FAIR USE NOTICE: This blog may contain copyrighted material. Such material is made available for educational purposes, to advance understanding of human rights, democracy, scientific, moral, ethical, and social justice issues, etc. This constitutes a ‘fair use’ of any such copyrighted material as provided for in Title 17 U.S.C. section 107 of the US Copyright Law. This material is distributed without profit.
I know I have not been posting much or doing much of my own writing here, but there is a reason...well, a couple of reasons. First, I am attempting to submit to Women's International Perspective which requires an editor and someone besides me has to actually think what I write makes sense. Second...work.
The article I am working on for WIP is going to require some changes and a bit more content, so I am working on that, but that is not really what this blog is about.
It is about Casey.
I met Casey through Martha, a military mom who was gracious enough to let me interview her for my blog. I spoke with Casey for the first time about two weeks ago. He is in Iraq as I write this and the crazy thing is that ever since the day we spoke, I just can't stop thinking about him. I wonder how he is, what he is doing, if he will return from battle safely, and if his return is safe, will he be able to adjust to civilian life. I can only describe the experience of wondering as weird, mostly because I can't really explain it, which is how I describe any experience I don't totally understand.
If there is one thing I am certain of, it is that Casey has earned my respect and admiration...and I want that to be known publicly. He is a very intelligent man, which in my book is the same thing as being as good looking as Brad Pitt...in my opinion a man can be as ugly as a dog's butt (which Casey is not) but if he is smart, I mean really smart...the whole dog's butt thing just disappears (I know I rarely use it folks, but this is an attempt at humor!)
Casey's work has recently been the attention of journalist greats like Amy Goodman and Michael Moore. You can view the links...
http://www.michaelmoore.com/ (scroll down a bit) http://michaelmoore.com/links/index.php
I will be speaking again with Casey in the next few days, and I am looking forward to it. I want to again thank Martha for introducing us, this has been a great learning experience for me, as a writer, a peace activist, and a human being. Here is Casey's latest film...
Perhaps one of the most important books of our time, The Prosecution of George W. Bush For Murder, outlines the crimes and incompetence of George W. Bush in such startling clarity, it leaves the reader wondering, "Where is the outrage?"
Vincent Bugliosi, the criminal prosecutor in the trial of Charles Manson and company, tells the reader, in layman's terms, the convincing legal arguments for the prosecution of George Bush. Bugliosi provides documentary evidence showing the George Bush not only lied to Congress and the American people about the reasons for going to war, but also provides evidence that prior to the invasion, Bush contemplated provoking Iraq's leader Saddam Hussein into a military conflict, by painting a US airplane to look like a UN airplane and then flying it illegally in Iraq's no-fly zone so Saddam would attempt to shoot it down.
Bugliosi convincingly argues that the deaths of almost 4,000 American service men and women are the direct result of George W. Bush going to war based on self-fabricated evidence and the fact that the Iraq military conflict was one-hundred percent avoidable. He goes on to show the reader that just as in the Manson case, the orchestration of the circumstances that causes death does not negate the responsibility of the 'orchestrator', namely George Bush.
However, perhaps the most remarkable aspect of Bugliosi's book and setting the stage for convincing us that Bush is a cold-blooded killer is the evidence he provides giving the reader a glimpse into the mind of Bush during this conflict. Bugliosi cites quote after quote in publication after publication that in spite of the death and destruction of American and Iraqi lives (a hell he created), George Bush continues to speak as if his life as a war-time president is simply wonderful.
...just eleven days after 9/11...Frank Bruni said that "Mr. Bush's nonchalant, jocular, demeanor, remains the same."...
...On December 21, 2001, just a few months after the 9/11 tragedy that shocked the nation and the world in which 3,000 Americans were consumed by fires, some choosing to jump to their deaths out of eighty or more stories high - Bush...told the media, "All in all it's been a fabulous year for Laura and me."...
...One January 20, 2005, right in the midst of the hell on earth Bush created in Iraq...[Bush] told thousands of partying supporters at one of his nine inaugural balls, "We're having the time of our life."...
...as of January 1, 2008, in Bush's less than seven years as president, he had visited his ranch in Texas an unbelievable 69 times, spending...all or part of 448 days on vacation there...132 visits to Camp David...spending all or part of 421 days there...and 10 visits to his vacation compound at Kennebunkport, Maine, spending all or part of 39 days there....the bottom line is that of a total of approximately 2,535 days as president, most of them during a time of war, Bush spent all or a part of 908 days, an incredible 36 percent of his time, on vacation or at retreat places....
