I am thankful for people like PFC Stephen Martin

Via BLACKFIVE: A Soldier’s Home in Afghanistan

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U.S. Army PFC. Stephen Martin cleans his weapon inside a small shelter at an observation post near Combat Outpost Munoz in Paktika province, Afghanistan, Nov. 15, 2009. Martin is assigned to Company B, 3rd Battalion, 509th Infantry Regiment. U.S. Army photo by Staff Sgt. Andrew Smith

Community organizers, government health care, perpetual welfare, victimization, and rewarding failure will never improve America.

Only unselfish, hard-working, devoted, self-sufficient Americans can improve America.

Obama: Can’t you just feel the HOPE® for our country, military and Afghanistan?

History does not long entrust the care of freedom to the weak or the timid. – Dwight David Eisenhower

President Obama and his merry band of Statists idiots have failed. They have failed – again and again, and it will continue.

At some point you chowder-heads who voted for this amateur are going to see the damage he is doing to the country. He’s created more debt than EVERY PRESIDENT WHO CAME BEFORE HIM COMBINED.

I don’t expect you O-bots to understand the damage he is doing to our military, maybe because you don’t care. I don’t know.

I know the president doesn’t really care about our service men and women and their mission. He doesn’t care the same way other presidents cared about our men and women in uniform at home or abroad. He showed it before the campaign. He pretended to be something else during the campaign. He has faked and postured his way from Dover to Arlington to Fort Hood attempting to convince the nation that he has their best interests in mind and supports their mission.

And now as ‘His Ditherness’ struggles to find the lint in his bellybutton, our finest, our bravest, our most patriotic sit, wait, bleed, and die while the “smart power” you voted in as your new ‘American Idol’ makes a f’ing decision about the “necessary war”, the central front on the War on Terror, that he chided President Bush and John McCain over. You know the war that Candidate Obama thought was sooo important:

“His plan comes up short. There’s not enough troops, not enough resources and not enough urgency. What President Bush and Senator McCain don’t understand is that the central front in the War on Terror is not in Iraq and never was. The central front is in Afghanistan and Pakistan where the terrorists who hit us on 9-11 are still plotting attacks seven years later.”

I am sure the ripples of HOPE® and CHANGE® are reaching our troops here and across the ocean in the dusty military posts, forts, and bases knowing that Barack Hussein Obama – mmm, mmm, mmm – is on his way to save the day with his own plan.

Oh wait, maybe I’m wrong about that:

Morale has fallen among soldiers in Afghanistan, where troops are seeing record violence in the 8-year-old war, while those in Iraq show much improved mental health amid much lower violence, the Army said Friday…

Though findings of two new battlefield surveys are similar in several ways to the last ones taken in 2007, they come at a time of intense scrutiny on Afghanistan as President Barack Obama struggles to craft a new war strategy and planned troop buildup.

Obama “struggles” because he has no f’ing backbone and no clue about fighting for anything more than a community center or the Olympic Games.

He struggles because he doesn’t trust his military leaders. The people in our country who have led lives of substance, sacrifice, and purpose for decades already.

Obama’s never done anything of substance beyond be a lawyer and politician – two of the lowest professions possible falling in right next to prostitutes and thieves, but wait, I repeat myself.

It takes more to be a member of today’s military and face the uncertainties of war than it does to demagogue to the likes of SEIU, ACORN, Organizing for America, Egyptians, Germans, and guilty white Americans, when you yourself have stated you have not done anything of measure.

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So, it comes as no surprise our Commander-in-Chief is already looking to run away instead of fighting against evil ruthless radical religious zealots who torture and terrorize innocents in the name of Allah:

President Barack Obama’s strategy for Afghanistan will include a plan for “how we’re going to get folks out” after a secure environment can be passed to the Afghan government, White House press secretary Robert Gibbs told reporters aboard Air Force One on Thursday.

“We have been there for eight years. And we’re not going to be there forever,” Gibbs said. “It’s important to fully examine not just how we’re going to get folks in but how we’re going to get folks out.”

Gibbs spoke en route to Alaska, where the president stopped at an Air Force base in Anchorage before traveling on to Tokyo for his maiden trip to Asia, which will take him to Japan, Singapore, China and South Korea.

