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Collect Now, or Later? Timing Your Social Security Benefits

With the current state of US and world economy, the alternative to jumping out a window, committing a heinous crime or planting your pup tent under an overpass, is retire early  and collect your meager social  security check at general delivery.  Yes, the post office still has General Delivery.

Have you made the right choice?  Maybe you are desperate, you see no options and you are hungry and scared. If early retirement is really your only option because you are really no longer capable of work, get it while you can.  But, if you have just collected your last unemployment check, early retirement may not be your best choice.  You are diluting your benefits.

NY TIMES

Social Security prefers to make a direct deposit of your benefits, but then, you will need to have a bank account.  If you need a check, you need an address.  Social Security does not have that little plastic card to load your payment on … yet.  That should help homeless recipients.  When that little card finally happens, but, it will be just as dangerous as carrying a roll of cash.  By retiring early you are locking yourself in to a reduced benefit for the rest of your days, unless of course you win the lottery … but that’s not how you should spend your benefit check, anyway. This is not your parent’s Social Security anymore.  This safety net has so many holes in it that it won’t fly anymore.  Congress can’t agree on “the fix”.  With all the brains in Washington working at odds with each other for so long, any good idea was lost long ago.  The pocket has a hole in it and no one has the guts to fix it.  Everything must have a political party stamp on it.  Whatever fix is offered must make a Republican or a Democrat look like a hero.  That is pure bullshit!  Who cares which party gets the gold medal, this is not a partisan problem.  I am not alone being totally disgusted with the constant bickering and game playing that accompanies watered down legislation to patch a broken system.  How dare they toss a totally unrelated provisions of law onto serious legislation meant to regulate greedy behavior by Credit Card companies.  

House Approves Measure to Allow Guns Into National Parks The bill to grant the District of Columbia a voting member in the House remains stalled after Senate Republicans attached a provision to the legislation that effectively would repeal many of Washington’s gun restrictions.   Yesterday’s provision, originally sponsored by Sen. Tom Coburn (R-Okla.), would allow gun owners to bring the weapons into national parks and wildlife refuges as long as they are permitted by the laws of the state in which the park is located. The bill codifies a change the Bush administration had sought in its final months, but a federal judge blocked the effort in March.   Obama administration officials had not sought to overturn the judge’s ruling.  But Coburn, who had long sought the change, inserted his amendment this month on credit card legislation that is one of Obama’s top priorities. The move effectively forced Democrats to vote on the gun provision if they wanted to pass the credit card bill.  Democrats feel pressure to back bills on gun legislation or face political heat from the National Rifle Association, particularly in more rural districts.

This behavior is despicable.  The NRA can get it’s own legislation without sleazy tactics like this.  Does the NRA really expect an armed insurgency, or fear Democrats so much that they have to pressure their congressional puppets to sneak a law in between the sheets.  The NRA has demonstrated unrealistic paranoia and fuels equal paranoia among it’s rural base of gun advocates.

The US economy is no longer a partisan problem … not going into the sordid history about how this all happened.  But, with more “Baby Boomers” entering retirement age, the piggy bank is too low to sustain the load.  Those fortunate enough to have invested in great pension plans were also robbed, their piggy bank is also broken.  This formula is bad enough without historic job losses, too.  Boomers hit with job loss are not at the most desirable age to start over.  So, the formula is broken.  We have elected a bunch of ball players, not superbowl quality, instead of representatives for the US public. You can always get a menial job to supplement your benefit, but you can only make a certain amount before your benefits are reduced and your benefits become taxable.

The report says many over 50s will now have to work longer

Almost two thirds of over 50s fear they may have to work longer than planned as their savings and pensions have been hit by the recession, a study claims.

Base amount you can earn:

More U.S. workers retiring early

WASHINGTON, May 24 (UPI) — A larger than expected number of U.S. residents are retiring early, many of them believed to be laid-off workers, analysts said.

Early retirement claims are up 25 percent from last year with more people choosing to retire at age 62 instead of 66, said Stephen C. Goss, chief actuary for the U.S. Social Security Administration.    Early retirement reduces Social Security benefits

by as much as 25 percent, a loss that comes on top of the stock market decline and a drop in home values.    The surge in younger retirees dispels expectations that older people who suffered financial losses in the recession would work longer to rebuild their assets, the Los Angeles Times reported Sunday. In a poll sponsored in December by CareerBuilder, 60 percent of workers older than age 60 said they planned to postpone retirement.    Another wave of laid-off older workers could choose early retirement when their unemployment benefits run out late this year and next year, Goss said.   The trend means many early retirees may outlast their financial assets,   said Alicia H. Munnell, director of the Center for Retirement Research at Boston College.    “As they get into their 70s and 80s, it will be increasingly inadequate,” Munnell said.

Pros and Cons

As a general rule, early or late retirement will give you about the same total Social Security benefits over your lifetime. If you retire early, the monthly benefit amounts will be smaller to take into account the longer period you will receive them. If you retire late, you will get benefits for a shorter period of time but the monthly amounts will be larger to make up for the months when you did not receive anything.

There are advantages and disadvantages to taking your benefit before your full retirement age. The advantage is that you collect benefits for a longer period of time. The disadvantage is your benefit is permanently reduced. Each person’s situation is different, so

* remember that, if you delay your benefits until after full retirement age, you may be eligible for delayed retirement credits that would increase your monthly benefit;
* keep in mind that there are other things to consider when making the correct decision about your retirement benefits and
* contact Social Security before you decide when to retire.

Clock ticks louder on Medicare and Social Security

The deep recession will mean a faster road to insolvency for Medicare and Social Security, the programs’ trustees warn today in their annual reports on the plans.    Their findings won’t shock anyone, and we’ve all been reading the same grim headlines about Medicare and Social Security for decades, to the point of numbness. The only difference is that the day the money theoretically runs out is getting ever closer — particularly for Medicare.    Social Security now is expected to begin paying out more in benefits than it collects in taxes in 2016, one year sooner than projected last year, and the trust fund will be empty by 2037, four years sooner.    As for Medicare, it’s already paying out more in benefits than it collects in taxes, and the trustees estimate the program will be insolvent by 2017, two years sooner than projected in last year’s report.

