Theodore's World

Soldiers with 1st Battalion, 52nd Aviation Regiment prepare their aircraft for missions in which they transported 25,000 total pounds of gear. 1st Battalion, 52nd Aviation Regiment considers this to be a light day after so far transporting 28,000 passengers and almost 2 million pounds of cargo since August. Photo by: Cpl. Andrew M. Kalwitz, USMC.

Army Chinooks Help Carry Work Load
By Cpl. Andrew M. Kalwitz
2nd Marine Logistics Group
AL TAQADDUM
Though they are a flock of merely eight, the Army’s CH-47 Chinooks move thousands of pounds of gear and scores of personnel daily. Despite their small number of aircraft, the 1st Battalion, 52nd Aviation Regiment has handled a large workload since beginning operations in August. With greater capacity, the Army’s Chinooks have spared the Marine Corps’ aircraft approximately 28,000 passengers and almost 2 million pounds of cargo.

“They just needed something to fill the gaps until they could get another stateside unit into the rotation,” said Capt. Nelson Gray, a Milan, Ohio native.

Gray said the battalion’s Chinooks have already flown more than 300 missions. The overachieving aircraft can already carry 2,000 lbs. more than the Marine Corps’ Sea Knight, but that’s not all.

The Chinooks can also lift an external payload of nearly 13,000 lbs. by hooking the gear up to a sling under the belly of the aircraft. That’s more than twice the Sea Knight’s maximum lifting capability.

“It’s the best aircraft in any military inventory that I’ve seen yet,” said Capt. Zachariah Morford, a commanding officer for one of the battalion’s companies. “Our aircraft flies faster, higher, farther than anything in the Army inventory and now that we’re stacking up against Marine aircraft, we’re more than holding our own.”

The Soldiers are on a constant flight rotation, taking to the skies both day and night for the entirety of their deployment. A lot of maintenance comes with that kind of tempo, especially if the battalion plans to sustain it for the remainder of their 15-month deployment.

“Without us, we couldn’t move troops or supplies so it’s satisfying to see these things take off and go,” said Staff Sgt. Samuel Ayres, a Chinook mechanic with the battalion.

Morford said he especially enjoys working in a Marine environment as many of the few and the proud are unfamiliar with the Chinook’s capabilities.

“People wear a couple different uniforms, but all haircuts look the same and the food tastes the same,” said the Gainesville, Fla., native. “There are fewer differences than I would’ve at first imagined. They have a very mission focused perspective and we’ve been able to fit right into that.”

Bush administration backs gun regulation
LA Times
A D.C. ban on home handguns may not be constitutional, the solicitor general tells the Supreme Court, but rights are limited and federal firearm restrictions should be upheld.
January 13, 2008
WASHINGTON
In their legal battle over gun ownership and the 2nd Amendment, gun- control advocates never expected to get a boost from the Bush administration.
But that’s just what happened when U.S. Solicitor General Paul D. Clement urged the Supreme Court in a brief Friday to say that gun rights are limited and subject to “reasonable regulation” by the government and that all federal restrictions on firearms should be upheld.

Reasonable regulations include the federal ban on machine guns and other “particularly dangerous types of firearms,” he said in the brief. Moreover, the government forbids gun possession by felons, drug users, “mental defectives” and people subject to restraining orders, he said.

“Given the unquestionable threat to public safety that unrestricted private firearm possession would entail, various categories of firearm-related regulation are permitted by the 2nd Amendment,” Clement said. He filed the brief in a closely watched case involving Washington, D.C.’s ban on keeping handguns at home for self-defense.

The head of a gun-control group said he was pleasantly surprised by the solicitor general’s stand.
Paul Helmke, president of the Brady Campaign to Prevent Handgun Violence, said he saluted the administration for recognizing a need for limits on gun rights.

Alan Gura, a key gun-rights advocate who is leading the challenge to the District of Columbia’s gun law, expressed disappointment at the administration’s position. He said he was troubled that Clement advised the justices to send the case back for further hearings in a lower court.

“We are not happy. We are very disappointed the administration is hostile to individual rights. This is definitely hostile to our position,” Gura said.

This year, for the first time, the court is expected to rule squarely on whether the 2nd Amendment gives individuals a right to have a gun despite laws or ordinances restricting firearms.

In the past, this amendment has sometimes been read as protecting only state militias. It says: “A well-regulated militia, being necessary to the security of a free state, the right of the people to keep and bear arms, shall not be infringed.”

