Fa La La La Law to Protect Our Troops

(Hat tip: Jane Newton) - Long before "Duck Dynasty," other camouflaged Americans were being persecuted for their beliefs: U.S. service members. Now, thanks to Congress, our brave men and women will finally have the legislative armor they need. It took until almost midnight, but when the Senate passed the Defense Authorization bill, it was worth the wait. After a year-long struggle against the forces of political correctness, leaders stood together in defense of our troops' right to speak and act openly on their faith.

With overwhelming bipartisan support (84-15), the Senate approved the legislation with Sen. Mike Lee's (R-Utah) military conscience language -- handing FRC and its supporters one of the biggest victories yet in the battle for religious liberty. Under the bill (which still awaits the President's signature), Congress moves the current law from protecting religious beliefs to also protecting the expressions of those beliefs. For service members who've become increasingly afraid to even share their faith, this language is a game-changer. It frees our troops from the fear of retaliation, which so many have experienced under this administration.

Read more at Family Research Center… Read More......

House Votes to Delay Obamacare, Repeal Medical Device Tax

Shortly after midnight, the U.S. House of Representatives voted to repeal Obamacare’s tax on medical devices and delay the unpopular law’s implementation by one year. ✧ The two amendments to the Senate-passed continuing resolution would fund the federal government through December 15. The measure returns to the Senate, with the fate of a government shutdown now resting with President Obama and Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV). In the event of a shutdown, the House approved a separate bill that would pay the U.S. military. Read more at Heritage/Foundry... Read More......

Obama: Thanks for your service, just don't vote

Times 24/7 (Hat tip: Stella): The administration thanks the troops for their service by failing to comply with a law requiring that it help soldiers deployed overseas cast ballots in their home states. ✧ The administration has taken various states to court to block voter ID laws on the grounds it will disenfranchise voters. But it has no qualms about the disenfranchisement of military voters overseas through its failure to comply with and enforce the Military and Overseas Voter Empowerment (MOVE) Act, passed by Congress in 2009 and signed into law by President Barack Obama. Read more at IBD Editorials...

Related:
Fox News: Military voter turnout looks 'bleak'
Human Events: Military vote expected to boost Romney
Washington Times: Special Ops PAC targets 'Obama's loose lips' Read More......

Pentagon Forecast: The Perfect Storm

Over the North Atlantic in 1991, several rare meteorological events occurred simultaneously combining, as Sebastian Junger wrote, into "The Perfect Storm" of massive destructive power. Next January a series of bad congressional actions -- and some awful Pentagon decisions on weapon systems -- may combine with the deteriorating outlook for the defense industry to create a perfect storm for the Pentagon. If that storm hits, it will have an enormously destructive effect on America's ability to defend itself for a generation.

Read more at the American Spectator Read More......

TWS: The President And The Generals

THE WEEKLY STANDARD, 12/3/2011 (12/12/2011 Vol. 17 No. 13), (Hat tip: John H. Detweiler) - The New York Times reported last week that President Obama decided not to apologize to Pakistan about the U.S. airstrikes that killed Pakistani soldiers near the Afghan border in part because he did not want to be seen to be overruling his military commanders yet again. How ironic that the president should feel the need to accept the advice of his military leaders on diplomatic matters while regularly disregarding their opinions on military matters. This most recent incident illuminates the ongoing confusion in the White House and among the American political elite generally about how the president should take advice from his senior military commanders. The situation has become very dangerous for an administration that has overruled its commanders dramatically and frequently and is reportedly considering doing so again by announcing accelerations of the withdrawal of American forces from Afghanistan beyond what military commanders have recommended. Read more at The Weekly Standard... Read More......

Jaffe: Troops feel more pity than respect

The event was a Wall Street gala that raised millions of dollars for homeless veterans in New York City. ✧ Kid Rock sang a ballad about helplessness, frustration and loss. On cue, several hundred soldiers, sailors, airmen and Marines strode into position around him. The black-tie crowd rose to its feet and cheered. ✧ “The servicemen and women were regarded as heroes,” said David Saltzman, who organized the spring fundraiser. ✧ A senior military officer at the gala, also attended by the Joint Chiefs then-chairman, Adm. Mike Mullen, saw the troops’ role differently. ✧ “They were rolled out like some sort of orphan kid,” the officer wrote in an e-mail. “I’m sure the organizers meant well. I know they did. But it wasn’t respect, really. It was pity.” Read more at the Washington Post...

