Something to Think About!!

Chemical dispersants: Is the cure worse than the disease?


I want you to think about this! What are these chemicals, used on an even more higher density in this spill, doing to the sea life in the short term but especially in the long term if the fishing industry in the gulf ever gets back to the supply side. Even if it takes years to once again grow, the fishing industry, we will still be seeing the products sold nation and probably world wide, will there be harmful effects on humans and other animals in the wide food chain!

When new products come out, or some that have been around for a few years, that are pushed out as wonder products my head starts filling with questions. Probably as to the industry I'm in, construction, but I think I've always questioned what others are trying to sell as the quick fix and the need that we didn't have before but do now, I grew up with asbestos as a product with numorous uses like fire retardent and insulator, suck in some in my time.

We use way to much that really doesn't carry clear information, especially if regulators are ignoring that which is already supposed to be done!

Really Interesting Concept

System Stores Wind and Solar Power in the Form of Natural Gas, to Fit Neatly Into Existing Infrastructure

Filling Our Old Infrastructure with Renewable NatGas By turning excess wind and solar power into synthetic methane through a novel process of water electrolysis and hydrogen methanization, we can store green energy for later use in existing natural gas infrastructure.

It's abundantly clear that we need to get off fossil fuels for various reasons (try Googling "oil spill"), but our infrastructures are far better tuned for the hydrocarbon fuels of the past century than the renewables of the next. So why don't we just make fuels that work in our existing technology from renewable energy? A German-Austrian research collaboration has engineered a means to turn electricity from wind a solar resources into carbon-neutral natural gas that can be stored and deployed within existing natural gas infrastructure. Continued Here

There's another interesting trend, noted by this old fart me, that's been going on now for quite awhile. As I was growing up, and many years of that, we, this Country, were the envy of the World, our products, our work force, our innovations mostly coming from the workforce, our customer service and on and on..........

These last couple of decades have seen a giant leap in the opposite and it's not just from moving our companies oversea's, for the most part they don't innovate they just produce and the worker doesn't have much inclination to offer up better production idea's or enhanced products, that's just left to the highly paid paper pushers who aren't what they're paid. Innovations are coming from all around the globe and made by folks paying attention to the real problems the globe and the people face as well as their curiosity in wanting to develop the advancements!

Rachel Corrie: Israeli Cover Up

General 'tried to cover up truth about death of Rachel Corrie'

7 May 2010 Israeli war hero accused of suppressing testimony that could reveal what really happened to Gaza activist.

The peace activist Rachel Corrie died on 16 March 2003

Seven years after the American activist Rachel Corrie was killed by an Israeli army bulldozer in Gaza, evidence has emerged which appears to implicate Israel's Gaza commander at the time, in an attempt to obstruct the official investigation into her death.

The alleged intervention of Major-General Doron Almog, then head of Israel's southern command, is documented in testimony taken by Israeli military police a day after Ms Corrie was killed on March 16, 2003. The hand written affidavit, seen by The Independent, was submitted as evidence during a civil law suit being pursued by the Corrie family against the state of Israel.

Snip

But according to a military police investigator's report which has now emerged, the "commander" of the D-9 bulldozer was giving testimony when an army colonel dispatched by Major-General Almog interrupted proceedings and cut short his evidence. The military police investigator wrote: "At 18:12 reserve Colonel Baruch Kirhatu entered the room and informed the witness that he should not convey anything and should not write anything and this at the order of the general of southern command."

Snip

"When you, the state of Israel, fail as an authority to perform your function of having a credible investigation, when your standard falls from reasonable, objective standards than you have caused evidentiary damage," Mr Abu Hussein said.

Snip

Corrie died on 16 March 2003. Like the death of the British activist Tom Hurndall in similar circumstances a year later, it prompted an international outcry about Israel's deeds in the Palestinian territories. Continues Here

No Alarm Sounded Before Blast

Notice how rarely do you hear anything about, or from, those who survived but Especially those 11 men killed, and lost, in the Blowout.

Especially from those groups, and their very own Cable Channel mouth piece, bent on really really wanting death and destruction of citizens of this country and doing so in the name of a twisted political ideology and really twisted view of our countries constitution.

Deepwater Horizon Survivors Tell ABC News No Alarm Sounded Before Blast, Safety Gear Failed

'It Was Chaos,' Says Survivor; Industry Officials Acknowledge Failures Of Safety Equipment



Survivors of last week's massive oil rig explosion have told ABC News that alarms meant to warn them of an imminent blast never sounded, and oil industry experts now agree that a critical failsafe needed to prevent the blast and the subsequent spill didn't work.

Snip

"It was people screaming and hollerin," Sandell said. "I never seen nothing like that. Never."

The first sign of trouble came when workers on the rig started to inject seawater into the well to replace a plug of mud that had been holding back the gas and oil. One of the valves on a massive safety device called a "blowout preventer" should have been closed, but was open, according to Eric Smith, associate director of the Tulane Energy Institute, who has been following developments out in the Gulf. That change in pressure would have launched the contents of the well pipe - first the seawater and mud, then the gas - up towards the surface.

