DID YOU KNOW?

Question: What is America’s first line of missile interceptor defense that protects the entire United States?
Answer: 49th Missile Defense Battalion of Alaska National Guard.

Question: What is the ONLY National Guard unit on permanent active duty?
Answer: 49th Missile Defense Battalion of Alaska National Guard

Question: Who is the Commander in Chief of the 49th Missile Defense Battalion of Alaska National Guard?
Answer: Governor Sarah Palin, Alaska

Question: What U.S. governor is routinely briefed on highly classified military issues, homeland security, and counter terrorism?
Answer: Governor Sarah Palin, Alaska

Question: What U.S. governor has a higher classified security rating than either Hillary or Barack of the Democrat Party?
Answer: Governor Sarah Palin, Alaska

According to the Washington Post, she first met with McCain in February, but nobody ever found out. This is a woman used to keeping secrets. She can be entrusted with our national security, because she already is.

NOW YOU DO!

Governor Sarah Palin is apparently unhappy about the way she’s been handled by the McCain campaign. Great!!! I totally agree.

Palin’s greatest strength is her knowledge of the energy issue. I first saw her on Larry Kudlow’s CNBC program and I was greatly impressed with what she had to say. Up till then, Bobby Jindal had been at the top of my list as a possible VP, but he said he wanted to finish turning Louisiana around and given the generations of corrupt mismanagement of that state, that wasn’t going to happen without his presence.  So, Governor Palin was my candidate. I loved Mrs. Romney, but there is something “hidden” and “secret” about Mitt Romney, quite similar to my  concerns about Mr. Obama.  Romney’s poker-like persona was made more apparent by the success of a look-alike, the very talented Jon Hamm, of the TV series MAD MEN, who looks like Romney but has an extremely expressive face. His expressiveness made Romney’s inexpressiveness and hidden quality  more apparent.

Some Monday morning quarterbacks now say Romney would have been a better VP candidate because of the economic crash. But Romney as a potential President never filled me with confidence. Mitt Romney as Secretary of the Treasury or top economic adviser, yes, absolutely. Similarly, Guiliani as Attorney General.

If Sarah Palin becomes vice-president, I will keep pressing the White House on several policies of McCain’s I don’t agree with. If Obama becomes President, I will join up with the supporters of Palin for President of whom there are millions. Palin will look very good two years from now, and may well help the Republican Party take back the Senate and House.  And in four years the White House.

This past week, I heard she was going to make a major address. “At last, I thought.” And then instead of THE crucial domestic and foreign policy issue of energy, she addressed the boutique issue of special needs children. What a disappointment.

There is still time for an energy speech and she should go for it. In Michigan, if possible.

Some women, after they have climbed the ladder of success pull it up after them.Peggy Noonan seems to have done that vis a vis GOVERNOR Sarah Palin (not as she called her “MRS. PALIN” on ABC’S THIS WEEK, this morning.

Goddesses frequently reach out to other goddesses when hit with the bewildering tsunami of success. Noonan didn’t reach out to Palin; hence, to me, Noon is no goddess and a book of hers is on its way to — a democrat who likes her work. I will keep her Reagan book because of its subject, not the author.

Noonan is famous because of having been a great speech writer for Ronald Reagan. It was she who found the great lines of a poet to describe the astronauts touching the face of God. BUT Noonan was NOT the thinker, the philosopher, behind Reagan. Reagan was. Reagan was a closet intellectual who spent his afternoons reading and writing and it wasn’t until after his death that boxes and boxes were found in the garage containing Reagan’s attempts to work out issues in his head. That work enabled him to make split-second decisions once he was President, the very opposite of what would happen with Obama who needs 3 days and 3 versions to get an issue right.

Tom Clancy once said of Reagan that “the streets of DC are littered with the bodies of Democrats who underestimated Reagan”. Interestingly, the same has been said of Palin.

