"9-11We Will Never Forget...What Were We Talking About Again?"

(NOTE- HCdl spent years as a firefighter until he fell through a floor at a fire scene and damaged his back. This is personal for him, as well as thousands of other fire fighters and police who lost fellow members......They will never forget. On 9/11/2001 their worst nightmares as first responders and members of the fire department and police departments, came true. They understand what many have forgotten, this can and probably will happen again. How many more will be lost if we take our eye off the ball, so to speak?

Spree)

If you looked around after 11SEP01, you would see them everywhere. Bumper stickers. License plates. Hats. Tee shirts. Billboards. “We will never forget.”

America, and the world, watched in horror as the second plane hit the World Trade Center. One tower was already burning from the impact of a first jet. We were stunned. Numb. Horrified. Television networks across the broadband were showing the footage live of the burning tower as the second plane rammed into the second tower. The Pentagon was attacked by a third plane. A fourth plane went down in Pennsylvania. We were under attack.

Camera’s caught images of people, an estimated 200 people, human beings, jumping from the towers to escape the flames. Jumping to certain death. Firefighters, police, paramedics and EMT’s rushed into the buildings to try to help evacuate the people still inside.

We watched in agonized horror as the first tower collapsed, entombing those who had not made it out in the debris. The second tower followed suit, collapsing, burying people in its debris. 2,973 died and another 24 remain listed as missing. Nearly 3,000 people, gone, in the wake of a premeditated and highly staged act of hatred and aggression against our nation.

Our nation mourned. Our flags flew at half mast. Rescue workers poured in from around the globe to lend a hand in searching for survivors. My partner and I signed up on the standby list for volunteer firefighters in case we were needed. The nation grieved. The nation mourned. The nation united behind a common need to comfort each other, to find out who had done this to us, and to go after them.

Our resolve was strong in those early days. We were a nation hell bent on finding those responsible and bringing them to justice. We were at war and we knew it. The flags came out. The bumper stickers. Hats. The license plates. The banners, the buttons, the billboards; “We will never forget.”

So what has happened? We moved into Iraq, escalating our war against terrorists. Politics immediately came into play. “Why are we in Iraq? There are no terrorists in Iraq.” Pile upon pile, stack upon stack, of documented evidence shows otherwise.

Terrorists don’t recognize international borders. They don’t recognize the boundaries of one nation beside another. They don’t care. Radical Islam is their guide. Imperial Islam is their goal.

Our enemy has not surrendered, nor is our enemy dead.

Our enemy believes that there is a reward in heaven for them for dying in the fight against the Infidel. That’s you and me, amigos and amigas. Anyone who isn’t Muslim.

Our enemy isn’t ready to cut and run.

We have forgotten that which we swore, not a decade ago, that we would never forget.

We have forgotten 9-11.

The dead are buried, mourned, life has moved on.

Tell that to the families of those killed in the attacks. Tell that to the people recovering to this day from burns and other injuries they suffered that day. Tell that to the rescue workers who have fallen ill, who have died, from inhaling the poisonous air around ground zero. Tell that to the families of my 343 brother and sister firefighters from Fire Department New York, 23 New York City Police Department officers, and 37 Port Authority Police Department officers.

Tell that to the al Queda.

“We will never forget…unless we do…”

Our nation is at WAR, and we’re allowing politics to cloud our thinking. We’re allowing the left wing media to guide us into complacancy. We’re allowing quasi-communist elected officials to convince us THROUGH the media that this war is wrong. That they have changed their minds. That they shouldn’t have voted for the war. It was a mistake.

Our nation, our way of life, came under attack on that day. And it wasn’t even the first attack we had taken by this group, just the most devestating. The most costly.

And we’re ready and willing not to follow the advice of our military, our troops, whose job it is to protect our nation, who are trained to do so?

The American soldier, sailor, and Marines of today are not the same ones of the Vietnam era. Our military is all volunteer. ALL volunteer. The majority of them are highly educated. There are no high school drop out draftees in today’s modern army. Our military today is made up of highly professional men and women dedicated to a purpose.

That purpose is protecting your life.

And you as a people want to tell them that you don’t want them to do that job? To bring this to an end by taking out each and every terrorist that they can?

Those of you who support our troops, support what we’re doing, understand that there is a cause, a faction, who wishes to wipe us out, to eliminate our way of life, keep up the good work. Help us to continue to support our efforts in the fight against this BORDERLESS enemy who would see us dead or under subjegation.

To the rest of you…

Look at yourself in the mirror after you read this. If you can……..

