Theodore's World

Democratic Gov. Rod Blagojevich and Barack Hussein Obama

Questions Arise About the Obama/Blagojevich Relationship
Political Punch
ABC News

“Obviously like the rest of the people of Illinois I am saddened and sobered by the news that came out of the US attorney’s office today,” said President-elect Obama this afternoon in Chicago, speaking of the criminal complaint against Democratic Gov. Rod Blagojevich for corruption. “But as this is a ongoing investigation involving the governor I don’t think it would be appropriate for me to comment on the issue at this time.”

Asked what contact he’d had with the governor’s office about his replacement in the Senate, President-elect Obama today said “I had no contact with the governor or his office and so we were not, I was not aware of what was happening.”

But on November 23, 2008, his senior adviser David Axelrod appeared on Fox News Chicago and said something quite different.

While insisting that the President-elect had not expressed a favorite to replace him, and his inclination was to avoid being a “kingmaker,” Axelrod said, “I know he’s talked to the governor and there are a whole range of names many of which have surfaced, and I think he has a fondness for a lot of them.”

From David Axelrod’s appearance on Fox Chicago Sunday. (November 23, 2008)

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(UPDATE #2: Axelrod this evening issued a statement saying. “I was mistaken when I told an interviewer last month that the President-elect has spoken directly to Governor Blagojevich about the Senate vacancy. They did not then or at any time discuss the subject.”)
There are no allegations that President-elect Obama or anyone close to him had anything to do with any of the crimes Gov. Blagojevich is accused of having committed.
In fact, there are indications that Mr. Obama and his team refused to go along with the “pay to play” way Blagojevich is accused of operating, offering only “gratitude” if the governor appointed his friend Valerie Jarrett to take his U.S. Senate seat, much to the governor’s chagrin.
But there remain questions about how Blagojevich knew that Mr. Obama was not willing to give him anything in exchange for the Senate seat — with whom was Blagojevich speaking? Did that person report the governor to the authorities?
And, it should be pointed out, Mr. Obama has a relationship with Mr. Blagojevich, having not only endorsed Blagojevich in 2002 and 2006, but having served as a top adviser to the Illinois governor in his first 2002 run for the state house.
That 2002 endorsement came at the same time that Axelrod had such serious concerns about whether Blagojevich was ready for governing he refused to work for his one-time client.
According to Rep. Rahm Emanuel, D-Ill., Mr. Obama’s incoming White House chief of staff, Emanuel, then-state senator Obama, a third Blagojevich aide, and Blagojevich’s campaign co-chair, David Wilhelm, were the top strategists of Blagojevich’s 2002 gubernatorial victory.
Emanuel told the New Yorker earlier this year that he and Obama “participated in a small group that met weekly when Rod was running for governor. We basically laid out the general election, Barack and I and these two.”
The rest of the article JUST CLICK HERE

Obama works to distance himself from Ill. governor
My Way News
As Obama works to set up his new administration and deal with a national economic crisis, suddenly he also is spending time and attention trying to distance himself from Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich and charges that the governor was trying to sell the now-vacant Senate post.

Said Rep. Eric Cantor of Virginia, the new GOP House whip: “The serious nature of the crimes listed by federal prosecutors raises questions about the interaction with Gov. Blagojevich, President-elect Obama and other high ranking officials who will be working for the future president.”

Added Robert M. “Mike” Duncan, chairman of the Republican National Committee: “Americans expect strong leadership, but President-elect Barack Obama’s comments on the matter are insufficient at best.”

It also raises the specter of notorious Chicago politics, an image Obama has tried to distance himself from during his career.
There were signs the continuing investigation could still involve him. ( Obama)

His statement that he didn’t have contact with Blagojevich about the Senate seat seems to conflict with that of top adviser David Axelrod, who told Fox News Chicago on Nov. 23: “I know he’s talked to the governor, and there are a whole range of names, many of which have surfaced, and I think he has a fondness for a lot of them.”

