Mar 15 2008

Pony Party: Friends

In my mid and late twenties, I wasn’t in a good place. A combination of bad decisions and bad luck landed me in emotional and financial ruin.

And yet in that time when I was hardly equipped to make meaningful connections, I met two people who are today very dear friends. They met me at my worst. One was the girlfriend of a friend, and the other I met while taking prerequisite classes to get into nursing school, and they have taken two very different paths.

D was a successful office manager who fell in love with a man, had a child with him and seemed well on her way to a nice middle class Canadian life when the cracks in their relationship and within her led to am emerging manic depression. She says now she thinks she was depressed her entire life and did not recognize it. She fought for years to try and hold on to her version of a “normal” life and now exists on a small disability pension. Her teenage daughter has chosen to live with her father, a bitter alcoholic, her daughter is behaving in ways that make us think she might head down a similar path as D. D was one of two friends who really reached out to me when I went home to visit my mother and grandmother and knew things with my grandmother weren’t going well because she lives in the same apartment building and speaks to her all the time. d is currently going into another manic phase. She is compliant with her medications. She is moving in with a man who I met and seems quite nice. But I wonder if he will really be able to support her in her peaks and valleys. I have a hard time with it and I have plenty of experience. When she is truly manic, she just cannot listen to anybody. She feels good and is frustrated when those around her express concerns.

P is a vivacious, charming, and hilarious woman. She works as a counselor at a community college helping students with various disabilities/challenges cope and navigate college life. Until recently, her obvious intelligence helped her get several jobs, but they were always on “contract” and at age 45 for the first time in her life she has a decent paying, permanent, union job and has bought a house. P has a tendency to try and “fix” people and has been taken advantage of many. She got quite angry with me years ago when I told her that there are some people with whom you have to cut your losses with and move on, because she firmly and deeply believes people have the capacity to transform their lives. She abhors fatalism and is a committed atheist.

The world is a better place when I am hanging with P. It doesn’t matter what we are doing, the world is a better, more interesting place. She is endlessly curious and inspires that in others. She can walk into any place and make a new friend.

When I am with D, I am amazed by her capacity to reach out to others when she herself carries so many burdens.

This is for friends I have drifted from, friends I have lost, and friends I perhaps did not recognize…..

Please don’t rec pony party, hang out, chit chat and then go read some of the excellent offerings on our recent and rec’d list.

Mar 15 2008

Winter Soldier 2008 – News Reports

And so from the spectre of the summer soldier who shrinks from the hard truths and his country’s crises, comes the Winter Soldier who will not look away.  

As September 11th happened this country went into shock quickly reverting to a want for revenge and retaliation. Quickly ridding ourselves of the apathy of what had already been occurring for years, Criminal Terrorism, here but mostly abroad, targetting U.S. Interests, Civilians, and Allies. We went after an obscure group, and it’s leader, known as al Qaeda, as well as those harbering the Taliban, in Afganistan, we’re still there, and not doing what we promised once we rid that country of the Taliban, Re-Building to help that country come back from years of Warring much of it Supplied, the Afgan/Soviet Conflict, by us. It’s leader bin Laden still roams, al Qaeda has grown more World Wide than before, Why? because those that gain Wealth and Power from War saw their chance to replace the long running, so called, Cold War, Perpetual War, Long Running and Extremely Profitable. So they sent our military to invade an Innocent Country, Iraq, to take done a once Allie, who we installed, welcomed, supported, for years paid, and supplied with the needed military ordinance, and more, to sustain his dictatorship over it’s people. We carry and Support, in our stable, a number of Dictators, we always have, reason many Hate Us!

Joplin Independent

Speaking out against war

A soldier has one paramount concern: coming back alive. But what happens when he or she does return but with a conscience wracked by guilt?

As one soldier said, he didn’t want violence to conquer him and that he was at Winter Soldier 2008 as a way to deal with it.

where rules of engagement were changed to suit the need for retaliation by soldiers, some psychologically challenged by having to serve on a third tour of duty and, of course the overriding concern: to bring each other home alive.

And “Wave the flag. Let someone else fight your battles” was a message to the American people who’ve supported the war.

Visit War Comes Home to Replay previous testimony and opening statements and to listen to todays testimony. Someone asked about Transcripts yesterday, as they have hearing problems, Transcripts are now up at this site as well.

Visit IVAW – Iraq Veterans Against The War to Watch, online, and get further information. Should warn, this site was on Overload yesterday so you couldn’t reach it.

We gave to the innocent of Iraq a Thousand 9/11’s starting with ‘Shock and Awe’, not planes flying out of the sky’s, but bombs dropped from planes, rockets from bases and ships, and thousands in a Military of the move of Invasion, Tons of Ordinance of WMD’s and Destruct we did, five years later We’re Still There as a Hated Occupation Force trying to Dictate to the people of Iraq how they should live and the Political Ideology we want to force on them as well as Religious Ideology!

Speaking of Religion, we went from Revenge towards an Obscure Group of partly Religious Fanatisism to Condemning and Waging War on a Whole Religious Ideology, Islam, and all that believe and follow that religion that most don’t understand nor want to.

The People of Iraq are Living Their 9/11, 24/7, now for Five Long Years!

And some can’t understand why they have growing Rage and Hatred seeking Revenge and Retaliation, those that can’t understand that others are no differant than us seek some sort of Victory, something they can’t define but desperately want, as the Numbers Of Killed and Maimed continuely rise, on all sides, with the Innocent Suffering The Most, they always do!

AlterNet

Who Supports the Troops?

If I were a far better writer, I might — might — be able to convey the intensity of these Winter Soldier hearings.

On the way in were a few dozen right-wing protesters organized by the “Gathering of Eagles” — a spin-off from the “Vietnam Vets for Truth” started during the 2004 campaign to go after Kerry. I’ve seen them at antiwar protests, and what struck me was that their messages were unchanged — ‘support the troops.’ The concept that those giving testimony inside were the troops — several with chests weighed down with decorations and metals — was the definition of cognitive dissonance.

I have a question for “Gathering of Eagles”, and the other groups using political ideology to define, as a matter of fact Thousands of us Veterans wonder the same thing, “if you “Support The Troops” why is it that you carry Nothing on your Sites, nor in your Rethoric, about the Rage you should be feeling about All the reports, finally coming forward, as to the Care of these Same Troops when they Return or are Re-Deployed or Discharged?”!!!

Visit War Comes Home to Replay previous testimony and opening statements and to listen to todays testimony. Someone asked about Transcripts yesterday, as they have hearing problems, Transcripts are now up at this site as well.

