image toon - 1st gwot nsec = GI gets Oby's voice mail re reinforcements
Tuesday, October 6, 2009
A Soldier's Last Letter From Afghanistan
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Army General David Petraeus recently ordered a new investigation into a firefight in Wanat, Afghanistan that claimed the lives of nine American soldiers after an estimated 200 Taliban fighters overran the remote outpost on July 13, 2008. More than two dozen soldiers were also wounded during the battle.
Cpl. Jason Bogar was among those killed that day.
Jason Bogar was the youngest of Carlene Cross's three children. As an only boy with two older sisters, Carlene says he kept them all on their toes, growing up in Seattle. She described her son as "a great, fun-loving guy." An avid soccer player and artist, he planned on enrolling in art school when he got home from Afghanistan.
Jason originally joined the Washington National Guard following high school. After a tour in Iraq, Jason re-enlisted as active duty Army Infantry. He was on his second tour in Afghanistan when he was killed.
Carlene says her son believed in what he was doing. He was "always reaching out to the people and the children," of Afghanistan. She says he constantly volunteered for any humanitarian missions, and he would often try to connect with the children during his time overseas.
Carlene sent CBS News three entries from a journal that Jason kept, and a last letter home. They were on his computer titled, "Afghanistan OEF (Operation Enduring Freedom) VIII '07-'08," and "TO MY FAMILY."
(Click here to read Cpl. Bogar's journal entries and last letter.)
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Afghanistan assault points out U.S. vulnerabilities
The attack that killed eight Americans is just what McChrystal's revamped strategy is aiming to avoid.
Reporting from Kabul, Afghanistan - In one of the most lethal battles for American troops in the Afghanistan war, a wave of insurgents attacked a pair of relatively lightly manned bases near the Pakistani border over the weekend, triggering a daylong clash that left eight Americans and as many as half a dozen Afghan troops dead.
It was precisely the kind of attack the top U.S. commander in Afghanistan is hoping to stave off by recently ordering troops to withdraw from such small outposts, concentrating instead on defending population centers. The outposts attacked Saturday had already been slated to be abandoned soon, the military said.
The toll was the highest in a single incident for American forces in Afghanistan since nine U.S. soldiers died in a strikingly similar insurgent assault 15 months ago on an outpost in the same northeastern province, Nuristan... [snip]
The attack will not alter plans to pull American forces out of the area, U.S. officials said. But they acknowledged that insurgents would almost certainly exploit the departure of Western troops for propaganda purposes, claiming to have driven them out....
[Just imagine what they'll say {and subsequently do} should we abandon the entire country.]
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How to Lose a War
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Gone are the days when generals were allowed to prosecute wars as if they were wars rather than dog wagging election tales.
Since the weary end of the Vietnam War we haven't seen such a situation where every major engagement proved victorious for us and still we lost ground at home. In those days, we defeated ourselves, gathered up our traitorous salivating media hordes and went home to further batter and shame our beaten warriors.
Today that same shameful loss of fortitude rears its ugly head and threatens to defeat us in Afghanistan, a replay of Vietnam's historic dishonor of our troops.
Here we are on the raggedy edge. Lives have been lost and many more will be tested. Will Mr. Obama take the road to Vietnam's end and dishonor those sacrifices? Or choosing the harder road, which, though not guaranteeing his reelection, may go far toward ensuring a better world tomorrow.
Without more troops, the war in Afghanistan is lost.
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Obama decision on Afghanistan strategy due in 'a matter of weeks,' says Jones
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President Barack Obama will make a decision on how to proceed in Afghanistan in "a matter of weeks," his national security advisor said Sunday.
Retired Gen. James L. Jones, who serves as national security advisor, said that the U.S. military effort in Afghanistan is in no imminent danger of failure, and that the president would consider a variety of broad, strategic directions to pursue before determining whether he would grant a top general's request for more troops.
"We have time on the president's schedule," Jones said. "In the coming weeks, we will have vigorous debates."
"The good news that Americans should at least feel good about is that the al-Qaeda presence is very diminished."
[And Taliban are murdering American GIs.]
