Yearly Archives: 2010

During the 1960 Christmas season, Americans flocked to the theaters to see Exodus, a 3-1/2 hour epic film featuring handsome freedom fighters and a riveting romance amidst the heroic triumph of Jewish Destiny over Arab Evil Doers. Set against a Yuletide backdrop of Biblical prophecy, moviegoers marveled as exiled Jews returned to their fabled promised land, a staple of popular culture to which Americans are first exposed as children in “Sunday school.” Many moviegoers failed to realize that Exodus was not fact but fiction. Even now, few Americans realize the storyline was adapted for the screen from a 1958 novel by Leon Uris. The biggest bestseller since Gone with the Wind—a novel set during the Civil War of the 1860s—the film adaptation was directed by Hollywood icon Otto Preminger. The blockbuster’s stars included a young Paul Newman with his leading lady a blond Eva Marie Saint. The cast included character actor Lee J. Cobb and Peter Lawford, married to Pat Kennedy, a sister of John F. Kennedy who was elected president the same year. By then, Lawford was a famous member of pop culture’s high profile “Rat Pack” that included singer Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, Sammy Davis, Jr. and Joey Bishop. Italian crooner Sal Mineo, then a teen heartthrob, received an Academy Award nomination for his portrayal of a Jewish émigré. An Oscar should have been awarded to Israel and its supporters for portraying this extremist enclave as a legitimate nation-state when, in reality, its founding traces to an alluring storyline. Forty-five years after the release of Exodus, American naiveté was again targeted by Jewish storytellers to induce the U.S. to war in the Middle East—only this time for real.

No. 103-10 February 10, 2010 ----------------------------------- CONTRACTS: NAVY Northrop Grumman Shipbuilding, Pascagoula, Miss., is being awarded an $8,362,542 modification to previously awarded contract (N00024-07-C-2302) to exercise options for...

Welcome to the “open carry” movement, an effort by “gun rights” extremists to foist their interpretation of the Second Amendment on the rest of us by openly carrying handguns in public places. While virtually all states have at least some minimal restrictions on the carrying of concealed weapons, few states do anything to regulate the “open carry” of firearms.

The Associated Press is reporting on AOL News today in a story entitled Iraq orders guards linked to Blackwater to leave  that about 250 security...

Former longtime East Texas congressman Charlie Wilson has died. Staff at Lufkin Memorial Hospital confirmed the report. He was 76. According to a Memorial Hospital press release, Wilson died after suffering from cardio pulmonary arrest.

An unknown number of veterans and dependents were exposed to environmental hazards on military installations. DOD refuses to accept responsibility for the health effects...

Energy Drink Creates Buzz for Veterans Seeking a Personal Bailout New Energy Drink Brings Business and Health Opportunities to Veterans San Diego, CA - Everyday I...

Earlier in the day, I went to S-21 at Tuol Sleng, the former high school that was turned into a prison and death camp by the Khmer Rouge in the 1970’s. Of the some 17,000 prisoners that passed through the S-21, only a handful survived. It is now part of the Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum. Raksmey, one of the drivers who sleeps in his motoremorque, drove me out there early in the morning.

by Bob Hanafin, VeteransToday.com bout two years ago my wife and I heard Pro-Peace activist Maxine Hong Kingston speak at Wright State University in Fairborn,...

by Karen St. John, Staff Writer Like many of us, the Vietnam War became teenager Marc Phillip Yablonka’s war. The son of a holocaust survivor...

Statement on the Death of Congressman John Murtha by Secretary of the Army John Mchugh "I was greatly saddened to learn of the death of...

Posted by Nick Turse at TomDispatch Once is an anomaly; twice is the beginning of a pattern. Right now, we’re seeing the same sequence of...

Update:  See also Glenn Greenwald's Ugly and Reckless Anti-Semitism Games. "Even by that magazine's lowly standards, The New Republic yesterday published an amazingly ugly,...

Sean Hannity seems to think that the "world" is limited to the eastern US. in Texas if you report a doctor for malpractice you may go down on a felony rap. Canada seems to have become infected with the paranoia of its southern neighbor, and from Inquisition headquarters: The "Christian Manifesto" brands liberals as Nazis. These stories and more in today's picks.

Did you know that the Board of Veterans’ Appeals publishes a law journal? The Veterans Law Review, founded by Board Chairman James P. Terry, encourages frank discussion of relevant legislative, administrative, and judicial developments in veterans’ benefits law. The 2nd volume of the Veterans Law Review is slated for national distribution later this month. For more information, including guidelines for submitting an article for the 3rd volume of the Veterans Law Review, visit Law Review.

Kids act out. They throw tantrums, have food fights, and occasionally, they open their Christmas presents a little early. Usually this type of behavior is met with a stern word from parents, detention, or even some Bart Simpson-esque chalkboard writing. But this was not the case for these kids, who were handcuffed and hauled away before they could say "It wasn't me."

Time Magazine online today is posting a piece entitled Obama and Counterterrorism: The Debate Moves Right .  That pretty much says it all.  It...

The New York Times is running an editorial today entitled The Politics of Fear in which the editorial board takes the GOP to task for...

Regional stories on veterans health, education and other benefits and issues today from: Shreveport, Louisiana, Saint Paul, Minnesota, Corvallis, Oregon, Helena, Montana, Bay Pines, Florida, Salem, Oregon, San Diego, California, Cincinnati, Ohio, Hagerstown, Maryland, Los Angeles, California, and Boulder City, Nevada

Edelman Reaches Out to Hire Veterans Pioneer Thinking. Breakthrough Communications. Rewarding Careers. For more than half a century, Edelman has defined the practice and...

