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Air Force Lt. Col. Tom Schmidt, Air Component Coordination Element airspace planner, observes while Iraq Civil Aviation Authority members discuss the new Iraqi airway structure, Nov. 18. Photo by Tech. Sgt. Johnny Saldivar, U.S. Air Forces Central, Baghdad Media Outreach Team. BAGHDAD — The Iraq Civil Aviation Authority (ICAA) opened several new north to south routes within Iraqi air space, Nov. 18. In addition to the ICAA, members of the U.S. Air Force Air Component Coordination Element (ACCE), Washington Consulting Group (WCG) and various other agencies played a crucial role in opening these airways.According to Ali Khlil Ibrahim, Iraqi director...

President Barack Obama used a dinner-time address to the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation to make an impassioned plea for health care reform, placing it in the tradition of the civil rights struggle. Obama, who last year addressed the group as one of its members, was hailed as "our great president" by caucus chair Rep. Barbara Lee (D-Calif.). The crowd was jubilant as Obama came to the stage with first lady Michelle Obama, who Rep. Kendrick Meek introduced, saying she had "brought a new flavor to this country.

It's the iconic photo that captures the essence of the Spanish Civil War: a soldier falling to his death, arms splayed out behind him, gun still in hand, after being shot on a grassy hill. But new evidence now claims to prove once and for all that the camera does lie - and Robert Capa's famous Falling Soldier was faked.

KUNAR PROVINCE, Afghanistan, May 21, 2009 – The civil affairs soldiers based at Forward Operating Base Blessing here have one goal for the province: change. “That’s what it’s all about, change,” said Army Sgt. 1st Class Robert Campos, the civil affairs team’s noncommissioned officer in charge. “You have to show the people that change is coming, and it’s coming soon.” Since arriving in Afghanistan in October, Army Cpl. Ronald Clemente and his two fellow Army reservists for the 416th Civil Affairs Battalion, based in San Diego, have been working toward bringing that change, fighting to win the local people’s trust...

The show-me state made the news recently when the Missouri Information Analysis Center, a state-federal law-enforcement partnership, released an inflammatory report alleging that libertarians, constitutionalists, supporters of Texas Rep. Ron Paul, and other people skeptical of powerful government should be considered as potential terrorists-in-the-making. The controversial document has since been withdrawn, but you have to wonder when a twenty-something official with Ron Paul's Campaign for Liberty gets rousted by TSA agents in the St. Louis airport for carrying ... cash. Steve Bierfeldt, Director of Development for the organization, kept his cool during the encounter. We know that because he activated...

On 29 December 2008 the Wall Street Journal ran a piece about Igor Panarin, dean of the Russian Foreign Ministry’s diplomatic academy. A former KGB officer, Panarin made a splash by predicting that America will probably come under martial law by the end of 2009, and may fracture into several states by 2011. When this happens, says Panarin, Russia and China will become the mainstays of a new global order. Americans are naturally skeptical of Panarin’s analysis. But his conclusions are quite pedestrian. If North America sank beneath the ocean like the fabled continent of Atlantis, the world would belong...

When we think of the word "chaos," normally we associate it with spontaneous acts of malcontents rebelling without a cause. But most of the chaos in the world today is what I call "directed chaos" – usually government-directed and with one single-minded purpose: the consolidation of power. That's the way I interpret the so-called "economic stimulus" legislation approved by the Democrat-controlled Congress and signed by President Obama. There is no way it will stimulate the economy. It will have the opposite effect – lengthening and deepening the economic crisis in which America finds itself. Does anyone truly believe we're in...

Holding signs reading "Stimulate Business, Not Government," "Families Against Porkulus" and "Say No To Generational Theft," protesters opposed to the $787 billion stimulus package have been mobilizing across the country. It started last Monday in Seattle, then moved Tuesday to Denver, where President Obama signed the stimulus bill into law. That was followed by another one in Mesa, Ariz., where Obama unveiled a mortgage rescue plan. Another protest was planned for Saturday outside the office of Rep. Dennis Moore in Overland Park, Kan. The Democrat voted for the stimulus. His office didn't return calls seeking comment. A New Populism? As...

