When you open my front door, this is the first thing you'll see

When you open my front door, this is the first thing you'll see. It hangs on the wall because this is where my heart is.


When you turn to enter into the hallway, this is what you'll see. It hangs on the wall because this is where my heart is. It is a daily reminder of those who serve.

When you sit at my kitchen table this is what you'll see. These are pictures of my husband's father and his three uncles. Off to the side is a picture of my husband taken in Vietnam. These are on the wall as well because this is where my heart it. Again, constant reminders of those who serve.

My father served in the Korean war and my uncles served in WWII.

I have these in my home, not that I need to be reminded because of what I do everyday, but because they have my heart and just as most Americans hang pictures of their family members all over their homes, the men and women who serve and have served, are part of my family.

I am a Democrat, but I am an American first.

There are religious pictures and books filling my office and most of the rooms in my home. Again, because this is where my heart is.

I am a Chaplain to all of God's children even though I am a Christian and I am an American.

During the campaigning McCain did I heard a lot of things that were lies intended on vilifying Democrats across the nation. Ever since 2000, most of what I heard was pretty disgusting because people didn't know what the truth was. The media let some get away with making all kinds of claims about people like me. For the last eight years, except for months following the attacks of 9-11, this nation has been divided by gossip. Last night President Elect Obama laid the ground rules that those days should end and we should once again be one nation. He proved that most Americans want that when they voted for him in overwhelming numbers.

So, let's get a few things straight.

Democrats are pro-military and that means the men and women who serve this nation, not the contractors making money off sending men and women into war. The talk about cutting military spending is true in a way, but not cutting the military size, just the money we waste. If you paid attention you'd know how much money was wasted in Iraq on the defense contractors. We want accountability from all elected.

Democrats are pro-veteran. We believe that our veterans have earned a hell of a lot more than just our respect in words, but earned them in our deeds. We want to take care of them because they are our obligation and not as some say "a burden" we are forced to provide for. We believe they should be taken care of and as a matter of fact, Obama has been on the Veteran's Affairs Committee and Michelle is taking on the military families as well as veteran families.

There is a lot you heard during the campaigns but too much you didn't hear. To set your minds at ease, try to check what has been real all along and for Heaven's sake, turn off FOX news until they decide to finally report the truth. Most of what I heard has been parroting FOX news from people who are bright but have grown lazy and did not invest the time to know if they were being told the truth or not.

According to the media on the far-right, I do not exist. I am supposed to be anti-military even though I fight for veterans everyday of the week and have done outreach work with them for 26 years. I am not supposed to be Christian, but have dedicated my life to Christ since early in my childhood. There are a lot of people just like me all over the nation and you heard our voices last night when you heard President Elect Obama. Those were not just well chosen words but came from a good heart.

Senior Chaplain Kathie Costos

California couple commit suicide because of health problems

Neighbors shocked by couple's jump off bridge

By Mark Arner
UNION-TRIBUNE STAFF WRITER

5:24 p.m. November 4, 2008

LEMON GROVE – From what neighbors and relatives could tell, Michael Swan, 56, and his wife, Mei Li, 49, were a friendly, happy couple, who kept a small, blooming rose garden in the front yard of their home.

Couple who died in fall from I-8 bridge identified


During interviews near the Swan's white-and-green house on Acacia Street, near Golden Avenue, several neighbors said they couldn't believe the couple had purposely jumped off a 450-foot-high bridge on Interstate 8, known as the Pine Valley bridge.

A relative found a suicide note Tuesday that suggested the couple had been struggling with a serious health problem, said Lenore Aldridge, an investigator for the county Medical Examiner's Office.

go here for more

http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/metro/20081104-1724-bn04couple.html

Linked from RawStory

Colin Powell wept at Obama victory

Powell wept at Obama victory 5:39
CNN's Hugh Riminton interviews former Secretary of State Colin Powell, who is asking all Americans to get behind Obama.

Neil Diamond donates 100 percent of merchandise sales to Ike relief fund

One of my close friends and her family were able to make it to Neil Diamond's concert in Orlando. (Yes, I'm jealous!) She told me about his new CD Home Before Dark, raved about it and his concert. Then she told me about what he's doing with the money made off merchandise at his concerts. Amazing! This makes me even more fond of him and his music.

UPDATED - HOUSTON - 100% OF TONIGHT'S MERCH SALES TO BENEFIT GULF COAST IKE RELIEF FUND
100% - EVERY SINGLE PENNY
OF TONIGHTS MERCHANDISE SALES
WILL BE CONTRIBUTED TO
THE GULF COAST IKE RELIEF FUND

10/14/08 - (Houston) 100% gross sales of Neil Diamond's merchandise available at his Toyota Center show will be donated to the Gulf Coast Ike relief fund!! Please support this cause- Thank you Neil Diamond, FEA Merchandising and Toyota Center.


Update 10/15/08- NEIL DIAMOND DONATES MORE THAN $200,000 TO THE GULF COAST IKE RELIEF FUND
Houston, TX - October 15, 2008 - Legendary singer-songwriter Neil Diamond pledged to donate 100% of merchandise sales from his October 14th concert at Houston's Toyota Center to benefit The Gulf Coast Ike Relief Fund. He then topped his offer by telling his Houston audience that he would match the amount they spent on merchandise that night. The contribution totaled more than $200,000, and Houston's Mayor Bill White and The Gulf Coast Ike Relief Fund Board Member Dr. Laura Murillo joined Diamond at last night's concert to accept an honorary check. Along with Diamond's personal contribution, F.E.A. Merchandising and Toyota Center have also contributed their share of merchandise sales to relief efforts for areas of the Gulf Coast that have been ravaged by Hurricane Ike.
http://www.neildiamond.com/pages/news/667

Local mom battles to give a voice to the Wounded Warriors

Local mom battles to give a voice to the Wounded Warriors
November 4, 2008

By Jim Feehan
Cynthia Lefever continues to make noise. And she said she won’t stop trying to get national officials to improve medical care for returning Afghanistan and Iraq war veterans with traumatic brain injuries and post-traumatic stress.



She’s intimately aware of the devastating effects of blast injuries. Her son, Rory Dunn, a 2000 graduate of Liberty High School, was nearly killed four years ago by a roadside bomb in Fallujah, Iraq. The bomb exploded above his Humvee, killing two of his friends. His forehead was crushed from ear to ear, leaving his brain exposed. Shrapnel destroyed his right eye and his hearing was severely damaged.

He was flown by helicopter to a hospital in Baghdad, where doctors worked to save him. Five days later, he was flown to a hospital at Landstuhl Regional Medical Center in Germany, where family had gone on “imminent death orders” to say their goodbyes.

“Doctors gave him a 2 percent chance of survival,” Lefever said.

Despite the grim prognosis, Dunn did survive. One day after he arrived in Germany, he was transferred to Walter Reed Medical Center in Washington, D.C., still in a coma.

“When he arrived at Walter Reed, neurosurgeons said Rory’s injuries were the worst they had ever seen,” Lefever said.

The journey for mother and son the past four years has been a study of perseverance — Dunn defying the odds each step of his recovery and Lefever battling the Army to ensure he continued to receive critical care from Reed’s top-notch surgeons. Almost six weeks later, Dunn emerged from his coma.

“Within days of coming out of a coma, Army leadership was at his bedside putting a pen in his hand to start the discharge process with the ultimate goal of getting Rory off the books,” Lefever said.

“When we let these wounded warriors languish in bed and presume that all that can be done is to change their diaper and turn them regularly and get them out for fresh air, that’s ridiculous. I just think it’s immoral and unethical.”



Honored for her work

Lefever sought the help of various organizations and agencies providing assistance to Iraq and Afghanistan war veterans and their families. She also called Sen. Patty Murray’s office. Murray, a member of the Senate Veterans Affairs Committee, has become a friend and ally. In 2005, Murray awarded Dunn his Purple Heart.
click post title for more

Democrats Kosmas, Grayson defeat GOP veterans Keller, Feeney

Democrats Kosmas, Grayson defeat GOP veterans Keller, Feeney
Mark Schlueb and Rachael Jackson | Sentinel Staff Writers
November 5, 2008
Voters swept Republican incumbents Tom Feeney and Ric Keller out of Congress on Tuesday, electing Democrats in districts once seen as GOP strongholds.

