« June 2008 | Main

"The Stories Are Shocking In Their Simplicity And Brutality..."

July 31, 2008 10:12 AM

"A female military recruit is pinned down at knifepoint and raped repeatedly in her barracks. Though her attackers hid their faces she identified them by their uniforms. They were her fellow soldiers. During a routine gynecological exam a female soldier is attacked and raped by her military physician. Yet another young soldier, still adapting to life in the war zone, is raped by her commanding officer. Afraid for her standing in her unit, she feels she has nowhere to turn."

Rep. Jane Harman, D-Calif., says these are all true stories. When she testifies this morning she will tell her congressional colleagues that during a recent visit to the West Los Angeles VA Health Center, doctors there told her that 41 percent of the female veterans they see say they have been victims of sexual assault while in the military, and 29 percent report being raped during their military service. She says female veterans told her of their "continued terror, feelings of helplessness, and the downward spirals many of their lives have since taken."

A victim will tell Massachusetts Democrat John F. Tierney's Oversight and Government Reform subcommittee how painful and difficult it was to get her attacker tried and convicted.

Mrs. Mary Lauterbach will also testify. She is the mother of Marine Lance Cpl. Maria Lauterbach from Camp Lejeune who was raped and murdered and buried in the backyard of a fellow soldier.

The Government Accountability Office has some new discouraging information. The GAO will tell Congress the Department of Defense and Coast Guard have established policies and programs to prevent, respond to and resolve reported sexual assault incidents involving service members; however, IMPLEMENTATION of the programs is HINDERED by several factors. The GAO says while MOST commanders at military bases support the DOD programs, SOME still do not and required sexual assault prevention and response training is not consistently effective. GAO also says DOD has a shortage of mental health care providers needed to help the victims.

Rep. Harman wants the military to do a lot better. She has a bill that would require DOD to review all current training methods for all military investigations into charges of sexual assault and rape, and to require the DOD to establish a policy to coordinate with and notify local civilian authorities of any military protection orders. Her legislation would require the military to offer any service member the option of a base transfer once they notify their command that they have been the victim of a sexual assault.

July 31, 2008 | Permalink | User Comments (5) | TrackBack (0)

"Pipes Have Voltage, Get Shocked In The Shower"

July 30, 2008 1:35 PM

Congressional staffers working for California Democrat Henry Waxman say on JULY 8th, 2007, Sergeant Justin Hummer sent KBR a work order which stated, "PIPES HAVE VOLTAGE, GET SHOCKED IN SHOWER." According to a report Waxman's staff will release today, the very next day, JULY 9th, 2007, KBR replaced the water pump. On January 2, 2008, Staff Sergeant Maseth, living in the very same building in Iraq that Sergeant Justin Hummer lived in when he sent KBR that work order, was electrocuted while taking a shower. The report says, "If these documents are accurate, this is the SAME water pump that ARMY INVESTIGATORS determined malfunctioned six months later on January 2, 2008, killing Staff Sergeant Maseth."

Waxman's hearing is all about U.S. soldiers and contractors being electrocuted while swimming, power washing vehicles, and taking showers in Iraq. The electrocutions are caused by shoddy electrical work and some are accusing KBR of sloppy maintenance and repair jobs. The number of deaths varies from 12 to 15, with many more suffering mild to severe shocks.

Today Tom Bruni, theater engineering and construction manager at KBR, will first express his company's "DEEPEST SYMPATHY" to all of the families and friends who have lost loved ones in Iraq. He will say MEDIA accounts are full of FACTUAL ERRORS and INACCURACIES and add that while some blame KBR for the electrocutions, "THE REALITY IS THAT KBR'S ACTIONS WERE NOT THE CAUSE OF ANY OF THESE TERRIBLE ACCIDENTS." Bruni also says that KBR did NOT install the water pump that malfunctioned contributing to the death of Staff Sergeant Maseth.

