July 03, 2009
Sarah Palin Resigns as Alaska's Governor
In a stunning announcement, Gov. Sarah Palin said Friday morning she will resign her office in a few weeks.
Speculation has swirled for weeks, perhaps months that Palin would not seek re-election in 2010 as she pursues a political career on the national stage. The former vice presidential candidate has long been rumored to be considering a run at the Republican presidential nomination in 2012.
Palin did not address those rumors at the press conference at her Wasilla home, during which she did not take questions from reporters.
Lt. Gov. Sean Parnell will be inaugurated as her successor at the Governor's Picnic at Pioneer Park in Fairbanks on Sunday, July 26, Palin said.
Parnell said he will seek election to the governor's office in 2010. Parnell ran unsuccessfully against Rep. Don Young in the Republican primary last year.
Palin made the announcement flanked by Parnell and most, if not all, of her cabinet.
Palin Quits as Alaska Governor
Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin said Friday that she is stepping down at the end of the month, setting up a potential run for the Republican presidential nomination in 2012.
Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin shocked the political word Friday by announcing that she will step down at the end of the month and transfer power to Lt. Gov. Sean Parnell.
Palin made the announcement from her home in Wasilla, flanked by her husband, Todd, and family and state commissioners.
The announcement came on the same week that one of her top public health officials says she was forced out of office because Palin felt she wasn't in step on social issues.
Palin's decision now allows her to avoid the difficult task of running for president while serving as governor.
Todd Palin told FOX News that his wife will concentrate on "doing the things for Alaska and the country" that she is passionate about and can not do as governor with the limitation and constant opposition she deals with within the state.
Palin, who defeated incumbent Gov. Murkowski in a primary in 2006,.gained national prominence when GOP presidential candidate John McCain picked her as his running mate last year. But her approval ratings in the state have skidded in recent months.
Palin has been dogged in recent months by ethics inquiries. Her office last month announced the 15th dismissal of an ethics complaint against her or one of her staff.
On Wednesday, Beverly Wooley, who has worked more than 20 years in public health in Alaska, most of it with the municipality of Anchorage, ended her stint as state public health director.
She's the second top health official to leave within days. The state's chief medical officer, Jay Butler, left in late June after declining to take on Wooley's job along with his own. He now is in Atlanta, overseeing a U.S. Centers for Disease Control task force on a vaccine to protect against the H1N1 flu virus.
Wild Thing's comment........
I am so proud of her. I was shocked at first, but the more I think about it this is a stand up kind of thing to do.
This is an all or nothing decision. And that is the kind of person Sarah is and why I respect her so much.
She has made a smart political move. She'll be free to raise $$$, not chained to the affairs of State. The way other politicians have done it is they stay in office USE those who voted for them as they beg for money to run for the next office and are not doing the job they were elected to do. Just my take on it. Sarah has her own way of doing things.
Her speech was awesome and as soon as it shows up on YouTube I will post it.
Here it is:
It is labeled as Part 2 but there is no part one so I think the person that did the video just has part one as the media covering this and then they broke to her giving her speech.
LOL OOPS I was wrong..... Part ONE is now available. Sorry for the messy post,.
Posted by Wild Thing at 04:30 PM | Letters to the Editor (8) | Trackback URL | (0)
Sarah Palin At High Noon
Sarah Palin At High Noon
By Lloyd Marcus
( Lloyd Marcus is the Singer/Songwriter of the "American Tea Party Anthem" and President, NAACPC (National Association for the Advancement of Conservative People of Color).
I just watched the classic movie "High Noon" (again). Gary Cooper played a brave sheriff who brought law and order to his town. As one woman said, "He made it safe for a decent woman to walk down the street". A recently released outlaw was coming back to town on the noon train to deliver vengeance against the sheriff who put him away. His gang of three arrived early to help their leader take out the sheriff.
Fully aware of why the bad men were in town, the sheriff could not arrest them because they had not broken any laws. Waiting is not illegal.
Desperate, the sheriff interrupted a church service to solicit help. After much debate, the ungrateful town folks declined. They even suggested the sheriff "get out of town" hoping the trouble would follow him. The sheriff contemplated their recommendation. He began saddling his horse, but something inside would not allow him to run away. Heroically, the sheriff faced the bad guys and won!
I thought of another strong, gutsy, bold, stand-on-principles hero, Sarah Palin, in her own modern day version of High Noon. Sheriff Palin rode into America Town on a white horse with conservative guns blazing and saved a dead McCain campaign. She brought hope to weary and battered conservative town folks and gave them a reason to vote.
Outlaw Obama and his posse, the hate filled liberal media/Democrat gang, came to town a gunnin' to politically eliminate Sheriff Palin. They ambushed her at Miss Katie Couric's CBS saloon. Though wounded numerous times, Sheriff Palin survived.
She bravely stood tall and rode high in the saddle while ungrateful, weak kneed Republican town folks ran for cover, hid in their homes and peeked nervously through the curtains.
Why are Obama and his gang so committed and desperate to destroy Palin? Could it be they recognize her destiny, like that of Moses, to set her people free? And why is she so despised by them? Obama's gang hate Palin for all the reasons we love her. Sheriff Palin is a good, decent and strong character driven conservative leader. Palin also believes in God. Such humility and virtues are as repulsive to liberals as showing Dracula the cross.
Something that sticks in the craw of many liberal women is that in their youth, they brought into the feminist rhetoric that women's liberation means no husband and family. Tragically, they find themselves aging and alone. Meanwhile, this conservative woman has it all: great career, fine family and a husband who loves and respects her. Adding insult in injury, Sheriff Palin looks mighty fine in her jeans.
Recently, the libs sent an old washed up gunslinger, the Letterman Kid, to challenge Sheriff Palin to a shoot out. Palin planted two bullets between the pathetic old dude's wrinkly eyes before he could un-holster his gun.
Despite Sheriff Palin's courage and willingness to fight, Obama and his posse rule America Town. They are in the process of taking over everything! Obama took over the livery stable and banned horses. While he and his posse continue riding horses, we town folks are forced to ride miniature ponies.
But in the spirit of what has made America Town great, an uprising is a brewin'. A huge conservative posse is building daily. Our first battle will be in 2010 to win back America Town's House and Senate. Then, in 2012, God willing and the creek don't rise, Sheriff Palin will lead us to victory in the battle of Little Big Washington DC. Years earlier, another great lawman cleaned up America Town, Sheriff Ronald Reagan.
After Sheriff Palin sweeps out the Obama gang, perhaps once again, we will be as what Sheriff Reagan affectionately called us, "a shining city on a hill".
Wild Thing's comment......
Great article.
I loved this...it isn't about making her a Sheriff in reality, it is about recognizing that she has STOOD up to the media that has tried over and over to hurt her-both professionally and worse, personally.
She does exude a certain love of country that annoys liberals, and she is UNASHAMED of being a good person, who loves her family and does so with great zeal. That she was willing to bring Trig into the world, loving him and embracing him absolutely makes the folks who love abortions cringe. They hate her because she is EVERYTHING they are not and more.
I LOVE HER STYLE, AND HER DEDICATION TO PRINCIPLE A GREAT BIG BUNCH!
I would love to meet Lloyd Marcus, the author of this article, I know exactly what he meant. I saw republicans hiding when Sarah arrived on the scene, as well.
Posted by Wild Thing at 04:27 PM | Letters to the Editor (2) | Trackback URL | (0)
Orders From Obama:U.S.Troops Told to Stop Taliban Pursuit If Civilians At Risk
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A U.S. Marine checks his equipment before joining other Marines and about 650 Afghan soldiers and national police officers as they prepare to board CH-53D Sea Stallion and CH-53E Super Stallion helicopters on Forward Operating Base Dwyer, Afghanistan, July 2, 2009. U.S. Marine Corps photo by Chief Warrant Officer 3 Philippe E. Chasse
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U.S. Marines, military working dog, and about 650 Afghan soldiers and national police officers prepare to board CH-53D Sea Stallion and CH-53E Super Stallion helicopters on Forward Operating Base Dwyer, Afghanistan, July 2, 2009. U.S. Marine Corps photo by Chief Warrant Officer 3 Philippe E. Chasse
U.S. troops told to stop Taliban pursuit if civilians are at risk
KABUL
Beginning Thursday, American soldiers in Afghanistan will be under orders to back down when they're chasing Taliban fighters whenever they think that civilians might be at risk.
Army Gen. Stanley McChrystal, the top commander in Afghanistan, will issue the directive as part of an effort to cut down on civilian casualties, which have enraged the Afghan government and residents. Instead of calling in air support or firing into civilian homes where Taliban fighters have sought refuge, commanders will be instructed to reach out to tribal elders or undertake other efforts to dislodge the fighters.
The order is consistent with what national security adviser James L. Jones told McClatchy Newspapers in Washington Wednesday was President Barack Obama's concern about civilian casualties in Afghanistan.
"General McChrystal has been given instructions when he left here that, in all military operations, that we redouble our efforts to make sure that innocent loss of life is minimized, with zero being the goal," Jones said, noting that, "In one mishap you can create thousands more terrorists than you had before the mishap."
The new order, however, is likely to draw criticism from some U.S. troops, many of whom feel the rules that govern how they fight the war already are too restrictive.
Many troops here say they depend on air power and heavy weaponry because there aren't enough ground troops to chase Taliban forces on foot. Jones said no additional ground troops will be sent this year, even though some ground commanders want them.
"Everybody had their day in court, so to speak, before the president made his decision," he said. "We signed off on the strategy, and now we're in the implementation phase."
McChrystal's order will instruct soldiers to "think about what else can we do," said Rear Adm. Gregory Smith, the military's top spokesman in Afghanistan. "We cannot keep going down the path of putting civilians at risk. ... People want to see changes in behavior."
Airstrikes, which Afghans charge kill innocent people, won't be eliminated, Smith said. "Air power will be as valuable after this directive is issued as it ever was," he said.
The new order, however, will require troops to assume that civilians are present and back off when Taliban fighters escape into villagers' houses, Smith said.
"The assumption must be there are civilians in those residences, and in those instances, he is asking commanders to think of other options in front of them," Smith said.
Those options might include gathering intelligence and regrouping to fight another day; reaching out to a tribal leader or encouraging villagers to help coalition forces track down Taliban forces. In some cases, it could mean letting Taliban escape.
McChrystal's order, an unclassified version of which is expected to be made public later this week, comes on the heels of a Pentagon report issued last month that acknowledged that as many as 86 civilians may have been killed in a May airstrike in Farah province.
The strike, by a B-1B strategic bomber, was ordered after Afghan forces came under fire from the Taliban and sought U.S. help. The report faulted Americans on the ground for not determining whether civilians were present before the plane dropped a 2,000-pound bomb.
Since McChrystal took command here last month, he has said reducing civilian casualties would be a top priority.
He repeated that concern Tuesday in an interview Tuesday with Radio Free Europe. "The most important thing is to not hurt the Afghan people because the most important thing is to win their support," he said. "This fight is for the Afghan people, it's not with the Afghan people."
Civilian casualties have become a major source of tension between Afghans and U.S. and other coalition forces here. Afghan President Hamid Karzai speaks out frequently against coalition forces and their use of airstrikes on campaign stops as he seeks re-election, and earlier this year, the parliament passed a resolution condemning the use of airstrikes.
"One mistake is OK. But every day there is a mistake. You start to lose sympathy," said Khalid Pashtun, an Afghan-American member of parliament who represents Kandahar province, a Taliban stronghold. "Now, I am an American, and I feel this way. Imagine how the normal Afghan feels. He feels Afghan blood has become very cheap."
McChrystal has briefed Karzai about the new directive and his response was "encouraging," Smith said.
Top military officials here discount concerns that the Taliban will exploit the new order and step up their presence among civilians who often don't reveal Taliban hiding locations, either because they support them or fear retribution.
Military officials, however, said that the Taliban already exploit the way the U.S. has been fighting and purposely flee to villages in anticipation that coalition actions will lead to civilian casualties, exacerbating tensions between the coalition and the civilians.
Wild Thing's comment..........
no NO NO NO NO This is VERY bad. Is this an intercepted communication from LBJ to Westmoreland?
Dear God..this is insanity! It’s bad enough that the order was given..but to broadcast it in ADVANCE..just as we are sending our soldiers into the field?
TREASONOUS!!
"the Taliban already exploit the way the U.S. has been fighting and purposely flee to villages in anticipation that coalition actions will lead to civilian casualties"
THAT is exactly what they do. The do it on purpose and they know since the last time it was a set up too. And then the Coward in Chief Obama apologized and said he would get to the bottom of the civilians deaths and he blamed our military without even checking it all out.
The Taliban hides behind skirts and children. God help and protect our troops. This has me sitting here crying. Damn Obama! to hell!
Notice we don't hear that Obama was concerned about American troop casualties.
This is a purposeful plan to lose our advantage and appease the Muslims, injure and eliminate our dear troops from the battlefield in the process.
Posted by Wild Thing at 07:55 AM | Letters to the Editor (8) | Trackback URL | (0)
Obama and Senate Would Fine People $1000 For Refusing Health Care Coverage
Senate Bill Would Fine People More Than $1,000 for Refusing Health Care Coverage
Senate aides said the penalties, estimated to raise around $36 billion over 10 years, would be modeled on the approach taken by Massachusetts, which now imposes a fine of about $1,000 a year on individuals who refuse to get coverage.
Americans who refuse to buy affordable medical coverage could be hit with fines of more than $1,000 under a health care overhaul bill unveiled Thursday by key Senate Democrats looking to fulfill President Barack Obama's top domestic priority.
The Congressional Budget Office estimated the fines will raise around $36 billion over 10 years. Senate aides said the penalties would be modeled on the approach taken by Massachusetts, which now imposes a fine of about $1,000 a year on individuals who refuse to get coverage. Under the federal legislation, families would pay higher penalties than individuals.
In a revamped health care system envisioned by lawmakers, people would be required to carry health insurance just like motorists must get auto coverage now. The government would provide subsidies for the poor and many middle-class families, but those who still refuse to sign up would face penalties.
Called "shared responsibility payments," the fines would be set at least half the cost of basic medical coverage, according to the legislation. The goal is to nudge people to sign up for coverage when they are healthy, not wait until they get sick.
The legislation would exempt certain hardship cases from fines. The fines would be collected through the income tax system.
The new proposals were released as Congress neared the end of a weeklong July 4 break, with lawmakers expected to quickly take up health care legislation when they return to Washington. With deepening divisions along partisan and ideological lines, the complex legislation faces an uncertain future.
Obama wants a bill this year that would provide coverage to the nearly 50 million Americans who lack it and reduce medical costs.
In a statement, Obama welcomed the legislation, saying it "reflects many of the principles I've laid out, such as reforms that will prohibit insurance companies from refusing coverage for people with pre-existing conditions and the concept of insurance exchanges where individuals can find affordable coverage if they lose their jobs, move or get sick."
The Senate Health Education, Labor and Pensions bill also calls for a government-run insurance option to compete with private plans as well as a $750-per-worker annual fee on larger companies that do not offer coverage to employees.
Sens. Edward M. Kennedy, D-Mass., and Christopher Dodd, D-Conn., said in a letter to colleagues that their revised plan would cost dramatically less than an earlier, incomplete proposal, and help show the way toward coverage for 97 percent of all Americans.
In a conference call with reporters, Dodd said the revised bill had brought "historic reform of health care" closer. He said the bill's public option will bring coverage and benefit decisions driven "not by what generates the biggest profits, but by what works best for American families."
The Congressional Budget Office, in an analysis released Thursday evening, put the net cost of the proposal at $597 billion over 10 years, down from $1 trillion two weeks ago. Coverage expansions worth $645 billion would be partly offset by savings of $48 billion, the estimate said.
However, the total cost of legislation will rise considerably once provisions are added to subsidize health insurance for the poor through Medicaid. Those additions, needed to ensure coverage for nearly all U.S. residents, are being handled by a separate panel, the Senate Finance Committee. Bipartisan talks on the Finance panel aim to hold the overall price tag to $1 trillion.
The Health Committee could complete its portion of the bill as soon as next week, and the presence of a government health insurance option virtually assures a party-line vote.
In the Senate, the Finance Committee version of the bill is unlikely to include a government-run insurance option. Bipartisan negotiations are centered on a proposal for a nonprofit insurance cooperative as a competitor to private companies.
Three committees are collaborating in the House on legislation expected to come to a vote by the end of July. That measure is certain to include a government-run insurance option.
At their heart, all the bills would require insurance companies to sell coverage to any applicant, without charging higher premiums for pre-existing medical conditions. The poor and some middle-class families would qualify for government subsidies to help with the cost of coverage. The government's costs would be covered by a combination of higher taxes and cuts in projected Medicare and Medicaid spending.
Obama voters are sharing their personal stories with Obama at his Organizing For America website. I would NOT register to read them but I found it at the vile person Huffington Post blog so here it is. This way you don't have to register to see what it looks like. ~ Wild Thing
Jackie in Logan, N.D., wrote that she cried when she was hospitalized in January out of fear for the bills -- even though she has health insurance.
"I told my husband that perhaps I should just go home and wait to die," Jackie wrote, "as it would be cheaper to be cremated, than to have to exist dealing with the debt of surviving."
Brad of Granite City, IL, wrote that "I may die any day because Health Insurance isn't available to me."
"For profit healthcare killed my wife," wrote John of Nashville, Tenn.
http://stories.barackobama.com/healthcare
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Wild Thing's comment.......
Check out the Obama LOGO once again. sheesh I am so sick of seeing that logo of his. His communist dictator logo.
