LEATHERNECKM31

"The best and brightest" carry guns

First day of the DNC changing the country as well as the entire world.

As I've said before, I get a little uncomfortable around people who want "to change the world." 

But first, here is something we need to reflect upon:

During a 2007 Royal Marine assault on a Taliban stronghold in Afghanistan's Helmand Province, Lance Corporal Mathew Ford was critically wounded; his forward position in defilade in the midst of torrid of enemy fire.

His unit was unable to reach him.

The Marines called on Apache pilot Army Air Corps Warrant Officer Ed Macy with a plan so daring that rear echelon types bickered for an hour before approving it.

But the soldiers and Marines were well aware of the Taliban's latest horror tactic...  "The Taliban have a new plan for what they’ll do if they capture a British soldier. They intend to set up a webcam for a live internet broadcast and then skin him alive’.” this gave them even more reason to save one of their own.

It was no idle threat... they'd committed the same atrocity on Russian POWs in the 1980s.

Now the small group was even more determined to find L/Cpl Ford and bring him back.

For Macy it was as simple as it was preposterous.

Chris Fraser-Perry, 19, a Royal Marine for just 14 months, Royal Engineers' Captain Dave Rigg, 30, would strap themselves to the outside of an Apache piloted by Macy and "Carl".

The second Apache, externally carrying Royal Marines Sergeant-Major Colin Hearn, 45, and Gary Robinson, would provide support for the retrieval of the down Marine. 

In the bitter Afghan winter cold, the rescue mission launched for the heavily-defended target two kilometers distant. 

Macy would receive the Military Cross, right, and there would be others....

Read Macy's account (with pictures) here and the BBC taking the Taliban's side on this incident here.

War Porn

And now to see one of the Taliban's Tonka Toy truck convoys that didn't quite make it to the skinning knife store, click here.

Yep, courtesy of the A-10 Warthog and the  AN/GAU-8 30mm Avenger seven-barrel gatling gun.

Don't confuse this monster with a "machine gun"; it is  mounted only on the A-10 attack jet, and is used primarily in the air to ground role as a soft target killer and tank buster. This aircraft is used for close-air support in attacking ground threats such as armored tanks and vehicles; it also serves as a forward air control observer for sighting ground threats and directing air strikes against enemy targets.

The gun, mounted in the fuselage nose of the A/OA-10 Thunderbolt, is produced by [ex General Electric] Martin Marietta Armament Systems; and 80% of rounds fired at 4,000ft hit within a 20ft radius... ponder that for a moment, and remember that just six rounds from the Avenger can kill a tank.

According to some sources, the Avenger  (right) fires 1,800 rounds per minute, with the higher 4200 rd/min rate having been deleted in the 1980s. However, the A-10 can only fire in high rate, which is 3,900 rounds per minute. Low rate went out with the use of the batelle gas diverting device, and although the A-10 no longer uses the batelle device, the limit on high rate only has remained, since it made no tactical sense to fire in low rate and have to spend that much more time on final to get the same number of rounds on target.

Almost a lifetime ago, when I could hear the rumble of B52 ArcLight strikes, I felt compassion for my opposite number in the NVA. What manner of unbelievable hell was that?

Thankfully, I couldn't imagine.

But for these Taliban subhuman, pieces of rat bait I cannot only imagine worse, I wish it was US policy.

It is all they understand.  

And all they deserve.

Kill 'em all... and I don't give a damn if G-d sorts them out or not; in fact, if he asked, I'd say, "don't waste Your time."

Surf's up

Obama, like John Edwards, is a gift that keeps on giving, except one occupies a critical position in our nation's path and the other has more the impact of a Sunday newspaper cartoon... perhaps less.

Increasingly, The Messiah chokes when it comes to making the right "image" decision; for a candidate that is all image, that is a problem.

Even Cokie Roberts, a snooty, inside-the-Beltway, aging yuppie herself, pointed out that the timing and locus of Obama's vacation was an error.

In "going off this week to a vacation in Hawaii," she said, at the beginning of his R&R  "does not make any sense whatsoever."