Former state Rep. Suzanne Kosmas beat Feeney to win Florida's 24th District. And attorney Alan Grayson beat Keller in the 8th District.

"I got licked," Feeney said in a short concession speech to supporters, some of whom were in tears.

"There are differences between me and Kosmas, but I wish her well."

Kosmas painted herself a moderate, essential in an east Central Florida district that leans Republican.

Feeney helped draw the district, which includes parts of Orange, Seminole, Volusia and Orange counties, for himself when he was state House speaker. But his Republican advantage shrank this year as more Democrats and independents registered to vote.

In the 8th District, Grayson outdistanced Keller after hammering the incumbent for breaking a promise to serve only four terms and tying Keller to President Bush and the troubled economy.
click post title for more

Informed electorate won

Thomas Jefferson said this nation would be great when we had a free press and an informed electorate. Today we achieved that.

Over the last year, we've heard all kinds of strange claims coming out of the McCain campaign, words that he and Palin can never take back and words his supporters will have to live with. It was amazing to hear how uninformed many of them were. This went far beyond just supporting McCain because they liked him and his policy, but crossed into delusion. Obama was accused of being a terrorist, a traitor among so many other things and McCain will have to return to the senate with the shame of this on his shoulders. It was one of the nastiest, lie filled campaigns a senator could run and the majority of this nation lost the respect he had earned.

John McCain has a lot of work to do to restore his reputation and so do his supporters if they want to. It's up to them but the rest of us will move on and try to do what we can to keep the promises we made to our own children, to leave them a better nation.

Tomorrow, we begin a new journey and hope comes back to these lands. I can't wait to hear President Elect Obama address the nation tonight.

OBAMA WINS!!

UPDATE 11-5-08
Last night I posted the states I thought Obama had a good chance of winning. I was wrong on 5 of the states I picked. At no time in my wildest dreams did I think he would have done what turned out to be a huge mandate on change from coast to coast.

338
52%
62,532,271

Just amazing!

Let's see how bad I did on guessing on election
Here is my guess for states Obama has a chance to win.
VT O
ME O
NH O
MA O
RI O
CT O
NJ O
DE O
MD O
DC O
NY O
PA O
VA O
NC I was wrong
GA I was wrong
FL O and thank you Florida!
MI O
OH O
IN O
IL O
WI O
MN O
IA O
MT I was wrong
WA O
OR O
CA O
NV O
NM O
AZ I was wrong
TX-------early call makes me wrong on this
HI O

I just got back from the movies so I"ll have to check back and see what else I got wrong later.

MSNBC Update
10:13 Keller in Florida lost Chris Shays lost

10:37 Kay Hagan NC beat Dole, Al Frankin projected winner in MN

11:00 MMBC Called Washington, Oregon, California and Hawaii for Obama

President Obama!!!!

11:11 AP reports McCain conceded


CNN: OBAMA TO BE NEXT PRESIDENT
BREAKING NEWS
Obama makes history Sen. Barack Obama will defeat Sen. John McCain to become the next U.S. president, CNN projects. Projected wins in West Coast states helped give the Democrat the magic number of electoral votes. developing story

11:14 MSNBC calls Colorado for Obama

11:18 McCain address his supporters and congratulated Obama.








Obama beats McCain Barack Obama thumped John McCain in the Electoral College tally and handily won the popular vote, becoming the first African-American elected president of the United States. "Change has come to America," Obama told supporters. full story
Audio Slide Show: 'This is our moment'
Obama: 'Yes we can' Transcript Videos
McCain concedes race Transcript Videos

UK:PTSD on trial Traumatised veterans' fight for care

Traumatised veterans' fight for care

By Paul Burnell
BBC File On 4


Darren Wright looked destined for a successful military career, decorated for bravery in Afghanistan and an army boxing champion.

Instead he is serving an 11-year prison sentence for the violent kidnap, with five other men, of a wealthy businessman from Glasgow.

His family has no doubt the war hero became a criminal owing to a lack of effective care and treatment for post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) brought on by horrific scenes he witnessed in Afghanistan.

"He got this idea in his head he'd got to protect his family so he slept downstairs as if on guard waiting for the enemy to arrive," his stepmother Mary Costigan told BBC File On 4.

The Ministry of Defence on Tuesday reported diagnosing almost 4,000 new cases of mental illness among forces personnel last year, with those sent to Afghanistan or Iraq most likely to be traumatised.
go here for more
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/7706163.stm

DoD NOT COMPLYING WITH REQUIREMENTS FOR PERSONALITY DISORDER DISCHARGES

GAO REPORT: DoD NOT COMPLYING WITH REQUIREMENTS FOR PERSONALITY DISORDER DISCHARGES
(11-01-08)Military officials responsible for reviewing servicemembers' records could not explain why many PD separations were approved.
GAO's review of enlisted servicemembers' records found that the selected military installations GAO visited varied in their documented compliance with DOD's requirements for personality disorder separations. DOD has requirements for separations because of a personality disorder, which is defined as an enduring pattern of behavior that deviates markedly from expected behavior and has an onset in adolescence or early adulthood. The three key requirements established by DOD are that enlisted servicemembers

(1) must be notified of their impending separation because of a personality disorder,
(2) must be diagnosed with a personality disorder by a psychiatrist or psychologist who determines that servicemembers' personality disorder interferes with their ability to function in the military, and
(3) must receive formal counseling about their problem with functioning in the military.

go here for more

http://www.vawatchdog.org/08/nf08/nfnov08/nf110108-4.htm

Soldier sentenced in slaying of fellow Iraq vet

Soldier sentenced in slaying of fellow Iraq vet

By P. Solomon Banda - The Associated Press
Posted : Monday Nov 3, 2008 21:44:42 EST

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. — A soldier who pleaded guilty in the shooting death of a fellow Iraq veteran apologized to the victim’s family in court Monday and was sentenced to 10 years in prison.

Kenneth Eastridge, 24, pleaded guilty in July to accessory to murder in the death of Kevin Shields. Shields’ family said he had just learned his wife was pregnant and had gone to a nightclub to celebrate when he was killed on Dec. 1, his birthday. While there, he met up with Eastridge and Louis Bressler, two soldiers he met while serving in Iraq.

Prosecutors said Bressler killed Shields after the two of them fought in a park and Eastridge later helped get rid of evidence.

“I don’t have the right to ask for forgiveness but I just hope that everybody knows someday that I really am sorry,” Eastridge said, visibly shaking as he read his statement from a podium in the courtroom.

“I believe he loved his family,” said Eastridge, who was wearing an orange jail suit and had a tattoo on one arm of a double lightning bolt, a neo-Nazi symbol. “I really didn’t know him that well but he spoke a lot about his wife and his kids .... I had no idea that Kevin was going to be killed.”

Outside the courtroom, Shields’ mother, Debra Shields of Loves Park, Ill., held her son’s dog tags and tearfully said it was the first time any of the three defendants had shown any remorse.

McAteer said that during two tours in Iraq, Eastridge manned a machine gun on top of a Humvee and saw “more battles and bloodshed as a 19-year-old than most will ever see in a lifetime.”

She said he suffered a serious head injury when a roadside bomb struck his Humvee during his first tour, tossing him 30 to 60 feet. She said a pre-sentence report found Eastridge suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder, and she blamed the military for discharging him without medical help.
go here for more
http://www.armytimes.com/news/2008/11/ap_soldier_sentenced_110308/

Four Marines are arrested in Riverside County double slaying

Four Marines are arrested in Riverside County double slaying
By Tony Perry
Tue, 4 Nov 2008 8:54:29 AM

Four Marines have been arrested for the slaying of a Marine and his wife at their home in the Winchester neighborhood of Riverside County, the county sheriff's department announced.

The four have confessed in the killing of Sgt. Jan Pietrzak, 24, and his wife, Quianna Jenkins Pietrzak, 26, authorities said. The motive allegedly was robbery.


Pvt. Kesuan Sykes, 21, is being held in a Riverside jail. Lance Cpl. Tyrone Miller, 20; Pvt. Kevin Darnell Cox, 20, and Pvt. Emrys John, 18, are being held in the brig at Camp Pendleton. Two of the four served in the same unit as Pietrzak.

