Monthly Archives: November 2011
David Emanuel Hickman
GREENSBORO — A 23-year-old soldier from Greensboro was killed Monday while serving in U.S. Army operations in Iraq, his parents said. SPC David Emanuel Hickman was only weeks away from returning home, they said.
Veronica Hickman said the family was told Monday night by the Army that her son died that morning.
On Tuesday, David Eugene Hickman said he didn’t have all the details, but it seems that an improvised explosive device struck his son’s convoy. The 23-year-old was transported to an Army hospital, but later died.
Hickman, an Army specialist stationed out of Fort Bragg, was a star athlete at Northeast Guilford High School, where he played football and ran track, his parents said. He was an “adventurer,” who also did Taekwondo and rock climbing, Veronica Hickman said.
He played football briefly at Ferrum College in Virginia before he was red-shirted, she said. Her son enlisted in the Army in 2009, going to basic training around Thanksgiving of that year. He deployed to Iraq around Memorial Day this year and last talked to his parents on the phone Sunday.
His friends are planning a candlelight vigil Sunday evening, according to Facebook.
Media representatives from the Department of Defense said they didn’t have any information to release, as of Tuesday afternoon.
SPC Hickman is the 4,483rdd American killed in Iraq … Ich hatt’ einen Kameraden
Waterboarding’s OK because it was in a movie?
Republican Tea Party (GOTP) Congressional footnote Allen (Walter E. Kurtz) West is claiming waterboarding isn’t torture because he saw it in a movie?
The former U.S. Army Colonel – who was forced to retire after discharging his weapon next to a prisoner’s head who he’d threatened to execute – made an appearance on FOX PAC & Friends, where he was introduced as “Congresswoman West” by brainiac co-host Brian Kilmeade. “Kurtz” was appearing to attempt to counter the President’s statement that waterboarding was torture.
“I see that when we continue to read Miranda rights to people such as the underwear bomber, we are using the advantage and leverage that we have,” West said. “And furthermore in the movie G.I. Jane, Demi Moore was waterboarded, and we do use that in military training and Survival, Escape, Resistance and Evasion training.”
OK, so by that logic, if we find a witch in a town all we have to do is drop a house on her and we’re good?
There are actually two things wrong with Congressman “Kurtz’s” statement, and I’ll use small words so everyone can get this; first, G.I. Jane’s a movie, which means she wasn’t really waterboarded; second, when our military personal are waterboarded in Survival, Escape, Resistance and Evasion training they know they’re not going to die so it’s not the same, they know the trainers can only go so far, that’s why it’s called “training”.
West is a lunatic; he was sent packing from the Army for mistreating prisoners and he’s the last person who should ever be called as a subject matter expert on what’s right and wrong concerning torture and interrogation of prisoners, but if you’re FOX PAC he’s the first on your speed dial.
Cain pulls a Palin?
Republican Tea Party (GOTP) one-time presidential hopeful Herman “Pizza Man” Cain struggled to answer a question about President Obama’s policy toward Libya in an interview with the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel editorial board.
“Okay, Libya,” said Cain, glancing up. “President Obama supported the uprising, correct? President Obama called for the removal of [Muammar] Gaddafi. Just wanted to make sure we’re talking about the same thing before I say, ‘Yes, I agreed. No, I didn’t agree,'” said Cain.
“I do not agree with the way he handled it for the following reason,” Cain started, before cutting himself off. “Nope, that’s a different one.” Cain shifted in his chair, adjusted his jacket and looked up again.
“I got all this stuff twirling around in my head,” he added.
Cain repeated he would have “assessed the [Libyan] opposition differently,” speaking in generalities about his problem-solving approach.
Cain raised broader questions about the nature of the Libyan opposition. “It’s not a clear yes-no answer, because all of those things I think should have been assessed, that’s what I’m saying.”
“And you don’t think they were assessed?” asked an editorial board member.
“I don’t know that they were or were not assessed. I didn’t see reports of that assessment,” Cain responded.
