“Now!”

Just Say Now

SOME Ongoing Disasters!

http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2010/07/16/the_world_s_worst_ongoing_disasters

SOME of The Globes Worst “ONGOING” Ecological Disasters

NIGERIA

Disaster: Oil spills
Going since: Around 1966

Damage done: The Deepwater Horizon incident may have been the worst oil spill in U.S. history, but it pales in comparison to the ongoing catastrophe that has afflicted Nigeria’s Niger River Delta over the last five decades. As many as 546 million gallons of oil are believed to have spilled since oil exploration began in this region — the equivalent of an Exxon Valdez spill every year. There are around 2,000 official spill sites in the region, some of them decades old.
Oil companies operating in the region blame thieves and sabotage for the majority of the spills, though local activists say aging equipment and lax safety are the cause of many of them. The number of severity of the spills may actually increase in coming years as the industry moves into more remote and difficult terrain in the delta.
It’s not just the spilled oil that can be dangerous. Pipeline explosions, like in the one that killed more than 100 people outside Lagos in 2008, are increasingly frequent as well.

CHINA

Disaster: Coal fires
Going since: 1962

Damage done: China’s recent industrial growth depends heavily on coal — the source of 70 percent of the country’s energy — a major reason why it recently became the world’s largest carbon emitter. The country’s mining sector is also extremely dangerous, killing as many as 13 miners every day. But nowhere is the danger of China’s out-of-control coal addiction more evident than in the 62 raging underground coal fires that have burned in Inner Mongolia since the early 1960s.
Covering an area more than 3,000 miles long, China’s northern coal fires are estimated to destroy as many as 20 million tons of coal per year, more than the entire annual production of Germany. According to some estimates, these fires could be the cause of up to 2 to 3 percent of the world’s carbon emissions from burning fossil fuels. A new initiative by the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region aims to put half the fires out by 2012.
Inner Mongolia’s coal fires may be the most severe, but they are hardly unique. An underground fire in Centralia, Pa., begun the same year as many of China’s, is also still burning.
[remember they are battling an enormous oil spill in the China Sea currently]

HAITI

Disaster: Deforestation
Going since: 1492

Damage done: Haiti and the Dominican Republic share an island, as well as similar geographic and climate conditions. So why do severe storms and hurricanes — not to mention earthquakes — only cause horrific human tragedy on the Haitian side? One large reason is the almost complete destruction of Haiti’s trees.
When explorer Christopher Columbus first landed in what was then dubbed Hispañola, around three-fourths of it was covered in trees. Today, 98 percent of its forests are gone — one of the worst cases of deforestation in human history.
The main culprit is charcoal, by far the country’s most popular fuel source, which consumes up to 30 million trees per year. The Dominican Republic has banned cutting down trees for charcoal and subsidized propane as a substitute, and the contrast can be seen in satellite photographs of the border.
Without roots to hold the soil together, hurricanes and earthquakes are much more likely to case deadly landslides. The erosion of high-quality topsoil has also devastated Haiti’s agricultural sector, exacerbating its endemic poverty.
The list of challenges confronting Haiti following this year’s earthquake is long and daunting, but if the country is ever going to stand a fighting chance, what it needs more than anything else is more trees.

UZBEKISTAN/KAZAKHSTAN

Disaster: The shrinking of the Aral Sea
Going since: The 1960s

Damage done: Straddling the border of Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan, the Aral Sea was once the world’s fourth-largest inland water body and home to at least 20 species of fish and a thriving coastal economy in the surrounding towns. In the early 1960s, the Soviet government built more than 45 dams and 20,000 miles of canals in an effort to create a cotton industry on the desert plains of Uzbekistan, depriving the sea of its main sources.
Over the next three decades, the sea shrank to two-fifths its original size, turning fishing villages into barren desert outposts. Thanks to the high salt content in the remaining water, all 20 fish species are now extinct. Drinking water supplies in the area are dangerously low and the ground contains dangerous pesticides from the cotton farms. When the wind sweeps across the now-dry sea bed, it spreads up to 75 million tons of toxic dust and salt across Central Asia every year.
Thankfully, dams constructed in the last decade on the Kazakh side seem to be leading to a partial recovery. The Northern Aral’s surface span has grown by 20 percent and fish and bird species are starting to return. The Southern Ara

PACIFIC OCEAN

Disaster: The Eastern Garbage Patch
Going since: Discovered in 1997

Damage done: Somewhere between California and Hawaii lies the world’s largest garbage dump — a massive soup of plastic and debris one-and-a-half times the size of the United States and 100 feet deep. The “patch” is the product of the North Pacific Gyre, a loop of currents that picks up trash from the West Coast of the United States and East Asia and funnels it into an endless loop in the North Pacific.
Within the patch, pieces of plastic outweigh zooplankton by a factor of 6 to 1, and are often mistaken by fish and birds for food. Chemicals from the plastic can also make their way into the food chain, including fish consumed by humans.
The patch is the most widely publicized example, but this is a global problem. According to the U.N. Environment Program the world’s oceans contain 46,000 pieces of plastic per square mile. These plastics are responsible for the deaths of more than a million seabirds and 100,000 marine mammals every year.

The world is going to be close to it’s breaking point very very soon!

