US NAVY JEEP

" Are you better off than you were 4 years ago ?"

2012-02-01T14:53:00.004-05:00

Data from Gallup polling tells the tale of what the 2012 election scene looks like.

My daughter was asking questions about the election and I put this question to her:

" If you lost a job or your home over the last three years, or someone in your family or among your good friends lost a home or a job, would you vote for more of the same ?" It is as simple as that. For the past three years we have listened to the Simpleton from Chicago blame everybody else and not taken responsibility for his lack of ability to make a difference. Inflation is up and the cost of living is hurting a lot of people.

It comes down to the question Ronald Reagan put to the Voters:

" Are you better off than you were 4 years ago ?"

This polling gives you the answer.

Gallup state numbers predict huge Obama loss
by Conn Carroll Senior Editorial Writer
Washington Examiner

Gallup released their annual state-by-state presidential approval numbers yesterday, and the results should have 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue very worried. If President Obama carries only those states where he had a net positive approval rating in 2011 (e.g. Michigan where he is up 48 percent to 44 percent), Obama would lose the 2012 election to the Republican nominee 323 electoral votes to 215.

Gallup adds:

Overall, Obama averaged 44% job approval in his third year in office, down from 47% in his second year. His approval rating declined from 2010 to 2011 in most states, with Wyoming, Connecticut, and Maine showing a marginal increase, and Massachusetts, Wisconsin, Minnesota, New Jersey, Arizona, West Virginia, Michigan, and Georgia showing declines of less than a full percentage point. The greatest declines were in Hawaii, South Dakota, Nebraska, and New Mexico

OPSEC & Protecting our Warriors - Something lost on the President

2012-02-01T10:26:00.004-05:00

Those who go in harm's way learn and understand the first lesson of how to stay safe - OPSEC. This is short for " Operational Security ". The need to keep all info about mission, operations and tactics secure and by doing so, not allow the enemy to gain intelligence.

Too bad this simple concept doesn't extend to the President or the Vice President who have been using the SEALs exploits for political gain. They are " users ' and use people like the SEALs for their own benefit. By doing so, they put these warriors at risk.

Don't take my word for it, read the enclosed written by a Navy SEAL who feels pretty upset by what the idiot in the White House has been doing.

Obama Exploits the Navy SEALs
There may be political value in detailing how our special forces hunted bin Laden, but doing so threatens troop safety and future missions
By LEIF BABIN - Wall Street Journal

America's premier Special Operations force is once again in the headlines after a team of Navy SEALs rescued two hostages from captivity in Somalia last week. Elite U.S. forces have carried out such operations periodically over the past decade, always with skill and bravery. The difference in recent months is that the details of their work haven't remained secret. On the contrary, government officials have revealed them for political gain—endangering our forces in the process.

The floodgates opened after the raid that killed Osama bin Laden last May, and the Obama administration's lack of discretion was on display again at last week's State of the Union address. As President Obama entered the House chamber, in full view of the cameras, he pointed to Defense Secretary Leon Panetta and exclaimed: "Good job tonight, good job tonight." Clearly something had happened that he wanted the world to know about.

After delivering his speech, which included multiple references to the bin Laden raid, the president again thanked Mr. Panetta. "That was a good thing tonight," he said as if to ensure that the viewing public, if they missed it initially, would get it a second time around.

Sure enough, shortly thereafter, the White House announced the successful rescue of the hostages in Somalia by U.S. Special Operations forces. Vice President Biden appeared on ABC's "Good Morning America" to highlight the success the next morning, and Mr. Panetta also publicly praised it. Then came the "anonymous U.S. officials" to provide extensive details of who conducted the raid and how. As with the bin Laden operation, the top-secret unit that carried it out was again front-page news, as were its methods and tactics.

Our special operators do not welcome this publicity. In fact, from conversations I've had in recent days, it's clear they are dismayed by it.

Adm. William H. McRaven, America's top special-operations commander, wrote in his 1996 book "Spec Ops" that there are six key principles of success in special operations. Of paramount importance—especially given the risk and sensitivity of the missions and the small units involved—is what the military calls "operational security," or maintaining secrecy. If the enemy learns details and can anticipate the manner and timing of an attack, the likelihood of success is significantly reduced and the risk to our forces is significantly increased.

This is why much of what our special-operators do is highly classified, and why military personnel cannot legally divulge it to the public. Yet virtually every detail of the bin Laden raid has appeared in news outlets across the globe—from the name of the highly classified unit to how the U.S. gathered intelligence, how many raiders were involved, how they entered the grounds, what aircraft they used, and how they moved through the compound. Such details were highly contained within the military and not shared even through classified channels. Yet now they are available to anyone with the click of a mouse.

It's difficult for military leaders to enforce strict standards of operational security on their personnel while the most senior political leadership is flooding the airwaves with secrets. The release of classified information has also opened a Pandora's box of former and retired SEALs, special operators, and military personnel who have chosen to violate their non-disclosure agreements and discuss intricate details of how such operations are planned and executed.

We've already begun seeing specific examples of strategic harm from the post-bin Laden leaks. In June, Pakistan arrested several individuals who allegedly provided information to the CIA in advance of the raid. One of those charged with treason was a Pakistani doctor, Shakil Afridi. This Sunday, Mr. Panetta confirmed to "60 Minutes" that Dr. Afridi had provided "very helpful" intelligence to the CIA. That may have condemned Dr. Afridi to death or life imprisonment.

Such disclosures are catastrophic to U.S. intelligence networks, which often take years to develop. Recklessness not only puts lives at risk but could set U.S. intelligence-collection efforts back decades. Our ability to carry out future operations is significantly degraded—something not lost on Pakistan.

A week after the bin Laden raid, then-Secretary of Defense Robert Gates expressed dismay about Washington's loose lips, telling a town hall meeting of U.S. Marines at Camp Lejeune: "Frankly, a week ago Sunday, in the Situation Room, we all agreed that we would not release any operational details from the effort to take out bin Laden. That all fell apart on Monday—the next day."

Do the president and his top political advisers understand what's at stake for the special-operations forces who carry out these dangerous operations, or the long-term strategic consequences of divulging information about our most highly classified military assets and intelligence capabilities? It is infuriating to see political gain put above the safety and security of our brave warriors and our long-term strategic goals. Loose lips sink ships.

Mr. Babin is a former Navy SEAL officer who served three tours in Iraq, earning a Silver Star, two Bronze Stars and a Purple Heart. He left active duty six months ago

Gronkowski loses the boot off his left foot for good

2012-01-31T13:17:00.005-05:00

NY was hoping & praying Gronkowski was sidelined but you can't keep a guy like Gronk down.....not when it means this much to him and the team...NY better look out.

Go Gronkowski....show'em how it's done. Although he has not been stamped " A-OK" for Sunday, the likelihood of him sitting out the big day is nil.

Gronkowski loses the boot
January, 31, 2012
Jan 3110:54AM
By Mike Reiss / Yahoo Sports

INDIANAPOLIS -- New England Patriots tight end Rob Gronkowski showed up at Super Bowl XLVI media day Tuesday without a walking boot on his sprained left ankle, but took a Belichickian approach to questions surrounding his availability for Sunday’s game against the New York Giants.

Rob Gronkowski said Tuesday the walking boot was off his left foot for good. “I don’t know yet (if I’ll be able to play Sunday),” Gronkowski told a throng of reporters at Lucas Oil Stadium. "We’re going day by day. Making new steps every day, feeling better every day. That’s a positive sign and you just want to keep going in the right direction. I want to be out there with the team obviously. I want to help out the team obviously. Just taking it step by step, getting better every single day.”

Earlier this week, Patriots coach Bill Belichick dubbed Gronkowski “day to day” as well.

Gronkowski said the walking boot was gone for good (“It’s off. No more boot.”) and said he would spend Tuesday’s non-practice day with trainers.

Patriots quarterback Tom Brady took Gronkowski losing the boot as a positive sign.

"Well he's obviously making progress, he's out of his boot today, which is making me feel better,” Brady said. “I told him to write ‘Hi Mom’ on his sock, because there will be a lot of pictures today. ... No one is as tough as him, he makes our offense go. Hopefully we have him out there."

Can Gronkowski imagine not playing in the Super Bowl?

“Yeah, but I’m not really worried about whether I’m playing or not yet,” Gronkowski said. “That’s on Sunday. The only thing I’m worried about is Tuesday, which is today, to get better today. Keep on improving today. Keep on getting stronger today, keep on progressing today. Just keep on moving forward, going in a positive direction. That’s what counts.”

The 22-year-old tight end hasn’t practiced since suffering a high ankle sprain in the AFC Championship Game and wasn’t sure whether he would practice this week, either. When asked if he thought he could be effective against the Giants without having practice, Gronkowski said he trusted the team to do whatever was best.

“I’m not sure (if I could be effective without having practiced). That’s why I’m with the training staff,” Gronkowski said. “I trust in the organization here. I trust in the coaches. I trust in all the trainers to get me ready for whatever I gotta do. When Sunday comes aloig, they’ll have me at my best, where I need to be.”

Gronkowski called the high ankle sprain “nagging, sore” and added he didn’t “want to look back and say you didn’t try everything to get on the field.”

Gronkowski has dominated headlines at Super Bowl XLVI, in part because of his importance to the Patriots' offense. He totaled 90 receptions for 1,327 yards and a tight-end record 17 touchdowns in the regular season and at 6-foot-6 and 265 pounds is a dominant presence in the red zone. He started all 16 games and seldom, if ever, comes off the field.

Considering the Patriots don't have a backup for Gronkowski on the roster and that they run more than 80 percent of their snaps with two or more tight ends on the field, it's no wonder his status is being monitored so closely.

All indications point to Gronkowski suiting up for the Super Bowl, the bigger question is how effective he will be and how much the Patriots will have to alter their game plan.

"There is a difference between hurt, sore and banged up,” Gronkowski said. "In the NFL you definitely have to play hurt."

Gronkowski also joked about his father revealing the nature of his injury to a New York television station, telling reporters to give his father a call if they wanted information.

"He'll give it up," Gronkowski said

New England Patriots focus on the Game

2012-01-30T19:25:00.003-05:00

THIS is part of what makes NEW ENGLAND the team to beat...many others would rehash the past...Not Belichick, not Brady. They have only one focus - WINNING on Super Bowl Sunday.

NY best understand that the other games mean little to New England. The Patriots will do their talking on the field.

Patriots not interested in past meetings
January, 30, 2012
James Walker - ESPN

INDIANAPOLIS -- The AFC champion New England Patriots made one thing clear in their first two days at Super Bowl XLVI: They have little interest in rehashing past meetings against the New York Giants.

New England suffered recent losses to the Giants in big games -- both this past regular season and in Super Bowl XLII. Giants quarterback Eli Manning provided a pair of dramatic, fourth-quarter drives to seal it for New York.

Naturally, there will be a ton of questions for the Patriots this week whether the Giants have momentum, or have their number. The Patriots just won’t entertain them.

"This team doesn't talk, not about the past," Patriots veteran receiver Deion Branch said.

New England head coach Bill Belichick is leading the charge in not reflecting on previous games against New York.

"This team is this team," Belichick said. "I think our team is different than what it was at midseason, different than what it was in December. I think the Giants are a different team from when we played them in November."

Regardless, New York comes in very confident after being one of three teams to beat the Patriots this year. The Giants also had the tougher road through the playoffs, beating the Atlanta Falcons, Green Bay Packers and San Francisco 49ers.

Both teams have improved as the season has gone on, leading to Sunday's big matchup with everything on the line.

"You could take a little bit as far as the personnel, but as far as our game plan is concerned, you really can't take too much," Patriots linebacker Jerod Mayo said. "They've had an extra week to prepare, so have we, and I'm sure we’ll have a lot of different looks for them."

Over 279,000 Federal Workers Owe $3.4 Billion in Back Taxes....

2012-01-30T12:15:00.004-05:00

Tax time has rolled around again. At least for you & me. There are far too many others who because they work within the US Government, see taxes as something for the "little people" to worry about.

The figures below should make you as upset as I feel. We could use the $3.4 Billion owed right about now, and not for more wasteful spending, but for things that benefit all like improved infrastructure, defense and approving
no-brainers like the Keystone Pipeline which will assist us in being more energy independent.

All I know is if you or I owed taxes like this, the IRS would be more than happy to assess us with a large penalty and other measures designed to get us to pay up soon....so why is it any different for the 279,000 who work for the taxpayers????

Over 279,000 Federal Workers Owe $3.4 Billion in Back Taxes

Over 279,000 federal workers and retirees owed more than $3.4 billion in back income taxes in 2010 (up from $3.3 billion in 2009, $3.0 billion in 2008, and $2.7 billion in 2007).

The cabinet departments with the largest percentages of employee/retiree tax deadbeats are:

Housing & Urban Development: 3.89%
Education: 3.88%
Army: 3.83%
Veterans Affairs: 3.78%
Commerce: 3.54%
Health & Human Services: 3.51%
Defense: 3.19%
Air Force: 3.11%
Navy: 3.05%
State: 2.94%

Other departments and agencies:

U.S. Office of Government Ethics: 6.49%
Federal Reserve Board: 4.86%
U.S. House of Representatives: 4.24%
U.S. Senate: 3.08%
SEC: 2.50%
U.S. Tax Court: 2.25%
Treasury Department: 0.96% (the lowest delinquency rate among cabinet departments)

The Calm Before the Storm

2012-01-29T10:12:00.002-05:00

One week from today,things will be different. Parties will be in full swing by early afternoon and many will be looking forward to an evening filled with Football and overpriced commercials that have become part of the festivities.

Today, we are still bombarded with lots of hype, talking heads and speculation.

Ultimately, it all comes down to the way the ball bounces and who makes a mistake at the wrong time. The New England Patriots and the NY Giants are equally matched, both possess good players and have the ability to get inside the red zone to score.

In the end, all the talk in the world won't matter more than what happens when one team gets the ball and the other team screws up. It is as simple as that and the game comes down to those key plays when the momentum shifts.

I'm with New England on this one as they have the right stuff and NY has been running on a streak of luck that is about to come to an end.

A closer game than most but I see it at New England 27 - NY 13.

Until next week, when we will see it play out, we will just have to wait.

Tim Thomas - MVP and Patriot

2012-01-27T16:36:00.003-05:00

There's a reason why Tim Thomas was the League MVP last year....There's a reason why he has the phrase " Don't tread on me" on his helmet.

I'm sorry so many of the media got unglued because Tim Thomas has integrity and won't be used for a political photo-op with the feckless pol in the White House.

It takes COURAGE to stand up for yourself and that is something Tim Thomas has in spades....too bad this simple concept is something that most of the media can't grasp. I salute Tim Thomas as he has my respect. The Fool in the White House, not so much.

Thanks Tim. True Patriots stand with you for making a gutsy and strong stand against all that is wrong in Washington, DC. " Protest is Patriotic" was what we heard from the DEMS over the previous administration's term.....now, they are 100% against it because it involves protesting the person they prefer.

Tim Thomas is a MVP and I can easily see why....we need more Patriots like him. If more people stood up for what is right, we would have less of the embarrassments we see in government. There is very little leadership among our politicians. We need more people like Tim Thomas who are willing to call it like it is and are not afraid to take a stand.

Put Americans back to work and the economy will be fixed - It's a no brainer

2012-01-26T09:27:00.007-05:00

Over the last week, beyond the stories about the Super Bowl, Obama's failed SOTU address, etc., the election campaigns have been putting out non-stop information about what they will do if they are elected.

The President has sat on his hands for three years, so his sudden interest in jobs is disengenious and his only effort on jobs is if he can provide lots of government $$$ for the unions. This will not get more Americans working, only fatten the cofferes of his political allies. The GOP'ers are also talking jobs but in a different fashion working with the private sector. That is where jobs need to be created.

From USA Today on 01/26/12 - " Applications for unemployment benefits have been trending downward the past few months. Just two week ago, applications had plummeted to their lowest level since April 2008. And the average has fallen about 9% since Oct. 1.

But the week ending Jan. 21, initial claims increased 21,000, the Labor Department said Thursday. The four-week average, a less volatile measure, fell to 377,500, the government added."

To fix the economy, get America on track again and resolve issues at home, we need to put people back to work. It is that simple. Not busy work jobs like the President offered with his road repair & signs debacle but real jobs. Career positions that pay a good wage and offer benefits that people can afford. The kind of jobs where you can build a future.

No amount of hot-air out of Washington, DC will fill the need until we can get people back to work. Those with degrees should be able to do more than apply to Starbucks. Those with techincal educations should be able to do more than run a register at Target. By creating good paying jobs for them, we will open positions at these other places for younger workers who need the experience of a starter job.

It is that simple. If you can understand, and I understand this simple concept, why can't we get the ones who make the key decisions at companies to understand also ?

Until this changes, and jobs are available, the economy will plod along as no one has extra $$$ to spend. That is why the average age of a car on the road in America is 10.8 years old, the higest average ever. No one can afford to replace the cars they are driving.

10 months until the election and American workers need a new President who understands this simple need to get America back on track. If we hire Americans and provide them with good jobs, the economy will improve. It is that simple

SOTU

2012-01-25T15:08:00.001-05:00

Lies, Lies and more Damn Lies...If he told the truth, it would have sounded more like this cartoon....

Bruins Goalie Tim Thomas shows courage and takes a hit from the media

2012-01-24T07:08:00.007-05:00

I was able to listen to the media outlets pile on Boston Bruins Goalie Tim Thomas yesterday for not attending the White House visit with the Bruins yesterday. The media were in full dump mode as I heard radio, print and TV reporters all say that what he did was wrong.

To the pundits and the media, I say you are wrong.

Tim Thomas was exercising his right to protest the issues that are wrong with Washington, DC and especially the light weight in the White House. " Protest is Patriotic " was the mantra we heard from the lefty looney libs for 8 years when President Bush was in the White House. The level of venom they directed against anyone and every one in power they didn't like was unbelievable.

Now, because the Bruins Goalie has issue with the way our Government is mis-managed, suddenly protesting is wrong? He should give up his moral and ethical indignation and make nice-nice with those who are driving our country into a ditch ?

I support Tim Thomas. If you feel that attending a White House Photo-op is something you don't want to do, then you are well within your rights not to attend.

If this was done when there was another President in place, I would feel the same as the day we condemn civil protest, we are on a slippery slope. Tim Thomas made a polite and mature protest. He didn't camp out on the White House lawn, or demand payment from the government. He declined an invititation. It is up each individual person to decide on whether to go, not the media.

Courage is taking a difficult stand when all around you are pressuring you to give in. Thanks Tim for making and taking the tough stand.

We stand with you.

PATRIOTS WIN UGLY......And get a return trip to the SUPER BOWL

2012-01-22T19:06:00.004-05:00

Talk about winning Ugly.....Damn.

Even our star QB summed it up (and touched on how bad we were)
Brady: 'I sucked pretty bad, but our defense saved us'

All that matters is the PATS win, RAVENS lose and we are going to the SUPER BOWL. Awesome......

Patriots headed back to Super Bowl
Trip sealed when Ravens kicker misses game-tying field goal attempt
By Shalise Manza Young
Boston Globe Staff / January 22, 2012

FOXBOROUGH – The New England Patriots are headed to the seventh Super Bowl in franchise history after a hard-fought, edge-of-your-seat, 23-20 win over the Baltimore Ravens in the AFC Championship game that was only sealed when Ravens kicker Billy Cundiff pulled a potentially game-tying 32-yard field goal with 11 seconds to play wide left.

The miss was jaw-dropping for Baltimore players, who stood on the sideline in disbelief and set off a wild celebration at Gillette Stadium. Patriots defensive tackle Vince Wilfork, who had a huge role in the game, took off his helmet, his arms outstretched, steam coming off his bald head and bare arms.

After being battered all season, the New England defense forced the Ravens’ field goal on the game's final possession. Rookie Sterling Moore, who earlier missed a tackle on Torrey Smith that led to a touchdown, bounced back mightily, breaking up two end zone pass attempts from Joe Flacco on the Ravens' final possession.

The snap and hold looked good for Cundiff’s kick, but he simply misfired from a manageable distance.

As the Patriots waited to receive the Lamar Hunt Trophy given to the AFC Champions, signs honoring team owner Robert Kraft’s wife Myra, who died on July 20, were everywhere, from the patches on players’ jerseys, to the signs in the stands from fans who waved giant “MHK” and “Win it for Myra” posters.

Patriots quarterback Tom Brady plunged one yard over the goal line on fourth-and-goal in the fourth quarter to put New England on top, 23-20. Brady completed only 22 of 36 passes for 239 yards and no touchdowns, and harshly criticized his performance in a television interview afterward.

"I sucked pretty bad today, but our defense saved us," Brady said.

Flacco had pulled the Ravens ahead, 20-16, when he hit Smith on a 29-yard pass play that Smith ended by diving for the pylon. Flacco was 22-for-36 for 306 yards and two touchdowns.

In the first half, the game was as tight as it was expected it would be, though New England may have squandered some early chances. The Patriots went into the locker room up 13-10 – they had the ball with just under a minute to play and with two timeouts in hand, but opted to take two knees rather than try to get more points.

The early opportunities came on the Pats’ first three possessions: New England started at their own 40, own 39 and own 40, but was only able to score three points despite the short fields.

In the opening minutes, the Patriots’ defense was the story, as it came out strong. Baltimore lost the coin toss but the Patriots, as is their custom, elected to defer, and forced a three-and-out, with Mark Anderson bringing Flacco down from behind when he tucked the ball on third down and tried to run for it.

On Baltimore’s second possession, it faced a third-and-3, but Vince Wilfork pressured Flacco and Anderson took him down for a seven-yard sack.

