Month: April 2010

Casualties

~ susie ~ 1 Comment

I’m so sorry that we haven’t done enough to stop this war. This is just unforgiveable, that these veterans aren’t being helped:

DAYTON — Jesse Charles Huff walked up to the VA Medical Center yesterday wearing Army fatigues and battling pain from his Iraq war wounds and a recent bout with depression.

The 27-year-old Dayton man had entered the center’s emergency room about 1a.m. yesterday and requested some sort of treatment. But Huff did not get that treatment, police said, and about 5:45 a.m., he reappeared at the center’s entrance, put a military-style rifle to his head and twice pulled the trigger.

Police would not specify what treatment Huff sought and why he did not receive it. Medical center spokeswoman Donna Simmons declined to answer questions about Huff’s treatment, citing privacy laws. But police believe Huff killed himself to make a statement.

Scott Labensky, whose son lived with Huff, agreed. He said the veteran was injured by a ground blast while serving in Iraq and received ongoing treatment for a back injury and depression.

“He never got adequate care from the VA he was trying to get,” Labensky said. “I believe he (killed himself) to bring attention to that fact.”

Leeches

~ susie ~ 1 Comment

Everyone who uses government services is a parasite living off the hard work of others – except when it’s them, of course:

They were enraged about the growing costs of entitlements, the surging national debt, and everything from the bailouts of the banks to the new health care law.

Early yesterday morning, Valerie and Rob Shirk corralled their 10 home-schooled children into their van for the 2 1/2-hour drive from their home in Connecticut to Boston, arriving just in time to hear Sarah Palin denounce government-run health care at the tea party movement rally on Boston Common.

They thought it would be a learning opportunity for their children, who range in age from 9 months to 15 years old and who held up signs criticizing the government for defying the “will of the people.’’

“The problem in this country is that too many people are looking for handouts,’’ said Valerie Shirk, 43, of Prospect, Conn. “I agree with the signs that say, ‘Share my father’s work ethic — not his paycheck.’ We have to do something about the whole welfare mentality in this country.’’

The Shirks were among the thousands of people who attended the rally from around the region, many of them carrying signs with slogans such as, “What Part of Live Free or Die Don’t You Understand?,’’ “Don’t Tread on Me,’’ and “Starve the Beast by Tax Cuts.’’

[…] For the Shirks, it was a day for their children to seek inspiration from Palin and the other speakers, who questioned Obama’s patriotism and at least one of whom referred to him repeatedly as Barack Hussein.

The couple, who rely on Medicaid for their health care, were also upset about the nation’s new health reforms.

When asked why her family used state-subsidized health care when she criticized people who take handouts, Valerie Shirk said she did not want to stop having children, and that her husband’s income was not enough to cover the family with private insurance.

“I know there’s a dichotomy because of what we get from the state,’’ she said. “But I just look at each of my children as a blessing.’’

Uh huh. Oh, and I liked this one:

“This movement stands for smaller government, reduced taxation, and support for our Constitution, which I feel has been trampled on by the Democrats, and George W. Bush,’’ said McQueen, who now receives health insurance through COBRA.

He was not sure how much longer he would be able to afford his insurance. “But I won’t take a handout,’’ he said. “I’ll just have to make some money.’’

I guess he turned down the 65% COBRA subsidy, right? On principle.

And how about this one?

Lindsay Lacombe, who wore an “I Love Fox News’’ T-shirt, drove in from Fitchburg, in part to protest the health care reforms.

“This was just something I really wanted to participate in,’’ said Lacombe, 22, a junior at Fitchburg State College. “I don’t understand how everyone can get free health care. It’s not right.’’

When it was explained that the new law requires many of the newly insured to make some contribution toward their health insurance, she said: “I’m not a political science major.’’

Just a bunch of anxious people with free-floating hostility, looking for someone or something to blame!

War for Oil?

~ susie ~ 7 Comments

Hard to believe “Three Days of the Condor” is 34 years old, because it was such a damned prescient movie. And now, in light of this latest military report, I expect that our government won’t even try to hide a “blood for oil” foreign policy once the American public is clamoring for it:

The US military has warned that surplus oil production capacity could disappear within two years and there could be serious shortages by 2015 with a significant economic and political impact.

The energy crisis outlined in a Joint Operating Environment report from the US Joint Forces Command, comes as the price of petrol in Britain reaches record levels and the cost of crude is predicted to soon top $100 a barrel.

“By 2012, surplus oil production capacity could entirely disappear, and as early as 2015, the shortfall in output could reach nearly 10 million barrels per day,” says the report, which has a foreword by a senior commander, General James N Mattis.

It adds: “While it is difficult to predict precisely what economic, political, and strategic effects such a shortfall might produce, it surely would reduce the prospects for growth in both the developing and developed worlds. Such an economic slowdown would exacerbate other unresolved tensions, push fragile and failing states further down the path toward collapse, and perhaps have serious economic impact on both China and India.”

Who are they kidding? It’s going to put major economic and social stresses on what’s left of the United States economy, because China’s selling us all those cheap goods.

The US military says its views cannot be taken as US government policy but admits they are meant to provide the Joint Forces with “an intellectual foundation upon which we will construct the concept to guide out future force developments.”

The warning is the latest in a series from around the world that has turned peak oil – the moment when demand exceeds supply – from a distant threat to a more immediate risk.

[…] Future fuel supplies are of acute importance to the US army because it is believed to be the biggest single user of petrol in the world. BP chief executive, Tony Hayward, said recently that there was little chance of crude from the carbon-heavy Canadian tar sands being banned in America because the US military like to have local supplies rather than rely on the politically unstable Middle East.

But there are signs that the US Department of Energy might also be changing its stance on peak oil. In a recent interview with French newspaper, Le Monde, Glen Sweetnam, main oil adviser to the Obama administration, admitted that “a chance exists that we may experience a decline” of world liquid fuels production between 2011 and 2015 if the investment was not forthcoming.