Hmmm, Who Really Is The "Murderer," Pfc. Manning Or Staff Sgt. Robert Bales?

As always, Glenn Greenwald puts things eloquently into perspective:

Think about that: if you expose to the world previously unknown evidence of widespread wanton killing of civilians (as Manning allegedly did), then you will end up in the same place as someone who actually engages in the mass wanton killing of civilians (as Bales allegedly did), except that the one who committed atrocities will receive better treatment than the one who exposed them. That’s a nice reflection of our government’s value system (similar to the way that high government officials who commit egregious crimes are immunized, while those who expose them are aggressively prosecuted). If the chat logs are to be believed, Manning decided to leak those documents because they revealed heinous war crimes that he could no longer in good conscience allow to be concealed, and he will now find himself next to a soldier who is accused of committing heinous war crimes.

Greenwald has been on a one-man crusade to try to educate Americans as to just how far this country has gone over the hill with respect to banana republic rulers, i.e. not only Bush, and his predecessors (ah, Iran/Contra comes to mind), but Obama as well. Whomever has the misplaced idea that Obama is a peace loving American has not been paying attention. Under Obama, the "Patriot Act" has been given a new meaning, and more (worse) powers than ever thought believable unless you lived in the Soviet Union during the cold war era. And the above quote from Mr. Greenwald is especially telling.

To top it off, the Afghans that actually witnessed the massacre still claim more than one shooter is involved, but our wonderful country whisks away the "lone" perpetrator, and then gives this mass murderer better treatment in "jail" than Pfc. Manning, whose only alleged crime was to "leak" to the press the very atrocities Robert Bales actually committed.

If you believe you live in the "land of the free and the home of the brave" you might need to see a doctor.

70 Years Later, Or How America Ended Up In WWII

Two words -- Pearl Harbor.

As one that lived in Hawai'i, and who has been to Pearl Harbor dozens of time, I can attest to the rather overpowering images that sit to this day in homage to those that lost their lives on this day in 1941.

From Wikipedia:

The base was attacked by 353^[10] Japanese fighters, bombers and torpedo planes in two waves, launched from six aircraft carriers.^[10] All eight U.S. Navy battleships were damaged, with four being sunk. Of the eight damaged, six were raised, repaired and returned to service later in the war. The Japanese also sank or damaged three cruisers, three destroyers, an anti-aircraft training ship,^{[nb 2]} and one minelayer. 188 U.S. aircraft were destroyed; 2,402 Americans were killed^[12] and 1,282 wounded. The power station, shipyard, maintenance, and fuel and torpedo storage facilities, as well as the submarine piers and headquarters building (also home of the intelligence section) were not attacked. Japanese losses were light: 29 aircraft and five midget submarines lost, and 65 servicemen killed or wounded. One Japanese sailor was captured.

The attack came as a profound shock to the American people and led directly to the American entry into World War II in both the Pacific and European theaters. The following day (December 8) the United States declared war on Japan. Domestic support for isolationism, which had been strong^{[citation needed]}, disappeared. Clandestine support of Britain (for example the Neutrality Patrol) was replaced by active alliance. Subsequent operations by the U.S. prompted Germany and Italy to declare war on the U.S. on December 11, which was reciprocated by the U.S. the same day.

Memorial to the Battleship Arizona, which I have visited numerous times, still gives me the shivers and goose bumps.

Let's Really Honor The Vets This Year - Donate

As we remember the fallen veterans that have served this country over the years, let us not forget what the Bush administration has done to our current set of vets coming back from "the war on terror."

The Dover Air Force Base mortuary for years disposed of portions of troops’ remains by cremating them and dumping the ashes in a Virginia landfill, a practice that officials have since abandoned in favor of burial at sea.

The mortuary in Delaware, the main point of entry for the nation’s war dead and the target of federal investigations of alleged mishandling of remains, engaged in the practice from 2003 to 2008, according to Air Force officials. The manner of disposal was not disclosed to relatives of fallen service members.

Courtesy of The Washington Post.

