Unscheduled hiatus....

I've spent the past week working on an op-ed submission I'm optimistically pitching to some mainstream publications. (I'll keep you posted if anyone picks it up!) As there are only so many hours in a day, and I am compelled to devote an inordinate number of them to putting food on the table and paying the rent, I have been forced to neglect Krieg9.

Unfortunately, the neglect will continue for a few more days. My sweetie flies into town from the East Coast tomorrow, so I will be engaged in much pleasanter pursuits than keeping up with the most recent bad news.

Tune in next Tuesday, though...I'll be back!

MoveOn appeal.…

The Republican-controlled Texas Legislature is still trying to gerrymander the state's 32 Congressional districts to consolidate their party’s hold on power in Washington. Democratic congressmen have once again fled across state lines to subvert the formation of a quorum, necessary to pass the redistricting legislation.

Help MoveOn publicize what the Republicans are doing to Texan voters and the nation.

More information here.

Donate here.

Modern slavery flourishes....

There are more slaves today than were seized from Africa in four centuries of the trans-Atlantic slave trade. The modern commerce in humans rivals illegal drug trafficking in its global reach—and in the destruction of lives.

National Geographic is to be commended for taking this on. You have to purchase the magazine to read the complete story, but an excerpt (here) gives you a bitter taste.

The world's foremost anti-slavery activist makes an eloquent case here that we can end this odious practice of trafficking in human beings.

While the 27 million people enslaved today are the largest number of slaves alive at any time in human history, they are also the smallest proportion of the world population to ever be held in slavery. No one wants to live in a world with slavery. Today the slaveholders are weaker than they have ever been, and there is universal agreement that slavery must end. In South Asia whole villages come to freedom when others help them form institutions such as small credit unions, inform them of their rights, and show them how to organize to fight for them. Slaves everywhere outnumber their masters. When we all stand with the slaves, their masters cannot keep them in bondage. It is true that criminal mafias control some of the traffic in people, and they will be difficult to root out. But slavery will end if corruption is tackled, victims are treated with respect, and those of us who are free decide to support all those who help others to freedom.

Go here to see what you can do to free the slaves!

Bush blinks....

WASHINGTON, Aug. 20 — The Bush administration, seizing on the bomb attack on the United Nations headquarters in Baghdad, is preparing a new Security Council resolution that would urge other nations to send troops and aid to secure Iraq, administration officials said today.

[...]

Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld, speaking in Honduras, said that despite the bombing in Iraq, he saw no need to increase troop levels, at least for now. "At the moment, the conclusion of the responsible military officials is that the force levels are where they should be," he said.

But the diplomatic maneuvering today suggested that some officials in the administration, particularly in the State Department, believe that the bombing demonstrates that military reinforcements are needed. There are now 139,000 American troops in Iraq and 21,700 troops from other countries, half from Britain.

Some experts say it is unrealistic to think that Iraq can be secured with troops at the current level. A debate over this subject flared in May, when Gen. Eric K. Shinseki, then the Army chief of staff, said hundreds of thousands would be needed to secure Iraq after the war.

James F. Dobbins, an expert in peacekeeping operations who was the Bush administration's special envoy to Afghanistan, said in an interview today that the United States might need 300,000 to 500,000 troops to maintain stability in the country.

Complete story here.

Good...!

So rarely do I read a news story lately in which the establishment decides "my way."

WASHINGTON — The U.S. Supreme Court refused Wednesday to block a federal judge's ruling that a Ten Commandments monument be removed from the rotunda of Alabama's state Judicial Building in Montgomery.

The one-line order dismissing an emergency appeal from Alabama Chief Justice Roy Moore came hours before a midnight deadline set by U.S. District Judge Myron H. Thompson for removing the 4-foot-tall, 5,300-pound monument. If officials do not remove it, the state faces a $5,000-a-day fine for defying the judge's order.

To remind readers, the First Amendment states, "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion..."

Complete story here.

Get out your telescopes...!

On Aug. 27, Mars will be closer to Earth than it has been in nearly 59,619 years! That long ago, the Neanderthals still had Europe to themselves and anatomically modern Homo sapiens remained mostly in Africa.

