The Health Care Crisis in Africa

Science and the human heart
There is no limit
There is no failure here sweetheart
Just when you quit

- From the song "Miracle Drug" by U2

The Health Care Crisis in Africa

Are you aware that most Liberians are living off 50 cents a day? Former President Jimmy Carter said at Emory University last night that Liberia and other African countries suffering from major diseases need far more medical attention than they can afford. He told the students that providing shelter, clothing and food on less than two dollars a day -- not to mention health care. He cited the growing economic gap between rich and poor as a major cause of problems throughout the world and encouraged the students to become active as agents of social change.

Next week in New York City, the Clinton Global Initiative will hold its second annual conference with former President Clinton, first lady Laura Bush, Liberia's president, and many other world leaders and experts to set new goals for alleviating global poverty (Senator John Edwards and Dr. Jeffrey Sachs have made this a policy priority), achieving success in assisting all nations with health care issues (for which Senator Hillary Clinton and former President George H.W. Bush have offered much public support), mitigating religious and ethnic conflict (George Clooney and Elie Wiesel's appearance today at the UN Security Council on the issue of Darfur is just one example of involvement on this issue), and creating the way forward on energy and climate change (as former Vice President Al Gore has made a focus).

I am particularly supportive of the alleviation of global poverty and I am especially concerned - deeply so - about ending senseless, preventable HIV infections and AIDS-related deaths around the world. My faith calls me to reach out. My political passion calls me to inform others about what is happening over the horizon - on other shores beyond the limit of their sight...and what they can do to help their fellow human beings. There's no limit to science and the human heart and we will only fail when we stop paying attention - or lose hope - or stop trying.

Liberia's President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf is doing her best to keep her fragile nation stable so that her people can survive, but she has recently disclosed that she fears that some individuals are bent on undermining her government. She made recent American news when she got an uplifting and melodious sendoff after a visit to Georgia Institute of Technology in Atlanta. Since taking office in January, President Johnson Sirleaf has carried a similar message of uplift with her on international visits, trying to drum up investment in a nation that’s in tatters after a 14 year civil war. [source: AP] Some three million people live in Liberia, but after a decade and a half of warfare there are only 34 government doctors catering for their healthcare needs. Fighting has destroyed 95 percent of Liberia's healthcare facilities and the number of trained government doctors in the country dropped from 400 to less then 20 at the civil war's end in 2003, according Liberia's National Human Development Report released recently. [source: IRIN]

President Johnson Sirleaf had been scheduled to speak as a representative of her continent at last month's 16th annual AIDS conference held in Toronto, but she had to cancel her scheduled talk a week before the conference. Scant information on HIV prevalence has been available for Liberia. In 1999, it was believed that 50,000 Liberians were HIV positive. In 1993, the official number was 200,000. Today it's estimated that 3.2% of Liberians are HIV positive. In Nimba county, Liberia, doctors are seeing full blown cases of AIDS but there is nothing they say that they can do for them. They can’t test them to see if they have AIDS since the nearest testing facility is a 14-hour drive away.

Liberia, which lies on the northwest coast of Africa, has more than its share of health care crises and limited resources to control them. The country is unlikely to meet most of its Millennium Development Goals regarding health. South Africa, however has the largest number of H.I.V.-positive citizens in Africa. Recent reports indicate that the death rate among women aged 30 to 34 has become 4.6 times as high as it was seven years earlier and that the death rate among men aged 40 to 44 more than doubled.



Video by Ben Werschkul, photos by Joao Silva for NYT

In a Lesotho village, a mother waits with many others in a clinic waiting room so her child may be seen by the one specialist who has come from far away to work in her village. Go to this NYT address and watch a video titled: Video Feature: AIDS Care in Africa.





CNN's Christiane Amanpour has been reporting on the effect of the AIDS crisis upon children in Africa. She says that, when it comes to the children, the world has failed dismally. According to the United Nations, there are 12 million AIDS orphans in sub-Saharan Africa alone, and in four short years that number will skyrocket to 18.4 million. That means AIDS orphans will make up 15 to 20 percent of the population in some African countries. Children, many who have been infected with the HIV virus from birth, have to watch their parents dying of AIDS.


There are as many as one million AIDS orphans in Kenya alone, and grandmothers are often the only ones left to care for the children. Grandmothers, many living in poverty themselves, struggle to find enough food for these orphaned grandchildren. Ms. Amanpour gives an example of the Stara Rescue School in the Kibera slum of Nairobi, Kenya, where of the 470 children in the school, approximately 70 percent are AIDS orphans. [source: CNN]



The Stephen Lewis Foundation of Toronto, Canada recently conducted a highly successful grass-roots gathering of about 300 African and Canadian grandmothers. African grandmothers who have lost children to AIDS and are now caring for their grandchildren described their lives to Canadian grandmothers (very few of whom are dealing with AIDS in their immediate families). *Stephen Lewis is the United Nations' special envoy for AIDS in Africa. [source: NYT]


A simple fact that can make a world of difference in stopping the spread of the HIV virus: In the 10 years since the introduction of some highly effective drug cocktails, 20 million people have become infected, and most do not know it because they are not offered H.I.V. tests.

