Seriously?

Barry isn't interested in victory.



Actually, Barry, the problem is that we elected an anti-American Marxist as President.

Just words...

Appeasement

Truly disgusting.

The UN loves Barack Obama because he is weak

By Nile Gardiner
Published: 8:34AM BST 23 Sep 2009

Barack Obama’s Gallup approval rating of 52 percent may well be lower at this stage of his presidency than any US leader in recent times with the exception of Bill Clinton. But he is still worshipped with messiah-like adoration at the United Nations, and is considerably more popular with many of the 192 members of the UN than he is with the American people.

The latest Pew Global Attitudes Survey of international confidence in Obama’s leadership on foreign affairs shows strikingly high approval levels for the president in many parts of the world – 94 percent in Kenya, 93 percent in Germany, 88 percent in Canada and Nigeria, 77 percent in India, 76 percent in Brazil, 71 percent in Indonesia, and 62 percent in China for example. The Pew survey of 21 countries reveals an average level of 71 percent support for President Obama, compared to just 17 percent for George W. Bush in 2008.

As the figures indicate, Barack Obama is highly likely to receive a warm reception when he addresses the United Nations General Assembly today, whereas his predecessor in the White House was greeted with undisguised contempt and stony silence.

It is not hard to see why a standing ovation awaits the president at Turtle Bay. Obama’s popularity at the UN boils down essentially to his willingness to downplay American global power. He is the first American president who has made an art form out of apologizing for the United States, which he has done on numerous occasions on foreign soil, from Strasbourg to Cairo. The Obama mantra appears to be – ask not what your country can do for you, but what you can do to atone for your country. This is a message that goes down very well in a world that is still seething with anti-Americanism.

It is natural that much of the UN will embrace an American president who declines to offer strong American leadership. A president who engages dictators like Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and Hugo Chavez will naturally gain respect from the leaders of the more than 100 members of the United Nations who are currently designated as “partly free” or “not free” by respected watchdog Freedom House.

The UN is not a club of democracies - who still remain a minority within its membership – it is a vast melting pot of free societies, socialist regimes and outright tyrannies. Obama’s clear lack of interest in human rights issues is a big seller at the UN, where at least half its members have poor human rights records.

The president scores highly at the UN for refusing to project American values and military might on the world stage, with rare exceptions like the war against the Taliban. His appeasement of Iran, his bullying of Israel, his surrender to Moscow, his call for a nuclear free world, his siding with Marxists in Honduras, his talk of a climate change deal, have all won him plaudits in the large number of UN member states where US foreign policy has traditionally been viewed with contempt.

Simply put, Barack Obama is loved at the UN because he largely fails to advance real American leadership. This is a dangerous strategy of decline that will weaken US power and make her far more vulnerable to attack.

As we saw last week with his shameful surrender to Moscow over missile defence, the president is perfectly happy to undermine America’s allies and gut its strategic defences while currying favour with enemies and strategic competitors. The missile defence debacle is rightly viewed as a betrayal by the Poles and the Czechs, and Washington has clearly give the impression that it cares little about those who have bravely stood shoulder to shoulder with their US allies in Iraq, Afghanistan and the wider war on terror.

The Obama administration is now overseeing and implementing the biggest decline in American global power since Jimmy Carter. Unfortunately it may well take another generation for the United States to recover.

Nile Gardiner is the Director of the Margaret Thatcher Center for Freedom at the Heritage Foundation.

Coppers grounded.

I kind of smile when I read stories like this.

Props to these guys for their sheer ballsiness (if that's even a word).

I believe they'll ultimately get caught because of the helo. I doubt whomever rented it, did so without a trace. I'd bet the helo will be their downfall. Not to mention someone not being able to keep their mouth shut, which is what trips up most crims.

Swedish police criticized after helicopter heist

By KARL RITTER, Associated (with Terrorists) Press

STOCKHOLM – Swedish police faced stinging criticism Thursday for failing to stop helicopter-borne gunmen from pulling off a Hollywood-style heist against a cash depot while blocking an air pursuit with a fake bomb.

