The Epic Saga Continues!

7:34pm: Two important links! Time-sensitive!
As of now, the Myanmar government is still refusing to allow US aid workers and supplies into the country to help the hundreds of thousands of cyclone victims. Mercy Corps, an organization I trust and give to frequently, does have international partners whose aid is being allowed through.

If you would like to give through them and help, Click here.

And of course, the US is only offering 3 million in aid. We would have a lot more to offer for that purpose...or for schools, or infrastructure, or to buffer gas prices, or to aid in recovery from foreclosures, or for ANYTHING ELSE if we just stopped pouring money down the bottomless sink that is Iraq.

Bush just asked for ANOTHER $160 billion for the War. For the love of sanity, please, click here to tell your Representatives to tell him no more blank checks. The vote will be any day now.

- SW

10:13am: Really good New York Times editorial about Guantanamo and the horrible shit our tax dollars are paying for to go on there. More and more evidence coming out about innocent people kept there and tortured for years - no charges, no trials, nothing. This particular piece talks a news journalist tortured for 7 years before being released.

I never thought I'd live to see our country operate a full fledged gulag. Haven't heard ANY of the Presidential candidates talk about shutting it down. We need to remind them of that priority.

( Read here )

-SW

4:27pm: Whoah
So I just found out that a student I had several years ago, with whom I was fairly close and whom I convinced to join the school newspaper, where she rose to the rank of Asst. Editor...

...is now an interim speechwriter for the President of France.

No shit.

She apparently just wrote some speech he gave to the President of Ghana, or something.

So yeah, maybe I am helping to shape the future, just a little bit...
(lord help us all)

-SW

3:55pm: Couldn't depart without my weekly poking fun at those wacky Japanese:

A Japanese chain called "Puppy the World" offers dog rentals. That's right, rent a dog for a day. Why? Um...

And here's a testimonial from an American who rented a dog there...

- SW

12:56pm: Cell phones more carcinogetic than cigarettes?
After years of being told cell-phone/brain tumor connections were the stuff of myths, there is now a new surge of studies suggesting that cellphones indeed have links to cancer, as well as about-to-be-done studies since apparently we've been using cell phones long enough now for the data to be significant...

One MORE thing to worry about.

- SW

5:13pm: From a recent Washington Post article:

This one slipped by me (no doubt with the help of a media that buried it on page 18), but apparently on January 30th Congress actually did assert some gonads and, in Section 1222 of its defense appropriation bill, specifically banned funds from being used to set up permanent military bases in Iraq, or to exercise control over the region's oil. The language is remarkably plain:

"No funds appropriated pursuant to an authorization of appropriations in this Act may be obligated or expended for a purpose as follows:

(1) To establish any military installation or base for the purpose of providing for the permanent stationing of United States Armed Forces in Iraq.

(2) To exercise United States control of the oil resources of Iraq."

Our President, still believing he is Caesar, basically just wrote in another of his infamous "signing statements" saying that he didn't have to follow those rules because they would "interfere" with his role as Commander in Chief.
He also, incidentally, issued signing statements saying he refused to follow Congress's order to form a commission investigate waste and fraud in military contracts.

In terms of a "legacy", President Bush has left this if nothing else: he has exposed our balance of power as something of a sham, that if a President just refuses to obey the law, there is no one to force him.

It will be just deserts if Hillary or Obama gets elected, and then follows Bush's lead and exercises whatever power they want, knowing they can evoke "national security" to tell Congress "screw you" with no consequences. I hope the Republicans who back Bush in his signing statements realize this. Ruin democracy for your own personal agendas, and you open the door to let anyone ruin it for theirs.


- SW

11:59am: The incredible disappearing war
War going badly for you, meeting few to none of your benchmarks? Not to worry. Just take it out of the news:

"While in all of 2007 the Iraq war occupied an average 15.5 percent of the "newshole" in the media, in the last quarter it fell to nine percent, and then to just 3.9 percent in the first quarter of 2008, according to PEJ's Paul Hitlin."

This, of course, on the heels of "Afgani-where" and "Osama bin who?"

The few times the media even mentions its own lack of recent war coverage, the defense I here is, "well, there are more pressing issues, like the economy and gas prices", as if Iraq wasn't a major contributing factor in the economic downturn. $500 billion dollars, entirely out of the normal budget, most of it borrowed...you'd better believe that has a catastrophic effect on the economy, prices, etc. Borrowing from foreign creditors certainly deflates the value of the US dollar...and since we in many cases borrow from China, it affects our ability to smack them upside the head over issues like Tibet...you really can draw links to all sorts of issue before even delving into the fun conspiracy-laden ones.

