I love this story. (hat tip Amy Ridenour)

Apparently Putin was kinda upset when Bush started getting in his ass about that silly little thing called freedom of press:

George Bush knew Vladimir Putin would be defensive when Bush brought up the pace of democratic reform in Russia in their private meeting at the end of Bush’s four-day, three-city tour of Europe. But when Bush talked about the Kremlin’s crackdown on the media and explained that democracies require a free press, the Russian leader gave a rebuttal that left the President nonplussed. If the press was so free in the U.S., Putin asked, then why had those reporters at CBS lost their jobs? Bush was openmouthed. “Putin thought we’d fired Dan Rather,” says a senior Administration official. “It was like something out of 1984.”

Oh, that is rich. This is the world he lives in and the world he will make Russians to live in. The state now fires reporters.

On a added note, you may remember about this child who saved the Marine patrol not too long ago in Iraq, I blogged about it here. Well it looks like a reporter was given permission to write about it. (hat tip Blackfive)

The little Iraqi girl would not move from the road where she sat.

She kept clutching the white Beanie Baby bear she had received only weeks earlier from a U.S. Marine. Now, a Marine convoy approached.

Here’s how Gunnery Sgt. Mark Francis of the II Marine Expeditionary Force described what happened next:

”Our lead security vehicle stopped in the middle of the street. This is not normal and is very unsafe, so the following vehicles began to inquire over the radio. The lead vehicle reported a little girl sitting in the road and said she just would not budge.

”The command vehicle told the lead to simply go around her and to be kind as they did. The street was wide enough to allow this maneuver and so they waved to her as they drove around.

”As the vehicles went around her, one of the Marines soon saw her sitting there, and in her arms she was clutching a little bear that he had handed her a few patrols back. Feeling an immediate connection to the girl, he then radioed that the convoy was going to stop.

”The rest of the convoy paused as he got out to make sure she was OK. The little girl looked scared and concerned, but there was a warmth in her eyes toward him. As he knelt down to talk to her, she moved over and pointed to a mine in the road.

”Immediately a cordon was set as the Marine convoy assumed a defensive posture around the site.

”The mine was destroyed in place.”

Sgt. Francis received that incredible report from a patrol because it was his efforts that brought the Beanie Baby bear and other toys to Iraq. He had asked his church, his brother’s mother-in-law and his wife to mail toys for the Iraqi kids.

”On each patrol we take through the city, we take as many toys as will fit in our pockets and hand them out as we can,” Sgt. Francis writes. ”The kids take the toys and run to show them off as if they were worth a million bucks. We are as friendly as we can be to everyone we see but especially so with the kids. Most of them don’t have any idea what is going on and are completely innocent in all of this.”

Sgt. Francis asked various units to report back on their giving. He wanted to include some of the stories with ”thank you” notes sent home. It was a report from one patrol that had the story about the little Iraqi girl and the Beanie Baby bear.

I’ve been tracking this story since before Christmas. It took the help of the Web site blackfive.net… to find the people behind the story and needed confirmation.

…

For the rest of us, telling this story is our way of supporting our men and women in uniform and making sure Iraq does not become another Vietnam.

You hear the Vietnam analogy most frequently from critics of the war, ridiculously cited by Sen. Ted Kennedy just days before the historic Iraqi elections. And you hear it from people in the news media. They want to prosecute this war like Walter Cronkite and others did with Vietnam. So they paint things in Iraq with gloom and doom.

But a lot of us ? like the Web site blackfive.net… ? are committed to telling the rest of the story about Iraq and the amazing good our men and women are doing. Those stories were lost in Vietnam. And opportunists such as John Kerry returned home to paint our sons as butchers.

The stories of good in Iraq will not be lost. And our heroes from this war ? little Iraqi girls who sit in the road to warn a convoy of danger and Marines who hand out toys to show the power of kindness ? will be celebrated, not castigated.

The reasons that put us over there don’t matter much now. The Civil War did not begin to free the slaves. But it did, and that’s the good it is remembered for. The Iraq war did not begin simply to free the Iraqi people. But now they are, and the fire of freedom and democracy is burning across the Middle East.

Got a few pictures from a fellow deputy who was in Iraq until last month.

On the campaign trail

Mike with his Interpreter “Triple A”

Mike with the tailfin of a RPG that hit their vehicle

Mike with some kids in Sadr City

This story hits close to home since I am half Canadian from my Mother’s side. In fact my parents are living in Canada atm: (hat tip LGF)

Canada’s rejection of missile defence is a historic shift in its relationship with the United States and could have deep unforeseen consequences, analysts warn.

This week’s announcement is more significant than Canada’s refusal to join fighting in Iraq or Vietnam because, some say, this time the country has rejected a domestic defence plan.

One military analyst in Washington says Canada has turned its back on a 67-year-old agreement signed by then-prime minister Mackenzie King and president Franklin Roosevelt to jointly defend North America.

“This is a significant policy change, and it will clearly have consequences,” says a briefing paper released Friday by Dwight Mason.

Oh, you can bet this will have consenquences. My uncle who lives near my parents in British Columbia has been complaining for awhile about the logging policy (pdf) we have towards Canada, and now you can be sure it will get much worse. Wtf are they thinking?

The first impact, he suggested, will come next year when the Norad agreement comes up for renewal, but it could also have economic consequences as yet unknown.

“The decision to opt out of missile defence is an abandonment of some Canadian sovereignty,” he writes.

“This brings the basic partnership policy underlying the U.S.-Canadian defence relationship into question. These developments will have long-term consequences that will take time to be revealed fully.”

One immediate consequence could affect Prime Minister Paul Martin’s role on the international stage.

If he had any hope the United States would help him create his cherished G-20 group of world leaders, those hopes may have been extinguished permanently.

One U.S. official emitted a deep, extended laugh when asked for an assessment of the prime minister and said Canada no longer qualifies as a trusted ally.

While wary of speaking on the record, the Americans are particularly annoyed with Martin over what they perceive as weak leadership.

