The Conscious American

BP, Please Fire Tony Hayward

2010-06-17T19:49:00.000-07:00

It is simply outrageous how Tony Hayward responded to the questions from Members of Congress this week. In spite of the Member's predictable political grandstanding (Rep Joe Barton Fink anyone?), they appropriately reflected the nation's disgust at what is happening in the Gulf of Mexico. In fact, I think they were too soft on Mr. Hayward.

Memo to the board of directors of British Petroleum:

Get your (well) head out of your arses and fire Tony Hayward. Now, please. Lord help us, are you all really as stupid as you look on television? I can't imagine that you are. But, apparently you are.

The Conscious American

P.S. Was your media training session for Tony focused on getting him to a) not become rattled and b) give as few specifics as possible so he did not try to match wits with unarmed opponents? If so, be sure to fire your media training team on your way back to London you impotent tools. You received bad advice -- again.

P.P.S. And now I hear Tony Hayward is attending a yacht race. His balls must be made of titanium. Amazing. Is there any one at BP with an accountable bone in their body? Why are more Americans not outraged? BP must be kicked out of U.S. waters -- permanently.

Dear Senator Patty Murray

2010-02-20T17:21:00.001-08:00

As a business owner in Washington, employing hard-working Washingtonians, I am struggling to understand some things.

I am working with a number of banks in Washington and Oregon. They have told me that their intent is to continue to use government money (at .25 percent) to purchase the land assets of failing institutions. They will then "sit" on those assets in order to constrict the supply of building lots and drive prices up to serve the narrow interests of their shareholders only. Their customers and taxpayers will not benefit from this and are suffering now as a result. Job growth in the construction sector is being artificially stifled by the actions of these bankers and it must stop immediately.

Here are my questions. As a tax payer, an employer, an entrepreneur and an American, I would like a reply.

Why are banks getting near interest free money from the Federal Reserve in the current environment?

Why did the U.S. Federal Reserve transfer hundreds of millions of dollars to the nation's top 2% performing banks in early December and almost NONE of that money has gone into economic stimulation projects? (In one case, a bank in Washington sent several million dollars to a project in Mexico being developed by an American customer).

What is the purpose of not charging banks a fair rate of interest for the money they are using to buy the troubled assets of their failing peers?

Why are banks not being held accountable for their lax underwriting guidelines several years ago? When is Congress going to haul the leaders of the nation's banks to answer questions about their underwriting guidelines?

Why are the bank regulators not being held accountable for their lax oversight of bankers? When is it their turn to face Congress?

Why is that only tax payers and hard working Americans are being forced to pay higher taxes and to pay for the failures of a narrow few? And those narrow few are still getting free or near-free money from the same people -- the American taxpayer?

And, why are banks -- who have been given cash from tax payers and our government -- being allowed to buy distressed assets with that money and turn around and foreclose or threaten foreclosure for the full amount of the notes due when they have little to NO basis in those assets to begin with?

How is that they are being allowed to make money on something they paid nothing for?

Imagine for a minute that a few years ago, I gave you a $100,000 loan. Imagine that I asked you for almost no proof that you could pay it back and simply gave you the loan without checking to see if you could really afford it. Now, let's say you called me a year later and said you could not pay me back. Imagine if I could simply call the government and ask them to give me the $100,000 so I could be made whole and I would then pay the government back when I was able to collect from you.

In this scenario, I am back to even. You are still on the hook for the full amount owed. The good news? I am not punished for my poor credit-making decision. The bad news? YOU still owe 100 percent of the money. Oh, and you have to keep paying the government taxes so they can subsidize my stupidity and the stupidity of my peer lenders (or greedy brilliant thinkers depending on what side of the transaction you are on).

Imagine that I took the government's money, squandered it some more with poor decisions and now I need another government loan to bail me out. The government would give another bank 100% of the money they need to buy my note at say, 20 cents on the dollar, and so I am saved again. YOU, though, are still on the hook for 100% of the money you borrowed. Senator, that's called a scam.

Chief Credit Officers in several Pacific Northwest banks are buying assets from failing banks with money given to them by the FDIC and the Federal Reserve. That's fine, I guess. But they are only paying 20 cents on the dollar at the most for these assets AND they money the government is giving them is costing them almost zero. So now they control most of the permit-ready building lots in Oregon and Washington. They have NO incentive to sell those lots at market rates as they have almost no basis in the lots. So, their stated policy is to hold these lots to purposely constrict supply in order to drive prices higher in the false belief that the value of these assets will rise to the same unsustainable levels to which they rose three years ago.

They are in error in their thinking. I am a home builder. I need lots. But, I cannot get those lots from these bankers who bought them for 20 cents on the dollar because they greedily believe they will be worth even more three-to-five years from now. The Pacific Northwest is already one of the most expensive housing markets in the nation. It is being made more so -- at a critical moment in our history -- by bankers who care only about their shareholders.

It is wrong. It should be a crime. At the very least it is un-American, selfish and greed-driven.

Nathaniel Clevenger

Green Motor Oil? Green Earth Technologies and Motor Oil Made From Animal Fats

2009-11-07T07:35:00.000-08:00

Here's a press release from Green Earth Technologies that recently caught my attention (disclosure, I bought a few shares of their company about a month ago). If their G-OIL product really works, why has their been so little attention paid to this? Why, when we continue to send soldiers to the Middle East to protect our oil interests there, do we not hear more about innovative products likes this?

Is it because Green Earth is too small to have the ability to market aggressively? Don't we realize that each time we fill our gas tanks, we are part of the problem of keeping oil producing nations hostile to us in business? I understand a worry about using a product like G-OIL. I have a German-made car. I would worry about how this oil would affect my engine. But, if it passes all of the ASTM tests, why should I worry? I should just do it because it's apparently better for the planet AND it gets me one tiny step away from people who would seek to kill us for few other reasons than they don't like our culture or our religion. Should be a simple decision to make on my part. And yet, it's not.

I need to call my car dealer. I need to have them ask their mechanics if it's ok to use the oil. I have to then try it out. If I notice even the smallest amount of performance decrease, then I will probably blame it on the G-OIL. But, should I?

It's all so damn complicated. Green Earth could help me out by publicizing which cars and models could take their new oil. They could be a lot more aggressive than simply sponsoring the American LeMans Series. Besides, how does sponsoring a decadent car race help promote the use of earth-friendly oil?

STAMFORD, Conn., Oct 28, 2009 /PRNewswire-FirstCall via COMTEX/ --
Green Earth Technologies (Pink Sheets: GETG), a leading manufacturer
and marketer of "green" environmentally safe consumer packaged goods
and products, announced today their third consecutive showcase at The
AAPEX Show at the Sands Expo Center in Las Vegas, November 4-6. In the
previous two years, Green Earth Technologies has previewed G-OIL(R)
Ultimate Biodegradable green motor oils and other environmentally
friendly automotive products at AAPEX, the world's largest business-to-
business event for the Automotive Aftermarket industry. Third time is
a charm, as G-OIL SAE 5W-30 is now available nationally, passing all
the engine test criteria for The American Petroleum Institute (API) SM
Certification and being granted the API "Donut," becoming the first
and only bio-based motor oil to receive such distinguished honors.

G-OIL is the world's lowest petroleum, "eco-friendly," ultimate
biodegradable motor oil priced comparatively to synthetics and
similarly performing products. Unlike traditional petrochemical-based
motor oils from leading manufacturers, Green Earth Technologies' G-OIL
is made with American-grown renewable animal fats. These saturated
fats, whose molecular single-bond carbon chains are similar to common
petroleum oils, have no harsh effects on the environment, and
drastically cut our dependence on foreign oil. In the past year, G-OIL
also became the official motor oil of The American Le Mans series.

In addition to G-OIL Green Motor Oil, Green Earth Technologies will be
previewing two new products: G-OIL Marine Oil, which will begin
shipping in 2010 and the GREEN MACHINE(TM), a new product in the
appearance chemical category with TTI. The GREEN MACHINE is a portable
1400 PSI pressure washer designed for cars and trucks specially
equipped with the G-CLEAN High Pressure Detergent Injector to
accommodate environmentally friendly washing using GET's ultimate
biodegradable dissolvable detergent pouches, made with American-grown
plant base oils. The dissolvable detergents go through the pump and
clean at high pressure while conditioning and lubricating the pump, so
no reclamation necessary while cleaning on the road.

"The AAPEX community has truly supported environmentally conscious
brands with increased fervor over the years for 'green' alternatives,"
said Jeffrey Loch, Founder and Chief Marketing Officer of Green Earth
Technologies. "We are very excited to showcase for our third year in a
row, as we now have G-OIL available for shipment in bulk and bottles
nationally, a true achievement for our company."

Is it even possible to win a war in Afghanistan? Not today.

2009-10-06T17:49:00.000-07:00

And here's why...

Follow this link. It will take you to a full description of Forward Operating Base Keating , the same FOB that was attacked this past weekend by 400 Taliban-led troops resulting in the deaths of 8 American soldiers.

What's most amazing to me is how much information the link above provides to our enemies. Wow. Why don't we just put every soldier's Facebook account, street address and photo on these Websites and allow our enemies to just kill them that much more quickly?

Children, we cannot ever "win" in Afghanistan. We can only retreat and allow the Taliban to keep their scrubby piece of mountainous dirt. And why should we care anyway? We have so many things to clean up in our own country.

So, why are we bothering there?

To keep radical Islam from proliferating? Hmmm. That's not working too well. Just ask the British and the Europeans. They can't even contain radical Islam in their own cities.

To control Afghan heroin-producing poppy fields? Does anyone else see the irony in trying to stem supply when Americans have consistently proven that they want heroin and as much as they can shoot? Hey, this drug is now killing more people than auto accidents. Will stemming supply cut that statistic? Doubtful. Americans like to get high. So, they'll just switch to something else. When are we going to learn that the demand side of this equation is where the solution lies?

To win Afghan hearts and minds and make the country safe for democracy? If that's the goal, then maybe the effort is worth it. But, it will take hundreds of years before we see any real change in that direction. The people have to want it. And thus far they don't seem to be too interested in it. If the Taliban can scrape together 400 farmers to take on a fully armed Marine garrison, then I don't think democracy is really on their minds.

Oh, wait, I know what it is. We need a place to use all of the weapons we are producing in order to keep our massive munitions manufacturing industry firing on all pistons. Politicians call it "job creation."

No, I don't want to see us retreat. I want to see us kill every single murdering Taliban member we can find. But, we need to find a different word than retreat to describe the need to get our young soldiers the hell out of there. Time for the Afghans to take care of their own country. Let's use our young soldiers to protect us in more important places like, ahem, San Diego, where are recent shoot out between armed smugglers and U.S. Border Patrol made Quentin Tarantino blush.

Martin Scorsese. Harvey Weinstein. Debra Winger. Michael Mann. Woody Allen. Mike Nichols, Debra Winger, etc. Please move to France.

2009-10-01T19:13:00.000-07:00

Dear Hollywood and the French Government (notably Mr. Mitterand):

Wake up! If you can.

Roman Polanski is a convicted child sexual predator. It's as simple as that. He needs help, not more enabling. Your defense of Mr. Polanski is not just anti-American, it's frustratingly ignorant. It's frustrating because some lunatic editor has given you space to share your morally and legally-bankrupt views. Do any of you have a real sense of what's just and correct in this world or are you so jaded by your own fame and reflections that you've simply lost your minds?

Mr. Polanski raped, sodomized and sexually assaulted a 13 year old girl. Who cares if he did it 30 years or 30 minutes ago? It's all the same. This is what someone with a mental illness does. He does not need your protection, he needs your demand that he be sent to a place where he can't do it again. Who cares how talented he is? There will always be plenty of talented people in the movie industry. Personally, I could have lived without seeing Rosemary's Baby.

Your defense that his talent and life tragedies outweigh his crimes is illogical. He should've been jailed and provided with a significant dose of psycho therapy. After all, he is and will remain, a child sexual predator. There are teens who rape other teens and they are given the mark of a sexual predator for the rest of their lives, having to register and be marked on the Internet in perpetuity. Why not Mr. Polanski? What's so special about him?

Further, your excuse-laden defense that he survived the Holocaust and lived through the horrible murder of his beloved wife and unborn child at the hands of the Manson Family, pays no honor to either the Holocaust or to Sharon Tate.

Shame on you. Mr. Polanski deserves better friends. And we, as Americans, deserve better actors. I'll be boycotting all of your next projects until you find the wisdom to understand how sad your defense of Mr. Polanski truly is.

