June 7, 2011 - After abruptly departing MSNBC in January, Keith Olbermann returns to broadcasting on June 20 with a new version of Countdown on the Current TV network.
He tells Fresh Air's Terry Gross that his new show resembles his old show on MSNBC but "with some additional bells and whistles and a little bit more commentary." And, he says, he's looking forward to being at a network where he can say things he wasn't able to say before.
"This is not specific to NBC or MSNBC, but I just saw an environment growing in which there were more and more conflicts of interest within these large national corporations where no matter what you said, you had the potential to affect some other part of the big company's business," Olbermann explains. "The more that that's true, the less they want you to say. Even if there is no explicit attempt to censure or to proscribe or otherwise to interfere, there becomes an issue of the larger the corporation, the more fear in the part of the people involved in its production." {continued}
Tuesday, June 07, 2011
NPR: Interview with Keith
"Atomic Bombs on Planet Earth"
June 1, 2011 - The world's First International Uranium Film Festival and its awards ceremony ended Saturday night with what festival coordinator Marcia Gomes de Oliveira called "a real "bombastic surprise."
"Atomic Bombs on Planet Earth," the newest production of British film director Peter Greenaway, was shown to the invited awards-night audience.
"Very surprisingly from 1945 to 1989 - there have been 2,201 atomic bombs dropped on the planet Earth - an astonishing number of atomic bombs implying huge destruction and fallout," reads the synopsis of the 12 minute film completed in March.
The film shows evidence of every bomb explosion, documented with the nation responsible, the date and location, the force and the height above earth or sea level, in what the synopsis calls "a relentless build up of accumulating destruction that is both awe-inspiring and dreadful in the true biblical sense of the phrase - full of dread."
"We received that fantastic short film of Greenaway today," Festival Director Norbert Suchanek said Saturday. "We have decided that "Atomic Bombs on Planet Earth" will be the opening film of the Second International Uranium Film Festival May 2012 in Rio de Janeiro!" In 2012, Rio will host Rio+20, a major United Nations conference centered on sustainable development.
More than 1,000 viewers attended the First International Uranium Film Festival, which showed 34 international documentaries and films about the nuclear fuel chain and radiation risks at two theaters in the Rio de Janeiro suburb of Santa Teresa. {continued}
Monday, June 06, 2011
Paying For War: The Results From
Notice how the congressional tepublicans, and especially their cult like followers, never mention the Wars after rubber stamping everything but Veterans Care and even Military Care related to while talking about the growing budget problems they created when they controlled it all. Even now gaining back the House and a few more in the Senate, to continue obstruction, they have sought to cut area's of the Veterans Admin budget!
June 3, 2011 - Even as the wars wind down in Iraq and Afghanistan the financial cost of taking care of veterans continues to mount and could reach a trillion dollars in coming decades
Watch the full episode. See more Need To Know.
We we look at the mounting financial cost of taking care of veterans coming home from the Iraq and Afghanistan wars.
Sunday, June 05, 2011
"World Environment Day"
Jun 1, 2011 - Worldwide events and the release of a new report supporting the Year of Forests 2011 takes place on World Environment Day.
On Sunday, June 5, 2011, global events supporting the 39th World Environment Day will continue the year-long celebration of the United Nations-sponsored “International Year of Forests.”
India will be the host nation for the worldwide event and the UN Environmental Program will release a new report during a ceremony in New Delhi that outlines the green economy potential of global forests.
"We need a strong ethic of conservation and in this role, World Environment Day is a powerful catalyst and voice,” said Jairam Ramesh, India’s Minister for Environment and Forests. “There must be limits on how and where we encroach on the natural world for without them habitats will be paved over, rivers ruined, corals bleached and forests unwittingly plowed for agriculture."
This year's World Environment Day theme is “Forests: Nature at Your Service,” and is meant to draw attention to “the crucial environmental, economic and social roles played by the world's forests.”
snip
UNEP will release the Forests in a Green Economy {13page pdf - a synopsis} report in New Delhi on Sunday, June 5th just as a week-long international summit on the sustainable management of tropical forest ecosystems in the Amazon, Congo and Mekong Borneo basins wraps-up in Brazzaville, Congo. {continued}
AO Justice – Australia Vietnam Solidarity Network (AOJ)
03/06/2011 - The Agent Orange Justice – Australia Vietnam Solidarity Network (AOJ) officially made its debut in Sydney on June 1 with the aim of supporting Vietnamese AO victims.
