More Fallout From the War In Iraq

Poverty is rampant around the world these days with many people forced to live on less than $2.20 per day. In Iraq (and other nations as well) the abject poverty drives a trade in organs for transplant. Donors with the ability to pay find dealers who buy organs from impoverished donors.

Hundreds of people are believed to have sold kidneys and other organs through dealers in the capital, Baghdad, over the last year.

In Iraq estimates of unemployment run as high as 32 percent with about 18 percent living in poverty. The degree of need drives people to seek any possible source of revenue. Speaking of the organ dealers

one of their customers said that he had paid more than $15,000 to one of the dealers outside the hospital.

About one-third of the fee went to the donor. The rest remained in the pockets of the dealer. With the growing demand for organs and an apparent supply in Iraq there are beginning to be stories of people traveling into the country to buy an organ for transplant. The entire situation is out of hand.

Why does our world allow these situations to continue? Why cannot we find ways to help our fellow man rather than continuing the downward spiral for so many? The course we take today will set our future for many generations to come. If we fail to change our direction I fear for our descendants.

Peace.

New Jobs But At What Cost???

Today's NJ has an article about a local company excited about the prospect of new jobs within the next very few years. The news of job creation is good but the cost of those jobs needs careful consideration. The company

makes replacement parts for existing nuclear power plants and new parts he ships overseas

The excitement reported in the article is all about the potential of new nuclear plants here in the U.S.

At what cost are we willing to let this happen? The economic costs to the nation may be measured in trillions of dollars above the costs of generating the same amount of power by other means. The costs to future generations in terms of waste storage and potential exposure to radiation cannot be measured. And there is the risk of accident or even of meltdown. In spite of the industry's arguments about safety we have seen the results of the Chernobyl and Three Mile Island incidents. The economic impact let alone the health impact are gigantic.

We as a nation cannot afford nuclear power generation using today's technology. If at some point in the future a new process is developed allowed cheaper and cleaner power generation maybe we should reconsider. Until that time continued opposition to any new nuclear power plants is the only rational course. We as a nation cannot pay the bills for those plants.

Peace.

R.I.P. Walter Cronkite, 1916-2009

Journalist Walter Cronkite has died. The world lost a major influence.



May he rest in eternal peace.

Cronkite was the epitome of journalism, the face of real news for many years through so many trying times. He shall be missed.

Peace.

On War

In 1917 a short book written by Harry Emerson Fosdick entitled, The Challenge of the Present Crisis, was published. Fosdick crafted an impassioned argument written with a very Christian perspective of his time.

Frome the standpoint of every high ideal, war is unchristian--essentially, hideously uncrhistian.

Perhaps some of today's leaders would do well to listen to Fosdick's words.

Fosdick argued against all are responsible for support the war effort if such an effort is undertaken but he saw the end result as failing to bring final resolution.

War, like all use of physical compulsion, is at its best a surgical operation. By surgery you may restrain an alien growth, but surgery never cures...Its work is all negative, eliminative.

Right he was. War eliminates people, cultures, nations, and wealth.

While he argued people were obligated to support the nation in its inevitable war course, he also put the Christian perspective in place telling all to pray for the enemy, the Germans. Fosdick seemed at heart a pacifist but he was not wholly in the pacifistic mode as he saw the need for war as a surgical exercise at times in the face of overwhelming evil.

Even though he did not apparently experience war firsthand, Fosdick got the gist of the situation very well indeed.

War now is dropping bombs from aeroplanes and killing women and children in their beds; it is shooting by telephonic orders, at an unseen place miles away and slaughtering invisible men; it is murdering innocent travelers on merchant ships with torpedoes from unknown submarines; it is launching clouds of poisonous gas and killing men with their own breath. War means...men with jaws gone, eyes gone, limbs gone, minds gone...it means mothers who look for letters they will never see and wives who wait for voices they will never hear and children who listen for footsteps that will never come.

We would all do well to keep in mind the vision of horror that is the reality of war. To that end may we all seek peaceful ways in the future. War will never bring solutions to the problems of humanity. The sooner humankind comes to that realization the better for all.