All posts are opinions meant to foster comment, reporting, teaching & study under the “fair use doctrine” in Sec. 107 of U.S. Code Title 17. No statement of fact is made or should be implied. Ads appearing on this blog are solely the product of the advertiser and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of BuehlahMan’s Redstate Revolt or WordPress.com

They are ALL wrong!

http://www.radaronline.com/exclusives/2010/07/exclusive-new-audio-mel-gibson-admits-hitting-oksana-threatens-kill-her-listen-it

The above is the full 8 minutes

Ya know– I hate ‘sound-bites’ and I sure am wise enough to know when I end up listening to something in pieces, that I do not nor will I ever have the entire history regarding anything that I just heard. Now– I do know the following–

1] This woman was in control of the call and dialoge

2] I do not believe he knew it was being taped

3] She said what she wanted said on the tape

4] If we taped anyone of us during a domestic tyrate it would not be pretty

5] He sounds like every Biker [sorry bikers] I ever knew

6] IF domestic violence did happen, he is wrong– flat out wrong

7] I am not a shrink, so there can be no diagnosis from me while I sit in my armcahir

8] I have used almost every word he used at one time in my life

9] I actually don’t think this tape is any of our business

10] Obviously he is out of control about something way past what we are aware of… in their life together

11]… He should never ever hit nor threated to put her [or anyone] under.

12] Can anyone one of us look back honestly in our own lives and say that we or someone we knew had never ever gotten into a heated screaming match? Would you want it recorded for all to hear out of contents??

AGAIN== Mel is wrong with his rage and violence…  I am just speaking to the ‘taping’.

The media is having a hayday with this…  Mel needs help, counceling…. something. And she needs to just do what she has to do in court, get to court and settle whatever she wants to settle– but ya know, somewhere in the nasty oh-so-wrong shit is a bid for money– and tons of it. I am not saying Mel didn’t do terrible stuff, he most likely sure as hell did– but I am just not excusing her or the media on this one either. The Radar Online folks stated that she personally did not give them the tapes. I am sure she sure as hell had a hand in it– she needed public outrage, or so she thinks. Screw this mess… I want to hear the well is capped and the clean-up is going well, and the troops are coming home [which will add to millions of more unemployed Americans because WHERE ARE OUR TROOPS GONNA WORK?? So there ya have it– this story is not a news worthy story!!! Jobs, Troops, Wars, Unemploymeny, healthcare, enviornment are true stories!!!

All posts are opinions meant to foster comment, reporting, teaching & study under the “fair use doctrine” in Sec. 107 of U.S. Code Title 17. No statement of fact is made or should be implied. Ads appearing on this blog are solely the product of the advertiser and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of BuehlahMan’s Redstate Revolt or WordPress.com

General… oh General….

Nation building in Afghanistan is not our job— it is theirs.

By Eugene Robinson
Friday, June 25, 2010
Washington Post

The good news? Nobody has to pretend anymore that Gen. Stanley McChrystal knew how to fix Afghanistan within a year. The bad news? No
President Obama was absolutely right to sack the preening McChrystal, whose inner circle, as portrayed in Rolling Stone magazine, had all the seriousness and decorum of a frat house keg party. And it was a brilliant political move to turn to Petraeus, who is made of purest Teflon. Critics who might have been tempted to blast the president for changing horses in midstream can hardly object when he has given the reins to the man who averted a humiliating U.S. defeat in Iraq.
Note that I didn’t credit Petraeus with “winning” in Iraq. He didn’t. What he managed to do was redeem the situation to the point where the United States could begin bringing home its combat troops. If the Obama administration’s aims in Afghanistan are recalibrated to accommodate objective reality, then Petraeus can succeed there, too. But this means that the general’s assignment should be a narrow one: Lay the groundwork for a U.S. withdrawal to begin next summer, as Obama has pledged.
After relieving McChrystal of his command Wednesday, Obama called in his national security team and read the riot act. No more bickering, sniping, backbiting or name-calling, the president ordered. Play nice.
But all the comity in the world doesn’t resolve the essential tension between those who believe our goal in Afghanistan should be defined as “victory” and those who believe it should be defined as “finding the exit.” Two thousand years of history are on the side of the “exit” camp, and the fact is that at some point we’re going to leave. The question is how much time will pass — and how many more young Americans will be killed or wounded — before that inevitable day comes.

McChrystal, who designed the counterinsurgency strategy being attempted in Afghanistan, didn’t disguise his opposition to administration officials such as Vice President Biden, Ambassador Karl Eikenberry and special envoy Richard Holbrooke, who questioned whether the strategy could work. Petraeus is far too good a politician to fall into that trap. He won’t allow any daylight between himself and the civilian leadership.
But ultimately, there’s going to be no way to avoid the central question: What kind of Afghanistan will we leave behind?
One answer would be that we have to leave in place a durable, functional central government that has full legitimacy and control within the nation’s borders. This would provide the United States with a reliable ally in a dangerous region and also ensure that Afghanistan would never again be used as a launching pad for attacks by al-Qaeda. But to get the country to that point, given where it is now, could take a decade or more of sustained, concentrated attention. It would mean not just defeating the Taliban but molding the regime of Afghan President Hamid Karzai into a reasonably honest, effective government. This would be a tall order even if Karzai were a stable, consistent, loyal partner. Does anybody believe that he is?
A better answer would be that it’s enough to leave behind an Afghanistan that no longer poses a serious threat to the United States or its vital interests. Nation-building would be the Afghans’ problem, not ours.
Petraeus was successful in Iraq because he realized that he couldn’t create an Athenian democracy in Baghdad. But the highly imperfect Iraqi government is light-years beyond what the general is likely to be able to achieve in Kabul. Even after the war, Iraq was left with modern infrastructure, a highly educated and sophisticated population, and a sizable percentage of the world’s proven oil reserves. Afghanistan has none of these advantages. The political culture is stubbornly medieval; the populace is poor, uneducated and wary of foreign influences. Afghanistan does have great mineral wealth, apparently, but no mining industry to dig it out and no railroads to get it to the marketplace.
In recent testimony before Congress, Petraeus was less than definitive when asked about Obama’s July 2011 deadline. Because he has such credibility and standing in Washington, his view on when we can begin to leave Afghanistan will be more important than McChrystal’s ever was. I hope that by putting Petraeus in charge of the war, President Obama hasn’t consigned us to a longer stay. His comments Thursday seem to indicate the possibility.

