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

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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.   

 

 

THE ONLY GUN I EVER OWNED...

THE ONLY GUN I EVER OWNED, and even then I didn't own it. It was issued to me by the United States Army when I was a Combat Engineer during the Korean War. It was my M1 Garand Rifle and I still remember what our Drill Sgt told us. He said, "the hardest thing you will have to do is kill somebody, but once you kill somebody you are going to love it." This may explain what goes through the heads of all the mass killers. They love the idea of killing people. How will all these gun regulations erase this kind of thinking in the minds of mass killers? Here is a picture of me with my M1 Garand Rifle: https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=150007861721724&set=a.147251505330693.31622.100001375345515&type=3&theater

OBAMA READY TO ENACT PRESIDENTAL EXECUTIVE ORDERS TO CURB GUN VIOLENCE

 

FOX NEWS is totally freaking out over the possibility President Obama may issue a Presidential Executive Order coupled with the strict gun regulation program Vice President Joe Biden is preparing to release.

FOX NEWS' Sean Hannity, Bill O'Reilly and Greta Van Sustern scrambled as many "legal Eagles" as they could find Wednesday night in a move designed to sabotage Obama's Presidential Executive Orders.

What is a presidential executive order?

An executive order is a directive by the President of the United States that has the power of a federal law. Presidents might issue executive orders to create committees or organizations like the Peace Corps. In general, though, Presidents use executive orders to direct and manage how the federal government operates.

Can executive orders be overturned?
Congress may attempt to overturn an executive order by passing legislation (a bill) that opposes the order. However, the President can veto that bill, and Congress would then need to override that veto to pass the bill. Also, the Supreme Court can declare an executive order to be unconstitutional.
 
FOX NEWS and a gaggle of lawyers were like little kids whistling in the dark in a dark forest trying desperately to explain how the 2nd Amendment, "the right to bear arms," would not be affected by the Presidential Executive Order if President Obama decides to enact the order.

Vice President Joe Biden will be meeting with representatives from the National Rifle Association (NRA) and anti-gun groups on Thursday as part of the plans Biden is hammering out on what steps will be taken to stop the mass murders that have been taking place using military-style firearms and ammunition that comes in clips that hold up to 100 rounds of ammo.

The drastic measures are being taken following the mass murder of 20 first grade students at the Sandy Hook Elementary school by Andy Lanza who used a Bushmaster semi-automatic rifle to kill the children. 
 
Law enforcement authorities have reported some of the children were shot at least 16 times from close range with the Bushmaster semi-automatic rifle using ammo that explodes upon impact.

Meanwhile, the NRA is trying to shift the blame for the mass murders away from guns and blame it on mentally ill people, violent movies and television shows and games that feature violence. 
 
The NRA wants every teacher in America to be armed, but this doesn't take into account the mass killings that took place in a movie theater or a college dorm in Virginia.

The NRA also has avoided talking about how an adult set fire to his own home two weeks ago and then called the local fire department and when the fire department arrived at the scene of the fire the man started firing at them with a Bushmaster AR-15 semi-automatic rifle like the one used in the Sandy Hook school massacre killing two firefighters and seriously wounding two others.

It is estimated that in 2012 over 30,000 people were killed by guns in America.
If this were happening in any other civilized society in the world, the government would call it what it is: an epidemic. 
 

WHY PARENTS NEED KERRY AND HAGEL

 

Parents of children who will be military age soon, or grandparents who have children who are military age, should be hoping President Obama's nomination of John Kerry for Secretary of State and Chuck Hagel for Secretary of Defense sails through the Congress confirmation process.

Republicans in Congress and the Republican propaganda machine, Fox News, are pulling out all the stops to try and scuttle the confirmation of Chuck Hagel as Secretary of Defense.

Hagel, who is a former Republican Senator and was in the Vietnam War and has two Purple Hearts and still has shrapnel embedded in his chest, has vowed to cut the bloated Defense Department budget, and because of his experience as a combat veteran would do everything possible to keep the United States from entering another war.

Republican "chicken hawks" and Fox News have been beating the war drums in hopes of getting the United States into a war with Iran, Syria or North Korea.

Hagel, who knows it is harder to get out of a war than to get into a war, knows the military is stretched to the breaking point and we could not engage in another war without reinstating the military draft.

John Kerry, a Democratic Senator from Massachusetts and also a Vietnam war veteran with two Purple Hearts, a Silver Star and a Bronze Star, would use diplomacy in his capacity as Secretary of State to keep the United States from going to war like we did with Iraq when Vice President Dick Cheney lied to Congress and the American people about Weapons of Mass Destruction and Iraq's nuclear bomb capabilities.

Cheney's lies led to 4,700 young Americans killed in Iraq and another 70,000 seriously wounded and upwards of one million Iraqi citizens killed.

President Obama knows Republicans are in love with war for a variety of reasons, but Republicans are also opposed to their own children or grandchildren from enlisting in the United States military.

John Kerry and Chuck Hagel would be in the catbird seats to prevent the United States from going to war when our national defense is not threatened.

Any parent or grandparent with young children, who will soon be military age , should disregard anything the Republicans and Fox News say about Kerry and Hagel, but instead trust the common sense approach to war from two distinguished Vietnam War veterans.

