MEDIA HOODWINKED

 

The mainstream media have been hoodwinked by the NRA and FOX NEWS who have sidetracked the reason behind the Sandy Hook Elementary school shooting into a discussion over mental illness, arming teachers, video games, violent movies and television shows instead of the real culprit which is plain and simple: GUNS.

Like a well-oiled political campaign, the NRA and FOX NEWS have shifted the discussion to people who suffer from mental illness and whether school teachers should be allowed to carry guns into school.

FOX NEWS has been quick to point out how video games and violent movies and television shows are the real reason why Adam Lanza grabbed a Bushmaster assault rifle, two Glok pistols and hundreds of rounds of ammunition and busted into the Sandy Hook Elementary school and carried out his massacre.

Media reports indicate Lanza fired anywhere from three to eleven bullets into the small bodies of the 20 school children ages six and seven. He reloaded the Bushmaster assault rifle three times with 30 round clips before taking one of the handguns and putting it to his own head and committing suicide.

Unfortunately, the mainstream media are like lemmings and they follow the lead of the NRA and FOX NEWS into the sea and drown in a pool of confusion, which is exactly what the NRA and FOX NEWS wants to happen.

Everytime there is a mass shooting, the NRA and FOX NEWS trot out the same routine and shift the attention away from any kind of gun control to topics like mental illness, arming teachers, video games, movies and television or the need for more conceal and carry permits.

The air waves are filled with psychiatric experts and school administrators and each of them provide some cockamamie reason why Adam Lanza went on a shooting spree in Connecticut killing 20 young children, six adults and his mother.

The NRA and FOX NEWS are pros at distracting people away from the real culprit in any mass shooting and that is guns.

Just yesterday, Rupert Murdoch, who owns FOX NEWS, the Wall Street Journal, the New York Post and scores of other media outlets, issued an edict to anyone who works for any media outlet in his empire to not bring up the subject of gun control.

President Obama has vowed to take action, but as each day passes since the horrific massacre at the Sandy Hook elementary school, the NRA and FOX become more firmly entrenched by hoodwinking the media and public into thinking Adam Lanza carried out his murder spree because of mental illness, video games, movies or television.

When is the mainstream media going to wake up and realize the real problem is the proliferation of guns in America and not any of side show issues the NRA and FOX NEWS are "selling" to an unsuspecting public?

NBC REPORTER RICHARD ENGEL AND TEAM RELEASED

NBC NEWS Chief Foreign Correspondent Richard Engel and his team have been released unharmed after they were captured five days ago in Syria.

You can read the full report here and see video:  http://worldnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2012/12/18/15985279-richard-engel-and-nbc-news-team-freed-from-captors-in-syria?lite

MSNBC REPORTER RICHARD ENGEL MISSING IN SYRIA

RICHARD ENGEL, the very best foreign news correspondent in journalism, has been reported missing in Syria.

ENGEL, who works for NBC/MSNBC, has always put himself in harms way when covering a story from one of the many war zones in the Middle East.

Here is the link to the story:  http://gawker.com/5969029/richard-engel-is-missing-in-syria-nbc-news-enforces-news-blackout

FOX NEWS AND NRA LAUNCH MEDIA BLITZ AGAINST GUN LEGISLATION

 

In the wake of the dreadful Sandy Hook elementary school shooting, FOX NEWS and the NRA have launched a series of misleading statements in an effort to put a stop to the public's demand for stricter gun laws.

Both FOX NEWS and the NRA are attempting to shift the attention to people who suffer from mental illness as the reason why Adam Lanza went on a shooting rampage with a Bushmaster semi-automatic rifle killing 20 children ages six and seven and six school administrators and teachers and Lanza's mother.

FOX NEWS, who obviously know nothing about mental illness, have gone so far as to say everyone with some form of mental illness should periodically be subjected to an evaluation to see if they might be a danger to society.

What FOX NEWS fails to realize is a person with mental illness could go off their psychiatric meds and within a matter of a few days turn into a psychopathic killer.

It is also noteworthy to point out, FOX NEWS is one of the strongest advocates for cutting mental health funding by both the Federal government and state governments.

The upshot is FOX NEWS and the NRA will do and say anything to block any legislation which might be proposed to tighten gun sale loopholes or the sale of semi-automatic weapons.

The weapon Adam Lanza used was a Bushmaster semi-automatic rifle and police authorities say he fired between three and eleven bullets into each of the victims.

