A Glimpse of Iraq is a book about Iraq the country, the people and occupation.

More than 60 minors, some as young as 14, have been held as prisoners at the US detention centre for suspected terrorists at Guantanamo Bay, according to a London-based human rights group.

Those detainees were under 18 when they were captured by US forces, and at least 10 of them still being held at Guantanamo Bay were 14 or 15 when they were seized, held in solitary confinement, subjected to repeated interrogation and allegedly tortured, the charity Reprieve stated in a report on Monday.

President Bush, it's time to close Guantánamo.

From A Glimpse of Iraq.

Search Parties and Changing Attitudes

I have had several personal encounters with US army search parties. Two of them reflect a certain trend.

The U. S. Senate will vote in early June on repealing the Estate Tax. Like most Republican Senators, Wayne Allard from my state of Colorado wants to repeal it.

Allard's latest statement on this subject is full of falsehoods. After all these years of Senate debates on this issue, you'd think he'd have his facts straight by now.

More disturbing is that many Senators believe that wealthy heirs should simply be handed huge sums of money tax free, while we ordinary citizens should not only have to work for a living, but we should pay taxes on what we earn.

From A Glimpse of Iraq

Someone I know was kidnapped. He was abducted by three men at gunpoint, right in front of his house. His family and friends kept calling him on his mobile phone. The following day, someone answered. He said that they represented the resistance and the man will be killed because he collaborated with the Americans, working as an interpreter. He was told that the man had nothing to do with the Americans or any other party. He was a businessman. The kidnapper said that they would check it out and kill the man if he was. They would send him in several pieces to his family. If he was “innocent”, the family would have to give a donation to the resistance! It was immediately obvious that this was a criminal gang.

Below are excerpts from Abu Khaleel's book A Glimpse of Iraq in which he recounts a visit with Grand Ayatollah Ali Husseini Sistani, someone we in the US have certainly heard of. The visit took place in February 2004.

The Denver Post series on toll roads tells us a story of serious failure. Key to the failures are consulting companies that are way wrong far more than they are a little right. If the market punishes failure, why are these guys still in business. Why is it that people go back to these failures again and again?

Ok, the prior posts discussed corruption in the system. That's one piece of the puzzle, but I think there's more, and unless we look at that more, we can't tackle the problem.

Join us on Friday, June 2 at 9pm EDT for our first online book club discussion featuring A Glimpse of Iraq—a compilation of first-hand, war zone posts by Iraqi blogger Abu Khaleel.

Below is an excerpt from p.251-52, near the end of the book.

You knew that, of course. The people who take the tollroad pay for it. The rest of us who don't want to pay take free roads. It's win-win for everyone. It's the free market at work. It's almost a free lunch. It's magic.

All this is true only if you have no ability to see beyond economic fundamentalist theoretical rhetoric, buy promises made by people who are self-interested and stand to make the big bucks if they get that road built, and refuse to trust what is in front of your own nose. Today's story in the Denver Post series builds on yesterday's story.

Thanks to Rob Dougherty of Stupidslab for sending out a news story in the Denver Post that has explosive implications for toll roads across the country.

In the story, highly placed toll road officials admit to what sounds like fraud on the bond market.

Ever wonder:

1. Why do I say so many stupid things when I am drunk?

2. Why do I make myself sick, instead of just strangling my boss?

3. Why can I remember exactly what I was doing the morning of September 11, 2001 (or the day that JFK was assassinated)?

4 What's the connection between the Big Bang and a brilliant chess move?

Well, who hasn't?

A recent article in the Boston Globe  documents how Bush has claimed the right to disobey more than 750 laws enacted since he took office.)

Accomplices in this assault on our democracy include the religious right which would intrude into our personal lives to determine our rights and freedoms.

"The target is not the Democrats but democracy itself."

For me, Memorial Day weekend always conjers up the scent of perfectly blackened weenies on the grill, the sight of miniature American flags lining tree lawns, and the buzz of a new political campaign.

