Get Your Reusable Water Bottle and Utensils! The Great Pacific Garbage Patch has Spoken!

Haven’t heard of the Great Pacific Garbage Patch yet?  Besides the chemicals that that likely affect human health, like phalates and bisphenol-A, and the use of finite and polluting fossil fuels, the plastics that are so important and ubiquitous in our society are toxic to our oceans as well.  Surfline.com has a good article on the Great Pacific Garbage Patch and a Good Morning America segment too.

Refuse to drink bottled water and don’t use disposable utensils! Get a reusable bottle, we like Klean Kanteen stainless steel bottles (for kids too!)and SIGG bottles, or some plastic bottles – ‘if it is a #2 HDPE , or a #4 LDPE, or a #5 PP, your bottle is fine“.  (You can even make your own SIGG bottle at cafepress.com for cheap or grab The S.E.E.P.’s “Consume Like You Give a Damn” series bottle!

As for the sporks, grab a mismatched set of utensils, a camping mess kit, or there are some bamboo utensil travel kits at gowesty.com. Throw them wrapped up in a cloth napkin in your backpack, purse, laptop bag, or man-purse and do your best to stop using disposables!

The S.E.E.P. Welcomes it’s Newest Addition!

We’ve been chronicling some of our efforts toward an eco-friendly nursery over at http://www.orionslaughter.com and now we can switch to logging our efforts at raising a sustainable baby! Orion was born on 7/10/09 at 2:53pm, weighing 7 lbs, 11 oz, and 21 inches long. Laura and he are doing great and I’ll be posting on our adventures with cloth diapers soon! Sorry for the lack of updates lately, we’ve been working hard preparing our home for Orion’s arrival and now we’re getting used to an entirely new life with our wonderful new family.

Autism is Not Caused by Vaccines: A Response to Jenny McCarthy and Jim Carrey’s Article.

Autism has become a major issue for modern parents, affecting 1 in 150 children, and can be linked to a number of exposures, including vaccines, according to a piece written last year by actress Jenny McCarthy and actor Jim Carrey and published in the New York Times (McCarthy, Carrey, 2008).  Unfortunately, although some legitimate sources are cited, including statistics from the CDC, McCarthy’s article uses mostly supposition and anecdotal evidence to support her arguments that vaccines “play a major role” in the development of autism.  McCarthy and Carrey have apparrently had success in reversing many of their son’s autism symptoms through “starting a gluten-free, casein-free diet, vitmain supplementation, detox of metals, and anti-fungals for yeast overgrowth that plagued his intestines” (McCarthy, Carrey, 2008).  While they do make an excellent point that physicians that they have seen after this improvement have not investigated the factors in his recovery, an action that could potentially lead to more understanding of the disease, the improvements could be due to any one of their interventions, behavioral or cognitive therapy, or a combination of factors.

Although it is true that Autism rates have risen in recent years and is a major health problem, it is imperative to use information derived from reliable sources before rushing to stop vaccinations, an intervention that saves countless lives.  The Wakefield paper published in 1998 that began the popular notion that autism is caused by vaccines was only a case series, where 12 children who were observed to have developed intestinal problems within a month of the MMR vaccine, and 8 of whom were also diagnosed with autism at that time (“A Look at What Causes”, 2008).  While there may be a correlation, this does not denote causation, and along with the small sample size and type of study, this paper should not be used to base any conclusions on, only the possibilty of future research.  Other studies are currently looking at biochemical contributors for autism that may lead back to an environmental cause (Deth, Muratore, Benzecry, Power-Charnitsky, & Waly, 2008; Van Den Hazel, Zuurbier, Babisch, Bartonova, Bistrup, Bolte, et al., 2006), and the CHARGE Study is an ongoing large-scale case-control study investigating a wide array of possible environmental and genetic factors into the development of autism and hopes to uncover some statistically significant causational factors (Hertz-Picciotto, I., Croen, L., Hansen, R., Jones, C., Van De Water, J., & Pessah, I., 2006).

There is much epidemiologic work to be done in the search for causes of the autism epidemic.  Although it is good to have these types of issues brought to the attention of the public through media, much of the media information and hype is innaccurate.   In this case, because of celebrity status and media attention, McCarthy and Carrey write a heartfelt and well-intentioned piece that is presented by lay-people without the epidemiologic background to properly interpret and synthesize the current data on autism and it’s contributors.  This lack of scientific rigor and support in many popular media outlets unfortunately is not uncommon and spreads innacurate and potentially harmful information.

