so the weaning is still going well. nursies have successfully slept through the night since we've began. and get a load of this! the night i made my last post, at bedtime, bebe tells me to scoot over. he sleeps with us, you see. i tell him i can't move over any further, or daddy won't have room. he looks me square in the eye, sighs and says, "i need my own little bed, mommy!"
wha?!? i knew that was coming next, but i thought i would have at least been the one to broach it!
so own little bed it was! i made him a cozy pallet next to ours. he laid down after gathering up marty moose and ballum the koala and FELL ASLEEP!!!!!!!!!!!!! I KNOW!
of course he woke up a few hours later and wanted to hop in with us. that's cool. baby steps. baby steps. he's fallen asleep on his little pallet every night since then. i have to get his little room together. we don't even have a bed for him. bad mommy. bad daddy.
in other leaps, we all had an adventure out to my school today to pick up books for classes. $350.00 later, i'm ready to begin my learning and cognition and advanced developmental psych courses in a few weeks. i'm nervous about grad school, but excited. i haven't been in a classroom in, what? 13 years? i missthe new school. i wonder if it will take some getting used to, the switch from distance learning to the classroom? and the book prices, p/s. we rarely used a traditional text book at the new school, so i was quite surprised by the cost of books for two classes. now THAT'S quite a racket! new editions every semester, etc. i got two of them used, so that was nice.
i have more to say about the opposite of leaps and bounds happening in iraq, but i have to race to stupid work now. suffice it to say this: puppet regime in iraq takes month long break because bush administration has nothing for them to do. because they won't sign away all the oil. clear as mud? grrrrrrrr. infinity. more anon.
A new report about terrorism issued by U.S. intelligence agencies brought the sobering news that, while groups like al-Qaida may be somewhat constrained in terms of their ability to attack American targets at home, the threat they pose will continue to besignificant in coming years.
THANK YOU GEORGE W. BUSH!!! way to go! YOU have successfully created a significant threat to ALL americans with your neo-conservative harebrained ideals and wars! bet the numbers of al-qaida supporters have gone through the roof since bombing afghanistan and iraq, don' t you? i heard you say the other day that you were worried that leaving iraq would allow al-qaida to sink their teeth in there... but isn't that what you really hoped for all along? an uprising and desperate people left in the wake of chaos and destruction? you are a traitor and a liar. and you have made us all less safe. clearly, your plans have failed if terrorism is more of a threat today, no?
you can't win a war against ideology. ever. there is nothing to be "won." "we" couldn't begin to "win" what you have created in a 1000 years. admitting you have a problem is half of the battle.
and fromalternet: our mighty and esteemed representatives at their very finest.
GO KIT BOND! iran, iraq, whatever....
Notes From The Senate All-Nighter By Bob Geiger Posted on July 18, 2007, Printed on July 18, 2007 http://www.alternet.org/bloggers/geiger/57188/
Here's some miscellaneous notes as I watch Senate Republicans try to say something other than the rubber-stamp talk they've been spitting out for years -- along with a count of how many times they use the same old cynical phrases.
Kay Bailey Hutchison (R-TX)
Desperate Buzzphrase Count: # "Cut and run" 6
Kit Bond (R-MO)
Freudian slip in describing the alleged dangers of a troop withdrawal: "If we were to leave Iran without finishing the job…" said Bond.
Yikes.
Desperate Buzzphrase Count:
* "Retreat and defeat" 3 * "Cut and run" 2 * "Run and leave" (See "Cut and run") * "Embarrass the president" 1
Jim DeMint (R-SC)
DeMint referred to Democrats as the "minority party" until Barbara Mikulski (D-MD) jumped in to correct him.
"Our enemies are watching us and using our debate on the war in Iraq to strengthen themselves," said Bunning, who obviously took too many line drives to the head during his pro baseball career.
Yeah, because our enemies wouldn't get great joy out of seeing the fear they inspire turning American government into a dictatorship, right?
Desperate Buzzphrase Count:
* "MoveOn.org" 2 * "Cut and Run" 2 * "Follow us home" 1
******
8:34 PM: Reid calls for vote on sending the Sergeant at Arms after Republicans who didn't respond to quorum call. Result: 44-47; Not agreed to, but enough Senators returned to form a quorum.