Wilfork came up huge the next time the Ravens had the ball, bringing Ricky Williams down by his jersey – while Wilfork himself was on the ground – for a five-yard loss, and then abused center Matt Birk on third-and-long, getting a five-yard sack of Flacco and forcing another punt.

After a quick three-and-out, the first time they got the ball, the Patriots offense was more effective the second time out, getting some luck along the way. On second-and-9 from the Baltimore 27, Brady looked for Wes Welker. The ball was high, and Welker batted it up; Bernard Pollard grabbed the ball out of the air, but the interception came off the board because cornerback Lardarius Webb was flagged for illegal contact. New England kept the ball and got a first down.

Six plays later – after Brady overthrew tight end Rob Gronkowski, who was wide-open, in the seam for what would have been a touchdown -- Stephen Gostkowski put a 29-yard field goal through the uprights for the first points of the game.

While the first potential interception was wiped out by a penalty, the Patriots weren’t so lucky the second time. After Wilfork’s sack led to a Ravens punt, Brady’s pass for Julian Edelman ended up in the hands of Webb, who made a great catch falling backward, similar to an interception think Patriots cornerback Devin McCourty made in San Diego last season.

Baltimore tied the score off the turnover, with a 42-yard pass from Flacco to rookie Smith on the first play putting the offense into New England territory quickly. When a third-down dumpoff to Anquan Boldin was just short of a first down, the Ravens took a short field goal.

The Patriots responded with something and someone we haven’t seen much of recently: the ground game and BenJarvus Green-Ellis. The running back picked up 24 yards on the first two plays from scrimmage, then later in the drive saw his helmet yanked off while he was running by linebacker Dennell Ellerbe.

The penalty gave the Pats first-and-goal from the 7; on the next play, Brady went right back to Green-Ellis, who got some nice blocks from Logan Mankins and Welker on his way to the touchdown.

The Ravens once again tied the game, getting two big plays: on first down, old foe Lee Evans, who is in his first season with Baltimore after beginning his career with the Bills, had a 20-yard gain; two plays later, Boldin broke through the tackle of Kyle Arrington and ended up gaining 37 yards.

Flacco hit tight end Dennis Pitta in the front of the end zone for the score.

The Patriots added a 35-yard field goal before halftime, then upped their lead to six points just off the half on another short field goal.

Two key plays on the drive came when Brady picked up four yards on second-and-1, getting up and barking at linebacker Ray Lewis, and on third-and-6, when Aaron Hernandez caught a screen behind the line of scrimmage and put a nice move on Pollard for a 12-yard gain.

But the Ravens answered right back, going 78 yards in 11 plays for their first lead of the game, then getting the ball right back when Danny Woodhead was stripped on the ensuing kickoff return. The New England defense made a big stop, with McCourty breaking up a pass in the end zone and James Ihedigbo sacking Flacco on third down to force a field goal

The New England Patriots are on the hunt for Ravens

2012-01-20T11:07:00.003-05:00

The New England Patriots are going to wring the necks of these dirty Baltimore Birds when they come to Foxboro on Sunday....and then on to the Super Bowl !!

Politics vs. Jobs - Obama rejects Keystone XL pipeline from Canada

2012-01-20T09:23:00.004-05:00

It just doesn't make sense....Jobs, energy & better relations with our neighbor Canada. But then again, nothing the President does has made much sense.

OMG...Obama Must Go.

Re-Election Obsessed Obama Goes Political On Keystone
By ROBERT J. SAMUELSON
Posted 01/19/2012 Investors.com

President Obama's rejection of the Keystone XL pipeline from Canada to the Gulf of Mexico is an act of national insanity. It isn't often that a president makes a decision that has no redeeming virtues and — beyond the symbolism — won't even advance the goals of the groups that demanded it.

All it tells us is that Obama is so obsessed with his re-election that, through some sort of political calculus, he believes placating his environmental supporters will improve his chances.

Aside from the political and public relations victory, environmentalists won't get much. Stopping the pipeline won't halt the development of tar sands, to which the Canadian government is committed; therefore, there will be little effect on global warming emissions.

Indeed, Obama's decision might add to them. If Canada builds a pipeline from Alberta to the Pacific for export to Asia, moving all that oil across the ocean by tanker will create extra emissions. Then there's the risk of added spills.

Now consider how Obama's decision hurts the United States. For starters, it insults and antagonizes a strong ally; getting future Canadian cooperation on other issues will be harder.

Next, it threatens a large source of relatively secure oil that, combined with new discoveries in the U.S., could reduce (though not eliminate) our dependence on insecure foreign oil.

Finally, Obama's decision forgoes all the project's jobs. There's some dispute over the magnitude. Project sponsor TransCanada claims 20,000, split between construction (13,000) and manufacturing (7,000) of everything from pumps to control equipment.

Apparently, this refers to "job years," meaning one job for one year. If so, the actual number of jobs would be about half that spread over two years. Whatever the figure, it's in the thousands and important in a country hungering for work. And Keystone XL is precisely the sort of infrastructure project that Obama claims to favor.

The big winners are the Chinese. They must be celebrating their good fortune and wondering how the crazy Americans could repudiate such a huge supply of nearby energy. There's no guarantee that tar-sands oil will go to China; pipelines to the Pacific would have to be built. But it creates the possibility when the oil's natural market is the U.S.

There are three things to remember about Keystone and U.S. energy policy.

First, we're going to use lots of oil for a long time. The U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) estimates that American oil consumption will increase 4% between 2009 and 2035

The increase occurs despite highly optimistic assumptions about vehicle fuel efficiency and bio-fuels. But a larger population (390 million in 2035 versus 308 million in 2009) and more driving per vehicle offset savings.

The more oil we produce domestically and import from neighbors, the more we're insulated from dramatic interruptions of global supplies. After the U.S., Canada is the most dependable source of oil — or was until Obama's decision.

Second, barring major technological breakthroughs, emissions of carbon dioxide, the main greenhouse gas, will rise for similar reasons. The EIA projects that America's CO2 emissions will increase by 16% from 2009 to 2035. Stopping Canadian tar-sands development, were that possible, wouldn't affect these emissions.

Finally, even if — as Keystone critics argue — some Canadian oil were refined in the United States and then exported, this would be a good thing. The exports would probably go mostly to Latin America. They would keep well-paid industrial jobs (yes, refining) in the U.S. and reduce our trade deficit in oil, which exceeded $300 billion in 2011.

By law, Obama's decision was supposed to reflect "the national interest." His standard was his political interest. The State Department had spent three years evaluating Keystone and appeared ready to approve the project by year-end 2011. Then the administration, citing opposition to the pipeline's route in Nebraska, reversed course and postponed a decision to 2013 — after the election.

Now, reacting to a congressional deadline to decide, Obama rejected the proposal. But he also suggested that a new application with a modified Nebraska route — already being negotiated — might be approved, after the election. So the sop tossed to environmentalists could be temporary. The cynicism is breathtaking

Captain Obama ran it up on the rocks, that's for sure

2012-01-18T10:42:00.001-05:00

Where are the Carriers??

2012-01-17T09:59:00.003-05:00

To allow a red pen of congressional staffers to accomplish what the USSR couldn't do back in the day would be a travesty. The fools of Capital Hill have spent us into a corner and to think that part of the penance for their sins is to lower our naval defenses at this point in history is fool hardy.

Cut Congress' perks and staff long beforewe are forced into a crisis and allow the answer to the question of " Where are the Carriers??" to be " In mothballs, sir."

New Navy budgets may sink plans for aircraft carriers
Fight is on to save flattop fleet
By Rowan Scarborough
-
The Washington Times

On the surface, the Navy's cherished fleet of 11 active aircraft carriers seems safe from President Obama's budget slashers.

Conventional wisdom says the requirement to cut $488 billion from the Pentagon within 10 years will not necessitate banishing a single carrier because the president's military strategy focuses on two carrier-dependent regions: Asia, where China is building a robust navy, and the Persian Gulf, where Iran threatens to block international oil shipping.

As Defense Secretary Leon E. Panetta prepares to introduce the strategy's first budget next month, the Navy has been in a furious fight behind the scenes to protect only 10 carriers, sources familiar with the issue told The Washington Times.

The sources say that, while the fiscal 2013 budget may well continue 11 carriers, the Navy will be down to 10 or even nine carriers within in the next five years.

A carrier typically transports about 80 aircraft and leads a battle group comprising 7,500 sailors, a guided-missile cruiser, two guided-missile destroyers, an attack submarine and a supply ship. Eliminating one carrier battle group would save billions of dollars.

In addition, the Navy complements its carriers with amphibious-ready groups of warships, helicopters, fighter jets and Marines for sea-land operations. Some of those groups also might be scrapped.

A scenario discussed inside the Navy: Reduce the carrier fleet by retiring the flattops short of their 50-year life spans, and continue to build more advanced carriers at the Newport News, Va., shipyard at seven-year intervals instead of launching one every five years.

Reducing one carrier would set off a fight in Congress, which under law has required the Navy to maintain 11 active flattops. A source familiar with the discussions said the Obama administration would not want to take up that fight until after November's presidential election, given the importance of Virginia and its 13 electoral votes.

In general, the Navy has three carriers at sea, three returning from six-month deployments, three preparing to be deployed and two in some type of overhaul. For example, the USS Ronald Reagan, commissioned less than 10 years ago, is going into dry dock this month for a year of extensive repairs.

Under Mr. Panetta, the Pentagon has clamped down on the release of any details about the budget — following the model of predecessor Robert M. Gates, who forced senior officials to sign nondisclosure forms.

But sources say a $488 billion in mandated savings will come from two principal sources: cutting the Army and Marine Corps ground forces by more than 100,000 troops combined and reducing the purchase and delaying the procurement of big weapons systems, such as the F-35 fighter.

Cutting back to 10 carriers would save the Pentagon additional billions of dollars. A carrier's payroll for a crew of officers and sailors, not counting its air wing, is about $225 million annually.

"I think the United States will continue to operate at least 10 carriers over the next five years," said Loren Thompson, who heads the Lexington Institute defense think tank. "But over the long run, it's likely the cost and operating concept will gradually shift the Navy away from carriers."

In fact, the Navy will soon undergo a 10-carrier trial. When the USS Enterprise is retired in November, 10 carriers will be active until the USS Gerald R. Ford becomes operational in 2015. Congress granted the Navy a waiver for the 33-month breach of the law.

"They're going down to 10 for programming reasons," Mr. Thompson said. "It is supposed to be temporary, but I think during the period the Enterprise is gone and the Ford class has not arrived, the Navy may grow accustomed to operating with only 10 carriers."

Mr. Thompson said carriers face three basic challenges.

"First of all, they have become extremely expensive to build and operate," he said. "Secondly, some countries, such as China, are developing the capacity to target and disable them from long distances.

"And, thirdly, the advent of the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter and unmanned aircraft will make it easier to accomplish air missions from other sea-based platforms."

Mr. Obama's strategy echoes that of his first defense chief, Mr. Gates. At the U.S. Military Academy in February, Mr. Gates said: "Any future defense secretary who advises the president to again send a big American land army into Asia or into the Middle East or Africa should 'have his head examined,' as Gen. [Douglas] MacArthur so delicately put it."

Indeed, the strategy announced this month downplays the chances of a big land war, saying that active forces will be shaped to fight a limited ground conflict of a short duration.

The Gates imprint may well show itself when it comes to carriers.

"Do we really need 11 carrier strike groups for another 30 years when no other country has more than one?" Mr. Gates asked during a 2010 speech to the Navy League, a naval support association.

"In my view, Gates was right the first time," said Winslow Wheeler, an analyst at the Center for Defense Information, a military reform group. "We have too many for show-the-flag exercises and strikes against incompetents like Iraq.

"If ever we encounter a competent military with an air force, a navy with ultrasilent diesel electric submarines — and both with superfast, superlow anti-ship missiles — I suspect carriers will quickly be extinct if they go into unsafe waters. At $13 billion-plus each, more are an unwise investment for the future."

Advocates of aircraft carriers note that the White House often asks in crisis, "Where are the carriers?"

"China is going great guns to develop a maritime superiority," said Jon Ault, a retired Navy pilot who served on eight carrier deployments. "Imagine 20, 30, 40 years from now, when the U.S. is down to its last two or three battle groups. A fatigued 40-, 50-year-old carrier gasping for breath and a nuke shipbuilding industry that no longer exists. Works for China, perhaps not so well for us.

Rough Week....On to the AFC Championship Game in Foxboro

2012-01-16T10:08:00.004-05:00

What a week - Last week was one of those week's that I wouldn't wish on someone I don't like. It was a tough week and one that sidelined me from my normal activities. Luckily, it was something that was easily resolved but required extra effort. This week should go better.

In the meantime, the world moves on and issues still occur elsewhere.

4 US Marines were photographed urinating on dead Taliban. Yep, not how "professional" warriors behave but not something that upsets me very much. After the crap the Taliban has done to people, this rates very low on the upset level for me.

If I know there were 10 Taliban in a house across the rise on the battlefield, I would call in an air strike, obliterating what is left of them. 4 Marines should know better than to act this way and to document themselves doing so. Again, not something that will work me up but something that should not occur. Move along.

The New England Patriots took Tebow & the Broncos to task, as expected. Now, we face the Baltimore Ravens.

The Ravens are not to be feared. They are ugly mutts, and not as good as the hype they espouse. They can be beaten and the Patriots will not let these guys get in their way.

Look at their team colors. Purple - Really ? Like Oprah purple. Like squashed grape purple. It is a losing color. Red, White & Blue are the Patriot's colors. Nuff said.

New England will ring the necks of these foul birds in Foxboro. Take it to the bank.

TOM BRADY is going to school Tim Tebow and the BRONCOS on playoff games in the NFL - AFC Playoff game will be a PATRIOTS Win

2012-01-13T16:42:00.005-05:00

Sorry Tim, this is isn't your year. Maybe next year.

This year belongs to Tom Brady & the NEW ENGLAND PATRIOTS.

The HYPE Meter is off the scale in this match-up made from heaven (no pun intended)

While Timmy is a nice guy and all around good kid, he & the Broncos don't have the "legs" as they say....basically, they don't have the skills to hang in there for 60 minutes of playoff football against the World Champion Patriots, QB'ed by Tom, Coached by Bill.

We all see what " hope & hype" gets you ( it causes the election of incompetent Presidents)

Tom Brady and the Patriots don't need " hype " as they are the REAL DEAL.

For ratings, this will be a big game - for actual play, The Patriots demonstrated the outcome of this kind of one sided contest about a month ago when the PATRIOTS spanked Tebow in the regular season.

It's good Tebow prays because it is a sign that he has faith. He will need it against the Patriots.

My prediction - PATRIOTS 35 - Broncos 21

It will be a good game but Brady and Belichik will prevail.

Tom Brady vs. Tim Tebow: Clash of biblical proportions
By John Zaremba Thursday, January 12, 2012
Boston Herald

When God-fearing Tim Tebow and Golden Boy Tom Brady [stats] square off in what experts predict will be a ratings-busting rematch of December’s Patriots [team stats] beatdown of the Broncos, we’ll see more than Tebow’s scrambling leather helmet-era quarterback vs. Brady’s disciplined, omniscient power passing.

We’re talking a matchup between two sports deities that could dwarf the whopping 42 million who watched the Broncos’ heart-stopping overtime win over bad-boy Ben Roethlisberger and the Steelers Sunday night.

“It’s Jesus vs. the Prophet,” said Henry Schafer of the celebrity-pollster firm Marketing Evaluations, referring to Brady’s Dec. 18 postgame prophecy that the two would meet again. “Given Brady’s success and Tebow’s attraction right now, coming from a lot of different angles, I would not be surprised if this becomes the highest-ever rated playoff game.”

Tom and Tim rank among the most popular, polarizing and appealing players in the game. Marketing Evaluations’ Q rating, which measures the public’s awareness and opinion of celebrities, lists Tebow as the NFL’s sixth-most-appealing player, and Brady as the 13th.

“Two out of three Americans age 6 years and older knew who Tom Brady was, and two out of five knew who Tim Tebow was,” Schafer said. “That’s crazy. That’s telling me (Tebow) is more of a national personality than

13.1M Americans remain unemployed / White House threw secret "Alice in Wonderland" bash in October 2009

2012-01-08T11:51:00.006-05:00

The two stories enclosed tell the tale regardless of what the White House may want to spin politically....Unemployment is the issue that most challenges our nation as we need to have people working to improve our economy. Unemployment checks are a patch but to ensure that workers become consumers, they need a job and a regular income.

The fact that the average American understands this simple concept but politicians fail to grasp this is the issue in the 2012 election. Based on what we have seen over the last three years, the President hasn't got a leg to stand on.

Meanwhile, the level of insensitivity shown by the Obama Administration to those out of work is demonstrated by the article at this link -

White House threw secret 'Alice in Wonderland' bash during recession - NY POST

A White House “Alice in Wonderland” costume ball — put on by Johnny Depp and Hollywood director Tim Burton — proved to be a Mad-as-a-Hatter idea that was never made public for fear of a political backlash during hard economic times, according to a new tell-all.

“The Obamas,” by New York Times correspondent Jodi Kantor, tells of the first Halloween party the first couple feted at the White House in October 2009. It was so over the top that “Star Wars” creator George Lucas sent the original Chewbacca to mingle with invited guests.

http://www.nypost.com/p/news/national/in_blunderland_hKpNQkHfvpEWe4F51kI4dP#ixzz1it445MEw

Clueless. Totally clueless. The recession was at it's worse so they hid the lavish affair from the press and the public for fear of a backlash. And people wonder why those who want Obama out of the White House are so opposed to this Politician.

Obama and his lecturing wife really don't care about the average citizen or the problems of our country. They are too busy running up a luxury tab on the taxpayer's dime. Obama is unworthy of being in the White House and has shown a complete lack of understanding for what is required as Leader of our nation. Leaders take care of the needs of others first, as that is what is required. With millions losing their homes, the Obama's treated themselves first.

13.1M Americans remain unemployed
Jan. 7, 2012
Written by Derek Kravitz
The Associated Press

WASHINGTON — For many people whose job prospects faded most during the recession, 2011 brought a small dose of relief.

When unemployment was surging, the youngest U.S. workers, the oldest, those without college degrees and men as a whole all suffered disproportionately. Last year, those groups — whose unemployment rates still exceed the national average — had better success than others in finding jobs, according to Labor Department data released Friday.

Many found low-paying jobs in technology firms and as health care technicians, machinists, autoworkers, hotel and store clerks and waiters.

All told, about 13.1 million Americans remain unemployed. About 2.5 million have quit looking for work altogether.

Education

Unemployment among workers with less than a high school diploma fell from 15.1 percent to 13.8 percent. By comparison, unemployment for those with a bachelor's degree declined by a smaller margin, from 4.8 percent to 4.1 percent.

"The less-educated tend to suffer more in downturns and recover more rapidly when employment picks up," said Lawrence Katz, a Harvard labor and economics professor.

Gender

The unemployment rate for men fell more than twice as fast as for women in 2011. Hiring was strong among male-dominated industries like manufacturing. And more men entered some fields long dominated by women, including health care and retail.

The unemployment rate for men sank from 10 percent to 8.7 percent. But women remain better off. Their rate fell from 8.6 percent to 8.3 percent.

Age

In 2011, employment prospects were best for workers ages 20 to 24 and those 65 and up. Some young men are being hired for entry-level positions at lower pay than in years past. And some retirees returned to the workforce last year after their retirement portfolios took a beating over the past four years.

Unemployment is dropping faster for those ages 35 to 64. But part of the reason is that a disproportionate share of people in this age group have given up looking for jobs. Once people stop looking for work, they're no longer counted as unemployed.

Race

Unemployment fell most among Hispanics. Their rate declined from 12.9 percent to 11 percent. In part, that's because a larger-than-average share of Hispanics have stopped looking for work.

Immigration has also slowed. That means there are fewer foreign-born job-seekers in the United States.

Since the recession ended more than two years ago, the employment gap between blacks and whites has widened. The rate for African-Americans was unchanged last year at 15.8 percent. By comparison, white unemployment fell from 8.5 percent to 7.5 percent.

News and the story-behind-the-story / Healthcare Laws are only for those not politically connected

2012-01-07T08:31:00.006-05:00

Here is a list of the Editors' Picks from the NY TIMES as given to me by Google News this morning...See If you can guess the "story behind the story" message that these have in common.

I have highlighted the actual headline and put in blue the real message

NY Times

Political Memo: Front-Runner Role Could Thwart Romney in New Hampshire By JEFF ZELENY (Taking Down the GOP Front Runner in any way we can)

Rick Santorum, Known for His Fighting Nature, Strikes a Calmer Tone By MARK LEIBOVICH (Split the GOP Voters to cause dissent)

Evangelicals Hurry to Find Alternative to Romney By ERIK ECKHOLM (Ditto)

Democrats See Signs of Hope in Election Battle for Congress By JENNIFER STEINHAUER ( Really ?? Democrats hopeful in taking Congressional elections ?? Putting Pelosi in charge again ?Really ?? What are you smoking?)

The press have been in full force putting out positive political stories for Obama since his return to Washington from his vacation. This will continue in full force through to election day as the majority of the press wants him in. The GOP candidate will not be perfect but we have to get Obama out of office before he further injures our nation.

Then there's this...The kind of news that let's you know what is going on when new laws are put in place for the commoners, not those who are favored politically by our President.

Obama has to go. This cannot be the way our country is governed.

Labor unions primary recipients of Obamacare waivers
By Paul Conner
01/06/2012 dailycaller.com

Labor unions continued to receive the overwhelming majority of waivers from the president’s health care reform law since the Obama administration tightened application rules last summer.

Documents released in a classic Friday afternoon news dump show that labor unions representing 543,812 workers received waivers from President Barack Obama‘s signature legislation since June 17, 2011.

