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Stories we should know more about.
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Re: What's New in the News
Jul 1, 2008 1:52 PM
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I've a little grudge against the MSM, so I'm posting useless shit about them.
Courting military and family might just be the next thing for some ratings, but the hypocrisy is a little more than ______.
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Re: What's New in the News
Jul 1, 2008 1:42 PM
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> An MSM that wouldn't exist without the flourish of
> the Clinton pen.
>
> He fulfilled his pledge to deregulate the media, and
> did so in 1996 by signing the Telecommunications Act,
> wiping out virtually all media antitrust laws and
> other protections that preserved the constitutional
> and democratic free press since 1934. Ignoring the
> howls of protests from constitutional loving,
> antimonopoly loving media insiders and general
> public.
>
> The FCC gatekeepers are a steady stream of media
> giant executives. A number of websites cropped up in
> protest, Media Matters, and Jeff Chester's Center for
> Digital Democracy, and whose book is a must read for
> anyone desiring to understand the full implication of
> Clinton's legislation..."Digital Destiny: New Media
> and the Future of Democracy."
Medias don't exactly fit into the basic needs.
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Re: What's New in the News
Jul 1, 2008 1:35 PM
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> info
>
> As a matter of priorities, including moral
> implications, are veterans' benefits less important
> than spending on superfluous weapons systems?
Leave that decision to the honorable Generals who are in charge of balance between investments on weaponry versus personnel or other things, given finite resources.
The moral issue is the one I'm confused about. Yes, it's true the ultimate honor and sacrifice are to die for your country and I'm not denying that.
The only thing I've problem is with liberals' bullshit about peace vs. support the troops unconditionally. These are volunteer soldiers so they're either duped or lured in.
Are the anti-war people condoning to:
People who join for the military payoffs?
People who join the military to kill?
People who support unnecessary wars?
Yes, I know I left out the people who were lied to, but we all know who we have to blame for that.
Remember, soldiers kill, that's part of their jobs.
Q: What happened to the 60's cry against baby killers?
A: Conditioned by the medias.
The medias do learn and evolve.
--
Edited by infoseek at 07/01/2008 10:45 AM PDT
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Re: What's New in the News
Jul 1, 2008 10:54 AM
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Info--
> I've been doing that, at the same time stick one up > MSM for what they did to the Clintons.
An MSM that wouldn't exist without the flourish of the Clinton pen.
He fulfilled his pledge to deregulate the media, and did so in 1996 by signing the Telecommunications Act, wiping out virtually all media antitrust laws and other protections that preserved the constitutional and democratic free press since 1934. Ignoring the howls of protests from constitutional loving, antimonopoly loving media insiders and general public.
The FCC gatekeepers are a steady stream of media giant executives. A number of websites cropped up in protest, Media Matters, and Jeff Chester's Center for Digital Democracy, and whose book is a must read for anyone desiring to understand the full implication of Clinton's legislation..."Digital Destiny: New Media and the Future of Democracy."
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Re: What's New in the News
Jul 1, 2008 10:33 AM
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info
As a matter of priorities, including moral implications, are veterans' benefits less important than spending on superfluous weapons systems?
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Re: What's New in the News
Jul 1, 2008 6:31 AM
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> Info,
>
> Were you just being sarcastic and I took it wrong? If
> so, sorry. That floored me, man.
No sarcasm. I mean it. We all play a role in life and soldiers are soldiers. Serving the country is a big sacrifice, but these are all volunteer soldiers.
How's this war effected Americans so far? That's right, this is a war of choice. Think hard before enlistment for a controversial war.
Anyone who puts on the uniform and risked for our country deserves our respect and care, but the bigger picture is to not prioritize anything for any war of choice.
This is not politically correct, rather how I feel.
It's the same logic as supplying soldiers with armor or pullout from an unnecessary war.
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Edited by infoseek at 07/01/2008 3:31 AM PDT
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Re: What's New in the News
Jul 1, 2008 6:12 AM
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CNN is talking about the market, but still no mention of banks at risk.
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Edited by infoseek at 07/01/2008 3:37 AM PDT
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Re: What's New in the News
Jul 1, 2008 5:36 AM
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Info,
Were you just being sarcastic and I took it wrong? If so, sorry. That floored me, man.
