Gaia Community: rhobherto's Blog

"Dear [lastest in a succession of over a dozen head-shrinkers]"

http://manonfyre.gaia.com — Sat, 14 Mar 2009 00:07:44 GMT

dear doctor

note to Dr. ---------

subject line:

life without skin -- a new angle

Dear [Doctor],

Please indulge me for a few minutes, here.

Allow me to ask you to recall any of the situations in your own life when you experienced some serious heartache (breakup, death, etc.); some profound embarrassment or anxiety . . . perhaps even a situation where you felt profoundly threatened and your very life was at risk . . .

Please recall when -- for those intense moments, hours, days, or weeks -- you felt deep sadness, grief, shame, fright . . .

We can surmise that, for you as for most people, the "crisis" of those heart-rending moments, hours, and days passed away; the intensity of those situations waned; and you resumed more "ordinary" states of body and mind. For you, the "crisis" of those situations came and went; arose and fell away.

Please entertain this exercise a little longer.

Imagine, now, what your life would be like if that "crisis" did not immediately or soon go away. Imagine the whole body-mind syndrome of those intense situations persisting, ceaselessly, for hour after hour, day after day, week after week, month after month, year, after year, after year. Imagine being "stuck" in that bio-psychological crisis. What would your life be like if that lump in your throat did not go away; if those tears welling in your eyes did not stop; if your racing heart did not relax; if shame and fright filled your guts day and night?

Do THAT persistently, chronically for weeks and months on end. Toss in Life's inevitable, added heartaches, insults, embarrassments, injuries, mistakes, risks . . . Periodically, CRANK this whole syndrome UP, acutely, to a CRUSHING INTENSITY -- FOR NO DISCERNABLE REASON WHATSOEVER! Sleep this heartache; wake with this heartache; eat your breakfast, lunch, and dinner with this heartache; do this persistent knot of grief, sadness, shame, and fright, all balled together; this chronic agony with acute episodes -- FOR YEARS!

In this imagined scenario, are you getting a little tired and worn out by this? A little fatigued or bent out of shape by it all? Figure on being being hospitalized several times, over those years, owing to your utter, complete exhaustion. Figure on enduring a dozen or more drug trials, over all that time, aimed at abating this ceaseless woe, but to no avail. And when none of that has helped, then what would you do? Would you grasp at this therapy (autogenics, neuro-linguistic programming, holotropic breathwork, etc.) or that panacea (fish oil, sam-e, etc.) to find some relief? Would you undergo electro-convulsive treatments? Would you wonder, after a decade or more of this, whether or not buprenorphine might help; might "make it stop?" Would you long for SOMETHING?!, for ANYTHING?! Would you contemplate suicide? (They do shoot horses, don't they?) Would you, more or less, just collaspe and "veg out" in front of your TV, only to wait, and wait some more, for nature's own summary end? What remedy would you seek, Dr. -------, when no available remedy (namely, antidepressants [including the current medication you are taking -- nudge, nudge, hint, hint], assorted therapies, and ECT) has made any significant, enduring dent in this, your chronic (with acute episodes), unabated state of intense, bio-psychological crisis; this wholely unnecessary suffering; this life without skin?

____________________________________________________________

Here's a new angle, via Dr. Mark Hyman:

http://www.ultrawellness.com/blog/ultramind-solution-cool-inflammation

"Can your brain become inflamed? Can you have a sore or swollen brain—like a sore throat—that causes everything from brain fog to dementia to depression to autism?

You brain can become inflamed just as your body does. And in the 21st century, our bodies and brains are on fire. [<< notable analogy to someone, like myself, whose email moniker is manonfyre ~ R.L.]

Today, the fires of inflammation are raging all over the body. That’s why we are seeing an epidemic of diseases including autoimmunity (24 million people), allergy (50 million), and asthma (30 million), as well as cardiovascular disease (60 million), cancer (10 million), and diabetes (14 million). These, it has been recently discovered, are primarily inflammatory conditions.

Now, new research proves that almost all brain problems are connected to or caused by inflammation as well.

Is Depression Caused by a Virus?

Well, it may be.

Researchers recently discovered a new virus called Bornavirus, which is found in the limbic system (or emotional center) of the brain in 30 percent of the population. One in 6 of the people who carry this virus have depression.

This virus inflames the brain. It is this inflammation that leads to depression in some cases.

Interestingly, the problem can be cured by treatment with short-term antiviral medication.

Think about what that means.

A virus can cause inflammation, which leads to depression. Treating the virus can CURE, not just reduce, the symptoms of depression.

Even the best antidepressant drugs don’t cure depression.

And NO amount of psychotherapy will ever cure depression caused by a virus."

See too:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bornaviridae, http://www.psycom.net/depression.central.borna.html

or google borna virus.

What do you make of this?

Thank you.

[rhobherto/manonfyre]

p.s. Of course, there is and always has been the "spiritual" angle -- what Lord Gautama taught: "Life is suffering; desire is the cause of suffering; suffering can end; the Way to that end is the Noble Eight-Fold Path." Similarly, this ceaseless heart-break is none other than the "Dark Night of the Soul (~ Saint John of the Cross)." "God forgets God so that God may seek God.," as Muktananda said. And this heartache is merely the agony of that seeking; the agony of my illusory sense of seperation from "the Beloved (~ Rumi)." Only "Awakening" to what the Tibetan Dzogchen tradition describes as "the Innate Great Perfection" will avail; only the "Realization" of Advaita Vedanta or Khasmir Shaivism, only tasting "One Taste" (see "smartest-man-on-the-planet" Ken Wilber's work), and NO PILL or therapy, will do. Notions that may or may not interest you.

______________________________________________

Note to self for having sent this letter, and for publishing it here: I am an irredeemable, whining no-account/derelict/putz.

