Theodore's World

McCain incentivizing supporters to comment on blogs
Politico
John McCain’s campaign is using their campaign website to encourage supporters to post supportive comments on political blogs, including the most well-known liberal site in the blogosphere. And to make things easier, they’re including talking points with which sympathizers can use to get out the McCain message.
“Select from the numerous web, blog and news sites listed here, go there, and make your opinions supporting John McCain known,” instructs the page.
McCain supporters are asked to send the details of their comment to the campaign, which in turn will verify it and then reward the supporter with “points” (assumedly to accumulate for McCain swag)
Among the “featured blogs” currently is Daily Kos, the well-read liberal blog run by Markos Moulitsas that frequently mocks and attacks Republicans such as McCain.
Asked about the effort to gin up online support, McCain spokesman Brian Rogers said, “We absolutely encourage our supporters to engage in this discussion.”
As for the talking points, which currently link over to two recent McCain speeches, Rogers said they were “facts about John McCain and his record.”
As close readers of Politico blogs and others know, Obama dominates both Clinton and McCain when it comes to drawing fervent online support.
UPDATE:
Rogers sends over word that the points system will be larger than mere competing to see who can post the most pro-McCain comments.
“It will help our supporters track and compete against one another for reaching out and making phone calls, sending letters to the editor, signing up friends and other campaign activities,” he says.
From McCain’s website:
Spread The Word

“Help spread the word about John McCain on news and blog sites. Your efforts to help get the message out about John McCain’s policies and plan for the future is one of the most valuable things you can do for this campaign. You know why John McCain should be the next President of the United States and we need you to tell others why.
Select from the numerous web, blog and news sites listed here, go there, and make your opinions supporting John McCain known. Once you’ve commented on a post, video or news story, report the details of your comment by clicking the button below. After your comments are verified, you will be awarded points through the McCain Online Action Center.”

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Wild Thing’s comment……..
I want no part of this, but I wanted to let you know what is going on with McCain’s campaign.
The three blogs mentioned on McCain’s web site are: Redstate, Daily Kos and Jeff Emanuel.
McCain sucks up to the execrable Daily Kos. Suggesting that people post messages supporting McCain on DailyKos is laughable. The poster would get banned or heckled to death, and probably both. What’s even sillier is that you can bet your bottom dollar the Kos people probably already know about this “plan” and will be looking out for it.
What I find funny also is at the site they’re including talking points. I mean if a person has to be told what to say, that is straight out of the Democrat hand book for talking points for political talk shows. We have seen that all the way back to the Clinton’s reign in the White House. Democrats given a set of words, bump key words or phrases to use on all the political talk shows. It got to be so obvious and the democrats still do this talking points thing. LOL
It’s pretty pathetic when a candidate has to reward people for saying nice things about him. Not sure what the points go to maybe a t-shirt. It will probably have “Viva La Raza” printed across the front. Maybe a photo image of his buddy Juan Hernandez .
I wonder if the campaign has really thought this through. This has a high chance of backfiring. The campaign is essentially sending out a bunch of complete amateurs to conduct its web-based PR. What happens when some McCainiac says something way, way, way out of line, then expects the McCain campaign to come through with a T-shirt or coffee mug as a reward? By offering incentives to online posts, the McCain campaign is claiming a form of “ownership” of them. Considering some of the wacky stuff that could get posted, does McCain REALLY want to own other peoples’ heat-of-the-moment, off-the-cuff remarks?
Very dangerous territory for someone who has repeatedly said he wishes to conduct a civil, respectful campaign.

Hillary Clinton, comrade of the American people, delivers a crushing victory speech over her nemesis commissar Obama.

Clinton May Take Delegate Fight to Convention
Breitbart
BOCA RATON, Fla.
Hillary Rodham Clinton says she is willing to take her fight to seat Florida and Michigan delegates to the convention if the two states want to go that far. In an interview with The Associated Press, Clinton was asked whether she would support the states if they continue the fight.
The presidential candidate said Wednesday, “Yes I will. I will, because I feel very strongly about this.”
Clinton is calling for delegates from both states to be seated at the convention based on the primaries.

Wild Thing’s comment……..
Operation Chaos! I hope she does! Yes! Yes! Yes!…….Go witch go!