It also appears that Obama friend Valerie Jarrett, an incoming senior White House adviser, is the person referred to repeatedly in court documents as “Candidate 1.” That individual is described as a female who is “an adviser to the president-elect” and as the person Obama wanted appointed to the Senate seat. Court papers say that “Candidate 1” eventually removed “herself” from consideration for the Senate seat.
In a Nov. 11 phone conversation with an aide, Blagojevich talked at length about “Candidate 1” and said he knew that Obama wanted her for the open seat but “they’re not willing to give me anything except appreciation. (Expletive) them.”
One day later, Jarrett, a Chicago businesswoman who is one of three co-chairmen of Obama’s transition team and was a high-level adviser to his presidential campaign, made it known that she was not interested in the seat. And, on Nov. 15, Obama announced that Jarrett would be a senior White House adviser and assistant for intergovernmental relations.

“Like the rest of the people of Illinois I am saddened and sobered by the news that came out of the U.S. attorney’s office today. But as this is an ongoing investigation involving the governor, I don’t think it would be appropriate for me to comment on the issue at this time,” Obama said – and then he said he wasn’t aware of Blagojevich’s maneuvering.

Wild Thing’s comment………..
Obama wants nothing to do with the guy after he was sure to be president. He tossed Blago under the bus like everyone else. Obama is going to need a bigger bus!
Axelrod “misspoke” = how Democrats excuse their LIES which are many!
Sean Hannity said Ho-bama was mentioned 44 times in the FBI report on the gov. According to Fox, the FBI started their recordings of Blago on October 22nd. Any phone call that took place between BHO and Blago is probably on tape and the Feds are keeping things close to the vest at the moment.

….Thank you Mark for sending this article to me.

Governor’s arrest: Cars race up, footsteps, a phone rings
Chicago Tribune
Just minutes before 6 a.m. Tuesday, a pair of black sedans and an SUV raced up Richmond Street toward the personal residence of Gov. Rod Blagojevich on Sunnyside Avenue on Chicago’s Northwest Side.
About the same time, the phone inside Blagojevich’s home began to ring. On the other end was Robert Grant, the FBI’s special agent in charge in Chicago. Two agents were outside Blagojevich’s front door with a warrant for his arrest, he announced to the governor.

“Well, I woke him up,” Grant recalled later Tuesday at a news conference to announce charges of fraud and bribery against Blagojevich. “The first thing [Blagojevich said] was, ‘Was this a joke?’ “

Grant said the FBI chose to arrest the governor in this fashion because it was the best step for the ongoing federal investigation.

“We have a lot of things we learned from this wiretap, a lot of things that we learned from these microphones,” Grant said of the surveillance conducted by federal agents as part of the probe. “So it wasn’t about … tying this in a bow, waiting until spring, letting things be done that damaged the State of Illinois, damaged the United State Senate, hurt people. It was about what is good for the investigation, what is good to find out the truth about what is going on, because this goes beyond just the governor. It goes to other people who were involved in these schemes.”

Source
DECEMBER 9–The criminal complaint filed today against Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich contains a remarkable section detailing the Democratic politician’s alleged attempt to cash in on his ability to fill the U.S. Senate seat vacated by President-elect Barack Obama.
Blagojevich was caught on wiretaps noting that the Senate seat “is a fucking valuable thing, you just don’t give it away for nothing.”
He was also recorded saying that unless “I get something real good,” he would appoint himself to the vacancy. “I’m going to keep this Senate option for me a real possibility, you know, and therefore I can drive a hard bargain. You hear what I’m saying. And if I don’t get what I want and I’m not satisfied with it, then I’ll just take the Senate seat myself.”
According to surreptitiously recorded conversations, Blagojevich spoke with associates about the possibility of trading the Senate post for either an ambassadorship or a Cabinet post.
The politician, according to the affidavit sworn by FBI Agent Daniel Cain, “analogized his situation to that of a sports agent shopping a potential free agent to various teams.”
During a wiretapped November 10 call, a frustrated and financially strapped Blagojevich referred to Obama as a “motherfucker” and said that he would not appoint an ally of the President-elect to the Senate vacancy if “I don’t get anything.” Referring to Obama, Blagojevich exclaimed, “Fuck him. For nothing? Fuck him.”
In a November 11 conversation, Blagojevich remarked that he knew Obama wanted Valerie Jarrett, a longtime confidante, to succeed him, “but they’re not willing to give me anything except appreciation. “Fuck them.”
Blagojevich, 51, and his chief of staff, John Harris, were arrested this morning on political corruption charges.
While the affidavit does not specifically name the six prospective Senate candidates discussed by Blagojevic, Harris, and the governor’s aides, it appears that several are easily identified.
“Senate Candidate 1” is Jarrett. “Senate Candidate 2” is Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan. Emil Jones, an Illinois state legislator, is “Senate Candidate 5.” And “Senate Candidate 6” appears to be J.P. Pritzker, a wealthy Chicago businessman.
Additionally, Rahm Emanuel, the incoming White House chief of staff, is referred to in the affidavit as “President-elect Advisor.”

