i sure understand the need for security

i know any AND every thing can and will be hacked. i know military computers should NOT be used on social networking sites. it's probably a good idea if they're not used on anything other than official military bid-nez.

however, i say give the men and women access to (not just enlisted either. i'm talking officers) some non-military computers. they can use them to blog or bitch or tweet or socialize. put 'em on totally different NON military servers. the interwebs have become such a part of our everyday lives now. in viet nam or before it took a WHILE for contact between a military person and their friends and family. these days INSTANT contact is possible. let's give the women and men of our military every option and every little gift we can spare. they deserve it


Pentagon Keeps Wary Watch as Troops Blog

By JAMES DAO

Over the course of 10 months in eastern Afghanistan, an Army specialist nicknamed Mud Puppy maintained a blog irreverently chronicling life at the front, from the terror of roadside bombs to the tyrannies of master sergeants.

Often funny and always profane, the blog, Embrace the Suck (military slang for making the best of a bad situation), flies under the Army’s radar. Not officially approved, it is hidden behind a password-protected wall because the reservist does not want his superiors censoring it.

“Some officer would be reviewing all my writing,” the 31-year-old soldier, who insisted that his name not be used, said in an e-mail message. “And sooner or later he would find something to nail me with.”

There are two sides to the military’s foray into the freewheeling world of the interactive Web. At the highest echelons of the Pentagon, civilian officials and four-star generals are newly hailing the power of social networking to make members of the American military more empathetic, entice recruits and shape public opinion on the war......

clearly 'the gays' will bring an end to the

world as we now know it. clearly if 'the gays' join our armed forces the real men (and women) of our armed forces will no longer be able to defend the great nation we call the united states of america. clearly 'the gays' will disable the entire structure of how we defend ourselves.

CLEARLY

but neo-nazis. naw. we love 'em! they won't disturb a thing. they won't find it hard to serve next to people of color or people who are not of the same beliefs they are. and of course the people of color, the people who have a different belief system and even the people with brains and souls and real courage who are the same color as the neo-nazis - they will find it quite easy to serve side by side with them, right?

RIGHT?

what's wrong with THAT picture?

p.s. who would YOU want covering YOUR back? timothy mcveigh or lt. dan choi?

US military: Gays not welcome; white supremacists 'OK?'

Recently, an Army National Guardsman and Arabic translator who openly challenged the military's "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy, was recommended for discharge by a military administrative board because he has publicly said that he is gay. Yet a watchdog group claims dozens of US military personnel have been spotted on a white supremacist social networking Web site in an apparent violation of Pentagon regulations prohibiting racist extremism.

The Southern Poverty Law Center, a hate-group watchdog based in Alabama, will present a report to Congress today and urge them to investigate evidence "that racial extremists are infiltrating the U.S. military in order to ensure that the armed forces are not inadvertently training future domestic terrorists."

The SPLC also notes:

In recent months, SPLC investigators found approximately 40 personal profiles that listed "military" as an occupation on the Internet forum New Saxon, which is operated by the neo-Nazi National Socialist Movement. One individual, who claims to be serving in Afghanistan, lists as his favorite book The Turner Diaries, which was written by neo-Nazi leader William Pierce. The book served as a blueprint for the Oklahoma City bombing by Gulf War veteran Timothy McVeigh. Another individual said he was about to be deployed overseas and was looking forward to "killing all the bloody sand niggers." Still another spoke of his hatred for undocumented immigrants......

it's not like we haven't read this very same headline before

it's just every time i read it i want to cry (or be sick or slap someone or do an array of things)

it's just every time i read it i am startled. i am heartbroken

Arms From U.S. May Be Falling Into Taliban Hands
By C. J. CHIVERS
KABUL, Afghanistan — Insurgents in Afghanistan, fighting from some of the poorest and most remote regions on earth, have managed for years to maintain an intensive guerrilla war against materially superior American and Afghan forces.

Arms and ordnance collected from dead insurgents hint at one possible reason: Of 30 rifle magazines recently taken from insurgents’ corpses, at least 17 contained cartridges, or rounds, identical to ammunition the United States had provided to Afghan government forces, according to an examination of ammunition markings by The New York Times and interviews with American officers and arms dealers.

