For almost two and a half centuries, countless Americans have voluntarily served and died to uphold and defend the principles of the US Constitution. Throughout history; from the battles over the original 13 Colonies, to the beaches of Normandy, to the sands of Iraq and Afghanistan;  millions of Americans have risked life and limb to ensure the continued survival of America. It is because of their continued sacrifice that our constitutional republic is the envy of the entire world, notwithstanding liberal Baby-Boomers, who, along with terrorists and rogue dictatorships, have grown up to hate it. Read More »

Technorati Tags: barack obama, bill of rights, capitalism, Harry Reid, health care reform, Illegal Immigration, Iraq, Judicial Tyranny, Nancy Pelosi, SCHIP, SCOTUS, socialism, TARP, Terrorism, U.S. Census, UAW, US Constitution, US House of Representatives, US military, US Senate, US Supreme Court

Freedom -Free-dom frē-dəm\ n. The quality or state of being free as a: the absence of necessity, coercion, or constraint in choice or action. b: Liberation from slavery. c: The quality or state of being exempt or released usually from something onerous. © 2008 Merriam Webster Inc.

Many people think of Independence Day as a day off from work. A day to shoot off fireworks. A chance to enjoy a summer barbecue, a weekend camping trip or a day at the beach. But when I think of Independence Day, all at once I am filled with both gratutide and an overabundance of caution. I celebrate the magnificent gift of freedom that our founders bestowed upon us with their fantastic experiment, yet I am increasingly wary of the current generation of it’s handlers. As Americans, we owe our allegiance to our Constitution, not some elected body that pretends to carry out our wishes every few odd years so they can maintain their stranglehold on power. Read More »

Technorati Tags: barack obama, Iraq, patriotism, political commentary, Terrorism

Hokie - “a word that people used to express feeling, approval, excitement, surprise” - Johann Norstedt - Retired VA Tech English Professor

Once again, a suicidal maniac hell-bent on exacting as much revenge as possible has struck one of the nation’s schools, this time a world-class university. But as information about the shootings, suspect and victims arrived at news desks in drips and drabs, the over-the-top coverage of the incident by the mainstream media wasn’t very helpful. In fact, the sensationalism with which NBC, Fox News and others covered this nightmare did nothing except feed disinformation and rampant speculation.

On the April 16th morning broadcast of Fox News Live, within hours of the conclusion of the massacre, Fox contributor and former D.C. Homicide Detective Rod Wheeler was asked about the possibility that an M-16 may have been this shooter’s weapon of choice. It is unclear -and may never be known- whether a witness reported an M-16, whether a witness assumed that an M-16 was involved due to the volume of fire or exactly where Fox obtained this information.

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Technorati Tags: mass murder, Seung Hui Cho

Milestone - mile - stone `mI(-&)l-”stOn

(n.) - A stone serving as a milepost. A significant point in development

2006 has now been relegated to the archives of history. It was a year to remember and a year to forget. It was a year of scandal and of missed opportunities; a year of increasing divisiveness, as demonstrated in the midterm elections and the year that the American conservative movement repudiated it’s Commander-In-Chief.

It was a year that found the New York Times leaking sensitive information on two occasions, while arguing that the public’s –therefore by default al Qaeda’s– right to know outweighed the Bush Administration’s right to use electronic intercepts to track our enemy’s domestic phone calls or money transfers, both of which incidentally would precede a major terrorist attack.

Above all, It was a year of milestones, most of which were never fully realized and even a few that were manufactured specifically to divide the country in a time of war.

Ted Kennedy, The Associated Press, Reuters News Service and other mental midgets in the media rang in the New Year celebrating the historic milestone of the 3,000th US servicemember killed in Iraq. Kennedy called it a “tragic milestone”, while the media variously referred to it as a “grim milestone” or “the death toll milestone”. Both Reuters and the AP were practically drooling, awaiting the announcement of the next dead soldier. As a matter of fact, for about two hours on New Year’s Eve, Yahoo News posted an article attributed to Reuters entitled “US death toll in Iraq reaches 2,999″ with no byline. A few hours later, it was replaced with the three thousand figure. The article was then attributed to Claudia Parsons (Reuters), and has been updated on several occasions.

Reuters is straining sooo hard to emphasize that this is a milestone, that the story was accompanied by those unauthorized photos of flag-draped coffins being offloaded at Dover Delaware that are several years old. In addition, according the the source they’re citing for the casualty figures, there has yet to be an official confirmation of the three thousand figure, yet the Reuters headlines scream “3,000 dead”. The figure was followed in the next paragraph by a sentence indicating the number of casualties had not been “officially confirmed” and then the author’s own insinuation that the figure was not being confirmed so Bush’s critics wouldn’t have any ammunition to attack him.

Let me clarify the misconceptions you are being inculcated with by liberals in politics and the media.

A milestone is something you use to measure either a). distance or b). progress. So unless you’re cheering for the terrorists in Iraq, no number of dead US soldiers is a “milestone”. And no body count should ever be the measure of the success or failure of an entire military campaign. Using the published methodology for icasualties.org, which is the source for the Reuters article, as of publication of this piece, there are 2,991 confirmed deaths with 11 pending confirmation for a total of 3,002 . I surmise that I subscribe to the same Dod feed that icasualties does and as of the publication of this column, US Army Sgt. Edward W. Shaffer, 23 Mont Alto, PA was the last confirmed US military death in Iraq. The trouble is that his death occurred on December 27th. The most recent death confirmed by DoD occurred on 12/28.

