Somehow, I’m supposed to be silent.

You have no clue as to what a marine would not want to know about a fellow marine. Your fat ass and bald head would not make it through one day at Parris Island. You have never been to war, you just pretend.

I believe my point is made.

This could be the menatlity of the Congressional power circle if the Democrats take the House and Senate folks. With brain stems like this in charge of our national security, there’s no telling how much longer to France could invade us again.

Dear Mr. President:

While the world has been focused on the crisis in the Middle East, Iraq has exploded in violence.  Some 6,000 Iraqis were killed in May and June, and sectarian and insurgent violence continues to claim American and Iraqi lives at an alarming rate.  In the face of this onslaught, one can only conclude that the Baghdad security plan you announced five weeks ago is in great jeopardy.

Despite the latest evidence that your Administration lacks a coherent strategy to stabilize Iraq and achieve victory, there has been virtually no diplomatic effort to resolve sectarian differences, no regional effort to establish a broader security framework, and no attempt to revive a struggling reconstruction effort.  Instead, we learned of your plans to redeploy an additional 5,000 U.S. troops into an urban war zone in Baghdad.  Far from implementing a comprehensive “Strategy for Victory” as you promised months ago, your Administration=s strategy appears to be one of trying to avoid defeat.

Meanwhile, U.S. troops and taxpayers continue to pay a high price as your Administration searches for a policy.  Over 2,500 Americans have made the ultimate sacrifice and over 18,000 others have been wounded.  The Iraq war has also strained our military and constrained our ability to deal with other challenges.  Readiness levels for the Army are at lows not seen since Vietnam, as virtually no active Army non-deployed combat brigade is prepared to perform its wartime missions.  American taxpayers have already contributed over $300 billion and each week we stay in Iraq adds nearly $3 billion more to our record budget deficit.

In the interests of American national security, our troops, and our taxpayers, the open-ended commitment in Iraq that you have embraced cannot and should not be sustained.

Rather, we continue to believe that it is time for Iraqis to step forward and take the lead for securing and governing their own country.  This is the principle enshrined in the “United States Policy in Iraq Act” enacted last year.  This law declares 2006 to be a year of “significant transition to full Iraqi sovereignty, with Iraqi security forces taking the lead for the security of a free and sovereign Iraq, thereby creating the conditions for the phased redeployment of United States forces from Iraq.”  Regrettably, your policy seems to be moving in the opposite direction.

This legislation made clear that Iraqi political leaders must be informed that American patience, blood and treasure are not unlimited.  We were disappointed that you did not convey this message to Prime Minister Maliki during his recent visit.  Reducing the U.S. footprint in Iraq will not only give the Iraqis a greater incentive to take the lead for the security of their own nation, but will also allow U.S. forces to be able to respond to contingencies affecting the security of the United States elsewhere in the world.

We believe that a phased redeployment of U.S. forces from Iraq should begin before the end of 2006.  U.S. forces in Iraq should transition to a more limited mission focused on counterterrorism, training and logistical support of Iraqi security forces, and force protection of U.S. personnel.

Additionally, every effort should be made to urge the Iraqis to take the steps necessary to achieve a broad-based and sustainable political settlement, including amending the constitution to achieve a fair sharing of power and resources.  It is also essential to disarm the militias and ensure forces loyal to the national government.  Finally, an international conference should be convened to persuade other governments to be more involved, and to secure the resources necessary to finance Iraq=s reconstruction and rebuild its economy.

Mr. President, simply staying the course in Iraq is not working.  We need to take a new direction.  We believe these recommendations comprise an effective alternative to the current open-ended commitment which is not producing the progress in Iraq we would all like to see.  Thank you for your careful consideration of these suggestions.

Harry Reid, Senate Democratic Leader
Nancy Pelosi, House Democratic Leader
Dick Durbin, Senate Assistant Democratic Leader
Steny  Hoyer, House Minority Whip
Carl Levin, Ranking Member, Senate Armed Services Committee
Ike Skelton, Ranking Member, House Armed Services Committee
Joe Biden, Ranking Member, Senate Foreign Relations Committee
Tom Lantos, Ranking Member, House International Relations Committee
Jay Rockefeller, Vice Chairman, Senate Intelligence Committee
Jane Harman, Ranking Member, House Intelligence Committee
Daniel Inouye, Ranking Member, Senate Defense Appropriations Subcommittee
John Murtha, Ranking Member, House Defense Appropriations Subcommittee

We need to know which Minnesota Democrats running for Congress support this.

Peterson?
Oberstar?
McCullom?
Ellison/Erdlanson/Junge?
Wetterling?
Klobuchar?
Rowley?
Wilde?
Walz?

Even though there is the perfect example of why you can’t just let sleeping dogs lie, in regards to Hezbollah in Lebenon, the Congressional Democratic leadership has gone completely nutter when it comes to retreating from Iraq which they still don’t get, is the central, but not exclusive front in the war on terror.

The DFL Chair Melendez is all hot and bothered by Pawlenty’s gubernatorial behavior.

ST. PAUL (7/3106) – Republican candidate for governor Tim Pawlenty travels the state again today at taxpayers’ expense to announce a campaign-year health-care initiative. Minnesota DFL Chair Brian Melendez released the following statement:

Oh shut up you twit, for the past umteen years Mike Hatch has been on more political witch hunts than Shawn Towle. Seriously. Good gravy, is there anything you haven’t done where you didn’t manufacture some form or level of wrong doing or violation? Oh wait, that is why you don’t have a problem when  Hatch does it.