Peace.

Feeding the World

How to go about increasing global food security (preventing hunger around the world) is a growing issue today. A presentation in the foreign press in recent days suggests maybe the current U.S. approach is not correct at least in our approach to Africa. Africa has many problems including governance issues which are difficult to resolve. The issue the author takes on has to do with the specifics of food security and agricultural sustainability.

Remember the old Chinese proverb

Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime.

Today the U.S. approach to world hunger is more often through food subsidies and gifts of U.S. grown products such as rice and corn. Rice is a particular problem with the subsidies given U.S. and European farmers by their governments.

"Food security" will never lead to African food sovereignty and independence until Europe and America do something about their own agricultural subsidies, which they pour on their own farmers.

These subsidies out-compete and ravage Africa's agriculture.

As a leader nation in the world today we must examine our policies to insure we bring the best possible course to all peoples of the globe. We must teach people to be self-sufficient rather than forcing dependency upon them. Self-sufficiency brings increased confidence and breeds content in nations. Dependency leads to unrest in too many instances and breeds resentment which may lead to resistance among impoverished peoples.

We as a nation can do better than we manage today, but we will need to review our practices and perhaps make some major changes to our current course. The Obama administration has made and will continue to make needed changes. The supply of food around the world is one more arena which must be taken into account and given full consideration over the course of time.

Peace.

John Yoo--Wrong Then and Still Wrong Today

John Yoo served in the Justice Department during the Bush administration. He was the author of some of the most infamous of the torture memos and is now a law professor at the University of California, Berkeley. In an op-ed in the Wall Street Journal today Yoo defends the Bush administration actions which uprooted Constitutional protections for citizens across the nation.

Yoo begins by describing the failure of our intelligence organizations.

t was instantly clear after Sept. 11, 2001, that our security agencies knew little about al Qaeda's inner workings, could not detect its operatives' entry into the country, nor predict where it might strike next.

The failure was one of mostly administrative dysfunction with failed communications between organizations. In addition there was too much information to be analyzed by the agencies which were short of Arabic translators.

Warrantless wiretapping is justified in Yoo's mind since the FISA rules of the day forced too much time lag or too many restrictions. Since a warrant is required under the law before any wiretapping is undertaken and the FISA Court has denied only a handful of requests his ideas are tough to swallow. In addition the government is allowed to put the wiretap in place for several days while the request for a warrant is considered. Only an administration steeped in its own quest for power would consider moving outside the Constitutional balance of power and protections of civil rights.

Yoo goes on to call FISA an "obsolete law" and claims the President should be unlimited in his powers.

To limit the president's constitutional power to protect the nation from foreign threats is simply foolhardy.

The Founding Fathers knew the risks of just such power and installed a balance of power arrangement to prevent the sorts of abuse unlimited power is likely to bring about.

In conclusion Yoo wants the nation to continue the same course as under Bush.

As we confront terrorists who remain intent on attacking the U.S., using weapons we cannot anticipate, we should be skeptical of those who insist that we radically change the way this country has always made war.

The way our nation has always made war has brought little credit to us over the course of history. We need to be very careful to reexamine the issues on which we base war. Too many times our nation has invaded sovereign nations without adequate justification.

And beyond that war is no reason to deny Constitutional protections to one and all. Our Constitution has stood tall for more than 200 years. We have no reason whatsoever to abuse the protections offered in those fine words. If we are to continue another 200 years into the future as a leader nation we had best return to our Constitutional roots and hold to the principles of our founding.

Peace.

Palin Watch--Have Mercy on Us All

Sarah Palin is at it again with an op-ed in yesterday's Washington Post. In classic Palin style she spouts on and on about how bad the new energy bill is to consumers and to the energy supply without providing the facts of the matter. As usual Palin is all about Palin and not much about the truth. One statement holds much truth.

We must move in a new direction.

We cannot afford to continue the current path of carbon fuel dependence. On that Palin and I agree.

