18 wheels and a dozen...Jose's?

My apologies to Kathy Mattea for the title.

Mexican big rigs are set to start rolling across the border into the U.S.A. this weekend.

That's right, MEXICAN tractor trailers.

For those of you with BDS who think that we at Wake Up America are absolutely in love with George W. Bush and can see no wrong in him, this is one of those instances where I take GREAT pride in showing you how wrong you are.

Because I personally am bent all out of shape over this, and have been as it's been developing.

Let's set the background just a bit with a visit to Worldnet Daily back in July:

Docs reveal plan for Mexican trucks in U.S.
Internal e-mails belie public statement, suggest aim to expand quietly

Posted: July 6, 2006
1:00 a.m. Eastern

By Jerome R. Corsi
© 2006 WorldNetDaily.com

Despite claims to the contrary, a planned Midwest "inland port" with a Mexican customs office will not be restricted to railroad traffic, according to internal documents obtained by WorldNetDaily.

As WND has reported, Kansas City SmartPort plans to utilize deep-sea Mexican ports such as Lazaro Cardenas to unload containers from China and the Far East as part of the North American Free Trade Agreement super-highway plan.

The plan would include the hotly contested allowance of Mexican trucks on U.S. roads, WND has reported, but Tasha Hammes of the Kansas City Area Development Council has insisted the port will be restricted to railroad traffic.

I personally first mentioned the SPP back in January, here on this blogsite:

Talk radio is abuzz with calls for a Presidential pardon for the two border control agents who have been convicted of shooting this drug smuggler. I fully agree with this call for action by our President. The American people have no interest, by and large, in this on the sly agreement that we have with the Mexicans to create a North American Alliance like the European Union. The President is sitting back and ignoring the problem because he doesn't want to upset the Mexican government and damage relations in building the SPP. TOUGH SHIT.

Why isn't the dinosaur media all over this? It's the ONE thing the Bush administration has come up with that they're in favor of.

We need to win in the Middle East. Burn that into your minds, into your hearts. Failure to do so will result in problems the like of which we have never seen in this country. However, we also need to ensure that we don't hand ourselves, our nation, over into a situation that would change it in OTHER ways by creating a North American Continental governmental authority.

Right now, the SPP isn't in the forefront of "newsworthy" items. You have to dig for information on it, other than the official government site found here.

I also mentioned it here on one spree and I worked on together in February:

Not much is being said about the Security and Prosperity Partnership of North America, signed on March 23, 2005 by the heads of state of Canada, Mexico and the United States. As G. Gordon Liddy says, it came in under the radar. Seemingly harmless at a casual glance, what this does is begin an elimination of the borders between the U.S.A and our neighbors to the north and South, Canada and Mexico.

Sound familiar?

Europe has already done something similar to this, calling it the European Union, with the introduction of the Euro as a form of currency tradable across the continent amongst its member nations. Are we ready for the Amerio? I don't think so.

Well folks, it's here. Not with grand political speeches, not with thunderous fanfare, not with days of ceremonies celebrating and leaders congratulating themselves and each other on a "job well done." No. Our southern most border is about to disintegrate with the sounds of shifting gears and rubber on the road.

And I would dare say the majority of the American people don't even realize it yet.

Don't believe me? Think I'm talking out of my head? Listen to G. Gordon Liddy's interview with Teamster president Jimmy Hoffa, and then Liddy's interview with Dr. Jerome R. Corsi.

Need more? Are you starting to get irate yet? You SHOULD be mad as HELL. From WorldNetDaily today.

PREMEDITATED MERGER
Hoffa: Mexican trucks are disaster for U.S.
'This is a conspiracy of big business. They want to erase the borders'

Posted: August 31, 2007
1:00 a.m. Eastern

A test program being launched by the Bush Administration to allow what could be thousands of Mexican trucks and their drivers unrestricted access to U.S. highways will be a "disaster," according to the chief of the Teamsters.

James Hoffa, whose union is working in court to halt the scheduled launch of the trucking test program this weekend, told G. Gordon Liddy on his radio talk show that the Mexican trucks and drivers will endanger U.S. lives, damage U.S. jobs, pollute the U.S. environment and benefit no one but big business.

"They want to make it so there's no regulation. You get in your truck in Monterey, Mexico, and drive to Montreal. You'd have to be on speed to do it," Hoffa said.

What can be done about this? Still checking on that, but we WILL be following this as it develops and trying to find a way to stop it.

Oh, and a special note for those of you with BDS who think that we are blind and can't think for ourselves and we're lost in LOVE with George W. and everything he does; while I am personally not yet ready to jump in with others following this issue to call for impeachment of the President (and yes, this actually COULD be an impeachable offense, unlike all this tripe that is spouted about impeachment over the war), I can't say that I'm far from thinking that way...

Watch yourselves on the road this weekend, folks, especially those of you in Texas and along the Mexican border. The highways are about to get a lot more dangerous.

Just a little heads up and a wake up call for those of you who have been asleep at the wheel from...

An American Fighting Man


Tracked back by:
Surrender is Not An Option from Burkean Reflections....


(NOTE: Instead of leaving you with the advertisements I usually have at the bottom of each post, I will leave you with one of the videos from Freedoms Watch) [30 second video.]

Wife who has lost her husband:



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The Stink of Desperation Upon Harry Baghdad Reid

Hat tip to Take Our Country Back.

Now Reid wants to compromise with Republicans on Iraq?

LAS VEGAS -- Saying the coming weeks will be "one of the last opportunities" to alter the course of the war, Senate Majority Leader Harry M. Reid (D-Nev.) said he is now willing to compromise with Republicans to find ways to limit troop deployments in Iraq.

Reid acknowledged that his previous firm demand for a spring withdrawal deadline had become an obstacle for a small but growing number of Republicans who have said they want to end the war but have been unwilling to set a timeline.

"I don't think we have to think that our way is the only way," Reid said of specific dates during an interview in his office here. "I'm not saying, 'Republicans, do what we want to do.' Just give me something that you think you would like to do, that accomplishes some or all of what I want to do."

Now that he has suffered one of the worst vacations in the history of vacations, watching the Brookings Institution scholars come back saying Iraq was a war we might just win, seeing his own Democratic colleagues come back from Iraq declaring the surge is working, a far cry from Baghdad Reid's words when the surge barely started declaring the surge was a failure and Iraq was lost, seeing one of the most staunchest Democratic critics of the war, Brian Baird come home from Iraq saying "Our troops have earned more time"....all this while Congress and the Senate was on recess, Reid wants to compromise?

After their pathetic show with the emergency supplemental bill they held up for over 100 days just to pass it with everything the President wanted, after their helplessness with the FISA bill right before recess, with his childish Senate all nighter that got him nowhere except to shelve the Defense Authorization Bill in a fit of pique because he didn't get the amendment to force a withdrawal date that he wanted.

After all that... now Reid wants to compromise?

Like hell.

Now that we have been seeing all the good news, the progress, the political progress al-Maliki is finally starting to make, the Republicans, other than Warner, are more united in giving General Petraeus whatever time he needs to finish his job.

We have even picked up some key Democratic politicians that have gone to Iraq, seen the progress for themselves and are reluctantly, carefully saying that more time is needed.

Baghdad Reid stinks of desperation and no one is going to help him and next week isn't going to be pleasant either because on Septemeber 3rd, Move America Forward is going to be on his office doorstep as I told you about earlier.

Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans, via, Vets For Freedom. They have launched a Ten Weeks to Testimony Campaign (you can see what they have been doing each week for the last eight right here)

Week One.
Week Two. Call to Action.
Week Three. Take The Lead, State-by-State.
Week Four. Sign up Today to Show up on September 17/18.
Week Five. Get Active in Your State!
Week Six. Cost of Defeat" Call-in Campaign.

You can also see my interview with the Executive Director of Vets For Freedom, Pete Hegseth right here as well as key portions of the interview, in the Washington Times, right here.

Move America Forward, along with Vets For Freedom, Gathering of Eagles, Military Order of the Purple Hearts and many other organizations are also joined together where they will be traveling across the country, starting at Carson City at Harry "Baghdad" Reid's office, 27 stops along the way with rallies and ending up on the Capitol to have their voices heard by our politicians.

(NOTE: On September 5th, 2007, my interview with the Chairman of Move America Forward, Melanie Morgan will be published, here at Wake up America and key portions will be in the newspaper and I will provide the URL's at that time.)

Freedoms Watch has also started a $15 Million Dollar campaign that has television commercials running across the world, of wounded Iraq veterans, gold star mother, a widow who lost her husband in Iraq, all telling America why victory in Iraq is important. (Watch Videos)

MSNBC has refused to let these voices be heard on their network. They have refused them airtime.

If the Democratically controlled Senate and Congress think that they are going to be able to force withdrawal while our military is seeing progress and success... they are going to have a fight on their hands and it isn't going to be with the administration, it is going to be with the Iraq and Afghanistan veterans, their families and their supporters.

There will be no time lines, there will be no withdrawal date, we will give our troops what they have asked for, and that is more time to complete their mission because they are telling us it can be completed and it can be successful and Harry Boy can either get behind our troops or get the hell out of their way.

Even the left isn't exactly happy with Reid.

Reid has backed himself into this corner and no one should step up to help him out of it. He bet against our military, our troops. He bet against America as have most the Democratic politicians that decided this isn't about war, this was about their next election.

Shame on them.


(NOTE: Instead of leaving you with the advertisements I usually have at the bottom of each post, I will leave you with one of the videos from Freedoms Watch) [30 second video.]

Wounded Veteran:



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Islamist Websites Hosted in Minnesota on How to Join Al-Qaeda

The internet is a great thing, I personally believe that but it can and is being used by, al-qaeda, to teach people how make bombs, plan kidnappings, as well as how to use the web against "idiot Americans" and part #2, and now how to create an al-Qaeda cell.

These sites are being hosted in the U.S. and they need to be shut down, they are, for the most part, routed through the U.S. through other countries and we need to get a handle on it and quick.

From MEMRI:

Islamist Websites Hosted in Minnesota on How to Join Al-Qaeda, Form a Jihad Cell, and Select a Western Target – '[Is] Assassinating the American Ambassador... Difficult For Someone Who Has Already Crushed America in Her Own Home?'

On August 26, Islamist websites hosted in Minnesota [SiteGenie, LLC, Rochester, MN] posted an item titled "How to Join Al-Qaeda." It is not clear when the item was written; it was produced by the website Al-Thabitoun 'Ala Al-'Ahd, which is affiliated with Al-Qaeda in Egypt and is currently inactive.

The item calls on every Muslim to regard jihad as a personal duty and to take initiative to establish a jihad cell without waiting for recognition from Al-Qaeda. It goes on to elaborate on how to form and run the cell, how to raise funds, and how to select a target, "for example, assassinating the American ambassador," which, it states, "takes no more than a gun and a bullet."

The following are excerpts from the item:

"You feel that you want to carry a weapon, fight, and kill the occupiers, and that it is our duty to call for jihad as much as to call for prayer... All that is required is a firm personal decision to fulfill this obligation, and participation in jihad and the resistance...

"Do you really have to meet Osama bin Laden in person in order to become a jihad fighter? Do you have to be recognized by Al-Qaeda as one of its members to become a jihad fighter? If Al-Qaeda commanders should be killed, would the jihad be eliminated? What would you do if Al-Qaeda did not exist today? How is Osama bin Laden different from you? - [yet] he managed to establish the world jihad organization. Who provided training to Osama bin Laden and Abdallah 'Azzam when they went to Afghanistan to become the first Arab jihad fighters?

"The answers to these questions are the following: I don't have to meet Osama bin Laden to become a jihad fighter. Moreover, there is no need to meet even one jihad fighter to become one. Neither do I need recognition from Al-Qaeda...

"As the first step, imagine that Al-Qaeda does not exist and that you are interested [in waging] jihad - what would you do in this case?... If you know any young people - whether one, two, or more - in your area, mosque, or university who are as dedicated and enthusiastic about jihad as you are, come to an understanding with them, and together form a cell whose objective is to help Islam and only Islam...

"At first, your cell should have no more than five members, all absolutely trustworthy... The cell must have a commander and a shura council... The commander must clearly realize that he is Osama bin Laden to the cell members...

"Each cell should have a source of funding... When you have several members, you will [surely] find the funds for your cell... Then you should buy weapons, make plans, brainstorm, plot your plans, monitor your enemy's important objectives, and study its moves. Set a goal; for example, assassinating the American ambassador - is it so difficult? Is it [indeed] difficult for someone who has already crushed America in her own home?

"What is the difference between you and the hero of the New York attack, Muhammad Atta, who planned an action which even today shakes the world every time it is mentioned? Assassinating the ambassador takes no more than a gun and a bullet. One could disguise oneself as a peddler in order to tail [the target], which shouldn't cost a lot of money...

"The cells must maintain contact among themselves, but by no means in a direct or conventional way. The contact must be spiritual: What will unite you is the love of Islam and the motto "There is no God but Allah." Even if the contact between [your] cell and the rest is indirect, it will be close... You must meet once a month... You must not meet in the same place twice... Personal meetings with a small number of people [must take place] once a week...

"From the moment the cell is established, its members must be divided - into secret members, members who do not [act] openly and are not wanted by the authorities, and members who are wanted (who have been arrested in the past or on whom the intelligence apparatuses have a file)... The secret members must perform intelligence tasks, collect information, raise funds, recruit [new members], and assist in [actual operations]. Those who act in the open must perform the primary military operations, such as assassinations, firing at enemy facilities, etc.

"You must be aware that you have brothers everywhere, and that they are expecting the actions of you and your friends even if they don't know you in person or by name...

"Every jihad cell is a microcosm of the world jihad organization."

al-Qaeda is being beat down in Iraq, the one place they publicly declared would be the central battle against America, they are being killed and captured, but they are using the internet to recruit, train and create homegrown cells within America.

This is something people need to be aware of.

Who is commenting on your site? Who is claiming to be something but giving you no way to verify if they are who they say they are or if they are the web savvy al-Qaeda plants to spread information.

I will repeat what I have said before.

Whether you want to engage with "trolls" on your site or not, stupidity and misinformation cannot be allowed to go unanswered.

We are a nation at War.

People can deny it all they want,it doesn't make it any less true.


Tracked back by:
On Islamist Websites: How to Join Al-Qaeda, Form a from Take Our Country Back...






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John Warner is NOT running for re-election

Watching the presser with John Warner and he just announced that he will not be running after his term is up.

He will not run for re-election.

He thanked everyone who enabled him to have such a long career and after this session is over he will have served 5 terms.

His career concludes on January 6, 2009.

John Warner's webpage can be found here.

