NRA update

Outrage Of The Week

This week's outrage comes to us from Winchendon, Massachusetts where, in yet another case of "zero-tolerance" enforcement defying common sense, fourth-grader Bradley Geslak was suspended from Toy Town Elementary School for bringing a Memorial Day souvenir to school.

Click here to take this week's poll about Defensive Gun Use

Speak Up Now On Right-To-Carry In National Parks: As we've reported over the last few weeks, the U.S. Department of the Interior has issued a proposed rule to eliminate the prohibition on Right-to-Carry in national parks and wildlife refuges. The National Rifle Association led the effort to change this policy and we are very close to winning this important battle.

However, the new rules will not take effect until after a public comment period. Our opponents will take advantage of this time to try to convince the Secretary of the Interior to reverse his decision. NRA members must take action now so that the anti-gunners are not allowed to sway this process.

Stop BATFE Abuses -- Urge Your Congressman To Cosponsor H.R. 4900: Continuing concern about the treatment of firearm dealers by BATFE has caused members of the U.S. House of Representatives--with NRA-ILA's full support--to push for new and improved reform legislation. That push has taken the form of H.R. 4900-- the "Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives Reform and Firearms Modernization Act."

STATE ROUNDUP (please click to see any updates on states not listed below.)

ARIZONA: Governor Vetoes Pro-Gun Bills! On Tuesday, May 27, Governor Janet Napolitano (D) vetoed NRA-supported House Bill 2629, which would have allowed the defensive display of a firearm. The Governor also vetoed Senate Bill 1106 which would have created a lifetime concealed carry license for Arizona residents. Although the 2008 legislative session will be adjourning soon, NRA is not giving up on issues important to our members, and is still working to pass a bill to make the defensive display of a firearm legal. We will keep you updated on the progress of this effort.

CALIFORNIA: Anti-Gun Bills Head to Senate! Earlier this week the Assembly passed Assembly Bill 2948 by a vote of 41 to 25. AB2948 seeks to ban the sale of firearms and ammunition on the property or inside the buildings that comprise the Cow Palace. The bill now heads to the Senate for its consideration. Also headed to the Senate are Assembly Bills 2235 and 2062. AB 2235 would prohibit the sale of handguns other than "owner-authorized (or "smart") handguns". AB 2062 would make it a crime to privately transfer more than 50 rounds of ammunition per month, even between family and friends, unless you are registered as a "handgun ammunition vendor" in the Department of Justice's database. Please contact your State Senator and respectfully urge him or her to oppose AB2948, AB2235 and AB2062 when they come before them for a vote. Contact information for your State Senator can be found by clicking here.

Santa Clara Board of Supervisors Considering Mandatory Spay or Neuter Resolution! The Santa Clara County Board of Supervisors will be considering a resolution in support of the California Healthy Pets Act, AB 1634 on Tuesday, June 3. This measure requires every dog older than four months to be spayed or neutered. Owners hoping to breed their dogs at some point during their lives would be required to apply annually to their local government for an "intact" permit. Except under very limited circumstances, the local government official has the power to deny issuance of an intact permit without cause. The cost of the annual permit is unspecified in the legislation and is to be determined by the local government. Penalty for non-compliance is a $500 fine imposed by the state and any additional fines imposed by the local government. Please contact each member of the Board of Supervisors and respectfully urge them to oppose any resolution in support of AB 1634. Please click here to find contact information for the Board of Supervisors.

DELAWARE: "Landowner Liability Protection Act" Delayed by Trial Lawyers in Committee! Earlier this month we reported that a scheduled vote on House Bill 341, the "Landowner Liability Protection Act," in the House Housing & Community Affairs Committee was delayed because of opposition from the Delaware Trial Lawyers Association. HB341 would ensure that landowners who allow public hunting access incur no liability for property damage or personal injuries caused by hunters -- regardless of whether the damage occurs on or off the landowner's property. If HB341 is not enacted, landowners will continue to deny access to hunters for fear of being sued. Please contact the members of the House Housing & Community Affairs Committee TODAY and respectfully urge them to support this crucial piece of legislation. To find contact information for the committee members, please click here.

GEORGIA: The Fish and Wildlife Service has announced that it will prepare a management plan for the Savannah Coastal Refuges' Complex. The 56,000 acre Complex is comprised of a chain of refuges that together span a 100-mile coastline. Deer hunting is allowed on a number of the refuges that make up the Complex. The Service is asking for suggestions and information on the scope of the issues to consider in the planning process. Comments must be submitted by July 3. An open house will be held during the scoping phase. Questions and comments should be directed to Jane Griess, Project Leader, at 912-652-4415, or at savannahcoastalccp@fws.gov. If you hunt on any of the refuges within the Complex, it is important for you to participate in the planning process to secure hunting opportunities for the future.

ILLINOIS: Urgent Action Needed to Protect Our Rights! On Wednesday, May 28, the Illinois House of Representatives Executive Committee voted to amend House Bill 2760 to include a lost or stolen firearm clause. Under this new amendment, anyone with a valid Firearms Owner's Identification (FOID) Card who is either the victim of a crime where a lawfully owned firearm is stolen, or if they lose a firearm, must report the theft or loss to the authorities within 72 hours. The House could also take up Senate Bill 1007 at anytime, which would ban the manufacture, possession, delivery, sale, and purchase of standard capacity ammunition magazines capable of holding more than ten (10) cartridges. The 2008 Illinois legislative session is quickly coming to a close and it is critical that you make your voice heard. Please contact your State Representative IMMEDIATELY and respectfully urge him or her to oppose both HB2760 and SB1007. Contact information can be found by clicking here.

KENTUCKY: National Rifle Association Specialized License Plates! NRA is collecting applications for specialized NRA license plates for the Commonwealth of Kentucky. The Kentucky Department of Motor Vehicles will only produce the plates if it receives at least 900 applications for the NRA license plate. The initial application fee is $28.00. For information on where to send your payment and where to submit your application, please click here.

LOUISIANA: Your Self-Defense Rights are at Stake! Earlier this week, the House Administration of Criminal Justice Committee passed NRA-backed Senate Bill 51. SB 51 would protect your right to lawfully transport and store firearms in your locked motor vehicle while parked in unsecured, public access parking lots controlled by your employer or a business you frequent. The bill now moves to the House floor for consideration. It's simple-if your employer or business can ban firearms from the parking lot, your right to self-defense during your drive to and from work or while running errands each day is gone. Your State Representative needs to hear from you TODAY! Please call your State Representative at 225-342-6945 or email him or her and urge them to support SB 51 when it comes before the full House for consideration in the coming weeks. You can find your State Representative and their contact information by clicking here.

Also, the Fish and Wildlife Service has announced that it will prepare a management plan for the Black Bayou Lake National Wildlife Refuge in Ouachita Parish, LA. The 4,500-acre Refuge is three miles north of Monroe. Resident game and migratory game bird hunting occur on the refuge. The Service is asking for suggestions and information on the scope of the issues to consider in the planning process. Comments must be submitted by June 23. An open house will be held during the scoping phase. Questions and comments should be directed to Tina Chouinard, Natural Resource Planner, at 318-305-0643, or at tina_chouinard@fws.gov. If you hunt this Refuge, it is important for you to participate in the planning process to secure hunting opportunities for the future.

MAINE: Maine Primary Elections, Tuesday, June 10! Tuesday, June 10 is Primary Election Day in Maine. Please be sure to vote Freedom First. For candidate ratings and endorsements, please call the NRA-ILA Grassroots Division at (800) 392-VOTE (8683). For more information about voting in Maine, please click here. Remember to Vote Freedom First on Tuesday, June 10!

MICHIGAN/NEVADA: Right-to-Carry Reciprocity Agreement Reached! Michigan and Nevada have reached a reciprocity agreement. Michigan and Nevada will now recognize each other's Right-to-Carry permits. Permit holders must comply with the laws that apply to the specific state in which they are traveling. For a list of prohibited carry locations as well as states that Nevada recognizes, please click here. Please click here to view the states that acknowledge a Michigan Right-to-Carry permit.

