What's News?

[Ol Sparky]

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[xenaswolf]

Originally posted by gus danger:

9 to 33 years!
[img]graemlins/thumbs_up.gif[/img] [img]cool.gif[/img]
Gus

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">Bout **** time! Anyone wanna take bets how long he will last inside?

[gus danger]

Day 2080 since "mission accomplished" was declared by the lame duck *******.
The official U.S. death toll, in Iraq, is now 4223.

Yep, we are still at war. Doesn't get mentioned much, on the cable news shows
but hey....they apparently have more important things to report on, like what the Obama girls are having for lunch in their new school!
GD

[gus danger]

Feb 10, 2009 11:41 AM
Subject: More Soldiers Lost to Suicide than to Al Qaeda in January
By Paul Rieckhoff, Huffington Post

Last month, suicide took the lives of more American soldiers than Al Qaeda and the Iraqi insurgency combined.


According to preliminary numbers, as many as 24 soldiers killed themselves in January. That's almost five times as many suicides as the same month last year. News of this shocking spike in suicides comes as no surprise to anyone who has been following this issue. 2008 marked the highest rate of military suicide in decades, and suicide rates have been rising every year since the start of the Iraq war.


It's clear that the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan are taking a tremendous toll on our troops, our veterans and their families. And suicide isn't the only challenge we're facing. Seven years of war have taken their toll on our military families, especially military marriages. Divorce rates among female servicemembers are especially alarming. Unemployment rates are up in general, but new veterans are being hit especially hard. Among Iraq and Afghanistan-era veterans of the active-duty military, the unemployment rate was over eight percent in 2007, about 2 percent higher than their civilian peers. And already, at least 2,000 Iraq and Afghanistan veterans have shown up in one of our nation's homeless shelters.


It is time for bold and immediate action.


That's why I'm leading a delegation of Iraq and Afghanistan veterans from across the country to Washington, DC this week to educate our nation's leaders on the most pressing issues facing today's troops and veterans. We hit the ground running with a congressional briefing in the Capitol, and we'll be meeting with over 100 legislators' offices throughout the week.


Each day, we'll be reporting live from DC, so follow us at www. StormtheHill. org.


We'll be hitting all the top points in our Legislative Agenda, including better screening for Post Traumatic Stress Disorder and Traumatic Brain Injury, a stronger veterans' component in the stimulus package, and correct implementation of the historic new GI Bill. And we're also making sure that the stimulus package includes a robust veterans component. But the top issue we're tackling is the need for advance funding for veterans' hospitals.


What does advance funding mean? Year after year, the VA budget is passed late, forcing the largest health care provider in the nation to ration care. Hospitals cannot plan for needed repairs, or be sure when they'll have the funding to hire new employees. It's a real problem for veterans across the country of all generations, who have to rely on aging and understaffed hospitals. One veteran on my team today told a staffer that she has to wait an hour at her local VA just to park her car. Without advance funding, this is what can happen. It is like trying to plan for your family's budget without knowing how much your next paycheck will be for. Funding the VA health care budget one year in advance would put an end to the broken VA funding system, and it wouldn't cost a dime. If advanced funding is good enough for Big Bird and the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, it should be good enough for veterans.


Sounds like a no brainer, right? I'd agree with you anywhere but on Capitol Hill, where common sense solutions go to die. But I'm optimistic. We've got the support of all the major veterans' service organizations, and a lot of support in Congress. We're going to make sure this easy, crucial fix moves this year.


We're bringing the largest IAVA delegation to Capitol Hill in our organization's history, and the week promises to be exciting. Don't miss out on the action. Our delegation is counting on your support.


Paul Rieckhoff is a veteran of Operation Iraqi Freedom and the Executive Director and Founder of IAVA (Iraq & Afghanistan Veterans of America), the country's first and largest Iraq Veterans group. IAVA is a non-partisan, non-profit organization headquartered in New York City.


? 2009 Huffington Post All rights reserved.

[gus danger]

Chandra Levy

WASHINGTON (AP) ? An arrest may be near in the nearly decade-old slaying of federal intern Chandra Levy, whose disappearance in 2001 ended California congressman Gary Condit's career, several television stations reported.
The California Democrat was romantically linked to Levy, but was not considered a suspect in her death or disappearance. Television stations, KFSN and KCRA in California and WRC in Washington, D.C., reported that police were seeking an arrest warrant.

Levy's parents said Friday outside their Modesto, California, home that police called them and told them an arrest was near.

"Your child is dead and gone and it's painful, but we're glad that the police and people are doing something, and investigating, and making a difference so somebody's not on the street to do it again," Chandra's mother, Susan Levy, told KGO-TV in San Francisco.

The parents did not say when an arrest warrant might be issued.

The 24-year-old Levy disappeared in May 2001 and at the time, she was wearing jogging clothes when she left her apartment. Her remains were found in Rock Creek Park in Washington about a year later.

Authorities questioned the married Condit in her disappearance. He reportedly told police that he and Levy were having an affair, and while he was not considered a suspect, the negative publicity was cited as the main cause of the Condit's re-election defeat in 2002.

Investigators also interviewed Ingmar Guandique, 27, a Salvadoran immigrant who has denied any involvement in Levy's disappearance and killing.

Guandique was convicted of attacking two women in Rock Creek Park shortly after Levy disappeared and is serving 10 years at a federal prison in California.