By contrast, private employers with a total of 69,813 employees, many of whom work for small businesses, were granted waivers.

The Department of Health and Human Services revised the rules governing applications for health reform waivers June 17, 2011, amid a steady stream of controversial news reports, including The Daily Caller’s story that nearly 20 percent of last May’s waivers went to businesses in House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi’s district in California.

The labor unions receiving waivers include those that are monitored under the 1947 Taft-Hartley Act, and those that are not. The waivers granted since June 17 are valid until 2013, but recipients must make sure their employees understand the “limits of their coverage,” according to HHS documents.

HHS granted waivers on a year-by-year basis under its initial application process, but waivers granted after June 17 are valid for a maximum of two-and-a-half years.

By and large, unions backed the health care overhaul, a law from which nearly a half million of their workers are now exempt.

The Taliban are our enemy, regardless what Vice President Biden may think or say

2012-01-06T07:45:00.005-05:00

“The Taliban per se is not our enemy,” Vice President Joe Biden

Really Mr. Vice President ?? Really ?? Then let's send you over to Pakistan without a security contingent and let you have a face-to-face discussion with our "non-enemy" Tailban. Let me know how that works out for you.

I would say that anyone who encounters the Taliban in person would have a different point-of-view. Let's ask the British Doctor they kidnapped this week who was working for the International Red Cross or the 59 year old British Nurse they grabbed in December. Bet they hold a different point-of-view.

The Taliban are NARCO TERRORISTS, plain & simple. They like to wrap themselves in a jihadist cover and claim they are fighting for Islam, but in reality, it is all about the drug trade that comes from the Afghanistan/Pakistan region.

The Taliban and their allies the Haquanni, are all about terrorizing the populace, money, weapons and drugs. Their goal is to control all the aforementioned items in the AF/PAK region. The political posturing is folly as they don't care about Western issues like " Afghanistan " or " Pakistan ". Our Western concepts of countries and such are not relevant as they are tribal and don't really care about where the border line is drawn.

One certainty is that our present administration acts foolish when they play politics with the lives of our soldiers and emboldens our enemies when they speak foolishly about who we are fighting.

The Taliban are our enemy. They will wait us out, and when we leave Afghanistan, the bloodshed that they will inflict upon the people there will be horrific.

Mr. Vice President, with all due respect, you haven't got a clue. The enclosed news story is a prima facie example of the Taliban's true message to us and those who would be our allies over there.

A few thousand US Soldiers wounded or killed by the Taliban were unavailable for comment.

15 Kidnapped Pakistani Soldiers Executed by the Taliban in a Retaliatory Gesture
By SALMAN MASOOD and ISMAIL KHAN
NY TIMES: January 5, 2012

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan — Taliban insurgents executed 15 security soldiers who had been recently kidnapped and dumped their bodies on a hilltop in northwestern Pakistan on Thursday, in retaliation for the killing of a militant commander by government forces, government and military officials said.

The soldiers were kidnapped Dec. 23 after dozens of Taliban insurgents overran a fort in one of the restive tribal regions straddling the border with Afghanistan. Officials said they had tried but failed to secure the captives’ release.

The executions followed the death of a high-ranking Taliban commander on Sunday and came just days after local news media reported that several factions of the Taliban had vowed not to attack the Pakistani military.

The bullet-ridden bodies of the soldiers, members of the Frontier Constabulary, were spotted by local tribesmen on Thursday morning after they were dumped in Mir Ali, a subdistrict in the North Waziristan tribal region. The Frontier Constabulary, run by the Pakistani police authorities, has about 70,000 paramilitary soldiers who operate checkpoints in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa Province and provide security at foreign embassies and consulates in major cities across Pakistan.

“From the look of it, it seems they had been shot dead early Thursday morning,” said a senior security official, speaking on the condition of anonymity. “We have been trying to get them freed,” the official said, “and we have had contact with their captors. And until last night the indications that we had were very, very positive. God knows what happened afterwards.”

Farther south, armed men in the city of Quetta kidnapped a British doctor who worked for the International Committee of the Red Cross on Thursday, said Sitara Jabeen, a spokeswoman for the aid group. She said she knew of no motive for the abduction, which took place near his home.

The executions in northwestern Pakistan were claimed by a Taliban spokesman, Ihsanullah Ihsan, who described them as an “act of revenge” for the killing of militants in the Khyber tribal region on Sunday. He said the group would release a video of the killings “soon” and threatened more attacks.

A dozen militants, including Qari Kamran, a local Taliban commander, were killed in the Khyber tribal region on Sunday after security forces attacked a militant hide-out. Mr. Kamran was considered a high-ranking Taliban commander who oversaw terrorist attacks and activities in Khyber and his native Nowshera district in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa.

Security officials said they had expected retaliatory attacks because Mr. Kamran’s killing was considered a major success.

Last week, reports emerged that Afghan Taliban and leaders of Al Qaeda had urged Pakistani Taliban militants to put aside their internal differences and focus on attacking the American-led forces inside Afghanistan.

There have also been reports of negotiations on ending violence between Pakistan’s government and some Taliban factions, although military officials deny the existence of such talks.

The executions show that, despite a recent decrease in militant-related violence and suicide attacks, some Taliban militants are unwilling to end their attacks, analysts here said. A report released recently by an Islamabad-based research organization, the Pak Institute for Peace Studies, stated that militant-related violence had decreased by 24 percent in the last two years.

“The Taliban are not to be believed because past deals have shown that they end up violating their own peace deals with the government and use them to regroup and regain strength,” said Omar R. Quraishi, an editor of The Express Tribune, a Karachi-based English-language newspaper. He said the executions also highlighted differences among Taliban factions, because some groups seemed to support ending the fighting against Pakistani security forces, while others continued with attacks.

Salman Masood reported from Islamabad, and Ismail Khan from Peshawar, Pakistan

Hard to Believe...He taught Constitutional Law in College ? Really ?

2012-01-05T12:15:00.004-05:00

Something President Obama needs to review:

The Oath of Office:

I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will faithfully execute the Office of President of the United States, and will to the best of my Ability, preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States.

Based on the way he is acting, he is in violation of the oath he took and has decided to treat the US Constitution the way he has treated the will of the people; with disdain and a condescending attitude. The DEMS used to howl about how they felt that President Bush mistreating the law as President, but Barry from Chicago gets a free pass from his own party.

It is hard to believe this man taught Constitutional Law in college. This poser has got to go. 11 months until election day and not soon enough until the American voters can deliver a strong message to the "Lecturer in Chief" and his attitudinal spouse.

Time to Go Mr. President. You have embarrassed our country enough.

Acting Like A King Isn't Among The President's Duties
Investros Business Daily
01/04/2012

Leadership: A spokesman says the president "can't wait for Congress to act" and promised that he's "going to take action." This is the president who was "ready to rule" in 2008. Is he an elected chief executive or an emperor?

In November 2008, shortly after Barack Obama was elected president, Valerie Jarrett, co-chair of his transition team, appeared on "Meet the Press." She told host Tom Brokaw that "Obama is prepared to really take power and begin to rule day one."

Shouldn't someone who had reached the political heights that Jarrett had reached know that kings rule but presidents are elected to serve and are accountable to Congress, the courts and the voters?

One would think that she and the rest of the administration are aware of a president's legal limitations, but simply aren't interested in respecting them.

A little more than three years after Jarrett declared Obama's majesty, his spokesman Jay Carney warned on the day of the Iowa caucuses that "if Republicans choose the path of obstruction rather than cooperation, then the president is not going to sit here . .. he's going to take the actions that he can take using his executive authority."

Within a day, Obama made good on the threat. On Wednesday, he bypassed the congressional approval process and named Richard Cordray as head of the new Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. The appointment, made while the Senate is in a pro forma session and not in recess, came after that chamber blocked Cordray's confirmation last month.

Not only is Obama trampling precedent that says recess appointments are to be done only after the Senate has been out of session for 10 days or more, he's also trying to circumvent legislation.

As noted by Mark Calabria of the Cato Institute, the Dodd-Frank bill that created the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau requires the CFPB's authority to remain with the Treasury secretary until the CFPB director is "confirmed by the Senate." Cordray still lacks that confirmation.

Subscribe to the IBD Editorials Podcast Apparently feeling like a gambler on a roll, Obama followed up the Cordray appointment by placing Sharon Block, Terence Flynn and Richard Griffin on the National Labor Relations Board. Of little concern to Obama are the wishes of the Senate Republicans, who had blocked these appointments, which they have the right to do within our system.

Clearly our American arrangement of checks and balances written into the Constitution is an impediment to this president. Before Carney made his statement Tuesday, Obama himself said in October that "we can no longer wait for Congress to do its job. ... So where Congress won't act, I will."

He, of course, is talking more about the House, which voters turned over to the Republicans in 2010, than the Senate, which is still in Democrats' hands.

The president might not like it that he no longer has a Democratic majority in the House to help him ram through legislation. But he should stay within the constitutional obstructions that the opposition party is expected to place in front of him.

In Wednesday's Cleveland speech when he announced the CFPB and NLRB appointments, Obama said anyone who "plays by the rules can get ahead." Yet the president is playing outside the rules and pretending he's doing it as a favor for the country. His motives, though, are clear. He wants to wield power that exceeds what the Constitution delegated to the president.

Maybe First Lady Michelle Obama wasn't acting when she said on a kids television sitcom that she enjoyed being called "your excellency." Maybe she was speaking for her husband, too.

RUN FOR YOUR LUNCH 5.5K Road Race - Jan. 15th, 2012

2012-01-04T07:39:00.006-05:00

I am posting the enclosed info along regarding an upcoming Road Race & Fund Raiser for Middleboro, MA based ALL ARE WELCOME in Middleboro, MA on Sunday January 15th, 2012. The race will start & finish at North Middleboro Green, 38 Plymouth Street, North Middleboro, MA 02346 at 1:00 p.m.

You can sign up at their website - www.allarewelcome.us

ALL ARE WELCOME is working to fight hunger and food insecurity in our community by establishing a Donation Cafe & Bakery in Middleboro that allows all to have access to good nutritious food regardless of their ability to pay for a prepared meal. The target is to raise $5000 to start serving nutricious meals in February 2012 to those in need in our community. Even if you are not from our local area, your support is needed as many hands can lift a heavy load.

The RUN FOR YOUR LUNCH 5.5K road race will allow ALL ARE WELCOME to get the operation up on it's feet and start serving the community. Run, Walk and/or join them for lunch to support a great cause.

You can contact Karen who is the Executive Manager at her email address manager@allarewelcome.us or her phone 508-443-0243. ALL ARE WELCOME also has a mailing address of ALL ARE WELCOME, P.O. Box 1244, Middleboro, MA 02346

Any support you can lend would be deeply appreciated. Even if you don't run, you can join them for lunch on Jan. 15th as your purchase of lunch the day of the race will also support ending food insecurity in our community. All contributions (large & small) are important to helping meet the goal. Please send this info along to others you know who might be able to assist.

Thanks again for all your help.

Iran needs to get a grip

2012-01-03T07:31:00.007-05:00

Really Iran ? Really ? As if the US Navy would stop traveling through the Straits of Hormuz just because you said not to....Iran needs to get a Grip.

These fools need a reality check. Iran is not in the position to dictate where the US Navy travels. Old Beady Eyes and the Mullahs must be smoking some pretty powerful stuff if they think this type of "warning" will amount to a change in tactics from the US Navy.

UPDATE - The Pentagon on Tuesday pushed back on Iranian warnings against returning a U.S. Navy aircraft carrier to the Persian Gulf.

"The deployment of U.S. military assets in the Persian Gulf region will continue as it has for decades," Pentagon Press Secretary George Little said in a statement sent to Yahoo News Tuesday. "These are regularly scheduled movements in accordance with our longstanding commitments to the security and stability of the region and in support of ongoing operations."

"The U.S. Navy operates under international maritime conventions to maintain a constant state of high vigilance in order to ensure the continued, safe flow of maritime traffic in waterways critical to global commerce," Little's statement continued. "We are committed to protecting maritime freedoms that are the basis for global prosperity; this is one of the main reasons our military forces operate in the region."

Bravo Zulu to our US Navy - To Iran, pound sand.

At end of drill, Iran army chief warns US aircraft carrier not to return to Persian Gulf

By Associated Press,Tuesday, January 3

TEHRAN, Iran — Iran’s army chief on Tuesday warned an American aircraft carrier not to return to the Persian Gulf in Tehran’s latest tough rhetoric over the strategic waterway.

Gen. Ataollah Salehi spoke as a 10-day Iranian naval exercise ended near the Strait of Hormuz at the mouth of the Gulf. The drill was a show of strength at a time when Iranian officials have warned they could try to shut down the vital oil passage if the United States enacts tough new sanctions over Iran’s nuclear program.

“We recommend to the American warship that passed through the Strait of Hormuz and went to Gulf of Oman not to return to the Persian Gulf,” Salehi was quoted as saying by the state news agency IRNA.

Motives behind Salehi’s statement were not immediately clear.

He said Iran’s enemies have understood the message of the naval exercises, saying, “We have no plan to begin any irrational act but we are ready against any threat.”

The U.S. Navy’s 5th Fleet has said that USS John C. Stennis and another vessel headed out from the Gulf and through the Strait of Hormuz last Tuesday, after a visit to Dubai’s Jebel Ali port. The Fleet did not immediately respond to requests for comment on Salehi’s comments.

On Thursday Iran said its surveillance planes and vessels recorded video and photographed a U.S. aircraft carrier during Iran’s ongoing navy drill near a strategic waterway in the Persian Gulf.

Gen. Shahrokh Shahram, an air defense commander, said Iranian forces had warned off several foreign aircraft that he claimed entered Iranian airspace during the drill. He said the craft left the airspace after warnings from Iranian air defense units. He did not say which country the aircraft belonged to.

Iran had said the sea maneuvers would cover a 1,250-mile (2,000-kilometer) stretch of water beyond the Strait of Hormuz at the mouth of the Persian Gulf, as well as parts of the Indian Ocean and the Gulf of Aden.

A leading Iranian lawmaker said Sunday the maneuvers served as practice for closing the strait if the West enacts sanctions blocking Iranian oil sales. Top Iranian officials made the same threat last week.

Obama requests another $1.2 trillion of the taxpayer's $$$ while in Hawaii on vacation

2012-01-02T11:55:00.006-05:00

You're sitting out in Hawaii on a $4 Million dollar vacation, paid for by the taxpayers and bored...so what is there to do after golfing and dining out in Honolulu ?

You hit the taxpayers up for $1.2 Trillion dollars...after all, it's only money. Yes, the article states that he is required to make the request because we are getting close to reaching the ceiling for our nation's debt but this putz ran for the office on reducing the debt but instead has driven it to unseen heights. Meanwhile he wants to rate himself as the 4th best President ever....what gall.

How CLUELESS can this President be to ask for a hike in the debt ceiling at Christmas when there are still so many out of work, unable to meet the basics, let alone afford a vacation ? His administration pulled back on the increase request on a technicality until Congress is back in session. Likely the real reason is so he can blame the increase on them. The President will try to shift blame for all his mistakes on to Congress as he campaigns for re-election. I say throw him and Congress both out. They have all performed like bunch of idiots, with a few exceptions like Senator Scott Brown and Senator John McCain.

It is 11 months until we can vote this lackluster incompetent out of office...November 6th can't come soon enough. Please, I'm begging you to vote Obama out of office and send him and his wife back to Chicago. As the bumper sticker states, OMG, which stands for " Obama Must Go ".

Obama delays petition for $1.2T debt limit increase at request of congressional leaders
By Associated Press

HONOLULU — President Barack Obama is delaying his request for another $1.2 trillion increase in the nation’s debt limit at the request of congressional leaders.

It’s basically because of a technicality.

The White House had been ready to ask for the increase Friday because the government is within $100 billion of exhausting its current borrowing authority. Congress would then have 15 days to reject the request, though Obama would veto any objections in order to ensure that the government does not default on its obligations.

But with Congress not due to return to Washington until mid-January, a bipartisan group of lawmakers asked Obama to delay his request so they would be in session during the 15-day period allowed for objections.

“The administration is in discussions with leaders in both houses to determine the best timing for submission of certification and any subsequent votes in the two houses,” White House spokesman Josh Earnest said Friday.

Kevin Smith, a spokesman for Speaker John Boehner, said the House leadership preferred not having to call members back to Washington early to vote on the increase request, but would have done so if necessary.

A senior White House official said Obama will make his request within days. The Treasury Department will use accounting measures to ensure that the nation does not reach its debt limit before the $1.2 trillion increase is finalized, said the official, who requested anonymity because the person lacked authority to speak publically.

The debt limit is the amount the government can borrow to finance its operations. It has soared because the government has run record deficits over the past decade. The borrowed money has helped pay for two wars, stimulate the nation’s economy after the worst recession since the Great Depression and keep intact broad tax cuts initiated during the Bush administration.

Obama’s request to increase the nation’s borrowing authority would boost the debt limit to a record $16.4 trillion. The president and Congress agreed to raise it to that level in three steps as part of the August deal that was struck hours before a threatened government default.

Officials say the $1.2 trillion increase should be enough to allow the government to keep borrowing until the end of 2012, or just after the presidential election.

Congress agreed to raise the debt limit by $400 billion in August and by another $500 billion in September. House Republicans voted against the second increase, but failed to block it because the Senate approved it. The increases are scheduled to take effect unless both chambers vote against them.

The White House announced the delay in the debt limit request from Hawaii, where the president is on vacation.

Pats crush Bills 49-21, earn top AFC seed and home field advantage

2012-01-01T16:40:00.005-05:00

Pats crush Bills, earn top AFC seed
By SPORTS NETWORK
FOXBORO, MASS. - Tom Brady and the New England Patriots scored 49 unanswered points to beat the Buffalo Bills, 49-21, and claim the No. 1 seed in the AFC playoffs.

Brady completed 23-of-35 passes for 338 yards, three touchdowns and an interception for the Patriots (13-3), who will have home-field advantage throughout the postseason for the second year in a row. New England finished the regular season with a 7-1 mark at Gillette Stadium.

Brady became the third player in NFL history with 5,000 passing yards in a season. He also set a franchise record for completions in a season with 401, topping Drew Bledsoe's 400 in 1994. A first-round bye will allow the two-time league MVP to rest his sore left shoulder.

Aaron Hernandez caught seven passes for 138 yards and a touchdown for New England, which heads into the playoffs on an eight-game winning streak. Rob Gronkowski capped his record-setting season with eight catches for 108 yards and two scores.

BenJarvus Green-Ellis carried the ball seven times for 22 yards and two touchdowns for the Patriots, who avenged a Week 3 loss to the Bills.

And The NY JETS ?? Not so much....REX RYAN's team ended the season 8-8 and have been proven to be losers....JETS ( JUST END THE SEASON) - See ya New York.

Happy 2012.....we all hope for a better year

2012-01-01T10:04:00.004-05:00

2012 arrived with the expected fanfare and hopes for the new year. Today is also my daughter's 16th Birthday, and another reason to celebrate.

Enclosed is a picture taken of the early dawn outside my home and the words from " Morning Has Broken ", a song perfromed by Cat Stevens that my Dad has always loved.

Hope all enjoy a good year and that we all are better off as the year progresses. Patriots Football is on today also and our hopes for another run at the Super Bowl for the New England Patriots !!

Morning Has Broken - Cat Stevens

Morning has broken
Like the first morning
Blackbird has spoken
Like the first bird

Praise for the singing
Praise for the morning
Praise for them springing
Fresh from the world

Sweet, the rain's new fall
Sunlit from heaven
Like the first dew fall
On the first grass

Praise for the sweetness
Of the wet garden
Sprung in completeness
Where His feet pass

Mine is the sunlight
Mine is the morning
Born of the one light
Eden say play

Praise with elation
Praise ev'ry morning
God's recreation of the new day

Morning has broken
Like the first morning
Blackbird has spoken
Like the first bird

Praise for the singing
Praise for the morning
Praise for them springing
Fresh from the world

Happy New Year 2012 - Rock out the old year with Styx

2011-12-31T08:17:00.003-05:00

It would be helpful to have a crystal ball which could tell us about the future and allow us to be better prepared for what is to be.

We have to take it one day at a time as that is the only way it is given to us. Rock out the old year with " Crystal Ball " by STYX.

All my hopes & prayers for a better year in 2012.

Business as usual...heading into 2012

2011-12-30T08:26:00.002-05:00

A serious case of " If I knew then what I know now..."

2011-12-29T08:45:00.006-05:00

A number of years ago, circa 1985, a few friends and I were at a Sci-Fi Convention in Boston. We were looking at all the different items and displays when we came across a gentleman at a table with an oddly titled comic book he was producing.

The title was " Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles"...My friends and I looked at it and found it hard to take seriously. There were well established superheroes in the comic book genre, and this one seemed out of left field. We found it kinda of too oddball to be taken seriously.

Later on, we all were proven dead wrong.

The enclosed story details how a gentleman ran up against a air of oddballs in 1976 in California and had a similar reaction. Pretty interesting on how we are able to view things much differently through hindsight.

Secret Apple archive reveals Steve Jobs was dismissed as a 'joker' in 1976 before taking Apple to global dominance
By Leon Watson - UK Mail
29th December 2011

A treasure trove of Apple papers documenting the rise of technology giant shows Steve Jobs was dismissed as a 'joker' when he tried to start up the business.

The collection, held in a secret location in California, includes a note handwritten in 1976 by a man who had just met Mr Jobs and Steve Wozniak.The pair, who launched Apple that year, had asked the printer called Mike to be given '10m catalog sheets' for free.

He then jotted down an historic note warning his colleagues about the young entrepreneurs.
It said: 'This joker (Jobs) is going to be calling you ... They are two guys, they build kits, operate out of a garage.'

