They gave us a republic... - Front Page

An Unexpected Encounter in Section 60

Yellow Dog — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 01:43:40 GMT

Via Talking Points Memo, a must-read about an unplanned meeting at Arlington on Veterans Day.

"A Gentleman's Agreement"?: Garbo speaks!

Michael Bersin — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 20:35:05 GMT

This is the twenty-seventh post in an ongoing series as we file Missouri Sunshine Law (RSMo 610) requests and investigate the non-renewal of the contract of University of Central Missouri President Aaron Podolefsky. Links to previous coverage are below the fold. BG and MB

The weekly dead trees edition of the student newspaper, the Muleskinner, was on newsstands today. On page 1, above the fold, was a headline story on the two new members of the University's Board of Governors:

New Board Members
Appointees look forward to new job, challenges ahead
...."I like the institution [UCM] and am very familiar with it," [Marvin "Bunky"] Wright said...
...When asked what it feels like to be joining the Board soon after the decision had been made not to renew Podolefsky's contract, Wright was optimistic about the future of the institution.
"I don't know that there is any controversy," Wright said. "There's been a vote taken and the matter is decided. The main thing the Board has to do is move forward with the University...."

Evidently this was spoken without any sense of irony. If a majority (142) of tenured faculty along with student and community expressions of support don't count for anything as far as "major stakeholder groups" are concerned, then you could see how someone who expresses "familiarity" with the institution would think that there's no controversy.

I wonder if Mr. Wright thinks the $80,000 contract for a consultant in the upcoming presidential search (we're still waiting) the board approved without a Request for Proposals or a bid is not controversial because "there's been a vote taken and the matter is decided." That's a pretty narrow view of accountability for a public entity, don't you think?

Also in the same edition of the Muleskinner was a letter to the editor written by a student:

....A certain KOKO radio commentator has recently made his feelings blatantly known that practicing Jews and their customs are not welcome in Warrensburg community because they may not fall into line with their own traditions. How can we let such people continue to be the voice of UCM? Where are our American values? We must embrace and learn from all cultures and traditions that wish to be a part of us....
....In the end, we must work together to show the world that Warrensburg is a community of acceptance and not half-hearted tolerance...

And, the paper also had an extensive center section on President Aaron Podolefsky with the headline "Podolefsky Past And Present" discussing the University's "vision for the future" (approved by the board in 2006), the University's name change, the campus Master Plan, and the ESCO (energy) project - all projects during the president's tenure. The paper quoted Podolefsky, referring to faculty:

"Presidents come and go, board members come and go, but faculty make the institution. When people are willing to stand up and step up front like that, that really makes me [feel] good."

Moving forward, at least to us, means more Missouri Sunshine Law requests.
Our previous coverage:

Three steps behind, and to the right (January 25, 2008)

Three steps behind, and to the right, part 2 - a microcosm of our universe (September 21, 2009)

"A Gentleman's Agreement"? (October 15, 2009) (transcript of a portion of the live radio broadcast)

It wasn't just about a tree (October 21, 2009)

"A Gentleman's Agreement?": I heard it on the radio (October 21, 2009)

"A Gentleman's Agreement?": let's not get cut out of the will (October 22, 2009)

"A Gentleman's Agreement?": $87.75 will get you one sheet of paper (October 23, 2009)

"A Gentleman's Agreement?": They're not playing hardball, they're playing cat and mouse (October 23, 2009)

"A Gentleman's Agreement?": a cola and some scoreboards (October 24, 2009)

"A Gentleman's Agreement?": a few more pieces of the puzzle? (October 28, 2009)

"A Gentleman's Agreement"?: your silence means consent (October 29, 2009)

"A Gentleman's Agreement"?: let's not get cut out of the will, part 2 (October 30, 2009)

Old media irony impairment (October 30, 2009)

"A Gentleman's Agreement?": I heard it on the radio, part 2 (October 31, 2009)

"A Gentleman's Agreement"?: where everybody knows your name (October 31, 2009)

Methinks that someone is paying attention! (November 2, 2009)

"A Gentleman's Agreement"?: Bond, Stadium Bond (November 4, 2009)

"A Gentleman's Agreement"?: where everybody knows your name, part 2 (November 4, 2009)

"A Gentleman's Agreement"?: I heard it on the radio, part 3 (November 5, 2009)

"A Gentleman's Agreement"?: nothing succeeds like success (November 6, 2009)

"A Gentleman's Agreement"?: your Friday news dump (November 6, 2009)

"A Gentleman's Agreement"?: nothing exceeds like excess (November 7, 2009)

"A Gentleman's Agreement"?: a grade for Accounting 101 (November 7, 2009)

"A Gentleman's Agreement"?: there ought to be a law (November 8, 2009)

"A Gentleman's Agreement"?: there's gotta be a contract around here somewhere (November 9, 2009)

"A Gentleman's Agreement"?: there ought to be a law, part 2 (November 10, 2009)

It's called 'passing on your problem'

Blue Girl — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 18:31:33 GMT

...and it has absolutely plagued the military for far longer than I have been sentient. I grew up hearing my father bitch about problem Sailors that ended up transferred to him, and I have heard my husband grumble about Airmen who should never have made it out of tech school. But you know what? As much as they grumbled, they did it, too, and so have I, and so has everyone else in the positions we previously occupied, because unless you have a hot piss test on someone, getting rid of them is a bureaucratic nightmare. It is a system-wide, institutional problem, and one week ago it sent some deadly chickens home to roost at Ft. Hood.

