Monthly Archives: July 2011
Hackers Claim To Have Stolen Gigabyte Of Classified Data From NATO
”Anonymous’ Hackers Claim To Breach NATO Security – Fox News
NATO is looking into claims that hackers have breached its security and accessed scads of material so confidential the hacker group itself deemed it “irresponsible” to publish them all, despite a series of international raids Tuesday designed to corral the hacking activity.
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“NATO is aware that hacker group released what it claims to be NATO classified documents on the internet,” a NATO spokseman said in a statement. “NATO security experts are investigating these claims. We strongly condemn any leak of classified documents which could potentially endanger the security of NATO allies, armed forces and citizens.”
The group, which goes by the name “Anonymous,” claimed to be sitting on about 1 gigabyte of data. The hackers broadcast a link to a PDF file Thursday via Twitter, showing what appeared to be a document headed “NATO Restricted.”
The group’s actions have become intolerable, Steven Chabinsky, deputy assistant FBI director, said in an interview with NPR.
“We want to send a message that chaos on the Internet is unacceptable,” Chabinsky said. “[Even if] hackers can be believed to have social causes, it’s entirely unacceptable to break into websites and commit unlawful acts.”
The group followed up with a statement to the FBI and Chabinsky, with a list of things it deems unacceptable: “Governments lying to their citizens and inducing fear and terror to keep them in control … corporations aiding and conspiring with said governments … lobby conglomerates who only follow their agenda to push the profits higher.”
The group claimed that a second link it tweeted later linked to a second restricted NATO document on “outsourcing CIS in Kosovo (2008).”
Sixteen suspected members of “Anonymous” were arrested Tuesday in states across the country, from California to New York, in a federal raid on the notorious hacking group.
Anonymous is a loosely organized group of hackers sympathetic to WikiLeaks. It has claimed responsibility for attacks against corporate and government websites worldwide.
The group also claims credit for disrupting the websites of Visa and MasterCard in December, when the credit card companies stopped processing donations to WikiLeaks and its founder, Julian Assange.
The group’s message was clear: In spite of the string of recent arrests, the “hactivism” will continue.
“We are not scared any more. Your threats to arrest us are meaningless to us as you cannot arrest an idea.”
Election Commission Rules Silky Pony Must Pay Back $2.3 Million
Election Commission Rules Edwards Must Pay Back $2.3 Million – CNN
Former Presidential candidate John Edwards will have to pay back over 2 million dollars in federal matching funds given to his 2008 campaign for president, the Federal Election Commission ruled on Thursday.
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The commission voted 6 – 0 against Edwards and contends his campaign was in “excess of the Candidate’s entitlement.”
“At the end of the day if there were more matching funds received than campaign obligations at the point when the campaign ended you have to make a repayment, ” Ellen Weintraub, FEC Commissioner said during the hearing.
This latest ruling comes on the heels of Edwards’ indictment last month when a federal grand jury charged him with six counts, including conspiracy, issuing false statements and violating campaign contribution laws
That indictment was brought up Thursday by FEC Commissioner Donald McGahn who called it “the pink elephant in the room.” McGahn then asked other members of the Commission how a guilty verdict might impact Edwards’ finance filings and force him to amend what the campaign spent. His trial is scheduled to start in October.
“This gets a little confusing, this has not come up like this before,” FEC Commissioner Donald McGahn said during the hearing.
The FEC determined that Edwards had received just over 2.1 million dollars in matching funds after the campaign was winding down and Edwards was no longer in the race. The commission decided that in total his campaign must pay back $2,278,315 in excess matching funds.
According to the FEC, “Presidential candidates receive federal government funds to pay for the valid expenses of their political campaigns in both the primary and general elections.”
Edwards was represented at the hearing by his lawyers who filed this response to the audit. “John Edwards for President did not receive any matching funds in excess of its entitlement, and hence, no repayment is due,” they countered.
Edwards’ presidential campaign committee says it has $2.6 million in cash-on-hand as of June 30, 2011. It is unclear whether Edwards will use this money to pay back the US Government or if he will seek an appeal, his attorneys left the hearing without comment.
