Flight Pundit

Steven Taylor has a great post talking about the left/right debate.
He quotes Barbara O’Brien who wrote this “Blogging America: Political Discourse in a Digital Nation”

Steven had a positive review on her book (above) then seen her blog posts (Or, Freepers are the new barbarians.)
Steven must not be a rightie because he has a very civil and logical comment with real backing to his points.

I think that we all tend to get to isolated in our own little ideological worlds, especially in the current world of niche media. We all spend too much time reading columnists and blogs that agree with us, listening to radio that agrees with us and watching cable news shows that agree with us. As such, we find our own view reinforced, while the other side seems more and more foreign (and wrong). Perhaps the we should all take a trip on the other side of the aisle more frequently and try to view our own positions through alternative lenses. At a minimum, one will find that one is better able to defend one’s own positions if one knows how the other side will attack. And beyond that, it might actually cause us to actually think more deeply about our own views. Such a concept, yes?

The blogosphere needs more discourse like this.

We all need to become friends in this world. But then again I just might be ignorant.

Can’t we just all get along…

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I will be adding these to a permanent place on the side banner. Please support the families of our forces.
I posted on this topic early here

Write a letter today to your elected leaders and tell them to fix the (lack of) support we provide to the families left behind. Add these banners to your side site so people know that the government is not providing as much support as it should to the families left behind. Like Bill writes in his post:

Republicans: Help me because it’s the right thing to do.
Democrats: Help me because it will make going to war more expensive…

God Speed.

Go read The Quonset Hut. The Sgt Mgr has additional sites that provide support to the families.
The Sites below all provide support to troops during deployment and to the families during deployments and when we lose one of ours.

For additional information on these charity’s

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Driving home from work tonight I was listening to Gunny Bob on 850 KOA. The topic was the Patriot Act and if it should be allowed to expire. First I was to say that I would hate bob’s job where he has to suffer ignorance. And there are a lot of people out there that are ignorant. That does not mean that they are stupid but they do not know what they are talking about. One such former service men agreed with giving up all of his rights for security.

This is just plain stupid. The Patriot Act does not remove any rights form people. What is does do is grant rights to law enforcement when there is reasonable cause. While this law is far from perfect it has enabled enforcement personnel to link people together better when they are under suspicion.

For the most part the law is very good in breaking down some of the restraints in law enforcement gathering the facts that make the case and remove dangerous people from society. The law is a little weak in its checks and balances in a effort for speed that the law enforcement needs. This check and balance should be reviewed and improved in order to protect some of the privacy that Americas retain.

Information
US Constitution
Forth Amendment
Patriot Act
Total Information Awareness
Do some research

The real issues I have heard that the Patriot Act changed is in the 1978 the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) the Patriot Act created an exception to the Fourth Amendment’s “probable cause requirement”. If you have been deemed associated with terror then the government can get a court to determine that you have lost your 4th amendment rights. This is pretty scary and needs to be improved. Maybe just improve the checks and balances.

The other main issues is the “gag order” on all warrants issued under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA). This I do not have a problem with as long as there is a check and balance process so that we do not get any rouge agents that to the Sneak and Peek and then gag information and use it for personal purposes.

So I think that the Patriot Act is a good thing with some issues and areas of concern. These can be addresses to come to some point of balance between safety and privacy.

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The Diplomad has another endorsment of Secretary of Defense Rumsfeld.

Conclusion: It doesn’t bother us at all that our boss, whom we respect, had disagreements with the Secretary of Defense, whom we also respect. But that is only debunking a negative argument. On the purely positive side, we believe Donald Rumsfeld has been one of the most successful Secretaries of Defense in modern times, and under some of the most challenging circumstances. During his tenure the US military has modernized and begun the long transformation into a leaner, meaner fighting machine. We are repositioning our forces away from the Cold-War-era front lines and making them more mobile. Gone is the Clinton-Gore Administration view that we had reached an end-of-ideology period where the military is only to be deployed for peacekeeping or strining elecrical wires in Haiti — in other words, the US Army as the Salvation Army. Under Rumsfeld’s leadership our military is fighting successfully the wars of the 21st century and preparing for future ones.

