Monthly Archives: April 2010

By Khalil Nouri STAFF WRITER / EDITOR Afghanistan is to convene a grand tribal convention for a consensus with the Taliban—ones who can peel away...

94 percent of Kandaharis interviewed last December prefer negotiating with the Taliban to military confrontation, Gareth Porter reports for Inter Press Service. Ninety-one percent supported the convening of a "Loya Jirga", or "grand assembly" of leaders as a way of ending the conflict. Interviewers conducted the survey only in areas which were not under Taliban control. An unclassified report on the survey was published in March by Glevum Associates, a "strategic communications" company under contract for the Human Terrain Systems program in Afghanistan. All this undermines the U.S. claim that the Kandahar offensive will be supported by locals, Porter notes.

* By Robert S. Eshelman The Nation * Scott Parkin, an organizer at the San Francisco-based Rainforest Action Network (RAN), is a straight-talking, get-things-done kind...

No. 311-10 --------------------------------------- CONTRACTS: NAVY                 Lockheed Martin Missiles and Fire Control, Orlando, Fla. is being awarded a $44,414,000 firm-fixed-price supply contract for production of 18 AN/AAQ-30...

A SEC Vote will reveal a titanic political fight: Wall Street-GOP v. the Obama administration and perhaps some strange bedfellows who despise Wall Street as the...

Kleptocracy -- now, there’s a word I was taught to associate with corrupt and exploitative governments that steal ruthlessly and relentlessly from the people. It’s a word, in fact, that’s usually applied to flawed or failed governments in Africa, Latin America, or the nether regions of Asia. Such governments are typically led by autocratic strong men who shower themselves and their cronies with all the fruits of extracted wealth, whether stolen from the people or squeezed from their country’s natural resources. It’s not a word you’re likely to see associated with a mature republic like the United States led by disinterested public servants and regulated by more-or-less transparent principles and processes.

FEW AMERICANS ARE AWARE THAT FOX NEWS IS DIRECTLY TIED TO LIKUD EXTREMISTS IN ISRAEL ISRAEL'S PROPAGANDA MACHINE, WAGING WAR AGAINST ISRAELI'S "ALLIES" By Gordon Duff...

NEW YORK (The Borowitz Report) - In a settlement of the government's securities fraud case against Goldman Sachs, the bank's CEO, Lloyd Blankfein, has agreed to perform two years of community service as Treasury Secretary of the United States.

Repeated calls to the Charitable Law Division of the Ohio Attorney General's office have yielded little in the way of information about the US Navy Veterans Association (USNVA) and its enigmatic director "Commander" Bobby Thompson.

An army sergeant who had received 22 honors including a Combat Action Badge prior to being wounded in Iraq by a mortar shell was told he was faking his medical symptoms and subjected to abusive treatment until he agreed to a "personality disorder"(PD) discharge.

Major League baseball players are honoring the sacrifices made by our nation's wounded warriors by launching an exclusive line of military-themed licensed products to benefit the Wounded Warrior Project, it was jointly announced today by the Major League Baseball Players Association (MLBPA) and the Wounded Warrior Project. Major Leaguers are also contributing an additional $100,000 from the Major League Baseball Players Trust to the Wounded Warrior Project, to support their efforts in ensuring this generation of wounded warriors is the most successful and well-adjusted in our nation's history.

Regional stories on veterans' health, education and other benefits and issues today from Manitowoc, Wisconsin, Seneca, Illinois, Ottumwa, Iowa, Millsboro, Delaware, Louisville, Kentucky, Tallahasse, Florida, Portland, Oregon, Laurinburg, North Carolina, and Greenfield, Indiana.

During National Volunteer Week, VA salutes Marwah Ahmed, 17, of Montgomery Village, Md., the 2009 recipient of the James H. Parke Memorial Scholarship for her volunteer work at the Washington, D.C. VA Medical Center. Ahmed, a high school senior, has been volunteering at the VAMC since she was 13. She has served in a variety of departments, including the lab, research and the director’s office.

By Robert Dreyfuss There's a lot of hullabaloo about the New York Times article on Sunday, breathlessly reporting a "wake up call" from Secretary of Defense...

  Chomsky reminds us that genuine intellectual inquiry is always subversive. It challenges cultural and political assumptions. It critiques structures. It is relentlessly self-critical. It implodes...

Congress Passes TRICARE Affirmation Act Springfield, Virginia (4/13/10) – The Senate unanimously passed legislation championed by Senator Jim Webb (D-VA) to fix a flaw in...

No. 308-10 CONTRACTS: U. S. SPECIAL OPERATIONS COMMAND                 L-3 Services, Inc., Tampa, Fla., was awarded a $150,000,000 maximum order amount modification to increase the contract...

Business articles posted here on our VT Network are of some of the most widely read. This tells me that many of you readers are interested. And everyday, I get phone calls from Veterans looking for jobs, opportunities and/or looking to find a way to get into business. Over the last year, this has been virtually non-stop.

Are you a Budding Entrepreneur or a Nine to Fiver? Learn Top 10 Advantages of a Home-Based Business Business articles posted here on our VT Network...

There's opportunity everywhere you look at Bank of America. By Randy Miller For 3 years now Bank of American has been on the HireVeterans.com team. They...

A newly released Wikileaks “Collateral Murder” video has made international headlines showing a July 2007 shooting incident outside of Baghdad in which U.S. forces wounded two children and killed over a dozen people, including the father of those children and two Reuters employees. Two soldiers from Bravo Company 2-16, the company depicted in the video, have written an open letter of apology to the Iraqis who were injured or lost loved ones during the attack that, these former soldiers say, is a regular occurrence in this war.

Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America (IAVA), the nation’s first and largest organization dedicated to improving the lives of OIF and OEF veterans and their families, is hiring.

Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America (IAVA), the nation’s first and largest organization dedicated to improving the lives of OIF and OEF veterans and...

Huge new solar thermal project in Egypt could indicate success for larger Desertec project. A pyramid-scale solar power plant is well under way in Kuraymat, Egypt, and the 150 megawatt giant could prove to be a key indicator for the success of a much larger project such as the pharaohs could only dream of. That would be the international Desertec solar power network, which would rim northern Africa with solar and wind power plants capable of supplying solar energy to European markets. It’s an ambitious plan that rests on two key elements – the ability to collect solar energy on a massive scale, and the ability to transmit it.

Realogy has joined with HireVeterans.com and I want to provide you with my perspective on why Realogy is a great place to work. By Randy...

Alutiiq is Reaching Out to Employ US Veterans By Randy Miller Afognak Native Corporation and the Alutiiq family of companies are dedicated to delivering cost effective,...

Realogy has joined with HireVeterans.com and I want to provide you with my perspective on why Realogy is a great place to work. By Randy...

SURPRISING THE ARMING OF THE TALIBAN AND THE BUILDING OF A NARCO-REGIME "SHILLING" FOR AN ISRAELI ATTACK ON IRAN By Gordon Duff STAFF WRITER/Senior Editor As usual,...

Alutiiq is Reaching Out to Employ US Veterans By Randy Miller Afognak Native Corporation and the Alutiiq family of companies are dedicated to delivering cost effective,...

The Ten Martyrs "These I remember, and my soul melts with sorrow, for strangers have devoured us like unturned cakes, for in the days of the tyrant...

Regional stories on veterans' health, education and other benefits and issues today from Lakeville, Minnesota, Melbourne, Florida, Grand Island, Nebraska, Pleasantville, New Jersey, Montgomery, Texas, New Bedford, Massachusetts, and Cape Girardeau, Missouri.

U.S. Spent $5.6 Billion Last Year Treating Veterans with Mental Disabilities Washington, DC - Caring for soldiers suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and other mental illnesses is costing the federal government billions of dollars a year, and will continue to do so for years to come. According to an analysis of Department of Veterans Affairs’ records by the Chicago Tribune, the VA spent $5.6 billion last year to treat mental disabilities. While these costs included treating veterans from previous wars, such as Vietnam and the Persian Gulf, the ballooning expenses have been driven largely by soldiers serving in Afghanistan and Iraq.

Since neither established political party has been able (or willing) to get us out of Iraq or Afghanistan except for lip service, promises, and...

When Senator Mitch McConnell and the GOP oppose financial reform, make no mistake whose interests they are fighting for: The banking oligarchy. What McConnell is...

WHISTLEBLOWERS REPORT IRREGULARITIES THREATENING EVERY ASPECT OF VETERAN CARE AND SAFETY VA ANSWERS LAWSUIT WITH POOR LEGAL PLOY, WANTS TO QUICKLY LOSE AND MAKE PROBLEM...

The Tea Party movement's dirty little secret is that its chief financial backers owe their family fortune to the granddaddy of all their hatred: Stalin's godless empire of the USSR. The secretive oil billionaires of the Koch family, the main supporters of the right-wing groups that orchestrated the Tea Party movement, would not have the means to bankroll their favorite causes had it not been for the pile of money the family made working for the Bolsheviks in the late 1920s and early 1930s, building refineries, training Communist engineers and laying down the foundation of Soviet oil infrastructure.

At 98, Brown's part of an exclusive group - the surviving children of Civil War soldiers, removed by a single generation from the nation's bloodiest conflict. Records show fewer than 100 sons and daughters of the blue and gray veterans remain nationwide. Tennessee boasts four Confederate sons - two in the Knoxville area, including Brown - along with a Union son and daughter.

The original Tea Party, remember, wasn't directed just against the British redcoats. Colonial patriots also took aim at the East India Company. That was the joint-stock enterprise originally chartered by the first Queen Elizabeth. Over the years, the government granted them special rights and privileges, which the owners turned into a monopoly over trade, including tea.

Regional stories on veterans' health, education and other benefits and issues today from Morgantown, West Virginia, Ballston Spa, New York, Tuscaloosa, Alabama, New Bedford, Massachusetts, Souh Bend, Indiana, Gadsden, Alabama, Wesley Chapel, Florida, Lexington, Kentucky, Seattle, Washington, Knoxville,Tennessee, and Newton, North Carolina.

Secretary of Veterans Affairs Eric Shinseki said Congress should consider an economic stimulus measure that would create jobs for those leaving the military. “That would be helpful,” Shinseki said in an interview on Bloomberg Television’s “Conversations with Judy Woodruff,” airing this weekend. Legislation that would reduce unemployment among veterans would add to other initiatives the Department of Veterans Affairs is taking, he said.

When the trees are fully grown in a few years, maybe some of the 1,000 or so volunteers who planted them Saturday in south Lexington will return to bask in their shade and recall helping Mother Earth on a cool morning in April.

Update: ABC News: President Clinton: Rubin and Summers Gave Me Wrong Advice on Derivatives, and I Was Wrong To Take It. Make no mistake.;...