skippy the bush kangaroo

About 209,000 Gulf War veterans have filed claims with the Veterans Administration, and 161,000 of them are receiving disability payments.

“Out of the 580,400 soldiers who served in GW1 (the first Gulf War), of them, 11,000 are now dead! By the year 2000, there were 325,000 on Permanent Medical Disability. This astounding number of ‘Disabled Vets’ means that a decade later, 56% of those soldiers who served have some form of permanent medical problems!” The disability rate for the wars of the last century was 5 percent; it was higher, 10 percent, in Viet Nam.

“The VA Secretary (Principi) was aware of this fact as far back as 2000,” wrote Bernklau. “He, and the Bush administration have been hiding these facts, but now, thanks to Moret’s report, (it) ... is far too big to hide or to cover up!”

Nearly 700,000 American Gulf War Veterans returned to the US from a war that lasted just a few weeks. Today more than 240,000 of those soldiers are on permanent medical disability, and over 11,000 are dead. In a US Government study on post-Gulf War babies born to 251 veterans, 67 per cent of the babies were reported to have serious illnesses or serious birth defects. They were born without eyes, ears, had missing organs, fused fingers, thyroid or other malfunctions. Depleted uranium in the semen of the soldiers internally contaminated their wives. Severe birth defects have been reported in babies born to contaminated civilians in Iraq, Yugoslavia, and Afghanistan and the incidence and severity of defects is increasing over time. Women in Yugoslavia, Afghanistan and Iraq are afraid now to have babies, and when they do give birth, instead of asking if it is a girl or a boy, they ask ‘is it normal?’.

• it's not the radioactivity, it's the toxicity;
• a fired du shell vaporizes when it hits a target such as a tank;
• the biggest health risk here is inhalation of du dust -- not good for the kidneys or lungs; and
• while there may be no conclusive link between du exposure and health or environmental risks, we still have 89 percent of all first gulf war veterans on medical disability -- what's up with that?

The Preventive Psychiatry Newsletter has written to its subscribers telling them that the real reason the former Veterans Affairs Secretary, Anthony Principi, recently resigned was because he has been involved in a massive scandal covering up the fact that Gulf War Syndrome was caused by the use of depleted uranium, according to the SF Bay View...

...The historical disability rate amongst soldiers last century was about 5 percent, although it approached 10 percent during Vietnam. But due to the use of depleted uranium in the battlefield, 56 percent of the 580,400 solders that served in the first Gulf War were on Permanent Medical Disability by 2000. 11,000 Gulf War veterans are already dead. Now 518,739 Gulf War Veterans, almost all of them, are currently on medical disability.

The "shock and awe" bombing campaign in Iraq caused radiation levels in Britain to rocket, according to a controversial report by a Liverpool University academic.

Chris Busby claims "uranium aerosols" from the Middle East were blown across Europe, contaminating populations thousands of miles away...

...The results were detected from testing stations at the Atomic Weapons Establishment (AWE) in Aldermaston, Berkshire, and four other stations in the area.

a growing afghan prison rivals bleak guantánamo - while an international debate rages over the future of the american detention center at guantánamo bay, cuba, the military has quietly expanded another, less-visible prison in afghanistan, where it now holds some 500 terror suspects in more primitive conditions, indefinitely and without charges.

"i can tell you the main reason behind all our woes -- it is america." the new york times reporter is quoting the complaint of a clothing merchant in a sunni stronghold in iraq. "everything that is going on between sunni and shiites, the troublemaker in the middle is america."

one can't doubt that the american objective in iraq has failed. the same edition of the paper quotes a fellow of the american enterprise institute. mr. reuel marc gerecht backed the american intervention. he now speaks of the bombing of the especially sacred shiite mosque in samara and what that has precipitated in the way of revenge. he concludes that "the bombing has completely demolished" what was being attempted -- to bring sunnis into the defense and interior ministries.

our mission has failed because iraqi animosities have proved uncontainable by an invading army of 130,000 americans. the great human reserves that call for civil life haven't proved strong enough. no doubt they are latently there, but they have not been able to contend against the ice men who move about in the shadows with bombs and grenades and pistols...