If your 13 year old had been raped, you'd want to make sure -- at the very least -- that it did not happen to another child. You'd demand the perpetrator be locked up for a long time and we'd all agree. Revenge is not what's being sought here. It's simple community protection from a sexual predator and others like him who might think they too can get a free pass for their behavior.

Rob Cornilles For Congress

2009-09-30T16:50:00.000-07:00

I met Alison and Rob Cornilles today. They are running for Congress. Yes, I say "they" as a spouse is as much a part of this type of effort as the name candidate. No, it's not like a pregnancy. It annoys the hell out of me when men say "we're having a baby." I've seen my wife having three of them and I can guarantee there was no "we" at the critical moment of delivery. But, I digress.

Here's why I think you should consider Mr. Cornilles more closely in the primary match up in May against incumbent Congressman, David Wu:

1. Rob seems motivated to win. You can see it in his eyes and hear it in his voice. He wants to replace Rep. Wu and believes that he can do that. He knows that to win he's going to have to put up with a certain depth of bullshit that may find him holding his nose. But, his skin is apparently thick enough. David's a lawyer and is masterful with the king's english. David's a marketing guy and a CEO. So, it will be interesting to see these two debate.

2. He seems like a really nice fella. No, really. Just a nice guy. He's direct. Looks you right in the eye. Shakes your hand firmly. And, he knows how to control a room full of overfed, overpaid, over-educated white guys. Those are the guys who write big checks. Alison is equally charming, but in a more pragmatic way. She seems hesitant about this new journey, but you can see the resolve in her eyes.

3. He admits he's learning and has a lot to learn. Self-deprecation comes easy to him. There is a humility to Rob that reveals itself in his smile when you first meet him. I found myself looking for reasons not to like his views. Couldn't find any. Not yet at least. I do think he, like a lot of politicians, either misunderstands the difference between debt and spending or they use them interchangeably to confuse the voters. Either way, it's wrong. I'd like to see him bone up on these distinctly different notions.

4. He seems to know that this is not going to easy. Alison seems to know that even better. She has to be the one, after all, who sits for uncounted hours listening to the same speech over and over and over again. She will need to be mistress of the living room, dutifully sitting, hands folded in her lap with a pasted on smile no matter what she's feeling from one moment to the next. I think the job of a political spouse has to be one of the worst jobs in the world. Yet, she seems to have an athletes' focus for it. Watch her closely, she's Rob's ace in the hole.

5. Finally, Rob will bring something Oregon SORELY needs to Congress. A self-made business person. Oregon's representation in Washington is far too unbalanced toward gentlemen who have had no experience running small businesses -- or any businesses for that matter. There is something uniquely useful about a small business man who has, as Rob says, "signed the front of a paycheck." Career politicians and lawyers like David Wu can never understand what that simple little notion really means no matter how hard they try.

I don't have a dog in this fight, really. I don't live in his district. Besides, politics makes me sick -- literally. The last time I had my own ass handed to me in politics, I threw up and could not get out of bed for days. And I worked for Marion Barry! You'd think I'd have an iron stomach. So, I hung up any notion of being a part of anything political four years ago. I've been a lot happier since. I do, however, still marvel at people's desire to enter the arena. Getting to know them is a little like knowing a death row inmate. There's something fascinating about them as they prepare to take that long walk. They are, for a short moment, at the mercy of fate. And I can't seem to turn away from what could happen.

Good luck, Rob and Alison. Hope your last meal is a good one.

Portland, Oregon

Will the U.S. Residential Construction Industry Embrace Energy Efficieny Before It's Too Late?

2009-09-30T16:45:00.000-07:00

Since January of this year, I have been helping a Canadian-based structural concrete wall panel manufacturer get its second North American factory up and running in Alberta. We have pushed very hard to secure the financing and, thus far, have successfully met many challenging milestones. But, we are not done yet. It is my expectation that the Canadian manufacturer will have an Alberta-based plant operational by sometime in Spring 2010.

Each plant costs about $30M to launch, so it's a pretty massive undertaking. My role has been helping the licensees in Alberta work through the relationship with the manufacturer. Part negotiator. Part facilitator. Part strategist. With a little bit of pyscho-analyst thrown in for good measure. I have also been the go-to person for questions from investors, insurers, builders, government officials, etc.

My focus has, and will continue to be, on developing technologies and techniques that allow communities to build durable, sustainable, modestly-priced homes for average income earners worldwide, not just in the U.S. To that end, I am currently working on a project that will allow for the construction of structural wall panel plants in Iraq. A long story, but an important one. They need 3 million units of housing. In the past 25 years, they've only managed to get less than 20,000 units constructed, according to the United Nations. Lack of adequate housing fuels the cycle of poverty and the resulting after-affects which includes terrorism. A story not being told by the mainstream media.

I have a team of experts now assembled who can rapidly build thousands of units of housing per year anywhere in the world. A welcome, though unintended, consequence of the work we've done over the past three years. If you need housing for your country, call us. :-)

Another part of my work has found me helping raise money for two home builders in modestly-priced residential housing markets in the U.S. and Canada. Since May, I have helped to raise over $6M in construction loans. It's not been easy, but we've done it. Over 50 modestly-priced homes are being built in the these markets this year as a result.

What's frustrating, though, is that I am struggling to get anyone to pay much attention to me on the energy efficiency issue. The many builders I am working with see no compelling reason to change what they are doing. From Nova Scotia, to Alberta to Louisiana, Virginia, Oregon and beyond, there is simply no driving imperative to do anything different. For all of the talk of a green revolution in this critical industry, the realities are FAR from close to what organizations like the USGBC desires. In fact, I'd argue that it will take another 20+ years or more to see any noticeable change in how homes are built.

Yet, I am determined to get through to the people I work with. These are smart, motivated people. But right now they need to make money. Everyone is suffering in one form or another. I wonder if there is not a small baby step anyone could recommend these folks take to bring home building into a more modern era? What's the one simple thing you'd advise on the issue of increasing the energy efficiency of a modestly-priced home?

Stun Gun Darts and the Potential for Needlestick-like Injuries to Emergency Responders

2009-09-10T13:18:00.000-07:00

Did you know...

Stun Gun devices, while reportedly responsible for improving public safety and the safety of police officers in the past several years, have a largely under-reported safety flaw which puts emergency medical workers at increasing risk of life-threatening injuries occurring during the removal of expended darts.

Prior to the development of the D.A.R.T. Pro tool and X-TRACTOR Tips, there were no tools on the market specifically designed to prevent needlestick-type injuries incurred when police officers or medical personnel handle stun-gun darts. Often workers must pull the darts out by hand or use pliers or forceps to remove them from unruly subjects, heightening the risk of a blood infection to the workers. The darts have been sometimes stored in a plastic bag, again putting handlers at risk.

The cost to public agencies to test and treat personnel who may have been infected by bloodborne pathogens could run into the hundreds of thousands of dollars annually. The use of the D.A.R.T. Pro with the attached X-TRACTOR Tip eliminates the risk.

The U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration’s (OSHA) bloodborne pathogens standard specifies the engineering controls, such as safer medical devices, which must be used to reduce or eliminate worker exposure.

A recent revision includes new requirements regarding an employer's Exposure Control Plan, including an annual review and update to reflect changes in technology that eliminate or reduce exposure to bloodborne pathogens.

The employer must:

1. take into account innovations in medical procedure and technological developments that reduce the risk of exposure (e.g., newly available medical devices designed to reduce needlesticks) and

2. document consideration and use of appropriate, commercially-available, and effective safer devices (e.g., describe the devices identified as candidates for use, the method(s) used to evaluate those devices, and justification for the eventual selection

No one medical device is considered appropriate or effective for all circumstances. Employers must select devices that, based on reasonable judgment will not jeopardize patient or employee safety or be medically inadvisable, and will make an exposure incident involving a contaminated sharp less likely to occur.

Employers must solicit input from non-managerial employees responsible for direct patient care regarding the identification, evaluation, and selection of effective engineering controls, including safer medical devices. Employees selected should represent the range of exposure situations encountered in the workplace, such as those in geriatric, pediatric, or nuclear medicine, and others involved in direct care of patients.

OSHA will check for compliance with this provision during inspections by questioning a representative number of employees to determine if and how their input was requested.

Employers are required to document, in the Exposure Control Plan, how they received input from employees. This obligation can be met by listing the employees involved and describing the process by which input was requested or presenting other documentation, including references to the minutes of meetings, copies of documents used to request employee participation, or records of responses received from employees.

Employers who have employees who are occupationally exposed to blood or other potentially infectious materials, and who are required to maintain a log of occupational injuries and illnesses under existing recordkeeping rules, must also maintain a sharps injury log. That log will be maintained in a manner that protects the privacy of employees. At a minimum, the log will contain the following: the type and brand of device involved in the incident, location of the incident (e.g., department or work area), and description of the incident. The sharps injury log may include additional information as long as an employee's privacy is protected. The format of the log can be determined by the employer.

 At any given time, almost 10 percent of the emergency medical technicians (EMTs) and paramedics in the United States miss work because of injuries and illnesses they suffered on the job.

 In one year, an estimated 8.1 of every 100 emergency responders will suffer an injury or illness forcing them to miss work. Compared to data compiled by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, the rate of injuries requiring work absence among these first responders far exceeds the national average of 1.3 per 100 lost-work injury cases reported in 2006.

 About 900,000 certified emergency medical services professionals responded to more than 17 million calls in 2005. The most common injuries these professionals suffer are exposure to blood-borne pathogens from needle sticks

 It is estimated a thousand health care professionals are injured each day as the result of hospital accidents involving needles or other sharp objects, according to the Center of Disease Control (CDC). Source: American Nurses Association.

 Nearly two-thirds (64 percent) of U.S. nurses say needlestick injuries and blood borne infections remain major concerns.

 Sixty-four percent of nurses report being accidentally stuck by a needle while working.

 Among those nurses reporting needlestick injuries, a staggering 74 percent have been stuck by a contaminated needle while working. In 2008, more than one-third (35 percent) reported two or more contaminated needlesticks over the course of their career.

 While the overwhelming majority of nurses (91 percent) are familiar with their workplace’s protocol regarding needlestick injuries, 79 percent of those accidentally stuck by a needle while working say they reported the incident, compared to 83 percent in 2006.

 Nearly half (46 percent) of those who have been stuck say, during their most recent needlestick injury, they received an evaluation or were treated within one to two hours; yet more than one- third (39 percent) state they were not evaluated or treated at all.

 Ninety-five percent of nurses report taking a Hepatitis B vaccine to protect them from Hepatitis B infection due to occupational exposure.

Only the D.A.R.T. Pro complies with OSHA regulations promulgated to reduce the risk of needlestick injuries. According to OSHA, devices designed to reduce needlestick injuries must have …
• A fixed safety feature to provide a barrier between the hands and the needle after use; the feature should allow or require the worker's hands to remain behind the needle at all times.
• The safety feature as an integral part of the device, and not an accessory.
• The safety feature in effect before disassembly and remaining in effect after disposal, to protect users and trash handlers, and for environmental safety.
• The safety feature as simple as possible, and requiring little or no training to use effectively.
For more information, please contact nathanielclevenger@gmail.com, 503.753.2120. Provided by Global Pathogen Solutions. All Rights Reserved. www.globalpathogensolutions.com.

Good Friend, John Barrows, Shares His Thoughts on Cooking

2009-08-30T13:09:00.000-07:00

My good buddy, friend and mentor, John Barrows, was interviewed recently in a local newspapaper here in Oregon. Here's the link.

Why we must re-focus our efforts in Afghanistan. Or, why bother with protecting voters in small far-flung villages?

2009-08-23T20:01:00.000-07:00

If widespread media reports are even marginally accurate, U.S. efforts to root out terrorist activities in Afghanistan and Pakistan are apparently not working well. More ominous, these efforts are not likely to end well for our soldiers unless we gain some focus - and fast. Protecting handfuls of voters in far flung provincial villages seems like an enormous waste of money and time. Our young soldiers deserve better than to lose their lives in places that are not even on maps.

Our stated government policy is focused on activities designed to disrupt or destroy terrorist activity. Yet, we don't have enough resources to achieve that ambitious goal. Hell, we can't even control the Mexican drug trade in our own country, so how do we think we can control the same kinds of activities in a country half a planet away? Mexican drug lords are simply trying to get and keep us all high. Afghan drug lords on the other hand, protected by their terrorist brethren, are trying to get and keep us high AND kill us at the same time.

If Mexican drug cartels wanted to support democratic rights in territories under their control, would we soften our position to them? No chance. Not so in Afghanistan where we are seeking to join hands with "moderates" in the Taliban political structure. People. Please. We have lost our minds. And soon, if we don't get some common sense working here, we are going to find the rest of our bodies in plastic travel bags.