Visit IVAW – Iraq Veterans Against The War to Watch, online, and get further information. Should warn, this site was on Overload yesterday so you couldn’t reach it.

Uruknet.info, Italy

“We Reacted Out of Fear, and With Total Destruction”

“We were driving in Baghdad one day and found a dead body on the side of the road,” Viges said. “We pulled over to secure the area and my friends jumped off and started taking pictures with it, smiling. They asked me if I wanted to join them and I said no, but not because it was unethical, but because it wasn’t my kill. Because you shouldn’t take trophies with those you didn’t kill. I wasn’t upset this man was dead, but just that they shouldn’t be taking credit for something they didn’t do. But that’s war.”

“We’re disrupting the lives of our veterans with this occupation, not only the lives of Iraqis. If a foreign occupying force came here to the U.S., do you not think that every person that has a shotgun would not come out of the hills and fight for their right for self-determination?”



“Five Years Too Many”

Visit War Comes Home to Replay previous testimony and opening statements and to listen to todays testimony. Someone asked about Transcripts yesterday, as they have hearing problems, Transcripts are now up at this site as well.

Visit IVAW – Iraq Veterans Against The War to Watch, online, and get further information. Should warn, this site was on Overload yesterday so you couldn’t reach it.

Watertown Daily Times

Former 10th corporal speaks out against war

Event in Maryland attracts dozens who participated in U.S. mission in Iraq

Philip Aliff isn’t afraid to admit he was in the Army for the money. But even that – his salary, a $7,000 signing bonus and money for college – wasn’t worth what he learned in Iraq.

Mr. Aliff, who was with the 10th Mountain Division’s 1st Brigade Combat Team from Fort Drum, said the situation was far more violent than the rebuilding effort commanders advertised or were prepared to handle.

The result, he said, were contradictory messages for Iraqi civilians as U.S. forces arrested scores of fighting-age men on flimsy suspicion of wrongdoing, only to let them go a few days later.

“We’d hand kids soccer balls,” said Mr. Aliff, whose duties included daily combat patrols in Abu Ghraib City and, later, the more violent area near Fallujah in 2005. “They’d see us on the one hand giving them things, and on the other hand arresting their families.”

“My service in the military has been the greatest honor in my life,” said Luis Montalvan, who left the Army as a captain with 17 years of experience and said he suffers post-traumatic stress syndrome. He wore his Army medals at a press conference Thursday, ahead of the event.

One of the many lessons Not Learned from Vietnam, Winning Hearts and Minds, no matter how much Good might be done It’s Quickly wiped off the slate of Good Feelings and Intentions when there are Killings and Maimings, Homes Destroyed, and Occupation Dictates!

Visit War Comes Home to Replay previous testimony and opening statements and to listen to todays testimony. Someone asked about Transcripts yesterday, as they have hearing problems, Transcripts are now up at this site as well.

Visit IVAW – Iraq Veterans Against The War to Watch, online, and get further information. Should warn, this site was on Overload yesterday so you couldn’t reach it.

The Daily Star, Oneonta

Listen to our soldiers speak-In LTE March 15th

Politicians have constantly changed the rationale for our being there, and media images avoid tough realities of what that war is actually like.

“This is a moment when veterans won’t let anyone else speak for us. We hear from the pundits, we hear from the politicians, … (but) … We’re the ones who can bring out the cruelties and dehumanization in U.S. foreign policy.”

Visit War Comes Home to Replay previous testimony and opening statements and to listen to todays testimony. Someone asked about Transcripts yesterday, as they have hearing problems, Transcripts are now up at this site as well.

Visit IVAW – Iraq Veterans Against The War to Watch, online, and get further information. Should warn, this site was on Overload yesterday so you couldn’t reach it.

Washington Post

War Stories Echo an Earlier Winter

Grim-faced and sorrowful, former soldiers and Marines sat before an audience of several hundred yesterday in Silver Spring and shared their recollections of their service in Iraq.

The stories spilled out, sometimes haltingly, sometimes in a rush: soldiers firing indiscriminately on Iraqi vehicles, an apartment building filled with Iraqi families devastated by an American gunship. Some descriptions were agonized, some vague; others offered specific dates and locations. All were recorded and streamed live to the Web.

For some of the veterans speaking yesterday, the experience was catharsis.

Visit War Comes Home to Replay previous testimony and opening statements and to listen to todays testimony. Someone asked about Transcripts yesterday, as they have hearing problems, Transcripts are now up at this site as well.

Visit IVAW – Iraq Veterans Against The War to Watch, online, and get further information. Should warn, this site was on Overload yesterday so you couldn’t reach it.

Video – Iraq Veterans Speak Out On Both Sides of War

“I’m sorry for the hate and destruction I’ve inflicted upon innocent people,” Turner said. “Until people hear about what is happening in this war, it will continue.”

Part of the original, and now the present, Winter Soldier, is to voice the understanding, to those Invaded, of what has happened and how one now realizes what they have forced on others, the Death, the Destruction, and the Degradation and seek forgiveness!

After the first ‘Winter Soldier’, and once the conflict in Vietnam ended and it was safe to reenter the country, long before their government was recognized by the U.S., many Vietnam Veterans traveled to and started working with the Vietnamesse to help Right the Wrong, they Still Do!

Visit War Comes Home to Replay previous testimony and opening statements and to listen to todays testimony. Someone asked about Transcripts yesterday, as they have hearing problems, Transcripts are now up at this site as well.

Visit IVAW – Iraq Veterans Against The War to Watch, online, and get further information. Should warn, this site was on Overload yesterday so you couldn’t reach it.

Stars and Stripes

Veterans groups offer different views of conflict

A pair of veterans groups on opposite sides of the country this week are offering drastically different views of the war in Iraq and the future of U.S. troops there.

In Washington on Thursday, Iraq Veterans Against the War launched its four-day Winter Soldier event, which organizers promise will show evidence of systemic war crimes, war profiteering and mismanaged strategy that has cost troops’ lives.

In San Diego on Friday, Vets for Freedom launched a month- long, 22-city tour to highlight stories of heroism from Iraq, and to encourage communities to continue their support of the mission overseas.

To ‘Vets for Freedom’, read above on ‘Winning Hearts and Minds’, and same Question as asked to ‘Gathering of Eagles’!

Visit War Comes Home to Replay previous testimony and opening statements and to listen to todays testimony. Someone asked about Transcripts yesterday, as they have hearing problems, Transcripts are now up at this site as well.

Visit IVAW – Iraq Veterans Against The War to Watch, online, and get further information. Should warn, this site was on Overload yesterday so you couldn’t reach it.