Read the summary of the trustees’ reports here.

With the government already racking up unprecedented budget deficits to bail out the economy and the financial system, the prospect of funding shortfalls in Medicare and Social Security becomes even more daunting. Will the Chinese pay for our retirement, too?

Unless some huge portion of the 76 million aging baby boomers decide to leave the country (for, say, Canada?), the options for keeping the programs solvent aren’t going to change: raise taxes or cut benefits spending, or both. In a statement, Treasury Secretary Timothy F. Geithner said President Obama “explicitly rejects the notion that Social Security is an untouchable politically and instead believes there is opportunity for a new consensus on Social Security reform.”

As the trustees’ report notes:

Social Security could be brought into actuarial balance over the next 75 years with changes equivalent to an immediate 16% increase in the payroll tax (from a rate of 12.4% to 14.4%) or an immediate reduction in benefits of 13%, or some combination of the two.    Ensuring that the system remains solvent on a sustainable basis beyond the next 75 years would require larger changes because increasing longevity will result in people receiving benefits for ever longer periods of retirement.

10 Things You Need to Know to Live on the Streets

By Walter Mosley and Rae Gomes, The Nation. Posted July 28, 2009.

Votes split on science curriculum – But State Board of Ed chair says of final action today, ‘Anthing can happen.’

A divided State Board of Education — operating one member short Thursday — kept a requirement that Texas public school students be taught the “sufficiency or insufficiency” of common ancestry to explain gaps in the fossil record.

The board also voted for a new requirement that students study the “sufficiency and insufficiency” of natural selection to explain the complexity of cells.

Scientists weigh in at education board on curriculum

“We urge you to vote for removing anti-science changes to the draft standards and (to) protect the future of science education and technology-based industry in Texas,” they wrote.

CNN Update:

Texas board comes down on 2 sides of creationism debate

• Texas Board of Education votes on science curriculum amendments
• Board votes to require examination of “all sides of scientific evidence”
• Board votes down requirement to present “strengths and weaknesses” of theories

Science standards challenging evolution debated in Texas

• Texas Board of Education will vote this week on the curriculum amendments
• Evolution skeptics say fossil record gaps cast doubt on the idea of common ancestry
• Critics say the proposed curriculum questions ideas in the earth and space sciences
• Large textbook market in Texas influences decisions of publishers nationwide

The board — considering amendments passed in January — will hear from the public on Wednesday. It will then take votes — an initial one Thursday and the final vote Friday.

“This specific attack on well-established science ignores mountains of evidence and years of research done by experts in a variety of fields,” said Steven Newton, project director at the Oakland California-based National Center for Science Education, a proponent of evolution.

One amendment, critics say, undermines the idea that life on Earth derives from a common ancestry, a major principle in the theory of evolution. It calls for the analysis and evaluation of “the sufficiency or insufficiency” of the common ancestry idea to explain the fossil record.

Austin American Statesman:  HIGHER EDUCATION IN TEXAS?

Lawmaker backs creation institute

Coordinating board had rejected group’s master’s degree proposal.

The Institute for Creation Research couldn’t get its proposal to offer an online master’s degree in science education approved by the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board last year.

Now, an East Texas lawmaker has come up with an alternative: Exempt the institute from the coordinating board’s rules.

HB2800 would exempt private nonprofit educational institutions from state regulation and pave the way for the Institute for Creation Research (ICR) to issue any degree it chose based on a curriculum of its own determination.

Now, an East Texas lawmaker has come up with an alternative: Exempt the institute from the coordinating board’s rules.

Brad Smith/ASSOCIATED PRESS (enlarge photo) Rep. Leo Berman Deborah Cannon/AMERICAN-STATESMAN

Rep. Leo Berman, R-Tyler, said his proposed legislation is intended to allow the Bible-oriented group to proceed without the coordinating board’s blessing.

“Why are people who call themselves scientists afraid to hear two sides of a debate?” Berman asked Friday.

His proposal would exempt private, nonprofit educational institutions that do not accept state funding and state-administered federal funding from coordinating board rules.

Members of the coordinating board, who are gubernatorial appointees, voted 8-0 in April to reject the proposal by the Dallas-based institute.

Higher Education Commissioner Raymund Paredes said at the time that the institute’s program, based on a literal interpretation of biblical creation, falls outside the realm of science and therefore could not be designated “science” or “science education.”

De Juana Lozada, a spokeswoman for the coordinating board, said Friday that the agency could not comment because the Institute for Creation Research has appealed the board’s decision and because the proposed legislation could have ramifications for the case.

Lawrence Ford, a spokesman for the institute, said in an e-mail that Berman’s measure “is not limited to a particular viewpoint, either creationist or evolutionist, theist or atheist, Jewish or Muslim or Christian or Buddhist or Hindu, rich or poor, or any other viewpoint.”

Steven Schafersman, president of Texas Citizens for Science, said the measure promotes a right-wing religious agenda.

“It would make Texas a magnet for unscrupulous private ‘educational’ companies that will want to offer students the opportunity to pay for bogus advanced degrees,” Schafersman wrote on his group’s Web site. “If H.B. 2800 became law, it would be a gold mine to every fly-by-night, degree-granting outfit in the country.”

Berman said his proposal encourages different viewpoints and debate.

“Personally, I don’t believe in evolution,” he said. “I don’t believe I came from a salamander that came out of a pond.”