9:05 PM: Count of Republican objections to proceeding to a vote on Levin-Reed amendment:
* 3:16 PM Senator Lott objects to changing course in Iraq * 4:02 PM Senator Lott objects to changing course in Iraq * 6:25 PM Senator Hutchison objects to changing course in Iraq * 6:31 PM Senator Bond objects to changing course in Iraq * 7:35 PM Senator Warner objects to changing direction in Iraq
Pure truth from Chuck Schumer (D-NY) to the other side of the aisle: "You'll be joining with us later, if you don't join with us today."
china: the ex-head of the food and drug agency has been executed for taking bribes from drug companies that resulted in people 'round the world being given nasty and sometimes poisonness/fatal ingredients in their food stuffs, pet food and toothpaste.
if the u.s. executed every politician that took bribes from drug companies, capitol hill would be empty.
a lawsuit was recently settled out of court. here's the skinny:
an associate professor and former student filed a suit against the above mentioned fuckwad professors that operated a lab environment where women were fondled and groped - physically and verbally. one of these charmers was overheard to say that he "would kill someone if he had to," and that he "knew people who could kill people." they also thought it fun to grab female students in a choke hold, kiss them and pull up various pornographic material and torture videos on the computer to show around. they also enjoyed referring to female students as "sluts," and drove numerous women from the program.
the university "investigated." other entities were called. all effectively dropped the ball.
the very best part? when the complaints began to roll in, they were both moved to the medical school and GIVEN RAISES TO THE TUNE OF $20,000 A YEAR AND WERE TENURED. they can't be fired now. and since the case was settled out of court there is apparently no legal proof this happened.
unfuckingbelievable.
about that video i posted up earlier today - i officially can no longer understand how anyone can support this "war." while i've not been able to get my brain around the pro-turn iraq into a parking lot crowd's thinking since before the invasion, i no longer can show any level of patience or tolerance for anyone that claims to be in favor.
it is cruel and inhumane to subject the soldiers, the citizens, and everyone else in between to what is happening there. it makes me beyond angry to know those calling the shots know damn good and well what they are creating by putting the combat troops through extended tours and hours on. they also know what sort of psychological, emotional and physical damage this is doing to the people that live there. AND THEY CLEARLY DO NOT CARE. anyone that knowingly does this to another person is the sickest of the sick. anyone that supports this is in need of serious psychological evaluation. i used to kind of be able to a least try and "see the other side." no mas.
i'm going to have to talk about this later, because i just can't right now.
Ani Difranco - Roll With It
She says my ass hurts when I sit down she says my feet hurt from just standing around I think my body is as restless as my mind and I don't know if I can roll with it this time
packed his uniforms and drove him to the base she was crying all the way the world looked her in the face and said roll with it, baby make it your career keep the home fires burning till america is in the clear
the mainstream is so polluted with lies once you get wet, it's so hard to get dry we're all taught how to justify history as it passes by and it's your world that comes crashing down when the big boys decide to throw their weight around but just roll with it baby make it your career keep the home fires burning till america is in the clear
what if the enemy isn't in a distant land what if the enemy lies behind the voice of command the sound of war is a child's cry behind tinted windows, they just drive by all I know is that those who are going to be killed aren't those who preside on capitol hill I told him, don't fill the front lines of their war those assholes aren't worth dying for but he said roll with it, baby make it your career keep the home fires burning till america is in the clear
she says my ass hurts when I sit down she says my feet hurt from just standing around I think my body is as restless as my mind and I'm not gonna roll with it this time no, I'm not gonna roll with it this time
jurrasic porkgot my mind going again today... as he often does, even if i just lurk about and don't reply.
i've often wondered how the u.s. would respond if every country in the world decided to hop on over and set up a military base in our great land, much like we have elsewhere. i imagine the response would be, "ah, HELL no!"
i'd list all of the bases found throughout the world here, but the defense department's pdf link is broken. i'd order the book of the listings, but i'm not in a position to blow $165.00 at this time - so suffice it to say, we are here and there and everywhere. what exactly is up with that, anyway?
j.p. also got my attention in pointing out that,
"while being unable to build a single children’s cancer hospital in Basra, we’ve somehow gotten our shit together well enough to build an embassy in Baghdad that’s bigger than the fucking Vatican."
in true form, the united states/british forces managed to rain down a massive amount of depleted uranium in iraq the last time through that sent cancer rates soaring in basra - to the tune of a 242% increase in children under 15!!!! the numbers reported for birth deformities are just as horrible and inexcusable. between the gulf war and this one,2300 tons of depleted uranium munitionshave been exploded across iraq. on top of it all, soldiers are also being exposed and suffering from the effects of uranium in their bodies . so much for cleaning up after ourselves, or for supporting the troops...
we are still using it - right now, as we speak. major doug rokkehas been screaming about this for years. talk about terrorism and biological warfare... this knowledge has haunted and disgusted me for years.
