Theodore's World

Let’s Give Thanks website by Xerox

You can pick out a thank you card and Xerox will print it and it will be sent to a soldier that is currently serving in Iraq.
Let’s Give Thanks website
The postcards, depicting patriotic scenes and hometown images, were selected from a pool of entries from children across the country.
All you have to do is click on your favorite design and either select the message that best expresses your sentiment or draft a personal note. The postcards are then printed on the Xerox , and mailed in care packages by military support organization Give2TheTroops®.
Xerox is committed to helping people across the nation express their gratitude to our troops overseas. The launch of this program is aimed at reminding them how much Americans appreciate their service.

Wild Thing’s comment……
They had this last year and I am so glad they are doing it again. It is a wonderful idea and it is so worth it.

……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

Anxiety among Democrats as Pelosi tightens her grip
The Hill
Rep. Nancy Pelosi’s (D-Calif.) moves since the November elections have shaken up some of her colleagues, with some looking over their shoulders and others worried about how the Speaker will lead her expanded majority in 2009.
Next year is regarded as the biggest legislative opportunity for Democrats since 1993, the last time they controlled the White House and both chambers of Congress.
But not all Democrats are celebrating. Liberals are worried about Pelosi’s vow to govern “from the middle” and centrists are concerned that the make-up of the House leadership team has shifted noticeably to the left.
Contrary to the jubilation of House Democrats after they regained control of the lower chamber after the 2006 elections, there is some unease among members heading into the 111th Congress.

“Everybody I talk to, everybody’s worried about something,” said a Democratic staffer.

Pelosi’s effort to make some Democrats anxious could be a calculated maneuver as she seeks to maximize the effectiveness of her caucus heading into 2009. Pelosi’s hard-charging tone and decisions over the past month have sent a message to her colleagues: Don’t get too comfortable.
The seniority system that tempers the power of the Speaker is teetering, having received a body blow from Rep. Henry Waxman’s (D-Calif.) coup at the Energy and Commerce Committee.
When chairmen aren’t flinching at the possibility of a challenge from a junior member, they can look forward to being bounced by term limits in four years. That’s a change that Pelosi quietly endorsed in the 2007 House rules package.
Throughout the past four years, there has been a palpable strain in the Democratic Caucus between the older members who extol the seniority system and younger legislators who believe they deserve a more significant role in decisionmaking.
Pelosi, the unquestioned leader in the House whose enormous power seems to grow by the day, has sought to placate both factions. And to this point, she has succeeded.
Few members clash publicly with Pelosi. Reps. John Dingell (D-Mich.) and Jane Harman (D-Calif.), who were at odds with Pelosi over the last few years, were stripped of their top committee posts.
Centrists are grumbling that their growing ranks aren’t represented in the leadership team that Pelosi shaped through back-room arm-twisting. The so-called Blue Dogs, while publicly celebrating President-elect Obama’s commitment to “pay-go,” are wondering when the stimulus balloon stops expanding.
There is also growing speculation that pay-go will be waived for healthcare legislation, which is expected to cost hundreds of billions of dollars.
Meanwhile, Congress has swept in and out of town since the election with little to show except for a deposed chairman and a tongue-lashing for auto executives. And to the extent that any decisions are being announced, they’re coming from Obama’s headquarters in Chicago.
The word out of Pelosi’s office is not to worry.

“Everyone had and will continue to have a seat at the table,” said Pelosi spokesman Nadeam Elshami. “Her record has been that she’s a pragmatist who gets things done.”

On the day after the election, Pelosi assured that “the country must be governed from the middle.”

But as she spoke, Waxman was seeking to move things to the left.
He spent the day making calls to fellow members asking them for the gavel of Energy and Commerce, where the heart of the Obama agenda will be hammered out. About two weeks later, the environmental left prevailed over the business-minded centrists when Dingell, the champion of the auto industry, was ousted.

“We’ll work with the new leadership,” Rep. Stephanie Herseth Sandlin (D-S.D.), incoming leader of the conservative Blue Dogs, said after the Dingell vote. “But to deny a man who defines the modern Congress … is a mistake.”

Pelosi insists she had nothing to do with it. Her aides claim that she stayed strictly neutral even though Waxman hails from her state and Education and Labor Committee Chairman George Miller (D-Calif.), a Pelosi confidant, lobbied heavily for Waxman.
Pelosi did intervene when Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC) Chairman Chris Van Hollen (Md.) indicated he would run against Rep. John Larson (D-Conn.) for caucus chairman. Van Hollen reconsidered, announcing he would stay on at the DCCC, and a Larson-Van Hollen showdown was averted.
In the Dingell-Waxman race, Pelosi’s silence was viewed as an endorsement of Waxman.

“I assume that not playing a role is playing a role,” said House Ways and Means panel Chairman Charles Rangel (D-N.Y.) last month.

