Military finds 75 percent of today's youth can't serve

The biggest long-term threat to U.S. national security might not be terrorists or weapons of mass destruction. According to a group of military leaders, it's homegrown obesity, ignorance and criminality, which together make seven of 10 target-age recruits ineligible to serve in the American armed forces.

"It's not just disturbing. It's a call to action," James A. Kelly, former deputy assistant secretary of defense, said Thursday during a telephone news conference from Washington.

Kelly is one of nearly 100 former and current military leaders who came together last year to form an organization called Mission: Readiness to draw attention to the status of potential recruits. In a study it calls "Ready, Willing and Unable to Serve," the group says Pentagon analysts have concluded that 75 percent of people ages 17 to 24 could not qualify for military service because they are obese or have some other health problem, lack a high school diploma or have a serious criminal history.

If women can defend Fort Hood, they can defend America.

Fort Hood, Texas, hosts tens of thousands of men who are trained to fight for their country. But none of them stopped Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan as he blew away 13 of their colleagues Thursday afternoon. It was a civilian police officer, Sgt. Kimberly Munley, who confronted and shot him in an exchange of gunfire. For her trouble, Munley took bullets in both legs and an arm. Maybe the president will pin a medal on her.

Here's a better way to honor Munley: End the ban on women in combat.

Department of Defense policy states that "women shall be excluded from assignment to units below the brigade level whose primary mission is to engage in direct combat on the ground." According to the policy, "Direct ground combat takes place well forward on the battlefield."

By the most recent count, courtesy of ABC News two weeks ago, there are 10,000 female personnel in Iraq and 4,000 more in Afghanistan. They're driving trucks, treating wounded, and shooting when attacked. More than 100 have given their lives in Iraq; another 15 have died in Afghanistan.The no-combat policy pretends that women can't take such risks without harming overall military performance. It bars women from infantry positions, training as armored vehicle drivers, and being assigned as medics to combat units.

Republican Hypocrites

Politico points out that last November House Republican leaders John Boehner and Eric Cantor formed a committee on earmark reform to bring “meaningful change to the process by which Washington spends taxpayers’ hard-earned money.”

How much change did we get?

(T)he vast majority of House Republicans — including eight of the 10 on the committee — have continued to seek earmarks.

Committee Chairwoman Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-Wash.) has requested roughly $129 million in earmarks so far this year. Her staff defended her panel’s work, saying it has “inspired” a GOP website that lists all members’ earmark requests and also inspired “the Republican transparency initiative” that is being pushed now on Capitol Hill...

Briefs: FSCJ grant to target better graduation rates for low-income

Florida State College at Jacksonville has received a $250,000 grant from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation as part of an initiative to improve graduation rates among low-income students.

FSCJ is one of seven colleges or city agencies to receive Gates Foundation grants nationwide.

The money will help fund a nine-month National League of Cities initiative that aims to help young adults attend and graduate from FSCJ, the University of North Florida, Jacksonville University and Edward Waters College.

A third of Americans die in hospitals, study finds

Nearly a third of Americans who die are in the hospital at the time and their last treatments cost the U.S. economy $20 billion, according to a report released on Wednesday.

The single biggest cause of hospital death was septicemia, an overwhelming infection of the blood, which killed 15 percent of patients, the team at the U.S. Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality found.

Eight percent died of respiratory failure, 6 percent died of stroke and 5 percent had fatal heart attacks in the hospital, according to the report, available here

"In 2007, it is estimated by the Centers for Disease Control that 2,423,995 people died in the United States. Of these, we estimate that 765,651 died in the hospital," the agency's Yafu Zhao and William Encinosa wrote.

Patients covered by Medicare, the federal health insurance plan for the elderly and disabled, accounted for 67 percent of in-hospital deaths and $12 billion in hospital costs.

Private insurance covered 20 percent of patients who died at a cost of $4 billion. Medicaid patients made up 2 percent and uninsured patients accounted for 3 percent and $630 million in costs.

"Overall, the costs of hospitalizations ending in death were $20 billion, which accounted for 5.2 percent of total in-patient hospital costs in the U.S. in 2007," they wrote.

