VA must address widespread mental health issues

As has most often been the case, mental health is not as well treated as physical health when it comes to health care benefits. The Veterans Administration has responsibility to treat veterans and to treat them well. This important article by the public interest journalism organization, Propublica, explains.

Remember that these programs are also vulnerable to the budget cutting fever now spreading across the country.

Amplify’d from www.propublica.org

Brain Wars How the Military Is Failing Its Wounded

More than Half of Recent War Vets Treated by VA Are Struggling With Mental Health Problems

by Joaquin Sapien ProPublica, May 11, 2011, 11:31 a.m.

More than half of all Iraq and Afghanistan veterans treated in Department of Veterans Affairs hospitals since 2002 have been diagnosed, at least preliminarily, with mental health problems, according to statistics [1] obtained by the advocacy group Veterans for Common Sense.

The data, which is released quarterly, also shows that the raw number of returning soldiers with psychological problems is rising. Nearly 18,000 new patients were treated for mental health issues at VA facilities in the last three months of last year—the most recent time period for which data is available— upping the total to more than 330,000 [1].

The latest numbers confirm a trend that has intensified over the last several years. Paul Sullivan, the executive director of Veterans for Common Sense, said that when the organization first began to collect the data in late 2004, only 20 percent of Iraq and Afghanistan veterans in VA hospitals had been diagnosed with mental problems.

The increase should come as no surprise given that a recent military survey, obtained by ProPublica and other media outlets, shows that U.S. troops in Afghanistan are currently reporting lower morale and greater emotional strain than at any other time in the last five years.

That report [2] notes that mental health staffing has doubled in warzones in order to ensure treatment is available immediately for soldiers who suffer psychological trauma.

Sullivan applauded the increase in staff abroad, but questioned what’s being done to make sure that troubled troops are properly cared for once they come home.

“We truly support having more doctors in warzones, that’s great,” Sullivan said. “But we also need to make sure we have enough doctors here.”

Laurie Tranter, a spokeswoman for the VA, told ProPublica that the agency has increased the number of mental health staff in the U.S. by more than 40 percent since 2002 to more than 20,000. Tranter suggested that the increase in veterans diagnosed with and treated for mental health problems may, in part, reflect more proactive screening and better access to services.

Pressure is mounting on the military and the VA to fix long-standing shortfalls in mental health care.

A federal appeals court issued a scathing opinion of the VA’s system yesterday, noting that it takes an average of four years for veterans to receive mental health benefits, a beleaguered process that demands immediate reform.

Writing for a three-judge panel, Judge Stephen Reinhart said, “Although the VA is obligated to provide veterans mental health services, many veterans with severe depression or post-traumatic stress disorder (“PTSD”) are forced to wait weeks for mental health referrals… For those who commit suicide in the interim, care does not come soon enough.”

As reported [3] by the Associated Press, the ruling by the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals overturns a 2008 verdict [4] and sends the case, which was filed against the VA by veterans’ advocates, back to U.S. District Court for resolution. Read more at www.propublica.org

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Without fear, the goal

“Becoming Fearless” is a new featured section in Huffington Post.  I discovered this because I follow Arianna Huffington on Twitter.  I also follow a few of her guest columnists, as well as Howard Fineman, her very fine editorial director.

Huffington is fearless.  I am not read-it-all consumer of The Huffington Post; it is just too much.  But I greatly admire the fact that the “HuffPo” has been so very successful at monetizing its popular website.  Ms. Huffington herself is a model of fearlessness when it comes to striding out.  So some reflections about “Becoming Fearless” seem in order.

First, Huffington is wealthy.  Note the tie-in with Arianna Huffington’s 2006 book of essays titled, On Becoming Fearless.... in Love, Work, and Life.  Find it at Amazon.com: Kindle edition–$8.99, hardcover-$4.40, paperback-$10.73.

Second, Huffington is careful.  Read the disclaimer at the bottom of the website page.

This website is for informational purposes only and is not a substitute for medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment.

Third, the assumption is that women have more fears than men.  The Blog section features a list of current blog posts with 10 female writers and 6 male writers.  Look also at one of the the current Sponsored Links list.  It is two-thirds pitched towards women:

Fear of being fat - “Get Skinny By Summer” by www.DietRatings.org

Fear of being old - “53 Year Old Mom Looks 33” by www.consumerproducts.com

Fear of President Obama – “Romney vs Obama” by www.msn.com.  (AP photo copyrighted by Mary Schwalm)

Fourth, advertising aims at our emotions, including fear and anxiety.  Another sponsor list  for the Front Page sub section plays on the fears of readers:

Fear of being afraid - “3 Herbs that Beat Anxiety” by www.WiseLifestyles.com

Fear of identity theft - “LifeLock Official Site” to purchase their identity protection plan at www.Lifelock.com

Fear of being in the 99% forever - “Penny Stock Jumping 856%” at www.MyPennyStocks.com

Fifth, the Huffington Post Wants you to read as much as you can on their website.  Note the tie-in with HuffPo’s Healthy Living section, aka "Fear of Dying."  Here are that page’s sponsors:

Fear of Being fat - “5 Diet Pills that Work” at www.DietRatings.org

Fear of identity theft - “LifeLock Official Site” to purchase their identity protection plan at www.Lifelock.com

Fear of a heart attack – “Heart Attack Triggers” at www.Newsmax.com 

Sixth, sponsors want something for their investment.  So they maximize exposure to the product through advertising.  It might even be fun and beneficial:  Enter Toyota Corolla’s “Most Fearless Tweet” contest.

Official Rules:
1. To enter the Contest, you must first create a Twitter account. It's free! Go to Twitter.com for the how-tos.
2. Follow @HealthyLiving.
3. Tweet about fear or fearlessness in your own life by sending a tweet to @HealthyLiving and using the hashtag Third, notice the tie-in with Huffington’s 2006 book of essays On becoming Fearless. . . In Love, Work and Life. New from $4.40; Kindle $8.99.#becomingfearless. It's that easy!

Seventh, there is widespread assumption that we are more fearful than usual these days. For example, out of some sort of morbid fascination,  I have watched a good number of the Doomsday Preppers shows on the National Geographic channel. They are a really scary bunch who base their lives on preparing for the worst things that they imagine could happen.  Somehow I cannot imagine these folks ever reading the new Becoming Fearless section of the HuffPo.