Rangel, in particular, has reason to pay attention to Pelosi’s attention to the seniority system. He is perceived as one of Pelosi’s most loyal lieutenants, but is under increasing pressure to give up his gavel because of mounting ethics charges against him.
Last week, Pelosi took the unusual step of issuing a statement about the ethics committee investigation of Rangel, indicating it had been accelerated.
Yet Pelosi this week reiterated her support for Rangel. Asked at a New York event whether Rangel might lose his chairmanship, she said, “I don’t foresee that.”
Still, there are signs that Republicans might challenge Rangel’s chairmanship by way of a floor vote that will further test Rangel’s standing and popularity.
The ripples of the Dingell vote are still being felt, as the discussion turns to whether Waxman loyalists will try to unseat Dingell allies who chair the panel’s subcommittees, and who will assume Waxman’s Oversight role.
But there’s more uncertainty than that. Some say it was the seniority system, not just Dingell, under attack.
And the old rules, like Dingell, will play more of a ceremonial rule in the future.
“It’s a reed in the wind that there are other forces working the system,” said Rep. Marcy Kaptur (D-Ohio), who lost her leadership race last month against Rep. Xavier Becerra (D-Calif.) for vice chairman of the Democratic Caucus. “The seniority system is a neutral method of promotion, as opposed to [raising] money, which is becoming increasingly important.”
Democrats are embracing at least some aspects of how House Republicans promoted from within when they controlled the chamber from 1995 to 2006. Fundraising, loyalty to leadership and voting records were major factors in the selection of committee chairmen and deciding who would fill coveted seats on “A” committees.
Seniority was a major factor for the GOP, but not the dominant determinant.
Moreover, the six-year limit for committee chairmen that Pelosi has embraced was implemented by Republicans when they were in the majority.
For worried Democratic centrists, the unlikely source of salvation is Obama, derided in the campaign as the most liberal member of the Senate, who sounds more conservative with each new Cabinet appointment.
“While people are disappointed, what’s coming out of the top office in the land is good news,” said an aide to a top centrist lawmaker. Obama has also embraced pay-go principles, delighting Blue Dogs.
Some aides say what tension there is stems from the Democrats’ figuring out how to act as a majority party that controls all levers of lawmaking and policy in the federal government. It was one thing to defy a Speaker. It will be another to defy a president. And Pelosi and Obama were generally on the same page throughout the 2008 campaign season.

“It’s adjusting to a Democrat, and a Democrat with a mandate, in the White House,” said a Democratic leadership aide. “When Obama walks in to the Blue Dogs and says, ‘I need your support for getting out of Iraq in 16 months,’ it gets tough to say no.”

Wild Thing’s comment……….
Pelosi is headed for creating the largest deficit in the history of the USA at over $1 trillion dollars for fiscal 2009! The US Constitution is very clear that only the House of Representatives can appropriate money. This deficit is Pelosi’s deficit.
LOL well one thing, I think we will be seeing some fighting going on in the next 4 years. Dems don’t like anyone, they don’t like each other either. Each oneo is way too hungry for power to sincerely care for another person.

Wild Thing’s comment………
Fantastic! Thank you Fred and God Bless you Sir!!!
Fred’s line in the video, “they tell us that we can get out of this economic mess by spending more. Isn’t that like telling a fat guy he can lose weight by eating more donuts?”
Thank you God that we have Fred Thompson on our side. I love our side of the political isle, well not all of them but there are some pretty awesome people on our side. We just need to let them know and kick out the jerks asap.
Fred also has Fred Thompson Fred Thompson PAC, it is a political actioin website that he started a little while after he pulled out of the election race. I just now signed up for the email bulletins he sends out.
Fred Thompson ,,,Fred PAC

……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

Barack Obama buys Michelle rare $30,000 ring to say ‘thanks for your support’
daily mail.co .uk
The stunning thank you ring is made by top Italian designer Giovanni Bosco, who are based at Valenza Po near Alessandria and who counts a select list of VIPS’s and celebrities as his clients.
The Harmony ring is made of rhodium or black gold – the world’s most expensive metal –and encrusted with diamonds. It is being hastily made by Italian designer Giovanni Bosco in time for January’s inauguration ceremony.
Only about 25 tons of rhodium are mined each year, mostly in South Africa, and as a result its price is typically around £5,000 an ounce.

Several luxury items such as the world’s ‘Most Expensive Pen’ or ‘Most Expensive Board Game’ also contain rhodium while the Crown Jewels worn by the Queen are also rhodium plated.
A spokesman at Giovanni Bosco said: ‘Our American distributor has contacted us and has asked us to provide details on the Harmony ring.
‘It is our top of the range piece and made from rhodium and encrusted with diamonds.
‘Our agent in the United States was asked by Mr Barack Obama about the ring because he wants it as a thank you gift for his wife Michelle for her support the last two years.
‘We have a select number of clients both in the United States, Europe, Russia and the Middle East and our prices as a result reflect the wealth of our customers.
‘For obvious privacy reasons I cannot reveal the cost of the ring but bearing in mind it is made from rhodium or black gold and encrusted with diamonds you can be sure it will cost thousands of pounds.’