President Carter Meeting With Iran's Khatami in Doubt

President Carter Meeting With Iran's Khatami in Doubt

President Jimmy Carter has never been ashamed to say that he places a major emphasis on human rights. It is no secret that the Bush presidents - George H.W. and his son alike - have often been at odds with President Carter for Carter's sometimes assertive post-presidency involvement with international leaders while bypassing the authority of the Oval Office. President Carter firmly believed, before the U.S. became involved in war, that the first Gulf War would be the wrong move for America. It would be the first time we'd have shed blood in a Muslim nation and, always a prescient leader, Carter knew there would be repercussions for years to come.

9/11 was a by-product of America's many foreign policy disasters. Looking back, the first Gulf War was no victory. It was a half measure at best. If America was going to make the world safer back in 1990 by resorting to a war in a Muslim nation, we should have removed Saddam Hussein from power back then, Bush 41 popularity ratings be damned. But politics was played then as politics is being played by Bush 43 now. 130,000 troops in a place like Iraq where 700,000 is closer to the number necessary to occupy the cities, towns, and villages and subdue every insurgent element is an indication that this effort has been far less than a half measure.

Iraq had no 9-11 connection - zip - zero - nada.

Bush now proudly (?) calls Iraq his centerpiece of his war on terror, and he may as well be fighting it with American troops' hands tied behind their backs because it is far less than a hlaf measure.

Bush the chickenhawk tells us that it's a fight for civilization, yet he refuses to look into the eyes of the leaders of Syria and Iran. Some fighter he is. Some civilized example.

President Carter had wanted to meet with former Iranian President Mohammad Khatami when he visited America. Unfortunately, Khatami has said that he appreciated an invitation by Jimmy Carter to meet in Atlanta, but said "his schedule was already full." He said he hoped they might work together later on international peace and reconciliation issues 'if the grounds are prepared'. At least President Carter offered - and it's an open-ended offer. Experts on Iran had hoped that the visit could've opened a channel between America and Iran. Khatami attended the United Nations Dialogue of Civilisations conference in New York, addressed an inter-faith meeting at the National Cathedral in Washington and gave a speech to an Islamic group in Chicago. One Iranian expert in the UK, Dr Ali Ansari says, "This is an important visit because Khatami does still have clout in Iran. Much will depend on how the visit is hand. It is a very delicate matter." If there's one thing we know, it's that George W. Bush doesn't "do" delicate. It would've been quite a twist of fate if President Carter could have made a diplomatic difference with a willingness to look a foe in the eye and talk to him for the sake of humanity.

But don't expect the Bushes to ever support the former President. They are from two totally different Americas. The Bushes are far too proud. Political vengeance is the hallmark of their character. Cheney, too - he's still pissed off at President Carter for a certain letter of November 19, 1990 to international leaders that overstepped protocol. Perhaps President Carter was wrong at that time, but Cheney should have learned a great lesson from everything that's happened since. Unfortunatelyfor America, co-President Cheney is stuck in the muck of his uncivilized, inhumane, undiplomatic, and mistaken past.

Time interviewed Khatami.

A commentator at The Washington Note says:

Carter represents what we COULD have been, and what we should now strive to be. The problem is that a man of a truly altruistic and humanitarian nature, such as Carter, is morally incapable of committing to the kinds of political posturing and actions that allow you to prevail in today's political environment. The only way that society will chose morality over personal material enrichment is if society itself is moral. The despicable reality of the current American political scene is a window into the despicable reality of current American societal values. That is one of the reasons I am so pessimistic about our chances. They only sell us what we willingly buy.

Posted by: Pissed Off American at September 6, 2006 10:50 AM

India Must Be Accountable if a Nuclear Player

India Must Be Accountable if a Nuclear Player

In his latest book, President Jimmy Carter has pointed out that, until recently, all American presidents since Dwight Eisenhower have striven to restrict and reduce nuclear arsenals. Today, U.S. policy is threatening the effectiveness of international agreements that have been laboriously negotiated by almost all previous presidents. Because of the decisions of the U.S. President and some other national leaders, serious doubts have been cast on the future of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty [NPT], which has been in force since 1970. In rejecting or evading almost all nuclear arms control agreements negotiated during the past fifty years, the United States has now become the prime culprit in global nuclear proliferation. President Bush's move to lift nuclear restrictions and grant privileges to India, who has rejected the NPT, such as having exclusive access to nuclear technology, is a clear incitement for other nations to violate the treaty's restraints. While claiming to be protecting the world from proliferation threats, American leaders have abandoned existing treaty restrictions; have asserted plans to test and develop new weapons; and have reneged on past pledges, reversing long standing policy by threatening first-use of nuclear weapons against non-nuclear states. The world is crying out for positive leadership from Washington.


