Monday, July 21, 2008

The Weekend from Hell After Action Report

In the past when I have reinjured my back, I have been able to tie the new injury to a specific action, activity or event. Not so this time. I awoke Saturday morning and knew before I even opened my eyes that I was in trouble. I couldn’t roll over, I couldn’t swing my legs over the edge of the bed to the floor, I couldn’t get up. The pain was excruciating. As the day progressed, so did my pain level. By the time I went to bed with some assistance to get my legs back up onto the bed, I was in serious pain. I awoke yesterday and it was not better. As the day progressed, the pain level went from excruciating to intolerable, to “I’m losing my mind.” By last night, I couldn’t get up or sit back down without help. Getting into bed wasn’t even an option and I ended up trying to catch some sleep sitting up in my chair. As the night turned into dawn, I couldn’t help myself, I was crying with both pain and frustration.

I’m very discouraged today since it seems as if I have gone back in time to 15 months ago. I don’t think I can go thru another bout of days and weeks of this type of pain. Pain meds are barely touching it. They take the severe edge off for maybe an hour or so, but not the throbbing and the aching and after an hour, my back is exploding again. The pain comes over me in waves, leaves me shaking and out of breath. I can’t think when it hits with such ferocity. It originates at the base of my spine and radiates across my hips, first to the right side and then to the left, then it seems to radiate up my spine for about 8 inches above the orign point. When I expand my lungs to breathe, it makes it hurt more so I find myself taking short, shallow breaths and I have to be careful not to hyperventilate. Coughing is enough to make me scream out in agony. Getting to and from the bathroom requires as much planning as a day out with kids. I have no idea what I did to bring this all on, since I was fine when I went to bed Friday night. All I know is that at this point, I’d be willing to sell my first born for some super duper drugs of the knock your socks off variety.

So, there were no blog posts yesterday and even though I have 10 tabs open with various articles and news blurbs I want to write about, I don’t know if I’ll get to them or not today. 

Saturday, July 19, 2008

What Men and Women Want

A WOMAN’S POEM:

Before I lay me down to sleep,

I pray for a man, who’s not a creep,

One who’s handsome, smart and strong.

One who loves to listen long,

One who thinks before he speaks,

One who’ll call, not wait for weeks.

I pray he’s gainfully employed,

When I spend his cash, won’t be annoyed.

Pulls out my chair and opens my door.

Massages my back and begs to do more.

Oh! Send me a man who’ll make love to my mind,

Knows what to answer to ‘how big is my behind?’

I pray that this man will love me to no end,

And always be my very best friend.

A MAN’S POEM:

I pray for a deaf-mute gymnast nymphomaniac with

huge boobs who owns a bar on a golf course,

and loves to send me fishing and drinking. This

doesn’t rhyme and I don’t give a shit.

The End

(H/T: Common Sense and Wonder)

Finger Lickin’ Good in Fallujah

This video says it all. Shot in Fallujah, Iraq. Look at ‘em now.

Nothing says the war is over like a KFC franchise.

Michael Yon:

The war continues to abate in Iraq. Violence is still present, but, of course, Iraq was a relatively violent place long before Coalition forces moved in. I would go so far as to say that barring any major and unexpected developments (like an Israeli air strike on Iran and the retaliations that would follow), a fair-minded person could say with reasonable certainty that the war has ended. A new and better nation is growing legs. What’s left is messy politics that likely will be punctuated by low-level violence and the occasional spectacular attack. Yet, the will of the Iraqi people has changed, and the Iraqi military has dramatically improved, so those spectacular attacks are diminishing along with the regular violence. Now it’s time to rebuild the country, and create a pluralistic, stable and peaceful Iraq. That will be long, hard work. But by my estimation, the Iraq War is over. We won. Which means the Iraqi people won.

And John McCain declares, “We have succeeded in Iraq.”

Friday, July 18, 2008

Obama’s Plan Stinks, Say Iraqis

I don’t know how he does it, but Gateway Pundit always has the latest and best news from Iraq and the very best pictures. This is no exception:

• AP Shocker: Iraqis Think Obama’s Plans Stink

Iraqi children gather around U.S. Army Staff Sgt. Haggard for a group photo during Youth Outreach Day on Contingency Operating Base Speicher, Tikrit, Iraq, July 12, 2008. (U.S. Air Force photo by Staff Sgt. Micky M. Bazaldua.)