For example...

I'd like to believe that we can use a few thousand Marines to win the hearts and minds of people living in deserts. But, that's naive. More than that, it's stupid and arrogant to think we can change them. People who live in deserts don't apparently want our assistance -- or anyone's assistance for that matter. If they wanted a better life, they would not be living in a desert. What the hell are we doing trying to help people who believe cultural destitution is their birthright? And yet, we literally "soldier on" in a half-baked and dangerous mission to protect their right to vote?

They've already voted -- with their feet! They don't apparently want to be part of the solution. They don't want to be part of the problem either. In short, they just don't want to be a part of anything. So, let's move on. Let's focus on getting the really bad guys and leave people in the nether regions of Helmand Province, etc., the hell alone (or alone in hell?)

This past week I drove from Edmonton, Alberta, through to Portland, Oregon. It was a long drive. About 1,000 miles. Along the way I passed through many small towns hanging on to the bitter edge of far away economic centers like Edmonton. I stopped for gas and food in several of these places and while no one struck me as a facile student of quantum physics, they seemed happy. And that's my point. They are happy living away from what the rest of the world considers civilization. They enjoy being left alone and I can damn near guarantee you if you asked them if they liked government -- in any form - the answer would be an emphatic, Hell no!

Should we think it any different in Afghanistan or Northern Pakistan? Imagine a group of armed Marines rolling in to your small burg, setting up check points, pointing dangerous weapons at your cars and explaining all the while that they were there to protect your right to vote. It's laughable in the extreme. In fact, I simply can't go on.

We must get back to focus on killing as many at the Taliban and their Al Qaeda friends as possible and stop this folly that we can convert vast amounts of nothingness into an Americanized somethingness. Otherwise, we will be sent packing just like the Turks, the Brits, the Persians, the Greeks and the other powers before us. Maybe we should take a vote first.

What if healthcare workers made more house calls?

2009-07-26T09:06:00.001-07:00

Would we be healthier if professional health care workers made more housecalls?

Why is that all other while collar professionals (lawyers, CPA's, bankers, etc.) are perfectly willing to leave their offices and come to their client's homes or places of business, but we are forced to meet our doctors, physician assistants and the like mostly in their offices alone?

How can the medical professional truly treat the "whole" person without seeing the very day-to-day environments in which they live? It's a fair question, I believe.

Imagine if your doctor could see that what is continuously making you sick is the fact that your home has not been dusted for ten years? Or, he can see that you live next door to a factory spewing out high levels of potentially cacrinogenic particulates. Or, the visiting nurse notices that you have 100 cats living in your house and that may be contributing to your kids' asthma. The list is endless.

Our healthcare system is geared to looking at tactical causes and effects and then presecribing tactical -- read "pharmaceutical" -- solutions to a specific problem. It is not particularly clever at looking at the whole picture of human health and wellness because it only sees its "customers" in a clinical setting. In short, it can not treat the whole person unless it understands the whole picture. But there is a simple answer. And, it won't cost that much. In fact, in the end it will save our healthcare system billions as we should all be that much healthier. Even if the end result is a 10 percent reduction in healthcare cost, the savings would be significant.

Part of pro-active, preventive treatment efforts should include physician assistants, nurses and the like -- if not physicians themselves -- making annual home visits. I don't know one person who likes visiting the doctor's office. It's inconvenient. It's often a cattle call. We wait endlessly and are given 15 minutes or less to visit with someone who is supposed to quickly ascertain our health or lack thereof. It's ridiculous. How much healthier might our society be if the medical profession brought healthcare to the people versus the other way around.

Sure, you'd still need to go to the doctor's office for obvious reasons. But, if you could choose to have a health care worker come to you for routine "maintenance" of your health care, what might the end result be?

Like most Americans I think that we need more common sense approaches to solving our health care system. Throwing more money at it has not reduced the numbers of uninsured. My senior thesis is colleage in the late 80s focused on ideas for insuring the nation's 30 million uninsured at that time. 20+ years later, 50 million are uninsured. So, we've had plenty of time to consider this issue and make creative changes. Yet, here we are -- no better than where we were two decades ago.

Here's what I think about the Bull Market and the economy in general

2009-07-17T18:27:00.001-07:00

INITIAL ANALYSIS OF BIODIESEL PLANT PRACTICALITY FOR OREGON AND SOUTHWEST WASHINGTON. JULY 2009.

2009-07-11T17:22:00.000-07:00

I believe that there is and will be a healthy market for biodiesel in the Pacific Northwest. It’s all about mastering the fundamentals, which includes tax incentives, segmenting market demand, understanding distribution infrastructure, and exploiting Big Oil’s built-in limitations. Oh, and of course, tapping in to the desire of consumers to replace foreign oil with domestic energy sources that help Americans and the planet. Americans seem to understand now that sending our manufacturing jobs overseas has not provided a long-term positive for our own economy and so the pendulum for wanting to keep jobs at home is swinging back. The power of that paradigm shift cannot be overstated.

"For the first time in a long time there are some financial incentives to attract manufacturing in the U.S.," Source: Roger Efird, president of Suntech America, a subsidiary of the world's largest solar power company, based in China.

And while developing a small footprint (sub 2MMgy) biodiesel processing plant may be counter to conventional wisdom, what follows are my arguments for why an opportunity is revealing itself now to create a long-term, sustainable business in biodiesel processing through plants that have annual production capacity of less than two million gallons.

In recent years, several new Federal laws designed to increase the production and consumption of domestic biofuels have been enacted. The Energy Policy Act of 2005 established the Renewable Fuel Standard, which mandated that transportation fuels sold in the United States contain a minimum volume of renewable fuels, the level of which increases yearly until 2022. In December 2007, the Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007 increased the mandatory levels of renewable fuel blending credits to a total of 36 billion gallons by 2022, including 16 million gallons of cellulosic biofuels. By comparison, in 2007, the United States consumed 6.8 billion gallons of ethanol and 491 million gallons of biodiesel.

Biodiesel consumption is predicted to increase to 1.2 billion gallons by 2030, or approximately only 1.5% of total diesel consumption. Consumption of renewable diesel, made from cellulosic materials, is expected to substantially exceed biodiesel consumption by 2030.

But this is only part of the story. The big trend is this: Petroleum refining capacity in the United States has been declining since the late 1960s. Petroleum demand has been increasing. So, a massive gap between the decreasing supply of refined oil and the increasing demand has been created. Domestic supplies, then, have been made up by foreign imports of refined oil products. Americans love the oil, they’ve just lost their appetite for foreign oil.

There are only two choices: add more refining capability, which we likely won’t do as no one wants a new refinery in their backyard, or build smaller refineries using domestic oil stocks. If we are going to build refining capacity, we might as well refine our own feedstocks rather than buy them from governments in the Middle East and South America.

Note: Any American who believes that our energy needs are being appropriately provided by the status quo – especially with regard to petroleum – is either naïve or purposely acting counter to our national interests. The fact is, petroleum is not the answer to our long-term energy needs. We must develop more local, closed-loop energy solutions that remove the myriad threats posed by our continued reliance on petroleum and its byproducts.

The arguments for and against biodiesel in particular and biofuels in general are many and complex. The arguments in favor of biodiesel are simple. Here are just a few…

1. BOTH CANADA AND THE UNITED STATES ARE INVESTING IN BIOFUEL INNOVATIONS AT PARADIGM-SHIFTING RATES. Paralleling efforts in the U.S. to expand the use of biodiesel, the Canadian Parliament last year passed a Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS) requiring biodiesel sold in Canada to contain an average of 2% renewable content, in the diesel supply. Four years ago, there was no significant market for biodiesel in North America, now both nations are aggressively trying to stimulate the growth of biodiesel production.

According to the National Biodiesel Board, there has been a nationwide explosion of biodiesel production in the past few years. The National Biodiesel Board, an industry trade group, estimates the 176 refineries that were functioning in 2008 produced 700 million gallons of biodiesel -- a 1,300 percent increase over 1999 production. That trend is expected to slow, but there will be continued growth, with at least 39 plants under construction and biofuel regulations either existing or proposed in nearly every state. But biodiesel's long-term future is clouded by, among other things, the availability of raw material for the alternative fuel.

The reasons why governments in Canada and the U.S. and Canada are doing this are simple. In biodiesel, everyone wins. The farmers. The entrepreneurs. The consumers. And, most importantly, the politicians who want to keep their jobs. There is simply no real political or economic downside. It could be argued (and it is by many) that the current price of petro-diesel, which is higher by several cents than gasoline, means that biodiesel is going to be unattractive to consumers for a good while longer. But, that is only a small part of the picture. It ignores the fact that the vast majority of petro-diesel is consumed by businesses like truck fleets, river and ocean shipping, Over the long-term, biodiesel production will provide a wide variety of economic and environmental benefits that cannot be ignored.

2. THE ECONOMIC RECOVERY IS ABOUT ONE THING: JOB CREATION. Renewable fuels provide a major source of economic opportunity. New green jobs are already being created. Expanded production will equal increased industrial and commercial development. Perhaps most excitingly, renewable fuels will spark economic expansion for farm families and the forestry sector - which will provide the feedstocks for new fuels that we harvest, rather than extract. Re-creating jobs in the forestry and agriculatural sectors in the Pacific Northwest is politically attractive.

The Portland Development Commission (PDC) commissioned a study two years ago to evaluate crops that have the highest potential as a biodiesel feedstock and where they may be grown in Oregon. The PDC did this, in part, to demonstrate to the majority of the state – which is rural – that it could be a partner in providing win-win economic solutions for not just city dwellers, but rural as well. The report examined the viability of a Portland-based biodiesel refinery with a capacity of one half million gallons annually as a starting point. Canola was the feedstock focal point because of its hardiness as a seed oil crop in many parts of Oregon.

3. THERE IS A LOT OF MONEY BEING PUT INTO THE “GREEN ECONOMY.” The U.S. plans to spend $50-$100 billion in economic stimulus funds for extended renewable energy tax credits, building efficiency retrofits, subway and light rail projects, and environmental restoration programs. Many of these programs intersect with the business of biodiesel. In particular, the U.S. Department of Energy is providing loan guarantees up to 80% of the project costs. States are also providing incentives. A list of some of those incentives is attached.

4. OUR BIGGEST LONG-TERM COMPETITOR, BIG OIL, IS ALSO LIKELY OUR MOST SIGNIFICANT LONG-TERM PARTNER PROVIDING A CLEAR POSSIBLE EXIT OPPORTUNITY. Large petroleum processors like ExxonMobil, Marathon Oil and ConcocoPhillips have a right to be concerned about the proliferation of biofuels processing in the United States. It’s only my opinion, but It could be argued that a conspiracy is being led by Big Oil to kill the budding biofuels industry by, among other things, stifling production of petroleum in the near-term. They are also trying to drive up prices for their own products, but if it harms the nascent biofuels market that can’t be bad for them either.

Big Oil’s greatest threat is our greatest asset and that is this. Big Oil has a finite amount of refining capacity for at least the next ten years. No new refineries have been developed in the United States since 1976 and it can take a decade or more to build a new one. In early 2009, many larger refineries cut capital investments by billions of dollars, so capacity will not be able to come online quickly once the economy inevitably turns around.

Even in the worst-case scenario where the economy does not start growing again for another five years, petroleum refinery capacity will not be much different from what it is now. This means that prices for petroleum will inevitably rise which leads to more dependence on foreign stocks ultimately. That is not a sustainable model for the United States in the long-run.

5. SMALL BIOFUEL REFINERIES THAT ARE CLOSE TO THEIR FEEDSTOCKS SIMPLY MAKE SENSE. In a late November 2008 report, widely cited by media around the world, Merrill Lynch analysts shared a belief that energy markets today are mostly centralized, thus decentralized energy generation is evolving toward a horizontal, distributed industry. That’s a fancy way of saying that “small is beautiful.” In Oregon, small biodiesel refineries can create local markets for farmers. They can create local jobs, which is attractive to local governments. They also reduce the costs of fuel eventually because one of the biggest costs for petroleum is in transportation.

Recent yield trials in the Willamette Valley have shown that available winter canola varieties can produce in excess of 4,000 lbs. of seed per acre. Other production regions under consideration are the Columbia Basin (dryland and irrigated), Central Oregon near Madras, and Northeast Oregon in the LaGrande area. Even though yields may be lower (2,000 to 3,000 lbs. per acre) outside the Willamette Valley, canola may serve as a valuable rotation crop in these areas.