In the interview, Steve Wozniak and the late Steve Jobs recall a seminal moment in Silicon Valley history - how they named their upstart computer company some 35 years ago.
'I remember driving down Highway 85,' Wozniak said. 'We're on the freeway, and Steve mentions, 'I've got a name: Apple Computer.' We kept thinking of other alternatives to that name, and we couldn't think of anything better.'

Mr Jobs then added: 'And also remember that I worked at Atari, and it got us ahead of Atari in the phonebook.'

The interview was among a storehouse of materials Apple had been collecting for a company museum.
But in 1997, soon after Mr Jobs returned to the company, Apple officials contacted Stanford University and offered to donate the collection to the school's Silicon Valley Archives.

Within a few days, Stanford curators were at Apple headquarters in nearby Cupertino, packing two moving trucks full of documents, books, software, videotapes and marketing materials that now make up the core of Stanford's Apple Collection.

The collection, the largest assembly of Apple historical materials, can help historians, entrepreneurs and policymakers understand how a start-up launched in a Silicon Valley garage became a global technology giant.

'Through this one collection you can trace out the evolution of the personal computer,' said Stanford historian Leslie Berlin.

'These sorts of documents are as close as you get to the unmediated story of what really happened.'
The collection is stored in hundreds of boxes taking up more than 600ft of shelf space at the Stanford's off-campus storage facility.

The Silicon Valley Archives claims to be the 'world's greatest repository of materials related to the history and development of Silicon Valley'.

It holds a host of collections including documents about the American Association for Artificial Intelligence, Ampex, the computer science pioneer Douglas Engelbar and Hewlett-Packard.

They are part of Stanford University's Special Collections and University Archives and are open to members of the general public.

But since all materials are located in secret remote facilities, patrons must request materials two full business days before planned date of use.

Among the other items in the Apple Collection are:

- Thousands of photos by photographer Douglas Menuez, who documented Steve Jobs' years at NeXT Computer, which he founded in 1985 after he was pushed out of Apple.

- A company video spoofing the 1984 movie 'Ghost Busters,' with Jobs and other executives playing 'Blue Busters,' a reference to rival IBM.

- Handwritten financial records showing early sales of Apple II, one of the first mass-market computers.

- An April 1976 agreement for a $5,000 loan to Apple Computer and its three co-founders: Jobs, Wozniak and Ronald Wayne, who pulled out of the company less than two weeks after its founding.
It is held in a climate-controlled warehouse on the outskirts of the San Francisco Bay area, but its location has not been disclosed.

Interest in Apple and its founder has grown dramatically since Mr Jobs died in October at age 56, just weeks after he stepped down as CEO and handed the reins to Tim Cook.

Mr Jobs' death sparked an international outpouring and marked the end of an era for Apple and Silicon Valley.

'Apple as a company is in a very, very select group,' said Stanford curator Henry Lowood. 'It survived through multiple generations of technology. To the credit of Steve Jobs, it meant reinventing the company at several points.'

Apple scrapped its own plans for a corporate museum after Mr Jobs returned as CEO and began restructuring the financially struggling firm, Mr Lowood said.

Mr Job's return, more than a decade after he was forced out of the company he co-founded, marked the beginning of one of the great comebacks in business history.

It led to a long string of blockbuster products - including the iPod, iPhone and iPad - that have made Apple one of the world's most profitable brands.

After Stanford received the Apple donation, former company executives, early employees, business partners and Mac enthusiasts have come forward and added their own items to the archives.

The collection includes early photos of young Mr Jobs and Mr Wozniak, blueprints for the first Apple computer, user manuals, magazine ads, TV commercials, company t-shirts and drafts of Mr Jobs' speeches.

In one company video, Wozniak talks about how he had always wanted his own computer, but couldn't get his hands on one at a time when few computers were found outside corporations or government agencies.
'All of a sudden I realised, 'Hey microprocessors all of a sudden are affordable. I can actually build my own,' Mr Wozniak said. 'And Steve went a little further. He saw it as a product you could actually deliver, sell and someone else could use.'

The pair also talk about the company's first product, the Apple I computer, which went on sale in July 1976 for $666.66.

'Remember an Apple I was not particularly useable for too much, but it was so incredible to have your own computer,' Mr Jobs said.

'It was kind of an embarkation point from the way computers had been going in these big steel boxes with switches and lights.'

The archive shows the Apple founders were far ahead of their time, Mr Lowood said.
'What they were doing was spectacularly new,' he said. 'The idea of building computers out of your garage and marketing them and thereby creating a successful business - it just didn't compute for a lot of people.'

New York’s teacher-retirement fund refuses to disclose info on how much they pay, even though taxpayers foot the bill

2011-12-27T16:32:00.005-05:00

NY Taxpayers should be outraged by the conduct of these public employees. They want to keep secret information that shows how much tax money is being spent - even though the public foots the bill...The only response I can muster is "whiskey tango foxtrot ?"

If this is the direction public servants will take with taxpayers, then there should be a movement to end the pensions and cap the funds. The taxpayers should be able to review the fund's books and see who is rigging the game. Anything less would be criminal.

Mum’s the word
December 27, 2011
www.nypost.com

New York’s teacher-retirement fund wants to keep taxpayers in the dark about the pensions it hands out. Must be some darn fat pensions, huh?

Wouldn’t want to enrage the public to the point where pensions are trimmed, now would it?

In a predictable — but disturbing — development, the state Teachers’ Retirement System last week said it will no longer publicly disclose the names of teachers and how much they get in retiree benefits.

Even though the public foots the bill.

The move comes after other public-sector pension systems zipped their lips, following a disturbing appellate-court ruling last October.

That decision nixed a request by the Manhattan Institute’s Empire Center for the names of retired city police officers and their benefits.

The center had filed suit when the police fund suddenly refused to provide the info — after having done so for 28 years.

Unfortunately, both a state judge and an appellate panel ruled for the fund. Now virtually every pension system in the state is clamming up, citing the court rulings.

The Teachers’ Retirement System joined the club just days after the Empire Center filed papers to appeal the case before the state’s highest court.

It’s a troubling trend.

Which is why The Post and other news organizations have filed an amicus curiae brief calling for full disclosure.

After all, taxpayers pay for pensions; they have a right to know how their money is spent. Be it on salaries (which are routinely disclosed) or pensions.

Over the past few years, The Post has uncovered numerous public-pension scams, many of them involving individual retirees.

Like FDNY Lt. John “Johnny Lungs” McLaughlin, who retired on an $86,000 tax-free disability pension — even while competing in marathons and triathlons.

Available information has exposed systemic problems, too, like the Railroad Retirement Board’s granting of disability pensions to nearly everyone at the LIRR who sought one. None of these (or other abuses) could’ve been uncovered without the public disclosure of retirees’ names.

And again, this is information that has been openly available — without protest — for almost three decades.

It was only when the Empire Center set up an easily searchable Web site with names and pension amounts that the funds started squawking.

But the Web site did taxpayers a service.

The court rulings made things even worse than they were before.

Clearly, the Court of Appeals needs to hear this case quickly and reverse the earlier decisions. And make sure taxpayers stay clued in on the funds’ big secret

The Four Freedoms

2011-12-26T20:20:00.004-05:00

Many might not remember how important artwork like the enclosed was to uniting our country during World War 2. Norman Rockwell was America's leading artist and his weekly artwork in the Saturday Evening Post was critical to the war effort. It would be helpful if we had a man like him around now. This is " The Four Freedoms", something we should all believe in as part of being Americans.

On Duty on Christmas Day in Afghanistan at COP Mustang

2011-12-25T19:36:00.003-05:00

To understand how remote this place is, you need to see the enclosed video. This is the tip of the spear, in a mountainous and unforgiving location, 7000 feet above sea level. While you were with friends and family for the holiday, they were on duty and making the best of what they have.

Food for thought next time you feel things are not working well for you...think about the brave warriors who do their best every day and ensure our safety and the safety of others in need.

In Afghanistan, Christmas on top of the world
December 25, 2011
By Clarissa Ward - CBS News

In Afghanistan Sunday, some 91,000 U.S. troops were celebrating Christmas as best they could in the closing days of a year that has seen the deaths of 412 of their comrades. CBS News correspondent Clarissa Ward spent the day with a small unit at a mountainous outpost near the border with Pakistan.

At 7,000 feet, Combat Outpost Mustang, is one of the most breathtaking and remote in Afghanistan. It has been the scene of some tough fighting over the last six months, but the 19 soldiers based there took a little time out to enjoy Christmas on top of the world.

On Christmas morning, the men of Wolfhound Battalion manned their posts as usual, far from home and nine months into a grueling deployment.

The season spirit has been slow to set in here. But there were a few noticeable changes -- an inflatable Frosty the Snowman manning a guard shack.

"He may look nice but he's not," joked one soldier.

Santa Claus took on a slightly different form for the men at Mustang, -- a helicopter flew in from a nearby base, bearing gifts and mail from home.

Pvt. Logan Stamp of New York got cheese and sausage.

Everyone knows the key ingredient to a great Christmas is a delicious meal. And for the soldiers at Mustang, a small kitchen is where the magic happens. Cpl. Billy Jennings worked as a pastry chef before enlisting -- so the men are in very good hands.

"My role up here is basically just to make these guys happy," Jennings said.

The food seemed to hit the spot and for a few moments the men were able to relax. Even their afghan guards were getting into the spirit, donning Santa caps.

But the meal was cut short. As a neighboring checkpoint came under attack, the soldiers rushed off to fire mortars at suspected enemy locations.

The war doesn't stop for holidays up there, but it does serve as a reminder of what is important in life.

"Just waitin' to call my wife," Stamp said. "Can't wait to hear her voice."

"Just to know that everybody back home is safe, safe and happy," said Pvt. Robert Hicks of Oregon. "As long as I get to the see them again, that's all I care about."

For the soldiers, it's already back to business. But the good news is that they will be heading home to Schofield Barracks in Hawaii in March.

Merry Christmas to all who serve....

2011-12-24T08:47:00.003-05:00

To all serving our country, at home, overseas and deployed away from family & home....You & your families are in our thoughts & prayers. Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year for 2012

The Reason for the Season

2011-12-23T13:29:00.003-05:00

A MERRY CHRISTMAS TO ALL...May you find what you need in family, friends and all the best gifts each of us have been given.

ACT OF VALOR

2011-12-23T09:02:00.003-05:00

Coming to theatres in February 2012....This movie looks like it will show the sacrifice made by our US NAVY SEALs. I am looking forward to seeing this one.

Dear Santa....from 100 years ago in Ireland

2011-12-22T18:29:00.004-05:00

Santa and the belief in him is the essence of what the Spirit of Christmas means...While Christmas is the celebration of the birth of Christ, Santa Claus and all his history starting with Saint Nicholas is part of the celebration of the Christian Holiday. Through the year, items like Christmas Trees and other customs have been added to the holiday as many cultures and peoples included their traditions to Christmas.

A letter has been found in Ireland, written by two hopeful children awaiting a visit by Santa Claus. Their hopes and wishes have been shared by millions of children over the years, awaiting a Christmas visit from good old Saint Nick.

The Irish Times - Wednesday, December 21, 2011

Dear Santa Letter sent 100 years ago found up chimney

IT MAY have been slightly scorched over the years but a letter to Santa written 100 years ago, which was later discovered in a Dublin fireplace, has the magic of Christmas written all over it.

On Christmas Eve 1911, a brother and sister, who signed their names, “A or H Howard”, penned their personally designed letter to Santa with their requests for gifts and a good luck message at their home in Oaklands Terrace, Terenure (or Terurnure, as the children spelled it) in Dublin.

They placed it in the chimney of the fireplace in the front bedroom so that Santa would see it as he made his way into the Howard household in the early hours of the morning.

The letter was discovered by the house’s current occupant, John Byrne, when he was installing central heating in 1992.

Since then, he has retained it as a souvenir of another time and place but with the stamp of childhood innocence which still exists today.

The message to Santa was warm but explicit.

“I want a baby doll and a waterproof with a hood and a pair of gloves and a toffee apple and a gold penny and a silver sixpence and a long toffee.”

Ownership of the house changed over the decades, with the Byrne family moving there in 1961, but the letter survived.

“At that time, the fireplaces were made of brick with a shelf on either side,” said John Byrne who works in the building industry.

“The letter was found on one of the shelves.”

The letter remained remarkably intact given the passage of time and was only slightly burned from fires set in the house over the years.

As well as the requests for gifts from Santa the letter also contains drawings and a message of “Good Luck” to Santa from the children.

According to the 1911 census there were three children living at the address in the year in which the letter was written.

The youngest of them, Hannah, who was 10 at the time, and Fred (presumably short for Alfred) who was seven, fit in with the initials on the letter.

A third child, a 13-year-old called Lily, is also listed.

The Howard family were all born in England, including parents Fred Hamer Howard, an “under manager” in a plumber merchants, and his wife Mary Elizabeth. They listed their religion as Church of Ireland.

Where Are You Christmas

2011-12-21T20:36:00.004-05:00

This is a great cover of Faith Hill's " Where Are You Christmas ?". I tried to find the original version to imbed but was unsuccessful. This song is one of the newer Christmas songs that I enjoy as it speaks to those who may having difficulty at this time of year. I was overseas for Christmas in 2004 & 2009 and this song makes me think about those years where I was away and having trouble getting into the Spirit of the Season.

Merry Christmas to all who are away from home and especially to those who are serving in our military as we appreciate all you do all year long.

Michele Obama's federal school lunch program scores a " F " as in FAILURE

2011-12-21T07:51:00.006-05:00

There is a real need to feed kids at school. For many, it is the best food they may get at anytime during the week, especially in poor communities. The staples of veal cutlets, mac n' cheese, chicken, hot dogs & beans fed generations of school children. Now, we have the lefties trying to push an unpaletable mix of trendy foods on kids when all they really want is the food that tastes good to them.

When you hear that the main reason they are making a change is " for the children", then you know that you are being rooked. There is a way to make sure kids get a good meal without serving up food that kids don't like and won't eat. When we waste food and tax dollars, we leave kids hungry and fail. In the end, this type of program allows the lefties political gains to be met, but the children leave hungry.

Michelle Obama's Unsavory School Lunch Flop
By Michelle Malkin

The road to gastric hell is paved with first lady Michelle Obama's Nanny State intentions. Don't take my word for it. School kids in Los Angeles have blown the whistle on the east wing chef-in-chief's healthy lunch diktats. Get your Pepto Bismol ready. The taste of government waste is indigestion-inducing.

According to a weekend report by the Los Angeles Times, the city's "trailblazing introduction of healthful school lunches has been a flop." In response to the public hectoring and financial inducement of Mrs. Obama's federally subsidized anti-obesity campaign, the district dropped chicken nuggets, corn dogs and flavored milk from the menu for "beef jambalaya, vegetable curry, pad Thai, lentil and brown rice cutlets, and quinoa and black-eyed pea salads."

Sounds delectable in theory. But in practice, the initiative has been what L.A. Unified's food services director Dennis Barrett plainly concludes is a "disaster." While the Obama administration has showered the nation's second-largest school district with nutrition awards, thousands of students voted with their upset tummies and abandoned the program. A forbidden-food black market — stoked not just by students, but also by teachers — is now thriving. Moreover, "(p)rincipals report massive waste, with unopened milk cartons and uneaten entrees being thrown away."

This despite a massive increase in spending on nutritional improvements — from $2 million to $20 million alone in the last five years on fresh produce.

This despite a nearly half-billion-dollar budget shortfall and 3,000 layoffs earlier this year.

Earlier this spring, L.A. school officials acknowledged that the sprawling district is left with a whopping 21,000 uneaten meals a day, in part because the federal school lunch program "sometimes requires more food to be served than a child wants to eat." The leftovers will now be donated to nonprofit agencies. But after the recipients hear about students' reports of moldy noodles, undercooked meat and hard rice, one wonders how much of the "free" food will go down the hatch — or down the drain. Ahhh, savor the flavor of one-size-fits-all mandates.

There's nothing wrong with encouraging our children to eat healthier, of course. There's nothing wrong with well-run, locally based and parent-driven efforts. But as I've noted before, the federal foodie cops care much less about students' waistlines than they do about boosting government and public union payrolls.

In a little-noticed announcement several months ago, Obama health officials declared their intention to use school lunch applications to boost government health care rolls. Never mind the privacy concerns of parents.

Big Government programs "for the children" are never about the children. If they were, you wouldn't see Chicago public school officials banning students from bringing home-packed meals made by their own parents. In April, The Chicago Tribune reported that "unless they have a medical excuse, they must eat the food served in the cafeteria." The bottom line? Banning homemade lunches means a fatter payday for the school and its food provider.

Remember: The unwritten mantra driving Mrs. Obama's federal school lunch meddling and expansion is: "Cede the children, feed the state." And the biggest beneficiaries of her efforts over the past three years have been her husband's deep-pocketed pals at the Service Employees International Union. There are 400,000 workers who prepare and serve lunch to American schoolchildren. SEIU represents tens of thousands of those workers and is trying to unionize many more at all costs.

In L.A., the district's cafeteria fund is $20 million in the hole thanks to political finagling by SEIU Local 99. The union's left-wing allies on the school board and in the mayor's office pressured the district to adopt reckless fiscal policies awarding gold-plated health benefits to part-time cafeteria workers in the name of "social justice." As one school board member who opposed the budget-busting entitlements said: "Everyone in this country deserves health benefits. But it was a very expensive proposal. And it wasn't done at the bargaining table, which is where health benefits are usually negotiated. And no one had any idea where the money was going to come from."

Early next year, Mrs. Obama will use the "success" of her child nutrition campaign to hawk a new tome and lobby for more money and power in concert with her husband's re-election campaign. It's a recipe for more half-baked progressivism served with a side order of bitter arugula.

Michelle Malkin is the author of "Culture of Corruption: Obama and his Team of Tax Cheats, Crooks & Cronies" (Regnery 2010). Her e-mail address is malkinblog@gmail.com.

The New England Patriots are on a tear heading towards the end of the season

2011-12-20T08:18:00.004-05:00

The Denver Broncos were strong but not strong enough to withstand Brady & the boys from New England. Tebow would have needed a miracle to get past the Patriots and it looks like he learned that prayer alone won't win all the games he plays. I pray also when I need HIS help but I know that he also wants me to work hard to solve the issue myself. Tebow mania and all the hype with it is just a distraction.

Clinching the AFC East title is a good place to be especially with the NY JETS and their feckless coach going down in flames. This weekend will be Christmas and New England will be in the best position as home field advantage will be all but assured going forward.

Football in Foxboro in January....That is something to look forward to as the New England Patriots make another run towards the Super Bowl. In Tom & Bill we trust...

A Chirstmas Favorite - A HOMECOMING WITH HEART - a story of a US Marine making his way home for Christmas in 1951

2011-12-19T09:31:00.003-05:00

I have shared this with friends each year at Christmas and it still has a powerful impact as it is a true story(which took place in Fitchburg, MA)

Read on and remember the power of "coming home" for those who have been away at this time of year....especially those, who like your humble scribe, have been away at the holidays, and wish they were able to be HOME....

The enclosed is my Christmas present to you & yours - MERRY CHRISTMAS to all and hopes that all will know the spirit and warmth of Christmas year round.

A HOMECOMING WITH HEART
Author: By Mike Barnicle, Boston Globe Staff
Date: 12/25/1997

Maybe Christmas Eve wasn't actually colder then, but it sure seems so; just like it seems you could always depend on snow dropping out of a lead sky the moment shops began to close and people headed home late on the one afternoon when excitement and anticipation arrived together, natural byproducts of the season. It was a period of far less affluence and cultural evil, a time when community meant more.

So again we spin the dial back to December 24, 1951. Harry Truman was in the White House. The Dow Jones closed at 228. ``Your Lucky Strike Hit Parade'' was the No. 1 show on a thing called television; an appliance few owned on the day Eddie Kelly stepped off the train at half past 11 in the morning.

Kelly was 22 and tired. He was of medium height but appeared smaller, hunched beneath the weight of a seabag he carried as he walked along Main Street, past people who thought they recognized him but were not quite sure because he was 40 pounds lighter and his eyes held dark secrets that had not been present prior to his departure for Korea in the summer of 1950.

By winter of that long-gone year, he was with ``Chesty'' Puller's Marines at Chosin Reservoir, surrounded by thousands of Chinese who charged through snow in a murderous mass, blowing whistles and bugles. It cost 2,651 Marine casualties and took 14 days of combat with men using rifles, entrenching tools, and their hands rather than concede defeat or leave anyone behind as they walked, on foot, 40 miles to Hungnam and safety. As a result, Kelly was hospitalized from January until December; in Japan, then at Philadelphia Naval, where he recuperated until boarding one train for South Station and another for the place everybody wants to be on this night: Home.

Four blocks from the depot, the lunch crowd stood two deep in the Beacon Cafe as Eddie pushed through the door and dropped his seabag by a stool. The old barroom went chapel-quiet. Then, after five seconds of a complete and awed silence, the patrons burst into endless applause.

They bought him drinks and begged for stories, but he had no thirst and there was very little he wanted to repeat or even recall. He stood in the warmth of a familiar setting, waiting to meet his mother, who worked 7 to 3 in a paper mill and did not know her boy had returned for Christmas.

He was the older of two kids. His father died when Eddie was 11. His younger sister, Eileen, was born retarded, and to keep things going his mother had to institutionalize her only daughter in a state hospital that people called ``The Nut House.''

When Eddie was in Korea, his mom sent him a picture of Eileen taken at the hospital. In the snapshot, she was smiling, waving and wearing a white Communion dress. Eddie taped the photograph inside the shell of his helmet. Now, as afternoon grew full of beers and cheers, Eddie Kelly brooded about the little girl who had been left behind. So he asked Roy Staples if he could borrow his car to visit Eileen. Staples insisted on driving and both men left the bar as snow began spitting from the sky.