The presence of this ammunition among the dead in the Korangal Valley, an area of often fierce fighting near Afghanistan’s border with Pakistan, strongly suggests that munitions procured by the Pentagon have leaked from Afghan forces for use against American troops.........

just so we know iraq still exists

and what we did not only to the iraqis but our OWN MEN AND WOMEN, i wanted to post this. remember too, their health care down the road is the responsibility of all of us as well (and no, i'm not complaining about that part. we OWE these heroes. but we also owe them not to knowingly put them in cancer causing conditions)

Pentagon knowingly exposed troops to cancer-causing chemicals, document shows
John Byrne

A newly leaked military document appears to show the Pentagon knowingly exposed US troops to toxic chemicals that cause cancer, while publicly downplaying the risks exposure might cause.

The document, written by an environmental engineering flight commander in December of 2006 and posted on Wikileaks (PDF) on Tuesday, details the risks posed to US troops in Iraq by burning garbage at a US airbase. It enumerates myriad risks posed by the practice and identifies various carcinogens released by incinerating waste in open-air pits.

Because of the difficulties in testing samples, investigators could not prove that chemicals exceeded military exposure guidelines. But a military document released last December found that chemicals routinely exceeded safe levels by twice to six times...........

curious

how much proof does our government need about this corporation NOT being quite who they say they are (or their products NOT quite doing what they say they'll do nor not do)? i guess as much proof as the pentagon needs to NOT continue to contract with kbr

Diebold 'offices' listed in yellow pages are mostly Wal-Marts
Joe Byrne
Across the country, curious bloggers are calling up their local Diebold offices, and no one is answering.

Utah is among the number of states that now use a partial or fully electronic election system, and Premier Election Solutions, a subsidiary of Diebold, is the company that sold the machines to the state. To convince Utah decision-makers that Diebold was a big company with a substantial presence, Kathy Dopp, founder of UtahCountVotes.org, reported that a company representative told the decision-makers in 2006 that Diebold “has about 20 offices in Utah.” When pressed further, the representative refused to give the locations of any of the offices. In fact, the White Pages lists 18 Diebold offices.

However, when calls were made to all of these offices, only one picked up the phone. And when the addresses of offices listed under Diebold in the White Pages were visited, the addresses turned out to belong to either a Wal-Mart, a Sam's Club, or no building at all. In the end, 16 of the 18 Diebold offices in Utah listed in the White Pages were false listings. One is in Salt Lake, and the other is in Bountiful........

i don't WANT to see them

but i think we all HAVE to see them. the people coming back this way are NOT just numbers. they were brave members of our military. they had family and friends. they served OUR nation and they served ALL OF US. it makes the war(s) PERSONAL. it puts faces on our fallen heroes. we NEED to see this

Pentagon Rethinks Photo Ban on Coffins Bearing War Dead
By Ann Scott Tyson and Mark Berman
Washington Post Staff Writers
Every week, Air Force cargo jets land and taxi down the runway at Dover Air Force Base, Del., carrying the remains of fallen U.S. troops. After a chaplain says a simple prayer, an eight-man military honor guard removes the metal "transfer cases" from the planes and carries them to a mortuary van.

The flag-draped coffins are a testament to the toll of the conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan, as well as to the sacrifice borne by those who serve in the military and their families. But this ceremony, known as the "dignified transfer of remains" and performed nearly 5,000 times since the start of the wars, is hidden from the American public view by the Pentagon.

President Obama said last week that he is considering lifting the ban on photographs and videos at Dover, in place since the Persian Gulf War in 1991, raising fundamental questions about the impact of such images on the public morale in wartime. .............


picture: Coffins of fallen troops arrive at Dover Air Force Base, Del. The Air Force released this undated photo after a Freedom of Information Act request. (U.S. Air Force - Via Reuters)

it's good to know

(AND it gives me the warm and fuzzies) our government has no issues with, and forgives all of their trespasses. who? the good ol' boyz of kbr / halliburton of course! why just the other day kbr was awarded a BRAND SPANKING NEW CONTRACT by the pentagon. and believe me, the accusation of bribery was the LEAST of their (kbr/halliburton) worries. (try accusations of rape and murder). so again, i say, it's so wonderful our government can see past all of that turn a blind eye to all of that and HIRE KBR once again. isn't america grand my peeps?