The case before the court tests the constitutionality of the District of Columbia’s unusually restrictive ordinance. Clement, the Bush administration’s chief lawyer before the court, agreed that the 2nd Amendment “protects an individual right to possess firearms, including for private purposes unrelated to militia operations.” D.C.’s ban on handguns goes too far and is probably unconstitutional, he added.

A ruling along these lines would be a major victory for advocates of gun owners’ rights.
But the solicitor general devoted most of his brief, filed late Friday, to urging the court to move cautiously and to make clear that the 2nd Amendment does not threaten most current restrictions on guns and gun owners.
Clement also said the court should stop short of striking down the D.C. ordinance on its own. Instead, he said, the case should be sent back to a trial judge.

“The D.C. ban may well fail constitutional scrutiny” he said, because it totally forbids private citizens from having a handgun at home.

But such a ruling should not threaten other laws, he said. “Nothing in the 2nd Amendment properly understood . . . calls for invalidation of the numerous federal laws regulating firearms.”

Under Atty. Gen. John Ashcroft, the Bush administration in 2001 switched the Justice Department’s long-standing support for gun control and adopted the view that the 2nd Amendment protects individuals’ gun rights.
The solicitor general holds an unusual position in the government.
He is an appointee of the president in the Justice Department, representing the administration’s view in court. At the same time, he has a duty to defend the laws passed by Congress, including in this instance the restrictions on machine guns and who can own a firearm.
The solicitor general is also an advisor to the Supreme Court. And usually, the briefs filed by his office carry more weight with the justices than any others.
The court will hear arguments in the D.C. case in late March.

Wild Thing’s comment……..
Well, this administration stuck the knife in conservatives’ backs a long time ago. May as well continue twisting it.
Our forefathers intended that right to be an absolute right, thus the very carefully chosen wording of the 2nd Amendment…”SHALL NOT BE INFRINGED…”
The NRA has released this press release expressing its disagreement with the DOJ brief: found at THIS website

Kerry: No Dem will ever be swift-boated again
ABC’s This Week, broadcast January 13, 2008.
Senator John Kerry told George Stephanopoulos on ABC’s “This Week” that no Democratic President will ever allow themselves to be attacked in the way that the “Swift-boat veterans” group attacked him in 2004.
“Unfortunately, when lies are put out on television sufficiently and unanswered sufficiently, they can make a difference. That will never, ever happen again,” he said.
Stephanopoulous and Kerry discussed Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama’s clash over a controversial comment Clinton made regarding Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Clinton accused Obama’s campaign of distorting her comments to suggest that she thought less of King.
When Stephanopoulous asked Kerry if he felt the Obama campaign owed Clinton an apology, he neglected to comment.
“George, I don’t know what the back/forth has been and i’m not here to get in between, you know, the sort of two campaigns and how they’re interpreting that,” he said.
Throughout the interview, Kerry voiced his strong support for Obama and his “ability to inspire hope.”
“Who better than Barack Obama to talk to young blacks in america or disaffected young people or — anybody, and sort of say, you see what happens if you have a dream and you pursue it and you work at it?” he said.
Kerry cited financial problems as a main reason why swiftboating was such a problem for him in the 2004 elections.

“No, he won’t, nor will any democrat ever again. And you’re looking at the person would understands that better than anybody. We made the miscalculation that we had answered the lies enough. They were answered. They were answered contrary to myth on day one, instant one. Counterpress conference. And the mainstream media wrote the truth. But unfortunately, when lies are put out on television sufficiently and unanswered sufficiently, they can make a difference. That will never, ever happen again ”
“We were stuck in the federal financing. [Barack Obama] is not. And he will have the ability to be able to redefine himself immediately,” he said.

Wild Thing’s comment……..
A stupid question about Swiftboating to Kerry. And another lie of an answer from traitor Kerry. We just can’t seem to get rid of Kerry the jerk. I wonder if he told them he wanted to be asked that question just so he could do his poor me thing on the show. I wouldn’t put anything past John Kerry to do, he is pure sleaze.