But Noonan, who spends way too much time with “the guys” fellow journalists at their watering holes, listening intently and moving her hair around, has betrayed that she may have been a speech writer for Reagan, but “au fond” never really got him.

Michael Reagan “got” Governor Palin with his oped “Welcome back, Dad.”

Noonan, born in Brooklyn and raised in New Jersey lives in “enemy territory”: Manhattan. I grew up in that milieu, and it made me a loner, with plenty of time to read and think.

I don’t know what books Palin has read, other than that she seems to have read everything about Reagan — and to have done a better job of integrating his ideas than Noonan has.

On October 22, 2006, POWERLINE (a favorite blog of mine) said:

Yesterday we posted the appeal of a soldier stationed at the Counterinsurgency Center at Camp Taji for books to stock the Center’s library. I sought out Lt. Col. Jan Horvath, deputy commandant of the Center, and asked if we could ask readers to ship books to him. He has kindly obliged, adding:

Our camp usually seems like a sanctuary for the Coalition Leaders who are studying. We try to ensure they have the best reading material available as they reflect on the principles being taught and apply them to their areas of operation.

Books can be packaged and shipped to Iraq in a large priority mail box for a flat fee of $8.10. With the help of a patient postal worker yesterday, I stuffed six books in a box bound for the library. If you would like to contribute to the library at the Counterinsurgency Center, please address your package:

Lt. Col. Jan Horvath
Headquarters COIN CFE
Camp Taji, Iraq
APO AE 09378

I’m two years later, but cancer intervened and I’m just now getting my energy back. What a gift to have just googled Lt. Col. Jan Horvath and gotten this post. I have lots of books and extra La Femme Nikita videos sent to me by “tape angels” to pass on. The guys will love Peta Wilson. The woman soldiers will swoon over Roy Dupuis, the “thinking woman’s pin-up”.  And this is where I’ll send my extra copy of Paul Johnson’s A HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN PEOPLE, the only pro-America, pro-Reagan book of its kind I’ve yet found.

Anger Management

When you occasionally have a really bad day, and you just need to take it out on someone, don’t take it out on someone you know, take it out on someone you DON’T know!

I was sitting at my desk when I remembered a phone call I’d forgotten to make.

I found the number and dialed it.

A man answered, saying, Hello.

I politely said, This is Chris.  Could I please speak with Robyn Carter?

Suddenly a manic voice yelled out in my ear
Get the right f*** ing number! and the phone was slammed down on me.

I couldn’t believe that anyone could be so rude. When I tracked down Robyn’s correct number to call her, I found that I had accidentally transposed the last two digits.

After hanging up with her, I decided to call the ‘wrong’ number again.

When the same guy answered the phone, I yelled You’re an asshole! and hung up.

I wrote his number down with the word ‘asshole’ next to it, and put it in my desk drawer.

Every couple of weeks, when I was paying bills, or had a really bad day, I’d call him up and yell, ‘You’re an asshole !’ It always cheered me up.

When Caller ID was introduced, I thought my therapeutic asshole-calling would have to stop.

So, I called his number and said, ‘Hi, this is John Smith from the telephone company.  I’m calling to see if you’re familiar with our Caller ID Program?’

He yelled ‘NO!’ and slammed down the phone.

I quickly called him back and said, ‘That’s because you’re an asshole!’ and hung up.

One day I was at the store, getting ready to pull into a parking spot.  Some guy in a black BMW cut me off and pulled into the spot I had patiently waited for.  I hit the horn and yelled that I’d been waiting for that spot, but the idiot ignored me.  I noticed a ‘For Sale ‘ sign in his back window, so I wrote down his phone number.

A couple of days later, right after calling the first asshole (I had his number on speed dial),
I thought that I’d better call the BMW asshole, too.

I said, ‘Is this the man with the black BMW for sale?’

He said, ‘Yes, it is.

I asked, Can you tell me where I can see it?

He said, Yes, I live at 34 Oaktree Blvd , in Fairfax.  It’s a yellow ranch house, and the car’s parked right out in front.