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Re: What's New in the News
Jul 1, 2008 5:34 AM
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>
> I do disagree with Webb on many things, including the
> veteran benefits. IMHO, that should also fall under
> the, subject to the wellness of economy, medicare,
> middle class tax cuts.
>
> Veterans are important, but we shouldn't interrupt
> our normal economic priorities. That's just not
> exactly the kind of civilization we live in.
>
Info,
Yes, we should absolutely 'interrupt our normal economic priorities' for veterans!!
WTF?!?!?!?!?
I can't believe you said that.
You need a fucking empathy injection.
Life shattered in Iraq pieced back together
Military veteran amputee, Derek McGinnis, runs at East La Loma Park in Modesto, Saturday morning, May 3, 2008.
By ROGER W. HOSKINS
May 21, 2008
A newborn cried in the night. Before mom could stir, Derek McGinnis swung out of bed. When his only leg touched the floor, he let it bend until he lowered himself to the floor in a sitting position.
Using his arms and rear end, he scooted to his son Sean's crib, pulled himself up and balanced on his leg. He gently picked up his child and then carefully bent his leg until he sat again. Dad cradled and comforted his son while mom rested.
In that moment three years ago, McGinnis triumphed over near death and a traumatic injury because he did what dads do.
In November 2004, McGinnis was serving as a Navy corpsman working with a Marine combat unit near Fallujah, Iraq. A suicide driver in a car laden with explosives hit McGinnis' ambulance as it rushed to the aid of two wounded Marines.
His life would hang by a thread. He had a severe brain injury. Shrapnel pierced him all over, including one eye. His left leg was doomed. He was in danger of losing both hands.
Six weeks after the bombing, McGinnis awoke at the Palo Alto Veterans Hospital. The issue wasn't his missing limb. "It never was," said the 30-year-old veteran from Waterford.
"I couldn't speak or feed myself," he said.
McGinnis didn't know who or where he was. His wife, Andrea, and parents David and Barbara stayed by his side.
"My wife was (seven months) pregnant," McGinnis said. "I just wanted to be conscious."
That was all his wife and parents had hoped for, too. They joined McGinnis earlier, in Bethesda, Md., four days after he was wounded, when the future was uncertain.
When Andrea McGinnis learned her husband had been hit, she called on a friend in Army intelligence to get a full accounting of his injuries. She wrote that first information down in a scrapbook:
"Breathing machine, homemade bomb, hit in head, eye surgery, monitoring pressure in brain, lower arms, lower leg amputation, one hand severely fractured, good foot severely fractured, burns."
She soon learned what her husband's first words had been while he was in a German hospital. "The doctor said he kept asking, 'Will they spit on me?' "
The doctor reported that she tearfully reassured the medic, "No, son, you're a hero."
Because McGinnis had one bad eye from birth, his parents' first concern after his survival was his good eye, the one with the shrapnel wound. And Pop, as Derek calls his dad, was equally anxious about his son's hands.
"I knew he could overcome his leg," said Pop. "But both hands ... that would have been it."
The family arrived in the Washington, D.C., area about midnight. David McGinnis accompanied his daughter-in-law into the hospital room because Andrea McGinnis didn't want to be alone.
About 80 gurneys were stacked in the lobby. Helicopters seemed to arrive around the clock, each with a fresh group of wounded Marines from the battle for Fallujah.
"I was relieved," Andrea McGinnis said of her first peek behind her husband's curtain. "He didn't look as bad as I thought. I was expecting his face to be burned. His leg freaked me out. It was a foot wide. It was weird. It was still cut and stitched but it wasn't shut. He was not bathed, but he was clean.
"It was a rough first couple months. I'm glad he can't remember it."
There were moments of poignant patriotism with a dash of humor in Maryland.
When President Bush came to award McGinnis' Purple Heart, it triggered panic in the young medic.
"Derek was a nervous wreck," his wife said. "A nurse called me at 5 that morning and told me to 'get over here now.' He wouldn't let anyone else touch him and he was driving them crazy. He was so anxious. He was so worried that he smelled. He had me buy this aftershave. He smelled so strong the other patients wanted him out of there."
What he was most anxious about was sitting when the president walked into the room. With his wife's help, he stood and remained standing for his commander in chief.