Thanks Barack… More People Sought Unemployment Benefits Last Week
More People Sought Unemployment Benefits Last Week – Washington Examiner
More people applied for unemployment benefits last week, evidence that layoffs are rising and the job market is weak.
Applications for unemployment benefits rose by 10,000 to a seasonally adjusted 418,000, the Labor Department said Thursday. The four-week average, a less volatile measure, dipped to 421,250.
Applications have topped 400,000 for 15 straight weeks, a sign of sluggish hiring. Applications had fallen in February to 375,000, a level that signals healthy job growth. They stayed below 400,000 for two months. But applications surged to an eight-month high of 478,000 in April and have declined slowly since then.
Consumers have pulled back on spending this year, besieged by high unemployment, stagnant wages, and high gas prices. That has slowed growth.
Unemployment applications “remain stubbornly elevated,” said Yelena Shulyatyeva, U.S. economist at BNP Paribas. “A lot of structural factors are still affecting the economy,” she added, such as the weak housing market and continuing layoffs by state and local governments.
The economy expanded only 1.9 percent in the January-March quarter, and some analysts forecast even slower growth for the April-June period.
Employers have responded by cutting back sharply on hiring. The economy added only 18,000 net jobs in June, the second straight month of dismal job gains. That’s far below the average of 215,000 net jobs per month the economy averaged from February through April.
The unemployment rate rose to 9.2 percent last month, the highest this year.
Some companies are cutting jobs. Cisco Systems Inc., the world’s largest maker of computer-networking gear, on Monday said that it is eliminating 6,500 positions, or about 9 percent of its worldwide work force of 73,000.
Layoffs rose to their highest level in nine months in May, according to a separate Labor department report last week.
‘Nazi’-Cop Town ‘Firing’ Officers, Stops Paying Mayor
‘Nazi’-Cop Town ‘Firing’ Officers, Stops Paying Mayor – WorldNetDaily
The state of Arizona is now investigating allegations of massive corruption among government officials in Quartzsite, Ariz., the town that’s the focus of worldwide attention after police forcibly removed a woman from speaking at a town-hall meeting, and where the mayor today says he’s not being paid and most local police officers are wrongly being fired and have been ordered not to leave their homes.
“I’m no longer getting paid as mayor,” said Ed Foster, the elected head of Quartzsite. “That’s not a big deal, but it’s in the town code that I get a stipend of $400. If they made a decision to withdraw my stipend, they have to do it in public, so just the decision to do it in private is another violation of the open-meeting law. It’s just idiocy.”
Quartzsite has become infamous since WND first publicized the arrest of Jennifer Jones, publisher of the Desert Freedom Press, over the vocal objections of Mayor Foster who pleaded with his own police not to remove her.
A video of the June 28 town-hall fiasco posted on YouTube has been viewed more than 100,000 times.
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Foster, who’s been at war with his own council and Police Chief Jeff Gilbert whom he has called corrupt and “a Nazi,” believes potentially millions of dollars of taxpayer money is being illegally funneled through secret checks to unnamed councilmembers.
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Mayor Ed Foster of Quartzsite, Ariz., says his town is filled with massive corruption among government officials.
“Those checks are the real story,” he said. “The response [of the council and police chief] has been overwhelming and vicious to the Nth degree.”
The council met earlier this month as it locked out the public and declared a “state of emergency,” allegedly due to personal threats resulting from the national exposure.
WND contacted the office of Gov. Jan Brewer to see what, if anything, it was doing about the ongoing situation, and received a brief response from Tasya Peterson, the deputy press secretary.
“Mayor Foster of Quartzsite visited with the governor’s Office of Constituent Services about this matter,” Peterson said. “One of the roles of Constituent Services is to help guide individuals to the proper place for assistance. In this instance, based upon the mayor’s allegations, Constituent Services suggested that he address his concerns with the attorney general’s office and AZPOST [Arizona Peace Officer Standards and Training Board]. Constituent Services understands that this did occur and these offices will decide if and how to proceed.”
A spokeswoman for Attorney General Tom Horne simply said, “It is under investigation.”
Foster confirmed that “the investigation is now underway,” as he indicated some state legislators and state police are now involved.
