December 7, 2007 archive

Firecrow & I stopped watching television over a year ago during which we vowed only to turn it on when

Extreme Makeover:Home Edition played on Sunday nights.

We call it our crying show as he & I spend the entire show passing kleenex to each other.  These individuals are doing some wonderful good in the world.  Obviously, ABC would not continue show this unless it was making a pretty substantial profit; we try not to focus on that.  People must be watching and supporting the project.

 Not viewing TV does not mean we live in a bubble, with no world information. We have the internets:the tubes.  And no commercials:the best part.  The obscene nature of blaring commercials is enough to cause my blood pressure to rise.  Even viewing the one show we do watch, we have to mute the commercials when they come on.  It’s all buy, buy, buy–but that’s a diary in itself.

One of his students asked Buddha, “Are you the messiah?”

“No”, answered Buddha.

“Then are you a healer?”

“No”, Buddha replied.

“Then are you a teacher?” the student persisted.

“No, I am not a teacher.”

“Then what are you?” asked the student, exasperated.

“I am awake”, Buddha replied.

The wealth of information coming at us on a given day can be overwhelming and takes some time to weed through with a healthy dose of skepticism.  This can be time-consuming, but we’re not spending mindless hours in front of the propaganda box, so it balances.  

 I don’t need to point out to the readers at Docudharma all the issues that face our world.  We read and research all of them on a daily basis.  Each of us has our passionate buttons for issues which we share very readily here which allows all of us to become more richly informed.  The value of this site, for me, has truly been immeasurable.  I know Firecrow feels the same.

Go Forward With Courage

When you are in doubt, be still, and wait;

when doubt no longer exists for you, then go forward with courage.

So long as mists envelop you, be still;

be still until the sunlight pours through and dispels the mists

— as it surely will.

Then act with courage.

Ponca Chief White Eagle (1800’s to 1914)

 Because there are so many issues I feel passionately about:addiction, hunger, war, poverty, racism, the environment;  I have found myself overcome by my lack of ability to just get up and go help “there”, wherever “there” may happen to be.  My resources, or lack thereof, limits my get-up-and-go power.  Working in the addiction field, the holiday season brings tighter strings on the money coming in as my clients would like to try to salvage some holiday cheer that does not come in the form of a bottle.

Firecrow–who is a union sheet-metal foreman of a shop–is the main bread winner of the compound and work has been slow these past several weeks.  With gas prices as they are and these circumstances, we are feeling the crunch.  

It does not change our want to help where help is so desparately needed.  This was our dilemma.

“Whenever you become empowered,

you will be tested.”

~ Caroline Myss ~

Difficulties are opportunities to better things,

they are stepping stones to greater experience.

Perhaps some day you will be thankful

for some temporary failure in a particular direction.

When one door closes,

another always opens,

as a natural law it has to be, to balance.

~ Brian Adams (from ‘How to Succeed’) ~

 Follow me over the fold if you’ve ever felt the need to assist somewhere and could not…

Some news and afternoon open thread.

1. Get ready for more sternly worded letters! The New York Times reports Angry Democrats call for inquiry in destruction of harsh interrogation tapes by the CIA CYA. “Senator Edward M. Kennedy of Massachusetts accused the C.I.A. of ‘a cover-up,’ while Senator Richard J. Durbin of Illinois said it was possible that people at the agency had engaged in obstruction of justice. Both called on Attorney General Michael Mukasey to investigate. ‘We haven’t seen anything like this since the 18½ -minute gap on the tapes of Richard Nixon,’ Mr. Kennedy said in a speech on the Senate floor”. Good ol’ Rep. Jane Harman (D-CA) knew of the tapes back in 2003, but to her knowledge, “the Intelligence Committee was never informed that any videotapes had been destroyed”. My prediction? This will all get swept under the rug to ‘heal’ the nation in January 2009.

2. 