In the coming weeks, FOX NEWS and the NRA will be pulling out all the stops to deflect attention away from guns, especially semi-automatic rifles, to mental illness, poor parenting or anything else they can come up with just so they can maintain 271 MILLION guns that are now in the hands of Americans all across the country.

Myths and lies about guns has to be broken and here is a link to five common myths and lies the gun lobby, the NRA and FOX NEWS advocate: http://thinkprogress.org/justice/2012/12/14/1340531/five-lies-the-gun-lobby-tells-you/

Bill Corcoran,

WARNING: VERY GRAPHIC VIDEO: Landmine blast in Afghanistan against ANA militant

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EXTREME WARNING:  This is a very graphic video showing a landmine blast that seriously wounds an ANA soldier in Afgahanistan and how the U.S. Medevace team responds.

Sounds starts after 1:08 seconds.

BREAKING NEWS: AP REPORTS AFGHANISTAN WANTS U.S. AND FOREIGN TROOPS TO LEAVE AFGHANISTAN

The AP is reporting the Afghanistan government says they want all U.S. troops and NATO troop to leave the country.

Read more here:  http://hosted2.ap.org/CARIE/0260ea4c3e85456b80715585ba3c7b5b/Article_2012-12-15-Afghanistan/id-f6fd128707e74a129039f068fcb62f82

RICE RANT

I waited until MSNBC's "Morning Joe" and FOX NEWS "Fox and Friends" went on the air this morning to see how Republicans like Joe Scarborough from "Morning Joe" and "The Three Stooges" from "Fox and Friends" would treat the news that U.N. Ambassador Susan Rice had withdrawn her name for the job of Secretary of State.

True to form Scarborough and "The Three Stooges" were gloating and smirking like a Cheshire cat that Susan Rice's potential nomination went down in flames.

Also although they didn't say it, Scarborough and "The Three Stooges" were elated because....

(A) A woman of color had removed herself from the possibility President Obama would announce Susan Rice as his choice for Secretary of State.

(B) That a woman would not be getting the job as Secretary of State.

(C) That Obama left Rice twisting in the wind.

Rice had gone on five Sunday morning talk shows right after the Benghazi, Libya attack and read from the "talking points" she was given by the CIA on what took place when the U.S. Ambassador to Libya Chris Stevens and three other Americans were killed at the compound, not the embassy which is located in Tripoli, Libya.

For the past two months, Susan Rice has been the subject of a brutal attack by Republican Senators John McCain, Lindsay Graham and Kelly Ayotte.

Fox News, which is not a news organization but a propaganda branch of the Republican Party, weighed in 24/7 with attacks on Rice and information which later proved to be false and misleading.

What the American public is left with now after this debacle is a gaggle of "talking heads" on TV and radio speculating on what took place behind the scenes or in the Oval Office, and because they command the "bully pulpit," not a single one of them has a clue what is the real truth and what they are talking about.

Meanwhile, Susan Rice's dream of someday being Secretary of State has been dashed by a plethora of Republican racists, sexists and Democrat haters.

Susan Rice has served two administrations in the foreign affairs branch and she is a Phi Beta Kappa graduate from Stanford University, a Rhodes Scholar and a Phd from Oxford University.

She had the resume and academic credentials, but unfortunately in the eyes of the Republicans she was Black, a woman and a Democrat.

You can read the full story here and watch a video of Susan Rice: http://tiny.cc/gn1apw

Bill Corcoran

WHAT THE BUSH/CHENEY WAR WITH IRAQ ACCOMPLISHED

The Bush/Cheney war with IRAQ was a disaster and this story tells what has happened since we invaded Iraq.

In addition to the mess we left Iraq in, the U.S. suffered 4,700 dead, 70,000 wounded and close to one million Iraqi citizens killed.

Read story here:  http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/WO1212/S00203/over-five-million-iraqi-children-deprived-of-basic-services.htm

NEW RARE FOOTAGE: Special Operations Helmet Cam Firefight in Afghanistan

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Rare footage of Special Operations, Afghan local police, and members of A Company, 1st Battalion, 30th Infantry regiment come under brief contact from Taliban fighters in Zombalay Afghanistan.

WAR DRUMS

 

The Republicans and their propaganda machine FOX NEWS have been beating the drums for war with Syria and now North Korea since they fired off a missile yesterday.

Republicans are going back to the days right after 9/11 when they started beating the drums for war with Iraq even though Iraq had nothing to do with the attack on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon.