Jobs for Veterans Offered in Wireless Industry by Leading Edge Firm by Gordon Gates Wireless Applications Consulting (WAC) is a consulting, design and engineering...

Postcards, greeting cards and letters have been a vital source of communication for military families during times of war and peacetime. They were essential to help families stay in touch. If the contents carried good news, they were a great morale booster for troops during difficult times of combat and loss. Cards also were a source of comfort for military families enduring the tragedy of losing a loved one.

With 14.8 million people out of work, competition for new jobs is easing ever so slightly, according to a government report released Tuesday. There are...

Relief efforts in Haiti are still falling short, the Washington Post reports. A fledgling food distribution network so far has largely managed to deliver only rice. Every day, tens of thousands of Haitians face a grueling quest to find any food. Overwhelmed doctors and nurses are facing converging streams of need, including untended wounds and illnesses born of poor sanitation. There are not enough crutches for amputees or people to teach them how to adjust. A U.S. physician described shortages of power, blood-pressure sleeves, and medicine.

Jobs available for Veterans at Kenton Group. Join this dynamic team delivering Expertise-on-Demand! Now with HireVeterans.com. The Kenton Group is a business consulting group providing...

"STOP LOSS" MADE THEM SLAVES, "REDEPLOYMENT" TOOK THEIR FAMILIES AND JOBS "WAR ON TERROR" LIES STOLE THEIR HONOR By Gordon Duff STAFF WRITER/Senior Editor Vietnam should have...

A key strategy of the Right has been to convince as many Americans as possible that the U.S. news media has a “liberal bias,” a canard that has stuck even though newspapers have been traditionally pro-Republican and most media outlets are owned by giant corporations reflecting the interests of wealthy individuals.

Murtha, First Vietnam Combat Vet Elected To Congress, Passes Away. The AP (2/9) reports 77-year-old John Murtha US Rep. John Murtha (D-PA), "an influential critic of the Iraq War whose congressional career was shadowed by questions about his ethics, died Monday." In 1974, Murtha "became the first Vietnam War combat veteran elected to Congress," a point also noted by McClatchy (2/9, Youssef), the Wall Street Journal (2/9, Bendavid, Miller, 2.08M), The Hill (2/9, Tiron, 21K), and the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

Time Magazine online has a piece today entitled U.S. Troops Prepare to Test Obama's Afghan War Plan . The article asks us to hold judgment...

This isn't the first time the crime of hydro-piracy has come to the attention of Amazon watchdog groups. Tankers were known to be exporting oil to South America and refilling their tanks with fresh water from the Amazon to import back to Europe and the Middle East. It is estimated that each tanker returns with approximately 5 million gallons of Amazon River water. For bottling companies, it is considerably less expensive to treat freshwater than to procure it through desalinization.

Anne Paterson: If she has any integrity and any self respect left she should stand before the Pakistan people and ask for their forgiveness for the drone murders, the extra judicial killings, the black operations, the kidnapping, torture and rendition of its citizens, the water-boarding, the bribery, the corruption and, not least of all, the injustice handed out to Dr Aafia Siddiqui and her family....Yvone

The disturbing story of a US soldier waterboarding his baby girl, A Jim Hightower tribute to Howard Zinn, "Innovation" lives on in the GOP...cut taxes on the rich, and privatize everything, casualty reports from the AfPak drone war come under fire and Bob Herbert reports on the unfair distribution of income and pain in today's picks.

China is a super power in waiting and India is vying to be a regional power. For the sake of regional and global peace it is important that India manages to contain its ambitions so that the two countries can coexist in a manner that brings peace and prosperity to the Region. For that it is important for India to avoid a confrontational stance.

Regional stories on veterans health, education and other benefits and issues today from: Helena, Montana, Pocatello, Idaho, Washington, DC, Modesto, California, Goshen, New York, LaCrosse, Wisconsin, Tempe, Arizona, Virginia Beach, Virginia, and Florence, South Carolina

A Texas man is caught posing as a highly-decorated soldier at a public event. It is being challenged now in federal court. Xavier Alvarez, a California man convicted in 2007 of falsely claiming to be a decorated Marine, is asking the U.S. Court of Appeals to overturn the conviction and rule the Stolen Valor Act unconstitutional. A ruling could come at any time.

For nearly 75 years, Jeppesen has helped aviation professionals worldwide reach their destinations safely and successfully. Today Jeppesen, the successful subsidiary of Boeing Commercial Aviation Services, is wanting to hire veterans for its successful team.

The BBC News is reporting today in a story entitled Canadian air force commander charged with two murders that the base commander of one of...

By Simon Johnson --- Intensified fears over government debt in the eurozone are pushing the euro weaker against the dollar. The G7 achieved nothing over...

Statement by Secretary of Defense Robert Gates on the Death of Congressman Jack Murtha I was deeply saddened to hear of the passing of Jack...

Shelby has placed a blanket “hold” on 70 nominations pending before the Senate, nominations for federal agency jobs and seats on the federal bench. Does he have a case against each and every one of the 70? No, he isn’t really talking about any of them.

Secretary of State Clinton's effort on CNN to conflate the "threat" from Iran with that from nuclear-armed North Korea was "just bizarre," writes Juan Cole on his Informed Comment blog. Iran allows UN inspections of its nuclear facilities; there is no dispositive evidence of a weapons program. President Ahmadinejad made headlines by directing Iran's (regularly inspected) nuclear research establishment to begin attempting to enrich uranium to 19.75% so that that country will eventually have the ability to supply its own fuel for its sole reactor that produces medical isotopes for treating, e.g., cancer.

Although the somewhat finished product looks nothing like the Mandatory Funding of the VA that most Veterans Service Organizations (VSOs) flaunted as a few...