Mike Waller was born and raised in Detroit, Michigan. He joined the Army in 1983 and served in the Gulf War and in Mogadishu, Somalia from August, 1993 to December 1993. He left the Army in 1995 and now lives in a suburb outside of Detroit.
Active Apaches in Afghanistan
December 18, 2006: U.S. Army Chief Warrant Officer Philip Learn, and his co-pilot, Captain Brian Hummel, were recently awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross for heroics a year ago in Afghanistan. But there's a lot more to it than that.
The two were flying an AH-64 Apache gunship at the time, escorting two CH-47 transport helicopters near Kandahar, in southern Afghanistan. One of the CH-47's took some ground fire, was damaged, but managed to land. Then the 34 troops on the CH-47 found themselves under fire from a large group of Taliban gunmen in the area. So Learn and Hummel took their AH-64 in low and basically shot it out with the Taliban, killing and wounding many, and forcing the rest to leave the area. At times, the AH-64 was exchanging fire with over a dozen Taliban, who were armed with assault rifles, machine-guns and PRGs.
The incoming Democratic chairman of the House intelligence committee could not describe Hezbollah and incorrectly described al-Qaeda's Islamic roots in a recent interview.
Rep. Silvestre Reyes (D-Tex.), whom incoming Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) named earlier this month to chair the panel, formally known as the Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, was asked by a reporter from Congressional Quarterly whether al-Qaeda was Sunni or Shiite. "Predominantly -- probably Shiite," Reyes replied.
From Osama bin Laden down, al-Qaeda's leadership is comprehensively Sunni and subscribes to a form of Sunni Islam known for not tolerating theological deviation.
Attorney General Greg Stumbo has asked the state ethics commission to reconsider its opinion that said he could not run for governor in 2007 without confronting a “perceived or actual” conflict of interest.
Stumbo, a Democrat, said in an interview Thursday with The Courier-Journal he has not decided whether to run for governor but has no plans to do so “at this time.”
Taxpayers picked up a tab of at least $2.1 million for the investigation of Gov. Ernie Fletcher and his staff for awarding civil service jobs to political allies.
But the full cost will remain a mystery.
"Yes, the investigation was worth it. Kentucky will see the benefits of this investigation as its work force in state government is allowed to function as the law intended it to, where jobs are awarded on merit and what you know -- not who you know," he said.
Democrats tidying up a cluster of unfinished spending bills dumped on them by departing Republican leaders in Congress will start by removing billions of dollars in lawmakers' pet projects next month.
The move, orchestrated by the incoming chairmen of the House and Senate Appropriations committees, could prove politically savvy even as it proves unpopular with other members of Congress, who as a group will lose thousands of so-called earmarks.
"There will be no congressional earmarks," Rep. David Obey , D-Wis., and Sen. Robert Byrd , D-W.Va., said Monday in a statement announcing their plans, which were quickly endorsed by incoming Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., and soon-to-be Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev.
Earmarks are congressionally mandated projects such as grants for local governments, home-state universities and hospitals, roads, bridges and flood control construction, and economic development efforts not included in the president's spending proposals.
Often called "pork" by critics, their sponsors defend inserting the projects into spending bills by claiming that, as elected representatives, they know more about the needs of people in their states and government programs than the president or bureaucrats in the executive branch.
Such projects have exploded in number under GOP control of Congress over the last 12 years and at the same time have spawned a boom on Washington's K Street lobbying corridor, where consultants earn big fees by helping outsiders navigate the system.
Last week, however, McGuire obtained an assault warrant against the principal at Central Elementary in Johnson County, one of 50 school districts in Kentucky that still permit corporal punishment.
McGuire concedes he gave the school permission to paddle his son at the beginning of the school year. The boy was punished Nov. 27 after what McGuire termed a wrestling match with another student during recess.
But McGuire says principal Ben Hamilton, 43, went too far and hit too hard.
"He crossed the line," said McGuire, who said bruises on his son's buttocks in the shape of a paddle were still visible yesterday. "You're talking about a straight-A student who's never been in trouble before and, in his first whipping, you tear his backside off."
