Flag Day 2006...

Flag Day 2006

"Don't need no stinkin papers to vote"....

Busby

Investor Business Daily had another great article on the comments by Liberal Democrat Francine Busby who told a group at a rally in San Diego “Yeah, you don’t need papers for voting, you don’t need to be a registered voter to help”.

She is now backtracking on her comments and is being allowed to do this by the mainstream media at the same time. Reports are that she meant that even if you are not registered you can still help with the campaign but many feel she meant what she said about not needing papers to vote…

This is nothing new with elections and efforts to correct this problem has met numerous hurdles by the Democrats. This is the party that is against having every voter present a valid photo identification before being allowed to vote. Photo Identification must be presented to do many common tasks done by everybody each day.

Back in 1995 President Clinton pushed thru a program that naturalized 1.2 million people without the usual scrutiny and background checks just in time for the 1996 elections.
Then there was the 1993 Motor voter law that allows anybody with a drivers license to register to vote. It is interesting that 14 states don’t require the person to prove citizenship to get a license and 17 states don’t require any identification to vote! Now get this. During the 2000 election Scripps Howard study found that 190 counties and the entire state of Maine had more voters than adults…..?

Is it only the Democrat party that benefits from these screwy laws? Probably not, but it is the Democrat party that fights tighter control on valid voter registration at every opportunity….

Standing up for the Troops....

Arlington


This was sent to me by "SWAC-Girl" and I had to post the photo and the link to the story for it is that good and we need to see more of this. I have had the opportunity to stand with people like this who "Stand in support of our Troops" and will not allow the media to show only the protesters & their views... Please go to the post with this link:
http://unitedconservatives.blogspot.com/2006/06/arlington-on-memorial-day-concretebob.html

I can only hope, and be proud to have a file on me with the Secret Service like ConcreteBobs....

From the Sand-Box 2

Sgt. Herb Harman

Thanks and a couple things from … “The Man in the Sand”

24 May 2006
Wed 1336hrs.

Hi from Baghdad,
Adjusting to yet another schedule and mission change. Should be getting accustomed by now but you never get used to it!

Thanks again for all you guys are doing back home for always backing us up. I’m sure by now we need it. Public opinion like it’s attention span is in need of constant reminders, just why terrorists are what they are. And of course what they would do to innocent civilians given the smallest opportunity.

As I stated I’m on a “New” mission, temporarily of course. I’ve been speaking and understanding a little more Arabic each day. The “Guys” I work with now all have many personal experiences with the old regime, the Bathists- AKA Saddams Govt. Although their beliefs and customs are markedly different from our home grown wisdom & philosophy , horror & terror are still the same ugly creatures of evil…

Spending a great deal of time with and getting to know the real Iraqis. One man told me of having 4 infants “Disposed of”, killed by Hussein Henchmen. Another had 2. Yes, some of these men have more than one wife, their culture is not our own but their emotion is real telling me of lost babies in Heaven now. Also one young mans Mother & Father- murdered in front of him for disloyalty to Saddams party. He, then escaping to relatives and joining the army to survive. Yet another- 2 others actually showed me their personal scars at the hands of professional torturers trying to change their opinions of Govt policies. One’s head has a long scar across his forehead from a “Metal-object”. Another’s back still remembers the pain inflicted by twisted minds and cruel beatings.

These good men are those from where I presently work. On previous sites I was at I may have mentioned the Kurdish militia Captain whose Brother was fed to Lions- Yes in coliseum style like in old Roman history. A Peshmerga militia Colonels family buried under their own home by tanks. Soviet tanks of Saddams army. And not by accident or consequence of battle, but deliberate intent to destroy a family neatly, efficiently and w\out protest…

Many other stories abound with each new day here on duty and with each new face I am fortunate to meet. I am blessed to have been born and raised in our lovely America. America is a great nation but has the attention span of a toddler lately…

Maybe if some heard of these tales they might realize how important it is to keep terrorism on it’s own turf. To fight them here is horror enough. But imagine some of the things mentioned in our own homes- our own schools & churches…

Maybe, but then again America hasn’t experienced anything like this for nearly 150 years. And with the attention span of a 2 year old. Well there it is then…

The good news? Stuff like this doesn’t happen at all… over here now…
Maybe it wasn’t such a bad idea after all…

Your friend in Baghdad,
Herb

Cruelty to Animals

Va. Governor
If Global Warming does not kill off the animal population this treatment will...