But her drill, drill, drill policies and the suggestions that coal can be our energy savior is beyond comprehension. Climate change is upon us. If we fail to develop alternative energy sources we may lose our world sooner than any of us wish to see.

We can safely drill for U.S. oil offshore and in a tiny, 2,000-acre corner of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge if ever given the go-ahead by Washington bureaucrats.

How much more need be said? There is not now and has never been a "safe" way to drill for oil. The environmental destruction is huge. Then the contribution to climate change generated by our dependence on oil increases the damage.

Palin and all her supporters need to find a real life in which facts and truth reign. The more these misleading statements are put forth in the name of truth the more we as a nation are harmed. We must be sure people hear the facts and learn to distinguish between fiction and fact. The course may not be easy but will be very important to all our future generations.

Peace.

House Bill Would Make Health Care a Right

According to AP News reports this morning the House is set to consider a bill which if passed would

make health care a right and a responsibility for all Americans

This is the beginning of good news as House leaders promise to make healthcare a major issue this year.

The legislation calls for a 5.4 percent tax increase on individuals making more than $1 million a year, with a gradual tax beginning at $280,000 for individuals. Employers who don't provide coverage would be hit with a penalty equal to 8 percent of workers' wages, with an exemption for small businesses. Individuals who decline an offer of affordable coverage would pay 2.5 percent of their incomes as a penalty, up to the average cost of a health insurance plan.

Now we shall where our elected officials stand on this one. With Republican opposition to any such plan we may expect Congressman Castle to vote against the bill in accordance with his recent track record, but in the Senate there is much yet to determine.

Any progress toward a healthcare system that allows full coverage for every American is important. The opposition is steadfast and foaming at the mouth about every possible solution. Yet we continue to hear the horror stories of today's failing system. We must find a new way if we are to begin to restore the health of our nation.

Peace.

Fallout from the Vietnam War Remains In Country Today

During my time in Vietnam I saw both the beauty of the nation and the destruction brought on by the continuing war effort.Regions like the one pictured here in today's world were often the scene of marvelous farming. Rice paddies were abundant in the regions we traveled. Barren areas such as this one were also in abundance.

Today the search for unexploded munitions continues day by day. War waste hunters are driven by the need to make money and ordinance is a sale item. But the occupational hazards are many.

War waste hunters don’t want to talk or be questioned about their job because they are afraid of bad luck. Each time one leaves home to look for war waste, their family members are very worried at home.

Le Quang Thanh, Hai Thai commune’s official in charge of social affairs, said over 100 people have died and 32 injured so far this year due to bombs and explosives.

The horror of war is neverending. If humankind fails to learn the lessons of the past how can we have any real hope of a future?

Peace.

Jane Hamsher Gets It Right, Too

Blogger Jane Hamsher of Firedoglake suggests health care as the next stimulus package. Given the millions of dollars people spend every month for poor health insurance and the talk about the need for a second stimulus package, why not consider healthcare as the stimulus? The reasoning works for me. Health people work more and spend more contributing to economic recovery. If people have healthcare options that don't cost the amounts spent today, the extra money will find its way into the economy.

If so many get healthcare right why cannot our Congress do the same? Is industry pressure so great that our elected officials will bend and leave their constituents out in the cold? No need to answer that question. We all know the answer is the same as always. Money talks. People walk.

Peace.

Senator Sanders Gets Healthcare Right

In a posting today, Senator Bernie Sanders (D-VT)has the right thinking about healthcare as opposed to our Senator Carper who still supports the industry approach. From Senator Sanders:

I am sure that you will agree with me that it is unacceptable that:

* 46 million Americans lack any health insurance and that even more are underinsured.

* More than 18,000 Americans die every year because they don’t have access to a doctor of their own.

* One million Americans will go bankrupt this year because of medically-related debt.

* Despite spending almost twice as much per person we lag far behind many other nations in such health care outcomes as life expectancy, infant mortality and preventable deaths.

* While we have a major shortage in primary care physicians, nurses and dentists, almost one in every three dollars spent in this country on health care goes for administration, bureaucracy and profiteering.