Wild Thing’s comment……….
” Obama can find the rarest metal on earth but can’t find his Birth Certificate? ” ( said by LadyVet)
Here is what I don’t get. As a wife it is not something to be paid to do to be supportive of your husband. That should come because you love him and want to help in any way you can. So why the pay off.
And my second question is why did they have to buy ITALIAN rather than USA? With our economy in the tank, why isn’t he supporting AMERICAN business by buying his jewelry HERE?
Here hunny here is your ring, now keep your mouth shut. haha
No wonder his Administration has no change – he spent it all on the ring. heh heh
LOL I could care less what he buys her, I just could not resist posting about it since he just has no time to whip out his birth certificate to prove where he was born, we might as well have some fun with this creep liar, marxist till January 20th when we will have an illegal , Constitution hating marxist POS in office.
Hope he finds time around his busy holliday shopping schedule to buy brother George a Christmas card. It’s the thought that counts no need for him to go buy him a new hut with basic amenities or anything.
Is Obamugabe going to be like other African leaders? Like say……Idi Amin.

Pentagon to Detail Troops to Bolster Domestic Security
Washington Post
The U.S. military expects to have 20,000 uniformed troops inside the United States by 2011 trained to help state and local officials respond to a nuclear terrorist attack or other domestic catastrophe, according to Pentagon officials.
The long-planned shift in the Defense Department’s role in homeland security was recently backed with funding and troop commitments after years of prodding by Congress and outside experts, defense analysts said.
There are critics of the change, in the military and among civil liberties groups and libertarians who express concern that the new homeland emphasis threatens to strain the military and possibly undermine the Posse Comitatus Act, a 130-year-old federal law restricting the military’s role in domestic law enforcement.
But the Bush administration and some in Congress have pushed for a heightened homeland military role since the middle of this decade, saying the greatest domestic threat is terrorists exploiting the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction.

Before the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, dedicating 20,000 troops to domestic response — a nearly sevenfold increase in five years — “would have been extraordinary to the point of unbelievable,” Paul McHale, assistant defense secretary for homeland defense, said in remarks last month at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. But the realization that civilian authorities may be overwhelmed in a catastrophe prompted “a fundamental change in military culture,” he said.

The Pentagon’s plan calls for three rapid-reaction forces to be ready for emergency response by September 2011. The first 4,700-person unit, built around an active-duty combat brigade based at Fort Stewart, Ga., was available as of Oct. 1, said Gen. Victor E. Renuart Jr., commander of the U.S. Northern Command.

If funding continues, two additional teams will join nearly 80 smaller National Guard and reserve units made up of about 6,000 troops in supporting local and state officials nationwide. All would be trained to respond to a domestic chemical, biological, radiological, nuclear, or high-yield explosive attack, or CBRNE event, as the military calls it.
Military preparations for a domestic weapon-of-mass-destruction attack have been underway since at least 1996, when the Marine Corps activated a 350-member chemical and biological incident response force and later based it in Indian Head, Md., a Washington suburb. Such efforts accelerated after the Sept. 11 attacks, and at the time Iraq was invaded in 2003, a Pentagon joint task force drew on 3,000 civil support personnel across the United States.
In 2005, a new Pentagon homeland defense strategy emphasized “preparing for multiple, simultaneous mass casualty incidents.” National security threats were not limited to adversaries who seek to grind down U.S. combat forces abroad, McHale said, but also include those who “want to inflict such brutality on our society that we give up the fight,” such as by detonating a nuclear bomb in a U.S. city.
In late 2007, Deputy Defense Secretary Gordon England signed a directive approving more than $556 million over five years to set up the three response teams, known as CBRNE Consequence Management Response Forces. Planners assume an incident could lead to thousands of casualties, more than 1 million evacuees and contamination of as many as 3,000 square miles, about the scope of damage Hurricane Katrina caused in 2005.
Last month, McHale said, authorities agreed to begin a $1.8 million pilot project funded by the Federal Emergency Management Agency through which civilian authorities in five states could tap military planners to develop disaster response plans. Hawaii, Massachusetts, South Carolina, Washington and West Virginia will each focus on a particular threat — pandemic flu, a terrorist attack, hurricane, earthquake and catastrophic chemical release, respectively — speeding up federal and state emergency planning begun in 2003.
Last Monday, Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates ordered defense officials to review whether the military, Guard and reserves can respond adequately to domestic disasters.
Gates gave commanders 25 days to propose changes and cost estimates. He cited the work of a congressionally chartered commission, which concluded in January that the Guard and reserve forces are not ready and that they lack equipment and training.
Bert B. Tussing, director of homeland defense and security issues at the U.S. Army War College’s Center for Strategic Leadership, said the new Pentagon approach “breaks the mold” by assigning an active-duty combat brigade to the Northern Command for the first time. Until now, the military required the command to rely on troops requested from other sources.
“This is a genuine recognition that this [job] isn’t something that you want to have a pickup team responsible for,” said Tussing, who has assessed the military’s homeland security strategies.
The American Civil Liberties Union and the libertarian Cato Institute are troubled by what they consider an expansion of executive authority.
Domestic emergency deployment may be “just the first example of a series of expansions in presidential and military authority,” or even an increase in domestic surveillance, said Anna Christensen of the ACLU’s National Security Project. And Cato Vice President Gene Healy warned of “a creeping militarization” of homeland security.

“There’s a notion that whenever there’s an important problem, that the thing to do is to call in the boys in green,” Healy said, “and that’s at odds with our long-standing tradition of being wary of the use of standing armies to keep the peace.”