Wild Thing’s comment………
Does this all mean Obama will be going to Hawaii again. Hahahha That is his MO.
Considering the corruption in Chicago and the thug Obama and his fellow thugs, LOL this Gov. better have eyes in the back of his head or something.

Carter, in Lebanon, says ready to meet with Hezbollah officials
Haaretz
Former United States President Jimmy Carter said Tuesday he is ready to meet with Hezbollah officials if the Lebanese militant group agreed to see him.
Carter made the comments upon arrival in Lebanon where he will assess whether his Atlanta-based Carter Center would take part in monitoring next year’s parliamentary elections.
Asked whether he would meet with Hezbollah officials during his five-day visit, Carter told reporters that it was up to the militant group, which the U.S. considers a terrorist organization.
I am going to meet with all of the political parties as possible,” Carter said. “I understand that several leaders of Hezbollah said they were not going to meet with any president or former president of the United States, so I don’t know yet.”
A Hezbollah official told The Associated Press the group had no immediate comment on Carter’s remarks but said it might issue a statement, most likely on Wednesday. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the media.
Israel fought the 2006 Second Lebanon War against Hezbollah, after the group abducted two of its soldiers in a cross-border raid.
Washington blames Hezbollah for the explosion that killed 241 U.S. Marines at their Beirut barracks in 1983, as well as for two attacks on the U.S. Embassy in Beirut and the 1985 TWA hijacking that killed an American serviceman on board.
Hezbollah denies the accusations and says it opposes terrorism. Carter was widely criticized in April when he met in Syria with the exiled Hamas leader, Khaled Meshal. The U.S. also labels Hamas, the Palestinian militant group that controls the Gaza Strip, a terrorist organization.
The Meshal-Carter meeting led to the delivery of a handwritten letter from Israel Defense Forces soldier Gilad Shalit, who was kidnapped by Hamas-linked militants near the Gaza border in 2006, to his parents.
While in Lebanon, Carter said he will meet with President Michel Suleiman and Prime Minister Fuad Saniora.
“I will also be making an assessment on whether the Carter Center will monitor the elections that we hope will be held on time next June,” Carter said. Next year’s elections are expected to be fierce between U.S.-backed groups that hold majority seats in the current parliament and those backed by Syria, including Hezbollah.
Carter is also scheduled to travel to Syria during his Mideast trip to meet with President Bashar Assad.

Wild Thing’s comment……..
Imagine being an Secret Service agent, and your job is to protect this POS anti/american. Jimmy Carter indicted for treason; now that is change I could believe in.

