Theodore's World

Pentagon: 61 ex-Guantanamo inmates return to terrorism
Reuters
The Pentagon said on Tuesday that 61 former detainees from its military prison camp at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, appear to have returned to terrorism since their release from custody.
Pentagon spokesman Geoff Morrell said 18 former detainees are confirmed as “returning to the fight” and 43 are suspected of having done in a report issued late in December by the Defense Intelligence Agency.
Morrell declined to provide details such as the identity of the former detainees, why and where they were released or what actions they have taken since leaving U.S. custody.

“This is acts of terrorism. It could be Iraq, Afghanistan, it could be acts of terrorism around the world,” he told reporters.

Morrell said the latest figures, current through December 24, showed an 11 percent recidivism rate, up from 7 percent in a March 2008 report that counted 37 former detainees as suspected or confirmed active militants.
Rights advocates said the lack of details should call the Pentagon’s assertions into question.
“Until enough information is provided to allow the press and the public to verify these claims, they need to be viewed with a healthy degree of skepticism,” said Jennifer Daskal, a Washington-based lawyer for Human Rights Watch.
Rights advocates contend that many Guantanamo detainees have never taken up arms against the United States and say the Defense Department in the past has described former detainees as rejoining “the fight” because they spoke out against the U.S. government.
“The Defense Department sees that the Guantanamo detention operation has failed and they are trying to launch another fear mongering campaign to justify the indefinite detention of detainees there,” said Jamil Dakwar, human rights director at the American Civil Liberties Union.
President-elect Barack Obama, who takes office next Tuesday, is expected to issue an executive order to close the Guantanamo Bay prison. Defense Secretary Robert Gates also favors shuttering Guantanamo.
But the prison is unlikely to shut until after U.S. officials settle a myriad of legal and logistic issues, including a solution on where to house its occupants.
About 255 men are still held at the U.S.-run naval base in Cuba, a symbol of aggressive interrogation methods that exposed the United States to allegations of torture.
Pentagon officials say that about 110 detainees should never be released because of the potential danger they pose to U.S. interests.

Wild Thing’s comment……..
It is not if but when we will be attacked again. How about a tracking chip with a remote detonator!

.

….Thank you Lynn for the image of GITMO.

Video : Why Christians should fear Hamas?

Hamas Reinstates Crucifixions of Christians
newsmax
By: Nicole Jansezian
While the world focused on Hamas militants launching rockets from Gaza at southern Israel, the terrorist organization also voted quietly to implement Islamic law in the Gaza Strip, including crucifixion of Christians, according to reports in the Arabic press.
The traditional Muslim criminal code, known as Sharia law, includes penalties such as amputation of limbs for stealing and the death penalty, including crucifixion, for actions Hamas deems detrimental to “Palestinian interests,” including collaborating with Israel.

The new law was reported on the Al-Arabiya Web site and in the London-based Saudi-owned newspaper Al-Hayat, which wrote that the implementation of Sharia law has “brought criticism and concern from human rights organizations in the Gaza Strip.”

But the media scarcely took notice when the decision was reported during the Christian holidays as fighting between Hamas and Israel escalated in late December.

“Hamas’ endorsement of nailing enemies of Islam to crosses came at the same time it renewed its jihad,” Jerusalem Post columnist Caroline Glick wrote on Dec. 26. “Here, too, Hamas wanted to make sure that Christians didn’t feel neglected as its fighters launched missiles at Jewish day care centers and schools.”

Christians are a minority in Gaza, numbering fewer than 2,000 residents among 1.6 million in the Strip. After Hamas came to power, the Islamic group began enforcing sharia law more strictly, though not officially. Christians were the first to feel the squeeze. Some Christian men felt compelled to grow beards and women donned head scarves to downplay their identities as non-Muslims.
Sharia law is implemented fully in some nations, including Iran and Saudi Arabia.

When Palestinian voters elected Hamas in 2006, organization spokesman Hamed Bitawi declared: “The Quran is our constitution, Muhammad is our prophet, jihad is our path, and dying as martyrs for the sake of Allah is our biggest wish.”

Palestinian officials in Gaza denied the adoption of Islamic law. However, Palestinian Media Watch, an organization that monitors the Arab press, says the group is lying.

“Contrary to today’s denials, official Hamas leaders have proudly announced in the Hamas-run media in the last two months that this Islamic penal code was being prepared,” the media watchdog said. “Indeed, senior Hamas leaders went so far as to say that when these laws are implemented, they will have force not only in Gaza but also in the West Bank.”

