UN Millennium Goals Update 5-30-07: In the Struggle to Empower Women & Children -- Very Good News, Very Bad News, & A Dose of Reality

Image: UN Millennium Goals

"None of the Millennium Development Goals will be achieved without gender equality. We cannot let another minute go by without acting decisively and urgently. Unless we do, we will be condemning millions of girls to a life of poverty and hardship." Graça Machel

UN Millennium Goals Update 5-30-07: In the Struggle to Empower Women & Children -- Very Good News, Very Bad News, & A Dose of Reality

By Richard Power

In 2000, the planet was in a very different mood, and very different people were at the heads of some of the great nations. At that time, the global community articulated the UN Millennium Development Goals (MDG) and vowed to achieve them by 2015.

Now, almost at the half-way point, there is still hope of fulfilling the promise, but it fades each day we allow small-mindedness, short-sightedness and seeming self-interest to rule our lives.

Several of the MDG focus on directly improving the lives of women and children.

Because I am a Girl: The State of the World's Girls, a report recently issued by Plan UK provides some global statistics:

* Girls aged 15-19 account for 50% of victims of sexual assault worldwide
* Birth complications and unsafe abortions are the leading cause of death for young women aged 15-19
* Seventy per cent of the 1.5billion people living on less than a dollar a day are female
* Stunted growth in estimated 450million women as a result of childhood malnutrition
* Approximately 7.3million young women are living with HIV/AIDS, in comparison to 4.3million men
* Two thirds of 15-19-year-olds newly infected with HIV in sub-Saharan Africa are female
* Sixty two million girls are out of primary school (Plan UK, 5-16-07)

Published two months ahead of the UN's mid review of the millennium development goals, Because I am a Girl warns that six of the eight targets agreed, are currently failing girls living in poverty and the goals will be missed altogether unless world leaders adopt a tougher stance on the enforcement of international laws set up to protect girl's rights.

Plan UK has launched an eight-year drive to tackle discrimination against girls, which will include following the lives of 125 baby girls living in nine developing countries. (To download the Because I Am A Girl report, click here.)

Meanwhile, there was good news and bad news that impacts the push to achieve the UN Millennium Goals, whether the connection is acknowledged or not.

From Brazil, there is good news:

Just weeks after Pope Benedict XVI denounced government-backed contraception in a visit to Brazil, the president unveiled a program Monday to provide cheap birth control pills at 10,000 drug stores across the country.
President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva said the plan will give poor Brazilians "the same right that the wealthy have to plan the number of children they want."
Brazil already hands out free condoms and birth control pills at government-run pharmacies. But many poor people in Latin America's largest country don't go to those pharmacies, so Silva's administration decided to offer the pills at drastically reduced prices at private drug stores, said Health Minister Jose Gomes Temporao.
The price for a year's supply of birth control pills under the new program would be $2.40, and anyone — rich or poor — can buy the pills by simply showing a government-issued identification card that almost all Brazilians carry. (Associated Press, 5-28-07)

But from Dafur and Iraq, there is very bad news.

In these forsaken lands, the government policies of the USA and China are actually driving women and girls away from the promise of health and human rights and into hell-realms of violence and abuse.

The seven women pooled money to rent a donkey and cart, then ventured out of the refugee camp to gather firewood, hoping to sell it for cash to feed their families. Instead, they say, in a wooded area just a few hours walk away, they were gangraped, beaten and robbed.
Naked and devastated, they fled back to Kalma. "All the time it lasted, I kept thinking: They're killing my baby, they're killing my baby," wailed Aisha, who was seven months pregnant at the time.
The women have no doubt who attacked them. They say the men's camels and their uniforms marked them as janjaweed -- the Arab militiamen accused of terrorising the black African villagers of Sudan's Darfur region.
Their story provides a glimpse into the hell that Darfur has become.
Some aid workers believe the janjaweed use rape to intimidate the rebels, and their supporters and families. "It's a strategy of war," UN coordinator Maha Muna said. (Raw Story, 5-29-07)

With no jobs and no money, many female Iraqi refugees in Syria have turned to prostitution to survive, reports the New York Times.
"Many of these women and girls, including some barely in their teens, are recent refugees," writes Katherine Zoepf. "Some are tricked or forced into prostitution, but most say they have no other means of supporting their families."
Excerpts from the article follow:
According to the United Nations high commissioner for refugees, about 1.2 million Iraqi refugees now live in Syria; the Syrian government puts the figure even higher.
Given the deteriorating economic situation of those refugees, a United Nations report found last year, many girls and women in “severe need” turn to prostitution, in secret or even with the knowledge or involvement of family members. In many cases, the report added, “the head of the family brings clients to the house.”
(RAW STORY, 5-28-07)

Recent UN MDG Related Posts

UN Millennium Goals Update 5-7-07: The Number of Sands in the Hourglass is Finite.

Hard Rain Journal 4-19-07: Sustainability Update -- Simple Truths

Hard Rain Journal 3-22-07: Sustainability Update -- World Water Day -- What Would You Do With Your Last Seven Drops of Water?

Hard Rain Journal 2-17-07: UN Millennium Goals and Human Rights Update -- Healing Balm for the World? Feed Children, Empower Women

Human Rights and UN Millennium Goals Update -- The Real Poverty is on Easy Street

Hard Rain Journal 1-13-07: UN Millennium Goals and Sustainability Update -- Does Burkina-Faso Offer a Glimpse into Our Urban Future

Hard Rain Journal 1-8-07: Human Rights and Environmental Security Update from Burma, Cambodia and Mekong River

Hard Rain Journal 12-12-06: UN Millennium Goals Update -- Nobel Prize Winner Yunus Urges World to Fight Poverty to Win Security and Peace

Richard Power is the founder of GS(3) Intelligence and http://www.wordsofpower.net. His work focuses on the inter-related issues of security, sustainability and spirit, and how to overcome the challenges of terrorism, cyber crime, global warming, health emergencies, natural disasters, etc. You can reach him via e-mail: richardpower@wordsofpower.net. For more information, go to www.wordsofpower.net

UN, Brazil, Iraq, Darfur, UN Millennium Development Goals, China, Population Control, Human Rights, Education,Sexual Exploitation, Poverty, Plan UK, Graça Machel

Hard Rain Late Night: Angelique Kidjo -- Agolo (1994)

Hard Rain Late Night: Angelique Kidjo -- Agolo (1994)

"It's a song I play all the time, it's a song I love. I wrote it when I was pregnant, and I started thinking about all the garbage we consume... and I realised the way we consume affects this planet. I wrote the song Agolo which means "please". The song is about the need to give more love to the mother earth in order for her to carry us a long way, us and the next generations. Please let us be careful." (Kidjo Interviewed on BBC, 3-7-02)

Agolo" in Fon language means "move out, make room" and announces the coming of a voodoo spirit. Agolo, the song, is a celebration of Mother Earth. It is a song of hope, a call to the good powers of nature and more particularly to Aidohouédo, the great rainbow snake, the messenger of love and tenderness who coils around the four cardinal points. (Prixars, 1995)



Angelique Kidjo, Agolo, You Tube, Late Night, Music, Richard Power, Words of Power

Hard Rain Journal 5-29-07: Cindy Sheehan Says "Goodbye, America ..." Consider Why She was Shunned & Marginalized

Image: Cindy Sheehan, 12/06, Indy Media

The most devastating conclusion that I reached this morning, however, was that Casey did indeed die for nothing. His precious lifeblood drained out in a country far away from his family who loves him, killed by his own country which is beholden to and run by a war machine that even controls what we think. I have tried every since he died to make his sacrifice meaningful. Casey died for a country which cares more about who will be the next American Idol than how many people will be killed in the next few months while Democrats and Republicans play politics with human lives. Cindy Sheehan. 5-28-07

Hard Rain Journal 5-29-07: Cindy Sheehan says "Goodbye, America ..." Consider Why She was Shunned & Marginalized

By Richard Power

Remember Cindy Sheehan? Lindsay Lohan and Paris Hilton are still in the news. People are searching heavily on their Technorati tags. But on this Memorial Day Weekend, there was almost no coverage of what Cindy Sheehan was up to, and she was making real news.

It was the image of Cindy Sheehan, camped out in the murderous heat outside of Bush's faux ranch in Crawford, Texas that captured the public imagination and led to Bush's slide in the opinion polls. A year later, Hurricane Katrina sent him plummeting, but it was Sheehan that got the downward momentum going. She did it with her openness, her genuineness, her authenticity, her humanness. But, of course, these same qualities made her vulnerable.

