Heckling and Juvenile Antics of the Left

How juvenile can the left get? I laugh as the little girl quickly folds her "Fake News" sign up when Mike Tobin turns around, but even funnier is the little boy who steps in and sticks out his tongue at the camera. Oh yeah, we really need them making decisions for America.

A hint for the juvenile left: "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances."

Shutting down dissent, interfering with the freedom of the press, acting like spoiled children, monopolizing air time, isn't that what these childish leftists have always accused others of?

Last Living U.S. WWI Veteran Dies

Frank Buckles, the last American World War One Veteran died peacefully in his sleep at his home. He was 110 years old.

During WW1 he served as an Ambulance driver in Europe and spent 3 years of World War Two held captive in a Japanese POW Camp, having become a ships officer after the "Great War."

Buckles was an outspoken advocate for the renovation and repair of the D.C. WW1 Memorial.

There are now only 2 known WW1 Veterans still living, Claude Stanley Choules, in Australia (Royal Navy, 109) and Florence Beatrice Green, in England (Women's Royal Air Force, 110)

May he rest in eternal peace, knowing that when it mattered, he did make a difference.

One era dies and another begins.

CNN

Additional Coverage:

"In 2008, U.S. Rep. Shelley Moore Capito, W.Va., sponsored a bill to allow Buckles, upon his death, to lie in honor in the U.S. Capitol Rotunda.

"'Mr. Buckles represents the very best of this country — service, determination and patriotism. He has lived through some of the most historic events in American history, from the Great Depression to two world wars to the invention of the Internet,' Capito said in a previous statement."

Corporal Buckles body is at a Washington D.C. funeral home.

WTVR.com

"Forgotten Soldier"

'Forgotten Soldier' by Linda and Greg Lewis

This is song is dedicated to
all the brave men and women who served in Vietnam
and to their families....a hero's welcome you all deserved, and never got.
"ALL GAVE SOME ... SOME GAVE ALL"

Union Thug Assaults Small Woman Outside FreedomWorks

Union thugs assembled outside the offices of FreedomWorks and after spewing their vitriol towards a FreedomWorks member trying to have a “civil discourse” with him, well, watch for your self.

The woman, Tabitha Hale who was filming the exchange, describes what happened,

"I'm a 5'1 female in a dress, and he was standing up on a garden wall above me in the courtyard. He hardly felt threatened. I was stunned, because generally protesters are there to, you know, get their message out. They don't normally shy away from the camera. I'm very much okay, and very appreciative of the support from my fellow bloggers and activists today. I am, however, shaken up by the level of sheer hatred I experienced today. The look of fury on his face in the close up is appalling. I had not exchanged a word with him. He didn't know who I was. He didn't even know my name, what I do. He had probably surmised that I was with FreedomWorks and that was enough."

Read the full description HERE

Fed up with the double standard and the violence from union thugs and the "tolerant" liberals yet?

Rees Lloyd’s Liberty Milestones: February 23: Remembering Iwo Jima

On February 23, 1945, the valor of Americans at war in defense of freedom became immortalized by a photograph, almost accidentally taken, which captured the historic moment when five U.S. Marines and one Navy corpsman raised the Flag of the United States of America over Mt. Suribachi on the island of Iowa Jima, the bloodiest battle of World War II.

From that day to this, that photo strikes the hearts of Americans. It inspires awe, admiration, wonder at the courage it reflects, and, at the same time, it is so overwhelming that it evokes a solemnity, a kind of sadness, a deep respect, and a sense that this is America, this is the best of America, these Marines, these ordinary Americans of extraordinary dedication to their country, to freedom, to their buddies; they are, their essential goodness is, what America is at its best, and we, often by an unearned and indescribable grace, are a part of that America.

U.S. Marines landed at Iwo Jima on February 19, 1945. The bombing and shelling of the tiny island was so intense that a young Marine from Portland, OR., James Buchanan, 18, who, inspired by the book “Guadalcanal Diary,” had joined the Marines as soon as he was old enough, turned to a buddy on the landing craft taking them to the beach and said: “Do you think there will be any Japanese left for us.”

There were—tens of thousands of Japanese. They were deeply dug in, had elevation above the beach, and were zeroed in on the landing area. When the Marines landed, it was nothing less than a slaughter; 3,650 Marines were dead, wounded, or missing in the first two days of the battle. Every inch of purchase on the black sand of Iwo Jima was bought with American blood, Marine blood. The nation was stunned when information on the battle of Iwo Jima reached home.

It was on the fifth day, February 23, 1945, that the U.S. Flag was raised on Mt. Suribachi, and the famous photograph was taken. Jim Buchanan of Portland was there, on Mt. Suribachi. He recalled that from there the Japanese had “an amazing view of the beaches. They could see our every move.” When the photograph reached home, it electrified the nation, thrilled Americans with pride in their country and in their Marines, symbolized by those Americans raising the Flag on Mt. Suribachi.

Although February 23, 1945, was a day of victory and elation, and many Americans still believe that was the end of the battle at Iwo Jima, it was not. Heavy fighting continued for more than a month. Jim Buchanan, who wondered on February 19 at the time of the landing whether there would be “any Japanese left for us,” recalled by mid-March, “We were trapped. Getting shot at constantly. I was a private, and replacements were reporting to me. There was no one else.”

In all, the Marines would suffer 26,000 casualties. Of those, 6,800 Marines gave their lives for our freedom. Although almost 22,000 Japanese were killed, they had fewer overall casualties. It was the only battle in WWII in which the American invading force suffered more casualties than the defenders.

One third of all the Marines who died in World War II died in thirty days on Iwo Jima. The Medal of Honor was awarded to only 353 Americans in WWII Of those, a remarkable 84 were awarded to Marines. Of those, an even more remarkable 27 were awarded for valor at Iwo Jima.

Was it worth it? Those who gave their lives at Iwo Jima saved the lives of so many more, millions more, including we Americans of today, as Iwo Jima became a base of operations against Japan which saved lives and shortened the war, making ultimate victory possible over a Japan that had vowed never to surrender, and ingrained that in their soldiers, which accounts for the fact that all of the Japanese casualties on Iwo Jima, almost 22,000, died there rather than surrender. (The last two Japanese soldiers on Iwo Jima did surrender -- in 1949, four years after Japan’s surrender in WWII.)

The American victory at Iwo Jima was won by the extraordinary valor of ordinary Americans, serving as U.S. Marines, the immortal symbol of which is the photograph of the Flag being raised at Mt. Suribachi, which is regarded as the most viewed photograph in history. That scene is now a mighty sculpture constituting the U.S. Marine Corps Memorial which was dedicated in 1954, during the presidency of Dwight D. Eisenhower, Supreme Allied Commander in WW II.

There were six Americans in that famous photograph, but they were representative of the millions who served; all of whom gave some, some of which gave all. The six were (alphabetically) Marines Harlon Block, Ira Hayes, Rene Gagnon, Franklin Sousley, Mike Strank, and Navy corpsman John (“Doc”) Bradley (since Navy corpsman serve as medics for the Marine Corps). Three of the six were killed in action on Iwo Jima as the battle continued: Harlon Block, Franklin Sousley, and Mike Strank.

The story of their lives, and the lives of the three survivors, as well as the story of Iwo Jima, is beautifully and movingly told in the book “Flags Of Our Fathers, by James Bradley, the son of Navy Corpsman Jack “Doc” Bradley, who never told his sons of his service in WWII, deflecting all celebrity and questions, declining the designation of hero, and telling his sons, and all who asked, that “the heroes of Iwo Jima are the guys who didn’t come back.” His son did even know his father had been awarded the Navy Cross until, after “Doc” Bradley’s death, his son discovered that medal and other memorabilia hidden away in the attic of the family home.

If your love for America ever begins to wane, or if it never existed, take a challenge: read James Bradley’s “Flags of Our Fathers,” from which I have taken many facts and in particular the quotes of James Buchanan of Portland. Read of those Americans, those Marines, many kids, like him, who served on Iwo Jima. Clint Eastwood made two films based on the book, using the same title, “Flags of Our Fathers”– one telling the story of Americans at war on Iwo Jima; the other telling that of Japanese. But the book is more intimate, brings home with more immediacy the nobility of these ordinary Americans called to war to defend their country, the Marines of Iwo Jima, and the nobility of the country which they defended.