In this NYT article, US ambassador to India David Mulford is pushing the idea of Congressional approval of what President Carter feels is the wrong path for America on the issue of non-proliferation.

"We hope the Senate will vote this month. If there is Senate action, we believe there will again be a large majority,'' [Mulford] told a Indo-U.S. business summit in New Delhi.

Mulford knows that if it goes past November, there will be more Democrats in the Senate who will take issue with the U.S. lifting nuclear restrictions and granting special nuclear privileges to a non-NPT nation.

India shows that it is unwilling to bend on very important U.S. concerns about accountability with the proposed new nuclear privileges, and that, combined with the fact that they've refused to be a NPT member, should be very disconcerting

Some changes proposed by U.S. politicians include a clause that would make it mandatory for the U.S. administration to certify India is sticking to the deal's terms and a condition that nuclear cooperation would end if it tests an atomic device. [..] New Delhi has repeatedly warned that any changes could destroy the pact.

Sen John Edwards & Pres Carter on Universal Health Care

Senator John Edwards & President Carter on Universal Health Care

Senator John Edwards and former President Jimmy Carter seem to get together a lot these days. In July, it was to podcast for the One America Committee Book Club. Yesterday it was to talk about the future of universal health care in America at a convention of the Laborers' International Union of North America in Nevada. Senator Edwards has been a strong supporter of labor unions and the American worker.

President Carter was appearing for his son, Democratic Senate candidate Jack Carter, who has been hospitalized with severe colitis. Here's prayers and good wishes for a quick recovery.

In this week's New Yorker, Blake Eskin recalls David Remnick writing that former President Bill Clinton, while still in office, looked at the examples of the living ex-Presidents — Nixon, Ford, Carter, George H. W. Bush—and saw Jimmy Carter as the best model for his own future. Mr. Remnick explains why it's President Carter.

President Carter will sit down with Larry King on Wednesday night, September 13 (CNN) to talk about the issues of the day.

Former Pres Clinton Meets Progressive Bloggers

Former Pres Clinton Meets Progressive Bloggers

McJoan has a diary up on the front page of Daily Kos in which she's reporting on a meeting that former President Bill Clinton held with chosen progressive bloggers (a la former Senator John Edwards, who has been doing this on a regular basis for over a year now). Barbara O'Brien of Mahabog was among the group of invited bloggers, as was Matt Stoller of MyDD and Pete Daou.

Here's an excerpt from McJoan:

What we did talk about was the rise of the left-wing blogs as a reality-based medium. He's very impressed by the amount of research and fact-checking that happens on the blogs on a daily basis, particulary compared to the traditional media. (Kind of makes you want to double-check everything you write, knowing that Bill Clinton is reading, huh?) He was impressed and grateful for the work done in pushing into the mainstream the travesty that the ABC/Disney movie was. He encouraged Democrats running for election this year to run as Democrats--to not run away from the party, and to stand tough on Iraq--regardless of their position on troop reductions, pull-out, whatever. The issue is making this administration and the GOP Congress that enables it accountable for the massive national security challenges we still face that haven't been addressed in the five years since September 11.

New Yorker Article Profiles President Clinton

President Clinton is featured in this week's edition of the New Yorker, where David Remnick profiles President Clinton. He discusses the former President’s legacy and Senator Hillary Clinton’s political future.


Presidents Clinton and G.H.W. Bush to Receive Liberty Medal at the National Constitution Center

On Thursday, October 5, 2006, President Clinton, along with former President George H.W. Bush will accept the Liberty Medal and its accompanying $100,000 prize, the first under the management of the National Constitution Center. In June 2006, the National Constitution Center reached an agreement with the Philadelphia Foundation to assume all responsibility for the Liberty Medal. Their transcending of partisan and political differences to do what's best for the country and the world through their Bush-Clinton Katrina Fund and Bush-Clinton Tsunami partnership will be honored. It will be the first time both Presidents will be present to accept a joint award for their efforts.

More about the medal.

Bush's Sandwich Speech

Bush's Sandwich Speech

Bush stuffed a lot of lofty rhetoric in his sandwich speech last night (it was raw meat between two wonder-bread ABC drama segments)....but when he spread Iraq on that sandwich, it was like putting mustard on peanut butter.

Iraq had no connection to 911 and Bush politicized the 5th anniversary of his failure to adequately warn Americans about the aviation risks and stop the 911 attacks.

Former NBC anchor Tom Brokaw had this to say to NBC/MSNBC's Chris Matthews last night:

Chris Matthews: “What did you hear in that speech tonight?”