Tags: depression, same old shit

"Up to periscope depth!"

http://manonfyre.gaia.com — Thu, 12 Mar 2009 21:05:00 GMT

periscopedepth

Another drive-by, flash transmission from the bottomless depths of this ridiculousness (this so-called "refractory depression") . . .

"Can your brain become inflamed? Can you have a sore or swollen brain—like a sore throat—that causes everything from brain fog to dementia to depression to autism?
You brain can become inflamed just as your body does. And in the 21st century, our bodies and brains are on fire."

[head-shaking, double-taking sound effect]

SAY WHAT? What might this mean to someone who sports the moniker, manonfyre; whose icon is a portrait of self-immolating monk, Quang Duc; whose agonized contact with Life can feel like living without skin?

"Today, the fires of inflammation are raging all over the body. That’s why we are seeing an epidemic of diseases including autoimmunity (24 million people), allergy (50 million), and asthma (30 million), as well as cardiovascular disease (60 million), cancer (10 million), and diabetes (14 million). These, it has been recently discovered, are primarily inflammatory conditions.
Now, new research proves that almost all brain problems are connected to or caused by inflammation as well . . .
Is Depression Caused by a Virus?
Well, it may be.
Researchers recently discovered a new virus called Bornavirus, which is found in the limbic system (or emotional center) of the brain in 30 percent of the population. One in 6 of the people who carry this virus have depression.
This virus inflames the brain. It is this inflammation that leads to depression in some cases.
Interestingly, the problem can be cured by treatment with short-term antiviral medication.
Think about what that means.
A virus can cause inflammation, which leads to depression. Treating the virus can CURE, not just reduce, the symptoms of depression.
Even the best antidepressant drugs don’t cure depression.
And NO amount of psychotherapy will ever cure depression caused by a virus.
This is like the discovery that ulcers are caused by bacteria and not stress. It completely upsets our thinking about mental illness and neurological disease.
And it should!
The cure for your broken brain may not lie in searching through the intricacies of your past, but in healing your body. One of the key ways you do that is by reducing inflammation."

This guy has got my attention.

Together with a friend, and with this workbook, gonna take a stab at following Dr. Hyman's suggestions. (Make-over, shape-over plan #283.)

(Said friend suggests I spend less time reading Scott Horton and Glenn Greenwald, as well.)

* * * * *

still wanna be a better man, still wanna fly like . . .

The Kinks - Superman

Tags: depression, same-old-same-old, Mark Hyman, Bornavirus, UltraMind

Scott Horton's, "Justice After Bush," now online

http://manonfyre.gaia.com — Thu, 01 Jan 2009 18:28:35 GMT

harper s 1208

Justice After Bush: Prosecuting an Outlaw Administration, by Scott Horton

I. The Crimes

Americans may wish to avoid what is necessary. We may believe that concerns about presidential lawbreaking are naive. That all presidents commit crimes. We may pretend that George W. Bush and his senior officers could not have committed crimes significantly worse than those of their predecessors. We may fear what it would mean to acknowledge such crimes, much less to punish them. But avoiding this task, simply “moving on,” is not possible.
This administration did more than commit crimes. It waged war against the law itself. It transformed the Justice Department into a vehicle for voter suppression, and it also summarily dismissed the U.S. attorneys who attempted to investigate its wrongdoing. It issued wartime contracts to substandard vendors with inside connections, and it also defunded efforts to police their performance. It spied on church groups and political protesters, and it also introduced a sweeping surveillance program that was so clearly illegal that virtually the entire senior echelon of the Justice Department threatened to (but did not in fact) tender their resignations over it. It waged an illegal and disastrous war, and it did so by falsely representing to Congress and to the American public nearly every piece of intelligence it had on Iraq. And through it all, as if to underscore its contempt for any authority but its own, the administration issued more than a hundred carefully crafted “signing statements” that raised pervasive doubt about whether the president would even accede to bills that he himself had signed into law.

No prior administration has been so systematically or so brazenly lawless. Yet it is no simple matter to prosecute a former president or his senior officers. There is no precedent for such a prosecution, and even if there was, the very breadth and audacity of the administration’s activities would make the process so complex as to defy systems of justice far less fragmented than our own. But that only means choices must be made. Indeed, in weighing the enormity of the administration’s transgressions against the realistic prospect of justice, it is possible to determine not only the crime that calls most clearly for prosecution but also the crime that is most likely to be successfully prosecuted. In both cases, that crime is torture.

[full article]

Harper’s Magazine and The Center on Law and Security at NYU School of Law convened a panel of legal experts to discuss Mr. Horton's article -- After Torture: A Forum on Justice in the Post-Bush Era. A summary of those proceedings (with further links) can be found here.

TPMtv interview with Scott Horton at forum venue:

TPMtv: After Torture, Part II

related:

Glenn Greenwald's Salon Radio interview: Scott Horton on war crimes prosecutions

Scott Horton's blog: No Comment

____________________________________________________

background:

"The CIA's Favorite Form of Torture," by Mark Benjamin

"The first thing that happens is extraordinary hallucinations akin to mescaline," explained McCoy. "I mean extreme hallucinations" of sight and sound. It is followed, in some cases within just two days, by what McCoy called a "breakdown akin to psychosis."