Unexpectedly saddened

. . .  by the death of Christopher Hitchens.  I often disagreed with his views.  Sometimes I would change the channel to watch someone easier to take. But I always admired his capacity for sophisticated thought and his amazing articulation of those ideas.  He died yesterday, according to a Reuters article from which I quote:

British-born journalist and atheist intellectual Christopher Hitchens, who made the United States his home and backed the 2003 U.S. invasion of Iraq, died on Thursday at the age of 62.
Hitchens died in Houston of pneumonia, a complication of cancer of the esophagus, Vanity Fair magazine said.
"Christopher Hitchens - the incomparable critic, masterful rhetorician, fiery wit, and fearless bon vivant - died today at the age of 62," Vanity Fair said.
A heavy smoker and drinker, Hitchens cut short a book tour for his memoir "Hitch 22" last year to undergo chemotherapy after being diagnosed with cancer.
As a journalist, war correspondent and literary critic, Hitchens carved out a reputation for barbed repartee, scathing critiques of public figures and a fierce intelligence.

Over the years I came to admire Hitchens, not for his beliefs or lack of religious belief, but for the sheer power of his mind.  No one in their right mind, except perhaps William Buckley,  would take him on in a face to face debate.  We who watched him over the years would often be rivited as his wonderfully upper crust British accent embellished his authority.  I was not familiar with his writing, but he counted on it as "who he was" to the very end.  The article concludes:

 In his last essay on www.vanityfair.com, dated "January 2012," Hitchens said his illness made him question the saying attributed to German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche that "Whatever doesn't kill me makes me stronger."
A painkiller injection just before typing the article titled "Trial of the Will," Hitchens wrote, caused "numbness in the extremities, filling me with the not irrational fear that I shall lose the ability to write. Without that ability, I feel sure in advance, my 'will to live' would be hugely attenuated."

For such a wonderful raconteur to die of esophogeal cancer is terribly ironic.  And that he died not long after writing his last piece for Vanity Fair I find very sad.  He and Steve Jobs (another towering intellect) were too young to be victims of cancer.
How long do we have to wait for a cure for the scourge of early death from cancer?  After all it is 2011.  I am 74 and a breast cancer survivor, soon to be five years.  I am optimistic about my chances because of a very early diagnosis.  But I remain sad because others were not so lucky.
Rest in peace, Mr Hitchens.  I am sorry your voice has been stilled too early.

Additional reading in the Washington Post.

Mentally ill becoming more at risk.

As a retired mental health care professional, I am worried about all the folks that have become more vulnerable due to a lack of services. Slashing clinic, outpatient and services to homeless people does not mean the problems go away. People in the midst of a mental health crisis land in jail, in shelters or on the street if they cannot stay at home. They will not go away because we ignore or neglect them. The costs in other forms will remain.

I believe that the mark of a nation is how it takes care of its most vulnerable citizens. Wall Street is doing just fine, thank you very much. Not so for far too many others.

Amplify’d from news.yahoo.com

State budget cuts decimate mental health services

By KRISTEN WYATT, Associated Press Kristen Wyatt, Associated Press

DENVER – State budget writers looking for cash to balance the books have stripped a cumulative $1.8 billion from mental health services over the last 2 1/2 years, putting the public at risk as the mentally ill crowd emergency rooms and prisons, according to the nation's largest mental health advocacy group.

The Washington-based National Alliance on Mental Illness tallied state budget cuts to mental health services between 2008 and today and found that 32 states and Washington, D.C., cut funding just as economic stressors such as layoffs and home foreclosures boosted demand for services.

In many states, the picture is likely to get uglier for those relying on state mental services. Starting this summer, some $87 billion in federal stimulus money for Medicaid assistance to the states starts drying up. Because virtually all Medicaid-funded mental health services are optional, states projecting another couple years of budget deficits are likely to chop mental health services further.

Arizona cut mental health services more than $57 million between 2009 and 2010, reducing or cutting services for about 14,000 people. Less well known have been dramatic cuts in dozens more states, which have removed hospital beds and shuttered outpatient services. States have cut staff, reduced clinic hours and trimmed add-on services such as transportation and housing assistance credited for keeping the mentally ill in treatment and off the streets.

Eleven states simply treat fewer people. States with a net reduction in both inpatients and community settings between 2007 and 2009 were Alabama, Alaska, California, Idaho, Illinois, Nebraska, New Jersey, New Mexico, North Carolina, Virginia and Wyoming. Those numbers come from a federal accounting and are the most recent available; NAMI's report notes that those reductions were made "before the worst of the state budget cuts."

Texas is debating an additional 20 percent cut next year, which would leave some 2,800 youth and adults in eight central Texas counties without services. Tennessee may close community health programs and drug abuse treatment facilities to save $15 million. Massachusetts may eliminate a quarter of the beds in state psychiatric hospitals. And in Kansas, nine of 27 Community Mental Health Centers may have to close their doors.

Mental health advocates insist that cuts don't save money in the long run.

Cuts can strike even harder in rural areas, where mental health services were spotty to begin with.

Mental health advocates hope that the federal health care overhaul taking effect after 2014 will help add services for the mentally ill — but their hopes are dim that things will get better before then.

"It's a bleak time across the board," said Sarah Steverman, director of state policy for Mental Health America, an advocacy group that did not work on the NAMI study. Read more at news.yahoo.com

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Dementia costs hit $604 billion in 2010

According to Reuters, the worldwide costs of dementia will reach $604 billion in 2010, more than one percent of global GDP output, and those costs will soar as the number of sufferers triples by 2050, according to a report on Tuesday.
We do not know if the incidence of dementia is up or is it is more a matter of diagnosis and reporting. Scientists hunt frantically for cures.

 

 

Sent to you by Carol via Google Reader:

 

 

Dementia costs hit $604 billion in 2010

via Reuters: Top News on 9/21/10

LONDON/CHICAGO (Reuters) - The worldwide costs of dementia will reach $604 billion in 2010, more than one percent of global GDP output, and those costs will soar as the number of sufferers triples by 2050, according to a report on Tuesday.

 

 

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Many do not understand why this happened to soldiers with unseen wounds

As a former mental health professional, stories like this engender a great deal of frustration and anger for me. If the Army and other branches of the military recognize PTSD and brain injury from concussion, that giving Purple Hearts to those victims should go without saying. Trauma is trauma, injury needs treatment as well as honorable recognition. There is no excuse for this. It is 2010, not 1910.

