The Truth, It Just came Out

My opinion of Sir Paul's comments

2010-06-05T15:30:00.004+03:00

Recently, Sir James Paul McCartney, member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE), who lives in New York City, felt it prudent to weigh in on the performance of the President of the United States, by insulting a past President, "After the last eight years, it's great to have a president who knows what a library is." (Paul McCartney Makes Fun Of George W. Bush, Praises Obama At White). Ironically, as the Gulf Coast is awash in oil, our President “Rocked the night away"; at least Nero played an instrument. Did Sir Paul forget that Obama shipped a bust of Winston Churchill back to the English, gave copies of his speeches to the Prime Minister, gave the Queen an i-Pod, and failed to invite her to D-day remembrances? That is audacity.

When will Sir Paul comment about Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II?

Never; such behavior is considered blasphemous to the citizens of the Empire. Elizabeth's personal fortune has been the subject of speculation for many years. Forbes magazine estimated her net worth at around US$450 million in 2009 (von Zeppelin, Christina (19 August 2009), The 100 Most Powerful Women #42 Queen Elizabeth II, Forbes, , retrieved 11 March 2010). Has he forgotten that as a MBE that he is part of this Constitutional monarchy, in which a king or queen acts as Head of State but the ability to make and pass legislation resides with the elected Parliament, not with the Monarch (What is constitutional monarchy).

What a lesson in government waste we can tell about this outdated form of government that remains steeped in the practices of the past - can you say change? Consider the budgetary waste involved in keeping this sham afloat. Then again, it is “their choice” it is the "British way". They alone can change it; perhaps that is why in 1776, we decided to free ourselves of the “Throne of England” and their orthodoxy.

Has, Sir Paul participated in our form of government? He has not voted in our elections since he is NOT a citizen; that act is how we as citizens make a difference in our form of government. Although his two past wives and his current “partner” are or were American citizens, he has and never will not likely become a citizen of the United States - he would have to renounce his title, as did Anthony HOPKINS (Hopkins `Loses' His Title Of `sir' To Become U.s. Citizen). He pays property and sales taxes but is not required to pay income taxes. To be fair, he likely pays a hefty amount in taxes in the city and state of New York.

Others have been more harsh in their commentary of this event using expletives that are normally deleted in press accounts. I will only say, when Sir Paul, becomes an American citizen and renounces his fancy title, only then will I give credence to his commentary on our country and it’s form of government. He can say what he wants but I’ll not listen. Sir Paul wants to reap the benefits of being an American citizen, including those of the First Amendment, but wants none of the title of being an American citizen. Has anyone noticed the current debate over immigration? There are plenty of folks, literally dying, to get into this country; they envy his Permanent Resident Visa. He needs to have both feet on one side of the fence or in this case the pond; otherwise he’ll likely suffer permanent injury (from the fence) or drown (in the pond.)

Update on shooting

2009-07-21T01:26:00.000+03:00


James Grooms III
GROOMS, James III, departed this life July 15, 2009. He is survived by his four children, Shilique, Anquanne, Jaya and Makayla; parents, Peggy Harris and James Grooms (Goldie); siblings, Tisha Grooms, Tracy Harris, Demetra McLauren (Timothy), Shawn Sheppard (Richard), Brittany Grooms and Kadeem Grooms; grandmother, Lillian Goode; five nieces, two nephews, two aunts, four uncles; special friend, Shanelle Whitaker; two best friends, Jason and Michael James; other relatives and friends. Remains rest at Mimms Funeral Home, 1827 Hull Street Rd., where the family will receive friends Monday, 6 to 7:30 p.m., and where funeral services will be held Tuesday, July 21, at 11 a.m. Rev. Ronald C. Taylor officiating. Interment Oakwood Cemetery.

The Gun Owners version

2009-07-21T01:02:00.000+03:00

****************************************************************************
1. Exclusive: I met with the gun owner who saved lives in the Richmond Golden Market shooting last week
****************************************************************************

On Friday I received a surprise call from the gun owner who has been in the press this week for saving lives at a Richmond store. The gun owner used a replica 1875 Remington Army .45 Long Colt with a 7 1/2 inch barrel to stop a criminal who had shot the store's owner.

He wanted to remain anonymous, but called so that the story could be set straight, as much of what was in the press wasn't accurate.

Board member Dennis O'Connor and I ended up meeting with him today (Saturday) at the Golden Market store, where the shooting had taken place one week earlier.

Besides being able to actually see the layout of the store, Dennis and I got to see the security videos of the shooting!

We also got to meet the store owner who had been shot twice during the hold up, but is now back at his store. More on this great man later.

Here is what we know from talking to the gun owner and watching the videos:

The gun owner (GO) was in the store waiting in line to pay for an item when the bad guy (BG) came in wearing dark sunglasses and trying to coverup his face while brandishing a revolver. The BG yelled for everyone to get down and before anybody could react, immediately walked over to the store owner and in a cold-blooded fashion shot him twice. The owner then dropped down behind the counter. It wasn't more than 2 seconds after the BG first walked in the doors that he shot the store owner.

Those shots at the store owner missed a teenage boy's head by inches.

The GO yelled for the BG to drop his gun as the GO drew his gun. The BG opened fire on the GO. The GO returned fire, hitting the BG as the GO dove hard for the floor behind some barrels full of ice and drinks.

The BG ran towards the back of the store, aiming his gun at an innocent man laying prone on the floor. Luckily the BG was too distracted by the GO to shoot the man. There is no doubt in my mind that the man would have been shot in cold blood that day if it weren't for that GO returning fire.

The BG kept trying to get to the front of the store by walking up various aisles and firing shots at the GO as he did so. At one point cans of tinned meat exploded on a shelf as the BG took a shot at the GO.

What was bizarre was that the BG actually was strutting around like he owned the place while under fire! As he approached the front of one aisle, he again pointed a gun at a person on the ground and was about to execute him, when he was again distracted by the GO.

Finally the GO spotted the BG at the front of an aisle standing in the open.

Much to his surprise, the GO discovered that when he dove hard for the floor he had somehow broken the trigger on his gun!

But the gun was a single action, so the GO pushing himself up with one arm, aimed the gun, pulled the hammer back and let it fly forward - twice.

Although seriously wounded three times, the BG came at the GO. The BG tried to grab the GO's gun since the BG's gun was out of ammunition. A life-and-death struggle began. The GO got a grip on the BG's gun and the GO hit the BG twice hard on the temple with the 7 1/2" barrel on his rather heavy gun.

The BG finally broke off the engagement, tried to run out the front door, but collapsed at the door.

The GO secured the BG's gun and keeping an eye on the now unconscious bad guy, called 9-1-1.

The BG has now died (he was in critical condition since the shooting).

The police showed up a minute or so after the 9-1-1 call and initially had everyone in the store at gun point and handcuffed some until they could figure out who was who.

What really impressed me was that on the surveillance video, the owner, while shot twice by the BG, was walking around making sure that all of his customers were OK after the shooting had ended. He only let himself collapse after he was sure they were OK! Words fail me on this. I am so glad that he made it. What a dichotomy - a BG who shoots an innocent person without provocation, almost killing a teenager while doing so - caring for no one but himself. And then the store owner who, while seriously wounded, making sure his customers were OK. Evil exists and so does Good. Both were on display in those two minutes of terror. Luckily only the bad guy was killed. The owner was walking with a limp, clearly in some pain. :-(

A lot of people owe their lives to that GO. However, he is having none of it, saying that he simply did what he had to do.

--

The GO wanted me to share the following points:

* Buy a quality gun - don't use some cheap $90 gun to protect your life. He considered his gun to be a good one and even then the trigger broke under the extreme stress of a life-and-death battle.

* Practice with your gun, get training, and be good with that gun.

* More and more BGs are choosing to kill in cold blood to get what they want. If they can't live the "good life, " then they don't care if their crimes send them to jail.

* He also noted that fewer and fewer BGs are getting any jail time.

--

Here are my thoughts from watching that tape:

* Talk about a cold-blooded, fast attack where an innocent was shot without warning! Unbelievable. Situational awareness is really important. Luck doesn't hurt, either.

* Open carry was an advantage in this case because in the video I saw just how fast the GO managed to draw his gun and begin to return fire. You always hear about how open carry is so bad tactically - you'll be the first one shot, etc. Oh, yeah? The GO had a HUGE gun in plain sight and he was NOT shot. Who got shot first? An unarmed store owner.

* I am betting that the BG was on drugs, big time. He was hit with THREE 45-CALIBER BULLETS, with at least two of those hits causing grievous injury, and he continued the fight as if he had not even been hit at all! In fact he was strutting like a peacock who owned the place as he was walking up and down the aisles trying to get to a position where he could shoot the GO. As a gun owner, you need to be prepared for that eventuality and keep shooting the BG in his center of mass until he stops his attack. Don't think one shot, or even two shots, are going to do it. And a head shot might well be what it takes to stop such an attack quickly.

* If you are out of ammunition, a gun does make a great weapon with which to bludgeon someone in hand-to-hand combat.

* This shooting bolstered both sides of the argument about how much ammunition one should carry. The good guy got off only four shots (of course his gun had a broken trigger and that didn't help). The bad guy got off six shots and ran out of ammunition (thankfully). But in my mind, and having had some advanced training, I think an extra magazine for a semi-auto, or a reloader for a revolver, is a good idea. WIth someone like the BG above, if you run out of ammunition before he does, he will execute you. Period.

http://opencarry.mywowbb.com/forum66/28633.html

Richmond Store owner grateful for man who shot robber

2009-07-21T00:40:00.000+03:00

By REED WILLIAMS

Published: July 15, 2009

Three days after Mustapha Kassou was shot in an attempted robbery in his store in South Richmond, he said that he owed his life to the man who ended the ordeal by shooting the robber.

Yesterday, Kassou returned to Golden Food Market on Jefferson Davis Highway for the first time since he was shot there Saturday afternoon.

Kassou said the masked robber walked into the store shortly after 1 p.m. and seemed startled to see about eight people inside. The robber told everyone to get on the floor, and then he fired at Kassou and hit him twice, he said.