Registration Reform Bill Sent to Senate Judiciary Committee! House Bill 4490 and House Bill 4491 have passed the House and have been assigned to the Senate Judiciary Committee. A hearing date has not been scheduled yet. The bills would repeal the required "safety inspection" for newly obtained handguns. Michigan law requires anyone who comes into possession of a pistol to take it to the police or sheriff's department for a safety inspection. The requirement of a safety inspection is a burdensome waste of time for law-abiding gun owners and the bills will end that inconvenience. Please contact the chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, Senator Wayne Kuipers (R-30), and respectfully urge him to give hearings to both HB4490 and HB4491 before the committee. You can contact Senator Kuipers by phone at (517) 373-6920 or by email at senwkuipers@senate.michigan.gov.

MONTANA: Montana Primary Elections, Tuesday, June 3! Tuesday, June 3 is Primary Election Day in Montana. Please be sure to go to the polls and "Vote Freedom First." For candidate ratings and endorsements, please call the NRA-ILA Grassroots Division at (800) 392-VOTE (8683) or visit www.NRAPVF.org. For more information about voting in Montana, please click here. Remember to Vote Freedom First on Tuesday, June 3!

BLM to Close Land to Recreational Shooting Outside Helena: The Bureau of Land Management is seeking public comment on its proposal to close land within the 4,700-acre North Hills Recreation Area located northeast of Helena. BLM proposes to close the entirety of Section 34, Township 12 North, Range 3 West. This would close several user-created shooting areas that are located adjacent to the main access road to the Recreation Area. The area would not be closed to hunting during the big game season. All BLM lands outside of the closed area would remain open yearlong to recreational shooting. The deadline for comments is June 15th. Comments should be submitted to BLM Butte Field Office, 106 North Parkmont, Butte, MT 59701, or electronically to pzurcher@blm.gov. For additional information you may call 406-533-7638. It is critical that gun owners and sportsmen take an active role in this process!

NEW HAMPSHIRE: Governor John Lynch Signs Pro-Hunting Legislation into Law! Recently, Governor John Lynch (D) signed House Bill 1266 into law. HB 1266 allows hunters to use .50 caliber pistols to take deer and moose in areas of the state where pistols are permitted for hunting. Please continue checking www.NRAILA.org for further updates on pro-hunting issues in New Hampshire.

NEW MEXICO: New Mexico Primary Elections, Tuesday, June 3! Tuesday, June 3 is Primary Election Day in New Mexico. Please be sure to vote Freedom First. For candidate ratings and endorsements, please call the NRA-ILA Grassroots Division at (800) 392-VOTE (8683) or visit www.NRAPVF.org. For more information about voting in New Mexico, please click here. Remember to Vote Freedom First on Tuesday, June 3!

NEW YORK: Paterson's Anti-Gun Proposal Still an Issue On Monday, May 19, Governor David Paterson (D) outlined a proposal that he plans to introduce that targets law-abiding gun owners and licensed gun dealers. The NRA strongly opposes this measure. Two areas that we specifically oppose are those that would implement more requirements for pistol license applicants without making licenses more accessible to those who qualify, as well as a plan to require licenses for employees of gun stores and granting the State Police broad authority to impose regulations on licensed dealers and gunsmiths. To view a copy of the press release on Governor Paterson's website, click here. Please call your State Legislators today at (518) 455-4100 and respectfully urge them to oppose this measure. To find your Assembly Member, click here. To find your State Senator, click here.

OHIO: Senate Passes "Castle Doctrine" Legislation! On Thursday, May 29, Senate Bill 184, Ohio's "Castle Doctrine" legislation passed out of the State Senate by a vote of 25 to 7. This legislation now heads to the Governor for his signature. Governor Ted Strickland (D) has already voiced his support for SB 184 and is expected to sign this legislation into law within the next couple of weeks. SB 184, sponsored by State Senator Steve Buehrer (R-1), will restore the right of individuals to respond with force in defense of their lives and family, and immunize the victim from civil lawsuits by criminals or the criminal's family. Included in SB 184 are several pro-gun amendments, which remove restrictions on carrying an unloaded firearm in a vehicle, protect the ability to store a firearm in a locked vehicle in privately owned parking facility, and the protect law-abiding gun owners from government gun confiscation during a state of emergency. Please keep checking www.NRAILA.org for further updates on this issue.

OKLAHOMA: Tax Break for NRA Events in Budget Bill On Friday, May 23, with just a few hours remaining in the 2008 Legislative Session, the Oklahoma Legislature gave final approval to an omnibus budget bill (HB1387), which included an important amendment that will exempt purchases and sales at Friends of NRA events from state taxes. We all know the numerous benefits derived by the Friends of NRA program and this legislation will only enhance our efforts on this front. Special thanks to State Senator Anthony Sykes (R-24) and State Representative Randy Terrill (R-53) for their leadership on this effort, and to our allies in both chambers for their support of Friends of NRA! This budget measure has been sent to Governor Brad Henry (D) for his consideration.

RHODE ISLAND: Anti-Gun ("Microstamping") Bills Head to Committee! After being pulled from the agenda of the House Judiciary Committee, House Bill 7834 has been referred to the House Finance Committee. HB7834, the "microstamping" proposal, would ban the sale of semi-automatic handguns not equipped with so-called "microstamping" technology. HB7834's Senate companion bill, Senate Bill 2720, is being held up for further study in the Senate Committee on Judiciary. Please contact the members of the House Finance Committee as well as the members of the Senate Committee on Judiciary IMMEDIATELY and respectfully urge them to oppose H7834 and S2720! For committee member contact information, please click here.

SOUTH CAROLINA: South Carolina Primary Elections, Tuesday, June 10! Tuesday, June 10 is Primary Election Day in South Carolina. Please be sure to vote Freedom First. For candidate ratings and endorsements, please call the NRA-ILA Grassroots Division at (800) 392-VOTE (8683) or visit www.NRAPVF.org. For more information about voting in South Carolina, please click here. Remember to Vote Freedom First on Tuesday, June 10!

Right to Hunt and Fish Gets a Second Chance Earlier this week new life was breathed into H 3202, the Right to Hunt and Fish Constitutional Amendment, but the new language is not supported by NRA. Previously thought to be dead, H 3202 has been amended to exclude language previously agreed to by both the Department of Natural Resources and NRA language that would have protected the rights of hunters in the Palmetto State. The current version of this bill will not protect hunter's rights. Please contact your State Senator and respectfully urge him or her to oppose any version of this bill that does not include NRA approved language. You can find the contact information for your Senator by clicking here.

.

Nancy Pelosi, Ringmistress of the Democratic National Circus

Nancy Pelosi has done it again. There seems to be a certain script that she's following. Could it be that there are instructions tattooed behind her eyelids so that only she can read the writing?

"Nancy, follow these instructions:

1. Procure interview.

2. Open mouth.

3. Lie like hell."

Nancy's latest line is that she's given credit to Iran for stopping violence in Basra. Um, pardon me, but I thought that the Iranians were CAUSING problems of violence in Iraq, not stepping in to stop violence...

From Abe Greenwald at Commentary Magazine:

In an interview yesterday with the San Francisco Chronicle, Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi claimed the U.S. troop surge failed to accomplish its goal. She then partially credited the success of the troop surge to “the goodwill of the Iranians,” claiming that they were responsible for ending violence in the southern city of Basra.

Asked if she saw any evidence of the surge’s positive impact on her May 17 trip to Iraq she responded:

Well, the purpose of the surge was to provide a secure space, a time for the political change to occur to accomplish the reconciliation. That didn’t happen. Whatever the military success, and progress that may have been made, the surge didn’t accomplish its goal. And some of the success of the surge is that the goodwill of the Iranians-they decided in Basra when the fighting would end, they negotiated that cessation of hostilities-the Iranians.

This is an inexcusable slander. Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki brought the Sadrists militias to their knees in a month-long battle that enabled Iraq’s largest Sunni bloc to rejoin the government. Furthermore, when Pelosi met with Prime Minister al-Maliki in Mosul she sang quite a different tune. She had “welcomed Iraq’s progress in passing a budget as well as oil legislation, and a bill paving the way for the provincial elections in the fall that are expected to more equitably redistribute power among local officials,” and stated, “We’re assured the elections will happen here, they will be transparent, they will be inclusive and they will take Iraq closer to the reconciliation we all want it to have.”