At the close of the Gulf War, Saddam Hussein was denounced as a ferocious villain for ordering his retreating troops to destroy Kuwaiti oil fields, clotting the air with poisonous clouds of black smoke and saturating the ground with swamps of crude. It was justly called an environmental war crime.
But months of bombing of Iraq by US and British planes and cruise missiles has left behind an even more deadly and insidious legacy: tons of shell casings, bullets and bomb fragments laced with depleted uranium. In all, the US hit Iraqi targets with more than 970 radioactive bombs and missiles.
More than 10 years later, the health consequences from this radioactive bombing campaign are beginning to come into focus. And they are dire, indeed. Iraqi physicians call it "the white death"-leukemia. Since 1990, the incident rate of leukemia in Iraq has grown by more than 600 percent. The situation is compounded by Iraq's forced isolations and the sadistic sanctions regime, recently described by UN secretary general Kofi Annan as "a humanitarian crisis", that makes detection and treatment of the cancers all the more difficult.
"We have proof of traces of DU in samples taken for analysis and that is really bad for those who assert that cancer cases have grown for other reasons," says Dr. Umid Mubarak, Iraq's health minister.
Mubarak contends that the US's fear of facing the health and environmental consequences of its DU bombing campaign is partly behind its failure to follow through on its commitments under a deal allowing Iraq to sell some of its vast oil reserves in return for food and medical supplies.
"The desert dust carries death," said Dr. Jawad Al-Ali, an oncologist and member England's Royal Society of Physicians. "Our studies indicate that more than forty percent of the population around Basra will get cancer. We are living through another Hiroshima."
Most of the leukemia and cancer victims aren't soldiers. They are civilians. And many of them are children. The US-dominated Iraqi Sanctions Committee in New York has denied Iraq's repeated requests for cancer treatment equipment and drugs, even painkillers such as morphine. As a result, the overflowing hospitals in towns such as Basra are left to treat the cancer-stricken with aspirin.
This is part of a larger horror inflicted on Iraq that sees as many as 180 children dying every day, according to mortality figures compiled by UNICEF, from a catalogue of diseases from the 19th century: cholera, dysentery, tuberculosis, e. coli, mumps, measles, influenza.
Iraqis and Kuwaitis aren't the only ones showing signs of uranium contamination and sickness. Gulf War veterans, plagued by a variety of illnesses, have been found to have traces of uranium in their blood, feces, urine and semen.
Depleted uranium is a rather benign sounding name for uranium-238, the trace elements left behind when the fissionable material is extracted from uranium-235 for use in nuclear reactors and weapons. For decades, this waste was a radioactive nuisance, piling up at plutonium processing plants across the country. By the late 1980s there was nearly a billion tons of the material.
Then weapons designers at the Pentagon came up with a use for the tailings: they could be molded into bullets and bombs. The material was free and there was plenty at hand. Also uranium is a heavy metal, denser than lead. This makes it perfect for use in armor-penetrating weapons, designed to destroy tanks, armored-personnel carriers and bunkers.
When the tank-busting bombs explode, the depleted uranium oxidizes into microscopic fragments that float through the air like carcinogenic dust, carried on the desert winds for decades. The lethal dust is inhaled, sticks to the fibers of the lungs, and eventually begins to wreck havoc on the body: tumors, hemorrhages, ravaged immune systems, leukemias.
In 1943, the doomsday men associated with the Manhattan Project speculated that uranium and other radioactive materials could be spread across wide swaths of land to contain opposing armies. Gen. Leslie Grove, head of the project, asserted that uranium weapons could be expected to cause "permanent lung damage." In the late, 1950s Al Gore's father, the senator from Tennessee, proposed dousing the demilitarized zone in Korea with uranium as a cheap failsafe against an attack from the North Koreans.
After the Gulf War, Pentagon war planners were so delighted with the performance of their radioactive weapons that ordered a new arsenal and under Bill Clinton's orders fired them at Serb positions in Bosnia, Kosovo and Serbia. More than a 100 of the DU bombs have been used in the Balkans over the last six years.
Already medical teams in the region have detected cancer clusters near the bomb sites. The leukemia rate in Sarajevo, pummeled by American bombs in 1996, has tripled in the last five years. But it's not just the Serbs who are ill and dying. NATO and UN peacekeepers in the region are also coming down with cancer. As of January 23, eight Italian soldiers who served in the region have died of leukemia.