The president “has asked for, and will want, benchmarks to evaluate our progress,” Gibbs said. “That’s part of his desire to get a sense of where we are rather than committing to an open-ended conflict.”

But whatever the reason, this man is making a mockery of our country and our military. He is destroying our economy. He is destroying our way of life. He is rewarding failure and taking away our liberty. He is destroying 230+ years of real human progress. And he intended to do it ever since he fell in with the pathetic refuse that surrounds him.

Osama bin Laden was right when he called the America a “Paper Tiger” in his declaration of war against our nation, he knew more about the majority of us than we would like to believe.

The impressionable useful idiots in our nation who believe HOPE® and CHANGE® are actually something more than novelty.

As long as the Democrats, Statists, Liberals, Progressives, and sheep of this nation lead us, a paper tiger is all we will be and we will continue our decline because of them.

The blood of those who die while Obama dithers and waffles are on his hands and those who put him into the White House.

Have a nice weekend.

Quote of the Day: Enemies foreign and domestic…

The enemy is anybody who’s going to get you killed, no matter which side he’s on. – Joseph Heller

via DPGI – the aftermath.

Team Obama fails to notice the REAL bad guys because they go after political enemies instead

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Democrats have never been good at going after the important threat:

November 7, 2009
THIS IS WHAT HAPPENS WHEN YOU DROP THE BALL: “While DHS was busy putting tea parties and anyone who dares fly the official military Gadsen flag on the domestic terrorist watch list, a real terrorist was spouting off online, glorifying suicide bombings and our mission in Iraq. I mean, I’m sure if I drink enough I might be able to understand the perception that a bunch of middle-class people peacefully dissenting with certain Washington policies are way more dangerous than a dude who talked about terrorist stuff on social sites and had gotten authorities’ attention six months ago.”

Yeah, Napolitano, et al. seem to have had their priorities misplaced. Here’s more on what they missed. And don’t forget what NPR reported.

UPDATE: Reader C.J. Burch emails: “Ah, but those middle class protesters are a threat to politicians’ power. Terrorists are just a threat to their constituents’ lives. See the difference?” Such a cynic.

ANOTHER UPDATE: Washington Post: Officials may not have heeded warning signs. “Law enforcement officials also faced questions about whether they had missed possible warning signs. Six months ago, investigators came across Internet postings, allegedly by Hasan, that indicated sympathy for suicide bombers and empathized with the plight of Muslim civilians killed in Iraq and Afghanistan, according to a federal official briefed on the situation. The official, and another source, said investigators never confirmed whether Hasan was the author of the postings and did not pursue the matter.” Too busy worrying about Glenn Beck viewers, military veterans, and Tea Party organizers, I guess.

MORE: Obama targets “teabag people” as extremists.

via Instapundit.

Quote of the Day: Aimless Obama

“I never thought I’d hear myself say it,” one Democrat told me. “But Obama makes you feel that at least with Bush you knew where he was on something.”

via Bloodless President Barack Obama makes Americans wistful for George W Bush.

President Obama: Fire General McChrystal, Patraeus [sic] & Gates

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The Jawa Report:

Dear President Obama,

Since late this summer General Stanley McChrystal has been asking for more troops for Afghanistan lest we lose the war. Early last month those sentiments were expressed in a formal request for 40,000 additional troops. General Patraeus and Secretary of Defense Gates have publicly endorsed Gen. McChrystal’s request.

Since that time you have been considering whether or not to provide those troops and whether or not the use of those troops in a counter-insurgency strategy — similar to that employed in Iraq — is wise or not. If press reports are to be believed, then top members of your administration have serious doubts as to whether or not the strategy as outlined by Gen. McChrystal and endorsed by Gen. Patraeus and Sec. Gates will work.

Your inaction on this request speaks volumes and one can only draw one logical inference from it: you do not trust the judgment of Gen. Patraeus, Sec. Gates, or Gen. McChrystal.

If you trusted their expertise, then you would have immediately begun to implement their strategy.

Since it is glaringly obvious that you do not trust the judgment of your top commanders in the field or of your own Sec. of Defense, then why don’t you fire them?