   The AP reports Senate Republicans filibuster energy bill. “Senators by a 53-42 vote fell short of moving ahead with the legislation passed by the House on Thursday… Senate Republicans have made clear they are strongly opposed to a $21 billion tax package in the House-passed bill, including $13.5 billion in oil industry taxes, as well as a requirement for electric utilities to generate 15 percent of their power by renewable energy such as wind and solar.” Idiots. Of course, the Republicans protect the oil industry! Why won’t Reid actually make these dead-enders actually filibuster around the clock?

3. The United States has aligned with “developing” nations to thwart any progress in the Bali climate talks. According to the AFP, the US won’t pledge to binding cuts. “A UN conference trying to lay the groundwork for a new climate change pact is unlikely to win any binding pledge by the United States to cut greenhouse gas emissions, its head said Friday. Developing nations are also likely to refuse to commit to mandatory targets on cutting emissions blamed for global warming, said Yvo de Boer, executive secretary of the UN Convention on Climate Change.” I hope America’s idiotic stance changes when Bush leaves.

4. The Guardian reports Greenpeace calls BP’s oil sands plan an environmental crime. “The Greenpeace warning followed BP’s announcement on Wednesday that it was buying into the tar sands schemes through a deal with Husky Oil, reversing a decision by former chief executive John Browne to stay away from an expensive and environmentally dirty business.”

   “In the tar sands you are looking at the greatest climate crime because not only will these developments produce 100m tonnes of greenhouse gases annually by 2012 but also kill off 147,000 sq km [56,000 sq miles] of forest that is the greatest carbon sink in the world,” said Mike Hudema, a climate campaigner with Greenpeace in Edmonton.

   This truly is eco-terrorism and we’re all too willing to fund it.

One more story below the fold remembering Pearl Harbor.

This an Open Thread: Please Come In

Headlines for Friday December 7: US says the flow of jihadists into Iraq has been staunched: The Army’s $200 Billion Makeover: C.I.A. Destroyed 2 Tapes Showing Interrogations:Smugglers Build an Underground World: Three prisoners executed in Japan

US says the flow of jihadists into Iraq has been staunched

· Country’s neighbours have taken action, Petraeus says

· Insurgent attacks at 2005 levels since October

Michael Howard in Baghdad

Friday December 7, 2007

The Guardian

The number of foreign jihadists entering Iraq has fallen by nearly half in recent months as a result of tougher action by the country’s neighbours and the rejection of the “al-Qaida brand” by ordinary Iraqis, the commander of US forces in Iraq said yesterday.

General David Petraeus told the Guardian in an interview that attacks in Iraq had fallen to levels not seen since early 2005, and that “ethno-sectarian violence” which had “surged off the charts” following the bombing of the Samara mosque in February 2006 had now “fallen dramatically”.

USA

The Army’s $200 Billion Makeover

March to Modernize Proves Ambitious and Controversial

By Alec Klein

Washington Post Staff Writer

Friday, December 7, 2007; Page A01

EL PASO — A $200 billion plan to remake the largest war machine in history unfolds in one small way on a quiet country road in the Chihuahuan Desert.

Jack Hensley, one of a legion of contractors on the project, is hunkered in a slowly moving SUV, serving as target practice for a baby-faced soldier in a Humvee aiming a laser about 700 yards away. A moment later, another soldier in the Humvee punches commands into a computer transmitting data across an expanse of sand and mesquite to a site 2 1/2 miles away. On an actual battlefield, this is when a precision attack missile would be launched, killing Hensley almost instantly.

C.I.A. Destroyed 2 Tapes Showing Interrogations

WASHINGTON, Dec. 6 – The Central Intelligence Agency in 2005 destroyed at least two videotapes documenting the interrogation of two Qaeda operatives in the agency’s custody, a step it took in the midst of Congressional and legal scrutiny about its secret detention program, according to current and former government officials.

The videotapes showed agency operatives in 2002 subjecting terrorism suspects – including Abu Zubaydah, the first detainee in C.I.A. custody – to severe interrogation techniques. The tapes were destroyed in part because officers were concerned that video showing harsh interrogation methods could expose agency officials to legal risks, several officials said.