Necessary News

All you need to know to sound brilliant

Big Debt Keeps Troops From Serving Overseas

• Whoa. “Thousands of American troops are being barred from overseas duty because they are so deep in debt that they are considered security risks, according to a review of military records by The Associated Press.” [NY Times]
• Believe the numbers: In 2002, the Air Force, the Marines and the Navy revoked security clearances for 284 troops due to financial concerns. In 2005, they revoked security clearances for 2,654.
• And by “debt,” we’re not talking chump change. You only get your security clearance revoked when your debt payments total 30-40% of your salary.
• Why debt? We blame predatory lending practiced by nasty, unpatriotic businesses more concerned with fleecing military men and women out of a buck than with the security of the country.
• Predatory lending facilities prey on the military, clustering around military bases to take advantage of young, financially naive troops.
• Here’s the math, courtesy of the Center for Responsible Lending: The average guy who borrows $325 from one of these places will end up paying $1,105.[DOD Report on Predatory Lenders and the Military]
• According to reports, as many as one in five members of the military are in trouble with payday loan centers. At least 175,000 people – 13-19% of the military – took out one of these high-interest, short term loans last year alone.[Defend All From Payday Loans]
• Not to say we told you so, but....we were talking about this in Mic Check back in September (when we got fired up about predatory lending and the military). Check Out September Mic Check

Congress did recently pass legislation capping how much interest these nasty places can charge troop members. We’ll see if it helps.

Finally! An Iraq Strategy!

• Forget “stay the course.” The White House has finally decided to “change the course” with a brand-new strategy and timetable for Iraq. [NY Times]
• After years of digging in their heels and refusing to set milestones, the Bush administration has decided to present the Iraqi government with a set of milestones to complete.
• A partial reason for this turn-around: It’s probably an attempt in part to “pre-empt the recommendations of the bipartisan Iraq Study Group, a commission led by James A. Baker III and charged with formulating a new strategy in Iraq.”
• The benchmarks themselves aren’t yet known.
• If Iraq doesn’t meet the milestones on the timetable given, the U.S. will then reevaluate military strategy (aka: think about bringing troops home).
• Senior Pentagon official: “If the Iraqis fail to come back to us on this, we would have to conduct a reassessment” of the American strategy in Iraq.
• The new strategy came after a big strategy meeting Saturday. All the heavy hitters participated: General George W. Casey Jr. (the top military guy in Iraq); Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad (the top civilian official in Iraq); President Bush; VP Dick Cheney; Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld; Gen. John Abizaid (top U.S. commander in the Middle East); and Gen. Peter Pace (chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.) (Ed. Note: Where was Condi?)

The plan sounds a bit like what Rep. Jack Murtha proposed ages ago, doesn’t it?

No Child Left Behind Dollars Benefitting Bush Brother

• President Bush’s “No Child Left Behind” legislation might not be doing a lot to help school kids, but it sure is helping one particular person: President Bush’s brother. [LA Times]
• Remember black sheep Neil? (Right, he was the one involved in the savings and loan debacle back in the 80s.) Today Neil owns a company called “Ignite! Learning". (Yes, the exclamation point is part of the name.)
• Neil Bush has sold Ignite! products to 40 U.S. school districts at $3,800 a pop. At least 13 of those school districts used federal funds from No Child Left Behind to pay Neil.
• School districts are allowed to spend NCLB money programs that help disadvantaged students in reading and math. Here’s the catch: “Ignite! does not offer reading instruction, and its math program will not be available until next year.”
• So what does Ignite! sell? Cow-themed mobile classrooms. You can’t make this stuff up.
• We shoulda known: “Most of Ignite’s business has been obtained through sole-source contracts without competitive bidding. Neil Bush has been directly involved in marketing the product.”
• And guess who the big investors in Ignite! are? Yep, it’s Ma and Pa (41) Bush.
• Ma has been particularly invested. Last year, she donated money to a Hurricane Katrina fund...with strings attached. In order to get the money, the relief foundation had to promise to use it to buy Ignite!’s cow-themed classroom trailers.

