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Yearly Archives: 2010
Part II: The Rise of the Economic Elite — Economic Elite Vs. The People
“The war against working people should be understood to be a real war…. Specifically in the U.S., which happens to have a highly class-conscious business class…. And they have long seen themselves as fighting a bitter class war, except they don’t want anybody else to know about it.”
Employers Take a Beating by Laying Off Employees
It’s not only employees who suffer when they get laid off but the firms responsible for handing them the pink slips can take a beating, too.
As millions of Americans have been fired by employers struggling to remain profitable, we have all borne witness to Corporate America's calloused disregard of its workers. Now, canny business economists claim the layoffs have hurt employers, too.
GORDON DUFF: THE “DEAD PEOPLE” GAME
FROM THE PHONY "SURGE" IN IRAQ TO NON-EXISTENT PROJECTS
KILLING AROUND THE WORLD FOR FUN AND PROFIT
By Gordon Duff STAFF WRITER/Senior Editor
How do we tell...
Teachers and Students will join Vets, Troops, and Families seeking PEACE on 20 March
As follow-up on my Peace of the Action series covering the up-coming 20 March PEACE demonstrations across the nation Pro-PEACE Veterans and Military Families...
Like Lincoln, Jefferson, Madison – Americans Fear Corporate Control of Public Policy
The Washington Post's Dan Eggen reports this morning on the results of a WaPo/ABC News poll which shows Americans to be "overwhelmingly" opposed to the recent SCOTUS decision to allow corporations to spend unlimited amounts of cash in election campaigns.
"Eight in 10 poll respondents say they oppose the high court's Jan. 21 decision to allow unfettered corporate political spending, with 65 percent "strongly" opposed. Nearly as many backed congressional action to curb the ruling, with 72 percent in favor of reinstating limits. The poll reveals relatively little difference of opinion on the issue among Democrats (85 percent opposed to the ruling), Republicans (76 percent) and independents (81 percent)."
Top 10 Veterans News From Around the Country
Find out What's Inside Today's Local News for Veterans
VA Doctor, Others Say Drug May Aid MS Treatment
New Jersey Honors Vets, Offers Benefits...
Regional Veterans’ News 2/17/10
Regional stories on veterans' health, education and other benefits and issues from Maryville, Tennessee, Two Rivers, Wisconsin, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Chicago, Illinois, Richmond, Virginia, Mason City, Iowa, Burlington, Vermont, Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan, and Plant City, Florida
U.S. Department of Defense Announces Latest Contract Awards
No. 109-10
February 16, 2010
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CONTRACTS: NAVY
Navistar Defense, LLC, Warrenville, Ill., was awarded on Feb. 12 a $751,514,198 firm-fixed-priced delivery order #0014 for the...
Fear Grips Tea Party as Nation Marches into the Future
What if the USA caught up with wiley Osama Bin Laden and captured him. Do you think the Tea Partiers would praise the capture? Yes, of course they would if this was 2007 and their tribal leader George Bush was President. But since it's Obama, hell no! They would react and reject coming up with some weird seemingly logical way to position their opposition. How do we know? Because, they failed the "Test for Validity" exam.
What is the Test for Validity exam?
Foreign Policy Briefing 2/16/10
At least nineteen civilians have been killed so far in the US/NATO offensive in Marjah, Democracy Now reports. DN interviewed Wall Street Journal reporter Anand Gopal, who says the assault in Marjah is perceived as a "show of force" by coalition forces that will change little. Gopal says it's very difficult for reporters to get to Marjah; almost all the reporters who are there are embedded reporters, so they're only seeing one side of the story; and we won't know for some time if there are many more cases of civilian deaths.
Veterans Demand Investigation into Stolen Valor, Property and Freedom
PART I - STOLEN VALOR - Veterans Group Claims the VA, Politicians, and Homeowner Group Have Defamed and Dishonored Military Duty
By Robert L....
Michael Ratner on Israeli apartheid Pt2 (Video)
"Building settlements in occupied territories with US support is illegal and unacceptable"
Michael Ratner continues his report after touring the "occupied territories" in Israel's West Bank.
Michael Ratner is President of the Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR) in New York. He has taught at Yale Law School, lectured at Columbia Law School, and was President of the National Lawyers Guild.
