Blue Star Chronicles

I’m of the opinion that McCain gets a really bad rap from many - especially Conservatives. I think there is a general misconception of where he stands on a lot of issues and as word spreads that he said this or that it becomes more misconstrued.

From Power Line

John McCain held a blogger conference call today, mostly to respond to John Fund’s claim in the Wall Street Journal that he might not appoint a judge like Sam Alito who “wore his conservatism on his sleeve.” (Which, by the way, I don’t think Alito did.) McCain said that he doesn’t recall making the statement attributed to him by Fund, and doesn’t know its source. McCain emphasized that he supported Alito enthusiastically, spoke in his favor on the Senate floor, and voted for his confirmation. He has said repeatedly that if elected President, he would nominate Supreme Court justices in the mold of Roberts and Alito.

In response to a question, he said he could imagine a situation where a judge could “wear his politics too much on his sleeve,” but said that for him, the key question is whether the nominee has a clear track record of strict construction.

Absent more information, I’m inclined to take McCain at his word, as he certainly supported Justice Alito’s nomination and, like all or nearly all of the Republican candidates, has held up Roberts and Alito as model nominees.

For the rest of the call, the Senator was his usual charming self. He was asked about his battle with Mitt Romney; McCain noted the need to unify the party, but didn’t back off any of his attacks on Romney. He portrayed Romney as the aggressor, having “spent millions,” bought “robo-calls,” and “thrown everything but the kitchen sink” at McCain. So McCain sees no alternative but to “respond.” He ticked off a litany of negative statistics about Romney’s performance as governor of Massachusetts and said that (unlike Mitt’s) his charges are “accurate.”

Frankly, I’m not sure where the animus between the McCain and Romney camps comes from. It’s obvious that the ill will is real. In an interesting contrast, one of the participants on the call asked about McCain’s falling out with Pat Buchanan, with whom he was formerly friendly but who is now criticizing him. McCain responded graciously, saying that he has always liked Buchanan, that Buchanan is one of the smartest political minds around, that they have had their differences over time, but the differences don’t diminish his respect for Buchanan. Somehow, I don’t think we’ll ever hear McCain talking that way about Romney.

McCain also clarified his position on the Swift Boat Vets’ 2004 ads. I’ve often seen McCain quoted as a critic of the Vets, but he was quick to say that he was only critical of the ad that questioned Kerry’s combat record. McCain said he thought that was out of bounds. On the other hand, when the Vets went after Kerry’s activities with Vietnam Veterans Against the War, his testimony before the Foreign Relations Committee, his charges of atrocities and his antiwar activities generally, that was “legitimate” and “fair game.”

On the topics that are close to his heart, national security and spending, McCain was impassioned as usual. He was gleeful over the President’s impending crackdown on earmarks and predicted that the appropriators will react like “scalded apes.”

The call was another reminder that John McCain at his best is very good indeed.

The Senior Senator from Massachusetts, the Honorable Teddy Kennedy has conquered Alcoholic Encephalopathy long enough to endorse the Junior Senator from Illinois, Barack Obama for the Presidency of the United States.

Kennedy took the unprecedented step of inviting Obama and family to visit him on Chappaquiddick the Kennedy Compound for some sailing on his favorite boat, The Demon Rum. He is reported to have sent the invite saying:

‘Come on anytime, Barack, bring the wife and kids. We’ll go for a little sail and ‘We’ll splice the Main Brace.’‘

click on image to enlarge

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

tiara tip: MVRWC

I bet you never heard of Dellon Tyler Ward. I hadn’t until I read a little bit about him on another blog. I read it a while ago and it has bothered me every since.

Its bothered me that I had never heard the story. It bothered me because the story was buried on the inside pages of a few newspapers. It bothered me that when I did a google search I only found a handful of articles about him and all those articles were in small local newspapers around the area he is from. Only two blogs were in the google search. Only two blogs had picked up on the story. It bothered me that I couldn’t find a single picture of him in my search. It bothered me that he doesn’t have to be recognized by his appearance and that 99.9% of the people in the United States will never associate him with the treason that he committed against his own country. He will never have to suffer the shame of what he did.

Buried in the middle pages of local newspapers are a mere few comments about an act of treason.

Man sentenced for lying to agents, sparking international military investigation

A Rising Fawn man has been sentenced to 15 months in prison for lying about the existence of a fictitious video tape he said depicted atrocities committed by U.S. Marines in Iraq.