Tom Brokaw: “I was surprised that there was not more poetry in it, a, and b, that he didn't take us to a different place in terms of where he wants to go next. This is the kind of speech that he could have given three years ago, not five years after 9/11. The American public now has been through a lot in five years, Chris, and with all due respect to the President, they'll be measuring his rhetoric versus the reality that they see almost every day in their newspapers and on television. When he talks about all the people who have voted in Iraq, for example, he's absolutely correct on that, but that's touched off this terribly violent struggle over there for power between the Shiite and the Sunni. In Afghanistan, where they've had elections, as well, and I've spent a lot of time in that country, if you get just outside of Kabul, you'll find that women are living a very traditional Islamic life. They're not able to go to a clinic where there are male doctors, for example. That has not changed. It doesn't mean that this is not a noble effort. But, in fact, the policies versus the reality, I think is what a lot of people are going to be looking at. And whether or not we have to find other ways, than just militarily going in to deal with these issues, is the question on the minds of a lot of people.”

Matthews: “You've spent a lot of your life and career involved in the dialogue between the media and political power. It seems to me if you watched the last couple of weeks there's been a dialogue back and forth, almost a deposition, between the media -- especially the White House press corps -- and this President. Getting him to the point where he admitted there was no connection between what happened here and the war in Iraq, the Vice President, because of Tim Russert this weekend, agreeing to that, even though he had been the hardest man to convince on that point. And now here is the President, in a formal speech saying even though there's no confection directly between 9/11. It seems that is how democracy works, a dialectic, an argument back and forth, where one side finally says I don't have the evidence to keep making my case, therefore I'm going to ask you to accept my leadership, that it is a threat to our country even if they weren't involved with 9/11.”

Brokaw: “People have been saying all day long, is this a political speech, are these political appearances? But of course they are. We live in a political system. This is how we work all that out. When he said tonight, for example, that Saddam Hussein was a clear threat to this country, if you watched Tim Russert yesterday, he had the Vice President on saying that, in fact, there was no connection between Saddam Hussein and Iraq. And we had Saddam in a box, which a lot of people believed at that time. The question is, do we advance the goals of trying to suffocate this Islamic rage, which is real, we are still under threat from a lot of jihadists around the world, by fighting the war the way we are in Iraq and doing what we have been doing in Afghanistan, or is there another way worth examining? It's not just a choice between cutting and running, as the administration likes to put it, and what a lot of Democrats would like to do, which is to just get out of there. There are other positions there, as well. This is a very complex war in which we're involved and it requires, it seems to me, more complex analysis than we're able to get in the current political debate.”

5 Years After 911: A Bad Recipe for Democracy

5 Years After 911: A Bad Recipe for Democracy

At a ceremony at the Pentagon this morning, Vice President Dick Cheney called this a "day of national unity." Looking back five years, the call Mr. Cheney raised for unity landed flat and hollow. No doubt, all of our hearts, our healing thoughts, and our prayers are with our fellow Americans who lost loved ones in the 9/11 tragedy in New York, Washington D.C., and Shanksville, Pennsylvania. Our common human values unite us on such a day. We are united in compassion. When it comes to matters of government however, I believe that our leaders should have seen to it that the unity that they hawk like the new barkers of the modern-day Infomercial was not just an annually-found sentimental essence of a long lost passing fancy, but instead they should have helped to forge a perennial unity among American citizens.

It should not have to take a day like 9/11 to remind us that, in America, we were once united for a brief time. A heavily partisan and  politicized foreign policy drove us apart and caused the world to separate themselves from us not long after that ill fated day.

It should not be overlooked that it was free citizens of a peaceful country who were on the front line that day. It was a time of innocence and false security. Before 9/11, our President's administration knew we citizens were in peril - that the aviation system was under great threat - but they chose not to cause us to "panic" and bought our distrust with their deliberate silence. When the question "Are we safer five years later?" is asked and the President tells us that we are safer because of a war in Iraq, the great paradox - is, based upon what we know about the clandestine nature of this fear-mongeringadministration, we citizens have no clue - and no trust that the Bush administration or many of our Congressional leaders have a real grip as to whether or not we're at more risk than we were five years ago.

A war in Iraq has not changed the threat that hangs over innocent civilians here or anywhere in this world. It has fractured important alliances and confidences. The president and vice president repeat again and again that we fight terrorists in Iraq so we won't have to fight them here at home. Consider the impossible reconciling of the question of freedom, security, and sheer geography. If you asked an American traveling to Topeka, Kansas or Birmingham, Alabama if they feel safer now than five years ago, you'd probably get a positive answer. If you asked that same American traveling to London, Brussels, Madrid, Paris, Rabat (Morocco), Singapore, Jakarta, Jerusalem, New York City, or Los Angeles, the answer would indubitably change. Americans who travel to major international cities  are at great risk, and they know it. What does freedom mean when the security provided by your nation's foreign policy confines you to remain  within the borders of your nation for that promise of freedom and security to be fulfilled? If you add the fact that our civil liberties are restricted at a time of an undeclared, unsuccessful, and terrorist-recruiting series of wars within a war that has no end in sight, what you have is a grave danger - not only to the safety of Americans, but also to the health of their American democracy.

