Marine Lt. Colonel Jeffrey Chessani to Be Arraigned Friday, Nov.16th

Two years ago the so-called “Haditha Massacre” took place. You know - the story that Time magazine reported on and which caused Congressman Jack Murtha to claim our troops committed cold blooded murder of innocent Iraqi women and children, even before the investigation was completed.

Well, now Marine Lt. Colonel Jeffrey Chessani will be charged with failing to properly report and investigate a possible “law of war” violation when this "massacre" took place. What it was, was a house-to-house battle involving four Marines from Lt.Col. Chessani’s battalion.

Marine Lt. Colonel Jeffrey Chessani

The story was concocted by "known terrorist propaganda operatives" and our media was ever-so happy to run with the "massacre" story. Several marines that had been charged have now been exonerated and the story has now been discredited as a U.S. Army Colonel and an Army General conducted two separate investigations. They came to the same conclusion. There was no ‘massacre.’ There was no ‘cover-up.’ Yet, our government presses on with these charges against Lt. Col. Chessani.

Chessani is a 20 year veteran, father of 5 young children with a sixth on the way. He served in the Panama Invasion, the Persian Gulf War, and three tours in Iraq, including the Second Battle of Fallujah. If he were to be found guilty, he faces 2 ½ years imprisonment, a dishonorable discharge from the Marines; which means, of course, he would lose all of his retirement benefits.

So what we have is Lt. Col. Chessani being charged with failing to report and investigate a crime that never occurred.

The Thomas More Law Center has defended some of the marines that were charged and consequently exonerated. They also will be defending Lt. Col. Chessani.

"The Thomas More Law Center defends and promotes the religious freedom of Christians, time-honored family values, and the sanctity of human life through education, litigation, and related activities. It does not charge for its services. The Law Center is supported by contributions from individuals, corporations and foundations, and is recognized by the IRS as a section 501(c)(3) organization."

You can help:

Donate Now to the LtCol Jeffrey Chessani Defense Fund!

The Rich Aren't Made of Money

By Jonah Goldberg

"The question is, should we be giving an extra $120 billion to people in the top 1 percent?"

So asked Gene Sperling, Hillary Clinton's chief economic advisor, at a recent National Press Club panel discussion.

Translation: It's the government's money, and anything left over after Uncle Sam picks your pockets is a "gift."

Read on.

Federal grand jury indicts Barry Bonds

Boston.com

(AP)

Barry Bonds was indicted today on perjury and obstruction charges, after a probe into whether he lied under oath about steroid use.

"Excessive taxation...will carry reason and reflection to everyman's door, and particularly in the hour of election."

-- Thomas Jefferson --

Amanda Carpenter:
Clinton Tries to Stuff Student Plant

The college student who told CNN that Hillary Clinton's presidential campaign made her a "plant" at an Iowa campaign stop now says Clinton's staff tried to stop her from telling the media about it.

Marvin Olasky:
Democracy Without Liberty Is Not the Answer

Pro-American dictator or anti-American democracy? That's the choice in Pakistan now, where President (and top general) Pervez Musharraf has suspended his country's constitution, fired the country's chief justice and shut down nongovernmental television stations.

Joel Mowbray:
Media Silence: Islamic Terrorism Case Ignored

In the terrorism case of two young Egyptian nationals and University of South Florida students arrested August 4 in South Carolina, fascinating twists and turns abound.

Movin' On Up

A Treasury study refutes populist hokum about "income inequality."
Opinion Journal

If you've been listening to Mike Huckabee or John Edwards on the Presidential trail, you may have heard that the U.S. is becoming a nation of rising inequality and shrinking opportunity. We'd refer those campaigns to a new study of income mobility by the Treasury Department that exposes those claims as so much populist hokum.

OK, "hokum" is our word. The study, to be released today, is a careful, detailed piece of research by professional economists that avoids political judgments. But what it does do is show beyond doubt that the U.S. remains a dynamic society marked by rapid and mostly upward income mobility. Much as they always have, Americans on the bottom rungs of the economic ladder continue to climb into the middle and sometimes upper classes in remarkably short periods of time.

Full article.

Russian Organized Crime

By Fred Burton and Dan Burges
Stratfor
Terrorism Intelligence Report

When the dust settled following a bus explosion in Togliatti, Russia, on Oct. 31, few explanations emerged as to who was responsible for the attack, which killed eight people and injured at least 50. Although terrorism is a possibility, two leading theories place the blame on Russian organized crime.

One such theory suggests that a person (or people) riding the bus was a target of the Russian mob and the other casualties simply collateral damage. Though this act might seem excessive, Russian organized crime has a history of ensuring that it eliminates its targets through excessive use of explosives. A second theory is that Russian organized crime targeted the bus itself as retribution against the bus company, perhaps because the company refused to pay protection money to the mob.

Given the speculation, it is a good time to explore the nature of Russia's crime syndicates and to examine just how far they reach and the lengths they will go to ensure that they maintain an iron grip on the enterprises under their control.

Read more.

