Suicidal behavior in the 101st on Fort Campbell is bad,"

FORT CAMPBELL, Kentucky (CNN) -- The 101st Airborne's senior commander in effect ordered his soldiers Wednesday not to commit suicide, a plea that came after 11 suicides since January 1, two of them in the past week.

"If you don't remember anything else I say in the next five or 10 minutes, remember this -- suicidal behavior in the 101st on Fort Campbell is bad," Brig. Gen. Stephen J. Townsend told his forces. "It's bad for soldiers, it's bad for families, bad for your units, bad for this division and our army and our country and it's got to stop now. Suicides on Fort Campbell have to stop now."

Fort Campbell's suicide rate, the highest in the Army, "is not a good statistic," he said in remarks to one of four divisions he addressed during the day.

After nearly one soldier per week committed suicide at the post between January and mid-March, the Army instituted a suicide prevention program that "seemed to be having good effects" until last week, when two more suicides occurred, he said.

"Suicide is a permanent solution to what is only a temporary problem," Townsend said. "Screaming Eagles don't quit. No matter how bad your problem seems today, trust me, it's not the end of the world. It will be better tomorrow. Don't take away your tomorrow."

He urged anyone feeling hopeless or suicidal to "tell somebody."

"You wouldn't hesitate to seek medical attention for a physical injury or wound; don't hesitate to seek medical attention for a psychological injury."

Townsend exhorted any soldier who suspects that a fellow soldier may be feeling suicidal to act -- first by asking how the soldier feels, then by escorting him or her to help.

"Do not wait," he said.

Soldiers can turn to their leaders, chaplains, medics, social workers, teammates, family and friends, he said.

"Don't let yourself, your buddies or your families down," he said, ending his comments by repeating, "This has got to stop, soldiers. It's got to stop now. Have a great week."

But Townsend's message -- called a Second Suicide Stand-Down event -- is likely to be ineffective, said Dr. Mark Kaplan, a professor of community health at Portland State University in Oregon, who has researched veterans' suicide and served last year on a Veterans Administration blue-ribbon panel on suicide risk.

"It sounds like an order," he told CNN in a telephone interview. "I'm not sure that a command like this is going to alter the course of somebody who is on a trajectory of self-harm."

CNN link

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Greenspan as Inspector Renault: "I'm Shocked, Shocked"

Alan Greenspan recently expressed his surprise that government strong-arming into lending institutions and low inflation caused a housing market collapse. Reminiscent of a scene from Casablanca,...

History of Weed

kewel

Endemic Abuse At Irish Catholic Care Homes

DUBLIN — After a nine-year investigation, a commission published a damning report Wednesday on decades of rapes, humiliation and beatings at Catholic Church-run reform schools for Ireland's castaway children.

The 2,600-page report painted the most detailed and damning portrait yet of church-administered abuse in a country grown weary of revelations about child molestation by priests.

The investigation of the tax-supported schools uncovered previously secret Vatican records that demonstrated church knowledge of pedophiles in their ranks all the way back to the 1930s.

A government-appointed panel has paid 12,000 survivors of the schools, orphanages and other church-run residences an average of $90,000 each _ on condition they surrender their right to sue either the church or state. About 2,000 more claims are pending. Irish Catholic leaders cut a controversial deal with the government in 2001 that capped the church's contribution at $175 million _ a fraction of the final cost.

read more here:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/05/20/irish-reform-schools-thou_n_205719.html

and here:
On the Net:

Commission to Inquire Into Child Abuse report, http://www.childabusecommission.ie/rpt/

...and you all thought Alphonse François de Sade was just kidding, tsk tsk.

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Photo of US soldier in pink boxers turns iconic

click here for larger view


FILE - In this May 11, 2009 file photo, soldiers from the U.S. Army First Battalion, 26th Infantry take defensive positions at firebase Restrepo after receiving fire from Taliban positions in the Korengal Valley of Afghanistan's Kunar Province. Spc. Zachery Boyd of Fort Worth, Texas, far left was wearing "I love NY" boxer shorts after rushing from his sleeping quarters to join his fellow platoon members. From far right is Spc. Cecil Montgomery of Many, La. and Jordan Custer of Spokan, Wash, center. Defense Secretary Robert Gates says American soldiers have more than their military might and training on their side in the war in Afghanistan. Some have pink underwear. (AP Photo/David Guttenfelder, FILE)



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driftglass...

click pic for larger view


Water Spit...


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Kafka for Dummies: the Absurd Debate over Torture!

via TV News LIES!

Here we go again. After eight horrific years of lies and deceit and war and death, the American public once again has fallen into the abyss of self delusion. Tragically, just as we near the brink of reversal, we are about to abdicate any claim whatsoever to respect or honor anywhere.