More from CNN:

Warner served in the Navy during World War II, enlisting at the age of 17, according to his Web site. He also was in the Korean War as a U.S. Marine. He worked in the Department of the Navy for five years during the Vietnam War and was secretary of the Navy from 1972 to 1974.

Warner was first elected to the Senate in 1978 and has been re-elected four times. In addition to the Armed Services Committee, he is on the Intelligence Committee, the Committee on the Environment and Public Works, and the Committee on Homeland Security and Government Affairs.

Take Our Country Back says, so long and farewell RHINO.



More later on this....






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Times Online Writer: Ramadi’s transformation is breathtaking

The transformation in Tameen, a district of Ramadi is but one example of what is happening across Iraq, one province at a time.

The police station in Tameen, a district of Ramadi, occupies a wreck of a building – its roof shattered by shells, its windows blown out, its walls pockmarked by shrapnel. That is not unusual in Iraq. What makes this station extraordinary is that a city in the heart of the infamous Sunni Triangle, a city that once led the antiAmerican insurgency, has named it after a US soldier – Captain Travis Patriquin.

The honour is well-deserved. Captain Patriquin played a little-known but crucial role in one of the few American success stories of the Iraq war.

He helped to convert Ramadi from one of Iraq’s deadliest cities into arguably the safest outside the semi-autonomous Kurdish north. This graveyard for hundreds of American soldiers, which a Marine Corps intelligence report wrote off as a lost cause just a year ago, is where the US military now takes visiting senators, and journalists such as myself, to show the progress it is making. Ramadi will be Exhibit A when General David Petraeus, the US commander in Iraq, appears before Congress in two weeks’ time to argue that the country as a whole should not be written off.

In Ramadi last weekend I did things unthinkable almost anywhere else in this violent country. I walked through the main souk without body armour, talking to ordinary Iraqis. Late one evening I strolled into the brightly lit Jamiah district of the city with Lieutenant-Colonel Roger Turner, the tobacco-chewing US marine in charge of central Ramadi, to buy kebabs from an outdoor restaurant – “It’s safer than London or New York,” Colonel Turner assured me.

I listened incredulously as Latif Obaid Ayadah, Ramadi’s Mayor, told me of his desire to build an airport and tourist resort in Ramadi and talked – only half in jest – of twinning his city with Belfast and Oklahoma City. “I want it to be a small slice of heaven,” he declared.

The whole article absolutely must be read but a few key excerpts struck me as the whole goal of the new strategy of what General Petraeus has put in place.

The transformation:

Ramadi’s transformation is breathtaking. Shortly before I arrived last November masked al-Qaeda fighters had brazenly marched through the city centre, pronouncing it the capital of a new Islamic caliphate. The US military was still having to fight its way into the city through a gauntlet of snipers, rocket-propelled grenades, suicide car bombs and improvised explosive devices (IEDs). Fifty US soldiers had been killed in the previous five months alone. I spent 24 hours huddled inside Eagles Nest, a tiny COP overlooking the derelict football stadium, listening to gunfire, explosions and the thump of mortars. The city was a ruin, with no water, electricity or functioning government. Those of its 400,000 terrified inhabitants who had not fled cowered indoors as fighting raged around them.

Today Ramadi is scarcely recognisable. Scores of shattered buildings testify to the fury of past battles, but those who fled the violence are now returning. Pedestrians, cars and motorbike rickshaws throng the streets. More than 700 shops and businesses have reopened. Restaurants stay open late into the evening. People sit outside smoking hookahs, listening to music, wearing shorts – practices that al-Qaeda banned. Women walk around with uncovered faces. Children wave at US Humvees. Eagles’ Nest, a heavily fortified warren of commandeered houses, is abandoned and the stadium hosts football matches.

Al-Qaeda and rebuilding:

“We have an Iraqi saying: ‘If you’re bitten by a snake you’re scared of the smallest insect’. We’re not going to let that snake back any more,” said Ali Sami, 39, another stallholder who recently returned home after fleeing to Baghdad. Ramadi has gone from war zone to building site. US soldiers have become the nation-builders so derided by Donald Rumsfeld, the former US Defence Secretary. They are training Ramadi’s 7,000 new policemen (a year ago it had 200) and helping the Iraqis to rebuild their broken city.

They have set up 12 district councils and a city council. They have created 19,000 day labour jobs, paying locals $7 (£3.47) an hour to clear rubble, remove acres of garbage, repair cratered roads, paint shop fronts and replace underground pipes destroyed by IEDs. They have restored electricity, water, rubbish collections and a rudimentary bus service. They are erecting 1,000 solar-powered street lamps. The hospital – commandeered by al-Qaeda – and the fire station are back up and running. Criminal courts will reopen next month. So will Ramadi’s ceramics factory, one of its few real employers. Gunfire has become a sound of celebration.

Victory:

The 6,000 US soldiers are now dubbed “friendly forces”, and most are bemused by their new civil role. “I want to fight al-Qaeda, but f*** it – this is victory,” said Corporal Patrick Marzillo from Chicago.

Americans are heroes not occupiers:

Iraqi Shias are also worried that the new US-trained police forces of Ramadi and Anbar province could eventually metamorphose into well-trained Sunni militias; the Sunni insurgency may be fading, but the Shia-Sunni civil war rages on.

But for now Ramadi’s citizens are enjoying their improbable peace, and remembering the American they call “Martyr Husham” – the brave and generous martyr.

Captain Patriquin, 32, a father of three young children, was killed by a roadside bomb days after I left Ramadi last winter. Sheikh Sittar wept when told the news. He and several tribal leaders attended his memorial service. Captain Patriquin “was an extraordinary man who played a very, very important role,” he told The Times.

He “showed Iraqis that Americans are real people and not an evil occupying force bent on destroying their land...He was a true hero who paid the ultimate sacrifice,” said Colonel Charlton.

Once considered a lost cause and now Tameen is a thriving district, building, working together, determined to never let al-Qaeda destroy them again and hailing our military as heroes.

They are heroes. They are doing a wonderful job and the surge is showing tremendous success and progress.

Good news from Iraq.


(NOTE: Instead of leaving you with the advertisements I usually have at the bottom of each post, I will leave you with one of the videos from Freedoms Watch) [30 second video.]



Gold Star Mother:




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Tony Snow Resigns, Dana Perino to Become Press Secretary

Tony Snow is due to make the announcement today that he is stepping down as Press Secretary and Dana Perino will be taking over the job on September 14th.

Snow has been battling colon cancer and has been in and out of the hospital. This had been talked about for the last couple of weeks, so it is no surprise and we wish him well in his battle.

Doctors later discovered cancer in Tony Snow's liver. He's had at least 8 Chemotherapy treatments.

President George W. Bush said in March: "It's a recurrence of the cancer that he thought that he had successfully dealt with in the past."

"His attitude is, one, that he is not going to let this whip him, and he's upbeat."

Tony Snow's mother died of colon cancer.

Snow has done a wonderful job as the public face of the White House but financial and medical considerations have been in the news for a while now.

Good luck to Dana Perino. Our thoughts will be with you Tony!!!

More from ABC.

The White House Press briefing.







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Washington and Oregon: E. Coli Causes Beef Recall

Just a heads up for those that haven't heard.

The Oregon Department of Human Services relayed an alert to consumers yesterday, 30 August, advising them to discard ground beef linked to Northwest E. coli O157:H7 infections after 8 people in Oregon and Washington have been confirmed as infected after eating it. Other American states may also be affected. The alert was issued earlier in the day by the US Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS).

