Posted: 28 Jun 2007 12:36 PM CDT
San Mateo- Anti war protestors have taken the liberties of our free speech amendment to post the following posters near Military Recruiting Offices.
Eagles, this is despicable! We cannot stand by and let this atrocity continue; think of all the recruiters we have met personally during ORA, think of the men and women who lay down their lives for us and this country’s freedom-for the right of FREE SPEECH.
Eagles, we must band together and counter this as soon as possible. San Mateo cannot see this despicable lack of patriotism.
Eagles UP!
Gold Stars Stall in Legislature
Posted: 28 Jun 2007 09:33 AM CDT
SACRAMENTO - A move to give relatives of those who have died in
military service the chance to buy a special “gold star” license
plate has stalled in the Legislature, sending supporters scrambling
to find a way to crack the impasse.
State Sen. Jeff Denham, R-Merced, says he’s appealing to Senate
Leader Don Perata, D-Oakland, to waive Senate rules and let the bill
move, at the same time he’s working with the administration of Gov.
Arnold Schwarzenegger to try get it done without legislation.
Denham, who was a crew chief on a C-5 Galaxy cargo jet in Saudi
Arabia during the first Gulf War, sponsored the bill after being
approached by parents Michael Anderson of Modesto and Kevin Graves of the Delta’s Discovery Bay. Both have lost sons in Iraq.
California has lost 372 service members in Iraq, according to data
from the Department of Defense. Sixteen have died in San Joaquin
County or the Mother Lode. An additional 2,672 Californians have been wounded.
The symbol of the Gold Star dates from World War I, when families who had a member serving in the armed forces during wartime flew a little flag with a blue star in their windows. But if their soldier, sailor
or Marine had died, that blue star was replaced with a gold one.
The license plate would not just be for Iraq War veterans: Any
relative of a service member who died in action would be eligible.
Colorado, Georgia, Illinois, Kentucky, Massachusetts, New York,
Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Texas, Utah and Virginia already have Gold Star plates, and seven other states are debating the issue.
Denham says he hopes Perata will help him get a fair hearing for the
legislation; It never received one during the regular committee
process this spring. A companion bill in the Assembly flew through
two committees without a “no” vote before getting hijacked earlier
this month; the bill now deals with petroleum products.
“It should be a very simple issue,” Denham said. “This should receive
a hearing.”
A spokeswoman for Perata said he isn’t likely to change the rules for
Denham and said he should work through the administrative process.
Denham may not have helped matters by suggesting that staffers are to blame.
“It’s the Democrat staff on the Transportation Committee who has this bottled up,” he said. “It’s one of those unusual cases where you’ve got staff trying to interject their ideas.”
Special license plates in California have become controversial since
the Legislature passed a slew of them in the late 1990s. A court case
and unwritten legislative rules has made it nearly impossible to
convince lawmakers to create a new plate.
Last year the Legislature punted this job to the Department of Motor
Vehicles. But the rules set up under this new system require
supporters to find at least 7,500 drivers willing to pay for the
special plate - but anyone, even drivers with no lost relatives,
could buy the plate if they wanted.
This is the administrative route Denham is tentatively pursuing,
although it isn’t his preferred option. He had the bill written to
bypass this process and instead add Gold Star to a select list
of “special recognition” plates, such as those for Medal of Honor
winners, Purple Heart awardees and former prisoners of war.
But staffers in both the Senate Transportation Committee and Perata’s office say that isn’t clear from the bill’s text.
Anderson says he’s surprised there’s been such resistance to passing
what he sees is a very simple, very worthy proposal.
“It’s disturbing that our state lawmakers will not honor our fallen
heroes or those left behind,” Anderson said. “It’s just ludicrous.”
Giuliani Slams Clinton on Terrorism
Posted: 28 Jun 2007 12:35 AM CDT
Republican presidential candidate Rudy Giuliani on Tuesday accused former President Clinton of not responding forcefully enough to the 1993 World Trade Center bombing or later terrorist attacks.
The former New York mayor criticized Democrats, accusing them of weakness and naiveté in dealing with terrorism. Giuliani made the comments to about 650 businesses, corporate and political leaders at Regent University, the conservative Christian college founded by religious broadcaster Pat Robertson.
“Islamic terrorists killed more than 500 Americans before Sept. 11. Many people think the first attack on America was on Sept. 11, 2001. It was not. It was in 1993,” said the former New York mayor.
Giuliani argued that Clinton treated the World Trade Center bombing as a criminal act instead of a terrorist attack, calling it “a big mistake” that emboldened other strikes on the Khobar Towers housing complex in Saudi Arabia, in Kenya and Tanzania and later on the USS Cole while docked in Yemen in 2000.
“The United States government, then President Clinton, did not respond,” Giuliani said. “(Osama) bin Laden declared war on us. We didn’t hear it.”
In hindsight, Giuliani said, maybe it’s all clearer now, “but now is now, and there is no reason to go back into denial, and that is essentially what the Democratic candidates for president want to do: they want to go back, to put the country in reverse to the 1990s.