Editor’s Picks: News and Opinion Around the Web 2/16/10
Michael Lind reaches back into Anglo Saxon mythology for a political history lesson and some perspective on the "Tea Party" at Salon. Tom Engelhardt assures us that the Christmas bomber incident was not a national emergency but other reasons why we might want to hang on to our skivvies. The damage done to our country by the criminal behavior at our largest banks and financial institutions is probably far more profound than anything plotted in the caves of Tora Bora and Jim Hightower wants to know: "What happened to reforming Wall Street?" Those stories and more in today's picks
Women’s Work
Meanwhile, back here in the United States, women in the military are still seen as less capable and something of a curiosity. The fact that we are so grossly outnumbered — only 14 percent of soldiers in the Army are women — automatically makes us a curiosity. Until I saw that video about the I.D.F., I thought that women were pretty well integrated in our Army.
Pentagon’s Robert Gates the Ugly American
This is a follow-up to an article on Obama's Secretary of Defense Robert Gates titled Robert Gates – the MANIPULATOR. Though these posts are...
Top 10 Veterans News From Around the Country
Find out What's Inside Today's Local News for Veterans
Filing Deadline Arrives For Filipino WW II Vets.
Woman Lobbying For Gold Star Mothers Monument.
Some Asking...
Regional Veterans’ News 2/16/10
Regional stories on veterans' health, education and other benefits and issues today from Savannah, Georgia, Salt Lake City, Utah, Rockland, Massachusetts, Davenport, Iowa, Shreveport, Louisiana, Anchorage, Alaska, Manila, Philippines, Los Angeles, California, Nashua, New Hampshire, and Charleston, West Virginia.
Offensive Weapons
Fine, make your little jokes. But this happens to be a serious matter of national security. According to news items sent in by several alert readers, the Department of Defense has asked scientists to develop an odor that is repulsive to all humans, regardless of culture. This odor could be used by the military to harmlessly clear people out of a given area.
The War Hits Home Again
HARLINGEN, Feb. 14 - Adriana Alvarez of San Benito was killed in action in Iraq this past week. She is the first female soldier from the Rio Grande Valley to suffer such a fate. Our heartfelt condolences go to the family.
KHALIL NOURI: AFGHANISTAN: THE FLAWED OPERATION “MUSHTARAK”
AFGHANISTAN: The Flawed Operation “Mushtarak”
BY KHALIL NOURI STAFF WRITER FOR VETERANS TODAY
“If “Success” is the word labeled for Operation “Mushtarak” when that outcome means...
Female Prisoner Serving 27-Year Sentence for First-Time, Non-Violent Drug Offense
Iran? China? No, it's America! From the Huffington Post --- As we celebrate President's Day, one prisoner asks President Obama to exercise his clemency...
Bush-Cheney Cyber-Man’s Air Crash Gets Spookier
Evidence has recently emerged that suggests the Ohio vote may have been hacked, and that Connell was involved.
HireVeterans.com and CCG announce strategic alliance to assist companies in securing government funds for...
Government Provides Employers Incentive to Hire Veterans
CALIFORNIA – CCG, a national firm that specializes in assisting companies with capitalizing on all government incentives, has formed...
GORDON DUFF: OUR WAR ON TERROR’S “EMPTY NET”
NEARLY A DECADE LATER AND WE HAVE NOTHING
WAS THE ENTIRE "WAR ON TERROR" A RUSE?
By Gordon Duff STAFF WRITER/Senior Editor
It is 2010 and we...
The Economic Elite Vs. The People of the United States of America – Part...
It has now become evident to a critical mass that the Republican and Democratic parties, along with all three branches of our government, have been bought off by a well-organized Economic Elite who are tactically destroying our way of life. The harsh truth is that 99% of the US population no longer has political representation. The US economy, government and tax system is now blatantly rigged against us.
American Democracy Is Not the Gold Standard
Why Whatley prefaces with a flag-waive is obvious and his championing of American democracy is absurd.
