Who Didn't Know This Was Coming

Now that the FDA has approved the "Plan B" abortion pill for over the counter purchase for women 18 and over, the abortion lobby is in full swing to have it approved for girls of any age. Not that anyone didn't expect straw purchase by an adult to give to a child, but the abortion fans just can't abide any restrictions on their ability to kill off inconvenient complications to their pursuit of self gratification. What you and I would call children.

The maker of the morning after pill, along with women's groups and lawmakers, plans to press its success a step further, seeking to make the controversial abortion drug available without prescription to girls 17 and under...

... "The battleground now shifts to availability for women under 18, and that is likely to prove very contentious since it is tied to strongly held beliefs about abstinence education and parental rights," said Arthur Caplan, director of the Center for Bioethics at the University of Pennsylvania, according to MSNBC.

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Those pesky parents always acting like they have some legitimate concern for their children when we should all defer to the wisdom of Planned parenthood.

Advocates of making the drug available to youths argue any restrictions might hinder efforts to curb the estimated 3 million unplanned pregnancies in the U.S. each year.

Abortion provider Planned Parenthood said it's "troubled by the scientifically baseless restriction imposed on teenagers."

"The U.S. has one of the highest rates of teen pregnancy in the Western world," said Planned Parenthood President Cecile Richards. "Anything that makes it harder for teenagers to avoid unintended pregnancy is bad medicine and bad public policy."

Scientifically baseless though it may be the fact remains that it is morally bankrupt to not have restrictions on minors for any activity that is potentially harmful. Morality however is the bain of Planned Parenthood who's source of income is abortion and aim is to shield people who are having sex from becoming parents.

The FDA was foolish to think they could do this without ending up here. The sad thing is there are girls who will be damaged by this and no one but their parents will be around to pick up the pieces after the fact..

abortion, politics,

Illegals drive up highway deaths

When Giuliani became mayor of NYC he set out to get a handle on the serious crime situation that had made the city a dangerous and undesirable place to be. "Among the Giuliani strategies is the stepped-up ticketing of people caught drinking and urinating in public, scrawling graffiti, jumping subway turnstiles and riding bicycles on sidewalks." He rightly understood that lack of enforcement of the small crimes bred contempt for the whole law. Under his leadership, overall crime is down 57%, murder has been reduced 65%," So how does this relate to illegal immigration?

When the government turns a blind eye to the entering of the country illegally, those who do so hold the law in general contempt. They are not held to account for their original crime so why should they expect to be held responsible for other crimes? This attitude can be seen clearly in the statistics on traffic accidents. Illegal immigrants by virtue of their status do not have driver's licenses or auto insurance. They are responsible for a huge increase in traffic fatalities and hit and run incidents.

While no one– in or out of government – tracks traffic accidents caused by illegal aliens, the statistical and anecdotal evidence suggests many of last year's 42,636 road deaths involved illegal aliens.

A report by the AAA Foundation for Traffic Study found 20 percent of fatal accidents involve at least one driver who lacks a valid license. In California, another study showed that those who have never held a valid license are about five times more likely to be involved in a fatal road accident than licensed drivers.

Statistically, that makes them an even greater danger on the road than drivers whose licenses have been suspended or revoked – and nearly as dangerous as drunk drivers.

The solution to the problem is not licensing illegals, but enforcing the immigration laws. The licensing of illegal immigrants to drive will not instill a respect for the law. On the contrary, it will reinforce the contempt that brought them across the border illegally in the first place. Yet the politicians seem obvious to something so simple, or they cynically wish to exploit the issue for their own benefit. I would not give them the benefit of the doubt. How could one justify nonsense such as this otherwise?

In California, for instance, the Legislature is considering several proposals that would help illegal immigrants drive. One of them is a bill that would prevent police from seizing vehicles driven by unlicensed drivers. Senate Bill 626 by Sen. Nell Soto, D-Ontario, would apply to all drivers who have never obtained a California license. Opponents point out those favoring the bill are the same people promoting licenses for illegals.

'Under current state law, police can seize vehicles for up to 30 days if the driver is unlicensed. Under the new bill, if the driver never had a license, the vehicle could be seized for only 24 hours; those who had licenses suspended or revoked would still have the vehicles impounded for up to 30 days.