At the hospital, Eddie waited at the end of a quiet corridor until an attendant came holding Eileen's hand. She recognized her brother instantly, never noticing the trauma and change that had settled into his skin. She threw her arms around his neck and would not let go, and she asked him to take her with him.

Over the objections of the nurse, Eddie carried his sister to the waiting car. It was 5 o'clock, snowing, and dark when they got back to the Beacon Cafe. Eddie removed his coat and wrapped it gently around Eileen. Then, to the cheers of all barside, they headed into the storm, past the shops on Main Street where everyone had been alerted by word of mouth that Eddie was carrying Eileen home for Christmas.

He had walked like this before, through cold and dark and danger, but now he had this light load in his arms: A girl -- young and innocent forever -- who would not let go, and her clench felt warm to his soul. When they got to the bottom of the hill by their apartment, the whole block knew what was happening, and the neighbors stood on the slippery sidewalk as a mother ran to meet her children on a whole street filled with tears of joy simply because it was December 24, 1951, the day Eddie Kelly and his family were finally home on Christmas Eve.

Vacationer-in Chief runs up a $ 4 Million + dollar tab for 17 day holiday to Hawaii....It's only the little people's money.

2011-12-18T12:33:00.007-05:00

Yes, I know that some will see this info as a "non-story" but in the interest of stressing that " Leadership by example " is seriously missing from the White House, this becomes a prima-facie case of the hypocrisy of the Obama and the First Lady. Obama signed an executive order that directed limiting excessive travel expense or increasing costs needlessly but rules are for the "little people" after all.

Here's what the local press in Hawaii has to say about it. When you are making the locals unhappy in Hawaii, you are obviously doing something wrong as Hawaii is one of the most laid back places anywhere....Kinda tells you where things stand even in a place where he has support.

With More Vacation Days and Separate Travel, Price of Obama’s Annual Hawaiian Holiday Rises BY MALIA ZIMMERMAN - KAILUA, OAHU - www.hawaiireporter.com

The U.S. Secret Service has arrived, street barricades are in place, and the U.S. Coast Guard has stationed itself in the waters surrounding Kailua, Oahu. That is a sure sign President Barack Obama’s security team is preparing for the first family to arrive in the small beachside community as early as Friday night for what is expected to be a 17-day vacation.

The President and his family are traveling separately to Hawaii because he wants resolve the payroll tax cut issue before leaving Washington – and his wife does not want to wait.

But the advanced trip and the cost that comes with it – as much as $100,000 (flight and security) – adds to an already expensive vacation for the taxpayers.

Hawaii Reporter research shows the total cost for the President’s visit for taxpayers far exceeded $1.5 million in 2010 – but is even more costly this year because he extended his vacation by three days and the cost for Air Force One travel has jumped since last assessed in 2000. In addition, Hawaii Reporter was able to obtain more specifics about the executive expenditures.

The total cost (based on what is known) for the 17-day vacation roundtrip vacation to Hawaii for the President, his family and staff has climbed to more than $4 million. Here's why.

TRAVEL: $3,651,626

The biggest expense is President Barack Obama’s round trip flight to Hawaii via Air Force One, a cost the GAO office estimated at $1 million in the year 2000. Contacted today, the GAO confirmed there is no report the independent office affiliated with Congress has prepared since 2000 to operate Air Force One and Air Force Two.

However, the U.S. Air Force provides the most current numbers of $181,757 per flight hour. Travel time for Air Force One direct from Washington D.C. to Hawaii is about 9 hours or $1,635,813 each way for a total of $3,271,622 for the round trip to Hawaii and back.

The cost for USAF C-17 cargo aircraft that transports the Presidential limos, helicopters and other support equipment is not available to the public. However, the flight time between Andrews Air Force Base and Hawaii is at about 20 hours roundtrip, with estimated operating cost of $7,000 per hour (GAO report) for a total of $140,000 per roundtrip. The United States Marine Corps provides a presidential helicopter, along with pilots and support crews for the test flights, which travel on another C-17 flight at $140,000 for a total of $280,000.

Mrs. Obama’s early flight to Hawaii costs about $63,000 (White House Dossier), but add security and personnel for a total of about $100,000.

HOUSING: $151,200

The President and his family pay for their own beachfront rental (they are not staying in the Winter White House this year but rather a house on the same street further to the ocean point).

The Kailua rentals are fronted by the ocean and backed by a canal. So, the taxpayers must cover the costs for housing U.S. Secret Service, U.S. Coast Guard and Navy Seals in beach front and canal front homes in Kailua.

That costs about $1,200 a day ($200 allocated per bedroom per day). Since security arrives one day early, homes are rented for 18 days.

That is about $21,600 per home for approximately 7 houses rented at a total cost of $151,200 for security to stay nearby.

HOTEL: $72,216

The President’s staff and White House Press Corps stay at one of Hawaii’s oldest and most elegant hotels, the Moana Surfrider. Hawaii Reporter confirmed they are again staying there this year. Besides its stunningly beautiful view of Waikiki, and its traditional architecture, it is one of the most pricey hotels in the state.

Government rates are $177 per night, but that only is available during certain times a year.

Rooms typically start at $250 but can cost on average as much as $450 a night, and are even higher during the holidays. A hotel spokesperson did not return calls to confirm the rate the White House received.

A conservative estimate with rooms at the government rate of $177 per day (excluding a 9.25 percent Transient Accommodation Tax and a 4.712 percent General Excise Tax on each bill, meals, internet charges and other charges) means the taxpayers are covering more than $72,216 in hotel bills for an estimated 24 staff.

LOCAL TAXPAYER COSTS: $260,000

Local police over time for the president’s visit has historically cost Oahu taxpayers $250,000 but may be more expensive this year with the extended vacation.

The city ambulance the accompanies the president 24 hours a day through his entire visit is $10,000, according to city spokeswoman Louise Kim McCoy.

UNKNOWN COSTS

There are several costs the White House annually refuses to release, citing security.

■For example, the president’s security usually rents an entire floor of an office building in Kailua on the canal during the president’s stay.
■There are security upgrades and additional phone lines to several private homes where Obama and friends are staying. That includes bullet proof glass installed, home security systems disabled, new security measures put into place and additional phone lines added.
■There is the cost for car rentals and fuel for White House staff staying at Moana Hotel.
■And there are additional travel costs Secret Service and White House staff traveling ahead of the President.
The total cost (based on what is known) for a 17-day round trip vacation to Hawaii for the President and his family and staff and security is an estimated $4,135,038.
Hawaii Reporter annually has requested details on the cost of the President’s trip, but the White House will not release any figures, citing security concerns. A spokesperson has maintained the costs are "in line" with other presidential vacations.

Hawaii Reporter has sought to determine the cost of vacations for the current president and last two presidents but the Government Accountability Office was able to provide those costs and referred Hawaii Reporter back to the White House spokesperson.

Avenger Drone takes to Afghanistan Skies and likely peruses IRAN too

2011-12-18T12:15:00.005-05:00

Stealth Drones present a serious advantage towards keeping tabs on those who threaten the peace. While there are many inconsistencies in the story of the lost drone over Iran, this newer one will be prepared for whatever the Iranians put out there.

Iran is capable but they are literally shooting in the dark....There is still a sizeable amount of info out there about whether the RQ 170 they say they have is valid, or if it was a BS story sent out in a " Trojan Horse" move....

It is all interesting speculation and one that we will likely be only able to hypothesize about for the forseeable future.

Air Force Deploys Newest Armed Stealth Drone to Afghanistan
December 15, 2011 - FoxNews

As the military scrambles to deal with a U.S. spy drone lost in Iran, it was revealed that the U.S. Air Force has bought a cutting edge, jet-powered stealth drone -- and plans its immediate deployment in Afghanistan.

But the brand new drone -- an armed model from General Atomics designed for strike as well as reconnaissance -- was ordered months ago, well before the crash of the stealthy Lockheed-made RQ-170 Sentinel that remains in Iran, the USAF said in a statement to aviation website FlightGlobal.

Unmanned drones get more sophisticated with each generation -- faster, stronger, smarter.

"This aircraft will be used as a test asset and will provide a significantly increased weapons and sensors payload capacity on an aircraft that will be able to fly to targets much more rapidly than the MQ-9 [Reaper] UAS," the USAF said.

Developed by General Atomics Aeronautical Systems, the Avenger -- also known as the Predator C -- is the upgraded successor to the Predator and Reaper drones with significantly greater firepower, speed and sensor capabilities.

It also has an internal weapons bay and is capable of carrying 2,000-pound missiles.

Despite being labeled a test aircraft, the order for the Avenger came in response to an urgent request made by Defense Secretary Leon Panetta in early 2011. The Avenger was the only aircraft that met the Defense Department's needs on such short notice, the Air Force Times reported, citing a heavily redacted document posted on the Federal Business Opportunities website.

Wired's Danger Room blog speculates that the drone may be used not in Afghanistan but for further missions in Iran, given its stealth capabilities and large weapons payload.

“The Avenger reportedly carries a ground-mapping radar and the same ultra-sophisticated cameras as the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter, making it a perfect candidate for quietly snooping above, say, suspected nuclear facilities or terrorist camps guarded by air-defense radars and missiles,” wrote Danger Room’s David Axe.

All of which doesn’t seem too far-fetched: Panetta recently told Fox News in an exclusive interview that the stealth drone campaign along the Iran-Afghanistan border will “absolutely” continue despite the loss of a valuable and sophisticated drone in Iran.

The mysterious loss of the RQ-170 Sentinel drone revealed not only that the U.S. was spying on Iran, but also that the program was being run from Shindad Air Base in western Afghanistan.

"Those operations have to be protected in order to do the job and the mission that they're involved with," Panetta told Fox News.

Afghan President Hamid Karzai said at a press conference Wednesday morning that he was unaware of the Sentinel drone malfunction until informed by Iran.

"Afghanistan was not aware the drone had gone down or malfunctioned in Iran ... the government of Iran has sent a note to us on that," he told reporters.

Meanwhile, the Obama administration has been quietly pushing to sell armed drones to key allies, but it has run into resistance from U.S. lawmakers concerned about the proliferation of technology and know-how.

Administration officials recently began informal consultations with lawmakers about prospective sales of armed drones and weapons systems to NATO members Italy and Turkey, while several U.S. allies in the Persian Gulf have been pressing Washington to authorize drone sales, officials said.

The Faithful Fans of RED SOX Nation line up for tickets & a piece of RED SOX history

2011-12-18T09:57:00.005-05:00

Even after the 2011 slump in the " September from Hell ", where our Red Sox tanked in a spectacular display of buffoonery, the fans return in droves. It must be something in the DNA of Red Sox fans that makes them like the swallows coming back to Capistrano....We don't really have the ability to resist the siren call of Baseball, the Red Sox and all that goes with Fenway Park, which will celebrate 100 years of Baseball this season.

I just hope for our sake that John Henry & his crew have gotten their game plan in place because if they tank the 2012 season, it will be the worst way to commemorate a century of America's pastime in " The Chapel ".

Red Sox fans
gobble up tickets, memorabilia

news-press.com

Boston Red Sox backer Eric Atkinson is a prime example of why "fan" is short for
fanatic.

Atkinson was so intent on buying the team’s 2004 and 2007 World Series championship banners at the Red Sox Yard Sale that he flew in Friday from Beverly, Mass., rented a storage truck and stood in line overnight so he could be first in line.

He had $8,000 in his pocket because the Red Sox only accepted cash.

It hardly helped his level of comfort that fans – standing in a separate line for single-game tickets – told him there was a nearby shooting and drug deal.

But he stayed – with one eye open.

Atkinson’s 16-hour wait for the pennants – which hung on the team’s batting cages – was rewarded when he joined about 350 fans who walked through the turnstiles at City of Palms Park at 8 a.m. Saturday. He bought each for $800.

“It’s the prize of the lot,” friend Rob Hurst said.

“Can’t go wrong with ’04 and ’07,” said Atkinson, who also bought locker room chairs, bats and $50 grab bags, which included a jersey of an unknown player as well as a program. The week before, he bought 93 jerseys, a turnstile, bats and Carlton Fisk and Wade Boggs banners at a Fenway Park yard sale. “They’ll go in my man-cave bar.”

With the Red Sox moving to a new park this spring, the team sold furniture, framed artwork and televisions from City of Palms Park as well as media guides, bats, balls, shirts, banners and signs.

What fascinated Katie Haas, the Red Sox Florida operations director, was what interested the second person in line was totally different from what Atkinson wanted.

“I gave a sound bite, which I wish I hadn’t said because a fan said, ‘You’re calling this junk,’ “ Haas said. “But one man’s junk is another person’s treasure.”

Haas said the story behind the treasure helped people in their purchases. When told the TVs were in the clubhouse or a chair was in the owner’s suite, that helped husbands convince wives they needed to buy them, she said.

Fans did get a little physical and jostled for the bats. “When it’s covered in pine tar and tape and has a player’s name on it, that also tells a story,” she said.

Helen Sotiropoulos, a 19-year employee of Aramark, the Red Sox’s food vendor, bought a chair before “they went out flying.”

Jennifer Canedy of Cape Coral got a photo of her favorite player, Jason Varitek, “even though he probably won’t be here anymore.” Shannon Devegnee of Cape Coral, bought a $20 framed photo of Ted Williams playing tennis. She’ll give it to her father Tony Patti for Christmas because that’s his favorite player. Her daughter Brianna bought Red Sox lights for $3.

April Bailey bought a rusted metal, on-deck bat. “I just happened to see it on a table,” she said. “I put it down, walked around the inside; and when it was still there, I said, ‘I just have to ask somebody about this bat.’ “

Bailey was told the bat really wasn’t for sale; but to tell the cashier it was $10.

Pine Island’s Jack Kershilis, 73, was resourceful when the Red Sox Baseball Store sign ($100) was too big to fit in his van. “They had a saw so I cut it,” he said. “I’m going to take these feet (Red Sox logo) and cut off the words store and put the feet on that side. I’ll put it in my garage.”

Kershilis’ wife was in line waiting for tickets. “I think she’d go ballistic if she knew,” he said. “I don’t think I’ll tell her until she gets in the car. She might not be able to ride in the car.”

When Brianna Devegnee helped Kershilis carry his sign to his car, he gave her a $2 tip.

As Kershilis returned to his unsuspecting wife, fans patiently waited in line for tickets.

A group of North Fort Myers High friends – Connor Roggero, Teddy Moore, Matt Mills, Neill Dickinson and Bridget Harper – had camped out since Thursday.

Two, long-time Naples’ friends and oldtimers, Phil Stang and Mike Boudreau, arrived at the ballpark at 4:15 a.m. to get tickets. Stang talked Boudreau into coming, even though he’s recovering from foot surgery

What the heck? Why not,” Boudreau said.

And what they did do while waiting? “Annoy each other,” Stang said.

Haas said five games are near sellouts – Tampa Bay (March 10), St. Louis (March 15), Baltimore (March 17), the New York Yankees (March 22) and Philadelphia (March 24).

Please stop sharing.....WTMI ( Way Too Much Info)

2011-12-17T07:45:00.004-05:00

Reading a story about oversharing on a blog is a bit of an oxymoron.....Yeah, I share my opinions about many subjects BUT there is a distinct difference between what transpires here and what people share via Facebook and Twitter.

You will not find pictures of me at a drunken party here or other nonsense that people willingly post on Facebook, where all can see them making fools of themselves. That info once posted goes on forever....you have created a permanent record that all can see(regardless if you believe that the "privacy" controls will protect you)....like maybe a future boss or finance. It's not cool and it is a narcissistic self centered exercise enabled by the technology.

Timothy Egan from the NY Times and I agree that people need to be a little more wary about what they post online. I will air out my opinion here but at the same level as I would if my dear sainted Mother was in the room...and that is the difference. I have no issue with anyone I know seeing what is written here. While they may not agree with my point-of-view, nothing here is cause for me to be social or morally embarrassed. Too many Facebookers or Tweeters cannot make the same claim.

If you would be unwilling to allow your parents or boss to have full access to your Twitter feed or Facebook account, then there is likely some things you posted that you shouldn't have posted....Kill your Facebook account. Make a bold statement that shows others you won't be just another sheep.

I don't have a Facebook or Twitter account and never will....it is utter nonsense.

Please Stop Sharing
By TIMOTHY EGAN- NY Times
December 15, 2011

Last week, there came from the dispiriting clutter of the nation’s capital an extraordinary tale of our times. It concerned aides to Representative Rick Larsen, Democrat of Washington, who broadcast via Twitter how cool it was to be sitting in the seat of power at midday while drinking Jack Daniels and watching Nirvana videos on the taxpayers’ dime.

For good measure, these Aides Gone Wild sent out a couple of bad mots about their “idiot boss.” Within an hour of hearing about the indiscretions, which had continued for months on personal, not Congressional, Twitter accounts, the boss fired all three young people.

The moralists had a field day, complaining about the low standards of the millennial generation. No wonder they can’t find jobs!

But there is only one difference between the knuckleheads of yore — me, for example — who did numerous stupid things between the onset of puberty and a late adolescence lasting to nearly 30, and those Twit-iots of the 21st century.

And that is technology. Facebook, Twitter, cell phone text messages and palm-size appliances yet to sprout from Apple’s labs allow all of us to be banal in real time.

“I’m a moron, Siri,” I can tell my new iPhone 4S robo-assistant. “Please share with everyone.”

Let the counterrevolt begin; the shying of America would be a welcome thing. Sure, social media tools have helped foster revolutions (Egypt, Tunisia), while releasing butterflies of free speech in police states (Iran). And it’s great to get baby pictures from that distant relative living north of Nome.

But enough with the everyday shared thoughts, those half-hatched word products that could use more time in vitro.

People I once admired, even looked up to — smart, literate, funny folks — have gone down several notches in my estimation after they decided to reveal their every idiotic observation via Twitter.

From one (I’ll protect him here, even if he won’t do the same thing for himself by going silent for a day), a man known for daring urban design ideas, came these recent insights on his Twitter account:

Stuck in traffic. OMG, this light is long!

Just had the best burrito of my life!

Saw my first deliveryman on a Segway — how cool is that?

Not very, actually. Where did this compulsion for light confession come from? In part, surely, from narcissism, a trait as ancient as our species. But at least Narcissus could only stare at his own reflection until it killed him. Imagine that handsome Greek with a text finger as itchy as say, that of former Representative Anthony D. Weiner, the saddest of the digital exhibitionists.

So I cheered the news from my colleague Jenna Wortham this week that the march of Facebook into every facet of our lives has slowed at last. Of course, with 200 million active users in the United States, Facebook has won the war. It’s all over but the arguing among corporate overseers about how to divvy up our private information for profit. But some brave souls refuse to submit. Hurray for the holdouts!

The most encouraging part of the story were the comments from young people who went cold turkey, saying they realized that Facebook had made them less close to, even alienated from, their friends. The imperative of Facebook — maximum exposure of the personal “brand” — is by itself a form of poison to lasting relationships. It’s hard enough trying to stay close to say, five good friends. Why have surface relationships with a hundred of them?

The fear of those newly proclaimed social-media-phobes is that people will say they disappeared, or that, without regular screen updates, they don’t even exist at all.

But they’ll never vanish — the online graveyard is an oxymoron. Among the haunting consequences of Facebook and Twitter use is the immortality of ill-chosen words and personal pictures. And for that reason, alone, parents now have to give their children “the talk.” No, not about sex. Kids already know enough from the Internet to advise Casanova. The talk is about privacy, and the importance of children keeping to themselves things that could harm them later.

Need I remind everyone that human resource departments have no problem finding captioned pictures of job applicants sharing, um, lingerie reviews from their junior year in college? Cyberspace never forgets.

I hope that those three former staffers fired by Larsen will be given a fresh start somewhere, especially because their Google reputations will follow them forever.

Plus, public displays of stupidity happen at the highest levels. When Sonia Sotomayor was nominated to be the first Latina Supreme Court Justice, Newt Gingrich immediately tweeted that she was a “racist,” and should withdraw her name. He was following that paragon of unfiltered verbiage, Rush Limbaugh.

Gingrich later took his “racist” comment back, saying he’d acted in haste. Of course he wants it back. There are 50 million Hispanics in the United States, and they are the nation’s fastest-growing minority. But no matter how many appeals to Hispanics Gingrich tries to make, his digital tattoo can never be erased.

In his youth, Gingrich married his high school geometry teacher. If Twitter existed then (and given Gingrich’s promiscuity with the language, you know he would have tweeted hourly), he most likely would not be the Republican frontrunner today.

The best advice I’ve heard of late is from the actor George Clooney. “I don’t tweet, I don’t go on Facebook,” he said in a profile. “I think there’s too much information about all of us out there. I’m liking the idea of privacy more and more.”

Easy for him to say. He’s famous. But oh, how he wouldn’t crave a bit of the most precious commodity of the digital age — anonymity

Praying

2011-12-16T14:37:00.003-05:00

The American people are praying too....that we get better leadership in the 2012 election than the group of utter chumps are being offered to us presently...

We need an IKE or Truman right about now and all we are getting is a big pile of " Meh". There has to be better candidates out there.

Gear left behind in Iraq - No real surprise

2011-12-16T08:03:00.004-05:00

Looks like we left a substantial amount of gear in Iraq...which is really no surprise as we can't possibly bring all the stuff back, nor would we want to. By the time you have housing units, porta-potties, etc. there for any amount of time, you really (really) don't want them back as they are in pretty beat up shape.

Hope we got top dollar for the M1 Abrams and other workable vehicles...I am sure we paid $$$$$ for them when we bought them.

