Dhimmi This!

US Marine acquitted of all charges in Haditha killings

A court martial on Wednesday acquitted a US Marine for his role in the deaths of 24 civilians in Haditha in Iraq in 2005, the sixth man to be exonerated in the affair, a military official said.

Lieutenant Andrew Grayson, 27, was declared "not guilty on all charges" by a jury, said a spokesman for the Camp Pendleton military base in southern California where the hearing started on May 28. See full article here.

Oohrah - Grayson! And thank you for your service to your country and sorry for your being falsely accused of murder while you were just doing your job.  It is time for the Corp to admit that there was no massacre at Haditha and to clear the two remaining Marines. 

Too Cool for School!

FoxNews also has this article today. Reminds me of this video.

Prostate Cancer Prevention That's Not For the Lazy

This was found on the sidebar of the FoxNews website while reading an article on the near extinction of the human race. It is from the Aussie's so it must be true. 

Men who frequently masturbate appear to have a lower risk of developing prostate cancer, Australian researchers reported.

   

Researchers from the Cancer Council of Victoria found that men who masturbated more than five times each week were one-third less likely to develop the cancer.

 

The study surveyed 1,000 men who developed prostate cancer and 1,250 who did not, and all were between the ages of 20 and 50, according to a report on Monday on the gay and lesbian news site PlanetOut.

 

Click here to comment on this story.

 

Researchers told the BBC last week that the prostate produces one of the fluids involved in ejaculation and that frequent masturbation appears to flush out carcinogens.

 

Sexual intercourse may not have the same effect because it increases the risk of contracting a sexually transmitted disease, which could raise the risk of cancer, the Web site reported.

Just for the Record

Image found on Wikipedia of Prophet Muhammad is subject to protest by Muslims as being disrespectful of their religion. See here.  Just for the record -

UPDATE: Laughing Wolf at Blackfive says it better here.

Since few if any newspapers in the U.S. (much less broadcast outlets) see fit to stand up for and with those who are literally putting their lives and the lives of their families on the firing line for true freedom of speech, I will step forward. To all those who are true enemies of freedom, no matter what country, religion, or party I have but one thing to say: Bite Me. - LW

More on the Current Status of the Haditha Investigation

    More thoughts on the incident at Haditha and the rush to judgment by the media to cast guilt upon innocent Marines.  Thad Coakley a former Marine Corps judge advocate and a veteran of Operation Iraqi Freedom, including a tour with an infantry battalion in the Hit-Haditha Corridor of al-Anbar Province during which he was awarded the Combat Action Ribbon, has written "Another perspective on Haditha" at the North County Times.  (Hattip to FBL)

Without knowing all that is to be presented by both the prosecution and the defense at the trials, a few conclusions and lessons are apparent from Haditha's aftermath:

Haditha is not a case of Marines carrying out purposeful murder by summary execution. The oft-made comparison between Haditha and My Lai is categorically unsupportable except by those who ignore the differences in mission, context, numbers, and manner of deaths in their zeal to define an atrocity in support of their views. The courts-martial will conclude whether the two Marine shooters made unreasonable judgments in responding to an initial attack, identifying hostile actors, and using appropriate force in self-defense.

Haditha is not an unveiling of widespread troop behavior or of any overall military policy or training purposefully dismissive of civilians. Considering the multitude of instantaneous life-and-death decisions made in Iraq, the U.S. military has exercised remarkable restraint and concern for the civilian populace ---- a key component of mission accomplishment in a counterinsurgency campaign.

The Washington Post's recent statistic ---- of all the allegations of service members related to Iraqi civilian deaths, only 69 have been charged with, and only 22 convicted, of murder, negligent homicide or voluntary manslaughter ---- reflects the American forces' commitment and level of professionalism in behavior, training and operation. Adjudicated misconduct is outside the norm and has been punished accordingly.

Haditha is not a debate platform for rashly criticizing the rules of engagement and what those rules "could" or "should" have been. The self-defense ROE in effect at the time are the authorities under which the two squad members' use of force will be evaluated. Because these ROE require judgment calls, they are subjectively applied. Only facts known to a Marine when he makes the decision to engage can be considered; those reviewing his actions must see the scene through his eyes at the time.

Even if a Marine was later shown to be mistaken, but reasonably perceived and engaged a hostile threat, his use of force is authorized under the ROE. This subjectivity inures to the benefit of the Marine and has already resulted in the dismissal of charges against Lance Cpl. Justin Sharratt, another Haditha squad member.

Louisiana Justice Fund - The Verdict is In!

    Planned Parenthood is off the hook for this one.   The reports have been filed and the winner is the Democratic Attorneys General Association. Substitute Democratic Attorneys General Association for Planned Parenthood and all of the other players stay the same. [DAGA was my second guess but given the connection between Foti and the DAGA (coordination between a candidate and 527 is forbidden) along with the principal of Occam's Razor (Planned Parenthood website with Louisiana Justice Fund listed) I projected Planned Parenthood as the funding source].  IRS filings show that the Democratic Attorneys General Association gave $635,000.00 to the Louisiana Justice Fund for the purpose of defeating Republican Candidate for Louisiana Attorney General Royal Alexander. Report for DAGA is here and the report for Louisiana Justice Fund is here.