Halliburton, KBR Settle Bribery Allegations
By Zachary A. Goldfarb
Washington Post Staff Writer
Halliburton and Kellogg Brown & Root have agreed to pay $579 million in fines related to allegations of foreign bribery, the biggest fines ever paid by U.S. companies in a foreign corruption case, federal authorities and the companies said yesterday.

The Securities and Exchange Commission and Department of Justice alleged that Houston-based Halliburton and KBR were part of a joint venture that spent $182 million to bribe Nigerian government officials over a 10-year period to win more than $6 billion in construction contracts.

Halliburton, which owned KBR during the time of the alleged actions and spun it off in April 2007, will be responsible for paying all but $20 million of the penalty.

KBR, one of the top U.S. government contractors, pleaded guilty to violating the federal law banning companies from paying bribes to get business in foreign countries. Halliburton did not admit or deny wrongdoing. ......

huh?

no effing way. ok, this is somewhere president obama MUST step in and put his foot down. kbr should NEVER EVER be awarded an electrical contract by ANYONE much less the pentagon. no. this MUST be reversed and now

KBR wins contract despite criminal probe of deaths
By KIMBERLY HEFLING, Associated Press Writer
WASHINGTON – Defense contractor KBR Inc. has been awarded a $35 million Pentagon contract involving major electrical work, even as it is under criminal investigation in the electrocution deaths of at least two U.S. soldiers in Iraq.

The announcement of the new KBR contract came just months after the Pentagon, in strongly worded correspondence obtained by The Associated Press, rejected the company's explanation of serious mistakes in Iraq and its proposed improvements. A senior Pentagon official, David J. Graff, cited the company's "continuing quality deficiencies" and said KBR executives were "not sufficiently in touch with the urgency or realities of what was actually occurring on the ground."

"Many within DOD (the Department of Defense) have lost or are losing all remaining confidence in KBR's ability to successfully and repeatedly perform the required electrical support services mission in Iraq," wrote Graff, commander of the Defense Contract Management Agency, in a Sept. 30 letter.

Graff rejected the company's claims that it wasn't required to follow U.S. electrical codes for its work on U.S. military facilities in Iraq. KBR has said it would cost an extra $560 million to refurbish buildings in Iraq used by the U.S. military, including Saddam Hussein's palaces, which among other problems are based on a 220-volt standard rather than the American 120-volt standard...........

just when you thought it

could NOT be uglier. you find out more truths and it IS uglier

.........

Former general and former drug czar and present Pentagon propagandist Barry McCaffrey, you’ll recall, was the subject of a recent evisceration by the New York Times.

If you don’t recall, follow the links in the Columbia Journalism Review article by Charles Kaiser from which the excerpt below comes.

It turns out that McCaffrey is the living embodiment of all the worst aspects of entrenched Washington corruption — a man who shares with scores of other retired officers a huge financial interest in having America conduct its wars for as long as possible. ...........................

bad attitudes directs us to "Sy Hersh’s account of how McCaffrey’s role in Bush War I, the Gulf War, was not that of a conquering hero but rather a bloodthirsty, glory-seeking butcher who needlessly massacred hundreds if not thousands of fleeing and helpless Iraqi troops — during a ceasefire."

because of all the OTHER shite going on

we can't forget about iraq. NEVER.
how come i've not seen the following on every front page of every publication?
and how sad is this?

to the families of staff sgt dawson and sgt durbin, my thoughts and prayers are with you

Shocking Iraq Incident: 2 U.S. Soldiers Killed by Another
By Greg Mitchell and The Associated Press
NEW YORK The Pentagon has announced, but the media not yet covered (beyond the basic facts, and usually not that) a shocking incident in Iraq. Two U.S. soldiers -- a staff sergeant and a sergeant -- were killed Sunday morning in a "non-hostile incident."

What was it? The military explains, "A U.S. Soldier is in custody in connection with the shooting deaths. He is being held in custody pending review by a military magistrate." All that was known for some time was that the unnamed soldier "opened fire" on his "superiors."