Snip

"It either tells you that the alarms failed or that somebody muted the alarm because alarms are so common out in the oil patch that sometimes as a matter of course, they mute alarms," he said. Continues Here

What went on in those Secret Meetings of the previous vice president and the energy executives, and what about congress at the time, did they rubber stamp anything the cheney wanted, behind closed doors, as they seemed to do everything else!

GitMo: ‘The Monster’ Testifies

‘The Monster’ Testifies at Gitmo Hearing

5/5/10 Former Bagram Interrogator Damien Corsetti Discusses Abuse of Omar Khadr

Soldiers at Bagram Air Base, Afghanistan (army.mil)

GUANTANAMO BAY — His nickname wasn’t “Monster,” he admonished the lawyer. It was “The Monster.” That was what the Bagram Collection Point’s interrogators, guards — and most especially detainees — called Army interrogator Damien Corsetti. And it was important to him that the court correctly record his story.

Back then — in 2002 at Bagram, and later at Iraq’s notorious Abu Ghraib prison — Corsetti was as fearsome as his handle. Although acquitted, he went before a court-martial proceeding related to the abuse of a detainee in Iraq. Now, Corsetti is an unemployed veteran of two wars, unable to work because of post-traumatic stress disorder, and an infamous figure in the U.S.’s post-9/11 history of torture.

But he testified on Wednesday morning from a remote location on behalf of one of the former inmates at Bagram whom he used to intimidate and brutalize: Omar Khadr, the 23-year old Canadian citizen who has been in U.S. custody for nearly eight years. The large man once known as “The Monster” — the nickname is tattooed in Italian on his stomach — provided rare sworn testimony about the abuse of detainees in U.S. custody in the Afghanistan war’s early days, the product of what he described as command pressure for intelligence and unclear rules about permissible interrogator behavior.

Corsetti didn’t directly interrogate Khadr, he told the court, but he spoke to Khadr at least two to three times a week from August to October 2002, after which Khadr was transferred here. “He was a child,” said an occasionally emotional Corsetti. “He was a 15-year old child who had been blown up, shot and grenaded. He was in one of the worst places on the earth. How could you not have compassion for that? … He was in the wrong place for a 15-year old child to be.” Continues Here

Inquiry: Spying on Protesters

Inquiry into alleged spying on protesters nearly ready

May 6, 2010 Investigation: Army says some of report to be made public

Joint Base Lewis-McChord is nearing completion of its investigation into allegations that a civilian employee of the base spied on an Olympia anti-war group.

Lewis-McChord spokesman Joseph Piek wrote Tuesday in an e-mail to The Olympian that the draft results of the investigation of John J. Towery “have been submitted to higher headquarters for review.” Piek declined to elaborate.

However, an earlier e-mail from a different base spokesman suggested that the military intended to make at least part of the investigation’s findings public.

“When the investigation is complete, we will provide as much information about the finding as possible,” base spokesman J.C. Matthews wrote in a September e-mail to The Olympian. “Our goal is transparency.” Continued Here

You folks in the rest of the world, Especially that Old Europe, gotta forgive us little babies here, we don't go after the big criminal elements that order destruction and deaths to tens of thousands, we move with baby steps, if at all! But at least there's movement, won't minimize any blowback, but the next generations will figure out those results rather quickly!

Monetary Payments to Former GitMo Prisoners

Former Guantánamo detainees set for payouts after winning secrecy appeal

4 May 2010 Out-of-court settlements likely after judges say government not to use secret evidence in men's torture cases, Guardian told

British residents held at Guantánamo Bay could be offered millions of pounds in compensation for wrongful imprisonment and abuse after the court of appeal today dismissed an attempt by MI5 and MI6 to suppress evidence of alleged complicity in torture.

The judges ruled that the unprecedented legal move by Britain's security and intelligence agencies – which the attorney general and senior Whitehall officials backed – to suppress evidence in a civil trial undermined the principles of common law and open justice.

MI5 and MI6 said evidence in the case should be kept secret from everyone except the judges and "special advocates" (vetted barristers). The Guardian, the Times, the BBC, and the civil rights groups Justice and Liberty intervened, arguing that at stake was the right to a fair and open trial, the right to freedom of expression and the public's right to know what agents of the state are or have been doing on its behalf. Report Continues

Expanded VA Healthcare Bill Signed

Obama to sign veterans healthcare bill

5 May 2010 U.S. President Obama will sign a bill that would expand healthcare services for veterans and expand caregiver benefits and training, the White House said.

Joining Obama for the signing ceremony of the Caregivers and Veterans Omnibus Health Services
Act Wednesday will be first lady Michelle Obama; Jill Biden, wife of Vice President Joe Biden; and Veterans Affairs Secretary Eric Shinseki, the daily schedule said. Article Continues

Remarks by the President at Signing of Caregives and Veterans Omnibus Health Services Act

5 May 2010 1:29 P.M. EDT

President Obama greets Chairman Akaka following the signing ceremony in the State Dining Room of the White House, as Secretary Shinseki and Second Lady Dr. Jill Biden look on from the left.