References:

Deth, R., Muratore, C., Benzecry, J., Power-Charnitsky, V., & Waly, M. (2008). How environmental and genetic factors combine to cause autism: A redox/methylation hypothesis [Abstract]. NeuroToxicology, 29(1), 190-201. Retrieved May 10, 2009 from the EBSCO Database.

Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia Vaccine Education Center.  (2008)  A Look at What Causes, and What Doesn’t Cause, Autism.  Retrieved on May 9, 2009 from:  http://www.chop.edu/consumer/jsp/division/generic.jsp?id=84662#other_studies .

Hertz-Picciotto, I., Croen, L., Hansen, R., Jones, C., Van De Water, J., & Pessah, I. (2006). The CHARGE Study: An Epidemiologic Investigation of Genetic and Environmental Factors Contributing to Autism. Environmental Health Perspectives, 114(7), 1119-1125. Retrieved May 10, 2009

McCarthy, J., Carrey, J. (2008, April 4).  Jenny McCarthy:  My son’s recovery from autism.  CNN.com.  Retrieved on May 8, 2009 from:  http://www.cnn.com/2008/US/04/02/mccarthy.autsimtreatment/ .

Van Den Hazel, P., Zuurbier, M., Babisch, W., Bartonova, A., Bistrup, M., Bolte, G., et al. (2006). Today’s epidemics in children: Possible relations to environmental pollution and suggested preventive measures. Acta Paediatrica, 95, 18-25. Retrieved May 10, 2009 from the EBSCO database.

Cap and Trade: What is It?

Hank Green over at ecogeek.com has posted a nearly auction-style, fast primer on the Cap and Trade system proposed by the Obama administration. This is a must see, as this legislation stands to be one of the most important pieces in starting our emissions decline. He does a good job flitting though the major point of contention – the assertion by many conservatives that it’s just another tax. Although it can be construed as such, it’s more of a pollution cap with monetary incentives for companies, a system that should be much more flexible, functional, and fair to both businesses and American citizens than a straight “carbon tax”.

The Tables are Turned: Fox News and Rush Limbaugh are now “Un-American” and “Traitorous” for Not Supporting Our President!

The Daily Show With Jon StewartM – Th 11p / 10c

Fox News Fear Imbalance

Barack Obama Interview
John McCain Interview

Sarah Palin Video
Funny Election Video

Hit the “Fox News Fears Imbalance” link above, WordPress is not properly embedding Comedy Central Video – sorry.

Incredibly, but not so surprisingly, the right-winged pundits such O’Reilly and Limbaugh,and the rest of Fox News, have completely flipped their attitudes about supporting the American presidency. It was not so long ago that these very same people ranted and raved about how “Un-American” it was to criticize the war in Iraq or any of the other poorly informed/thought-out decisions of our last President. Now, when it’s not “their boy” in the White House, they’ve opted to take the Un-American route of unabashedly fear-mongering, undermining, and other douchebaggery while covering President Obama’s first few days in office, rather than being constructive and contributing reasonable and intelligent discourse to the sorely needed changes in our government.

National Call In Day for Single Payer Healthcare this Friday, January 15th – Call Your Representatives!

This Friday, January 15, is national call-in day to promote a single-payer healthcare system.  Here is the official page with information on HR676 and how to contact your congressperson.  Also, you can call (202) 225-3121 and ask to be connected to the office of your Representative or your Senators (you can also look up their direct numbers using your zip code here)

Being in the healthcare community, I find it hard to believe that so many people don’t support this concept.  One of the big arguments is whether healthcare is a right or a privilege and when you work in the medical field, it is obvious that it should be a right, just like having a firefighter to put out your burning house, or a police officer to rescue you from an assailant, everyone should have basic medical care.  We often hear the term “socialized” attached to single-payer healthcare as a fear tactic because of the negative stigma still associated with the term socialism.  Single-payer, however, is not government run healthcare, it is private healthcare with government paying the bills instead of insurance companies.  Essentially nothing will change with how you interact with your physician or clinic, but rather than insurance companies artificially driving up costs and making profits on people’s health, denying legitimate claims, and costing an extra 15% or more in administrative costs, medicare and medicaid will cover everyone!  Costs overall will decrease, and the out of pocket expense to the individual will be lower than the current system.  If we can combine this with a massive expansion in public health education and services, along with major tort reform to revamp medical liability, we might just be able to improve our status from spending more money per capita than any other country, yet ranking number 37 in the world in quality of health care.  Shameful.