"Autopsy reports reveal homicides of detainees in U.S. custody," as released by the American Civil Liberties Union

47 year old white male detainee died while in US custody. Cause of death: Blunt Force Injuries and Asphyxia; Manner of Death: Homicide. Autopsy revealed deep bruising of the chest wall, numerous displaced rib fractures, bruising on the lungs, hemorrhage into the mesentery of the small and large intestine. Examination of the neck structures revealed hemorrhage into the strap muscles and fractures of the thyroid cartilage and hyoid bone. History of asphyxia, secondary to occlusion of the oral airway. Pleural and pulmonary adhesions. Hypertensive cardiovascular disease. According to report provided by the US army CID, the detainee was shackled to the top of a doorframe with a gag in his mouth at the time he lost consciousness and became pulseless. The severe blunt force injuries, the hanging position, and the obstruction of the oral cavity with a gag contributed to this individual's death. DOD 00329 refers to this case as "gagged in standing restraint" DOD 003329 refers to this case as "1 blunt force trama and choking; gagged in standing restraint." DOD 003324 refers to this case with a note indicating "Q[uestioned] by OGA [Other Governmental Agency - non-military, often refers to CIA], gagged in standing restraint."

"Deaths of Detainees in the Custody of US Forces in Iraq and Afghanistan From 2002 to 2005," by Scott Allen, MD, et al

. . . 112 cases of death of detainees in United States custody (105 in Iraq, 7 in Afghanistan) during the period from 2002 to early 2005 were identified. Homicide accounted for the largest number of deaths (43) . . .

"Medical Investigations of Homicides of Prisoners of War in Iraq and Afghanistan," by Steven Miles, MD

"Command's Responsibility: Detainee Deaths in U.S. Custody in Iraq and Afghanistan," by Human Rights First

"Homicide Unpunished," a Washington Post Editorial

ONE OF THE most shocking photographs from the Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq shows a grinning guard giving a thumbs-up sign over the bruised corpse of an Iraqi detainee. Subsequent investigation showed that the deceased prisoner, an Iraqi named Manadel al-Jamadi, died of asphyxiation on Nov. 4, 2003: He was tortured to death by Navy SEAL and CIA interrogators who took turns punching and kicking him, then handcuffed his arms behind his back and shackled them to a window five feet above the floor.

"Down a Dark Road," by Richard Leiby

"Murder's torture," Lawrence Wilkerson, a retired Army colonel and former Colin Powell aide, says . . . "Murder's the ultimate torture."

"Senate report links Bush to detainee homicides; media yawns," by Glenn Greenwald

The policies which the Senate Armed Services Committee [in their recent report] unanimously concludes were authorized by Bush, Rumsfeld and several other top Bush officials did not merely lead to "abuse" and humiliating treatment, but are directly -- and unquestionably -- responsible for numerous detainee murders.

"War Crimes," by Scott Horton

How often in our nation’s history has a Congressional Committee published a report which concludes that the President is essentially guilty of war crimes? Only once. It happened last week with the release of the Senate Armed Services Committee report on prisoner abuse. Put a sharper point on it: war crimes that produce the death of a detainee are punishable with the death sentence. And in this case we now have more than one hundred deaths potentially linkable to detainee abuse, linked to the President. Yet to the American mainstream media, which has made virtually no effort to comprehend the report, it was a non-event.

George W. Bush, War Criminal? The Bush Administration’s Liability for 269 War Crimes, by Michael Haas

Tags: Scott Horton, Bush Administration, prosecution, war crimes, torture

The MSM is on a boil about Gov. Blagojevich, yet . . .

http://manonfyre.gaia.com — Mon, 29 Dec 2008 20:07:59 GMT

MikeConnell GhostInTheGOPMachine

What about Michael Connell?

SourceWatch entry, Mike Connell; Wikipedia entry, Michael Connell; BradBlog entry, "Where's the MSM Coverage of the Death of Connell, a Top Bush/Rove/GOP Operative?"

Tags: Michael Connell, Rod Blagojevich

an excellent proposition

http://manonfyre.gaia.com — Sat, 27 Dec 2008 21:44:12 GMT

MenCanStopViolenceAgainstWomen

Ending Impunity For Rape, by Marianne Mollmann

related:

Nonconsensual Sex ~ a publication of Family Health International

Stop Violence Against Women ~ an Amnesty International campaign

Tags: Marianne Mollman, Family Health International, Amnesty International

Doctor Shopping -- Still Battling the "Blues"

http://manonfyre.gaia.com — Fri, 12 Dec 2008 23:51:13 GMT

doctorshopping

"Doctor shopping" typically invokes opiate "addicts" finagling a number of physicians to prescribe them an "abusive" amount of drugs, well beyond what is considered medically "indicated."

"I'm scoring 8 different 'scripts from 3 internists, 2 dentists, and an orthopedist! Oh yeah!"

Excluding nicotine, caffeine, and the illusory presumption of samsara, addiction (opiate or otherwise) has never really been an issue for me. But I have been "doctor shopping" of late, in an effort to locate a physician willing to consider prescribing buprenorphine as a bane to the "noonday demon" that has devoured so many years of my life. (Adorning garlic and religious symbols hasn't helped.)

A recent internet search on the subject of "refractory depression" led me to several web forums that include a lot of mounting, anecdotal testimony and clinical observations that indicate some pretty "remarkable" results for treatment of refractory depression with buprenorphine.

Hanging my nasty, maudlin, sorry, bare ass out here, once again . . .

I will be 50 years-old in January, and I've struggled with "depression" most of this time. First suicide attempt at 17; several subsequent attempts, 2 of which were nearly fatal . . . numerous hospitalizations and inpatient treatment programs . . . have probably clocked a hundred thousand hours of "suicidal ideation" over the years, including many (virtually everyday) in recent months . . . a dozen or so antidressant regimens, with and without "potentiating" drugs -- most recently, Remeron . . . 13 sessions of ECT (which, on balance, made things worse) . . . autogenics to holotropic breathwork, to orthomolecular psychiatry, to zen, and so much else in between . . . yada, yada, yada.