Cindy Sheehan was promoted as long as she held the mirror to George W. Bush, but when she turned it on the leadership of the Democratic Party, and on the whole of Beltwayistan, she was crossed off the list.

Cindy Sheehan was shunned by those who should have stood beside her, and marginalized by the whole insulated system of privilege that her candidness and spontaneity threatened. Cindy Sheehan was shunned and marginalized because she was unpredictable and nonnegotiable. Cindy Sheehan was shunned and marginalized because she was the bearer of ill tidings.

Oh, of course, she was accepted when she first bore ill-tidings about the Bush-Cheney regime. It made many people feel like they were somehow better than Bush or Cheney or their minions. But when she challenged the complicity and cravenness of those who would continue to do business as usual as war crimes were committed in our names, she became unwelcome.

Cindy Sheehan was willing to try to walk in the shoes of Caesar Chavez, Aung San Suu Kyi and others. But the US Senate members who Cindy lobbied weren't so willing to jeopardize their position. Those who underwrite their life-styles and subsidize their perennial campaigns would not have tolerated such "radicalism."

What has happened to Cindy Sheehan is more than just a sad footnote in a grim and despairing chapter of US history; it is a warning, and an ominous sign.

Ask yourselves, "What happens to a country that refuses to change its course after its self-destructive, self-defeating, self-abasing behavior is revealed?"

Here are some excerpts from Cindy Sheehan's goodbye note, with a link to the full text:

I have come to some heartbreaking conclusions this Memorial Day Morning. These are not spur of the moment reflections, but things I have been meditating on for about a year now. The conclusions that I have slowly and very reluctantly come to are very heartbreaking to me.
The first conclusion is that I was the darling of the so-called left as long as I limited my protests to George Bush and the Republican Party. Of course, I was slandered and libeled by the right as a "tool" of the Democratic Party. This label was to marginalize me and my message. How could a woman have an original thought, or be working outside of our "two-party" system?
However, when I started to hold the Democratic Party to the same standards that I held the Republican Party, support for my cause started to erode and the "left" started labeling me with the same slurs that the right used. I guess no one paid attention to me when I said that the issue of peace and people dying for no reason is not a matter of "right or left", but "right and wrong." ...
I have invested everything I have into trying to bring peace with justice to a country that wants neither. If an individual wants both, then normally he/she is not willing to do more than walk in a protest march or sit behind his/her computer criticizing others. I have spent every available cent I got from the money a "grateful" country gave me when they killed my son and every penny that I have received in speaking or book fees since then. I have sacrificed a 29 year marriage and have traveled for extended periods of time away from Casey’s brother and sisters and my health has suffered and my hospital bills from last summer (when I almost died) are in collection because I have used all my energy trying to stop this country from slaughtering innocent human beings. I have been called every despicable name that small minds can think of and have had my life threatened many times.
The most devastating conclusion that I reached this morning, however, was that Casey did indeed die for nothing. His precious lifeblood drained out in a country far away from his family who loves him, killed by his own country which is beholden to and run by a war machine that even controls what we think. I have tried every since he died to make his sacrifice meaningful. Casey died for a country which cares more about who will be the next American Idol than how many people will be killed in the next few months while Democrats and Republicans play politics with human lives. ...
I have also tried to work within a peace movement that often puts personal egos above peace and human life. This group won’t work with that group; he won’t attend an event if she is going to be there; and why does Cindy Sheehan get all the attention anyway? It is hard to work for peace when the very movement that is named after it has so many divisions. Our brave young men and women in Iraq have been abandoned there indefinitely by their cowardly leaders who move them around like pawns on a chessboard of destruction and the people of Iraq have been doomed to death and fates worse than death by people worried more about elections than people. ...
George Bush will never be impeached because if the Democrats dig too deeply, they may unearth a few skeletons in their own graves and the system will perpetuate itself in perpetuity. ...Camp Casey has served its purpose. It’s for sale. Anyone want to buy five beautiful acres in Crawford, Texas? I will consider any reasonable offer. I hear George Bush will be moving out soon, too...which makes the property even more valuable. This is my resignation letter as the "face" of the American anti-war movement. ... Good-bye America ... you are not the country that I love and I finally realized no matter how much I sacrifice, I can’t make you be that country unless you want it. It’s up to you now.
Cindy Sheehan, Daily Kos, 5-28-07

Richard Power is the founder of GS(3) Intelligence and Words of Power. His work focuses on the inter-related issues of security, sustainability and spirit, and how to overcome the challenges of terrorism, cyber crime, global warming, health emergencies, natural disasters, etc. You can reach him via e-mail: richardpower@wordsofpower.net. For more information, go to www.wordsofpower.net

Cindy Sheehan, Iraq, Bush, Memorial Day, Paris Hilton, Lindsay Lohan, Cheney, Richard Power, Words of Power

Hard Rain Journal 5-28-07: Memorial Day Weekend -- Cheney Dishonors the US Military at West Point, But the Nation as a Whole has Failed Them

Image: US Marines raise the flag at Iwo Jima, where my father fought.


Hard Rain Journal 5-28-07: Memorial Day Weekend -- Cheney Dishonors the US Military at West Point, But the Nation as a Whole has Failed Them

By Richard Power

Over 3400 men and women of the US military have died in Iraq, as of this date. (Iraq Coalitions Casuality Count) Furthermore, the rate at which they are dying is increasing. Almost one thousand have died since last Memorial Day, more than the year before. Over 100 died last month. Probably over one hundred more will die by the end of this month. Tens of thousands have been injured, many for life; tens of thousands more have been emotionally scarred, all of them for life. (Associated Press, 5-27-09) It is indeed a Mega-Mogadishu, and each day we slide closer to our own Dien Bein Phu.

Over six hundred thousand Iraqis have died. (BBC, 10-11-06)

Four million Iraqis have been displaced (approximately 15% of the population). (Relief Web, 5-14-07) As a global humanitarian crisis, it is second only to Darfur.

The real enemy, i.e., the one that attacked the USA on 9/11 is waxing, not waning: both Al Qaeda and the Taliban are resurgent, Bin Laden and Zawahiri remain alive and at large. The removal of Saddam Hussein has pulled the plug on their mayhem in the region. Our occupying military force has both provided a big, juicy target and a powerful catalyst for recruitment.

Meanwhile, in a Memorial Day weekend commencement address at the US Military Academy (West Point), VICE _resident Dick Cheney, a Vietnam era chickenhawk -- who should perhaps be fighting for his own freedom in both US and international courts for much of what has transpired over the last seven years -- spoke contemptuously and misleadingly about the Geneva Accords. (Raw Story, 5-26-07)

And all for what? Oil? Yes. Short-term political gain in 2002 and 2004? Yes. The neo-con wet dream of a Three Stooges Reich? Yes.

But there is something more. What is terribly wrong is not only wrong in the US mainstream news media and the political establishment of Beltwayistan -- it is wrong in our places of higher learning, our board rooms and our houses of worship.

It is not just that there is no draft to motivate the young and their parents to protest, although that is a contributing factor, it is not just that the economic conditions are so intimidating that much of the populace expends most of its energy just to keep treading water, although that too is a contributing factor.

No, it is worse -- it is a collective moral, psychological and spiritual break with reality that we are suffering in the USA.

Perhaps by next Memorial Day, this madness will have ended, or the people of the USA will find themselves we they already need to be -- in the streets, exercising their democratic right of dissent in honor of the US military and the Constitution that the men and women of the US military have sworn to serve and defend -- against all enemies foreign and domestic.

To show your support, I urge you to go to VoteVotes.org and contribute to the struggle.

Richard Power is the founder of GS(3) Intelligence and Words of Power. His work focuses on the inter-related issues of security, sustainability and spirit, and how to overcome the challenges of terrorism, cyber crime, global warming, health emergencies, natural disasters, etc. You can reach him via e-mail: richardpower@wordsofpower.net. For more information, go to www.wordsofpower.net

Geneva Accords, Iraq, Bush, Memorial Day, Cheney, Richard Power, Words of Power


Hard Rain Late Night -- Jefferson Airplane -- Volunteers (1970)

Hard Rain Late Night: Jefferson Airplane -- Volunteers (1970)



Jefferson Airplane, You Tube, Late Night, Music, Richard Power, Words of Power

Hard Rain Journal 5-25-07: Martial Law, Monica Goodling & the Funding of the Bush-Cheney Slaughterhouse -- Yes, It's Going to Be a Long, Hot Summer

Image: Monica Gooding Under Seal of US House of Representatives, Brad Blog


Hard Rain Journal 5-25-07: Martial Law, Monica Goodling & the Funding of the Bush-Cheney Slaughterhouse -- Yes, It's Going to Be a Long, Hot Summer

By Richard Power

The situation is worse than most people are capable of acknowledging -- both militarily in Iraq, and politically in the USA. People do not realize how far off the road and into the bushes we have already been dragged.