Please call in on Friday and make your voice heard!

John Stewart and John Olliver Say What We All Are Thinking About Terrorists of Any Type.

The Daily Show With Jon StewartM – Th 11p / 10c

Mumbai Tragedy

Barack Obama Interview
John McCain Interview

Sarah Palin Video
Funny Election Video

I can’t get this to embed properly, but click on the Mumbai Tragedy Link for the video.

This is a brilliant exchange between John Olliver and John Stewart on 12/1/09’s The Daily Show. Simply brilliant – an incredibly accurate discussion of terrorists of any kind.

Bush Administration Wants Americans To Have More E Coli Outbreaks

Photo credit: StoptheMegaDairy.org via earthfirst

It seems that the Bush Administration is trying to get a few more jabs in before heading out of office, making our nation even more unsafe and removing regulations that keep our citizens healthy.

According to the National Resources Defense Council, on October 31st, the Bush Administration signed a rule that exempts factory farms from needing permits that limit water pollution runoff.  Modern factory farms, also known as concentrating animal feeding operations (CAFOs), besides being generally cruel to animals and foster antibiotic resistance through unregulated use, also generate huge amounts of untreated liquid and solid waste from livestock that are forced to live in confined areas.  This rule will keep authorities from having to regulate this waste, which will contaminate waterways and other farms, and will undoubtedly lead to further public health crises similar to the E Coli outbreak that we just had in September of this year.

The recent national outbreak of E Coli O157:H7 in spinach was quickly traced back to farms in Salinas Valley, CA, and is a stark reminder of the importance of maintaining a working and vigilant public health system.  It demonstrates how disease tracking and data collection is imperative as a foundation for this process, with rapid action taken by public health field workers to isolate and stop the spread of disease outbreak.  Local physicians and healthcare professionals reported cases of patients with diarrheal illness consistent with a possible E. coli O157:H7 outbreak to their local public health departments.  Through the national public health system network, these departments, in turn, reported the illnesses to the CDC (Grant et al, 2008).  The CDC was able to quickly recognize a pattern and made a public announcement of the outbreak on September 13, 2008.  A study was initiated the next day by the public health departments of Utah and New Mexico, which isolated and contained the source of the outbreak, and within 2 weeks had hard evidence implicating spinach grown in our state that had likely been contaminated by runoff from local cattle farms.  Not only did the public health system discover the cause of the illness, but it then was able to help draft policy changes encouraging improved sanitation that will hopefully decrease the risk of similar contamination in the future.

Unfortunately, whatever we learned from this and similar incidents will be undone with this exemption in waste regulation.  This is an excellent example of how corporate pressure influences the government to make irresponsible decisions.  The economic pressure from factory farms has overcome the health risks to citizens caused by unregulated waste runoff.  The state public health departments, the FDA, and the EPA must review this rule and take political action to prevent the increased public health risk that it poses.

National Resource Defense Council.

Vote: No Bailout For The Auto Industry. Unless. . .

Ok, so first we’ve thrown hundreds of billions of dollars haphazardly at banks, much of which they’ve already hoarded, squandered, and rearranged, rather than taking a few weeks for our government to carefully draft an educated and well-thought out plan to mediate the value to loan ratio problem, devalue existing loans to help foreclosing homeowners restructure debt, and tightly regulate the use of said taxpayer dollars to avoid the current system of lining the pockets of the greedy lenders and traders who were gambling away everyone’s debt and 401k money.

Now we’re talking about bailing out three companies, who no matter how “Downhome American” and “Heartlandy” they are, have spent the last half century manipulating the American public through engineered obsolescence and ruthless marketing campaigns to sell the biggest and least efficient vehicles, partnered with oil companies to actively fight emissions standards and efficiency requirements, have purposefully withheld technology that would improve mileage and save fuel, have killed California’s zero-emission legislation through legal actions, failed to have any concern whatsoever for the growing climate change and peak oil crises, and have allowed their own greed and obliviousness, purposeful or not, to lead to their own downfall.