What follows is the "tip of the spear" in this effort -- a letter to my shrink, Dr. Dilip Rajesh -- a gruduate of Bangalore Medical College. He is a "resident" psychiatrist-in-training at the local, University of New Mexico hospital where I having been receiving "treatment" for "treatment-resistant" depression (one of life's bitter ironies, that).

I share it here in the hopes that the "magic" of any well-wishers who happen by and ponder this post will contribute to the grace I pray for.

(Also, in hanging my bare ass out here, I imagine these inquiries might benefit someone else burdened with a similar struggle.)

___________________________________________________

[Background: Pending an appointment next week with Dr. R (scheduled several weeks ago), I have been beating the bushes for about a month on this subject, emailing several other UNM-affiliated psychiatrists familiar with the use of buprenorphine. Unable to reach Dr. R, I kinda left him "out of the loop," and he was a tiny tad of bit miffed. However, about an hour after I emailed the Director of Inpatient Services at the hospital on this subject, Dr. R called me at home. Oh!, navigating the egos and bureaucracies of health care!]

Dear Dr. Rajesh,

At the close of our recent conversation on the phone, you asked me to refrain from addressing my questions about buprenorphine to other UNM physicians, and to confine and direct my inquiries only to you. Just for the record, when I first began these inquiries, I called the the Mental Health Center twice in an effort to get in touch with you, managing only to leave messages requesting that you call me back. Also, I was unable to find your UNM email address published on any UNM websites, or anywhere else on the internet.

Further, it seems that prescribing buprenorphine requires a special "waiver," or whatever, through the Substance Abuse & Mental Health Services Administration. I was able to identify several UNM-affliliated physicians who have this SAMHSA approval, or whatever it is. And so, I set out to see if any of them are familiar with the use of buprenorphine as a treatment for refractory depression. I was just trying to be my own "case manager" or "patient advocate" (something I haven't always been really good at).

Please, if you felt slighted or "left out the loop" by this; if i bucked protocol or transgressed "standard operating procedure," I sincerely apologize.

Meanwhile, I remain committed to examining buprenorphine as an option. Beyond the mounting anecdotal testimony and clinical observations I'm uncovering, I feel bolstered by the kind comments of your UNM colleague, Dr. Nils Rosenbaum:

"You've been through a great deal, and please don't give up hope.
There's always hope. Keep trying and you may find someone to
prescribe it . . . If you can't find someone locally, look
nationally."

In a similar exchange, Harvard psychiatrist Alexander J. Bodkin, co-author of the 1995 study, "Buprenorphine Treatment of Refractory Depression (1)," was equally encouraging:

"[Buprenorphine] is a relatively harmless drug, and sometimes it
really helps depression remarkably. . . You would need to prevail upon one of the local buprenorphine prescribers to step outside of convention to try it with you."

A related study, "Treatment Augmentation With Opiates in Severe and Refractory Major Depression (2)," by another Harvard psychiatrist, Andrew L. Stoll, concludes:

"Opiates should be considereda reasonable option in carefully selected patients who are desperatelyill with major depression that is refractory to standard therapies."

A more recent clinical study, "Does the antidepressive response to opiate treatment describe a subtype of depression (3)," posits:

"Possibly, the response to opiates describes a special subtype of depressive disorders e.g corresponding to a dysregulation of the endogenous opioid system and not of the monaminergic system."

The study employed dexamethasone suppression testing:

"Though the dexamethasone suppression test (DST) has a sensitivity of only 40-70% in severe depression, it is one of the few neuroendocrine strategies that offers insights in the pathophysiology of depression and will help define more homogeneous subgroups from a bioclinical and therapeutic viewpoint."

and concludes:

"The DST in depressed patients responding to buprenorphine yielded significantly lower cortisol levels than in non-responding patients. However, cortisol secretion and failure to suppress cortisol in response to dexamethasone have been consistently associated with severe depression."

To conclude here, I have two issues I'd like to address in our next session:

1. Toward determining whether or not "dysregulation of the endogenous opioid system" underlies my depression, is a dexamethasone suppression test in order?

2. More importantly, please help me determine whether or not I can "prevail upon one of the local buprenorphine prescribers," specifically, a UNM-affiliated psychiatrist, to consider treating my depression with buprenorphine. (Two other UNM "buprenorphine prescribers" I did not contact: Vicente Tuason and Cynthia Geppert.)

Finally, I may not "present" with obvious, life-threatening, physical trauma. My guts aren't hanging out. I have all my limbs and some hold on my basic faculties. Still, I am confronting, day by day, a critical, potentially-fatal, health crisis. Grasping for an analogy here, my soul is on fire, Dr. Rajesh. Beyond suppressing or putting this fire out (perhaps with buprenorhine), I can anticipate a serious amount of behavioral (smoking cessation, diet & excercise) and cognitive work ahead, as well, in order to tackle the entire depressive syndrome that has crippled my life.

Nod toward your eastern background, I appeal here in the spirit of Ganesha -- "The Remover of Obstacles." Though it is already implicit in our relationship, I entreat you, please, help me anyway you can.

Sincerely,

Robert L.
Sandia Park, NM

1. Buprenorphine Treatment of Refractory Depression

2. Treatment Augmentation With Opiates in Severe and Refractory Major Depression

3. Does the antidepressive response to opiate treatment describe a subtype of depression

The Buprenorphine Effect on Depression, by Richard Gracer, MD

CSAT Buprenorpine FAQ #21:

"Subutex® and Suboxone® [buprenorphine 'brand names'] have received FDA approval only for the treatment of opioid addiction. However, once approved, a drug product may be prescribed by a licensed physician for any use that, based on the physician's professional opinion, is deemed to be appropriate. Neither the FDA nor the Federal government regulates the practice of medicine. Any approved product may be used by a licensed practitioner for uses other than those stated in the product label. Off-label use is not illegal, but it means that the data to support that use has not been independently reviewed by the FDA." [emphasis added]

_____________________________________________________

peace!

