Journalist @baltimoresun writer artist runner #amwriting Chaplain PIO #partylikeajournalist

Journalist @baltimoresun writer artist runner #amwriting Chaplain PIO #partylikeajournalist
Journalist @baltimoresun writer artist runner #amwriting Md Troopers Assoc #20 & Westminster Md Fire Dept Chaplain PIO #partylikeajournalist

Friday, January 05, 2007

20070105 28 GOP Congressman say send trained Iraqi Units to Baghdad

Rep. Roscoe Bartlett 1 of 28 Republican Members Who Encourage President Bush to Send Trained Iraqi Army Units to Baghdad

Rep. Roscoe Bartlett was one of twenty-eight Republican Members of Congress sent the following letter to President Bush today, encouraging him to move "the 21 Iraqi battalions which are trained and equipped, and which are located in peaceful provinces, into the fight in Baghdad."

January 5, 2007

The Honorable George W. Bush
The White House

Washington, D.C.


Dear Mr. President:


On the eve of your decision regarding an adjusted policy on Iraq, please allow us to, as strongly as possible, make the case for moving the 21 Iraqi battalions which are trained and equipped, and which are located in peaceful provinces, into the fight in Baghdad.

Presently, eight of the 18 Iraq provinces experience less than one attack per day.

Their description follows:

Province - Attacks/day - (Iraqi Battalions)

Maysan <1>(3)

Dhi Qar <1>(3)

Muthanna <1>(3)

An-Najaf <1>(0)

Karbala <1>(3)

Sulamaniyah <1>(3)

Irbil <1>(6)

Dahuk <1>(0)

The key to establishing an adequate security apparatus in any new nation is developing operational capability in military forces. The way to develop mature Iraqi forces is to move all of them into the fight.

This logical move should be non-negotiable. The Iraq Ministry of Defense (MOD) can make this happen by simply issuing the order, as any defense ministry does, to the relevant Battalion or Brigade Commanders. If the direct order is disobeyed, the Iraqi officers who won't go should be replaced with ones who will obey.

Mr. President, this requirement of Iraq sending all its battalions into the fight should not be finessed or deflected by the MOD. It should be an absolute U.S. requirement, made as it is against the backdrop of the enormous U.S. effort which has brought the new Iraq government into existence.

Sincerely,

Duncan Hunter (R-CA); Todd Akin (R-MO); Rodney Alexander (R-LA); Roscoe Bartlett (R-MD); Charles Boustany (R-LA); Dan Burton (R-IN); Steve Buyer (R-IN); Geoff Davis (R-KY); Thelma Drake (R-VA); Jo Ann Emerson (R-MO); Terry Everett (R-AL); Randy Forbes (R-VA); Jeff Fortenberry (R-NE); Trent Franks (R-AZ); Phil Gingrey (R-GA); Sam Graves (R-MO); Wally Herger (R-CA); Frank LoBiondo (R-NJ); Michael McCaul (R-TX); Candice Miller (R-MI); Jim Ramstad (R-MN); Rick Renzi (R-AZ); Dana Rohrbacher (R-CA); Jim Saxton (R-NJ); Bill Shuster (R-PA); Joe Wilson (R-SC); Zack Wamp (R-TN); Bill Young (R-FL)

Cc: The Honorable Robert Gates

20070105 MySpace helps nab a couple more idiots


MySpace helps nab a couple more idiots

January 5th, 2007

According to a Maryland State Police press release, MySpace has helped nap a couple more idiots.

Like moths to the flame, the social networking web site has turned out to be quite helpful in calling to our attention the totally idiotic behavior of some folks who feel their behavior is beyond consequences.

Unbelievable. Can anyone provide any insight as to what may have been through the minds of these folks, that would cause them to give drugs to a twelve-year old, much think that they could get away with it?

KENT COUNTY COUPLE ARRESTED AFTER MYSPACE ENTRY DISCOVERED

http://www.mdsp.org/Media/press_release_details.asp?identifier=372

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE January 5, 2007

Kent County Couple Arrested After MySpace Entry Discovered

(Galena, MD) - Maryland State Police from the Centreville Barrack have arrested a Galena couple in connection with child abuse charges and a drug investigation which surfaced after a juvenile family members “MySpace forum entry was read.

