Thursday - January 04, 2007

Motivational Poster Of The Day

Posted by The Skipper     on 01/04/2007 at 03:26 PM   
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Bride Of Frankenstein

The problem, as Victor Frankenstein found out, is that once you create the monster and bring it to life it can be difficult to control and can even turn on its master with brutal force if it does not get what it wants. Democrats are only now being forced to confront the monster they created.

The Lunatic Left and the Democratic Party created the Bride Of Frankenstein and set her loose to terrorize the villagers in the Red states. This creature has stalked and harassed the President Of The United States and consorted with foreign dictators in a devious plot to bring Democrats to power. That part of their evil plan has succeeded.

There is one minor problem though. The monster refuses to go back to its dungeon cell and keep quiet. Instead it is on a rampage across the countryside and has now turned on its masters in the Democrat-controlled Congress. What’s a mad scientist to do in a situation like this?

Surely the Democrats won’t try to stifle the creature and silence it with threats. Perhaps they can bribe the monster into submission with promises of treats if it quiets down. Somehow I don’t think that will work. You see .... this creature’s brain came from a jar labeled “A.B. Normal” (reference: ”Young Frankenstein”) and Igor (pronounced “Ee-gor") is going to be in deep shit when Doctor Frankenstein finds out.

So you all better lock your doors tightly for now and do not answer the door if you hear a shrill grunting sound that grates on the nerves like fingernails on a blackboard and sounds like “de-escalate, investigate, troops home now” in mind-numbing repetition. If you do then you better run and hide under your bed for the Bride Of Frankenstein is outside and she wants to eat your brain ...

War Protest Mom Upstages Democrats
_{WASHINGTON (FOX NEWS) - January 3, 2007, 4:48 pm}

Iraq war protesters broke up a press conference by House Democrats on Wednesday with chants to bring American troops home from Iraq. Chanting “de-escalate, investigate, troops home now” the protesters disrupted a briefing aimed at outlining priority goals when Democrats take over the House and Senate on Thursday.

Cindy Sheehan, an anti-war activist and mother of a soldier who died in Iraq, led the group to Capitol Hill to warn Democrats that party activists expect them to end the war in Iraq and confront the White House on a change in Iraq strategy.

“We didn’t put you in power to work with the people that have been murdering hundreds of thousands of people since they have been in power,” Sheehan said. “We put you in power to be opposition to them finally and we’re the ones who put them in power.”

Rep. Rahm Emanuel, D-Ill., cut the press conference short when protests drowned out his voice through a dozen microphones set up to record his comments. Emanuel said Democrats would go back to the caucus room and return later.

Rep. Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., is set to become the first female House speaker in congressional history. She and other top House Democratic leaders met with Sheehan and her supporters in private meetings on Wednesday.

Analysts say Democrats need to focus on the war in Iraq soon. Democrats plan to tackle the domestic agenda first. “The president has got about a six-month window here and if he doesn’t figure this out, how to get us out or start to get us out in six months, then you’ll actually see a vote to cut off funds,” said Martin Frost, former Texas Democratic representative and a FOX News contributor.

Sheehan and her group, Gold Star Families for Peace, already have the support of Sen. Russ Feingold, D-Wis., who plans to re-introduce legislation Thursday to establish a timetable to redeploy U.S. troops from Iraq. The legislation “builds on Feingold’s effort in the last Congress to end the military mission in Iraq in order to focus attention and resources on our top national security priority: Defeating global terrorist networks,” a press release from his office says.

But Sen. Carl Levin, D-Mich., who will chair the Senate Armed Services Committee, has not committed to re-introducing a resolution he and Sen. Jack Reed, D-R.I., previously sponsored. That measure calls for a redeployment of troops from or within Iraq within four to six months.

Those two senators have been and will continue to promote the idea, but Levin has said they will wait to hear President Bush’s plan before any decisions are made about what might be done legislatively.

House Republicans will oppose any effort for an early withdrawal, and are already objecting to what they say are Democratic efforts to prevent them from adding amendments to any bills up for a vote in the first month of the new Congress.

“That doesn’t pass any kind of test. It makes them exceptional from the things they promised to do during the campaign. We’d just like to see them do what they promised,” said Rep. Roy Blunt, R-Mo.