The mayor also says the vast majority of officers on the town’s small police force are in the process of being let go merely because they don’t support the actions of Chief Gilbert.
“They’re being fired,” he said. “They took their police reports to the U.S. attorney’s office to file a formal complaint about this today.”
The town has not actually fired them yet, but has placed nine officers on “paid, adminstrative leave until such time that you are told otherwise or until your employment is terminated,” according to a letter it delivered to the officers today.
That letter instructs the officers: “You are required to remain at your place of residence between the hours of 8:00 a.m. and noon and between the hours of 1:00 p.m. and 5:00 p.m., Monday through Friday. Failure to be present at your residence during those hours without express written approval from the investigator, Assistant Town Manager Al Johnson, shall be considered dereliction of duty and may result in additional disciplinary action, including dismissal.”
The letter also says it constitutes a direct order not to discuss the matter with anyone outside the investigation.
Foster noted, “There’s conspiracy of the town council to use the police department, the building department and the tax auditor to promote their political agenda and ensure their re-election. That’s a perfect RICO case with conspiracy. The U.S. Justice Department likes those words.”
Meanwhile, Jennifer Jones, the 45-year-old woman frog-marched from the town meeting is hoping state or federal officials take action quickly.
“We are actually living in anarchy here,” she said. “The rules don’t apply here. Someone needs to step in immediately and stop this nonsense.”
Jones says the records keeper for the police department has been put on administrative leave, and the town clerk has been consistently out of the office.
“There is no one watching the documents at the police station or town hall right now,” Jones said. “The police chief and town manager have access to the records and nobody will know if anything’s gone missing.”
“This is beyond insane because these people are so completely out of control that they don’t know which end they eat from and which end they sh– from.”
Jones says she and other residents who object to the town council’s actions have been living in a state of fear since the council declared its emergency.
“I’ve had a militia from Mohave County offer me an armed escort if I needed it,” she said. “I told ‘em I think I’m OK, but you never know. I’m really starting to wonder. We’re not armed with weapons. We’re armed with a camera. We’re a little bit outgunned here. I’m afraid of losing everything that I own that I worked all these years for.”
Jones appeared yesterday on the Fox Business Channel’s “Freedom Watch” program, where host Charles Payne told her, “This sounds like something from a ‘B’ movie where the police chief has taken over a town, and yet no one is fighting back other than yourself.” (watch video here)
The ongoing conflict has even caught the eye of the political left, including former MSNBC anchor Keith Olbermann, who now hosts a show on Al Gore’s Current TV.
Last week, Olbermann named Quartzsite Police Chief Jeff Gilbert as one of the “worst persons in the world.”
“Even the far left knows this is wrong,” Jones said. “The right knows this is wrong. The guy on the street knows it’s wrong. We all know it’s wrong, and yet it’s still going on.
None of the town council nor the police chief or town manager has responded to numerous WND requests for comment, and since WND’s original report, the town has scrubbed the councilmembers names, faces and email addresses from its official website.
A Facebook support page for Mayor Foster has been inundated with viewership and messages of solidarity.
“It’s amazing how many similar stories there are out there in small-town America,” Foster told WND.
“When you have a corrupt government, nobody’s gonna pay attention to ‘em. You’re at the mercy of them… Until Jones got dumped on there in that meeting, the [state] government wasn’t paying any attention to Quartzsite… The light’s shining on [the local corrupt officials now] but they don’t appear to be running for cover yet. The war is not over by a long shot. We still the need the world’s attention on it.”
Don Lowery, the sheriff of La Paz County which includes Quartzsite, has been flooded with calls from outraged citizens asking him to fix the problem in Quartzsite, but he has declined.
“I do not have the power or authority to go down and remove the chief of police,” he told the Parker Pioneer.
“At this time, the town of Quartzsite is an incorporated community with an elected town council that represents the people. I am not in any position to interfere with the inner workings of their government. I have faith in our system and I feel that any issues will be addressed with everyone’s best interest in mind.”
Shock Study: U.S. Flag Only Boosts GOP
Shock Study: U.S. Flag Only Boosts GOP – U.S. News & World Report
Just a brief exposure to an image of the American flag shifts voters, even Democrats, to Republican beliefs, attitudes and voting behavior even though most don’t believe it will impact their politics, according to a new two-year study just published in the scholarly Psychological Science.