If they are so wrong, then they should be fired.

Personally, I don’t think Obama has the stones in his shorts to fire anyone (his wife on the other hand…).

Obama has never had to do anything truly important that included personal responsibility and risk, that is why he is unable to make decisions.

It’s ‘Petraeus’ just in case your internal spellcheck rang.

Dems demonstrate again their backward priorities

As a military brat, a Marine, and a civilian I have always distrusted the Democrat Party and their values.

Once again, they prove just how f’d up their priorities are:

Twice as many Democrats say health care reform should be President Obama’s top priority as say the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq should be his top concern, according to a new Gallup poll.

Gallup asked people this question: “Which of the following should be Barack Obama’s top priority as president — the economy, health care, the situations in Iraq and Afghanistan, energy, the federal budget deficit, or something else…?”

The numbers help explain Obama’s slowness in reaching a decision on what to do in Afghanistan. There simply aren’t very many people in the president’s party who believe the war should be his top priority — just half as many as those who say health care should be his top concern. When it comes to pressure for a decision coming from his own party, there just isn’t much.

via For Dems, health care reform more important than war in Afghanistan.

When I see numbers like that I don’t see an explanation of Obama’s slowness. I see their attitude towards our military, their sacrifices and the what they really believe when it comes to helping others.

Obama a tough guy, at least with Fox News

The strange disparity between the heavy-handed community organization at home and the ever cockier untouchables abroad risks making the commander in chief look like a weenie – like “President Pantywaist,” as Britain’s Daily Telegraph has taken to calling him.

The Chicago way? Don’t bring a knife to a gunfight? In Iran, this administration won’t bring a knife to a nuke fight. In Eastern Europe, it won’t bring missile defense to a nuke fight. In Sudan, it won’t bring a knife to a machete fight.

Mark Steyn

In memory: Major David G. Taylor, U.S. Army

Major David G. Taylor and family

Three years ago today a friend from my younger years was killed in Iraq.

I remember you, David. Thank you.

Here are mentions of David around the web, please take your time to get acquainted with him and his family.

• The Iraq Page
• DefenseLink
• An Online Memorial
  

and from the high school we attended together:

• Heidelberg American High School
• Major David G. Taylor Memorial Scholarship Fund
• Army Ten Miler Run in honor of Major David G. Taylor

And finally these words of wisdom from the eulogy delivered by his brother:

These are Dave’s life lessons:

1. Life isn’t fair– get over it!

2. Freedom isn’t free, someone has to pay the price, and it might as well be you.

3. Things often get worse before they get worse.

4. No whining.

5. Take care of your own business.

6. Sometimes you just need to find your backbone to do the right thing.

7. People who do the right thing aren’t heroes, they are just doing the right thing.

8. You are probably not entitled to any thing you didn’t work for.

Major David G. Taylor

David was a soldier’s soldier who would not like this part of the service. He was mostly modest– he really was– and he believed that the best soldier was the soldier who fought quietly for his country–not out of any Hollywood styled sense of patriotism but rather because it was an inherent duty and part of his obligation as a citizen living in this country…

David once mentioned to me that there are those people who merely talk about America and our wonderful freedom, rights and privileges and then there are those who step up and put their money where their mouth is…;he simply believed that evil had to be challenged and somebody had to take the lead.

I wished more people lived a life based upon the same values as David’s.

I know I fail to many times a day.

Today I will try harder live a better life.

Harry Reid does not speak for this Nevadan

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And I intend to do everything I can to retire this pathetic SOB.

Harry Reid plan: ‘Vaporize’ 2010 GOP opponent

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid is prepared to run a sharply negative campaign if that’s what it takes to win reelection next year, with a top adviser predicting that the Nevada Democrat will “vaporize” his Republican challengers with attack ads.

Trailing in the polls and under constant attack from the GOP, Reid’s campaign has just launched a warm-and-fuzzy million-dollar ad campaign to reintroduce the veteran senator to his constituents. But Reid’s team also wants to be the one that introduces lesser-known opponents to the electorate — and will be ready, when the time comes, to unleash a torrent of ads branding challengers as untested and unprepared for the job.

