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News From Iraq Roundup

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Here’s some stuff about the Iraqi Theatre in the War on Terror that you won’t see in the MainStreamMedia…..
Outstanding “on-the-ground” embedded blogger coverage of the war on terror in Iraq by Michael Yon: Gates of Fire – August 25
High Re-enlistment Rates In Combat Units (of our ALL VOLUNTEER Armed Forces) – LittleGreenFootballs
If you truly “support the troops” then put your money where your mouth is. I donated $250 earlier this week to Soldiers’ Angels.
But here are the actions of some of the “support the troops, hate the policy” crowd…. Anti-War Protests Target Wounded at Army Hospital – Crosswalk.com (I at least hope there were no rainbow flags in the group!)
THIS is a grieving mother protesting the war? Hmmmm. Looks more like somebody on the set of a motion picture…. (Photo taken at “Camp Casey” in Crawford, TX)

President Speaks on War on Terror (full text at link) – WhiteHouse.gov

Our nation is engaged in a global war on terror that affects the safety and security of every American. In Iraq, Afghanistan and across the world, we face dangerous enemies who want to harm our people, folks who want to destroy our way of life.
There are few things in life more difficult than seeing a loved one go off to war. And here in Idaho, a mom named Tammy Pruett — (applause) — I think she’s here — (laughter) — knows that feeling six times over. (Applause.) Tammy has four sons serving in Iraq right now with the Idaho National Guard — Eric, Evan, Greg and Jeff. Last year, her husband Leon and another son, Eren, returned from Iraq, where they helped train Iraqi firefighters in Mosul. Tammy says this — and I want you to hear this — “I know that if something happens to one of the boys, they would leave this world doing what they believe, what they think is right for our country. And I guess you couldn’t ask for a better way of life than giving it for something that you believe in.” America lives in freedom because of families like the Pruetts.


-Bruce (GayPatriot) – gaypatriot2004@aol.com

Announcing opposition to Roberts, gay groups stand with the left

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Just as I was about to turn in, I received a press release from the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force (NGLTF) noting that three gay organizations had joined them in opposing the nomination of Judge John G. Roberts to the U.S. Supreme Court. Just a week after GLAAD names a Republican as its new head, the Human Rights Campaign (HRC), the National Center for Lesbian Rights (NCLR) and Parents and Friends of Lesbians and Gays (PFLAG) have come out against the president’s nominee for the Supreme Court before the Senate has even held hearings on his nomination. (I guess it’s too much to ask that more than one national gay organization acknowledges the significance of the 2004 elections.) My guess is that the only people who will pay any attention to this announcement are Senators who have already made up their minds to oppose the good judge’s confirmation.
Not waiting to hear his how this good man handles tough questions from the Senate Judiciary Committee, these groups have decided to join the growing number of left-wing organizations opposing his confirmation. In their release, they provide little evidence to show how Roberts would not be good for gay people. They borrow a few arguments from the left and strain (without much evidence to back them up) to show that he just might possibly be bad for us. Shouldn’t they wait and see how he addresses questions on gay issues in his confirmation hearings before rushing to conclusions?
They mention a September 1985 memo where he “cautioned President Reagan against stating that the AIDS virus could not be spread through casual contact among schoolchildren, claiming that this conclusion was in dispute.” But, given how much more we know about AIDS today than we did back then, it might be a good idea to ask the judge if he believes he erred in writing that memo twenty years ago–and if he was aware (at the time) of the Centers for Disease Controls (CDC) guidelines which stated that casual contact “appears to pose no risk.” (Or maybe he was aware of those guidelines and thought the word “appears” justified his caution.) We can better know how his views on AIDS have evolved if Senators ask him about that memo (as I believe they should).
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Thursday Open Thread

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Why does the MSM pay more attention to Cindy Sheehan than to stories like this? (Via Instapundit.) It seems to me that the people of Festus, Missouri better represent our nation than does Cindy Sheehan, but then again Cindy Sheehan represents the MSM’s version of America.