What’s more, according to three authors from the University Chicago, Cornell University and Hebrew University, the impact had staying power.
“A single exposure to an American flag resulted in a significant increase in participants’ Republican voting intentions, voting behavior, political beliefs, and implicit and explicit attitudes, with some effects lasting 8 months,” the study found. “These results constitute the first evidence that nonconscious priming effects from exposure to a national flag can bias the citizenry toward one political party and can have considerable durability.”
Theirs is the first study to look at the political impact on Americans who have seen an American flag, and it seems to back up another recent Harvard University professor’s study that found that kids who attended a July 4th parade ended up leaning Republican when they grew up.
It’s also sure to prompt GOP presidential candidates to add more U.S. flags at their events and speeches.
For this study, the scholars asked mostly Democratic-leaning voters to join in the survey conducted just before the 2008 election of President Obama over Sen. John McCain. All were given a survey to fill out. Half of those surveys included a small picture of an American flag in the top left corner.
Some 90 percent said that they believed their voting behavior wouldn’t be influenced by the presence of a flag.
But after asking how the participants voted, the study concluded:
“In contrast to the beliefs of the participants in the pilot study, the results from the experiments reported here show that exposure to the American flag introduces a bias toward the Republican Party over the Democratic Party. In one experiment, we tested whether subtle exposure to the American flag shifted people’s beliefs, attitudes, and behaviors toward the Republican end of the political continuum. We found that a single exposure to a small American flag during deliberation about voting intentions prior to a general election led to significant and robust changes in participants’ voting intentions, voting behavior, and political attitudes, all in the politically conservative direction.”
And apparently politics didn’t have anything to do with how those shown the flag changed their voting.
“It is important to note that political ideology and party affiliation did not moderate these effects. That is, both liberal and conservative participants were influenced by the flag prime, and in the same (conservative) direction,” said the study.
Eight months after the election eve survey, the group was then asked about Obama’s performance and remarkably those in the group shown the American flag on the initial survey “felt less positively about Obama’s job performance.”
To prove the shocking results, the scholars in the spring of 2010 conducted another test, this time to see if exposure to an American flag produces a bias toward Republicanism, rather than the party that controls the White House. For this, they showed some pictures of buildings that included a flag, and others photos with the flag digitally erased.
That result: “Subtle exposure to the American flag significantly shifted both Democratic and Republican participants’ beliefs, attitudes, and voting behavior toward Republicanism.”
Man Claims $300,000 Texas Home For $16
Man Claims $300,000 Texas Home For $16 – Europaplus
Thanks to a little-known Texas law, a man found an abandoned $300,000 home, moved his stuff in and filled out some paperwork. It cost him $16. Now, apparently he’s a homeowner.
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On June 17, Kenneth Robinson moved into a $330,000 home in an upscale neighborhood in Flower Mound, Texas. Except, instead of going through a bank, wading through the mortgage process and making a down payment, Robinson went to the Denton County Courthouse and filled out a form.
The house he was after was abandoned, and the mortgage company went out of business. So after months of research, Robinson took advantage of a Texas law called “adverse possession.” All he had to do was print out an online form and for a $16 fee was granted rights to the house.
While it has no electricity or running water, Robinson has moved a few things in and is living, well, a bit uncomfortably it appears. But Robinson told WFAA News8 that he has exclusive negotiating rights with the original owner because he has his possessions in the home. And Robinson said that if the owner wants him to leave, he would have to pay off the rest of his mortgage debt as well as file a lawsuit to kick him out.
Robinson’s new neighbors, however, aren’t being hospitable, with one referring to him as a squatter. “If he wants the house, buy the house like everyone else had to,” said one neighbor.
But Robinson plans to stay, and after three years, he said, he can ask the court for the title.“I want to be the owner of record,” Robinson told WFAA. “At this point, because I possess it, I am the owner.”
Home At Last: Atlantis Makes Historic Final Landing As Nasa’s 30-Year Shuttle Program Comes To An End
It’s the end of an era. After three decades of space travel, Nasa’s shuttle program came to a close this morning when Atlantis landed back on Earth.