The Pentagon has shuffled through a variety of rationales and excuses. First, the Defense Department shrugged off concerns about Depleted Uranium as wild conspiracy theories by peace activists, environmentalists and Iraqi propagandists. When the US's NATO allies demanded that the US disclose the chemical and metallic properties of its munitions, the Pentagon refused. It has also refused to order testing of US soldiers stationed in the Gulf and the Balkans.
If the US has been keeping silent, the Brits haven't been. A 1991 study by the UK Atomic Energy Authority predicted that if less than 10 percent of the particles released by depleted uranium weapons used in Iraq and Kuwait were inhaled it could result in as many as "300,000 probable deaths."
The British estimate assumed that the only radioactive ingredient in the bombs dropped on Iraq was depleted uranium. It wasn't. A new study of the materials inside these weapons describes them as a "nuclear cocktail," containing a mix of radioactive elements, including plutonium and the highly radioactive isotope uranium-236. These elements are 100,000 times more dangerous than depleted uranium.
Typically, the Pentagon has tried to dump the blame on the Department of Energy's sloppy handling of its weapons production plants. This is how Pentagon spokesman Craig Quigley described the situation in chop-logic worthy of the pen of Joseph Heller.: "The source of the contamination as best we can understand it now was the plants themselves that produced the Depleted uranium during the 20 some year time frame when the DU was produced."
Indeed, the problems at DoE nuclear sites and the contamination of its workers and contractors have been well-known since the 1980s. A 1991 Energy Department memo reports: "during the process of making fuel for nuclear reactors and elements for nuclear weapons, the Paducah gaseous diffusion plant... created depleted uranium potentially containing neptunium and plutonium"
But such excuses in the absence of any action to address the situation are growing very thin indeed. Doug Rokke, the health physicist for the US Army who oversaw the partial clean up of depleted uranium bomb fragments in Kuwait, is now sick. His body registers 5,000 times the level of radiation considered "safe". He knows where to place the blame. "There can be no reasonable doubt about this," Rokke recently told British journalist John Pilger. "As a result of heavy metal and radiological poison of DU, people in southern Iraq are experiencing respiratory problems, kidney problems, cancers. Members of my own team have died or are dying from cancer."
Depleted uranium has a half-life of more than 4 billion years, approximately the age of the Earth. Thousand of acres of land in the Balkans, Kuwait and southern Iraq have been contaminated forever. If George Bush Sr., Dick Cheney, Colin Powell and Bill Clinton are still casting about for a legacy, there's grim one that will stay around for an eternity. CP
Have you convinced anyone else to change their opinion about the Iraq War?
early on, pre-invasion, while working at the bar - yes. as much as the job was a thorn in my side, it did offer me the opportunity to talk with a lot of people on a day-to-day. it amazed me - there were so many people that were under the impression that the whole of iraq had something to do with 9/11. to know that they are still out there, even today... i simply can't get my brain around it.
i can say that many of those that i talked to regularly have overwhelmingly grown to not support the iraq "war" if they were in favor at the start. i don't know if i had anything to do with that, though.
If so, describe that experience and how you convinced them.
i always had a stack of well sourced info with me to share, and a lot to say. many were receptive, i often heard, "why isn't this on the news?" the film showings helped a bunch as well. the most difficult thing was convincing people that they weren't being unpatriotic by questioning the government's motives for war. so many i spoke with seemed to carry the "you are either with us or against us" words spoken by ashcroft as an unquestionable truth - and fear. talking about the alternatives seemed to make a difference as well. pointing out that saddam hussein and bin laden were actually sworn enemies, the geo-political positioning involved, and finally, the oil control aspect all seemed to be things that got others to stop and think. the biggest was the pnac report in which the overthrow of hussein was outlined 15-16 years ago by those who were and are currently advising the president (though it is against international law to overthrow a government (?!).
If not, imagine what would change your mind if you felt differently about the War.
ah, the eternal question that haunts me. i just don't know. every time i think i have the one thing to say that can't be argued or might sway someone - or, at the very least, make them question - there seems to be a rebuttal that doesn't make sense to me - intellectually or otherwise. said rebuttals always seem to be grounded in denial, fear and attacks about my being patriotic or not supporting the troops. it gets distilled down to some sound bite repeated after being heard on fox news or some such MSM outlet.
honestly, i can't even imagine being in support of war - any war.
if i had to guess, though - on a very basic level - it would have to be pointing out the disjunct between 9/11 and what is happening/has happened in iraq.
we were horrified that anyone could take lives so easily and carelessly - not see that those who died on 9/11 were human beings with families and lives...