Dubai to Build $600M Hub in US “Corridor of Shame”
Financial Times
Dubai is investing $600m in one of the poorest counties in the US to set up a manufacturing and distribution complex that would serve as a major logistical hub for North America.
The long-term aim, according to people familiar with the deal, is to take advantage of a new generation of larger merchant ships passing from Asia through the soon to be widened Panama Canal and docking at ports such as Charleston and Savannah, seen as future primary gateways to the US.
The project is being handled by Jafza, a unit of the government-owned Dubai World group, which has bought land in South Carolina’s Orangeburg County.
Parts of South Carolina, which on January 26 holds one of the country’s key presidential primaries, are so underdeveloped that the area has been dubbed the US’s “corridor of shame”.
Jafza, which operates Dubai’s Jebel Ali free zone, is a sister company of DP World, which sparked a political furore last year when it acquired the management of six major US ports through its purchase of P&O.
Although that deal was backed by the Bush administration, political opposition in Congress to handing over such strategic facilities to a Middle Eastern company persuaded Dubai to sell off the US interests.
So far the Orangeburg project, little reported outside the region, has not provoked significant opposition. Jim Clyburn, Democratic congressman for the district, told The State newspaper in South Carolina that support for the plan was “overwhelming”.
When Jafza bought 1,300 acres of land in the area in October, its first acquisition in the US, the company said it planned to invest about $600m (£306m, €406m) to create a world-class logistics and business park that would include light manufacturing, warehousing and distribution facilities.

“Jafza’s long-term strategy is to develop a global logistics platform, and Orangeburg is one more major step in that direction,” said Salma Hareb, Jafza’s chief executive officer.

The project aims to create 8,000 to 10,000 jobs in an area of high unemployment, predominantly among African-Americans, and to attract further private investment of $1.2bn. It trumped a plan by the Catawba Indian tribe to set up a high-stakes casino on the land.
Jim Hodges, a former South Carolina governor who advises the Dubai company, told the FT:

“Jafza looked at changing shipping patterns, particularly on the west coast, and saw that, with the expansion of the Panama Canal, it would be easier for Asian companies to ship through the canal to the south east.” Panama is spending $5bn to double the capacity of the waterway over the next decade.

Mr Hodges said the Orangeburg project should not be compared to the controversial DP World deal. “Congress overreacted to a company and a country with which the US has good relations. This, however, is not ports but a business park.”

He said the hundreds of companies that might be encouraged to relocate there could use the hub to repackage imported goods or add content to imported components for re-export.
Orangeburg County straddles Interstate 95, the US’s main Atlantic coast highway from Maine to Florida, where it crosses I-26, a main south-east highway.

“It’s a great North American entry point,” said Gregg Robinson, head of the Orangeburg County Development Commission.

“Seventy-five per cent of the US market place is east of the Mississippi,” Mr Robinson told the FT. “What we envision is the arrival of a significant number of companies that have an international presence.”

Wild Thing’s comment……..
I have never heard of this place before so I looked it up.This is what I found……
……..

the “corridor of shame” tag does not refer to how developed the counties are nor does it refer to their low income levels. It refers to the badly neglected rural schools in South Carolina. It comes from a documentary by the same name and was put out by their own South Carolina Public Broadcasting.

hmmmmm well let’s see, since foreigners will have ownership they will be able to make management decisions some of which may not always be in the best interest of the U.S.
We would be better off if we invested in this ourselves.
I find it amazing that American companies (Google, IBM, GM, etc) are content investing in foreign countries while foreign companies (this company, Toyota, Nissan, etc) are content investing in the US.
Why couldn’t a smart American company or entreprenuer think of an idea like this? Because it wouldn’t make a quick buck like investing in China would. It’s only good for long-term gain and that idea is no longer appealing to the majority of people who run or live this country.
Seeing the sovereign nation of the United States turn into an international shipping hub. We don’t need to manufacture! No wonder the Rino’s don’t want to control our borders, their UAE friends will need that cheap labor at their new ‘business park’.
And no wonder the Globalists don’t want Duncan Hunter heard. The UAE is against our WOT. They are not our friends.
Links of interest:
War On Terrorism: Funding – Dubai identified as `hub’ for hijackers’Independent, The (London), Sep 29, 2001 by Anne Penketh
US Coast Guard Had Concerns About UAE Ports Deal
By Deborah Tate
Capitol Hill
28 February 2006
The U.S. Coast Guard had expressed concerns about the planned takeover of key operations at leading U.S. ports by a company based in the United Arab Emirates. Those concerns were expressed in a document released at congressional hearing Monday.
From this site: …there are other candidates listed as well, but these two are the only ones against it or at least with extreme caution.
Congressman Duncan Hunter: “No, because I don’t trust them. And I don’t trust them because a few years ago Dubai, while an American Customs agent was trying to stop them, set for delivery a set of nuclear triggers to an anonymous recipient in Islamabad, probably for the A.Q. Khan network. That went directly against American interests. So I would not do that.”
Senator Fred Thompson: “The answer is yes. Dubai would own 20 percent of NASDAQ, but NASDAQ, under this deal, as I understand it, would gain more than 30 percent of the Dubai company. It all depends on national security issues. Doesn’t seem to be one there. But we should look at all these deals carefully because we have a vast infrastructure. The great portion of it is in private hands. There’s no way, frankly, we can protect it all. So we need to do everything that we can to make sure that we’re doing all that we can to protect the infrastructure we’ve got and scrutinize these deals, number one, first and foremost, from a national security standpoint.”

