Dwahzon's Village

The power of music

Cheers to the power of music to tell new and different stories. Robert Siegel did a wonderful interview with a Chinese artist who plays an erhu, a 2-stringed instrument somewhat analogous to a violin. Check out the videos and the interview for some wonderful sound.

posted by dwahzon @ 9:33 AM 0 comments

Yeah Josh

GQ names Josh Marshall as one of their 2007 Men of the year and does a really nice article on him. Here's the announcement about the men of the year thing.

And I can say I read TalkingPointsMemo back when... before TPMCafe and Muckraker and all the other goodies. Well-done Josh.

posted by dwahzon @ 2:34 PM 0 comments

Wal-Mart = Scrooge

Actually, I'm not sure that analogy works. Scrooge in the end was redeemed. I'm not sure that's possible for the heartless management at Wal-Mart.

Per the Wall Street Journal, with a hat-tip to JDalton

A collision with a semi-trailer truck seven years ago left 52-year-old Deborah Shank permanently brain-damaged and in a wheelchair. Her husband, Jim, and three sons found a small source of solace: a $700,000 accident settlement from the trucking company involved. After legal fees and other expenses, the remaining $417,000 was put in a special trust. It was to be used for Mrs. Shank's care.

Instead, all of it is now slated to go to Mrs. Shank's former employer, Wal-Mart Stores Inc.

Two years ago, the retail giant's health plan sued the Shanks for the $470,000 it had spent on her medical care. A federal judge ruled last year in Wal-Mart's favor, backed by an appeals-court decision in August. Now, her family has to rely on Medicaid and Mrs. Shank's social-security payments to keep up her round-the-clock care.

What gives them the right to do this?

The reason is a clause in Wal-Mart's health plan that Mrs. Shank didn't notice when she started stocking shelves at a nearby store eight years ago. Like most company health plans, Wal-Mart's reserves the right to recoup the medical expenses it paid for someone's treatment if the person also collects damages in an injury suit.

[...]

In insurance circles, the recovery practice is called "subrogation." Employers and insurers say it's necessary to ensure that medical expenses aren't paid twice. By recovering those costs from someone who's been compensated elsewhere, they argue, they're saving money for everyone on the plan.

[...]

In cases like the Shanks', where injuries and medical costs are catastrophic, accident victims sometimes can be left with little or none of the money they fought for in court. Health plans are increasingly adopting language such as Wal-Mart's, which dictates that it is to be paid first out of any settlement, regardless of what remains for the injured person. Moreover, the victim is responsible for all legal costs in pursuing the suit.

"It's especially in the catastrophic cases that people are almost never fully compensated," says Roger Baron, a professor of law at the University of South Dakota and a specialist in health-plan law. "And then their health plan, that's been collecting premiums from them all this time, wants to take it away?"

This is not right. Yes, there is justification for subrogation in many cases but there's a humane standard that needs to be met as well. And Wal-Mart has failed utterly in their treatment of Mrs. Shank.

Read the rest of the story. The details of this gold star family are heart-breaking and Mrs. Shank doesn't even understand why her son doesn't visit her anymore.

So many words to describe Wal-Mart wander through my mind: disgusting, loathsome, inhumane, lower than scum. But none of them are adequate to describe just how awful Wal-Mart's actions have been.

I find I must fall back to something I learned when I was young:

By their fruit, ye shall know them.

posted by dwahzon @ 10:26 AM 0 comments

How the non-reality-based perpetuate their myths

-- Chris Hayes has a blog post, The bizarre world of right-wing email forwards, that points towards his The Nation article on the same topic. Both are worth reading.

-- Steve Benen mentions it in a post last week along with a website that has been set up to which people may submit email sent by wingnuts, myrightwingdad.net.

posted by dwahzon @ 10:32 AM 0 comments

Why are we failing these veterans?

-- The NY Times editorial on "The Plight of American Veterans" is worth some of your time.

