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Yearly Archives: 2010
Frozen jet stream links Pakistan floods, Russian fires
By Michael Marshall
Raging wildfires in western Russia have reportedly doubled average daily death rates in Moscow. Diluvial rains over northern Pakistan are surging south –...
10 More Years In Iraq, We Must Stay So We Can Leave
This shocking news came from Lieutenant General Babaker Zerbari and therein lies the crux of the problem. Zerbari is a Lieutenant General and Iraq's most senior military officer.
We send Lieutenant Generals out for coffee and donuts in the morning. We have Bird Colonels sharpening pencils and Major Generals escorting defense lobbyists to strip clubs.
Obama’s Pakistan Katrina? Helicopters for War, But Not Flood Relief
- A "political decision in Washington" means a decision by President Obama. That senior U.S. military official is exactly right. The decision to allocate...
Study: Exercise Alters Pain Sensitivity in Gulf War Veterans With Chronic Musculoskeletal Pain
Via 91 Outcomes
Dane B. Cook, Aaron J. Stegner and Laura D. Ellingson † Department of Kinesiology, University of Wisconsin, Madison,Wisconsin
Abstract
Since returning from the Persian...
VA, DOD agree on single lifetime personnel identifier
Via GovHealth
The Veterans Affairs and the Defense departments have agreed on a single common personal identifier, one of the keys to its efforts to build...
VA care for women too restrictive, group says
By Rick Maze in the Air Force Times
The creation of health clinics specifically for female veterans at Veterans Affairs Department hospitals may be having...
Congressional Panel Investigates Veterans Insurance
Representative Edolphus Towns, chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, said his panel will investigate the insurance benefits for U.S. soldiers provided by Prudential Financial Inc. and the Department of Veterans Affairs.
Regional Veterans News 8/12/10
Regional Veterans News 8/12/10
Regional stories on veterans’ health, education, benefits, legal affairs and other issues today from:
Lyon Township, Michigan - Court watches out for...
Robert Gibbs Is Truly Foolish, Administration Not Much Better
- For the 2008 presidential campaign—that flourished on the unprecedented use of new media and fresh engagement with the political system by citizens in their earnest hope for...
John McCain: A Closer Look at Evil (Part 13)
When treason charges are (belatedly) filed against John McCain, what will be his defense?
Reagan Insider, His Budget Director, Says: ‘GOP destroyed U.S. economy’
How my G.O.P. destroyed the U.S. economy." Yes, that is exactly what David Stockman, President Ronald Reagan's director of the Office of Management and Budget, wrote in a recent New York Times op-ed piece, "Four Deformations of the Apocalypse."
U.S. Department of Defense Announces Latest Contract Awards
No. 713-10
August 11, 2010
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CONTRACTS
DEFENSE LOGISTICS AGENCY
US Foodservice/Joseph Webb Division, Vista, Calif., is being awarded a maximum $51,877,500 firm-fixed-price, prime vendor contract for full...
We Won’t Be Fooled Again on Iran
Iran aggressively pursues these weapons and exports terror, while an unelected few repress the Iranian people's hope for freedom.
Defense Contracting Job Search: FAQ
What is defense contracting, and what does it mean if I am hired on a defense contract? Defense contracting is very simple: a commercial company has bid and won a contract to provide services to the U.S. government. The type of work is either professional services.
Establishement Liberal Sees an Israeli Strike on Iran as 50/50 This Year
Crazy instead of empire looks likely. Today, there is a new US President, more Iranian centrifuges, and a different Israeli Prime Minister - and Bibi Netanyahu seems closer to a Curtis LeMay, John Bolton or Frank Gaffney than he does to the more containment-oriented Eisenhowers and George Kennans who in their day forged a global equilibrium out of superpower rivalry and hatred.
Gibbs is Wrong: It Isn’t About the Professional Left
- You can call it left, right, green, red or purple; we were promised change and we don't like what we see -
By Cenk...
Top 10 Veterans Stories in Today’s News
From the VA:
Top 10 Veterans Stories in Today’s News
1. Forum Planning To Send Letters About Roseburg VA Services To Shinseki. The Roseburg (OR) News-Review (8/11,...
SECRETARY SHINSEKI’S MESSAGE TO GULF WAR VETERANS
VA recognizes and values the selfless service and sacrifice of Gulf War Veterans and their families, and continues our efforts to address the unique health needs of Gulf War Veterans.
Letterman on Andrew Breitbart: “A%*Hole”
- Recalling White House cowardice in the face of mendacity; scaring white people about black people is good politics for the GOP and Tea...
New Reut Institute case study: The Collapse of Israel’s Political Firewall is admission campaign...
The Reut Institute, it seems, has recognized that Israel's "branding" campaign is not going to go anywhere unless there are fundamental policy changes.
MoodTracker: a mobile app for monitoring psychological health
- The Apps for the Army (A4A) competition recently announced the winners for their first internal applications-development challenge, and DCoE’s National Center for Telehealth...
Gates Puts Meat on Bones of Department Efficiencies Initiative
Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates is putting meat on the bones of his initiative to reform the way the Pentagon does business and to eliminate duplicative, unnecessary overhead costs.
The Lunatic’s Manual in Afghanistan
- Given the current trend of things in Afghanistan, if President Obama and SecDef Gates are really serious about reclaiming "efficiencies" in defense spending, maybe they ought to think a little harder about the billions spent every month in that country, not to mention the wisdom of retaining 50,000 U.S. troops in Iraq. Sven Ortmann appropriately quotes Winston Churchill: "The Americans will always do the right thing ... after they've exhausted all the alternatives."