The main gate of Ray Barracks in Friedberg, Germany, is shown here in 1963 Photo

Lt. Col. Thomas Salo, commander, 102nd Signal Battalion, and Jeurgen Jaeger shut off the main power supply to the KN-4100 telephone switch during a closing ceremony Monday on Ray Barracks. Photo by Sgt. Elizabeth A. Sheridan U.S. Army
Army Closes Ray Barracks in Germany
Army.mil news
Sgt. Elizabeth A. Sheridan serves as NCOIC for 5th Signal Command Public Affairs
FRIEDBERG, Germany
Army News Service
The voice of Elvis Presley echoed through Ray Barracks one last time Monday, returning for a brief moment to his old military stomping grounds.
With Presley’s “Hound Dog” reverberating off the cement walls, Lt. Col. Thomas Salo, commander, 102nd Signal Battalion, and Jeurgen Jaeger, 102nd Signal Bn., shut off the main power supply to the KN-4100 telephone switch during a closing ceremony for building 3705 on Ray Barracks.
The barracks were “The King’s” home in Friedberg from October 1958 to March 1960 when he served as a member of the 1st Battalion, 32nd Armored Regiment, 3rd Armored Division during his tour in the U.S. Army.

“The historical aspects of this post warranted a ceremony, here in this former home of Elvis,” said Salo. “Thousands and thousands of people were able to communicate from lines connected to this building; it is the end of an era.”

The massive telephone switch, installed in 1986, enabled 102nd Signal Battalion to provide communications to the Friedberg and Giessen military communities with 400 DSN lines and 20 commercial lines. By 1996 the capacity was bumped up to1400 DSN lines and 40 commercial lines.

“This is not the first communications site to close, and it will not be the last,” said Salo.

The garrison closure ceremony for U.S. Army Garrison Giessen, which encompassed Ray Barracks, was held Sept. 28, 2007. And 3705 is the last building on Ray Barracks to be turned over to the Department of Public Works for release back to the host nation, explained James Neufeld, chief of the Operations Management Cell in Hanau.

“It is fitting that commo is the first in and last out,” said Salo. “We do not turn off until the last customer is gone. They’re gone, so its time to flip the switch.”

Halal food in US schools
The New Nation
New York
The powerful US Senate is likely to witness a bill from Democrat Senator John Sabini, who is pursuing to ensure ‘halal food’ for Muslim students in schools of the city and the state as well.
“The ‘Halal Food Bill’ will be placed before the State Senate shortly,” John said at a fund-raising meeting in the city on Thursday.
Bangladesh Expatriates in New York organised the programme, where John Sabini also said that he and some other Democrat senators have been trying their best to raise funds from US business community for the cyclone-hit people in Bangladesh.
John Sabini has made a success last year, when he put forward a bill in the senate asking government to keep Eid days free from public examinations for Muslims. The bill has been passed to enact a new law.
District Leader of Democratic Party Mohammad Amunullah and president of American- Bangladesh Chambers of Commerce Gias Ahmed, among others, spoke on the occasion.

Wild Thing’s comment……..
Note: This article erroneously states the US Senate when in reality it is the New York State Senate.
And what about kosher menus pray tell, oh thaty’s right…….it’s hate the Jews and cater to the Moslems.
This is called liberals appeasing Muslims.
They should go back to a parent packing a lunch for their children and get rid of all this government in schools. When I was a kid we always took our own lunch to school. I remember when they started to have milk at shcool and my Dad said how it wasn’t a good idea, because of it being paid for my the government that one day if our government ever wanted to tell teachers what to teach etc. they could simply because of the power they would have from something as simple as providing milk to schools.
If my Dad was alive today he would be outraged by all of this and everything else that has been happening. Moslems prayer rooms, so many things, too many to mention here.