"When the guy shot me, I was waiting for him to finish me," Kassou said. "I was knocked down behind the cash register."

The other armed man pulled a six-shot revolver from his holster and told the robber to drop his weapon, Kassou said. When he didn't, authorities say, the man shot the robber once in the torso, took the robber's gun and called police.

Witnesses told police it appeared the robber ran out of bullets and tried to reload. Some people in the store told the man to finish off the robber, witnesses reported.

"Everyone was telling him to kill him," Kassou said, "but he said, 'I can't do it.'"

Saturday's incident was the second such shooting at the store in a month.

The two shootings at Golden Food and the fatal shooting of a shopkeeper last month in another store just blocks away have alarmed some nearby residents, although police say the number of violent crimes along the Jefferson Davis corridor has been declining since May.

Councilwoman Reva Trammell, whose 8th District includes the corridor, and police Cmdr. Steve Drew will hold a public safety meeting for Jeff Davis-area business owners tonight from 6 to 8 at the Satellite Restaurant, 4000 Jefferson Davis Highway.

Kassou was released from the hospital Sunday, but he was limping and in obvious pain yesterday. He sat inside his store with family members, but he kept the front door locked. He said the shootings have made him scared of almost everyone.

He said he was struggling with whether he should reopen the store. He does not know how he would support his wife and two children if he chooses to keep the store closed.

Kassou said he is considering returning to his native Morocco. He said he is an American citizen and has lived here about 20 years and loves this country.

"It's not worth it anymore," he said, adding that he will arm himself if he reopens the store.

Kassou said he still is alive because of God -- and because of the man who drew a .45-caliber Western-style revolver and ended Saturday's robbery by shooting the gunman.

"He saved a lot of lives," Kassou said. "He was like an angel who came to save everybody."

Authorities say the robber was wounded after he shot Kassou and fired on customers.

Neither Kassou nor the police would identify the man who shot the robber. Authorities said an initial investigation indicates the man acted lawfully when he shot the robber.

Police have charged James Grooms III, 30, of South Richmond with attempted robbery, use of a firearm and possession of a firearm by a felon.

He remained in critical condition last night at VCU Medical Center.

A woman who said she is one of Grooms' relatives declined to comment when reached by phone yesterday.

Contact Reed Williams at (804) 649-6332 or rwilliams@timesdispatch.com .

http://www.timesdispatch.com/rtd/news/local/crime/article/ROBB15_20090714-222605/280016/

Armed Citizen Prevents Bloodbath

2009-07-21T00:28:00.000+03:00

Two Shot in South Richmond Store

By REED WILLIAMS
July 12, 2009

A gunman who had wounded a shopkeeper and opened fire on several customers was stopped yesterday when another man shot him at the store in South Richmond, authorities said.

The violent attempted robbery took place shortly after 1 p.m. at the Golden Food Market at 2701 Jefferson Davis Highway, the same store where another man was shot last month–and only three blocks from the scene of another robbery in June that left a shopkeeper dead.

Owners of as many as a dozen Jefferson Davis-area businesses flocked to the scene of the shooting, and many were rattled by such a brazen daylight attack, said Councilwoman Reva Trammell, whose 8th District includes the Jefferson Davis corridor.

Trammell, who arrived outside the store shortly after yesterday’s shootings, described a frenzied scene. One man told Trammell that the man who had shot the robber was a guardian angel.

“Whoever did it probably saved their lives in there,” Trammell said of the shooter.

Police did not identify anyone involved in yesterday’s shootings.

The man who shot the robber is a friend of the store owner, and he was wearing a holster with a Western-style revolver, said Managing Deputy Commonwealth’s Attorney Tracy Thorne-Begland.

After the suspect shot the store owner and opened fire on patrons, the owner’s friend shot the suspect once in the torso, took his gun and called police, Thorne-Begland said.

Thorne-Begland said it appeared that the shooting of the suspect was justified, although he emphasized that the investigation was in the early stages.

Police said they expect to file charges against the suspect.

The store owner’s injuries did not appear life-threatening, authorities said, but the gunman’s injuries were said to be life-threatening. No one else was hurt.

Anthony Gregory, who lives near Golden Food, said he was in the store about 15 minutes before the shootings, and that while he was there, he saw a man with a baby making a purchase.

Gregory said the owner told the baby, “Welcome to the world. This is a dangerous world, so be careful. But don’t worry, God will protect you.”

Police Cmdr. Steve Drew said officers had been patrolling up and down Jefferson Davis yesterday and recently have bolstered their presence in the area. He said it was unusual for a commercial robbery to happen so early in the day.

The previous shooting at Golden Food took place late the night of June 12. And three nights earlier, a co-owner of the Come and Go Food Market, which is about three blocks north of Golden Food on Jefferson Davis, was shot and killed in a robbery.

Authorities said it was too early to know whether any of the three shootings on Jefferson Davis are connected.

A few hours after yesterday’s shootings, Said “Sam” Messaf, the man who was shot June 12 at Golden Food, was at the store to help another man shut down the market.

Messaf described how he had been helping out at the store June 12 when two robbers came inside. One man opened fire, reaching over the counter and shooting as Messaf cowered behind it, he said. Messaf was shot six times in his legs.

He said he suffered nerve damage in his left leg and has trouble sleeping.

Trammell said residents and business owners were scared by the recent violence but have faith that police are doing their best to stop it.

“I’m still shook up,” Trammell said. “I’m not afraid, but we’ve worked so hard on Jefferson Davis — so hard in that area to bring crime down.”

http://www.timesdispatch.com/rtd/news/local/crime/article/SHOT121_20090711-230802/279571/

In the wake of the "stimulus," unemployment grows

2009-07-13T12:06:00.000+03:00

In the wake of the "stimulus," unemployment grows

Thursday, July 9, 2009

Courtesy of the House Ways and Means Committee GOP Press Shop:

"Today’s unemployment insurance benefit claims data from the U.S. Department of Labor reveals another record number of Americans collecting unemployment insurance (UI) benefits. The almost 9 million currently collecting UI benefits is an increase of 1 million from the level before the so-called stimulus bill. This counts the 6 million receiving State UI benefits (payable for up to six months) and the almost 3 million collecting Federal UI benefits (payable for up to another 12 months). The current total of 8.9 million unemployed workers collecting UI benefits in the week ending June 20, 2009 – the most recent week of complete data – is triple the number (2.9 million) who collected UI benefits just one year ago."

What cap and trade means to homeowners - it's not pretty

2009-07-12T22:59:00.000+03:00

The cap and trade bill was over a thousand pages when it reached the floor of the House for a vote. At 3:00am the night before debate, Democrats filed a manager's amendment to the bill that contained hundreds of pages of technical changes with virtually no time to read and digest what those changes would mean for the average American consumer. Now that the dust has settled from the House vote, information is beginning to leak out on what is actually in the cap and trade bill as passed by the House. With each passing day, it becomes even more clear why Congressman Shuster voted no on cap and trade.

One of the arguments made by House Republicans during the debate on cap and trade was that it stamped a one-size fits all mandate for home energy efficiency standards with a load of unfunded mandates on the states. Essentially, it would take California's building code and apply it to all 50 states, from Maine to Alaska and Pennsylvania. A post on the American Issues Project's blog goes into more detail on what this actually means to homeowners. If you own a home, or are in the market for a home, read this post.

Hat tip: American Issues Project

Do Police Have a Duty to Protect You?

2009-02-25T10:22:00.000+03:00

Legally, NO.

Countless court cases attest to this fact. The police have a duty to investigate the crime but not to protect the victim. Ironically, once they take a suspect into custody, they do have a duty to protect him or her even from themselves.

The first case which established the general rule that police have no duty under federal law to protect citizens is DeShaney v. Winnebago County Department of Social Services. In this case, Petitioner is a child who was subjected to a series of beatings by his father, with whom he lived. Respondents, a county department of social services and several of its social workers, received complaints that petitioner was being abused by his father and took various steps to protect him; they did not, however, act to remove petitioner from his father's custody. Petitioner's father finally beat him so severely that he suffered permanent brain damage and was rendered profoundly retarded. The U.S. Supreme Court dismissed this case with this statement: There is no merit to petitioner's contention that the State's knowledge of his danger and expressions of willingness to protect him against that danger established a "special relationship" giving rise to an affirmative constitutional duty to protect.

Likewise, Warren v. District of Columbia is one of the leading cases of where police were absolved from protecting the victims, who called the police and reported a crime in progress. They phoned the police several times and were assured that officers were on the way. When after 30 minutes they went to check on their friend who was assaulted, they became the next victims. The facts before the court were: For the next fourteen hours the women were held captive, raped, robbed, beaten, forced to commit sexual acts upon each other, and made to submit to the sexual demands of their attackers. See: The Police: No Duty To Protect Individuals

The three women sued the District of Columbia for failing to protect them, but D.C.'s highest court exonerated the District and its police, saying that it is a "fundamental principle of American law that a government and its agents are under no general duty to provide public services, such as police protection, to any individual citizen."Warren v. District of Columbia, 444 A.2d 1 (D.C. Ct. of Ap., 1981).

It gets worse in Freeman v. Ferguson a police chief directed his officers not to enforce a restraining order against a woman's estranged husband because the man was a friend of the chief's. The man subsequently killed the woman and her daughter.

In Riss v City of New York, 22 N.Y. 2d 579, 293 NYS2d 897, 240 N.E. 2d 860 (N.Y. Ct. of Ap. 1968), the judge acknowledged that the city's gun laws prevented her from arming herself but the case was still dismissed.

