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June 30, 2007
Yippee It's Saturday ~ What A Week It Has Been!
LOL I saw this and just had to share it with you. Have a fun Saturday everyone.
Posted by Wild Thing at 02:55 AM | Comments (10)
Checking In With Our Troops
Spreading good will - Staff Sgt. Joe Filipek and other members of the U.S. Central Air Forces expeditionary band "Thunder Roll" feed infants during a visit to an orphanage near Camp Lemonier, Djibouti. The band was visiting the area for a five-day concert tour. (U.S. Air Force photo/Staff Sgt. Samuel King Jr.)
06/27/07 - U.S. Army Soldiers secure the area surrounding a fire burning within the 1st Battalion, 12th Cavalry Regiment's command point area at Forward Operating Base Warhorse in Iraq June 27, 2007. DoD photo by Senior Airman Steve Czyz, U.S. Air Force.
06/26/2007 - Mounted Patrol - U.S. Army Pfc. Arthur Wallace, a soldier from Delta Company, 2nd Battalion, 508th Parachute Infantry Regiment, secures communications equipment to the front of his vehicle with zip ties after a mounted patrol near the village of Mostowfi, Afghanistan, June 4, 2007. U.S. Army photo by Staff Sgt. Justin Holley
OAK HARBOR, Wash. (June 28, 2007) - An A-6 Intruder is lowered by a crane into place at the gateway display on Highway 20 at the north end of the city. More than 50 Sailors and civilians from Naval Air Station Whidbey Island volunteered their time to rehabilitate and paint the aircraft for its use as a display. U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist 1st Class Bruce McVicar
Posted by Wild Thing at 02:47 AM | Comments (6)
Nancy Pelosi Invests In Iran-linked Company
Nancy Pelosi Invests In Iran-linked Company
Townhall
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) has disclosed that she holds stock valued at up to $15,000 in Alcatel-Lucent (formerly Alcatel SA), a company with extensive investments in Iran and Sudan — nations that sponsor terrorism.
The disclosure of Pelosi’s holdings comes at the same time that legislation is making its way through the California legislature barring state pension fund managers from investing in companies, like Alcatel-Lucent, that do business with "terror-friendly" nations.
According to Divestterror.org, a citizens group pushing a South Africa-style disinvestment program to discourage companies from doing business in terror countries, Alcatel-Lucent’s investments in terror countries are so extensive that it is included on the organization’s “dirty dozen” list of offending companies. The organization estimates that the company has invested upwards of $300 million in terror sponsoring nations during the past five years.
According to Divestterror.org, Alcatel is aiding Iran’s terrorist activities by providing state controlled companies with data transmission and switching network capabilities. “These contracts have reportedly included the provision of hardware, software, technologies, and training to Iranian companies.” It is also installing an undersea telecommunications cable in Iran.
Prior to his overthrow, Alcatel carried out major fiber optic products for dictator Saddam Hussein in Iraq, despite U.S. government warnings to the French company that the project could advance Iraqi military capabilities.
Alcatel is currently “involved in similar telecommunications projects ranging from upgrading networks to the installation underwater fiber optic cables” in Sudan and Libya.
Criticizing Alcatel, former House Armed Services Committee Chairman and current GOP presidential contender Duncan Hunter (R-Calif.) expressed his worry over Alcatel’s activities in a letter to President Bush. In it, he wrote, “I am concerned about potential transfers of technology or sensitive information to other countries with which Alcatel has business dealings, which have included Burma, China, Iran, North Korea, Sudan and Syria.”
Wild Thing's comment...........
Brought to us by the party of ethics is in power.
......Thank you Beth at MVRWC for the link and article.
Posted by Wild Thing at 02:45 AM | Comments (12)
Ted Turner Says Media Has No Business Showing American Flag
Ted Turner says media has no business showing American Flag
Wild Thing's comment........
Why does he live here, why does he want to live in the USA if he thinks this way and all the other things he has said about our counrtry.
Posted by Wild Thing at 02:40 AM | Comments (13)
June 29, 2007
Them Against Us ~ Penned by Rhod
Almost fifty years ago, in November of 1959, "Alfred Hitchcock Presents" aired an episode entitled "Special Delivery". It was adapted from Ray Bradbury's story "Come Into My Cellar", which also appeared in periodicals under the title "Boys! Raise Giant Mushrooms in Your Cellar!". I was fourteen when I saw it. It scared the hell out of me.
In this tale, eleven-year old Tommy Fortnum receives a package of mushroom seeds in the mail from an undisclosed source. He's responded to an advert in a boy's publication for the seeds. To the bemusement of his parents, Tommy then raises a particularly delicious variety of mushroom in his home cellar. He's protective of his crop and very secretive. At the same time, Tommy's father, Hugh, notices subtle changes in his neighbors. They're different from their usual selves in important ways. They're belligerent, detached and hostile.
Hugh knows something is wrong and so does the viewer. There's a connection between the mushrooms and the altered states of the neighbors, but Hugh figures it out much too late. Tommy is distributing the mushrooms. Whoever eats them vanishes, and their bodies become animated shells inhabited by aliens. Hugh tries to warn his neighbors, but they scoff at him. They're content with the temptations and comforts of a summer's day while being slowly, peacefully replaced.
The screenplay doesn't tell us how this story ends. In the last scene, Tommy is shown with a mushroom to his lips, in a darkened cellar, calling to his father, who peers into the darkness from the top of the cellar stairs. Hugh's final horror and indignity is to be betrayed by his own son. Betrayal is a central theme in this story. It isn't chiefly, or even mainly, about aliens and conquest. It's themes are lying, betrayal, weakness, comfortable indifference and the delusion that, if things look the same, they are the same.
It's also a yarn about the feebleness of our defenses when everything seems stable and permanent, and how easily power and dominance can be exchanged by weakness, by simply doing nothing. Doing nothing, and being seen doing nothing, in a competitive universe, is an invitation to be superseded or colonized by other powers and ideas. Competition goes on all the time; there is no peace, only stasis, and competition for power often has no other motive than perceived weakness in the passive party.
Conservatives are familiar with these themes. We sense a fraud and a threat early in the game. It's this acute awareness of dishonesty and ubiquitous danger that modern liberals view as the conservative paranoid personality, as the alienated right-winger. This idea stems entirely from the reality that liberalism today is establishment and conformist, risk-averse, and sickeningly repetitive with its tired, shabby and devitalizing theories. We're diligent, skeptical, anti-ideological and strength matters to us. Not the strength to dominate others, but the strength to avoid being dominated by others. We wouldn't have eaten the mushrooms, but I'm getting ahead of myself here.
As far as we know, the invading entities in "Special Delivery" never resort to violence or force. Their current circumstances might have weakened them in some way, so they seek habitation elsewhere. We never see their real form. They simply exploit a weaker state of mind in humans, and avail themselves of an opportunity on earth. We know nothing about their ideas, but we know that they will win. And this is where my little screed intersects with politics and government, and the Bush/Kennedy Immigration Bill, which as of Thursday, June 27th, appears to be dead. It's a continent-sized cave of mushrooms, my friend, and they expected us all to partake. They still do, and the meal will be back in some other form.
We might as why we elect and pay people like Bush and Kennedy, Lindsey Graham and Trent Lott to be stupid and offensive when we get enough of it for free every day. Well, we don't elect them for those qualities, but that's what we get. Compensatory arrogance and megalomania grow in sanctimonious buffoons like Graham and Lott and Reid and Pelosi when we place them in public office, because they can't abide the real existential weakness that elected office beholds. We can dump them back into the common swarm of humanity from whence they came, and this simply cannot stand. They seek office for power, permanence and self-projection, and they need to solidify the fantasy of their immovability by staking their terrain in noticeable ways, like tomcats and coyotes.
If they would just express their bone-deep mediocrity by bloviating and squandering money, we might leave them alone. Give them a trillion dollars and two-thousand microphones, put them behind the chain link fence and walk away. But some times, like now, they sail off through a fogbank into some mental Sargasso Sea. They end up mired and becalmed, yammering to each other from their rotting deck chairs about some Big Idea, like The Great Society or immigration bills, and cursing the rest of us for declaiming their navigation skills and attentions spans.
Their last Big Idea, The Great Society, planted a fetid jungle of despair for millions, and the immigration bill is just as bad in the same grandiose ways. It won't work, for starters. It's too complicated and its assumptions too spurious for it work. It's a replacement for other un-enforced immigration bills, and contains new laws to replace identical but currently ignored old laws, and it has the potential for real mischief. It's the product of the end state of a political class past its prime; those who compose it are shockingly unaware of how ridiculous they seem to the rest of us. And even though the bill might be dead, they're plotting revenge strategies as I write.
Forget, for a minute, the multiple idiocies of the bill itself. It has an ethical flaw, too. It's packed with economic charity of the kind that fills the empty hearts of power-hungry politicians with instant virtue. Bush and others are possessed of a bizarre kind of charity, they need to give away things they do not own. Things like American sovereignty, like rational citizenship standards, like social benefits and sensible wage standards, and even more important, the legitimacy and validity of a government matured over 250 years, held together by dried blood and torn web gear, and legitimized by the "consent of the governed".
The President and others don't see America in this way. Their America is an economy without an ethos, a friction-free collection of buyers and sellers who can be manipulated and tuned by immigrant labor supplies, productivity and business interests. When necessary, this cynical vision of America can be ornamented with crap about "family values" not stopping at the border, but the simplified mercenary vision is really all there is. It wouldn't pass the approval of a hung-over, semi-comatose college freshman in his first Political Science course, but it's enough for George W. Bush, most of our elected side-show performers, and the fearful big business class of America.