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HOW IS THIS POSSIBLE
How is it possible that, now a year after his election, he does not have a clue as to what to do in Afghanistan?
It would seem that a commander-in-chief, locked in a momentous war with extremists who wish to destroy this country, would already have a clear idea as to his general course of action. If one's overriding principle were to defend the nation against future attacks, one would wish to deny safe-havens to terrorist groups such as al-Qaeda.
Afghanistan presents a clear and present danger in this regard, and one would expect the president to take the necessary action, to rally our troops and our allies, and to exert leadership in defending his course of action, no matter how unpopular with his political base.
Instead, Obama is reportedly 'considering options' ranging from pulling out entirely or scaling back to sending in 40,000 additional troops.
The only answer is that he is vacillating because he is unsure which way the political winds are blowing. Once the political calculation has been made, the president will probably appear before Congress and announce a decisive course of action.
Whether or not that course of action is right for the country, whether or not it protects us against future attacks, and whether or not it safeguards the lives of our troops and those of our allies appears to be entirely irrelevant... [snip]
The president's indecisiveness has real consequences for the future of this country.
Underlying the Obama's mulling and considering is the simple fact that this president sets politics over principles. But while the president is trying to figure out which option will garner the most votes in the next election, and bring in the largest contributions from liberal supporters, some of our finest young men are dying in the mountains of Afghanistan...
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[Despite all of which....]
Subject: txt heroes - Gates: Military Ready for Obama War Plan
Despite the fierce policy divide inside the White House over Afghanistan, Defense Secretary Robert Gates said Monday that the military will fall in line with whatever President Barack Obama decides.
''Speaking for the Department of Defense, once the commander in chief makes his decisions, we will salute and execute those decisions faithfully and to the best of our ability,''
Gates told the annual meeting of the Association of the U.S. Army.
[The best there is.]
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Obama offends the Dalai Lama
Subject: txt intl china -
Good grief. You begin to wonder if the man has a list of Friendly Leaders I Still Need to Offend. The Washington Post is reporting that the Dalai Lama went to Washington this week – apparently expecting to be received at the White House – only to find that his meeting with the president has been “postponed… until after Obama’s summit with his Chinese counterpart, Hu Jintao, scheduled for next month.”
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Selling Our Souls
Subject: txt intl china -
We are reminded by this report in the Washington Post that “in an attempt to gain favor with China, the United States pressured Tibetan representatives to postpone a meeting between the Dalai Lama and President Obama until after Obama’s summit with his Chinese counterpart, Hu Jintao.” This, the Post notes, is one of many steps to “soft-pedal” human rights. Hillary Clinton we are to believe gained “much goodwill” during her visit...
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'Social justice' on the agenda at Climate Change Treaty meeting
Subject: txt grn owg sclm -
A draft of the Copenhagen Climate Change Treaty dated September 15th is currently available for inspection here.
Some of the draft language is best described as a communist manifesto dressed up in UN leotards. Some notable quotes:
"Africa, in the context of environmental justice, should be equitably compensated for environmental, social and economic losses arising from the implementation of response measures."
"The objective of the provision of financial resources is to promote equity and justice through further enhancement of the full, effective and sustained implementation of the Convention..."
The economic incentives have the potential to be so high that the truth matters little. We have seen this in the United States when Dow Corning was sued into bankruptcy over silicone breast implants.
The entire document sets up a framework that would reward charlatans and pseudo science and create a huge economic incentive to suppress dissenting opinions on Anthropogenic Global Warming Theory (AGW).
Why is the US wasting it's time, money, and resources even entertaining this rubbish?
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Europe Asks America For Climate Change Funds
Subject: txt grn owg -
If you're still not convinced global warming hysteria is rooted in a desire to redistribute wealth, an announcement out of the European Union Friday might finally change your mind.
As reported by the Associated Press moments ago:
The European Union called Friday on the United States to join it in stumping up cash to help poor developing nations cope with climate change.
Hold onto your wallets, for it gets worse...