THE PRESIDENT: Good afternoon, everyone. Danny Akaka, aloha. (Laughter.) Since the 9/11 attacks more than eight years ago, the United States has been a nation at war. In this time, millions of Americans have worn the uniform. More than a million have served in Afghanistan and Iraq. Many have risked their lives. Many have given their lives. All are the very embodiment of service and patriotism. And as a grateful nation, humbled by their service, we can never honor these American heroes or their families enough.

Along with their loved ones, we give thanks every time our men and women in uniform return home. But we’re forever mindful that our obligations to our troops don’t end on the battlefield. Just as we have a responsibility to train and equip them when we send them into harm’s way, we have a responsibility to take care of them when they come home.

As Michelle and Dr. Biden have reminded us in all their visits to military bases and communities, our obligations must include a national commitment to inspiring military families —- the spouses and children who sacrifice as well. Continued Here

Landmark Bill Bolsters Care for Female Veterans

President Barack Obama signs the Caregivers and Veterans Omnibus Health Services Act in the State Dining Room of the White House
Olivier Douliery / Getty Images

America's daughters have been serving in the U.S. military for centuries, and they're being deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan in unprecedented numbers. But back home, they're still not guaranteed that the bathrooms at veterans' health care centers will be stocked with tampons. The Government Accountability Office published an audit this spring that found some of 19 health care facilities it surveyed did not always have private bathing areas, even in mixed-gender units. Such lapses in women's health care are growing more painfully apparent as the number of females using the Veterans Affairs (VA) health care system is projected to double in the next five years. But in a landmark step toward addressing their needs, President Obama Wednesday afternoon signed a bill bolstering care for female veterans, which was part of the Caregivers and Veterans Omnibus Health Services Act of 2010. Article Continues

Listen to A Soldier

Maj. Gen. Eaton {retired} makes so many points, Points that many of us have been saying, especially those who have served and Swore Oath in entering that service, be it military of government, in such a short discussion that it makes it a Keeper and All So Called Repub Reps. especially, and their Supporters, Should Be Required To Watch Him!! {but they still won't get it}

They've been trying to take down the Constitution and Country since reagan but especially since newt and delay, the bugman having run to do exactly that as to his previous life as a regulated using poisons to kill rodents etc, and increase his corrupt wants as well. But they thought they had it during the past decade and they don't want to loose what they thought they gained!!

MAJ. GEN. PAUL EATON, RET., NATIONAL SECURITY NETWORK: Hey, Keith, great to be here and thanks for the invitation. But I am a little surprise that we are here to defend our Constitution against a Republican senator and Republican representative`s attack on it.


EATON: From a national security perspective, it`s damaging. You`re going to have -- right now, the FBI and our police forces are looking over their shoulder every time they hear a Republican come off with a remark like that. And we`ve got to reinforce our men in blue and our men in suits that they`re doing a great job, they`re doing the right thing, they`re following procedures, they`re following the law.

EATON: One of the most important things we have going for us, before our own citizens and before the citizens of the world, is our judicial process, is our state of law, our Constitution. And the president is demonstrating strength and honor. He is demonstrating strength to get after these terrorists and he`s demonstrating that we do it in a context of honor, that we follow our laws, that we -- that we -- that we support and defend the Constitution of the United States, the way every legislator and the way every soldier, airman, seaman, marine out there swears on entry into service.

EATON: Keith there is a retired judge advocate, Navy Jag admiral named John Hudson (ph), who said it about as well as I could find anywhere. And he said, you know, the use of torture and these techniques is -- that`s the tool of the stupid, the lazy and the pseudo tough. And that`s, I`m afraid, what we`ve got going on in the Republican Party playbook to excite their base and it`s an unfortunate attempt and it`s counterproductive to the national security of the United States.

OLBERMANN: You had it right -- the stupid, the lazy and the pseudo tough.

Maj Gen {retired} Eaton spoke a number of points in a very short interview, and showed this is one Soldier that not only gets it but gets what others profess themselves to be but most certainly don't show it or live it!

And then about another soldier who seems to have forgotten.



They follow these meme's after over a decade of creating more hatreds in the world, and continuing, towards not only our countries policies but Us, the people of!!

Hitler's Children

Have you watched a good documentary recently?

Hitler's Children-Part 1

This 5-part documentary by Guido Knopp and the ZDF Contemporary History Department is the first comprehensive film portrayal of the young people in the Third Reich. With in-depth witness statements and some previously unpublished archive material, the documentary demonstrates how Hitler succeeded in gaining power over “his children” through years of manipulation. Free Documentaries.org

Scroll down the page for the links to part 2 through part 5 or get them from the main site.

'we smoked that cop'

Charges: Suspect says 'we smoked that cop'

"Josh was kind of a hotshot who thought he was tough," said Bickell, 58. "He looked at me and said: 'I'm in trouble.'"