Media Watch also noted that Hamas newspaper Al-Rissala reported, “The Bureau of Islamic Law is preparing a penal code in order to implement Sharia-Islamic Law.”
Hamas has financial backing from Iran, which supplies the group with rockets and weapons used to attack Israel. Despite espousing separate branches of Islam — Hamas is Sunni; Iran is Shiite — the organization shares the expressed wish of Iran President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to wipe out Israel. The Hamas charter states: “Israel will exist and will continue to exist until Islam will obliterate it, just as it obliterated others before it.”
Israel withdrew unilaterally, both residents and soldiers, from the Gaza Strip in 2005, leaving the territory entirely under Palestinian jurisdiction. Then, in a coup in 2007, Hamas took over the Gaza Strip, ousting its rival party Fatah and assassinating Fatah loyalists. Since then, rocket fire launched at Israel’s southern communities increased. In December, a six-month period of calm collapsed and led to Israel’s Operation Cast Lead, the bombings and attacks against Hamas militants in Gaza in retaliation for bombings of Israel.

Wild Thing’s comment……….
The Hamas that trains their children from birth absolute hate for Jews and all non-Muslims – and trains them to wear bomb belts, to play “kill the Jew” as a regular playground game, and uses their women and children as cover to shoot at Israelis. They teach to hate America, to hate Israel, to hate Jews and Christians from such a young age. Their books, their games for children are all about hate and killing the people of the book ( Jews and Christians).
The Hamas has to be taken out, destroyed.

….Thank you Mark for sending this to me.
Mark
3rd Mar.Div. 1st Battalion 9th Marine Regiment
1/9 Marines aka The Walking Dead
VN 66-67

Officials turn down Franken request in Minn. race
AP
ST. PAUL, Minn
Democrat Al Franken was quickly turned down Monday when he asked Minnesota’s governor and secretary of state to issue an election certificate that would let him take office in the Senate.
In letters the campaign sent to Republican Gov. Tim Pawlenty and Democratic Secretary of State Mark Ritchie, Franken’s lawyers argued that a seven-day waiting period for issuing the certificate after an election has passed and he should get the signed certificate. But the state officials said their hands were tied by state law and they could not act.
Franken led Republican Norm Coleman by 225 votes after a statewide recount that was completed Jan. 5.
Coleman is suing over the result, claiming there were irregularities on Election Day and during the recount.
Minnesota law prevents officials from issuing an election certificate until legal matters are resolved. But Franken’s legal team argues that federal election law entitles Franken to receive the certificate before the lawsuit is settled.

“The people of Minnesota are down a senator in the U.S. Senate. This is an opportunity for Governor Pawlenty and Secretary Ritchie to ensure the interests of all Minnesotans are represented in Washington,” Franken lawyer Marc Elias told reporters in a conference call. He didn’t rule out a lawsuit.

In a statement, Ritchie said state law requires him and the governor to turn down Franken’s request.

“Minnesota law is very clear on when a certificate of election can be issued. Neither the governor nor I may sign a certificate of election in the U.S. Senate race until all election contests have reached a final determination,” Ritchie’s statement read.

The statement didn’t specifically address Franken’s argument that federal law supercedes the state law.
Pawlenty echoed Ritchie, saying it is clear the law won’t allow him to issue a certificate while the race is being contested in court.
Coleman campaign manager Cullen Sheehan dismissed the move as a power play meant to get around Franken’s need to defend the election outcome in court.

“He can’t and won’t be seated in a seat he didn’t win, so he is trying this underhanded attempt to blatantly ignore the will of Minnesotans and the laws of the state,” Sheehan said.

Franken’s campaign was due to file a response to Coleman’s lawsuit later Monday. Elias characterized the Coleman action as “riddled with errors that are fatal to much if not all of the claims made in the petition.”
By law, a trial on the lawsuit must start within three weeks of its filing, which occurred last Tuesday. It will be heard by a three-judge panel that includes one Republican appointee, one Democratic appointee and one named by an independent governor.

Wild Thing’s comment………
Standard Democrat election strategy. Recount until you “find” enough new ballots to change the result and then stop.
What a total mess they have in Minn. And the only reason is because of the democrats! They just can’t do things legally and orderly. They have to LIE, CHEAT and STEAL to try and win. Heck Obama did that when he stole all those votes from Hillary Clinton. Dead people voting, ACORN, etc, all things the Democrats have their filthy hands into.
Here are the facts. Coleman won the election by approximately 700 votes. Then a bunch of mysterious BS “corrections” reduced his lead to about 200 votes before the recount even started. Then, during the recount, boxes of mysterious extra votes kept turning up for Franken, coming from the strangest places.
Al Franken will never be a legitimate U.S. Senator, even if he is officially certified and takes the seat. There won’t be any justice until Coleman takes his rightful Senate position and Franken takes a position in federal prison for stealing the election.

….Thank you Darth for sending the article to me.
Darth
U.S. Airforce
C-5 loadmaster
84-97

Source
It begins as the Prince—about to embark on training as a combat helicopter pilot—joins other cadets gathering at an airport for their flight to Cyprus. He is behind the camcorder, panning around sleeping comrades waiting for their flight.
As he films one cadet lying on the departure lounge floor, he says:

“This is luxury. And here is our first example of possibly how to admin yourself (slang for looking after your kit and keeping yourself in good order) in the terminal awaiting the RAF.”