McHale stressed that the response units will be subject to the act, that only 8 percent of their personnel will be responsible for security and that their duties will be to protect the force, not other law enforcement. For decades, the military has assigned larger units to respond to civil disturbances, such as during the Los Angeles riot in 1992.
U.S. forces are already under heavy strain, however. The first reaction force is built around the Army’s 3rd Infantry Division’s 1st Brigade Combat Team, which returned in April after 15 months in Iraq. The team includes operations, aviation and medical task forces that are to be ready to deploy at home or overseas within 48 hours, with units specializing in chemical decontamination, bomb disposal, emergency care and logistics.
The one-year domestic mission, however, does not replace the brigade’s next scheduled combat deployment in 2010. The brigade may get additional time in the United States to rest and regroup, compared with other combat units, but it may also face more training and operational requirements depending on its homeland security assignments.
Renuart said the Pentagon is accounting for the strain of fighting two wars, and the need for troops to spend time with their families. “We want to make sure the parameters are right for Iraq and Afghanistan,” he said. The 1st Brigade’s soldiers “will have some very aggressive training, but will also be home for much of that.”
Although some Pentagon leaders initially expected to build the next two response units around combat teams, they are likely to be drawn mainly from reserves and the National Guard, such as the 218th Maneuver Enhancement Brigade from South Carolina, which returned in May after more than a year in Afghanistan.
Now that Pentagon strategy gives new priority to homeland security and calls for heavier reliance on the Guard and reserves, McHale said, Washington has to figure out how to pay for it.

“It’s one thing to decide upon a course of action, and it’s something else to make it happen,” he said. “It’s time to put our money where our mouth is.”

Wild Thing’s comment………
I read this twice and did not see any mention of putting troops on the border. The illegals coming in is not what this is about. What on earth was I thinking, I forgot for a second that Bush loves the illegals coming in. So this article is not about that at all.
I love and respect our military- and our police…it’s just our politicians I don’t trust. THEY are the ones who don’t realize they are playing with fire. Under a conservative President this would be harmless news, good news, a feeling of being safe kind of news. Under Obama this takes on a whole different feel to it.
The various articles I have read since Obama’s trip to Germany tell a lot about how the Pentagon is no fan of Obama. Add in to that fact Obama’s friend the terrorist Ayers and his history with our Pentagon. Maybe that is why he has Gates on his team to try and get in better with the Pentagon, I am not sure.
The attempted attacks on our country happen every day all across the USA. I watch the incident map online and see the many things that our law enforcement have stopped. So that might also have something to do with this as well.
I still cannot get over that Barack Hussein Obama is the elected one.
http://www.nationalterroralert.com/updates/category/incident_reports/
https://www.globalincidentmap.com/user.php

Obama Fomenting A Constitutional Crisis: Constitutional Lawyer Discusses Ramifications Of Controversy
By John P. Connolly
The Philadelphia Bulletin
Controversy continues to surround President-elect Barack Obama’s eligibility to serve as president, and a case involving his birth certificate waits for its day before the U.S. Supreme Court.
A constitutional lawyer said were it to be discovered that Mr. Obama is not a natural-born U.S. citizen, it would have grave consequences for the nation.
According to the Constitution, a president must be a natural born citizen of the U.S. Mr. Obama’s critics have failed to force him legally to produce his original birth certificate, and Mr. Obama has resisted any attempt to make him do so. Currently, only Hawaii Department of Health officials have access to Mr. Obama’s original records.
Some of Mr. Obama’s critics have said he was born in Kenya and have claimed he is a citizen of Kenya, Indonesia, or even a British subject.
Edwin Vieira, a constitutional lawyer who has practiced for 30 years and holds four degrees from Harvard, said if it were to be discovered Mr. Obama were not eligible for the presidency, it would cause many problems. They would be compounded if his ineligibility were discovered after he had been in office for a period of time.

“Let’s assume he wasn’t born in the U.S.,” Mr. Vieira told The Bulletin. “What’s the consequence? He will not be eligible. That means he cannot be elected validly. The people and the Electoral College cannot overcome this and the House of Representatives can’t make him president. So what’s the next step? He takes the oath of office, and assuming he’s aware he’s not a citizen, then it’s a perjured oath.”

Any appointments made by an ineligible president would have to be recalled, and their decisions would be invalidated.

“He may have nominated people to different positions; he may have nominated people to the judicial branch, who may have been confirmed, they may have gone out on xecutive duty and done various things,” said Mr. Vieira. “The people that he’s put into the judicial branch may have decided cases, and all of that needs to be unzipped.”

Mr. Vieira said Obama supporters should be the ones concerned about the case, because Mr. Obama’s platform would be discredited it he were forced to step down from the presidency later due to his ineligibility, were it to be discovered.

“Let’s say we go a year into this process, and it all turns out to be a flim-flam,” said Mr. Vieira. “What’s the nation’s reaction to that? What’s going to be the reaction in the next U.S. election? God knows. It has almost revolutionary consequences, if you think about it.”

Mr. Vieira said Mr. Obama’s continued silence and avoidance in the release of his birth certificate is an ethical issue because of the dire consequences that could be caused by a possible constitutional crisis.