Mar 15 2008

Docudharma Times Saturday March 15



Grim-faced and forbidding,

Their faces closed tight,

An angular mass of new yorkers

Pacing in rhythm,

Saturday’s Headlines: Behind Bear Stearns Rescue Plan, a Wall St. Domino Theory: Inside the slave trade: Olympic year gives nationalists chance to intensify campaign: We will not let Mugabe be beaten, police and army chiefs warn: Nigerian deals ‘wasted billions’:  I fought for my land against the US. Now I fight alongside them: Iran polls vote count under way: Veto keeps Guatemala executions on hold:  Meet the new mob

Gunfire on the streets of Lhasa as rallies turn violent

Witnesses report killings and attacks on Chinese in fiercest protests for 20 years

China was struggling last night to bring Lhasa, Tibet’s capital, under control after the fiercest anti-government protests for 20 years led to rioting and gunfire on the streets yesterday.

Authorities ordered a curfew and deployed thousands of police officers around the city after a day of turmoil in which eyewitnesses reported hearing automatic gunfire, tanks were seen in the centre and armed police used water cannon and teargas as young Tibetans set security vehicles on fire and stoned Chinese residents.

A witness said Chinese drivers were carried from vehicles with bloodied faces after being beaten by angry youths.

USA

Behind Bear Stearns Rescue Plan, a Wall St. Domino Theory

The Federal Reserve’s unusual decision to provide emergency assistance to Bear Stearns underscores a long-building concern that one failure could spread across the financial system.

Wall Street firms like Bear Stearns conduct business with many individuals, corporations, financial companies, pension funds and hedge funds. They also do billions of dollars of business with each other every day, borrowing and lending securities at a dizzying pace and fueling the wheels of capitalism.

Barack Obama distances himself from pastor who denounced ‘racist’ US

Barack Obama was forced to distance himself yesterday from his former pastor and religious mentor, who has made racially charged criticisms of Hillary Clinton and suggested that the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, showed that “America’s chickens are coming home to roost”.

The black liberationist theology of the Rev Jeremiah Wright, who retired last month from the Chicago church attended by Mr Obama, has previously barely flickered as an issue in the presidential race.

In the past 48 hours, however, after a week in which both Democratic candidates have had to jettison supporters for making controversial statements, Mr Wright has emerged as a significant problem for Mr Obama.

Asia

Inside the slave trade

They are promised a better life. But every year, countless boys and girls in Bangladesh are spirited away to brothels where they have to prostitute themselves with no hope of freedom

Special investigation by Johann Hari

Saturday, 15 March 2008

This is the story of the 21st century’s trade in slave-children. My journey into their underworld took place where its alleys and brothels are most dense – Asia, where the United Nations calculates 1 million children are being traded every day. It took me to places I did not think existed, today, now. To a dungeon in the lawless Bangladeshi borderlands where children are padlocked and prison-barred in transit to Indian brothels; to an iron whore-house where grown women have spent their entire lives being raped; to a clinic that treat syphilitic 11-year-olds.

But this story begins like all these stories begin: with a girl, and a lie. Sufia comes to talk to me in a centre for children who have been rescued, funded by Comic Relief – which is having its major Sport Relief funding run this weekend. She has only ever talked about it to her counsellors here. But she wants the world to know what happened to her.

Olympic year gives nationalists chance to intensify campaign

For President Hu Jintao the violent clashes that rocked Lhasa yesterday must bring on a feeling of deja vu. The last time Tibet’s capital experienced such turmoil, in 1989, Hu was general secretary of the Tibetan communist party – the most powerful politician in the region.

Then, as now, security forces and Tibetan protesters clashed outside the Jokhang, the holiest Tibetan temple, rioters burned police cars outside the Potala palace and troops surrounded monasteries.

But it is the differences that may be more relevant in understanding why the protests are taking place today and how Hu might respond.

In 1989 the eyes of the world were distracted. It was a year of protest in which the Berlin Wall fell and the Tiananmen Square massacre occurred. The clashes in Tibet were a small part of what seemed – in the west – a bigger, global story.

Africa

We will not let Mugabe be beaten, police and army chiefs warn

Zimbabwe’s police and army chiefs have said they will not allow Robert Mugabe to be defeated in this month’s presidential election by opposition candidates they deride as “puppets” and “sell-outs” to Britain.

The warning comes amid mounting evidence that Mugabe intends to try to repeat the rigging that he used to steal the 2002 election through intimidating rural voters, padding voters rolls and hindering opposition supporters from casting their ballots on March 29.

The police commissioner, Augustine Chihuri, said he would not recognise a victory by Morgan Tsvangirai, leader of the opposition Movement for Democratic Change, or by Mugabe’s former finance minister Simba Makoni, who appears to pose the greater threat to the president after breaking from the ruling Zanu-PF and taking some party members with him.

Nigerian deals ‘wasted billions’

Some $2.2bn-worth of Nigerian energy contracts were awarded without a bidding process by the former president and his energy minister, officials say.

One was to a company with less than $200 of base capital at the time, a witness told a parliamentary committee.

It is investigating why $16bn of investment in the energy sector during Olusegun Obasanjo’s eight years in power failed to end power shortages.

Ex-President Abdulsalami Abubakar heads one of the firms, the committee heard.

He is chairman of Energo Nigeria Ltd, which received a $163m contract to build a power station by 2009.

Middle East

I fought for my land against the US. Now I fight alongside them

An Iraqi tells our correspondent of his long and violent journey to the side of the alliance forces

As a loyal officer under Saddam Hussein, the Iraqi major never imagined that one day he would become an insurgent, but when Iraq fell five years ago he was left bitter, jobless and desperate to drive the invading forces out.

“I saw my country collapse right in front of my eyes,” said Abu Abdullah, who has since orchestrated countless attacks against the US military, spent time in the notorious Abu Ghraib detention centre and briefly joined forces with al-Qaeda.

Iran polls vote count under way

Vote counting is under way in Iran after parliamentary elections which conservatives are expected to win after many reformists were barred.

Partial results from 32 of the 290 seats at stake showed candidates allied to President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad leading, the Associated Press reported.

Hardliners were set to win 19 seats, reformists eight and moderate conservatives five, the agency said.

Many candidates opposed to Mr Ahmadinejad were barred from standing.

An Iranian official claimed that turnout had been as high as 65%, the BBC’s Jon Leyne in Tehran reports.

Latin America

Veto keeps Guatemala executions on hold

GUATEMALA CITY – Guatemalan President Alvaro Colom on Friday vetoed a bill that would have reinstated capital punishment and given the president the power to commute death penalty sentences.

There are 34 prisoners in limbo on death row after a high court in 2002 suspended executions, ruling that presidential reprieves on death penalty cases were unconstitutional.

