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Below are web-sites that provide information on Veterans benefits and how to file/ask for them. Accordingly, there are many sites that explain how to obtain books, military/medical records, information and how to appeal a denied claim with the VA.
Please pass this information on to every Veteran you know.
Nearly 100% of this information is free and available for all veterans, the only catch is: you have to ask for it, because they won’t tell you about a specific benefit unless you ask for it. It's just how the bureaucracy works. You need to know what questions to ask so the right doors open for you - and then be ready to have an advocate who is willing to work with and for you, stay in the process, and press for your rights and your best interests. Those advocates are the VSOs. The websites are below the fold.
And I can’t emphasize enough - leverage the Veteran’s Service Officer resources. A veteran isn’t charged for their services, and they know how to cut through the red tape. They exist for the sole purpose of helping us and our families get through the maze to what we are due, in accordance with our needs.
Anyone watching HBO's ongoing miniseries "House of Saddam" surely must be struck by the lead actor's resemblance to the late Iraqi dictator. Me? I was struck by something else: his Israeli accent. "Why does Saddam Hussein sound like my old grocer in Jerusalem?" I called out before checking the movie credits online. (Yes, an Israeli, but no, not my grocer.)
The post-9/11 era might be Hollywood's Arab moment. But Israeli actors seem to be reaping the benefit, getting many of the best parts. Take Yigal Naor. Before portraying Saddam Hussein, the stout actor from Tel Aviv played Iraqi Ahmed Chalabi in "10 Days to War," an Arab interrogator in the Hollywood film "Rendition" and a Palestinian militant in Steven Spielberg's "Munich." One of his costars in "House of Saddam" is Israeli Uri Gavriel, who portrays the depraved Chemical Ali. Gavriel also played a Saudi terrorist in "The Kingdom."
Certainly, plenty of Arabs are getting Arab roles. The Egyptian actor Amr Waked is riveting as Saddam's brother-in-law in the HBO series, and he also had a good role in "Syriana." Often, however, Arab characters in Hollywood films are terrorists—and many Arab performers won't take those parts. According to Jack Shaheen, whose book "Reel Bad Arabs" chronicles the history of Arab stereotyping in U.S. cinema, nuanced roles for Arabs are rare. "I don't believe casting directors think of Arabs in any other way except as playing terrorists or villains," he says.
But Alon Aboutboul, an Israeli actor who plays Al-Saleem in the recent thriller "Body of Lies," says there's a universalism in the anger and alienation of the characters he portrays. "I don't think of playing a terrorist," he says. "I think of someone who's idealistic and believes passionately in what he's doing." Oscar nominee Shohreh Aghdoshloo, who is a star in her native Iran, plays Saddam's wife in the HBO series and once played a terrorist on "24."[...]
Still, moviegoers across the Arab world must find it unsettling to see themselves so often depicted by their enemies. Arab conspiracy theorists, already convinced that Israel engineered the war on Iraq, must view "House of Saddam" as further evidence. As for my old grocer, he might be wasting his time. He could be a movie star.
For many months Operation YouTube Smackdown has effectively shut down almost 15 thousands terrorist videos posted on Youtube and this has caused a lot of anger among the cyberspace terrorists. Operation YouTube Samckdown is a group of patriots who took upon themselves to prevent spreading terrorist propaganda on Youtube. We have an ongoing thread here on FR about this operation and it is posted by Freeper "StarCMC".
Today, a member of an Al Qaeda terrorist forum called "Al Falojah" admitted that they have been utterly defeated on Youtube by Operation You Tube Smackdown.
He also blamed the members of the terrorist forums for making it easy to spot the YouTube terrorist videos when they post links of these videos on the forums.
The poster name is "Song of Terror" and the date of his post is December 16 2008.
This is a link to thread http://al-faloja.info/vb/showthread.php?t=38871 in case someone has access to "al falojah" terrorist forum and knows how to read Arabic.
Below is a partial translation of the post:
"Members of Al Falojah forum swallow the bitterness of a crushing defeat on YouTube.
I have warned multiple times in my replies to the some threads and in private e-mails that I sent to some brothers about posting Yotube jihadi videos links on the pages of the jihadi forums because they (the videos) would be disabled within few days…… The Zinoist YOUTUBE SMACKDOWN network has few members but they have a lot of accounts on Youtube where they do a lot of "Flags" to the jihadi publications in particular the ones with English titles and contain tags such as "Iraq, IED, humvee, martyrdom, jihad, war".