Starting in the spring of 2008, key officials from Walter Reed Army Medical Center and the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences held a series of meetings and conversations, in part about Maj. Nidal Hasan, the man accused of killing 13 people and wounding dozens of others last week during a shooting spree at Fort Hood. One of the questions they pondered: Was Hasan psychotic?
"Put it this way," says one official familiar with the conversations that took place. "Everybody felt that if you were deployed to Iraq or Afghanistan, you would not want Nidal Hasan in your foxhole."
[SNIP]
One official involved in the conversations had reportedly told colleagues that he worried that if Hasan deployed to Iraq or Afghanistan, he might leak secret military information to Islamic extremists. Another official reportedly wondered aloud to colleagues whether Hasan might be capable of committing fratricide, like the Muslim U.S. Army sergeant who, in 2003, killed two fellow soldiers and injured 14 others by setting off grenades at a base in Kuwait.
So why didn't officials act on their concerns and seek to remove Hasan from his duties, or at least order him to receive a mental health evaluation? Interviews with these officials suggest that a chain of unrelated events and factors deterred them.
For one thing, Walter Reed and most medical institutions have a cumbersome and lengthy process for expelling doctors, involving hearings and potential legal battles. As a result, sources say, key decision-makers decided it would be too difficult, if not unfeasible, to put Hasan on probation and possibly expel him from the program.
Second, some of Hasan's supervisors and instructors had told colleagues that they repeatedly bent over backward to support and encourage him, because they didn't have clear evidence that he was unstable, and they worried they might be "discriminating" against Hasan because of his seemingly extremist Islamic beliefs.
Third, the officials involved in deliberations this year reportedly were not aware, as some top Walter Reed officials were, that intelligence analysts had been tracking Hasan's e-mails with at least one suspected Islamic extremist since December 2008.
And finally, Hasan was about to leave Walter Reed and USUHS for good and transfer to Fort Hood, in Texas. Fort Hood has more psychiatrists and other mental specialists than some other Army bases, so officials figured there would be plenty of co-workers who would support Hasan - and monitor him.[emphasis added]

That last part? About more people there to monitor him?

Bullshit. Especially if his Commanding Officer at Walter Reed didn't have a long heart-to-heart with his Commander at Ft. Hood.

No, what that is, is a rationalization in an attempt to justify negligence...in the civilian world. In the military world, it's a fucking dereliction of duty. And this time, it got 13 people gunned down in cold blood.

Because his Commander at Walter Reed passed on their problem.

Denny Hoskins: Noun, Verb?CPA?

Blue Girl — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 13:50:11 GMT

Oh. My. And I thought Denny Hoskins was having a bad freshman year before the news broke yesterday that he owes over $20,000 in back taxes on properties owned by Hos Properties, LLC, the rental property business he owns with his brother.

I would imagine it is something of a toss-up which Denny Hoskins regrets more this week...All that yammering he did about being a CPA and how responsible he would be with the taxpayers money, or the slim 122 votes that he won his seat by.

We snagged a screen shot of his website to preserve his touted CPA bona fides

To his credit, he didn't lie and obfuscate when confronted with the information available in the public record.

Rep. Denny Hoskins admitted to The Daily Star-Journal on Wednesday that he failed to pay more than $16,000 in taxes last year.
Hoskins owed the tax bill for the entire 11 months he has served as a House member, with the debt beginning Dec. 31.
Hoskins - who touted being a certified public accountant and who made working to improve the economy cornerstones of his election campaign last year - blamed the failure to pay taxes last year on the recession. He said Hos Properties LLC, a company owned by Hoskins and his brother, owes the taxes.
"It's not something my brother and I are proud of, but our rental property business is struggling just like other, many Missouri businesses, and when our tenants are struggling to pay their rent due to the economic recession, we struggle to pay our mortgage payment and property taxes," Hoskins said.
In addition to owing $16,091 in taxes used to fund local schools and other taxing entities, Hos Properties owes $4,227 in penalties.

Now, beating up on Denny Hoskins is just about my favorite sport outside of World Cup Soccer. I think he's a moron and an embarrassment and has no damned business in the state legislature. But do I think he would be behind in his taxes if the economy didn't suck and people were paying their rent?

Honestly, no. I don't. I feel the same way his opponent does.

The only announced candidate in the race for Hoskins' seat in the 121st District, Courtney Cole, Warrensburg, said she paid all of her taxes.
"Of course I did," Cole said. "They can check all they want."
Cole said she "feels bad for him," but everyone must pay taxes.
"I feel he's doing a disservice to our district by not paying his taxes, especially somebody who's an accountant. It's unfortunate that he doesn't do what's expected of all of the citizens within the district," Cole said.

And they have obviously been trying to collect on monies owed, filing in small claims court to collect on the bad debts their tenants have left them holding. But on the other hand, Warrensburg is a small town, and they got twenty grand in arrears on taxes, so I have to ask...was anyone paying their rent?

A small claim filed by HOS Properties
in 2009...

...signed by Denny Hoskins.

On yet another hand, he hasn't let us forget since he announced he was running for the seat, he is a CPA and the code of conduct that he is sworn to mandates he pay all taxes on time, for himself and his clients. And that's pretty immutable.

Nightowl Newswrap

BG & YD bring you the news — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 05:15:00 GMT

Back to the drawing board President Obama has rejected all of the Afghanistan options presented to him so far, saying bring him something with an exit strategy. And Ambassador Eikenberry, who until recently was General Eikenberry, one of the Generals in command in Afghanistan, saying, in so many words 'oh god no, don't send more troops' well, lets just say that he didn't exactly undercut the President's decision. So brace yourselves for tomorrow. Squawking and the yellow feathers of republican chickenhawks thrown into a molt will surely fill the air.

