What great news, Patti Patton Bader, founder of Soldiers Angels, has been selected as America’s Favorite Mom. Patti is an amazing woman who has grown Soldiers Angels from an idea into a network of 200,000 volunteers who do numerous things large and small for the men and women serving and the families they leave behind.

On Mother’s Day 2006, Matt Burden, aka Blackfive, profiled Patti as part of our Someone You Should Know series

Soldiers’ Angels Founder is “America’s Favorite Mom”

Soldiers’ Angels founder Patti Patton-Bader was named “America’s Favorite Mom” in a primetime television show Sunday night on NBC. Sponsored by Teleflora and hosted by Donny and Marie Osmond, the show highlighted fifteen outstanding mothers who had distinguished themselves in categories ranging from Working Moms to Military Moms and “Non-Mom” Moms.

Humbled by the honor, Patti is thrilled to be able to use it to continue the Soldiers’ Angels mission of “May No Soldier Go Unloved.” As the grand prize winner, she will receive $250,000, a set of household appliances, and other valuable items. Patti hopes to apply the winnings to her plans for a small ranch that will allow newly returned soldiers to relax with their families after deployments.

“I really am lucky to know so many heroes in my life,” said Patti, who herself has two sons in the Army, one currently deployed to Iraq. “Whether they are the troops who serve our country or the amazing mothers here on this America’s Favorite Mom program, I am honored to be in the presence of such inspirational people and also am humbled to know that America thinks the same of me.”

Patti is also excited about the opportunities this platform gives her to help people learn more about America’s military heroes and options for supporting them and their families. The attention she has received through the America’s Favorite Mom events has already drawn a number of new volunteers who want to use their talents and connections to help support the troops.

The one and only Michael Yon joined us once again to talk about his excellent new book, Moment of Truth In Iraq.

We discussed the changes in strategy and tactics that have led to the dramatic improvements, the influence of Iran in Iraq and the region, why US soldiers are the most effective diplomats and what the definition of victory is and how long it may take us to get there.

All of our interviews are also available for download at iTunes and Podcast Alley via the Pundit Review Radio Podcast.

What is Pundit Review Radio?

Pundit Review Radio is where the old media meets the new. Each week Kevin and Gregg give voice to the work of the most influential leaders in the new media/citizen journalist revolution. Called “groundbreaking” by Talkers Magazine, this unique show brings the best of the blogs to your radio every Sunday evening from 7-10 pm EST on AM680 WRKO, Boston’s Talk Station.

It was a great pleasure to welcome back Jay Fitzgerald to Pundit Review Radio. Jay is a business reporter with the Boston Herald and blogs at the always outstanding Hub Blog. There is a saying that goes, “I wrote you a long letter because I didn’t have time to write a short one.” The best writers are economical with their words. Jay is one of them.

We focused on state politics this afternoon, here is hour one.

All of our interviews are also available for download at iTunes and Podcast Alley via the Pundit Review Radio Podcast.

What is Pundit Review Radio?

Pundit Review Radio is where the old media meets the new. Each week Kevin and Gregg give voice to the work of the most influential leaders in the new media/citizen journalist revolution. Called “groundbreaking” by Talkers Magazine, this unique show brings the best of the blogs to your radio every Sunday evening from 7-10 pm EST on AM680 WRKO, Boston’s Talk Station.

Who knew that Kim Kardashian could make an even bigger ass of herself?

Michelle Obama has spoken frequently on the campaign trail about the amount of student loans she and Barack had to take out to get through Harvard and Princeton. Worse yet, she had to pay them back!

As she has many times in the past, Mrs. Obama complains about the lasting burden of student loans dating from her days at Princeton and Harvard Law School. She talks about people who end up taking years and years, until middle age, to pay off their debts. “The salaries don’t keep up with the cost of paying off the debt, so you’re in your 40s, still paying off your debt at a time when you have to save for your kids,” she says.

“Barack and I were in that position,” she continues. “The only reason we’re not in that position is that Barack wrote two best-selling books… It was like Jack and his magic beans. But up until a few years ago, we were struggling to figure out how we would save for our kids.”

Good thing for that Rev. Wright sermon that inspired The Audacity of Hope! Perhaps Michelle should be asking for a refund? It appears her husband, no doubt an exceedingly smart and capable man, is having some trouble with the basics, like American history and math.

Jack Kelly, a Marine, a Green Beret, a high ranking pentagon official (deputy assistant secretary of the Air Force in the Reagan administration) and now a journalist focusing on national security issues, offered up a remedial history lesson for Barack earlier this week,

In his victory speech after the North Carolina primary, Sen. Barack Obama said something that is all the more remarkable for how little it has been remarked upon.

In defending his stated intent to meet with America’s enemies without preconditions, Sen. Obama said: “I trust the American people to understand that it is not weakness, but wisdom to talk not just to our friends, but to our enemies, like Roosevelt did, and Kennedy did, and Truman did.”

That he made this statement, and that it passed without comment by the journalists covering his speech indicates either breathtaking ignorance of history on the part of both, or deceit.