Double tragedy grieves Lawrence MA after fire

Double tragedy grieves Lawrence
Late Sunday night, Sean Cahalane, a young, developmentally disabled man who was always eager to help others was the one in desperate need as a fire engulfed his house in Lawrence. His mother, 51-year-old Linda Cahalane, rushed back in to save her son. But both were killed, apparently overwhelmed by the smoke. (By Maria Cramer, Globe Staff)

Former custodian ID'd as man who set himself on fire at UW last week

Former custodian ID'd as man who set himself on fire at UW last week

The King County Medical Examiner's Office has released the name of a 61-year-old former custodian at the University of Washington who died after setting himself on fire in the UW's Red Square on Thursday. In Soo Chun died at Harborview Medical Center from second- and third-degree burns that covered 90 percent of his body.

By Will Mari

Seattle Times staff reporter

The King County Medical Examiner's Office has released the name of a man who died Thursday after setting himself on fire in the University of Washington's Red Square.

In Soo Chun, 61, a former UW custodian, died at Harborview Medical Center from second- and third-degree burns over 90 percent of his body.

According to UW spokesman Norm Arkans, Chun had worked for the UW's Facilities Services from December 2005 to early summer of this year. He immigrated to the U.S. from Korea in 1977 and became a naturalized citizen in 1982.
click link for more

Teresa McCoy says "My Son Is Why We Fight So Hard"

My Son Is Why We Fight So Hard
Teresa McCoy
Posted November 3, 2008
There are times when words almost fail. This is one of those times.

I wanted to take this opportunity to say how much Barack Obama's campaign has meant to me, and how much it's changed my outlook and my life.

I came to this campaign in late August, not knowing what to expect. I had never done anything like this, but I knew that it was time to get off the couch and do something to change my corner. (so to speak) You see, it was my chance to do something to help my son.

James has PTSD. For those who don't know what that is, it's called Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, and it came directly from Iraq. Fallujah, to be exact. James fought proudly there for sixteen months. He did so without reservation because he wanted to serve his country. It's all he ever wanted to do. I signed the papers for him to be able to accomplish his goal before he ever left high school. I now wish I hadn't done so, but our country called him and I knew that I couldn't stand in the way of that. He was raised to respect his country and his flag, and he fought courageously for America, and he had friends who died for it. He lost his best friend on that battlefield, and the experience profoundly changed and marred his young life.

Our nations military not only sent James to Iraq, but the army sent his family to war with him. We were beside him in spirit, and we counted the days until he got home. There were times when we wondered if the day would ever come that he would come home to us, and when it finally did come, we were ecstatic. Little did we know that when they sent our son home, he would only be a shell of his former self. The light in his eyes was gone, and I know that as much as we love him, and as much as we try to understand, we're never going to see our James again. The innocent young man who went off to war is gone, and he is never coming back.
click link for more

Vietnam veteran tells of ongoing battle with PTSD

Just one more reminder that it's never too late to get help with PTSD.

Vietnam veteran tells of ongoing battle with PTSD
KTAR.com - Phoenix,AZ,USA
Vietnam veteran tells of ongoing battle with PTSD
November 3rd, 2008 @ 7:02am
by Bob McClay/KTAR

A Sun City man who fought in Vietnam is still in a battle -- every day he lives with post traumatic stress disorder.

The closest most people get to combat is watching movies like "Saving Private Ryan."

For Jerry McNelly, that was real life. Forty years later, he still suffers from PTSD.

McNelly said a psychologist has helped him deal with the problem and he wishes he had seen her earlier.

"From the bottom of my heart, I wish I had had this prior to my two failed marriages," he said, adding that his ex-wives can share some stories.

"They'll talk about the sleepless nights, me waking up on my side of the bed and the sheet is so wet we have to change the sheets because I've had cold sweats. Walking the floor all night long because I'm looking out the windows and drapes, which is called perimeter check."

PTSD -- McNelly refers to it by the initials -- affects people in different ways.

click link for more

Korean War ex-POW found peace with PTSD

Ed Slater: After captivity in Korea, and suffering more after the ...
Kansas City Star - MO,USA

Ed Slater: After captivity in Korea, and suffering more after the war, he found peace.
By LISA GUTIERREZ
The Kansas City Star
Ed Slater’s family “did what we did to get what we could get” during the Depression. So for the bad boy from Quincy, Ill., it was reform school or the military

He chose the Army.

So here he was, scared out of his 20-year-old mind, separated from his infantry unit, lost in the Korean countryside.

He wandered two weeks without food before begging for rice from a Korean peasant woman. He ate it up.

He heard the triggers as North Korean soldiers rushed him.

Click-click-click-click-click.

In the summer of 1950 Ed Slater became a victim of what historians call the North Korean atrocity mill.

As a prisoner of war, this son of a plumber learned what flesh sounds like when it’s pounded, what a human head looks like after struck by a bullet, what anguish feels like.

The cries came from his own mouth.

“I thought I was going crazy,” he says. “I was sleeping in bars, sleeping in parks. I knew something was very wrong with me.”

He had post-traumatic stress syndrome, and it took a Veterans Administration psychiatrist and Prozac to treat it.
click link for more

PBS:Medal of Honor history and Dr. Mary Edwards Walker

PBS film highlights Medal of Honor’s history and its recipients
Providence Journal - Providence,RI,USA

PBS film highlights Medal of Honor’s history and its recipients

07:06 AM EST on Monday, November 3, 2008


Medal of Honor, a PBS documentary that will air nationwide Wednesday at 9 p.m., will present powerful stories of those who have received our nation’s highest military honor.

Produced and directed by Roger Sherman, the 90-minute film traces the medal’s history from its inception, during the Civil War, and profiles Sgt. Paul Smith, the first combatant in the Iraq war to receive it.

Among others profiled in the film are a Holocaust survivor who singlehandedly defended a hill from an advancing enemy force in the Korean War; a Navy SEAL who saved the lives of two comrades by swimming for two hours, while injured, to bring them to safety; and a Marine at Iwo Jima who alone silenced seven Japanese bunkers with a flamethrower.

Only one Medal of Honor has been awarded to a woman: Mary Edwards Walker, a Civil War doctor captured and imprisoned as a spy by the Confederates. Her medal was revoked after the war, when the criteria were tightened so it could be awarded only to active-duty soldiers in battle. Walker, however, refused to give it back.click above for more

Married for better or worse, couple bridge Democratic and Republican sides

Couples advertise different camps
When they married 39 years ago, Tom and Barbara Sims took each other for better or worse, in sickness and health. But those vows mentioned nothing about presidential campaigns. He knew when they met at she was a diehard Republican. And she was well aware he was a passionate Democrat.

Troubles reported in voting

NJ/Willingboro Machines Broken
Posted: 06:46 AM ET
From Beth Elliott
(CNN) – Broken machines in Willingboro, New Jersey, have led to disruptions in voting, according to Joe Dugan, chairman of the Burlington County Election Board. Voters at Pennypacker Park Elemenary School have been given emergency paper ballots as a mechanic works on the machines, Dugan said. He added that he expects the machines to be up and running soon.

VA/Fairfax County Machine Problems
Posted: 07:30 AM ET
From Marsha Walton

Paper ballots will be used until machines in Fairfax County are fixed.
Fairfax County, Virginia (CNN) — General Registrar Rokey Suleman said a handful of memory cards did not work when machines were started this morning. He tells CNN that new memory cards have already been sent out to those precincts with problems. He said a "very, very small number of machines" were affected, and voters at those locations could use paper ballots instead until the problem was corrected.

VA/Richmond: Machines down, no paper ballots
Posted: 07:34 AM ET
From CNN Correspondent Dan Lothian

Paper ballots are now being used in Richmond after complaints that none were available.
RICHMOND (VA) - Voting machine problems at the Math and Science Center in Richmond have forced the county to switch to paper ballots at the location.
The board of elections tells CNN the location is using paper ballots after five of seven machines broke down. Callers to the CNN Hotline originally said there were no paper ballots. But the Board of Elections now says they have started using the ballots and are in the process of deploying more equipment.