Indeed, remember the ordinary Americans who fought and died and suffered in the battle of Iwo Jima on this and every February 23, including the words one of them left to us, anonymously, chiseled outside the American cemetery on Iwo Jima, containing the graves of 6,800 Marines:

“When you go home,
Tell them for us and say
For your tomorrow
We gave our today.”

[Rees Lloyd is a longtime civil rights attorney, a veteran, and an activist member of The American Legion.]

We Were Warned on Public Unions

As the economy continues sliding deeper into the morass we have seen the last years, few can say they haven’t also noticed the friction with public employee unions, especially in regards to the militancy on display in Wisconsin over Governor Walker’s stand in regards to the unions.

Locally, in Clark County Washington, a much lesser degree of friction has been seen with public employee unions negotiating their new contracts, with citizens already struggling calling upon the unions to accept paying more of their health insurance premiums and some even suggesting a pay cut, commensurate with that the private sector has been hit with.

While there have been some small concessions on their part, nowhere near to the degree private sector employees have faced, there are still demands for wage increases, less working hours, more vacation time and such.

Needless to say, this isn’t setting well with much of the private sector.

We were warned on public employee unions years ago. In 1937, then president Franklin Delano Roosevelt, struggling with what we call the “Great Depression” wrote a letter to Luther C. Steward, President of the National Federation of Federal Employees, declining an invitation to the Twentieth Jubilee Convention of the National Federation of Federal Employees.

While some see the letter as Roosevelt being opposed to public unions, I see his comments as more of a caution to them and the potential harm they could inflict by carrying on as many currently are. Roosevelt was a liberal, don’t forget.

Roosevelt said in part,

“The desire of Government employees for fair and adequate pay, reasonable hours of work, safe and suitable working conditions, development of opportunities for advancement, facilities for fair and impartial consideration and review of grievances, and other objectives of a proper employee relations policy, is basically no different from that of employees in private industry. Organization on their part to present their views on such matters is both natural and logical, but meticulous attention should be paid to the special relationships and obligations of public servants to the public itself and to the Government.

All Government employees should realize that the process of collective bargaining, as usually understood, cannot be transplanted into the public service. It has its distinct and insurmountable limitations when applied to public personnel management. The very nature and purposes of Government make it impossible for administrative officials to represent fully or to bind the employer in mutual discussions with Government employee organizations. The employer is the whole people, who speak by means of laws enacted by their representatives in Congress. Accordingly, administrative officials and employees alike are governed and guided, and in many instances restricted, by laws which establish policies, procedures, or rules in personnel matters.

Particularly, I want to emphasize my conviction that militant tactics have no place in the functions of any organization of Government employees. Upon employees in the Federal service rests the obligation to serve the whole people, whose interests and welfare require orderliness and continuity in the conduct of Government activities. This obligation is paramount. Since their own services have to do with the functioning of the Government, a strike of public employees manifests nothing less than an intent on their part to prevent or obstruct the operations of Government until their demands are satisfied. Such action, looking toward the paralysis of Government by those who have sworn to support it, is unthinkable and intolerable. It is, therefore, with a feeling of gratification that I have noted in the constitution of the National Federation of Federal Employees the provision that ‘under no circumstances shall this Federation engage in or support strikes against the United States Government’.” (emphasis added)

FDR Letter on the Resolution of Federation of Federal Employees Against Strikes in Federal Service August 16, 1937

Reinforcing this is the 1955 comment credited to George Meany, then president of the AFL-CIO when he said, “It is impossible to bargain collectively with the government.”

Thanks to President John F. Kennedy signing Executive Order 10988, EMPLOYEE-MANAGEMENT COOPERATION IN THE FEDERAL SERVICE into law in January 1962, almost 50 years later we see where private sector union membership has drastically fallen off while membership in public employee unions has bypassed that of the private sector and is growing.

Gone are the cautions expressed by President Roosevelt as have seen communities crippled by militant strikes of public union employees demanding more and more of our hard earned tax dollars, even if we have none left to give.

Roosevelt made his share of mistakes in his ‘New Deal’ that many say actually prolonged the Great Depression, but he possessed the wisdom to note that public unions wielding power was counter to what our government is and how detrimental they could be to the nation.

We see that today unfolding in Wisconsin as school children are once again being held hostage to greedy union members being bused in from outside the area to spew their hate and vitriol at the very people who pay their salaries.

George Meany was wrong when he said, “It is impossible to bargain collectively with the government.” It’s not impossible, but it has been proven to be very unwise and detrimental to the nation’s economy.

If the public unions end up broken now, and it is my sincerest hope that they are, they only have their own greed to blame.

CAIR Director Schooled on Radical Islam

The Palm Beach Post covered the event clearing up some of the exchange drowned out by Rep. Wests supporters in the audience.

CAIR South Florida Executive Director Nezar Hamze. Hamze held a copy of the Koran and asked West to “show me one verse in this Koran where it says to attack America, attack Americans, or attack innocent people.”

West replied, “You do have the Verse of the Sword that is in there and there is talk about killing infidels,” referring to verse 9:5 of the Koran, “Fight and slay the Pagans wherever ye find them: seize them, beleaguer them, and lie in wait for them in every stratagem (of war).”

West listed off several episodes in history where radical Muslims have attacked leading up to the Ft. Hood massacre and September 11, 2001 and reminding Hamze that all attackers shouted “Allahu Akbar” (God is great) as they commenced their attack.

West, a retired Army Lt. Colonel and Iraq War Veteran continued, “I’ve been on the battlefield, my friend. OK? Don’t try to blow sunshine up my butt.”

As Hamze retorted “I am ashamed to be here with all of these people, when you attack Islam, you attack –” West cut him off stating, “You attacked us. You attacked us. I went to Muslim countries to try to defend the freedom of Muslim people. Don’t come up here to try to criticize me. Put the microphone down and go home,” drawing loud approval from the audience.

Rees Lloyd: A Tale of Two Americas on Washington's Birthday in the Age of Obama

by REES LLOYD

As many Americans pause on this Washington's Birthday Holiday (renamed "President's Day" by Act of Congress which should be reversed) to remember and reflect on what America was and represented at home and abroad in the Age of President and Commander-in-Chief George Washington, soldier and self-declared patriot, it is well to reflect on what America has become and represents at home and abroad in the Age of President and Commander-in-Chief Barack Hussein Obama, non-soldier and self-declared "progressive."

That it is a tale of two very different Americas on Washington's Birthday 2011 in the age of Obama, as to American values, the kind of nation America now is, and what America now represents at home and abroad, is reflected in two publications on Washington's Birthday Holiday: One from the New York Post headlined "Hero's unwelcome," pertaining to acts at Columbia University, President Obama's alma mater; and the other from WorldNetDaily.com, headlined: "Heroes: Stop Destroying Our Military," pertaining to the American military, Gen. George Washington's alma mater.

The New York Post reports in "Hero's Unwelcome," by Annie Karni:

"Columbia University students heckled a war hero during a town-hall meeting on whether ROTC should be allowed back on campus.

'Racist!' some students yelled at Anthony Maschek, a Columbia freshman and former Army staff sergeant awarded the Purple Heart after being shot 11 times in a firefight in northern Iraq in February 2008. Others hissed and booed the veteran.

Maschek, 28, had bravely stepped up to the mike Tuesday at the meeting to issue an impassioned challenge to fellow students on their perceptions of the military.

"It doesn't matter how you feel about the war. It doesn't matter how you feel about fighting," said Maschek. "There are bad men out there plotting to kill you."

Several students laughed and jeered the Idaho native, a 10th Mountain Division infantryman who spent two years at Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington recovering from grievous wounds.