A Subsidy To Nowhere

The Obama administration's support for local government debt was launched in the thick of the credit crunch, as an effort to keep debt markets open to municipalities. In that, it succeeded: states and cities have relied on the Build America Bond program to sell more than $47 billion in bonds since March. But it's an expensive and questionable subsidy, said Philip Condon, head of municipal bond management at DWS Investments, the asset management arm of Deutsche Bank. He expects the support to get trimmed.

Unlike other municipal debt, Build America Bonds are taxable. They pay a higher interest rate than tax-free municipal bonds but are a cheaper form of borrowing for cities and states, because the federal government picks up 35% of the interest payments. The support has come in especially handy for cash-strapped California, which has sold more than $7 billion. The state is currently marketing $908 million of the bonds in a sale managed by Citigroup

CNSNews.com Clunker Pickups Traded for New Pickups

he most common deals under the government's $3 billion Cash for Clunkers program, aimed at putting more fuel-efficient cars on the road, replaced old Ford or Chevrolet pickups with new ones that got only marginally better gas mileage, according to an analysis of new federal data by The Associated Press.

The single most common swap - which occurred more than 8,200 times - involved Ford 150 pickup owners who took advantage of a government rebate to trade their old trucks for new Ford 150s. They were 17 times more likely to buy a new F150 than, say, a Toyota Prius. The fuel economy for the new trucks ranged from 15 mpg to 17 mpg based on engine size and other factors, an improvement of just 1 mpg to 3 mpg over the clunkers.

Owners of thousands more large old Chevrolet and Dodge pickups bought new Silverado and Ram trucks, also with only barely improved mileage in the middle teens, according to AP's analysis of sales of $15.2 billion worth of vehicles at nearly 19,000 car dealerships in every state. Those deals helped the Ford 150 and Chevy Silverado - along with Ford's Escape midsize SUV - climb into the Top 10 most-popular vehicles purchased with the government rebates. The most common truck-for-truck and truck-for-SUV deals totaled at least $911 million.

The new data, obtained by the AP under the Freedom of Information Act, include details of 677,081 clunker trade-ins processed by the government through Oct. 16. More than 95,000 of the new vehicles purchased under the program - or about one in seven - got less than 20 mpg, according to the data.

Jacksonville among most toxic cities

Forbes magazine has ranked Jacksonville among the nation’s “most toxic” cities.

Jacksonville ranked 33rd out of the country’s 40 biggest cities. Atlanta was the most toxic and Las Vegas was the least toxic.

Forbes said it looked at the country’s 40 largest metropolitan statistical areas based on data provided by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. It then counted the number of facilities that reported releasing toxins into the environment, the total pounds of certain toxic chemicals released into the air, water and earth, the days per year that air pollution was above healthy levels, and the total number of Superfund sites (contaminated areas that the federal government has designated for cleanup efforts) in each city.

After a flurry of stimulus spending, questionable projects pile up

The $787 billion stimulus bill was passed in February and was promised as a job saver and economy booster. Here is where some of the money went:

- $300,000 for a GPS-equipped helicopter to hunt for radioactive rabbit droppings at the Hanford nuclear reservation in Washington state.

- $30 million for a spring training baseball complex for the Arizona Diamondbacks and Colorado Rockies.

- $11 million for Microsoft to build a bridge connecting its two headquarter campuses in Redmond, Wash., which are separated by a highway.

- $430,000 to repair a bridge in Iowa County, Wis., that carries 10 or fewer cars per day.

- $800,000 for the John Murtha Airport in Johnstown, Pa., serving about 20 passengers per day, to build a backup runway.

- $219,000 for Syracuse University to study the sex lives of freshmen women.

- $2.3 million for the U.S. Forest Service to rear large numbers of arthropods, including the Asian longhorned beetle, the nun moth and the woolly adelgid.

- $3.4 million for a 13-foot tunnel for turtles and other wildlife attempting to cross U.S. 27 in Lake Jackson, Fla.

- $1.15 million to install a guardrail for a persistently dry lake bed in Guymon, Okla.

- $9.38 million to renovate a century-old train depot in Lancaster County, Pa., that has not been used for three decades.

- $2.5 million in stimulus checks sent to the deceased.

- $6 million for a snow-making facility in Duluth, Minn.

- $173,834 to weatherize eight pickup trucks in Madison County, Ill.