Thousands of veterans returning from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan are finding a grim job market. Veterans who served since 9/11 experience a 12.1% unemployment rate, which is higher than the national average, while one in three male veterans are jobless.

Courtesy of Think Progress.

Let's keep Iraq war veteran Scott Olsen in our minds this day, as we begin to understand why the many veterans of Bush's "war on terror" support the Occupy movement.

Hiroshima, 66 Years Ago

During the final stages of World War II in 1945, the United States conducted two atomic bombings against the cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in Japan, the first on August 6, 1945 and the second on August 9, 1945. These two events are the only use of nuclear weapons in war to date.

American Current Wars Account For Majority Of World's Refugee Crisis

From Think Progress:

America’s wars are forcing Afghans and Iraqis to flee their homes in greater numbers. According to a recent U.N. High Commission for Refugees study, nearly one half of the world’s refugees are from Afghanistan and Iraq, 3.05 million and 1.68 million, respectively. But neither the United States nor much of the developed world bears the burden of the 10.55 million refugees under the UNHCR’s purview globally. Instead, Pakistan, Iran, and Syria serve as the top host countries. The Economist has charted the numbers:

And why, I ask again, are we not putting war spending cuts into the picture on this debt ceiling craziness going on in Congress?

I seriously hate the fact that our so called elected leaders in the past 12 years have completely isolated America from the rest of the world, and have their fingers in their collective ears. We have children running our country, for God's sake. These people feel the world is still flat, and that they can just keep running in one direction and will never fall off that deep end. Me, (as well as millions of other Americans), I see that deep end, and our current government is on the precipice. God help us all.

How's That New War In Libya Working Out For Us?

And while we are on the topic of this President's illegal and secret actions, let's take a moment to bring up the unprecedented involvement in Libya!

Now the President believes he has the ability to conjure up "war powers" not actually vested in him and not authorized by Congress.

"The President does not have power under the Constitution to unilaterally authorize a military attack in a situation that does not involve stopping an actual or imminent threat to the nation" -- candidate Barack Obama, December, 2007.

More from Glenn Greenwald:

When President Obama ordered the U.S. military to wage war in Libya without Congressional approval (even though, to use his words, it did "not involve stopping an actual or imminent threat to the nation"), the administration and its defenders claimed he had legal authority to do so for two reasons: (1) the War Powers Resolution of 1973 (WPR) authorizes the President to wage war for 60 days without Congress, and (2) the "time-limited, well defined and discrete" nature of the mission meant that it was not really a "war" under the Constitution (Deputy NSA Adviser Ben Rhodes and the Obama OLC). Those claims were specious from the start, but are unquestionably inapplicable now.

From the start, the WPR provided no such authority. Section 1541(c) explicitly states that the war-making rights conferred by the statute apply only to "a national emergency created by attack upon the United States, its territories or possessions, or its armed forces." That's why Yale Law Professor Bruce Ackerman -- in an article in Foreign Policy entitled "Obama's Unconstitutional War" -- wrote when the war started that the "The War Powers Resolution doesn't authorize a single day of Libyan bombing" and that "in taking the country into a war with Libya, Barack Obama's administration is breaking new ground in its construction of an imperial presidency."

Well, that was then, and of course, Libya is now.

But even for those who chose to cling to the fiction that the presidential war in Libya was authorized by the WPR, that fiction is now coming to a crashing end. Friday will mark the 60th day of the war without Congress, and there are no plans for authorization to be provided. By all appearances, the White House isn't even bothering to pretend to seek one. A handful of GOP Senators -- ones who of course showed no interest whatsoever during the Bush years in demanding presidential adherence to the law -- are now demanding a vote on Libya, but it's highly likely that the Democrats who control the Senate won't allow one. Instead, the law will simply be ignored by the President who declared, when bashing George Bush on the campaign trail to throngs of cheering progressives: "No more ignoring the law when it's inconvenient. That is not who we are."

Of course not! Liar.

This war, without Congressional authorization, is illegal in every relevant sense: Constitutionally and statutorily. That was true from its start but is especially true now. If one wants to take the position that it's not particularly important or damaging for a President to illegally start and sustain protracted wars on his own, then it's hard to see what would be important. That is the ultimate expression of a lawless empire.

