Former U.S. President Jimmy Carter is accusing the current president of sanctioning the "widespread abuse of human rights" by authorizing drone strikes to kill suspected terrorists. See Yahoo article.
Obama is guilty of ruining this economy and an unprecedented grab at our liberties, so if that is the wide spread human rights abuses, then Carter is right,......for once in his life. In 100 years from now, if this great Country exists in any form or fashion, we'll be voting for who was the worst President in history,...and the choices will be Carter or Obama.
Anyway, the article continues:
Jimmy Carter, America's 39th president, denounced the Obama administration for "clearly violating" 10 of the 30 articles of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, writing in a New York Times op-ed on Monday that the "United States is abandoning its role as the global champion of human rights." "Instead of making the world safer, America's violation of international human rights abets our enemies and alienates our friends," Carter wrote.
No, not really. It's Obama kow towing to our enemies that abets them, and his anti-Israeli views that alienates our friends who see that if America can forsake Israel, then we can forsake anyone.
While the total number of attacks from unmanned aircraft, or drones, and the resulting casualties are murky, the New America Foundation estimates that in Pakistan alone 265 drone strikes have been executed since January 2009 .
Those strikes have killed at least 1,488 people, at least 1,343 of them considered militants, the foundation estimates based on news reports and other sources. In addition to the drone strikes, Carter criticized the current president for keeping the Guantanamo Bay detention center open, where prisoners "have been tortured by waterboarding more than 100 times or intimidated with semiautomatic weapons, power drills or threats to sexually assault their mothers."
The former president blasted the government for allowing "unprecedented violations of our rights to privacy through warrantless wiretapping and government mining of our electronic communications." He also condemned recent legislation that gives the president the power to detain suspected terrorists indefinitely, although a federal judge blocked the law from taking effect for any suspects not affiliated with the September 11 terrorist attacks.
"This law violates the right to freedom of expression and to be presumed innocent until proved guilty, two other rights enshrined in the declaration," Carter said. While Carter never mentioned Obama by name, he called out "our government" and "the highest authorities in Washington," and urged "concerned citizens" to "persuade Washington to reverse course and regain moral leadership."
Okay, Jimmy,...whatever you say,.......now run off and take your Alzheimers medicine.
Cowboys and the Tea Party political movement have a lot on common. Both believe in individual responsibility; judging a man by his actions not words; and, both are disgusted with government intrusions into our lives and particularly our God given rights.
Tuesday, July 3, 2012
Sunday, July 1, 2012
Top General Accused of Blocking Corruption Probe to Help Obama
From Wired.comhttp://www.wired.com/dangerroom/2012/06/caldwell/ comes an excellent article exposing allegations that an Army General is blocking a corruption investigation. With the Army and the larger U.S. military being the great institutions they are, it is important to ensure they maintain credibility, even more so in the wake of the public debate over the military conducting training exercises in American urban areas; the passing of the NDAA which gives the military detention and confinement powers inside the U.S.; and the general disappointment of the military rank and file with their senior leaders upon the Obama administration's changes to military culture vice the mandated gay acceptance.
The article:
One of the US Army’s rising stars stands accused of obstructing an inquiry into widespread corruption and mismanagement of the Afghan forces he mentored. And if the charges are accurate, they could end the career of one of the military’s top officers. Lt. Gen. William Caldwell IV, until last year the US officer in charge of training Afghan security forces, allegedly blocked a Defense Department inspector general investigation into a pattern of misconduct exhibited by the Afghan National Army’s medical division.
Aided by his senior staff, Caldwell prevented that inquiry to spare his command embarrassment ahead of US national elections. “How could we think to invite the DOD IG [the Pentagon inspector general] in during an election cycle?” Caldwell allegedly upbraided subordinate officers who favored an outside inquiry in fall 2010. Caldwell, supposedly in an “emotional” state, yelled, “You should know better!”
