22 veterans commit suicide each day: VA report

22 veterans commit suicide each day: VA report

This is a very sad statistic and I place much of the blame on the media and the American people who don't give a damn about the war in Afghanistan.

This is what the Army is like

CLICK ON ARROW TO PLAY VIDEO

No sleep, crappy food, but the best guys you'll ever meet. Also, in retrospect, quoting movies to pass the time is a lot funnier when you've been up for 2 days.

Afghanistan-We want the Taliban back!

CLICK ON ARROW TO PLAY VIDEO

Afghanistan citizens say they want the Taliban back.

VIDEO: WOMEN IN THE MILITARY

CLICK ON ARROW TO PLAY VIDEO

Should Women Fight in Combat? (video)

CLICK ON ARROW TO PLAY VIDEO

Should women be allowed to serve in combat units? Last week, the Military Leadership Diversity commission, said yes. If approved by the Defense Department, this could be the second large change in policy, following the repeal of Don't Ask Don't Tell just a few weeks ago. American Women Veterans' Genevieve Chase and BLACKFIVE's Jim Hanson debate.

DISGUSTING WAY THE MILITARY TREATS ITS FEMALE VETERANS

CLICK ON ARROW TO PLAY VIDEO

This is the story a female veteran who ended up homeless after her tour of duty.  The Veterans Association is planning on revising the plan on how to treat not only female but all veterans.

50 KILLED IN EGYPT RIOTS. FOX NEWS WILL BE CALLING FOR OBAMA TO SEND IN TROOPS

FOX NEWS is already cranking up the war machinery because riots have broke out all across EGYPT and more than 50 people have been killed. I'm sure FOX NEWS will have former UN Ambassador JOHN BOLTON and other chickenhawks including retired military personnel who ALL are now lobbyists for the defense industry on their shows all day long calling for OBAMA to send in troops to EGYPT. However, it should be noted NONE of the troops would be sons and daughters of FOX NEWS personnel who do everything possible to avoid enlisting in the military. Here is what is happening in EGYPT this morning: http://www.foxnews.com/world/2013/01/28/tens-thousands-in-egypt-hold-funeral-protest-morsi-after-riots-kill-37/

Women Are in Combat

CLICK ON THIS LINK TO PLAY VIDEO

FOX NEWS should watch this video before all their chickenhawks start spouting off about how women don't belong in combat.  What do Bill O'Reilly, Sean Hannity and Rush Limbaugh,  for that matter,  know about the military anyway.  All of them busted their asses to avoid military service and are not qualified to talk about war combat. 

Bill Corcoran, former Cpl. (E-4) United States Army Combat Engineers, Korean War veteran. 

WOMEN IN COMBAT: Life of a Lioness - The story of Cpl. Jennifer Marie Parcell

CLICK ON ARROW TO PLAY VIDEO

The ratifications of the 19th Amendment and Title IX have given American women opportunities they never had before modern times. There is one policy, however, that keeps our women in uniform from holding jobs involving direct combat. It's called the Combat Exclusion Law, but that has all changed now.. Sgt. Todd Hunter shares an intimate story on how today's battlefield doesn't always cater to the law.

SINGLE MOM FOUGHT ALONGSIDE OF COMBAT TROOPS IN AFGHANISTAN

Here is the story of a single mom who fought alongside of combat troops in Afghanistan.

http://www.cnn.com/2013/01/24/us/woman-combat-afghanistan-profile/index.html?asid=b2573cbb

HILLARY CLINTON RIPS INTO REPUBLICAN SENATOR

 

The Republicans and their mouthpiece Fox News have been waiting for months to get their chance to question outgoing Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on the attack on the Benghazi, Libya listening post (it was not a consulate or the embassy which is in Tripoli, Libya), but when it came time to question Clinton yesterday the Republicans were left twisting in the wind.

The Republicans were no match for Hillary Clinton who was totally prepared to answer all their questions on why the U.S. Ambassador to Libya, Chris Stevens, and three other Americans were killed on in Benghazi on September 11, 2012.

Hard as they tried to catch Hillary Clinton in a lie, the poor, dumb Republicans came to the hearing with nothing but Fox News "talking points" which, of course, were all lies.