Gear galore left in Iraq as last troops pull out
U.S. command says it’s not worth hauling back
By Rowan Scarborough

The Washington Times
Thursday, December 15, 2011

If the U.S. military held a yard sale, the rummaging would look a lot like what has been going on in Iraq.

Troops are leaving a bounty of leftovers as they exit the country this month, abandoning dining-hall tables and chairs, tents, air conditioners and old vehicles.

Unlike a traditional American yard sale, the military bric-a-brac is free. The stuff likely would be dumped back home.

For an Iraqi force moving into once-bustling U.S. bases, the accouterments are just the thing to make the soldier's life a little more comfortable as he takes on the full load of fighting insurgents against the government.

The State Department, which inherits the lead U.S. role in Iraq on Jan. 1, also is accepting hand-me-downs, such as armored vehicles and surveillance electronics to protect its turf.

"We've gone through a very extensive review process to determine what we need to take back to the United States, what gets reconditioned, what we can afford to transfer to the State Department, or to state and local governments back in the United States, or to the Iraqi government," said Army Maj. Gen. Jeffrey S. Buchanan, the top U.S. military spokesman in Iraq.

"It's really the leftover things we've transferred to the Iraq government."

The command estimates that it has bequeathed to the Iraqi government more than 4 million pieces of this and that, valued at $580 million. However, the military is saving more than $1 billion in shipping costs.

Here is some of what Iraq is getting when it assumes control of all U.S. bases:

• Containerized housing units, air conditioners and gym equipment.

• Generators, water and fuel tanks, cars and stoves.

• Tables, washers and dryers, portable chemical toilets; and large, portable concrete walls and barriers.

"They take a crane and move around on flatbeds as they need it," Gen. Buchanan said. "It's certainly not worth the cost to us to to get all these pieces of concrete anywhere back to the U.S."

With the sprawling Camp Victory complex that surrounds the country's international airport, the Iraqis also are receiving prison cells, including the ones that held Saddam Hussein.

Iraq also gets a waste-treatment facility near Tikrit that takes care of contaminated earth and fuel oil.

The U.S. military is keeping its frontline weapons systems. Tanks, armored fighting vehicles, spy and strike drones, jet fighters and artillery pieces are going to the United States or to U.S. bases in Europe or Afghanistan.

"Starting with the question of what we need: Obviously, if this is a current piece of military gear - something like vehicles, tanks, artillery pieces, weapons, etc. - that all goes back with our forces," Gen. Buchanan said.

Iraq is buying some of these sophisticated weapons through the Foreign Military Sales program that arms other allies, such as Israel and Egypt.

Iraq is buying 140 of the front-line M1 Abrams tanks. It also is acquiring as many as three dozen F-16 Fighting Falcon jet fighters.

The United States has given Iraq rifles, pistols and Humvee multipurpose vehicles.

Iraq did not get a "yes" for everything on its wish list. Because of federal transfer regulations, the U.S. military rejected requests for certain sophisticated surveillance electronics that operate out of aerostat balloons and scan large areas.

The State Department, whose diplomats will turn to private security officers for protection as they move around a dangerous landscape, is taking possession of 60 MRAP (mine-resistant ambush-protected) vehicles.

One of Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates' first moves in 2007 was to prod the Army and Marine Corps to produce more MRAPs and get them to troops being attacked by improvised explosive devices.

State also received armored Chevrolet Suburbans, as well as surveillance equipment to watch a compound perimeter or detect incoming rockets. U.S. diplomats will work chiefly from the embassy in Baghdad and two consulates.

The U.S. gives away items through the Foreign Excess Personal Property Program. It came up with a list of potential hand-me-downs and negotiated the transfer with the Iraqi government, which had a shopping list.

"All of that stuff went through a process to determine, did we really need it back in the United States?" Gen. Buchanan said.

The answer was "no" for 4 million items.

The President takes credit for end of Iraq War...a war he opposed.

2011-12-15T20:31:00.006-05:00

Some may forget what was said in the past, but others hold people to their words.

The President likes to take credit for the efforts of others....this is a prime example....Enclosed is what he said in 2002....You be the judge. The only reason why we are leaving is Iraq asked us to leave...But Barry takes credit as if he did the heavy lifting.

What a poser.

Barack Obama's Anti-Iraq War Speech (2002)http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Barack_Obama%27s_Iraq_Speech

" That’s what I’m opposed to. A dumb war. A rash war. A war based not on reason but on passion, not on principle but on politics.

Now let me be clear — I suffer no illusions about Saddam Hussein. He is a brutal man. A ruthless man. A man who butchers his own people to secure his own power. He has repeatedly defied UN resolutions, thwarted UN inspection teams, developed chemical and biological weapons, and coveted nuclear capacity.

He’s a bad guy. The world, and the Iraqi people, would be better off without him.

But I also know that Saddam poses no imminent and direct threat to the United States, or to his neighbors, that the Iraqi economy is in shambles, that the Iraqi military a fraction of its former strength, and that in concert with the international community he can be contained until, in the way of all petty dictators, he falls away into the dustbin of history.

I know that even a successful war against Iraq will require a US occupation of undetermined length, at undetermined cost, with undetermined consequences. I know that an invasion of Iraq without a clear rationale and without strong international support will only fan the flames of the Middle East, and encourage the worst, rather than best, impulses of the Arab world, and strengthen the recruitment arm of al-Qaeda.

I am not opposed to all wars. I’m opposed to dumb wars"

Home made ice rink gets a penalty call before the games begin....

2011-12-15T17:58:00.005-05:00

It likely sounded like a solution to their need for more water at first but it ended in a case of " Oh yeah. I guess that is an issue..."

Hope the judge in the case has a sense of humor....what a group of hockey pucks !

Friends Busted For Fire Hydrant Backyard Ice Hockey Rink

December 14, 2011
by: Ben Maller - Yahoo sports

It sounds like a Vince Vaughn and Owen Wilson comedy: Best friends decide to make a backyard ice hockey rink, end up stealing water from a school fire hydrant and get nabbed by cops. Only this isn't some Hollywood production, it's reality!

Police caught two buddies illegally using water from a fire hydrant in order to make a really cool backyard ice rink. Tony Nelin and Timmy Ryan, each 20 and from the suburbs outside Chicago, thought it would be "productive" to have the ice rink over the frigid winter months in Tinley Park.

One of the kid's parents signed off on building the backyard rink for $350.

The innovative youngsters, along with a couple of other friends, began filling it with water from a garden hose last week. After close to four hours, they decided it was going be too expensive. The friends borrowed 250 feet of fire hose from a relative who works for the fire department to finish the rink framed with lumber. The homemade frozen pond even includes a penalty box, according to the Chicago Tribune.

These puck lovers would have gotten away with it if it hadn't been for a meddling school janitor. The custodian at Tinley Park High School discovered the fire hose connected to a running fire hydrant on school property and called police. Officers used expert detective skills, following the hose through a wooded area and right to the 91' by 43' partially frozen backyard ice rink.

Nelin and Ryan were given citations for tampering with a school fire hydrant. With a court date next month, they're expected to have to pay for the water. Both accused water thieves didn't think it was a big deal. "I really just thought it was water," Nelin said. "I didn't think it was this big of a problem."

The Chicago Tribune reports they used an estimated 26,000 gallons. That's a lot, but in the end the expected bill for the water will be close to $130 dollars. The good news is that they will be able to keep the backyard rink because it was built on private property, and therefore it doesn't need a special building permit.

The four friends plan to split the expected fine and water fee.

CHI-COMS take out their new Flat-top

2011-12-14T21:49:00.004-05:00

The CHI-COMS took their 2nd hand Soviet Boat out for a spin....I'm not sure about you, but the Soviets are long on getting things together, but what they produce is not long lasting. The B-52 is still flying because it was built 50+ years ago by the USA....Things the Soviets make, don't last like that.

We'll see how the carrier fares but I feel that they may find they have bought a lemon - Let's just say I feel our Flat-tops out duel their flat-top (singular)

At least the deck doesn't have planes: Satellite captures first picture of China’s aircraft carrier which it claimed is just for ‘research’By Daily Mail Reporter
15th December 2011

A satellite photo captured China's first ever aircraft carrier on the Chinese coast's Yellow Sea Thursday by a commercial U.S. satellite company.

The aircraft carrier has generated intense international interest because of the open-ended possibilities the country may have for it as a future military power.
Little on the ship had been said by China after purchasing it from Ukraine in 1998, spending years refurbishing it from one with no engines, weaponry or navigation systems, to one seen sailing last week.

A DigitalGlobe analyst says they found the image Tuesday while searching through their satellite's photos.

Stephen Wood, director of DigitalGlobe's analysis center, said he's confident the ship is the Chinese carrier because of the location and date of the photo. The carrier was on a sea trial at the time.

China has said the carrier is intended for research and training, which has led to speculation that it plans to build future copies.
The former Soviet Union was the first to start building the carrier, which it called the Varyag, but never finished it.

China publicly announced around 50 separate naval exercises in the seas off its coast -- usually after the event

When the Soviet Union collapsed, it ended up in the hands of Ukraine, a former Soviet republic who then sold it to China.

China initially said little about its plans for the carrier but has been more open in recent years, said Bonnie S. Glaser, a China expert at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

'It wasn't until the Chinese actually announced they were sending it out on a trial run they admitted, `Yes, we are actually launching a carrier,'' she said.

China publicly announced two sea trials for the carrier that occurred this year, she said.The carrier's progress is in line with the U.S. military's expectations, said Cmdr. Leslie Hull-Ryde, a Defense Department spokeswoman.

A Defense Department report to Congress this year said the carrier could become operationally available to the Chinese navy by the end of next year but without aircraft.

'From that point, it will take several additional years before the carrier has an operationally viable air group,' Hull-Ryde said in an email.
She declined to comment on the DigitalGlobe photo, saying it was an intelligence matter.

DigitalGlobe, based in Longmont, Colo., sells satellite imagery and analysis to clients that include the U.S. military, emergency response agencies and private companies. DigitalGlobe has three orbiting satellites and a fourth is under

The " F" in Facebook stands for " FAIL"

2011-12-13T19:49:00.006-05:00

Articles like this one give me satisfaction as the idiots who fawn over Facebook are as clueless as those who use it. I wrote about the utter stupidity that Facebook represents and how I was NEVER going to join it as it was a vapid, self centered brainchild of a feckless kid who went to Harvard and was pissed off at the rich kids who shunned him. He created Facebook as his pentulant revenge to show how he could become better than the rich bullies who shunned him.

So now, All the "Cool Kids" are quitting Facebook ? How about the COOLER people knew better than to ever use it in the first place....To those who have invested in this empty place on the web, you've been had....It amounts to the newest version of AOL. Both are over and both were given too much credit for very little other than fleecing people of personal info and enabling people to place way too much info on the web that didn't need to be there.

When people act like sheep, they are usually lead to slaughter....don't be a sheep. Be a Sheepdog.

All the Cool Kids Are Quitting Facebook
Atlantic Monthly

Adam Clark Estes

The best reason to quit Facebook can be summed up in one quote from a 29-year-old in Jenna Wortham's latest item in The New York Times: "People always raise an eyebrow. But my life has gone on just fine without it." Like a lot of Times trend pieces, people have been talking about this phenomenon for ages. But Wortham's news peg is startling. Citing comScore Wortham reports that Facebook is continuing to grow in the United States, but after a 56 percent boost from October 2009 to October 2010, Facebook grew only ten percent from October 2010 to October of this year. Why? Well, Wortham gives a lot of reasons, quoting experts and so forth. But it's all very clear to us. To wear out that worn out Social Network quote a bit more: Joining Facebook isn't cool. You know what's cool? Quitting Facebook

OMG...I concur

2011-12-13T05:37:00.002-05:00

The real 1% - Those who defend our nation.

2011-12-12T17:50:00.004-05:00

This author makes the case for the 1%. The 1% she is highlighting is not the uber-rich, but those who are serve in uniform defending our nation and their families who support them from the homefront. I agree with her point-of-view.

Two members of a different 1% on Afghanistan, politics and privilege.
By ANNE JOLIS - Wall Street Journal
Zhari District, Afghanistan

U.S. service-members make up less than 1% of the American population. But the occupiers of Afghanistan do have a few, superficial similarities with the self-described "99%" occupying Western financial districts: Their endeavors both involve tents and have gone on far longer than first expected; both elicit mixed reactions in the areas they occupy; and both at times struggle to explain what their occupations are meant to accomplish.

Otherwise, the soldiers here in southern Afghanistan could not pose a starker contrast to their agitating peers back home. Take Spc. Anthony Webster, 32, of Portland, Maine and Sgt. Matthew Montville, 24, of Worcester, Massachusetts. They serve as their command group's security detachment in the Fourth Squadron, Fourth U.S. Cavalry Regiment, First Infantry Division—the "Pale Riders."

In late November, straightening their tent after a day of patrols, Sgt. Montville recalls taking leave in October to find himself "appalled" at the Occupy Boston crowd. The impish blond, who enlisted at 17 because "the idea of college never excited" him, observes: "Most of those 'Occupy' people wouldn't know hard work if it jumped up and punched them in the throat."

Not so the Pale Riders. They've had a particularly wretched war even for a particularly wretched part of Afghanistan, which has the ignoble distinction of being the Taliban's birthplace. Since arriving with 517 soldiers in late February, the Pale Riders have buried seven and been awarded 134 living Purple Hearts.

***
After 2001, the U.S. largely left this stretch of the Arghandab River valley to Afghan forces. By 2006 the Taliban was resurgent, and a Canadian-led contingent was sent to level entire neighborhoods here. But they never had the manpower to hold the area and by 2007 had effectively retreated, leaving the valley to de-facto Taliban control once again.

President Obama's surge increased U.S. troop presence here by roughly six-fold. The Second Brigade of the 101st Airborne Division spent much of 2010 redoing the Canadians' bloody work. When the Third Brigade of the 10th Mountain Division arrived with its Pale Rider attachment, they expanded the 101st's so-called security bubble while consolidating those gains with local outreach.

"We came at the beginning of the fighting season, and there was no bulls— about it," says Spc. Webster, a former construction and private-security entrepreneur whose tattoos cover about 85% of his body. "When it started, it started."

Spc. William A.T. Phillips, 4th Squadron, 4th U.S. Cavalry Regiment, 1st Infantry Division
The Pale Riders patrol through Charkusa, southern Afghanistan.

It hasn't really stopped. On a routine patrol a week before I met them, the Pale Riders entered a house that turned out to be rigged with explosives. The blast brought the house down on top of two of them, who survived but were critically injured. "I've never heard screaming like that in my life," says Sgt. Montville.

"You can't justify any of the losses," says Spc. Webster after a long pause. "But we're here to do our jobs, we know what we signed up for. The mission is what we live by, that's priority No. 1."

Sgt. Montville summarizes: "We continued the push and at the same time started talking to the locals to find out what they need from us and actually start to implement it—roads, schools, clinics."

"Anyone can go in and blow a place up. We're trying to do the right thing," he adds. "I'm proud of what we've done."

"We see more kids now, more of their women out, people able to farm their land—we've accomplished a lot in a short period of time," adds Spc. Webster. But "it's frustrating, too. Ultimately it's up to the Afghans. We go to these shuras [meetings of local elders] and we hear them arguing about dumb stuff."

Earlier on the day of our interview we patrolled through the neighborhood of Charkusa, where only weeks before the Pale Riders had been taking regular fire from mazes of grape walls and marijuana gardens. Now Charkusa is quiet, though nearly deserted. Over tea with several elders who had fled during the Canadian offensive, the old men acknowledged that security had improved and said they're prepared to work with their imperfect government, return home and fill the vacuum that insurgents would be happy to re-occupy. But some remained focused on what the Americans haven't done for them lately: They want their mud huts rebuilt and this time with doors and windows; they want their irrigation canals repaired and reinforced with brick or cement; they want their relocation expenses covered. Pale Rider Commander, Lt. Col. Michael Katona of Michigan, listened patiently, his soldiers fanned around us, nodding: "We can do all that."

Their aim is to do so by the end of the year, when the Pale Riders will start to leave. But "it's their community, at some point they need to own it," Spc. Webster says. "If not, our efforts will have been futile. I'd like to believe they weren't, I know my friends who have passed away, their families—I know they hope they weren't."

Another crucial variable over which the Pale Riders have little control is the development of the Afghan National Army, which Spc. Montville says is "definitely improving. But for a lot of them, it's their first time having their own money, so they have cell phones and they want to hang out and talk on them, weapons flopping around—sometimes they smoke hashish on patrol."

Like most of the U.S. soldiers with whom I spoke, Spc. Webster and Sgt. Montville have taken it upon themselves to informally train the ANA they work with—though ostensibly they've already received NATO training.

Sgt. Montville tells me that, for instance, their ANA counterparts were recently issued .50-caliber machine guns. But "a lot of them didn't know how to clean them, take them apart—they just didn't know what they were doing. So instead of us getting shot in the back accidentally, [Spc.] Webster and I went over to the ANA side [of Forward Operating Base Pasab] and brought our .50-cals over and had them bring theirs out. We showed them how to take them apart, clean them, make sure they work right, put them back together—basic soldiering skills. . . . Eventually they do start taking stuff seriously."

He flicks on his laptop to show me a recent video of U.S. soldiers defusing an IED set against a grape wall. While everyone else waits, frozen, an ANA soldier wanders into the frame, ignoring the others' warning shouts, steps on the pressure-point and loses half his face and a foot. "Luckily, they're getting better."

"Yeah, but that really is how undisciplined some of these guys are. It's a liability every time we go out with them," adds Spc. Webster.

Both agree that Washington's 2014 combat-withdrawal date doesn't make their work easier.

"It's more pressure on us and especially our commanders, to try and get everything in place to make sure it doesn't all fall apart once we leave, to make sure these people aren't bullied all over again," explains Spc. Webster. He says even after 2014, he expects the U.S. and its allies to keep a significant overwatch presence in Afghanistan for a long time, "for the safety of the whole world. If not, [Afghanistan] would go to hell again."

But he also sees their work now as more humanitarian than U.S. defense. Which is why the pre-set timeline is "the right thing to do. We've got a lot of problems at home. How many more lives and money can we really afford to lose here?"

Spc. Montville, on the other hand, characterizes the timeline as "a nice goal," but also akin to telling the insurgents "'Hey, guess what guys, we're leaving in 2014, you just got to hold on till then. Then you can come back and do whatever the f— you want.'"

Unlike Spc. Webster, Sgt. Montville claims "honestly, I don't care. Once I go home, I'm going to try my best not to think about this place and some of the s— I've seen."

Why? "Because I'm a spoiled American."

Turns out that after nine months dodging rockets and IEDs, without alcohol, flush toilets or their respective wife and girlfriend, Spc. Webster and Sgt. Montville's tour has left them preoccupied with how good they have it.

"If you grew up in a mud hut, went to school for maybe one or two years, you might not be the smartest dude either, but you'd be a hard worker," says Sgt. Montville. "You see kids here hauling three, four times their body weight, going 15 miles an hour on some [beaten-up] one-speed bicycle. I absolutely have a lot of respect for them. You've got to."

***
Which brings us back to America's "occupiers." "Yeah okay, a lot of them have jobs, they work a crappy nine-to-five, they've got student loans," concedes Sgt. Montville. "And I have a car payment. I'm not getting financial aid for my cell-phone bill. Everyone has to work. Deal with it."

Of their own unenviable salaries, Spc. Webster shrugs: "No one's ever going to get paid enough to do this job. That's not why we do it."

"I love what I do, I can't see myself doing anything else," adds Sgt. Montville. But when Washington politicos were threatening earlier this year to suspend military pay, his initial reaction was: "They train us to kill people, to drive tanks, use explosives, fight in the dark, to engage in hand-to-hand-combat; they give us all these guns, all this cool gear to do this—and then they're going to take our pay? Are they stupid?"

Memo to the humorless: He's kidding. Upon hearing of the budget brinkmanship, "a lot of guys here said '[Forget] it then, I'm not going to go out on patrol!' But I don't know anyone who would actually do that."

And while neither voted for the current President, "[Mr.] Obama is my boss," says Spc. Webster. "If he sends us orders tomorrow to go to Pakistan, Iran, wherever—done. I'd pack my bags and go."

As the U.S. drawdown proceeds, Spc. Webster predicts, safely, that 2012 campaigns will bring claims of "'I did this, I brought the troops home.'" He laughs and lets Sgt. Montville finish his thought: "We're the ones watching each others' backs out here. The ones who survive—we'll have brought ourselves home."

Miss Jolis is an editorial page writer for The Wall Street Journal Europe.

Make peace or die....Take a walk with the 1/5 Marines in Sangin

2011-12-11T12:34:00.004-05:00

The 3/5 Marines had a tough fight in Sangin from September 2010 - May 2011. The 1/5 Marines relieved them and built upon the success of their shipmates through this summer and into the fall.

Watch the enclosed video (yes, I understand it is 17 minutes long...Watch the video and give them the time they have earned) is a view of what your US Marines have been doing out in the Shitewilds of Afghanistan. This is a small peak into how tough it can really be out there at the "tip of the spear".

I have been to Helmand and spent time with our USMC. They are doing the impossible in a harsh landscape and should make each American proud. Agree or disagree with the mission, this is the truest example of what we stand for and why we are Americans. Semper FI 1/5 Marines.

Wreaths are placed at Arlington to ‘remember, honor and teach’

2011-12-11T07:12:00.002-05:00

To “Remember, Honor and Teach” - This is the mission of Wreaths Across America who provide Christmas Wreaths for Servicemen's graves at Arlington National Cemetery and other national cemeteries around our country. The efforts of tireless volunteers ensure that a wreath is placed at graves and those who sacrificed are remembered.

Bravo Zulu to all who make this important effort.