"I know his grandmother lives in Hawaii and I know Hawaii is a state, but it has the look of him going off to some sort of foreign, exotic place." Roberts continued: "He should be in Myrtle Beach, and, you know, if he's going to take a vacation at this time."

He was seen bodysurfing as Russian shock troops ground deeper into Georgia.

It could, perhaps, be called the Kerry Windsurf Gaffe.

Of course his acolytes and mind-numbed Obamabots bristle at any such criticism, but such mistakes are not impressing the undecided and swing voters as well as the Hillary loyalists who still lurk in the short grass of the convention.      

Former UN Ambassador John Bolton correctly sees the current crisis in Georgia as a litmus test which the inexperienced, unproven and wholly unqualified Obama failed at the opening salvo.

"Finally, the most important step will take place right here in the United States. With a Presidential election on November 4, Americans have an opportunity to take our own national pulse, given the widely differing reactions to Russia’s blitzkrieg from Senator McCain and (at least initially) Senator Obama."

I'm still waiting fro McCain's ad on Obama's close association with Bill Ayers, American terrorist bomber. 

I suggest he get to it; this is mid-August.

Condi

Two questions.

1. Where was the CIA on the Russian invasion of Georgia? What didn't they know and when didn't they know it?

Once again the Central Intelligence Agency has left our leadership uninformed, the nation's interests unprotected. In the 90s the Clinton-damaged CIA was a miserable failure destined to watch, along with the rest of us, as the planes immolated the World Trade Center.

Little, perhaps nothing, has changed.

This invasion of Georgia must be recorded as another CIA failure to detect preparations by an aggressive nation to attack a weaker nation. No other conclusion is conceivable.

Regardless of the spin, either from the White House or Langley, the response of this administration was flaccid and ad-libbed.

It was left to VP Dick Cheney Sunday to call Georgian President Mikheil and promise him "Russian aggression must not go unanswered, and that its continuation would have serious consequences for its relations with the United States, as well as the broader international community".

Yesterday, finally, Bush dispatched Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice to Paris and Tbilisi to show support for French diplomatic efforts and Georgian resistance to the Russian invasion. He also said he we would begin air and sea delivery of humanitarian supplies by the U.S. military.

The meat of his message was unremarkable.

McCain's sober and muscular response called for emergency meetings of NATO's North Atlantic Council and of Group of 7 foreign ministers and for high-level U.S. consultations both with European allies and with countries like Ukraine that he said faced Russian intimidation.

He called for the United States to send economic and humanitarian aid to Georgia immediately.

He told Saakashvili "And I told him that I know I speak for every American when I say to him, 'Today we are all Georgians.'"

Moreover, McCain graphically demonstrated why all Americans should want him, not The One to answer that 3 a.m. call.

Obama said,  “I strongly condemn the outbreak of violence in Georgia, and urge an immediate end to armed conflict. Now is the time for Georgia and Russia to show restraint, and to avoid an escalation to full scale war."

"Outbreak of violence"? What's next... a strongly-worded e-mail?

2. Where was Condoleezza Rice, a PhD. Sovietologist chosen by GW, in 2000 (gawd knows why) long after the fall of the Soviet Union.

Given all her training and expertise in the Soviet threat...where was she on this invasion? Arguably the President's key aid when Putin crushed the emerging, pro-America democracy, Rice almost seemed to have no role or impact.

Bush erred greatly from the start... selecting a female SecState at a time when our biggest threat was from the Muslims and our oil supply from the Middle East was threatened; how could he have failed to notice, ragheads have no respect for women, they shoot them in the head, bury them shoulders deep in the ground and stone them.

Would they listen or even care about what we say or warn when the message is carried by a female?

All they respect is strength and violence... was never projected by Condi (isn't that cute..? like Tami!) Rice.

In the books to come, we'll find out that the entire Middle East including Israel was all the while laughing behind her back and wondering when the adults would return to power.

(As an aside, Bush's other SecState--Colin Powell-- was about as Republican/ conservative as Lincoln Chaffe and is no doubt backing Obama.