Included with the evidence provided, evidence that would convince any psychologist that George Bush meets every single criteria for a diagnosis of Anti-Social Personality Disorder (an individual who has zero remorse and no comprehension of how their behavior harms others, in other words, the personality of a serial killer) he provides us with a short photo journal showing the absolute joy George Bush feels on a regular basis and the absolute sorrow of the victims of this war.
While George Bush looks like this....
The people of Iraq look like this...
..
and this...
and our soldiers? They look like this...
But not this man...he is dead now, dead by his own hand because of his struggle with PTSD, like so many others, he will never resolve the damaging reality of war.
A war that could have been avoided. And this writer asks you, "Where is the outrage, that there is no outrage?"
I will never forget the first time I "toured" the many rooms of my new place of employment. The excitement I felt about finally working after years of graduate school blinded me to the reality of my surroundings and the copious amounts of meaningless information chucked at my brain simply blurred my vision further. Looking back now, if I knew what I was getting myself into, I might have turned and run screaming out the fence lined with razor wire, cutting myself on the way out.
The stony, chipped, walls painted an anemic blue, with black scars make the place look dirty and soiled. The stark lighting strips the pigment from the skin of anyone who stands beneath them and on each side of the massive, ugly room; metal bunk beds with thin plastic mattresses line the walls. As we walked through the room, I was secretly relived that I would not be working on "the boys side."
After my first two weeks of enduring the dramatic "girls side," I was sent to the place of unknowns, the place I avoided like a disease. I was sent to "the boys' side." I questioned my decision to stay by the second and usually left for home with a sick feeling in the pit of my gut. Was I doing the right thing? Was I really cut out to work here?
Settled in the center of a city reeling from gang violence, I work at a place that is one-step away from the California Youth Authority or as I like to call it, GladiatorSchool. Kids who end up there, come out more skilled at violence, with dead eyes, void of compassion and empathy. I spend my days surrounded by anger, rage, and sadness so intense it could force even the most faithful to take their own lives if they were to endure it.
Nevertheless, there are days when I sit in that very same grotesque room and I see something very different. I see lost children, struggling to make sense of the violence they do not know how to escape.
And I don't know how to escape it either.
Today, I sat in front of a young boy of eighteen whose great brown eyes filled with sorrow as he told me his regrets. His brother, who he "brought up," will soon be killed because he has a hit out on him.
And just a few short months ago, I searched for the face of a boy on a Nuestra Familia hit list published on YouTube and I found it. I have not told him yet, but every time I talk to him, somehow, the subject of death and dying come up. He stares intensely into my face asking me, "Are you afraid to die?"
"No." I reply, "No I am not afraid to die, I am afraid to die violently." To which he replies softly, "Me too."
Gentle moments like these are rare here. Masked by rage, the elusive sorrow and despair arrive only momentarily and quickly slip back into their hiding places.
On most days, I know what I am looking at in those young faces - it is death. And all my skills as a clinician and as a human being are worthless. Powerless to shield them from their fate, I often sit in silence and watch as tears slide down their faces, struck by their humanity and horrified at the realization of just how helpless I really am.
If You Love Your Country...Thank a Republican!
Category: News and Politics
According to Daily Kos, 9 Republicans voted to support Dennis Kucinich's articles of impeachment. I took the time to call each and everyone this morning and thanked them. Then, of course, I called John Conyers (I know they were happy to hear from me AGAIN) and encouraged him to begin impeachment hearings. I hope you will do the same.
This blog will be a diversion from my usual self, so please, take it easy on me. First off, I would like to thank everyone who has recently spread the word about my blogs, and if you have been a decent human being....thank you. One of the reasons I don't like it here, is because those of you who are decent, are too few and too far between.
There are just some people out there who are angry and just plain mean...and sometimes, it is shocking. And just to put my shock into perspective, I work with active gang members, most of them killers, and half the crap that comes out of their mouths is not nearly as mean, ignorant, or vindictive as the crap I see published here on MySpace.
On a side note...I still have not figured out how I went from working with sex crime victims to drug dealers, killers, car thieves, and pimps...but shit happens I guess.