Just how much trouble became clear Monday when Ramsey County authorities charged Martin, 21, with intentional second-degree murder for his non-shooting role in the death of a veteran Maplewood police officer. Report Continues

The Country we're in and the direction we're going!

And the McVeigh wanna-be's

Twin Cities man allegedly threatened to blow up building

Peter Dziuk told investigators he was dissatisfied with his job at the state Agriculture Department. According to the charges, Dziuk told two state employees on separate occasions in March and then in April that he was going to blow up the building. He believed his employer was trying to fire him, the complaint said. Both witnesses told investigators Dziuk seemed agitated and angry.

Dziuk told investigators he had ammonium nitrate, the same bomb-building component that Timothy McVeigh used to blow up the Murrah Building in Oklahoma City. Report Continues

mercs Create Blowback on Military Soldiers

Secret Erik Prince/Blackwater Tape Exposed

Erik Prince, the reclusive owner of the Blackwater empire, rarely gives public speeches and when he does he attempts to ban journalists from attending and forbids recording or videotaping of his remarks. On May 5, that is exactly what Prince is trying to do when he speaks at DeVos Fieldhouse as the keynote speaker for the "Tulip Time Festival" in his hometown of Holland, Michigan. He told the event's organizers no news reporting could be done on his speech and they consented to the ban. Journalists and media associations in Michigan are protesting this attempt to bar reporting on his remarks.

Snip

In the speech, Prince proposed that the US government deploy armed private contractors to fight "terrorists" in Nigeria, Yemen, Somalia and Saudi Arabia, specifically to target Iranian influence. He expressed disdain for the Geneva Convention and described Blackwater's secretive operations at four Forward Operating Bases he controls in Afghanistan. He called those fighting the US in Afghanistan, Iraq and Pakistan "barbarians" who "crawled out of the sewer." Prince also revealed details of a July 2009 operation he claims Blackwater forces coordinated in Afghanistan to take down a narcotrafficking facility, saying that Blackwater "call[ed] in multiple air strikes," blowing up the facility. Prince boasted that his forces had carried out the "largest hashish bust in counter-narcotics history." He characterized the work of some NATO countries' forces in Afghanistan as ineffectual, suggesting that some coalition nations "should just pack it in and go home." Prince spoke of Blackwater working in Pakistan, which appears to contradict the official, public Blackwater and US government line that Blackwater is not in Pakistan. Report Continues

Nobody will even know how many soldiers were killed and maimed because of 'blackwater' and the other merc armies, but the actions they do, especially in these occupations with no responsibility or oversiite, Have Created the Blowback not only on the troops but civilians as well!!

EXCLUSIVE…Secret Recording of Erik Prince Reveals Previously Undisclosed Blackwater Ops

Investigative journalist and Democracy Now! correspondent Jeremy Scahill obtains a rare audio recording of a recent, private speech delivered by Erik Prince, the owner of Blackwater, to a friendly audience in January. The speech, which Prince attempted to keep from public consumption, provides a stunning glimpse into his views and future plans and reveals details of previously undisclosed activities of Blackwater. In a Democracy Now! exclusive broadcast we play excerpts of the recording and speak with Scahill about the revelations. {Includes rush transcript}

Fallujah Attacks

Army to be sued for war crimes over its role in Fallujah attacks

Parents of children with birth defects say Britain knew of US chemical weapons use

Four-year-old Yousif Hamed and his sister, Inas, both of whom suffer from birth defects, at their home in Fallujah

Allegations that Britain was complicit in the use of chemical weapons linked to an upsurge in child deformity cases in Iraq, are being investigated by the Ministry of Defence.

The case raises serious questions about the UK's role in the American-led offensive against the city of Fallujah in the autumn of 2004 where hundreds of Iraqis died. After the battle, in which it is alleged that a range of illegal weaponry was used, evidence has emerged of large numbers of children being born with severe birth defects. Report Continues

Weapons of Mass Destruction with Long Term Destruction!!

DeJa-Vu All Over Again!!

Kent State - May 4th 1970

While collecting some articles etc. on the Kent State University killings, 40 years ago 4 May 1970, I came across a link of live streaming broadcast of the Kent State Truth Tribunal that will be taking place today and tomorrow and decided to pass these on today rather then waiting till tomorrow. That link can be found at the bottom, it's to Michael Moore's site with a link to a facebook page with videos of Saturdays and Sundays tributes.

I won't add much in commentary, the reports give all one needs, the CBS report from last night sheds light on a possible investigation opening up into the shootings, and there are many others being posted up and will be tomorrow on the Anniversary. But will say that on May 4th 1970 I was only a few weeks into my tour in country Vietnam of my last year in the U.S. Navy and having served all on shore duty.