The vetoed measure, approved overwhelmingly in February by lawmakers, would have given Colom the authority to decide whether the prisoners in question are executed by lethal injection or have their sentences commuted to the maximum 50 years in prison.

Mass grave unearthed in midst of Mexico’s drug war

The remains of 33 people are found in a shallow grave on an abandoned property in the border town of Ciudad Juarez.

MEXICO CITY — Authorities in Ciudad Juarez said Friday that they had uncovered the remains of 33 people buried in the yard of an abandoned property, a mass grave believed to be linked to the city’s violent drug trade.

The grisly discovery surfaced as part of a recent government crackdown on narcotics traffickers in this city across the border from El Paso that has been gripped by a spasm of drug-related killing unseen in years. Authorities said the Juarez drug cartel might be involved in the deaths.

Europe

Meet the new mob

In one of two exclusive extracts from his book on organised crime, a leading writer reveals how the fall of the USSR spawned a new mafia, which is alive and well and working in the UK

At 9pm on April 30 1994, a man emerged from his red Toyota outside a house in Willow Way, Woking. Carrying a flat blue and white box, he strolled up to the front door and tapped on it. Inside, Karen Reed, a 33-year-old geophysicist, was enjoying a glass of wine with a friend when they heard the man’s muffled voice through the window. “Have you ordered a pizza?” he inquired. Karen opened the door, whereupon the pizza man drew a .38 pistol and shot her several times in the head. The killer then ran back to the car and drove off.

Karen Reed was not the intended victim. There was a reason for the murderer’s confusion, however. His real target was Karen’s sister, Alison Ponting, a producer at the BBC World Service who was living with Karen at the time but happened to be out that evening. The killing had probably been carried out at the instigation of Dzhokhar Dudayev, then president of the republic of Chechnya.

Mar 15 2008

Burning the Midnight Oil for Living Energy Independence

Excerpted from Burning the Midnight Oil for Living Energy Independence, forthcoming], in the [Burning the Midnight Oil blog-within-a-blog, hosted by kos, though to the best of my knowledge he doesn’t know it.

I’ve been looking at Tiny Houses, and man, do they strike me as cool. It makes me want to find granny flat designs and see if I could build one, truth be told.

For example, these above are from The Tumbleweed Tiny House Company. Their smallest house is the 70 square foot Biensi … but, of course, some people would not consider that a house, since it has no bathroom or shower. To get that, you need to “supersize” to their second smallest floorplan, the XS-House, at 75 square feet.

Tumbleweed only sells the finished houses that can be towed as a trailer … for the very largest of their houses, like the 770 square foot monster the Ernesti (pictured above left, at the size that 770 sq. feet must seem in the age of McMansions), they only sell plans, as it must be built on site.

What a difference from a FEMA Trailer

For many people in the Tiny House movement, this is a move to voluntary simplicity. Living in a house that would be smaller than the larger closet in many a McMansion is an exercise in deciding what is important and what is trivial.

What is important? If your house costs $20,000 or $40,000, and you can pack all of your things away in place and rent a pick-up truck to move cross country … what does that mean about your approach to your career … profession … possibly, vocation? If your heat and cooking bill is under $20 a month … what does that mean to your standard of living when the costs of fossil fuels double?

Where do you “save up your treasures on earth” if it takes longer for your neighbor to pay off a new car than it takes you to pay off your house?

Of course, a 120 square foot house does not consume the resources to build as the “normal American house”. Less space to heat or cool means, of course, less energy … with the craftsmanship that goes into many of the pre-built Tiny Houses, they are efficient to heat or cool already; a few Household Heat Pumps could probably do the job. And in the winter you yourself make a much more substantial contribution to the heating of the space.

For others, necessity is a Real Mother … of invention. Lee Martin of Mississippi, specializing in restoring historic homes before Katrina, moved into a Tumbleweed Tiny House after Katrina destroyed the c.1787 Old Spanish Customs House were they lived … and:

After Hurricane Katrina swept everything we own out to sea, a funny thing happened on the way to homelessness.

We had a vision, a vision of helping thousands of people caught in the ebb and flow of life (and of the sea) who need portable, affordable, well-built, well-designed housing. A vision of things to come – on wheels.

And we liked what we saw. And pronounced it good.

And called it Fresh Start.

The Fresh Start designed pictured here goes for slightly less than Tumbleweed homes, around $30,000 introductory price for what I reckon must be in excess of 100 sq. feet … for some reason, House-To-Go is not as eager to tell people as Tumbleweed how many square feet their Fresh Start model Tiny Home is.

Are You Crackers, that’s a full-sized truck hauling that thing!

Of course, there is one, shall we say, “hitch” to all this.

The way that many tiny house builders seem to avoid discriminatory zoning regulation, designed to force houses to be above a certain size in order to avoid people moving into the neighborhood who cannot afford a big house … well, until you take it off the trailer, its not a house. Its not a house until you take it off the trailer and put it onto a foundation. Then … well, then I guess you would get to live in a trailer park, if you can find room … maybe over the line from the town proper in the township, or over the line from the suburb with the nice schools to the one with the not so nice ones.

But an awful lot of stress is placed on hitching the wagon to the ox team and getting the hell out of Dodge, if that takes your fancy. And that means that your vehicle … well, lets work that out. If that truck and that house is it, then unless there is a much smaller car in the back of the pick-up, you’ve got a full-size truck as your basic set of wheels.

Now, if its a case of moving the house from one place to another after two years, or five years, and that truck is rented, and you drop off the truck at the rental place at the destination, take the train back, and drive your Puggable Hybrid Electric version of the Carver to the new site … well, that’s one thing. But if those are your main wheels hauling it from one place to another in a nomadic existence … that is going to end up being a might tough baby to keep sucking down its gallons of gasoline when gas hits $10/barrel.

But … these are well-made, well-insulated houses, you can’t expect them to be as tow-able as a pop-up tent-trailer, can you?

Well, maybe not … but …

OK, here’s an idea I’ve expressed before. Say that you have a small (from American standards … an American ‘compact’ is a full sized sedan for much of the world) Pluggable Hybrid Electric Vehicle (PHEV). And suppose it is a fully serial PHEV, with a high efficiency flex-fuel or diesel constant speed engine driving a generator, and all-electric traction.

OK, now, a lot of the efficiency is that instead of the engine running constantly at partial throttle, the engine only ever runs at peak efficiency, and when it gets far enough ahead in terms of charging the batteries, it shuts down.

