Shocking Statistics

POSTED BY JHW22

I watched part of a Senate Appropriations Committee hearing on the US Army's 2012 budget today and I learned three things that flat-out shocked me:

1) 50% of National Guard soldiers who committed suicide were never deployed.

2) Our troops are experiencing oddly high rates of ALS (Lou Gehrig's Disease) at oddly young ages.

3) This generation of soldiers enlisting are less fit and have weaker musculoskeletal strength than previous generations and they carry almost 3x the supplies they should. Thus, musculoskeletal injures are 2x combat injuries.

Bush Hate

Is it wrong that I hate George Bush so much, that even in the case of him speaking live right now to welcome home troops coming home from Iraq and Afghanistan, I can't take it and change the channel?

Even now, he's on in the other room and I can hear that the "evildoers" rhetoric and the "war on terrorism" bullshit sounds like he pulled an old speech out of the archives from 2004! And we all know it's a cheap ass photo op, but the bullshit continues.

Fuck you, George. Oh, and guess what? The correlation remains that when he speaks, the stock market goes down. He's the Schleprock of Wall Street.

Andrea Mitchell and the "Fake News"

What's going on with Andrea Mitchell? I used to think she was a pretty credible journalist (even though she is married to Alan Greenspan) but now I'm starting to have my doubts. For the most part she can pretty much play it down the middle, but on occasion she blurts out some not-so-objective statements like she did yesterday on Hardball when covering Obama and his trip to visit troops in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Mitchell: "Let me say something about his message management. He didn’t have reporters with him. He didn’t have a press pool. He didn’t do a press conference while he was on the ground either on Afghanistan or Iraq. What you’re seeing is not reporters brought in, you’re seeing selected pictures taken by the military, questioned by the military and what some would call fake interviews because they’re not interviews with a journalist so there’s a real press issue here. Politically it’s smart as can be, but we’ve not seen a Presidential candidate do this in my recollection ever before."

And the phrase "what some would call" is just doublespeak for "what I would call." But as far as her recollection of a presidential candidate ever doing this before? John Amato at Crooks & Liars might refresh her memory.

AMATO: I understand the need to get footage of Obama is her job, but to say they were phony was like saying his trip was like those fake news reports the administration sold to local networks that were presented as real new stories. I wondered if John McCain handled any of his overseas trips in the same way and guess what?

(via email) From an AP article during McCain’s March trip:

McCain’s visit was not announced and he was believed to have been in the country for several hours before reporters were able to confirm his arrival. It was unclear who he met with and no media opportunities or news conferences were planned.

So I think the GOP and wingnuts should stop whining about the supposed love-in the media is having with Obama on his trip, given the fact that they probably would have gone with McCain as well had he given them a heads up.

McCain: Pre-Surge Levels?

How many times can this guy be wrong on a daily basis? You gotta love the McCainstream Media. What a maverick!

"Not Too Important"

The Sacrifice of the Worst President Ever

...Golf.

Yeah, poor George gave up his golf game to show his "solidarity" with the families of the fallen US soldiers in Iraq.

Golf. He didn't think it was a good idea to have some mom who'd lost her son watching him play golf during wartime. It sends the wrong signal. So he gave it up. Or was it the bad knee and calf injury that caused him to stop playing? Hmmm....

Classic Keith. This one is for the ages.