Necessary News

All you need to know to sound brilliant

Ailing Patients=Slow Reaction Time By Army

• Soldiers who are physically or mentally ailing may have to wait two months to a year before the Army acts, according to a House investigation. [USA Today]
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• This is two or three times longer than the Army goal set last year.
• The Army promised last year to cut the time spent treating and preparing soldiers to either return to their units or leave the military, after poor treatment at the Walter Reed Army Medical Center. [Mic Check]
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• However, a House investigation showed that whatever progress was made last year has flipped.
• The committee investigation found that wait times had improved, but that increased numbers of wounded soldiers caused delays to worsen in the last six months.
• The number of soldiers has doubled to 12,000 in the past year and nurses at major Army medical centers are monitoring up to 36 soldiers, instead of 18.
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• “I’m disappointed and troubled,” House Armed Services Committee Chairman Ike Skelton, D-Mo., says in a statement. “These soldiers deserve high-quality care. The staff members charged with providing their care are doing yeoman’s work, but the current staffing levels can’t handle the load.”
• Army officials said they have shifted support workers into the Warrior Transition Units in recent weeks to fix problems named in the investigation.

Next time Army—don’t make a promise you can’t keep.

Big Oil Crooner Says Stop Depending On Foreign Oil

• Texas oilman, T. Boone Pickens testified today that the national security of the United States is in its greatest jeopardy and peril since World War II due to our dangerous dependence on foreign oil. [Business Wire]
• T. Boone Pickens unveiled a new energy plan he says will decrease the United States’ dependency on foreign oil and help shift American energy production toward renewable resources.[CNN]
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• “The Pickens Plan” calls for investing in domestic renewable resources such as wind and using natural gas as a transportation fuel.
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• His answer is to develop wind power in states with steady, forceful winds, and use it instead of natural gas to produce electricity in the United States. [NY Times]
• Pickens says that the U.S. has not had an energy plan in 40 years and that his plan would make an immense impact immediately.
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• Pickens plan would reduce the nation’s dependency on foreign oil by 38%.
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• The gazillionaire has already put money into his plan—he is building the world’s largest wind farm in the Texas panhandle. [Mic Check ]
• So far, he has spent $2 billion on the project, including a record purchase of nearly 700 wind turbines this year from General Electric.

“I am first an American...and second an oilman.” —Pickens’ ‘moving’ comments at the end of his testimony. He’s got a way with words.

It’s Time To Talk About Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell

• Today, for the first time since 1993, Congress will have its first hearing on “Don’t ask, don’t tell.” [USA Today]
• At 2pm this afternoon, the House Armed Services Committee’s subcommittee on Military Personnel will hear from various retired military officers about whether or not the law makes sense.
• The Pentagon turned down the committee’s request to send someone to testify.
• Here’s what you need to know about the law. [National Journal Daybook]
• In a recent Washington Post/ABC News poll, 75% of Americans now say they support gays serving in the military. Most interesting stat: Support among conservatives has doubled in the past 15 years, from 32% then to 64% today. [Washington Post]
• Last year, former Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff John Shalikashvili did an about-face on the law he once supported, writing in the New York Times that he wanted to get rid of it. “I now believe that if gay men and lesbians served openly in the United States military, they would not undermine the efficacy of the armed forces. Our military has been stretched thin by our deployments in the Middle East, and we must welcome the service of any American who is willing and able to do the job.” [NY Times]
• Former Secretary of Defense William Cohen also spoke against the policy in early 2007, calling it “a policy of discrimination.” [Situation Room, 01/02/07]
• And in November 2007, 28 retired generals and admirals sent a letter urging Congress to repeal the law. “We respectfully urge Congress to repeal the ‘don’t ask, don’t tell’ policy. Those of us signing this letter have dedicated our lives to defending the rights of our citizens to believe whatever they wish.” [NY Times]
• Numbers you can use: 12,500 service members have been kicked out of the military under “don’t ask, don’t tell.” Discharges peaked in 2001 at 1,273. Last year 627 people were given the boot.
• Numbers you can use: According to the Government Accountability Office in 2005, maintaining the “don’t ask don’t tell” cost the military $363.8 million over the first 10 years of its existence in lost recruitment and training new replacements. [USA Today]

Interesting to see what those leaders who often claim we simply have to listen to our military leaders for Iraq strategy have to say about listening to them on this policy.

Good News, Bad News

An unidentified Steelers fan purchased two official Super Bowl Championship rings from a front-office employee actually looked at the rings after spending $66,000 on them…and became the first person to discover one of the rings was printed with the wrong score on it. [Pittsburgh Post Gazette]

GOOD NEWS: The final score of the game was actually Steelers 32, Bills 14. The score on the ring all these years was Steelers 32, Bills 6. Congratulations, Bills! A few more years and maybe you can finally win this one!

BAD NEWS: These rings were given to all of the players. Jostens now has to keep an eye out for some very big Steelers players who’ve been wearing flawed rings all these years. (Who now feel doubly stupid for never having noticed – what’s up with that, fellas?)