End of the partial translation.
Congratulations members of Operation YouTube SmackDown, keep up the great work, you are hurting the terrorist enemy and preventing them from publishing their terrorist propaganda on YouTube.
PS: The internet terrorists are now aiming toward "MegaVideo" website to make massive publications of their terrorist videos there.
A trial version of the first virtual world aimed at the Muslim community has been launched.Virtual world for "reverting"?
Called Muxlim Pal, it allows Muslims to look after a cartoon avatar that inhabits the virtual world. Based loosely on other virtual worlds such as The Sims, Muxlim Pal lets members customise the look of their avatar and its private room.
Aimed at Muslims in Western nations, Muxlim Pal's creators hope it will also foster understanding among non-Muslims. "We are not a religious site, we are a site that is focused on the lifestyle," said Mohamed El-Fatatry, founder of Muxlim.com - the parent site of Muxlim Pal.
"This is for anyone who is remotely interested in the Muslim culture and the Muslim lifestyle," he said.
Muslims believe every child is born with fitrah, including those in non-Muslim communities, and that without external influence, these children would come to worship Allah on their own. As such, every child is born Muslim.I clicked on their video link and a muslima explained her "reversion" to Islam. She stated she is oppressed by the US and not Islam.
Reno police Tuesday arrested a suspect in the slaying of Brianna Denison, ending a 10-month hunt for the man who abducted the 19-year-old Reno High School graduate from a friend’s home in January.Lets hope and pray this person is indeed the man who murdered Brianna.
KOLO 8 News reported a man named James Biela was booked into the Washoe County Jail on charges of murder, kidnapping in the first degree and sexual assault but could not confirm he is the suspect in the Denison case.
Reno police took a DNA sample from the suspect and said it would take 12 hours to process, according to KTNV channel 2 news.
Police spokesman Steve Frady issued a one-sentence news release announcing a news conference at 10:30 a.m. today. He would not say whether the suspect was arrested in Reno or elsewhere.
The Red Cross is partnering with Pitney Bowes this holiday season for the Holiday Mail for Heroes campaign. For the second year in a row, we’re collecting holiday cards to distribute to American service members, veterans and their families in the United States and around the world. Pitney Bowes is generously donating technology, resources and postage to make this holiday card program possible.
Our goal is to collect and distribute one million holiday cards to spread holiday cheer and facilitate thanks to these brave individuals and families.
Please send cards to this address, following the guidelines listed below:
Holiday Mail for Heroes
PO Box 5456
Capitol Heights, MD 20791-5456
Somali pirates built up their defences around a captured Saudi Arabian super-tanker after demanding a $US25 million ransom.The most interesting tidbit left out of this article comes from AFP - "Shebab fighters also have arrived in Harardhere."
As foreign navies sent warships to Somalia's dangerous waters and shipping companies sought alternative routes, extra clan militia and other fighters were brought in to strengthen security at the pirate lair of Harardhere, residents said.
"Some of them are inside the town and others are taking shelter in a nearby village and can be called if need be," local resident Mohamed Awale said.
He said the fighters had come from neighbouring Gulgudud and Mudug regions.
Next month, the European Union is launching its first-ever naval mission, Operation Atlanta. Its dual aim is to protect United Nations food aid shipments to Somalia and to combat piracy in the region. At the moment, NATO has a small naval force temporarily stationed in waters near Somalia which is the base for most pirates.
Operation Atlanta is something entirely new for the EU because it is taking place far from Europe itself. Its first goal is to escort World Food Programme aid shipments to Somalia. These have been hit by pirates fairly often in the past.
The second aim is to combat the region's piracy in general. The problem of ships being hijacked for ransom has become much worse over the past year. Operation Atlanta is an ambitious project. The area of sea to be policed is enormous, while the resources are limited: just seven ships and a budget of eight million euros for a whole year.