Images from 9/11

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There is a review of the second and final installment of “Inside 9/11” over at The Malcontent — “This Thing Is Exhausting.”
Malcontent’s posting also has two video clips taken from the “Zero Hour” episode which aired Monday night.
I would like to link to one of them here. It is footage that I have never seen before…. though I have known it existed. Bodies falling from the WTC. People jumping to, as one of the people in the clip says, “escape the hell they found themselves in.” This is very graphic footage, but also very important. This is what our nation is up against and we must never forget that this worldwide Islamic terror movement wants to have more images like this.
This is what they consider success in their war against us…..The Bodies (video link with graphic footage)
As reported earlier this week, this National Geographic special closes with the words of Osama bin Laden: “As much as you value life, we love death.”
-Bruce (GayPatriot) – gaypatriot2004@aol.com

More thoughts on the chickenhawk slur

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In the first comment to a recent post where I agreed with a man who lost his son in Iraq that the media should offer “equal time to the other loved ones of fallen heroes,” a reader quoted a Democratic Senator, who himself was just mimicking one of the left’s standard refrains in criticizing supporters of the war. He called us chickenhawks. He probably thought he had won the argument by accusing certain supporters of the war of being afraid to fight.
But, in so labeling us, he effectively forfeited the field. Instead of taking issue with the facts we are presenting and the arguments we are making, he attacked us personally. They’re no longer engaging us; they’re baiting us. “After participating in a lengthy comment session” on this blog, ThatGayConservative concluded liberals use this tactic to “justify their own hatred.” Sometimes I think he’s right, that liberals are just trying to find a rationale to express their hatred of and contempt for conservatives and our ideas. On my more generous days, I think they’re just looking for means to dismiss our arguments without having to acknowledge our ideas.
The Gay Conservative wasn’t the only one to take issue with the absurd, but standard left accusation. In comment #82 to my post, Joe, echoed Clint in calling the accusation, “petty ad hominem; ‘at best’ trying to get a rise; more likely the mark of intellectual desperation.”
It’s just a mean-spirited charge, especially given the fact that many who serve, indeed, many who have seen friends and colleagues die, continue to stay and fight for our country. According to a report in today’s New York Post, “Every one of the Army’s 10 divisions — its key combat organizations — has exceeded its re-enlistment goal for the year to date.” (If you don’t believe me, read whole thing. (Via Powerline, via Betsy Newmark.)
As long as we have a volunteer army, the Chickenhawk slur is just that, a slur. A means to insult certain conservatives while dismissing our ideas.
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Being a Republican….in Hollywood

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I think those of us who are gay conservatives can certainly relate to the “coming out” process that a conservative in Hollywood must have to go through.
Robert Averch, a screenwriter in the film industry, has a must read column on being a conservative in Hollywood. Seriously…. this is a must read. (Hat tip – Jason at Libertas)
Help! I’m a Hollywood Republican – FrontPage Magazine

I’m a Republican. A heretofore secret Hollywood Republican. I know men and women who are heavy drug addicts and they have no problem finding employment in Hollywood. I know men and women who are gambling addicts and they work pretty regularly. There’s even a director who was arrested for child molestation and yet was hired by Disney – yes, Disney – to helm a picture, and people defended this decision by saying even child molesters have a right to work. I would bet my bottom dollar that all these people are on the correct side of the political spectrum. They are liberal democrats.
Me, I’m a Republican. A conservative Republican. I believe passionately in free market capitalism. I believe in the Second Amendment, i.e., the right to bear arms (I even own several guns and go to the shooting range with friends from shul several times a month). I despise communism and fascism, and I believe there is a special place in hell for Islamic totalitarians and their Western apologists – probably 99.9 percent of Hollywood people.

For Mr. Averch, this column is an extraordinary act of courage. It is not hyperbole to suggest that his career may be threatened, and perhaps even his personal safety.
We need more conservatives in our film and TV industry so that the one-track liberal/anti-American political thought machine can have their ideas challenged in the “marketplace of ideas.”
Please, if you have a moment today, drop by Robert’s blog — Seraphic Secret— and drop him a supportive email (link here).
-Bruce (GayPatriot) – gaypatriot2004@aol.com

A black cop in the ’70s, Cindy Sheehan & America’s greatness

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One day in the late 1970s, when I was growing up in Cincinnati, my Dad took me downtown to see American Nazis’ rallying on Fountain Square, the center of the city. In a corner of the plaza just northeast of the fountain, a group of maybe ten unimpressive, mostly unkempt, white guys were rallying for white supremacy and against Jews and blacks. There were more spectators than there were protesters. Indeed, there may have been more cops, standing shoulder to shoulder in a cordon around the protesters, protecting them from the crowd.
My Dad, an amateur photographer, took a few pictures of the event. One of them showed the stern face of a black policeman, probably in his early 30s or so, with an angry-looking white guy behind him, holding up a sign which read “White Power.” My Dad mounted the picture and titled it “First Amendment.”
Later, as I learned more about Cincinnati’s history, I realized in his childhood, that man probably didn’t think he could be a cop when he grew up. At the time, there were very few black policemen. And there he was protecting the freedom of some kook to rally for white power. Some kook who would surely want to deny that man his freedom to choose a career in law enforcement.
Every time I think of that day–and my Dad’s photograph–I have this wonderful feeling about our great nation; his picture said so much about one of the many things which makes us great. As I studied history and current events in the years following that rally, I learned how, in many countries, even regrettably sometimes in our own, the police did not protect the right of citizens to protest, but rather arrested those who spoke out against the government.
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“Inside 9/11″ – VCR/TiVO Alert!