Kent State Tape Due for High-Tech Analysis

40 Years Later, Investigators Hope to Learn If There Was an Order to Open Fire on Campus Protesters Report Continues

The Kent State Shootings: A Chronology

Kent State Mystery Continues

Sun May 02 15:46:11 PDT 2010

The deadly National Guard shooting of four Kent State students 40 years ago sparked chaos on campuses nationwide. As Russ Mitchell reports, some unanswered questions remain.

Neil Young "Ohio" Live At Massey Hall 1971


Shots Still Reverberate For Survivors Of Kent State

by Noah Adams

Mary Ann Vecchio screams as she kneels over the body of Jeffrey Miller after he was shot during an anti-war demonstration at Kent State University in Ohio on May 4, 1970. Four students were killed when Ohio National Guard troops fired at some 600 anti-war demonstrators. This photo, taken by John Filo, won the Pulitzer Prize.

Out in the world, when people talk about the shootings at Kent State University on May 4, 1970, they call it "Kent State." But in the small town of Kent, 35 miles south of Cleveland, and on the university campus, they call it "May 4th."

It was 40 years ago Tuesday that the shootings — which killed four people and wounded nine others — stunned the nation. Even at the height of the Vietnam War protests, no one imagined that government soldiers would fire real bullets at unarmed college students.

"I saw the smoke come out of the weapons, and light is faster than sound, and so I knew immediately [they] were not firing blanks. So it was almost instinctive to dive for cover," remembers Jerry Lewis, who was 33 and teaching sociology at Kent State in 1970. Rest of Report

Kent State, May 4, 1970: A Retrospective

On May 4, 1970, unarmed college students were shot by members of the Ohio National Guard at Kent State University. This slideshow takes a look back at the events of the day.

Special graduations set 40 years after Kent State

Forty years later, Gary Lownsdale is still haunted by what he felt and what he saw in the last days of his senior year.

Shock and outrage over the May 4 National Guard slayings of four Kent State University students, on the other end of Ohio from his University of Cincinnati campus. Then fear and confusion as schools across the state and much of the country saw the demonstrations against the expansion of the Vietnam War into Cambodia swell into angry, combative confrontations.

One by one, colleges closed and students were ordered to pack up and leave, some amid the acrid smell of tear gas as police and armed soldiers stood guard. TV helicopters buzzed overhead. Rumors and reports were rampant, of undercover FBI agents infiltrating students, or violent radicals converging to escalate the protests. Article Continues

Gunshots at Kent State ricochet across the decades

You might remember the photograph: a long-haired girl kneeling over the lifeless body of a young man on the campus of Kent State University, her arms outstretched, her face looking up and screaming to the world. The picture was taken just after noon on May 4, 1970, after Ohio National Guardsmen fired on a student protest, killing four.

It was an image that would mark my generation. It came to symbolize the deep and sometimes ugly chasm in America during the Vietnam War, and for one side of the divide, it came to symbolize all that was wrong with the country. Kent State was the rallying cry. Neil Young could have written the caption for that picture - "This summer I hear the drumming/Four dead in Ohio" - when he penned the words to Ohio just weeks later.

Kent State and Vietnam, Nixon and Agnew. And Trudeau. Thanks to him, Americans of draft age had another option besides going to war or going to jail.

Things would be different. We'd remake the world, we said. We'd end that war and all wars.

Of course, the revolution was never televised. Editorial Continues

What I lost at Kent State

Elaine Holstein is a retired school secretary and social worker

On Tuesday, it will be 40 years since my son Jeff was shot and killed on the campus of his college. He and three of his classmates were murdered by the National Guard at an antiwar demonstration at Kent State.

During a 13-second fusillade of rifle fire, Jeff, Allison Krause, Sandy Scheuer, and Bill Schroeder were killed and nine of their fellow students were wounded.

The students who had gathered that day - all unarmed - held a large range of opinions about the seemingly endless war in Vietnam.

Some, including Jeff, objected intensely to the increasing escalation of a war that had begun when they were barely in their teens. In fact, Jeff had written a poem about the war titled "Where Does It End?" in February 1966, shortly before he turned 16.

Others in the crowd had mixed feelings. Some were just onlookers. Some, like Sandy, were on their way to their next class.

And so, May 4, 1970, became one of the blackest days in the history of our country. Article Continues

Families still search for answers in Kent State tragedy

Laurel Krause looks back on that last weekend with her big sister as a treasure.

It was April 1970 and 15-year-old Laurel Krause took a train from Pittsburgh to Ohio to visit her sister, Allison, at Kent State University.

They celebrated Allison's 19th birthday on April 23 and had put away their childish sibling rivalry.

"It was the first time I was free with my big sister, and I was so happy," said Laurel Krause, 55, who now lives in northern California. "I remember being there at Kent with her and realizing we're going to have a great relationship from here on in because we're going to grow up and get along and like each other."

Less than two weeks later, on May 4, 1970, Allison Krause and three other students were fatally shot by National Guardsmen called in to quell anti-war protests. Article Continues

For more information on the activities to commemorate the 40th anniversary of the Kent State shootings visit the university's website

Witness testimony, which began Saturday and ends Tuesday, will be streamed live at filmmaker Michael Moore's website. Michaels site gives you a link where you can view video's from Saturday and Sunday as well as a link for the Kent State Truth Tribunal Livecast Monday & Tuesday 10am to 7pm, in case you might want to tune in live.