On to MySpace blogs. Perhaps one of the most disturbing trends I see here, is the more provocative, ignorant, and character assassinating a blog is, the better it does in rankings. I know, I know, I shouldn't care about such ridiculous things as MySpazz blog rankings, but I do.
Why?
Because, I have read and met some thoughtful, insightful, and compassionate writers here. Which is perhaps, why I stick around, and the best writers, never really seem to rank very high. Probably because they stick to the issues and don't get involved in the ridiculous drama around here.
And it's the issues I am most concerned about. The higher the ranking of a blog, the more likely it is to be seen.
With that said, I would like you to join me in a MySpace movement. A movement to distribute information, and it is all just a couple of click's away.
So, here are a couple of blogs you really should be reading...
Erik puts even me to shame when it comes to his activism. This guy has done so much for us, for our democracy, and for this country I find myself either giggling with glee or in awe.
Please subscribe to his BLOG, give him kudos, comments and views...his work deserves our attention.
Well, I think he can speak for himself...today, like just about every other day, he posted an insightful BLOG.
Military veteran. Ex-Navy. Ex-Mainer. Ex-boy scout. Ex-street racer. Pro-choice, pro-second amendment, socialist/rational capitalist. Anti-gender roles. Pro-environment. I believe in souls, but I don't believe there is a god, heaven or hell, or a judgment upon death for that matter. One should do good deeds regardless. One doesn't need a bible or god to realize that hurting others, being dishonest, stealing, oppression, greed and apathy are all wrong. Logic dictates that compassion, honesty and courage benefit us all.
Although our country has faced dark times before, it has been the movers and the shakers who have gotten us back on track. Now more than ever we can spread information from our homes into theirs, it is tool we must utilize together. Again, please click, subscribe, comment, and give kudos...
Take care, have a beautiful day, and don't give up hope!
Stop-loss is the means by which the United States Military may extend the terms of service of a United States soldier in order to retain them longer than the period they volunteered. Stop-loss, enacted during the Vietnam War by Congress, clearly states, "... the President may suspend any provision of law relating to promotion, retirement, or separation applicable to any member of the armed forces who the President determines is essential to the national security of the United States".
However, stop-loss provisions have become quite controversial in recent years and a new film, Stop-Loss, is now making its way to American audiences who seem hypnotized by the glamour and glory they perceive as truth in matters of war.
Army specialist Casey Porter, who was himself stop-lossed, made a decision to use his talent as a filmmaker to bring attention to this issue and many others facing soldiers in Iraq. His courage and tenacity show as he continues his own personal struggle with PTSD while deployed in Iraq.
The video and message below was sent out from Baghdad and Casey is asking us all to watch it, share it, and remember. As we sit in our comfortable living rooms watching snippets of clips of the daily turmoil soldiers are exposed to, we have a responsibility to the men and women who have served the Iraqi people, and ourselves to tell the truth.
This is a look at the very real threats facing Soldiers in Iraq. This video deals with a new weapons system being used against Soldiers known as "Lob-Bombs". However, the Military reports any deaths from this new type of Bomb "a result of small arms fire." See the truth here in this video.
In spite of the Bush Administrations attempts to keep up the appearance that the Iraqi Government welcomes the continued presence of US troops indefinitely, members of the Iraqi Parliament have made numerous attempts to assert the independence of Iraq. ....
Never has this been more obvious than in recent months where Iraqi leaders have made both public and written statements opposing the continued ....US.... presence in their country. ....
Iraqi's themselves have long been opposed the presence of US troops, largely because they are seen as a destabilizing factor. According to a recent BBC/ABC poll, 69% of Iraqis believe that the security situation in ....Baghdad.... will improve or at least stay the same with the withdraw of US troops.....
After the discovery of a secret plan.... to continue the US military presence in ....Iraq.... indefinitely, numerous Iraqi lawmakers have attempted with little success to make their wishes known to American lawmakers and the American public. Although the majority of corporate media sources refuse to give voice to the Iraqi's themselves, the information can be found through alternative sources. For example, "On Tuesday, Democracy Now! spoke to visiting Iraqi lawmakers…in ....New York..... Iraqi parliament member Khalaf Al-Ulayyan criticized the ....US.... proposals" stating,....