Investigators had made no arrests as of Thursday afternoon, a day after the pre-dawn raid on the G4S cash facility, where millions are stored and processed before being transferred to banks and ATMs in the Stockholm area.

Two men detained for questioning Wednesday were no longer suspects in the robbery, police spokesman Ulf Goranzon said.

Swedish media mixed awe of the robbers' military precision with anger against the police for not mounting a more effective response. The bandits prevented an air pursuit simply by placing a fake bomb at a poorly guarded helipad outside the capital.

"It's just embarrassing that criminals can knock out the police with tricks from a book for boys," columnist Lena Mellin wrote in tabloid Aftonbladet.

In an editorial, Stockholm daily Svenska Dagbladet said police have to become better at protecting themselves and their property "or they won't be able to protect society and citizens."

With cinematic flourish, the masked bandits broke into the building through the roof early Wednesday and set off explosions to get to the millions inside. They escaped by hoisting themselves and their haul back up on rope lines.

Meanwhile, police units on the scene were ordered to remain outside the building and wait for a commando unit to arrive.

"The first police that arrived at the scene weren't equipped to intervene against heavily armed robbers," Goranzon said. "When the right forces arrived the helicopter took off."

Police later found the stolen helicopter near a lake north of Stockholm, about 25 kilometers (15 miles) from the cash depot. It wasn't immediately clear how much money was stolen.

The company that owns the high-security facility, G4S PLC, offered a "large reward" for information leading to the bandits' arrest and the return of the loot.

Company spokesman Alexander Westrell dismissed concerns that cash machines across Stockholm would run out of money, saying the cash depot resumed operations late Wednesday.

"The night shift went on last night as usual and managed to provide 99 percent of all the ATMs with money," Westrell told The Associated Press.

Investigators believed at least 10 people were involved. Police across the Scandinavian nation was placed on high alert to find the suspects and boosted monitoring at border checks.

Sweden has had its share of high-profile heists against cash storage facilities, post offices and armored cars in recent years, but police said the commando-style robbery was the first to use a helicopter. Also in previous heists, police have been delayed by spikes or sabotage against their vehicles and helicopters.

Swedish police must "be able to use the equipment that has been acquired for large amounts," the Dagens Nyheter daily wrote in an opinion piece. "Helicopters, cars, boats and other equipment must be kept in a way so that criminals cannot sabotage them."

Britain-based G4S PLC is one of the world's largest security companies. The Vastberga facility stores cash that is transported to banks and other businesses in Sweden. G4s declined to say how much money was in the cash depot when it was attacked.

This guy makes Clinton and Carter look like pikers!

He's doing exactly what he promised.

In O'Bama's world it's okay for our enemies to have nukes, but not us.

He says doesn't take money from lobbyists, but takes it from ACORN.

He talks to our enemies, but slaps our friends in the face.

Today is still dangerous for our enemies, but for our friends it's downright lethal.



This guys is more dangerous to America than any foreign enemy in the last 30+ years.

No middle class tax hikes!

Yeah right!

I don't know 'nuthin 'bout 'nuthin!

STEPHANOPOULOS: But have your — have some of your allies made it easier for — handed your opponents some ammunition, like ACORN, for example…

OBAMA: Well, look, the — you know, I think that — are there folks in the Democratic camp or on the left who haven’t — haven’t always operated in ways that I’d appreciate? Absolutely.

STEPHANOPOULOS: Congress said they should cut off all funding for ACORN.

OBAMA: Is — is — is…

STEPHANOPOULOS: … all funding for ACORN. Are you for that?

OBAMA: Is that true on the other side, as well? Of course that’s true.

STEPHANOPOULOS: How about the funding for ACORN?

OBAMA: You know, it’s — frankly, it’s not really something I’ve followed closely. I didn’t even know that ACORN was getting a whole lot of federal money.

STEPHANOPOULOS: Both the Senate and the House have voted to cut it off.

