WHEN CAMPAIGNS GO BITCHY AND CANDIDATES GO TWITCHY, IT'S DESPERATION HOUR.
TODAY IN FLORIDA, VICE PRESIDENT JOE BIDEN TOSSED ASIDE HIS KINDLY UNCLE-PROFESSOR IMAGE TO GO FULL ON BITCHY.
HE SAID REPUBLICANS PRETENDED TO "BLEED OVER THE NATIONAL DEBT" AND YOU WERE LEFT WONDERING WHEN UNCLE JOE BECAME A GARDEN VARIETY DRAG QUEEN TRYING TO BREAK OUT A BETTE DAVIS IMITATION?
IF BIDEN WAS GRABBING BITCHY BETTE, THAT ONLY LEFT CRAZY JOAN CRAWFORD UP FOR CELEBRITY IN CHIEF BARRY O TO GRAB.
WITH LESS BROAD SHOULDERS, BARRY O FACED THE NATION TODAY IN HIS VIDEO ADDRESS ATTEMPTING TO COME OFF LIKE JOAN CRAWFORD FACING DOWN THE PEPSI SHARE HOLDERS AND SNARLING THAT THE ECONOMY AND RESPONSIBLE HOME OWNERS WERE TANKED BY "THE IRRESPONSIBLE ACTIONS OF OTHERS."
THE BITCH WHO SAVED BIG AUTO AND THE BANKS BUT DID NOTHING FOR THOSE FAMILIES ACROSS THE NATION FACING FORECLOSURES JUST GAVE A SPEECH WHERE HE BLAMED THEM FOR THE FRAUD THAT WAS ACTUALLY DONE BY THE BANKS.
WHEN CAMPAIGNS GO BITCHY AND CANDIDATES GO TWITCHY, IT'S DESPERATION HOUR.
FROM THE TCI WIRE:
During
the two-week ride, Kinsella will make stops at 12 military
installations where he plans to promote SSS's mission, raise awareness
about soldier suicide and form partnerships.
He's also encouraging people to join him on different lengths of the ride to show their support.
"Our
desire is for people to join the ride as I pass through towns. It will
really show how much people care and support our brave veterans,"
Kinsella said over coffee last week on September 11th in the Flatiron
District.
The Ride For Life comes as the suicide rate is such that Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta has rightly termed it a crisis.
July 25th, he appeared before the House Veterans Affairs Committee. From that day's snapshot:
US
House Rep Mike Michaud: Quick question, and I want to read from a
Veterans Service Organization letter that they actually sent to Senator
[Jim] Webb just last week. And just part of it says, "The only branch
of the military to show a marked improvement decreasing the number of
persons taking their own life is the United States Marines. They should
also be praised for their active leadership from the very top in
addressing the problem and implementing the solutions. The remaining
services have yet to be motivated to take any substanative action. "
Secretary Panetta, I've been to Iraq and Afghanistan several times and
I've looked the generals in the eye and I've asked them what are they
doing personally to help the stigmatized TBI, PTSD? And the second
question is: Do they need any help? I get the same answer over there as
I do over here in DC: 'Everything's okay. We've got all the
resources we need. We don't need any help.' But the interesting thing
is someone much lesser ranked came up to me, after I asked the general
that question, outside and said, "We need a lot more help." And he
suggested that I talk to the clergy to find out what they are seeing
happening. And I did that trip and every trip since then. And I'm
finding that our service members are not getting the help that they
need. And my question, particularly after looking at this letter that
was sent to Senator Webb, it appears the Marines are doing a good job so
why is it so different between the Marines, the Army and other
branches? And can you address that?
Secretary
Leon Panetta: You know -- Obviously, there's no silver bullet here. I
wish there were to try to deal with suicide prevention. We-we have a
new suicide prevention office that's trying to look at programs to try
to address this terrible epedemic. I mean, we are looking. If you look
at just the numbers, recent total are you've got about 104 confirmed
and 102 pending investigation in 2012. The total of this is high,
almost 206. That's nearly one a day. That is an epedemic. Something
is wrong. Part of this is people are inhibited because they don't want
to get the care that they probably need. So that's part of the problem,
trying to get the help that's necessary. Two, to give them access to
the kind of care that they need. But three -- and, again, I stress this
because I see this in a number of other areas, dealing with good
discipline and good order and, uh, trying to make sure that our troops
are responding to the challenges -- it is the leadership in the field.