The accusations are laid out in a letter sent to Defense Secretary Leon Panetta by Rep. Jason Chaffetz who calls the incident an apparent “cover up.” The Wall Street Journal first reported the letter’s contents. President Obama “calls me Bill,” Caldwell allegedly bragged, according to the letter. The general supposedly didn’t want to spoil that first-name relationship with a messy inquiry into corruption and wrongdoing at Afghan hospitals.
Since then, Caldwell has assumed command of US Army North in Texas, one of the Army’s most prestigious posts and the latest in a series of plum assignments. The son of a prominent Army general himself, his career trajectory has resembled that of another prestigious, esteemed general — David Petraeus. Caldwell commanded an airborne division at war (the 82nd; Petraeus ran the 101st); then took a senior appointment to Iraq (as chief spokesman for Petraeus during the surge); ran the Army’s big-think Combined Arms Center at Fort Leavenworth (as Petraeus did before him); and then took a crucial job in Afghanistan running the training of Afghan forces (eventually under the command of Petraeus, who did the same job in Iraq).
With a massive budget, Caldwell’s training efforts were considered the key to extricating the US military from combat in Afghanistan, a critical objective for Obama. Caldwell once told confidantes he considered himself fit to run the entire Afghanistan war. Many of the allegations against Caldwell come from Air Force Col. Schuyler Geller, who served as Caldwell’s command surgeon when Caldwell ran the NATO Training Mission-Afghanistan (NTM-A).
A memo from Geller recounting Afghan corruption and Caldwell’s reaction, dated 2011, was acquired by Danger Room under the condition we not publish it. He outlines “a significant level of corruption” by the Afghan military medical organization, which he helped mentor. That corruption, he charges, was “known to be present by NTM-A’s Senior Army leadership.” “Scores of millions” of dollars in U.S. taxpayer aid to the Afghan Army medical corps disappeared from the official balance sheets, Geller charges, and into what looked to Geller like a criminal enterprise for selling pharmaceuticals meant for Afghan troops.
Despite nearly $180 million in U.S. taxpayer money since 2008 for the Afghan medics, Afghan troops far from Kabul have reported a lack of medical support and supplies. “It was clear that financial management at the [Afghan National Army] surgeon general’s office was known by NTM-A Programs leadership in March of 2010,” Geller writes. But it wasn’t just financial irregularities and pill-selling. Physicians, including surgeons, went into the Afghan military based on political connections, since they could earn “five to eight times” in uniform what they could working for the Afghan public-health system. The result was “suspicions of fuel diversion” at the main Kabul military hospital, where Geller says “patients [were] horrendously neglected and abused.”
A medical colonel once had a student nurse beaten for requesting the colonel not be verbally abusive, going so far as to pull out his pistol and chamber a round — all in a dining hall. Geller and his colleagues, all colonels and captains, took their concerns to Caldwell and his staff in the fall of 2010. They sought a top-to-bottom inquiry into the Afghan army medical organization from the Defense Department’s inspector general. Initially, Caldwell’s chief civilian deputy approved the request, calling it a “no-brainer.” Then, allegedly, Caldwell thought otherwise. Caldwell “directed a retraction of the request,” Geller said.
One of Caldwell’s top officers, Maj. Gen. Gary Patton, had “concerns about the Congressional election next week,” and suggested punting on the inspector general request until after the vote. “Three attorneys in the room” told Patton they “recommended against anything in writing to the effect that the decision was timed to the elections.” Caldwell personally reprimanded Geller and his colleagues, allegedly yelling “you should have known better” than to pass the inquiry recommendation to the inspector general, putting Caldwell in the awkward position of retracting it after it came to the inspector general’s attention.
According to Geller, Caldwell limited the scope of the request for an outside inspector-general inquiry to “pharmaceuticals, medical logistics and mentoring,” instead of the “more comprehensive” inquiry Geller wanted. Geller left Afghanistan in February 2011. “[T]o date no improvement has occurred” in the Afghan army medical corps’ hiring practices, he writes in his memo.
Caldwell runs U.S. Army North — the same unit commanded 35 years ago by his father. Last week, Patton, a two-star general, became the incoming leader of the Pentagon’s sexual-assault prevention and response team. Caldwell has previously faced accusations that he manipulated politicians and public opinion to make his command look better. The specifics of those allegations turned out to be less than met the eye — and Danger Room defended the general at time. But that doesn’t necessarily mean Caldwell was squeaky clean.
