About: Michael Leon

Email : maleon64@yahoo.com
Website : http://malcontends.blogspot.com/

Michael Leon is a writer living in Madison, Wisconsin. His writing has appeared nationally in The Progressive, The Advocate, In These Times and CounterPunch, and locally in Madison in the Isthmus, the Capital Times and Corporate Report Wisconsin. Leon works as a staff writer, editor and veterans' advocate at Veterans Today, and as a writer/editor and PR consultant based out of Madison.

---

---

Seventh Anniversary of Iraq War Passes

ShareMarch 19, the seventh anniversary of the Iraq War invasion passed yesterday.
No outrage on corporate television. No accountability. No regrets over 4,400 Americans dead, 30,000-plus wounded, and 100,000s traumatized for life.
Most Americans know that the war was begun and sustained by self-conscious lies. Most don’t really care.
At least Haliburton, Israel and Iran were happy. And Haliburton’s stock went from went from [...]

Treason for Apartheid

ShareAs the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Adm. Michael Mullen warns that an Israeli attack on Iran would endanger Americans in the Persian Gulf (Haaretz) and directly result in the deaths of American soldiers (Greenwald, Salon), rightwingers committed to a militaristic Israel in a phrase: Don’t care.
In this spirit of treason, what are they protecting? [...]

U.S. Department of Defense Announces Latest Contract Awards

ShareNo. 218-10
—————————————-
CONTRACTS: DEFENSE LOGISTICS AGENCY
AmerisourceBergen Drub Corporation, Chester Brook, Pa. is being awarded a maximum $177,500,000 firm fixed price, prime vendor contract for pharmaceutical requirements.  Other locations of performance include Texas, Massachusetts, Virginia and North Carolina.  Using services include all designated providers that are part of the Uniformed Services Family Health Plan program.  The original [...]

N.C. woman gets $9M in alienation of affection suit

ShareN.C. woman gets $9M in alienation of affection suit
A woman sues her husband’s lover for ruining their marriage
By Associated Press
A jury has awarded a North Carolina woman $9 million from her husband’s lover after ruling the other woman ruined their marriage.
The News & Record of Greensboro reports the jury ruled this week in 60-year-old Cynthia [...]

Zombie Markets Kept Alive by Fed Black Magic

ShareSo says Scott Bleier, president of CreateCapital.com, in a scary, fascinating and enraging read.
What’s keeping up the stock market? Voodoo monetary policy that we cannot see or perhaps comprehend.
The Federal Reserve practices behind-the-scenes conjuring that keeps alive the malevolent zombie-dead who take fed money artificially keeping them alive and then instead of lending it to small businesses and living people, [...]

VA Recognizes “Presumptive” Illnesses in Iraq, Afghanistan

Share
VA Recognizes “Presumptive” Illnesses in Iraq, Afghanistan
Decision Simplifies Application for Disability Pay
WASHINGTON – Secretary of Veterans Affairs Eric K. Shinseki today announced the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) is taking steps to make it easier for Veterans to obtain disability compensation for certain diseases associated with service in the Persian Gulf War or Afghanistan.  This [...]

U.S. Department of Defense Announces Latest Contract Awards

ShareNo. 214-10
CONTRACTS: NAVY
 
                Hensel Phelps Construction Co., Irvine, Calif. (N62473-10-D-5405); Harper Construction Co., Inc., San Diego, Calif. (N62473-10-D-5406); Barnhart, Inc., San Diego, Calif. (N62473-10-D-5407); Sundt Construction, Inc., Tempe, Ariz. (N62473-10-D-5408); RQ Construction, Inc., Carlsbad, Calif. (N62473-10-D-5409); R. A. Burch Construction Co., Inc., Ramona, Calif. (N62473-10-D-5410); Solpac Construction, Inc., dba Soltek Pacific Construction Co., San Diego, [...]

The battle over “cry it out” sleep training

ShareFor what’s it’s worth, I say hold your babies close often—they’re baby primates, not Marines.
The battle over “cry it out” sleep training
Common-sense parenting or child abuse? The dilemma that plagued our family — and many others
By Ada Calhoun

I turned up the volume on the TCM movie to drown out the sound of my baby crying [...]

American factories operating near record low utilization

ShareMost Americans likely assume this empirical fact.
American factories operating near record low utilization
By Andrea Orr
The U.S. manufacturing sector has been hit hard in the latest economic downturn, but has also suffered a steady decline for the past decade. The Figure [below] tracks capacity utilization, or the share of manufacturing capacity in use, since 1973. Capacity [...]

U.S. Department of Defense Announces Latest Contract Awards

ShareNo. 211-10
—————————————
CONTRACTS: DEFENSE LOGISTICS AGENCY
Cardinal Health, Inc., Dublin, Ohio, is being awarded a maximum $206,434,187 requirements-type, prime vendor contract for distribution of pharmaceutical items. Other locations of performance are North Carolina and California. Using service is the Department of Defense. The original proposal was solicited on the Federal Business Opportunities Web site with four responses. [...]