Clinton smartly allowed the Republicans to take potshots at her, but when freshman Republican Sen. Ron Johnson stepped over the line with a snide comment directed at her, Clinton fired back in what was the highlight of the hearings.

Click on this link to see how Hillary Clinton dealt with Republican Sen. Ron Johnson:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/01/23/hillary-clinton-ron-johnson_n_2533819.html?icid=maing-grid10%7Chtmlws-main-bb%7Cdl1%7Csec3_lnk1%26pLid%3D260824

Republicans kept referring to the Benghazi, Libya "listening post" as a consulate or the embassy which only indicated how ill-prepared they were for the questioning of Hillary Clinton.

Several Democratic Senators including Dick Durbin from Illinois were quick to point out 4,700 young Americans were killed in a war started under false information by President George W. Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney.

Durbin emphasized his point by saying tragic as it was there were only 4 Americans killed in the Benghazi, Libya attack compared to the 4,700 Americans killed in Iraq.

Clinton listened politely as one Republican after another trotted out Fox News "talking points" in an effort to try to paint her as not doing her job, but Clinton just let them keep digging themselves into an even deeper hole.

Republicans left the hearing with their tails between their legs and many of them rushed to Fox News where they knew Bill O'Reilly, Sean Hannity and Greta Van Sustern would allow them to continue to spin their lies about the Bengahzi attack.

Someday Republicans may realize Fox News is not a news organization, but instead the propaganda arm of the GOP which is in the twilight of their ratings dominance as more and more people realize look at Fox News as a total joke.

RETHINK AFGHANISTAN---SERIES OF VIDEOS

CLICK ON ARROW TO PLAY VIDEOS

Series of videos on the war in Afghanistan

REPUBLICANS MESS UP QUESTIONING HILLARY CLINTON

REPUKES questioning HILLARY CLINTON kept referring to BENGHAZI, LIBYA as attack on our "CONSULATE." It was a "Listening Post" not a "Consulate" or an "Embassy" which is in Tripoli, Libya. Republicans cut funding for additional security at ALL U.S. offices around the world including BENGHAZI. REPUBLICAN SEN. RAND PAUL said he would have fired her. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/01/23/rand-paul-hillary-clinton_n_2534120.html?ref=topbar

WHAT IS GOING TO HAPPEN TO SGT. ROBERT BALES ACCUSED OF KILLING AFGHAN CITIZENS

The following link tells the story of what is in store for Sgt. Robert Bales accused of massacring Afghan citizens.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/01/17/robert-bales-trial_n_2495518.html?utm_hp_ref=fb&src=sp&comm_ref=false#sb=153172,b=facebook

FOX NEWS DOESN'T KNOW SQUAT

 

BILL O'REILLY, SEAN HANNITY, GRETA VAN SUSTERN, NEIL CAVUTO and all of the FOX NEWS on-air hosts are so dumb they don't know that PRESIDENT OBAMA is saving his plans for the nation until he gives the State of the Union address later this month.

All day Monday, FOX NEWS on-air people were bitching about how President Obama's inaugural address was short on specifics.

The FOX NEWS on-air people are so stupid they don't realize President Obama is saving the details of his plans for the nation until he gives the State of Union address.

That is how it is done.

FOX NEWS gets away with the lies they tell because they know their audience comes from the low information people who haven't got a clue what is REALLY going on in the United States.

BILL O'REILLY went totally off the rails with his rant about how President Obama is leading the nation into a disaster.

Here is a link to what O'Reilly said: http://mediamatters.org/video/2013/01/18/disaster-could-be-coming-oreillys-over-the-top/192330

How anyone can watch FOX NEWS and think they are getting the truth is beyond me.