Editor’s Picks: News and Opinion Around the Web 2/15/10
Human influenced climate change is fact, get over it and begin to deal with it seriously is the message from Kerry Emanuel in today's Boston Globe. Following sound science now can lead us out of danger, stumbling along behind hired quacks and "ditto heads" is a sure path over the cliff. When the "Rapture" comes who's going to take care of Fido? Larisa Alexandrovna knows, at Largely.
Peak Oil in 5 Years: Virgin Boss Branson’s Warning
"The next five years will see us face another crunch - the oil crunch. This time, we do have the chance to prepare. The challenge is to use that time well. [...] Our message to government and businesses is clear: act," he says in a foreword to a new report on the crisis. Don't let the oil crunch catch us out in the way that the credit crunch did."
Michael Ratner on Israeli Apartheid (Video)
Michael Ratner of the Center for Constitutional Rights reports on his recent tour of Israel's occupied territories
New Non-Fiction Book Addresses the Effects of Military Deployment on American Families
"Reporting for Doodie" Details One Grandmother's Story of Commitment, Frustration and Unwavering Love.
Long Beach, CA- With our military troops being sent to every corner...
The Marines move on Marja: A perilous slog against Afghanistan’s Taliban
For the Marines of Charlie Company's 3rd Platoon, Sunday's mission was simple enough: Head west for a little more than a mile to link up with Alpha Company in preparation for a mission to secure the few ramshackle government buildings in this farming community.
It would take nine hours to walk that distance, a journey that would reveal the danger and complexity of the Marines' effort to wrest control of Marja from the Taliban.
Dogs for Vets: a great idea, but screening Vets for Pets is also important
There has been an increase of media coverage dealing with the growing number of non-profit organizations providing much needed companion pets for our returning...
Regional Veterans’ News 2/15/10
Regional stories on veterans, health,education and other benefits and issues today from: Monterey, California, Albuquerque, New Mexico, Wichita Falls, Texas, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, Lufkin, Texas, Fayetteville, North Carolina, Hartford, Connecticut, Sunrise, Florida, Springfield, Missouri, and Chattanooga, Tennessee.
Veterans Administration requests retraction of 80 ‘medical events’
If approved by the NRC, the unprecedented request would eliminate the negative "medical event" categorization for 80 of 97 previously reported cases in which prostate cancer patients were given improper doses of radiation at the VA's Philadelphia facility. NRC officials say they do not recall ever getting a similar request.
Cheney Exposes Torture Conspiracy
On Sunday, Cheney pronounced himself “a big supporter of waterboarding,” a near-drowning technique that has been regarded as torture back to the Spanish Inquisition and that has long been treated by U.S. authorities as a serious war crime, such as when Japanese commanders were prosecuted for using it on American prisoners during World War II.
A War Prayer
The War Prayer
It was a time of great and exalting excitement. The country was up in arms, the war was on, in every breast...
Pro-PEACE Veterans and Military Families Prepare for DC Protests
Various Pro-Peace (or anti-war if YOU prefer) Veterans, active duty, and Military Family groups and service organizations have been planning and preparing for massive...
DeLong: Ten Economics Pieces Worth Reading
One benefit of the global economic crisis is the proliferation of first-rate economic writers like Brad DeLong. Here is number one on his Ten Economics Pieces Worth Reading.
Tea Party Is National Embarrassment
The Party is unconcerned with pesky things like facts or reasoned, practical solutions to the country’s problems.
GORDON DUFF: AFGHAN LEADERS CALL SURGE, “IMBECILIC AND TRAGIC”
"We have millions of young men coming of age, America doesn't realize this. Each one will become a fighter with one purpose in life, to free their country and drive out foreign invaders. Each child you see will be a trained soldier with a Kalashnikov. We will fight for a century if we have to. Ask Britain, ask Russia, they know. Why did America have to come here, join with criminal elements, brutal drug lords, mass murderers, people whose only history is brutality toward their own, why was America so stupid as to think we would respect them when they and their stooges rain bombs down on our children?"
Robert Crais’ Marine Hero, Joe Pike
We hope that the ideal in the Robert Crais series of books exemplified by character Joe Pike is an example of fiction leading to fact.
Charlie Wilson: View from England
By Rupert Cornwell in the London Independent -- It takes a larger-than-life Congressman to bring down a superpower.
A strong case could be made, however,...