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Feb. 19, 1945: U.S. Fourth Division Marines move in from the beach on Iwo Jima, the Japanese Volcanic Island. A dead Marine lies at right in the foreground. Mt. Suribachi, in the background, was turned into a beehive of guns by Japanese troops. It was scaled by the U.S. Marines, who took control. (AP Photo/Joe Rosenthal)

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Quick question:
Where has Mike’s America been? Is he no longer an author on FA?

Ron H.

Last night I watched Armey on FOX explain that candidates needed to “earn” their shot at election. I tried to understand just what that meant. The only thing I could decipher was Armey thinks that candidates should be valued by their personal and financial contributions to the party and the party line.

I think Armey’s position is why the Tea Party is becoming successful. The Tea Party wants candidates who are responsive to the people first then to the party. Armey and his fellow bureaucrats are the real reason highly successful people like Lee Iacocca and others do not even consider public office. Wouldn’t it make sense if the first qualification for the job be capabilities rather than party loyalty?

Career political people just do not understand!

Curt Thanks for that great photo.Semper Fi
[edited]

: Mike’s America isn’t here any more. There was a conflict related to some posts about the mosque near ground zero which resulted in his departure.
[edited]

@Randy

I agree, and what’s more, the liberals/progressives in the Democrat party do not get it any more than the GOP does.

Wonder what it would have been like if CNN, MSNBC, etc., had covered Iwo? Perhaps had reporters living with the Japanese, filming them killing Americans, and parroting “their” propaganda for the folks back home for fighting in an illegal war of aggression?

My dad was in the Marines and participated in the invasion of Okinawa, he was in the initial wave of soldiers and saw heavy action. My hats off to all our veterans out there, thanks for your sacrifices.

@Dc

Zell Miller (One of the last good Dems) thought the very thing, and he wrote an editorial in the Washington Times in such a manner as you hypothesize:

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2004/oct/11/20041011-085231-5401r/print/

Until the Bush re-election campaign started, the media coverage in Iraq was on the whole pretty balanced. After-all the vast majority of politicians had voted for it! The coming election changed all that, and the media went into overtime making Bush and the military look as bad a possible.

Over 21,000 Japanese troops were on that Island, and only a few hundred let themselves be captured. The last 2 actually didn’t quit until 1950! The Marines lost over 8000 men, out of about 30,000, but over 23,000 were injured.

The last days of Marine boot-camp is called the “Crucible”. The final food/sleep-deprived hike (a run, actually) is up a hill that is just as tall, and just as steep as Mt. Suribachi. It is at the top, that you are given the title of Marine, (as opposed to “recruit”) and are awarded your Eagle Globe and Anchor insignia, and a fine steak and eggs breakfast. It is also the morning your Drill Instructor stops call you names, and treating you like crap. 🙂

Considering all the discussions about the mosque and moderate islam, this is an article worth reading, with links to the original material:

http://wolfhowling.blogspot.com/2010/08/what-it-will-take-to-win-war-of-ideas.html

Had a relative there, a 16 year old PBY (float plane)pilot. Yes you read that right. While on the beach, he was given a satchel of papers and told to hand deliver it to Admiral Nimitz. He flew to the flag ship and was brought on deck and a group of naval and Marine officers told him to hand over the orders he refused and said he was to deliver them to Nimitz. Some fool pulled a pistol and he still refused. Admirasl Nimitz came down on deck to see what the commotion was and he gave him the satchel. Admiral Nimitz asked him what the Hell was going on and he told him. Admiral Nimitz made him his personal pilot for the rest of the war. A 16 year old Marine from Alabama. God Bless the Marine Corps.

He later flew in the first jet dog fights over Korea and later flew for the CIA and flew the U2 Spy Plane and then flew for the CIA in IndoChina. He says he has a rash and needs to stay close to the vetran’s hospital. I told him that must be a Hell of a rash.

Sorry to run on like this, but that is a Marine I am proud of, along with millions of other Marines.

rich wheeler…you still get edited because you choose to stomp on your crank here.

Be A Non – Hyphenated American or a Limited Duty Officer with the Attitude.

Semper Zero.

Liber de Opressed is my Motto.

The only complaint I have is that the picture showing the flag raising on Mt. Suribachi is the second flag that was raised. The ones who raised the first flag never got the credit they deserved until many years later. You can see a picture of the first flag up at:

http://history.sandiego.edu/gen/ww2Timeline/qt/iwo-flag.html

Thanks to them and many more after them I and others were born in a free country.