Recent surveys have painted an appalling picture. Almost half a million of the nation’s 24 million veterans were homeless at some point during 2006, and while only a few hundred from Iraq or Afghanistan have turned up homeless so far, aid groups are bracing themselves for a tsunamilike upsurge in coming years.

Tens of thousands of reservists and National Guard troops, whose jobs were supposedly protected while they were at war, were denied prompt re-employment upon their return or else lost seniority, pay and other benefits. Some 1.8 million veterans were unable to get care in veterans’ facilities in 2004 and lacked health insurance to pay for care elsewhere. Meanwhile, veterans seeking disability payments faced huge backlogs and inordinate delays in getting claims and appeals processed.

The biggest stain this year was the scandalous neglect of outpatients at the Walter Reed Army Medical Center and a sluggish response to the needs of wounded soldiers at veterans clinics and hospitals. Much of this neglect stemmed from the Bush administration’s failure to plan for a long war with mounting casualties and over-long tours of duty to compensate for a shortage of troops.

So how much have you thought about what sacrifice you could make that would honor and support these veterans and their families who have given so much more? Or do you not "bother your beautiful mind" about such things?

Well, here's a place to start. Sen. Webb is proposing an updated GI Bill. Go learn more about it and call your congresional reps and senators and express your support for it.

posted by dwahzon @ 9:23 AM 0 comments

OpEd by Officer returning from Iraq

I'm not familiar with how long The Seattle Times makes their op-eds available online so here's one by a soldier returning from Iraq in its entirety. Do go to their website and read it there if possible. As testvet6778 pointed out, these comments "are from a serving mid level officer who works at the Brigade level of an Army unit from Fort Lewis deployed to Iraq. In other words it is from one of the mid level managers of the fiasco in Iraq and has to see it day in and day out, and he was lucky enough to make it home."

Questions from the front lines of a war that strains logic

By Brian J. Sullivan

HILLAH, Iraq — My military tour of duty in Iraq ends in several weeks. We return home during a period of military success, to a decidedly anti-war nation and to an unclear future Iraq policy.

There is a certain pressure for those returning from this war to thump our chests, make proud claims of success, honor the fallen and extol a positive military spirit. Returning is a time to wave the flag; it's hard not to get caught up in those feelings of pride and conclusion.

My unit will focus on pinning medals and awards on returning soldiers, speeches by the generals, and maybe a homecoming event or parade.

But, tough questions will be on the minds of many as their flights leave Baghdad International Airport.

Was it worth it? Is the nation of Iraq we are attempting to assist worth the sacrifice? Will Iraq be different tomorrow because of our blood, sweat and a trillion dollars?

After serving here, I strongly disagree with the most common justification for the war.

U.S. Sen. John McCain has often commented, to paraphrase, "If we don't kill the enemy in Iraq, they will follow us home to America."

From the several hundred detainees I've seen here, and others I am aware of, I conclude it's unlikely that many of these illiterate dirt farmers and thugs caught planting roadside bombs, men who can barely feed themselves, or their children, would be able to mount a successful jihad against North America.

A closer look at the 9/11 terrorists should stiffen our resolve against radicalized, sophisticated, Westernized Muslims, from nations like Saudi Arabia, not Iraq.

Our concern should focus on sealing the U.S. border, and finding terrorists who can navigate the airports and the complexities of the First World, not the palm groves of Iraq.

I've thought about this a lot as I drove in convoys to our outlying patrol bases or flew over the palm forests along the Tigris and Euphrates. I thought about this as I crouched in bunkers as rockets were landing near me.

What I see are militia groups continuing their violent struggle for primacy and power. Iraq's primitive legal system is hardly functioning; it's a coin toss whether due process or torture will be applied.

The country's ancient power grid remains unimproved. The Mosul dam is near failure but the Iraqi government will not act to stop potential catastrophe. Iraq's police are corrupt and unreliable. Iraq's army is better, but struggling with basics like putting shoes on its soldiers' feet. The graft-dominated central government seemingly controls little.