D.C. Police Chief Cathy Lanier would not comment Saturday on the imminent arrest reports.

After Condit did not get re-elected, he sued several media outlets that had connected him to the disappearance and death of Levy. He reached an undisclosed settlement with three tabloid newspapers.
__________________________________________________ _______

Media freaks like Geraldo Rivera, Bill O'Reilly and their ilk did a number on Gary Condit, back then, and still have the nerve to call themselves news reporters!
Don't believe anything those meatheads tell you!

Gus

[SouthwestRanger]

Sarah Palin angered by 'sexist' Newsweek cover

For the second time since Sarah Palin stepped into the national political spotlight, a photo of the former Republican vice-presidential candidate featured on the cover of Newsweek magazine is sparking controversy. Palin herself blasted the "out-of-context" cover as "sexist" on her Facebook page.



Originally published in the August 2009 issue of Runners World, the photo features the former Alaska governor in short runner's shorts. It was part of a multi-photograph slideshow that accompanied an article about Palin and her love for the sport titled, "I'm A Runner." In her Facebook post late last night, Palin took issue with Newsweek using a photo from an article about health and fitness to promote an analysis piece contemplating her relevance as a political figure:


"The choice of photo for the cover of this week's Newsweek is unfortunate. When it comes to Sarah Palin, this "news" magazine has relished focusing on the irrelevant rather than the relevant. The Runner's World magazine one-page profile for which this photo was taken was all about health and fitness -- a subject to which I am devoted and which is critically important to this nation. The out-of-context Newsweek approach is sexist and oh-so-expected by now. If anyone can learn anything from it: it shows why you shouldn't judge a book by its cover, gender, or color of skin. The media will do anything to draw attention -- even if out of context.

Newsweek Editor Jon Meacham told Yahoo! News that the photo choice was simply the "most interesting image available":


"We chose the most interesting image available to us to illustrate the theme of the cover, which is what we always try to do. We apply the same test to photographs of any public figure, male or female: does the image convey what we are saying? That is a gender-neutral standard."

LINK TO ARTICLE

SR: Phew !!!! That was close !!!!

I thought NEWSWEEK was going to reveal Sarah Palin was a longtime RUNAWAYS Fan and was going to have Cherie do some Chainsaw Inuit Totem Poles for her property !

[Secret Six]

Obama plans to send 34,000 more troops to Afghanistan

By Jonathan S. Landay, John Walcott and Nancy A. Youssef
McClatchy Newspapers




WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama met Monday evening with his national security team to finalize a plan to dispatch some 34,000 additional U.S. troops over the next year to what he's called "a war of necessity" in Afghanistan, U.S. officials told McClatchy.

Obama is expected to announce his long-awaited decision on Dec. 1, followed by meetings on Capitol Hill aimed at winning congressional support amid opposition by some Democrats who are worried about the strain on the U.S. Treasury and whether Afghanistan has become a quagmire, the officials said.

The U.S. officials all spoke on condition of anonymity because they weren't authorized to discuss the issue publicly and because, one official said, the White House is incensed by leaks on its Afghanistan policy that didn't originate in the White House.

As it now stands, the plan calls for the deployment over a nine-month period beginning in March of three Army brigades from the 101st Airborne Division at Fort Campbell, Ky., and the 10th Mountain Division at Fort Drum, N.Y., and a Marine brigade from Camp Lejeune, N.C., for as many as 23,000 additional combat and support troops.

The administration's plan contains "off-ramps," points starting next June at which Obama could decide to continue the flow of troops, halt the deployments and adopt a more limited strategy or "begin looking very quickly at exiting" the country, depending on political and military progress, one defense official said.

"We have to start showing progress within six months on the political side or military side or that's it," the U.S. defense official said.

It's "not just how we get people there, but what's the strategy for getting them out," White House press secretary Robert Gibbs said Monday.

NEWS LINK

S6: Based on my experience in the Pennsylvania National Guard , It sounds like they're going to be deployed at about the same rate as casualties coming home.

That's about the way I got it figured. Body bags out, cannon fodder in at the same rate. It's called replacements, not a troop increase.

And pretty soon Obama the Magnificent and Infalliable will need to find a way to replace all those Fallen Soldiers....

One day Cherie will walk to her Mailbox and see an Official Looking Envelope adressed to her son Jake from the Selective Service telling him to report to a group of people on a certain day at a certain time or face the consequences ....

And many many Mothers and Fathers will find the same type of envelopes addressed to their Young Sons and dare I say Daughters....

Sorry if I'm being rude and insensitive to Cherie here folks but it can happen !

[gus danger]

it can happen

Thank God she's not in charge!

:flagwaver:
Gus

[SouthwestRanger]

Thank God she's not in charge!

:flagwaver:
Gus

Uh Gus, Which She Do We Mean ?

Sarah Palin already has a Son on Active Duty over in Iraq along with several Nephews and Cousins and I'm sure she sweats daily worrying about them....

If you mean Cherie, well she'd go off like a Angry Grizzly Bear if anything happened to Jake even in Basic Training !

However if she does want to keep her beloved son safe, here's a branch for Jake to join while the gettings good !

LINK

Plus the training and Ops are good !

Happy Thanksgiving Everyone !

[Secret Six]