Theodore's World

There’s really only one major topic this week, the Petraeus report.
Guest lineup for the Sunday TV news shows:
ABC’s “This Week” …(George Step-on-all -of us)
Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz.
Sen. John F’n Kerry, D-Vietnam Mass

NBC’s “Meet the Press” ..(Tim Russert)
(The war in Iraq may be won or lost this week in Washington… we will tell you what you must think)
Retired Marine Corps Gen. James Jones
Charles Ramsey, former Washington, D.C., police chief
Sen. Joe ” plugs” Biden, D-Del. ( expound … and expound … and expound … and expound … and expound … ad nauseum. )

CBS’s “Face the Nation” ….(Bob Schieffer)
(The war in Iraq may be won or lost this week in Washington… we will tell you what you must think)
Sen. Edward M. Kennedy, D-Mass.
Brent Scowcroft, Former national security adviser

CNN “Late Edition” …(Wolf Blitzer)
The war in Iraq may be won or lost this week in Washington… we will tell you what you must think.
Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee
Sen. Arlen Specter, R-Pa.
Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif.
Mowaffak al-Rubaie, Iraqi national security adviser
Retired Army Gen. George Joulwan

Fox News Sunday …(Chris Wallace)
Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif.
Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C.
Frances Townsend, White House homeland security adviser
Michael DuHaime, Rudy Giuliani’s campaign manager

Maj. Christopher Milstead, attached to Task Force Bayonet, watches as a 500-pound bomb lands on a Taliban position after a small firefight during Operation Destined Strike in Chowkay Valley, Afghanistan

Paratroopers Take Fight to Taliban
BY Sgt. Brandon Aird, 173rd Airborne Brigade Combat Team
American Forces Press Service, Sept. 5, 2007) – The tense paratroopers and Afghan National Army soldiers sat in silence surrounded by darkness.
The previous hours were spent huddled together rehearsing the mission, “Destined Strike,” which was to be an air-assault into the Taliban’s backyard.
The whoop, whoop, whoop sound of the CH-47 “Chinook” helicopter’s rotary wings reverberated in the Soldiers’ ears drowning out all chance of another sound. Some of the Soldiers said last minute prayers while others day dreamed of loved ones back home. Squad leaders made last minute checks in the dark.
When the Chinook landed all thoughts came to the task at hand. The Soldiers jumped off the noisy helicopter onto a quiet, moon-lit mountain above the Chowkay Valley in Kunar province. The mountain is over 7,000 feet above sea level.
The Taliban’s biggest advantage in past firefights has been their ability to dominate the high ground, but not this time.
Soldiers of the 173rd Airborne Brigade Combat Team’s 2nd Battalion, 503rd Infantry Regiment and elements of the Afghan National Army’s 2nd Kandak, 201st Corps, conducted Operation Destined Strike Aug. 21-25. The U.S. Soldiers were members of the 2nd platoons of the 2nd Battalion’s A, C and D companies.

“We came here to show the local populace that coalition forces aren’t afraid to come into the Chowkay Valley,” said 1st Lt. Kareem F. Hernandez, Company A, 2nd Platoon leader.

After the initial insertion, the Soldiers pulled security and waited for daybreak. During the night, they searched with night vision devices for 15 individuals spotted earlier near their position by an unmanned aerial vehicle.
Once dawn broke, the U.S. and Afghan Soldiers put their gear-laden rucksacks on, and broke trail down the mountain to the first farming village. The village and fields were hand cut out of the mountainside.
1st Lt. Hernandez said he was surprised at the reaction he received from the first villager he encountered.

“It was the first time in this country I had someone admit he knew who the Taliban were. He showed me where they had been coming through to attack us,” 1st Lt. Hernandez said. “I’ve never had that happen before. They always act like they have no clue what I’m talking about.”

1st Lt. Hernandez learned the Taliban in the area were from the Korengal Valley. The trip from the Korengal Valley to the Chowkay Valley takes the insurgents two to three hours, according the local villager.
As Company A’s 2nd Platoon continued to the next village, rain started falling, along with bolts of lightning. During the ensuing storm, Taliban fighters attacked Company A’s landing zone, which was now occupied by the company commander and an overwatch element.

