This
June Canada's parliament passed a resolution calling on its government
to "cease any removal or deportation actions" against US soldiers who
have refused to take part in the Iraq war, and to allow them to apply
for permanent resident status and stay in Canada - a position backed by
64% of Canadians. Even so,
last month Canada deported its first war resister - Robin Long, now
serving a 15-month jail term in Colorado - and a second, Jeremy
Hinzman, has now been given a September 23 deadline to leave Canada
with his wife, son and baby daughter, or be deported. Today,
to mark the 60th anniversary of the founding of the Central Committee
for Conscientious Objectors, we will be holding a 10-hour vigil outside
the Canadian high commission in Trafalgar Square, calling on the
Canadian government to abide by the will of its parliament and people,
and make provision for US war resisters to have sanctuary in Canada. We
urge your readers to join us by writing to the high commissioner, James
R Wright. Glenn Bassett,
Gabriel Carlyle, Susan Clarkson, Sian Colley, Pat Gaffney, Salih
Ibrahim, Joanne Macinnes, Jonathan Stevenson, Susan Wood London
The above is "War resisters" and that's the Guardian
of London for you, if someone writes a letter, a topic might get
covered. Might. But the 'reporters' have so many 'better' things to do.
(Trying to influence a foreign election takes a lot of work!) Orillia Packet & Times offers the following letter: Letter the the editor: On
June 3, the House of Commons voted to stop the deportations of American
servicemen and women who come to Canada rather than participate in the
fighting in Iraq. Incredibly, the Harper government has chosen to
ignore the decision of the House of Commons. In spite of that clear
vote, they deported Robin Long, an American soldier seeking sanctuary
in Canada, back to the U. S. Last week, Robin was sentenced to 15
months in prison at a military penitentiary. He also received a
dis-honourable discharge. This has huge implications for the rest of
his life: he will be ineligible for student loans, mortgages, and many
employment opportunities. Even worse, he will never be able to return
to Canada, where his two-year-old son lives. His crime? Refusing to participate in an illegal and immoral war, once its true nature became clear to him. In
Robin's own words: "I remember that a soldier is just a uniform
following orders, a warrior is the man or woman that follows their
conscience and does the right thing in the face of adversity." This he
has done, and continues to do. Jeremy Hinzman has received his
deportation date: Sept. 23. It is clear that he is a conscientious
objector. It is wrong that he be punished for following his conscience. What has been done to Robin Long cannot be fixed. But it must not be repeated. The Harper government has an obligation to comply with the will of the House. The deportations must stop. J. Gilbert Orillia
US war resister Jeremy Hinzman went to Canada for safe harboer and was informed August 13th,
that he had until September 23rd to leave Canada or be deported. Jeremy
has taped an appeal to Stephen Harper, Prime Minister of Canada, and
you can find the video at the War Resisters Support Campaign (the video features Jeremy Hinzman, with his wife Nga Nguyen and their children Liam and Meghan):
Let
Them Stay! Keep US war resisters here in Canada! Stop the
deportations!Tell the government to respect democracy and implement
Parliament's motion. Rally on the National Day of Action
Saturday, September 13, 2008, 1:00 p.m. Richmond/Central at Victoria Park March to the Federal Building and then to Covent Garden Market.
Speakers
include war resisters Josh Randall and Tim Richard. Lots of dramatic
street theatre. Bring your enthusiasm, your indignation, and your own
sign, and your noise-makers!
The
15-year-old girl had the chubby cheeks of a child who hadn't lost her
baby fat when she was arrested Sunday by an alert policeman. Around her
chest was a vest packed with explosives. The policeman chained her to
the bars of a window, stripped off her dress, found the vest and
deactivated the bomb. Had he not intervened, Rania would have been this
year's 31st suicide bomber in Iraq. A
day later, Rania seemed in a daze as she spoke about the people who put
her up to it: the relatives who forced her to don the vest and
apparently drugged her, her husband, whom police accuse of being a
member of the group al Qaida in Iraq, and her mother, who seemed to
play a central role in turning Rania into a human bomb but whom she
looked to as a rescuer.
On the front page of this morning's New York Times, Lizette Alvarez offers "War Veterans’ Concussions Are Often Overlooked" which has a large scope that may explain many weaknesses. Here's an excerpt:
Even
now, with traumatic brain injury called the signature injury of the
Iraq war, some soldiers and their advocates say that complications from
mild concussions often are not recognized. Mr.
Owsley's request for a Purple Heart, given to troops wounded or killed
in action, was denied by the military, a devastating blow. Others say
that their mild brain injury entitled them only to low disability
payments, or, if the diagnosis was inconclusive, to none at all. This
has happened in large part because there is no quantifiable diagnostic
test for the injury, and the language used by the Veterans Affairs
Department to rate traumatic brain injury, or T.B.I., is vague. The
military, in particular, seldom rates each symptom from a concussion
separately, which it is required to do, said Kerry Baker, associate
national legislative director for Disabled American Veterans. "The criteria remains ambiguous," Mr. Baker said. "The military way underrates T.B.I. and its symptoms."
