REQUIRES A SECOND LOOK

   Reminded me of a Sci-fi thriller. Transformer vs Fish Cloud.

     It was an odd and solitary cloud. Please note-I was not the odd and solitary shopper at the big box parking lot to pause and snap a shot, there were others taking note as well. 

       At first glance we thought it was a stuffed animal put atop the ledge at the Vets Hall on Farmer's market Friday.

        No, he was the real deal and seems to wish I'd get out of the way so he can keep an eye on his companion, busy at the market. 

screwing our veterans

      More than 700 veterans, family members and former employees of a Halliburton subsidiary were kicked in the teeth by a federal judge who dismissed a major lawsuit against the defense contractor over burn pit operations in Iraq and Afghanistan. 

        The Vets alleged the burn pits caused them chronic and deadly respiratory diseases and cancer. 

        Patricia Kime of McClatchy news reports US District Court Judge Roger Titus wrote that the company, KBR, could not be held liable for a military decision. The judge said he didn't have jurisdiction to hold the Pentagon responsible. 

         The suit had tied together cases across the US and included 63 specific complaints and 44 national class action suits.

        KBR operated the burn pits running them near where troops lived and worked. Allegedly KBR burned stuff that should not have been put in the pits; paint, batteries, computers, fuel, plastic, medical waste. 

       Plaintiffs report a range of diseases resulting from exposure, including life threatening conditions, gastrointestinal disorders, neurological issues, cancer and constrictive bronchiolitis. 

       The judge said KBR was just following orders and that it was a military matter.  Victims and family members are furious. 

       It is pretty much par for the course. We put men and women in harms way, sometimes even greater jeopardy because of poor command decisions, and then we leave vets holding the bag. Combine that with the Inspector General's finding of wholesale fraud and waste in both wars-in the Billions, and you are left with corporations that made huge war profits, bonuses for executives and our loyal troops sick and dying and no one is held responsible. 

      It is important to recall that many of these war contracts were no bid deals, engineered by Dick Cheney for his Halliburton and KBR pals.

      It's a damned shame we don't better respect, honor and treat those who serve. It is a continuing stain in our history, but so too is war profiteering. Has been ever such. Another of many reasons war is indeed, hell.
      Maybe the Republican majority in Congress and the Republican president will come to the aid of the distressed vets of Iraq and Afghanistan. What's to stop them?   

     See you down the trail.   

     

DICK CHENEY IN JAIL-A LOT OF BULL-PEACE AND LIGHTNESS

WHY CHENEY SHOULD GO TO JAIL

   That is coming up, after first we share light, breezes, color and relief for those of you in places like Minnesota, Indiana, New York, and wherever else winter continues to assault you.

SPRING IN BLOOM

A SALAD IN SPRING TRAINING

DEDICATED TO DICK CHENEY

 A LOT OF BULL

 AND BULL DEBRIS

    We made our periodic visit to a grazing land to collect cow chips that we use in our compost.  I was thinking a lot about Dick Cheney.

    I was fuming a bit about the arrogance of man I consider a criminal, on several counts. Last night I watched the RJ Cutler documentary The World According to Dick Cheney airing on Showtime. The reviews are mixed though this LA Times piece by Mary McNamara hits on one point with precision.  Her father warned her to beware of a man with no regrets.  Cheney says he has no regrets.  

   Cutler zeros in on and documents two of the reasons Cheney should be tried.  One is the absolute lies, totally fabricated falsehoods he told Dick Armey to swing him around to approve an authorization to invade Iraq.  Remember those WMD's, suitcase bombs, etc, etc.  Cheney is a liar.  The other instance was when he told President Bush to ignore Justice Department rulings that domestic spying Cheney had ordered was illegal.  Cheney had intentionally kept W, who was already way over his head, in the dark about the building firestorm in the Justice Department and FBI about the illegality and irregularity of what he had done. Even the FBI director was threatening to quit if Bush did not change the guidelines. 

    I have said Bush was an idiot and I think I can prove it.  Cheney knew he had an intellectual light weight for a boss and he abused him, abused power and abused the American public.  Cutler's documentary is not at all a hatchet job, in fact it even lends a tacit credibility to a man who went from being a drunk to being drunk with power. Yet he does expose how even W, slow as he was, learned of his machinations and finally told aids not to take Cheney's calls and not to schedule meetings with him-this while they were both presiding over the needless deaths of American kids in a war that Cheney wanted, got and that his buddies at Halliburton and subsidiaries profited from.

    This is only the beginning.  As historians continue to examine and study the disastrous years of George W. Bush and Dick Cheney, his puppet master, Cheney's already low ratings will decline and his villainy will be further exposed.

    I hope the criminal lives long enough to be indicted.

THE FACES OF 13

   See you down the trail.