MGx - Musings, Essays & Ballads

Due to the nature of the wars in Iraq and Aghanistan more military personnel are likely to see or experience combat trauma, sufffer from mental illness and become homeless. Read more from CNN

Officials say many more Iraq and Afghanistan veterans suffer post-traumatic stress disorder than veterans of previous wars. The government says PTSD is one of the leading causes of homelessness among veterans.

“They come back, and they are having night trauma, they are having difficulty sleeping. They are feeling alienated,” says Peter Dougherty, the director of homeless programs for the VA.

The VA says 70 percent of veterans from Iraq and Afghanistan saw some form of combat, either through firefights, rocket attacks or the most common strikes on troops — roadside bomb attacks on their vehicles.

That is three times the rate of combat experienced by Vietnam veterans, according to the VA.

As a nation we cannot allow our veterans to fall victim to bureaucratic entanglements or lack of care. We have to take care of our troops when they come home.

Thanks to Jim Webb and others and despite opposition by John McCain and the Bush Administration a strong new GI Bill passed yesterday

Read the transcript here

About a year ago I was given some information about two special ops teams being deployed to Iraq near the Iranian border. These teams were reported to me as specialists in high level assassinations though that was not stated mission. Evidently, we have some confirmation that these teams may have been involved in some agita, to say the least. Video from Rawstory

This is all being done with the permission of Congress as reported in the Vanity Fair article

L ate last year, Congress agreed to a request from President Bush to fund a major escalation of covert operations against Iran, according to current and former military, intelligence, and congressional sources. These operations, for which the President sought up to four hundred million dollars, were described in a Presidential Finding signed by Bush, and are designed to destabilize the country’s religious leadership. The covert activities involve support of the minority Ahwazi Arab and Baluchi groups and other dissident organizations. They also include gathering intelligence about Iran’s suspected nuclear-weapons program.

This past week heralded a stunning example of the dangers of designing an economic policy dependent upon outside resources. Just three days after Governor Kulongoski inaugurated the new $20M airport terminal and delivered a $624,000 check to build an air traffic control tower, Horizon Air announced they will cut service to Coos County.

One of only two carriers servicing the area and flying only to Portland, Horizon cited growing fuel costs and concerns about future demand in the area in its decision to vacate Southwest Oregon Regional Airport. Horizon’s abrupt and unexpected exit also illustrates the consequences of tying publicly owned infrastructure to privatized essential service. In the end, it is not the needs of the public but the bottom line, the profit margin for company shareholders that dictates our quality of life here on the Southern Oregon coast.

Experts predict $7 per gallon gasoline by 2010 and that fuel costs will exceed food costs in the typical family budget. By that time, if the remaining carrier pulls out of SORA it will not matter because no one will be able to afford a ticket anyway. Of course, according to Gov Kulongoski’s speech last week, the airport terminal was more about bringing people in than travel or air freight which brings me back to our dependence upon outside resources.

As I have written before, exports create jobs and imports eliminate them. Continued strategy of enticing imports, “if we build it, they will come”, whether its foreign liquefied natural gas, container ships loaded with Asian products and produce or jet setting tourists and golfers is not going to promote a sustainable, full employment and independent local economy.

As resource competition increases along with future energy demands transportation, like air and rail, will not be the only essential services cut to rural America including Coos County. Electrical generating authorities are warning that load demands may not be met by 2011 and just as Horizon cut service to small communities while maintaining more profitable urban routes, unregulated investor owned utilities will make similar cost saving decisions in delivering rural power.

To grow an independent economy with full employment we must keep as many of our dollars local as possible. As oil prices rise our spending habits are being altered for us, forcing us to make choices we would never have considered two years ago and rolling blackouts will force our hand as well. Instead of reacting to outside conditions beyond our control we should begin by making proactive decisions on our own terms now.

There are abundant, underutilized renewable resources at our disposal. First and foremost we should buy local food grown and raised by area farmers and ranchers. Encourage grocery stores to stock and offer local produce or buy at the farmers’ markets. Forego ornamental shrubbery and plant fruit and nut trees and encourage gleaning and community harvesting. The fewer miles food has to travel to get to your table the better it is for the local economy.