The space shuttle and its four-member crew touched down as dawn broke at the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida, one minute behind schedule at 5.57am local time (10.57am BST).
Hundreds of spectators gathered near the runway to welcome Atlantis home – and to bid Nasa’s 30-year space shuttle program goodbye.
Touchdown: Atlantis lands at Kennedy Space Center one minute behind schedule at 5.57am (10.57am BST) this morning, bringing an end to Nasa’s 30-year space shuttle program
Incoming: Atlantis Commander Chris Ferguson gently steered the 100-ton spaceship high overhead, then nose-dived toward the swamp-surrounded landing strip at the Kennedy Space Center
Final farewell: Hundreds of spectators gathered near the runway to welcome Atlantis home – and to bid Nasa’s space shuttle program goodbye
Atlantis glided home through a clear moonlit sky to complete a 13-day cargo run to the International Space Station.
Commander Chris Ferguson gently steered the 100-ton spaceship high overhead, then nose-dived toward the swamp-surrounded landing strip at the Kennedy Space Center, a few miles from where Atlantis will go on display as a museum piece.
Double sonic booms shattered the predawn silence around the space center, the last time residents will hear the sound of a shuttle coming home.
When Commander Ferguson eased Atlantis onto the runway, he was ending a 5.2million-mile journey and closing a key chapter in human space flight history.
‘Mission complete, Houston,’ he radioed to Mission Control.
Astronaut Barry Wilmore from Mission Control answered back, ‘We’ll take this opportunity to congratulate you Atlantis, as well as the thousands of passionate individuals across this great space-faring nation who truly empowered this incredible spacecraft, which for three decades has inspired millions around the globe.’
Atlantis’ return from the 135th shuttle mission capped a 30-year program that made spaceflight appear routine, despite two fatal accidents that killed 14 astronauts and destroyed two of Nasa’s five spaceships.
Atlantis’ mission was to resupply the International Space Station, ending a 12-year program to build and service the orbital research outpost
Atlantis is the next-to-youngest shuttle. In retirement, it will remain at Kennedy Space Center and be put on display
Back for good: Atlantis glided home through a clear moonlit sky to complete a 13-day cargo run to the International Space Station
Atlantis comes to a standstill on the runway: Private companies will now take over trips to the International Space Station. Nasa’s next stop with astronauts will be an asteroid, then Mars
The last accident investigation board recommended the shuttles be retired after construction was finished on the space station, a $100billion project of 16 nations. That milestone was reached this year.
Details of a follow-on program are still pending, but the overall objective is to build new spaceships that can travel beyond the station’s 250mile orbit and send astronauts to the moon, asteroids and other destinations in deep space.
But with its Constellation program canceled by President Barack Obama due to exorbitant costs, Nasa will for the time-being rely on Russian Soyuz vehicles to launch missions to space.
Once at the forefront of orbiter technology, Nasa is increasing looking to private industry to engineer the next generation of spacecraft that will ferry crew and cargo to the International Space Station and beyond.
Among many tributes this week, on Wednesday evening, the Empire State Building in New York lit up in red, white and blue in honor of the space shuttle program.
On the last full day of this last mission, Commander Ferguson told the controllers: ‘I’d love to have each and every one of you to stand up and take a bow, a round of applause.
‘Then there would be no one to applaud and there would be nobody to watching the vehicle… but believe me, our hearts go out to you.’
Homeward bound: An image of the International Space Station that was taken by an Atlantis crew member shortly after the shuttle departed the station on Tuesday
In orbit: Atlantis sits docked with the ISS in this photo taken by astronaut Mike Fossum aboard the space station
Ferguson and his three crewmates then checked their critical flight systems for Thursday’s planned landing in Florida.
Everything worked perfectly. Excellent weather winded up the 135th flight of the space shuttle program.
The astronauts and the flight controllers who will guide them home said Wednesday they were starting to feel a rush of emotions.
‘It’s going to be tough,’ Mr Ferguson said in a series of TV interviews.
‘It’s going to be an emotional moment for a lot of people who have dedicated their lives to the shuttle program for 30 years. But we’re going to try to keep it upbeat.’