Notice how they EXPECT to "make" $36 million dollars over the next ten years. They are HOPING that people won't be able to afford health insurance so they can kick their feet out from under them and rob them blind!
This is unbelievable! Our rights are fast deminishing. Unfathomable that such a thing would be done!
Our country currently has the best medical care in the world. The Socialist Obama and his Socialist Congress are determined to destroy it.
Where in the Constitution are the president and congress allowed to dictate to us which doctors we will see, how long we have to wait to get treatment, which hospitals we will use, and how much they are allowed to charge? Obama would create a statist, socialist medical care system which denies us the right to hire a non-government doctor or hospital. Canadians already “enjoy” this situation, so they come to the United States for treatment.
We have too much government involvement in medical care already. What we need is more free enterprise, which always results in more choices, better quality, easy access, and lower prices. Obama thinks the government can do it better. So did the other Socialists and the communists in history, and they all failed.
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....Thank you Mark for sending this to me.
Mark
3rd Mar.Div. 1st Battalion 9th Marine Regiment
1/9 Marines aka The Walking Dead
VN 66-67
Posted by Wild Thing at 06:50 AM | Letters to the Editor (3) | Trackback URL | (0)
Because We Never Forget "Military Medical Team Makes the 'Toughest Call'
Pfc. Channing Moss, far right, stands on a hilltop in Afghanistan in February 2006 with his Alpha Company squad from 2nd Battalion, 87th Infantry, 10th Mountain Division, from left, Sgt. Harold Jarrell, Spc. Collin Reynolds, Cpl. Kirill Tikhonenkov, Spc. Justin Randall holding a rocket-propelled grenade launcher, and Pfc. John O'Brien. Moss was wounded the following month when, during an ambush, he was impaled with an RPG.
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A fellow soldier was impaled by a live RPG. For medics and a helicopter crew, there was only one choice.
PLEASE CLICK LINK JUST BELOW TO WATCH THE VIDEO
http://www.militarytimes.com/multimedia/video/rpg_surgery/
Military Medical Team Makes the 'Toughest Call'
Unexploded Rocket-Propelled Grenade Impales Army Private in Afghanistan
Thursday, March 16, 2006, was a beautiful sunny day in Paktika Province, eastern Afghanistan -- the front line in a half-forgotten war. It borders a lawless region of Pakistan that is home to some al Qaeda and Taliban forces. Snow in the mountain passes along the border had melted giving them access again to Afghanistan where they came looking for American soldiers. They soon found them.
At dawn, the 10th Mountain Division's Alpha Company headed out on a mission. Lt. Billy Mariani, the unit commander, noticed something about his troops.
"There was definitely a sense of uneasiness. There was an air about them of, you know, maybe something was going to happen," he said.
The convoy included some two dozen 10th Mountain Division soldiers mounted in five armored Humvees and a handful of Afghan National Army troops riding in a pickup truck. Their mission was to visit a remote village to meet the tribal elders. No roads existed in this no-man's land and they had to drive through waddis, dry narrow river beds with high, dangerous ground on either side.
Four hours into the drive and just miles from the village, gunfire broke out. They'd been ambushed from above. Twenty-three-year-old Pvt. Channing Moss, the gunner, said it sounded like rattling spoons.
Then came the big guns. Volleys of rocket propelled grenades rained down. The Afghan National Army pickup exploded. Two of the Afghan soldiers died.
One RPG skidded past Lt. Mariani's vehicle. All of the vehicles had to quickly get out of the "kill zone." But before they could get to safety, two rockets hit Pvt. Moss' Humvee.
Staff Sgt. Eric Wynn, 33, the soldier in the front passenger seat, felt one slice through his face. Moss remembers the truck practically lift up. He was thrown up against the Humvee and then moved to return fire.
"I smelled something smoking and I looked down ... and I was smoking," he said.
Wynn turned to tell Moss where to fire and saw the tail fins of the RPG sticking out of Moss' side.
Roughly the length of a baseball bat, an RPG travels at the speed of a bullet. At the front end is the warhead -- a large grenade. The detonator and fuel are contained in the shaft. On the back are its fins, pieces of metal that stick out like legs on a camera tripod. The RPG is the weapon of choice for many of the world's guerillas.
Luckily for Moss, the company medic Spc. Jared Angell, 23, who the soldiers call "Doc," was in his Humvee. With Alpha company still under fire, it would have been nearly impossible for Angell to get to Moss in time if he hadn't been close by.
A Human Bomb
The RPG that had plowed into Moss' lower abdomen stretched from one hip to the other. If the RPG went off, it would kill everyone within 30 feet of him. Yet Angell stayed close, bandaging his wounds and stabilizing the weapon so that movement wouldn't cause it to explode.
Moss was still fully conscious, so Angell ordered him to not look down at the injury. He didn't want Moss to panic.
"I'm gonna do everything I can," Angell said to Moss. "You keep fighting with me and I'll keep fighting with you."
Wynn held his wounded face together with a bandage and reported their casualties over the radio while he also reached for Moss' hand.
He was squeezing my hand ... making sure I was staying alive," Moss said.
Reports of injuries had been radioed to the medical evacuation helicopter (MEDEVAC) base in Salerno, Afghanistan -- minus one crucial piece of information.
"We didn't tell them that, you know, Moss had live ordnance in him," Mariani said, "because there was that possibility that, you know, they might not want to transport him with live ordnance in him."
Preparations began for the rescue mission. But first the Blackhawk crew had to wait for clearance from commanders because the area was "hot" -- the battle was still raging. For MEDEVAC crew chief SSG Christian Roberts, it was a very long 15 minutes.
"When you know you have wounded people out there that are waiting for you to come pick them up, it seems like an eternity," he said.
The firefight died down and Mariani went over to check on Moss. Even though he was stunned by the fins sticking out of him, Mariani said, "I grabbed his hand and I just said, 'Hey, buddy, we're gonna get you out of here.'"
"Doc" continued working frantically to stabilize Moss even though the RPG was a danger to everyone around Moss. He knew that his only chance for survival was to get out of there and to a hospital quickly.
"I constantly was looking at my watch, saying, you know, 'When is the bird gonna get here, when is the bird gonna get here,'" medic Doc Angell said.
When Lt. Mariani pulled "Doc" aside to ask him if he thought Moss would make it, he could only shake his head no.
If Pvt. Moss was to not survive his injuries, his wife, six months pregnant with their second child, would lose her husband and his daughter Yuliana would lose her father. But just as Moss felt he would die, he heard the chopper. An Apache helicopter escorted the MEDEVAC chopper in case there was more gunfire.
Spc. Collier, the flight medic, quickly realized what they faced with Pvt Moss.
"I see a metal object protruding out, and there are fins on it, and I am like, 'This looks like this guy got hit with something, and it's stuck in him, and it didn't blow up,'" he said.
Army policy states that they are not supposed to transport soldiers in Moss' condition. The risk of catastrophic loss is too great -- four MEDEVAC crew members, three wounded soldiers and a helicopter could all be blown out of the sky.
But they also knew if they didn't take Moss. he would die.
Pilot CW2 Jorge Correa conferred with his soldiers: "I asked my crew, you know, 'Are you guys comfortable with this?'" he said. "Because I wasn't gonna put my crew in jeopardy if they weren't comfortable with it."
The crew quickly decided to take the risk.
Co-pilot Jeremy Smith recalled the tense moment.
"We all said, 'Yeah, let's get him on board and let's get outta here,'" he said.
As crew chief Christian Roberts said, "We are not gonna leave a U.S. soldier to die in the middle of Afghanistan."
Past the 'Golden Hour'
The MEDEVAC helicopter flew over mountains fully loaded with Moss and three other wounded, racing the clock. Moss' best chance of survival was to get advanced medical care within one hour of his injury. Trauma surgeons call it the "golden hour." But Moss' had already ended.
Radio dispatches let the trauma team know that they had one critical patient coming whose blood pressure was dropping and heart rate was dangerously high. But reports of the true nature of Moss' injury had not reached the closest medical facility at the Orgun-E base -- a former goat shed transformed into a rough field hospital. They were told it was "shrapnel injury." The aid station had two doctors, Maj. John Oh, a general surgeon, and Maj. Kevin Kirk, an orthopedic surgeon. At this point it wasn't clear which Moss needed most -- a surgical team or a bomb squad.
It was only when Oh started cutting away all the bandages that "Doc" Angell had delicately wrapped around the RPG that he saw what they were facing.
"It had fins coming out of the left side of his body and had a big bulge in the front of his right thigh," Kirk said.
Still conscious, Moss remembers the faces dropping in shock as they took in the sight.
Incredibly, both Oh and Kirk had drilled for this exact scenario, because the Army has a protocol to handle patients with unexploded ordnance in them.
"You're actually not supposed to bring them into an aid station," Oh said."And actually, he wasn't supposed to be flown with the other patients either."
According to the "War Surgery Manual," Moss should have been placed far away from other patients and operated on last. If procedure had been followed, Moss would likely have bled to death, but the doctors felt compelled to save him.
Then Pvt. Moss had another life-saving break -- Staff Sgt. Dan Brown, the explosives expert who spends his time disposing of bombs and captured weapons, was on the base. In his spare time, Brown had been watching an episode of ABC's "Grey's Anatomy" about a patient with an unexploded grenade in him. In that story, the bomb technician is blown up. Brown was about to play a leading role in his own non-fiction drama.
Brown was shocked to see that Moss was still alive. Most of the time his patients are deceased. Brown confirmed that they were dealing with an RPG. Moss' life hung on whether or not they would remove the rocket.
Brown explained the different scenarios of what could happen. The worst case was that they would all become "pink mist" -- everyone in the room would be killed. But to identify how much explosive power they were facing, they needed an x-ray to determine whether the RPG's warhead was inside Moss. Their notoriously temperamental x-ray machine malfunctioned, and it wasn't until the third attempt that they got a decent image.
The doctors and Brown were relieved by what they didn't see. The deadliest part of the RPG -- the main explosive charge -- was not in Moss. But their relief diminished when Brown explained to the surgeons that it would still have enough force to kill Moss and destroy their hands.
At that point, Oh ordered everyone except the critical staff out of the aid station, the two doctors and three surgical staff remained. They all knew the risk they faced.
"I looked everybody in the eye and said, 'You guys understand what's going on here, right?' And I knew everybody heard me, but nobody said anything. They just kept doing their jobs," he said.
Oh told them it was okay to leave -- but nobody did. With no words exchanged, each had decided to risk their life to save Moss.
Extreme blood loss had caused his heart to stop. Unable to do chest compressions for fear of setting off the round, they gave him epinephrine. His heart soon restarted and they could finally operate to remove the RPG.
Sgt. Brown used an unusual instrument to gently remove the RPG's tail fins -- a hacksaw. The surgeons reached inside Moss, steadying the still lethal rocket, inches from the soldier's beating heart. They then gently eased the rocket out, with the detonator aimed at Brown's flak vest.
Brown quickly walked out of the aid station to a bunker and detonated it. The sound of the explosion thundered through the base. As the surgeons closed up Moss' incisions, Sgt. Brown sat down outside to collect himself. Finally, the impact of the drama hit him.
"I started shaking. I just sat there. I knew I did everything I could to help him live. And that was very, very intense for me after the fact," he said.
Coming Home
In a matter of days, after stops at hospitals in Afghanistan and Germany, Pvt. Moss was rushed to Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Bethesda, Md. There his wife, Lorena, saw him for the first time and it was almost too much to bear.
"He looked very vulnerable. I went in, and ... I walked away. I couldn't stay in the room. I broke down outside in the hallway," she said.
Moss' pelvis was shattered, his internal organs were severely damaged and he was unable to walk.
For Moss, this was another challenge in a lifetime of obstacles. Raised by family friends after a tough childhood, he had become a high school football standout, got into college, got married and had a family.
As broken as Moss' body was, he focused from the very start on recovery. He said he didn't need a doctor to tell him if he'd be able to walk again.
"I told [the doctor] ... I could feel my feet, I'm going to walk again. Told him just like that," Moss said.
For his wounds in combat, Pvt. Moss had a Purple Heart coming. But he wanted to wait. It was important for him to be able to stand to receive it.
He underwent four major surgeries followed by intense physical therapy. Pvt. Moss' recovery was steady … moving from a wheelchair to a walker to a cane.
"I wanted to walk and get my medal, I wanted to stand up, to let them know I fought hard to get where I came from," Moss said. "They say 'Army Strong' [and] I wanted to be an example of that, and I was. So I stood up, I walked over there and got my medal."
A year later Moss is home with his family and the new baby daughter, Ariana, he thought he would never meet. Despite the aches and pains, he is grateful for the risks so many soldiers took that day.
"I was given a second chance. And to whom much is given ... much is expected. So a lot is expected of me," Moss said.
For Sgt. Brown, there was never a question about taking the gamble.
"He was American, he was a solider, he was a brother and he was one of us. And there was nothing gonna stop us from doing what we knew what we had to do … We knew we did right. In that screwed up world we did something right," Brown said.
Moss is missing about two-thirds of his intestines, part of his pelvic bone and needs more repair to his left hip. A member of the staff at Walter Reed calls him “Rocket Man.”
But the infantryman, who joined the Army to help give his family a better life, said he knows he’s alive because of his fellow soldiers.
“I don’t think there has been a day in the last year and a half that I haven’t thought about them, that I haven’t prayed for them. They saved my life,” said Moss, 24, whose slender 135-pound frame belies the hearty young man who went to war 55 pounds heavier.
“I knew it was love of country and brothers in arms. I hope God watches over them if they get deployed.”
The soldiers responsible for saving Pvt. Moss were recognized for their service that day and the Army has not changed its policy regarding unexploded ordnances in soldiers.
Epilogue: Recognition for Service
Several soldiers involved with saving Moss have since been honored or promoted. Here are their current ranks and awards they have received.
Maj. John Oh, general surgeon -- The Soldier's Medal
Maj. Kevin Kirk, orthopedic surgeon -- Army Commendation Medal with Valor
SSG Eric Wynn and Pfc. Channing Moss -- Purple Heart
CW3 Jorge Correa, MEDEVAC pilot, and Sgt. John Collier, flight medic -- Air Medal with Valor
CW2 Jeremy Smith, co-pilot, and SSG Christian Roberts, crew chief -- Air Medal
Sgt Jared Angell, field medic, and SFC Dan Brown, explosives expert -- Bronze Star with Valor
Wild Thing's comemnt.....
Tears running down my cheeks! God bless our brave soldiers.
Even though this happened a couple of years ago it is such an honor to post about our Heros. I don't think a lot of people saw this story when it happened. I don't remember the media covering it. and it is the first time I have heard about it.
This is quite a story!
God bless all the people who risked their lives to save this soldier! From the medics, to the helicopter crews who willingly took “unexploded ordinance” on their flight. Talk about bravery! Loyalty, courage, in the face of death.
Every time I read about incidents such as this one I am overwhelmed by the bravery and strong ties the Brotherhood that our awesome military has and it goes on into forever with our Veterans.
God bless all of you Veterans too, you touch my life every single day !
......Thank you RAC for sending this to me.
RAC has a website that is awesome. 336th Assault Helicopter Company
13th Combat Aviation Battalion - 1st Aviation Brigade - Soc Trang, Republic of Vietnam
Posted by Wild Thing at 06:49 AM | Letters to the Editor (4) | Trackback URL | (0)
Obama Tells Russia's Putin the Cold War is History
.
Obama tells Russia's Putin the Cold War is history
President Barack Obama said former Russian President Vladimir Putin and his hand-picked successor should expect an in-person reminder the Cold War is over when the U.S. leader makes his first trip to a Moscow summit.
Days before he departs for Russia, Obama said Thursday that Putin "still has a lot of sway" in his nation as its nominal prime minister. "I think that it's important that even as we move forward with President Medvedev that Putin understand that the old Cold War approaches to U.S.-Russian relations is outdated," he said. "Putin has one foot in the old ways of doing business and one foot in the new."
Wild Thing's comment.......
What a freaking Moron Obama is, he is dangerously arrogant. Putin knows he is a joke.
Putin has already warned Obama that communism (socialism) does not work. Putin will and can run circles around Obama .
I’m in for Putin all the way. He’s my guy. Heck, I want Putin to run for president in 2012. Obama has proven that being a citizen is not required. I want a president that’s willing to kill the crooks, Putin will. I just wish Putin was Black, then I know he would win.
Putin = Mighty Mouse 2012
heh heh Ok I was just kidding, I could not resist at this late hour in the middle of the night er ah morning ( 4:30 a.m.)
hahahaaha
Posted by Wild Thing at 06:48 AM | Letters to the Editor (6) | Trackback URL | (0)
Obama Suspends Military Relations With Honduras
US suspends military relations with Honduras
WASHINGTON
The Obama administration said Wednesday it has suspended joint military operations with Honduras to protest a coup that forced President Manuel Zelaya into exile. The U.S. withheld stronger action in hopes of negotiating a peaceful return of the country's elected leader.
The Organization of American States, meeting in Washington, gave Honduran coup leaders three days to restore Zelaya to power - under threat of suspending Honduras's OAS membership. Afterward, several officials said the administration is still reviewing the possibility of cutting off U.S. aid.
Robert Gibbs, the White House press secretary, said, "We continue to monitor the situation and will respond accordingly as events transpire."
At the State Department, spokesman Ian C. Kelly said the department's top diplomat for the Americas, Thomas Shannon, met with Zelaya at OAS headquarters on Tuesday evening. Kelly would not reveal details, except to say Zelaya thanked the administration for supporting his unconditional return to power.