If we will not demand respect for our laws when a person enters our country, how then can we expect them to do so while they are here? If we do not require new arrivals to this country to respect our laws, how long can we expect citizens to continue to do so?

immigration, politics

Project Hero

QandO has the next Silver Star recipient tribute up on their site.



Our hero this week is CWO3 Christopher Palumbo, Silver Star

Army Chief Warrant Officer Three Christopher Palumbo from A Co., 3rd Battalion, 158th Aviation Regiment, was awarded the medal for his actions April 11. Palumbo was the pilot in command of "Skillful 31," the call sign for a UH-60L Blackhawk helicopter conducting aviation operations in Southeast Afghanistan that came under fire while supporting Special Operations Soldiers.

"I was going to do whatever it took to ensure those Special Forces soldiers were protected and spared from any further injuries," Palumbo said. While inserting a quick reaction force and extracting two wounded Soldiers, Palumbo and his crew were credited with killing more than six enemy and were constantly under fire from small arms and rocket-propelled grenades.

"None of the crew aboard Skillful 31 had any reservations," Palumbo said. "Over 50 bullet holes, shot-up engine, shot-up cabin and cockpit, one crew chief wounded, four blades tore up…we were lucky." Luck may have had something to do with it but Palumbo said, "I think while the fight played out instinct took over and training just kicked in."

Palumbo worried for the safety of his crew but said that none of his crew had any reservations about the importance of the mission or more importantly the troops on the ground.

"I think this incident just reinforced the bond that aviators have with their infantry brethren and reminds us that the war in Afghanistan is not over," said Palumbo. "There are many soldiers all over this country taking the fight to the enemy and persevering." The news of the award shocked Palumbo.

"I never realized the magnitude of the actions we took that day," he said.

Vampirism Alive and Well

In a culture that values style over substance can it be far fetched to find people willing to pay to have treatments to restore their youthful appearance that involves the injection or application of human tissue harvested from aborted babies? This article by Alisa Craddock claims that such a practice is already available and quit lucrative for its practitioners.

Though the stories about Countess Báthory concerning her horrendous torture and murder of women are not the least exaggerated (and her status as a noblewoman made her virtually untouchable at the time), there is, in fact, no testimony on record of her actually bathing in the blood of young girls as an antidote to aging.

The same cannot be said of the grisly practice of using aborted fetuses to provide tissue and stem cells for beauty treatments at exclusive clinics around the world. In select countries where there is less regulation, such as Russia, Barbados, the Dominican Republic, and, of course, Rotterdam in ever-progressive Holland, upper-class women arrange through their beauty consultants to travel abroad for these chic and expensive treatments.

This is goulish enough but there is more. There has been a practice by Female athletes to get pregnant before a big competition then aborting the child before hand so as to gain the strength benefits of the hormonal change.

This is not the only selfish use of a terminated pregnancy that I've heard of that repelled me with its ghoulish audacity. I learned a few years ago about the practice of female athletes becoming pregnant before competing in Olympic games and then aborting before they compete so that they could reap the benefit of the increased strength and stamina the hormonal changes bring on during pregnancy going into the competition. Reportedly, as far back as the 1970's, according to one Russian athlete, Soviet competitors as young as 14 were ordered to have relations with their coaches to become pregnant, and then abort right before they competed. The practice has also been reported in the U.S. and is considered a form of blood doping, which is illegal. But it is hard to prove or to track. One wonders, though, at the callousness and moral detachment of someone who would conceive a human being for the express purpose of using it then aborting it to win a competition. And some people call the fetus a parasite. Who's the parasite now?

It is this same self centered outlook on life that is making our fight to defeat Islamo Fascism so complicated. The faction that wants all the personal rights without any responsibility can't grasp the concept of self sacrifice necessary for success against such an enemy. The very decadence that the Islamists use as their excuse to conquer us is also the weak link in our ability to defeat them. Those willing to sacrifice others for their own benefit won't answer the call to give of themselves for the defense of Western Civilization, but then maybe Western Civilization has already been defeated by the barbarians.

abortion, politics, Islamic fascists,

National Guard on the Border

While the world's attention is on the Middle East, our southern border remains under pressure by those who want American prosperity without its responsibilities. A National Guardsman from Virginia was amazed by the shear volume and speed of people coming across illegally.

