A Soldier’s Story - An Uncalculated Cost of Modern War

By Turner McCullough Jr. | June 11, 2007 |

As the U. S. forces casualty count of the Iraq War continues to climb, now exceeding 3,500, this news story of a Fort Campbell soldier’s struggle to retain his composure and regain his sanity caught my attention.

The CNN report highlights an underreported aspect of the War On Terror. The fact that this soldier is right here in our midst makes the story all the more compelling. «Read the rest of this article»

Sections: Politics | 1 Comment »

Caging: Did It, Could It Happen In Tennessee?

By Turner McCullough Jr. | June 11, 2007 |

Republican election trickery exposed as Rove Protege Resigns

Arkansas US Attorney Tim Griffin, the controversial US Attorney in Arkansas, has resigned his position. Griffin is a protege of Karl Rove and former research director of the Republic National Committee.

The BBC reported in 2004 that Griffin led a “caging” scheme to suppress the votes of African American servicemembers in Florida. As a result, 1,886 U. S. servicemembers were denied their right to vote because they lived in predominantly black and traditionally Democratic  areas of Jacksonville, FL. These servicemembers were stationed overseas at the time. This tactic was a deliberate assault upon our military forces engaged in defending our freedom and liberties.

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No overtime pay for professional caregivers

By Christine Anne Piesyk | June 11, 2007 |

Caregivers. Home care. Homemakers. Personal care attendants. In short. The people who come to your home to provide the care that lets you stay in your home. Frequently these caregivers bounce from place to place, two hours here, four there, one a day, or five days a week. Maybe overnights if that what your care plans calls for. They are not usually compensated for time spent driving from client to client (mileage sometimes, hourly rate — no way!). It is a long, hard forty hour week for most such caregivers, and many times that work week stretches into forty-plus hours a week.

Today these caregivers were told by the Supreme Court that they can still work overtime, but they are not eligible for overtime pay. They don’t count. Their work — caring for millions of stay-at-home elders and disabled people — isn’t worthy of the extra pay. The balance of the court once again tipped away from family values and the rights of the common folk. «Read the rest of this article»

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Office of Nation’s Top Spy Inadvertently Reveals Key to Classified National Intel Budget

June 11, 2007 |

In a holdover from the Cold War when the number really did matter to national security, the size of the US national intelligence budget remains one of the government’s most closely guarded secrets.  The Office of the Director of National Intelligence, the highest intelligence agency in the country that oversees all federal intelligence agencies, appears to have inadvertently released the keys to that number in an unclassified PowerPoint presentation now posted on the website of the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA). By reverse engineering the numbers in an underlying data element embedded in the presentation, it seems that the total budget of the 16 US intelligence agencies in fiscal year 2005 was $60 billion, almost 25% higher than previously believed. «Read the rest of this article»

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