Ex-Marine arrested in alleged hate crime in attack outside California gay bar
By Miranda Leitsinger, Staff Writer
NBC News
A former Marine has been arrested in the beating of two men outside a popular gay bar in Southern California last year and will face hate-crime charges for using anti-gay slurs during the attack, the Los Angeles County District Attorney's Office said Thursday.
John Kelly O'Leary, 21, was arrested Monday by police in Evergreen Park, Ill., Deputy District Attorney Gretchen Ford of the hate crimes unit said in a statement. O'Leary was discharged from the Marines on Oct. 19, about six weeks after the attack, Marine Corps’ spokesman Master Gunnery Sgt. Mark Oliva told NBC News. He will be extradited from Illinois to California to face the charges.
O'Leary and a group of friends, including other Marines, went to the Silver Fox bar in Long Beach, Calif. in the early morning hours of Sept. 3, 2012. O'Leary was accused of shouting anti-gay slurs outside the bar at closing time, which triggered the hate crime charge, said Jane Robison, a spokeswoman for the district attorney's office.
read more here
Friday, April 12, 2013
Congress complaining about the VA is not new news
I was reading "Watchdog: Skeptical House panel quizzes VA head on budget" on Washington Examiner written by Mark Flatten when this part jumped out at me.
Toward the bottom there was this.
Considering the Congress has not even passed a budget in years, they are really in no position to complain that much.
This is from THE WARRIOR SAW, SUICIDES AFTER WAR, my new book being published on Amazon appropriately enough, on April 15, tax day. Notice what was happening and then notice the date.
This does not even address the fact Vietnam veterans are over 40% of the backlog of claims now because no one paid attention to them before when they had their claims turned down. Does not address how two wars were started but Congress didn't seem to care they had not planned for the wounded by body or mind.
Am I happy about what is going on? Absolutely not! But I haven't been happy about any of this for a very, very long time.
UPDATE
I knew something didn't seem right on the article from "Watchdog" so I searched my achieves.
VA Claim backlog hit 915,000 on May 4, 2009
"I'm concerned that we're not really seeing the results for the money Congress has provided to VA over the last years," Miller said. "VA has missed its own performance goal every single year and I think most committee members here are really very tired of the excuses that we keep hearing."
Toward the bottom there was this.
In 2009, it took an average of 161 days to rate a disability claim. Today, it takes about 286 days, according to the VA's most recent figures.
Considering the Congress has not even passed a budget in years, they are really in no position to complain that much.
This is from THE WARRIOR SAW, SUICIDES AFTER WAR, my new book being published on Amazon appropriately enough, on April 15, tax day. Notice what was happening and then notice the date.
Senator Obama went on to say, "When we learn that the VA health care budget is more than $1 billion short, we shouldn't tell our veterans that there isn't a crisis, we should tell them that we will do what it takes to make sure that they get the health care services they earned" said Obama. "That is why I once again am joining my colleagues in an effort to provide the VA with the funding it needs to fully meet the health needs of our veterans. Senator Murray's emergency supplemental funding bill is necessary to avoid what is clearly an on-coming crisis in the VA health system." (Obama Says $1 Billion Shortfall in VA Health Care Budget Requires Emergency Funding By: Barack Obama II Date: June 28, 2005 Location: Washington, DC)
This does not even address the fact Vietnam veterans are over 40% of the backlog of claims now because no one paid attention to them before when they had their claims turned down. Does not address how two wars were started but Congress didn't seem to care they had not planned for the wounded by body or mind.
Am I happy about what is going on? Absolutely not! But I haven't been happy about any of this for a very, very long time.
UPDATE
I knew something didn't seem right on the article from "Watchdog" so I searched my achieves.
VA Claim backlog hit 915,000 on May 4, 2009
Crisis at the VA as Benefits Claims Backlog Nearly Tops One MillionThis was on Morning Joe and you need to hear what they are claiming now as if any of this is new!
Monday, 01 June 2009
By Jason Leopold
During the past four months, the Department of Veterans Affairs backlog of unfinished disability claims from grew by more than 100,000, adding to an already mountainous backlog that is now close to topping one million.
The VA's claims backlog, which includes all benefits claims and all appeals at the Veterans Benefits Administration and the Board of Veterans Appeals at VA, was 803,000 on Jan. 5, 2009. The backlog hit 915,000 on May 4, 2009, a staggering 14 percent increase in four months.
The issue has become so dire that veterans now wait an average of six months to receive disability benefits and as long as four years for their appeals to be heard in cases where their benefits were denied.
Rep. Tim Walz, D-Minn., a member of the House Veterans Affairs Committee, said during a hearing in March that the VA is “almost criminally behind in processing claims.”
Not Alone slamming McDonalds for parody
There are few guilty pleasures I have, or should I say had, because one of them will no longer taste as good in my mouth. The McDonalds ad for Big Mac has left a very bitter taste in my mouth.