You can start "doing right by them" by withdrawing from two destructive quagmires and putting the money into mental health care. "President Barack Obama has praised the US armed forces past and present and promised he will "do right by them". Mr Obama was speaking at Arlington National Cemetery as events were held around the world to mark the 91st anniversary of the end of World War I. His comments came as he prepared to meet his security officials to discuss sending more troops to Afghanistan ... Mr Obama laid a wreath on the Tomb of the Unknowns at the Arlington military cemetery. "To the veterans, the fallen and their families there is no tribute, no commemoration, no praise that can truly match the magnitude of your service and your sacrifice," he said. Mr Obama said there were times when America had "betrayed that sacred trust" between the army and the nation. "Our Vietnam veterans served with great honour but often came home greeted not with gratitude and support but with condemnation and neglect," he said, but pledged that would "never happen again". "As long as I am Commander in Chief, I am going to do right by them. America will not let you down, we will take care of our own," he said.'

No excuse for this. "Poor child nutrition still causes major problems in the developing world - despite some progress, experts say. A third of deaths in children under five in those countries are linked to poor diet, a report by Unicef suggests. It also reveals 195m children - one in three - have stunted growth, even though rates have fallen since 1990. Unicef said the number of underweight children also remained high, with many countries struggling to hit official targets to halve the figures. An estimated 129m children are underweight. Rates of stunted growth are higher because while some children may be a normal weight - in fact some can even be overweight - the food they are getting is of such poor quality they they have growth problems. Experts warn that such a condition is often irreversible and effectively condemns children to a lifetime of poor health."

Sounds like capitalism has gotten the upper hand. "A gold mining firm is being investigated after part of one of the oldest sections of the Great Wall of China was damaged during prospecting. About 100 metres of the wall was badly damaged, and investigators from the Chinese government and regional police now plan to bring charges. The damage was originally discovered in September and work halted, but officials later found it had restarted. The damaged section, in Inner Mongolia, dates from the Qin Dynasty (BC221). Hohhot Kekao Mining Company is alleged to have knocked two holes, covering a total area of 300 sq m, through the Wall. The head of the regional cultural relics bureau, Wang Dafang, told the Associated Press news agency that the damage was "irreparable"."

Quicker, easier way to find planets. "Astronomers may have found a way to identify those Sun-like stars most likely to harbour orbiting planets. A survey of stars known to possess planets shows the vast majority to be severely depleted in lithium. To date, scientists have detected just over 420 worlds circling other stars using a range of techniques. Garik Israelian and colleagues tell the journal Nature that future planet hunts could be narrowed by going after stars with particular compositions."

She did more than just serve. "Dorothy Goot and the thousand or so other women who served as pioneering pilots during World War II have been largely lost in history. They were bold and brave and matter-of-fact about it all. After the war, they went on with their lives: stopped flying, had kids, doted on grandkids. They returned to civilian life with limitations on what and who they could be, almost as if all those missions had never happened. But these women changed things for other women. They wore military uniforms, turning heads so often they stopped noticing the double-takes. "I think it opened the door for women now who can do anything they want these days," said Goot, 87, who lives in Fair Oaks. Goot and three other surviving members of the Women Airforce Service Pilots will be recognized during a Veterans Day celebration today at Veterans Memorial Plaza at Mather, site of the now-closed Air Force base. The theme will be "Women in the Military," and the event will include a speech by Brig. Gen. Mary J. Kight, assistant adjutant general for the California National Guard."

We're sure it was an accident, just like all those times they put a (D) behind the name of a disgraced republican. Hannity was busted by Jon Stewart on last night's Daily Show for using shots of the "9/12 Beckstock rally" to make it look like Michele Bachman's farce last week was much, much larger than it really was...So if Hannity is using that rally - which according to those with degrees in Michelle Malkin Math drew an infinite number of people, including, apparently, me, since everyone who has ever lived was in attendance - to inflate the number of people who attended Bachmann's rally - Is Faux Noise admitting that Beck's 9/12 stunt wasn't attended by over a million people, as they have claimed for two months? Is this a tacit admission that the 'librul media' wasn't really deliberately undercounting and lying about it?

If you haven't caught Leno at Ten yet...and apparently very few of you have, because the ratings absolutely suck, you may want to hurry up and catch an episode before it gets cancelled so you can tell the grandkids about the biggest blunder ever in the history of the teevee machine.

If the Banksters are pissed, Dodd must be on the right track Senate Banking Committee Chairman Chris Dodd of Connecticut unveiled his sweeping bank overhaul bill that would, if passed, amount to the most comprehensive overhaul of the banking industry and financial regulations since the Great Depression. The bill would create a single overseer agency, but that is not what has the banksters clutching their Armani ties. Dodd's bill would strip the Federal Reserve and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. of their bank supervisory powers and merge federal bank regulation into a single entity, a new Financial Institutions Regulatory Administration, and bankers would no longer be able to go shopping for the most inept and drunken regulator they can find, and proceed to run riot through the life savings of millions or ordinary people.

We aren't so sure this is a good idea A New Jersey judge has issued a ruling allowing a former avid hunter who was paralyzed 30 years ago after his neck was broken in a football game a permit to buy guns to mount on his wheelchair and operate with a breathing tube. Now, one of us happens to be an avid hunter (ironically enough, the one who lives in the city) and understands the desire to get out in the woods and hunt. But if you can't dress it and prep it, you aren't hunting. You are just killing.

A post-mortem poll on the NY 23 points up the stark differences between a movement and a political party.