I loved this statement.

Maybe Rumsfeld, like a lot of others, underestimated the insurgency last year. He certainly doesn’t underestimate it now. Ask the people of Fallujah if you’re not clear on this last point.

Americans should look for solutions to the issues instead of the who to blame for the past….
Move On…..really, Move On..

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Donald Sensing has a leter form a Top Sergeant who was present with the Rumsfeld visit in Iraq that the press spun out of this world again.

This email is from a first sergeant serving in Iraq who was present last week for one of the troop visits by Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld. The email was forwarded to me by a Tennessee Army Guard field-grade officer. One of his comments was,

Once again our soldiers (and vets) do not recognize what the press reports. Our experience is in the full context of events and I suppose only we can or will tell that complete story.

Here is the first sergeant’s report:

This is a shotgun blast response to the media reports on Secretary
Rumsfeld’s visit to our Camp. I was fortunate enough to be there and even shake the man’s hand. When the media reports were released concerning the event, I could not believe what I saw and heard. There are over 12,000 troops on our base. Only 2,000 or so had the opportunity to attend the gathering and I can tell you, those were hotly contested seats.

Not as the media would have you believe, so we could voice our displeasure, but rather to have the opportunity to see and hearthe man we admire. Mr. Secretary spoke for 10 minutes or so on the war in Iraq and what freedom meant to the people of Afghanistan. He was there for the recent elections and shared his wonderful insight. After his prepared remarks he opened up the floor for questions and made it very clear that nothing was off limits.

Folks, this is extremely unusual for a dignitary to do. Also, we as leaders, were instructed to not screen our soldiers questions. They were to be honest and from the heart. Mr. Rumsfeld fielded a number of questions, took down notes for the ones he did not have answers to and genuinely enjoyed talking to the soldiers.

Afterward, he spent over an hour with the enthusiastic troops who literally mobbed him and would not let him leave. He smiled forall, shook hands and had pictures taken. It ended only when his security forced us away.

He was applauded, he was given a standing ovation and he was loved. He stood there like a professional, like a man, and he took the heat because that’s what leaders do. And yet somehow, the American media turned that wonderful event into “disgruntled troops meet with Secretary Rumsfeld” headline. Incredible.

The morale is high, the equipment is good and improving daily. Disregard what you read and hear from the media and trust in the American fighting men and women to do the right thing. We have excellent leadership and are doing what we signed up to do.

Even if there are issues the Men and Women in country know better than the second guessing with pre-disposed bias of the media. If the media would show the facts and not there spin then they might have some integrity. Until then they will not.

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Beaker has a dream
and it looks like this. Al Franken(stine) went to Iraq to support the moral of the troops

But Al Franken(stine) did not finish his costume so Beaker fixed it up for this picture. here

Now that is much better…..
that is a job well done Beaker …..

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Mom and her new camera took some pictures of a Cessna T-210 that landed in a field next to her house

Engine problems forced the pilot to land.
He was not hurt so that is a great landing.
From the pictures the plane was not dammaged either.
9news has a stream of the report
Pilot unhurt after rough landing

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Then I posted my first lie about Evil Glenn

Filthy Lie number 1

Not only does Evil Glenn like to kill cute little puppies but he also likes to kill really cute little kitties in his blender. Evil Glenn says that they have more protein. Evil Glenn has been secretly joining the Friday cat blogging looking for new victims snacks.

Shoot even Peter Daou at The Daou Report linked to my post once….back on Dec 21st.
That helped my Ego a lot, but if If could just get Evil Glenn to link to me once…wow, that would be swell

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Is it better to join the Alliance or stay independent?
That is the question of some very series brain power right now.

OK, so I guess I should sign up to get my vanity points up.

1) read blog war = done
2) read directions = done
3) Banner = done
4) quote - done
5) link - done
6) site meter - done
7) TTLB = done
email Hostess Susie = done
9) profread url = done
10) specialitys = see below

I Declare my Team Member Specialty : puppy blender destroyer; When the puppy blender absolutely, positively must be destroyed over night.