This isn’t the first time Pizza Man has stepped in the dough regarding foreign policy questions. Earlier Cain warned the world China was “trying to develop a nuclear capability,” though the country tested a nuclear device in October 1964.
Naturally, the Cain campaign has tried in vain to downplay the incident.
“The video is being taken out of context,” Cain spokesman JD Gordon said, according to MSNBC. “He was taking questions for about 30 to 40 minutes on four hours of sleep. He didn’t say anything wrong or inaccurate; it just took him a while to recall the specifics of Libya.”
Gordon added, “It just took him a while to gain his bearings.”
So, Presidents aren’t expected to have to answer tough questions or face difficult situations on four hours of sleep or less?
Herman Cain’s the GOTP’s version of Billy Ray Valentine; no one expects him to win, they just want him to do well enough so they can pat each other on the back and proclaim they’re not racists.
America needs to be more like China?
Republican Tea Party (GOTP) presidential hanger-on Michele “Krazy” Bachmann is saying America’s Great Society should be more like the Great Wall of China.
“The ‘Great Society’ has not worked and it’s put us into the modern welfare state,” she said. “If you look at China, they don’t have food stamps. If you look at China, they’re in a very different situation. They save for their own retirement security…They don’t have the modern welfare state and China’s growing. And so what I would do is look at the programs that LBJ gave us with the Great Society and they’d be gone.”
I’m not really sure how to address this; here we have an unabashed uber-conservative who’s been screaming for the past three years about America’s so-called Socialist President, and yet she’s saying we – the United States – needs to be like China.
One can only assume Krazy knows China is a communist country, and that she should understand that the Chinese people don’t necessarily “retire” like those of us in the West, they work their entire lives to support the state; if they can’t work there are programs – even in good old China – that help to take care of them.
What’s abundantly clear is Bachmann’s continued ignorance of anything – I can’t think of a single issue she hasn’t botched when addressing it; she’s clearly not qualified to be president, and it’s astonishing she continues to be re-elected to the Congress – which speaks volumes about her constituents.
Jonathan B. McCain and Calvin M. Pereda
SFC Johnathan B. McCain, 38, of Apache Junction, Ariz., and SPC Calvin M. Pereda, 21, of Fayetteville, N.C., died Nov.13, in Kandahar province, Afghanistan, of injuries suffered after encountering an improvised explosive device while on mounted patrol. They were assigned to the 1st Battalion; 5th Infantry Regiment; 1st Stryker Brigade Combat Team; 25th Infantry Division from Fort Wainwright, Alaska.
They are respectively the 1,834th and 1,835th Americans killed in Afghanistan … Ich hatt’ einen Kameraden
Mitten’s Mexican father wouldn’t have fared well under his son’s vision of America
Adios Dad, there's the door!
Mitt Romney’s father, George Wilcken Romney, was born in Colonia Dublán, Galeana, in the Mexican state of Chihuahua, on 8 July 1907, but his family fled the violence of the Mexican Revolution and moved to Texas sometime around 1912-1913, where they lived off of government assistance until eventually moving to Idaho.
This brings up two questions; first, did Mitt’s father apply for a visa before entering the United States as an illegal alien fleeing violence in his native Mexico? And second, how is Mittens so vehemently opposed to government assistance for the poor and needy when his own father’s family wouldn’t have survived without it?
Fortunately for Mitt’s father President Woodrow Wilson’s immigration policies weren’t the same as Mittens’ who’s said, “My plan is this, which is for those that have come here illegally and are here illegally today, no amnesty. Now, how do people return home? Under the ideal setting, at least in my view, you say to those who have just come in recently, we’re going to send you back home immediately; we’re not going to let you stay here. You just go back home. For those that have been here, let’s say, five years, and have kids in school, you allow kids to complete the school year, you allow people to make their arrangements, and allow them to return back home. Those that have been here a long time, with kids that have responsibilities here and so forth, you let stay enough time to organize their affairs and go home.”
Equally fortunate for his father is that Americans felt differently about government programs for the poor in 1912 than the conservatives of today do, including his dear son.