GREAT JOB, Grammy Nan, you're proving, once again, how true the old adage that is credited to the American Indian in regards to Washington politicians, "White man (in this case, woman) speak with forked tongue."

The Democratic Party has turned into little more than a three ring circus at this point, with Nancy Pelosi staring in the center ring as the ringmistress, bull horn in hand, feast your eyes, ladiessssssssssss and gentlemen, on our next assssssssssstounding performance, and voila, Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama come driving out in the clown care to amuse and confuse in the left ring, the Amazing Algore in the other left ring (there are no right rings in this circus) begins setting up for his amazing green magic performance. I've heard, personally, that it's a lot of "hot" air...

Shakespeare once said "all the world's a stage," and the Democrats are doing their dead level best to prove the Bard at his word. For the past two years, the Democrats have been MacBeth's "poor player who struts and frets his hour upon the stage, FULL of SOUND and FURY...a tale told by an idiot, signifying nothing." The American people were duped by democrats into voting them into power two years ago hoping for change and that the Democrats would do something about the rising price of fuel. They did; the economy has continued to tank and fuel prices are nearing double what they were at the time of Nancy Pelosi's grand show of strutting about on the floor of the House with her grandchild in arms. What a magNIFICENT photo op! It would have been more impressive to use trained apes, at least they might have accomplished a bit more than the Democrats have managed since their glorious seizure of power in 06. Flung poo on the House floor would be more interesting than anything Nancy has had to say, and I'm certain that there could be more accomplished in the form of hanging from the chandeliers than is being done by our current "representatives" who have manage to change the names of some postal facilities over the past couple of years. Perhaps the alpha male of the group of apes could bang the gavel and call them to order for a session of legislative session of lice and flea picking and grooming.

That, at least, would be something productive. We could expect the new Speaker of the House to look a bit like this:

We, the American people, are screwing ourselves over by sending the same do-nothing "representatives" up to Washington term after term after term. We are being earmarked and porked to death, and we're not even getting the satisfaction of having a good smoke after being porked without knowing that our legislators want to levy a heavy tax on the tobacco. Perhaps Ringling Brothers would be better, at this point, in handling our government. They have experience in juggling, dealing with dangerous predators, and performing seemingly impossible feats that amaze us in spectacular ways. Perhaps they could appoint someone along the lines of the late Gunther Gebel Williams as Ambassador to the United Nations.

And yet we do it to ourselves. We select the most inept, corrupt, despicable individuals that we can select out of a poor selection pool of contenders to send to Washington as it is. There are currently 535 Senators and Congressmen and Congresswomen in our government, the majority of whom have been there long enough to become entrenched in their positions. Need I name names? Dick Durbin, Ted Kennedy, Nancy Pelosi, Harry Reid, Robert Byrd...Robert Byrd, by the way, a former Klansman who was born in 1917, has served since 1959.

1959.

THIS was the intention of the founding fathers? Senators who become career politicians instead of serving the country IN ADDITION to their careers as farmers, doctors, lawyers, business owners? I think not. And yet for 49 years Byrd has served as a Senator.

And yet West Virginia continues to put him into office, decade after decade.

Ask yourselves, Americans, is this the way you wish to be represented in government? By a group of people who could be replaced by trained apes who would do a better job? At least, perhaps, the apes would have enough sense not to do something as inane as trying to sue OPEC.

Once and Always, an American Fighting Man

.

Palestinians Under Attack...by Islamist Groups

For years the main stream media has pushed the notion of how the Palestinians have been treated harshly by Israel, often blaming Israel as the instigator in situations where the IDF has retaliated for actions against Israel. Now the situation has changed.

To say that there has been unrest in the Middle East for the past several decades would be as much of an understatement as to say that the Grand Canyon is a big ditch. We have discussed, in the past, such issues as the Balfour agreement, the wars between Israel and her neighbors, the very right of Israel to exist as a nation, and the plight of the "Palestinians." The main stream media has invested much time and energy driving the "blame Israel for all of it" bus that now, as thinks have taken a strong, radical, dramatic change in the Middle East, the detractors of Israel are remaining strangely silent, not reporting on the current situation faced by Palestinians.

Could it be that there is nothing that screams of media bias more than the silence of the media over the peril being faced by Palestinians as they find themselves in the middle of fighting between other Arabs?

Intense fighting broke out in Nahr al-Bared Palestinian refugee camp on 20 May between Fatah al-Islam, an Islamist armed group that had recently moved into the camp, and Lebanese armed forces. According to reports, 168 Lebanese soldiers, 42 civilians and 220 Fatah al-Islam members were killed before the army gained control of the camp on 2 September.

During the clashes, both sides put civilians at risk. Fatah al-Islam established armed positions in the camp and withdrew to them after attacking an army base. The army carried out heavy and possibly indiscriminate artillery shelling of the camp. The camp was largely destroyed. It appeared that after the army took control there was widespread looting, burning and vandalism of vacated homes and property. In December, the Prime Minister wrote to Amnesty International to say that the army was investigating the reports, noting that one finding was that the army had burned some homes to rid them of a poison spread by Fatah al-Islam.

Most of some 30,000 Palestinian refugees displaced from Nahr al-Bared relocated to Beddaawi refugee camp. They were allowed to return to Nahr al-Bared from October but the majority remained displaced at the end of the year. The camp remained off-limits to the media and local human rights organizations.

On May 10th, Johnny Simpson reported that al-Qaeda had declared war on Hezbollah in Lebanon. Fighting, which has been going on for over a year now, has spilled into Palestinian settlements, so far leaving several civilians injured or dead as a result of clashes between hostile factions. The civilian populace isnt safe when there is no fighting, however, as reports of abuse have become all to common place in Arab on Arab violence.

Scores of Palestinians were threatened, humiliated and abused by soldiers, often after being stopped at army checkpoints. Abuses included being stripped, being forced to lie on the road, and being beaten, kicked, hit with rifle butts, insulted and humiliated. In several cases individuals were reportedly whipped, given electric shocks and sexually abused.

Some 200 people were arrested and remained detained on account of their suspected involvement with Fatah al-Islam. Tens of these were reportedly charged with terrorism offences that can carry the death penalty. There were reports that some detainees were tortured or otherwise ill-treated.

So where are the news networks as these things are happening? The United Nations has done their usual with regards to incidents in the region where Israel is not involved for taking the blame: absolutely nothing (although they have passed a resolution for the investigation of the death of former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri and 22 others in 2005). Other than a few more local sources and outlets, there is very little being discussed about the Palestinian situation, now that it's not something involving Israel.



What does this say of the main stream media that they pick and choose which side to take in a situation, rather than objectively reporting the news? What does it say for us, as a society, that we allow ourselves to be so easily influenced as the many, by the few, rather than examining situations ourselves to come up with our own conclusions?

Opinion pieces, like those who write them, are just that. The opinions of those who write them. They, like all other forms of media, have their place and purpose, and as such, in setting forth to reach an audience, should do so responsibly. When reporting the news becomes so overwhelmingly influenced by opinion, however, there is no objectivity, there is no integrity of an unbiased reflection of events.

This is no new trend for the media. "Yellow Journalism" has it's roots in the late 1890's, during circulation battles between Joseph Pulitzer's New York World and William Randolph Hearst's New York Journal, both of whom are blamed or credited, depending on your point of view, for drawing the United States into the Spanish-American War. Print media, and later on radio and television media, have continued to fall into a consistent pattern of employing such journalistic "tactics" in order to sell papers or garner ratings from listeners and viewers. In the process, someone always suffers the consequences for being the target of biased reporting.

This time, however, the law of unintended consequences factors in. The Palestinian refugees, a product of political and social manipulation and wrangling as well as yellow journalism, have been used for years as a thorn in the side of Israel, with Arab nations not allowing these people to come across their borders into their nations. As recently as this past spring, Palestinians breached a wall separating their villages from Egypt, opening a route for refugees to travel to markets in Egypt to shop and do business. The Egyptian response was to agree with Israel that Palestinian authorities reseal the wall, as a chaotic situation had ensued with the masses of people flooding into Egypt, some returning with weapons to their villages.