On the 27th, the two planets will be only 34,646,418 miles apart--about five times closer than only six months ago.

Complete story here.

And in Israel....

JERUSALEM (AP) -- A suicide bomber blew himself up Tuesday on a packed bus on a main thoroughfare in Jerusalem, killing at least 20 people, Israel Army Radio said.

The militant Islamic Jihad group claimed responsibility in a call to the Lebanese TV station Al Manar. The attack killed three children and wounded at least 100 more.

The blast on the extra long bus, which had two passenger sections that were full, went off shortly after 9 p.m. Another bus nearby also was hit by the explosion.

It's horrible. Absolutely shocking and sickening.

How can any of these so-called religious extremists--be they Christian, like Bush; Islamic, like the perpetrators of this bombing; or Jewish, like the settlers who bomb Islamic schools--claim their actions are moral?!

Lest you object to my inclusion of Bush in that group, consider the “collateral damage” in Baghdad and Iraq from our missiles and bombs. At Bush's orders, our military intentionally rained down ordinance on cities, knowing hundreds of innocent civilians would "accidentally" be killed.

And don't try to defend his actions by saying he weighed the costs against the lives to be saved. NO weapons of mass destruction have been found. In the end, Bush's ill-conceived war has made the entire population of the world less safe, as we are seeing every day.

Complete story here.

The death toll rises in Baghdad....

BAGHDAD -- The United Nations' chief official in Iraq died today along with at least 14 others when a suicide bomber struck a hotel serving as the headquarters for the U.N., injuring about 100 people.

Sergio Vieira de Mello, who was working in his second-floor office when the explosion occurred, was trapped in the rubble of the Canal Hotel after the blast. Despite rescuers' attempts to pull him free, the U.N. confirmed in a statement that he died.

The blast, occurring about 4:30 p.m. local time, caused part of the hotel to collapse, and thick, black smoke rose above the rubble. The explosion, which was believed to be caused by a vehicle bomb, jolted Baghdad up to a mile away.

At least 14 people are known dead, with the death toll expected to rise.

Right below this story on the L.A. Times website is one about a suicide-bomber attack on a Jerusalem bus that just killed at least five people.

Tell me again, how are we "winning the war on terrorism?"

I will say it again: you cannot "defeat" terrorism with force, no matter how overwhelming. Did we not learn that in Vietnam?

Moreover, if Israel--with the finest military, police and intelligence forces in the world, operating in a tiny country with a small population--cannot prevent terrorists acts through force, what makes us think we can?

I only wish that the people suffering from these terrorist strikes were the ones driving our insane foreign policy, like Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld, et. al, and not innocent bystanders.

Complete story here.

Bush in San Diego....

President Bush yesterday thanked military personnel in San Diego for helping the United States toward winning the war against terrorism as he steered clear of the California political spectacle that is overshadowing even his own re-election campaign.

The president raised more than $1 million for that campaign last night at the San Diego Convention Center, telling supporters, "You're laying the groundwork for what will be a great victory in 2004."

[...]

Last week, when Arnold Schwarzenegger declared his candidacy to replace Davis, Bush's remark that the actor would make a "good governor" was widely interpreted as a veiled endorsement.

The day before leaving his Texas ranch for California, Bush amended the comment to say, "He would be a good governor, as would others running for governor of California."

"I'm going to campaign for George W.," he said.

And indeed he is! Raising more than $1 million at a single fundraiser.

I couldn't find any mention in a quick scan of the major papers of Bush addressing the blackout....When he spoke at his fundraiser or elsewhere, did he make any mention of the fact that the entire northeastern United States was without power?

Local story of his speech here.

Isn't it ironic...?

...White House officials were monitoring the blackout from Washington and from San Diego, where President Bush addressed troops at midday.[Emphasis mine.]

I don't know why, but it seems ironic to me that he's in the city where I live when this goes down in the city where I want' to be.

The LA Times and other news outlets are reporting that the blackout has stranded commuters in New York in the subways underground. Yikes!

Complete story here.

New York blacked-out...!