As Cindy says, "His picker must broke."

Un-American Airlines

A years and a half ago I wrote:

The AMR/American Airlines Foundation makes charitable and in-kind contributions in four categories... Community Development (yep, "environment" and "recycling"), Arts and Culture (yep, "minorities" and "diversity'), Education (a partnership with the United Negro College Fund), and Health and Welfare (yep, AIDS and cancer).

There's also a category titled "What we don't support"... among specific others: "veterans organizations"; you see where AA's heart (sic) is.

It's always useful to know where someone sits before they tell you where they stand.

and now this from The Wash Times:

American Airlines is charging troops for their extra baggage, a practice that forces soldiers heading for a war zone in Iraq to try to get reimbursement from the military. One of the country's largest veterans groups is asking the aviation industry to drop the practice immediately.

American, which recently charged two soldiers from Texas $100 and $300 for their extra duffel bags, said it gives the military a break on the cost for excess luggage and that the soldiers who incur the fees are reimbursed.

"... the soldiers don't pay a dime, our waiver of the fees amounts to a discount to the military, not a discount to soldiers," said Tim Wagner, spokesman for American Airlines. "Soldiers should not have to pay a penny of it."

First of all, it's obvious that Little Timmy never spent a day in uniform, but it's also no excuse.

Secondly, he entirely dodged the ethical question and passed the buck to "the military". What these courageous young people will remember is that one of the last Americans they encountered before heading to war demanded cash.    

And lastly, Timmy, how 'bout you charge the rest of your customers another 25 cents... oh, and keep the change, ya ratbastards.

Which brings me to a favorite topic...  the very sizeable portion of the public which lacks patriotism and love of country; a smaller sub-group hates the country and our military.

Well why not... millions of citizens were given the aid and comfort to do so by President Bill "I loathe the military" Clinton.

The former group is comprised of the lazy, the self-involved and those who neither feel or show gratitude whatsoever for those who made their freedom possible. 

The later group is hardcore in its dedication to transforming our country into some socialist experiment unrecognizable as America.

Chicken or egg, one group could not exist without the other.

Indifference, a soft, comfortable life, and the all-volunteer military has allowed most Americans (and I believe the number is well over 51%) to shirk all responsibility to the nation. (Above photos courtesy of American Thinker.)

Whenever I encounter a young person 17 or older I always ask, "Have you considered joining the military?" I do this knowing that most will say "no", but what I'm after is why do so many of them react to the question with the same incredulity they'd exhibit if I'd asked them to give up their cells phones and iPods.

Faithful LM31 readers know of our Medal of Honor Host City Program... the simple mission of which is to honor those who wear the nation's highest award for valor, and to make sure young people here have a chance to meet them and be inspired by their patriotic message.

After one such talk which featured the inspiring remarks of five Recipients, I asked a couple of male high school students--juniors or seniors--my question.

One, lacking even the ability to fashion an answer to an adult's question, just mumbled; the other said, "I'm not joinin' any army."

"Well, then why not enlist in the Marine Corps?"

"They're all the same," he said walking quickly away.    

How did we come to this?

Easy... parents, schools, and popular "culture".

Not since the Revolution have so few given so much for so many.... ingrates. 

How is it that in the greatest, richest, most tolerant, most advanced country in the world which welcomes all.... most of those who benefit will not encourage, support, or respect the military, let alone serve?

Our patriotic high water marks were WWII with perhaps WWI a distant second. 

These are the only times in the pathetic history of our "domestic front" that our troops could feel the nation united behind them.

What about the other 226 years?    

There has been only one time in my 60 years that the country rose as one... for the NASA space program which put us on the moon.

Yet during the same period, the military, even young, handicapped veterans, were under siege, disrespected, ignored and ridiculed... by their fellow citizens.

Thus far we've always had just enough to survive.

Enough motivated young men and women willing to die for their nation.

Enough political will not to become France.

Enough common sense to see the nexus between vigilance and freedom.