The ONLY way we should give any money to the U.S. Auto industry is if they are required to use these funds to completely revamp their lines to include only vehicles that are electric, are compatible with modern biofuels, or use some other type of renewable and low or no emissions fuel. They must also begin large initiatives to convert existing vehicles to run on one of these fuels. The beauty is, that this is in reality a fairly easy proposal: Most modern gasoline engines can be easily modified to run E85 or natural gas, every diesel can run on 100% biodiesel (it’s just not covered by warranty) and can easily be modified to run on vegetable oil. Pretty much any vehicle chassis can be easily converted to run on electricity, using standard golf cart batteries to go more than 40 miles to a charge at highway speeds, more than enough for the vast majority of daily drivers. With minimal training and barely adequate electrical skills, I’ve even been thinking about building one in my garage. The “Big Three” have much smarter people than I with much more mechanical knowledge,and they have much, much. . . MUCH bigger garages.

For that matter, I can think of quite a few things we can do as well with that 813 billion (in tax breaks and funds) Congress has already authorized to bail out Wall Street. How about we pay our craftsmen and builders to learn about energy efficient and eco-friendly building techniques? Why don’t we start a national solar loan program that gives anyone who wishes a low interest loan to get solar water heating and photovoltaic panels? Why don’t we reteach and train those losing their jobs how to grow food, how to farm energy, how to retrofit homes for efficiency, and other skills? Why don’t we help towns and cities rebuild their energy infrastructures to make clean power, ethanol, and biodiesel from waste streams and utilize resources efficiently?

We need to use this money wisely in a well-designed renewable energy “New Deal” for our country to build a sustainable infrastructure for a future of economic prosperity, food security, and clean energy.

reference: bbc news article

Finally, a Time for Change

We’ve done it! Elected a man whom we hope has the integrity, the intelligence, and the vision that he’s shown us in this election race. If you haven’t watched his acceptance speech yet, it is truly inspiring and makes me, for the first time in years, proud to be an American, with hope that we can once again live up to the ideals that we were founded upon – freedom and justice (and sustainability) for all.

I’m Voting Republican (Not Really)

This is a wonderfully sarcastic look at some of the Republican party’s stances on issues in the upcoming election from synthetic human studios.

Take a Stand! World Boycott on New Fossil Fuel Powered Cars!

I’m publishing this on a public blog so that if I mysteriously disappear after making this proposal, you’ll know to investigate the major auto manufacturers and oil companies, but here’s the reasoning behind the boycott:

Say you need another car: Your child is turning 16, your old clunker is on it’s last legs, you’re just plain tired of your old car and want a new one, whatever the reason. You could buy a new car, nice and shiny, with that sweet smell of VOCs (volatile organic compounds) wafting from the upholstery, the latest and greatest gadgetry, a fresh coat of wax from the dealer. You’ll be paying $20-30K or more for the vehicle, then immediately lose 30% of the value just by driving off of the lot, and then proceed to pay $100 to fill the tank up every week. Sound good? Not really.

You could buy that car, but why would you buy a new car right now that crudely burns a dying and outdated 20th century fuel? Why not wait and buy a 21st century car – one fueled by electricity or hydrogen, one that burns waste vegetable oil or cellulosic ethanol made from agricultural by-products and recycled paper? Everybody knows that gas isn’t going to get significantly cheaper anytime soon, it will actually likely rise slowly for the next few years, then once we are irrefutably in the midst of peak oil and the world starts significantly restricting carbon emissions and taxes energy use, fossil fuel prices will skyrocket, making it impossible to cheaply travel and waste power like we had in the past. The products we buy and the energy we use to heat and power our homes will all be more expensive because they will be more precious. They will carry the true cost of extracting the resources, the human skill and labor, the overall impact on the environment, and the cost of recycling it at the end of their lives. This extra expense is not unfair, and once we understand the true costs of using the world’s resources, moderate our consumption, and decrease our footprint, we will probably actually save money in the long run. Buy making responsible, educated, and forward-thinking purchases now, you will be readying yourself for the coming change in energy infrastructure. You’ll be leaving the status-quo behind, and making intelligent plans for providing you and your family affordable and available transportation and power options in the future as energy prices rise. You’re insulating yourself from volatile changes in prices in gasoline, natural gas, electricity, and even food.

