One percent see it as the top problem today, down from 46% in 2001
PRINCETON, NJ — Nine years after the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, 1% of Americans mention terrorism as the most important problem facing the country, down from 46% just after the attacks.
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Still, Americans rated economic issues such as the economy, jobs, and federal spending, as well as corruption in government and healthcare, even higher. They rated terrorism as more important than immigration, Afghanistan, and the environment.
I suggest to you that this article is a keeper, that David Woods gets it. While it focuses on the Army, I think it's applicable in significant part to the other
David Wood Biography
DoD military Services, particularly to the Marine Corps, and to one or two non-DoD Federal agencies have been close partners in the national security effort.
V/R,
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In the 10th Year of War, a Harder Army, a More Distant America
The U.S. Army now begins its 10th continuous year in combat, the first time in its history the United States has excused the vast majority of its citizens from service and engaged in a major, decade-long conflict instead with an Army manned entirely by professional warriors.
This is an Army that, under the pressure of combat, has turned inward, leaving civilian America behind, reduced to the role of a well-wishing but impatient spectator. A decade of fighting has hardened soldiers in ways that civilians can't share. America respects its warriors, but from a distance.
“A lot of us are here because society has no further use for us,” he said. “The Army has become home for a lot of restless souls who can never really go back.
This could be the next number one hit country song. It is written by a High School assistant football coach. Apparently the guy was fired over the song because some parents complained. Shameful if true. If you like it, help it go “viral” by passing it along to everyone you know.
Wal-Mart Stores Inc. asked the U.S. Supreme Court to block female employees from suing on behalf of as many as 1.5 million women in what would be the largest gender-bias suit against a private employer in U.S. history.
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The company agreed in 2008 to pay as much as $640 million to settle 63 federal and state class actions claiming the company cheated hourly workers and forced them to work through breaks.
To paraphrase Yogi Berra it's déjà vu all over again for KBR.
In my Aug. 31 post I wrote about a significant pro-veteran ruling in the Oregon KBR Qarmat Ali litigation. This is the case where Oregon National Guard troops allege KBR's liability for negligence and for fraud arising out of plaintiffs' exposure to sodium dichromate and resultanthexavalent chromium poisoning while assigned to duty at the Qarmat Ali water plant in 2003.
Paul Papak, the federal district judge rejected the motion by KBR and co-defendants to dismiss the suit for lack of subject-matter jurisdiction and rejected it.
By Anne Gearan and Kimberly Dozier – The Associated Press
Posted : Thursday Sep 9, 2010 12:11:01 EDT
KABUL, Afghanistan — An Army spokesman says the top U.S. and NATO intelligence officer in Afghanistan is on his way to another job.
Spokesman Col. Thomas Collins did not say what job Maj. Gen. Michael Flynn would take, as the move had not yet been approved by the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
But two defense officials say Flynn will become a top troubleshooter for the Director of National Intelligence. The officials spoke Thursday on the condition of anonymity to discuss matters of intelligence.
Flynn is expected to be replaced by Brig. Gen. Stephen Fogarty, the current intelligence officer at the U.S. Central Command in Florida.
Army Times, By Andrew Tilghman – Staff writer
Posted : Thursday Sep 9, 2010 8:29:12 EDT
Army Reserve Col. Lawrence Sellin has no regrets about publishing a rant about the military’s overreliance on PowerPoint presentations — despite the fact it got him fired from his job at joint command headquarters in Afghanistan.
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Sellin said his controversial article was the last of several efforts to find something meaningful to do at ISAF headquarters.
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Sellin’s screed highlights a long-simmering controversy inside the military bureaucracy.
Marine Gen. James Mattis, currently chief of U.S. Central Command, told a military conference earlier this year that “PowerPoint makes us stupid.”
And Army Brig. Gen. H.R. McMaster banned PowerPoint presentations as a brigade commander during his successful efforts to secure the northern Iraqi city of Tal Afar in 2005.
Sellin said his complaint is not solely about PowerPoint, the presentation software created in 1987.
“I don’t hate PowerPoint. It’s a useful tool,” he said. “But it can be a crutch as a substitute for thinking. It’s too easy to produce a lot of slides and create volume, not quality. You really think that with a lot of detailed slides that you’re making progress, when you are actually not.”