Everybody has their favorite hot dog—Nathan's, Ball Park, Oscar Mayer, Hebrew National, or the slimy no-name brand at your local grocer.

But how do you select your favorite candidate?

Heading into Memorial Day weekend - hmmm, wonder why they call it Memorial Day - must be to remember that it's almost summer. Carefree days just ahead. That must be it.

Well, don't get too comfortable. It is, after all, Unbossed's job to afflict the comfortable. In furtherance of that mission: What should be on your worry agenda? Not feeling up to worrying? Maybe one reason is that the MSM is already on summer break.

The Institute for Policy Research at the University of Cincinnati released a statewide poll today with encouraging news for supporters of Ted Strickland and opportunities for base-building by Sherrod Brown's campaign.

Just as House Speaker Hastert criticized the FBI's raid of Congressman Jefferson, someone in the Justice Dept. told ABC news that Hastert himself is under investigation for corruption.

Hastert, of course, denies it.

While I normally would have shouted with joy at the thought of Hastert being investigated, this sounds more like a wake-up call to legislators who dare question this president's power. The White House is weak, but like a wounded animal, we should be afraid of it...

Yesterday's unbossed posts included one on the presence of women and minorities in the sciences and the impact of their not being there. One topic that was discussed in comments was bias.

Want to find out whether you are prejudiced? Have I got a test for you.

We get heaps of data and studies released every day. Data and study affect policy decisions and our understanding of our world. When done right, data get us beyond our limited experience and provide the big picture.

But what if it is wrong on an issue of critical importance?

Things are hardly matey Down Under as people are scrambling to understand the cause of a spate of brain tumors among workers on the top floors of a building at Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology (RMIT).

The National Tertiary Education Union (NTEU), the union that represents workers at RMIT, is calling for a serious investigation.

The NTEU has called on RMIT University to ensure the health and safety of its staff following reports that seven staff members working in a building at 239 Bourke St have been diagnosed with brain tumours over the last seven years.

“This would appear to be much more than co-incidence, and RMIT has a responsibility to leave no stone unturned in seeking the cause,” NTEU Victorian Division Secretary Matthew McGowan said today.

NTEU representatives met with University management early this morning, and successfully argued that the building’s top two floors be immediately evacuated.

Don't get me wrong. White, male scientists have been very good to us. There is almost not a second of my life when I don't depend on the fruits of their efforts.

But so strong is the stereotype that science is the domain of white males that talented women and minorities may not even think of science as a career. And they may not have the support they need along the way.

It is not the case that white males can only do white, male science. But when a huge percentage of the population is not engaging in science, we do not bring all our capacity to the task of understanding our universe. We also risk having problems and their solutions overlooked and underdeveloped.

Some names have been changed.

I got a call last night from my best friend, Grace. Grace and I have known each other our whole lives. Our families toted us to the same church when we were infants. We've been best friends since we were six and we endured the slings and arrows of elementary school together.

In many ways, Grace is like a sister. When I got thrown out of my home at 14, I moved into Grace's house. In a very real way, although we're not blood relations, we're family. Last night, Grace had some family news to share. Another of our "sisters," Cindy, had a baby. His name is Elijah.

Iraq is such an important issue. We know that, but we tend to lose sight of this knowledge. It is too painful. Too overwhelming. The sources of information are too few, too many, too conflicting. We feel so helpless. We are not experts. We can never understand it.

And for many of us there is the guilt for the pain and loss we know we are causing the ordinary individual people of Iraq. There is the confusion over what the pundits tell us about Iraq.

But none of this confusion, helplessness, and ignorance has to remain true. We all have the power to take small steps to change every one of these conditions that keeps us feeling powerless. Abu Khaleel's book is one step in that direction. We all could use a space to talk about Iraq and at least A Glimpse of Iraq.

Today there's music, global warming, evolution, and more.

Missed the March 29 eclipse? Well, you can relive it all over again for the first time here - complete with video.

Here's a quick look and links to some interesting government reports on the web. Some amusing. And some not.

Minor League Baseball Teams and the Boy Scouts Pitch in to Prepare for Emergencies Nationwide

The relief is palpable. No gays need apply.