At the debut ceremony, AOJ launched a campaign to call for assistance to Vietnamese AO/dioxin victims and to urge US chemical companies to clean up the environment and compensate the victims in the Southeast Asian country.
John Percy, National Secretary of the Revolutionary Social Party, said that the war ended more than 35 years ago but many Vietnamese people are still suffering from the harmful effects of AO/dioxin sprayed by US troops. {continued}
As Stimulus Funding Ends,
June 2, 2011 - The debate over whether the stimulus created jobs is heated and endless, with lawmakers continuously arguing the merits of economic projections and clean energy investments.
But one thing is clear: As federal agencies run out of stimulus funds, temporary workers are seeing their jobs come to an end.
"As soon as the money stops, one imagines jobs stop being supported," said Josh Bivens, an economist at the Economic Policy Institute. "My guess is we've passed the peak effect of the Recovery Act on jobs."
In recent months, many of the layoffs have been in education, as school districts announce reductions in the number of teachers they can afford without stimulus support. But green jobs are affected as well: Contractors at the Savannah River Site recently announced impending layoffs as they complete the stimulus-funded part of the nuclear facility cleanup. The Department of Energy also is expected to cut by two-thirds the cleanup team for a uranium-waste pile in Moab, Utah.
The Clean Water State Revolving Fund -- which received $4 billion in stimulus funds -- is also winding down. The Government Accountability Office recently reported that "the Recovery Act SRF programs funded an increasing amount of full-time equivalent (FTE) positions from the quarter ending December 2009 through the quarter ending June 2010, from 6,000 FTEs to 15,000 FTEs, declining to 6,000 FTEs for the quarter ending in March 2011 as projects were completed."
The overall effect of such cuts on the economy is minimal, Bivens said. It is also hard to gauge. The Office of Management and Budget estimates the Recovery Act funded more than 573,000 jobs in the first quarter of 2011, but no one keeps track of how many of those jobs are temporary. {continued}
And why, because the private capital of the so called 'free market' capitalism is just collected and hoarded not reinvested and it won't be even to help the pols and others, those who have bought, regain power by creating within and expanding the economy. That power is now in the hands of the few who want more of both power and extreme wealth Now, not long term growth with innovation and expansion of shared labor and rewards from.
Saturday, June 04, 2011
This Week on War News Radio: Philadelphia Speaks
Philadelphia SpeaksFive War News Radio reporters take to the City of Brotherly Love to conduct a public opinion and awareness survey concerning American conflicts abroad. We hear the results, voices from the Streets of Philadelphia and the analysis from the experts, in a special two-part narrative. But first, a roundup of this week's news.
Agent Orange: A Plea to President Barack Obama
6/3/2011 - A prominent activist has called on President Barack Obama to redress the deadly legacies of Agent Orange, fifty years after the US first sprayed the toxic defoliant over South Vietnam.
Between 1961 and 1971, the US Army sprayed 80 million liters of Agent Orange, containing 366 kilograms of dioxin, over 30,000 square miles of southern Vietnam. Between 2.1 and 4.8 million Vietnamese were directly exposed to Agent Orange and other herbicides during the Vietnam War.
The following is a letter sent to Barack Obama by Secretary of the Britain-Vietnam Friendship Association Len Aldis, who has worked for years to spread awareness about the plight of Vietnam’s Agent Orange victims.
Dear President Obama, {continued}
Friday, June 03, 2011
What We Should Have Learned About PTSD..........
Decades back when we returning Vietnam veterans, and many in the pro-peace movement then, fought to finally get recognized, that which had always been, and finally had a real name "Post Traumatic Stress Disorder", with Vets helping Vets as well as civilians who recognized what was happening giving listen to and taking training or higher education into helping or joining in the professions, as to the results of the trauma of wars especially wars of choice, though 'disorder' is a misleading end word.