Hamilton referred questions to his lawyer, Ned Pillersdorf, who said he has filed a motion to dismiss the warrant because Hamilton is immune from prosecution under state law. Principals have the right to use necessary force to promote discipline, Pillersdorf said yesterday.
Teacher Beth Lemaster, who witnessed the paddling, said in a court affidavit that it "was not excessive, hurtful and was routine in nature, and was designed to instill discipline in the child."
Former Secretary of State James Baker and his panelists are trying to shore up the failing regional system that their generation designed. Released yesterday, their report doesn't offer "a new way forward." Its recommendations echo past failures. And it shows no sense of how gravely the world has changed.
The report doesn't offer a plan, but a muddle of truisms and truly bad ideas.
European Socialists promised on Thursday to work to rebuild Europe's strategic alliance with the United States now that the Democrats control Congress after last month's elections.
Socialist leaders attending a meeting of the European Socialist Party pledged that with the Democrats on the rise, strong ties could be renewed with the United States after years of cool relations with Republican President George W. Bush.
Howard Dean, chairman of the national committee of the U.S. Democratic Party, is attending the two-day conference together with the leaders of leftist governments of several countries and party leaders from across Europe.
The Arab world sees the Democratic Party gains in the recent U.S. elections as a sign that Americans are getting tired of the violence in Iraq, and are ready to leave. The Arabs also see the Democrats are more pro-European, and thus more anti-Israel and more tolerant of Islamic terrorists and traditional forms of government (dictatorships and monarchies) in the Arab world. The elections also confirm, in the Arab mind, that the Americans cannot be trusted in the long run, have no stomach for bloodshed and can always be turned around by the more clever Arab tactics. For the Iraqi Shia Arabs, the departure of the Americans won't change anything. It was nice having them, their money, and their deadly soldiers around. But the Shia Arabs have enough guns, and people trained to use them, to deal with the Iraqi Sunni Arabs. The Americans have served their purpose, and it's time for them to go.
"Nobody's going to come back from Canada anymore," said James Fennerty, a Chicago-based attorney who represents Snyder and other AWOL soldiers.
Army Spc. Darrell Anderson, who drew wide attention for deserting the Army rather than face a possible second tour in Iraq, was released Friday from Fort Knox and is expected to be discharged without a court-martial, his lawyer said.“It’s really great he doesn’t have to face a court-martial,” said his attorney, Jim Fennerty of Chicago. “I’m all excited, he’s excited.”
HAZLETON, Pa. — With tensions rising and the police department and municipal budget stretched thin, Hazleton is about to embark on one of the toughest crackdowns on illegal immigrants anywhere in the United States.
Last week the mayor of this former coal town introduced, and the City Council tentatively approved, a measure that would revoke the business licenses of companies that employ illegal immigrants; impose $1,000 fines on landlords who rent to illegal immigrants; and make English the official language of the city.
Jose Lechuga, 42, came to the United States illegally in 1982, received amnesty in 1986 and now operates a grocery store and restaurant in Hazleton. He said the mayor is "confusing illegal people with criminals."
Immigration sweep brings fear to community
A sense of unease has spread in this community of weather-worn homes since immigration agents began walking the streets as part of a stepped-up nationwide effort targeting an estimated 590,000 immigrant fugitives. Other illegal immigrants are being rounded up along the way.
Senate Republicans proposed a $100 fuel-cost rebate for millions of taxpayers. Democrats talked of a two-month suspension of the 18.4-cent per gallon federal gasoline tax.
But veterinarians, animal welfare activists and the state Department of Fisheries and Wildlife oppose the measure, saying it could lead to the spread of rabies. Some people also say it is cruel to have dogs chase coyotes to exhaustion or death.
"It's just terrifying and it stresses them and they don't meet with a very humane end," said Pam Rogers, Kentucky legislative coordinator for Humane Society of the United States. "They're going to probably be torn apart by the dogs."
Deborah Stillwell, whose 12-year-old son, John, was seriously injured in an ATV accident, praised the bill's passage.
John was not wearing a helmet when he crashed into a church signpost in Taylor County last August. He suffered a brain injury and a fractured skull, a broken leg and three crushed vertebrae.
But the bill's sponsor, Rep. Jim Gooch, D-Providence, said a law might prompt more parents to make their children wear them.