NC/Raleigh Voter Issues
Posted: 08:40 AM ET
From Beth Elliott

Raleigh scanners are having trouble handling ballots that are wet from rain dripping off of soaked voters.
Raleigh, NC (CNN) - A soggy and delayed start to the voting day in a Raleigh, North Carolina, precinct, after some confusion at the polling station. Wake County Board of Elections director Cherie Poucher reported there were problems this morning at the Barwell Road Community Center (formerly the Ebenezer Church Road precinct). She confirmed that the chief judge forgot to take the ballots out of her grandson's truck when being dropped off this morning. The elections director says the truck drove away, and the judge wasn't able to track down her grandson. The Board of Elections delivered new ballots and voting began at 7:06am, 36 minutes behind schedule. Approximately 300 people were waiting in line.

IN/Lake County Lines and Problems
Posted: 09:30 AM ET
From Marsha Walton
(CNN) - Voting machine problems and some delays are reported in Lake County, Indiana, just across the state line from Chicago.
Damian Rico, communications director for the city of East Chicago, Indiana, said at one precinct in Riley Park, two machines were down for about 15 minutes when the polling place opened. Both machines are up and running now.

Voting machine breakdowns lead to long lines
Posted: 09:41 AM ET

Residents wait in line to vote Tuesday morning in Annandale, Virginia.
(CNN) – Voting machines were breaking down or simply not deployed in adequate numbers in some polling places Tuesday morning, slowing balloting as Election Day dawned.
Watch: Last push in Colorado
Long lines were seen in rainy Richmond, Virginia, where Henrico County switched to paper ballots at the Math and Science Center after five of seven machines broke down.
Callers to the CNN Voter Hotline originally said there were no paper ballots. But Virginia's State Board of Elections said the center has started using the ballots and the board is in the process of deploying more equipment.

Record number of voters expected to deluge polls
Voting problems surfaced in several areas early Tuesday when people turned out in droves as balloting commenced along the Eastern Seaboard and in mid-Atlantic states. Voters needed to use paper ballots because of problems with electronic voting machines in some New Jersey precincts. And in New York, Board of Elections spokeswoman Valerie Vazquez-Rivera said many people began lining up as early as 4 a.m. at some polling places to avoid long lines, leading to erroneous reports that some sites were not opening on time.

Long lines, a few glitches as Election Day dawns

Optically scanned ballots, new to many voters, create a paper trail in case a tight race or voting irregularities once again puts Florida in the national spotlight.

But paper ballots slow things down, as do provisional ballots, which should be more frequent this go-around, because of the state's "no match, no match'' voter identification law and 2-million new voters who have been added to the rolls since the last presidential election.

Just minutes after the polls opened at 7 a.m. minor problems with machines cropped up, according to voters and reporters making spot checks at polling places.

In Clearwater, Betty Mayeux said ballot scanners were not working at her polling place, 229 Drew St. She was told she could wait for the scanner to be fixed or she could leave the ballot to be scanned later. She left the ballot.

At Crest Ridge Gardens Community Center, Tracy Walker said she waited for two hours, only to be told just before 7 that the machines were not working. By then, more than 100 people were in line, she said.

"I'm frustrated. Why didn't they know this two hours ago,'' she said. "I wanted to make sure I got in by 7 o'clock so I could get to work.''

In Palm Beach County, officials said some machines at the 450 polling locations are not accepting ballots because voters are not filling out the second page, which contains proposed amendments to the Florida Constitution.

Obama family together for voting

I just watched Senator Obama, his wife Michelle vote with their two daughters, Malia Ann and Sasha, at their side. I cannot imagine what it must have been like for the Obama family when they first saw the name Obama and Biden on the ballot. How many times had they voted before never really dreaming of the day when his name would be placed under President.

Obama votes in Chicago 1:13
Sen. Barack Obama casts his vote at an elementary school in Chicago.

http://www.cnn.com/video/#/video/politics/2008/11/04/vo.il.obama.votes.cnn

History in hands of voters
Americans are voting in one of the most historic U.S. elections. Democrat Barack Obama could become the first African-American president. Republican John McCain could become the oldest president elected to a first term. Sarah Palin could become the first woman elected vice president. Record voter turnout also is predicted. full story

It reminded me of all the years taking my own daughter when I voted. It never mattered what the New England weather was like, she was always excited to go.


I have not met many people who said they were not voting but when I was having my hair cut, the young stylists told me she was not voting. Her mother was never involved in politics she told me. As we talked, it was clear the stylist had not paid attention to this election. We've had many conversations in the past about different topics. We talked about the Lifetime series Army Wives, which character did what and when. We talked about other TV shows, which she knew it great detail. Yet when it came to the direction this country is going in, what matters to her own future, she clearly had not been involved. Then she said what too many say "My vote really wouldn't matter anyway."

I told the stylists about how I had taken my own daughter, beaming with pride vote for the first time. We waited in line for her to vote. My husband and I had already voted in early voting in Florida. She wasn't sure what to do, so I gladly brought her to cast her first vote. As we approached the table for her to check in, the man behind the table grinned "Oh, first time voter?" I'm sure I must have been glowing when I said "Yes, she is." He greeted my daughter and congratulated her, then told me to go and sit down. I wanted to stay behind her but he said it was up to her if I did or not. She looked up at me and said, "I'll take it from here. Go sit down."

I had never imaged how I would feel the first time my daughter voted. "I'll take it from here" came after over 20 years of watching me make it to vote no matter what else was going on. From primaries to the general election, she was there at my side. Then it was time for here to "take it from here" and vote on her own. It had not occurred to me how many other parents never bothered to have their own children involved in their own futures. She had seen me reading the newspapers and watching the news on TV, reading what ballot measures meant for months before the election. My daughter did the same thing preparing to vote for the first time, deeply involved in studying what the candidates say and what is factual.

Parents involved in the election process, even if they are not fully involved in politics or dedicated to one political party over another, will decide if their children will take an active role or not simply by what they do. We can inspire them. It's great to lead the way so they are prepared to take it from here. We have a responsibility and all of us should do whatever it takes to get them to take their vote seriously. If you have not voted yet, do whatever it takes to do it. Stand in line for as long as it takes and then tell your children, your vote was worth it.

Even in this tiny town, they voted.

Obama wins in earliest vote in tiny N.H. towns.
Dixville Notch, Hart's Location 1st officially to announce Election Day results

DIXVILLE NOTCH, N.H. - Barack Obama came up a big winner in the presidential race in Dixville Notch and Hart's Location, N.H., where tradition of having the first Election Day ballots tallied lives on.

Democrat Obama defeated Republican John McCain by a count of 15 to 6 in Dixville Notch, where a loud whoop accompanied the announcement in Tuesday's first minutes. The town of Hart's Location reported 17 votes for Obama, 10 for McCain and two for write-in Ron Paul. Independent Ralph Nader was on both towns' ballots but got no votes.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/27528804/

How can some McCain supporters be so lazy?

This video was taken in Ohio. It really shocked me to hear some of the things people were saying. One woman said that Obama wanted to change the words to the Star Spangled Banner and the flag. One after another they all sound so stupid with the things they are saying. What shocked me the most is these are not dumb people. If they are not stupid then they have to be lazy. What else could explain coming out with some of the things they say in this video?

"Life has to be respected at all stages" "Freedom comes at a cost" "If Obama is elected it will show the world America doesn't respect life or the truth" but this woman has just lied because she repeated lies.

The internet is available to all and if they wanted to know if they were being lied to by the McCain campaign and GOP hacks, all they had to do was invest some time and look it up to see what was real or not. One woman said she got an email from Meet The Press claiming Obama
"wants to change the national anthem and the American flag. All this woman had to do was see if it really did come from Meet The Press or at least pay attention.


A guy with no teeth was complaining about people need to work if they want to eat because he works hard. Stranger than strange. Another complained about redistributing the wealth because she works hard. So did a lot of people who lost their jobs, ran out of unemployment and need help but she shouldn't care about any of us because she has a job.

If they want to talk about healthcare then they need to talk to someone who had to file for bankruptcy because of medical bills even though they did the right thing, had insurance that wouldn't cover the bills. They need to actually listen to Obama talking about his Mother dying of cancer and fighting with an insurance company that wouldn't pay, or the millions of other stories across this country from people who did the right things, worked hard, took care of their families and need, just for once, some Republican to decide that the American people do matter after all. We need a member of the "Right wing defenders of Christianity" to finally acknowledge what Christ said and did not say and then finally figure out what the founding fathers had to say about what kind of nation this was supposed to be.