Of course, the memory of duty and honor wouldn't last
24 hours for McGinnis. Brain injury meant he lived only in the moment. Sometimes the memory of what happened in Fallujah disappeared, too.
But McGinnis had help. During their eight-hour shifts at his bedside, his parents would quietly tell him that he had to be strong. He had to get better, for his family, for his wife, for his son.
McGinnis remembers some of it today, but only secondhand. "My father would whisper in my ear. He'd tell me about the baby and told me about my leg so I wouldn't freak out. I'm sure it pulled me through."
When McGinnis' successful eye surgery replaced his damaged lens, his parents went home in early December 2004, confident of an eventual recovery. Andrea and Derek McGinnis would come west a couple of weeks later.
In Palo Alto, the VA therapists started putting McGinnis and his life back together again. The family was told that it was as if he had spilled the memory files from his brain all over the floor. Now he had to learn to pick them up and use them.
The first emotional landmark on McGinnis' road back was when he was able to tell his wife and parents how much he loved and appreciated them. But what is one memory for McGinnis happened repeatedly for his wife and parents. Sometimes his short-term memory was an hour or less.
As McGinnis' memory slowly returned, he set a goal. He desperately wanted to be a father, like his father had been to him. "To be able to read books to my son and spend time with him."
In late January, he was transferred back to Bethesda Naval Hospital in Maryland, where he learned about prosthetics. But by the time his son Sean Patrick was born there Feb. 15, 2005, he was still in a wheelchair.
Even when he couldn't walk, his wife remembers McGinnis tending to Sean in the wee hours.
The one thing he couldn't overcome was the loneliness when he was separated from his family in the summer of 2005.
When Andrea McGinnis and Sean went back to her post as a logistics officer with the Seabees in Hawaii, Derek McGinnis went into depression. Andrea McGinnis recognized the problem. She asked for and received a hardship discharge from the Navy.
With his family reunited for a move to Texas in October 2005, McGinnis was ready for the next phase of his recovery.
Men from the Injured Marines Semper Fi Fund had visited him while he was in the Bethesda hospital. They challenged McGinnis to run with them in the November 2005 Marine Marathon in Washington, which included a 10-kilometer run.
But McGinnis' leg required another operation in Texas. A calcium growth had to be cut out so he could more comfortably wear a prosthetic.
"I was really disappointed when I couldn't keep my word," he said.
Therapists from Brooke Army Medical Center worked to help him reach his goal. "It took me a month just to figure out how to run," said McGinnis.
One lap was all he could manage at first. Again and again, his leg was rubbed raw by his obsession to run. The former high school football, track and soccer player in Fremont vowed to keep his word to Semper Fi. He said the Marine Marathon in November 2006, his first athletic event after Fallujah, will always be his favorite.
The run ends in Arlington, Va., at the National Cemetery. McGinnis finished his course going uphill to the base of the Marine Corps monument depicting the men who raised the flag on Iwo Jima in World War II.
"Looking up at that statue ... they had a Navy corpsman with them, too," he said. "I could never compare what I did with those men and what they did and inspired. But it was so emotional. I felt like they were there with me."
In July 2007, McGinnis said farewell to his last hospital, Texas and the Navy. He and his family moved to Waterford to take a job at the Modesto veterans office and to be near family.
Running and competing opened another world for McGinnis. He still is running and competing as part of Semper Fi. And he visits wounded soldiers to challenge them to challenge themselves and compete. "We all bled red," he said.
"It's such a privilege to help an organization that helps the families of wounded Marines," McGinnis said. "They helped my family."
McGinnis went on to participate in a triathlon (swimming, biking, running) in San Francisco, surfed at Pismo Beach and played in numerous pickup soccer games.
Each activity takes a slightly different prosthetic. The leg for snowboarding has a second joint at midcalf for absorbing shock and giving leverage. The running leg is an upside-down bicycle fender.
McGinnis considers himself fortunate and blessed. But he misses the Marines "every day."
"I really love the Marine Corps," he said. "You bond with the men you take care of. The Marines saved my life."
During his recovery and long road back, sports had been part of his fondest wish as a father. "My highest ambition was to be my son's assistant soccer coach."
