GREEN ON BLUE: THESE COLORS SHOULD RUN

One of the dirtiest secrets of our filthy, dirty war in Afghanistan is the underreported story of "green on blue" attacks; Afghan soldiers trained by Uncle Sam's finest turning their guns on their trainers. The success of these attacks is a testament to the effectiveness of the training: 19 attacks so far this year, killing 26 NATO soldiers, 13 of them US. By the end of July, its likely we will exceed the 21 attacks in all of last year.


Green on blue attacks are underreported because the military and the media collude to hide them from the American public. There is no personal gain for anyone in those institutions to tell the truth that our Afghan venture is a monstrous war crime that merely weakens our country while it recruits new locals to maim and kill as many American invaders as possible. They fail to see and to act on the moral and societal gain from exposing the barbarity and folly of our ravenous war machine.

Green on blue: these colors should run - to the nearest exit back home.

BRING YOUR CHILD TO WORK....ON STEROIDS

Patrick Zaruba has one cool dad. As a seventeen year old high school student, young Patrick got to enjoy the Take Your Child to Work program in a very special way. His father happens to be John Zaruba, DuPage County Sheriff. Young Patrick just didn't get to sit in his father's office and watch him turn the wheels of criminal justice. He got to ride with deputies pursuing bad guys and even was recorded on a police car camera chasing after a bad guy himself. Wow! Not content with persusing a single bad guy, young Patrick was given access to Law Enforcement Agencies Data Systems (LEADS) which contains the record of every single licensed driver in Illinois.

Now the Better Government Association (BGA) has filed a lawsuit to force Sheriff Zaruba to release information regarding what records young Patrick may have accessed and for what purposes. BGA President Andy Shaw argues: "There's no one in America who could possibly defend letting a teenager into a confidential law enforcement database with power to play around like its a video game, only with peoples' lives." No one that is, except DuPage County Sheriff John Zaruba.

Also published in the Daily Herald, July 12, 2012

NEXT STEPS FOR CONG. ROSKAM: TAKE THE OBAMACARE CHALLENGE

With a twinge of optimism, I pressed PLAY to hear my Congressman Peter Roskam's email video entitled Next Steps following the June 28 Supreme Court ruling that Obamacare was Constitutional. Alas, the Congressman came out trumpeting his upcoming July 11 House vote to repeal Obamacare. Roskam objected to the "massive" new tax on the middle class that the law will bring, not mentioning that it will affect less than 1% of taxpayers who may choose to play Russian Roulette with their personal health finances while they drag down the entire and vital public need for every American to be part of the overall solution. We call that taking care of the Commons. Funny, Roskam doesn't call the requirement to buy car liability insurance a tax. I suspect he would object vehemently if a law was proposed to end mandatory auto insurance in Illinois. Nor did Roskam mention that the original "mandate" to buy health insurance came from Willard Mitt Romney, who made it the basis for his Romneycare health insurance program as Massachusetts Governor, and certainly didn't call it a "tax".


But what was particularly reprehensible about Roskam's repeal pitch, is that he didn't utter one word about the 30 million folks without adequate health care who are just beginning to get some relief from Obamacare. Nor did he mention that these folks are still going bankrupt, suffering catastrophic health problems and dying from being shut out from the health care system for so long. Apparently, GOP House Chief Deputy Majority Whip Roskam got the message from the GOP brass: never, ever mention those being helped; they don't exit. It took Fox News' Chris Wallace three tries before he got GOP Senate Majority Leader to blurt out: "That's not the issue", when Wallace dared ask him how the GOP is going to cover those 30 million folks when the GOP repeals Obamacare.

Congressman Roskam said his video was in response to an email from constituent John Witt asking Roskam about his next steps to the Supreme Court ruling. I'm still waiting for Roskam to respond to my June 20 email asking him to take the Obamacare Challenge: go without health care for him and his family for 90 days to confirm his belief that these folks get along just fine using the Emergency Room for every health issue and paying full fare for prescription drugs. I can guarantee that if he sends out an email video taking me up on the Obamacare Challenge... it will go viral.

Also published in the Glen Ellyn Patch, July 13, 2012

WHERE'S THE PEEP?

A few months back when gas prices were climbing, robbing working folks of buying power for necessities, GOP candidates were popping up like peeping chicks on news channels blaming the whole price rise on President Obama. They were not the least bit embarrassed when responsible journalists played clips showing these same candidates exonerating former President Bush when gas prices spiked under his leadership. Now that gas prices are dropping fast and furious, they are suddenly mute; from their mouths, not a single peep.

Also published in the Kane County Chronicle, July 10, 2012