They say he expressed support for missile defence, then did nothing to refute misconceptions about it, and finally pulled out when public opinion mushroomed against it.

…

But Canada’s refusal to sign on to the missile plan could further marginalize its concerns and interests when trade-related issues like softwood lumber appear before U.S. Congress, said one Calgary observer.

“This is one more issue that goes into the balance scale, one more reason to say, ‘Screw Canada,’ ” said David Bercuson, director of the Centre for Military and Strategic Studies at the University of Calgary.

My favorite bit from the PM was that we must seek permission to shoot a missle if it will go into Canadian airspace. Is this guy something or what? This didn’t go over to well tho:

The United States will decide when to fire missiles over Canadian airspace whether Canada likes it or not, says America’s ambassador. The blunt warning from Paul Cellucci came minutes after Prime Minister Paul Martin announced yesterday that he will not sign on to the controversial U.S. missile defence program.

“We will deploy. We will defend North America,” Cellucci said.

“We simply cannot understand why Canada would, in effect, give up its sovereignty — its seat at the table — to decide what to do about a missile that might be coming toward Canada.”

The warning was no slip of the tongue — Cellucci repeated several times that Canada’s decision had handed over some of its sovereignty to the U.S.

What makes this even more humerous is that they announce this at the same time we have a successful test:

An experimental naval interceptor shot down a short-range ballistic missile target during a test over the Pacific Ocean, missile defence officials said.

The kill on Thursday was the fifth in six tries for the interceptor, called a Standard Missile-3, said Rick Lehner, a spokesman for the Pentagon’s Missile Defence Agency.

During the test, a target ballistic missile, similar to a Scud, was launched from the island of Kauai at 4pm.

The USS Lake Erie, a cruiser equipped with the Aegis radar system and stationed 160km offshore, tracked the ballistic missile and then fired the interceptor to shoot it down. Two minutes later, the missiles collided.

Check out Six Meat Buffet for some great info and the following plan:

In yesterday’s Washington Post there is a article written by David Ignatius that is quite interesting.

“Enough!” That’s one of the simple slogans you see scrawled on the walls around Rafiq Hariri’s grave site here. And it sums up the movement for political change that has suddenly coalesced in Lebanon and is slowly gathering force elsewhere in the Arab world.

…

Brave words, in a country where dissent has often meant death. “It is the beginning of a new Arab revolution,” argues Samir Franjieh, one of the organizers of the opposition. “It’s the first time a whole Arab society is seeking change — Christians and Muslims, men and women, rich and poor.”

The leader of this Lebanese intifada is Walid Jumblatt, the patriarch of the Druze Muslim community and, until recently, a man who accommodated Syria’s occupation. But something snapped for Jumblatt last year, when the Syrians overruled the Lebanese constitution and forced the reelection of their front man in Lebanon, President Emile Lahoud. The old slogans about Arab nationalism turned to ashes in Jumblatt’s mouth, and he and Hariri openly began to defy Damascus.

…

“It’s strange for me to say it, but this process of change has started because of the American invasion of Iraq,” explains Jumblatt. “I was cynical about Iraq. But when I saw the Iraqi people voting three weeks ago, 8 million of them, it was the start of a new Arab world.” Jumblatt says this spark of democratic revolt is spreading. “The Syrian people, the Egyptian people, all say that something is changing. The Berlin Wall has fallen. We can see it.”

That last paragraph jumped out at me. The leader of a freedom revolution in Lebanon is saying that if it were not for the Iraq war none of this would of happened. Think this is isolated?

More than 150 Syrian intellectuals on Wednesday signed a petition calling on Damascus to end its military occupation of Lebanon. The petition was sent to Syrian President Bashar Assad.

As I earlier posted, once freedom starts you can’t end it.

Via Instapundit comes this quote from the Belgravia Dispatch:

I must say, that those who mock haven’t been paying attention to the empirical data that’s been piling up. First, we had the Afghan election last fall with this extraordinary turnout. Then we had the Palestinian election. Then we had the Iraqi election. We’re going to have a parliamentary election in Afghanistan in the spring. So this isn’t a theory anymore, this is actually happening on the ground in the Middle East and it is absolutely revolutionary, these free and fair elections.

What’s interesting is that Democracy in the Middle East is looking pretty damn good at the moment. This is something the left said would never happen, and now that it looks like they were wrong again they have resorted to all kinds of childish behavior. Such as calling the few blogs who quoted Jumblatt as being part of a neocon circlejerk.

They also say we are making Jumblatt into a neocon pinup.

Chrenkoff notes a few facts tho:

If you are still wondering how quoting somebody translates into support and endorsement of that person and his past history and past statements, well, you’re not alone.

Jumblatt is not what you would consider “a nice person.” Had Matthew Barganier at Antiwar bothered to read the rest of my post he would have discovered that in the very next line I quote WaPo’s David Ignatius who says “over the years, I’ve often heard [Jumblatt] denouncing the United States and Israel,” and then proceed to recall Jumblatt’s long history of bloody conflict with Lebanon’s pro-Western Maronite Christians, and mention that Jumblatt is currently trying to cozy up to Hizbollah. My “new neocon pinup”? Methinks the (anti)war fever is getting better of Antiwar.

Antiwar also points us in the direction of a post by Justin Raimondo who argues that we can’t take anything that Jumblatt say seriously because he’s got some zany ideas (CIA created bin Laden and al Qaeda, the true axis of evil is “oil and Jews”, etc.). Curiously, Jumblatt sounds like a bit more extreme version of Antiwar. Yep, a serious credibility problem here.

Yet, I think it’s precisely because of his past positions that Jumblatt is worth quoting. As he himself admits before giving the US his backhand compliment, “It’s strange for me to say it…” Because even if our enemies are starting to give America its due, then we might be on the threshold of some really interesting times.

Does the left hate Bush so much that they are hoping for freedom’s failure? What is going through their heads?