Oh and to be clear, it was the Independence party that filed the investigation on Hatch’s abuse of office. So if you want to attack some one out of revenge, at least get the party straight.

Oh and just wait, I heard Pawlenty is going to get out of bed the wrong way tomorrow and Melendez is going to flip out.

Oh please keep it up Rep. Murtha. Please continue to go down the road you live by. That road is the one where anyone that questions your judgement, you question their service or lack there of.

According to his logic, only those who fought for the right of free speech, deserve the opportunity to use it. I’m sure that most Marines would rather not know that one of their former brothers is taking advantage of the brotherhood they shared in order top silence political foes.

Keep it up Murtha. Just keep talking. Sooner or later you’ll realize that you’re …. well I don’t want to ruin the surprise, but ask John Kerry what it feels like to embarrass yourself in front of the nation.

Rep John Dingell DEMOCRAT MI is not against Hezbollah. Worse than that, he is adament about how he won’t take sides in the Israel Hezbollah fight.

Hear it for yourself.

No, not me. Her.

The state Republican Party bluntly told Rep. Katherine Harris that she couldn’t win this fall’s Senate election and that the party wouldn’t support her campaign, a letter obtained Monday by The Associated Press shows.

That fat lady is all done singing, out of costume, at home, and deeply into REM sleep. Hang ‘er up Katherine, you gave it your best.

Ha I love it!

Are you hearing me DFL? You want Coleman’s seat? Get a Minnesotan, not a carpetbagger.

RF Flashback: Franken & Me

Gut check time people. Michael Moore is running around saying he was right again.

Moore has not budged from the central claim of his 2004 documentary “Fahrenheit 9/11″ — that the Bush administration misled the American public about the reasons for war in Iraq — but he says that more people have come around to his view.

“That’s the shift that I’m seeing in the past year or so in the country, and as it relates to me,” he said.

OK first off, he’s still an anti-American nutbag. He has made millions lying and making ficticous movies about the “evils” of capitalism. Um, contradiction?

Well anyways, if you haven’t noticed, the left is doing what they did during Viet Nam. They are keeping the steady drum beat of pessimism and negativity up on Iraq. They think that if we lose there, they will win in the ballot box.

But what you should realize is that if the US runs away from the fight with radical islam in Iraq, it will never be able to take it on anywhere else. When we began this war, in reaction to being attacked over and over for decades, some knew it would be tough to keep the resolve to see it through.

It is now or never. For too many years, the US couldn’t stand the sight of blood. We payed for our withdrawls over the years, by our enemy being emboldened. Mogudeshu is once again a safe haven for terrorists due to our weak administrative ideas at the time. If the US cowtows to shortsighted peace first and last gutless groups, we will never be able to recover this time.

Never before has our enemy been so many places trying to get a foot hold. Across the globe, these groups who want to kill Americans, are getting foot holds, because they think that the US is about to run from the fight in Iraq. Look at Europe. They’ve been the leaders of appeasing these terrorists, and what do they get? hundreds murdered. The UN has been taking the side of despots and terrorist sponsors as long as it has been around, and they too are suffering the wrath of the terrorists.

Now is not the time to run. Now is the time to suck it up, and fight. If we do give up, and come home, we’re as good as dead. These terrorists will see it as a sign of weakness, and only become more emboldened.

Don’t let Michael Moore be right. This is not only a good fight, but a necessary one. It is survival of the fittest. Not fit physically, but rather the most fit public opinion.

Well that is what it seems like. There is nothing better than a good waiter/waitress. I’m at the fortress, and everytime my drink gets down there, I close the laptop for a second, and magically there is a new full drink. Oh there is so going to be a good tip for the guy today.
Sidenote: He calls me Doctor whenever I come in, which is a lot. Not sure what that means, but the bartender who called me Peanut that one time is here too. Man I love this place.

Oh I suppose I should give a quick update on the weekend. I had a great time up at my and my friends cabin. I hung out with fun people, and even learned how to play “Killer Bunnies”. Settle down liberals, I was hanging out with a pack of liberals. It is a card game that I found out you have to be drunk to play. Case and point, I watched the first round of it stone cold sober, and had no clue. Hours later, and a few under the belt, I got it so well I actually won.

I got a chance to go out wakeboarding today for the first time in about 2 years. Not that I didn’t want to, but it is really hard to do it, when there is no one else, literally, to drive the boat. My friend Karen and I went out on my lake today, and ripped it up, well the two of us did do some wakeboarding, which as we said at the time, was not bad for a couple of 30 year olds. You see there were a few other boats of younglings out there ‘trying’ to get up and stay on the board. Karen and I managed to have it all come back to us. Just like riding a bike, I suppose, but still fun none the less.

It was a fun, but all too short weekend. I got a ton of paper work to get done before work tomorrow, so I’d better get to it.

Man I thought it would never end, but it finally did. I described it to one person as a rollercoaster. Well I made it through, alive and everything.

I’m going to be driving a truck in a parade for Gov. Pawlenty again this morning. Then I’m off to the cabin, which I haven’t seen for far too long. An old friend I haven’t seen since last year is up at their cabin which is coincidentally less than a mile from mine. They live in Colorado now, so I hardly see them anymore.

Well what do you care. Anyways. Have a good weekend.