Peter Kasler states, "Because the police have no general duty to protect individuals, judicial remedies are not available for their failure to protect. In other words, if someone is injured because they expected but did not receive police protection, they cannot recover damages by suing ... Despite a long history of such failed attempts, however, many, people persist in believing the police are obligated to protect them, attempt to recover when no protection was forthcoming, and are emotionally demoralized when the recovery fails. Legal annals abound with such cases. "Police Have No Duty To Protect Individuals

Related Cases:
Calogrides v City of Mobile, 475 So. 2d 560 (S.Ct. Ala. 1985),

Morris v Musser, 478 A.2d 937 (1984),

Morgan v District of Columbia, 468 A.2d 1306 (D.C. Ct. of Ap. 1983),

Davidson v City of Westminster, 32 C.3d 197, 185 Cal. Rptr. 252, 649 P.2d 894 (S. Ct. Cal. 1982),

Chapman v City of Philadelphia, 434 A.2d 753 (Sup. Ct. Penn. 1981),

Sapp v City of Tallahassee, 348 So.2d 363 (Ct. of Ap. Fla. 1977),

Simpson's Food Fair v Evansville, 272 N.E. 2d 871 (Ct. of Ap., Ind.),

Silver v City of Minneapolis, 170 N.W.2d 206 (S.Ct. Minn. 1969),

Keane v City of Chicago, 98 Ill. App.2d 460, 240 N.E.2d 321 (1968).

Bowers v DeVito, 686 F.2d 61 (7 Cir. 1982),

Balistreri v. Pacifica Police Department 901 F.2d 696 (9th Cir. 1990).

McKee v. City of Rockwall, Texas, 877 F.2d409 (5th Cir. 1989), cert. denied, 110 S.Ct.727 (1990).

Thurman v. City of Torrington, 595 F.Supp.1521 (D.Conn. 1984).

U.S. Tax System explained in Beer

2008-10-02T14:47:00.000+03:00

U.S. Tax System explained in Beer

Suppose that every day, ten men go out for beer and the bill for all ten comes to $100. If they paid their bill the way we pay our taxes, it would go something like this: The first four men (the poorest) would pay nothing. The fifth would pay $1. The sixth would pay $3. The seventh would pay $7. The eighth would pay $12. The ninth would pay $18. The tenth man (the richest) would pay $59.

So, that's what they decided to do. The ten men drank in the bar every day and seemed quite happy with the arrangement, until one day, the owner threw them a curve. 'Since you are all such good customers,' he said, 'I'm going to reduce the cost of your daily beer by $20. 'Drinks for the ten now cost just $80. The group still wanted to pay their bill the way we pay our taxes so the first four men were unaffected. They would still drink for free. But what about the other six men - the paying customers? How could they divide the $20 windfall so that everyone would get his 'fair share?' They realized that $20 divided by six is $3.33. But if they subtracted that from everybody's share, then the fifth man and the sixth man would each end up being paid to drink his beer. So, the bar owner suggested that it would be fair to reduce each man's bill by roughly the same amount, and he proceeded to work out the amounts each should pay. And so the fifth man, like the first four, now paid nothing (100% savings). The sixth now paid $2 instead of $3 (33% savings). The seventh now pay $5 instead of $7 (28% savings). The eighth now paid $9 instead of $12 (25% savings). The ninth now paid $14 instead of $18 ( 22% savings). The tenth now paid $49 instead of $59 (16% savings).

Each of the six was better off than before. And the first four continued to drink for free. But once outside the restaurant, the men began to compare their savings. 'I only got a dollar out of the $20,' declared the sixth man. He pointed to the tenth man,' but he got $10! ''Yeah, that's right,' exclaimed the fifth man. 'I only saved a dollar, too.. It's unfair that he got ten times more than I! ''That's true!!' shouted the seventh man. 'Why should he get $10 back when I got only two? The wealthy get all the breaks! ''Wait a minute,' yelled the first four men in unison. 'We didn't get anything at all. The system exploits the poor! 'The nine men surrounded the tenth and beat him up. The next night the tenth man (the richest) didn't show up for drinks, so the nine sat down and had beers without him. But when it came time to pay the bill, they discovered something important. They didn't have enough money between all of them for even half of the bill!

And that, boys and girls, journalists and college professors, is how our tax system works. The people who pay the highest taxes get the most benefit from a tax reduction. Tax them too much, attack them for being wealthy, and they just may not show up anymore. In fact, they might start drinking overseas where the atmosphere is somewhat friendlier.

Thank you, from Jimmy Greene.

"If the Democrats can't even run a primary without bankrupting themselves, how can they run the country?" Nick PISHVANOV

Joe's Maxim:

That which is taxed is reduced, while that which is subsidized is increased.

Tags: taxes

Michelle's let's talk about the little people and convince them we care speech.

2008-09-05T22:45:00.000+03:00

Just last week, in her speech to the Democratic Convention, Saint Michelle OBAMA claims she left behind a lucrative law practice to work for the "people." Translated into "liberalspeak" Low pay but emotionally rewarding. This is her statement:

And in my own life, in my own small way, I’ve tried to give back to this country that has given me so much. That’s why I left a job at a law firm for a career in public service, working to empower young people to volunteer in their communities.

The truth she failed to mention is that she was paid quite handsomely (her annual salary increased from $121,910 to $316,962) to be a Vice President at University of Chicago Hospital. I quess that is Michelle OBAMA's version of public service.

Tags: Michelle OBAMA, Election 2008, Public Service, OBAMA

When will Vincent FUMO of Pennsylvania pay?

2008-09-05T22:36:00.000+03:00

On February 6, 2007, a Federal grand jury named him in a 139-count indictment, alleging mail fraud, wire fraud, conspiracy, obstruction of justice and filing a false tax return. Charges include his use of state workers to oversee construction of his mansion. They also charge the he used state workers to work on his farm and to spy on his ex-wife . Notwithstanding those charges, the indictment also accuses him of misusing $1 million of state funds and $1 million from his charity for his personal and campaign use as well as commandeering yachts from the Philadelphia Seaport Museum for personal travel.

Immediately before the indictment was handed down, Fumo resigned from his position as the ranking Democrat on the Appropriations Committee. He vowed to fight the charges.

On March 12, 2008, at a press conference at the Pennsylvania Convention Center in Philadelphia, Fumo announced he was dropping his bid for reelection citing the charges against him leave "a cloud hanging over [his] head." However, at the insistence of Governor Ed Rendell, who was present at the press conference, "Vinny from Philly" will be completing his current term which does not end until after the November election. If you missed it, Governor Ed would have still endorsed this guy for re-election, "All he has to do is ask." Do birds of a feather truely flock together?

Tags: corruption, Pennsylvania Politics, Fumo, Rendell

Baqubah Surge

2008-08-11T01:53:00.000+03:00

On July 15, 2008, there was a suicide bombing here at FOB Gabe. I was not here for the event, but two bombers infiltrated into a group of Iraqi Army recruits at the Entry Control Point to FOB Lion (Saad) the Iraqi side, and blew themselves up about a minute apart. According to news reports “two bombers blew themselves up minutes apart among recruits at a U.S.-Iraqi army base in the eastern suburbs of Baqubah, killing 27 people and injuring 68, Iraqi security officials said…. A member of the Diyala province security operations command said Sunni and Shiite Muslim tribal leaders had been asked to send recruits to join a new offensive against insurgents who have terrorized the eastern Iraqi province…. Iraqi officers were organizing the recruits outside the main entrance to the Saad base when the explosions went off in quick succession, a familiar tactic of Sunni insurgents. No U.S. casualties were reported.” (http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-iraq16-2008jul16,0,7370032.story )

Days later, al Jazeera announced the Iraqi’s surge in Baqubah to root out the AQI elements that have reportedly moved back into the area. They are sick and tired of these zealots killing their brothers.

Now, for some good news, it would seem that these bombers had the same effect as the German bombers of London did in WW2; their resolve was strengthened. Iraqis are doing the heavy lifting for this surge in Baqubah.

They are flying their own Air Force helicopters and they are professional. They fly UH1's that I suspect have been around since we used to like “So Damn Insane” but I must admit, I did not do a tail number search to verify. The pilots are mission ready and rated on Night Vision Goggles (NVG’s). I do not worry about getting out of their way as they ferry in and out of our LZ. One of the pilots flew with the “Night Stalkers” at Ft. Campbell and was rated in a Kiowa on NVG’s.

The Iraqi Special Forces are well disciplined and trained troops -- not like the previous bullet sponges we saw with the police and the Iraqi Army of the past. The Iraqis are getting their hands dirty and taking some initiative. They take their wounded to their hospitals and don’t expect us to Medevac them in our UH-60’s. It takes time.

They are rounding up the insurgents and taking them in and out of their base to do the interrogations needed to root out this plague.

Tags: Iraq, Baqubah, Iraqi Air Force

Man Accidentally Shoots Himself while Robbing a "Would-Be" Robber

2008-04-13T23:27:00.000+03:00

Turn about:
	Roland Scott, while staring down a shotgun in West Baltimore, decided to fight back. Scott, brandishing a fake replica handgun, wrestled the shotgun away from the would be robber. Then while standing in the middle of Laurens Street, ordered the robber to strip. Scott then relieved him of $800, demanded a cell phone and more money. Then began to beat him with the same shotgun he just took off the "robber." In the ensuing "pistol whipping" with the shotgun, the shotgun accidentally discharged, hitting Scott in the stomach and killing him. The "robber" then fled and was later arrested at the hospital. Charges of murder were not filed after a witness corroborated the events but it remains undetermined if the "robber" will face charges for armed robbery. As an aside, the "robber" said he needed money for "his rent and for pharmacy school." Who teaches this class, another "street pharmacist?" Is that why he needed to be packing a shotgun at 0400 hours?
	Source: http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/local/baltimore_city/bal-md.ci.shooting28mar28,0,5234060.story

Tags: Crime,

Update on some previous blog entries

2008-03-27T21:36:00.000+03:00

Can you believe it?

John McCain was attacked by the NY Times for something that occurred many years ago and for which they had prior knowledge well ahead of their endorsement of him for POTUS. The best part is that McCAIN's staff had this potential fire put out before it started to smolder.

Amazingly, Vince FUMO, aka "Vinny from Philly," has thrown in the towel and withdrew from the Pennsylvania Senate race to focus on his upcoming trial. 139 counts of corruption would be enough for me to not consider him for the Pennsylvania Senate but not for Ed RENDELL (EdRonDell) who said, "all he has to do is ask," when queried about supporting the beleaguered politico.