MORE TEARS FOR A FAKE GIRL'S DEATH THAN A REAL GIRL'S DEATH AT NOTRE DAME

Manti Te'o lied about a girl's death just to advance his chances of getting a Heissman Trophy, but Notre Dame, where he played football, has kept silent on the mess just like they have kept silent when a Notre Dame football player raped a St. Mary's college freshmen who later committed suicide.
Read the story here:  http://www.npr.org/blogs/thetwo-way/2013/01/18/169712092/more-tears-for-notre-dames-fake-tragedy-than-real-girls-death

NEW VIDEO: OUR TROOPS ARE STILL FIGHTING IN AFGHANISTAN

Our troops are still engaged in combat in Afghanistan.  Watch this new action-packed video of a firefight between U.S. troops and Taliban: 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=beYMEA6tTPk&feature=share

NOTRE DAME'S MANTI TE'O: HOAX OR LIE?

 

The sports world is buzzing about Notre Dame's celebrated linebacker Manti Te'o over whether his story about a girlfriend who died was a hoax or did he lie.

NBC sports conducted an interview with the reporter who broke the story and you can listen to the interview by clicking on this link: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/22825103/vp/50506549#50506549

Since this interview was conducted, Manti Te'o has gone on ESPN and claims he knew nothing about the girl he was supposedly carrying on a long-distance affair with after they met over the internet.

There are more questions than answers to the Manti Te'o story.

For example: Why did he say she was the most beautiful girl he had ever met when they never met?

Why did his father say she was a beautiful girl when he never met her?

How could he carry on a phone conversation every night for hours with someone who supposedly was in a coma?

When she supposedly died from Leukemia why didn't Manti Te'o go to the funeral or even seek out an obituary or ask to see a death certificate?

Manti Te'o now says he knew two days before the Heissman Trophy ceremony that the whole story was a hoax but he never told anyone and he finished as runner-up for the trophy.

The Manti Te'o story is not the first time Notre Dame has been caught up in a scandal involving members of the school's football team.

Slate magazine released this story about two young women who were raped by Notre Dame football players.

One of the young girls committed suicide when Notre Dame university failed to take any action on the charges.

Read more here: http://www.slate.com/blogs/xx_factor/2013/01/17/_notre_dame_scandals_why_is_manti_te_o_s_fake_girlfriend_lennay_kekua_more.html

Notre Dame may have a long and storied football history, but they are fast becoming known more for the way they cover-up scandals involving the school's football players.

FIREFIGHT IN AFGHANISTAN

CLICK ON ARROW TO PLAY VIDEO

What lies ahead for U.S. troops in Afghanistan.

AFGHANISTAN NATIONAL SECURITY GUARDS ATTACKED

One person was killed and 33 were injured when a suicide bomber attacked the Afghanistan National Security base.

Afghanistan National Security is supposed to be getting ready to take control of security when the U.S. pulls out all 66,000 troops in 2014.

Read more here:  http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-afghanistan-spy-attack-20130117,0,5655655.story

A TALE OF NOTRE DAME FOOTBALL SCANDALS

 

Notre Dame University has a long and glorious history of football excellence, but when the curtain is pulled back there have been a series of scandals that have been covered up by the "Fighting Irish."

Two rapes by Notre Dame football players resulted in one girl committing suicide and now there is strange story of Notre Dame captain Manti Teo and his alleged affair with a girl who never existed.

You can read the details of the scandals involving Notre Dame football players here: http://www.slate.com/blogs/xx_factor/2013/01/17/_notre_dame_scandals_why_is_manti_te_o_s_fake_girlfriend_lennay_kekua_more.html

Over 20 years ago, I investigated another Notre Dame star football player, Demetrius Dubose, who had accepted $15,000 from Notre Dame supporters.

I traced the money to a Seattle bank where two of the directors were on the board of Notre Dame university.

I took my findings to the NCAA and was told Notre Dame investigates itself and doesn't answer to the NCAA investigations.

Later, I was told by the sports editor of the LA Times that I had done a good job, but to forget about it because Notre Dame lets the campus police and the South Bend police department investigate any scandals involving the Notre Dame football team.

The kicker was the LA Times sports editor was a Notre Dame graduate.

EXCLUSIVE: NRA SHADOWY FIGURES INCLUDE CEO OF BUSHMASTER ASSAULT RIFLE COMPANY

The NRA is made up of many shadowy figures including the CEO of the Bushmaster assault rifle company and a woman who lives in Newtown, Conn. just minutes away from the Sandy Hook Elementary school where 26 children and teachers were slaughtered with a Bushmaster assault rifle.