Whatever happens with this great mess we call illegal immigration, it's likely that something shattering and revolutionary has happened in American politics. For the first time in seventy-five years, not since Herbert Hoover and Smoot-Hawley, has American government seemed so counterfeit, so weak and remote from the interests of lawful immigrant and native-born citizens, and so bent upon forcing its vision of American on Americans who don't buy it.
It's a time of great danger. When there's mass awareness of the political class as truly sinister in its assertion of itself against the people, a struggle will ensue, and there's no guarantee of victory for us in the long term. We can never forget that "freedom" is a dull and lifeless word until we attach a preposition to it. Freedom from. Freedom to. Freedom for. Freedom against. Freedom with. Action. We need to do something with our freedom, and not just declare ourselves as free. We didn't eat their mushrooms today, but the political hacks responsible for the meal are still there, perched like gargoyles on our backs. Maybe it's time for a Conservative Party.
Posted by Rhod at 03:55 AM | Comments (14)
Fairness Doctrine Hammered
Fairness Doctrine hammered 309-115
The Hill
The House voted overwhelmingly Thursday to prohibit the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) from using taxpayer dollars to impose the Fairness Doctrine on broadcasters who feature conservative radio hosts such as Rush Limbaugh and Sean Hannity.
By a vote of 309-115, lawmakers amended the Financial Services and General Government appropriations bill to bar the FCC from requiring broadcasters to balance conservative content with liberal programming such as Air America.
At the end of Thursday’s debate, Democratic House Appropriations Committee Chairman David Obey (Wis.) agreed with Republicans that the government should not regulate conservative radio hosts such as Limbaugh and Hannity......“We ought to let right-wing talk radio go on as they do now,” he said. “Rush and Sean are just about as important in the scheme of things as Paris Hilton.......”
Talk Radio and the Fairness Doctrine
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Wild Thing's comment........
LOL I thought this was so funny how they put this together and thought you all might get a kick out of it. Turn up the volume.
Rush and Sean are just about as important in the scheme of things as Paris Hilton, . . .
What role did Paris play in today's Senate Cloture vote? LOL
Posted by Wild Thing at 03:47 AM | Comments (17)
Hey President Felipe Calderon ~ Stuff It!
Mexican president says vote 'a grave error'
chron.com ...for complete article
Mexico City
President Felipe Calderon of Mexico reacted sourly to news of the Senate's rejection of the proposed immigration law overhaul, calling the senators' action "a grave error."
"It's a grave mistake first because it's a problem that's not being confronted, and with this evasive action the U.S. Senate is making it worse," Calderon told reporters in Mexico City during a joint news conference with President Daniel Ortega of Nicaragua, who is finishing a two-day visit to the Mexican capital.
"Secondly, because to close the door on legal immigration, the only thing the Senate does is open the door to illegal immigration" the Mexican president said, according to an account published by the newspaper Reforma on its Web page.
Calderon repeated his "repudiation and rejection" of plans to build a wall along much of the U.S.-Mexico border.
More than a tenth of Mexico's 103 million people are estimated to live in the United States, many of them illegally. Hundreds of thousands of Mexicans, and others from Central America, continue to cross the border every year illegally in search of work.
Wild Thing's comment........
The “door to illegal immigration” was already wide open. Now that we’ve been able to prevent Kennedy and Bush from taking it off the hinges, maybe we can push it shut. Straighten out your own damned country, jerk. The president of Mexico has made a “grave error” in dumping his problems on the U.S.
Rush Limbaugh on Illegal Immigration
Posted by Wild Thing at 02:44 AM | Comments (13)
June 28, 2007
Can You Hear Me Now?
Conservatives, we did it. We held OUR Congress accountable, against seemingly a unsurmountable invasion backed by those who attempt to control with wealth and greed. Let them know forever more, this is OUR country, OUR government. The only power they have is what we lend them. And today we showed that WE are THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, where freedom exists because we are willing to fight for it. The political elites were shown that it is harder for them to pull the wool over our eyes than they thought and, maybe, they will now address the problem of border security before they try to force their will us. EVERY American who called their Senator and urged them to vote against this mostrosity deserves a thank you. I am going to call all the Senators who voted No and Thank them.
..this is one of those occasions when the truth "WE THE PEOPLE" are the government is very apparent--there is hope for the old Republic yet........
Now, to quote Duncan Hunter--------Let's Build That Fence...........
FINAL ROLL CALL: 46-53.
RINOS: Graham (R-SC), Gregg (R-NH), Hagel (R-NE), Kyl (R-AZ), Lott (R-MS), Lugar (R-IN), Martinez (R-FL),McCain (R-AZ), Snowe (R-ME), and Specter (R-PA).
It should be noted that the following Republicans switched their vote for “Yea” to “Na” from the bill earlier in the week. They include: Bennett (R-UT), Bond (R-MO), Brownback (R-KS), Burr (R-NC), Coleman (R-MN), Collins (R-ME), Craig (R-ID), Domenici (R-NM), Ensign (R-NV), McConnell (R-KY), Murkowski (R-AK), Stevens (R-AK), Voinovich (R-OH) and Warner (R-VA)
Grouped By Vote Position
YEAs ---46
Akaka (D-HI)
Bennett (R-UT)
Biden (D-DE)
Boxer (D-CA)
Cantwell (D-WA)
Cardin (D-MD)
Carper (D-DE)
Casey (D-PA)
Clinton (D-NY)
Conrad (D-ND)
Craig (R-ID)
Dodd (D-CT)
Durbin (D-IL)
Feingold (D-WI)
Feinstein (D-CA)
Graham (R-SC)
Gregg (R-NH)
Hagel (R-NE)
Inouye (D-HI)
Kennedy (D-MA)
Kerry (D-MA)
Klobuchar (D-MN)
Kohl (D-WI)
Kyl (R-AZ)
Lautenberg (D-NJ)
Leahy (D-VT)
Levin (D-MI)
Lieberman (ID-CT)
Lincoln (D-AR)
Lott (R-MS)
Lugar (R-IN)
Martinez (R-FL)
McCain (R-AZ)
Menendez (D-NJ)
Mikulski (D-MD)
Murray (D-WA)
Nelson (D-FL)
Obama (D-IL)
Reed (D-RI)
Reid (D-NV)
Salazar (D-CO)
Schumer (D-NY)
Snowe (R-ME)
Specter (R-PA)
Whitehouse (D-RI)
Wyden (D-OR)
NAYs ---53
Alexander (R-TN)
Allard (R-CO)
Barrasso (R-WY)
Baucus (D-MT)
Bayh (D-IN)
Bingaman (D-NM)
Bond (R-MO)
Brown (D-OH)
Brownback (R-KS)
Bunning (R-KY)
Burr (R-NC)
Byrd (D-WV)
Chambliss (R-GA)
Coburn (R-OK)
Cochran (R-MS)
Coleman (R-MN)
Collins (R-ME)
Corker (R-TN)
Cornyn (R-TX)
Crapo (R-ID)
DeMint (R-SC)
Dole (R-NC)
Domenici (R-NM)
Dorgan (D-ND)
Ensign (R-NV)
Enzi (R-WY)
Grassley (R-IA)
Harkin (D-IA)
Hatch (R-UT)
Hutchison (R-TX)
Inhofe (R-OK)
Isakson (R-GA)
Landrieu (D-LA)
McCaskill (D-MO)
McConnell (R-KY)
Murkowski (R-AK)
Nelson (D-NE)
Pryor (D-AR)
Roberts (R-KS)
Rockefeller (D-WV)
Sanders (I-VT)
Sessions (R-AL)
Shelby (R-AL)
Smith (R-OR)
Stabenow (D-MI)
Stevens (R-AK)
Sununu (R-NH)
Tester (D-MT)
Thune (R-SD)
Vitter (R-LA)
Voinovich (R-OH)
Warner (R-VA)
Webb (D-VA)
Not Voting - 1
Johnson (D-SD)
Posted by Wild Thing at 02:55 PM | Comments (18)
Lettuce Us Build The Wall
Tancredo Sends Head of Lettuce to Chertoff
WASHINGTON (CNN)
It’s not every day a presidential hopeful sends Homeland Security Chief Michael Chertoff a head of lettuce, but that’s what Rep. Tom Tancredo, R-Colorado, is doing Wednesday to show his disagreement with Chertoff’s recent comments on how failure of passing immigration reform might affect the agricultural industry.
Tancredo says he disagrees with recent comments Chertoff made that suggested if the immigration bill fails, the agricultural industry will suffer.
To prove his point he is sending Chertoff a head of lettuce, a fruit basket, and a card saying, “much, much more where this comes from.”
“The administration has taken hyperbole to a whole new level this time,” Tancredo said in a statement. “They are now trying to convince the public that without amnesty, the American people are going to starve?”
“The agriculture industry and the free market has managed to keep producing through floods, droughts, and $3.00 per gallon gas,” Tancredo added, “I doubt very seriously that a nominal increase in labor costs is going to be the end of lettuce as we know it.”
Wild Thing's comment........
LOL I love it! Awesome move by Congressman Tancredo! Tancredo has a humorous way of making his points
Posted by Wild Thing at 12:55 AM | Comments (14)
Join Me in Sending Some Marines Emails
US Marine Colonel Simcock, the commander of USMC Regimental Combat Team 6 in Iraq, is asking for 6,000 positive emails to his Marines.
That's one email for each Marine in his RCT command. COL Simcock is concerned about the effect of the negative barrage that those Marines are getting through the electronic media. I've attached an excerpt from an interview with him. So far, they've only mustered 2,000 emails. That's a crying shame compared to the amount of crap I get daily in email.
Here's the address:
RCT-6lettersfromh@gcemnf-wiraq.usmc.mil
"If you're reading this email, then you can probably click on the
address, type a few words, and then hit "send" to be all done.
It doesn't have to be the Gettysburg Address.
Something as simple as "Hello, Marine. We thank you for what you're doing.