I asked, What’s your name?

He said, My name is Don Hansen.

I asked, When’s a good time to catch you, Don?

He said, I’m home every evening after five.

I said, Listen, Don, can I tell you something?

He said, Yes?

I said, Don, you’re an asshole!  Then I hung up, and added his number to my speed dial, too.

Now, then I had a problem, I had two assholes to call.  Then I came up with an idea. called Asshole #1.

He said, Hello.

I said, You’re an asshole! (But I didn’t hang up.)

He asked, Are you still there?

I said, Yeah.

He screamed, Stop calling me!

I said, Make me.

He asked, ‘Who are you?’

I said, My name is Don Hansen.

He said, Yeah? Where do you live?

I said, ‘Asshole, I live at 34 Oaktree Blvd , in Fairfax , a yellow ranch house,
I have a black Beamer parked in front.

He said, I’m coming over right now, Don.  And you had better start saying your prayers.

I said, Yeah, like I’m really scared, asshole, and hung up.

Then I called Asshole No. 2.

He said, Hello?

I said, ‘Hello, asshole.

He yelled, If I ever find out who you are…

I said, You’ll what?

He exclaimed, I’ll kick your ass,

I answered, Well , asshole, here’s your chance. I’m coming over right now.

Then I hung up and immediately called the police, saying that I lived at 34 Oaktree Blvd , in Fairfax , and that my gay lover was on his way over to kill me.

Then I called Channel 9 News about the gang war going down in Oaktree Blvd. in Fairfax .

I quickly got into my car and headed over to Fairfax ..

I got there just in time to watch two assholes beating the crap out of each other in front of six cop cars, an overhead news helicopter and surrounded by news crew.

NOW I feel MUCH better.

Old Man

As I came out of the supermarket that sunny day, pushing my cart of
groceries towards my car, I saw an old man with the hood of his car up
and a lady sitting inside the car, with the door open.

The old man was looking at the engine. I put my groceries away in my car
and continued to watch the old gentleman from about twenty five feet away.

I saw a young man in his early twenties with a grocery bag in his arm,
walking towards the old man. The old gentleman saw him coming too and
took a few steps towards him. I saw the old gentleman point to his open
hood and  say something.

The young man put his grocery bag into what looked like a brand new
Cadillac Escalade and then turn back to the old man and I heard him yell
at the  old gentl eman saying, “You shouldn’t even be allowed to drive a car at
your  age.” And then with a wave of his hand, he got in his car and peeled
rubber out of the parking lot.

I saw the old gentleman pull out his handkerchief and mop his brow as he
went back to his car and again looked at the engine. He then went to his
wife and spoke with her and appeared to tell her it would be okay.

I had seen enough and I approached the old man. He saw me coming and
stood straight and as I got near him I said, “Looks like you’re having a
problem.”

He smiled sheepishly and quietly nodded his head. I looked under the hood
myself and knew that whatever the problem was, it was beyond me.

Looking around I saw a gas station up the road and told the old man that
I would be right back. I drove to the station and went inside and saw
three   ;attendants working on cars. I approached one of them and related the
problem the old man had with his car and offered to pay them if they could
follow  me back down and help him.

The old man had pushed the heavy car under the shade of a tree and
appeared to be comforting his wife. When he saw us he straightened up and
thanked  me for my help. As the mechanics diagnosed the problem (overheated
engine) I  spoke with the old gentleman.

When I shook hands with him earlier he had noticed my Marine Corps ring
and had commented about it, telling me that he had been a Marine too. I
nodded and asked the usual question, “What outfit did you serve with?”

He had mentioned that he served with the first Marine Division at Tarawa,
Saipan, Iwo Jima and Guadalcanal . He had hit all the big ones and retired
from the Corps after the war was over.
As we talked we heard the car engine come on and saw the mechanics lower
the hood. They came over to us as the old man reached for his wallet, but
was  stopped by me and I told him I would just put the bill on my AAA card.