Once and Always, an American Fighting Man

Dedicated to the 343 members of Fire Department New York lost on 11SEP01 and their families. You are not forgotten. You WILL NOT be forgotten. God bless.

FIREFIGHTER'S WTC MEMORIAL INDEX

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Sugar and Spice and Everything Nice...

Twelve year old little girls are just that. Little girls. They aren't grown women, they aren't older teens, their interest in boys is, under normal circumstances, just really starting to change from "ew, gross," into "you're silly, giggle giggle giggle."

LITTLE GIRLS.

I first saw Dakota Fanning in the Sci Fi channel's mini series a few years back about the UFO abductions. (Taken) I said at the time, "that little girl is going to have a big career."

Why taint that career with controversy? Worse, why taint the MIND of that obviously brilliant little girl with something as explicit and extreme as rape?

She's a little girl.

She shouldn't have had to endure what it must have taken for this role.

Did they have someone who had BEEN raped to coach her on how to react? How to scream? How to fight back? Doubtful, most rape victims don't want to relive that kind of thing. So then did they have a rapist coach her in how to react? Interesting thought, isn't it? Truth be known, I don't know who coached her, but if they knew all the reactions, one of the two questions must stand to reason as being the case, wouldn't you think? Again, not accusing anyone, but just thinking...

Hat tip to Kingdom Advancer for this one.

Where is the stomach turning point in this country today? Is a movie about a twelve year old little girl within the tolerances of what the stomach will allow without losing it's contents? Would you like your OWN little girls to be in movies where there is a rape scene involving them? If so, why? What the hell are you thinking?

I can't see this as being a good thing at all, in any way, shape, manner, or form. If Hollywood wants to make a movie demonizing child sexual abuse, that's fine. THIS AIN'T IT. Portraying it, acting it out, showing it on screen, will only do ONE thing to sexual predators: validate them.

They showed it in a movie right? It's okay for me to do something like this if they made a movie about it.

WRONG.

But look for that to be used as a defense in the courtroom. "The defense will show that the movie Hound Dog inspired the accused..."

I wonder if that same defense will work if the South says "we've had enough." "Your Honor, our clients were inspired by the mini-series North and South..."

LITTLE GIRLS.

They probably still have naked Barbie dolls in their rooms, for crying out loud.

Once and Always, an American Fighting Man

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WHATEVER you do, don't shoot them in the ass...

Ever have those moments when you feel like you've been transported to the Bizarro world? From WorldNetDaily:

Two U.S. Border Patrol agents were sentenced to prison terms of 11 years and 12 years for shooting a drug-smuggling suspect in the buttocks as he fled across the U.S.-Mexico border.

U.S. District Court Judge Kathleen Cardone in El Paso, Texas, sentenced Jose Alonso Compean to 12 years in prison and Ignacio Ramos to 11 years and one day despite a plea by their attorney for a new trial after three jurors said they were coerced into voting guilty in the case, the Washington Times reported.

Okay. Shake the head, blink the eyes, look at it again. No, it didn't change. What the FUCK?

As WorldNetDaily reported, a federal jury convicted Compean, 28, and Ramos, 37, in March after a two-week trial on charges of causing serious bodily injury, assault with a deadly weapon, discharge of a firearm in relation to a crime of violence and a civil rights violation.

(...)

In a move that still confuses Ramos and Compean, the U.S. government filed charges against them after giving full immunity to Aldrete-Davila and paying for his medical treatment at an El Paso hospital.

At trial, Assistant U.S. Attorney Debra Kanof told the court that the agents had violated an unarmed Aldrete-Davila's civil rights.

"The U.S. Supreme Court has ruled it is a violation of someone's Fourth Amendment rights to shoot them in the back while fleeing if you don't know who they are and/or if you don't know they have a weapon," said Kanof.

When I first heard about this on the G. Gordon Liddy show, I couldn't believe my ears. This is one of the greatest travesties of justice that I've heard of in this country in a long, long time. Isn't the Border Patrol in place to do EXACTLY what these two agents did? But they give the guy immunity so he can come testify against them, and treat his injuries, ON OUR DIME?

WHAT IN THE BLUE HADES IS WRONG WITH THIS COUNTRY?

As if THAT isn't bad enough, then there is this:

LUKEVILLE, Ariz. -- U.S. Border Patrol officials still don't know why National Guard troops along the Arizona-Mexico border had to flee a group of armed people. The gunmen fled into Mexico.

The gunmen attacked the U.S. Border Patrol entry site along Arizona's border before retreating back to Mexico on Wednesday night. The troops withdrew safely Wednesday night, and no was injured.