Welcome to our tyrannical Presidency.

I'm Stunned, I Tell You, Just Stunned, So Says Lindsey Graham

Republican Senator Lindsey Graham, who met with Afghan President Hamid Karzai during a recent visit, said on Sunday he was "stunned" at Karzai's comments to a Washington newspaper, which appeared at odds with U.S. military strategy.

In an interview with The Washington Post, Karzai said he wants the U.S. military to scale back the visibility and intensity of its operations in Afghanistan and end night raids that he said incited people to join the Taliban insurgency.

Karzai's comments put him at odds with General David Petraeus, who has made "capture-and-kill" missions a central part of counterinsurgency strategy, the Post said.

[snip]

In the Washington Post interview, Karzai said his comments were not meant as criticism of the United States and that candor could improve what he called a "grudging" relationship between the two countries.

"Grudging" is the operative word here. Same can be said with our "relationship" to many countries in the Middle East, like Iraq and Pakistan, for starters. This perpetual state of occupation and war will do to the United States what it has done to other occupiers in the past, like Great Britain and Russia. Eventually, they took their losses and went home. But, as I mentioned in my post below, with American's not getting that great of an education here, it is quite easy to herd the minions off to war by simply using a few key words, oh say, Muslim, Islam, terror and jihad. That ought to do it for the grunts that are on the ground risking their lives for an ideology that is based on falsehood and outright lies. Those in the government, however, don't get a pass in my book. I'm with the "round 'em up and try 'em in the courts" group. If I'm never supposed to forget what happened on 9/11, I'm pretty sure I'm not supposed to forget what happened after 9/11.

Just saying ...

Be Afraid Of Oligarchy, Not Obama

The slide to oligarchy is evident everywhere. With the wars bleeding America dry, and the give-away to the rich mentality on the backs of the dwindling middle class, the question on most people's minds (well those that are actually aware this is happening and understand it) is will America stand for this, or will America fight the takeover of their lives by the few rich.

Does anyone doubt that once a society ceases to be able to afford schools, public transit, paved roads, libraries and street lights -- or once it chooses not to be able to afford those things in pursuit of imperial priorities and the maintenance of a vast Surveillance and National Security State -- that a very serious problem has arisen, that things have gone seriously awry, that imperial collapse, by definition, is an imminent inevitability? Anyway, I just wanted to leave everyone with some light and cheerful thoughts as we head into the weekend.

Read the piece. Become aware. Stop the takeover.

I'm With Julian Assange - Keep The Light Shining On Our Actions

WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange said Friday that he was disappointed by criticism from Secretary of Defense Robert Gates over the release of about 76,000 pages of U.S. documents related to the war in Afghanistan.

Gates said Thursday that the massive leak will have significant impact on troops and allies, revealing techniques and procedures.

Assange rejected that assessment Friday, saying in a release that Gates "has overseen the killings of thousands of children and adults" in Afghanistan and Iraq.

[snip]

"Secretary Gates could have used his time, as other nations have done, to announce a broad inquiry into these killings," the statement said. "He could have announced specific criminal investigations into the deaths we have exposed. He could have announced a panel to hear the heartfelt dissent of U.S. soldiers, who know this war from the ground. He could have apologized to the Afghani people.

"But he did none of these things. He decided to treat these issues and the countries affected by them with contempt. Instead of explaining how he would address these issues, he decided to announce how he would suppress them.

"This behavior is unacceptable. We will not be suppressed. We will continue to expose abuses by this administration and others."

It is these types of stories, well not really stories, real things is better, that get me pissed off the most about Obama and his presidency. I am pretty fucking sure that most of us that voted for Obama actually thought he would pull down troops, bring out soldiers home, and end these two ridiculous and unwinable wars. Most of us, again I am sure, did not in our wildest imagination figure that he would increase the number of troops in Afghanistan. Either Obama knows he is wrong but the money controllers (those corporate people that dictate what goes on in Washington) really have a hold on his nads, or the dufus believes he's doing "the right thing," which is kind of very hard for me to take.