“If he were my client and this question came up in civil litigation, if there was some reason that his birth status was relevant and the other side wanted him to produce the thing and he said ‘no,’ I would tell him, ‘you have about 15 minutes to produce it or sign the papers necessary to produce the document, or I’m resigning as your attorney,” said Mr. Vieira. “I don’t think any ethical attorney would go ahead on the basis that his client could produce an objective document in civil litigation [and refused to do so].”

Further, Mr. Vieira cited a fraud ruling in a 1977 case called U.S. v. Prudden, which he feels applies in this case.

“Silence can only be equated with fraud when there is a legal and moral duty to speak or when an inquiry left unanswered would be intentionally misleading,” the ruling reads. “We cannot condone this shocking conduct … If that is the case we hope our message is clear. This sort of deception will not be tolerated and if this is routine it should be corrected immediately.”

Mr. Vieira said such an ethical question of representing a client who refused to produce such a basic document is important, even in a small civil case. The current question is concerning the man who potentially could have his finger next to the nuclear button.

“[The birth certificate], in theory, should be there,” said Mr. Vieira. “What if it isn’t? Who knows, aside from Mr. Obama? Does Russian intelligence know it isn’t there? Does Chinese intelligence know it isn’t there? Does the CIA know that it isn’t there? Who is in a position to blackmail this fellow?”

Mr. Vieira explained all laws have to be submitted to the president. In the event that there is no valid president, then no laws passed by Congress in that administration would be legally null and void. Because of that, this case will probably not go away, even after Mr. Obama takes the oath of office.

“If you don’t produce it, you think it’s going to go away,” he said. “There are all these cases challenging Mr. Obama, and some challenging secretaries of state, and they run into this doctrine called standing.”

Mr. Vieira explained although legal standing is difficult to get around in Federal courts, the document could be produced in any criminal cases stemming from legislation passed in the Obama administration.

“Let’s assume that an Obama administration passes some of these controversial pieces of legislation he has been promising to go for, like the FOCA (Freedom of Choice) Act,” said Mr. Vieira. “I would assume that some of those surely will have some severe civil or criminal penalties attached to them for violation. You are now the criminal defendant under this statute, which was passed by an Obama Congress and signed by President Obama. Your defense is that is not a statute because Mr. Obama is not the president. You now have a right and I have never heard this challenged, to subpoena in a criminal case, anyone who has relevant evidence relating to your defenses. And you can subpoena them duces tecum, meaning ‘you shall bring with you the documents.’ “

Such a criminal defense would enable the defendant to subpoena any person to testify in court and any person to bring evidence in their possession to the court.
Further, records could be subpoenaed directly, in the case of a birth certificate. Once the record could be subpoenaed, the birth certificate could be examined by forensic experts, who would then be able to testify to the document’s veracity as expert witnesses. Any movement by the judges to make a special exception to the president in a criminal case would hurt the legitimacy of that presidential administration.

“I can’t believe I’m the only lawyer who would think of this,” said Mr. Vieira. “I think any criminal lawyer defending against one of these politically charged statutes is going to come up with this. That means it will never go away until that document is laid down on the table and people say, ‘yes, there it is.’ And therefore they’re caught. If people keep challenging this and the judges out of fear keep saying ‘no, go to jail, go to jail, go to jail’ then that’s the end of the Obama administration’s legitimacy. On the other hand if they open the file and it’s not there, then that’s really the end of the administration’s legitimacy.”

Several court cases in the birth certificate controversy are waiting admission to the Supreme Court.
A gathering of judges will meet on Dec. 5 to decide whether or not to hear a case from New Jersey, and a decision is still pending on a case from a lawyer in Pennsylvania. Should four of the judges vote to hear the case in the Dec. 5 meeting, then it will be scheduled for hearings. Court cases from Connecticut and New York have also applied for hearings at the U.S. Supreme Court.

Wild Thing’s comment………
This is an excellent commentary on the issue by Vieira. It is a good artcile on the ramifications of undoing a Presidency if illegitimately in office.
The Supreme Court Justices’ devotion or not their devotion to the Constitution will be severely tested soon. SCOTUS has to know how a bad a hit it will take if it passes on a review now only to have him turn out ineligible later. The Supreme Court must uphold the Constitution or they are meaningless.
“[The birth certificate], in theory, should be there,” said Mr. Vieira. “What if it isn’t? Who knows, aside from Mr. Obama? Does Russian intelligence know it isn’t there? Does Chinese intelligence know it isn’t there? Does the CIA know that it isn’t there? Who is in a position to blackmail this fellow?”
Yikes. Never thought of this. Scary indeed.
Mr. Vieira cited a fraud ruling in a 1977 case called U.S. v. Prudden, which he feels applies in this case.
“Silence can only be equated with fraud when there is a legal and moral duty to speak or when an inquiry left unanswered would be intentionally misleading,” the ruling reads. “We cannot condone this shocking conduct … If that is the case we hope our message is clear. This sort of deception will not be tolerated and if this is routine it should be corrected immediately.”
Mr. Vieira said such an ethical question of representing a client who refused to produce such a basic document is important, even in a small civil case. The current question is concerning the man who potentially could have his finger next to the nuclear button.