The day after declaring his support for civil unions, Gov. Jon Huntsman Jr. canceled a press conference and held other meetings at the governor's mansion rather than in his office in the Capitol. His spokeswoman, Lisa Roskelley, declined Wednesday to comment on any threats that may have been received by the governor's office. She said the majority of the calls and e-mails made to the office, however, were to say "thank you." Huntsman's statement that he backs civil unions "in the broadest sense" as well as the "Common Ground" legislative initiative intended to extend the benefits of marriage to gay...

An outside agency will take control of the internal investigation of the Jan. 1 shooting death of an unarmed BART passenger in an effort to boost public trust in the handling of the incident. BART has been the target of public outrage since the New Year’s Day shooting of Oscar Grant III, 22, of Hayward. Amateur videos show former BART police Officer Johannes Mehserle fire a fatal shot into Grant’s back as the young father lay face down and restrained on Oakland’s Fruitvale station platform. A new video that surfaced last week showed a second officer punching Grant prior to...

OAKLAND, Calif. -- Embattled Oakland police chief Wayne Tucker, whose force has been rocked by a drug search warrant scandal and an FBI investigation, has resigned from his post. Tucker’s spokesman Jeff Thomason told KTVU that reports of the chief’s resignation “were probably true.” Mayor Ron Dellums has called a 9 a.m. news conference to make an announcement about Tucker’s future with the force. When approached Monday night, Chief Tucker would not comment on the status of his job, even as word spread around City Hall that he had resigned. Reports circulating were so specific that one city councilmember said...

BART officials said Saturday that they will investigate the actions of one of the transit agency's police officers after a video surfaced showing the officer striking a passenger - apparently Oscar Grant - minutes before the unarmed young man was fatally shot by another officer early on New Year's Day. The cell phone video, one of a handful that have surfaced, aired Friday night on KTVU-TV. It shows a male BART police officer walking over to three men lined up against a wall near a female officer, and then striking one in the face. The victim of the punch -...

Multi-National Division South East BASRA – Iraqi authorities took control of the Basrah International Airport from Coalition supervision today in a ceremony in the southern city of Basra. This transfer of authority comes after four years of operation since it closed after the start of the war in 2003. On hand for the event was Basrah Governor Mohamad El Wa'ili, Basrah International Airport Director Abdul Ameer, Director General of the Iraqi Civil Aviation Administration Sebeeh Al Shebany and Multi-National Division-South East Commander British Maj. Gen. Andy Salmon, as well as other officials, members of Iraqi Security forces and Iraqi media....

BASRAH — Twenty-three Iraqi Security Force officers from the Basrah Police and Iraqi Army 14th Division came together to participate in an Iraqi-led, three-day Civil-Military Operations course here, Dec. 21-23. The course focused on increasing ISF abilities by covering topics such as roles and responsibilities for civil-military operators, emergency management, key leader engagement, population and resource controls and CMO information management. Currently, the class is made up of mostly young officers: first and second lieutenants. Class leaders said this is how Iraq will grow future leaders that are able to take initiative and work together. “These officers will be more...

American Civil Rights Union TheACRU.org As usual, the ACLU misreads the Constitution, and sides with those who would attack America and murder Americans, instead of following the Constitution and protecting Americans and America. The latest example is the ACLU promotion of the interests of an Al Qaeda representative in the US. The facts for this article, but not all of the legal conclusions, come from an article in the Los Angeles Times on 5 December, 2008. It concerns an apparent representative of Al Qaeda in the US, who is also a legal resident in the US. On 5 December, the...