Oh– and I can bet you that Petraeus told the President that he would accept this position with a few conditions– Like ‘Hey I am a Battle Field General.. And I want to WIN, [ like there is such a thing as win] not mandy-pandy around. I am going to make a few changes to your rules of combat– LIKE allow the men to shoot!!!!!” “ Oh and by the way, Rolling Stone Mag, set up McChrystal!”

.. when nobody is watching the hen house…

Supreme Court’s Citizens United decision.

The Massachusetts election Tuesday was the last one conducted under rules that had been in place for over a century to protect the right of the people to choose their government free from enormous expenditures of corporate wealth. Next time voters want to send us a message at the ballot box, they may find their voices drowned out by wealthy corporations with their own special-interest agendas.
This Supreme Court decision takes us back a century to a legal framework that fostered a golden era of corporate influence. While the core of the McCain-Feingold law, the ban on unlimited “soft money” contributions by corporations, unions and wealthy individuals directly to the political parties remains intact for now, the reasoning of this decision undermines the foundation of a host of laws enacted to strengthen our democracy and curb corruption in government. Indeed, the soft-money ban could very well be the next target of those who want to see our political system dominated by corporate influence.
This decision gives a green light to corporations to unleash their massive coffers on the political system. The profits of Fortune 500 companies in 2008 alone were 350 times the entire amount spent on the last presidential election.

Oil companies, with virtually no harm to their balance sheets, can now try to “take out” members of Congress who don’t toe their company line on energy policy. Foreign-owned companies–even those owned and controlled by other governments are free to underwrite the candidates of their choice.
Because of the scope of the Citizens United decision, it will take close examination to see what can be done to restore the voice of the average citizen in elections. We must not stand by as corporations threaten to dominate our democratic process. If the race in Massachusetts showed us anything, it’s the power of voters. In our democracy, that power not the power of corporate wealth should decide our elections.

WP/1.23.10

Scotland Says there is no time left…

http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/console/p0053drb

People are people everywhere we go aren’t they. I had prior looked into a company called ‘PLUG’ and it actually has stock– it is wave energy. Now listening to this I kept answering outloud… ” Hell we can’t get people to stop killing people and you want to change people into tree planters. Well and good but in a world gone mad… well, really… what are we doing??? and for heavens sake… Carbon Credits exchanged globally– and Carbon swopping??? Geeeeeeeeece

http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/console/p0053drb

 

 

BBC Starts In Tennessee…

… to see what is obvious to the rest of us.
 http://news.bbc.co.uk/newsbeat/hi/the_p_word/newsid_10000000/newsid_10002600/10002666.stm

Story and audio at above link…

Barack Obama was elected on 4 November 2008 after a campaign that promised change.
One year on, BBC’s Newsbeat traveled across the country to find out how people feel in Obama’s America.
In the first of five reports, Jonathan Blake travels to Tennessee where unemployment is highest among young people to see how he’s trying to fix the economy.

You Investigate A Blowjob For 5 Years, But Not The Bush Crimes?

Marcy Wheeler is today’s hero.

(Matt Lewis Was PWNED)

h/t Earth2Obama

You may be a Taliban member if…

Subject: You may be a Taliban if

You may be a Taliban if….

             Our troops in Afghanistan prove they’ve retained their
sense  of humor with the following:
             “YOU MAY BE A TALIBAN IF….”
             1. You refine heroin for a living, but you have a moral
                 objection to beer.
             2. You own a $3,000 machine gun and $5,000 rocket launcher,
                  but you can’t afford shoes for your kids.
             3. You have more wives than teeth.
             4. You wipe your butt with your bare hand, but consider
                  bacon “unclean.”
             5. You think vests come in two styles: bullet-proof and
                  suicide.
             6. You can’t think of anyone you haven’t declared Jihad
                  against.
             7. You consider television dangerous, but routinely carry
                  explosives in your clothing.
             8. You were amazed to discover that cell phones have uses
                  other than setting off roadside bombs.
             9. You have nothing against women and think every man
                  should own several.
             10 You’ve always had a crush on your neighbor’s goat.

Who can really afford this!

Besides the unmeasureable damage that hit residents locally and headon to ruin their lives– the radius is being hit with water problems, air pollution and air-traveled-and-breathed toxins. And then– we all get to pay for it while we also endure our personal economys sinking fast. This [among so much stuff everytwhere ] sucks so bad.

 

 

http://www.tennessean.com/article/20090108/GREEN02/901080355/1001/RSS01 

TVA’s ratepayers will be saddled with the cost to clean up a massive coal ash slide at an East Tennessee power plant, the agency’s chairman said.

The tab, likely to be tens of millions of dollars or more, will include the cost of extra workers, overtime pay, heavy machinery, and housing and supplies for families chased from their homes, along with the lawsuits that have begun to pile up.

“This is going to get into rates sooner or later,” Tennessee Valley Authority Chairman Bill Sansom told The Associated Press on Wednesday. “We haven’t even thought about going to Washington for it.”

Washington is where Sansom will be today, as Tom Kilgore, the agency’s chief executive, testifies about the spill at a Senate hearing that brings TVA’s operations into their first high-profile scrutiny by Congress in more than a decade.

Also testifying will be Stephen Smith, a longtime TVA watchdog who heads the Southern Alliance for Clean Energy, and William Rose, director of emergency management services for Roane County.