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A large group of Iraqi soldiers are moving down a road when they hear a voice call from behind a sand dune.
“One United States Marine is better than ten Iraqis!”

The Iraqi commander quickly sends 10 of his best soldiers over the dune,
Whereupon a gun battle breaks and continues for a few minutes, then silence.

The voice then calls out “One United States Marine is better than one hundred Iraqis!”
Furious, the Iraqi commander sends his next best 100 troops over the dune and instantly a huge firefight commences.

After 10 minutes of battle, again silence. The American voice calls out again
“One United States Marine is better than one thousand Iraqis!”

The enraged Iraqi Commander musters one thousand fighters and sends them across the dune.
Cannons, rockets and machine guns ring out as a huge battle is fought.

Then silence.
Eventually one wounded Iraqi fighter crawls back over the dune and with his dying words tells his commander,
“Don’t send any more men, it’s a trap. There’s two of them!”

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Over the weekend my site meter hit 1000.
I have had this site up since just before Thanksgiving and have noticed several usmc.mil (orah, semper fi), along with other Navy, Army, AF, and other mil domains visiting. Way Cool. Thanks guys.

OK this might be allot of vanity but I never thought it would hit that when I see many other sites in the 100k mark.
This is cool for my little space in the world.

Thanks to all who visit!

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I decided that I needed a few days off and I realized that I ran out of vacation time already. I figured the best way to get the Boss to send me home was to act a little crazy. I figured he’d think I was burning out and give me some time off.

I went into work early the other day and began hanging upside down from the ceiling.
Just then one of my coworkers (she’s blonde…it’ll be important later) came in and asked me what I was doing. “Shh,” I said, “I’m acting crazy to get a few days off. I’m a light bulb.”
A second later the Boss walked by and asked me what I was doing. “I’m a light bulb!” I exclaimed.

“You’re going crazy,” he said. “Take a few days off.”
With that, I jumped down and started walking out.
The blonde started following me and the Boss asked where she was going.
“I can’t work in the dark,” she said

I got this from one of my blonde friends so don’t blame me…
Aye Aye sir!

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Wishes for 2005
1) The elimination of evil on earth. (dream big)
2) Continued success of the American experiment
3) The successful (for the US) conclusion of the War on Terror
4) Expanding peace and freedom in Iraq
5) Expanding peace and freedom in Afghanistan
6) Ending of the terror in the west bank
7) Expanding freedom of the former soviet states
Democratic party to change back to a strong (read: pro America) party

Personal goals for 2005
1) Growth in all things faith, integrity, honor
2) Completion if several triathlons and one marathon
3) Finding the one that is meant for me
4) Finding the answer to the following question:
5) If I could do one thing that would make the most difference in my community what would it be? And can I find the strength to do it.?

This is my wish list so far. As you can see this is based on my views of America and not that I wish any other country harm, I do believe and support America above all others.

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AirborneVet posted some insite to the terrorist in Mosul.
This is why we need to ask “In the WAR on Terror, What side is the MSM supporting?”
It is the terrorist Why wont the media get this fact!

Secondly, I have to say that I am appalled by Katie Couric from the Today Show on NBC even thinking that someone other than the terrorists is to blame! How absurd! Why does the media keep doing this? Because they want America to be at fault! These type of people hate our military and they hate our country! Are we perfect? Of course not! BUT this is a war. Casualties, military and civilian, do happen. It sucks. It’s sad. Even I don’t like my friends dying or being injured, but it is the terrorists who have dragged on this war. It is the terrorists who cause more injuries and death to their fellow Muslims than the coalition forces. It is the terrorists who are evil, greedy and will do anything to get their way. It is the terrorists who are to blame!!

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Roger L Simon asks the questions ‘Is the Associated Press a Fifth Column?‘
In his post he has a statement that really sticks out.

In the Post-Rather world, I reserve judgment. It is now incumbent on the media to prove their honesty. We can no longer take them at their word–and all we have now is the “word” of a “director of media relations.” (How insulting, when you think about it? Where are the editors in charge of Iraq?)

I want facts and I can make my own opinion.
There is also a good amount of comments that link to additional information.

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