On October 31, 2006, I released a column titled When 51-49 becomes 49-51 in which I stated, “Nearly every American senses a horrific problem on the horizon. But due to massive amounts of disinformation, few know the cause or can see what, if anything, to do about it.” ... * The unalienable right to life - Gone with Roe vs. Wade! * The unalienable right to individual liberty - Replaced with a greater common good! * The unalienable right to pursue happiness - Gone with the XVI Amendment and oppressive punitive taxation. * Free speech - Gone with political correctness,...

Atlanta Mayor Shirley Franklin said Wednesday the city will have its employees cut their hours — and pay — by 10 percent each week to help weather an expected budget shortfall of $50 million to $60 million. The pay and hour cuts affect 4,600 city employees. She also said the city will have to cut back some services, dip into its reserves and make other personnel moves.

McCahill imposed the full 15 years that a jury in April said Bevel should serve for having sex with one of his daughters in the 1990s, when they lived in Leesburg. Under Virginia law, McCahill could decrease, but not increase, the jury's sentence. Bevel's attorney, Deputy Public Defender Bonnie H. Hoffman, told McCahill that it would be regrettable if a man "who brought the vote to so many people" did not get to cast a ballot in such a historic election as this year's. Hoffman said she will appeal.

KIRKUK, Iraq, Sept. 17, 2008 – Former members of “Sons of Iraq” citizen security groups in Iraq’s Kirkuk province took the next step in improving their communities this week as they became apprentices in the Civil Service Corps. On Sept. 14, Hawijah celebrated the start of a new CSC and the next day, two started in Dibis. "The CSCs are intended to provide the necessary training, education and skill that will allow the graduates to seek and attain good-paying jobs and to begin the hard task of rebuilding Iraq village by village, city by city," said Army Lt. Col. Kevin...

Obama-hosted posting agrees with Islamic Supremacists that America is the “Great Satan” The Obama campaign, under pressure from exposure at The Husaria: For Our Freedom and Yours and Free Republic finally deleted Marilyn Wright's "Fire Bill and Hillary," which expresses a wish for Bill and Hillary Clinton to be lynched and shot, wishes for Bill Clinton to die from a heart attack, and calls Bill Clinton "white trash." We have provided the Google cache link so our readers can see this sideshow freak for themselves--on a site "Paid For by Obama for America." Contrary to the disclaimer, "Content on blogs...

Bubba dances with Obambi - scalp dance

Everyone knows this, but it's worth repeating: The Republican Party is the party of Abraham Lincoln and was established in 1854 to block the expansion of slavery. The Democratic Party was the party of slavery: Its two founders, Thomas Jefferson and Andrew Jackson, owned large numbers of slaves, and every party platform before the Civil War defended the institution unequivocally. After the war, it was the Republican Party that rammed through the 13th, 14th and 15th amendments to the Constitution over Democratic opposition. Republicans also enacted a series of civil-rights laws that culminated in the Civil Rights Act of 1875,...

HELMAND PROVINCE, Afghanistan, June 24, 2008 – U.S. Marines and British forces of Task Force Helmand opened a joint civil-military operations center yesterday near the British Forward Operating Base Delhi in the Garmsir district here. On its first day, the CMOC had 31 visitors and paid 15 claims. The Marines established the CMOC and provided the initial administration, command and control to run it, and will continue to maintain the secure environment in which the center will operate, officials said. Their focus will be battle damage reparations and coordinating with those follow-on agencies to continue the work of reconstruction and...

LBJ should share in Obama's success Johnson's voting rights program marked an earlier pivotal point in American history. And yet his name is rarely invoked. By Carl Leubsdorf As former aides, historians and journalists met recently at a celebration of Lyndon Johnson's 100th birthday, a persistent theme was the way echoes of his presidency still reverberate through the nation's politics. Four decades after Johnson's inability to settle the Vietnam War destroyed his presidency, the nation is coping with how to extricate itself from another quagmire - in Iraq. But the impact of his landmark domestic achievements, especially the historic measures...

