WASHINGTON (AP) - Increasing numbers of U.S. troops have left the military with damaged bodies and minds, an ever-larger pool of disabled veterans that will cost the nation billions for decades to come - even as the total population of America’s vets shrinks.

Despite the decline in total vets - as soldiers from World War II and Korea die - the government expects to be spending $59 billion a year to compensate injured warriors in 25 years, up from today’s $29 billion, according to internal documents obtained by The Associated Press. And the Veterans Affairs Department concedes the bill could be much higher.

Why?

Worse wounds. More disabilities. More vets aware of the benefits and quicker to file for them.

Also, ironically, advanced medical care. Troops come home with devastating injuries that might well have killed them in earlier wars.

Time is also a factor when it comes to disability compensation costs. Payments tend to go up as veterans age, and an increasing number of soldiers from the Vietnam War will be getting bigger payments as they get older and are less able to work around their disabilities.

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Number of disabled veterans rising

I am going to say this again and again and again, and to any that don’t like it, don’t believe it or can’t support it, click the ‘X’ at the top right of your screen and LEAVE!!

Our Veterans, and their care comes 1st!!

These wonderful guys and gals have given this nation everything they have to give physically, many have given their lives, the ultimate sacrifice, and that’s the way it goes for folks in the military and I fully understand that, but the ones that DO survive must be cared for in the most top shelf fashion imaginable…

Our government continues to spend BILLIONS of our tax dollars to rebuild a war torn nation that is still engaged in a civil war, although there is nothing civil about that or any other war…

Why spend our money rebuilding Iraq, our money, when it could be much better spent taking care of the troops that come back home with life changing injuries and disabilities??

America 1st, and American SOLDIERS 1st, if that idea is beyond your realm of comprehension then you are reading the wrong blog, this isn’t about politics, it’s not about right, left, Dem, Repub or any of that, it’s all about doing the best job for our injured Vets no matter what it costs, and if it means we have to cut back on the rehabilitation of an OIL RICH nation like Iraq, then so be it!!

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When it comes to Roland Carnaby, the truth is out there — way out there. So far out that you reach the blogosphere before finding anything that publicly connects him to his beloved Central Intelligence Agency, which he claimed to still patriotically serve when Houston police shot him down at the end of a crosstown chase on April 29.

But even that obscure, blog-world confirmation is not what it seems to be, which is pretty much what you get with Carnaby, the curious 52-year-old son of Lebanese parents who spent much of his time in bars and restaurants dropping broad hints that he was somebody, or something, else.

The “proof” of his tie to the CIA — denied repeatedly by the agency itself — comes indirectly through a Houston man, Alan Premel, who supposedly served with him and who has been linked to him on numerous Internet sites. If one believes the various posts about him, Premel is a former CIA wunderkind who won the agency’s highest award for valor before a nasty separation and lawsuit that netted him a multimillion dollar settlement.

Those posts are made on obscure blogs that ceased shortly after posting articles about Premel or in the reader comment sections of better-known, ongoing blogs. A few appear in comment sections of legitimate stories posted on mainstream news media sites.

Taken together they give a whiff of credibility to the assertions of Carnaby’s friends that he was the agent he claimed to be, especially considering they were made long before Carnaby was killed.

One of them, at the short-lived papparazzipress.com, refers to Carnaby as one of “CIA’s most experienced, talented and high-profile clandestine officers.” Another mentions Premel as a “battle hardened and battle tested CIA war hero” who was “the youngest supervisor to ever head a task force.”

Full Story Here:
Chasing a nuke? Blogs spin tales of ’spy’ shot by HPD

OK, I am sitting here seriously LMAO…

Not kidding, this is funny way beyond the normal limits of funny…

“CIA’s most experienced, talented and high-profile clandestine officers.”

What’s wrong with that quote folks?? Anyone?? Bueller??

Think about this for a minute, “high-profile” and “clandestine“, these are words that do NOT go together in any way, shape, form or fashion, and anyone that has ever been privy to any kind of high security work is more than aware of this fact…

Carnaby and his buddy were playing ‘Get Smart’ and the Maxwell Smart character came home to bite em in the ass when they tangled with the REAL police…

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Hat Tip to: Suitably Flip

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BEIRUT, Lebanon - Hezbollah said Saturday it was withdrawing its gunmen from Beirut neighborhoods seized in sectarian clashes after the army ordered its troops to establish security and called on fighters to clear the streets.

But while tensions in Lebanon’s capital appeared to be defusing, at least 12 people were killed and 20 wounded when pro- and anti-government groups fought in a remote region of northern Lebanon, security and hospital officials said. It was the heaviest toll for a single clash since sectarian fighting began on Wednesday.

Hezbollah and its allied seized large swaths of Muslim west Beirut Friday, demonstrating their military might in a power struggle with the government.

Western-backed Prime Minister Fuad Saniora, in his first public statement since the sectarian violence erupted, said Lebanon can no longer tolerate Hezbollah having weapons. He called on the army to restore law and order and remove gunmen from the streets and accused Hezbollah of staging a coup.

Full Story Here:
Hezbollah: Gunmen withdrawing from Beirut

Pay attention folks, take a real good look at the picture, that is what happens when The Religion of Peace decides to flex their muscle, and it won’t be long until that exact same thing happens here in the USA…

If Barack Hussein Obama is allowed to ascend to the Oval Office this will be a real and highly likely scenario right here, in OUR towns and cities, the Islamic radicals are already in place, and I have warned, repeatedly, that all they are waiting for is the order to go ahead with their attacks…

I have felt that they are waiting for their command structure to fall into place, and come November, if Obama is elected to the office of POTUS, they will have that leadership structure set…

Hide your heads in the sand if you like, but it IS coming, and you can either work now to make it NOT happen, or you can do nothing and when these animals called an insurgency starts to operate openly here in America, you can submit to them or die…

Some of us will die, but it won’t be because we submitted, it will be because we went down fighting to defend America, or, what’s left of Her!!