Dellon Tyler Ward had pleaded guilty months earlier to two counts of knowingly and willfully making materially false, fictitious and fraudulent statements to federal agents about the video footage, which allegedly showed members of the U.S. Marine Corps committing murder in Iraq.

At the sentencing hearing Friday afternoon in Rome, Federal Prosecutor Todd C. Alley reminded U.S. District Judge Harold Murphy that Ward’s lies sparked an international investigation by the Naval Criminal Investigative Service.

The investigation cost $193,000 and involved pulling U.S. Marines out of combat zones in the spring of 2007.

Ward, 21, apologized for his actions at the hearing and asked for leniency.

After delivering the sentence, Judge Murphy said it was ‘beyond comprehension for this court why any individual who is a responsible citizen would make up such a tale.’

I saw my son for the first time in two years recently when I went to Germany to visit him. He had just gotten back from a 15 month stint in Baghdad. While I was there, I met quite a few of his combat buddies. They were all men. It was a front line combat unit so there were no women in their area of operations. Every one of them were impressive young men. They were disciplined, educated, exhibited integrity, intelligence, compassion, loyalty and a sense of duty and honor. These are attributes our culture once held in high regard.

My son and others reacted to an attack on America by standing up and saying ‘Send me, I will go’. For being the type of young men (and women) who bring character and strength to a society, they have spent 15 months being shot at, physically and psychologically assaulted in Baghdad and having their integrity, intelligence and dignity assaulted daily in the old media of our own country.

Ruthlace recalls the greatest generation of World War II and the pride with which men served as Marines, Semper Fidelis, Always Faithful. She goes on to say that this is another greatest generation. They are also facing an enemy like none we have ever faced before. I would add they are are also facing that enemy within, who is in many ways more dangerous than the one they face who openly admit to being their enemies. They are investigated for any allegation anyone wants to make against them. Their hands are tied. They are held in contempt by the media that goes out of their way to paint them as villains instead of heroes.

Meanwhile, a young man who worked to undermine our military during a time of war says he’s sorry and gets a 15 month prison sentence. A slap on the hand. Men his own age are fighting and sacrificing in deserts on the other side of the world. This young man attempted to undermine their efforts and further endangered them.

Dellon Tyler Ward is guilty of treason and only received 15 months in prison.

The old media is only interested in false accusations made against our Marines or the hijinks of some low level, poorly disciplined troops. They aren’t interested in righting wrongs committed against our Men at Arms.

God help us if this trend doesn’t change.

They are calling her G. I. Jenkins and The New Forces Sweetheart. In her new book Time To Say Hello, Katherine Jenkins tells warm, funny and patriotic stories of spending her last two Christmases with the British Troops in Basra …. among other things.

Classical songstress Katherine Jenkins has recently become a Trustee of the British Forces Foundation (BFF) which is the British version of our U.S.O. She says she became a Trustee following her last visit to Basra during which the helicopter she was traveling in barely missed being shot down.

I was told that the helicopter ride to the next base was an opportunity to get forty winks, so I checked my seat belt and harness, then felt safe enough to close my eyes for an afternoon nap.

Minutes later, just as I had dozed off, all hell broke loose around us. To my horror - and everybody else’s, including the soldiers on board - we heard those urgent words: “Missile alert at rear!”

I started screaming. My arms and legs flew into the air from the G-force as the aircraft dropped like a stone to 500ft. Because the back of the helicopter was open, I saw anti-missile flares going out from each side of its fuselage.

We could do nothing but hope and pray. If the ground-to-air missile had hit its target, everyone on board would have been killed.

But, thanks to the early warning system and the pilot’s brilliant manoeuvring, we eventually landed unharmed in Shaibah, the largest British base in Southern Iraq.

And there was no time to worry about what had just happened.The entire trip was so frenetic that all I could do was think about what was next on my itinerary.

Later, when she was back home in Wales it all hit her ….

I arrived back in my home town, Neath in South Wales, at about 6pm on Christmas Eve and went to my usual pub to celebrate.

My mobile rang and it was Jim. He insisted on singing a variation of a well-known Christmas song to me: “And so this is Christmas, And what have we done? A missile just missed us, Isn’t life fun!”

As the call came to an end, everything - all my surroundings, complete with Christmas tree and lights, and the people dancing and making merry - suddenly seemed unreal. I had just come back from a war zone where I’d nearly been shot down in a helicopter. I felt curiously detached.

