Monty Python – Hairdressers Expedition on Everest

Monty Python – International Philosophy

Today’s CENTCOM Press Releases

NEWS RELEASE
HEADQUARTERS UNITED STATES CENTRAL COMMAND
7115 South Boundary Boulevard
MacDill AFB, Fla. 33621-5101
Phone: (813) 827-5894; FAX: (813) 827-2211; DSN 651-5894

SUSPECTED ANTI-IRAQI FORCES MEMBER DETAINED

Release Date: 3/30/2007

Release Number: 07-01-03P

Description: BAGHDAD, Iraq -Iraqi and Coalition Forces captured a suspected criminal tied to explosively-formed projectile facilitation networks during an operation Friday morning targeting anti-Iraqi forces in Sadr City.

The suspect is believed to be involved with several violent extremist groups responsible for attacks against the Iraqi people and Coalition Forces and facilitating the movement of EFPs into Iraq.

"Iraqi and Coalition Forces are continually working to degrade extremist operations which are unrelenting against the innocent Iraqi people and the government of Iraq," said Lt. Col. Christopher Garver, MNF-I spokesperson.

-30-

FOR MORE INFORMATION, PLEASE CONTACT THE COMBINED PRESS INFORMATION CENTER at: cpicpressdesk@iraq.centcom.mil. 
FOR THIS PRESS RELEASE AND OTHERS VISIT WWW.MNF-IRAQ.COM.

COALITION FORCES CAPTURE 11 SUSPECTED TERRORISTS IN RAIDS

Release Date: 3/30/2007

Release Number: 07-01-03P

Description: BAGHDAD, Iraq -Coalition Forces captured 11 suspected terrorists during operations targeting foreign fighter facilitator and al-Qaeda in Iraq networks Friday morning.
During an operation near the Syrian border, Coalition Forces captured six suspected terrorists with alleged links to al-Qaeda and foreign fighter facilitation.
Five more suspects with alleged involvement in foreign fighter facilitation were captured in a raid north of Karmah. 
"These and other foreign terrorist facilitators are attempting to undermine the peace and stability the Iraqi people deserve," said Lt. Col. Christopher Garver, MNF-I spokesperson.

STATEMENT FROM GEN. DAVID H. PETRAEUS, COMMANDING GENERAL, MULTI-NATIONAL FORCE – IRAQ, REGARDING THE RECENT VIOLENCE IN TAL AFAR
Release Date:	3/30/2007
Release Number:	07-01-03P
Description:	BAGHDAD, Iraq – "Al-Qaeda in Iraq elements once again displayed their total disregard for human life, carrying out barbaric actions against innocent Iraqi citizens in an effort to reignite sectarian violence and to undermine recent Iraqi and Coalition successes in improving security in Baghdad. "These horrific attacks demonstrated al-Qaeda’s complete rejection of respect for life itself and the Coalition joins Iraqi leaders in condemning these latest acts of cold-blooded murder."

THREE SUICIDE VBIEDs TARGET  KHALIS POPULATION
Release Date:	3/30/2007
Release Number:	07-01-03P
Description:	KHALIS, Iraq – Three suicide vehicle-borne improvised explosive devices, one identified as an ambulance, detonated in Khalis, Iraq Thursday, killing more than 25 local citizens and wounding 37 citizens, five Iraqi policemen and three Iraqi army soldiers. "Al Qaeda is continuing to attack the population and increase hostilities by destabilizing an area, that for the past month, has been making great strides in security, services and government," said Col. David W. Sutherland, 3rd Brigade Combat Team, 1st Cavalry Division commander and senior U.S. Army officer in Diyala.  "The attack was on civilians and is intended to increase sectarian tension in the town while creating fear amongst the population."  The third vehicle that detonated was an ambulance believed to target the first responders. IA and IP units, along with local hospitals, immediately responded to the attack. The casualties were transported to the Khalis and Baqubah hospitals. "The local leadership and Iraqi Security Forces arrived on the scene and quickly established control of the situation while preventing lapses in security.  This displays the will of the government, ISF and the people to move on with their lives in a free and democratic society while not being intimidated by the horrific actions of the terrorists," said Sutherland. The incident is under investigation.

Good news for the First Mate

Sorry I didn’t put this up earlier,but better later then never.  Today Captain Ed’s First Mate underwent kidney surgery and the operation was successful. 

Sending well wishes to them.

Open Trackback Friday

Today is Friday, so that means it is another edition of Open Trackback Friday here at Stix Blog.  I am sorry it is a little late, but I am tired, went ot see a friends band play last nightand didn’t get enough sleep.  And today is my late day at work. 

So trackback here with your best post ofthe day.