The accused are identified as Richard Lesley Bland, 29, of the 32700-block of Galena Sassafras Road, Galena, Maryland, and Diana May Bland, 23, of the same address. They have been charged with two counts of child abuse and one count of contributing to delinquent conditions of a minor child.

The 12 year old victim had traveled to Maryland from Florida to visit her father, Richard Bland, and step-mother, Diana Bland, for the holidays. During her stay, the victim was allegedly given cocaine and marijuana on a number of occasions by both Richard and Diana Bland. After she returned to Florida, she wrote about the drug usage on MySpace and then told her mother about the incident.

Her mother contacted the Maryland State Police, who immediately initiated an investigation with the Kent County Department of Social Services and the Kent County Narcotics Task Force. After troopers interviewed the child and gathered more details of abuse during her ten day stay, investigators applied for a warrant. Early Friday morning, troopers from the Centreville Barrack and deputies from the Kent County Sheriff’s Office served a search and seizure warrant on the residence and took Robert and Diana Bland into custody.

The suspects were taken before a District Court commissioner for bond hearings. Richard Bland was held on a $10,000.00 bond and Diana Bland was held on a $3,000.00 bond. The other four minor children in the home at the time of the alleged drug activity have been taken into protective care by the Kent County Department of Child Protective Services.

The investigation is continuing. The victim’s identity will not be released due to the minor’s age.

####

20070103 Carroll County State of the county address next Thursday

Carroll County State of the county address next Thursday

January 4th, 2006

The Carroll County commissioners will delivery their state of the county addresses next Thursday, January 11th, 2007, 12 o’clock – noon, at Martin's Westminster, 505 Jermor Lane in Westminster.

The annual event is put on by the Carroll County Chamber of Commerce.

For a previous post on “Soundtrack” that includes some history of the Carroll County Chamber of Commerce, go here. Or go here.

This year’s event is sponsored by the Bank of Hanover and the cost is $25.00 per person.

To make a reservation, please call the Chamber office at 410-848-9050 or fax your reservation to 410-876-1023. Cancellations accepted 48 hrs. prior to event.

For more information from the Carroll County Chamber of Commerce – go here.

Meanwhile, Kelsey Volkmann, writing or the Baltimore Examiner, published a preview of this tear’s state of the county address:

Politics: State of county address to focus on water, faster Internet access

Kelsey Volkmann, The Examiner

Read more by Kelsey Volkmann

Jan 3, 2007 3:00 AM

Carroll County - The Carroll County Chamber of Commerce expects commissioners to focus on securing water sources and expanding high-speed Internet access during their state of the county address.

“Each commissioner gives a talk on where they see the county today, where it’s going, and then there is a question-and-answer section,” said Richard Haddad, president of the chamber, which has been hosting the addresses for at least three decades.

Read the rest of her article here.

####

20070104 Congressman Bartlett Introduces 14 Bills at Start of 110th Congress


Congressman Roscoe Bartlett Introduces 14 Bills at Start of 110th Congress, Recognizes Historic First Woman Speaker

January 4, 2007

WASHINGTON, D.C. – On the first day of the 110th Congress, Congressman Roscoe Bartlett said that, “America is the greatest country in the world and every first day of every new Congress we set a new world record.

We are blessed to have a federal government that is the world’s longest continuously operating constitutional republic.

2007 marks the 15th year that I will have the honor to serve more than 660,000 residents of the Sixth District of Maryland as their representative in the Congress.

I have introduced fourteen bills and I look forward to advancing them and three priority issues: ethical embryonic stem cell research, energy, and electro-magnetic pulse (EMP).

Marylanders should be very proud that Nancy Pelosi has become the first woman Speaker of the House of Representatives in our nation’s history.”

Energy

Peak Oil Resolution - Reintroduction of H. Res 507 that expresses the sense of the House of Representatives that the United States, in collaboration with other international allies, should establish an energy project with the magnitude, creativity, and sense of urgency that was incorporated in the ‘‘Man on the Moon’’ project address the inevitable challenges of ‘‘Peak Oil’’.