In a few on the clips above you will hear a statement by a politician of a certain political party at the time the words spoken could be cut from that and used today, and they are, as well as for the past ten years, especially as to the huge pro peace marches of DC and around the country. Funny how those using those words, still, are supporters of a minority group of citizens who not only get major press coverage but words of the complete opposite and are considered mad at government patriots. Not only coverage but are given free advertising for their rallies in supposed news reports of a supposed cable news? network and are gathering funding from corporations and so called political think tanks and individuals as well as support of politicians and so called major leaders? wrapped in an ideology of talking points with no idea's!

Women Soldiers {Moms} Returning Home

For many women, returning home from war means a new challenge: being moms again

Army veteran Teri Jackson of Austin said she needed a year and half before she could start to decompress. During that time, sons Dakota Broussard-Blount, 13, left, and David Small, 16, 'were walking on pins and needles,' she said.

Teri Jackson, a single mother who grew up in Southwest Austin , deployed to Iraq in March 2004, leaving behind her sons, then 11 and 8 years old. As soon as she got to the barren trailer in Balad that would serve as her living quarters for the next year, she decorated it with photos of her children and cheery memories of home.

A few days later, Jackson, 40, a U.S. Army truck driver, went on her first mission, hauling supplies to a distant base. Suddenly, her partner, who was driving at the time, slammed on the brakes, sending Jackson hurtling into the windshield. The move probably saved her life as a mortar round flew past the truck.

When she returned to her trailer, Jackson took down the photos from the walls.

Snip

More than 212,000 women have served in Iraq or Afghanistan, 11 percent of the total deployed military force. Forty percent of active-duty women have children. And more than 30,000 single mothers have been deployed to the war zone, according to Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America. Report Continues

Sugar Sweet | Grandpa Elliott

Grandpa Elliott has been playing on the streets of New Orleans since he was six years old and it is time for his music and passion to meet the masses. Playing For Change recorded his album, Sugar Sweet, throughout the 2009 Playing For Change Band North American Tour. It all started one evening at a barbeque when he began tapping his foot, slapping his hand against his knee and singing, “Your lips is so dog gone sweet to me, baby I’m afraid, if you kissed the ocean it would turn to lemonade…" I remember thinking we could not get to a studio fast enough!!

I love this man with all my heart for his soul, sweet voice and power of conviction. He performs each song as if it was his last and puts every ounce of his giant heart into every note. Check out the album, support a great performer, and let’s teach the world that some of the best music we have ever heard comes from the streets!!! From the people, for the people. Playing for Change

DeJa-Vu, the Meme's on PTSD Start Again

AP: VA Makes It too Easy for Veterans to File Claims … Seriously

As PTSD claims soar, the systemic problem at the U.S. Dept of Veterans Affairs is the ease with which veterans file for disability benefit claims, in the view of Allen Breed, a national writer for the Associated Press. This is a hit job on veterans and the progress being contemplated by some at the DVA to help veterans.

Do you have that? Things are too easy for veterans dealing with the VA now, asserts the AP’s Breed. Rest of AP Take Down Here

And those thinking of following that lead, Take Heed, us Vets are watching and ready!!

This isn’t after ‘Nam, it’s 35years after the end of, and in those 35yrs., even while the country kept pushing back and ignoring PTSD and TBI, the advances in the medical fields, especially as to mental issues, makes it virtually impossible for someone to fake a diagnoses of PTSD. It is now, finally, understood that those in civilian populations, not only those occupied in wars, can develop from the extreme trauma’s some experience in their lives.

The War Within: By Tove Tupper

April 29, 2010 Part 1

This is the first of a two-part series about the mental-health challenges facing many Oregon National Guard troops returning from their deployment in Iraq.

Around 2,700 Oregon National Guard members are making their way home from deployment.

The Oregon Department of Veterans Affairs estimates nearly 40-percent of the returning veterans from Iraq and Afghanistan will face some sort of mental health issue related to their deployment, and 20-percent of veterans will meet criteria for post traumatic stress disorder. Rest of Part 1 Report Here

April 29, 2010 Part 2

This is the second of a two-part series about the mental-health challenges facing many Oregon National Guard troops returning from their deployment in Iraq. Rest of Part 2 Report Here

Don't back down

A useful compromise is possible on the issue of the Afghan detainee documents

The Speaker of the House, Peter Milliken, wisely urged that it is vital to de-escalate the crisis over access to documents on Afghan detainees. But Parliament must not settle for half-measures, writes Amir Attaran.