Enough technical, scientific and manufacturing capabilities to make sure the fight, when it comes, is fought on someone else's shore.

And the average American, if such a category still exists, doesn't spend 10 minutes a year doing anything even mildly patriotic or supportive of our troops.

I'm increasingly skeptical that we'll have "enough" from here on.  

Back in the USSR.... and Hawaii

The Russian Commies.... oh, you bought the whole Putin capitalist/democracy thing?... are trying to reestablish the glory days of the the Soviet Workers Paradise with tanks and airstrikes.

Meanwhile, President Bush is chewing on Chi-Com air and hanging with the US distaff beach volleyball team.

The Democrats' answer to "Bush-McCain" is still on a Hawaiian vacation, complaining about tire gauges and Paris Hilton.

Damnit GW, git yer ass home and and start threatening the Commies and backing it up instead of doing PR over roast dog.

And speaking of celebrities, The Messiah has succeeded in not just blurring the line between presidential campaigning and national celebrity fan clubs, he's erased it. Meet his latest official "unofficial advisor":

Yep; that's what I'd do when the knock on me was that I was not serious, mature or accomplished enough to lead at "3 a.m."... I'd call Hollywood and talk with a Utopian.        

Idiot. JimmyWearingFool.com has the scoop.

But over the last few days no one can touch the chutzpah of The Reptilian One, John-Boy Edwards.

This slug gives pond scum and attorneys (pardon redundancy) a bad name. Had the gall to point out that he wasn't nailing a bimbo when his wife "had" cancer... he waited until she was"in remission." Of course being in remission doesn't mean someone is free of cancer, and I can guarantee you that Edwards is clueless about his wife's terminal condition. 

Numerous family members and friends of mine have supported family members fight cancer; I have as well. Most of the stricken have lost the battle.

These good people (usually including the patient) responded by becoming overnight "experts" on the cruel disease, radiation, chemo and surgery... always figuring and refiguring the odds.

You can tell by just hearing Edwards speak of his wife that he doesn't know gawdamn thing about his wife's disease; there's a simple reason... he doesn't care.   

The poor woman is so compromised, compromised beyond all belief, that she's known about her husband's lowlife, narcissistic core forever and this affair since at least 2006, and she did nothing. No, I take that back... she tried to sell him to us as our President. 

It saddens me that she will not be here for her children; I feel even worse for the kids... they'll still have John Edwards for a father.

I have long, intimate experience with a narcissist... believe me, no one survives.

Except the narcissist.

In case you forgot about another democrat/celebrity/actor/candidate for the Senate from Minnesota, Al Franken, this is funnier than he ever was:

The St. Cloud Times reports: 

"On Friday, DFL-endorsed U.S. Senate candidate Al Franken demonstrated how true that saying can be, when a roundtable on veterans issues at Brigitte’s Cafe his campaign scheduled drew only one participant."

Apparently the poor man was confused; he asked Franken what he was going to do for veterans and VA health care. 

Until recently he in line to draw a greater crowd... of IRS agents and federal attorneys because of the $70,000 inn back taxes he owed in 17 states.

He finally paid up. but not until his opponent, Sen. Norm Coleman, made it an issue.

Oh, you didn't read anything about it in the national drive by media? You'd think his name was John Edwards.

The Great Escape

"The Digger" is dead.

Royal Air Force Squadron Leader Eric Dowling, one day short of his 93rd birthday, slipped away last night in a nursing home near Stoke Bishop, Bristol.

Dowling's real life exploits as a POW in the infamous German camp, Stalag Luft III, inspired the Charles Bronson character in "The Great Escape".

The airman was one of 250 planned escapees but failed to make it out of the camp on March 24, 1944, because the he was behind the 77th prisoner who was spotted by guards.

Like the vast majority of war veterans portrayed on film (with the exceptions of Audie Murphy and Oliver Stone)--geez, I hate to put those two in the same sentence--Dowling was none to pleased about Steve McQueen's film.

He believed the iconic motorcycle fence-jumping scene... "was rubbish".   