Michelle Obama Under Fire for 2004 Letter Defending Partial-Birth Abortions
Washington, DC
LifeNews.com
Michelle Obama, the attorney wife of pro-abortion Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama, is coming under fire for a letter she wrote defending partial-birth abortions. The 2004 letter, written to help Obama in his campaign for his U.S. Senate seat, opposes the ban on the abortion procedure.
In February 2004, Michelle Obama penned a fundraising letter to help her husband Barack raise funds for his Illinois-based Senate seat.
The letter contends the federal ban on partial-birth abortions “is clearly unconstitutional” and “a flawed law.”
Though the three-day-long partial-birth abortion procedure involves the partial birth of a baby during the middle trimester of pregnancy and the jamming of scissors into the back of her head to kill her, Obama’s wife describes it as “legitimate” medicine.

“The fact remains, with no provision to protect the heath of the mother, this ban on a legitimate medical procedure is clearly unconditional and must be overturned,” Michelle Obama writes in the letter.

She also said the Bush administration should not encourage the abortion practitioners who sued to reverse the ban to drop their lawsuit to make it unconditional. The Supreme Court later sided with Bush and Congress in saying the ban is legitimate.
In closing, Obama told prospective donors that they could “count on” Barack to “keep the Bush team from appointing the Supreme Court justice that will vote against Roe v. Wade.”
Noted pro-life advocate Jill Stanek highlighted the letter on her blog and said Michelle was “leeching off the partial birth abortion ban” to raise funds for her husband.

“I’d like to ask Michelle to explain her legal opinion about this law the Supremes went on to declare constitutional,” Stanek said.

“I’d like to ask Michelle how in the world she could in good conscience raise money from fear-mongering about this barbaric abortion procedure,” she added.

Stanek pointed out that Barack Obama recently issued a warning to “lay off my wife” after she came under fire about an unrelated issue.
Stanek said the request amounted to “Free speech for me but not for thee” — something she called “a typical left-wing position.”

“So it’s fine to kill late-term babies, but we can’t risk hurting Michelle’s feelings about it,” she added.

Wild Thing’s comment……..
Yes I know, Lay off the Messiah’s wife. La, la, la, I can’t hear you Obama.
I wonder at what point Michelle thinks abortion turns into murder?
Black which used to insisted on being called (African-Americans till this election) enthusiastically support abortion of all kinds. Margaret Sanger, the founder of Planned Parenthood, was a devout racist. And there is no ethnic group that has lost more innocents since the act of abortion has become legal. Abortion has been a terror on the black community.

Great video……Please CLICK THIS LINK to see some awesome things about it and what our Veterans and supporters of our military are saying about the GI film festival.
The GI Film Festival, is the first film festival in the nation to exclusively celebrate the successes and sacrifices of the American military through the medium of film. The four-day festival will be held on May 14-18, 2008 in Washington DC.
The GIFF will present films from new and established international and domestic filmmakers that honor the heroic stories of the American Armed Forces and the worldwide struggle for freedom and liberty. Some of the films screened will be fan favorites. Others will be screened for the first time. All will in some way express the courage and selflessness of our fighting men and women and the value of their work.

What if one day…..The World Without Us
Click title to see film clip
In a futuristic scenario, a fictitious presidential candidate is proposing a complete withdrawal of all US troops from around the world. This triggers an journalistic investigation that spans across three continents in search of ‘What would happen?’ should the US might and involvement be absent one day.
Would the world a better place, or worse without the US?
Filled with personal stories, the film switches from macro to the micro picture delivering a heart touching experience while staying true to the journalistic integrity. The presidential candidate is played by Roy Werner, veteran actor, (CSI Miami and many other TV shows).

The Last 600 Meters
no film clip available
The two deadliest battles of the Iraq War occurred in 2004. The Battle of Najaf was fought in the South against the Shiite Mahdi militia. The Battle of Falluja was fought in the West against Sunni insurgents. These brutal urban conflicts were not the high-tech battles the military had prepared for after the first Gulf War in 1991–but they are the face of modern warfare. This film tells the story of these battles, not through narration, but through the words and deeds of those who fought there.