Memorial Day Weekend 2006...

Point Pleasant NJ.

Had the opportunity to go to New Jersey to Scuba Dive with friends who are members of the Point Pleasant Rescue Dive Team in Point Pleasant NJ... While up there getting ready for a dive a rescue call came in with a report of a person caught in the "Jacks" of the Mannasquan Inlet Jetty...

Full story can be found at:

http://ptrescuedive.blogspot.com/

United Flight 93...

September 11th, 2001

Took a ride over and saw the movie "Flight 93" today and once again I am amazed at how we choose not to keep this day of attacks and the war on terrorism on the front page. It has been interesting to hear that many feel it is to early for this type of movie and that the “Pain & Terror” are still to fresh in the minds of the American people… The majority of the media has been nice enough to keep images of the planes hitting the World Trade Center subdued for it may harm the society it strives to protect. Each anniversary of the attacks we see less and less coverage of these attacks on the people of the United States…

During the first year after the attacks on the American people I began to buy many of the documentaries made about the attacks and the news coverage of September 11th. I have even found several on the structural effects and damage of the planes hitting both towers and the Pentagon. Having some engineering background I found these very interesting on how they explain the eventual collapse of the towers and the Pentagon…

I find myself pulling these documentaries out from time to time when I find myself becoming too comfortable with the history of these attacks and how I felt that day. I know beforehand that viewing these documentaries will effect me and take me back to the day of the attacks and the days following. It is to a point where I know that I will not enjoy viewing the footage of the attacks and I never sit for the whole DVD without pausing it and walking away for a bit. I do return and view the whole program and each time it brings me back to perspective that our country was attacked and 3,000+ citizens died on that day of attack.

The movie “Flight 93” is of the same caliber and will be added to the “Library” when it comes out on DVD. It was interesting to see the events of the United Airlines Flight 93 that crashed in the field near Shanksville Pennsylvania after the passengers attempted to take back the plane from the terrorists. I have read the 911 Commission Report several times regarding the events on Flight 93 but the movie brings the emotion of the attacks out to be viewed directly… This movie is well worth the effort and I believe it was done correctly so not to push an “Agenda” one way or the other…

The photo above is of the World Trade Center towers after being hit by the planes flown by the terrorists. Flight 93 never made it to it’s intended target which we believe to have been the Capitol or the White House in Washington D.C.

There is one major newspaper that will publish photos from time to time to remind us of this very important event that is very young in our history. It is the Investor’s Business Daily ( IBD) which I have used many times for facts and issues when posting to this blog. A few weeks back on it’s “Issue & Insights” page there was a large photo of one of the towers collapsing in the middle of the page with nothing but the words “September 11th, 2001” attached to it. No stories. No opinion pieces. No “Spin” pieces. Nothing. Not the anniversary but months away from the actual anniversary of the attacks. In fact to the left of the photo was the daily column “From the Left” and to the right was the column “From the Right” and neither of the pieces mentioned the photo…

We need to be reminded of these attacks so as not to become comfortable with the history of this event…

The issue of "Spin"...

Numbers Game...

"The numbers can say anything you want them to say"....
That is one of the first things I was told when working as a Buyer\Operations manager for a Six Flags park Merchandise department during college years... I remember going into meetings each day before the park would open to go over prior days financial numbers. Each dept would have a print out with the "Percapita" spent in each dept as a guide to how well they did. Afetr a rain day the merch dept would have a very high percap number due to the bump in $5 rain ponchos sold that day. $5 retail at a cost of $0.35 did well for the profit margin also... Problem was the amount of people in the park would be less due to the rain and thus total revenue would be down... My retail Vice-President would lean over and say "The numbers can say anything you want them to say, it all depends on how much $$$ you put in the bank at the end of the week"...

Recently I linked to a story that appeared in the "Sun" newspaper about the violent death rate in Iraq as compared to cities in the United States. This resulted in numerous responses as to what numbers were used to obtain the rate and led to debate(s) on how numbers & info are spun by both sides to get the desired effect... I posted that story to highlight the problem we have with both the violent death rate in a war zone and here in the states. The amazing thing is that the debate went to proving or dis-proving the numbers used to get the rate instead of discussing the problem as I thought it would... Just this past week we had a guy go into work and kill two other workers before killing himself. No war zone here, it was in Harrisonburg Virginia just down the road from where I work...