"If this law can save one parent from having a child who is brain-injured or killed, " Gooch said, "I think this law will have been worth it."
NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) -- After motorist T. Allen Morgan got a speeding ticket in Coopertown - a town known for its heavy-handed traffic enforcement - he tried to pay his ticket like a good citizen.
But he added a little note on his check which angered Mayor Danny Crosby. The mayor refused to accept the check, sparking the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation to launch an investigation Monday.
Crosby told Morgan that he had to either write another check that didn't have the words "for speed trap" written in bold letters or face the charges in traffic court.
"As mayor of this city, if I accept that check from that gentleman, I'm admitting we run a speed trap, and that's a bald-faced lie," Crosby said Tuesday.
Coopertown lies about 20 miles northwest of Nashville on a state highway used by motorists to travel between interstates 24 and 65. The town generates nearly 30 percent of its revenue from traffic tickets.
I'M trying. I've been trying all week. The other day, I drove another 30 miles or so on the streets and alleys of Baghdad. I'm looking for the civil war that The New York Times declared. And I just can't find it.
Maybe actually being on the ground in Iraq prevents me from seeing it. Perhaps the view's clearer from Manhattan. It could be that my background as an intelligence officer didn't give me the right skills.
A bill that would eliminate the option of voting a straight party ticket with one selection has been introduced in the Kentucky House, but backers say the measure's outcome is uncertain.
Kentucky is one of 17 states, most of them in the South or the Rust Belt, whose ballots offer a straight-ticket option.
HOUSE BILL 236
Sponsor: Rep. J.R. Gray, D-Benton (jr.gray@lrc.ky.gov)
Key provisions: The bill would add language to Kentucky's general principles of justification law:
In certain circumstances, a person is presumed to be in reasonable fear of death or harm when using defensive force intended or likely to cause death or great injury, and is immune from criminal and civil action for such use of force.
Defensive force can be used against an intruder in a person's home or vehicle.
A person does not have a duty to retreat and has the right to "meet force with force" when attacked where he or she has a right to be.
Excluded are use of force against a police officer carrying out official duties and a lawful resident or owner of a home or vehicle, and a person using force to further an illegal act.
Rep. J.R. Gray, D-Benton, sponsored House Bill 236 on behalf of the National Rifle Association, saying people shouldn't be expected to avoid a confrontation by running away.
"If someone is trying to break into your home in the middle of the night and you've got a fear for your life ... you have a duty under present law to retreat, go to the farthest corner of the room, I guess, and hope the intruder doesn't try to shoot you while you're retreating," Gray said.
Court rulings going back to 1931 have said that people have a right to protect themselves, their families and their property, with deadly force if necessary, Gray said. His bill would put those rulings into state law, he said.
"If you're convinced that that person is about to use deadly force against you, then you have the right to strike back with deadly force," Gray said.
WASHINGTON — President Bush was unaware that a controversial deal to sell shipping operations at six major U.S. seaports to a United Arab Emirates-owned firm was in the works until it was approved by his administration, the White House said Wednesday.
FRANKFORT, Ky. (AP) -- Advanced registered nurse practitioners could prescribe patients medicines, including potentially addictive prescription drugs, under a plan the House passed Friday.
Nurse practitioners could write patients limited prescriptions for drugs such as painkillers, which include OxyContin, morphine and methadone. In some instances, patients could only receive three days' worth of the prescription medication.
Proponents say the bill would help lower Kentucky's Medicaid costs by decreasing the load on emergency rooms across the state. It would also help patients living in the state's rural areas where in some cases there are fewer doctors, proponents say.
Still, Rep. Howard Cornett, R-Whitesburg, held up four pages containing the names of drugs nurse practitioners would be allowed to give patients. Cornett said his eastern Kentucky district is fighting a drug epidemic and allowing more availability of potentially addictive medications would worsen the situation.
"Let's not make any more drug addicts than we already have," Cornett said.
"It doesn’t matter whether members of our commission come from countries that violate civil rights,” said Manfred Nowak, who passes for an 'anti-torture envoy' with the UN and is one of the authors of a report that recommends the closure of Guantanamo Bay on CNN’s ‘Your World Today’ (2/16/06). This statement offers remarkable insight into the aptitude and priorities of the United Nations while chipping away at any conclusion that this is an objective body with serious opinions.