Amazing, truly amazing

Is this a joke.  Am I in a dream.  This cannot be happening.  The Defeatocrats are wanting to run and hide their heads in the sand.  Pelosi will not bring up a bill that condemns Iran for kidnapping the 15 British troops.  Amazing.  You think that the Left has gone so low that it cannot get any lower, but they just come up and lower the bar even more.  They do have time to tax the American people to death, but not to stand with our Allies from across the pond.

Thanks Gateway Pundit

You just won’t believe this.
As reported at Powerline (via Sean Hannity) this afternoon:

A resolution has been proposed in the House of Representatives that condemns Iran for the seizure of British sailors and marines, expresses support for our British allies. It’s hard to see anything controversial in that. But apparently, the resolution has languished all week while Pelosi refuses to allow it to come to the floor.

Earlier today, Congressman Eric Cantor wrote the following letter to Pelosi:

Dear Madam Speaker:

Fifteen kidnapped British marines and sailors recently became the latest victims of a systematic Iranian campaign of terror and international defiance. The illegal seizure of the British forces is a signal that Iran views us as powerless to prevent it from realizing its aggressive ambitions.

For the sake of our standing in the world, our allies and most importantly the 15 British personnel and their families, I urge you to bring H. Res. 267 to the floor today before we adjourn. The resolution calls for the immediate and unconditional release of the British marines and sailors. It would also call on the U.N. Security Council to not only condemn the seizure, but to explore harsher sanctions to counter the growing Iranian threat.

A Republican Congressional staffer writes:

It is simply staggering to me that Pelosi refuses to stand beside America’s closest ally. I literally would not have thought this possible, until I saw it this week.

Staggering, indeed.

But… Democrats did have time today to vote for the largest tax increase in our contry’s history!

And, Kerry and his minions set new restrictions on political speech.

** Is it really any wonder then, despite the liberal media, that democrats are tanking in the polls?

Here is more bad polling news for democrats.

More… Defeatism on display.

Truly amzing isn’t it??  They want to stick it to the American tax payers and run from Iraq, and abandon our best friends.  This is what the people voted for?????  If it is, we are in some serious trouble.

March 30

A bonus historical post today.  Found this one at The American Thinker.

A Bipartisan Ticket?

By Michael Zak

Any Republican interested in a proposal by Unity08 for a bipartisan ticket should consider the disaster that befell the country when the GOP did nominate a bipartisan presidential ticket.  In 1864, President Lincoln’s running mate was a Democrat, Tennessee’s Andrew Johnson.  Though anti-Confederate, Johnson proved to be a racist buffoon and an alcoholic and a true Democrat.  Thanks to John Wilkes Booth, choosing Andrew Johnson was the biggest mistake of Abraham Lincoln’s life.

On this day in 1868, Republicans began the Senate trial of impeached President Andrew Johnson.  Among the seven U.S. Representatives serving as impeachment managers were anti-slavery crusader Thaddeus Stevens and John Bingham, co-author of the 14th Amendment.  Another manager was John Logan, who would be the GOP’s 1884 vice presidential nominee.  As with the Clinton impeachment, the 126-47 vote in the House to prosecute Andrew Johnson had been along party lines.

Utterances by Johnson, lionized in John Kennedy’s ghost-written Profiles in Courage, included:

"This is a country for white men, and by God, as long as I am President, it shall be a government of white men." and "I know that damned [Frederick] Douglass.  He’s just like any other damned n_____."

For three years after the Civil War, Republicans endured President Johnson’s defense of the slave system.  He had authorized neo-Confederate state governments in the South, vetoed the 1866 Civil Rights Act, opposed the 14th Amendment, disgraced his office, and failed to protect the emancipated slaves and white Unionists from their Democrat oppressors.  By 1868, congressional Republicans had had quite enough of Andrew Johnson.

The 75-five year old Majority Leader, Thaddeus Stevens, was no longer able to walk and had to be carried to the Senate trial every day, so the lead prosecutor was Rep. John Bigham, principal author of the 14th Amendment.  Chief Justice Salmon Chase, presiding over the trial, ruled consistently against the prosecution.  Through intermediaries, Chase was actively seeking the Democratic Party presidential nomination for the fall elections.  During the trial, important Democrats conveyed to the President through his private secretaries offers to raise troops in his defense.  Johnson refused, but the offers do indicate the lengths many of his supporters were willing to go.

In the end, the May 1868 vote to remove Johnson fell one vote short of the required two-thirds, with all twelve Democrat Senators backing their man.  Seven Republican Senators also voted to acquit.  Their refusal to rid the country of the Andrew Johnson presidency is often described as a matter of principle, but a closer look reveals much more. 

