We have to thank Matt Burden from Blackfive once again for putting us in touch with Bruce McQuain from QandO. Matt knew that Bruce was the right man to take over the weekly Someone You Should Know segment.
Don’t miss Blackfive’s Someone You Should Know print archive and radio archive.
Before we got to this week’s great story, we asked Bruce for his thoughts on what Memorial Day is all about. Bruce should know, for 28 years he served in the United States Army and Army Reserve as an infantry officer.
Someone You Should Know: Marine Sgt. Robert J. Mitchell Jr.
Bruce told us a great story for Memorial Day weekend, featuring Marine Sgt. Robert J. Mitchell Jr.. There is also an appearance by Brad Kasal, who was the second person selected by Blackfive for Someone You Should Know.
“Lt. Gen. John F. Sattler, commanding general of the I Marine Expeditionary Force, congratulates former Marine Sgt. Robert J. Mitchell on his receipt of the Navy Cross during a ceremony aboard Camp Pendleton, Calif., July 28, 2006. Mitchell, who was wounded four times during his two tours in Iraq, received the medal, the nation’s second-highest award for battlefield heroism, in recognition of his actions during the battle for Fallujah, Iraq in November 2004. U.S. Marine Corps photo by Cpl. George Hruby.” DoD Photo Caption.
Marine Receives Navy Cross for Heroism
The day was Nov. 13, 2004, and according to the Marine Corps’ official account of the fierce, close quarters battle, Mitchell ignored his own wounds and repeatedly braved enemy fire to administer first aid to and evacuate other Marines wounded in the fight.
Nearly two years after that fateful day, in a solemn ceremony at Camp Pendleton, Calif., Mitchell received the Navy Cross from Lt. Gen. John F. Sattler, commander of the I Marine Expeditionary Force. The Navy Cross is the nation’s second-highest award for battlefield heroism.
“This is a truly special occasion,†said Sattler, addressing the assembled Marines and guests after presenting the award. “Valor comes in a scale, and all the Marines, sailors, and veterans here today know how rare of an occasion this is.â€
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. Hailed as “Groundbreaking” by Talkers Magazine, this unique show brings the best of the blogs to your radio every Sunday evening from 7-10pm EST on AM680 WRKO, Boston’s Talk Leader
Courtesy of Absolute Moral Authority
Hat Tip: Instapundit, who commented, “ACTUALLY, I HAD TO LOOK TWICE to realize that this was a photoshop.”
GOP-RIP
GrassTopsUSA Guest Commentary
By Gregg Jackson and Paul Dinger
05-24-07The “RINO” (Republican In Name Only) syndrome was diagnosed at a very advanced stage by the 2006 election. But apparently we’ve learned nothing. And the adulation over the candidacy of Mitt Romney shows the condition is probably terminal.
“RINOism” has infected much of the conservative leadership, from evangelical leaders to Right Wing talk show hosts. Southern Baptist leader Richard Land and top conservative radio talk show hosts such as Sean Hannity speak glowingly of Romney. Two of the most popular conservative shows have become part of the liberal media glorification of Mitt. One conservative talker has written “A Mormon In The White House.” He and other Republican talkers are denouncing the “ugly religious bigotry” against Romney.
What exactly are they talking about?
Before looking at the “bigotry” surrealism, there is an extremely important reason Republicans should not be hugging Romney and it has nothing to do with his religion.
Barack Obama was supposed to be different. When he burst onto the scene with a speech at the Democrat Convention in Boston in 2004, the media breathlessly reported that this was an up-and-coming star. This guy was different, not just the color of his skin or his name, but his politics. The humble man himself said he was all about “a new kind of politics”.
Well, after one-third of one term in office, we now know that Barack Obama is just another Beltway politician. He is politics as usual. There is nothing new or different about Barack Obama, he’s just like the rest of them.
The case against Barack Obama?
1. His concern for the environment only goes so far
Barack is out pushing coal-to-liquid technology, hardly something at the top of mind for the environmental activists today. Charley Blandy of Massachusetts leading liberal blog Blue Mass Group had this to say about Barack earlier this week,
So, he’s not going to mandate that the fuel be made without greenhouse emissions, but he’ll provide incentives. And that’s good enough for him? I’m sorry, Barack, but that’s pathetic. You really just don’t seem to get it.
Maybe he does get it. After all,
The U.S. Department of Energy has issued a feasibility study for a commercial 50,000-barrel-a-day coal-to-liquids facility in the Illinois coal basin.
Could it be any clearer? Global warming is a threat to our way of life, to our very existence. Unless, of course, there is a pork project heading to Barack’s home state, then, well, do we need to be so rigid in our thinking of how we approach the problem? Maybe this coal-to-liquid idea isn’t so bad after all?
2. The money was ok by us until you all noticed we were taking it.
Of all the issues that inflame the liberal activist base, you’d have to put the evil Wal-Mart near the top of the list. I have recently done a series of posts about Hillary Clinton’s Wal-Mart problem. Well, what do you know, Barack Obama has his own Wal-Mart issue.