Posted by The Skipper     on 01/04/2007 at 04:33 AM   
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Saint Saddam?

In America if you want to keep up with the deranged writings of the Liberal press you need look no further than the Washington Post or the New York Times. Our friends in Britain have a similar pair of pathetic press outlets. They are The Guardian and The Independent, with the latter being the worst of the two.

The following editorial is hitting the streets today in London and elsewhere across Ol’ Blighty. Many of our Brit friends will read it. Most of them will use the paper to wrap their fish in. The smart ones will not want to taint the fish with such a foul odor ...

_{Eric Allie - Chicago}

Saddam: From Monster To Martyr?
How Bush and Blair’s choices have led to disaster in Iraq,
culminating in a chaotic execution that is fuelling civil war
-- By Patrick Cockburn
_{(THE INDEPENDENT - UK) - 04 January 2007}

It takes real genius to create a martyr out of Saddam Hussein. Here is a man dyed deep with the blood of his own people who refused to fight for him during the United States-led invasion three-and-a-half years ago. His tomb in his home village of Awja is already becoming a place of pilgrimage for the five million Sunni Arabs of Iraq who are at the core of the uprising.

During his trial, Saddam himself was clearly trying to position himself to be a martyr in the cause of Iraqi independence and unity and Arab nationalism. His manifest failure to do anything effective for these causes during the quarter of a century he misruled Iraq should have made his task difficult. But an execution which vied in barbarity with a sectarian lynching in the backstreets of Belfast 30 years ago is elevating him to heroic status in the eyes of the Sunni - the community to which most Arabs belong - across the Middle East.

The old nostrum of Winston Churchill that “grass may grow on the battlefield but never under the gallows” is likely to prove as true in Iraq as it has done so frequently in the rest of the world. Nor is the US likely to be successful in claiming that the execution was purely an Iraqi affair.

Many Iraqis recall that the announcement of the verdict on Saddam sentencing him to death was conveniently switched last year to 5 November, the last daily news cycle before the US mid-term elections. The US largely orchestrated the trial from behind the scenes. Yesterday the Iraqi government arrested an official who supervised the execution for making the mobile-phone video that has stirred so much controversy.

The Iraqi Shia and Kurds are overwhelmingly delighted that Saddam is in his grave. But the timing of his death at the start of the Eid al-Adha feast makes his killing appear like a deliberate affront to the Sunni community. The execution of his half-brother Barzan in the next few days will confirm it in its sense that it is the target of an assault by the majority Shia.

Why was the Iraqi government of Nouri al-Maliki so keen to kill Saddam Hussein? First, there is the entirely understandable desire for revenge. Members of the old opposition to Saddam Hussein are often blamed for their past ineffectiveness but most lost family members to his torture chambers and execution squads. Every family in Iraq lost a member to his disastrous wars or his savage repressions.

There is also a fear among Shia leaders that the US might suddenly change sides. This is not as outlandish as it might at first appear. The US has been cultivating the Sunni in Iraq for the past 18 months. It has sought talks with the insurgents. It has tried to reverse the de-Baathification campaign. US commentators and politicians blithely talk about eliminating the anti-American Shia cleric Muqtada al-Sadr and fighting his militia, the Mehdi Army. No wonder Shias feel that it is better to get Saddam under the ground just as quickly as possible. Americans may have forgotten that they were once allied to him but Iraqis have not.

When Saddam fell Iraqis expected life to get better. They hoped to live like Saudis and Kuwaitis. They knew he had ruined his country by hot and cold wars. When he came to power as president in 1979, Iraq had large oil revenues, vast oil reserves, a well-educated people and a competent administration. By invading Iran in 1980 and Kuwait in 1990, he reduced his nation to poverty. This was made worse by the economic siege imposed by 13 years of UN sanctions.

- More (if you can stomach it) ...

Posted by The Skipper     on 01/04/2007 at 03:00 AM   
Filed Under: • Democrats-Liberals-Moonbat Leftists • EUro-peons • Iraq •  
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Quote Of The Day

“Fortunately for liberals, the Iraqis executed Saddam Hussein the exact same week that former President Ford died, so it didn’t seem strange that Nancy Pelosi’s flag was at half-staff.”