Walter E. Williams:
Congressional and Leftist Lies

An important component of the leftist class warfare agenda is to condemn President Bush's tax cuts for the rich. This claim is careless, ignorant or dishonest on at least two counts.

John Stossel:
Don't Look to Government to Cool Down the Planet

Recently on "20/20," I said "give me a break" to Al Gore for claiming that the global-warming debate is over and suggesting that all dissenters were in it for the money. I interviewed independent scientists who say Gore is wrong.

Operation Gratitude Breaks All Records!

News from Operation Gratitude:

Volunteers assemble 19,596 packages in just 2 days!

Van Nuys, CA; November 13, 2007 - During the Veteran's Day Weekend, November 10-11, more than 800 volunteers gathered at the National Guard Armory in Van Nuys to kick-off Operation Gratitude's 5th Annual Holiday Drive to send care packages to deployed troops.

Details here.

Dennis Prager:
To Understand the Left, Read this Issue of Rolling Stone

The current issue of Rolling Stone magazine, its special 40th anniversary issue, reveals almost all one needs to know about the current state of the cultural left.

Crusades Versus Caution

By Thomas Sowell

Autism is a devastating condition, both for those who have it and for their parents. At this point, its causes are unknown and if there is any cure for it, that is unknown as well.

There are many ways of coping with tragedies. One of the less promising, and often dangerous, ways is to launch a crusade.

Crusades may be emotionally satisfying, politically popular and welcomed by the media. But crusaders are not known for caution, for weighing evidence or for counting the costs, which may extend well beyond the cost in money.

There have already been many casualties in the crusade against autism, and there may be far more if recent recommendations of the American Academy of Pediatrics are carried out to have every child tested for autism twice by age two.

Think about it:

Read on.

Cal Thomas:
Joe Lieberman: Patriot

This will probably kill his career, but I rise to praise Sen. Joe Lieberman, the independent Democrat from Connecticut. By any definition, Joe Lieberman is a patriot.

The Typical "Out of Touch" Politician Misreading The Tea Leaves

USA Today:
NY Gov. takes flak over licenses for illegal immigrants
Says he didn't expect the 'level of venom' N.Y. plan has received

Crime Data Show D.C. Gun Ban is Ineffective

Washington Post

Bush Vetoes Pork-Filled Labor Bill

Reuters

Chavez Equates Himself With Jesus

Likening himself to Jesus Christ, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez says that if he stops talking -- as suggested at the weekend by an irate Spanish monarch -- “the stones of Latin America will cry out.”

PBS Telling Teachers to Violate First Amendment, Group Says

A packet for educators issued by the Public Broadcasting System in conjunction with a NOVA program on intelligent design encourages teaching practices that are probably unconstitutional, a conservative organization said on Tuesday...

Michael Steele:
Immigration Amnesty in Any Form is Wrong

Democrat Governor Elliott Spitzer has managed to focus the attention of the entire nation on New York by announcing his plan to grant driver?s licenses to illegal aliens.

Daniel Pipes:
Washington Protects the Terror Masters

The Bush administration's counterterrorism policies appear tough, but inside the courtroom, they evaporate, consistently favoring not American terror victims, but foreign terrorists.

"Nothing...is unchangeable but the inherent and unalienable rights of man."

-- Thomas Jefferson --

California Adrift

By Albert Mohler

California citizens are just beginning to understand what happened when Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger signed Senate Bill 777 into law. The governor signed the bill even though not one Republican lawmaker voted for the bill in either chamber of the California legislature. The bill sounds innocuous enough, but what it forbids is any school program or instruction that "promotes a discriminatory bias" against any individual or group on the basis of sexual orientation or gender.In reality, this is a form of governmental insanity. This law can be used to claim that any classroom materials, rules, or facilities represent gender bias or discrimination against persons on the basis of sexual orientation. How is a publisher to decide what historical figures to include? How many of each? Can schools have homecoming kings and queens? All this is yet unclear. What is all too clear is the insanity that is now law. Shame on Governor Schwarzenegger for signing this radical and shameful legislation.

HAPPY VETERANS DAY TO ALL OUR SERVICEMAN MEN AND WOMEN

"This nation will remain the land of the free only so long as it is the home of the brave." ~Elmer Davis

Thank you for the sacrifices you have made. You are the ones who make it all possible for us to work and play in freedom. It is you who protect us and guard our freedom and liberties.
You allow us the environment in which we can prosper and make this country great.
You are willing to make sacrifices for your fellow man ... Americans, or not. If America is a beacon, you are its' power source.
God bless you all. - HH

"But fame is theirs - and future days
On pillar'd brass shall tell their praise;
Shall tell - when cold neglect is dead -
These for their country fought and bled."
~Philip Freneau

"When our perils are past, shall our gratitude sleep?"
~George Canning

"As we express our gratitude, we must never forget that the highest appreciation is not to utter words, but to live by them."
~John Fitzgerald Kennedy

"Valor is stability, not of legs and arms, but of courage and the soul."
~Michel de Montaigne