Dick Cheney and his cohorts in the Bush administration used phony intelligence to lie to Congress and the American people about how Saddam Hussein had Weapons of Mass Destruction and was completing work on a nuclear bomb.

As everyone knows, we invade Iraq and didn't find any WMDs or any facilities for making a nuclear bomb, but the war dragged on for four more years costing the United States the lives of over 4,700 young Americans and in addition another 70,000 young Americans seriously wounded and upwards of one million Iraqi citizens killed.

The Iraq war was costing American taxpayers over $9 billion dollars a month and the Bush administration never added the cost of the Iraq war to the national debt.

When Obama took office, he removed all troops from Iraq and turned his attention to Afghanistan which is where Osama Bin Laden and Al Qaida had come from and staged the attack on 9/11.

Obama also found that the war with Afghanistan which had started ten years before was also costing $9 billion a month and like Iraq had never been tacked on the national debt.

Over 2,300 young Americans have been killed in Afghanistan and Obama is promising to pull all troops out Afghanistan by 2014.

Now Republicans are all over TV, especially their puppet outlet FOX NEWS, calling for the Obama administration to consider military action against Syria and North Korea.

What Republicans and FOX NEWS won't tell the American people is the Department of Defense says the United States does not have the capability of launching a ground war without resorting to a mandatory draft for every young American, male and female, who is 18 years old.

Republicans and FOX NEWS don't believe in diplomacy to settle the Syria and North Korea problem, but instead they keep beating the war drums calling for President Obama to begin planning for an invasion of Syria and North Korea.

There is, however, one giant problem with the Republican and FOX NEWS strategy.

You won't find a single Republican or anyone who works for FOX NEWS who wants to see their children, grandchildren or military age relatives recruited to serve in the United States military.

Bill Corcoran.

CHENEY SURFACES AND BLASTS OBAMA ON FOREIGN POLICY

 

Former Vice President Dick Cheney, the architect who led the U.S. to war with Iraq with lies and false assertions about WMDs and nukes, and eventually cost the U.S. over 4,700 lives and additional 70,000 seriously wounded, spoke at the Hudson Institute, a right wing "think tank" and told the audience a pack of lies about President Obama.

 

Cheney was introduced by Lewis "Scooter" Libby who went to jail for "outing" CIA agent Valerie Plame, when Cheney was still in the Bush administration. 

 

Ed Schultz, host of the "Ed Schultz Show" on MSNBC, reveals in a video clip here Cheney's lies and introduces Lawrence Wilkerson, who was Colin Powell's assistant in the Bush/Cheney administration  and who points out the many areas where Cheney lied and how he is still pushing for additional wars in the Middle East. 

Watch video here:  http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/45755822/#50169555

KICK-ASS VIDEO: U.S. Marines Firefight In Sangin

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U.S. Marines from 2nd Platoon, India Company, 3rd Battalion, 5th Marine Regiment, 1st Marine Division, engage in a firefight with Insurgents during an operation in Sangin, Helmand Province,

HOLLYWOOD LEGEND ED ASNER HAS SENT FOX NEWS SEAN HANNITY INTO A FIT WITH THIS VIDEO

SEAN HANNITY and the rest of the mopes in the right wing media have gone completely nuts over this animated short narrated by Hollywood legend Ed Asner.

Watch it and you will know why.

Hollywood Legend Ed Asner Has Outraged Republicans Over This Animated Short

How Much Weight Do Infantry Soldiers Have To Carry

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When I was in the Army during the Korean War we carried 60 pounds, but that did not include our M1 rifle, ammo and ammo belt and bayonet. 

Watch video to see how much weight our GIs are carrying in Afghanistan. 

U.S. DRONE KILLS 3 SUSPECTED MILITANTS

This is a report from one of the largest news services in Afghanistan.  They are reporting a U.S. Drone has killed three suspected militants.

Read story here:  http://www.khaama.com/us-airstrike-kill-3-suspeted-militants-in-north-waziristan-1095

BREAKING NEWS: 3,000 U.S. TROOPS SECRETELY DEPLOYED TO KUWAIT/IRAQ

According to sources in the Middle East, the United States has secretely deployed 3,000 U.S. troops to Kuwait because Al Qaida has strengthened their position in IRAQ.

The war in IRAQ has already cost millions of lives and billions of dollars that were never added to the national debt by the BUSH administration. 