But this time, as violence continues to shift and wind it's way across the Middle East, the media is turning it's attention elsewhere, unable to blame Israel for the danger in which Palestinian civilians find themselves facing. The clear message sent by the silence of the media? "If Israel isn't to blame, it ain't news."

Once and Always, an American Fighting Man

.

Maxine Waters, Out of the Closet as a Socialist?

Last week during Congressional hearings with oil company executives, industry executives told members of Congress they were being hamstrung by being unable to access oil on American soil and territory. Maxine Waters of California has another solution...

Fuel and oil prices are climbing, daily. No one can argue that, although there is plenty of argument over the reasons for it and solutions and alternatives petroleum products. There are plenty of fly by night opportunities for get rich quick schemers to jump in offering miracle products to a public looking for relief from rising fuel prices, which are in turn driving the prices up on practically everything else.

I didn't know where to expect it coming from, or rather whom, but I did expect it, and I did expect it to be suggested for the oil industry. Bear in mind this is the SECOND industry that is being targeted by politicians for nationalization.

That's right, the second industry.

More on that in a few minutes.

The who has turned out to be Democratic Congresswoman Maxine Waters, who suggested last week in meetings (hearings) with oil company executives that she had no problem with the government taking over the industry.

That's called "nationalizing."



I don't see anything, anywhere, in the Constitution, where it calls for the federal government to get involved in industry. The role of the government is a national defense, creation of laws governing relations between the states and our country with other countries, and improvement of the interior. In a nutshell, that's it. It is not the responsibility of government to become involved in private industry. Not under our constitutional structure. That road leads to a socialist system, and that lies in contradiction with our rule of law.

And yet it has now been suggested for a second industry, the oil industry, by Maxine Waters.

That brings us full circle, back to the question that's lurking beneath the surface, of what was the first industry? If you haven't figured it out by now, that's because you've been conditioned not to even think about it by politicians and the main stream dinosaur media at large that it doesn't even cross your mind at this point to consider that to put control of the nation's health care industry into the hand of the government would be nationalizing it to federal control. That's right, the first industry to be targeted was the health care industry.

Watch for this trend to become more frequently mentioned in the coming months...

Once and Always, an American Fighting Man

.

"I See Dead People..." - Barack Obama, the "Sixth Sense" Candidate

Perhaps he's channeling the spirit of Audie Murphy. Or perhaps he's trying to make himself more appealing to a wider audience. The deceased, maybe?

It's an amazing thing, really, how deeply one can keep shoving one's foot into one's mouth without winding up thigh deep in leg. If Barack Obama isn't up to at least his knee by now, then it's not for lack of trying. It was bad enough that he didn't know how many states there are, and of course all of his back and forth over Jeremiah Wright.

Now, he evidently sees dead people, and is he trying to tell us his great uncle was in the Red Army?

FIRST, the dead people. Coming from the Chicago political machine, it might be understandable that Obama could think he sees dead people in the audience. Given the record that Chicago has of the dead being able to vote, it makes this gaf a little bit plausible, at least.

On this Memorial Day, as our nation honors its unbroken line of fallen heroes — and I see many of them in the audience here today — our sense of patriotism is particularly strong.

He saw fallen heroes in the audience. Now, forgive me if I'm wrong, I don't think I am, but hasn't the term "fallen heroes" generally meant those who were...dead? Dead heroes, right?

Obama sees dead people.

He's the Sixth Sense candidate.

Or is that "no sense" candidate?

It gets better.

Obama goes on to tell about his uncle liberating Auschwitz. Auschwitz, for those who don't know, was a German death camp in Poland during World War II. There are two problems here: Obama's mother is an only child, thus no uncles, and Auschwitz was liberated by the Russians.

“I had a uncle who was one of the, who was part of the first American troops to go into Auschwitz and liberate the concentration camps and the story in our family is that when he came home, he just went up into the attic and he didn’t leave the house for six months, right. Now obviously something had really affected him deeply but at that time there just weren’t the kinds of facilities to help somebody work through that kind of pain,” he said.

However, a quick check on the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum Web site showed that Soviet forces were the first to approach Auschwitz, which was in Poland.

“On Jan. 27, 1945, the Soviet army entered Auschwitz and liberated more than 7,000 remaining prisoners,” the site reads.

The pause in the footage comes across as someone who is, shall we say, making it up as he goes along.

What does all of this say about Obama? What, ultimately, is the message that it sends? The constant gaffes that are coming out now, the retractions and backtracking, the having to explain things that have been said to put the right "spin" on them, say what, to the American people?

It speaks of Obama's character, and his confidence in himself and his ability to lead. It speaks of his ability to gain the respect of the public by being truthful; he has to create a situation inserting a fictional uncle in an attempt to garner respect from veterans. On that note, why DIDN'T Obama serve in the armed forces himself? It's a question he was more than happy to answer the other day.

Barack Obama has wanted to be President for seemingly his entire life. But he thinks that people serve and protect our country only because of coercion. For real. Chatting with a bunch of liberal reporters, he said:

"I didn’t serve as many people my age because Vietnam was over by the time I was of draft age and we had then moved to an all volunteer army."

He could talk about being called to serve the country in some other way. But he doesn't. He could talk about what else he has done. But he doesn't. Instead he says that he didn't serve because he wasn't forced to do so.

That is an extreme insult to those of us who volunteered to serve. Those of us who signed on for love of country and no other reason. Not because we were forced to. Not because we were coerced into it, but because we wanted to.

The man who would be king.

Barack Hussein Obama.

Makes you just want to run out and vote for him tomorrow, doesn't it?

UPDATE

Obama's great uncle was in World War II:

The attempt to shield the name of the Obama relative who took part in the liberation of Ohrdruf lasted about an hour. According to the Associated Press, it is Charlie Payne, the brother of Obama's maternal grandmother, Madelyn Lee Payne.

Ohrdruf, a forced labor camp, WAS liberated by American forces, but that's not a name that comes to people's minds, now is it? Not like the name Auschwitz...

Once and Always, an American Fighting Man


.

Honoring our Fallen, the Arlington Ladies

Memorial Day. A day for honoring the fallen of our nations armed forces. Our national cemetery at Arlington is the final resting place for many of our nations fallen, and one very special group of ladies volunteer to make sure none is buried alone.

Around sixty ladies and one gentleman make up the group known as the Arlington ladies, an all volunteer organization representing the Army, the Air Force, and the Navy, at the funerals of service members and veterans who come to final rest at Arlington National Cemetery. There is no Marine Corps representative; however, there is an official from the Corps who is present for the burial of every Marine interred at Arlington.

The Arlington Ladies are comprised of wives and widows of military veterans, and their purpose is simple: to ensure that no one is buried in Arlington with no one in attendance at the funeral, or to provide comfort to the families of those being buried.

A Tradition Is Born

In 1948, Air Force Chief of Staff General Hoyt S. Vandenberg was living at Fort Myer, Virginia, in a home with a commanding view of the cemetery. He and his wife Gladys often walked there, and noticed airmen being buried with only the chaplain and an honor guard in attendance.

Mrs. Vandenberg enlisted members of the Officers' Wives Club to attend these funerals-without-mourners, and a tradition was born. The "Ladies of Arlington" now are represented by the Army, Navy and the Air Force. The Marine Corps does not have a group, but a representative of the commandant attends every funeral.

There are 23 interments daily, and the ladies are on hand to ensure that none is conducted in a bleak and friendless atmosphere. Even when friends and family are present, the ladies and their escorts, the young active duty men whose job it is to stand at their sides, volunteer their services.

"I always introduce myself to the family as the representative of the chief of staff of the Air Force," said McGuth. "I say that he regrets that he could not be in attendance personally."

Today is the day we, as a nation, pay tribute and honor those who have served our nation's armed forces through remembrance of those veterans and service members who have passed away. For one day, one day of the year, we set aside as reserved for homage to those who have sacrificed that our nation remains free.

A small price for saying "thank you" to the memories of those who served, and those who are no longer with us. And past the department and specialty store sales, the home improvement project specials, the barbeque's, picnics, and the day at the beach, we do remember. Perhaps, by these very acts, we're remembering in a way that would never have been envisioned when Memorial Day was established as a national day of remembrance.