Amplify’d from www.propublica.org

Pentagon Spokesman Wrong on Purple Heart

by T. Christian Miller, ProPublica, and Daniel Zwerdling, NPR Sep. 10, 4:46 p.m.

On Thursday, we published a story [1] that said the Army isn't awarding Purple Hearts to some soldiers who suffered mild traumatic brain injuries in Iraq.

We found e-mails showing that some top medical commanders don't think the injury is serious enough to merit the honor, even though Army regulations [2] [PDF] make it clear that soldiers with such head trauma are eligible for the award. Top brass acknowledged that commanders had mistakenly denied the honor to soldiers in the past, but said things were getting better. "We are moving in the right direction to fix this," Gen. Peter Chiarelli, the Army's second-in-command told us.

They've still got a ways to go, if a slip-up by the Pentagon's top spokesman is anything to go by.

After our story ran, Geoff Morrell, spokesman for Defense Secretary Robert Gates, was asked a question about the Purple Heart at the daily Pentagon press briefing. He told an ABC News reporter [3] that the Purple Heart "has not been" authorized for mild traumatic brain injuries. Also known as concussions, such head wounds typically leave no visible signs of damage, though they can result in long-term cognitive impairment.

"I don't think that people think this is an appropriate medal for those types of injuries," he said.

That's not what Army regulations say, however. As far back as the 1950s, the regulations have contained an official list of wounds that "clearly justify" the Purple Heart, the nation's oldest military honor. One of them: "Concussion injuries caused as a result of enemy generated explosions."

The Pentagon has corrected Morrell's mistake. The official transcript contained this addition: "Correction: Each service ensures members who sustain a concussion/mild TBI are awarded the Purple Heart if the two basic Purple Heart criteria are met: wound was the result of enemy action or occurred in action with the enemy, and the wound required treatment by a medical officer."

So that settles it. Now we'll see how the Army responds to the soldiers we interviewed, who have battled unsuccessfully to receive the Purple Heart despite well-documented wounds. Morrell didn't immediately respond to requests for comment. Read more at www.propublica.org

 

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Going paperless

Relying on having access to only digital archival information necessitates adopting a very different mindset for me.  I have been used to having the information I need stored in my file cabinets.  Yes, I have more than one, even though I am retired.  Or it is in a set of office sorting trays, or a cardboard file box, or even in a stack. There are several advantages for me to go digital. Plagued by procrastination, I seem to be much more motivated to keep my digital files cleaned out and organized so that my computer runs faster.  I also love the magic of the "search" box.  I prefer typing and editing on a computer keyboard (using ScribeFire in the Firefox browser), to composing on paper.  I do not know how I got along before I discovered cloud computing on Evernote.  My computer is even preferable for simple notes and scribbles, signified by my reliance on a nifty little application called Note Mania.  Therefore, the trick for me has been to have fun and useful tools - applications - that work better for me than the old way of writing.  But writing is not the only thing associated with retaining information.  Reading is equally important.

Giving up the local newspaper means we will not have the paper delivered to our front porch every morning.  We will not read today's headlines, articles of local interest, wedding announcements, or obituaries.  The files I am going through these days include lots of old newspaper clippings  associated with my history.  And I cannot throw some of them away.  They had value then and they have value now. How could we discard the obituaries of our forebearers?  The reason is emotional attachment, which is the core driver of hoarding, by the way.  As with preferring hardback books to reading lengthy pieces online, I still prefer reading the paper form of our local news organ.  But we cannot afford it any more.  So I get all my news from television or online like everyone else.  And I will have to figure out something else to use for mailing packing material, for protecting the floor when we paint the walls, for training the puppy or for lining the birdcage.  There are definitely some ways we cannot go paperless.  More importantly, I am fully aware that news organization reporters (predominantly print journalism) are responsible for gathering and publishing the original news items to which we bloggers so casually link.

Trashing old paper files signifies literally not being able to get your hands on a piece of information you thought important enough to save at some time in the past.  My question is always, "What if I need (or want) this in the future. I am a keeper of information, not someone who would qualify as a hoarder, though some might disagree.  And I love to read from original materials.  It is that emotional attachment thing again.  What can compare, for example, to the original halting letters and spacing of my granddaughter's first grade penmanship blue book?  She is now well into her 20's and long past blue books.  What could be more precious than a mushy yellowed 1955 telegram from my boyfriend, now my husband of 54 years?  You can begin to see my problem.  But I am making progress.  I now know that I neither need nor want 1986 United Way training handouts on how to be a manager.  I have no regrets at being retired from that kind of activity.  And those old handouts would not tell me how to manage our Corgi dog who wants to run the household.  They are now dog-eared and faded copies that should go into the recycling bin.  Recycling, by the way, has helped me more easily make trash.  Stuff is not "wasted," another of my mental barriers to going paperless.

Forgoing extra copies implies the risk of losing the original document. The rule is that if the documentation is easily available elsewhere, do not keep the original or even a copy. I must remind myself that not every piece of paper is a valuable document.  Throwing the extras away gains valuable storage space for those essential originals the IRS wants us to keep for a time, or those identity documents that mark for your heirs your passage through this life. Yes, I am at the legacy stage of life, age 73.  I have provided my fair share of original recipes for those family or local club cookbooks.  My old scribbled pencil copy can go away.  The cookbooks are now all digitized, even if they show up in spiral notebook or paperback form.  I can always order another one, such as the Junior League club cookbooks that I collected as travel souvenirs for many years.

Getting off mailing lists indicates that I could miss out on potentially important information from outside sources.  It also means accumulating less paper to throw away.  Remember the advent of the lists offering to help remove your name from junk mail lists bought and sold for the purpose.  I did that but the effort must be maintained.  Rarely is it now that merchandise is not available online.  I do still enjoy beautiful slick catalogs.  However, they are rarely free. The thrill associated with the arrival of the Sears or "Monkey Ward" catalog goes back to living in the country in Wyoming as a child and looking forward to the free Montgomery Ward Christmas catalog coming in the mail in November. These days the mailing lists from which I remove myself are those unending press releases that all proliffic bloggers receive.  Even when I am trying to live paperless, I still get junk Email I must handle/delete.  Spam filters do not work when mailers acquire your name legitimately.

Posted via email from Make Good Mondays

Something happened on the way to the post I had planned for yesterday.