OBAMA: You know, what I know is, is that what I saw on that video was certainly inappropriate and deserves to be investigated.

STEPHANOPOULOS: So you’re not committing to — to cut off the federal funding?

OBAMA: George, this is not the biggest issue facing the country. It’s not something I’m paying a lot of attention to.

H/T: Michelle Malkin

Keepin' it steady...

Here's a great video from my buddy Rick's just completed deployment to A-stan. His brother Nate was there too.

He's with the 129th Rescue Squadron from Moffett Field. They racked up some pretty impressive flying stats (1,500 combat hours) and a very high number of combat saves (397).

This is a really well done video, with great cinematography and a good song.

Check it.



Thanks to Rick and Nate for doing what they do...that others may live.

Unfinished business

Darrell Ray Griffin Jr

SSgt

U.S. Army. Iraqi Freedom

Mar 13 1971 - Mar 21 2007

BSM w V PH KIA
advertisement

Beloved husband son and brother


That's what the headstone of an American Hero reads.

After son's death in Iraq, father embeds with unit to tell his story

(CNN) -- When the news came, Darrell Griffin hurled the phone.

Then he got in his car and navigated the madness of Los Angeles highways, thankful only for the time it gave him to think about what he would say to his family. Later, consumed with the grief of losing a son, Griffin drew the drapes in his bedroom and made his world mimic the darkness in his heart.

After he buried Darrell "Skip" Griffin Jr. and after the sympathy calls faded, the elder Griffin, like every American who has ever lost a beloved soldier, struggled to resume life's normal rhythms.

But this is where Griffin's journey veered from others and took a twist so unique that it made the U.S. Army bend its rock-hard rules. The 55-year-old accounting consultant, who opposed Vietnam and had never served in combat, traveled to the epicenter of the Iraq war. There, he would trace his son's last days.

The result, "Last Journey: A Father and Son in Wartime," is a common story about a father-son relationship, told in an uncommon way. Video Listen to Darrell Griffin read excerpts from his son's journal »

The education of a warrior

Griffin's eldest son joined the Army for all the reasons listed on recruitment posters. He wanted to serve his nation and straighten himself out in the process.

He became a soldier's soldier: never disobeyed an order and went beyond the call of duty. He served two tours in Iraq and was awarded a Bronze Star with Valor for dragging a fellow soldier to safety through a hail of enemy gunfire.

The father who had avoided the draft during Vietnam by joining the National Guard understood that the Army was his son's way of helping others.

He had been a rebellious child and often spent long hours in detention, where he read voraciously: Nietzsche, Descartes, Herodotus, Plato. In Iraq, he would rely on intellectual writings to ponder lofty concepts like what constitutes a just war.

Both Griffin men had misgivings about Iraq and whether it was the right place to battle radical Islam.

Skip began a conversation with his father.

What would it feel like to kill?

"The whole thing about philosophy is that it leads to more questions," Griffin recalled. So it was OK for his son, the tough staff sergeant who had the words "Malleus Dei" ("God's hammer") stenciled on his equipment, to question the war.

At his father's urging, Skip began to record his experience. He started a blog.

He snapped a photo of the first man he shot: 12:33 p.m. April 21, 2006, according to the time stamp on his camera. The man wore a blue sweater and a white jacket that turned crimson.

Skip spoke to his father, often in e-mails, about that kill, about every subsequent one and about all the ugliness he witnessed in a faraway land.

December 9, 2006: "This is no way for a human being to live; living with violence and intrigue on every street corner, where you can't even trust your own neighbors for fear that they might be someone on the opposing side. Once again I had to push this heartbreaking thought deep into my heart because I was a Squad Leader leading nine heavily armed young men and trying to bring them home alive."

Several weeks later, Skip's unit was in the thick of battle in the Shiite heartlands of Najaf and Karbala. He wrote home about "apocalyptic" battles in which he saw "hundreds of blown apart bodies."

January 30, 2007: "Dad, I have seen what hell must be like when we assaulted this compound. ... There were fathers bringing up their dead babies to me and shoving them into my arms for help."