When Bush was in the White House, I knew he was on drugs. But with Obama, man, I feel like I'm the one on drugs. It's like (said as if Cheech to Chong) -- dude, deja vu.

Who thought Obama and the Democrats would continue the tyrannical war policy of the last eight years?

Who knew?

Nuke 'Em Or Duke 'Em

Now why is this not news to me?

Dramatic increases in infant mortality, cancer and leukaemia in the Iraqi city of Fallujah, which was bombarded by US Marines in 2004, exceed those reported by survivors of the atomic bombs that were dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945, according to a new study.

Hmmm. No wonder there's a supp0sed ban on the use of white phosphorous. But the U.S. felt no compulsion not to use it.

Powerful new evidence emerged yesterday that the United States dropped massive quantities of white phosphorus on the Iraqi city of Fallujah during the attack on the city in November 2004, killing insurgents and civilians with the appalling burns that are the signature of this weapon.

August 6 is just around the corner, 65 years after first atomic bomb dropped in Japan. My piece, here.

And for what it looked like in Fallujah, here are some graphic pictures to remind one of what war is really like.

WWII Photo Icon (Kiss In Times Square) Dead

Photo by Alfred Eisenstaedt

Edith Shain passed away today. She was 92. One of the most famous photographs to come out of WWII.

New Money Source Found In Afghanistan - Americans On It Like Flies On Shit

The United States has discovered nearly $1 trillion in untapped mineral deposits in Afghanistan, far beyond any previously known reserves and enough to fundamentally alter the Afghan economy and perhaps the Afghan war itself, according to senior American government officials.

Not sure what that means to the U.S. just yet, but it might change Karzai's tune from just a week ago.

Two senior Afghan officials were showing President Hamid Karzai the evidence of the spectacular rocket attack on a nationwide peace conference earlier this month when Mr. Karzai told them that he believed the Taliban were not responsible.

“The president did not show any interest in the evidence — none — he treated it like a piece of dirt,” said Amrullah Saleh, then the director of the Afghan intelligence service.

Mr. Saleh declined to discuss Mr. Karzai’s reasoning in more detail. But a prominent Afghan with knowledge of the meeting, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said that Mr. Karzai suggested in the meeting that it might have been the Americans who carried it out.

Yeah. The Americans did it, as usual (and I am not saying that "tongue in cheek" - I really mean it, since the Americans generally are the bad guys in these areas and with these types of things).

We're all over the Middle East and pretty much on the wrong side of just about everyone except Israel.

Want to cut the deficit? Yeah, let's take away Social Security from the up and coming baby boomers, but let's not touch the trillions of dollars being handed over to war profiteers and the Arab countries that hate our guts.

Nice work, America.

Barney Frank's Pipe Dream

A panel commissioned by Rep. Barney Frank (D-Mass.) is recommending nearly $1 trillion in cuts to the Pentagon’s budget during the next 10 years.

The Sustainable Defense Task Force, a commission of scholars from a broad ideological spectrum appointed by Frank, the House Financial Services Committee chairman, laid out actions the government could take that could save as much as $960 billion between 2011 and 2020.

Measures presented by the task force include making significant reductions to the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter program, which has strong support from Defense Secretary Robert Gates; delaying the procurement of a new midair refueling tanker the Air Force has identified as one of its top acquisition priorities; and reducing the Navy’s fleet to 230 ships instead of the 313 eyed by the service.

Yeah, like that's ever gonna happen! We can't even get this government (or the past one) to stop giving our taxpayer money to Arab nations while American's starve to death, are homeless by the thousands and FUCKING UNEMPLOYED IN THE MILLIONS! Good luck getting the military contractors and their war machine on board with this, Barney!

1 Trillion Dollars Spent On The Wars

I still have to figure out the best screen capture program. This one could still not take the whole page. Whatever.

I don't belong to Facebook, so I can't play the "game." Basically, you can pick different things on the site and see how else you could have spent One Trillion Dollars. It's a great visual game, and judging by some people's posts, they still couldn't spend One Trillion!

