From the PJS: Washington native will receive Silver Star for actions during Iraq firefight
Posts Tagged ‘Iraq’
OK, I’m impressed
Thursday, May 14th, 2009
News: Illinois soldier killed in Iraq
Tuesday, April 8th, 2008My condolences to the family, friends and comrades of Private First Class Shane D. Penley.
Local: Remains of fallen soldier identified
Monday, March 31st, 2008
My sympathies go out to the family, friends and comrades of Staff Sgt. Keith Matthew Maupin, the member of Bartonville-based 724th Transportation Company, who as captured following an ambush April 9th, 2004. His captors released a low-quality video of Maupin that depicting his murder, but it was not clear until now that is what happened. Maupin was a private when captured, but he was promoted twice during the period he was listed as missing. Here’s a Wikipedia article on Maupin.
Politics: George Bush is a megalomaniac?
Saturday, November 24th, 2007This post written by Bill Dennis on Peoria Pundit.
That’s the impression I’m supposed to be getting, I think, from this column by Georgie Anne Geyer:
The White House sees terrorists as born, not created by history, bearing the mark of Cain, not the mark of circumstance. There is a scarlet “T” written on their foreheads at birth and the only answer is to destroy them. This kind of thinking, of course, relieves the thinker of any responsibility for the presence of the insurgent-terrorist-whatever in our innocent midst.
What’s more, there is not much real give in the administration’s policies. True, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and other American diplomats met Memorial Day weekend with the Iranians in Baghdad (a good first move but limited, since the Iranians have most of the power because of our incredible stupidity in Iraq). But by all reports, President Bush is more convinced than ever of his righteousness.
Friends of his from Texas were shocked recently to find him nearly wild-eyed, thumping himself on the chest three times while he repeated “I am the president!” He also made it clear he was setting Iraq up so his successor could not get out of “our country’s destiny.”
Others have said that this reminded them of President Nixon’s paranoia during the final months of his presidency. I disagree. Nixon knew he was crooked, so of course he suspected they were on to him. There’s no one more paranoid than someone with something to hide.
Bush isn’t hiding anything. He just cannot concede than anything he wants to do can possibly be wrong. That’s why he surrounds himself with “yes” men who tell him he’s right and whisper in his ear that history will vindicate him, like it did Truman. It’s no wonder he’s developed a bit of megalomania.
No doubt that history will be kinder to Bush than his critics, but historians will use his administration as a textbook example of the futility of trying to be the world’s policeman.
The Kurds are about to be screwed a second time by someone named Bush
Wednesday, June 6th, 2007Can someone explain to me why the
CNN still sucking up to Saddam? Apparently so …
Friday, December 29th, 2006I’m not the only one who found CNN’s graphical treatment of the news of Saddam’s death to be more than a little off-putting. Michelle Malkin had this observation:
Lots of readers are peeved by CNN’s memorial tribute to Saddam. Reader Roger writes, “Did Gerald Ford get this much respect on CNN’s home page?”
Answer: Yes. Almost exactly equal amounts of respect.
People, you have to understand, CNN has an international perspective. Many of their paying customers live in nations where it’s the official policy to hate America and everything we stand for. So they play it straight and objective, without any value judgments. That’s why Lou Dobbs runs all those scrupulously unbiased reports on the nation’s economic and immigration policies.
End sarcasm.
[tags>Saddam execution,Saddam hanging,CNN,Michelle Malkin,Iraq
‘Satan, Saddam … Saddam, Satan’
Friday, December 29th, 2006I thought it might be appropriate to speculate how Saddam and His Infernal Majesty might be getting along for all eternity (not safe for work language):
Meet a swing voter …me
Friday, October 13th, 2006According to Political Wire, people like me are the new swing voters:
A new Cato Institute report says libertarians — people who historically tend to agree with Republicans on fiscal issues and Democrats on personal freedom — are the new swing voters. The authors estimate approximately 13% of voters fall into this category.
“For those on the trail of the elusive swing voter, it may be most notable that the libertarian vote shifted sharply in 2004. Libertarians preferred George W. Bush over Al Gore by 72 to 20 percent, but Bush’s margin dropped in 2004 to 59-38 over John Kerry. Congressional voting showed a similar swing from 2002 to 2004. Libertarians apparently became disillusioned with Republican overspending, social intolerance, civil liberties infringements, and the floundering war in Iraq. If that trend continues into 2006 and 2008, Republicans will lose elections they would otherwise win.”
This sounds like they are talking about “small-L” libertarians.
I’ll give you a tip on how this disillusioned libertarian feels about Bush and the GOP: I am completely sick of their crap. Bush had me on the day after Sept. 11, 2001, when he said that he gets it, that he understands that we are at war with a world-wide movement to establish a fascist-style Muslim dictatorship across the world, and that the United States would oppose them. But he also said that the United States would be true to its values and our Constitution. Well, Bush got it about half right.
The trouble is, even though Bush and company are generally throwing away a military victories in Iraq and Afghanistan though long and meaningless occupations — and don’t seem interested in keeping North Korea and Iraq non-nuclear — nothing I’m hearing from the Democratic Party tells me they “get it,” that they understand that we are in the middle of a war forced upon us and that we can’t appease these guys. They started killing us before we started defending ourselves against them.