"I believe the parliament will not ratify the treaty in its current form, because it harms Iraqi sovereignty. Based on the details that have been leaked to the media, it seems that the deal will make ....Iraq.... not just an occupied country but an actual part of the ....US....."....
.. ..
And, in a recent letter to the American Congress and Senate, Iraqi lawmakers pointed out that any deal signed solely by the Executive branch, would be both "unconstitutional and illegal" under the current rulings and laws of the Iraqi Republic. According to the Iraqi Constitution Article 61 Section Four, the Iraqi government's legislative power retains exclusive rights to ratify international treaties and agreements. ....
.. ..
Representing the majority of the two-hundred and seventy five members of the Iraqi Parliament, the letter goes on to state, ....
.. ..
Likewise, we wish to inform you that the majority of Iraqi representatives strongly reject any military-security, economic, commercial, agricultural, investment, or political agreement with the United States that is not linked to clear mechanism that obligate the occupying military forces to fully withdraw from Iraq, in accordance with a declared timetable and with leaving behind any military bases, soldiers or hired fighters.....
.. ..
The Iraqi Council of Representatives is looking to ratify agreements that end every form of American intervention in ....Iraq....'s internal affairs and restore ....Iraq....'s independence and sovereignty over its land.....
.. ..
According to The Independent, ....in response to the resistance met by Iraqi lawmakers, United States negotiators "are using the existence of $20bn in outstanding court judgments against Iraq in the US, to pressure their Iraqi counterparts into accepting the terms of the military deal…The US is holding hostage some $50bn (£25bn) of Iraq's money in the Federal Reserve Bank of New York…" These funds continue to grow as the price of oil climbs, furthering the pressure on Iraqi Lawmakers to accept the deal. This hold on these funds also inhibits the ability of Iraq's rebuilding efforts as these funds, which under the UN mandate, are specifically for the reconstruction of Iraq including "the wheat purchase program, the currency exchange program, the electricity and oil infrastructure programs, equipment for Iraqis security forces, and for Iraqi civil service salaries and ministry budget operations."....
.. ..
As Americans continue to debate the continued military presence in Iraq, what seems to elude them is the absolute hypocrisy of claims made by the Bush Administration both in regards to Iraq's sovereignty and "The War on Terror." in which he claims, "The rise of a free and self-governing Iraq will deny terrorists a base of operation, discredit their narrow ideology, and give momentum to reformers across the region. This will be a decisive blow to terrorism at the heart of its power, and a victory for the security of ....America.... and the civilized world." Considering that Bush's solution to terrorism is the establishment of a "free and self-governing ....Iraq...." one would think this issue would be moot. Iraqi leaders and the Iraqi people have shown with little doubt they wish us to leave. ....
.. ..
It leaves one to wonder, when will we listen?
On a personal note, I am also posting on the Women's International Perspective blog. Please feel free to create and account with them and comment. I think the people of America have a responsibility to get this information out to as many people as we can...
.... The year was 1776, the United States Congressional Delegates signed a document, which contained some of the most radical ideas the world had ever seen. Today, I will make this declaration, but not just for myself, for all people of the world. As you read through this declaration, please keep close to your mind the people of ....Iraq...., who now live as we once lived paying very close attention to the list of grievances our forefathers suffered. I cannot help but read this and wonder how we have become a nation that practices the very same acts we fought so hard against all those years ago. ....
.. ..
The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America
hen in the Course of human events it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. — That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, — That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security. — Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government. The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world.
He has refused his Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good.
He has forbidden his Governors to pass Laws of immediate and pressing importance, unless suspended in their operation till his Assent should be obtained; and when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend to them.
He has refused to pass other Laws for the accommodation of large districts of people, unless those people would relinquish the right of Representation in the Legislature, a right inestimable to them and formidable to tyrants only.
He has called together legislative bodies at places unusual, uncomfortable, and distant from the depository of their Public Records, for the sole purpose of fatiguing them into compliance with his measures.
He has dissolved Representative Houses repeatedly, for opposing with manly firmness his invasions on the rights of the people.
He has refused for a long time, after such dissolutions, to cause others to be elected, whereby the Legislative Powers, incapable of Annihilation, have returned to the People at large for their exercise; the State remaining in the mean time exposed to all the dangers of invasion from without, and convulsions within.
He has endeavoured to prevent the population of these States; for that purpose obstructing the Laws for Naturalization of Foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their migrations hither, and raising the conditions of new Appropriations of Lands.
