America doesn't have a gun probem -- it has a gang problem.

  Verne Strickland Blogmaster / December 31, 2012

 

 

 

 

 

December 31, 2012 By Daniel Greenfield 

Chicago’s murder numbers have hit that magic 500 number. Baltimore’s murder toll has passed 200. In Philly, it’s up to 324, the highest since 2007. In Detroit, it’s approaching 400, another record. In New Orleans, it’s almost at 200. New York City is down to 414 from 508. In Los Angeles, it’s over 500. In St. Louis it’s 113 and 130 in Oakland.  It’s 121 in Memphis and 76 in Birmingham.

Washington, D.C., home of the boys and girls who can solve it all, is nearing its own big 100.

Those 12 cities alone account for nearly 3,200 dead and nearly a quarter of all murders in the United States. And we haven’t even visited sunny Atlanta or chilly Cleveland.

These cities are the heartland of America’s real gun culture. It isn’t the bitter gun-and-bible clingers in McCain and Romney territory who are racking up a more horrifying annual kill rate than Al Qaeda; it’s Obama’s own voting base.

Chicago, where Obama delivered his victory speech, has homicide numbers that match all of Japan and are higher than Spain, Poland and pre-war Syria. If Chicago gets any worse, it will find itself passing the number of murders for the entire country of Canada.

Chicago’s murder rate of 15.65 per 100,000 people looks nothing like the American 4.2 rate, the Midwestern 4.5 or the Illinois’ 5.6 rates, but it does look like the murder rates in failed countries like Rwanda, Sierra Leone and Zimbabwe. To achieve Chicago’s murder rate, African countries usually have to experience a bloody genocidal civil war or decades of tyranny.

But Chicago isn’t even all that unique. Or the worst case scenario. That would be New Orleans which at an incredible 72.8 murder rate is ten times higher than the national average. If New Orleans were a country, it would have the 2^nd highest murder rate in the world, beating out El Salvador.

Louisiana went red for Romney 58 to 40, but Orleans Parish went blue for Obama 80 to 17.
St. Louis has a murder rate just a little lower than Belize. Baltimore has a worse murder rate than South Africa and Detroit has a worse murder rate than Colombia. Obama won both St. Louis and Baltimore by comfortable margins. He won Detroit’s Wayne County 73 to 26.

Homicide rates like these show that something is broken, but it isn’t broken among the Romney voters rushing to stock up on assault rifles every time Obama begins threatening their right to buy them; it’s broken among Obama’s base.

Any serious conversation about gun violence and gun culture has to begin at home; in Chicago, in Baltimore, in New York City, in Los Angeles and in Washington, D.C.

Voting for Obama does not make people innately homicidal. Just look at Seattle which is agonizing over its 26 murders. That’s about the same number of murders as East St. Louis which has only 27,000 people to Seattle’s 620,000.

So what is happening in Chicago to drive it to the gates of hell ahead of Zimbabwe and Rwanda?
A breakdown of the Chicago killing fields shows that 83% of those murdered in Chicago last year had criminal records. In Philly, it’s 75%. In Milwaukee it’s 77% percent. In New Orleans, it’s 64%. In Baltimore, it’s 91%. Many were felons who had served time. And as many as 80% of the homicides were gang related.
Chicago’s problem isn’t guns; it’s gangs. Gun control efforts in Chicago or any other major city are doomed because gangs represent organized crime networks which stretch down to Mexico, and trying to cut off their gun supply will be as effective as trying to cut off their drug supply.

America’s murder rate isn’t the work of the suburban and rural homeowners who shop for guns at sporting goods stores and at gun shows, and whom news shows profile after every shooting, but by the gangs embedded in the urban areas controlled by the Democratic machine. The gangs who drive up America’s murder rate look nothing like the occasional mentally ill suburban white kid who goes off his medication and decides to shoot up a school. Lanza, like most serial killers, is a media aberration, not the norm.

National murder statistics show that blacks are far more likely to be killers than whites and they are also far more likely to be killed. The single largest cause of homicides is the argument. 4^th on the list is juvenile gang activity with 676 murders, which combined with various flavors of gangland killings takes us nearly to the 1,000 mark. America has more gangland murders than Sierra Leone, Eritrea and Puerto Rico have murders.
Our national murder rate is not some incomprehensible mystery that can only be attributed to the inanimate tools, the steel, brass and wood that do the work. It is largely the work of adult males from age 18 to 39 with criminal records killing other males of that same age and criminal past.

If this were going on in Rwanda, El Salvador or Sierra Leone, we would have no trouble knowing what to make of it, and silly pearl-clutching nonsense about gun control would never even come up. But this is Chicago, it’s Baltimore, it’s Philly and NOLA; and so we refuse to see that our major cities are in the same boat as some of the worst trouble spots in the world.

Lanza and Newtown are comforting aberrations. They allow us to take refuge in the fantasy that homicides in America are the work of the occasional serial killer practicing his dark art in one of those perfect small towns that always show up in murder mysteries or Stephen King novels. They fool us into thinking that there is something American about our murder rate that can be traced to hunting season, patriotism and bad mothers.
But go to Chicago or Baltimore. Go where the killings really happen and the illusion comes apart.

There is a war going on in America between gangs of young men who bear an uncanny resemblance to their counterparts in Sierra Leone or El Salvador. They live like them, they fight for control of the streets like them and they kill like them.

America’s horrific murder rate is a result of the transformation of major American cities into Sierra Leone, Somalia, Rwanda and El Salvador. Our murder rate now largely consists of criminals killing criminals.
As David Kennedy, the head of the Center for Crime Prevention and Control, put it, “The majority of homicide victims have extensive criminal histories. This is simply the way that the world of criminal homicide works. It’s a fact.”

America is, on a county by county basis, not a violent country, just as it, on a county by county basis, did not vote for Obama. It is being dragged down by broken cities full of broken families whose mayors would like to trash the Bill of Rights for the entire country in the vain hope that national gun control will save their cities, even though gun control is likely to be as much help to Chicago or New Orleans as the War on Drugs.

Obama’s pretense that there needs to be a national conversation about rural American gun owners is a dishonest and cynical ploy that distracts attention from the real problem that he and politicians like him have sat on for generations.

We do not need to have a conversation about the NRA. We need to have a conversation about Chicago.
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'The Great Influenza', Woodrow Wilson, and other evils which we hope will not return.

By Verne Strickland / December 30, 2012


 

President Woodrow Wilson

I bought a copy of “The Great Influenza”, by John M. Barry, published by Penguin Books in 2004 by John M. Barry, to get the inside story of “The Deadliest Plague in History”. I got that. Frightening. Overwhelming. Singular. Sobering. A dance of deadly microbes, rampant strangulation, courageous researchers, helpless victims by the millions. 

