They made a big deal out of Barrack Obama not wearing a tie like President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad . Yet, were you aware of the Bill Clinton/Ayatollah Khamenei connection? Look very carefully at what book the Supreme Leader of Iran is purchasing in this picture:
That would be a copy of Bill Clinton’s auotobiography, My Life. Is this the closest thing to pornography in Iran an oblique passing reference to Monical Lewinski?
Sphere: Related ContentWe’ve heard a lot about the housing bubble, and how it’s dragging down an already slowing economy. What you probably didn’t know - or rather, you did, but most anybody else doesn’t - is that foreclosures have hit military towns the hardest:
In the midst of the worst surge in mortgage defaults in seven decades, foreclosures in U.S. towns where soldiers live are increasing at a pace almost four times the national average, according to data compiled by research firm RealtyTrac Inc. in Irvine, California. As military families like the VerSteeghs signed up for the initial lower rates and easier terms of subprime mortgages, the number of people taking out Veterans Administration loans fell to the lowest in at least 12 years.
“We’ve never faced a situation like this, not in the Vietnam War, World War II, or the Korean War, where so many military are in danger of losing their homes,” said Paul Sullivan, executive director of Veterans for Common Sense, a Washington-based advocacy group started in 2002 by Iraq and Afghanistan War veterans. “No one asked them for their credit score when we asked them to fight for us.”
Foreclosures in towns around military bases, including Norfolk, Virginia, have increased 217 percent in the first quarter compared to last year because military families, who are often on the move, were an easy target of the predatory subprime lending. So families can find their loved ones being sent on extended tours, only to return to bankruptcy or homelessness.
Fortunately, the bipartisan Casey-Isakson Bill is being floated to give military families some breathing room:
This legislation would specifically amend the Servicemembers Civil Relief law in the following ways:
- For all servicemembers who incur a serious illness or injury during their military service, the foreclosure grace period provided in current law would be extended from 90 days to one year.
- A servicemember who, within one year after completing their military service, files a claim with the Secretary of Veterans Affairs shall be protected from foreclosure throughout the application process and until 30 days after their claim is adjudicated.
- “Serious injury or illness” is defined as rendering the servicemember medically unfit to perform the duties of their rank.
Another bill that would seem to be a no-brainer is the one floated by former Assistant to the Reagan’s Secretary of Defense and current Democratic Senator Jim Webb to extend educational benefits for our returning veterans who have already gone way beyond what anyone could have reasonably expected in the call of duty. Seeing an obvious opportunity in an election year, the Bill has already gotten the support of Presidential hopefuls Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton, and Senator John Warner (R-VA). Who would oppose such a thing? Remarkably, the greatest remaining Iraq War hawks, George Bush and John McCain. (McCain managed not to be present for the final vote). The reasoning being that too much generosity might harm retention if soldiers have something to look forward to when they move on to civilian life.
Seen in the same light, I suppose foreclosure can be a net positive as well. It’s hard to leave when you’re guaranteed to have a tarp over your head.
What could the overly-spunky, more-than-occasionally annoying Rachael Ray, host of twenty-minute meals, have to do with national security? No, it’s not because she’s good with a knife. We’ll give you a hint: see if you can spot the “hate-couture” in this photo:
A few months after doughnuts became a presidential campaign issue, they stood at the center of a storm created by right-leaning bloggers. This was a story about “donuts and dumb celebrities” who were “mainstreaming terrorism” to make a buck, asserted Little Green Footballs and Michele Malkin. And Atlas Shrugs revised a bell-ringing catchphrase thusly: “TIME TO MAKE THE JIHAD!”
Suddenly, Dunkin’ Donuts was accused of promoting terrorism, thanks to the wardrobe choices of Rachael Ray, its celebrity spokesman, during an online advertisement. According to the bloggers, she had decided to embrace “hate couture” by wearing a keffiyeh, a scarf popular in the Arab world and preferred by Yasir Arafat and other Palestinian militants during their rise in the West Bank and Gaza.
Now, Dunkin’ Donuts has pulled the ads. Not since the Little Mermaid video cover was found to have palaces shaped like phalluses have our impressionable children been this safe.
We believe there is a far greater threat to our National Security. Watch, if you dare:
Does that skirt look like anyone’s headscarf that we know?
This is amazing. It appears the nearly 4500 deaths in Iraq and Afghanistan to date could, quite literally, be only half of the story. Shortly after the release of a RAND study showing the rate of PTSD and depression in returning veterans, Thomas Insel, director of the National Institute of Mental Health, the government’s top psychiatric research group said because these veterans are unlikely to seek help, or have access to the appropriate health care, the rate of suidicides could outpace combate fatalities:
Exactly how many vets have taken their lives isn’t known for sure — and that lack of good data is part of the problem.
But CBS News, in a months-long investigation last year, uncovered what it called a “suicide epidemic” among vets: At least 6,256 veterans committed suicide in 2005 alone — an average of 17 a day. Vets overall were more than twice as likely as the general population to take their lives. Among young veterans ages 20 to 24, the rate was nearly four times that of the nonmilitary public.
Another estimate is that 1,000 veterans a month are attempting suicide.
What is the government doing about this? Covering it up:
At heated hearings this week, the chairman of the House Veterans Affairs Committee, Rep. Bob Filner, D-Calif., charged that the Department of Veterans Affairs is either ignoring the extent of the veteran suicide problem or covering it up. Not only news organizations but also members of Congress trying to get data on veteran suicides have encountered bureaucratic resistance.
Support the war, not the troops.
Sphere: Related ContentWith all that’s going down “Over There”, it’s good to know someone is looking out for the kitties.