Kelly said he was not aware of any plan to recall the U.S. ambassador from the Honduran capital. Another official, speaking on condition of anonymity in order to discuss internal deliberations, said the administration believes it stands a better chance of achieving a peaceful outcome if it keeps a diplomat in Tegucigalpa.
The official also said the U.S. was not advocating that the matter be taken up by the U.N. Security Council.
Kelly said the administration was still studying whether the forced removal of Zelaya was a military coup in a legal sense that would trigger a cutoff or suspension of American financial assistance.
"Our legal advisers are actively assessing the facts and the law in question, which we take very seriously," Kelly said.
The administration appeared to be counting on the threat of Honduras having its OAS membership suspended as leverage in getting Zelaya back in power. While the administration joined the OAS in calling for Zelaya's unconditional return, with no limits on his presidential powers, it also seemed open to some form of compromise.
U.S. officials said they were pleased that Zelaya, who had vowed to return to Honduras on Thursday, put that off after the OAS announced the three-day deadline for the country's interim leaders to accept him back. Zelaya was in Panama on Wednesday to attend that country's presidential inauguration.
Zelaya said he would put off his return until the weekend.
The decision to suspend U.S. military activities in Honduras was announced by Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman, who said, "We've postponed any activities in Honduras right now as we assess that situation."
Whitman would not be specific, but the suspension could have broad implications because the United States runs a large Central American security and counternarcotics operation from a jointly run air base in Honduras. Whitman said only operations affecting Honduras itself are on hold.
Earlier, OAS Secretary-General Jose Miguel Insulza delivered what he called "an ultimatum" for Zelaya's safe return.
In a sharply worded resolution, the OAS said it vehemently condemned the coup and "the arbitrary detention and expulsion" of Zelaya.
The coup, the OAS resolution said, has produced an "unconstitutional alteration of the democratic order."
Calling Zelaya's overthrow an "old-fashioned coup," Insulza said: "We need to show clearly that military coups will not be accepted. We thought we were in an era when military coups were no longer possible in this hemisphere."
Zelaya has said he intends to return home accompanied by Insulza, the presidents of Argentina and Ecuador and the head of the U.N. General Assembly to seek restoration of his authority.
Roberto Micheletti, named by Honduras' Congress as the new president, said Tuesday that Zelaya could be met with an arrest warrant if he returned.
Wild Thing's comment.....
WoW So much for not meddling in other countries. I cannot believe the USA is allies with Chavez and Armanutjob now
Honduras has risen above the typical third world type of politics only to have the USA spit in their face for it.
....Thank you Mark for sending this to me.
Mark
3rd Mar.Div. 1st Battalion 9th Marine Regiment
1/9 Marines aka The Walking Dead
VN 66-67
Posted by Wild Thing at 06:47 AM | Letters to the Editor (2) | Trackback URL | (0)
Arab Festival 2009: Sharia in the USA
Sharia Comes to Dearborn, Michigan
Wednesday, July 1, 2009
A Detailed Explanation of the Video
On June 21st, I moderated a peaceful public debate between Mary Jo Sharp and Ehteshaam Gulam. After the debate, Nabeel, Mary Jo, and I went to the Dearborn Arab Festival, which had already become an open celebration of persecution against Christians.
The festival organizers had declared that Christians could not distribute materials on the public sidewalks or street, and, when the matter was brought before the courts, the judge agreed that Christians could not freely distribute information during the festival. (Note: This decision has been defended in the media by claiming that the “no-distributing-materials” rule applied to everyone, and therefore wasn’t unfair to Christians. However, anyone who was at the festival knows that this is not true. People were walking up and down the sidewalks distributing pamphlets and brochures, right in front of security. The rule was only enforced against Christians, and therefore only the rights of Christians were violated.)
Muslim security guards (one of whom had “Hezbollah” tattooed down his forearm) took things a step further and wouldn’t even allow Christians to talk about their beliefs openly. Security guards also repeatedly entrapped Christians in an attempt to get us to violate the court order.
This even happened to me, despite the fact that I wasn’t talking to anyone about Christianity or Islam.
I had a pamphlet in my front pocket, and one of the Muslim security guards walked up to me and said, “That looks like a really interesting pamphlet. Could I have it?” She even had her walkie-talkie in hand!
Fortunately, I had already heard about this woman and other Muslim security guards doing this repeatedly at the festival, so I didn’t fall for it. That’s when Nabeel and Mary Jo entered the tent in an attempt to question a group of Muslims about a horribly inaccurate pamphlet they were distributing. What happened next may be outlined as follows:
We see a booth that is specifically for answering questions people have about Islam.
Nabeel walks up to the booth and attempts to ask a question.
When the Muslims don’t want to talk on camera, Nabeel begins walking away.
One of the Muslims (a former member of Tupac’s crew!) then invites Nabeel back for a dialogue.
Security grabs our camera and forces MJ to turn it off. Security then breaks up the discussion, despite the fact that the Muslims at the booth agreed that we could record the conversation.
We leave the tent and ask a police officer if we are free to record; he responds that we are in a public area and can record all we want. He also says that it is illegal for anyone to touch our cameras or force us to turn them off.
We walk up to some non-Muslim security guards and ask if we can record a dialogue; they reply in the affirmative.
Nabeel attempts to reestablish the discussion, but this time the Muslims at the booth don’t want to talk on camera.
We leave the booth, and I see the woman who had grabbed the camera and forced MJ to turn it off. I begin recording the woman (in case we need to identify her later), at which point she gets on her walkie-talkie and informs her fellow Muslim security guards that we are harassing her.
Following their pattern of entrapping Christians at the festival, the Muslim security guards convince two teenagers to strike up a conversation with Nabeel and snatch a pamphlet from his hand.
While one of the teens distracts Nabeel with a conversation, the other snatches the pamphlet from Nabeel's hands.
Within seconds we’re surrounded by a mob of Muslim security guards.
The Muslim security force slaps our cameras, threatens us, shouts profanity at us, openly proclaims that our rights as Americans are meaningless, pushes us, kicks and tries to trip Nabeel, and lies to the police.
The head of security then informs the police that we must be removed from the festival.
Fortunately, we got most of this on tape! See the video at the top.
Now think about this. We insisted on our Constitutional rights to (i) ask a question at a booth, and (ii) record in a public place. This was enough to get us banned from a public sidewalk in Dearborn, Michigan (the city with the highest percentage of Muslims in the U.S.). By comparison, the Muslim security guards openly harassed, intimidated, bullied, threatened, entrapped, and assaulted Christians; they openly proclaimed that they don’t care about our rights as American citizens; they used profanity as they insulted us; they lied to police. This behavior was perfectly welcome in Dearborn, even at a family festival!
I have contacted the Arab Chamber of Commerce (the organization responsible for planning the festival, selecting the security team, and deciding that Christians are no longer free to distribute information in public places). I have asked for an apology and for their thoughts on how such horrendous treatment of Christians will be avoided in the future. They have not responded.
Going back to the time of Muhammad, whenever the population of Muslims becomes significant, followers of other religions are suppressed, and the proclamation of non-Muslim beliefs is forbidden. This second-class status for non-Muslims is prescribed by Sharia, and the victims are called "dhimmis." Welcome to Sharia in the United States, my friends.
We ask you, is it a coincidence that the city with the highest percentage of Muslims in the United States is the city where Christianity is not allowed to be represented (let alone preached) on a public sidewalk? Is it coincidence that in this city, people will say "No way!" when we say "This is the United States of America"?
Is this what will happen when Islam takes over the United States?
Wild Thing's comment......
Chills, I sure am glad I don't live in that City, very scary. This kind of thing could be happening all over in the future of our country.
To see Security too acting like that when they are supposed to be the ones to calm things down. In this case above they were a huge part of the problem.
Posted by Wild Thing at 06:45 AM | Letters to the Editor (3) | Trackback URL | (0)
Obama's War On Talk Radio
Wild Thing's comment......
I wonder if Obama will leave anything untouched by his filthy hands when he leaves. IF he leaves!
.
....Thank you Mark for sending this to me.
Mark
3rd Mar.Div. 1st Battalion 9th Marine Regiment
1/9 Marines aka The Walking Dead
VN 66-67
Posted by Wild Thing at 06:40 AM | Letters to the Editor (3) | Trackback URL | (0)
July 02, 2009
Meghan Kelly and Jonah Goldberg Discuss 'It's a Pattern'
Wild Thing's comment.........
I wonder if they will have Helen sit in the back of the room. hahaha
The thing Meghan mentioned at the beginning of the video about Obama stacking the deck when he has townhalll meetings is so true. I think Obama is terrified to be confronted by anyone that is honest and is sincerely wanting to ask questions.
So far every single one of his townhall meetings, during the campaign and those since he has been in office have all be set up, hand picked people and all that have worked on his campaign or are supporters.
Posted by Wild Thing at 05:40 PM | Letters to the Editor (2) | Trackback URL | (0)
Haqqani Network In Afghanistan
Haqqani network, the most deadly US foe in Afghanistan
By Anand Gopal
GARDEZ, AFGHANISTAN
Sitting in an open field, three Taliban-allied insurgents carefully pore over a map of Kabul, the capital of Afghanistan.
"This is where we will be staying," one says, pointing.
In the next scene from this insurgent propaganda video, one fighter shows the others a video of an empty room with a window. "You will shoot at Karzai from this window," he explains to the others. "We have people on the inside who will help you."
The assassination attempt on President Hamid Karzai, which took place in April 2008 during a military parade, nearly succeeded. The president escaped, but three people died.
The fighters in this video had detailed intelligence of the area. They knew how to slip by police checkpoints, and they had people in the Afghan government telling them exactly where Mr. Karzai would be standing on the parade ground.
Afghan insurgents often film their operations from start to finish, edit the result, and release it as a propaganda video. This video was purchased in Quetta, Pakistan.
Afghan intelligence officials have identified one of the three men in the video as part of the assassination team.
All are members of Afghanistan's most lethal group, the Haqqani network, a shadowy outfit that many officials consider to be the biggest threat to the American presence in the country.
"The Haqqani network has proven itself to be the most capable [of the insurgent groups], able to conduct spectacular attacks inside Afghanistan," says Matthew DuPee, researcher at the Naval Postgraduate School in Monterey, Calif.
The network, which is independent of (but allied with) the Taliban, showed its mettle again on May 12, when nearly a dozen fighters stormed government buildings in Afghanistan's southeastern city of Khost. The coordinated attack featured multiple suicide bombers and was one of the most brazen to take place in the city in years.
The Haqqani network is considered the most sophisticated of Afghanistan's insurgent groups. The group is alleged to be behind many high-profile assaults, including a raid on a luxury hotel in Kabul in January 2008 and a massive car bombing of the Indian Embassy in Kabul that left 41 people dead in July 2008.
The group is active in Afghanistan's southeastern provinces – Paktia, Paktika, Khost, Logar, and Ghazni. In parts of Paktika, Khost, and Paktia, they have established parallel governments and control the countryside of many districts. "In Khost, government officials need letters from Haqqani just to move about on the roads in the districts," says Hanif Shah Husseini, a parliamentarian from Khost.
The leadership, according to US and Afghan sources, is based near Miramshah, North Waziristan, in the Pakistani tribal areas. Pakistani authorities and leading Haqqani figures deny this, although former Haqqani fighters say this is indeed the case.
The network is better connected to Pakistani intelligence and Arab jihadist groups than any other Afghan insurgent group, according to American intelligence officials.
These links go back a long way. It was here – in the dusty mountains of Paktia Province, near the Pakistani border – that the group's putative leader, Jalaluddin Haqqani, first rose to fame. Born into an influential clan of the Zadran tribe, Mr. Haqqani morphed into a legendary war hero for his exploits against the Russians in the 1980s. Many in the southeastern provinces of the country fondly recall his name, even those who are now in the government.
"He is a virtuous and noble man, with an unwavering belief in Islam," says Hanif Shah Hosseini, a member of the Afghan parliament from Khost. He is one of Haqqani's childhood friends.
Texas Congressman Charlie Wilson, who worked closely with the anti-Soviet insurgency (inspiring the 2007 Tom Hanks film "Charlie Wilson's War"), once called Haqqani "goodness personified."
In the 1980s, Haqqani quickly established himself as one of the preeminent field commanders. "He could kill Russians like you wouldn't believe," says one US intelligence officer who knew him at the time. The Central Intelligence Agency forged close links with him, and through the Pakistani Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) agency funneled large amounts of weapons and cash his way.
Unlike many commanders, Haqqani was often in the line of fire himself and would at times retreat to Saudi Arabia to convalesce from his wounds. It is believed that his trips to the Gulf helped him forge close links with Arab militants, and he became one of the first Afghan commanders to host foreign fighters. His ties with Arab fighters and Al Qaeda continue to this day, say US and Afghan military officials.
Although he joined the Taliban government in the mid-1990s, Haqqani was never formally part of the Taliban movement. "The Taliban wanted to create an Islamic emirate, but Haqqani favored an Islamic republic," claims Maulavi Saadullah, who was a close friend at the time.
"During those years, [Haqqani's son] Siraj used to complain to me about how heavy-handed and dogmatic the Taliban were in their interpretation of Islam," recalls Waheed Muzjda, an Afghan-based policy analyst who knew the family.
Still, the Taliban saw Haqqani's usefulness as a commander and enlisted him in the fight against the Northern Alliance. On the eve of the American invasion in October 2001, Haqqani was named the head commander for all of the Taliban forces.
But for a few months after the US-led coalition invaded Afghanistan, Haqqani was on the fence as to whether to join the new Afghan government or fight against it, according to those who knew him at the time. A series of American bombing raids killed members of Haqqani's family, and he disappeared across the Pakistani border, telling friends that "the Americans won't let me live in peace," according to Mr. Saadullah. American officials, however, countered that he was abetting Al Qaeda fighters in their escape from Afghanistan into Pakistan and was not a neutral figure.
During the early years of the current Afghan war, Haqqani was merely one Taliban commander among many. But his close ties with Pakistan's ISI and Arab militants enabled him to raise funds and build training camps. Soon he was able to fight independently against the Americans, without help from the Taliban leadership. By 2007 his network had emerged as a distinct insurgent group.
Haqqani's son Sirajuddin has now taken the reins of the organization, according to intelligence officials. The younger Haqqani has proved more dynamic than his father, expanding the network greatly in the last few years. "He is not content with his father's methods," says one US intelligence officer, who spoke on the condition of anonymity. "He's a lot more worldly than his father."
Sirajuddin took credit for planning the assassination attempt on the Afghan president in a rare interview with NBC News in July 2008.
The father has been reported to be dead, ailing, or incapacitated in some way. He last appeared in a March 2008 propaganda video of another insurgent attack.
Unlike most of the Afghan Taliban, the Haqqani network often works closely with foreign militant groups. For instance, the Islamic Jihad Union, an Uzbek militant group, reportedly has ties to the Haqqanis. The IJU brings militants from as far afield as Turkey to conduct attacks in Afghanistan. They are also allegedly behind plots to attack targets in Europe.
The Haqqani network also works more closely with the Pakistani Taliban than other Afghan insurgent groups.
The Haqqanis pioneered the use of suicide attacks in Afghanistan, an import from Al Qaeda in Iraq. Haqqani attacks are more likely to use foreign bombers, whereas Afghan Taliban attacks tend to rely on locals. The suicide attacks are an innovation of Sirajuddin's, according to US intelligence officials.
In addition to suicide attacks, the Haqqanis are known for their well-orchestrated attacks. US intelligence officials and Haqqani insiders say that this is largely a result of close cooperation with the Pakistani ISI – something Pakistani officials have denied.
Every major attack "is planned in detail with the ISI in camps in Waziristan," says one former Haqqani commander, who declined to be named for fear of retribution. Officials say the Haqqanis use money from Al Qaeda-linked sources, and also possibly from timber smuggling, to finance their operations.
"The majority of Haqqani fighters are young," says the former Haqqani commander, "and their fathers had fought for Haqqani during the Russian jihad." Many joined after the Afghan government and the Americans failed to live up to their promises, he adds.
Here in Paktia Province, the Haqqani network is so extensive that some subcommanders have emerged as nearly distinct threats in their own right. For instance, longtime commander Saif Rahman Mansour, who had been fighting under Haqqani's banner, has been operating more independently of late, Afghan government officials say.
Wild Thing's comment......
Our troops have been hitting this terrorist group hard over the last month especially.
From The Long War Journal this is very concerning.
"The Haqqani Network: The Haqqani Network is run by Jalaluddin and his son Sirajuddin. It operates both in Pakistan and across the border in eastern Afghanistan, primarily in the provinces of Khost, Paktika, and Paktia. The network is responsible for some of the most deadly attacks in Afghanistan, and has the backing of Pakistan's military and intelligence services."
Posted by Wild Thing at 04:55 PM | Letters to the Editor (2) | Trackback URL | (0)
US: American Soldier Captured in Afghanistan
Photo of US Troops in Afghanistan, this is not the soldier that is missing. There is no photo available as of this time. The news just broke about this a couple of minutes ago. And also they are being careful to protect the soldier that is missing.
US: American soldier captured in Afghanistan
Insurgents have captured an American soldier in eastern Afghanistan, the U.S. military said Thursday.
Spokeswoman Capt. Elizabeth Mathias said the soldier went missing Tuesday.
"We are using all of our resources to find him and provide for his safe return," Mathias said.
Mathias did not provide details on the soldier, the location where he was captured or the circumstances.
"We are not providing further details to protect the soldier's well-being," she said.
An Afghan police official said the soldier went missing during the day Tuesday in the Mullakheil area of eastern Paktika province. Gen. Nabi Mullakheil said there is an American base in the area.