Click the above link to read the Telegraph's tribute. (A tip of the helmet to faithful reader Fire@will.)

For me, the worst part of his struggle would have been the actual digging through a dark, dank hole not much bigger than your shoulders; the pure Sysiphisian torment of the task must have been physically, emotionally and mentally defeating.

Obviously, that's how Dowling got his nickname.

It's been said before... "where do we get such men?"

Well, some of them come from my Marine Corps.

Corporal Garrett Jones , who lost a leg in Fallouja, would be remarkable under any circumstances, but one thing makes him more remarkable than most "amps"... he wanted to return to his unit, now in Afghanistan.

And not just that, he no doubt bitched and complained and fought to remain on active duty and in a combat zone (62 soldiers, airmen or sailors have lost limbs in combat and returned to active duty; the Corps doesn't have a firm count on the number of Marines who've returned. Those who have returned to duty in Iraq or Afghanistan is estimated at a dozen.)

My bias has always been that losing a leg below the knee, "BK", is a far better outcome than losing it above the knee, "AK".    

He brought five high-tech legs to the 2nd Battalion, 7th Marine Regiment headquarters in Afghanistan where he works in intelligence. The prosthetics require a great deal of maintenance--especially in the high desert environment of Afghanistan--which he performs every day. 

And what says Jones about all this "hard core, oorah" right stuff he possesses?

"If I were to get the opportunity to leave the wire, I would be throwing gear on in a second, happily," he said. "I miss being outside and operating. . . . Believe me, the first opportunity, I'll be there."

Predictable.

Do yourself a a favor and read the whole LA Times story.  

Here are some more young vets who don't have to go back... going back again.

Blackfive.net sends out our kind of reporters--US Iraq veterans:

For those of you familiar with milblogs (military web logs) this story is heartening for its guts and implications.

Because of the efforts of Veterans for Freedom, eight Blackfive embeds, all Iraq/Afghanistan vets, will be posting the much-needed truth.

Check Blackfive often for their reports; the group just made it to Kuwait.  

A glorious day

Where does a year go? Today is one of my favorite days of the year. Sixty-three years ago today a single shocking event heralded the end of WWII which would come in fact, just three days later....

... with the second of two beautiful "mushroom clouds", the first ever seen.

As long as I breath I'll do something to honor and remember this day. I arrived three years later, and had the bombs not dropped, it's possible that I might have never been born, as the Japs fought a prolonged war, tenaciously defending their homeland proper.

Operation Olympic and Operation Coronet. Set to begin in October 1945, Operation Olympic--the amphibious landing on Japan proper--was designed to capture the southern third of the southernmost main Japanese island of Kyushu with recent captured Okinawa used as a staging area. Operation Olympic/ Coronet featured an Allied casualty figure of 1 million and 10 millions Japanese) remained on the drawings boards and the last WWII fascists capitulated thanks to Fat Man and Little Boy, the Enola Gay and Bockscar... and their heroic crews.

And yet... the first radio news report I heard early today was this (near verbatim):

"On this day the first atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima, killing 140,00 people."

That's it. Not victory over the most evil of empires, not the end of the most horrific war in mankind's history, not Thank you Jesus, or a respectful mention of the grievous losses of America's finest.

You couldn't blame an American fourth grader, upon hearing this spare and ill-written and uttered "factoid", for assuming his country committed a horrible war crime.

That's what we've come to.

And we won.

So for the next three days I'll fight back as "our" news media commorates this glorious day by showing banging gong, prayer circles, crying Japanese and pictures of burn victims. Boo-f'ing-ho.

You notice that that there hasn't been a peep out of the Jap militarists since?

And yet, WWII was the last war we've fought to win. The reason... no more Pattons and Nimitzes, only Colin Powells and the State Department, which are essentially the same thing.

The older I get, the wearier I become, living in a society where the patriotic, hard-working American, the good moms and dads, those who care for something more than themselves--the majority--is being whip-sawed by the leftist fifth columnists, a left-wing news monolith, and thieving politicians regardless of the initial behind their names.