It's a bad recipe for American democracy. The proof is in the pudding.

The truth is that we citizens of America are less free and secure now than in just about any period in American history. It took five years for the fallout and the government's disgrace to be realized.

Five years ago, innocent American citizens wandered through the smoke and the darkness at the World Trade Center and the Pentagon on 9/11. A new kind of soldier was born on that day in America. The first of our kind was seen in the actions of everyday citizens like Edgar Emery, a hard-working American who died a hero's death at the Trade Center while escorting five co-workers, including one who'd had just completed a round of chemotherapy, into a stairwell and walked down 12 floors, reaching the 78th floor and the express elevator, with Mr. Emery giving encouragement all the while. Being your brother's keeper took on a whole new meaning. When a stranger with a backpack stands next to you in the subway, the new awareness that you are in The Army of the Millions - not born of fear, but by information - is palpable. There were once hundreds of fundamentalists whose ideology and resentment toward the West  drove them to entertain the thought of killing innocent human beings. Today, there are thousands more emboldened young men and women who are ready to join the Islamic fundamentalist cause, thanks to a war-myopic administration in Washington, D.C. and a Congress that has failed to listen to the democratic voices of the people they swore to represent.

In a nation with leaders who wished to strengthen and empower citizens, there would be no fear mongering. We wouldn't hand out medals to people like former CIA chief George Tenet, who'd failed our nation miserably and who had been indecisive when we needed him to be decisive; then reticent when we desparately needed clarity from him about WMD in Iraq. We'd fight fundamentalists tooth and nail, but we wouldn't politicize secret CIA prisons and we wouldn't publicly expose our CIA agents because we'd understand that politicizing war only weakens our chances of beating the enemy in a vicious game. That vicious game is not meant to be the kind of game that has to be turned into horror stories to cow frightened and helpless-feeling citizens into duct-taping their windows and cowering in a corner (unless they're feeling brave and patriotic enough to go to the mall and shop). Five years after 9/11, we realize that the elected leaders of America don't trust or respect the views of their own constituents. Since we have but ourselves to rely upon in this new struggle which eats away at our base emotions, it seems that a good government would have empowered us and trusted us with facts and education rather than stoking the fires of fear within us for five wasted years. A strong nation is a nation whose citizens participate in making their communities safe and watch out for one another. We are the soldiers we never asked to be, but fate has conscripted us to our own self-defense.  

Although we citizens are divided on political questions, we are all caring people who are are still groping through the smoke and darkness of 9/11, thanks to a foreign policy that solves nothing and serves as a recruitment vehicle and an isurance policy for more terror; an administration who has deliberately misled us; Congressman who have ignored our concerns; and a government that has frightened us rather than strengthened us.  

On Meet the Press yesterday, Dick Cheney made excuses for staying a failed and disastrous course in Iraq. He said, if we change the course, what is Hamid Karzai going to think? What about Musharraf? I'd like to ask Cheney, "What about the people of your nation who appeal to their representatives every day for an end to a senseless strategy to "fight terror" in Iraq, whose government never had a connection to 9/11? In a representative democracy, no one seems to be listening to the new soldiers of America - the citizens.

It's a bad recipe.

Meanwhile, it's five years later and disappointed 9/11 widows (called "witches" and "harpies" by Republican darling Ann Coulter) still wait for the truth and they no longer believe that the intelligence agencies failed, suspecting instead that the failure lied in the hands of Pentagon leaders who did not pass along information to law enforcement.

It's a bad recipe.

One year ago, Hurricane Katrina showed us that we didn't care enough about our nation's infrastructure, which is one of the most important necessities for a strong civil society. Katrina proved we were not prepared for catastrophic emergency. All the rhetoric and promise about Homeland Security making us safer was swept away with the great flood.

It's a bad recipe.

President Bush had the comfort and support of the world on September 11, 2001, and he squandered it. He lacks the humility that the leader of a powerful nation needs to succeed.

It's a bad recipe.

The culture of U.S. torture and fear permeates the nature of our society and the way the world sees us.

It's a bad recipe.

The Iraq war has cost this nation 177 million dollars a day and the President has never called upon the nation for any kind of personal sacrifice. Instead, ideas that promote the elimination of taxes for the wealthiest put more burden upon the working class in America.

It's a bad recipe.

Poverty in America is on the rise while the Bush economy grows, taking on third-world characteristics. We see a staggering amount of concentrated wealth that recalls to us the memory of the pre-Depression days.

It's a bad recipe.

We are all Americans.

That is the message our leaders should be sending to us, but I'm not hearing it. Instead, we still have Donald Rumsfeld staying the same failed course which is disconnected from 9/11/01 and we get leadership in whom we lose more faith by the day, even though the Secretary of Defense is coddled by the Bush Republicans. 2662 Americans have been sent to their deaths in Iraq, a Muslim country that did not attack us and a war metaphorhas been used to win elections for those same Bush Republicans.

A bad, bad recipe.