Now in the campaign’s sites: Sue Lowden, a wealthy gaming executive, former state senator and former chairwoman of the Nevada Republican Party, and Danny Tarkanian, a Las Vegas businessman and the son of legendary basketball coach Jerry Tarkanian.

“I expect him to vaporize Lowden or Tarkanian or whoever is the opponent,” said a Reid adviser, speaking on the condition of anonymity in order to discuss campaign strategy.

The Reid adviser said the campaign’s oppo files on Lowden and Tarkanian are “growing by the day” — and that the only question for the campaign is when to start using them: Wait until the GOP has a nominee, or start tearing the candidates down in advance of the Republican primary.

He has to do this because he cannot defend his record, his votes, his statements, nor his ignorance of what the people of Nevada want.

Reid, his advisers say, has learned his lesson from Tom Daschle, the former Senate majority leader who lost his seat in 2004 after failing to push back hard enough against intense GOP criticism.

But they still support the troops…

Senators diverted $2.6 billion in funds in a defense spending bill to pet projects largely at the expense of accounts that pay for fuel, ammunition and training for U.S. troops, including those fighting wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, according to an analysis.

Among the 778 such projects, known as earmarks, packed into the bill: $25 million for a new World War II museum at the University of New Orleans and $20 million to launch an educational institute named after the late Sen. Edward M. Kennedy, Massachusetts Democrat.

While earmarks are hardly new in Washington, “in 30 years on Capitol Hill, I never saw Congress mangle the defense budget as badly as this year,” said Winslow Wheeler, a former Senate staffer who worked on defense funding and oversight for both Republicans and Democrats. He is now a senior fellow at the Center for Defense Information, an independent research organization.

via U.S. troop funds diverted to pet projects

When the government runs things you can be sure they’ll screw it up

The U.S. government failed to send promised college tuition checks to tens of thousands of veterans of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars before they returned to school this fall, even after being warned that it was inadequately staffed for the job.

The Veterans Affairs Department blamed a backlog of claims filed for GI Bill education benefits that has left veterans who counted on the money for tuition and books scrambling to make ends meet.

via Veterans’ promised tuition checks AWOL

They want to run health care, the car industry, banking, and just about everything else. I assure you, things will only get worse if Obama and the Democrats are allowed to do so.

Quote of the Day

It is not hard to see why a standing ovation awaits the president at Turtle Bay. Obama’s popularity at the UN boils down essentially to his willingness to downplay American global power. He is the first American president who has made an art form out of apologizing for the United States, which he has done on numerous occasions on foreign soil, from Strasbourg to Cairo. The Obama mantra appears to be – ask not what your country can do for you, but what you can do to atone for your country. This is a message that goes down very well in a world that is still seething with anti-Americanism.

via The UN loves Barack Obama because he is weak

Bumper sticker of the day

Knoxville, Tennessee. In the parking lot at Downtown West.

UPDATE: Reader James Dempsey writes: “The bumper sticker in your post is from LaRue Tactical (http://www.laruetactical.com/), a great company doing great things for American and Allied servicemembers. As the anniversary of Sept. 11th approaches, it is worth going to La Rue’s webpage and reading the biography of MSG Horrigan.”

It was parked in front of Salon Visage.

via Instapundit

Quote of the Day: ‘We’re better off with Ted dead’, Reid

Q&A with Sen. Harry Reid about re-election campaign, approval ratings, son

Q: How will U.S. Sen. (Edward) Kennedy’s death affect things?

A: I think it’s going to help us. He hasn’t been around for some time. We’re going to have a new chairman of that committee, it’ll be, I don’t know for sure, but I think Sen. (Chris) Dodd, (D-Conn.). He has a right to take it. Either him or (U.S. Sen. Tom) Harkin, (D-Iowa), whichever one wants it can have it. I think he (Kennedy) will be a help. He’s an inspiration for us. That was the issue of his life and he didn’t get it done.

Translation: “We’re better off with him gone because we have an agenda to keep.”

IMHO, Senator Harry Reid, the überdouche from Searchlight, Nevada, is an embarrassment to everyone in Nevada.