The national bully pulpit has been overrun and occupied by the minority--sniveling, loud, socialists leftists and their minions, which include empty-headed, brainwashed students as well as numskull housewives and union members.

The Silent Majority has always been around... silent because its too busy working and doing what Americans do best--advance and protect the cause of freedom around the world.

If we are to survive, we must end our silence.

Weekend this and that...

Al Qaeda confirms WMD expert Abu Khabab killed in US air strike; $5 million bounty

"The path of the righteous man is beset on all sides by the iniquities of the selfish and the tyranny of evil men. Blessed is he, who in the name of charity and good will, shepherds the weak through the valley of darkness, for he is truly his brother's keeper and the finder of lost children. And I will strike down upon thee with great vengeance and furious anger those who would attempt to poison and destroy my brothers. And you will know my name is the Lord when I lay my vengeance upon thee."

 

Splitting hairs

Apparently the raghead-within-ragheads struggle that features stoning women and raping men because God tells them to, now includes one sect shaving the mustaches off another.

Hamas has resumed its policy of shaving the mustaches of rival Fatah members to humiliate them as a form of punishment, The Jerusalem Post reports.

We'll never lose to these gender-confused, 14th century mental defectives, especially after we start using our C-130 gunships during    Ramadan, Ramada, whatever....

And since LM31 is your source of all Edwards Baby Daddy news:

Deceiver.com reports "Lee Stranahan, who posted the first (only?) serious, thoughtful analysis of the whole mess at the Huffington Post, has been banned from the Daily Kos for daring to talk about it there.

As the always deadly Ann Coulter observed: "... there really are 'two Americas.' There's one where men cheat on their cancer-stricken wives and one where men do not cheat on their cancer-stricken wives."

Frankly, the fact that the far left dem hypocrites are trying to cover up for another Bubba Clinton, Jesse Jackson, etc., etc. is hardly a surprise.

But what does concern me the the left's attempt to stifle the free speech of those who would point out the leftist emperor has no clothes.. especially if they are leftists.

Chief among them are San Fran Gram Nan Pelosi whose just-out book hit bottom even worst than the democrat congress. "Know Your Power: A Message to America's Daughters" (gag--would you want your daughter taking advice from this bitch?) is currently ranked #1,287 on Amazon. If her book was an accident victim, they'd pull the plug.

Congressional job approval had dropped to 9% which is far too high... but it recently bumped all the way to 14%. Perhaps that was due solely to the GOP senators staying on the House floor after Pelosi The Witch turned off TV cams, lights and microphones.

I know you been waiting to hear Paris Hilton's mom's take on the McCain ad that used Paris' imagine to ridicule His Obom-oneness as a similar, empty-suit celebrity.

So here 'tis: "... It is a complete waste of the money John McCain's contributors have donated to his campaign. It is a complete waste of the country's time and attention at the very moment when millions of people are losing their homes and their jobs. And it is a completely frivolous way to choose the next President of the United States."

Hilarious... not one word of defense for her empty-headed daughter having became synonymous with being famous only for being famous.

'Parrently, in the family it's a given.

Now... and then

Here's a good one about The Clintons' favorite source of ready cash... Tyson Foods. Debbie Schlussel reports that:

Well, folks, here it is--the beginning (or maybe the middle) of the end of America as we know it. Tyson Foods is now ending employees' paid day off for Labor Day and, instead, giving 'em the paid day off for the Muslim festival, Eid Al-Fitr, which marks the end of Ramadan. It is the most important holiday in Islam.

It will be interesting to see how Tyson calculates which day it is, since Muslims are never really sure on which day or two it falls until right before--and since Shi'ites and Sunnis frequently feud about when it falls.

Same thing happened with Cinco d-f'ing Mayo once the full on flood of wetbacks began invading our homeland and taking up positions in every state in the union.

This is but a small example of how our country is being attacked from within as well as without. Every facet of our lives has been breached... religion, marriage, patriotism, law, popular culture, language, entertainment and especially education.

