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Eduardo Caraballo

Let's give country reason to celebrate

Barack Obama comes home this week to celebrate his birthday, and to visit a Ford plant that has begun hiring again, aided by federal loan guarantees for clean energy production. Although Ford wasn't bailed out, it is part of an auto industry saved by the president's bold decision -- a decision that is paying off as the restructured companies are turning a profit and putting people back to work.

The auto company rescue was unpopular when President Bush first made the decision to intervene -- so that his successor could make his own choice. It was unpopular when Obama decided to rescue the companies, with an arranged bankruptcy for General Motors and Chrysler forcing restructuring. It is unpopular to this day. But it has worked. And it saved an estimated million jobs that would likely have been lost if the auto industry had been allowed to fail.

That success was the result of bold action. And now we need more bold action to help Chicago, Illinois and the nation -- which seem perilously close to turning back toward recession.

Buddhist "Body Snatchers" collect Bangkok's dead and dying

BANGKOK, Thailand -- Fearless body snatchers careen through traffic, with sirens blaring and lights flashing, to morbid disaster sites where they seize fresh human corpses to pack in mustard-colored coffins for yet another profitable cremation.

"I see dead people all the time, but I've never seen ghosts," Anyawut Phoamphai, 36, says in Thai, maniacally chuckling and slamming his foot on the accelerator of a new Toyota van.

"Before doing this work, I was afraid of ghosts. But I'm not afraid of ghosts now. And I'm not afraid to get sick while handling dead people. I'm not afraid to touch their corpses. I wear Buddhist amulets and they protect me."

If you or anyone else you know -- Thai or foreigner -- suddenly drops dead in Bangkok, chances are your body will be grabbed by a team of eager men and women who will carefully wrap you in white cloth, carry you away hammock-style, and lay you into the back of a van for a trip to a nearby hospital's forensic lab.

An honest look at Obama's first year

Most commentary on President Barack Obama either beats him up unfairly because he's not a Republican or cuts him extra slack because he's not a Republican. If, in the privacy of your own home, you want to pause and review the main events of the first year or more of this presidency, as recorded by someone who obviously doesn't care about partisan boosting, I recommend Paul Street's new book "The Empire's New Clothes: Barack Obama in the Real World of Power."

This is an excellent detailed analysis from a progressive writer willing to note the good, the bad, and the ugly, and to admit when the bad and the ugly seem to be dominating the scene. It's early, of course, for an overview of this presidency. And it's still early for a lot of potential readers to be able to handle the truth. But this book lays out the highlights and lowlights in a way that should advance readers' understanding.

Tell Google "Don't be evil!"

Google's motto is "Don't be evil," but Google is about to cut a deal with Verizon that would end the Internet as we know it.

According to a front-page New York Times story, the deal would allow "Verizon to speed some online content to Internet users more quickly if the content's creators are willing to pay for the privilege."1

It would create fast Internet lanes for the largest corporations and slow lanes for the rest of us.

That is why CREDO is joining MoveOn, Free Press, and Color of Change in rallying Google users to tell Google, "Don't be evil."

Speak up for a free and open Internet by clicking here to automatically sign the petition to Google. With massive amounts of public pressure, we can stop this deal.

Google is furiously backpedaling on its closed door negotiations with Verizon over the future of the Internet — a direct result of a strong and immediate public backlash. The company has denied some details from the New York Times story, but won't say definitively that it is not striking a deal with Verizon that will stop the FCC from imposing net neutrality rules.

Whose Hands? Whose Blood? Killing Civilians in Afghanistan and Iraq

Consider the following statement offered by Admiral Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, at a news conference last week. He was discussing Julian Assange, the founder of Wikileaks as well as the person who has taken responsibility for the vast, still ongoing Afghan War document dump at that site. "Mr. Assange," Mullen commented, "can say whatever he likes about the greater good he thinks he and his source are doing, but the truth is they might already have on their hands the blood of some young soldier or that of an Afghan family."

Now, if you were the proverbial fair-minded visitor from Mars (who in school civics texts of my childhood always seemed to land on Main Street, U.S.A., to survey the wonders of our American system), you might be a bit taken aback by Mullen's statement. After all, one of the revelations in the trove of leaked documents Assange put online had to do with how much blood from innocent Afghan civilians was already on American hands.

Agent provocateurs of Russia

Smoke on a bridge: Lebanon awaits a verdict

Jamal is a Lebanese driver in his late 50’s. He appeared unshaven and terribly exhausted as he drove his old passenger van from the airport in Beirut to the Bekaa Valley. Although it was not a particularly arduous trip, it was made more grueling by the way Jamal drove, negotiating the elevation, the hectic traffic and the many army vehicles speeding by.

In Lebanon, a sense of urgency always seems to prevail, even when there are no urgent matters to tend to. Jamal’s driving style has probably changed little through the successive Israeli wars and bombardments of Lebanon in past years (the last being the 2006 war, which destroyed much of the country’s infrastructure and killed hundreds of civilians).

Although no bombs were falling now, Jamal could feel something in the air. “They are cooking something big,” he said, “but what it is, no one really knows for sure.”

Elderly Thai kickboxers' brains suffer after fights

BANGKOK, Thailand -- When a Muay Thai kickboxer's brain is battered by the star-twinkling impact from too many hits, and the fighter becomes spaced-out and forgetful, retirement can mean a dismal life far from the maddening crowd of cheering and jeering fans at sweaty boxing arenas.

The elderly Amnuay Kesbumrung and his aged colleague, Sompong Janpatrak, however, are defying those black-and-blue odds and they continue to enjoy Thailand's most popular sport.

Muay Thai allows fists, elbows, feet, shins, knees and jumps to be used.

During Thailand's history, several kings became great boxers or patrons, and kickboxing was also taught to their security forces. Early competitive boxers often wrapped rope around their fists, resulting in brutal injuries, until gloves were introduced in the early 1900s.

"I was born December 14, 1935, and am now 73 years old," Amnuay said in Thai language during an interview.

The next war

“I’m going to be killing people. I’m actually joining the Marines and will be doing this in real life.”
War springs eternal. Compare the words of the 18-year-old boy quoted above by Philadelphia radio station WRTI, as he was wielding a pretend machinegun at a video-game parlor/Army recruiting center at a Philly shopping mall, with those of two neocons, Charles Robb and Charles Wald (retired senator and general, respectively), writing last month in the Washington Post:

“We cannot afford to wait indefinitely to determine the effectiveness of diplomacy and sanctions. . . . Instead, the administration needs to expand its approach and make clear to the Iranian regime and the American people: If diplomatic and economic pressures do not compel Iran to terminate its nuclear program, the U.S. military has the capability and is prepared to launch an effective, targeted strike on Tehran’s nuclear and supporting military facilities.”

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