France Meets U.S. Requirements for E-Passports

Does this mean French fries are back on the menu? But seriously, meanwhile getting an ID program here is on the agenda and yet on the back burner.

Whaddya I have to do for you people? Hand out $50 bills to anybody who posts a comment?

Well, here you go.

Ready. Set. Post a comment. Don't be shy. Summon up that liberal indignation. I know it's in there.

I came to know Abu Khaleel in late 2004 when I came across his blog Iraquna. His writing is erudite, humane, and resilient. It provides a perspective sorely lacking in US media reports. I participated at his blog and we corresponded by email when time zones and freely flowing electricity would allow. My impressions of him and his deep love for his country first encountered online were confirmed through our private conversations.

Recently, he has captured his blog posts as a self-published book, A Glimpse of Iraq. It is the feature of the inaugural Unbossed Book Club. It is a book I highly recommend.

To the uninformed, it would seem that sin would be both obvious and avoidable. It's a sin to steal, so you should be able to identify that behavior fairly simply and to avoid doing it easily by not taking things that don't belong to you.

And most people have the idea of sinners as being brazen -- hookers parading about on the streets wearing attention grabbing clothing; gamblers and drinkers frequenting gaudy, smokey dens of iniquity clearly identified with flashing lights; but there's much more to sinning than meets the eye.

Theocracy is derived from the two Greek words Qeo/j(Theos) meaning "God" and kra/tein (cratein) meaning "to rule." The Reverend Rod Parsley, a champion of theocracy, or what he calls a "christocracy," told his congregation at the World Harvest Church, located just outside Columbus, Ohio, "Theocracy means God is in control, and you are not."

The theocratic right seeks to establish Dominion, or control over society in the name of God.

(Continued in Extended)

From The Impeach Project, by tlh lib

Okay, what is it with the media that they can't get the word "IMPEACHMENT" into their vernacular? They had no issue with turning Clinton [ . . . ] into the biggest story of the decade in 1998 and Americans (no pun intended) ate it up. Did they support impeachment before impeachment began though? That's the popular myth that still gets spread as if it's the truth....just like many other lies the media likes to perpetuate.

[Continued in Extended]

China and labor are often in the news. Usually this involves criticism for unfair competition with US workers based on extremely low wages. What has been missing is coverage of China's current efforts to draft a new labor contract law that could change these conditions.

For years, Chinese employers have tried to avoid the impact employment law by hiring workers as "temporary" employees. Employers give workers a series of fixed-term contracts so that a worker could spend a whole lifetime at one employer and never be a regular employee. The new law tries to address this and other abuses in a number of ways.

Energy seems to be the issue of the day.  FINALLY!!!  In my daily battle against the El Paso Corporation, lots of information comes my way.  I'd like to continue sharing it with you all.

Once again, that you to BB, JA, ML, Jill and others.

Unbossed readers might be interested in a new study out on the impact fake news shows on political involvement. The full article may be downloaded for a limited time. More below.

Imagine there's no countries

It isn't hard to do

Nothing to kill or die for

And no religion too

Imagine all the people

Living life in peace...

-- John Lennon, Imagine

Now that the GOP has been transformed by the rise of the South, the trauma of terrorism and George W. Bush's conviction that God wanted him to be president, a deeper conclusion can be drawn:  The Republican Party has become the first religious party in U.S. history.

-- Kevin Phillips, American Theocracy

Since September 11, 2001, Americans of all beliefs have decried Islamic fundamentalism, vowing to protect themselves from such extremism and the terrorism it lends itself to.  Yet the short years since have proven detrimental to religious freedom and liberty in general, leading to the nagging question: could America slip into a fundamentalist mode that parallels those nations we are desperately seeking to defend ourselves against?

Theocracy is derived from the two Greek words Qeo/j(Theos) meaning "God" and kra/tein (cratein) meaning "to rule." The Reverend Rod Parsley, a champion of theocracy, or what he calls a "christocracy," told his congregation at the World Harvest Church, located just outside Columbus, Ohio, "Theocracy means God is in control, and you are not."