Our government has wasted this much money on two wars that have accomplished ZERO for Americans. They scream and yell about our debt, but instead of plugging the leak this spending represents, they want to cut Social Security to AMERICANS!

Hitting. Head. On. Keyboard.

H/T to Crooks and Liars.

Memorial Day

As noted over at Crooks and Liars, a sad milestone was hit this Memorial Day weekend -- 1,000 GI's dead in the Afghanistan war.

As we remember those that died serving in the military and fighting wars for our country, let's not forget that the two we are currently embroiled in are fruitless, pointless, not worth losing any lives over, let alone American lives, and it is draining our country's finances like no other war ever has. Americans are suffering at home because there is no money to fix our infrastructure, keep budgets on target (be they local, state or national), people are becoming homeless faster than at any time (outside of the Great Depression)(and that includes many veterans of these two wars), all because of the misguided and deceitful tale of the "evil" Muslims and the false story line that as a "Christian" nation, we must rid the world of the evil threat the "Muslims" pose.

As we mourn those that have died protecting this wonderful country, let us also remember that we do not have to be in Iraq or in Afghanistan (or Iran, or any other Arab nation). We were lied to by greedy oil men who used 9/11 as a backdrop to invade a country to take their oil. Look where's it taken us. Instead of having their oil, we are GIVING them OUR country's men and women AND billions of our country's dollars.

On a lighter note, my grandson and I went to Santa Monica beach for the day, yesterday. They had a nice memorial placed on the beach.




Here's the kid, warming himself in the sand.

"All Right, Prepare To Fire"

An update to my post on Kent State:

The Ohio National Guardsmen who fired on students and antiwar protesters at Kent State University on May 4, 1970 were given an order to prepare to shoot, according to a new analysis of a 40-year-old audio tape of the event.

"Guard!" says a male voice on the recording, which two forensic audio experts enhanced and evaluated at the request of The Plain Dealer. Several seconds pass. Then, "All right, prepare to fire!"

"Get down!" someone shouts urgently, presumably in the crowd. Finally, "Guard! . . . " followed two seconds later by a long, booming volley of gunshots. The entire spoken sequence lasts 17 seconds.

The previously undetected command could begin to explain the central mystery of the Kent State tragedy - why 28 Guardsmen pivoted in unison atop Blanket Hill, raised their rifles and pistols and fired 67 times, killing four students and wounding nine others in an act that galvanized sentiment against the Vietnam War.

The order indicates that the gunshots were not spontaneous, or in response to sniper fire, as some have suggested over the years.

[emphasis added]

On Tuesday, I was reading lots of comments on YouTube versions of the shooting and other commemorations of the Kent State massacre. I was shocked at the level of disconnect with today's youth compared with those of us that lived the moment as teenagers, either in high school or in college.

It really is amazing how many of today's young people have no understanding of what it was like back then, and how deeply divided this country was over the war in Vietnam, not so much divided among the youth, but divided between us and our parents, who simply could not fathom why we did not want to fight in a war. The generation gap was huge back then, and it cannot in any fashion be compared to the division that is apparent in today's America. Today's division is purely political, stirred up by lies and supported by the greed of those who condone the lies in order to prop themselves and their companies up on the pedestal of financial gain.

The divide in the 60's and 70's was prompted by the draft, and the forcing of people (mostly young men), against their will, to fight in a war they didn't believe in, didn't want to die in, and more importantly, not for a president most of them (us) despised. In Iraq and Afghanistan, although our soldiers were lied to in order to get them to go to war, let it not be forgotten for one moment that these brave souls decided to enlist and protect and fight for America, even if it was based on lies and again, prompted by a president most of the world despised.

As crazy as Bush & Co. were, they simply stripped us of our rights and drained the hell out of the country's finances, all the while scared shitless of the people who protested against him, but he was nothing like the paranoid Nixon, who in his most egregious and arrogant days as president, sent in fucking armed National Guardsmen to shoot at (and kill) the protesters he so feared.