The equivalent of more than 1 billion gallons of coal ash sludge cascaded Dec. 22 in a dark avalanche from an aboveground, ash-walled storage structure at the Kingston coal-burning power plant.

When a wall ruptured, the waste barreled out, damaging homes, knocking over trees and power lines and filling two inlets of the nearby Emory River.

The slide has turned into a rallying point for activists, many of whom want national regulation of coal ash ponds and question industry talk of developing “clean” coal for the nation’s energy future.

Several residents who live not far from TVA’s coal-burning plant also have traveled to Washington to lobby their lawmakers with Smith.

“I want to be part of the solution, to get this mess cleaned up,” said Melinda Hillman. “We lived in a little bit of paradise and now it is unbelievable what has been done.”

Much of the gray ash covering almost 300 acres is being sprayed with liquid fertilizer and seeds to try to stop what could be lung-damaging ash particles from drying and going airborne as the cleanup continues.

Lab work on water and ash samples has shown elevated levels of arsenic, lead, thallium and other substances.

State and federal environmental officials say testing shows that drinking water supplies are safe and that treatment plants would remove these materials if they entered the water intakes.

Hillman, who has lived in the area for eight years, said an independent investigation is needed to determine why the pond wall failed.

Forty area families have joined a pending lawsuit along with several environmental groups, demanding that federal courts levy fines and assure the community is made whole.

A TVA official had said earlier that insurance covers such accidents, but just how much had not been determined.

“We are primarily self- insured, but we also have some insurance policy carriers,” agency spokesman John Moulton said Wednesday. “It’s too early to tell what the impact on rates might be.”

Ash pond spills and leaks elsewhere in the country — some smaller than the one at Kingston — have resulted in cleanups of more than $35 million and lawsuits with settlements of $25 million and more.

Tough hearings likely

Pointed questions are expected at today’s hearing, scheduled to begin at 9 a.m. CST.

The Environment and Public Works Committee is led by Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., who has pushed an aggressive environmental agenda since she took over as chairwoman in 2007. She supported efforts late last year to keep tighter environmental regulations in place for coal-fired power plants.

Kilgore, the CEO and president of TVA, was not available for an interview. But agency spokesman Moulten said Kilgore and Sansom were scheduled to meet before the hearing with the TVA Caucus — members of Congress who represent areas to which TVA provides electricity. That’s virtually all of Tennessee and parts of six other Southern states.

Moulten said Kilgore’s Senate testimony would emphasize cleanup efforts.

“Our focus is entirely on recovery,” Moulten said.

The last major confrontation between TVA leaders and Congress came in the 1990s, when the agency gave up the annual appropriations that had covered the costs of management of the Tennessee River system and economic development projects.

Today, TVA, a federal corporation, finances all its flood control, power generation and recreation operations from the sale of electricity.

Groups call for change

Local and international environmental groups homed in on the spill when it occurred.

The Environmental Integrity Project, along with Earthjustice, the Southern Alliance for Clean Energy and the United Mountain Defense, held a teleconference Wednesday, releasing federal data about nearly 100 largely unregulated wet landfills nationwide that hold arsenic and other potentially toxic substances, like TVA’s Kingston facility.

Heavy metals found in coal can concentrate in the ash when it’s burned, and even more ash is created as pollution controls are tightened on power plants.

The groups object to mixing the dry ash with water to move it into ponds. They want dry landfills, recycling of the materials and regulations requiring liners to protect groundwater.

“This issue has been a sleeper,” said Jeff Stant, with the Environmental Integrity Project. “It’s not a glamorous issue. It’s been dumped where people are poor or aren’t members of environmental groups.”

High stakes and glamour, however, are part of it now — along with the potential for huge claims for class-action damages.

Erin Brockovich, who was made a celebrity by the Julia Roberts movie about a community’s fight against contaminated water, and a New York law firm are coming to meet victims this week.Contact Anne Paine at 615-259-8071 or

apaine@tennessean.com.
Contact Bill Theobald of The Tennessean’s Washington bureau at wtheobal@gns.gannett.com.
Duncan Mansfield of The Associated Press contributed.

B’Man’s Hypocrite Watch: The Obama Apologists As They Make Excuses

I have a lot of respect for certain progressive blogs and what they stood for (at least initially). But, there is no doubt that many of these well known sources fell quickly for the Obama rhetoric and basically made the bed they now are making us all sleep in. What upsets me is to watch these very same “progressive” entities back track and make excuses for Mr Obama… to the point of blaming the followers of those very blogs for not understanding what Barack was telling them. One, (a favorite of mine) Glenn Greenwald put up a post where he quotes various sources from these well known blogs and seems to be saying that Americans fell for their own imagined policy ideologies and that Barack Obama never said or mean the innuendo that got him elected by the Progressive movement in America.

From Glenn Greenwald:

Progressive complaints about Obama’s appointments

I’ve been genuinely mystified by the disappointment and surprise being expressed by many liberals over the fact that Obama’s most significant appointments thus far are composed of pure Beltway establishment figures drawn from the center-right of the Democratic Party and, probably once he names his Defense Secretary and CIA Director, even from the Bush administration — but not from the Left.\

Let me take a stab, here Glenn. Are you truly “mystified” that the progressives that were instrumental in electing Mr Obama are now upset that they are seeing the truth in “the most liberal Senator’s” stances? Are you truly baffled by what is evidently a mass illusion that Obama played off of, if his campaign wasn’t directly complicit in the hoodwinking of the Progressive Movement? The fact is that this Progressive (me) saw this long ago and has been shouting at the top of my lungs that people were hoodwinked by rhetoric.

What angers me most is that those whom I respected the most (you, in particular) didn’t raise any objections or even act as if there was something amiss. You, Glenn, have fed the monster as much as anyone has from your silence. So, for you to speak about it now has ZERO credibility and for you to blame Progressives is ludicrous and an assault on people like me.