Vietnam – REMEMBERED
click title to see film clip
Vietnam Remembered, reveals the pride, honor and camaraderie these men
shared with each other on the battlefield and off. It truly is a moving tribute towards
those who have served our country and those currently serving.

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Outside the Wire: Danger Close World Premier

On March 26th, 2007 Al Qaida in Iraq attacked O.P. Omar, a small outpost in Al Anbar province manned by Army paratroopers from Blackfoot Company, 1-501st.
Al Qaida brought two suicide truck bombs, and more than 40 gunmen to the 20 minute battle.
Documentary filmmaker JD Johannes was embedded with Blackfoot Company and was nearly killed twice while filming the action.
From the combat footage, interviews with the soldiers who manned the walls and digital animations comes a in-depth look at the firefight and the paratroopers who fought it.

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Gods and Generals
Click title to see film clip
“”Gods and Generals is not only the finest movie ever made about the Civil War, it is also the best American historical film. Period.” –Bill Kauffman, American Enterprise Magazine
Synopsis: This epic film from writer-director Ron Maxwell chronicles the early events of the American Civil War. It’s a prequel to his earlier GETTYSBURG, with some of the same cast, and is part of a planned trilogy. Stephen Lang plays Thomas “Stonewall” Jackson, the famous (and deeply religious) Confederate general who, along with fellow General Robert E. Lee (Robert Duvall), must weigh the mighty consequences of his actions, as each battle costs the lives of thousands of men.

Wild Thing’s comment……..
With Hollywood making so many horrible unforgivable films lately negative about our military. I was so happy when I saw this, thrilled. Because they talk to our troops, their experiences and speak the truth in these films and NOT lies and slander of our troops and the war. So I just wanted to share what I found with all of you.
There are some good people in Hollywood, but it is like a needle in a haystack to know about them.

Col. Jon Sutterfield, 455th Expeditionary Maintenance Group commander, shows his Viking pride during the Viking cheerleaders’ tour at Bagram Airfield, Afghanistan, May 19. Sutterfield is a St. Cloud, Minn., native and deployed to BAF from Langley Air Force Base, Va. (U.S. Army photo/Tech. Sgt. Kevin Wallace)

Sarah and Bailey, two of five Minnesota Viking cheerleaders who toured and performed at Bagram Airfield, Afghanistan, May 19, display their Army t-shirts as they share words of encouragement to a standing-room-only crowd of servicemembers. In addition to performing cheer and dance routines, the cheerleaders challenged service members to a pushup contest, a “touchdown dance” contest and a game of “Cheerleader Says,” modelled after the classic children’s game “Simon Says.” (U.S. Army photo/Tech. Sgt. Kevin Wallace)

Minnesota Viking cheerleader Bailey performs a dance routine during the Viking cheerleaders’ tour at Bagram Airfield, Afghanistan, May 19. Bailey and four other cheerleaders visited BAF with a promise to give their all and to help pump up the spirits of deployed service members. (U.S. Army photo/Tech. Sgt. Kevin Wallace)

Sergeant 1st Class Timothy Winger, Navy Petty Officer 3rd Class Billy Grant and Peyton, a Minnesota Viking cheerleader gather on stage during the Viking cheerleaders’ tour at Bagram Airfield, Afghanistan, May 19. The Soldier and Sailor tied for first place in a game of “Cheerleader Says,” modelled after the classic children’s game “Simon Says.” (U.S. Army photo/Tech. Sgt. Kevin Wallace)

Jessie, Sarah, Amanda, Peyton and Bailey perform a dance routine

Cpl. Murray Kinnell, New Zealand Army, holds up “#1” as Minnesota Viking cheerleaders Amanda and Sarah cheer him on. Kinnell competed, and was unanimously voted best, in a “touchdown dance” competition during the Viking cheerleaders’ tour at Bagram Airfield, Afghanistan, May 19. (U.S. Army photo/Tech. Sgt. Kevin Wallace)

By Tech. Sgt. Kevin Wallace
BAGRAM AIRFIELD, Afghanistan
Historically speaking, what do Vikings and Afghanistan have in common?
Not much … but all that changed today, when five weapon-bearing Vikings landed their ‘long ship’ here.
They did not bear the 8th century axes and swords that one would imagine. Instead, they clutched pom-poms, microphones and enough spirit to pump up the standing-room-only crowd of service members who came to bare witness.
The event started with songs, dancing and cheers; efforts to vitalize the troops spirits, said Viking cheerleader Ms. Payton.