Flight director Tony Ceccacci, who was slated to preside over Atlantis’ return to Earth, refrained from publicly sharing his sentiments – until Wednesday.
‘You guys must know that we do have a motto in the Mission Control Center that flight controllers don’t cry, Ceccacci told reporters. ‘So we’re going to make sure we keep that.’
Snap happy: Members of the media set up remote cameras at the north end of the Kennedy Space Center runway in preparation for the return of Atlantis
See you soon: The Atlantis crew wave farewell at the end of the last crew news conference from aboard the shuttle on Wednesday
Atlantis departed the International Space Station on Tuesday, after restocking it with a year’s worth of supplies. Among the shuttle highlights noted Wednesday was the construction of the station, a nearly one million-pound science outpost that took 12.5 years and 37 shuttle flights to build.
Space station astronaut Michael Fossum posted on Twitter a photo of the shuttle docked to the station 250 miles above the blue planet, which he snapped during last week’s spacewalk. He noted in the tweet: “When will such beautiful ship dock again to ISS?”
Nasa already is shifting gears.
It’s working with private companies eager to take over cargo runs and astronaut flights to the space station. The first supply trip is expected to take place by the end of this year. Astronaut trips will take more time to put together, at least three to five years.
The long-term destination is true outer space: sending astronauts to an asteroid by 2025 and to Mars the following decade. That’s the plan put forth by President Obama. His predecessor wanted the moon as the prize.
Atlantis departs the ISS on Monday – a space station solar panel can be seen in the foreground
Last lift-off: Hundred of thousands of spectators at Cape Canaveral and tens of millions of TV viewers around the world watched Atlantis blast-off earlier this month
Throughout their 13-day mission and again Wednesday, the Atlantis astronauts stressed the need for a decades-long space exploration plan that does not change with each incoming president.
Ceccacci, whose Mission Control experience dates back to the first shuttle flight in 1981, said it’s ‘tough’ to think about all the experience that will be walking out the door following this mission.
Thousands of lay-offs are looming at the various Nasa centers; about 2,000 shuttle workers at Kennedy alone will get pink slips starting Friday. That’s on top of massive cutbacks already made.
‘We know there’s going to be a rough spot for a while,’ Ceccacci said. ‘But we hope that when we do get a good plan, a good direction, a good mission, that we can come back in here and do what we’ve been doing for the past 30 years for the shuttle and the years before that with Mercury, Gemini and Apollo.’
Atlantis is the last of the shuttles to be retired. It will remain at Kennedy Space Center, eventually going on public display at the visitor complex. Discovery is bound for the Smithsonian Institution in suburban Washington, and Endeavor for the California Science Center in Los Angeles.
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Daily Benefactor News – Former Marine To Receive Medal Of Honor For Controversial 2009 Battle
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Former Marine To Receive Medal Of Honor For Controversial 2009 Battle – Stars And Stripes
A Marine who braved intense enemy gunfire in Afghanistan to recover the bodies of four fallen comrades will receive the Medal of Honor for his heroism, defense officials said Wednesday.
Dakota Meyer, who left the service last year, will be the third living recipient of the award for actions in Afghanistan and the tenth man recognized for exceptional bravery in the current wars. He’ll also be the first living Marine to receive the honor since the Vietnam War.
White House and defense officials have not released details of the award or the timing of its presentation.
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The 22-year-old’s heroics came while serving with an embedded training team from the III Marine Expeditionary Force out of Okinawa, Japan. In September 2009, his team was ambushed in the controversial battle of Ganjgal, which claimed the lives of five Marines and nine Afghan allies.
A Defense Department investigation released five months later said that negligent leadership and a command refusal for artillery support directly contributed to the deaths of Meyer’s fellow fighters, and reprimanded three Army officers.
Last month, two other Marines from that fight – Capt. Ademola Fabayo and Staff Sgt. Juan Rodriguez-Chavez – received the Navy Cross for their heroics evacuating wounded comrades and repelling the enemy ambush.
But Corps officials said Meyer’s heroics went even further. He was wounded by shrapnel early in the battle, but when his unit lost contact with three Marines and a Navy corpsman pinned down by enemy fire, Meyer fought his way down a mountainside alone to their position.