The fact is that I called it long ago and the powerful bloggers missed the damned boat and are now swimming desperately to try and protect their little kingdom of followers. In this, I am totally disappointed in Digby as a source to explain:

None of them are liberals, but then Obama said repeatedly that he wasn’t ideological, that he cared about “what works.” I don’t know why people didn’t believe that. He’s a technocrat who wants to “solve problems” and “change politics.”  The first may actually end up producing the kind of ideological shift liberals desire simply because of the dire set of circumstances greeting the new administration. (Hooray for the new depression!) The second was always an empty fantasy — politics is just another word for human nature, and that hasn’t changed since we were dancing around the fire outside our caves.

Yeah, right. The man played us for chumps. Admit it and hold his fucking feet to the fire. The last thing we need is a technocrat who will continue the stupidest and most dangerous imperialistic strategy that has ever hijacked America. What we need is a TOTAL change from the same old white man Elitist power mongering. Unfortunately, the black man you elected works for them and it is high time you admit it. THEN and only then, can we move forward.

But you aren’t finished, Glenn. You just come out and say it:

So many progressives were misled about what Obama is and what he believes.  But it wasn’t Obama who misled them.  It was their own desires, their eagerness to see what they wanted to see rather than what reality offered.

Early on in the primary cycle, Markos Moultisas — in a post I recall vividly though can’t find — wisely urged that progressives refrain from endorsing or supporting any of the Democratic candidates unless they work for that support, make promises and concessions important to the progressive agenda, etc., lest progressives’ support end up being taken for granted.  But that advice was largely ignored.  For whatever reasons, highly influential progressive factions committed themselves early, loyally and enthusiastically to Obama even though he never even courted that support, let alone made commitments to secure it.

Bullshit, Dude. I call MAJOR bullshit. I listened to the man’s every speech and word. He knew precisely what he was doing by leading Progressives to believe that he was their man. This is the same with every god damned election and you know it. You are no fool, Glenn.

As for kos, you couldn’t have quoted a more unreliable source. Markos cares about power and his kingdom. He does not give two shits about the progressive Movement and his posts are clear indicators of such. His advice was ignored because look where he is now. The entire kos group was for Barack Obama long ago, including the little prick, Markos. How many times must one read how he belittled the very most progressive candidates running, insisting Barack is progressive and leaving the true progressives out to fend for themselves. How NONE of these power bloggers were outraged at the exclusion of the real Progressive voices in America from the debates.

Sorry, Glenn, but kos is the worst source to use to bolster your claim.

That may have been perfectly justified — by pragmatic calculations regarding electability, by excitement over his personality and charisma, by the belief that he was comparatively superior to the alternatives.  Still, the fact remains that progressives, throughout the year, largely lent Obama their loyal support in exchange for very little.  He never pretended that he wanted to implement or advance a progressive agenda.  And he certainly never did anything to suggest he would oppose or undermine the Democratic establishment that has exerted power in the party over the last two decades.

I can agree with the statement that Barack Obama never did “say” the things that Progressives took for granted. But, the liberal blogoshere jumped right in the defending of him… belittling the true progressives… causing the liberal world to fall for a bunch of fluffy bullshit. So, you are correct, he didn’t say it, but the mouthpieces you are quoting were all over the dude and making sure the meme was continued, true or not.

I saw it. I bitched here and at their sites (the ones I wanted to sign up for) and have been complaining about what we were electing all along. But did you? Did any of the progressive blogs that you now quote?

NO. THEY DID NOT.

It goes without saying that there will be Obama policies, both in the foreign policy and domestic realms, that are vastly superior to what we’ve seen the last eight years and to what we would have seen had McCain/Palin won.  And as the second-tier positions begin to fill out, there will probably be a handful of appointees who progressives consider to be one of their own.  And as Digby points out, the magnitude of the financial crisis may compel him to embrace policies that are deemed to be quite progressive (from massive stimulus packages and government intervention in the economy to a diminution of our foreign adventurism).

Really. It goes without saying? I call Bullshit, again, Glenn. What gives you the idea things will be “vastly superior” to what we had the last 8 years? Is it Barack’s Senatorial voting record? For I would gladly point out the consistency with voting FOR Bush’s wants and desires. Please take a little time at your blog to explain how it is so obvious by linking to the votes the man made as a Senator:

The point isn’t that this reality should just be passively accepted and nothing done about it.  The point is that for anything to be done about it, the reality needs to be accepted.  The campaign we began earlier this year with Accountability Now and are now vigorously developing and pursuing — to devote all resources and energies to defeating incumbents in primary challenges — is grounded in the premise that one’s political beliefs and principles will be ignored until there is a price to pay for ignoring them. Democrats don’t perceive there is a price to pay for ignoring progressives, and so they do. That isn’t surprising. What would be surprising is if, under those circumstances, anything else happened.

The point should be that many of you power bloggers are a part of the reason Barack Obama was elected as POTUS. It is because of the huge online influence of you people, ignoring the “centrist” reality of Obama and painting him as a liberal and progressive, when he is really neither. Maybe “Accountability Now” should have held this man “accountable” and offered truth to what his positions really is. But did you?

The answer is NO. You DID NOT.

What you DID Do is play the same old Two Party Paradigm game where we, as Americans, lose and the elite win. You, Jane Hamsher, Markos, John Amato, etc, etc, etc played right into the fucked up game. You fell for it just like the rest of the brainwashed bunch of Americans that were willing to elect personality and the “hope” for something different when, in fact, every bit of evidence showed this to be a falsehood. The evidence shows that we are heading for the same shit, just a little more suave delivery.