“They took small arms-fire and two RPG’s from the northwest,” 1st Lt. Hernandez said.

In response, Soldiers fired small arms, 120mm mortars and 155mm artillery at the Taliban positions. The Soldiers called in for air support, and fighter jets dropped four 500-pound bombs on enemy positions, ending any plans the Taliban had to move the Soldiers from their position.
After the short firefight, 1st Lt. Hernandez’s platoon and C Company’s 2nd Platoon spent the next few days moving to their extraction point for pick up by a helicopter.

Two Soldiers look at the components of the First Strike Ration during a recent evaluation at Fort Bliss, Texas.

First Strike Ration Heading to Warfighters
Army News Service
A new compact, eat-on-the-move assault ration is well on its way to warfighters’ hands.

“The First Strike Ration is intended for the first-on-the-ground, first-to-fight warfighter,” said Barbara Daley, food technologist and FSR project officer, Combat Feeding Directorate, U.S. Army Natick Soldier Research, Development and Engineering Center.

Usually when warfighters are issued two or more Meals, Ready-to-Eat they “field strip” them to lessen the bulk and weight they are carrying.
Personnel at NSRDEC found that not only were warfighters tossing what they considered extra weight, such as the flameless ration heater and Tabasco sauce, but they were also tossing food items. According to the Product Optimization and Evaluation Team at NSRDEC, if a warfighter is given 3,600 calories, he or she will often strip it down to 2,500 calories.
The FSR attempts to reduce this stripping by providing a lighter, smaller package with eat-on-the-go items that also enhance performance. These items are calorically dense and provide appropriate nutritional content and energy to warfighters for short durations of highly mobile, highly intense combat operations.
Items included in the FSR include:
pocket sandwiches
First Strike energy bars
Zapplesauce a carbohydrate-enhanced applesauce
high-energy drinks
pouches of tuna and chunk chicken
and caffeinated gum.
The FSR is designed to be about half the size of the three MREs it replaces and it provides, on average, 2,900 calories per day. “It is not intended to sustain the warfighter for long periods of time,” Ms. Daley emphasized.
Because of its lower caloric content, the FSR is classified by the Office of the Surgeon General as a restricted ration. As such, it can only be used as a sole source of food for ten days or less in accordance with Army Regulation 40-25.
CFD conducted user evaluations on the FSR in Nevada and Germany in fiscal 2004, and in Afghanistan and Iraq in fiscal 2005. When compared with a field-stripped MRE in Iraq in 2005, more than 70 percent of Soldiers said the FSR was more convenient to carry and consume than the MRE.

“The best feedback we have received to date has been from warfighters participating in OIF/OEF in the mountains of Afghanistan and Iraq. They loved it,” Ms. Daley said.

More than 6,500 FSRs have been used in theater in response to urgent requests by 25th Infantry Division and the Marine Corps, and modifications have been incorporated based on warfighter’s feedback.

Lt. Col. David Exton, 25th Infantry Division, told CFD: “You have created something great here. Do not fail in this ration. Need to make these happen for the Soldiers who go outside the wire. Could not get enough of them into theater.”

In July 2006, CFD conducted an operational test at Fort Bragg, N.C. With more than 100 Soldiers participating from an Airborne Infantry Battalion, one group consumed the FSR for three days while the other group consumed MREs for three days. Then the groups switched. From monitoring what the Soldiers ate and what they threw out, CFD saw less waste and greater consumption with the groups eating the FSR.
Based upon these successful tests, and the introduction of this ration in-theater, the demand for the FSR is immense.

Look closely at the picture above……..Islam is NOT for me.

Bin Laden says US should convert
BBC
A new video tape purportedly made by al-Qaeda leader Osama Bin Laden has urged the American people to embrace Islam in order to stop the war in Iraq. Unnamed US officials said they believed the speaker, who makes no overt threats against the US, was indeed Bin Laden. It is his first video in three years.
The release of the tape comes near the sixth anniversary of the 9/11 attacks. A short excerpt from the 30-minute tape was aired by al-Jazeera TV on Friday evening.
The speaker makes no overt threats to the US and did not directly call for attacks, according to transcripts of the tape obtained by several media organisations in the United States.
Instead, he tells the American people that they have failed to persuade the Bush administration to stop the war in Iraq.