If what Geller is saying is true, then some of the corruption of the Afghan army medical corps rubbed off on Caldwell. It could well make him unfit for command. Generals have seen their careers ended for much, much less. Caldwell is entitled to the same presumption of innocence as any American citizen, and the accusations against him are not proof. (He did not respond to requests to comment for this article.)
Chaffetz is seeking a deeper Pentagon investigation of Caldwell, and demanding that Panetta dig into this “apparent atempt by senior U.S. military officials to delay the exposure of — or cover up — these atrocities for political reasons.” At the Pentagon on Tuesday, spokesman George Little told Danger Room he was “unaware” that the accusations against Caldwell “were known prior to his most recent assignment.” He didn’t specify how this might impact Caldwell’s until-now skyrocketing career.
The article:
One of the US Army’s rising stars stands accused of obstructing an inquiry into widespread corruption and mismanagement of the Afghan forces he mentored. And if the charges are accurate, they could end the career of one of the military’s top officers. Lt. Gen. William Caldwell IV, until last year the US officer in charge of training Afghan security forces, allegedly blocked a Defense Department inspector general investigation into a pattern of misconduct exhibited by the Afghan National Army’s medical division.
Aided by his senior staff, Caldwell prevented that inquiry to spare his command embarrassment ahead of US national elections. “How could we think to invite the DOD IG [the Pentagon inspector general] in during an election cycle?” Caldwell allegedly upbraided subordinate officers who favored an outside inquiry in fall 2010. Caldwell, supposedly in an “emotional” state, yelled, “You should know better!”
The accusations are laid out in a letter sent to Defense Secretary Leon Panetta by Rep. Jason Chaffetz who calls the incident an apparent “cover up.” The Wall Street Journal first reported the letter’s contents. President Obama “calls me Bill,” Caldwell allegedly bragged, according to the letter. The general supposedly didn’t want to spoil that first-name relationship with a messy inquiry into corruption and wrongdoing at Afghan hospitals.
Since then, Caldwell has assumed command of US Army North in Texas, one of the Army’s most prestigious posts and the latest in a series of plum assignments. The son of a prominent Army general himself, his career trajectory has resembled that of another prestigious, esteemed general — David Petraeus. Caldwell commanded an airborne division at war (the 82nd; Petraeus ran the 101st); then took a senior appointment to Iraq (as chief spokesman for Petraeus during the surge); ran the Army’s big-think Combined Arms Center at Fort Leavenworth (as Petraeus did before him); and then took a crucial job in Afghanistan running the training of Afghan forces (eventually under the command of Petraeus, who did the same job in Iraq).
With a massive budget, Caldwell’s training efforts were considered the key to extricating the US military from combat in Afghanistan, a critical objective for Obama. Caldwell once told confidantes he considered himself fit to run the entire Afghanistan war. Many of the allegations against Caldwell come from Air Force Col. Schuyler Geller, who served as Caldwell’s command surgeon when Caldwell ran the NATO Training Mission-Afghanistan (NTM-A).
A memo from Geller recounting Afghan corruption and Caldwell’s reaction, dated 2011, was acquired by Danger Room under the condition we not publish it. He outlines “a significant level of corruption” by the Afghan military medical organization, which he helped mentor. That corruption, he charges, was “known to be present by NTM-A’s Senior Army leadership.” “Scores of millions” of dollars in U.S. taxpayer aid to the Afghan Army medical corps disappeared from the official balance sheets, Geller charges, and into what looked to Geller like a criminal enterprise for selling pharmaceuticals meant for Afghan troops.
Despite nearly $180 million in U.S. taxpayer money since 2008 for the Afghan medics, Afghan troops far from Kabul have reported a lack of medical support and supplies. “It was clear that financial management at the [Afghan National Army] surgeon general’s office was known by NTM-A Programs leadership in March of 2010,” Geller writes. But it wasn’t just financial irregularities and pill-selling. Physicians, including surgeons, went into the Afghan military based on political connections, since they could earn “five to eight times” in uniform what they could working for the Afghan public-health system. The result was “suspicions of fuel diversion” at the main Kabul military hospital, where Geller says “patients [were] horrendously neglected and abused.”
