kpete
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BREAKING: American 2 star general reported killed in Afghanistan. German general in bad condition.
Although it is very early in the reporting on this incident (so all of this is subject to change as more is learned) there are at least two reports that suggest a US two-star general has been killed. This German article, using Google translate, tells us:
Further, Michael Yon has tweeted:
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American 2 star general reported killed in Afghanistan. German general in bad condition.
I asked HQ for more. Nothing yet.
5:54 AM - 5 Aug 2014
From the New York Times, we learn that those dead (reports vary from one to four, depending on the source) and wounded all appear to be high ranking officers:
Details of the shooting, which took place on Tuesday afternoon, were sketchy, and the coalition would only confirm that “an incident” had taken place at the Afghan National Army Officer Academy. An Afghan defense official said that at least three coalition officers had been killed, and that a number of other foreign and Afghan officers had been wounded. The dead coalition service members were believed to be senior officers, the Afghan official said.
Update: The New York Times article has now been updated to confirm the death of an unnamed US general.
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/08/06/world/asia/afghanistan-attack.html?_r=0
http://www.emptywheel.net/2014/08/05/breaking-green-on-blue-attack-at-officer-training-school-high-ranking-casualties/
Fox News Quiet After Congressional Report Finds No Benghazi Scandal
Fox News Quiet After Congressional Report Finds No Benghazi ScandalNew House Intel Report Reportedly Finds No Intentional Wrongdoing By The Obama Administration
Fox News has gone silent on Benghazi amid reports that the House Intelligence Committee concluded that there was no intentional wrongdoing in the Obama administration's response to the 2012 attacks in Benghazi, Libya.
The San Francisco Chronicle reported on August 1 that the Republican-led House Intelligence Committee voted to declassify findings from its investigation into the 2012 attacks on U.S diplomatic facilities in Benghazi, and "concluded that there was no deliberate wrongdoing by the Obama administration in the 2012 attack," according to committee member Rep. Mike Thompson (D-CA).
The intelligence community "did not have specific tactical warning of an attack before it happened," the process used to create administration talking points was "flawed" but "reflected the conflicting intelligence assessments in the days immediately following the crisis, and "there was no 'stand-down order' given to American personnel," Ranking Member Rep. Dutch Ruppersberger (D-CA) said in a statement laying out the committee's findings.
It's a clinical, point-by-point refutation of the Benghazi hoax Fox has pushed for nearly 2 years.
MORE:
http://mediamatters.org/blog/2014/08/05/fox-news-quiet-after-congressional-report-finds/200318
Karl Rove May Yet Face The Music Over Crossroads GPS Campaign Activities
Public Citizen and Protect Our Vote are taking aim at the FEC for dropping the ball on Rove's failure to disclose donors.
http://bradblog.com/Docs/PublicCitizen_v_FEC_Complaint_013114.pdf
Earlier this year, FEC Commissioner Ann Ravel was so frustrated by the partisanship within the panel that she took to the op-ed pages of the New York Times to shake her fist at the way her Republican colleagues went out of their way to protect Karl Rove and his shady donors.
In frustration, Ravel invited the groups who brought the FEC complaint to sue them, writing that "unless Public Citizen and ProtectOurElections.org prevail in their lawsuit, there will be no inquiry, and Crossroads GPS will continue to spend millions of anonymous dollars to influence our elections."
Public Citizen and ProtectOurElections.org have now done just that. Last week both organizations along with two individual plaintiffs filed a lawsuit in federal court against the FEC, demanding that they pursue action against Crossroads GPS to force disclosure of their secret donors in compliance with federal election law and the principles of disclosure laid out in the Citizens United ruling by the United States Supreme Court.
There are no guarantees in courtrooms, but the organizations have put forward strong arguments. The complaint rests on the question of what defines "direct political activity" which 501c4 organizations must limit to less than 51 percent of their total spending, versus "advocacy," which is not subject to the same limits. The organizations also point out that FEC's general counsel recommended that the case be pursued, only to see it blocked by naked partisanship by Republican commissioners.
http://crooksandliars.com/2014/08/karl-rove-may-yet-face-music-over
How used to horrific gun violence are we here in the US? This used to it:
It’s been up like that for nearly an hour. Some commenters are accusing the Trib of click-baiting, but I suspect it’s an honest mistake.
http://www.balloon-juice.com/2014/08/05/an-understandable-error/
See Rand run. Run, Rand, run!
Erika introduced herself to Rep. King as a DREAMER. Hilarity ensued. Watch Rand Paul shovel that burger in his mouth before running as fast as his little legs could carry him to anywhere other than there.
Rand Paul understands the price he would pay in 2016 if he's caught on video during this confrontation and says nothing, so he takes off. Steve King, on the other hand, was a patronizing SOB. First he tries to excuse his disgusting remark about cantaloupe calves by saying he was talking about drug dealers, and clearly she's not a drug dealer.
Then he refuses Erika's offer of her DACA card, which she says he can have since he wants to deport all the DREAMers. King acknowledges that she "understands the English language" to which she reminds him that she was "raised in the United States."