As of around 4:30 p.m. today, New York city is without power. The NYT says the area without electricity extends along the east coast south to Maryland, north to Toronto and west to Cleveland and Detroit. No other details yet.

Ashcroft goes after Voices in the Wilderness...!

The Department of Justice is suing VitW seeking $20,000 for violations of the Iraqi Sanction Regulations. VitW, which solicits funds for humanitarian aid to Iraq, says it will not pay the fine. Instead, it vows to continue its work organizing delegations to Iraq composed of teachers, veterans, social workers, artists, health care professionals and others with the aim of educating the world about the deadly effects of the US bombing and embargo of Iraq.

View the summons.
Participate in the campaign against the summons.

Aren't Christians supposed to be generous....?

Just when I start thinking we're making progress, I'm reminded how bigoted, selfish and narrow-minded many Americans remain.

A strong majority of the public disapproves of the Episcopal Church's decision to recognize the blessing of same-sex unions, and a larger share of churchgoing Americans would object if their own faith adopted a similar practice, according to a new Washington Post poll.

So broad and deep is this opposition that half of all Americans who regularly attend worship services say they would leave their current church if their minister blessed gay couples -- even if their denomination officially approved those ceremonies.

The poll also found that public acceptance of same-sex civil unions is falling. Fewer than four in 10 polled said they would support a law allowing gay men and lesbians to form civil unions that would provide some of the rights and legal protections of marriage.

How bighearted of them.

Naturally, opposition was strongest among evangelical Christians—those charitable folk who believe the Bible is the literal word of God. Eight of 10 polled rejected gay unions, and two of three said they would abandon their home church if it began performing commitment ceremonies for gays.

One was quoted, "It's against the word of God. . . . The Lord didn't make these rules to be mean to us. We will find our greatest amount of health and peace by following his [sic] law."

Well, I am sure relieved to hear that God isn’t mean! It’s a little hard to tell, looking around at the suffering in the world. Suffering that God, being omnipotent, as you believe, could alleviate in the blink of an eye. If he deigned.

As for following “His law,” the Bible also says don’t eat pork or shellfish, don’t mix meat and milk in the same meal and don’t ever have (heterosexual) sex when a woman is on her period.

On the other hand, slavery and polygamy are fine.

I respect people who, without trying to foist their belief system onto others, follow an ethical code of living for the value and meaning it instills into everyday life—whether or not they consider the code divinely-ordained. I practiced orthodox Judaism in that manner for a brief period when I was young.

As for the Evangelicals, who preach “family values” but forbid two men or two women who love each other to consecrate their lives together, I'd rather roast in hell than spend eternity surrounded by the hypocritical, selfish, holier-than-thou likes of you!

Complete story here.

Not the way to gain the people's trust....

BAGHDAD -- American troops shot dead two members of the new Iraqi police force and beat up a third, Iraqi police officers said yesterday, in a development that has aggravated already stressed relations between US troops and the Iraqi people.

[...]

The driver, whom police said was interviewed yesterday by US investigators, offered the following account, according to [Iraqi Police Captain Alaa] Isamil:

The police were trying to apprehend alleged car thieves, who shot at the police car. Iraqi police returned fire, and American soldiers -- apparently hearing the shots -- arrived on the scene. But the troops shot at the Iraqi police car, hitting the officer in the back seat, Isamil said.

The lieutenant in the front seat stumbled out of the car with his hands up, wearing his black and white Iraqi Police arm band and shouting that he was a police officer. A soldier then shot the lieutenant between the eyes. The driver, who had been crouched down in the front seat and waving his badge, was kicked and beaten by US troops.

US military officials earlier told reporters that US forces had "engaged" Iraqi police. But when pressed yesterday about how the two Iraqi police officers died, they said the incident was under investigation.

The image of the lieutenant, shot dead with his hands up, is shocking. Even if he had been a thief, since when is it legal under the Geneva Convention--or any system of law--to kill someone holding their empty hands in the air?

Complete story here.

Dare we hope…?

Thousands of US physicians have endorsed a broad proposal that would abolish for-profit hospitals and insurers and transfer all Americans into an expanded and improved Medicare program for all ages, reigniting the debate over universal health care a decade after President Clinton's failed plan.

