"Let me take this opportunity"...

Pelosi

Once again Democrat Minority leader Nancy Pelosi had to take the opportunity to go "Political" when officials, by law, required American evacuees from Lebanon to sign promissory notes to repay for the cost of their evacuation.

"A nation that can provide more than $300 billion for a war in Iraq can provide the money to get it's people out of Lebanon".

Somehow Pelosi forgets the 1956 law that authorizes the State Department to require this promissory to repay the "Taxpayers" that are footing the bill for the removal of people like this who travel into known areas of unrest. Pelosi also seems to forget that she voted for the renewel of this law back in 2003 when it came up along with 170 House Democrats... We are only talking $150-$300 to fly these people out of Lebanon to a safe island.The State Department has since waived the fees...

And yes you guessed it. The Arab-American Anti-Discrimination Committee has filed a lawsuit against the United States on behalf of about 30 Americans claiming that Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Defense Secretary Rumsfeld failed to protect while in Lebanon...

Info for this post came from the Investor Business Daily...

Hey, Iraq on line two...

Iraq call...

Phone call from Baghdad, Iraq
Our heros call to thank From Our Hearts for care packages
Wednesday, July 26, 2006

What a wonderful surprise! Benny Rankin, owner of T-Bone Tooter's Restaurant in Churchville, received a phone call today from Augusta County resident Mike Flook who is stationed in Baghdad.

His group of men, firefighters in Iraq, had received the first shipment of boxes from Hearts and they were very grateful! Mike said he was so overwhelmed he had to call personally and thank everyone for what they're doing for them. He was so very, very touched that people back home hadn't forgotten about them and that people really cared.

He said his men had been down-in-the-dumps recently ... but the arrival of packages from home had boosted their morale and had them laughing and singing and checking out all the goodies -- "Look what's in this one!" -- and they felt appreciated.

There are 10 more men in that Unit so we are upping their shipment from 10 to 20 which will make our total shipments weekly at 160 care packages.


Want to help?
All the work that goes into setting up, packing, and mailing packages weekly is worth it when something happens like that one phone call ... or a letter of thanks ... or a photo of "our guys" over there. But it's only through help from the community that we're able to continue with this program.

What do we need? We need more items from the soldiers' Wish List (see www.fromrhearts.blogspot.com) and donations to pay for shipping.

Items can be dropped off at CellOne in Statler Square Shopping Center
in Staunton, at Staunton Colonial Mall's Customer Service Desk, and at T-Bone Tooter's Restaurant in Churchville.

Donations can be mailed to: From Our Hearts, T-Bone Tooter's Restaurant, P.O. Box 504, Churchville, VA 24421.

Questions? Respond to this email or call T-Bone Tooter's at 337-6500.

Troop Wish List... AT&T Phone Cards, Air Fresheners (No Aerosol Cans), Baby Wipes / Wet Wipes, Band-Aids, Bandanna, Batteries, Beef Jerky, Book LightsBooks \ Brown Washcloth & Towels, Candy (No Chocolate), Canned Chicken, CD's & DVD's, Chapstick, Cheese (That can stand heat), Chips, Cookies, Crackers, Deoderant (Travel Size), Desitine, Disposable Cameras, Duct Tape, Electrical Tape, Eye Drops, Fans (Hand-held), First Aid Kits, foot Powder, Hankerchief, Lotion (Travel Size), Microwave Meals (Hormel), Neosporin, Off (Bug Repellant), Paper \ Envelopes \ Pens, Peanuts, Potted Meat, Powered Drink Mix, Ramen Noodles, Sewing Kits (Travel size), Shampoo (Travel size), Shop Towels, Slim Jims, Soap (Travel size), Soap Holders, Socks (White over the calf), Soup (Pop top, heat & serve), Stridex Pads, Sunflower Seeds, Toothbrush and holders, Toothpaste (Travel Size), Tuna, Twin Sheets / Bed pillows, Zip Ties, Ziplock bags (Qt & Gallon size), * Things not to send.... Pork Products, Chocolate, Aerosol Cans... Donations always welcomed for it allows us to purchase those items needed to make complete "Packages"....

Allen \ Webb Debate Audio...

Commonwealth Conservative has provided a link to get the audio for the
George Allen \ James Webb debate this past weekend...

http://vaconservative.com/archives/2006/07/25/debate-audio-2/

Churchville Parade...

Churchville VA. Parade 2006

The 2006 Churchville Parade started off with heavy rains during the set-up period but the rain stopped 5 minutes into the parade. The Augusta County Republican group still provided a strong presence in the parade and was welcomed by many of those braving the rain for the parade...

Delegate Chris Saxman once again walked the entire parade and met with many familar faces along the route. Chris has always enjoyed this parade and is sure to participate every year for the opportunity to meet and spend time with the residents of the area...

Emily Griffin, Republican precinct captain for Pastures District, rode the float and threw candy to many watchers along the route...

T-BoneTooters provided their favorite "Toy" for the parade and continue their outstanding work in supporting the troops with their "From Our Hearts" program. This program has already sent two shipments of 150 "Care" packages each to troops serving in Iraq & Afghanistan. Additional information can be found at: www.fromrhearts.blogspot.com

Webb's Guantanamo comment...

Guantanamo

Last night after attending the Allen \ Webb debate at The Homestead I posted some quick observations of the debate and decided to wait and see what the media reported. The majority of the Newspapers used the AP story that was released and the television news sources used pretty much the same footage of the event…

An interesting comment was made by Democrat Candidate Jim Webb during the debate that I see the media sources “elected’ not to use in their coverage. Once again Webb was working the thread about how the Bush administration continues the “Slash & Burn” policy. The question was to Senator Allen by a panelist about tribunals and the use of wiretaps in the fight on terrorism and it was time for Webb to respond to the Senators comments. Regarding Guantanamo, Webb stated that “The rest of the world is watching” and we should expect the same poor treatment if our soldiers are captured…

I attended this debate with friends from Augusta County and one of them is the Mother of a Marine who was killed in Iraq defending our country in the war on terrorism. I was not sitting with her during the debate but afterwards I walked over to her and the first thing she commented on was Webb’s Guantanamo comment. If two people, and I suspect many others in the room, can have the same thought it would be this on Webb’s comment.

“Expect” the same poor treatment? Does Democrat candidate James Webb remember what these terrorist did to two of our brave soldiers just a few weeks back? The way that they tortured these men and then decapitated them? Is Democrat candidate James Webb aware of what the terrorist have done to our captured troops in both Iraq & Afghanistan in the past? Does the Democrat Candidate remember how terrorist have dragged the bodies of our fallen soldiers in the streets?

Does Webb understand that the terrorist held in Guantanamo Bay were caught on the battlefield, not in uniform, and trying to kill our troops? Does Democrat candidate James Webb, and those supporting Webb, understand why we need a strong Senator like George Allen who supports the troops and our President in this vital war on terrorism? This is why this guy is way out of his league and repeating sound bites like “Slash & Burn” with no content just will not cut it…

I hope to see that somebody in the media “elects” to report Webb’s comment to the public and the voters get to see this side of the Democrat candidate…

If not this is the value of having a format like “Blogs” to get the information out to the people…