The Walter Reed Snowball Keeps Growing...

but fear not, it'll melt pretty quick...

A quick update on the Walter Reed Military Hospital fiasco, then on to something much bigger. Hearings began today, with testimony from former and current patients. John has it posted here. Jack Cafferty returns to his segment during The Situation Room on CNN with some withering commentary on the scandal:

"Another glaring example of the Bush administration's lack of ability to deal with the consequences of its actions. Four years after invading Iraq, we're finding out that many of our returning wounded soldiers are being treated like garbage. And the government is quick to sing the chorus of, well, we didn't know."


Evidently there were some congressional members who tried to take some action to protect the government employees that were imperiled by the privatization of the hospital and have since left the facility in the wake of the mismanagement. They were dismissed by the Department of Defense and the Army, of course.

Here's the bigger item from the same folks that brought you the mess detailed above and also here, here, and here. The Guardian (NOTE TO SELF--NOT A MAINSTREAM AMERICAN MEDIA OUTLET) has received a memo out of the Pentagon that warns of dire consequences resulting from global warming affect that would political and economic stability world wide:

"The document predicts that abrupt climate change could bring the planet to the edge of anarchy as countries develop a nuclear threat to defend and secure dwindling food, water and energy supplies. The threat to global stability vastly eclipses that of terrorism, say the few experts privy to its contents.

'Disruption and conflict will be endemic features of life,' concludes the Pentagon analysis. 'Once again, warfare would define human life.'"

I have to believe that this is legit. The Guardian is one of Great Britains' most reputable news periodicals. And so, I find it scary as Hell. It was co-authored by one of the most respected advisors in the Pentagon, Andrew Marshall, along with Peter Schwartz, a CIA consultant and former head of planning at Royal Dutch/Shell Group, and Doug Randall of the California-based Global Business Network.

When a former head of planning for Shell and the ranking (30 years of service) strategist in the Pentagon both sign on to an indictment of Global Warming such as this, one should tend not to look upon it a another episode of the proverbial Environmentalist boy crying wolf in order to garner attention...

John has more on it here.