County Declares ‘Barack Obama Day’ a New Holiday
FOX News
Small central Alabama county commission votes 4 to 1 to observe the second Monday in November as “The Barack Obama Day.”
MARION, Ala.
A small central Alabama county whose mainly black residents gave Barack Obama more than 70 percent of the vote on Election Day has created an annual holiday in honor of the president-elect.
The Perry County Commission voted 4 to 1 to observe the second Monday in November as “The Barack Obama Day.” County offices will close and its roughly 40 workers will get a paid holiday.
The sponsoring commissioner, Albert Turner Jr., said the holiday is meant to highlight the Democratic president-elect’s victory as a way to give people faith that difficult goals can be achieved.
The majority of the county’s 12,000 residents are black.
The county commission’s three black members and one of its two white members voted for the resolution.
Commissioner Brett Harrison said Wednesday he voted against the resolution because of the holiday costs to the county, which has a $2.2 million annual payroll and is one of the poorest in the state. He said closing the courthouse would also idle some state employees.
“I’m a Democrat, but just in these financial times, it’s not using the county’s money wisely,” Harrison told The Associated Press by phone Wednesday. “The recognition is certainly well-founded.”
Turner said copies of the resolution, adopted at a Nov. 25 meeting, have been mailed to Obama and his transition team.
An Associated Press exit poll found black voters in Alabama almost universally supported Obama while more than eight in 10 whites backed Republican John McCain. McCain carried the state with 60 percent of the vote.

Wild Thing’s comment…………
This is as stupid as their Kwanzaa, their artificial holiday.
Ronald Reagan doesn’t have a holiday set aside for him, and this guy, for whom it remains to be seen if he can accomplish anything gets a day before he’s even sworn in as President?????
To name a holiday after a man who has not even been officially elected President yet takes some cojones. The idea that a black socialist has the popular vote for President is very historic, perhaps we should call the day “Death of a Nation” day.
Let’s see there is Black History Month, Martin Luther King Day and Juneteenth , there Kwanzaa, isn’t that good enough?
Have these idiots ever even heard of Presidents Day?

….Thank you Lynn for sending this to me.

Governor Lauds Interior Secretary’s Firearm Decision
December 5, 2008,
Anchorage, Alaska
by U.S. Secretary of Interior
Governor Sarah Palin today lauded the decision by the U.S. Department of the Interior that will allow an individual to carry a concealed weapon in national parks and wildlife refuges. The new rule only applies if the individual is authorized to carry a concealed weapon under state law in the state in which the national park or refuge is located.

“The possession and use of firearms is especially critical to Alaskans,” Governor Palin said. “We will continue to protect gun rights. The ability to carry a firearm can define a life or death situation, especially for protection against surprise encounters with wildlife, mainly bears. I appreciate the Interior Department recognizing this is a step in the right direction.”

Within Alaska, most of the national parks and refuge areas are open to various forms of hunting, so possession and use of firearms is already widely allowed under both state and federal law. Currently, firearms are prohibited in Denali National Park, Glacier Bay National Park, Katmai National Park, Klondike Gold Rush National Historical Park and Sitka National Historical Park. The new rule will take effect in January.

Wild Thing’s comment……
Can you imagine going out in the forests in remote Alaska without a big gun?
Sarah Palin = Respects Our Constitution
Barack Obama = Considers it just another piece of paper
This is an example of why the MSM literally hate Sarah and want to destroy her. If Sarah can raise this much ruckus by just issuing a press release what could see do when she is actively campaigning? As always, Sarah’s timing is impeccable.