Now you see the type’s of people who threw things at our Vietnam soldiers and called them “baby killers”. Shameful.

So I guess I’m joining the circle along with Powerline, Vodkapundit, Kerry Spot, Instapundit, Chrenkoff, and Reason. Whippeeee.

While going through the news of the day and differn’t blogs I came across a story that just made my heart leap: (hat tip Blackfive & Does This Offend You):

When the Iraqi troops arrived that morning, three American servicemen lay dead at the bottom of the Isaki Canal.

The body of a fourth, Sgt. Rene Knox Jr., 22, had been recovered from a submerged Humvee. Patrolling without headlights around 4:30 a.m., Knox had overshot a right turn. His vehicle tumbled down a concrete embankment and settled upside down in the frigid water.

During the harrowing day-long mission to recover the bodies of the Humvee’s three occupants on Feb. 13, an Air Force firefighter also drowned. Five U.S. soldiers were treated for hypothermia. For five hours, three Navy SEAL divers searched the canal before their tanks ran out of oxygen.

What happened then, however, has transformed the relationship between the Iraqi soldiers and the skeptical Americans who train them. Using a tool they welded themselves that day at a cost of about $40, the Iraqis dredged the canal through the cold afternoon until the tan boot of Spec. Dakotah Gooding, 21, of Des Moines, appeared at the surface. The Iraqis then jumped into the water to pull him out, and went back again and again until they had recovered the last American. Then they stood atop the canal, shivering in the dark.

“When I saw those Iraqis in the water, fighting to save their American brothers, I saw a glimpse of the future of this country,” said Col. Mark McKnight, commander of the 1st Brigade, 3rd Infantry Division, which had overall responsibility for the unit in the accident, his eyes tearing.

These are the stories that must be told.

Many U.S. soldiers say they fear even standing near the Iraqis because of their propensity to fire their weapons randomly. At Camp Paliwoda in Balad, where Americans from the 5th Battalion, 7th Cavalry Regiment are training a new Iraqi army battalion, the soldiers work at adjacent bases but are separated by a locked gate, razor wire and a 50-foot-tall chain-link fence.

Pfc. Russell Nahvi, 23, of Arlington, Tex., a medic whose platoon was involved in the accident, said he arrived in Iraq this month with preconceptions about the Iraqi forces. “You always heard never to trust them, to never turn your back on them,” he said.

The actions of the Iraqis that Sunday “changed my mind for how I felt about these guys,” he said. “I have a totally different perspective now. They were just so into it. They were crying for us. They were saying we were their brothers, too.”

Isn’t life something? Once we were enemies, now we are brothers. Freedom can change many things:

Plastic bags, car parts and pieces of clothing stuck to the dredging tool, but as the afternoon wore on none of the three Americans had been found. The Navy SEALs rushed back to base to warm themselves and refill their oxygen tanks. Abdul Mutalib had stripped to his long underwear; he refused to put down the tool, even when the Iraqis changed shifts.

It was about 4 p.m. when Gooding’s body was found. Cpl. Nabeel Abdullah, 36, a veteran of ousted president Saddam Hussein’s army, jumped into the water, wrapped himself around Gooding’s leg and rode the dredging device to the embankment.

About 15 minutes later the Iraqis found Lake. This time Abdul Mutalib jumped in to secure the body. He jumped in again when the dredging tool recovered Rangel.

The Iraqis gathered atop the canal, smoking and shivering in the gathering darkness. The Americans helped cover the Iraqis with blankets and embraced them. A U.S. military truck pulled up with food for the rescuers. The Iraqis hadn’t eaten all day. The U.S. soldiers lined up at the truck, heaping their plates with food. Instead of feeding themselves, they fanned out, distributing the plates to the Iraqis.

This is a story that should not die. This is a story that the MSM should not bury. This is a important story.

Janet Daley over at Daily Telegraph has a great article about our great allies: (hat tip American Future)

as I listened to George W Bush telling Europeans that his campaign for liberty and democracy arose directly from ideals that had originated with them. You could almost hear the injured bewilderment in his voice: this was all your idea in the first place. Whatever happened to your commitment to the values enshrined in Magna Carta and the French Revolution – the doctrine of the rights of man and of government by consent? And if you are still committed to those principles, why can you not see the need to extend them to parts of the world that are still deprived of them?

Eighteenth-century spoken English may or may not survive in America and in Australia, but 18th-century ideas about liberty and the redeeming quality of democracy certainly seem to have found a permanent home in exile.

The enlightenment idealism of Europe was exported to the rebellious colonies and, in geographical isolation, it flourished. While Europeans themselves undermined their own great democratic project with their ancient hatreds and their aristocratic nostalgia, the na?ve Americans kept the dream intact, building it into a written constitution (which was an 18th-century idea itself).

Europe has pretty much given up on the whole undertaking now: we tried it and it ended in the Terror. We went through our phase of proselytising democratic revolution with Bonaparte and look where that ended. Spreading freedom? All that amounts to is killing off one generation of autocrats and replacing them with another. Trust the people? They are just as likely to follow a fascist demagogue as to perpetuate the sacred principle of justice.

Better to make your cynical peace with the worst aspects of human nature than to pretend that free men will always choose good over evil. Much better to make a mutually profitable trade-off behind the scenes than to expose political decisions to the popular will. What evidence is there that the people actually know what is best for them? Most charitably, the European philosophy of government – shortly to be permanently installed under the EU constitution – is paternalistic. At worst, it is arrogant and authoritarian.

What is it with Europe? Will they capitulate to any enemy? Do any of them have any balls?

That is why Jacques Chirac – the very embodiment of corrupt European political cynicism – and George Bush can never, ever find true common ground. When the President tries to give credit where it is due – to the European authorship of democratic revolution – it sounds faintly sarcastic.

I have written before on this page that European hatred of the United States has a great deal to do with jealousy of American self-belief. But there is an element of shame there, too. Because Europe knows that it has sold the pass. It has traded liberty for security: the safety of consensus, the reassuring unfreedom of bureaucratic control and an over-regulated economy.