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I have arrived in Dallas for a week-long meeting. While I have some spare time (chuckling) on Sunday, I’m trying desperately to catch up with my reading (emails, favorite blogs, etc.)
So I just came across this documentary airing TONIGHT and TOMORROW nights on the National Geographic Channel. And I just spent a painful 20 minutes on the phone helping my Mom (who is dog-sitting) work through recording it on TiVO. Thanks, Mom!
Inside 9/11 – “War on America” – Sunday Episode (9pm Eastern/Pacific time)

Inside 9/11: “War on America” takes viewers into the secret world of al Qaeda and the rise of Islamic fundamentalism dating back to the Soviet-Afghan War.

Inside 9/11 – “Zero Hour” – Monday Episode (9pm Eastern/Pacific time)

Inside 9/11: “Zero Hour” takes viewers inside the World Trade Center and the Pentagon and deconstructs the events on that fateful day.

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Barone on the ‘04 elections

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The Washington Times posts an excellent synopsis of Michael Barone’s reflections on the 2004 elections, culled from the introduction to his latest Almanac of American Politics.
Among his observations:

In the safe Bush states (213 electoral votes) and the safe Kerry states (179 electoral votes), a similar pattern prevailed. In both sets of states, Mr. Bush increased his vote share by more than Mr. Kerry did, prompting Mr. Barone to observe: “The 2004 results showed the red states getting redder and the blue states getting less blue.”

And he noted that Bush won although anti-Bush forces spent “more than $55 million above what the pro-Bush forces spent.”
Now, that I’ve whet your appetite, read the whole thing and get the book!
Hat tip: Polipundit.

“Don’t Feature America First” At Ground Zero Memorial

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Thanks to Robert for passing this “Take Back The Memorial” update to me. (Link here for full story)

A global network of human rights museums is urging the International Freedom Center to downplay America in its exhibits and programs at Ground Zero, the Daily News has learned.
The outrageous request is the latest controversy to torment the Freedom Center, whose leaders have tried to dispel the perception that it would be a home for America bashers.
“Don’t feature America first,” the IFC has been advised by the consortium of 14 “museums of conscience” that quietly has been consulting with the Freedom Center for the past two years over plans for the hallowed site. “Think internationally, where America is one of the many nations of the world.”

I urge everyone to help “Take Back The Memorial.”
-Bruce (GayPatriot) – gaypatriot2004@aol.com
UPDATE (from GPW): In an editorial, the New York Daily News responds to the aforementioned request to the International Freedom Center:

Consider this [quoting from the museums’ group’s request], too: “The Freedom Center is a caricature of the typical American response to everything (telling every story from an American viewpoint).” Exactly what viewpoint is an American museum on American soil marking an American tragedy supposed to express? Oh, right. Bangladeshi.

(via Powerline.)

Let Sheehan Meet The President

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(Hat tip: GayOrbit)
After reading this post from Laurence Simon, I have also changed my mind. Let Sheehan Meet The President…..

I have a very simple solution to the entire Cindy Sheehan affair.
Let her meet with the President.
That’s right. I’ve finally changed my tune.
Let her meet with the President who thwarted the United Nations Security Council and made the case for war.
Let her meet with the President who hindered the progress of United Nations weapons inspectors.
Let her meet with the President who lied about Iraq having weapons of mass destruction that they’d use on Americans.
Let her meet with the President who killed thousands of innocent Iraqi civilians.
Let her meet with the President who came to office in a rigged election, and maintained his grip on power through rigged voting and militaristic patriotism.
Let her meet with the President who turned his country’s media into a mouthpiece for his fascist and discriminatory policies.
Let her meet with the President who transformed his country into a single-party dictatorship, sowing fear and resentment against any who dared to oppose his iron-fisted rule.
Let her meet with the President who proved himself a coward by fleeing when his country was attacked.
Let her meet with the President who should be brought up on war crimes charges for his dastardly misdeeds.
Let her meet with the President who spent billions of dollars on weapons while social welfare programs went unfunded and the poor continue to suffer for it to this day.
Let her meet with the President who has a track record of invading Arab Muslim countries for oil.
Let her meet with the President who knew full well about the bloodthirsty torture and murderous horrors at Abu Ghraib.
That’s right. Let her meet with Saddam Hussein.