-- Ann Coulter, “The Democratic Party: A Vast Sleeper Cell” (January 3, 2007)

Posted by The Skipper     on 01/04/2007 at 02:00 AM   
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   Wednesday - January 03, 2007

Through The Looking Glass

“Liffy River - Dublin, Ireland”
_{Credit: Jon Sullivan}

Posted by The Skipper     on 01/03/2007 at 08:56 PM   
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Scooby-Snacks

Connecticut Woman Accused of Using Dog’s Name to Get Painkillers
_{FARMINGTON, Conn. (FOX NEWS) - Wednesday, January 03, 2007}

A Burlington woman has been charged with trying to get painkillers from a drug store by using her dog’s name.

Kymberly Smith, 38, faces more than two dozen charges related to her alleged repeated attempts to fraudulently obtain painkillers at a Farmington pharmacy under her dog’s name.

Police said Smith is charged with using her dog Zack’s name to get Hydrocodone, which is marketed under several names including Vicodin.

Simsbury police said Smith was also arrested in June after she was allegedly caught calling in a fraudulent prescription for the same drug.

Farmington police said Smith was a veterinary technician for several area veterinarians when she began using their ID number to call in prescriptions for herself under the name “Zack Smith.”

Posted by The Skipper     on 01/03/2007 at 03:34 PM   
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President Bush Addresses Democrats

Dear Dubya,

Good luck with this. As you can see from the posts below this one the Democrats and their lunatic base have no intentions of working with you or anyone who disagrees with them. In fact, the die-hard idiots like Cindy Sheehan and her mob are still talking impeachment. You’re not going to get any cooperation at all from this bunch so go ahead and get out the VETO stamp and get ready. You are our last resort in our war against the Lunatic Left. We’re counting on you to try to keep these madmen in check for two years. Give ‘em hell!

What the Congress Can Do for America
Let them say of these next two years: We used our time well

BY GEORGE W. BUSH
Wednesday, January 3, 2007 12:01 a.m. EST

Tomorrow, members of the 110th Congress will take their oaths of office here in Washington. I will have the privilege of working with them for the next two years--one quarter of my presidency, plenty of time to accomplish important things for the American people.

Together, we have a chance to serve the American people by solving the complex problems that many don’t expect us to tackle, let alone solve, in the partisan environment of today’s Washington. To do that, however, we can’t play politics as usual. Democrats will control the House and Senate, and therefore we share the responsibility for what we achieve.

In the days and weeks since the November elections, I have been encouraged by the productive meetings I’ve had with many of the new leaders in Congress from both parties. I am hopeful we can find common ground without compromising our principles.

I believe we share many of the same goals for the people we serve--and with good will and hard effort, we can find practical ways to advance the American Dream and keep our nation safe.

My principles are no secret. I have campaigned on them in my races for governor and in two presidential contests, and I have worked hard during my presidency to translate these principles into sound policy.

I believe that when America is willing to use her influence abroad, the American people are safer and the world is more secure. I believe that wealth does not come from government. It comes from the hard work of America’s workers, entrepreneurs and small businesses. I believe government closest to the people is more responsive and accountable. I believe government plays an important role in helping those who can’t help themselves. Yet we must always remember that when people are hurting, they need a caring person, not a government bureaucracy.

These are all common-sense principles, and they provide the basis for how I will approach governing with the new Congress. We’ve proved it can be done: When our nation was attacked, Republicans and Democrats came together to pass the Patriot Act and reform our intelligence agencies. When our economy was struggling, we worked together to pass tax relief that has helped our economy grow, create jobs, and raise the standard of living for the American people. When we saw that our public schools were failing our children, we came together to pass the No Child Left Behind Act, insisting on high standards, accountability and better options for parents.

The outcome of the elections has changed the balance of power in Congress, yet the priorities for keeping our country safe and prosperous go beyond party labels.

Our priorities begin with defeating the terrorists who killed thousands of innocent Americans on September 11, 2001--and who are working hard to attack us again. These terrorists are part of a broader extremist movement that is now doing everything it can to defeat us in Iraq.