the same thing is happening today in iraq, as we speak. the 29% still in support of the war in the u.s. feel that those lives are faceless, foreign beings that "deserve" what they get simply because they were born where they were - they are the enemy "just because" they've spent years living under a brutal dictator that we once fully supported and backed. i defy that.
i won't condone 9/11. i also won't condone the largest keeper of Weapons of Mass Destruction IN THE WORLD doing the same to the human beings with families and lives in iraq or afghanistan.
it is the same thing. except now, we're on the giving end and putting tens of thousands of lives in more danger.
those who didn't hate us before sure do now. and i can't say that i blame them in the least bit.
all in all, it's a new sport for the supporters of war to cheer for. home v. away. it isn't that simple. it never is. and swatting at a bee hive only stands to find one getting stung in the end. i have a bebe to think about, and his future. this. is. not. what. i. want. for. him. or any other child that will inherit the short-sightedness and fear and violence this is all creating.
i also want to take a moment and direct you to a post i found via pam's place yesterday. i've been so consumed lately with all things house, that i somehow missed this. i can't stop thinking about it. i urge you to call and sign the petition if you haven't already.
the petition is here. you can contact claire mccaskill here.
i'm going to repost part of what jp posted over on les enrages - i hope it's ok with him to do so. clicking the link above will take you to the rest of it. i can't get lavena out of my mind, no matter how hard i try. please help.
To die unsung would really bring you down Although wet eyes would never suit you Walk through no archetypal suicide Die young is far too boring these days - “Unsung“, Helmet
With the exception of several administration officials both past and present and every other rabid warhawk in PNAC and the American Enterprise and Cato Institutes, I can’t think of a single American who belongs in Iraq.
And 19 year-old LaVena L. Johnson certainly had no business being there.
If you do even advanced Google and Yahoo searches for LaVena Johnson, who was murdered in Balad, Iraq, a place not notable for either terrorist or insurgent activity, on July 19th, 2005, about half the hits you’ll get were written by fellow Missouri native Philip Barron, aka Shakespeare’s Sister’s Waveflux. I’m getting pissed off more and more seeing Barron going at this virtually alone in asking for real answers that explain this beautiful, intelligent, outgoing and accomplished young lady’s death.
Is it because she wasn’t a safety for the Arizona Cardinals? Was it because she wasn’t male? Or is it because she was black? Yet, these inevitable questions have, of course, already been asked. So let’s ask the questions that the United States Army, who wants to be all it can be except honest and forthcoming, has neither the balls to ask themselves nor answer for her family and the record. And before we can ask these questions, I first have to ensure that my readership knows the basic facts if they don’t already.
On July 19th, 2005, Pfc. LaVena Johnson was found dead in her tent, a single bullet wound to her left temple (she was right-handed). Her nose was broken. One of her lips was battered so badly that a mortician had to reconstruct it. Two of her front teeth were knocked loose. Her shoulder or elbow was dislocated. A trail of blood led from her tent to outside.
A slam dunk, right? You’d think even an Army sawbones half a step ahead of a civilian malpractice suit and the laziest, most jaded and indifferent Army CID officer would rule this a murder, right?
Instead, the Army initially ruled her death a “non combat-related” one as a result of a self-inflicted wound. Not officially a suicide, but a death due to an SIW. When pressed to reopen the case by a St. Louis television news station and Johnson’s parents, the Army then planted its second boot squarely and firmly in Bizarro World and ruled LaVena Johnson’s death a suicide.
And in the act of doing so, they practically begged the Johnson family to hire attorneys to force the Army to reopen the case that they’re now refusing to reopen. Basically, they’re saying, “That’s our ridiculous story and we’re sticking to it.” This, despite the fact that her CO went on record as saying that she was happy, a fact corroborated by her mother who spoke with her on the phone for an hour the day before her death.
Think back four years ago, to when you first heard that the Iraq War had started.
Were you for or against the war at the time?
If you were for it, what has changed your mind over the last four years?