http://origin.www.supremecourtus.gov/docket/08a469.htm
No. 08A469
Title: Cort Wrotnowski, Applicant
v.
Susan Bysiewicz, Connecticut Secretary of State
Docketed:
Lower Ct: Supreme Court of Connecticut
Case Nos.: (SC 18264)
~~~Date~~~ ~~~~~~~Proceedings and Orders~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Nov 25 2008 Application (08A469) for stay and/or injunction, submitted to Justice Ginsburg.
Nov 26 2008 Application (08A469) denied by Justice Ginsburg.
Nov 29 2008 Application (08A469) refiled and submitted to Justice Scalia.
Dec 8 2008 DISTRIBUTED for Conference of December 12, 2008.
Dec 8 2008 Application (08A469) referred to the Court by Justice Scalia.
Cort Wrotnowski’s emergency application for a stay and/or injunction as to the Electoral College meeting on Dec. 15 was today referred to the full Court by the Honorable Associate Justice Anotonin Scalia. It has been distributed for Conference of Friday December 12. The official case name is WROTNOWSKI v. BYSIEWICZ, United States Supreme Court Docket No. 08A469.
From Leo Donofrio’s blog, just prior to this:
[UPDATE 12:23 PM The main stream media should stop saying SCOTUS refused to hear the case. It was distributed for conference on Nov. 19. They had the issue before them for for sixteen days. Yes, they didn’t take it to the next level of full briefs and oral argument. But they certainly heard the case and read the issues. The media is failing to acknowledge that. The case and issues were considered. Getting the case to the full Court for such consideration was my goal. I trust the Supreme Court had good reason to deny the application. Despite many attempts to stop their full review, my case was placed on their desks and into their minds. Please remember that. It’s important for history to record that.]
My application was denied. The Honorable Court chose not to state why.
Wrotnowksi v. Connecticut Secretary of State is still pending as an emergency application resubmitted to the Honorable Associate Justice Antonin Scalia as of last Tuesday. I worked extensively on that application and it includes a more solid brief and a less treacherous lower Court procedural history.
The SCOTUS takes up very few cases each year, (around 50 out of 6000-8000 petitioned). The very fact that this overriding issue of eligibiility has now been referred twice to Committee says the issue (if not Obama’s eligibility) is ripe for SCOTUS action. Theoretically, SCOTUS deals only with points of Constitutional law, not personalities.

Wild Thing’s comment…….
It takes 4 votes to put it on the docket. It is basically the same as the Donofrio case, but according to what I have read online they are saying it is crafted with a better route to the SCOTUS:

The chief framer of the related 14th Amendment of the Constitution, John A. Bingham corroborated this dual criteria stating, “every human being born within the jurisdiction of the United States of parents not owing allegiance to any foreign sovereignty is, in the language of your Constitution itself, a natural born citizen.” An extensive analysis citing this is “Defining Natural-Born Citizen,” by P.A. Madison, The Federalist Blog.

Obama and his Chicago political Mafia has been plotting this circumvention of the US Constitution, for which he has such disdain. The Obama camp has been studying ways to change the Constitutional requirements for President for some time now.
Remember, Obama taught courses in constitutional law at the University of Chicago as a “senior lecturer.” He KNOWS, and the DNC KNOWS, that Obama does not meet the standards of Section 1 of Article II of the US Constitution.

Saudis seek ‘Sharia bail out’ to financial crisis
Middle East Online
Saudi clerics promote Islamic finance as healthy alternative to current troubled market economy.
By Habib Trabelsi
PARIS
While ministers and major financiers of major rich countries try to stem the panic of the global financial turmoil, imams of mosques, economists and writers stress that, from Saudi Arabia, Islamic finance is the only remedy against the successive black days.
Imams-preachers: Islamic finance is the solution
The shock wave from the financial catastrophe has not spared the imams of most mosques in Saudi Arabia. They used the crisis to spread in endless praise Islamic finance which is based on the ban of interest (riba), speculation, and sharing the risk and profit between contractors.
These features of Islamic finance, highly reviewed in the wake of the financial tsunami, have been at the center of Friday’s prayer sermons (October 10), whose extracts were reproduced Saturday by local newspapers.