The next day, eating my Christmas dinner, I felt very shaky and sick. I realised I was only just beginning to absorb the shock of the whole experience. For a week afterwards, I had terrifying flashbacks and nightmares every night.

I kept thinking I was back, flying over the desert in Basra. I felt really guilty that I had gone out there for only a couple of days and the troops were there for months.

That was her first trip to Iraq. She has since been back to Iraq twice and to Afghanistan. She says the overriding feeling is that she is fortunate to be able to be a part of it.

Being Brits, they shared tea even in a war zone

At the end, some of the soldiers presented me with my own set of desert combats. I was so touched I burst into tears. I’d been admiring their combats all day because they’re such lovely colours. Jim had nicknamed me GI Jenkins, so the soldiers had even embroidered “Jenkins” on the shirt pocket.

Somehow I think the troops never thought about their desert combats as having ‘lovely colors’. HAHAHA. But hey, they look like they were really enjoying her visit and I’m betting they didn’t mind a bit that she thought their uniforms have ‘lovely colors’.

I’m just glad that celebrities are starting to realize that we have troops in harms way and doing what they can to relieve some of the doldrums for our troops who are having to put on hold for 15 months serving our countries in the deserts that comprise the arm-pit of the world. (I wrote arm-pit instead of what I was actually thinking cause my mother reads this blog! lol)

The British Forces Sweetheart, Katherine Jenkins

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Some other celebrities who have taken a moment out of their lives to do something for our troops: Scarlett Johansson and here, Rick Springfield, Denzel Washington, Gary Sinese, Charlie Daniels, Gene Simmons and I’m sure there are more …..

The PC Free Zone is reporting that an 80-year-old retired Green Beret has been tried by his peers after shooting an intruder in his Knoxville, Tennessee home. He is the oldest member of Chapter XXXIII of the Special Forces Association.

BREVARD, Jan. 19, 2008 - Retired Army Green Beret Smokey Taylor got his court martial this weekend and came away feeling good about it.

Taylor, at age 80 the oldest member of Chapter XXXIII of the Special Forces Association, was on trial by his peers under the charge of ‘failing to use a weapon of sufficient caliber’ in the shooting of an intruder at his home in Knoxville, TN, in December.

The entire affair, of course, was very much tongue in cheek. Taylor had been awakened in the early morning hours of Dec. 17, 2007, when an intruder broke into his home. He investigated the noises with one of his many weapons in hand.

When the intruder threatened him with a knife, Taylor warned him, then brought his .22 caliber pistol to bear and shot him right between the eyes.

‘That boy had the hardest head I’ve ever seen,’ Taylor said after his trial. ‘The bullet bounced right off.’ The impact knocked the would-be thief down momentarily. He crawled out of the room then got up and ran out the door and down the street. Knoxville police apprehended him a few blocks away and he now awaits trial in the Knox County jail.

The charges against Taylor were considered to be serious. He is a retired Special Forces Weapons Sergeant with extensive combat experience during the wars in Korea and Vietnam.

‘Charges were brought against him under the premise that he should have saved the county and taxpayers the expense of a trial,’ said Chapter XXXIII President Bill Long of Asheville. ‘He could have used a .45 or .38. The .22 just wasn’t big enough to get the job done.’

Taylor’s defense attorney, another retired Weapons Sergeant, disagreed. He said Taylor had done the right thing in choosing to arm himself with a .22.

‘If he’d used a .45 or something like that the round would have gone right through the perp, the wall, the neighbor’s wall and possibly injured some innocent child asleep in its bed,’ he said. ‘I believe the evidence shows that Smokey Taylor exercised excellent judgment in his choice of weapons. He did nothing wrong, and clearly remains to this day an excellent weapons man.’

Counsel for the defense then floated a theory as to why the bullet bounced off the perp’s forehead.

‘He was victimized by old ammunition,’ he said, ‘just as he was in Korea and again in Vietnam, when his units were issued ammo left over from World War II.’

Taylor said nothing in his own defense, choosing instead to allow his peers to debate the matter. After the trial he said the ammunition was indeed old and added the new information that the perp had soiled his pants as he crawled out of the house.

‘I would have had an even worse mess to clean up if it had gone through his forehead,’ Taylor said. ‘It was good for both of us that it didn’t.’

Following testimony from both sides, Taylor was acquitted of the charges and was given a round of applause.