“We are all very glad to be here and we are going to put on a great show,” said Payton, as she warmed up prior to the event. “This is our last show in Afghanistan and we want to make this a night the troops will remember.”

With a promise to give the night their all, the cheerleaders went backstage and the event coordinators began letting in the men and women who were anxiously waiting outside.
First through the door was Senior Airman Oscar Bruck, 455th Expeditionary Maintenance Squadron phase crew chief.

“I’ve been waiting here since 6:20 (p.m.),” said Bruck, a Marlett, Mich., native deployed from Royal Air Force Lakenheith, England.

The event did not start until 8 p.m., but waiting nearly two hours didn’t bother Bruck, who said, “I wanted a front-row seat to make sure I got good photos.”
Good photos were not all Bruck received. He also got picked to come onstage and meet the Minnesota Viking cheerleaders and challenge 19 other service members to a push-up contest.
Bruck did not win the contest as his skills were no match for rival Navy Petty Officer 3rd Class Gilbert Corpuz, who knocked out 103 regulation push-ups in a minute. For his victory, Corpuz was rewarded with a Vikings calendar, autographed by all the cheerleaders.
After the pushup contest was finished, the cheerleaders performed another routine, then they picked 10 service members to join them on stage for a game of ‘Cheerleader Says,’ modelled after the classic children’s game Simon Says.
Once again, the stage was speckled with an array of U.S. uniforms. As a colorful addition, one Polish soldier also joined the ranks.
The Polish and two U.S. Soldiers were eliminated in the first round. Two Airmen and two more Soldiers fell in the second round.
Four rounds later, a tie was called as Sergeant 1st Class Timothy Winger, 70th Engineer Company, and Navy Petty Officer 3rd Class Billy Grant refused to be outsmarted.

A fair mix of rivalry and camaraderie added to the evening’s excitement, said one Coalition NCO.

“I like American Football – it is tough, yet fun. This is like the feeling of the people here – keyed up and still having fun,” said Sgt. Domera Phelippon, French Army.

Though football is not his favorite sport, Phelippon does like to watch it, he said.

“I know the Minnesota Vikings because I saw them on T.V.,” explained Phelippon. “Still, I didn’t imagine the cheerleaders would be this pretty. I am glad I came.”

What Phelippon may or may not have known was that the cheerleaders were equally as pleased to meet him and the other men and women in attendance.

“My favorite part of the tour is meeting so many people from so many places and hearing all their different stories,” said Payton, whose brother currently serves as a hull technician aboard the world’s first nuclear powered aircraft carrier, the U.S.S. Enterprise.

Other cheerleaders also had military ties.
One fellow cheerleader, Amanda, said her father retired from the Air Force.
The team’s captain, Sarah, said she did not have immediate family in the military but she has spent a great deal of time with service members lately.
Sarah volunteered for a similar tour in Iraq in February, during the Super Sunday Tour. She feels blessed to have the opportunity to travel to military bases through the Vikings, she said.
With the devotion the cheerleaders expressed for the attending service members, it was no wonder a line of men and women stretched around the Morale, Welfare and Recreation clamshell after the performance was completed and the cheerleaders volunteered to stick around, take one-on-one photos and sign autographs.

One Soldier was fortunate to be in front of the line, which only compounded the morale boost he got from the event, he said.

“I had a blast here,” explained Pfc. Ryan Clement, a route-clearance Soldier and Earlham, Iowa native. “Not only did I get to see a fine performance, I got to come up on stage and embarrass myself in the ‘Cheerleader Says’ competition.”

Clement only made it to the third round, but that did not abate his mood at all.

“I’ve been out at the (forward operating bases) and on patrols outside the wire since I came here,” said Clement. “To see this event and the energy these ladies put in on our behalf, helps out a lot – it really boosts our morale.”

After their visit to BAF, their final visit on the tour, the Vikings boarded their ‘long ship’ and again set sail – destined for home, and leaving memories and a boost of morale for those left behind.