And they will see their own 9/11 im afraid before they come around, maybe not even then as evidenced by the spineless Spanish.

Much more in the article, well worth the read.

Then you have a German paper interviewing Richard Perle. (hat tip Discarded Lies and David’s Medienkritik):

DIE WELT: (…) [I]s there a new thaw in transatlantic relations?

Richard Perle: I?m very skeptical about the Europeans? ? and when I say that I mean the Germans and the French ? being prepared for a new beginning. Certain circles in these countries don?t want US policies in Iraq to be successful. And, whether or not they supported the war, that is not the case with the rest of Europe.

Q: Did the election in Iraq legitimize Bush?s foreign policy of “transformation” even though no weapons of mass destruction were found?

A: Absolutely. We?ll look back and see the liberation of Iraq and the establishment of a freely elected government that respects human rights as a turning point in history. Today?s German and French position reminds me of their attitude toward Ronald Reagan?s policies to end the Cold War. They were terribly short sighted and lost sight of the big picture. The French and Germans were above all, as we said, appalled. History has proven them wrong then and will do it again. Their underestimating Bush and hostility toward is as wrong today as their attitude toward Reagan was wrong then. ?

Q: So the Europeans? negotiations with Iran are a complete waste of time?

A: Well, I suppose we must go through those phases so people will recognize that it won?t be easy. I have my doubts about the negotiations leading to anything because you cannot trust the Iranians. In point of fact it seems to me pretty obvious that the regime wants the bomb and nobody will talk them out of it. It?s only a matter of time before the Germans and French accuse the Americans of being at fault for the Iranian?s refusal to yield. They?ll say, “You ruined the pretty little treaty we almost had completely negotiated.”

Q: Sounds familiar…

A: We?re seeing the same issue that split on the Iraq war. Europe doesn?t perceive Iran as a threat, and the US does. The Europeans are not as threatened by Iranian nuclear weapons as are the Americans and they aren?t as threatened by the terrorism that Iran sponsors. If the only way to keep the Iranians from getting a nuclear weapon is military action against Iranian production facilities, then the US must undertake that action.

Yup, think he has it covered.

Just a little update on Sgt. Rafael Peralta. PacifiCare Health Systems Inc. has established the PacifiCare Freedom Award which is a annual $50,000 scholorship in honor of Sgt Peralta:

The award is a $50,000 annual scholarship to recognize outstanding individuals and organizations that, according to PacifiCare Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Howard Phanstiel, "have demonstrated tremendous sacrifice and commitment to make a positive difference in our communities." The award was inspired by the heroic actions of U.S. Marine Sgt. Rafael Peralta who was killed last November by enemy action in Iraq. Fighting alongside his fellow marines in Falluja, Peralta, wounded by gunshots, reached out for a grenade that was hurled by an insurgent and cradled it to his body to protect others from the blast. His heroism saved the lives of five of his fellow Marines. Touched by his story and his ultimate sacrifice, PacifiCare has dedicated the inaugural 2005 PacifiCare Freedom Award in honor of Sgt. Peralta. For this year, PacifiCare is expanding its Latino Health Scholars program to include — in addition to the 70 $2,000 scholarships the company will award this fall — two $25,000 scholarships for the most deserving bilingual and bicultural students dedicated to pursuing careers in health care. "This year, we would like to dedicate the PacifiCare Freedom Award on behalf of Sgt. Peralta and all of the men and women of the armed forces who have given their lives to promote freedom and liberty throughout the world," said Phanstiel. "Through the Latino Health Scholars program, we are looking for students who share the kinds of qualities exemplified by Sgt. Peralta, and who demonstrate the values we cherish at PacifiCare to make people's lives better. "What counts a great deal in life is what we do for others," Phanstiel added. "Sgt. Peralta's sacrifice will certainly be marked by the lives he saved and the inspiration he offers to so many others. Our contribution is small by comparison, but in the years ahead will hopefully serve to ensure this man's incredible bravery is well remembered."

I think he would be proud that his actions not only saved the lifes of his fellow soldiers but will give a kid a good start at college also. My other posts on this hero can be found here….Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5, and Part 6, and Part 7.

This is just so typical of the wacko left. How do these people live with themselves? (hat tip LGF)

An American soldier overseas is fuming over letters he received from Brooklyn middle-school children accusing GIs of destroying mosques and killing civilians in Iraq.

Pfc. Rob Jacobs of New Jersey said he was initially ecstatic to get a package of letters from sixth-graders at JHS 51 in Park Slope last month at his base 10 miles from the North Korea border.

That changed when he opened the envelope and found missives strewn with politically charged rhetoric, vicious accusations and demoralizing predictions that only a handful of soldiers would leave the Iraq war alive.

“It’s hard enough for soldiers to deal with being away from their families, they don’t need to be getting letters like this,” Jacobs, 20, said in a phone interview from his base at Camp Casey.

“If they don’t have anything nice to say, they might as well not say anything at all.”

One Muslim boy wrote: “Even thoe [sic] you are risking your life for our country, have you seen how many civilians you or some other soldier killed?”

Where did these kid’s get these opinions? I’m sure it couldn’t be their teacher could it? No way, our teachers are supposed to be unbiased while teaching. Give me a break. Just another example of how the looney left have taken over our education in our country and filling our kid’s minds with bullshit.

Whats funny is this statement from the principal

The JHS 51 teacher, Alex Kunhardt, did not return phone calls, but the school principal, Xavier Costello, responded with a statement:

“While we would never censor anything that our children write, we sincerely apologize for forwarding letters that were in any way inappropriate to Pfc. Jacobs. This assignment was not intended to be insensitive, but to be supportive of the men and women in service to our nation.”

Which makes it seem as if the letters were not screened right? Well, the father of the soldier was on Hannity earlier today and told him that there was a cover letter from the teacher that said all the letters were screened.