You are in a noble task. Don't let anyone tell you otherwise.
Best wishes &get home soon" is more than sufficient.
Posted by Wild Thing at 12:47 AM | Comments (10)
Sean Hannity and Ohio Senator George Voinovich
Notes from Hot Air
"A travesty. He’s the personification of the bill’s ills: ignorant of and incurious about its weaknesses, confused as to what’s in it and what isn’t (per his comments about Kay Bailey Hutchison’s amendment), and worst of all brimming with arrogance at the nerve of conservative proles to be angry about this issue. This clip ought to push those confidence-in-Congress poll numbers into single digits, assuming they’re not there already.”“He also appears to have only the vaguest sense of what the Fairness Doctrine is. Rest easy tonight knowing that in these capable hands may rest the fate of the nation’s immigration policy.”
Wild Thing's comment..........
He hid behind his indignation in an attempt to hide how completely clueless he was about what was in the bill and how it would impact American taxpayers. He also used the "I won't be intimidated..." line, referring to We, The People Peasants who have been calling and emailing to say there will be a political consequence to his votes.
* Hot Air
Posted by Wild Thing at 12:45 AM | Comments (6)
Rice Has Jumped The Shark ~ Again
JERUSALEM – U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice twice referred to Hamas as a "resistance movement" during a meeting with reporters from the New York Daily News earlier this month, but the newspaper did not report her remarks.
Rice's interview is transcribed in full on the State Department website.
Rice's statements mark the second documented time in recent months she called Hamas a "resistance movement" during unscripted chats with journalists.
Hamas is responsible for scores of suicide bombings, shooting attacks and rocket firings. It's classified by the State Department as a terror organization. The group's official charter calls for the murder of Jews and quotes widely from the anti-Semitic creed, the "Protocols of the Elders of Zion."
During the interview June 8 with the editorial board of the Daily News, Rice was asked about the recent history of democratic elections in the Middle East resulting in the rise to power of terror groups, such as Hamas.
Rice told the paper it was "very interesting to see Hamas trying to come to terms with no longer being really a resistance movement, but having to deal with politics."
Rice then referred to Hamas as a resistance movement a second time during then interview.
"A moderate Palestinian friend of mine said, 'You know, they (Hamas) used to be the great resistance, running the streets with their faces covered and going after Israel. And now, they look like a bunch of politicians who also can't make the sewer system work.'"
She went on to reference Hamas' terror cells, calling them the group's "military wing," which regularly carries out terror attacks, including shootings and firing of rockets into Jewish population centers.
"And they're (Hamas) clearly uncomfortable in that framework, which is part of why I think you see the military wing of Hamas trying to make this again about Israel and the Palestinians, not about the contestation of politics inside the Palestinian territories," Rice said.
A State Department spokesman could not explain why Rice called Hamas a "resistance movement." The spokesman confirmed the State Department had not changed its policy of classifying Hamas as a terror organization.
Rice, speaking to reporters in Berlin Jan. 18 about the situation of Palestinians prior to 2000, commented, "You had Hamas, of course, sitting out as a resistance movement, not at all, by the way, involved in the politics at all."
Rice's remarks at the time prompted some U.S. Jewish groups to demand an apology to victims of Hamas terror.
Wild Thing's comment..........
Rice sorry you are NUTS! Step aside and let someone that reads up on what the Hamas has done in this world, their agenda and what they darn sure will do in the future if allowed to do.
This administration has simply fallen apart, there is a total lack of leadership and rational thnking. No wonder Washington is out of control!!!
What a freakin’ mess. Thomas Jefferson is doing backflips in his grave. Jimmah legitimized the Ayatollah and helped to destroy the Shah. This woman is the first SOS to call Israel occupiers and legitimize terrorists who the Ayatollahs directly finance.
Posted by Wild Thing at 12:44 AM | Comments (12)
Reid Slams Thompson Instead Of 9/11 Inside Job Nut Cases!
Fred Thompson has suggested you are pandering to bloggers who he calls "fringe anti-American elements" who think that 9/11 attacks were an inside job, and that you're also encouraging our enemies. What's your response?
Reid: Mr. Thompson should get real and understand what's going on in our world. It appears he's very old fashioned and isn't in tune with the modern wave of communication.
Wild Thing's comment............
Rush calls him “Dingy Harry”, but when I see and hear him speak, I think “Church Lady” (Dana Carvey’s character). LOL Watch how much he blinks when being asked the question............. Reid must be using some new modern communication method of blinking in Morse Code.
Posted by Wild Thing at 12:40 AM | Comments (10)
June 27, 2007
RNC Refund attack ad
.
The only way to get the Senate Republicans to listen on amnesty is to speak their language--$$$$$.
Wild Thing's comment..........
Tom had a great idea. Print out the Bush Paso and send it to the RNC, I am also sending it to Bush and my Senators.
Also I think this video has a GREAT idea too.
* Hot Air
Posted by Wild Thing at 12:55 AM | Comments (9)
Kudos To This 72 Years Young Jarhead! God Bless You Sir!
Ex-Marine, 72, Teaches Pickpocket a Lesson
GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. — Bill Barnes says he was scratching off a losing $2 lottery ticket inside a gas station when he felt a hand slip into his front-left pants pocket, where he had $300 in cash.
He immediately grabbed the person's wrist with his left hand and started throwing punches with his right, landing six or seven blows before a store manager intervened.
"I guess he thought I was an easy mark," Barnes, 72, told The Grand Rapids Press for a story Tuesday.
He's anything but an easy mark: Barnes served in the Marines, was an accomplished Golden Gloves boxer and retired after 20 years as an iron worker.
Jesse Daniel Rae
Jesse Daniel Rae, the 27-year-old Newaygo County man accused of trying to pick Barnes' pocket, was arraigned Monday in Rockford District Court on one count of unarmed robbery, a 15-year felony.
Barnes said he had just withdrawn the money from a bank machine and put it in the pocket of his shorts before driving to the Marathon service station and Next Door Food Store in Comstock park, a Grand Rapids suburb.
He remembers noticing a patron acting suspiciously, asking the price of different brands of cigarettes and other items. While turned away, Barnes felt the hand in his pocket, so he took action.
"I guess I acted on instinct," he said.
Kent County sheriff's deputies said the store manager quickly came around the counter. The three of them struggled through the front door, where two witnesses said the manager slammed Rae to the ground and held him there.
"There was blood everywhere," said another manager on duty, Abby Ostrom, 25.
Barnes was a regional runner-up in Golden Gloves competition in the novice and open divisions before enlisting in the Marines in 1956.
He lived most of his adult life in Comstock Park with his wife, Patricia, before recently moving to Ottawa County. The couple have three children.
After retiring as an iron worker, he now works part-time as a starter at a golf course.
Barnes said he'd probably do the same thing again under the same circumstances, if for no other reason than what he would face back home.
"I wouldn't want my wife to give me hell for lettin' that guy get my money," he said with a smile.
Wild Thing's comment.........
First I have to say the article says...EX-Marine. There are no EX-Marines unless you are talking about John Murtha and he is one that should be an EX-Marine.
OK now to the story that I just LOVE. God bless our Marines at any age they are!!
Marine, Golden Gloves boxer, and iron worker! Talk about hitting the trifecta!
Semper Fi!
Posted by Wild Thing at 12:47 AM | Comments (10)
Bush to Speak at Islamic Center of Washington DC
On September 17, 2001, six days after the worst Islamic terror attacks ever on US soil, President Bush stood next to CAIR’s Nihad Awad at the Islamic Center of Washington DC, and pronounced ‘Islam is Peace’.
Today Bush is returning to the Saudi-funded Islamic Center, to address its rededication ceremony—and further legitimize radical Islamic groups masquerading as “moderates,” without once asking them to renounce their openly-expressed support for terrorist organizations such as Hamas and Hizballah.
Wild Thing's comment........
I didn't like it back in 2001 and I like it even less today. This is just so WRONG! It is a slam in the face of every soldier and family member, and loved one of our troops today...... and to all of America's citizens that KNOW that this war is with Islam, and those that use it's teaching's to kill all non-moslems. And their hate for Jews and Christans not only here but around the world.
The "you are either for us or against us" from Bush has become no more then a campaign slogan instead of a charge into battle.
Posted by Wild Thing at 12:45 AM | Comments (12)
Vietnam Veteran ( 59 ) Disarms Gunman
A Hero Emerges From Monday's Tragic Shooting
(KUTV) SALT LAKE CITY Monday's tragic events could have been much worse if it weren’t for a special customer inside a fast food restaurant.
Eric Fullerton may look small but he’s got a big heart and apparently some big muscles.
“I didn’t have time to think about being scared,” said Fullerton. “I wrestled the gun from him. I took the gun from him.”
When Curtis Allgier jumped out of a Ford Explorer and into the Arby’s at 1700 south and Redwood Road Eric Fullerton didn’t flinch.
He didn’t know police suspected Allgier of killing a corrections officer.
He just knew he wasn’t going to let him kill anybody else.
“I just instinctively did what needed to be done. He was going to kill that guy, and I wasn’t going to let him kill him,” says Fullerton.
“Everybody’s calling me a hero,” Fullerton said. “I’m not a hero; I just did what I had to do.”
The suspect, Curtis Allgier, is about three times bigger than Fullerton and he had a gun and a knife.
In fact Allgier actually cut Fullerton’s throat but that didn’t stop this Vietnam veteran from ending a deadly day.
“I can’t tell you how I did it or what I did,” Fullerton said. “I don’t know if it was adrenaline or if I had a guardian angel watching over me. I have no idea.”
He says, “I’m just glad the other guys alive and everybody got out safe.”
Wild Thing's comment..........
LOL, don't mess with a Vet! Let that be a lesson for all the punks.
