U.S. CONTRACTOR KILLED BY AFGHAN POLICEWOMAN IN KABUL, AFGHANISTAN

The situation in Afghanistan is getting worse. An Afghan policewoman today killed a U.S. contractor in Kabul, Afghanistan.

Read the full story here:  http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/12/24/nargas-afghan-policewoman-kills-us-adviser_n_2358236.html

HISTORY LESSON ON VIOLENCE FROM AN OLD CODGER

I was born in 1929 which gives me a perspective on violence in America down through the years like few people in the media have ever witnessed or know anything about.

 

I have been following the news reports and pundits on cable TV talking about the Sandy Hook Elementary school slaughter when Adam Lanza used a Bushmaster assault rifle to kill at point blank range to shoot 18 students with between three and 11 bullets and wound two other kids who later died at the hospital. Lanza also used his Bushmaster assault rifle to kill six school administrators and teachers.

The Bushmaster assault rifle Lanza use was equipped to hold clips of 30 rounds of ammunition and police found almost 100 of the 30 round clips on Lanza's body after he committed suicide.

What has pissed off this old codger more than anything else is how the media, especially FOX NEWS and RUSH LIMBAUGH, has bought hook-line-and-sinker the BS WAYNE LaPIERRE, executive director of the NRA (National Rifle Association), has tried to pin the blame for LANZA's murderous killing spree on everything from mental illness to video games, violent movies and television show, but not guns.

So I've got a little history lesson for WAYNE LaPIERRE, the NRA and the media.

In the 1930s and 40s, I used to go to double-feature movies and between showing the movies the movie theaters would play cartoons and movie shorts.

The cartoons were filled with violence and the movie shorts also used violence as the underlying theme of the movie short.

The feature movies many times were filled with gun violence albeit not as graphic as the movies of today, however they depicted gangland violence as it was in that era and not like the movies of today which depict violence with all the special effects to jazz them up so they don't even come close to real life.

We didn't have video games, but we did have games that had a violence theme.

When World War II broke out, the movies that were among the most popular were movies with a violent war theme.

Mental illness was just as prevalent in the 30s and 40s as it is today, but the big difference is we had mental institutions that housed many of the more severe cases of mental illness because psychiatric drugs had not yet been introduced into our culture.

When Ronald Reagan was elected as President of the United States, he set out to shutdown all the mental hospitals and institutions all across the country. Hundreds of thousands of mentally ill people were tossed out into the streets and the homeless population in the country skyrocketed.

When television made its debut in the mid-40s, the TV fare was very tame, but then Hollywood started to come up with Western series, and series built around cops and robbers and in both cases guns and gun violence was a staple of every series.

All throughout the 30, 40s and 50s right up until today, cartoon series many times featured a violence theme.

The NRA started out as an organization which was interested in teaching gun safety, but then in the 1980s Wayne LaPierre and his NRA cohorts saw a chance to sell more guns and thus increase the NRA's membership by lobbying members of Congress and urging them to kill any legislation that would be introduced that would stifle the sale of high-powered assault guns and ammunition that would come in 30-round clips like the kind Andy Lanza used to carryout his slaughter at the Sandy Hook Elementary school just over a week ago.

The NRA came up with a slogan: "Guns don't kill people. People kill people." The NRA, of course, never edited their slogan to read: "Guns don't kill people, but people WITH GUNS kill people."

The NRA has also hidden behind the Second Amendment and have twisted the words around so much you would think the Founding Fathers had used the word "guns" in the amendment, but in reality the wording is "the right to bare arms."

In the eyes of the NRA, "the right to bare arms" can mean anything from a Bushmaster assault rifle to a nuclear bomb.

Remember Timmoth McVeigh used fertilizer and a rented truck to blow up the building in Oklahoma City killing close to 200 people including little kids who were attending a nursery school in the building. McVeigh was a card-carrying member of the NRA.

Wayne LaPierre's rant on "Meet the Press" this past Sunday was more like an infomercial for the NRA than offering any solution to the gun violence in America that has reached epidemic proportions.

LaPierre trotted out all the same defenses the NRA has used in the past. Blame mental illness, video games, movies and television, but never admit that Adam Lanza was able to get his hands on a Bushmaster assault rifle, two Glock rapid fire guns and even a shotgun which he left in his mother's car parked out in front of the Sandy Hook Elementary school.

Lanza was able to get the guns because his mother, who he shot four times in the face killing her from point blank range while she was asleep at home, had purchased them within the past year and she even used to take her son to gun ranges so he could learn to fire the weapons.

History plus personal experience is a great teacher. I grew up at a time when gun violence was just as much a part of the American landscape as it is today. The vast majority of us looked at the violence we saw in movies, movie shorts and cartoons as entertainment and not a study guide for the life style we should follow.