"I believe 95 percent of the people in this country have no clue of what it's like down here," says Sgt. Jacobs, a bear of a man with a vise-grip handshake. "I know I had no idea how many people come over this border every day and the weird things they do to get across.

"They'll do anything to get into the United States, often coming over with just the clothes on their back," he says. "And it's not just here; this happens all along the border. I was very surprised at what I saw when we first arrived, but I am here to protect my country, and I will stay as long as they need me."

Sgt. Jacobs, who lives in Fort A.P. Hill, Va., is among 350 Virginia National Guard soldiers and airmen deployed along the border as part of "Operation Jump Start."

Even though the number of Guardsmen on the border is not significant, their impact is being felt. Most importantly they are seeing first hand the extent of the problem and are spreading the news back home to places that are not as impacted by the illegal immigration problem as the border states and Washington DC Area where I live are.

All of the 6,199 Guard troops stationed in the border states volunteered for the mission. Among them is Spc. Travis Arnold of the Wisconsin National Guard, who also served a year in Iraq. He says he plans to help secure the border for two years.

"This certainly has been an eye-opening experience," Spc. Arnold says. "Immigration is not a huge issue in Wisconsin. It was the sheer number of people coming over that border that surprised me the most. I had no idea how many people jump that fence every day."

Spc. Arnold works eight-hour shifts at the Border Patrol field office in Nogales. He and a partner, Spc. Kirstin Schultz, monitor live border-surveillance videos on more than 40 television screens. Their job is to report to the Border Patrol any incursions by illegal aliens or drug smugglers.

"I didn't realize just how quickly they come over the fences," Spc. Schultz says. "We are the agents' eyes until they make contact, and we can get them additional help if they get into trouble."

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The threat from Islamo Fascism requires our utmost attention, but the security of our border is a priority that must remain near the top. Many thanks to those who are serving there now.

immigration, politics, Islamic fascists, military

Project Hero

QandO has the next Silver Star recipient tribute up on their site.



Our hero this week is SGT David Neil Wimberg, Silver Star

Wimberg, a 1999 graduate of Louisville Trinity High School, was a squad leader in Iraq. He and his fellow Marines were pinned down in a street after an enemy ambush, according to a citation signed by Secretary of the Navy Donald Winter.

It said Wimberg left his covered position, "maneuvered through intense small-arms fire and scaled a wall" to reach the courtyard where the attackers were.

"Although twice driven back by high volumes of enemy fire, on his third attempt, he opened the gate and allowed his squad to enter" the courtyard. After two failed attempts to breach the front door of the house where the gunmen had holed up, "Sgt. Wimberg kicked in the door."

Wimberg was then face to face with four armed insurgents, and he "engaged the enemy at close quarters, firing his M16-A4 rifle until he was shot and fell to the ground unconscious," the citation said.

His actions "created the momentum needed to break the ambush. Many Marines' lives were saved as a result of Sgt. Wimberg's decisive and selfless actions," it said.

Gunnery Sgt. Larry Bowman, who served with Wimberg in Iraq, described him as "an exceptional Marine and a great leader. We had great respect for him."

His brother, Mike Wimberg, said their parents, Denny and Tricia Wimberg of Louisville, plan to accept the award.

"It will not replace him, and we'd much rather have him back. But for the family, it's a nice honor," Mike Wimberg said.

Project Hero

This not a double entry, I missed last week so have put it in here.





Our hero this week is CPL Robert Mitchell Jr, Navy Cross

Mitchell joined the Marine Corps in early 2001, and was on his second tour in Iraq with the 1st Marine Division when Coalition forces launched a joint U.S.-Iraqi offensive to reclaim Fallujah from insurgents who had fortified the city.

Dubbed Operation Al Fajr (aka Phantom Fury), the assault on Fallujah kicked off on Nov. 8, 2004, and quickly turned into a bloody, street-by-street contest with then-Corporal Mitchell and his fellow Marines in Kilo Company, 3rd Battalion, 1st Marine Regiment, in the thick of the fighting.

Day by day, Mitchell and his squad pushed through the city, methodically clearing pockets of enemy resistance as they progressed. During an assault against an insurgent strong point on Nov. 12, Mitchell was shot through the right tricep, but ignored the wound to help destroy the fortified position, and later refused medical evacuation to remain with his squad.