He still reached for the wallet and handed me a card that I assumed had
his name and address on it and I stuck it in my pocket. We all shook
hands  all round again and I said my goodbye’s to his wife.

I then told the two mechanics that I would follow them back up to the
station. Once at the station I told them that they had interrupted their
own jobs to come along with me and help the old man. I said I wanted to
pay  for the help, but they refused to charge me.

One of them pulled out a card from his pocket looking exactly like the
card the old man had given to me. Both of the men told me then, that they
were  Marine Corps Reserves. Once again we shook hands all around and as I was
leaving, one of them told me I should look at the card the old man had
given to me. I said I would and drove off.
For some reason I had gone about two blocks when I pulled over and took
the card out of my pocket and looked at it for a long, long, time. The
name  of the old gentleman was on the card in golden leaf and under his
name……..”Congressional Medal of Honor Society.”

I sat there motionless looking at the card and reading it over and over.
I looked up from the card and smiled to no one but myself and marveled
that  on this day, four Marines had all come together, because one of us needed
help. He was an old man all right, but it felt good to have stood next to
greatness and courage and an honor to have been in his presence.

America is not at war. The U.S Military is at war. America is at the
Mall.

‘YOU COULD HAVE HEARD A PIN DROP’

When in England , at a fairly large conference, Colin Powell was asked by
the Archbishop of Canterbury if our plans for Iraq were just an example of
empire building by George Bush.

He answered by saying, ‘Over the years, the United States has sent many of
its fine young men and women into great peril to fight for freedom beyond
our borders. The only amount of land we have ever asked for in return is
enough to bury those that did not return.’

You could have heard a pin drop.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

There was a conference in France where a number of international engineers
were taking part, including French and American. During a break, one of the
French engineers came back into the room saying ‘Have you heard the latest
dumb stunt Bush has done?  He has sent an aircraft carrier to Indonesia to
help the tsunami victims. What does he intended to do, bomb them?’

A Boeing engineer stood up and replied quietly: ‘Our carriers have three
hospitals on board that can treat several hundred people; they are nuclear
powered and can supply emergency electrical power to shore facilities; they
have three cafeterias with the capacity to feed 3,000 people three meals a
day, they can produce several thousand gallons of fresh water from sea water
each day, and they carry half a dozen helicopters for use in
transporting victims and injured to and from their flight deck. We have
eleven such ships; how many does France have?’

You could have heard a pin drop.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

A U.S. Navy Admiral was attending a naval conference that included Admirals
from the U.S. , English, Canadian, Australian and French Navies. At a
cocktail reception, he found himself standing with a large group of Officers
that included personnel from most of those countries.

Everyone was chatting away in English as they sipped their drinks but a
French admiral suddenly complained that, whereas Europeans learn many
languages, Americans learn only English.’ He then asked, ‘Why is it that we
always have to speak English in these conferences rather than speaking
French?’

Without hesitating, the American Admiral replied n’Maybe it’s because the
Brits, Canadians, Aussies and Americans arranged it so you wouldn’t have to
speak German.’

You could have heard a pin drop.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

AND THIS STORY FITS RIGHT IN WITH THE ABOVE…

Robert Whiting, an elderly gentleman of 83, arrived in Paris by plane.  At
French Customs, he took a few minutes to locate his passport in his carry
on. ‘You have been to France before, monsieur?’ the customs officer asked
sarcastically.  Mr. Whiting admitted that he had been to France previously.
‘Then you should know enough to have your passport ready.’

The American said,  “‘The last time I was here, I didn’t have to show it.

“Impossible. Americans always have to show your passports on arrival in
France !’ stated the customs officer.

The American senior gave the Frenchman a long hard look. Then he quietly
explained, “‘Well, when I came ashore at Omaha Beach on D-Day in 1944 to
help liberate this country,I couldn’t find a single Frenchmen to show a
passport to.’