“The threat to our culture comes from within,” Mittens says about the poor and needy. “The 1960’s welfare programs created a culture of poverty. Some think we won that battle when we reformed welfare, but the liberals haven’t given up. At every turn, they try to substitute government largesse for individual responsibility. Dependency is death to initiative, risk-taking and opportunity. Dependency is a culture-killing drug. We have got to fight it like the poison it is.”
Under Mitt’s proposed presidential policies, his own father, who wasn’t an American, would’ve been sent packing back to Colonia Dublán, Galeana, told to go, vamoose, and get out, no amnesty for you! And if by some chance his son’s jack booted immigration thugs hadn’t found him he’d probably starved to death while being told to pull himself up by his boots straps.
An additional question would be how did a Mexican national run for the presidency in 1968? The Constitution is quite clear on who can and who cannot run for the presidency with respects to nationality; Article II, Section I states, “No Person except a natural born Citizen, or a Citizen of the United States, at the time of the Adoption of this Constitution, shall be eligible to the Office of President; neither shall any Person be eligible to that Office who shall not have attained to the Age of thirty five Years, and been fourteen Years a Resident within the United States.”
The only way George Romney could’ve been considered a “natural born citizen” is if he’d been born on a United States Military base or in a U.S. Embassy – both being considered United States’ soil. John McCain although born in Panama was born on a U.S. Naval Base, hence he was eligible to run in 2008, George Romney was not born on a base nor in an embassy and was not eligible.
Good thing birthers weren’t as rabid back then, or is that Romney was running as a Republican?
Cody R. Norris
The Department of Defense announced today the death of a soldier who was supporting Operation Enduring Freedom.
PFC Cody R. Norris, 20, of Houston, Texas, died Nov. 9 in Kandahar province, Afghanistan, of wounds suffered when enemy forces attacked his unit with small arms fire. He was assigned to the 2nd Battalion, 34th Armor Regiment, 1st Heavy Brigade Combat Team, 1st Infantry Division, Fort Riley, Kan.
PFC Norris is the 1,833rd American killed in Afghanistan … Ich hatt’ einen Kameraden
Theodore B. Rushing
A New York-based soldier was killed late last week in Afghanistan, the Defense Department has announced.
PFC Theodore B. Rushing, 25, of Longwood, Fla., died Friday in Kandahar province from wounds suffered when enemy forces attacked his unit with an improvised explosive device. Rushing was assigned to 3rd Squadron, 71st Cavalry Regiment; 3rd Brigade Combat Team, 10th Mountain Division (Light), out of Fort Drum.
No further information was immediately available.
PFC Rushing is the 1,832nd American killed in Afghanistan … Ich hatt’ einen Kameraden
Waterboarding is torture
Republican Tea Party (GOTP) presidential candidates, with the notable exceptions of Jon Huntsman and Ron Paul announced during Saturday night’s GOP debate that they’d reinstitute waterboarding if elected president, arguing it’s an “enhanced interrogation technique” and therefore doesn’t violate the Geneva Convention’s ban against acts of torture.
President Barack Obama chastised the candidates for that stance, noting the damage waterboarding has done for America’s reputation and its standing in the world.
“It’s contrary to America’s traditions,” he said. “It’s contrary to our ideals. That’s not who we are. That’s not how we operate. We don’t need it in order to prosecute the war on terrorism. And we did the right thing by ending that practice.”
But the President isn’t alone in his condemnation of the GOTP wannabes, the man the President beat in 2008, and the Senator best known for criticizing the practice, spoke out against the practice on Monday morning as well.
“Very disappointed by statements at SC GOP debate supporting waterboarding,” Sen. John McCain tweeted. “Waterboarding is torture.”
There is no one serving in the United States Senate better qualified to debunk conservative ignorance on this subject, and since the President has already outlawed the practice, the only way it will return is if one of the current GOTP troglodytes somehow wins the White House; thankfully, at present that’s not looking too promising.
The Liberty Tree 