Maschek, who is studying economics, miraculously survived the insurgent attack in Kirkuk. In the hail of gunfire, he broke both legs and suffered wounds to his abdomen, arm and chest. He enrolled last August at the Ivy League school, where an increasingly ugly battle is unfolding over the 42-year military ban there. ...."

The NY Post story notes that students and faculty at Columbia -- which, apparently, has not had federal funding and research grants cut off, as should be done --had voted down reinstatement of ROTC in 2005 citing as reason the "Don't Ask/Don't Tell" policy originated by liberal President William Clinton, himself a draft dodger in Vietnam. Now that DA/DT has been repealed by the lame duck session of the Pelosi-Reid-Obama 111th Congress, the new reason advanced for banning ROTC is based on support for "transgenders." To read the NY Post's entire story -- and see a photo of Sgt. Maschek in his wheel chair -- please go to this link:

In stark contrast to the America represented by the students and faculty at Columbia who never served, as reported by the NY Post, is the joint statement published by WorldNetDaily.com, of two of America's greatest living military heroes, Admiral Jeremiah A. Denton (USN, ret.), seven-years, seven-months a prisoner of war in Vietnam, and Maj. Gen. Patrick H. Brady (USA, ret), Medal of Honor recipient in Vietnam. Adm. Denton and Gen. Brady, two of the most decorated heroes in American history, urge Americans to take a stand calling for the 112th Congress to reinstate the "Don't Ask/Don't Tell" policy hastily repealed in the post-election "lame duck" Pelosi-Reid-Obama 111th Congress. Based on their experience in the military in wartime, they regard the transformation of the military as a threat to the nation. See their joint statement on WorldNetDaily.com at: Heroes to Congress: Stop destroying military

These two heroes, Adm. Denton and Gen. Brady, following in the footsteps of General Washington, devoted their entire careers in military service to the nation, service which was greatly honored in the Age of General Washington, and service today which is smugly and self-righteously reviled by "progressive" elitists in the Age of Obama, who, like Obama, never deigned to serve.

On this George Washington's Birthday Holiday 2011, it is for every American to make a choice as to whether he or she stands for the America of strong military defense, limited government, personal liberty, and economic freedom created by the Founding Fathers in the Age of Washington, and exemplified by the lives of service patriotism of Admiral Denton and Gen, Brady; or the transformed America in the Age of Obama exemplified by the lives of non-service and "progressivism" of students and faculty of Columbia University, and other elitists.

(Rees Lloyd is a longtime civil rights attorney and veterans activist.)

Underpaid Teachers in Milwaukee, Wisconsin?

And, they have the unmitigated gall to say, "We didn't start the fire, it was started by an administration that not only favored the rich but did everything it could to justify a war, a tax cut for the wealthy, less regulation?"

H/T Macgiver Institute

In the meantime, we see more examples of union civility from Wisconsin.

The SEIU has issued the call for fellow union thugs to join up and meet to be bused into rallies or protests across the nation this week

Is this what your children are being taught in school?

Obama 2008, "Paint the nation SEIU Purple"

H/T Breitbart TV

Wounded Iraq War Veteran Jeered at Columbia University

Acting as if they are already members of the Wisconsin Bolshevik Teachers Union, some students shouted "racist" while others booed and hissed at fellow student, Anthony Maschek a former Army Staff Sergeant infantryman "who spent two years at Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington recovering from grievous wounds."

Maschek was shot 11 times in a 2008 firefight against extremists in Kirkuk where he broke both legs and suffered wounds to his abdomen, arm and chest.

The Purple Heart recipient is enrolled in Columbia where he is studying economics and took part in the ongoing "discussion" over reinstating ROTC on campus that has been banned for the past 42 years.

Opponents of the ROTC returning to Columbia cited the military ban on homosexuals in the last vote to reject ROTC in 2005. With the recent repeal of the policy known as Don't Ask, Don't Tell, the bar has now been moved to the military's current ban on transgender soldiers.

No Slippery Slope With Repeal of DA/DT You Said?

Maschek was reminding students of, "It doesn't matter how you feel about the war. It doesn't matter how you feel about fighting. There are bad men out there plotting to kill you," when he was booed, hissed at and jeered, eliciting the comment from fellow Columbia student José Robledo, who commutes to Fordham Univeristy to participate in ROTC activities that the treatment of Maschek was "abhorrent."

"The anti-ROTC side has been disrespectful and loud. They hiss and they jeer," he said. "It's been to the detriment of the argument."

Robledo will soon learn, if he hasn't already, that is common fair for the neo-com left who discourages open debate and discussions on any subject, imposing their will on all.

NY Post

Maybe former Chaplain's Assistant and fellow Marxist, Jerry Lembcke will write a book telling Maschek and Robledo that they are just spreading urban legends and myths.

This Is Obama's America?

71 year-old Ray McGovern was forcibly removed from George Washington University where Hillary was giving a speech on how the protesters in Egypt were being mistreated by government officials.

McGovern's crime? The Military Veteran, a member of Veterans for Peace stood silently and turned his back on Mrs. Clinton. "According to Mara Verheyden-Hilliard, attorney with the Partnership for Civil Justice Fund, 'For this peaceful expression of dissent, he ended up bruised, bloodied, arrested, and jailed'."

Sky Valley Chronicle

Four years earlier, McGovern, an anti-war activist, verbally confronted then Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, asking him why he lied about WMD’s. As security approached McGovern, Rumsfeld stopped them and engaged the Veteran.

Of the different exchanges, McGovern says,

“When Clinton started talking about how people beat up and arrested people in Iran, it gave some poetic justice, a great irony, to my standing there and what happened to me then, when she's talking about what happened in other countries and there I am being handled in a vicious way...God knows what would happen next. Maybe some senior would ask her questions (she doesn't take questions). As bad as Donald Rumsfeld was, he let me speak. He let me speak and engaged me in dialogue.”

“At the same (Rumsfeld) speech, there was a courageous guy who stood with his back to Rumsfeld the entire speech. They left him completely alone and he walked out at the end, unbothered. Four years later, things have changed.”

Yes Mr. McGovern, Obama and the Democrats took control of the country and government.

Washington State Democrat Senator Maralyn Chase on her Plastics Ban

Live interview with senator Chase by KPAM 860's Victoria Taft, February 16, 2011.

You won't believe it until you listen to it.

Sen. Chase with KPAM 860\'s Victoria Taft

Senator Chase has submitted SB 5779 would basically ban styrofoam food containers at take out and the plastic flatware you receive with it.

SB 5780 is the anti-plastic bag bill.

SB 5778 would ban certain petroleum based plastic beverage bottles.

If Sen. Chase's reasoning for banning plastic bags is because of all the plastic bags and such blown up on her car around Olympia and Seattle on I-5, shouldn't she stiffen littering laws in the center of liberalism for Washington State?

HB 5779 states: "Disposable plastic food service ware" means non-recyclable containers, plates, clamshell-style containers, serving trays, meat and vegetable trays, hot and cold beverage cups, and utensils that are made of plastic or plastic-coated paper and intended only for one-time use, including biodegradable products where any portion is not compostable. Elsewhere it also mentions egg cartons.

I still contend teaching liberals in the Puget Sound to recycle instead of littering the area would be better.

If ever you needed proof liberals should be ignored, the interview above should give it.

The “Myth” of Hanoi Jane Fonda Now?

Note microphones (3) being held to capture her words

Ask just about any Viet Nam Veteran to name a public figure they despise and invariably, the name of aging actress Jane Fonda will be said. How odd then that one who lays claim of being a “Viet Nam Veteran” himself not only defends the traitorous conduct of Fonda, but authors a book decrying such claims as a “myth?”

The author, Marxist Associate Professor of Sociology College of the Holy Cross, member of Vietnam Veterans Against the War seems to have spent his time in Viet Nam as a draftee Chaplains Assistant. Lembcke, who penned a stinging rebuke of Chaplains on VVAW web site stating, “I left Vietnam pretty disgusted with the chaplaincy as an institution.”

Lembcke also authored a book in 1998, “The Spitting Image: Myth, Memory, and the Legacy of Vietnam”  wherein he claims to put to rest the “myth of the returning Vietnam Veteran being spat upon.” His pathetic effort at revisionist history and shoddy research was easily exposed by people like Jim Lindgren and several others.