Way to keep taxpayer money all in the family.

Sunday, Bloody Sunday

Nope, no U2 ballads here. Here are the Sunday talk highlights:

• In an interview with George Stephanopoulos on This Week, President Bush told Stephanopoulos that saying Democrats are “waving the white flag” is not questioning their patriotism.
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• Bush agreed that the current state of Iraq is similar to Vietnam’s Tet Offensive.
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• Bush told Stephanopoulos that there was no chance that U.S. troops would completely withdraw before he left office.
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• Bush said that he had not read any books written about him, and that he would have nothing to learn from them.
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• Bush said that he’s never advocated “staying the course.”
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• Sen. Kerry told Stephanopoulos that President Bush was wrong to tell Iraqi Prime Minister Maliki that troops would stay in Iraq as long as he needed them.
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• Sen. Kerry also said that Bush was misleading the public about Al Qaeda’s influence in Iraq, and that Iraq’s problems were a result of Sunni vs. Shiite violence.
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• Sam Donaldson said Sen Kerry was right on Al Qaeda not being the central source of violence, and that Shiites would inevitably dominate Iraq.
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• Bob Novak on Meet the Press said that the upcoming midterm election is “one of the least important elections” he has seen.
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• Sen. Biden on FOX News Sunday said that, if Democrats take control of the Senate, 12 to 14 Republicans would defect and join Democrats in calling for a new direction in Iraq.
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• On 60 Minutes, former Iraqi finance minister Ali Allawi said that 750 to 850 million dollars had been stolen in Iraq defense funding.
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• Allawi said that a billion dollars worth of contracts had been awarded to a company with $2000 in assets.
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• Allawi said that the theft had received little attention because those responsible for bringing the corrupt officials to power were seeking to avoid scrutiny.
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It’s true, he’s never advocated staying the course. In other news, Americans have been swept by an epidemic of “hearing things.”

Good News, Bad News

A new survey shows restaurants serve up portions that are quadruple the government’s recommended serving size and have 60% more calories than you would eat at home.

[USA Today]

BAD NEWS:

You’re going to need a whole new, much bigger wardrobe. And swimsuit season is going to be uggggly.

GOOD NEWS:

Really, is there any such thing as “too much” Bloomin’ Onion?

Quote Of The Day

The world is “witnessing failure in Iraq.”

“I think there is great room for strong criticism, because without doubt, there was arrogance and stupidity by the United States in Iraq.”

- Senior State Department official Alberto Fernandez, to the al-Jazeera television network. [BBC]

Speed Round

CASUALTIES

With 78 American troops killed, October is the deadliest month in Iraq in the past year. [Washington Post]

TALIBAN

Elusive Taliban leader Mullah Muhammad Omar warns the violence and destruction in Afghanistan will escalate “at a surprising level” in the upcoming months. [CNN]

SUDAN

New trouble: UN envoy Jan Pronk kicked out of Sudan. [BBC]

TRAGEDY

Cover the kids’ eyes, Mom: As thousands watch, bridge jumper dies when his parachute refuses to open. [AP]

9/11

Five years later, workers find human remains at Ground Zero. [AP]

WHALES

Calling Greenpeace! Iceland kills a whale, announces plans to kill a lot more. [BBC]

FOLEY-GATE

Not suitable for work viewing: New IM surfaces in which Foley told underage former page “You could always stay at my place. I’m always here, I’m always lonely, and I’m always up for oral sex.” All together now: Ewwwwwww. [Washington Post]

WOMEN’S RIGHTS

Not above the law: Court rules Catholic Charities must provide contraception to female employees if they want it. [Houston Chronicle]

MEDS

Target and Wal-Mart to expand $4 generic drug program (started in Florida) to 14 other states. [Star-Telegram]

IRAQ

The children have spoken: New poll shows a majority of Iraqi youth want U.S. troops outta there. [ABC News]