America consistently proclaims itself a nation of laws where justice is blind to privilege or class. And yet, as the world watches in disbelief, this country has become inextricably mired in non-stop debates that defy reason. It is absolutely insane to discuss the possibility that a crime has some Machiavellian validity simply because it ‘works.’ And it is equally incredulous to engage in discussions about the propriety of prosecuting those who have openly admitted their heinous actions.

Something is terribly wrong with this picture.


Here the facts. Check them out. They’re clear; they’re relatively simple to follow. Do the math.

Fact #1 - Torture is a crime under US Domestic, US Military, and International Law.

Fact # 2 – Photographs, video tapes and first hand testimony attesting to the use of torture have been documented

Fact # 3 – George Bush, Dick Cheney, Condoleezza Rice and the judge in charge of the military commission process at Gitmo all have admitted their roles in authorizing the use of torture.

Fact #4 - We have a crime, we have the evidence, and we have the confessions.

What the hell is left to debate?

Of course, the usual suspects across the complicit corporate media now echo the same dumb and distracting questions over and over, hoping they eventually will divert attention from the crimes themselves.

They ask: what is torture? We know.
They ask: Is water boarding torture? We know.
They ask: Who really is responsible for the torture, ? We know.
The ask: Should the photos be released? They’re already out there.
They ask: Does torture work? Irrelevant, it’s illegal.
The ask: Did some members of Congress know about the torture? Again, it’s irrelevant. Those who authorized the use of torture committed the crimes in question.

And finally, they put the most amazing question of all before the nation:

Should we prosecute those we know to be responsible for torture? Are they serious? Are they really serious? Should we, the nation of laws, actually prosecute criminals for breaking laws that define us as a nation? Understand that the legal precedent for prosecuting war crimes has been set for decades.
Do the research, -just Google a few of these events in recent history for their importance and their outcomes:.

1. In 1945, the war crimes trials of leading German officials opened before the International Military Tribunal in Nuremberg.

2. 1946, Japanese war criminals were tried by the International Military Tribunal for the Far East in Tokyo.

3. In 2001, former Yugoslav president Slobodan Milošević was arrested by the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia, a UN committee for war crimes and tried in the Hague.

4. In 2004 – fourteen years after giving up the presidency – Augosto Pinochet was arrested by the Chilean government and charged with crimes against humanity, tax evasion and embezzlement.

5. In 2004, Saddam Hussein, former leader of Iraq, was brought to trial and ultimately hanged in his country for the killing of 148 people in a Shiite town

6. In 2009, Kaing Guek Eav, was charged n the Cambodian courts with crimes against humanity and grave breaches of the Geneva Conventions during the 1970’s,

7. In 2009, Congolese militia leader, Thomas Lubanga, became the first person to go on trial at the International Criminal Court, the world's first permanent war crimes tribunal.

For heaven’s sake, go read the Magna Carta. No one is above the law.

Well, that’s not really true, - some people are; just ask George W. Bush. Way back in 2002, in a brilliant move to immunize his administration from international prosecution for war crimes, he withdrew the US from the International Criminal Court. Bush, Jr. knew, long before the invasion of Iraq, that war crimes were in the making, and he did this to cover his ass as best he could.

The good news is that Bush and his cronies are not immune from investigation and prosecutions elsewhere.

At this moment, a judge in Spain is considering opening a criminal case against six former Bush administration officials for violating international law by devising a legal framework to allow torture of prisoners at Guantanamo Bay.

And most important, the Bush cartel is not protected from investigation and prosecution within the United States. Dammit, we have the crime, we have the evidence, and we have the confessions. What we don’t have is the backbone.

In 2008, Vincent Bugliosi, the famed prosecutor of Charles Manson, clearly outlined the legal case against George Bush in his book, the Prosecution of George W. Bush, for Murder. Copies of the book were sent to every member of Congress, but the evidence compiled in this excellent indictment remains largely ignored by our elected ‘leaders’ as well as every one of the pretend news networks that refused Bugliosi on-air exposure..

And yet, there is hope, because the torture issue is so public, so undeniable, and so prosecutable, that justice in America may finally prevail.

Consider that Al Capone was as clever criminal as anyone in the Bush administration. He ruled the Chicago underworld for years, breaking every conceivable criminal law with impunity. But he was undone in the end by his own arrogance and carelessness – and was convicted of the only crime for which he left a paper trail – tax evasion. So let it be with George Bush, Dick Cheney, and all the other architects of torture.

I repeat: we have the crime, we have the evidence and we have the confessions. For our own sake, we must work together to grow the backbone.

For if we do not, we will remain the farce we became during the Bush years, and we will deserve whatever retribution and revenge is perpetrated against us - as it will. This is truly a defining moment for the people of the United States. Kafka would have loved it. He really would.