Just in time for the holidays! The Onion store has books on sale, making it 25% cheaper to impress your friends by pretending that you read!

Freedom of information isn't free! Wow. We thought the University we are dogging wanted a lot of money to fill a Sunshine request when they told us $500 - but the Department of the Treasury wants over half a million to fill a FOIA request.

RiceHadley Group consulting? What kind of wingnut welfare scam is this? Who, in their right mind, would ever hire either Condi the Incompetent or Stephen Hadley for any kind of "strategic consulting" work? They are two of the biggest fuckups in the entire Bush administration that was teeming with fuckups.

Trouble at the Moonie Times If the Washington Times fails and goes under, where will Tony Blankley's next plate of bangers and mash come from? But if it fails and goes under, like so many other newspapers have in recent months, it will be for different reasons. The Times isn't struggling financially. The Moon family is in the throes of sibling rivalry and infighting, and one of the casualties of their internecine war might be the Times.

Color us stunned No matter what President Obama decides to do in Afghanistan, short of turning over the presidency to the Pentagon, and apologizing for not doing so in his inaugural address, they bitch. They have decided that 40,000 troops is what he has to do and that's that, he has to listen to the Generals on the ground. We don't recall them bitching too loud when Bush didn't listen to the Generals, but we're sure that's different, IOKIYAR and all.

Apparently, Judge Napolitano is trying to out-crazy Glenn Beck, taking the position that it was a bad idea to scrap the Articles of Confederation and write that pesky Constitution in the first damned place. What? He's arguing that states should be able to "nullify" federal laws and regulations that they disagree with, reversing the polarity of power to make the states supersede and the federal government subservient, and we were paying attention in History and Civics, and that is what his position amounts to.

We want to encourage this on behalf of the Vatican because if they are looking for ET they are keeping their Rosaries off of women's ovaries.

Jesus wept A fifteen year old Australian girl has been suspended from her Catholic school for shaving her head...to raise money for cancer research because her father is battling leukemia and expected to have only months to live.

Decorated Combat Veteran takes over Miss England responsibilities The English apparently don't go for delicate flowers in their beauty queens. When the reigning Miss England got into a barfight and lost her crown, the runner up was called to service...again. She has been given a leave from her military duties to fulfill the Miss England role. While on duty in Iraq she earned the nickname "Combat Barbie" after valiant behavior that earned her a commendation for bravery.

And finally...

Okay, now you can really color us stunned, cuz we totally didn't see this coming! Lou Dobbs announced tonight that he is leaving CNN, effective with tonight's broadcast. "Over the past six months, it's become increasingly clear that strong winds of change have begun buffeting this country and affecting all of us. And some leaders in media politics and business have been urging me to go beyond the role here on CNN and to engage in constructive problem solving," Dobbs told his stunned audience. He said he had "talked extensively" with CNN President Jonathan Klein and "we have agreed to a release from my contract that will enable me to pursue new opportunities." You know - the classic speech of the recently fired.

Why do they call it common sense when it's so damned rare?

Blue Girl — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 20:00:00 GMT

My husband is one of the guys who bristles when someone who has never and will never don the cloth thanks him for his service. He didn't join up for accolades, he did it for reasons that are his and his alone, but being thanked wasn't even on the list.

Of course, it wouldn't bother him so much if anyone had ever said thanks before this clusterfuck and the military was broken like toy soldiers some rich brat got for Christmas by Bush's puerile reign of error.

Now we have a whole raft of wounded and damaged troops returning - well over a million have rotated through two theaters of war in the last eight years, many of them two, three, or even four times - and over a quarter million are struggling with chemical abuse and addictions as they cope to readjust to society while the VA health and mental health systems struggle with underfunding and the DoD systems are grossly understaffed.

Knowing that makes the contents of this report from the Drug Policy Alliance all that much harder to stomach. (Via Alternet)

The report reflects a year's worth of outreach to veterans and veterans' advocates across the country, and a distillation of their most creative, innovative and optimistic responses to the problem.?
Gen. Steven Xenakis, MD, Special Advisor to the Joint Chiefs of Staff for Warrior and Family Support, brought a message of official support to a teleconference announcing the release of the report:?
"250,000 soldiers is a large number of Soldiers, Marines, Sailors and Airmen who have been affected," he said. "It is so important that people are made aware of the issues, and that we follow up with the best action plans we can find ... We in this country have a responsibility to assist and support them." ?
Specifically, the report recommends changes in state and federal statutes that now prioritize? punishment over treatment for veterans who commit nonviolent drug-related offenses as a result of their addiction and other mental health issues.?
"Courts, as a way of dealing with large numbers of people with substance abuse problems, are a very slow and expensive way to go," explained Dan Abrahamson, the Drug Policy Alliance's Director of Legal Affairs. "You need a courtroom and a judge, and all the players from prosecutors to defense attorneys. Providing treatment straight up requires far fewer resources and far less investment for far greater returns." ?
The report also calls for the adoption of overdose prevention programs, and the expansion of veterans' access to medication-assisted therapies to treat opioid dependence.?
Overdose is an on-going problem among veterans, as are other self-destructive behaviors that inflate the official and unofficial tally of suicides among active duty troops and veterans. (Veterans, often compromised by alcohol or drugs, are an astonishing?148 percent more likely to die in a motorcycle crashthan civilians of comparable age, race, and sex.)
Guy Gambill, a long-time veterans advocate who was instrumental in shaping the report, reminded the teleconference participants that "one of the hallmark symptoms of PTSD is the tendency to self-medicate."? ?
"In the aftermath of Vietnam, self-medication and its collateral behaviors landed tens of thousands of veterans in prison. This time," Gambill suggests, "let's be smarter than the problem."?