There was an unexpected bonus. The lavishly descriptive historic document, describing the scientific and social upheaval which surrounded the global 1917-18 influenza mega-event, also exposed the political scandal of the Democrats’ challenge to U.S. Senator Joseph Raymond McCarthy (R-WI) – one Woodrow Wilson, president of the United States.

What a joy it was to read the insane (read “insane”) demagoguery of this strange, callous Wilson, whose misadventures into censorship, fanaticism, domestic spying, scandal-mongering, and intimidation of American citizens, are enough to absolve the patriotic Joseph McCarthy of his so-called “excesses” (so-called by Democrats of the liberal persuasion) in flushing out communists and pseudo-communists during the 1940s to 1950s.

All of those accused of selling out America during the McCarthyite “witch hunts” were, needless to say, not Communists. But, for me, just lighting a fire on the tail feathers of U.S. intellectuals, Hollywood cynics, left-wing radicals, and Communist sympathizers of the time, was cathartic, rewarding, satisfying. 

I don’t hate Joseph McCarthy. I never did. While he might have thrown a few wild pitches, he also threw a hell of a lot of strikes, and for that I give him a whole chorus of atta-boys.

What I did hate, and do yet, is treacherous, lying, deceitful, America-hating God-awful communism – scourge of freedom everywhere, and murderer of the masses in the millions. The only things that stopped its excesses at our shores were the so-called “excesses” of patriots like Joe McCarthy. And there were none like him. He did noble work, despite his vociferous detractors.

Senator McCarthy had a lot going against him before he even launched his bid to thwart communist leanings in the United States. For one thing, the man looked evil. That was not his own failing. Everyone is answerable to one’s own DNA, which apportions appearance, temperament, talent, intelligence (or lack thereof), longevity, vulnerability to one disease or another, and preference of a political party. (No, strike that last. It is suspected but not proven.)

Want to spread out the wings of this little flight of fantasy? Many look evil. Maybe I do as well. Dark eyes, black hair (okay, that was 30 years ago), scowling, but with a certain beguiling devil-may-care expression one might even call handsome. Hey, where did all this go off the rails?

But Joe McCarthy? He was easy to dislike. Especially if you were a little sensitive about someone flaring off about communists to begin with. So the intellectuals, “las artistas favoritas”, the union shills, the darlings of Hollywood, the scruffy denizens of the Golden Coast, they really got their butts in a snit over anyone who in the press even suggested that communists weren’t good for Amerika. Me? I was lonely back then, and am even more lonely today. From an idealogical perspective, anyway.

But let’s turn back the clock to the days of Woodrow Wilson’s smothering attack on freedom in the United States, when no excuse could make up for his insufferable assaults on the rights of the average citizens of this country.

You must ask yourself – have you ever read about these despotic campaigns put in motion by President Woodrow Wilson? Not me. I was ignorant of this whole revolting period of executive excesses until I undertook to learn about influenza. Thank God I did. Because I intend to use this chance encounter with truth to hold the heads of the great Democratic liberals of the World War I era underwater until Nancy Pelosi cries, “Will you dammit quit waterboarding already?”

I don’t know all there is to know about this strange interlude of U.S. history, which is buried beneath the shame and treachery of liberal America when the media (as they do now) give a pass to leftist causes.

But I will learn. In the meantime, I will share with you information exposed by John M. Barry of the rampant, rabid despotism of Mr. Woody Wilson, president of the United States 1913-21, who held his own nation captive in his steely, top-hatted, dour, frosty grip for years, then ducked into the history books with not a whimper about his disgraceful antics for which to apologize.

I was born in 1937. Not a year eliciting universal excitement and ardor for its historic importance, would you say? But I can hardly be blamed for that. I couldn’t talk intelligibly at the time, have made some tenuous improvement in that department since, didn’t have a clue about how to write, and political parties were as strange to me as pasteurized milk. But the war to end all wars, while it was kaput, was only a precursor to the wars to end all worlds. So in some sense this was a pivotal time – if not for mankind, at least for me.

Here are some of the thunderclap revelations that John M. Barry, brilliant author of “The Great Influenza”, gives us based on his research into the life and times of Woodrow, who went in a chameleonic transformation from isolationist to liberal internationalist to global interventionalist, forging swords from ploughshares and inserting the United States into the bloody, ravenous, unforgiving trenches of Europe.

In his zeal, Wilson portrayed his fellow Americans as traitors, protestors as enemies, and bewildered citizens as onerous miscreants. In his transformation from spineless caterpillar to flitting butterfly, he left no doubt that he wanted war, and proclaimed that those who disagreed would be ground under his heel.

“The hard line was designed to intimidate those reluctant to support the war into doing so, and to crush or eliminate those would not. Even before entering the war, Wilson had warned Congress, ‘There are citizens of the United States, I blush to admit . . . who have poured the poison of disloyalty into the very arteries of our national life . . . Such creatures of passion, disloyalty and anarchy must be crushed out.’”

Mr. Barry’s stunning revelations continue:

“The government compelled conformity, controlled speech in ways, frightening ways, not known in America before or since. Soon after the declaration of war, Wilson pushed the Espionage Act through a cooperative Congress, which balked only at legalizing outright press censorship – despite Wilson’s calling it “an imperative necessity.”

And this – an outrageous, in-your-face capitulation to federal government thuggery “justified” by presidential fiat:

“Thousands of government posters and advertisements urged people to report to the Justice Department anyone ‘who spreads pessimistic stories, divulges – or seeks – confidential military information, cries for peace, or belittles our effort to win the war.’ Wilson himself began speaking of the ‘sinister intrigue’ in America carried on ‘high and low’ by agents and dupes.”

Not Hitler, not Stalin, not Mussolini exceeded the iron grip of our own homegrown despot, President Woodrow Wilson, in wresting the will of the nation from its own citizens. But this shameful chapter is purged from the history books, hid from prying eyes, and left to fester in the archives of the Democratic Party of yesteryear.

McCarthyism? An instant, iconic catchphrase, capable of evoking visions of sinister clandestine warfare against – what? Innocent, decent Americans? Or scurrilous cells of Communist conspirators?

And Wilsonism? Why what is that? Sounds vaguely familiar, yet benign, and totally innocuous. The difference is that the president, the press and the denizens of the left conspired to demonize the one and market the other.

The story presented here, from the pages of author John M. Barry’s “The Great Influenza”: The Epic Story of the Deadliest Plague in History – A New York Times Bestseller—reveals itself to be not only a fearsome tale of pandemic ferocity, but an expose as well of the untold story of the Democratic Party’s scandalous precursor to McCarthyism, which would not emerge on the American scene until almost 20 years later. Truth is stranger than fiction. And sometimes late in arriving. But thank God – here it is. 

