April 03, 2004
Hoohah
One can understand the national perception that the SF Bay Area is a loony bin of anti-war, tree-hugging, America-last moonbat liberals, especially after the preceeding post, but that is far from the real picture.
The greater Bay Area is a melange of *spit* diverse *spit* communties as varied as the weather micro-climates they enjoy. The joke is "Don't like the weather? drive 20 minutes in any direction and it changes entirely" Politics is pretty much the same. Don't like Dem-hard Left? Drive in any direction and you'll find people rolling out the World's largest American flag, supporting military museums attending Fleet Week in record numbers and honoring those who serve our country in uniform.
This is a nice story:
Welcome Home soldier.
Army Pvt. Jacob Brown's leg was mangled, his wrist mashed and his spleen crushed.And Brown is one lucky young man.
That's because he is still alive, he has a lovely new wife and he's from Danville. Brown, 22, returned home three weeks ago to a city that has helped him find a job and a home filled with new furniture. If city leaders have their way, every Danville veteran will enjoy the same homecoming through what is believed to be the first program of its kind in the nation.
March 19, 2004
The Last Full Measure
Lincoln's words ring true today as we face another test of our resolve to remain a free people, or to retreat in the face of an implacable enemy and live cowering in fear.
Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth, upon this continent, a new nation, conceived in liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that "all men are created equal"
Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any nation so conceived, and so dedicated, can long endure. We are met on a great battle field of that war. We have come to dedicate a portion of it, as a final resting place for those who died here, that the nation might live. This we may, in all propriety do. But, in a larger sense, we can not dedicate -- we can not consecrate -- we can not hallow, this ground -- The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have hallowed it, far above our poor power to add or detract. The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here; while it can never forget what they did here.
It is rather for us, the living, we here be dedicated to the great task remaining before us -- that, from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they here, gave the last full measure of devotion -- that we here highly resolve these dead shall not have died in vain; that the nation, shall have a new birth of freedom, and that government of the people by the people for the people, shall not perish from the earth.
These are the faces of Americans who gave the last full measure: Honor them.
March 12, 2004
Lest We Forget
Sen. John Kerry slammed Republican "attack" squads. Is he kidding?
These are the attack squads I'm worried about, not partisan American political operatives. How about you?
The attack in Madrid occurred exactly 2 1/2 years after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks in the United States - and there 911 days in between the terror attacks in Madrid and those in New York and Washington.
Someone is sending us a message and they're not conspiracy buffs.
Do you hear them now Senator Kerry?
The Euroweasels may finally get it: Europe rethinks war on terror
Michele sums it up in a nutshell: it's everyone's war.
Stay informed, check The Command Post for breaking stories and news items.
UPDATE: An appropriate Kerry quote at Horsefeathers.
I'm waiting for the flip-flop to drop.
January 11, 2004
Must Read
This "My Turn" contribution by a Gold Star Mother in the Jan. 12, 2004 issue of Newsweek makes one both proud and ashamed. Proud of the strength and wisdom of our military families and ashamed of the fecklessness and bias of our media.
[Note:the entire article and photo are posted intact. The impact of Ruth Stonesifer's words shouldn't be diluted by a hyperjump]
What's Really Behind the Fight Over Dover?
The media seem more interested in shocking us than in paying tribute to fallen soldiers like my son
By Ruth Voshell Stonesifer
Upon hearing of the death of my soldier son, Army Ranger Kristofor Stonesifer, two years ago in a helicopter crash in Pakistan, the first thing I thought of was the Black Hawk crash in Mogadishu and the horrific aftermath that was broadcast to the world. The image of an angry mob dragging the body of a brave soldier through the streets had haunted me since I first saw it, and I worried that my son had suffered the same fate. I was lucky. Although Kris also died in a helicopter crash, his fellow soldiers were there to take care of his body and return him to us with dignity.
Even so, I can't stop thinking about what I saw and heard on television last November—two dead American soldiers lying on an Iraqi road, and painful details (which thankfully turned out to be false) about how Iraqis treated their bodies. Surely other military families are haunted as well. Watching the news outlets play such footage struck me as cruel, and even—dare I say it?—unpatriotic.
Our enemies know our cameras will record the celebration of our loved ones' deaths—and that this is behavior Americans cannot tolerate. They know such images can persuade our leaders to prematurely abandon their commitments, as they did in Beirut and Somalia.
The media are commercial enterprises—graphic pictures boost ratings and increase advertising revenue. The press has allowed itself to help our enemies by pandering to the worst instincts of audiences.
Meanwhile, the networks and the print media say that the Pentagon's 1991 ban on filming flag-draped coffins at Dover Air Force Base in Delaware, where bodies are customarily received, is an assault on the First Amendment. But my experience has led me to believe that the media are more interested in the shock value of pictures of large numbers of caskets than in paying tribute to individual soldiers.
I wanted Kris flown into Dover so that his homecoming would be handled with proper military honors. At the start of the Afghanistan conflict, the media ban was not being enforced, and I believed that this would be the most appropriate way for the press to cover his death. Instead of giving weepy interviews, we prepared ourselves for the perfect family picture at his casket. But then I was told that only cargo of 10 or more bodies are routed to Dover. There were only two on that first night of ground operations in Afghanistan.