Famous last words.

The idiots in congress - both parties - are all about lionizing service and those who choose it. But they aren't willing to fund the programs that returning combat veterans need.

I wrote this over three years ago, and the problems are worse today.

We send young men and women off to war, to do unspeakable things in our name. These things they do, mostly without complaint. It is their job and they knew the risks when they took it. It is, after all, an all volunteer force.
That said, we owe them something. At the very least, we owe them mental health care when they need it after they witness scenes like these three daily. One in four returning troops will face PTSD, anxiety disorder and panic attacks, and readjustment difficulty. A million troops have rotated through Iraq and Afghanistan in the four years since the Afghan invasion.
Those in need deserve help, but they are not getting it. The Vet Centers that deal with the mental health issues that stem from witnessing things in real life, with your own eyes, every day - are not adequate to meet the needs of the troops needing their services.
Fully 40% of the Vet Centers surveyed have sent clients who need intensive and individualized therapy into group therapy because that is what they have available. In addition, 30% of the Vet Centers report that they are understaffed, and 25% face cutting the services they do offer, and waiting lists for those services. Families are SOL too. 20% have little or not counseling and guidance for the families of returned troops who are suffering from readjustment and anxiety disorders and PTSD.
How can this be happening? If all of the elected officials who voted to authorize force in Iraq were voting to fund veterans programs, we wouldn't have this mess. So something isn't right here. What could it be? I'll tell you what it is...It's hypocricy. It is taking for granted the service of a million men and women. Vote to send them in, but then vote against body armor and funding the VA; and while you are at it cut the funding of the Vet Centers.
Way to support the troops.

Just look at where we are. Less than a week ago the spotlight landed on the status of mental health services for military personnel and their families struggling with the effects of post-combat stress.

We have been at war for eight years. Why hasn't the military planned ahead? If the era of small wars is upon us, and it looks like it is, why hasn't the military instituted training programs and expanded ROTC specifically to students interested in the helping professions? We've had eight years. We could have a lot of seasoned RNs Nurse Practitioners and Physicians Assistants on the job right now showing newly minted MDs with Captains Bars the ropes.

This would have benefited society as a whole, too. We would have a lot of healthcare professionals entering the civilian workplace at a time we are looking at expanding access to healthcare for millions of uninsured patients who currently aren't in the system via healthcare reform.

But we didn't do that. And at the moment a psychiatrist went nuts and killed 13 people at Ft. Hood, the base had at least 44 mental health billets unfilled. On a base that serves 22,000 active duty soldiers and their families.

Take 44 helping professionals out of a town that size and see if the population is affected. You'll have a Mayor and an entire city council in the Governor's office within hours, demanding the National Guard send in replacements.

Except the Army has already done that, and they are out of places to find more personnel to fill the gaps.

Well, better late than never. The military needs to get crackin' and start expanding ROTC programs to recruit future Nurses, Doctors, Psychologists, Social Workers, etc., etc., etc.

At the same time, current upperclassmen and recent graduates ought to be recruited heavily with the promise of student loan payment deferments while serving and forgiveness upon completion and sweeten the deal with a healthy signing bonus.

Since the military exists to protect our civil society, it is common sense that they should work with the civilian sector to train people who will serve first in uniform and then society at large. Because one way or another we are going to have healthcare reform in this country. Either we do reform and keep rereforming until we finally get it right. Or we keep on like we are and the system we have implodes and we end up cobbling together a national system in a time of crisis and shuttered hospitals.

The way I see it, we have at least two looming crises, and one solution will go quite far in solving them both. If I can get someone to listen to that ironically-named creature, common sense.

I know. I slay me, too.

How Blackwater got their license to operate in Iraq back

Blue Girl — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 17:15:00 GMT

In the wake of the Nissour Square rampage by Blackwater mercenaries that killed at least seventeen civilians and left scores injured, I spent a lot of time blogging about the use of mercenaries in our military operations, and Blackwater was singled out. Anything I could find on them and substantiate via credible sources, I posted about. I leveled accusations against them for everything from murder to theft to gun-running.

Silly me. I completely missed bribery.

Top executives at?Blackwater Worldwideauthorized secret payments of about $1 million to Iraqi officials that were intended to silence their criticism and buy their support after a September 2007 episode in which Blackwater security guards fatally shot 17 Iraqi civilians in Baghdad, according to former company officials.
Blackwater approved the cash payments in December 2007, the officials said, as protests over the deadly shootings in Nisour Square stoked long-simmering anger inside Iraq about reckless practices by the security company's employees. American and Iraqi investigators had already concluded that the shootings were unjustified, top Iraqi officials were calling for Blackwater's ouster from the country, and company officials feared that Blackwater might be refused an operating license it would need to retain its contracts with the State Department and private clients, worth hundreds of millions of dollars annually.
Four former executives said in interviews that Gary Jackson, who was then Blackwater's president, had approved the bribes and that the money was sent from Amman, Jordan, where the company maintains an operations hub, to a top manager in Iraq. The executives, though, said they did not know whether the cash was delivered to Iraqi officials or the identities of the potential recipients.
Blackwater's strategy of buying off the government officials, which would have been illegal under American law, created a deep rift inside the company, according to the former executives. They said that Cofer Black, who was then the company's vice chairman and a former top?C.I.A.and State Department official, learned of the plan from another Blackwater manager while he was in Baghdad discussing compensation for families of the shooting victims with United States Embassy officials.