Posted by Wild Thing at 12:40 AM | Comments (8)
June 26, 2007
Amnesty for ILLEGALS Bill Advances In Senate
vote 64-35
WASHINGTON (AP)
The Senate voted Tuesday to jump-start a stalled immigration measure to legalize millions of unlawful immigrants.
President Bush said the bill offered a “historic opportunity for Congress to act,” and appeared optimistic about its passage by week’s end.
The pivotal test-vote was 64-35 to revive the divisive legislation. It still faces formidable obstacles in the Senate, including bitter opposition by GOP conservatives and attempts by some waverers in both parties to revise its key elements.
Supporters needed 60 votes to scale procedural hurdles and return to the bill. A similar test-vote earlier this month found just 45 supporters, only seven of them Republicans. This time, 24 Republicans joined 39 Democrats and independent Sen. Joseph I. Lieberman of Connecticut, to back moving ahead with the bill. Opposing the move were 25 Republicans, nine Democrats and independent Sen. Bernard Sanders of Vermont.
Sen. Edward M. Kennedy, D-Mass., an architect of the bill, said he was proud of the vote, calling it “a major step forward for our national security, for our economy, and for our humanity.”
“We did the right thing today because we know the American people sent us here to act on our most urgent problems. We know they will not stand for small political factions getting in the way,” Kennedy said in a statement following the vote.
Tuesday’s outcome was far from conclusive, however. The measure still must overcome another make-or-break vote as early as Thursday that will also require the backing of 60 senators. And there is no guarantee that it will ultimately attract even the simple majority it needs to pass.
The Senate was preparing to begin voting as early as Tuesday afternoon on some two dozen amendments that have the potential to either sap its support or draw new backers.
Grouped By Vote Position CLICK to see list.............
YEAs -—64
Akaka (D-HI)
Bennett (R-UT)
Biden (D-DE)
Bingaman (D-NM)
Bond (R-MO)
Boxer (D-CA)
Brown (D-OH)
Brownback (R-KS)
Burr (R-NC)
Cantwell (D-WA)
Cardin (D-MD)
Carper (D-DE)
Casey (D-PA)
Clinton (D-NY)
Coleman (R-MN)
Collins (R-ME)
Conrad (D-ND)
Craig (R-ID)
Dodd (D-CT)
Domenici (R-NM)
Durbin (D-IL)
Ensign (R-NV)
Feingold (D-WI)
Feinstein (D-CA)
Graham (R-SC)
Gregg (R-NH)
Hagel (R-NE)
Harkin (D-IA)
Inouye (D-HI)
Kennedy (D-MA)
Kerry (D-MA)
Klobuchar (D-MN)
Kohl (D-WI)
Kyl (R-AZ)
Lautenberg (D-NJ)
Leahy (D-VT)
Levin (D-MI)
Lieberman (ID-CT)
Lincoln (D-AR)
Lott (R-MS)
Lugar (R-IN)
Martinez (R-FL)
McCain (R-AZ)
McConnell (R-KY)
Menendez (D-NJ)
Mikulski (D-MD)
Murkowski (R-AK)
Murray (D-WA)
Nelson (D-FL)
Nelson (D-NE)
Obama (D-IL)
Pryor (D-AR)
Reed (D-RI)
Reid (D-NV)
Salazar (D-CO)
Schumer (D-NY)
Snowe (R-ME)
Specter (R-PA)
Stevens (R-AK)
Voinovich (R-OH)
Warner (R-VA)
Webb (D-VA)
Whitehouse (D-RI)
Wyden (D-OR)
NAYs -—35
Alexander (R-TN)
Allard (R-CO)
Barrasso (R-WY)
Baucus (D-MT)
Bayh (D-IN)
Bunning (R-KY)
Byrd (D-WV)
Chambliss (R-GA)
Coburn (R-OK)
Cochran (R-MS)
Corker (R-TN)
Cornyn (R-TX)
Crapo (R-ID)
DeMint (R-SC)
Dole (R-NC)
Dorgan (D-ND)
Enzi (R-WY)
Grassley (R-IA)
Hatch (R-UT)
Hutchison (R-TX)
Inhofe (R-OK)
Isakson (R-GA)
Landrieu (D-LA)
McCaskill (D-MO)
Roberts (R-KS)
Rockefeller (D-WV)
Sanders (I-VT)
Sessions (R-AL)
Shelby (R-AL)
Smith (R-OR)
Stabenow (D-MI)
Sununu (R-NH)
Tester (D-MT)
Thune (R-SD)
Vitter (R-LA)
Posted by Wild Thing at 02:55 PM | Comments (9)
Live Thread: Senate Amnesty/Cloture Vote TODAY on C-Span 2
Live Thread: Senate Amnesty/Cloture Vote TODAY on C-Span 2
If you get a chance to watch it I just wanted to let you know they have it on that channel.
A nation can survive its fools, and even the ambitious. But it cannot survive treason from within. An enemy at the gates is less formidable, for he is known and carries his banner openly. But the traitor moves amongst those within the gate freely, his sly whispers rustling through all the alleys, heard in the very halls of government itself. For the traitor appears not a traitor; he speaks in accents familiar to his victims, and he wears their face and their arguments, he appeals to the baseness that lies deep in the hearts of all men. He rots the soul of a nation, he works secretly and unknown in the night to undermine the pillars of the city, he infects the body politic so that it can no longer resist. A murder is less to fear.
Marcus Tullius Cicero
Posted by Wild Thing at 12:47 PM
In Country Outback Treats Our Troops and Torture House Found in Baqubah
A sign proclaiming Outback Steakhouse is displayed at Forward Operating Base Salerno, Afghanistan, June, 2007 For one night U.S. Army Soldiers at the base were treated to food from the restaurant. (U.S. Army photo by Sgt. Matthew Clifton)
.
Troops Find Execution House, Illegal Prison in Baqubah
DOD
BAQUBAH, Iraq, June 25, 2007 – Iraqi security forces and Task Force Lightning soldiers discovered an execution house and an illegal prison in the Baqubah neighborhood of Khatoon yesterday during the sixth day of Operation Arrowhead Ripper.
The two buildings were in the same area as a torture chamber and illegal courthouse linked to al Qaeda, which were found on the fourth and fifth day of the operation, officials said.
Soldiers from 5th Battalion, 20th Infantry Regiment, discovered the execution house using information from local citizens, who said it had been used by al Qaeda. Soldiers searching the house found five bodies buried in the yard behind the building and bloody clothes in several rooms inside it.
Located nearby, a house had been converted into an illegal prison, with several numbered rooms and bars covering the building's windows. Several blindfolds were found inside.
Elsewhere in Baqubah, soldiers from 1st Battalion, 23rd Infantry Regiment, identified a house that was filled with explosives and had been booby-trapped. The soldiers cleared the area and destroyed the house through the use of attack aircraft and indirect fire.
"The fact that we continue to find these booby-trapped houses filled with explosives and torture chambers only reaffirms that al Qaeda has no regard for the safety and welfare of the people of Baqubah. They only want to see death and destruction," said Army Col. Gary Patton, chief of staff for Task Force Lightning.
Iraqi and coalition forces also discovered 10 weapons caches throughout Baqubah yesterday. These included four anti-tank mines, three rocket-propelled grenade launchers, 18 rocket-propelled grenades with boosters, 13 AK-47 assault rifles, nine hand grenades, two flak vests, thousands of rounds of ammunition and a box of al Qaeda propaganda.
Since the beginning of Operation Arrowhead Ripper, at least 58 al Qaeda operatives have been killed, 60 have been detained, 23 weapons caches have been discovered, 52 improvised explosive devices have been destroyed, and 17 booby-trapped structures have been destroyed.
Posted by Wild Thing at 12:55 AM | Comments (8)
Pentagon Presents Charlie Daniels With Highest Civilian Award
Charlie Daniels receives the Office of the Secretary of Defense Medal for exceptional public service in support of armed troops from Michael L. Dominguez, principal deputy under secretary of defense for personnel and readiness, during a visit to the Pentagon June 25, 2007. Dominguez said Daniels has performed for the troops in more than 20 different installations in countries across the globe.
Perhaps best known for his chart-topping platinum single, “The Devil Went Down to Georgia,” Daniels has played concerts for servicemembers at military installations around the world. The musician, who has been entertaining troops with his genre-blending style of country, blues and jazz for more than 35 years, says his life-long patriotism was born during World War II.
“I remember the day that Japan bombed Pearl Harbor, and I have taken patriotism into my heart, I have taken the military into my heart, and it has been there ever since,” Daniels said. “The more I go among the military, the more I am convinced that you folks are the best America’s got.
“It is an honor and a privilege to be able to come to wherever the military is, in whatever part of the world they happen to be in, to entertain them,” he said.
The two Pentagon officials who presented the framed award citation and medal to Daniels took turns thanking him for his decades of steadfast support for U.S. troops.
“This is an important opportunity for us to say ‘Thank You’ to Charlie Daniels for his very long service to the men and women in uniform,” Michael L. Dominguez, principal deputy under secretary of defense for personnel and readiness, said. “He’s performed for them in more than 20 different installations in countries across the globe, volunteering his time to do what he does best, and to bring them a little bit of America and a little bit of ‘Thank You’ from the people of America for the service they provide for our country.”
In addition to visiting troops at bases in Iraq, Afghanistan, Bosnia, Kosovo, Korea and elsewhere, Daniels started Operation Heartstrings in November 2005. The program to date has donated 100 Gibson guitars, as well as drums, keyboards, microphones, and more than 13,000 pieces of musical accessories to deployed servicemembers.
Brig. Gen. Mari Kaye Eder, deputy chief of Army Public Affairs, was elated to finally talk to the man who she’s been listening to since childhood.
“I’m thrilled to be here with Charlie Daniels; I grew up with him, though he doesn’t know that,” she said. “Every Sunday after church, my dad would play his records.”