(Hat tip: John H. Detweiler) Read More......

Ending racial segregation of the military was a Republican policy

By Michael Zak - Chris Matthews has accused Rush Limbaugh of wanting to reverse the racial integration of the U.S. military. Of course, that's nonsense. Rush Limbaugh defended himself well, pointing out that President Truman had to issue an executive order to get around opposition by racist congressional Democrats. Rush also cites the fact that racial segregation of the military had been imposed by a Democrat president, Woodrow Wilson. ✧ However, there is even more to the story. Ending racial segregation of the military was long-standing Republican policy. Read more at Grand Old Partisan... Read More......

U.S. House vote on U.S. Military action in Libya

VOICE OF AMERICA, 6/3/2011, US House Criticizes Obama on Libya - The Republican-controlled House of Representatives has adopted a resolution [Boehner] criticizing President Barack Obama for dispatching U.S. military forces to the NATO mission in Libya without first getting congressional approval. A separate resolution [Kucinich] that would have required an immediate withdrawal of U.S. forces from the Libya mission was defeated. Read more at VOA...

How Oregon's U.S. Representatives voted:

• Kucinich resolution to remove US troops from Libya: Failed 148-265 (Blumenauer - no, Defazio - yes, Schrader - yes, Walden - no, Wu - no).
  
• Boehner resolution that Obama shall not deploy,maintain, etc., US troops on the ground in Libya (rebuke to Obama) [without congressional approval]: Passed: 268-145 (Blumenauer - no, DeFazio - yes, Schrader - yes, Walden - yes, Wu - yes). (Hat tip: D'Ann Matthews)

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Morning Bell: What is Obama President of Again?

HERITAGE FOUNDATION/FOUNDRY, 9/22/2010 - On December 1, 2009, when President Barack Obama announced his new Afghanistan policy after months of delay, Denise Young of Kokomo, Ind., who has a 22-year-old son serving in the war, told The Wall Street Journal what she wanted to hear from the commander in chief: "That he is going to let the generals make the decisions. They have asked for more troops. They should get them. There is safety in numbers." Today, we learned from a sneak preview of Bob Woodward's new book, Obama's War, that President Barack Obama completely failed Mrs. Young. Read more at Heritage...

Related: LA TIMES: Woodward Book Says Afghanistan Divided White House Read More......

UPI: Bush Praises Troops As They Leave Iraq

As the last U.S. combat troops leave Iraq, former President George W. Bush expressed thanks to the U.S. military for its service in Iraq. Read more at UPI... Read More......

Mullah Omar Captured?

Yesterday, Brad Thor at Andrew Breitbart's BIG GOVERNMENT.com broke an exclusive story that Mullah Omar had been captured by the Pakistani's in March and Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton, was not been notified. Read more at Big Government... Read More......

The Hassan Show and Political Correctness Kills

CANADA FREE PRESS (via Brigitte Gabriel's Act! for America), 11/16/2009 by Daniel Greenfield - Nidal Hassan is the final and ultimate test case proving that political correctness does kill. In the weeks, months and years leading up his Fort Hood Massacre, Nidal Hassan did everything possible to let his superiors know that one day he was going to kill a whole bunch of Americans in the name of Allah. ∴ He posted praises for suicide bombers on the internet. He gave lectures in military facilities calling the War on Terror, a war against Muslims. He even put Soldier of Allah on his business card. ∴ It’s not clear what if anything else Hassan could have done that would have gotten him away from his position as a security risk. It appears that his superiors were willing to overlook anything and everything he was doing in the name of political correctness. ∴ Nidal Hassan is the final and ultimate test case proving that political correctness does kill. For all the complaints about profiling Muslims, not only was Hassan not profiled, he was anti-profiled with openly hostile behavior toward America and signs of Islamic fanaticism getting ignored in the name of accommodating Muslims in the military.

The politically correct cover up of Nidal Hassan continues. Read more at Act! for America... Read More......

Cal Thomas: Jihadists In Military Playing U.S. for Suckers

FOX NEWS, 11/10/2009 Jihadists In Military Playing U.S. for Suckers by Cal Thomas (via email from Brigitte Gabriel's Act For America!)- By now, the script should be disturbingly familiar. Whether in the Middle East, or increasingly in America, a fanatical Muslim blows up or goes on a shooting spree, killing many. This is quickly followed by "condemnations" from "Muslim civil rights groups," like the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR). We are then warned by the president and some newspaper editorials not to jump to conclusions, or to stereotype. Yasser Arafat wrote this script, which he used with great success throughout his bloody career as a terrorist. ∴ Suddenly, the issue of gays in the military doesn't seem as important as jihadists in the military. Read more at Fox News...