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UN Climate Reports: They Lie
Subject: txt grn -
Those who've accused the international organization of politicizing science and manipulating data have been right all along. But those facts not only assuage any doubt of the chart’s fraudulence, but also of the deliberate and devious complicity of its creators, defenders and leading UN sponsors... [snip]
During testimony before the Senate Committee on Environment & Public Works Hearing on Climate Change and the Media in 2006, University of Oklahoma geophysicist Dr. David Deming recalled “an astonishing email from a major researcher in the area of climate change” who told him that
"we have to get rid of the Medieval Warm Period."
In June of this year, piece, Deming identified the year of that email as 1995 and the source only as a lead author of that month’s Global Climate Change Impacts in the United States report.
Desperate Times Call For Disparate Actions
The frantic hype of this call-to-pointless-action quickly segues to blatant lies just three sentences later when Ban states
“that climate change is accelerating at a much faster pace than was previously thought by scientists.”
It would appear the Sec-Gen believes that the cooling temperatures the new millennium issued in have somehow escaped everyone’s notice.
Not Man Made -- Mann Made
One of McIntyre's chief complaints when auditing MHB98 was Mann’s refusal to provide his data, methods and source code. The Hockey Team’s most dreaded opposing goaltender has been reporting the same deceptiveness from Briffa, who for years refused to release his Yamal measurement data. This, despite the fact that HS-defending papers relying solely on Yamal continued to be published in major science journals.
[Scientists don't act like this - community organizers do.]
Last week, McIntyre analyzed the CRU archive Yamal data and proved that Briffa et al. had cherry-picked and manipulated data, intentionally omitting records not friendly to their position. In fact, when Briffa’s hand-selected figures were replaced by a broader dataset for the same Polar Ural region (much of which he had deliberately dropped), the Hockey-Stick suddenly disappeared, revealing no significant trend in the 20th century whatsoever.
In Steve’s new graph, below, the Red represents the original 12 cherry picked Yamal trees, while the Black incorporates the broader Polar Ural dataset.
Inhofe was right
In his masterpiece work, Heaven and Earth, Ian Plimer assessed the cadre whose own assessments form the foundation of virtually every climate-related scheme, law, tax, regulation and treaty throughout the globe thusly:
“The IPCC is clearly an ascientific political organization in which environmental activists and government representatives are setting the agenda for a variety of reasons including boosting trade, encouraging protectionism, adding costs to competitors and pushing their own sovereign barrow.”
Add lying perpetrators of fraud, and I'd say that about sums it up.
Speaking on the Senate floor in July of 2003, Senator James Inhofe (R-Okla) rightly called the threat of catastrophic global warming the
"greatest hoax ever perpetrated on the American people."
Let’s make damned sure it doesn’t become the most expensive.
[Hence my preference for 'scam'.
Read the whole thing if you've still any doubt...
READ MORE= Alarmists finding it harder to frighten citizens
Cap-and-conceal
Cap and trade would add $1700 bucks to every American household's energy bill - and Obama's own Treasury department confirms it
From a New York Post editorial:
The Treasury analysis puts the actual nationwide cost of cap-and-trade at some $200 billion a year - or $1,761 per household. That figure is very close to the $1,870 amount estimated by the Heritage Foundation prior to the vote in the House.
Families will be hit with a steep climate-change tax, after all. And that will certainly include working- and middle-class folks who make less than $250,000 a year.
Second, the analysis was kept secret and only recently leaked. That directly violates President Obama's vows of transparency...
John Kerry is leading the charge to bring the cap and trade bill to the floor of the senate before year's end.
Meanwhile, what of all those Blue Dog House members from coal producing states who voted for cap and trade? I'm sure their GOP opponents are licking their chops at the prospect of running a few ads based on this Treasury report...
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THE TRUTH ABOUT CARBON 'CREDITS'
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[Crass, but it has its moments and, sadly, is technically accurate, with the caveat that it doesn't address the vast sums of money the government will make 'managing' any Cap & Tax regulation - Recommended > ]
[Go to...]
... to learn ...
[Then monitor the government-big businesses scam of us all by
[Lastly, please pass on to your friends - numbers matter.]