We, Americans, have a great love of life and freedom. We work hard, for the most part, and when we relax, when we play, we like to play every bit as hard and competitively as we work. This is our legacy, and our tradition.

A tradition protected and ensured by our armed forces.

Perhaps, then, it is appropriate, despite what some who would say otherwise, that we do honor our fallen by taking full advantage of a day that we can celebrate life, and the freedom that was earned for us, as citizens, by those who have sacrificed in order for us to continue.

And as we do, let us keep firmly in our minds, and in our hearts, not just today, but every day, a gratitude and a silent thanks to those who gave all. And as we do, let us also give a special thought of gratitude for the Arlington Ladies, who pay remembrance every day at our national cemetery, selflessly giving in their own way to those who pass their way.

A very heartfelt salute to those who have passed on before us...

Once and Always, an American Fighting Man

.

They really don't think, I think...

To all my brother and sister vets out there keeping up the good fight and taking a stand. Word of advice, though, for God's SAKE don't tell them what it means when they don't know something. Keep them looking as dumb as they can when we call them on lying!

From Gathering of Eagles:

AAR Jones Beach Airshow v. Code Pinkos

May 26, 2008

We came, we saw, we triumphed!

Some very irate moonbats stormed away from Jones Beach on Saturday after Eagles warned the unwary visitors to the Memorial Day weekend Airshow that treasonous misfits were disrespecting our fallen heroes. Eagles preceded the moonbats down the boardwalk, educating the many people there as to the disrespect the anti-war crowd were showing to our fallen heroes, their families and to America.

Whenever they stopped to read the names, they were surrounded by a cacaphony of shouts “Shame on You!”.

Another IVAW fraud was outed by Chaplain Dez after he claimed to be a sergeant in the U.S. Army, yet could not tell her his MOS. Fraud and deceit are the stock in trade of the entire anti-war movement and goes hand in glove with their policy of using the names of our fallen heroes for their own craven political theater even when asked by gold star families (who have lost a loved one) to stop using those names.

I really, honestly think that THEY don't use the gray matter God put between their ears to use for reasoning. I honestly think that they are so (mis) guided by their emotions that they have no clue how TO think, let alone understand when other people use reasoning abilities.

And they disgrace our nation in protesting in such manner. Oppose the war, yes, that's fine, but don't try to pass yourself off as one of us, we're going to make you look like the pile of horse shit that you are when you do.

Eagles, well done!

Once and Always, an American Fighting Man

.

Introducing Vice Presidential Candidate Hillary Rodham Clinton...

It's coming down to the wire. Obama has states, and Clinton has votes, I read on another analysis about the Democratic contest. Stacking the two candidates up side by side, what's the difference, really, when it comes down to it? They both want to socialize...everything. They both are liberals. They both have basically blown off their senate terms in the race for the White House. Neither of them gives a rat's ass about our troops mission in Iraq, and the damage that would be done if we pulled out our combat forces and left non-combat forces behind. They're both willing to surrender to terrorists by cutting and running. They're both clueless on how to handle the economy. They're both desirous to raise taxes on the American people. And despite claims to the contrary, they're both are really, technically, within range of picking up enough delegates to put either one over the top to be the nominee. Obama is ahead in number of delegates, but Team Clinton has pulled rabbits out of their as...errrr...hats, before.

But realistically, it does look like Obama is going to be the front runner to come out of the nominating process and head into the general election come November to face McCain. Barring, that is, something untoward happening to Obama in June, as Clinton inferred the other day, causing such an uproar, referencing the assassination of Bobby Kennedy in 68. Perhaps she knows Sirhan Sirhan's relatives?

I digress.

Many pundits have referred to an Obama/Clinton ticket as a way to bridge the gap that has been created in the Democratic party this election cycle. Bridging the gap, mending the rift, sewing up the split crotch in the straddle of the pants, whatever analogy you wish to use. Screaming Howard Dean and the other heads of the DNC would love nothing more than for this whole thing to be over and done with so that they can get back to the business at hand for the Democratic Party.

Robbing the American public blind.

Um, I mean, doing the people.

Doing the people's business. That's it, doing the people's business. Doing business to the American People. Or ON the American people. OH WAIT, doing business FOR the American people.

Ok, now we're back on track and are phrasing things correctly in order to mislead people more than we had intended (to paraphrase the late Peter Jennings).

Since there is basically no difference between Obama and Clinton other than that she's a woman and he's a man, and of course that skin issue (referring to thickness, and his lack of it, I'll leave the race issue to the Democrats), why not put the two of them together on the ticket as a team, him for President since he's in the lead, her for VP since she's, well, not in the lead...

Let's look at the pro's list for teaming the two of them up in this capacity, shall we? You'd have a Presidential candidate who's running mate would be totally and completely on board with turning the United States into a socialist regime, you'd have a Presidential candidate and running mate who would be totally and completely on board. They both seem to have a bit of trouble differentiating between fact and fiction, they both have controversial spouses, they are both lawyers (back to that trouble differentiating between fact and fiction again), neither has any executive experience, and both will be willing to hand us over, lock, stock, and barrel, to the United Nations.

Isn't that a fabulous dream ticket? If this was some sort of Science Fiction movie, one could argue that really, Obama and Hillary are the same person. That would work out well for Bill, come to think of it, because then he'd have access to Michelle...hmmmmmmmmmm. Okay, let's not go there, shall we? The thought of Clinton and his willy...anyway. Policy wise Obama and Clinton are virtually indistinguishable.

Let's leave it there.

Then there is the popularity issue. He has roughly half the Democrats sewn up and on his side, so does she. Put the two of them together, and you have almost the entire Democratic party all sewn up and in one giant happy bed together. A veritable orgy of liberal-socialist policy and program planning for the next four years. And since the Democrats are the party who are so very much in favor of gay marriages, civil unions, free love, and all that, yes, I do think that orgy is an appropriate term for the Obama/Clinton years to come.

Why is that? Think about it, very, very carefully. At every orgy, someone is going to get fucked.

Grab your vaseline, America, and get ready. If either or both of these two win in November, you can guess who's gonna get fucked for the next four years...

Just an observation.

Once and Always, an American Fighting Man

.

Hillary steps in it, with both feet?

She doesn't understand it and finds it curious.

That's what Hillary Clinton says about why people are pushing her to withdraw from the Democratic race. She does understand, however, that Bobby Kennedy was assassinated in June.

What that has to do with anything is anybody's guess.



One can only speculate as to why she brought the assassination of Bobby Kennedy into the conversation. Wishful thinking, perhaps, inspired by the Return to '68 movement?

She has, of course, apologized for this outlandish reference that has no bearing on anything.

But one has to wonder, what the hell is going through her mind? Is this fatigue and desperation beginning to show on Senator Clinton's part? Or does she know something and this was an accidental slip? Politics, maybe, an attempt to rattle the mind of her opponent?

I'm going to go with the last option. The Clinton's do nothing, say nothing, without having carefully considered the consequences and all possible outcomes. The Clinton machine carefully orchestrates each public appearance so that they make sure that each word that they say has the maximum political benefit for whatever task is at hand for them.

This has been their history since coming onto the scene as a political power, and I doubt very seriously team Clinton did this just as a Freudian slip.

Just an observation.

Once and Always, an American Fighting Man

.

Canada No Longer Safe Haven for U.S. Military Deserters

During the 1960's it was not uncommon for young men to travel in droves across the border between the United States and Canada to avoid service in Vietnam. Today, deserters from the U.S. military are finding that things have changed for them, drastically.

Corey Glass, a 25 year-old United States National Guardsmen AWOL in Canada and under charges of desertion, is not a happy young man today. Corey has been ordered by Canadian officials to leave the country on his own accord by the 12th of June, denying his application to stay in Canada His ordered deportation is the first rejection by Canadian courts by a group of other deserters who have sought asylum in Canada as war resisters.

An Indiana native, Glass's tenure with the military began in 2002 when he joined the National Guard to complete "humanitarian work" within the United States, he said. At that time, he had no idea he would end up fighting on foreign shores.

"When I joined the National Guard, they told me the only way I would be in combat was if there were troops occupying the United States," he said. "I signed up to defend people and do humanitarian work filling sandbags if there was a hurricane. ... I should have been in New Orleans, not Iraq."

