March 16, 2013

Vet who saved many in Iraq couldn't escape demons

He had a knack for soothing soldiers who'd just seen their buddies killed by bombs. He knew how to comfort medics sickened by the smell of blood and troops haunted by the screams of horribly burned Iraqi children.

Capt. Peter Linnerooth was an Army psychologist. He counseled soldiers during some of the fiercest fighting in Iraq. Hundreds upon hundreds sought his help. For nightmares and insomnia. For shock and grief. And for reaching that point where they just wanted to end it all.

Linnerooth did such a good job his Army comrades dubbed him The Wizard. His "magic" was deceptively simple: an instant rapport with soldiers, an empathetic manner, a big heart.

For a year during one of the bloodiest stretches of the Iraq war, Linnerooth met with soldiers 60 to 70 hours a week. Sometimes he'd hop on helicopters or join convoys, risking mortars and roadside bombs. Often, though, the soldiers came to his shoebox-sized "office" at Camp Liberty in Baghdad.

There they'd encounter a raspy-voiced, broad-shouldered guy who blasted Motorhead, Iron Maiden and other ear-shattering heavy metal, favored four-letter words and inhaled Marlboro Reds - once even while conducting a "stop smoking" class. He was THAT persuasive.

More: http://www.miamiherald.com/2013/03/16/3289999/vet-who-saved-many-in-iraq-couldnt.html

March 16, 2013

Cyber crime punishment questioned by EFF

Digital rights activists are using a recent security breach involving the secretive group Anonymous as an opportunity to rail against a federal anti-hacking law called the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act.

The Electronic Frontier Foundation isn’t defending the alleged actions of Matthew Keys, a former Tribune Company employee who could face as much as 25 years of jail time over federal charges accusing him of conspiring with members of Anonymous to hack into a Tribune website.

But the San Francisco-based advocacy group says current law means cyber crimes are often prosecuted much more severely than crimes of violence.

The EFF likens Keys’ case to the Justice Department’s prosecution of political activist and Internet innovator Aaron Swartz, in which he faced a maximumsentence of 35 years in prison and a $1 million fine. Swartz committed suicide in January.

More: http://www.pcworld.com/article/2031041/cyber-crime-punishment-questioned-by-internet-advocacy-group.html

March 16, 2013

High-ranking Syrian general defects from army

Source: AP

BEIRUT (AP) — One of the highest-ranking military officers yet to abandon Syrian President Bashar Assad defected to neighboring Jordan and said in an interview aired Saturday that morale among those still inside the regime had collapsed.

Maj. Gen. Mohammed Ezz al-Din Khalouf announced his defection from Assad's regime in a video aired Saturday on the Al-Arabiya satellite channel. It showed him sitting next to his son, Capt. Ezz al-Din Khalouf, who defected with him.

The elder Khalouf said that many of those with Assad's regime have lost faith in it, yet continue to do their jobs, allowing Assad to demonstrate broad support.

"It's not an issue of belief or practicing one's role," he said. "It's for appearance's sake, for the regime to present an image to the international community that it pulls together all parts of Syrian society under this regime."

Read more: http://www.kansascity.com/2013/03/16/4125204/high-ranking-syrian-general-defects.html

March 16, 2013

Leahy sponsors bill to outlaw straw purchasing and gun trafficking

WASHINGTON — The Senate Judiciary Committee, on a bipartisan vote, Thursday approved legislation authored by Chairman Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) and coauthored by Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) that would for the first time explicitly make illegal the abusive practice of straw purchasing and trafficking of firearms. The committee vote is the firstlegislative vote on measures related to gun violence in either the Senate or the House since the Newtown tragedy,and it comes amid a markup session scheduled by Leahy on four gun-related bills, including the Leahy-Collins Stop Illegal Trafficking in Firearms Act.

The bill goes after gun traffickers and closes a gaping loophole to background checks by also penalizing straw purchasers, who buy firearms for another person who is prohibited from obtaining one on his own.

“The practice of straw purchasing firearms is undertaken for one reason-to get a gun into the hands of someone who is prohibited from having one,” Leahy said at the Committee’s executive business meeting. “We know that many guns used in criminal activities are acquired through straw purchases. We need a meaningful solution to this serious problem.”

-snip-

“Law enforcement officials have consistently called for a firearms trafficking statute that can be effective to go after straw purchasers,” Leahy said. “What we need to do now isto create better law enforcement tools. I urge all Senators to join with us to close a dangerous loophole in the law that Mexican drug cartels, gangs and other criminals have exploited for too long.”

More: http://vtdigger.org/2013/03/10/leahy-sponsors-bill-to-outlaw-straw-purchasing-and-gun-trafficking/

March 16, 2013

Swiss tourist gang-raped in central India

Source: AP

NEW DELHI -- Indian media are reporting that a Swiss tourist was gang-raped in the central state of Madhya Pradesh and that 13 men are being questioned.

Local police superintendent C. S. Solanki told the Press Trust of India that the woman and her husband had camped out for the night in a forest after bicycling from the temple town of Orchha on Friday when they were attacked by a group of eight men.

He said the couple were beaten and had their belongings stolen, and that the woman was gang-raped.

Solanki said police were questioning 13 men in connection with the attack.

Read more: http://www.miamiherald.com/2013/03/16/3289617/swiss-tourist-gang-raped-in-central.html

March 16, 2013

Elizabeth Warren's Facebook page

http://www.facebook.com/ElizabethWarren

March 16, 2013

A new DU Elizabeth Warren Group has been created

Ya'll drop by, ya hear? http://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=forum&id=1265

March 16, 2013

New DU Elizabeth Warren Group

I hope I'm not pushing it posting this here but I'm not sure that everyone knows that 4 new groups were created today.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=forum&id=1265

March 16, 2013

Elizabeth Warren’s Senate office for now: ‘the trailer’

Spartan and utilitarian, the temporary office of Senator Elizabeth Warren is in a courtyard near the Capitol. (Pete Marovich for The Boston Globe)

By Noah Bierman
The Boston Globe
March 14, 2013

WASHINGTON — After shaking hands and snapping photos with visiting constituents, Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren offers them a sheepish apology.

“You’re welcome to come by my office,” she tells them. “It’s just not much to see.”

This is not a politician’s false modesty. Warren’s prize for winning one of the toughest and highest profile Senate battles in the country: An office in a prefabricated building known around the Senate as “the trailer.’’

Efforts have been made to spruce up the paper-thin walls with Norman Rockwell reproductions and photographs of a Gloucester lighthouse and the Zakim Bridge. But there is no way to disguise the modest nature of the space, in a small cluster of temporary structures erected in the courtyard of a grand office building — the US Senate’s version of a mobile-home park.

Warren cracks good-natured jokes about it and insists she has far greater frustrations to confront, including complex filibuster rules that can be used by the minority to kill legislation. But her extended stay in modular housing, expected to last until June, is a freshman’s first and most tangible lesson in the plodding and idiosyncratic ways of the Senate.

More: http://www.boston.com/news/politics/2013/03/14/elizabeth-warren-labors-prefab-office-she-waits-for-her-own-senate-suite/EA8icIFXqOAD0xfKw5vyFO/story.html

March 15, 2013

OK if I post about the new DU Elizabeth Warren Group here?

I know that many people who enjoy this group will enjoy that group as well.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=forum&id=1265