The
article's biggest problem is the glancing manner in which it looks at
things which gives off the impression that things have worked much more
smoothly than they have and that -- other than a few cases for veterans
-- the struggle on veterans care is in the distant past.
The
purpose of today's hearing is to take a hard look at the current state
of the Army Medical Action Plan This will be the third hearing this
subcomitt has held on the Army Medical Action Plan -- the army's
response to the revelations at Walter Reed Army Medical Center last
year, since it was issued in June 2007. When the Army Medical Action
Plan execution order was issued last summer, the military personnel
subcomittee believed that the army had finally demonstrated a full
understanding and acceptance of the organizational and systemic short
comings that had led to the scandalous conditions at Walter Reed. We
felt that the Army Medical Action Plan was a comprehensive and
ambitious blue print to tackle these issues head on. After years of
frustration many on the subcomittee believed that the army was finally
ready to take the necessary steps to solve these problems. However,
from our very first briefing on the Army Medical Action Plan, we had
two significant concerns. The first was that the army would be unable
to initially dedicate and then maintain over the long haul the level of
resources required by the Army Medical Action Plan. Specifically, we
were worried that the army would be unable to assign adequate numbers
of personnel to the Warrior Transition Units. Why? Because the core of
the Warrior Transition Units were to be the same soldiers that make up
the backbone of our brigade combat teams: mid-grade, non-commissioned
officers. And these soldiers were already in short supply. The second
concern was that army commanders would overwhelm the Warrior Tranistion
Units by sending them all of their soldiers with medical issues rather
than just those with complex injuries or conditions that required
comprehensive case management. In truth, we do not feel that this was
necessarily a bad thing especially if it helped units deploy at full
strength while injured or ill soldiers had the opportunity to fully
recover Of course, this would only work if Warrior Transition Units
were properly resourced to take care of these soldiers. From June 2007
through February 2008, the members and staff of this subcommittee made
numerous visits to Warrior Transition Units throughout the army. The
overall trend we observed was positive. The Army Medical Action Plan
was clearly providing better support for recovering soldiers than the
previous medical holdover system. One wounded warrior commented, 'Thank
God for the Warrior Transition Unit. Things are so much better than
they were before.' That was good to hear but despite the positive
trends we were frustrated at the slow progress of implementing the
AMAP. We felt that things should have and could have been moving
faster. We also felt that there was a discconnect between how quickly
the army leadership believed things were happening and what the facts
on the ground seemed to indicate. Again, despite the challenges, we
felt things were moving in an overall, positive direction. However our
concerns about Warrior Transition Unit staffing levels and the
potential of line units, quote, 'dumping ' soldier on the Warrior
Transition Unit continued. We asked General [Eric] Schoomaker about
this repeatedly during our hearing in February to get an update on the
AMAP In response to a question asked by Mr. [John] McHugh, the army
surgeon-general declared, 'For all intents and purposes we are entirely
staffed at the point we need to be staffed.' As the facts at Fort Hood
demonstrate that is clearly not the case now. Gentlemen, the Army
Medical Action Plan was designed by the army. It is your plan. The army
senior leadership has publicly trumpeted your commitment to wounded
soldiers at every opportunity -- and we believe that that is true. But
the Secretary of Defense agrees -- as Dr. [Robert] Gates has made clear
-- "Apart from the war itself, this department and I have no higher
priority." . Over the course of this hearing we will review the
following topics. Resources. Why has the army failed to properly
resource the Warriror Transition Units population growth. Why did the
army fail to predict the growth in the WT population. We were assured
by the army in Feb. that you had the processes and reviews in place to
stay on top of the population and clearly that's not the case today.
Priority. Is the Army Medical Action Plan truly the army's number two
priority? Our visits do not leave us with that impression. And
creativity. From the outset the Army Medical Action Plan has been sold
as a bold roadmap to overhaul outdated, inefficient and deteremental
policies and procedures. . . . And oversight. Finally and perhaps most
importantly why did it take oversight visits from the subcommittee to
identify and spure the army to fix these issues and what will take to
ensure that the army follows its own plan and lives up to its own
promises it Gentlemen, aside from telling us that you will will harder
to implement it -- and we do believe that, we know that you are working
very hard at this -- what concrete steps are being taken to ensure
better follow through?
That was last month. The article
today provides no indication of just how little has been done and what
a struggle it has been to get that little done. In terms of individual
cases, a better job's done but, even there, there's not one case that
you can't go to a statement by Davis, Shelley Berkley or any number of
members in a hearing this year -- over and over.
Turning to the presidential race, Susan Faludi's "Second-Place Citizens" runs on A19 and makes some larger points:
In
one poll, 40 percent of Mrs. Clinton's constituency expressed
dissatisfaction; in another, more than a quarter favored the clear
insanity of voicing their feminist protest by voting for John McCain.