The next day, an assault against a squat, cement house had gone horribly wrong and several wounded Marines lay trapped inside with several well-fortified insurgents waiting in ambush positions. Mitchell's squad got the call to come and assist.

"When the call came, we knew we had to get them out," said Mitchell. "That became the mission – the only mission."

Once on the scene, the Iowa native quickly established a casualty collection point and organized his men to assault the building. Then-1st Sgt. Bradley A. Kasal, the senior enlisted Marine from another company, joined Mitchell's squad, and together, they charged the building and took up firing positions.

The first floor of the house was littered with dead or dying insurgents, and the wounded Marines lay further inside. Other enemy fighters were in fortified positions on the roof looking down through a skylight, creating a kill zone between Mitchell and the wounded Marines.

Covered by suppressive fire, Mitchell raced through the kill zone toward the wounded Marines as the rooftop insurgents showered the room below with rifle fire and grenades. Shrapnel from one of the grenades peppered the back of Mitchell's legs, but he made it to the stranded, wounded Marines.

"It was great to see him come in," said Cpl. Jose Sanchez, an infantryman from Houston, Texas. "Until he got there I was switching between treating Carlisle [Lance Cpl. Cory] and providing security. When Corporal Mitchell came in, he took over the medical treatment and I could focus on firing at the insurgents."

A trained combat lifesaver, Mitchell went to work on Carlisle's bullet-mangled leg. With his medical supplies running out, he once again orchestrated suppression of the insurgents on the roof to allow a corpsman and another Marine to sprint through the kill zone.

By this time, both Kasal and another Marine, Pfc. Class Alex Nicoll, had been seriously wounded by rifle fire and grenades, and were holed up inside a small room across the kill zone Mitchell had crossed only moments before.

Leaving the wounded Marines in the care of the corpsman, Mitchell once again braved the kill zone, and like before, the insurgents sprayed the short, treacherous path with bullets and grenades. One bullet smashed into Mitchell's M-16A4 assault rifle, shattering the weapon before ricocheting down and into his right leg. More shrapnel slashed Mitchell's legs and face, yet he remained on his feet and made it to Kasal and Nicoll, who was Mitchell's former roommate and longtime friend.

Bleeding profusely, but apparently unmindful of his wounds, Mitchell began treating the others, applying bandages and direct pressure in an attempt to staunch the wounded Marines' blood loss. In the midst of his life-saving efforts, Mitchell scanned the room and saw a wounded insurgent, shot earlier by Kasal, make a move for a weapon laying nearby.

Mitchell quickly drew his combat knife and lunged forward, driving the weapon into the insurgent, eliminating the threat for good before turning his attention back to Kasal and Nicoll. With Marines scattered throughout the small house and the insurgents still firmly entrenched on the roof and a nearby stairwell denying access to any additional forces, the situation was quickly deteriorating.

Through a small, barred window in the room, Mitchell explained to Marines outside the layout of the house and where Marines were located throughout the structure. With this information, the Marines were able to suppress the insurgents on the roof via firing positions on adjacent structures, and one-by-one, extract the wounded Marines from the building which has since been dubbed the "House of Hell."

The photograph of a bloody Kasal, now a sergeant major and himself a Navy Cross recipient, being helped from the house by two Marines is one of the more resonant images of Operation Iraqi Freedom.

Despite his own severe wounds, Mitchell was among the last to leave the house, and did so assisting another wounded Marine. Demolition charges were quickly flung into the house, and the resulting explosion caused the building to collapse, killing the diehard insurgents.

While other casualties from the short, yet intense, fight were loaded onto vehicles and driven to a nearby aid station, Mitchell gathered the remnants of his squad and led them back to the Kilo Company headquarters where he finally received treatment for his wounds.

Less than two weeks later, Mitchell was on his way home from Iraq. Though non-debilitating, his injuries suffered during Operation Al Fajr, combined with those from a mortar attack in July, were enough to convince the Marines the time had come to order Mitchell to leave the combat zone. In a November 2004 interview with a Marine combat correspondent, Mitchell voiced his concerns about being ordered to leave Iraq, but was resigned to his fate.

"Being told by my [commanding officer], sergeant major, platoon commander and all my buddies that I have done enough – that helps to ease my thoughts," said Mitchell. "It is supportive, but at the same time, I came out here to lead a squad and finish the job."