Energy Farm Bill – Reintroduction of H. R. 5925 to support federal research, development, demonstration, and commercial application activities to enable the development of farms that are net producers of both food and energy.

Expanded Tax Credit for Hybrid Vehicles – Introduced a new bill to increase

from 60,000 to 250,000 the annual limit on vehicles, such as hybrids, eligible for the alternative motor vehicle tax credit.

Stem Cell Research

Congressman Bartlett’s bill H.R. 5526, the Alternative Pluripotent Stem Cell Therapies Enhancement Act. Pluripotent stem cells are cells which can specialize into any bodily tissue, but cannot themselves develop into a human being. The Bartlett bill would accelerate federal research on pluripotent stem cells without harming human embryos. It was the most popular pluripotent stem cell bill -- supported by 100 Senators and 273 House members as well as the President during the 109th Congress. It did not become law because of parliamentary procedures. Under the Rules Package of the new Democratic leadership of the House, no debate and no vote will be permitted about any alternatives when the House votes next week on the reintroduction of H.R. 810, the Castle-DeGette stem cell bill.

Defense and Homeland Security

Improving National Capital Area Homeland Defense – Reintroduction of H.R. 44 to evaluate the definition of the National Capital Region used by the Department of Homeland Security to determine whether the definition should be modified to include additional jurisdictions in the States of Maryland and Virginia along Interstate Routes 270, 95, and 66.

Enhanced and Modernized GI Benefits - Reintroduction of H.R. 3625, the Bartlett Montgomery GI Bill, to encourage servicemembers to re-enlist, support military families and provide more realistic rates of educational costs for higher learning by permitting servicemembers to transfer unused GI education benefits to their spouses or children.

Immigration Reform

American Child Support Enforcement Immigration Act – Reintroduction of H.R. 5977 to deny family classification petitions for new spouses or dependents filed by an individual who owes child support.

Protecting the Health and Life of Pregnant Women and Children

Holly’s Law, the “RU-486 Suspension and Review Act Suspension of RU-486” – Reintroduction of H.R. 1079 to suspend FDA approval of the drug and send it back for review in light of its link to the deaths of five American women and serious injuries to more than 840. If a review finds that the FDA violated its own rules the suspension of RU-486 would be indefinite.

Tax Reform

Move Income Tax Filing Day - Reintroduction of H.R. 442 to move the deadline for filing federal income-tax returns, from April 15 to the first Monday in November —the day before Election Day to strengthen the link between the politicians we elect and the taxes we pay.

Campaign Reform

First Amendment Restoration Act – Reintroduction of H. R. 689, to restore Americans’ First Amendment rights by repealing a provision in the Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act of 2002 which prohibits labor unions and corporations (including non-profits) from sponsoring non-PAC-funded broadcast advertisements that include any references to federal candidates during the 30 and 60 days before primary and general elections.

Political Convention Reform Act – Reintroduction of H.R. 45 to prohibit the use of taxpayers’ money for political party conventions.

Second Amendment Rights

Citizens' Self-Defense Act – Reintroduction of H. R. 47 to protect the right of law-abiding citizens to obtain firearms for security, and to use firearms in defense of themselves, family, or their home, and to provide for the enforcement of that right.

Honoring America’s History and Heritage

Washington-Lincoln Recognition Act – Reintroduction of H.R. 43 to direct all federal agencies to refer to the federal holiday on the third Monday in February by its legal name, George Washington's Birthday. The bill also calls on the president to issue a proclamation each year recognizing the anniversary of Abraham Lincoln, whose birthday falls on February 12.

National Trails Discovery Act – Reintroduction of H.R. 690 - to authorize an additional category of national trail known as a national discovery trail, to provide special requirements for the establishment and administration of national discovery trails, and to designate the cross-country American Discovery Trail as the first national discovery trail.

Drug Abuse

Powder-Crack Cocaine Penalty Equalization Act – Reintroduction of H.R. 1501 to equalize the penalties for powder cocaine and crack cocaine offenses.