Good for you.

If you so desire to read the original article, go here.

So, NOW they decide to talk about it!

This drives me NUTS! In my field of Social Work [years ago]… I can not even begin to tell you how many soldiers were lost due to PTSD ‘after’ being placed into unjust wars much less insane circumstances. WWI saw this very same thing– as well as WWII. No one wanted to se it for what it is. It is about time someone woke up and made this program a reality! It should of been S.O.P. anyway years and years ago!

Filner Advocates ‘De-Boot Camp’ for GIs

November 22, 2008The Washington Post

A key House leader is proposing to establish a “de-boot camp,” where returning service members would undergo mandatory diagnosis for brain injuries and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) in order to reduce instances of domestic violence and suicide.

Rep. Bob Filner, chairman of the House Veterans’ Affairs Committee, said Wednesday he will lobby the Obama administration for the de-boot camp and other new initiatives for service members returning from Iraq and Afghanistan, as well as veterans from the Vietnam era.

“There were more suicides [postwar] by Vietnam veterans than those who died in the war. We cannot make the same mistakes again. Mental illness is an injury that has to be dealt with,” Mr. Filner said during an editorial board at The Washington Times. “We all have to understand what they are facing. We all have to understand PTSD.”

The California Democrat said he wants the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) to reduce a backlog of claims by granting all claims made by Vietnam veterans who say they suffer illnesses from exposure to the defoliant Agent Orange.

He said he also advocates a “radical” new approach to veterans health care that would allow veterans living in rural areas to have more choices to access health care, even private alternatives, rather than travel hundreds of miles to veterans hospitals.

Mr. Filner, who is not a veteran himself but represents a large veterans constituency in the San Diego area, said he would even support privatizing psychological care for veterans suffering from PTSD.

Many active-duty personnel are returning home as veterans who are “wounded psychologically,” he said during an hourlong meeting with editors and reporters. “If they don’t kill their wives or themselves, they end up homeless.”

“Something is going on that we are not dealing with,” said Mr. Filner, 66.

With a survival rate at 95 percent, nearly 1 million new veterans will emerge from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

“The psychological wounds are going to last a very long time,” Mr. Filner said. “The public has to support the new veterans.”

After the Vietnam War, there was a failure to distinguish between the war and the warrior that lead to social displacement, mental disorders, homelessness and even suicide, Mr. Filner said.

News reports suggest that as many as 1,000 veterans a month attempt suicide. A third of those diagnosed with PTSD have committed felonies, Mr. Filner said.

“This is a moral issue, and I think [President-elect Barack] Obama will agree with that,” he said.

The “de-boot camp” Mr. Filner envisions could last weeks, even a month, to prepare the military and National Guardsmen to re-enter society. It would include mandatory evaluations by medical professionals to diagnose brain injuries and PTSD.

Currently, the military only offers a two-hour lecture in which “kids are falling asleep,” Mr. Filner said. “It’s so boring.”

While diagnosis would be mandatory, seeking psychological help would be voluntary. Such help would include educational and vocational counseling and would involve spouses and family.

Mr. Filner said he would like to see more access to necessary private hospital care for seriously wounded veterans in rural areas where they may not have the major medical facilities that are available in urban centers.

“In terms of access to that care for rural veterans, who may be away from main centers where their community may have good care, they ought to be far more open to specialties that may not be available within their locale, then we ought to get them into the private system as quick as we can,” he said.

Unfortunately, VA hospital officials all too often are “very hesitant about doing it” because of cost considerations, he said. “They don’t want” care delivered outside the VA hospital system “because if everyone is going to the Mayo Clinic, it’s going to cost a lot.”

But Mr. Filner said he favors expanding access to private care “in certain situations for rural veterans in some specialty areas,” adding that “they’ve got to be far more open and quick about allowing that to happen.”

Mr. Filner also addressed The Washington Times/ABC News investigation into ethical questions about experiments that involve human subjects — specifically, the smoking-cessation drug Chantix that has been linked to dozens of suicides and suicidal behavior.

A study that specifically targeted veterans suffering from PTSD included more than 100 who were taking the drug, but the VA failed to notify the participants of the new Food and Drug Administration warnings until nearly three months later.

“There has got to be really tight kinds of controls on this kind of research,” said Mr. Filner, who expressed disappointment that the VA did not pull the program, which he said was “problematic” for “fragile” veterans.

The entire culture at the VA must be overhauled, Mr. Filner said.

“For a lot of veterans, VA means advisory instead of advocate,” he said. “People in there are really good people, they just need to be inspired.”

Understanding economics the good ole’ American way!

THIS IS A ‘MUST READ’ IF YOU ARE TO UNDERSTAND HOW THE TAX SYSTEM WORKS…
  
 
Bar Stool Economics…..
 
This is ‘crystal’ clear…
 
 
EXACTLY how the system works (or… FAILS ! ! ! )  whether you like beer or not is immaterial…
 
 Never did I have it explained to me as eloquently and succinctly as the professor explained below!
 
Having beer in the story makes it even better and more personal!
 
 
 
Bar stool economics: 
 
Suppose that every day, ten men go out for beer and the bill for all ten comes to $100. 
 
If they paid their bill the way we pay our taxes, it would go something  like this:
 
 
The first four men (the poorest) would pay nothing.
 
The fifth would pay $1.
 
The sixth would pay $3.
 
The seventh would pay $7.
 
The eighth would pay $12.
 
The ninth would pay $18.
 
The tenth man (the richest) would pay $59.
 
 
So, that’s what they decided to do.  The ten men drank in the bar every day and seemed quite happy with the arrangement, until one day, the owner threw them a curve.
 