Instead it was ignored, by the masses, as some even made very comfortable livings off as well as a star quality, in demand, of denying it even existed while being funded by so called {all political} think tanks who only seek to have money and thus wealth shifted to the hands of the few and not used to help the many nor move societies forward. Which in turn has not only extremely damaged many of our brothers and sisters of our wars but the private citizens who've lived through traumatic life experiences and silently, or misdiagnosed, suffered the damage caused for the rest of their lives.
We've finally come a long way, sadly because of two more wars of choice, what we were saying decades ago and since is finally being not only recognized, combat PTS, but also better understood in the greater majorities of the private nonmilitary of societies and has always been. But within war theaters, occupations of others, the trauma of war hits all and is in existence of possibilities 24/7 for the soldier as well as the populations occupied.
Just think where we, as a whole society, military and non military, as well as much of the rest of the planet, would be if Only, instead of where we allowed ourselves to be led, creating more hatreds thus long running retaliations and blowback with more wars of choice and some within following those already damaged lives from their extreme trauma experiences and causing damage to lives around them!
Military medicine has made advances in prevention, detection and treatment.
Thousands Of Returning Soldiers Face A New Enemy »
June 2, 2011 - The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs estimates that 10 to 18% of Iraq and Afghanistan war veterans may have Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, or PTSD.
The sleeplessness, anger, anxiety and sense of isolation that can accompany PTSD pose tremendous challenges for veterans and their families. And an enduring stigma around mental health care still discourages many veterans from seeking help.
Dexter Pitts deployed to Iraq at age 19, in 2004. Less than a year later, he was seriously injured by a bomb while driving a Humvee in Baghdad. He sustained some serious physical injuries, and was later diagnosed with PTSD.
"Soon after I got back," he tells NPR's Neal Conan, Pitts realized the damage he sustained was more than physical. When he was recovering at Walter Reed, he was laying in his room, and his cousin kept running in and bothering him. When his cousin hit his injured arm, "I just lost it. I blacked out. I chased him down the hallway, grabbed him by his shirt, picked him up, and punched him in his chest as hard as I could." {continued}
June 2, 2011 - It used to be that troubled kids who ran afoul of the law ended up in one place: juvenile hall. And there, for the most part, they found little help for their psychological problems. But slowly that attitude has been changing as more and more states are trying to treat the mental health problems at the root of chronic lawlessness.
In California, for example, counties are working to diagnose and aid the ever-increasing needs of their mentally ill juvenile offenders. In Los Angeles, the nation's second largest city, the changes are fitful and imperfect, but promising.
snip
Academic researchers say about half of LA's young offenders suffer from depression, post-traumatic stress disorder or other forms of mental illness. But it's difficult to say who gets help. In any given year, Los Angeles has some 20,000 juvenile offenders. Fifteen thousand are released on probation, and the county has no reliable data on who receives treatment and whether it works.
snip
Despite the shortcomings, many experts say the changes going on in Los Angeles, and in many California counties, are significant. Pamela Robertson, who works for a nonprofit mental health provider called Starview Community Services, says county leaders have made it clear that mental health is a priority.
"The word is going out ... into the ranks of probation officers that this is a good thing: Utilize these services!" she says. "And they're starting to respond to that, sending more referrals in."
There are other changes, too. Some of those probation officers are now trained therapists. A special phone line connects kids to treatment, and there's intensive, outpatient care for 12,000 particularly troubled teens.
The most concentrated effort though is with kids in jails. There are now four times the number of mental health staff in county jails and special areas for those on suicide watch. But even there, the quality of care remains a big question mark. {continued}
The VA's National Center for PTSD is working to increase awareness for the entire month of June. Learn how you can help increase PTSD awareness. Continued with Links
Thursday, June 02, 2011
Major Cities Countering Climate Change
01 Jun 2011 - The majority of major cities around the globe have taken action to counter climate change, with 93% of cities stating that climate change responsibility sits at the governor, mayor or city chancellor level.
That’s according to the first global cities report from the Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP) written by KPMG, detailing how the world’s largest city governments - 58 core and affiliate cities of the C40 Cities Climate Leadership Group (C40) who represent 8% of the world’s population - are tackling climate change.
Over two thirds of these cities (72%) measured and reported to CDP on local government and community wide greenhouse gas emissions and the risks and opportunities from climate change.