The left's fifth columnists started opening open the gates during the 60s and now the barbarians are inside... "Gentlemen, prepare to defends yourselves."

This from 1999--I'm sure you remember: "Stupidity no color but ignorance sure is transparent. And ignorance showed through last week when Anthony Williams, the new black mayor of Washington, D.C., accepted the resignation of Public Advocate David Howard, who is white. Howard's offense was sounding offensive: In a staff meeting, he used a perfectly good word - ''niggardly'' - to describe the administration of a fund.

Which led to this: Wisconsin University student Amelia Rideau is upset that her professor used the 'N-ardly' word at least twice: Once on Jan. 25 during a class on 14th-century English poet Geoffrey Chaucer, and once in a subsequent class to explain the word’s meaning.  Ms. Rideau was outraged, and is demanding the UW implement a speech code which would punish anyone using what she described as 'offensive' language - including the 'N-ardly' word.  She urged the university not to require proof of intent before punishing verbal villains such as her professor.

She's never heard of "due process" either.

I'm sure you'll agree the funniest thing in this story--other than affirmative action which allowed Ms. Rideau past the ivy-covered walls-- is that the Wisconsin Star-Trib used "N-ardly"; Or as Ms. Rideau pronounces it... "nard-lee". 

And if a newspaper is too frightened to use a perfectly good word, then a great deal of the battle for wisdom over ignorance is already lost. 

Now comes this:

Commissioner Defends 'Black Hole' as Racist Term

Dallas County commissioners were discussing problems with the central collections and other court paperwork.

Commissioner Kenneth Mayfield, white, said that central collections "has become a black hole" intro which paperwork falls.

Commissioner John Wiley Price, black, interrupted him with a loud  "Excuse me!" He then corrected his colleague, saying the office has become a "white hole." That prompted Judge Thomas Jones, who is black, (surprise) to demand that Mayfield apologize for his racially insensitive analogy.

The honkey commissioners just laughed.

As a briefly famous black general said... "Don't git stuck on stoopid."

This from the WSJ via Debbie S.: The Department of Homeland Security has a new strategy to help deal with illegal immigration: self-deportation. This new "voluntary, self-deportation" program with a name as stupid as the idea: "Operation Scheduled Departure."

The numbers of course are staggering...

• 550,000 illegal aliens have received final deportation orders.
• 31,000 illegal aliens have been rounded and detained.
• Thus-- if ICE can only grab 31K of 550K ordered to be deported there's but a 5.6% chance of being caught. Wetbacks w/o a deport order have even less chance of being picked up by one of only 84 ICE fugitive teams.
• No wetback in his right mind heads south.

You're doin' a fine job "Cherty"

No for something to cleanse the palate:

Heroes

World War II hero and respected actor, Charles During received a tip on the hat with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame a couple of days ago.

He is the very last actor of his generation who also gave so much to our country in the military.

Like so many of the tough, unpampered men of his generation he lied about his age and forged his mom's signature on his enlistment papers.

Durning was in the first wave at Omaha Beach on June 6, 1944. He was captured during the Battle of the Bulge six months later; incredibly he survived the Nazi SS massacre of American POWS near Malmadey Belgium.

(Most people are unaware that the SS massacred more than 360 US POWs and more than 100 civilians during this time in the area around Malmadey.....  here. Durning was among some 40 Americans who escaped from the Malmadey group.) 

Durning was awarded the Silver Star and three Purple Hearts--one for being hit in both legs by German machine-gun fire.

Watching him in the great TV series "Rescue Me" with Denis Leary, it's clear his wounds caught up with him.  

Durning is well-known for participating in various functions to honor American veterans. He was the past chairman of the U.S. National Salute to Hospitalized Veterans

He is also a well-known participant in the National Fourth of July Celebration on the Washington DC Mall. 

We won't have him much longer, and then that era--so familiar to the WWII generation and fans of the great movies from the 30s, 40s and 50s-- will, save for memories, be gone.

Spoils of War

Spring, 1969--Just weeks before departing for Vietnam, I was walking through LAX and passed a Marine in dress greens--obviously just back from the war--with an a Chi-Com SKS rifle at sling arms.