Bittersweet Memorial Day: Family of Haditha Defendant Speaks Out for First Time

War Chronicle Defend Our Marines
by Nathaniel R. Helms

Three days after Memorial Day, the Marine Corps will court-martial the officer personally responsible for capturing the Al Qaeda terrorist who organized the ambush that triggered the so-called “Haditha Massacre”.

On Wednesday, May 28, 1st Lieutenant Andrew Grayson will stand general court-martial for obstruction of justice and lying to investigators about the events at Haditha and attempting to obtain a fraudulent discharge from the Marine Corps. Last September the government dismissed two counts of dereliction of duty against Grayson.

Two weeks ago military judge Maj. Brian Kasperczyk set the stage for Grayson’s court-martial during a final motion hearing at Camp Pendleton, California, Grayson’s lead defense counsel Joseph N. Casas—a former Marine infantryman and Navy lawyer—presented five final motions for the court’s consideration:

* Sever the Attempted Fraudulent Discharge case from the Haditha charges because they are unrelated and prejudicial;
* Allow co-defendant Lt Col Jeffrey Chessani to appear as a character witness by granting him immunity to testify;
* Mandate that the government be held accountable for its failure to comply with the so-called “ Speedy Trial” act by dismissing the charges;
* Address the “Undue Command Influence” issues raised by Rep. John Murtha’s (D-PA) slanderous public name calling by compelling him to testify;
* Address the failure of Army Col. Gregory A. Watt and other interrogators to provide Grayson his Miranda “legal rights” warning by suppressing any statements Grayson made to them about Haditha before he was identified as a suspect.
Kasperczyk denied them all without issuing findings of fact or a basis in law, Grayson’s defense team said.
Grayson, 27, joined the Marine Corps in May, 2003. He has served two combat tours in Iraq and was on another extended overseas tour in Africa when he was recalled to the United States last December to stand court-martial.
He is the first Marine charged in the Haditha incident to go to trial.
“We are ready to go to battle,” Casas said Monday.
Three enlisted men and two other officers who served in 3rd Battalion, 1st Marines at Haditha have already been exonerated and one enlisted man and one other officer still have trials pending.
Grayson is currently an intelligence officer with 2nd Counter-Intelligence Human Intelligence Exploitation Company at Camp Lejeune, North Carolina. He is currently living near Camp Pendleton while he waits for his court-martial to begin.
He was attached to 3/1 at Haditha when the infantry squad was ambushed. He was not at the scene of the ambush when it occurred.
Marine Corps intelligence operatives were advised of the scheme to demonize the Marines by an informant named Muhannad Hassan Hamadi after he was captured by Grayson’s intelligence team on December 11 2005 and decided to cooperate.
He revealed that the ambush was carried out by multiple cells of local Wahabi extremists and well-paid local gunmen from Al Asa’ib al-Iraq [the Clans of the People of Iraq] that were led by Al Qaeda foreign fighters, intelligence documents show.
Always an exemplary Marine officer, Lt. Grayson was nominated for a Bronze Star medal before the investigation into Haditha began. Casas said the recommendation was written in February 2006, about the same time government agents were probing the deaths.
Grayson is charged with ordering the destruction of roughly 70 digital images of 24 men, women and children killed by Marines in the counter-attack after the ambush was sprung. The photographs were taken hours after the incident by Staff Sgt. Justin Laughner, a Marine intelligence specialist who worked for Grayson.
Fifteen of the dead were innocent civilians, the rest were insurgents killed while hiding among them, the government acknowledges. The tragic deaths of the civilians caught in the cross-fire triggered the infamous “Haditha Massacre” reports that played on the world stage for almost a year before the story was debunked and media interest dwindled away.
Charges arose from a former subordinate, a miffed investigator, and embarrassed administrators
Grayson’s troubles began about two months after Laughner took the pictures when the lieutenant ordered the sergeant to delete them from his laptop computer. While testifying under immunity at a preliminary hearing June 14, 2007, Laughner said Grayson told him to delete the photos so they could not be part of a statement being prepared for top-ranking officers and a Time magazine reporter.
Laughner said he felt the order amounted to obstruction of justice but that he complied and later lied when asked whether any pictures had been taken. During Grayson’s Article 32 evidentiary hearing Laughner testified during cross examination by Casas that he had also been ordered to destroy the images by two senior non-commissioned officers on his team within days of taking them because they had no intelligence value.
Grayson’s defense team said their client issued his order to Laughner in compliance with standing general orders not to keep images of dead civilians and combatants unless they had intelligence value.
They said Grayson gave the order weeks after it had already been given by Laughner’s team chief and company Gunnery Sergeant and before he was apprised they were evidence in a criminal investigation. By then the photographs had circulated throughout the battalion as Marines passed the images from computer to computer.
In any event no actual harm was done by their presumed destruction. Ever since Laughner’s photographs were discovered in the camera he used that day the prosecution has passed them around like baseball cards at every evidentiary hearing.
In September 2007 government prosecutors at Camp Lejeune, North Carolina offered Grayson complete exoneration of all charges in return for admitting he lied to investigators about the case. He publicly refused, saying doing so would impugn his honor.
On December 13, 2007 Grayson was additionally charged with lying to two colonels during Col. Gregory Watt’s informal “AR15-6” investigation of the Haditha, Iraq massacre allegations in March 2006. Watt’s limited inquiry eventually led to the indictment of four officers from 3/1 for dereliction of duty and related offenses.
Grayson became embroiled in the investigation when Watt discovered that one of the lieutenant’s subordinates had taken digital photographs of the crime scene that were later destroyed. Watt says that Grayson lied to him and another officer about the existence of the images, calling him “arrogant” and “uncooperative.”
The same day the Marine Corps charged Grayson with fraudulently attempting to obtain a discharge.
Grayson had already been discharged for 17 days when the Marine Corps decided it had “erroneously issued” him his cherished DD214 discharge certificate. To correct the error the Marines issued Grayson a DD215 – usually reserved for correcting administrative errors to the original form – and recalled him to active duty.
After six weeks of examining the document Judge Kasperczyk did not find a single error on the DD214 that could be construed as a lie, but he denied the defense motion to have the complaint dismissed anyway. Casas then filed an appeal with the Navy/Marine Corps Court of Appeals in Washington, D.C. It was denied the next day because such appeals are only granted for “extraordinary circumstances,” the court ruled.