A medical colonel once had a student nurse beaten for requesting the colonel not be verbally abusive, going so far as to pull out his pistol and chamber a round — all in a dining hall. Geller and his colleagues, all colonels and captains, took their concerns to Caldwell and his staff in the fall of 2010. They sought a top-to-bottom inquiry into the Afghan army medical organization from the Defense Department’s inspector general. Initially, Caldwell’s chief civilian deputy approved the request, calling it a “no-brainer.” Then, allegedly, Caldwell thought otherwise. Caldwell “directed a retraction of the request,” Geller said.
One of Caldwell’s top officers, Maj. Gen. Gary Patton, had “concerns about the Congressional election next week,” and suggested punting on the inspector general request until after the vote. “Three attorneys in the room” told Patton they “recommended against anything in writing to the effect that the decision was timed to the elections.” Caldwell personally reprimanded Geller and his colleagues, allegedly yelling “you should have known better” than to pass the inquiry recommendation to the inspector general, putting Caldwell in the awkward position of retracting it after it came to the inspector general’s attention.
According to Geller, Caldwell limited the scope of the request for an outside inspector-general inquiry to “pharmaceuticals, medical logistics and mentoring,” instead of the “more comprehensive” inquiry Geller wanted. Geller left Afghanistan in February 2011. “[T]o date no improvement has occurred” in the Afghan army medical corps’ hiring practices, he writes in his memo.
Caldwell runs U.S. Army North — the same unit commanded 35 years ago by his father. Last week, Patton, a two-star general, became the incoming leader of the Pentagon’s sexual-assault prevention and response team. Caldwell has previously faced accusations that he manipulated politicians and public opinion to make his command look better. The specifics of those allegations turned out to be less than met the eye — and Danger Room defended the general at time. But that doesn’t necessarily mean Caldwell was squeaky clean.
If what Geller is saying is true, then some of the corruption of the Afghan army medical corps rubbed off on Caldwell. It could well make him unfit for command. Generals have seen their careers ended for much, much less. Caldwell is entitled to the same presumption of innocence as any American citizen, and the accusations against him are not proof. (He did not respond to requests to comment for this article.)
Chaffetz is seeking a deeper Pentagon investigation of Caldwell, and demanding that Panetta dig into this “apparent atempt by senior U.S. military officials to delay the exposure of — or cover up — these atrocities for political reasons.” At the Pentagon on Tuesday, spokesman George Little told Danger Room he was “unaware” that the accusations against Caldwell “were known prior to his most recent assignment.” He didn’t specify how this might impact Caldwell’s until-now skyrocketing career.
Friday, June 29, 2012
Multiple Defeats For President Obama
Wow! What a week for Obama,...five,....count them five serious incidents, defeats really, for his re-election chances, all which show him to be inept, corrupt or whatever rational you want.
1. General Electric is moving, to China. GE Chairman, Jeff Immelt, is also a Member of the Board of Directors of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York AND the Job Czar that Obama (unconstitutionally) appointed. Sorry for Waukesha, Wisconsin......Their biggest employer just moved out. General Electric is planning to move its 115-year-old X-ray division from Waukesha, Wis., to Beijing. In addition to moving the headquarters,the company will invest $2 billion in China and train more than 65 engineers and create six research centers. This is the same GE that made $5.1 billion in the United States last year, but paid no taxes - the same company that employs more people overseas than it does in the United States. So let me get this straight. President Obama appointed GE Chairman Jeff Immelt to head his commission on job creation (job czar). Immelt is supposed to help create jobs. I guess the President forgot to tell him in which country he was supposed to be creating those jobs. Thanks Jeff, you're a "real" American....give Barack our Best! What a huge embarrasment for the President! If this doesn't show you the total lack of leadership of this President, I don't know what does.