Tags: Election 2008, FUMO, McCain, NY Times

When did Audacity steal Hope?

2008-03-21T02:48:00.000+03:00

When did Audacity steal Hope?

Perhaps it started, when Michelle OBAMA had the audacity to say, "Work for the community. Be social workers. Be a nurse. Those are the careers that we need, and we're encouraging our young people to do that. But if you make that choice, as we did, to move out of the moneymaking industry into the helping industry, then your salaries respond." If that were true then why did she not refuse The University of Chicago Medical Center center’s salary of more than $300,000 a year for her services as "vice president of community and external affairs" while no longer possessing a valid license to practice law. How audacious is it to have a position because your husband is a US Senator and to not practice what you preach.

Then again, it could have robbed it when Michelle OBAMA had the audacity to say, "For the first time in my adult lifetime, I am really proud of my country," and then have Barack OBAMA clean up her “Freudian slip” claiming it was simply pride in the success of his political campaign. A careful read of the title of her senior thesis would argue differently.

Maybe hope waivered a little when we learned that Barack’s “spiritual advisor”, the Reverend WRIGHT, has the audacity to say from the pulpit, among other things, “God damn America!” How audacious is it for Barack OBAMA to then claim, "I did not hear such incendiary language myself, personally either in conversations with him or when I was in the pew,” and “If I had been in church those days, I would have objected fiercely to them and I would have told him personally." Could it also be when his pleas of ignorance contributed to hope sliding away a little bit more? Were he truly outraged; he would have distanced himself from these haters a long time ago.

Ultimately, it happened when Obama had the audacity to rationalize "the history of racial injustice in this country" fuels Rev. Jeremiah WRIGHT's racist rants. By that statement alone we understand where Barack OBAMA’s hope rests, with the camp followers of Jessie JACKSON, Al SHARPTON, Louis FARRAKHAN, and Jeremiah WRIGHT, reverends all.

Realistically, he has lacked the audacity to be candid enough with the voters that he would have us believe that he wants change but has never told us his brand of change is steeped in racism. The stealth candidate was “outed” by his closest allies and himself and “hope will not ride again.”

Tags: OBAMA, racism, election 2008

John McCAIN the RINO

2008-01-28T12:26:00.000+03:00

John McCAIN is a RINO just like Arlen SPECTER of the magic bullet theory fame, and Rudy JULIANI.

Does Ann COULTER make any sense when she states, "If Democrats Had Any Brains, They'd Be Republicans."? If McCain is elected president then she is wrong. None of them have any brains and it is time to start over.

Now that the NY Times has endorsed McCAIN for the Republican nomination. If he becomes the Republican nominee, watch how fast the very same MSM reminds us of John McCAIN's involvement with "The Keating 5". They will sound just like Judas in Jesus Christ Superstar when in "Heaven On Their Minds" he laments:

And remember, I've been your right hand man all along.
You have set them all on fire.
They think they've found the new Messiah.
And they'll hurt you when they find they're wrong.

Tags: Election 2008, Politics, John McCain

On Pennsylvania's First Senate District race

2008-01-28T06:00:00.000+03:00

As long as there is not a criminal in the PennsylvaniaFirst Senate District seat I'll be happy. “Vinnie” FUMO had decided that he was untouchable. How, after an indictment on 141 counts, canhe claim, in good faith, to be representing Pennsylvanians, let alone thosefrom the "City of Brotherly Love?" Perhaps he started out that way but it is clear he is representing his ownself interest now. Power may corrupt butit does not have to corrupt.

On another note, why should the rest of the Commonwealthhave to subsidize public transportation for the cities? I-80 is seldom used by folks fromPhiladelphia and Pittsburgh so it is no hardship for them to support paying forpublic transportation with OPM (other people’s money.) According to the indictment, this was FUMO’smethod of financing his projects. The Highway Trust Fund is funded by monies thatwere garnished from gasoline receipts. The states are to use these funds for the stated purpose of thelegislation, to build/maintain roads and bridges. Taking money from this fund for any otherpurpose is misappropriation of funds. Howcan any candidate be trusted when that is their stated plan? Why do we elect the candidate whose statedpurpose is the raid the treasury for funds to enrich his or her districtalone? If lower taxes are ever to beaccomplished, we must stop electing politicians who want “to bring home thepork.”

With regard to stricter gun control in Philadelphia, sincewhen is it legal to have a handgun in Philadelphia without a permit? Philadelphia has a law on the books regardingweapons in the city that does not apply to anywhere else in the state (PA Crimes Code 6108 - Carrying firearms on public streets or public property inPhiladelphia). Why has that notcurbed gun violence? Laws do not curbviolence and an unarmed citizen is easy prey. Let’s not forget what Ben FRANKLIN had to say about armed citizens and Democracy:

Democracy is twowolves and a lamb voting on what to have for dinner.

Liberty is a wellarmed lamb contesting the vote.

Tags: Guns, Philadelphia, Taxes

Hillary won?

2008-01-10T00:44:00.000+03:00

They said Obama had a huge lead in New Hampshire and then Hillary turned on the "water works." So what happened?

Some believe it was the voting machines: http://presscue.com/node/38170
Hillary victory tainted by vote fraud claims

But then again, maybe it is just practice for the General Election; Vote Early and Vote Often. Typical Democratic election ploy. Obama, say you didn't miss that trick in Chicago of all places?

Tags: Obama, election, Clinton

Hope Rides Alone

2007-09-25T21:52:00.000+04:00

SGT Eddie Jeffers, author of the article Hope Rides Alone, died last week in Iraq. He was a great soldier and great American as are they all.

God bless him and his family.

Subject: With sadness an announcement of the death of Sgt Eddie Jeffers-- of Daleville, Ala.; assigned to the 1st Battalion, 9th Infantry Regiment, 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 2nd Infantry Division, Fort Carson, Colo.; died Sept. 19 in Taqqadum, Iraq, of injuries sustained from a non-combat related accident.
.

Hope Rides Alone
USA Sgt. Eddie Jeffers, USA (Iraq)
February 1, 2007

Editor's Note: This piece by Sgt. Eddie Jeffers, "Hope Rides Alone", was mentioned in a segment on Fox News Channel's O'Reilly Factor.
Click here to listen to or download the segment.

I stare out into the darkness from my post, and I watch the city burn to the ground. I smell the familiar smells, I walk through the familiar rubble, and I look at the frightened faces that watch me pass down the streets of their neighborhoods. My nerves hardly rest; my hands are steady on a device that has been given to me from mygovernment for the purpose of taking the lives of others.

I sweat, and I am tired. My back aches from the loads I carry. Young American boys look to me to direct them in a manner that will someday allow them to see their families again...and yet, I too, am just a boy....my age not but a few years more than that of the ones I lead. I am stressed, I am scared, and I am paranoid...because death is everywhere. It waits for me, it calls to me from around street corners and windows, and it is always there.

There are the demons that follow me, and tempt me into thoughts and actions that are not my own...but that are necessary for survival. I've made compromises with my humanity. And I am not alone in this. Miles from me are my brethren in this world, who walk in the same streets...who feel the same things, whether they admit to it or not.
And to think, I volunteered for this...
And I am ignorant to the rest of the world...or so I thought.

But even thousands of miles away, in Ramadi, Iraq, the cries and screams and complaints of the ungrateful reach me. In a year, I will be thrust back into society from a life and mentality that doesn't fit your average man. And then, I will be alone. And then, I will walk down the streets of America, and see the yellow ribbon stickers on the cars of the same people who compare our President to Hitler.

I will watch the television and watch the Cindy Sheehans, and the Al Frankens, and the rest of the ignorant sheep of America spout off their mouths about a subject they know nothing about. It is their right, however, and it is a right that is defended by hundreds of thousands of boys and girls scattered across the world, far from home. I use the word boys and girls, because that's what they are. In the Army, the average age of the infantryman is nineteen years old. The average rank of soldiers killed in action is Private First Class.

People like Cindy Sheehan are ignorant. Not just to this war, but to the results of their idiotic ramblings, or at least I hope they are. They don't realize its effects on this war. In this war, there are no Geneva Conventions, no cease fires. Medics and Chaplains are not spared from the enemy's brutality because it's against the rules. I can only imagine the horrors a military Chaplain would experience at the hands of the enemy. The enemy slinks in the shadows and fights a coward’s war against us. It is effective though, as many men and women have died since the start of this war. And the memory of their service to America is tainted by the inconsiderate remarks on our nation's news outlets. And every day, the enemy changes...only now, the enemy is becoming something new. The enemy is transitioning from the Muslim extremists to Americans. The enemy is becoming the very people whom we defend with our lives. And they do not realize it. But in denouncing our actions, denouncing our leaders, denouncing the war we live and fight, they are isolating the military from society...and they are becoming our enemy.

Democrats and peace activists like to toss the word "quagmire" around and compare this war to Vietnam. In a way they are right, this war is becoming like Vietnam. Not the actual war, but in the isolation of country and military. America is not a nation at war; they are a nation with its military at war. Like it or not, we are here, some of us for our second, or third times; some even for their fourth and so on. Americans are so concerned now with politics, that it is interfering with our war.

Terrorists cut the heads off of American citizens on the internet...and there is no outrage, but an American soldier kills an Iraqi in the midst of battle, and there are investigations, and sometimes soldiers are even jailed...for doing their job.

It is absolutely sickening to me to think our country has come to this. Why are we so obsessed with the bad news? Why will people stop at nothing to be against this war, no matter how much evidence of the good we've done is thrown in their face? When is the last time CNN or MSNBC or CBS reported the opening of schools and hospitals in Iraq? Or the leaders of terror cells being detained or killed? It's all happening, but people will not let up their hatred of President Bush. They will ignore the good news, because it just might show people that Bush was right.

America has lost its will to fight. It has lost its will to defend what is right and just in the world. The crazy thing of it all is that the American people have not even been asked to sacrifice a single thing. It’s not like World War II, where people rationed food and turned in cars to be made into metal for tanks. The American people have not been asked to sacrifice anything. Unless you are in the military or the family member of a servicemember, its life as usual...the war doesn't affect you.