The two victims are: Staff Sgt. Darris J. Dawson, 24, of Pensacola, Fla., and Sgt. Wesley R. Durbin, 26, of Hurst, Texas. They were "victims of an early morning shooting incident at their patrol base near Iskandariyah, Iraq."

Sergeants Dawson and Durbin were assigned to the 3rd Battalion, 7th Infantry Regiment, 4th Brigade Combat Team, 3rd Infantry Division, Fort Stewart, Ga.........

what could only make this more

absurd is to find out we lent iraq the money to buy this shite. are we living in the twilight zone? i sure don't think this is reality

Iraq arms sales request worth over nine billion dollars: Pentagon

The Pentagon said Friday it has notified Congress of proposed military sales to Iraq valued at more than nine billion dollars, including helicopters, tanks and armored vehicles.

The biggest proposed sale was for 392 Light Armored Vehicles, radios and anti-tank weapons at an estimated cost of three billion dollars, the Defense Security and Cooperation Agency said.

Congress also was notified of a possible sale of 140 upgraded M1A1 Abrams tanks as well as armored Humvees, tracked logistics vehicles, armored ambulances, vehicles to carry shelters and command posts, and trucks to transport heavy equipment.

It was valued at 2.16 billion dollars.

A separate 2.4 billion dollar helicopter deal would provide the Iraqi government with 24 Bell Armed 407 helicopters or 24 Boeing AH-6 helicopters, along with engines, missiles, mortars, machineguns, and rocket launchers.......

i did read it correctly

cv rick. we're bending over, opening it wide and giving kbr 150 BILLION dollars. this after all that they've done and not done (of course i have to add the word allegedly), all the testimony AGAINST them (for everything from the services they provide to their drunken 'antics' to the rape allegations to the money we're stufing in their g-strings to on and on. fuck us. we deserve this if we allow it to continue

Army Overseer Tells of Ouster Over KBR Stir

By JAMES RISEN
WASHINGTON — The Army official who managed the Pentagon’s largest contract in Iraq says he was ousted from his job when he refused to approve paying more than $1 billion in questionable charges to KBR, the Houston-based company that has provided food, housing and other services to American troops.

The official, Charles M. Smith, was the senior civilian overseeing the multibillion-dollar contract with KBR during the first two years of the war. Speaking out for the first time, Mr. Smith said that he was forced from his job in 2004 after informing KBR officials that the Army would impose escalating financial penalties if they failed to improve their chaotic Iraqi operations.

Army auditors had determined that KBR lacked credible data or records for more than $1 billion in spending, so Mr. Smith refused to sign off on the payments to the company. “They had a gigantic amount of costs they couldn’t justify,” he said in an interview. “Ultimately, the money that was going to KBR was money being taken away from the troops, and I wasn’t going to do that.”............

more and more and more

proof, THEY JUST DON'T CARE about our service men and women. they just don't (and once again i must ask myself, why oh why, do people STILL enlist after ALL they must endure)
personally, i would have no issues being cremated in a facility for animals BUT i understand how everyone else is NOT like me. i understand it is NOT respectful to our men and women who have given their lives to us

War dead cremated at facility for pets

By Ann Scott Tyson

WASHINGTON — The U.S. military has, since 2001, cremated some of the remains of U.S. service members killed in Iraq, Afghanistan and elsewhere in a Delaware facility that also cremates pets, a practice that ended Friday when the Pentagon banned the arrangement.

The facility, in an industrial park near Dover Air Force Base, has cremated about 200 service members, manager David Bose said Friday night. It uses separate crematories a few feet apart to cremate humans and animals, he added.

Pentagon officials said they do not think any humans were cremated in the pet crematory. "We have absolutely no evidence whatsoever at this point that any human remains were at all ever mistreated," Pentagon press secretary Geoff Morrell said late Friday.

Despite Bose's estimate, officials said they do not know the number of service members cremated at the Kent County facility, identified on a billboard as Friends Forever Pet Cremation Service.

Defense Secretary Robert Gates found "the site and signage insensitive and entirely inappropriate for the dignified treatment of our fallen," Morrell said. "The families of the fallen have the secretary's deepest apology," he said.