In the days ahead, I will be addressing our nation about a new strategy to help the Iraqi people gain control of the security situation and hasten the day when the Iraqi government gains full control over its affairs. Ultimately, Iraqis must resolve the most pressing issues facing them. We can’t do it for them.

- More ...

Posted by The Skipper     on 01/03/2007 at 02:45 PM   
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Lunatics On The Loose

Don’t look now but the madness coming from your new Democratic Party masters may be about to get much worse. Why? Their “base”, the Looney Left is about to descend on Washington all prepared to apply pressure on the Donks to go along with their rabid demands. The circus is about to begin, folks. You can sit back and watch the fun if you want. As for me, I’ve got some firearms to go clean ... just in case.

Activists on the Left Applying Pressure to Democratic Leaders
Liberals Seek Bolder Approach to War, Spying
_{(WASHINGTON POST) - Wednesday, January 3, 2007}

Democratic leaders set to take control of Congress tomorrow are facing mounting pressure from liberal activists to chart a more confrontational course on Iraq and the issues of human rights and civil liberties, with some even calling for the impeachment of President Bush.

The carefully calibrated legislative blitz that Democrats have devised for the first 100 hours of power has left some activists worried the passion that swept the party to power in November is already dissipating.

A cluster of protesters will greet the new congressional leaders at the Capitol tomorrow. They will not be disgruntled conservatives wary of Democratic control, but liberals demanding a ban on torture, an end to warrantless domestic spying and a restoration of curbed civil liberties.

The protest will be followed by an evening forum calling for the president’s impeachment, led by the Center for Constitutional Rights, antiwar activist Cindy Sheehan and a pro-impeachment group called World Can’t Wait.

Those priorities will not be in evidence inside the Capitol, where the newly sworn-in Democratic Congress will immediately begin work on new ethics rules, the reinstitution of federal deficit controls and new policies designed to increase civility in House proceedings. In the coming weeks, Democrats plan to pass bills designed to raise the minimum wage, lower prescription drug costs for Medicare recipients and interest rates for student borrowers, bolster homeland security and boost alternative energy research.

Nowhere in the Democrats’ consensus-driven agenda is legislation revisiting last year’s establishment of military tribunals and suspending legal rights for suspected terrorists. Nor is there a revision of the civil liberties provisions of the USA Patriot Act, a measure curbing warrantless wiretapping by the National Security Agency or an aggressive confrontation of the president on his Iraq war policies.

To Democratic activists and some lawmakers, the agenda skirts the larger issues that damaged the president’s approval ratings and torpedoed Republican control of Congress.

“We’ve been told for many years, 12 years now, ‘Wait until we get in power. Then you’ll see things change,’ “ said Debra Sweet, national director of World Can’t Wait, a pro-impeachment group helping to organize the protest. “We’ll give them a couple of months or a few weeks to see what they come up with, but if they don’t do something very decisive around the war and these other issues, I think there will be trouble.”

“If the first 100 hours is going to be characterized by an increase in the minimum wage and improved health and education benefits for Americans, that’s fine,” said Rep. Dennis Kucinich (D-Ohio), a liberal firebrand who ran for president in 2004 and has announced for 2008. “But then let’s talk about the second hundred hours, because we cannot let this war be lost. We cannot abandon the troops in the field to temporizing.”

To most Democratic lawmakers, such activism presents a quandary. House Republican leaders spent years trying to placate their conservative base with agendas built around opposition to same-sex marriage, antiabortion votes and tax cuts, said Sen.-elect Benjamin L. Cardin (D-Md.). The partisan tone enraged Democrats and ultimately alienated moderates and independents, who swept the GOP from power in November after a dozen years in control.

“The Democrats have to be careful not to fall into these traps that I think paralyzed the Republicans,” Cardin said.

- More ...

Posted by The Skipper     on 01/03/2007 at 02:17 PM   
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Motivational Poster Of The Day

Posted by The Skipper     on 01/03/2007 at 02:04 PM   
Filed Under: • Motorvators •  
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The End?