Others, trying to support Lembcke make claims such as, “Most servicemen would have given the spitters a mouthful of bloody Chiclets instead of turning the other cheek like Christ” perpetuating the myth of the explosive Veteran as once stated by failed 2004 presidential candidate John ‘F’in Kerry who stated in his questionable 1971 testimony before the House, “The country doesn't know it yet, but it has created a monster, a monster in the form of millions of men who have been taught to deal and to trade in violence…..”

Very craftily set-up. Fight back and you are a monster. Don’t fight back and you are a liar. The left wins no matter.

Lembcke now pulls much the same in yet another book, “Hanoi Jane: War, Sex, and Fantasies of Betrayal” where he now makes the claim,

“’Hanoi Jane’ did not reach the eyes and ears of most Americans until five or six years after the end of the war in Vietnam. By then, anxieties about America’s declining global status and deteriorating economy were fueling a populist reaction that pointed to the loss of the war as the taproot of those problems. Blaming the antiwar movement for undermining the military’s resolve, many found in the imaginary Hanoi Jane the personification of their stab-in-the- back theories.”

The review on Jane Fonda’s own web page continues,

“Hanoi Jane is a book about the making of Hanoi Jane by those who saw a formidable threat in the Jane Fonda who supported soldiers and veterans opposed to the war they fought, in the postcolonial struggle of the Vietnamese people to make their own future, and in the movements of women everywhere for gender equality.”

Lembcke relies in part on a questionable email circulating a few years ago that contains a smattering of untruths relating to Fonda’s treasonous activities, along with many truths. As I wrote in a Dec. 2007 Op-Ed, “Just who salted the email with the falsehoods is unknown. Having done so, they ran the risk of watering down her true treasonous actions. Her actions were injurious as they were no need to add to them.”

Perhaps, as we now see in Lembcke’s latest screed, that was the intent back then all along, just as I feared.

The April 2011 edition of Vietnam Magazine includes review of the “book” by Marc Leepson. Personally, I am pleased he read it because I will not read any more Marxist garbage and revisionist history than I must.

Of the effort by Lembcke, he writes in part,

Lembcke is on shaky ground, however, when he minimizes the plight of American POWs, including challenging the well-documented fact that many were severely tortured. Plus, his regular lapses into academic jargon (“post hoc cultural construct,” “crisis of masculinity,” “amniotic existence of fore-life,” “gendered logic,” “post-imperial economic contraction,” et al.) do little to illuminate or buttress his arguments. Nor does Lembcke’s all-but-Marxist interpretation of the American war in Vietnam as an “act of aggression” that we pursued for “our own economic and political reasons.”

Still, he concludes,

“Hanoi Jane provides much food for thought on how – and why – the story (or in Lembcke’s words, the myth or legend) of the Jane Fonda “betrayal” has gained so much currency among so many Americans.”

In this bloggers personal estimation, the answer lies in that she was the embodiment of what the American Fighting Man fights to defend. Beautiful girls back home, one that was actually Miss Army a few years earlier. Even though she was well into her thirties at the time of the trip, many of us saw any celebrity that was female and as beautiful as the picture of our girls back home, our pin-ups, if you will. Fighting Communism, we felt it was our girls back home and celebrities as Ms. Fonda that we were fighting for to keep Communism away from our shores. She betrayed that image by her actions, before and after her notorious visit to North Viet Nam. By labeling our returning POWs as liars when they spoke of tortures they had endured and by her two very public “regrets” she attempts to make out as apologies.

Much like his effort at denying how the returning Vietnam Veterans were mistreated failed to persuade any, other than the anti-war leftist crowd who already tried to distance themselves from their reprehensible conduct then, this effort at rehabilitating the tarnished image of the again old hag Fonda will also convince no one, other than those who already embrace her as some sort of tinsel screen heroine.

Fonda herself says of the book and author,

“I met the author yeas ago when he was considering writing this book. I have read his important book about the myth of anti-wat activists spitting on soldiers, “The Spitting Image.” Based on what I sensed (and read) of his values and research ability, I endorse the book (which I have not yet read and which may well say unfavorable things about me) because I think this is an important topic.” (misspellings contained in original)

Fonda, who has never known a day of poverty is lesser known for her other actions during that era, most focusing only on her trip to North Viet Nam. In November 1970, in a speech to University of Michigan students, she said, “If you understood what communism was, you would hope, you would pray on your knees that we would someday become Communist.”

Later at Duke University in North Carolina she said, “I, a socialist, think that we should strive toward a socialist society, all the way to communism.”

A year later at the University of Texas she said, “We’ve got to establish a socialist economic structure that will limit private profit-oriented businesses. Whether the transition is peaceful depends on the way our present governmental leaders react.”

Both Lembcke and Fonda have expressed an extreme loathing of Capitalism, yet both utilize it to amass their own personal fortunes. How hypocritical can one become?

When the old hag Fonda dies, they might just as well place a urinal at her grave. She has yet to atone for her treason or make a personal and sincere apology for it directly to Vietnam Veterans.

It isn’t up to America to forgive her. It is up to us Veterans of the Viet Nam War and she has not asked us yet.

Instead, she depends upon the likes of Jerry Lembcke to carry her dirty water for her.

Our Vietnam Generation Promotional Video

Welcome home, brothers & sisters.

OurVietnamGeneration.com

Have WMD's Been Found in San Diego?

Although accused of being nervous and he misspoke, he doesn't seem very nervous to me.

Follow up.



ABC 10 News San Diego

Officer Leaves Gun in Public Restroom, Seeks Public’s Help in Finding It

An unidentified Oregon State Police Detective is no doubt in a bit of trouble, if not totally embarrassed right about now. The officer, nick-named ‘Barney Fife’ by me for now, took off his holstered pistol while using a rest room in Portland’s Legacy Emanuel Hospital yesterday and left it in the stall when he was done.

He did not realize he had left his Glock 22 behind until after he had left the hospital.

Oregon State Police contacted Hospital Security who then searched the area and interviewed hospital workers and visitors.

The gun is described as a black Glock model 22 (pictured below), and it has been entered into the Law Enforcement Data System as a lost or stolen weapon.

If anybody sees a pistol matching the description wandering around the streets of Portland or Vancouver, looking lost and out of place, you are urged to contact Sgt. Jon Harrington at 503-731-3020, ext. 258.

KPTV 12 News

Governor Gregoire Honors Illegal Aliens

Ignoring the fact that Washington State is deeply embroiled in the worsening economic decline, it is utterly unbelievable to see a group of about 400 people marching upon the capital in Olympia opposing budget cuts intended to close the multi-Billion dollar budget gap.

Even more astonishing, many in the crowd appear to be in the country ‘ILLEGALLY!’ As such, they are lawbreakers! Illegal aliens!

We recently saw in a Seattle Times report: “An estimated 230,000 illegal immigrants were living in Washington state in 2010 — 35 percent more than three years earlier,” with the claim by state senator Val Stevens, “the illegal-immigrant cost to the state is $272 million a biennium for such functions as social services, health and corrections.”

At the rally, illegal immigrants gathered to “urge lawmakers to oppose cuts to medical interpreters and health care for kids and fight bills that require immigration status checks before issuing driver’s licenses.”

While illegal aliens whine and cry for public tax dollars to support them, information entered in Immigration Form I-864, sponsorship of a legal immigrant states, “The information will be used principally by an immigration judge, USCIS or a Consular Officer to support an alien's application for benefits under the Immigration and Nationality Act and specifically the assertion that he or she has adequate means of financial support and will not become a public charge.” (pg 9)

Democrat Senate Majority Leader Lisa Brown, attending the rally sponsored by OneAmerica said, “I know about the critical role immigrants play in the economic and social life of our state. The well-being of Washington State is intertwined with the well-being of our new American communities.”

Is she seriously claiming the well-being of the state depends on lawbreakers that add millions in dollars of expense to budget? Is not such dependence on our tax dollars becoming a “public charge?”