On November 10, after nearly a month in prison, Esha Momeni was released on $200,000 bail in the form of the deed to her parents' home. The California State University student was visiting Tehran to conduct academic research on the Iranian women's rights movement. Security officers arrested her during a traffic stop, seized her video tapes, and held her in solitary confinement since October 15 in Tehran's notorious Evin Prison.Lets hope she is indeed back home. Bastage Mullahs anyway
Momeni had been held for several weeks in solitary confinement. According to the deputy general prosecutor of Tehran, Momeni is charged with "propaganda against the state" Momeni is currently back at home with her family. However, her passport and travel documents are still in custody. Additionally, if Momeni is accused of violating bail, the government can take away her family's home. There are unconfirmed reports today that Momeni is able to leave Iran until her court hearing.
In one paper available on his Web site, Ayers equates teaching to a single spark that can start a prairie fire.Apparently the author is unaware what Ayers is referencing when he speaks of "prairie fire".
"Teachers might not change the world in dramatic fashion, but we certainly change the people who will change the world," he wrote in his paper.
The controversy over Bill Ayers continues this week in America's heartland. On Friday, November 14, a teach-in protest is taking place on the Lincoln campus at the University of Nebraska.
Flyers are billing the event as a chance to "make Nebraska history" as students and faculty come "to protest UNL's decision to cancel the November 15 lecture by Prof. William Ayers and that decision's violation of academic freedom."
Students at West Virginia University (WVU) were prohibited from distributing their conservative, student publication at the school library on October 14, despite prior approval from the college president.Go figure.
The conservative students immediately hired an attorney to represent their interests to the university administration and to protect their constitutional rights.
The Mountaineer Jeffersonian, a new, independent newspaper, was founded with assistance from the Leadership Institute (LI) of Arlington, Virginia. LI helped the group to obtain a donor-supported grant to produce their first issue this fall and provided publications training for the staff.
Chris Walters, advertising manager and owner of The Mountaineer Jeffersonian, said, “I am shocked that at an institution of higher learning, a library would bar distribution of a publication to which a member of the staff was opposed.
An Islamist rebel administration in Somalia has had a 13-year-old girl stoned to death for adultery after the child's father reported that she was raped by three men.Bastages. Their official website is still being hosted by a Washington State firm. Here is some info on al Shabaab from the U.S. State Department:
Amnesty International said al-Shabab militia, which controls the southern city of Kismayo, arranged for 50 men to stone Aisha Ibrahim Duhulow in front of about 1,000 spectators. A lorry load of stones was brought to the stadium for the killing.
On February 29, 2008, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice designated al-Shabaab (aka al-Shabab, aka Shabaab, aka the Youth, aka Mujahidin al-Shabaab Movement, aka Mujahideen Youth Movement, aka Mujahidin Youth Movement, aka MYM, aka Harakat Shabab al-Mujahidin, aka Hizbul Shabaab, aka Hisb’ul Shabaab, aka al-Shabaab al-Islamiya, aka Youth Wing, aka al Shabaab al-Islaam, aka al-Shabaab al-Jihaad, aka the Unity of Islamic Youth) as a Foreign Terrorist Organization under Section 219 of the Immigration and Nationality Act (as amended) and as a Specially Designated Global Terrorist under Section 1(b) of Executive Order 13224 (as amended).
The consequences of these designations include a prohibition against the provision of material support or resources to al-Shabaab and blocking of all property and interests in property of the organization that are in the United States, or come within the United States, or the control of U.S. persons. Secretary Rice took this action in consultation with the Attorney General and the Secretary of the Treasury. Designations play a critical role in our fight against terrorism and are an effective means of curtailing support for terrorist activities and pressuring groups to renounce terrorism.
Al-Shabaab is a violent and brutal extremist group with a number of individuals affiliated with al-Qaida. Many of its senior leaders are believed to have trained and fought with al-Qaida in Afghanistan.
What I've said is that we would put a cap and trade system in place that is as aggressive, if not more aggressive, than anybody else's out there.[...]
So if somebody wants to build a coal-powered plant, they can; it's just that it will bankrupt them because they're going to be charged a huge sum for all that greenhouse gas that's being emitted.[...]
So if somebody wants to build a coal-powered plant, they can.
It's just that it will bankrupt them."
"We’ve been in touch with the Taliban and they’ve agreed for a spokesman to take your questions.A reader asks:
Wow, this is impressive! Thank you for all the hard work by the WHYS team to secure an interview.
I would like to know if there is a way that they can live peacefully and respect the differing views of other people. Why can they not be tolerant? What would motivate them to stop the violence?
"Whoa! Whoa! Whoa! Whoa! Whoa! Whoa! Whoa!"