Wreath-laying event at Arlington to ‘remember, honor and teach’
On Saturday, 90,000 wreaths were laid on headstones at the cemetery by about 15,000 volunteers.
By Pamela Constable,Washington Post - December 10, 2011

Thousands of people filtered quietly among the rows of white tombstones in Arlington National Cemetery on Saturday, placing identical pine wreaths with simple red bows at the graves of sons, cousins, parents, battlefield buddies, fraternity brothers and strangers fallen in half-a-dozen wars over the past 70 years.

There were Boy Scout troops, military units in dress uniforms and extended families in mittens and earmuffs. Many headed for familiar spots and formed somber clusters around a single tomb. Some said prayers or read out combat citations and saluted. Others wept or simply stood and stared, lost in thought.

“Every stone here has a story,” said Tim Frey, 43, a police officer from Lancaster, Pa., who came to honor Lt. Col. Mark P. Phelan, a member of his Army Reserve unit, who was killed by an explosive device in Iraq in 2004. “I’m here from a sense of duty, and to see a friend again,” he said. “Other people may not know anyone, but it’s still an honor to come here.”

More than 100,000 wreaths, loaded onto about 20 tractor-trailers, arrived after a six-day caravan from Maine for the 20th annual Wreaths Across America event, sponsored by a nonprofit group. The trucks parked at scattered spots around the vast cemetery, and hundreds of volunteers handed them to waiting visitors.

The event included formal wreath-layings at the grave of President John F. Kennedy, the Tomb of the Unknowns, and the original mast of the USS Maine, a legendary battleship sunk in 1898.

The official slogan of the organizers was “Remember, Honor and Teach,” and the wreath-bearing convoy stopped for special events in towns on the way. But for most visitors to the cemetery, it was a day of personal mourning and private reflection.

“Christmas doesn’t seem to mean what it used to mean, and we need to remember that these soldiers died so we can have the things we have,” said Jeannie Ludwig, 39, of Fairfax, who was visiting the graves of her grandparents, both veterans of World War II, and the grave of a friend who died in Iraq. “My kids are still too young to understand what these soldiers did for us, but this is a way to begin talking to them about it.”

By far, the most crowded portion of the cemetery was Section 60, where the most recent casualties of American military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan are buried.

Members of the District’s National Guard unit came to mourn Spec. Darryl Dent, 19, who died in Iraq.

The grief-stricken family of Navy Cmdr. Charles K. Springle, 52, wept and hugged at his tomb. Springle died in May 2009 when a fellow U.S. soldier opened fire at a military clinic in Baghdad. His parents, Ruth and Charles, traveled from Beaufort, N.C., for the event, and were met there by his daughter, Sarah Monday.

Members of the Pi Kappa Alpha fraternity at Virginia Tech gathered to honor 1st Lt. Jeffrey Kaylor, killed by a grenade in Iraq. One member, Jeff Dawley, 26, of Reston, paid his respects to Kaylor and then headed to visit the grave of his father, who he said had died because of exposure to the chemical defoliant Agent Orange in Vietnam.

Some mourners preferred to keep their grief private. A group of tight-lipped Special Forces officers, standing next to a friend’s tomb, politely declined to speak to a reporter. At another grave, a middle-aged man recited the obituary of a soldier decorated for valor in combat, but said he would rather not talk about him.

But for many others, Wreaths Across America served as a public ritual, a way to connect veterans and their families across wars and generations, or a form of group therapy. Gray-bearded Vietnam veterans in motorcycle jackets handed out bright red Christmas caps to Boy Scout packs and shook hands with spit-and-polish Marine officers.

Lynn Hill, 62, of Silver Spring wore a historic cavalry uniform and said his mission was to memorialize the 9th and 10th Horse cavalries of the Buffalo Soldiers, the Army unit founded in 1866 and composed of freed black slaves. He said he had attended every Wreath Day since 1992, “to honor all the dead soldiers” in American history.

Regina Barnhurst, the mother of a slain Marine from Severna Park, turned her son’s tomb into a day-long gathering place for other grieving families. The spot was next to a holly tree, where she and some friends put up a ladder and invited visitors to hang personal messages on the boughs and share coffee and doughnuts.

“I used to wonder how I would survive Christmas, but this has become a way for us to support each other,” said Barnhurst, who began weeping as she recounted how her son, Eric Herzberg, had been fatally shot by a sniper in Iraq five years ago. “You have to do something to get through the holidays,” she said with a sad smile. “For all of us, there is still such a huge hole.”

A DECADE OF DOMINATION / NAVY BEATS ARMY AGAIN

2011-12-10T18:18:00.005-05:00

NAVY 27 - ARMY 21 / A decade of NAVY Football beating ARMY...AWESOME

Dave Cremin from Ireland with an amazing card trick

2011-12-10T08:21:00.002-05:00

Dave Cremin from Ireland amazes the crowd....This one is a show stopper.

Jack the Springer Spaniel saves lives in Afghanistan

2011-12-09T05:58:00.005-05:00

When you think of dogs in a war zone, a "Springer Spaniel" would likely not be the first breed that comes to mind but here is proof that the breed can do the job even in the rough terrain of Afghanistan.

Good Show Jack.

Jack the springer spaniel, the bomb-sniffer dog who's saved his master's life... again and again
By David Wilkes - UK Mail
7th December 2011

Amid the myriad dangers of the Afghan conflict, Jack the springer spaniel is so much more than just a man’s best friend.

Thanks to his skill at sniffing out bombs, he has saved his handler Private Andrew Duff’s life ‘more times’ than the soldier ‘cares to think about’.

Jack is one of a number of the Army’s specially trained Arms and Explosives Search dogs, scouring the deadly paths of Helmand Province for improvised explosive devices (IEDs) planted by the Taliban. He has prevented countless servicemen and civilians being killed or maimed.

Blissfully unaware of the danger he faces, six-year-old Jack has been keenly working with Private Duff, 31, for 18 months, proving himself an essential asset with at least nine confirmed ‘finds’.

Now his feats have made him the cover star of this week’s edition of Country Life, out today, where he is featured in a new series about Britain’s ‘top dogs’.

Not for nothing does Private Duff, of the Royal Army Veterinary Corps, describe himself and Jack as ‘inseparable’.

‘Once, we were searching a compound in North Helmand that we had patrolled past many times previously. Jack told me that he’d found something, right under where I was about to step,’ he said. ‘To this day I am certain that he saved my life and those around me. I trust him implicitly.

Jack underwent 15 weeks of intensive training in Britain, involving sessions on fitness and obedience and tests with distractions such as smoke and heat, before being flown out to Afghanistan, where he spent another three weeks learning how to locate IEDs.

A dog indicates a ‘find’ by sitting. The training is based on rewards, with dogs receiving a treat – often a play with a tennis ball or a cuddle – every time they sniff out an explosive device.

Private Duff said: ‘Jack’s appetite for searching is immeasurable. Whenever he’s out of his kennel, he’s working, whether I’ve asked him to or not. He loves it.’

The extraordinary bond between military dogs and their masters was tragically highlighted earlier this year when Theo, a 22-month-old springer spaniel cross, suffered a seizure and passed away shortly after his handler, Lance Corporal Liam Tasker, 26, was killed in a firefight with the Taliban in Helmand.

The dog, which had broken the record for successful finds with his master, was said to have died of a broken heart.

FDR requests a Declaration of War against Japan - 12/08/41

2011-12-08T05:19:00.004-05:00

FDR was notified of the attack on Pearl Harbor approximately 15 minutes after it began. The problem was that he had to deal with fragmented reports and the issue that there was no direct communication lines between Hawaii and the White House. It wasn't until late on 12/07/41 that he got a full report that detailed the true scope of the losses we had suffered.

He dictated the text of the speech he gave on Dec 8th to his secretary as his speech writers were not in Washington DC that weekend. It is one of the most powerful speeches given by a President and rallied the nation as he requests a declaration of war against Japan, 70 years ago today.

Declaration of War against Japan - 12/08/41

Mr. Vice President, Mr. Speaker, members of the Senate and the House of Representatives:

Yesterday, December 7th, 1941 - a date which will live in infamy - the United States of America was suddenly and deliberately attacked by naval and air forces of the Empire of Japan.

The United States was at peace with that nation, and, at the solicitation of Japan, was still in conversation with its government and its Emperor looking toward the maintenance of peace in the Pacific.

Indeed, one hour after Japanese air squadrons had commenced bombing in the American island of Oahu, the Japanese Ambassador to the United States and his colleague delivered to our Secretary of State a formal reply to a recent American message. And, while this reply stated that it seemed useless to continue the existing diplomatic negotiations, it contained no threat or hint of war or of armed attack.

It will be recorded that the distance of Hawaii from Japan makes it obvious that the attack was deliberately planned many days or even weeks ago. During the intervening time the Japanese Government has deliberately sought to deceive the United States by false statements and expressions of hope for continued peace.

The attack yesterday on the Hawaiian Islands has caused severe damage to American naval and military forces. I regret to tell you that very many American lives have been lost. In addition, American ships have been reported torpedoed on the high seas between San Francisco and Honolulu.

Yesterday the Japanese Government also launched an attack against Malaya.
Last night Japanese forces attacked Hong Kong.
Last night Japanese forces attacked Guam.
Last night Japanese forces attacked the Philippine Islands.
Last night the Japanese attacked Wake Island.
And this morning the Japanese attacked Midway Island.

Japan has therefore undertaken a surprise offensive extending throughout the Pacific area. The facts of yesterday and today speak for themselves. The people of the United States have already formed their opinions and well understand the implications to the very life and safety of our nation.

As Commander-in-Chief of the Army and Navy I have directed that all measures be taken for our defense, that always will our whole nation remember the character of the onslaught against us.

No matter how long it may take us to overcome this premeditated invasion, the American people, in their righteous might, will win through to absolute victory.

I believe that I interpret the will of the Congress and of the people when I assert that we will not only defend ourselves to the uttermost but will make it very certain that this form of treachery shall never again endanger us.

Hostilities exist. There is no blinking at the fact that our people, our territory and our interests are in grave danger.

With confidence in our armed forces, with the unbounding determination of our people, we will gain the inevitable triumph. So help us God.

I ask that the Congress declare that since the unprovoked and dastardly attack by Japan on Sunday, December 7th, 1941, a state of war has existed between the United States and the Japanese Empire.

President Franklin D. Roosevelt - December 8, 1941

" AIR RAID - PEARL HARBOR - THIS IS NO DRILL"

2011-12-07T05:12:00.004-05:00

70 years ago, on a quiet Sunday in December 1941, the US was thrust into World War 2. We remember those who died and honor all who served.

I have spent time there in Hawaii and it is a place that all should go to see and remember all who died on that fateful day. The USS Arizona memorial is there to allow all to pay respect to those who lost their lives on December 7th, 1941.

At Dawn We Slept - The story of the Attack on Pearl Harbor

2011-12-06T18:11:00.004-05:00

Those on Hawaii back in early December 1941 were mindful that there was fighting occurring in other parts of the world, but it seemed miles away. When you are there, Hawaii seems to be in another world entirely. The magic of the Islands is that they are the most isolated populated island in the world. The military had been sending ships from the Pacific fleet to the Atlantic to fend off the real threat of the German U boats that had been sinking merchant ships. While Japan was gearing up for an attack, most in the Pacific fleet saw their duty as quiet and uneventful.

That all changed on December 7th, 1941.

The book " At Dawn We Slept" is without peer in detailing the events and actions that occurred up to the attack on Pearl Harbor. It provides a detailed overview from both the American and Japanese point-of-view. A good read and the book that gives the best assessment to the "date that will live in infamy."

REMEMBERING PEARL HARBOR
By GADDIS SMITH;

Gaddis Smith teaches American diplomatic and maritime history at Yale.
Published: November 29, 1981

AT DAWN WE SLEPT The Untold Story of Pearl Harbor. By Gordon W. Prange. In Collaboration With Donald M. Goldstein and Katherine V. Dillon. Illustrated. 873 pp. New York: McGraw-Hill Book Co. $22.95.

THE JAPANESE attack on Pearl Harbor, Dec. 7, 1941, has served for 40 years as a test of what Americans think about their nation and its leadership, about Japan in particular and enemies in general, and about the requirements of national security. Gordon W. Prange's ''At Dawn We Slept,'' the result of half a lifetime of research, is a brilliant re-creation of the thoughts and personalities of the officers on both sides who fought that day, and it takes frank delight in the intellectual elegance of successful military planning.

The initial American reaction was a combination of patriotism, vengeful indignation and racism. The attack confirmed American courage in adversity. The Japanese were portrayed as a race inherently deceitful and cruel, fanatical creatures devoid of redeeming human qualities. A banner inscribed ''Remember Pearl Harbor'' would stream figuratively behind the atomic bombs falling on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945.

A second reaction, suppressed during the early part of the war but open and bitter after 1944, was to see criminal negligence and even treacherous conspiracy within the American Government. Strange bedfellows, united principally by hatred for President Franklin D. Roosevelt, advanced the proposition that the President had used American ships and lives as bait to tempt the Japanese into a war he wished to wage for a variety of nefarious reasons. Roosevelt allegedly knew the Japanese would attack Pearl Harbor and when, and withheld this information from the local commanders in Hawaii in order to insure Japanese success. The conspiracy theorists included naval officers seeking to protect the reputation of their service and of their colleague Adm. Husband E. Kimmel, Commander of the United States Pacific Fleet; isolationists who believed the United States had no business fighting in Asia or Europe; haters of the British Empire, which was supposed to have benefited from Roosevelt's plot; and radical anti-Communists who saw Roosevelt bent on advancing the cause of world Communism. (How else explain his antipathy to such a staunch anti-Communist nation as Japan?)

A counterwave of historians in the early 1950's attacked the conspiracy theory as nonsense. Roosevelt, they said, did make mistakes, but he and his advisers were grappling in good faith with forces beyond American control. The defense of Roosevelt was implicitly an argument that, in a permanently dangerous world, the nation's security required that the President be trusted by a sophisticated public on guard against simplistic theories, especially those which claimed that our problems were caused by traitors within.

As political passions that once flared around the name Roosevelt cooled after 1960, commentators on Pearl Harbor looked to the future. Roberta Wohlstetter's classic ''Pearl Harbor: Warning and Decision'' (1962) explained how the American intelligence community, even though it was reading Japan's secret diplomatic radio traffic, was overwhelmed by too much data and lacked the manpower to separate real signals about Japan's intentions from irrelevant ''noise.'' Her purpose was to improve strategic intelligence.

During the Vietnam War distrust of Presidential foreign policy reappeared and with it a small new wave of Pearl Harbor revisionism with an emphasis more antiwar than anti-Communist. Roosevelt was now portrayed as leading the country into an unnecessary war that did not serve national security. Japan and the United States should have compromised their differences and abandoned unrealistic objectives founded on rigid ideology.

''At Dawn We Slept'' falls into none of those categories and takes strong issue with several of these groups of historians. What Prange sees above all else in the attack on Pearl Harbor is the professional skill, daring, imagination and dedication of the Japanese officers who conceived and carried through the most difficult and immediately successful naval operation in history. His original intention was to write only about the Japanese side and to present the participants as distinctive human beings, not faceless stereotypes. He began thinking of the project while serving as an officer in the American Naval Reserve during World War II, and he commenced intensive work in Japan, where from 1946 to 1951 he was a historian with Gen. Douglas MacArthur's headquarters. He interviewed virtually all the important surviving Japanese naval participants and in the process became intellectually and psychologically at one with them. This accounts for the power of the book and for its unusual perspective.

In 1953, back in the United States at the University of Maryland as a professor of history, Prange signed the contract for this book. The years went by. He decided to deal with the American as well as the Japanese side; he interviewed hundreds more people, read millions of pages of documents, and his manuscript grew to 12,000 typescript pages. His explanations to his publisher of how much he had done and why the book was not yet ready are themselves almost long enough to make a book. On the publisher's side there must have been a temptation to abandon the project in frustration. In May 1980 Prange died. Two former students agreed to reduce the manuscript and fashion the present volume, and it is a Herculean editorial achievement.

Mr. Prange demolishes the conspiracy theory as others have done before him. Roosevelt and his advisers knew by November 1941 that war with Japan was likely. They wanted to buy as much time as possible, but were unwilling to abandon support for China, Japan's victim in the war raging since 1937, or to give Japan the petroleum and other resources for waging war. But, as Prange shows, they did not have substantial evidence of an attack on Pearl Harbor. The fragments of intelligence data pointing in that direction were misinterpreted and mishandled through human error. But even if these fragments had been properly understood and acted upon, the Japanese attack would still have taken place. The Japanese would have encountered the resistance and suffered the losses they had anticipated, instead of escaping almost unscathed in the short run. One might compare the Pearl Harbor situation to a hypothetical major California earthquake at some point in the future. The early warnings will be detected, but the exact location and date will be unknowable. The quake will do terrible damage. People will be caught asleep. Afterward there will be recriminations. The authorities knew there would be a quake. Why did they not warn the people? Perhaps they were involved in a conspiracy of concealment.

The author also finds the conspiracy theory repugnant because he believes it demeans the Japanese, who were far too headstrong and shrewd to be anyone's pawns. He reveals how the Pearl Harbor concept originated in the mind of Adm. Isoroku Yamamoto, Commander in Chief of the Japanese combined fleet, in the spring of 1940; how it was perfected by a group of the admiral's disciples, most notably the aviation expert Comdr. Minoru Genda; how it was tested in war-gaming rooms; how it was accepted by the Naval General Staff only after Yamamoto threatened to resign; and how weapons, men and ships were prepared in secret and with arduous training. The author refutes the American view of Yamamoto as a bloodthirsty monster, and shows him to be a thoughtful man who doubted Japan's ability to defeat the United States. But the admiral believed that, since war had become inevitable through the actions of the two Governments, the Pearl Harbor attack offered the Japanese their only chance of success.

The strategy was designed to cripple the American fleet and thus protect the Japanese forces during their drive through the Philippines, Malaya and the Netherlands East Indies. Nothing short of complete and unthinkable capitulation by the United States to Japan's expansionist demands would have stopped the attack. Here Mr. Prange makes clear his disagreement with those who think war could have been prevented by lesser American concessions. He does note that the plan, however brilliant, was fatally flawed by the assumption, held more through hope than conviction, that the blow to Pearl Harbor would destroy American morale as well as ships and lead the United States to sue for an early peace.

But Prange's awareness of this flaw does not dim his enthusiasm for the Japanese military achievement. Suspense builds chapter by chapter as the fleet avoids detection and approaches Pearl Harbor. The planes are launched. Surprise is complete. So thorough is Prange's immersion in the Japanese point of view that he even conveys a feeling of disappointment that Adm. Chuichi Nagumo, the officer commanding the force on the scene, was too cautious to launch a second attack, which could have destroyed vital American fuel reserves and shore facilities.

Prange's exhaustive interviews of people on both sides enable him to tell the story in such personal terms that the reader is bound to feel its power. His descriptions of the Japanese officers are vivid and memorable, but so are those of many of the Americans. At the very beginning of the book he sets up the coming attack almost in the way of an epic poet, comparing Admiral Yamamoto and Admiral Kimmel: ''Both were small-town boys. Each had graduated from his country's naval academy in 1904.... Each gathered to himself a staff of exceptional capability, taking these men into his complete confidence and treating them like a family. Each encouraged individual initiative in his officers, disliked yes-men, and was always ready to hear both sides of a question. Each gave his staff intense loyalty and in return gained a devotion which withstood every pressure and bridged the years with a span of steel. Above all, each was a patriot and a sailor's sailor down to the last drop of his blood. And each admiral had a summer-lightning temper.''

But Prange has also a definite gift for reporting a story. During the air attack on Pearl Harbor, he writes, Lieut. Fusato Iida ''drilled the station armory and swooped down just as an aviation ordnanceman named Sands stepped out the side door and got off a burst with a BAR (Browning Automatic Rifle). A sailor of the old school, he called to his mates in the armory, 'Hand me another BAR!' ... As Iida moved in for the kill, the defiant sailor 'emptied another clip' and escaped Iida's bullets which 'pockmarked the wall of the building.' Iida appeared to break off the unequal duel ... but as he did so, a spray of gasoline began to flow from his plane, and he 'headed directly back to the armory.' ... A sailor saw him returning and, evidently considering Iida Sands's particular pigeon, shouted, 'Hey, Sands! That sonofabitch is coming back!' Sands grabbed a rifle; Iida roared straight at him. Ignoring the bullets splattering around him, Sands 'emptied the rifle at the roaring Zero.' ... The Zero crashed into a road winding up a round, flat-topped hill and struck the pavement about five feet below one of the married officers' quarters, 'skidded across and piled up the embankment at the opposite side.' The impact ripped out the engine, turned the plane upside down, and shattered Iida's body to pieces.'' It is impossible to forget such an account; there are many like it in this book, told in the words of those who were there.

''At Dawn We Slept'' adds some details to what was previously known about the American side and includes a useful if anticlimactic appraisal of the many American investigations into what happened, but here the main outlines of a familiar story remain unchanged. Failures of imagination, excessive adherence to routine, bad coordination and communication between Washington and Pearl Harbor and between Army and Navy, and bad luck contributed to the debacle. Almost everyone involved must share some of the blame, though almost all were hardworking men doing their best within their own limitations and the limitations of the system.

Prange is sympathetic in his criticism, but his conclusion is clear, if not comforting. In a summary chapter called ''The Verdict of History,'' Prange analyzes carefully what the American military commanders knew at the time of the attack and how they misunderstood what they knew. These failures to realize ''at all levels'' what their intelligence information really might have meant ''have a common denominator - the gap between knowledge of possible danger and belief in its existence,'' he writes, ''... yet it would be a mistake of the first magnitude to credit the success of the Pearl Harbor operation solely to American errors. We have seen how meticulously the Japanese perfected their planning; how diligently they trained their pilots and bombadiers; how they modified weapons to achieve maximum damage; how persistently they dredged up and utilized information about the U.S. Pacific Fleet. They balked at no hazard, ready to risk a wild leap to achieve their immediate ends.'' In other words, when Americans argue about placing blame for Pearl Harbor they should recognize that the enemy was real, and, in Prange's view, first class.