@Smorg

That’s because the first flag-raising was done on a lark, by 4-5 guys who were sent up to recon the hill. They didn’t bring Rosenthal, and a Navy Corpsman took that first picture. (Those guys actually didn’t have to fight their way up either, because the Japanese that were inside the hill didn’t see them as a threat, and they didn’t want to garner any undue attention…yet.

They carried smallish flag on the way up, and put it in a pipe they found on that hill to fly it.

Once the bulk of the force started up the hill, the Japanese took it serious…Very serious. That culminated in the larger second flag…sort of.

The larger flag was put up hastily, and used the same length of pipe as the first one…so it kept falling over. A better pole was had, and it is that re-mounting, that is the iconic picture.

-Only two of the 4 men in Rosenthal’s picture survived the remaining battle on Iwo.

CURT: I realy am sorry to learn that MIKE is gone: HE will be miss, he put a lot of life in his POSTS,
AND lead his crowd and protect them with PASSION,from any transgression and TROLLS NUISANCE , that’s why ,
I and surely others, will also, miss his PATRIOTIC stance, that never was challenged. bye

O.T. Fact is I’ve not been edited except when I made brief mention(in a not unfriendly way) of a recently departed F. A. author.Life is good.

Patvann Thanks for that look inside Marine Corps boot camp.

rich wheeler, MIKE send you in cyber, because HE was smart and saw you come in ,
to push your side of politic, MIKE knew that you could’nt care less about this BLOG,
THAT you where coming to try your version on the new blogger coming here,
you never fooled MIKE. that’s for sure.

RE flag raising On 23 feb D day+4 of landing,small flag hoisted 10;30 hours by 6 Marines and photographed by Sgt Lou Lowery
Navy Sec Forrestal wading ashore under protection of Gen Holland Smith looked up and said “this ensures the existance of the Marine Corps for another 500 YEARS”
Word was sent to battallion commander Johnson that Forrestal wanted the flag Not happy with request but following orders Johnson ordered larger flag secured from landing craft and sent up.
Japs,now alerted by loud cheers from the beach rushed to defend. Under intense fire battallion fought it’s way back up and securing position Marines Strank,Gagnon,Hayes,Sously,Block and Navy corpsman Bradley raised the flag fortuitously photographed by Joe Rosenthal of A.P.
My guess is Corps will be around another 1000 years. Semper FI

Always Faithful.

65 years later, they still love to fight..’specially the particularly good-looking one in the front row, second from the right. 😉

Bees I came to this blog because there are many patriots here.I wanted to make a statement that Dems. can also be patriots.As I’ve told A.C.,Mata and Patvann I ‘ve learned many positive things about Conservative viewpoints and thanked them for that.
I’m still a proud Democrat but even more so a proud Marine and a proud American.

PATVANN: yes the 2nd one front row right on the side of the flag?

rich wheeler, yes keep it up this way,is okay, you can bring MARINES storys, we like them, no democrats storys, we dont go for them. bye

I think Richard needs to be given a break.

@Patvann: #14 I think the first flag up should have been mentioned along with the “official” flag raising. It was the first, and I will leaver it at that.

@rich wheeler: As long as there is a free America there will be Marines and the other branches of the service that are keeping me free.

22 years ago today, I married my best friend.

PATVANN: CONGRATULATION , WHAT’s for dinner in candle light?. bye
best to your best friend too.

As Gerard says…”Something Wonderful”

@Patvann:

Congrats PatVann.

I wish you forty more.

Being married to your best friend makes life complete doesn’t it?

PATVANN I “second that emotion” Hope to see you in O.C. IN Nov.

Are you and The Marine 49er fans as well as Giants? Cedrick Hardman(Lag.Bch) and John Brodie(Del Mar/Indian Wells) are friends and big supporters of The Troops.

Thanks, all!

@Rich…Oh yea. But the past few years are keeping us humble.

Many, many more Pat!

Here’s one of my favorite songs to share with your bestest forever friend. 😉

Patvann: Congratulations to you both! Here’s a 60s classic for a 60s classic:

PV, I am happy for both of you. A great wife and a great family, if we can get some decent politicians in California, your life will be perfect.

Sheesh! 😯

Wonder if he ever figured it out?