Obama (the president) takes to airwaves to blame GOP for impasse over 'fiscal cliff'

Verne Strickland Blogmaster / December 30, 2012

By Dave Boyer

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The Washington Times

Sunday, December 30, 2012

• 
  
  
  President Obama pauses during a statement on the “fiscal cliff” negotiations.

President Obama used a rare appearance on a Sunday talk show to accuse Republican lawmakers of protecting only the wealthiest taxpayers in negotiations to avoid the “fiscal cliff,” even as some in the GOP conceded that Mr. Obama has won the battle over raising taxes.

“They say that their biggest priority is making sure that we deal with the deficit in a serious way, but the way they’re behaving is that their only priority is making sure that tax breaks for the wealthiest Americans are protected,” Mr. Obama said of Republicans on NBC’s “Meet the Press.” “That seems to be their only overriding, unifying theme.”

Senate leaders are working on a last-ditch package that would prevent tax increases for most Americans on Tuesday and avert automatic spending cuts also set to kick in next week. Mr. Obama has been unable to reach an agreement with House Republicans over his initial proposal to extend tax cuts only for families earning less than $250,000 per year, while the GOP has sought deeper cuts to entitlement programs than the president offered.

In the interview with NBC’s David Gregory, recorded Saturday at the White House, the president said that if Senate talks break down, he expects Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, Nevada Democrat, to bring up a bill Monday that would encompass Mr. Obama’s original proposal only for middle-class tax cuts.

“Republicans will have to decide if they’re going to block it, which will mean that middle-class taxes do go up,” Mr. Obama said. “I don’t think they would want to do that politically, but they may end up doing it. If all else fails, if Republicans do in fact decide to block it so that taxes on middle-class families do in fact go up on Jan. 1, then we’ll come back with a new Congress on Jan. 4, and the first bill that will be introduced on the floor will be to cut taxes on middle-class families. And I don’t think the average person’s going to say, ‘Gosh, you know, that’s a really partisan agenda on the part of either the president or Democrats in Congress.’ I think people will say, ‘That makes sense, because that’s what the economy needs right now.’”
Some Republicans say Mr. Obama already has prevailed. Sen. Lindsey Graham, South Carolina Republican, said Sunday that Mr. Obama has “stood his ground.”

“He won,” Mr. Graham said on “Fox News Sunday.” “He’s going to get tax-rate increases.”
Although Republicans have said repeatedly that Mr. Obama hasn’t proposed significant deficit reduction, the president again insisted he has tried to meet the GOP halfway.

“The offers that I’ve made to them have been so fair that a lot of Democrats get mad at me,” Mr. Obama said. “I offered to make some significant changes to our entitlement programs. … At a certain point, if folks can’t say ‘yes’ to good offers, then I also have an obligation to the American people to make sure that the entire burden of deficit reduction doesn’t fall on seniors who are relying on Medicare.”

In the interview, the president also addressed his plans for gun control in the wake of the school shooting in Newtown, Conn., that took the lives of 20 children and six adults. He reiterated his support for renewing a federal ban on assault-style rifles, implementing a ban on high-capacity magazines and instituting tougher background checks.

“I think anybody who was up in Newtown … understands that something fundamental in America has to change,” he said. “The question is: Are we going to be able to have a national conversation and move something through Congress? I’d like to get it done in the first year. I will put forward a very specific proposal based on the recommendations that Joe Biden’s task force is putting together as we speak. And so this is not something that I will be putting off. … And, yes, it’s going to be hard.”

Wayne LaPierre, chief executive officer and executive vice president of the National Rifle Association, said after the slayings that schools should consider arming adults to protect students from violence. Asked by Mr. Gregory if he supported armed guards in schools, Mr. Obama replied, “I am not going to prejudge the recommendations that are given to me. I am skeptical that the only answer is putting more guns in schools.”
The interview also touched on Mr. Obama’s team for his second term. The president said he hasn’t decided whether to nominate former Sen. Chuck Hagel of Nebraska, a Republican, to replace Defense Secretary Leon E. Panetta. Some on the left have criticized Mr. Hagel for making disparaging comments in 1998 about a gay nominee for a diplomatic post.

“I’ve served with Chuck Hagel,” Mr. Obama said. “I know him. He is a patriot. He is somebody … somebody who served this country with valor in Vietnam and is somebody who’s currently serving on my intelligence advisory board and doing an outstanding job. With respect to the particular comment … he apologized for it. And I think it’s a testimony to what has been a positive change over the last decade in terms of people’s attitudes about gays and lesbians serving our country. And that’s something that I’m very proud to have led.”

Mr. Obama was considering the nomination of U.N. Ambassador Susan E. Rice to replace Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, but Mrs. Rice withdrew her name from consideration after several GOP senators criticized her explanations for the terrorist attack in Benghazi, Libya, that killed four Americans. Asked if he let Mrs. Rice “hang out to dry a little bit,” Mr. Obama replied, “No.”

“Why she was targeted individually, for the kind of attacks that she was subjected to … was puzzling to me,” the president said.Mrs. Rice was criticized for telling the public on several Sunday talk shows that the attack grew out of anti-U.S. protests over a film that ridiculed Islam. "She said she was relying on the best available intelligence at the time."

Exclusive: Clinton returning to work next week. "Immaculate Concussion" can't last forever.

Verne Strickland Blogmaster / December 27, 2012

By Josh Rogin Thursday, December 27, 2012 - 5:06 PM

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton will return to the State Department next week after three weeks of recovery from a stomach virus and a related concussion, The Cable has confirmed.

 

 

Clinton's ongoing recovery will still prevent her from flying abroad, but will allow plans to move forward for her to testify in open hearing on the Sept. 11 attack on Benghazi, testimony that she was unable to give -- as per her doctor's orders -- on Dec. 20. Her return to a public schedule could also end the weeks of conspiracy theorizing and wild speculation about whether or not she was faking or misrepresenting her illness to avoid testifying.

"The secretary continues to recuperate at home. She had long planned to take this holiday week off, so she had no work schedule. She looks forward to getting back to the office next week and resuming her schedule," Clinton aide Philippe Reines told The Cable.

Reines declined to say whether Clinton was at her Washington home or her house in Chappaqua, New York, but he said she did spend the holidays with her family. There's no definite schedule for her Benghazi testimony, but she has pledged to appear before both House and Senate foreign relations committees in January.

Since Dec. 9, when Clinton's stomach illness was first disclosed as the reason she pulled out of a planned trip to the Middle East and North Africa, a torrent of conservative pundits and media outlets have suggested or outright accused her of avoiding the public eye.

Insinuations that Clinton was faking or exacerbating her illness to avoid the Benghazi issue came from the Weekly Standard, the New York Post, the Daily Caller, hosts on Fox News's evening shows, Rep. Allen West (R-FL), the conservative website Pajamas Media, the Investors' Business Daily website, conservative blogger Lucianne Goldberg, and others.