Four months ago, in Hard Rain Journal 2-2-07: Forget about 2008, the Fate of the Republic could be Decided in the Next Six Months, I wrote that indulging in speculation about the presidential campaign was a luxury we simply could not afford -- because the future would depend on whether or not this Congress confronted the Bush-Cheney regime. Everything that has happened in recent weeks -- e.g., the bloody futility of the escalation in Iraq, the manuevering over a military strike against Iran, and the shocking revelations that have flowed from congressional investigation of the US DoJ scandal -- confirms this conviction.

Last week, in Hard Rain Journal 5-18-07: Is This The Week The USA Got Its Mojo Back?, I wrote that recent events indicated that the forces of reason and conscience were on the ascent and on the advance. Nothing that has occured in the past several days, as grim, disturbing and discouraging as the news has been, changes that assessment.

This rescue of the Republic is one of the great sagas of human history; and like all great sagas, the course of the narrative includes trials and tribulations as well as triumphs, it includes tactical retreats as well as bold advances.

Consider some recent developments within this context.

Never turn your back on the Bush-Cheney regime, it is the Hannibal Lecter of US politics. If you do, it can and will escape to kill again.

President Bush has signed a directive granting extraordinary powers to the office of the president in the event of a declared national emergency, apparently without congressional approval or oversight. The "National Security and Homeland Security Presidential Directive" was signed May 9 ... It was issued with the dual designation of NSPD-51, as a National Security Presidential Directive, and HSPD-20, as a Homeland Security Presidential Directive. ... "Catastrophic emergency" is loosely defined as "any incident, regardless of location, that results in extraordinary levels of mass casualties, damage, or disruption severely affecting the U.S. population, infrastructure, environment, economy, or government functions." Corsi says the president can assume the power to direct any and all government and business activities until the emergency is declared over. Bush grants presidency extraordinary powers, Directive for emergencies apparently gives authority without congressional oversight, World Net Daily, 5-23-07

This story surfaced on World Net Daily, a reich-wing propaganda organ. In other words, they want this story out there. It is an attempt to intimidate, but, of course, it is also what it is appears to be on face value, i.e., preparation for possible martial law.

This week's House Judiciary Committee testimony of Monica Goodling also offers some eerie insights.

Remember the prophetic warning of Sinclair Lewis in It Can't Happen Here: "When fascism comes to America it will be wrapped in the flag and carrying a cross."

Take a look at some of the video clips of Goodling's testimony. That's the one of the faces of the great deception -- a pretty, young, seemingly niave woman.

She only wanted "to serve this President," not the people, not the US Constitution, but "this President."

"I crossed the line, but I didn't mean to."

Remember, this woman was hired as a senior DoJ official with the power to ruin careers or disrupt criminal investigation after graduating from Pat Robertson's poorly ranked law school and doing a six-month stint conducting "opposition research" for the Republican National Committee.

In Hard Rain Journal 3-25-07: DoJ Purge Update: Four Blockbusters that Have Not Hit -- YET, I wrote about several asepcts of this scandal that had yet to become common knowledge, one of them was that Alberto Gonzalez couldn't resign (he's still there), and another was that this investigation will inexorable lead to revelations concerning the theft of elections, in particular 2004.

Consider this latest post from Greg Palast.

This Monica revealed something hotter - much hotter - than a stained blue dress. In her opening testimony yesterday before the House Judiciary Committee, Monica Goodling, the blonde-ling underling to Attorney General Alberto Gonzales and Department of Justice Liaison to the White House, dropped The Big One.... And the Committee members didn't even know it.
Goodling testified that Gonzales' Chief of Staff, Kyle Sampson, perjured himself, lying to the committee in earlier testimony. The lie: Sampson denied Monica had told him about Tim Griffin's "involvement in 'caging' voters" in 2004.
Huh?? Tim Griffin? "Caging"???
The perplexed committee members hadn't a clue - and asked no substantive questions about it thereafter. Karl Rove is still smiling. If the members had gotten the clue, and asked the right questions, they would have found "the keys to the kingdom," they thought they were looking for. They dangled right in front of their perplexed faces.
The keys: the missing emails - and missing link - that could send Griffin and his boss, Rove, to the slammer for a long, long time.
Kingdom enough for ya? ...
Why weren't these African-American voters home when the Republican letters arrived? The homeless men were on park benches, the students were on vacation - and the soldiers were overseas. Go to Baghdad, lose your vote. Mission Accomplished.
How do I know? I have the caging lists...
Greg Palast, Brad Blog, 5-24-07

The third turn down a dark corner in this last week concerns the Democratic Party leadership in the US Congress. There is a stench in the air. The leadership must move swiftly to dispel it. It is difficult not to assume that these people are going to capitulate and continue on in complicity. Those of us who remember the faux opposition to the bankruptcy bill, the refusal to filibuster Alito or Roberts nominations, the original vote to authorize the use of force in Iraq, and so many other acts of cravenness and cowardice, can only assume the worse -- particularly since as they were "negotiating" a "compromise" with the Bush-Cheney regime on Iraq, they were also selling out labor and the environment in a "Secret Trade Deal" with the Bush-Cheney regime.

Did they bow on Iraq? Did they blink? Is their opposition to this occupation disingenuous?

Remember that the K Street virus that devoured the Republican Party has half-devoured the Democratic Party. It is not altogether lost but it is in trouble.

These passionate and eloquent dissents from Keith Olberman and Buzzflash frame the issue magnificently:

Few men or women elected in our history—whether executive or legislative, state or national—have been sent into office with a mandate more obvious, nor instructions more clear:
Get us out of Iraq.
Yet after six months of preparation and execution—half a year gathering the strands of public support; translating into action, the collective will of the nearly 70 percent of Americans who reject this War of Lies, the Democrats have managed only this:
The Democratic leadership has surrendered to a president—if not the worst president, then easily the most selfish, in our history—who happily blackmails his own people, and uses his own military personnel as hostages to his asinine demand, that the Democrats “give the troops their money”;
The Democratic leadership has agreed to finance the deaths of Americans in a war that has only reduced the security of Americans;
The Democratic leadership has given Mr. Bush all that he wanted, with the only caveat being, not merely meaningless symbolism about benchmarks for the Iraqi government, but optional meaningless symbolism about benchmarks for the Iraqi government.
The Democratic leadership has, in sum, claimed a compromise with the Administration, in which the only things truly compromised, are the trust of the voters, the ethics of the Democrats, and the lives of our brave, and doomed, friends, and family, in Iraq.
You, the men and women elected with the simplest of directions—Stop The War—have traded your strength, your bargaining position, and the uniform support of those who elected you… for a handful of magic beans. Keith Olberman, Special Comment, MSNBC Countdown, 5-23-07

There is no question that the GOP is the party of surrender. Terrorists don’t need a timeline to know that Bush and Cheney began putting America in a position of weakness and vulnerability – both militarily and economically – when the mad king and his Rasputin – along with Svengali Rove -- ginned up a propaganda campaign to scare Congress into permitting them to make the strategically devastating error of invading Iraq.
But the Democratic leadership on the Hill reacts by doing the opposite of Teddy Roosevelt’s dictum: "Speak softly and carry a big stick." Since the 2006 elections, the Dem honchos have been speaking loudly and carrying a little stick.Capitulating to the Party of Surrender: The Dems Help Bush Pull Domestic Political Victory From the Jaws of Defeat, A Buzzflash Editorial, 5-24-07

I have been waiting to hear what Rep. Jack Murtha (D-PA) would say. When he speaks about Iraq, there are tears in his voice.

I stand with Olberman and Buzzflash, but I will also stand by Murtha.

To win a political struggle you must understand the difference between hypocrisy and a paradoxical truth.

This foolish military adventure must end -- one way or another; and those responsible must be hounded to the Hague. This is not finished, unfortunately it has just begun. Do not allow yourselves to succumb to bitterness at this moment.

Remember that Presidentual Directive. Remember the example of Monica Goodling. The situation is much worse than most people are capable of acknowledging -- both militarily in Iraq, and politically in the USA.

