Winter Soldier on Capitol Hill Tomorrow (Thursday)

From Iraq Vets Against the War:

Congress has heard from politicians, pundits, and generals, but not, up to this point, from the average boots-on-the-ground soldier.

On May 15th, Iraq Veterans Against the War (IVAW) and the Congressional Progressive Caucus (CPC) begin the process of righting this imbalance with Winter Soldier on the Hill. Nine members of IVAW will testify before the CPC about rules of engagement, the killing and abuse of civilians, the use of drop weapons, and the true consequences of the "surge."

Winter Soldier on the Hill will allow the US Congress to be more fully informed about the situation in Iraq through soldiers’ eyewitness accounts of the on-going military occupation, while they debate (more than likely for the last time during the Bush-Cheney administration) the funding for U.S. military operations in Iraq.

Listen live

Pacifica Radio station KPFA will be broadcasting Winter Soldier on the Hill live from 9AM – 1PM Eastern Time on May 15th. You can listen to the testimony on 94.1 FM if you live in the Berkley, CA area, or listen on their website at www.kpfa.org.

More details
Who: Iraq Veterans Against the War & The Congressional Progressive Caucus
What: Winter Soldier on the Hill – An Open Forum
When: 15 May 2008 9:30 am – 12:30 pm
Where: 2261 Rayburn House Office Building

Veganism -- the new front in the battle to cut carbon?

Going vegan makes much more of an impact than driving a Prius:

We all know the health benefits of a vegan lifestyle but now vegan businesses are arguing that eating less meat can significantly help reduce our carbon footprint.

“Scientists are saying we need to look at a 90 per cent reduction in carbon emissions just to stop global warming getting any worse, never mind reversing the process,” explains Alex Bourke, who set up his Vegetarian Guides publishing company in 1991.

“Burning fuel to produce fertiliser to grow feed, to produce meat and to transport it – and clearing vegetation for grazing – produces nine per cent of all emissions of carbon dioxide. So there is a strong environmental argument in favour of veganism.”

Indeed, a United Nations report entitled “Livestock’s Long Shadow” which was released at the end of 2006, backs up Bourke’s claim and further helps put things in perspective.

The report stated that livestock farming is responsible for 18 per cent of the greenhouse gases that cause global warming, whereas all transport combined only produces 13 per cent.

“So it’s not possible to achieve a 90 per cent reduction in emissions by cutting back in all the other sectors - the world needs to reduce its meat and dairy consumption by 50 per cent. Now I think that is achievable - world veganism would be nice, but most people aren't ready for it!”

This Week on Your Call Radio

Here's what's coming up on Your Call this week.

A live call-in radio show, Your Call airs from 11 am - noon PST on KALW 91.7 FM in San Francisco.
You can listen live or podcast the show.

*Monday - What's the status of Healthy SF, the program that aims to provide healthcare to the city's 82,000 uninsured?

*Tuesday - In honor of Mother's Day, we'll have a conversation about how our relationships with our mothers change as we age. How has your relationship with your mom evolved over the years?

*Wednesday - Israel and Palestine at 60: What happened in 1948?

*Thursday - TBD

*Friday - Media Roundtable: How did the media cover the week's top stories?

200-Pound US Bomb Kills 2-Year-Old Iraqi Boy

This is just one of how many deaths?

Two-year-old Ali Hussein is pulled from the rubble of his family's home in the Shiite stronghold of Sadr City in Baghdad, Iraq, April 29, 2008. (Karim Kadim/AP Photo)

Haider Abbas, 10, was brought to the hospital with what appeared to be a gaping hole in his back and shrapnel injuries across his stomach. The boy screamed and whimpered in pain, barely able to answer a doctor’s questions.

“My friend brought me to the hospital, but we had to leave the other wounded kids behind,” he said. “The Iraqi Army refused to allow them to be evacuated, but my friend took me anyway.”

The doctor, Abdul Rahman Hadi, said the boy was bleeding internally. “He needs surgery quickly,” Dr. Hadi said. “The irony is that not one of his relatives has come because he is an orphan.”

Haider Abbas, 10, was brought to the hospital with what appeared to be a gaping hole in his back and shrapnel injuries across his stomach. The boy screamed and whimpered in pain, barely able to answer a doctor’s questions.

“My friend brought me to the hospital, but we had to leave the other wounded kids behind,” he said. “The Iraqi Army refused to allow them to be evacuated, but my friend took me anyway.”

The doctor, Abdul Rahman Hadi, said the boy was bleeding internally. “He needs surgery quickly,” Dr. Hadi said. “The irony is that not one of his relatives has come because he is an orphan.”