On 9/11/06, we are crying for a new Betty Crocker. Unity is not gelling. If the cake is going to set, someone needs to take the poisonous ingredients out of the recipe.

Hillary Clinton and Polarization

Hillary Clinton and Polarization

Time magazine say those who "love" Senator Hillary Clinton have "an edge" over those who "hate" her. This is based upon a survey taken; the question was asked of Time readers. Look at the results. It isn't much of an edge. For whatever it's worth, this survey clearly shows that Senator Clinton is an incredibly polarizing political leader. In today's American political atmosphere, it isn't surprising. It isn't "good" and it isn't "bad." It's a reflection of the atmosphere in D.C., led by a GOP who have made a consistent effort to put anyone who opposes them in a mythic class of "Bush-haters" and "terrorist-huggers." This type of venom is repulsive to those elected Democratic leaders who simply wish for reasoned debate on war, human rights, and domestic issues. It's no wonder there's a clear ideological division straight down the middle.

The question is: Do we want to move ahead with a mind to end polarization? Who will lead the D.C. crowd toward good old fashioned bipartisanship? Is it even possible, with the Rush Limbaughs on the right and the new talk radio voices of the left? America is deciding where they want to be - in a political sense - with a wider variety of media choices today than ever before in history. The "second superpower" known as the internet is revealing the grassroots' true opinion - on the left and on the right.

The "center" is more of a myth than an actual solidified ideological position. "The center" represents those who have no strong opinion one way or the other - no radical leanings - some because even though they are well informed, they resent partisanship and radicalism - and too many because they are not well-read or well informed. How much free time does the average working adult have (or wish to devote) to concentrating on the issues? At election time, citizens go out to vote because it represents a patriotic duty to them, and often that duty runs far short of being properly informed. Talking points are all some citizens hear - and those talking points have been venemous and bitterly partisan.

Thanks to our leaders in Washington DC - our president, our Congress - and the wide choices in the media who report on those leaders' positions and public statements - polarization may simply be a fact of American political life for quite some time.

Tar Heel Tavern

Tar Heel Tavern

Tar Heel Tavern's up at Billy's place!

The Water Lily

The Water Lily



Broad water-lilies lay tremulously,
And starry river-buds glimmered by,
And around them the soft stream did glide and dance
With a motion of sweet sound and radiance.
- Percy Bysshe Shelley





Those virgin lilies, all the night
Bathing their beauties in the lake,
That they may rise more fresh and bright,
When their beloved sun's awake.
- Thomas Moore




But it chanced the other day that I scented a white water- lily.... It is the emblem of purity.... What confirmation of our hopes is in the fragrance of this flower! I shall not so soon despair of the world for it, notwithstanding slavery, and the cowardice and want of principle of Northern men. It suggests what kinds of laws have prevailed longest and widest, and still prevail, and that the time may come when man’s deeds will smell as sweet. Such is the odor which the plant emits.... It reminds me that Nature has been partner to no Missouri compromise. I scent no compromise in the fragrance of the water-lily.
- Henry David Thoreau



Water Lilies
Claude Monet

Photographs taken on Adirondack ponds - all by Jude Nagurney Camwell

Scholastic Provides Rewritten Guide to Focus on Critical Thinking

Scholastic Provides Rewritten Guide to Focus on Critical Thinking

The Scholastic company, who withdrew a guide to the upcoming docudrama about 9/11 two days ago because they "believe it was not in keeping with their high standards," has "rewritten this guide to focus more sharply on the issues of the docudrama as well as the background events."

This program is highly controversial because:

As a docudrama, it contains imagined scenes that some of the political figures who lived through the period say are misleading and inaccurate.

It is an emotional portrayal of a period leading up to one of the searing events of our time—one which I personally witnessed first-hand from our Scholastic offices (less than a mile from the World Trade Center site). Several of our employees’ family members died in the attack.

It is being broadcast in a period just before the 2006 elections. A major election issue is the relationship between terrorism, the war in Iraq, and other conflicts in the Middle East and Afghanistan. As such, The Path to 9/11 is viewed by some as political and partisan.

The new guide can be seen here.

NY25: Rep. Walsh Caught Flip-Flopping

NY25: Rep. Walsh Caught Flip-Flopping

At Daily Kos, a blogger from Rochester, N.Y. has posted an audio of a question he asked of Congressman James Walsh about the minimum wage issue, claiming that he received far less than an honest reply.

This USATODAY article shows that Rep. Walsh voted "Yes" last June for a raise in the federal minimum wage on an appropriations committee that had no official jurisdiction on the issue. The amendment was attached to a bill funding health and education programs, and it was expected to be likely stripped out when the measure came to the House floor.

When his vote counted on a similar amendment - Rep Walsh's vote was with the Bush Republicans - and that vote was "No". According to the Post Standard's Peter Lyman, the DCCC has accused Rep. Walsh of flip-flopping on the minimum wage. Rep. Walsh gave the excuse that he voted for the first amendment because it was attached to the spending bill for the Labor Department, where "it belonged."

