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2008 January 19 — Why Now?
On-line Opinion Magazine…OK, it's a blog
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The Military Is Broken

The Associated Press reports that the U.S. Sends Wounded Troops Back To Iraq

(AP) Seventy-nine injured soldiers were pressed into war duty last month as the U.S. Army struggled to fill its ranks, but most were assigned to light-duty jobs within limits set by doctors, two Army leaders said.

The Denver Post, quoting internal Army e-mails and a Fort Carson soldier, reported that troops had been deployed to Kuwait en route to Iraq while they were still receiving medical treatment for various conditions.

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January 19, 2008   5 Comments

Caucus Circus

I hate caucuses for the simple reason that, while seeming to be a democratic way of selection candidates, they most definitely are not based on the “one person – one vote” schema.

Everyone paying attention knows that John Edwards came in second to Barack Obama in Iowa, but Hillary Clinton received more delegates than Edwards.

Hillary is about to experience what John Edwards must have felt, because, it is highly likely that Barack Obama will receive more delegates in Nevada than she will, despite receiving 5% more of the vote. That’s what the complaint about the locations on the Las Vegas strip was all about. The locations were approved to facilitate voting primarily by members of the Culinary Union, and then the Culinary Union endorsed Barack Obama. The locations are for “at large” delegates because the voters are not in their residential voting districts, so Hillary will win a majority of the regular delegates, but Obama wins the “at large” delegates. Nice legal way of rigging a win. Very Rovian.

January 19, 2008   3 Comments

Too Much Even For South Florida

Sometimes it gets so bad that even the wheeler-dealers in South Florida don’t want to touch it. CBS reports on The $10M “Gift” Nobody Wanted:

(CBS) This earmark mystery stretches all the way from the Alaskan tundra to the warm beaches of South Florida.

“Basically, we were given a gift that we didn’t want,” Estero Council of Community Leaders chairman Don Eslick told CBS News investigative correspondent Sharyl Attkisson. “And it was for the wrong thing.”

The “gift” was $10 million tax dollars earmarked from Congress for traffic needs. But not just any traffic need. The money had to be used to connect Coconut Road, a deadend street, with the major Interstate I-75.

The question was why?

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January 19, 2008   5 Comments