The news broke as thousands of U.S. Marines launched a major anti-Taliban offensive in southern Afghanistan. The missing soldier was not part of that operation.
Zabiullah Mujaheed, a spokesman for the Taliban, could not confirm that the soldier was with any of their forces. A myriad of insurgent groups operate in eastern Afghanistan, and the Taliban is only one of them.
Wild Thing's comment......
Prayers for this solider!!! I seriously hope they can rescue him quickly knowing the history of those animals!
Posted by Wild Thing at 07:47 AM | Letters to the Editor (9) | Trackback URL | (0)
Helen Thomas:"Not Even Nixon Tried to Control the Media Like Obama"
Helen Thomas: Not Even Nixon Tried to Control the Media Like Obama
Wednesday, July 01, 2009
Following a testy exchange during today’s briefing with White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs, veteran White House correspondent Helen Thomas told CNSNews.com that not even Richard Nixon tried to control the press the way President Obama is trying to control the press.
“Nixon didn’t try to do that,” Thomas said. “They couldn’t control (the media). They didn’t try.
“What the hell do they think we are, puppets?” Thomas said. “They’re supposed to stay out of our business. They are our public servants. We pay them.”
Thomas said she was especially concerned about the arrangement between the Obama Administration and a writer from the liberal Huffington Post Web site. The writer was invited by the White House to President Obama’s press conference last week on the understanding that he would ask Obama a question about Iran from among questions that had been sent to him by people in Iran.
“When you call the reporter the night before you know damn well what they are going to ask to control you,” Thomas said.
“I’m not saying there has never been managed news before, but this is carried to fare-thee-well--for the town halls, for the press conferences,” she said. “It’s blatant. They don’t give a damn if you know it or not. They ought to be hanging their heads in shame.”
During today’s briefing, Thomas interrupted a back-and-forth between Gibbs and Chip Reid, the White House correspondent for CBS News, when Reid was questioning Gibbs about who was going to decide what questions would be asked of President Obama in a townhall meeting that was scheduled to take place in Annandale, Va., today.
Gibbs then had an exchange involving Reid and Thomas that went as follows:
Gibbs: “… But, again, let's--How about we do this? I promise we will interrupt the AP's tradition of asking the first question. I will let you [Chip Reid] ask me a question tomorrow as to whether you thought the questions at the town hall meeting that the President conducted in Annandale—“
Chip Reid: “I'm perfectly happy to—”
Helen Thomas: “That's not his point. The point is the control--”
Reid: “Exactly.”
Thomas: “We have never had that in the White House. And we have had some, but not-- This White House.”
Gibbs: “Yes, I was going to say, I'll let you amend her question.”
Thomas: “I'm amazed. I'm amazed at you people who call for openness and transparency and—”
Gibbs: “Helen, you haven't even heard the questions.”
Reid: “It doesn't matter. It's the process.”
Thomas: “You have left open—”
Reid: “Even if there's a tough question, it's a question coming from somebody who was invited or was screened, or the question was screened.”
Thomas: “It's shocking. It's really shocking.”
Gibbs: “Chip, let's have this discussion at the conclusion of the town hall meeting. How about that?”
Reid: “Okay.”
Gibbs: “I think—“
Thomas: “No, no, no, we're having it now--”
Gibbs: “Well, I'd be happy to have it now.”
Thomas: “It's a pattern.”
Gibbs: “Which question did you object to at the town hall meeting, Helen?”
Thomas: “It's a pattern. It isn't the question—”
Gibbs: “What's a pattern?”
Thomas: “It's a pattern of controlling the press.”
Gibbs: “How so? Is there any evidence currently going on that I'm controlling the press--poorly, I might add.”
Thomas: “Your formal engagements are pre-packaged.”
Gibbs: “How so?”
Reid: “Well, and controlling the public—”
Thomas: “How so? By calling reporters the night before to tell them they're going to be called on. That is shocking.”
Gibbs: “We had this discussion ad nauseam and—”
Thomas: “Of course you would, because you don't have any answers.”
Gibbs: “Well, because I didn't know you were going to ask a question, Helen.
Go ahead.”
Thomas: “Well, you should have.”
Reporter: Thank you for your support.
Gibbs: “That's good. Have you e-mailed your question today?”
Thomas: “I don't have to e-mail it. I can tell you right now what I want to ask.”
Gibbs: “I don't doubt that at all, Helen. I don't doubt that at all.”
Wild Thing's comment........
Helen came out of her coma. LOL Ubama's chickinnnnnnnnnnnnns....are comin' home to rOOst!
“What the hell do they think we are, puppets?” Thomas said. “They’re supposed to stay out of our business. They are our public servants. We pay them.”
Well yes Helen you are puppets, all in the media that had a part of Obama getting elected are his puppets. The whole bunch of you have proven you’re nothing more than marionettes dancing to Obama’s tune.
Obama is about to find out about the old saying, “Hell hath no fury like a woman reporter scorned.”
Rush was right. The State Run Media didn't give a rat's behind about anything obama's done until he stepped on their turf with the HuffPo questioner.
Posted by Wild Thing at 07:45 AM | Letters to the Editor (16) | Trackback URL | (0)
Camp Leatherneck Marines Deploy on Major Mission Afghanistan
U.S. Marine Corps file photo by Sgt. Freddy G. Cantu
Largest Marine Offensive since Vietnam -Operation Khanjar - “Strike of the Sword” Begins
Operation Khanjar (Strike of the Sword) involved nearly 4,000 US forces as well as 650 Afghan police and soldiers, the Marine Expeditionary Brigade said, announcing the pre-dawn launch of the drive in southern Helmand province… Deploying about 50 aircraft, the air and land assault was to push troops into insurgent strongholds in what officers said was the biggest offensive airlift by the Marines since Vietnam… "What makes Operation Khanjar different from those that have occurred before is the massive size of the force introduced, the speed at which it will insert," MEB commander Brigadier General Larry Nicholson said in a statement… Troops would hold areas they take until they could transfer security responsibilities to Afghan forces, said Brigadier General Larry Nicholson .
Marines Deploy on Major Mission
Thousands Fan Out in Afghanistan's South in Crucial Test for Revised U.S. Strategy
CAMP LEATHERNECK
Afghanistan
July 2
Thousands of U.S. Marines descended upon the volatile Helmand River valley in helicopters and armored convoys early Thursday, mounting an operation that represents the first large-scale test of the U.S. military's new counterinsurgency strategy in Afghanistan.
The operation will involve about 4,000 troops from the 2nd Marine Expeditionary Brigade, which was dispatched to Afghanistan this year by President Obama to combat a growing Taliban insurgency in Helmand and other southern provinces. The Marines, along with an Army brigade that is scheduled to arrive later this summer, plan to push into pockets of the country where NATO forces have not had a presence. In many of those areas, the Taliban has evicted local police and government officials and taken power.
Once Marine units arrive in their designated towns and villages, they have been instructed to build and live in small outposts among the local population. The brigade's commander, Brig. Gen. Lawrence D. Nicholson, said his Marines will focus their efforts on protecting civilians from the Taliban and on restoring Afghan government services, instead of mounting a series of hunt-and-kill missions against the insurgents.
"We're doing this very differently," Nicholson said to his senior officers a few hours before the mission began. "We're going to be with the people. We're not going to drive to work. We're going to walk to work."
Similar approaches have been tried in the eastern part of the country, but none has had the scope of the mission in Helmand, a vast province that is largely an arid moonscape save for a band of fertile land that lines the Helmand River. Poppies grown in that territory produce half the world's supply of opium and provide the Taliban with a valuable source of income.
The operation launched early Thursday represents a shift in strategy after years of thwarted U.S.-led efforts to destroy Taliban sanctuaries in Afghanistan and extend the authority of the Afghan government into the nation's southern and eastern regions. More than seven years after the fall of the Taliban government, the radical Islamist militia remains a potent force across broad swaths of the country. The Obama administration has made turning the war around a top priority, and the Helmand operation, if it succeeds, is seen as a potentially critical first step.
Traveling through swirling dust clouds under the light of a half-moon, the first Marine units departed from this remote desert base shortly after midnight on dual-rotor CH-47 Chinook transport helicopters backed by AH-64 Apache gunships and NATO fighter jets. Additional forces poured into the valley during the pre-dawn hours on more helicopters and in heavy transport vehicles designed to withstand the makeshift but lethal bombs that Taliban fighters have planted along the roads.
The initial Marine units did not face resistance as they converged on their destinations. Marine commanders said before the start of the operation that they expected only minimal Taliban opposition at the outset but that assaults on the forces would probably increase once they moved into towns and began patrols. Field commanders have been told to prepare for suicide attacks, ambushes and roadside bombings.
Officers here said the mission, which required months of planning, is the Marines' largest operation since the 2004 invasion of Fallujah, Iraq. In the minutes after midnight, well-armed Marines trudged across the tarmac at this sprawling outpost to board the Chinooks, which lumbered aloft with a burst of searing dust. A few hours later, another contingent of Marines boarded a row of CH-53 Super Stallion helicopters packed onto a relatively small landing pad at a staging base in the desert south of here. As the choppers clattered through the night sky, dozens of armored vehicles rolled toward towns along the river valley.
The U.S. strategy here is predicated on the belief that a majority of people in Helmand do not favor the Taliban, which enforces a strict brand of Islam that includes an-eye-for-an-eye justice and strict limits on personal behavior. Instead, U.S. officials believe, residents would rather have the Afghan government in control, but they have been cowed into supporting the Taliban because there was nobody to protect them.
In areas south of the provincial capital, local leaders, and even members of the police force, have fled. An initial priority for the Marines will be to bring back Afghan government officials and reinvigorate the local police forces. Marine commanders also plan to help district governors hold shuras -- meetings of elders in the community -- in the next week.
"Our focus is not the Taliban," Nicholson told his officers. "Our focus must be on getting this government back up on its feet."
But Nicholson and his top commanders recognize that making that happen involves tackling numerous challenges, starting with a lack of trust among the local population. That mistrust stems from concern over civilian casualties resulting from U.S. military operations as well as from a fear that the troops will not stay long enough to counter the Taliban. The British army, which had been responsible for all of Helmand since 2005 under NATO's Afghan stabilization effort, lacked the resources to maintain a permanent presence in most parts of the province.
"A key to establishing security is getting the local population to understand that we're going to be staying here to help them -- that we're not driving in and driving out," said Col. Eric Mellenger, the brigade's operations officer.
With the arrival of the Marines, British forces have redeployed around the capital of Helmand, Lashkar Gah, where they are conducting a large anti-Taliban operation designed to complement the Marine mission. Two British soldiers were reported killed in fighting in the province Wednesday.
The Marines have also been vexed by a lack of Afghan security forces and a near-total absence of additional U.S. civilian reconstruction personnel. Nicholson had hoped that his brigade, which has about 11,000 Marines and sailors, would be able to conduct operations with a similar number of Afghan soldiers. But thus far, the Marines have been allotted only about 500 Afghan soldiers, which he deems "a critical vulnerability."
"They see things intuitively that we don't see," he said. "It's their country, and they know it better than we do."
Despite commitments from the State Department and the U.S. Agency for International Development that they would send additional personnel to help the new forces in southern Afghanistan with reconstruction and governance development, State has added only two officers in Helmand since the Marines arrived. State has promised to have a dozen more diplomats and reconstruction experts working with the Marines, but only by the end of the summer.
To compensate in the interim, the Marines are deploying what officers here say is the largest-ever military civilian-affairs contingent attached to a combat brigade -- about 50 Marines, mostly reservists, with experience in local government, business management and law enforcement. Instead of flooding the area of operations with cash, as some units did in Iraq, the Marine civil affairs commander, Lt. Col. Curtis Lee, said he intends to focus his resources on improving local government.
Once basic governance structures are restored, civilian reconstruction personnel plan to focus on economic development programs, including programs to help Afghans grow legal crops in the area. Senior Obama administration officials say creating jobs and improving the livelihoods of rural Afghans is the key to defeating the Taliban, which has been able to recruit fighters for as little as $5 a day in Helmand.
In meetings with his commanders at forward operating bases over the past three days, Nicholson acknowledged that focusing on governance and population security does not come as naturally to Marines as conducting offensive operations, but he told them it is essential that they focus on "reining in the pit bulls."
"We're not going to measure your success by the number of times your ammunition is resupplied. . . . Our success in this environment will be very much predicated on restraint," he told a group of officers from the 2nd Battalion, 8th Marines on Sunday. "You're going to drink lots of tea. You're going to eat lots of goat. Get to know the people. That's the reason why we're here."
Wild Thing's comment.....
Prayers for their safety and a successful mission. Chesty is cheering them on!!
I am not sure how true this is. "officers said was the biggest offensive airlift by the Marines since Vietnam". The Marines were also in Iraq. But I forget how many but I do remember we had a lot of Marines and Army in Iraq.....a lot of each.
When the articles are not written by the DOD I want to make sure it is accurate, but no way to check right now as these are the only links right now.
Posted by Wild Thing at 06:49 AM | Letters to the Editor (6) | Trackback URL | (0)
Prisoner Wrongly Imprisoned by Sotomayor Converts To Islam While In Prison
Sotomayor Achilles' heel? Wrongly imprisoned man
The nomination by President Obama of 2nd Circuit Court Judge Sonia Sotomayor to the U.S. Supreme Court is more than alarming to an innocent man who was convicted of murder and spent 16 years in prison before being cleared and released.
Jeff Deskovic, whose pursuit of freedom has been chronicled by the New York Times and others, told WND that the last six of those years are directly attributable to decisions endorsed by Sotomayor.
"I'm very alarmed," he said. "The rest of my life, as a result of my ordeal, is dedicated to preventing this from happening to other people."
Sotomayor in her 2nd Circuit position repeatedly put "procedure over innocence" and rejected appeals that could have provided Deskovic with his freedom much earlier than it actually happened, he told WND.
He blames the prosecutors and others in his original case for getting his conviction and sentence, but he blames Sotomayor – and the other judge on the 2nd Circuit panel – for the last six years he remained in prison.
The other judge, he told WND, is equally culpable, but is not now being nominated for the highest court in the land.
The background of the case is all over the public record. He was arrested and accused of assaulting and killing 15-year-old Angela Correa in 1989 and went on trial in 1990 when he was 17.
A year to make up for 16 lost ones: Jeffrey Deskovic reflects on freedom, fears
September 2007
DOBBS FERRY - When Jeffrey Deskovic was exonerated a year ago today, after spending half his life in prison for a brutal crime he didn't commit, he vowed to make up for lost time.
~snipet~
Upon his release, Deskovic had to support himself with welfare checks, donations and help from the Hudson Valley Islamic Community Center in Mohegan Lake, which provided the Muslim convert with a communal apartment until Mercy College found him a dorm room.
Continuing his quest for independence and justice, Deskovic filed a lawsuit Tuesday in U.S. District Court against police and prosecutors who contributed to his conviction; a separate lawsuit is planned in the state Court of Claims seeking compensation for his wrongful incarceration.
Though still struggling financially, he has started earning small stipends from his speaking engagements and writing assignments, listed on his website.
http://www.jeffreydeskovicspeaks.org/
The publicity also propels his 10-year life plan, he said, beginning with law school - preferably Pace - and culminating with a run for public office.
He wants to stay in Westchester County, even though his family now lives upstate.
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Wild Thing's comment.......
First of all, I am sorry this man was wrongly put in jail I really am, no one should have that happen to them.
But here is my problem with this guy. While in prison he converted to Islam and right now he is being supported partl;y by the Hudson Valley Islamic Community Center.
I do agree that this conviction goes against Sotomayor big time! I just wish he had not become a Muslim.
"Upon his release, Deskovic had to support himself with welfare checks, donations and help from the Hudson Valley Islamic Community Center in Mohegan Lake, which provided the Muslim convert with a communal apartment until Mercy College found him a dorm room."
There is no such thing as a "moderate Muslim".....imo.
As a country we are headed for major problems with followers of Islam. We already see what has happened to other countries around the world and that was before we had Obama in power. Now it is an open door and Obama and Eric Holder have already made it where Muslims will get special protection.
my post on June 6th
AG Eric Holder and Obama Pledge To Protect American Muslims
"DOJ issues statement “to protect American Muslims;” silent on protecting Americans from jihadists It’s a statement “to protect American Muslims.”
And a Moderate Muslim??????
Here is another post I did on February 14th of this year
A N.Y. So Called "Moderate" Muslim Leader Beheads Wife
Founded TV network to combat negative perceptions of Muslims Hassan was a community leader and a so called "moderate" Muslim. He was the founder of Bridges TV. A show started to help combat the negative perceptions of Islam"
We have read story after story about " moderate Muslims" killing family members or non family members. A daughter puts lipstick on and is murdered, a wife wants a divorce and is beheaded and on and on.
Yes he was in prison and yes he was innocent according to the above article. But how many of us would turn to Islam if that happened to us, or how many of us would turn to God, the one true God and not want anything to do with Islam.
It says he wants to be a lawyer and that he is also against the death penalty. That makes me soooo happy....NOT. I am for the death penalty.
Muslims don't need a death penalty they have their own and they carry it our around the world in the devastation and destruction they bring to the world. Islam worships death. Non Muslims celebrate life.
Prisons are infested with people converting prisoners to Islam.
IMO we have got to take Islam seriously, it is breathing down our necks as a nation and it comes straight from the Oval Office now. I don't want our awesome country to become like England, Sweden, Germany, and France etc.
....Thank you Mark for sending this to me.