The reality that it was reachable set in when he could wear his artificial limb for a whole day and discard his cane. He could help coach.
And to complete the miracle, a little more than a year after Sean was born, son Ryan joined the family. They are now 3 and 17 months, respectively.
Whatever the boys want to do, dad pledged he'll be there for them. He calls his sons his "little motivators." He is certain one day they will sweep his legs with a sliding tackle when he teaches them to play soccer. But even then, he said, "It's all good."
McGinnis' motivators were in a stroller this spring at the Stanislaus County Peace Officers Memorial Group Foot Pursuit. They did the 5K race with their grandparents pushing them. Never mind that they finished last. They finished. Like their father and mother before them, who ran in the 10K race the same day.
McGinnis waves off all praise as undeserved.
"I'm very fortunate," he said. "I've been given so much. I got a second chance at life and I'm here for my boys. God played a role. Now I have to find a way to give back."
Bee staff writer Roger W. Hoskins
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Re: What's New in the News
Jul 1, 2008 5:26 AM
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MSM is tightening and patching up the holes.
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Re: What's New in the News
Jul 1, 2008 5:21 AM
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> Info,
>
> This is Jim Webb on Olberman today
>
> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Udp4ZUYjNbU
Be as shrewd and ruthless in your demands on our leaders as the political wizards who are running these campaigns are in their strategies designed to get your vote. Do your part to send to Washington people who truly want to solve the problems of this country, from the bottom up," for now is "the time to fight," this really is the most important election of your lifetime.
I've been doing that, at the same time stick one up MSM for what they did to the Clintons.
Unfortunately, every other American are still drowning in the sensational trap of presidential demographic change.
I do disagree with Webb on many things, including the veteran benefits. IMHO, that should also fall under the, subject to the wellness of economy, medicare, middle class tax cuts.
Veterans are important, but we shouldn't interrupt our normal economic priorities. That's just not exactly the kind of civilization we live in.
--
Edited by infoseek at 07/01/2008 2:22 AM PDT
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Posts:
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Re: What's New in the News
Jul 1, 2008 3:42 AM
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> http://tinyurl.com/5fb5ae
>
> Anyway, the Dutch Newspaper "De Telegraaf"
> is expecting the US stock market to crash with in
> the next few weeks. And don't forget that they
> own/controll a decent portion of the US Federal
> Reserve.
>
> Now might be a good time for a booster shot to help
> ease the stresses of executive directive 110-51.
>
> Oh! can anyone say "North Amerikan Union"?
> I'll bet the Rockefeller's can!
fisajoe,
This is serious!!! It's all over the place, yet nobody is really talking about it on TV.
CNN=Politics because it matters to our savings, way of life, etc., yet failed to talk about this.
Source/Link
Many of you know Webb as a Marine hero in Vietnam and former Secretary of the Navy under President Ronald Reagan. Webb's message is powerful. I had to listen: I'm a Marine veteran with strong ties to Virginia (the University of Virginia School of Law).
Everyone listens when guys like Webb speak up. The main reason: Economic issues of the '08 election make this "a time to fight." You and me. This is the most important election of my lifetime. Probably yours. Possibly the most important since the good pastor issued his call to arms, to fight for independence.
Webb's message reminded us of the "Megabubble Polls" we've run a few times since 2004. Like many critics, we hated watching basic American values trashed by misguided leaders on Wall Street and in Corporate America, Washington and the Pentagon.
A perfect storm was brewing. We predicted it long ago. Earlier polls focused on the massive debts piling up all over America. Our goal: Warn investors to plan ahead, protect their nest eggs.
We gave the bubbles a brassy name: "Deficits of Mass Destruction," a reminder of something Warren Buffett said. We "cried wolf," some said, were called Cassandra, Chicken Little. Then the subprime meltdown last summer proved we were actually years ahead of the crowd.
Webb's message is a new call to arms: "This is a time to fight." Webb has a "passion for history and a desire to learn from it," a rare gift in our ideological-driven government of recent years. Citing Tolstoy's "War and Peace," he reminds us: "Great changes are most often pushed along by tsunami-deep impulses that cause the elites to react, far more than they inspire them to lead. And this, in my view, is the greatest lesson of political history" that "over time, under the right system of government, a free, thinking people have the energy and ultimately the power to effect change."