“You made one of your greatest mistakes, in that you neither brought to account nor punished those who waged this war,” the speaker in the tape says, according to the transcript obtained by ABC News.

“You permitted Bush to complete his first term, and stranger still, chose him for a second term, which gave him a clear mandate from you… to continue to murder our people in Iraq and Afghanistan”.

The speaker tells the American public that there are two ways to end the war in Iraq: “The first is from our side, and it is to continue to escalate the killing and fighting against you.”

The second way, he continues, is to reject America’s democratic system and convert to Islam.

“It has now become clear to you and the entire world the impotence of the democratic system and how it plays with the interest of the peoples and their blood by sacrificing soldiers and populations to achieve the interests of the major corporations”.

“I invite you to embrace Islam,” the speaker says.

The transcript also makes reference to French President Nicolas Sarkozy, which indicates that the tape was recorded after Mr Sarkozy’s victory in May.

Wild Thing’s comment……..
No way jose Osama, you can keep your death cult and one day we will celebrate your finding out that your moon god allah was a bunch of BS. LOL Enjoy you last meal you freakazoid!
Convert or die, now much of a choice there. Hahaha The more videos he releases using Democrat talking points, the better. And he forgot the talking points of Al Gore and global warming.
Letter to Bin laden.
Renounce your ways and eat some pork. Preferably bratwurst soaked in beer. Watch some football. Get a dog, play some fetch. Tell all your followers that want to blow themselves up for you to do in their own private homes away from us, simply as a surefire way to remove dangerous explosives. Embrace capitalism, it’s what makes oil so expensive and ultimately benefits your fellow friends. Tap your feet in a mens stall instead of having sex with your goats.

Chuck Hagel is calling it quits
Omaha.com
WASHINGTON
Chuck Hagel will announce Monday that he is retiring from the U.S. Senate and will not run for president next year, people close to the Nebraska Republican said Friday.
Nebraska Sen. Chuck Hagel plans to leave the Senate after two terms as a Republican Party maverick, people close to him say.Hagel plans to announce that “he will not run for re-election and that he does not intend to be a candidate for any office in 2008,” said one person, who asked not to be named.
Hagel has scheduled a press conference for 10 a.m. Monday at the Omaha Press Club.
According to one person interviewed, Hagel told Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky on Friday morning that he had decided to retire. Hagel’s staff learned of his decision that afternoon.
The North Platte native earned national recognition as perhaps the most vocal, at times angry, GOP critic of the Bush administration’s Iraq policies.
His outspokenness on Iraq and other key issues, including Social Security and foreign policy, fueled national interest in Hagel as he flirted with a possible presidential bid.
His national profile reached its zenith in March, when he headed to Omaha to hold a press conference on his political future.
But amid wide speculation that he was leaning toward a White House run, Hagel announced that he would disclose his plans later in the year.
His pending retirement leaves another GOP Senate seat without an incumbent at a time when the Republican Party is struggling to stem potential losses and must defend more seats than Democrats.
In Nebraska, the news will trigger a scramble among possible successors.
Early this year, his frustration erupted after Bush announced plans for a troop buildup to try to curb violence in Iraq. Hagel labeled it “the worst foreign policy blunder since Vietnam – if it’s carried out.”
That and other criticism triggered a backlash from some conservatives, who viewed him as disloyal to the Republican president and potentially jeopardizing troops abroad.

Wild Thing’s comment……..
Hoohah! Two RINOs – Warner and Hagel GONE! Things are looking up.