So that's how they kept their license to operate in the country. A good, old-fashioned American bribe. Taken by high-ranking officials in the government the United States installed and props up, trying to pass it off as some shining example of democracy in a nation that has no real history of it.

I hope Claire McCaskill throws this latest revelation on her pile of kindling then quickly strikes the match and burns all the contractors to the ground. Especially Blackwater, or Xe or whatever the murdering, marauding mercenaries are calling themselves this week - because until they are calling themselves 'inmate' we have a lot of work left to do.

Who Needs One Big Lie When Everything Is A Lie?

Yellow Dog — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 14:59:52 GMT

Click for larger image.

KeninNY at Down with Tyranny on having an entire political movement divorced from reality:

... the Modern Right-Wing Republican-slash-Conservative Movement now conisders that it has blanket permission to lie.
This is something I've been saying since the thick of the presidential campaign, when I was transfixed by astonishment that with maybe an exception here and there every single word out of every single Republican-slash-Conservative was a flat-out, bare-faced, unmitigated lie. And since there were no referees to say, "Sorry, you've got to take a timeout for flat-out, bare-faced, unmitigated lying," the result was that it's now officially okay. We are now officially off the reality standard.
I've been saying this at intervals ever since, and nobody bats an eyelash, which I take to mean that either it's obvious to everyone else or people just aren't grasping what I'm saying. Maybe it will help if I try to make clear what I'm not saying.
SNIP
What I'm saying is that the Right has become so far unmoored from reality that (a) it no longer feels any obligation, or even the slightest tug, in the direction of any piece of data that interferes with its ideological fantasy, not to mention its daily talking points, and (b) society gives every indication of having accepted this state of affairs. So they're not necessarily more dishonest than Nixon (how would you go about being more dishonest than Nixon?); they're just freed from the shackles of having to pretend otherwise.

Read the whole thing.

Ignoring the lies is no longer an option. Identifying the lies once, or twice or even a dozen times is no longer sufficient. It is now necessary to spend significant time, effort and money on constant, repeated, non-stop calling out the motherfucking liars for fucking their mothers.

If you're constantly looking for trouble you can probably find it, even if you have to make it

Blue Girl — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 14:37:31 GMT

This is where a society ends up when it is spoonfed a steady diet of fear, dread and color-coded terror warnings. Anyone who is somehow 'different' is automatically suspect, and probably a terrorist. Better be on the safe side and put a tire-iron up-side his head and call 9/11.

Marine reservist Jasen Bruce was getting clothes out of the trunk of his car Monday evening when a bearded man in a robe approached him.
That man, a Greek Orthodox priest named Father Alexios Marakis, speaks little English and was lost, police said. He wanted directions.
What the priest got instead, police say, was a tire iron to the head. Then he was chased for three blocks and pinned to the ground - as the Marine kept a 911 operator on the phone, saying he had captured a terrorist.

Our latest national embarrassment gave an ever-changing rationale for why he attacked the priest. The priest tried to rob him. No wait...he grabbed at his crotch and made a sexual advance in perfect English. He yelled "Allahu Akbar." And, Bruce told police, "That's what they tell you right before they blow you up." He came up with every excuse except the most likely one - 'roid rage.

The priest was hospitalized and stitched up, and Bruce was arrested, charged with aggravated battery with a deadly weapon, and held until he posted a $7500 bond. It is his second offense, having previously been charged with battery for going across the bed of a tow truck and shoving the driver, a charge to which he pleaded "no contest."

According to a Marine Corps spokesman, Bruce has never been deployed to either theater of operations. He isn't so much a Marine as he is an asshole, apparently, but he played one for his wedding pictures, getting married last month in full dress uniform. In reality, he is a pharmaceutical salesman and body builder who runs a blog dedicated to the glories of Testosterone and Human Growth Hormone, and is chock-full of pictures of him mincing about in, well, not much.

Police say that about 6:30 on Monday night the priest, who had been visiting the elderly in a nursing home followed his GPS and got lost, ending up in downtown Tampa. The GPS unit in the vehicle the priest was driving verifies this. He followed a line of cars into the parking garage of a condo, got out of his car and approached Bruce from behind, tapping him on the shoulder and saying "please" and "help" in broken English. That is when Bruce attacked him with the tire iron and chased him for three blocks.

An exterior surveillance video of Tuesday's chase captured the two men in motion, said a spokeswoman for the Tampa Police Department "You see a very short, small man running, and an enormous, large muscular man chasing after him."

Just makes ya proud, dunnit? Wow. Way to represent America, Dude.

The Nightowl Newswrap

BG & YD bring you the news — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 05:15:00 GMT

It's their Tea Party but we'll laugh 'til we cry if we want to Get your broker on the phone and buy popcorn futures now. A Florida attorney named Frederic O'Neal has filed the paperwork with the state to form the Tea Party. "The current system has become mired in the sludge of special interest money that seeks to control the leadership of both parties. It's time for real change," said the Mad Hatter, er, new party's chairman in a press release. O'Neal couldn't be reached by phone for comment.

Construction claims one in Kansas City Construction was halted for the day and OSHA investigators were on the scene after a boom-lift toppled and two Midwest Steel workers fell from the basket while they were attaching beams to the new Kauffman Performing Arts Center that is under construction at 16th and Broadway. One man died of his injuries at a hospital and the other was conscious but critical.

Missouri Death Row inmates lose appeal The 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals handed down a ruling today that moves the state of Missouri one step closer to resuming executions at the Potosi death house, although it could be several more months before the ruling is considered final and the current stay is lifted. Hopefully when the stay is lifted the first two scheduled to die will be Michael Taylor and Roderick Nunley.