Here is Murtha's statement:

Today, I voted for both the $22 billion supplemental funding for domestic programs and the $98 billion supplemental funding for our troops in Iraq.
The Democrats in Congress have already sent a supplemental to the president that would have set benchmarks and timelines for the responsible redeployment of U.S. forces from Iraq.
Instead of demonstrating to the American people and the Iraqi Government that our commitment is not open-ended, the president vetoed our bill and refuses to recognize that this war cannot be won militarily.
Some have suggested that since the president refuses to compromise, Democrats should refuse to send him anything. I disagree. There is a point when the money for our troops in Iraq will run out, and when it does, our men and women serving courageously in Iraq will be the ones who will suffer, not this president.
Patience has run out and I feel a change in direction happening within the chambers of Congress. While we don't have the votes right now to change the president's policy, I believe that come September we will have the votes from both Democrats and Republicans to change policy and direction. In September, General Petraeus will report back on the progress of the surge, and Congress will take up both the $460 billion base defense appropriations bill and the $141 billion Iraq supplemental. The surge is not producing the results that were promised. And, based on my discussions with Iraqi Government officials, I don't believe they have the motivation to bring about the political and economic benchmarks agreed to. This is why September will be key.
We have lost 418 of our fellow Americans since the president announced his surge, and come September, with your help, we can convince my colleagues from across the aisle that enough is enough. For almost two years, I have tried diligently to redeploy our forces from Iraq, and I will not stop now. Rep. Jack Murtha, Huffington Post, 5-25-07

It is already painfully clear that this is going to be a long, hot summer, and we have not even made it to the Summer Solstice yet. I hope enough of us, in both the US Congress and on the streets of this troubled country, have the stomach for it.

Richard Power is the founder of GS(3) Intelligence and Words of Power. His work focuses on the inter-related issues of security, sustainability and spirit, and how to overcome the challenges of terrorism, cyber crime, global warming, health emergencies, natural disasters, etc. You can reach him via e-mail: richardpower@wordsofpower.net. For more information, go to www.wordsofpower.net

Rep. Jack Murtha,Keith Olberman, Buzzflash, Monica Goodling, Iraq, Bush,Greg Palast, Cheney, Richard Power, Words of Power


Hard Rain Late Night: Alanis Morissette -- You Learn (Live Brazil 2002)

Hard Rain Late Night: Alanis Morissette -- You Learn (Live Brazil 2002)



Alanis Morissette, Late Night, Music, Richard Power, Words of Power

Climate Crisis Update 5-22-07: Look to the Cities for Leadership Now, or Catastrophe Later

Image: Earth at Night, NASA



Climate Crisis Update 5-21-07: Look to the Cities for Leadership Now, or Catastrophe Later -- News Worsens, Focus on Greening Cities Intensifies; Meanwhile, Bush-Cheney Denial Impacts Everything from G-8 to Smithsonian

By Richard Power

The news worsens --

The earth's ability to soak up the gases causing global warming is beginning to fail because of rising temperatures, in a long-feared sign of "positive feedback," new research reveals today. Independent UK, 5-18-07

A team of NASA and university scientists has found clear evidence that extensive areas of snow melted in west Antarctica in January 2005 in response to warm temperatures. This was the first widespread Antarctic melting ever detected with NASA`s QuikScat satellite and the most significant melt observed using satellites during the past three decades. Combined, the affected regions encompassed an area as big as California. Mercosur Press, 5-16-07

World leaders have just five years to save the planet from a climate change disaster - but it can be done, according to a new report.
The document, Climate Solutions: WWF`s Vision For 2050, shows that the world can produce more than enough sustainable energy to curb climate change, but only if key decisions are made by 2012. Mercosur Press, 5-15-07

Those with understanding are working to capture the attention of the world --

Noah's Ark, built to save humanity and the animal kingdom in the face of a great flood, is being reconstructed in model form on Mount Ararat as a warning to mankind to act now to prevent global warming. ... "This is directed mainly at the politicians of this earth, to world leaders who are primarily responsible for the climate catastrophe which is taking place and for the solution," said Wolfgang Sadik, campaign leader for Greenpeace, which is behind the project. Reuters, 5-23-07

Meanwhile, those entrenched in denial seek to drag the rest of humanity down with them --

Last year, the “Smithsonian Institution toned down an exhibit on climate change in the Arctic for fear of angering Congress and the Bush administration, says a former administrator at the museum.” Think Progress, 5-21-07

In the wake of reports stating that the U.S. is trying to weaken the language of a G8 climate change declaration to be released at next month’s G8 summit, 15 House chairmen issued a letter today to President Bush urging him not to weaken the declaration. Think Progess, 5-18-07

Despite the iron girders, concrete blocks and thick plates of glass, cities are fragile and their inhabitants vulnerable.

Cities are really intricate webs of promises and assumptions. You are promised there will be electricity, water, sanitation, food supplies, safety in your homes, and you assume those promises will be kept.

You rarely question those promises, you rarely challenge the assumptions you base on them. But it wouldn't take very much for this intricate web to be shredded in New York or Los Angeles. It wouldn't be too long before the flow of city life dissolved into chaos and anarchy.

When we think of climate change, we think of the melting of the polar ice caps, the shrinking of the lakes, the shriveling of the rivers and the bleaching of the coral reefs; but, if global warming is left to run its course unchecked, it is in the cities that its most devastating impact will be felt.

When we think of contributing factors, we see the exhaust pipes of automobiles in our minds, we see our own hands on the gas pump, but it is city life itself which is the greatest single contributing factors.

The great cities of the world are on the frontlines of the global struggle to mitigate and adapt to climate change.

Look to the cities for leadership now, or catastrophe later --

A leading United Nations climate adviser said ... the world's largest cities should get independent scientific guidance about every two years to help them fight global warming. ... large cities are emerging as a force in sharing ideas on cutting heat-trapping gases and may need more frequent scientific assessments to gauge how well their actions are working, Cynthia Rosenzweig, head of climate impacts at New York's NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies, said in a interview. Reuters, 5-16-07

Fifteen cities around the world will begin cutting carbon emissions by renovating city-owned buildings with green technology under a program spearheaded by former President Clinton's foundation. ... Major global banking institutions have committed $1 billion to finance the upgrades of municipal buildings in participating cities, which include New York, Chicago, Houston, Toronto, Mexico City, London, Berlin and Tokyo. 



 Associated Press, 5-17-07

While it is hard not to dwell on the toll inflicted by the very rare F5 tornado, thoughts immediately turn to rebuilding. While no one questions whether Greensburg should be rebuilt, everyone should take a moment to question how. ... What would we do if we had the opportunity to do it all over? This is the question Greensburg can answer. What will the Greensburg of tomorrow look like? What could rural America look like? The Governor's instincts are right on. She wants to make Greensburg the most sustainable, efficient, well-designed town in the whole country. Laurie David, Putting the Green in Greensburg, 5-20-07

Here are excerpts from some of the news and analysis cited, with links to the full texts:

The earth's ability to soak up the gases causing global warming is beginning to fail because of rising temperatures, in a long-feared sign of "positive feedback," new research reveals today.
Climate change itself is weakening one of the principal "sinks" absorbing carbon dioxide - the Southern Ocean around Antarctica - a new study has found.
As a result, atmospheric CO2 levels may rise faster and bring about rising temperatures more quickly than previously anticipated. Stabilising the CO2 level, which must be done to bring the warming under control, is likely to become much more difficult, even if the world community agrees to do it.
The news may give added urgency to the meeting in three weeks' time between the G8 group of rich nations and the leading developing countries led by China, at Heiligendamm in Germany, when an attempt will be made to put together the framework of a new world climate treaty to succeed the current Kyoto protocol. Michael McCarthy, Earth's Natural Defenses Against Climate Change "Beginning to Fail," Independent UK, 5-18-07

A team of NASA and university scientists has found clear evidence that extensive areas of snow melted in west Antarctica in January 2005 in response to warm temperatures.
This was the first widespread Antarctic melting ever detected with NASA`s QuikScat satellite and the most significant melt observed using satellites during the past three decades. Combined, the affected regions encompassed an area as big as California. …
The observed melting occurred in multiple distinct regions, including far inland, at high latitudes and at high elevations, where melt had been considered unlikely. Evidence of melting was found up to 900 kilometres inland from the open ocean, farther than 85 degrees south (about 500 kilometres from the South Pole) and higher than 2,000 meters above sea level. Extensive snow areas of west Antarctica suffered melting, Mercosur Press, 5-16-07

