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06 Apr 2010 23:16

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U.S.: The Navy gets subs ready for the ladies by banning smokes

  • ladies The Navy, for seemingly forever, avoided putting women on subs because the quarters were so tight. Time for a change, dudes.
  • smokes Those same tight quarters are why the Navy plans to block smoking on subs. Some say it’s welcome; others are complaining. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

01 Apr 2010 20:58

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U.S.: Army Secretary John McHugh flip-flops on “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell”

  • If you’re gay and you speak out, you could still get discharged. A day after telling reporters that there it would be “counterproductive” to “take disciplinary action against someone who spoke with me openly and honestly” on the military’s controversial “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy, Army Secretary John McHugh admitted that he misspoke about what he really meant. Which, of course, means that those who talked to McHugh could get in trouble, if he could remember who they were. Protip to gays who spoke to John McHugh: Grow mustaches. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

26 Mar 2010 15:07

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World: The U.S. is still accidentally killing Afghan civilians at high rates

  • We have shot an amazing number of people, but to my knowledge, none has ever proven to be a threat.
  • Top U.S. commander in Afghanistan Gen. Stanley McCrysthal • Regarding deaths of Afghan civilians at checkpoints. Despite stronger rules at checkpoints designed to limit civilian deaths at the hands of the U.S. or NATO, it hasn’t worked. While other changes (particularly the limiting of airstrikes) have led to a 28 percent decrease in civilian deaths, according to United Nations researchers, on-the-ground civilian attacks have turned the tide against the coalition in some cases. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

08 Mar 2010 23:47

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U.S.: The Supreme Court takes on Fred Phelps’ hate-causing cronies

  • cause Phelps’ Westboro Baptist Church,
    which has made it a mission of
    theirs to protest soldiers’ funerals,
    was sued in 2006 after they
    protested the funeral of Lance Cpl. Matthew Snyder.
  • issues The corresponding issues of
    free expression and right to dissent meet with the conflicting issue of
    privacy in this case, which could
    set a pretty huge precedent for
    protesters. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

06 Mar 2010 11:54

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U.S.: The story of Capt. Holly Graf, or how mean people always lose

  • rise Top female Captain Holly Graf was put in charge of a billion-dollar warship, the Japan-based U.S.S. Cowpens.
  • climax Graf, while leading the ship, was constantly profane and abusive to subordinates. She swore a lot and was very mean.
  • fall Her crew rebelled against her, which led to her removal as commander of the ship in January. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

27 Feb 2010 13:11

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U.S.: The military realizes that social media actually a good idea

  • The finally unblocked Twitter, Facebook and so on. About time. For three years, if you used a military computer, you couldn’t access sites like Twitter and Facebook, despite the obvious advantages they offer. No longer. “The purpose of the policy is to recognize that we need to take advantage of these Internet-based capabilities,” said deputy assistant secretary of defense David Wennergren, “These Web 2.0 tools need to be part of what we use.” Even with the possibility of info leaks, we’re glad the military finally changed this policy. It came later than it should’ve. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

23 Feb 2010 21:27

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U.S.: Fun fact: Until today, female soldiers couldn’t serve in subs

  • We wonder if they had a “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy for that. The military is nothing if not a slow-moving machine, submerged in its own policy, deep in a ocean of bureaucracy that keeps their policies airtight. Well, change is taken place on submarines. Why so long for women’s liberation to hit the deep ocean, despite 15 percent of sailors having girl parts? Well, subs are tightly packed, and soldiers living on them often share the same bed in shifts in a policy called “hot bunking.” That’s what she said. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 2 Comments • Permalink
 

18 Feb 2010 20:52

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World: Investigators: Chinese universities the root of Google’s hack attacks

  • One of the two schools is tied to the Chinese military. The National Security Administration’s investigation into Google’s hacking claims has led to Shanghai Jiaotong University and the Lanxiang Vocational School. Jiaotong in particular has one of the country’s strongest computer science programs, while Lanxiang is directly tied to the Chinese military. What does this mean all mean? It means that it may have been rooted in China even if the government itself wasn’t involved. This could get interesting. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

15 Feb 2010 09:20

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U.S., World: Hillary Clinton has a prediction on what happens to Iran next

  • That is how we see it. We see that the government in Iran, the supreme leader, the president, the Parliament, is being supplanted and that Iran is moving towards a military dictatorship.
  • Secretary of State Hillary Clinton • Speaking at a televised town hall meeting at Carnegie Mellon University. She’s literally suggesting that the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps could take power away from Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and company based on the intelligence they have. She also notes that UN sanctions would focus on the guards, which control Iran’s nuclear program. Interesting take. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

09 Feb 2010 19:17

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U.S.: Don’t ask, don’t care? Openly gay soldier back with National Guard

Lt. Dan Choi, who speaks Arabic, outed himself loudly on “The Rachel Maddow Show,” so this isn’t just some fluke. They let him back in. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink
 
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