Still more deadly bombings in Pakistan. "At least 24 people have been killed and more than 100 injured in a car bombing in the north-western Pakistani town of Charsadda, police say. The blast occurred as shoppers thronged the main market in Charsadda, which lies north-east of Peshawar. The attack is the third in as many days in North West Frontier Province. More than 300 people have been killed in a wave of attacks as Pakistani troops launched an assault against the Taliban in South Waziristan. Police say around 40kg of explosives had been placed in a car which then exploded outside a busy market. There was no immediate claim of responsibility. The BBC's Syed Shoaib Hasan in Islamabad says ordinary citizens are increasingly being targeted in bomb attacks. Analysts believe this is because the militants are cornered and under great pressure by the military in South Waziristan."

Parts? Parts?! "The Russian government has admitted that parts of the police have been turned into what the interior minister has described as criminal businesses. It is the most frank admission so far of corruption and other crimes being committed by members of the police. It came after a senior policeman in southern Russia posted a video on the internet in which he appealed to the prime minister to tackle the problem. It is the latest in a series of highly embarrassing revelations about police. Earlier this year a senior police officer went on a shooting spree in a Moscow supermarket, killing three people. The incident was recorded on security cameras and the video was widely broadcast on Russian TV and on the internet."

Obviously, the definition of "fraud" is way too narrow. "Two former Bear Stearns hedge fund managers charged with fraud have been found not guilty by a New York jury. Ralph Cioffi and Matthew Tannin were cleared of charges including securities fraud and conspiracy charges relating to the collapse of two hedge funds. Prosecutors had argued the two managers lied to clients to protect bonuses when their funds were losing money. The hedge funds bet on the high-risk sub-prime mortgage market in the US before they crumbled in June 2007. The collapse cost investors in the funds about $1.6bn (?0.95bn)."

How many times do we have to say it? U.S. service member are not afraid of teh gheys. "A survey of troops who served in Iraq and Afghanistan concluded that having gay or lesbian soldiers in fighting units has no significant impact on unit cohesion or readiness. The data raise new doubts about the underlying assumption of the congressional ban, namely that military discipline will fall apart if gays and lesbians are permitted to serve openly. "Service members said the most important factors for unit cohesion and readiness were the quality of their officers, training, and equipment,'' said Laura Miller, a military sociologist at the RAND Corporation, a private research group that has long advised the Pentagon, which conducted the study along with the University of Florida. "Serving with another service member who was gay or lesbian was not a significant factor that affected unit cohesion or readiness to fight.''"

Whatever the Marine's faith, let's start banning everyone who shares it from the military. "A Marine reservist armed with a tire iron beat and chased a man he thought was an Arab terrorist and even called 911 to say he was detaining the man, police said. But the man he assaulted was actually a Greek Orthodox priest visiting from overseas who spoke limited English, police said .... The priest followed several cars into the Seaport Channelside Apartments on Twiggs Street. He got out of his car and asked Bruce for help. Instead of offering help, Bruce struck the priest on the head with a tire iron, police said."

Mobilize the world's kindergartners. "Australia's koalas could be wiped out within 30 years unless urgent action is taken to halt a decline in population, according to researchers. They say development, climate change and bushfires have all combined to send the numbers of wild koalas plummeting. The Australian Koala Foundation said a recent survey showed the population could have dropped by more than half in the past six years. Many have been killed by the sexually transmitted disease chlamydia. Previous estimates put the number of koalas at more than 100,000 - but the latest calculations suggest there could now be as few as 43,000."

More proof no group is above the need for good mental health counseling. "A ex-US astronaut accused of attacking and trying to kidnap a love rival has been given a year's probation after pleading guilty to lesser charges. Lisa Nowak, 46, admitted two charges in connection with the February 2007 incident in a deal with prosecutors. Police said the former Nasa mission specialist drove across the United States to confront her rival for the love of a space shuttle pilot. Her trial had been due to start next month. Ms Nowak, a navy captain, was sacked by Nasa after the incident. She flew on a space shuttle mission in 2006."

You earned it, girl, so enjoy it while it lasts. "Love her or hate her, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is at the peak of her political power, and she seems to be reveling in the high drama of the moment. Last week, as she searched for the 218 votes required to pass a mammoth health care bill, the San Francisco Democrat made her view of the stakes clear: "We have an historic opportunity. . . . It is something that many of us have worked our whole political lifetimes on." On Saturday night, after the House of Representatives passed Pelosi's bill with two votes to spare, no one was smiling more broadly than the 69-year-old Pelosi. It won't be known for weeks whether Pelosi can help get a bill through the Senate and to the president's desk and whether the compromises the House made on abortion and other issues will help or hurt that effort, but she had much to celebrate with her preliminary victory, including her own political survival."

If they won't take the Big Dog's word for it, they're beyond help. "Senate Democrats, struggling to reach agreement on how to overhaul the country's health care system, got some practical political advice Tuesday from former President Bill Clinton, whose own effort collapsed 15 years ago. Don't get too stubborn or demanding as you consider different pieces of the vast bill, he urged them at a closed-door Capitol meeting. Just pass something. "It's not important to be perfect. It's important to move," Clinton said he told the senators. "The worst thing we can do is nothing. ... There is no perfect bill because there are always unintended consequences," he said, recalling his remarks after the meeting. "So there'll be amendments to this effort, whatever they pass, next year and the year after that - and there should be. ... But the worst thing we can do is nothing. That was my argument," the former president said."