For more great photos, see the MFN-I photo center.

Here is one of the recent ones that I count as a favorite:

US Marine Corps Cpl. Johathan R. Segovia, personnel security detail, 1st Marine Expeditionary Force, a ground combat element attached to Multinational Force - West, relaxes with Iraqi children in Sha-ban, Iraq, July 9, 2008. US Marine Corps photo by Cpl. Taylor J. Schulz.

Country First: McCain’s first negative ad

Allahpundit calls it, “A little bon voyage present for Team Barry as they head for the Middle East.”

Has the Media Given Up on Securing Defeat in Iraq?

Confederate Yankee thinks so:

• SHOCKER: Media Gives Up On Losing Iraq; Transitions to Plan to Lose Afghanistan In Its Stead

We always knew they were unable to accept victory, so it perhaps shouldn’t come as much of a surprise that a U.S. media unable to secure defeat in Iraq has given up on betraying that democracy, and is instead executing a pivot, beginning an attempt to lose the Afghan war instead.

...

“Modern” war coverage is an utterly self-defeating, self-loathing enterprise, and we bear much of the blame for what we see, for we still accept and still consume a defective news product. What motive do the media have to change, if we, the news consumers, don’t clearly articulate to the industry why we are no longer buying failing newspapers, or believing that news outlets are acting without preconceived biases? We have let them stick to what is for them, a comfortable agenda.

Read it all.

For me, I find it all very sad and it is hard not to feel discouraged to see how many people and especially those of great influence who not only have no faith in our great country and the Americans who make it great, but seem to desire that we somehow be punished, that we need to be defeated and turned into losers at the mercy of whichever tyrants come along. What is wrong with them? What terrible trauma or character flaw has overtaken them? I just don’t get it.

Bob Owens says the news media fights to lose and asks, “Will we let them?”

What happens when my generation dies out. We are the last generation to be educated without the prism of the Vietnam War propagandizing our educations. What happens when those who have been indoctrinated in losing, who have been taught that it is noble to be intolerant toward the intolerant, thereby becoming dhimmies, willing to give up all in order not to upset one? What happens when socialized education leads to new generations unable to see any nobility in anything greater than their own small worlds of video games and getting their hands on the latest iPod so they can become even more programmed by the powerful? What happens when there is no one left who understands that life isn’t hitting save and then replay over and over until we can move to the next level?

More Than Uncomfortable

The Anchoress says she is becoming more and more uncomfortable about Barack Obama:

How slick is Obama? Jeff Dobbs counts the ways, with links:

Obama apparently published no articles or notes while a member of the Harvard Law Review.

Obama voted “present” nearly 130 times as an Illinois state legislator.

Obama won’t release a number of records, such as state legislative records, his application to the Illinois bar, his complete health records, records of his work at a law firm including which clients he worked with, or his birth certificate.

Obama has chickened out on town hall debates with John McCain.

I don’t know how you get to edit the HLR without writing - that’s actually a pretty impressive thing to pull off. I have no idea why a lawyer would not release his application to the bar, why a man wanting the most powerful office in the world won’t release his medical records (we’d like to know the engine won’t fail, sir). We DO have some experience with lawyers in the WH refusing to show billing records (must we go back there?) But really…why is it so difficult for this fellow to put his birth certificate out there? Seems like a no-brainer, that one. Bush released thousands of TANG papers, which could not have been a cinch to collect. How hard is a birth certificate? If something that easy is hard for Obama, how the hell is he going to deal with real problems?

Why is so much of this man’s day-to-day kept in shadows? It does not make me comfortable. The besotted press does not care, but the American people have a legitimate right to “see” this candidate in the harsh light of reality.

I wrote in 2004 that the press “is blocking my view of John Kerry” and that’s how I’m feeling once again:

Some have called him the ultimate “Manchurian Candidate.” I’ve kind of sort of agreed with that since the beginning. But, now I am beginning to wonder if he is even real. More and more I get the impression that every morning the chip programmers upgrade his software and send him out to give another of his speeches to his adoring followers, in the same way we send upgraded commands to the Mars Rovers and Mars Phoenix Lander. It is like there is someone sitting in the background just laughing his or her ass off as various commands are sent and Obama spews out all the preprogrammed responses. I have yet to see even one piece of evidence that the man can think for himself or make a decision by himself. He becomes a stumbling, bumbling idiot when asked any questions where the answers aren’t provided on the teleprompter. He makes Dubya look like a world class public speaker by comparison. When someone is able to pin him down for a whisper of a second, it is sure to be followed by one, two, three or more clarifications on what he really meant to say. The man is a robot, a badly programmed one at that.