Should the question of "belonging" change your representative's core support of raising the incredibly embarrassing $5.15 federal minimum wage? Are voters right to point out the hypocrisy here? 37 million Americans are living below the poverty line today.

You decide.

Bolton is toast

Bolton is Toast

Steve Clemons is reporting that John Bolton's confirmation as U.N. ambassador is all but dead - squashed flat - finito.

In his book Our Endangered Values - America's Moral Crisis, President Jimmy Carter questions some of John Bolton's past statements about the very international organization that he represents on behalf of our country. Mr. Bolton, who is the United States' ambassador to the United Nations, has publicly stated that he thinks it's a "big mistake for us to grant any validity to international law even when it may seem in our short term interest to do so." He has insisted that the United Nations is "valuable only when it directly serves the United States." Bolton represents the revolutionary new foreign policies of the United States. While he was undersecretary of State for arms control, Mr. Bolton made some false statements about Cuba's involvement in the production of biological weapons and when he could not force intelligence agents to corroborate his statements, he attempted to have some of them discharged. President Carter believes this kind of action epitomizes the kind of politicization of intelligence that has led to the Iraq WMD fiasco.

President Carter, recognizing that there are as of yet no commonly accepted definitions for this type of activity in shaping policy, has chosen to use "fundamentalism" to describe the conglomeration of characteristics attributed to neo-conservatives and/or to the extreme right wing. These are the people who dominate the highest councils of American government and approve of preemptive war as an acceptable avenue to reach an imperialistic goal. A dependence upon military force to expand America's influence has dramatically reduced the attractiveness of our political, cultural, and religious offerings to the world. He believes that our great nation could realize "all reasonable dreams of global influence if we properly utilized the advantageous values of our religious faith and historic ideals of peace, economic, and political freedom, democracy, and human rights."

John Bolton has been carrying the ball for President Bush at the U.N. The failure of his conformation leads us to see that the members of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee are seeing the value of the return to tradional diplomacy, which has been appropriately utilized by every Oval Office predecessor of George W. Bush.

The True Path to 9-11

The True Path to 9-11: What ABC won’t tell you by Kevin Hayden

Don't miss this definitive piece by the owner and chief operator of the American Street.

An excerpt:

After the USSR fell apart, our Presidents have had to redefine alliances, revamp our military for post-Cold War needs, compete with the rising oil needs of the world’s two largest populations in China and India, modernize our communications technology in the midst of a global information technology revolution, recognize that groups of terrorists were utilizing those same technological advances to build global terror capacities, counter that growing threat, and still seek, via diplomacy, the proper balance of ‘carrot-and-stick’ initiatives to try and move major oil supplying nations to less repressive societies, and to try to do so with minimal loss of life.

That’s a pretty tall order that takes time to achieve. From the time the USSR dissolved till the 9-11 attacks occurred was just under ten years. All three presidents during that period countered terrorists throughout, but each also made some choices that caused some terrorists to react with further violence. As none of the three presidents was a mindreader, it was generally impossible to predict the logic of terror masterminds, especially when new ones arose -like Bin Laden - who were largely unknown.

Yet, as information about such key terrorists grew, analysts could occasionally make successful predictions about likely responses. And that had to be weighed along with other intel data, in presidential decisions about Bin Laden and other Al Qaida leaders, as the avalilable knowledge about them grew. Thus, it’d be reasonable to expect that Bin Laden was unknown to the first President Bush, that Clinton, especially in his second term, would gain some advantage from the growing knowledge and the second President Bush would have the broadest knowledge of all available to him.

Satirist Fearguth has created his own artistic statement about ABC's decidely partisan fiction:



More Americans Get Their Distorted History
From ABC Than From Any Other Source

Most Blatant Lie of the Day: Marc Platt on Disney Disaster

Most Blatant Lie of the Day: Marc Platt on Disney Disaster

"We've portrayed the essence of the truth of these events."

This humdinger is from Marc Platt, executive producer of the Disney/ABC disinformation drama about 9/11 that is drawing strong protests regarding misrepresentations of the public figures from the Clinton administration and disgust from Americans who value a modicum of accuracy and political fairness in their television dramas about real-life political events - or who simply hate lies.

*As if he - or any of us - have a patent on the "essence of the truth" about anything at all. This "essence" stinks out loud.

See my prior post. In the late '90s, Clinton was just a "dog-wagger" to rightwing Republicans when he specifically and consistently warned them about terrorism; they made political stew of him at every opportunity rather than working with him to create an office much like Bush's Homeland Security to protect Americans; and now Disney and ABC will pile on him for not doing anything. Go figure.

See: THE WEEKLY ACTION COALITION: Tell ABC to Tell the Truth About 9/11!


*Last week, I wrote:

It's high time for former President Clinton to get real - to get angry - and to speak out.