The National Enquirer actually claimed that Clinton was suffering from brain cancer. "Considering the source I can't believe we even have to say this. But it's absolute nonsense," Reines said.

Former U.N. Ambassador John Bolton became the highest-ranking former government official to publicly accuse Clinton of faking her illness on Dec. 18.

"Every Foreign Service officer in every foreign ministry in the world knows the phrase that I'm about to use. When you don't want to go to a meeting or a conference or an event, you have a 'diplomatic illness.' And this is a diplomatic illness to beat the band," Bolton said.

"I certainly hope it's nothing serious, but this was revealed in a way that I think that was not transparent, and I think there is an obligation here, especially if Secretary Clinton decides to run for president, to indicate what happened," Bolton said. "She may beat testifying this week, but she's not going to escape it forever."

Bolton's accusation came three days after Clinton's doctors, Lisa Bardack of the Mt. Kisco Medical Group and Gigi El-Bayoumi of the George Washington University, issued a detailed statement about the secretary's injuries.

"Secretary Clinton developed a stomach virus, leading to extreme dehydration, and subsequently fainted. Over the course of this week we evaluated her and ultimately determined she had also sustained a concussion. We recommended that the Secretary continue to rest and avoid any strenuous activity, and strongly advised her to cancel all work events for the coming week," they said.

But Bolton accused Clinton of a pattern of avoiding the public that predated her illness and concussion. "The secretary has stayed out of the limelight ever since the attack of Sept. 11," he said.

In fact, Clinton held 14 press availabilities and gave nine separate press interviews between Sept. 12 and Dec. 7, when she fell ill. She also briefed the full House and the full Senate Sept. 20 on Benghazi.

In an e-mail to The Cable Thursday, Bolton explained that his comments on Clinton's illness were meant to highlight the administration's lack of openness about her medical condition.

"A fair listener would understand that my central point was the lack of transparency about her status," Bolton said. "Such a lack of transparency cannot be sustained in a presidential campaign, for example, where observers might infer that her condition was worse than it actually was. That's what I said, fair and balanced."

In addition to the Dec. 15 doctor's statement, the State Department has issued four separate statements on Clinton's health, on Dec. 9, 10, 15 and 19. Thursday's statement to The Cable marks the fifth time Clinton's representatives have spoken on the record about her progress outside of the State Department briefing room. In a background quote to ABC news Dec. 17, a U.S. official went into even more detail.

"According to the official, the secretary had two teams of doctors, including specialists, examine her. They also ran tests to rule out more serious ailments beyond the virus and the concussion. During the course of the week, Clinton was on an IV drip and being monitored by a nurse, while also recovering from the pain caused by the fall," ABC reported.

Top GOP lawmakers have rallied to Clinton's defense. Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) told The Cable that he believes Clinton has been honest and forthright about her medical condition.

"I have no doubts that Secretary Clinton has been ill and suffered a concussion. I know she will testify and statements to the contrary are misplaced," said Graham.

In a press conference last week, Graham said he wants Clinton to testify on Benghazi before she steps down from office, but reiterated that her illness was real and serious.

"To those who suggest that she's dodging her responsibilities because she's not sick, I think that's inappropriate and not true," Graham said. "I know she's sick now. I know she is not appearing because she really is ill."

House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairwoman Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-FL) acknowledged the veracity of Clinton's illness at her Dec. 20 hearing and Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) also backed Clinton up in a Dec. 19 Fox News appearance.

"I must say, I have never seen Secretary Clinton back down from a fight. And I have never seen her back down. And I believe that she is now not physically well enough to testify and she will testify the middle of January," he said.

Outrage over the charge that Clinton has been misleading the American public about her illness extends well past Washington. The NFL Players Association, apparently concerned about the seeming trivialization of similar injuries, felt compelled to weigh in and admonish those who would downplay the secretary's ordeal.

"A concussion is a serious injury that should not be discounted or belittled for political purposes," NFLPA Assistant Executive Director George Atallah said in a statement. "The Players Association has worked tirelessly not only to address this problem at the professional level, but to educate the general public about the risks to youths playing sports of all kinds. Efforts to raise awareness and teach prevention are undermined whenever someone dismisses the impact of a concussion. We must set a better example consistent with what we know to be the medical truth."

Lisa Jackson resigns -- First black EPA administrator quitting!

Verne Strickland Blogmaster / December 27, 2012

Jackson constantly found herself caught between administration pledges to solve thorny environmental problems and steady resistance from Republicans and industrial groups who complained that the agency's rules destroyed jobs and made it harder for American companies to compete internationally.   

|  By By KEVIN FREKING Posted: 12/27/2012 10:01 am EST  |  Updated: 12/27/2012 3:30 pm EST

 

Lisa Jackson -- EPA's first black administrator

 

WASHINGTON (AP) — EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson, the Obama administration's chief environmental watchdog, is stepping down after nearly four years marked by high-profile brawls over global warming pollution, the Keystone XL oil pipeline, new controls on coal-fired plants and several other hot-button issues that affect the nation's economy and people's health.

Jackson constantly found herself caught between administration pledges to solve thorny environmental problems and steady resistance from Republicans and industrial groups who complained that the agency's rules destroyed jobs and made it harder for American companies to compete internationally.

The GOP chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, Rep. Fred Upton of Michigan, said last year that Jackson would need her own parking spot at the Capitol because he planned to bring her in so frequently for questioning. Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney called for her firing, a stance that had little downside during the GOP primary.

Scott Segal, director of the Electric Reliability Coordinating Council, said Jackson presided over some of the most expensive environmental rules in EPA history.

"Agency rules have been used as blunt attempts to marginalize coal and other solid fossil fuels and to make motor fuels more costly at the expense of industrial jobs, energy security, and economic recovery," Segal said. "The record of the agency over the same period in overestimating benefits to major rules has not assisted the public in determining whether these rules have been worth it."

Jackson, 50, the agency's first black administrator and a chemical engineer, did not point to any particular reason for her departure. Historically, Cabinet members looking to move on will leave at the beginning of a president's second term.

Despite the opposition, which former EPA chiefs have said is the worst they have seen against the agency, Jackson managed to take significant steps that will improve air quality and begin to curb global warming.

"I will leave the EPA confident the ship is sailing in the right direction, and ready in my own life for new challenges, time with my family and new opportunities to make a difference," she said in a statement. Jackson will leave sometime after President Barack Obama delivers his State of the Union address, typically in late January.

In a separate statement, Obama said Jackson has been "an important part of my team." He thanked her for serving and praised her "unwavering commitment" to the public's health.

Environmental activist groups and other supporters lauded Jackson for the changes she was able to make, but industry representatives said some may have come at an economic cost. Groups also noted that she leaves a large, unfinished agenda.