The Navy announced Thursday that the last F-14 mission was completed Feb. 8, when two Tomcats landed aboard the USS Theodore Roosevelt after one dropped a bomb in Iraq.
Fletcher has endorsed making a seat-belt violation a primary offense, which would allow law enforcement to stop motorists just because they aren't buckled up.
Fletcher's administration put its weight behind reviving the bill.
"As soon as this vote was counted and we fell short ..., we were on the phone with (House) members to let them know the governor wants this bill," said Fletcher spokesman Brett Hall.
The Kentucky Press Association has objected to exempting concealed-carry permit holders from the Open Records Act. If HB 920 passes, Kentuckians will have no way of knowing if sheriff's offices are issuing permits to criminals or the mentally ill.
This is another case of privacy claims colliding with the publics right to know.
Sen. Gerald Neal, a Democrat from Louisville and a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, said he objects to the secrecy provisions.
"Firearms are dangerous," he said. "People should know who has these firearms."
But the committee, which includes six Republicans and nine Democrats, approved the bill unanimously, despite the objections of Kentucky Press Association lawyer Ashley Pack.
"Why would names be confidential?" she asked the committee. "The press and public have an interest in knowing."
The remains of four 101st Airborne Division soldiers, who had been missing in action for nearly 35 years, have been identified by the Department of Defense POW/Missing Personnel Office.
They were:
Maj. Jack L. Barker of Waycross, Ga.;
Capt. John F. Dugan of Roselle, N.J.;
Sgt. William E. Dillender of Naples, Fla.;
Pfc. John J. Chubb of Gardena, Calif.
Slavery and the Founders
Our Founders were not Ignorant
By John D. Turner
"He has waged cruel war against human nature itself, violating it’s most sacred rights of life and liberty in the persons of a distant people who never offended him, captivating & carrying them into slavery in another hemisphere, or to incur miserable death in their transportation thither. This piratical warefare, the opprobrium of INFIDEL powers, is the warfare of a CHRISTIAN king of Great Britain. Determined to keep open a market where MEN should be bought & sold, he has prostituted his negative for suppressing every legislative attempt to prohibit or to restrain this execrable commerce".
-Thomas Jefferson
The Declaration of Independence: Original Draft
How different American History might have been had these words, penned by Thomas Jefferson in his original draft of the Declaration of Independence, been allowed to stand. Words, which condemned the British king for allowing the slave trade to flourish, and for introducing slavery into the colonies in the first place. Words which the delegations from Georgia and South Carolina, who were unwilling to acknowledge that slavery violated the "most sacred rights of life and liberty", found offensive and therefore were stricken from the final document.
West: I'm not into politics at all. I can't even name the people in politics.
West: But I do believe the theory that AIDS was being placed in Africa. I do believe the FBI placed crack in the black community. I believe the U.S. government gave smallpox to the Indians. I believe financial institutions are capitalizing on the African AIDS epidemic.
The latest in a new genre of Turkish popular culture that vilifies the United States, a Turkish movie shows American soldiers in Iraq crashing a wedding and pumping a little boy full of lead in front of his mother.
They randomly machine-gun dozens of people to death, shoot the groom in the head and drag those left alive to Abu Ghraib prison - where a Jewish-American doctor cuts out their organs, which he sells to rich people in New York, London and Tel Aviv.
Valley of the Wolves: Iraq, which opens in Turkey today, feeds off the increasingly negative feelings many Turks harbor toward their longtime allies: Americans. It stars Billy Zane as a self-professed "peacekeeper sent by God" and Gary Busey as the doctor.
The Patriot Act compromise agreed to Friday included a provision to combat illegal methamphetamine by limiting sales of cold remedies used to make the highly addictive drug.
The measure is a compromise reached after months 'of haggling over the 30-day limit. Sens. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., and Jim Talent, R-Mo., who pushed the legislation in the Senate, insisted the limit was needed.
They had sought various ways to get their legislation through Congress, finally attaching it to the Patriot Act, only to find their efforts frustrated when the bill stalled in December over concerns that civil liberties protections were being shortchanged.
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