When he was deployed to Iraq in 2005, Glass said he tried to quit the military and was returned home on a leave later that same year.

He then went AWOL for eight months before defecting to Toronto in August 2006. He has since been working as a funeral director at a Toronto funeral home.

Perhaps Glass should have read the mission statements found on the National Guard website outlining their Federal and State obligations before enlisting.

Consequences for desertion of the United States armed forces carry very stiff penalties. If convicted by a Court Martial procedure, under statutes of the United States Code of Military Justice, Glass, and the other deserters in his group in Canada, could be facing a possible death sentence under the articles of the Uniform Code of Military Justice.

885. ART. 85. DESERTION
(a) Any member of the armed forces who--
(1) without authority goes or remains absent from his unit, organization, or place of duty with intent to remain away therefrom permanently;
(2) quits his unit, organization, or place of duty with intent to avoid hazardous duty or to shirk important service; or
(3) without being regularly separated from one of the armed forces enlists or accepts an appointment in the same or another on of the armed forces without fully disclosing the fact that he has not been regularly separated, or enters any foreign armed service except when authorized by the United States; is guilty of desertion.
(b) Any commissioned officer of the armed forces who, after tender of his resignation and before notice of its acceptance, quits his post or proper duties without leave and with intent to remain away therefrom permanently is guilty of desertion.
(c) Any person found guilty of desertion or attempt to desert shall be punished, if the offense is committed in time of war, by death or such other punishment as a court-martial may direct, but if the desertion or attempt to desert occurs at any other time, by such punishment, other than death, as a court-martial may direct.

Glass, as a National Guardsman under Federal deployment in a time of war, is subject to UCMJ law.

We live in a different time than we lived in the 1960's. Military service today is voluntary, not compulsory. There is no draft. Men and women in uniform today are they because they have enlisted or been commissioned of their own accord, not because they have been called into service by the draft board. National Guard units have been deployed overseas in this war, in the Gulf War, in Vietnam, Korea, and World War II. For Glass to proclaim that he was told he would not have to be deployed overseas goes entirely against the mission and purpose of the National Guard, which is to act as a supplementary and reserve branch of the military at large.

According to Lee Zaslofsky, a who fled the U.S. for Canada to avoid service in Vietnam and who is the co-coordinator of the War Resisters Support Campaign, the order for Glass to be deported lies in contradiction with a motion passed last December by the Standing Committee on Citizenship and Immigration calling for the Canadian government to allow conscientious protesters of war to remain in Canada without facing deportation.

The Canadian Parliament has not yet passed the motion and set it into law.

Glass is the first of nine others who have applied to stay in Canada after desertion from the United States military.

Glass also said he saw the war as "illegal and immoral." Personally, I don't give a damn, myself, how he saw the war. We were at war when he enlisted, and that was common public knowledge. There is no excuse for his action, in my opinion, and he will get what he deserves if found guilty under court martial proceedings.

Once and Always, an American Fighting Man

.

We Need More Democrats Like Joe Lieberman

For some time now, I've been watching the political parties shifting, shuffling, posturing, and what have you. It's interesting to me to find that I'm not the only one who has had this on my mind of late.

I like Joseph Lieberman. I may not see eye to eye with him on a number of issues, but basically, when it comes down to it, he's a helluva guy, and I like him. Lieberman is one of those rare individuals who has the intestinal fortitude not to go with the majority of his party when he sees that they're wrong.

It also seems he's been thinking along the same lines that I have, the past few weeks, in thinking about how we got were we are today as a nation. In an op-ed piece in the Wall Street Journal, Lieberman discusses his opinion of when things started going, in his opinion, south for the Democrats, and for America. In looking over his article, I have to say, I agree.

Lieberman begins with an overview of the Democratic party up until and through World War II, discussing the character of leadership displayed by Presidents Roosevelt, Truman, and the potential of JFK and what might have been, there. The character began to change, as did the party, during the 60's.

This worldview began to come apart in the late 1960s, around the war in Vietnam. In its place, a very different view of the world took root in the Democratic Party. Rather than seeing the Cold War as an ideological contest between the free nations of the West and the repressive regimes of the communist world, this rival political philosophy saw America as the aggressor – a morally bankrupt, imperialist power whose militarism and "inordinate fear of communism" represented the real threat to world peace.

It argued that the Soviets and their allies were our enemies not because they were inspired by a totalitarian ideology fundamentally hostile to our way of life, or because they nursed ambitions of global conquest. Rather, the Soviets were our enemy because we had provoked them, because we threatened them, and because we failed to sit down and accord them the respect they deserved. In other words, the Cold War was mostly America's fault.

This was the era in which we began the "blame America" syndrome that has reached such epidemic proportions in our country today. This is the era in which socialist thinking began to really, deeply entrench itself into our nation, affecting the thinking and philosophy of democrat and republican alike. John F. Kennedy said, "Ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country." Since his death, throughout most of my life, I've seen this country doing the exact opposite of the altar call that Kennedy is lauded and praised for giving. We have become more and more the nation of the public teat, the earmark, the pork, the special interest, and less and less the rugged individualistic nation that generated the heroes and legends that my generation grew up on.

That all changed in the 60's, however, as the Democrats became inundated with European political theory for the first time since the foundation of the United States to a degree that the uniqueness of the American political experiment was under assault from a more radical, socialistic ideology. Along the way since then, the Democratic party of today is nothing like the Democratic party of 50 years ago; it's more of something along the lines of western European Socialism. And after 9/11, the party has taken an even more drastic change.

Today, less than a decade later, the parties have completely switched positions. The reversal began, like so much else in our time, on September 11, 2001. The attack on America by Islamist terrorists shook President Bush from the foreign policy course he was on. He saw September 11 for what it was: a direct ideological and military attack on us and our way of life. If the Democratic Party had stayed where it was in 2000, America could have confronted the terrorists with unity and strength in the years after 9/11.

Instead a debate soon began within the Democratic Party about how to respond to Mr. Bush. I felt strongly that Democrats should embrace the basic framework the president had advanced for the war on terror as our own, because it was our own. But that was not the choice most Democratic leaders made. When total victory did not come quickly in Iraq, the old voices of partisanship and peace at any price saw an opportunity to reassert themselves. By considering centrism to be collaboration with the enemy – not bin Laden, but Mr. Bush – activists have successfully pulled the Democratic Party further to the left than it has been at any point in the last 20 years.

Far too many Democratic leaders have kowtowed to these opinions rather than challenging them. That unfortunately includes Barack Obama, who, contrary to his rhetorical invocations of bipartisan change, has not been willing to stand up to his party's left wing on a single significant national security or international economic issue in this campaign.

This party line mentality is part of what's undoing our nation from within. Rather than being an open forum for discussion and discourse, for debate and direction, our Congressional chambers have become divided camps, sitting in siege of each other during each legislative session (I hold both parties equally responsible for this, by the way, before anyone gets all up in a twist that I'm blaming just the Democrats). Party line mentality has also crept into the system to such a degree that it has spread to the public at large, creating such phenomena as "Bush Derangement Syndrome," in which George Bush is blamed for everything from 9/11 to Katrina, the Minnesota bridge collapse, rampant gas prices, and reality television. Party line mentality prevents us from becoming independent of foreign oil for energy, and overburdens the middle class. Party line mentality creates class envy and class hatred, in the classic form of the bohemian versus the bourgeoisie.

The United States is suffering from a state of self-inflicted turmoil, foisted upon itself by allowing her ideology to become indoctrinated by failed economic and social policies of the European continent, policies that Europe has been abandoning and that we, a decade or two behind in our thinking as we try to emulate the Europeans, allowing our elected officials (i.e. the Presidency) to appoint life-term judges who are creating law from the bench, rather than doing their jobs and interpreting the law in light of the Constitution of the United States. Party line mentality keeps our nation at the whim of the United Nations, a body whose very actions work in conflict with our interests time and time again.

Party line mentality creates a Senate and a Congress that do nothing other than undermine the work of the Executive branch and authorize the changes of name of postal facilities.

Party line mentality has it's place when it comes to election time, and time for debate, to make sure that the voice of the people is heard. Party line mentality has no place in creating deadlock situations in which the nations business can not be accomplished. Party line mentality has no business in attaching amendments to pending legislation that make it unacceptable for being signed into act (the attachments on the military funding that would legalize illegal aliens).