"There has been no fiercer champion of our health and our environment than Lisa Jackson, and every American is better off today than when she took office nearly four years ago," said Frances Beinecke, president of the Natural Resources Defense Council. But she noted that Jackson's successor will inherit an unfinished agenda, including the need to issue new health protections against carbon pollution from existing power plants.

Sen. Tom Carper, D-Del., chairman of the Senate's subcommittee on clean air, called Jackson's tenure a "breath of fresh air" and credited her for setting historic fuel economy standards for cars and trucks, and for finalizing clean air standards.

Other environmental groups, however, praised Jackson's clean air efforts.
"Notwithstanding the difficult economic and political challenges EPA faced, her agency was directly responsible for saving the lives of tens of thousands of Americans and improving the health of millions throughout the country," said S. William Becker of the National Association of Clean Air Agencies. "She will be sorely missed."
  
Environmental groups had high expectations for the administration headed by Obama, a Democrat, after eight years of President George W. Bush, a Republican and Texas oilman who rebuffed agency scientists and refused act on climate change. Jackson came into office promising a more active EPA.

But she soon learned that changes would not occur as quickly as she had hoped. Jackson watched as a Democratic-led effort to reduce global warming emissions passed the House in 2009 but was then abandoned by the Senate as economic concerns became the priority. The concept behind the bill, referred to as cap-and-trade, would have established a system where power companies bought and sold pollution rights.

"That's a revolutionary message for our country," Jackson said at a Paris conference shortly after taking the job.

Jackson experienced another big setback last year when the administration scrubbed a clean-air regulation aimed at reducing health-threatening smog. Republican lawmakers had been hammering the president over the proposed rule, accusing him of making it harder for companies to create jobs.

She also vowed to better control toxic coal ash after a massive spill in Tennessee, but that regulation has yet to be finalized more than four years after the spill.

___
Associated Press writers Lolita C. Baldor and Pauline Jelinek contributed to this report.

Verne, Durrene, and their little band of Stricklands, worship Christ the Savior at enchanted family Christmas in NC mountains.

In our family at this time, we are so full of the thrilling Spirit of the Season -- the celebration of the birth of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. This is a dispatch from the idyllic little mountain village of Blowing Rock, where we were blessed to enjoy a visit with our family at this joyous Christmas!

 

VERNE, DURRENE AND THEIR LITTLE BAND OF STRICKLANDS, WORSHIP CHRIST THE SAVIOR AT AN ENCHANTED FAMILY CHRISTMAS IN THE NORTH CAROLINA MOUNTAINS.

By Verne Strickland, December 26, 2012

Hey, guys and gals, hope all of you had a Happy . . . no, wait a minute . . . we can't go there . . . I mean, a MERRY CHRISTMAS!

You know, we utilize newer and newer technology to reach out to others, and true friendships are made. We could almost call it . . . SOCIAL MEDIA? I think that works.

In my household, at this time of our lives, social media are really vital to staying in touch. A lot of formerly dependable physical and mental systems are also breaking down for me. I ration my driving, and can't drive at night, but the kids do let me practice some in our driveway, if I put on my seat belt and padded helmet. Durrene is also having some problems there.

So what happens? As we begin to age and fail, the Lord provides many of us with a wonderful son like our eldest, Martin, a talented residential contractor in our hometown of Wilmington, NC. He has taken over our agenda for two wonderful trips to the big hills. We couldn't travel otherwise. He loads and unloads the car, works out the route, does all the wheel time, keeps us laughing, and helps us get food to eat so we won't starve. Wouldn't that be a mess? You think I'm kidding? I'm not.

On this latest trip, I showed off my latest disease -- peripheral neuropathy, which I have added to my main disease -- bone cancer. The cancer is coming under control, but the neuropathy has gotten progressively worse. When I first was diagnosed with it, I thought it was a joke. Not no joke, folks. The nerves in my feet and ankles don't communicate with the rest of my body anymore, or with my brain.

I balance with all the grace of a bowling pin. Coming back today in the sleet and wind, we stopped by a piney thicket to give our two little doggies a rest break. I was able to attract considerable attention and pity, by falling off the shoulder of the road and rolling gracefully down the hill through the mountain flora, bashing my chin on a limb, cutting my hand, and making just a grand spectacle of myself. No major harm done, except to my pride.

Durrene says I am a good fall guy, bouncing gracefully over whatever is in my way, and partly surviving the whole thing. I don't know how many of these incidents of buffoonery I can survive. I should hasten to add that Durrene is my wife and sweetheart of 52 years, and loves and cheers me on. She's just great. She looks wonderful, too. Did I mention that?

Our middle son, Robinson, 46, has MS. He is a truly gifted musician. He proudly takes on many of the duties of Mr. Mom, and says this is why the Lord brought him home after his illness rendered him unable to continue work as Senior Audio Engineer at WNYC/PBS in New York.

 

His wife, Melissa, is one of Franklin Graham's top communications officials at Samaritan's Purse, and has an IQ greater than her weight, which I have told her is not normal. Their two children, Caleb and Mona, two and four respectively, are precious, lively kids, and it is a gift from God to see their innocence and personal warmth. They went to church with the adults on Christmas Eve, where a spirit-filled service filled our hearts with worship for Jesus Christ the Savior.

As we came out of the church, Mona, who knows her grandpa often needs help, took my hand, and said, "Come on, Verne." She guided me all the way to the car. I was touched and grateful. Every grandpa should be so lucky. Her brother Caleb is an energetic, inquisitive and loving youngster, and the two are total best buddies.

Our youngest son Britt is an English teacher in Oxford, England, and came back to North Carolina to celebrate Christmas with his little family of wonderfully blessed Stricklands. That's our bunch. We could have a family reunion in a broom closet. Britt is married to a raven-haired Scottish beauty who excels in her chosen profession as an orthopaedic nurse at a hospital in Oxford. We had to deny ourselves her company so she could remain on duty through the Christmas holidays.

There's so much more to tell, but it's been fun just sharing some of our Christmas adventures with you, our very special friends. God bless you all, praise to our newborn King, and have a Happy New Year! Your pal and fan, Grandpa Verne.

 

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Obama Uses Inouye Funeral Service to Talk About Himself. (So Who Really Died?)

Verne Strickland Blogmaster / December 22, 2012

 

 

 

 

 

 
10:34 AM, Dec 22, 2012 • By DANIEL HALPER

       

President Barack Obama used the funeral for Hawaii senator Daniel Inouye to talk about himself. In the short 1,600 word speech, Obama used the word "my" 21 times, "me" 12 times, and "I" 30 times.

Obama's speech discussed how Inouye had gotten him interested in politics. "Danny was elected to the U.S. Senate when I was two years old," he said.