OK, now, suppose … just suppose … that there are also electric motors in the trailer. Not enough for the trailer to go on its own … just enough to take a lot of the strain off the towing PHEV. Maybe there’s also additional batteries … but the main thing is, it doesn’t tow like you are hauling a Tiny House.

And of course as a bonus, that means you have dynamic braking in the trailer, both giving the benefit of trailer brakes, and also recovering some of that energy that you invested into getting the thing rolling.

So now make that picture above a compact PHEV, probably with a mountain bike on a roof rack, towing a house behind it.

I can’t snap that picture, but I can imagine it, and it makes for a much better fit.

Oh, yeah, and there is a side benefit here. Whichever company comes out with the fully-serial PHEV compact with the power and control signals coming out the plug it designs … working with several manufacturers of simple trailers as well as trailer frames for RV makers … gets a jump on that market. They are the ones selling the cars that can feed juice to the trailer and allow people to haul trailers with a car they can afford to drive around as their regular car … even as gas continues its inexorable march to and past $10/gallon.

That car company, well they stand to make a lot of money taking market share away from their rivals.

And this is an extremely American market … if it was one of the American car makers that were to bring this innovation to market, that is the one I would expect to have the best chance to survive the transition away from gasoline in the two decades ahead.

Heck, by that time it might not be a very big market they are surviving in, but if you ask any business firm, whatever the size of their market, most of them would rather be King of the Mountain.

Midnight Oil – King of the Mountain (1990)

…

Over liquid tarmac wastelands of cactus and heat

Down cobblestone alleyways of washing day sheets

Up ghost prairie mountains of sunset and space

Down the road a familiar face

Across the wilderness

Out further than the bush

I will follow you

Mar 15 2008

Hello, It is Good to See You

This meshes well with the Friday Night at 8 theme.

You many not know me, but I assuredly know many of you. In fact, I have been looking for you.

I was fortunate enough to cut my blogging teeth at a fantastic site called DailyKos. I could not have been any luckier than the day a business associate pointed my zombie self at that site. At the time, I was convinced I had gone mad because certainly the whole country couldn’t be crazy, could it? The news gave no indication that my reasoning was valid, and even the persistent warble and frequent shrieks of my bullshit detector was not registering on the MSM’s radar at all. More than just a social outlet, blogging became the real news for me.

Since I recognize many of the names here, I don’t have to tell you how great you all are; diligent, progressive thinkers bla bla bla, sharing common goals for the good of all man bla bla bla, not encumbered by dogmas or exclusive beliefs bla bla bla, who dispense wisdom in beautiful, susinct little bundles. Bla bla bla.

I would like to share with you a short tale of a brief relationship I once had. It is probably not the most politically correct story, but I’m worn down to a nub so I am just going to tell.

I am a male who is quite enamored with the opposite sex, and this can easily be exploited in much the same way as wrapping a hook with a tasty worm can exploit a fish’s… hunger for food. On one occasion, I fell head over heals with what at first I thought was a woman. She had all the qualities a naive young man might first look for in a woman – a pretty face, and an ample bosom.

Later, when it was revealed that she was not a woman at all, but some form of blood sucking life capable of mimicking human speech did I realize that I should stand on my wobbly legs, try not to pass out, and run for my life. I have talked with women who shared similar tales of encountering man-like creatures. A common thread in all the victims seems to be a willingness to suspend reason and an unwillingness to look directly at the glamor for fear that it is not real. Only when we accept the glamor for what it is can we move on to a happier place for ourselves. Sure nice tits and a pretty face are good, but hearts and brains are sexy too. I have done fairly (ouch!) very well since developing my heart and brain fetish.

It’s not always a case of being victimized; sometimes people simply change. Assigning blame does nothing. Keeping the other person in a hole until it puts the lotion on doesn’t help either. The bottom line is… we all want to be happy, right?

So is a blog a person? Sure many contribute, but it certainly has its own personality too. Off the top of my head, I would say the personality of a blog is about 50% that of the founder, and 50% that of the contributors. That sure sounds like an equal partnership, and either partner is capable of creating a sea change in the overall environment. If the environment becomes toxic to us, we must adapt, move, or die.

I’m not going to leave a GBCW at DailyKos because there are still people writing on that site whom I greatly admire and will continue to check in on. It is still a great font of information and a place I might still ask questions of. However, I posted two bitter diaries there in the last week or so before it hit me that I’m now arguing with a lover over petty shit and that we just cannot see eye-to-eye anymore. I would rather we remain friends than hurt one another.

I got lucky again last night when I noticed Buhdy’s kind tip-of-the-hat to Meteor Blades, mcjoan, and KagroX. I can’t believe it took me so long to take a look here – especially given my brains-and-heart fetish. It’s not like he tried to woo me by showing some leg, it was the comfortable name, comfortable brain, and great heart he showed to three great people.

I had lost the love and I guess I have been looking to be smitten once again.

Smoters, is what you all are; smoters.

🙂

Now I’m on the spot; I don’t know what to say in extended text.

Mar 15 2008

Random Japan

Oh, that explains it

Chiba police arrested a 30-year-old local government worker for possessing over 100 videos with footage taken by a camera hidden in public toilets. In admitting the charges, the man said he did it “because it’s my hobby.”

A 44-year-old Defense Ministry official who snuck into a home in Gunma Prefecture to steal women’s underwear said he did so “to satisfy my sexual desires.”

After being arrested for punching a convenience store clerk in Kyoto while drunk, noted film director Koichi Yamashita (Kyoto Meikyu Annai) claimed, “I never hit him.”

A 50-year-old Sapporo man who claimed to be blind but who could actually see well enough to hold a drivers license was arrested for welfare fraud.

A female high school student in Oita was found in violation of both the Cannabis Control and the Narcotic and Psychotropic Substances Control Laws after cops busted her with pot and ecstasy.

Red Sox brace for long flight to Japan and 4 games against the Athletics

Big Papi has big plans for the Red Sox’ very long flight to Japan – eat, sleep, and win all of Jonathan Papelbon’s money playing cards.

“He’s a good player, but he’s got bad luck,” David Ortiz says. “So he better bring his whole bank account on the airplane. We always kill him. He’s loud when he’s winning, then boom, he’s quiet.”

Fortunately for Pap – and maybe for Papi – Boston’s star closer was rewarded with a $775,000 contract this month, nearly doubling last year’s salary of $425,000.

Looking For a Hole? Look in Hokkaido.

It may not go to China or the Center of the Earth but its still a hole.

Hair Becomes a Crime Victim

Who knew having hair would be a crime

Teachers Refused Room at the Inn

Those teachers! A “Wild Bunch”

How wandering hands on packed trains can land you in jail, hospital, or the grave

Catching trains in Japan should be like soccer, with those who use their hands incurring a foul, veteran journalist Atsushi Mizoguchi tells Shukan Gendai (3/15).