July 30, 2008 | Permalink | User Comments (3) | TrackBack (0)

She May Have to Take the Stand "For Mommy" a Second Time

July 29, 2008 9:07 AM

She was just a 4 year old child when she saw her mother shot and killed along with a pregnant friend.  According to BALTIMORE SUN reporter Melissa Harris, the young child, Jewel Williams, stayed in the apartment for two days following the murders, "caring for her 1 year old stepbrother and trying to treat her mother's wounds with toilet paper and a toy stethoscope."  Reporter Harris says when Jewel was 7 years old she took the witness stand, "clutching a doll and a bible and calmly described hugging her mother as the gunman fired."  She told the jury she was testifying "FOR MOMMY."  Kenneth D. Perry, the man Jewel said killed her mother, was convicted and sentenced to life without parole plus 50 years.

But now, according to the SUN, Perry will be retried because the attorney who originally prosecuted the case did not give his defense lawyers transcripts of several interviews with young Jewel in which she described her mother's killer as wearing a mask, a detail that never came up at the trial.  The paper says Perry could be rearraigned as early as today and Jewel, who is now a 14 year old 10th grader, might have to relive the horror of her mother's murder all over again in court.  Jewel told Harris; "I'm stronger now, and I'm older and mature enough to go through it...No one wants to go through it again, but I HAVE TO DO WHAT I HAVE TO DO."       

July 29, 2008 | Permalink | User Comments (1) | TrackBack (0)

The Army Calls A Reverse And Orders Football Star Caleb Campbell To Serve

July 24, 2008 9:53 AM

According to the DETROIT NEWS, West Point graduate Caleb Campbell had just agreed to a THREE-YEAR contract with the DETROIT LIONS and was scheduled to report for his first NFL training camp TODAY.  But late yesterday the UNITED STATES ARMY changed all of that and ordered the former defensive star with the ARMY'S BLACK KNIGHTS to report for active duty IMMEDIATELY.

Last April, Campbell was selected by the Lions using their 218th overall pick in the NFL Draft.  The Detroit News says the team planned to use him as a linebacker under the Army's "alternative service option" which would have allowed the football star to play professionally for two years and be an army recruiter as well. 

The DETROIT FREE PRESS says the Army's letter to Lions President Matt Millen yesterday said a subsequent Defense department policy had superseded the Army's position and added "CAMPBELL HAS BEEN DIRECTED TO CEASE FULL-TIME PARTICIPATION IN PROFESSIONAL FOOTBALL TO PERFORM FULL-TIME TRADITIONAL MILITARY DUTIES."

Caleb Campbell was not talking, but his father was.  Gregg Campbell told the Detroit News, "HE'S STILL IN SHOCK...IF THE ARMY INTENDED ON REVERSING THE POLICY, WHY DID THEY WAIT RIGHT BEFORE THE FIRST DAY OF TRAINING CAMP?"

July 24, 2008 | Permalink | User Comments (7) | TrackBack (0)

"I Have Broken The Cycle Of Obesity..."

July 23, 2008 2:34 PM

Jonathan Miller didn't lose 137 pounds by going to some fast food restaurant and ordering a foot-long sandwich with nothing on it. Jonathan Miller shrunk his 387-pound frame with the help of a SCHOOL-BASED nutrition and physical activity program and this afternoon he will tell his story at a Senate hearing chaired by Connecticut Democrat Christopher Dodd. The topic is CHILDHOOD OBESITY.

Miller says two years ago, he was a quiet, high school student who had to sit in the back of the room on a bench in one of his classes because he was too big to fit in the chair at his desk. "I was living in a cycle I did not know how to break," he says in his prepared testimony.

Then, on a dare with a friend, he joined a nutrition and physical activity program offered by his high school in Ann Arbor, Michigan. Just getting started was a challenge. He couldn't weigh in because the scale only went up to 350 pounds. "I was shocked, surprised and scared." But soon Jonathan started exercising twice a week with his group at school and he says the next thing he knew, he was taking yoga classes. He began switching from soda to water and started bringing his lunch to school so he could control the portions of food. He credits school counseling with teaching him the merits of "SMALL CHANGES." "I used to believe in order to lose weight, one would have to take extreme measures...extreme dieting...pills and things of that nature." Instead the program taught him to take it slow.

Miller, who is now a college student, says he is very concerned about what's going to happen to his generation if the obesity problem is not addressed. And he says he's not sure he would have lost 137 pounds without having a program offered in the "SAME PLACE WHERE I SPENT THE MAJORITY OF MY TIME -- AT SCHOOL."