He left the building a long time ago.

Don’t miss the Dump Reid web site. Here’s a post from today.

Warship honors Marine who died protecting comrades

BATH, Maine AP – The Navy’s newest destroyer bears a name that’s familiar to Marines. The ship that’ll be christened on Saturday at Bath Iron Works bears the name of Cpl. Jason Dunham, a Marine who jumped on a grenade to save his comrades in 2004 in Iraq.

Dunham’s parents, Deb and Dan Dunham, will be at the Maine shipyard along with other Marines who served with him in Kilo Company, 3rd Battalion, 7th Marines.

Dunham, who’s from Scio SY’-oh, N.Y., earned the Medal of Honor for his actions on April 14, 2004.

His unit was searching a line of cars for insurgents when he was attacked by one of them. His last words were a warning: “Watch his hand!” Dunham covered the grenade with his Kevlar helmet and his body. Two fellow Marines survived. Dunham died eight days later.

10th Amendment: Texas may refuse ObamaCare

I miss living in Texas. They actually have read the Constitution and wish to follow it:

Gov. Rick Perry, raising the specter of a showdown with the Obama administration, suggested Thursday that he would consider invoking states’ rights protections under the 10th Amendment to resist the president’s healthcare plan, which he said would be “disastrous” for Texas.

Interviewed by conservative talk show host Mark Davis of Dallas’ WBAP/820 AM, Perry said his first hope is that Congress will defeat the plan, which both Perry and Davis described as “Obama Care.” But should it pass, Perry predicted that Texas and a “number” of states might resist the federal health mandate.

“I think you’ll hear states and governors standing up and saying ‘no’ to this type of encroachment on the states with their healthcare,” Perry said. “So my hope is that we never have to have that stand-up. But I’m certainly willing and ready for the fight if this administration continues to try to force their very expansive government philosophy down our collective throats.”

Perry, the state’s longest-serving governor, has made defiance of Washington a hallmark of his state administration as well as his emerging re-election campaign against U.S. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison in the 2010 Republican primary. Earlier this year, Perry refused $555 million in federal unemployment stimulus money, saying it would subject Texas to long-term costs after the federal dollars ended.

Interviewed after returning from a trip to Iraq and Afghanistan, Perry spoke out against President Barack Obama’s healthcare package less than 24 hours after the president used a prime-time news conference Wednesday night to try to sell the massive legislative package to Congress and the public.

via Perry raises possibility of states’ rights showdown with White House over healthcare.

American Heroes you should know

Don’t hold your breath to hear about these two heroes on the news tonight as long as a loud-mouthed a$$hole from Harvard University has the spotlight.

Fallen soldier to receive Medal of Honor

Sgt. 1st Class Jared Monti, who was killed in Afghanistan June 21, 2006, will receive the Medal of Honor for his actions in combat, his father, Paul Monti, told Army Times in a telephone interview Thursday.

Here’s an account of the incident in which SFC Monti lost his life:    

On 21 June 2006, SFC Monti, then a staff sergeant, was the assistant patrol leader for a 16-man patrol tasked to conduct surveillance in the Gowardesh region. The patrol was to provide up-to-date intelligence, interdict enemy movement and ensure early warning for the squadron’s main effort as it inserted into the province.

As nightfall approached, the patrol was attacked by a well organized enemy force of at least 60 personnel. Outnumbered four-to-one, SFC Monti’s patrol was in serious danger of being overrun.

The enemy fighters had established two support-by-fire positions directly above the patrol in a densely wooded ridgeline. SFC Monti immediately returned fire and ordered the patrol to seek cover and return fire. He then reached for his radio headset and calmly initiated calls for indirect fire and close air support (CAS), both danger-close to the patrol’s position. He did this while simultaneously directing the patrol’s fires.

When SFC Monti realized that a member of the patrol, Private First Class (PFC) Brian J. Bradbury, was critically wounded and exposed 10 meters from cover, without regard for his personal safety, he advanced through enemy fire to within three feet of PFC Bradbury’s position. But he was forced back by intense RPG fire. He tried again to secure PFC Bradbury, but he was forced to stay in place again as the enemy intensified its fires.