Dozens of observers who served in the Armed Forces claim that the fraudulent discharge complaint would be laughable if it wasn’t so serious. Anybody who has served in the military knows it is easier to escape from a locked box than sneak out of the service, they unanimously agreed.

One old salt said it defies credulity for anyone to accept that a Marine can talk his way past three or four steely eyed sergeants major and warrant officers—to say nothing of a division staff of captains, majors, colonels and generals—on his way out the door.

“Can’t be done,” said retired Master Gunnery Sergeant John Crocker, a Missouri native who served 30 years in the Corps including 10 as an Administrative Chief. “Not even a doggie [soldier] could get away with that. It should cost whoever let it happen if it was an error.”

Lt Grayson’s family speaks out
There is a hidden cost associated with the prosecution of Grayson and the other seven Marines who were pilloried by the press and deserted by the Corps, the prosecution’s legion of critics is eager to point out. It is the harm already done and still being inflicted upon the Haditha defendant’s families.
For 18 months Grayson’s family has literally been tortured emotionally and financially by the devastating consequences of his impending court-martial, they said.
Grayson and his wife Suzy have lived in 12 different places while she puts her medical studies on hold so she can stay near her husband as the Marine Corps turns his life upside down, according to her mother, Christine Rudinsky, who lives in Phoenix, Arizona.

“I have just returned from the last of his motion hearings, and I must say it was a very, very depressing experience,” she wrote last Thursday, the first time she has publicly spoken about her son-in-law’s situation since it emerged. “Prior to this, I had been hopeful that this was all a silly misunderstanding, that Andrew would be completely exonerated, and that he and my daughter would be able to resume their lives together.

“I am now thinking that was very wrong. I am very fearful that the government has decided that someone must pay and who better than the lowest ranking, non-career officer out there?”

Despite the pain, Grayson’s parents were equally confident that those in authority would eventually determine that justice is a two-edge sword. With two sons proudly serving the Corps they thought it could be no other way until now.