The theocratic right seeks to establish Dominion, or control over society in the name of God.

Continued in Extended

Why wait till the extended? Whet your appetite by diving into a site with mysterious sounds. Or how about links to NOAA information on weather and climate.

More below, including a caffeine-based clone of Drinking Liberally. Does that make it a coffee cat?

Wheels of Justice: A True Story

originally posted at by Pinché Tejano. Reposted with author's permission.

Let me tell you the story of a boy by the name of Esequiel Hernandez, Jr. This story will unfortunately be posthumous, due his being gunned down, assassin-style by a group of Marines on patrol on American soil. On May 20, 1997, Esequiel was herding the pride of his poor Hispanic family in Redford, Texas. He took his goats down to water everyday after school. What he did not know was he was being stalked by a group of four marines who had been camped just outside his small village for about three days.

That's right folks, American Marines on COMBAT patrol on American soil. This shit would never fly in Nebraska. Could you imagine? There's no fucking way. In the name of the no-win Drug War, the lower Rio Grande Valley was put under Martial Law. Last time I checked, this was not the mission of the United States Marine Corps, and even less likely is the prospect of these marines having been given proper training to handle such a task.

Continued in Extended.

Since capitalism has always been cozy with fascism (Mussolini, the father of fascism, defined it as "the coming together of corporations and the state"), the connection with religious fundamentalism is also a natural one.

After all, fundamentalism, because it is such an obvious catalyst for absolute obedience and violence in society, needs a strong, centralized government to provide the ambience in which it can flourish. In a genuine democracy, fundamentalism is usually recognized as a fringe movement that is only supported and promoted by "crackpots."

Continued in extended.

A very thought-provoking article appeared in the May issue of Neurology questioning whether inaccurate film portrayals of people in comatose states affect end-of-life decisions by family members of such patients.

A Mayo Clinic neurologist reviewed 30 movies made between 1970 and 2004 with actors depicting prolonged coma. Thirty-nine percent of the study participants who viewed selected film clips said that they would be influenced by what they saw on the screen, including inaccuracies such as lack of feeding tubes, patients who suddenly woke up with no physical or mental impairments, or had their eyes closed and simply appeared to be asleep.

Perhaps this explains the unrealistic expectations of the hard-core "Save Terri Schiavo" movement beyond simple religious motives.

After the Bush administration implemented a new international AIDS policy that requires federal grant recipients to officially condemn commercial sex work, several international NGOs lost funding for their HIV/AIDS-related services. Yesterday in New York, US District Judge Victor Marrero ruled that this policy violates the First Amendment rights of key partners in the international fight against AIDS.

"You never change things by fighting the existing reality. To change something, build a new model that makes the existing model obsolete.”

- Buckminster Fuller

What do you want to change?

Last week, I circled up on a number of energy-related articles I found most interesting and/or informative. I added comments of my own as well as several of my collegues.  Below is Round 2 in what may well become a series.  

Again, thanks to those of you at TWS and the Coalition for the Valle Vidal for helping to gather this information.

A very intriguing question was raised in an article on technology and politics.

The question becomes whether this overload of technology helps create a more informed electorate or leads to greater political polarity as people seek out only information that supports their views.

“Technology is definitely … tossing more information at humans with a very limited capacity to digest information,” said Kyle Saunders, assistant professor of political science at Colorado State University. “How much information does a citizen deserve? Want? Need? Those are three very different things.”

What say you?

This is the second post on the National Freedom of Information Summit held in Indianapolis April 21-22. Here are more investigative tools.

If the weather's not so good this Sunday, how about a trip to the IEEE Virtual Museum?

You see now why I haven't been blogging lately? I keep running across stuff like this.

There are some interesting new developments at the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) in the past week. Interesting because they seem to be an attempt to respond to key criticisms of the way the NLRB has handled representation elections. Those criticisms have been that NLRB elections do not provide workers with free and fair elections.