Edit: I see alot of format/spacing errors in this post. If you see them too, I'm sorry. I'm not going to mess with it.

Tags: depression, buprenorphine

Breaking Q. -- Flash Message

http://manonfyre.gaia.com — Thu, 11 Dec 2008 21:05:45 GMT

breakout

ˈkwär-ən-tēn

isolation, especially in order to prevent an illness or disease from spreading

Recently traded emails with . . .

Dr. Alexander J. Bodkin

subject: Buprenorphine Treatment of Refractory Depression

(related: The Buprenorphine Effect on Depression, By Richard Gracer, MD)

Scott Horton

subject: Justice after Bush: Prosecuting an outlaw administration (sub. req.)

(alternatively, see: Glenn Greenwald's Salon Radio interview: Scott Horton on war crimes prosecution)

Rocky Anderson

subject: High Road for Human Rights and the rehabilitation of rascal-rabbi Marc Gafni

peace!

Tags: buprenorphine, depression, torture, rule of law, HIgh Road for Human Rights, Dr. Bodkin, Scott Horton, Rocky Anderson, Marc Gafni

possible near-future news

http://manonfyre.gaia.com — Fri, 07 Mar 2008 20:44:37 GMT

Recent Bush Administration mutterings about an enduring "Status of Forces Agreement" (SOFA) between the US and Iraq, together with the still-pending passage of a new "Oil Law" in Iraq, inspires the following:

white-house-lawn

FUTURE REAL-SPEAK NEWS FLASH -- CHENEY: "IT’S THE OIL!"

Sweet Crude Victory!

US Vice President Richard Bruce Cheney convened a press conference early this morning on the White House lawn to announce and publish, "Our Open Letter to the World: Yes, Our Sights Were Set Upon Iraq’s Oil." The Vice President was flanked by several, prominent signatories of this newly published "Open Letter," later identified as officials or principal participants from the VP’s Energy Task Force; the Pentagon’s Office of Special Plans; and The White House Iraq Group.

The Vice President began his remarks by announcing what he describes as, "[O]ur true and final victory in Iraq." These remarks referenced the Iraqi government’s passage and ratification, earlier this week, of both it’s new "Oil Law" and the "The Permanent US/Iraq Agreement on Military Cooperation."

"Iraq’s new Oil Law," said the Vice President, "at last codifies all three of our fundamental and hard-won objectives in Iraq." The Vice President also noted "the indispensable and enduring importance" of the new "Permanent Agreement," also recently passed by the Iraqi Parliament. "This Agreement, " said the Vice President, "ensures our ongoing ability to enforce the new legal rights granted to our corporations by Iraq’s Oil Law."

A summary of those "three . . . fundamental" objectives was later spelled out in an "Official Supplementary Press Release" distributed immediately after the news conference, which included the full text of "Our Open Letter to the World." As that "Letter" states, those "fundamental objectives" were: "1) The de-nationalization of Iraq’s oil industry; 2) The expulsion of ‘foreign suitors’ for Iraq’s oil; and 3) The delivery of control over Iraq’s vast oil wealth to ‘our’ oil extraction and oil service corporations."

When asked to comment on the US "victory" in achieving these objectives, the Administration official distributing the "Release" remarked only, "Bub-bye France! Bub-bye Russia! Bub-bye China!"

Soon after the press conference, the Vice President was regaled at a "Victory Luncheon" held within the White House. Of all the hortatory remarks lavished upon VP Cheney, it was a statement read by AEI-fellow, Michael Ledeen that brought all the luncheon’s attendees to their feet:

"Our bombs express only our benevolence. Our DU munitions are tipped with love! Our torture chambers are but workshops of our compassion. Our corporations will now begin to export 'shrink-wrapped pallets of cash' out of Iraq, but will plant in this arid, blood-soaked place the patented seeds of our superior McCivilization. And now that our benevolence and love and compassion have conquered the futile resistance to our goodness, let’s join hands around the smoking rubble, the funeral pyres, and ‘blend with ours your voices in the triumph song!’"

Mr. Ledeen summarily punctuated his statement by shaking his fist in the air and exclaiming, "Victory in Iraq! On to Iran!"

------------------------------------

A "SOFA" agreement, together with the "benchmark" passage of a new "Oil Law" in Iraq, encapsulates the real, yet-unresolved, "mother of all legal battles" still roiling both in Baghdad and our nation's Capitol.

Tags: Oil, Iraq, SOFA, Dick Cheney, Energy Task Force, Office of Special Plans, White House Iraq Group, torture, DU munitions, patented seeds, Michael Ledeen

"a Godsend"

http://manonfyre.gaia.com — Mon, 03 Mar 2008 12:33:51 GMT

caught this segment on 60 minutes, about these folks, Remote Area Medical. Tremendous!

Tags: Remote Area Medical

a question for the AQAL/SD community

http://manonfyre.gaia.com — Thu, 28 Feb 2008 17:28:08 GMT

post war iraq

When lords of orange topple a red dictator, does indigo applaud?

In a recent Holons poll, If the 2008 Presidential Election were being held today, for whom would you vote?, I found several of the comments there "whacks" to the side of my head.

TC: "I too am swamped by green and often disguise my vote for the sake of civility and friendship while reaching downward toward orange and amber to help preserve my self absorbed friends of green from the wrath of red."

Could it be that Cheney & Company, by instigating the biggest armed robbery of this nascent new century (the oil grab in Iraq), are somehow preservers and defenders of The Spiral unfolding?

Should "integral" blogrolls be amended to include the philosophy of Leo Strauss, The Project for a New American Century, Exxon-Mobil, British Petroleum, Halliburton, Blackwater, et al?