Meanwhile, back in Knox County, the word is out: Don’t go messing with Smokey Taylor. He just bought a whole bunch of fresh ammo.

Tribune Editor Bill Fishburne is a member of the Larry Thorne Chapter XXXIII of the Special Forces Association.

James T “Smokey” Taylor, D-529, of Knoxville, TN and an original member of Chapter 33, has been nominated by the American Legion, Post #2, Knoxville, Tennessee, to serve as Grand Chef De Gare du Tennessee. This is an honor Smokey richly deserves.

NOMINATION FOR GRAND CHEF DE GARE DU TENNESSEE

WHEREAS: Voiture 353 du Tennessee has as a member in good standing a highly qualified yageur Militaire with impeccable qualifications and character, and

WHEREAS: This Voyageur Militaire has served his country honorably during the period from October 1950 to October 1970 including service in-country during the Viet Nam War (Airborne All TheWay!), and

WHEREAS: This Voyageur Militaire has served the American Legion continuously since March 1976, and has served his Post, District, and Department in many various offices to include Post Vice Commander, Commander and Adjutant, and

WHEREAS: This Voyageur Militaire has served La Societé des 40 Hommes et 8 Chevaux continuously since March 1977, and has served his Voiture in every elected office to include Chef de Gare, and has served on many committees, and

WHEREAS: This Voyageur Militaire has served the Grande Voiture du Tennessee in the elected offices of Grand Cheminot and Grand Chef de Train (East), and has served on several committees, most recently as Grand Directeur POW/MIA, and

WHEREAS: As Locale Membership Directeur, this Voyageur Militaire has led Voiture 353 to two consecutive years of 100% membership, attaining 118% for the current year, now

Therefore be it resolved: Voiture 353 du Tennessee places in nomination for the high office of Grand Chef de Gare du Tennessee for the year 2003-2004 the name of Voyageur Militaire James T. Taylor.

Approved In Regularly Scheduled Promenade, held at American Legion Post # 2, Knoxville, TN, December 7th, 2002.

(signed) ERNEST W. BOLTON - Chef de Gare, V-353
WILLIAM JETT - Correspondant, V-353

Its Friday and its a great day. I’ve decided to make it a great day, even if its cold, wet and overcast outside! Its all in the attitude, right? Truthfully, all is well and as it should be regardless of the dreary weather. In fact, the dreary weather is a good thing considering the drought Georgia suffered last season. Maybe we are making up for a little bit of water deficit. Hmmm …. that was a stream of consciousness wasn’t it! Oh well, hopefully you could follow it.

I’m watching a murder mystery so I’m a little distracted. Anyway - since I have a basic inability to do only one thing at a time, I’m also reading blogs. And since its Friday, and instead of me rambling on about nuthin’, I’m making a ‘Wear Red on Friday’ list from my blogroll.

Hope you are having a great day. Support our Troops. Happy Blogging!

An Angeleno’s View of the World - If It Ends Up Clinton vs McCain — Expect a Lot of Anger (Presidential candidate language alert!)

Conservative Cowboy - Charlie Daniels to be inducted into Opry

Classical Hebrew Blog - Biblical History - The Judea and Israel kingdoms

Ruthlace - Life After Life

Scottish Right - Shame On MSNBC… (Yeah, I noticed the same thing!)

Daddy’s Roses - Super Tuesday? What’s So Super about It? She has a great quote on the topic of political discussions …..

Everyone talks just to persuade others to their view. No one listens to anyone who holds a different view on whatever the topic du jour is. The liberals just soothe each other and get more liberal; the conservatives just soothe each other and get more conservative!

A Keyboard and a .45 - A Coward Speaks Out

Red State - Make Mine McCain

Leaning Up Straight - Suffer the little children part 2 (revisited again): Shasta saw her brother die, and Duncan told her of other killings

The Pirate’s Cove - Ye Olde Stimulus (e) Package

A Newt One - National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2008 Passes Again

Southern Sass on Crime - NEW and Improved Southern Sass (She’s gettin’ all fancy over there!)

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Disclaimer: trackbacks to this post do not necessarily represent the opinions or standards of the Blue Star Chronicles.

More great posts trackbacked below …

I just got an email notice that Hickory Farms is offering a free upgrade for shipping to APO/FPO addresses. They have a new program that makes it easier to Send Our Troops a Taste of Home with a Free APO-FPO Shipping Upgrade.