End of the Internet? Google-Verizon Pact: It Gets Worse
We need the FCC -- with the backing of Congress and President Obama -- to step up and do the hard work of governing. That means restoring the FCC's authority to protect Internet users and safeguarding real Net Neutrality once and for all. Will they lead or let corperations have a free hand?
Israel’s Olmert and the Jackals
The occupation is corrupt, and it corrupts by its very nature. It denies all human rights, including the right to property. It fills the occupied territories with an atmosphere of general lawlessness. It enriches the occupier and everybody connected with him. It creates a climate of wanton cynicism, an environment of "anything goes". Such an atmosphere does not stop at the Green Line. It permeates the state of the conqueror. That's where the rot set in.
Fiscal Hawks Not Serious, Says Expert in Testimony to Senate Budget Committee
- The argument “just cut entitlements” cannot be taken seriously. -
By Simon Johnson in the Baseline Scenario
Most of the discussion of federal budget issues...
Military Health Care a Target of the DoD Budget Cutters
"There are no sacred cows," Gates told reporters. "Everybody knows that we're being eaten alive by health care." Noting that military health care will cost $50 billion in 2011 and will rise to $65 billion by 2015, he said, "It's unsustainable, and therefore it has to be a part of our effort."
Regional Veterans News 8/11/10
Regional Veterans News 8/11/10
Regional stories on veterans’ health, education, benefits, legal affairs and other issues today from:
West Seneca, New York - New Veterans of Foreign...
How the Military Destroys the Lives of Soldiers Who Try to Tell the Truth
Bradley Manning is not the first military whistleblower to have his life ruined. The military is infamous for trying to silence soldiers who speak out against the war.
John McCain: A Closer Look at Evil (Part 12)
Given the consistently ruinous impact of McCain’s conduct on U.S. national security, he has gained strong (and thus far silent) opposition from within senior ranks of the U.S. military.
Mass Baptism of Marines Used by Jihadist Website As Proof of “Christian Crusade” in...
Surely the Taliban and Al Qaeda will be sending bountiful fruit baskets to Lt. Col. Kaifesh, and his entire culpable USMC/DoD chain of command, for so magnificently advancing the cause of their "U.S. as Crusaders" propaganda machine.
U.S. Department of Defense Announces Latest Contract Awards
No. 711-10
August 10, 2010
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CONTRACTS
NAVY
Northrop Grumman Systems Corp., Rolling Meadows, Ill., is being awarded an undefinitized contract action with an estimated value of $77,655,380...
Pentagon Betrays Troops Again: ‘Adjustment Disorder’ Discharges Soar: No Benefits, no respect
- Military boots PTSD troops with no benefits. Pentagon has moved away from personality disorders, but adjustment disorder diagnosis is another piece of the same...
Gates to close JFCOM, cut gen. officer billets
Defense Secretary Robert Gates killed U.S. Joint Forces Command on Monday with the announcement that the Norfolk, Va.-based command will be shuttered “in about a year” as part of the latest round of cost-cutting measures.
Obama vs. Obama on Endless Wars: Who Wins? (VIDEO)
Back in early 2007, when the Bush administration was insisting that its military intervention in a faraway land was not open-ended, Senator Barack Obama wasn't buying it.
Ted Olson Eviscerates Fox “News” on Equal Protection and Civil Rights
- Seriously, what part of conservative values and the U.S. Constitution do Fox "News" 'conservatives not get? -
By Brad Friedman at The Brad Blog
As...
If the U.S. Postal Service Really Wants to Honor Black People, Try Emancipating Them
I like President Obama . He's one of the most intelligent presidents we've ever had. He saved the nation from another Great Depression, and he's accomplished more in his first two years in office than most presidents manage to accomplish in their entire eight years. But there's more to being a good president than what he manages to do. We must also take into account what he fails to do - and unfortunately, what Obama is failing to do is protect the rule of law, and that can place us all in serious jeopardy.
The banality of evil and Israel’s destruction of al-Araqib, again
- In the early hours of August 10, Israeli forces destroyed -- for the third time -- the Bedouin village of al-Araqib in the...
GORDON DUFF: WHY AMERICANS ARE EXPORTING THEMSELVES
IT MAY BE THE LAND OF THE "24 HOUR WALMART" BUT IS IT STILL AMERICA?
By Gordon Duff STAFF WRITER/Senior Editor
Americans are terrible at languages. ...
Iraq Veterans Against the War Calls for Prosecution of Bush Administration Officials for War...
IVAW alleges that Bush administration officials conspired to create the perception that Saddam Hussein presented an imminent threat to the United States in order to bypass an uncooperative U.N. Security Council and secure a congressional Authorization for Use of Military Force against Iraq. The growing body of evidence, including testimony from British officials in the ongoing Chilcot Inquiry, indicates that Bush officials could be charged with criminal offenses against the United States and violations of international law for making false claims to national self-defense.
Veterans for Obama? Some now have doubts
Relations between the Obama administration and some elements of the military veterans community, a constituency the Obama campaign carefully cultivated for the 2008 election, have grown distant and, in some cases, icy. Some veterans advocates describe a tangible sense of disenchantment, even among some of Obama's staunchest veteran supporters who actively campaigned on his behalf as part of "Veterans for Obama."
We ‘lost’ the Afghanistan War: See reality and start talking
A poll by the International Council on Security and Development reaffirms that the NATO alliance is failing to win over Afghan civilians, a cornerstone of success in the current strategy employed in Afghanistan. The poll found that in the two provinces currently at the center of the war — Helmand and Kandahar — 75 percent of Afghans believe foreigners disrespect their religion and traditions; 74 percent think working for foreign forces is wrong; 68 percent believe NATO will not protect them; and 65 percent think Taliban leader Mullah Muhammad Omar should be part of the government.