I did not write the post I had intended for yesterday, "A fine day for surfing."* Terrible events intervened. An Army psychiatrist went on a shooting rampage at a deployment center at Fort Hood, Texas, killing 13 people and wounding more than 30 others. Very little information was available and the base went into complete lock down. From when the shooting spree occurred at about 1:30 PM and thereafter there had been only one short news conference, so there was a lot of TV anchor and guest expert speculation.

For some time it was thought that the assailant had been killed and that there may have been more than one person doing the shooting. The next news conference was not until well into the evening. But it was learned that during the shootings he was brought down by a female police guard. She had surgery for her wounds and is also alive. "Major Nidal Malik Hasan" is in the hospital, on a ventilator, unconscious and (last night) reportedly in stable condition. It was reported from early on that Major Hasan had experienced problems with his professional performance ratings and that he had expressed great reservations about his upcoming deployment to the Middle East. A family member said "he thought it was the worst that could happen to him." It was also reported that he was known to have expressed some inflammatory opinions on the Internet about suicide bombers.

Everyone is trying to figure out his motivation for such terrible actions. And like millions of others, my husband and I did our own speculating about the psychiatrist's motivations, based on all the little pieces of information that emerged. It was a major shock for me, a retired psychotherapist, to hear that the shooter was a mental health practitioner who was a specialist in working with PTSD. It was hard to believe. These are the ideas we talked about: Could it be secondary PTSD resulting from years of listening to others' trauma stories? Could he be a "homegrown terrorist?" Could the psychiatrist have terribly intractable ambivalence about his national identity - though he was born in the United States - seeing himself neither as a Jordanian nor an American? Could it be that Major Hasan have has sexual preference issues around the military's "don't ask; don't tell" policy? We wondered who his victims were, random or known to him?

The tragic events happened not too far down the road from where we live. It makes us sad. It is unnerving, confusing and shocking that it could have happen the way it did. Much more information has come out in the interim. We hope to find out more answers to these troubling questions soon.

**********

* Returning to the subject of my planned post of yesterday -- I had been on the computer since very early in the morning. I was doing routine tasks, reading Email, cleaning and clearing files and reading TweetDeck. Of particular interest were a series of tweets by Mark Knoller documenting President Obama's at conference of representatives of over 500 Native American tribal nations. I also learned from the tweet stream that Senator Barbara Boxer had discharged a climate change bill without amendment from her committee, following Republican members' boycott of the markup sessions. The vote was 12-1, with two Democratic senators absent. (My posted about that event is here).

At midday I closed out my web surfing, got dressed and turned on the television to C-SPAN, the Senate channel. On the agenda was the second try at passing the appropriation bill for Commerce, Science and Technology, which includes the National Aeronautics and Space Administration. Before getting to the bill, however, the Senate had to vote on a cloture motion. Democrats were successful in getting the 60 necessary votes. Debate on the bill began. Florida's Senator Nelson made an excellent speech about the future of NASA. He laid out three things he would like to see happen: 1) The administration and Congress should allocate the amount of money needed based on the Augustine Commission report. 2) Based on the Augustine reports' set of options, the President should instruct NASA to decide upon the appropriate architecture for future space exploration. 3) The government should take care of NASA's work force during the process.

Flipping to the NASA channel, I joined a live broadcast of an event at NASA's Washington headquarters. Four members of the STS-128 crew were making a public appearance. The centerpiece of the event was a wonderful video of their recent flight to the ISS and back to a successful landing in California. Following a lively Q and A with delightful questions from young children, my husband interrupted me by saying that there had been a horrific big shooting at Fort Hood. My day for good news surfing was at its terrible conclusion. Now much has changed for the worse.

Posted via email from Southwest Postings

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Filling an empty blogging bucket

It begins with reality -- Much of the following was news to me, though you may be ahead and already know these things. I found out because I have spent the morning trying to break out of a non-creative box which leaves me without inspiration to write.
Dry spells -- Others have said the same thing and I had been reading about the decline of political blogging. I had been having the feeling that my blogging stats are down and I wondered it it were just me. I knew my Site Meter statistics had been down since June. So I checked at Technorati. In addition to my stats, which had changed, I found out that Technorati.com is going to be completely rebuilt very soon.
Breaking out of boring -- So I will save some time towards more creativity by temporarily omitting the Technorati tags I have been using at the ends of posts. While I was there I checked the Too 100 list to see whether there were good writers whose work I was missing, who could be inspiring me again.

Reading the best -- Using the list, I rejuvenated my Google reader via its Power Readers index. I began with The Strange Death of Liberal America (see "the decline of political blogging" above); and "44" at the Washington Post. This article on the hot New Jersey race shows why "FiveThirtyEight" became another of my feeds. He is an absolute whiz at predicting outcomes.

A picture is worth 1000 words -- I then subscribed to Andrew Sullivan, who had linked to The Big Picture (featuring a fabulous photo spread on Afghanistan). Much of my random surfing focused on imagery, Time Magazine's pictures of the week, for example. I concluded with Rachel Sussman's groundbreaking portfolio of The Oldest Living Things in the World.
Is social media on the web to blame for my empty bucket? Possibly, though I regularly cull my list of those I follow on Twitter. I want nothing inane. Tweets like the following example keep me involved with material that seems substantial. Rachel Maddow: "Read the godawful news of 8 US troops just killed in Afghanistan immediately before going on set for MTP this morning." My FaceBook account includes only people I have invited, plus it remains private. They are relatives, in-person friends and blogfriends. No empty bucket there.
At the end of the day -- This is what I have learned, or relearned. Creativity is about breaking the rules. The amount of political blogging has actually declined, probably for natural reasons. Regular and vigorous weeding out of one's surfing or feed-reading material is essential. Tomorrow I plan to go through my regular Email newsletters unsubscribing to several that are not useful or interesting. Imagery is an essential break from a words only regimen. I works on a different part of the brain. And social media is worthwhile for its connectivity, something else needed for an empty bucket.
(Image by Wordle.net)

Posted via email from Southwest Postings

Be not afraid -- or be more worried?