UN Security Council To the Rescue

Oh Lord! Please help us. The UN has passed a resolution to bring a cease fire to the fighting in Lebanon.

The leaders of Lebanon and Israel have agreed to the resolution from the UN Security Council as Kofi Annan cries over how long it took. As you may have guessed the provisions are meaningless.

It seeks an immediate halt to the fighting
It spells out a series of steps that would lead to a permanent cease-fire and long-term solution..
UNIFIL now has 2,000 troops; the resolution would expand it to a maximum of 15,000.
Israel will be allowed to continue defensive operations, and a dispute over the Chebaa Farms area along the Syria-Lebanon-Israel border will be left for later.
The draft resolution emphasizes the need for the "unconditional release" of the two Israeli soldiers whose July 12 capture by Hezbollah sparked the conflict, that call is not included in the list of steps required for a lasting cease-fire.

Very impressive. Instead of 2000 UN troops doing nothing there will now be 15,000 UN troops doing nothing. Lets hope none of them come from the US. The kidnaped soldiers stay kidnaped Israel still gets to shoot Hezbollah. Hezbollah gets to fire missiles at Israel. All the while the UN gets a front row seat to watch the show. Pop the corks people, we have peace in our time!

Israel, politics, Islamic fascists, UN

Holbrooke, Clueless Now as Ever

The only remarkable thing to Richard Holbrooke's piece in the Washington Post is his unremitting adherence to the "solutions" to international turmoil that were so useless in the cold war and led to our betrayal of South Vietnam to the communists. His warning of a chain reaction (domino effect) resulting from our support of Israel's invasion of Lebanon is way behind the curve. The Moslem world has and will continue to look to the destruction of the west as their ultimate goal. The reaction is not to the involvement of the US and Israel but to the past success in attacking us without any real response until 9/11. He worries over the support Hezbollah is getting from the moderate Arab nations as if this is any surprise. The surprise has been that there was any criticism from those nations at all.

He still believes that we can somehow evade the world jihad that started in 1979. He is surprised by the lack of diplomatic engagement by the US during the past five years while the Europeans, the Chinese and the United Nations tried to work out a solution. Well Mr. Holbrooke, Isn't that what the UN is supposed to do? The world has swept the Iranian problem under the rug for 20 years because people like you were in the UN doing nothing. News flash! The peace process started when we invaded Afghanistan and has received a big boost from Israel's entrance into the fray. .



Trying to make a correlation of the war in Iraq and the events leading to W.W.I has some validity except that he sees the events leading us to our peasant situation completely backwards.

War on Terror, politics, Israel, UN

Stick a Fork in the Democrats

Sen. Joseph I. Lieberman (D-Conn.), once called the conscience of the Senate and candidate for Vice President only six years ago is now toast. While I don't buy he whole conscience of the senate thing and have never found much to agree with the senator on, the loss of his primary for the next term is worth noting. He was shot down for one reason, he did not hate George Bush sufficiently and supported George's war. In a party that has been drifting farther and farther left, Lieberman no longer fit in. This is remarkable in that he is not a moderate by most standards.

The Democratic Party's drift to the left became a stampede after the 2000 election. Lieberman has run afoul of a party that is dominated by the old antiwar, blame America crowd who have dropped Abortion as their litmus test replacing it with Bush hatred. Before the 2000 election any Democrat could get a pass on other issues so long as he was sufficiently pro abortion. In Virginia a former Reaganite is running for the Democrats against George Allen for the Senate. His past support for Reagan is completely forgiven because he is antiwar. Now with the battle for unrestricted abortion essentially lost, the only flag that will fly is the antiwar flag. Curiously for a party so popular with American Jews, this includes opposing any military action by Israel. Lieberman is not just in favor of the war on terror but he is also a Jew. In a world that is facing the all out assault on Western Civilization, the Democrats seem unable to resist the temptation to back the barbarians.

Lieberman may end up in the Republican Party as it continues to drift toward liberalism. The Democrats are in full self-destruct mode leaving a void for a new party to emerge. Just one or two election cycles and we may see them become completely insignificant as a political force in national politics. Lieberman's lose is just the visible evidence that the Democrats are lemming marching to the edge.





Iraq, politics, Virginia, Lieberman