House Democrats are already dismissing the Petraeus findings — which are not due for another five days.
Chuck Schumer, “This is a policy of last resort! This is a policy of desperation!” Working hard on his attempt to rewrite recent history, Schumer continued his diatribe with: “And let me be clear: the violence in Anbar has gone down despite the surge, not because of the surge!” Then, in a decidedly mean-spirited, patently lying attack against our own soldiers, Schumer continued his invective with: “The lack of protection for these tribes from al Qaeda made it clear to these tribes, ‘We have to fight al-Qaeda ourselves’. It wasn’t that the surge brought peace here. It was that the warlords had to create a temporary peace here on their own. And that is because there was no one else there [US soldiers] protecting them!”
Congressional Democrats are trying to undermine U.S. Army Gen. David H. Petraeus’ credibility before he delivers a report on the Iraq war next week, saying the general is a mouthpiece for President Bush and his findings can’t be trusted.
Speaker Nancy Pelosi is pointedly referring to the Petraeus testimony as “the Bush report presented by General Petraeus,” as opposed to an independent assessment by the top military man in Iraq that has been billed for months now. “Progress is not being made,” Pelosi insisted in a Capitol presser this afternoon, no matter how some people might want to “cherry pick” stories of success. “The plural of anecdotes is not data,” she added. “We will see what the Bush report will be at the end of next week,” Mrs. Pelosi said. “The facts are self-evident that the progress is not being made. They might want to find one or two places where there has been progress but the plural of anecdote is not data.”
The Bush report?” Senate Majority Whip Richard J. Durbin said when asked about the upcoming report from Gen. Petraeus, U.S. commander in Iraq. “We know what is going to be in it. It’s clear. I think the president’s trip over to Iraq makes it very obvious,” the Illinois Democrat said. “I expect the Bush report to say, ‘The surge is working. Let’s have more of the same.’ ”
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi of California — also referred to the general’s briefing as the “Bush report.”
Rep. Chris Van Hollen of Maryland, chairman of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, said Gen. Petraeus’ report was potentially compromised by the White House’s involvement in drafting it. “If the same people who were so wrong about this war from the start are writing substantial portions of this report, that raises credibility questions,” he said.

Democrats said they put more faith in a report Tuesday by the Government Accountability Office that showed Iraq failed to meet 11 of 18 political and security benchmarks set by Congress.
They also favored an analysis due today by Gen. James L. Jones, former U.S. commander in Europe, that is expected to say security gains have been “uneven” and Iraqi security forces are ill-prepared to stand alone, according to a CNN report.

.

And this from those that respect our military and the awesome work our troops have been doing and accompolishing.
“Are these leaders asking the American people to believe that the testimony of a commanding four-star general in the U.S. Army should be discarded before it’s even delivered?” said Brian Kennedy, spokesman for House Minority Leader John A. Boehner, Ohio Republican. “If so, these statements completely ignore what’s truly at stake in this war and suggest that neither the commander in chief nor our chief commander on the ground have any regard for the lives of the men and women fighting for this country,” he said. “It’s appallng, and I think the American people — rightfully — will continue to stick by the decisions of our commanders and troops on the ground when it comes to what is best for their safety and security.”
Sources for my notes above:
Washington Times
MSNBC
Reuters

Wild Thing’s comment……..
The Democratic party is the Party of Treason!!
And Chucky the Schmucky and the rest of the Dems are a total disgrace to America. Schmucky would stick a shiv into the backside of any US solider to gain more media attention for himself.

A couple of football stories

Kansas City Chiefs linebacker Donnie Edwards (left) and New Orleans Saints quarterback Drew Brees (right) pose for a photo with Petty Officer 3rd Class Corey Adam at the Expeditionary Medical Force – Kuwait hospital at Camp Arifjan, Kuwait. Adam, a Navy medical corpsman, said his dad, Delwin, is a diehard Saints fan. The NFL stars are touring the Middle East as a part of the Active NFL Players Tour sponsored by the United Service Organizations. U.S. Army photo by Staff Sgt. Patrick Moes

.