Read more here:

http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2013/01/nra-board-newtown-bushmaster

NRA Targets Obama’s Kids In New Attack Ad: FOX NEWS gives stamp of approval

NRA Targets Obama’s Kids In New Attack Ad: As the Obama administration prepares to release a set of comprehensive recommendations for limiting gun violence, the National Rifle Association (NRA) has produced an ad attacking President Obama as an “elitist hypocrite” for maintaining Secret Service protection of his daughters while expressing skepticism for stationing armed guards or volunteers in schools. The provocative spot was approved by FOX NEWS.

Watch ad here:  http://thinkprogress.org/justice/2013/01/16/1454571/nra-targets-obamas-kids-in-new-attack-ad/

NOAH POZNER---SANDY HOOK SCHOOL VICTIM

NOAH POZER was a six-year old full of life and loved by his family but his young life was snuffed out when Adam Lanza went on a shooting spree last month at the Sandy Hook Elementary school in Newtown, Connecticut killing NOAH and 19 of his fellow classmates.

Noah's mother, Vernonique Pozner, was interviewed by MSNBC's Ed Schultz and you can watch the interview here: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/45755822/ns/msnbc-the_ed_show/#50476655

President Obama and Vice President Joe Biden will unveil their plans today to take drastic measures to control gun violence.

Sadly, Fox News has avoided mentioning the killing of 20 six and seven year olds at the Sandy Hook Elementary school as well as six teachers.

Fox News is more interested in defending the National Rifle Association (NRA) and the 2nd Amendment and the "right to bear arms" than to mention the Sandy Hook Elementary school tragedy as well as the Columbine school shooting, the Virginia Tech school shooting, the Aurora Colorado movie theater shooting and the innocent victims of a gun shooting at a house of worship.

Fox News is an absolute disgrace to the field of journalism in their totally misplaced idea that the victims of all these shooting don't even deserve a mention on any of their broadcasts.

It boggles the mind of any person with a heart and compassion how Fox News could spend all of their air time blasting President Obama for the steps he is planning on taking to prevent another mass killing with semi-automatic rifles and clips that hold up to 100 rounds of ammunition, but never once mention the victims like Noah Pozner and the 19 other six and seven year olds murdered at the Sandy Hook Elementary school.

There are over 300,000, 000 guns in the United States and every year 30,000 people are killed in gun-related shootings.

The is not only barbaric but unconscionable in what is supposed to be civilized society.

GET OUT A BOX OF KLEENEX

 

MSNBC host Rachel Maddow conducts an interview with David and Francine Wheeler who lost their son Ben, a six-year old, at the Sandy Hook Elementary school shooting last month in Newtown, Connecticut.

The video is a tear-jerker and comes with extreme caution, but it is a story that should be told especially on this day when President Obama and Vice President Joe Biden unveil the plans they have formulated to combat the rising amount of gun violence that is sweeping across the United States.

Here is the link to the interview with Ben's parents: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/26315908/vp/50464296#50464296

We can only hope the Republicans and their mouthpiece Fox News drop the ridiculous notion that everyone has a right to "bear arms."

Please pass this video on to any of your friends who might be interested in hearing first-hand from a family who lost a six-year old in the mass murder at the Sandy Hook Elementary school.

EASY FOR REPUBLICAN SEN. MITCH MCCONNELL TO SAY

Republican Sen. Mitch McConnell would like to see the U.S. keep 10,000 troops in Afghanistan.

Easy for him to say.  He never spent a day of his life in the military.

Read more here:  http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/01/14/us-afghanistan-usa-senator-idUSBRE90D0YG20130114

GIVE ME A BREAK!!!

 

I have been closely following the raging gun control debate that is all over TV and the print media.

The NRA and FOX NEWS are trying to sell everyone that violent movies, TV shows and video games are the cause of all the mass murders like we saw at the Sandy Hook school when 20 first graders, six and seven year olds, were killed with a Bushmaster semi-automatic rifle that held a clip with 100 rounds or bullets.