Read more here:  http://www.huffingtonpost.com/rep-dennis-kucinich/iraq-ten-years-a-million_b_1932280.html

Read additional story here:  http://www.presstv.ir/detail/2012/12/09/277127/3000-us-troops-secretly-return-to-iraq/

 

AFGHANISTAN WAR DESERVES MORE PRESS

A loyal follower of my blog, Jo, sent me the link to this article and I sincerely concur with what this young college student wrote.

Read story here:  http://www.timesunion.com/opinion/article/Afghanistan-war-deserves-more-press-4098073.php

DRAMATIC VIDEO: A MOMENT OF VIOLENCE: WHEN WILL THIS EVER END IN AFGHANISTAN

The Afghanistan War has been going on for 12 years now and we are no further along than when we invaded the country.

This video points out the violence and questions when will it ever end.

Click on link to view video:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wU7M5bU46RY&feature=youtube_gdata

VIDEO: ARMY WIVES SHARE SECRETS

A group of Army wives shared what it is like to be home alone while their husbands are deployed to Afghanistan.

Watch video here:  http://www.aol.com/video/revealed-the-struggles-of-army-wives/517575579/?icid=maing-grid10%7Chtmlws-main-bb%7Cdl23%7Csec1_lnk2%26pLid%3D242537

U.S. NEEDS MORE CASH TO CONTINUE AFGHANISTAN WAR

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has been talking to allies in an effort to get them to contribute more cash so we can continue to conduct the war in Afghanistan.

Watch video and read report here:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TcvWR2CV67Y&feature=youtube_gdata

WASHINGTON POST. SEX/SUICIDE SCANDAL HAUNTS NOTRE DAME JUST BEFORE BCS CHAMPIONSHIP GAME AGAINST ALABAMA

Melinda Hennenberger, Washington Post Reporter and a Notre Dame grad, reveals why she won't be cheering for her alma mater, Notre Dame, when they face Alabama in the BCS championship game early in January. 

A scandal that first came to light in 2010 involving a Notre Dame football player and a young female freashman from nearby St. Mary's College, resulted in the female student committing suicide and the administration at Notre Dame was slow to investigate the tragedy.

Watch the Henneberger interview with MSNBC's Chris Matthews here:  http://tiny.cc/hgxxow

Read Washington Post story here:  http://tiny.cc/o6xxow

ANN COULTER GOES ROGUE ON FOX NEWS SEAN HANNITY

ANN COULTER, the ultra Conservative and controversial author and pundit, went rogue on Fox News Sean Hannity and told him "we lost the election."

Coulter was trying to educate Hannity on why the Repulicans should give in to Obama's request for a tax hike on the two percent of Americans who make up the upper class.

Watch video here and read story:  http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/12/06/ann-coulter-gop-taxes-obama-hannity_n_2249545.html?utm_hp_ref=media

AFGHAN PRESIDENT BLASTS U.S. FOR AFGHANISTAN INSECURITY

Afghanistan President Hamid Karzai told NBC NEWS that the U.S. is the reason there is so much insecurity in Afghanistan.

Isn't it time to get out of Afganistan?

Read full story and watch video here:  http://tiny.cc/vsswow

SERIOUS ACCUSATION: AFGHANISTAN ACCUSES U.S/BRIT. FORCES OF COMMITTING CRIMES AGAINST AFGHANISTAN CITIZENS

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A political analyst tells Press TV that the problem in Afghanistan is that there is no law to restrict international forces activities and the Afghan government is not authorized to trial them if they commit any crimes.


This comes after British forces in Afghanistan have been accused of killing four boys in Afghanistan's southern province of Helmand in October. According to a report published by the Guardian on Tuesday, a group of lawyers recently sent a letter to British Defense Secretary Philip Hammond, demanding that the UK government investigate the alleged killings.

Press TV has conducted an interview with Habib Hakimi, political analyst, to further discuss the issue.

RACHEL MADDOW RIPS INTO REPUBLICANS FOR BLOCKING BILL FOR DISABLED VETS

MSNBC's RACHEL MADDOW rips into Republicans for blocking passage of a bill that would provide veterans other disabled people with rights that are available to all disabled people in 152 countries around the world. 

It boggles my mind how Republicans can be so callous and turn their back on people with disablities who defended our country in the military service and other Americans with disabilities.