And yes, I know, some will call me a bigot or a racist alarmist, but Hitler was an eloquent and impassioned speaker, just as Obama is touted as being, if the warnings had been heeded prior to Hitler being allowed to take power, well, just sayin’…

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WASHINGTON (AP) — Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice says Hezbollah, backed by Syria and Iran, is killing and injuring innocent civilians in Lebanon.

Rice says that Hezbollah is trying to protect its “state-within-a-state.”

Her statement was read at a State Department briefing Friday.

In Lebanon Friday, Shiite Hezbollah gunmen seized control of key parts of Beirut from Sunnis loyal to the U.S.-backed government.

The move capped three days of street battles and gunfights that have killed at least 14 people and wounded 20. It has been the country’s worst sectarian fighting since the 1975-1990 civil war.

Rice says Hezbollah’s violence has demonstrated “contempt for its fellow Lebanese.”

SOURCE:
Rice: Hezbollah killing innocent civilians in Lebanon

Ladies and Gentlemen, I believe that this would be Condi’s version of the warning rattle before the strike, and if there is one it will likely take place as soon as the staff returns from Crawford and sobers up from the wedding party, I just hope Bush doesn’t screw this one up like he did the aftermath of the Debacle in Iraq…

I have personally felt that we were at war with Hezbollah since the 1983 Beirut barracks bombing on October 23, 1983, an attack that resulted in the death of 241 American servicemen…

Vice President George H.W. Bush came and toured the Marine bombing site on October 26 and said the U.S. “would not be cowed by terrorists.”, and the sad part is, basically, that was all that the USA did:

President Reagan assembled his national security team and planned to target the Sheik Abdullah barracks in Baalbek, Lebanon, which housed Iranian Revolutionary Guards believed to be training Hezbollah fighters. Defense Secretary Weinberger lobbied successfully against the mission, because he was not certain that Iran was to blame for the attacks. SOURCE

Marines have never forgotten Beirut, and they never will!

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Barack Obama wants to be president of these 57 United States

Ah, Oregon. The beautiful Northwest. Rain. Trees. Clouds. Rain. Friendly territory for Sen. Barack Obama, the leading contender for the Democratic Party’s long-disputed presidential nomination.

So there he was in Beaverton today at the start of a two-day swing through Oregon, virtually ignoring his remaining Democratic opponent, what’s-her-name from New York, as part of his new strategy to act like the actual nominee while she flails around way behind in numbers.

Naturally, this being the Northwest where everything is not ruined quite yet, his staff had Obama visit an eco-friendly company, Vernier Software & Technology, that makes products for science teachers. He could get education in there too, see?

In his prepared remarks Obama was ready to start blasting Arizona Sen. John McCain, the presumptive Republican nominee, to show the Illinois Democrat is moving on to the general election campaign.

But first the freshman senator had to go through all the obligatory delighted to see you, delighted to be here part of stump speeches that also require that you actually know where you are.

Obama pulled that off O.K. But then he drifted away from the text a tad, as rookies are wont to do sometimes, forgetting how exhausting this primary process is and should be. And trusting in their instincts, their very tired instincts.

“It is wonderful to be back in Oregon,” Obama said. “Over the last 15 months, we’ve traveled to every corner of the United States. I’ve now been in 57 states? I think one left to go. Alaska and Hawaii, I was not allowed to go to even though I really wanted to visit, but my staff would not justify it.”

The Times’ conscientious Robin Abcarian thought she heard something different there. She checked her tape recorder. It had captured what he had actually said — 57 states now. A new Louisiana Purchase that’s gone unannounced so far? Was he channeling his inner John Kerry-Heinz 57 personality?

(UPDATE: At a later stop Obama was talking with reporters and expressed concern he’d also mis-stated the number of potential cyclone victims in Burma. He said, “”I hope I said 100,000 people the first time instead of 100 million. I understand I said there were 57 states today. It’s a sign that my numeracy is getting a little, uh.” At that point, an aide cut him off and ushered journalists out. Before he could mis-speak again?)

Oh, and as far as Hawaii voters are concerned, they’re probably delighted to learn that Obama’s campaign staff doesn’t think that tiny state can justify an appearance by his eminence, even though he did a lot of growing up there. Or maybe because he was there.

Let’s see what they do with that in the Honolulu media, which the Republicans have probably already notified.

Maybe it’s Obama’s age. He’s getting up there in his forties, you know.

–Andrew Malcolm

This is, in my opinion, one of the best things I have ever seen printed at the L.A. Times, and I offer serious kudos to Andrew Malcolm for this article…

Found at:
Tony Phyrillas - Barack Obama smarter than a fifth grader?

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WASHINGTON (AP) - Cindy McCain says she will never make her tax returns public even if her husband wins the White House and she becomes the first lady.

“You know, my husband and I have been married 28 years and we have filed separate tax returns for 28 years. This is a privacy issue. My husband is the candidate,” Cindy McCain, wife of Republican presidential nominee-in-waiting John McCain, said in an interview aired on NBC’s “Today” on Thursday.

Asked if she would release her tax returns if she was first lady, Cindy McCain said: “No.”

The Arizona senator released his tax return last month, reporting he had a total income of $405,409 in 2007 and paid $84,460 in federal income taxes. He files his return separately from his wife, an heiress to a Phoenix-based beer distributing company whose fortune is in the $100 million range.

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Cindy McCain says she’ll never release her tax returns