If you were against it, why were you against it?
i was working that night, march 20th of 2003. i'll never forget it. i looked up at the t.v. behind the bar and watched my government begin to "shock and awe" the people of iraq. i remember that i began crying immediately, for many reasons. i still do, to be honest. i remember feeling much like i did the morning of september 11th. i imagined what it must be like, to be down there, after reading about how many families were stocking up on drugs to take and give to their children to calm them when the bombing started. in that moment, there were no borders. we were all just people, drug into the battles of others that i've never even met. i was them, they were me. the newspaper people came in, they were looking for responses from people in the area as the bombing campaign began. i looked around the bar - it was surreal. many were still drinking, laughing, talking, as if nothing were happening. as if people weren't going to die a horribly painful death. i gave my cents to the reporters through my haze, which ended up being printed the next day. the guy they asked after me, a regular for the past 6 years, said he didn't care - so long as he could still "go to the gas station and get gas, go to the grocery store and get food, go to the gap and buy new clothes." my heart sank. i felt as if i'd been socked in the stomach. the tears came back with a vengance - and they didn't stop until i fell asleep that night.
i felt like a failure. i hoped with everything in me that the rest of the world knew that there were many of us that didn't want any of it to go down this way. i kept thinking, "i'm so sorry" over and over and over.
i had tried so hard in the months prior to raise awareness. i had gone to countless protests and made hundreds of copies of materials that i'd compiled and handed them out to anyone willing to take a look. i organizedfilm showingsat the bookstore. i rallied to make phone calls and write letters. i grew hoarse from speaking of such people asscott ritter, who knew there wasn't anything in iraq to be concerned about - who traveled endlessly trying to debunk bush's claims. i tried to encourage people to read thepnac'sposition paper, rebuilding america's defenses in the hopes that they would see the iraq invasion had been on the minds of many in the administration for over 10 years. i was invited to read a poem i'd written along with a few other poets for an npr segment about local artist's responses to the impending "war." if only enough people speak up, if only... i never gave up hope. i tried everything that i could think of.
and here were are 4 years later. in a war with no end. with blood on all of our hands that no amount of washing will ever erase.
i was also against the invasion of afghanistan, in all honesty. i'm a pacifist. i saw no point in taking aggressions out on a country of people that had little or nothing to do with 9/11. those who carried out the attacks died that day. and soon after, when talk turned to iraq, i was horrified. how dare they? then came the myriad of accusations. iraq has this! they are going to do that! blah! blah! blah! lies, lies and more lies. all i knew for sure is that war kills and destroys - that people like me, just trying to live and survive, were going to be killed brutally - on all sides of the debate. and as ani d. says, "those who call the shots are never in the line of fire."
i didn't believe the claims that iraq would be a "cakewalk" - not for one second. and i wasn't buying the idea that whatever was going to happen was even really a "war." maybe an occupation and invasion, but never a war. basically, i believed not a word coming from the mouths of those calling the above mentioned shots. but mostly? i remember the overwhelming feeling that we should, as a people, be evolved past the point of using violence to settle an international dispute. there is always another way. always. and i knew that the use of violence, whether "in return" (afghanistan) or enacted based in fiction (iraq), would only serve to validate and fuel those who "hate america" even more - those who have historically been victim to the military/economic actions of america.
i believe in words, not weapons. i believe in peace, not war.
infinity.
p/s - there are 217 of us bloggers thus far - please join us!!!! and spread the word!
but before i hop up on my soapbox, i'm hoping that you all might go over and introduce yeselves tosicily sue. she just started a blog and i know you're all the perfect bunch to welcome her! she's a dear old friend - and one of the most passionate, genuine, beautiful, people i know! you'll heart her. AND her fantastic photography! this gal has always had quite THE eye.
now back to your regularly scheduled programming:
warning - rant ahead!
...but this isn't about the soldiers or the people of iraq, is it? it's mostly about who controls the oil combined with some bizarro geo-political positioning... well, the oil is running out and the war to win friends and influence people is a complete. murderous. bust.
"there is no flag large enough to cover the shame of killing innocent people." ~howard zinn
bush told us that he was coming to git bin laden dead or alive, my and afghanistan, oh, afghanistan... we don't hear much about you anymore. i'm sorry. you see, the people of america got duped by the one of the oldest tricks in the book - good 'ol bait and switch. for the record, i wasn't at all keen on the idea of invading you either. when pResidentspidey sense started tingling. i had a feeling that BL'd still be alive 5, 10, even 15 years later and that your country would be in further chaos. i also had a feeling that the fall-back-rationale of 'liberating the women' would also fall horribly, terribly, short.
then they went and hit us with WEAPONS OF MASS DESTRUCTION IN IRAQ!
since our collective attention span lasts about the length of a 30 second commercial spot for a deodorant that doesn't leave white marks on one's clothes, you can see where we got all confused. we forgot that those who attacked on 9/11 died in the attacks, that they weren't even from afghanistan or iraq. i hear that didn't matter though, that someone would pay - even if it was at the price of an entire country of people that had nothing to do with anything. i'm still trying to wrap my brain around that one.
