Mountain Sage

In what is being hailed by some as President Obama’s best speech ever, President Obama addresses attendees of the Fort Hood Memorial Service. The President honors each and every one who died and condemned the act as murderous and craven.

Chuck Todd: “That’s going to be a speech that’s remembered and quoted from for quite some time; struck a balance of commander and consoler; not easy.”SOURCE

Here, at Fort Hood, we pay tribute to thirteen men and women who were not able to escape the horror of war, even in the comfort of home. President Obama 11/10/09

President Obama’s Fort Hood Memorial Speech. Part 1 Of 3. 11/10/09

President Obama’s Fort Hood Memorial Speech. Part 2 Of 3. 11/10/09

President Obama’s Fort Hood Memorial Speech. Part 3 Of 3. 11/10/09

THE WHITE HOUSE

Office of the Press Secretary
_________________________________________________________________________________________________
For Immediate Release November 10, 2009

REMARKS BY THE PRESIDENT

AT MEMORIAL SERVICE AT FORT HOOD

Fort Hood – III Corps
Fort Hood, Texas
1:55 P.M. CST

THE PRESIDENT: To the Fort Hood community; to Admiral Mullen; General Casey; General Cone; Secretary McHugh; Secretary Gates; most importantly, to family, friends and members of our Armed Forces. We come together filled with sorrow for the 13 Americans that we have lost; with gratitude for the lives that they led; and with a determination to honor them through the work we carry on.

This is a time of war. Yet these Americans did not die on a foreign field of battle. They were killed here, on American soil, in the heart of this great state and the heart of this great American community. This is the fact that makes the tragedy even more painful, even more incomprehensible. [Read the rest of this entry...]

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So many ways to rip off the government and so little time.  KBR, once again in the spotlight for yet more malfeasance.  Back in May we found that KBR was paid $80 million in bonuses for contracts to install electrical wiring in Iraq, wiring that electrocuted American soldiers.  Now we find they may have exposed 100,000 people to cancer causing toxins, among the  number are U.S. troops.  With “friends” like KBR, who needs enemies?

Not only has KBR made a lot of money for performing shoddy work, it has avoided paying millions of dollars in social security and Medicare taxes by using shell companies in the Cayman Islands to hire workers.

Just to refresh your memory, KBR is the company who tried to cover up the rape of one of their employees, Jamie Leigh Jones, who was raped by fellow employees.

In 2007, an executive for an air freight company subcontracted to KBR pled guilty to dispensing bribes and then lying to federal investigators in a case involving a network of kickbacks, fraud and bribes….the network was comprised of at least 8 KBR employees and subcontractors. I’m sure I could find more incidences of KBR misdeeds, but you get the picture.

Why, with all of it’s wrongdoing, is KBR still holding contracts from the U.S. government?

KBR may have poisoned 100,000 people in Iraq: lawsuit

By Daniel Tencer

Monday, November 9th, 2009 — 10:33 am

Defense contractor KBR may have exposed as many as 100,000 people, including US troops, to cancer-causing toxins by burning waste in open-air pits in Iraq, says a series of class-action lawsuits filed against the company.

At least 22 separate lawsuits claiming KBR poisoned American soldiers in Iraq have been combined into a single massive lawsuit that says KBR, which until not long ago was a subsidiary of Halliburton, sought to save money by disposing of toxic waste and incinerating numerous potentially harmful substances in open-air “burn pits.”

According to one of the lawsuits (PDF), filed in a federal court in Nashville, KBR burned “tires, lithium batteries … biohazard materials (including human corpses), medical supplies (including those used during smallpox inoculations), paints, solvents, asbestos insulation, items containing pesticides, polyvinyl chloride pipes, animal carcasses, dangerous chemicals, and hundreds of thousands of plastic water bottles.”

And they did so within plain sight of US troops operating in Iraq, the lawsuit states. “In some instances, the burn pit smoke was so bad that it interfered with the military mission,” the Nashville lawsuit states. “For example, the military located at Camp Bucca, a detention facility, had difficulty guarding the facility as a result of the smoke.”

Rest of article

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After losing a couple of state governorships, the Democratic Party has appeared perplexed about what happened.  I can with some certainty say that in Virginia what happened is Creigh Deeds moved to the right and distanced himself from the voters who voted for Barack Obama.  Mostly younger, educated voters, put Virginia in the blue column for the presidential election, yet Deeds thought he had to cater to the centrists (read conservative) Democrats of Virginia.