World leaders have just five years to save the planet from a climate change disaster - but it can be done, according to a new report.
The document, Climate Solutions: WWF`s Vision For 2050, shows that the world can produce more than enough sustainable energy to curb climate change, but only if key decisions are made by 2012.
The report goes beyond the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change`s recent conclusions that the world could successfully use new technologies to limit carbon emissions enough to avoid the worst impacts of climate change, and shows how this can be done using only sustainable, environmentally friendly energy sources.
"Climate Solutions" also shows that the necessary cuts in global greenhouse gas emissions can be achieved without resorting to the nuclear option. Five years to save planet from climate change disaster, Mercosur Press, 5-15-07

A leading United Nations climate adviser said on Wednesday the world's largest cities should get independent scientific guidance about every two years to help them fight global warming.
The U.N.'s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change produces a series of reports every five or six years. Drawn on the work of 2,500 scientists, they assess the causes of climate change, describe its impacts and ways to fight it.
But large cities are emerging as a force in sharing ideas on cutting heat-trapping gases and may need more frequent scientific assessments to gauge how well their actions are working, Cynthia Rosenzweig, head of climate impacts at New York's NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies, said in a interview.
"Cities are efficient, they take things on more quickly," she said.
Urban areas consume 75 percent of the world's energy and produce 80 percent of its greenhouse gas emissions. …
Rosenzweig said cities are well placed to cut greenhouse gases in ways that also help people adapt to the expected rise in heat waves, flooding and droughts that could be brought about by heat-trapping gases already emitted.
Roofs covered with vegetation instead of steel or blacktop that are popular in Chicago, Berlin and Portland, Oregon, are an example of something that can both cut emissions and help people cope with climate change, she said.
Widespread so-called green roofs could help combat the urban heat island effect that makes cities several degrees warmer in summer and would also cut emissions by reducing the need for air conditioning.
Cities in developed countries could also learn from ones in developing countries, she said. Cities in Bangladesh, which are at greater risk of flooding from climate change, have already taken more action than coastal cities like New York, she said.Timothy Gardner, UN climate adviser seeks fast guidance for cities, Reuters, 5-16-07

Fifteen cities around the world will begin cutting carbon emissions by renovating city-owned buildings with green technology under a program spearheaded by former President Clinton's foundation. … Major global banking institutions have committed $1 billion to finance the upgrades of municipal buildings in participating cities, which include New York, Chicago, Houston, Toronto, Mexico City, London, Berlin and Tokyo. 

The makeovers will include replacing heating, cooling and lighting systems with energy-efficient networks; making roofs white or reflective to deflect more of the sun's heat; sealing windows and installing new models that let more light in; and installing sensors to control more efficient use of lights and air conditioning. 

Clinton's foundation said the planned changes have the potential to reduce energy use by 20 percent to 50 percent in those buildings. The reduction could mean a significant decrease in heat-trapping carbon emissions, as well as cost savings on utility bills. 

Buildings often represent a city's worst culprits in contributing to emissions. In New York, for example, the consumption of electricity, natural gas, fuel oil and steam needed to operate buildings generates 79 percent of the city's total carbon count. 

Ira Magaziner, chairman of the Clinton Climate Initiative, said cities and private building owners would like to build and renovate with more energy efficiency, but often cannot afford initial costs. 

The partnership with Citigroup Inc., Deutsche Bank AG, JPMorgan Chase & Co., UBS AG, and ABN Amro will make that possible and benefits everyone involved, he said. SARA KUGLER, 15 city skylines to get green makeover to cut carbon emissions, Associated Press, 5-17-07

As severe weather events become more and more frequent, we are constantly reminded of what we can lose in the blink of an eye. Last week, Kansas Governor Kathleen Sebelius shared with me her eerie feelings upon seeing the footprint of an entire town erased in a matter of moments, and also the heartbreaking stories of the Greensburg residents who lost everything.
While it is hard not to dwell on the toll inflicted by the very rare F5 tornado, thoughts immediately turn to rebuilding. While no one questions whether Greensburg should be rebuilt, everyone should take a moment to question how.
I mean, think about it. If we could start over, what would we do differently? Would we take into consideration the cost of global warming in the shape of more and more extreme weather events? Would we make our cities and towns more sustainable? Would we make our homes and businesses more energy efficient so that every homeowner pays less on their bills every month? Would we make commutes as short as possible so that people can walk or bike if they choose? What would we do if we had the opportunity to do it all over?
This is the question Greensburg can answer. What will the Greensburg of tomorrow look like? What could rural America look like? The Governor's instincts are right on. She wants to make Greensburg the most sustainable, efficient, well-designed town in the whole country. And Greensburg is the perfect place to set the example. The town has only around 1,500 residents, roughly 1,000 homes, 50 commercial businesses, 3 churches, 2 schools, and 1 hospital. It is in the heartland of the United States. And the town already has the perfect name -- it's GREENsburg, for goodness sake! Laurie David, Putting the Green in Greensburg, 5-20-07

Want to wake people up to the US mainstream news media's complicity in misinforming the public on global warming and climate change? Click here for Media Matters' compilation of "Myths and Falsehoods about Global Warming".

Want to participate in the effort to mitigate the impact of global warming? Download "Ten Things You Can Do"

There is a powerful magic in personal commitment.

RECENT GLOBAL WARMING POSTS:

Climate Crisis Update 5-16-07: Business & Government Must Be Compelled to Accept Responsibility, But So Must Each Individual

Climate Crisis Update 5-9-07 - Desmond Tutu and Sheryl Crow Challenge Denial, Environmental Groups Warn Against Reliance on Biofuels

Climate Crisis Update 5-4-07: Is Glenn Beck Going John-Hickley-Jr.? 7 Stories CNN Could Have Aired Instead of Beck's Eco-Nazi Conspiracy Theory

Hard Rain Journal 4-30-07: Climate Crisis Update -- Media Matters in the Struggle Against Global Warming

Hard Rain Journal 4-22-07: Climate Crisis -- Sheryl Crow Confronts Karl Rove, Mother Nature Confronts John Howard; This Earth Day is The Turning Point

Hard Rain Journal 4-15-07 -- Climate Crisis Update: Eleven Retired Admirals and Generals Concur -- Global Warming IS A National Security Issue

Hard Rain Journal 4-10-07: Climate Crisis Update -- April could be the Turning Point for the USA -- Step It Up to Save the Planet

Hard Rain Journal 4-4-07: The Twisted Link Between Peak Oil and Global Warming

Hard Rain Journal 4-1-07: Hartmann & Gelbspan Debunk the Swindle that is "The Great Global Warming Swindle"

Richard Power is the founder of GS(3) Intelligence and Words of Power. His work focuses on the inter-related issues of security, sustainability and spirit, and how to overcome the challenges of terrorism, cyber crime, global warming, health emergencies, natural disasters, etc. You can reach him via e-mail: richardpower@wordsofpower.net. For more information, go to www.wordsofpower.net

Global Warming, Energy Security, Environmental Security, Alternate Energy, Sustainability, Green Power, Renewable Resources, Climate Change, Weather, Al Gore, An Inconvenient Truth, UN, Stop Global Warming!, IPCC, Laurie David,Greenburg, Kansas, Greenpeace, NASA, Kathleen Sebelius, Bill Clinton,Clinton Climate Initiative, Cynthia Rosenzweig, Antartica, G-8,Smithsonian, Richard Power, Words of Power

Hard Rain Journal 5-22-07: Economic Security -- Get Busy Living, or Get Busy Dying

The Homestead Strike was a labor lockout and strike which began on June 30, 1892, with a battle between the strikers and private security agents erupting on July 6, 1892. It is one of the most serious labor disputes in U.S. history.

Hard Rain Journal 5-22-07: Economic Security -- Get Busy Living, or Get Busy Dying

David Sirota is one of the most important voices in US politics today.

Here are some excerpt from his powerful speech at the Montana AFL-CIO Convention in Butte, Montana (5-18-07), with a link to the full text:

We are, right now, in the middle of a class war--one that threatens to destroy the social contract that has made this country what it is today. The statistics are grim. Today, American workers' take-home pay represents a smaller share of the nation's total income than at any time in the last forty years. At the same time, corporate profits as a share of national income are at an all-time high. In all, the top 1 percent of Americans--those who make on average $1 million a year or more--owns a larger percentage of the nation's wealth than at any time since the Great Depression.

None of this, of course, happened by itself. These trends occurred at precisely the same time our government threw its lot in almost exclusively with those at the top. Consumer protection and environmental laws have been decimated, as corporate lobbying has become a multibillion-dollar industry. At a time of war and deficit, we have upcoming federal tax cuts that will hand roughly a half-trillion dollars to the wealthiest 1 percent--tax cuts for millionaires are larger than the annual income of the average American household.