Yemen urges U.S. to shut Guantanamo to win good-will
SANAA
January 12, 2008
Reuters
Yemen has called on the United States to free all detainees at the Guantanamo Bay detention camp, saying the move would generate global good-will towards Washington.
About 100 Yemenis are being held at Guantanamo, making them the biggest group among the approximately 275 detainees there, according to Yemen’s media.

“I hope that the United States releases all those held at Guantanamo, based on the principles of human rights, freedom and justice upon which your country was founded,” President Ali Abdullah Saleh told President George W. Bush in a letter.

“I am sure that such an undertaking would draw a wide positive response from peoples and countries across the world,” a senior Yemeni official quoted Saleh as saying in the letter.

Saleh said Yemen would study charges against the detainees and prosecute them under Yemeni laws.
A Yemeni official told Reuters that a security team from Yemen would visit Guantanamo and meet with the detainees in early February.
The United States has been under international pressure to shut down the prison in Cuba, which many human rights watchdogs say is illegal because detainees are being held there without charge.
Washington started sending suspected al Qaeda and Taliban captives there in 2002, after leading an invasion of Afghanistan and deposing the ruling Taliban following the September 11 attacks on U.S. cities.
Yemen, the ancestral homeland of al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden, has joined the U.S.-led “war on terror” and is trying to shed its image in the West as a haven for Islamic militants.

Wild Thing’s comment……..
“joined the U.S.-led “war on terror” and is trying to shed its image in the West as a haven for Islamic militants.”…
LOL, well Yemen you and your idiot terrorist lovers in charge have a VERY long way to go for me to think much of you.. With this kind of advice it speaks volumes you are on the side of the terrorists. Now go grab your prayer blankie, and pray to your allah the moon god. Yemen should be thanking us and kissing our arse that we don’t bomb the heck out of that place for harboring terrorists.

Jack Nicholson ( Col. Nathan R. Jessup)

“Son, we live in a world that has walls, and those walls have to be guarded by men with guns. Whose gonna do it? You? You, Lt. Weinburg?
I have more responsibility here than you could possibly fathom. You weep for Santiago, and you curse the marines. You have that luxury. You have the luxury of not knowing what I know. That Santiago’s death, while tragic, probably saved lives. And that my existence, while grotesque and incomprehensible to you, saves lives.
I know deep down in places you dont talk about at parties, you don’t want me on that wall, you need me on that wall.
We use words like honor, code, loyalty. We use these words as the backbone of a life spent defending something. You use them as a punchline.
I have neither the time nor the inclination to explain myself to a man who rises and sleeps under the blanket of the very freedom I provide, then question the manner in which I provide it. I prefer you said thank you, and went on your way, Otherwise, I suggest you pick up a weapon, and stand to post. Either way, I don’t give a damn what you think you are entitled to!”

Global Cooling? Saudi Arabia covered with snow in coldest winter for 20 years
world news

Northern parts of Saudi Arabia are covered with snow with schools, mosques and administrative bodies paralyzed, local media reported Friday.
The oil-rich kingdom is being hit with subzero temperatures and snow storms with freezing winds of up to 50 km/h (30mp/h). Some regions have been experiencing problems with water supplies as pipes have frozen, and livestock has died from the cold.
The Saudi Gazette reported late in December that the winter was expected to last 89 days, with temperatures reaching below zero. National media said the winter is the coldest in the country for 20 years.

Wild Thing’s comment……..
LOL Hello Gore, Gore cannot be reached heh heh
But on a serious note, please remember in your prayers our troops ‘wintering’ in the hostile, isolated mountains of the infamous Hindu Kush Range in northeastern Afghanistan…Small bands of them perched on tiny cliffs they pickaxed out of the mountain side last spring,… no running water, no real buildings, only hooches they cobbled together by filling sand bags with rocks – and logs over the top – no real warmth, no real escape from the pervasive cold that can get down to minus 40 F, with blizzards and frequent avalanches.

Footage of comedian and actor, Robin Williams, in Kuwait

Wild Thing’s comment…….
Since his last visit to see the troops little by little video’s are bein released. LMAO this was so funny, apparently in all the timwes Robin has been to see our troops this trip had a new experience for him. hahaha

And this one he talks about the troops.