Jonathan Miller is a success story and he has the before and after pictures to prove it!

July 23, 2008 | Permalink | User Comments (3) | TrackBack (0)

"When I Joined the Navy, I Didn’t Know I Was Gay"

July 23, 2008 2:04 PM

Retired Navy Captain Joan E. Darrah says whenever the Admiral called her into his office she was 99.9 percent certain it was to discuss an operational issue, "BUT THERE WAS ALWAYS THAT FEAR IN THE BACK OF MY MIND THAT SOMEHOW I HAD BEEN OUTED AND THE ADMIRAL WAS CALLING ME IN TO TELL ME I WAS FIRED."

Darrah says by the time she realized she was gay, she was well into her Navy career and it was an exceptional one. But in the testimony that she plans to give to a House Armed Services subcommittee this afternoon, she says when a "smart, energetic, young person, who happens to be gay, asks me about joining the service, "I STRONGLY RECOMMEND THAT THEY DO NOT JOIN."

Retired Captain Joan E. Darrah wants "DON'T ASK, DON'T TELL" THROWN OUT!   

She says, "We didn't let RACISM prevent us from integrating Blacks. We didn't let SEXISM prevent us from fully integrating women. We cannot let HOMOPHOBIA continue to prevent us from doing what is right now."

July 23, 2008 | Permalink | User Comments (6) | TrackBack (0)

You Might Not Be Able To Afford The Groceries, But Your Shopping Cart Will Be Clean

July 23, 2008 9:18 AM

"It kills all the nasty stuff, salmonella, staph, and e. coli." That's what Bob Schwei told WASHINGTON POST reporter Steve Hendrix. Schwei works for a Wisconsin firm, PureCart Systems, which makes something that looks like a smaller version of an airport x-ray machine. Hendrix says the machine, which operates just like a car wash, "sprays a misty peroxide solution over each shopping cart between every use." It dries quickly and is supposed to GERM-PROOF the cart so mothers can shop worry-free knowing their small children are protected when they start chewing on the handles. The Chevy Chase Supermarket, an independent grocery store owned by Jason and Kevin Kirsch, is the first in the Washington, D.C. area to install the device.

Now if only you could afford to buy the food to put in those nice, clean grocery shopping carts!

July 23, 2008 | Permalink | User Comments (6) | TrackBack (0)

For the Petersons 'The Price is Right'

July 21, 2008 8:16 AM

Carmela and John Peterson have two problems.  Deer are destroying the landscape outside their Great Falls, Virginia home and Martina Caputy is their neighbor.  According to Marc Fisher, who writes for the WASHINGTON POST, sometimes as many as 11 deer dine on the Peterson's lush shrubs and green grass. So Carmela and her husband decided to get a wildlife damage-control permit and get rid of a couple of deer.  That's when Martina Caputy sprang into action.

Martina Caputy is the wife of Anthony Caputy.  Anthony Caputy is the doctor who in 1999 operated on television legend BOB BARKER, of "THE PRICE IS RIGHT" fame, to successfully unblock his carotid artery.  Fisher says Martina called Barker and told him what the Petersons had in store for the deer.

BOB BARKER LOVES ANIMALS!

In his Sunday Column for the Post, Fisher says the former game show host fired off a letter to the Virginia Department of Game and Inland Fisheries saying if the hunt wasn't stopped, "the children would be catatonic, the neighbors would be up in arms, the fawns would be orphans and the does would be dead...all for the sake of a few flowers."

PETA got involved too and soon Carmela and John Peterson decided to meet with their neighbors.  Even though they most likely could have gotten the permit, the Petersons called off the deer hunt.  Fisher says "putting good relations with the neighbors first is a rare enough gesture these days that it ought to be celebrated, even if it does mean kissing the landscaping goodbye."

For the Petersons "THE PRICE IS RIGHT."