###

Thursday, January 04, 2007

20070102 UN Sec Ban to fill two UN posts this wk with controversy

UN Sec Ban to fill two UN posts this wk with controversy


January 2nd, 2007 – January 4th, 2007


Fox News is carrying an Associated Press article on its web site that indicates that when former United Nations secretary Kofi Annan left the building, we may have gone from the frying pan to the fire.


Add to our woes with the UN is the fact that we no longer have the calibre of individual in former UN ambassador John Bolton to look after our best interests…

New Secretary-General to Fill 2 U.N. Posts This Week, Could Bring Controversy

By Liza Porteus, Tuesday, January 02, 2007

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,240800,00.html

U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon

AP NEW YORK — New Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon is expected to announce his picks for two of the top posts vacant at the United Nations this week, a spokeswoman said Tuesday — and one of those choices could be controversial.

Ban, the former foreign minister of South Korea who started his new job Tuesday, will soon make public his choices for under secretary-general for administration and management and the head of the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.

The administration and management job traditionally has gone to an American, but this time, it could be different.

Press reports over the weekend indicated that Ban might choose Alicia Barcena of Mexico to head up the administration and management office, but that report has not been confirmed. Barcena is the former chief of staff of Secretary-General Kofi Annan, who left that position late last year, making way for Ban.

The appointment of a non-American to the job would be a "disaster" for the U.S.-led effort to reform the U.N., according to one U.N. official.

Read the rest of the article here. Prepare to be annoyed.

For more reading go here: Bolton US Amb to the UN John, UN

####

20070104 Lake Superior St U Seeks to Banish Certain Words

Lake Superior St U Seeks to Banish Certain Words

January 4, 2007

Every year - - for quite a number of years, I have looked forward to this annual pronouncement of the latest in mangled words in the English language.

Oh, to be sure, I am a firm believer that English is very organic, but some its new permutations are simply malignant mutations.

This year I found the annual linguistic analysis in an Associated Press article on the Fox News web site.

In the following article, my “Dr. Pepper” moment was "the chewable vitamin morphine of marketing."

You’ll find it below in describing: “Take ‘ask your doctor,’ the mantra of pharmaceutical commercials. The university called it ‘the chewable vitamin morphine of marketing.’ ”

Portions of the article follows.

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,240484,00.html

Bye-Bye 'Brangelina:' Lake Superior State University Seeks to Banish Certain Words

Monday, January 01, 2007 Associated Press

DETROIT — […]

Lake Superior State University on Sunday released its annual "List of Words and Phrases Banished from the Queen's English for Mis-Use, Over-Use and General Uselessness."

The Sault Ste. Marie school in the Upper Peninsula has been compiling the list since 1976 to attract publicity. A total of 16 words or phrases were selected by a university committee from more than 4,500 nominations.

The list reads like a lexicon of popular culture.

Take "ask your doctor," the mantra of pharmaceutical commercials. The university called it "the chewable vitamin morphine of marketing."

Critics piled on the media's practice of combined celebrity names such as "TomKat" or "Brangelina." One said, "It's so annoying, idiotic and so lame and pathetic that it's 'lamethetic.'"

Real estate listings were targeted for overuse of "boast." As in "master bedroom boasts his-and-her fireplaces — never 'bathroom apologizes for cracked linoleum,'" quipped Morris Conklin of Portugal.

[…]

The university's word watchers had no use for "truthiness," the word popularized by Comedy Central satirist Stephen Colbert. It was selected as the word that best summed up 2006 in an online survey by dictionary publisher Merriam-Webster.

[…]

Read the entire article, as it appeared on the Fox News web site, here.

####

20070103 CNN and the awkwardly placed photo


CNN and the awkwardly (or strategically) placed photo

January 3rd, 2007

I not sure if this is funny or not…

Underneath CNN’s headline, “Officials: Bush 'driving toward' new Iraq plan” is the picture, with the caption, “A roadside bomb hidden in garbage exploded Tuesday in eastern Baghdad and killed three people, police said.”

Okay, moving on now…

Whatever.