In 2006, the American people voted to send new representation from a number of districts to Washington in order to send a message to the government that the government works for the people, the people do not work for the government. That message was misinterpreted and taken as a green light to further divide the nation along party lines.

How will Lieberman's column affect his standing in the Democratic party? Some are already privately discussing that Lieberman will not have a place in the party if he works against Obama in the general election. To do so would place the currently listed Independent Lieberman on the Republican side of the aisle; however, he's not the only Senator crossing support to the other party. Nebraska's Senator Chuck Hagel, a close friend of McCain, has been critical of McCain's candidacy as of late.

Election-year disloyalty goes both ways. Sen. Chuck Hagel, the Nebraska Republican and close McCain friend, called out his party's presumptive nominee at an event Tuesday night. "I'm very upset with John with some of the things he's been saying," Hagel said.

He singled out McCain's withering rebuke of Obama for advocating "appeasement" by expressing a willingness to engage in high-level talks with Iran.

Senator Hagel has been in government for a long time. Long enough to realize that in the race for the Presidency, the gloves have to come off at some point. If this one item is enough for Hagel to turn on McCain, it shows exactly how much of a break down is going on not only in the Democratic party over the Obama/Clinton fight, but how much the Republican party is breaking down as well.

"I never understand how anyone in any realm of civilized discourse could sort through the big issues and challenges and threats and figure out how to deal with those without engaging in some way," Hagel said.

There are two things that are certain during this past couple of years leading up to this years Presidential election: America is watching, and so are her enemies, both foreign and domestic.

Why do I say we need more Democrats like Joseph Lieberman? Actually, for the same reason I believe, after writing this piece, that we need more Republicans like John McCain, leaders who are willing to work together for the good of the nation rather than sticking only to the party line. Democrats like Lieberman are a perfect example of why I personally spent so many years as an Independent myself, rather than declaring for either party. Who knows? If there were more Democrats who WERE like Joseph Lieberman, I might have considered the Democratic Party myself when I finally did declare for one side or the other.

Once and Always, an American Fighting Man

.

Obama the Wise and All Powerful

I'm more and more impressed with Barack Hussein Obama every day. The more he opens his mouth, the more he shows us his true nature and bearing.

Let's start with his two latest bouts of sheer genius, cunning, and displays of showing his brilliance.

This remarkable bit of footage from Barack Obama’s appearance in Oregon last night is now floating around on YouTube. It might be useful as an undergraduate course exam: how many errors can you spot? Obama apparently believes that Iran and other rogues states (he lists Iran, Cuba and Venezuela) “don’t pose a serious threat to the U.S.” Iran, specifically, he tells us spends so little on defense relative to us that if Iran “tried to pose a serious threat to us they wouldn’t . . . they wouldn’t stand a chance.”

So, taken literally, he seems not much concerned about Iran’s acquisition of nuclear weapons, its sponsorship of terrorist organizations, its commitment to eradicate Israel, its current actions in supplying weapons that have killed hundreds of Americans in Iraq, and its role in eroding Lebanon’s sovereignty through its client Hezbollah.

SUCH a SPECTACULAR grasp he has on international politics. Such RESOLVE he has in putting forth our military against any other military in the world. Um, isn't this mister "I was against the war from the beginning" in regards to Iraq? Isn't this the SAME brilliant meister who was constantly confusing Iran and Iraq not more than a couple of years ago?

I wonder if he can even find Iran or Iraq on the map? Right in there where Saudi Arabia is, Senator. You know, Saudi Arabia, where Mecca is...Right, Mecca, holy city of Islam. YES, I knew you'd figure it out. Gold star for you, there, Senator. I'd like to know where he's getting his information on how much Iran is spending on defense, perhaps FROM the Iranians? That makes sense, right? Hitler wasn't spending that much on defense, either, during the rise of the Reich after his ascension to the Prime Ministry prior to World War II, but some how the Wehrmacht managed to be built, didn't it? Perhaps Senator Barack Hussein Obama is overlooking two other elements of Iran's spending: it's nuclear program and the backing of international terrorism.

From Wake Up America: "That picture is from the Beirut Airport. It's smoke rising from the Marine barracks. 241 American servicemen were killed. Sixty Americans were injured. 58 French paratroopers were killed with 15 injured.

The attack was carried out by Hezbollah, with Iranian backing.

And Iran survives."

Can you feel the love? I say can you FEEL the love that the Iranians have for us here in the U. S. of A? Can I GET an amen? I say CAN I GETTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTT an AMEN, hallelujah...

Iran remained the most active state sponsor of terrorism. Its Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) and Ministry of Intelligence and Security (MOIS) were directly involved in the planning and support of terrorist acts and continued to exhort a variety of groups, especially Palestinian groups with leadership cadres in Syria and Lebanese Hizballah, to use terrorism in pursuit of their goals.

Iran maintained a high-profile role in encouraging anti-Israeli terrorist activity, rhetorically, operationally, and financially. Supreme Leader Khamenei and President Ahmadi-Nejad praised Palestinian terrorist operations, and Iran provided Lebanese Hizballah and Palestinian terrorist groups - notably HAMAS, Palestinian Islamic Jihad, the al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, and the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine-General Command - with extensive funding, training, and weapons.

Iran continued to play a destabilizing role in Iraq, which appeared to be inconsistent with its stated objectives regarding stability in Iraq. Iran provided guidance and training to select Iraqi Shia political groups, and weapons and training to Shia militant groups to enable anti-Coalition attacks. Iranian government forces have been responsible for at least some of the increasing lethality of anti-Coalition attacks by providing Shia militants with the capability to build IEDs with explosively formed projectiles similar to those developed by Iran and Lebanese Hizballah. The Iranian Revolutionary Guard was linked to armor-piercing explosives that resulted in the deaths of Coalition Forces. The Revolutionary Guard, along with Lebanese Hizballah, implemented training programs for Iraqi militants in the construction and use of sophisticated IED technology. These individuals then passed on this training to additional militants in Iraq.

Iran remained unwilling to bring to justice senior AQ members it detained in 2003, and it has refused to publicly identify these senior members in its custody. Iran has repeatedly resisted numerous calls to transfer custody of its AQ detainees to their countries of origin or third countries for interrogation or trial. Iran also continued to fail to control the activities of some al-Qaida members who fled to Iran following the fall of the Taliban regime in Afghanistan.

Thus sayeth the U.S. Department of State.

"Just words", Senator?

We move on, and continue, with our examples of how impressive the Senator from Illinois truly is...

By now we've all heard Michell Obama's infamous "For the first time in my adult lifetime, I'm proud of my country" spiel. For those of us who didn't go to Princeton and get a law degree from an ivy league university, those of us who cling to our guns because we've always been proud of our country and adhere to it's traditions and values despite being bitter about it, it was certainly enough to bring a tear to my eye when I first heard it. Or perhaps it could have been the onion I was slicing to go on my cheeseburger...

You're running for the Presidency of the United States of America, SENATOR. This is a much bigger, much tougher job than doing the job that you've been shirking for the past few years in your laughable term as senator from Illinois, having been so busy looking for the next promotion for yourself. You and your family, your friends, your associations, have become a commodity in the open exchange of ideas. HOW DARE you presume to tell the Tennessee state GOP to "lay off" of anything concerning your life, your character, and your ability to lead, and where you AND YOUR FAMILY stand politically and ideologically.

You have shown an amazing display of thinness of skin, lack of character, lack of ability to handle criticism, and lack of intelligence in THINGS THAT MATTER as more media and public scrutiny have been placed upon you since your rock star ascent to the top tier of the nominating process for the Democratic party.

You have yet to display any true characteristics of leadership that are necessary for the office of the President.

You are, Senator Obama, underwhelming, to say the least.

Once and Always, (a very disgusted) American Fighting Man

.

Bush on Domestic Oil Exploration

With oil continuing to break records for high prices on a daily basis, and the refusal of Saudi King Abdullah to do anything to reduce the price of oil, President George Bush is finally looking homeward for alternatives.