We Return To Our Regularly Scheduled Political Program

Let me be straight about the war thing. I am not for it in any fashion, whatsoever. I did not have the knee-jerk reaction to invade a Muslim country because of 9/11. I was never a believer in WMD and the Iraq connection that was concocted in order to invade that country. I did not believe in the escalation of the invasion (I refuse to call it a war, because no war was ever declared by Congress), and I am not on board with sending more troops to Afghanistan (not to mention being opposed to sending drones into Pakistan -- and using Blackwater Ops alongside CIA agents to basically assassinate whomever we disagree with).

I think, as usual, Glenn Greenwald has a good piece up on Obama's furtherance of the Bush policy of attack them there so we don't have to fight them here, and the current use of isolated incidents of alleged Muslim home grown terrorists. Plus, I find it interesting that the white supremacist groups that advocate overthrowing the government and who show up at political functions armed to the teeth these days are not considered political terrorists, home grown at that. The double standard, the Christian v. Muslim ideology, i.e., Christian good, Muslim bad, reflects on the stupidity of this nation as a whole, and is an embarrassment to me as an American.

There is clearly a concerted effort by the Government to claim loudly that the threat posed by radicalized American Muslims is increasing.

[snip]

At least from all appearances, these claims are being made exclusively on the basis of a handful of recent episodes involving American Muslims accused of having links to Al Qaeda and/or the Taliban. There is no data whatsoever offered to corroborate the claim of a "trend."

[snip]

Waging wars, occupying, and dropping bombs in Muslim countries is the single most counter-productive step that can be taken to combat Islamic extremism (indefinitely imprisoning them without charges is a close second). It's akin to advising a lung cancer patient to triple the quantity of cigarettes he smokes each day. Yet we continue to do it over and over, and then point to the harms we cause as reasons we need to continue doing it. Our "counter-terrorism" campaign basically consists of three steps repeated endlessly:

(1) Interfere in or otherwise act aggressively in the Muslim world.

(2) Provoke increased anti-American sentiment and fuel terrorism as a result of Step 1.

(3) Point to the increased anti-American sentiment and terrorism as a reason we need to escalate our interference and aggression in the Muslim world. Return to Step 1.

Read the whole thing, I dare you.

War Is Over, If You Want It, Merry Christmas From John and Yoko

Warning: This is difficult to watch. The opening is great material by John and Yoko, but the actual song is played over war images that will leave you crying.

What Is Wrong With Obama? Still Using Blackwater Ops In The Middle East?????

You know, every day, every week, every month, something new comes out about Obama that makes me wonder if he really is a Democrat. Perhaps, like Bush, he thinks God ordained him to be president. I don't know exactly what to make of it, except that what the man said while running for president, and what he's actually done as president, has damaged the Democratic party in ways that will have serious consequences in the 2010 elections. And I, for one, would hate to see all the work we did as netroots in securing the majorities in the House, Senate, and of course, the White House, evaporate becase Obama has turned out to be spineless.

This piece is just disgusting.

The Obama administration is using mercenaries with the firm formerly known as Blackwater to kidnap and assassinate high value targets in Pakistan, according to a published report.

The program, operated out of the US Joint Special Operations Command, "is so 'compartmentalized' that senior figures within the Obama administration and the US military chain of command may not be aware of its existence," an unnamed source with direct knowledge of the program told The Nation reporter Jeremy Scahill.

War, war, war, war, war, war, war ....

Money down the drain, and lives (Americans and others) lost for absolutely no fucking good reason. I know historically, there have been the "good" wars and the "bad" wars, but honestly, since World War II, what fucking war has come up with any "good" attached to it? And I am speaking globally, not just for Americans.

The world economy is crumbling, despite what "media" tries to tell you. The small amount of the very rich in the world dominate, along with the corporations that control the vast majority of the world.

But, just here in America, it does not bode well that politicians are panning true health care reform (mostly because they are taking money from the insurance and big pharma groups -- not because they really and truly feel that Americans would fall into socialism based on reform). As for the financial industry, Obama has let the foxes run the hen house, and as a result, taxpayers have propped up the richest of the rich in that industry, and have shown absolutely no backbone in curbing the disgusting salaries and bonuses of a handful of people and corporations.