Mark
3rd Mar.Div. 1st Battalion 9th Marine Regiment
1/9 Marines aka The Walking Dead
VN 66-67
Posted by Wild Thing at 06:48 AM | Letters to the Editor (6) | Trackback URL | (0)
Federal Agents Hunt For Guns, One House At A Time
Federal agents hunt for guns, one house at a time
In front of a run-down shack in north Houston, federal agents step from a government sedan into 102-degree heat and face a critical question: How can the woman living here buy four high-end handguns in one day?
The house is worth $35,000. A screen dangles by a wall-unit air conditioner. Porch swing slats are smashed, the smattering of grass is flattened by cars and burned yellow by sun.
“I’ll do the talking on this one,” agent Tim Sloan, of South Carolina, told partner Brian Tumiel, of New York.
Success on the front lines of a government blitz on gunrunners supplying Mexican drug cartels with Houston weaponry hinges on logging heavy miles and knocking on countless doors. Dozens of agents from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives — sent here from around the country — are needed to follow what ATF acting director Kenneth Melson described as a “massive number of investigative leads.”
All told, Mexican officials in 2008 asked federal agents to trace the origins of more than 7,500 firearms recovered at crime scenes in Mexico. Most of them were traced back to Texas, California and Arizona.
Among other things, the agents are combing neighborhoods and asking people about suspicious purchases as well as seeking explanations as to how their guns ended up used in murders, kidnappings and other crimes in Mexico.
“Ever turning up the heat on cartels, our law enforcement and military partners in the government of Mexico have been working more closely with the ATF by sharing information and intelligence,” Melson said Tuesday during a firearms-trafficking summit in New Mexico.
Firearms dealers visited
The ATF recently dispatched 100 veteran agents to its Houston division, which reaches to the border.
The mission is especially challenging because, officials say, that while Houston is the number one point of origin for weapons traced back to the United States from Mexico, the government can’t compile databases on gun owners under federal law.
Agents instead review firearms dealers’ records in person.
People who are legally in the United States and have clean criminal records, but are facing economic problems are often recruited by traffickers to buy weapons on their behalf in order to shield themselves from scrutiny.
Knocks at the door of the shack that looked to be the definition of hard times went unanswered.
“I am out of here,” Sloan said a few moments later, as a pit bull lazily sauntered from the back yard. “I don’t like pit bulls walking up behind me.”
Best information source
On second thought, Sloan switched to Spanish and interviewed a neighbor.
The neighbor said the woman left a month ago after a fight with her husband or boyfriend, who still lived there with what she called “other degenerates.”
“An angry ex-girlfriend or wife is the best person in the world, the greatest source of information,” Sloan said.
The night before, the duo were in a stakeout where they watched a weapons sale.
They also combined efforts with the Drug Enforcement Administration for an aircraft to stealthily follow traffickers to the border.
On this day, agents weren’t wearing raid jackets or combat boots and weren’t armed with warrants.
Guns were hidden under civilian shirts.
Another tip took agents on a 30-minute drive from the shack to a sprawling home with a pool in the back and an American flag out front.
It turned out two handguns, of a type drug gangsters prefer, were bought by a pastor for target practice.
Some stories, they say, are hard to believe.
The lamest so far came from a police officer: He said he bought a few military-style rifles, left them in his car and — on the same night — forgot to lock a door. He couldn’t explain why he didn’t file a police report or why he visited Mexico the day after the alleged theft.
Wild Thing's comment.......
I guess multiple gun purchases in day are red flagged.
....Thank you JohnE PFC U.S. Army for sending this to me.
Posted by Wild Thing at 06:45 AM | Letters to the Editor (8) | Trackback URL | (0)
President Reagan Jokes About the Soviet Union
One of Ronald Reagan’s favorite pastimes was collecting jokes about the Soviet Union. Most times they were jokes by folks from the Soviet Union themselves, dealing with the government running everything in their lives.
Wild Thing's comment........
President Reagan was a great president, obama couldn't tie Reagans shoes.
He would hate what has been happening aa much as all of us do. The take over of companies, these bills that are a huge part of Obama's agenda. The shocking spending Obama has been doing, his horrible treatment of our military so many things.
.
....Thank you Mark for sending this to me.
Mark
3rd Mar.Div. 1st Battalion 9th Marine Regiment
1/9 Marines aka The Walking Dead
VN 66-67
Posted by Wild Thing at 06:40 AM | Letters to the Editor (2) | Trackback URL | (0)
July 01, 2009
Terrorists Behead Polish Engineer Piotr Stanczak's Refusal to Convert To Islam
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Given the opportunity by his devout kidnappers to avoid beheading by converting to Islam, engineer Piotr Stanczak chose death.
Polish engineer's refusal to convert costs him his life
Piotr Stanczak did not exhibit the slightest hint of hesitation when the Pakistani Taliban asked him to choose between execution and conversion to Islam.
Whether the Polish geologist acted out of pride or religious conviction, he decided to pay through his blood to save his faith, a choice that bewildered his killers and keep them talking about him with respect after his murder.
Stanczak, 42, was kidnapped Sep 28 on his way to survey for oil exploration in Attock district, of Pakistan's eastern province of Punjab. The kidnappers also killed his driver and two guards. Militants released a gruesome seven-minute video in early February showing his beheading. One of the murderers blamed the Pakistani government which failed to accept their demands for the release of detained militants.
Warsaw reacted angrily, slammed Islamabad's "apathy" in tackling terrorism and offering a 1 million zloty ($300,000) reward for information leading to the capture of the Taliban militants who beheaded Stanczak.
Among the militants whose release was sought by the Taliban was Ahmed Omar Saeed Sheikh, a British-Pakistani who was sentenced to death for the 2002 abduction and murder of US journalist Daniel Pearl.
When negotiations between the representatives of the Pakistani government and the hostage-takers failed, the Taliban leadership gave the Polish man a last chance to save himself, Stanczak's captors revealed to another hostage, a Pakistani man Mohammad Amir.
Amir - a pseudonym as he asked for anonymity to avoid possible repercussions - was released recently after his family paid 1 million rupees ($25,000) to agents of Taliban commander Tariq Afridi.
Afridi heads a small group of Taliban in the Orakzai tribal district and is loyal to Baitullah Mehsud, the chief of local Taliban who has a $5 million bounty on his head for being an Al Qaeda facilitator. Pakistani troops have recently been ordered to take decisive action against Mehsud.
In an interview with DPA in Attock, Amir said he was kept in the same cell where Stanczak was held for a month before the Polish man was decapitated. Amir said Taliban soldiers guarding the two-storey prison building in South Waziristan, a lawless tribal district bordering Afghanistan, frequently chatted with him and one day they mentioned the abduction and killing of Stanczak.
"Our people were keeping an eye on his (Stanczak) movements for several months. We were expecting that we could exchange some of our mujahideen in the government's custody for him," Amir quoted a guard as saying.
Because Stanczak was a high-profile target, the Taliban made extensive preparations to kidnap and shift him to a safe place from Attock, some 100 km from Islamabad.
"You know the Indus river lies between Attock and North Western Frontier Province (NWFP) and our people could not use the bridge to cross it because it is heavily guarded. So we bought a boat to transport Piotr across the border," the guard, who identified himself as Abdullah, told Amir.
From NWFP, Stanczak was moved to the Tirah Valley of the adjoining Khyber tribal district, and a month later to the Taliban's stronghold of South Waziristan, a 14-hour drive through muddy mountain tracks.
"Piotr never showed any sign of nervousness or fear. He would finish the food we gave him and sleep well. We all admired his courage. It was not an easy decision even for our commander to kill Piotr," Abdullah said. "That's why he gave him a last chance."
"But he was very stubborn and refused our goodwill gesture to save his life," Abdullah was cited as saying by Amir. Piotr said first we should release him. He will go back to his country, consult his family and read about Islam and only then decide about converting to Islam.
"This surprised everyone but we had to kill him because principles are principles - we gave him a chance and he lost it," the guard told Amir. "But undoubtedly he was a brave man."
The son and Stanczak's girlfriend of Polish geologist murdered by militants in Pakistan pay homage to him at his casket after his remains return to Warsaw, Poland .AP Photo
Body of Polish man slain in Pakistan returned home
April 29, 2009
Warsaw, Poland
The remains of a Polish geologist beheaded by militants in Pakistan were returned to Poland in a casket draped in the two countries' flags and covered in flowers.
Piotr Stanczak's body was flown to Warsaw's military airport on a Pakistani air force plane. In a short ceremony on the tarmac, a Roman Catholic priest prayed over the white casket.
Dressed in black, Stanczak's son and girlfriend stood briefly by the casket, their heads bowed.
The geologist was one of a handful of foreigners kidnapped in Pakistan in recent months as the country witnessed deterioration in security along with a rise in al-Qaida and Taliban-led violence.
Stanczak was kidnapped Sept. 28 close to the Afghan border while he was carrying out a project for a Krakow-based geophysics company that surveys oil and gas fields.
He was held hostage for several months before his captors beheaded him in February, a killing that they videotaped.
On Sunday, a car dropped the casket near a paramilitary camp in Razmak, Pakistan.
Officials then confirmed the remains were those of Stanczak.
Wild Thing's comment........
This innocent man, to the end, probably had the faint hope, if not the expectation, that his captors would not wantonly and cruelly murder him.
It’s difficult to get decent, regular folk to understand that this is real and possibly coming to this country. We will be seeing similar cases right here in the USA in view of our government’s effort to bring in more and more Muslims. And the fact that obama favors Muslims above all.
And the world is waiting for the “moderate” muslims throughout the world to condemn this act.........waiting for the sun to turn into a Red Giant and then become a white dwarf.
Obama these are YOUR people that did this.
Posted by Wild Thing at 03:55 PM | Letters to the Editor (11) | Trackback URL | (0)
U.S. Combat Forces Turning Over Security of Cities in Iraq
Army Capt. Rich Turvey, commander of 2nd Battalion, 20th Field Artillery Regiment, signs over Joint Security Station Salaam to Iraqi army 1st Lt. Jassim Abbas at a transfer ceremony near Numaniyah, Iraq, June 20, 2009. In accordance with the U.S.-Iraqi security agreement, Iraqi security forces took full ownership of security in their cities, towns and villages on June 30, 2009. U.S. Army photo by Sgt. 1st Class Joe Thompson
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Withdrawal Marks Historic Day for Future of Iraq, General Says
By Army Staff Sgt. Dave Lankford
CONTINGENCY OPERATING BASE BASRA, Iraq, June 30, 2009
In accordance with Article 5 of the security agreement between the U.S. and Iraqi governments, Iraqi security forces now have full ownership of security in their cities, towns and villages.
“As of today, U.S. combat forces will turn over the security of cities to Iraqi security forces, and begin a period where our primary security role is one of training, mentoring and advising the ISF,” said Army Maj. Gen. Rick Nash, Multinational Division South commander. “Today’s ISF is capable, ready and dedicated to keeping the people of Iraq safe.”
Nash praised the dedication of the Iraqi security forces as well as the proficiency of U.S. and coalition forces, and attributed the successful implementation of the security agreement to their actions.
“Iraq’s successes and significantly improved security are a testament of the ISF’s progress and its dedication to Iraq’s sovereignty,” Nash said. “The Iraqis have made strides in their ability to protect their citizens, and our brave soldiers, sailors, airmen and Marines are doing a great job in helping them build both their security forces and their civil capacity.”
Though U.S. and coalition forces no longer will inhabit Iraqi cities, they will continue to support the Iraqi security forces within the parameters of the security agreement, Nash said.
“Leaving the cities does not mean that we are backing off,” he said. “Instead, it indicates our confidence in the Iraqis to safeguard their own citizens. Likewise, the security agreement is a tangible, positive sign of a mature relationship between two sovereign nations.”
In accordance with agreement, U.S. forces will withdraw from all Iraqi territory by Dec. 31, 2011. Today will be remembered as a significant step toward the realization of that objective, Nash noted.
“So, on this important day of transition in Iraq, our two nations move forward together as friends, with the shared goal of the safety and security of the Iraqi people,” he said. “I am very encouraged about the future success of Iraq.”
Gen. Raymon Oderno, commnading general, Multi-National Forces-Iraq pays tribute at the Monument of the Unkown Solidiers, June 30.
Iraqi officials and military commanders place flowers on the tomb of the Unknown Soldier and to stand a minute to read (Surat Al-Fatihah) for the lives of the martyrs of Iraq.
As U.S. Meets Withdrawal Deadline, Baghdad Declares Holiday
As the United States completed its withdrawal of combat forces from Iraqi cities in accordance with today's deadline, Baghdad commemorated the milestone with a national holiday.
The departing American brigades and battalions leave behind a significantly smaller contingent of U.S. trainers and advisors in the cities, where Iraqi forces now have primary authority, the top U.S. commander in Iraq said.
Meanwhile, news reports from Baghdad describe Iraqis marking the day with a military parade attended by Iraqi reporters and dignitaries in the international area known as the "Green Zone" at the official monument to an unknown soldier.
Similar celebrations took place around the country in recent days as the American drawdown from cities neared completion.
But today's transfer of responsibility to Iraqi security forces represents a "significant milestone," Odierno said.
"It is a day when Iraqis celebrate as they continue to move towards exercising their full sovereignty," he said. "The Iraqi people should be very proud of the dedication, progress and sacrifice of the Iraqi security forces and the government of Iraq. Their accomplishments in preparing for this day are commendable."
As Iraqis secure the cities, Odierno said, U.S. forces are establishing a layer of defense outside the urban areas, conducting full-spectrum and stability operations alongside Iraqis to eliminate safe havens, crack down on insurgents and stem the flow of foreign fighters. U.S. forces also will support civil efforts led by the U.S. Embassy, the Iraqi government, and the United Nations Assistance Mission in Iraq, he said.
"Our combat forces, partnering with the Iraqi security forces, will secure the belts and borders in an attempt to eliminate safe havens and sanctuaries and to limit freedom of movement of insurgents and prevent the facilitation of foreign fighters through the borders," he said.
As Iraqis celebrate a nationwide holiday highlighting their added responsibility, Americans also can be proud of the efforts by U.S. forces to stabilize Iraq, which last month had the lowest levels of violence since the war began six years ago, the general noted.
"The American people can also be very proud, as well, of the soldiers, sailors, airmen, Marines and Coast Guardsmen, as well as our civilians, who have worked so hard over the past years -- and tirelessly -- and sacrificed so much in helping the people of Iraq progress towards a peaceful and democratic society," Odierno said.
Maj. Jacob Evans, team chief for Military Transition Team 0228, instructs an Iraqi Soldier on the proper placement of the flag on a uniform aboard Camp Hamza, Iraq
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Wild Thing's comment.......
OK now I want to show you something, this was
June 30, 2009
Obama statement on Iraq
Transcript from President Obama's remarks on Iraq:Today American troops have transferred control of all Iraqi cities and towns to Iraq's government and security forces.
This transition was agreed to last year as part of our status of forces agreement with the sovereign Iraqi government. It's a part of our strategy to responsibly end the war by removing all American combat brigades from Iraq by next September and all of our troops from Iraq by the end of 2011.
So the Iraqi people are rightly treating this day as a cause for celebration. This is important step forward as a sovereign and united Iraq continues to take control of its own destiny.
With this progress comes responsibility. Iraq's future is in the hands of its own people, and Iraq's leaders must now make some hard choices necessary to resolve key political questions, to advance opportunity and to provide security for their towns and their cities.
In this effort America will be a strong partner to the Iraqi people on behalf of their security and prosperity.
Now, make no mistake, there will be difficult days ahead. We know that the violence in Iraq will continue. We see that already in the senseless bombing in Kirkuk earlier today. And there are those who will test Iraq's security forces and the resolve of the Iraqi people through more sectarian bombings and the murder of innocent civilians.
But I'm confident that those forces will fail.
The future belongs to those who build, not those who destroy. ( Obama has done nothing BUT try to destroy, That is all he has done with America since he was sworn in and that is all he has tried to do with the moral and non funding of our troops in the war. Destroy should be his middle name. ~ Wild Thing)
And today's transition is further proof that those who have tried to pull Iraq into the abyss of disunion and civil war are on the wrong side of history. ( that has Obama's name written all over it! ~ Wild Thing)
Finally, the very fact that Iraqis are celebrating this day is a testament to the courage, the capability and commitment of every single American who has served in Iraq. Through... That's worth applauding.
Through tour after tour of duty, our troops have overcome every obstacle to extend this precious opportunity to the Iraqi people. ( Obama get real , you are the big ole Muslim loving Military hating OBSTACLE!~ Wild Thing)
And these women and men are not always in the headlines, but they're our hearts and prayers. And we will forever honor their selfless service and sacrifice, as well as the service and sacrifice of their families.
There's more work to be done, but we've made important progress in supporting a sovereign, stable and self-reliant Iraq. And everyone who's served there, both in uniform as well as our civilians, deserves our thanks.
Now, it's fitting that we're here today to talk about what each of us can do to lift up this nation, because our troops' sacrifice challenges all of us to do what we can do to be better citizens. That's what the people that you've heard from already are doing every single day.
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Obama is so full of it! He makes my stomach turn.
NEVER FORGET....NEVER FORGET.....NEVER FORGET!
Posted by Wild Thing at 06:55 AM | Letters to the Editor (10) | Trackback URL | (0)
Biden to Take New Role Overseeing Iraq Policy
Biden to take new role overseeing Iraq policy....Biden's New Job: Beacon Of Bipartisanship
President Barack Obama has asked Vice President Joe Biden to take on a new role overseeing the US departure from Iraq and Washington's effort to promote internal political reconciliation there.
