Several People Dead After 25-Minute Ordeal

Orange County Shooting Spree: Several People Dead After 25-Minute Ordeal
Police In California Say
Huffington Post
By GILLIAN FLACCUS
02/19/13

TUSTIN, Calif. — A young man shot a woman to death in a home early Tuesday then went on a spree of carjackings and random shootings across Orange County that left two more people dead and three others wounded before the gunman killed himself, authorities said.

Many more victims were shot at but unhurt, Tustin Lt. Paul Garaven said.

The gunman was only described as being in his 20s, and his motive was not known, according to officials of at least four agencies investigating multiple crime scenes.

It was unclear if the victims knew each other or the shooter, Orange County sheriff's spokesman Jim Amormino said.

"It might have been a random thing," he said. "We just don't know."

When officers tried to stop him, he got out of the vehicle and killed himself, Garaven said. A shotgun was recovered at the scene.
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Members of Congress didn't take war serious enough to read reports

When I watched this last night I was waiting and hoping it would be brought up that sending troops into Iraq was something that should have surprised no one.

This report was exceptionally good and anyone who gave a damn at the time would have known how much was right in this but there is one thing that was left off. The warnings that came after the Gulf War.

The lives gone, maimed, money gone and missing all came because members of Congress voted for it but didn't read what was in the reports. None of them remembered what President G.H.W. Bush said about troops in Iraq and the loss of life. None of them remembered what Dick Cheney said about a "quagmire" and even less remembered what Gen. Norman Schwarzkopf said about the troops being stuck there "like a dinosaur in a tar pit."

So now that it is all out there, who is going to be held accountable, who will resign from office and who is going to jail? If history is any example, no one will. Obama was right all along on this and so were many in the Senate but they were called traitors and against the troops. The elected blindly supporting the Bush Administration on both sides were wrong but no one can bring back what was lost.

Maddow: Many in Congress never read Iraq intel briefs before authorizing war
By David Ferguson
Tuesday, February 19, 2013

On Monday night, Rachel Maddow presented “Hubris: Selling the Iraq War,” a documentary about the run-up to the invasion of Iraq in 2003, one of the biggest military blunders in U.S. history. In one segment, she reported that members of the Senate Intelligence Committee, who were charged with determining whether or not the country should go to war, never read the pertinent briefs before giving then-President George W. Bush the go-ahead to launch the Iraq War.

The segment began in September of 2002, when Congress returned from its summer recess. Bush administration officials were lobbying heavily for an invasion of Iraq, using a flawed intelligence brief, the National Intelligence Estimate (NIE) on Iraq, which wildly oversold the case for Saddam Hussein having a nuclear and biological weapons program.

Sen. Carl Levin (D-MI), who sat on the Senate Intelligence Committee at the time, told MSNBC that the main “shop” behind a large amount of slanted, pro-invasion intelligence was the office of Doug Feith, undersecretary of Defense from 2001 to 2005, who was key in positing that Iraq was working with al-Qaeda, the terrorist group that attacked the U.S. on Sep. 11, 2001.
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General John Allen Retiring

Gen. John Allen, Recent Top Commander In Afghanistan, Is Retiring
NPR
by MARK MEMMOTT
February 19, 2013

Marine Corps Gen. John Allen, who led U.S. and NATO forces in Afghanistan until earlier this month and had been on track to be the top NATO commander in Europe, is retiring from the military.

The White House early Tuesday afternoon released a statement from President Obama that says, in part:

"Today, I met with Gen. John Allen and accepted his request to retire from the military so that he can address health issues within his family. I told Gen. Allen that he has my deep, personal appreciation for his extraordinary service over the last 19 months in Afghanistan, as well as his decades of service in the United States Marine Corps. ...

"John Allen is one of America's finest military leaders, a true patriot, and a man I have come to respect greatly. I wish him and his family the very best as they begin this new chapter, and we will carry forward the extraordinary work that Gen. Allen led in Afghanistan."
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Veterans Support Organization accused of "fleecing the American public"

Critics say national charity exploiting homeless vets
WSBTV.com
By Kerry Kavanaugh
Feb. 18, 2013

SNELLVILLE, Ga. — Channel 2 Action News has discovered a national charity, accused of exploiting homeless veterans, has set up shop in Georgia.

Critics say the Veterans Support Organization's methods of fundraising are taking advantage of the veterans it claims to help.

Channel 2's Kerry Kavanaugh spent weeks digging into the group's activities. Kavanaugh first heard of this group when its representatives approached her to do a story about their work.

The Veterans Support Organization claims its work program is putting homeless veterans back on their feet. The program consists of little more than donation buckets and smiles.

The VSO pays the veterans minimum wage to solicit donations outside storefronts year round.

Channel 2 Action News has discovered once the money hits the bucket, only a small percentage is donated to veterans in need.

"They're fleecing the American public," said Charlie Tucker, past president of the Georgia Department of the American Legion. "You're not training me to do anything but be a panhandler."
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Many young vets don't use free medical

Many young vets don't use free medical
UT San Diego
By Jeanette Steele
FEB. 18, 2013

Only 45 percent of San Diegans who served in the Iraq and Afghanistan wars are using the free health care that combat veterans are entitled to receive from the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs medical system.

The majority are missing a great lifetime deal. Think no annual premiums and $15 copays for basic office visits, even if the illness isn’t connected to military service.

Health coverage for new veterans became a topic of national water cooler discussion in recent days after Esquire published a watchdog group’s story about the Navy SEAL who shot terrorist mastermind Osama bin Laden. The SEAL claimed that he lost all medical coverage when he left the military after 16 years of service — four years short of a pension and retiree health benefits.

Other media outlets quickly revealed that the story was inaccurate on this point, and Esquire and the Bay Area-based Center for Investigative Reporting later corrected their reports.

But the celebrity of the Navy SEAL-bin Laden connection put a spotlight on the usually unglamorous issue of health care for young vets.

In Coronado, the two-star admiral who commands all Navy SEALs issued a statement this week saying that the Bin Laden shooter — who wasn’t named in Esquire — got advice about his options before he left.

“Months ahead of his separation, he was counseled on status and benefits and provided with options to continue his career until retirement eligible,” said Rear Adm. Sean Pybus, Naval Special Warfare commander.

Pybus also pointed out that SEALs are among the best and brightest, which begs the question: If this elite fighter didn’t understand his medical benefits as a veteran, who does?

At least one other former Navy SEAL who served in Iraq — San Diego marketing entrepreneur and reality TV star Brent Gleeson — said he was unaware of the VA health care option, which provides five years of free health care to post-Sept. 11 combat veterans for problems even remotely related to their military service, plus low-cost overall coverage.
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