May 1, 2010 Four years ago in this newspaper, I introduced Canadians to a problem about Afghan detainees. I warned that Canada's military had "signed a treaty with Afghanistan that dangerously -- and illegally -- compromises Canadian soldiers and our country's taboo on torture." In transferring often innocent detainees to unsafe Afghan prisons, I wrote, the Harper government and the Canadian Forces' commanders recklessly "(risked) that Canadian soldiers will be prosecuted as parties to torture." Editorial Continues

Seeking the Truth

Finding the truth about the war on terror

04/29/2010 LAST WEEK, I discussed the PBS documentary on the massacre at My Lai during the Vietnam War.

I referred to it as one of the "dark moments in U.S. history." I also stated projects such as the My Lai documentary were necessary to assist us as a nation to self-reflect honestly, to avoid any unrealistic vision of itself, and to possibly avoid engaging in the cyclical process of justifying the debauchery.

Those specific teachable moments in the maturation process of the nation may have passed America, at least as it relates to the vaunted and often times nebulous "war on terror."

The London Times reported that former President George W. Bush, former Vice President Dick Cheney and former Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld covered up that hundreds of innocent individuals were sent to the Guantanamo Bay prison camp because officials feared that releasing them would harm their rationale for invading Iraq and the overall war on terror polices.

Snip

As more information trickles out from the declassification of government documents, it is becoming increasingly clear that it was more than a case of bad intelligence, as the popular institutional yarn holds. Rather it was a systematic approach to a policy rooted in malevolence.

What other secrets are lurking behind those yet-to-be declassified documents? Are there others who worked with the previous administration who have a story to tell that counters the prevailing public myth about the war on terror, Guantanamo Bay, Abu Ghraib and, of course, the inception to the invasion and occupation of Iraq? Editorial Continues

I added the link to the My Lai Doc. mentioned. It is to the main page with the promo video, look to the left side for the links about as well as to the link to watch in full {some 83 minutes long}.

Bill Moyers Journal Last Airing

Bill Moyers Journal, aired his last show on April 30th 2010 as he goes into a well deserved retirement after many years of service to his fellow American's with his outstanding and one of a kind journalism, real journalism, joining the ranks of the few before him and the very few still practicing their craft and profession as professionals!

With this technology and it's coming advancements everything can be archived and much easier to search out to not only find the past, and it's lessons, but what really is and not that spoken by some as to what isn't but quickly grasped by some as their gospel without bothering to join the realities!

Iowa Citizens

April 30, 2010
BILL MOYERS: Welcome to the Journal. Once upon a time, a whole lot of just plain Americans woke up to realize the economic system was working against them. They had believed in it; they worked hard to make it work for them. They knew its shortcomings but saw in it the way to a decent return for their labor and a better future for their families.

Then, one day, calamity struck: The system turned on them. And they discovered that they had been betrayed, bamboozled, by the people at the top.

But they didn't hang their heads and turn tail, like a dog whipped by its master. They organized and fought back — millions of them in a grass roots movement for democracy. What they did became known as the Populist Moment, an extraordinary time in our country's history.

But, the flimflam gang returned with a vengeance in our time — the monied interests and political mercenaries who connived to bring on a calamity that lost eleven million Americans their jobs, robbed people of their homes and pensions, and brought the world's economy crashing down.

But once again, people are organizing and fighting back; as they did in that early Populist Moment that took on the monopolies and financial trusts. The stirrings of a popular insurgency could be seen late this week as thousands marched on Wall Street. These people are angry at the banks that have cost them so dearly and they want reforms to prevent similar disasters in the future. They want to break up the Wall Street oligarchy and require the banks to use their capital to build and revitalize and innovate, to create jobs and security.

Similar protests occurred this week in San Francisco, North Carolina and Kansas City, where people rallied to demand an accounting from the giant Bank of America.

Among their ranks was a contingent from Iowa, proud and vocal inheritors of America's populist spirit. We first met them at a rally last fall. Rest of Transcript

In this it explains, via the citizens of this country, in the simple terms of what government is, It Is Us. We are the government, we hire those to represent us, not special interests or the wealthy who can afford to buy what they seek, we are the bosses, those we hire represent All in their states, their districts and the policies they make affect all the country. Whether they like it or not they don't represent a special group, a political party, a singular ideology, they represent all!

Jim Hightower

April 30, 2010
BILL MOYERS: I don't know anyone who embodies that old-time, populist gospel, the high spirits and fierce commitment to justice that you just witnessed among the good people of Iowa more than my longtime friend, Jim Hightower.

With a down home wit and a finely honed outrage, Hightower pins the tail on the plutocrats.

A recovering politician, one time commissioner of agriculture in Texas, he now broadcasts daily radio commentaries and publishes this indispensable monthly newsletter, "The Hightower Lowdown." I admire the journalism in "The Lowdown" so much I helped raise money to raise its profile some years ago. In the spirit of fair trade, Jim has allowed me to borrow some of his best lines, including that rousing populist cry from deep in our native East Texas, "the water won't clear up until we get the hogs out of the creek."

He's been at it so long that this weekend, Jim is being honored at Texas State University in San Marcos with an exhibition celebrating his life's work as a populist journalist, historian and advocate.