If Hillary and Obama weren't so busy smacking each other upside the head about helicopter trips and Rev. Wright, they might think of trying to make explicit those Iraq-Economy links, since McCain has foolishly chosen to align himself with an "US troops in Iraq for 100 years" position. Oh wait, if Hillary did that, she would have to confront her own complicity in that war. But the path's wide open for Obama. And hell, Hillary could always pull a John Edwards and say, "ok, I apologize for my vote, now I want to stop the war." It wouldn't make me vote for her, but it might work with others.

And lest we forget, once XM and Sirius merge, we'll have even fewer separate avenues to choose from for our information, war-related or otherwise...

- SW

5:13pm: Reflections as we begin year six


About to head off to yet another antiwar protest on this, the eve of the fifth anniversary of the Iraq War.

Five years after Congress handed President Bush a blank check for war, we've:

- spent 506 BILLION dollars on this war, money not even factored into our normal military budget, borrowed from China or social security or anywhere else Bush could find it

- lost 3900 us soldiers in combat, not to mention 29,000 soldiers wounded, not to mention the tens of thousands more who are psychologically scarred.

- lost somewhere between 85,000 and 100,000 Iraqi lives, created 2 million refugees

- sparked a spinoff war between Turkey and the Iraqi Kurds

- found NO weapons of mass destruction

- found NO pre-existing links to Al Qaeda prior to the invasion, but plenty who have set up shop since

- found our economy headed into a tailspin, inflation on the rise, and fuel and food costs soaring

And what have we gained?

-We kicked one dictator out of power, and let dozens if not hundreds of small terrorist cells set up shop in his place

-We gave Iraqis a pseudo-democracy at the cost of stability, safety and health

-Halliburton and Bechtel stock have soared

-Worldwide anger at America is at a record high

-We feel, not safer from terrorism, but more at risk than ever

State of the antiwar movement

The antiwar movement has had some impressive victories: over the course of those five years, beginning with NO ONE on their side - not either political party, not the media - we organized, formed internet groups like MoveOn.Org and TrueMajority that were wildly successful in turning public opinion around, in doing the nuts-and-bolts work that gave the Democrats a congressional victory in 2006 and have been converting polling places away from electronic ballots across the country. Groups like the ACLU have been challenging Bush's illegal overreaches of power as fast as Congress can rush to legalize them.

But in another way, we're failing miserably: the Democrats, who we are responsible for electing, have turned their backs on us. They have consistently refused to take any real efforts to bring an end to the war, content to propose plans and swallow vetos with no thought of fillibusters or maneuverings. They have ignored their mandate, and they are paying for it - MoveOn has had success in several races getting incumbent, pro-war democrats ousted in the primaries in favor of diehard antiwar candidates.

There is hope. While John McCain is firmly behind 100 more years in Iraq , Obama and Clinton are at least TALKING a good game about ending the war. They are at least presenting, on the surface of things, a real choice for American voters in this regard. They might even accomplish it, but only if we continue to put pressure on them.

The message opposing them has changed from "Saddam is gonna get you" to "support the troops" to "we can't pull out now, there'd be chaos", which is true only in that there'll be chaos WHENEVER we pull out, now or 10 years from now. We got a larger number of troops out of Vietnam in a matter of weeks, and within two decades Vietnam is stable and their economy's looking better than ours.

So I'm out there in the rain today, holding my damn little sign and thinking about what we've accomplished, and how many hours and hours and hours over FIVE YEARS I've spent at marches, doing phone and internet organizing, writing columns (some published in the Globe, Newsweek and USA Today), teaching critical thinking about war to all my students....and thinking about how far we have to go, how much work we have to do.

WHEN this war ends, and it IS a matter of when, some dumb politician - maybe even Clinton or Obama - will get the historical credit. I can live with that. But never forget that we've been the ones, and will continue to be the ones, doing the real work. Here's hoping it doesn't take another five years.

-SW

12:33pm: Bush calls fighting in Afghanistan "romantic"
In a scene more appropriate to some World War I novel about a high and mighty German count visiting the trenches and patronizing the soldiers, our own President Bush visited the troops in Afghanistan and told them he was "envious" of the "fantastic, romantic experience" they're having there.