H1N1 -- Perhaps the most life threatening reality today is the swine flu pandemic.  A number of individuals have died from the H1N1 flu virus since we learned what was going on earlier this year.  But not everyone is convinced that the United States is on the right track with its its plans for a mass vaccination program.  Almost unbelievably, some New York health care workers went into revolt, holding a rally and staging a protest, over the H1N1 vaccine says Signs of the Times (9/30/09).  They are worried that the vaccine is unproven and thus not safe.  They feel that being forced to be vaccinated is a violation of their rights.  They are being told to get the shots or lose their jobs.  And in a strange twist some parents of autistic children will be worried that other kids may be at risk because, from Signs of the Times (9/25/09), we learn that Washington State has lifted the limits on mercury preservative in swine-flu shots given to pregnant women and children under the age of 3. The preservative, thimerosal, has never been linked to any health problems, but a vocal minority believes the compound could be linked to autism. The state Legislature adopted the limit in 2006. Experts generally say this is not the case, however.  But the belief that shots are not safe is still worrisome to a group of die hards.  In these cases I am not so worried about the safety of the vaccine program as about all the deaths that could be prevented by getting the shots.

Terror threats -- A number of well respected generals, about a dozen in all branches of the military, are openly accusing Dick Cheney and Liz Cheney of scaremongering according to Politico at Common Dreams (9/29/09).  This is a rather significant development and and could be instrumental in helping President Obama close the Guantanamo Bay prison, and lessening unreasoning fears about the possibilities of immanent terror attacks om anyone held in the United States.   Conspiracy theories remain powerful.  And here is another one. Yahoo! News (9/27/09) is reporting that an attorney believes the Oklahoma City bombing tapes appear to be edited.  The attorney, who lost his brother in the bombing, obtained the security camera tapes after years of trying to get the FBI to turn them over.  Read the story for further details in this convoluted and complex mystery of what is missing from the tapes.

U.S. $$$$ -- According to Common Dreams (on 9/28/09), the U.S. dollar is set to be eclipsed, the World Bank President predicts.  The official tells those who will listen that they can no longer take a strong dollar for granted.  The Chinese government wants to replace the dollar with some other form of currency.  Realities may be changing in the global economy.  Ralph Nader, writing for Common Dreams (9/28/09) says that it is time for citizens to convene  and take back their country from the clutches of the decades long "corporatocracy."  To quote:

Just when many conditions seemed ripe for a progressive political movement, the likelihood is fading fast. Concentrated corporate power over our political economy and its control over peoples lives knows few boundaries.

As Republican investor advocate leader Robert Monks puts it: “The United States is a corporatist state. This means that individuals are largely excluded both in the political and corporate spheres.”

It is my belief, in conclusion, that we all are able to be thoughtful rather than blindly reactive when it comes to our fears and worries.  Our daughter teaches third grade and we have several grandchildren in high school and college.  You bet we are worried about their being able to get through a pandemic.  But we assume they will be as smart about getting their shots, and as careful as possible with hygiene.  The latest terrorist threat came from inside our borders.  But, because I have given up my privacy, about which I worry, he was caught before he could make a bomb out of beauty supplies, of all things!  I do not have so many dollars that I worry about their value.  But I do worry that corporate lobbyists for the health care industry have been so easily able to "buy" senators and representatives.  I do not worry about my Medicare coverage.  I am a cancer survivor because of it, and it will be there again if I need it.

[post date 10/1/09]

See also Behind the Links, for further info on this subject.

Blogs: My general purpose/southwest focus blog is at Southwest Progressive. My creative website is at Making Good Mondays. And Carol Gee - Online Universe is the all-in-one home page for all my websites.

Posted via email from Southwest Postings

Five hundred words about The World Wide Web

Intro - Haiku by "betmo" --

family circles
grow forming communities-
sharing mother earth.

Why is it that so many of us reading and writing online stay "plugged in" to the news, to our blog friends and to current events? And why do others get discouraged and drop out? We know there must be payoffs or else the behavior would not continue. Only masochists continue to do things that produce merely negative reinforcement. Therefore I am assuming that I have too much of an apparently optimistic style to attract any masochists. So what are the payoffs for those of us who do this on a regular basis for a long time, despite frustration?
What is it we want? Nancy Perry Graham, in AARP The Magazine piece summed it up well: "Good health, financial security, family and community, giving back, having fun." Because we are self-interested we use the Internet as a resource by which we find out vital information about our well-being. And we are willing to take advice from those whose opinions we respect. Over time we learn who is trustworthy and who is not -- who will tell the truth and who will shade it, or outright lie. This applies to the regular obscure bloggers we read as well as the authorities with larger audiences. In the process we also learn who is "up" and who is "down, politically" or as celebrities, depending on our interests.
With whom do we associate? We like to know about, or to actually be where the action is; we are activists. Being associated with a bunch of like-minded people adds to our sense of belonging. I suspect that we also enjoy "associating" with powerful or famous people. And many of us want to try to make a difference in a troubled larger world. Whether we are faith-based or nonbelievers with a strong sense of morality, it is human nature to want to make things better.
Where we hang out depends on individual preferences. Over time we develop a list of favorites we read, the most trustworthy news sites, people in whom we are interested, communities to whom we belong and references upon which we regularly call. And of course we are habituated to routines and tools that help us stay ahead of information overload. Tasks such as catching up on the news, deleting outdated saved material, answering e-mails, editing our web pages, sorting favorites and providing regular posts keep us busy at best, and overwhelmed at worst.
When we surf the Internet is also a very individual choice, often dictated by circumstance. I am lucky because I am retired. Work and family requirements must be worked out. Writing at the times when we are most alert serves our readers well. Doing a variety of things serves our moods well, and taking regular breaks serves our minds and bodies well. I read bloggers who post while on vacation, when they are sick, after surgery, when they are sad or when they want to celebrate.
Celebrating us!

[Post date - July 20, 2009]

See also Behind the Links, for further info on this subject.
Blogs: My general purpose/southwest focus blog is at Southwest Progressive. And Carol Gee - Online Universe is the all-in-one home page for all my websites.
Technorati tags: blogging writing internet links world wide web

This and that about harsh interrogation - an issue that will not go away.

Psychologists in the military were deeply involved with programs that utilized harsh interrogation techniques. And they did it with the the full support of the American Psychological Association (APA). The professional organization of psychologists supported the government’s illegal interrogation program. They were in advisory roles, they assisted with implementation and even initiated torture programs that are still being highly criticized, the more we find out. Calls for independent investigation have not diminished. Other prefessionals, such as doctors, psychiatrists and social workers withdrew their support of the government's policies.,"American Psychological Association Sees No Evil," is from ACLU Blog of Rights (6/16/09). To quote from the piece:

The role that psychologists played in the Bush administration’s detention and interrogation policies is slowly being made public.

. . . Meanwhile many, perhaps most, members of the APA were unaware of the policies that were being carried out in their name. I shall briefly describe how the APA aided and abetted the U.S. government in Guantánamo Bay and the CIA black sites, and the steps that a number of psychologists are taking to end this unholy alliance.