But it affects us. And when it is over and the troops come home and they try to piece together what's left of them after their service...where will the detractors be then? Where will the Cindy Sheehans be to comfort and talk to soldiers and help them sort out the last couple years of their lives, most of which have been spent dodging death and wading through the deaths of their friends? They will be where they always are, somewhere far away, where the horrors of the world can't touch them. Somewhere where they can complain about things they will never experience in their lifetime; things that the young men and women of America have willingly taken upon their shoulders.

We are the hope of the Iraqi people. They want what everyone else wants in life: safety, security, somewhere to call home. They want a country that is safe to raise their children in. Not a place where their children will be abducted, raped and murdered if they do not comply with the terrorists demands. They want to live on, rebuild and prosper. And America has given them the opportunity, but only if we stay true to the cause and see it to its end. But the country must unite in this endeavor...we cannot place the burden on our military alone. We must all stand up and fight, whether in uniform or not. And supporting us is more than sticking yellow ribbon stickers on your cars. It's supporting our President, our troops and our cause.

Right now, the burden is all on the American soldiers. Right now, hope rides alone. But it can change, it must change. Because there is only failure and darkness ahead for us as a country, as a people, if it doesn't.

Let's stop all the political nonsense, let's stop all the bickering, let's stop all the bad news and let's stand and fight!

Isn't that what America is about anyway?
Sergeant Eddie Jeffers is a US Army Infantryman serving in Ramadi, Iraq.

Tags: Iraq, Democrats

Shame on MoveOn.org

2007-09-21T22:27:00.000+04:00

Before anyone in MoveOn.org heard a word that Gen. David H. Petraeus was going to say they decided he was going to lie. Now that is close mindedness.

This is additional evidence that MoveOn.org is not interested in dialog but having it "their way." This is not a "Burger King World" where they can buy the votes they want. This may be the final straw. If I can help it, they will not "get it [their] way or right away."

While I am at it, shame on the NY Times as well; to give MoveOn.org such a favorable rate, on their ad, sends a pretty clear message. It is the agenda of the NY Times as well. Contrary to popular belief, newspapers can and do refuse ads. Again, the evidence is clear. They subsidized this ad too.

These folks will do anything to topple George BUSH even if the country is destroyed in the process.

Despicable.

Tags: MoveOn.org, Iraq, Gen. David H. Petraeus

Congress is not serious about immigration reform.

2007-07-07T11:09:00.000+04:00

The Center for International Policy, a Pro-Hispanic organization, has condemned the immigration bill that was recently defeated in the US Senate as “heavily weighted against immigrants… and unfair anti-immigrant measures.” See: Senate Bill a Step Backwards for Immigrant Rights | Report by Oscar A. Chacón

Likewise, The other side, could be summed up by Victor Hanson’s comments in IBD of Public Wasn't Fooled By Measure That Didn't Put Enforcement First .

Since neither side wanted this bill passed can I posit that the Congress really does not want to deal with this issue in a realistic way? For the sake of clarity, it was the American public who called, wrote, and pressed their representatives to kill this bill.

That said, I am standing on the law which states an illegal immigrant still needs to be subject to sanctions. It is not unjust for countries to protect their borders. We are largely a culture of immigrants who came to this country through what was, at the time, legal means. My ancestors came from Czechoslovakia and Russia to escape the communist fist. They did so legally.

Opening the borders is not the answer. NAFTA did not fix the culture of Mexico with the “have’s” and “have not’s”. Nor will it prevent illegal immigration. There is opportunity in the United States to find the dream of success but not with the promise to let the ends justify the means. Pete Wilson would say, “…the real issues were the rule of law, fairness to those who'd chosen naturalization, and assimilation of new citizens to be full participants in American life rather than just permanent legal resident aliens without the rights or duties of Americans. (http://www.ibdeditorials.com/IBDArticles.aspx?id=268612209588547 )

Face facts, the United States of America enjoys its prosperity because of who we have been. We need to control our borders so the life boat will not sink when there are too many hands on board. The United States of Mexico needs to fix their economic woes and the exodus of workers will cease. If there is no wealth in Mexico, then ask the richest man in the world today, a Mexican, how he became so rich. Maybe Mexicans have the answer.

Tags: Immigration,Congress

Just War Theory

2007-06-21T21:35:00.000+04:00

I received an E-mail today from a guy who claims the war in Iraq to be unjust and referred to St. Thomas' Summa Theologiae:

St. Thomas maintained that a war may be waged justly under three conditions: First, the legitimate authority (last time I checked the Congress of the United States did authorize the war and have provided funding for the same on several occasions since that date. Additionally, let's not forget UN resolution after UN resolution that Saddam ignored.) who has the duty of preserving the common good must declare the war.

Secondly, a just cause for war must exist. St. Augustine, quoted by St. Thomas, said, "A just war is apt to be described as one that avenges wrongs, when a nation or state has to be punished, for refusing to make amends for the wrongs inflected by its subjects, or to return what it has seized unjustly. (Saddam was executed for what? Let's not forget Saddam agreed to comply to conditions imposed upon Iraq when they surrendered after the First Gulf War.)

Finally, St. Thomas said the warring party must have the right intention, "so that they intend the advancement of good or the avoidance of evil. " (This is the sticking point for those who like to chant the mantra "Bush lied." If that is the case then Bush repeated the lies of the Clinton administration. For my part, I believe George Bush believed it was to free the Iraqis from an evil despot. Anyone want to debate Saddam was not?)

That said, I believe I can support the claim that this war meets the standard of St. Thomas' "Just War" theory.

Tags: Just War, Iraq

Al Gore

2007-05-23T14:31:00.000+04:00

Al Gore is right about a couple of things. Reason has gone by the wayside but not in the way he portends (not pretends because he believes his own spin.)

Al states, "A large and growing number of Americans are asking out loud: 'What has happened to our country?' People are trying to figure out what has gone wrong in our democracy, and how we can fix it. " I for one have lost faith in our elected representatives but not for the same reasons Al Gore would cite. Amnesty equals votes; welfare equals votes; pork equals votes. Greed equals re-election for the incumbent.

I do agree that "train wrecks", as in the "OJ" trial and Anna Nicole saga, are what people have focused upon. Sad but true. We like watching this stuff. The German's even have a word for it, schadenfreude.

He also states,"Our Founders' faith in the viability of representative democracy rested on their trust in the wisdom of a well-informed citizenry, their ingenious design for checks and balances, and their belief that the rule of reason is the natural sovereign of a free people. " The citizenry have been duped by the MSM, who have their own agenda (Don't believe Al does not have one either.) While he castigates the TV medium in favor of the Internet, it is for a far different reason than what I would state. (Their socialist leanings are showing and he is in bed with MoveOn.org)

While some of his conclusions may be accurate, he supports them with the wrong evidence. Actually, he and his ilk are the problem not the solution.

Stick a fork in me.

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

http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,1622015,00.html?promoid=AOL

Wednesday, May. 16, 2007

Book Excerpt: The Assault on Reason

By Al Gore

Not long before our nation launched the invasion of Iraq, our longest-serving Senator, Robert Byrd of West Virginia, stood on the Senate floor and said: "This chamber is, for the most part, silent—ominously, dreadfully silent. There is no debate, no discussion, no attempt to lay out for the nation the pros and cons of this particular war. There is nothing. We stand passively mute in the United States Senate."

Why was the Senate silent?

In describing the empty chamber the way he did, Byrd invited a specific version of the same general question millions of us have been asking: "Why do reason, logic and truth seem to play a sharply diminished role in the way America now makes important decisions?" The persistent and sustained reliance on falsehoods as the basis of policy, even in the face of massive and well-understood evidence to the contrary, seems to many Americans to have reached levels that were previously unimaginable.

A large and growing number of Americans are asking out loud: "What has happened to our country?" People are trying to figure out what has gone wrong in our democracy, and how we can fix it.

To take another example, for the first time in American history, the Executive Branch of our government has not only condoned but actively promoted the treatment of captives in wartime that clearly involves torture, thus overturning a prohibition established by General George Washington during the Revolutionary War.

It is too easy—and too partisan—to simply place the blame on the policies of President George W. Bush. We are all responsible for the decisions our country makes. We have a Congress. We have an independent judiciary. We have checks and balances. We are a nation of laws. We have free speech. We have a free press. Have they all failed us? Why has America's public discourse become less focused and clear, less reasoned? Faith in the power of reason—the belief that free citizens can govern themselves wisely and fairly by resorting to logical debate on the basis of the best evidence available, instead of raw power—remains the central premise of American democracy. This premise is now under assault.

American democracy is now in danger—not from any one set of ideas, but from unprecedented changes in the environment within which ideas either live and spread, or wither and die. I do not mean the physical environment; I mean what is called the public sphere, or the marketplace of ideas.

It is simply no longer possible to ignore the strangeness of our public discourse. I know I am not alone in feeling that something has gone fundamentally wrong. In 2001, I had hoped it was an aberration when polls showed that three-quarters of Americans believed that Saddam Hussein was responsible for attacking us on Sept. 11. More than five years later, however, nearly half of the American public still believes Saddam was connected to the attack.

At first I thought the exhaustive, nonstop coverage of the O.J. Simpson trial was just an unfortunate excess—an unwelcome departure from the normal good sense and judgment of our television news media. Now we know that it was merely an early example of a new pattern of serial obsessions that periodically take over the airwaves for weeks at a time: the Michael Jackson trial and the Robert Blake trial, the Laci Peterson tragedy and the Chandra Levy tragedy, Britney and KFed, Lindsay and Paris and Nicole.

While American television watchers were collectively devoting 100 million hours of their lives each week to these and other similar stories, our nation was in the process of more quietly making what future historians will certainly describe as a series of catastrophically mistaken decisions on issues of war and peace, the global climate and human survival, freedom and barbarity, justice and fairness. For example, hardly anyone now disagrees that the choice to invade Iraq was a grievous mistake. Yet, incredibly, all of the evidence and arguments necessary to have made the right decision were available at the time and in hindsight are glaringly obvious.