Attorneys Fight for Veterans Against VA and VSOs

ShareThe Disabled American Veterans (DAV) organization is targeting the use of attorneys by veterans (the Attorneys for Veterans right) to obtain benefits to which veterans are entitled, sending veterans into the hands of the veritable enemy— the Veterans Service Organizations (VSOs).
The ‘Attorneys for Veterans’ or ‘choice’ legislation took effect in June 2007 and now the Disabled American Veterans (DAV) seeks a [...]

U.S. Department of Defense Announces Latest Contract Awards

ShareNo. 204-10
———————————————
CONTRACTS: AIR FORCE
 
                Lockheed Martin Missiles and Fire Control, Orlando, Fla., was awarded a $41,898,184 contract which will provide for the purchase and contractor logistic support of sniper advanced targeting pods to support a foreign military sale customer, Saudi Arabia. At this time, $20,949,092 has been obligated.  448 PKHCB, Robins Air Force Base, Ga., [...]

Israel’s Crackdown Confronts Liberals and Humanists

ShareAn unprecedented Israeli campaign to silence dissidents, intellectuals and human rights organizations is gaining momentum in the wake of Israel’s December 2008 assault against Gaza that caused intense international outrage at the rightwing government in Israel such that the country has consolidated its status as a militaristic, pariah state.
Chris Hedges, former foreign correspondent for the New York Times and senior fellow at the Nation Institute, has [...]

U.S. Department of Defense Announces Latest Contract Awards

ShareNo. 198-10
—————————–
CONTRACTS: NAVY
                 Navistar Defense, LLC, Warrenville, Ill., is being awarded a $178,262,162 modification to delivery order #0013 under previously awarded firm-fixed priced contract (M67854-07-D-5032) for the procurement of 1,222 independent suspension system kits and aluminum catcher plates for the Mine Resistant Ambush Protected vehicles.  Work will be performed in West Point, Miss., and the [...]

Veterans of Gulf Wars August Reunion—1990 – Present

ShareAnnoucement from the National Gulf War Resource Center (NGWRC):
- A reunion for veterans of the Gulf War (Southwest Asia),  1990 to Present -
Operations Desert Storm – Enduring Freedom – Iraqi Freedom
Guest of honor for the banquet will be Ross Perot.  Join us as we give Mr. Perot the Desert Storm Patriot Award.
Where
Wyndham DWF Airport North
4441 [...]

U.S. Marines Leading Fight Against Taliban

The Marine approach — creative, aggressive and, at times, unorthodox — has won many admirers within the military.

U.S. Department of Defense Announces Latest Contract Awards

ShareNo. 196-10
———————————–
CONTRACTS: NAVY
 
                LPI Technical Services*, Chesapeake, Va., is being awarded a $84,140,685 cost-plus-fixed-fee, indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity contract to furnish repair, maintenance, modernization, logistical, and technical support services for material handling equipment (yellow gear) and hull, mechanical, and electric machinery and systems in order to ensure continued ship operation and performance. Work will be performed in Norfolk, [...]

Desmond Tutu Hits Discrimination of Gays as Human Rights Violation

Share
Famed anti-apartheid activist and Nobel Peace Prize recipient, Desmond Tutu, blasts the anti-gay hatred sweeping the continent of Africa. Writes Tutu in the Washington Post: “The wave of hate must stop. Politicians who profit from exploiting this hate, from fanning it, must not be tempted by this easy way to profit from fear and misunderstanding. And my [...]

Caterpillar Brings Jobs Back Home in ‘Onshoring’ Trend

ShareFrom the Wall Street Journal:
BY KRIS MAHER AND BOB TITA
Caterpillar Inc. is considering relocating some heavy-equipment overseas production to a new U.S. plant, part of a growing movement among manufacturers to bring more operations back home—a shift that will likely spark fierce competition among states for new manufacturing jobs.
The trend, known as onshoring or reshoring, [...]

U.S. Department of Defense Announces Latest Contract Awards

ShareNo. 188-10
—————————————
CONTRACTS: AIR FORCE
 
                ADVENT Environmental, Inc., Mount Pleasant, S.C. (FA8903-10-D-8602); EA Engineering, Science, and Technology, Inc., Hunt Valley, Md. (FA8903-10-D-8601); and Zapata Inc., Charlotte, N.C. (8903-10-D-8600), were awarded a $350,000,000 contract which will provide environmental support restoration and remediation.  At this time, $3,000 per contract has been obligated.  AFCEE/ACX, Brooks City-Base, Texas, is the [...]

Next Page »