A Mexican national with a drug resistant form to TB was allowed to enter the country some 76 times using his real name. Apparently the Department of Homeland Security had his real name and an updated birthdate by mid-april.

Worse, all of the agencies that knew about Amado Isidro Armendariz Amaya took six weeks to inform the border inspectors of his identity and finally cancelled his border crossing card in June. They knew about him in APRIL!!

This strain of drug-resistant TB was the same as Andrew Speaker, the dumbass lawyer that was told not to travel due to his illness, but did anyway.

Mr. Isidro Armendariz Amaya was never even placed on the no-fly list! What the hell is our government doing? This is exactly the reason why you cannot rely on the government for anything. The original purpose of our government was not even to do this type of crap. These bureaucracies only drain our tax dollars instead of helping the people. The cost/benefit analysis is more cost with less benefit.

Traveler with TB did not use alias
By Audrey Hudson and Sara A. Carter
October 26, 2007
The Washington Times

Key senators said a Mexican national infected with a highly contagious form of tuberculosis did not use a fake name to enter the country 76 times and take numerous flights, as Homeland Security spokesmen had previously stated.

Sen. Joe Lieberman, Connecticut independent and chairman of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, and Sen. Susan Collins, Maine Republican and the panel’s ranking member, said that Customs and Border Protection officials had the name and a corrected date of birth by mid-April but that the man continued to cross the border unfettered 21 more times.

“He wasn’t using an alias,” Miss Collins said.

“The first report that we got from the [Homeland Security] department was that that was the reason. That turned out not to be the case,” Miss Collins said.

Mr. Lieberman and Miss Collins questioned Paul Rosenzweig, Homeland Security deputy assistant secretary for policy, about the conflicting excuses and the potential health threat caused by the lapse during a hearing this week.

“We are not satisfied, and we don’t want this to happen again,” said Mr. Lieberman, who along with Miss Collins is drafting a follow-up letter to Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff and Health and Human Services Secretary Michael O. Leavitt demanding more answers on how the health-security lapse occurred.

The Washington Times last week reported that Amado Isidro Armendariz Amaya made the border crossings from August 2006 to June 2007. Homeland Security (DHS) officials had said the Mexican businessman was traveling under an alias.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) was warned by Mexican health officials and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on April 16 that the frequent traveler was infected with multi-drug resistant (MDR) tuberculosis.

But according to internal DHS e-mails obtained by The Times, Mr. Armendariz did not use a fake name but rather used variations of his own name. For example, he customarily went by his middle name “Isidro,” rather than his formal birth name, “Amado.”

The e-mails show nine variations of his name in a system that is capable of searching two dozen law-enforcement databases.

In this week’s hearing, the Senate committee learned that Customs and Border Protection officials had the name of “Isidro Armendariz Amaya” and the correct birth date in April.

Homeland Security officials, however, took more than six weeks to issue a May 31 alert to warn its own border inspectors, according to Homeland Security sources who spoke on the condition of anonymity for fear of retribution.

MDR tuberculosis is a highly contagious and dangerous illness — the same strain that concerned health officials when Andrew Speaker, a 31-year-old Atlanta lawyer, slipped into the U.S. from Europe via a flight to Canada. The story set off alarms that the system had failed to identify the contagious passenger, which led to congressional hearings in June.

The Mexican national’s border crossing card was canceled on June 1. However, Border Patrol officials declined to report the health security breach when it briefed the Senate committee on Mr. Speaker’s case on June 4. The CDC also failed to report the Mexico breach when it briefed the committee on June 6.

The Mexican national was not placed on the no-fly list until the Transportation Security Agency was warned on June 7.

“I’m really concerned about this,” Miss Collins said. “This person was potentially very dangerous from a public health perspective. What if this had been a terrorist?”

Customs officials told lawmakers at this week’s hearing that they were hampered initially by their incomplete information on the traveler — a transposed date of birth and his middle name and his two surnames, maternal and paternal, the common practice among Spanish-speakers.

“The case of the Mexican gentleman with tuberculosis … is an example of that, where we can only work with as much information as we have,” Mr. Rosenzweig said.

“If the information is incomplete or inaccurate, that defeats, to some degree, our ability to conduct watch-list name matching,” Mr. Rosenzweig said.

The response did not satisfy the committee, which has opened an inquiry into the security lapse on the Mexican border.

“If a terrorist about whom we have an accurate last name and an accurate middle name and an accurate date of birth could cross 21 times, when you know it’s likely where the individual is going to be crossing, that’s a huge concern to me,” Miss Collins said.

Using only three of the four names would create tens of thousands of “false-positive” hits creating a logjam at the border crossings, Mr. Rosenzweig said.

“You know, we’ve had many, many complaints that the lines on the southern border are already too long. As the type of information we get is less and less accurate, and we widen the field to make an examination based upon the name check, we get more and more people who will be overwhelming our secondary inspection capabilities, extending the line beyond belief and inconveniencing lots and lots of people who aren’t matches for any of those,” Mr. Rosenzweig said.

Again, the lawmakers were not satisfied with the response.

“I think the public interest would have been better served if you had stopped everybody with his two last names,” Mr. Lieberman said.

Added Miss Collins: “I have no confidence that these agencies have procedures in place to adequately address the next health threat, particularly one that would put the American public in even more danger.”