Happy Mission Accomplished Day

"My fellow Americans: Major combat operations in Iraq have ended. In the battle of Iraq, the United States and our allies have prevailed. (Applause.) And now our coalition is engaged in securing and reconstructing that country."
-The Decider, May 1, 2003

Remember the flight suit he wore as he bravely landed on the USS Lincoln?

And how did the liberal media respond?

"The war winds down, politics heats up.... Picture perfect. Part Spider-Man, part Tom Cruise, part Ronald Reagan. The president seizes the moment on an aircraft carrier in the Pacific."
(PBS's Gwen Ifill, 5/2/03, on George W. Bush's "Mission Accomplished" speech)

"We're proud of our president. Americans love having a guy as president, a guy who has a little swagger, who's physical, who's not a complicated guy like Clinton or even like Dukakis or Mondale, all those guys, McGovern. They want a guy who's president. Women like a guy who's president. Check it out. The women like this war. I think we like having a hero as our president. It's simple. We're not like the Brits."
(MSNBC's Chris Matthews, 5/1/03)

"He looked like an alternatively commander in chief, rock star, movie star, and one of the guys."
(CNN's Lou Dobbs, on Bush's 'Mission Accomplished' speech, 5/1/03)

"Why don't the damn Democrats give the president his day? He won today. He did well today."
(MSNBC's Chris Matthews, 4/9/03)

"What's he going to talk about a year from now, the fact that the war went too well and it's over? I mean, don't these things sort of lose their--Isn't there a fresh date on some of these debate points?"
(MSNBC's Chris Matthews, speaking about Howard Dean--4/9/03)

"If image is everything, how can the Democratic presidential hopefuls compete with a president fresh from a war victory?"
(CNN's Judy Woodruff, 5/5/03)

"It is amazing how thorough the victory in Iraq really was in the broadest context..... And the silence, I think, is that it's clear that nobody can do anything about it. There isn't anybody who can stop him. The Democrats can't oppose--cannot oppose him politically."
(Washington Post reporter Jeff Birnbaum-- Fox News Channel, 5/2/03)

"Now that the war in Iraq is all but over, should the people in Hollywood who opposed the president admit they were wrong?"
(Fox News Channel's Alan Colmes, 4/25/03)

"I doubt that the journalists at the New York Times and NPR or at ABC or at CNNare going to ever admit just how wrong their negative pronouncements were over the past four weeks."
(MSNBC's Joe Scarborough, 4/9/03)

"Maybe disgraced commentators and politicians alike, like Daschle, Jimmy Carter, Dennis Kucinich, and all those others, will step forward tonight and show the content of their character by simply admitting what we know already: that their wartime predictions were arrogant, they were misguided and they were dead wrong. Maybe, just maybe, these self-anointed critics will learn from their mistakes. But I doubt it. After all, we don't call them 'elitists' for nothing."
(MSNBC's Joe Scarborough, 4/10/03)

"Over the next couple of weeks when we find the chemical weapons this guy was amassing, the fact that this war was attacked by the left and so the right was so vindicated, I think, really means that the left is going to have to hang its head for three or four more years."
(Fox News Channel's Dick Morris, 4/9/03)

Disabled Activists Arrested at McCain's Office

A group disabled activists, most in wheelchairs, from the group ADAPT wait to be processed after they were arrested in Washington, April 29, 2008, in Washington, by Capitol Hill police outside Sen. John McCain's offices. The activists were refused a meeting with McCain over a bill to expand Medicaid coverage to more people who want in-home care. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh)
If you need a break from Rev. Wright:

At least 20 disabled activists, most of them in wheelchairs, were arrested outside Sen. John McCain's offices Tuesday after being refused a meeting with the GOP presidential nominee-to-be over a bill to expand Medicaid coverage to more people who want in-home care.

"If he should be president, it would be ironic that he comes from a party that talks a lot about family values," said Bob Kafka, national organizer for ADAPT, a group advocating for passage of the bill. Without the legislation, many disabled and elderly people don't have the choice to apply coverage to anything other than institutional care, he said.

"Families are devastated because they don't have a choice to keep people at home," Kafka said.

McCain was not in his office during the protest. He was campaigning Tuesday in Florida on his health care plan.

The bill, S. 799, stuck in committee since last year, would amend the Social Security Act to allow people who are eligible for Medicaid coverage of nursing home costs to spend it instead on home-based, or community care.

Sponsored by Sens. Tom Harkin, D-Iowa, and Arlen Specter, R-Pa., it also would grant extra money to states that participate in the program, according to a summary of the bill.

Sens. Hillary Rodham Clinton of New York and Barack Obama of Illinois, rivals for the Democratic presidential nomination, are co-sponsors of the bill, but McCain is not.