BlackFive

Michelle Malkin and her crew at Hot Air have a Vent up about citizens standing up to remind the bad guys and their enablers that we are all in this together. The flying Imams who were rightly booted from a flight are suing the passengers who pointed out their terrorist-looking behavior, so far identified only as John(s) Doe. Unsurprising, but not one we will let slide. So a la Spartacus, some other John Does have popped up and stand with the accused, feel free to join in.

The John Doe Manifesto

Your humble narrator (still nobody has pegged that reference) makes a cameo.

In a shocker Republicans slipped a measure into a bill protecting those who point out suspicious behavior......and it passed.......The Congress. WOW!

Ken from Banter in Atlanter sends this link to a world class nuttah. Skydiving, wings and rockets, need I say more.

Jet Man

I have gotten email about Pat Tillman's family and their ongoing requests for more investigations. The subject is on the list for the Friday Freefly, which we film tonight and Kev is pretty chafed. For now I will say this, we know what happened to him, he died in a friendly fire accident. We know the Army lied about the circumstances, likely for two reasons. One to make the Army and the Rangers look better, and two to give Tillman a legacy. Both are wrong, but not in an evil fashion, and not in a way that demands a witch hunt. Several generals have ended their careers by making these mistakes.

Pat Tillman deserves massive respect for walking away from millions to serve his country, and it is sad  that he died doing so. But it was not a conspiracy and had nothing to do with Iraq or anything else beyond a tragedy in Afghanistan and some folks who shoulda' just told the whole truth.

Plus take a look at what would be the anti-Sheehan.

A couple days ago a paratrooper linked to A Co. 2d brigade was lost in Iraq.  He was from South Portland, Me.  My son is a recruiter in the Portland area after doing 3 tours in Iraq with A Co. 2/235 82nd.  The trooper's mother is someone we all should know, ckeck out the above link.  This "grieving mother" came and thanked recruiter who had signed up her son and thanked the recuiters (especially those with jump wings) for all they had done to keep this country safe!!!!!   My son could not believe what he was hearing!!!!!  The 82nd is sending a burial detachment up for the funeral, 300 patriot guards are coming because about a week ago some of the nuts from Kansas showed up in Maine at the funeral of a fallen Marine.  My son spent the rest of the day helping the mother ( and the rest of the recuiting office) put up yellow ribbons all over the city of South Portland, Me.  As you will see from the videos this is a mother to counter Cindy Scheehan (sp).  This is someone who deserves your "Someone You Should Know" treatment.

dave stoll

Good Gravy, when the heck is Matty O' going to get his lazy butt back here? I have more stuff y'all sent and I will see what else I can put up later.

On the down side, a couple of vermin managed their way into a crowded market to show their bravery.

BAGHDAD - Two nearly simultaneous truck bombs — including one detonated by remote control — ripped through markets in Tal Afar on Tuesday, killing at least 48 people and wounding dozens, police said, as violence surged outside the Iraqi capital.

Sadly we will deal with this as we fight our way through the surge. Although the trend seems to be a lot more tips about bad guys coming in from the locals though , and we are making some progress. Consider this nice tale of dead insurgents.

 

BAGHDAD - U.S. soldiers foiled two suicide truck bombings against their base in a small town west of Baghdad and killed as many as 15 attackers, the U.S. military reported Tuesday.  

 

The attacks began when a water truck tried to drive into the base just north of Karmah, a town not far from the city of Fallujah, at about 2 p.m. Monday. A soldier opened fire and the truck bomb exploded.

 

The military said 30 insurgents responded with small-arms fire, rocket-propelled grenades and mortars. Five minutes into the firefight, a dump truck following the same path as the exploded water truck tried to smash into the base but the driver was shot and the load of explosives blew up.

 

The military estimated it killed 15 insurgents in the fight and said eight soldiers were wounded. Seven of the wounded returned to duty after treatment by medics at the site. One soldier was hospitalized.

Always good to see murderous scum cashing in their 72 Goat reward.

Since Matty O' is lollygagging on the beach, and nothing really chafed my cones when I read the usual suspects today, I will dust off some stuff from the basement archives of UncleJimbo.com/blog, which I am renovating. Most of these predate my jaw-flapping here.

I met our local Air America station host, Lee Rayburn, and began a still-ongoing argument with him. When he found out I was working in the Defense industry he thought it would be funny to have a contractor sponsor his show. I recorded him an ad which he played on his show quite a few times.

Mic 92.1- Secret Pictures of You (SPY) Coalition

Next is a classic, which I didn't write, about the difference between Rangers and Special Forces. Go easy there RgrMom.

Rangers v. Special Forces

And another of the funny, stolen from some Dutch website.

Bunny Suicides

Yeah that's right deep thoughts on the high road today.