No, you're a loyal bushie and you're still fired. 'Gerald Walpin, the AmeriCorps inspector general fired by the White House in July during his probe of Sacramento Mayor Kevin Johnson, has been cleared of a complaint by the acting U.S. attorney in Sacramento that he had acted improperly. Now, he says, he wants his job back. "It takes away any basis belatedly set forth by the White House as a reason for my termination," Walpin said this morning in an interview from his home in New York. "So I am certainly looking forward to a final determination by the court and to be reinstated."'

Are there Cheetos in Cuba? You can't blog without Cheetos. "When a dozen Cuban bloggers wanted to stage a protest last month, they simultaneously tweeted, texted and posted messages like "Freedom." One later used a blond wig to sneak into a government building and complain against censorship of the Internet. And the next day, she posted a video of her complaint on her blog. Carefully, but with daring determination, some Cubans whose blogs once focused largely on the frustrations of daily life are moving toward sharp-edged commentaries and activities that some fear will eventually lead to a crackdown by the communist government. "We do not have a common position . . . but yes, some people have been doing actions that go beyond the click and the keyboard and try to exercise the rights of a free person," said Reynaldo Escobar of the Havana blog Desde Aqu? (From Here)."

These tiny-minded, self-righteous, arrogant, dirt-ignorant, tight-assed prudes are a lot of things, but they are not librarians. "It all started in the fall of 2008, and she is still doing it. The proof is in her knapsack, in a bright yellow flexible file folder, hidden from prying eyes. The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, Volume IV: The Black Dossier. It has pink and yellow highlighter tags sticking out, marking the pages that contain explicit sexual content. It is the Jessamine County Public Library's copy, which she has checked out and not returned. She is being fined 10 cents a day for her breach of library contract - and for her moral stand. She was, she says, simply appalled that a child could find a book that contained so many outright visually obscene graphics in the Jessamine library where she worked. So nine months ago, she challenged its right to be included in the collection, and when that failed, she simply checked it out herself .... On Sept. 22, Cook told two of her colleagues at the library about her dilemma, and Beth Boisvert made a decision. She would take the book off hold, thus disallowing the child - or the child's parents - ever to see the book. On Sept. 23, both Cook and Boisvert were fired. They were told by library director Ron Critchfield the firings were a decision of the library board."

Why don't we all have this? "Imagine you could log on to the Internet to find out how much power you used this week. If you have one of Idaho Power's new smart meters, you already can. And what if you could pay less to wash your dishes or dry your clothes by simply doing them at a different time of day? If you live in Emmett, you already can. The Public Utilities Commission pushed Idaho Power to install the new meters there in 2004 and since 2005 the company has offered three different rates there for different times of the day and the week to help people reduce their own bills and the utilities' demand for power at peak times. These are the first steps Idaho Power has taken to move it toward the potential savings and efficiency offered by so-called "smart grid" technology. Thanks to a $47 million stimulus grant from the Obama administration's Department of Energy, all of Idaho Power's customers will have similar tools for reducing their power bills by 2012."

The hostage situation that wasn't No one is sure what set off a chain of events that led to the evacuation and lockdown of an office building near the Governor's mansion in Jefferson City around midday Tuesday. Apparently Chicken Little heard something on an elevator. She told Turkey Lurkey, who excitedly told Henny Penny who freaked out and called the cops. Foxy Loxy responded, and told reporters at the scene that he heard a warning over the public address intercom telling workers to avoid the fifth floor because of a hostage situation. And news trucks rushed to the scene from every affiliate in time for the "story" to lead the noon news broadcasts all over the state.

One of us was Bert...You are Bert. You often find yourself being the more mature, analytical and reasonable person in your group of friends. Some may consider you eccentric, that bottle cap collection and the fascination with pigeons ain't helping, but you're a true friend who's always everybody's "old buddy."? In honor of Sesame Street's 40th birthday, go take the quiz and find out which denizen of the 'Street you are. Elmo, the gauntlet's been thrown...

Happy 234th Birthday to the United States Marine Corps. Semper Fi.

Quote of the Day goes to John Cole at Balloon Juice...The funny thing about all of this is that no matter how bad all their ideas are, no matter how disastrous their governance has been, no matter how many horrible things they have done to the economy and this country, what really is killing the Republican party is that deep down, they are just complete assholes.?

You know what they say about the journey of a thousand miles starting with a single step...Well, the AMA has taken that first tentative step toward endorsing decriminalization of marijuana. The AMA's House of Delegates has adopted a new policy that calls for "marijuana's status as a federal Schedule I controlled substance be reviewed with the goal of facilitating the conduct of clinical research and development of cannabinoid-based medicines, and alternate delivery methods."

Well, vacationing in Branson ought to be an offense that carries jail time but maybe not if it creates an international incident. That's what happened when a Samoan diplomat was arrested by ICE officials in Branson in 2008, jailed for nine days and forced to remain in Missouri for three months while the charges were pending. Hans Joachim Keil is a member of the south Pacific island nation's parliament, holds dual citizenship in the United States and Western Samoa, and is a veteran of the US Air Force. ICE officials claimed he was not a U.S. citizen and had illegally presented his passport as proof of his status. Now the Parliamentarian is also a plaintiff in a civil suit against the federal government for his arrest and detention.

D.C. Sniper executed John Allen Muhammad died by lethal injection at 9:11 p.m. in Virginia's Greensville Correctional Center in Jarratt, according to a statement from a prison spokesman.

And finally...

We didn't forget, we're fashionably late Yesterday while we were fucking off, Mustang Bobby celebrated his sixth blogoversary. Many more barks and woofs, Bobby. You were one of the first people once we ventured off the "A List" to the real blogs that we started reading regularly.