Air Force- Warning to the taliban let the bodies hit the floor

Pride of America – USAF

Wild Thing’s comment……
These are two really good videos of our USAF. God bless all of them.

Senior Master Sgt. Edgar Newell, 380th Expeditionary Force Protection superintendent, thanks 2nd Lt. Sarah Rothlisberg after she presented him a plaque during a tribute at the start of the day’s first shift Nov. 8, 2008. Newell is ending his last deployment prior to his retrirement after nearly 40 years of military service.

Senior Master Sgt. Edgar Newell, 380th Expeditionary Force Protection superintendent, addressed a formation after they paid tribute to him at a shift change Nov. 8, 2008. Newell is ending his last deployment prior to his retrirement after nearly 40 years of military service.

A Veteran Walks Among Us
By Tech. Sgt. Denise Johnson
380th Air Expedtionary Wing Public Affairs
SOUTHWEST ASIA
Senior Master Sgt. Edgar Newell stood among the 380th Expeditionary Security Forces Squadron Airmen at guard mount Nov. 8, 2008. His face somber, the lines on his face filled with the shadows of two scores of deployments and military service. The sun was rising, casting the golden glow of dawn across the pale landscape.
When 2nd Lt. Sarah Rothlisberg, 380th ESFS, called him to the front of the formation, the 59-year-old veteran’s eyes seemed to snap back from the reverie of days and deployments gone by … days when the world seemed so different, yet so similar. Early days when the dawn of his career was a reflection of today’s sunrise, emerging from the blanket of night to face new challenges.
Newell was honored on the eve of his final deployment. The 380th ESFS members stood watch; ears tuned to the words of a man who was watching the dusk roll in on a lifetime of service.

“My story is not a special one,” Newell said. “I just have a lot of little special moments between the dates.”

The senior non-commissioned officer claims a humble service, not deserving of any special recognition. His flight members disagree.

“Our lives as force protection Airmen will forever be changed and enriched due to Senior Newell’s vast experience and exceptional leadership,” said Rothlisberg, the 380th ESFS assistant operations officer. “It’s been an honor and a privilege serving with him.”

Richard Nixon was held in high esteem by the American people in 1969. Neil Armstrong was about to step foot on the moon. Twenty-year-old Newell was making his way to the local recruiter’s office in Vineland, N.J.
As the decade drew to a close, the United States was in its fourth year of the Vietnam Conflict. More than 530,000 military members were facing increased resistance. The death toll was rising.
“I joined because I wanted to be a Marine,” Newell, 380th Expeditionary Force Protection superintendent, said.
Forty years ago, uniformed service members were facing a volatile U.S. public for fighting in the Vietnam Conflict. The New Jersey native was not deterred. During a period of time when young men were dodging the draft, young Edgar stayed true to his dream and became a Marine.
As President Nixon was presenting jazz musician, Duke Ellington, the Presidential Medal of Freedom on April 29, 1969, Newell was swearing his oath of enlistment with the Marines.
He was trained as an infantryman and sent to the 2nd Force Reconnaissance Company at Camp LeJune, N.C., for nine months before heading off to Iceland for his first deployment.
Iceland was a Cold War bastion that dominated the polar approaches to Europe and North America. Its sea lanes were busy thoroughfares for nuclear submarines which dominated the strategic warfare of the 1970s. Though Marines guarded the American diplomatic presence there, there was also a contingent of ground forces who were arctic-warfare trained to counter any Soviet Spetznaz guerrilla invasions.
The year in Iceland forestalled his Vietnam assignment, but did not preclude it. His boots hit the ground in May, 1971. Newell headed home in September, 1972, after 16 months in-country as a grunt.
The years of 1971 and 1972 were the final phase of Nixon’s Vietnamization program designed to provide a transition from an American-dominated conflict to a war fought by the South Vietnamese themselves. As American units drew down, responsibility for the fight was taken up by South Vietnamese regular units.
Newell, now in his mid-twenties, separated from the Marines and went to college where he earned a degree in forestry.
“I love trees,” Newell said. “I love growing things.”
Though his love for horticulture was uncontested, the satisfaction derived from military service had also taken root. Newell became a member of the Army National Guard from 1979 until 1982.
“I then rejoined the Active Marine Corps Reserves from 1983 to 1986,” Newell said.
Though it had been 23 years since his first enlistment, Newell was far from his closing act. The sun was merely reaching midday on his veteranship. In 1992, six years after leaving the Marine Reserves, he donned yet another service uniform, this time for the New Jersey Air National Guard, where he has remained until the present.
Again, Newell had a front-row seat for military transformations as the NJANG underwent a major transition in 1993.
Its fighter forces were consolidated in Atlantic City, and its KC-135E Stratotankers from the 170th Air Refueling Group moved to McGuire Air Force Base, consolidated with the 108th Tactical Fighter Wing and became the two-squadron 108th Air Refueling Wing. The 177th Fighter Group in Atlantic City transitioned from F-106s (the last unit to fly the Delta Dart) to F-16s. Atlantic City provided key defense for the entire Northeastern seaboard.
“I have performed several different jobs in the military, from a platoon sergeant to the non-commissioned officer in charge of a [Petroleum, Oil, and Lubricant] section on a guard base,” Newell explained. “I’ve never been without an agenda for the next day. Retirement will be different.”
Newell donned the military uniform at a time when black youth were fighting for entrance into the same schools as white children. Activists such as Martin Luther King Jr. were assassinated for fighting for civil rights. Woodstock was making rock ‘n’ roll history, and man walked on the moon for the first time. The first computer-to-computer link was established on the ARPANET; and on Oct. 29, 1969, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled immediate desegregation of all school districts.
He changed uniforms from era to era and branch to branch.
Newell served his country through the radical hippie era and saw America’s youth dancing Saturday Night Fever-style at discos. He carried the flag through the Reagan era and the Clinton years. He will lay his uniform to rest for the final time in the same town he started in, Vineland. Newell has come full circle.
As the sun set on Newell’s distinguished and lasting military career, the first black president has been elected; people use webcams and satellite links to establish communications. Two score of military service finds the American public once again watching a battle play out on the evening news.
Today uniformed service members are approached by strangers, too. But hands are not raised to shake a closed fist and shouts do not spew words of hatred. Instead, open hands are extended in friendship and humble words of gratitude are orated.
No less so than Rothlisberg’s gratitude, “I am truly blessed to have been given the opportunity to work side by side with this extraordinary man.”
Veteran’s Day brought a bittersweet reminder to those who’ve served with Newell as he greets the close of his career and his deployed brethren bid him farewell. For among them walked a true veteran: a Marine, Soldier, Reservist, Guardsman and Airman … he served all.