All the nonsense that came out of the people being interviewed on this video should bow their head in shame and then beg to be forgiven for lying about things they had the opportunity to find out what was true and what were lies. These people are un-Godly and not even close to being what Christ said a Christian should be. They have replaced God with greed and selfishness. No wonder they are so angry. They would rather hate than pay attention. Can the really be that attached to the Republican label? If they haven't figured out what their party did to this country, they really need to stop being so blind and invest some time in learning. They really sound possessed. It's not as if they say they like McCain or even try to defend what McCain has done, but they just repeated lies about Obama. What else can we expect from people with no problem at all in their mind about what kind of president McCain would be or Sarah Palin!

As an Obama Victory Seems Increasingly Likely, Conservatives Are Getting Panicky and Unhinged

By Harry Hanbury and Patricia Foulkrod, American News Project. Posted November 3, 2008.

A snapshot of the freaked-out views and conspiracy theory fears of supporters at a John McCain rally in Columbus, Ohio.

At a recent rally for John McCain in Columbus, Ohio, ANP asked McCain supporters a simple question: If Barack Obama is elected president, what will it say about America? One woman, who claims that Obama wants to change the flag and the national anthem, demonstrates the lasting power of a debunked anti-Obama chain e-mail.
click post title for the video

When I went to Ohio, I'm glad I didn't meet people like this there. I would have flown back home right away~!

I think I just found my answer in this. They are like the Know-nothing Party!

Thanks to Sarah Palin, We Get to See the Cruelness of the GOP as It Really Is

By Larry Beinhart, AlterNet. Posted November 3, 2008.



Palin has helped reveal to the public pit-bull snarl that rouses GOP supporters to cry out, "Traitor!" against Obama, and "Kill him!"

It was Jesus Christ, if Matthew is to be believed, who said, "Love thine enemy." It is in that spirit that I write this belated valentine to Sarah Palin.

Sarah, I love you for having revealed unto the media the snarling heart of the beast that is the base (and the soul) of the Republican Party. Yes, you have the lipstick and the heels, not to mention the calves and bosoms, that send Republican men into swoons, but you have more; the pit-bull snarl that rouses your supporters to cry out, "Traitor!" against Obama, and "Kill him!"

George Bush kept those folks in their kennels, ran as a "compassionate conservative," and always masked his most heinous plans in double speak. Bush the Elder, Ronald Reagan, and even Richard Nixon never explicitly ran on hate and fear of "the other." They used words that were coded enough that it was possible to pretend that they were true.

But now the beast is loose.

The Republican Party likes to remember Abraham Lincoln. And so they should. It's a nice memory and brings credit to them. As does the accidental ascension of Teddy Roosevelt, environmentalist and basher of corporations. Back in the 1950s and '60s, their party included such figures as Dwight Eisenhower -- whose reputation grows ever better in retrospect -- Nelson Rockefeller, who built New York's state university system, and New York City mayor John Lindsey.

But there is another strand that runs through their history.

Back in the 1840s, there was a group called the Know Nothings. They were against immigrants and for real Americans. ("Real American" did not then, as it does not now, refer to Indians; it refers to descendants of English immigrants.) The movement was based on fear. Irish and German Catholics were going to take over. They would take orders from the Pope-in-Rome (one word). Their values were not "our values." They drank. Their nunneries were virtual brothels and when the nuns had babies they practiced infanticide.
go here for more
http://www.alternet.org/election08/105807/thanks_to_sarah_palin%2C_we_get_to_see_the_cruelness_of_the_gop_as_it_really_is/

Florida ‘Gators for McCain’ Chair Resigns, Votes For Obama

Florida ‘Gators for McCain’ Chair Resigns, Votes For Obama

By Matthew DeLong 11/3/08 12:29 PM
You know it’s not looking good for Sen. John McCain when the head of the University of Florida’s more than 1,000-strong “Gators for McCain” announced his resignation yesterday and said he had voted for Sen. Barack Obama.

According to The Independent Florida Alligator, the university’s daily student newspaper, Josh Simmons, chairman of the “Gators for McCain,” attended an on-campus rally featuring Democratic vice presidential nominee Sen. Joe Biden yesterday, not as a protester but as a supporter.

click link for more

Short cut turned deadly for Maine Soldier at Fort Drum

Short cut turned deadly
Updated: 11/03/2008 04:31 PM
By: Amy Ohler
WATERTOWN, N.Y. -- A short cut for dinner turned deadly Sunday evening for one Fort Drum soldier. According to Jefferson County Sheriff John Burns, two soldiers, Justin Kennie of Maine and Jason Wood of Texas, decided to walk across Interstate 81 from the Salmon Run Mall. Burns says the two were headed to Buffalo Wild Wings. Once in the south bound lane, a car struck Kennie, killing him on impact. That incident then sparked two other wrecks involving four vehicles.



"Basically, it was due to people paying attention too much to what was going on in the opposite lane of travel and not paying enough attention to driving their vehicle," said Darrin Pitkin, State Police Captain.



Seven people were injured in the accidents. Six were transported to Samaritan Medical Center in Watertown. Donald McNeil was transported to Upstate Medical Center in Syracuse for critical injuries.

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Chicago-area soldier killed in Texas hit-run

Chicago-area soldier killed in Texas hit-run
November 3, 2008
A soldier from the Chicago area was struck and killed by a car over the weekend near his U.S. Army base in El Paso, Texas, officials said today.

Spec. Joseph Binion, 23, was assigned to the 11th Air Defense Artillery Brigade, and was stationed at Ft. Bliss, Texas, in El Paso, according to Ft. Bliss officials. His hometown was not immediately available.
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Ex-Navy Officer Charged With Lying About Injuries on 9-11 at Pentagon

Ex-Navy Officer Charged With Lying About Injuries


By Del Quentin Wilber
Washington Post Staff Writer
Monday, November 3, 2008; 4:32 PM

A retired Navy commander who was awarded the Purple Heart for his actions after the 2001 terrorist attack on the Pentagon has been charged with lying about his injuries to collect more than $330,000 from a victims' fund.

Charles E. Coughlin, 49, of Severna Park pleaded not guilty today to federal charges of mail fraud, theft of public money and filing fraudulent claims in connection with a scheme that helped him purchase cars and a $1 million house, prosecutors said.

A grand jury indicted Coughlin and his wife, Sabrina, 46, on Friday. Sabrina Coughlin pleaded not guilty today to mail fraud at the federal courthouse in Washington.

They were released on personal bond after a brief appearance this afternoon before U.S. District Magistrate Judge Alan Kay in federal court in the District. They declined to comment after the hearing.

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Benning soldier discharged in trainee beating

Benning soldier discharged in trainee beating

By Russ Bynum - The Associated Press
Posted : Monday Nov 3, 2008 14:54:46 EST

SAVANNAH, Ga. — Fort Benning officials say a soldier who assaulted a Jewish trainee in September has been kicked out of the Army.

Fort Benning spokesman Bob Purtiman said Monday the accused soldier received an administrative discharge in the beating of Pvt. Michael Handman.

Handman was assaulted in September days after he complained of religious harassment in his basic training unit.
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http://www.armytimes.com/news/2008/11/ap_jewish_soldier_110308/

Parents want soldier’s death re-examined

“As his parents, we can’t understand how he survives Iraq then gets killed in Texas,” Tammy Garren said. “We can’t understand how he was safer in Iraq than he was in Harker Heights.”

Parents want soldier’s death re-examined

The Associated Press
Posted : Monday Nov 3, 2008 17:39:57 EST

KILLEEN, Texas — The parents of an Army soldier who was run over at a sports bar near Fort Hood, Texas, don’t believe his death was accidental and want the case reopened.

“We feel that there wasn’t justice for Michael,” said Jerry Garren of Staatsburg, N.Y., father of Spc. Michael Anthony Garren, 20, who had served in Iraq.

After investigating the June 1 incident, Harker Heights police presented a criminally negligent homicide case to the Bell County District Attorney’s Office. Initial police reports indicated some people were arguing in a parking lot when a man threatened them, got in his truck and then knocked Garren down and ran over him.

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http://www.armytimes.com/news/2008/11/ap_soldier_death_110308/

Kidnappers kill Mexican 5 year old child with acid injection

Kidnappers kill Mexican child with acid injection
Nov. 3, 2008 02:23 PM
Associated Press
MEXICO CITY - Kidnappers killed a 5-year-old boy by injecting him with acid after his family sought police help — a new low even for Mexico's brutal kidnapping gangs.