President Bush met with the Saudi king last week, as well as other members of OPEC, in an effort to see what could be done to lower the price of fuel and oil for the United States. When discussing raising production of oil with King Abdullah, he was told, in short, "you want more oil? BUY more oil." The oil producers did finally agree to pump an additional 300,000 barrels a day, but that will barely make a difference in a situation that is reaching crisis proportions economically.

The Saudis’ long standing position is that they are willing to pump more oil — but only if their customers, the refineries, demand it. The oil minister, Mr. Naimi, told reporters in Riyadh on Friday that the government had decided on May 10 to boost production by 300,000 barrels a day in response to requests from customers, mostly in the United States.

“Our response is positive,” Mr. Naimi said, adding, “What we have said is, ‘Let the buyer come and we will satisfy his request. Very simple business: If you want more oil, who’s going to buy the oil?”

In making his case with the oil producers, President Bush pointed out that by continuing to raise the prices of fuel to their "biggest customers," the oil producers themselves were increasing the push by the United States and other countries to develop alternative energy sources, in effect potentially pricing themselves out of business in the future.

It is speculated that the Saudi decision to increase production, though by a small margin, may also be influenced by pressures from Congress, who have threatened to cut arms sales to them if something isn't done on their part.

Having made no real headway with Middle Eastern oil producers, the President is now turning the focus of America's fuel remedy where others have been calling for the country to put the focus for some time now: back to the United States itself.

And Mr. Bush took aim at Democrats in Congress, who have repeatedly blocked his proposals to allow oil exploration in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.

“One of the interesting things about American politics these days,” Mr. Bush said, “is, those who are screaming the loudest for increased production from Saudi Arabia are the very same people who are fighting the fiercest against domestic exploration, against the development of nuclear power and against expanding refining capacity.”

With the oil sitting in ANWAR, in the Gulf Coast that is being drilled by China and Cuba in international waters off our shores that we could just as easily be drilling for and pumping as well, and the discovery of oil along the Canadian border, it's little wonder that there are so many calling for the U.S. to begin more drilling domestically and to build new refineries at home, eventually removing ourselves from dependence on foreign oil.

In the meantime, to go along with domestic production of oil, real and viable alternative energy methods could and should be developed, methods that don't interfere with nor cut into food crop production, applying some common sense and sound thinking rather than off the cuff, knee jerk reactions that send the markets into turmoil in other directions than just from the fuel industry.

Once and Always, an American Fighting Man

.

Obama Apologizes for "Sweetie" Remark

Some could look upon this, and probably will, with comparrisons to the Clinton administration days, groaning and rolling their eyes, going "here we go again."

For those of you who think I'm sitting here laughing and salivating at yet another chance to say something negative about Obama, be ready for a shock: I'm not.

Not over something as mundane and, really, silly as this.

Let's set the stage before I continue:

Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Barack Obama has apologized to WXYZ reporter Peggy Agar for calling her "sweetie" during a campaign stop Wednesday in Sterling Heights.

Obama apologized in a voicemail he left on Agar's cell phone at 3:16 p.m:

"Hi Peggy. This is Barack Obama. I'm calling to apologize on two fronts. One was you didn't get your question answered and I apologize. I thought that we had set up interviews with all the local stations. I guess we got it with your station but you weren't the reporter that got the interview. And so, I broke my word. I apologize for that and I will make up for it.

"Second apology is for using the word 'sweetie.' That's a bad habit of mine. I do it sometimes with all kinds of people. I mean no disrespect and so I am duly chastened on that front. Feel free to call me back. I expect that my press team will be happy to try to make it up to you whenever we are in Detroit next."

Now the chuckle.

It all stemmed from an incident in which between Obama and Agar at a Sterling Heights Chrysler plant Wednesday, when she asked, "Senator, how are you going to help the American autoworkers?" to which he replied, "Hold on one second, sweetie."

Perhaps that's the Chicago equivalent of "darlin" that we use down here in the south? Mind you, both male AND female use it down here.

I'm sure that he meant nothing by it, really. I'm sure that it was just a harmless little "thing" that caused a misunderstanding, like his reported use of "sweetie" at other times as reported by people who heard him use the term recently while campaigning in Pennsylvania.

No, I think personally, no harm, no foul.

If I wanted to paint Obama as being someone to get a little carried away with flirting with the ladies, I'd include something like a video of Obama in jeans on a jet with mostly female reporters...

Once and Always, an American Fighting Man

.

Shooting Victim Testimony on Gun Control

A friend sent me this video in email, and I've got to say, it's POWERFUL.



We, the law abiding, freedom loving American people, have got to make sure that our voices are heard.

Personally, as many of you know, I AM a member of the NRA, and I highly recommend anyone who loves their freedom to become a member.

Once and Always, an American Fighting Man

.

ALIPAC - North Carolina Illegal Alien Students Update

From Email:

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Maximum Effort Needed to Get Your State To Follow NC Lead! ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Friends of ALIPAC,

We have a victory to report that needs your immediate attention and assistance!

This is a major concern for each of you in every state and we need all ALIPAC national activists to respond quickly and fervently to while the ball is in our court!

Action Item 1

NC Precedent Could Affect Other States If You Take Action!

Thanks to your prior calls, e-mails, and faxes, combined with ALIPAC's national media effort, we have a big win in NC! The NC Attorney General, Roy Cooper, has issued a statement that our community colleges should not allow illegal aliens to attend at any price. The Community College system has decided to follow his recommendations despite the challenges from our pro-illegal alien Governor Mike Easley.

Unfortunately, our UNC College System President, Erskine Bowles, plans to still allow illegals to go to those schools.

To our knowledge, this ruling is the first of its kind as most states allow illegal aliens to attend, if they pay out of state tuition and a few states even force taxpayers to subsidize illegal alien students with in-state tuition.

Please take the following 2 important steps.

Action Item 1, Step A.

Step A. (Mass Feedback to NC Officials)

Contact the following officials by phone, followed by e-mail, fax, or letter to share your opinions.

Contact these folks to thank them for their opposition to illegal aliens attending colleges in NC!

Thank...

NC Attorney General Roy Cooper
http://www.ncdoj.com/default_contactus_form.jsp?sectionid=ag&subsectionid=general

NC Community College System President R. Scott Ralls
rallss@nccommunitycolleges.edu

Gubernatorial Candidate Beverly Purdue (Dem)
ltgovernor@ncmail.net


Gubernatorial Candidate Pat McCrory (Rep)
pat@patmccrory.com


PLEASE CONTACT THE FOLLOWING OFFICIALS TO SHARE YOUR DISPLEASURE AT THEIR SUPPORT FOR ILLEGAL ALIENS GOING TO NC COLLEGES.

Criticize...

Sellout Governor Mike Easley (Dem)
1-800-662-7952 valid in North Carolina only
(919)733-4240, or (919)733-5811
governor.office@ncmail.net


UNC College System President Erskine Bowles (Dem)
ebowles@northcarolina.edu
919-962-1000


Action Item 1 Part B.

Spread this news to your state and your Attorney General's Office.

Each of you will have to use the Internet, phone book, or directory assistance to locate the number for your state's Attorney General's office.

Please send the following information to them with your own note. Please forward these press releases to all of the local media outlets in your state.

NC Decision to Bar Illegal Aliens Could Have National Impact!
http://www.alipac.us/article-3183-thread-1-0.html

ALIPAC Commends NC Officials for removing illegals from Colleges
http://www.alipac.us/article-3182-thread-1-0.html

No more illegal aliens in NC Community Colleges!
http://www.alipac.us/article-3181-thread-1-0.html


Sample Message

"Attorney General _____:

As a citizen of our state, I request that you follow the lead of the NC Attorney General and NC Community College system by stopping illegal aliens from attending any of our state sponsored colleges immediately. The NC officials have ruled that allowing illegal aliens into colleges may violate Federal law and open our state up to legal challenges. Also, we need to remove any incentives that encourage people to illegally immigrate during this crisis. I hope to hear that my home state of _____ is following NC's lead on this matter soon."

You may also want to send word of this to your state reps and ask them to run with the ball.


Please feel free to post your progress, your messages to officials, and any questions or feedback at this coordination link....
http://www.alipac.us/ftopicp-684757.html#684757



The ALIPAC Team
www.alipac.us