I could not agree more.

Sanders concludes saying

In my view, the fight for universal and comprehensive health care is the civil rights battle of our time. Like the other great struggles in our history that have made us a more democratic and just society, victory will require a strong and united grassroots movement that is prepared to take on the very powerful and wealthy special interests that benefit from this failing health care system.

Let the fight be enjoined. Many or us are in for the long haul. This battle is far too important to be lost.

Peace.

You Are Wrong, Senator Carper

Wrong, wrong, wrong.

Carper: Well, at the end of the day, I want us to pass a bill. I want us to pass a good bill … At the end of the day, there are more important things in the bill than whether or not we have a public plan or a public option. I think the idea of what we did in the Medicare Part D plan, where we have a fallback plan on the shelf, ready to pull out if we need it, in order to make sure market forces are working, that seems to me to be a perfectly good option.

Healthcare reform without an immediate public option for every person in the nation on day one is unacceptable. No plan which excludes a public option is the real reform we need to change our current system from disease care to health care. If you really believe different, Senator, then you are listening far too much to the industry lobbyists and not enough to your constituents.

Peace.

Mortgage Loan Modification Unprofitable and Not Being Done

The Obama administration gave the mortgage industry $75 billion to rewrite delinquent loans and prevent additional foreclosures. According to the plan mortgage holders in financial trouble might find any one of a variety of remedies including interest reduction, principle reduction, or other term modifications aimed at reducing the monthly payment. The goal was giving people a real chance to stay in their homes and prevent the rash of foreclosures we are seeing these days.

The process is failing. The basic reason for failure is found in the lack of profit for the lenders. Mortgage modification is not a money making proposition. Therefore such modifications will not happen no matter how much money the government pumps into the system.

A study (PDF) released by the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston tells the sad tale.

The problem is that renegotiation exposes lenders to two types of risks that can dramatically increase its cost. The first is what we will call “self-cure” risk. As we mentioned above, more than 30 percent of seriously delinquent borrowers “cure” without receiving a modification; if taken at face value, this means that, in expectation, 30 percent of the money spent on a given modification is wasted. The second cost comes from borrowers who redefault; our results show that a large fraction of borrowers who receive modifications end up back in serious delinquency within six months. For them, the lender has simply postponed foreclosure; in a world with rapidly falling house prices, the lender will now recover even less in foreclosure. In addition, a borrower who faces a high likelihood of eventually losing the home will do little or nothing to maintain the house or may even contribute to its deterioration, again reducing the expected recovery by the lender.

The writers conclude the infusion of money is going to the wrong place. Instead of giving money to the financial institutions holding the mortgages

Large financial incentives to investors or even to borrowers to continue payment could mitigate this problem.

In other words, give money to the very people in need of aid. I second that motion. Putting money directly into the hands of people likely to spend those dollars is the best way to stimulate the economy. Putting money in the hands of people in danger of losing their home to foreclosure may be the very best way available to both stimulate the economy and keep people in their homes. The more money we see poured into the financial industry the less benefit we seem to see other than in maintaining their CEO salaries.

Peace.

The Pope Calls for Ethics in Financial Dealings

Pope Benedict XVI in the third encyclical (a letter addressed by the pope to all the bishops of the church) makes a call for ethics in the financial dealings of the world.

He urged wealthier countries to increase development aid to poor countries to help eliminate world hunger, saying peace and security depended on it. He specified that aid should go to agricultural development to improve infrastructure, irrigation systems, transport and sharing of agricultural technology.

At the same time, he demanded that industrialized nations reduce their energy consumption, both to better care for the environment and to let the poorer have access to energy resources.

The Pope and I often find reasons to disagree but this time we are on the same page. Suggestions that the world move toward a global support system is the solution to our future. We cannot continue the current race to global domination by militarization and expect humankind to survive far into the future.

Maybe with the backing of the Pope and other world church leaders people will begin to listen to reason at last. The voices crying in the wilderness have made too little impact to date.