Wherever Daniels goes, he has friends in uniform and throughout the vast network of armed service personnel and family members, Eder said. “It’s my honor to be here to represent just a few of them today,” she added.
Daniels’ multimedia CD and DVD offering titled “Live From Iraq” is set for release tomorrow. The Charlie Daniels Band recorded the music portion during the group’s 2006 visit to bases around Iraq, and the bonus DVD features concert footage and video of the band interacting with military members serving in Operation Iraqi Freedom.
Addressing servicemembers gathered here, Daniels thanked the men and women in uniform for their service to their country. “I want to thank you for making America free,” he said. “Without you there would be no America.”
Wild Thing's comment.........
Well deserved! God Bless you Charlie Daniels ! You are a patriot. Something this country is getting shorter of each day.
Posted by Wild Thing at 12:50 AM | Comments (12)
Make Them Feel The Heat
Kill the Bill — Again
NRO
The fate of the bipartisan immigration deal now rests with a handful of senators who say that they are against it, but are inclined to vote to let the Senate take it up again. Do not be fooled. Any senator who votes to bring this legislation back to the Senate floor tomorrow is supporting it, and any contrary vote he casts later will be a scam designed to fool gullible voters.
The bill is unpopular, but powerful forces — businesses, journalists, officials in both parties, and racial pressure groups — are determined to push it through. They do not mind if a few senators vote against the bill for the cameras while greasing the track for it when it counts.
Senators who claim to oppose the bill say that they want a new debate on it so that they can improve it. But the broad outlines of this bill are set in stone. It provides amnesty for the 12 to 20 million illegal immigrants already here and invites an ongoing stream of “temporary” low-skilled workers. In exchange, proponents of tighter borders get the restrictions in current law, plus an empty promise that this time they will be enforced.
The amendment process has been carefully choreographed so that these basic features of the deal will not be changed. Amnesty now, enforcement later: That is what the senators are going to be voting on, and it is not going to change. Anyone who objects to that formula needs to kill this bill and start over.
For senators who are professing to wait to see what the final bill looks like before taking a position, the wait is over. The final bill will represent the will of its drafters and defy the expressed will of their constituents. The only way to prevent that inevitable finale, is to bring the curtain down now.
Over the weekend, Senator Ted Kennedy made a prediction about his bill that pointedly shared the political blame for it: “I believe we will pass the bill, and I think we have good support among the Republican party.”
Wild Thing's comment...........
“King Harry” is keeping the amendments secret from the Senate AND THE PEOPLE! Then the friggen idiot will denigrate those who complain for not knowing what’s in the bill!!!!!!!!!!!
Harry Reid has sent the following letter to Republican Senators who earlier today expressed their objection to the return of the immigration bill to the Senate floor:
Dear Senators Cornyn, Vitter, Dole, Sessions and DeMint: CLICK HERE to read his letter
This is a very big deal, because it means that several senators on the fence, who had felt that their amendments were the make-or-break factor in the bill, won't know whether their amendments are in the ones approved by McConnell.
It is despicable what they are doing. There won't be 50 United States in 20 years, under our current Constitution. The next generation will curse the last, for cavalierly throwing away our 225 year legacy, all for momentary personal greed and power lust.
La Raza members freely admits that Mexicans are colonizing America, and they know there's no one in the Bush administration who has any intention of stopping it.
Posted by Wild Thing at 12:47 AM | Comments (7)
’Democrat voters in training’
........Or we can call them low-life slimeballs that sneak into a country, break numerous laws, and then drop babies that they can then hold up as human shields, to avoid the consequences of the laws they broke?
Caption from WT:
"We demand you open the border so Al Queda can come in disguised as farm workers!"
Posted by Wild Thing at 12:44 AM | Comments (6)
Episode 5 of the Al Qaeda Soap Opera
Episode 5 of the Al Qaeda Soap Opera brought to you by National Banana
There are 6 of these and some of us in the Cotillion have split them up to show different ones at our blogs.
It is a unique soap opera told from an extremist's point of view.
This one is Sands of Passion - Episode 5
* also posting these is my dear friend Beth at Blue Star Chronicles
Posted by Wild Thing at 12:40 AM | Comments (3)
June 25, 2007
In Country With Our Troops At FOB Kalsu and Al Asad
Saintsations sensational at FOB Kalsu
By Sgt. Marcus Butler, 4th Brigade Combat Team (Airborne), 25th Infantry Division
KALSU, Iraq – The New Orleans Saintsations were able to spread some cheer during their visit to Forward Operating Base Kalsu, Iraq, June 23.
The Saintsations partook in a meet-n-greet as well as performed a variety of dance routines and audience participation skits.
Arriving that morning, the Saintsations began their visit by walking around FOB Kalsu talking and joking with the servicemembers before their show began.
“We are so honored to be here today to perform for you,” said Dianne, one of the Saintsations. “We came here to support you, our troops, to show you that we love and appreciate everything that you do for us.”
“This event was a great morale booster for everyone,” said Sgt. 1st Class Carlos Cortes, 725th Brigade Support Battalion, 4th Brigade Combat Team (Airborne), 25th Infantry Division and San Juan, Puerto Rico, native. “From start to finish, the show was awesome, especially when the Saintsations called up people to dance.”
After the show, the Saintsations posed for photos and all sat down and signed pictures, calendars and even t-shirts to show the Soldiers how much they care.
“All of the Saintsations that visited FOB Kalsu came on their own accord. There was no one forcing them to come here, they all volunteered,” said Capt. Michael Schulte, 725th BSB, 4th Brigade Combat Team (Airborne), 25th Infantry Division.
To thunderous applause, the Saintsations exited stage left leaving behind wonderful memories and smiles on the crowd’s faces.
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Story and photo by Cpl. Zachary Dyer
2nd Marine Aircraft Wing (FWD)
AL ASAD — A Marine on the ground in Iraq needs to be able to count on a friend or two. He has the Marine to the right, but he also has Marines flying a few thousand feet over head that he can count on.
The Marines of Marine Attack Squadron 231, known as the “Ace of Spades,” are making sure they do everything they can to provide the Marines outside the wire with the close air support they need.
Flying AV-8B “Harriers,” the Aces have been supporting their fellow Marines since they arrived aboard Al Asad in the middle of March.
“The Harrier’s role is to provide close air support to the Marines on the ground,” said Maj. Mark Riedy, the Aces’ executive officer. “Recently things have quieted down, so when we go out there we’re searching various points for enemy activity, suspicious activity, (Improvised Explosive Devices) and those types of things. We pass that information along to the Marines on the ground, and then if we have troops in contact we are there to support them.”
Since their arrival, the Aces have succeeded in adapting to the deployed environment and fulfilling their mission, according to Lt. Col. Brian Annichiarico, the VMA-231 commanding officer.
“I think the Marines have done fantastic,” said Annichiarico, a Dobbs Ferry, N.Y., native. “This is the first squadron deployment in a few years, and everybody was chomping at the bit to come. We tried to prepare them mentally as much as we could to come over here, and they have far exceeded my expectations. They’re just phenomenal.”
Previously, the Aces have deployed with Marine Expeditionary Units, and there are stark differences between a deployment with a MEU and a deployment as a whole squadron to Iraq.
Besides flying off a 13,000 foot runway instead of the flight deck of a ship, and the extreme heat, the Aces had to adjust to an increased operational tempo. The pilots of VMA-231 have flown an average of 40 hours per month during their deployment, which is about four times what they would fly back in the states, according to Riedy, an Allentown, Pa., native.
The Aces have flown almost 1,700 hours and have supported over 940 joint tactical air requests since they deployed to Al Asad.
Both Annichiarico and Riedy say they are proud of the way their Marines have adapted to their new environment and their new deployment.
“As long as they see us launching and dropping ordnance and coming back, they stay pretty motivated,” said Riedy. “We’ve been trying to make a habit out of telling them what we’re doing, showing them maps, showing them areas that we’re going to. Telling them that it’s not just about dropping bombs, that we’re out there providing support to the Marines.
It is not the work of just a few Marines that has made the squadron successful in Iraq, but the efforts of every person that allows the Aces to do what they do best, according to Annichiarico.
“You have a circle out there, and anywhere you touch the circle something will break down,” said Annichiarico. “If a maintainer doesn’t fix a jet or a helicopter, then that helicopter or jet can’t fly, and the guys on the ground don’t get the support. If they guys on the ground don’t get the support they need, then there may be additional risks that you accept, and so on and so forth. It never ceases to amaze me how that whole chain works. The reason it works so well is because of the individual efforts of the Marines out there.”
Posted by Wild Thing at 12:55 AM | Comments (10)
Chavez Warns of Resistance War With U.S.~ Get a life Hugo!
CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) - President Hugo Chavez urged soldiers on Sunday to prepare for a guerrilla-style war against the United States, saying that Washington is using psychological and economic warfare as part of an unconventional campaign aimed at derailing his government.
Dressed in olive green fatigues and a red beret, Chavez spoke inside Tiuna Fort - Venezuela's military nerve-center - before hundreds of uniformed soldiers standing alongside armored vehicles and tanks decorated with banners reading: "Fatherland, Socialism, or Death! We will triumph!"
"We must continue developing the resistance war, that's the anti-imperialist weapon. We must think and prepare for the resistance war everyday," said Chavez, who has repeatedly warned that American soldiers could invade Venezuela to seize control of the South American nation's immense oil reserves.
U.S. officials reject claims that Washington is considering a military attack. But the U.S. government has expressed concern over what it perceives as a significant arms build-up here.
Chavez - a close ally of Cuban leader Fidel Castro - told soldiers the Washington was trying to weaken and divide Venezuelan society, including the armed forces, without resorting to combat.