Those of us who have served in the U.S. Senate and watched it change over time could volunteer a response to Senator Byrd's incisive description of the Senate prior to the invasion: The chamber was empty because the Senators were somewhere else. Many of them were at fund-raising events they now feel compelled to attend almost constantly in order to collect money—much of it from special interests—to buy 30-second TV commercials for their next re-election campaign. The Senate was silent because Senators don't feel that what they say on the floor of the Senate really matters that much anymore—not to the other Senators, who are almost never present when their colleagues speak, and certainly not to the voters, because the news media seldom report on Senate speeches anymore.

Our Founders' faith in the viability of representative democracy rested on their trust in the wisdom of a well-informed citizenry, their ingenious design for checks and balances, and their belief that the rule of reason is the natural sovereign of a free people. The Founders took great care to protect the openness of the marketplace of ideas so that knowledge could flow freely. Thus they not only protected freedom of assembly, they made a special point—in the First Amendment—of protecting the freedom of the printing press. And yet today, almost 45 years have passed since the majority of Americans received their news and information from the printed word. Newspapers are hemorrhaging readers. Reading itself is in decline. The Republic of Letters has been invaded and occupied by the empire of television.

Radio, the Internet, movies, cell phones, iPods, computers, instant messaging, video games and personal digital assistants all now vie for our attention—but it is television that still dominates the flow of information. According to an authoritative global study, Americans now watch television an average of 4 hours and 35 minutes every day—90 minutes more than the world average. When you assume eight hours of work a day, six to eight hours of sleep and a couple of hours to bathe, dress, eat and commute, that is almost three-quarters of all the discretionary time the average American has.

In the world of television, the massive flowsof information are largely in only one direction, which makes it virtually impossible for individuals to take part in what passes for a national conversation. Individuals receive, but they cannot send. They hear, but they do not speak. The "well-informed citizenry" is in danger of becoming the "well-amused audience." Moreover, the high capital investment required for the ownership and operation of a television station and the centralized nature of broadcast, cable and satellite networks have led to the increasing concentration of ownership by an ever smaller number of larger corporations that now effectively control the majority of television programming in America.

In practice, what television's dominance has come to mean is that the inherent value of political propositions put forward by candidates is now largely irrelevant compared with the image-based ad campaigns they use to shape the perceptions of voters. The high cost of these commercials has radically increased the role of money in politics—and the influence of those who contribute it. That is why campaign finance reform, however well drafted, often misses the main point: so long as the dominant means of engaging in political dialogue is through purchasing expensive television advertising, money will continue in one way or another to dominate American politics. And as a result, ideas will continue to play a diminished role. That is also why the House and Senate campaign committees in both parties now search for candidates who are multimillionaires and can buy the ads with their own personal resources.

When I first ran for Congress in 1976, I never took a poll during the entire campaign. Eight years later, however, when I ran statewide for the U.S. Senate, I did take polls and like most statewide candidates relied more heavily on electronic advertising to deliver my message. I vividly remember a turning point in that Senate campaign when my opponent, a fine public servant named Victor Ashe who has since become a close friend, was narrowing the lead I had in the polls. After a detailed review of all the polling information and careful testing of potential TV commercials, the anticipated response from my opponent's campaign and the planned response to the response, my advisers made a recommendation and prediction that surprised me with its specificity: "If you run this ad at this many 'points' [a measure of the size of the advertising buy], and if Asheresponds as we anticipate, and then we purchase this many points to air our response to his response, the net result after three weeks will be an increase of 8.5% in your lead in the polls."

I authorized the plan and was astonished when three weeks later my lead had increased by exactly 8.5%. Though pleased, of course, for my own campaign, I had a sense of foreboding for what this revealed about our democracy. Clearly, at least to some degree, the "consent of the governed" was becoming a commodity to be purchased by the highest bidder. To the extent that money and the clever use of electronic mass media could be used to manipulate the outcome of elections, the role of reason began to diminish.

As a college student, I wrote my senior thesis on the impact of television on the balance of power among the three branches of government. In the study, I pointed out the growing importance of visual rhetoric and body language over logic and reason. There are countless examples of this, but perhaps understandably, the first one that comes to mind is from the 2000 campaign, long before the Supreme Court decision and the hanging chads, when the controversy over my sighs in the first debate with George W. Bush created an impression on television that for many viewers outweighed whatever positive benefits I might have otherwise gained in the verbal combat of ideas and substance. A lot of good that senior thesis did me.

The potential for manipulating mass opinions and feelings initially discovered by commercial advertisers is now being even more aggressively exploited by a new generation of media Machiavellis. The combination of ever more sophisticated public opinion sampling techniques and the increasing use of powerful computers to parse and subdivide the American people according to "psychographic" categories that identify their susceptibility to individually tailored appeals has further magnified the power of propagandistic electronic messaging that has created a harsh new reality for the functioning of our democracy.

As a result, our democracy is in danger of being hollowed out. In order to reclaim our birthright, we Americans must resolve to repair the systemic decay of the public forum. We must create new ways to engage in a genuine and not manipulative conversation about our future. We must stop tolerating the rejection and distortion of science. We must insist on an end to the cynical use of pseudo-studies known to be false for the purpose of intentionally clouding the public's ability to discern the truth. Americans in both parties should insist on the re-establishment of respect for the rule of reason.

And what if an individual citizen or group of citizens wants to enter the public debate by expressing their views on television? Since they cannot simply join the conversation, some of them have resorted to raising money in order to buy 30 seconds in which to express their opinion. But too often they are not allowed to do even that. MoveOn.org tried to buyan ad for the 2004 Super Bowl broadcast to express opposition to Bush's economic policy, which was then being debated by Congress. CBS told MoveOn that "issue advocacy" was not permissible. Then, CBS, having refused the MoveOn ad, began running advertisements by the White House in favor of the president's controversial proposal. So MoveOn complained, and the White House ad was temporarily removed. By temporarily, I mean it was removed untilthe White House complained, and CBS immediately put the ad back on, yet still refused to present the MoveOn ad.

To understand the final reason why the news marketplace of ideas dominated by television is so different from the one that emerged in the world dominated by the printing press, it is important to distinguish the quality of vividness experienced by television viewers from the "vividness" experienced by readers. Marshall McLuhan's description of television as a "cool" medium—as opposed to the "hot" medium of print—was hard for me to understand when I read it 40 years ago, because the source of "heat" in his metaphor is the mental work required in the alchemy of reading. But McLuhan was almost alone in recognizing that the passivity associated with watching television is at the expense of activity in parts of the brain associated with abstract thought, logic, and the reasoning process. Any new dominant communications medium leads to a new information ecology in society that inevitably changes the way ideas, feelings, wealth, power and influence are distributed and the way collective decisions are made.

As a young lawyer giving his first significant public speech at the age of 28, Abraham Lincoln warned that a persistent period of dysfunction and unresponsiveness by government could alienate the American people and that "the strongest bulwark of any government, and particularly of those constituted like ours, may effectively be broken down and destroyed—I mean the attachment of the people." Many Americans now feel that our government is unresponsive and that no one in power listens to or cares what they think. They feel disconnected from democracy. They feel that one vote makes no difference, and that they, as individuals, have no practical means of participating in America's self-government. Unfortunately, they are not entirely wrong. Voters are often viewed mainly as targets for easy manipulation by those seeking their "consent" to exercise power. By using focus groups and elaboratepolling techniques, those who design these messages are able to derive the only information they're interested in receiving from citizens—feedback useful in fine-tuning their efforts at manipulation. Over time, the lack of authenticity becomes obvious and takes its toll in the form of cynicism and alienation. And the more Americans disconnect from the democratic process, the less legitimate it becomes.

Many young Americans now seem to feel that the jury is out on whether American democracy actually works or not. We have created a wealthy society with tens of millions of talented, resourceful individuals who play virtually no role whatsoever as citizens. Bringing these people in—with their networks of influence, their knowledge, and their resources—is the key to creating the capacity for shared intelligence that we need to solve our problems.

Unfortunately, the legacy of the 20th century's ideologically driven bloodbaths has included a new cynicism about reason itself—because reason was so easily used by propagandists to disguise their impulse to power by cloaking it in clever and seductive intellectual formulations. When people don't have an opportunity to interact on equal terms and test the validity of what they're being "taught" in the light of their own experience and robust, shared dialogue, they naturally begin to resist the assumption that the experts know best.

So the remedy for what ails our democracy is not simply better education (as important as that is) or civic education (as important as that can be), but the re-establishment of a genuine democratic discourse in which individuals can participate in a meaningful way—a conversation of democracy in which meritorious ideas and opinions from individuals do, in fact, evoke a meaningful response.

Fortunately, the Internet has the potential to revitalize the role played by the people in our constitutional framework. It has extremely low entry barriers for individuals. It is the most interactive medium in history and the one with the greatest potential for connecting individuals to one another and to a universe of knowledge. It's a platform for pursuing the truth, and the decentralized creation and distribution of ideas, in the same way that markets are a decentralized mechanism for the creation and distribution of goods and services. It's a platform, in other words, for reason. But the Internet must be developed and protected, in the same way we develop and protect markets—through the establishment of fair rules of engagement and the exercise of the rule of law. The same ferocity that our Founders devoted to protect the freedom and independence of the pressis now appropriate for our defense of the freedom of the Internet. The stakes are the same: the survival of our Republic. We must ensure that the Internet remains open and accessible to all citizens without any limitation on the ability of individuals to choose the content they wish regardless of the Internet service provider they use to connect to the Web. We cannot take this future for granted. We must be prepared to fight for it, because of the threat of corporate consolidation and control over the Internet marketplace of ideas.

The danger arises because there is, in most markets, a very small number of broadband network operators. These operators have the structural capacity to determine the way in which information is transmitted over the Internet and the speed with which it is delivered. And the present Internet network operators—principally large telephone and cable companies—have an economic incentive to extend their control over the physical infrastructure of the network to leverage control of Internet content. If they went about it in the wrong way, these companies could institute changes that have the effect of limiting the free flow of information over the Internet in a number of troubling ways.