I quote:

"I must say, I'm a little envious," Bush said. "If I were slightly younger and not employed here, I think it would be a fantastic experience to be on the front lines of helping this young democracy succeed."

"It must be exciting for you ... in some ways romantic, in some ways, you know, confronting danger. You're really making history, and thanks," Bush said.

This from the guy who found the thought of war so "exciting" and "romantic" that he not only made sure he served out Vietnam in the Texas Air National Guard, but then didn't even show up to that service.

-SW

10:34am: Tibet Tragedy
There have been a series of protests just now in Tibet, which the Chinese are sending in troops to quell.
Read more here. A lot of the news is apparently coming by way of Western tourists caught up in it and blogging reports about it.

It was VERY freaky to read this, having been to Tibet this summer, recognizing the monestaries and locations the news is talking about...knowing that some of the monks I met and spoke with may be among the protestors, among the arrested, or among the dead...

One more place to keep in our thoughts. And maybe one MORE reason to boycott Chinese goods, policies, and that fucking horrible decision to host the Olympics in Beijing...

-SW

6:58pm: This is rich
Wow.

John McCain, entirely without a sense of irony, has criticized Congress for being "out of step with the American people" for ignoring the will of the people in rejecting a one-year moratorium on earmarks that he co-sponsored.

This from the man who is so "respecting the will of the American people", over 75% of whom want an end to the Iraq War, by running on a platform that we should keep military forces there for 100 years.

- SW

8:57am: Congress voted to ban waterboarding, but Bush will veto that ban, and Congress doesn't have the votes to override it. It is a complete shame to our nation that we can't get 2/3rds of our elected representatives to say "we won't torture people", even though the Geneva convention, our constitution, and our own Army field manual say it's illegal.

And even McCain, who has BEEN tortured, is one of the people supporting Bush on this!!!

All this, despite the overwhelming evidence that torture doesn't even produce reliable information. Want more evidence? How about even more?

There are only two explanations I can think of - either too many of our lawmakers base their judgments on episodes of 24 and not real research, or else they really don't give a shit, and are willing to commit crimes against humanity if it means getting perceived of as "tough" and thus getting votes.

Either way, and I'll quote Teddy K on this, "it will go down in history as a flagrant insult to the rule of law and a serious stain on the good name of America in the eyes of the world."

- SW

2:07pm: Hoo-boy...
So it begins. Dammit.

The Bush Administration and the warhawks of both parties ignored YEARS of peaceful protests, haughtily dismissing them as inconsequential.

Leaders never get it.

If you refuse to engage with the nonviolent protestors, some people start turning to violence.

We've now seen the first bombing of a military recruitment center. No one was killed - this time. But in the 60s and 70s, whole cities burned because the government wasn't listening to antiwar and pro-civil rights protestors.

I've been saying for 5 years now that this shit was going to happen if the government didn't take the antiwar movement seriously. But this is a bad, bad road to be traveling. It delegitimizes both the antiwar movement and the government. It will only make things worse - an escalated government response, an escalated violent protest, repeat and repeat.

South Africa, the Soviet Union, Nepal, Chile, India...they all had to learn the hard way that you can't ignore the will of the people. I still have hopes that moderates in Washington will turn around and start negotiating, and not sending the message that the only way for the people to have a voice is through bombs, because that voice leads to nothing good.

- SW

12:06pm: Democratize, or the puppy gets it!


File this one:

30,000 to 200,000 civilians have been killed in Iraq? No big deal.

But when our marines kill a cute little puppy dog, there's hell to pay.

Reminds me of a scene that Tim O'brien wrote in The Things They Carried, about his experiences in Vietnam...it's an upsetting scene of the soldiers shooting up a baby water buffalo, and then he admits that he made the whole scene up to try and get a reaction out of his readers - he feared that we were so desensitized to human death, no one would give a shit unless his characters killed a cute animal.

- SW

2:21pm: *Boing*! Happy Leap Year!
I never realized keeping track of leap years, days, and seconds was so damned complicated and vital to our existence. Apparently there is actually a problem brewing with leap seconds and the calibration of GPS devices and such...

One MORE thing to worry about, I suppose...

- SW

9:37am: Converting from Region 1 to Region 9?
Ok, calling all tecchies - any of you know of a way to convert something on a region 1 DVD to a region 9 DVD format?

Or know of a message board full of DVD-savvy users where I could ask this question?

Much appreciated,

- SW

6:45pm: Guess who's coming to dinner?


So Nader is back.

