Wonderland or Not

Coverage of the LaVena Johnson case appears to be picking up, if the email notices I’m getting are any indication. A new petition has been started via Color of Change, please check it out.

We should all be chanting “Attica, Attica” on this one.

Though some common upscale blogs are posting about the plight of our returning vets ( and are looking for journalist to do a story on the situation), not too many are posting about the rape and or murder of our women in the military. Though I have seen a bit of a pick up in the coverage of this story recently we have to keep this going, keep writing our legislators, and those in charge of investigation.

Read also A Deadly Wall of Silence

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It seems the endless reign of Congressman Roscoe Bartlett — my congressman — will not be interrupted. All this due to the insipid candidate presented on the other side of the fence, the complacency of constituency here and the continued Republican nature of this red county in a blue state. I wonder if anyone cares about all the “confusion” he suffered, confusion which led to a million or so dollars worth of underreporting on his property sales.

Congressman Bartlett said the omissions, involving at least four properties, reflected a combination of inattentiveness and confusion by himself and others about the deals.
(source) FNP

Confusion = time to stop at the 8th term before it hits 9. He is after all 82 years old, with waning enthusiasm for the office, though there hasn’t been a serious contender for his slot in some time. The complacency of this county is astounding.

New blood doesn’t go over well here I’ve noticed. Hark the call for English as the official language, the sanctioned targeting of Hispanics by the sheriff’s department, and the refusal of Walkersville to allow a man to sell his land to a Muslim organization to build a mosque. Citing traffic as their main concern the little town, which would allow thousands to park for a little league baseball game, would brag about it even, refuses the mosque in the name of traffic.

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Chips and Quips - Sterling ( the man with the sunglasses ), bestowed the Arte y Pico award on me.
The Peak of Art…. or the best way I can say Pura Vida, but pertaining to art - whether it be art of the standard kind, art of the word or art of life.

This originated at Arte y Pico

Sterling is trippin, but still I am ever grateful.
I am to bestow it upon others.

There are rules of course, always rules. I am loath to follow rules in most cases, but I will abide by them in this case. They say the older you get the less likely you are to protest the rules. I think there is some truth in that.

I’m passing this on to a few people. Skipping those to whom it would cause severe disruption of digestion, and taking into account some have already gotten this little plaque.

Pia: For the art of everything.

Womanist Musings: For the art of much needed words on the sad ways of the world.

MoJo: For making self absorption an art, and making it worth reading. That is a compliment really, it just sounds funny.

Yobachi of Black Perspective Net: For his constant work in perfecting the art of activism.

Kelly: For perfecting the written art of real life, and those envy producing photos of Italy.

The Rules are as follows below the fold.

Read the rest of this entry »

Technorati Tags: Arte y Pico, Congress, LaVena Johnson, Politics, Roscoe Bartlett

Now that Netroots Nation has solved the countries problems I’d like to address Senator Obama.

If at the end of this seemingly infinite election you are victorious and decide to go finish the job we left undone in Afghanistan — as you alluded to recently in your meeting with President Hamid Karzai, pledging “steadfast aid” and all
(source) ( Obama meets Afghan president Karzai) — consider doing it right differently than Bushy did, finish what you start, and don’t use it as some kind of photo op publicity stunt.

Watch MOTHERLAND AFGHANISTAN in which Afghan American filmmaker Sedika Mojadidi follows her father (Dr. Qudrat Mojadidi) on his tragic trip to Afghanistan, a trip he was invited on by the U.S. government to help rehabilitate the largest women’s hospital in the country, Rabia Balkhi, a hospital which at the time was put under U.S. Sponsorship with a newly re-named Laura Bush maternity ward.

With maternal health and both infant and maternal mortality so high in Afghanistan the goal was to train and treat and to help promote proper and efficient care for these women.

His arrival to this “Laura Bush Maternity Ward” reveals horrific conditions, sewage back-up and no supplies, which despite continuing pleas from Dr Quadrat never arrive. Though he does get letters from his superiors congratulating him on what a good job is doing…..like WTF.

He eventually left in frustration but went back later with privately funded organization, to a different hospital and though still a very tough road the place was at clean and had supplies. Something the U.S. promised but for some reason couldn’t manage to do in their great publicity op Laura Bush Maternity Ward.

Don’t be afraid to ask the people of the countries you are trying to help what they need, believe it or not they usually know better than we what they need and how things work in their countries. Do not name a ward of a hospital after your wife if you intend to leave floating in shit. Better yet, if you do carry something like this out properly name the wards after Afghani’s, after all they have suffered more, it is their country, and in the end it will be them who makes it work no matter how much help we give them.

Thank You.

The Film: Motherland Afghanistan

The film, criticized over a year ago by the NYT when is first came on Independent Lens as a film which would not change your view on foreign policy. Wrongly criticized in in my opinion. The first thing it made me see as faulty was the policy which promotes this kind of worthless effort by the bureaucracy of The Department of Health Human Services. So this film is worth more than a look see, and is still playing on Independent Lens.

Peace and Happy Birthday Miss Savage. Please go prevent her from shagging herself to oblivion.

Technorati Tags: Afghanistan, Barack Obama, Politics