November 11, 2009 archive

Nov 11 2009

Veterans Day 2009

Below is just a small group of articles and reports coming in on this Veterans Day 2009. Some about Veterans Day, some about Veterans older and to the present, some about todays Veterans and Soldiers. Much will be said today, much seen, some will even think about, some.

While important it isn’t so much about what will be said or done by our political leaders, it’s really more about how the greater majority in this country who don’t serve, don’t want to really sacrifice, but are quick to use those who do, and their families, then quickly move away from their false meme’s when it comes time to actually heed the calls for the funds to pay for the results of our occupations of choice. And as always by not heeding those calls for sacrifice it ends up causing more suffering by those who’ve suffered enough for country and much much more in the costs of the results of their service!

Nov 11 2009

A Poem for Veterans Day

STREET MEETING

He confronts me

Smiling shyly, head down

Embarrassed at the charade

Brother

I see by your jacket that you was in Nam

I was there too —

Shows me the scar to prove it —

How ’bout a quarter for a fellow vet

To get some wine?

He shuffles — niggaring —

Wincing at the expected blows of righteousness

I give him a dollar and say nothing

You see

We both have come

To the same

Conclusion

Nov 11 2009

“Obama Is Governing from the Far-Left”

(Cross-posted from The Free Speech Zone)

WASHINGTON – The glow from a health care triumph faded quickly for President Barack Obama on Sunday as Democrats realized the bill they fought so hard to pass in the House has nowhere to go in the Senate.

Speaking from the Rose Garden about 14 hours after the late Saturday vote, Obama urged senators to be like runners on a relay team and “take the baton and bring this effort to the finish line on behalf of the American people.”

The problem is that the Senate won’t run with it. The government health insurance plan included in the House bill is unacceptable to a few Democratic moderates who hold the balance of power in the Senate.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/200…

Oh yes, such a fuckin’ “lefty” that Obama eh?

Nov 11 2009

Oddments

Cousin Caterpillar, Incredible String Band

Nov 11 2009

Honduras: Obama Cozies Up To The Golpistas

Faked me out, he did.  Faked me out of my socks.  You remember how the Obama Administration was going to blaze a new path, a pro-democracy path in Central America, how it was going to insist on the restoration of democracy in Honduras and the re-seating of Manual Zelaya, the democratically elected president who was deposed in a coup at the end of June?  I do, maybe you do, too, but ut oh! ut oh! ut oh!

US policy toward Honduras today slipped right back to the same old, same old, support for the oligarchy, support for the “friendly” golpistas, support for anti-democracy forces, and an enormous raised middle digit to the OAS and the UN and the rest of this Hemisphere.

No, the US did not restore the name of the School of Americas.  That would be too symbolic, too opaque a raised middle digit.  No, the US made a much larger gesture: it just sold out democracy in Honduras.

Join me in Tegucigalpa.  

Nov 11 2009

I remember when you could…

…stop the clock

Nov 11 2009

Rolling risk in America’s debtoconomy

  Moody’s released a report that would be headlines in the financial news media of any country that wasn’t in bed with Wall Street.

 The average maturities of new debt issuance by Moody’s-rated banks around the world fell from 7.2 years to 4.7 years over the last five years – the shortest average maturity on record.

 So how much is that in raw numbers? Banks will face $7 Trillion in maturing debt before the end of 2012, and $10 Trillion by the end of 2015.

  Those are staggering numbers, but it doesn’t end there.

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Nov 11 2009

Mothers and Soldiers: Healing the bonds destroyed by war

Photobucket Photobucket

Crossposted at Huffington Post. Tomorrow is independent journalist Dahr Jamail.

The bonds established between mothers and children are sacred.  Mothers provide unconditional love, caring and support, and they teach their children to live in the world with a sense of purpose.  But life circumstances oftentimes get in the way of relationships and affect the outcomes for better or for worse.  In times of war, the bonds between mothers and children can change in the blink of an eye.  Strong relationships that took years to develop can be wiped out when a loved one is killed by enemy fire and other circumstances beyond their control.  Many families in America have experienced this.  So have many others in the Mideast.

Susan Galleymore is the author of Long Time Passing: Mothers Speak About War & Terror. Galleymore, co-founder of Courage to Resist, made international headlines as she traveled to Iraq to visit her son stationed in the Sunni Triangle.  The more Galleymore learned about the military, the more she learned about how war affects mothers at home and mothers in Iraq.  Her journey continued as she met with mothers in other war zones such as Israel and the West Bank, Lebanon, Syria, Afghanistan and the U.S..  I spoke with Galleymore about her new book and how war affects mothers and children, communities and cultures, veterans, and current service members.

Full interview after the break.  

Nov 11 2009

Blackwater bribes Iraqi officials with $1 million to buy their silence over crimes

Well, I’ll let the article just speak for itself:


WASHINGTON – Top executives at Blackwater Worldwide authorized secret payments of about $1 million to Iraqi officials that were intended to silence their criticism and buy their support after a September 2007 episode in which Blackwater security guards fatally shot 17 Iraqi civilians in Baghdad, according to former company officials.

Why is this coming out now?


Blackwater’s strategy of buying off the government officials, which would have been illegal under American law, created a deep rift inside the company, according to the former executives. They said that Cofer Black, who was then the company’s vice chairman and a former top C.I.A. and State Department official, learned of the plan from another Blackwater manager while he was in Baghdad discussing compensation for families of the shooting victims with United States Embassy officials.

Yeah, right, Cofer’s just a real nice guy, I’m sure his concerns were all about “doing the right thing”.   Or maybe it was more like “staying out of jail”.

What a bunch of sleazebags:

Nov 11 2009

Overnight Caption Contest

Nov 11 2009

Reclaiming November 11 for peace



Across the country, there’s a movement quietly taking shape to reclaim November 11 as a day of peace.

What is now called Veterans Day was originally designated in the US as Armistice Day, the day that World War I ended at 11 a.m.  on 11/11.  In the UK and elsewhere, it is also known as Remembrance Day or Poppy Day.

Nov 11 2009

Single-Payer Now!

Last week, House Democrats killed two provisions that could have given us the best health care in the world: single-payer. But we've still got a chance in the U.S. Senate.

Tell your senators to support single-payer health care by co-sponsoring S. 703, the American Health Security Act.

Single-payer health care is the only kind that would both control costs and cover all Americans.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi had pledged to hold a House vote on single-payer, but she broke her promise, and did not allow the vote.

Even worse, Speaker Pelosi stripped a provision from the health care bill that would have allowed states to try single-payer.

As a final insult, the House approved an anti-choice amendment that will remove abortion coverage from millions of health insurance policies.

That's just not good enough.

Americans deserve a healthcare system that will cover everyone and won't bankrupt anyone.

Let's make our voices heard for real health care reform. Sen. Bernie Sanders has introduced S. 703, a bill that would create single-payer systems in every state to cover all Americans.

Tell your senators to support true health care reform by co-sponsoring S. 703 today.

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