Yes, this is a "time to fight" for change, for freedom, for independence. "Tsunami-deep impulses" are racing through America, the same impulses that inspired Muhlenberg in 1775. Feel energy, it is time for change, a time to fight ... this is your time.
Here's an updated version, a new "Mega-Meltdown Poll," expanded to include the "Top 25" issues defining America for this crucial election, for the next century. But we cannot deal with them separately, anymore than the colonies could win separately. They must be solved collectively: All 25 are a loud call to arms.
So look closely and vote, make this the most important poll you'll ever take. Look at the individual issues. Then give each a grade of 1 to 4 points; the more critical the impending meltdown the higher the score. Then take responsibility and get into action. If your total score is over 50, you are clearly in Webb's "fight zone."
What can you do? Contact your senator and your representative in Congress, send them the poll, tell them what issues matter most to you, tell them how you want them to change America:
1. U.S. dollar meltdown
Clues: Foreign currencies replacing dollar as reserve currency. Buffett's hedging too.
Apparently, some feel the same as I did.
2. Housing-credit meltdown
Clues: Subprimes triggered $400 billion in write-offs; global estimate is $1.3 trillion.
3. Energy and oil bubble
Clues: Gas $5 a gallon. Crude up, up, up. Ethanol and OPEC idiocy. Automakers failing.
4. Foreign trade deficits
Clues: Monthly deficits top $70 billion. Selling equities, foreigners own $15 trillion.
5. Federal budget deficits
Clues: Federal debt now $9 trillion; add another $400 billion federal deficit this year.
6. Social Security deficit
Clues: $60 trillion to $75 trillion. Cut benefits or raise taxes. Inertia if gutless politicians.
7. Health-care crisis
Clues: Medicare losses. 47 million uninsured. Big Pharma pockets big bucks.
8. Corporate pensions underfunded
Clues: Airlines, auto, other blue chips in hock deep, defaulting to taxpayers.
9. Local government pensions deficits
Clues: $500 billion mess draining local taxpayers, deepening recession woes.
10. Personal savings meltdown
Clues: Consumption addicts. Zero savings rate. Too little for retirement.
11. Consumer debt bubbling Clues: Living beyond our means. $2 trillion consumer debt, bankruptcies up.
12. War and military defense deficits
Clues: Iraq/Afghanistan draining $200 billion annually, $2 trillion a decade.
13. Homeland insecurities
Clues: Playing Russian roulette, unprotected borders, ports, chemical plants.
14. Global warming
Clues: Manmade? Nature biting back? God? Karma? Stop blame game!
15. Obesity here ... poverty there!
Clues: We're fatter in head and body, too, as poverty spreads globally.
16. Educational deficits
Clues: Not "smarter than a fifth grader." Losing our edge globally.
17. Global population vs. limited resources
Clues: New demands as population grows 50% by 2050: 6.6 billion to 9.3 billion
18. Class gap gapping
Clues: Workers income stagnant. Superrich and CEOs getting bigger share.
19. Wall Street's derivatives casino
Clues: $100 trillion to $516 trillion in six years, unregulated, undisclosed, high-risk.
20. Media missing in action
Clues: Failed to do our job on the run-up to war. Now it's "time to fight!"
21. Lobbyists control government
Clues: Special interests run America, 42,000 lobbyists vs. 537 elected officials
22. Politicians disconnected
Clues: Post-election, politicians favor lobbyists and themselves, not voters
23. International integrity lost
Clues: Bad image: Occupiers, WMDs, Abu Ghraib, Gitmo and more.
24. Foreign-policy failures
Clues: Arrogant bully, lost credibility, imperialist, few allies, trillions wasted.
25. Leadership vacuum
Clues: Where did our leaders go? How did ego, arrogance, ideology take over?
Now total up your scores. And as you do, remember Webb's marching orders to "the American voter ... Be as shrewd and ruthless in your demands on our leaders as the political wizards who are running these campaigns are in their strategies designed to get your vote. Do your part to send to Washington people who truly want to solve the problems of this country, from the bottom up," for now is "the time to fight," this really is the most important election of your lifetime.
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Re: What's New in the News
Jul 1, 2008 1:42 AM
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Do they have a free press in Israel?
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