Well…since we have an open thread…

http://americasright.com/?p=5407

Most of you have seen cute stories about the dogs and cats that our troops befriend, and in some cases even manage to bring home…

My son has always been good with animals, but has always liked to be a little different…

Meet “Sonic”:

Yes, it’s a baby hedgehog, and no he can’t bring it home. 😉

#35: I think this is Obama’s grocery scanner moment. Just as the media claimed GHWB’s perplexity over how the scanner worked showed he was “out of touch” with the everyday lives and modern times of the citizens, Obie’s meltdown over how to handle an umbrella shows just how incredibly elite he is. A child could figure this out, but not the boy king.

Of course, in GHWB’s case the MSM played the tape for everything it was worth. In Obie’s case — crickets chirping.

The prettiest Chicago Futures Table you will ever see:

http://www.chicagoclimatex.com/market/data/daily.jsf

CO2 is now 5 cent/ton. It is bid in 5-cent increments, so the next price-point is literally nothing, which exactly how much hot air is worth. I’ve waited for this day since 2003! I just may buy a dollar’s worth, just for historical purposes!

Chicago Climate Exchange drops 50%, new record low

BWHAHAHAAH!

Radio Hatemongers…..My goodness, everything from Dick Cheney eating babies to wishes for his death and, Rush Limbaugh should die, Michelle Bachmann should die, conservatives should die. Also, Michelle Bachmann would have liked the Holocaust.

All recorded….perhaps there would be a special place at the Newseum so in 20 years “the American people” can press a button and find out what liberal talk radio was like.

Lefties, what ya gonna do, they are what they are. 🙄

http://newsbusters.org/blogs/rich-noyes/2010/08/24/new-mrc-report-exposes-real-radio-hatemongers

Full Hatemonger Report:

http://www.mrc.org/specialreports/2010/RealRadioHatemongers/ExecSumm.aspx

Here we have John Cusack going over the deep, deep, very deep end, he’s calling for a Satanic Death for FoxNews and GOP leaders. Wonder what he was on.

http://www.foxnews.com/entertainment/2010/08/31/actor-john-cusack-calls-satanic-death-fox-news-gop-leaders/

BTW, Ed Schultz thinks if he had 6 months to promote a gathering it would be easy for him to beat Beck’s 8/28 Restoring Honor Rally. He can always preach about Dick Cheney’s death, folks would come from far and wide to hear that. 🙄

You can be sure that what ever the Left accuses us of, they’ve already been doing in spades.

@Patvann:

We’ve seen that for awhile.

Look what I just got in my e-mail, interesting?

According to Obama’s college roommate Beck is right when he talks about the Cloward-Piven plan and Obama.

OBAMA’S COLLEGE CLASSMATE SPEAKS OUT

By Wayne Allyn Root, June 6th, 2010

Barack Obama is no fool. He is not incompetent. To the contrary, he is brilliant. He knows exactly what he’s doing. He is purposely overwhelming the U.S. economy to create systemic failure, economic crisis and social chaos — thereby destroying capitalism and our country from within.

Barack Obama is my college classmate ( Columbia University , class of ’83). As Glenn Beck correctly predicted from day one, Obama is following the plan of Cloward & Piven, two professors at Columbia University . They outlined a plan to socialize America by overwhelming the system with government spending and entitlement demands.

Add up the clues below. Taken individually they’re alarming. Taken as a whole, it is a brilliant, Machiavellian game plan to turn the United States into a socialist/Marxist state with a permanent majority that desperately needs government for survival … and can be counted on to always vote for bigger government. Why not? They have no responsibility to pay for it.

— Universal health care. The health care bill had very little to do with health care. It had everything to do with unionizing millions of hospital and health care workers, as well as adding 15,000 to 20,000 new IRS agents (who will join government employee unions). Obama doesn’t care that giving free health care to 30 million Americans will add trillions to the national debt. What he does care about is that it cements the dependence of those 30 million voters to Democrats and big government. Who but a socialist revolutionary would pass this reckless spending bill in the middle of a depression?

— Cap and trade. Like health care legislation having nothing to do with health care, cap and trade has nothing to do with global warming. It has everything to do with redistribution of income, government control of the economy and a criminal payoff to Obama’s biggest contributors. Those powerful and wealthy unions and contributors (like GE, which owns NBC, MSNBC and CNBC) can then be counted on to support everything Obama wants. They will kick-back hundreds of millions of dollars in contributions to Obama and the Democratic Party to keep them in power. The bonus is that all the new taxes on Americans with bigger cars, bigger homes and businesses helps Obama “spread the wealth around.”