- $20,000 for a fish sperm freezer at the Gavins Point National Fish Hatchery in South Dakota.

- $380,000 to spay and neuter pets in Wichita, Kan.

- $300 apiece for thousands of signs at road construction sites across the country announcing that the projects are funded by stimulus money.

- $1.5 million for a fence to block would-be jumpers from leaping off the All-American Bridge in Akron, Ohio.

- $1 million to study the health effects of environmentally friendly public housing on 300 people in Chicago.

- $356,000 for Indiana University to study childhood comprehension of foreign accents compared with native speech.

- $983,952 for street beautification in Ann Arbor, Mich., including decorative lighting, trees, benches and bike paths.

- $148,438 for Washington State University to analyze the use of marijuana in conjunction with medications like morphine.

- $462,000 to purchase 22 concrete toilets for use in the Mark Twain National Forest in Missouri

- $3.1 million to transform a canal barge into a floating museum that will travel the Erie Canal in New York state.

- $1.3 million on government arts jobs in Maine, including $30,000 for basket makers, $20,000 for storytelling and $12,500 for a music festival.

- $71,000 for a hybrid car to be used by student drivers in Colchester, Vt., as well as a plug-in hybrid for town workers decked out with a sign touting the vehicle's energy efficiency.

- $1 million for Portland, Ore., to replace 100 aging bike lockers and build a garage that would house 250 bicycles.

Sources: News reports, Office of the Senate Minority Leader, Office of Sen. Tom Coburn

Book Review: The Easy Way to Stop Smoking

Title: The Easy Way to Stop Smoking
Author: Allen Carr
Year: 1985
Type: Non-Fiction
Genre: Self Help

Review: I am not a smoker but I think the message of this book could be applied to any addiction (internet, facebook, television, drugs, etc.). Short and very easy to read.

Grade: B

Book Review: Nothing to Fear

Title: Nothing to Fear: FDR's Inner Circle and the 100 Days that Created Modern America
Author: Adam Cohen
Year: 2009
Type: Non-Fiction
Genre: American History/The Great Depression

Review: This is an excellent book about the Great Depression. It is easy to read and very informative. Definitely one of the best books in regards to that era.

Grade: A-

CNSNews.com Republicans Have Offered Three Alternative Health Care Reform Bills

In May, Republicans in the House and the Senate formed a bicameral coalition to produce the130-page “Patients Choice Act of 2009.”

In June, Sen. Jim DeMint (R-S.C.) introduced the “Health Care Freedom Plan,” a 41-page proposal.

And in July, the Republican Study Committee, under the leadership of Rep. Tom Price (R-Ga.), unveiled the “Empowering Patients First Act,” a 130-page plan.

Lack of Paid Sick Days May Worsen Flu Pandemic

Public health experts worried about the spread of the H1N1 flu are raising concerns that workers who deal with the public, like waiters and child care employees, are jeopardizing others by reporting to work sick because they do not get paid for days they miss for illness.

Tens of millions of people, or about 40 percent of all private-sector workers, do not receive paid sick days, and as a result many of them cannot afford to stay home when they are ill. Even some companies that provide paid sick days have policies that make it difficult to call in sick, like giving demerits each time someone misses a day.

Public health experts say policies like these encourage many people with H1N1, commonly called swine flu, to report to work despite official warnings from the government and most companies that they should stay home.

“If you’re sick, they encourage you to stay home, but I couldn’t afford to take off if I wasn’t going to get paid,” said Ms. Carter, 29, who said she stuck to her small work area to avoid spreading the flu.

Georges C. Benjamin, executive director of the American Public Health Association, a group of 30,000 public health professionals, said, “Providing workers with paid sick days is essential if we’re going to get serious about the public health recommendations for swine flu — stay home until 24 hours after your fever is broken. That usually takes about five days.”

For many businesses, H1N1 has created a dilemma. “This is a very difficult issue for companies,” said Nina G. Stillman, a lawyer with Morgan, Lewis & Bockius who advises companies on sick-leave policy. “Employers who do not offer sick days are not prepared to offer them now, and they recognize that this may result in not achieving what they say they would like, which is that people who are sick stay home.”

Studies show sex offender residency limits fail

Studies show that laws prohibiting sexual predators from living near schools and other places where children congregate do not prevent offenders from committing new crimes and may be counterproductive, a legislative policy analyst told a House panel Tuesday.