So, here I am faced with a choice between a party that’s willing to use the Constitution like toilet paper to protect us against SOME terrorists, but not others, and a party that for the most part seems to think all we need to do is curl up in a ball and promise to stop hitting back and the beatings will stop.
But now that I’m a swing voter — not those annoying soccer moms — I can look for candidates to start sucking up to me, now.
Two East Peoria high school grads die in Iraq
Thursday, October 5th, 2006Via a midday update from the Journal Star
Spcs. George R. Obourn Jr., 20, and Kristofer C. Walker, 20, both originally of Creve Coeur, recently died in Iraq, East Peoria Superintendent Cliff Cobert confirmed Wednesday.
“They were good students in school, quite active with the band,” he said. “It is our understanding they joined (the Army) together.”
The two died in separate attacks, according to reports, but more information could not be obtained late Wednesday.
My condolences go out to the family and friends of Spcs. Obourn and Walker.
Yet another 9/11 irony
Sunday, September 10th, 2006I enjoyed Brad Burke’s column on how the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks hardly lived up to their promise of ending irony. It was one of many 9/11 stories in the JS these days, as Peoria’s newspaper of record has jumped on the bandwagon along with other media organizations who have decided that because, come Monday, exactly 1826 days will have passed between now and then, that we need to temporarilly wallow in the memories of that day.
I suppose it makes up for the fact that the media have been trying to tell us for at least three of the last five years that the attacks have nothing to do with the current situation in Iraq. Oh, no. They say that 9/11 was an isolated incident, a crime perpetrated by individuals, most of whom have escaped punishment thanks to a president who is distracted by personal agenda.
I’m glad we’re wallowing in memories of 9/11. It might remind America that the events of that day were not a crime. They were an act of war, perpetrated to help bring about a Fascist movement that wraps itself around of cloak of religious piety.
But never fear. The anniversary will pass, and we can all go back to complaining that fighting this war is inconvenient and requires of us sacrifices that we don’t feel as motivated to make as we did five years ago. We all went out and bought flags and put magnets on our cars, and isn’t that enough?
And besides, terrorists would never attack us where we live, would they? Terrorism only happens somewhere else.
Yeah. I guess irony isn’t dead after all.
Pekin resident dies in Iraq
Sunday, August 20th, 2006He wasn’t wearing a uniform, but try telling me this man wasn’t one of the good guys:
A North Carolina man who graduated from Pekin High School in 1984 was killed in Iraq last week by a roadside bomb of the kind he was employed to remove, a family member said Saturday.
Richard Todd Rhodes, 40, of Wilmington, N.C., died Thursday when his armored vehicle was struck by the improvised explosive device, according to information provided by his brother-in-law Mark Klokkenga of Dunlap.
My sympathies to his family and friends.
Lindsay Lohan is a fair-weather patriot
Tuesday, August 8th, 2006
There’s a story out about how Lindsay Lohan is just soooooooo eager to visit the troops in Iraq with Sen. Hillary Clinton that she just can’t stand it. The senator’s office says, however, that they’ve told Lindsay — or her handlers — that she needs to contact the non-profit USO organization, who will be happy to make arrangements. If you read the story, it’s clear that Lohan sees this as a way to market herself as a hot pin-up queen, not because she has any great desire to bring a little sunshine and beauty into the lives of Americans fighting for their country overseas.
Feh.
And Lindsay? You are no Marilyn Monroe.
Illinoisan dies serving in Iraq
Thursday, January 5th, 2006Via WEEK:
The U.S. Defense Department says Sergeant First Class Shawn C. Dostie of Granite City died in Baghdad on December 30.
Officials say the 32-year old was killed when an improvised explosive device detonated near his Humvee while on patrol.
My condolences to the family of Sgt. Dostie.
A little insurance never hurt anyone … including Congressman Ray
Tuesday, January 3rd, 2006An insurance company sales contest paid dividends to U.S. military serving in Iraq and Afghanistan in the form of free phone cards:
During a recent press conference, Congressman Ray LaHood representing the 18th Congressional District of Illinois remarked, “I, along with Pekin Insurance, feel that the phone card is a way of saying thank you to those who are making a sacrifice by leaving their homes, their families, their jobs, and all the comforts that you and I are enjoying right now.”
I’m sure “Congressman Ray,” as he is often called on certain fair and balanced Peoria radio station, was very helpful in getting these cards delivered to the men and women serving in the Gulf. But I am also sure Ray’s election campaign benefits from attaching itself to this private-sector project.
ALSO: If you thought I am too mean to our congressman, check out Blogging from IL-18.
Thank you Sgt. Eric Pearrow
Saturday, November 26th, 2005I don’t remember Sgt. First Class Eric Pearrow. But the 40-year-old man was a freshman at Woodruff High School when I was a senior.
I wish I did.
Pearrow died in Iraq on Thanksgiving Day in a single vehicle accident involving a M1 Abrams tank. Pearrow was a member of the 3rd Armored Cavalry Regiment Thunder Squadron, Mad Dog Company, from Colorado. He was due home this week for a month-long leave and was three months shy of retiring.
My condolences to his family, friends and his fiance.
Billy Dennis is a former reporter and editor at small daily and weekly newspapers in Illinois and Missouri. He comments on media, news and politics. He also owns and operates 