Today I'm proud of President Clinton for speaking out and fighting this horsecrap. ABC and Disney will learn what economically nasty effects a boycott can have if they run this thing.

*The Christian alliance known as Cross Left provides us with an opportunity to voice our opinions to Disney.
See: A Despicable, Irresponsible Fraud

Open to the winds

"My heart is open to all the winds..

Wherever God's caravans turn, the religion of love shall be my religion. And my faith."


- Aribi, 13th Century
Sufi traveler and mystic

Message of Solidarity in Faith From Shalom Center

Message of Solidarity in Faith From Shalom Center

From Faithful America:

"Beneath the scorching sun of hate is a tent of peace - where all are welcome."

Yesterday's admission by President Bush that the C.I.A. has been operating secret prisons abroad stunned the world. More alarming still is his admission that "alternative methods of interrogation" are being used. These, along with the out-of-control violence in Iraq, growing unrest between the U.S. and Iran, and upcoming 5-year anniversary of 9-11 are just a few reminders of how hate and fear have taken hold in the press, in Washington, and in our lives.

Yet we as people of faith know that hate and fear need never be the last word. Every major religion teaches that the greatest power of all is the power of love.

On Monday, the anniversary of 9-11, you will have the opportunity to send a letter to President Bush expressing your thoughts about 9-11, the war in Iraq, Iran, and our national priorities. Together we will remind the White House that we choose to be guided by faith and grounded in love - not fear.

However, there is much more we as persons of faith can do right now. Imagine if somebody came up with a way for the many communities of faith in our nation to come together around the common dreams of seeking peace, ending poverty, and healing planet earth? Our friends at the Shalom Center, inspired by a unique alignment of religious calendars, have done just that. Now, stick with me here - because this isn't something that happens every day:

In 2006-07 the sacred Muslim month of Ramadan (starting about 9/24/06) coincides with the sacred Jewish month that includes Rosh Hashanah (9/23), Yom Kippur, and Sukkot. October 1 is Worldwide (Protestant/ Orthodox) Communion Sunday. October 2 is Gandhi's birthday. October 4 is the Feast of St. Francis of Assisi. After '07, this confluence will not happen again for thirty years!

The Shalom Center invites you to join the members of the Tent of Abraham, Hagar, & Sarah* as they connect partners around the country in shared events during the fall of 2006.

Here is a unique opportunity for Christians, Jews, Muslims, and other believers to SHARE in community events such as:

Arranging for each church/synagogue/mosque to host one meal for members of the others, after nightfall during Ramadan.
Planning public Interfaith Walks for Peace and Reconciliation that go between church, synagogue, and mosque, pausing at each for prayer.
Jews inviting Muslims, Christians, and others into the Sukkah, a leafy hut that is open to the earth.
Muslims inviting other communities to join in celebrating Iftar (the break-fast) after sunset on a night of Ramadan.
Churches inviting other communities to join in learning about and celebrating the teachings of Francis of Assisi.
Learn more at www.tentofabraham.org. You can also contact the Shalom Center at 215.844.8494.

Indie Film Review: Military Intelligence and You

Indie Film Review: Military Intelligence and You

At a time when we citizens of the U.S. are still scratching our heads over former Secretary of State Colin Powell's pre-Iraq war intelligence presentation to the United Nations in 2003, all of which was wrong, wrong, wrong and for which he is embarrassed today, a new film strikes a rather heartsick humorous chord.

Military Intelligence and You! is a unique satirical film that I had the opportunity to recently preview. It's a war spoof by Dale Kutzera, who has worked as a screenwriter for the past six years, first co-creating and producing the VH-1 series “Strange Frequency” and later on staff at the CBS series “Without a Trace.”

You can see my review of the film at Blogcritics.

Rumi Quote/Guest House

photo by Jude Nagurney Camwell


This being human is a guest house
Every morning a new arrival.
A joy, a depression, a meanness,
some momentary awareness comes
as an unexpected visitor.
Welcome and entertain them all!
Even if they are a crowd of sorrows,
who violently sweep your house
empty of its furniture,
still treat each guest honorably.
He may be clearing you out for some new delight.
The dark thought, the shame, the malice,
meet them at the door laughing,
and invite them in.
Be grateful for whoever comes,
because each has been sent
as a guide from beyond.

- Mowlana Jalaluddin Rumi

Tar Heel Tavern #80

Tar Heel Tavern #80

Ron Hudson has done a great job with this week's Tar Heel Tavern - #80. Don't miss Bora's entry on dolphins, where he debunks fallacies about and defends the lovely creatures' intelligence. He even throws in a lesson about neutrons, axons, and glia. And did you know that crows are highly intelligent creatures with huge capabilities for episodic memory, play, problem-solving, spatial orientation and perhaps even insight?

Billy the Blogging Poet tells us why we should boycott Jet Blue. It involves a t-shirt like the one worn in the photo you'll see at this article. Speaking of the blogging poet, next week please send your submissions to Billy.