And labor laws have been weakened, creating in many cases the modern-day version of the turn of the twentieth century, where employers openly busted unions with brutal tactics. Whereas we once experienced the brutal tactics of mine company owners at Cripple Creek, Colorado, we now experience the brutal tactics of Wal-Mart thugs at Loveland, Colorado, where they recently broke the back of a fledgling organizing campaign. The Occupational Safety and Health Administration--the government agency that enforces workplace safety laws--has seen its budget slashed to the point where it would take the agency 108 years to inspect every work site under its jurisdiction. That has meant real consequences in this region. ...

For this movement to ultimately be successful not only on trade but on all the other economic challenges we face both at the federal level and here at home, we will be required to make a choice: Will we get busy living, or get busy dying? ...

But make no mistake about it, the decision about whether to get busy living or get busy dying is one fraught with peril. Even a cursory look at our country's history shows that you can't make real change without making real enemies--whether they are lobbyists, executives, legislators, congressmen or senators. But we also know that the path of least resistance that may be lined with happy smiles and big campaign contributions and pats on the back by those in power is the way to get busy dying--the way to perpetuate what has become an intolerable status quo for millions of Americans.

I've struggled with the question of whether to get busy living or get busy dying in my own career, and in taking the path I have taken, I've certainly made some enemies, and have been far from perfect. But as I get older, I constantly catch myself thinking about what I will regret and not regret at the end of my life--and it haunts me to think I may regret not pursuing the cause of economic justice because I was too afraid to make enemies.

Such thoughts may be morbid, but they are necessary. And so I conclude by asking again: Will we get busy living, or get busy dying?

The full Transcript of David Sirota's "Get Busy Living, or Get Busy Dying" is available at The Nation

For more on the "Secret Trade Deal," click here for Bill Moyers Journal.

Free Trade, Fair Trade, AFL-CIO, David Sirota, Labor,Unions, OSHA,, Cripple Creek, Walmart, NAFTA, GATT, Bill Moyers, Richard Power, Words of Power


Hard Rain Late Night: Aretha Franklin -- Rock Steady

Hard Rain Late Night: Aretha Franklin -- Rock Steady (Soul Train, 1972)



Aretha Franklin, Late Night, Music, Richard Power, Words of Power

Hard Rain Journal 5-21-07: Campaign '08 Update -- Questions for Clinton & Obama; Why Edwards Has Solid Lead in Iowa & Richardson Surges

Hard Rain Journal 5-21-07: Campaign '08 Update -- Questions for Clinton & Obama; Why Edwards Has Solid Lead in Iowa & Richardson Surges

By Richard Power


NOTE: Words of Power will not endorse any presidential candidate for some time to come (unless, of course, Speaker Pelosi becomes President or Al Gore decides to enter the race), but because the next election is so important, we do have a short list of candidates we are interested in, and we will deliver updates on the campaign, as deemed necessary.

The Words of Power short list for the Democratic presidential nomination in 2008 consists of five names, three announced candidates, John Edwards (D-NC), Gov. Bill Richardson (D-NM) and Rep. Dennish Kucinich (D-OH), along with two potential, former Vice President Al Gore (the man elected President in 2000) and former Supreme Allied Commander, Gen. Wesley Clark (US Army retired).

What about Sens. Clinton (D-NY) and Obama (D-IL), the two candidates christened "front-runners" by US mainstream news media and the political establishment?

If I had the opportunity to ask Sens. Clinton and Obama just one question each, here's what I would ask them:

Sen. Clinton, concerning the debacle in Iraq, when you have said if you knew then, what you didn't know now, you would not have voted to authorize the use of force -- to what knowledge are you referring? The doubts of UN weapons inspectors about the existence of any WMD were available in open source. The warnings of US intelligence analysts and military leaders about the danger of a quagmire and the potential for regional chaos were available in open source. I knew that it was a) highly unlikely that there were WMD in Iraq, and b) it was highly likely that a US occupation would lead to both a quagmire for the US military and regional instability. Sens. Wellstone (D-MN), Graham (D-FL), Feingold (D-WI) and twenty or so others knew this. How could you not know this?

Sen. Obama, you have made much of your opposition to the Bush-Cheney regime's foolish military adventure in Iraq, and yet you went to Conneticutt and campaigned enthusiastically for Sen. Joe Lieberman, an outspoken proponent of that slaughterhouse, and against Ned Lamont, a genuine progressive alternative. How can you justify this contradiction? In the narrowly divided US Senate, every vote is vital, and Lieberman is voting, at every opportunity, to prolong the senseless agony for US military families? Will you even now distance yourself from Sen. Lieberman, not only on Iraq, but for his refusal to initiate serious congressional investigation into the Bush-Cheney regime's failure to come to the aid of New Orleans before, during or after Hurricane Katrina? And if not, could you state unequivocally that Lieberman would not be appointed to your cabinet if you were elected President?

I do not have ill-will toward Sens. Clinton or Obama. I know they are good people.

But Clinton's vote to authorize military force against Iraq was the most important one in her Senate career, and she was wrong. She made a self-serving political calculation, and it backfired. She has compounded the error by refusing to come clean and compensate for it, as Edwards has.

And as for Obama, he must define himself with more than feel-good rhetoric about unity; distancing himself from his mentor Lieberman, on a range of issues, and in a sharp-edged way, would be an excellent start.

The underlying problem, of course, for both Clinton and Obama is the same -- they are running as if the last seven years hadn't happened; they are running as if the triangulation that worked for Clinton-Gore in the 1990s will work today, but it won't. Oh, it will raise the money. It will please the DLC. It will give them the airtime on the US mainstream news media. But it will not get them elected, and I doubt it will even get them the nomination. The center is lost, at least for awhile. It is a time for bold leaders with open eyes, who speak candidly and directly.

Edwards is the only so-called "top tier candidate" (another instant cliché, like "flip-flop") whose rhetoric, campaign style and positions on the issues reflect the fact that we are living in a state of national emergency, i.e., that our very way of life, our environment, our economy, our national strength, and our sense of humanity itself, is under assault. Richardson is the candidate most qualified, and best prepared to be President. It is not surprising that according to the latest poll from Iowa, Edwards has a solid lead and Richardson is surging.

Those who frontloaded the primary schedule in the hope of aiding the big money candidates may live to regret it.

And Al Gore? If the race evolves into Edwards versus Richardson, no one would be happier than Al Gore -- because they both see the way out of this mess. But if it looks as if the campaign is bogging down, and no real frontrunner is emerging, he will take a look at getting in. The stakes are too high to let this next election slip away. The country cannot afford another John Kerry, i.e., a candidate that does not fight before the election (e.g., his refusal to answer the Swift Boat attack ads) or after it is stolen (e..g., his concession and denial and lack of concern about what happened to the people of Ohio who waited in the cold rain to vote for him).

As for Wesley Clark, I feel that like Al Gore, he has found something more important and arguably more effective than electoral politics in its present debased form -- i.e., Gen. Clark is working tirelessly, and inspiringly to rescue the US military from the Mega-Mogadishu of Iraq, and thwart the Bush-Cheney regime's plans for attacking Iran. I urge you to go to VoteVets.org and/or StopIranWar.org and help him.

The Nation's John Nichols has more on Iowa --

Hillary Clinton's campaign is running into trouble -- potentially very serious trouble -- in Iowa.
The latest and best poll of likely Democratic caucus goers in the first state that will weigh in on the 2008 nomination race has Clinton falling to third place. And that's not the worst of it. As Clinton stumbles, a new contender with potential to eat into her base it rising rapidly.
The Des Moines Register survey has former North Carolina Senator John Edwards solidly in first. Edwards, who ran second in the 2004 Iowa caucuses and has worked hard to maintain his organization in the state, is at 29 percent. That's about where he has been for some time in Iowa, where caucus goers will do much to define the direction of the 2008 race as it hits full speed next January.
In second place is Illinois Senator Barack Obama (news, bio, voting record) with 23 percent.
Clinton musters a mere 21 percent -- down significantly from her position in several previous polls -- to secure the No. 3 position.
But Clinton, the presumed frontrunner nationally, does not just have to worry about who is ahead of her in the first-caucus state. She's also got to watch who is coming from behind.
New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson, the former congressman, cabinet secretary and UN ambassador who only formally announced last week, is gaining 10 percent support among likely caucus goers. As in New Hampshire, where a new poll has Richardson breaking from a pack of weaker contenders to enter the second tier in the crowded 2008 contest, the governor is moving up rapidly in Iowa.
The next strongest candidate, Delaware Senator Joe Biden, was at 3 percent.
Richardson, who is campaigning in Iowa small towns this weekend, was making the most of his improving position.
"We have a lot of good candidates running for president," he told friendly crowds. "A lot of them could be in the White House - as my vice president."
John Nichols, The Nation, 5-20-07

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Richard Power is the founder of GS(3) Intelligence and Words of Power. His work focuses on the inter-related issues of security, sustainability and spirit, and how to overcome the challenges of terrorism, cyber crime, global warming, health emergencies, natural disasters, etc. You can reach him via e-mail: richardpower@wordsofpower.net. For more information, go to www.wordsofpower.net

John Edwards, Rep. Dennis Kucinich, Sen. Hillary Clinton,, Sen. Barack Obama, Gov. Bill Richardson, Bush, Cheney, Al Gore, Wesley Clark, 2008 Presidential Campaign, Iowa, Richard Power, Words of Power


Hard Rain Journal 5-20-07: A Note on Wolfowitz, the Secret Trade Deal and How to Use the Blogosphere

Image: Yves Tanguy, The Dark Garden, Le Jardin sombre. 1928.

