Richard Disney

A wholehearted thank you goes out to all the service members that make so many sacrifices to protect all Americans. I will raise glasses in salute to our Armed Forces for their health and wellness.

Article follows:

BAGHDAD – How are you spending your 4th of July holiday?

While most Americans probably slept, 1,215 Soldiers, Sailors, Airmen, and Marines raised their right hands and committed to a combined 5,500 years of additional service during the largest reenlistment ceremony in the history of the American military.

Beneath a large American flag which dwarfed even the enormous chandelier that Saddam Hussein had built for the Al Faw Palace, members of all services, representing all 50 states took the oath administered by Gen. David Petraeus, Commander of Multi-National Forces Iraq.

Petraeus, reiterating earlier remarks made by Command Sergeant Major Hill, said that the unprecedented ceremony sends a “message to friend and foe alike.” He told those assembled that it is “impossible to calculate the value of what you are giving to our country . . . For no bonus, no matter the size, can adequately compensate you for the contribution each of you makes as a custodian of our nation’s defenses.”

Last year Gen. Petraeus, along with Senator John McCain, presided over a similar Independence Day ceremony. Then only 588 servicemen reenlisted. This year’s event, more than twice as large, saw the equivalent of two battalions extend their service in America’s military. Nearly the entire rotunda was filled with reenlisting servicemen, their voices drowning out all other noise. For two days the military members, flown in for the occasion from all across Iraq, have toured the elaborate palace where Saddam’s sons were said to have entertained friends lavishly and tortured enemies mercilessly in the basement dungeon.

Following the ceremony, they were treated to Chicago deep dish pizza donated by Lou Malnati’s Restaurant and flown fresh by DHL for the occasion.

Among those in attendance were service members from the more than two dozen Allies serving with MNF-I. Along with their American counterparts, each appeared in awe of the sacrifice of these incredible men and women. Each of the reenlistees knows full well the costs of war, and yet, they chose to stand with their units, their mission, and each other. It was as humbling an experience as I have ever witnessed.

On this 4th of July, while you celebrate around grills and coolers all across America, keep in mind the 1,215 who allow us that privilege.

BobKrumm.com » How did you spend Independence Day?

Tags: armedforces, reenlistment, 1215, iraq, gen. david petraeus, palace, saddam hussein, sailors, soldiers, airmen, marines, 4th of July

Hat Tip: Op-For.com

The recent recognition by the  U.S. Supreme Court of the right to keep and bear arms as an individual right in the DC v. Heller case was a recognition of The Founding Fathers‘ original intent. The Bill of Rights was written specifically to limit the power and scope of the Federal Government and to protect individual rights.

Nowhere is the intent of the Founding Fathers clearer than in James Madison’s original proposed wording for the Bill of Rights:

“The civil rights of none shall be abridged on account of religious belief or worship, nor shall any national religion be established, nor shall the full and equal rights of conscience be in any manner, or on any pretext, infringed.
The people shall not be deprived or abridged of their right to speak, to write, or to publish their sentiments; and the freedom of the press, as one of the great bulwarks of liberty, shall be inviolable.

The people shall not be restrained from peaceably assembling and consulting for their common good; nor from applying to the Legislature by petitions, or remonstrances, for redress of their grievances.

The right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed; a well armed and well regulated militia being the best security of a free country; but no person religiously scrupulous of bearing arms shall be compelled to render military service in person.

No soldier shall in time of peace be quartered in any house without the consent of the owner; nor at any time, but in a manner warranted by law.

No person shall be subject, except in cases of impeachment, to more than one punishment or one trial for the same offence; nor shall be compelled to be a witness against himself; nor be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor be obliged to relinquish his property, where it may be necessary for public use, without a just compensation.

Excessive bail shall not be required, nor excessive fines imposed, nor cruel and unusual punishments inflicted.

The rights of the people to be secured in their persons; their houses, their papers, and their other property, from all unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated by warrants issued without probable cause, supported by oath or affirmation, or not particularly describing the places to be searched, or the persons or things to be seized.

In all criminal prosecutions, the accused shall enjoy the right to a speedy and public trial, to be informed of the cause and nature of the accusation, to be confronted with his accusers, and the witnesses against him; to have a compulsory process for obtaining witnesses in his favor; and to have the assistance of counsel for his defence.

