Cheney: I can lie for war. You cannot investigate abuse.

In recent news Cheney agressively attacked the Obama administration’s decision to investigate the abuse of prisoners held by the C.I.A. He said the investigation should not happen because it was intensely partisan and politicized.
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Ahem, Mr Cheney when you and your autocratic government decided to lie in order to bring about a fraudulent war of destruction in Iraq, you appear convinced that these partisan and politicized actions were correct since they were directed by you and your cronies. As co-president it was okay for you to politize an invasion/mass destruction. On the other hand looking into illegal and horrible abuse of prisoners during the fraudulent war is, according to you, "bad" politicizing by the new legally elected government.

From his actions we see Cheney is having an extremely hard time giving up his position as the most powerful vice president in American history. He evidently was a co-president or a puppet master. The degree to which he behaves as if he were still in charge can be correlated by the degree to which he thinks he can still cloak his official actions. He illustrates the imperialism he practiced: How can you lesser ones look at what "I" -- mighty and righteous -- did? Does he want to keep his actions covered to keep his mind's view of his power intact? Can it be he knows his fellow citizens will not look favorably upon his secret practices? Can it be a crisis of his "conscience?" Is he trying to come to terms with mortality? Hard to imagine that, especially since this supremely pragmatic power-obsessed man has now amassed one of the great towering fortunes through the part played by his Haliburton Company in the war he contrived and the adjunct financial deals like Guantanamo, awarded outright -- with no bidding -- to Haliburton.

Can it be that Cheney keeps trying to control the "facts" because he fears conviction and time behind bars? Probably not. Due to the nature of our politics the too-bad thing is that his constant whinging, scolding and threatening will keep him safe just as his vast ill-begotten fortune will keep his descendants safe for hundreds of years. Meanwhile in America soldier graves increase. Growing steadily in number are other parts of his political legacy: desperately injured solders, the homeless and the abandoned poor. Iraqi people struggle with the destruction of their country and the massacre of their people, the thousands of injured survivors, the kind of horrors that can be healed -- if ever -- by time measured in centuries.

Why no news follow-up on Michael Vick?

I wrote the following to the investigative news desk of the New York Times:
"The Philadelphia Eagles are paying Michael Vick astronomical amounts; on TV he said in perfected public relations-mode that he "cried" in prison. Why no follow-up by the Times on his activities in regard to animals and to animal groups? Has he received counseling to deal with his years of participating in dog-killing? Do psychiatric specialists think 18 months of incarceration can have changed his basic mind-set about treatment of animals? He still refers to what he did euphemistically as having been in a wrong culture, as if the culture of dog-fighting were the criminal and not himself. He has not referred in simple language to his own torturing, beating dogs to death, and rejoicing in the money it brought him. The truth is found in what a person does and is seen to do. If he were remorseful he would seek counseling and reach out to animal protection groups. He has not done this. I appeal to your newspaper not to ignore reporting on his life outside football and not to treat the Vick matter as if it were distant, remedied and "not-news."

Killing of animals for spectacle and money has not ended. Vick has made no significant statements about it, nor has he demonstrated an inclination to spend any of the time and energy of his life in personal counter-balancing or acts (not words) of remorse. He is in a position of extraordinary power to make a difference as a role model and spokesman. Important work awaits him if he were willing to spend time representing a different view to help American society turn away from the idea of organized secret killing as an acceptable business. Thank you.

Willing to kill but not to care?

Question I submitted for President Obama's National Health Care Forum Thursday August 20: "Why do you think Americans were so willing to bankrupt our country for a war based on lies in Iraq and now are so vociferous in opposing even the idea of basic health care for each other, their fellow Americans?"

Idaho plans largest wolf massacre since the 1930s

On August 10 2009 the Idaho Department of Fish and Game announced it will begin next Monday to sell an estimated 70,000 permits to hunt and kill wolves in Idaho, season beginning in 14 days. That’s 70 guns for each wolf parent and pup in the state.