The camera pans over other snoozing soldiers, with Harry commenting “now that is bad admin, bad admin” before he suddenly stops and zooms in on the face of an unsuspecting Asian cadet yards away.
“Anybody else around here? . . . Ah, our little Paki friend . . . Ahmed,” he whispers.
After arriving in Cyprus, Harry is on exercise with his platoon when he makes his second offensive racist comment. Once again he is behind the camera, filming in the dark.

One of his comrades has put what appears to be some camouflage over his head and as he looks up at the lens Harry says: “It’s Dan the Man . . . F*** me, you look like a raghead. Look at me. Look at me . . . look away.”

The video— obtained by the News of the World— then shows the Prince on manoeuvres in Cyprus with his comrades. Harry plays on-screen reporter, turning the video on himself as he walks along. Then still a Sandhurst military cadet, he sarcastically mocks the exercise they have been given to do.

“It’s hot, very hot. Let me quickly show you the camp, let me show you the pointless tasks,” he says.

“Maybe not pointless tasks, we have been given by the real Company Sergeant Major, which apparently is all very much worthwhile towards our education in the field.” The camcorder is passed to another squaddie. A cadet then introduces Harry as “Mr Wales“ and says the prince is “going to attempt to deliver a set of deliberate night attack orders in 30 seconds”.

The camera focuses on the Prince as he sits pretending to finish a call to the Queen.

I’ve got to go, got to go. Send my love to the corgis. Send my love to the corgis and Grandpa” before making his “God Save You” insult.

Afterwards he pops a cigarette in his mouth before barking orders about an upcoming exercise, saying “we will be wearing smocks, body armour, helmet, and all the usual s**t”. After giving the orders the exercise descends into farce when the Prince, wielding an army knife, asks his men if there are any questions.

Wild Thing’s comment………
Nothing racist about what he said. A terrorist killer can and should be called anything you want. If there were more Harrys in the world Britain might still be the Great Britain that we used to know.
He seems to have a good personality and good at keeping morale high.
I think they are maknig way too much about this.

….Thank you Mark for sending this to me.
Mark
3rd Mar.Div. 1st Battalion 9th Marine Regiment
1/9 Marines aka The Walking Dead
VN 66-67

Carol M. Browner has been tapped as the coordinator of climate and energy policies.

Obama climate czar has socialist ties
The Washington Times
Until last week, Carol M. Browner, President-elect Barack Obama’s pick as global warming czar, was listed as one of 14 leaders of a socialist group’s Commission for a Sustainable World Society, which calls for “global governance” and says rich countries must shrink their economies to address climate change.
By Thursday, Mrs. Browner’s name and biography had been removed from Socialist International’s Web page, though a photo of her speaking June 30 to the group’s congress in Greece was still available.
Socialist International, an umbrella group for many of the world’s social democratic political parties such as Britain’s Labor Party, says it supports socialism and is harshly critical of U.S. policies.
The group’s Commission for a Sustainable World Society, the organization’s action arm on climate change, says the developed world must reduce consumption and commit to binding and punitive limits on greenhouse gas emissions.
Mr. Obama, who has said action on climate change would be a priority in his administration, tapped Mrs. Browner last month to fill a new position as White House coordinator of climate and energy policies. The appointment does not need Senate confirmation.
Mr. Obama’s transition team said Mrs. Browner’s membership in the organization is not a problem and that it brings experience in U.S. policymaking to her new role.
Mrs. Browner ran the Environmental Protection Agency under President Clinton. Until she was tapped for the Obama administration, she was on the board of directors for the National Audubon Society, the League of Conservation Voters, the Center for American Progress and former Vice President Al Gore’s Alliance for Climate Protection.
Her name has been removed from the Gore organization’s Web site list of directors, and the Audubon Society issued a press release about her departure from that organization.
Republicans said Mrs. Browner’s work with Socialist International raises questions.
Socialist International bills itself as the world body of democratic socialist movements. It includes members ranging from Israel’s Labor Party and France’s Socialist Party to Angola’s MPLA, which won the 1970s Angolan civil war with the aid of Soviet arms and Cuban troops.
The Democratic Socialists of America, not the Democratic Party, is listed as the group’s U.S. representative.
Socialist International regularly blasts the construction of fencing along the U.S.-Mexico border.
Socialist International was congratulatory when Mr. Obama won the election, issuing a statement noting that “the sky may seem a bit brighter today.

Wild Thing’s comment………
“rich countries must shrink their economies to address climate change”
How much do we need to shrink, and how exactly do they plan to shrink it?
Eric Holder, Hilda Solis, & now Carol Browner: All far-left over-the-top socialists. What were the 52.7% who voted for this zero thinking? Just wait until he gets his hands on Supreme Court nominees.
Wouldn’t it be easier to just list the people in Ho-bama’s administration who DON’T have socialist ties?