Can you believe this? Just read on, it gets better:

Several Border Patrol agents in the area told The Washington Times yesterday the armed men might have been trying to find out what the Guard troops would do if they were confronted by drug or alien smugglers. They said the increased presence of troops and additional Border Patrol agents in recent months had frustrated many of the area's drug and alien smugglers.

"I guess they got their answer," said one veteran agent. "When in doubt, the troops will run."

Earlier this year, several Border Patrol agents said they had been assigned to guard National Guard personnel, given standing orders to be within five minutes of the troops deployed along the border. The agents, who referred to the assignment as "the nanny patrol," said most of the Guard troops are not allowed to carry loaded weapons, despite a significant increase in violence directed at Border Patrol agents during the past year.

Unbelievable.

I'm in full support of the President in regards to the war in the Middle East. Our nation was attacked and we were within our full rights as a people, as a nation, to take military action in response to the imminent threat to our nation.

That being said.

There is absolutely NO logic in not sealing our borders, especially our southernmost border, and putting UNARMED troops along the border to sit and WATCH as illegal aliens come flooding into our country. And now they're coming in armed.

Talk radio is abuzz with calls for a Presidential pardon for the two border control agents who have been convicted of shooting this drug smuggler. I fully agree with this call for action by our President. The American people have no interest, by and large, in this on the sly agreement that we have with the Mexicans to create a North American Alliance like the European Union. The President is sitting back and ignoring the problem because he doesn't want to upset the Mexican government and damage relations in building the SPP. TOUGH SHIT.

Why isn't the dinosaur media all over this? It's the ONE thing the Bush administration has come up with that they're in favor of.

We need to win in the Middle East. Burn that into your minds, into your hearts. Failure to do so will result in problems the like of which we have never seen in this country. However, we also need to ensure that we don't hand ourselves, our nation, over into a situation that would change it in OTHER ways by creating a North American Continental governmental authority.

Right now, the SPP isn't in the forefront of "newsworthy" items. You have to dig for information on it, other than the official government site found here.

The right thing to do would be to pardon these men for doing their duty and attempting to protect our nation from illegal entry. Will the right thing be done?

And people wonder why I wrote that piece the other day saying Southerners are pissed and saying "we don't NEED this bullshit..."

Once and always, an American Fighting Man

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The War of Northern Aggression...?

I want to start this out with a little disclaimer. Before you, the reader, continues into this particular posting, I want it to be known that I am not in any way advocating nor promoting the taking of arms by the citizenry of the United States against our government. Our record will show, if you have been following this blog site for any length of time whatsoever, that we are both behind our troops and the President in regards to the war in the Middle East. We may take issue with the administration on other things, even with each other in some cases, on issues such as abortion, illegal immigration, and any host of other things involving our government. That being said, I want it perfectly clear that we are NOT advocating uprisings of any sort.

That being said, I'm going to venture into an area that I hear daily discussed on talk radio shows across the southeastern U.S. that don't make it into the headlines nor into the topics of national talk radio shows. Southerners, by and large, are a pissed off group of people. And they're starting to vent their frustrations verbally in public forums.

Anyone who has ever been to the South has seen a certain red, white, and blue flag flying in front yards throughout the countryside or on bumper stickers of cars and pickup trucks driving down the highways. The American flag flies high, shown with great pride in the South. So does the other flag to which I refer; the Confederate battle flag, known widely across the country and the world as the Rebel flag. I know what I'm about to say is going to piss some people off. So be it. What I'm about to say isn't going to feed propoganda of groups like the NAACP, the Klan, or any other groups that are out there rallying around the Rebel flag or trying to get rid of it for their own causes. What I'm about to say about this is the heartfelt sentiment of many Southerners, men and women who don't fly the flag out of hatred or for racial reasons, but for other reasons that we're going to explore today.

So if you can follow along for a bit to learn a bit and to stop and think, without letting left wing or right wing bias cloud your thinking, please continue. If you're already planning to go on the attack for what I'm about to say? You might as well stop right now and close this, don't even bother to continue. What I'm about to say comes from years and years of having the same conversation over and over and over again with people who love the South, live in the South, and love our country as a whole as WELL as the South, but also love a deep heritage that is unique TO the Southerner. For those of you who choose to read on from this point, let us continue.

There are any number of bumper stickers in the South bearing a little cartoon figure in Confederate gray waving a Confederate flag with the words "Surrender, Hell!", "Lee surrendered, I didn't," or the bumper sticker featuring the American AND Confederate flags stating "American by birth, Southern by the grace of God" on them. Northerners who come to the South and see them have various reactions to these effigies, varying from "quaint," "cute," "charming," to "racist," "hateful," and "gotta be a redneck." From Maryland and Virginia southward to Miami, across Tennessee, Arkansas, and down into Texas, even in Kentucky and Missouri, the Confederate flag is everywhere. One hundred and forty-two years after Appomattox, why is there still such a display of the Confederate flag?