Further proof that more then likely this teacher screened these letters comes from this teenager at The Political Teen:

Last year in World History our Social Studies teacher assigned up to write a letter to a soldier in Iraq. After we turned them in, my teacher proofread them to make sure something like this didn’t happen. I know this letters are meant to be personal and perhaps intimate, however with the lack of respect that goes around today this sort of precaution should have been taken.

Over at Anti-Idiotarian Rottweiler there is news this jackass of a teacher was finally contacted:

Also, as we were writing this, LC Imamommy informed us that, when the teacher cowardly fuckstain was finally contacted, he reportedly said something along the lines of “No comment. No comment. No comment. No comment….. I just want to say I’m sorry to the soldier.“

Yeah, I’m sure he is so sorry. The way this guy/girl teaches they should be teaching at one of our unbiased universities….

Please send a message to Chancellor of District 8 and show your displeasure

This is interesting. The NYT is running a article detailing a tape recording a “friend” of President Bush made. Apparently this great guy tape recorded the Pres without him knowing it. What a swell guy huh?

As George W. Bush was first moving onto the national political stage, he often turned for advice to an old friend who secretly taped some of their private conversations, creating a rare record of the future president as a politician and a personality.

In the last several weeks, that friend, Doug Wead, an author and former aide to Mr. Bush’s father, disclosed the tapes’ existence to a reporter and played about a dozen of them.

Variously earnest, confident or prickly in those conversations, Mr. Bush weighs the political risks and benefits of his religious faith, discusses campaign strategy and comments on rivals. John McCain “will wear thin,” he predicted. John Ashcroft, he confided, would be a “very good Supreme Court pick” or a “fabulous” vice president. And in exchanges about his handling of questions from the news media about his past, Mr. Bush appears to have acknowledged trying marijuana.

Mr. Wead said he recorded the conversations because he viewed Mr. Bush as a historic figure, but he said he knew that the president might regard his actions as a betrayal. As the author of a new book about presidential childhoods, Mr. Wead could benefit from any publicity, but he said that was not a motive in disclosing the tapes.

Sure it wasn’t. Why would you want publicity, and money? What a flaming jackass.

From what I’ve heard about the tapes they acutally seem like it will make W sound more human.

But Mr. Bush also repeatedly worried that prominent evangelical Christians would not like his refusal “to kick gays.” At the same time, he was wary of unnerving secular voters by meeting publicly with evangelical leaders. When he thought his aides had agreed to such a meeting, Mr. Bush complained to Karl Rove, his political strategist, “What the hell is this about?”

Mr. Bush, who has acknowledged a drinking problem years ago, told Mr. Wead on the tapes that he could withstand scrutiny of his past. He said it involved nothing more than “just, you know, wild behavior.” He worried, though, that allegations of cocaine use would surface in the campaign, and he blamed his opponents for stirring rumors. “If nobody shows up, there’s no story,” he told Mr. Wead, “and if somebody shows up, it is going to be made up.” But when Mr. Wead said that Mr. Bush had in the past publicly denied using cocaine, Mr. Bush replied, “I haven’t denied anything.”

He refused to answer reporters’ questions about his past behavior, he said, even though it might cost him the election. Defending his approach, Mr. Bush said: “I wouldn’t answer the marijuana questions. You know why? Because I don’t want some little kid doing what I tried.”

Actually sounds like a stand up guy. This is a man who can admit that he has sinned and cannot judge those who sin because of it. A stand up guy behind closed doors as well as in front of them.

Does it upset me that he did drugs? No. If he had done drugs and then lied about doing them, i.e. “I didn’t inhale”, then I would be pissed. I have to agree with The Captain on this point tho:

Perhaps some of this has historical significance. However, it pales in relation to the act of a preacher and personal friend surreptitiously taping conversations for their “historic” value and publishing them without the friend’s knowledge or authorization. It’s appalling, even if it does no damage to Bush, and Wead ought to have known better. These conversations had no content which could have had a higher purpose for recording, such as evidence of wrongdoing or protection of one’s own safety or reputation, which would justify such betrayal. Wead says he simply would tape anyone he thinks will be famous later so he can cash in on it when his prediction turns out to be correct.

He’s a disgusting piece of human slime. I suspect that Wead will get considerably fewer phone calls in the future, except from reporters who want to hear more of Wead’s spying tapes. Hopefully he enjoys their friendship, as they will be the only friends he will have left.

That’s the story in this thing, what a freakin slimeball of a friend this guy is.

In honor of my Marines who fought for our country at Iwo Jima, I salute each and every one of you.

Sixty years ago today, more than 110,000 Americans and 880 ships began their assault on a small volcanic island in the Pacific, in the climactic battle of the last year of World War II. For the next 36 days Iwo Jima would become the most populous 7 1/2 square miles on the planet, as U.S. Marines and Japanese soldiers fought a battle that would test American resolve even more than D-Day or the Battle of the Bulge had, and that still symbolizes a free society’s willingness to make the sacrifice necessary to prevail over evil–a sacrifice as relevant today as it was 60 years ago.

The attack on Iwo Jima capped a two-year island-hopping campaign that was as controversial with politicians and the press as any Rumsfeld strategy. Each amphibious assault had been bloodier than the last: at Tarawa, where 3,000 ill-prepared Marines fell taking an island of just three square miles; at Saipan, where Army troops performed so poorly two of their generals had to be fired; and Peleliu, where it took 10 weeks of fighting in 115-degree heat to root out the last Japanese defenders, at the cost of 6,000 soldiers and Marines.

Iwo Jima would be the first island of the Japanese homeland to be attacked. The Japanese had put in miles of tunnels and bunkers, with 361 artillery pieces, 65 heavy mortars, 33 large naval guns, and 21,000 defenders determined to fight to the death. Their motto was, “kill 10 of the enemy before dying.” American commanders expected 40% casualties on the first assault. “We have taken such losses before,” remarked the Marine Corps Lt. Gen. Holland M. Smith, “and if we have to, we can do it again.”