All of us with loved ones in the military know that a lot of companies don’t ship to APO/FPO addresses. I know I have gotten packages for stuff my son has ordered and had to turn around and package it up to send to him. I’ve also had to check with companies to see if they send to APO/FPO addresses before placing an order.

I really like idea of being able to send a gift from Hickory Farms so easily because that’s something most people really like … and its just a click away!

Heath Ledger

I’m sure everyone has heard about the death of actor Heath Ledger at this point and don’t need me to rehash the whole situation. There are plenty of places to find the details. But in connection to this I heard someone on television this morning disclosing that the Phelps Family Hate Cult plans to picket his funeral. The announcer then said, ‘This is the problem with organized religion ….’ and was then interrupted and never finished that thought - fortunately.

Here’s the thing. That group is NOT ‘organized religion’ so to speak. It is a hate cult that has been picketing the funerals of Soldiers and making similar statements about Soldiers from the get-go. The old media has not been as interested in their abuse of Soldiers as they seem to be of their abuse of the memory of Heath Ledger. As tragic as the death of this young man is, maybe it will at least bring some attention to this horrific group of people and what they have been doing to Soldier’s families. I also hope that people don’t associate them with a legitimate church!

From Fox News

A radical Baptist church in Kansas known for picketing the funerals of soldiers who perished in Iraq said it intends to protest Heath Ledger’s memorial service with signs claiming the actor died and is in Hell because he played a gay character in ‘Brokeback Mountain.’

Shirley Phelps-Roper of the Westboro Baptist Church in Topeka said that she and other members will picket Ledger’s United States memorial services, not those held in his native Australia.

‘You cannot live in defiance of God,’ she said. ‘He got on that big screen with a big, fat message: God is a liar and it’s OK to be gay.’

A press release circulated by the church references Leviticus 18:22 in the Bible, which states that ‘thou shalt not lie with mankind, as with womankind: it is abomination.’

‘Heath Ledger is now in Hell, and has begun serving his eternal sentence there,’ the Westboro Baptist announcement says.

This horrible group of people are NOT a church and its really embarrassing that they call themselves a church. The statements they are currently making about Heath Ledger are similar to the statements they make about our fallen Soldiers.

Tom Cruise on Tom Cruise: Scientologist. You’ve probably heard of and/or seen this video - still I had to post it. Its just too hilarious. Consider it an object lesson in why actors need script writers. In fact, the writers who are having their writer’s strike right now could use this as a hammer over the heads of the big hollywood production companies. ‘See what happens when we don’t tell them what to say?’ The producers would get out their check books while wiping away their sweat. Really, its that bad.

Even better, Jerry O’Connell did a parody of the Tom Cruise recruitment video. He’s one of the few who have had the nerve to make fun of Tom because Tom is so powerful. He’s not only powerful because he’s ridiculously wealthy - but he’s powerful because he’s, you know, whew, like, wow, got the power, you know, man, wow, a Scientologist.

I posted some still photos in my previous post about Scarlett Johansson visiting the Troops. Here is a video of the visit. It looks like a good time was had by all!

Footage of actress Scarlett Johansson visiting troops in Kuwait as part of the USO Tour. Provided by 50th Public Affairs Detachment.

video via: Michelle Malkin

Scarlett Johansson brought out the big guns this weekend for the Marines stationed at Kuwait’s Camp Buehring. While other celebrities are grabbing headlines because of their narcissistic antics, or spending all their time criticizing the country and our Troops, Scarlett will be spending the next four days in the Gulf region as part of the USO tour.

I’ve never thought of Scarlett Johansson much one way or the other but this has made me think that she at least has some sense of duty to her country. She’s a raging liberal and has the morals of an alley cat, but she deserves credit considering that very few celebrities have seen fit to inconvenience themselves during all their globe trotting to make a quick stop in the armpit of the world to bring a little bit of home and encouragement to our Troops. She is spending 5 days in the gulf region meeting and performing for the Troops.

I say good for her and I hope others will follow her lead. I’m sure she did a lot to raise the Troops spirits over there. (And I’m resisting the urge to make snarky remarks - I’m being good!) You have to admit - the boys look pretty happy!!

See video!

Others who have noticed that a few in Hollywood are noticing we have Troops in harms way …. Michelle Malkin, Op For, Captains Quarters, The Jawa Report, Pro Cynic