President Obama and Vice President Joe Biden, who will head up the task force looking into what can be done about the explosion of gun violence, have their work cut out for them in bringing any meaningful gun legislation into existence.

Joe Boehner, Republican Speaker of the House, has already signaled he would probably not bring up any gun legislation for a vote in the House of Representatives.

Why should he? The House of Representatives is under the control of Republicans and most of them are the recipients of money funneled to them by NRA lobbyists in Washington with an unwritten note to vote "NAY" on any legislation that would put a halt to the sale of military-style assault rifles and ammunition that comes in 30-round clips and drums.

If history repeats itself, we are just days or weeks away from the next mass murder spree from a copycat gun nut only this time it could be at a shopping mall, a theater, a rock concert or a major sporting event---anywhere where innocent Americans gather.

BREAKING NEWS: Two firefighters were SHOT this morning, Christmas Eve day, when they responded to a fire in Rochester, New York.

SUNDAY MORNING TV TALK SHOWS

 

It will be worth the price of admission to watch how NRA exec WAYNE LaPIERRE rolls over NBC's DAVID GREGORY on this mornings edition of "Meet the Press." GREGORY will let LaPIERRE get away with "murder" and will refuse to challenge him on his ridiculous idea of putting cops in every school in America.

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The "fiscal cliff" is not the most important topic in the eyes of Americans, but you would never know it by watching the hideous Sunday morning TV shows who want to devote almost the whole time to the "fiscal cliff" and dump the massacre in Newtown Conn. to a side-bar story even when polls indicate Americans are more interested in what is going to be done about assault rifles than the "fiscal cliff."

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Fox News trio of Sunday morning slugs are already talking about the Benghazi, Libya attack that ended up with 4 Americans dead, but refuse to mention to Sandy Hook school slaughter that killed 20 young kids and 6 adults, and also how Bush and Cheney lied us into a war with IRAQ that cost 4,700 young American lives.

####

NRA exec WAYNE LaPIERRE will guest on NBC's "Meet the Press" only Sunday morning because he know host DAVID GREGORY will give him the kid glove treatment and let the NRA off the hook for in anyway being responsible for the slaughter in Newtown, Connecticut.

####

The "fiscal cliff" is NOT the most important topic on the minds of American, but the massacre at the Sandy Hook school is yet the four Sunday morning TV shows will devote almost all their time discussing the "fiscal cliff" and ignore what Americans want to hear about and that is what is the NRA going to do about assault rifles and ammo that can fire 30 rounds in seconds.

Army Patrol Seizes Taliban Compound - Captures Drug Cache - Intense Comb...

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Army patrol seizes Taliban compound and captures drug cache

SCHOOL MASSACRE ALREADY OFF MEDIA RADAR SCREEN

 

One week ago today, Adam Lanza busted into the Sandy Hook Elementary school armed with a Bushmaster assault rifle and two Glok pistols, and he immediately shot the school principal and school counselor.

He then turned and went down the hall until he found a room full of six and seven year old students. With the precision of a gangland execution, Lanza fired anywhere from 3 to 11 bullets point blank into EACH of the children. When he was finished, the floor of the classroom was littered with 18 slaughtered children and two who were seriously wounded and would die later at the hospital.

In all, a total of 26 people were killed at the Sandy Hook Elementary school in Newtown, Connecticut, before Lanza took his own life by shooting himself in the head.

Just one week later the NRA (National Rifle Association) held what it called a "press conference," but they didn't allow any questions to the Executive Director Wayne LaPierre. LaPierre's big announcement was to hire retired police officers and place them at EVERY school in the United States.

LaPierre went to great lengths to avoid mentioning guns as the cause of gun violence.

The only time LaPierre came close to mentioning guns, he said; "The answer to a bad guy with a gun is a good guy with a gun."

LaPierre went on to blame mental illness, video games, motion pictures and TV shows and the music industry for all the violence in the American culture.

Another unfolding American gun massacre has produced an avalanche news coverage, but it's coverage that continues to omit crucial context about gun violence and the rash of often public shooting sprees that plague the country. It's a troubling journalism trend, and one that seems to be getting worse. As America recoils from new shootings, the news media are casting the gun horrors in less context, not more.