Pelosi Targets Grassroots Freedom of Speech
-- by Amanda B. Carpenter (HUMAN EVENTS ONLINE)

House Speaker-to-be Nancy Pelosi (D.-Calif.) (pictured at right) has pledged to take up a lobbying reform proposal that would impose new regulations on speech by grassroots organizations, while providing a loophole in the rules for large corporations and labor unions.

The legislation would make changes to the legal definition of “grassroots lobbying” and require any organization that encourages 500 or more members of the general public to contact their elected representatives to file a report with detailed information about their organization to the government on a quarterly basis.

The report would include identifying the organization’s expenditures, the issues focused on and the members of Congress and other federal officials who are the subject of the advocacy efforts. A separate report would be required for each policy issue the group is active on.

“Right now, grassroots groups don’t have to report at all if they are communicating with the public,” said Dick Dingman of the Free Speech Coalition, Inc. “This is an effort that would become a major attack on the 1st Amendment.”

Under the bill, communications aimed at an organization’s members, employees, officers or shareholders would be exempt from the reporting requirement. That would effectively exempt most corporations, trade associations and unions from the reporting requirements—but not most conservative grassroots groups, which frequently are less formally organized.

Larger, well-funded organizations are also currently eligible for a “low-dollar lobbyist exemption” that Pelosi’s bill does not give to grassroots organizations. If an organization retains a lobbyist to contact lawmakers directly at a cost of $2,500 per quarter or less, or employs a full-time lobbyist at a cost of $10,000 per quarter or less, the organization does not have to report to the government.

Public Citizen, a liberal “government watchdog,” is taking credit for helping Pelosi craft the legislation and expects the final draft of the bill to closely resemble Pelosi’s Honest Leadership and Open Government Act of 2006, which contains these provisions.

Craig Holman, a lobbyist for Public Citizen, said the changes would help “streamline” how grassroots organizations are regulated by the IRS and other laws. Public Citizen would like Congress to adopt the IRS’s definition of “lobbying,” which includes communication that encourages the general public to contact a member of Congress on pending legislation or public policy.

“The IRS has a definition that requires all organizations, including non-profits, to file as a part of our tax returns,” Holman said. “When it comes to the election code and the lobbying disclosure act, they have no definition of grassroots lobbying. It’s excluded from everything. The IRS has a definition of grassroots lobbying, but their information is not publicly reported. It’s just our tax returns to the IRS.”

- More ...

Posted by The Skipper     on 01/03/2007 at 11:47 AM   
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   Tuesday - January 02, 2007

Through The Looking Glass

“USS Monterey (CVL-26) Ship’s Gunnery Officers, 24 October 1943”

Posted by The Skipper     on 01/02/2007 at 02:14 PM   
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Surprise!

Remember all those promises by Harry Reid, Chuck Schumer and Nancy Pelosi that they would engage in bipartisan cooperation with Republicans now that they’re in the majority? Turns out they lied (I’M SHOCKED!). The new message from Democrats to Republicans in Congress is simple ... the GOP can kiss their ass donkey. Tell me, is anyone really surprised? Come on. Hold up your hand if you really believed the Donks were going to play nice ....

Democrats Vow A Return To Bipartisan Congress
_{(AP) - December 25, 2006, 10:47 PM EST}

Republicans have dominated the discussion on Capitol Hill for the past six years, but beginning in January, Democrats plan to use their new majority in Congress to try to change the conversation here.

Incoming Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) stress they want to create a civil tone and a bipartisan approach in the next Congress, while showing Democrats’ ideas can compete with the White House agenda.

“Having control over the House and the Senate certainly gives us a very strong voice at the table, something we haven’t had before,” said Drew Hammill, a Pelosi spokesman.

Democrats To Start Without GOP Input
_{(WASHINGTON POST) - Tuesday, January 2, 2007}

As they prepare to take control of Congress this week and face up to campaign pledges to restore bipartisanship and openness, Democrats are planning to largely sideline Republicans from the first burst of lawmaking.

House Democrats intend to pass a raft of popular measures as part of their well-publicized plan for the first 100 hours. They include tightening ethics rules for lawmakers, raising the minimum wage, allowing more research on stem cells and cutting interest rates on student loans.

