Wednesday, January 06, 2016

Cranky a failure?

BULLY BOY PRESS &   CEDRIC'S BIG MIX -- THE KOOL AID TABLE

CRANKY CLINTON A "FEMINIST FAILURE"?

THAT'S THE OPINION FORMING AS HER HUSBAND'S BOORISH BEHAVIOR -- AND POSSIBLE CRIMINAL BEHAVIOR -- COMES BACK INTO FOCUS AFTER SHE BILLED HERSELF AS A FIGHTER FOR WOMEN, DONALD TRUMP AS A SEXIST AND HER HUSBAND BILL AS A DEFENDER OF WOMEN.

'NOT SO FAST!' SAY SOME WHO POINT TO THE NUMEROUS WOMEN WHO CAME FORWARD WITH TAILS OF HARASSMENT AND ONE WHO CAME FORWARD WITH A CLAIM OF RAPE.

REACHED FOR COMMENT, CRANKY CLINTON TOLD THESE REPORTERS, "FEMINIST FAILURE?  THERE IS NOTHING ABOUT CRANKY CLINTON THAT SAYS FAILURE.  EVERY THING ABOUT ME SCREAMS 'SUCCESS' AND 'FIRST RATE!'  HOW DARE ANYONE CALL ME A FAILURE.  THE ONLY THING I'VE EVER FAILED AT?  FAILING!  I RULE THE WORLD.  WHEN I'M PRESIDENT, ANYONE WHO SPEAKS SO CARELESSLY ABOUT ME WILL BE TOSSED IN GITMO!  AND WATER BOARDED!  SEE HOW QUICK THEY ARE TO DISS ME THEN!"


FROM THE TCI WIRE:



Is 2016 the year that we can finally hold US President Barack Obama accountable?

Will The Cult of St. Barack continue to lie?


These are questions worth asking.

Especially as Felecia Martinez (GOOD 4 UTAH -- link is text and video) reports, "53 intelligent soldiers with the Utah National Guard are preparing to deploy to Kuwait and Iraq."

When Bully Boy Bush was in the White House, those kind of deployments bothered us.

Today?

Apparently not so much.


Or how about this?  THE MILWAUKEE JOURNAL SENTINEL features a photo by Rick Wood of "Sixty-six Wisconsin Army National Guard members stand during a sendoff ceremony in Madison Monday morning."  It's one of eleven photos of the ceremony for the troops who are headed to Iraq and Kuwait.


US troops are being deployed again.

Another US soldier died in Afghanistan today with two more left injured.

Last week, an idiot -- an idiot I know -- an actor Tweeted to praise the success in Ramadi because no US service member had died in this wave of the Iraq War.

Despite the death of Master Sgt Joshua Wheeler.










  • And he wasn't the first death in this latest wave of war that began in the summer of 2014.  From last August's "Editorial: How many US troops have died in the Iraq War in the last 12 months?:"


    Leo Shane III (Military Times) reported Thursday, "About 3,500 U.S. troops are stationed in Iraq, and seven have lost their lives in connection to the new military operations there."



    But people -- like the idiot I consider a friend who's more committed to Barack than truth -- want to pretend otherwise.

    At this late date, that's on them.

    There's no pretending that the media has failed them.

    There's no pretending that the information has been kept from them.

    The Cult of St. Barack made the choice to 'turn on, tune in and drop out.'

    The hopium has been deadly to any real work towards peace.

    Days after Barack Obama won the 2008 US presidential election, the so-called United for Peace and Justice announced it was shutting down, their mission over.

    The Iraq War didn't end in November 2008.

    It hasn't ended today.



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  • Tuesday, January 05, 2016

    Debbie does Cranky

    BULLY BOY PRESS &   CEDRIC'S BIG MIX & MIKEY LIKES IT!-- THE KOOL AID TABLE


    DEBBIE WASSERMAN SCHULTZ A.K.A. DEBBIE WASHERWOMAN SCHULTZ IS COMING UNDER FIRE AND, FOR A CHANGE, IT HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH HER GREASY HAIR OR OILY SKIN.

    WASHERWOMAN'S BEING CALLED OUT FOR HER GROSS FAVORITISM OF CRANKY CLINTON -- THE FAVORITISM THAT'S SAID TO BE OUT OF BOUNDS FOR THE DEMOCRATIC NATIONAL COMMITTEE CHAIR.

    REACHED FOR COMMENT, DEBBIE TOLD THESE REPORTERS, "I'LL SOONER WASH MY HAIR THAN TURN MY BACK ON CRANKY.  IT'S MY JOB TO ENSURE THAT SHE GETS THE PARTY'S NOMINATION.  UNTIL THEN, EVERYTHING IS ON HOLD -- INCLUDING SHAVING MY BACK FUR."


    FROM THE TCI WIRE:



    The end of the year brings good news and bad news.


    On the good news side, Tara Copp (STARS AND STRIPES) reports, "A federal district court on Jan. 21 will consider the scope of a lawsuit alleging soldiers’ exposure to burn pits in Iraq and Afghanistan led to serious respiratory illnesses and deaths and whether government contractor KBR, Inc. is responsible for the way the pits were operated."



    The burn pits?


    "While I was stationed at Balad, I experienced the effects of the massive burn pit that burned 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. The ten-acre pit was located in the northwest corner of the base. An acrid, dark black smoke from the pit would accumulate and hang low over the base for weeks at a time. Every spot on the base was touched by smoke from the pit; everyone who served at the base was exposed to the smoke. It was almost impossible to escape, even in our living units," L. Russell Keith explained to the Democratic Policy Committee November 6, 2009. Keith worked for KBR in Iraq at Joint Base Balad from March 2006 through July 2007. Like many service members and contractors, he was unnecessarily exposed to toxins which put his life at risk.