There was an official-looking tag wired to the front sight. Some civilians noticed; most did not. After all... a military man with a weapon?

The Marine was participating in a time-honored ritual of war--bringing home a  trophy after surviving combat with his nation's enemies. The tradition began when a pre-history combatant picked up an enemy clansman's pointed stick on the battlefield.

The airport Marine wasn't an uncommon sight in those days, back before the socialists established near total ownership of the United States.

I couldn't wait to bring back my own.

Once in the bush, I learned that the chances of me getting an enemy firearm home through the Marine Crops/MACV web of regulations and rear echelon theft were remote.

You were to turn in your war trophy which (they promised) would be registered to you and sent to division where (they promised) it would be held for you until you picked it up on the way home. Un-huh.

If you really wanted a war trophy the best chance was with a Chinese Type-54 or the Soviet TT33 Tokarev 7.62 pistol, or more commonly, the nifty 9mm Makarov (right); field strip it and mail the individual parts back home to Mom over time. Your odds were much better.

Most of those weapons today hang on the den walls of retired officers whose tours in Vietnam involved water sanitation, accounting, warehousing and you get the idea. They had a much better chance of working the system from their desks.

As bad as that was compared to Korea and WWII... read on:

Dateline Camp Pendleton:

OCEANSIDE, Calif. — It might not get you into as much trouble, but that little Tabasco bottle filled with Iraqi sand is as illegal as a fully automatic AK47. (Editor: "Little" here means about a quarter of a teaspoon.)

Both items violate federal rules for bringing stuff back from the war zone. Sure, the feds don’t routinely raid houses in the middle of the night looking for tiny bottles of dirt, but U.S. Customs officials are serious about keeping foreign soil from leaving foreign soil, fearful that bugs and germs could be spread from overseas.

Riiight... bugs and germs.

Our returning servicemen--instead of being welcomed as returning war heroes--are often investigated, arrest and jailed for bringing home their trophies.

According to a lengthy story in Marine Times,  the Corps' standing order on “Control and Registration of War Trophies and War Trophy Firearms” — MCO 5800.6A — dates back to 1969 (see?), when the rules began to tighten as Vietnam began winding down.

Dirt and rocks are prohibited, as are artwork and rugs taken from a house. Some knives and bayonets are allowed, but not all. Some captured weapons are allowed but must be rendered unserviceable in accordance with federal firearms laws. ("Unserviceable" means essentially destroying a working firearm by drilling out the chamber).

Retired Col. Gary Wilson had to get approval to bring home two fragments from a rocket that exploded in a 2005 roadside bomb, wounding him and others, and damaging his vehicle.

The paperwork drill “wasn’t so bad,” Wilson said. “I had to take it down to the [staff judge advocate] and I had to get the CO to sign it.” The shrapnel now sits in a closet in his California house.

Customs agents in 2002 confiscated sheep skulls carried by some Marines at Camp Lejeune, N.C, upon their beach return from Afghanistan, according to a 2003 Pentagon news release.

The reason for such stringency here is two main reasons: 1). the fundamental mistrust and disrespect of the American serviceman...

While in-country these young men are trusted with their own rifles, pistols, C-4 plastic explosive, hand grenades, bayonets, knives, claymore mines and million-dollar weapons systems unknown to liberals.  Kids not long out of high school are routinely entrusted with the very lives of their comrades and commanding officers.

Men yet to have voted for president, direct deadly air strikes by gun-ships and jets, but cannot be trusted to bring a rusty, semi-automatic pistol back home.

... and 2). America no longer acts like a world power possessing the most powerful military in the history of the world; in the Middle East especially, the military is forced to bend over backward for Muslims--even enemy Muslims.

Gawd forbid we offend butchering ragheads and their religion by taking some of worthless sand home.

... it's unthinkable in this War on radical Islam Terror that our best and brightest who are often maimed and killed for Iraqis and Afghanis should be allowed to liberate one of Saddam's dinner plates and risk offending anyone.