“I don’t mean the railway attendant who pushes people into carriages during the morning peak periods, because there’s not much you can do about that. And you can’t blame women for using their hands to form a barrier to protect their breasts. These are situations where the overcrowded trains mean we have to show a little give and take. What I really hate are those passengers who deliberately use their hands to push other people,” Mizoguchi tells Shukan Post.

Mar 15 2008

House denies telecomms immunity.

The U.S. House of Representatives today refused to grant telecommunications companies retroactive immunity for assisting dictator George W. Bush in his illegal spying.

I interrupt this report for a brief rant: I really wish Reuters and other news agencies would cease using the word ‘defy’ and its derivatives when reporting about stories such as this.  Congress is the legislative body, and the branches of government are supposed to be co-equal.  Congress cannot, according to the Constitution, defy the executive branch because it is not subservient to it.

I now return to the story at hand.

But the 213-197 vote was far short of the two-thirds majority needed to override a promised veto by Bush. He has demanded that any telecommunication company that participated in his warrantless domestic spying program secretly begun after the September 11 attacks receive retroactive immunity.

As MSNBC reports, ‘Because of the promised veto, “this vote has no impact at all,” said Republican Whip Rep. Roy Blunt of Missouri.’

Republicans falsely accused Democrats of endangering national security by refusing to grant immunity.  But their arguments are based on deception; since the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act — passed in 1978 and updated in 1994 — set up a secret court that doles out ninety-nine percent of all warrants applied for, there is no legal block to using the power of the federal government to spy on alleged terrorist communications.  It is also unlikely that terrorists would be foolish enough to use telephone and Internet services to pass on information.

Bush’s illegal spying on American citizens is motivated, like Richard Nixon’s administration, to keep tabs on political enemies and to monitor dissent.  If telecommunications companies face prosecution for their role in helping him break the law, they may be more likely to cooperate with investigators to go after members of the White House who ordered the illegal wiretaps.  Bush wants to provide immunity in order to take away any incentive for that cooperation, because testimony and evidence is likely to directly implicate him in lawbreaking.

Cross-posted from EENR

Mar 15 2008

Tibet Crisis Continues + ACTION ITEMS

In case you haven’t heard, there’ve been protests in Tibet the last few days marking the 49th anniversary of the Tibetan National Uprising. These are some of the biggest demonstrations the country’s seen since the 1980s. The Chinese government has clamped down hard and violence has broken out.

Violent protests erupted Friday in a busy market area of Lhasa, the Tibetan capital, as Buddhist monks and other ethnic Tibetans clashed with Chinese security forces. Witnesses say the protesters burned shops, cars, military vehicles and at least one tourist bus.

The chaotic scene marked the most violent demonstrations since protests by Buddhist monks began in Lhasa on Monday, which was the anniversary of a failed Tibetan uprising against Chinese rule in 1959. The ongoing protests have been the largest in Tibet since the late 1980s, when Chinese security forces repeatedly used lethal force to restore order in the region.

The developments prompted the Dalai Lama, the exiled spiritual leader of Tibetan Buddhism, to issue a statement, saying that he was concerned about the situation and appealing to the Chinese leadership to “stop using force and address the long-simmering resentment of the Tibetan people.”

This particular media report skipped the last part of his statement: “I also urge my fellow Tibetans not to resort to violence.”

It’s a shame to see the patience of such a peaceful country tested so ruthlessly. Even loyalty to a principle as pure as nonviolence can be broken under some circumstances. It seems that 50 years of slow motion genocide qualifies.

Times of London reports today:

In the Barkhor market that winds around the Jokhang temple, Tibet’s holiest site, they reported the bodies of two Tibetan men and two Tibetan women. The body of a Tibetan man was seen in the Lugu district and a Tibetan woman lay dead on Qingnian Road, near the city centre. They said all appeared to have been shot but no monks were seen among the dead.

Many ethnic Han Chinese, a minority in Tibet, were wounded in attacks by Tibetans hurling rocks and bricks as they vented their anger against Beijing rule. Residents said a number of Han had been killed but no figures were available as the city was engulfed in chaos.

One Han Chinese was stabbed by a Tibetan directly in front of the institute of traditional Tibetan medicine, a witness said. The Lhasa Municipal People’s Hospital said nine of the wounded were receiving treatment for injuries ranging from stab wounds to head injuries.

One nurse said: “We have given people stitches and others have been bandaged. Most of the injured were Han Chinese.” Long after night fell, fires blazed across the city as mobs of angry young Tibetans set light to shops and cars owned by Han Chinese. “There is smoke everywhere still, even this late at night,” said one resident.

ACTION ITEM 1: Petition to China’s Ambassador to the United Nations Guangya Wang. Preview:

Hundreds of Tibetans inside Tibet have carried out protest demonstrations over the past two days, marking the 49th anniversary of the Tibetan National Uprising. Protests of this scale are rare inside Tibet because of the absolute lack of political space. With the Olympic spotlight on China, Tibetans inside Tibet see this as a critical opportunity to challenge China’s rule in Tibet and to demand freedom.

It is critical that the protesters receive the full support of the global community. Please show the Chinese government that the whole world is watching and demand the immediate release of all Tibetans who have been detained in these peaceful protests.

ACTION ITEM 2: Tell Congress to support Tibet. The U.S./Bush response so far has been weak. This morning, White House spokesman Tony Fratto said he’s “not aware” of any high-level contact between the U.S. and Chinese governments over this yet, although the U.S. ambassador has “urged restraint” in dealing with protesters. In any event, we can and should do better. What with the genocide Olympics going on, China is supposed to be on its best behavior.

Click here for further actions. If you have others, please give me links and I’ll update.

Here’s hoping no more blood is shed and a fair solution can be found.

Mar 15 2008

Funkalicious Friday: Interesting Days

Yessireebob, indeed, indeed yes indeedy do…..no doobt aboot it, by golly…ayup, ayup uh-huh…



heh

Mar 15 2008

Friday Night at 8: Temptation

Mick Jagger, it is said, didn’t like this version of the tune so didn’t release it for a long time.  But it suits my purposes for this essay, and I kinda like it.

Pleased to meet you … hope you guessed my name …

Found an interesting etymological factoid about the word “temptation”:

[Origin: 1175-1225; ME temptacion < L tempt?ti?n- (s. of tempt?ti?) a testing.

Emphasis mine!

Been reading a lot of folks’ reactions to the Spitzer scandal (of course my view is that the real story is, sadly, being missed in the bright shiny distractions of sex and our lamestream media (h/t lasthorseman).