….Thank you Richard ( Richard is Lynn’s husband) for sending this article to me.

Obama to Issue Order Closing Gitmo During First Week in Office
President-elect Barack Obama is preparing to issue an order during his first week in office to close Guantanamo Bay.
FOX news
President-elect Barack Obama is preparing to issue an executive order his first week in office — and perhaps his first day — to close the U.S. military prison at Guantanamo Bay, according to two presidential transition team advisers.
It’s unlikely the detention facility at the Navy base in Cuba will be closed anytime soon. In an interview last weekend, Obama said it would be “a challenge” to close it even within the first 100 days of his administration.
But the order, which one adviser said could be issued as early as Jan. 20, would start the process of deciding what to do with the estimated 250 Al Qaeda and Taliban suspects and potential witnesses who are being held there.
Detainees held on U.S. soil would have certain legal rights that they were not entitled to while imprisoned in Cuba. It’s also not clear if they would face trial through the current military tribunal system, or in federal civilian courts, or though a to-be-developed legal system that would mark a hybrid of the two.
Where to imprison the detainees also is a problem.

And then there is this………………
Kansas senators don’t want Gitmo detainees
LEAVENWORTH, Kan.
Jan. 5 (UPI)
The two U.S. senators from Kansas say they don’t want terror suspects held at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, to be transferred to the Fort Leavenworth U.S. Army base.
Republican Sen. Sam Brownback has introduced legislation to ban the use of federal funds for any transfer of the detainees to Leavenworth. Fellow Republican Sen. Pat Roberts also opposes using the Kansas military facility to house “enemy combatants” from Guantanamo, The Kansas City Star reported Monday.

U.S. President-elect Barack Obama has vowed to close the U.S. military detention facility in Guantanamo, and his aides are exploring the options of sending some of the prisoners to Fort Leavenworth’s disciplinary barracks among other U.S. sites, the newspaper said.

“They plan to close Guantanamo Bay, which I understand,” Brownback said recently at the Leavenworth barracks, “… to move them to another location in the United States. I’m saying this one doesn’t fit.”

Brownback said such a move would disrupt the fort’s primary mission of training officers at the Command General Staff College, while Roberts added bringing Guantanamo detainees to Kansas “would be placing Americans in harm’s way. It would be a logistical nightmare,” the Star reported.

And also this………………………
Australia rejects Gitmo detainee request
UPI
Australia will not be among the nations accepting terror suspects now held at the U.S. prison camp in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, the government has announced.
Australian Deputy Prime Minister Julia Gillard, in the second such rejection within a year, said Saturday the latest decision was based on “stringent national security and immigration considerations,” the BBC reported.

And lastly this…………
Britian reluctant to take Gitmo detainees
UPI
Some nations are expressing wariness about U.S. requests for them to accept detainees from the Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, military prison, diplomatic leaders said.
British officials also indicated a reluctance to accept former Guantanamo prisoners, saying they haven’t been asked to do so, The New York Times reported.

Wild Thing’s comment…….
Now this makes no sense at all. Why oh why do they want to close GITMO. It is such a perfect place for these priosners. It is like if something works why change it. It is going to cause all kinds of probllems and spreading the prisoners out around the world to places that might be talked in to taking them will only add to the confusion of the whole thing.
I will say he is NOT going to be able to do this for some time and not right away. This is a long process and no one wants them. Also this last Sunday on ” This Week” with George Stephanolipis , the UnConstitutional President elect said differently, hahahaha more indecision but that is ok as long as it means they are not closing GITMO.
Obama is going to be the weakest “president” in US history. We are all in danger with this pansy in office. That’s stating the obvious, but still, come on, who on earth is going to fear the USA anymore and therefore show some restraint in harming us? We are all sitting ducks.
I am going to make a guess here as well that the next thing or close to it on Obama’s agenda will be halting wiretaps on foreign radicals.

One of the photos from this last year of President Bush and our troops.

President Bush to be on Hannity’s new show tonight.
Fox News, 9 PM EST

Wild Thing’s comment……….
We will never have a family in the White House again, like that of George & Laura. I’m sick to my stomach, to think of next week, and what we face with the new First Family to come.
God help us all…