Hey, on vacation with the frau und kinder, and my grad program assigned two take home finals and a take home project that are now "take vacation finals/project"...so, I'll be spending time as follows:

1.  Beach time with kids, pool time with kids, boating time with kids

2.  Taking tests.

3.  Beach, pool, boat, rinse, repeat...

4.  Happy Hour with wife

5.  Grilling a LOT of food (with requisite beer)

6.  Depending on sobriety, more test work.

7.  Email, blog, phone calls etc.

Back next Wednesday...so please be patient about my response time to your emails. 

Thanks!

TJ's Anti-Contrarian Blog has posted an interview with SFC Thomas Nichols of Jack Army - here's a part of the interview:

Have you heard or sensed any shift in Iraqis against insurgents (i.e. the Anbar Salvation Council is allegedly fed up with Al-Qaeda and are now battling them in places like Habbaniyah)?

Yes, there is a definite shift in how Iraqis view insurgents. Iraqis are turning in insurgents, calling when they see IEDs and even chasing away bad guys in some cases. Is it enough? No, not yet, but it is improvement and hopefully the momentum is shifting enough to make it a permanent thing. Only time will tell.

Check it out.

H/T Harvey at Bad Example.

After last week's show, Friday Freefly- Bribes for antiwar votes & Iraq news, when I called out a Rep. Defazio for signing on to the Bring the troops home bill based on the pork he was getting in return for his vote, I got an email from his spokeswoman, who I had quoted. She sends along the Congresman's clarification stating that all pork aside, he was anti-war, when anti-war wasn't cool. Actually that is a more principled, if ultimately wrong position.

I saw your post on the Blackfive blog on March 23, and I wanted to send you a short statement from my boss clarifying his position on the Emergency Supplemental vote, which I hope you will post....

 

Thanks.

Danielle

 

Danielle Langone

Press Secretary

Office of Congressman Peter DeFazio

2134 Rayburn House Office Building

Washington, DC  20515

By Peter DeFazio

Member of Congress, 4th District of Oregon

 

I was an early, outspoken and consistent opponent of the war in Iraq. I doubted claims of WMD and ties to al-Qaeda. As the deception regarding the aluminum tubes and uranium for Niger began to unravel the WMD allegations, Rep. Ron Paul and I introduced a bill in February 2003 to repeal the use of force resolution passed by Congress. I first proposed a plan to negotiate a timeline to end the war to the president in February 2005.

LT Fishman from Stratcom sends a weekly report detailing the good news from Iraq compiled from open sources. It is extensive and a great reminder that there is more to the story than defeatist propaganda.

How 'bout this for starters:

1) 39 terrorists killed today in Iraq http://www.news24.com/News24/World/Iraq/0,9294,2-10-1460_2086580,00.html Baghdad - Iraqi security forces killed 39 "terrorists" in a fierce battle in the western Sunni province of Al-Anbar on Tuesday, said a top Iraqi official. Brigadier general Abdel Karim Khalaf, director of the operations centre in the interior ministry, said seven other militants were arrested, including some Arab nationals. The clashes broke out early on Tuesday in Ameriyah, southwest of the former rebel town of Fallujah and the site of a recent chlorine gas attack. Khalaf said security forces supported by paramilitary units formed by Sunni tribes fought the militants in a battle that lasted several hours. Two top militants, Shakir Hadi Jassim and Mohammed Khamis, were among the dead. About 25 Sunni tribes from Anbar have formed an coalition - Anbar Awakening - to take on the militants, largely from the Al-Qaeda network, who are operating in the western province.

UPDATE: Jack comments that a fight against illegal drugs is not hysterical. I agree, and my beef is with our war on supplies overseas, which is actually counter-productive. I wish we had spent every dime we have wasted on that, on treatment for the users who can actually be helped. 

Since we are busy trying to screw up our efforts to pacify Afghanistan with our puritanical hysteria over drugs, it seemed like a good time for this. About this time two years ago I wanted to see if I could write fiction, so over Spring Break I spent five days sitting on my back porch and banged out about 15,000 words. The story is about the drug war in Afghanistan, but also the flawed humans fighting it. I have been informed that my naming procedures are wrong for the Afghans, and I’m sure there are numerous other mistakes, but I’ll take it for a first effort. The pic is my buddy Sammy in Kabul on the one year anniversary of 9/11, he died when his stomach blew up from far too many vicodin for far too long. CONTENT WARNING- Creative, but accurate, use of profanity throughout.

The story is here in seven chapters: Drugs, Guns & Gold- Afghani Black

Not to take anything away from Subsunk's post below - there's just something about that song and that band. This vid was from back in late 2002 - I was at the F-14 fly-in that is shown in the video in September of that year.