It is time to bring them home – Eugene Robinson – Washington Post

In today’s Washington Post we hear from Eugene Robinson in an Op-Ed article entitled "Time to Head Home" in which he implores the President to bring our troops home from Afghanistan. I agree with Mr. Robinson. That story is here.

Of course, that assumes we will still have a home come December 2012!

In a short blurb from Politics Daily we read how the ever growing 2012 Doomsday industry is uniting us all. We sure cannot seem to agree on how to live together, but nothing will unite a planet faster than 10,000 stories about the 10,000 ways that the planet could possibly be destroyed or changed or mutated or fried or boiled or baked on 21 December 2012. Here is that oddly satisfying piece.

Now here is a piece from the Sphere blog that no one would have caught without the eye for detail that so many of us lack.

It seems that the Republicans have been fighting tooth and nail to keep health care reform weak or to kill it outright partly because it pays for abortions, or at least, that is their impression of it.

Now we find out that abortions have been part of the insurance plan for all employees of the Republican National Committee for quite some time now. Who would have thought? That piece is here.

Imagine that?  Double-speak and incongruity in one of America’s political parties?! 

In this piece from the Associated Press we learn that the Obama Administration has told all domestic agencies to plan for a 5% cut in their budgets to get rid of a little red ink in the national ledger. Here is that story.

We are told by the Associated Press that the Army claims that morale is down among troops in Afghanistan. This is news? That story is here.

AOL News reports that a Texas Republican who is the ranking member on the House Homeland Security Intelligence SubCommittee, Representative Michael McCaul, has claimed today that Major Nidal Hasan M.D., the alleged shooter in the Fort Hood massacre recieved or sent at least ten money transfers to Pakistan. That story is here.

AOL News also reports that we have a much weaker dollar than we did in September 2008 and although American exports are increasing every month, this won’t narrow the trade imbalance with other countries until at least 2011. This is not the news we wanted to hear. That story is here.

In this news posted on AOL News we find that cellphones definitely have an effect on human brains that use them, the experts just do not know what the data collected is telling us. That story is here.

The BBC News reports a major explosion and fire at a Russian naval munitions depot today as munitions were being dismantled. That story is here.

In this story reported by the BBC News a fourteen year old boy who was in Taliban hands and rescued by Pakistani troops recently told BBC reporters that he was tied and beaten by the Taliban as they were attempting to turn him into a suicide bomber. The story is here.

An informed veteran and citizen is a comfort to his friends and a danger to his adversaries. Get informed. Stay informed.

CWO3 Tom Barnes, USCG (Ret.)