The two organic products believed to be contaminated were sold in Northwest food stores during late July and early August.

The stores where the products were sold include: QFC, Fred Meyer, and Safeway stores located in Oregon, Washington, Alaska and Idaho. The natural product is thought to have been sold at Safeway stores in Oregon and Washington and maybe other places too. The meat was ground by Interstate Meat Dist., Inc. based in Clackamas, Oregon.

Senior epidemiologist at the Oregon Public Health Division's communicable disease section, Dr. William E. Keene said:

"If you have any low-fat hamburger in your freezer, check the label for the brand name and the SELL BY date. If it meets the description, be safe and throw it out."

The two ground beef products thought to be contaminated with E. coli O157:H7 are in 16 ounce black trays carrying the establishment code "Est 965" inside the USDA mark of inspection and they have a sell by date between 1st August and 11th August 2007.

The two products are:

* "Northwest Finest" brand Natural Ground Beef, 7 per cent fat. The label is red and black and shows a universal product code (UPC) of 7 52907 60012 7.
* "Northwest Finest" brand Organic Ground Beef, 10 per cent fat. The label is green and black and has no UPC code.

Keene said the first eight confirmed cases of E. coli O157:H7 were in six separate households, one in Oregon and five in Washington.(Source, Medical News Today)

Check your meet folks, better safe than sorry.






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Haditha Marine, Col. Jeffrey Chessani to Sue John Murtha

[Update] 9/28/07- Judge orders Murtha to testify in defamation case against him.

When John Murtha set off a firestorm by publicly convicting the Haditha Marines before they had even been tried, he was starting a chain of events that are continuing to snowball and one of those Marines is planning to sue.

Background:

First we showed a letter written to John Murtha from L/Cpl Justin Sharratt's father, a heartfelt letter about Murtha's reprehensible conduct regarding those Marines.

After we found out that all charges had been dropped against L/Cpl Justin Sharratt, we asked if Murtha was going to apologize and we provided detailed information, webform contact to John Murtha, phone numbers, his office location and directions on how to get to his offices, for those of you that wanted to see him apoligize to have your voices heard.

Then we saw the Haditha investigators recommending that all charges be dropped for the Haditha Marines.

Now we have Haditha Marine Col. Jeffrey Chessani plans on hauling Pennsylvania Democratic Congressman John Murtha, into court, suing him for libel, one of his lawyers told NewsMax.com.

Brian Rooney, one of the attorneys at Michigan's Thomas More Law Center representing Lt. Col. Jeffrey Chessani and a former Marine captain himself told NewsMax.com that his client, who is alleged to have failed to fully investigate the killing of 24 Iraqis in Haditha November, 2005 and not reporting an alleged Law of War violation, may follow the example of another Haditha Marine, SSgt. Frank Wuterich who is suing Murtha for libel.

Murtha set off a media firestorm last year when even before the matter had been fully investigated he charged members of Kilo Company, 3rd Bn, 1st Marine Regiment had gone on a rampage and slaughtered 24 Iraqi civilians in cold blood to avenge the killing of a member of their unit in an IED explosion. He also said that the incident occurred in the absence of any firefight, although it occurred as part of a day-long battle with insurgent ambushers that wounded 11 Marines.

Rooney told NewsMax.Com that his group that, if as they expect, Chessani is cleared just as one officer, Capt. Randy Stone and two enlisted men have either been exonerated of had a hearing officer recommend exoneration they will seek to hold Murtha accountable.

According to Brian Rooney , SSgt. Frank Wuterich -- one of the other defendants in the investigation now awaiting a hearing on murder charges -- is already suing Murtha for those libelous comments. He insists that Murtha should be held accountable for taking the word of Iraqi insurgents and calling the Marines "cold-blooded murderers."

"Staff Sergeant Wuterich's attorneys are suing Congressman Murtha for liable for saying that the Marines were cold-blooded murderers, and that suit's still ongoing," Rooney said.

"We're not suing Murtha right now," Rooney added. "I know that Frank Wuterich's attorney are suing him for libel, and we will explore that option once our criminal case has been concluded. We hope to show that Murtha is guilty of libel against our client because when he accused the unit's officers of covering up the incident he could only have been referring to Lt. Col. Chessani.

John Murtha, a former Marine himself, should be ashamed of himself for letting his political posturing damage these Marines reputations without even a benefit of a trial or investigation.

He should be sued. He should be forced to step down for taking advantage of his political standing to libel these young men and do harm to them and their families.

John Murtha is a disgrace to every Marine alive today and should be held accountable for his careless actions and words.

Hot Air asks if any Democratic pundits will step up and criticize Murtha for rushing to judgment, then he looks and nope, he does not find any willing to do so, so he asks another question:

But nope, no criticism of Murtha. Don’t you people support the troops in any tangible way, ever?

I hope all of these marines sue John Murtha and furthermore, I hope that they win and the judgments take every penny this man has.

Murtha is beyond contempt.







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Petraeus Speaks to The Australian: Surge is Working

In a face to face interview with The Australian, General Petraeus described some of the dramatic changes in Iraq since the surge began.

They include but are not limited to:

**Dramatic reduction of sectarian killings.
**Drop in the number of roadside bombings.
**Killing or capturing of al-Qaeda fighters, causing the terrorist group to lose influence with local Sunnis.
**75 per cent reduction in religious and ethnic killings since last year.
**Doubling in the seizure of insurgents' weapons caches between January and August.
**US forces are pursuers instead of defenders.
**Religious-related deaths would be down to a quarter of what they were last December by the end of August.


Dr. Brendan Nelson, the Australian Defense Minister had this to say:

Dr Nelson, who went to Afghanistan and Iraq this week and is now in Washington, said General Petraeus had presented a detailed presentation on security inside the country.

"We finished our meeting with a very clear picture of his thinking of the assessment of the security situation, not just in Baghdad but also in the south and the work being done by us and the British," he said.

"No one should underestimate the importance to what is happening in Iraq of our contribution and the significance of it to the Americans and the Iraqis themselves.

"We will wait until we see the President's response to the report and we will shape our forward planning around that response.

"I think it is fair to say that we will continue to look for increased opportunities for training."

The Defence Minister said Australian forces were highly regarded as trainers and whenever he asked the Iraqis to nominate what they wanted they "always said training".

"Our support for continuing support and involvement in Iraq is a minority position but we have a moral responsibility to these people to see this job through," Dr Nelson said.

Despite the "leaked" report from the GAO which works for Congress, meant to preempt the report, due in September by General Petraeus, the facts and figures on the ground are evidence of the tremendous efforts and abilities of our military and coalition forces and the success they are all seeing.

Fox News' Special Report showed White House spokesman Tony Snow saying, "The standard that is set by the legislation is to assess whether a benchmark has been met. Well, look, it's no secret that many of the benchmarks have not been met. What is significant is that there is progress towards a great number of them." The Washington Post notes Pentagon spokesman Geoff Morrell said yesterday that the Defense Department has "provided the GAO with information which we believe will lead them to conclude that a few of the benchmark grades should be upgraded from 'not met' to 'met,'" but "declined to specify which grades he was citing." Although the State Department "proposed some changes" to the report, "it did not dispute the basic conclusions," according to an Administration official. The Washington Times, however, says both "the Pentagon and State Department provided detailed and lengthy objections to the findings."