Via Jim Geraghty at The Campaign Spot at NRO

From the Chicago Sun-Times article on grants distributed by then-state-legislator Barack Obama.

(Records from 1997 to 2000 weren’t available.)

There’s a shock.

His state legislative office records may have been thrown out, he told us.

He’s never released a specific list of law clients, instead giving a list of all of his firm’s clients, numbering several hundred each year. His campaign will only confirm representation when the media comes to them with a specific case.

He won’t release his application to the state bar. He’s never released any legal or billing records to verify that he only did a few hours of work for a nonprofit tied to Tony Rezko.

He’s never released any medical records, just a one-page letter from his doctor.

Does it bother anyone that a guy with political ambitions for his entire adult life has not left a paper trail?

300 Foreign Policy Advisers to Tell Barack Obama What to Think and Say

When I first read this story, two questions came to mind. First, is Obama so dumb it takes an army of foreign policy advisers to cover for his own lack of experience and judgment or is he the puppet I think he is and dances at the ends of the strings that his handlers manipulate?

Say Anything is on the same page as I am on this:

One of the left’s most popular meme’s about President Bush is the idea that he’s just a talking puppet.  The not-so-bright public face of his adviser’s.  Well note that Obama apparently gets emails from this gigantic campaign bureaucracy telling him whether or not he supports certain world developments.

Not exactly what you expect from a leader, no?  I mean, shouldn’t the advisers provide advice and information so that the leader can decide for himself whether or not he supports something?  Do we really want a leader who doesn’t make up his own mind but rather relies on a support staff of hundreds to grind out his decisions for him?

If you could even call such a person a “leader” to begin with.

Here is the original article with the details:’

• A Cast of 300 Advises Obama on Foreign Policy

WASHINGTON — Every day around 8 a.m., foreign policy aides at Senator Barack Obama’s Chicago campaign headquarters send him two e-mails: a briefing on major world developments over the previous 24 hours and a set of questions, accompanied by suggested answers, that the candidate is likely to be asked about international relations during the day.

One recent Q. & A. asked, for example, whether Mr. Obama supported the decision by Iraq’s prime minister, Nuri Kamal al-Maliki, to include a timetable for American troop withdrawal in any new security agreements with the United States. The answer, provided to Mr. Obama with bullet points, was yes — or “a genuine opportunity,” as he put it in a speech on Iraq this week.

Behind the e-mail messages is a tight-knit group of aides supported by a huge 300-person foreign policy campaign bureaucracy, organized like a mini State Department, to assist a candidate whose limited national security experience remains a concern to many voters.

Is there any wonder we never know what Obama’s position will be on any given subject from one day to the next? Is it surprising, given this information, that he is all over the map?

Albino Eagle

I thought an albino alligator was really odd, but an albino eagle beats that hands down.

A part-albino Golden Eagle has been found in Southern Colorado and 850KOA has obtained exclusive, copyright photos of the bird just before he was transferred to the Nature and Raptor Center of Pueblo. 

For more pictures and info, see:

• First Photos: Rare albino eagle found in Colorado

What Media Bias?

• 3 Major “News” Anchors Set to Run Free Obama Campaign Commercials

But what isn’t new is the media fascination with Obama which often treats McCain as an afterthought. The following chart by the Project for Excellence in Journalism makes it clear::

Bias in reporting isn’t always HOW you cover a story. In large part it’s whether you choose to cover a story at all. With three “news” anchors leading the cheering section for Obama’s upcoming trip, it’s clear whose side they have chosen.

The Obama Iraq Documentary: Whatever the Politics Demand

John McCain:

“Today we know Senator Obama was wrong. The surge has succeeded and because of its success, the next President will inherit a situation in Iraq in which America’s enemies are on the run… Senator Obama will tell you we can’t win in Afghanistan without losing in Iraq.”

Tech Stuff

Pal2Pal has been down since the wee hours of the morning. We apologize for any inconvenience. It was a PHP problem that manifested after our last site upgrade. Hopefully we now have it fixed.

Thursday, July 17, 2008

Catching Up

A lot o