When he found them all dead and in danger of being claimed as trophies by enemy fighters, he evacuated their bodies with the help of Afghan troops.
Just a few days after the attack, an angry Meyer told a reporter from McClatchy News Service that the off-site commanders’ decisions not to order artillery support “basically screwed our guys over. They expect us to bring stuff to the fight, and [the commanders] didn’t give it to us.”
And in an interview with the Military Times late last year, Meyer said he felt praise for his heroics that day was unwarranted. “I feel like I let my guys down, because I didn’t bring them home alive,” he said.
Meyer retired last summer as a corporal. He could not be reached for comment.
Meyer had been rumored to be on the military’s short list for the Medal of Honor since last fall. After years without any living medal recipients for the current wars, the White House has already awarded two living recipients with the highest military honor since last fall: former Army Staff Sgt. Sal Giunta, and Army Staff Sgt. Leroy Petry.
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ATTENTION! ALL BLOGGERS!
Head over to I own The World and read this post!
John Hawkins’ prediction, that small conservative blogs are going to go belly up after a long slow painful experience, has bothered me since reading it.
The main thing that bothered me is that he offered nothing but obvious bromides – get bigger, get better, get monetized. Really? Thanks.
Despite my sarcastic turn, this is not a bash Hawkins thread, quite the opposite. Hawkins is a great guy and does great work for the conservative cause. I have to assume that his prediction can come true in order to be compelled to do something about it.
iOTW is not a large blog, we’re not a small blog. We’re somewhere in the middle. And being in the middle means that there are plenty of blogs that we can help. iOTW doesn’t want any conservative blogs going belly up (except maybe some annoying ones – hehe) because that isn’t going to help the overall cause of conservatism.
So, if you have your own blog, no matter how modest or large, please put a link to it in the comment section of this post. I will be maintaining this post and monitoring its progress and bumping it from time to time to the front page. I will also be going to the blogs to poach some posts to include among our daily content.
Readers may offer their reviews of the blogs listed and give their endorsements, hopefully we can increase the flow of their traffic and exposure and make John Hawkins’ prediction a complete bust.
Racial Violence in South Carolina : The Other McCain
You see, sometimes racism, is not racism, no matter how obvious it is. Racism, as defined by our media in America, only happens when a Conservative dares disagree with a minority who is also liberal in their politics. THAT is RAAAAACISM, yes with five A’s to show how RAAAAACIST, again with five A’s, it is! Video via Stacy McCain who sums it up well.
A gang of black teenagers roaming around looking for a white person to attack? But that’s not a “hate crime.” Just like nightstick-wielding Panthers at a polling place is not “voter intimidation.”
And the Nanny State grew, and grew, and…….
Via Just a Conservative Girl comes news of the latest in government sticking its nose where it should not.
Senator Kay Hagan (D-N.C.) and Congresswoman Tammy Baldwin (D-Wis) are pushing a bill to be passed in order to have a healthier image for girls set in the media; The Healthy Media for Youth Act. While I will agree that young girls are bombarded with unhealthy images all the time. We have models that are airbrushed to the point that they don’t even look like the image that is portrayed in the magazine or billboard, they also are sometimes deadly thin. These images alone can push some tweens and teens into the grips of anorexia.
We have sexualized our children in ways that we tell them pretty much anything goes. We lie to them about abortion being nothing more than getting rid of a problem and the unborn child they are carrying is nothing more than a “bunch of cells”. None of this is a healthy way to raise our girls so that they become happy and well-adjusted adults.
The Healthy Media for Youth Act takes a three-pronged approach to promote healthy media messages about girls and women. First, the bill creates a competitive grant program to encourage and support media literacy programs and youth empowerment groups. The bill also facilitates research on how depictions of women and girls in the media affect youth. Finally, it establishes a National Taskforce on Women and Girls in the Media, which will develop voluntary standards that promote healthy, balanced, and positive images of girls and women in the media for the benefit of all youth.
This bill was announced yesterday at press conference with both Hagan and Baldwin. They were joined by CEO of Girl Scouts of America Kathy Cloninger and Actress Geena Davis.