Several imams and khatibs (preachers) have shown, more or less skillfully, the benefits of applying the principles of Islamic finance, which according to them, could provide a healthy alternative to the current market economy.
Islamic finance will triumph … “delight” set aside
“Communism will be eradicated in fifty years. Capitalism, too. Only Islamic finance will continue,” said Dr. Said Al-Awiss, Imam and preacher of the Iskan mosque, in Dammam (east) in the daily Al-Watan.
He pointed out at having developed this idea in his sermon, which was devoted almost exclusively to the crisis, particularly the “riba”.

Sheikh Abderrahman Al-Raqib, president of the courts in the southern province, told the newspaper that he had urged imams and Muslims “not to revel on the economic situation of Westerners caused by recent collapses (…) and to focus on praying that Muslims will not bear the outcomes.”

Islamic finance is emulated in the West
The Saudi press has largely given way to economy writers and columnists and economists.
The General Manager and board member of Arab Finance House (Beit al-Tamwil al-Arabi), Nadim Fuad Matragi is eager that the crisis has spared Islamic banks, calling them “safe shelters for cash” because “they are inherently immune against such crises.”

The Islamic economic analyst, Dr Ahmed Al-Islambouli, focuses on the root causes of the “failure of the capitalist financial system (…) which sins dude to its selfish vision that privileges interests of a particular category (of society), while Islamic finance is based on fairness.”

Writer-journalist-economist Dr. Abdel Hafidh Mahboub, cites examples that “Islamic finance is the appropriate solution to the global economic crisis.”

Mahboub gives as “evidence (…) the direction of Great Britain to become a hub for Islamic finance (…) and the recent trend of several Western countries to incorporate some principles of Islamic finance” in the current economy market.

Vincent Beaufils to the rescue

Shortly after the outbreak of the financial disaster on the Black Monday September 15 at Wall Street, which never ceases to spread, several newspapers – not only in Saudi Arabia – as well as Internet forums, have given themselves a perverse pleasure to lavish praise of Islamic finance…. wrote the French editorialist Vincent Beaufils.

He wrote an article published in the business magazine “Challenges” where he said that “if our bankers, avid of return on equity, had respected a little of Sharia, we would not be here.”
The article, in which the editorialist called for the use of Islamic finance, translated in Arabic, has spread around the Arab world and sparked an avalanche of lauding comments on forums and other Arab blogs.
Al-Azhar University does not remain on the sidelines
The Saudi daily Al-Madina also announced that the prestigious Al-Azhar University in Cairo was preparing to organize a symposium on the global financial turmoil “from the Islamic point of view” to which “a great number of economic experts, academics and clerics” were invited.

Citing Dr. Abdelhalim Mohamed Omar, director of the organizing center, the newspaper said that “the conference aims to work towards the implementation of Islamic Shariah as the solution to break the international financial crisis.”

Wild Thing’s comment…….
The Saudis can take their money, their thinking and their cult of Islam and put it where the sun does not shine. They are the last thing our country needs.

DONOFRIO, LEO C. V. WELLS, NJ SEC. OF STATE
The application for stay addressed to Justice Thomas and referred to the Court is denied.
FROM: Leo Donofrio website:
http://naturalborncitizen.wordpress.com/
“My application was denied. The Honorable Court chose not to state why.”

“Wrotnowksi v. Connecticut Secretary of State is still pending as an emergency application resubmitted to the Honorable Associate Justice Antonin Scalia as of last Tuesday. I worked extensively on that application and it includes a more solid brief and a less treacherous lower Court procedural history.
After six days, it’s interesting that Scalia neither denied it nor referred it to the full Court.
My case may have suffered from the NJ Appellate Division Judge having incorrectly characterized my original suit as a “motion for leave to appeal” rather than the “direct appeal” that it actually was. On Nov. 21 I filed official Judicial misconduct charges with the NJ Supreme Court Advisory Committee on Judicial Conduct, and I updated SCOTUS about that by a letter which is part of SCOTUS Docket as of Dec. 22. The NJ Appellate Divison official case file is fraudulent.