The remaining patrol members coordinated covering fires for SFC Monti, and he advanced a third time toward thewounded Soldier. But he only took a few steps this time before he was mortally wounded by an RPG. About the same time, the indirect fires and CAS he called for began raining down on the enemy’s position. The firepower broke the enemy attack, killing 22 enemy fighters. SFC Monti’s actions prevented the patrol’s position from being overrun, saved his team’s lives and inspired his men to fight on against overwhelming odds.

Another story you are not likely to hear because war is not something the President nor the media will discuss during a prime time press conference is one of Marine First Lt. Travis Manion:

On April 29, 2007, this transition team was patrolling the outskirts of Fallujah in Anbar province, one of Iraq’s deadliest battle zones. The platoon was just ending a search of a suspected terrorist house.

Suddenly a Marine got shot when enemy snipers ambushed the patrol with small arms fire.

Manion and a colleague pulled their wounded comrade from the line of fire. After giving first aid, Manion led a counterattack.

When a Navy doctor was wounded, Manion recovered him too while facing fire from five shooters.

A roadside bomb stymied reinforcements from the Iraqi army, leaving Manion and his patrol under attack from three sides.

Now the officer made the gutsiest call of his young life. He jumped into an exposed position to attract more gunfire so the wounded Marines could be rescued.

After getting off several rounds, Manion was struck and killed.

Manion’s heroism didn’t surprise Poudrier. Early in their work together, the major noticed prized illumination grenades attached to the lieutenant’s assault rifle.

“I said, ‘I could use a few of those,’ ” Poudrier recalled. “He said, ‘Go ahead sir, take mine.’ Right off the bat he was very selfless, and that first impression set the tone.”

In the months before his death, Manion constantly faced danger. This was largely due to his leading by example, says Poudrier. “A couple of times Travis had some really close calls as the target of attacks, when he had to dive across the road to get out of the way,” the major told IBD. “I told him not to get too gung-ho, don’t get yourself shot. But he put himself in harm’s way first. That was just how he operated.”

In an e-mail home shortly before his death, Manion remained hopeful despite facing great hardships.

“As in anything in life,” he wrote, “true success does not come from battles easily won.”

These are the men who should have been paid millions for their service, and given the respect due a professor or head of state, but alas, they will only be remembered by those they touched. The will be remembered for the sacrifices they made and the virtues they had which few in our media-driven culture can claim.

Thank you, SFC Monti and 1stLT Manion for what you believed in and what you were willing to do about it.

Quote of the Day: Enabling Obama

Talk about a “tell us something we don’t know” moment:

Not one questions about Iraq. Not one questions about Afghanistan, where American troops have had the worst month of fatalities in eight years. These guys, and women, are not journalists. They’re enablers.

via What’s the deal with the White House press corps?

I have a question for those in the media who were present at the press conference last night.

Can we have a show of hands of those who voted for someone other than Obama?

And by a show of hands, how many of you are registered as something other than a Democrat?

Quote of the Day: Another day another Obama lie

Gitmo’s supposed to close in six months. They’re delaying the report on what to do with the prisoners until … the current prison closes?

via Hot Air

One “Blame Bush” story you won’t hear on the news tonight

Gateway Pundit: Soccer Returns to Baghdad… National Team Plays First Game Before 45,000 Fans

Uday Hussein was not able to attend.

zeitgeist by drudge, snark by jcrue

He does a better job than most – DRUDGE REPORT

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Iraq: Never doubt what the American military can accomplish

Michael Ramirez, Political Cartoons, Editorial News.

Iraq: Win

My father-in-law had the nerve to say returning to Iraq was a mistake. He didn’t appreciate my response.

“Asked any Iraqis about that?”

Then he went on immediately to Bush/Cheney/Halliburton/Repubicans and the whole shallow tired liberal litany against BushCo in less than a minute.

To which, I replied, “I’ll take that as a ‘no’, huh?”

Quietest dinner EVAH!!!

Gateway Pundit: Dem Leaders Avoid Thanking Bush For US Victory In Iraq Today

It doesn’t matter what the military accomplishes, they will always be someone victim in all this so someone can get more votes.