On Sunday, after Mr. Ayers was introduced to an audience of about 50 people who had bought tickets to the event, the moderator, the WNYC radio host Leonard Lopate, asked, “Does this mean I can’t run for president?”
“It means you can win,” Mr. Ayers said in response.
Newspapers and magazines swarmed around the first black student to win the most coveted spot at the most vaunted club at one of America’s most prestigious institutions. In interviews, Mr. Obama was modest and careful. (In a rare slip, he told The Associated Press: “I’m not interested in the suburbs. The suburbs bore me.”) He signed a contract to write a memoir. A prankster posted a cast list for a movie version of his life, starring Blair Underwood. When Mr. Underwood visited the school, he questioned Mr. Obama for material for “L.A. Law.”I live in the suburbs and this pi**es me off.
If you look at the victories and failures of the civil rights movement and its litigation strategy in the court. I think where it succeeded was to invest formal rights in previously dispossessed people, so that now I would have the right to vote. I would now be able to sit at the lunch counter and order as long as I could pay for it I’d be o.k. But, the Supreme Court never ventured into the issues of redistribution of wealth, and of more basic issues such as political and economic justice in society. To that extent, as radical as I think people try to characterize the Warren Court, it wasn’t that radical. It didn’t break free from the essential constraints that were placed by the founding fathers in the Constitution, at least as its been interpreted and Warren Court interpreted in the same way, that generally the Constitution is a charter of negative liberties. Says what the states can’t do to you. Says what the Federal government can’t do to you, but doesn’t say what the Federal government or State government must do on your behalf, and that hasn’t shifted and one of the, I think, tragedies of the civil rights movement was, um, because the civil rights movement became so court focused I think there was a tendancy to lose track of the political and community organizing and activities on the ground that are able to put together the actual coalition of powers through which you bring about redistributive change. In some ways we still suffer from that.
Charlie W. Williams of Raeford, N.C., a veteran of the Korean and Vietnam wars and supporter of Democratic candidate Sen. Barack Obama, lines up early to get into a rally at the Crown Coliseum in Fayetteville on Oct. 19. "He's going to get a lot of white votes," he said of his candidate. Washington Times
The one thing most grandparents have in common is that they have the most wonderful grandchildren in the world - so clever, so handsome, so pretty, ever so precious. Even if you are still unsure of your path in life, and even if your parents and friends occasionally wonder about you, your grandma and grandpa love you and have faith in you.
That is your weapon! "Precious" needs to get on the phone and say, "Grandpa, Grandma, I am asking you to vote for Barack Obama. This is really important to me. It's about my future. It's about the world I will be living in. It's about the world I want for my future children. (They will love that one!) Please! Do it for me!"
...The really great part of this strategy is that everything you could possibly say to your grandparents about how important Barack's election is for you is one hundred percent true
A letter-writing campaign has just been launched calling for the immediate release of a California State University student arrested in Tehran after interviewing women's rights advocates. Read the latest on this breaking case.(Full story)
"Esha Momeni is an American citizen seized in Iran simply for researching the local women's rights movement," said Nasser Weddady, AIC's Civil Rights Outreach Director. "It is vital in this unfolding hostage crisis that we protect an American student locked in Evin Prison."
The award winning Channel 4 Dispatches series, lauded for their "Undercover Mosque" program, returns to U.K. mosques to see what has changed in the time since their last report. Their findings, disturbing, to say the least, beg the question - Is this happening in the United States as well?
We're exactly three weeks from election day-- and as the countdown gets shorter it seems political emotions are growing higher-- especially in one South Bend neighborhood on the northeast side.
Several McCain supporters in that neighborhood are speaking out after getting a nasty, anonymous anti-McCain-Palin letter in the mail.
Newscenter 16 spoke with three families who got the letter in the mail on Tuesday.
They say the mailman said he delivered about eight of these letters to their northeast side neighborhood.
All the families targeted have McCain-Palin or pro-life signs in their yard.
The letter doesn't threaten the people, but takes jabs, with some "choice" language, at their political views.
“I feel like the individual is very angry about some issues,” explains Rita Nedvidek, who received one of the letters.
The letters are handwritten, all addressed to "occupant", and postmarked Fort Wayne, Indiana.
The sender takes jabs at McCain and Palin's characters and writes, "You Republican hypocrites turn my stomach."