And, I believe that the tooth fairy and the stork had a carnal relationship, and POOF! there I was … There is a great disconnect between evolution and creationism, how people choose to believe in how life on earth began.  There will always be those who suffer from inadequate education and biased religous influence. Creationists are more comfortable going along within their social context of don’t ask probing questions and don’t look at any evidence that contradicts their preconceived opinions.  The hazards of ‘cloistered’ brainwashing is evident by the actions of these lawmakers.  It does elevate them in the eyes of their congregations.  But it does put them in the spotlight.  Illustrating cloistered brainwashing is one thing, legislating cloistered thinking is quite another.  History is filled with extinction of civilizations that cling to myth over evidence.  Creationism is guilty of ‘creating’ their own evidence to bonify their religous myths.  How many fundamentalists still believe the earth is flat? Evidence be damned, myth is more fun.  Myth dictates a simple answer that does not challenge the brain.

While religion is free to congregate and share common myths to make them feel better, religion must NOT be free to impose their myth on the rest of us.  Credibility of American society is at stake.  America should never toy with theocracy … it is dangerous, it creates robots at the mercy of an elitist shamans.  If you really think that god made little gods that look just like you,  stay in front of your mirror and leave the rest of us alone.  The world slides into critical care while the solutions are denied by religous extremists who feel threatened by science.   This is just another push by fundamentalist ‘self-fulfilling prophecy’ seeking Armeggeddon and Rapture. Here is an example of the education endorsed by these cloistered minds.

In the 18th and 19th centuries, Christians found their accounts of creation to be in conflict with empirical observations of natural history from scientific inquiry.

Types of creationism

Creationism covers a spectrum of beliefs which have been categorised into the broad types listed below. Not all creationists are in dispute with scientific theories, though very few modern scientists are creationists.

• Flat Earth creationism – God created the world with a flat surface 6,000 years ago. All that modern science says about shape, size, and age of the Earth is wrong, and evolution does not occur. Very few people today maintain such a belief.
• Modern geocentrism – God recently created a spherical world, and placed it in the center of the universe. The Sun, planets and everything else in the universe revolve around it. All scientific claims about the age of the Earth are lies; evolution does not occur. Very few people today maintain such a belief. See, for example, the Creation Science Association for Mid-America, in Cleveland, MO, USA.
• Young-Earth Creationism – The belief that the Earth was created by God a few thousand years ago, literally as described in Creation according to Genesis, within the approximate timeframe of the Ussher-Lightfoot Calendar or somewhat more according to the interpretation of biblical genealogies. (They may or may not believe that the Universe is the same age.) As such, it rejects not only radiometric and isochron dating of the age of the Earth, arguing that they are based on debatable assumptions, but also approaches such as ice core dating and dendrochronology, which make the barest of assumptions of uniformitarianism, and which hint that the Earth is far older than the Ussher-Lightfoot Calendar suggests. Instead, it interprets the geologic record largely as a result of a global flood. This view is held by many Protestant Christians in the USA, and by many Haredi Jews. For Christian groups promoting this view, see the Institute for Creation Research (ICR), El Cajon, California, USA, and the Creation Research Society (CRS), Saint Joseph, Missouri, USA.

Beware the consequences of cloistered education.  Open minds will save this planet, closed minds will doom it!

Tagged: Creationism, Myth, science, social science, Texas Education, theocracy ]]> http://truthhugger.com/2009/03/19/if-texas-hb2800-passes-i-want-a-masters-degree-in-voodoo/feed/ 10 BossKitty artevolutiongi creationismbushid creationism3 creationism1 creationism11 http://truthhugger.com/2009/02/08/mean-economy-spotlights-mean-spirits-op-ed/ http://truthhugger.com/2009/02/08/mean-economy-spotlights-mean-spirits-op-ed/#comments Sun, 08 Feb 2009 15:31:05 +0000 bosskitty http://truthhugger.com/?p=3349 ]]> We must not take our personal woes out on each other!  How we treat our families, neighbors, co-workers, pets and fellow drivers is critical.  Aggression is not the solution and does not make our stress go away.  If you are convinced this is the “Final Tribulation” from the bible, just leave everyone else alone and wait for your “Rapture”.  This is not your opportunity for revenge on your fellow human.  If you are convinced your desperation justifies an opportunity to rob, steal or inflict damage on others, step away and think again.   Pain is not a personal affront on you.  Pain is the effect of a cause that is out of our hands at this point.  How you handle your personal stress will determine how other people handle their own stress.  Our response to perceived threats causes a chain reaction of  responses.  This is cause and effect.  Do not start a chain reaction unless it is a “Random Act of Kindness”.

More and more news stories involve people being mean to other people.  The general condition of America is stressing everyone.  That does not mean we have to take it out on each other.  Tempers are ready to blow at the slightest trigger.

Americans are getting meaner!

Yes, crime rises as personal desperation spreads across the country.  People are fast to blame a segment of our population for their woes.  Their children, their spouses, their neighbors, the system and the government are becoming targets of animosity.  This is a symptom of  personal tribulation, distress and suffering resulting from economic depression or perceived persecution.  The news media focuses on the worst case scenario and targets perpetrators of specific crimes of deception to scam money   from trusting people.  Trust is on the decline.  Skepticism is on the rise.  The mental attitude of  too many have been rebuilt as confrontational.

Conspiracy Theories are rampant as frustration explodes.   However, finger pointing and blaming does not improve your own personal crisis.  Looking directly at yourself will be the first step toward recovery.  How can you personally adapt to the conditions facing you?  If you can read this editorial, you have the resource to find help.  There are numerous web sites that offer constructive alternatives.  There are ‘self-help’ sites everywhere.  You are responsible for yourself and your family.  If you have a family, recruit everyone in self preserving decisions.  If you are alone, there are support groups.  Whether faith based or community based, there are others with similar problems.  This is called a co-op.