Look closely at the object protruding from the man’s rear end. What you see is a vital tool in the nation’s War against Terror. We’re not sure what it is, but if we were to venture a guess, we’d say that is a banana that’s been shoved up a man’s ass. Let us ponder how it got there. Was there a warrant issued? Did someone present evidence to prove sufficient cause before inserting the banana?
Trust us. It was vital that the banana be there. Obtaining a warrant before inserting the banana would have endangered lives. Every second the banana was resting in a bowl on a table somewhere instead of in this man’s bowels were seconds this country could not afford to spare. Our national security depended on that banana being exactly where it is, nuzzled between this man’s butt cheeks, halfway to his prostate. To NOT put the banana there would be giving this man exactly what he wanted.
No. We do not need to justify why the banana had to be where it was. Letting you know the reason for putting the banana there would be tipping off the terrorists to our techniques. They could use this information about our anti-terror tactics against us. Not shoving a banana up his ass would be letting the terrorists win. I find it funny how you show so much sympathy for terrorists. What about the people he’s killed?
Did he kill anybody?
He must have. There’s a banana in his ass. Would there be a banana in his ass if he didn’t kill anybody?
I don’t know. Would there?
We can’t tell you. But believe me, we had our reasons.
Isn’t it illegal?
No. The Geneva Conventions forbid the use of torture. We would never torture.
How do you define torture? At the very least, this looks to be very unpleasant for the man.
Prison isn’t supposed to be a country club, and believe me, back in our college days we shoved bananas up people’s asses if they wanted to join the Skull and Bones. To be torture, it would have to cause pain equivalent to death or catastrophic organ failure. As you can see, this man’s organs are still functioning. He’s just going to be shitting blood for a while.
So, it’s not torture unless that man dies? Okay. What happens then?
We can’t be held responsible if the man dies, because we didn’t mean to do it.
Don’t you think shoving bananas up people’s asses might be part of the reason why they hate us?
No. He hates us for our freedom.
Well, after all this, I hope it worked.
Did what work?
Shoving a banana up this man’s ass.
Sadly, sometimes we find only being able to shove a banana up a man’s ass to be far too limiting to effectively fight the War on Terror. Often more extreme measures are required.
Like what?
Like extraditing prisoners to countries that are not as constrained by the dictates of Political Correctness. Some people in this country still have a problem seeing anything worse than a banana shoved up a man’s ass.
Don’t you worry that it hurts America’s image abroad to see these photos of a banana in a man’s ass?
Yes I do. That’s why they never should have been released. There needs to be an investigation.
But you can’t stop leaking. Perhaps it would be easier not to stick a banana up a man’s ass in the first place?
Believe me, Saddam’s done far worse, so we’ve got a long way to go before you’re in any position to complain about it. I don’t hear you whining about what Saddam did.
I thought we were supposed to be better.
We are better. We have other people do the really rough stuff.
Do you ever worry that the banana in the man’s ass will get a lot of media attention in the US?
No. So far the media has not uncovered any evidence of Democrats sticking banana’s in people’s rear ends. They can’t report this until they can say Democrats have done it also.
Do you ever worry that the people will rise up against this kind of tactic?
No. They love their country too much to do that. They know how important that banana is. They know we wouldn’t shove a banana up a man’s ass unless it was absolutely necessary.
But if they do?
Then there should be an investigation. This administration does not tolerate leakers.
Sphere: Related Content(Originally appeared in the Houston Press.)
A Vietnam vet and mechanic, Dan Weiner admitted his bisexuality to himself only eight years ago, when he was 43. (”As a Libertarian, I should have known better,” he jokes.) While he was closeted, Weiner heard his fair share of “guy talk,” and he knows violence against gays is nothing new. Weiner recalls one 70-year-old WWII vet recounting how upset his fellow soldiers were at the loss of extra spending money when the base cracked down on the routine beating and robbing of homosexuals.
While some stories are exaggerated, another tale Weiner remembers has the ring of truth to it. A co-worker said he had been out “fag-bashing” with three friends and was amazed to find the gays fighting back. “They were really beating the crap out of us,” he told Weiner.
Weiner finds that story believable, and not just because someone who engages in this sort of harassment (either a bully or a closeted gay, according to him) wouldn’t lie about getting bested by a fairy. Not all gays are content to just lie down and play the victim, he says. “If us queer folk would just stop letting these guys keep picking on us and fight back, they would quit.” That sentiment prompted Weiner to form the Houston chapter of the Pink Pistols, a gun rights group that advocates the carrying of firearms by homosexuals. Armed gays, their Web site asserts, don’t get bashed.
How is the typically left-leaning gay community responding to this? “Well, to answer your question,” says a Pink Pistol at the group’s press conference of one, “we invited the gay press — do you see anyone here?” Straight gun advocates are just as cool to the idea. The Pistols have seen some nasty posts about their group on progun Internet bulletin boards.
Despite his stint in the army, Weiner claims his experience with firearms was limited to basic training and admits the loud noises still startle him. “The army just shoves a gun in your hand and shows you where to point it,” he says. Truth be told, the group’s founder doesn’t even own a gun but says he plans to buy one as soon as he’s saved enough money. He hopes the Pink Pistols will help him and others overcome their uneasiness by learning the proper use of handguns and the art of self-defense.
Weiner is also active in the Q Patrol, a neighborhood watchdog organization that collects the license plate numbers of people who throw beer bottles and otherwise harass folks in the parking lots of gay bars. They report the bashers to police, then track down their addresses and mail bright pink cards that document the offense and provide the phone number of the Lesbian and Gay Community Center switchboard — in case the harassers wish to pursue their interest in the gay lifestyle.
Rather than waiting for the police department to show up, Weiner thinks, gays ought to take their protection into their own hands. Though he admits groups like the Pink Pistols could egg some people on, Weiner hopes that in the end bullies will think twice about attacking gays if they believe their targets might be armed.