"We often take for granted the very things that most deserve our gratitude."
--Cynthia Ozick


"Courage is almost a contradiction in terms. It means a strong desire to live taking the form of readiness to die."
~G.K. Chesterton

"How far that little candle throws his beams!
So shines a good deed in a weary world."
~William Shakespeare

TAKE WHAT THEY HAVE LEFT

“We’re gathered today, just as we have gathered before, to remember those who served, those who fought, those still missing, and those who gave their last full measure of devotion for our country... One of those who fell wrote, shortly before his death, these words: ‘Take what they have left and what they have taught you with their dying and keep it with your own. And take one moment to embrace those gentle heroes you left behind.’ Well, today, Veterans Day, as we do every year, we take that moment to embrace the gentle heroes of Vietnam and of all our wars. We remember those who were called upon to give all a person can give, and we remember those who were prepared to make that sacrifice if it were demanded of them in the line of duty, though it never was. Most of all, we remember the devotion and gallantry with which all of them ennobled their nation as they became champions of a noble cause... Our liberties, our values, all for which America stands is safe today because brave men and women have been ready to face the fire at freedom’s front. And we thank God for them.”

-- Ronald Reagan

"Human Felicity is produced not so much by great Pieces of good Fortune that seldom happen,
as by little Advantages that occur every Day."

-- Benjamin Franklin--

Our Gratitude Must Not Grow Cold

By Albert Mohler

President Benjamin Harrison once noted that "no emotion cools sooner than that of gratitude." This often seems to be true, and that is why we need observances like Veteran's Day in order to keep the emotion of gratitude warm and alive.

Since the nation's birth, over 40 million citizens have worn an American uniform in military service. Over one million have died in service to their country. Over 19 million veterans of armed conflicts are alive today.

We are the stewards of the freedoms those brave Americans fought and died to protect. We know and enjoy these freedoms only because other Americans had the courage to put their lives on the line for the American vision of a government "of the people, by the people, and for the people."Veteran's Day is an observance far too important to miss. Express your gratitude to the veterans in your community and teach your children to do the same.

Our gratitude must not grow cold.

I Thought The Democrat's Position Was "Social Security Was Not In Trouble"

Boston Globe:

Obama Eyes Tax Fix to Save Social Security

Egypt letting Hamas build an army

Egypt effectively condoned Hamas's takeover of the Gaza Strip in June 2007, and has since stood by and allowed Hamas to build an army, MK Yuval Steinitz (Likud) wrote in a letter to the US Senate on Sunday.

"Egypt's de facto behavior in the field supports Hamas," he said.

Steinitz wrote the letter at the request of Sen. Jon Kyl (R-Arizona), with whom he chairs a joint US-Israeli committee on defense and foreign policy.

"As long as Egypt is not required to pay a real price for this behavior, weapons and financial aid will continue to flow into the hands of Hamas and other terrorist groups in Gaza," he wrote.

Continue reading.

Iraq Vets Take on ‘Myths’ of Supply Problems

Veterans of the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq are rebutting perceptions that troops in the region were undersupplied during their stays and said troops now have the supplies they need to fight terrorists effectively...

Military Deaths Lower Now Than 1980s

American soldiers died in higher numbers during some of the peace-time years in the 1980s than in recent years when the military has fought conflicts in both Iraq and Afghanistan, according to a government report on casualty rates...

Spain’s King Praised for Telling Hugo Chavez to ‘Shut Up’

Spain’s king has won widespread praise in his country for inviting Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez to “shut up” during an Ibero-American summit, a meeting intended to underscore the strengthening ties among Latin America’s cabal of hard-line leftists...

U.S. Walking on Eggshells with Pakistan

The White House is treading a fine line when it comes to Pakistani president Gen. Pervez Musharraf. Too little criticism could alienate Pakistanis and Congress, too much could spark an Islamist takeover in a country believed to have an arsenal of 24 to 30 nuclear weapons.

Read the Full Story.

By Star Parker:

How to limit home ownership for the poor
The Mortgage Reform and Anti-Predatory Lending Act of 2007 has passed out of Chairman Barney Frank's House Financial Services Committee. It's now headed to the full House for a vote. In the name of protecting the poor from market predators it will in actuality protect the poor from wealth.

Michael Barone:

Teacher Unions' Gain Is Children's Loss
Education is not ordinarily thought to be in the purview of a Federal Reserve chairman. So it's striking when Alan Greenspan in his memoir, "The Age of Turbulence," raises the subject.

Robert D. Novak:

A Failed Congressional Ploy
As the first Congress controlled by Democrats since 1994 nears the end of its first year, the desire to bring home the bacon trumped concern over the falling dollar, the crisis in Pakistan and the continuing conflict in Iraq.

By Donald Lambro:

Dems Tie Up Fiscal 2008 Appropriations Bill in Pork
Despite the Democrats' pledge to get control of their addiction to wasteful spending, their mountain of pork-barrel provisions has prevented Congress from passing its appropriations bills for fiscal year 2008.