Wiki: A cooperative (also co-operative or coöperative; often referred to as a co-op or coop) is defined by the International Co-operative Alliance’s Statement on the Co-operative Identity as an autonomous association of persons united voluntarily to meet their common economic, social, and cultural needs and aspirations through a jointly-owned and democratically-controlled enterprise^[1].

Do not sit alone and grieve over your situation.  If everyone did that, this America would have totally lost it’s definition.  You will have shamed your own ancestors.  You cannot compare your situation with anyone elses, so your solution must be unique to you.  History is full of revenge based solutions.  Any excuse would precipitate violent or oppressive behavior.  We have evolved beyond that.  We should know better.  We must act and behave smarter than those who preceded us.  We must restore the ability to adapt.  We must become a community again.  There is no excuse and no single person to strike.  Holding people accountable for criminal behavior is necessary.  Holding ourselves accountable for our own behavior is also necessary.  There is no place to run.  We must all be responsible.

Welfare economics is no longer an option.

Natural resource economics is our personal and social responsibility.

If we are to survive, we must rethink how we live.

Motivation is the set of reasons that determines one to engage in a particular behavior. The term is generally used for human motivation but, theoretically, it can be used to describe the causes for animal behavior as well. Human motivation. According to various theories, motivation may be rooted in the basic need to minimize physical pain and maximize pleasure, or it may include specific needs such as eating and resting, or a desired object, hobby, goal, state of being, ideal, or it may be attributed to less-apparent reasons such as altruism, morality, or avoiding mortality.

There are others who want major personal transformation, who aspire, to quote Henry David Thoreau, “to live with the license of a higher order of beings”.

Thoreau also wrote that most of us live lives of “quiet desperation”. Why? Why do so many people settle for drifting in the status quo sea of a second-rate survival? There are four reasons why most people settle for living on and on with negative issues that they could eliminate or dramatically improve. Each reason is associated with a category or group of people … While there is no such thing as a panacea that will magically make all your problems go away, advances in personal transformation now make positive personal change a reality for just about anybody.

Thoreau’s Four Reasons

“The first group of people has actually tried to make positive changes in the past but have had little or no success. They have relied completely on conscious mind technology and its tools of willpower, traditional affirmations, talk therapy and positive thinking. These tools of the conscious mind have their place, as far as they go. The problem is they usually don’t go very far. Willpower, for example, is excellent for brief bursts of activity or denial. But it usually proves useless for lasting results.

Second, many people, with their busy lives, are simply unaware that advances in personal transformation technologies have made relatively rapid and dramatic changes quite possible.

A third group of people have heard about such changes but are skeptical; they are especially skeptical that it will work for them.

Finally, a fourth group of people is neither unaware nor skeptical but have settled in to a comfort zone below their potential. They have become rather apprehensive about change, even positive change. Eventually, as the years pass by, these people frequently have major regrets about their failure to act and to make the most out of their lives.

The bottom line is that no matter what categories you do or do not fall into, positive change – often of a dramatic nature – can be yours. Yours no matter what the past has been, if – and it is a big if – if you really want it and are committed to it.”

The Illusion of Wall Street Reform

I will not quote this article, because I have not yet read their sharing policy. I will. But, I do encourage my readers to click this link and connect to the consequences of human behavior and the current economic event we find ourselves in.  The Situationist Blog offers credible, researched insight that is relevant and useful toward understanding. That understanding is necessary before we can compile solutions that may lead us out of danger.  If America and the global economy is to recover, the diagnosis must be accurate.  Treatment and recovery follow the same discipline as medicine, diagnosis must be the first step, after stabilizing the patient.

The diagnosis appears to lie in human nature.  We are influenced.  We are led.  We become subjects of an illusion that is designed to control our behavior.  Using basic human instinct to compete, survive and improve social standing, we follow the most attractive options offered to us.  This is the science of marketing.  I have addressed this phenomenon on my posts about consumerism.  Like too much of any good thing, consumerism and materialism have become their own force of nature, unbridled and running wild.  This is a hard lesson.  Learning from this meltdown will make the painful lesson worthwhile.  Fear will impede the message.

“I must not fear. Fear is the mind-killer. Fear is the little-death that brings total obliteration. I will face my fear. I will permit it to pass over me and through me. And when it has gone past I will turn the inner eye to see its path. Where the fear has gone there will be nothing. Only I will remain”.

Bene Gesserit Litany Against Fear.

List of stock market crashes

Undecided Voters Are Gloomier About Economy, Lean Toward Obama to Fix It

… raising the stakes: The demise of Washington Mutual Inc., the largest banking failure in U.S. history, sent a fresh message to Washington of the fragility of the financial system.In a sign of the extraordinary tension, at one point in the afternoon Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson interrupted a small gathering of Democratic leaders at the White House with a plea for them not to say anything that might blow up the troubled deal, according to three people familiar with the matter. In doing so, the Treasury secretary got down on one knee, a gesture that one of these people described as a moment of levity in a rough day.

Many American hospitals are taking it upon themselves to repatriate seriously injured or ill immigrants because they cannot find nursing homes willing to accept them without insurance. Medicaid does not cover long-term care for illegal immigrants, or for newly arrived legal immigrants, creating a quandary for hospitals, which are obligated by federal regulation to arrange post-hospital care for patients who need it.

American immigration authorities play no role in these private repatriations, carried out by ambulance, air ambulance and commercial plane. Most hospitals say that they do not conduct cross-border transfers until patients are medically stable and that they arrange to deliver them into a physician’s care in their homeland. But the hospitals are operating in a void, without governmental assistance or oversight, leaving ample room for legal and ethical transgressions on both sides of the border.

Josh Haner/The New York Times Luis Alberto Jiménez, an illegal immigrant injured in a car accident in Florida, was treated at a community hospital, which eventually sent him back to Guatemala. He spends most of his days inside a one-room house; only the presence of visitors, who can help him into his wheelchair, gives him the rare chance to get out of bed.