But instead of allowing Republicans to fully participate in deliberations, as promised after the Democratic victory in the Nov. 7 midterm elections, Democrats now say they will use House rules to prevent the opposition from offering alternative measures, assuring speedy passage of the bills and allowing their party to trumpet early victories.

Nancy Pelosi, the Californian who will become House speaker, and Steny H. Hoyer of Maryland, who will become majority leader, finalized the strategy over the holiday recess in a flurry of conference calls and meetings with other party leaders. A few Democrats, worried that the party would be criticized for reneging on an important pledge, argued unsuccessfully that they should grant the Republicans greater latitude when the Congress convenes on Thursday.

The episode illustrates the dilemma facing the new party in power. The Democrats must demonstrate that they can break legislative gridlock and govern after 12 years in the minority, while honoring their pledge to make the 110th Congress a civil era in which Democrats and Republicans work together to solve the nation’s problems. Yet in attempting to pass laws key to their prospects for winning reelection and expanding their majority, the Democrats may have to resort to some of the same tough tactics Republicans used the past several years.

Democratic leaders say they are torn between giving Republicans a say in legislation and shutting them out to prevent them from derailing Democratic bills. Those same Democrats, who campaigned on a pledge of more openness in government, will kick off the new Congress with a closed meeting of all senators in the Capitol.

- More ...

Posted by The Skipper     on 01/02/2007 at 05:11 AM   
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Operation Crushed Nuts: Mopping Up

After 15 Years, Someone’s in Charge in Somalia, if Barely
_{ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia (NY TIMES) - January 2, 2007}

After Somalia’s Islamist forces abandoned their final outpost on Monday, the transitional government moved aggressively to assert control, setting a three-day deadline for all weapons to be turned in and calling for international peacekeeping troops to be sent immediately.

Somalia was already a place where military-grade weaponry was casually flaunted on its streets, but the Islamists’ swift collapse has created such a surplus of guns that the average price of a Kalashnikov assault rifle, one of the world’s most popular killing machines, has dropped to $15.

Ali Mohammed Gedi, the former veterinarian who is the transitional prime minister, said at his daily news conference that he would not tolerate the situation and gave instructions for turning in the weapons.

“Individuals or groups of people who have trucks mounted with antiaircraft guns, known as ‘technicals,’ should bring those battlewagons to Mogadishu’s old port,” he said.

Clan leaders were skeptical about whether he would succeed, and many Somalis seemed dead set against it. “They’re trying to neuter us,” said Muhammad Duudo, an unemployed car mechanic. “And it’s not going to happen. Just wait until the full moon passes and the darkness comes.”

Whatever lies ahead, encouraging or ominous, most Somalis seemed to agree that after a week of fast-moving events, the rough outlines of a new reality were emerging. For the first time since the former dictator, Mohamed Siad Barre, fled the country in 1991, casting Somalia into 15 years of anarchy, there is a credible government based in Mogadishu, the capital, with serious outside support and no organized military threat from within.

True, countless gunmen still roam the streets, heavily armed warlords still command authority and the seeds of a possible guerrilla movement may be taking root.

But so far no major force has emerged to challenge the authority of the transitional government. The only rival, the Islamists, lost their last conventional military battle on Monday. The Islamists had steadily lost ground since Dec. 24, when Ethiopia unleashed a punishing series of airstrikes and pushed ground troops deep into Somali territory.

Ethiopian officials justified their intervention in Somalia’s messy, violent internal politics by saying the Islamist movement was a regional threat with terrorist connections and ambitions to invade their country. Ethiopia commands one of the most powerful militaries in Africa, and within days of its entrance into the war, Burhakaba, a pivotal inland town, fell from Islamist control — then Jowhar, another key town, and then Mogadishu, the Islamists’ former stronghold.

By Sunday, the last remnants of the Islamist forces, which just a few weeks ago controlled a large swath of Somalia, were cornered in Kismayo, a port city on the south Somali coast. Thousands of Ethiopian and transitional government troops were closing in on them, and on Sunday night, the Ethiopians began pounding away with heavy artillery.

- More ...

