Congressional Pork Crimes

All the critics are up-in-arms at the shocking development last week, that congress voted to give the GWBush his war money. Obviously they’re outraged because the party they were convinced would represent their opposition to the war, did not do what they were elected to do.

Yet the disappointment doesn’t end there. Because this was all part of “making a deal”. According to this deal, if congress votes to give billions to kill more Iraqi’s, in exchange, they will get their minimum wage increase (though I don’t know many adults who can actually live on 7.25 an hour). They also secure alot of money to finally fund the Road Home Program which was supposed to help post Katrina recovery until the program ran out of money. Oh and there’s even a little help for small businesses in the form of tax breaks. All lovely and necessary things I suppose, and I’m sure many good intentioned people will point to that and say; well at least we got that!

But my rhetorical question is: what does one have to do with the other? And what kind of sick government attaches essential money for sufferring citizens in places like New Orleans, to the money needed to fund the occupation and subjugation of another country? Those two projects have nothing to do with each other, and their funding should not be used as some kind of leverage or bargaining chip.

Reading through the texts of these bills, all included in this shameful “deal”, I again return to the conclusion that the US government and the political system in general are broken in the most fundamental way and these two parties are responsible.

bmtv49 The Remains of Centralia
More than 40 years since an underground fire began burning, the town of Centralia, Pennsylvania has all but disappeared. Leaving behind only grave yards, dead trees, empty plots of land from former houses, plumes of smoke from the fire below, and of course.. the few Centralians who have stayed put. This video blog entry was recorded last month, during my visit to Centralia. It features both my and my brother’s testimony, as we surveyed the few traces of a once vibrant community and the fire that still burns underground.

Click To Play

Reality Based Language

Greetings from Berlin. As I sat down for breakfast with Tim this morning, the term faith-based community some how came up. Naturally, this was followed by the term reality-based community. He loved the both and laughed through much of the meal.

As he read through the wikipedia entries for both these terms, I started talking about Frank Luntz.. do you know that name? Well you should, because he is and was a key figure in manipulating YOU. (by you im talking mostly to Americans right now)

Yes all those terms you think nothing of these days… insurgent, death tax, culture of life… these are the types of terms this man helped make part of the public conversation on issues. His specialty is taking something, especially a government policy or a proposed policy that would normally upset you and changing it into a name that makes you feel safe and comfortable. Examples: Logging = Healthy Forests Iniative, Drilling for Oil = Responsible Energy Exploration, and apparently Global Warming = Climate Change.

As I sat there going over the art of manipulating the truth and people, that familiar frustration came back. Did this really happen? Did this guy, working for the government, really take words that describe bad practices and policies and twist them into something more acceptable? Even now, it is hard to believe, but he did.

Here’s a link to a video illustrating some of his work.

Many have praised Luntz for his ability to do this. I consider him an accessory to mass murder and various other crimes.

Thomas Milo on UNIFIL

The name UNIFIL doesn’t often appear on page one of the mainstream newspapers. For many it was last summers invasion of southern Lebanon that caused the media to even mention that there was an international force wedged between Israel, Lebanon, Hezbollah, given the task of ensuring that all sides respect a peace agreement.

In Thomas's Kitchen

Thomas Milo had a very unique roll as one of the only Arabic speakers stationed with the Dutch battalion of UNIFIL back in 1979. We sat together in his kitchen in Amsterdam and he explained what it was like to work everyday between rocks and a hard place.

Links:
UNIFIL website
WIKIPEDIA on UNIFIL

We Discuss:
– What is UNIFIL
-What armies were involved
– The Dutch role and controversy of deployment
– His studies and initial involvement with UNIFIL
– Meetings with the PLO
– The First Suicide bomb belts
– The Senegalese zone
– What progress was made?
– Israeli’s lose patience
– Lebanese reaction and approval
– First kids with Stones, the orgins
– Original Improvised Explosive Devices
– Israeli military Tactics
– Lessons for Soldiers in Iraq
– Response to Americans who criticize peacekeepers as ineffective

Thomas in 1979

Off to Berlin

I have a few hours to sleep before catching my internet-hitchhike to Berlin. Two podcasts in the can after two great interviews today, but for tonight I leave you with a photo.

More once Im safely at my friend Tim’s in the city that I so love to visit.

Follow Law, Not the Law

It is an interesting era to live in, this age of new and better uses for the internet, as some people get it and some people.. well.. don’t yet. By interesting I mean sometimes it is exciting and enlightening, while other times it is extremely frustrating feeling like the guy who came from the future to tell everyone important information and no one will listen.

But I’m not from the future, I just live relatively close to the cutting edge when it comes to information and journalism. (or so I tell myself)

Therefore I like to share with all of you who are out there. A mix of individuals, some old friends, some new friends, some have never spoken to me before, and others see me all the time. You look to me for some reason, and the least I can do is bring some new ideas to light and recommend those who I consider to be essential sources for knowledge.

One such source relates to the world of law; JURIST. This is a blog from the University of Pittsburg that covers all the big legal issues going on in the world. Every day or so I run down the list of latest posts in their feed and follow their sources. Sometimes this leads me to a new story, or helps me to reach a more informed opinion on issues as far off as the new constitutional provisions in Kazakhstan or the mass release of improperly sentenced juveniles in Texas. Either way it concerns me as a citizen of the world who values social justice and human rights.

So if you’re in to these types of values… make sure to subscribe to JURIST.