White House Believes It's Gaining Ground Echoing a story in yesterday's New York Times, the Washington Times reports this morning the White House "believes it has made significant progress over the past month in swaying public and political opinion toward supporting a continued US military effort in Iraq, one of President Bush's closest advisers said in an interview." That adviser is Ed Gillespie, counselor to the President, who told the Times, "It is clear that the surge is producing significant results. And that does not seem to be an object of controversy really, significant controversy, anymore."

In what could be an indication that the momentum may be shifting away from the Democrats, the Washington Post reports this morning that Sen. Harry Reid, in an apparent shift, said yesterday "he is now willing to compromise with Republicans to find ways to limit troop deployments in Iraq." Reid "acknowledged that his previous firm demand for a spring withdrawal deadline had become an obstacle for a small but growing number of Republicans who have said they want to end the war but have been unwilling to set a timeline." Said Reid, "I don't think we have to think that our way is the only way. ... I'm not saying, 'Republicans, do what we want to do.' Just give me something that you think you would like to do, that accomplishes some or all of what I want to do."

Petraeus: White House Not Writing Report On its website, The Hill reports Gen. Petraeus "assured lawmakers this week that the administration is not involved in the writing of his report, according to a lawmaker who has recently returned from the region." Democratic Rep. Kendrick Meek "told reporters Thursday that Petraeus said he and US Ambassador to Iraq Ryan Crocker had briefed the administration on the situation in Iraq, but added that 'as far as [Petraeus] is concerned...he is writing his recommendations of that report and testimony.'"

There is no doubt that after the September report the Democrats will still try to force retreat, but finally the administration has understood that bringing the truth to the American public is the only way to get it seen because the opposition certainly won't bring the whole truth, just the portions they wish to be seen.

Since they have launched this new media strategy, the American public has responded. Four our four of the last polls done, by different organizations have shown American support for the war inching up, each poll showing a little more support than the last.

The message is finally getting out.

Another factor that will affect this debate are the voices that have always stayed quiet, speaking up now and taking a stand.

Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans, via, Vets For Freedom. They have launched a Ten Weeks to Testimony Campaign (you can see what they have been doing each week for the last eight right here)

Week One.
Week Two. Call to Action.
Week Three. Take The Lead, State-by-State.
Week Four. Sign up Today to Show up on September 17/18.
Week Five. Get Active in Your State!
Week Six. Cost of Defeat" Call-in Campaign.

You can also see my interview with the Executive Director of Vets For Freedom, Pete Hegseth right here as well as key portions of the interview, in the Washington Times, right here.

Move America Forward, along with Vets For Freedom, Gathering of Eagles, Military Order of the Purple Hearts and many other organizations are also joined together where they will be traveling across the country, starting at Carson City at Harry "Baghdad" Reid's office, 27 stops along the way with rallies and ending up on the Capitol to have their voices heard by our politicians.

(NOTE: On September 5th, 2007, my interview with the Chairman of Move America Forward, Melanie Morgan will be published, here at Wake up America and key portions will be in the newspaper and I will provide the URL's at that time.)

Freedoms Watch has also started a $15 Million Dollar campaign that has television commercials running across the world, of wounded Iraq veterans, gold star mother, a widow who lost her husband in Iraq, all telling America why victory in Iraq is important. (Watch Videos)

MSNBC has refused to let these voices be heard on their network. They have refused them airtime.

If the Democratically controlled Senate and Congress think that they are going to be able to force withdrawal while our military is seeing progress and success... they are going to have a fight on their hands and it isn't going to be with the administration, it is going to be with the Iraq and Afghanistan veterans, their families and their supporters.








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Lawmakers "Slimed" In the Greenzone, with their own words

As congressmen visited Iraq it seems someone with a sense of humor distributed thumbnail biographies of each lawmaker to those they were going to be meeting with which included some of their past statements on the war and where they stood.

The sheets of paper seemed to be everywhere the lawmakers went in the Green Zone, distributed to Iraqi officials, U.S. officials and uniformed military of no particular rank. So when Rep. James P. Moran Jr. (D-Va.) asked a soldier last weekend just what he was holding, the congressman was taken aback to find out.

In the soldier's hand was a thumbnail biography, distributed before each of the congressmen's meetings in Baghdad, which let meeting participants such as that soldier know where each of the lawmakers stands on the war. "Moran on Iraq policy," read one section, going on to cite some the congressman's most incendiary statements, such as, "This has been the worst foreign policy fiasco in American history."

Now the congressmen are whining about being "slimed" in the greenzone.

They said it, but they don't like that the participants of the meetings know they said it?

Two words. Tough and typical.

When our politicians make comments about Iraq, the war effort or our soldiers, they better understand that our troops, military officers and Iraqi officials are going to know exactly what they said, especially in this day and age of technology.

The bio of Rep. Ellen O. Tauscher (D-Calif.) -- "TAU (rhymes with 'now')-sher," the bio helpfully relates -- was no less pointed, even if she once supported the war and has taken heat from liberal Bay Area constituents who remain wary of her position. "Our forces are caught in the middle of an escalating sectarian conflict in Iraq, with no end in sight," the bio quotes.

"This is beyond parsing. This is being slimed in the Green Zone," Tauscher said of her bio

I would love to see Pelosi's "bio" and Harry "Baghdad" Reid's to be honest, and if any of those lovely troops that email me has one....pretty please?

Seriously, these politicians have been told time and again that there is a way to disagree with the war without making deliberate public statements that will harm our troops morale, they ignore that so they can get the latest head line and their next talking point and maybe win a vote or two for their next election.

Politics to them trump all and they certainly, in my opinion, got exactly what they deserved being "slimed.

Don Surber head lines this perfectly, gave me my first laugh of the morning:

Troops to surrender Democrats: Up yours.

Head over to the next post where we will show you what the Democrats and any Republican defeatist will be facing in September.


(NOTE: Instead of leaving you with the advertisements I usually have at the bottom of each post, I will leave you with one of the videos from Freedoms Watch) [30 second video.]



Another Wounded Veteran speaks about anger at Congress and Victory:



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Family that lost two sons in Iraq speaks out and says "The Nation is at war"

A quickie because it has been a hectic day.

ABC has a report from Jeff Hubbard, the retired California police officer who lost two sons in Iraq.

Despite his family's devastating loss, Hubbard told reporters that his support for the country's campaign to combat global terror is undiminished. "We just want people to support the nation in what it's doing to make the world a better place," he said.

Few families can understand the emotional toll of war as well as the Hubbard family of Clovis, Calif. Three of Jeff and Peggy Hubbard's sons have served in Iraq. Two of them died there. Their son U.S. Army Spc. Jason Hubbard was called home from duty after Nathan's death.

"[Nathan's] overall personality was that people gravitated to him because he had an upbeat personality all the time," said Jason, who joined his father at the news conference. "He had a very laid-back, easy view of life."

Nathan and Jason were members of the same platoon in Iraq, and Jason told reporters they worked together "day in and day out."

On the day of the crash, the brothers' platoon had been separated and each group was traveling to and from its mission in separate helicopters.

While Jason's helicopter took off safely, Nathan's wasn't as lucky.

"Thirty seconds into the flight some of my guys noticed that there appeared to be a helicopter on the ground," said Jason. "I knew Nathan was in there."

"In one swift moment, half of my platoon was killed," said Jason, who said he remembers seeing his brother's body getting carried from the aircraft. "I have pictures from Iraq that I look at and every picture you look at there are 10 of us in it and five or six of them are dead. It's hard. It's extremely hard."