U.S. Trainers Prepare Ethiopians To Fight
_{DIRE DAWA, Ethiopia (STARS AND STRIPES) - Saturday, December 30, 2006}

As soldiers of Ethiopia’s Christian government continued to rout Islamist militiamen in southern Somalia this week, 2nd Cpl. Wonderfraw Niguse celebrated his own victory on the parched scrublands of eastern Ethiopia hundreds of kilometers to the north.

With the sporadic barking of baboons or braying of donkeys in the distance, the 25-year-old squad leader led two successful ambushes against simulated enemy forces here as his fellow trainees charged through thickets of needle-sharp thorn bushes and down dried river beds.

The feat, which Wonderfraw and his fellow soldiers cheered with songs of victory and courage, was accomplished during a three-month basic infantry skills course offered by the U.S. military at the sprawling Ethiopian Training Academy in Hurso.

“They are very good, these techniques that they are teaching us,” Wonderfraw said through an interpreter. “I appreciate everything they are teaching us, especially the ambush. They instruct us on how to establish it and provide security. The ambush is very interesting for me.”

Troops attached to the Combined Joint Task Force Horn of Africa have been training Ethiopian soldiers in basic infantry tactics, officer logistics and maintenance since 2003, when the U.S. government identified the East African country as an ally in its global war on terror. Similar training programs are ongoing in Djibouti and Kenya.

In Hurso, the so-called military-to-military training has taken on a new urgency in the days following Ethiopia’s incursion into Somalia on behalf of that collapsed nation’s embattled, albeit U.N.-sanctioned, government.

“Depending on whether things really kick off, it’s a very real possibility that some of these guys could find themselves using these skills very soon,” said Sgt. 1st Class Bill Flippo, an instructor based at Camp Hurso.

“You want to make sure you cover everything thoroughly,” the 27-year-old Winfield, Kan., native said. “The stuff you teach them could result in things working out really good for them, or really bad.”

Flippo is one of a handful of instructors here who belong to Company A, 1st Battalion, 16th Infantry Regiment, 1st Brigade, 1st Infantry Division. The instructors, who are three-quarters of the way through a yearlong deployment, are currently training more than three dozen Ethiopian army officers, noncommissioned officers and enlisted from throughout the country.

“The majority of these guys are trainers themselves,” said 1st Lt. Ben Daughters, 24, of Chillicothe, Ohio. “The idea is that we train them and they go back and train their own.”

Roughly 60 U.S. personnel reside at Hurso, most of them soldiers from the 1st Battalion of the 294th Infantry Regiment of the Guam Army National Guard. The guard unit is now on its third, yearlong rotation in the Horn of Africa, and is scheduled for a fourth.

“They love us here because we interact a lot with the locals,” said Chief Warrant Officer 2 Noel Camagaganacan, 40, of Dedeo, Guam.

- More ...

Posted by The Skipper     on 01/02/2007 at 04:27 AM   
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Motivational Poster Of The Day

Posted by The Skipper     on 01/02/2007 at 04:22 AM   
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THE SERVICES AND MATERIALS ON THIS WEBSITE ARE PROVIDED "AS IS" AND THE HOSTS OF THIS SITE EXPRESSLY DISCLAIMS ANY AND ALL WARRANTIES, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, TO THE EXTENT PERMITTED BY LAW INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO WARRANTIES OF SATISFACTORY QUALITY, MERCHANTABILITY OR FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE, WITH RESPECT TO THE SERVICE OR ANY MATERIALS.

Not that very many people ever read this far down, but this blog was the creation of Allan Kelly and his friend Vilmar. Vilmar moved on to his own blog some time ago, and Allan ran this place alone until his sudden and unexpected death partway through 2006. We all miss him. A lot. Even though he is gone this site will always still be more than a little bit his. We who are left to carry on the BMEWS tradition owe him a great debt of gratitude, and we hope to be able to pay that back by following his last advice to us all:

1. Keep a firm grasp of Right and Wrong
2. Stay involved with government on every level and don't let those bastards get away with a thing
3. Use every legal means to defend yourself in the event of real internal trouble, and, most importantly:
4. Keep talking to each other, whether here or elsewhere

It's been a long strange trip without you Skipper, but thanks for pointing us in the right direction and giving us a swift kick in the behind to get us going. Keep lookin' down on us, will ya? Thanks.

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