One Pissed-Off Dude
Big Hollywood blog
by Gary Graham
I’m an American. This has always been my favorite label, but of late even that has seemed to mean less and less. Being called an American used to carry with it a certain pride and esprit de corps that now apparently is dated and passe. How else can one explain the rash of America-haters in our midst who only claim pride in America if a Leftist resides in the White House, and can only back a war effort if the decision to go to war was that of a Democrat.
I’m a Conservative. And I am also an actor who lives and works in Hollywood. Many of my friends advise me to keep that on the down-low, advise me to not speak up lest I scuttle any future employment prospects, so predominantly liberal is the entertainment biz. And yet I persist.
You see, I’m one pissed-off dude.
I’m told I’ll hurt my career if I continually spout off about Liberalism — which I see as a growing cancer in our society. Worldwide, I’ve seen Liberalism metastasize into virulent incarnations of Socialism, and, left unchecked, even into its malignant cousin, Communism. Only the arrogant or the somnambulist would think such a thing could never happen here. It’s a matter of increment. Once a group organizes into a coalition, it’s a short step to claiming the right to the property of another group. All that is necessary is for an individual’s right to personal property to become a secondary concern. The ‘needs’ of the group must supercede, dontcha know. It’s a vicious cycle – wants become needs become rights. The fact that the thievery is done at the behest of a ‘civilized’ government does not sanitize the crime.
“At least the highwayman has the decency to wear a mask.” – Author unknown.
So I’m told I should shut up. I make my living in the Hollywood community, and Hollywood is by and large run by Liberals. I’m told I need to stay quiet when the Left has their way over issues that affect my daily life. I’m told I need to learn how to get along with the Left, learn how to compromise. I need to be more open-minded. I need to be more tolerant.
I say F T S. Ask your 9-yr-old if you have trouble deciphering that. (No, wait, don’t.)
I don’t want to get along with the Left. I want to take them down. I want to expose their idiocy for what it is and reveal it as a harmful, dangerous succession of lies and deceptions. My friends say that that effort, aside from being fruitless, will cost me work. It will cost me my career. And I say Wait-a-minute, Bucko. Those folks who founded this country were willing to risk not only their careers, but their property, their families, their very lives…the least I can do in standing up for our precious freedoms is risk a silly television career. Not to compare myself with the brilliant thinkers who declared themselves independent of England and framed our Constitution…but those were some pretty pissed off dudes too. Compared to that, loss of a little TV or movie work seems pretty inconsequential. So in honor of Pissed Off Americans past and present, I rant.
I’m pissed off that everyone seems okay on having to press one for English. We’re supposed to be tolerant and understanding that maybe some folks who now live here (legally or not) might have trouble understanding what I’m saying to them if I speak in my native tongue, regardless of the extra cost to the rest of us. FTS.
I’m pissed that my sweet well-wishing friends and acquaintances now say “Happy Holidays” instead of Merry Christmas. Oh, we don’t want to offend the non-Christians, they’ll say. Again – FTS. ‘Happy Holidays’…nice and non-specific, soothingly generic. In keeping with the spirit of the season, I try not to show it – but I roll my eyes. Jeez, could you be any more spineless? Everybody walk on eggshells for the rest of your lives, living in perptual fear someone who holds a different religion, or sexual preference, or nationality is going to suffer some little offense if you actually wish them a lovely Christmas. “Oh we don’t celebrate Christmas.” “Oh, I’m so terribly sorry, I don’t mean to offend you. Please enjoy the Holiday of Winter Solstice and Earth Renewal Day or whatever your heart leads to celebrate, if indeed you are even feeling like celebrating anything.” Shut up! Smile and say thanks. Happy Hanukkah, Merry Ramadan, Soulful Kwanzaa…whatever. Smile and say Thanks.
Can we all stop taking ourselves so damn seriously for half a minute? Hey – life ain’t a popularity contest. So grow a pair. Speak your mind and if someone can’t handle it, request that they take a hike. How the hell did we ever survive life before the all-knowing, all-caring ACLU began to run interference for all our tender sensibilities? It’s a wonder any of us grew up without some crippling psychosis that drove us to chop up our grandmother. I’m old enough to remember when Common Sense ruled the day. (*cue the Cranky Old Man music)
It irks me that Democrats are always looking to raise my taxes. I’m patriotic if I take it up the bum and don’t squeal. What’s worse, they don’t even have the integrity to call them taxes. They call them ‘fees’, or even, ‘contributions’. As I learned the word, a contribution is a volitional act. Left to free choice, I say I choose to not contribute more than I already do. Let all those who say we are overtaxed stand up with me. Those who think different can form a line to the left…and we on the right will leave you completely free to contribute more. Raising taxes takes food off my family’s table. I regard people who advocate doing so in the same vein as I would the burglar I confront in the dead of night – an enemy.
I’m pissed that I study the political issues of the day, educate myself, stay informed daily by a multitude of news sources from all slants…and yet, come election day, my informed vote is cancelled by some numbskull who votes for the nicest smile, who doesn’t know who the current vice-president is, or which party controls Congress, and what’s more, doesn’t care. Am I the only one who thinks a basic intelligence and general knowledge test should be a prerequisite for voting for our leaders? No? Too radical a notion? Well, then, why not just make the winner of American Idol president and save all the drama? Everyone can text in their vote. And Paula, Randy, and Simon… the new cabinet. “Tonight the State of the Union speech will be sung by the President, backed up by Rascal Flatts…and special guest duet with Secretary of State David Archuleta…”
I’m pissed off by how soft many in our nation have become. How whimpy the tone, how spineless the resolve. What happened to that brutally real notion that people should be held responsible for his or her actions? Nowadays, it always seems to be someone else’s fault, whatever it is. Got a life of poverty, it’s rich folks doing it to you.
Alcohol addiction, substance abuse, your mother never said she loves you. Having trouble finding work, it’s the white, black, purple guys keeping you down. Your car company is going under, it’s the unfair business practices abroad and an economic downturn. Hey, nimrods – newsflash. LIFE IS HARD. The End. Get used to it, suck it up, get some spine, invent some if you have none, and GET ON WITH IT!!!! I’d like to offer, in utter compassion, and speaking on behalf of at least several like-minded bretheren out there, a class-action BITCH-SLAP to every mamby-pamby, limp-wristed douche-bag of a complainer who has the audacity to hope that we hard-working, God-fearing, America-loving taxpayers should be forced to give you one penny of our income to enable you further in your responsibility-shirking, self-destructive habits. Get your collective shiite together, friends. I am not, nor are my friends, my brother’s keeper. Though my heart is open enough to come to someone’s need should an honest and sincere calamity befall a brother or sister… when did destitution become a virtue? Did my snooze button malfunction causing me to oversleep a couple decades? When did begging become a noble venture? You see them standing there bravely, “God bless”and something about ‘can’t find work’ scrawled on their cardboard. Victims of society, of Bush/Cheney, of Ronald Reagan, of any heartless Republican administration. And worse – hey, I’ve seen the sign people on the offramps, I’ve seen the green flow as we assuage our prosperity guilt – these guys are cleaning up! Am I in the wrong business? When, dear friends, did panhandling become a lucrative industry? FTS!