Anyone who has ever watched FOX NEWS knows they have elevated former President Ronald Reagan to Sainthood.

But FOX NEWS never mentions Reagan was a Hollywood actor who appeared in a lot of "shoot 'em up" movies in his heydays.

Reagan was also a Democrat and was President of the Screen Actors Guild the largest union in Hollywood, but FOX NEWS never mentions this tidbit.

I grew up in the 30s and 40s when movies were just as violent as today's movies, albeit not as graphic.

In the 50s and 60s television shows highlighted gangsters and gunfights and none of the TV shows or the movies made people want to go out and mass murder like we saw at Columbine, Sandy Hook, the Aurora movie theater and a temple of worship.

It is worth noting that cartoons were filled with violence and they were a regular staple of movies and TV from the 30s through the 60s and beyond.

Video games were just emerging in the 50s and 60s, but they were also leaning toward violence.

The bottom line is this: Violent movies, television shows and video games do not turn a law abiding citizen into a violent mass murderer unless there is a pre-existing condition.

The NRA and FOX NEWS are doing everything they can to assuage certain elements of our society who are prone to violence.

Give me a break.

GUN LOVERS WARN OF NEXT "AMERICAN REVOLUTION"

 

Storm clouds are gathering as Vice President Joe Biden prepares to release his gun control suggestions this coming Tuesday.

Defendants of the 2nd Amendment ("the right to bear arms") are becoming more vocal and some of the statements they are posting on You Tube, Facebook and Twitter are cause for extreme alarm.

Biden's suggestions are reported to include a ban on the sale of semi-automatic assault rifles, universal background checks, and the sale of ammunition in clips that hold up to 100 rounds in addition to other measures designed to keep from having the mass murders that are taking place all across the country.

The left-leaning website, Think Progress, released this story on the danger gun lovers are posing if any restrictions are placed on guns even when everyone knows a semi-automatic rifle that holds one hundred bullets would never be used for hunting.

As Vice President Joe Biden prepares to offer legislative recommendations to reduce and prevent gun violence on Tuesday, gun advocates across the country fear that the administration may succeed in expanding background checks for all gun purchases or limiting the sale of high capacity magazines and assault weapons.

 

State-based gun advocacy organizations are vowing to oppose any additional gun safety measures, NBC News reports, and have formed the National Coalition to Stop the Gun Ban to act as a counterweight to the National Rifle Association (NRA), which, the Coalition claims, is too eager to compromise with gun control advocates.

In an open letter to members of Congress, the Coalition argues that assault weapons are “functionally identical to hunting rifles” and that banning high capacity magazines would be “moot” since “nearly all mass murderers who use guns carry multiple firearms.” “Like the misnomer ‘assault weapon,’ the ‘high capacity’ designation of more than ten rounds for magazines represents nothing more than an arbitrary limit set on devices which have been in common possession since the early Twentieth Century.” The group also claims that attempts to expand background checks for all gun purchases is “nothing less than a stepping stone to national gun registration.”

A separate letter to President Obama from Grass Roots North Carolina (a member of the Coalition), warned the administration against issuing executive orders regulating guns, calling such action an “usurpation of power” and predicting that gun owners will resist any additional safety measures:

And what happens when, inevitably, some resist? Do you honestly believe people will go peacefully into bondage? How many will die as the direct result of your actions?
There is no need to send the Secret Service to my door, Mr. President (although I suspect you might anyway). I am not advocating violence; I am merely saying what others are afraid to.
The real question, Mr. President, is whether you so hunger for power that you are willing to foment what might be the next American Revolution. Will that be your enduring legacy?

The New York Times reported on Friday that while Obama “pledged to crack down on access to what he called ‘weapons of war’ in the aftermath of last month’s schoolhouse massacre, the White House has calculated that a ban on military-style assault weapons will be exceedingly difficult to pass through Congress and is focusing on other measures it deems more politically achievable” like background checks and “more federal research on gun violence.”

Fox News, which is opposed to anything President Obama proposes on any matter, has become the propaganda arm for the NRA (National Rifle Association) and in typical Fox News fashion are muddying the waters with statements that are not based on any facts.