The exceptions here or elsewhere in the constitution, made in favor of particular rights, shall not be so construed as to diminish the just importance of other rights retained by the people, or as to enlarge the powers delegated by the constitution; but either as actual limitations of such powers, or as inserted merely for greater caution.

No State shall violate the equal rights of conscience, or the freedom of the press, or the trial by jury in criminal cases.”

After reading the original version of the Bill of Rights one must question the judgment of the dissenting Supreme Court Justices.

Tags: scotus, u.s. supreme court, 2nd amendment, gun rights, gun control, individualism, individual rights, guns, bill of rights, james madison, original version

The Supreme Court ruled that an individual has the right to own a gun. With that being established, one should not need a license to exercise a right.

Thursday, June 26th, 2008 10:14 am

Answering a 127-year old constitutional question, the Supreme Court ruled on Thursday that the Second Amendment protects an individual right to have a gun, at least in one’s home. The Court, splitting 5-4, struck down a District of Columbia ban on handgun possession.Justice Antonin Scalia’s opinion for the majority stressed that the Court was not casting doubt on long-standing bans on gun possession by felons or the mentally retarded, or laws barring guns from schools or government buildings, or laws putting conditions on gun sales.

In District of Columbia v. Heller (07-290), the Court nullified two provisions of the city of Washington’s strict 1976 gun control law: a flat ban on possessing a gun in one’s home, and a requirement that any gun — except one kept at a business — must be unloaded and disassembled or have a trigger lock in place. The Court said it was not passing on a part of the law requiring that guns be licensed.

SCOTUSblog » Court: A constitutional right to a gun

Tags: supremecourt, scotus, constitutional right, individual right, guns, gun, ownership, keep and bear arms, united states

It should be known that the Bill of Rights in the U.S. Constitution were written to protect individual rights from Government power, not the other way around.

The money quote from a Washington Times article follows:

“The text of the Second Amendment clearly protects the right of “the people” - not states, not militias, but “people” to “keep and bear arms.” By striking down the D.C. gun ban, the Supreme Court can affirm that basic principle and restore the Second Amendment to its rightful place of dignity within the Bill of Rights.”

Click here to read entire article: Washington Times - Politics, Breaking News, US and World News - COMMENTARY: Second Amendment haze

Tags: u.s.constitution, 2nd amendment, second amendment, individual rights, gun rights, gun control, bill of rights, supreme court, heller case

The money quote:

But it’s not only about the price of oil. Other costs are a factor — though they’ve remained relatively stable.

For example, federal and state taxes added 40 cents to a gallon of gas in the first three months of this year, roughly the same amount as they added four years ago.California’s 63.9 cents of tax is the nation’s highest, Alaska’s 26.4 cents the lowest. How the money is used varies from state to state, though the federal take helps to build and maintain highways and bridges.

Marketing and distribution costs — the tab for delivering gasoline from refiner to retailer — were 27 cents to start the year, only 6 cents above the cost four years ago.The cost of refining added 27 cents to a gallon in the first quarter of this year, a nickel less than what it added in 2004, according to the Energy Information Administration.That refining occurs at sprawling industrial complexes across the U.S., with most of the biggest along the Gulf Coast. Barrels of crude arrive each day by pipeline, ship and barge. The refineries, by heating, treating and blending the raw oil, turn out products like diesel and lubricating oil.And, of course, gasoline.

AP IMPACT: What makes up the price of gas? - Yahoo! News

Tags: gastax, gas taxes, oil, refineries, 63.9 cents, crude,

Here is a blog post by Major John Tammes directly from Iraq. His post follows:

Back in late March, I was preparing for something quite different than what I have done the past 2 ½ months. I was called into the colonel’s office and told “things in Basrah have really heated up and everything has changed.” I was then informed that I was to be sent to Basrah to assist a US team in the area, and I would also be working with the Iraqi Army’s 14th Division.