U.S. may remove all troops from Afghanistan after 2014

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The Obama administration is considering the possibility of removing all U.S. troops in Afghanistan after the NATO combat mission officially finishes at the end of 2014, White House officials said Tuesday.


The comments by Ben Rhodes, the White House's deputy national security adviser, come as the Pentagon and White House mull over the number of troops that could be left in Afghanistan after 2014 to fight insurgents and train Afghan security forces.

Afghan President Hamid Karzai and President Obama are scheduled to meet on Friday in Washington.

WHAT HAPPENED IN AFGHANISTAN IN 2012. VIDEO REVIEW

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A cornucopeia of events in Afghanistan over 2012.  Watch video review. 

REPUBLICANS HOPE YOU ARE TOO DUMB...

Republicans like Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-KY) are hoping most Americans are too dumb to know that President Obama already made 1.2 TRILLION DOLLARS in spending cuts to the nation's deficit.

McConnell was all over TV Sunday morning selling the Republican "talking points" that the debt ceiling will not be adjusted until Obama comes up with spending cuts.

On ABC’s This Week, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) reiterated what has become the go-to Republican talking point in the wake of the fiscal cliff deal: That the issue of taxes and new revenue is finished, and will not be re-opened. “Now the question is, what are we going to do about the biggest problem confronting our country and our future,” McConnell said. But this time host George Stephanopoulos pushed back. He pointed out that since last year Congress has already cut $1.2 trillion in spending, without any counter-balancing hikes in tax revenue until the fiscal cliff deal.

McConnell and other Republican cohorts were all over TV singing the same tune.
Republicans want the Obama administration to present a list of spending cuts before there is any talk about raising the debt ceiling.
 
McConnell and his Republican buddies are careful to never mention that 11 TRILLION DOLLARS of the national debt came about when the Bush/Cheney administration never added the cost of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars, estimated to cost 9 BILLION DOLLARS A WEEK, to the national debt. 
 
Obama has already said there will be cuts to the Department of Defense to get rid of outmoded programs and programs the Defense Department has already said they don't need.
Social Security is not on the table according to Obama, but the President is willing to listen to any cuts the Republicans want to make in Medicare and Medicaid. 
 
The biggest roadblock in the debt ceiling battle is Republicans refuse to come up with a list of entitlement programs they would like to see cut.

Republicans like McConnell and all the others who are all over TV especially on their Republican mouthpiece Fox News know only too well that any entitlement programs they would suggest be cut would impact on some if not all of the Republican constituency all across the country.
 
In the coming weeks, the trick the Obama administration faces is to box the Republicans into being specific about what entitlement programs they want to seen cut.
Republicans, on the other hand, are hoping the American public is too dumb to know that the Obama administration has already made 1.2 TRILLION DOLLARS in spending cuts.

PRESIDENT OBAMA PLANS SWEEPING GUN CONTROL MEASURES

In the wake of the Newtown school shooting and the number of gun-related deaths all across the country, President Obama is planning on measure that will bring about the toughest gun control measures ever seen in this country.  Obama plans to circumvent the NRA and will concentrate on retail outlets that sell guns and ammo, gun shows and stricter background checks.  Gun nuts are sure to go ballistic, but if they are so despeerately in need of a gun let them join the military and they will be issued a gun and it won't cost them a nickel.   Read more here:  http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/white-house-weighs-broad-gun-control-agenda-in-wake-of-newtown-shootings/2013/01/05/d281efe0-5682-11e2-bf3e-76c0a789346f_story.html?hpid=z1

GULF WAR VETS REMARKABLE REHABILITATION

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Gulf War veterans proves it can be done.  Watch video to see how he rehabilitated himself.

GRAPHIC VIDEO: RECON MARINES REPEL TALIBAN AMBUSH

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This is some of the more footage from a 3 hour long patrol in Upper Sangin Valley. The video begins just after Alpha Element is engaged in what turns out to be a small preliminary ambush.


A word about tactics:

The overwhelming majority of casualties in this area were from IED's. These were usually located in channelized areas between buildings and walls (where there was cover from gunfire). We stuck to open fields because it was easier to repel enemy fighters and treat gunshot wounds than it was to find IED's and treat blown off limbs.



*Side note: Names are muted for privacy, and aftermath footage was left out as a courtesy to both the viewers and the fallen (no Marine casualties).

NEW VIDEO: Make Peace or Die, Official 1st Battalion 5th Marines

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A documentary film from 1st Battalion, 5th Marines during their deployment to Sangin, Afghanistan in support of Operation ENDURING FREEDOM.

NEW VIDEO: Hard lessons as Afghanistan withdrawal nears

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Most international troops are withdrawing from Afghanistan this year. After 12 years of a US-led invasion, parallels are being drawn with the Soviet exit, decades ago. That withdrawal is now widely seen as a disaster. A Russian diplomat warned that forgetting Afghanistan altogether combined with pulling the troops could mean more problems for the international community Al Jazeera's Bernard Smith reports from Kabul.

Blond Sniper Demos Headshot | Military.com

WTF:   I didn't have anyone who looked like this when I was in the Army

Blond Sniper Demos Headshot | Military.com

AFGHAN CITIZENS SUFFER AS WINTER BITES

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As winter sets in more and more Afghan people are without basic living resources.