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Army suicide rate set to surpass 2008's record

via Salon:

May 12, 2009 | The Army is on a pace this year to shatter the record suicide rate set among soldiers in 2008, according to data released by the Army to Salon. And the numbers, obtained a day after a patient at a combat stress clinic in Iraq killed five, suggest that combat stress may be contributing to the spike in suicides.

During the first four months of 2009, 91 soldiers committed suicide, including suspected suicides still under investigation. During all of last year, 140 Army soldiers committed suicide, resulting in the highest rate on record. If Army suicides continue at the rate recorded from Jan. 1 to April 30, more than 270 soldiers will be dead by their own hands at the end of this year. The large majority of suicides are among enlisted soldiers, privates, specialists and sergeants.

The only bright spot in the new suicide data is some evidence that Army efforts to improve suicide prevention -- among other things, implementing "chain teaching" among troops on suicide risk, hiring more mental health workers and releasing suicide prevention videos -- seem to be taking hold. While 31 soldiers committed suicide in January, that number dropped to 28 in February, then 22 in March and then to 10 in April. (The month-by-month chart of suicides that the Army released to Salon is reproduced in its original form on Pages 2 and 3 of this story.)

Previous reporting by Salon has established the connection between combat stress and suicide. According to the new data, among the active-duty troops who have committed suicide so far in 2009, 48 committed suicide after or during a deployment, while only 16 killed themselves without having gone to war. Two of the active-duty soldiers who killed themselves did so after deploying to war four times. Among National Guard and Army Reserve troops, 11 died during or after deployments while 16 killed themselves having never deployed. The figures for the National Guard and Army Reserve include an unexplained bubble of seven suicides among never-deployed troops that occurred in February.

The Army data does not show whether those Guard troops killed themselves after receiving an alert that they would be deployed. Paul Sullivan, executive director of the advocacy group Veterans for Common Sense, says his organization is investigating what appears to be a pattern of suicides following notices to deploy or redeploy.

suicide linked to antidepressants, antipsychotics

nothing to see here...just move along now.

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"The Fox TeeVee Family"

They're Creepy and They're Kooky, Mysterious and Spooky, They're all together Ooky, The Fox TeeVee Family.
Click here for larger view

First row seated (L - R): Michelle Malkin, Ann Coulter, Rush Limbaugh, Glenn Beck.

Second row standing (L - R): Joe the Quitter, Rupert Murdoch, Brit Hume.

via driftglass


From Time:

Republicans in the Wilderness: Is the Party Over?

Samuel Wurzelbacher, better known as Joe the Plumber, tells TIME he's so outraged by GOP overspending, he's quitting the party — and he's the bull's-eye of its target audience. But he also said he wouldn't support any cuts in defense, Social Security, Medicare or Medicaid — which, along with debt payments, would put more than two-thirds of the budget off limits. It's no coincidence that many Republicans who voted against the stimulus have claimed credit for stimulus projects in their district — or that Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal stopped ridiculing volcano-monitoring programs after a volcano erupted in Alaska.





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Cafferty File: Why are frequent churchgoers more likely to support torture?

Friday, May 1, 2009
Cafferty File: Why Are Churchgoers More Likely to Support Torture?

The Religious Faithfull and Torture...just like Peas and Carrots

(CNN) -- The more often Americans go to church, the more likely they are to support the torture of suspected terrorists, according to a new survey.

More than half of people who attend services at least once a week -- 54 percent -- said the use of torture against suspected terrorists is "often" or "sometimes" justified. Only 42 percent of people who "seldom or never" go to services agreed, according to the analysis released Wednesday by the Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life.

White evangelical Protestants were the religious group most likely to say torture is often or sometimes justified -- more than six in 10 supported it. People unaffiliated with any religious organization were least likely to back it. Only four in 10 of them did.

The analysis is based on a Pew Research Center survey of 742 American adults conducted April 14-21. It did not include analysis of groups other than white evangelicals, white non-Hispanic Catholics, white mainline Protestants and the religiously unaffiliated, because the sample size was too small.

The president of the National Association of Evangelicals, Leith Anderson, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The survey asked: "Do you think the use of torture against suspected terrorists in order to gain important information can often be justified, sometimes be justified, rarely be justified, or never be justified? Roughly half of all respondents -- 49 percent -- said it is often or sometimes justified. A quarter said it never is.

The religious group most likely to say torture is never justified was Protestant denominations -- such as Episcopalians, Lutherans and Presbyterians -- categorized as "mainline" Protestants, in contrast to evangelicals. Just over three in 10 of them said torture is never justified. A quarter of the religiously unaffiliated said the same, compared with two in 10 white non-Hispanic Catholics and one in eight evangelicals.

http://www.cnn.com/2009/US/04/30/religion.torture/


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