A survey by Girl Scouts of the USA’s (GSUSA) Research Institute, Girls and Body Image, found that 89% of girls say the fashion industry places a lot of pressure on teenage girls to be thin. The American Psychological Association’s (APA) Report on the Sexualization of Girls (2007) found that three of the most common mental health problems among girls—eating disorders, depression or depressed mood, and low self-esteem—are linked to the sexualization of girls and women in media. And according to the Geena Davis Institute of Gender in Media, despite being 50 percent of the U.S. population, in family films and television, male characters outweigh female characters nearly three to one and five to one in background or group scenes, a statistic that has remained the same since 1946. Only 27 percent of the speaking characters are female. (GDIGM)
Good intentions? Maybe, but, again, we all know that those pave the way to Hell don’t we? The government is not meant to stick its nose into every societal ill, or perceived societal ill. It never works, and never will. Want to know one reason we have such national debt? Too many programs, started with good intentions that grow, and grow, and eat more tax dollars, and so on.
Crackpots In San Francisco Hurl Flares, Hammer At Police During Violent March (Videos)
Crackpots In San Francisco Hurl Flares, Hammer At Police During Violent March – The Blaze
Protesters marching against the recent police-involved shooting of a young man – who police say fired at them and ran during a routine train fare check – became violent on Tuesday, hurling flares, smoke bombs, and a hammer at police. KGO-TV reports a motorcycle cop was injured when protesters tried to push him off his cycle. About 35 protesters were arrested at the end of the day:
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The march began moving through the Mission and Castro districts around 6 p.m., and it came the same day investigators said tests found gun residue on 19-year-old Kenneth Harding’s hand – the young man who ran from police – indicating he fired the first shot at officers Saturday.
Police Chief Greg Suhr said the Seattle man fired the first shot at the officers, who shot back about nine times. Harding was pronounced dead after the chase in the Bayview neighborhood that began when officers approached him for not paying his fare on a light-rail train.
Harding was on parole for promoting prostitution in Washington state and was a person of interest in a fatal shooting in Seattle last week, authorities said.
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During the protest Tuesday, some marchers carried a banner reading “They can’t shoot us all.” Others chanted, “How do you spell murder? S-F-P-D.” Video posted on YouTube also shows protesters shouting, “Cops! Pigs! Murderers!” while also carrying a sign saying, “Fu** the police:”
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The group arrived at a Muni light rail station, where they overturned garbage cans and attempted to break ticket machines, KTVU-TV reported. Video footage showed a protester throwing a smoke bomb.
Esparza tells the news station that police declared the gathering of about 150 protesters an unlawful assembly around 7:45 p.m.
After the group left the light rail station, they moved toward the Mission Police Station, where they threw a hammer toward a window. The Chronicle reports officers were not hit in that attempt.
According to KGO, the mob also tried to splash the station with paint and threw flares. It also says protesters vandalized a Bank of America at 18th and Castro street.
With Unemployment At 9.2% And Debt Ceiling Deadline Looming, Senate Democrats Focus On… WAIT FOR IT … Gay Marriage
It’s an Obama world.
With the Obama unemployment rate at a record 9.2% and a debt ceiling deadline looming, Senate democrats will tackle gay marriage this week.
Of course.
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……………………..Rep. Barney Frank playing grab-ass with politico Mike Evans
Don’t ever let a good crisis go to waste.
USA Today reported:
A Senate committee this week will put the spotlight on gay marriage, as Sen. Dianne Feinstein pushes for repeal of the Defense of Marriage Act.
Feinstein, D-Calif., is the lead sponsor of a bill to repeal the law known as DOMA, which defines marriage as between a man and a woman and bans federal recognition of gay marriage. The Obama administration earlier this year said it would no longer defend DOMA, saying the legal landscape has changed.
Most recently, New York became the largest state to allow same-sex marriages — an action that gay rights supporters say gives momentum to similar laws across the country.
Feinstein on Tuesday is expected to be joined at a news conference by three gay couples who will talk about the roadblocks they’ve faced from DOMA. On Wednesday, the Senate Judiciary Committee will hold a hearing on the existing law and discuss Feinstein’s repeal bill.
Gatordoug
darcprynce
Dave C