And of course we have Jeffrey Lieber’s essay which went into quite a bit of detail as to what it would take to make him do something so universally derided as stupid and hypocritical and idiotic and such … though at the end it seems Mr. Lieber would not have given in to temptation no matter how … well … tempting!

Now me?  I tend to have followed the philosophy of Oscar Wilde:

I can resist anything except temptation.

Well maybe those weren’t Wilde’s exact words, but you catch my drift, I’m sure.

I think it’s awfully easy to look at someone else’s really huge mistakes and proclaim after the fact, “Well, I would NEVER do something so damned stupid!”  And no doubt we wouldn’t do that exact stupid thing.

But temptation is a tricky force, I think, and I’m kind of superstitious about it, to the point where I try not to say “I’ll never ____.”  Because I’ve found that the moment I say I’ll “never” do something, damned if I don’t end up doing it!  And that kind of annoys me.

And of course we have the great historic religious temptations … Jesus being tempted by the Devil, that he will have absolute power on earth if he only swears allegiance to that man of wealth and taste, heh.  Even Buddha had to face Mara and was offered pretty much the same thing, before he achieved his final liberation over the ego.

Well, sex is a very common temptation, and the passions can overcome one without any preparation.  We can discuss that rationally and in our own minds swear that we would never be fool enough to fall for that obvious trap.  Me, I don’t think it’s that easy.  I’m sure many folks have managed to successfully resist the temptations of overpowering chemistry and sexual appeal.  And I’m sure just as many have not.

But there’s more to temptation than sex and power and money.

I read a book once, The Hiding Place, by Corrie Ten Boom … it was her memoir of growing up in Holland (Haarlem) during World War II.  Her Christian family hid Jews from the Nazis — they were eventually caught and Corrie, her sister Bessie, and her father, were all imprisoned in concentration camps.  Her father died almost immediately, he was very old, but Corrie and Bessie went through a long time in the camps.

Corrie’s sister Bessie was pretty much a saint, according to Corrie.  She prayed constantly and they ended up organizing secret prayer groups in the camps, which fed their souls.

Corrie, on the other hand, wasn’t much of a saint, according to her memoir.  She’d get angry and go through all kinds of confusions, even as her religious faith was very strong.

One of the anecdotes in the book that I found interesting was when Corrie was nasty to a fellow prisoner and justified it by looking at how awful the Nazi prison guards were, and in comparison her bad behavior seemed insignificant.  But later, she found herself completely unable to pray.  She contemplated this and realized that seeing folks do really awful things sometimes tempted us to downplay our own faults, and thus we could become less and less loving as human beings.  She ended up apologizing to the prisoner she was mean to, and found herself unburdened by the act and able to pray again.

Tempation is a funny thing, a strange test.  Giving in to temptation can also be seen in not acting as well.  When we walk past a homeless person and don’t bother to even notice, much less help, them, and we justify it by saying we are in such a hurry … when we hear of injustice and we don’t stand up against it because we feel oh we have no power to change anything, when we take money to do a job we know isn’t good for either society or the planet (Blackwater?  Halliburton?).  There are temptations everywhere, and the less spectacular ones are sometimes more insidious than we would think.

Well I’m no saint.  I’ve given in to temptation many times.  I’ve always marveled at the twists and turns my life has taken due to temptation … whether I gave in to it or stood firm and resisted it (I’ve done that maybe one or two times, heh).

An old lover once said to me that we never give something up until we find something better, something we want more.  In my spiritual journeys, I’ve seen the value in that advice.  As much as temptation can lure us in, can make us go against what we believe is right and good and true, we also have, in our hearts, a real desire for love and healing and compassion and helping others, even to the point of putting their needs before our own.  I believe if we try to make it more of a habit to tap into that desire, we will find it easier to resist the kinds of temptations that hurt ourselves and others, that we will more often pass that test of our own humanity.

But I’ll say one thing — I never underestimate the wiles of temptation.  Oh rats! I just said “never”!  Aaaaaaah!

Happy Friday to all you fellow wage-slaves out there and to all Dharmaniacs on the tubez tonight.  Yay!  It’s the weekend!

Mar 15 2008

Pony Party: Going, Going….

… but not gone quite yet.

The movers were here. Mostly everything made it. Movers were great guys.

I’m drinking wine.  I’m exhausted.  I can’t think of anything else.

What’s going on with you… and yes, I know the pony is late.

Don’t rec the pony…

Mar 14 2008

Winter Soldier

Thomas Paine

These are the times that try men’s souls: The summer soldier and the sunshine patriot will, in this crisis, shrink from the service of their country; but he that stands it now, deserves the love and thanks of man and woman. Tyranny, like hell, is not easily conquered; yet we have this consolation with us, that the harder the conflict, the more glorious the triumph. What we obtain too cheap, we esteem too lightly: it is dearness only that gives every thing its value.

-Published on 23 December 1776

Hundreds of veterans and active-duty soldiers of the Iraq and Afghanistan

wars are gathered in Washington DC, from yesterday 3-13-08, to sunday 3-16-08,  for the Winter Soldier hearings. The soldiers plan

to give eyewitness accounts of the occupations in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Organized by Iraq Veterans Against the War, the gathering is modeled after

the 1971 Winter Solider hearings organized by the Vietnam Veterans Against

the War.

The soldiers plan to give eyewitness accounts of the occupations in Iraq and Afghanistan.

That is what ‘Winter Soldier’ is all about, Eyewitness Account to War, especially Wars of Choice!

It’s about testimony of the policies of conflict, and war, under orders from the civilian and military leadership, as perceived by the individual recipients of those orders, the Military Personal!

For those not paying attention, and according to a recent survey 72% of you aren’t really concerned with the Conflicts in Iraq and Afganistan in your busy lives, you can visit War comes Home and listen to the individual testimonies of those you sent into the Invasions and Occupations, especially Iraq, and Start Paying Attention!

They are posting up the testimonies right after they happen. So when you visit the link you’ll see the most recent, or next, at the top. Click on the page numbers, at the bottom, to follow each individual testimony, from the opening statements back to today.  The ones that have been loaded onto the site you’ll find a player under each, you can click on these to listen to that individuals testimony.

Some of those who testitfied yesterday, 3-13-08, and are testifying today, 3-14-08:

Iraq Veterans Against the War’s Kelly Dougherty’s Opening Statement at Winter Soldier 2008

The Executive Director of Iraq Veterans Against the War, Kelly Dougherty, gives the opening remarks at Winter Soldier 2008. She speaks about how Iraq Veterans Against the War has grown from a small organization in 2004 to a larger force with more than 800 members — 200 of whom are in attendance this weekend in Washington, DC.

