Charges dropped against Marine in Haditha case
LOS ANGELES (AFP) — Charges against a US Marine involved in the killing of 24 Iraqi civilians in the town of Haditha were dropped on Friday, just moments before the start of the soldier’s court martial.
Lance Corporal Stephen Tatum had been due to face a military trial on charges of involuntary manslaughter, reckless endangerment and aggravated assault over his role in the killings in November 2005.
Exonerated Haditha Marine Justin Sharratt on Pundit Review Radio
Having been accused of “cold blooded murder” by his own congressman, John Murtha, Justin Sharratt joined us to describe what this ordeal has been like for him and his family,
Darryl Sharatt, Justin’s father, joined us to describe the pain this has caused his family. He also told us an incredible story about Murtha. Mr Sharratt made 53 phone calls over 18 months, before getting a return call from Murtha! Can you imagine? A congressman, YOUR congressman, accusing your son of “cold blooded murder of innocent women and children” and not having the dignity to return a phone call for eighteen months! Talk about outrageous.
The Haditha incident was a tragedy for all involved, Marines and Iraqi’s alike. There is no question about that. Finally, we are getting to a point of consensus around the incident itself, it was NOT as it was widely reported, a “massacre”.
Let’s never forget what John Murtha did to the Haditha Marines! Gary Gross at Let Freedom Ring has a timeline of Murtha’s travesty that is a must read.
Here is a visual reminder,
The fact that this guy, Murtha, is a member in good standing in the Democratic Party is a disgrace. The fact that he is in a leadership position in the House, after trying to become Speaker on the backs of these innocent Haditha marines, is inexcusable.
Got some great news last night about Patti Patton Bader and Soldiers Angels.
For founding Soldiers Angels (www.soldiersangels.org) and other exemplary work that she does to make the world a better place Patti has just been notified that she is the recipient of the VFW 2008 James E. Van Zandt Citizenship Award.
“The VFW Citizenship Award – Awarded for outstanding service contrib to American citizenship. To recognize significant contribution to the spirit of service and dedication to the nation that inspires us to display better citizenship.”
From the VFW web site
“James E. “Jimmy” Van Zandt was Commander-in-Chief of the VFW three times, and a veteran of three wars (World War I, World War II, and the Korean War). He served as an enlisted man in World War I and retired as an admiral following the Korean War. Descended from a pioneer family in Blair County, Pennsylvania, Jimmy worked his way from newsboy to United States Congressman. Recipients of the award named in Van Zandt’s honor exemplify his dedication to public service, citizenship, and other admirable qualities.”A few of the the others bestowed this honor during the 50 years it’s been given out include Ronald Reagan, Lyndon Johnson, Gerald Ford, Hubert Humphrey, John Connally, Sam Rayburn, Jeannie Kirkpatrick, William Bennett, and Barbara Bush.
Congratulations Patti and everyone associated with Soldiers Angels! You truly deserve such a great honor for all the incredible work you do around the world.
This is certainly not good news for John McCain. At a time when his opponents are beating each other into the ground, McCain has made an unforced error that will draw attention away from the Democrats civil war.
McCain gave a foreign policy speech yesterday that is a little too close for comfort to one given by Rear Adm. Timothy Ziemer in 1996.
Blue Mass Group has the links from Think Progress who broke the story. Check it out for yourself.
UPDATE: Well, that was the shortest political scandal in history. Think Progress has posted the following correction on its web site,
It appears that Ziemer’s speech may have been plagiarized from McCain. According to the McCain campaign, the senator used these lines before Ziemer — in 1995. We regret the error.
I’m sure they do.:)
Isn’t it obvious? New York’s new governor does not want the job, he is scared bleepless at the prospect of being governor for the next three years and he is trying to talk his way out of office.
This all started, oh, a few hours after he was sworn in. His first act as governor, admit to a series of affairs that he, and his wife, had. Then, it is revealed that he misued public funds for to pay for his flings at the Days Inn. Even better, he used campaign funds at Men’s Warehouse and even to pay off his bar tab. I mean really, what is going on here.
Now Patterson has gone and done this,
NY Gov. Paterson says he used cocaine
NEW YORK – Gov. David Paterson said Monday he used cocaine in his 20s and smoked marijuana when he was younger. In reference to cocaine, Paterson, 53, said in a television interview that he “tried it a couple of times” when he was “about 22 or 23.”
“And marijuana probably when I was about 20,” he said on the NY1 cable news station. “I don’t think I touched marijuana since the ’70s.”
If this is not a cry for help, I don’t know what is. The man does not want the job. What will he admit to next? His close relationship with Reverand Wright? That weekend he spent on an space ship with Dennis Kuchinich? Will he tell us that fire can’t burn steel? Where will it end?