Mexico City Attorney General Miguel Mancera said Monday that assailants injected the acid into the boy's heart and buried him on a hill outside the capital — a death that showed the plague of kidnappings for ransom afflicts the working class as well as the wealthy.

A kidnapper seized the child at a street market in the gritty borough of Iztapalapa on Oct. 26 and the boy was killed three days later, Mancera's office said in a statement.
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Police mourn off-duty death of officer

Police mourn off-duty death of officer
by Michael Ferraresi - Nov. 3, 2008 05:01 PM
The Arizona Republic


As police mourned fallen officer Shane Figueroa last week, they also reflected on the recent off-duty passing of another officer who worked in northeast Phoenix.

Jim Stenholm, a Desert Horizon Precinct officer with 13 years' experience, died at his home in Anthem on Oct. 24. He was 37 years old.

Stenholm's death hit Phoenix police nearly the same weekend Figueroa suffered fatal injuries after a suspected drunk driver collided with his patrol car as he responded to an emergency call in south Phoenix.


Stenholm's death leaves a void on a northeast Phoenix neighborhood enforcement unit, nicknamed the 'X-ray squad,' organized as a rapid-response team for areas north of Bell Road.

The 100 Club of Arizona, a local non-profit group that raises money to support law enforcement officers and their families, reported Stenholm's death on its Web site recently.

The cause of Stenholm's death has not been confirmed.
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With Daddy Home From War, A Thankful Family Adapts

With Daddy Home From War, A Thankful Family Adapts
By RINKER BUCK | The Hartford Courant
November 3, 2008

LEDYARD — - Zoë Hoekman is a spunky and adorable 5-year-old who, all of a sudden now, joyfully skips off alone to Sunday school and charges out of the minivan when her mother drops her off at a friend's house for a play date.

In the lives of most girls, happy, spontaneous moments like these would barely be noticed.

But for Zoë, whose father, Navy Lt. Cmdr. Keith Hoekman, spent 15 months in Afghanistan last year, skipping off alone to Sunday school and charging out of the minivan at a friend's house represent considerable progress.

A March profile in The Courant described the difficulties that Zoë's mother, Lori Hoekman, experienced raising three young children (and pregnant with a fourth) while her husband was deployed in a remote part of Afghanistan. That article described how Zoë had endured particularly tender pangs while her father was away, clinging to the legs of men and refusing to let her mother out of her sight when she played with friends.

"After Keith left for Afghanistan, Zoë realized that she had already lost one parent, and she wasn't about to lose another," Lori Hoekman said. "Something as simple as a play date with a friend, or going to Sunday school, she just couldn't face alone."

But Keith Hoekman, 33, a Navy nurse practitioner who ran medical clinics for Afghan villagers in the remote Ghazni province, returned to a joyful reunion with his family at Bradley International Airport on March 25. During the seven months since his return, the family has welcomed a new addition; their fourth child, Titus Leander, was born Sept. 6. (Lori conceived while Keith was home during a brief Christmas break last year.) And they have enjoyed many other touching returns to normalcy.
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Non-combat death in Iraq reported

DoD Identifies Army Casualty


The Department of Defense announced today the death of a soldier who was supporting Operation Iraqi Freedom.

Pfc. Bradley S. Coleman, 24, of Martinsville, Va., died Oct. 29 at Qayyarah Airfield, Iraq, of injuries sustained from a non-combat related incident. He was assigned to the 51st Transportation Company, 21st Theater Sustainment Command, Mannheim, Germany.

The incident is under investigation.

http://icasualties.org/oif/

Palin: Do Democrats think 'terrorists have become good guys'?

Dear Gov. Palin,
You have said some pretty terrible things during your campaign, because you fail to notice that you are not the top of the ticket, McCain is, but this is really the lowest a person can sink.



Maybe you don't care that while our troops are in Iraq and Afghanistan, billions of dollars has gone unaccounted for. Any idea what that kind of money could do for the wounded veterans standing in line to have their wounds treated or for the families who have to travel to be with them while giving up their jobs to do it? Ever once think of what that kind of money could have done to protect the troops in Iraq and Afghanistan with the proper equipment?

Billions more have gone to Halliburton, KBR and other defense contractors with no accountability. If you had bothered to read the reports out of the GAO, you'd know that. So much for watching out for tax payers money or the troops.

I happen to be a Democrat and unlike you, I have taken all of this very seriously. Most Americans have and we're really tired of people like you calling us terrorist supporters when we are trying to get answers out of politicians like you. We're tired of being called anti-military when we care about the lives sent, the reason they are sent, the plans they have to live with and what happens while they're gone just as much as we care about what happens to them when they come home. See, Sarah, we don't just care about the people in our own family, we care about all of them. That's the difference between Democratic elected and what the Republicans have become. They used to care as well. There was a time when the Republicans cared about the troops as much as they cared about the defense contractors, but those days are long gone. They all had the information and the time and the power to take care of all these wounded troops, but they didn't. They had a chance to take care of the tax payers who have to pay for all of this, but they didn't. The only people they wanted to take care of were the rich and corporations.

What are you going to say when the old news about General Petraeus and Secretary of Defense Gates want to talk with the Taliban? Are you going to call them terrorists too? Anti-military? Anti-American?

The cut in military spending is not cutting the military or their equipment or anything they need. It's cutting the wasted billions and holding contractors accountable. It's to stop spending money in Iraq when Iraqis have billions in surplus but have not problem bleeding our economy dry. It's about taking that money and investing it right here for our own people for a change. Too bad you and your supporters don't seem to care about any of this.

Palin: Do Democrats think 'terrorists have become good guys'?
Nick Juliano
Published: Monday November 3, 2008


With time running out, Sarah Palin has delivered what might be the most incendiary line of the entire presidential campaign.

Not content to just disagree with her opponents on policy, the Republican vice presidential nominee has accused Democrats of outright sympathizing with terrorists.

"What do they think? Do they think the terrorists have all the sudden become the good guys and changed their minds?" she asked a crowd in Jefferson City, Mo. "No, the terrorists still seek to destroy America and her allies and all that it is that we stand for: freedom, tolerance, and equality. The terrorists have not changed their minds."
go here for more and for video
http://rawstory.com/news/2008/Palin_Do_Dems_think_terrorists_are_1103.html

Police: Spring ISD junior slain for dating suspect's sister

Police: Spring ISD junior slain for dating suspect's sister
By MIKE GLENN Copyright 2008 Houston Chronicle
Nov. 3, 2008, 12:00PM
Two high school seniors from Houston have been charged with murder in the death of a schoolmate, who Montgomery County authorities say was killed because he was dating one suspect's 14-year-old sister.

Edgar Arturo Sazo, 17, and Edson H. Olvera Garza, 18, are being held without bail in the Montgomery County Jail.

Both are seniors at Westfield High School in the Spring school district, said sheriff's Lt. Bill Bucks.

They have given statements about the death of Eugene Posana Villaruel, 17, a junior at Westfield, Bucks said.

His body was found about 8:30 a.m. Sunday by a jogger, who spotted it in a wooded area near the 28000 block of Ascot Farms. He had been stabbed numerous times in the head and upper body, Bucks said.

Villaruel apparently was killed somewhere nearby before his body was dumped at the spot, investigators believe.
go here for more
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/front/6091520.html

Obama's Nev. campaign director dies at 44

Family: Obama's Nev. campaign director dies at 44
By KAREN MATTHEWS, Associated Press Writer

Monday, November 3, 2008


A family spokesman says the Nevada campaign director for Barack Obama's campaign and a former top aide to New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg has died at 44.

Family spokesman Basil Smikle said Monday that Terence Tolbert died of a heart attack Sunday in Las Vegas.
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Killings in homeless camp stun relatives

Killings in homeless camp stun relatives
By Louis Sahagun 1:01 p.m

Relatives of one of five people found shot to death Sunday gather to pray at the crime scene. Although the site was considered a homeless campsite, authorities say not all the victims were homeless.

By Louis Sahagun
2:14 PM PST, November 3, 2008
As investigators continued today to search for clues into the fatal shootings of five people at a homeless campsite in Long Beach, relatives of one of the victims gathered at the secluded site to light candles and pray.