Beautiful…
-Bruce (GayPatriot) – gaypatriot2004@aol.com

Islamic Fundraising Connection Illegal Immigrant Project in VA

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This is an interesting development. There seems to be a connection between Northern Virginia Islamic fundraising efforts and the day-laborer (ie – illegal immigrant) worksite pickup project in Herndon, VA.
Brief Encounter At Herndon Store Inspired A Charity – Washington Post (subscription required)

Over the objections of hundreds of residents who fear it will bring crime and disorder to the neighborhood, Herndon’s Town Council granted Project Hope and Harmony permission last week to build and oversee such a site in the parking lot behind a former police station. The coalition expects to have it running in two to four months.
Project Hope and Harmony is itself a work in progress. It is an umbrella group, not a nonprofit organization. Although its members plan to file federal papers to become a nonprofit, the application for a grant of about $175,000 from Fairfax County to run the site was made in the name of Reston Interfaith, one of the groups that is part of the coalition.
For Hossain, helping immigrants, most from Central and South America, is a Muslim issue. Charity is one of the five pillars of Islam. So he raised money from Muslim businessmen in Herndon to buy 400 winter coats for the laborers, brought them food through another charity he started, called Food Source, and even rounded up day laborers to attend a Thanksgiving dinner at an Iraqi restaurant where falafel, not turkey, was served.

Given the Al-Qaeda connections repeatedly found in Northern Virginia after 9/11, is anyone else but me disturbed and more than curious about this direct connection between Islamic fundraising and illegal immigration?
-Bruce (GayPatriot) – gaypatriot2004@aol.com

VA Governor Warner Should Declare ‘Illegal’ State of Emergency, Too!

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Democrats in California urged Gov. Arnold this week when to join the governors of Arizona and New Mexico in declaring a “state of emergency” in the Golden State due to the increasing problems created by illegal immigration.

On Wednesday, Schwarzenegger said he supports the actions of his fellow governors but does not think there is a crisis along California’s border. Schwarzenegger spokeswoman Margita Thompson said the governor continues to lobby for more federal money and has written a letter to Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff requesting more border patrol agents.
She noted that Schwarzenegger also supports the construction of a fence along California’s border with Mexico.


Many of you outside the DC metro area might be surprised to learn that Virginia has reached ‘the boiling point’ in the illegal immigration battle as well. It is now front-and-center of our Governor’s campaign this year.

A bitter local dispute over a day-laborer site in Herndon has swept the town of 22,000 into the national spotlight, where it’s become the flashpoint of the nation’s deep ambivalence regarding illegal immigration. America has generally welcomed immigrants, but many Americans are angry at the federal government’s complete failure to secure the borders in this post-9/11 world. They don’t want to be harsh with poor, hardworking people trying to better themselves, but the trickle of illegal immigrants has become a seemingly unstoppable torrent.


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Cindy Sheehan SWOT Analysis

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Okay, I have to confess… I have a love/hate relationship with my new favorite blog, The Malcontent. What’s not to love? The content is great, the topics are stuff I don’t see anywhere else. So why the hate? He is funnier than I am, the bastard! 🙂
Here is the latest from The Malconent…. a SWOT Analysis of Cindy Sheehan. I spit out my Cheerios at this one! Very creative….

By the way, how long will it be before someone on the Wacky Left blames her mother’s stroke on President Bush?
-Bruce (GayPatriot) – gaypatriot2004@aol.com

Soldier’s Dad: “Not In My Son’s Name”

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From NRO’s Media Blog:

“Not Once Did They Ever Ask Me If They Could Use My Son’s Name”
On CNN’s Your World Today, Gary Qualls, the father of Louis W. Qualls, held up the white cross bearing his son’s name, which he pulled out of the ground where Cindy Sheehan and her followers had placed it without his permission.
He told YWT anchor Jim Clancy, “Not once did they ever ask me if they could use my son’s name.” He spoke of his son’s sacrifice, of how his son believed in what he was doing, and how Cindy Sheehan doesn’t speak for him.
How many other names on Cindy Sheehan’s crosses are the names of soldiers who would find her politics despicable?