Marti Harkness, who specializes in criminal justice issues in the Office of Program Policy Analysis and Government Accountability, said better options would be to bar offenders from smaller zones near places where children gather and keeping tabs on them with electronic monitoring.

Florida prohibits certain sex offenders from living within 1,000 feet of schools, day care centers, parks and other places that attract children, but some local governments have expanded the ban to as much as 2,500 feet, most notably in South Florida.

Those limits made it so difficult for sexual predators to find affordable housing in Miami-Dade County that some offenders have been living under a bridge in view of tourists and others using the span, creating a backlash against the restrictions.

Harkness cited studies on repeat sex offenders in Minnesota, Colorado and Florida, which turned up no connection between where they lived and where they committed new crimes. The Minnesota study also showed no children were victimized near schools or other restricted places but 79 percent of the offenders knew their victims.

Gore’s Dual Role: Advocate and Investor

Former Vice President Al Gore thought he had spotted a winner last year when a small California firm sought financing for an energy-saving technology from the venture capital firm where Mr. Gore is a partner.

The company, Silver Spring Networks, produces hardware and software to make the electricity grid more efficient. It came to Mr. Gore’s firm, Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, one of Silicon Valley’s top venture capital providers, looking for $75 million to expand its partnerships with utilities seeking to install millions of so-called smart meters in homes and businesses.

Mr. Gore and his partners decided to back the company, and in gratitude Silver Spring retained him and John Doerr, another Kleiner Perkins partner, as unpaid corporate advisers.

The deal appeared to pay off in a big way last week, when the Energy Department announced $3.4 billion in smart grid grants. Of the total, more than $560 million went to utilities with which Silver Spring has contracts. Kleiner Perkins and its partners, including Mr. Gore, could recoup their investment many times over in coming years.

Mr. Gore has invested a significant portion of the tens of millions of dollars he has earned since leaving government in 2001 in a broad array of environmentally friendly energy and technology business ventures, like carbon trading markets, solar cells and waterless urinals.

He has also given away millions more to finance the nonprofit he founded, the Alliance for Climate Protection, and to another group, the Climate Project, which trains people to present the slide show that was the basis of his documentary “An Inconvenient Truth.” Royalties from his new book on climate change, “Our Choice,” printed on 100 percent recycled paper, will go to the alliance, an aide said.

More Than 250 Underage Drinking Arrests From Florida Georgia Game

While thousands of people partied all over the city this weekend law enforcement was in the crowds too looking for underage drinking.

And from Thursday through game day officers and agents made more than 250 underage drinking arrests.

The operation used more than 25 officers working at the Landing, RV city and the lots all around the stadium.

Politicians Fiddle While America’s Corporate Tax System Burns

KPMG has released its annual global survey of corporate tax systems. For the 10th consecutive year, the average corporate tax rate fell, and it is now down to 25.5 percent — and just 23.2 percent in the European Union!

In the United States, unfortunately, the corporate tax rates remains stuck at about 40 percent. Only one developed nation, Japan, has a more punitive regime.

Book Review: Death or Liberty

Title: Death or Liberty: African Americans and Revolutionary America
Author: Douglas Egerton
Year: 2009
Type: Non-Fiction
Genre: American History

Review: Average book. It would be ok for a rent though it's not exactly worthy of the time. Read it if you have read everything else regarding the nation's founding.

Grade: C-

Book Review: The Long Road to Change

Title: The Long Road to Change: America's Revolution, 1750-1820
Author: Eric Nellis
Year: 2007
Type: Non-Fiction
Genre: American History

Review: This is an excellent overview of the American Revolution and America's founding. Great book for the bookshelf.

Grade: B+

Ford-UAW deal nears rejection, no new talks seen

Ford Motor Co's U.S. factory workers moved a step closer late Friday to delivering a landslide rejection of proposed concessions while the United Auto Workers leadership said the union would not return to talks with the automaker until 2011.

Workers at Ford's truck assembly plant near the automaker's Dearborn, Michigan headquarters voted 93 percent to reject the deal and workers at two Kentucky assembly plants voted 84 percent against it, adding to a growing number of rank-and-file workers lining up against the proposed contract changes.