"It's not just armed warfare," said Chavez, a former army officer who is leading what he calls the "Bolivarian Revolution," a socialist movement named after 19th-century independence hero Simon Bolivar. "I'm also referring to psychological warfare, media warfare, political warfare, economic warfare."
Under Chavez, Venezuela has recently purchased some $3 billion worth of arms from Russia, including 53 military helicopters, 100,000 Kalashnikov rifles, 24 SU-30 Sukhoi fighter jets.
Last week, Chavez said he is considering arms purchases, including submarines and a missile-equipped air defense system, as he prepares for a tour of Russia, Belarus and Iran.
"We are strengthening Venezuela's military power precisely to avoid imperial aggressions and assure peace, not to attack anybody," he said Sunday.
Opposition leader Julio Borges condemned the president's interest in acquiring weapons, saying the government should focus on reducing violent crime in Venezuela, which has one of the highest homicide rates in Latin America.
"This isn't resolved with military purchases and foreign tours," Borges said. "This is resolved with the determination of having a country with justice."
Wild Thing's comment............
All Hugo has to do is send 5 million troops to the U.S.A. and Bush, Graham, Kennedy, Reid, Lott, Kyl and McCain will give them permanent resident status with the Z-visa.
hmmmmm is this a multiple choice????
"Fatherland, Socialism, or Death!
I will pick death for YOU Hugo. How about that.
Posted by Wild Thing at 12:47 AM | Comments (16)
Hillary Campaign Finance Felonies Caught on Video
History was made in Paul v Clinton when this smoking gun video of Hillary Clinton's phone call to Peter Paul on July 17, 2000 was introduced June 21, 2007 as evidence of Hillary's illegal misconduct, for the California Appeals' Court review of Hillary's First Amendment protection for her illegal fundraising solicitations in 2000.
This tape was withheld by the U.S. Attorney in New York from 2001 until April 11, 2007, when it was released to Paul's attorneys at the US Justice Foundation, depriving three federal investigations of this evidence of Hillary Clinton's role in the campaign finance frauds for which her finance director David Rosen was indicted in 2005.
'Smoking Gun' Clinton Tape Released to Public
(CNSNews.com) .....for complete article
The video described in a civil suit as "smoking gun" evidence that Sen. Hillary Clinton (D-N.Y.) committed felonies became available on the Internet Friday.
On the tape the former first lady and leading Democratic presidential contender is heard speaking in 2000 with Hollywood mogul Peter Paul, comic book icon Stan Lee, and director Aaron Tonkin about a massive fundraising event for her 2000 Senate race. Paul spent about $2 million of his own money to produce the event but later had a fallout with the Clintons.
If she helped to plan the event, it could legally constitute a direct hard money donation to Clinton's Senate campaign, rather than to her joint fundraising committee called New York Senate 2000. If that is the case, the donation from Paul would be 10 times the legal limit of $2,000. Knowingly soliciting a contribution of $25,000 or more is a felony punishable by up to five years in prison.
The conversation appears to show Clinton actively helping to plan the event. The suit alleges that she violated federal campaign finance laws by directly soliciting a contribution from Paul.
"And you know, Aaron, I'm so grateful because I know how hard you've worked on it because it's your constant effort and outreach," Clinton is heard to say over a speaker phone. "You know, I talked with [celebrity singer] Cher and she was just great. Said she was really so excited. And I hadn't talked to her so you must have done a really good job selling it to her."
At no point did Clinton suggest that the event and the Paul donation were not going directly to her campaign, even as the other three in the conversation referenced it repeatedly.
Tonkin later is heard to say, "We've got people like Cher and others that have really never done anything before that are like coming out in full force knowing this is for your Senate race, it's unbelievable."
"I'm just thrilled," Clinton answers. "I'll check in with you from time to time because I know that putting something like this together is challenging even when people are enthusiastic and looking forward to doing it. It's still, there's so much work that's involved."
Wild Thing's comment............
The Clintons are riddled with crimes and they keep going on and on and on. I wonder if just once they will be taken down for all their crimes. They should be, they should have been long ago. I would also love to see a film of them conspiring to murder all those folks they’ve had murdered.
.......Thank you Jack for sending the article to me.
Jack's blog.....Conservative Insurgent
Posted by Wild Thing at 12:44 AM | Comments (10)
June 24, 2007
Heroes Interviews
Marine Corps Sgt.Maj. Bradley A. Kasal mp3 (4MB) - WDAY AM 970
Please CLICK link to listen to the fantastic interview. Thank you so much.
Thank you Sgt. Maj. Bradley Kasal.
Posted by Wild Thing at 12:55 AM | Comments (4)
In Country With The 4th Brigade Combat Team, 1st Cavalry Division
Wonderful video with great music and photos.
These are some of our Heroes, deployed to Mosul, Iraq, with the 4th Brigade Combat Team, 1st Cavalry Division.
Thank you Pfc. Bradley Clark for the link to your blog. And thank you for serving our country.
Posted by Wild Thing at 12:50 AM | Comments (2)
The Ride of the Headless Heartless Horsemen.......
.........socialism, globalism, communisim.......Treason.
Just this............ they ALL said the following and for many of them it meant nothing.........................
"I do solemnly swear that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; that I take this obligation freely, without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion; and that I will well and faithfully discharge the duties of the office on which I about to enter. So help me God."
From Bob Lonsberry
And here is his BIO
It’s not even about illegal aliens anymore. It’s about the relationship between the government and the people.
It’s about who wears the pants in the family.
And right now, the president and a whole bunch of others are confused about that. See, they think they’re in charge. They think it’s their country.
They think they’re going to tell us what to do.
Well, they’ve got another think coming. This time they’ve got a fight on their hands.
The background is illegal immigration and the years of treasonously incompetent government which have allowed it to turn into the biggest threat to our country and its future. It takes some doing for an issue to rival militant Islam as a danger to the United States, but illegal immigration does.
And that is completely the fault of the federal government. Stretching back to the late 1980s, and accelerating to light speed under George W. Bush and the Republican Congress, government negligence turned a blind eye to border security and the flood of illegal aliens into the country. Instead of dealing with the problem, the government facilitated it. Instead of being rounded up and deported, illegal aliens were guaranteed an ever-larger pool of government services.
The United States became Mexico’s welfare and medical system and the federal government did absolutely nothing to protect the interests or territorial integrity of the nation. As cultural dilution and antagonism became rampant, the government was uncaring and impotent. It was national suicide by governmental neglect.
American wages were suppressed, American taxes were raided, American communities were endangered, American values were suppressed, American culture was spat upon. Entire communities were lost to illegal newcomers who were invaders, not immigrants. A centuries-old American model of immigration was thrown out for a divisive new pattern which has already effectively lost the United States sovereignty over portions of its own territory.
We face cultural and financial bankruptcy because the president and Congress failed to uphold their oaths of office. They have ignored the rule of law by refusing to enforce the written law. We have a border, we have immigration laws, and the federal government has ignored them both.
And only after years of complaint and rising public upset did the government begin to do anything. But even then it was mostly manipulation for political gain. It has been a scripted dance in which the people have demanded and the politicians have manipulated and in the end they get our dollars and our votes and we get the back of their hand. And the illegal immigration problem festers into malignancy while they twiddle their thumbs.
Now there is a bill.
Now, they tell us, is the time to act. And their bill is the only thing that can be acted upon. Negotiated in secret, amended in secret, demanded in public. Hurry up, hurry up, hurry up. It’s time to pull the wool over our eyes and they’re impatient, afraid that delay will lead to scrutiny and defeat.
In the name of helping us, they are about to kill us.
And a tiny group of senators, in league with the president, have agreed to ramrod this through. And to defuse the nation’s roaring disapproval they are taking a tone of authority and power their offices do not provide them.
The president who is sure one more of his stammering speeches will convince the nation to change its mind. The Democrat senator who is essentially calling the American people racists. The Republican senator who is going to “do something” about talk radio, the only place political correctness and government intimidation have not yet completely choked out the voice of the people. All are miffed that the people have not rolled over and obediently accepted the superior enlightenment of the Washington fat cats.
And that’s what brings us to today’s fight. Not just to stop an immigration bill that is poison to our national interests, but to knock down the politicians whose arrogance has presumed they could cram down the throats of average Americans a piece of legislation that every measurement of public sentiment shows they don’t want.
They said “Yes,” we said “No,” now they have raised their voices and furrowed their brows and pointed their fingers and said “Yes” again. It’s as if they are the masters and we are the servants and they have reminded us to know our place.
Well, the fact is we do know our place.
We are at the top of the political food chain. We are the people the Preamble is talking about. We are the United States of America – they aren’t. It is supposed to be government for, of and by the people, not imposed on the people.
The job of every member of Congress is to represent the wishes of the people of his state or district. Period. It is not to impose a will, or coerce an opinion, it is to do what the people want.
And the people don’t want this immigration bill.
Not by a damn sight.
And the president and Congress who do not honor that wish have don’t need a lesson just in immigration policy, they need a lesson in American democracy.
And they are about to get it.
Secure the border. Make it impenetrable. Shut off the influx of illegal aliens. Begin cleaning up the mess in our schools, jails, hospitals and streets caused by illegal aliens. Actively seek and deport illegal aliens and their families, particularly those involved with welfare and crime. Change the 14th Amendment to get rid of anchor babies. Passionately promote a national program of culture and language education and assimilation.
Then, after a couple of years, talk about legalization and pathways.
But secure the border first and foremost.
And actively take down every candidate and party that pushes forward this asinine immigration bill.
Posted by Wild Thing at 12:47 AM | Comments (10)
But Jesse Why Don't You Protest GANGS !
Jesse Jackson arrested at gun protest
CHICAGO -- The Rev. Jesse Jackson was arrested Saturday at a demonstration outside a south suburban gun shop and charged with one count of criminal trespass to property.
