serving in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and 320,000 received brain injuries, a new study estimates….Only about half have sought treatment, said the study released Thursday by the RAND Corporation.”

There’s more….

Earth Day Part #1: Katrina and the Environment

This is the first part of a 2-part Earth Day-themed series on environmental issues in the Gulf Region.

Not only were Katrina, the federal flood, and Rita massive human tragedies, they were for reasons which will be detailed below easily this nation’s biggest environmental calamity.

And their potential impacts on human health and life in New Orleans and in the rest of the affected area are still being assessed over 2 1/2-years later. More below the fold…..  

US Senate to defy Rules of Gravity! Spitting Into the Wind now OK! UPDATED

The US Senate has been quite complacent lo these past couple of years since the Democrats took over the Leadership(?) of the Senate.  FISA? check.  

Iran’s Revolutionary Guards a terrorist organization? check.  

No Change of Course in Iraq? check

Impeachment of Officials for lies, torture, myriad other illegal dealings?  No Check Here

Today, the US Senate may (note the word MAY) look to request a Federal Investigation into the changing of wording regarding an earmark installed into a 2005 Highway Funding bill, after the bill had been passed and before it was sent to President Bush.

From CNN:

The Senate may seek a federal investigation into a 2005 earmark on a highway funding bill that was mysteriously altered after Congress approved the measure but before President Bush signed it.

U.S. won’t get a gold medal for human rights w/poll

Original article by Pat LaMarche via bangordailynews.com.

Are we really having discussions about whether or not to participate in the 2008 Olympics? Are people actually sitting in coffee shops discussing whether the civil rights violations in China warrant a U.S. boycott of the opening ceremonies or even the games themselves?

Updated (3x) 2,000 Protest In New Delhi For Tibet, Monks Detained in Tongren

Non-cooperation is directed not against men but against measures. It is not directed against the Governors, but against the system they administer. The roots of non-cooperation lie not in hatred but in justice, if not in love.  —Mahatma Gandhi

Two thousand protesters staged a rival torch relay to protest the arrival of the Olympic torch in New Delhi:

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