Seeking an integral perspective on the US/British invasion and ongoing occupation of Iraq,

rhobherto

courtesy of Formless Mountain: AQAL chart

Tags: AQAL, Spiral Dynamics, Holons, Dick Cheney, Iraq, Oil Grab, Leo Strauss, PNAC, Exxon, British Petroleum, Halliburton

From Scott Horton's Blog, No Comment

http://manonfyre.gaia.com — Mon, 25 Feb 2008 15:12:01 GMT

[link]

Oscar for ‘Taxi to the Dark Side’

No Comment readers recently saw my interview with Alex Gibney, the producer of “Taxi to the Dark Side.” Last night, Alex and his team got the best documentary Oscar. (Disclosure: I appear in “Taxi” and had many discussions with Alex and his crew about shaping it.) Here’s a wire report:

An investigation into the death later found Dilawar had been repeatedly kicked and punched and was chained to the ceiling of his cell for days. Gibney, who also produced hit documentary “Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room”, said in his acceptance speech that his wife had wanted him to make a romantic comedy.

“But honestly after Guantanamo, Abu Ghraib and extraordinary rendition that simply wasn’t possible,” the film-maker said before dedicating the film to Dilawar, and his own father.

“This is dedicated to two people who are no longer with us, Dilawar, the young Afghan taxi driver and my father a Navy interrogator who urged me to make this film because of his fury at what was being done to the rule of law,” said Gibney.

“Let’s hope we can turn this country around, move away from the dark side and go back to the light,” he said.

Discovery originally took broadcast rights to the documentary, and then backed out, saying it was “too controversial.” Actually there is nothing “controversial” about the film. It is a compelling, honest account of something that the Bush Administration fervently hopes that Americans learn nothing. Discovery evidenced supreme cowardice. I was halfway expecting them to take a lambasting from the Oscar podium, but the “Taxi” team is far too classy for that.

The film rights were flipped to HBO. Let’s hope HBO gets it out and on the air quickly.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

the film's website, Taxi to the Darkside

congratulations!

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

link to Department of Defense autopsy reports detailing other "homicides of detainees in U.S. custody," here.

UPDATE: Alex Gibney in conversation with Robert Scheer

Tags: Scott Horton, Taxi to the Dark Side, Alex Gibney, Robert Scheer

sunday morning reads

http://manonfyre.gaia.com — Sun, 24 Feb 2008 08:56:47 GMT

cup and saucer with newspaper

Caught a rebroadcast of Bill Moyers' keynote address to the 2004 Inequality Matters Conference, aired on LinkTV earlier this week.

excerpts from, This is the Fight of Our Lives:

I know, I know: this sounds very much like a call for class war. But the class war was declared a generation ago, in a powerful paperback polemic by William Simon, who was soon to be Secretary of the Treasury. He called on the financial and business class, in effect, to take back the power and privileges they had lost in the depression and new deal. They got the message, and soon they began a stealthy class war against the rest of society and the principles of our democracy. They set out to trash the social contract, to cut their workforces and wages, to scour the globe in search of cheap labor, and to shred the social safety net that was supposed to protect people from hardships beyond their control. Business Week put it bluntly at the time: "Some people will obviously have to do with less....it will be a bitter pill for many Americans to swallow the idea of doing with less so that big business can have more."
The middle class and working poor are told that what's happening to them is the consequence of Adam Smith's "Invisible Hand." This is a lie. What's happening to them is the direct consequence of corporate activism, intellectual propaganda, the rise of a religious orthodoxy that in its hunger for government subsidies has made an idol of power, and a string of political decisions favoring the powerful and the privileged who bought the political system right out from under us.
. . .

In a book to be published this summer, Daniel Altman describes what he calls the "neo-economy -- a place without taxes, without a social safety net, where rich and poor live in different financial worlds -- and [said Altman] it's coming to America." He's a little late. It's here. Says Warren Buffett, the savviest investor of them all: "My class won."
Look at the spoils of victory:
Over the past three years, they've pushed through $2 trillion dollars in tax cuts -- almost all tilted towards the wealthiest people in the country.
Cuts in taxes on the largest incomes.
Cuts in taxes on investment income.
And cuts in taxes on huge inheritances.
More than half of the benefits are going to the wealthiest one percent. You could call it trickle-down economics, except that the only thing that trickled down was a sea of red ink in our state and local governments, forcing them to cut services for and raise taxes on middle class working America.
Now the Congressional Budget Office forecasts deficits totaling $2.75 trillion over the next ten years.
These deficits have been part of their strategy. Some of you will remember that Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan tried to warn us 20 years ago, when he predicted that President Ronald Reagan's real strategy was to force the government to cut domestic social programs by fostering federal deficits of historic dimensions. Reagan's own budget director, David Stockman, admitted as such. Now the leading rightwing political strategist, Grover Norquist, says the goal is to "starve the beast" -- with trillions of dollars in deficits resulting from trillions of dollars in tax cuts, until the United States Government is so anemic and anorexic it can be drowned in the bathtub.
There's no question about it: The corporate conservatives and their allies in the political and religious right are achieving a vast transformation of American life that only they understand because they are its advocates, its architects, and its beneficiaries. In creating the greatest economic inequality in the advanced world, they have saddled our nation, our states, and our cities and counties with structural deficits that will last until our children's children are ready for retirement, and they are systematically stripping government of all its functions except rewarding the rich and waging war.

Had me googling "class war;" leading me (not for the first time) to the Third World Traveler site, where eventually I settled in on an excised version of Lewis Lapham's book, Pretensions to Empire.

Quote grab from the book:

"Suppose that this administration did con us into war. And suppose that it is not held accountable for its deceptions .... In that case, our political system has become utterly, and perhaps irrevocably, corrupted."

