Susie Dow reviews The Curse of the Al Dulaimi Hotel: and other half-truths from Baghdad by Colin Freeman, now the Chief Foreign Correspondent of the Sunday Telegraph. Landing in Baghdad on May 1, 2003 as an independent journalist, Freeman's new book reveals the story behind getting the story including the hilarious antics of his charmingly insane personal assistant, Mohammed Kadom.

In her Journal article Paradise Stolen Roxy Caraway visits with the native Hawaiians who the rich and powerful wish to "sweep from the beach."

The story she tells has its parallels in what happened to the fisher people of Sri Lanka, the poor Thai who lived off the ocean, and others who found their homes taken by the powerful hotel industry after the Tsunami.

On the Journal in her article Brilliant, Gay, and HIV Positive, Laura Reichelt gives us profiles in courage of those who stand up to misinformation and fear about HIV and AIDs.

Please read about them, and add your comments and thoughts about other heros here.

originally started on 2008-07-21 01:47:23, updated for new letter

Beth Richards returns from Afghanistan and shares her letters home.

In the latest, her fourth letter home, Beth Richards goes sightseeing -- and describes the Blue Mosque, the Minarets, the Royal Palace, and of course, the food.

In her third letter, she discusses Afghanistan television, the Bollywood dialogs, the Iranian bizarre triangle head puppets teaching about HIV and AIDs.

In her second letter, she reports on the day-to-day aspects of life in Afghanistan.

In her first, she describes the city of Herat, her project at the university there, burqas and the call to prayer.

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Read this latest, the fourth one on the Journal, and post your responses here or email her.

Originally posted 2008-08-08 13:09:45 -0600 in the midst of other breaking news and the opening of the 2008 Olympics. Bringing back to the top for those who may have missed the first post - standingup

In his Journal article, Luaptifer asks and answers the question: “Why is it important to rehash what Connell did in 2000 Florida and 2004 Ohio? Those very same key elements of potential vote theft election are firmly in place within the McCain campaign for 2008.”

Also check out the related commentary on community: Who Is Tidewater's Roy Cales -- and what does he have to do with Connell, Rove and Ohio?

And just now, John Spinelli's Bush Wackers now wacking for McCain

Lauren Reichelt reports for the ePluribus Media Journal about Eve Gittleson’s "Time for Action: How the Netroots Can Lead on Healthcare Reform" panel held at the NetRoots Nation conference in Austin, Texas. The panel was moving, informative, thought-provoking and contentious.

The public interest in Ohio News Bureau, John Spinelli's Ohio Attorneys to Assert RICO Claim Against Karl Rove for Orchestrating Theft of 2004 Election prompted us to compile links of work from the ePluribus Media community and friends that have helped to reawaken the 2004 Ohio Election legal story.

We hope you'll find these useful for context.

Need an explanation for the Bear Market which looks as if it officially began yesterday with the Dow hitting the magic 20% below its market high?

On the ePluribus Media Journal, Carol White reviews George Soros' new book The New Paradigm for Financial Markets from PublicAffairs, which dissects the underpinnings of meltdown in the economy, tracing the causes of the current crisis back to the Reagan /Thatcher laissez faire policies of the 1980s.

Read White's review of George Soros'new book where she says the book "is of value to everyone who is struggling to make sense of the present economic debacle, and a must read for progressive policy-makers."

So is Thatcher to blame for our current mortgage crisis?

originally posted 2008-06-06 12:32:35 -0500; bumped by Carol in hopes everyone pitches in to help promote Jeff's book.

From Carol White's review of Jeff Huber's Bathtub Admirals:

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Those of you familiar with Jeff Huber's commentaries on U.S. political and military ineptitude — they appear regularly on ePluribus Media and on Pen and Sword — may be partially prepared for this incredible saga, but the story he has to tell is much worse than you expect and much funnier. He has written a hilarious parody of the U.S. Navy and an antic send-up of the modern military fiction.

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Intrigued?

Then read on, and come back here to discuss.

Aaron Barlow interviews Svodoba after reading her searing book Black Glasses like Clark Kent: A GI's Secret from Postwar Japan.

Barlow begins:

“I think it’s unconscionable to train soldiers to kill and then offer them only two years of treatment after they return to recover from the experience of killing.” So wrote Terese Svoboda after I contacted her on finishing reading Black Glasses Like Clark Kent, her exploration of the distant events behind the suicide of her uncle Don. Motivated in part by the suggestion of an emotional connection between the events at Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq and Don Svoboda's service guarding imprisoned US soldiers soon after WWII, there's an outrage and a sadness in this book turning it from the story of a “Superman” uncle into something of a polemic. At the end of the book, she positively pounds the table.

Read Aaron's questions and Terese's very personal answers on the Journal.

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