Hat Tip: Wonkette: “All Is Forgiven, CNN.com Editors

####

Wednesday, January 03, 2007

20070103 Regarding the “Be the best you can be” post from Nov 27 2006


Regarding the “20061127 Be the best you can be.” post from Nov 27 2006

January 3rd, 2006

The photographer, Lindy Rodman has been in touch…

Meanwhile, Ms. Rodman, pretty please consider putting the video for which you referred in your comment, on YouTube, so that I may post it on my web site?

Oh, the video – find it here: “VIDEO: George Dennehy , Nov 22 2006, 12:10 AM Meet George Dennehy, a 12-year old with no arms, but a huge talent for playing the cello.”

Bring it up in Microsoft Internet Explorer…

Anyway, getting to Ms. Rodman’s comment…

“Lindy Rodman has left a new comment on your post ‘20061127 Be the best you can be.’ ”:

“Thank you for the kind words regarding the George Dennehy photo and story done by Holly and I and published in the Richmond Times-Dispatch. If you get a chance you might want to listen to the video I did in which you can hear George play his cello and say some amazingly thought provoking things. As its only my second attempt at a video its more home-movie than Hollywood but worth the look strictly for the content.”

http://www.timesdispatch.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=RTD/HTMLPage/RTD_HTMLPage&c=HTMLPage&cid=1149191912331#top should take you to it....

The video is good stuff, Ms. Rodman is being modest…

Back to the beginning…

If you will recall the post from November 27th, 2006:

Pictured above: George Dennehy, right, plays first-chair cello at Oak Knoll Middle School in Hanover County, Va.. George, born with bilateral upper-limb deficiency, has no limbs beyond his shoulder blades and has learned to do almost everything with his feet. (Lindy Keast Rodman, Associated Press)

For more pictures from the November 23rd, 2006 Richmond Times-Dispatch story, “Boy triumphs over limitation - Child born without arms is grateful for gift of music,” - - go here.

For more on the great work of Lindy Rodman, an award winning photographer, (Feature story photograph category from the 2003 VNPA Pictures of the Year…,) go here, - - here, here, and here .

[…]

I found this picture in “The Day in Pictures” section of the Baltimore Sun web site. I recognized the name of the photographer and went to the Richmond Times-Dispatch web site to try and find the picture on the web site…

I did not find the picture, but I found the article for which the picture may very well have accompanied. The article, “With feet and toes, young cellist makes beautiful music,” By HOLLY PRESTIDGE, Richmond Times-Dispatch; is worth a quick read. You can find it here.

####

20070103 Suitably Flip brings us Liberal Yearbook 2006

Suitably Flip brings us Liberal Yearbook 2006

January 3rd, 2007

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xwakjxmorvU

Watch it and prepare to be entertained.

Caution, for the true conservative, there are certainly some cringe worthy moments… if not downright unbearable. Turn up the volume and prepare to laugh.

Nevertheless, the video does disclose that “No Democrats were harmed in the making of this production.”

20070102 Happy New Year from Tom Beyard in Kuwait



Happy New Year from Tom Beyard in Kuwait

Command Sergeant Major Tom Beyard sends “Happy New Year” greetings from Kuwait.

January 2nd, 2007

CSM Beyard wrote, in part, in a recent e-mail, “We had nice party and all enjoyed the time together. Except that our New Year's celebration was 8 hours ahead of yours. At 12:00 midnight here, it was only 4:00 in Westminster. The time difference when you want to make a call is hard to deal with sometimes.”

CSM Beyard mentions a visit from Milblogger Michael Yon. I follow Mr. Yon’s blog and in a previous post here on “Soundtrack,” I mention his post from Kuwait: From a Starbucks, on a U.S. Military Base, in Kuwait.”

Image: http://www.michaelyon-online.com/media/images/daybyday/10-21-06.jpg

Location: http://www.michaelyon-online.com/images/daybydaysingles/DayByDay-Pod4.jpg

CSM Beyard wrote: “We had blogger come here just last week. His name was Michael Yon, who is a former soldier who was embedded with an Army unit. He now writes about the military and he was interesting. We had breakfast with him and then he visited our shops and talked with our guys.”