~ Paul Krugman

Speaking of Krugman, his, The Tax-Cut Con, speaks to the "class war" theme; as does, Starving the Beast, by Ed Kilgore.

Highly recommended:

Dismantling the arguments against impeachment, a DKos dairy entry by occams hatchet

If one were able to remove all of the "political factors" that have
led Nancy Pelosi, John Conyers and other congressional Democrats to
declare impeachment off limits - to strip away the fears about
November's elections, the fears about timing, the fears about what
others might say - if one were able to decide whether to pursue
impeachment strictly on the basis of whether it were the right thing to do, would one do it?
I hope that no one reading this hesitated for even a moment before
answering, emphatically, "Yes!" If ever a president and vice president
deserved impeachment, George Bush and Dick Cheney do.

Inside the world of war profiteers, by Chicago Tribune reporters David Jackson and Jason Grotto

ROCK ISLAND, Ill.—Inside the stout federal courthouse of this Mississippi River town, the dirty secrets of Iraq war profiteering keep pouring out.

The Audacity of Hopelessness, by NYT columinst Frank Rich

WHEN people one day look back at the remarkable implosion of the
Hillary Clinton campaign, they may notice that it both began and ended
in the long dark shadow of Iraq.
It’s not just that her candidacy’s central premise — the priceless
value of “experience” — was fatally poisoned from the start by her
still ill-explained vote to authorize the fiasco. Senator Clinton then
compounded that 2002 misjudgment by pursuing a 2008 campaign strategy
that uncannily mimicked the disastrous Bush Iraq war plan. After
promising a cakewalk to the nomination — “It will be me,” Mrs. Clinton told Katie Couric in November — she was routed by an insurgency.

Election Madness, by Howard Zinn, The Progressive

Historically, government, whether in the hands of Republicans or Democrats, conservatives or liberals, has failed its responsibilities, until forced to by direct action: sit-ins and Freedom Rides for the rights of black people, strikes and boycotts for the rights of workers, mutinies and desertions of soldiers in order to stop a war.

Voting is easy and marginally useful, but it is a poor substitute for democracy, which requires direct action by concerned citizens.

American Adam; Obama and the cult of the new, by John B. Judis, The New Republic

Obama is the candidate of the new--a "new generation," a "new leadership," a "new kind of politics," to borrow phrases he has used. But, in emphasizing newness, Obama is actually voicing a very old theme. When he speaks of change, hope, and choosing the future over the past, when he pledges to end racial divisions or attacks special interests, Obama is striking chords that resonate deeply in the American psyche. He is making a promise to voters that is as old as the country itself: to wipe clean the slate of history and begin again from scratch.

Final thought:

Those who profess to favor freedom and yet depreciate agitation, are people who want crops without ploughing the ground; they want rain without thunder and lightning; they want the ocean without the roar of its many waters. The struggle may be a moral one, or it may be a physical one, or it may be both. But it must be a struggle. Power concedes nothing without a demand; it never has and it never will.

~ Frederick Douglas

Tags: Anthony Ulinski, Bill Moyers, Lewis Lapham, Paul Krugman, Ed Kilgore, David Jackson, Jason Grotto, Frank Rich, Howard Zinn, Barack Obama, John B. Judis

Hillary, Blackwater, and Spam ("meat" product)

http://manonfyre.gaia.com — Sun, 17 Feb 2008 13:00:02 GMT

spam

What do they share in common? They are all clients of Mark Penn, "worldwide CEO" of Burson-Marsteller.

Was reading a NYT opinion piece by Chris Suellentrop, Clinton's Delegate Tactics, and a comment mentions Penn and his company:

"This is all about karma. Penn heads Burson Marsteller, a company that is probably the most deeply cynical in American history. If a company makes cigarettes, cow hormones that end up in milk, dangerous pesticides, or massive clearcuts they call Penn at BM. He will turn death and poison into flowers and honey."

Hmmm? I'd heard of the guy; that he is Hillary Clinton's chief campaign strategist, but decided to dig a bit deeper:

wikipedia entry on Mark Penn
Corporate Watch profile of Burson-Marsteller
SourceWatch profile of Burson-Marsteller
Blackwater's Hired Guns: Hillary's Helpers, by Sharon Weinberger

What I find there I find downright revolting. And I am completely prepared to take a rap for jumping on the Hillary-bashing bandwagon. (Sorry, Hillblazers.)

Today, I double-down anything and everything I can do for Obama'08.

[Blackwater, Spam]

Tags: Hillary Clinton, Blackwater, Spam, Mark Penn, Barack Obama

Icaro Doria's "Meet the World" Flag Campaign

http://manonfyre.gaia.com — Sat, 16 Feb 2008 11:17:01 GMT

somalia

see more here

Tags: Icaro Doria

"Like hope, but different"

http://manonfyre.gaia.com — Sat, 16 Feb 2008 09:20:16 GMT

[glommed from TruthDig]

The inevitable parodies of Barack Obama’s “Yes We Can” video have begun—this one isn’t so much about Obama or Hillary Clinton as it is about Republican front-runner John McCain, whose infamous hundred-year (or more) plan for America’s presence in Iraq is deservedly and humorously lambasted here.

Watch the clip:

john.he.is

Tags:

Lawrence Lessig on Obama v. Clinton

http://manonfyre.gaia.com — Sat, 16 Feb 2008 05:42:41 GMT

Lawrence Lessig offers up, 20 minutes or so on why I am 4Barack:

Lessig: 20 minutes or so about why I am 4Barack

and a follow-up -- 10 minutes on whether Hillary can win:

10 minutes on whether Hillary can win

* * * *

related:

Seeking Superdelegates

By Lindsay Renick Mayer

As the Democratic Party's superdelegates decide whether to support Clinton or Obama, will they take into account the $904,200 they've received from the candidates?