It's true that the press is moving away from presenting shooting sprees as isolated incidents. The coverage of the Sandy Hook elementary school massacre in Newtown, Conn., has been rich with references to the Aurora, Colo., movie theater massacre from this summer. Then again, how can reporters not connect the dots from those two rampages to a sweeping cultural and criminal problem, and one that continues to worsen and extends to all corners of the country.
But simply acknowledging the deadly trend doesn't mean the news media are providing much-needed context. For instance, each year roughly 30,000 Americans die from gun violence. By comparison, since the invasion of Iraq in 2003, approximately 4,300 Americans have died in that conflict.
As Forbes' Rob Waters noted, from the period between 2000 to 2009, "If you exclude natural causes of death and consider only deaths caused by injury, [gun violence] is the second-leading cause of death over that time span; only car accidents (417,000) killed more people." And according to Bloomberg News, the number of Americans killed by guns will soon exceed the yearly number of auto fatalities, as auto-related deaths are falling and gun fatalities are rising.
To understand the larger story of gun violence in America, people have to understand the context. People have to be aware of the 30,000 figure. They ought to know, for instance, that that in the week since Newtown, an estimated 500 Americans have died from gunfire, and more than 1,200 have been wounded. They ought to know that just since the Sandy Hook School massacre, approximately 50 more American children and teens have died from gunfire.
If we don't understand the saturation status we're not going to understand the steady stream of public shooting sprees.
But news consumers aren't getting that information from the media - at least not in the wake of the Newtown tragedy.
Very few mentions of the 30,000 statistic have appeared in newspaper articles or on television segments about the Connecticut massacre. In fact, a Nexis search uncovers only two major newspaper news articles that referenced that key figure in the last week, one in the San Francisco Chronicle, on December 18, and one in the Hartford Courant December 19. (The Cleveland Plain Dealer, Tampa Tribune and Indianapolis Star published references to the 30,000-death statistic in opinion pieces about the Newtown killings.)
On television, the references were just as rare: I found only four. One each on PBS, CNN, NBC and MSNBC.
It's possible that a handful of additional newspaper news accounts and television discussions mentioned the fact that approximately 30,000 people die from gunfire every year. (Nexis transcripts don't capture every cable news segment.) But given the extraordinary amount of coverage of the Newtown shooting, the press had ample opportunities to highlight the 30,000 number. But these findings indicate that the references were quite scarce. In fact, they were even scarcer than when I urged the press to include crucial gun death context following the Aurora gun massacre in July.
Other key points that have been largely ignored in the Newtown coverage:
•There are huge economic costs associated with gun violence. For example, firearm-related deaths and injuries resulted in medical and lost of productivity expenses of about $32 billion in the U.S., according to most recently available data.
•Gun violence is among the leading causes of premature death in the U.S.
•Among the world's 23 wealthiest countries, 87 percent of all kids killed by guns are American kids.
The point here isn't to simply to wallow in a grim statistics. It's to illustrate how little context is included in the so-called 'gun debate' in this country. And especially the so-called gun debate that takes place in the media.
If that conversation is really going to happen it's imperative Americans understand what's at the center of the topic, and that sadly, this crisis extends far beyond Newtown.
Thanks to Eric Boehlert, Media Matters, for contributing to this article.

RAW VIDEO: U.S. MARINES CLEAR AFGHANISTAN TOWN IN "OPERATION JAWS"

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Marines with Golf Company, 2nd Battalion, 5th Marine Regiment participate in Operation Jaws, clearing the town of Zamindawar in Kajaki, Afghanistan, a known insurgent stronghold. Following the combat scenes are informative interviews with 1st Lt. Benjamin Royal, platoon commander from Clinton Township, NJ, and Staff Sgt. John Wildman, platoon sergeant from Laurel, MS.

FOX NEWS SAYS HILLARY CLINTON FAKING CONCUSSION

Just when I thought FOX NEWS couldn't sink any lower, several of the on-air people have said SECRETARY OF STATE HILLARY CLINTON is faking the concussion she suffered after falling. FOX NEWS offes no proof CLINTON is faking the concussion and said she did it so she wouldn't have to testify today at the Benghazi, Libya hearings that get underway before a special Congressional committee.

BULLET-PROOF VEST AND BLACK NINJA WARRIOR GARB

 

How did ADAM LANZA, the 20-year old who slaughtered a total of 26 children and adults, get a bullet-proof vest and a Black Ninja Warrior suit before he went on his shooting spree at the Sandy Hook Elementary school killing 20 innocent six and seven year olds and six school teachers and administrators?

Newtown, Connecticut, scene of the crime, is a one stop light town and there couldn't be too many places in town selling bullet-proof vests and Black Ninja Warrior body armor suits.

Law enforcement authorities and the media have been concentrating on the firepower Adam Lanza used in the mass shooting, but nobody has mentioned how he would have been able to buy a bullet-proof vest and the Black Ninja Warrior suit Lanza was wearing.

In fact, the new Task Force headed up by Vice President Joe Biden should expand the investigation beyond enforcing gun laws and into looking into stores that sell bullet-proof vests and Black Ninja Warrior gear because that would be a sure sign somebody is up to no good.