(Side note: I’ve personally offered several of these beggars who had written “Will work for food” to buy them lunch if they’ll do some yard work and fence painting for me, and the reaction was always the same. Hell no! They just want cash, right now! Hmmm…and yet the sign said… Forget about the begging, whatever happened to truth in advertising?)
Who can identify virtue, when there is no shame?
And speaking of shame…have you on the Left no shame when it comes to calling evil EVIL? What’s in a name — a terrorist by any other name is a ‘Jihadist’. A freedom fighter. A rebel. But when are we going to admit that there is an evil movement out there dedicated to our destruction. And it ain’t Sarah Palin and George Bush. It’s radical Islam and they want to cut your personal head off simply because you’re not throwing in with them.
You’re not on your knees worshiping their boy Allah, so for this you and everyone like you all over the world must die and die now. But wait, it’s a ‘religion of peace’, we’re told. Wow, not the last time I looked. If Islam is a religion of peace, where are all the peace-loving Muslim leaders decrying the radicals’ murderous actions? The beheadings, the suicide bombings, the IED’s, the blowing up innocents on buses? Where are the peaceful Islamists’ protests against Hamas, Hezbollah, Al Queda, et al? You are a frog in a pot, Lefty – being boiled slowly, apparently too slowly for you to notice. Too much Climate Change on your mind to notice that the barbarians are at the gate. When the Nazis stormed into Jewish homes in 1939 I’m sure there were more than a few head-in-the sand myopic residents screaming about the troopers tracking mud on the carpet. If only they had had the ACLU to save the day… Human rights and clean carpets surely would have abound.
Speaking of climate change, while we’re at it…if the argument is over…and the facts are clear…how is it we can predict the climate twenty years hence, when we can’t even predict with much accuracy if my ass is going to get wet attending my friend’s kid’s Bar Mitzvah next weekend. When did we give the title to anyone with a PhD in front of their name the added moniker of ‘Soothsayer’? I read Paul Erhlich’s book, THE POPULATION BOMB in the early ‘70’s and it scared the begeebers out of me. By his prediction, each human being in 2008 would have less than a square meter of space to live in. (William F. Buckley voice: “Ahh…Mr. Erhlich was unavailable for comment, ahhh… but stressed the importance of keeping his line clear, lest the Nobel Prize committee call.”) And Mr. Gore – I do believe in Climate Change. It’s called summer, spring, winter and fall. Happens each year whether I drive my SUV or not. FTS!
Before I came up with the inspired notion of tossing my life away and becoming an actor…I was fully ensconsed in the science department at the University of California, Irvine. I know the way it works. The professors confided in me. You need a problem to study, better yet a crisis, or you don’t get funding for your research. It’s that simple. One professor of botany told me that these very high-tech ultra-violet cameras we were frolicking through the fields looking at flowers through cost the University $200 thousand dollars. Off my open-mouthed gape, he shrugged, “Gotta spend the money, or next year they cut us back.” So yeah, you’re going to find a ton of scientists who swear we’re killing the planet…and we desperately need another three million dollars to study the problem.
I’m confident I could find two hundred accredited scientists to join me in an exhaustive study to find out why belly button lint is demagnetizing the moon leading to global flooding…if only Bill Gates will step up with some coin. FTS!
Lastly…can we finally be done with all the hatred? George Bush is very soon to be out of a job. Time to let up on him a bit, don’t you think? Erase the hate, Lefties. You can stop proclaiming him to be the anti-christ, evil incarnate, the boogeyman, Darth Vader, or the Heartbreak of Psoriasis. The guy did his best. Like him, don’t like him, he kept us from attack for seven-and-a-half years so let it go. Your guy is in now, so relax. Have fun again. Laugh without derision. Smile without the snide. You remember how? Take off your flak jackets, it’s going to be okay. Our brave warriors did some serious ass-kicking in the Middle East, and though there’s no shortage of crazy Islamo-fascist bad guys yet to come, at least they know who they’re f*cking with.
Somehow along the way, so many of you forgot one simple, undeniable tenet: We’re the good guys. We’re not imperialists, or else we would’ve nuked the oil countries into radioactive dust, then moved in and taken the oil. We don’t ‘torture’ prisoners, or lawyers for the Gitmo ‘detainees’ would have CNN photographing the horrid scars and missing limbs. We don’t bully smaller, less developed nations. On the contrary, we expend our more precious asset: the blood of our brave, bright and courageous young men and women – all in committed effort to free them from despotic, brutal dictators. We are not brash. In 1991 we amassed a coalition of 34 nations before we acted to oust Saddam Hussein from Kuwait, and this after months and months of negotiations and U.N. resolutions. Twelve years later after waiting six months and seeing fourteen U.N. resolutions ignored by Hussein, George W. Bush had accrued a multi-national coalition and a majority vote in Congress before sending troops into Iraq. We are the big dog on the block. And yet we ask no penance from lesser countries. Instead we offer aid in the form of cash, medicine, and humanitarian help. When we go after bad guys in war, we don’t carpet bomb, or blow up civilian-filled buses. We have smart bombs that pinpoint targets to limit collateral civilian casualites. We’re the good guys. Only an entrenched self-loathing hatred of America will prevent you from seeing that. If that’s the case, you have my sympathy. But don’t let the door hit you on the way out. And yes, this is our country, whether a Democrat of a Republican occupies the White House.
Yeah, a lot of things piss me off. But I’m a ridiculously happy guy. I’m blessed with a wonderful family, terrific friends (many, many of them Liberals, oh yes), a strong Faith in God and a sweet certainty that this nation is on the side of good in the world…and that that good will overcome the bad.
I was asked by the founder of this site to write an article… an ‘opening salvo’. Considering who might read it, and who in Hollywood might be incensed, the temptation to parse words and couch my opinions was strong. But the guy in the mirror counsels me the loudest. I was always impressed with John Hancock, when, reminded that signing one’s name to that Declaration in Pennsylvania could very well lead to their deaths…solemnly stepped forward and with grand flourish signed his name in huge, legible script. In that grand spirit…
I hereby declare my independence…from the small-minded, America-hating, race-bating, Christian-bashing, class-warfare-waging, politically-correct, collectivist, Liberal Hollywood establishment.
Anybody got a problem with that, I’ll mapquest you directions to my front door, we’ll settle it like men.