"This is not the usual reaction to an election loss," said Diane
Mantouvalos, the founder of JustSayNoDeal.com,
a clearinghouse for the pro-Clinton organizations. "I know that is the
way it is being spun, but it's not prototypical. Anyone who doesn't
take time to analyze it will do so at their own peril." The
despondency of Mrs. Clinton's supporters -- or their "vitriolic" and
"rabid" wrath, as the punditry prefers to put it -- has been the
subject of perplexed and often irritable news media speculation. Why
don’t these dead-enders get over it already and exit stage right? Shouldn't
they be celebrating, not protesting? After all, Hillary Clinton's
campaign made unprecedented strides. She garnered 18 million-plus
votes, and proved by her solid showing that a woman could indeed be a
viable candidate for the nation's highest office. She didn't get the
gold, but in this case isn’t a silver a significant triumph?
Susan
then pulls the punch. Why should women be celebrating? When were we
allowed to? In week after week of Bill Moyers psuedo-talks about race
and blah-blah-blah about the 'historic nature' of Barack's run? Are we
supposed to play like we are as STUPID as they think we are? That we
didn't notice that CRAP day after damn day? You don't have to go to the
sewer of MSNBC to find things to call out. And it's past time Bill
Moyers was called out for his bulls**t throughout the primaries and how
he refused to explore Hillary's run, how he REFUSES to book female
guests and how SEXISM has been dished out non-stop this year by The
Journal.
It's
not just Moyers but sexism isn't just the attacks Chris Matthews and
Keith Olbermann launched. Sexism is also silence. It's how women are
historically 'forgotten' when it's time to 'create' the canon. It's how
women are left out history repeatedly. It's how each wave of feminism
has to first re-invent the wheel. And NO FEMINIST is doing feminism any
favors by pretending what went down didn't. This bulls**t of why can't
women be happy IGNORES the reality that they weren't allowed to be.
Moyers never offered one damn story on gender. Check his archives and
see what he did offer, see how PBS allowed him to turn his show into an
infomercial for Barack.
It didn't just happen. But it continued to happen because too many 'leaders' refused to call it out. Lying
about it today or playing 'nice' isn't going to change a damn thing.
You confront abuse or it continues. That's reality. And damn well
PATHETIC that feminist 'leaders' refuse to write about what happened
which was far beyond the crap MSNBC broadcast. It's past time for
'leaders' to grow the hell up or face that fact that grassroots
feminism no longer needs them, no longer wants them. (Which is why the
Kim Gandy mailing sent out after midnight last night is already a joke.)
Katie Couric:
Over the last week it's been almost impossible to pick up a newspaper
or turn on a cable show and avoid the endless post-mortums on Hillary
Clinton's campaign. Senator Clinton has received her fair share of the
blame and so has her political team. But, like her or not, one of the
great lessons of that campaign is the continued and accepted role of
sexism in American life -- particularly in the media. Many women have
made the point that if Senator Obama had to confront the racist
equivalent of an "Iron My Shirt!" poster at campaign rallies or a
Hillary nutcracker sold at airports or mainstream pundints saying they
instinctively cross their legs at the mention of her name, the outrage
would not be a footnote, it would be front page news. It isn't just
Hillary Clinton who needs to learn a lesson from this primary season,
it's all the people who crossed the line -- and all the women and men
who let them get away with it. That's a page from my Notebook, I'm
Katie Couric, CBS News.
Independent presidential candidate Ralph Nader is gearing up for the Denver Super Rally tomorrow night. This is from Team Nader:
Nader Flix
Posted by The Nader Team on Sunday, August 24, 2008 at 09:25:00 PM
As
a big part of the homestretch push to Election Day, we are starting a
new media fund drive -- $100,000 in ten days -- by the end of the
Republican convention.
We're
cruising. You've helped get us on 37 state ballots thus far (more to
come soon) and Nader/Gonzalez has been at 5% or above in several
national polls. But the big bucks news media has responded with a deep
freeze-out. So, it's up to us to break through and get our own message
out.
Enter the Nader Media Fund.
We
aren't tied down by narrow stylistic constraints. We don't worry about
offending corporate America. We just need to get much busier creating,
filming, editing, and distributing.
You
can help us create high-impact media that will get the Nader/Gonzalez
campaign message out there -- on television, radio, and the Web. Your
contributions will fund radio ads, our creative campaigns will garner
free television media (as our "puppet" debate did in 2004), and we will
put high quality content in your hands for you to show to your friends
and family.
Donate $100 to Nader/Gonzalez now
and we will mail to you three 30-45 minute DVDs over the next month
with exclusive behind-the-scenes footage hot out of the editing room --
"Nader Flix." First, the Denver Super Rally, then the Minneapolis Super
Rally, then a special debate project that we are creating.
Our
crew of professional filmmakers includes people from the pinnacle of
the business. The photo here shows them in the middle of their drive
from Los Angeles to Denver yesterday. They need tape and access to
top-notch gear, lodging and transportation. They need your support.
Make our own media. It's what we've got to do. We need your help to make it happen.
Onward to November.
(The 3-DVDs for $100 offer is good until September 4, 2008, 11:59 p.m.).
robin long
jeremy hinzman
the new york times
lizette alvarez
susan faludi
katie couric
the third estate sunday review