Marine Lance Cpl. Jared Hubbard was killed in Ramadi, Iraq, in 2004 while working as a part of a two-man sniper team.

The Fresno Bee has the transcript of an interview with the Hubbard family.

Despite the loss this family has suffered they are true patriots that wants what is best for this country.

Nathan's body return home weds to his parents.

More from Forbes.

"The nation's at war," said Jeff Hubbard, the soldier's father, a retired police officer. "We just want people to support the nation and what it's trying to get accomplished by making the world a better place."

Our sympathy goes out to them.


Tracked back by:
Traitor Against Surrender from Take Our Country Back....






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Fred Thompson To Announce His run for presidency on September 6th, 2007

Finally, next Thursday, September 6, 2007, Fred Thompson will formally announce his candidacy for President in the 2008 elections.

His announcement will run, via webcast, on www.imwithfred.com which will kick off a capmpaign tour through Iowa, New Hampshire and South Carolina.

From the I'm With Fred, newsroom release, August 30, 2007:

For Immediate Release

Thompson to Announce Run for President with Online Video Followed by Three-State Campaign Tour

McLean, VA – On September 6, 2007, Fred Thompson will be announcing his intention to run for President of the United States with a webcast available to millions at www.imwithfred.com. The launch of the video will be followed by a five-day campaign tour through Iowa, New Hampshire and South Carolina.

“I believe that there are millions of Americans who know that our security and prosperity are at risk if we don’t address the challenges of our time; the global threat of terrorism; taxes and spending that will bankrupt future generations, and a government that can’t seem to get the most basic responsibilities right for its citizens,” stated Fred Thompson.

“The response that we’ve received makes me confident that we have an opportunity to change politics in Washington and across the country, and take on these challenges the way every generation of Americans has faced the challenges of their time – with unity, hard work and a belief that we will come out on the winning side,” continued Thompson.

“We enter this campaign in a strong position,” said committee manager Bill Lacy. “Fred is consistently near the top in the polls, and conservatives across the country have put together the closest thing to a draft in recent presidential campaign history in an effort to bring about this day. The next few weeks will only serve to build upon those efforts, with house parties nationwide on the 6th, and visits to the early primary states of Iowa, New Hampshire and South Carolina, quickly followed by stops in Florida and a homecoming in Lawrenceburg, TN on the 15th.”

“By announcing via webcast, Fred is able to take his consistently mainstream conservative message directly to the voters, who are already responding to that message with a strong upwelling of grassroots support. The webcast and the following campaign tour will play to Fred’s strengths, a consistent record of conservatism, his ability to clearly spread his message, and his ability to work with and connect with Americans from all walks of life,” said Lacy.

The committee will file our formal paperwork with the Federal Elections Commission within 15 days, the time allowed by law after Fred decided to run. Additionally, we will begin to consider candidate based events following Fred’s broadcast on September 6, 2007.

Campaign tour cities and dates are listed below. Exact event locations will be released in the coming days.

Thursday, September 6

Afternoon Des Moines, IA

Evening Council Bluffs, IA

Friday, September 7

Morning Sioux City, IA

Evening Mason City, IA

Saturday, September 8

Morning Cedar Rapids, IA

Afternoon Davenport, IA

Evening Portsmouth, NH

Sunday, September 9

Afternoon Manchester, NH

Evening Nashua, NH

Monday, September 10

Morning Charleston, SC

Afternoon Columbia, SC

Here is Fred Thompson's full voting record.

Bloomberg brings us some comments about Fred's voting record:

Voting Record

Thompson, who served eight years as a Tennessee senator before deciding not to seek re-election in 2002, has been touting his conservative credentials. He says he's ``unabashedly'' against allowing abortion and is a strong supporter of the Second Amendment right to bear arms.

``You look at my voting record on things like taxes, regulations, national security, abortion-related issues and guns,'' Thompson, 65, said in the interview. ``By any measure, I've got a conservative voting record and I think those are the principles our country was founded and that's what makes for a better nation.''

Thompson has already criticized Republican frontrunner Giuliani's stance on gun control, citing legal efforts Giuliani attempted to target gunmakers.

He also takes a hard-line stance against illegal immigration and was highly critical of the failed effort in Congress to overhaul the law. He links it to national security.

Border Security

``We can't or won't stop illegal immigrants from coming across our borders when in the last few years we've picked up thousands of people from terror-related states alone,'' he said in an Aug. 25 speech before the Midwest Republican Leadership Conference in Indianapolis. ``We only catch one out of three in the era of the suitcase bomb, where a small amount of material could wreak havoc on this country.''

His pending candidacy has hurt John McCain by knocking the Arizona senator out of the top three in most national polls.

Captain's Quarters has his interview transcript with Fred Thompson up at his site.


We have brought quite a bit of Fred Thompson's words to you here at Wake up America.

Fred Thompson: The More I see, The More I like this Guy.

Fred Thompson Responds to Michael Moore.

Fred Thompson Smacks Baghdad Reid Around.

Fred Thompson and CAIR.

Fred Thompson and Charm and Appeal.

Fred Thompson: Take that, Fairness Doctrine.

Is Fred Thompson the Answer?

Fred Thompson Illegal Immigration Ruling.

Fred on the Hazelton Decision Part #2.

Fred Thompson on Guns, Iraq and Mitt Romney on Sanctuary Cities.

More from The Politico.

Lots of reading material for you to look at and make your own decision on whether you think Fred is right for America.

Enjoy!!!






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Chemical Weapons/Nerve Gas Scare at the UN

The United Nations weapons inspectors found 6 to 8 vials of of nerve gas, phosegene, as they were cleaning out offices at the UN, according to ABC.

Federal authorities said the office, in a U.N. building near headquarters, was being evacuated and the White House had been notified at 10 a.m.

New York police and fire officials said federal authorities had not notified them of any problem at the U.N. building, as of 11 a.m.

A U.N. spokesperson said a statement would be issued shortly.

Authorities said the phosgene was believed to have been discovered in Iraq and manufactured prior to 1991.

Former U.N. weapons inspectors told ABCNews.com that vials of phosgene had also been used by inspectors in Iraq to help calibrate air sampling instruments.

The former inspectors said the remaining vials were supposed to have been destroyed.

"If it is properly sealed, it should not pose much of a threat unless it is dropped," said former New York City emergency services director Jerry Hauer, an ABC News consultant.

"They need to get it out of there and put it in a safe canister," Hauer said. "It shows immense stupidity to have that kind of thing sitting around as a souvenir."

Phosgene is: (Found at the CDC website)

What phosgene is

* Phosgene is a major industrial chemical used to make plastics and pesticides.

* At room temperature (70°F), phosgene is a poisonous gas.

* With cooling and pressure, phosgene gas can be converted into a liquid so that it can be shipped and stored. When liquid phosgene is released, it quickly turns into a gas that stays close to the ground and spreads rapidly.

* Phosgene gas may appear colorless or as a white to pale yellow cloud. At low concentrations, it has a pleasant odor of newly mown hay or green corn, but its odor may not be noticed by all people exposed. At high concentrations, the odor may be strong and unpleasant.

* Phosgene itself is nonflammable (not easily ignited and burned).

* Phosgene is also known by its military designation, “CG.”

Where phosgene is found and how it is used

* Phosgene was used extensively during World War I as a choking (pulmonary) agent. Among the chemicals used in the war, phosgene was responsible for the large majority of deaths.