Even before the attack, the Navy’s bombardment of Iwo Jima cost more ships and men than it lost on D-Day, without making a significant dent in the Japanese defenses. Then, beginning at 9 a.m. on the 19th, Marines loaded down with 70 to 100 pounds of equipment each hit the beach, and immediately sank into the thick volcanic ash.

They found themselves on a barren moonscape stripped of any cover or vegetation, where Japanese artillery could pound them with unrelenting fury. Scores of wounded Marines helplessly waiting to be evacuated off the beach were killed “with the greatest possible violence,” as veteran war reporter Robert Sherrod put it.

Shells tore bodies in half and scattered arms and legs in all directions, while so much underground steam rose from the churned up soil the survivors broke up C-ration crates to sit on in order to keep from being scalded. Some 2,300 Marines were killed or wounded in the first 18 hours. It was, Sherrod said, “a nightmare in hell.”

Read the whole article here.

Plus, Zell Miller haD a great article a few months ago about how the media would cover Iwo Jima today. (hat tip Blackfive)

What if today’s reporters had covered the Marines landing on Iwo Jima, a small island in the far away Pacific Ocean, in the same way they’re covering the war in Iraq? Here’s how it might have looked:

DAY 1

With the aid of satellite technology, Cutie Cudley interviews Marine Pfc. John Doe, who earlier came ashore with 30,000 other Marines.

Cutie: “John, we have been told by the administration that this island has great strategic importance because if you’re successful, it could become a fueling stop for our bombers on the way to Japan. But, as you know, we can’t be sure this is the truth. What do you think?”
Pfc. Doe: “Well, I’ve been pinned down by enemy fire almost ever since I got here and have had a couple of buddies killed right beside me. I’m a Marine and I go where they send me. One thing’s for sure, they are putting up a fight not to give up this island.”

Cutie: “Our military analysts tell us that the Japanese are holed up in caves and miles of connecting tunnels they’ve built over the years. How will you ever get them out?”

Pfc. Doe: “With flame throwers, ma’am.”

Cutie (incredulously): “Flame throwers? You’ll burn them alive?”

Pfc. Doe: “Yes ma’am, we’ll fry their asses. Excuse me, I shouldn’t have said that on TV.”

Cutie (audible gasp): “How horrible!”

Pfc. Doe (obviously wanting to move on): “We’re at war ma’am.”
(A Marine sergeant watching nearby yells, “Ask her what does she want us to do ? sing to them, ‘Come out, come out, wherever you are. Pretty please.’ ”

Cutie: “Pfc. Doe, what’s that mountain in the background? Is that the one they say is impregnable?”

Pfc. Doe: “I don’t know what that word means, ma’am, but that’s Mt. Suribachi, and we’re going to put a flag right up on top of it just as soon as we can. I gotta go.”

Cutie to camera: “No one has yet really confirmed why this particular battle in this particular place is even being waged. Already, on the first day, at least 500 Marines have been killed and a thousand wounded. For this? (Camera pans to a map with a speck of an island in the Pacific. Then a close up of nothing but black volcanic ash). For this? For this?” (Cutie’s sweet voice becomes more strident as it fades out.)

You just gotta love the moonbats….during my travels in a radio car I occasionally see a bum talking to himself and punching at invisible people. I immediately think “you know he was raised as a moonbat”.

It now appears that Jeff Gannon could be the thread that unravels the real story behind the TANG/CBS forgeries. I have put together a case here that if looked at carefully by the blogosphere would show that the TANG forgeries were made by the White House, probably Dan Bartlett, and then given to Bill Burkett by a former associate of Karl Rove, Roger Stone. Stone’s wife, Nydia, who is Cuban, was most likely the Hispanic lady on the phone who convinced Burkett the documents were real and that he should burn them after copying them to protect her honor

Gannon was apparently used by the White House to ID Mapes as the CBS producer and to try and conflate the Abu Ghraib photos she revealed as sourceless as the TANG docs.

Bahaaahahahahahahah, these guys are insane with a capitol I. We all know these people are the one’s who believe Fahrenheit 9/11 was a documentary! Bawhahahahahah. Keep it up boys and girls and the White House will never be your again. (hat tip LGF)

You can read the whole article in all its idiocy here.

Back on Dec 31st I blogged about Deputy David March and his murder by a Mexican drug dealer, pictured below.

This story is close to my heart because he is a fellow Deputy Sheriff in LA. I never knew him but just the fact that this scumbag is living free in Mexico boils my blood.

This is just another example of how can we expect to be safe from Terrorism and scum like the above when we don’t even have control of our borders.

Last month the Orange County weekly had a article about all these killer’s living free in Mexico, and Mexico wont extradite them:

It was after midnight on Friday, Dec. 5, 1997, when 16-year-old Doyle and his friends left a heavy-metal concert at the Showcase Theater in Corona and started heading home for nearby Yorba Linda. But first they walked to a fast-food restaurant for a late-night snack.

Drive-through service was all that was available at that hour, so the group left empty-handed. As they headed back to their car, parked near the theater, a group of young men in a car followed, taunting them with shouts of “devil-worshipers must die.” Doyle and his friends kept walking, but once they reached the parking lot across from the theater, the car pulled up and an 18-year-old gang member named Peter Gallardo Espinoza jumped out holding a knife. He stabbed Doyle in the stomach.

A few hours later, Doyle died at Riverside General Hospital. Espinoza bragged about the incident to his girlfriend, who eventually told police. Doyle?s friends then identified Espinoza as the killer. But by the time Corona police detectives began looking for Espinoza, he had already fled across the border to Mexico, where he has remained for the past seven years.

With the war on terrorism three years old and counting, you might think the U.S.-Mexico border would be the last place to find wanted criminals who are actively being sought by U.S. law-enforcement authorities. You?d be wrong. Since allegedly murdering Doyle, Espinoza has repeatedly crossed the border to visit family members, sources close to the investigation say.