but i imagine we'll begin to hear about you again soon, as the taliban continues to gain ground and the fighting still wages on. it is only a matter of time. once the weather breaks, and bush continues to funnel billions into the iraq mess that he created.
and for all of those staunch war supporters that still actually remain in existence, i have this to say - go enlist. get off your booty if you're so gung ho and head down to your nearest recruiting center - they'll need you with bush's new and improved plan of sending in even more troops. just think! you'll be able to return home to substandard v.a. style health care, thanks to your fearful leader. that is, if you manage to make it home alive.
just spare me your arm chair warrioring. i simply can't listen to it anymore. warring/killing for natural resources that technically no one person should be allowed to control because they belong to all of us is one thing i will never ever waver on. you won't change my mind. you can't convince me. if you feel like commenting me or sending me email telling me that i'm an ignorant leftist commie blah blah blah - do think twice. you don't exist to me anymore. i'm pushing you and your warmongering, hateful, bullying, mean rhetoric out this year.
i have had enough of war for the rest of my life .
so i just made the mistake of watching a network newscast - wgn out of chicago, to be exacting. you know how i like to be exacting...
they were reporting on the latest from the whitehouse regarding the miserable, murderous, criminal, unethical FAILURE of a policy on iraq. their version, of course, was much nicer than mine - instead of a variation of the word 'murder,' the random whitehouse insider spokesperson chose the word 'sacrifice' - with a knowing look to boot - as if he really knows, feels that sacrifice. personally. and naturally, a couple of points did ruffle these fair feathers. i don't know what i was thinking. i don't know why i watched.
* bush is apparently chatting with numerous generals in an attempt to stay the course, uh, i mean, change the course. sorry for the slip - i've heard it so much now that you really can't blame me. in any event, it was reported that bush is listening to suggestions, then telling said generals to just go ahead and call the shots. hold up! isn't the commander in chief supposed to the end-all-be-all-say-all? sure, get some input from people that have actually served, as opposed to playing pretend soldier, but the ultimate call needs to come from the commander in chief. period. no matter how innane the idea may be. which leads me to this brilliant insight straight from our nation's capital:
* those dern iraqis need to get their own security forces whipped into shape asap! AND get their medical treatment/facilities up to standard asap (nevermind that much of iraq is still reeling from our first pillage and plummage through the land where bush senior promised to rebuild and never did - OR that the casualties are more than likely caused by american weapons and bombs)! AND break up those tricksey little militias (the shia/sunni battle is not one that will be ending anytime soon - good luck with that)! AND make us all a sandwich in their free time (light on the mayo, heavy on the ham, lettuce, spicy mustard, tomato, one slice of cheddar, one slice of pepper-jack, 6 dill pickles, onion, cut into four triangles, no crust, one slice white bread - one slice wheat. kidding. i don't even eat meat)!
c'mon, now! seriously. the country has been dissolving into the abyss of no return since we invaded and illegally overthrew a government (how quickly we forget that ousting was in direct opposition to international law) - and now america has the audacity to say, "get it together. like, yesterday, already!"
that said, even if we were to pull out tomorrow, we still have a responsibility that comes with shocking and aweing a country with our mighty show of force. unlike bush senior, who encouraged the iraqi people to rise up against their evil dictator with the promise that we'd have their back, only to leave them dangling in the wind to be slaughtered - with much of their infrastructure destroyed. i guess we did instate some no-fly zones. that was helpful. then we slapped some sanctions on. those worked. that's a whole 'nother rant for a whole 'nother day. considering that we can't even get the schools up and running that were wiped out by hurricane katrina, or provide health insurance for the 44 million people plus in this country that go without, or... or... or...
but i digress - back to the newscast. the tony snow/john kerry (?!) soundbites in the segment made it sound like they were chastising the whole of iraq for not having a better grip on the events and situations that AMERICA singlehandedly set into motion. say it with me: The. Audacity. i have a horrible feeling that bush's general's tough love tactic is only going to exacerbate an already terrible scenario and leave more dead. many more dead. with no end in sight. :(
*2,791 american soldiers dead. two thousand, seven hundred, ninety one human lives extinguished for lies. *this is the deadliest month of the year in iraq. *according to the u.n. - there are 100 iraqi civilian deaths daily. "there is no flag large enough to cover the shame of killing innocent people." ~howard zinn there is no excuse.
*a senior u.s. diplomat says that the u.s. has shown "arrogance and stupidity" in iraq. *bush acknowledges aniraq/vietnam scenario.
too little, too late.