On Mr. Yon’s post he has a picture of “Christmas lunch in Kuwait.” Another picture is “Soldier after soldier lined up to stand beside Santa, maybe to send photos home to children and family to show all is well.”

Perhaps they are Christmas scenes for which CSM Beyard is familiar?

In Mr. Yon’s post he mentions, “Here in Kuwait, where the dining facilities are bedecked in Christmas decorations, soldiers stream in from Iraq on convoys and stream back north along those bomb-laden roads. The service members here are not all rear-echelon people who never see fighting or blood.


Happy New Year Tom – be safe and thank you for your service.

####

20070101 Carroll County Year in Review by Kelsey Volkmann

Year in review 2006: Carroll County by Kelsey Volkmann

http://www.examiner.com/a-484475~Year_in_review_2006__Carroll_County.html

(Chris Ammann/Baltimore Examiner)
Alfredo Gonzalez and his wife, Stacy, relax in the shade as they watch the Ravens during training camp at McDaniel College in Westminster in August. The Ravens train annually at the college.


Kelsey Volkmann, The Examiner

Read more by Kelsey Volkmann

Jan 1, 2007 3:00 AM

Carroll County - Editor’s Note: Following are some of the major events in Carroll County starting with the first day’s publication of The Examiner through December. Each event is accompanied with its current status.

Read the rest of Ms. Volkmann’s Year in Review - - then and now… here.

Other Examiner “Year in review” and/or a snapshot of events to come in 2007 can be found:

Work force, affordable housing will take forefront in ’07

Leaders share their resolutions and wishes for 2007

GBMC welcomes first baby of 2007

Torrents, floods took Virginia by storm in 2006

Remembering the athletes, teams and stories of 2006

Water, sex education top Carroll’s 2007 priorities

Baltimore Co. to address impact of rapid growth, natural gas plant

New mayor Dixon will define ’07 for city

County gears up plans for addressing growth

Year in review 2006: Howard County

####

Tuesday, January 02, 2007

20070101 Christmas in Kuwait


Christmas in Kuwait

December 30th, 2006/January 2nd, 2007


(For more information on the photo - please click here or here.)

Hat Tip: Mudville Gazette: “Mike Yon, in Kuwait

Milblogger Michael Yon writes From a Starbucks, on a U.S. Military Base, in Kuwait.”

Great post for everyone on the verge of being brainwashed by the U.S. main stream media:

Read the entire post: Christmas in Kuwait (And Qatar, and Hanoi, and Singapore, and Jakarta)

A couple of excerpts:

[…]

“… A couple weeks ago in Singapore, an opportunity arose to speak with a clutch of field-grade officers, most of whom were foreign veterans of the worldwide war. These officers were from countries such as Singapore, India, Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Thailand, New Zealand, Australia and the United States. A common theme among our foreign allies is a concern that we Americans seem to think we are standing alone against a world teeming with enemies. Our military leaders of course know that we are not alone and that enemies do not lurk in every cave or under every rock. They know, too, that we have more allies than enemies, and even more who fit into neither category.”

[…]

[re-paragraphed by me]

This war is strange. I never hear soldiers worried about their own morale sagging. Contrary, the war-fighters here are more concerned to bolster the morale of the people at home.


Here in Kuwait [my added link], where the dining facilities are bedecked in Christmas decorations, soldiers stream in from Iraq on convoys and stream back north along those bomb-laden roads. The service members here are not all rear-echelon people who never see fighting or blood.


Yet their overall morale obviously is high.


Few of them know I am a writer, and so they speak freely at the tables around me. In Qatar, from which I’d just departed, I spoke with troops taking four-day R&R passes, some having just returned from the most dangerous parts of Iraq, and others heading straight back, and their overall morale was also very high.


The morale at war is higher than I have ever seen it at home; makes me wonder what they know that most Americans seem to be missing. [my added emphasis]

Again – Read the entire post: Christmas in Kuwait (And Qatar, and Hanoi, and Singapore, and Jakarta)

Also please read my December 20th, 2006 Tentacle column, “An Uneasy Truce,” in which I also touch upon some of these issues: “Christmas is within a week and my thoughts and prayers go out to the men and women in uniform who are deployed in Afghanistan and Iraq.”