July 21, 2008 | Permalink | User Comments (15) | TrackBack (0)

8,763 DISABLED VETS DIED BEFORE THEIR CASES WERE REVIEWED

July 15, 2008 12:47 PM

In 2003 Congress passed a law giving additional benefits to the most severely disabled veterans.   Most of the eligible fought in the Vietnam War and nearly 217,000 were entitled to a one-time retroactive pay award under the program. To carry out what became known as the "VA RETRO PROGRAM" the Defense Department turned to LOCKHEED MARTIN and awarded the contractor a "NO-BID, COST PLUS FIXED FEE CONTRACT."  But according to a report being released today by investigators working for the domestic policy subcommittee of house oversight and government reform, chaired by Dennis Kucinich, the program was mismanaged from the very start.

DOD didn't even hold its first formal inter-agency meeting on how to implement the program until February 2005, more than two and one-half years after Congress passed the law.

DOD was slow to collect the data and give it to LOCKHEED MARTIN.

LOCKHEED MARTIN had database and software problems of its own and not enough staff.

Due to the way the contract was written, DOD could NOT PENALIZE LOCKHEED MARTIN for its inadequate performance.

DOD was finally forced to RELAX QUALITY CONTROL STANDARDS and ADD FEDERAL WORKERS TO SUPPLEMENT LOCKHEED MARTIN just to get the program moving.

As a result, congressional investigators claim up to 8,763 DISABLED VETERANS DIED BEFORE their cases were even reviewed.

Command Sergeant Major Harold Lewis was a draftee in the Vietnam days but ended up staying in the military and serving for 28 years.  By the time he left he had multiple service-related disabilities, including acute peripheral neuropathy, tinnitus and hearing loss, diabetes type 2, and numerous combat injuries including concussions and broken vertebrate from rocket attacks.  He applied for benefits under the program and a YEAR LATER he was DENIED.  Just this past June he finally got a check for $15,000 after the contractor found a letter from the VA stating he was eligible for a check. 

Lewis is a lucky one.  He is still alive!      

July 15, 2008 | Permalink | User Comments (1) | TrackBack (0)

HOLY PATRICK LEAHY, BATMAN!

July 15, 2008 11:36 AM

Will Senator Patrick Leahy get an Oscar nomination?  Probably not.  But when millions of BATMAN fans go to see "THE DARK KNIGHT" this weekend they will see the late Heath Ledger, as the joker, hold a knife to the throat of a real United States Senator, Democrat Patrick Leahy of Vermont.

Leahy, a Batman fan since he was a kid, has had brief cameos in two other Batman movies.  But this is his FIRST SPEAKING ROLE and he gets to utter some pretty tough words.  As the Joker threatens and harasses a room full of people, Leahy boldly says, "WE'RE NOT INTIMIDATED BY YOU THUGS!"  The joker isn't intimidated either and grabs the senator's neck holding a knife to his throat.  The Joker says, "YOU REMIND ME OF MY FATHER---I HATED MY FATHER." Leahy's staff says the scene was shot over several hours one night last summer at a restaurant with a great view of the city of Chicago.

Leahy has also done a voice-over in a Batman cartoon, and helped develop a Batman comic book about the dangers of land mines.  He donates all profits to the children's wing of the Kellogg-Hubbard Library in Montpelier, Vermont

July 15, 2008 | Permalink | User Comments (1) | TrackBack (0)

"WE ALWAYS WON" and "WE TOOK NO PRISONERS"

July 14, 2008 9:05 AM

Whether it's bridges falling down, leaking levees, or overextended financial institutions, you can always count on one thing. There were plenty of warnings of impending doom but Congress heeded the lobbyist, took their money and for the most part ignored the warnings.

In this morning's WASHINGTON POST, David Hilzenrath says 2000 Clinton Administration undersecretary of treasury, Gary Gensler, called on CONGRESS to give regulators more power "TO SET CAPITAL REQUIREMENTS FOR FANNIE MAE and FREDDIE MAC." But, according to the article, FREDDIE MAC fought back and spokeswoman Sharon McHale countered, "WE THINK THAT THE STATEMENTS EVIDENCE A CONTEMPT FOR THE NATION's HOUSING and MORTGAGE MARKETS." The article says Democrat CHUCK SCHUMER opposed one bill that would have beefed up the regulators, claiming a "HOSTILE REGULATOR COULD CHOKE THE COMPANIES."