On the chance that SCOTUS was looking at both my case and Cort’s case, I must stress that Cort’s case does not have the same procedural hang up that mine does. It may be that without a decision on the Judicial misconduct allegation correcting the NJ Appellate Division case file, SCOTUS might have been in the position of not being able to hear my case as it would appear that my case was not before them on the proper procedural grounds.
I did file a direct appeal under the proper NJ Court rules, but the lower Court judge refused to acknowledge that and if his fraudulent docketing was used by SCOTUS they would have a solid procedural basis to throw mine out.
I don’t know if it’s significant that Cort’s case was not denied at the same time as mine. His case argues the same exact theory – that Obama is not a natural born citizen because he was a British citizen at birth.
All eyes should now be closely watching US Supreme Court Docket No. 08A469, Wrotnowski v. Bysiewicz.
If Cort’s application is also denied then the fat lady can sing. Until then, the same exact issue is before SCOTUS as was in my case. Cort’s application before SCOTUS incorporates all of the arguments and law in mine, but we improved on the arguments in Cort’s quite a bit as we had more time to prepare it.

Wild Thing’s comment…….
This country, and Constitutional law, are in a lot of trouble.
I LOVE America no matter what, I just do not love,like or give a hoot about the Obama half of the citizerns of our country.

Task Force Eagle Assault Patrols Skies Above Southern Afganistan

A door gunner for an Army CH-47 helicopter scans the mountains and desert of southern Afghanistan during a mission

By Sgt. Paul David Ondik
Combined Joint Task Force – 101
BAGRAM AIR FIELD, Afghanistan
In southern Afghanistan, the aircraft of 1st Battalion, 101st Aviation Regiment, Task Force Eagle Assault patrols the skies over some of the most rugged terrain in the world.
In an area dominated by desert badlands, TF Eagle Assault is a lifeline for troops of almost a dozen nations.

“We will fly upwards of 2,000 missions,” said Lt. Col. Tommy Stauss, the unit’s commander. “It’s a very large area. It constitutes 20 to 30 percent of the country.”

Lt. Col. James Markert, commander of 6th Squadron, 4th Cavalry Regiment, and Sgt. 1st. Class Jody Thompson, 6-4 CAV, stand ready to receive their awards from Col. John Spiszer, commander of 3rd Brigade Combat Team, 1st Infantry Division. They both received awards for acts of heroism in times of combat.

Service Members Prove Themselves in Ambush
By 2nd Lt. Zack Moss
6th Squadron, 4th Regiment, 3rd Brigade Combat Team, 1st Infantry Division
BAGRAM AIR FIELD, Afghanistan
The mountains of Konar Valley in eastern Afghanistan are some of the most treacherous and contested in the world. They are also home to Task Force Raider, 6th Squadron, 4th Cavalry Regiment, 3rd Brigade Combat Team, 1st Infantry Division, from Fort Hood, Texas.
The squadron began to train for the challenges of the harsh Afghan environment the instant they were notified of their deployment. This training was put to the test during a mission this fall.
1st Platoon, Charlie Troop, Headquarters and Headquarters Troop, a supporting Civil Affairs team, a platoon from the 2nd Kandak, 2nd Battalion, 2nd Brigade, of the 201st Corps of the Afghan national army and their supporting U.S. Marine Corps Embedded Training Team were traveling down the only improved road in the Nari District to check on development projects and resupply voter registration sites.
The movement south was uneventful until the patrol reached the Tsunel Valley.
The enemy was crouching among the houses on a hillside, waiting for the convoy. When the convoy came by, a rocket-propelled grenade was fired and impacted approximately five feet in front of the lead International Security Assistance Force truck, blowing a three-foot hole in the surface of a culvert.

“I saw an explosion to my front that opened a hole in the road, and the window cracked in front of me as bullets struck it, so I knew we were in an ambush,” said Spc. Brian Engel from San Antonio. “I drove to avoid the hole in the road and get out of the kill zone, but an RPG hit the engine of my truck.”

It was an all-out firefight and several Soldiers exited the vehicles as gunners from the vehicles fired on the enemy.
Pfc. Leonard Kroll, from Ontario, Calif., was fighting from outside the vehicle and helping Sgt. Daniel Ward, from Steamboat Springs, Colo., when he was struck just above the ankle by a bullet. As Ward continued to return fire he gave the order to Spc. Christopher Christensen from Fort Smith, Ark., and Engel to get Kroll into the truck to treat his injury.
Some vehicles from the convoy, despite damage, were clear from the enemy’s fire, but not all.