Wild Thing’s comment……..
There are thousands of stories of our awesome troops. What a joy there is in sharing them and a tremendous pride in each one of our troops and Veterans that have made our country free and great!!

Obama’s Choice for U.N. Is Advocate of Strong Action Against Mass Killings
New York Times
CHICAGO
President-elect Barack Obama has chosen his foreign policy adviser, Susan E. Rice, to be ambassador to the United Nations, picking an advocate of “dramatic action” against genocide as he rounds out his national security team, Democrats close to the transition said Sunday.
Mr. Obama intends to announce Ms. Rice’s selection at a news conference here Monday along with his previously reported decisions to nominate Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton for secretary of state, keep Robert M. Gates as defense secretary and appoint Gen. James L. Jones, a retired Marine commandant, his national security adviser, the Democrats said.
The choice of Ms. Rice to represent the United States before the United Nations will make her one of the most visible faces of the Obama administration to the outside world aside from Mrs. Clinton.
It will also send to the world organization a prominent and forceful advocate of stronger action, including military force if necessary, to stop mass killings like those in the Darfur region of Sudan in recent years.
To reinforce his intention to work more closely with the United Nations after the tensions of President Bush’s tenure, Mr. Obama plans to restore the ambassador’s post to cabinet rank, as it was under President Bill Clinton, according to Democrats close to the transition.
While the cabinet consists of 15 department heads, a president can give other positions the same rank for the duration of his administration.

“She’s obviously one of Obama’s closest advisers, so it underscores how much of a priority he’s making the position,” said Nancy Soderberg, a senior United States diplomat at the United Nations under Mr. Clinton. “If you look at the last eight years, we obviously need to be more engaged at the U.N. and realistic about what the U.N. can do.”

At Monday’s announcement, the president-elect will also formally unveil his nominations of Eric H. Holder Jr. to be attorney general and Gov. Janet Napolitano of Arizona to be secretary of homeland security, the Democrats said. He will not announce any of the top intelligence appointments on Monday, but the Democrats said they expected him soon to name Adm. Dennis C. Blair, a retired Pacific Fleet commander, as director of national intelligence.
If confirmed, Ms. Rice at 44 would be the second-youngest ambassador to the United Nations. A Rhodes scholar who earned a doctorate in international relations at Oxford University, she joined Mr. Clinton’s National Security Council staff in 1993 before rising to assistant secretary of state for African affairs at age 32. When Mr. Obama decided to run for president, she signed up as one of his top advisers, much to the consternation of the Clinton camp, which resented what it saw as a defection.
As the ambassador at the United Nations, Ms. Rice will have to coordinate with Mrs. Clinton, but will not be in the White House or at State Department headquarters on a daily basis as major policies are formulated. One person close to Mrs. Clinton said the senator did not object to Ms. Rice serving at the United Nations.
Some colleagues from her Clinton and Obama days said Ms. Rice can be blunt and unafraid to “mix it up,” as one put it, on behalf of issues she cares about. Ms. Rice herself acknowledges a certain impatience at times.
Admirers said she is a good listener and able to stand up to strong personalities, including foreign autocrats and militants in volatile regions of the world.

“Susan certainly is tough, and she’s tough in exactly the right way,” said Strobe Talbott, a former deputy secretary of state and now president of the Brookings Institution, where Ms. Rice has worked in recent years. “She’s intellectually tough, she’s tough in her approach to how the policymaking process should work and she will be very effective as a diplomat.”

John R. Bolton, who was one of Mr. Bush’s ambassadors at the United Nations, would not discuss Ms. Rice’s selection, but said it was unwise to elevate the position to the cabinet again.