. . . [Author] Ghislaine Boulanger,Ph.D. is a clinical psychologist and psychoanalyst and the author of Wounded by Reality: Understanding and Treating Adult Onset Trauma.In 2006, in reaction to the American Psychological Association’s cooperation with the Bush administration’s interrogation practices of detainees at Guantánamo Bay and CIA black sites, Dr. Boulanger withheld her APA membership dues and began a listserv for like-minded psychologists. She is a founding member of Psychologists for an Ethical APA.

"Accountability for torture" is the new ACLU website that consolidates everything about the U.S. torture programs in one comprehensive location. Glenn Greenwald raved about it (on 6/11/09):

The ACLU today launched a major new campaign to impose accountability for torture and related Bush-era crimes. The campaign -- Accountability for Torture -- is devoted principally to a restoration of the rule of law and the appointment by the DOJ of a Special Prosecutor. The website to coordinate these efforts is here, and that site is also now probably the single best resource for all documents and other information relating to torture and accountability efforts. The ACLU has clearly led the way in battling for disclosure of Bush-era war crimes secrets
-- so much of what we know is due to their litigation efforts and those of other civil liberties groups (rather than, say, the efforts of the "watchdog" media or the "oversight" Congress). But what has been missing up until now is a coordinated, centralized effort to galvanize public demands for accountability, and this project is intended to provide that.

At the American Civil Liberties Union's new "Accountability for Torture" action center, Executive Director Anthony Romerero suggests that interested people "help submit evidence and demand accountability" of Attorney General Eric Holder. (Democrats.com also offers a petition to Congress and A.G. Holder, that you can sign). To quote further from ACLU,

At this comprehensive and resource-filled new site, you can also view videos that make a powerful case for accountability…see profiles of the main architects of the Bush torture program…and use a search engine to examine the mountains of evidence the ACLU has obtained through Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) litigation.

The harsh interrogation techniques using torture started long before the Office of Legal Counsel gave advice and counsel or rules to those carrying out the interrogationsl. Salon.com's outstanding writer, Glenn Greenwald says what the new Jim Comey torture emails actually reveal, is different than what Bush administration spokesmen claim. To quote :

[regarding] how these DOJ torture memos were actually produced. The key excerpts tell the story as clearly as can be. Comey was vehemently opposed to a draft memo written by Acting OLC Chief Steven Bradbury -- ultimately dated May 10, 2005 (.pdf) -- that legally authorized the simultaneous, combined use of numerous "enhanced interrogation techniques" on detainees. This "combined techniques" memo was crucial because these were the tactics that had already been used on detainees, and -- after the prior OLC memos authorizing those tactics were withdrawn -- the White House was desperate for legal approval for what they had already done and what they wanted to do in the future.

Congressman Robert Wexler (D-Fla) is a fierce fighter for accountability regarding the Bush torture programs. He supports "an investigation into the Bush administration policies" and he has "introduced legislation that would establish a special select House Committee to reexamine our national security after a full investigation. . ." Representative Wexler reminds us that recently General David Petraeus supported President Obama's stance against torture. And General Ricardo Sanchez, "called for a truth commission to investigate the abuses and torture" while he was serving in Iraq, according to Wexler.

Jeff Stein, who writes Spy Talk for The Congressional Quarterly, recently made a very interesting behind the scenes report about the torture photographs that the White House does not want to reveal. His post, "Is the White House calling Tony Taguba a liar?," gives General Anthony Taguba, who officially investigated Abu Ghraib, credit for reportedly hinting at the fact that the torture photographs now in question existed. His very revealing post came as a result of an interview with Taguba as they were attending an off the record conference on torture recently in Florence, Italy. Stein described the meeting: "for three days last week, about 40 scholars, lawyers, government officials and journalists, mostly from the United States, gathered in Florence to talk about torture, among other urgent topics of the post-9/11 era."

References from Tom Head who writes on Civil Liberties for About.com: Torture and Trust, Is Torture Ever Justified?, and, Jane Mayer and the New Literature of U.S. Human Rights

Science News Roundup --

Image (Susan Hockfield) by Getty Images via Daylife

We are social creatures; why is that? What history do you suppose we inherit in our DNA? "Two Studies Consider New Possiblities for Emergence of Modern Human Behavior," is from AAAS News (6/4/09). Summary: "Population growth, migration, and other demographic changes among our hunter-gatherer ancestors may have played a major role in the evolution of modern human social behavior."

There seems to be something fundamentally wrong with patenting a life form. Bioethics has not kept pace with scientific discovery, unfortunately. "Shobita Parthasarathy: Battles Brewing as Public Questions Biotech's Living Inventions," is from AAAS News (5/26/09). Summary: "More challenges to biotech patents may be in store as advocacy groups raise broad questions about the creation of modified life forms, a leading expert said at AAAS."

PET scans can reveal amazing information about brain activity. The imaging reveals what areas of the brain are engaged as we think. "Researchers Capture the Brain Activity Behind Living Vicariously," is from AAAS News (5/15/09). Summary: "Researchers look into our brains to see why we're able to relate to complete strangers and enjoy their victories as our own. (Will this explain the popularity of "American Idol"?)"

President Obama vowed to bring science back into the White House. And it is high time; we have lost valuable opportunitites to make progress as we fell behind other developed countries. "White House 2020 R and D Budget . . . Offers Significant New Investment," is from AAAS News (5/7/09). Summary: "The U.S. government would continue a significant new investment in science and technology under the 2010 White House research and development budget presented at AAAS."

Synthesizing scientific discovery multiplies the benefits of the original scientific knowledge. This explains why it is that mathemeticians and quantum physicists see beauty and artistry in their chosen scientific fields. "MIT President Susan Hockfield . . . Envisions 'Third Revolution' in Life Sciences," is from AAAS News. (5/6/09). Summary: "The convergence of life sciences with physical and engineering sciences could have dramatic human benefits, MIT President Susan Hockfield said at the AAAS Forum on S&T Policy."

Humans can purposefully change their own moods. What we tell ourselves about reality is the "truth" that influences how we feel. "Self-Affirmation Can Break Cycle of Negative Thoughts," is from AAAS News (4/16/09). Summary: "Early and subtle self-affirmation exercises can have long-lasting impacts that help people to escape from perpetuating negative thoughts, researchers say in Science."