You could have heard a pin drop.
–

The poor and mostly black people in the public housing he and Tony Rezko provided.  There was no heat in the winter, poor maintenance and the units are now boarded-up. But have you seen pictures of Obama’s mansion?

Obama claims he cares about poor blacks, but a Boston Globe report exposed how for eight years Obama supported slum projects in Chicago.

Poor blacks living in rat and roach infested apartments condemned Obama for not caring about them.

Cynthia Ashley, a fourteen-year resident said: “No one should have to live like this, and no one did anything about it.”

Anthony Frizzell a twenty-year resident said: “In the winter I can feel the cold air coming through the walls and the sockets.”

Sharee Jones who has lived for years with the rats said: “You could hear them under the floor and in the walls, and they didn’t do nothing about it.”

Paul Johnson who helped organize a protest against Obama said: “Of course he knew. He just didn’t care.”

Showing he just didn’t care, Obama wrote letters on Illinois Senate letterhead supporting government loans for slum projects.

Obama coauthored the Illinois law that gave tax breaks to his slum lord friends, including now convicted felon Tony Rezko who helped Obama buy a million-dollar house.

As a US Senator, Obama worked to increase federal subsidies for his slum lord pals who donated more than $175,000 to Obama’s campaigns with Rezko raising another $200,000.
Illiteracy keeps Blacks poor and dependent. Obama as chairman of the board of The Annenberg challenge mis-spent hundreds of millions of dollars in “radicalizing” children rathre than empowering them by teaching them reading, writing and arithmetic. A athlete worth millions can lose everything if he’s illiterate and innumerate.

So, when Obama says he “worries” about people on the brink of retirement, or struggling with health problems or financing their education, think of all the good he’s done given a chance.

Sarah Palin gets the spiteful Margaret Thatcher treatment
By Janet Daley
Last Updated: 12:01am BST 04/09/2008

There are few sights more bloodcurdling than the liberal pack in full cry. The viciousness of the attacks on Sarah Palin is a testimony to the degree of panic her appointment has generated in Leftist circles.

It would seem that it is only sexist to trash a woman candidate if she is a Woman Candidate, which is to say a liberal.

It took about 20 minutes after John McCain announced her as his running mate for the attack machine to mobilise: woman candidate (bleep, bleep), no previous warning (nee-naw, nee-naw), exterminate, exterminate.

At first, it was pretty tenuous stuff: her husband had once been caught on a drink-drive charge – when he was 22 years old. You don’t say. In blue-collar America, having only one drink-drive offence pretty much qualifies you as a Grade A wimp.

Then the piranhas got hold of a real prize (or so they thought): the 17-year-old daughter of this Christian Evangelical family was pregnant.

Yes, these things happen – and this particular thing happens quite a lot among the working-class American families that Mrs Palin personifies. She and her daughter are being true to their convictions: the girl will have her baby and marry her boyfriend. There will be no abortion or adoption.

The Palin family will offer them love, compassion and support. What’s your problem? Christianity (even of the Evangelical sort) does not expect human beings to be faultless: it demands only that they make amends for their transgressions and accept responsibility for them.

The Evangelical churches have made it their particular mission in recent years to support teenage mothers and urge their families to stand by them. So where is the shame in this situation?

Now those who are not of the Palins’ religious persuasion may well feel that it is wrong to allow a 17-year-old to marry and start a family. If one of my daughters had become pregnant at the age of 17, would I have advised her to have the baby and marry the father? No, I would not.

Do I respect the decision of another mother and daughter to make that choice based on their own values? Yes, I do. And that – as far as I am concerned – is what it means to be a “liberal”. Which brings us to the subject of those hokey old redneck values that the Guardian and the blogosphere find so amusing (or pernicious, depending on their degree of dedication).

I personally am, and always have been, fervently pro-choice on abortion. I do not consider this to be the only sanctified Woman’s point of view because I am aware that huge numbers of women disagree with me.