What I’m saying is, if you need another car, let the manufacturers know that you don’t want to run your car on fossil fuels, it’s bad for the environment, expensive, causes global political unrest and contributes to terrorism, and the technology is available right now to move the same distance at the same speeds without burning any gas, causing any emissions, or contributing to climate change. Make them give you another option, change their practices, divorce themselves from the corporate oil giants. If you need another car right now: go buy a cool used car, fix up a classic roadster, put yourself on the waiting list for a an Aptera, a Tesla Roadster, a Chevy Volt, or a Prius Plug-in Hybrid – you’ll have a next-generation car within the next 1-3 years depending on your choice, not really all that long! Plus, you’ll have killer eco-street cred. Better yet, make your car stretch – use the money you saved to buy some great commuter bikes, an xtracycle, or an electric scooter or motorcycle. If you want a project, build your own electric car or motorcycle. There are so many options besides buying a new fossil-fuel powered car, it’s really just ridiculous to do it right now.

Our entire energy infrastructure is set to change over the next decade, why would you waste your hard-earned money buying in to a dying paradigm? The age of cheap oil is over. Regardless of drilling offshore or in the Arctic Wildlife Refuge, irregarding the horribly polluting tar sands projects in Canada, and outside of political deals and wars meant to keep oil flowing to us, fossil fuel demand is increasing and supply is dwindling. Hard core oil exploration and exploitation will be more expensive, less productive, and more environmentally hazardous than ever before. At our current rate of increasing oil consumption, the government-subsidized “resource depletion projects” will at best only postpone the impending energy crisis for a short time if at all. If we’re lucky, they might at best keep fossil fuel prices relatively stable as we actively transition off of them in favor or renewable resources.

It’s time to invest in the future and stop fueling the climate crisis and start making smart choices for your family’s future and vow never to buy another new fossil-fuel powered vehicle. Buy electric, buy used, get a bike instead, become a public transportation expert, stop contributing to the problem and consume like you give a damn.

What To Do On Your Memorial Day Weekend If You Don’t Want To Pay For Gas: Resurrect the Victory Garden!

Rising fuel prices have you down?
Don’t want to pay the extra cash for a road trip this Memorial Day?
If you’re tired of supporting the huge profits made by oil companies and money going to terrorist regimes when you fill your gas tank, let’s make the choice NOT to travel. Let’s choose to do something productive for ourselves and our families with our time off this holiday.

I’m talking about planting a garden. I’m talking about grabbing your families and friends, have a BBQ with local grassfed steaks, organic veggies, and some Fat Tire ale, pitching in and ripping up your lawn. Yep, that carefully tended, picket-fence lined, weed-free, lush, verdant patch that you’ve carefully nurtured with petroleum derived fertilizers, toxic insecticides, and gallons upon gallons of precious water. Rip it up. Pull it all out and plant a garden to help feed your family and friends. If you have any doubts, pick up a copy of Michael Pollan’s, An Omnivore’s Dilemmaand give it a skim tomorrow morning over coffee. If you don’t have time for that, read his article entitled “Why Bother” in the NY Time’s Green Issue, he cites that 30% of our nation’s produce after WWII was grown in backyard “Victory Gardens”.

Once you’re convinced, start planning out how to best use your lawn space. There are countless ways to organize your new project. If you want to make it easy, build or buy some raised garden beds and fill them with planting mix and compost. Or, throw down some landscaping fabric then cover it with soil like in last month’s Mother Earth News.  Find plants that grow well in your area and spread them out to transform your lawn into an “edible forests” with fruit trees, vegetable plots, an herb garden, and whatever else you can dream up.  Make sure you dig up your sprinklers first, though – you can hook them up to drip irrigation systems to water your new project.   There’s ton’s of info on gardening out there, start googling and then start planting!  You get exercise, family time, you save water over irrigating your lawn, and once it’s established you’ll save money and fossil fuel while providing more nutritious, pesticide free, organic food option for your household.

Sustainable Sewer for Los Osos, CA?

San Luis County Surfrider chapter and SLO Green Build are co-sponsoring 2 public presentations and workshops in an effort to present environmentally and economically friendly ways to solve the small coastal town’s sewer problems.