Obama's Ties Might Fuel `Republican Attack Machine' (Update2)

By Timothy J. Burger

Besides his relationship with indicted businessman Antoin Rezko, Obama might face Republican criticism over contacts with a former leader of the Weather Underground, a banker with ties to a convicted felon and even his church.

Unofficial Tallies in City Understated Obama Vote
By Sam Roberts

In fact, a review by The New York Times of the unofficial results reported on primary night found about 80 election districts among the city’s 6,106 where Mr. Obama supposedly did not receive even one vote . . . [emphasis added]

The Moment for This Messenger?

By Eugene Robinson

Obama is the personification of "both-and."

He said his belief that American politics has seen enough "either-or" -- and that he can shift the paradigm to "both-and" -- is what led him to undertake "the risks and difficulties and challenges and silliness of a modern presidential campaign."

(from an Obama speech: "As Dr. King said, it is not either-or, it is both-and. Hope is not found in any single ideology. . ." -- very integral!")

btw -- found link to Lessig video here: Integral Analysis of Barack Obama, by Bosco

Tags: Lawrence Lessig, Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton

previous incarnation

http://manonfyre.gaia.com — Sat, 16 Feb 2008 01:03:44 GMT

discoverd the Wayback Machine and dug up my first webpage:

[sans graphics -- oh well]

Dajibhabbha's Home Page

Tags:

Oil Crimes

http://manonfyre.gaia.com — Sat, 16 Feb 2008 00:41:46 GMT

foreign suitors

comments added to, A Quick Cruise through the (Not Too) Recent and Brief History of Afghanistan–As Affects the US Directly or Indirectly, by Metonymy:

If we peel back the whole GWOT overlay, the conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan reveal themselves for what they are: the titanic clash of Oil Giants coopting State powers and vying for control of our planet's oil -- "market penetration" by military means (nothing new).

The real, true "strategic" objectives in Iraq and Afghanistan:

- de-nationalize their oil industries

- expel "foreign suitors"

- hand-over control to "our" Giants (and their related service and subsidiary companies: Exxon, BP, Haliburton, Bechtel, etc., etc.)

Unravel the tapestry of lies in which these military conquests are cloaked, and examine how control of oil (Iraq) and "the pipeline" (Afghanistan) has changed as a consequence.

This (latest) US/British conquest of Iraq, in particular, then reveals itself for what it is: one of the biggest armed robberies in all of human history (the biggest, thus far, of this nascent new century).

see:

Terrorized by "War on Terror," by Zbigniew Brzezinski

The So-Called "War on Terror," by Richard Behan

Crude Designs, by Greg Muttitt

Slick Connections, by Erik Leaver and Greg Muttitt

Cheney's Energy Task Force [amended: Task Force Maps and Charts}

The White House Iraq Group

p.s. Google: "Bridas, Unocal, Afghanistan"

follow-on:

Just as McCain is catching flak, in some quarters, for his “anti-torture” rhetoric; as there is a political block in this country that is “down” with torture — so, too, many are tacitly “down” with the unvarnished oil-grab aims of Bush/Cheney & Company.

“So we had to launch an aggressive war (”the supreme international crime”) — with as many as one million dead; several million “displaced;” a-trillion-dollars-and-counting spent — in order to maintain our lighted, heated, TV-watching, web-surfing, SUV-driving, plastic-and-pesticide-laden lifestyle. So what?”

Tags:

note to John Edwards / new from Yunus

http://manonfyre.gaia.com — Tue, 12 Feb 2008 20:43:14 GMT

edwards

Dear Mr. Edwards,

Until you "suspended" your campaign for the Presidency, I was on a fence: Edwards or Obama? And I can fairly say, I was leaning strongly in your direction.

Now, you are cast as the most notable fence-sitter in our nation, as anticipation grows surrounding whether you will endorse the candidacy of Senator Clinton or Senator Obama.

Concerning this question, I wish to share the following:

The John Edwards Endorsement: A Last Chance To Prove He's No Phony, by David Corn.

I find Mr. Corn's delineation of the choice before you a bit heavy-handed, perhaps, but persuasive.

If you are tallying up the voices of your supporters on this matter, please count mine in the "Go with Obama" column.

Thank you, Mr. Edwards, for your passion, your work, your campaign.

BTW: Have you considered some level of collaboration with Muhammad Yunus? I just learned he recently launched Grameen America.

Best,
Robert L.

* * * *

Center on Poverty, Work and Opportunity

(established and directed -- until December '06 -- by John Edwards)

* * * *

wwp

Creating a World Without Poverty: Social Business and the Future of Capitalism

Yunus talks with Amy Goodman

Tags: John Edwards, Barack Obama, Hilary Clinton, David Corn, Muhammad Yunus, Amy Goodman

"While America Slept"

http://manonfyre.gaia.com — Fri, 08 Feb 2008 23:56:41 GMT

Michael Moore: Morality Prohibits Primary Vote for Clinton

Michael Moore speaks, "in broad strokes," about a new film project he is currently working on:

"In the last 8 years, alot of things happened in this country that we didn't pay alot of attention to because we were so focused on Bush and the war. And while we were so focused on that and distracted, Corporate America and others got away with alot -- alot of stuff that we're gonna have a hard time getting our democracy back. And the theme of it is, 'While America Slept.'"

His "can't vote for Hillary" comment striking, also:

"I am morally prohibited from voting for Hillary in the primaries because of her war votes, I mean that not as a personal attack against her, but I simply can't side with somebody who participated, whether willingly or unknowingly, as she claims, in something that has been so evil."

Michal Moore's website

Tags: Michael Moore