I assume the Roosevelt to whom Sen. Obama referred is Franklin D. Roosevelt. Our enemies in World War II were Nazi Germany, headed by Adolf Hitler; fascist Italy, headed by Benito Mussolini, and militarist Japan, headed by Hideki Tojo. FDR talked directly with none of them before the outbreak of hostilities, and his policy once war began was unconditional surrender.

FDR died before victory was achieved, and was succeeded by Harry Truman. Truman did not modify the policy of unconditional surrender. He ended that war not with negotiation, but with the atomic bomb.

Harry Truman also was president when North Korea invaded South Korea in June, 1950. President Truman’s response was not to call up North Korean dictator Kim Il Sung for a chat. It was to send troops.

We learned yesterday that during this long campaign, Barack has “visited 57 states with one to go”

The far more important issue here is the one noted above by Jack Kelley. The Atlantic’s Mark Ambinder summed up the video nicely by writing,

Obama is tired, nothing more. But if John McCain did this — if he mistakenly said he’d visited 57 states — the media would be all up in his grill, accusing him of a senior moment.

May 09, 2008: Gore: No cabinet position for me

“I won’t accept a cabinet post regardless of which of the three candidates wins the presidency,” Gore said yesterday. “I am looking for a way to bring about change in other ways,” the former vice president and former Democratic presidential candidate said.

One place Al could start to look for “a way to bring about change’ is at Apple Computer, where he serves on the board of directors. Instead of enriching himself on stock options and covering up for the misdeeds of Steve Jobs, Al should take a look at the environmental record of the company whose cash he is so happy to pocket.

May 09, 2008
Apple slammed on climate change
ClimateCounts survey on climate friendliness rates Apple far behind other computer companies

Apple is once again being pilloried on the strength of its green credentials, taking last place among computer firms rated within a recent ClimateCounts survey on climate friendliness.

Apple achieved just 11 points in the survey, far behind other computer companies rated in the annual list. IBM, Canon and Toshiba took first, second and third place with scores of 77, 74 and 70, respectively. The maximum score was 100 points.

If climate change is indeed the most serious threat mankind has ever faced, how can Gore be on the board of a company with such a shoddy record on environmental issues? Al’s fellow environmentalists have been urging him to act and influence Apple for a more than a year.

In fact, Gore has been on the Apple board for more than five years now! He has had plenty of opportunity to insist that the company live up to the standards he demands everyone else follow. What could possibly explain his refusal to do so? I wonder…

60,000 dead or missing in Burma and what does Al Gore see? Opportunity.

Speaking of eco hypocrites, here’s a list of Hollywood’s biggest Green phonies.

Troop trasher Stephen King isn’t happy with the “right wing blogs”. The feeling is mutual.

Have you seen Roger Clemens new commercial for AT&T?

Why Hillary stays in the race. Why she won’t..

Mrs. Obama’s Gospel of Bitterness

Lowering the drinking is a legit issue, but this is ridiculous.

How much ugly can you buy for a billion dollars?

They deserve everything they get.

The unspoken issue, judges.

Jews for Jihad in Boston?

I picked up the phone early this morning to get Todd Feinburg’s take on last night’s results in North Carolina and Indiana. Todd stuck with the theme of his new American Thinker column,

Obama, the One Hit Wonder

The race for the Democratic nomination has reached a critical intersection. Hillary Clinton suffered a body blow with her failure to win big in Indiana. But with the rock star candidate hobbled by the preacher and bomber, it’s hard to imagine that Barack Obama won’t be looking more like an aging one hit wonder come fall against John McCain.

“I don’t want to sound like an ad, a public service ad on TV, but the fact is if you can read, you can walk into a job later on. If you don’t, then you’ve got, the Army, Iraq, I don’t know, something like that. It’s, it’s not as bright. So, that’s my little commercial for that.”

Why do I get the feeling that Stephen King drives around the back roads of Maine in a late model Volvo with a Kerry for President bumper sticker still on it.

His next book is an autobiography titled Ignoramus Maximus.

This can’t be, can it? I mean, it is a private matter? This doesn’t rise to level of high crimes and misdemeanors?

Snark.

Ohio Dems have apparently lifted the party’s 10-year ban on impeachment as an option for politicians who refuse to resign after having sex with subordinants.

Ohio Dems talking impeachment after AG refuses to resign

COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) - Risking impeachment, Ohio’s attorney general on Monday refused demands from the governor and other fellow Democrats that he resign over a sexual harassment scandal in his office and an affair with a subordinate.

Gov. Ted Strickland told reporters that Democrats will begin drafting an impeachment resolution against Attorney General Marc Dann right away. Republican House Speaker Jon Husted said Monday that his chamber—which takes the first step in any impeachment—was already reviewing the process.

Virtually every state-level Democratic officeholder urged Dann to resign in a letter late Sunday after Strickland tried twice during the day to persuade him to leave office.

Hillary Clinton was not available for comment.