One answer is Reconstruction. A period of time that should have been a time of healing after the war only served to further deepen the resentments of Southerners against the North. Contrary to popular beliefs written by historians after the war, ingrained in the mindset of the public in regards to the Civil War, the war itself was alllllllllllllllll about slavery. It wasn't. Slavery was only one issue among a great, great many. Slavery, in fact, was becoming an economic hardship on slaveholders and was, by economic necessity, on it's way out. Historians are on both sides of this arguement, but by looking at things from a fiscal and financial point of view, the introduction of the cotton gin and other advances in farm machinery opened the door for the end of slavery. Call slavery what you will, evil or necessary, there are a few facts that should be kept in mind in regards to the practice: Christ did not condemn slavery (nor is it condemned anywhere in the Bible), a great number of African tribes sold prisoners from other tribes to white slavers through the centuries that Africa was being used to provide slaves to the Americas and Europe, and slavery is a practice that even today is alive and well in the Muslim world under Islamic law.

At this point I want anyone who is reading this to get up, stretch your legs, go to the bathroom, get a cup of coffee or whatever beverage of choice you prefer, and let your mind chew on that last one. Slavery is a practice that EVEN TODAY is alive and well under Islamic law.

Take five, people. Digest that information.

No, seriously, take five minutes to wrap your Western mind around the fact that slavery is alive and well in the Muslim world.

Okay, I'm going to assume that you've done as I've asked and taken five minutes to get this concept of slavery being alive and well in Islam into your thick American heads (I say that AS a thick headed American, chill out) and we can move on from here.

To get back on topic, the Civil War didn't end with Lee's surrender at Appomattox, in the minds of many Southerners. It went on hold. Especially after Reconstruction.

Nearly one hundred and fifty years later, issues such as abortion, illegal immigration, burdensome taxation (an issue eternal, it seems), states rights versus a large federal government (another holdover from the original war between the states), and a host of issues both new and old have grass roots Southern America in a state of pissed the fuck off. At least once or twice a day in my travels with work, either in face to face conversations with people or hearing it on the airwaves, civil war is mentioned.

That should scare the shit out of people.

For some reason, it doesn't.

Congress seems to be ignoring this. The Senate seems to be ignoring this. The White House? No idea what the White House position on it is. I will tell you, though, that the mindset of a number of Southerners out there is to take up arms again.

IF THAT HAPPENS,

and historically, it has already happened once,

IF THAT HAPPENS,

moderate thinking Southerners will resign themselves to the fact that "it's back on."

In the back of almost EVERY Southerner's mind, Lee at Appomattox was nothing more than an extended cease fire that's been waiting for it's end. "Lee Surrendered, I Didn't." Day by day, week by week, month by month, left wing leadership is taking more and more Southerners into the mindset of "we don't need this bullshit."

Most of us have already disowned Al Gore.

Just a case in point.

I'm not saying these things in advocacy. I want that remembered. I want that clearly understood and comprehended. I'm saying it as a hope that there are people reading this who will wake up and listen. Not to prosecute. You don't prosecute over thoughts. When the thought police start taking to the streets, the people DO rise up and strike back. I'm saying what I'm saying because I have the hopes of an American described in the Charlie Daniels song "In America" that says "and you never did think that we'd ever get together again."

Extreme ideas cause extreme problems.

Now if you'll excuse me, I see that my Confederate flag needs to be refolded from where someone has been looking at it and thinking...

Once and Always, an American Fighting Man


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Sympathy for the Devil...

I have to hand it to the New York Times. They almost made me feel sorry for The Butcher of Bagdad. Almost.

This isn't horseshoes or hand grenades, though. Well, it might be hand grenades...hmmmm.

From the New York Times:

BAGHDAD, Dec. 31 — With his plain pine coffin strapped into an American military helicopter for a predawn journey across the desert, Saddam Hussein, the executed dictator who built a legend with his defiance of America, completed a turbulent passage into history on Sunday.

Like the helicopter trip, just about everything in the 24 hours that began with Mr. Hussein’s being taken to his execution from his cell in an American military detention center in the postmidnight chill of Saturday had a surreal and even cinematic quality.