Hilzenrath says several years ago, a top lobbyist for Freddie Mac held more than 75 FUNDRAISERS for members of the HOUSE FINANCIAL SERVICES COMMITTEE in an 18-month period and raised nearly $3 MILLION. The article goes on to say that in 2006, FREDDIE had to pay a record $3.8 MILLION FINE for violating federal election laws. An internal 2004 memo written by FANNIE MAE executive Daniel H. Mudd said in the political arena, "WE ALWAYS WON" and "WE TOOK NO PRISONERS."

But there were a few members of Congress who had some guts.  Hilzenrath says REPUBLICAN RICHARD H. BAKER, as chairman of a powerful subcommittee that had jurisdiction over FANNIE and FREDDIE, tried repeatedly to make them more accountable and got threats from FANNIE's lawyers for his trouble. 

And one republican saw the writing on the wall way back in 1991. According to NYT reporter Julie Creswell, Iowa's JIM LEACH, who warned that the mortgage finance giants were insulated from the real world, said, "FANNIE MAE and FREDDIE MAC are beginning to seem like an ARROGANT, TWO-HEADED MONOPOLY, controlling 90 PERCENT OF THE MARKET."

That was back in 1991.

July 14, 2008 | Permalink | User Comments (10) | TrackBack (0)

'There Lying on the Ground, Was My Son's Body, Burnt and Smoldering'

July 11, 2008 10:58 AM

Cheryl Harris is a mother.  She had three sons, including a set of twins, all serving in the military.  On January 8th, 2008, at 9:45pm she got that knock on the door and that visit from a military chaplain and two non-commissioned officers.  One of her twin sons, Ryan had died in Iraq.  But he was not killed by gunfire or a roadside bomb.  He was killed by a SHOWER.

"And he wasn't just electrocuted from a single shock.  Because the water pump and the water tank were either incorrectly wired and/or the circuit panel was not functioning properly, MY SON LAY IN ELECTRIFIED WATER until he was discovered by a fellow soldier who KICKED THE DOOR DOWN.  THERE LYING ON THE GROUND, WAS MY SON'S BODY, BURNT and SMOLDERING.  One of the Soldiers who attempted to rescue Ryan was himself SEVERELY SHOCKED because the electrical current was still running through the water and pipes in Ryan's bathroom."

That is what Cheryl Harris will tell Senate Democrats who hold a hearing on waste, fraud and abuse in Iraq  this morning.  In her testimony she says she has learned that contractor KELLOGG BROWN & ROOT, KBR, knew of the shoddy electrical wiring 11 MONTHS BEFORE her son was killed when they made an inspection of his building.  "The deficiencies KBR noted on that date included, among others, the fact that the building's main circuit panel, the secondary feeder panel, and the water tank WERE NOT GROUNDED.  The wiring leading into the secondary electrical panel was not sized properly for the main breakers, did not have proper thermal coating and did not meet either U.S. or British electrical standards.  Additionally, the circuit beaker was rendered inoperable because TAR used to seal the breaker box had MELTED in the summer into the panel itself."

"Ryan was an ARMY RANGER and a GREEN BERET.  He could have survived weeks in isolation behind enemy lines.  He was trained to handle adversity that few of us can fathom.  It is unacceptable that EXTREME RECKLESSNESS and a total disregard for public safety has deprived the army of this exemplary young soldier and deprived my family of our son and brother."

Cheryl Harris will be joined by another mother who lost her son in Iraq when he was electrocuted power washing his humvee at a base maintenance center.

According to Senator Byron Dorgan, who will chair the hearing, General David Petraeus has said at least 13 Americans have been electrocuted in Iraq since the war began and many more soldiers have received severe shocks from faulty electrical wiring on military bases in Iraq.

July 11, 2008 | Permalink | User Comments (7) | TrackBack (0)

She Was Terminated

July 10, 2008 9:29 AM

The Pentagon loves those pictures of cute Iraqi kids playing sports with American troops and those shots of well stocked, peaceful, Iraqi marketplaces which just a few months ago were far too dangerous to visit.

But they hate those pictures of the coffins arriving back in the states and the burials at Arlington National Cemetery that remind a nation just what it cost to get those happy, pleasant pictures in Iraq.