For further links on this subject see Behind the Links: About the Human Condition, Texas Tales Raise Eyebrows,

[Post date - June 15, 2009]

My all-in-one Home Page of websites where I post regularly: Carol Gee - Online Universe

Technorati tags: [tagname]

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South by Southwest returns

South by Southwest is no longer blocked, thank goodness. So sorry for all the trouble this has caused my regular readers.

Thinking this site would perhaps never come back on line, I imported all the S/SW posts to a Wordpress website I am calling Southwest Progressive. I will continue to make S/SW my main political blog, and the new one will focus primarily on the news, politics, etc. of the Southwest. Southwest Progressive themes for days of the week will be similar in some ways to the ones I have long used:

• Mondays - Space
• Tuesdays - State & local govt
• Wednesdays - Leadership
• Thursdays - Military
• Fridays - Texas news
• Saturdays - Creativity
• Sundays - Rule of law

Behind the Links will continue to be a round-up of links related to the main posts on all of my regular websites, including S/SW, Southwest Progressive and Making Good Mondays. And I will cross-post these originals to one of the web communities to which I belong:

• The Reaction -- "Liberalism unbound. A blog on politics, philosophy, science, and the arts -- featuring news, commentary, and analysis by Michael J.W. Stickings and the Reaction team."


• Talking Points Memo - Cafe -- "Politics, ideas and lots of caffeine" (Josh Marshall's blog).


• RedGage -- "RedGage gives you the power to share your blogs, pictures, videos, documents, and links all in one convenient place. But, the most exciting part is...RedGage is a website that pays you for the content you create."


• The Sirens Chronicles -- "Our Manifesto: Proudly intolerant politics, culture critiques, manners, morals & random thoughts served with hot chicken soup . . ." My friend, Dusty is the editor.

If it seems as if I am writing all over the Internet, I am. There are several reasons. Blogs have gotten more specialized in order to reach more niche readers. I am a news junkie and like to write about disparate things. And I particularly like the associations with co-bloggers at the various website communities in which I participate. And, not incidentally, it is a way to be read more widely.

[post date - June 5, 2009]

See also Behind the Links, for further info on this subject.

Carol Gee - Online Universe is the all-in-one home page for all my websites.

Technorati tags: blogging news links writing

POTUS vs EX VEEP -- no contest

POTUS spoke, literally backed up to the Constitution. EX VEEP spoke and backed into the past. It was no contest; POTUS WON. Our best times are ahead of us. The ex Veep's dark past is just that -- deeply dark and past its prime. The worst time is behind us. America is turning the corner into the future.

What remains from the past? In the National archives, backing up POTUS, are the Constitution with the Bill of Rights, and the Declaration of Independence. These original documents established a set of brilliantly conceived checks and balances among three co-equal branches of government. That system is working again, after being down for the past two presidential terms. America is no longer as deeply bound to its recent dark past.

What does the future hold? Solutions to America' biggest problems are out there waiting to be discovered. Does POTUS have all the answers? Absolutely not, but he believes in the system and trusts what will emerge. Did the EX VEEP's speech have any answers? Absolutely not, because he does not believe in the system. He believes his own dark demons. Now that the system is beginning to rebalance itself without him, his impulses keep him fearful and desperate for power.

What does Constitutional re balancing entail? POTUS gave some clues in his speech. He talked about the lack of foresight in the past administration. And he demonstrates foresight as he leads us into the future. For example, he acknowledged that he expects oversight by Congress and the courts as he picks his way through the Constitutional legal minefield of "prolonged detention" and "military tribunals with rules."

Because the courts were active, even during the dark days, balances were kept in certain instances as courts prohibited Bush administration power grabs. Our new POTUS is also willing to live by court decisions on constitutionality. However, the same cannot yet be said about Congress exerting its proper authority, though there are hints. The Senate's demand for a plan before opening the purse to close Guantanamo was a good first step at reestablishing its prerogatives, though the process has been awkward. What lies in the future for the questionable solutions to the detainee problem? POTUS has been preparing a plan that will be completed in January of next year. It is typical of his operating method.

POTUS' governing style is to state the problem and assign members of the administration to work to find solutions. He announces the outlines of a preliminary plan, letting Congress know what its part is and when he would like to have something to sign. He gets feedback and makes changes. Eventually he realizes it is again time to teach the nation about what the problem and solutions will entail. Working with Congress and signing legislation finally leads to publishing the plan's full details.

EX VEEP's governing style, in contrast was to feel there was a problem, state the solution to his minions in secret, omitting the planning and reporting to Congress. He did not need feedback because the rule was "my way or the highway." Eventually he would be found out, but refused to admit any mistakes. Rather than teach, he worked through maintaining a fear posture and bypassed or deceived Congress whenever possible. He did not need a public plan and did not feel bound by the rule of law. Governing behind closed doors in secret, his loss of power has now produced a starkly contrasting new set of behaviors. He is out front and everywhere -- defending, obfuscating, prevaricating, fear mongering, insulting and angry for the most part.

POTUS is also out front and everywhere -- asserting, explaining, being transparent, truth telling, reassuring, and showing respect to adversaries and a positive demeanor, generally speaking. His ideas will be accepted or not. POTUS feel himself bound by what Congress and the courts decide. He feels that the government must be backed by the Constitution. He is quite willing to take on the EX VEEP because the man is mired in the past. The ex Veep's dark past is just that -- deeply dark and disturbing. The worst of him is gone now because he is powerless, though not without influence. He will eventually sputter out of the limelight. America is looking to the future, and honoring its beginnings. It is no contest; POTUS will win. Our best times have already begun.


[Post date - May 22, 2009]

See also Behind the Links, for further info on this subject.

Carol Gee - Online Universe is the all-in-one home page for all my websites.

Technorati tags: news news and politics politics national security obama cheney

CIA-OLC-Gitmo Primer

It took a large number of people and organizations to get the torture program up and running at Guantanamo Bay and elsewhere. Spy Talk's Jeff Stein writes that repetetive interrogations revealed the CIA's lack of spies, according to a number of agency veterans. One of the most bizarre aspects of the program was the participation of psychologists. ProPublica has investigated this part of the story and written an important article on the subject: "A Secret E-mail Argument Among Psychologists About Torture," by Sheri Fink, (5/8/09). To quote:

As part of our report* we posted a listserv of internal emails between staff of the American Psychological Association and members of its "Psychological Ethics and National Security" task force. (Here’s the entire listserv.) That listserv offers a rare look into a process that led to the adoption of an influential and controversial policy for the world's largest professional organization of psychologists, which represents the profession of psychology in the United States. It also provides a window into a heated discussion among medical professionals grappling with their ethical obligations and their possible complicity in torture.