They're calling the event "Swim Against the Current" because that's what he does, and in fact, that's the title of his most recent book.

Welcome to the Journal.

JIM HIGHTOWER: Thank you, Bill.

BILL MOYERS: What do you think about those people from Iowa? Rest of Transcript

They carry on the discussion about We the People and Our Government talked about in the Iowa Citizens clip, and more, as only two like these journalist can sensibly talk the reality, even 'tinkle down economics' as Jim calls it.

Speaking of 'tinkle down economics'':
At the end we find Bill talking about this: Revisiting Plutonomy: The Rich Getting Richer from Citigroup and Praising the growth of wealth at the top off the backs of the rest. It's an interesting reading and arrogant bragging

Barry Lopez

April 30, 2010

As you can imagine, I thought long and hard about who I would invite to be my last guest on the Journal. So many people have inspired my own work that I had a difficult time making that choice. But i finally decided to ask someone whose curiosity about the world, and pursuit of it, have set the gold standard for all of us whose work it is to explain those things we don't understand.

For decades Barry Lopez has called western Oregon his home, but from there he has roamed the world: from the playas of Texas and the deserts and canyons of the American southwest, to the frigid extremes at both the polar ends of the earth and across Asia and Africa. Then, always home again, to write about what he has seen and learned... And such writing it is.

I first came upon Lopez when he published "Arctic Dreams" 24 years ago — and won the national book award for it. The books kept coming, "About This Life," "Winter Count," "The Rediscovery of North America," "Crossing Open Ground," "Resistance." The raves of critics kept coming, too. "Barry Lopez," said "The Wall Street Journal," "Crosses disciplines the way he conquers continents." "The New York Times" compared his language to "The snap and hiss of a campfire."

You need a long shelf to hold Barry Lopez's novels, essays, articles and short stories, the volumes of travel, photography, and language, vivid portraits of landscapes, emotions, and experience. Common to them all is one man's effort to go out into the world, to discover what is beyond and within us. One reviewer put it this way, Barry Lopez "Restores to us the name for what it is we want." It's a pleasure to welcome you to the Journal. Rest of the Transcript

Crossing Open Ground

Bill Moyers Final Essay

April 30, 2010
Finally — and that's for real this time, the Journal comes to an end with this broadcast. Thanks to those of you who have been with us all the way. I am grateful for your loyalty, and for all your letters and postings. I've tried to read every one of them.

To our critics, I'm glad you paid attention; the second most important thing to journalists is to know we're not being ignored. The most important thing is the independence that enables us to do our job without fear or favor. In this I have been unbelievably blessed. When, for the last time, you read the credits at the conclusion of this broadcast, consider that every funder, or underwriter as we say, came to our support asking only that we enrich the public conversation by adding more and different voices to it.

I could not have had more generous or brave partners. Not one of them has ever tried to influence the content; none has asked for a favor; or made a single demand. Rest of Transcript

He and this real journalism will be missed, but I'm sure some will pick up the banner and carry it forward!

Through the Eyes of North Vietnamese and Viet Cong veterans

Book Examines Vietnam War from Viet Cong's Point of View

AIR DATE: April 30, 2010

SUMMARY
On the 35th anniversary of the fall of Saigon, Ray Suarez talks to retired Marine Corps Lt. Col. James Zumwalt about his new book on the Vietnam War, as seen through the eyes of North Vietnamese and Viet Cong veterans.



RAY SUAREZ: So, give us some examples of the kind of techniques and tactics the North Vietnamese used successfully against a much-better-armed, much-better-equipped enemy.

LT. COL. JAMES ZUMWALT: Well, one that stands out in my mind is the -- what they did along the Ho Chi Minh Trail.

The Ho Chi Minh Trail, as you know, was a logistical supply line that brought men and materiel from the north down to the south. Obviously, they had to cross rivers at certain points. And the only way you cross a river is with a bridge. They would build bridges for the specific purpose of having as a target -- having a target that we would go after.

They -- what they would do then is, upstream or downstream of that bridge, they would come up with very clever ways of hiding bridges. Well, how do you hide a bridge? One is a concept known as a submarine bridge, where they actually built a bridge platform underneath the low watermark.

And, for those who served in Vietnam, they know that the -- the water is basically brown, so you cannot see from the air if there was anything under the water. But these submarine bridges were very effectively used.

As convoys would cross them, they would have guides standing on either side of the bridge platform guiding them as to where the edges of the platform were. These existed for the duration of the war, and we never knew about them.

Snip

LT. COL. JAMES ZUMWALT: This was a people who, again, going back to their DNA, would not tolerate being invaded.

Could we have won the war? We had the military power, and we never lost a battle in Vietnam. We -- if we committed ground forces in the North, we could have driven them out of the cities, but all that would have done was delayed the inevitable, which was that they would keep eating away and eating away, and drawing the war out for as long as it took for us to get out. Rest of Transcript

"Bare Feet, Iron Will Stories from the Other Side of Vietnam's Battlefields"