    A close review of the report also shows that DAGA paid the Dewey Square Group $30,760.00 during this time period as well. 

    Well, I guess a Louisiana election was decidedly influenced by money spent from a Washington DC Democratic organization which had exactly zero dollars ($0.00) donated to it from Louisiana.  It is also interesting to note that Mr. Charles Foti, former Attorney General, was a card carrying member of the DAGA during this time period.  I am sure that The Honorable James Buddy Caldwell' s membership application is soon to be forth coming. 

    Well, I am sure that any concern that there could have been any improper coordination between the Foti or Caldwell camp and/or the DAGA/La. Justice Fund will be quickly reviewed ignored by the appropriate authorities under the guise of Louisiana's newfound love for Ethics Reform. 

    As a candidate, I would love to know that an outside organization was going to spend $635,000.00 on advertisement solely attacking my opponent and thus allow me to spend all of my money on advertisements touting how clean, pure, and experienced I am.

    Oh, and hats off to the Republican Attorneys General Association which responded by expending exactly zero dollars ($0.00) in trying to get a life long Republican elected Attorney General.

    Want more - My suggestion is to follow the money.

    Update: Flashback here. I guess you can teach an old dog a new trick.

 

Times-Picayune (
New   Orleans)

August 13, 2004 Friday

GOP backers fined for ethics violation;
Group didn’t report anti-Foti ad expenses

BYLINE: By Robert Travis Scott, Capital bureau

SECTION: NATIONAL; Pg. 4

LENGTH: 741 words

BATON ROUGE -- A Washington, D.C., group calling itself the Republican State Leadership Committee was fined $20,000 Thursday by the state ethics board for failing to report its activities when it ran television attack ads against Democrat Charles Foti in the attorney general’s race last fall.

The ads temporarily put Foti on the defensive and raised the rancor in the heated campaign. Foti’s opponent, Republican Suzanne Haik Terrell, and national and state-level Republican parties denied ties to the committee. ...

 

 

'Nuff Said

Tragic News: Top Military Blogger Dies In Iraq

This is very tragic news I have to report to you today. Milblogger Andrew Olmsted, was killed in Iraq.  Our hearts and prayers are with his family, friends, and everyone that got to know him, as they face this enormous loss and tragedy in their lives.

From The Huffington Post:

( The Huffington Post) Andr ew Olmsted, who also posted here as G`Kar, was killed yesterday in Iraq. Andy gave me a post to publish in the event of his death; the last revisions to it were made in July.

Andy was a wonderful person: decent, honorable, generous, principled, courageous, sweet, and very funny. The world has a horrible hole in it that nothing can fill. I`m glad Andy -- generous as always -- wrote something for me to publish now, since I have no words at all. Beyond: Andy, I will miss you.

My thoughts are with his wife, his parents, and his brother and sister.

You can read the entire story here from The Huffington Post.

Here is also an excerpt from his final message that was posted on his blog, in the event of such a tragedy. He provided the letter to a friend for posting with the last revisions made this past July:

"I am leaving this message for you because it appears I must leave sooner than I intended. I would have preferred to say this in person, but since I cannot, let me say it here."
G`Kar, Babylon

"Only the dead have seen the end of war."
Plato*

This is an entry I would have preferred not to have published, but there are limits to what we can control in life, and apparently I have passed one of those limits. And so, like G`Kar, I must say here what I would much prefer to say in person. I want to thank hilzo! y for pu tting it up for me. It`s not easy asking anyone to do something for you in the event of your death, and it is a testament to her quality that she didn`t hesitate to accept the charge. As with many bloggers, I have a disgustingly large ego, and so I just couldn`t bear the thought of not being able to have the last word if the need arose. Perhaps I take that further than most, I don`t know. I hope so. It`s frightening to think there are many people as neurotic as I am in the world. In any case, since I won`t get another chance to say what I think, I wanted to take advantage of this opportunity. Such as it is.

Read Andrew's blog and his entire letter here.

And I thought that Politics was Bad

An Australian Newspaper has an article on "How it feels … to be a sewage diver" which is not to be confused with Dumpster Diving.  The article has great quotes with a sense of humor that only the Aussies seem to have any more. 

"I've done about 1000 hours of sewage diving. Working in a pit of sewage is very difficult; you can't see anything for a start, so everything's done by feel."

"You can walk through the sewage but not really swim. We've had times when there were big islands we've had to remove when pumps have broken down. We've had to go in with big suction heads and suck 500 foot of solid poo out — lovely days!

It doesn't smell bad at all for the diver; he's normally on processed air. The hardest job is the people who have to wash them down and clean them up afterwards."

"You might occasionally get a glove tear but that's really no difference to a piece of toilet paper ripping in the morning.It is a problem still though."

"People usually stand back a bit when they find out what we do — most of the time we can get a clear space at the bar."

And the best quote for last - "It doesn't really worry us, what we're diving in, but it would be nicer if people actually chewed their corn."

The article is here.

Benazir Bhutto: Assasination

Similarities?