In spite of recent media reports suggesting that biodiesel crops may be restricted from expanding in Oregon, growing demand is likely to ensure that just the opposite will occur. We can be a part of ensuring that Oregon continues to expand production limits which are due for reconsideration by Oregon Department of Agriculture crop regulators in September. There is a more technical reason, though, why Oregon is likely to expand canola crop expansion. Using canola in a crop rotation with grass seed and wheat benefits Oregon growers.

Canola plants have strong taproots that penetrate compacted soil layers that fibrous roots of grass seed and cereal crops cannot. Growing canola can significantly improve soil tilth and increase water infiltration rates in compacted soils, reducing tillage costs and improving performance of following crops. Including canola in the crop rotation will also help growers control grass weeds, which are becoming greater problems in both grass seed and wheat production. This is particularly important in the Willamette Valley where grass weeds have become a major problem in grass seed production fields, and growers have few non-grass crop rotation options.

6. ANOTHER SUPPORTING COROLLARY TO THE “SMALL IS BEAUTIFUL” SCENARIO INVOLVES THE DISTRIBUTED GROWTH OF SEED CRUSHING OPERATIONS. The use of small, decentralized mechanical oilseed crushers that extract vegetable oil without the use of solvents is a growing phenomenon. This concept has been used very successfully in Europe and Asia for local production of cooking oil, biodiesel, and oilseed meal for animal feed for decades. This technology allows extraction of oil on-farm or by small local enterprises, virtually eliminating transportation costs. Filtered, virgin oil is sold for edible or industrial use, and the meal is usually consumed by animals on-farm or sold to local dairies.

Advantages of On-Farm Oilseed Processing Facilities:
Low capital cost ($100,000 – $250,000)
No waste products
Minimal siting issues – on-farm or industrial sites will work
Small footprint and low power usage
Low raw material transportation and storage costs
Create rural jobs and value-added opportunity

There are, of course, some disadvantages to on-farm oilseed processing. These include, low throughput, possible quality control issues (no on-site lab) and high residual oil content ( 8-12%) remaining in the meal. But, mobile oilseed crushing units are already being considered as a potential solution to the problem. These mobile crushers would likely be able to quickly increase their capacity from about 200 gallons of oil per day to as much as 400 or more, thus making them economically-viable. Indeed, there may be another profitable business in this sector focused on bringing the crusher to the farm, rather than the seeds to the crusher.

7. OREGON’S BIGGEST INDUSTRY IS AGRICULTURAL PRODUCTS. WHY? BECAUSE WE HAVE A LOT OF LAND. According to state agricultural resources, Oregon can suitably grow as many as 300,000 acres of canola in the next few years on an annual basis. This represents a 100X increase in production from the current 3,000 acres. Our calculations show that for every 1MMgy of production, you’d need about 30,000 acres of canola in rotation. That can likely be cut by a significant amount if yields can be properly managed. As we do have such a large agricultural product base, we have a significant volume of relevant infrastructure for moving agricultural products to markets. These include strong networks of roads and rail transport, as well as the infrastructure that supports river movement of products along the Columbia – the fifth largest river in the world.

END NOTES
http://earthtrends.wri.org/text/energy-resources/variable-817.html
http://www.biodiesel.org/news/taxincentive/

California Drivin'

2009-07-03T19:01:00.001-07:00

I drove to San Diego, California this past week from Portland, OR. I could talk about Oregon all day. It's a beautiful state and I have a new appreciation for it having driven the entire length of California. The Golden state could generally be divided in to 4 sections along I-5.

Section 1: NoCal. Mount Shasta. Green trees. Mountains. Kind of like West Virginia only with a lot more brown coloring. The water was very low in the lakes. Guess it's not snowing or raining enough in the Shasta watershed? Either way, one can't help but be impressed with the natural beauty of this part of the state. It's a postcard around every corner.

Section 2: The Valley. Hot. Dry. Lots of aqueducts, fruit trees, almond trees, and a helluvalot of dust. This part takes up about 1/3 of the state. As you whisk along at 70 MPH, you get the sense the state flower is the retread tire scrap. Pieces of retread line I-5 for hundreds of miles. Someone could make a lot of money just picking these up and recycling them. Hey Governor Schwarzenegger! Maybe you could spare some convicts to do a little road work? This section really does not end until you hit the outer northern suburbs of Los Angeles. It has its own beauty, I suppose. But, mostly it's just miles and miles of agriculture. And, clearly, they are having a water problem. There were signs everywhere complaining of the "Congress Made Dust Bowl."

Section 3: Los Angeles. Los Angeles has to be one of the ugliest cities in the world. What's really criminal is that it does not have to be that way. It has so much potential, so much energy, so many rich and smart people. It's pathetic. All that creativity and no one smart enough to simply pick up the garbage. Cruising along I-5 gives one the impression that the city is just fine with that. There is an unbelievable amount of debris and detritus of daily life along the freeway and under passes. It's astonishing. You'd think with all of L.A.s' problems, someone would at least take out the trash. I know I sound a little like my grandmother here scolding my aunt for keeping an untidy home; dishes in the sink, garbage overflowing, bathrooms that would make a fraternity house look like a Level One clean room, etc. I think Antonio Villaraigosa should be ashamed of what he is presiding over. Hey Mayor Villaraigosa! Some advice: be the change you want to see in (your) world. You could start by doing a little roadside clean up.

Section 4: Carlsbad. An oasis of pure California dreamin' bliss. Beaches. Sand. Surf. Clean taco stands with friendly gold-toothed cashiers. Even the bathrooms in these little dives are clean. It's Boca Raton with hills. Lots of neat little malls and shops for the well-heeled, botoxed and SUV-loving face painters tanned to perfection. We stayed at the sterile, but perfectly adequate, Grand Pacific Palisades Hotel and Resort. It was impeccably clean, but devoid of personality. I felt like I'd landed in a Logan's Run set piece.

California is a little like a middle aged man whose athletic glory days are fading fast. His middle is a real problem, but he's still got the shoulders and legs of his old form; his top and bottom show what he could be again. But, he needs to do some sit ups, lay off the carbs and get a plan for the next phase of his life. My advice if you are planning to drive the length of the Bear State: taake a nap once you hit Weed and stay asleep until you hit Miramar. You won't miss much.

A.I.G. is At It (A) 'Gin. $100 Million in Bonuses! Please wake me when this is over.

2009-03-14T18:35:00.000-07:00

My fellow suckers, er, I mean, Americans:

Wall Street does not need another bail out. It needs a massive rout out by the Orkin Man. Sadly, I am not sure if there is enough rat poison on the planet to get rid of the infestation of vermin that so determinedly resides there. Rats hate bright lights, so everyone grab a torch or flashlight. We can hunt them together.

Damnit.

The news a few hours ago is that A.I.G.'s government-appointed chairman, Mr. Edward Liddy (who can't seem to keep a lid-dy on the money pot) has been cowed by, and I am not making this up, a bunch of lawyers who have apparently told him that $100 million in bonuses must be paid to the very people who brought A.I.G., and part of our economy, to its very knees.

Here's the kicker.

Just a moment, though, it's more than a kicker, it's the umpteenth sucker punch.

Mr. Liddy tells us, woefully, that he must pay these bonuses in order to retain these people; people who might otherwise leave.

Memo to Mr. Liddy.

1. Planet Earth is calling. Wake the f*%$#k up!

2. Fire the lawyers. They, as usual, don't know J-A-C-K. Looks like they know Bill, though, as in Bill-by-the-hour (in six minute increments, of course).

3. Fire the people who got us in to this mess! Why, in the Lord's Holy Name, are these people still working at A.I.G.?

4. I want my country back. Please leave the keys under the mat.

We must get our heads screwed on correctly here, people. I wish no personal harm to the people at A.I.G. Many of them were likely following orders from some unknown lever puller who is likely enjoying Spring Break in Gstaad. Even so, they need to go take their talents elsewhere - and with haste.

I am sorry, but I simply don't believe that there are not enough brains in America to fix an insurance company. Hello! It's an insurance company! It's not a neuro surgery practice.

Ladies and Gentlemen, it's time to calmly assemble along West Side Drive and proceed, heads down in shame, to the southern tip of Manhattan, for a sit in. We might as well get used to sleeping outside, no need to delay. Please bring your own torch.

Dear Children: Make No Mistake. Rush Limbaugh is a Crypto-Fascist

2009-03-03T11:50:00.000-08:00

Kids,

This past week in American history, a failed ballroom dancer and college drop out has become the de facto dictator of the Party of Lincoln in our nation. He's the kind of person who has an answer for everything, but understands the meaning of little.

In time he is either going to become an American Dictator (in some ways he already is) or he's going to fade into obscurity. In the mean time, he is dangerous and I hope as you read this you will not be victimized by his ideas or his comrades who are quite literally in arms.

The fact is, he is on record for expressing a hope that our popularly elected president, Barak Obama, fails as president. I should note that your father generally votes "conservative." So, he is no Obama agenda accolyte. President Obama has been in office less than two months and already Mr. Limbaugh is praying that his administration finds no solution to our nations problems - which are extremely difficult at this time. Mr Limbaugh's speech is not just wrong. It is morally bankrupt or worse.

For example, here's what he said to Sean Hannity in a recent interview on CNN:

"I said earlier I don't know about this guy (Obama). I really don't. I've got my — I've got my suspicions, and they're pretty close to convictions, but we're going to have to wait to see what he does." But you aren't "waiting," are you? You are simply increasing your own ratings and, byt extension, lining your own pockets, by attacking a man you admit you don't even know.

Oh, and here's the kicker. You say that the American public "think(s) he's an intellectual because of the way he speaks. And it's all about how he speaks. And I look at some of the facial expressions of people when they're watching the guy, and it's frightening."

Gosh, Rush, are you talking about President Obama or about yourself?

Mr. Limbaugh believes that "more government" involvement in our lives is the problem, not the solution, to society's many ills. On the surface that would seem correct and few people would disagree. But, what is "more government?" Or, "big government?"

When the citizenry is involved in government to the extent that they were in this last round of elections, then what's bad about that? The electorate has been stirred to act mostly in reaction to the failed policies of the former administration. Anyone who thinks that the last eight years were better than the previous sixteen, then please stand up -- and check yourself in to a mental clinic.

Change may not be pefect, but it's needed and more government is what's needed now, not less, as long as the people remain as actively involved. Besides, the tree of liberty must be pruned occasionally. That's pruned, not chopped. Mr. Limbaugh seeks to chop the tree down in order to save it.

Democratically-elected governments are comprised of people, not automatons. Government management of issues is messy sometimes. Businesses suffer the same failings. But, it's not because governments - or businesses -- are inherently bad. They fail because the people involved in them failied for one reason or another, sometimes through no fault of their own.

In our country, the people make the laws. In Rush Limabaugh's bizarro world, he makes the laws. He is the only decider of what's right or wrong or correct or incorrect. And only he dictates how the entire Republican Party will act. He has is so feared by the current elected Republican Party leadership that they cannot publicly counter his arguments without fear of reprisal. Indeed, they make public apologies whenever he feels they have wronged him which when you think about is as funny as it is pathetic. I mean, you have Ivy League-educated leaders kissing the ass of a man who could not finish one full year of secondary education. His intellectual curiousity could be measured within the length of the pages in Mein Kampf. I'd go on, but I don't want to stray too far from my point.

This week, the chairman of the Republican Party, Michael Steele, dared to suggest that Mr. Limbaugh was little more than an entertainer. For this, Mr. Steele was savagely attacked by Mr. Limbaugh on his nationally-syndicated radio program. Mr. Limbaugh has enough empathy to fill a sub atomic particle.

A side note: People who lack empathy are ultimately dangerous and you should resist their twisted logic always or our democracy is doomed. Mr. Limbaugh has achieved a special place in American society. He has chosen to use that high place as a pulpit to spout hatred, negativity and -- frankly -- stupidity. He is neither smart nor particularly talented. You must see him for what he is: a morally corrupt voice pretending to a throne of his design.

More technically, Mr. Limbaugh is a crypto-fascist, but that's a high-falutin term. He tries to obfuscate his true desires in language that makes most Americans feel comfortable. But, they should not be fooled. Rush is not interested in what's best for them, their fellow Americans -- or the world. He's interested in what's best for Rush. He's interested in his own power. And he has little fear in attacking savagely those who oppose him. Besides, what does he have to fear? When real leaders like Mr. Steele seek to bring him down to earth, he villifies them and uses hysterical rhetoric to rally his ill-informed legions.