While the four physicians who wrote the plan -- three of whom are affiliated with Harvard Medical School -- are members of a nonprofit organization that has long pushed for universal health coverage, the new proposal is important for two reasons: It was published today in one of the country's most prestigious and its most widely circulated medical journal, the Journal of the American Medical Association, and because of the large number of doctors -- nearly 8,000, including two former surgeons general -- who endorsed it.

AMA officials said it is unusual for the journal, which has a circulation of about 700,000 worldwide, to publish an article endorsed by such a large number of physicians. JAMA's editor, Dr. Catherine DeAngelis, said that an editorial accompanying the article represents the journal's viewpoint that it is time for the country to grapple more seriously with major problems in the health-care system.

Here’s the good part: private insurance companies would be virtually eliminated! Considering how many politicians are in the pockets of the insurance companies, this factor alone probably insures the plan's defeat.

But look how great it would be!

The physicians estimate that the country would save $200 billion annually by eliminating profits of investor-owned hospitals and insurance companies and by reducing administrative costs for hospitals and doctors who must bill dozens of different insurance companies. Private health insurers now consume 12 percent of premiums for overhead, while Medicare and the Canadian national health insurance system have overhead costs below 3.2 percent, the doctors reported.

Taxes, the doctors said, would increase. But except for the very wealthy, higher taxes would be offset by the elimination of insurance premiums and out-of-pocket copayments and deductibles, they argued.

Yeah!

Complete story here.

A rose by any other name....

Have we ever had an administration more into couching the truth in incomprehensible, flowery language?

WASHINGTON, Aug. 13 — The Pentagon said today that about 200 more United States troops could soon go ashore in Liberia — but officials emphasized that their mission was not peacekeeping in the usual sense.

Rather, their purpose will be "to achieve a stable environment so that humanitarian assistance can be provided to the people of Liberia, and also to facilitate the transition to a U.N.-led international peacekeeping operation," Maj. Gen. Norton Schwartz said...

And check this out:

…When a questioner suggested that the Americans' mission could potentially put them in combat, General Schwartz said, "There is a reaction capability, should something unexpected occur."

Jeeze, among other crimes, try these morons for butchering the English language!

As for committing troops to Morovia, I actually think using U.S. troops to help stabilize a worn-torn region and protect civilians is a legitimate operation, although I’d like to have the U.N. in charge as soon as possible.

Complete story here.

Here's the war America should be fighting....

For more than a decade, health workers in Africa have been sounding the alarm about the growing numbers of orphans, left on their own after AIDS kills their parents. Imagine what America could be doing with the $68 billion-plus we’ve squandered to invade Iraq, a country that was in no way a threat to us, if we spent that money Kenya, where $300 represents a family’s annual income.

LOOK what they are enduring:

…In East Kagan, a sprawling village of 3,000, one in every three people has the disease and there are more than 400 orphans, many struggling to survive on their own. Tucked into a trail of knobby grass and mud footpaths, the village is made up largely of the Luo tribe, the second-biggest ethnic group in Kenya.

The village is in one of Kenya's poorest districts. Mud huts with thatched roofs sit in clusters of three or four in the scrappy, flat fields. Small sprouts of wilting maize cover fields that are gray and dry from the hot sun and lack of rain.

A few men herd cattle. A few children lead donkeys to carry water and firewood. Like many rural communities in Africa, the village has no cars, no electricity and no running water.

Parents who are dying of AIDS linger at the village's one-room health clinic, looking weak and begging for aspirin to ease their pain. No one here can afford the life-saving drugs available in the West.

Parents are dying so quickly that they don't have time to ask relatives if they can take in their children…

While dying parents are begging for aspirins, starving children are eating grass. Grass!

I am ashamed. How can we in the developed world go about our daily routines in face of such appalling suffering and injustice?!

Story here.

Washington Post on the prelude to the Iraq war....

...The new information indicates a pattern in which President Bush, Vice President Cheney and their subordinates -- in public and behind the scenes -- made allegations depicting Iraq's nuclear weapons program as more active, more certain and more imminent in its threat than the data they had would support. On occasion administration advocates withheld evidence that did not conform to their views. The White House seldom corrected misstatements or acknowledged loss of confidence in information upon which it had previously relied...