Another moment of hilarity ensues when King says he called out drug smugglers. "You're not going to tell me you're one of them, are you?" Laughing, Erika asks him if she looks like a drug smuggler. Several times he repeated his claim that he was limiting those remarks to drug smugglers only.
VIDEO & MORE:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/08/05/steve-king-dreamer-video_n_5650469.html
An Open Letter to Elie Wiesel - Have You No Shame, Sir?
I was extraordinarily dismayed to read your advertisement in the New York Times today – the one in which you accuse Hamas of “child sacrifice.” This, on the same day that the paper is full of reportage of multiple Israeli killings of Palestinian children in United Nations shelters. Of which you have not a word to say, except to demand that Israeli soldiers not be criticized, to exculpate them as facing a “terrible choice.” And to characterize Israel as “those who celebrate life.” Have you no shame, sir?
What is particularly heartbreaking about reading this advertisement is that I have taught your book, Night, and taught it as a universalist statement which, as the Nobel Committee put it, “embrace[s] all repressed peoples and races.” Except for Palestinians, apparently. Knowing your apparent beliefs, I can never use your book again, or I would be as hypocritical as you are, sir. Or I would have to break my students’ hearts and reveal to them that the same man who writes about Nazi savagery gives his own group a pass when they are the murderers. Or should I split hairs and explain to them that collective punishment which is not followed by genocide is somehow acceptable?
Is it really true, sir, that this war is “yet another struggle for (Israeli) survival?” (my italicizing) You must be aware that this is an absurd statement, turning the oppressor, the ghettoizer, into the victim; it betrays either a lack of connection to reality or purposeful deceit. Is describing this war as one of “civilization versus barbarism” an example of a “message… of peace, atonement and human dignity?” (Nobel citation) Only in a world devoid of morality. I thought you believed in a universal morality, sir, but apparently I (and the Nobel Committee) was in error; you can only see tragedy when it falls on those you find suitable victims. For shame, sir.
Marc Kagan
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2014/08/04/1319206/-Am-Open-Letter-to-Elie-Wiesel-Have-You-No-Shame-Sir
"When Is Genocide Permissible?"
In what will hopefully be the zenith of neofascism in Israel, the Times of Israel published an op-ed titled “When Genocide is Permissible.” The post, written by Yochanan Gordon, called for ethnically cleansing the Palestinian population ending with the question “If political leaders and military experts determine that the only way to achieve its goal of sustaining quiet is through genocide is it then permissible to achieve those responsible goals?”
The Times of Israel eventually took Gordon’s post down.....
THE SAME SHOULD BE SAID OF TORTURE!
http://t.co/DfzTKQz658
http://news.firedoglake.com/2014/08/04/times-of-israel-publishes-op-eds-calling-for-genocide-of-palestinians/#comments
Whoopi Goldberg Tells Donald Trump What We Wish We Could
Whoopi Goldberg Tells Donald Trump What We Wish We Could
The Huffington Post | By Katherine Fung
Whoopi Goldberg said Monday that Donald Trump's recent comments, specifically those about Americans with Ebola, were "dopey," "idiotic" and "stupid."
Two Americans, a doctor and another health care worker, were infected with the virus while treating patients in West Africa, and and were quickly returned to the United States for treatment, under close watch of the Center for Disease Control. This did not sit well with Trump, who tweeted:
Donald J. Trump ✔ @realDonaldTrump
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The U.S. cannot allow EBOLA infected people back. People that go to far away places to help out are great-but must suffer the consequences!
6:22 PM - 1 Aug 2014
https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/statuses/495379061972410369
Goldberg was dismayed by the comments on Monday's "The View." She noted that Trump is a friend of hers, but explained that the Americans are under the strict care of the CDC, and that Ebola virus can only be transmitted through bodily fluids. Dr. Kent Brantly, the first of the infected Americans to arrive in the U.S. for treatment at Emory University Hospital in Atlanta, Georgia, appears to be showing signs of improvement, reports Reuters.
“Do your homework, Donald," said Goldberg. "Just do your homework ... Before you say something that dumb -- you know better than that. Come on.”
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/08/04/whoopi-goldberg-donald-trump-ebola_n_5647992.html
Out of Control Spending
Out of Control Spending
Posted on August 4, 2014 at 4:00 pm by JM Ashby
The Treasury Department announced today that the nation’s borrowing needs have reached a 7-year low for the current quarter of the year and, if projections hold, the next quarter will be lower once again.
via Bloomberg
Treasury plans to borrow $192 billion in the July-September period, about $22 billion more than it projected three months ago, with an end-of-September cash balance of $150 billion, the Treasury said today in Washington. Next quarter, Treasury plans to borrow $187 billion, with $140 billion in cash Dec. 31.
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-08-04/u-s-borrowing-needs-hit-7-year-low-for-quarter-on-stronger-gdp.html
http://bobcesca.thedailybanter.com/blog-archives/2014/08/out-of-control-spending-14.html
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