Republican Senator Joseph Zarelli injects a little sanity noting, “Too much burden is being put on the average ­taxpayer, and they can’t afford it, to pay for something that shouldn’t really be their responsibility.” He goes on to say “legislators [have] a responsibility to make sure immigration laws were upheld.”

Currently, there is a bill before the state senate, SB 5407 requiring applicants for a drivers license to “show proof of their legal presence in the United States.” Washington State and New Mexico remain the only two states that allow Illegal Aliens “to get a driver’s license and use it for identification.”

Claiming how important Illegal Aliens are to the state’s economy, one construction worker at the rally said, “Without a driver’s license, who can go to work?”

With the states continuing unemployment numbers, I would imagine a lot of citizens and taxpayers seeking jobs would use their legal drivers’ licenses to return to work.

Left out of the equation at the rally is the rate of crime committed by Illegal Aliens.

Yana Cosme, Multilingual Services Coordinator at Tacoma Community House and an immigrant herself (I assume legal, although I don’t know), said, “many of the clients she works with rely on the Department of Social and Health Services’ Naturalization Program and many can’t afford the legal help they need to get citizenship.”

The in excess of 13% unemployed in Clark County and in other counties around the state cannot afford much right now either, but we are having to tighten our belts while those who are in violation of our laws by being here hold rallies in Olympia asking for more!

Such an event was held in Clark County this past Saturday, February 5, 2011 and billed at Citizenship Day and “hosted by Clark College where volunteer attorneys, paralegals, translators and other community resources offered free consultations and assistance with filling out citizenship applications.”

Also sponsored by OneAmerica, we read, “90 percent of the funding for Citizenship Day programs and other naturalization services comes from the state and is likely to be eliminated in the developing Washington budget.”

Saturday’s event provided free legal help and advice for about 70 people, including those who live in Oregon, not Washington, many who originally entered our country illegally, but have taken steps to obtain a green card by marriage or other steps.

One such immigrant, Adriana Cazorla admits she was an illegal alien for 10 of the 15 years she’s been here. She also admitted that her one fond wish is “a job with the U.S. Government, so she can represent her people.” She also said that to her, “Citizenship means you can vote, have a louder voice in community decisions and politics, sponsor family members who want to immigrate too, raise children who are citizens, gain public benefits — and travel.”

Another illegal alien turned green card holder, Maria Ruiz said, “Being [illegal] is always being scared, afraid, insecure. You don’t have any voice. When you show up anywhere the first thing is you’re afraid they’re going to ask you if you’re legal. Ask for your documents.”

Is that why at Wednesday’s rally in Olympia, Governor Gregoire, who was once the State Attorney General came out to the rally and declared Wednesday “Immigrants’ Day,” leaving out the “illegal’ part like a good little liberal?

In discussing the growing problem of illegal immigration, I often hear words such as “When God looks down he doesn’t see illegal’s, he only sees his children.” To that, I can only answer from the Bible, Romans 13:1 Let everyone be subject to the governing authorities, for there is no authority except that which God has established. The authorities that exist have been established by God.” (NIV)

To me, that means we are expected to obey and honor the laws of the nation and to respect the sovereignty of the nation, not grant lawbreakers a day of honor.

Military Heroes Issue Joint Statement Urging Fight To Reinstate Don't Ask/Don't Tell

By Rees Lloyd (reposted with authors permission)

Comrades, Colleagues and Patriots: Two of America's greatest living military heroes -- Admiral and former U.S. Senator Jeremiah A. Denton (USN, ret.), a P.O.W. for seven years, seven months in Vietnam; and Maj. Gen. Patrick H. Brady (USA, ret.), Medal of Honor recipient (Vietnam) -- have issued an urgent joint statement published today by WorldNetDaily.com and its "Whistleblower" magazine, calling on all Americans, and veterans in particular, to take a stand and fight for reinstatement of the "Don't Ask/Don't Tell" policy to prevent the transformation of the American military by the creation of a "quad military" (homosexual, heterosexual, bisexual, and transgender).

Heroes to Congress: Stop destroying military

Among the most decorated military heroes in American history, Admiral Denton and Gen. Brady, both of whom have appeared as guests on The Victoria Taft Show on KPAM 860, condemn the rushed repeal of DA/DT by the post-election, lame duck 111th Congress of Nancy Pelosi, Harry Reid, and President Obama as a "danger" to the military and to the nation. They urge the newly elected 112th Congress to reinstate DA/DT.

They also urge all veterans, and all Americans, to arm themselves with the information and analysis contained in the special February issue of "Whistleblower" magazine, "Dropping the 'H'-Bomb," which is devoted entirely to the issue of "Don't Ask/Don't Tell" and is being made available online for the first time in the history of "Whistleblower."

David Kupelian, editor of "Whistleblower" and author the brilliantly insightful books "The Marketing of Evil" and "How Evil Works," said in an article published today by WorldNetDaily.com containing the joint statement of Admiral Denton and Gen. Brady: "We felt this issue of Whistleblower [on DA/DT] was so important that we decided, for the first time ever, to make it available to everybody for free – online. ...The decision to put it on the Internet was reached after numerous requests, especially from members of The American Legion, and with the enthusiastic encouragement of both Adm. Denton and Gen. Brady."

I respectfully urge you to read, consider, and forward out as widely as possible the joint statement of Admiral Denton and Gen. Brady, and the "Dropping the 'H-Bomb" issue of WND’s Whistleblower magazine, calling on the 112th Congress to reinstate the "Don't Ask/Don't Tell" policy and not to transform the necessarily separate and distinct military culture on political rather than military grounds. I thank Joseph Farah and David Kupelian of WorldNetDaily.com and Whistleblower for making this valuable information available free online:

Heroes to Congress: Stop destroying military

REES LLOYD (Life Member and Judge Advocate Riverside Post 79, Past Commander District 21 (Cal.), Co-founder and Director, Defense of Veterans Memorials Project of The American Legion, District 21, Dept. of California.*)

Union Boss: "People Who Want to Control Federal Spending Are Mentally Retarded"

Members of the American Federation of Government Employees picketed outside the Capitol demanding more taxpayer dollars for their salaries. AFP caught up with union boss John Gage of AFGE who told them that those who want to control federal spending are "mentally retarded."

Wasn't the lady calling for "Money Now" at a teachers rally last year also crying for more money?



A Professional Protester?

RemoveGage.com

Are 14 Year Olds Ready to Vote…… Responsibly?

For those that listened in to KPAM 860’s Victoria Taft program today, you heard her and I discussing this subject. Ridiculous you say? I agree, but SB 5621 is a current bill before the Senate in Olympia, introduced and supported by Seattle Democrat, Senator Scott White.

Scott, who served one term in the house and recently won the Senate seat vacated by retiring Democrat Ken Jacobsen in Washington State’s 46th legislative district said in his statement on the bill, “Kids are always forced to listen to adults, but adults can learn a lot from listening to young people.”

Uh, Scott, I think that is what goes on in a normal parent/child relationship!

The notion is being promoted by a young recent High School graduate, Jesse Seidman who says on the facebook page, Campaign to End Education Without Representation, “The current school board situation in Washington State blatantly disregards the rights of students,” and, “We are the solution to the problems the current generation has created. In order to stand a fighting chance against the injustices of today, the youth of Washington must have the nerve to stand up and say enough!”

Maybe they would like to stand up and say enough on parents paying their way, feeding and clothing them, providing them with a home, and become gainfully employed and begin paying taxes too?

Troubling about this is that every single one of us was 14 once and most of us were coming into the “teen know-it-all” years. We thought we knew what was best for us and rebelling against parents was high.

Most of us outgrew that and realized the old adage, “the older one gets, the more intelligent their parents become” is largely true.

The bill, while questionable that it will pass, would “Allow students, having attained the age of fourteen as of the date of the election, to vote in school board elections for the district in which they are enrolled and in good standing.”

While the bill mentions school boards specifically, how long before someone would challenge that and expect to be allowed to vote for mayor, city council, legislator and everything as well? After all, if they are considered mature enough to vote, even though they may not legally buy alcohol or tobacco products yet, why would they not be mature enough to vote for everything?