The report was released today in conjunction with the C40 Cities Mayors Summit in São Paulo, Brazil, where over 70 of the world’s largest cities are convening. {continued}
Says it All!!
Thank You once again as that publicity stunt joins the 'purple heart bandages', especially from us In-Country U.S. Navy Veterans, you had such a great laugh with!!
From a Returned Combat Veteran:
June 2, 2011 - Like many U.S. veterans, commentator Benjamin Tupper has read Tim O'Brien's famous book about the Vietnam War, "The Things They Carried". Tupper's war was in Afghanistan, but he says O'Brien's observations hold true, decades later.
Most of the physical items we soldiers carry are owned by the government, like body armor and weapons and helmets. These are unceremoniously returned to Uncle Sam as we out-process from military service.
But the emotional baggage is ours to keep. The memories are packed deep inside our own private war museums. Sometimes the outside world gets a peek at these painful artifacts when they rise to the surface, manifested by bouts of depression, rage or guilt.
Like most combat veterans, I keep many of my postwar idiosyncrasies private, for fear they might alienate my friends and family. If I aired them, I fear I'd receive an impromptu intervention, and be dragged off to a mental hospital for further evaluation. {continued}
Wednesday, June 01, 2011
"Island Microgrids"
05/31/2011 - For American drivers, $4-a-gallon gasoline is painful: It bites deeply into household incomes at a time when millions of people are stretched to a breaking point. But for the U.S. military, the cost of fuel is a magnitude greater--and a matter of life or death. Fuel shipments account for the majority of the supplies trucked through Afghanistan, and militants attack the convoys almost daily. At least one member of the armed forces is killed for every 24 fuel convoys that snake their way along Afghanistan's dangerous roads; hundreds of troops and contractors have died protecting the trucks. All of that ramps up the cost of a gallon of military gasoline to stratospheric levels. Gen. James Conway, the former Marine Corps commandant, estimated in 2009 that gas sometimes cost his forces $400 a gallon once all of the expenses were taken into account.
Because of the military's vast energy needs, senior Defense officials say that reducing those costs is a national-security imperative. On its own, the U.S. military is the single largest industrial consumer of oil in the world. It requires approximately 125 million barrels annually--more oil than 85 percent of the world's nations consume. Every $10 increase in the price of a barrel of crude costs the Defense Department $1.3 billion. In 2008, the year that oil and gasoline prices last reached record highs, the Pentagon spent about $20 billion on fuel alone--a burden ultimately borne, of course, by U.S. taxpayers. Energy experts predict that prices will only rise in the coming years. Meanwhile, the nation's broader dependence on oil all but ensures that the military will remain handcuffed to the Middle East, North Africa, and other volatile-but-oil-rich parts of the world.
So the Pentagon has launched an aggressive program to change all that, with a slew of ambitious plans to convert the oil-hungry U.S. military to alternative-energy sources--and, at the same time, spur creation of a commercial industry capable of producing enough renewable energy at affordable prices for civilians. {continued}
The argument of the deniers to climate change is the new diversion from the same sources of some thirty to forty years ago, we had started installing solar panels back then, till the special interest of the quick bottom lines and growth of locked the breaks on moving forward, something this country was once envied for by everyone else. Just think where we'd be today if those advancements had continued leading to new finds of alternative cheaper cleaner energy sources, we certainly wouldn't now be falling rapidly behind those who once envied and not really even following them as they quickly advance, technologies and their economies!!
The "Silent Honor Roll" That Gives Pause
AIR DATE: May 30, 2011 - SUMMARY
Wyatt Prunty's poem, "The Returning Dead," is a response to the NewsHour's Honor Roll of service personnel killed in Iraq and Afghanistan. The poem first aired in 2006. Transcript
The PBS Newshour started these "Silent Honor Rolls" as we sent soldiers into invasion and occupation of Afghanistan, adding those killed as the country moved quickly from Afghanistan and seeking those guilty of the criminal terrorist attacks of 9/11 and invaded, destroyed and occupied an innocent country and people, Iraq! They used to have a separate page with links to each "Honor Roll" till they revamped the show and site. You can still find some here, mixed in with other reports, but they don't seem to be keeping them current as they air them after some of the TV shows when they get photo's and information of the Fallen.
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