Yes, and? Are we supposed to be upset that he was given a pine box and flown by chopper to his burial site instead given, what, more? Look down the page, here, a bit, at the pictures of the stacked bodies of the Butcher's victims. Did they get even as MUCH as a pine box? I doubt it. People like the Butcher tend to use mass graves for the people they kill. Hitler and Stalin both did it, pretty much setting a precedent followed by men of evil ever since.

Don Surber is right on target with his opening comments about this:

John F. Burns furthered the NY Times editorial stance of why rush in the hanging of Saddam Hussein with a piece today -- “Rush to Hang Hussein Was Questioned” -- that makes Hussein a martyr.

The story has a huge photo of his mourners, not his hanging, which is not shown. Co-written with Marc Santora, Burns continued to praise Hussein.

You know, I'm in a quandry here. Martyrs, according to what they tell the suicide bombers and plane bombers and what not, according to Islam, are to be rewarded in Heaven, right? They're all pumped up and hyped up and ready and willing to die for the cause. Where did we capture Saddam Hussein? In a hole in the ground, hiding like a rodent.

Hitler, at least, did the right thing and ate a bullet. Think he thought HE was going to Heaven? I don't think so. I think Adolf Hitler KNEW that he was on an express train to the deepest pits of Hell when he pulled the trigger. I think Saddam Hussein knew that he had a ticket waiting for him, too. That's why he hid in a hole rather than going out of his own doing.

Truly a great example for the young Jihadists who think that they're going to Heaven for killing innocents. Spectacular.

There was a rush to hang the Butcher? I say they waited longer than they should have. That's my call on the matter.

Told that Mr. Maliki wanted to carry out the death sentence on Mr. Hussein almost immediately, and not wait further into the 30-day deadline set by the appeals court, American officers at the Thursday meeting said that they would accept any decision but needed assurance that due process had been followed before relinquishing physical custody of Mr. Hussein.

“The Americans said that we have no issue in handing him over, but we need everything to be in accordance with the law,” the Iraqi official said. “We do not want to break the law.”

That's questioning the rush to hang the Butcher? Sounds to me it's more like making sure all the ducks were in a row.

The American pressure sent Mr. Maliki and his aides into a frantic quest for legal workarounds, the Iraqi official said. The Americans told them they needed a decree from President Jalal Talabani, signed jointly by his two vice presidents, upholding the death sentence, and a letter from the chief judge of the Iraqi High Tribunal, the court that tried Mr. Hussein, certifying the verdict. But Mr. Talabani, a Kurd, made it known that he objected to the death penalty on principle.

The Maliki government spent much of Friday working on legal mechanisms to meet the American demands. From Mr. Talabani, they obtained a letter saying that while he would not sign a decree approving the hanging, he had no objections. The Iraqi official said Mr. Talabani first asked the tribunal’s judges for an opinion on whether the constitutional requirement for presidential approval applied to a death sentence handed down by the tribunal, a special court operating outside Iraq’s main judicial system. The judges said the requirement was void.

Mr. Maliki had one major obstacle: the Hussein-era law proscribing executions during the Id holiday. This remained unresolved until late Friday, the Iraqi official said. He said he attended a late-night dinner at the prime minister’s office at which American officers and Mr. Maliki’s officials debated the issue.

One participant described the meeting this way: “The Iraqis seemed quite frustrated, saying, ‘Who is going to execute him, anyway, you or us?’ The Americans replied by saying that obviously, it was the Iraqis who would carry out the hanging. So the Iraqis said, ‘This is our problem and we will handle the consequences. If there is any damage done, it is we who will be damaged, not you.’ ”

To this, the Iraqis added what has often been their trump card in tricky political situations: they telephoned officials of the marjaiya, the supreme religious body in Iraqi Shiism, composed of ayatollahs in the holy city of Najaf. The ayatollahs approved. Mr. Maliki, at a few minutes before midnight on Friday, then signed a letter to the justice minister, “to carry out the hanging until death.”

It also seems to me the Iraqi's where the ones who had the questions, even though they were the ones who wanted to get it done.

I think the NYT is more upset about how the Iraqi's who hanged the Butcher reacted and interacted with him, at the end, than anything else. Who can blame people who have lived under an oppressive rule for hating the leader who kept them UNDER that rule? Who can BLAME them for having a few last words to say to that leader before executing him? Certainly not anyone who has never LIVED under the rule of such a tyrant as the Butcher. Condemn them for their words to a dying man? Applaud them. He left this world knowing how his people felt about him. He left hearing the truth spoken to him. And for someone like the Butcher, even the truth spoken to him before his neck was stretched was mild compared to the deaths of innocents he was responsible for.

New York Times, you're pathetic...

Once and always, an American Fighting Man

Others discussing this:
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