12/06/41 - The day before.....

2011-12-06T06:25:00.002-05:00

The day before....12/06/41.

Most on Hawaii were enjoying a beautiful Saturday in Paradise.

The world was going to change for all very soon. They just weren't aware of the Japanese task force bearing down on the Islands.

More on what occurred later on....today is a work day and I won't be able to blog more until this evening. Earning a paycheck and all that. You understand.

Bending up the Carbon Fiber Super Cars, Japan style.

2011-12-05T18:33:00.005-05:00

When you think about it, it looks like some Japanese drivers tried to replicate NASCAR with disasterous results....They bent up their expensive cars like they were out on the back stretch of Daytona.

Domo arigato ! or not.....

The £2.5million motorway smash involving 8 Ferraris, 3 Mercedes, a Lamborghini, a Skyline and a humble Toyota Prius (which was in the wrong place at the wrong time)
By Daily Mail Reporter
5th December 2011

Thirteen high-end sports car owners - and one driver of a Toyota Prius - were probably close to tears last night after a £2.5million motorway pile-up.

A single miscalculation from a Ferrari driver leading a convoy of sports car connoisseurs left a trail of twisted Italian and German metal trailing across this motorway in Japan.

Ten people were rushed to hospital after the smash on the Chugoku Expressway in Shimonoseki, Yamaguchi Prefecture, yesterday afternoon, but none of their injuries were said to be serious.

But the damage to their wallets may be far more grievous. Among the wrecked vehicles were eight Ferraris, three Mercedes, a Lamborghini, and a Skyline, as well as a Prius hybrid that was simply in the wrong place at the wrong time.

Police said the accident occurred on an uphill curve when the 60-year-old driver of the Ferrari leading the pack lost control while trying to overtake another vehicle.

The trailing cars then proceeded to crash one by one, with the ensuing carnage closing down the express way for six hours while emergency services cleared up the mess.

The cars involved in the epic smash included at least two Ferrari F430s, two Ferrari 360 Modenas, two Ferrari F355s and a Lamborghini Diablo.

There was also a Nissan Skyline GT-R - the only current Japanese supercar - and two Mercedes Benz, while the cheapest involved in the crash was the Toyota Prius hybrid.

Sports Nippon estimates the value of the vehicles to be 300million yen (£2.5million).

A view of America 70 years ago....Just before it all changed

2011-12-04T15:46:00.005-05:00

70 years ago, we were a much simpler country emerging from the shadow of the Great Depression. We were much more isolated, safe in our country and continent being insulated from trouble in other areas of the world by two oceans.

Take a peek at this incredible view into what our country looked like back then...just before everything changed on 12/07/1941.

Click on the link below.

http://blogs.denverpost.com/captured/2011/11/03/captured-the-color-landscape-of-the-depression-era/5064/

Everything's amazing and nobody's happy...

2011-12-04T09:57:00.003-05:00

A dose of reality for those in our society who need it. Yes, we have serious issues in our country but we also benefit from technology more than anyone can imagine. Our issues are man-made and we can fix them. Leadership like we got from Harry Truman, Winston Churchill and Ike would be helpful instead of the charlatan in the White House or the other POLs that claim to be able to do the job.

I want us to keep working to do better and maybe every once in a while, it is good to stop and appreciate all we are blessed with in our lives.

A Good Question....

2011-12-03T15:06:00.002-05:00

The Vacationer-in-Chief takes off for Christmas while lecturing Congress to stay in Washington DC and work.

2011-12-03T08:17:00.010-05:00

What a Hypocrite. President Obama has once again proven that he has no care for what he does, or how it effects the voters.

Let's clarify this with the definition of Hypocrisy as it is the main issue with our do nothing leader.

Hypocrisy is the state of pretending to have virtues, moral or religious beliefs, principles, etc., that one does not actually have. Hypocrisy involves the deception of others and is thus a kind of lie.

Hypocrisy is not simply failing to practice those virtues that one preaches.

It should be no surprise that the " Vacationer-in-Chief" is the king of all Hypocrites. As demonstrated by him on multiple occasions, and most recently yesterday:

Friday, President Obama reacted to the Senate’s failure to pass his gimmicky Payroll Tax Cut Extension:

“We need to get this done. And I expect that it’s going to get done before Congress leaves. Otherwise, Congress may not be leaving and we can all spend Christmas here together.”

Apparently, Congress will be adjourning to Hawaii, because the White House announced tonight that Barack Obama will take a 17 day vacation in Hawaii over the holidays.

THE WHITE HOUSE TRAVEL OFFICE

Trip of the President to

Honolulu, Hawaii

December 17th, 2011 to January 2nd, 2012

Trip Overview

On Saturday, December 17th, 2011, the President will travel to Honolulu, Hawaii. He will return to Washington, DC on Monday, January 2nd, 2012. ...

...no public events are scheduled during the trip. ...

They made the announcement on a Friday when people pay little attention to the news. He and Congress should both stay & work out the issues we have as they all have too much time off. While all should have time off at the holidays, 17 days is excessive and too many people are out of work. This type of egregious abuse of time off is exactly what is wrong with government. It demonstrates a complete lack of understanding for " leadership by example", a concept that has no meaning in the White House. How many in our country could take 17 days off at the holidays ? Not many and that is a clear indicator of how clueless Obama is as he exists in a world where rules and normal expectations are for others. His abuse of time off is as bad as those who ask for a government bail out but still take massive bonuses for failing.

For anyone to continue to support this charlatan is folly. He is a poser, and a sanctimonious one at that. The American people need to send him & his ilk back to Chicago. We need real leadership and all we get from the White House are lies, lies and more damned lies.

The citizens of Hawaii will have to endure having him there and the sooner he is ousted in next year's election, the sooner we can get our country back on track.

Retired naval commander going all-out to feed hungry children in Maine

2011-12-02T07:44:00.004-05:00

I had the pleasure of serving with LCDR Bloom as she was our XO at the USS Constitution when I served there in 1997 & 1998 for the Bicentennial Celebration.

It's great to see she is continuing to serve those in need especially hungry kids.
Her website is http://www.end68hoursofhunger.org/

Please help her and the kids she serves.

Retired naval commander going all-out to feed hungry Seacoast children
Foster's daily Democrat - Maine

After retirement – What comes next?

For one retired officer, "next" means helping hungry children.

LCDR Claire Bloom retired from the Navy in 1998 from the USS Constitution, following which she started her own business teaching internet based courses to help students all over the world become certified in Integrated Resource Management.

More recently, however, she has a whole new gig.

In October 2010, at a women's book group meeting while discussing a book set in a highly impoverished area, a member of the group, who was also a teacher at a local elementary school, made the comment that she had children in her classroom who from the time they finished their free lunch on Friday, until the time they had their free breakfast on Monday, had nothing to eat.

Bloom decided at that very moment that she could not sit back and do nothing about this tragedy which existed right in her our own community, so after the holidays she contacted the local school superintendent's office and spoke with the homeless coordinator for the school system.

That person was able to point Bloom towards a number of national programs designed to eliminate this kind of weekend hunger. Bloom chose a plan based on a model used successfully all around the nation to get backpacks with non-perishable food in them to select children at the end of the school day on Friday.

The children would take the food home to eat during the weekend, and bring the empty backpack back to school on Monday, and it would be refilled for the following week.

It took her four and a half months to get her application for a 501 (c) (3) (Not for Profit) program approved by the IRS, and so in the middle of May 2011 she started working on the substance of the program.

The initial funding was her own and her husband's, but her first stop was the local branch of Bank of America, where she was welcomed wholeheartedly, and given a free checking account, checks, ten duffle bags, and her first team of volunteers as well as some guidance on applying for a grant from Bank of America.

Her second stop was Atlantic Mini Storage where she was offered a 10' x 30' storage unit with 24 hour access, a $2030 “in kind” contribution.

With a checking account and a place to store food and pack backpacks, she contacted Target and was given $250 in storage bins for the food, and Home Depot where she was given $75 in shelving.

Then came volunteer training where her first three teams were trained.

Her own church, St. John's United Methodist Church, discussed the project at a church council meeting and agreed to host a food drive every Sunday. the results of which would be divided between this project and the local Food Pantry. The church also agreed to sponsor a volunteer team as well. Thus far each week she has received enough food for two or three backpacks.

Her son's company, Newmarket International, agreed to sponsor a fundraising drive, so she picked up all the backpacks that the superintendent's office had and the Bank of America duffle bags, and took them all to Newmarket.

The employees filled 57 backpacks with food from the on line shopping list, and donated $750 through a raffle and direct contributions. They also agreed to be her third volunteer team.

Through a contact at Newmarket she was contacted by Prime North Acura, and they held a customer food drive in October and agreed to put together “goodie bags” for Halloween, for the December Vacation, and for the spring vacation, which will be added to the food in the backpacks.

She contacted all the local churches, and one invited her to share their booth at a local street fair. Since it costs approximately $500 per year to feed one child, she also invited individual sponsorship of either a week or a child.

The fourth team came from a local political group, and the fifth for those rare months in which there are five weeks from a church youth group.

The children enrolled in the program are identified by the guidance counselors and nurses at the three elementary schools, their parents are contacted and their agreement to their child's participation is secured, and the children are told what to expect all through the school system.

Neither Bloom nor her volunteers ever have any contact with any of these children. The program is totally anonymous.

Additional funding came from Liberty Mutual, the Walmart Foundation, and two local car dealerships.

The next challenge will be how to feed these children during school vacations.

The volunteer teams collect empty backpacks from the schools on Mondays, fill them, and deliver them back to the three elementary schools. She started with 26 children in the program and within one month the program had increased to 49 children.

A recent article about a similar program indicated that the first year the program started with 30 students, just as this one is. The next year there were 350 students enrolled.

She has already been contacted by two other towns about how they can capitalize on what she is doing. Since she already has the domain name, the website, the 501 (c)(3), the email address, the phone number, the mail box, the storage unit, and liability insurance a nearby town can join in quite easily with their own volunteers and additional contributions of funds and food.

Children who are hungry on the weekends probably exist in your own communities, and the organizational skills we learned in our military careers can help us all to help them. Together we can eliminate this challenge faced by young children through no fault of their own!

For more information, you can check out her program at http://www.end68hoursofhunger.org/

Even the bravest warriors have issues - More Military Dogs Show Signs of Combat Stress

2011-12-01T13:39:00.003-05:00

Our 4-legged Warriors do it all for their troops, with a wagging tail and a smile. But even the hardiest of our K-9 buddies can have issues after repeated exposure to the horror of war. I am glad to see that the military recognizes the issue and is compassionate to our military dogs. In less enlightened times, the dog would have likely been put down.

I salute our 4-legged soldiers for all that they do. They save lives.

The least we can do is support them when they need it. Semper Fidos.

More Military Dogs Show Signs of Combat Stress
By JAMES DAO / NY Times
Published: December 1, 2011

SAN ANTONIO — The call came into the behavior specialists here from a doctor in Afghanistan. His patient had just been through a firefight and now was cowering under a cot, refusing to come out.

Apparently even the chew toys hadn’t worked.

Post-traumatic stress disorder, thought Dr. Walter F. Burghardt Jr., chief of behavioral medicine at the Daniel E. Holland Military Working Dog Hospital at Lackland Air Force Base. Specifically, canine PTSD.

If anyone needed evidence of the frontline role played by dogs in war these days, here is the latest: the four-legged, wet-nosed troops used to sniff out mines, track down enemy fighters and clear buildings are struggling with the mental strains of combat nearly as much as their human counterparts.

By some estimates, more than 5 percent of the approximately 650 military dogs deployed by American combat forces are coming down with canine PTSD. Of those, about half are likely to be retired from service, Dr. Burghardt said.

Though veterinarians have long diagnosed behavioral problems in animals, the concept of canine PTSD is only about 18 months old, having come into vogue among military veterinarians who have been seeing patterns of troubling behavior among dogs exposed to explosions, gunfire and other combat-related violence in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Like humans with the analogous disorder, different dogs show different symptoms. Some become hyper-vigilant. Others avoid buildings or work areas that they had previously been comfortable in. Some undergo sharp changes in temperament, becoming unusually aggressive with their handlers, or clingy and timid. Most crucially, many stop doing the tasks they were trained to perform.

“If the dog is trained to find improvised explosives and it looks like it’s working, but isn’t, it’s not just the dog that’s at risk,” Dr. Burghardt said. “This is a human health issue as well.”

That the military is taking a serious interest in canine PTSD underscores the importance of working dogs in the current wars. Once used primarily as furry sentries, military dogs — most are German shepherds, followed by Belgian Malinois and Labrador retrievers — have branched out into an array of specialized tasks.

They are widely considered the most effective tools for detecting the improvised explosive devices, or I.E.D.’s, frequently used in Afghanistan. Typically made from fertilizer and chemicals, and containing little or no metal, those buried bombs can be nearly impossible to find with standard mine-sweeping instruments. In the past three years, I.E.D.’s have become the major cause of casualties in Afghanistan.

The Marine Corps also has begun using specially trained dogs to track Taliban fighters and bomb-makers. And Special Operations commandos train their own dogs to accompany elite teams on secret missions — the best-known instance, the Navy SEAL raid that led to the killing of Osama bin Laden in Pakistan. Across all the forces, more than 50 military dogs have been killed since 2005.

The number of working dogs on active duty has risen to 2,700, from 1,800 in 2001, and the training school headquartered here at Lackland has gotten busy, preparing about 500 dogs a year. So has the Holland hospital, the Pentagon’s canine version of Walter Reed Army Medical Center.

Dr. Burghardt, a lanky 59-year-old who retired last year from the Air Force as a colonel, rarely sees his PTSD patients in the flesh. Consultations with veterinarians in the field are generally done by phone, e-mail or Skype, and often involve video documentation.

In a series of videos that Dr. Burghardt uses to train veterinarians to spot canine PTSD, one shepherd barks wildly at the sound of gunfire that it had once tolerated in silence. Another can be seen confidently inspecting the interior of cars but then refusing to go inside a bus or a building. Another sits listlessly on a barrier wall, then after finally responding to its handler’s summons, runs away from a group of Afghan soldiers.

In each case, Dr. Burghardt theorizes, the dogs were using an object, vehicle or person as a “cue” for some violence they had witnessed. “If you want to put doggy thoughts into their heads,” he said, “the dog is thinking: when I see this kind of individual, things go boom, and I’m distressed.”

Treatment can be tricky. Since the patient cannot explain what is wrong, veterinarians and handlers must make educated guesses about the traumatizing events. Care can be as simple as taking a dog off patrol and giving it lots of exercise, play time and gentle obedience training.

More serious cases will receive what Dr. Burghardt calls “desensitization counter-conditioning,” which entails exposing the dog at a safe distance to a sight or sound that might trigger a reaction — a gunshot, a loud bang or a vehicle, for instance. If the dog does not react, it is rewarded, and the trigger — “the spider in a glass box,” Dr. Burghardt calls it — is moved progressively closer until the dog is comfortable with it.

Gina, a shepherd with PTSD who was the subject of news articles last year, was successfully treated with desensitization and has been cleared to deploy again, said Tech Sgt. Amanda Callahan, a spokeswoman at Peterson Air Force Base in Colorado.

Some dogs are also treated with the same medications used to fight panic attacks in humans. Dr. Burghardt asserts that medications seem particularly effective when administered soon after traumatizing events. The Labrador retriever that cowered under a cot after a firefight, for instance, was given Xanax, an anti-anxiety drug, and within days was working well again.

Dogs that do not recover quickly are returned to their home bases for longer-term treatment. But if they continue to show symptoms after three months, they are usually retired or transferred to different duties, Dr. Burghardt said.

As with humans, there is much debate about treatment, with little research yet to guide veterinarians. Lee Charles Kelley, a dog trainer who writes a blog for Psychology Today called “My Puppy, My Self,” says medications should be used only as a stopgap. “We don’t even know how they work in people,” he said.

In the civilian dog world, a growing number of animal behaviorists seem to be endorsing the concept of canine PTSD, saying it also affects household pets who experience car accidents and even less traumatic events.

Nicholas H. Dodman, director of the animal behavior clinic at the Cummings School of Veterinary Medicine at Tuft University, said he had written about and treated dogs with PTSD-like symptoms for years — but did not call it PTSD until recently. Asked if the disorder could be cured, Dr. Dodman said probably not.

“It is more management,” he said. “Dogs never forget.”

Holidays come early for RED SOX fans

2011-12-01T07:55:00.004-05:00

Valentine's Day came early for Boston Red Sox fans....Training camp will be opening in about 75 days or so....Like most years, 2012 will be an interesting year for the faithful fans of Fenway. Red Sox baseball can wait a few months as the team needs to do some rebuilding with the fans...Like any other season, high hopes are on the horizon.

For now, let's cheer on the New England Patriots and the Boston Bruins...They deserve their time in the sun, and Baseball will be back in Spring.

The Lads from Top Gear Take 10 Downing Street

2011-11-30T07:25:00.005-05:00

Well, not exactly "take" 10 Downing Street....they used the residence of the British Prime Minister as a backdrop for filming a Top Gear Challenge. Jeremy Clarkson and British Prime Minister David Cameron are friends and it was all done to highlight British Goods via a road trip to India for the Top Gear Boffins.

The US version of Top Gear was dreadful and the presenters they had could not replicate the chemistry that goes on between Clarkson, Hammond and May.

Can't wait until this episode shows up on BBC America. They are Brilliant.

Don't mind us Prime Minister: Jeremy Clarkson and crew films Top Gear's Christmas special... outside Number 10
By Amy Oliver UK Mail
29th November 2011

Those worried that Jeremy Clarkson has designs on Number 10 and a new career in politics shouldn't panic.

The 51-year-old presenter was only outside the Prime Minister's residence today to shoot scenes for the Top Gear Christmas special.
He was joined by fellow presenters James May, 48, and Richard Hammond, 41.

All were tight-lipped about the reason for their visit and a BBC spokesman refused to confirm or deny whether David Cameron is likely to star in the 90-minute show. They had to stop filming when Mr Cameron emerged from Number 10 to go to hear George Osborne's Autumn Statement.

Clarkson is a friend of the Prime Minister and the pair exchanged a few words before Mr Cameron was driven away.

They had to stop a second time because of a news helicopter hoping to film Mr Cameron's journey, that was hovering overhead.

The Top Gear trio journey to India this year in yet another epic adventure that sees them try to fix Britain's economy through trade promotion.

The show's producer Andy Wilman, today explained on the Top Gear blog that the team were trying to assist Mr Cameron, who a few months ago, said Britain must become a favoured trading partner of India.

'Top Gear, we thought, could help solve this problem with a trade mission, flying the flag for UKPLC,' Wilman wrote.

'Our plan was to drive across India, drumming up interest in British goods, advertising the peerless standards of British skills, British nous, British Britishness.

'We would make the Indians think: “No, we shall not buy mayonnaise from Belgium, but Angel Delight and Kendal Mint Cake from the British."'The three men were given a rather handsome budget of £7,000 each to purchase a car that would not only get them from one end of India to the other, but also represent dear old Blighty.

Clarkson chose a 1995 Celebration edition Jaguar XJS 4.0 litre, while Hammond purchased a classic Mini Cooper.Meanwhile May decided he wanted a Rolls-Royce, but had to make do with a 1976 Rolls-Royce Shadow.

They started in Mumbai before driving North through Delhi and into the Himalayas.

Whether all three motors made it to 14,000 feet is unknown.
'You'll just have to tune in to find out,' the BBC spokesman said.

All three presenters say they are recognised in countries around the world, but Hammond insists they never set out to make such a popular show.

Speaking to the Huffington Post he said: 'All we set out to do ten years ago was make the best car show we possibly could. The minute we start trying to contrive it to be something else, I'm sure it will stop working.'

And of the unique chemistry between the threesome he added: 'It's never changed. From day one, if Jeremy crashes into something, I will laugh, and I expect him to in return. You couldn't fake it, people would soon suss us out.

Sorry OWS, they've been busy protecting your freedom

2011-11-29T07:43:00.004-05:00

To the OWS crowd, the media and their political allies - While OWS has been causing trouble for the citizens of our cities, having no impact on the 1% they protest, driving up overtime costs on our taxpayers and making a general health hazard/crime issues for all, others were busy providing all with FREEDOM.

Of course, that isn't as "trendy" as camping out in the city and protesting. After all, who wants to be reminded that while OWS whines about the need for others to pay their bills, our military pays for their freedom each and every day.

Remember that while we sit home safe, others risk all to provide that freedom. They are the true 1% as they represent the BEST our country has to offer.

Marines and Dogs.....Semper Fidos

2011-11-29T06:46:00.006-05:00

Marines love Dogs. The USMC are the best fighting force devised by man but most of them have a real soft spot when it comes to our 4 legged friends.

Case in point - A small puppy wandered up to U.S. Marines from Alpha Company, 1st Battalion 6th Marines, in Marjah, Afghanistan. After following the Marines numerous miles, a soft hearted Marine picked the puppy up and carried the puppy in his drop pouch.

I can understand and while it is against regulations for the Marine to have the puppy, Command turns a blind eye to this as at places like Marjah, having a dog there provides both security and something to give the Marines a touch of home.

Caring for a small pup gives each Marine in that Battalion something to warm their heart. To see the caring this pup will get shows that our Marines care for those who need them the most.

Semper Fidos to the U.S. Marines from Alpha Company, 1st Battalion 6th Marines, in Marjah, Afghanistan. Take care of that pup.