Louis W. Qualls
-Bruce (GayPatriot) – gaypatriot2004@aol.com

Message to Cindy Sheehan….from an Iraqi fighting for freedom

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I think Mohammed at “Iraq The Model” has the best response to Cindy Sheehan that I’ve seen yet. Not only does he have the right message for her, he is the best messenger.
A Message to Cindy Sheehan – Iraq The Model

Ma’am, we asked for your nation’s help and we asked you to stand with us in our war and your nation’s act was (and still is) an act of ultimate courage and unmatched sense of humanity. Our request is justified, death was our daily bread and a million Iraqi mothers were expecting death to knock on their doors at any second to claim someone from their families.
Your face doesn’t look strange to me at all; I see it everyday on endless numbers of Iraqi women who were struck by losses like yours.
Our fellow country men and women were buried alive, cut to pieces and thrown in acid pools and some were fed to the wild dogs while those who were lucky enough ran away to live like strangers and the Iraqi mother was left to grieve one son buried in an unfound grave and another one living far away who she might not get to see again.
We did nothing to deserve all that suffering, well except for a dream we had; a dream of living like normal people do.
We cried out of joy the day your son and his comrades freed us from the hands of the devil and we went to the streets not believing that the nightmare is over.
We practiced our freedom first by kicking and burning the statues and portraits of the hateful idol who stole 35 years from the life of a nation.
For the first time air smelled that beautiful, that was the smell of freedom.

-Bruce (GayPatriot) – gaypatriot2004@aol.com

TGC: The Chickenhawk Slur Arises Once Again

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Since I couldn’t have said it better myself, I’d like to reprint ThatGayConservative’s column in full here at GayPatriot….
-GP
======================
ThatGayConservative: Thoughts from the Smoker’s Porch* — The “Chickenhawk” Slur Arises Once Again.
Once again, the liberals are blast-faxing/e-mailing their minions to break out the “Chickenhawk slur again. Jim Hawkins at RightWingNews explains what a Chickenhawk is here:
For those of you who are unfamiliar with the word or who associate it with its more vulgar meaning, when the left uses the term, they are generally referring to a foreign policy hawk who has not been in the military and is not seeking to join up.
Again, the liberal left is trotting out their tired, worn out arguments of the past. They make the same old claims that Bush shouldn’t have started a war because he never served in the military. Supposedly, you can’t support a war if you’ve never been there. For added measure, they throw in the Michael Moore lies that nobody in Congress has children serving in Iraq or they use the worn out excuse that neither of Bush’s daughters are serving in the military. They’ve also rolled out the failed “Bush was AWOL” story again.
The race for the White House should be about leadership,…We do not need to divide America over who served and how….Are we now to descend, like latter-day Spiro Agnews, and play, as he did, to the worst instincts of divisiveness and reaction that still haunt America? Are we now going to create a new scarlet letter in the context of Vietnam?
John F.You Kerry 30 January, 1992
First of all, American Diplomacy notes that of the 41 presidents the U.S. has had since 1798, sixteen of them, or 39% did not have prior military service. Seven of those, including Woodrow Wilson and Franklin Roosevelt who presided over both world wars, were Democrats. Most recently, President BJ Clinton deployed the military more often in 8 years than any other president in the previous 50 years while providing less funding.
The American Heritage Foundation explains the problems with that policy here. The hypocrisy here is that BJ didn’t serve. He went so far as to dodge the draft by running away to England and to Soviet Moscow. He even went so far as to send a letter to his ROTC commander that he “loathed the military”. Yet there’s nary a whimper from the liberals that BJ never served.
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Clinton’s AIDS scam in Africa

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Why should anyone be surprised that the Clinton Foundation has pulled a fast one on those suffering from AIDS in Africa?
The Real Tragedy of AIDS – TechCentralStation

With great fanfare, the Clinton Foundation last year announced that it had negotiated a price of $140 a year for ARV treatment, about half the typical price in Africa. But that figure is a cruel hoax, as a transcript of a meeting in Mumbai between AIDS activists and officials of Indian drug companies confirms. Hardly anyone pays it.
The representative of Cipla, one of the largest Indian firms, said that the $140 offer had rigid unpublicized conditions, including “large, confirmed irrevocable orders,” which were never met. Clinton promised 200,000 patients by 2005, but another Indian drug official said that the foundation had not produced even 40,000.
An activist from Cameroon then said, “The Clinton deal is not working…. I’m surprised that you believed what Clinton told you.”
Said Cipla: “He is a very good talker.”

I mean, after all, this is the man who was embraced as the “Gay Messiah” by our community; yet repeatedly sent zeroed-out AIDS funding budgets up to Congress only to have them overturned and increased by the Republican-controlled Congress since 1995.
Will our gay leaders everrrrrrrr learn?
-Bruce (GayPatriot) – gaypatriot2004@aol.com