By nature I am a bit of a stick-in-the-mud. I try to get comfortable and find a routine wherever I am. Needless to say, this quite disrupted what I had settled into. I didn’t go kicking and screaming, but I was a bit perturbed. However, I was also interested and couldn’t really complain too much, as there were plenty of others in a lot worse situations than I. When I got to Basrah, the first “Charge of the Knights” had taken place, and the IA was readying for further operations into the city. I was then informed that I would not be staying at the large base at the Basrah International Airport, but moving out to the 14th Division’s HQ, at the then named camp of Mahmud Al Kasim.
I was the only American there. When I arrived there was a single British officer, 2 Lance Corporals and 4 Privates from the 1st Scots Battle Group/Royal Scots Borderers. A much larger Coalition presence was at the Basrah Operations Command. Somehow we managed to feed information to the Multinational Division South-East Headquarters and the US team I was there to support - plus help the 14th Division staff in anyway we could. The British officer was the Operations/Intel brains of the outfit, I was the Logistics and Civil Affairs guy. We both covered any other fields we could – Communications, Personnel, and the like. For one really stressful two day period, I was the only Coalition officer there.

Click here to read entire post Miserable Donuts: After the Charge

Tags: majorjohn tammes, iraq, u.s. army, basrah

June 15, 2008NV Poll: McCain By a Nose
Posted by TOM BEVAN

New Mason-Dixon poll in the key battleground state of Nevada (June 9-11, 625 LV, MoE +/-4.0%) shows McCain leading Obama by just two points:McCain 44Obama 42Undecided 14In the only other recent survey in Nevada - a Rasmussen Reports poll conducted on May 20 - McCain led Obama by six points, 46-40.

NV Poll: McCain By a Nose - Real Clear Politics - Elections 2008 - TIME

Tags: mccain, obama, poll results, nevada, election 2008, two points, 2

Some more encouraging news about conditions in Iraq from The Economist. I read The Economist off and on. For some reason I find myself buying The Economist in airports while I am traveling.

I didn’t remember The Economist justifying war with Iraq in 2003, yet in the article below, that earlier article is referenced. This article made me want to dig a little deeper.

I am posting this article to be one of the few places publishing good news from Iraq and also to show how far we have come since 2003.

Article follows:

Jun 12th 2008
From The Economist print edition

Its people are still suffering monstrously, but Iraq is doing far better than it was only a few months ago.

AFTER all the blood and blunders, people are right to be skeptical when good news is announced from Iraq. Yet it is now plain that over the past several months, while Americans have been distracted by their presidential primaries, many things in Iraq have at long last started to go right.This improvement goes beyond the fall in killing that followed General David Petraeus’s “surge”. Iraq’s government has gained in stature and confidence.

Thanks to soaring oil prices it is flush with money. It is standing up to Iraq’s assorted militias and asserting its independence from both America and Iran. The overlapping wars—Sunni against American, Sunni against Shia and Shia against Shia—that harrowed Iraq after the invasion of 2003 have abated. The country no longer looks in imminent danger of flying apart or falling into everlasting anarchy. In September 2007 this newspaper supported the surge not because we had faith in Iraq but only in the desperate hope that the surge might stop what was already a bloodbath from becoming even worse (see article). The situation now is different: Iraq is still a mess, but something approaching a normal future for its people is beginning to look achievable.

The guns begin to fall silent
As General Petraeus himself admits, and our briefing this week argues, the change is fragile, and reversible (see article). But it is real. Only a few months ago, Iraq was in the grip not only of a fierce anti-American insurgency but also of a dense tangle of sectarian wars, which America seemed powerless to stop. Those who thought it was just making matters worse by staying on could point to the bloody facts on the ground as evidence. But now it is time to look again. Each of those overlapping conflicts has lately begun to peter out.

A few Sunnis, motivated by Islam or simple resentment of foreign military occupation, continue to attack American forces. But many Sunni tribes, repelled by the atrocities committed by their former and often foreign allies in al-Qaeda, have joined the so-called Sunni awakening, the Sahwa, and crossed over to America’s side. At the same time, Sunnis and Shias have stopped killing each other in the vast numbers that followed the blowing up of a Shia shrine in early 2006. General Petraeus’s surge is only one reason for this. Another reason, less flattering to the Americans, is that after last year’s frenzied ethnic cleansing fewer neighbourhoods are still mixed. But it is also the case that a lot of Iraqis, having waded briefly into the horror of indiscriminate sectarian slaughter, have for the present made a conscious decision to step back.

The conflict between Shias and Shias has died down too. In the past few weeks Iraq’s prime minister, Nuri al-Maliki, has belied a reputation for weakness by sending the army to take control of the port city of Basra and the Baghdad slum known as Sadr City, both strongholds until then of the powerful militia run by Muqtada al-Sadr, a vehemently anti-American Shia cleric. The fact that Mr Sadr considered it wise not to resist suggests not only that the army is now strong enough to out-face private militias but also that the state has acquired far greater political legitimacy, in Shia minds at least.