Hard Rain Journal 5-20-07: A Note on Wolfowitz, the Secret Trade Deal and How to Use the Blogosphere

By Richard Power

Citizen journalism and the alternative news media is by definition decentralized. No one can cover everything, no one should cover everything. Decentralization also brings the resiliency and redunancy needed for survival.

If you want to meaningful perspectives on what is happening in the the Middle East in general and Iraq in particular, you turn to Juan Cole (Informed Comment). If you want to breaking news and in-depth analysis on the election theft story in all of its many aspects, you turn to Brad Freidman (Bradblog) and Mark Crispin Miller (Notes from the Underground). If you want sophisticated analysis on foreign affairs and geopolitics, you turn to Steve Clemons (Washington Note). If you want to understand what progressive populism means, and how to deliver on the promise of it, you turn to David Sirota (Sirotablog).

Think Progress shapes the narrative and maintains the timeline. Talking Points Memo delivers cogent analysis in real-time. Media Matters deconstructs the disinformation and exposes its purveyors. Buzzflash monitors the flow of headlines and manages the real-world news cycle. Crooks and Liars cues up the video to underscore the point that the medium is the message. Truthout, Huffington Post, Common Dreams and Raw Story provide richness and texture.

For my part, Words of Power is focused on issues related to the interdependence of security, sustainability and spirit in the 21st Century, and to the political and geopolitical forces which impact those issues.

Two very important stories have been unfolding recently, the Wolfowitz scandal and the "Secret Trade Deal." Wolfowitz's fall from his plum job at the World Bank is another finger pried away in the effort to free international affairs from the Bush-Cheney regime's suffocating grip. The secret trade deal is a painful reminder of how debilitating the influence of big money has been on the People's House, and also of the profound challenges that must be overcome to perserve he unity of the progressive movement. Words of Power has not touched either of the issues -- yet. But I have been following them closely via the relentless and insightful coverage of Steve Clemmons and David Sirota respectively. I encourage you to do the same.

(Indeed, if you had to staff a White House in 2008, and wanted to optimize its potential to gear up and come to grips with the 21st Century, appointing Clemons your foreign affair advisor and Sirota your domestic affairs advisor would be a damn good start.)

Here are the latest updates from Sirota on the dastardly trade seal and Clemons on the loathesome Wolfowitz:

On the same day PBS aired Bill Moyers hard-hitting piece on the secret free trade deal, the network also aired an interview with a frustrated Ways and Means Committee Chairman Charlie Rangel (D-NY), who lashed out at the growing opposition to the deal from rank-and-file Democratic lawmakers and millions of workers, farmers and small businesses. Meanwhile, an industry newsletter breaks the news that at least one senior Democrat involved in the secret deal admits that Democrats have delegated responsibility for drafting the final legislative language of the deal entirely to the Bush White House. ... John MacArthur, author of The Selling of Free Trade, told Moyers in an interview that the motivation for the handful of Democratic leaders who cut the deal with the White House was cash. "This is like the NAFTA campaign of the '90s," MacArthur said. "[It is] an attempt by the Democratic leadership - in those days it was the Clintons - to raise money from Wall Street." ... Addressing the Democratic congressional critics of the deal, the majority of Americans polls show are opposed to lobbyist-written trade pacts, and labor, environmental, health, human rights, religious, consumer protection and agricultural groups rising questions about the deal, Rangel said the only thing he would do differently would be to "ignore a lot of people that really were just wasting my time." ... Rep. Sander Levin (D-MI) "said that little additional information could be provided until the exact legal language of the deal has been worked out" and that the Bush White House "is now drafting that legal language." In other words, Democrats in on the deal delegated the responsibility of drafting the final language to the Bush White House all while rank-and-file Democrats have not been given any potential drafts of the legislative language to review. Sirotablog, 5-19-07

Paul Wolfowitz has all but conceded that he is leaving his perch as CEO of the World Bank. The only question that remains is what gets scribbled in the last paragraph of the story on whether the "blame" for his departure is shared -- and whether he resigned under his own steam or was actually, formally fired.
What is odd about this entire encounter is that "Wolfowitz the strategist" seems to be missing -- and that may have been the problem all along.
Many officials in the Bank did not like Wolfowitz because of his central role in designing, planning and launching the Iraq War. But had the former Deputy Secretary of Defense come into the Bank with a compelling plan for global economic development that built on the strengths and addressed some of the weaknesses of the Bank's relative skill sets, a relationship of mutual trust and respect, even if grudging, would have taken root.
Even one of Wolfowitz's closest friends and the not-often discussed third political appointee (the other two were the more controversial Kevin Kellems and Robin Cleveland) brought in by Wolfowitz, Karl Jackson, has reportedly told numerous World Bank and diplomatic pals of his that "Paul has no plan. Everything is ad hoc, reactive -- first we go this way, then we go that." If his friends are saying that, imagine what Wolfowitz's enemies think.
And in this sad public battle over whether Wolfowitz acted appropriately or not regarding the employment options, compensation, and performance evaluations of his girlfriend, Wolfowitz also seemed to operate in exactly the mode Jackson describes -- without a plan, reactive, ad hoc, first this way and then that. ...
Whichever way the Bank's board goes today in either allowing him honor as he exits, or just leaving things messy and not nicely packaged, Wolfowitz is done. Washington Note, 5-17-07

Richard Power is the founder of GS(3) Intelligence and Words of Power. His work focuses on the inter-related issues of security, sustainability and spirit, and how to overcome the challenges of terrorism, cyber crime, global warming, health emergencies, natural disasters, etc. You can reach him via e-mail: richardpower@wordsofpower.net. For more information, go to www.wordsofpower.net

Free Trade,
Fair Trade, Paul Wolfowitz, David Sirota, World Bank,Steve Clemons, Richard Power, Words of Power


Hard Rain Late Night: Aretha Franklin -- I Say A Little Prayer For You (1970)

Hard Rain Late Night: Aretha Franklin -- I Say A Little Prayer For You (Cliff Richards Show, 1970)



Aretha Franklin, Late Night, Music, Richard Power, Words of Power

Hard Rain Journal 5-18-07: Is This The Week The USA Got Its Mojo Back?

Image: Gen. George Washington in Battle During the Revolutionary War


Hard Rain Journal 5-18-07: Is This The Week The USA Got Its Mojo Back?

By Richard Power

It is, as I have said before, going to be a long, hot summer in Beltwayistan.

The DoJ purge scandal is not going to go away. The betrayal of Valeria Plame's identity as a US secret agent is not going to go away. The Bush-Cheney national insecurity team's pre-9/11 failure to heed numerous intelligence community warnings of an imminent attack by Al Qaeda is not going to go away. The Bush-Cheney's regime's violations of the Geneva Accords, including its authorization and institutionalization of torture is not going to go away. The Bush-Cheney's regime utter contempt for the Bill of Rights, including the suspension of habeas corpus, is not going to go away. The Bush-Cheney national insecurity team's wanton "sexing" up of intelligence in the lead up to the invasion and occupation of Iraq is not going to go away. None of it is going away.

There will be accountability. There will be hell to pay for MC Rove's soft white-boy gangsta prance at the annual Radio and Television Correspondents Dinner, and for VICE _resident Cheney's saber rattling on the deck of an aircraft carrier in the Persian Gulf.