Wind is a plentiful local resource and community owned wind projects have been proven to be more beneficial to communities than corporately owned projects. Producing energy locally provides more long term jobs and increases the tax base which allows dollars to be reinvested in the area to fund health care, education, transportation and maintain infrastructure, all on our own terms.

Coos County has been operating below production capacity for some time because of insufficient demand for local goods and services in favor of imported goods and services. An almost 8% unemployment rate is a consequence of government investment in imports over infrastructure, unrestrained free trade and local spending habits. Exporting our dollars through the purchase of foreign fuel, electricity, food and even fines for petty traffic violations leaves less money to increase competitive local production and create jobs.

To enact these types of changes requires community involvement and progressive leadership. Attend city council and county commission meetings. Read the budgets, ask questions, assess whether that tax dollar investment will rebuild our economy. Consider running for elective office, we have four Coquille city council positions up for election this November. Get involved because what we also learned from the embarrassing Horizon Air departure is that you cannot leave matters of significant public interest in the hands of just a few.

From Rawstory a report predicts the cost of oil will rise to $200 a barrel — or $7 a gallon — in the next two years, CBS News reported Friday.

Families will be paying more for gasoline than food soon.

Well, as one might imagine it was a very emotional event as about thirty people or so gathered to remember Leah Freeman. The wind impaired the candlelight a bit but people rallied to keep their candles going as attendees spoke about their memories and impressions of a beautiful young woman.

Music played and tears flowed. Coquille PD had three representatives attend the vigil and Sgt Smith vowed that the department would follow the case to the end.

Tomorrow I will put up some pictures, it is late and I am a little weepy.

We miss you Leah, even those of us who never had the joy of meeting you. We miss you.

UPDATE: Here are some pics

This is the direction the Carl Foster case is headed and there are some striking similarities between these two cases. Just like Foster’s case, an internal investigation found no evidence of wrongdoing on the part of the officer despite serious injuries to the citizen.

Despite the nature of Marquez’s injuries, which included a broken jaw and bruises over her entire face, law enforcement authorities initially sided with the officer.

Marquez was arrested and charged with obstruction of governmental administration, and an internal inquiry cleared Simoes of any wrongdoing. After the Justice Department informed the city that it was investigating, Yonkers Mayor Phil Amicone held a news conference to praise the department, saying its officers “do their jobs the right way in full accordance with the law.”

The victim filed an $11M dollar civil suit which helped bring to light the seriousness of the officers actions. A civil suit is expected to be filed on behalf of Carl Foster, now a quadriplegic after an encounter with Coquille PD. An internal investigation also found no evidence of wrongdoing by the officers involved.

Federal prosecutors said Yonkers officer Wayne Simoes used excessive force when he grabbed the woman by the waist, hoisted her in the air and slammed her, face first, into a tile floor.

The takedown, recorded March 3, 2007, by security cameras, knocked Irma Marquez unconscious and put her in the hospital for four days.

Beginning at 10 AM today registrants can play chess and other war games using squirt guns. Sounds like a great way to stay cool on a warm summer day. The paper says there is a small fee of $5.

Four days after receiving a $624,000 dollar check for a new air traffic control tower and after building a brand new passenger terminal, the Southwest Oregon Regional Airport loses a carrierHorizon Air. So, we spent roughly $25M on a new terminal for one airline flying into one city.

On Saturday, June 28 at 8:30PM come and join the celebration of the short life of Leah Freeman. A candlelight vigil will be held at the corner of Hwy 42 and N Adams Street across from Safeway. This marks the 8th anniversary of her murder at the age of 15. Her murder is still unsolved to this day and friends and family want to keep her memory alive and urge the public to help in solving this horrible crime.

Don’t miss it!

Just back from a celebratory bike ride after winning in court today. Hopefully, this will end four years of what I consider relentless harassment by one of the most aggressively hostile people I have ever met.