“The police have been counting on Homeland Security to catch him at the border, but it seems like he keeps coming back and forth,” said Alan?s father, David Doyle. “I guess they?re just waiting for him to try to cross again. It?s hard to believe seven years have passed and they know where this guy is but can?t get him.”

Take a look at what David March’s wife say’s about this situation:

April 29th, 2002, was the worst day of my life. I found out that my soul-mate, David March, was shot and killed on duty while doing a routine traffic stop at 10:30 in the morning. He was shot in the side of his chest, where the vest did not cover, then executed in the head. I also learned that his killer fled the scene.

Instantly the news media was at the hospital, and at my home to catch the drama as it unfolded. I didn?t want to be on camera, but needed the worlds help finding the person(s), that fled from the scene in a black Maxima. Within two days, the face of the expected killer was all over the news. I wanted to see the eyes of a killer who took my dreams away.

As I sat there, ill in despair, two Hispanic men told the media, they had told Armando Garcia, ?Chato? to flee to the border (Mexico). I thought this was a place to run and hide. Not a place to seek a safe haven. I was soon to find out how broken our justice system really was.

I began to learn new terminology such as; extradition, deportation, bounty hunters, treaty, corruption within Mexico, and worst of all our own governments lack of involvement. This was very overwhelming considering my future, as I saw it, was never going to be the same.

As I approach the one year mark, I cannot believe that this is a battle I need to fight. My husband protected the citizens and loved this career. This was his lifelong dream to make this world a better place. I want to believe that his death brings attention to the very real problem that if people kill and flee to the border, they are getting away with murder.
This isn?t a new problem. How could this not be a huge concern? After September 11th, this nation was attacked by terrorists. We learned that we are not safe, and our homeland needs a better protection system.

Mexico is harboring Mr. Garcia. A cop killer is still living a free life in Mexico. This is a continuous nightmare. Mexico will not extradite a violent criminal wanted for murder, because they don?t agree with the death penalty, or life in prison. This monster moved from Mexico and illegally came to the United States, and resided here in California. He plagued our streets with drugs, and criminal activities. Why isn?t he accountable to our laws, if he lived here and committed murder here? Why is Mexico forcing their laws on our country? Where is the mutual respect? Why would Mexico protect a criminal, who had been deported three times, and had two previous attempted murders, prior to Dave?s death? I want the assurances he is paying for the crime here in the United States. Our family will not settle for a lesser crime such as manslaughter. He took a life, and should be willing to give up his own. That is why the law is in place.

I?m so grateful to our law enforcement, our Sheriff, Lee Baca, and our District Attorney, Steve Cooley, for being a voice, and supporting our family during this most difficult time. This is in the hands of our
federal Government, and our President. We appreciate the prayers and want this tragedy to shed light on our broken system. We cannot let the bad guys win. Our citizens and our police officers are not safe. Please write to your local Congressman and our leaders in Washington D.C. More voices and letters will increase our chances in making our government accountable.

God Bless, Teri March

So far, the only thing being done is awards being issued.

Back in 2003, then Govenor Davis issued a $100,000 reward for the capture of Jose Garcia. Last week the LA County Board of Supervisor’s decided to extend their award of $10,000 dollars:

Supervisor Antonovich made the following statement:

“On April 29, 2002, Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Deputy David March was shot and killed by Armando Garcia, aka Daniel Garcia and “Chato,” during a routine traffic stop in the City of Irwindale, at approximately 10:30 a.m. In an effort to bring the perpetrator to justice, on November 16, 2004, the Board extended the reward offer of $10,000 for information leading to his arrest and conviction. The reward offer expires February 16, 2005.”

Therefore, on motion of Supervisor Antonovich, seconded by Supervisor Yaroslavsky, unanimously carried, the Board approved the extension of the $10,000 reward offered for any information leading to the arrest and conviction of Armando Garcia, aka Daniel Garcia and “Chato,” for the death of Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Deputy David
March, who was shot and killed after making a routine traffic stop on Live Oak Ave. just east of Peck Rd., in the City of Irwindale, on Monday, April 29, 2002, at approximately 10:30 a.m.

The fact is that something needs to be done, Mexico refuses to send these killers back to the US because they don’t have the death penalty nor do they have a life sentence. So basically, in Mexico you can get away with murder.

Please visit Deputy David March’s website, lots more information plus you can help out and get these killers back to the United States.

Gotta hate the French, I really don’t think there is anything good you can say about the French anymore, they are a waste and a joke of a government.

Apparently Bush wants the European’s to classify Hezbollah as a terrorist group. Makes sense right?

As rising instability in Lebanon increases tensions in the Middle East, the Bush administration is arguing with European governments over whether they should designate the Lebanon-based Shiite group Hezbollah a terrorist organization, American and European officials say.

The United States is already stepping up pressure on Iran and Syria, Hezbollah’s main sponsors. The American rift with Syria deepened this week, with suspicions that Syria might have been behind the assassination of Lebanon’s former prime minister in Beirut on Monday.

…

In the past two weeks, the officials said, France has rebuffed appeals by Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and the Israeli foreign minister, Silvan Shalom, to list Hezbollah as a terrorist organization, which would prevent it from raising money in Europe through charity groups. The United States has long called Hezbollah a terrorist organization, but the French, American and European officials said, have opposed doing so, and argue that making such a designation now would be unwise, given the new turbulence in Lebanon.

Israeli and American officials say that the Palestinian president, Mahmoud Abbas, has told them that he, too, regards Hezbollah as a destructive force in the Middle East, one determined to undermine peace talks by supporting militant groups that attack Israelis.

Gotta love that. The Palestinian president admits that Hezbollah are a bunch of f-wad terrorists but the French don’t agree….No joke.

The Europeans are not solidly opposed to listing Hezbollah as a terrorist group, the officials said. The Netherlands, Italy and Poland support the Bush administration’s view, several officials said, while Germany and Britain believe the issue is moot unless the French change their minds. One European diplomat said other countries were “hiding behind” France on the issue.