The White House said Tuesday that Biden would work closely with General Ray Odierno, the top US commander in Iraq and US ambassador to Baghdad Christopher Hill as US forces prefer to leave for good by the end of 2011.
"The vice president has been asked by the president to oversee the policy," White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said Tuesday.
Biden would work with Iraqis "toward overcoming their political differences and achieving the type of reconciliation that we all understand has yet to fully take place but needs to take place."
"Given his knowledge of the region, the number of times he's been there, he's perfectly suited for this type of role," Gibbs said.
Biden, who was chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations committee before becoming vice president, has made repeated trips to Iraq, and is playing a similar role overseeing a 787 billion economic stimulus package.
Gibbs said that an idea once put forward by Biden, of dividing Iraq's Shiite, Sunni and Kurdish communities into a federation of autonomous zones, was not on the table for the Obama administration.
He said the vice president's role would likely include travel to Iraq and also meetings with the key players on US Iraq policy.
Biden's new portfolio had been rumored for several days, and Gibbs confirmed the reports on the day that US troops withdrew from the center of Iraqi cities and towns under an agreement with the Baghdad government.
Wild Thing's commnet..........
LOL Obama has been getting ticked at Biden for his many gaffes. The last one I think was when he kidded about the birth certificate. So now he has planned for Biden to be as far away from 1600 Penn. Ave. as possible.
Talk about your disasters waiting to happen!
Posted by Wild Thing at 06:50 AM | Letters to the Editor (8) | Trackback URL | (0)
Obama Open For Taxing People Earning Less Than $250,000
White House open to new tax on health benefits
WASHINGTON
The Obama White House left open the possibility Sunday that the president would break a campaign promise and raise taxes on people earning less than $250,000 to support his health care overhaul agenda.
White House adviser David Axelrod said the administration wouldn't rule out taxing some employees' benefits to fund a health care agenda that has yet to take final form. The move would be a compromise with fellow Democrats, who are pushing the proposal as a way to pay for the massive undertaking without ballooning the federal deficit.
"There are a number of formulations and we'll wait and see. The important thing at this point is to keep the process moving, to keep people at the table, to the keep the discussions going," Axelrod said. "We've gotten a long way down the road and we want to finish that journey."
But if President Barack Obama compromises on that point, it would reverse a campaign tax promise.
"I pledge that under my plan, no one making less than $250,000 a year will see any type of tax increase," Obama told a crowd in Dover, N.H., last year. "Not income tax, not capital gains taxes, not any kind of tax."
At the time, his Republican rival, Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., was proposing a tax on health benefits similar to the plan Obama is now considering. Just a year ago, Obama spent millions on campaign commercials attacking the idea.
One ad accused McCain of favoring "taxing health benefits for the first time ever ... taxing health care instead of fixing it. We can't afford John McCain."
A second Obama ad called McCain's approach "the largest middle-class tax increase in history." Driving the point home, it contended the "McCain tax could cost your family thousands. Can you afford it?"
Under the current proposals, a tax on health benefits would affect only those with pricey health plans. The idea would be to tax as income the portion of health benefits worth more than a specified limit. Officials are considering several options, including one that would set the limit at $17,240 for family coverage and $6,800 for individuals.
Plans worth more than that would be taxed; those worth less would see no increase.
Obama has faced similar criticism before. When he increased taxes on tobacco to pay for a children's health bill, his critics said he was raising taxes on those making less than $250,000 a year.
Obama left open the possibility of a tax during interviews last week, insisting he wasn't taking any option off the table despite his personal opposition. But two of his high-profile advisers - budget chief Peter Orszag and economic adviser Jason Furman - both have indicated they support some taxes on health benefits to pay for the overhaul.
Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, said that Obama should step in an oppose the tax if he's truly against it. Otherwise, he faces a loss to his own Democratic Party and his own campaign credibility.
"I think it's going to take presidential leadership to get people of his party to see that we shouldn't be subsidizing high-end health insurance policies that drive up inflation in health insurance," said Grassley, the top Republican on the powerful finance committee.
Grassley - and, to be sure, other Republicans - remember Obama's scathing criticism of their GOP presidential nominee.
"Since the president denigrated John McCain's effort to move in this direction during the campaign, it's going to take, in order to win over Republicans, presidential leadership in that direction," Grassley said.
To help sell his plan, Obama scheduled a town hall-style meeting this week in Annandale, Va., a Washington suburb. He plans to take questions Wednesday from the audience and from online sites such as Facebook, YouTube and Twitter.
Wild Thing's comment.........
Another townhall UNTownhall meeting????? Can't this freak Obama ever stay off camera?
And again will the Union people and the elected government officials/workers be exempt again on this one?
....Thank you Mark for sending this to me.
Mark
3rd Mar.Div. 1st Battalion 9th Marine Regiment
1/9 Marines aka The Walking Dead
VN 66-67
Posted by Wild Thing at 06:49 AM | Letters to the Editor (12) | Trackback URL | (0)
Clinton Urged Obama To Talk Tough On Iran
Clinton urged Obama to talk tough on Iran
Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton urged President Obama for two days to toughen his language on Iran before he did so, and then was surprised when he condemned Iran's crackdown on demonstrators last week, administration officials say.
At his June 23 news conference, Mr. Obama said he was "appalled and outraged" by Iranian behavior and "strongly condemned" the violence against anti-government demonstrators. Up until then, Mr. Obama and other administration officials had taken a softer line, expressing "deep concern" about the situation and calling on Iran to "respect the dignity of its own people."
Behind the scenes, the officials, who spoke on the condition that they not be named because they were discussing internal deliberations, said Mrs. Clinton had been advocating the stronger U.S. response, but the president resisted. When he finally took her advice, the aides said, he did so without informing her first.
This was the first known example of awkwardness between the two former rivals for the Democratic nomination for president since they made up following Mr. Obama's election. The disagreement also gave some insight into the Obama administration's foreign policy decision-making process five months into its term.
Wild Thing's comment.........
We know Obama can be tuff, he just doesn't want to be with Muslims. or his communist buddies.
Posted by Wild Thing at 06:48 AM | Letters to the Editor (10) | Trackback URL | (0)
Obama Backing of Zelaya Draws Criticism
Charles Krauthammer talks about Honduras and how wrong Obama is about it.
"Two weeks ago he refuses to meddle in a country where peaceful demonstrators are getting shot be a theocratic dictatorship. He doesn't want to choose sides. And, now he's eager to meddle on behalf of a president in Honduras who's a Chavez wannabe who's strong-arming his way to a referendum that has been declared illegal by his Supreme Court as a way to have a referendum to establish a assembly that will establish a new constitution that will be a Chavez-like dictatorship... Look a rule of thumb here is whenever you find yourself on the side of Hugo Chavez, Daniel Ortega and the Castro twins you ought to re-examine your assumptions."
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Supporters of Honduras' interim President, Roberto Micheletti
A man holds a banner against ousted president Manuel Zelaya during a rally at Morazan Square in central Tegucigalpa. Officials Tuesday ordered the arrest of ousted President Zelaya if he returns to Honduras after being expelled in an army-backed coup, as thousands of protesters took to the streets here.
(AFP/Jose Cabezas)
White House backing of Zelaya starts to draw criticism
by Bridget Johnson
The U.S. co-sponsored a successful U.N. resolution supporting Honduras's ousted leader Tuesday as Republicans began to speak out against the Obama administration's condemnation of the overthrow.
Manuel Zelaya, who was arrested and forced into exile Sunday, addressed the U.N. General Assembly after the unanimous vote on the resolution sponsored in part by Bolivia, Mexico, Venezuela and the United States.
"The resolution that the United Nations has just adopted unanimously ... expresses the indignation of the people of Honduras and the people worldwide," said Zelaya, who began his speech by thanking Venezuela and Ecuador.
President Obama, meeting with Colombian President Alvaro Uribe on Monday, said the U.S. would "stand with democracy" in the face of the overthrow.
"We believe that the coup was not legal and that President Zelaya remains the democratically elected president there," Obama said. "It would be a terrible precedent if we start moving backward into the era in which we are seeing military coups as a means of political transition rather than democratic elections."
Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said Sunday that the ouster "should be condemned by all."
When contacted for comment by The Hill on Tuesday, the office of Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman John Kerry (D-Mass.) said the senator was reserving comment until the situation in Honduras becomes clearer.
Zelaya planned to return to Honduras on Thursday accompanied by the head of the Organization of the American States, which was to meet in Washington after the U.N. session to formulate a response.
"I believe, if he — if he does come either today or tomorrow, that he will likely meet with officials from the State Department, some of whom, as I said, have been in contact," White House press secretary Robert Gibbs said in Tuesday's briefing, repeating this when pressed by a reporter about whether Zelaya would meet with Obama.
Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez has urged Zelaya to try to speak with Obama while in D.C., saying the American president's support would "deliver a major blow" to Honduras's interim government.
But that support for Zelaya, who was arrested and forced into exile on Sunday after pressing ahead with a constitutional referendum that would have allowed for his reelection, is gradually drawing more criticism of the White House.
"Manuel Zelaya trampled the Honduran Constitution by pushing for his illegal referendum to allow him to rule indefinitely, and by firing the top military official, General Romeo Vasquez Velasquez, when he refused to comply with Zelaya's unconstitutional orders," Rep. Connie Mack (R-Fla.) said in a statement to The Hill on Tuesday.
"There is little doubt that Zelaya, in his blatant power grab, has moved Honduras down a dangerous path toward less freedom, less security, and less prosperity. He consistently ignored the checks and balances which are essential to a democratic government."
The referendum had been judged illegal by Honduras's highest court and was opposed widely through political and military circles, including within Zelaya's own party.
Wild Thing's comment.........
Charles Krauthammer was dead on. Stinging rebuke of Obama in a Krauthammer way.
There is no explanation for Obama not supporting their defense of the constitution except that Obama is a Communist. Also Obama doesn't want the actions by the Honduran Legislature/Courts/Military to be seen as setting a legally and morally justifiable precedent for other Western Hemisphere nations.
Obama sees no need to defend a Constitution. He is busily trying to get rid of our own. If he can get us under the UN for climate change and under International Court, global interests will usurp our Constitution. Getting rid of our Constitution is most of his hope and change. He hopes he can get rid of it and change the US into a Communist Dictatorship.
Posted by Wild Thing at 06:47 AM | Letters to the Editor (10) | Trackback URL | (0)
What Did John Conyers Know About His Wife's Corruption?
Former aide: Monica Conyers took cash in Greektown deal, wrote letter with husband
Sam Riddle, a former aide to Monica Conyers, says the Detroit councilwoman drove him to a meeting with a Greektown businessman, arranged a $20,000 consulting contract for Riddle, demanded $10,000 as a finder's fee and later drafted a letter along with her husband, U.S. Rep. John Conyers, in support of the businessman.
In an extended admission, Riddle told the Detroit Free Press that Conyers brokered several similar deals for him because she could not hire him directly as a consultant, including the deal with Greektown entrepreneur Dimitrios Papas.
Detroit Free Press, June 29: "I didn't have to do a lot of work," Riddle said. "And the councilwoman insisted on half of my retainer as a finder's fee."
Riddle said Papas gave him checks totaling $20,000. He said he then paid the councilwoman $10,000 cash.
"While I felt it was a bit exorbitant, it didn't feel that bad given the workload, which was nil," Riddle said, adding, "It was clear he was dealing with me because of Monica, not because of any special skill set he was hoping to gain with me."
It's not clear that John Conyers knew of his wife's link to the businessman, but the two drafted a letter to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency seeking approval of a Romulus waste injection project that one of Papas' companies was looking to take over.
Riddle also confirmed a similar arrangement with Zeidman's owner Tomas LaBret in which he was paid a large retainer and Conyers received jewelry.
Riddle's candor isn't a total surprise. Although he had refused to comment on the situation, he repeatedly promised to tell the truth under oath and earlier this month told Fox 2 that "The only difference between Detroit and third world nations -- where corruption is concerned -- is goats in the street."
Wild Thing's comment.......
John Conyers: Take my wife. Please! (/hennyyoungman)
What a couple, but they do fit right in with the rest of the party on the left.
....Thank you Mark for sending this to me.
Mark
3rd Mar.Div. 1st Battalion 9th Marine Regiment
1/9 Marines aka The Walking Dead
VN 66-67
Posted by Wild Thing at 06:45 AM | Letters to the Editor (10) | Trackback URL | (0)
June 30, 2009
Israeli Navy Takes Control of Aid Boat Headed for Gaza (Cynthia McKinney AGAIN!)
Small ferry carrying medical supplies that set sail from Cyprus Monday with 21 peace activists, medical supplies intercepted off Strip's shore; passengers say army jammed boat's radio signals.
At around noon Tuesday the Israeli Navy intercepted and took control of a boat that had set sail for the Gaza Strip with three tons of medical supplies, Palestinian sources said, adding that the Navy jammed the boat's radio signals.
The IDF Spokesperson's Office confirmed the report. Israeli military sources said there was no violence after the small ferry, sailing from Cyprus with activists from the US-based Free Gaza Movement, was intercepted off Gaza.
"The vessel, which was sailing under a Greek flag, left Larnaca, Cyprus on Monday en route to Gaza. After it was made clear that the boat was headed for Gaza's shore, it was told that Gaza was under a naval blockade. In light of this and the security hazards in the region, its entrance to Gaza was forbidden," the army said in a statement.
The army stressed that despite the warnings, the boat continued sailing toward the Strip. "The Navy vessel's crew took control of the boat and led it to the Ashdod port," said the military.
The boat is also carrying 21 peace activists, including former US Congresswoman Cynthia Ann McKinney (D-GA) and Nobel Peace Prize laureate Mairead Maguire.
Activist Luvana Masarwa, a 30-year-old east Jerusalem resident, said Monday that passengers "are excited about the possibility of contributing to breaking the siege."
"We want to show the Palestinian people in Gaza that they are not alone, and call on the international community to take a more active role in resolving the situation," she said.
Navy Boards Activists’ Ship: Ex-US Legislator: Call off the Dogs
As the navy surrounded the activists’ boat, McKinney said by phone from the vessel, "I am extremely angry. We demand that the Israeli government call off their attack dogs.”
The IDF made contact and told the boat it would not be allowed to approach because of security risks and a blockade which Israel has imposed to prevent terrorists and weapons from arriving, according to the IDF. “Despite warnings, they crossed into coastal waters and as a result of this, a naval force intercepted it and boarded it, with the intention of directing it to Ashdod port in Israel.”
Wild Thing's comment.....
Cynthia McKinney is the kind of “person” that you could throw to the sharks and they’d suddenly become vegetarians.
Free Gaza is a pro-arab pro-muslim fascist pro-hamas pro-hezbolla outfit. Rather than deport these fine folks, the Israelis should incarcerate them for a time. This might be something that would discourage these idiot psuedo-peaceniks.
Obama and Cynthia McKinney are very similar:
Excerpt:
weekly standard
She is a Democrat, in 1992, she became the first black woman elected to Congress from Georgia.
Appearing in print just months after the September 11 attacks, McKinney's charges couldn't be excused. Nor could her list of campaign donors, which included both terrorist sympathizers like Abdurahman Alamoudi, the former executive director of the American Muslim Council, and apparent actual terrorists like former college professor Sami Al-Arian. Nor could her October 12, 2001, letter to Saudi prince Alwaleed bin Talal, in which she rebuked New York mayor Rudy Giuliani for returning the prince's post-9/11 “gift” of $10 million and urged bin Talal to donate the funds to “charities outside the mayor's control,” especially those that dealt with “poor blacks who sleep on the street in the shadows of our nation's Capitol.” Giuliani had returned the Saudi’s money because it came with the implicit condition that America “address some of the issues that led to such a criminal [9/11] attack,” among them “its policies in the Middle East,” where “our Palestinian brethren continue to be slaughtered at the hands of Israelis while the world turns the other cheek.” To Giuliani, such a statement made excuses for terrorism. This wasn't a problem for McKinney.
Posted by Wild Thing at 06:48 PM | Letters to the Editor (8) | Trackback URL | (0)
Obama Tracking Poll Sinking Fast
Rasmussen Reports Tracking Poll
The Rasmussen Reports daily Presidential Tracking Poll for Tuesday shows that 31% of the nation's voters now Strongly Approve of the way that Barack Obama is performing his role as President. Thirty-three percent (33%) Strongly Disapprove giving Obama a Presidential Approval Index rating of -2. That matches the lowest level yet recorded .
Over the past two weeks, the Presidential Approval Index has stayed in a narrow range between +2 and -2. Fifty-seven percent (57%) of Democrats Strongly Approve while 60% of Republicans Strongly Disapprove.
Wild Thing's comment.......
The American people are waking up to the fact that the majority of them are not being helped by this admninistration at all, that, in fact, they are being suppressed, oppressed, repressed, choked, demeaned, ridiculed, trashed, insulted and belittled by this adminsitration.
Obama's little, effete, narcissistic self can’t countenance the thought of the masses falling out of love with him. He’s going to have to schedule yet another “major speech.”
I know this is very low but it is still way too high for approval rating, this evil president is destroying us.
Posted by Wild Thing at 06:45 PM | Letters to the Editor (5) | Trackback URL | (0)
With Al Franken Dems Get 60
After Court Ruling, Coleman Concedes to Franken in Minnesota Senate Battle
After the Minnesota high court rejects a legal challenge from Norm Coleman, the Republican concedes to Democrat Al Franken in the state's Senate race.
Ending an eight-month legal battle, Republican Norm Coleman conceded Tuesday to Democrat Al Franken in the Minnesota Senate race after the state's high court ruled that Franken should be certified as the winner.