There were 30,000 run-related deaths in the United States in 2012.

The NRA was invited to a meeting on gun control at the White House last week, but walked out claiming the meeting was worthless because all that was discussed were measures to control gun violence.

The NRA's answer to gun violence is to arm everyone with a gun, but that should be expected because the NRA is a lobbying organization for gun manufactures in America.

The NRA has already suggested every school in America have a guard posted outside of each classroom with a revolver or a rifle.

Because some of the mass murders with guns have taken place at movie theaters, places of worship and shopping malls, the NRA has not yet figured out how to protect people in these venues without scores of armed guards roaming up and down movie theater aisles, churches and all over every shopping mall in America.

The NRA and Republicans are opposed to any more government but they have not figured out who is going to pay for hundreds of thousand armed guards in schools, movie theaters, places of worship and shopping malls all over the United States.

FOUR QUESTIONS REMAIN AFTER OBAMA AND KARZAI HUDDLE ON FUTURE OF AFGHANISTAN

President Obama has made it clear he intends to pull all but 9,000 U.S. troops out of Afghanistan by 2014. 

Obama and Afghanistan President Karzai met and hammered out the details of how the transition will take place.

There are still at least four questions which have to be solved.

Read story here:  http://www.cnn.com/2013/01/11/us/us-obama-karzai/index.html

A DAY THAT WILL LIVE IN INFAMY

A DAY THAT WILL LIVE IN INFAMY: Not many Americans are probably aware that Friday, January 11, 2013 will go down in the history books as the day PRESIDENT OBAMA announced the United States will end the longest war in the history of America in 2014 when 66,000 troops will end combat operations in Afghanistan.

As expected, certain uber-hawk elements of the Republican Party are screaming we haven't completed "the mission," but when pressed on what "the mission" is in Afghanistan they become tongue-tied.

Over 2,700 Americans have been killed in Afghanistan and another 7,000 seriously wounded. President Obama already ended the Iraq war and now stands on the threshold of ending the Afghanistan war and thus liberating the United States from two wars started by the Bush/Cheney administration.

 

President Franklin Delano Roosevelt made famous "A day that will live in infamy" after the sneak attack on Pearl Harbor by the Japanese on December 7, 1941.

 

However, history has a way of repeating itself and the proclamation made today, Friday, January 11, 2013, about the withdrawl of 66,000 troops from Afghanistan by 2014. 

 

The details of the cutback have to be worked out, but Afghanistan President Hamid Karzai is in agreement with President Obama and it is time for U.S. troops to pack up and go home.

 

Because of all the talk on pending gun regulations, the Afghanistan war has fallen totally off the radar screen of the mainstream media, but to the thousands of veterans of both the Iraq and Afghanistan wars the announcement is a major milestone. 

 

Over 4,700 young Americans were killed in the Iraq war and another 70,000 were seriously wounded after the Iraq war was started under false pretenses that Saddam Hussein had Weapons of Mass Destruction and the ability to make an atomoic bomb.

 

The Afghanistan War was started in 2001 in retailiation for the 9/11 attack on the World Trade Center in New York City and the goal was to find and kill Usama Bin Laden the leader of Al Qaeda who ordered the attack. 

 

For eight years, American troops were engaged in firefights in Afghanistan, but they never found Usama Bin Laden because he already had fled Afghanistan and was living in seclusion in Pakistan.

 

When President Obama moved into the Oval Office in 2008, he vowed to end the Iraq War and to capture or kill Usama Bin Laden because the Bush/Cheney administration couldn't accomplish either goal.  

 

President Obama ordered the Navy Seal Team Six to takeout Usama Bin Laden in a dangerous mission and the mission was accomplished.  

 

There is no reason to remain in Afghanistan and President Obama has had the guts to say it is time to leave Afghanistan to the Afghanistan people.  

 

The Afghanistan War has cost the American taxpayer over 553 BILLION DOLLARS and the Iraq war cost taxpayers over one TRILLION dollars.

 

It should be remembered, that neither the cost of the Iraq war or the Afghanistan war were ever added to national debt under the Bush/Cheney administration. 

 

The day that will live in infamy has arrived---again.