Kids, I have practiced negative rhetoric on a small scale. It's distatesful and ultimately self-destructive. By the time you are old enough to understand this I hope that Rush is long-forgotten by the public. Having said that, I wish him personal comfort and peace. I also wish his followers the same. But, I also pray for their eventual salvation from his negativity, reclacitrance and poorly-considered brand of rhetoric. We need real leaders, not narcisssistic mouthpieces who would not know a days hard work if it hit them with a shovel.

Oh You Pretty Things

2009-02-06T07:40:00.001-08:00

Dear Children,

I am sitting here this morning listening to the news tell me that unemployment has now hit a 34 year high (last week it was reported to be a 28 year high; we are heading in the wrong direction apparently).

So, as I sip ethiopian coffee on a danish table clacking this out on a chinese-made computer I am listening to a british singer belt out this tune. It seems to suit the mood of the morning.

Wake up you sleepy head
Put on some clothes, shake up your bed
Put another log on the fire for me
Ive made some breakfast and coffee
Look out my window what do I see
A crack in the sky and a hand reaching down to me
All the nightmares came today
And it looks as though theyre here to stay

What are we coming to
No room for me, no fun for you
I think about a world to come
Where the books were found by the golden ones
Written in pain, written in awe
By a puzzled man who questioned
What we were here for
All the strangers came today
And it looks as though theyre here to stay

Oh you pretty things (oh you pretty things)
Dont you know youre driving your
Mamas and papas insane
Oh you pretty things (oh you pretty things)
Dont you know youre driving your
Mamas and papas insane
Let me make it plain
You gotta make way for the homo superior

Look at your children
See their faces in golden rays
Dont kid yourself they belong to you
Theyre the start of a coming race
The earth is a bitch
Weve finished our news
Homo sapiens have outgrown their use
All the strangers came today
And it looks as though theyre here to stay

Oh you pretty things (oh you pretty things)
Dont you know youre driving your
Mamas and papas insane
Oh you pretty things (oh you pretty things)
Dont you know youre driving your
Mamas and papas insane
Let me make it plain
You gotta make way for the homo superior

So, children, as the day begins I flip to Eric Clapton's "Let it Grow." A happier note to leave you on and begin my work...

Im standin at the crossroads
Tryin to read the signs
To tell me which way I should
Go to find the answer
And all the time I know
Let your love and let it grow.

Let it grow, let it grow,
Let it blossom, let it flow.
In the sun and in the snow
Love is lovely, let it grow.

Lookin for a reason
To check out on my mind.
Its so hard to find a
Friend that I can count on.
Theres nothin left to show,
Plant your love and let it grow.

Let it grow...

Time is gettin shorter
And theres much for you to do,
Only askn you will get what you are needin,
The rest is up to you.
Plant your love and let it grow.

D is for Dodd, Daschle, Dumb and Dumber

2009-02-05T07:02:00.000-08:00

Dear Senator Dodd,

You were treated as a VIP by Countrywide when you were also charged with overseeing them. You should acknowledge that your behavior in securing a loan through them does not pass the smell test at the very least.

You claim your wife provided the loan documents? Please. When -- for God's sake -- are any of you so-called leaders going to simply say "I am sorry. I recognize that this could have been handled differently. I will seek to do better. Please forgive me."

Is that too much to ask?

The American public has proven over and over that it can be forgiving and patient. Why bury us in legal briefs and third-party verifications after the fact? Why not just pledge to act transparently from the beginning?

Perhaps you've been in the Senate too long.

As for you, Senator Daschle...

I applaud you for stepping aside and for recognizing, ultimately, that you made some poor decisions. Good for you.

Why you needed to go through the process of trying to move your appointment to HHS along as far as you did is troubling. You did not pay your taxes. There is no way that you could not have known, from my view, that using a car and driver as often as you did was not taxable. If that is your excuse, then you are naive at best.

Drive your own car from now on. Simple.

To all Members of Congress:

We the people want you to lead us and we want you to succeed. We want to celebrate your talents and your hard work to reach such a position of responsibility. We want you to protect us and serve the greater good. We want you to believe that by working with other smart people you can solve the problems of the world. We elected you to a place we hold dear under a flag that many before you have died for -- many under horrendous conditions. Each time you make decision that is designed at its base to enrich yourself or your friends over the needs and necessities of the greater good, you spit in the face of the dead who helped build our democracy.

So, ask yourself:

Am I in Congress to serve the people, or myself? Be honest. It's a simple question. If you can't answer this question correcly, then what are you doing there? It is unethical and immoral for you to run for public office if your driving motivation is to serve your own ego. Illinois' disgraced former governor, Mr. Blagojevich may not have done anything illegal, but he made clear in plain language that he held the democratic process in contempt.

Am I in Congress to be a participant in a great democracy or a player in a small autocracy?

If you achieve a leadership position among leaders in the Congress, will you use your power to help people or to punish those who do not believe in your ideology?

Am I in Congress to practice the art of compromise or are you there to defend the dogma of the day served up by talk radio critics far from the "sausage factory" every day?

Finally, your legacy will depend on the small actions and kindnesses you take each day, not by large leaps of legislative action. You are the sum of your decisions, not your individual decisions no matter what cynical media pundits might suggest.

Eugene O'Neill Said It Best in 1933 in the Play "Days Without End"

2008-11-10T08:23:00.000-08:00

"I listen to people talking about this universal breakdown we are in and I marvel at their stupid cowardice.

It is so obvious that they deliberately cheat themselves because their fear of change won't let them face the truth. They don't want to understand what has happened to them. All they want is to start the merry-go-round of blind greed all over again.

They no longer know what they want this country to be, what they want it to become, where they want it to go. It has lost all meaning for them except as pig-wallow. And so their lives as citizens have no beginnings, no ends. They have lost the ideal of the Land of the Free.

Freedom demands initiative, courage, the need to decide what life must mean to oneself. To them, that is terror. They explain away their spiritual cowardice by whining that the time for individualism is past, when it is their courage to possess their own souls which is dead — and stinking!

No, they don't want to be free. Slavery means security — of a kind, the only kind they have courage for. It means they need not to think. They have only to obey orders from owners who are, in turn, their slaves!

◦ John: Act 3, Scene 2

Election Day 2008

2008-11-04T06:26:00.000-08:00

Dear Children:

Today is election day 2008. As time goes by, some will want to cast this election as the most important in a generation or more. I want you to know that as I sit here this morning, I don't agree with that. Every election is important in its own way. One is no more critical than another. Whether its an election for mayor, sheriff, water district representative or president, what matters most is that you participate and vote.

If anything, what made this election important is that voters are paying more attention. And that's exactly what you need to do, pay attention. We have all seen what kind of leaders we get when do the opposite.

You need to vote because:

1. It's how you demonstrate that you are a responsible citizen.

2. It's respectful to the candidates who have sacrificed time with their families, friends and their own personal time to step into a hot spotlight to lead.

3. And, voting is how you pay homage to the millions of people over the past two hundred years who have bled, suffered and died so that you might have the legacy of freedom to vote as you see fit.

It matters not a wit whether the next president of the United States is Barack Obama or John McCain or Barney the Purple Dinosaur. What matters most is that your voice is part of the chorus. It's fine to be frustrated or even cynical about the process we go through in this country to elect our leaders. It's very chaotic and dynamic, multivariate and even maddening. It can also make you want to just ignore it and cloak oneself in apathy. And, many do.

Your father must confess that he waited until the last possible moment to vote in this particular election. At one point, I was so disgusted by the volume of vacuous media coverage, that I actually considered not voting at all. For someone who has been politically active and aware since the age of eight, that was a bit of a surprise.

Our media decided a year ago that the country needed Barack Obama, so it seemed that if I voted for Obama I would be a just one more tool of the manipulators in the media. If I voted for John McCain then maybe I'd be throwing my vote away. After careful consideration, I made a decision to consider one simple issue first before all others. That issue for me was/is my own subjective measure of each candidate's honor and integrity. Honor to himself, his family, and his country. Honor to something bigger than himself. Integrity in his ability to sacrifice himself repeatedly for a higher purpose.

None of the candidates could reach the high bar that your grandfathers, grandmothers, aunts and uncles set long before you arrived in this world. Those people put their families before themselves time after time and gave me thousands of reminders of the value of honor and integrity and sacrifice. Political candidates more often than not consider themselves over their families. Running for and holding a political office is extremely time-consuming and requires a significant sacrifice. Ambition is not the best trait for leading and nurturing a family. So, it was challenging to pick through what was left.

In the end, the candidate I chose was deeply flawed, but their honor and integrity had been long-tested, is consistent and more substantive than their rivals and their record shows that they are willing to consider the greater good over their own ambitions a good deal of the time. I'll let you determine who that was. In America we have the right to keep our vote private and I intend to do just that. Who I voted for is not nearly as important as voting itself.

Our country is not perfect. It is the sum of its parts; imperfect people generally all striving in cumbersome unison for a few noble ideas. Those ideas include protecting freedom and free choice and the need for humans to maintain a voice in how their lives are organized, managed and led. It's your job to stay involved in your democracy no matter how much you might find the effort inconvenient, irritating or even insulting. Your vote does matter and it counts.

The Subprime Mortgage Crisis - A primer

2008-10-20T12:07:00.000-07:00

Thanks to my friend, Bryant, for sending this clever presentation on the subprime crisis.

http://docs.google.com/TeamPresent?docid=ddp4zq7n_0cdjsr4fn&skipauth=true&pli=1

Sarah Palin Holds Her Own. Biden/Palin a Draw

2008-10-02T19:40:00.000-07:00

Dear Ones,

Seems like Governor Palin dodged a potentially fatal political bullet tonight. Senator Biden did well, too. So, what was being touted as the most watched vice presidential debate in history (does the media ever tire of superlatives?), turned out to be nothing more monumental than the kind of debate you might engage in at a cocktail party.

Every American should be gratified that these two people acted like fine Americans and not like guests on Jerry Springer. I think we can also see in Sarah Palin the kind of leader we saw in Ronald Reagan: an unflappable belief in the power of hope and belief in America. It's dogmatic, but the schtick works like a charm.

No question that Senator Biden's experience is far and away more impressive and significant than Governor Palin's. But, perhaps this election is not about what we should've done, but what we can do when we first believe that we can.

Henry Paulson, Would You Please Go Now

2008-10-01T19:32:00.000-07:00

“I think the danger is to just look through that lens, to lose a sense of perspective and rush toward harsh regulations that are unnecessary. Some regulation will be necessary, some changes in accounting rules.” -- U.S. Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson, after a previous Wall Street scandal.

Please, folks, let's get real here and demand that Henry Paulson move along. His kind of self-serving leadership is what got us in to the mess we are in now. His first instinct when Lehman Bros. and AIG began to unravel was to protect his friends first. His instinct now is to save his own reputation which upon close examination, needs a good scrubbing. I know I need a bath just thinking about the rhetorical jibberish he's been spouting over the past couple of weeks (a "bail out" is now a "rescue?" Are you kidding me?)

The fact is that a wolf is not what we need guarding the hen house any longer. Where is Ralph Nader when we need him? Or, a successor to his early approaches of holding powerful people accountable (cira 1970; not the Ralph Nader of 1998).

Our Congress is doing a good job of asking tough questions. I am glad they stalled for a few days to allow some of the Paulson-engineered fog to clear. I am equally pleased to see the U.S. Senate approve a bill that makes a good deal more sense than the first one even though it is far from perfect. Naturally, every American should be looking very closely at this bill as, at the end of the day, it was passed by a chamber that is comprised of some of the richest people in the world.

Our media needs to continue to ask tough questions of people like Mr. Paulson and our President, who looks more like a cooked duck than a lame one these days. The only reporter out there asking the tough questions so far is Lou Dobbs of CNN. He knows Wall Street better than almost any reporter. He's been calling for Mr. Paulson's resignation for days. Perhaps someone is listening?

How to explain what's happened on Wall Street to my third grader

2008-09-29T21:01:00.001-07:00

Here's what happened, son.

First, people like me took money we earned and we put into a bank. Remember this past summer when we took the money you made selling cookies and lemonade and put it in to your savings account? We put our money in the bank because we wanted our money to be safe. In other words, we didn't want a bad person to take it from us. The bank took our money and gave it to another bank. You see banks need even safer places to put the money we give them and there's nothing safer than a bigger bank.

These big banks then took our money and gave it to some really smart people, many of whom are trustworthy, thoughtful folks. A good number of them, though, are not. And that's where things have gone terribly wrong.

You see, son, the really smart people -- many of them in a city far from here -- decided that if they took our money and gave it to their friends to use as they wished, we wouldn't mind. They were wrong. They needed to tell us what they were doing with our money. They didn't. Our government, which is elected by all of us to watch our money, among other things, was supposed to be keeping an eye on things. They didn't do a very good job and so we need to elect new leaders who can keep an eye on our money.