“One, it overstates the role and importance the U.N. should have in U.S. foreign policy,” Mr. Bolton said. “Second, you shouldn’t have two secretaries in the same department.”

During her first run at the State Department, Ms. Rice was a point person in responding to Al Qaeda’s 1998 bombing of United States Embassies in Kenya and Tanzania. But her most searing experience was visiting Rwanda after the 1994 genocide when she was still on the N.S.C. staff.
As she later described the scene, the hundreds, if not thousands, of decomposing, hacked up bodies that she saw haunted her and fueled a desire to never let it happen again.

“I swore to myself that if I ever faced such a crisis again, I would come down on the side of dramatic action, going down in flames if that was required,” she told The Atlantic Monthly in 2001.

She eventually became a sharp critic of the Bush administration’s handling of the Darfur killings and last year testified before Congress on behalf of an American-led bombing campaign or naval blockade to force a recalcitrant Sudanese government to stop the slaughter.
Jerry Fowler, president of the Save Darfur Coalition, praised the pending Rice nomination on Sunday, calling it a powerful sign of the new president’s interest in the issue. The coalition is urging Mr. Obama to begin a “peace surge” of sustained diplomacy to address the continuing problems in Sudan.

“It sends a very strong signal about his approach to the issue of Sudan and Africa in general,” Mr. Fowler said. Ms. Rice will be joining a high-powered team on stage with Mr. Obama on Monday, most notably Mrs. Clinton.

The two rivals from the polarizing battle for the Democratic presidential nomination will seal their reconciliation with Mrs. Clinton’s nomination to head the State Department.

Some information on Susan Rice:
She served Bill Clinton as U.S. Assistant Secretary of State under Madeline Albright.
Rice is married to ABC News producer Ian O. Cameron, who has just been named the new Executive Producer for ABC’s Sunday political talk show “This Week with George Stephanopoulos.”
This from Newsmax from 2004 VERY interesting read how this Susan Rice :
FULL LENGTH ARTICLE HERE
Susan Rice ( who served as President Clinton’s Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs) and Richard Clarke persuaded Clinton National Security Advisor Sandy Berger to overrule Albright on the Sudanese terrorism overtures, said Ijaz and Carney.
Still, Sudan made yet another attempt to share intelligence on bin Laden and al-Qaida with the White House, repeating the unconditional offer to hand over terrorism data to the FBI in a February 1998 letter addressed directly to Middle East and North Africa special agent-in-charge David Williams.
Rice played a major role in the decision to refuse Sudan�s offer to hand over Bin Laden.
“But the White House and Susan Rice objected,” wrote Ijaz and Carney. “On June 24, 1998, Williams wrote to Mahdi, saying he was ‘not in a position to accept your kind offer.'”
U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania were destroyed by bin Laden six weeks later, in a suicide bombing attack that killed 253.
Susan Rice was John Kerry’s chief foreign policy adviser when he ran for President. One of the major steps Kerry suggested for dealing with the Middle East was to appoint James Baker and Jimmy Carter as negotiators. When furor erupted at the prospect of two of the most ardent foes of Israel being suggested to basically ride “roughshod” over Israel, Kerry backtracked and blamed his staff for the idea. His staff was Susan Rice.

Wild Thing’s comment………
So it looks like we will be shaping our foreign policy around the U.N.’s agenda. I wonder if Hillary is throwing a few of those ashtrays she likes to throw.
I am glad they included what John Bolton had to say about this.
John R. Bolton, who was one of Mr. Bush’s ambassadors at the United Nations, would not discuss Ms. Rice’s selection, but said it was unwise to elevate the position to the cabinet again.

“One, it overstates the role and importance the U.N. should have in U.S. foreign policy,” Mr. Bolton said. “Second, you shouldn’t have two secretaries in the same department.”

Herald Tribune–Europe
The French are literally poking fun at President Nicolas Sarkozy, but he is not amused. After appealing a court decision to allow a voodoo doll made in his image to remain on sale, Sarkozy drew a flurry of ridicule from his critics Thursday. It is his sixth lawsuit this year.

“They look too much like U.S. President-elect Barrack Obama,” Thierry Herzog, a lawyer for Sarkozy, told reporters on Saturday. “Nothing against Obama, but we expect a little more from our satire here in France. They can wave a white flag over there in America all they want, but a voodoo doll of President Sarkozy should have a bit more classe, oui?”

The Nicolas Sarkozy doll, which went on sale Oct. 9 and became a best-selling cult item as soon as the president tried to have it banned, comes with a set of 12 pins and a manual explaining how to put a curse on him.
Its light-blue body features some of his best-known quotes and most notorious gaffes, ready to be poked: “Work more to earn more” reads one, a famous campaign slogan. “Get lost, you poor jerk,” reads another, a swipe that Sarkozy took at a bystander who refused to shake his hand at a farm fair.

“You detest Nicolas Sarkozy because he is too far to the right? You dislike him because he is not far enough on the right?” the cover asks the prospective buyer, before claiming that, for only €12.95, or about $17, “you can ward off the evil eye and stop Nicolas Sarkozy from doing more damage.”

Wild Thing’s comment………
This article reminds me of this banned Commercial – Bill Clinton Voodoo doll. LOL