The revelation came to light when an Army officer who works at the Pentagon traveled to Delaware on Thursday to attend the cremation of a military comrade.............

they just don't give a flying

fuck about our soldiers
Despite Alert, Flawed Wiring Still Kills G.I.’s
By JAMES RISEN
WASHINGTON — In October 2004, the United States Army issued an urgent bulletin to commanders across Iraq, warning them of a deadly new threat to American soldiers. Because of flawed electrical work by contractors, the bulletin stated, soldiers at American bases in Iraq had received severe electrical shocks, and some had even been electrocuted. The bulletin, with the headline “The Unexpected Killer,” was issued after the horrific deaths of two soldiers who were caught in water — one in a shower, the other in a swimming pool — that was suddenly electrified after poorly grounded wiring short-circuited.
“We’ve had several shocks in showers and near misses here in Baghdad, as well as in other parts of the country,” Frank Trent, an expert with the Army Corps of Engineers, wrote in the bulletin. “As we install temporary and permanent power on our projects, we must ensure that we require contractors to properly ground electrical systems.”
Since that warning, at least two more American soldiers have been electrocuted in similar circumstances. In all, at least a dozen American military personnel have been electrocuted in Iraq, according to the Pentagon and Congressional investigators. ...........

speechless

simply speechless
(but i wouldn't want to take my bp reading right now)

Vt. soldiers can’t get home from Iraq
By Erin Kelly - Gannett News Service
WASHINGTON — Vermont soldiers who have completed their tours of duty in Iraq cannot get home because of flight delays caused in part by the recent bankruptcy of ATA Airlines, the Vermont congressional delegation said Wednesday.
Sens. Patrick Leahy and Bernie Sanders and Rep. Peter Welch wrote to the Pentagon this week to try to help two Vermont soldiers whose parents contacted the lawmakers about their sons’ plight. The soldiers, whose names the lawmakers did not disclose for privacy reasons, are stuck in Baghdad.
“After completing their service to our country overseas, our men and women deserve a safe return home without delays,” the delegation wrote Tuesday in a letter to Defense Secretary Robert Gates.
The delays are partly the result of ATA Airlines’ announcement early this month that it was discontinuing service and filing for bankruptcy. The military had hired ATA Airlines to ferry troops between the U.S. and overseas bases. The Indianapolis-based airline had been contracted to fly 70 military charters through September, which Air Force Times reported earlier this month.
Still, the Vermont lawmakers said the Pentagon should be doing more to help service men and women find alternative flights home despite ATA’s woes and other bankruptcies and maintenance problems that have hit the airline industry in recent weeks.........

if the military wasn't doing shite like this

perhaps they COULD afford to do right by veterans like spc hubbard (see previous posting). f**k them all

Report Finds Air Force Officers Steered Contract

By Josh White Washington Post Staff Writer
Sitting at the head of the table, Air Force Maj. Gen. Stephen Goldfein, the highest-ranking officer in the room, leaned forward and told the officers and others assembled before him that they should steer a multimillion-dollar Air Force contract to a company named Strategic Message Solutions. "I don't pick the winner, but if I did, I'd pick SMS," Goldfein said to the seven-person group that was selecting a contractor to jazz up the Air Force's Thunderbirds air show with giant video boards, according to a lengthy report by Defense Department's inspector general. The head of the selection team almost immediately "caved," giving in to what he believed was a fixed process, while another member of the team called it "the dirtiest thing" he had ever experienced.
It was during that meeting in November 2005, according to the 251-page report, obtained by The Washington Post, that a controversial $50 million contract was awarded to a company that barely existed in an effort to reward a recently retired four-star general and a millionaire civilian pilot who had grown close to senior Air Force officials and the Thunderbirds. .............

monday morning humor

by the way, i filled my car up yesterday (only 1/2 tank give or take) and i have a lil' subaru, it was approximately $23.00. oh, and i didn't torture anyone either. just an fyi

