Archive for August 1st, 2008

First off, I must apologize profusely for apparent negligence on my part, somehow I missed a name from earlier this month.  To the local family of a Air Force member, my most sincere apologies for not finding her name sooner:

Tech Sgt Jackie L. Larsen   37   US   U.S. Air Force died on July 17th in Iraq and her death is being attributed to natural causes.

Other Americans of the last cycle:

Spc. Seteria L. Brown, 22, of Orlando, Fla., Army – Afghanistan – non-combat incident

Sgt. James A. McHale, 31, of Fairfield, Mont. – Army – Iraq – IED

And as New Moon is when I check other lists:

The Coalition In Afghanistan:

Wilmot, Colin William   Private   , 24   Canada
McCarthy, Sean   Signaller   25   Australia
Nemes, Krisztian   Major   32   Hungary
Arnal, James Hayward   Corporal  Canada
Petersen, Jesper Gilbert   Overkonstabel   28   Denmark
Rowe, Kenneth Michael   Lance Corporal   24   UK
Barnes, Jason Stuart   Corporal   25   UK
Cowton, Peter Joe   Private   25   UK
Mathews, Jonathan William   Sergeant   35   UK

There are at least five more NATO troops dead, but the names are not released yet.

I found no Coalition listings in Iraq for this time period.  My condolences to the loved ones in mourning.   I find myself feeling more and more like I need to throw myself at the feet of families of other nations, crying apologies for the loss of their loved ones because my nation apparently cannot play well with others.

Nary a drop without paying more than you would believe possible, anyway.  This is not a book review.  This is a “Unless you like resembling a well-heeled sheep, go read this book!” rant.
How much money do you earn in a month?  $1500?  $2000?  $5000?  Imagine if your water bill was a full third of that amount, please?  Now imagine making only $60 per month and paying $20 for water service.  With which horrific science fiction fantasy novel have I been indulging myself, you ask?  No fiction, science or otherwise.  I read “Blue Covenant” by Maude Barlow.  But horrific it certainly is, that I will grant you.

Barlow’s book details how clean, fresh, drinkable water is rapidly becoming the world’s shortest commodity.  And further, exactly how it is a commodity that will make oil prices and resultant wars look like a mere practice set.  I am going to try to restrain myself from giving a 10th grade summary book report, with all the gory parts on full display, because I really want you to FIND AND READ this book.

It is cogent and terrifying, the picture she paints of the shrinking water supplies being increasingly privatized.  What does that mean?  It means chances are good your “water utility”  is not really a public service, but a privately owned concern.  Because water “investors” are buying up water companies and rights as the hottest new profit on the planet.

They run trials, and you are already test animals in their lab.  Do you like those nifty advertised bottled waters?  Do you have six empty plastic bottles in the back of your car?  You are being trained to drink their product.  Tap water just isn’t as good you say?  Well, you pass the test for their purposes—-that bottled water IS tap water with a nasty oil-gobbling, pollution making plastic container wrapped around it.

But that isn’t the worst of it.  They do plan to own and bill you at their chosen rates for your actual tap water.  They ran the first tests in places like South America, where Bechtel Corp. bought up the public water companies in Bolivia.  They cut corporate costs by dumping waste waters, untreated, into the rivers and lakes.  They raised water rates and cut off those who couldn’t afford it.  In Bolivia, the median income was $60 per month, and the average water bill was $20.  They even billed people for RAINWATER captured in cisterns. When the people rioted in protest, there were shootings by Army troops called out to protect Bechtel’s interests.  Shortly after, the company WAS tossed out of the country.  But that is why the water-sellers are setting their goals on more “civilized” places now.

Where affluent Americans can be trained to pay …and pay more and more.  And even as the supply runs out, they will tell you that desalinization is the solution.  Never mind that the plants pump huge plumes of pollution into the ocean that produces the air you breath.  If they kill off enough of that, will  they try to sell you clean, breathable air along with the clean, drinkable water.  Perhaps there will be a discount for households that buy both?

If you think the cost of gas is too high, you can always walk or take the bus.  What do you do when the cost of water is too high?  If you think this is science fiction, think on this; water has been down-graded from a “human right” to a mere “human need” by organizations like the U.N. and the World Trade Organization.  Executives in water-selling businesses have stated their goal to own ALL the fresh water in the world.

And you are  likely already paying—because typically, when these vultures buy a public water company, they insist on all sorts of “upgrades” and get the public utility to PAY for it with your tax money; only then do they move in and raise your bills and fire the employees.

Cherish that glass the waitress puts on your table as she hands you a menu.  In a few years, it will cost you as much as the beer, if people don’t awaken in time. Read the book, find out where your water comes from….and prepare for thirsty times ahead.

Well, reporters can go work on their tans as the “trial” at Gitmo winds its way down a legal toilet. All the secrecy of banana republic justice is a-whirl there as Osama bin Laden’s driver is tried for being a big bad terrorist. Soviet show trials had nothing on this piece of sorry-assed theater. We couldn’t catch any real big fat cat bad-asses, so we are putting a chauffeur on trial. And get this, what is the hot scoop on how we know he was a terrible horrible murderous guilty bastard? He swore a LOYALTY OATH to bin Laden:

“He said he pledged bayat to Osama bin Laden,” Robert McFadden, an agent with the Naval Criminal Investigative Service, said at the terrorism trial of the driver, Salim Hamdan, 37, of Yemen.”

Oh, my Gods, the horror. My eyes rolled right on under the desk here on that one. Let me see, what DOES that remind me of, anyhow—hard to think on a Friday and one cup of coffee, but there was definitely SOMEthing similar pinging round my brain. It was THIS:

“Republican National Committee took that desire to a new level last week, requiring supporters to sign an oath of loyalty before receiving tickets to Saturday’s New Mexico rally featuring Vice President Cheney.” (http://tinyurl.com/56oun )

And then, wasn’t there this little chat about whether Monica Goodling only hired folks at the Justice Dept. if she knew they were “loyal” to the Grand Old Patriarchs?

And don’t all members of the military service take an oath that could be construed as a “loyalty” oath….the country, Constitution AND the Commander in Chief?

Wow, I better tell my son to look out. He was military (twice!) and took said oath, and guess what? He took the final step of perfidy…he was somebody’s driver occasionally! OMG…..I am harboring a criminally vowed driver in my house and didn’t know it? I guess, being a vet who took that same oath, all that saves me is I never drove anybody anywhere?

This stuff is so mind-cloggingly stupid that I feel a need to blaspheme to deal with the moronic avalanche of it; but being pagan it hardly seems fair to verbally post Christ to that cracker again, so I will have to content myself with wondering how anyone involved in this star chamber bullshit sleeps at night. Oh, and one more thing, the driver in Gitmo—that terrible, frightening boogyman of doom? He DENIES having taken said oath.

And that is the most frightening thing of all, that he is frightened enough to deny having said words that likely were almost as ordinary as signing a piece of paper to see a political candidate lie without questioning him about it. It reminds me too much of a German friend, who, as a teen in 1945, watched her neighbors burn their German flags in the back gardens before rushing out the front doors to shower advancing Americans with flowers. “I salute no flag,” she told me, “It’s just a damned piece of cloth and people die over it and lie over it.”

We’ve fallen down a bit since then, I fear. Now, men are being tried, men die and lie, over a few relatively insignificant WORDS. Even when they don’t differ much from ones being said by OUR side to our feckless leaders, too. We better watch this closely, because some of these legal knives just might cut BOTH ways some day.