 
‘Since you are all such good customers,’ he said, ‘I’m going to reduce the cost of your daily beer by $20.’
 
 
Drinks for the ten now cost just $80.
 
 
The group still wanted to pay their bill the way we pay our taxes so the first four men were unaffected. They would still drink for free. But what about the other six men – the paying customers?
 
 
How could they divide the $20 windfall so that everyone  would get his ‘fair share?’
 
 
They realized that $20 divided by six is $3.33.
 
 
But if they subtracted that from everybody’s share, then the fifth man and the sixth man would each end up being paid to drink his beer.
 
 
So, the bar owner suggested that it would be fair to reduce each man’s bill by roughly the same amount and he proceeded to work out the  amounts each should pay.
 
 
And so:
 
 
The fifth man, like the first four, now paid nothing (100% savings).
 
The sixth now paid $2 instead of $3 (33% savings).
 
The seventh now pay $5 instead of $7 (28% savings).
 
The eighth now paid $9 instead of $12 (25% savings).
 
The ninth now paid $14 instead of $18 (22% savings).
 
The tenth now paid $49 instead of $59 (16% savings).
 
 
Each of the six was better off than before.
 
 
 
And the first four continued to drink for free.
 
 
But once outside the restaurant, the men began to compare their savings.
 
 
‘I only got a dollar out of the $20,’declared the sixth man.
 
 
He pointed to the tenth man,’ but he got $10!’
 
 
‘Yeah, that’s right,’ exclaimed the fifth man.  ‘I only saved a dollar, too.  It’s unfair that he got ten
 
times more than I.’
 
 
‘That’s true!!’ shouted the seventh man.
 
 
‘Why should he get $10 back when I got only two?  The wealthy get all the breaks!’
 
 
‘Wait a minute,’ yelled the first four men in  unison. ‘We didn’t get anything at all. 
 
The system exploits the poor!’
 
 
The nine men surrounded the tenth and beat him up.
 
 
The next night the tenth man didn’t show up for drinks, so the nine sat  down and had beers without him. But when it came time to  pay the bill,  they discovered something important.  They didn’t have enough money between all of them for even half of the bill!
 
 
And that, boys and girls, journalists and college  professors, is how  our tax system works.
 
 
The people who pay the highest taxes get the most benefit from a tax reduction.
 
 
Tax them too much, attack them for being wealthy, and they just may not show up anymore. In fact, they might start drinking overseas where the atmosphere is somewhat friendlier.
 
 
  David R. Kamerschen , Ph.D.
 
 Professor of Economics
 
  University of Georgia
 
 
For those who understand, no explanation is needed.
 
For those who do not understand, no explanation is possible.

Talk about ignorant and crazy!!

After Obama’s win, white backlash festers in US

By Patrik Jonsson Patrik Jonsson – Mon Nov 17, 3:00 am ET

AP

Atlanta – In rural Georgia, a group of high-schoolers gets a visit from the Secret Service after posting “inappropriate” comments about President-elect Barack Obama on the Web. In Raleigh, N.C., four college students admit to spraying race-tinged graffiti in a pedestrian tunnel after the election. On Nov. 6, a cross burns on the lawn of a biracial couple in Apolacon Township, Pa.

The election of America’s first black president has triggered more than 200 hate-related incidents, according to the Southern Poverty Law Center – a record in modern presidential elections. Moreover, the white nationalist movement, bemoaning an election that confirmed voters’ comfort with a multiracial demography, expects Mr. Obama’s election to be a potent recruiting tool – one that watchdog groups warn could give new impetus to a mostly defanged fringe element.

Most election-related threats have so far been little more than juvenile pranks. But the political marginalization of certain Southern whites, economic distress in rural areas, and a White House occupant who symbolizes a multiethnic United States could combine to produce a backlash against what some have heralded as the dawn of a postracial America. In some parts of the South, there’s even talk of secession.

“Most of this movement is not violent, but there is a substantive underbelly that is violent and does try to make a bridge to people who feel disenfranchised,” says Brian Levin of the Center for the Study of Hate and Extremism at California State University, San Bernardino. “The question is: Will this swirl become a tornado or just an ill wind? We’re not there yet, but there’s dust on the horizon, a swirling of wind, and the atmospherics are getting put together for [conflict].”

Though postelection racist incidents haven’t posed any real danger to society or the president-elect, law enforcement is taking note.

“We’re trying to be out there at the cutting edge of this and trying to stay ahead of groups that are emerging,” says Special Agent Darrin Blackford, a spokesman for the Secret Service, which guards the US president.

“Anytime you start seeing [extremist propaganda] floating around, you have to be concerned,” adds Lt. Gary Thornberry of the Oklahoma Highway Patrol, a member of the FBI’s Joint Terrorism Task Force. “As far as it being an alarmist situation, I don’t see that yet. From a law enforcement point of view, you have to be careful, because it’s not illegal to have an ideology.”

After sparking conflict and showdowns in the 1990s – think Ruby Ridge, Waco, the Oklahoma City bombing – white supremacist and nationalist groups began this century largely splintered and powerless. Though high immigration levels helped boost the number of hate groups from 602 in 2000 to 888 in 2007, key leaders of such groups had died, been imprisoned, or were otherwise marginalized.

But postelection, at least two white nationalist websites – Stormfront and the Council of Conservative Citizens – report their servers have crashed because of heavy traffic. The League of the South, a secessionist group, says Web hits jumped from 50,000 a month to 300,000 since Nov. 4, and its phones are ringing off the hook.

“The vitriol is flailing out shotgun-style,” says Mr. Levin. “They recognize Obama as a tipping point, the perfect storm in the narrative of the hate world – the apocalypse that they’ve been moaning about has come true.”