*the u.s. is getting ready to ink the big who controls the oil agreement - if we can really call it that with a straight face.
i'm venturing a guess that bush is going to pull out before the end of this month. october. surprise.
i'm interested to see exactly how this plays out amidst all of the "but if we pull out, iraq will dissolve into chaos" talk. they said the same thing about vietnam, by the way. and it didn't then. i have a sneaking suspicion that u.s. presence in iraq alone is fueling the fire.
besides, won't bush need to free up some troops to head into iran and north korea next? "war is peace. freedom is slavery. ignorance is strength." ~orwell
You are beyond wise. You are so smart, you're almost prophetic.
Your inner voice always speaks the truth, and you take the time to listen to it.
You are good at seeing who people are... including the darkness of others.
As a result, you tend to have a rather dark - yet realistic - outlook on life.
A: Carbon dioxide and other air pollution that is collecting in the atmosphere like a thickening blanket, trapping the sun's heat and causing the planet to warm up. Coal-burning power plants are the largest U.S. source of carbon dioxide pollution -- they produce 2.5 billion tons every year. Automobiles, the second largest source, create nearly 1.5 billion tons of CO2 annually.
Q: Is the earth really getting hotter?
A: Yes. Although local temperatures fluctuate naturally, over the past 50 years the average global temperature has increased at the fastest rate in recorded history. And experts think the trend is accelerating: the 10 hottest years on record have all occurred since 1990. Scientists say that unless we curb global warming emissions, average U.S. temperatures could be 3 to 9 degrees higher by the end of the century.
Q: Are warmer temperatures causing bad things to happen?
A: Global warming is already causing damage in many parts of the United States. In 2002, Colorado, Arizona and Oregon endured their worst wildfire seasons ever. The same year, drought created severe dust storms in Montana, Colorado and Kansas, and floods caused hundreds of millions of dollars in damage in Texas, Montana and North Dakota. Since the early 1950s, snow accumulation has declined 60 percent and winter seasons have shortened in some areas of the Cascade Range in Oregon and Washington. Of course, the impacts of global warming are not limited to the United States. In 2003, extreme heat waves caused more than 20,000 deaths in Europe and more than 1,500 deaths in India. And in what scientists regard as an alarming sign of events to come, the area of the Arctic's perennial polar ice cap is declining at the rate of 9 percent per decade.
Q: Is global warming making hurricanes worse?
A: Global warming doesn't create hurricanes, but it does make them stronger and more dangerous. Because the ocean is getting warmer, tropical storms can pick up more energy and become more powerful. So global warming could turn, say, a category 3 storm into a much more dangerous category 4 storm. In fact, scientists have found that the destructive potential of hurricanes has greatly increased along with ocean temperature over the past 35 years.
Q: Is there really cause for serious concern?
A: Yes. Global warming is a complex phenomenon, and its full-scale impacts are hard to predict far in advance. But each year scientists learn more about how global warming is affecting the planet, and many agree that certain consequences are likely to occur if current trends continue. Among these:
1. Melting glaciers, early snowmelt and severe droughts will cause more dramatic water shortages in the American West.
2. Rising sea levels will lead to coastal flooding on the Eastern seaboard, in Florida, and in other areas, such as the Gulf of Mexico.
3. Warmer sea surface temperatures will fuel more intense hurricanes in the southeastern Atlantic and Gulf coasts.
4. Forests, farms and cities will face troublesome new pests and more mosquito-borne diseases.
5. Disruption of habitats such as coral reefs and alpine meadows could drive many plant and animal species to extinction.
Q: Could global warming trigger a sudden catastrophe?
A: Recently, researchers -- and even the U.S. Defense Department -- have investigated the possibility of abrupt climate change, in which gradual global warming triggers a sudden shift in the earth's climate, causing parts of the world to dramatically heat up or cool down in the span of a few years.
Q: What country is the largest source of global warming pollution?
A: The United States. Though Americans make up just 4 percent of the world's population, we produce 25 percent of the carbon dioxide pollution from fossil-fuel burning -- by far the largest share of any country. In fact, the United States emits more carbon dioxide than China, India and Japan, combined. Clearly America ought to take a leadership role in solving the problem. And as the world's top developer of new technologies, we are well positioned to do so -- we already have the know-how.
Q: How can we cut global warming pollution?
A: It's simple: By reducing pollution from vehicles and power plants. Right away, we should put existing technologies for building cleaner cars and more modern electricity generators into widespread use. We can increase our reliance on renewable energy sources such as wind, sun and geothermal. And we can manufacture more efficient appliances and conserve energy.
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