Wild Thing’s comment……….
This is an awesome article! A big thank you to Gary Graham for writing what needed to be said.
Somethiing about Gary you might like to know.

“Gary Graham was born in Long Beach, California and grew up in and around Orange County. The son of a medical doctor, he too aspired to a career in medicine. However, despite showing prowess in the medical sciences, Gary left pre-med to study theater arts at the University of California, Irvine, in the early seventies, before he won his first feature film role opposite George C. Scott in “HARDCORE.” Since that time Gary has appeared in numerous feature films such as “ROBOT JOX”, “THE LAST WARRIOR”, “MAN TROUBLE”, and “HOLLYWOOD KNIGHTS”, many TV movies and series, and from 1990 to 1996 starred as Matt Sikes in FOX TV’s “ALIEN NATION”. More recently he was seen in recurring roles as Capt. Ingles on “J.A.G.” and as Ambassador Soval in “STAR TREK: ENTERPRISE”. Still active in the film business, Gary now is a producer for the new reality TV show, “THE ULTIMATE SHOOTER” and is working with Jace Hall and HD FILMS at Warner Brothers writing and producing the new internet webseries, “WHAT IF..?” He lives in a small town outside of Los Angeles, where he enjoys spending time with his family, working weekends as a volunteer Ski Patroller, golfing and flying.”

……Thank you RAC for sending this to me.
RAC has a website that is awesome. 336th Assault Helicopter Company
13th Combat Aviation Battalion – 1st Aviation Brigade – Soc Trang, Republic of Vietnam

Obama on This Week with G. Stephanopoulos 01/11/09…this is part 2 of three videos. This is the one where Obama speaks about everyone is going to have to make sacrifices.

Obama Calls for ‘Grand Bargain’ on Economy: ‘Everybody’s Going to Have to Give’
ABC news blog from the show “This Week”
by George Stephanopoulos
In my exclusive interview with Barack Obama airing tomorrow on This Week, the president-elect told me that fixing our economy over the long term will require sacrifice from every American and scaling back some of his campaign promises.