As for the bullet-proof vest, the only people who should be allowed to buy one should be law enforcement officers or security guards, and then they should have to prove their identity with the proper identification.

Black Ninja Warrior suits were worn by the two shooters at the Columbine school mass murder and by Adam Lanza in his shooting spree last week at the Sandy Hook Elementary school in Newtown, Connecticut.

Fox News continues to try to shift the focus from guns and gun control to mental illness, video games, violent movies and television shows as the primary cause of the killing spree by Adam Lanza in Connecticut.

The Fox News attempt to downplay guns as the cause of the killings is nothing more than a smokescreen that doesn't hold water when held up to the 3,000 gun-related murders every year in the United States that are not mass murders by a mentally ill person or persons, but instead from robberies, drive-by shootings, gang violence, domestic violence and murder/suicide cases not carried out by someone with mental illness problems.

 

US FAILS IN REBUILDING AFGHANISTAN

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A political analyst tells Press TV that Afghanistan is a conflict-plagued country and because of the nature of being a war-torn country it is hard to carry out projects that could be effective.


About 13 million dollars of US funds sourced from American taxpayer money to upgrade a power infrastructure project in Afghanistan is "sitting unused in storage" due to a lack of a clear installation plan, a report says.

Interview with Waliullah Rahmani, executive director of the Kabul Center for Strategic Studies.

OBAMA NAMES BIDEN TO GUN VIOLENCE TASK FORCE: FOX NEWS WANTS TO DWELL ON MENTAL ILLNESS

President Obama has named Vice President Biden to head up a Task Force looking into gun violence.

Meanwhile, FOX NEWS wants to shift the attention away from guns and dwell on mental illness.

Here is the link to story on Obama's proposal:  http://tiny.cc/blzkpw

Obama wants to put back in place the assault rifle ban that President Bush let expire in 2004.  Obama also wants to close the loopholes that allow people to buy guns without proper identification.

FOX NEWS wants to shift the attention away from guns to mental illness based on a Rasmussen poll which indicated most people want to investigate mental illness instead of the over 300 million guns that are in the hands of Americans all across the country.

Experts say the problem with the FOX NEWS approach to the epidemic of gun violence is it doesn't take into consideration the thousands of gun-related deaths from drive-by shootings, domestic violence or robbery which have nothing to do with mental illness.

There are over 3,000 deaths a year from guns and mass killings like what took place in Connecticut last week make up only a fraction of the gun deaths.   

FOX NEWS is a staunch advocate of the National Rifle Association (NRA) which has always pointed at anything but guns as a reason for gun violence. 

Obama said he wants Congress to act immediately on gun control. 

FOX NEWS "BENGHAZI-GATE" SHOT DOWN

Poor Fox News.

Another one of their conspiracy theories has been shotdown by a report indicating there wasn't anyone in the White House or the Obama administration involved with a cover-up of what took place in Benghazi, Libya where four Americans were killed. 

The independent study found there were a series of systematic failures that led to the tragic death of the U.S. Ambassador to Libya, Chris Stevens, and three other Americans at an outpost in Benghazi, Libya. 

Infact, the Republican led House of Representatives voted down anymore funding for U.S. diplomatic installations all around the world. 

Fox News has been carrying out a 24/7 attack on the Obama administration and UN Ambassador Susan  Rice claiming there was a giant cover-up in the Benghazi, Libya attack. 

The truth, according to the report, is Susan Rice presented exactly what the CIA "talking points" were at the time she appeared on five Sunday morning political talk shows.

Fox News has once again put on public display they are not a news organization, but instead the public relations branch of the Republican Party.

Read the full story here:  http://tiny.cc/remkpw







 

ADOPTING GUN REGULATIONS MAY NOT BE AS EASY AS THOUGHT

Ezra Klein has written an excellent piece for the Washington Post on the stumbling blocks which will be encountered when the Obama administration and Congress gets around to trying to fix the serious problem of gun control facing America in the wake of the horrific massacre last week at the Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut.

The fact that there are almost as many guns, close to 300 million, in the hands of Americans, as there are citizens of the United States only exacerbates the problem.

Closing loopholes, background checks and limiting the sale of clips which hold 30 rounds of ammunition are just a few of the suggestions which have been offered.

Screening of people who have been diagnosed with a mental illness is another idea which is under discussion, but privacy rules come into play when any government body begins digging into the privacy records of any citizen of the United States. 

Violent video games, movies and television shows are also going to be looked at, but First Amendment rights could prove to be another problem for people calling for tougher gun laws. 

You can read the Ezra Klein Washington Post story here:  http://tiny.cc/0r2jpw

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

CLICK ON ARROW TO PLAY VIDEO

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