5 Years Ago Today

I was standing in Consitution Gardens with 30,000+ pro-America, pro-troop, pro-victory Patriots. Our Mission: Defend the Wall against the vandals and asshats who had threatened to desecrate it. We had ample evidence to suggest that members of the anti-military left were going to attempt to deface and defame the memory of the fallen from the war in Viet Nam.

Less than 6 weeks earlier, members of the anti-military group code pink had desecrated the statue of the Lone Sailor at the Navy Memorial, and had spray-painted grafitti on the steps of the Capitol in full view of the Capitol Police who apparently had been told to let them do it.

The Park Police assured members of our group that the same would not happen in March when the asshats gathered to protest the beginning of the war in Iraq.

Having worked with the Park Police on multiple occasions in the past, and knowing they cannot be everywhere all the time, it was obvious we needed to do a little more to assist.

So Gathering of Eagles was born.

Honor Vietnam Vets With Jane Fonda and Anti-War Protestors?!

Honor Vietnam Vets With Jane Fonda and Anti-War Protestors?!

The mayor needs a history lesson or a bitch-slapping for even considering this.

Fayetteville, North Carolina, home of Fort Bragg, is planning a 10-day celebration and homecoming this November to honor Vietnam Vets. Its a honor well deserved. These soldiers, marines, and other vets served our nation honorably. It’s not their fault that we had lousy leadership in Washington that lost the war.

But Fayetteville Mayor Tony Chavonne decided to “honor” the Vets by reaching out to Quaker House, an anti-Vietnam war protesting outfit. And Quaker House said they are glad to participate and intend to show two anti-war films that include Jane Fonda. As in “Hanoi Jane.” This is how they plan to “honor Vietnam vets.”

Foreign Policy Experience?

Depends on what you tried to accomplish.

From Family Security Matters:

....Sarah Palin's views on some key national issues remains a mystery. For example, there is the issue of illegal immigration. I spent hours searching without success for any writings or statements about illegal immigration. As best as I can tell, none exist. Should we therefore assume that her position on the issue is identical to that of McCain - who has generally been a strong supporter of open borders? People who follow this issue very closely have no idea about Palin's views on the issue, and given McCain's past collaboration with Teddy Kennedy in support of mass amnesty, the mystery is troubling.

But by far the biggest issue about Palin will be foreign policy. Get ready for an onslaught of news reports on the major networks and articles in the Washington Post and New York Times comparing her unflatteringly with Biden - articles that will tout at great length his foreign-policy experience. The point of the pieces will be: "Sure, Obama is an ingenue who got Iraq completely wrong. And yes, he has only been paying attention to the stuff for a few years, but he has a lot of smart advisors around him. And even though he has a lot less experience than John McCain when it comes to foreign policy, Obama's inexperience is compensated for by the fact that Biden, chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, has 35 years of foreign policy experience, while Palin has none."

This could gain traction for the Democrats unless Palin in the coming weeks begins to give interviews explaining her own worldview (think about a very compressed version of what former California Gov. Ronald Reagan did between 1975 and 1979) and contrasts it with Obama- Biden.

......on so many of the foreign policy issues he has addressed during his Senate career, Joe Biden has simply been on the wrong side of history.

In 1972, for example, he was elected to the Senate at age 29, running as an anti-war candidate, as John McCain's time in the Hanoi Hilton was about to end. Biden should be asked about his opposition to the war and what happened after the United States was defeated in the spring of 1975 - including the horrific sagas of the "Boat People" and Cambodian genocide.

Perhaps Mr. Biden could talk about his advocacy of President Carter's SALT II Treaty and his opposition to the Reagan defense buildup of the 1980s that helped win the Cold War: Mr. Biden was tireless in working against it, and he also opposed President Reagan's efforts to fight communism in Nicaragua and El Salvador.

Biden also fought tooth and nail against the 1991 Gulf War that drove Saddam Hussein out of Kuwait. Although he voted to authorize the use of force in Iraq in 2002, Biden has spent much of the past five years or so mobilizing opposition to what the United States has been doing in Iraq, including the very successful surge.

He has been a strong advocate of dialogue with Iran. And he has opposed efforts to reform the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act to ensure that the United States can eavesdrop on foreign terrorists operating outside the United States without obtaining warrants beforehand.

The bottom line is that much of Biden's experience consists of pursuing policies that have undermined U.S. strength in the world. If McCain and Palin are unable or unwilling to make this case, Biden will continue to have a free pass when it comes to foreign policy. And he will try to use it to pound Sarah Palin (and McCain's hopes of winning the election) right into the ground.