What the Democrats seem to never get is that it is the more liberal electorate that puts them into office and for some reason the Democrats after getting into office take a right turn and collude with the conservatives to water down liberal efforts.  This is exactly what they have done by voting for the Stupak Amendment.  We should have known this would happen…..taking single payer health care off the table before the debate had even begun should have been our first clue that the Democrats don’t really stand for liberal ideas.

There has been a lot of commentary about the splitting of the Republican Party but I think the Democrats are going to face the same issue…liberals put Democrats into office and Democrats all of a sudden don’t need their liberal base any more.  Ask the gay community.  Many of them worked hard for candidate Obama and other Democrats and yet we still have the Defense of Marriage Act and Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell.  Women in large measure worked for Democratic candidates and now it is their turn to find themselves thrown under the bus of the Democratic Party.

If Democrats cannot support their own platform, then why are they in the Democratic Party?

A big thumbs down to those who voted for the Stupak Amendment:

Bishop (GA)

Cardoza

Cooper

Costa

Costello

Cuellar

Dahlkemper

Donnelly (IN)

Doyle

Driehaus

Ellsworth

Ethridge

Hill

Kanjorski

Kaptur

Kildee

Lipinski

Lynch

Mollohan

Reyes

Murtha

Neal (CA)

Oberstar

Obey

Ortiz

Perriello

Pomeroy

Rahall

Rodriguez

Ryan (OH)

Salazar

Snyder

Spratt

Stupak

Wilson (OH)
Yes, it may be an old country saying, but it still stands true…..you’ve got to dance with the one that brung you or you may just find yourself as a wall flower.

Choice from the THE 2008 DEMOCRATIC NATIONAL PLATFORM, RENEWING AMERICA’S PROMISE

The Democratic Party strongly and unequivocally supports Roe v. Wade and a woman’s right
to choose a safe and legal abortion, regardless of ability to pay, and we oppose any and all
efforts to weaken or undermine that right. SOURCE .pdf

Apparently the parties platform means little to nothing to House Democrats.

After months of work by House Democrats on major health care legislation, the floor debate on the bill was at risk of being overshadowed by an internal dispute among Democrats over the issue of abortion. In the end, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi decided that abortion opponents would be allowed to offer an amendment that would impose tight restrictions on abortions that could be offered through a new government-run insurance plan and through private insurance that is bought using government subsidies. Sponsored primarily by Michigan Representative Bart Stupakhe, the amendment to the legislation passed 240 – 194.SOURCE

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I’m terribly afraid the bill has been so watered down that it really means very little.

The House floor erupted in one of the loudest cheers the chamber has heard in years when Rep. Maxine Waters (D-Calif.), an hour before midnight, cast the 218th and deciding vote on landmark health care reform.

There were still six minutes and fifty-two seconds on the clock and the chair made a move to gavel the vote closed.

Democrats waived their opposition, keeping the vote open.

[snip]

As the clock hit ten seconds, Democrats counted down the time, finishing with an even louder cheer as Pelosi read out the tally: 220-215.

SOURCE.

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Kucinich asks a question that I would love to have the answer to. Why is it our monetary priorities are for war instead of the things we need here at home? What will it take for the government to say enough and pull troops out of Iraq and Afghanistan?

Did the previous administration really stop to count the costs of a war in Iraq? Millions are still unemployed here in the U.S. and I have to wonder what could be accomplished if all the money being spent in Iraq were poured into job creation.

WASHINGTON – November 6 – Following a statement on the Floor of the House of Representative, Congressman Dennis Kucinich (D-OH) today made the following statement:

“Why is it we have finite resources for health care but unlimited money for war?

“The inequities in our economy are piling up: trillions for war, trillions for Wall Street and tens of billions for the insurance companies. Banks and other corporations are sitting on piles of cash of taxpayer’s money while firing workers, cutting pay and denying small businesses money to survive.

“People are losing their homes, their jobs, their health, their investments, their retirement security; yet there is unlimited money for war, Wall Street and insurance companies, but very little money for jobs on Main Street.

“Unlimited money to blow up things in Iraq and Afghanistan, and relatively little money to build things in the US.