RELATED
BREAKING NEWS: MSNBC, 11/12/2009: Feds move to seize N.Y. skyscraper, 4 mosques - Prosecutors say building owners helping to illegally funnel money to Iran. Read more at MSNBC... Read More......

Honoring a fallen soldier

Killed in action the week before, the body of Sergeant First Class John C. Beale was returned to Falcon Field in Peachtree City , Georgia , just south of Atlanta , on June 11, 2009 . The Henry County Police Department escorted the procession to the funeral home in McDonough , Georgia . A simple notice in local papers indicated the road route to be taken and the approximate time.

Nowadays one can be led to believe that America no longer respects honor and no longer honors sacrifice outside the military. Be it known that there are many places in this land where people still recognize the courage and impact of total self-sacrifice. Georgia remains one of those graceful places. The link below is a short travelogue of that day's remarkable and painful journey.

But only watch this if you wish to have some of your faith in people restored. Read More......

More Targets Found on Arkansas Shooting Suspect's Computer

A senior U.S. official tells FOX News that more targets were found on the computer of a man charged in the fatal shooting at a military recruiting center in Arkansas — suggesting the accused gunman may have been part of a larger plot to attack military targets and may not have been acting alone. ∴ Private William Long, 23, was killed and Private Quinton I. Ezeagwula, 18, was wounded outside the Army-Navy Career Center in Little Rock. Both completed basic training within the past two weeks and had never seen combat. The accused shooter, Abdulhakim Muhammad, 23, a Muslim convert, plead not guilty to capital murder. Read more at Fox News...

NewsBusters: ABC, CBS Ignore Soldier-killer's Religion Read More......

Sec. Gates Overturns Dover Ban Without Consulting Military Families

MILITARY FAMILIES UNITED, 2/26/09 - Defense Secretary Robert Gates today announced that the current ban on the media photographing the transfer cases ceremony at Dover Air Force Base has been overturned. "We at Military Families United are disappointed with this decision because we feel that the families of the fallen heroes were not consulted prior to announcing this unnecessary change in policy. Despite Sec. Gates saying that he received “input from a number of sources, including all of the military services and the organizations representing military families,” Military Families United, the largest military family organization, was not contacted or consulted." To read the Military Families United press statement about this click here. Read More......

A message to Sen. Obama

From one of America's finest...
(Hat tip: Linda Bartcher)

Dear Mr. Obama

Read More......

Jet Noise is the Sound of Freedom

Signal 94, June 18, 2007 - SIG₉₄ posted Way too Cool, in which he notes, "This was just too cool not to steal." So from Phred's World to Signal 94 to us, I say, enjoy this story from a U.S. Soldier somewhere in Afghanistan... (Photo: B-1 bomber breaking the sound barrier)

"So we are up in the mountains at about 0100 hrs looking for a bad guy that we thought was in the area. There are ten of us, pitch black, crystal clear night, about 25 degrees. We know there are bad guys in the area; a few shots have been fired but no big deal. We decide that we need air cover and the only thing in the area is a solo B-1 bomber. He flies around at about 20,000 feet and tells us there is nothing in the area. He then asks if we would like a low level show of force. Stupid question. Of course we tell him yes.

The controller who is attached to the team then is heard talking to the pilot. Pilot asks if we want it subsonic or supersonic. Very stupid question.

Pilot advises he is twenty miles out and stand by. The controller gets us all sitting down in a line and points out the proper location. You have to picture this. Pitch black, ten killers sitting down, dead quiet and overlooking this about 30 mile long valley. All of a sudden, way out (below our level) you see a set of four 200' white flames coming at us. The controller says, "Ah-- guys-- you might want to plug your ears".

Faster than you can think a B-1, supersonic, 1000' over our heads, blasts the sound barrier and it feels like God just hit you in the head with a hammer. He then stands it straight up with 4 white trails of flame coming out and disappears.

Cost of gas for that: Probably $50,000

Hearing damage: For certain.

Bunch of Taliban thinking twice about shooting at us: Priceless.

Have a nice day from the good 'ol USA!

SIG94 adds, I get chills just thinking about this. I love the sound of jets. It is indeed the sound of freedom.YEEEEEEEEEHHHAAAAAAAAAH!

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