HABBANIYAH — One Civil Affairs Group (CAG), although only recently arriving to Iraq, is already making improvements to the quality of life of the Iraqi people. During a routine mission March 17, CAG, 2nd Battalion, 11th Marine Regiment, Regimental Combat Team 1, stopped by the Habbaniyah mayor’s office for a meeting. They intended to discuss the quality of the water treatment facilities in the Coolie Camp area. “Unfortunately, the mayor wasn’t available. We were supposed to pick-up some documents from him, but he was called to Ramadi by the governor,” said 2nd Lt. Matt R. Ashton, the officer in charge....

As a black American, I would love to see a class action law suit against those responsible for the big lie,“Blacks can't make it in America”. Black America vs The Modern Civil Rights Movement. Big Civil Rights is guilty of an relentless and cruel self aggrandizing effort to instill victim and entitlement mindsets into black youths. Damages are extensive including an elevated percentage of black males in prison, school dropouts, illegitimate births, stolen dreams, racial hatred and anti-patriotism. My witnesses for the prosecution would begin with Oprah, Chris Gardner, portrayed in the movie, “The Pursuit of Happyness” and the roster...

SHARPSBURG - Antietam National Battlefield is one of the 10 most endangered battlefields in the United States, according to a list released Wednesday by the Civil War Preservation Trust (CWPT). The battlefield is "threatened with a 120-foot-tall cellular tower that would be visible from all of the battlefield's most famous vantage points," according to a CWPT press release. Monocacy National Battlefield near Frederick, Md., also is on the list, which also includes sites in several states from Virginia to Oklahoma. National Park Service officials were notified in December 2007 of a proposal to erect a stealth cell tower south of...

After Miami handyman Glenn Rudge was accused of shoplifting an $8 set of drill bits at Home Depot, he thought he'd settled the matter when he showed his receipt to prosecutors and they dropped the charge.But a few weeks later, a law firm hired by Home Depot began sending him letters demanding first $3,000, then a total of $6,000, implying he'd be sued if he didn't pay it. In an escalating battle against theft, retailers are going after anyone suspected of shoplifting, turning over their names to lawyers and collection firms, who pursue the suspects for stiff penalties and split...

How conservative is Mr. McCain? During his quarter century in Washington, the senator has assembled an 82% rating from the American Conservative Union, placing him 39th among senators in 2006, while drawing a 25% lifetime rating from the liberal American Civil Liberties Union. Hillary Clinton, by contrast, has a 75% ACLU lifetime rating. A scorecard by the antitax Club for Growth, a conservative political-action committee, ranked him 29th among 55 Republican senators in 2006.

WASHINGTON, Jan. 16, 2008 – Operation Phantom Phoenix, a series of division- and brigade-level strikes against al Qaeda and other extremists in Iraq, continues to disrupt terrorist safe havens and bases, a top military official said. The joint coalition-Iraqi forces operation, launched Jan. 8, also is achieving gains for Iraqi citizens, Army Maj. Gen. Kevin Bergner, a spokesman for Multinational Force Iraq, told reporters today during a briefing at Camp Victory. in Baghdad. “This is a tough fight on many levels, and it will continue to be so,” he said. “But even as offensive operations pressure the extremist networks, there...

BEGIN TRANSCRIPT (Music: When Johnny Comes Marching Home) RUSH: We'll start today with the Democrats, ladies and gentlemen. There's an uncivil war brewing on the left. On one side, African-Americans. On the other side, Clinton-Americans. And caught in the middle of this, the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. The Clintons, ladies and gentlemen, plain for all to see, will do or say anything to win. But now the question: Will African-Americans take anything? Amazing to watch this, is it not? Clintonistas are saying about Obama -- and Obama saying about the Clintons -- what they have been saying for...

I guarantee you it’ll be looked back upon as pivotal in terms of Romney’s first run for President down the line in terms of political history. Keep in mind the following quote: Mitt Romney on Thursday called the failure of inner city schools “the great civil rights issue of our time.” This man impresses me more and more every day… Health Care, Race Relations, Immigration, Education…there isn’t one issue where he’s trumped by another candidate… LONDONDERRY, N.H. - Republican presidential hopeful Mitt Romney on Thursday called the failure of inner city schools “the great civil rights issue of our time.”...