Quote Of The Day

I could see a little bit of the effects. I was never told to stop writing what I was writing. It was, however, made known to me that I was making management nervous. There were occasional, “Couldn’t you do more straight economics writing?”Pretty much the last time I heard that was in 2005, when I was sort of urged to lay off a bit. The words that stuck in my mind were, “The election settled some of these things.”Basically that all stopped with Katrina, actually.

—New York Times columnist Paul Krugman, talking about his experience of being discouraged against criticizing President Bush. The remarks are from a panel at Netroots Nation titled “How the media learned to bend over backwards to please the right.” [TP]

Speed Round

LESBOS LOSES

The tiny Greek isle of Lesbos lost its court bid to ban anyone not from the island (aka: gay women) from referring to themselves as “Lesbians.” [MSNBC]

WAR

Four U.S. soldiers yesterday were charged with conspiracy to commit murder in the death of detainees in Iraq in 2007. The statement released by the military gave no details, only saying the charges were related to “the deaths of several detainees who were captured as part of combat operations last year.” [Salon]

FESS UP

“For reasons we still don’t understand, the president hasn’t taken this approach and remains opposed to legislation that would require presidential libraries to reveal their donors.” – The Dallas Morning News, calling on the White House to come clean as to who is giving the big bucks to build the Bush library. [Dallas Morning News]

ANIMATED HATE…

Oklahoma County Commissioner Brent Reinhart thought it would be a great campaign idea to make a comic book equating homosexuals with Satan, then passing it out to other government officials. “Rinehart acknowledged that the comic is edgy at times, but said it explains important issues in a light-hearted way that his constituents will enjoy.” [News OK]

…AND THE BEST RESPONSE, EVER

Keith Gaddie, University of Oklahoma political science professor: “This is one of the strangest things I’ve ever seen. I’ve never seen a comic book with the phrase ‘anal sodomy’ in it before. That was a new one for me.” [News OK]

ECONOMIC STRUGGLE HURTS YOUNG ADULTS

Sorry college students— a new study shows that young adults are being hit harder by rising U.S. energy and food costs and a weakening economy than older Americans because they are just entering the workforce and are strapped with credit card debt. [Reuters]

WHO’S GETTING HIT HARDEST BY GAS COSTS?

Drivers in the South are. Average motorists in Mississippi spent nearly 8 percent of their incomes on gasoline in 2007 and drivers in South Carolina and Georgia spent more than 7 percent, according to the report released on Tuesday by environmental group the Natural Resources Defense Council. [Reuters]

WELCOME TO THE 21ST CENTURY

Italy ruled yesterday that, indeed, it is possible to rape a woman who is wearing jeans, ruling jeans were “no chasity belt.” No, we’re not kidding. [CBS News]

THE UPSIDE TO CRAZY GAS PRICES

Turns out there is a silver lining to the current gas prices: according to the National Safety Council, traffic deaths are down 9% now that people are driving less. [MSNBC]

SAVE OUR GIRLS

“About 3 percent of 12- to 17-year-old girls are physically or sexually assaulted by a boyfriend or date, a U.S. study suggests.” [MSNBC]

PROBLEM WITH EPILEPSY

Pregnant women who take the epilepsy drug topiramate may increase their newborn’s risk of birth defects, especially if they combine the drug with other epilepsy medications, according to a small study in this week’s Neurology. [USA Today]

94-0

The outcome of the Senate vote to move ahead with a Democratic plan to curb speculation in oil markets that has been blamed for some of the recent run-up in oil prices. [CBS News]

SHARPTON IS OFF THE HOOK

Prosecutors have broke up their criminal investigation into the financial dealings of the Rev. Al Sharpton and his Harlem civil rights group. The IRS and New York state and city tax agencies claim that Sharpton owes well more than $1 million in back taxes and penalties. [CBS News]

COUNTER CONVENTION

The Rally for the Republic, featuring Ron Paul, has long been billed as an alternative to the Republican National Convention. Yesterday supporters announced plans to move the event to the Target Center in Minneapolis, which holds more than 15,000 people. [STrib]

CONFIDENCE IN INDIA

The Indian government survived a motion of confidence in Parliament but leaving the entire parliamentary process tainted by dramatic allegations of bribery. What does this mean to the US? A landmark nuclear arrangement is likely. [NYT]

TRAVEL PLANS

Ever wonder which must-see destinations are in danger of destruction from global warming? Wonder no longer, since MSNBC compiled your top ten climate endangered hot spots. First place goes to the glaciers of Europe. [MSNBC]

NEW YORK

Gov. David Paterson signed a law leading to restrictions on video game violence and designed to help families monitor dangerous games. [MSNBC]

PARDON ME

After news reports about President Bush considering pardoning Marion Jones over steroid use, the newly appointed head of track and field’s national governing body has sent a strongly-worded letter to President Bush urging him not condone performance enhancing drugs. [NYT]