Barack’s wife Michelle has resigned from the Board of Director’s of one of Wal-Mart’s leading suppliers, a position she has held for two years.
Michelle Obama resigned her position as a director of Treehouse Foods today, ending the relationship with the Wal-Mart supplier that had threatened to become a problem for her husband, Barack Obama, in his bid for the Democratic nomination for president.
Treehouse supplies pickles and other specialty foods to Wal-Mart, a frequent target of union leaders who say the company treats its workers unfairly.
Michelle Obama cited increased demands on her time for resigning the position, which she had held since the summer of 2005.
Increased demands on her time? Like what, spending more time fielding question from union activists as to why she is taking money from a union hating company like Wal-Mart? Why was Treehouse acceptable in 2005 and not in 2007? If Wal-Mart is such an evil corporation, why was it ok take the position in the first place?
This is so transparent and bogus. They got caught with their hands in the Wal-Mart cookie jar and now they are backing away and trying to make things right, in appearance only, for the union activists in the Democrat party.
3. The reflexive need to pander
RICHMOND, Va. (AP) – Barack Obama, caught up in the fervor of a campaign speech Tuesday, drastically overstated the Kansas tornadoes death toll, saying 10,000 had died.
The death toll was 12.
“In case you missed it, this week, there was a tragedy in Kansas. Ten thousand people died—an entire town destroyed,” the Democratic presidential candidate said in a speech to 500 people packed into a sweltering Richmond art studio for a fundraiser.
All of this leads me to one inescapable conclusion, that despite the hype and soaring rhetoric, Barack Obama is just another Beltway politician. He’s not different, or special, he’s just like the rest of them. And its only been two and a half years.
Photo via The Onion
Big Time Magazine cover story on The Last Temptation of Al Gore this week. Among those declaring that Gore, should he run, would win the presidency is none other than Apple Computer co-founder Steve Jobs.
“If he ran, there’s no question in my mind that he would be elected,” Jobs told Time magazine.”
This is hardly surprising. In fact, it is expected. After all, when Jobs was in trouble for backdating stock options (also known as ripping off shareholders), he created an internal committee of Apple board members, led by Al Gore, to “investigate”. Shockingly, Al Gore cleared Steve Jobs of any wrongdoing. Despite the mountains of evidence.
Steve Jobs scratches back.
That is the headline of today’s Wall St. Journal lead editorial (subs req)that cites the most recent CBO (Congressional Budget Office) Report that debunks all the claims from the redistributionist lefties like Senator “Two-Americas” Edwards and Hillary “the Bush Tax Cuts have been disasterous for working families” Clinton.
A new study by the Congressional Budget Office says the poor have been getting less poor. On average, CBO found that low-wage households with children had incomes after inflation that were more than one-third higher in 2005 than in 1991.
The CBO results don’t fit the prevailing media stereotype of the U.S. economy as a richer take all affair — which may explain why you haven’t read about them. Among all families with children, the poorest fifth had the fastest overall earnings growth over the 15 years measured. (See the nearby chart.) The poorest even had higher earnings growth than the richest 20%. The earnings of these poor households are about 80% higher today than in the early 1990s.
As for the Dobbsian claim that we will be hearing endlessly on the Democrat campaign trail that the “unfair and irresponsible Bush Tax Cuts” have been great for the “rich” but have decimated “middle class working Americans,” the class warrior wealth redistributionists on the Left will have to reconcile this claim with the empirical economic data that debunks this oft-repeated canard:
The report also rebuts the claim, fashionable in some precincts on CNN, that the middle class is losing ground. The median family with children saw an 18% rise in earnings from the early 1990s through 2005. That’s $8,500 more purchasing power after inflation. The wealthiest fifth made a 55% gain in earnings, but the key point is that every class saw significant gains in income.
So, the question I have is why the Democrats, in light of the plethora of empirical economic evidence which has demonstrated time and time again that pro-growth supply side tax cuts increase revenues to the treasury and lead to economic prosperity across the board, continue to advance the very same economically destructive high tax and spend policies that would harm their “poor” and “middle class” constituents the most?
Schadenfreude: enjoyment obtained from the troubles of others
Nothing pleases me more than reading stories about bad people who get what’s coming to them. Here’s a story that demonstrates the benefits of a concealed carry law.
Detroit Free Press
Man with unloaded gun killed by victim
A robbery and crime spree aided by an unloaded gun came to a halt late Thursday when the gunman met more than his match: a gun with bullets.
Charles Parker Jr., 18, of Detroit was killed when a 53-year-old man pulled out a 9mm handgun and shot the teen, who was armed with an unloaded .22-caliber handgun.
…police said, the robbers saw a man at a Detroit car wash and tried to carjack him. The one approached with the unloaded gun and the other wielded a baseball bat, police said. That’s when the man washing his car fired…
…After the shooting, police questioned the 53-year-old man and released him, noting that he had a valid concealed weapons permit.
Then they gave him back his gun.
Detroit police are calling it self-defense.
As Instapundit noted, don’t bring an unloaded gun to a gunfight!