I was disappointed that our only homecoming option was the middle of a busy construction site at Philadelphia International Airport, but the liaison from the Ranger regiment assured me that the press had been notified. We walked out on the tarmac next to the open cargo door of the enormous commercial jetliner, but when we turned to face the area set aside for the media, there was only a lone cameraman from the Ranger battalion.
The press missed a wonderful story that windy day. It took only a few moments for the nine members of the Ranger guard to remove the casket from the aircraft and for a crisp formation of 12 soldiers to snap to attention and salute. As they did, every construction worker and security guard, every person within sight of this small, simple ceremony came to a standstill to pay his respects. They may not have known my son's name, but they knew he was a soldier who had died in defense of his country. I was grateful that I could see through my tears to witness their tribute.
After my son died, I discovered a journal among his belongings. In it he had written, "Freedom means having the ability to say no to chaos." The press is guilty of creating a feeling of chaos. Instead of showing the positive pictures that are circulated through the e-mail grapevine by military families—pictures of soldiers making Iraqi chil-dren laugh or rebuilding schools—it chooses images of our loved ones' bodies being defiled. In doing so, it hurts the cause of freedom, not just in Iraq, but everywhere in the world. Whether or not we agree with our nation's decision to intervene in Iraq, we should all want to treat our troops and their families with dignity.
But the media don't get it. Competitive greed is the only purpose I can think of for looping those horrific images on television, and for wanting to film the many caskets that come through Dover. The media's unrelenting focus on the shock of death may yield big profits, but it weakens our soldiers' efforts in Iraq and undermines the commitment of families whose sons and daughters, husbands and wives, serve their country with pride. The First Amendment may give the press the right to do it, but it doesn't say it has to.
Greed is not the sole reason the mainstream media wants this image. They are determined to defeat a Republican administration they perceive as illegitimate and policies considered wrongheaded and dangerous. That the campaign in Iraq would fail and the military defeated are side benefits in the Left's war of idealogy that passes for reportage. Some might point to this article as proof of fairness. No, it is a pre-emptive mea culpa should the election go badly and Bush is relected.
December 17, 2003
100 Years Of Flight
Air Force Celebrates the Centennial of Flight
"Launched by the Wright brothers’ flight at Kitty Hawk, civilian and military aviation took off on a nearly century-old flight that has been evolving and has yet to reach a final destination. Along the way, advances have been many — going from open cockpits to canopies, gasoline engines to jet propulsion, bi-wings to single wings, cloth and metal construction to composite materials, just to name a few. As we celebrate the advances of the past and look to the future, we’ll forever keep in mind Orville and Wilbur Wright and their historic flight: Dec. 17, 1903."
100 Years of AirPower
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There are many positive stories from Iraq that are never told, today's is from the Air Force Link.
12/16/2003 - OPERATION ENDURING FREEDOM (AFPN) -- A KC-10 Extender crew at a forward-deployed location carried a special message of hope and peace on their flight over Iraq on Dec. 9.
As part of the project “Hands on America,” the crew displayed from their boom window an 86-by-76-inch American Flag hand-crafted by Iowa school students. In doing so, the crew became part of a larger effort to honor the victims of Sept. 11, 2001, and their families, and the continuing war on terror.
The left may see the war on terror as a pathway to power...but millions more see it as OPERATION ENDURING FREEDOM...ours.
December 07, 2003
December 7, 1941
CINCPAC has a comprehensive and compelling Pearl Harbor site.
62 years ago, on an ordinary American Sunday, smoke rose as the fires of hatred took American lives. My Dad was stationed at Schofield and was on weekend leave or I wouldn't be here to annoy anti-war pussies. Ironically, he never fought in the Pacific, he was redeployed to the European theater with the 3rd Army and witnessed the beginning of the war in one theater and the end in another.
As the Greatest Generation fades into family albums and memories, it's easy to forget the debt owed to our fathers and grandfathers. 9/11 reminded us that the books on tyranny are never closed.
EDIT NOTE: FDR's "Day of Infamy" speech to Congress has been moved to extended entry.
FRANKLIN D. ROOSEVELT'S PEARL HARBOR SPEECH
To the Congress of the United States:
Yesterday, Dec. 7, 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 the government and its emperor looking toward the maintenance of peace in the Pacific.
Indeed, one hour after Japanese air squadrons had commenced bombing in Oahu, the Japanese ambassador to the United States and his colleagues delivered to the Secretary of State a formal reply to a recent American message. While this reply stated that it seemed useless to continue the existing diplomatic negotiations, it contained no threat or hint of war or 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. 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.
This morning, the Japanese attacked Midway Island.
Japan has, therefore, undertaken a surprise offensive extending throughout the Pacific area. The facts of yesterday 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.
Always will we 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 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 very certain that this form of treachery shall never endanger us again.
Hostilities exist. There is no blinking at the fact that 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, Dec. 7, a state of war has existed between the United States and the Japanese empire.