2. Obama declares "Executive Priviledge" for Fast and Furious evidence. Attorney General Holder now held in contempt by the whole Congress,...the first time this has happened to an Attorney General. That in and of itself is a giant embarrasment, but it also means that there has to be something in those documents, that Holder refuses to provide, that links the highest levels of the Administration to the planning, knowledge of ,or cover up of Fast and Furious. This alone is enough to bring down the Obama Administration, the People can only stand so much incompetence or corruption.
3. Talk in the United Nations to ask Obama to return his Nobel Peace Prize. Contary to all other Nobel Winners, Obama received his prize not for performance but for promises. People all over the world now recognize what a butt clown he is.
4. Obamacare ruled CONSTITUTIONAL by the Supreme Court. With 60% of the American people dead set against this, this will galvanize conservative support. You think the Republican's make historic gains in Nov 2010? Wait until Nov 2012!!! When Romney and a Republican Cogress will oveturn this law. In the off chance that Romney can't get a majority in the Senate, he'll order his Attorney General to grant obamacare waivers to ALL the states not just the states that Obama used waivers to bribe. I hope Romney rescinds the waivers that Obama gave to the unions.
5. Obama and Holder slaped for their law suit against Arizona's illegal immigration law. Arizona law enforcement making an investigative stop or a stop under probably cause can question citizenship. Wait a minute,.....the Obama Administration counters by saying they wonlt run records or pickup illegal aliens now in a "taking my ball and go home move". Are you kidding me? Another instance of not doing the job which forced Arizona to develop that law in the first place.
1. General Electric is moving, to China. GE Chairman, Jeff Immelt, is also a Member of the Board of Directors of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York AND the Job Czar that Obama (unconstitutionally) appointed. Sorry for Waukesha, Wisconsin......Their biggest employer just moved out. General Electric is planning to move its 115-year-old X-ray division from Waukesha, Wis., to Beijing. In addition to moving the headquarters,the company will invest $2 billion in China and train more than 65 engineers and create six research centers. This is the same GE that made $5.1 billion in the United States last year, but paid no taxes - the same company that employs more people overseas than it does in the United States. So let me get this straight. President Obama appointed GE Chairman Jeff Immelt to head his commission on job creation (job czar). Immelt is supposed to help create jobs. I guess the President forgot to tell him in which country he was supposed to be creating those jobs. Thanks Jeff, you're a "real" American....give Barack our Best! What a huge embarrasment for the President! If this doesn't show you the total lack of leadership of this President, I don't know what does.
2. Obama declares "Executive Priviledge" for Fast and Furious evidence. Attorney General Holder now held in contempt by the whole Congress,...the first time this has happened to an Attorney General. That in and of itself is a giant embarrasment, but it also means that there has to be something in those documents, that Holder refuses to provide, that links the highest levels of the Administration to the planning, knowledge of ,or cover up of Fast and Furious. This alone is enough to bring down the Obama Administration, the People can only stand so much incompetence or corruption.
3. Talk in the United Nations to ask Obama to return his Nobel Peace Prize. Contary to all other Nobel Winners, Obama received his prize not for performance but for promises. People all over the world now recognize what a butt clown he is.
4. Obamacare ruled CONSTITUTIONAL by the Supreme Court. With 60% of the American people dead set against this, this will galvanize conservative support. You think the Republican's make historic gains in Nov 2010? Wait until Nov 2012!!! When Romney and a Republican Cogress will oveturn this law. In the off chance that Romney can't get a majority in the Senate, he'll order his Attorney General to grant obamacare waivers to ALL the states not just the states that Obama used waivers to bribe. I hope Romney rescinds the waivers that Obama gave to the unions.
5. Obama and Holder slaped for their law suit against Arizona's illegal immigration law. Arizona law enforcement making an investigative stop or a stop under probably cause can question citizenship. Wait a minute,.....the Obama Administration counters by saying they wonlt run records or pickup illegal aliens now in a "taking my ball and go home move". Are you kidding me? Another instance of not doing the job which forced Arizona to develop that law in the first place.
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