— Make Puerto Rico a state. Why? Who’s asking for a 51st state? Who’s asking for millions of new welfare recipients and government entitlement addicts in the middle of a depression? Certainly not American taxpayers. But this has been Obama’s plan all along. His goal is to add two new Democrat senators, five Democrat congressman and a million loyal Democratic voters who are dependent on big government.

— Legalize 12 million illegal immigrants. Just giving these 12 million potential new citizens free health care alone could overwhelm the system and bankrupt America . But it adds 12 million reliable new Democrat voters who can be counted on to support big government. Add another few trillion dollars in welfare, aid to dependent children, food stamps, free medical, education, tax credits for the poor, and eventually Social Security.

— Stimulus and bailouts. Where did all that money go? It went to Democrat contributors, organizations (ACORN), and unions — including billions of dollars to save or create jobs of government employees across the country. It went to save GM and Chrysler so that their employees could keep paying union dues. It went to AIG so that Goldman Sachs could be bailed out (after giving Obama almost $1 million in contributions). A staggering $125 billion went to teachers (thereby protecting their union dues). All those public employees will vote loyally Democrat to protect their bloated salaries and pensions that are bankrupting America . The country goes broke, future generations face a bleak future, but Obama, the Democrat Party, government, and the unions grow more powerful. The ends justify the means.

— Raise taxes on small business owners, high-income earners, and job creators. Put the entire burden on only the top 20 percent of taxpayers, redistribute the income, punish success, and reward those who did nothing to deserve it (except vote for Obama). Reagan wanted to dramatically cut taxes in order to starve the government. Obama wants to dramatically raise taxes to starve his political opposition.

With the acts outlined above, Obama and his regime have created a vast and rapidly expanding constituency of voters dependent on big government; a vast privileged class of public employees who work for big government; and a government dedicated to destroying capitalism and installing themselves as socialist rulers by overwhelming the system.

Add it up and you’ve got the perfect Marxist scheme — all devised by my Columbia University college classmate Barack Obama using the Cloward and Piven Plan.

True per snopes!
http://www.snopes.com/politics/soapbox/overwhelm.asp

This is an interesting situation…Abercrombie and Fitch being sued because a muslim woman who wanted to wear a hijab was not hired. This makes the second suit I’ve seen in the last 10 days by muslim women who assert their right to wear the hijab even though the conditions of their employment make it unsuitable. If the courts mandate that the employer has no right to deny a religious observation as a condition of employment …are you really going to say that sharia law will never take hold in this USA? (Note: in the Disney case, the employee was required to agree to certain standards, and now is demanding the right to wear her hijab “just” during ramadan. In the A&F case, it’s claimed that the employer refused to consider her for employment _solely_ based on her wearing a hijab.)

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2010/09/01/BATJ1F7BVC.DTL&tsp=1

suek: hi, I always thought, that when you go to ROME DO LIKE THE ROMANS do, OR why do they force their religious will on EMPLOYERS who : are willing to give them a job after all, but they have to follow the business rules of this tolerant country. this is abusive and directly
aim from muslims to disrupt this AMERICA. and change the rulses of FREEDOM this country have fought and died for.

PATVANN AH can he bring it home please CAN he can he pretty please?

MISSY on 35, THAT must have been custom made for him, because IT’s
NOT suppose to work. bye

@Missy: #42 400 classmates don’t remember Obama. The story mentions Wayne Root.

Home

I had King Obama figured out when in his campaigning for the democratic nomination he said he wanted a civilian police force that was as strong as the military and equally funded. What did Hitler call his civilian police force?

Why would he want a civilian police force when we have the National Guard, and why does he want it as strong as the military? The president can’t activate the National Guard, each governor has to do it. George Bush couldn’t help Louisiana until the democrat governor ask him to, and they didn’t ask until it was too late. It is still Bushes fault though.

SMORGASBORD; I heard about his will to have his own army before quite a good while ago, and it strike me funny, exactly for what you say, it’s not right could even be to fight the already
security forces of this country: WHAT would it be for else unless for a transition to join the
WORLD ORDER UN forces: WHat does it tell you when he complained about ARIZONA
AT the UN, AND when he allowed CALDERONE to be against ARIZONA”s rules.in America
fishy is’nt it? bye

@ilovebeeswarzone: #49 Obama wants the USA to sign all of the treaties the UN wants the world to sign so the UN will have control of Federal property. That even means military bases, national parks, and even the Congress and White House properties.

The Great Smoky Mountains National Park is partly regulated by the United Nations. The sign as you go in reads, “AN INTERNATIONAL BIOSPHERE RESERVE.”