“We have maintained silence as the military legal system has persecuted our son and the two remaining Marines who were charged. We have been mute, always with the expectation that the Corps would realize that justice was not to be found in the court martial of men who performed their duties with distinction,” Grayson parents Robert and Denise Meyer said in an email written on Sunday.

“Our eldest son serves as a Captain at MCRD (Marine Corps Recruit Deport), Parris Island. He will have completed 6 years in 2008, working with a team to prepare and meld the men of the Corps.

“Our youngest you know as Andrew Grayson. While Greg served in Okinawa and Korea, Andrew served in Iraq and Africa. Make no mistake, there is an incredible amount of pride in all our children. Andrew worked with a team on his first tour, and told of his determination in bringing about the electoral process in the zone he supported. They were successful, demonstrated by the election in Iraq.

“The second tour was as long as the first and on his return, he maintained a sense of accomplishment. His final deployment was to Africa. It was cut short when he was returned to the U.S. and was charged as one of the Haditha 8.”

Despite the emotional ups and downs that have marked the passage of time since Grayson was charged eighteen moths ago his parents have not forgotten what service means to the families of those who serve the nation.

“We are thankful every day that our son and the others under charges are alive and with us. Those that are recognized on Memorial Day had parents, sons, daughters, brothers and sisters who do not have our fortune,” they reminded us all.

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Wild Thing’s comment……..
This Memorial Day will also make the second anniversary of Congressman Murtha’s media blitz: perverting a sacred holiday for political gain in a mid-term election.
We’ve seen five Marines charged and cleared over the past seventeen months. Thoughts and prayers are with the families of the three remaining accused.
The fact that others also told Laughner to delete the photos make this prosecution all the more ludicrous. The fact that others had given Laughner the same order only came out during cross-examination in the Article 32. Seems that investigators and prosecutors never probed this because they were myopically focused on Grayson.
Also, Lt Grayson’s prior service record is a big problem for the prosection. He is a good Marine with absolutely no motive to conceal anything. Lt Grayson didn’t even know the Marines who fought in Haditha that day. He had zero reason to cover anything up.
It breaks my heart that the Haditha Marines and their families have to continue living this nightmare.
Murtha needs one Marine to fall. No one in my lifetime has turned on the Marine Corps the way Murtha has. He is keeping his fingers crossed that one of these last three Marines will be convicted . Murtha has betrayed these warriors and I will never forgive him.

Godspeed to the Coasties
USCG GRADUATION Congratulations Class of 2008!
The Gathering of Eagles, a patriotic organization dedicated to honoring our men and women in uniform and those who are honorable veterans, announces our latest event in honoring the graduates of the Coast Guard Academy by welcoming their families and supporters to their graduation ceremony on May 21, 2008.
We will be in front of the entrance on Mohegan Ave, at the intersection of Williams and Mohegan from 7 AM to 1 PM that day, waving flags, carrying patriotic signs and singing patriotic songs in an effort to welcome the families to what is a most honored event; the graduation of their loved ones from the Coast Guard Academy.
All interested persons are encouraged to bring home made signs welcoming the families and Coasties, American Flags and Coast Guard flags.
The Vide President of the United States, Dick Cheney, will be the honored speaker at this event, so signs and banners welcoming him are encouraged also.
Please join us on this date, May 21, 2008, from 7 AM to 1 PM to welcome the friends, families, and supporters of the Coast Guard!

….Godspeed to the Coasties

A montage of President Reagan at his comedic best.

….Thank you Tom for sending this to me.

US Navy Official FLEET Week website
May 21- 28, 2008
Thousands of Sailors, Marines and Coast Guardsmen from U.S. Navy and U.S. Coast Guard ships will be in town for Fleet Week New York.
Hosted nearly every year since 1984, Fleet Week New York is the City’s celebration of the sea services. This annual event also provides an opportunity for the citizens of New York City and the surrounding Tri-State area to meet Sailors, Marines and Coast Guardsmen, as well as witness first hand the latest capabilities of today’s Navy, Marine Corps and Coast Guard Team.
Fleet Week includes dozens of military demonstrations and displays throughout the week, as well as public visitation of many of the participating ships.