Whenever I touch on the subject, they write in and tell me so, often in eloquent and passionate terms. But according to the official feminist sisterhood (which was taken over by the totalitarian Marxist tendency long ago) you can represent the views of Women only if you accept the tenets of their ideology. Ergo, Mrs Palin is not a Woman Candidate.

She is a renegade, the gender equivalent of an Uncle Tom. In the US, her position is particularly incendiary because it is part of the culture war between metropolitan liberals and provincial America: that vast fly-over country where people (or “folks”, as they call themselves) still live by the standards the Palin family embodies. Life is about hard work and hard play.

They hunt with guns from childhood. They talk about sin (and redemption) in ways that embarrass the urban elite, and they regard patriotism as a fundamental part of their moral code. (It is the liberals’ ambivalence about patriotism that they detest most.)

Like Margaret Thatcher before her, Mrs Palin is coming in for both barrels of Left-wing contempt: misogyny and snobbery. Where Lady Thatcher was dismissed as a “grocer’s daughter” by people who called themselves egalitarian, Mrs Palin is regarded as a small-town nobody by those who claim to represent “ordinary people”.

What the metropolitan sophisticates failed to understand in the 1980s when Thatcher won election after election is even more the case in the US: most (and I do mean most) ordinary people actually believe in the basic decencies, the “small-town values”, of family, marital fidelity, and personal responsibility. They believe in and honour them – even if they do not manage to uphold them.

Middle America – of which Alaska is spiritually, if not geographically, a part – builds its life around those ideals and regards commonplace moral lapses as part of the eternal struggle to be good.

The life of small-town USA is based on the principles of those Protestant colonial settlers who founded the nation: hard work, self-improvement, personal faith and family devotion. Mrs Palin speaks to and for them in a way that patronising “liberal” elitists find infuriating.

Those who don’t know history are doomed to repeat it…
__________________________

From Richmond Times-Dispatch, Monday, July 7, 2008 ~
Letters To The Editor

Dear Editor, Times-Dispatch:

Each year I get to celebrate Independence Day twice.
On June 30 I celebrate my independence day, and on
July 4 I celebrate America ’s.  This year is special, because
it marks the 40th anniversary of my independence.

On June 30, 1968, I escaped Communist Cuba, and a few
months later, I was in the United States to stay.  That
I happened to arrive in Richmond on Thanksgiving Day is
just part of the story, but I digress.

I’ve thought a lot about the anniversary this
year.  The election-year rhetoric has made me think a lot
about Cuba and what transpired there.  In the late
1950s, most Cubans thought Cuba needed a change, so
when a young leader came along, every Cuban
was at least receptive.

When the young leader spoke eloquently and
passionately and denounced the old system, the press fell
in love with him.  They never questioned who his friends
were or what he really believed in.  When he said he would
help the farmers and the poor and bring free medical care
and education to all, everyone followed.  When he said he
would bring justice and equality to all, everyone said,
‘Praise the Lord.’  And when the young leader
said, ‘I will be for change and I’ll bring you
change,’ everyone yelled, ‘Viva Fidel!’

But nobody asked about the change, so by the time the
executioner’s guns went silent, the people’s guns
had been taken away.  By the time everyone was equal,
they were equally poor, hungry, and oppressed.  By the
time everyone received their free education, it was worth
nothing.  By the time the press noticed, it was too late,
because they were now working for him.  By the time the
change was finally implemented, Cuba had been knocked
down a couple of notches to Third-World status.  By the
time the change was over, more than a million people had
taken to boats, rafts, and inner tubes.  You can call
those who made it ashore anywhere else in the world the
most fortunate Cubans.  And now I’m back to the
beginning of my story.

Luckily, we in America would never fall for a young
leader who promised change without asking, what change?
How will you carry it out?  What will it cost America ?

Would we?

Manuel Alvarez, Jr., Sandy Hook , VA