Jackson was arrested when he refused to move away from the entrance to Chuck's Gun Shop in Riverdale, police said. He has protested with other community activists outside the shop in recent weeks after a 16-year-old honor student was gunned down on a city bus.
Police said the shooting was gang-related but the teen was not the intended target.
Jackson, who says the gun shop's proximity to Chicago provides gang members and criminals easy access to firearms, has used the protests to call for stricter gun laws.
Two teens have been charged as adults with taking part in the May shooting of Blair Holt, an honor student at Julian High School.
Wild Thing's comment........
Blaming the gunshop for the kids death is like blaming the sewers for the fact that Jackson’s full of $hit.
Posted by Wild Thing at 12:44 AM | Comments (14)
Duncan Hunter on GITMO
Keep Prison Open
Fox6
Congressman Duncan Hunter (R-52nd District) says Khalid Sheikh Mohammad could be coming to a military base near you. "Those places include the Brig at Miramar, places that have been disseminated by the democratic leadership. They include places like the Brig at Pendleton." he said Friday.Hunter points to a list he says was created by Congressional Democrats in Washington.
It lists our two local brigs as potential sites to house some of the nearly 400 detainees. Hunter does not want to see that happen.
But others, like Richard Quinonez, disagree. He lives near Miramar but is not concerned.
"They've gotten away with a lot of stuff at Guantanamo Bay that the public has been shocked to hear about, so maybe instead of keeping that type of thing at a distance," Quinonez suggested, bringing them here could be an improvement.
Critics think the prison violates the principals of democracy and hurts our country's world image.
"It is basically inflaming Muslims and others around the world against us. It makes our soldiers less safe," said Michael Ratner, President of the Centre for Constitutional Rights.
But Hunter stands by his pledge to try to keep those prisoners at Guantanamo Bay.
"We should keep them isolated from the criminal population in this country," he said.
Wild Thing's comment.........
Duncan Hunter will never cave in to the media and liberal politically correct crowd.
Posted by Wild Thing at 12:40 AM | Comments (6)
June 23, 2007
Thank You Senators Sessions, DeMint, and Vitter
Wild Thing's comment............
Just this, gosh I LOVE this! I have such respect for these men that are taking a stand for us, for we the people and for America.
Posted by Wild Thing at 12:55 AM | Comments (8)
Teddy Kennedy sings... en Espanol!
Appearing on the Piolin radio show in support of immigration "reform", aka a massive amnesty for illegal aliens, Senator Teddy Kennedy broke into song... in Spanish
Wild Thing's comment...........
Getting drunk and drowning a lady does strange things to a person. Memo to Ted Kennedy: This is your liver speaking, “please back away from the bar.”
Posted by Wild Thing at 12:50 AM | Comments (17)
Checking In With Our Troops ~ Thank You!
The Virginia Air National Guard's 192nd Fighter Wing is the first Air National Guard unit in the country to fly the F-22 Raptor. The transition from the F-16 Fighting Falcon to the F-22 took place June 20.
Posted by Wild Thing at 12:47 AM | Comments (9)
Can a good Muslim be a good American?
I got this from a friend of mine in an email and wanted to share it with you. Plus it will tick off the Moslems that lurk and read this blog. heh heh......Wild Thing
This question was forwarded to a friend who worked in Saudi Arabia for 20 years.
The following is my reply:
Theologically - no. . . . Because Muslims allegiance is to Allah, The moon God of Arabia.
Religiously - no. . . Because no other religion is accepted by His Allah except Islam (Quran, 2:256) (Koran)
Scripturally - no. . . Because Muslims allegiance is to the five Pillars of Islam and the Quran.
Geographically - no . . Because Muslims allegiance is to Mecca, to which they turns in prayer five times a day.
Socially - no. . Because Muslims allegiance to Islam forbids them to make friends with Christians or Jews.
Politically - no. . Because Muslims must submit to the mul lahs (spiritual leaders), who teach annihilation of Israel, Christians and the destruction of America, the great Satan.
Domestically - no. . . Because Muslims are instructed to marry four Women and beat and scourge his wife when she disobeys him (Quran 4:34 )
Intellectually - no. . . .. Because Muslims cannot accept the American Constitution since it is based on Christian Biblical principles and he believes the Bible to be corrupt.
Philosophically - no. . .. . Because Islam, Muhammad, and the Quran does not allow freedom of religion and expression. Democracy and Islam cannot co-exist. Every Muslim government is either dictatorial or autocratic.
Spiritually - no. .. . . Because when we declare "one nation under God," the Christian's God is loving and kind, while Allah is NEVER referred to as heavenly father, nor is he ever called love in The Quran's 99 excellent names. - - - Therefore after much study and deliberation.... Perhaps we should be very suspicious of ALL MUSLIMS in this country. - - - They obviously cannot be both "good" Musli ms an d good Americans.
Call it what you wish, but it's still the truth.
It will come a day soon when it will be a matter of life and death; then you will believe it.
The more we Christians, Americans and our Jewish brothers understand this, the better it will be for our country and our future. The religious war is bigger than we know or understand.
And Barack Hussein O bama, a Muslim, wants to be our President? You have GOT to be kidding! Wake up America!
Posted by Wild Thing at 12:40 AM | Comments (14)
June 22, 2007
Pelosi Website says Sure we Fund the Troops er ah Canadian Troops
Take a look at the pic on Pelosi's website (it's a flash thing, so wait till it comes around but there is a screen cap below) where she touts how "the House is providing the largest increase in veterans’ funding in history". The picture?
That of a Canadian officer, all epaulets have "CANADA" in gold lettering on the epaulets on the part nearest the sleeve.
Can you believe it?Good grief!!!
Posted by Wild Thing at 01:07 PM | Comments (6)
College Education For Illegal Aliens
A college education for illegal aliens
Washington Times
It's no secret that the Senate immigration bill rewards 12-20 million illegal aliens with immediate amnesty. What is less well known is that the bill also allows illegal aliens to receive in-state tuition rates at public universities, discriminating against U.S. citizens from out of state and law-abiding foreign students.
These provisions are buried deep in the Senate bill. They are part of the Development, Relief, and Education for Alien Minors (DREAM) Act section.
(please.....see my link in my comment further down about the Dream Act)
The DREAM Act is a nightmare. It repeals a 1996 federal law that prohibits any state from offering in-state tuition rates to illegal aliens, unless the state also offers in-state tuition rates to all U.S. citizens. On top of that, the DREAM Act offers a fast track to U.S. citizenship for illegal aliens who attend college.
On its own, the DREAM Act never stood a chance of passing — even in the Senate. Every scientific opinion poll on the subject has shown over 70 percent opposition to giving in-state tuition benefits to illegal aliens.
Not surprisingly, the DREAM Act languished in committee for five years — until the opportunity arose to hitch it to the Senate's "comprehensive" immigration bill of 2006. Now, Sen. Edward Kennedy and his allies have added it to this year's amnesty bill, too. They know that the only way to slip such bad legislation past the American people is to bury it in a comprehensive bill.
Wild Thing's comment............
The D.R.E.A.M. Act is a bill that was introduced in Congress on August 1, 2003, by Senator Orrin Hatch from Utah.
The one thing American taxpayer money DOESN’T seem to go to is HELPING AMERICANS. Missions to TERRORISTS in Hamas, Fatah, etc. etc. etc. We are being treated as worker bees to provide the honey for whomever our elitist politicians wish to pander to. It’s beyond disgusting ... And this kind of nonsense must stop.
They have changed the standards of getting a college education...in that they believe it is a "right" instead of a "privilege". The minute that happened.....it all went to hell in a handbasket. Minorities get first choice and priority status.....regardless of whether they really want it or not.
Is there ANYTHING in this bill that doesn't mess with Americans?? I do not understand how those who are sworn to preserve, protect, and defend the constitution can use it as toilet paper.
This is an article from last year that I never saw before today.
States Grapple With In-State Tuition for Illegal Immigrants
Posted by Wild Thing at 09:55 AM | Comments (10)
Ignacio Ramos reported in 'emaciated' condition
A video of when this all happened that sent Ramos and Compean to prison.
Ignacio Ramos reported in 'emaciated' condition
Congressional aide says Border Patrol agent 'languishing in solitary'
A congressional aide who visited Ignacio Ramos in prison said the convicted Border Patrol agent appeared emaciated, losing more than 30 pounds in solitary confinement.
Ramos, who is appealing his 11-year sentence for the non-lethal shooting of a Mexican drug smuggler, has been in a "special housing unit" since he was beaten by inmates in February at the medium-security Federal Correctional Complex in Yazoo City, Miss., said Tara Setmayer, spokeswoman for Rep. Dana Rohrabacher, R-Calif.
"He was very happy to see me, but, overall, he was very emotional," Setmayer said. "He is demoralized. Languishing in solitary for 135 days takes its toll on anyone."
The men who bloodied Ramos with kicks from steel-toed boots are in the same unit, Setmayer said.
Although the prison tries to make a distinction, she noted, "the protective measures are punitive, so he suffers all of the same restrictions as those there for disciplinary reasons."
A lockdown had been implemented prior to Setmayer's visit June 11, and Ramos had not received a hot meal in two days, Setmayer said.
Ramos' wife, Monica, visited him Monday and reported he was in the same condition.
Charles Smith, spokesman for the Yazoo City prison, said he could not comment on Ramos, or any prisoner, without the prisoner's written permission.
Ramos and Border Patrol colleague Jose Compean are serving sentences for their actions in the shooting of drug smuggler Osbaldo Aldrete-Davila-Aldrete as he fled back to Mexico after driving across the border with 742 pounds of marijuana in February 2005. U.S. Attorney Johnny Sutton gave the smuggler immunity to serve as the government's star witness and testify against the border agents. While under immunity, the smuggler was caught in another drug delivery, but the judge sealed that information from the jury.
