BBC News - Risk of robot uprising wiping out human race to be studied

BBC News - Risk of robot uprising wiping out human race to be studied:

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MJ Rosenberg: Mitt Romney Insults American Jews

MJ Rosenberg: Mitt Romney Insults American Jews:

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The United States has never contracted out its foreign policy to any foreign country. But Mitt Romney is prepared to do just that... at least he says he is.

Iraq-Iran Ties Grow Stronger As Iraq Rises From The Ashes

Iraq-Iran Ties Grow Stronger As Iraq Rises From The Ashes:

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Thank you George Bush... you blithering idiot.

Even more sadly, there's not much in these results that wasn't predicted in New Yorker magazine in the months just prior to our war against Iraq... if not in detail, at least in the broad sense of things. In fact, about the only result of our criminal assault on Iraq that was a surprise was the horror of the Abu Ghraib revelations. I would never have imagined that torture of political prisoners would have become an official U.S. policy. More fool me...

Thank you George Bush!

Gary Stein Case: Military Board Recommends Dismissal For Marine Who Criticized President Obama On Facebook

Gary Stein Case: Military Board Recommends Dismissal For Marine Who Criticized President Obama On Facebook:

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I think military service is not just another job. It is long standing military policy that a soldier’s rights to free speech are limited. Sergeant Stein knew this. He violated his commitment to the service. He was warned that he was in violation of military policy and was ordered to cease lampooning the President... he ignored these direct orders. He should be out of the service... now! We have an all volunteer military after all.

And his “free speech” stand is dishonest and dishonorable. If he wanted to publicly complain about our country's foreign policies he should have resigned and then complained. That would be the military way. If you believe in your cause throw your badge on the table, don't whine about it in the dark.

I notice that Stein is a nine year veteran Marine. I assume that means he has served in Iraq or Afghanistan... two of the most bungled wars in America’s history. The total mismanagement of these two misadventures clearly falls at the feet of the Bush-Cheney Administration and their cadre of incompetent neocons...  people who demonstrably had no idea what they were doing. It does not belong to the Obama Administration.

How is it then that President Obama bears the full burden of Stein's ire? Why is President Obama lampooned by a serving soldier? I suspect it is pretty much because President Obama is black and in the White House. The Sergeant, like his "tea bagger" supporters... Darrell Issa, Duncan Hunter, and the like... cannot stand for that. I believe it is simply racism.

It must be difficult for the many black servicemen and women who fought bravely under Presidents Bush and Obama to tolerate this kind of racism in the military they honorably served.

US, EU And Japan Challenge China Over Rare Earth Minerals At WTO

US, EU And Japan Challenge China Over Rare Earth Minerals At WTO:

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Yes this is economic warfare. By China against us. They used the threat of an embargo of these minerals to bring Japan to heel over some Chinese fishing boat captain, arrested for violating Japan’s fishing regulations in Japanese waters. I think they were surprised at how easy it was to get Japan to roll over.

But rather than whining about it we should simply go back into production here in the USA. My understanding is that there are still rich deposits of these minerals right here in America, as well as in Canada, in Australia, Afghanistan, etc, etc. I’m not sure why we allowed the sale of this strategic business to China but it’s really only a question of money for us (ie. the USA) to get back in the business. Since this a strategic resource, if private business can’t do it the government should.

A little socialism might be a good thing here. I suppose the republican dominated House of Ill Repute will try to stop such a heretical idea. But this really is a strategic resource and we need to reverse the silly decision to allow China to purchase world control of it for a few bucks... who ever made that decision. Oops... that was Bush/Cheney... oh my.

Dare one call it treason?

Veterans Crisis Line Seeks To Help Those Struggling With Civilian Life, Unemployment, Post-Combat Stress

Veterans Crisis Line Seeks To Help Those Struggling With Civilian Life, Unemployment, Post-Combat Stress:

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This is a great article. Good on Huff Post for posting it. Someone is doing something good.

The statistics on suicide among our military are appalling. And they are just a part of the detritus that making war on Iraq has cost us as a society.

Our success in managing physical battlefield casualties is truly amazing. I understand that we have about six survivors for every death now. So with 4,500 deaths in Iraq that would mean about 27,000 physically maimed... blinded, legless, burned... but still alive. One has to guess that there are at least twice that many... or maybe three, or four, or even five times as many... veterans that escaped physical maiming and just came home totally fucked up.

They saw things they never expected to see. They did things they never imagined doing. They lived for months in an environment where friends and enemies all looked the same... where their lives were in danger 24/7 because you couldn't tell the difference. And so on and so on... they would have to tell us, because I wasn't there and I can't even imagine all the fear and horror they lived with for months. And then they got to go back and do it all again!

So they come home looking pretty normal but suffering from those long periods of stress... of constant fear and loathing, of seeing and even participating in horrors they never imagined in their real lives. Traumatized!

They come home to a country that really doesn't want to hear about it. Their parents may care deeply about them but they really don't want to hear about the horrors. Nor do their siblings. Nor do their friends and drinking buddies... not really, and certainly not for very long. Their wives might take on the burden of listening... some do. But...

And they've come home to an economy that can't provide jobs. And remember that we fought this war with a reserve army. Many of these soldiers had good jobs or owned small businesses. They expected society to stand behind them during their tour of duty... to protect those jobs and businesses. Unfortunately tour became tours, and time marched on, and society forgot those promises.

So now they are home, feeling fucked up, fucked with and fucked over. No job, no help and no hope! And there's not a lot of hope on the near horizon... that's for sure. Our very form of government is broken... it simply no longer functions. Is this what they sacrificed to protect from imaginary atom bombs?

It must really be painful to realize that their war need never have been fought. They made all these sacrifices to satisfy some little twist in George Bush's brain. Family dynamics? What else? It's really impossible to find a plausible reason for America's having made all of this sacrifice of blood and treasure... except for the singular pleasure of hanging Saddam Hussein. WOW!

And our "victory" in Iraq... the imagined "victory" defined and redefined by Bush and Cheney and now declared by President Obama? It has been a bit transitory. We left them this wonderful thing called a democracy only weeks ago. Our gift. Their civil war is already under way. The killing has begun in earnest. And the major beneficiary of that war will very like be our current arch enemy Iran.

I'm just say'n... Thank you George Bush.