Contrast this mess with the actions of our young U.S. soldiers. They do their combat patrols on bomb-infested roads and kick down doors of houses that could be rigged to explode. Their behavior and competence have cemented my trust in the military leaders and troops I serve with here.

I wish I could say the same of my confidence in our D.C. policymakers.

Iraq is a war being waged with a military that is stretched to the bone. Can we respond elsewhere in the world if we had to? The reality is, the U.S. Army has insufficient troops to extend the surge in Iraq without ordering 18-month rotations.

I've watched more than a dozen congressmen come into our forward operating base for their 60-minute briefings and photo opportunities.

After one briefing, I listened to a general and State Department official talk about how a large group of federal elected officials ignored the presentations, looked at their watches, or stared at the ceiling. They didn't care about the details. But, details matter, and should matter to policymakers.

It is that kind of highhandedness that will keep us fighting here.

I leave Iraq loving the organization of the Army, and grateful for the hard sacrifices of my fellow soldiers.

I leave Iraq unsure ... whether the true reason we are here, as Alan Greenspan recently opined, is that we are fighting for oil, regional stability and protecting our oil-based economic system.

I leave hoping the American people will fire their congressmen next year, especially if they are arrogant toward those risking their lives in a mission they directed.

Most of all, I challenge the soundness of the logic that what we are getting in Iraq is worth the steep cost in American blood and treasure.
Brian J. Sullivan is an infantry brigade staff officer in Iraq and formerly served two terms, from 1997 to 2001, in the state House of Representatives representing Tacoma and Pierce County. The views in this guest column are his alone.

posted by dwahzon @ 9:07 AM 0 comments

Veterans Day

Thank you.

posted by dwahzon @ 8:15 AM 0 comments

Items of Interest

-- Sending my prayers and good karma to my friend Monkey who's having heart surgery today.

-- KagroX expresses my feelings on the Mukasey vote so well, I'll just point to his version.

-- Food for thought from the website doublequotes.

posted by dwahzon @ 12:17 PM 0 comments

Don't take them for granted

I heard an interesting interview between Michele Norris and Dr. Richard Land, president of the Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission at the Southern Baptist Convention on NPR's ATC program yesterday afternoon. Michelle asked a question which brought an insightful response from Dr. Land and one that I think is all too often overlooked in discussions in the blogosphere.

Norris: Now you've heard that the Evangelical Christians are often painted as a monolithic bloc. How do Democratic or independent evangelicals fit in this picture?

Land: Well, the majority of evangelicals do not identify themselves as either republicans or democrats. And let me now speak for the constituency I know best which is the Southern Baptist constituency which is 16.4 million folks in 43,700 churches. Most of them did not grow up in Republican homes. Most of them have been voting solidly Republican starting with the 1980 presidential election but they've not been doing so because they see themselves as voting Republican.

They see themselves as voting pro-life and if the Republicans are foolish enough to take the life issue off the table, that bright line distinction, then they have given the Democrats a license to go hunting for evangelical and conservative social Catholic voters. Because they're not nearly as convinced that the Republican party is right when it comes to economic justice issues. They're not nearly as convinced that the Republican party is right when it comes to some environmental issues. And they're not nearly as convinced that the Republicans are right when it comes to some of the racial reconciliation issues

I was surprised to hear someone of Dr. Land's standing and position make this point so clearly on a national broadcast outlet; and the take-away is this, that evangelical Christians have many reasons to seriously consider Democratic candidates. Of course, it's true.

Perhaps those on the left blogosphere who regularly excoriate the Christian right might want to re-think their approach. No monolithic voting bloc is ever really monolithic. There's simply an unwillingness or inability to consider all the separate, different voices in the attempt to denounce a particular viewpoint.

posted by dwahzon @ 10:45 AM 0 comments

Items of Interest

-- Bruce Schneier has an outstanding post which originally appeared in Wired about waste of resources as a result of fear-mongering.