"It's sad, real sad," said Fauamoa Palaita, a relative of one of the victims, Vanessa Malaepule. "I feel hurt. We can't believe it."

At a news conference today, authorities released the names of Malaepule, 34, of Long Beach, and of Lorenzo Perez Villacana, 44. The names of the other victims were being withheld pending notification of next of kin. They were described as a man of Middle Eastern descent in his 40s, a white male in his 50s and a Latino female in her 20s.

Los Angels County coroner Assistant Chief Ed Winter said that autopsies would be conducted Tuesday but that it appeared that all five "died of multiple gunshot wounds."

Obama's grandmother dies hours before election

Obama's grandmother dies hours before election
Barack Obama's grandmother, Madelyn Dunham, has died following a bout with cancer, Obama and his sister said today. She was 86. Obama, who spoke about his grandmother often on the stump, left the campaign trail for two days in late October to visit Dunham in Hawaii. developing story

Retired Gen. Bernard W. Rogers, Former Army chief of staff dies

Former Army chief of staff dies

By Jim Tice - Staff writer
Posted : Monday Nov 3, 2008 14:46:31 EST

Retired Gen. Bernard W. Rogers, one of the most accomplished senior Army leaders of the post-World War II era, died Oct. 27 at Falls Church, Va.

Rogers, 87, began his military career as an enlisted soldier with the Kansas National Guard. He subsequently was commissioned at the U.S. Military Academy in 1943 after serving as the first captain of the Corps of Cadets.

A Rhodes Scholar and graduate of the Command and General Staff College and Army War College, Rogers retired in 1987 after serving two four-year tours as the supreme allied commander, Europe, and command-in-chief, U.S. European Command.

Previous to his service in Europe, Rogers oversaw the creation of a 24-division force as Army chief of staff, and was a prime mover in establishing the National Training Center at Fort Irwin, Calif.

Previous to his tour as chief of staff, Rogers commanded Army Forces Command, and previous to that was Army personnel chief just as the all-volunteer force was being established.

Rogers was a veteran of combat, having served in Korea as a battalion commander with the 9th Infantry, and as an assistant division commander of the 1st Infantry Division during Vietnam, where he earned the Distinguished Service Cross, Silver Star, three Distinguished Flying Crosses, the Bronze Star for Valor and 36 Air Medals with “V” device.
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http://www.armytimes.com/news/2008/11/army_rogers_110308w/

McCain draws just 1,000 at Tampa event

McCain draws just 1,000 at Tampa event
RAW STORY
Published: Monday November 3, 2008


Only 1,000 people showed up to see Sen. John McCain at a Tampa rally Monday -- leaving even Fox News scratching their heads.

"Kicking off the last day of the election in Tampa, Florida, John McCain was welcomed by a roughly 1,000 voters," penned Huffington Post's Sam Stein. "Compare that to the 15,000 people that President Bush drew to a rally in Tampa on the eve of the 2004 election. 'What's up with that?' wrote Adam Smith at the St. Petersburg Times."
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If you can stand in line for tickets, you can stand in line to vote

If you can stand in line for tickets to a movie, you can stand in line to vote.

If you can stand in line for tickets to a sports event, you can stand in line to vote.

If you can stand in line for a concert, you can stand in line to vote.

If you can stand in line waiting to get on a ride at an amusement park, you can stand in line to vote.

There are plenty of excuse to not vote but when you think about it, we all too often prove that when we really want to do something, we are willing to do what it takes to do it. Think of black Friday, the day after Thanksgiving, and all the times you got up at 4:00 am to get to the mall for the best sales. Black Friday became a family tradition all across America. So why isn't it that we make it a family tradition to vote?

I've heard some people complain when they call in talk radio stations about the long wait. We can't do anything about the wait time this year. The turn out is amazing and there are not very many states prepared for it ahead of time. This is for the direction of this country and all our days to come. We saw what happened when people didn't do whatever it took to go vote 4 years ago. We saw what happened when people were turned away and didn't get the chance to vote. Don't let that happen this time. It's too important. No excuses will ever take away the damage done because you didn't vote.

Good-bye Travis Air Force Base, Hello Vietnam

Winning hearts and minds in Vietnam


By Martin Bell



In my 46 years of experience in journalism, I have often found that the most remarkable material surfaces by accident.

So it is with the Saigon Songs, recordings made in the Vietnam War, which have never been broadcast before.

They are among the most moving mementoes of war I have ever heard.

Their edge is sharpened, it seems to me, by a special relevance to the wars of today.

The Saigon Songs date from the Americans' hearts and minds campaign, between 1965 and 1967, as they poured their ground troops into Vietnam in support of the South Vietnamese government.

Hearts and minds

The campaign was run by Maj Gen Ed Lansdale of the US Army, who by all accounts was a most remarkable man.

His weapons were not guns but words and music, through which he hoped to persuade the people in the villages to resist the North Vietnamese communists and the home-grown insurgents, the Viet Cong.



Maj Gen Lansdale gathered round him a group of singers and performers including Pham Duy, the most noted Vietnamese folk singer of the time, and Hershel Gober, a young lieutenant from Arkansas who was as handy with a guitar as he was with a rifle, and was serving with Vietnamese forces in the Mekong Delta.
go here for more
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/7698055.stm

Chief Master Sgt. Richard Etchberger, was awarded the Medal of Honor

Memorial for Vietnam War heroes may get upgrade
Spot left for Medal of Honor marking could get use soon
By Michael Hoffman Air Force Times • and John Andrew Prime jprime@gannett.com • November 2, 2008 2:00 am


A recently rededicated memorial to overlooked heroes of the Indochina War could get a significant overhaul soon.

A marker at the 8th Air Force Museum honoring the sacrifice of 19 airmen who served with the Barksdale-based 1st Combat Evaluation Group, also known as Combat Skyspot, soon could bear a symbol denoting that one of the lost airmen, Chief Master Sgt. Richard Etchberger, was awarded the Medal of Honor, the nation's highest award for bravery.

Etchberger lost his life saving three fellow service members fighting off waves of North Vietnamese commandos advancing on a top-secret U.S. radar station in the Laotian mountains in March 1968, but those details were omitted.

Instead, Pentagon officials told Cory Etchberger, then 9, that his father died in a helicopter accident. But he knew something was wrong when he and his family were secretly whisked into the Pentagon to accept the Air Force Cross his father was awarded posthumously.

But the United States wasn't openly fighting a war outside the Vietnams at that time, and so an act of bravery that clearly merited the Medal of Honor was downgraded, and efforts over the year to restore the request for the highest honor ran into bureaucratic roadblocks, including a statutory deadline on how long after an event a request can be made.

But last month, the House and Senate passed, and President George W. Bush signed, a Defense bill that waived the militations in this instance. Air Force Secretary Michael Donley has recommended Etchberger's Air Force Cross be upgraded to the Medal of Honor. Now it is up to Defense Secretary Robert Gates and Bush to approve a renomination for the medal, first recommended in 1968 but denied by then-President Lyndon B. Johnson, said Col. Gerald H. Clayton, then the commander of 1043rd Radar Evaluation Squadron, Detachment 1.
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PTSD Virtual Reality Therapy:Fraudulent High-Priced Boondoggle

Nov-02-2008 18:59
PTSD Virtual Reality Therapy:
Fraudulent High-Priced Boondoggle
Dr. Phil Leveque Salem-News.com
Phillip Leveque has spent his life as a Combat Infantryman, Physician Pharmacologist and Toxicologist.
(MOLALLA, Ore.) - I was abjectly stunned and stupefied when I first read of Virtual Reality Therapy for PTSD Veteran victims. What it first suggested to me was that the VA Psychologists (and Social Workers) didn’t have the slightest comprehension of who and what they were presumed to be treating.

In the first place, the terms surrounding the definition of PTSD are ambiguities and arcane with battle fatigue, shellshock, homesickness, “miss their mothers”, war neurosis, psychoneurosis, sexual repression, battle anxiety, eight balls and malingerer terms. There are probably a few other terms but most require explanation.

Battle fatigue is inexact.

By definition, Infantry soldiers are always exhausted. They work our butts off with little sleep to make us TOUGH. "Terror fatigue" or "horror fatigue" is more appropriate. If your buddy at your side is blown apart you may feel horror and terror that the next shot is for you.