The bad bank people were hiding their behavior from the government and were using our money to gamble and place bets. What has made the current situation even worse is that far too many people were gambling with money that was technically not there's. You could argue that the money was stolen and being used in ways that your dad is, frankly, to simple to understand fully. You'll need to get a little older to understand human psychology and economics before you can begin to appreciate what occurred here.

I can tell you this, though, when you bet with someone else's money and lose that money, you have to pay it back. When you are already in debt to other people, it makes it VERY hard to pay back the money you borrowed. It's like drowning in a swimming pool. The more you struggle, the more tired you become and the less strength you have to get to safety.

What's the lesson here? That's hard to say. I would not urge you to stop putting money in your bank account. A bank is the safest place for your savings. However, I do think you need to ask questions about where your money goes when you put it in your bank. Remember, banks put money in other banks. You want to know who those banks are and what they plan to do with your money. It's a fair question. Ultimately, the more curious you are, the better. Asking questions forces people to answer them. And as they answer them you can decide whether they are lying or telling the truth.

It's a universal problem: trying to decipher lies from truth. In the world in which you are growing, it's an important and critical skill to master. I don't think any of us can afford to stop asking questions anymore. My hope is that as you grow, you will learn to be curious about things that at first seem simple and mundane. Often, things that seem to be too good to be true are often just that and nothing more.

Congress Needs to Hold Fast With a Firm NO to the Bailout

2008-09-29T20:08:00.001-07:00

Seems like these investment bankers have rigged this game pretty well. Let's see, spend years creating credit derivative schemes to play games with other people's money, then when it comes flying back in your face, hand the bill to the very suckers you've been fleecing all of these years. Wow. Why didn't I think of that?

$700 billion. Let's let that roll around the tongue a bit. Seven...hundred...bill...yon. Well, shit honey, that's a hell of a lot of barbeque and baby back ribs. And since no one in charge in Washington or New York really knows what happened to get us into this stinking cesspool, I think we should consider bringing in some people who do. Sarah Palin anyone? Why don't we just all pile on to the plunger in a wild orgy of self-destruction. The last two hundred and thirty two years have been a good run. No need for anyone to feel responsible for what's happened. Afterall, taking responsibility is for suckers. It's every capitalist American's right to fleece his fellow citizens. We were taught that in grade school.

OK, I'll let that rant fester for a moment while I turn my mind to more pungent matters...

Which of these wankers would lend any of us simple Americans one dime if we'd proven we could not responsibly manage the money we'd previously been given? The answer to that is as plain as the bag I will be drinking from later this week. You gotta love these guys, though. They are slick. They've got every angle covered. Now that the shoe is on the other foot, we are told that our entire civilization is in danger of collapse. Boy, these guys have huge balls. Perhaps I'm just too dumb to really get it. And here I thought our president was not too bright. Wrong! He's f'in brilliant for coming up with this latest play to save his secret society buddies from potentially having to sell one their family homes. Having declared that...

It's completely ass backwards that we would seek to bail out Wall Street when there seems to be no real plan for spurring the mule that brought them to the corral in the first place. These scumbag banker's don't need the money; the American small business person needs it. Afterall, as George Bailey might have said, we are the people doing "most of the working, living and dying" in this place. The Mr. Potter's of Manhattan stole our deposits and now they claim we owe them? Whiskey tango foxtrot?

America's credit is in the toilet, so you hear all of the politicians fluffing us about how we are the most (pick a word) "creative, industrious, hard-working, resilient, admired, etc.," workers in the world. Yeah. Yeah. Heard that all before. What they really mean to say is "Please, dear Lord, don't let the American working folk pull back our clothes and expose us for what we really."

Of course it's not really that simple. Real people are getting hurt while the charlatans at the top lick their wounds in relative safety. I feel sorry for everyone who has been misled and is being left with nothing in the wake of this scandal. In a different time, us common folks would be storming the castle and demanding a piece of the booty. Hell, I don't know why most of us don't get down to lower Manhattan right away and open up an enormous can of whoop ass on some of these people. The problem is, it's so damned hard to point the finger through all of the smoke and mirrors. So, until this fog clears...

I hope Congress sticks to its decision. We need to wake up and see Wall Street for what it really is: a scam that has for too long been held unaccountable for its boorish behavior. My fellow Americans, I urge us all to wise up. The safest place for your money is not in the hands of some whiz kid in Manhattan. Great investments abound in your own communities and neighborhoods. Time to learn about micro-investing and how to help your local coffee shop entrepreneur. Enough of this sending your hard-earned money to a group of people only interested in their own short-term gains. There's no short path to success unless you want to steal from someone else.

And if this rant wasn't enough, I toss in this radish to my diatribe salad:

The Henry Paulson view of throwing more good money after bad does not float. It's a reactionary move designed to cover one narrow sectors butt: and that sector is full of Mr. Paulson's pirate friends. Witness his invitation to Goldman Sach's chairman to a private meeting two weeks ago to discuss options that only us saps could dream about. I am sure the lunch was catered. Who got the bill for that, Mr. Paulson?

What is Goldman Sachs Doing?

2008-09-28T19:54:00.000-07:00

I don't know about the rest of you out there in America, but I think I've had just about enough of Wall Street. Does anyone believe for a minute that if the country were in trouble, Wall Street would be rolling up their sleeves to help any one of us?

According to The New York Times today, two weeks ago there was a private meeting at the Federal Reserve office in New York. "The only Wall Street chief executive participating in the meeting was Lloyd C. Blankfein of Goldman Sachs, Mr. Paulson's former firm."

The media needs to investigate this relationship. Who is Lloyd Blankfein and what was he doing at that meeting?

Who was he representing? Was his participation a violation of the spirit, if not the intent, of Sarbanes Oxley rules? And, why in heaven's name would our Treasury Secretary be including only ONE member of the investment banking community?

Title IV of the Sarbanes Oxley Act describes enhanced reporting requirements for financial transactions, including off-balance-sheet transactions, pro-forma figures and stock transactions of corporate officers. It also requires timely reporting of material changes in financial condition and specific enhanced reviews by the SEC or its agents of corporate reports. Source: Wikipedia.org

I am a shareholder of Goldman Sachs stock and even I'm shocked at the cozyness of the relationship between the company and a government official who is now considered to be the most powerful treasury secretary since Alexander Hamilton held the post over 200 years ago.

Where does Henry Paulson get off having secret meetings to protect his former company's tail -- and the backsides of his friends -- at the expense of tax payers? And, who are the regulators really interested in protecting? Apparently it's not me.

How to break the cycle of poverty. It only takes one interruption to break a circle.

2008-09-14T15:02:00.000-07:00

As I sit here in a Native reservation coffee shop in faraway Atlantic Canada sipping coffee, I get an email from a friend in Portland, Oregon. There is going to be a meeting on how to address the cycle of poverty there in the coming weeks and he wanted me to know about it. It got me to thinking about why this is a perennial subject to address for non-profits.

Where are the answers? It's one thing to talk about statistics and issues. It's another thing entirely to consider fully what one can really do. I don't have the answer any more than the average person does. I do know that there are some maps for what we can do. Here's one...

Oxfam Canada has some pretty impressive thoughts on human rights that any conversation should include:

Oxfam believes the following five human rights are central to true and sustainable development:

The right to a sustainable livelihood –
We support people to achieve food and income security, decent working conditions and increased protection of the natural resources on which they depend.

The right to basic services –
We support people to gain access to basic health care, clean water and education for all.

The right to life and security –
We support people caught in the middle of war, violence, natural disasters and the displacement they cause to live safe from abuse, harm, suffering, illness and death. Where necessary we advocate for international intervention.

The right to be heard –
We support people to achieve their civil and political rights, have their voices heard and influence decisions that affect their lives.

The right to an identity –
We support people who are marginalized because of their gender, religion, ethnicity or cultural identity to live free from discrimination and enjoy equal rights and status with others.

Poverty is always going to be around because some people can't or won't work. It's not the "cycle of poverty" that we need to confront, it's a social contract that consistently believes a hand out followed by a slap down is better than a hand up. For some, we MUST give a hand out. The elderly grandparents raising their grandchildren, for example. A single mother who needs to feed her children, is another. America should absolutely have universal conscription like Israel, by the way. But, you should have a choice of whether to go into the military or a non-profit job. That's another matter.

Minimum wage jobs are important to any economy. But, they must not be the only labor opportunity for the poor. Canada certainly has many problems with its poor and homeless. I saw some terrible sites this winter in Montreal. People sleeping on grates in the subzero cold was pretty sobering. But, what is at the root of that? At the root is a society that wants everything cheap, fast and easy - a society that does not believe in the basic human right of a sustainable livelihood. The cycle of poverty, in other words, is nothing but the uglier twin to the cycle of narcissism.

And I'm not talking about the kind of narcissism one sees on Wall Street or in Hollywood. No, I'm talking about the cycle the cycle that everyday American's indulge in. Example: A parent who insists on buying cheap Chinese-made, flashy, clothing from Target so her kid can look dazzling at elementary school. Anyone who buys anything on sale at WalMart. Or, business owners who can afford to pay benefits, but do just the minimum allowed by law so they can make a payment on their timeshare. Someone has to pay the price for cheap goods and it's ultimately all of us in terms of joblessness, crime rates and hopelessness.

We are a society literally clawing, scratching and biting over each other to get to some imaginary "top." And while aspiration is what makes America powerful, it also is the source of its greatest ills. A cycle needs to be broken in only one spot to stop itself. That spot needs to start with basic healthcare for everyone, in my view. Some basic human rights- codified since ancient times -- include those listed above. If we simply start with a firm belief in any one of them, though, we could literally break the circle and begin a new circle of tapping real human potential for good.

I have more to consider on this, clearly. Perhaps that's best for another post.

Finally, a law even a dog can agree with

2008-08-14T14:49:00.000-07:00

Below is an announcement from the good folks at the Generic Animal Drug Alliance. These folks are working hard to get generic drugs -- with the obvious price advantages -- into the hands of veterinarians and animal owners. Check it out. If you are a pet owner, this is good news for you.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
GADA Applauds the Presidential Signing of the Animal Generic Drug User Fee Act of 2009; Act will help get affordable medications to ranchers, farmers and pet owners

Washington, DC, August 14, 2008—The Generic Animal Drug Alliance (GADA) today announced that President Bush signed into law the Animal Generic Drug User Fee Act of 2008 (Title II of H.R.6432). Under the Animal Generic Drug User Fee Act (AGDUFA), generic animal health companies for the first time will pay user fees to provide essential resources to improve generic animal drug review times—getting high quality, affordable generics to veterinarians, and animal and pet owners, faster.

Farm animals and livestock, and the majority of pets, are not covered by health insurance. Ranchers, farmers, and pet owners pay out-of-pocket for prescription medications. In contrast to human medicine where generics enter the market as soon as a drug’s patents expire, few veterinary drugs have FDA approved generic versions, even years after patent expiry. Although both new animal drugs and generic animal drugs are reviewed and approved by the Center for Veterinary Medicine (CVM), the review times for generic drug applications average more than four times as long as those for new animal drugs—preventing generic versions of medications that have long been off patent from getting to veterinarians.

“The success of AGDUFA will allow the review process for generic animal drugs to become more efficient and predictable while continuing to meet the rigorous standards for drug approval” stated Stephanie Batliner, Chair of the Generic Animal Drug Alliance and Director of Regulatory Affairs at IVX Animal Health, a GADA member company. “Generic animal drugs are essential to both pet owners and
food producers to reduce costs and increase accessibility to medications.”

Jean Hoffman, CEO of Putney, a GADA member company, commented “The AGDUFA legislation marks the beginning of a new era for animal health. Much as generics have changed the face of human healthcare—making drugs more affordable for Americans—the timely availability of animal generics will help ranchers and farmers manage the cost of caring for our country’s food and production animals, and allow pet owners access to lower cost medications for their companion animals who are considered members of the family.”

About Generic Animal Drug Alliance
The Generic Animal Drug Alliance (GADA) is an independent professional trade organization that represents the interests of generic animal health companies before Federal regulatory agencies and Congress. Member companies are focused on the development, approval and marketing of high quality generic drugs for animals and pets—making the cost of care for all animals affordable for ranchers, farmers and pet owners.