The democratization of knowledge by the print medium brought the Enlightenment. Now, broadband interconnection is supporting decentralized processes that reinvigorate democracy. We can see it happening before our eyes: As a society, weare getting smarter. Networked democracy is taking hold. You can feel it. We the people—as Lincoln put it, "even we here"—are collectively still the key to the survival of America's democracy.

Tags: Al Gore, Media

Back in the big sandbox

2007-05-02T20:12:00.000+04:00

Iraq that is. I got here on the 27th at 2 AM after having to sit in Kuwait since Tuesday at 4 PM, their time.

I left Tyrone at about 5:45 PM, the train was late from the 4:05 PM on the schedule but it made up the time and I rolled into NYC right on time at 11:00 PM. I took the subway to Andy Martin's and walked the 5 blocks to his house from the subway. He took good care of me and we sat up and talked until late. We were up at 6:30 and he dropped me at the subway on his way to La Guardia Airport. I took the subway to the Sky Train station and the cops gave me a free ride on the Air Train after checking out my stuff. They asked about the aid bag and why I needed it and decided I could get a free pass if I was coming here. Who says the police are not your friend?

I had no trouble getting through security, they didn't run me through the wringer, as they did in Germany. The plane was a Boeing 777 and I had a row of 3 seats all to myself, so I could stretch out even if I could not sleep.

Dubai, UAE was uneventful unless you consider I arrived at 6 AM their time and had to lay over until 4 PM to catch my flight to Kuwait. As luck would have it I ran into a guy from Darfor, who was working in Japan and on his way home to the genocide, not that he expected to get scooped up in the mess but it was on his mind. He told me about the free lunch if you had a layover of more than 3 hours and it was quite a spread.

I waited in the terminal at Kuwait International and got a ride to Ali Al Salem Airbase at 6:30 PM. Once there I got signed up for standby back to al Asad and the fun began 3 days later and less sleep than I needed I arrived here. When you are flying out on stand by, you have to make both accountability calls at 0630 and 1630 hours to stay on the stand by list, as well as every flight to your destination. By the time I worked my way up to the top of the list, in came a C-17 with seats for 150 people and they cleared off everyone wanting to go to al Asad. Even with 40 people on the plane it was not crowded either.

Once I got here I caught a cat nap before Charlie H. started pounding on my door at 8:30 AM. The Ugandan guards were ever so happy to see me. I never thought I would say this but I am home sick.

Being with Lynne everyday for 4 months was heaven. I miss her so much now. She told me I can come home any time I want but I'll be alright once I get into the swing of things. I know I am here until the 4th of JUNE and maybe until the 4th of July. After that, I'll get moved to somewhere else. Rod K. was here to meet me at al Asad, he was covering until I did. Since they got new housing and moved the Aid Station to the Tactical Operation Center (TOC) we need to do an inventory and get everything set up.

My buddy, Glenn W., who was also a medic in Special Forces, is supposed to be in here from Korean Village in the next couple of days so I'll see him again.

Well, that is the update, I'll send more as I know it.

The Poem of Our Times

2007-04-15T22:37:00.000+04:00

"The Sheepdogs"

Most humans truly are like sheep
Wanting nothing more than peace to keep

To graze, grow fat and raise their young,
Sweet taste of clover on the tongue.

Their lives serene upon Life's farm,
They sense no threat nor fear no harm.

On verdant meadows, they forage free
With naught to fear, with naught to flee.

They pay their sheepdogs little heed
For there is no threat; there is no need.

To the flock, sheepdog's are mysteries,
Roaming watchful round the peripheries.

These fang-toothed creatures bark, they roar
With the fetid reek of the carnivore,

Too like the wolf of legends told,
To be amongst our docile fold.

Who needs sheepdogs? What good are they?"
They have no use, not in this day.

Lock them away, out of our sight
We have no need of their fierce might.

But sudden in their midst a beast
Has come to kill, has come to feast

The wolves attack; they give no warning
Upon that calm September morning

They slash and kill with frenzied glee
Their passive helpless enemy

Who had no clue the wolves were there
Far roaming from their Eastern lair.

Then from the carnage, from the rout,
Comes the cry, "Turn the sheepdogs out!"

Thus is our nature but too our plight
To keep our dogs on leashes tight

And live a life of illusive bliss
Hearing not the beast, his growl, his hiss.

Until he has us by the throat,
We pay no heed; we take no note.

Not until he strikes us at our core
Will we unleash the Dogs of War

Only having felt the wolf pack' wrath
Do we loose the sheepdogs on its path.

And the wolves will learn what we've shown before;
We love our sheep, we Dogs of War.

Russ Vaughn
2d Bn, 327th Parachute Infantry Regiment
101st Airborne Division
Vietnam 65-66

Is it working?

2007-01-03T17:43:00.000+03:00

I just had a conversation with an Iraqi interpreter. He is a translator for an Iraqi unit that is advised by the Marines. I saw him at lunch today and sat with him and two other interpreters. He and one of the other guys at the table were two of the guys who were hit in the mortar attack in Hit on 9 OCT 06. If you did not see what I wrote about that Mass Causality it is below. He recognized me the other day and said, Hello. He also thanked us for helping them that day. They are all back to duty. So today when I saw them as I was getting ready to find a place to sit, I asked to join them.

He says that the reason why Iraq has outside interference is because the Iranians, Saudis, and Syrians fear a strong, unified Iraq. They would like nothing more than to see it sectioned into 3 separate countries because they would gobble it up like Saddam tried with Kuwait. The Turks just want to kill the Kurds but will not interfere unless there is no united Iraq.

Which brings us to another point he made, Iraq has no real national identity as we have in the United States. We are all Americans and understand that. He sees that as one of the biggest problems here.

He too believes that Saddam should have been removed back in 1991. We left him off the ropes when he was beaten and we had all the support of the coalition behind us. He speculates that something happened behind the scenes that Saddam was left in place. I think perhaps it had something to do with the specter of Vietnam and the doctrine of limited warfare.

This is a guy who could be in the states right now with his family but as an Iraqi he wants what is best for his countrymen. If you remember back to what happened on the 9th of October, this is the same guy who said, "Same God."

He also believes that part of the problem with the insurgents is the lack of jobs; they join militias like people join gangs in big cities. Then they can do the things they want as part of the bigger group. Thug behavior at best. We discussed which came first the poverty or the criminal thinking and decided it was another chicken or the egg discussion. Jail was another problem; it introduces some of them into the militias just as it seems to make better criminals in the US. How many Boot Camp graduates have I seen come back to prison for Postgraduate work?

All and all he wants us to stay until the work is done. Then he can go to the states with his family. I have a new respect for these guys who are interpreters.

They came to see us.

2006-12-30T14:20:00.000+03:00

I had a chance to do escot duty yesterday. Low threat security for some VIP's. Jim McMahon, Dave Price of "The Early Show," Kerri Turner (Lt Harriet Sims on JAG), and Kevin Butler - Chacago Bears Kicker. They had a great time meeting and greating the troops. My impression was that they were the ones who felt honored to meet those VIP's who are serving this great nation. They were awed by us.

Kerri got a chance to see her doctor who is here at al Asad. Not for professional reasons. She knows him from LA before he was deployed to here with a Sea Bee unit. He was in line with his Sea Bee "body guards" to see her.

Unfortunately, there was not time to stop at the hospital because the plane arrived late but they got out of here on time.

The nurses from "The Cheaters of Death" were also here in full force. Kerri wondered if there were any females here and found out firsthand who these women are. Everyone of these women a true professional. Makes me proud to know them as well as work with them.

Changing Hearts and Minds

2006-12-15T22:13:00.000+03:00

On 9 OCT 06, I walked into the mess Hall and had just got my tray filled and was getting ready to sit down to eat when I heard, "This is the command post, all medical personal report to the base hospital, this is not a drill." I set down my tray on the table and headed for the door. On the way out I ran into my DOC. He is a Navy Doctor to whom I consult for my patients. He was washing his hands on the way in and did not hear the announcement.

Once I arrived at the hospital they had a hallway full of people waiting to help. I figured I would be twiddling my fingers for sure. Not so. We received 27 patients and others were rerouted to TQ for treatment. Seems the Iraqis were having a funeral for one of their own in Hit, when a mortar round struck in the middle of their formation.

I got teamed with the Psychiatrist in a room with 5 patients. We worked them up for the surgeon, admission, or treat and release. One went to surgery, two were admitted and two were treated and released. Everything went smooth. Rapid trauma assessments, IV's started, and treatments were done. Most of these guys had not eaten since 1 AM the day prior because of fasting for Ramadan. That was good if they had to go to surgery.

One of the guys, an Iraqi interpreter, said they had not eaten since 1 AM and it was about 9 PM when he told me this. I ask why and he said because of Ramadan. I knew they fasted during daylight but forgot it was now. I said, "You will have to pardon us Christians for not knowing." What he said indicated to me that he was my friend and had the right idea for what needs to be done, "Same God." It is working.

What we did spoke volumes to those guys. They knew we cared. It has been said, "no one cares how much you know until they know how much you care." That is the approach that we need to take in Iraq and is the Special Forces way of winning the hearts and minds of the people.

The regular army and marines have no concept of this. It is not their fault, they just want to go “kick ass." That is the conventional way of war. This is now an unconventional war and the approach must be different.

I finally left at 2330 hours and went to eat. Walking into the mess hall I remarked, "Isn’t this where we started?"

Does it make you feel alive to know that you changed their lives because someone else wanted to change their lives? Hell, yes.

Two days later my friend Jerry was killed just outside Camp Speicher in an ambush.

Why the culture of Iraq needs to change

2006-12-15T16:17:00.000+03:00

I think the Arabic word Inshallah is the evidence of a culturally based but religious induced "learned helplessness." Do you remember the concept from psychology? The dogs in Seligman's experiments would not get away of the shock after being exposed to it long enough without an escape. Eventhough they were shown how to get away from it they just let it happen. In Islam, "if Allah allows" is the shibboleth of being a Muslim (he who submits to the will of Allah). The true Muslim has no actual power to escape God's will/wrath because he has relinguished his will to that of Allah's to be a good Muslim.