And perhaps more importantly at this point, the failure of the Cult-formerly-known-as-the-Republican-Party to exercise its constitutional responsibility of oversight, while it controlled Congress, is not going to go away; nor is the failure of the US mainstream news media to exercise its constitutional responsibility as the Fourth estate going to go away. (Yes, the news media has a constitutional responsibility. Remember, freedom of the press received its own amendment to emphasize its importance and underscore its burden)

There will be accountability.

Several news stories this last week indicate that the USA may be getting its Mojo back.

Al Gore's brilliant and powerful Assault on Reason: How the Politics of Fear, Secrecy, and Blind Faith Subvert Wise Decision-Making, Degrade Our Democracy, and Put Our Country and Our World in Peril has arrived. (Please buy it from Buzzflash and acknowledge the Internet-based information rebellion that is so vital in our struggle to save the country and the planet.)

In Assault on Reason, Gore has articulated, with gravitas, what we have been howling about for seven years plus, "It's the Media, Stupid!"

The potential for manipulating mass opinions and feelings initially discovered by commercial advertisers is now being even more aggressively exploited by a new generation of media Machiavellis. The combination of ever more sophisticated public opinion sampling techniques and the increasing use of powerful computers to parse and subdivide the American people according to "psychographic" categories that identify their susceptibility to individually tailored appeals has further magnified the power of propagandistic electronic messaging that has created a harsh new reality for the functioning of our democracy. Al Gore, Assault on Reason, Truthout

Michael Moore's SICKO debuts in Cannes tomorrow night. First, Moore and SICKO are going to electrify Cannes, and then on 6/29/07, it will be released across the USA. In the coming battle between the healthcare industry (15% of the US GDP) and Michael Moore, my money is on Moore.

VoteVets.org followed up its first "Generals' Ad Blitz" TV spots featuring Major General John Batiste (US Army retired), which was rolled out last week, with two more -- one featuring Major General Paul Eaton, another commander on the ground in Iraq that George W. Bush refused to listen to, and the other featuring Gen. Wesley Clark (US Army retired), former Supreme Allied Commander, and VoteVets member, Mike Breen, talking about what is not getting done in Afghanistan. I urge you to donate to VoteVets so that they can continue to air these ads in the home states of those Republican members of Congress who are still enabling the Bush-Cheney regime's obsession with the Mega-Mogadishu in Iraq.

Former Sen. John Edwards (D-NC) continues to up the anty in his remarkable campaign for the 2008 Democratic Presidential nomination. In his latest act of "transformational politics," Edwards is calling for this Memorial Day weekend (5/25-5/28) to be one of national protest to demand that US military be extricated from the quicksand of the Bush-Cheney debacle in Iraq. I urge you to go to http://www.supportthetroopsendthewar.com/ to support this effort. (Edwards' transformational politics certainly had a positive effect on Sens. Clinton, Obama and Biden. They all voted for Sen. Russ Feingold (D-WI) bill proposing a date certain for withdrawal from Iraq. A forthright stand they would not have taken if not for Edwards' momentum in the tall grass.)

But the most encouraging actions of conscience and courage that surfaced this week came from a newswire report that US Navy Admiral Thomas Fallon, CENTCOM commander, personally thwarted the Bush-Cheney national insecurity team's plans to launch an attack on Iran (“There are several of us trying to put the crazies back in the box.”); the Senate testimony of former Deputy Attorney General James Comey ("an account of Bush administration lawlessness so shocking it would have been unbelievable coming from a less reputable source"); and a op-ed piece rebuking of Romney, Giuliani and Tancredo and other Republican presidential candidates who embraced torture during this week's televised debate, written by Charles C. Krulak (commandant of the Marine Corps from 1995 to 1999) and Joseph P. Hoar (commander in chief of U.S. Central Command from 1991 to 1994).

Fallon, Comey, Krulak and Hoar are not partisan or ideological. They are highly regarded professionals. Falon, Krulak and Hoar, like Batiste, Eaton and Clark, have extensive careers of service in the US military. Comey has an extensive career in law enforcement.

Yes, I feel the Mojo rising.

Here brief excerpts from these three stories with links to the full texts:

Admiral William Fallon, then President George W. Bush’s nominee to head the Central Command (CENTCOM), expressed strong opposition in February to an administration plan to increase the number of carrier strike groups in the Persian Gulf from two to three and vowed privately there would be no war against Iran as long as he was chief of CENTCOM, according to sources with access to his thinking. ...
At a mid-February meeting of top civilian officials over which Secretary of Defence Gates presided, there was an extensive discussion of a strategy of intimidating Tehran’s leaders, according to an account by a Pentagon official who attended the meeting given to a source outside the Pentagon. The plan involved a series of steps that would appear to Tehran to be preparations for war, in a manner similar to the run-up to the 2003 invasion of Iraq.
But Fallon, who was scheduled to become the CENTCOM chief Mar. 16, responded to the proposed plan by sending a strongly-worded message to the Defence Department in mid-February opposing any further U.S. naval buildup in the Persian Gulf as unwarranted. ...
Fallon’s refusal to support a further naval buildup in the Gulf reflected his firm opposition to an attack on Iran and an apparent readiness to put his career on the line to prevent it. A source who met privately with Fallon around the time of his confirmation hearing and who insists on anonymity quoted Fallon as saying that an attack on Iran “will not happen on my watch”.
Asked how he could be sure, the source says, Fallon replied, “You know what choices I have. I’m a professional.” Fallon said that he was not alone, according to the source, adding, “There are several of us trying to put the crazies back in the box.”Gareth Porter, CENTCOM Commander’s Veto Sank Bush’s Threatening Gulf Buildup, Inter Press Service, 5-15-07

JAMES B. COMEY, the straight-as-an-arrow former No. 2 official at the Justice Department, yesterday offered the Senate Judiciary Committee an account of Bush administration lawlessness so shocking it would have been unbelievable coming from a less reputable source. The episode involved a 2004 nighttime visit to the hospital room of then-Attorney General John D. Ashcroft by Alberto Gonzales, then the White House counsel, and Andrew H. Card Jr., then the White House chief of staff. ...
Mr. Comey's vivid depiction, worthy of a Hollywood script, showed the lengths to which the administration and the man who is now attorney general were willing to go to pursue the surveillance program. First, they tried to coerce a man in intensive care -- a man so sick he had transferred the reins of power to Mr. Comey -- to grant them legal approval. Having failed, they were willing to defy the conclusions of the nation's chief law enforcement officer and pursue the surveillance without Justice's authorization. Only in the face of the prospect of mass resignations -- Mr. Comey, FBI Director Robert S. Mueller III and most likely Mr. Ashcroft himself -- did the president back down. Washington Post Editorial, 5-16-07

We have served in combat; we understand the reality of fear and the havoc it can wreak if left unchecked or fostered. Fear breeds panic, and it can lead people and nations to act in ways inconsistent with their character.
The American people are understandably fearful about another attack like the one we sustained on Sept. 11, 2001. But it is the duty of the commander in chief to lead the country away from the grip of fear, not into its grasp. Regrettably, at Tuesday night's presidential debate in South Carolina, several Republican candidates revealed a stunning failure to understand this most basic obligation. Indeed, among the candidates, only John McCain demonstrated that he understands the close connection between our security and our values as a nation. ...
As has happened with every other nation that has tried to engage in a little bit of torture - only for the toughest cases, only when nothing else works - the abuse spread like wildfire, and every captured prisoner became the key to defusing a potential ticking time bomb. Our soldiers in Iraq confront real "ticking time bomb" situations every day, in the form of improvised explosive devices, and any degree of "flexibility" about torture at the top drops down the chain of command like a stone - the rare exception fast becoming the rule.
To understand the impact this has had on the ground, look at the military's mental health assessment report released earlier this month. The study shows a disturbing level of tolerance for abuse of prisoners in some situations. This underscores what we know as military professionals: Complex situational ethics cannot be applied during the stress of combat. The rules must be firm and absolute; if torture is broached as a possibility, it will become a reality. ...
It is time for us to remember who we are and approach this enemy with energy, judgment and confidence that we will prevail. That is the path to security, and back to ourselves. Charles C. Krulak and Joseph P. Hoar, It's Our Cage, Too: Torture Betrays Us and Breeds New Enemies, Washington Post, 5-17-07

Richard Power is the founder of GS(3) Intelligence and Words of Power. His work focuses on the inter-related issues of security, sustainability and spirit, and how to overcome the challenges of terrorism, cyber crime, global warming, health emergencies, natural disasters, etc. You can reach him via e-mail: richardpower@wordsofpower.net. For more information, go to www.wordsofpower.net

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