According to the presidential succession law at the time, Johnson would have been replaced by the President pro tempore of the Senate, Ben Wade.  The cantankerous Senator had just lost his re-election bid, and few Republicans were eager to see him President for the last ten months of Johnson’s term.  Though radically against slavery, he held other views unpopular within our Party.  Wade was a "greenbacker," for instance, in favor of using inflation as away of easing debt burdens.  Also, putting Wade in the White House would have needlessly imperiled the nomination of Ulysses Grant for President at the 1868 Republican National Convention less than a week later.

The seven Republican Senators who voted with Johnson were inclined to tolerate white Democrat supremacist hegemony in the South.  Though they all campaigned for Grant in the Fall, not one would be nominated for another term.  In 1872, their faction of our Party would split away as the Liberal Republicans, and twelve years after that became the "Mugwumps" who shifted over to the Democratic Party.

Michael Zak is proprietor of Grand Old Partisan blog and Republican Basics.

March 30

1981 : PRESIDENT REAGAN SHOT:

On March 30, 1981, President Ronald Reagan is shot in the chest
outside a Washington, D.C., hotel by a deranged drifter named John
Hinckley Jr.

The president had just finished addressing a labor meeting at the
Washington Hilton Hotel and was walking with his entourage to his
limousine when Hinckley, standing among a group of reporters, fired
six shots at the president, hitting Reagan and three of his
attendants. White House Press Secretary James Brady was shot in the
head and critically wounded, Secret Service agent Timothy McCarthy was
shot in the side, and District of Columbia policeman Thomas Delahaney
was shot in the neck. After firing the shots, Hinckley was overpowered
and pinned against a wall, and President Reagan, apparently unaware
that he’d been shot, was shoved into his limousine by a Secret Service
agent and rushed to the hospital.

The president was shot in the left lung, and the .22 caliber bullet
just missed his heart. In an impressive feat for a 70-year-old man
with a collapsed lung, he walked into George Washington University
Hospital under his own power. As he was treated and prepared for
surgery, he was in good spirits and quipped to his wife, Nancy,
”Honey, I forgot to duck,” and to his surgeons, "Please tell me
you’re Republicans." Reagan’s surgery lasted two hours, and he was
listed in stable and good condition afterward.

The next day, the president resumed some of his executive duties and
signed a piece of legislation from his hospital bed. On April 11, he
returned to the White House. Reagan’s popularity soared after the
assassination attempt, and at the end of April he was given a hero’s
welcome by Congress. In August, this same Congress passed his
controversial economic program, with several Democrats breaking ranks
to back Reagan’s plan. By this time, Reagan claimed to be fully
recovered from the assassination attempt. In private, however, he
would continue to feel the effects of the nearly fatal gunshot wound
for years.

Of the victims of the assassination attempt, Secret Service agent
Timothy McCarthy and D.C. policeman Thomas Delahaney eventually
recovered. James Brady, who nearly died after being shot in the eye,
suffered permanent brain damage. He later became an advocate of gun
control, and in 1993 Congress passed the "Brady Bill," which
established a five-day waiting period and background checks for
prospective gun buyers. President Bill Clinton signed the bill into
law.

After being arrested on March 30, 1981, 25-year-old John Hinckley was
booked on federal charges of attempting to assassinate the president.
He had previously been arrested in Tennessee on weapons charges. In
June 1982, he was found not guilty by reason of insanity. In the
trial, Hinckley’s defense attorneys argued that their client was ill
with narcissistic personality disorder, citing medical evidence, and
had a pathological obsession with the 1976 film Taxi Driver, in which
the main character attempts to assassinate a fictional senator. His
lawyers claimed that Hinckley saw the movie more than a dozen times,
was obsessed with the lead actress, Jodie Foster, and had attempted to
reenact the events of the film in his own life. Thus the movie, not
Hinckley, they argued, was the actual planning force behind the events
that occurred on March 30, 1981.

The verdict of "not guilty by reason of insanity" aroused widespread
public criticism, and many were shocked that a would-be presidential
assassin could avoid been held accountable for his crime. However,
because of his obvious threat to society, he was placed in St.
Elizabeth’s Hospital, a mental institution. In the late 1990s,
Hinckley’s attorney began arguing that his mental illness was in
remission and thus had a right to return to a normal life. Beginning
in August 1999, he was allowed supervised day trips off the hospital
grounds and later was allowed to visit his parents once a week
unsupervised. The Secret Service voluntarily monitors him during these
outings. If his mental illness remains in remission, he may one day be
released.

History Channel

Glenn McCoy

Glenn McCoy

Spanish Inquisition II