Speaking to the audience at the National Cathedral in Washington, D.C., Obama talked about his family and their vacations. "Now, even though my mother and grandparents took great pride that they had voted for him, I confess that I wasn't paying much attention to the United States Senate at the age of four or five or six.  It wasn't until I was 11 years old that I recall even learning what a U.S. senator was, or it registering, at least.  It was during my summer vacation with my family -- my first trip to what those of us in Hawaii call the Mainland," said Obama.

So we flew over the ocean, and with my mother and my grandmother and my sister, who at the time was two, we traveled around the country.  It was a big trip.  We went to Seattle, and we went to Disneyland -- which was most important.  We traveled to Kansas where my grandmother's family was from, and went to Chicago, and went to Yellowstone.  And we took Greyhound buses most of the time, and we rented cars, and we would stay at local motels or Howard Johnson's.  And if there was a pool at one of these motels, even if it was just tiny, I would be very excited. And the ice machine was exciting -- and the vending machine, I was really excited about that. 

VS: SO WHO OR WHAT ACTUALLY PERISHED? DANIEL INOUYE OR BARACK'S BOYHOOD DREAMS?

Kerry squeaky clean Secretary of State nominee? Hold on -- where's the beef? It's right here.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

HOW OBAMA SEES IT . . .

President Barack Obama has nominated Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.) for Secretary of State. 

Kerry, a decorated Vietnam War veteran and 2004 Democratic presidential nominee, will replace Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton.

Kerry became the clear frontrunner for the position when U.N. Ambassador Susan Rice withdrew her name from consideration. Rice stepped aside citing concern that the confirmation process would have been "lengthy, disruptive and costly" due to persistent Republican opposition to her response to the Sept. 11 anniversary attack on a U.S. compound Benghazi, Libya.

Kerry has been member of the Foreign Relations Committee for 27 years, the last six as chairman. The senator has traveled extensively in his capacity as intrepid lawmaker and unofficial envoy for Obama, tamping down diplomatic fires in Afghanistan, Pakistan and Egypt, the AP reports.

"He is not going to need a lot of on-the-job training," Obama said during the nomination announcement.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/12/21/john-kerry-nomination-_n_2346827.html?icid=maing-grid7|maing5|dl2|sec1_lnk3%26pLid%3D248993

Verne:
Something seems amiss here. I don't know, maybe it's that all the crap associated with Kerry's career is totally ignored. This sounds like a squeaky-clean young daddy who has been suggested for the post of local PTA chairman. Where's the beef?

Here's some of it -- Kerry seems a waffler who will run for the exits at the first whiff of smoke. His loyalty to our Armed Forces is a leaky boat in a tsunami. He co-starred with Hanoi Jane Fonda in a propaganda blitz praising Viet Cong partisans, sneering at U.S efforts in Viet Nam.

So let's deal with the crap before President Obama's shoo-in nominee is hurried through the confirmation process. Here are some choice nuggets:

AND NOW THE REST OF US . . .

There are questions for which Kerry’s record provides no sure answers. After serving as a navy officer on a Swift boat on patrol against Viet Cong forces in the vast Mekong River delta of South Vietnam, he returned as an anti-war founder of Vietnam Veterans Against the War.

Kerry was no ordinary protester. He made a show of throwing away his medals, which included a silver star for bravery and three purple hearts for wounds that did not require hospitalization. Kerry’s antics were enough to get President Richard Nixon to ask who this guy was and how he came to have such a strong anti-war viewpoint. Kerry answered that question in testimony before a congressional committee in which he enumerated war crimes, the destruction of villages, the alienation of Vietnamese by the rough tactics of U.S. forces.

Kerry’s position on the U.S. role in Vietnam struck a popular chord in the U.S. as protest rose to the point at which the U.S. withdrew its troops in 1973, two years before the North Vietnamese stormed south on the way to victory.

Many people would commend him for contributing to understanding the horrors of the war. Others would accuse him of betraying the U.S. forces in which he served, of denigrating the sacrifices of those who also served in Vietnam and of misunderstanding the feelings of millions of South Vietnamese who looked to the U.S. to defend them.

In quite a different way, Kerry has gone through reversal on Iraq. Yes, he supported President George W. Bush’s decision in 2003 to wage war against Saddam Hussein, but he completely reversed himself when he ran for president against Bush in 2004 on an anti-war platform.

All of which raises huge doubts as to where Kerry would stand on the U.S. role in conflict anywhere. We can be pretty sure that Kerry, as secretary of state, would declare ritual support of the U.S.-Korean defense treaty, as would anyone in that position. He would enthusiastically call for dialogue with North Korea and would proclaim close ties with the incoming South Korean government.

The question, though, is how he would respond in a crisis. How strongly would he want to face down the North? Would he go for the peace treaty that Pyongyang has long been demanding with Washington? I don’t know of anyone who sees a U.S.-North Korean treaty as anything other than a gambit to separate the U.S. from its South Korean ally and press for withdrawal of U.S. forces, but would Kerry fall for it s a gesture to bring about reconciliation?

Questions about his dedication to America’s allies would extend to Japan and Taiwan. The U.S. has said it would honor its defense relationship with Japan if the current stand-off on the Senkakus were to explode in armed conflict. One has to wonder, though, if he would share this sentiment. Or would he be more anxious to appease Beijing than to defend American allies?

Kerry’s record on foreign policy has been one of dramatic shifts. The history shows he’s loudly opposed U.S. forces at critical moments. Assuming he does become secretary of state, watch out for double-talk, shifting positions and uncertain loyalties.

*****************

Verne: So I ask you -- with Ms. Rice out of the way, how capable and trustworthy a nominee has Obama pushed on-stage in the person of John Kerry?

I submit that Squire John deserves another pat-down at the TSA security station. Something big is being hidden away somewhere. We should find it before moving further. 

Verne Strickland Blogmaster / December 21, 2012

Texas Democratic Party leader, blogger calls for shooting NRA members

Verne Strickland Blogmaster / December 21, 2012

Texas Democrats issued tweet calling for NRA members to be shot

Saeed Khan/AFP/Getty Images 

December 17, 2012 By: Joe Newby

On Sunday, we reported that liberals on Twitter called for the murder of NRA members. One of those making the calls was identified Sunday as John Cobarruvias, a blogger, Democratic precinct chairman in the Houston area and a member of the Texas Democratic Executive Committee.

"Can we now shoot the #NRA and everyone who defends them?" he tweeted.

After reading about the tweets on another site, Yvonne Larsen noticed a familiar name.

"Among the selection of tweets advocating for the murder of NRA President Keene and all NRA members was a name familiar to me; probably familiar to many readers of Houston’s Liberal blog sites," she wrote at Big Jolly Politics.

Larsen said she "pasted a screen shot from the Freedom’s Outpost story in case NASA employee and Democrat Precinct 699 Chair John Cobarruvias of the Houstonblog Bay Area Houston tries to delete his tweet."