“The Administration may soon bring to Congress a request for an additional $50 billion for war. I can tell you that a Democratic version of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan is no more acceptable than a Republican version of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

SOURCE.

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There’s a war going on in America, and the stakes are nothing less than Glenn Beck’s internal organs.

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All of our representatives need to take an oath to not take any more money from the insurance industry. It is a conflict of interest.

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UPDATE:  The shooter has been apprehended.

Initial reports are the shooter walked into this office building and opened fire.  He has not been apprehended, SWAT teams are looking for him.  Evidently the shooter was fired two years ago from Reynolds, Smith and Hill.

Reports on the number of people killed  are conflicting at this time.

ORLANDO, FL –Orlando Police are searching for a gunman who injured as many as 17 people at the 16 story Gateway Center at 1000 Legion Place around 11:30 a.m.

Orange County Sheriff’s Spokesman Jim Solomons says his department is backing up Orlando police and they’re still looking for an armed man wearing a light blue polo shirt and jeans.

Police have identified the person they are looking for as Jason Rodriguez. He is driving a 2002 Nissan Silver SUV with Florida tag D119UX, His birth date 9/28/69.

He was a former employee at Reynolds, Smith and Hills Engineering, Architectural Firm. That’s a transportation engineering firm. The company confirms he was laid off in June, 2007.

REST OF ARTICLE

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UPDATE:  The commander of Fort Hood said that the gunman, Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan, was in custody and hospitalized in stable condition, contradicting earlier reports from officials that he had been killed in what is believed to be the deadliest mass shooting on a U.S. military base.SOURCE

Local news is reporting Hasan graduated from Virginia Tech.

Correction via CNN….Maj. Nadal Malik Hasan, M.D.

CNN is reporting that Maj. Nadal Malik Hasan was a psychiatrist who was upset about being deployed to Iraq.  These are initial reports subject to change as more information comes in.

UPDATE:

The slain gunman was identified as Maj. Malik Nadal Hasan, according to a law enforcement source. The source believes he is 39 or 40 years old.

Ten of the other dead also were soldiers, while the remaining one was a civilian police officer who was working as a contractor on the base, Cone said. SOURCE

I’ll update as information becomes available.  I was out for a few hours and haven’t caught up yet on all the news.

FORT HOOD (November 5, 2009)—Fort Hood remains on lockdown late Thursday afternoon after a shooting that apparently involved three soldiers that left 12 people dead and 31 more injured.

A soldier whom officials identified as the gunman is dead.

Two other soldiers are in custody in connection with the shooting, but their roles were not clear.

The shooting started at about 1:30 p.m., according to a military statement, reportedly in the Sports Dome, which now serves as a center for soldiers and families preparing for deployment.

One of the dead is a civilian police officer, Fort Hood confirmed.

All available ambulances and paramedics in the area responded to the post.

Some of the wounded were taken to Darnall Army Medical Center and others were flown or taken by ambulance to Scott & White Hospital in Temple.

REST OF ARTICLE

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I think the U.S. is on very thin ice with the drone attacks.  The United States claims  the UN Human Rights Council and the General Assembly have no role in an armed conflict but Mr. Alston describes that as  “simply untenable”.  After the fiasco of Abu Ghraib, the United States may find that the rest of the world isn’t feeling particularly patient with our foreign policies.  A TIMEEurope poll in 2003 showed that those who took the poll believed the U.S. posed the greatest danger to world peace.   The three choices in the poll were the U.S., North Korea and Iraq.  The U.S. “won” at  86.9% of the vote. ¹

The drone attacks aren’t likely to help change the world view of the U.S. as a threat to world peace.

US warned on deadly drone attacks

UN human rights investigator Philip Alston said the US should explain the legal basis for attacking individuals with the remote-controlled aircraft.

He said the CIA had to show accountability to international laws which ban arbitrary executions.

Drones have killed about 600 people in north-west Pakistan since August 2008.

Mr Alston, the UN Special Rapporteur on Extrajudicial Executions, told the BBC: “My concern is that these drones, these Predators, are being operated in a framework which may well violate international humanitarian law and international human rights law.

“The onus is really on the government of the United States to reveal more about the ways in which it makes sure that arbitrary executions, extrajudicial executions, are not in fact being carried out through the use of these weapons.”

REST OF ARTICLE

¹SOURCE

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