Currently everyone in the town, just south of Morro Bay, are on septic systems and no further growth is allowed since they have saturated the ability of the local ground to process the sewage. There are many members of the community that are fine with less growth, but also many who feel it would be good for the town, or those who stand to make a lot of money from development. So far, a waste treatment facility has been planned smack in the center of town, in a beautiful plot overlooking the ocean. The community has been outraged at the proposal, and a few million dollars in taxpayer dollars has been wasted in order to advance the agenda of a few. Los Osos, however, has the perfect opportunity to be a model community for sustainability. Instead of each citizen having to pay $30,000 or more to be hooked up to the new downtown sewage treatment plant in addition to the costs to the county for construction, each home could be retrofitted with composting toilets and greywater reclamation systems for less than that and in the process saving water and significant amounts of money in the long run, all while being better to the environment. Sounds like a simple decision, right? Not when there’s money to be had by local developers with their pocketbooks open for local officials. Well, it’s either that, or the planning board of Los Osos is seated with stubborn, backwards-thinking codgers with no vision or reasonable thought processes. Hopefully these presentations will educate and drum up enough public support for a well-planned, sustainable water and sewer plan for this unique and beautiful coastal town.

“Sustainability…the Final Frontier!”

Can Appropriate Water Technology Help

Los Osos and other cities in our County…?

Keynote Speaker: Jonathan Todd, of Todd Ecological Design Inc. (www.toddecological.com) an award-winning water and natural resources planning firm, will be visiting San Luis Obispo County on February 6th and 7th to address appropriate technology in San Luis county including the Los Osos sewer project. Todd Ecological specializes in the development of ecological technologies for food production, waste purification and conversion, environmental restoration and systems integration ofr architecture and eco-industrial parks throughout the world. The focus is to provide clients with cost-effective aesthetic solutions to wastewater, storm water, aquatic environment management, and bio-solids conversion.

Two Public Presentations &

Sustainability Socials

(Pizza, Beer, Wine, Sweets, Raffle, & Music!)

February 6th, Weds; 6 – 9 pm

SLO Botanical Garden ($20 suggested donation)

New education & convention facility. (www.slobg.org)

(El Chorro Regional Park, across Hwy 1 from Cuesta College)

(Between Morro Bay & SLO)

February 7th, Thurs; 6 – 10 pm:

LOS OSOS @ South Bay Community Center

($5 suggested donation)

(2180 Palisades Ave, behind Skate Park)

Available at both events: Music by THE CUESTA JAZZ ENSEMBLE

By Donation (All Funds raised will assist sustainability efforts within SLO County)

• Food by American Flatbread Pizza,

• Beer tasting by Cayucos Brewing Company,

• Wine tasting, and

• Slo Chai and SweetEarth Chocolates

Examples of appropriate technology to maintain a healthy water cycle:

1. Low Impact development strategies

2. Ultra low flow toilets or high efficiency 1.28 Gpf

3. Rainwater harvesting

4. Dual Flush Toilets .9 / 1.6 Gpf

5. Grey water reuse systems

6. Energy Star Appliances (Clothes washer and dishwasher)

7. Composting toilets

For more details about this event, please see the press release

For downloadable flyer please click HERE.Los Osos Blog: SewerWatch

The Center for Public Integrity releases “The War Card”, a Tally of the Bush Administration’s Deceptions Leading to the Iraq War

An AP report released yesterday showcased a study performed by 2 non-profit groups, the Center for Public Integrity, and The Fund For Independence in Journalism that documents the incredible number of false statements made by the Bush administration that led the public to acquiesce and go to war in Iraq. The study cites at least 935 false statements by Bush, Cheney, Condi, and Rumsfeld, 532 or more inaccurate statements by Colin Powell, Paul Wolfowitz, and press secretaries Ari Fleischer and Scott McClellan. Most of these statements asserted that there was unequivocal proof that Iraq did indeed have weapons of mass destruction and/or that there were proven ties between Saddam and Al Qaeda.

The Center for Public Integrity’s “Iraq: The War Card” is a comprehensive database of this intentional deception by our government and shows without doubt that the Iraq war was brought about by a carefully orchestrated media and propaganda campaign designed to utilize the tragedy and outrage generated by the 9/11 attacks as fuel for the flame.

The evidence has been available now for years and is growing in strength. So when can we start the criminal hearings for the Bush administration for fraud, deception, genocide in Iraq, and the almost 4000 wrongful deaths of our valiant U.S. soldiers that went to war to defend us from a lie.

via msnbc, Gavin W.