TV News LIES

Long a contentious issue between government agencies and veterans, a new study shows Gulf War Syndrome is the result of long-term exposure to small amounts of sarin gas, and at least 25 percent of veterans deployed in the war may have the syndrome.

Long considered a form of combat stress by the US Defense Department and Department of Veterans Affairs, the syndrome has been examined extensively. A new study by researchers at the Southwestern Medical Center at the University of Texas in Dallas, finds abnormalities associated with Gulf War Syndrome have persisted for 20 years and in certain cases, have actually worsened.

Israeli troops fired tear gas indiscriminately and sometimes dangerously to enforce a daytime curfew inside a West Bank village to stop Palestinians holding a peaceful demonstration on their own land, a military whistleblower has told The Independent.

The testimony also reinforces a report by the human rights agency B'Tselem which argues that the way Israel deals with protests in the small village of Nabi Saleh is denying the "basic right" to demonstrate in the West Bank. The right to demonstrate is enshrined in international conventions ratified by Israel.

Over the past five years (since I first reported from Wadi Fukin), Manasra said the situation in his town has deteriorated considerably. Beitar Illit has the highest birthrate of any settlement in the West Bank and currently houses more than 40,000 ultra-orthodox settlers. It has grown by more than 10,000 people since 2006, and planners say it's expected to house 100,000 residents, dwarfing Wadi Fukin (population 1,200) and other nearby Palestinian towns.

It is often the men from Wadi Fukin who run the jackhammers and build the settlement's multistory houses. Cheap Israeli produce has flooded the Palestinian markets, putting farmers in this verdant valley out of business and pushing them into construction jobs.

Because on December 12, 2000, the United States Supreme Court nullified the results of a national election and installed George W. Bush as president. And then I saw millions of my fellow Americans deliriously happy the Rule of Law was broken by the Supreme Court of the Land so “their guy” could … “win.”

That’s when I knew partisanship had ultimately won out over reality. More Americans believe in angels than election fraud. If millions of Americans could turn a blind eye to a stolen election, simply because their side stole it, and then have that coup legitimized by not only the Supreme Court … but by all of MainStreamMedia … then I knew the country I lived in was not the land of my birth.

Israel announced on Thursday the initiation of a municipal plan that would retroactively legitimize structures in one of the largest West Bank settlements, and which were built on private Palestinian land.

There are three kinds of land in Ofra, the West Bank's largest settlement: The settlement's original tract of land; land expropriated by the Jordanians; and land expropriated by Israel, which designated exclusively for the construction of public structures.

Nearly 70 years after expelling Melvin Dwork for being gay, the Navy is changing his discharge from "undesirable" to "honorable" - marking what is believed to be the first time the Pentagon has taken such a step on behalf of a World War II veteran since the repeal of "don't ask, don't tell."

The Navy notified the 89-year-old former corpsman last month that he will now be eligible for the benefits he had long been denied, including medical care and a military burial. Dwork spent decades fighting to remove the blot on his record.

The Arkansas Oil and Gas Commission has banned fracking disposal wells for unconventional gas drilling wastes due to earthquakes. The Commission voted unanimously to ban them, and the decision requires the immediate closure of one disposal well and prohibits the construction of new wells within a 1,150 square mile radius.

Arkansas residents insisted that there was a correlation between the increase in earthquake activity in the state and wastewater disposal wells. Imagine being on your way out one afternoon, opening your garage door, and experiencing an earthquake that you knew was being caused by gas drills.

Those without a lot of wealth or a lot of power are getting absolutely killed in America today.  The big corporations, the major financial institutions, the ultra-wealthy and those connected to the top levels of government are absolutely thriving even though the economy overall is in shambles.  Meanwhile, "the little guy" is being abused, harassed, regulated, taxed and mistreated like never before.  In general, the big corporations and the government don't spend a lot of time tangling with each other.  Instead, mostly they seem content with attacking the weak members of the herd (the rest of us).  In the United States today, wealth and power have become more concentrated than ever, and the big corporations and the government have figured out thousands of different ways to drain even more wealth and power away from the rest of us.  Most of the time, "the little guy" is not even able to fight back.  Most Americans have very limited resources and a very limited knowledge of the law.  Meanwhile, the "big guys" have almost unlimited resources and can hire huge numbers of lawyers.  So what does that mean for the rest of us?  Well, it means that until society becomes a lot more just, you better do your best to keep from becoming a target of the "big guys".