And then there are the wars. For one thing, doesn't anyone in the ruling government today have any knowledge of the ass kicking the middle east did to the British the last century when they tried to control and rule there? Ideologically, western modernism is not going to be implemented in the middle east, and the sooner our government gets this, the better off we will be. But knowing that the Obama Administration is still employing the rogue Blackwater group in Afghanistan and Pakistan is especially galling. Americans are not going to make any progress or difference in Iraq, Afghanistan, Iran, Pakistan, India or whatever. I guess the guys (and gals) on the Hill just like masturbating (well, who doesn't, except, of course, the religious right wing ... well, they do, they just won't admit it). WE started two wars without any idea why, and without any real plans for how to run it or finance it. Hell, we might as well just have our government play a game of Risk and let that run our foreign policy ... I'm serious!

At least this story proves the point that money and the fucking health insurance industry aren't the be all and end all in medicine.

Dr. Shetty, who entered the limelight in the early 1990s as Mother Teresa's cardiac surgeon, offers cutting-edge medical care in India at a fraction of what it costs elsewhere in the world. His flagship heart hospital charges $2,000, on average, for open-heart surgery, compared with hospitals in the U.S. that are paid between $20,000 and $100,000, depending on the complexity of the surgery.

The approach has transformed health care in India through a simple premise that works in other industries: economies of scale. By driving huge volumes, even of procedures as sophisticated, delicate and dangerous as heart surgery, Dr. Shetty has managed to drive down the cost of health care in his nation of one billion.

His model offers insights for countries worldwide that are struggling with soaring medical costs, including the U.S. as it debates major health-care overhaul.

"Japanese companies reinvented the process of making cars. That's what we're doing in health care," Dr. Shetty says. "What health care needs is process innovation, not product innovation."

At his flagship, 1,000-bed Narayana Hrudayalaya Hospital, surgeons operate at a capacity virtually unheard of in the U.S., where the average hospital has 160 beds, according to the American Hospital Association.

The future of health care in the United States will be leaving the United States for affordable treatment. The meme that millions come here for expert medical treatment has lost its luster and its truth, as the reality is clear that Americans are leaving the U.S. and seeking affordable medical treatment elsewhere.

The last bastion ... the line drawn in the sand, as it were, has been and is the health care reform bill. As it stands, neither version (House or Senate) offers true reform, and since it appears that whatever actually gets passed will only benefit the insurance industry and big pharma at the expense of Americans, I simply don't see the Democrats keeping the majority they got. Their base will simply not donate any more money to a dying party with no principles, and will stay away from the voting booth. The unfortunate outcome of that will be an open door for the nutjobs to take over government.

God help us when that happens.

Finally, Some Obama Decisions I Actually Like

I know I've been all doomsday about Obama and some of his decisions since taking office, but these last two, at least, make me feel better.

Attorney General Eric Holder said at a press conference Wednesday that the Justice Department will no longer raid medical marijuana clubs that are established legally under state law. His declaration is a fulfillment of a campaign promise by President Barack Obama, and marks a major shift from the previous administration.

I got this piece off of The Huffington Post, and it is a really, really long article, but vastly informative about the emergence of the medical marijuana industry.

As for the other news:

WASHINGTON (AP) — News organizations will be allowed to photograph the homecomings of America's war dead under a new Pentagon policy, defense and congressional officials said Thursday.

Defense Secretary Robert Gates has decided to allow photos of flag-draped caskets at Dover Air Force Base, Del., if the families of the fallen troops agree, the officials told The Associated Press.

Obviously, if families want privacy, that will be respected. But far too many families were dumfounded when told that no press was allowed when their loved ones were flown into Dover. These people gave their lives for this country (and not to mention in a war that was started based on a certain person's ego and on the son of a bitch's lies) and they deserved to be recognized upon their arrival back in this country, and not hidden (by the thousands) from he American public, the very public they died for.