Politics Blog

This Marine Corps Captain had a front seat on the bus:

On the 60th anniversary of VJ-Day in 2005, Marine Capt. Randy Stone, a military lawyer serving in Iraq, became a presidential poster boy. Capt. Stone’s two grandfathers fought at Iwo Jima, so President Bush, in a celebratory speech, turned the whole family into a gold-braided rhetorical flourish to depict the continuity of American character and courage from one war to another.

“Captain Stone proudly wears the uniform just as his grandfathers did at Iwo Jima,” said Mr. Bush. “He’s guided by the same convictions they carried into battle. He shares the same willingness to serve a cause greater than himself… Randy says, ‘I know we will win because I see it in the eyes of the Marines every morning. In their eyes is the sparkle of victory.’ “

That was then.

Until he was thrown under the bus:

Capt. Stone is the first of four Marine officers to be charged with dereliction of duty for failing to investigate “properly” 24 civilian deaths in Haditha in November 2005. Having reviewed the facts – what you might call his politically correct job as battalion lawyer – Capt. Stone determined no further investigation was warranted. In other words, he came to a politically incorrect conclusion. (So did his superiors, but he’s the guy on trial – another story.)

Capt. Stone could get three years in prison.

I just “love” compassionate conservative warfighting, don’t you? There is a whole lot of compassion everywhere except for US Soldiers/Marines.

Michael Savage is right, the President should pardon these men.

Coming to a Scholastic Book Fair in your local Public Government School:

That’s why we wrote our book, The Down-to-Earth Guide to Global Warming. It’s for girls like you and yes, boys, too. The more people who understand global warming, the better chance we have at bringing about change – change as individuals and change as a country. Change means accepting the fact that the way we are living is causing huge damage to our planet.

hat tip Drudge

They were against it:

On April 18, Ron Gettelfinger, president of the United Automobile Workers, vowed he would fight the sale, declaring a private investor would “strip and flip” the company to earn a quick profit.

Until they were for it:

So many were as surprised as anyone today to learn that the sale of Chrysler to Cerberus Capital Management had their leaders’ support.

No different than any politician.

This is knid of like the mess with the Union Pension Plans and Retiree Health Care Plans. Over the years, the Union Officials winked and nodded with the management when fat benefits were promised but never funded. Oh, just like Social Security, back to no different than any politician.

UPDATE: It looks like the way the deal was structured that Daimler “paid” to have Chrysler taken off its hands:

In a complex transaction, Daimler will actually receive 1 billion euros ($1.4 billion), but it will retain Chrysler’s debts, leading to a net cash outflow.

Chrysler Group will retain its obligations for pensions and healthcare costs and be renamed Chrysler Holding. The bulk of the money contributed by Cerberus will be splitbetween Chrysler Corporation, overseeing the production of Chrysler, Dodge and Jeep vehicles, will get $5 billion, and Chrysler Financial Services, which provides financial services for these vehicles in the NAFTA region, will get $1.1 billion.

Just when many were falling for the lure that “civil union laws are OK because that will protect the traditional definition of marriage” we get this:

Eight gay couples are challenging the state law that prohibits them from marrying.

and

They have chosen not to have a civil union and are waiting for marriage.

This is what happens when you take the conservative out of conservatives. I came ever so close to falling for it.

Like father, like son:

President George W. Bush today ordered government agencies to begin regulatory steps to curb tailpipe emissions and urged Congress to enact legislation to reduce the nation’s dependence on imported oil.

“We’re taking action,'’ Bush said in a statement from the White House Rose Garden. He said the first steps toward rules “will make our economy stronger, our environment cleaner and our nation more secure for generations to come.'’

The more time you spend in Washington, the easier big government is to accept. The Republican party I became a part of no longer exists.

First, what is going on:

President Bush announced his intention to seek reintroduction of LOSTfor ratification to a small group of trusted Republican grass-roots organizers last week – an announcement that was met with horror and scorn.

Bad sign number one, without even having to read the treaty, is who is lining up against it (this should give any Conservative tremendous pause):

Eagle Forum leader Phyllis Schlafly, Center for Security Policy President Frank Gaffney, Leadership Institute President Morton Blackwell, Free Congress Foundation founder Paul Weyrich and leaders of the Heritage Foundation were quick to denounce the idea in forceful terms, calling on their members to begin lobbying the White House immediately.

And yes there are going to be many that will say it must be conservative because Bush is behind it and he is a Republican after all.

I would live to outright print some of the e mails that I receive everyday from friends in SW Asia. Because I can not do that, I have to look for similar sentiment that is out in the open domain. So how is that Iraqi Army doing?

I realise that, by being embedded, I am seeing the country through the eyes of the occupiers. There is no way I can tell the whole story. But what I can do is show the gap between the rhetoric of the government in Baghdad and the reality on the ground. There is no effective administration here and the Iraqi army is a fiction. There are Iraqi soldiers alongside the Americans, but they owe their allegiance to a unit commander who is usually someone known to them previously. They are small bands or gangs of soldiers, not a national force.

A couple years ago before I was put back on active duty, I was in an awkward situation where I had to explain to my little boy what the “MIA Flag” represented. This was extremely difficult as I needed to be “age appropriate” and did not want to explain what Muslims did when they captured American Soldiers. I explained it something like as follows:

“If any of your daddy’s friends in the Army ever get lost, what that flag means is that we will never ever stop looking for them until we find them and if you daddy ever gets lost, his friends will keep looking until they find me.”

Very sadly, I was reminded of this with this mornings news:

BAGHDAD (AP) � Thousands of U.S. soldiers searched Sunday for three Americans who were missing after their patrol came under attack in an explosion that killed four other American soldiers and an Iraqi army translator.

And as they search, they are no doubt being reminded of the “May 10, 2007 letter.”

UPDATE: An Islamic group is taking credit for the capture of the three Americans:

The Islamic State in Iraq, an al-Qaida front group, said it had captured several soldiers in the attack, but offered no proof to back upits claim, posted on an Islamic Web site.

These men understand that they died the minute they were captured alive. They understand that is very unlikely that they will be rescued alive. The only “peace” that they can now be given is the final sight and knowledge of American armaments totally destroying where they are being held. Most soldiers post 9/11 have thought out this scenario, myself included. It will give these men final “peace.” The only question should be how large of an area will be destroyed.

Just as the automotive industry is tied to huge pension/health care legacy costs, so is the public school system in Michigan:

The retirement system, which provides pension and health care benefits for about 150,000 school retirees, is riddled with loopholes and sloppy policies costing schools tens of millions of dollars each year. Schools now pay $1,015 per student for retirement costs. Those costs are projected to skyrocket in the next decade, raising the specter of hollowed-out schools or cuts in promised benefits to thousands of state retirees.

The automobile industry can “eventually” jettison the costs through the bankruptcy courts but what can the State do?

Some people follow recipes when they want to bake a cake and some simply “estimate."Some people in the “operational planning community” rely on doctrine when they plan. Some people do not:

WASHINGTON — The U.S. commander in northern Iraq said Friday that he doesn’t have enough troops for the mission in increasingly violent Diyala province.

This is going to be a pretty bad tasting cake come fall.