"this deal wouldn't go forward if we were concerned about the security for the united states."

abramoff was the pimp; foreign interests like russia’s energy companies and the government of malaysia were the johns; the republicans in congress and aWol were the whores.

...the uae owns dubai port co., which is taking operations from london-based peninsular and oriental steam navigation co., which operates six u.s. ports. a political uproar has ensued over the deal, which the white house approved without congressional insight.

the donations were made in the early 1990s for the library, which houses the papers of former president george bush. the current president's father.

the list of donors names sheik zayed bin sultan al nahyan and the people of the united arab emirates as one donor in the $1 million or more category...

Situated in an elegantly restored house beside Beijing's West Lake, it is China's first speciality penis restaurant.

Here, businessmen and government officials can sample the organs of yaks, donkeys, oxen and even seals. In fact, they have to, since they form part of every dish - except for those containing testicles.

faith & grace
Originally uploaded by stoneth.

More than 25 million Americans turned to the nation's largest network of food banks, soup kitchens and shelters for meals last year, up 9 percent from 2001.

Those seeking food included 9 million children and nearly 3 million senior citizens, says a report from America's Second Harvest.

"The face of hunger doesn't have a particular color, and it doesn't come from a particular neighborhood," said Ertharin Cousin, executive vice president of the group. "They are your neighbors, they are working Americans, they are senior citizens who have worked their entire lives, and they are children."

...The surveys were done before Hurricanes Katrina and Rita hit the Gulf Coast in 2005. After the hurricanes, demand for emergency food assistance tripled in Gulf Coast states, according to a separate report by the group.

The new report, being released Thursday, found that 36 percent of people seeking food came from households in which at least one person had a job. About 35 percent came from households that received food stamps.

Cousin said the numbers show that many working people don't make enough money to feed their families. She said the food stamp numbers show that the government program, while important, is insufficient.

"The benefits they are receiving are not enough," Cousin said.

Government reports also show the number of hungry Americans increasing.

A U.S. Department of Agriculture report released last year said 13.5 million American households, or nearly 12 percent, had difficulty providing enough food for family members at some time in 2004. That was up from about 11 percent in 2003.

...Some local food-assistance groups saw big jumps in their numbers of people seeking food, despite an "improving" economy.

In Washington, the Capital Area Food Bank served more than 383,000 people last year, a 39 percent increase over 2001, said Kasandra Gunter Robinson, the food bank's spokeswoman.

Of those people, nearly half had jobs, she said.

- asspress

aWol's followers criticized Lowery.

Yesterday, Lowery spoke out.

From The Washington Post:

Responding to charges that he used Coretta Scott King's funeral to mount a partisan attack on President Bush, the Rev. Joseph E. Lowery said yesterday that his conservative critics do not understand black funerals and are seeking to insulate the president from independent views.

"The Republicans who are criticizing me don't understand the [tradition] of a black funeral," Lowery said in an interview. "At a black funeral we always celebrate the life of the deceased and take up the causes that the decedent championed. Mrs. King's cause was peace and racial justice, and I challenged the living to do likewise."

snip

But, Lowery said the criticism reflects a feeling among Bush's advisers and defenders that the president should not be confronted in public by people who hold opposing views -- a sentiment, he said, that explains why the audience at so many of Bush's events is so carefully screened.

"The problem is the Republicans always want to protect Bush," Lowery said. "They don't want to expose him to independent-thinking audiences. They want to shelter him from the truth."

He added: "The Republicans played politics during Reagan's funeral. Look how political it was. They are just trying to shelter Bush from reality."

There is a lot of sad truth behind that.