Supremacist propaganda is already on the upswing. In Oklahoma, fringe groups have distributed anti-Obama propaganda through newspapers and taped it to home mail boxes. Ugly incidents such as cross-burnings, assassination betting pools, and Obama effigies are also being reported from Maine to Alabama.

The Ku Klux Klan has been tied to recent news events, as well. Two Tennessee men implicated for plotting to kill 88 black men, including Obama, were tied to the KKK chapter whose leader was convicted in a civil trial in Brandenburg, Ky., last week, for inciting violence. The murder last week in Louisiana of a KKK initiate, allegedly killed after trying to back out of joining, came at the hands of a new group called Sons of Dixie, authorities say.

“We’re not looking at a race war or anything close to it, but … what we are seeing now is undeniably a fairly major backlash by some subset of the white population,” says Mark Potok of the Southern Poverty Law Center’s Intelligence Report in Montomgery, Ala. “Many whites feel that the country their forefathers built has been … stolen from them, so there’s in some places a real boiling rage, and that can only become worse as more people lose jobs.”

In an election in which barely 20 percent of native Southern whites in Deep South states voted for Obama, the newly apparent political clout of “outsiders” and people of color has been unnerving to some.

“In states like Mississippi, Louisiana, and Alabama, there was extraordinary racial polarization in the vote,” says Merle Black, a political scientist at Emory University in Atlanta. “Black Americans really do believe that Obama is going to represent their interests and views in ways that they haven’t been before, and, in the Deep South, whites feel exactly the opposite.”

But for nonviolent secessionist groups like the League of the South, the hope is for a more vigorous debate about the direction of the US and the South’s role in it, says Michael Tuggle, a League blogger in North Carolina.

Mr. Tuggle says his group isn’t looking for an 1860-style secession but, rather, a model that Spain, for one, is moving toward, in which “there’s a great deal of autonomy for constituent regions” – a foil to what is seen as unchecked, dangerous federal power in Washington.

“To a lot of people, the idea of secession doesn’t seem so crazy anymore,” says Tuggle. “People are talking about how left out they feel, … and they feel that something strange and radical has taken over our country.”

Nov 5th message from Mikey–

Wednesday, November 5th, 2008

Friends,

Who among us is not at a loss for words? Tears pour out. Tears of joy. Tears of relief. A stunning, whopping landslide of hope in a time of deep despair.

In a nation that was founded on genocide and then built on the backs of slaves, it was an unexpected moment, shocking in its simplicity: Barack Obama, a good man, a black man, said he would bring change to Washington, and the majority of the country liked that idea. The racists were present throughout the campaign and in the voting booth. But they are no longer the majority, and we will see their flame of hate fizzle out in our lifetime.

There was another important “first” last night. Never before in our history has an avowed anti-war candidate been elected president during a time of war. I hope President-elect Obama remembers that as he considers expanding the war in Afghanistan. The faith we now have will be lost if he forgets the main issue on which he beat his fellow Dems in the primaries and then a great war hero in the general election: The people of America are tired of war. Sick and tired. And their voice was loud and clear yesterday.

It’s been an inexcusable 44 years since a Democrat running for president has received even just 51% of the vote. That’s because most Americans haven’t really liked the Democrats. They see them as rarely having the guts to get the job done or stand up for the working people they say they support. Well, here’s their chance. It has been handed to them, via the voting public, in the form of a man who is not a party hack, not a set-for-life Beltway bureaucrat. Will he now become one of them, or will he force them to be more like him? We pray for the latter.

But today we celebrate this triumph of decency over personal attack, of peace over war, of intelligence over a belief that Adam and Eve rode around on dinosaurs just 6,000 years ago. What will it be like to have a smart president? Science, banished for eight years, will return. Imagine supporting our country’s greatest minds as they seek to cure illness, discover new forms of energy, and work to save the planet. I know, pinch me.

We may, just possibly, also see a time of refreshing openness, enlightenment and creativity. The arts and the artists will not be seen as the enemy. Perhaps art will be explored in order to discover the greater truths. When FDR was ushered in with his landslide in 1932, what followed was Frank Capra and Preston Sturgis, Woody Guthrie and John Steinbeck, Dorothea Lange and Orson Welles. All week long I have been inundated with media asking me, “gee, Mike, what will you do now that Bush is gone?” Are they kidding? What will it be like to work and create in an environment that nurtures and supports film and the arts, science and invention, and the freedom to be whatever you want to be? Watch a thousand flowers bloom! We’ve entered a new era, and if I could sum up our collective first thought of this new era, it is this: Anything Is Possible.

An African American has been elected President of the United States! Anything is possible! We can wrestle our economy out of the hands of the reckless rich and return it to the people. Anything is possible! Every citizen can be guaranteed health care. Anything is possible! We can stop melting the polar ice caps. Anything is possible! Those who have committed war crimes will be brought to justice. Anything is possible.

We really don’t have much time. There is big work to do. But this is the week for all of us to revel in this great moment. Be humble about it. Do not treat the Republicans in your life the way they have treated you the past eight years. Show them the grace and goodness that Barack Obama exuded throughout the campaign. Though called every name in the book, he refused to lower himself to the gutter and sling the mud back. Can we follow his example? I know, it will be hard.

I want to thank everyone who gave of their time and resources to make this victory happen. It’s been a long road, and huge damage has been done to this great country, not to mention to many of you who have lost your jobs, gone bankrupt from medical bills, or suffered through a loved one being shipped off to Iraq. We will now work to repair this damage, and it won’t be easy.

But what a way to start! Barack Hussein Obama, the 44th President of the United States. Wow. Seriously, wow.

Yours,
Michael Moore

MichaelMoore.com
MMFlint@aol.com