Liberals want accountability for those who wrote the "torture memos" regarding harsh interrogation techniques. President Obama is opposed to a "truth commission," as suggested by Senator Leahy; an independent inquiry, as suggested by House Speaker Pelosi and opposed by the Senate; or even an independent prosecutor, unless prosecution was recommended by the DOJ. Some liberals have suggested the impeachment of federal judge Jay Bybee, one of the memo authors. And, unlike many U.S. news sources, Al Jazeera headlined (5/6/09) that the "US [is] 'likely to probe Bush lawyers," citing Scott Horton, a professor of military law at Columbia University in New York. To quote Horton:

. . . the results of the inquiry would very likely form the basis "for a criminal investigation being commenced".

"There is likely to be a criminal investigation that will look at the entire process of introducing torture in Guantanamo, Bagram, Abu Ghraib and other places as a result of decisions that we now know were ultimately taken in the White House itself," he said.

"These lawyers played a key role in that entire process."

Horton added that the report would "heighten the pressure on the attorney-general [Eric Holder] for the appointment of a special prosecutor" to investigate the lawyers' actions.

"I think the attorney-general is going to find it impossible to avoid the investigation phase," he said.

President Obama banned torture and he and the Justice Department have said there will be no prosecution of those in the CIA who practiced the enhanced interrogation techniques on those detained by the U.S. Likewise the administration opposed prosecution of the authors of the torture memos. According to The Washington Post, there was intense debate in Obama's inner circle over the decision to release the memos. The President certainly walks a thin line in the entire interrogation question, analysts say. A great many American people believe that President Obama was absolutely right to release the torture memos, though there was, of course, debate about it.

The Office of Professional Responsibility at the Justice Department has drafted a long-awaited report on the professional conduct of the torture memo lawyers. It looks as if it will only recommend professional sanctions against two of the three lawyers, Yahoo! News (5/5/09) reported. It should be pointed out that the OPR does not have the authority to press charges.

The CIA reportedly declined to closely evaluate harsh interrogations during the Bush administration, according to an excellent LA Times (4/26/09) story. There has been no study to see whether the methods worked or not. There is now a White House task force to examine the effectiveness of various interrogation approaches. The Senate Intelligence Committee has launched a similar review, one that has never been done before. From the horse's mouth comes a very believable piece by Ali Soufan on the New York Times Op-ed page of April 23, 2009: "My Tortured Decision." To summarize it --

A former F.B.I. agent who questioned Abu Zubaydah in 2002 says the terrorist operative provided important intelligence under traditional interrogation methods. The CIA had inflated the importance of what Zubayda had to say.

One of the first things President Obama did after taking office was announce that Guantanamo Bay, Cuba's detention facility would be closed. The project to close Guantanamo is not an easy one. There are costs involved, both monetary and political. Congress is getting increasingly worried about the possibility of detainees in their communities, and may impede the closure plans. Politico explains:

[Senate Minority leader Mitch] McConnell’s comments were most telling. . . just as many Democrats see Guantanamo as a legacy of the Bush years, the Kentucky Republican framed the fight as a test now of whether the Obama administration will protect Americans, fearful of the detainees being moved into corrections facilities in their states.

Former Vice President Cheney has led the Republican charge against the Obama administration's efforts to put things right. In an ironic twist ProPublica revealed that the government could destroy records in hundreds of Guantanamo cases. There is even talk of reviving the Guantanamo military court process. And Time Magazine examined the Army Field Manual for an article headlined, "Beyond Waterboarding: What Interrogators can still do." CIA Directer Leon Panetta has ruled that contractors are not allowed to interrogate any more, emptywheel reported.

"Libertarians" for a Torture State -- by Ed Kilgore at the Democratic Strategist (4/28/09), examined the Republicans' inconsistencies of position (between right-wingers and Libertarians) regarding the questions associated with the rule of law, torture and closing Guantanamo. J.P Green, in the same newsletter, explores "Obama's Measured Strategy on Torture." His closing argument could be persuasive:

America is honor-bound to address accountability for torture --- but later better than sooner. Maybe the best thing, strategy-wise, would be for Holder to initiate a thorough investigation, but save the investigation revelations and recommendations until after we get the economy on solid footing and health care reform safely enacted.

References:

1. *Report:"Tortured Profession: Psychologists Warned of Abusive Interrogations, Then Helped Craft Them," by ProPublica, May, 5, 2009


2. "Interrogations Timeline," from The Washington Post (4/23/09)


3. "Torture Memos vs. Red Cross Report: Prisoners' Recollections differ from Guidelines" -- a side by side comparison chart, from ProPublica (4/24/09)


4. The significance of Obama's decision to release the torture memos, is an important and thoughtful piece by Glenn Greenwald at Salon.com (4/23/09).


5. "America's quick recovery from its torture program suggests it wasn't a torture program in the first place," by Slate Magazine's great writer Dahlia Lithwick (4/17/09). To quote:
   
   

   Laced like cynical poison through the four newly released Justice Department torture memos is the logic of quick healing: Eleven days of sleep deprivation is not illegal torture so long as the prisoner gets to sleep it off later. Writes then-Assistant Attorney General Jay Bybee: "The effect of such sleep deprivation will generally remit after one or two nights of uninterrupted sleep." In that same memo we learn that water-boarding is also not illegal torture because the simulated drowning lasts only 20 to 40 seconds, and thus, "the waterboard is simply a controlled acute episode, lacking the connotation of a protracted period of time generally given to suffering." By the same token, "walling" (i.e., slamming someone into a wall) isn't torture either because "the head and neck are supported with a rolled hood or towel that provides a c-collar effect to help prevent whiplash."



6. A Tale of Torture Grows More Timely by the Day. This is from the New York Times THEATER section By PATRICK HEALY, May 02, 2009. To summarize: In a relatively rare confluence of theater and politics, the critically lauded production of "Torture" opened nine days before the Justice Department made public four memos that described brutal interrogation techniques.
   

[Post date May 10, 2009]

See also Behind the Links, for further info on this subject.

Carol Gee - Online Universe is the all-in-one home page for all my websites.

Technorati tags: news news and politics politics obama administration torture OLC Gitmo CIA