The 21 year-old voting age was reduced to 18 by the 26th amendment in 1971, as the Viet Nam War was winding down amid calls of “if 18 year-olds are of age to be drafted and sent to fight, they should be old enough to vote.” Many states also lowered the legal drinking age to 18 at the same time, but it was wisely raised back to 21 due to increased drunk driving fatalities by the 1984 National Minimum Drinking Age Act.

Additionally, we are no longer under a Military Draft and no one under the age of 18 can voluntarily enlist without parental consent. Then, only 17 year-olds might.

A similar effort in 2005, promoted by the National Youth Rights Association to lower the voting age to 16 failed.

It must also be noted that “rights” seem to be a big issue here, what with the inclusion of the quote, “Students do not shed their constitutional rights... at the schoolhouse gate” on the facebook page promoting this. The quote, taken from a 1969 Supreme Court decision, Tinker v. Des Moines had absolutely nothing to do with voting age, but with free speech in a passive protest against the Viet Nam War, students wearing black arm bands to protest.

Students as young as 14 are not currently being denied any constitutional right to vote as they don’t have that right under the constitution until they reach 18 years old.

For all of the cries of “rights,” I notice a glaring omission, “RESPONSIBILITY!”

Along with ‘rights’ comes ‘responsibility.’ Nowhere in this do I see a call for ending juvenile protective laws or 14 year olds being emancipated and becoming responsible for themselves, no longer relying on parents to provide for them.

Nowhere do I see any call that they should be held accountable as adults, fending for themselves.

It is ludicrous to think a 14 year old could be self sufficient, but if they are mature enough to vote, shouldn’t they be ready to be self sufficient as well?

That Democrats are backing this bill is no surprise. It is common knowledge that younger people, for the most part, lean left and seek the path of least resistance. Who of us enjoyed academic challenges in school? Who of us enjoyed really tough tests?

But, we went through it. We learned and matured due to those teachers that challenged us and encouraged us.

How many 14 year olds do you think would support and vote for a school board candidate that intends to give them a stringent curriculum and challenge them as schools once were?

Oddly enough, Senator White, who says how impressed he is with this “group of bright and organized young people,” has two other bills introduced concerning young people. SB 5016 would ban smoking in cars with children under the age of 18 in them and SB 5380 banning flavored smokeless tobacco.

Of the latter White says, “My primary objective with regard to regulating the tobacco industry in Washington is to ensure that we do all we can to keep kids tobacco-free. Most people who use tobacco products pick up the habit before age 18, and evidence suggests that young people who consume tobacco products are more likely to use alcohol, get poor grades, and skip school, than their peers.”

Yet, he feels these same kids should be freely allowed to vote for the school board? Shouldn’t they also be trusted to make the right decision in regards to tobacco use as well? If they are that easily swayed, wouldn’t there be the danger that their vote could be unfairly swayed?

White goes on to say, “However, irrespective of one’s position on the issue or the likelihood that the bill will pass, it is certainly worth having a conversation about this issue.”

Senator, that conversation can be held without wasting the Senates time on such silliness as this.

After all, isn’t there more important matters before the Senate, such as naming a state rock?

Oh, that $4.5 Billion budget gap we face? That’s not an urgent matter, right?

FLOTUS Excuses Junk Food, When She & BHO Eat It

Unbelievable, after all of the hype and messages sent out and pushing her "Healthy Kids Initiative," telling parents what they may or may not feed to their children. First Lady Michelle Obama is defending the choices of junk food chosen for the White House Super Bowl Party, here.

The party menu consisted of “Yuengling Lager and Light, brewed in Pennsylvania, Hinterland Pale Ale and Amber Ale, all the way from Wisconsin. Honey Ale and bratwurst, kielbasa, cheeseburgers, deep-dish pizza and Buffalo wings with sides of German potato salad, twice-baked potatoes and assorted chips and dips.”

Coming under fire for such extravagant junk food, Michelle Obama, defending the choice now says,

"I think I've always been very consistent on that front because that's how I live my life. It's about balance. It's always about balance. It's not realistic to just eat healthy food all the time — especially on Super Bowl Sunday. I don't even know what you'd have other than some hot dogs and some burgers for a Super Bowl party."

Politico

She goes on to claim it is about "balance," but where is the balance in her "Healthy Kids Initiative?"

Perhaps she could use a bit more balance herself.

 

See also: First Lady Michelle Obama pushes for smaller portions in restaurants

How small were those portions at the White House Super Bowl Party again?

Obama: Corporate Profits "Have To Be Shared By American Workers"

Real Clear Politics Video

When does Obama, Kerry, Gore, Clinton, Soros, and the rest of the multi-Millionaire socialist elite begin "sharing their profits" with the American people?

How many of you were able to throw a Super Bowl Party offering "Yuengling Lager and Light, brewed in Pennsylvania, Hinterland Pale Ale and Amber Ale, all the way from Wisconsin. Honey Ale and bratwurst, kielbasa, cheeseburgers, deep-dish pizza and Buffalo wings with sides of German potato salad, twice-baked potatoes and assorted chips and dips" at someone else's expense?

Why is it that those who preach "redistribute the wealth" don't ever redistribute any of their own?

Do they not know that corporate profits are already "shared" in the form of wages, benefits and stock options?

"The good news for President Obama: The Chamber of Commerce broke into applause twice during his speech Monday morning to welcome his ideas."

"The bad news: They clapped just twice, in a 35-minute address."

Politico

Obama’s Hope and Change? Or Sell Out?

It’s difficult to believe a man still living can be reincarnated, but more and more it appears to failures of Jimmy Carter, no doubt the absolute worst president to ever occupy the Oval Office, are not only being repeated, but compounded.

Sold to the world over this half-race, Barack Obama is well on the way to destroying America and rapidly selling out every ally we have had for decades.

Just as Carter did with Iran, in encouraging all to accept Ayatollah Khomeini, who had untold number murdered who might oppose his dictatorial Islamic regime, Obama is ready to encourage Egypt to accept the Muslim Brotherhood into their government, even though they have long advocated the annihilation of neighboring Israel.

As if such a blunder isn’t enough, Obama seems ready to repeat Carters mistakes in not only weakening American defenses, but our long time allies as well.

Nuclear Arms has been a fearful weapon that several presidents have worked on reducing. Carter gained an agreement on such reductions with the former Soviet Union that he hailed as “the first nuclear arms treaty which assumed real reductions in strategic forces to 2,250 of all categories of delivery vehicles on both sides.”

SALT II, as it was called, failed to be ratified due to the Soviet Union’s invasion of Afghanistan, provoked by the Carter administration and confirmed by Carter's National Security Advisor , Zbigniew Brzezinski in 1998.

Brzezinski said,

“According to the official version of history, the CIA assistance to the Mujahideen began during 1980, i.e. after the Soviet army had invaded Afghanistan on December 24, 1979. But the reality, kept secret until now, is very different: it was July 3, 1979 when President Carter signed the first directive on the clandestine assistance to opponents of the pro-Soviet regime in Kabul. On that day, I wrote a note to the President in which I explained that in my opinion this aid would bring about a military intervention by the Soviets..... We did not push the Russians to intervene, but we knowingly increased the probability that they would.”

That such a covert war initiated by Carter played a large role in the unrest and subsequent Terrorist Attackswe have seen since the Carter Administration was also confirmed by Brzezinski in a 1998 interview that appeared in the French magazine ‘Le Nouvel Observateur’.

Question: When the Soviets justified their intervention by asserting that they intended to fight against a secret involvement of the United States in Afghanistan, people didn't believe them. However, there was a basis of truth. You don't regret anything today?

Brzezinski : Regret what? That secret operation was an excellent idea. It had the effect of drawing the Russians into the Afghan trap and you want me to regret it? The day that the Soviets officially crossed the border, I wrote to President Carter: We now have the opportunity of giving to the USSR its Vietnam war. Indeed, for almost 10 years, Moscow had to carry on a war unsupportable by the government, a conflict that brought about the demoralization and finally the breakup of the Soviet empire.