* Phosgene is not found naturally in the environment.

* Phosgene is used in industry to produce many other chemicals such as pesticides.

* Phosgene can be formed when chlorinated hydrocarbon compounds are exposed to high temperatures. Chlorinated hydrocarbon compounds are substances sometimes used or created in industry that contain the elements chlorine, hydrogen, and carbon.

* The vapors of chlorinated solvents exposed to high temperatures have been known to produce phosgene. Chlorinated solvents are chlorine-containing chemicals that are typically used in industrial processes to dissolve or clean other materials, such as in paint stripping, metal cleaning, and dry cleaning.

* Phosgene gas is heavier than air, so it would be more likely found in low-lying areas.


How people are exposed to phosgene

* People's risk for exposure depends on how close they are to the place where the phosgene was released.

* If phosgene gas is released into the air, people may be exposed through skin contact or eye contact. They may also be exposed by breathing air that contains phosgene.

* If phosgene liquid is released into water, people may be exposed by touching or drinking water that contains phosgene.

* If phosgene liquid comes into contact with food, people may be exposed by eating the contaminated food.

How phosgene works

* Poisoning caused by phosgene depends on the amount of phosgene to which a person is exposed, the route of exposure, and the length of time that a person is exposed.

* Phosgene gas and liquid are irritants that can damage the skin, eyes, nose, throat, and lungs.

More from the Blotter.

If this was saved as a "souvenir", then someone has a very sick sense of what a souvenir should be.

Question: Aren't there controls in place at the UN to assure that Chemical weapons and nerve gases or any dangerous substances, that have been confiscated has been disposed of properly?

Debbie at Right Truth has a good piece up about this and a roundup of reactions.

Also take a good look at the link below, Amy from Bottom Line up Front speaks about it.


Tracked back by:
New Proof Emerges That Saddam Had No WMD Ambitions from Bottom Line Up Front...



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Terrorism Policies Split Democrats as The White House Gains Confidence

A tale of two papers today, one story in Wapo shows that when it comes to terrorism the Democrats are being split and infighting.

...conservative Democrats and some party leaders continue to worry that taking on those issues would expose them to Republican charges that they are weak on terrorism. And advocates of a strong push on the terrorism issues are increasingly skeptical that they can prevail.

"I don't think it's that we're reluctant to take on Bush," said Rep. Alcee L. Hastings (Fla.), a senior member of the House intelligence committee. "I think it's we are reluctant to take on each other. . . . If I can fast-forward to September, October, November, December and see where we'll be, we'll be nowhere."

Said Rep. James P. Moran Jr. (Va.): "I would've thought the administration would have been bereft of credibility by now, but they seem to be able to get what they want from this Congress."

The terrorism issue came to a head early this month in an explosive final closed-door House Democratic Caucus meeting before the August recess. Reps. Hastings, Moran, Melvin Watt (N.C.), John F. Tierney (Mass.) and Jerrold Nadler (N.Y.) pleaded with party leaders not to bring to a vote a White House bill extending the administration's authority to listen in on electronic communications from abroad without a warrant.

Conservative Democrats, including Rep. Allen Boyd (Fla.), argued just as vociferously that Democrats dare not leave on vacation without passing the White House bill.

Read the rest...

The Democrats, as a party, have no "plan" to deal with terrorism, their main goal is to hinder any efforts by the President to deal with terrorism...that is their whole plan on terrorism. Luckily the conservative Democrats or the Blue Dogs, understand how the party is seen which is weak on National Security and they do not intend to foster that opinion any more.

Next we see in the NYT that the momentum is turning and the only ones incapable of see this is Harry Reid, Nancy Pelosi and a handful of Democrats that haven't just returned from Iraq after seeing the progress that is being made.

WASHINGTON, Aug. 29 — The White House is growing more confident that it can beat back efforts by Congressional Democrats to shift course in Iraq, a significant turnabout from two months ago, when a string of Republican defections had administration officials worried that President Bush’s troop buildup was in serious danger on Capitol Hill.

Current and former administration officials say they realize that the September battle over the troop buildup will be difficult. But they also say the president’s hand is stronger now than it was in early July, when Republican senators like Pete V. Domenici of New Mexico and Richard G. Lugar of Indiana publicly called for a change of course.

“There is a tonal shift, and that is important, but there is always the chance that it could be ephemeral, in the same way that the panic of early July proved ephemeral,” said Peter D. Feaver, who helped draft the buildup strategy as an official with the National Security Council but recently returned to his post as a political science professor at Duke University. “I don’t detect any triumphalism in the White House.”

A senior administration official, speaking on condition of anonymity to avoid upstaging the president, said there was “a sense the dynamic has changed.” But the official was also cautious, adding: “I don’t want to portray overconfidence. This is a very important debate, and September is going to be a very important month.”

[...]

At least one nonpartisan analyst, Charlie Cook, the editor of The Cook Political Report, an independent newsletter, says the pendulum appears to be swinging — even though the war remains hugely unpopular and Republican lawmakers are under great pressure at home to end it.

“It’s a momentum situation,” he said. “The momentum back in June and early July was really running hard against the war, and it was starting to snowball. But that snowballing stopped, and it has probably kind of reversed itself somewhat.”

The fact is with the good news that has reluctantly been reported from Iraq, the Democratic politicians that have returned stating that the surge needs to continue, the political progress that is finally starting to be seen, the stubborn insistence of the Democrats in Congress and the Senate to try to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory by letting their far left liberal base dictate their actions, will only take their 14% approval rating and send it falling down even more.

I said the other day that this August recess has to have been the worst vacation they have ever taken because the whole time they have been at recess, their own politicians, starting with Keith Ellison and Jerry McNerney, then even Dick Durbin very reluctantly said their had been progress from the surge, then Brian Baird, one of the most staunch of war critics from day one completely did a 180...the news for the "withdraw now" portion of Congress could not have been worse.

Jeef Jacoby from the Boston Globe has an article out that describes what is happening right now and how we are getting Good News, but it is not good news for the Democrats because they have so heavily invested themselves in defeat and failure that any good news from Iraq is bad news from them.

For most Americans, positive developments in Iraq are very welcome. But good news is bad news for the Democratic left, where opposition to the war has become an emotional investment in defeat. House majority whip Jim Clyburn of South Carolina was asked by the Washington Post what Democrats would think if Petraeus reports next month that the war is going well. "That would be a real big problem for us," Clyburn candidly replied.

Read the entire article, much of it has been said here at Wake up America for the past two months.

The worst thing that can happen to the Democrats as a party os for us to be successful and continue to see progress in Iraq.

How sad is that that any party or any Americans would put themselves in that kind of position?

Pitiful.





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Iraq: Leaked GAO Report vs Initial Benchmark Assessment Report: UPDATED-Pentagon Disputes Report

Flash back to July here:
(Click to Enlarge)

The handy dandy graph above shows 8 areas of satisfactory progress, 7 areas of unsatisfactory progress, mixed on 2 areas and 2 areas which it says it is too early to determine.

That was July's Initial Benchmark Assessment Report.

Fast forward to today, it seems that Congress has once again leaked information, this time to Wapo, from a report issued by GAO, and agency that by their own words, "works for Congress", a Democratically controlled congress at the moment, and this leaked report states that only three of the benchmarks have been met.

Once again, we have Congress leaking a report to counter the news that their own politicians returning from Iraq are telling the American people.