This whole thing made me think about how numbers\info can be "Spun"...
Remember a few years back when Rosie O'Donnell would claim that hundreds(?) of children were being killed by guns each week? The spin here was that when she said "Children" she was also counting anybody under the age of 18 in her numbers. Many of the "Children" killed were gang members involved in drive-by's and drug wars....

"44 million un-insured Americans" is also another statement that can be looked at. How many of these people are covered under a parents insurance program not in their name? How many are 18 year olds that feel "Invincible" and choose to spend their money on I-pod's, CD's, toys, etc? There are many that can't afford insurance that they need but how many of the 44 million choose to spend their money in other places?

This past week Congress approved extending the Bush Tax-cuts to the year 2010 and somebody in the media did a spot on the street with the reporter waving a $20 bill and saying this was all the taxcut meant to the average person on the street. No data as to what the average person income or tax bill on the street was but a broad statement to back that reporters view. This reminds me of back in 2001 when then Senator Tom Daschle stood in front of a Lexus and said “If you’re a millionaire, under the Bush tax cut, you get a $46,000 tax cut, more then enough to pay for this Lexus. But if you are a typical working person, you get $227 and that’s enough to buy this muffler”. Now I was living in Key West at the time and some guy wrote into the local newspaper and stated that Daschle should have been standing in front of a $390,000 house to represent the amount of tax that millionaire pays in taxes for each million earned…

There have also been many polls out there recently and these numbers can be manipulated to get the desired result. There have been numerous polls that show that the majority of those polled want the U.S. out of Iraq. The % ratio changes a lot if you re-phrase the question by asking the question “Do you want the U.S. out of Iraq before the Iraqi government is secure and able to protect themselves?” With polls it’s all how you ask the question sometimes…

Also last week senate minority leader Harry Reid got up in front of the senate to pull out the race card again when they were voting to approve a amendment to make English the official language of the United States.
“This amendment is racist. I think it is directed basically to people who speak Spanish” The amendment was passed on a vote of 63-34 vote.

The issue here is that many media groups did not include the fact that the amendment proposed english being the official language of Government Operations in the United States.

84% of Americans say that English should be the official language of government operations and 77% of Hispanics agree…

As the photo below shows. Everybody can see something different when looking at the same thing...

'Nektonic" on the trail...

Appalachian Trail

Took a hike up on the Appalachian Trail this past week and saw some pretty interesting things. Above is a photo of a rock formation alongside the trail near the "Pinnacle" located in the Virginia section. Nice hike up to the Pinnacle and it has an outstanding view of the area...

Also ran into some of those "Flag Waving" Republicans who were also up on the trail and ran into them at this shelter. Actually they looked alot like "Evil Halliburton Scientist" looking for oil rich areas in the Appalachian area...

The numbers are out...

"The Numbers got out"


Heard about this story today when listening to Rush and checked the New York Sun for the article and to get some of the numbers...
http://www.nysun.com/article/32787

For some time many of the Democrats have been sure to bring up the casualties of the Iraq war whenever they can but how does the casualty rates of the cities they represent and other countries compare?

According to the Sun article the violent death rate per 100,000 in Iraq is 25.71
Compared to other countries the rate in Columbia is 61.7 per 100,000...
South Africa rate is 49.6
Jamaica is 32.4
Venezuela comes in at 31.6 violent deaths per 100,000

Now for some of the rates in our own country...

New Orleans before Hurricane Katrina was 53.1 per 100,000
The nations capitol Washington D.C. comes in at 45.9
Just up the road in Baltimore it is 37.7
Head down South to Atlanta and you find the rate is 34.9 per 100,000

And all of these compare to Iraq where the violent death rate 25.71 per 100,000
and that includes the war casualties...
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Update: This topic and News report that appeared in the New York Sun resulted in a extended debate about what numbers were used to get the different rates. One of this blogs visitors provided a link to a Wall Street Journal article that also discussed this issue. It is at http://www.opinionjournal.com/best/?id=110008392 and is a very good article on this subject and the way information is viewed. See article "How does Iraq Rate?"