US says Iraqi rebel head is an inventionTina Susman in Baghdad July 20, 2007 IN MARCH, he was declared captured. In May, he was declared killed, and his purported corpse was displayed on state-run TV. On Wednesday, Omar al-Baghdadi, the supposed leader of an al-Qaeda-affiliated group in Iraq, was declared non-existent by US military officials, who say he is a fictional character created to give an Iraqi face to a foreign-run terrorist group. In reality, said Brigadier-General Kevin Bergner, an Iraqi actor has read statements attributed to al-Baghdadi, who has been identified since October as the leader of the group,...

The mother of a San Luis Obispo man who died after an attempted organ donation at Sierra Vista Regional Medical Center last year claims she never gave hospital officials consent to take her son off life-support and was misinformed when agreeing to the organ harvest, according to a wrongful death lawsuit. Rosa Navarro also alleges in her June 29 civil lawsuit that a transplant surgeon misrepresented himself as her son’s doctor, an allegation the surgeon’s attorney strongly denies. She also said she agreed to the organ donation only because she believed her son had no chance of survival. Defendants in...

LSA ANACONDA, Iraq, May 31, 2007 – Rifles, pistols and tanks are a few tools of war. Active listening, patience and cooperation are a few of the tools used by Capt. Glen A. Stambone, a civil affairs officer with the 13th Sustainment Command (Expeditionary). Every Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday, starting at 8:30 a.m., the Civil Military Operations Center (CMOC) lets the people’s voices be heard. Most of those voices are speaking Arabic. In order to provide good customer service, the civil affairs office here uses two interpreters. Stambone said one is more of a “street smart” interpreter, the other is...

Point being: no matter what flags Americans have served under — or causes they have fought for — since initially choosing between the colonies and the Crown back in 1775, all are indeed Americans. ... U.S. Navy Commodore Stephen Decatur said in 1815, nearly a half-century before the Civil War: “Our country! In her intercourse with foreign nations may she always be in the right; but our country, right or wrong!” ... We remember those soldiers and sailors — right or wrong — in various annual observances, from Veterans Day to Armed Forces Day. This week, we remember the dead....

The liberals have used "civil disobedience" for decades. It has worked on occassion. Do you think such actions are right or wrong?

CONCORD, N.H. --Gov. John Lynch told The Associated Press on Thursday he will sign legislation establishing civil unions in New Hampshire. New Hampshire thus will become the fourth state to adopt civil unions and the first to do so without first having a court fight over denying gays the right to marry.

There is NO "civil war" in Iraq

I often wonder how we in the 21st-century would manage the tragedy surrounding the sinking of one of our ships at sea when in some cases, during World War II, thousands of sailors and Marines perished within minutes. After all, would it not have been "criminal" – by today's standards according to some political commentators – to send our young men to sea in ships not adequately protected from submarine attacks or suicide pilots?

Gaza on brink of civil war as cleric is killed By Tim Butcher in Jerusalem Last Updated: 2:00am GMT 06/01/2007 An unarmed Muslim cleric was shot dead as he drove home from leading prayers yesterday, the latest victim of the Gaza Strip violence that is threatening to spiral into all-out civil war. The funeral of Col Ghayeb saw a huge display of Fatah firepower on the streets of Gaza City Witnesses said Adel Nassar, 50, was murdered because, during his sermon, he dared criticise the killers of a Fatah security chief and seven of his bodyguards. That attack, on Thursday,...

Some major U.S. news networks are now describing the violence in Iraq as "civil war," but President Bush is refusing to go that far. At a news conference in Estonia Tuesday morning, President Bush said Iraq is engulfed in "sectarian violence" fomented by al Qaeda and other extremists who can't stand the idea of a democratic nation in the heart of the Middle East. "We've been in this phase for a while," Bush said. He said the recent bombings "are part of a pattern that has been going on for about nine months" - ever since the bombing of a...