Though Coleman could have tried to take the case to the federal Supreme Court, he told reporters outside his home in St. Paul that continuing to drag out his challenge would hurt his state.
"I just had a conversation with Al Franken congratulating him on his victory," Coleman said. "The Supreme Court of Minnesota has spoken. I respect its decision and I will abide by its result. ...We have reached the point where further litigation damages the unity of our state."
The Minnesota Supreme Court has ordered that Democrat Al Franken be certified as the winner of the state's long-running Senate race.
The high court rejected a legal challenge from Republican Norm Coleman, whose options for regaining the Senate seat are dwindling.
Justices said Franken is entitled to the election certificate he needs to assume office.
When Franken is sworn in, he'll give Democrats a big enough majority to overcome Republican filibusters.
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Wild Thing's comment........
Al Franken the crook who’s Air America franchise embezzled tax payer money from a children’s charity.
Ono the way home I just heard on talk radio that Franken is "essentially a "ticking time bomb". He's unpredictable and scares the democrats as much as anyone. They're reported to be *NOT* looking forward to working with him. He's going to be a huge embarrassment to them."
If that is true about how many of the dems feel about him then it would be the ONLY up side to this.
Did not Caligula make his horse a Roman Senator? Well, not be outdone, a true horse’s ass now sits in the U. S. Senate. As a nation have truly sunk to a new level of depravity and darkness.
My God... WHAT has happened to our country???
And what about Cap and Trade in the Senate?
Unless the GOP doesn’t start to take on ACORN and similar organizations we can kiss free elections goodbye forever.
Then there is his stupid book:
Today, Rush Limbaugh today compared the results of Minnesota's senate election to the corrupt, obviously rigged election in Iran.
" Just like in our country. Norm Coleman wins in Minnesota in a recount, and they keep having recounts, and Al Franken wins. So they had the recount in Iran, and shazzam! Ahmadinejad gained votes!"
Limbaugh made the comments before the Supreme Court ruled 5-0 for Franken.
....Thank you Richard for sending this to me.
Posted by Wild Thing at 05:40 PM | Letters to the Editor (8) | Trackback URL | (0)
Obama’s Census to Castrate American Caucasians
Obama’s Census to castrate American Caucasians
It’s invasive.
It’s corrupt.
It’s rigged.
It’s unconstitutional.
Its purpose is the legislative transformation of the United States of America into a land where conservatives, Christians, and Caucasians will become political castrados.
It is biased and prejudicial.
It serves to channel billions of dollars into bogus political action groups, such as Acorn.
It promotes gay rights and same-sex marriages.
It is a document that was not something drafted by the Berkley chapter of the Barbra Streisand Fan Club or the Alec Baldwin wing of the American Civil Liberties Union.
It is President Barack Obama’s 2010 Census Form.
The form asks if you have a house with running water, if you have a flush toilet, if you go to work by ferryboat or trolleycar, if you are mentally challenged, if you are of Hispanic, Latino, or Spanish origin, and if you are a white, black, negro, African American, American Indian, Asian Indian, Chinese, Filipino, Japanese, Korean, Vietnamese, Native Hawaiian, Guamanian or Chamorro, Samoan, Fijian, or Tongan
It asks if you have hot and cold running water, a sink with a faucet, a frigerator, a bathtub or shower, a stove or range, and a flush toilet.
It asks if you use coal, gas, oil, electricity, or solar energy to heat your home or apartment, if you are deaf or blind, if you are mentally challenged, if you have a physical disability, if you are employed, self-employed, or retired, if you have troubled dressing or bathing, if you have difficulty walking or climbing the stairs, and if you speak a language other than English at home.
It asks your income, your educational level, and the time you leave your home in the morning.
But infinitely more telling is what the new census form doesn’t ask.
It doesn’t ask if you are a citizen of the U.S.A., if you are an immigrant, or if you are a Muslim.
Naturally, the questions are in English and Spanish, lest anyone think that America is an Anglo nation. Many stand in violation of the Constitution which states that a national census should concern itself solely the number of individuals in a household.
For this reason, Minnesota Rep. Michele Bachmann is refusing to answer the “very intricate” and “very personal” questions.
But there are problems with the Obama census beyond the intrusive nature of the comprehensive survey.
To assist in the hiring of census takers, the Obama Administration has opted to partner with the following special interest groups (not one of which represents the despised race of whites who settled this country):
ACORN
100 Black Men of America
African American Women’s House of Imagene (sic) Shelter
American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee
Arab American Institute
Asian American Federation
Asian American Justice Center
Asian and Pacific Islander Coalition on HIV/AIDS
Association of Professors and Scholars of Iranian Heritage
Boat People SOS
Hispanic Alliance for Prosperity Institute
Hispanic Federation
Fundacion Azteca
Latino Justice PDLDEF
Mas New Mexico
Mexican American Legal Defense and Education Fund
Minority Access
National Alliance for Hispanic Health
National Alliance of Black School Educators
National American Indian Housing Council
NAACP National Voter Fund
NAACP (National Association of Colored People)
National Association for Black Social Workers
National Association of Colored Women’s Clubs
National association of Hispanic Federal Executives
National Association of Hispanic Publications
National Association of Latino Elected Officials
National Association of Negro Business and Professional Women’s Clubs
National Black Chamber of Commerce
National Black Child Development Institute
National Black Justice Coalition
National Black Leadership Forum
National Coalition on Black Civic Participation
National Congress of Black Women
National Federation of Filipino American Associations
National Hispanic Leadership Institute
National Hispanic Business Information Clearinghouse
National Latino Research Center
National Minority AIDS Council
National Puerto Rican Coalition
National Puerto Rican Day Parade
Rainbow Push Coalition
U.S. Hispanic Chamber of Commerce
Voto Latino
Get the picture? Notice a racial bias?
These agencies will be paid millions in taxpayers’ dollars to assist the President in conducting the census and to make sure that all minorities are included in the official count.
Not one of the groups represents the despised race of white Europeans who settled this country and gave their sweat and blood to make it the most prosperous nation on earth.
Excluded from the list of census partners are such groups, as the American Legion, the Veterans of Foreign Wars, the Daughters of the American Revolution, the Elks Clubs, the Rotary Clubs, the Moose Lodge, and, of course, the Friendly Sons of St. Patrick.
This racial bias inherent in the census has raised the concern that the results will be rigged - - a concern that has been intensified by Mr. Obama’s selection of Robert M. Groves, a sociology professor at the University of Michigan,
Republican legislators have expressed alarm because Mr. Groves’s specialty is statistical sampling — roughly speaking, the process of extrapolating from the numbers of people actually counted to arrive at estimates of those uncounted and, presumably, arriving at a realistic total.
If minorities, immigrants, the poor and the homeless are those most likely to be missed in an actual head count, as Mr. Grove presumably believes, and if political stereotypes hold true, then the statistical sampling of the 2010 census will produce a windfall for the Democrat Party.
This result is certain since the census results as gathered by the above groups coupled with Mr. Grove’s calculation of the missed head count will determine which states gains seats in Congress and which ones lose them, as well as the allocation of federal dollars to states and cities based on population.
The Obama budget serves to ensure that the United States will be broke.
His foreign policies will serve the cause of the Muslim world to the detriment of Israel.
And his census will make sure that the time of the Judeo-Christian standards and culture in the land of the free and the home of the brave will come to an end.
The chickens have come home to roost.
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Wild Thing's comment..........
I think this is all about getting the illegals vote.
How about if I put an Ebola virus sign on the front door. “QUARANTINE”
Or how about this, which is true.
I was born in the USA, and my parents were born in the USA. I'm a native American by birth. The results will completely skew the census results, rendering the attempt to racially divide the nation that much harder.
I wonder if they start at one side of our country and work across or do all the Sates the same week or month.
......Thank you RAC for sending this to me.
RAC has a website that is awesome. 336th Assault Helicopter Company
13th Combat Aviation Battalion - 1st Aviation Brigade - Soc Trang, Republic of Vietnam
Posted by Wild Thing at 05:55 AM | Letters to the Editor (13) | Trackback URL | (0)
Col. Kenneth L. Reusser,USMC ~ WWII, KOREA, VIETNAM Passed Away
" He served in the Pacific Theater in WWII, Korea and Vietnam. He was awarded a second Navy Cross, five Purple Hearts and multiple other medals before being forced to retire because of his wounds."
The 2nd Lt. earned his first Navy Cross during WWII, the Maj.'s second Navy Cross came during the Korean War. His plane went down with him on board in the Pacific during WWII, he was shot down three times during the Korean War and once again during the Vietnam War. He earned two Navy Cross, four Purple Heart, two Legion of Merit with Combat "V", and fifty two other medals and ribbons throughout his long and dedicated military career. Until his death he was believed to be the most decorated three-war former Marine Corps pilot living in Oregon.
Retired Marine Corps Col. Kenneth L. Reusser has passed away and been laid to rest in the Willamette National Cemetery in Portland, Oregon. The Patriot Guard Riders were there to honor him .
Reusser was called the most decorated Marine aviator in history and was shot down in three wars in the Pacific theater - World War II, Korea and Vietnam. Colonel Ken Reusser's distinguished combat record:
-flew 253 combat missions in World War II, Korea and Vietnam and was shot down in all three, five times in all.
-59 medals included two Navy Crosses, five Purple Hearts and two Legions of Merit.
Ken Reusser enlisted in the U.S. Naval Reserve as a seaman recruit on August 23, 1941, and entered flight training. In April 1942, he completed flight training, was commissioned a 2nd Lieutenant, and in May 1942 left for the Southwest Pacific. Upon arrival at Guadalcanal, was assigned to VMF-122, flying the F4F-3. On his first combat mission, he was credited with a probable kill of a Mitsubishi "Betty." In October of that year, he was injured during a ditching and spent 6 months in a hospital.
Ken returned to the Pacific in 1944 flying F4U's from USS Hollandia, (CVE 97) off Okinawa. He led a flight of Corsairs intending to shoot down a Japanese KI-45 "Nick" high-altitude photo reconnaissance airplane gathering information for the day's Kamikaze flights. With altitude frozen guns, the only weapon left was the Corsair itself. Ken and his wingman severely damaged the tail of the KI-45 with their propellers. It entered a graveyard spiral, breaking up before hitting the water. Ken and his wingman shared the kill. Each was awarded the Navy Cross.
In 1950, Ken found himself again in combat, flying F4U's from USS Sicily, (CVE 118). He was awarded a second Navy Cross for making two very low-level passes down a street to identify, through a building's windows, what was hidden inside. He then led a flight back, destroying the target. Exiting the area, with only 20mm guns remaining, he made a firing pass on a ship moored to a camouflaged pier. Loaded with fuel, the ship exploded, flipping the Corsair inverted. After righting the airplane, Ken returned to USS Sicily where the severely crippled F4U was pushed over the side for being too damaged to repair.
During the Vietnam War, Reusser flew helicopters. He was leading a Marine Air Group in a rescue mission, when his own "Huey" was shot down. He needed skin grafts over 35 percent of his badly burned body. He retired from the Marine Corps in July 1968 due to his combat wounds.
Reusser raced motorcycles to help pay for college and earning a pilots license before World War II. After retiring from the Marine Corps, he worked for Lockheed Aircraft and the Piasecki Helicopter Corp. He remained active in veterans groups.
Reusser is survived by his wife, Trudy; and sons, Richard C. and Kenneth L. Jr.
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U.S. Marine Corps Col. Kenneth L. Reusser (center) is joined by Marine Staff Sgt. Marvin Harper (left) and Air Force Staff Sgt. Kim Nickerson on the Freedom Train, a string of cars honoring Oregon veterans, firefighters and disaster-relief workers who flew to New York City after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.
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Friends mourn Milwaukie fighter pilot who served in three wars (OR)
CLACKAMAS -- They came by ones and twos Friday, quietly slipping into the pews at New Hope Community Church. They smiled at the words honoring a man whose faith made him an inspiration and whose exploits in three wars made him a hero.
And when the last mournful drone of the bagpipes faded, they said goodbye to Col. Kenneth L. Reusser of Milwaukie, the most decorated U.S. Marine Corps aviator in history.
"He was the finest gentleman I've ever met," said Harley Wedel of Fairview, a fellow Korean War veteran. "I'm really going to miss him."
In 1945, while based in Okinawa, he stripped down his F4U-4 Corsair fighter and intercepted a Japanese observation plane at an altitude much higher than usual. When his guns froze, he flew his fighter into the observation plane, hacking off its tail with his propeller.
In 1950, while serving in the storied "Black Sheep Squadron," he led an attack on a North Korean tank-repair facility at Inchon, then destroyed an oil tanker -- almost blowing himself out of the sky in the process.
During the Vietnam War, Reusser flew helicopters. He was leading a Marine Air Group in a rescue mission, when his own "Huey" was shot down. He needed skin grafts over 35 percent of his badly burned body.
Reusser lived a "Tom Sawyer-ish" existence, Wedel said, jumping off a barn roof to test a parachute, racing motorcycles to help pay for college and earning a pilot's license before WWII broke out.
After retiring from the Marine Corps, he worked for Lockheed Aircraft and the Piasecki Helicopter Corp.
In recent years, he remained active in veterans groups.
"He had a great sense of humor," said friend Jesse Lott of Milwaukie. "One time, when the great Gen. Chuck Yeager was visiting, we told him about Ken's war record. Yeager just sniffed that he never saw any Marines in Europe.
"Well, when Ken arrived, we told him what Yeager had said," Lott said. "So Ken said, 'Well, if we had been there, it wouldn't have taken you so long to win the war.' Even Yeager laughed."
Wild Thing's comment...........
Thank you Col. Reusser for your dedicated service to our country. You sir, had an amazing career, and we thank you for your service. Thank you for defending the freedoms we all enjoy everyday.
I am so sick of hearing about Michael Jackson, even Fox is on the band wagon with this worship of this child molester. Please God make it stop!!!
There are good men that the news could be telling us about, awesome men, Heroes. Our debt to the Heroic men and Valiant women in the service of our country can never be repaid. During these days of many trials and tribulations that our land of the free are facing, let us remember to hold our heads up high in remembrance for those who gave their life for our freedom and those that are still in harms way for this cause.
Posted by Wild Thing at 05:50 AM | Letters to the Editor (4) | Trackback URL | (0)
Can't Sell Your House Without Obama's Government Approval
Glenn Beck—Obama's Cap-and-Trade [Nazi-Germany Laws]: Can't Sell Your House Without Gov't Approval
From Rush's show Monday regarding Cap pand Trade vote last Friday
RUSH: Have you heard about this, folks? When you sell your house, environmental experts have to come in and do a survey to find out if you've got leaky windows, if all the environmental systems are correct, if you have relatively new appliances, and until you modernize in the way they say, you can't sell -- that's in the bill. I'm not kidding, Brian. See, you can't believe it. You can't. It's in the bill. It was in this amendment that Boehner read.
We gotta face reality and we're dealing with an Obama State-Run Media here. Of course they're not going to give Boehner any support or even any coverage or any publicity. But she's right, sell your house, before you can do that, you have to pass an environmental test that some government person is going to come in and make sure you have proper storm windows and if you live in a hurricane area the inspection is even more Draconian. You have to have modern appliances, a kitchen and that sort of thing, energy efficient TVs and this sort of stuff and until you replace all that stuff you can't sell it. Now, normally that would be up to seller and buyer. If the buyer wants to accept some old TVs and a kitchen that's not stainless steel, fine, you negotiate that on price. But now it's not going to be a matter of negotiation. Before you can be approved in selling your house, some government regulator is to come in and give you an examination.
Now, just to illustrate how this is going to work, once again I have a piece of property that would pass inspection, right now if this were the law. But do you think some government regulator coming into my house is going to pass me if it's the Obama administration or if it's some Democrat-run bureaucracy? No way. Everything is going to be political and this is how they are going to get people to switch party to become Democrat so that they're not harassed.
This is an outrage, this is such a travesty.. This is something that everybody who voted for this thing needs to be sent packing because it wasn't even written. There is a requirement that the bill being voted on be in the well of the House. It was not there because it hadn't been written, much less read.
This whole bill, this nonexistent bill is so un-American everybody who voted for it from Pelosi on down needs to be jacked out of there in the next election. That's how bad this is. Don't sit there and get all comfy over the fact, "Well, Rush, it's not going to go anywhere in the Senate." That's what we're being told and we don't know that for sure. Dingy Harry wants to take it up in September. Now, Dingy Harry is one of these that said it doesn't have a chance in the House, but that's Dingy Harry saying it and Dingy Harry might be saying it just to get some of the Republicans in the Senate to sort of go easy. Here's Andrea Mitchell, NBC News, Washington, this morning on MSNBC answering a question, the question: "How does the administration plan to fight this, especially since it seems like it might be a squeaker in the Senate as well?"
MITCHELL: Well, more than a squeaker. They just don't have the votes. In fact Harry Reid has said that he's not going to even think about bringing it up to the Senate. This vote in the House, which is a huge tribute to Nancy Pelosi and to the president's leadership, to, you know, Phil Schiliro and Rahm Emanuel and the others and clearly David Axelrod and the others in the White House.
RUSH: That's what it's all about. It's a tribute to Pelosi, a tribute to a bunch of leftist, extreme leftist radicals from Obama to Pelosi to Rahm Emanuel to whoever the hell else, and that makes it a wonderful thing, whoa look what they did. Harry Reid, "It isn't going to go anywhere in the Senate, not even going to bring it up there." So somebody wanted to go on record as being all for this in the House, but it's just an abomination. This is one of the most outrageous things an elective body in a representative republic, a free country, has ever come up with.