See the story: Mr. Jiménez’s benchmark case exposes a little-known but apparently widespread practice. Many American hospitals are taking it upon themselves to repatriate seriously injured or ill immigrants because they cannot find nursing homes willing to accept them without insurance. Medicaid does not cover long-term care for illegal immigrants, or for newly arrived legal immigrants, creating a quandary for hospitals, which are obligated by federal regulation to arrange post-hospital care for patients who need it.

This is one of those life or death situations that challenge the system America has implemented.  This is the LOOPHOLE where the federal system allows medical profiteers to control. Because Americans are hopelessly divided about immigration, inequities will prevail.  American criminals get more humanitarian treatment than “illegals”.  The attitude that “illegals” don’t exist, therefore, don’t deserve consideration for healthcare, etc.  There is a disconnect here.  Some hateful Americans accept the surface of a story, then they are done with it, they accept that the victim got what he deserved … we should not have treated him for so long, anyway.  Fortunately, not all Americans are hateful.  The mind boggling solution to our immigration issue requires in depth and equitable study.  America’s Immigration Service has no authority for this situation. The INS has not been given the resources or authority to enforce equitably, because the laws are too broad and skewed toward controlling criminal/drug/terrorist “invasion”.  We seldom see in depth headlines addressing individual case by case issues, Hat Tip to NY Times and DEBORAH SONTAG for describing the personal element of disparity.  Broad brush strokes of American immigration policies miss too many poignent human stories. To catch a few, many must suffer. Again, the ‘baby with the bathwater’ story still applies.

The underground economy in America is flourishing as a result of Federal Policies.  The poor, disenfranchised, illegal immigrants and just un-insured Americans, are forced to seek medical assistance from un-licensed practitioners and shamans. This segment of America’s population is forced to roll the dice and pray the help they receive works.  They have no recourse … they are not covered by a fair and impartial justice or medical system.  They are the best target for con artists and criminals.  They are extorted into participating in crime as payback for any help they receive.  Best example, they are targets for shady tax practitioners, who use their Tax ID Numbers to forge tax returns.  The tax preparers get the bulk of the bogus refund (several thousand dollars) and leave the illegal to face the consequences from the IRS.

SEATTLE – More than six decades after 28 black soldiers were wrongly convicted after a riot and lynching of an Italian in Seattle, the US Army has issued a formal apology.

This 1944 newspaper sketch shows the soldiers on trial — the only time in US history a group of black men were tried for lynching a white man.

“We had not done right by these soldiers,” Ronald James, assistant secretary of the Army for manpower and reserve affairs, said Saturday. “The Army is genuinely sorry. I am genuinely sorry.”

Relatives of the soldiers joined elected officials, military officers and one of the defense lawyers to hear James give the apology before hundreds of people in a meadow near the old Fort Lawton parade grounds and chapel in Discovery Park.

In addition the soldiers’ convictions were set aside, their dishonorable discharges were changed to honorable discharges and they and their survivors were awarded back pay for their time in the brig.

All but two of the soldiers are dead. One, Samuel Snow of Leesburg, Florida, planned to attend the ceremony but wound up in the hospital instead because of a problem with his pacemaker.

The convictions were overturned in October at the prodding of Rep. Jim McDermott, largely based on the book “On American Soil” published in 2005 by Jack Hamann, a CNN and PBS journalist, and his wife Leslie about the riot on the night of August 14, 1944, and subsequent events at Fort Lawton.

This is one of many events from America’s speckled past that are erased from memory, and especially history books. The Education policy makers are intent to teach America’s children the righteous superiority of America’s Christian Morals. The candy coated history fed to our children allow them to envision a distorted reality. Some of these children never emerge from this condition … thereby becoming part of a growing problem. Seeing the world as two dimensional creates flawed logic … does today’s education emphasize logic at all?

One sided vision gives birth to one sided arguments, flawed logic, and flawed decisions … this is great if someone is too lazy to consider all sides of an issue. This is terrible when deciding who should lead the country. Even in a court of law, there are two sides to every argument. One argument sets out to dismantle the other argument and convince the judge or jury how the law favors their side. Anger and confrontation seldom have a lasting positive effect on policy … but, courts of law ultimately brought “Equal Rights” back into the light of acceptance. Blacks, Hispanics, Orientals, and many sub groups of gender and sexuality in America have made more progress in Modern US Courtrooms than from decades of confrontation. Logic, reason and analysis needed for critical thinking are not taught or emphasized in today’s classroom (or home) and have rusted the minds of American students.  Being able to see the world and other humans without prejudice is essential to today’s survival.  We are a Global Community, dependent on each other.  There is no place for archaic bias or bigotry.

The overturning of this racial atrocity, even 64 years later, offers hope for thousands of those abused by a bigoted legal system. DNA testing has revealed the extent of wrongdoing by prosecutors over the years. The compensation for being wronged is very poor when compare to the SIX decades of suffering by these soldiers. Sad that only one survives. Black elders today still have memories that their grandchildren cannot relate to. Treatment of Black soldiers from both World Wars should be recognized as part of American History. Including American Indian genocide and other terrible deeds, black genocide in America was rampant.

Even though we have miles to go before true equality of opportunity is realized, some progress has been made. Once the doors of opportunity are finally opened, it is up to the individual to step through, get their education and actually use it to put distance between them and the nightmare their ancestors knew. Get your education and don’t look back … until its time to reflect on how far you’ve come.

A debate between two progressive legal experts on the FISA bill and the idea of prosecuting of Bush and White House officials for criminal acts.

Obama agreed that, if elected, he would have his Attorney General initiate an investigation into whether Bush and other senior officials violated criminal statutes and thus deserved to face prosecution.

“What I would want to do is to have my Justice Department and my Attorney General immediately review the

information that’s already there and to find out are there inquiries that need to be pursued,” Obama told journalist Will Bunch.