Question : And neither do you regret having supported the Islamic fundamentalism, having given arms and advice to future terrorists?

Brzezinski : What is most important to the history of the world? The Taliban or the collapse of the Soviet empire? Some stirred-up Moslems or the liberation of Central Europe and the end of the cold war?

While Obama doesn’t have a Soviet Union to draw into a quagmire, he does have his SALT agreement with Russian President Dmitry Medvedev and just like Carter, being hailed as “landmark agreement to reduce both countries' nuclear arsenals.”

One small problem, besides the historic account of Russians not actually following such agreements, is Obama’s agreement to give Russia Britain’s nuclear secrets, who are not even included in the treaty negotiations.

The UK Telegraph reports,

“Washington lobbied London in 2009 for permission to supply Moscow with detailed data about the performance of UK missiles. The UK refused, but the US agreed to hand over the serial numbers of Trident missiles it transfers to Britain.”

“Professor Malcolm Chalmers said: ‘This appears to be significant because while the UK has announced how many missiles it possesses, there has been no way for the Russians to verify this. Over time, the unique identifiers will provide them with another data point to gauge the size of the British arsenal’.”

Duncan Lennox, editor of Jane’s Strategic Weapons Systems, said: ‘They want to find out whether Britain has more missiles than we say we have, and having the unique identifiers might help them’.”

“While the US and Russia have long permitted inspections of each other’s nuclear weapons, Britain has sought to maintain some secrecy to compensate for the relatively small size of its arsenal.”

During the 2008 presidential campaign, then candidate Obama received a ‘Rock-Star reception’ all across Europe, including Britain. In return, he sells out their national security.

In 1978, Carter boasted of what was termed the Camp David Accords where then Egyptian President Anwar El Sadat and Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin came to terms to sign a Peace Treaty between the two nations that has given them over three decades of peace.

In 2011, Obama is poised to shatter that peace by encouraging inclusion of a the Muslim Brotherhood, who say they “would like to see the Egyptian people prepare for war against Israel,” in the Egyptian government.

As the world looks to America once again for leadership, all they find is Obama.

I can’t help but wonder of the much hated George W. Bush isn’t looking a little better to the people of Europe and Britain today.

FEBRUARY 3 –NATIONAL FOUR CHAPLAINS DAY

By REES LLOYD (re-posted with authors permission)

Also seen at World Net Daily

“Four Chaplains Day” is to be observed annually on February 3 in America by the unanimous resolution of the U.S. Congress in 1988. It is a day to remember February 3, 1943, one of the most remarkable and inspiring acts of heroism in the history of warfare took place in World War II. It is a day to honor the heroism of the Four Chaplains, who selflessly gave their lives “that others may live.”

However, although veterans in The American Legion, the Veterans of Foreign Wars, and other veterans organizations, will hold special observances on Four Chaplains Day, most American media, most American schools, and, therefore, most Americans, will not observe it. Indeed, most Americans, including children who will not be taught about in their schools, will not even know that there is a National Four Chaplains day, or why. This is true even though, as a former soldier who owed his life to them has said: “[T]heir heroism is beyond belief. That is one of the reasons why we must tell the world what these people did.”

On February 3, 1943, the Dorchester, a converted luxury cruise ship, was transporting Army troops to Greenland, escorted by three Coast Guard Cutters and accompanied by two slow moving freighters.

On board were some 900 troops, and four chaplains, of diverse religions and backgrounds, but of a common faith and commitment to serve God, country, and all the troops, regardless of their religious beliefs, or non-belief. The four Chaplains are:

Rev. George Fox (Methodist); Father John Washington (Roman Catholic); Jewish Rabbi Alexander Goode; and Rev. Clark Poling (Dutch Reformed).

At approximately 12:55 a.m., in the dead of a freezing night, the Dorchester was hit by a torpedo fired by German U-boat 233 in an area so infested with German submarines it was known as “Torpedo Junction.”

The blast ripped a hole in the ship from below the waterline to the top deck.

The engine room was instantly flooded. Crewmen, who were not scalded to death by steam escaping from broken pipes and the ship's boiler, were drowned.

Hundreds of troops in the flooded lower compartments were drowned, or washed out to the frigid waters, where most would die.

In less than a minute, the Dorchester lost way, and listed on a 30-degree angle. Troops on deck searched for life jackets in panic, clung to rails and other handholds, saw overloaded life boats overturn in the turgid water, leaped overboard as a last desperate hope for life. Many with life jackets drowned when the life preservers became waterlogged.

Of the 900 troops and crew on board, two-thirds would ultimately die; most of those who survived, had lifelong infirmities and pain from their time in the icy waters.

Dorchester survivors told of the wild pandemonium on board when it was hit and began sinking. Many men had not slept in their clothes and life vests as ordered because of the heat in the crowded quarters below. There was panic, fear, terror; death was no abstraction but real, immediate, seemingly inescapable.

The four Chaplains acted together to try bring some order to the chaos, to calm the panic of the troops, to alleviate their fear and terror, to pray with and for them, to help save their lives.

The Chaplains passed out life jackets, helping those too panicked to put them on correctly, until the awful moment arrived when there were no more life jackets to be given out.

It was then that a most remarkable act of heroism, courage, faith, and love took place:

Each of the four Chaplains took off his life jacket, and, knowing that act made death certain, put his life jacket on a soldier who didn't have one, refusing to listen to any protest that they should not make such a sacrifice.

They continued to help the troops until the last moment.

Then, as the ship sank into the raging sea, the four Chaplains linked hands and arms, and could be seen and heard by the survivors praying together, even singing hymns, joined together in faith, love, and unity, as they sacrificed their lives so “that others might live.”

The few survivors testified to the selfless act of the four Chaplains:

“The ship started sinking and as I left the ship, I looked back and saw the chaplains with their hands clasped, praying for the boys. They never made any attempt to save themselves, but they did try to save the others. I think their names should be on the list of ‘The Greatest Heroes' of this war,” testified Grady L. Clark.

“I saw all four chaplains take off their life belts and give them to soldiers who had none. The last I saw of them they were still praying, talking, and preaching to the soldiers,” attested survivor Thomas W. Myers Jr.

“It is impressed clearly in my mind that these chaplains demonstrated unsurpassed courage and heroism when they willingly gave their life belts to four enlisted men, who, because of the utter confusion and disorder brought about by the torpedoing, had become hysterical. They helped save the lives of many of the troops,” testified John F. Garey.

These testimonies, taken from author Dan Kurzman's valuable book “No Greater Glory: The Four Immortal Chaplains and the Sinking of the Dorchester in World War II,” are but some of the sworn statements of grateful survivors upon which Congress awarded the Four Chaplains an unprecedented “Congressional Medal of Valor” in 1961.

Earlier, in 1944, they were awarded Purple Hearts and the Distinguished Service Cross. They did not receive the Medal of Honor because of restrictions limiting that medal to combatants. In 2004, delegates to The American Legion National Convention representing 2.7-million wartime veterans, voted to support making an exception and awarding the Medal of Honor to the Four Chaplains.

The lesson of their lives is as inspiring as is the lesson of their ultimate sacrifice. Information is available from a number of sources, principally by the Immortal Chaplains Foundation, and the affiliated Chapel of the Four Chaplains, which awards the Immortal Chaplains Prize for Humanity, and whose logo is: “That others may live.” (www.immortalchaplains.org; The Immortal Chaplains Foundation, On the Queen Mary, 1126

At the dedication of the Chapel of the Four Chaplains in 1951, then-President Harry S. Truman said their sacrifice reflected the fact that “the unity of our country is a unity under God.”

“This interfaith shrine will stand through long generations to teach Americans that as men can die heroically as brothers so should they live together in mutual faith and good will,” President Truman said.

Ben Epstein, a Jewish survivor who often spoke to audiences about the Four Chaplains, was quoted by author Kurzman as describing the meaning of their sacrifice by putting a question to himself, and, thereby, to all other Americans:

“I ask myself, could I do it? Take my life preserver and give it to someone else? Absolutely not. I don't think I could do it. I didn't do it. And I ask you in the audience, how many of you could do it? And I don't want an answer. That's why I say their bravery; their heroism is beyond belief. That is one of the reasons why we must tell the world what these people did.”