God bless Rev. Lowery for his work and his courage in speaking truth to power.

When the old lion roared, the weak trembled and the faithful cheered.

UPDATE.
SisTwo had a beautiful post recently on Coretta Scott King's funeral. She included a link to a well-written column by conservative columnist Peggy Noonan, whose assessment differed from that of the other aWol follower's:

It was gracious, full of applause and cheers and amens. It was loving even when it was political. It had spirit, not rage. That's part of why it was beautiful.

Meanwhile, P&O has said it is unperturbed by the political opposition to its takeover, and DP World has stayed tight-lipped about how it would approach any looming legal action. It did tell us though, that the security of its U.S. ports was ultimately in the hands of the U.S. Coast Guard, regardless of who owns P&O.

u.s. reclassifies many documents in secret review - washington, feb. 20 — in a seven-year-old secret program at the national archives, intelligence agencies have been removing from public access thousands of historical documents that were available for years, including some already published by the state department and others photocopied years ago by private historians.

By the end of last year, we had strict security measures in place and reviewed them each time we left the house, whether to conduct an interview or to buy milk. As a rule of thumb, we never stayed anywhere for more than half an hour because any longer would allow time for a kidnapping to be orchestrated.

Drivers made sure our armored car and "chase" car -- which follows the first car as a surveillance vehicle -- were running smoothly. A guard loaded his AK-47 rifle and secured a handgun to his waist. Haqi, our translator and office manager, tested the walkie-talkie radios and placed the first-aid kit in the back seat. I draped myself in a head-to-toe black abbaya covering, the traditional attire of conservative Arab women, and sat in the back.

The goal was to be invisible, to not be noticed as a foreigner when stuck in traffic, behind a red light or whizzing through Baghdad streets. You just never knew who was sitting in the car next to you. Would they pull out a gun? Would they spot the car and chase you down the road? Would they drag you out? Who would sell you out? Would they have mercy on your Iraqi staff?

hackett had demonstrated his ability to shake money from donors during a january fundraising roadshow in california and new york. but he soon discovered that top democrats were attempting to cut off his money. the hosts of a beverly hills fundraiser for hackett received an e-mail from the political action committee of rep. henry waxman (d-calif.) that concluded, “i hope you will re-consider your efforts on behalf of hackett and give your support to sherrod.” waxman’s chief of staff, phil schiliro, said the e-mail was only sent to a handful of people and that “it probably came from a suggestion from the sherrod brown campaign.”

michael fleming, who manages internet millionaire david bohnett’s political and charitable giving, was one of the recipients of the waxman email. bohnett has given to hundreds of progressive candidates, but fleming says, “this was the first time i had ever gotten an email or communication like that. i find it discouraging and disheartening. it’s unfortunate that the powers that be didn’t let the people of ohio figure this out. we should be in the business of encouraging people like paul hackett and viable progressive candidates like him to run. the message instead is don’t bother, it’s not worth your time.”

sen. schumer was also reported to be trying to turn off hackett’s cash spigots. no one would confirm this to me on the record. but veteran political activist david mixner, who described himself as “a fanatically strong supporter” of hackett and who helped sponsor a new york fundraiser, confirmed that he “received calls from a couple people in congress urging paul hackett to withdraw or not to contribute money to his campaign. the reasons ranged from he can’t win, to he’s too controversial, brown has more money, is more centrist, and more appealing. it was that inner beltway circle crap,” said mixner. “they are people who have no idea what’s going on in the country but believe they know everything.”

mixner added, “i don’t think it’s inappropriate to call me. what’s inappropriate is that the people calling me were the same people who asked him to run, and now they wanted to push him out. that's what made this unique.”

hackett was infuriated by the subterfuge. “i felt like i got fucked by the democratic party because they enticed me in and then they pulled the rug out from beneath me. it sounds eerily familiar to sending in the military to iraq, which was a misuse of the military, and then not giving them what they need to fight.”