The Ronald Mesiburg, new NLRB General Counsel, gave a major speech that lays out the initiatives in a couple of new directives the the NLRB Regional Offices. In them he said:

An important priority during my term as General Counsel will be to ensure (1) that employees have freedom of choice based on a timely opportunity to vote in Board-conducted elections in an uncoerced atmosphere and (2) that their decision in an election is protected by this Agency.

Can't keep up with the White House scandal de jour without a scorecard? Want a definitive list of elected crooks on Capitol Hill?

Every Friday, you can post your suggestions for Unbossed's Miscreant of the Week™. Conveniently timed to coincide with the end-of-week bad news dump from the White House Press Office!

Take the poll.

The report of the Election Assistance Commission on the 2004 presidential election, that polling stations across the country had too few poll workers. 5,252 polling places or precincts were inadequately staffed - 5.8% of polling places. The worst was Lousiana with 64.7% of precincts inadequately staffed. Link.

I was an election observor in the 2005 election in an inner city precinct, and I saw just what this means first hand. We need to fix that gap. Nothing but bodies on the ground can make a difference.

The American Association of University Professors / Maryland Professors at the Polls project aims to attack this critical shortfall.

Don't get me wrong. I remain one of those ninnies who seriously doubts the Democratic Party's ability capitalize on the disasterous rule of the GOP OBSTRUCTIONISTS and the disasters created my their inane policies. I will say this, however, the complete failure and unwillingness of the Republicans to deal with the energy crisis facing our nation has them backed into a corner.

Its time we beat their lights out.

Get out of the way OBSTRUCTIONISTS!

From our friends at Stupid Slab:

We few, we happy few, we band of brothers;
For he to-day that sheds his blood with me
Shall be my brother; be he ne'er so vile,
This day shall gentle his condition;
And gentlemen in England now-a-bed
Shall think themselves accurs'd they were not here,
And hold their manhoods cheap whiles any speaks
That fought with us upon Saint Crispin's day.

Shakespeare, Henry V, Act 4, Scene 3
Before the Battle of Agincourt, 25 October 1415

OK, so there was no actual bloodshed. But the feeling at the Senate Transportation Committee on Tuesday was that we had fought the good fight and kept the faith. And the committee members said as much.

There are probably zillions of weak links in the chain of responding to serious diseases, such as H5N1. Even mundane, widely accepted practices may put us at risk. Consider a recent case, one involving a healthcare employer, no less, as an example of such a problem.

Yesterday, Environmentalist discussed the environmental effects of Hurricaines Rita and Katrina. I asked him whether New Orleans should be rebuilt, and he said:

Oh man...I know I'm going down for this but....NO. Its insane to have a city there given what is coming.

That means we should discuss this specific hot-button, emotional issue. Not that I want a nice guy like Environmentalist to "go down" - but if we are to be the unbossed, then we need to act as if we are unbossed, and that means tackling the overlooked, undiscussed, hard-to-talk-about issues.

This morning the AP (sorry no link) reported that Hurricans Katrina and Rita destroyed 113 petroleum platforms in the Gulf of Mexico last summer. The U.S. Minerals Management Service reported that:

The storms also damaged 457 pipelines connecting production facilities in the Gulf and bringing oil and natural gas to shore — a sharp rise from the 183 damaged pipelines identified in January...

What's happening in the world of workplace safety? How about a quick look at OSHA's e-FOIA page that includes:

touching base with OSHA whistleblower Adam Finkel and

a list of the most unsafe workplaces, some maybe down the street or where you work.

I've been spending so much time fighting the oil and gas industry that I've kind of fallen off the Unbossed wagon. I specifically set aside time this morning to find out where we're at.

Since energy has finally gained the stature at lefty blogs that Jerome a Paris, Meteor Blades, myself and others have been calling for the past two years, I thought I'd give a quick roundup of links I've collected the last week.

Read on.

The fear level has been dropping since unbossed first ran Release your inner hypochondriac. So how about a look at the flu wiki so you can keep up with the latest on H5N1 a/k/a/ bird flu?