Government Performance: Lessons Learned for the

Next Administration on Using Performance Information to Improve Results

Over the past 15 years, legislative and executive branch reform efforts have attempted to shift the focus of federal government management from a preoccupation with activities to the results or outcomes of those activities. Based on over a decade of work in this area, GAO has found a transformation in the capacity of the federal government to manage for results, including an infrastructure of outcome-oriented strategic plans, performance measures, and accountability reporting that provides a solid foundation for improving the performance of federal programs. However, agencies have made less progress in getting their managers’ to use performance information in their decision making. GAO was asked to testify on the preliminary results of ongoing work looking at (1) trends in federal managers’ use of performance information to manage, both government wide and at the agency level; (2) how agencies can encourage greater use of performance information to improve results; and (3) lessons learned from prior management reforms for the next administration. Our statement is based on prior GAO reports and surveys we conducted in 1997, 2000, 2003, and 2007. For the results of our 2007 survey, see e-supplement GAO-08-1036SP. GAO will be issuing a report at a later date that will explore the use of performance results in management decision making at selected agencies.

GAO believes that the next administration should promote three key practices that we have identified in our work over the last 10 years: (1) demonstrate leadership commitment to results-oriented management; (2) develop a clear “line of sight” linking individual performance with organizational results; and (3) build agency capacity to collect and use performance information. In addition to encouraging agencies to employ these practices, the next administration should: (1) adopt a more strategic and crosscutting approach to overseeing government wide performance; (2) improve the relevance of performance information to Congress; and (3) build agency confidence in assessments for use in decision making.

Senate Appropriations Committee Holds Hearing on Efforts to Combat Fraud, Waste and Abuse in Iraq

Collateral Damage: How the War on Terror Hurts Charities, Foundations, and the People They Serve

White House Climate Change Policy — Delay, Delete, and Deny

Life’s Value Shrinks at EPA

Appropriations Breakdown Threatens Federal Investments

Let’s See How Our “Free Press” Covers Impeachment

LAW SCHOOL TO SPONSOR BUSH WAR CRIMES TRIAL

Wexler Wants Real Impeachment Hearing Now

The Judiciary Committee, we held a full day of hearings that focused entirely on the crimes of George W. Bush and Dick Cheney, and featured testimony by Rep. Dennis Kucinich regarding his Articles of Impeachment against President Bush.

This is a great start – but I am far from satisfied. Following statements by Chairman John Conyers and the Ranking Republicans, I opened with a forceful call for genuine and immediate Impeachment Hearings for President Bush and Vice President Cheney.

L. Ali Khan, Professor of Law at the Washburn University School of Law says the ICC ignores “the crimes” of Western leaders and generals.

“The ICC has so far shown no interest in prosecuting President Bush, Vice President Cheney, Defense Secretary Rumsfeld, and State Secretary Colin Powell for the crimes they planned, organized, incited, and committed with the help of lethal weapons in Afghanistan and Iraq,” Ali Khan says.

A majority (over 62%) of 2382 respondents surveyed in an online Press TV poll said the ICC should first hear the case of President Bush’s war crimes in Afghanistan and Iraq.

This will be interesting to watch the anxiety surrounding the debate whether to indict the Bush Administration for treasonous behavior. The trashing of America, the trashing of the environment, the trashing of other countries, the crimes against humanity will most likely not be addressed …

Because the US Constitution has been emasculated, there is no foothold for legal recourse.

]]> http://truthhugger.com/2008/07/27/count-down-to-accountability-bush-cheney-indictments/feed/ 6 BossKitty http://truthhugger.com/2008/07/21/hopeful-and-skeptical-religious-inter-faith-dialogue-gets-poor-coverage/ http://truthhugger.com/2008/07/21/hopeful-and-skeptical-religious-inter-faith-dialogue-gets-poor-coverage/#comments Tue, 22 Jul 2008 04:57:46 +0000 bosskitty http://truthhugger.wordpress.com/?p=645 ]]>

A leap of faith for Saudi king

By Sreeram Chaulia -  On July 16, a unique conclave of Muslims, Christians, Jews, Buddhists, Hindus and Sikhs was inaugurated in Madrid by King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia. Its aim is to bridge widening religious    chasms that breed violence. The agenda was relevant since religion has become one of the main sources of conflicts of late.

The Madrid meeting was meant to reify “inter-faith dialogue”, the nostrum of our times for festering religious prejudices. King Abdullah termed the event “historical” and, indeed, it had a few firsts to its credit. The fact that Jewish thinkers were invited by a

Interfaith meet will serve cause of peace: Kingdom JEDDAH: The Council of Ministers yesterday underscored the tremendous global response to last week’s interfaith conference in Madrid and said it was an affirmation of the world’s desire to uphold common human values for the promotion of peace and stability.  The Cabinet meeting praised the Madrid Declaration and hoped its objectives would serve all humanity and contribute to peaceful coexistence.

RELIGION: UN Invited to Create Interfaith Council

MADRID, Jul 21 (IPS) – The participants at the World Conference on Dialogue in Madrid have proposed that the United Nations create an interreligious council.

The Jul. 16-18 conference, which was attended by 250 people representing Islam, Judaism, Christianity, Buddhism, Hinduism and other faiths, was opened on Jul. 16 by King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia and King Juan Carlos of Spain.

“Social dialogue should be not only interreligious but intra-religious as well, to achieve peaceful coexistence in the world,” Federico Mayor Zaragoza, head of the Foundation for a Culture of Peace and chair of the Board of Directors of the international news agency IPS (Inter Press Service) said in his speech to the conference.

A working team to seek peace and international concord was established, and it was agreed to foment cooperation between religious, cultural, educational and media organisations “to confront sexual promiscuity, family disintegration and other vices.”

It was also agreed to organise conferences, symposia, research and information programmes “to disseminate a culture of peace, understanding and coexistence,” and to promote dialogue among followers of all religions.