    The Chair of the DPC, Senator Byron Dorgan, noted at the start of that day's hearing, "Today we're going to have a discussion and have a hearing on how, as early as 2002, US military installations in Iraq and Afghanistan began relying on open-air burn pits -- disposing of waste materials in a very dangerous manner. And those burn pits included materials such as hazardous waste, medical waste, virtually all of the waste without segregation of the waste, put in burn pits. We'll hear how there were dire health warnings by Air Force officials about the dangers of burn pit smoke, the toxicity of that smoke, the danger for human health. We'll hear how the Department of Defense regulations in place said that burn pits should be used only in short-term emergency situations -- regulations that have now been codified. And we will hear how, despite all the warnings and all the regulations, the Army and the contractor in charge of this waste disposal, Kellogg Brown & Root, made frequent and unnecessary use of these burn pits and exposed thousands of US troops to toxic smoke."



    At that day's hearing, Lt Col Darrin Curtis was among the witnesses and we'll note this exchange he had with Senator Dorgan.



    Chair Byron Dorgan: Mr. Curtis, why did you decide to write the 2006 memorandum? And did anyone else at that point share your concerns about the health impact of burn pits?
    Lt Col Darrin Curtis: Yes, Senator, they did. The Chief of Air Space Medicine had the same concerns I did. The memo was initially written so that we could expedite the installation of the incinerators. From my understanding, there were spending limits of monies with health issues and not health issues so I wanted to write the report to show that there are health issues associated with burn pits so that we could hopefully accelerate the installation of the incinerators.

    Chair Byron Dorgan: Of the type of burn pit you saw in Iraq in 2006 -- that's some while after the war began and infrastructure had been created and so on except without incinerators -- if something of that nature were occurring in a neighborhood here in Washington DC or any American city, what are the consequences to them?

    Lt Col Darrin Curtis: At least fines and possibly jail.

    Chair Byron Dorgan: Because?

    Lt Col Darrin Curtis: Of the regulations that are out there today.

    Chair Byron Dorgan: Because it's a serious risk to human health?

    Lt Col Darrin Curtis: Yes, sir.

    Chair Byron Dorgan: You say that when you arrived in Iraq an inspector for the US Army Center for Health Promotion and Preventive Medicine -- which is CHPPM -- told you that the Balad burn pit was the worst environmental site that he has seen and that included the ten years he had performed environmental clean up for the Army and Defense's Logistic Agency. And yet in your testimony, you also say that CHPPM has done this study and says adverse health risks are unlikely. So you're talking about an inspector from CHPPM that says 'this is the worst I've seen' and then a report comes out later from CHPPM that says: "Adverse health risks are unlikely. Long-term health effects are not expected to occur from breathing the smoke." Contradiction there and why?

    Lt Col Darrin Curtis: I think any organization, you're going to have people with differences of opinion. But at CHPPM, I'm sure that was the same-same outcome there. Cause I don't know if that individual --

    Chair Byron Dorgan: (Overlapping) Do you think that CHPPM -- do you think CHPPM assessment that's been relied on now is just wrong?

    Lt Col Darrin Curtis: (Overlapping) I think -- I think -- Senator, I think the hard line that there is no health effects is a -- is a very strong comment that we don't have the data to say. Do we have the data to say that it is a health risk? I don't think we have that either. But I do not think we have the data to say there is no health risk.

    Chair Byron Dorgan: You are a bio-environmental engineer what is -- what is your own opinion? Without testing or data, you saw the burn pits, you were there, you hear the testimony of what went in the burn pits, you hear Dr. Szema's assessment. What's your assessment?

    Lt Col Darrin Curtis: I think we're going to look at a lot of sick people later on.


    And a lot of people have gotten sick and a lot of people have died.



    In October of 2010 the GAO (US Government Accountability Office) released a report [PDF format warning] entitled "AFGHANISTAN AND IRAQ: DOD Should Improve Adherence to Its Guidance on Open Pit Burning and Solid Waste Management." The report opens with:

    The military has relied heavily on open pit burning in both conflicts, and operators of burn pits have not always followed relevant guidance to protect servicemembers from exposure to harmful emissions. According to DOD, U.S. military operations in Afghanistan and Iraq generate about 10 pounds of solid waste per soldier each day. The military has relied on open pit burning to dispose of this waste mainly because of its expedience. In August 2010, CENTCOM estimated there were 251 burn pits in Afghanistan and 22 in Iraq.
    [. . .]

    Lawsuits have been filed in federal court in at least 43 states in which current and former servicemembers have alleged, among other things, that a contractor's negligent management of burn pit operations, contrary to applicable contract provisions, exposed them to air pollutants that subsequently caused serious health problems. The contractor has moved to dismiss the suits, arguing, among other things, that it cannot be held liable for any injuries that may have occurred to service personnel because all its burn pit activities occurred at the direction of the military.


    Today, the victims and their loved ones have a chance at justice.

    A chance at justice.

    The federal district court decision to hear the case is big news.




    On the bad news side for veterans?

    Homeless veterans still exist in the United States.  That's news today -- news for being yet another broken promise.


    As David Greene (NPR's MORNING EDITION) noted last week, "The Obama administration says it wants to end homelessness among veterans by the end of this year. Well, that is not going to happen."  Anjali Shastry (WASHINGTON TIMES) explains, "Despite five years and billions of dollars, President Obama failed to meet his goal of ending veteran homelessness by 2015, though officials say they have cut the rate by 36 percent and made progress with better care for veterans in communities across the country."




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