Note that this came during a time when the tide was turning against the South. Note how the Southern soldier stands upright, with a broken sword underfoot, while the Northern Soldier is dejected and "broken"... (Where have we heard that before?) Note the phrase, "useless war." Should we have listened to the defeatists back then, and have allowed the odious practice of slavery to go on? Should we listen to the defeatists now, and allow Islamo-fascism to rule the day?

Muslims are waging civil war against us, claims police union By David Rennie, Europe Correspondent (Filed: 05/10/2006) Radical Muslims in France's housing estates are waging an undeclared "intifada" against the police, with violent clashes injuring an average of 14 officers each day. Interior minister Nicolas Sarkozy was warned of an 'intifada' As the interior ministry said that nearly 2,500 officers had been wounded this year, a police union declared that its members were "in a state of civil war" with Muslims in the most depressed "banlieue" estates which are heavily populated by unemployed youths of north African origin. It said...

WASHINGTON, Sept. 21, 2006 – Though violence and crime continue to hinder progress, the challenge in Afghanistan isn’t military in nature, the commander of coalition forces serving in that country said here today. “The coalition, NATO and Afghan national security forces dominate wherever they encounter the enemy,” Army Lt. Gen. Karl Eikenberry said at a Pentagon news conference. “The critical task at this stage is strengthening the government of Afghanistan, developing the economy, and helping to build Afghan civil society.” The general acknowledged that terrorists, militant extremists, drug traffickers and a determined criminal element have hindered progress. “Their influence has...

WASHINGTON, Aug. 27, 2006 – Despite a recent increase in violence in Baghdad, Iraq is not on a path toward civil war, the commander of U.S. Central Command said yesterday. Army Gen. John Abizaid recently visited Baghdad and talked with Army Gen. George W. Casey Jr., the highest-ranking military commander in Iraq, as well as Iraqi government officials. He also had the opportunity see the situation in Baghdad firsthand while moving around the city with coalition forces. Abizaid said he left confident that progress is being made on the Baghdad security plan. “It’s still too soon to say how the...

WASHINGTON, Aug. 27, 2006 – Iraq is not now and will never be in a civil war, the country’s prime minister told Wolf Blitzer today on “CNN Late Edition.” Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, speaking from Baghdad, praised strides being made in Iraq on the political, economic and security fronts and said that despite news reports to the contrary, violence is on the downswing and Iraq’s new government is succeeding. Maliki insisted that a spirit of reconciliation is taking hold in Iraq. “The violence is not increasing,” he said. “Iraq is not in a civil war. Iraq will never be in...

As we took off from London for New York a few days ago, our three over-excited children asked if there was any chance of the plane being blown up. I explained that the likelihood of that happening was virtually zero, and wondered how we were going to maintain some semblance of order during the flight. One did not wish the sedate American passengers by whom we were surrounded to form the impression that British parents are unable or unwilling to impart the rudiments of good manners.

The good news about nuclear destruction Posted: August 24, 20061:00 a.m. Eastern By Shane Connor What possible good news could there ever be about nuclear destruction coming to America, whether it is dirty bombs, terrorist nukes or ICBMs from afar? In a word, they are all survivable for the vast majority of American families, if they know what to do beforehand and have made even the most modest preparations. Tragically, though, most Americans today won't give much credence to this good news, much less seek out such vital life-saving instruction, as they have been jaded by our culture's pervasive myths...

WASHINGTON, Aug. 22, 2006 – Iraq is experiencing some localized sectarian strife, but it’s not embroiled in a full-blown civil war as reported by some news media, a senior coalition officer said here today. “In my judgment, we are not in a situation of civil war,” said British Royal Marine Lt. Gen. Robert Fry, deputy commander of Multinational Force Iraq and the senior British military representative in Iraq. He spoke to Pentagon reporters via a satellite connection from his Baghdad headquarters. Fry acknowledged a “very intense sectarian conflict” in Iraq and said violence is mostly occurring in an area that...