[…]

Whether you support the Bush administration's conduct of the war or not, hopefully, that is irrelevant when it comes to supporting our nation's military personnel in harm's way.


I have had the honor personally to know two individuals who have been deployed. One served a tour of duty a little over a year ago. The other is currently deployed in a support mission based in Kuwait, which involves actions in both Afghanistan and Iraq.

[…]

In spite of Sen. John Kerry's infamous "botched joke," uttered last October, which many interpreted as disparaging commentary on the level of education, intelligence and sense of endeavor of our fighting men and women, one is a college student majoring in management at a major university and the other has his master's degree.

[…]

In particular, the veteran who served in the Kurdish Province had several opportunities to view CNN reports on actions in which he participated and was dismayed by the slant and spin; to the point where he hardly recognized the events as reported.


It will be interesting to see just how our greater society will be affected in future years by the military veterans of Iraq and Afghanistan.


The experience of the politics over the war has caused many of them to lose faith in much of our country's national leaders because they play parlor-politics with the deadly opera of life and death in a combat zone.


And their experience with the news media has caused many veterans to not only distrust, but to disdain the traditional main stream media.

Speaking of Senator John Kerry – check out this post on “Blackfive:” “Jawn Carry - Looks Like 3rd BCT, 1st Cav, drew the short straw.

Michelle Malkin does the senator’s visit even more of the justice it deserves.

Bryan Preston sums it up: "I've never seen a snubbing so richly deserved."


I'm sure the Wall Street Journal will call this another of the blogosphere's "second-order distractions." But the troops think it's newsworthy and snort-worthy. And so do I.


Words have consequences.[my link added – or go here or here]

Please understand, for all the civilians out there, just how profound it is for military personnel to snub Senator Kerry. Military folks are usually publicly very respectful and deferential to elected officials, no matter what their personal feelings. It’s called professionalism and discipline. So for folks in the military to play hide and seek with Senator Kerry, it is quite noteworthy.

Additionally, David Ignatius, an Op-Ed columnist with the Washington Post made an attempt at addressing the disconnect that is going on between reality in the Middle East and the way it is being reported by the liberal United States main stream media.

His column is titled, “Their Christmas at War” and it was published in the Washington Post on December 22, 2006 on page A33.

It was a good beginning by Mr. Ignatius, but he got lost in the weeds about half-way through the piece. He did regain control of his column about two-thirds of the way through, but only after some off-topic commentary about: “A young woman who calls herself "Techno" has a small Christmas tree at the foot of her bed. She explains in her blog that she broke up with her boyfriend before joining the Army and coming to Iraq.”

Then: “…says he has learned two things from Iraqis: the importance of having a special place for your gun at home, and the requirement that "every male should have some sort of facial hair.”

Huh? WTF?

However, this excerpt made his column worthwhile:

This holiday season, America is struggling through a searing national debate about Iraq. The horror of the war feels immediate, even to people who've never been near Baghdad, but less so the humanity of the thousands of American soldiers who are serving there. That's part of the Iraq disconnect: The war dominates our political life, but the men and women in the midst of it often are nearly invisible. We see them in thumbnail photos in group obituaries but not as real, living people.

If you read soldiers' blogs, and I've looked at several dozen over the past few days, you see a recurring anger that the media aren't telling their story. So I'll let a few of the military bloggers speak for themselves. If you want to share in the conversation, a good place to start is http://milblogging.com, which collects blogs from soldiers deployed in Iraq, Afghanistan and around the world.

Needless to say, the first thing most American soldiers are thinking about is getting back home. They wait for a magic acronym: RIP/TOA, which means: "Relief in Place/Transfer of Authority."

Read his column here.

Tentacle, Moonbat, Iraq War, Senator John Kerry, Military.

####

20070101 Robin Pool’s Country View Tuxedo and Wedding Accessories

Robin Pool’s Country View Tuxedo and Wedding Accessories

Winchester Exchange,

15 East Main Street Westminster, Maryland 21157

Phone: (410) 857-7601

http://www.countryviewtuxedo.com/