The entire methodology is suspect. In this first screenshot, observe the timestamp. The “current time in Baghdad” was 9:43:07 PM 1/1/07. There were reportedly 2,993 deaths with 9 pending confirmation. In the second screenshot , also observe the time. It reads: 10:33:24 PM, forty minutes later, but the confirmed body count went down by two in the 40 minutes between the two screenshots. How is this possible? Rushing to be the first and not confirming your sources, that’s how.

If the latest death was confirmed on 12/28/2006, and the icasualties figures keep bouncing up and down on 1/1/2007, Reuters, through Ms. Claudia Parsons has some ’splainin to do about the accuracy of her article. I have monitored DoD casualty reports for two years. DoD only confirms military deaths upon notification of the families and sometimes they are posted on DoD’s website out of chronological sequence. Therefore, I submit to you that the entire premise of this piece of garbage propagated by Reuters and then modified at least three times over the course of six hours is in question. The number 3,000 cannot be confirmed by any independent source and yet Reuters reported it as fact.

Even worse, not only does Ms. Parsons report suggest that an unconfirmed US body count is some sort of measure of progress, she disrespects all US soldiers by devoting half of her article on their deaths to the details of how Saddam Hussein was mourned in his hometown. Apparently she sees Saddam Hussein as morally equal and therefore deserving of just as much attention. What a sicko.

And people wonder why the influence and subscription rates of mainstream media publications continue to plummet. The only milestone worthy of mention here is the new lows that some people and organizations will descend to in order to advance their agenda.

Technorati Tags: al qaeda, Iraq, Media Bias, Reuters

And so with the imminent execution of Saddam Hussein al-Tikriti, the end of 35 years of thuggery and a 24 year stranglehold on Iraq is near. With his appeals now exhausted, Saddam is set to hang for some of his crimes. This will probably result in some measure of justice for many of his victims, but for many others, the pain of not knowing what happened to their loved ones will remain.

Word is that Saddam could swing to and fro’ in a matter of hours. As the old saying goes, “if you lie down with dogs, eventually you’re gonna get fleas.” Saddam may have been a sitting head of state, but his reign of terror is about to end with a whimper; swaying lightly in the breeze from the end of a noose.

His attorneys have been stressing for months that if Saddam is executed, there will be reprisal killings by loyal Ba’ath Party members.

Millions of Iraqis –along with millions of Americans– are no doubt rejoicing at the prospect of Saddam’s execution. Despite the many justifications for handing Saddam over to the hangman, this is the perfect opportunity for the US to show the world it can be just and merciful while defusing the situation in Iraq at the same time.

Given the current situation in Iraq, Saddam is currently worth much more to us alive than dead. I can hear fellow conservatives howling across the country, but let me explain. We allow Saddam to live out his remaining days in a cell. Somewhere inaccessible and secure. He is allowed to continue breathing under stringent conditions. First, he participates fully in bringing Sunnis to the bargaining table and convinces them to forsake violence and invest in the political process. He does his damnedest to help Iraqis heal their divisions or he swings.

Second, he cooperates fully and tells us what became of his weapons programs that we know existed. He publicly identifies all Iraqi weapons program scientists and any others connected with the programs. He also must attempt to account for all of his victims. As many prisoners and executions as he can, including Iranians from the Iran/Iraq war. He spills it all, or he swings.

And finally, he gives the family of Michael Scott Speichert some peace by telling them personally, once and for all, what happened to their son after he was shot down in the opening night of the first gulf war. He gives them comfort, or he swings.

Sparing Saddam’s life would have many more benefits than drawbacks. First and foremost, it would blunt any international criticism, whether it be European, UN or Arab. Arabs couldn’t use Saddam’s execution as an excuse to recruit terrorists, kill any nuns or rape any infidels and the French couldn’t use US brutality to distract from their declining world influence and massive social upheaval. Secondly, it would promote reunification and healing. The US would lead by example, which is what the world expects of us. There’s a possibility that Sunnis could lay down their arms at Saddam’s request.

The biggest foreseeable drawback is that by allowing Saddam to live, the majority Shia may feel a sense of injustice at having Saddam escape his date with the gallows and they may feel betrayed by the US flip-flop, but if the killing is to ever end, someone must consciously choose to spare the life of another and it must become contagious. The Shia could do that by sparing Saddam. It is probably too late –and a really bad idea– to interfere in the Iraqi justice system or to refuse to hand over Saddam, but it would be in our best interests to try and convince Iraqis to spare his life. Given the threat of Sunni violence upon his death, why should we make US troops targets? Spare his life and we stay. Execute him and we leave, it’s that simple.

With all of the mistakes the Bush Administration has made with foreign policy in general and Iraq in particular, there haven’t been many opportunities to seize the initiative or win the hearts and minds of Sunni or Saudi skeptics. When such an opportunity presents itself, as it does now, it must be exploited. Let’s not throw out the baby with the Ba’athwater.