“Our challenge is going to be identifying what works and putting more money into that, eliminating things that don’t work, and making things that we have more efficient. But I’m not suggesting, George, I want to be realistic here, not everything that we talked about during the campaign are we going to be able to do on the pace we had hoped,” Obama told me in his first interview since arriving back in Washington, DC as president-elect.

I asked the president-elect, “At the end of the day, are you really talking about over the course of your presidency some kind of grand bargain? That you have tax reform, healthcare reform, entitlement reform including Social Security and Medicare, where everybody in the country is going to have to sacrifice something, accept change for the greater good?”

“Yes,” Obama said.

“And when will that get done?” I asked.

“Well, right now, I’m focused on a pretty heavy lift, which is making sure we get that reinvestment and recovery package in place. But what you described is exactly what we’re going to have to do. What we have to do is to take a look at our structural deficit, how are we paying for government? What are we getting for it? And how do we make the system more efficient?”

“And eventually sacrifice from everyone?” I asked.

“Everybody’s going to have to give. Everybody’s going to have to have some skin in the game,” Obama said.

Wild Thing’s comment………
I am already making a sacrifice, having to know and see and hear Barack Hussein Obama as President of the USA for 4 years. Not my President but for those that voted for him or want him.
When do the Government servants suffer and Sacrifice, Congress got their raises and Barney Frank and Dodd, Pelosi, Reid etc. and all the other guilty will not be punished for what they did that got us in this stupid situation.
Obama and the Democrats can suffer first, and then those who drank the kool aid and elected the Kenyan Socialist.

….Thank you Mark for sending this to me.
Mark
3rd Mar.Div. 1st Battalion 9th Marine Regiment
1/9 Marines aka The Walking Dead
VN 66-67

California Woman Raises Troop Morale, Funds With ‘Pin-Ups for Vets’ Calendar
FOX news
Pin-up art — a morale-booster for troops fighting overseas during World War II — is making a comeback, or will be if a California woman has anything to say about it.
Gina Elise, 26, is bringing retro back with her third annual “Pin-Ups for Vets” calendar, which features herself in costumes and poses that were popular among America’s fighting men in the 1940s. Profits from the sales of the calendars provide assistance to U.S. military hospitals.

About two years ago, I started hearing stories of wounded soldiers that were coming back to underfunded hospitals, so I just decided that I really wanted to do something to help out,” Elise told FOXNews.com. “I‘ve always been a huge fan of the pin-up era, so I figured I can sort of combine my love for this era to not only use the money for the hospitals but also help boost morale with the calendars themselves.”

The UCLA grad started spreading the word about the project in hopes of enlisting some help.

“Some people thought I was nuts,” she said. “But I have a lot of friends that are artists and photographers and costume designers that actually donated their time and services. Wal-Mart also gave me a community grant to help get the project off the ground.”

And it soared right to the Web. At Pinupsforvets.com, with a donation of $22 or more, anyone can purchase a calendar for themselves, a hospitalized veteran or a deployed service member, along with a personal message of appreciation.
If the calendar is being sent overseas, Elise mails it in a care package. For those recovering in U.S. hospitals, she hand-delivers every calendar.

“I go there and I ask things like their name and their birthday and show them their birth month on the calendar. A lot of these veterans don’t get visitors, so to see their reaction when I show up is really rewarding,” she said.

“At one VA hospital in San Diego, I left the room after talking to a veteran and all the nurses rushed toward me saying they were in shock because he’d suffered a traumatic brain injury and that was the first time he’d spoken in a month!”

Loreleye Winn, director of voluntary resources at San Diego’s Veterans Affairs hospital, recalled one of Elise’s visits.

“She was dressed like a ’40s pin-up lady, and she passed out some calendars to the patients and went around to their bedsides,” Winn said. “They really enjoyed it and it just was a pleasure to have someone come in and visit.”

Winn isn’t the only one singing “Pin-Ups'” praises.

“There have been five flags flown over military bases in Iraq in honor of the project, and I also received the 2007 California Junior Chamber of Commerce’s Outstanding Young Californian award,” Elise said.

Thus far, “Pin-Ups for Vets” has raised $20,000, with proceeds from 2007 going to Loma Linda VA Hospital in Loma Linda, Calif., and proceeds from 2008 awarded to San Diego’s Naval Medical Center.
And Elise says she gets back more than she gives.

“It’s really inspiring when you are going into these hospitals, especially Walter Reed, where they have the most severe cases, and you’re seeing double amputees, triple amputees, people with severe illnesses, and yet they’re still so strong,” she said. “They’re some of the bravest people I’ve ever met.”

webiste for her project
http://www.pinupsforvets.com/behindtheproject.html

Wild Thing’s comment……..
What a great idea, I just love things that make the day better for our Veterans and our troops.

……Thank you Lynn for this story.