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Across Europe, the embattled left loses its clout
Subject: txt 1st intl sclm -
VIENNA — Pity Europe's Socialists. It's getting lonely on the left. Just when you might think capitalism's global crisis would breathe new life into the left, it's looking increasingly divided and tired.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel's re-election a week ago is highlighting a conservative surge in her country and Europe's other powerhouse economies — Britain, France and Italy — where the center-right is either firmly in power or about to get there.
What happened?
[Reality caught up with demagoguery.]
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Unemployment Becoming Leading Indicator for Pimco’s New Normal
Subject: txt sclm -
Washington - Mohamed El-Erian says economists are wrong to dismiss unemployment as merely a lagging indicator, a sign of where the economy has been.
For the chief executive officer of Pacific Investment Management Co., the 26-year high jobless rate is also an omen of things to come.
What’s different this time is the ''large and protracted'' rise in joblessness and the likelihood that it will stay high for years, according to El- Erian...
[But, hypothetically speaking, if your goal was to force the country into socialism this is a sure fire way to do it, as this country literally isn't structured to carry 25% dead weight.
To do so we'd literally need set our wealth distribution rates more along the lines of, say, France...]
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Obama's permanent depression
Subject: txt mny -
President Barack Obama may be remembered for permanent depression, the way that Leon Trotsky's name is linked with permanent revolution.
Fiscal stimulus combined with near-zero interest rates have proven to be a toxic cocktail for the United States, the macroeconomic equivalent of barbiturates and alcohol. .....
It's classic crowding out, in which the government's misguided effort to spend its way out of recession pushes the productive economy deeper into the hole...
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Congress may extend jobless benefits - again
Subject: txt mny bdd -
The only idea the Democrats have come up with to deal with unemployment is spend more money.
[Whereas if they'd cut small business taxes, more jobs would be created... oops; no power to politicians there, never mind.]
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The Doctors at the White House
Subject: txt 1st hcare - crpt -
The doctors summoned to the White House to lend support to healthcare reform don't accurately represent physicians' views, one Republican doctor-turned-lawmaker said Monday.
"I'm kind of surprised that a hand-picked group of physicians that were brought to the White House today were applauding a government takeover of healthcare,"
Price said during a conference call ... [snip]
Other sources have identified the doctors invited as members "Doctors for America," formerly "Doctors for Obama," so their enthusiasm for BO was predictable--like the warm town hall meetings theWon had during the summer...
[What deception?]
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US dominates Medical Nobel Prizes - Again
Subject: txt 1st hcare - gdd -
A system that is"horribly broken" continues to dominate medical progress.
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What, Me Racist?
Subject: txt bdd vals -
How did I manage this unusual trick? Well, two former Presidents-Jimmy Carter and now Bill Clinton-have labeled me such.
Why?
Because I oppose President Obama's takeover of our health care system... [snip]
We're celebrating 200 years this December of the great Samuel Johnson who said
"patriotism is the last refuge of scoundrels."
Today, Dr. Johnson might say
"charging racism is the first refuge of liberals."
READ MORE
Time to Deal with Black Racism
The term "racist" in America is synonymous with white. Time for change.
According to the liberal media elites (New York Times writers, ABC, NBC, CBS, CNN), Hollywood (Jeanine Garafolo and associates) and the Obama administration, white America is automatically guilty of being racist. The burden is on whites to prove their innocence. It is wrong that decent white people always find themselves on the defensive in regards to race relations.
No one dares to mention, rebuke or even consider the possibility of minority racism. And yet, when Obama received 96% of the black vote with many thinking Sarah Palin was his Vice President, it is safe to concluded most blacks voted skin color over principles; which is racism.
Jesse Jackson said blacks cannot be racist because they are not in power. This is hog wash, liberal intellectual "double speak" and another typical liberal attempt to relieve blacks of any responsibility for wrongdoing.
Like every other sin, a measure of racism will always exist. But we cannot continue allowing minority racism to go unchecked and expect us to ever truly become united as Americans.
Lloyd Marcus, Black Unhyphenated American
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