DANA MILBANK who writes for the WASHINGTON POST has a column this morning entitled "PUTTING HER FOOT DOWN AND GETTING THE BOOT."  It is about Gina Gray who three months ago became the public affairs director at Arlington National Cemetery.  Before that she had spent 8 years in the Army as a public affairs person in Germany, Italy and Iraq and later as an Army contractor in Iraq where she was with an American unit when it was ambushed.  Milbank says Gray still has some hearing loss from that explosion. 

Milbank says shortly after she was hired, Gina Gray noticed that Arlington National Cemetery officials were trying to make it very difficult for the press to cover the often very moving ceremonies that take place as the fallen heroes are buried.  She complained that the restrictions were wrong and that they were being imposed even though families had granted the media permission to cover.   

It wasn't long before she was demoted and 12 days ago SHE WAS FIRED.

Her supervisor, in her termination memo, said she was disrespectful.

Army Secretary Pete Geren told Dana Milbank last night that he couldn't comment on Gray's firing.

Gray told Milbank "Had I not put my foot down, had I just gone along with it and not said regulations were being violated, I'm sure I'd still be there." 
 

July 10, 2008 | Permalink | User Comments (9) | TrackBack (0)

"PLEASE, PLEASE HELP ME!!"

July 09, 2008 10:48 AM

It was March 2006 and according to a report put together by investigators working for Democrat Henry Waxman, occupants of Fema trailers were starting to complain.  One urgently asked GULF STREAM, the maker of the vast majority of FEMA TRAILERS deployed after Katrina, for help.  "There is an odor in my trailer that will not go away.  It burns my eyes and I am getting headaches every day.  PLEASE, PLEASE HELP ME!!" 

Fema was starting to get concerned as well.  Again according to the Waxman Report, a FEMA official sent Gulf Stream's co-president, Dan Shea, an e-mail.  "does your field staff have the capability to PUT THIS TO BED?"  Mr. Shea told the Fema official:  "I will send a person down...to test the units."

The committee document says GULF STREAM tested 50 trailers including 11 that had people living in them.  Gulf Stream tested trailers they made and also some of those made by other manufacturers.  EVERY OCCUPIED TRAILER tested showed FORMALDEHYDE concentration levels ABOVE 100ppb, "the level at which CDC, EPA, WHO, CPSC, and the National Institute of Occupational Safety and health say ACUTE ADVERSE HEALTH EFFECTS CAN BE EXPERIENCED."  FOUR of the 11 occupied trailers had levels ABOVE 500ppb, "the level at which federal occupational safety regulations require MEDICAL MONITORING FOR WORKER EXPOSURE."  In over 20 UNOCCUPIED trailers the formaldehyde levels were ABOVE 900ppb, a level at which "EPA says it is dangerous to be exposed for more than EIGHT HOURS IN A LIFETIME." Several trailers had readings ABOVE 2,000ppb. 

Congressional Investigators say GULF STREAM did NOT WARN trailer occupants, "did NOT TELL FEMA it had found elevated levels of formaldehyde in occupied trailers or warn Fema NOT TO PLACE FAMILIES IN ITS UNOCCUPIED TRAILERS."  GULF STREAM did send FEMA a letter offering to share its test results, but according to the report, FEMA apparently never pursued that offer.

Waxman's staff says one maker of trailers that FEMA used, KEYSTONE, decided it had to REVISE it's OWNER'S MANUAL following all the bad news about formaldehyde levels.  In September 2006, KEYSTONE told its customers that "new trailers were expected to OFF-GAS FORMALDEHYDE resulting in a STRONG ODOR and CHEMICAL SENSITIVITY."  The manual went on to say that Formaldehyde is a "NATURALLY OCCURRING SUBSTANCE and it is NOT a defect in your recreational vehicle."  KEYSTONE told its customers to use proper ventilation.

Today, trailer maker CEOS from GULF STREAM, KEYSTONE, PILGRIM, and FOREST RIVER are being called before Rep. Henry Waxman's oversight and government reform committee to do some explaining.

July 9, 2008 | Permalink | User Comments (2) | TrackBack (0)