Watch the video here:  http://tiny.cc/htsuow

SENATE REPUBLICANS DEAL MAJOR BLOW TO DISABLED VETERANS

Dole Appears, but G.O.P. Rejects a Disabilities Treaty

By JENNIFER STEINHAUER,  New York Times

WASHINGTON — Former Senator Bob Dole of Kansas sat slightly slumped in his wheelchair on the Senate floor on Tuesday, staring intently as Senator John Kerry gave his most impassioned speech all year, in defense of a United Nations treaty that would ban discrimination against people with disabilities.
       

Senators from both parties went to greet Mr. Dole, leaning in to hear his wispy reply, as he sat in support of the treaty, which would require that people with disabilities have the same general rights as those without disabilities. Several members took the unusual step of voting aye while seated at their desks, out of respect for Mr. Dole, 89, a Republican who was the majority leader.
       

Then, after Mr. Dole’s wife, Elizabeth, rolled him off the floor, Republicans quietly voted down the treaty that the ailing Mr. Dole, recently released from Walter Reed National Military Medical Center, so longed to see passed.
      

A majority of Republicans who voted against the treaty, which was modeled on the Americans With Disabilities Act, said they feared that it would infringe on American sovereignty.

Among their fears about the disabilities convention were that it would codify standards enumerated in the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child — and therefore United Nations bureaucrats would be empowered to make decisions about the needs of disabled children — and that it could trump state laws concerning people with disabilities. Proponents of the bill said these concerns were unfounded.
       

The measure, which required two-thirds support for approval, failed on a vote of 61 to 38.

Mr. Kerry, Democrat of Massachusetts, his voice rising as senator after senator moved slowly into the chamber, rejected the concerns of Republicans and made a moral argument for approval of the treaty.
      

Mr. Dole, he said, had not come to the Senate floor “to advocate for the United Nations.”

“He is here because he wants to know that other countries will come to treat the disabled as we do,” he added.
       

Approval of the treaty, Mr. Kerry said, would demonstrate that “what we do here in the United States Senate matters.” He added, “Don’t let Senator Bob Dole down.”
      

A handful of Republican senators voted for the measure, notably Senator John McCain of Arizona, in opposition to the other Arizona Republican, Senator Jon Kyl. The others who supported it were Senators Kelly Ayotte of New Hampshire, John Barrasso of Wyoming, Scott P. Brown of Massachusetts, Susan Collins and Olympia J. Snowe of Maine, Richard G. Lugar of Indiana and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska.
       

Senator Jerry Moran of Kansas praised the treaty in a news release with Mr. McCain in May but voted against it. Senator Thad Cochran of Mississippi voted yes at the beginning of the roll call vote and then switched his vote to no. Calls to the offices of Mr. Moran and Mr. Cochran were not returned.
       

Senator Harry Reid of Nevada, the majority leader, said the measure would return to the Senate floor in the 113th Congress.
       

“It is a sad day when we cannot pass a treaty that simply brings the world up to the American standard for protecting people with disabilities because the Republican Party is in thrall to extremists and ideologues,” he said in a statement.

TALIBAN POISONS 120 AFGHAN SCHOOL GIRLS

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More than Afghan 120 schoolgirls and three teachers have been poisoned in the second attack in many months blamed on conservative radicals in the country's north, Afghan police and education officials said.

These are the kind of "animals" we are fighting in Afghanistan.

HEAVY COMBAT - U.S. TROOPS vs TALIBAN

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SIX MINUTES OF HEAVY GROUND BATTLE, WITH MORTARS, RPG'S ROCKETS, MACHINE GUN NESTS, APACHE HELICOPTERS, AND A10 WARTHOGS.

AS USUAL MEDIA DOESN'T TELL US IF THE DEAD ARE AMERICANS

Two NATO soldiers were killed in Afghanistan, but as usual the media fails to reveal if they were American.

You can read the story here:  http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/asia_pacific/bomb-attack-in-southern-afghanistan-kills-2-nato-service-members/2012/12/04/cd9d8626-3dda-11e2-8a5c-473797be602c_story.html

DOG HANDLER'S VIDEO: REMARKABLE HELMET CAM FOOTAGE OF A DOG HANDLER DURING FIREFIGHT IN AFGHANISTAN

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A firefight between members of the 30th Infantry Regiment, Special Operations, Afghan Local Police and Taliban in the village of Zombalay Afghanistan, is captured on 2 separate helmet cams.

Helmet cam video shows dog handler and his dog during a firefight in Afghanistan.