Peace.

More Female Veterans Homeless

The tragedy of our current VA system and the economy continues to multiply these days with reports of increasing numbers of homeless veterans now including increasing numbers of women.

As more women serve in combat zones, the share of female veterans who end up homeless, while still relatively small at an estimated 6,500, has nearly doubled over the last decade, according to the Department of Veterans Affairs.

Many of the affected women are single parents. Others carry a diagnosis of PTSD. No matter the cause of their difficulty they represent an abject failure of the system.

During the reign of the Bush administration VA funding was reduced time and time again while demands on the system increased with the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. The course continues to deteriorate today as the economy is in doldrums and the VA resources continue to be limited. We as a nation are failing our veterans. This must not continue. Any nation that fails its veterans is a failing nation.

Congress must take steps to insure adequate funding for the VA. We cannot continue to build our military around the world, depending on our young men and women to serve the nation, and then fail them on their return to home soil and civilian life. This is far beyond unacceptable.

Peace.

That Gullible Public in Delaware--Update 1

This morning's New Journal has a letter saying Congressman Castle is no right wing radical. How soon people have forgotten his long track record of voting with the Bush administration against the best interests of the voting public.

Congressman Castle has a steady record of Republican party voting which cannot be ignored. From the looks of his recent actions and words one cannot help but wonder if he is positioning himself for a Senate run. His record works to his disadvantage but too many today are willing to forgive and forget as soon as he makes one or two more reasonable votes. That is too bad for all of us.

New statistics looking at the first half of this year show Congressman Castle voting with his party (Republican) 75 percent of the time and supporting the President 62 percent of the time. Party unity 3/4 of the votes is hardly being moderate.

Peace.

The Money is Against Healthcare Reform

In case anyone wonders why we are facing trouble getting real healthcare reform in this nation, check out the amounts of money being spent by industry lobbyists. Think about $1.4million per day.

For example, the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America (PhRMA) doubled its spending to nearly $7 million in the first quarter of 2009, followed by Pfizer, with more than $6 million.

Imagine how much good could be done if those dollars were being spent to feed, clothe, house, and insure needy Americans instead of going toward enriching industry executives.

h/t JekyllnHyde

The aim of the lobbying blitz is simple: to minimize the damage to insurers, hospitals and other major sectors while maximizing the potential of up to 46 million uninsured Americans as new customers. Although many firms have vowed to help cut costs, major players such as PhRMA, America's Health Insurance Plans and others remain opposed to the public-insurance option, a key proposal that President Obama has endorsed.

We must stay on guard and continue to pressure our Congress critters. We deserve better treatment than we are being given at the hands of the healthcare industry today.

Peace.

Happy Birthday, USA

arkitekt2, Flickr, Creative Commons

At 233 years old today the nation faces many and diverse challenges. Let us all hope we find resolutions to allow another 233 years of good health for the nation.

Today, celebrate. Enjoy the fireworks and the barbecue. Tomorrow is back to work at righting the ship of state.

Peace.

On A Failing Course Once More In Afghanistan

The end result of President Obama's new push in Afghanistan remains to be seen. A similar push under Bush/Rumsfeld in Iraq failed but no one seemed to learn anything from that lesson.

First casualties for American troops as a result of the new push are already being reported.

The operation is a test of Obama's strategy to train the US military's focus on Afghanistan and Pakistan instead of Iraq, on the premise that the Taliban challenge is the main security threat facing the US.

Let us hope the project is successful. Until there is proof of success I remain steadfastly opposed to continued military operations in Afghanistan and Iraq. For centuries humankind has failed to impose societal change by military action. Why will today be any different? When will we ever learn?

Peace.

Public Opinion About Health Care

Given a system that should be likened more to disease care than to health care the public continues to support in large measures some sort of reform that allows everyone to have health care. From the Pew Research Center comes this table:
With 75% of people favoring a system that covers one and all why cannot our legislators find ways to make this happen? When will we find politicians willing and able both to listen and to respond to the cares and the needs of the voters?

Peace.