Jim Kelly of Sports Illustrated: Greatness undiminished
The Bobby Orr I remember changed not just the way defensemen played the game, but he answered the call of the true measure of athletic achievement: he changed the game itself.
When I was ten years old, I got the opportunity to skate with Bobby Orr at Twin Rinks in Danvers. He was there to do a photo shoot with St. John’s Prep hockey phenom Bobby Carpenter, who ended up as the first high school athlete featured on the cover of Sports Illustrated. Orr was, as everyone says, a true gentlemen. My most vivid memory is of my father telling me that it was impossible to describe just how great Bobby Orr was. This is what he was talking about it,
My Latest on Townhall.com out today in response to Fred Barnes’ recent piece in the Weekly Standard.
McCain Must Resist Increasingly Surreal Hubris of GOP Elites
By Gregg Jackson
Wednesday, March 19, 2008This week Fred Barnes wrote an article in which he suggests that McCain’s best VP choice is Mitt Romney.
Wow!
Mr. Barnes is correct that McCain’s VP selection is vital because of McCain’s age (71) and because McCain needs to select an authentic conservative with widespread appeal to the GOP base-Evangelical and Catholic Christians, millions of whom have started to gag on the regularly scheduled forced doses of the GOP’s shut-up-and-do-as-you’re-told concoctions.
Mr. Barnes believes Mitt Romney is exactly the man to get them to swallow yet another bitter dose.
Such a claim could only issue forth from the increasingly bizarre, even surreal, consensus in which the “conservative” elites — pundits, consultants, lawyers and self-styled “pro-family” power brokers — swim.
First, Mr. Barnes writes that McCain’s VP should be acceptable to conservatives-especially social conservatives. Perhaps Mr. Barnes does not quite understand how right he is on this. It has long been apparent that among the conservative elites “pro-life” is merely a uniform that one puts on like a free agent ballplayer joining a team in search of a championship.
“You’re now ‘pro-life,’ Mr. Romney? Why should we believe that?”
“Because I said so, and that ought to be proof enough. And only a fool would turn away a convert to the pro-life cause.”
“Maybe so, Slick, and maybe not. But the question remains, why should we believe that?”
“Well, after my conversion to the pro-life side, with every bill that came across my desk I came down on the side of life.”
“Hmmm. Well, does that include your massive government health care plan with which you delighted Ted Kennedy by establishing taxpayer-funded abortion on demand at fifty dollars a pop?”
“I thought Jay Sekulow, James Bopp, Gary Bauer, Tony Perkins, Tom Minnery, Sean Hannity, Rush Limbaugh, Ann Coulter, Laura Ingraham and the kids running the National Review had taken care of all that for me.”
Mr. Barnes, like most of the chattering “conservative elites,” has missed the glaring lesson of a Republican presidential primary in which millions of social conservative and constitutionalist voters just said no to all the RINOs the party nomenklatura stubbornly forced on them, preferring to pick from among the diverse options of Mike Huckabee, Ron Paul, Tom Tancredo, and Duncan Hunter. Does Barnes not grasp how much intellectual credibility and moral gravitas the “conservative” mandarins have squandered — outside the beltway and away from the studio lights of Fox News?
rest here
I’ve been thinking about Barack Obama’s decision more than tweny years ago to join the Trinity United Church of Christ in Chicago. It was a calculated decision by this outsider, Ivy League graduate to connect with the inner city community that he saw as his base as he planned a career in the helping industry, er, public life.
Here’s liberal Matthew Yglesias of The Atlantic making the case,
…Obama’s going to have a hard time explaining that I take to be the truth, namely that his relationship with Trinity has been a bit cynical from the beginning. After all, before Obama was a half-black guy running in a mostly white country he was a half-white guy running in a mostly black neighborhood. At that time, associating with a very large, influential, local church with black nationalist overtones was a clear political asset (it’s also clear in his book that it made him, personally, feel “blacker” to belong to a slightly kitschy black church).
This decision, made years ago to help further Obama’s career has come back to cost him dearly. This speech he is being forced to give today “on race” is exactly what he has been trying to avoid for the entire campaign.
There is a real irony here in that the Democrats last nominee, John Kerry, was also denied his ultimate goal because of a cynical, calculated decision he made years earlier. Kerry’s was not a controversial religious affiliation, but his decision to return home from Vietnam and become a leader of the radical wing of the anti-war movement. It was his words, actions and associations in the early 1970’s that cost John Kerry the presidency.
The question today for Barack Obama is, will a cynical, calculated decision he made years ago cost him his shot at the presidency?