They had to get to the high ground; Ward’s truck was still in the kill zone, said Lt. Col. James Markert, 6-4 commander.
Sgt. Jammy Randell, from Smyer, Texas, took the lead, moving his scout team up the hill to establish an attack position on the high ground.
Randall, Markert and Pfc. Kirk Goff, from Swansea, S.C., engaged the enemy from approximately 400 meters away, suppressing the RPG team that was still firing at the ETT, ANA and Ward’s truck. Sgt. 1st Class Scott Huffman, from Copperas Cove, Texas, grabbed the medic and moved back down the hill to provide treatment for Ward.
Markert called for fire, and the first 155 mm shell exploded on the hill above the enemy positions.
Soon after, Alpha Troop arrived as the quick reaction force. They suppressed the enemy as some of the more seriously wounded were medically evacuated for treatment.

“We were lucky that even though there were quite a few wounded Soldiers, very few of the wounds were serious,” said Capt. Amanda Cuda, a doctor from Kailua, Hawaii.

The shooting stopped, but the fight wasn’t over. Artillery from a nearby base continued to explode onto the battle scene.

“We tracked them down and engaged with an appropriate level of force,” said Sgt. Maj. Gregory Turner from San Antonio. “Although well planned, we were expecting an attack so the enemy lost the element of surprise.”

The mission didn’t go as planned, but the battle drills that they had been practiced a hundred times did, leading to a successful battle without the loss of personnel.

“I was proud of the way my Troopers fought that day,” Markert said. “They demonstrated the aggressiveness and quick thinking expected in Cavalry units.”

Wild Thing’s comment………
Thank you to all our troops! Prayers for those that are injured and for all of our troops and their missions.
It is so wonderful that we can hear about how they are doing.

Obama vows tough diplomacy with Iran
WASHINGTON (AFP)
US president-elect Barack Obama vowed “tough but direct diplomacy” with Iran, offering incentives along with the threat of tougher sanctions to disarm the Islamic republic’s nuclear drive.

“We need to ratchet up tough but direct diplomacy with Iran,” he said in an interview aired Sunday on NBC program “Meet the Press.”

As president from January 20, Obama said he would make clear to Tehran that the nuclear program was “unacceptable,” along with its support of militant groups such as Hamas and Hezbollah, and its “threats against Israel.”
Obama, whose offer of direct talks with Iran represents a break with three decades of US foreign policy, promised a “set of carrots and sticks in changing their calculus about how they want to operate.”

Carrots would include economic incentives to the cash-strapped oil producer and greater access to the international trading system, he said.

Sticks comprised enlisting Iran’s trading partners such as China, India and Russia “to agree that in order for us to change Iran’s behavior, we may have to tighten up those (UN) sanctions.”

“But we are willing to talk to them directly and give them a clear choice. And ultimately let them make a determination whether they want to do this the hard way or the easy way,” Obama said.

Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak spoke on Saturday to Obama’s incoming secretary of state, Hillary Clinton, and defense secretary, Robert Gates, asking them to cooperate in facing up to Iran.

The United States and Israel say Iran is bent on developing an atomic bomb. Tehran insists the program is solely for civilian energy purposes, and has continued to enrich uranium in defiance of UN Security Council sanctions.

UPDATE: LOL and no surprise!
Iran Rejects Obama’s Carrot and Stick Policy
Fox News
TEHRAN, Iran — Iran has rejected a suggestion by U.S. President-elect Barack Obama that a carrot and stick policy of economic incentives and additional sanctions might persuade the Iranian government to change its behavior.
Iran’s Foreign Ministry spokesman, Hasan Qashqavi, said Monday that Obama’s proposed policy was unacceptable and had failed in the past.
Obama told NBC’s “Meet the Press” on Sunday that the international community should adopt a carrot and stick policy to alter Iran’s behavior toward its nuclear program and support for militant groups like Hamas and Hezbollah. He also said the U.S. should increase direct diplomacy.
The U.S. accuses Iran of using its nuclear program as a cover for weapons development — a claim denied by Tehran.

Wild Thing’s comment………
Talk’s cheap, obi wa nobama!!
“Tough diplomacy”…isn’t that an oxymoron????
Oho my gawd, I know I have said this before during the campaign, but honestly this guy is soooo not ready for prime time.