“I’m not blaming anybody back then,” Giuliani said later in the day at a campaign stop at a Jewish temple in Rockville, Md. “What I am saying is, I do blame people after Sept. 11. Now you have to get it.”
Last September, Giuliani defended Clinton’s record amid political bickering over which president — Clinton or George W. Bush — missed more opportunities to prevent the Sept. 11 attacks.
“The idea of trying to cast blame on President Clinton is just wrong for many, many reasons, not the least of which is I don’t think he deserves it,” Giuliani said during a stop in Florida. “I don’t think President Bush deserves it.
The people who deserve blame for Sept. 11, I think we should remind ourselves, are the terrorists — the Islamic fanatics — who came here and killed us and want to come here again and do it.”
In his comments Tuesday, Giuliani said Democrats would abandon Iraq while giving terrorists the U.S. “timetable for retreat.”
Giuliani remained aligned with President Bush in keeping U.S. forces in Iraq even as two more senior Senate Republicans — Indiana’s Richard Lugar and Ohio’s George Voinovich — in the past two days suggested the president’s policy is failing and said he should begin bringing troops home.
In his Rockville appearance, Giuliani compared the war in Iraq to the conflict between Hamas and Israel.
“What happened in Gaza is a microcosm of what’s going to happen in Baghdad” if the United States withdraws. “It will become something that inflames the entire region.”
Welcome to Hillaryland…
Posted: 27 Jun 2007 10:34 PM CDT
Two veteran New York Times reporters — with almost 42 years of combined experience — decide to tell the true story of Hillary Clinton in a new biography. In doing so they are attacked by their own newspaper. These reporters continued on, despite the fact that Hillary Clinton and her staff offered stiff resistance to the book project entitled “Her Way: The Hopes and Ambitions of Hillary Rodham Clinton” by Jeff Gerth and Don Van Atta Jr., the authors have published one of the most compelling and exhaustive biographies of Hillary Rodham Clinton.
Importantly, “Her Way” is the first book to delve into Hillary’s mysterious activities as a U.S. Senator.
For years Hillary has been shielded from public scrutiny by friendly media. “Her Way” cuts through the fog. Dick Morris, once a long-time consultant to Bill and Hillary Clinton, says “Her Way” is a “very good investigative job by the reporter who first broke the Whitewater story. He probes her flip-flops on Iraq, her ethical lapses in the Senate, and her involvement in spying on women with whom her husband was involved.”
“It’s a great read and a useful book,” Morris says.
As for “spying,” Dick Morris is referring to one of the most shocking disclosures in “Her Way.”
During the heated 1992 presidential campaign as Gennifer Flowers and other women made accusations about her husband Bill, Hillary was quick to circle the wagons and organize the couple’s defenses.
According to “Her Way,” Hillary even “listened to a secretly recorded audio tape of a phone conversation of Clinton critics.”
The authors said Hillary’s supporters’ monitored cell-phone frequencies “and the tape was made during one of those monitoring sessions.”
The authors also reveal for the first time a stunning pact made between Bill and Hillary Clinton some three decades ago.
In this pact each promised the other that they would work to get each in the White House.” Eight years for Bill and eight years for Hillary.”
But the most important story told in “Her Way” is the revelations about “Hillaryland.”
Hillaryland is a code word Clintonistas have used to describe the discipline, devotion and cult that surrounds Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton.
“Her Way” offers some startling facts and information about “Hillaryland” including:
The Chief Advisor: Bill Clinton’s role, sometimes public, sometimes secret.
The staff: her inner circle’s “cavalier attitude” toward longtime Senate rules.
The secret retinue: Hillary’s hidden use of Senate “fellows” that are not fully disclosed.
Why Karl Rove jokes about Hillary’s old White House office.
How Hillary became a U.S. senator (She wasn’t asked by New Yorkers, as she claimed).
Fundraisers: Hillary’s Washington fundraisers where “invisibility” is the watchword.
Hillary’s rule: “We can do what we need to do.”
Iraq: why Hillary can’t escape from the “box” her vote has placed her in.
Why Hillary can’t admit she made a “mistake” by voting for the war.
Shocker: evidence Hillary didn’t bother to read the CIA’s National Intelligence Estimate Report before her vote for the war.
Why Hillary told Senate colleagues she needs “wiggle room” on the Iraq war.
Sniping comments: Hillary’s shocking remarks about Sen. Elizabeth Dole made in a Senate elevator.
“Her very relaxed relationship” with Sen. John McCain which sometimes includes cracking jokes and “a few glasses of vodka.”
Hillary hates Chuck Schumer and why his eating habits disgusted her. She once said, “That’s the last meal I’m having with Chuck Schumer.”
Why U.S. senators from her own party groan, “there she goes again.”
Brutal: Hillary’s press secretaries move through a revolving door in her Senate office.
No exit: One Senate staffer admits when you work for Hillary, “you never really leave her.”