"You are an embarrassment to precinct chairs everywhere - and Americans. You sound like the next crazed shooter," one person tweeted in response.

Ironically, after calling for the deaths of NRA members and their defenders, Cobarruvias called the NRA domestic terrorists.

"Let's face it. The #NRA is nothing but a domestic terrorist organization. They have done NOTHING to stop this violence except make excuses," he added.

On Saturday, he posted a comment on his Facebook page asking NRA members to "un-friend" him and issued a disturbing message.

"They need to [be] wiped off the face of the earth," he wrote, speaking of the NRA and those who support owning guns.

"Personsally if they were wiped off the planet it wouldn't hurt my feelings one bit," he wrote in another comment.

We contacted the Texas Democratic Party for comments on Cobarruvias' tweet, but have not received a response.

Update: Cobaruvvias now says his tweet was not a death threat. He issued an apology and deleted the message, but his Facebook post is still live.

Verne Strickland Blogmaster / December 20, 2012

Thursday, December 20th, 2012 | Posted by WorldTribune.com

John Kerry in war and peace: U.S. allies would be right to question his reliability

Special to WorldTribune.com
By Donald Kirk, East-Asia-Intel.com

The U.S.-Korea relationship is about to undergo a major transition, and that’s not just because Lee Myung-Bak is stepping down after five years in which his American advocates professed their love for him even as his popularity sank ever lower at home. The big difference, from the U.S. perspective, is the likely appointment of a new secretary of state, John Kerry, whose view on Korea may well be quite different from that of his predecessor, Hillary Clinton.

There’s no certainty that Kerry, on the basis of his record from the Vietnam War onward, will be in favor of all the military support the United States guarantees South Korea. The record shows Kerry as an anti-war figure from his student days, a Vietnam War hero who turned against the war and an early advocate of U.S. intervention in Iraq who turned against the U.S. role there too.

John Kerry shared the stage with Jane Fonda at a rally in the early 1970s. /Guardian

So who’s to say where Kerry would end up on Korea? As chairman of the U.S. Senate foreign relations committee, he’s called for dialogue between North and South Korea and between the U.S. and North Korea. It’s not a matter of “rewarding bad behavior,” he’s said, but common sense to negotiate.

He might have been a little disillusioned when North Korea in April launched a long-range missile six weeks after signing off with the U.S. on a “moratorium” on nuclear and missile tests and one week after North Korea’s UN representative solemnly informed him of the North’s intent to honor the deal. Still, it’s a safe bet that Kerry will see dialogue as the next essential step for Korea, North and South.

That’s fine, but where would Kerry stand if the dialogue goes nowhere, or if it results in an agreement that’s quickly broken, or if the North stages another incident in the Yellow Sea, a campaign, perhaps to snatch back one of those islands within easy eyesight of North Korean shore gunners?

Those are questions for which Kerry’s record provides no sure answers. After serving as a navy officer on a Swift boat on patrol against Viet Cong forces in the vast Mekong River delta of South Vietnam, he returned as an anti-war founder of Vietnam Veterans Against the War.

Kerry was no ordinary protester. He made a show of throwing away his medals, which included a silver star for bravery and three purple hearts for wounds that did not require hospitalization. Kerry’s antics were enough to get President Richard Nixon to ask who this guy was and how he came to have such a strong anti-war viewpoint. Kerry answered that question in testimony before a congressional committee in which he enumerated war crimes, the destruction of villages, the alienation of Vietnamese by the rough tactics of U.S. forces.

Kerry’s position on the U.S. role in Vietnam struck a popular chord in the U.S. as protest rose to the point at which the U.S. withdrew its troops in 1973, two years before the North Vietnamese stormed south on the way to victory.

Many people would commend him for contributing to understanding the horrors of the war.

Many, however, would accuse him of betraying the U.S. forces in which he served, of denigrating the sacrifices of those who also served in Vietnam and of misunderstanding the feelings of millions of South Vietnamese who looked to the U.S. to defend them. In quite a different way, Kerry has gone through reversal on Iraq. Yes, he supported President George W. Bush’s decision in 2003 to wage war against Saddam Hussein, but he completely reversed himself when he ran for president against Bush in 2004 on an anti-war platform.

All of which raises huge doubts as to where Kerry would stand on the U.S. role in conflict anywhere. We can be pretty sure that Kerry, as secretary of state, would declare ritual support of the U.S.-Korean defense treaty, as would anyone in that position. He would enthusiastically call for dialogue with North Korea and would proclaim close ties with the incoming South Korean government.

The question, though, is how he would respond in a crisis. How strongly would he want to face down the North? Would he go for the peace treaty that Pyongyang has long been demanding with Washington? I don’t know of anyone who sees a U.S.-North Korean treaty as anything other than a gambit to separate the U.S. from its South Korean ally and press for withdrawal of U.S. forces, but would Kerry fall for it s a gesture to bring about reconciliation?

Questions about his dedication to America’s allies would extend to Japan and Taiwan. The U.S. has said it would honor its defense relationship with Japan if the current stand-off on the Senkakus were to explode in armed conflict. One has to wonder, though, if he would share this sentiment. Or would he be more anxious to appease Beijing than to defend American allies?

Kerry’s record on foreign policy has been one of dramatic shifts. The history shows he’s loudly opposed U.S. forces at critical moments. Assuming he does become secretary of state, watch out for double-talk, shifting positions and uncertain loyalties.

Window On the Real World!

Sandy Hook Mental Health: Program Gaps May Be Easier To Fix Than Gun Laws.

Verne Strickland Blogmaster / December 20, 2012

 

 

Jason Cherkis Become a fan

jason.cherkis@huffingtonpost.com

 

Posted: 12/19/2012 9:59 pm EST  |  Updated: 12/19/2012 10:00 pm EST

WASHINGTON -- Days before the mass shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary, a boy in Milwaukee confessed to one his teachers that he had been troubled by voices and delusions. The voices were insisting that he do harm, that he shoot people.
He told the teacher that he had access to a gun at home. He said that he was prepared to bring the gun to school.

This is a scenario that unfolds thousands of times every year across the U.S. It may not involve a school like the high school in Milwaukee or an elementary school in Newtown, Conn. But the catalysts are all hauntingly familiar -- isolation and a troubled teen or young adult in crisis.

Friday's massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary has drawn considerable attention to gun control, with politicians pondering another assault weapons ban, a potential curb on high-capacity magazines, and background checks at gun shows. On Wednesday, President Barack Obama announced the formation of a task force to address the gun issue, which he vowed would not be like other Washington commissions. He said he expects concrete proposals on his desk in January.

Less attention has been focused on forging a better policy on mental health care for at-risk kids. Obama devoted a line to the topic while announcing his gun task force. But mental health legislation may be an easier fix and an easier sell to Congress.

There are ways of preventing more Sandy Hooks or Auroras. The solutions are out there, and many have long been in practice. 

