September 5, 2006
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      IN THE NEWS LAST WEEK...
Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld speaks during the American Legion national convention Tuesday, Aug. 29, 2006, in Salt Lake City, Utah. (AP Photo/Douglas C. Pizac)
(AP Photo/Douglas C. Pizac)
FRIENDLY AUDIENCES. I get somewhat amused at Rumsfeld, Cheney, and the Prez; they are always saving their cheerleading or rah-rah speeches for veterans groups. Why? Do they think that somehow vets will blindly accept what they say? I really don't get it.

To me, it's not a partisan thing, I'm an independent. Rumsfeld, for instance, goes before the American Legion and says something like, anybody who disagrees with Iraq or is negative toward the war are just the kind of people who delayed military action against Adolf Hitler's Nazi Germany.

Later in the speech, he says... "any kind of moral or intellectual confusion about who and what is right or wrong, can weaken the ability of free societies to persevere." This guy is amazing to me; a lessor ego would have been gone long ago amidst the withering criticism he gets.

Think about it. Day after Day in the news there are report of death and destruction in Iraq. Just a day or so ago, this headline: "bombs, shootings, claim at least 52 in Iraq." Yet, those who question what is going on are "morally confused." Oh well...( Text of Rumsfeld's entire speech before American Legion)

Residents of New Orleans hold hands as they attend a memorial service in the Orleans Parish of the city to commemorate the first anniversary of the Katrina Hurricane disaster. US President George W. Bush mourned Hurricane Katrina's victims, one year after the killer storm churned ashore, and promised to help this still-fragile city to recover.(AFP/Roberto Schmidt)
(AFP/Roberto Schmidt)
KATRINA. We have seen lots around the anniversary about the loss and devastation brought by Katrina.

The most moving article had to be a long piece in Newsweek on recovering the dead. Dedicated and selfless individuals labored under impossible conditions to recover, identify, and notify loved ones.

The flip side of the coin is that the local government has admitted that they really don't know how many died-surprise, surprise-this from a Mayor who hid out for the first several days of Katrina, but was overwhelmingly re-elected. I need to include this in my blog, Most Americans Are Stupid(don't mean dumb, possibly ignorant). Why would voters re-elect the very man who time and time again, screwed up during this crisis? ( Newsweek Articles on Katrina.)

PUBLIC RELATIONS. The Pentagon is seeking bids for a PR campaign which is only going to cost the American taxpayer, 20 million. To do what? Promote more positive news coverage of the Iraq war. If this wasn't so tragic, it would be laughable.

WAY TO GO BLOGGERS. I'm loving these guys. They, whoever they might be, outed Senator Ted Stevens from Alaska who had put a "hold" on a bill that would have let the public know about pork barrel spending in the form of "earmarks," (special bills inserted into legislation). In fact, no wonder Stevens didn't want the bill to go forward; he's the guy who funded the Alaskan bridge to nowhere to the tune of millions of bucks. ( As an aside, Sen. Ted Stevens threatened to resign and "be taken out of here on a stretcher" if the Senate killed off the funding of other bridges in Alaska. The senate gave in and passed the funding bill.) Do these folks have no shame?( Article about Bloggers exposing Stevens)

In this file photo originally released by CBS in May 2006, Katie Couric, who is joining CBS News to anchor its evening news show this September, greets the audience in Carnegie Hall after CBS announced the network's 2006-07 schedule to the advertising community, on May 17, 2006, in New York. Couric appears significantly thinner in an altered version of this photo that appears in the September issue of Watch!, a promotional magazine that is distributed at CBS stations and on American Airlines flights. (AP Photo/CBS, Jeffrey R. Staab)
(AP Photo/CBS, Jeffrey R. Staab)
THIN KATIE. I mean, Katie went on a diet through photoshop; got to love it. A guy in the photography department at CBS used photoshop, a computer software program, to alter her figure making her appear smaller, maybe 20 pounds smaller.

I guess when you become a news anchor at one of the three major networks, you need all that goes with it: looks, charm, and a smaller waistline. Will we being seeing Katie next with a new nose or new boobs? Who knows? I hope not.

RIPPING OFF SOLDIERS. Pay Day lenders( these check cashing places) that dot the landscape most everywhere have been consistently ripping off soldiers with interest rates as high as 780%. Get this: one soldier borrowed $500 and ended up paying back, $2600. The Pentagon figures that 175,000 troops are indebted to these rip-off artists. This is more troops than we have in Iraq.

But, before we applaud the Pentagon, think about this: If a soldier has debt problems, he loses his security clearance and possibly cannot be deployed. Can't you just see some enterprising soldier borrowing 500 bucks and not paying it back on purpose? He gets reported by the Lender and can't be deployed to Iraq. Pay Day Lending and Soldiers.

Eleven states have outlawed the predatory lending aimed at soldiers. Where are the rest?

GOD BLESS YOU AND GOD BLESS AMERICA. HAVE A SUPER WEEK!!! KT




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