-- Bruce Fein... conservative guy ... has an interesting oped in the Washington Times. The opening lines alone are worth it.

Effeteness, thy name is Congress. The impending Senate confirmation of executive supremacist Michael B. Mukasey as attorney general is persuasive proof.

-- Sen. Kerry is asking for support of Sen. Kennedy's no-torture bill, s. 1943.

posted by dwahzon @ 4:09 PM 0 comments

Fishback vs. Mukasey on Torture

Discussion with a friend this morning brought to mind Captain Ian Fishback. He wrote a letter in September 2005 to Senator McCain which was published in the Washington Post. It's sad to see that the man nominated to the position of the Attorney General of the United States does not have the clarity of understanding or the commitment to the Constitution that this soldier demonstrated.

Dear Senator McCain:

I am a graduate of West Point currently serving as a Captain in the U.S. Army infantry. I have served two combat tours with the 82nd Airborne Division, one each in Afghanistan and Iraq. While I served in the Global War on Terror, the actions and statements of my leadership led me to believe that United States policy did not require application of the Geneva Conventions in Afghanistan or Iraq. On 7 May 2004, Secretary of Defense Rumsfeld's testimony that the United States followed the Geneva Conventions in Iraq and the "spirit" of the Geneva Conventions in Afghanistan prompted me to begin an approach for clarification. For 17 months, I tried to determine what specific standards governed the treatment of detainees by consulting my chain of command through battalion commander, multiple JAG lawyers, multiple Democrat and Republican Congressmen and their aides, the Ft. Bragg Inspector General's office, multiple government reports, the Secretary of the Army and multiple general officers, a professional interrogator at Guantanamo Bay, the deputy head of the department at West Point responsible for teaching Just War Theory and Law of Land Warfare, and numerous peers who I regard as honorable and intelligent men.

Instead of resolving my concerns, the approach for clarification process leaves me deeply troubled. Despite my efforts, I have been unable to get clear, consistent answers from my leadership about what constitutes lawful and humane treatment of detainees. I am certain that this confusion contributed to a wide range of abuses including death threats, beatings, broken bones, murder, exposure to elements, extreme forced physical exertion, hostage-taking, stripping, sleep deprivation and degrading treatment. I and troops under my command witnessed some of these abuses in both Afghanistan and Iraq.

This is a tragedy. I can remember, as a cadet at West Point, resolving to ensure that my men would never commit a dishonorable act; that I would protect them from that type of burden. It absolutely breaks my heart that I have failed some of them in this regard.

That is in the past and there is nothing we can do about it now. But, we can learn from our mistakes and ensure that this does not happen again. Take a major step in that direction; eliminate the confusion. My approach for clarification provides clear evidence that confusion over standards was a major contributor to the prisoner abuse. We owe our soldiers better than this. Give them a clear standard that is in accordance with the bedrock principles of our nation.

Some do not see the need for this work. Some argue that since our actions are not as horrifying as Al Qaeda's, we should not be concerned. When did Al Qaeda become any type of standard by which we measure the morality of the United States? We are America, and our actions should be held to a higher standard, the ideals expressed in documents such as the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution.

Others argue that clear standards will limit the President's ability to wage the War on Terror. Since clear standards only limit interrogation techniques, it is reasonable for me to assume that supporters of this argument desire to use coercion to acquire information from detainees. This is morally inconsistent with the Constitution and justice in war. It is unacceptable.

Both of these arguments stem from the larger question, the most important question that this generation will answer. Do we sacrifice our ideals in order to preserve security? Terrorism inspires fear and suppresses ideals like freedom and individual rights. Overcoming the fear posed by terrorist threats is a tremendous test of our courage. Will we confront danger and adversity in order to preserve our ideals, or will our courage and commitment to individual rights wither at the prospect of sacrifice? My response is simple. If we abandon our ideals in the face of adversity and aggression, then those ideals were never really in our possession. I would rather die fighting than give up even the smallest part of the idea that is "America."