When Skip came home on leave, father and son talked over a bottle of Merlot. Griffin noticed what so many other parents do about their war-weary children. Skip was as loving as ever, but the killing had changed him.

"He seemed to have a need to constantly play certain scenes over again in our conversations," Griffin would later write. "As we dissected these scenes into smaller and smaller pieces, his feelings of guilt began to percolate to the surface. Still, he always ended every talk with: 'Dad, I love you.' "

Skip wanted to pen a book of his musings on war. But his work was left unfinished when he was felled by a sniper's bullet March 21, 2007.

Embedding with his son's unit

After the funeral, Griffin knew that he had to finish the book as a final gift to his son. He also knew that it would have to be radically different than the philosophical essays Skip had envisioned. It would have to focus on Skip's death.

From the military, Griffin had received skimpy incident reports and the results of an autopsy. The only way he could fully tell his son's story would be to travel to Iraq and spend time with Skip's unit.

"I had to do it," Griffin said. "My life was incomplete. My son's life was incomplete."

Griffin wrote to everyone he could think of to enlist help, including Gen. David Petraeus, then the commander of U.S. forces in Iraq. Petraeus told Griffin that he was asking for the near-impossible, especially since military operations in Iraq were in high gear.

Amazingly, a few weeks later, Griffin found himself on a C-130 transport plane from Kuwait to Baghdad. He would join Skip's unit in the 2-3 Stryker Brigade, at a base near the Baghdad airport.

"I was very impressed by Mr. Griffin's determination and commitment to finish what his son had begun and to spend time with his son's former unit to do it," Petraeus told CNN. "In my view, his situation was truly unique, and thus it was one in which we decided to make an exception to normal practice."

Griffin landed in Baghdad with a fear that transcended roadside bombs and mortar rounds. How would his son's unit treat him? What would he say? What would he ask?

He took care to refer to his son as "Griff." That's how his Army buddies knew him. He slept on a cot in a metal containerized housing unit just as his son had. He heard the gravel crunch under his boots as he walked through the base, following his son's footsteps.

Despite the awkwardness, the soldiers opened up. Griffin could tell they were hurting, too. "It was bound up in them," Griffin said. "They wanted to talk about it and get it out." Sometimes, they shut the video camera off and just cried together.

Griffin's commitment to the book helped shield him from the painful details he was about to learn, the story of his son's last day.

Skip was standing in the hatch of a Stryker armored vehicle, just 15 minutes outside the gates of the base. The familiar rat-a-tat of small arms fire filled the air. Confusion reigned. Sgt. Christopher Pacheco noticed that Skip's legs were limp.

The soldiers pulled his body back into the vehicle and desperately wrapped his head with gauze to stop the blood. Skip's breathing was labored, erratic.

He was transported to a combat hospital but died before he could be airlifted to Balad Air Base, where a specialist in head trauma waited.

"Last Journey: A Father and Son in Wartime" has received warm reviews. In the seventh year of the war, myriad books on Iraq have sprouted on store shelves. But this has been lauded for its unique voice.

These days, Griffin attends events celebrating his work and regularly visits Skip's grave at Los Angeles National Cemetery, where a headstone reads:

"Darrell Ray Griffin Jr

SSgt

U.S. Army. Iraqi Freedom

Mar 13 1971 - Mar 21 2007

BSM w V PH KIA

Beloved husband son and brother"

The elder Griffin is glad he fulfilled his promise and was able to tell his son's story beyond the facts spelled out on a cold grave. He looks to the heavens and knows his son is smiling down at him, saying "Dad, we did it."

Blogger sucks!

I love how Blogger totally messed up my template, especially since I haven't messed with it!

Blogger sucks.

Google hates America.

Go to Cassy Fiano's site to see why.

Disgusting.

Fitting...

Dow Jones Industrial Average
Friday, September 11, 2009

Closing Price: 9,605.41


Dow Jones Industrial Average
Tuesday, September 11, 2001

Closing Price: 9,605.51



I'd say that's quite a coincidental/unintentional tribute to 9/11.