Barry Romo of VVAW’s Opening Remarks at Winter Soldier 2008

Barry Romo of Vietnam Veterans Against the War’s emotional opening remarks on the 1971 Winter Soldier gathering Detroit Michigan and what it means of this weekend’s gathering.

Hart Viges

Testimony from the March 14, 2008 Rules of Engagement, Part One Panel. Hart Viges joined the Army after September 11th 2001 and was shipped out to Iraq from Febuary 2003 until January 2004. He says that while he was stationed in Iraq he “saw the beauty of the land and the people.” When he returned to the US, he filed for Concientious Objector and recieved my Honorable Discharge. Now he works with the GI RIGHTS HOTLINE and goes into High Schools to talk to kids on a weekly basis. He lives in Austin, Texas.

Jesse Hamilton

Testimony from the March 14, 2008 Rules of Engagement, Part One Panel. Former US Army Staff Sergeant Jesse Hamilton has received the Bronze Star and the Army Commendation Medal. His grandfather was a sergeant in World War I, his great-great-grandfather served in the Civil War and his great-great-great grandfather served in the war of 1812. He lives in New Jersey.

Adam Kokesh: Testimonial and Bio

Testimony from the March 14, 2008 Rules of Engagement, Part One Panel. Former Marine Corps Sergeant Adam Kokesh served in a Civil Affairs Group in Iraq’s Western Anbar Province from February to September 2004. Since his return from Iraq, Kokesh has become a leading activist with Iraq Veterans Against the War. He was arrested for disrupting General Patreaus’ testimony before Congress last September.

Jason Hurd: Testimonial and Bio

Testimony from the March 14, 2008 Rules of Engagement, Part One Panel.

Eric Estenzo: Testimonial and Bio

From the March 14, 2008 “Crisis in Veteran’s Healthcare” panel. Eric Estenzo is a Marine Corps Reservist who served in the initial invasion of Iraq. He hurt his back in Iraq and when he returned home in the US he ended up in line for food at a shelter for homeless veterans. He’s also an artist.

Adrienne Kinne: Testimonial and Bio

From the March 14, 2008 “Crisis in Veteran’s Healthcare” panel. Adrienne Kinne served in the US Army and Army Reserves from 1994 through 2004 as an Arabic linguist in military intelligence. She was activated in the Reserves for two years following the events of 9/11 and served stateside in direct support of operations in Iraq and Afghanistan as a voice interceptor. She now works in the Department of Veterans Affairs as a health science specialist (psychology) and as the New England Regional Coordinator for Iraq Veterans Against the War. She lives in Vermont.

Kevin Lucey: Testimonial and Bio

From the March 14, 2008 “Crisis in Veteran’s Healthcare” panel. Joyce and Kevin Lucey are the parents of Corporal Jeffrey Lucey, who

killed himself on June 22nd, 2003 after returning from a tour in Iraq.

Joyce and Kevin Lucey are currently suing the Department of Veterans

affairs arguing the VA was negligent in caring for their son. A VA

Inspector General’s Report notes VA officials turned Jeffrey Lucey a

few days before he took his own life.

Euegene Martin: Testimonial and Bio

From the March 14, 2008 “Crisis in Veteran’s Healthcare” panel. Euegene Martin is a labor organizer with the American Federation of Government Employees.

Kelly Dougherty: Testimonial and Bio

Kelly Doughrety is Executive Director of Iraq Veterans Against the War. An eight-year veteran of the Colorado Nat. Guard, she served as both a medic and in the military police. She was deployed both to the Balkans and to Iraq.

Winter Soldier – Testimony About Military Contractors

The testimony today has been so riviting that I just pulled away to write to you. There are people listening from London, Japan, germany, Italy, France, Costa Rica, and Canada as well as all over the US. We’ve received emails from all over the country. If your local Pacifica affliliate isn’t carrying the coverage, you can stream the broadcast all weekend at warcomeshome.org or kpfa.org. I’ve received many emails that the mainstream press has ignored this. If you come across an interesting news article or tv report, post it here.

By the way, we’re posting audio from those testifying and some background about the people. You can listen to this later – it’s archived and available as soon as we can post it.

Captain Luis Montalvan: Testimonial and Bio

Former US Army Captain Luis Montalvan served two tours in Iraq. Before joining the officer corps in 2003, Montalván spent over a decade as a communications specialist, military policeman and infantryman in the enlisted ranks, having joined the U.S. Army on his 17th birthday in 1990. He personally witnessed the September 11th attacks in New York. He currently lives in Brooklyn.

Antonia Juhasz: Testimonial and Bio

Antonia Juhasz is a Tarbell Fellow, Oil Change International and a

Visiting Scholar at the Institute for Policy Studies. She is author of

The Bush Agenda: Invading the World, One Economy at a Time

Jeremy Scahill: Testimonial and Bio

Jeremy Scahill is an American investigative journalist. He serves as a correspondent for the U.S. radio and TV program Democracy Now! He is a Puffin Foundation Writing Fellow at The Nation Institute, and a frequent contributor to The Nation magazine.

Vincent Emanuele: Testimonial and Bio

Vincent Emanuele served in the Marine Corps in Iraq in the Spring of 2003 and again in the winter of 2004-2005. He turned against the war because of the poor condition of the military equipment used by American soldiers in the war-zone.

Rules of Engagement, when an occupying military starts making up their own it creates the tragic deaths and maimings of the innocent, in an Insurgent/Guerilla War the Support of the Populace is the only reason it can continue, the more tragic events to the innocent the more Support to their fellow citizens trying to rid their country of the invaders and occupiers!

Visit War Comes Home to listen to these testimonies, and find much more.

After the first Winter Soldier Testimony of 1971 those who gave testimony were condemned as were those who organized it and especially the spokesperson for VVAW and the ‘Winter Soldiers’, and still are today.

Those who were actually Veterans and Veterans of Vietnam knew full well what happened during that Conflict. The DoD and Administration, of that time, choose not to investigate fully the testimonies, nor did anyone who were with those soldiers come forward to dispute their testimonies. Yet there are some who would rather Re-Write the History than Admit that Vietnam was an Atrocity of major proportions and an ugly destructive stain on our History, that still exists in this Nation.

The Country, as one, stated we would learn the lessons of and not Repeat, We Are Now Repeating and this ‘War On Terrorism’, going through Afganistan and especially Iraq, are going to be much worse than Vietnam, for the Hatreds we made will Haught this Nation for Decades!

As Was Just Spoken, “The Problem Is The Occupation!!!”

Wars of Choice are an Atrocity

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