Setmayer also visited Ramos just days after the February assault, witnessing his injuries first hand.
"It was one of the most emotionally intense things I've ever experienced," she said. "The hardest thing was walking out of the facility while they were handcuffing him and taking him away."
Setmayer said that while she didn't have to see bruises this time, she saw an "emaciated officer."
"It just emboldens us even more so," she said of congressional efforts on behalf of the agents, including a resolution calling for pardons. "It was encouraging for him to find out our efforts are moving forward full steam ahead."
Rohrabacher has requested a hearing on the case before the House Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on International Organizations, Human Rights and Oversight. Among its aims, the panel wants to examine possible influence by the Mexican government on the case. Sutton has said he is willing to testify.
The Mexican Consulate sought the prosecution of Ramos and Compean, and also Hernandez.
Setmayer said her office has been "stonewalled" by the Department of Justice in an attempt to get details of Davila's immunity agreement and of a second attempt by him to deliver a load of marijuana across the border.
Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., chairwoman of the Senate Judiciary Terrorism, Technology and Homeland Security subcommittee, also is examining the case.
Setmayer said more Congress members have signed on to a bill by Rep. Duncan Hunter, R-Calif., that calls for the two agents to be pardoned.
She pointed out the case has received attention recently amid discussion of whether President Bush should pardon convicted former White House aide Lewis Libby. Presidential candidates Hunter and Rep. Tom Tancredo, R-Colo., have asked how the president can consider pardoning Libby if he doesn't pardon Ramos and Compean.
Rohrabacher says he will not endorse anyone for president who doesn't commit to pardoning the two agents.
Wild Thing's comment............
This is just so wrong!!!! It used to be there were good guys in the white hats that rode in to town. Well most had white hats, except for Hopalong Cassidy. The good guys tracked down and found the bad guys, and the town and Mayor of the town cheered the good guys on.
More and more the world is turned upside down, and the local Mayor ( our government for the most part) gives favor to the bad guys and punishes the good guys.
He was sentenced to 11 years for shooting an illegal alien drug dealer in the ass. HE should have got a medal, not prison. What has happened here to this man is obscene.
If either of these men, Ramos or Compean die because of where they are, their treatment or from anything that happnes to them while they are in prison, I put the full blame for their death on anyone at any level that could have put a stop to this insane judgement and punishment of these two Border Agents.
Posted by Wild Thing at 01:55 AM | Comments (10)
White House Near Decision To Close Gitmo
Washington
Forbes.com
The Bush administration is nearing a decision to close the Guantanamo Bay detainee facility and move its terror suspects to military prisons elsewhere.
Senior administration officials said Thursday a consensus is building for a proposal to shut the center and transfer detainees to one or more Defense Department facilities, including the maximum-security military prison at Fort Leavenworth, Kan., where they could face trial.
President Bush's national security and legal advisers had been scheduled to discuss the move at a meeting Friday, the officials said, but after news of it broke, the White House said the meeting would not take place that day and no decision on Guantanamo Bay's status is imminent.
"It's no longer on the schedule for tomorrow," said Gordon Johndroe, a spokesman for the National Security Council. "Senior officials have met on the issue in the past, and I expect they will meet on the issue in the future."
Previous plans to close Guantanamo ran into resistance from Cheney, Gonzales and former Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld. But officials said the new suggestion is gaining momentum with at least tacit support from the State and Homeland Security departments, the Pentagon and the Intelligence directorate.
Cheney's office and the Justice Department have been against the step, arguing that moving "unlawful" enemy combatant suspects to the U.S. would give them undeserved legal rights.
In Congress, recently introduced legislation would require Guantanamo's closure. One measure would designate Fort Leavenworth, located about 30 miles northwest of Kansas City in northeast Kansas, as the new detention facility.
Another bill would grant new rights to those held at Guantanamo Bay, including access to lawyers regardless of whether the prisoners are put on trial. Still another would allow detainees to protest their detentions in federal court, something they are now denied.
Gates, who took over the Pentagon after Rumsfeld was forced out last year, has said Congress and the administration should work together to allow the U.S. to imprison permanently some of the more dangerous Guantanamo Bay detainees elsewhere so the facility can be closed.
Military officials told Congress this month that the prison at Fort Leavenworth has 70 open beds and that the brig at a naval base in Charleston, S.C., has space for an additional 100 prisoners.
Rice has said she would like to see Guantanamo closed if a safe alternative could be found. She said during a trip to Spain this month that the United States "doesn't have any desire to be the world's jailer."
"I don't think anyone wants to see Guantanamo open one day longer than it is needed. But I also suspect nobody wants to see a number of dangerous people simply released out onto the streets," she said.
On Thursday, two Democratic lawmakers, Rep. Alcee Hastings of Florida and Sen. Benjamin Cardin of Maryland, told a human rights commission that Guantanamo must be closed if the United States is to regain credibility and authority on human rights.
"The damage done to the United States goes beyond undermining our status as a global leader on human rights," Cardin said. "Our policies and practices regarding Guantanamo and other aspects of our detainee policies have undermined our authority to engage in the effective counterterrorism measures that are necessary for the very security of this country."
Officials say that Bush, who also has said he wants to close the facility as soon as possible, is keenly aware of its shortcomings.
His wife, Laura, and mother, Barbara, along with Rice and longtime adviser Karen Hughes, head of the public diplomacy office at the State Department, have told him that Guantanamo is a blot on the U.S. record abroad, particularly in the Muslim world and among European allies.
Earlier this month, former Secretary of State Colin Powell called for the immediate closure of the prison, saying it posed an untenable foreign policy risk and was irreparably harming the U.S. image abroad.
Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., said in statement that "removing the stain Guantanamo has left on our foreign policy" is long overdue.
"It also goes a long way toward returning America's moral authority in the world and addressing the mistakes which have set us back in the fight against terrorism," said Kerry.
Update:
WASHINGTON (CNN) -- A White House meeting planned for Friday about the future of the Guantanamo Bay detention facility has been canceled after The Associated Press reported the Bush administration was "nearing a decision" to close the center.
National Security Council spokesman Gordon Johndroe said there would be no meeting Friday, but he would not comment on the reasons for the cancellation.
Officials from the White House, the Pentagon and the Justice and State departments denied the AP report.
"The administration is not 'nearing a decision' on changing our long-held policy to shut down Gitmo in a responsible way," said White House spokeswoman Dana Perino. "There is no meeting tomorrow."These and other steps have not been completed. No decisions on the future of Guantanamo Bay are imminent, and there will not be a White House meeting tomorrow," he said.
Johndroe later told CNN that a meeting had been set but was canceled.
Wild Thing's comment..............
Alcee Hastings!! The guy that was impeached and thrown out as a federal judge for corruption?! Hahahahaha! You can’t make this sh*t up!! Is anyone actually running this government, or is it like a derelict ship with no helmsman?
And what the heck is that about with Laura and Bush's mom and their input about this. Sorry but I have nothing against Laura at all, but she is not the person I voted for to be President. Since that part of the first article is from the AP it may or may not be true about Laura and Barbara's input.
But one thing for sure with the UPDATE article, the White House obviously has lied. Can't these people learn how to lie better especially when it is in the press. Or did they change their minds because it was leaked to the press, who knows.
Between these two articles it reads like a Kerry flip flop. They had a meeting planned, no there was no meeting planned.....well there was a meeting planned but we cancelled it. HUH????
I hope Bush listens to Cheney and says NO to closing Gitmo. But if he doesn't then Bush is letting the likes of Kennedy, Reid, Powell and others run our White House. I didn't like reading that Bush wants to close it, that concerns me a lot.
Posted by Wild Thing at 12:55 AM | Comments (15)
Blind People Have Superior Memory Skills
Blind People Have Superior Memory Skills
Live Science
Blind people are whizzes at remembering things in the right order, scientists now find.
In the absence of vision, the world is experienced as sequences, explained neurobiologist Ehud Zohary of Hebrew University in Jerusalem. For instance, to identify otherwise indistinguishable objects, such as different brands of yogurt that vary only in their labeling, the blind typically place objects in arrangements of their own making and give mental tags for each of them, such as “the second item on the left.”
Zohary and his colleagues reasoned that since the blind constantly use memory strategies to remember things are, that “practice makes perfect,” giving the blind superior memory skills for other tasks.
The scientists tested 19 congenitally blind and 19 sighted people in two memory tasks. In the first, the volunteers heard a list of 20 words and had to recall them. In the second, they had to remember not just the words, but their order in the list as well.
Blind volunteers recalled 20 to 35 percent more words than sighted ones did, indicating a better memory overall. Their greatest advantage, however, was the ability to remember roughly twice as many more words in sequences according to the right order, findings detailed online June 21 in the journal Current Biology.
“Normally 20 to 30 percent of the brain is basically devoted to vision. With the congenitally blind, you have this brain area, the visual cortex, not getting its natural input,” Zohary told LiveScience. “We had shown that congenitally blind people appeared to be using the visual cortex for other needs, and now we may be seeing part of how this area is getting used for other functions, to maybe be more involved in memory and language processes.”
Wild Thing's comment..............
About 14 years ago, I woke up one morning and as I was washing my face I noticed I could not see anything out of my right eye. I mean nothing, no light nothing. Closing my left eye and trying to see from my right eye...... there was zero vision, just total blackness.
First my heart jumped a beat, fear and what the heck is going on feeling consumed me for about 2 or three minutes. My very first thought was my husband and oh how much I wish I did not have to let him know, because I knew he would worry. Then our dear animals and being a pianist there was that too. Then I knew that my husband was in the kitchen and I didn't want to worry him. So I put my makeup on, finished getting ready for work and went to the kitchen.
When he sat down I told him quietly that I could not see anything out of my right eye. No it did not hurt, there was no real pain. I had