Let us be clear that submission to the will of God is not a new religious concept; consider the fist of the Ten Commandments given to Moses:

Exodus 20: 1-11

1 And God spake all these words, saying, 2 I am the LORD thy God, which have brought thee out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. 3 Thou shalt have no other gods before me. 4 Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth. 5 Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them: for I the LORD thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me; 6 And shewing mercy unto thousands of them that love me, and keep my commandments. 7 Thou shalt not take the name of the LORD thy God in vain; for the LORD will not hold him guiltless that taketh his name in vain. 8 Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy. 9 Six days shalt thou labour, and do all thy work: 10 But the seventh day is the sabbath of the LORD thy God: in it thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, thy manservant, nor thy maidservant, nor thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates: 11 For in six days the LORD made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day: wherefore the LORD blessed the sabbath day, and hallowed it.

This is not the first example of submitting to God's will from the first five books of the Bible; actually the account of the 10 Commandments is in the second book, Exodus. The concept is first seen in Genesis 3: 1- 24, with Adam not submitting to the will/command of God (Koran 2:34-38). Years later, we see the example of the flood, which is the result of man's failure to submit to God. Likewise, there is the example from the tower of Babel; they did not follow God's command to "fill the earth" (Gen. 9-1). Then we see Abraham's willingness to leave Ur (Gen. 12:1-4) and years later to sacrifice his son Isaac (Gen. 22:1 - 18), an act which is the pinnacle of that submission to God's will. (Christianity has a different take on this event.) In fact, the Jews assign a special name for this place, Yahweh yireh, The Lord Will Provide, (Gen. 22:14.) From the Koran, Abraham's example is found in the second Chapter. Notice these passages from that second chapter are about being a Muslim:

2.112: Yes! whoever submits himself entirely to Allah and he is the doer of good (to others) he has his reward from his Lord, and there is no fear for him nor shall he grieve...

2.124: And when his Lord tried Ibrahim with certain words, he fulfilled them. He said: Surely I will make you an Imam of men. Ibrahim said: And of my offspring? My covenant does not include the unjust, said He...

2.128: Our Lord! and make us both submissive to Thee and (raise) from our offspring a nation submitting to Thee, and show us our ways of devotion and turn to us (mercifully), surely Thou art the Oft-returning (to mercy), the Merciful....

2.131: When his Lord said to him, Be a Muslim, he said: I submit myself to the Lord of the worlds. 132: And the same did Ibrahim enjoin on his sons and (so did) Yaqoub. O my sons! surely Allah has chosen for you (this) faith, therefore die not unless you are Muslims. 133: Nay! were you witnesses when death visited Yaqoub, when he said to his sons: What will you serve after me? They said: We will serve your God and the God of your fathers, Ibrahim and Ismail and Ishaq, one God only, and to Him do we submit. 134: This is a people that have passed away; they shall have what they earned and you shall have what you earn, and you shall not be called upon to answer for what they did. 135: And they say: Be Jews or Christians, you will be on the right course. Say: Nay! (we follow) the religion of Ibrahim, the Hanif, and he was not one of the polytheists. 136: Say: We believe in Allah and (in) that which had been revealed to us, and (in) that which was revealed to Ibrahim and Ismail and Ishaq and Yaqoub and the tribes, and (in) that which was given to Musa and Isa, and (in) that which was given to the prophets from their Lord, we do not make any distinction between any of them, and to Him do we submit.

Read in context, these passages conflict with the Biblical account and demonstrates the rift between Jews, Christians, and Muslims. As you read the Koran, the non Muslims are constantly portrayed as not human.

Notice that Ishmael (Ismail) is mentioned 12 times in the Koran, Isaac (Ishaq ) ismentioned 17 times, and Abraham has a chapter (14) named for him and "the Imam of Men" - the perfect example in everything - is mentioned 70 times in the entire text of the Koran. By the way, Jesus (Isa son of Maruim) is mentioned 27 times.

Submission is one of the underlying concepts of all three religions. The bottom line for me is that the religion of Islam is fatalistic in its belief system. Free will is not from God in Islam but is the evidence of Satan's influence. That is why we are the "Great Satan." We have and exercise our free will.

One of the Ugandans here with me in Iraq said, "The Muslims say this is the Promised Land; look around, I don't think God really loves them." It is hard to disagree with that here in Iraq.

Joseph J. Ogershok, Jr.

“Courage is being scared to death but saddling up anyway” John Wayne

Hope Rides Alone
USA Sgt. Eddie Jeffers, USA (Iraq) February 1, 2007
Editor's Note: This piece by Sgt. Eddie Jeffers, "Hope Rides Alone", was mentioned in a segment on Fox News Channel's O'Reilly Factor. Click here to listen to or download the segment. I stare out into the darkness from my post, and I watch the city burn to the ground. I smell the familiar smells, I walk through the familiar rubble, and I look at the frightened faces that watch me pass down the streets of their neighborhoods. My nerves hardly rest; my hands are steady on a device that has been given to me from mygovernment for the purpose of taking the lives of others. I sweat, and I am tired. My back aches from the loads I carry. Young American boys look to me to direct them in a manner that will someday allow them to see their families again...and yet, I too, am just a boy....my age not but a few years more than that of the ones I lead. I am stressed, I am scared, and I am paranoid...because death is everywhere. It waits for me, it calls to me from around street corners and windows, and it is always there. There are the demons that follow me, and tempt me into thoughts and actions that are not my own...but that are necessary for survival. I've made compromises with my humanity. And I am not alone in this. Miles from me are my brethren in this world, who walk in the same streets...who feel the same things, whether they admit to it or not. And to think, I volunteered for this... And I am ignorant to the rest of the world...or so I thought. But even thousands of miles away, in Ramadi, Iraq, the cries and screams and complaints of the ungrateful reach me. In a year, I will be thrust back into society from a life and mentality that doesn't fit your average man. And then, I will be alone. And then, I will walk down the streets of America, and see the yellow ribbon stickers on the cars of the same people who compare our President to Hitler. I will watch the television and watch the Cindy Sheehans, and the Al Frankens, and the rest of the ignorant sheep of America spout off their mouths about a subject they know nothing about. It is their right, however, and it is a right that is defended by hundreds of thousands of boys and girls scattered across the world, far from home. I use the word boys and girls, because that's what they are. In the Army, the average age of the infantryman is nineteen years old. The average rank of soldiers killed in action is Private First Class. People like Cindy Sheehan are ignorant. Not just to this war, but to the results of their idiotic ramblings, or at least I hope they are. They don't realize its effects on this war. In this war, there are no Geneva Conventions, no cease fires. Medics and Chaplains are not spared from the enemy's brutality because it's against the rules. I can only imagine the horrors a military Chaplain would experience at the hands of the enemy. The enemy slinks in the shadows and fights a coward’s war against us. It is effective though, as many men and women have died since the start of this war. And the memory of their service to America is tainted by the inconsiderate remarks on our nation's news outlets. And every day, the enemy changes...only now, the enemy is becoming something new. The enemy is transitioning from the Muslim extremists to Americans. The enemy is becoming the very people whom we defend with our lives. And they do not realize it. But in denouncing our actions, denouncing our leaders, denouncing the war we live and fight, they are isolating the military from society...and they are becoming our enemy. Democrats and peace activists like to toss the word "quagmire" around and compare this war to Vietnam. In a way they are right, this war is becoming like Vietnam. Not the actual war, but in the isolation of country and military. America is not a nation at war; they are a nation with its military at war. Like it or not, we are here, some of us for our second, or third times; some even for their fourth and so on. Americans are so concerned now with politics, that it is interfering with our war. Terrorists cut the heads off of American citizens on the internet...and there is no outrage, but an American soldier kills an Iraqi in the midst of battle, and there are investigations, and sometimes soldiers are even jailed...for doing their job. It is absolutely sickening to me to think our country has come to this. Why are we so obsessed with the bad news? Why will people stop at nothing to be against this war, no matter how much evidence of the good we've done is thrown in their face? When is the last time CNN or MSNBC or CBS reported the opening of schools and hospitals in Iraq? Or the leaders of terror cells being detained or killed? It's all happening, but people will not let up their hatred of President Bush. They will ignore the good news, because it just might show people that Bush was right. America has lost its will to fight. It has lost its will to defend what is right and just in the world. The crazy thing of it all is that the American people have not even been asked to sacrifice a single thing. It’s not like World War II, where people rationed food and turned in cars to be made into metal for tanks. The American people have not been asked to sacrifice anything. Unless you are in the military or the family member of a servicemember, its life as usual...the war doesn't affect you. But it affects us. And when it is over and the troops come home and they try to piece together what's left of them after their service...where will the detractors be then? Where will the Cindy Sheehans be to comfort and talk to soldiers and help them sort out the last couple years of their lives, most of which have been spent dodging death and wading through the deaths of their friends? They will be where they always are, somewhere far away, where the horrors of the world can't touch them. Somewhere where they can complain about things they will never experience in their lifetime; things that the young men and women of America have willingly taken upon their shoulders. We are the hope of the Iraqi people. They want what everyone else wants in life: safety, security, somewhere to call home. They want a country that is safe to raise their children in. Not a place where their children will be abducted, raped and murdered if they do not comply with the terrorists demands. They want to live on, rebuild and prosper. And America has given them the opportunity, but only if we stay true to the cause and see it to its end. But the country must unite in this endeavor...we cannot place the burden on our military alone. We must all stand up and fight, whether in uniform or not. And supporting us is more than sticking yellow ribbon stickers on your cars. It's supporting our President, our troops and our cause. Right now, the burden is all on the American soldiers. Right now, hope rides alone. But it can change, it must change. Because there is only failure and darkness ahead for us as a country, as a people, if it doesn't. Let's stop all the political nonsense, let's stop all the bickering, let's stop all the bad news and let's stand and fight! Isn't that what America is about anyway?
Sergeant Eddie Jeffers is a US Army Infantryman serving in Ramadi, Iraq.