Religious leaders end Saudi-sponsored interfaith conference calling for U.N. to play role

MADRID, Spain: Representatives of the world’s religions on Friday ended a three-day interfaith conference called by King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia which some hope could hail the beginning of a new relationship by denominations.

The Madrid meeting brought together Jews, Muslims, Christians, Hindus, Buddhists and representatives of other religions in what was seen as an unprecedented event for the Saudi monarchy.

Saudi Arabia’s King Abdullah Gamble – And Success

The Saudi monarch took a gamble last week while in Spain and it paid off handsomely. The king’s investment in the three-day interfaith dialogue conference which brought together representatives of the three monolithic faiths – Christianity, Islam and Judaism – and included a number of Asian religions, as well, was two-fold.

First was the financial aspect of the operation; flying some 200 delegates and about 100 members of the media from around the world to Madrid. In the greater scope of things, this represents a mere drop of oil in the barrel – now being sold at over $136.

The second investment on the part of the Saudi king was on a more personal level: the king, for the first time, openly met with representatives of the Jewish faith, including an Israeli, although he was registered as a U.S. citizen, given he holds dual citizenship.

This is the real investment King Abdulla is making. Putting his reputation on the line, overtly calling for dialogue with the “Kafirs” – Christians, Jews and other non-Muslims – at a time when he recently faced a campaign of terror conducted by al-Qaida in his own country that largely caught Saudi security forces off guard.

Saudi king bringing rabbis, clerics together – Abdullah’s latest interfaith effort has believers and skeptics

“The conference provides a rare opportunity for strengthening mutual respect between the followers of the three main religions,” Monsignor Nabil Haddad, head of the Melkite Catholic community in Jordan and a  participant at the conference, told The Associated Press.

Appropriate host?
Still, detractors say the Saudis are the last people who should be hosting a conference on religious tolerance.

Wahhabism — the strain of Sunni Islam that is practiced in Saudi Arabia — is considered one of the religion’s most conservative and Saudi Arabia has sometimes strained ties with Islam’s other major branch, Shiism. Only one delegate from predominantly Shiite Iran was invited, and it was not clear whether he would attend.

Observers say the conference is being held in Spain in part because it would be politically unpalatable for Abdullah — the titular guardian of Islam’s two holiest sites — to allow Jewish and Christian leaders into the kingdom itself, a difficult starting point for religious harmony.

One of the conference’s biggest names is David Rosen, a prominent Israeli rabbi. The inclusion of an Israeli in a Saudi-sponsored gathering is big news, but Rosen is not listed as being from the Jewish state in the conference literature. He has dual citizenship, and is described as an American.

“Practically speaking, he is being invited as a foreigner and not as an Israeli,” Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesman Arye Mekel told AP in dismissing the conference. “If they really wanted to make this significant, they should have invited real Israeli rabbis.”

A groundbreaking Saudi-sponsored interfaith dialogue on Friday, July 18, called for criminalizing blasphemy and for drafting an international agreement to combat terrorism.

This is a phenominal gesture.  Skeptics can pick it apart, but hopefuls can rejoice about the coming together of so many different faiths.  There was, however several restricting criteria.  Monotheism was required.  The only thing that concerned me was the decision to ban blasphemy … that appears reasonable, but, who defines the term and how is it enforced … There will always be worrisome details following such an event.  But first steps are always tenuous.  Encouragement is needed to follow up in this dialog.  Although King Abdullah has no plans to host a follow up conference, another leader can pick up the torch and host the next one.  Hope is the seed to be nurtured for such a uniting gesture.

This photo was taken on March 25, 2003.

Soldier in famous photo never defeated ‘demons’

They found Dwyer lying on his back, his clothes soiled with urine and feces. Scattered on the floor around him were dozens of spent cans of Dust-Off, a refrigerant-based aerosol normally used to clean electrical equipment.

Dwyer told police Lt. Mike Wilson he’d been “huffing” the aerosol.

“Help me, please!” the former Army medic begged Wilson. “I’m dying. Help me. I can’t breathe.”

Unable to stand or even sit up, Dwyer was hoisted onto a stretcher. As paramedics prepared to load him into an ambulance, an officer noticed Dwyer’s eyes had glassed over and were fixed.

A half hour later, he was dead.

This photo was taken in 2007.

Returning to the U.S. in June 2003, after 91 days in Iraq, Dwyer seemed a shell to friends.

And he wanted to be a medic. (Dwyer’s first real job was as a transporter for a hospital in the golf resort town of Pinehurst, where his parents had moved after retirement.)

In 2002, Dwyer was sent to Fort Bliss, Texas. The jokester immediately fell in with three colleagues — Angela Minor, Sgt. Jose Salazar, and Knapp. They spent so much time together after work that comrades referred to them as “The Four Musketeers.”

When he deployed, he was pudgy at 6-foot-1 and 220 pounds. Now he weighed around 165, and the other Musketeers immediately thought of post-traumatic stress disorder.   Dwyer attributed his skeletal appearance to long days and a diet of MREs (Meals Ready to Eat). He showed signs of his jolly old self, so his friends accepted his explanation.   But they soon noticed changes that were more than cosmetic.

When people would teasingly call him “war hero” and ask him to tell about his experiences, or about the famous photo, he would steer the conversation toward the others he’d served with. But Dwyer once confided that another image, also involving a child, disturbed him.

He was standing next to a soldier during a firefight when a boy rode up on a bicycle and stopped beside a weapon lying in the dirt. Under his breath, the soldier beside Dwyer whispered, “Don’t pick it up, kid. Don’t pick it up.”

The boy reached for the weapon and was blasted off his bike.

In a telephone interview later … from what he called the “nut hut” at Beaumont, Dwyer told Newsday that he’d lied on a post-deployment questionnaire that asked whether he’d been disturbed by what he’d seen and done in Iraq. The reason: A PTSD diagnosis could interfere with his plans to seek a police job. Besides, he’d been conditioned to see it as a sign of weakness.