Seahawks duo blitzed by Bush backlash
Seattle …for complete story

The Seahawks quarterback and fullback gave the 43rd president a No. 43 jersey with his name on it at a $1,000-a-plate fundraiser for Rep. Dave Reichert at the Hyatt.
At the time, Hasselbeck called it a thrill and said it was a win-win, this opportunity to meet the president and get out of a team meeting.
But as soon as he saw the picture of the two players with Bush, Gary Wright, the team’s vice president of administration, said he was concerned about negative reaction.
Maybe in really red Republican states, it would not have been a big deal. But Washington is a blue state, and deep, deep Democratic blue in King County. So objections were raised, and Hasselbeck heard them and read them. He got nasty voice mails, e-mails and text messages.
“I had no idea,” Hasselbeck said.
One guy told him: “I hate you, I’ll never wear your jersey, I’ll never like the Seahawks again.”
“Huh?” Hasselbeck thought. “Seriously?”
“Politics can be very mean and dirty,” he said. “The things politicians say about each other, and what activists say, I had a brief glimpse of that for a couple of days.
“If I ever had any questions about whether I wanted to run for office, I now know the answer — I don’t.”
As a quarterback, he’s used to getting booed. “But this was a whole new level,” he said. “I was very surprised how mean (they were).”

Anti-Iraqi forces, emplacement engaged

Coalition forces engaged an ambush site and fighting positions of anti-Iraqi forces near Ba’qubah on June 9, 2007, in response to an ambush launched from the location earlier in the day.

Murtha’s district grateful for the pork
washington times ….for complete article
The largess of Rep. John P. Murtha — hundreds of millions of dollars in pork projects over the years — is on display around his district in southwestern Pennsylvania.
From the John Murtha Johnstown-Cambria County Airport to the stretch of U.S. 219 named Jack Murtha Highway, the Pennsylvania Democrat leaves his mark with federal taxpayer dollars.
The money helped build the stunted economy in and around Mr. Murtha’s hometown of Johnstown, a Rust Belt community about 65 miles east of Pittsburgh, by cultivating a defense-contracting industry, transplanting federal jobs there and subsidizing public-works projects.

“He is a key political leader, and he’s been in a position to help in a lot of areas,” said Robert F. Layo, president of the Greater Johnstown Chamber of Commerce, who credits Mr. Murtha with helping save the town after the steel mills closed.

“You just can’t deny that.”

Critics say Mr. Murtha, 75, is squandering taxpayer money, giving away federal dollars to handpicked businesses and projects without competitive bids or independent oversight.

“Murtha is a poster child for what is wrong with Congress,” said Leslie K. Paige, spokeswoman for Citizens Against Government Waste, a group targeting Washington mismanagement. “There are shenanigans going on behind the scenes, and it leads to corruption.”

The budget watchdog group Taxpayers for Common Sense says Mr. Murtha, chairman of the House Appropriations subcommittee on defense, slipped at least $163.8 million in earmarks into 2008 spending bills.
Mr. Murtha, known for brokering backroom earmark deals, insists that it is Congress’ job to appropriate funds and that members know what is best for their districts.

“We go over every single earmark,” he said on the House floor before the August recess. “We don’t apologize for them because we think the members know as much about what goes on in their district as the bureaucrats.”

House ethics rules adopted in January to shed light on the secretive earmark process did not curb Mr. Murtha’s appetite for pork.
His share of earmarks more than doubled from $80 million in the 2007 budget and topped $121 million from 2006, according to Taxpayers for Common Sense.

It’s less about him supporting his community than him supporting businesses and lobbyists that are giving him campaign contributions,” said Steve Ellis, vice president of Taxpayers for Common Sense.

Mr. Murtha touts the center’s accomplishments in compiling data on illegal drugs and related crimes, though the administration says the work is redundant and could be conducted at other offices of the Justice Department, which runs the center.
He also funneled $1.5 million to Concurrent Technologies Corp. (CTC), a Johnstown-based research center, the top executives of which have given tens of thousands of dollars in campaign contributions to Mr. Murtha, according to the Federal Elections Commission (FEC).

Wild Thing’s comment……..
With all of this pork going to Murtha’s district, does anyone have the census of the Muslim population there? Maybe this is just the Murtha anti-terrorist program? LOL

Fred Thompon’s Announces his Candidacy for President

He appeared on Jay Leno last night, I am posting it here in case you missed it and wanted to see it.