As someone who - yes, I'll admit it - voted for him in 2000, I have mixed feelings.

On the one hand, this race is going to be so damned close that I worry about any liberal/progressive votes that could get siphoned off by his candidacy.

On the other hand, I do not, repeat, do not blame Nader for Al Gore's 2000 defeat. That disaster came about because:

1. Florida was corruptly run by Bush's brother and two former Bush campaign workers.
2. The Supreme Court voted for partisanship, not fairness
3. Not a single senator had the balls to formally challenge the election when they legally had that right

Nader was in no way responsible for any of that. As to the question of whether #1-#3 would have even come into play if Nader hadn't garnered as many votes as he did, it's the supreme arrogance of the Democratic party to assume those votes would naturally have gone to Gore if Nader hadn't been in the race. Likely, those people wouldn't have voted at all if Nader hadn't been a candidate.

If Gore in 2000 had been the Gore of 2007, who was not afraid to wear his progressive credentials on his sleeve and talk up the environment as a major issue, I would have voted for him.

If the Democratic nominee, whoever he or she is, is smart, they will COURT voters like me by actually LISTENING to Nader and addressing some of his concerns, so THEY can steal progressive voters from HIM. That's the landscape as I see it.

Folks like Nader and Huckabee exist as magnets that hope to pull the major candidates just a little wee bit towards their pole. I think it shows the strength of our democracy when those candidates get airtime, and the weakness and insecurity of the major parties when they try and squash them.

- SW

9:00pm: Home!
Home at last...

( A few sagas for the road )

SW

8:04pm: Icy sharky steamy fun time!
Wow. We are finally roaming about in the “real” Iceland, and it is awesome.

A few hours drive North out of Reykjavik takes you up through winding snow-covered mountain passes and plunges you straight into Lord of the Rings territory. Up here is truly Bifrost, land of the Frost Giants. As empty as Iceland has seemed, the Southwest coast was positively crammed compared to the Northern wastes of the Snaefellesnes Peninsula, right up at the foot of the Westfjords…a land of towering glaciers, half-frozen rivers, and lunar-looking lava fields.

And us.

( Read our icy sharky saga! )

- SW

8:13pm: Day Five
Wow. How does anything LIVE on this island? I mean, the blast of icy rain and wind is pretty darned constant, and I think I’ve forgotten what the sun even looks like. It’s square shaped and fuchsia, right? Or maybe mauve?

Today’s blog does not so much recap an itinerary as ( present a series of misadventures that happened to take 24 hours to all occur. )

- SW

8:08pm: Day Five
Wow. How does anything LIVE on this island? I mean, the blast of icy rain and wind is pretty darned constant, and I think I’ve forgotten what the sun even looks like. It’s square shaped and fuchsia, right? Or maybe mauve?

Today’s blog does not so much recap an itinerary as ( present a series of misadventures that happened to take 24 hours to all occur. )

- SW

9:19am: Volcanoes and Elves and Vikings, Oh My!
Another day (er, cloudy lightless period between waking and sleep) has come and gone in the wilds of the Northern Lands, and it was a rather good one, or rather, two good slices of awesome sandwiching one horrific experience in-between.

( Read on, or you'll always wonder what `Narf-Narf' is. )

- SW

10:47pm: Ice Ice Baby
There comes a time in the life of any friendship when you end up stuck wheelbed-deep in a snowbank in a frozen wasteland with no one around for miles, and you ask yourselves, “how the fuck did we end up in Iceland”, and someone remembers, “didn’t we all say we wanted to go on a road trip to Vermont?” And then we blamed it all on Kevin. And then we engaged the four wheel drive. And didn’t die. That time.

( Read on - this time we have pictures! )

- SW

9:23pm: Iceland still exists, somewhere...
Day Two under the Northern Lights (which we can't see through the cloudcover). I ate the most inedible-yet-technically-edible animal known to man, and got to lounge in a geothermal hotpool.

( And did other stuff, too. )

PS - The domestic airlines in Iceland fly so low that companies paint ADVERTISING on their underbellies...we got buzzed by more than a few prop-jets with long website URLs on the fuselage...

12:52pm: Sagawizard in the LAND of sagas!
By Odin’s hammer, we have arrived in the land of the ice and snow, with the midnight sun where the hot springs blow….aaaaaayyahhh!

Valhalla, I am coming! As soon as I can figure out how to read any of the street signs.

You can get pictures on tonysalieri's site. In the meantime, ( Read on, mortals! )

- SW