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Thank you ! To all our troops in the US NAVY we thank you.

The website has photos from last year’s FLEET Week and also the schedule for this years events.

Barack Gaffes The Obama machine
Michelle Malkin
NRO
All it takes is one gaffe to taint a Republican for life. The political establishment never let Dan Quayle live down his fateful misspelling of “potatoe.” The New York Times distorted and misreported the first President Bush’s questions about new scanner technology at a grocers’ convention to brand him permanently as out of touch.
But what about Barack Obama? The guy’s a perpetual gaffe machine. Let us count the ways, large and small, that his tongue has betrayed him throughout the campaign:
* Last May, he claimed that tornadoes in Kansas killed a whopping 10,000 people: “In case you missed it, this week, there was a tragedy in Kansas. Ten thousand people died — an entire town destroyed.” The actual death toll: 12.
* Earlier this month in Oregon, he redrew the map of the United States: “Over the last 15 months, we’ve traveled to every corner of the United States. I’ve now been in 57 states? I think one left to go.”
* Last week, in front of a roaring Sioux Falls, S.D., audience, Obama exulted: “Thank you, Sioux City. … I said it wrong. I’ve been in Iowa for too long. I’m sorry.”
* Explaining last week why he was trailing Hillary Clinton in Kentucky, Obama again botched basic geography: “Sen. Clinton, I think, is much better known, coming from a nearby state of Arkansas. So it’s not surprising that she would have an advantage in some of those states in the middle.” On what map is Arkansas closer to Kentucky than Illinois?
* Obama has as much trouble with numbers as he has with maps. Last March, on the anniversary of the Bloody Sunday march in Selma, Ala., he claimed his parents united as a direct result of the civil rights movement: “There was something stirring across the country because of what happened in Selma, Ala., because some folks are willing to march across a bridge. So they got together and Barack Obama Jr. was born.”
Obama was born in 1961. The Selma march took place in 1965. His spokesman, Bill Burton, later explained that Obama was “speaking metaphorically about the civil-rights movement as a whole.”
* Earlier this month in Cape Girardeau, Mo., Obama showed off his knowledge of the war in Afghanistan by homing in on a lack of translators: “We only have a certain number of them, and if they are all in Iraq, then it’s harder for us to use them in Afghanistan.” The real reason it’s “harder for us to use them” in Afghanistan: Iraqis speak Arabic or Kurdish. The Afghanis speak Pashto, Farsi, or other non-Arabic languages.
* Over the weekend in Oregon, Obama pleaded ignorance of the decades-old, multibillion-dollar massive Hanford nuclear-waste cleanup: “Here’s something that you will rarely hear from a politician, and that is that I’m not familiar with the Hanford, uuuuhh, site, so I don’t know exactly what’s going on there. (Applause.) Now, having said that, I promise you I’ll learn about it by the time I leave here on the ride back to the airport.”
I assume on that ride, a staffer reminded him that he’s voted on at least one defense-authorization bill that addressed the “costs, schedules, and technical issues” dealing with the nation’s most contaminated nuclear-waste site.
* Last March, the Chicago Tribune reported this little-noticed nugget about a fake autobiographical detail in Obama’s Dreams from My Father: “Then, there’s the copy of Life magazine that Obama presents as his racial awakening at age 9. In it, he wrote, was an article and two accompanying photographs of an African-American man physically and mentally scarred by his efforts to lighten his skin. In fact, the Life article and the photographs don’t exist, say the magazine’s own historians.”
* And in perhaps the most seriously troubling set of gaffes of them all, Obama told a Portland crowd over the weekend that Iran doesn’t “pose a serious threat to us” — cluelessly arguing that “tiny countries” with small defense budgets can’t do us harm — and then promptly flip-flopped the next day, claiming, “I’ve made it clear for years that the threat from Iran is grave.”
Barack Obama — promoted by the Left and the media as an all-knowing, articulate, transcendent Messiah — is a walking, talking gaffe machine. How many more passes does he get? How many more can we afford?

Wild Thing’s comment…….
And pssst- Obama. That Hanford…ah..”site” thingy. Its in Washington state. Not Oregon.
And the corrupt slithery souled “mainstream” press…covers for him.