No White House, Pentagon or State Department policymaker would speak on the record to the Post about the administration's nuclear case. The official line remains that the regime was pursuing nuclear weapons, that it had biological and chemical weapons and that it intended to use them, even though there is absolutely no proof to support the allegations. In fact, mounting evidence contradicts them.

They lied to coerce this country into an unprovoked war that has cost U.S. taxpayers between $68 and $76 billion to date, and killed more than 300 coalition troops, 10,200 Iraqi soldiers and 6200 Iraqi civilians.

And it's not over yet.

Long and very comprehensive story here.

The Terminator falters out of the gate….

Arnold Schwarzenegger's transition from movie star to gubernatorial candidate hit its first rough patch Friday as he ducked questions about the state's fiscal crisis, gay marriage and workplace benefits.

[...]

Asked on ABC's "Good Morning America" about gay marriage, he replied: "I don't want to get into that right now."

Asked about a news report quoting aides saying he was open to tax increases, Schwarzenegger said: "I can't imagine anyone on my team said that." He said that his solution was not raising taxes or cutting programs, but to "bring businesses back to California." But Schwarzenegger offered no strategy for attracting business. In fact, he has argued for reversing an increase in the car tax — which would cost the state treasury billions — even as he has advocated for more spending on school buildings and teacher hiring.

[...]

On NBC's "Today Show," interviewer Matt Lauer pressed him. "You talk about the budget deficit. You talk about the energy crisis, the slumping economy, people leaving California. Give me some specifics, Arnold. How are you going to turn it around?"

Schwarzenegger offered no details, focusing his answer on the governor:

"Well, I think the first and most important thing is to know that it takes leadership, because Gray Davis is saying he has the experience and all of those things. We have seen now what happens. He has sold himself as the man that has experience you cannot buy. What happened with all his experience? Look at the situation we're in right now."

Asked later in the same interview whether he would disclose his tax returns, as candidates for high office typically do, Schwarzenegger fiddled with his earpiece and said he could not hear the question. (In an appearance in Bellflower later Friday, Schwarzenegger said he would make disclosure but did not say when. "Absolutely. I have nothing to hide," he said.)

This man is as competent to govern the State of California as the sad-sack eldest son of a well-heeled New England political dynasty is to govern America.

I guess we should thank our lucky stars that, under the U.S. Constitution, a foreign-born naturalized citizen can’t be elected president.

Of course, Bush wasn’t elected, was he? So ultimately, a constitutional amendment could put anything up for grabs along with the governor’s office of the most-populous state of the union.

Jeeze, I wish I had confidence that California voters will reject this inarticulate, overblown Hollywood buffoon. But Minnesota voters put Jesse Ventura into the governor's mansion. And look how many people actually did vote for Bush!

Speaking of which, Bush endorsed Arnold today, elevating the political discourse in his inimitable fashion.

"Yes, I think he'd be a good governor," Bush said. The president did not say if he would campaign for Schwarzenegger.

A lighthearted Bush added: "I will never arm wrestle Arnold Schwarzenegger No matter how hard I try, I'll never lift as much weight as he does."

Awwww, shucks....

Complete story here.

California's next governor...?

TERMINATED TAKE: Arnold Schwarzenegger has some big ideas when it comes to running for governor -- but he was definitely thinking small when it came to shooting that bathroom dunking scene for his new action flick, "Terminator 3."

"I saw this toilet bowl," Schwarzenegger told Entertainment Weekly in its July 11 edition. "How many times do you get away with this -- to take a woman, grab her upside down, and bury her face in a toilet bowl?"

But, the Mighty Terminator adds: "I wanted to have something floating there."

Ughhh.

"The thing is, you can do it," Arnold argued, "because in the end, I didn't do it to a woman -- she's a machine! We could get away with it without being crucified by who-knows-what group."

Maybe -- but in the end, the "floating" idea was itself terminated.

"They thought it was my typical Schwarzenegger overboard."

From here.

Join Stop Arnold Schwarzenegger.