"You're not alone" is the message I have been giving to veterans when they suffer after combat. It is a message most Vietnam veterans didn't hear until the last decade with the Internet and even now. many still have not heard it is not their fault. It is the message I give to families falling apart because they feel alone with what is happening in their homes. I give it to grieving parents when they have to bury their sons and daughters after they came home from combat but couldn't survive here.
To read those words attached to Big Mac is something my stomach just can't deal with.
"You're not alone" is the message I have been giving to veterans when they suffer after combat. It is a message most Vietnam veterans didn't hear until the last decade with the Internet and even now. many still have not heard it is not their fault. It is the message I give to families falling apart because they feel alone with what is happening in their homes. I give it to grieving parents when they have to bury their sons and daughters after they came home from combat but couldn't survive here.
To read those words attached to Big Mac is something my stomach just can't deal with.
McDonald's pulls regional ad parody of mental illness
Bruce Horovitz
USA TODAY
April 11, 2013
McDonald's has killed a regional ad that seems to poke fun at mental illness, but some critics say the fast-food chain may not be doing enough.
McDonald's is not lovin' it.
Following consumer complaints, a regional ad for its Big Mac that parodies mental illness -- featuring a familiar photo of a woman who appears to be crying with her head in her hand -- has been yanked by the fast-food giant from Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority subway trains. The headline in the ad states: "You're not alone." But the small print underneath says, "Millions of people love the Big Mac."
Worst of all: The ad includes a toll-free phone number that connects consumers to McDonald's customer satisfaction line. A recording asks consumers if they want to share an "experience" that they had at a McDonald's restaurant.
"The worst possible situation is if someone in an emotional crisis were to see that image and call that number," says Bob Carolla, spokesman for the National Alliance on Mental Illness. "It would be a cruel mistake."
read more here
Thursday, April 11, 2013
Fort Hood shooting survivor leads new boot camp
Fort Hood shooting survivor leads new boot camp
Apr 11, 2013
Nick Delgado
Christopher Royal wasn’t much into physical fitness before the fatal shooting Nov. 5, 2009, at Fort Hood. But for Royal, who was injured in the attack, the tragedy was a rude awakening that turned his life around.
Now the director of Royal’s Fitness & Enterprising, he launched a gospel fitness camp Saturday to help spread the benefits of healthy living.
“When I was shot on Fort Hood, I realized that I had the opportunity to possibly take the gunman down,” he said. “However, I wasn’t as fit or fast enough to get to him.”
That motivation has helped Royal boost his endurance to double the number of pushups and sit-ups he knocks out during an Army physical training test. He said his two-mile run time also improved, from 16 to 12 minutes.
“So I believe that has a lot to do with what motivated me to become fit, and now with the motivation to extend good health,” he said.
The boot camp caters specifically to churches, but Royal said everyone is welcome to join.
He and a dozen others performed station workouts to gospel music at the Killeen Community Center gymnasium Saturday in the first set of boot camp classes.
read more here
Apr 11, 2013
Nick Delgado
Christopher Royal wasn’t much into physical fitness before the fatal shooting Nov. 5, 2009, at Fort Hood. But for Royal, who was injured in the attack, the tragedy was a rude awakening that turned his life around.
Now the director of Royal’s Fitness & Enterprising, he launched a gospel fitness camp Saturday to help spread the benefits of healthy living.
“When I was shot on Fort Hood, I realized that I had the opportunity to possibly take the gunman down,” he said. “However, I wasn’t as fit or fast enough to get to him.”
That motivation has helped Royal boost his endurance to double the number of pushups and sit-ups he knocks out during an Army physical training test. He said his two-mile run time also improved, from 16 to 12 minutes.
“So I believe that has a lot to do with what motivated me to become fit, and now with the motivation to extend good health,” he said.
The boot camp caters specifically to churches, but Royal said everyone is welcome to join.
He and a dozen others performed station workouts to gospel music at the Killeen Community Center gymnasium Saturday in the first set of boot camp classes.
read more here
Pentagon underestimates Afghanistan by $10 billion
Pentagon underestimates Afghanistan by $10 billion, holds war request until May
Foreign Policy National Security
Posted By Kevin Baron
Wednesday, April 10, 2013
The budget blunder, combined with sequestration’s mandated cuts and the fact that Congress has not passed an FY13 appropriations bill, posed yet another challenge for defense officials crafting the FY14 Defense Department spending request, which was released on Wednesday.
read more here
Foreign Policy National Security
Posted By Kevin Baron
Wednesday, April 10, 2013
Pentagon estimates coming up short in Afghanistan by $7 to 10 billion, with half of the fiscal year already passed.The Defense Department underestimated the cost of the Afghanistan war in fiscal 2013 by as much as $10 billion, the Pentagon’s top budget official said on Wednesday, and lacking clarity on the number of troops that will remain in the country next year, DOD will not submit a fiscal 2014 budget request for the war to Congress until next month.
The budget blunder, combined with sequestration’s mandated cuts and the fact that Congress has not passed an FY13 appropriations bill, posed yet another challenge for defense officials crafting the FY14 Defense Department spending request, which was released on Wednesday.
read more here
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