Retired Generals Telling Cheney’s Where to Go

About a dozen retired generals and admirals, trying to add momentum to President Barack Obama’s effort to close the Guantanamo Bay military prison, are accusing former Vice President Dick Cheney and his daughter Liz of scaremongering about the dangers of closing it.

“It’s up to all of us to say these arguments advanced by Cheney and his acolytes are nonsense and that really what they’re doing is undermining our national security by delaying the date at which Guantanamo is closed,” retired Brig. Gen. James Cullen, a former chief judge of the Army’s Court of Criminal Appeals, told POLITICO Tuesday.

“Some of the fear issues that are being raised in this are really unfortunate. It gets people excited about things they shouldn’t be excited about and impedes doing what is critical to this country. Get that damn symbol off the table,” said retired Gen. David Maddox, a former Army commander-in-chief for Europe. “We take a setback every time somebody, whether it’s the vice president or his daughter comes out and says the things that they say….We have to get out there again and just keep pounding.”…

“Can you imagine getting a terrorist from Guantanamo convicted and put in a federal penitentiary in your town?” Maddox asked. “Have you ever checked who the hell’s in there already? Have any of them gotten out? The person who we’re putting in is probably a heck of lot less dangerous than most of them who are already in there.”

Really Good Photographs of President Obama

Photographer does a very good job.  I wish I could take photos like these.  They look even better on Dkos:

Maddow Takes a Look at the Birthermercial | TPMTV

Small Signs of Jobs Coming Back

Communities where people are heading back to work:

These are just a few of the places listed in the article.  GOOD NEWS.

General Motors and U.S. Steel are calling thousands of laid-off workers back. Companies also are recalling employees in:

• Waycross, Ga., where a FEMA contract for mobile homes means ScotBilt Homes can recall 110 workers laid off last October. “It’s a big shot in the arm for southeast Georgia,” says ScotBilt Vice President Tom Holland. He expects new hires to bring the workforce up to as many as 300.

• Shenandoah, Iowa, where nine full-time employees were called back to work at the Eaton plant three weeks ago, 40 will return today and five more next week. Eaton makes truck transmissions.

• Beatrice, Neb., where Exmark Manufacturing this month recalled about 200 workers after a seasonal plant shutdown was extended from two weeks to five. The plant makes lawn mowers and mower parts.

In Paris, 139 Simonton workers who were laid off in late 2008 and early this year were offered their jobs back. The factory, which makes custom windows, also hired 79 seasonal, temporary employees.

At U.S. Steel’s Minntac plant in Mountain Iron, Minn., all but about a dozen of the hundreds of workers who were laid off starting in March are back,

40 Millions New Patients = How Many Jobs?

I am by no means an expert when it comes to the creation of jobs but it just sounds logical if when you look at the potential of what any new health care/insurance reform could bring to America, how many jobs that reform could bring along with it.

When experts were explaining the reason why we had to save companies like General Motors (GM), Chrysler and others, they pointed out that the thousands of jobs lost if these companies were to go belly up didn’t just include those in the headquarters and office areas; it included those that reached across the nation.  The automobile parts industry, the fabric industry, the tire industry, factories that put the parts together, the paint industry, the window/glass industry and yes even the oil industry would all lose jobs because business would drop dramatically.

Wouldn’t the reverse effect happen if over 40 million new patients were to suddenly have access to affordable, or in some cases free because of their income, health care?  Those Americans that have been turned down for health insurance because of pre-existing health conditions would suddenly have access to the health care they need.

I’m guessing, but wouldn’t millions of jobs be added to our economy if the health care reform were to be enacted?

Just imagine, 40 million additional Americans would suddenly need access to an insurance plan, a clinic and/or a hospital to get that preventive health care that would be required of Insurance companies to provide.  A potential of 40 million people plus would now have access to medicines they couldn’t afford before the reform took place.