That Milwaukee teacher did not call the police. Nor did the teacher ignore the boy. The high school knew exactly how to get the teen immediate help.

School officials dialed Milwaukee's Mobile Urgent Treatment Team, recalled its director, Dr. Chris Morano.

"We knew this was a high risk," Morano explained. His team went to the school, where they assessed the boy on the spot. With the mother's help, the team's clinicians surrounded him with services. He was temporarily hospitalized and began taking medication to help beat back his inner demons, hush his impulsiveness and stamp out his turn-on-a-dime aggressiveness. He and his family began developing a treatment plan with county workers.

The team then assigned him a sort of mental-health bodyguard as someone he or his mother can call 24 hours a day, Morano said. The boy would continue getting services for as long as needed.
Morano's team is just one of the entry points into Milwaukee County's social services program, known as Wraparound Milwaukee.

The program, started in 1995, aims to treat the city's most vulnerable -- children and adolescents with deep emotional disorders who have been swept up in foster care or entangled in the juvenile justice system. For the roughly 550 youth and family members it serves every year, Wraparound Milwaukee provides coordinated services and therapies with one catch: Families -- not bureaucrats -- lead the treatment plans.

Bruce Kamradt, Wraparound Milwaukee's director, explained the philosophy to HuffPost in February. "It's around strengths and needs of kids," he said. "Better we plan this together. We'll look at family needs too. If the youth problem is he's in a gang and the mother really needs to get out of this neighborhood, we may find alternative housing. If she needs a job, we'll try to find a job for her. We're going to focus not only on the kid's need but the family's need."

Morano agreed. "Our innovation is that we go to the community, we go to families," he said. He called parents the "X Factor." "How the parent or caregiver is handling the stress of the trauma. This, to me, is the single most important factor in how well a child will adjust in the aftermath," he explained. "Parents have to handle their own stress and anxiety, appear as confident and assured as they can. ... This is vital in helping kids feel good again."

Wraparound Milwaukee also serves an additional 350 kids who are not attached to the courts, Morano said. The aim is to keep those kids out of the judicial system. "We recognized that it was vital to provide as early and as preventative services as possible," Morano said.

Once they get a sense of the family's needs, Wraparound Milwaukee matches the family with service providers. As Kamradt suggested, the program prides itself on being flexible and not offering the same old individual therapies. It all sounds pie-in-the-sky -- empowering families to stabilize their own children through government agencies and nonprofits. Despite the odds, the ideas have taken root. State and county data analyzed by Kamradt's team show that of 411 new youth enrolled from October 2009 to July 31, 2010, only 11.9 percent committed new offenses. Its 2011 annual report shows high rates of school attendance, stable families, and satisfaction among families and kids.

The innovations are not under-publicized. Wraparound Milwaukee was the subject of a PBS documentary. In 2009, the Harvard Kennedy School of Government gave the program an an innovator award. It's become a national model.

"With respect to this most recent tragedy, I have to to tell you that in Milwaukee we've done a tremendous turnaround," Morano said.

It is a turnaround not widely enjoyed elsewhere. Too many jurisdictions' mental health budgets are consumed by costly hospitals for the most extreme cases, favoring bed space over prevention programs. "The problem is that right now kids in particular get very poor services nationwide," said Robert Bernstein, president of the Bazelon Center for Mental Health Law, an advocacy organization based in Washington.

If you want solid, flexible services, you can get them only after you've been hospitalized multiple times, Bernstein added.

Youth Villages, a nonprofit based in Tennessee that works with a number of states, does in-home services for children. Its stats show that more than 80 percent of kids remain with their family one year after completing the program. More than 80 percent of kids report no arrests. Youth Villages works in 11 states and D.C., yet admissions in 2010 were barely above 4,000.

"There's good science around what you are supposed to do," said Dr. Tim Goldsmith, Youth Villages' chief clinical officer. "There's really no question. People just don't do it. For some it's a lack of knowledge. For some its a lack of skill. For some, it's a lack of funding. When you have a young adult in a mental-health system ... it's going to be the luck of the draw with what you're going to get.
"
Mississippi has wraparound services. But it's nowhere near full funding and doesn't cover the state equally. "Even with the problems with the wraparound, the number of families who are getting to participate in that is very small," explained Joy Hogge, executive director of Mississippi Families As Allies.

Resources or not, cities and states have found ways to innovate at one of the most common intersections between a person in crisis and government.

In the late '80s, the Memphis Police Department decided it needed a better way to deal with these residents. After one confrontation ended in a fatal police-involved shooting, the department created the Crisis Intervention Team model. Along with training for rank-and-file cops, the department developed what amounts to a mental-health version of a SWAT team of officers who go through more intensive trainings.

Memphis residents are no longer afraid to call the police when a loved one is having problems. In 1988, Crisis Intervention Team officers fielded 3,000 calls for service. They now receive roughly 12,000 calls per year. Dozens of police jurisdictions have adopted the program, from Georgia to Seattle to D.C. "There are a lot of officers who are willing to get this training," explained Philip Eure, executive director of D.C.'s Office of Police Complaints. "It's a way of sensitizing people on the front lines."

When judges in Washington noticed that their courtrooms were seeing too many mentally-ill residents charged with minor offenses, they created what's called mental health community court.

One study from Georgetown University Law Center and North Carolina State University noted that five such courts showed reductions in recidivism at least during a defendant's interaction with the courts. Two courts showed reductions two years after the defendant left the court system. The study, which looked at D.C. Superior Court's program, reported that defendants said they had positive experiences and strongly identified with the court's goals.

Magistrate Judge Joan Goldfrank presides over the juvenile version of the court. At least 50 kids have completed the program since the court began about two years ago. She said it has been a success because it makes sure kids get promised services and it empowers parents. "I see kids and parents that can actually have a conversation with each other," Goldfrank told HuffPost. "There's a lot of anger for lots of reasons by many of the kids ... I try to meet the kids where they are."

Eddie Ferrer of DC Lawyers for Youth has had two clients in Goldfrank's courtroom, which he called "fantastic." For one client in particular, he said, the court made a "world of difference." "One of the main reasons it works is because there is meaningful services being provided that try to address the core issue as to why that young person is acting out," he said.

Other juvenile clients aren't so lucky. Ferrer said he has clients who have been waiting six to nine months and still have not received quality mental health services.

The need doesn't go away. Back in Milwaukee, Morano said he gets calls from high schools all day long. Earlier this week, a kid walked into his office with a care coordinator. He was struggling with violent hallucinations. "He was so distraught by what he was thinking and experiencing," Morano said. "He couldn't bring himself to tell me the details. But he wanted help."

His team, Morano said, also assessed a youth who talked about wanting to replicate Sandy Hook.
"He gestured with his hands about shooting people in class," Morano said.