Once again, I strongly urge you to do justice to your men and women in uniform. Give them clear standards of conduct that reflect the ideals they risk their lives for.

With the Utmost Respect,

-- Capt. Ian Fishback
1st Battalion,
504th Parachute Infantry Regiment,
82nd Airborne Division,
Fort Bragg, North Carolina

I'd like to see nominee Mukasey read this letter aloud and and then tell us again why he can't say that waterboarding is torture.

posted by dwahzon @ 10:21 AM 0 comments

Items of Interest

-- Glenn Greenwald and Markos both weigh in on Ron Paul's remarkable online fund-raiser yesterday.

-- digby highlights Tim Russert's malefic intent in a couple posts at Hullabaloo.

-- Steve Benen has an interesting list over at The Carpetbagger Report. You'd think that candidates would be smart enough to realize that in this day of internet and video, it's extremely easy to cross-check what they say for distortion and outright lies. You'd think so, but you'd be wrong if you did. Josh has started a similar complementary list at TPM.

posted by dwahzon @ 4:58 PM 0 comments

Items of Interest

-- Charles Pierce leaves me at a loss for words to describe this post. He definitely was in command of all his words. H/T to SusanG

-- I always appreciate dengre's diaries. The depth of his knowledge on CNMI is remarkable. All the more reason to pay attention to his latest diary, New polls expose a corruption time bomb for Democrats.

-- Brandon Friedman makes an excellent point which many in Traditional Media appear to have overlooked in The Real Story Behind the Falling Casualty Rate in Iraq

-- Dennis Jett, dean of the International Center at the University of Florida, speaks out about what happened when Sen. Kerry spoke at a student forum a few weeks ago.

What YouTube doesn't show

Gainesville, Fla. - If a picture is worth a thousand words, how many are conveyed by a video tape? Whatever the number, it is not always enough to understand the situation. That will not stop many people from rushing to judgment based on what they think they know. Their views are formed more by the media stampede and their own biases than by what really happened. And that says a lot about how people react and how information is used today.

Take the case of Andrew Meyer, the University of Florida student who had a Taser used against him by campus police at a speech by Sen. John Kerry (D) of Massachusetts last month. Videotapes of the incident made the evening television news and immediately found their way onto YouTube.

[...]

What was not on the YouTube videos was the fact that the student disrupted the speech twice. After Kerry had responded to numerous questions, I announced that one final one would be taken from the microphone on my right. The student then grabbed the microphone on the left and loudly demanded that he be allowed to ask a question. When a female police officer intervened and tried to escort him out, he broke away and continued shouting. At that point, Kerry said he would take the student's question, but would respond first to the questioner who was supposed to have been last. As he finished answering that question the famous videos began.

Because the student had already been disruptive once, there were police officers and officials of ACCENT, the student organization that brings speakers to campus, standing next to him. When he launched into a diatribe and used a vulgar expression, the mic was cut off and he was carried off to the applause of many in the audience, all the while resisting the police.

The reaction of some on the political right who saw video was that the student was silenced because he had asked the senator an embarrassing question. Some on the left suggested his freedom of speech was suppressed. Neither version could be further from the truth.

It's worth reading the entire article.

posted by dwahzon @ 2:05 PM 0 comments

Items of Interest

-- Andrew Sullivan has a long article up at The Atlantic about Obama and why his candidacy is different.

-- On the Media is one of my NPR favorites though I usually end up listening to the podcast since they air it at the insane hour of 6 am on a Saturday morning on my NPR station. In a recent program, Brooke Gladstone interviewed AP reporter Peter Svensson about the Comcast bittorrent blocking story. It's a good listen.