Looking into the future, just as those experts did with companies like GM, I can see thousands of jobs created to build new clinics and new hospitals to handle the extra patients.  That requires the construction, electrical and plumbing industry to kick in gear.  It also means new jobs for clinic clerks, technicians, nursing and doctors across America.  I can even see new custodial and sanitary crews being hired and new diet/food personnel being hired which would also end up helping our farmers.  Not to mention the new insurance agents and offices for that industry to handle all their new customers.

I can also see the factory industry build up with the demand for new surgical equipment, new x-ray machines and new CAT scan and MRI machines.  The fabric industry would even see an increased need for help to make those new gowns, bedding and surgical materials.  The office industry, for those new clinics and hospitals would require office personnel to run the daily business of the health care record systems.  That brings to mind those hired to run information technology service job demands.

Even the auto industry would be helped by such a plan in place.  All of the above employees would require transportation to and from work and transportation to transport that new equipment, food, medicine and medical supplies.

It’s been reported that any health care reform would be delayed by 3-4 years to put it all in place.  Well folks, guess who has to get that ball on the road; all of the above.

I’m sure I’ve missed a few more industries and professions that would see an increase in their employment needs; but hopefully you get my drift.  Health care reform along with the previously past Recovery and Reinvestment bill have the potential to be our and the next generation’s “New Deal”.

I sincerely hope that the Obama administration and Congress look into this side of the equation of any possible health care reform and provides the studies that are accumulated as to how many potential jobs this health care reform could bring to our nation.

Surya Loves Rosco!

This has got to be the cutest couple you’ve seen in months.

Surya the orangutan falls in love with Rosco the hound dog, and then they roll around in the grass together and share cookies.

Iran: UN will be allowed to inspect newly revealed site

Nuclear chief says his country will open doors of newly revealed nuke facility to U.N. agency after Obama threatens consequences for non-cooperation

At G-20 Summit: Obama joined the leaders of Britain and France in accusing the Islamic republic of clandestinely building an underground plant to make nuclear fuel that could be used to build an atomic bomb. Iranian officials acknowledged the facility but insisted it had been reported to nuclear authorities as required.

“Iran’s action raised grave doubts” about its promise to use nuclear technology for peaceful purposes only, Obama told a news conference at the conclusion of a G-20 summit whose focus on world economic recovery was overshadowed by disclosure of the Iranian plant.

“Iran is on notice that when we meet with them on Oct. 1 they are going to have to come clean and they are going to have to make a choice” between international isolation and giving up any aspirations to becoming a nuclear power, he said. If they refuse to give ground, they will stay on “a path that is going to lead to confrontation.”

************************************************ (more…)

Fox and GOP Once Again Have Short Memories

Fox News is making a big deal out of a group of young children singing a song praising the President of United States, Barack Obama in New Jersey.  They’ve had the headlines in their website’s front page for the last two days at least.

The Republican National Committee has sent a fundraising email to supporters tied to what it calls the “fanaticism” .

RNC Chair Michael Steele writes that the video shows “the indoctrination of our nation’s greatest treasure — our children.”

“Friend, this is the type of propaganda you would see in Stalin’s Russia or Kim Jong Il’s North Korea,” Steele writes. “I never thought the day would come when I’d see it here in America.”

Fox and the Republican Party have short memories.

Back in in 2006 children from Gulf Coast states serenaded First Lady Laura Bush with a song praising the President, Congress, and Federal Emergency Management Agency for their response to — of all things — Hurricane Katrina. The lyrics were as follow:

“Our country’s stood beside us People have sent us aid. Katrina could not stop us, our hopes will never fade. Congress, Bush and FEMA People across our land Together have come to rebuild us and we join them hand-in-hand!”

Read more at: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/09/25/flashback-students-sang-b_n_300372.html

Maddow Points out some Truth about ACORN

Rachel Maddow: The Truth About The Lies About Acorn – 09/24/09

Too bad more mainstream media can’t do the same.

Stephen Colbert Goes There:

We need more blacks raised by White people.