The American Legion has been conducting annual Four Chaplains remembrances for almost half a century, publishes material, and has produced a video, “The American Legion Remembers the Four Chaplains,” all of which are available through its Chaplains Program. (Acy@legion.org; The American Legion, Attn: Chaplains Program, PO Box 1055, Indianapolis, IN 46206 (317-630-1212).

May the God the Four Chaplains served bless and keep them; and may the nation they so heroically served always remember and honor them.

[Rees Lloyd is a longtime civil rights attorney and veterans activist.]

35% Increase In Illegal Aliens in Washington State

The Seattle Times reports: "An estimated 230,000 illegal immigrants were living in Washington state in 2010 — 35 percent more than three years earlier."

That gives Washington State the seventh-highest rate of illegal immigrants in the country. 3 years ago, we didn't place in the top ten!

Nationally, the numbers estimated of illegal aliens in the country remains virtually unchanged with a slight decrease, according to the Pew Research Center in Washington, D.C.

The director of the state's Commission on Hispanic Affairs, Uriel Iñiguez says, "the fact that the illegal immigrant population nationally hasn't declined shows people aren't going anywhere," adding "It's one of the arguments I make all the time — passing laws won't prevent people from being here undocumented."

With a slate bills introduced in the Washington legislature this year, I have to wonder how strict enforcement of existing immigration laws would affect the situation?

Of equal concern, "A federal judge has temporarily stopped Washington from eliminating food benefits for thousands of legal immigrants," according to the Seattle PI.

Cuts in the program was expected to shave $7.2 million from the deficit.

State Sen. Val Stevens says, "the illegal-immigrant cost to the state is $272 million a biennium for such functions as social services, health and corrections."

Senators Cantwell and Murray Fight to Keep America Dependent on Foreign Oil

After the devastating crippling of America in the 1970’s due to the oil crisis in 1973, when Arabian members of OPEC embargoed oil to the U.S. over our support for Israel, then president Carter signed legislation creating the Department of Energy in August 1977, that was supposed to lessen our dependence on foreign oil imports, amongst other matters.

Ever since, we hear frequently from our politicians how we need to end our dependence on foreign oil, yet our dependence has steadily risen since the Department of Energy was created to the point that we now import some 51% of our needed oil from foreign countries, many hostile to us.

At the same time, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration, “we are the third largest crude oil producer” in the world!

We also read, “the U.S. has more than 200 billion barrels of oil and 2,000 trillion cubic feet of natural gas that are recoverable with today's technology,” in an article in Forbes Magazine quoting a report prepared by the National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners.

The article continues, “That's more than most OPEC nations. If fully developed, it would be enough to eliminate our 10-million-barrel daily diet of foreign oil for half a century.”

At a time we are so heavily dependent on foreign oil sources and at the same time have a scarcity of wage earning jobs in America, we read of our illustrious left coast politicians, namely Senators Patty Murray and Maria Cantwell joining in with other Democrats up and down the left coast advocating a “Permanent Moratorium” on off-shore drilling?

Touting the canard of “Green Jobs,” it is claimed the measure would, “permanently protect the $34 billion coastal economies of the three states, which support nearly 570,000 jobs in California, Oregon and Washington.”

Cantwell, positioning herself for reelection says, “One of the lessons learned from the disastrous BP oil spill is that without a fundamental transformation of the oil industry, another spill is possible, even likely. That’s not a risk I’m willing to take for Washington State’s beautiful coastlines and the communities that depend on them. More offshore drilling will not lower gasoline prices or reduce our nation’s dangerous overreliance on foreign oil, which is why we should be focusing on the promising clean energy alternatives that are better for consumers and can provide long-term sustainable solutions to America’s energy needs.”

Oh really, Ms. Cantwell? Using our own oil, drilled from our own sources within our boundaries and refined in refineries located with our state (5 in Washington State alone), “ will not lower gasoline prices or reduce our nation’s dangerous overreliance on foreign oil,” but having less of our own will?

And, that “risk?” What in life isn’t a risk? Off the top of my head, I imagine Ms. Cantwell is more at risk of being injured crossing the street than we are of more oil spills. And yes, I know they happen. But, since we so often hear of “greedy oil companies,” do you really think they enjoy losing Billions of dollars in profits from oil lost and clean-up fees for such an accident?

And while I’m at it, those “long term energy solutions” failed to produce electricity recently in Britain, during the worst cold-snap they have seen in years. That’s right, they FAILED when they were needed the most!

Left unsaid is just how “Washington State’s beautiful coastlines” will appear as hundreds of thousands of acres of coastline are fenced off and dotted with those same windmills that are not living up to expectations elsewhere?

Patty Murray chimes in with, “I’ve always opposed drilling off the coast of Washington. The tragedy in the Gulf Coast is a painful reminder that we can’t allow drilling anywhere on the West Coast. The economic and environmental devastation caused by the Exxon Valdez disaster is still impacting industry in our region, and we can’t allow it to happen again. Our environment and our economy are too important to risk, and this bill ensures that big oil companies can never roll the dice on the Pacific coast.”

A couple points here. The Exxon Valdez accident was not due to drilling, but to a drunken ship captain not at the helm or in control of his faculties at the time of the accident, being below decks sleeping it off and to malfunctioning guidance equipment that was not repaired as it should have been. The ship ran aground against a reef, puncturing the hull.

Does Ms. Murray advocate eliminating inter-state trucking when a driver pushes himself, gets in an accident and loses his load, sometimes being toxic materials as well? No, the driver, if he survives, is held accountable and the accident cleaned up.

But no one cries “shut down trucking.”

Maybe Ms. Murray, recently elected to a 4th term as Senator and insulting herself from the devastating collapse of our economy these past few years, can’t see that our environment and economy are already at deep risk by continuing our reliance on foreign oil and denying our citizens viable decent wage jobs.

Cantwell and Murray both frequently travel around the globe on Senate business and occasionally even grace us with their presence and last I recall seeing, they don’t ride bicycles all over or hop on a jet powered by solar panels or windmills for their travels.

I doubt you will even see them traveling about in one of those electric cracker box vehicles they want us to own, seeing how the BBC recently touted how one they experimented one could complete a 484 miles trip “in only four days!”

The UK Telegraph compared the “feat” to an “1830’s stagecoach” journey that could be completed in a little over 2 days.

So what was gained? Not much considering the driver often had to slow down to a crawl and run without heat during the height of a British winter to conserve enough battery to make it to the next charging station, where he sat for hours, recharging the batteries from a fossil fuel generated power supply.

Oh yes, after completing his journey, the electric car was loaded into the back of a truck, powered by a more conventional internal combustion engine, burning fossil fuel while the driver took the train back to London.

This is the step backwards advocated by Senator Maria Cantwell, Patty Murray of Washington, Senators Ron Wyden and Jeff Merkley of Oregon and Senators Barbara Boxer and Dianne Feinstein of California?

I often wonder just whose side are these left-coast Democrats on? Surely not the American citizen currently struggling to make ends meet and desperately hoping for a job that the oil companies, demonized as they are, are ready to give.

We have real energy needs that must be met in America. Petroleum remains the most efficient and economical method to meet those needs while alternate energy sources are being researched and perfected.

Knee jerk reactions of blocking off hundreds of thousands of acres of land from the public due to unsightly wind farms and solar panels doing the same are not meeting our needs. In the meantime, Billions of gallons of a cheap and efficient energy source sit idle underground and within our borders while some of the very people ready to permanently deny American jobs and place us more reliant on foreign oil block and oppose those same alternate energy sources when built in their backyards!

Senator Feinstein Seeks to Block Solar Panels In Mojave Desert

Environmentalists Fight Calico solar farm

Animals Rights Activists Blocking Wind Farms

Ted Kennedy Blocks Cape Cod Wind Farm

America, I think we deserve better. Don’t you?