He has obstructed the Administration of Justice by refusing his Assent to Laws for establishing Judiciary Powers.
He has made Judges dependent on his Will alone for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries.
He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harass our people and eat out their substance.
He has kept among us, in times of peace, Standing Armies without the Consent of our legislatures.
He has affected to render the Military independent of and superior to the Civil Power.
He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution, and unacknowledged by our laws; giving his Assent to their Acts of pretended Legislation:
For quartering large bodies of armed troops among us:
For protecting them, by a mock Trial from punishment for any Murders which they should commit on the Inhabitants of these States:
For cutting off our Trade with all parts of the world:
For imposing Taxes on us without our Consent:
For depriving us in many cases, of the benefit of Trial by Jury:
For transporting us beyond Seas to be tried for pretended offences:
For abolishing the free System of English Laws in a neighbouring Province, establishing therein an Arbitrary government, and enlarging its Boundaries so as to render it at once an example and fit instrument for introducing the same absolute rule into these Colonies
For taking away our Charters, abolishing our most valuable Laws and altering fundamentally the Forms of our Governments:
For suspending our own Legislatures, and declaring themselves invested with power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever.
He has abdicated Government here, by declaring us out of his Protection and waging War against us.
He has plundered our seas, ravaged our coasts, burnt our towns, and destroyed the lives of our people.
He is at this time transporting large Armies of foreign Mercenaries to compleat the works of death, desolation, and tyranny, already begun with circumstances of Cruelty & Perfidy scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages, and totally unworthy the Head of a civilized nation.
He has constrained our fellow Citizens taken Captive on the high Seas to bear Arms against their Country, to become the executioners of their friends and Brethren, or to fall themselves by their Hands.
He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us, and has endeavoured to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers, the merciless Indian Savages whose known rule of warfare, is an undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes and conditions.
In every stage of these Oppressions We have Petitioned for Redress in the most humble terms: Our repeated Petitions have been answered only by repeated injury. A Prince, whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a Tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people.
Nor have We been wanting in attentions to our British brethren. We have warned them from time to time of attempts by their legislature to extend an unwarrantable jurisdiction over us. We have reminded them of the circumstances of our emigration and settlement here. We have appealed to their native justice and magnanimity, and we have conjured them by the ties of our common kindred to disavow these usurpations, which would inevitably interrupt our connections and correspondence. They too have been deaf to the voice of justice and of consanguinity. We must, therefore, acquiesce in the necessity, which denounces our Separation, and hold them, as we hold the rest of mankind, Enemies in War, in Peace Friends.
We, therefore, the Representatives of the united States of America, in General Congress, Assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the Name, and by Authority of the good People of these Colonies, solemnly publish and declare, That these united Colonies are, and of Right ought to be Free and Independent States, that they are Absolved from all Allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain, is and ought to be totally dissolved; and that as Free and Independent States, they have full Power to levy War, conclude Peace, contract Alliances, establish Commerce, and to do all other Acts and Things which Independent States may of right do. — And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of Divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes, and our sacred Honor.
.. ..
This country has become completely unresponsive when it comes to the will of American and Iraqi people. Recent events, which received little to no attention in the ....United States.... media, show that we have become a nation without laws and have violated the very nature of our own Declaration of Independence. ....
Most notable, in the ....US.... declaration is the continued petitions submitted for redress, only to fall upon deaf ears. ....
Earlier this month Sunni and Shiite representatives of the Iraqi parliament submitted a letter to Congress stating. ....
"the majority of Iraqi representatives strongly reject any military-security, economic, commercial, agricultural, investment or political agreement with the ....U.S..... that is not linked to clear mechanisms that obligate the occupying American military forces to fully withdraw from ....Iraq......."....
On this 4th of July, I ask two things from my readers, first, please join me in this push to register people to vote, and second, please take the time to go through this declaration and point out the egregious violations of our present government in terms of ....Iraq...., and the ....United States.... people.....
FAIR USE NOTICE: This blog may contain copyrighted material. Such material is made available for educational purposes, to advance understanding of human rights, democracy, scientific, moral, ethical, and social justice issues, etc. This constitutes a ‘fair use’ of any such copyrighted material as provided for in Title 17 U.S.C. section 107 of the US Copyright Law. This material is distributed without profit.
hen in the Course of human events it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.