Contact: Shannon Bennett, (207) 553-4451, sbennett@genericanimaldrugalliance.org

"Swifty's Big Flight": Front Cover Art

2008-07-05T20:18:00.000-07:00

"Swifty's Big Flight": Front Cover Art

Social Venture Partners Portland. An incubator for corporate philanthropy

2008-06-11T19:26:00.001-07:00

Allow me to share some kind words about my friends at Social Venture Partners Portland, a philanthropic service organization that is part of an international network.

This group of socially-responsible business and civic leaders have been helping non-profits in Portland, Oregon, for the last seven years. They've given over $1 million in grants so far and far more than that in calculated value to their Investees (not to mention uncalculated value to the community.) I am borrowing some words here from an internal memo to the partners circulated by the hardworking new executive director, Mark Holloway. A fine man and dynamic leader originally from Louisiana.

In that email, Mark shared congratulations to the Portland City Council and mayor in recognizing the value of CASH Oregon’s good work in the community and funding it in their budget with $50k. Sam Adams’ office came to bat repeatedly for CASH, so big thanks to him, his staff and SVPP Partner Bruce Murray for all his work in securing that funding.

Note: My company helped CASH gets its wings three years ago. We developed the initial business and communications plan for the organization and one of our staff, Libbi Loseke Winter, served as an advisor to their board for the past couple of years. They're helping return millions of dollars in earned income tax credits back to families who need the cash. Jim Harper, the executive director, is one of the finest gentlemen you will ever meet. It has been a pleasure to be acquainted with him.

No prisons in Afghanistan. How about jobs and a little more creativity instead?

2008-05-17T19:35:00.000-07:00

The New York Times reports this morning that our government wants to build a "super prison"

in Afghanistan because the Afghan government does not have the ability, apparently, to incarcerate their own criminals. Well, we certainly have a lot of experience and expertise building prisons. So, I guess on one level that makes sense - but only if you are a prison builder who stands to gain from the opportunity. The rest of us would like to understand a few things first.

Memo to our government: have you considered first providing job programs (obviously we have, but $1 billion is hardly a drop in the bucket and is equivalent to 3 Raptor Jets if anyone is paying attention), training, or even promoting television programs and radio programs focused on entrepreneurs in Afghanistan? How have you first creatively celebrated and promoted the "doers" versus used our great power and our money to punish the "takers?" My God, I sincerely hope our government has more creative range. Where did the visionaries from the days of the Marshall Plan go? Are they all tools now of our military industrial personality complex? Or, is the last bastion of creative thinking only reserved for certain floors of buildings in the financial district of New York?

Seriously.

Surely John McCain has more sense than to endorse such an idea. We build more prisons in this country and house more prisoners than any democratic nation in the world per capita. We do this in an arrogant and ass-backward belief that building more prisons deters more crime. It doesn't.

Statistics repeatedly show that if we provide proper early education for children, vocational training and support systems for teens moving in to adulthood and programs designed to help reduce criminal recidivism, society saves seven dollars for every one we spend in terms of the future costs of housing any individual as a prisoner, managing parole programs and paying for law enforcement. It's called an investment strategy - a type of activity that we pay trillions of dollars for to train and educate our most villainous and, yes, celebrated financial whizzes on Wall Street.

Our society has an investment mentality when it comes to wealth and opportunity. When it comes to people, we have a split personality. We'd rather pay through the nose for secret government programs designed to kill people all in the name of national defense, than carve off a few more dollars for an intelligent investment strategy to educate, train and prepare our children for the future in an increasingly complicated world.

Granted, we live in a land of opportunity and choice. If one chooses a negative path, the punishments can be severe - apparently not so severe that it keeps about 1 out of 100 of us in a federal or state prison. Anyone who reads the Fatal Shore will tell you that mental illness, poverty and hopelessness are the root causes of crime (in almost all cases but a few). Oh, and if you'll permit a little woo woo thinking - the lack of love in one's life.

Think about it.

When it comes to paying a few more dollars in taxes to give our children the finest education money can buy, we're more comfortable blaming teachers and the teacher's unions for being greedy. I have a question born from an admittedly old chivalrous piece of my rapidly shriveling Y chromosome: What kind of coward do you have to be beat up on a teacher?

Are we so lost that we don't give a wit of thought to the notion that each one of us blithely pays for bombs, guns and bullets to kill people at a rate never seen in human history all in the name of "keeping democracy safe" but we can't seem to realize that the best long-term "weapon" we can send out into the world is a well-educated, culturally-astute, intelligent, citizen. Bombs and guns and bullets are nothing when compared to that kind of power.

So, can we consider - please - this idea of building a prison in Afghanistan and consider first how to help the Afghan children envision a better life for themselves through more hopeful means than a concrete prison wall? Apparently the Afghan landscape is dotted with the crumbling walls of past efforts to punish the wicked rather than focusing on rewarding the just. Could there be a more stark reminder of what history is telling us?

Sent from my BlackBerry® wireless device

How can we support the war on terror? Redefine modern warfare.

2008-03-19T17:21:00.000-07:00

It's easy if you try.

I was thinking today -- in light of the protests against "the war," in cities throughout the U.S., -- that maybe we've lost our way. Maybe our leaders, influenced by war profiteering capitalists and the global supply chain for energy, can't see our way clear. Certainly some portion of this statement is true but...

... then I get an email message from the Associated Press sharing the news that Bin Laden (does he even need a first name any more) is threatening "severe actions" against Europeans who publicize political cartoons to mock, satirize or make light of Islam or The Prophent Muhammad. Frankly, I think it's pretty crass 0r even downright racist to paint unflattering caricatures of someone elses Deity, prophet or holy person. But, free speech -- however abhorrent some of its byproducts -- trumps the protestations of Bin Laden and others like him who claim to know what God wants and expects.

Where religion goes kooky is when self-righteous practitoners of one faith or another claim to know what God wants. The satirization Bin Laden refers to was offensive. I found it offensive. But, I also went on with my day recognizing that it was just a twisted creative outlet for some frustrated artist. The artist and his patrons were able to vent some creative steam and no one was physically injured. Moreover, intelligent viewers of these cartoons were left to debate the issues raised with their friends, colleagues or just in their own heads. Or, they could completely ignore it. Or they could write a letter to the editor sharing their approval or disgust. But to plot the deaths of people on an entire continent because some in their society have no manners is quite beyond extreme.

I don't very much appreciate -- even if I find the cartoon offensive -- the idea that I might be blown to bits while sipping a latte on the Champs Elysee just because I did not participate in the fatwa against the artist. Someone needs to familiarize his assanine-ness with the sticks and stones adage me thinks.

So, why would Bin Laden and his ilk threaten physical violence, death and destruction over a political cartoon? Does he really believe that a drawing is the only sign of the anger, revulsion frustration and fear that many people, regardless of religious affiliation, have against him, his followers and radical Islam in general? And, can he really believe that by condemning cartoons he is making a rational declaration of his beliefs? Does he not further understand that with 200 million of his fellow Middle Easterners coming into the work force by 2015, that what these people need is a job, not another overbearing, boarish, death-mongering Mullah? And, as he dwells in caves these days does he not consider that had he followed his brothers into his father's construction business he might be a great deal more influential with only downside being relative obscurity?

It's no revelation that Bin Laden is history's most famous coward. His followers bringing up the horses hind end on that account. Stopping the war on terror would be signaling that terror has merit as a political solution. What needs to happen is that the war on terror become broader, not thinner. The issue is over the definition of what is considered modern tactics of war. I'd argue that job creation in sectors like housing and community building, instead of just weapons manufacturing, is one possible weapon to successfully combat radicalism. Our new warn needs to take the form of government-sponsored agriculture programs and regional infrastructure planning and transportation logistics and technology development and education and, well, you get the point.

I am not opposed to using bullets when required, but what about books, bricks and the building blocks of cultures. It has recently come to light that the ancient Egyptian kings may not have used very much -- or any -- slave labor to build their pyramids, tombs and other wonders. They may have been built as massive public works projects knowing then that idle hands are the devils workshop. It's time for governments and multi-nationals to start putting war profits to work for people in ways that give them meaning, purpose and hope.

Note: We can learn a great deal from the way the U.S. Government provided funding for Louisiana's Road Home Program. Mostly we can learn what not to do. The contractor selected to run the program, a Beltway Bandit by the name of ICF, seems to have felt that the contract to help people get resettled in Louisiana was their own private gravy train (bonuses of $2.7 million were paid out to directors of the company in December 2006 just as they were going public and celebrating a the win of a $765 million contract from the State of Louisiana). I am sure there are some well-meaning people in their company. Their parts, in other words, may not be as evil or inept as their sum. But rather than rip them to shreads for doing what pigs naturally do at troughs, we should take a closer look at what can be learned from their approach to solving big challenges like the one in Louisiana.

Someone said id you want to be successful, you should double your error rate. They did not suggest that you triple or quadruple it which is what we are apparently doing in many places around the world. It's time, therefore, to change the tactics of our war, not end the war itself. Please tell me one of our presidential candidates is thinking about this in some way. If not, then we are all going to lose faith and hope and the only winner will be radicalism, extremism and the profiteers of the status quo.

Eliot Spitzer. A hero to the common man.

2008-03-10T20:51:00.000-07:00

Governor Spitzer,

You are a hero, sir. It's time to use up all of those political favors to maintain your hero status. It's time to prove, like Bill Clinton before you, that no resume can be trumped by a mere moral indiscretion. Like so many seemingly flawless leaders over the eons you have stand up and affirm that to err is human and to apologize quickly is a political necessity if you are to continue to keep your public vehicle and driver.

I urge you to stand firm. Don't allow the moral relativists in the press to rattle your resolve to continue to lead. Hookers are expensive -- especially the good ones. And, Lord knows you work hard and deserve a break from the mundane now and again. Besides, everyone knows that you can't get a good piece of ass in Albany. So, I applaud your decision to settle for something better in the end (if you'll pardon the expression). The taxpayers have no idea how challenging it is to be "on" 24/7/365. You need a vice because, let's face it, golf is boring as hell and fat white men in towels bragging about tee shots is not particularly stimulating.

I do feel for your wife and daughters, though. Surely they deserve better behavior from their bread winner. I have done a good number of stupid things in my life. So, I am not trying to stand on falsa firma here. Railing publicly against prostitutes while paying for the services of the same is Olympian in its chutzpah, though. I urge you to see a urologist as I fear you must have a problem walking and or sitting comfortably.

If you resign from office, you will no longer be a hero. You will be just another testosterone-producing schlub who could not hack through real politik. If, on the other hand, you shout to the world, "Yes, I got jiggy with some high class hookers and I don't give a damn what you think!" then you will have my vote for President. But, I'll only shake your hand while wearing rubber gloves. One can't be too careful these days.

Matt Drudge Should Be Sent to Afghanistan

2008-02-29T17:50:00.000-08:00

Do Prince Harry and his soldiers deserve the potentially deadly outing they received by one of the world's biggest (insert your own colorful expletive here), Matt Drudge? Is anyone else outraged that, once again, in the name of the "public right to know," Britain's Prince Harry will be lucky to get out of Afghanistan in one piece?

A line has been crossed in society when one person's narcissism is allowed to trump another's safety. So, here's what the penalty should be...

Matt Drudge should be picked up in a Humvee by special forces soldiers at his home, given a canteen, some MRE's and a rifle and dispatched via a HALO drop into southern Afghanistan. He should be photographed every moment as he wanders the countryside in fear of his life and his GPS coordinates should be posted to an internet site to show his position every sixty seconds.

Matt, pack your bags.

Musings on Pakistan

2008-01-01T20:06:00.000-08:00

Did Musharaf order the murder of former Prime Minister, Benazir Bhutto? I suppose anything is possible. But for a politician with Musharaf's skill, it hardly seems his style. Rumors abound that Al Queda and the Taliban have the protection of the Pakistani Government in Northern Pakistan. This may very well be true to some degree. Some have blamed this cozy relationship for the slipshod protection of Bhutto. No matter who killed her, she's not coming back. What seems important now is to determine not just WHO killed her but WHAT forces manipulated the assassination and WHY?

I understand the Musharaf would have a motive for seeing Bhutto dead. It's far too easy to point to him as the originator of the hit. Maybe that's reason enough to believe he did order it. Kind of a "hide in plain site" alibi. "Surely everyone knew I wanted her dead," he might respond, "but murder of this kind is despicable to me." And so Poirot is left considering the less obvious suspects.

There is no question that Bhutto had lots of enemies. She was a woman leader in a male-dominated society. She was a destabilizing force in a very unstable region. She had an international following and world-wide recognition. Even in this country where we foolishly believe we are more enlightened, we fear a powerful woman taking a supreme leadership role.