Needless to say, these conflicts could resume. The Sunnis fighting on America’s side today could direct their fire back towards the Americans and Shias tomorrow if not enough room is made for them in the new, Shia-dominated order. On the Shia side, it is not clear whether Mr Sadr has given up violence for good. And his is not the only political movement to have a private army. Sunnis, Shias and Kurds alike still see their respective militias as a hedge against an uncertain future.

To that extent, Iraq is still far from normality. But if the calm survives, politics will at least have a chance. Mr Maliki’s next job is therefore to go ahead with the provincial elections due before the end of the year. A good showing by the Sunnis, too few of whom voted in 2005, could bring them back into the political mainstream, enabling them to wield serious power in their own provinces at least. The elections can also provide a useful alternative path to power for the Sadrists, if they really have given up violence and decide to take part.

George Bush meanwhile has a further part to play, which consists mainly of not doing things that might tempt him.

Click here to read entire article.

Tags: iraq, war, military, george bush, improving, getting better, iran, general petraus, u.s. army

It is a shame that government officials at all levels cannot see that lowering gasoline taxes would help every American where it counts most…in the pocketbook! Story follows:

 

Sun Jun 15, 8:44 AM ET SAN DIEGO - If there’s pain at the pump in the U.S., Mexico may just have a remedy. A gallon of regular unleaded gasoline in San Diego retails for an average price of $4.61 a gallon. A few miles south, in Tijuana, it’s about $2.54 — even less if you pay in pesos.ADVERTISEMENTMore and more people appear to be taking advantage of the lower price.”I used to buy exclusively in the U.S. before gas started really going up,” said Patrick Garcia, a drama teacher at an elementary school in San Diego who lives in Tijuana. “Since then, I’ve been buying all my gas in Tijuana.”The lower prices mean a U.S. motorist could save almost $54 filling up a two-year-old Ford F150 pickup with a 26-gallon fuel tank in Mexico.The differential in diesel is even greater, selling at $5.04 a gallon in San Diego County and $2.20 in Tijuana.Paul Covarrubias, 26, who lives in Chula Vista and works in construction in San Diego, crosses the border each week just to refuel his dual-cab Ford F-250 pickup.”I fill it up with diesel in Tijuana for $60,” he said. “It would be almost twice that in San Diego.”Gas is cheaper in Mexico because of a government subsidy intended to keep inflationary forces in check.Still, international gas-buying trips don’t make sense for everyone. The wait getting back into the U.S. at the border in Tijuana frequently takes longer than two hours and cars can burn about a gallon of gas for each hour they idle.

San Diego drivers appreciate Mexico’s cheap gas - Yahoo! News

Tags: cheapgas, mexico, tijuana, san diego, gas under 3 dollars

A reader and viewer of Indoctrinate U recently wrote to me asking about a t-shirt I wore in the film: “I caught a glimpse of one of the t-shirts you were wearing, but didn’t really get the whole thing. It looked like it had a Republican elephant on it with a circle and a line through it. What was it really?”

I wrote back:

You correctly identified the t-shirt. It had the Republican Party logo with a circle-slash through it, and below that the text: “I Hate Republicans.”

For a while during the shooting, I wore a series of shirts deliberately intended to help me blend in to the environment, similar to the way that some species camouflage themselves.

The shirts (two more of which are shown in the attached photos: a CCCP shirt with the Soviet hammer and sickle, and a Joseph Stalin t-shirt) were originally part of an experiment that was intended to be a scene in the film. I wore different politically-themed t-shirts around campus and tried to capture various reactions. We did get a number of under-the-breath comments disparaging my “Viva la Reagan Revolucion!” t-shirt done in the iconic Che style and my “Proud Republican” t-shirt, but unfortunately, we had trouble finding the right mic setup to reliably capture such comments. So we pretty quickly scrapped the idea.

But after I realized that certain t-shirts granted me better access to the campus, I kept wearing those ones around.

Speaking of t-shirts, we’ve now got a few available over at the Indoctrinate U store, where we’ve just added a bunch of Indoctrinate U gear.

However, I should warn you in advance that these shirts probably won’t grant you better access on campus. Quite the opposite, possibly.

Tags: EvanCoyne Maloney, university, college, camouflage, t-shirts, indoctrinate u movie, communist, anti-republican