"Shellshock" is concussion from mortar or artillery. Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI) is probably the current term. Psychoneurosis was invented in World War Two and is a general inclusive term. Dr. Freud said all neurosis were from sexual repression. (He never was in a barrage).

"Battle anxiety" – hell yes – who wants to get wounded or killed? Eight balls and malingerers? Some people just didn’t want to be in the service, especially most of the Army Infantry – 8 million of us draftees.

The Draft Boards rejected about 15 percent. Basic training rejected about 7 percent. Good, I wouldn’t want those guys near me in battle.

Ok, lets get to PTSD.

These Shrinkologists seem to think this is a specific entity. IT IS NOT. PTSD is on a Bell Curve like IQ’s – Intelligence Quotients – with a standard deviation of about 3. Some guys pee their pants in basic training. These are the most sensitive or grade ONE.

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The elusiveness of PTSD diagnoses argues for more flexibility, not less.

Service issue: The elusiveness of PTSD diagnoses argues for more flexibility, not less.

If ex-Sgt. Frank Wheeler has Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, his less-than-honorable discharge from the Army won’t make him better.

That’s one reason officials at Womack Army Medical Center should take another look at Wheeler’s case, outlined in an Oct. 26 news story by Observer reporter Michael N. Graff.

They might also usefully revisit the idea of ignoring diagnoses by off-post providers. If the hospital had Wheeler pegged right the first time, his troubles will continue or even worsen until the condition and the diagnosis catch up with him and Womack gets a shiner for its handling of a decorated war veteran.

Another reason is an e-mail in which the hospital’s ranking officer overturned the PTSD profile issued by a Womack behavioral health psychologist. That action came five days after Wheeler was arrested for a violent incident involving his wife.

Whether it was intended that way or not, the e-mail came across as boastful. The colonel who wrote it said a miscoded diagnosis enabled her to stop his transfer to the Warrior Transition Battalion, where he would have enjoyed “not working and being heralded as a War Hero.”
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http://www.fayobserver.com/article?id=309280

Struggling vets: 'It’s hard to get back into society’

Struggling vets: 'It’s hard to get back into society’
Sunday, November 2, 2008 1:33 AM EST
By RONALD DEROSA


TORRINGTON — Respect, reverence and acknowledgment of those who serve in the military has been a platform of great attention in recent election seasons and continues to be so this year.



Life after being discharged, however, isn’t always easy, and a number of transient veterans are living at homeless shelters and eating at soup kitchens right here in Torrington.



Four veterans sat down with The Register Citizen this week at the Community Soup Kitchen, 220 Prospect St., where some receive their only hot meal of the day.



"When you get out of the service, and you’ve killed a couple of people, it’s hard to get back into society," said Dennis Frenette, 54, who was born in Waterbury and served in the Air Force. "I think they should help in the transition."

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Efforts under way to create Veterans Court in the Valley

Efforts under way to create Veterans Court in the Valley
KTAR.com - Phoenix,AZ,USA
Jim Cross/KTAR

Many United States soldiers returning from Afghanistan and Iraq have been unable to leave the battlefield behind them, and now an effort's underway in the Valley to help soldiers get through the court system.


Several groups are working to create a Veterans Court in Maricopa County. It would handle criminal cases involving all soldiers, but primarily it's designed to address the unique needs of combat veterans with post traumatic stress disorder and brain injuries suffered on the battlefield.

"They haven't gone off of being on full alert," said Bill Richardson, a former Mesa police officer and Marine veteran who is behind the idea.

Retired Maricopa County Superior Court Judge Kenneth Fields is spearheading the effort.

Fields said veterans face special problems.

"These are people who were civilians, signed up to be part-time warriors, if you will, but now they're full-time warriors and part-time civilians... We're trying to get basically ahead of the curve, unlike we did for Vietnam, Korea, World War II."

Fields and Richardson said the Arizona Supreme Court, Superior Court, police departments and others are on board with one exception, Maricopa County Attorney Andrew Thomas.
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Portland VA says personal info of patients posted online

Portland VA says personal info posted online
The Oregonian - OregonLive.com - Portland,OR,USA
11/2/2008, 3:01 p.m. PST
The Associated Press

PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) — Veterans Affairs officials say personal information from more than 1,500 Portland patients was mistakenly posted on a Web site.

Portland VA spokesman Mike McAleer says the breach involved patients who had stayed in local lodging at the VA's expense while undergoing treatment at the Portland VA Medical Center.

No medical information was disclosed, but some Social Security numbers were.
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Def Jam exec dies of self-inflicted gunshot, police say

Def Jam exec dies of self-inflicted gunshot, police say
Story Highlights
Shakir Stewart was found Saturday afternoon in the bathroom of his Georgia home

He was pronounced dead at a nearby hospital

Police described the shooting as self-inflicted


ATLANTA, Georgia (AP) -- The executive who succeeded Jay-Z as the head of hip-hop music label Def Jam Recordings died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound near Atlanta, police said Sunday.

Executive vice president Shakir Stewart, 34, died on Saturday, his New York-based label said in a statement.

Stewart was found Saturday afternoon in the bathroom of his home in the Atlanta suburb of Marietta, Cobb County police spokeswoman Cassie Reece said Sunday. He was pronounced dead at a nearby hospital.

Police described the shooting as self-inflicted and would not say who discovered Stewart.
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http://www.cnn.com/2008/SHOWBIZ/Music/11/03/defjam.suicide.ap/index.html

Five homeless shot dead in Los Angeles

Five homeless shot dead in Los Angeles
Five homeless people -- three men and two women -- were found shot dead on Sunday in Los Angeles area, a police spokesman said.

The five bodies were found under two major highways north of Long Beach, 50 kilometers south of Los Angeles, said police sergeant Dina Zapalski.

She said police were alerted to the apparent murder victims by an anonymous caller Sunday morning. She offered no additional details about the grisly discovery.

"There's two female adults and three male adults," said Los Angeles County Coroner's Office Assistant Chief Ed Winter.
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I wonder if the person or people who did this realize Christ Himself was homeless?

I CAN'T RECALL WHEN THE WORD VETERAN... CAME TO MEAN WORTHLESS FREELOADER

Subject: I CAN'T RECALL WHEN THE WORD VETERAN... CAME TO MEAN WORTHLESS FREELOADER


TO ALL VETERANS FROM AGNES M "IRISH" BRESNAHAN US ARMY CAPTAIN SICG/MI 10 SEPTEMBER 1971 TO 10 JUNE 1977

T&P SC CHEMICAL EXPOSURE STATESIDE EFFECTIVE DATE 11 JUNE 1977 SITE OF CHEMICAL EXPOSURE FORT MCCLELLAN ALA, FORT RITCHIE MD AND FORT DRUM NY DIAGONESED AT WALTER REED MEDICAL CENTER 1973.


IT IS VERY IMPORTANT THAT ON TUESDAY 4 NOVEMBER 2008... VETERANS ARE VISABLE AT THE POLLING STATIONS AS VETERANS... WEAR YOUR DOG TAGS, HATS, ETC... ALL OF US MEN AND WOMEN NEED TO SHOW THAT WE ARE VETERANS VOTING... VOTING FOR WHAT WE EARNED, VOTING THAT ALL VETERANS THEIR WIDOWS/WIDOWERS CHILDREN.. ALL ERAS.. RECEIVE THE PROPER MEDICAL TREATMENT AND DIGINITY OF KEEPING OUR OATH... THE US GOVERNMENT HAVE NOT KEPT THEIR PART OF THE OATH... INSTEAD DEIND EVEN BASIC MEDICAL CARE... TOO MANY OF US HAVE DIED KEEPING OUR OATH. ALL OF US WOULD PROUDLY WEAR THE MILITARY UNIFORM OF THE UNITED STATES MILITARY AGAIN. WE LOVE OUR COUNTRY EVEN THOUGH THIS GOVERNMENT THOWS US AWAY.... PLEASE PLEASE... ALL BRANCHES ALL ERAS LET ANYONE WHO SEES YOU ON 4 NOVEMBER 2008 KNOWS YOU OFFERED YOUR LIFE FOR OUR COUNTRY....STAND PROUD....

I SALUTE YOU YOUR FAMILY AND CHILDREN .... AS WE WILL BE KNOWN AS THE NOBLE GENERATION.


WELCOME HOME SIMPER FI... VOTE


IRISH BRESNAHAN