From Drudge

What's your answer?

I say "Absolutely NOT!"

Betraying our dead

By RALPH PETERS

Last Updated: 10:39 AM, September 11, 2009

Posted: 1:13 AM, September 11, 2009

Eight years ago today, our homeland was attacked by fanatical Muslims inspired by Saudi Arabian bigotry. Three thousand American citizens and residents died.

We resolved that we, the People, would never forget. Then we forgot.

We've learned nothing.

Instead of cracking down on Islamist extremism, we've excused it.

Instead of killing terrorists, we free them.

Instead of relentlessly hunting Islamist madmen, we seek to appease them.

Instead of acknowledging that radical Islam is the problem, we elected a president who blames America, whose idea of freedom is the right for women to suffer in silence behind a veil -- and who counts among his mentors and friends those who damn our country or believe that our own government staged the tragedy of September 11, 2001.

Instead of insisting that freedom will not be infringed by terrorist threats, we censor works that might offend mass murderers. Radical Muslims around the world can indulge in viral lies about us, but we dare not even publish cartoons mocking them.

Instead of protecting law-abiding Americans, we reject profiling to avoid offending terrorists. So we confiscate granny's shampoo at the airport because the half-empty container could hold 3.5 ounces of liquid.

Instead of insisting that Islamist hatred and religious apartheid have no place in our country, we permit the Saudis to continue funding mosques and madrassahs where hating Jews and Christians is preached as essential to Islam.

Instead of confronting Saudi hate-mongers, our president bows down to the Saudi king.

Instead of recognizing the Saudi-sponsored Wahhabi cult as the core of the problem, our president blames Israel.

Instead of asking why Middle Eastern civilization has failed so abjectly, our president suggests that we're the failures.

Instead of taking every effective measure to cull information from terrorists, the current administration threatens CIA agents with prosecution for keeping us safe.

Instead of proudly and promptly rebuilding on the site of the Twin Towers, we've committed ourselves to the hopeless, useless task of rebuilding Afghanistan. (Perhaps we should have built a mosque at Ground Zero -- the Saudis would've funded it.)

Instead of taking a firm stand against Islamist fanaticism, we've made a cult of negotiations -- as our enemies pursue nuclear weapons; sponsor terrorism; torture, imprison, rape and murder their own citizens -- and laugh at us.

Instead of insisting that Islam must become a religion of responsibility, our leaders in both parties continue to bleat that "Islam's a religion of peace," ignoring the curious absence of Baptist suicide bombers.

Instead of requiring new immigrants to integrate into our society and conform to its public values, we encourage and subsidize anti-American, woman-hating, freedom-denying bigotry in the name of toleration.

Instead of pursuing our enemies to the ends of the earth, we help them sue us.

We've dishonored our dead and whitewashed our enemies. A distinctly unholy alliance between fanatical Islamists abroad and a politically correct "elite" in the US has reduced 9/11 to the status of a non-event, a day for politicians to preen about how little they've done.

We've forgotten the shock and the patriotic fury Americans felt on that bright September morning eight years ago. We've forgotten our identification with fellow citizens leaping from doomed skyscrapers. We've forgotten the courage of airline passengers who would not surrender to terror.

We've forgotten the men and women who burned to death or suffocated in the Pentagon. We've forgotten our promises, our vows, our commitments.

We've forgotten what we owe our dead and what we owe our children. We've even forgotten who attacked us.

We have betrayed the memory of our dead. In doing so, we betrayed ourselves and our country. Our troops continue to fight -- when they're allowed to do so -- but our politicians have surrendered.

Are we willing to let the terrorists win?

Never Forget

Today is what started it all. Unlike some, I never want to forget this day.

I can't write anything because it's still too emotional for me, eight years later.

I'm bawling just doing this post, so I'll just leave some pictures to commemorate the day.

God Bless the NYPD and the FDNY!

















911 Aerial Photos

The Liar in Chief