It could be the worst wolf massacre in the Lower 48 United States since the 1930s.
Last year a federal judge ruled to stop wolf killing in Wyoming and secured a reprieve for wolves in the Northern Rockies.

I wrote to Governor C.L. "Butch" Otter:

" I was impressed with your governor's statement about Idaho and our country holding precious American values. Question: What message does it send to the children of your state and of the nation -- as well as to the other nations of the world -- to promote a state-sponsored massacre of wolves through provisions for 70 licensed guns for every single wolf in Idaho? Would you be willing to consider that the time has arrived for husbandry instead of massacre in regard to wildlife? American diplomats and representatives continually campaign to convince "developing" countries to consider wildlife as a resource, as part of the natural world that -- apart from ethical concerns -- can bring enormous tourism income. Thank you."

Office of the Governor | P.O. Box 83720 | Boise, Idaho 83720 | 208-334-2100

Governor Otter: "My goal as your Governor is to empower Idaho to be all that America was meant to be..."

End of life for Befriended Koala Sam

Following modified from AP Writer Tanalee Smith, Aug 6 09.
ADELAIDE, Australia – Sam the koala, who became globally-known when photographed drinking water from a firefighter's bottle during Australia’s devastating wild fires, had to be released from life after a veterinarian found multiple painful and inoperable cysts. She had been recuperating in a shelter since the February fires.
As fires raged, Sam was gingerly making her way on scorched paws past a fire patrol north of Melbourne when volunteer firefighter David Tree spotted her.He was photographed holding a bottle of water to her lips, an image that resonated around the world.
Tree was in tears last Thursday as he spoke to reporters about Sam's death.
"It means something to everyone," he said. "The focus was never meant to be ... on a firefighter. It's simply about our wildlife and just how precious it is."
The 4-year-old koala had developed the cysts associated with stress-related urogenital chlamydiosis, affecting more than 50 percent of Australia's koalas. Thousands die every year. During surgery Sam’s disease was found to be so advanced it was inoperable. "It was so severe that there was no possible way to be able to manage her pain," an official said.
Deborah Tabart, CEO of the Australian Koala Foundation, said she was saddened by Sam's death but noted that thousands of other koalas die every year of the disease and are not lamented nor cared for by the government.
"Sam's just the tip of the iceberg," Tabart said. "… Our koalas are in serious trouble across the country."
Sam was found in early February, when record temperatures, high winds and forests dried by years of drought set off infernos that swept a vast area of Victoria state, killing more than 170 people and destroying thousands of homes.
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Of course the human loss is tragic but the loss of "other" life -- as usual was not recorded.

Think of all the koalas with this stress-related disease. I don't know how we can bear to keep on creating a world of horror and nightmare for the animals who are our co-creatures on the globe. Our cruelty as we carpet the world with commercialism in the name of "progress" seems the prevailing characteristic of our species. I wish those who are awake enough to see it could stand on top of the towers in the world -- virtual and otherwise -- and scream "Stop" in voices so numerous they would go into outer space -- with the dear but almost hopeless dream that they could go into the inner spaces of global humanity.

Why do we automatically have the idea that it's alright to imprison the non-humans, to take away their places, to wear their skins, to torture and kill them by uncountable millions?

Letter to Time re Aug 2 "report"

Time's piece by Jeninne Lee-St.John on urban animal raising --- the "Gee Whiz" factor was prevalent, along with ditzi excitement about what MUST be a new trend spotted first by your magazine. Encouraging urban dwellers to raise and kill chickens, rabbits, goats and other animals in their apartments smacks of a kind of idiocy and noxious atavism. So their children can learn about real life? Take them on field trips or show films about slaughter houses. Raising chickens tied with diapers among the Ralph Lauren designer furniture illustrates a skewed mentality turning desperately toward a pathological simulacrum of "natural life." If they want to connect to what remains of the "natural world" there are other pathways. The reality of food-animal "life" and death in the American world is a short poop-filled total imprisonment with torture (cutting off bills and toes etc) ending in a horrible fear-filled death. It adds another layer to the horror for the urban trend-afflicted to "domesticate" the process in apartments.