Hidden agenda: Hillary’s use of tax-exempt groups including CREW (Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington), and the liberal media monitoring group, Media Matters, to serve her agenda so she can “beat the GOP at their own game.”
The War Room: How Hillary brought the notorious Clinton White House war room into the Senate — despite some objections from U.S. senators.
The Internet: Hillary is already bullying her way in cyberspace.
Stony silence: Hillary usually nary says a word when she enters the White House to meet President Bush.
Bill’s fear: Her husband thinks Al Gore just well may emerge to challenge her for the Democratic nomination.
Gore’s anger: Bill and Hillary steal his “signature” issue of the environment.
Hijack: Bill and Hillary decided to back a California proposition on the environment that made Al Gore completely “furious.”
Ambush: Hillary’s pleasant invite to Secretary of Defense
Donald Rumsfeld to come before the Armed Services Committee meeting where Hillary launched a surprise attack on him.
Defection: Longtime Washington attorney and friend of the Clintons Greg Craig — he even represented Bill as one of his impeachment attorneys — has left the Clinton circle to support Barack Obama.
Butting in: Hillary Clinton wasn’t supposed to speak at Coretta Scott King’s funeral but demanded to be put on the agenda.
The Obama surprise: Hillary allies, including Terry McAuliffe, believe Obama could be a lethal threat to the senator’s presidential chances.
And so much more…
In this book you will find out how Hillary is walking a very thin “balancing act” to become president of the United States, and the Clintons are working overtime to make it into the White House.
Gerth and Van Natta also reveal the “unbelievable” attack the Clinton machine launched against ABC to stop them from running the mini series “Path to 9/11″ — the docudrama that described how the Clinton administration mishandled the hunt of bin Laden and al-Qaida.
Hillary has described herself as “the most famous person in the world you don’t know.”
That may be true.
But it won’t be if more Americans read “Her Way: The Hopes and Ambitions of Hillary Rodham Clinton.”
Cheney’s Office Subpoenaed
Posted: 27 Jun 2007 10:23 PM CDT
“Senate Committee Seeks Information on Eavesdropping”
(Story Written by Laurie Kellman, AP)
WASHINGTON - The Senate subpoenaed the White House and Vice President Dick Cheney’s office Wednesday, demanding documents and elevating the confrontation with President Bush over the administration’s warrant-free eavesdropping on Americans.
“If there have been lies told to us, we’ll refer it to the Department of Justice and the U.S. attorney for whatever legal action they think is appropriate,” Leahy told reporters.
The escalation is part of the Democrats’ effort to hold the administration to account for the way it has conducted the war on terrorism since the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.
The subpoenas extend the probe into the private sector, demanding among other things documents on any agreements that telecommunications companies made to cooperate with the surveillance program.
The White House contends that its search for would-be terrorists is legal, necessary and effective - pointing out frequently that there have been no further attacks on American soil. Administration officials say they have given classified information - such as details about the eavesdropping program, which is now under court supervision - to the intelligence committees of both houses of Congress.
Echoing its response to previous congressional subpoenas to former administration officials Harriet Miers and Sara Taylor, the White House gave no indication that it would comply with the new ones.
“We’re aware of the committee’s action and will respond appropriately,” White House spokesman Tony Fratto said. “It’s unfortunate that congressional Democrats continue to choose the route of confrontation.”
Fratto defended the surveillance program as “lawful” and “limited.”
“It’s specifically designed to be effective without infringing Americans’ civil liberties,” Fratto said. “The program is classified for a reason - its purpose is to track down and stop terrorist planning. We remain steadfast in our commitment to keeping Americans safe from an enemy determined to use any means possible - including the latest in technology - to attack us.”
Click here to view full AP story
Eagles Needed in New Jersey
Posted: 27 Jun 2007 08:16 PM CDT
Fort Monmouth, New Jersey is desperately seeking Eagles to counter anti-war protestors!
Every Saturday at Noon you will see a gathering of
“support the troops” Eagles across the street from anti-war protestors. The anti-war protestors regularly outnumber the Eagles 12 to 2!
The anti-war protestors display their usual hatred-filled “Bush lies” signs and commonly take to shouting at vehicles entering Fort Monmouth.
However, this Memorial Day weekend they went too far. The anti-war protestors lined their side with pictures of fallen New Jersey servicemen. They have also taken to lining their side with crosses that had fallen servicemen’s names displayed on them.
We desperately need Eagles to counter their horrific displays with positive “troop support”
We gather and park on the Exxon gas station side of the street across from the gate of Ft. Monmouth. Please meet at 11:30 a.m. on Saturday; this is an ongoing event. The anti-war protestors are there every Saturday like clockwork. Our Eagles need to be there, as well.
All further logistical information and questions can be forwarded on to Elyse A. Buongiorno, GOE New Jersey Coordinator. You can reach her via email at the following email addresses:
goe.newjersey@gatheringofeagles.org or goenewjersey@aol.com