…

A European diplomat said the issue of calling Hezbollah a terrorist organization was discussed in Brussels on Wednesday at a meeting of the Clearing House, a unit of the European Union that meets in confidential sessions to review terrorist activities in Europe. The group could reach no consensus, the diplomat said.

“Nothing is going to change on Hezbollah because we don’t have an agreement among the member states,” the diplomat said. “That doesn’t mean we won’t get a consensus. I know the Americans are impatient, but the European Union has 25 states, and these things take time.”

Some of those interviewed tried to make it sound as if the reason they are hesitant to go along with Bush is because of the situation in Lebanon. But as The Captain points out, it probably has more to do with Iran:

I suspect the true reason for the reluctance comes not from the “delicate” nature of Lebanese politics, but from the relationship between Hezbollah and the Iranians. The EU has tried for the past two years to appease the Iranian mullahs into giving up their nuclear-weapons ambitions to little avail. They don’t want to rock the boat now by attempting to starve out the mullahs’ terror agent that conducts the proxy attacks against Israel that Iran cannot afford to do itself openly.

They did not learn from Hitler’s Germany I guess, they tried to appease that guy too.

This whole thing just reminds me how corrupt and useless France is. They will forever be known as that corrupt and cowards in my opinion.

Read From On High, Dhimmi Watch, Cranky Neocon, and My View Of The World for more.

Ali over at Free Iraq has a excellent post out today about the assassination of former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri in Lebanon.

It seems that the horrible crime that took place in Beirut won’t go unpunished. Despite the continues allegations of the Syrian and Lebanese government and the crocodile tears their officials are shedding, no one seems to believe them and especially the Lebanese people. All the Syrian government could come up with is accusing Israel of being responsible for the crime. When combined with their and their friends in the Lebanese government prior accusations to Al Hariri that he was an agent for the American and Israeli intelligence, their current accusations become nothing but a stupid joke.

The Arab satellite TV stations are covering the event and its development on hourly basis these days. While Al Jazeera and official Arab TVs are expectedly defending Syria and feeding conspiracy theories -that only they can come up with without feeling the slightest shame or paying any attention to how stupid it makes them look or better say how unrealistically they wish all people to be that stupid to buy such crap-others like Al Arabyia, LBC (Lebanese) are trying to be more objective and even giving obvious signs that the accusations against Syria are not unfounded at all!

The funny thing is that those channels and news sources always look silly since they spew they same conspiracy crap day in and day out.

Anyone who’s been following the Lebanese issue would find no difficulty at all in concluding who assassinated Al Hariri. The man resigned from his position as a PM under the Syrian pressure to re-elect President Imil Lahood which he opposed and then declared that he was contacting the opposition to join them in support of immediate execution of Security Council resolution number 1559 that demands the withdrawal of Syrian troops from all Lebanese territories.

This was going to be a serious threat to the Syrian regime and its friends in Lebanon, as prior to that only the Christians demanded the Syrian withdrawal and later were joined by the Durooz (a She’at sect), and if Al Hariri had joined them it meant that most Arab Sunnis would do so to and that would mean the majority of the Lebanese people would be asking for the Syrian withdrawal. In fact the majority always wanted that but they feared to voice their opinion because the army, the Mukhabarat and Hizbullah’s militia are all in the hands of Syria. Thus it’s more than clear who has the motive and the means to assassinate Al Hariri. Not to mention that they’re the only parties that refuse an International investigation.

However, and like all dictatorial regimes, the Syrian government has only speeded its end by committing or supporting such a crime, as now the Lebanese people are enraged and nothing can silence their demand, and to their good luck they seem to have the support of the International community and most importantly that of the USA.

I certainly hope this will be the end result but you never really know in that wacky world of politics in the Middle East.

The fellas over at Iraq The Model have some interesting info also:

I will start with the assassination of the Lebanese ex-PM, Al-Jazeera is now conducting a poll about the most likely parties to be behind for the assassination. The list of choices included the following:

Israeli agents, American agents, Lebanese rebels, Syrian rebels and “others”.

What’s new! The 1st two choices are characteristic of Al_Jazeera and conspiracy theorists and of course it’s not in any of these countries interest to kill a man who’s somehow in support of their vision about the Syrian role in Lebanon but the next two choices make no sense at all, that’s at least how I see it.

That poll got a big laugh from me, almost sounds like the DU in some respects.

Then they move on to some more laughs from the the Saturday Nite Live channel Al-Jazeera:

Okay, I will stop this rambling of subjects irrelevant to each other and I will end the post with a joke about (guess who?) Al-Jazeera:

The post that big pharaoh wrote a few days ago reminded me of the last couple of series of the “Ittijah Al-Mo’akis” or the Opposite Direction show on Al-Jazeera.

Its worth mentioning that this show which is supposed to focus on the hot topics has completely ignored the Iraqi elections on its episode that was shown two days after the elections took place inside Iraq and 5 days after elections started outside the country.

However they dedicated last week’s episode to “discuss” the elections.
Regardless of all the bias and the hostility the show carries against Iraq one thing made me really laugh from my heart.

One caller who was a woman from Saudi Arabia said that the Iraqi elections were a joke, an American theatrical action and all this kind of crap like “no democracy under occupation”?blah blah blah.

Imagine, a woman from Saudi Arabia criticizes our elections! A woman from a country that doesn’t give women the right to cast votes even in municipal councils elections!! Let alone that the Saudi “parliament” members are appointed not elected.

The point here is why would I ask someone who doesn’t have the right to participate in elections in his/her own country to give an opinion about elections in another country?!

A friend who sitting next to me said mocking “never mind the b****, she’s just jealous of our country’s women who won 25% of the seats but when she gets the right to give her opinion on the color of the doormen uniform in her country, then that she will call true democracy”.

Gotta love Al-Jazeera, they’re skits really are funny. Go read the rest, the brothers have finally started “real” blogging in their pajama’s