UPDATE:

-- Today's KerryVision post points out that the Pakistan alert was put out much earlier. It also links to the SFRC hearing on Syria which has developed into its own crisis state with the addition of 1.5 million refugees from the war in Iraq.

-- George Packer at Huffington Post has summarized the plight of the Iraqi refugees attempting to enter the US and the utter and complete incompetence of the State Department. Makes you just want to scream. Another Bush crony demonstrates why he is the worst president ever.

posted by dwahzon @ 11:30 AM 0 comments

C-SPAN: more is better

Cross-posted from KerryVision

If you liked 'em before, you'll really love 'em now.




It's BEAUTIFUL!

Not to worry, the original site is still there, thank goodness. If you're a C-SPAN junkie like we all are, you know that C-SPAN.org has always had a ton of great stuff. And they still do. Links to related sites, like CapitolHearings and Book TV, and streaming video of all three channels, and C-SPAN Radio. But now the heavens have opened up and rained down a brand-spankin' new C-SPAN site with zillions of videos that let devotees of the Senate and House while away the hours watching all our favorite shows.

And it's not even Christmas.

Even better than the Video Archives is the Congressional Chronicle, which has ...

wait for it ...

FLOOR SPEECHES! ALL OF THEM!

Search by Senator, or watch the entire day. Doesn't matter if you're stuck at work during the action, you can see it all when you get home.

Oh, my.

Right now, I'm watching Rep. Jason Altmire from April 23, 2007 speak on the House floor on a resolution regarding the Rachel Carson Post Office Building.

They even have random screen captures, so if you keep hitting 'F5', you can refresh the photo of the Senator or Congress member of your choice and find some really good (and some truly horrible) shots. Not that I've done that. But I've heard it's possible.

You can search by bill, by person or by date. It's absolutely fabulous.

Gotta go watch JK speak on the Emergency Supplemental from last May.

So, it's 'pick your own video day'. I recommend the March 2004 Firefighters Conference speech. Excellent.

Enjoy, and Thanks C-SPAN!
 
- - - - - - - - - - - - -

Cross-posted with the permission of the original author from KerryVision

posted by dwahzon @ 1:25 PM 0 comments

Items of Interest

-- The Blue Hampshire bloggers got a nice write up in the WSJ.

-- Welshman on dailykos highlights Japan's withdrawal of support in Afghanistan. His conclusion is a grabber.

When will Congress start to recognise this and realise that it is America that is becoming more and more isolated and not simply George W Bush?

-- Allegre at daily kos does a good job at raising awareness of the Traditional Media's enabling of the next Swift-boating episode of Democratic candidates.

-- No More Red States ... well, at least on the approval ratings map.

-- And on the "be careful what you eat" front, there's this note from Jim Hightower. Why would anyone trust a Republican in government to do the right thing?

posted by dwahzon @ 1:31 PM 0 comments

Items of Interest

-- There's a fascinating "greatest post" on DU about 200 year old nightgowns made from hemp. You should see the pictures.

-- Though I don't normally dally at DU's home page, I saw this post there and the title, Religion as FIFTH COLUMN: Thou Shalt Have No God Before Bush-Cheney, intrigued me since it was published on the same day as the story in the NY Times magazine, "End Times for Evangelicals? The Evangelical Crackup". I thought perhaps it might be further commentary on that article. It wasn't but it is interesting in its own right. Know any "fifth columnists"?

-- Appalling. Do we have a constitution any more?

-- Via Kos, Big Tent Democrat at Talk Left highlights the need for another blogger ethics conference.

-- And then there's Colonel Boylan and his bizarre series of communications with Glenn Greenwald. If you're not aware of it, Glenn includes lots of links to what's happened up to this point in time in this post at Salon and provided updates to the post, including the most recent one which indicates that the whole series of events is now covered in Salon's front-page article today.

posted by dwahzon @ 10:32 AM 0 comments