This is a disgrace this country might want to think long and hard about. This is a national scandal. This is irresponsibility to the core. The bill was not even written, much less read, and yet it was voted on. So what we have here is central planning mechanisms are being put in place for a command-and-control economy, and the whole process was totally lacking in transparency. It's a perfect representation of the Obama presidency. You couldn't find... By the way, legislation like this is supposed to be on the website for five days so all of us can read it, right? It wasn't written! No wonder the Drive-Bys, the State-Run Media are so enamored of Colin Powell. He would remake the Republican Party just as Obama would remake America. And this would destroy it. We have to assume he agreed with all this; he voted for the guy; didn't come out against it. We have to assume these eight Republicans are Colin Powell's kind of Republicans.
RUSH: A couple of audio sound bites here, Der Kommissar is Here, is the title of the bump tune. It fits. Barack Obama this afternoon in the White House extolled the virtues of cap and trade.
OBAMA: Just last Friday the House of Representatives came together to pass an extraordinary piece of legislation that will finally open the door to decreasing our dependence on foreign oil, preventing the worst consequences of climate change and making clean energy the profitable kind of energy. Thanks to members of Congress who were willing to place America's progress before the usual Washington politics, this bill will create new businesses, new industries --
RUSH: Stop it. I can't handle it. All of this is lies and there's no other way to put this. All of this, everything you heard him say, is lies. Let's start from the top. Well, they did pass an extraordinary piece of legislation. That's true. But will it finally open the door to decreasing our dependence on foreign oil? It's just the opposite. We're going to be importing more because we're going to be producing less domestically to avoid the new carbon taxes. Preventing the worst consequences of climate change? We're not causing climate change! It is vanity unparalleled to say so. Making clean energy the profitable kind of energy. This bill will create news businesses, new industries, and millions of new jobs. It will also kill many more millions of new jobs. These millions of new jobs created are going to have to be subsidized by the government because there's no market for any of this stuff. I talked about this Thursday and Friday. There's no market for wind. If there were, it would be in existence. You cannot mandate the existence of new technology from Washington. You just can't do it.
I was watching the Fox All Stars on Friday afternoon, and it was a good illustration of what we're up against. Charles Krauthammer was making 150% sense in all this, saying exact same thing. You can't mandate the creation of new technologies from Washington. There's nobody there that knows how to do it. It happens in the private sector when there's a market need for it. When there's a profit to be made is when people will get into it, not before.
Do you realize conservatives are more informed on what the left thinks? Conservatives are far more widely informed than liberals are. Liberals have a narrow little focus and they don't allow anything that contradicts their little cocoon to enter it.
OBAMA: The first step we're taking sets new efficiency standards on fluorescent and incandescent lighting. I know lightbulbs may not seem sexy, but this simple action holds enormous promise because 7% of all the energy consumed in America is used to light our homes and our businesses. Between 2012 and 2042 these new standards will save consumers up to $4 billion a year. We're going to start here at the White House. Secretary Chu has already started to take a look at our lightbulbs and we're going to see what we need to replace them with energy efficient lightbulbs.
RUSH: Jimmy Carter. This is Jimmy Carter all over again, the cardigan sweater, the thermostat down to 68 in the wintertime. We're going to start here in the White House, going to get rid of all these bulbs, we're going to put these compact fluorescents in there. And this is absurd. I know a lot of you are in the compact fluorescent business. If people want them, that's fine. I really don't care. But don't tell me I have to buy one of the damn things because I'm destroying the planet otherwise. I refuse to have my intelligence insulted that way.
And that's the way all this crap is being sold to people, all this stuff that is irrelevant and makes no smidgen's difference whatsoever, is being pitched as, you have to do this to save the planet, and if you don't do it, we're going to make you do it, like the kind of car we're going to make you drive and all this other rotgut. Dictatorial, statist crap coming out of this administration.
So we got hell breaking loose in Honduras. Oh, and you know we learned about Honduras? We learned the Obama administration tried to stop the coup.
Now, the coup was what many of you wish would happen here without the military. What happened in Honduras was that the president down there was constitutionally prevented from seeking another term of office, said, to hell with it. I'm going to run, I'm staying here. Right out of a book of Hugo Chavez. And opposition got the military -- you are not going to destroy the Honduras constitution that way. So they kicked him out of office, and now you've got the Obama administration upset about that and they tried to stop this from happening. So they'll meddle in all these countries that are going to promote dictators. Obama will be happy to help dictators survive, including in Iran. He didn't meddle there. He meddled in Honduras, but time to throw Israel overboard, an ally. With all this garbage going on, the president of the United States makes a little press conference speech about lightbulbs and a mythical financial statistic that between 2012 and 2042 Americans will save $4 billion in energy costs?
Wild Thing's comment....
Thanks to Glenn Beck and Rush.
Can you believe it the bill wasn't even in the well , that is like not even being touched by human hands or seen my anyone. That all just added to the shock of how they keep passing and voting on Bills that no one has read and not only that, but no one is given a chance to.
Like a thief in the night putting out the 300 additional pages and oh man I never thought our country would be a dictatorship like the one Pelosi and Obama and the rest of the dems are doing.
Posted by Wild Thing at 05:49 AM | Letters to the Editor (10) | Trackback URL | (0)
Obama To Israeli Jews Stop Building Homes and Where To Live!
Obama tells Jews to stop building homes – in Israel!
'The positions of the U.S. and Palestinian Authority are closer than ever'
JERUSALEM
The Obama administration told the Palestinian Authority the "golden era" of Israeli construction in sections of Jerusalem and the strategic West Bank will soon come to an end, a top PA negotiator told WND.
"The U.S. assured us that for the first time since 1967, we are going into a period where there will not be allowed a single construction effort on the part of the Israelis in the settlements, including in Gush Etzion, Maale Adumum and eastern Jerusalem," said the negotiator, speaking from Ramallah on condition his name be withheld.
Maale Adumim is located in eastern Jerusalem. Israel reunited the eastern and western sections of Jerusalem and the West Bank during the 1967 Six Day War. Eastern Jerusalem, claimed by the PA for a future state, includes the Temple Mount.
The negotiator told WND the positions of the PA and U.S. regarding ongoing Jewish construction in the West Bank and eastern Jerusalem "are closer than ever."
"The U.S. used to differentiate between natural grown and adding new communities. Not anymore. No construction will be allowed, not even natural growth," the PA negotiator said.
"Natural growth" means adding additional housing to existing communities to accommodate the needs of a growing population.
The negotiator spoke yesterday just before Defense Minister Ehud Barak took off for Washington, D.C., for meetings with the Obama administration.
The negotiator claimed that while Barak might reach an understanding with the U.S. regarding possible West Bank movements, such a deal would be for Israeli political purposes and wouldn't translate into actual Jewish construction on the ground.
The Obama administration recently demanded Israel halt all settlement activity, including natural growth, in apparent abrogation of a deal made by President Bush to allow for natural growth.
Obama tells Jews where they can live
Barack Obama is taking what he and his administration refer to as "a more balanced approach to Middle East policy."
Let me explain what that literally means in real terms.
It means the U.S. government is now using its clout with Israel to insist Jews, not Israelis, mind you, but Jews, be disallowed from living in East Jerusalem and the historically Jewish lands of Judea and Samaria, often referred to as the West Bank.
I want you to try to imagine the outrage, the horror, the outcry, the clamoring, the gnashing of teeth that would ensue if Arabs or Muslims were told they could no longer live in certain parts of Israel – let alone their own country.
It's the 1930s all over again. This time, it's the enlightened liberal voices of Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama who are telling Jews where they can live, how they can live and how far they must bend if they want to live at all.
I know you haven't heard it put like this before. I don't really understand why. There is simply no other accurate way to explain the machinations behind the latest demands on Israel from the West and the rest of the world.
Israel is being reduced to "Auschwitz borders." Jews have already been told they can no longer live in the Gaza Strip. Now they are being told they can no longer choose to live in any of the areas being set aside by international elites for a future Palestinian state.
Again, I ask, "Why would internationalists seek to create, by definition, a racist, anti-Jewish state that doesn't even tolerate the mere presence of Jews?"
Can anyone answer that question for me?
Obama and Clinton – and, thus, by definition, you and me, the taxpayers of the United States – have determined they will yield to the racist, bigoted, anti-Semitic demands of the Palestinian Authority that no Jews be allowed to live in their new state.
I like to think that in any other part of the world, this kind of effort at ethnically cleansing a region would be roundly condemned by all civilized people. Yet, because most people simply don't understand the clear, official plan by the Arab leaders to force out all Jews from the new Palestinian state, the policies of capitulation retain a degree of sympathy, even political support, from much of the world.
Think about what I am saying: It is the official policy of the Palestinian Authority that all Jews must get off the land! Why is the United States supporting the creation of a new, racist, anti-Semitic hate state? Why is the civilized world viewing this as a prescription for peace in the region? Why is this considered an acceptable idea?
Is there any other place in the world where that kind of official policy of racism and ethnic cleansing is tolerated – even condoned?
Why are the rules different in the Middle East? Why are the rules different for Arabs? Why are the rules different for Muslims?
Why are U.S. tax dollars supporting the racist, anti-Semitic entity known as the Palestinian Authority?
That's what we do when we forbid "settlement construction," repairs, natural growth, additions to existing communities
This is "balance"? Are there any impositions upon the Arabs and Muslims suggesting they can no longer move to Israel? No. Are there any impositions on Arabs and Muslims suggesting they cannot buy homes in Israel? No. Are there any impositions on Arabs and Muslim suggesting they cannot repair their existing homes in Israel? No. Are there any impositions on Arabs or Muslims suggesting the cannot build settlements anywhere they like? No.
I say, "No more ethnic cleansing. No more official anti-Semitism accepted. No more Jew-bashing. No more telling Jews where they can live, how they can – and if they can live."
Wild Thing's comment.......
If I were the Israelis I’d tell Obama to take a flying leap. Obama might as well come out and just admit that he is anti-semite because everything he does with Israel proves it.
....Thank you Mark for sending this to me.
Mark
3rd Mar.Div. 1st Battalion 9th Marine Regiment
1/9 Marines aka The Walking Dead
VN 66-67
Posted by Wild Thing at 05:48 AM | Letters to the Editor (6) | Trackback URL | (0)
America Hating NYS Senate Democrats in SHOCKING Video Won't Stand for Pledge
Video of NYS Senate Democrats sitting defiantly through the Pledge of Allegiance in protest after losing political control of the Chamber to Republicans.
Only one courageous Senator tried to stand to honor the flag, but he was immedaietly pulled down into his seat by fellow Democrats.
The video is from WCBS-2 TV on 6/23/09, taped during a "special session" of the Senate called by Democrat Gov. David Paterson in an effort to end a three-week walkout by Democrats that has brought government to a screeching halt.
Grim-faced Democrats refused to acknowledge even their presence in the Chamber, failing to answer when their names were called, or join in a silent prayer that traditionally begins each session.
The first Senator pictured seated is Antoine Thompson of Buffalo. The Senator attempting to stand is Martin Dilan of Brooklyn, and he looks clearly uncomfortable when he is pulled down by Kevin Parker of Brooklyn and Ruth Hassell-Thompson of Westchester.
Wild Thing's comment.......
I swear with all that is in me, these people should be at least KICKED the HELL out of our Government. Everyone of them is a traitor to our country.
"This is a time in our life that we're making history, this is our moment. We chose to come into the Army knowing that we could be sent over here, but we chose that anyway, because we choose to believe that the patch we wear on our right shoulder stands for something that's greater than Ourselves, that's greater than where we are from. We're the fabric that holds the flag together."
Cpl Chris Mason
RIP Chris
Posted by Wild Thing at 05:47 AM | Letters to the Editor (8) | Trackback URL | (0)
Obama Insists Zelaya Remains the President of Honduras ~ LMAO Hello Obama
Obama Says Honduras Coup Illegal
Barack Obama said on Monday the coup that ousted Honduran President Manuel Zelaya was illegal and would set a "terrible precedent" of transition by military force unless it was reversed.
"We believe that the coup was not legal and that President Zelaya remains the president of Honduras, the democratically elected president there," Obama told reporters after an Oval Office meeting with Colombian President Alvaro Uribe.
Zelaya, in office since 2006, was overthrown in a dawn coup on Sunday after he angered the judiciary, Congress and the army by seeking constitutional changes that would allow presidents to seek re-election beyond a four-year term.
The European Union and a string of foreign governments have voiced support for Zelaya, who was snatched by troops from his residence and whisked away by plane to Costa Rica in his pajamas.
Obama said he would work with the Organization of American States and other international institutions to restore Zelaya to power and "see if we can resolve this in a peaceful way."
Wild Thing's comment.......
Obama is a LIAR and he disgusts me with his many lies.
There was illegal, fraudulent activity that involved the shipment of ballots from Venezuela.
There was a court ruling with regard to the above.
There was an an arrest and exile to another country for the perpetrator's own safety.
There was a formal impeachment by Parliament.
Everything was legal.
Roberto Micheletti is the interim President of Honduras, according to Honduran law and due process.
....Thank you Mark for sending this to me.
Mark
3rd Mar.Div. 1st Battalion 9th Marine Regiment
1/9 Marines aka The Walking Dead
VN 66-67
Posted by Wild Thing at 05:46 AM | Letters to the Editor (8) | Trackback URL | (0)
Semper Fi and a Daughters Call
.
"My dad Angelo was in the hospital in Tacoma, Washington. A former Marine and veteran of the Korean War, he was having his third knee replacement surgery.
A long and very painful operation was going to be made even worse because dad was going through it alone. There was no one to hold his hand, no familiar soft voices to reassure him. His wife was ill and unable to accompany him or even visit during his weeklong stay.. My sisters and brother lived in California, and I lived even farther away, in Indiana. There wasn't even anyone to drive him to the hospital, so he had arrived that morning by cab.
The thought of my dad lying there alone was more than I could stand. But what could I do from here? I picked up the phone and called information for the Puyallup, Washington, Marine Corps recruiting station, where I joined the Marines ten years before. I thought that, if I could talk to a Marine and explain the situation, maybe one of them would visit my dad. I called the number. A man answered the phone and in a very confident voice said,
"United States Marines, Sergeant XXXX. May I help you?"
Feeling just as certain, I replied, "Sergeant XXXX, you may find this request a little strange, but this is why I am calling. " I proceeded to tell him who I was and that my father was also a former Marine and 100 percent
disabled from the Korean War. I explained that he was in the hospital, alone, without anyone to visit and asked if Sergeant XXXX would please go and see him.
Without hesitation, he answered, "Absolutely. "
Then I asked, "If I send flowers to the recruiting station, would you deliver them to my dad when you go to the hospital?"
"Ma'am, I will be happy to take the flowers to your dad. I'll give you my address. You send them, and I will make sure that he receives them," he replied. The next morning, I sent the flowers to Sergeant XXXX's office just as we
had planned. I went to work and, that evening, I returned home and phoned my dad to inquire about his surprise visitor. If you have ever talked with a small child after that child has just seen Santa Claus, you will understand the glee I heard in my dad's voice.
"I was just waking up when I thought I saw two Marines in their dress blue uniforms standing at the foot of my bed," he told me excitedly. "I thought I had died and gone to Heaven. But they were really there!" I began to laugh, partly at his excitement, but also because he didn't even mention his operation. He felt so honored; two Marines he had never met took time out to visit an old Marine like him.. He told me again and again how sharp they looked and how all the nurses thought he was so important.
"But how did you ever get them to do that"? he asked me.
"It was easy. We're all Marines, Dad, past and present.. It's the bond."
After hanging up with my dad, I called Sergeant XXXX to thank him for visiting my dad. And to thank him for the extra things he did to make it special: wearing his dress blue uniform, bringing another Marine along. He even
took a digital camera with him... He had pictures taken of the two Marines with my dad right beside his bed. That evening, he emailed them to me so I could see for myself that my dad was not alone and that he was going to be okay.
As for the flowers, they hardly mattered, but I was glad for the opportunity to express my feelings. The card read:
"Daddy, I didn't want just anyone bringing you flowers, so I sent the World's Finest.. Semper Fi. "
Wild Thing's comment.........
I love these stories. God bless this family and the Marine that answered the phone and the Marines. God bless all our military.
.
....Thank you Mark for sending this to me.
Mark
3rd Mar.Div. 1st Battalion 9th Marine Regiment
1/9 Marines aka The Walking Dead
VN 66-67
Posted by Wild Thing at 05:45 AM | Letters to the Editor (9) | Trackback URL | (0)
In Country With Our Troops in KABUL, Afghanistan
There is no sound with this one, just to let you know.~ Wild Thing
June 21, 2009 - KABUL, Afghanistan - Coalition forces engaged and eliminated insurgents emplacing an improvised explosive device along a major highway in northern Khost Province June 20, in an area known for IED attacks.
A coalition forces unmanned aerial vehicle observed three insurgents emplacing an IED at approximately 9:45 p.m. The video, taken by the UAV, shows an individual digging on a road, away from compounds or other structures.
Coalition forces engaged and eliminated a group of insurgents emplacing an improvised explosive device along a major highway in northern Khost Province June 20 in an area known for IED attacks.
After spotting and positively identifying the insurgents emplacing the IED, the insurgents were engaged with a precision munition. One of the IED emplacers fled the scene, running to a treeline where he was engaged by a second precision munition.
Following the engagement, coalition forces found a command wire and several charges near the road.
There were no civilian injuries reported during this event.
Wild Thing's comment........
Bye Bye! Three less terrorists in the world.
Posted by Wild Thing at 05:40 AM | Letters to the Editor (4) | Trackback URL | (0)
A toast to each of you 