It's the platoon commander. It's the platoon sergeant. It's the
company commander. It's the company sergeant. The ability to look at
their people, to see these problems. To get ahead of it and to be able
to ensure that when you spot the problems, you're moving that individual
to the kind of-of assistance that they need in order to prevent it.
The Marines stay in close touch with their people. That's probably one
of the reasons that the Marines are doing a good job. But what we're
stressing in the other services is to try to develop that-that training
of the command. So that they two are able to respond to these kinds of
challenges.
Yesterday the
Defense Dept released the latest suicide data: "
During
August, among active-duty soldiers, there were 16 potential suicides:
three have been confirmed as suicides and 13 remain under
investigation. For July, the Army reported 26 potential suicides among
active-duty soldiers: 13 have been confirmed as suicides and 13 remain
under investigation. For 2012, there have been 131 potential
active-duty suicides: 80 have been confirmed as suicides and 51 remain
under investigation. Active-duty suicide number for 2011: 165
confirmed as suicides and no cases under investigation. During
August, among reserve component soldiers who were not on active duty,
there were nine potential suicides (five Army National Guard and four
Army Reserve): none have been confirmed as suicide and nine remain
under investigation. For July, among that same group, the Army reported
12 potential suicides (nine Army National Guard and three Army
Reserve); four have been confirmed as suicides and eight remain under
investigation. For 2012, there have been 80 potential not on
active-duty suicides (49 Army National Guard and 31 Army Reserve): 59
have been confirmed as suicides and 21 remain under investigation. Not
on active-duty suicide numbers for 2011: 118 (82 Army National Guard
and 36 Army Reserve) confirmed as suicides and no cases under
investigation." The Suicide Prevention Lifeline is 1-800-273-TALK,
1-800-273-8255. (FYI, Cell phones have different lettering than
landlines. That's a fact that seems to escape people giving out letters
for phone numbers currently.)
Office of the Spokesperson
Washington, DC
September 28, 2012
The
Secretary of State has decided, consistent with the law, to revoke the
designation of the Mujahedin-e Khalq (MEK) and its aliases as a Foreign
Terrorist Organization (FTO) under the Immigration and Nationality Act
and to delist the MEK as a Specially Designated Global Terrorist under
Executive Order 13224. These actions are effective today. Property and
interests in property in the United States or within the possession or
control of U.S. persons will no longer be blocked, and U.S. entities may
engage in transactions with the MEK without obtaining a license. These
actions will be published in the Federal Register.
With
today's actions, the Department does not overlook or forget the MEK's
past acts of terrorism, including its involvement in the killing of U.S.
citizens in Iran in the 1970s and an attack on U.S. soil in 1992. The
Department also has serious concerns about the MEK as an organization,
particularly with regard to allegations of abuse committed against its
own members.
The Secretary's decision today
took into account the MEK's public renunciation of violence, the
absence of confirmed acts of terrorism by the MEK for more than a
decade, and their cooperation in the peaceful closure of Camp Ashraf,
their historic paramilitary base.
The
United States has consistently maintained a humanitarian interest in
seeking the safe, secure, and humane resolution of the situation at Camp
Ashraf, as well as in supporting the United Nations-led efforts to
relocate eligible former Ashraf residents outside of Iraq.
Some
would be seers have insisted all week that the move was a mistake and
that the MEK deserved to be labeled terrorists (in 1997 by the Clinton
administration) yet they never found an argument to make on behalf of
the Camp Ashraf residents. If Glen Glen and the other Three Faces of
Eve are unhappy with the way things were headed, they should have
factored in that there was a legal obligation to the Camp Ashraf
residents on the part of the US government and then they should have
come up with a suggestion of how to honor that obligation without taking
the MEK off the list. As Mohammed Tawfeeq (CNN) observed
earlier this year that "since 2004, the United States has considered
the residents of Camp Ashraf 'noncombatants' and 'protected persons'
under the Geneva Conventions."
Paul Richter (Los Angeles Times) observes,
"The Iranian government condemned the decision and blamed the group for
an incident in which a senior Iranian diplomat in New York for the U.N.
General Assembly was assaulted on the street." CNN notes
today that "since 2004 the United States has considered the group,
which has lived for more than 25 years at a refugee camp in Iraq,
'noncombatants' and 'protected persons' under the Geneva
Conventions." So if the Three Faces of Eve had objections to changing
the status of the MEK, they should have made time to propose how to
address the issues of the Camp Ashraf residents. It's not as though,
for example, Antiwar.com hasn't spent years savaging the MEK. If they
had a way to address the legal obligations to Camp Ashraf, they should
have proposed it.