The Pakistani people have some soul-searching to do along with their search for Bhutto's killers. Likewise, we in America have to consider our own outdated ways of thinking about women leaders. It's far past time to grow beyond where we've been.

Hokie Horror

2007-05-04T14:34:00.000-07:00

I was reminded recently just how far my home in Virginia feels these days as we raise our family here in Oregon. In my mind, the horror of the Virginia Tech shootings was juxtaposed with the bucolic memories I have of a quieter Blacksburg.

In the days that followed the murders, I heard from several Oregon-based natives of the Old Dominion mourning the loss of life and the stigma that will now be attached to a much loved Virginia institution. Beyond the usual bond that anyone might have to others from their home state, this event focused those kindred feelings. Everyone from Virginia is a Hokie now - even Cavaliers. Even the Queen of England -the unofficial Sovereign of the “Pearl Colony” was moved this week to spend time mourning with families of the victims. She was in Virginia this week to celebrate the 400th anniversary of the founding of Jamestown.

The loss of so many promising lives is appalling. Equally appalling is the continued loss of life in Iraq. On the day after the shootings in Blacksburg, Baghdad suffered the worst car bombing deaths since the beginning of the war to “liberate” the Iraqi people. 170+ souls were deleted from the list of the living and added to the growing list of statistics. Is anyone as nauseated by all of this death as I am? I refuse to take a side on the issue of whether we should or should not continue with that part of the mission unaccomplished. I simply don't understand the complexities. I do know I am tired of hearing about people dying for no other reason than someone else thinks their death will strike a poignant political cord with their opponents - whoever they are.

Iran versus the world

2007-03-24T12:37:00.000-07:00

Let's imagine for a moment that we are Iran. We just had the world's only superpower invite itself into our troubled neighbors country -- a long-time enemy. We have had a long-running "jones" for the superpower. And, we are not exactly in the peak of economic health. In short, we have destablization written all over our faces. So, we decide to puff out our chest a little with some nuclear rocket rattling. We are the skinny punk in the neighborhood, afterall. We don't want any trouble from the rough kids who moved in. If you think of it this way, Iran's recent bizarre actions make a lot of sense.

I have stray teens who wander up my street many nights to party. I live on the side of a hill with a wide expanse of park across the street. I don't like them even parking there, much less getting out and partying, drinking, etc. The same territorial instinct -- even though the street is not technically my territory -- comes in to play here. Iran may not be correct in its behavior, but we can at least understand their belligerent stance.

So, what's to be done?

The United States needs to keep reminding the Iranians that we aren't interested in them. We also need to remind them that playing with dangerous weapons and flashing them about is no way to behave. In short, tell them that "We get it." They don't like us and they don't want us influencing the rest of their neighbors (or worse). The U.S. must also stop increasing the pressure through encouraging Israeli military bluster toward's the Iranians.

Historically, not since Alexandar the Great, has the West found Iran (then Persia) of much interest. Sure, the British liked it for a while. And, we liked it because of the oil, but history shows that the region has never quite been our cup of tea. So, let's leave it to them and focus on trying to improve our own culture. I am finding it increasingly painful to accept American troops in Iraq when we continue to have hunger, poverty and sick children who go un-helped here.

Today -- Easter Sunday 2007 -- 10 American soldiers were killed in Iraq. And, the emotionally unstable Muqtada al-Sadr, leader of the Shiites in Baghdad, has declared jihad on the American Military. We promised months ago to bring stablity to Baghdad. We have not succeeded and al-Sadr's had enough of our unfulfilled promises. He's, frankly, pissed at the wrong people. But, the sooner we are out of there, the sooner he can get on with the delayed battle he must have with his Sunni enemies. In short, I think we are simply in the way. We need to get out of the way and let these people fight it out. Does anyone believe that peace is going to result before both sides have had a chance to clobber each other?

I think it's important to ask for God's blessing to reach into the hearts of Sunni and Shiite alike to ask them to embrace each other for good instead of terror. I know I am praying for calm. It's likely in vain, however. Evil is apparently going to prevail in the short-run. We should stand on the sideline until the fight is over.

Let's Respond to Putin, Not React

2007-02-10T18:59:00.000-08:00

Speaking at the Munich Conference on Security Policy today, Russian President, Valdimir Putin, apparently got the news media in a lather. Unfortunately, as I write this Putin's speech is not available in English; only Russian. Certainly, we must pay very close attention to even the slightest nuance of negativity from the Russian President. But, I think in this case the media is over-reacting.

The tagline of the conference is Peace through Dialogue. It was an appropriate place to provoke an intense discussion. You can read what stirred everyone here. I can understand what the fuss is about, but I urge us all to listen in this case and keep our mouth's shut for a moment. This goes for you Senator's McCain and Lieberman.

According to the BBC (light years ahead of CNN and most everyone else as usual), Mr Putin's spokesman Dimitry Peskov said the speech was "not about confrontation, it's an invitation to think." And think we should. President Putin's ruminations on American policy is something we should all be turning a keen ear to. For example, I can imagine why Russia would be concerned with our intentions and our actions. I am not convinced that the world is safer. Is anyone? If so, then that's another subject to debate at another time. I am only speaking for myself now. I don't feel safer since 9/11. Why should the Russians?

In an interview with National Interest, Peskov had this to say about one of our arch-enemies, Iran, "We are the last country in this world that would want to have a nuclear weapon at its southern borders. Let’s not forget that the problem of a potentially nuclear Iran is much more vivid for us than for some other remote countries." It seems pretty obvious that the regions closest to Russia are not stable. Of course, many have never been.

The brinksmanship between Washington and Tehran has done nothing to calm Russian nerves, apparently. If we listen carefully, Russia's president may be asking us to be the "bigger man" here and stop the threats we are lobbing in Iran's direction. Our brothers in Israel should also button it. Anyone who is watching closely can see that Iran is blowing smoke. If I were Iran, I'd be doing the same thing. With America staring coldy in my direction twirling a pistol, what do any of us expect?

Because we don't have a translation of the speech, we don't know right now what other nuanced issues Mr. Putin raised. Even if he did not mention the other key reasons for global instability like poverty, illiteracy and global communications making the gulf between the haves and have nots seem wider than at any point in history, the speech should be judged in total.

Mr. Putin, apparently the Western media is spoiling to spark a debate. They are right to do this. The floor is now yours again. Some of us are going to do the best way can to listen to what you have to say. If you aren't focusing some of your energy on other issues out of American control, we may not be so eager to listen next time. I'll keep an open mind in the meantime.

Let's face it. We are never going to respect cultures that don't believe in equality for women

2007-02-08T20:00:00.000-08:00

Islam is not the enemy. Every thinking person in the West should know this well by now. The enemy is ignorance and it's dirty offspring: tribalism, sectarianism and most other isms of one kind or another.

Here's what the Quaran says about women so we might put this issue to rest for good:

"Their Lord responded to them: "I never fail to reward any worker among you for any work you do, be you MALE OR FEMALE, YOU ARE EQUAL TO ONE ANOTHER........."

The reason the West is headed for a full-scale showdown with so-called Islamists is simple: They have hijacked their own religion and Western Democracies have no respect for it.

I am not posting here to debate the merits of either view. I see both sides of this debate as having valid and important points to make. But, I must choose a side. And that side is with the inevitable march of progress in women's rights and equality.

Those Islamic governments who are creating cultures where women can participate as equals to men will be more successful in the long-run. It's axiomatic. Those who supress the natural rights of all human beings to live a life of liberty coupled with the ability to pursue happiness -- or unhappiness if they choose -- will be less successful.

It goes deeper than that. Success is a relative term, after all. The earth is a mess. We can't afford to leave anyone on the sidelines of a problem that is going to require a lot of - if you'll forgive the redneckism -- assholes and elbows to fix. Arab civilizations were the most advanced in the world. They are now the most backward and moribund. We all should be doing what we can to encourage their return to glory.

Why so-called "wise men" are leaving large portions of the brain power of their communities untapped is puzzling. It is time for our government to do whatever we can to support those organizations that are trying to help women achieve equality in Islamist societies. Better to do this calmly and steadfastly today than over the point of a sword tomorrow. Although, the jihadists seem to prefer the sword.

I have patiently met with and discussed these issues with Muslim friends. I am amazed at the thoughtfulness of Islam and the kindness of those who believe. But, their places of worship continue to separate men from women. I don't judge that. I merely point out that it is an examphttp://www2.blogger.com/img/gl.link.gifle of the kind of separate but equal doctrine that never really works as history has shown.

More on this as I ponder it. It's a complex issue that cannot be neatly described. That being said, though, there is an inevitability to this issue that must be addressed by our leaders. Now with a female Speaker of the House of Representatives, I hope the issue will be more considered more intently.

Until next time.

P.S. Want to read more on this subject from a first person viewpoint: The Muslim Woman dot org.

For Israel: A Nature Park for Peace?

2007-01-20T14:25:00.000-08:00

So, this just in from our friend, MJ Rosenberg at theIsrael Policy Forum in D.C. MJ makes a compelling case for why the Middle East Peace Process is in a critically important phase. Until I read this, I was not aware that a) Israel and its primary enemy du jour (i.e., Syria) have been meeting for two years in secret trying to build a peace framework and b) a public park available to both Israel's citizens and Syrias could take the place of a no-man's land buffer zone between the two countries. Can you imagine what the zone between North and South Korea would like if it were turned into a park for both nations? Fascinating. Very creative. All parties to this kind of thinking should be given the Nobel Peace Prize for simply thinking up such a brilliant idea.

Of course, both Syria and Israel deny that the secret meetings ever happened. But, the more we share of this news around the world the more likely we are to see a small ray of hope that the people there could live in peace for once.

Here's what MJ has to say for background...

The 1973 war between Israel and Egypt cost Israel 3,000 young lives. In the end, Israel got peace with Egypt but at the price of surrendering the the Sinai. Had they negotiated with Egypt earlier -- as they were encouraged to do by President Nixon, they would have only lost about 3 miles of the Sinai. (It is worth noting that the pro-Israel community’s backing of Israel’s resistance to Nixon’s “pressure” contributed to the worst disaster in Israel’s history–a demonstration that unthinking and uncritical “support” is, in fact, anything but.

It is just possible that another colossal missed opportunity is in the making right now. According to the highly respected and well-connected reporter in the region, Israeli and Syrian representatives – meeting secretly over a two year period ending in July 2006 – agreed on the framework of a peace treaty.

The plan allegedly provides for a full Israeli withdrawal from the Golan Heights. Syria and Israel would be separated by a buffer zone in the form of a nature park, open to citizens of both countries.

Israel would retain exclusive control over the coveted waters of the Jordan River and the Sea of Galilee. Demilitarized and reduced military presence zones, provisions for early warning stations and international security oversight, would be established. And, of critical importance, Syria would end its support for Hezbollah and distance itself from Iran. Likewise, Hamas leader Khaled Meshal would be forced to leave Damascus.

Once these mutual commitments are met, a full peace treaty would be signed and normal relations established.

Encouragingly, the Bush administration appears to be moving away from its hard-line on dealing with Syria. Perhaps, taking a page from the Baker-Hamilton report, it is concluding that our disdain for the Assad regime should not prevent us from engaging Syria. Not if doing so will lead Syria to stop its trouble-making on the border with Iraq and drive a wedge between Iran and Syria (not to mention Hamas and Hezbollah).

Nevertheless, Olmert should not hesitate to explore the Syrian option. The possibility that Syria is ready for peace is too important to ignore. Any peace feeler is worthy of exploration, especially one as promising as this.

By pursuing the Syrian track Israel could succeed in eliminating the threat from its most implacable neighbor. Peace with Syria would remove Iran's entry point into Israel's immediate neighborhood and halt its arms supply, virtually destroying Hezbollah. And Hamas would be almost totally isolated.

Anyone who believes this is not a gamble worth considering simply does not understand what the stakes for America and Israel really are.

But wait. There's good news. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice is, according to media reports, ready to make a major push for Israeli-Palestinian negotiations with a view toward reaching an agreement by the time President Bush leaves office. That explains why the Vice President has, apparently, encouraged the unofficial Israeli-Syrian talks (or, at least, not opposed them).

Bush, Cheney and Rice may understand that success in Iraq looks increasingly unlikely and that, by comparison, achieving a final status Israel-Palestinian agreement would be relatively easy. It's legacy time. The Bush administration should go for it.

As for the pro-Israel community and the Congress, it should recall the lesson of 1971. Supporting Israel by supporting the status quo is no support at all. Just visit the military cemetery on Mount Herzl in Jerusalem and imagine it without the 3,000 graves of soldiers who died heroically in an utterly preventable war.