December 01, 2003
A Message from America's Founders
Lately we've heard a lot of self serving chin-wagging about the Founding Fathers intent and America's role in the world.
"A knowledge of history is, above all, a means of responsibility – of responsibility to the past and of responsibility to the future . . . of responsibility to those who came before us and struggled and sacrificed to pass on to us our precious inheritance of freedom . . . and of responsibility to those who will come after us and to whom we must pass on that inheritance with what new strength and substance it is within our power to add." – John F. Kennedy
"The two sides of the Great Seal were carefully designed to symbolize the United States – to the world and to the future. It is America's vision statement, created between 1776 and 1782.The full significance of the Great Seal has been overlooked by educators and historians. Most Americans know very little about their national emblem – and what they do know is often incorrect.
When given the attention it deserves, the Great Seal connects us with the people who gave us our freedom. It communicates their vision of America, and realigns us with the original spirit that gave birth to the United States." -John D. MacArthur
November 11, 2003
As It Always Was
A few patriotic images from my collection of advertising artwork.
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Veterans Day Greetings
"This year is the 50th Anniversary of the Veterans Day Celebration. Thank you for remembering and honoring those veterans who served to preserve the liberties of this great Nation, keeping it united, strong, and free."
Anthony J. Principi
Secretary of Veterans Affairs
America's Veterans Day Greetings
Send a Veterans Day message to U.S. troops supporting the global war on terrorism.
Read messages sent: Best Wishes from America to Our Troops
Never Forget
Never Forget: We remember Iwo Jima for two good reasons.
One is that it was the costliest battle in Marine Corps history. Its toll of 6,821 Americans dead, 5,931 of them Marines, accounted for nearly one-third of all Marine Corps losses in all of World War II.
The other is Joe Rosenthal's picture,a symbol forever of the valor and sacrifices of the U.S. Marines.
Never Forget: In his own words WTC witness and photographer Ricky Flores:
I'm just simply a witness, a modern day bard if you will, testifying to the bravery of simple men and women, of flesh and bone, rising to an extraordinary challenge and giving the very best of themselves. I simply documented the tomb of others who died needlessly at the hands of a cowardly band of men. This I did so that my children and all those that follow our generation will hopefully never have to experience this in their lifetime
Never forget that our men and women in uniform stand between America and those who would do us harm because we are a free people. These men and women are not election slogans or political pawns, they are Americans, they are us.
November 03, 2003
Long Over Due
It's about frickin' time:
Foreign visitors will face new rules
WASHINGTON — Millions of foreign visitors to the USA, already under strict scrutiny since the terrorist attacks in 2001, soon will have to be fingerprinted and photographed to get through the nation's airports and seaports.
Tuesday, the Department of Homeland Security announced plans for a high-tech system that will help track the 24 million foreigners who enter the country with work, student or travel visas each year.
Congress ordered the system after the Sept. 11 attacks, when officials learned that two of the 19 hijackers had violated the terms of their visas. The program's goal is to prevent potential terrorists from entering the country and to register foreigners who are allowed in. It also requires foreigners to check out when they leave, so officials can look for people who stay after their visas expire.
Of course the usual America haters aren't happy.
Asa Hutchinson, head of border security at the department, called the program a "dramatic step forward" in tightening security. But airport managers and travel industry officials are concerned it will cause delays and discourage tourism. Civil libertarians worry the data collected won't stay private.
Pity these same civil libertarians idiotartians have so little interest in the civil rights of Americans murdered by terrorists.
October 12, 2003
Australia Remembers Bali Victims
Guilt lies only with the killers
On 12 October, 2002, radical Islamists set off a massive bomb in the city of Bali, Indonesia. The main purpose was to kill Westerners. The victims were primarily Indonesian and Australian, but were also New Zealeander, English, German, Korean, Danish, French, American, Japanese, Italian, and Dutch. A total of 202 people from 20 countries were murdered, alongside people who were horribly burned, sometimes crippled, but managed to survive. As Jake Ryan, a student who was there remembers it:
"Everyone looks the same when they're on fire. This is something I learned searching for my brother Mitchell in the first minutes after the Sari Club exploded a year ago on Sunday.
I couldn't find him. I couldn't tell if Mitch was one of the dozens of burning people dying outside the club.
A friend and I ran back inside and found a girl sitting in a circle of flame. She was holding someone whose skin was totally blackened. We yelled at her to reach out, so we could lift her from the fire, but she screamed back that she couldn't: 'I have no legs.' I looked down. Both her legs were gone. She died looking me in the eyes.
Further inside, I saw a hand reaching out and I grabbed it. The skin peeled off like a glove. I grabbed it again and pulled the person out . . . dead, and so badly burned it was impossible to tell if it was a man or a woman."
THE nation's leaders and Bali victims are encouraging Victorians to display orange ribbons in honour of those killed in the blasts."Orange is the Balinese colour for peace. By wearing a ribbon we can also acknowledge the suffering of the Balinese, who like Australians, are peace-loving people."
Nothing more needs to be said...now's the time for doing.