Chevron adds former Pentagon legal chief to legal staff
East Bay Business Times - by Mavis Scanlon
Chevron Corp. has hired as its chief corporate counsel William Haynes II, who until February was general counsel for the Department of Defense. Haynes, who will report to Chevron General Counsel Charles James, replaces former chief corporate counsel William Buck, who retired, according to Chevron spokesman Kent Robertson.
As reported in Newsweek, Harper's and elsewhere, Haynes, who was general counsel at the Pentagon from 2001 until his resignation in February, is under Senate scrutiny for his role at the Pentagon, specifically for his role in crafting policies that led to alleged abuses of detainees and terror suspects at Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo Bay.
In an April 5 article, Newsweek reported that Haynes had requested a memo from the Justice Department that concluded that federal laws against torture, assault and maiming would not apply to suspects interrogated overseas. "The memo's disclosure raises new questions about the role that Haynes and other Bush administration lawyers played in crafting legal policies that critics say led to abuses at Abu Ghraib and elsewhere," Newsweek wrote. Haynes has hired criminal defense attorney Terrence O'Donnell and has agreed to be interviewed by the Senate Armed Services Committee, according to Newsweek.
In his new role at Chevron (NYSE: CVX), Haynes, who is 50, will supervise Chevron's staff of more than three dozen attorneys.
Haynes is considered an ally of Vice President Dick Cheney and a longtime supporter of President George Bush; he even volunteered to make calls on Bush's behalf when Bush was up for election in 2000, according to a Senate questionnaire Haynes submitted when he was nominated in 2003 to the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit, in Richmond, Va. ...........

and will they be held accountable?

what do YOU think?
AP Exclusive: US troops may have become sick in Iraq from contaminated water
WASHINGTON: Dozens of U.S. troops in Iraq fell sick at bases using "unmonitored and potentially unsafe" water supplied by the military and a contractor once owned by Vice President Dick Cheney's former company, the Pentagon's internal watchdog says.
A report obtained by The Associated Press said soldiers experienced skin abscesses, cellulitis, skin infections, diarrhea and other illnesses after using discolored, smelly water for personal hygiene and laundry at five U.S. military sites in Iraq.
The Defense Department's inspector general's report, which could be released as early as Monday, found water quality problems between March 2004 and February 2006 at three sites run by contractor KBR Inc., and between January 2004 and December 2006 at two military-operated locations.
It was impossible to link the dirty water definitively to all the illnesses, according to the report. But it said KBR's water quality "was not maintained in accordance with field water sanitary standards" and the military-run sites "were not performing all required quality control tests.".............

it's NOT the sentence he deserved

but at least he GOT sentenced. will king george pardon HIM as well?
Defense Contractor Sentenced to 12 Years for Bribery
GOP Campaign Contributor Wilkes Linked to Former Representative Cunningham

By Dan Eggen Washington Post Staff Writer
Brent R. Wilkes, a California defense contractor and prominent GOP campaign contributor, was sentenced to 12 years in federal prison yesterday for lavishing a Republican congressman with money, prostitutes and other bribes in exchange for nearly $90 million in work from the Pentagon.
Wilkes, 53, was convicted in November of 13 felony crimes including bribery, conspiracy and fraud for giving the gifts to former representative Randy "Duke" Cunningham (R-Calif.), who is serving an eight-year prison term for accepting millions in bribes from Wilkes and others.
The sentence by U.S. District Judge Larry Burns in San Diego was far smaller than the 25-year term federal prosecutors had sought or the 60-year term urged by federal probation officers. U.S. Attorney Karen P. Hewitt said nonetheless that Wilkes "has earned every day of the sentence he received" and that the prison term "reflects the egregiousness of the corrupt conduct." .........

and the rich keep getting richer

on the LIVES of our brothers and sisters that is.
Muscular Defense Plan Buoys Contractors
Proposed Budget Would Benefit Area Companies

By Dana Hedgpeth Washington Post Staff Writer
A run of healthy profits for defense contractors that has lasted nearly a decade will continue for at least another year, analysts and company executives said after the Bush administration last week submitted its new defense budget.
The $515.4 billion defense spending proposal for fiscal 2009 is 7.5 percent higher than the current year's and promises to fund some of the armed forces' largest and most costly weapons programs. It includes $104.2 billion for weapons procurement and nearly $80 billion for research and development, testing and evaluation.
That would mean big new opportunities and more funding for major projects for local defense and technology contractors, including Lockheed Martin of Bethesda, General Dynamics of Falls Church, SI International of Reston, CACI International of Arlington and Northrop Grumman, which is based in Los Angeles but has a large presence in the Washington area. .....