“I’m a soldier,” he said. “I suck it up. That’s our job.”

Dwyer told the newspaper that he’d blown off counseling before but was committed to embracing his treatment this time. He said he hoped to become an envoy to others who avoided treatment for fear of damaging their careers.

“There’s a lot of soldiers suffering in silence,” he said.

“And so it’s a dance between the clinicians and the patient.”

Paul Rieckhoff, executive director of Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America, feels the VA is a lousy dance partner.

Rieckhoff said the VA’s is a “passive system” whose arcane rules and regulations make it hard for veterans to find help. And when they do get help, he said, it is often inadequate.

“I consider (Dwyer) a battlefield casualty,” he said, “because he was still fighting the war in his head.”

In 2005, Daily Koss Blog referenced Dwyer’s photo in an article about PTSD on MyLeftWing

#1 | Returning Vet PTSD – One Soldier’s Story

This photo was taken on March 25, 2003.

Snapped by AP and published in newspapers and magazines world-wide a week following the invasion, Army medic Pfc. Joseph Dwyer carries an injured Iraqi boy to safety. Caught in the crossfire in a fierce battle near the village of Al Faysaliyah, the lines of hero and victim appear to be well-defined, not blurred.

On October 7, 2005, Dwyer was arrested after a 3 hour standoff with police in which he discharged ‘volley after volley’ of gunfire in his apartment.

And, so this story unfolds from the date of impact, 2003, to the date of conclusion, 2008.  Five years of suffering and dillusion about the “manly” thing to do, has ended in the news.  The part of the story seldom, if ever, followed up on is how the family, he left behind, will unfold.

The children asked what was wrong.

“Joseph is dead,” she told them.

“You said he wasn’t sick any more,” Justin said.

“I know, Justin,” his mother replied. “But I guess maybe the help wasn’t working like we thought it was.”

The kids were too young to understand acronyms like PTSD or to hear a lecture about how Knapp thought the system had failed Dwyer. So she told them that, just as they sometimes have nightmares, “sometimes people get those nightmares in their head and they just can’t get them out, no matter what.”

Despite the efforts she made to get help for Dwyer, Knapp is trying to cope with a deep-seated guilt. She knows that Dwyer shielded her from the images that had haunted him.

Since Dwyer’s death, Justin, now 9, has taken to carrying a newspaper clipping of the Zinn photo around with him. Occasionally, Knapp will catch him huddled with a playmate, showing the photo and telling him about the soldier who used to come to his school and assemble his toys.

Justin wants them to know all about Spc. Joseph Dwyer. His hero.

Joseph Dwyer Obituary [here]

Obituary responses [here], [here], [here], [here], [here]

Joseph is not the first, nor last, example of the ‘time bomb’ effect that PTSD has.  Past posts on TrurhHugger and BlueBloggin have illustrated the consequences and ultimate social and economic impact this nation should be preparing for.  Veterans from past wars have had PTSD symptoms, but were accepted as “he never was the same when he came back”, then they are just written off.   Today’s US veteran was plucked from a consumer society whose deepest thoughts concerned sports, celebrities, cars and electronic toys.  They started out soft.  They were plunged into a physical nightmare where the infrastructure they took for granted was destroyed.  The social norm they are accustomed to is turned upside down. The results of firing their weapons no longer resembles video games.  Bodies no longer evaporate into a haze of pixels.  They hear, see, smell and taste the results of their actions and the actions of their opponents.  This sensory assault upon an American Soldier defies representation by recruiters, news media or politicians.  These sensory memories become their ghosts.  Whether or not a soldier has religious foundation, there is a moral starting point, even for athiests.  The American moral starting point is so foreign from reality on the ground that mental damage should be expected … especially when the same soldier attempts to incorporate back into the world they left.

The only renewable resource this administration has taken advantage of is HUMAN.  Citizen or not, volunteer or not, literate or not, America will accept you into its ranks of cannon fodder.  If you survive, you will be patted on the back, given some bandages and salve (maybe an artificial limb) and expected to go along your way.  This is WRONG! The inequities of war shine a harsh light on class disparity … this angers and motivates the under class to rebel.  This began the impetus for socialism, and it’s more violent offspring, communism …

The slogan from the Vietnam War protests deliberately speaks to this, “What if they had a war, and no one came?” The U.S. military is overwhelmingly recruited from the working class, and convincing our class as a whole to refuse to work for this blood money may be our best chance for both ending the war in Iraq and limiting the imperialist ambitions of the U.S. for future decades.

by Stephen “Flint” Arthur

“Endless development of armed force. Every day we hear of fresh inventions for the more effectual destruction of our fellow-men, fresh expenditure, fresh loans, fresh taxation. Clamorous patriotism, reckless jingoism; the stirring up of international jealousy have become the most lucrative line in politics and journalism. Childhood itself has not been spared; schoolboys are swept into the ranks, to be trained up in hatred… drilled in blind obedience to the government of the moment, whatever the colour of its flag, and when they come to the years of manhood to be laden like pack-horses with cartridges, provisions and the rest of it; to have a rifle thrust into their hands and be taught to charge at the bugle call and slaughter one another right and left like wild beasts, without asking themselves why or for what purpose. Whether they have before them starvelings… or their own brothers roused to revolt by famine-the bugle sounds, the killing must commence.”
Peter Kropotkin – War!

• Anxiety disorders and schizophrenia

• Defining Schizophrenia: A Testable Model for Schizophrenia Incorporating Homogeneous Subtypes

• Linking Posttraumatic Stress Disorder and Psychosis: A Look at Epidemiology, Phenomenology, and Treatment

• Trauma and posttraumatic stress disorder in people with schizophrenia.

• PTSD Forum