He or she also says, "It takes a lot of audacity to put Palin's name on your front lawn."
Senior Tehran officials are recommending a preemptive strike against Israel to prevent an Israeli attack on Iran's nuclear reactors, a senior Islamic Republic official told foreign diplomats two weeks ago in London.
The official, Dr. Seyed G. Safavi, said recent threats by Israeli authorities strengthened this position, but that as of yet, a preemptive strike has not been integrated into Iranian policy.
It’s two weeks until the election! Both sides are doing what they can to drum up support. I caught up in Pueblo, Colorado with the Stop Obama Tour, organized by the Our Country Deserves Better PAC.
Lloyd Marcus is a wonderful singer and talented artist. He grew up in the projects of East Baltimore. The tragedies he saw there as a child made him realize that Great Society projects and welfare destroy people’s lives and their communities.
Shame on McCain and Palin for using an old code word for black
By Lewis Diuguid, Kansas City Star Editorial Page columnist
The "socialist" label that Sen. John McCain and his GOP presidential running mate Sarah Palin are trying to attach to Sen. Barack Obama actually has long and very ugly historical roots.
The best evidence that Barack Obama launched his political career from Bill Ayers’s living room has disappeared . . . down the memory hole.
Well, not quite. The Wayback Machine and I have both saved copies.
On Thursday, the L.A. Times claimed that there is “no recorded basis” for John McCain’s statement that Obama launched his political career in Bill Ayers’s living room. That same day, I wrote a post that proved them wrong. I linked a January 27, 2005 blog post by Maria Warren, a political liberal who attended the function. In that post, she said:
When I first met Barack Obama, he was giving a standard, innocuous little talk in the livingroom of those two legends-in-their-own-minds, Bill Ayers and Bernardine Dohrn. They were launching him–introducing him to the Hyde Park community as the best thing since sliced bread.
I originally read about this post at a Politico piece about the Ayers-Obama relationship in February 2008. That post identified the name of the blog, and Maria Warren as the author. But Politico did not link Warren’s post; I found it and linked it based on the evidence provided by Politico. Yesterday I sent the link to the L.A. Times as part of a request for a correction of the error in their editorial.
As far as I know, I was the first blogger to directly link Warren’s blog entry — and I did so last Thursday.
Now it’s Monday, and this blog entry — which had been around since January 27, 2005 — is suddenly gone.
(Sunday, October 19 - Filed by Mark Williams in Raton, New Mexico with the Stop Obama Tour) We learned at this morning’s Stop Obama Rally here that the McCain/Palin Straight Talk Express came through town yesterday. It arrived with a window shattered by a .22 caliber weapon. It had also been hit by an unknown number of paint balls from a paint ball gun or guns. There were reportedly no injuries and neither candidate was on board.
New Party members and supported candidates won 16 of 23 races, including an at-large race for the Little Rock, Ark., City Council, a seat on the county board for Little Rock and the school board for Prince George's County, Md. Chicago is sending the first New Party member to Congress, as Danny Davis, who ran as a Democrat, won an overwhelming 85% victory. New Party member Barack Obama was uncontested for a State Senate seat from Chicago.
Illinois: The first NP member heads to Congress, as Danny Davis wins an overwhelming 85% victory yesterday (he got a higher percentage of the vote in that district than the President). NP member and State Senate candidate Barack Obama won uncontested. Interestingly, it appears that the local Democratic machine is trying to distance itself from our folks. At a "Democratic Unity" march on Chicago's West Side, a flyer invited community members to join with a host of local democratic candidates. The only two west-side Democrats not listed: NP members Danny Davis (U.S. House candidate) and Michael Chandler (Alderman and Ward Committeeman).[ed...Obama hiding ties to New Party?]
On December 21, 1997, Barack Obama wrote a short review of William Ayers’ book A Kind and Just Parent: The Children of Juvenile Court, which had recently been published by Beacon Press. Here’s a photo of how the review appeared in the Chicago Tribune[...]:
[...]Feel free to ignore this section unless you’re interested in seeing “proof” that the review is real.[...]
[...]the above shows the entirety of page 5 of the Chicago Review book section on December 21, 1997. Obama’s review is visible at the lower left[...]
[...]This above shows the date and page number at the top of the page, confirming it really is from the Chicago Tribune on December 21, 1997[...]