So, the question ends up being, do we listen to the commanders on the ground? Do we listen to the multitude of people, mostly Democratic politicians that are returning from Iraq saying their is real progress? Do we listen to the troops in what they are telling us about conditions on the ground?

Or do we listen to a report that no one has access to and we only have Wapo's word on what it says because it hasn't been officially released yet, from an Agency that works for Congress?

The left side of the blogosphere and news organizations are jumping all over this story, but where is the GAO report?

No one has access to it to see what it really says, just Wapo's interpretation of the report.

Most striking is what everyone is ignoring about this Wapo article:

The strikingly negative GAO draft, which will be delivered to Congress in final form on Tuesday, comes as the White House prepares to deliver its own new benchmark report in the second week of September, along with congressional testimony from Army Gen. David H. Petraeus, the top U.S. commander in Iraq, and Ambassador Ryan C. Crocker. They are expected to describe significant security improvements and offer at least some promise for political reconciliation in Iraq.

[...]

A GAO spokesman declined to comment on the report before it is released. The 69-page draft, a copy of which was obtained by The Washington Post, is still undergoing review at the Defense Department, which may ask that parts of it be classified....

The part that is bolded.

This report was leaked preemptively to try to counter the good news militarily and politically coming from Iraq, and I haven't seen anyone asking the serious question about who leaked a report that the Defense Department has not had time to strike anything that may be classified, to a newspaper?

Once again, the big story is being glossed over.

Political posturing and deliberately trying to preempt the report General Petraeus is to give, trying to counter the news the American people are seeing showing progress, trumps our national security for whoever leaked the report.

Funny how the big story of the day is a report no one has access to, leaked to a newspaper before classified material could be removed and written by an agency that works for Congress.

Sorry folks, but I think I will wait for this report to be released in full and until General Petraeus, the man in charge on the ground in Iraq has made his reports before making those types of determinations.

Then again, those that this report was aimed at, certainly jumped on it fast wiithout asking any of the above questions.

[Update] As predicted the Pentagon disputes the report, once again, leaked information from a report that isn't factually finished, isn't really news at all, except to those trying to use it for a political purpose.






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MoveOn Attacks Brian Baird For Telling the Truth

[Update below]

Once again proving that the truth does not matter to groups like MoveOn Org, they are now releasing ads that will attack a liberal Democrat, that was against the Iraq war from day one, against it the last 4 years, against the surge, but after coming back from Iraq changed his position because he say progress is being seen.

He was verbally attacked at his own hometown meetings for telling the truth as he saw it and now MoveOn.org is launching an ad against Brian Baird and calling him immoral.

For telling the truth? For saying what he witnessed? Yes Sireeeeee, thats exactly what they want to punish him for.

Being honest.

(The Politico) MoveOn.org has its latest target: Rep. Brian Baird (D-Wash.), who announced last week that he supported the troop surge after a recent trip to Iraq.

Now MoveOn.org has launched a television advertisement against the 5-term congressman, calling his position “immoral” and urging him to support a withdrawal of troops. The ad will be airing on cable in the Vancouver, Washington media market.

Baird wrote an op-ed in the Seattle Times that the troops “deserve our continued support and more time to succeed.” In 2003, Baird voted against the Iraq war and, more recently, joined his party in voting against the surge in a nonbinding resolution.

The anti-war left proves once again they do not care about the truth or honesty, all they care about is that they are told what they want to hear, whether it is true or not.

MoveOn is calling the move a “flip-flop” and says it goes against the views of his constituents.

The ad does not make specific reference to Baird’s conversion. Instead, it features a soldier who served in Iraq talking about the amount of resistance troops encountered and at the end asks viewers to tell Baird to bring the troops home.

The soldier in the ad served in Iraq in 2003 and 2004 and describes a scene from that time, long before the current troop increase that Baird has cited as the reason for military progress.

Baird voted against the war in 2003 and had opposed it until last month. Republicans have been quick to key on his remarks as evidence of progress in Iraq.

MoveOn disagrees, calling the war “unwinnable.”

In case MoveOn isn't aware, we live in a Republic, where his constituents vote in an elections and then he does what he feels is right, moral and honest, then if they do not like what he has done, they vote him out in the next election.

He has been one of the most vocal, consistent politicians that never changed his mind when the polls changed and only changed his mind when he saw for himself that progress was being made.

Thank you MoveOn for proving everything we have ever said about the far left liberals... you don't want an honest politician, you want a robot that will do as you say regardless of the truth.

Now everyone can see it.

Additional note... remember from the last post that MoveOn is one of the organizatons that George Soros contributed $2.5 million to.

The December 1, 2003, USA Today quoted Soros's worth at "about $7 billion," of which Soros had pledged "$15.5 million to anti-Bush, anti-conservative groups ... giving $10 million to Americans Coming Together, $2.5 million to MoveOn.org, and $3 million to the Center for American Progress."

Hatred for George Bush trumps and success and progress we are making. Trumps victory as far as Soros and MoveOn are concerned.

[Update] The Van Der Galiën Gazette has an incredible article up that deserves careful reading.

(NOTE: Instead of leaving you with the advertisements I usually have at the bottom of each post, I will leave you with one of the videos from Freedoms Watch) [30 second video.]



Gold Star Mother:




Tracked back by:
The Nice Award from Right Truth...

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Something Smells In North Korea Deal with U.S.

The YonHap News Agency reports that in order to get removed from the terror list, North Korea must denuclearize.

WASHINGTON, Aug. 29 (Yonhap) -- The United States will talk to North Korea next week about terms for removing it from the list of terrorism-sponsoring nations, a key demand made by Pyongyang in their negotiations toward denuclearization and diplomatic normalization, the top U.S. nuclear envoy said Wednesday.

Christopher Hill, assistant secretary of state, would not give any time frame on when North Korea might be delisted. But he said he and his North Korean counterpart would discuss what Pyongyang needs to do and how far North Korea's denuclearization should progress to meet the criteria for removal.

Yet Wapo reports that the U.S. "hints" about flexibility on that key aspect of the agreements.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. pointman on North Korea on Wednesday left open the possibility Pyongyang could be removed from the U.S. list of state sponsors of terrorism before it completely gives up its nuclear programs.

U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Chris Hill was speaking ahead of weekend talks with North Korean officials in Geneva that are expected to focus on how North Korea will carry out its commitments to abandon all its nuclear programs.

So, whats the story? Just because the U.S. Pointman left a possibility open to reporters, does this mean that we would bend and accept anything less than complete denuclearization?

There will be top level talks in October between the U.S. and North Korea, but U.S. and North Korean representatives will also be meeting in Geneva on September 1-2.

North Korea agreed with the U.S., South Korea, Russia, China and Japan on Feb. 13 to close its reactor at Yongbyon, which produced weapons-grade plutonium, in return for energy aid.

Envoys for the six countries are trying to agree on terms for disabling all of communist North Korea's nuclear-arms programs. Five working groups were established earlier this year to consider issues of denuclearization, energy assistance, northeast Asia security, North Korea-U.S. links and North Korea- Japan ties. (Source)

Hill said the administration hopes that the two major steps in the next phase of the process—a full declaration of all nuclear assets by North Korea and their verified disablement—can be finished by the end of this year, with final issues to be tackled in 2008. "We have a basis for moving forward," he said repeatedly, in carefully chosen phrasing.

So what is the deal with Wapo reporting with words like "hints" or is that just their interpretation of what was being said?

This definitely warrants watching closely...







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