MADRID -- While in Europe, working on upcoming HuffPost international launches, I have received a flurry of emails from readers praising two remarkable pieces of enterprise journalism produced by HuffPost reporters this week. The first is the initial installment of Beyond the Battlefield, a ten-part series exploring the extraordinary challenges -- both physical and emotional -- faced by soldiers returning home from Afghanistan and Iraq with horrific injuries. The series, by HuffPost military correspondent David Wood, is based on many interviews done over the course of the last five months. It's impossible to read Beyond the Battlefield (or watch the videos) and not be moved. The other story that captivated readers is Chris Kirkham's investigation into how Goldman Sachs, just as the subprime mortgage boom was going bust, bought into another predatory play: for-profit colleges. Chris' relentless digging -- and resulting reporting -- connects all the dots and lays out a compelling and damning narrative. Don't miss them.
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It's wonderful you have received such a great response for the article series and my brother, Todd. He is a great guy outside of his service to this country that he started so many years ago from high school.
One of the amazing things I read about during the incident -- I believe he was serving as a part of a mixed NATO unit in humanitarian mission. His vehicle was blown across what was a highway into oncoming traffic, a Romani major in the group jumped out of his vehicle and jumped into Todd's burning vehicle and pulled him out. No doubt saved his life. Granted, Todd's a pretty tough dude.
The events following read like a whirlwind with a joint effort of civilian and military personnel working to bring Todd into BAMC. We then received multiple daily updates from the doctors, his fellow soldiers/officers, and his wife, Sarah, filled with hope from a terrible situation. The initial week he arrived at San Antonio was a demoralizing experience. Though, I must say Dr. Hale, the physician asst (had them up here for dinner, great family); and along with the nurses and support services at BAMC, have all done an incredible job. The new WooFSaC (Warrior Family Support Center) is incredible and you simply must have the fresh baked cookies when you go there!
I hope your series helps other soldiers, their families, and all of us as Americans.
Mark N.
Did you notice the irony of the names? TODD NELSON, one of the most highly paid CEOs in the country in the Goldman Sachs article is definitely not the same TODD NELSON as the burned Staff Sargeant Beyond the Battlefield. Guess which one is my new hero!
The week's news item on French Socialist Party presidential primary this Sunday is highly significant on the global nuclear energy issue because, as readers would recall that in light of Germany's planned total nuclear phaseout in 10years, and Japan's similar plan for drastic reduction of nuclear energy generation, this development in France can become pivotal action towards global swing away from and eventual total abandonment of nuclear power generation.
As for the debate de jour, we need to send Obama a copy of Sims. Perhaps he can use that to come up with a plan that would actually work for the country or; glean key insights into how to actually submit a budget that could pass congress. Perhaps he could even find out how to operate with one in place.
That is America. Obama needs to rethink how he is going about fixing the economy and come up with a real plan that does not put us more in debt.
[News headlined "French Primary Reflects a Shift on Nuclear Power", WallStreetJournal Weekend edition October15-16, 2011 pageA9]
" ... For the first time, come Sunday's vote -- which will determine the Socialist Party's candidate for the 2012 French presidential elections -- the French people will choose between two Socialist Party politicians who both question France's unflinching attachment to nuclear energy.
The Socialist Party's atomic shift could turn into a key issue during next spring's presidential election, highlighting the profound effect that the March nuclear disaster in Japan has had on the perception of nuclear power around the world.
In an effort to woo green voters, Martine Aubry has pledged to phase out nuclear power in France if she is elected. "We must prepare our country for a progressive exit from nuclear power," she said in a speech last month. "We must use the excellence of our nuclear industry to ... dismantle nuclear plants."
Her rival, Francois Hollande, is taking a softer line, saying he wants to reduce France's reliance on nuclear power by a third. ...
In June, a survey conducted by French polling agency Ifop showed that 62% of French people supported gradually winding down France's nuclear plants over the next 25 to 30 years. ..."
Unfortunately, American national political leaders are bought and sold on important national and global issues, and continually seem to be lagging behind rest of the national and global people's hopes and beliefs. It's truly a national tragedy, one that hopefully the emerging "Occupy Wall Street" popular movement can begin to address and correct. Will this be "American Spring" (in the manner of "Arab Spring"), or another evaporating "hope that people can believe in" ?
So long as we permit legislation to be bought by those with the resources to do so, we shall spiral downwards with the aid of the Banana Republicans in our midst.
( In hind sight, I kind of wish we would have let the banks fail. But we'll never know if that would have been a better move...)..Long story short, pure Capitalism has flaws, and pure socialism has flaws, there is nothing wrong with creating a system that draws from the best of both and guards against the weaknesses of both. Neither Capitalism nor Socialism work well without balancing each other, and neither are inherently evil.
Goldman Sachs...
Why is this relevant?
Because the former reasonable and good rules of the Roosevelt-Eisenhower-Volcker financial-monetary-political system have been Frankensteined via political bribes into the Financial Elite's 1980-2011 speculator and leverage political-financial industry-central banking system.
In Europe, the disconnection between speculation and safe monetary policy is so great that a currency of 500 million people has serious survival risk.
The Frankenstein rules now so completely favor - even force - speculation over traditional saving.
It is these bad rules that cause the blow-offs like the one GOOGLE had on 14 October - good for the sellers on that day; catastrophic for the buyers who will see 60 percent loss of value within 8 trading days. The system needs rules to curb gambling and provide a fair alternatives. The world system needs a new grassroots citizen's party.