One part of good leadership, and a very important one at that, is knowing where your people are at all times. How the hell does this guy not know what his people, the leaders of organizations under his responsibility, are doing from day to day. He means that this incident was a spontaneous one?

There is no question that the leadership of FEMA is inept and completely incompetent. The entire heirarchy should be replaced within FEMA. In fact, let’s get a young Marine corporal in there to woop it on. What?! I’m not bias! lol

Chertoff Rips Phony Press Event

Oct 28 12:38 AM US/Eastern
By DEVLIN BARRETT
Associated Press Writer

WASHINGTON (AP) – The homeland security chief on Saturday tore into his own employees for staging a phony news conference at the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

“I think it was one of the dumbest and most inappropriate things I’ve seen since I’ve been in government,” Michael Chertoff said.

“I have made unambiguously clear, in Anglo-Saxon prose, that it is not to ever happen again and there will be appropriate disciplinary action taken against those people who exhibited what I regard as extraordinarily poor judgment,” he added.

Asked specifically if he planned to fire anyone at FEMA, which is part of his department, Chertoff declined to say, citing personnel rules.

“There will be appropriate discipline,” he told reporters at a news conference with New York’s governor where they announced an agreement on a driver’s license plan.

Chertoff said he knew nothing about the matter until after it happened and that he “can’t explain why it happened.”

The White House on Friday scolded FEMA for the faux press conference about assistance to victims of wildfires in southern California.

The agency—much maligned for its sluggish response to Hurricane Katrina over two years ago—arranged to have FEMA employees play the part of reporters at the event Tuesday and question Vice Adm. Harvey E. Johnson, the deputy director.

The questions were soft and gratuitous.

“I’m very happy with FEMA’s response,” Johnson said in reply to one query from an agency employee.

FEMA gave reporters only 15 minutes notice about Tuesday’s news conference. But because of the short notice, the agency made available an 800 number so reporters could call in. Many did, although it was a listen-only arrangement.

Johnson said in a statement Friday that FEMA’s goal was “to get information out as soon as possible and in trying to do so we made an error in judgment.”

“Our intent was to provide useful information and be responsive to the many questions we have received,” he said. “We can and must do better.”

Deborah Johns is the Military Relations Director for Move America Forward. Deborah appeared on the Oct. 27th, 2007 show to speak about the defacing of a Marine recruiting office in Berkeley. Deborah has since been on our Marine Corps Birthday show on Nov. 10th, 2007.

What kind of crap is this that the White House and the State Department cannot answer a simple question?

The stupidity of our elected officials is mind-blowing. They obviously have lost the sense of working for the people. The word ‘transparency’ has been tossed around a lot lately. If there was more ‘transparency’, these dumbass globalists wouldn’t be able to (a) do the shit that they are attempting to get away with (i.e.: giving away our sovereignty) and (b) lie to us to achieve their means of enriching themselves. What happen to the ‘fidelty of our elected’ that was theorized by Thomas Paine. Our elected representatives are so far outside of normal society that they have no concept of what the American People even think or want. They only do what will get them re-elected. This is not how our founding fathers envisioned our government running.

Bush stonewalls on Mexican military aid
White House, State Department refuse to answer WND questions

________________________________________
Posted: October 25, 2007
1:00 a.m. Eastern
By Jerome R. Corsi
© 2007 WorldNetDaily.com

The White House and State Department are refusing to answer key questions WND has asked about the $500 million military assistance program proposed for Mexico and $50 million proposed for Central America.

As WND reported Tuesday, President Bush sent to Congress this week an Iraq Supplemental Funding Request that included a proposal for $500 million in military assistance for Mexico and $50 million for Central America to help them fight the international drug war raging across our border with Mexico.

For the past two days, WND has made repeated calls to the White House and State Department, asking key questions by phone and email.

So far, no responses have been received.

Instead, the White House press office has begun referring all questions about the Mexico military aid package to the State Department.

WND has repeatedly asked if the delivery of these military assistance programs will be accomplished through private contractors, along the model in which companies such as Blackwater have been issued contracts by the Pentagon to provide security services in Iraq.

The question is important since the White House and State Department have insisted no U.S. troops will be placed in Mexico.

The White House has told WND that managing the Mexican military aid package through Congress is the job of Assistant Secretary of State for Western Hemisphere Affairs Thomas Shannon.

Yet, the State Department says Shannon is unavailable for comment because Congress is only now being briefed, after the military aid program was announced to the public.

In a press briefing Tuesday, Shannon again promised the program would not involve sending U.S. military forces to Mexico, saying, “We are very aware of issues of Mexican sovereignty.”

A joint statement issued Tuesday by the State Department and by Mexico repeated the pledge that we “do not contemplate the deployment of U.S. military personnel in Mexico.”

But a State Department fact sheet indicates a wide range of military equipment is going to be provided to Mexico and the countries of Central America under the plan. The equipment includes ion scanners, canine units for Mexico, boats, helicopters, and surveillance aircraft, as well as a wide range of communications technologies.

Still, the State Department fact sheet neglects to explain how the training to use this equipment will be provided to Mexico and the countries of Central America, especially if the commitment is to avoid placing U.S. military boots on the ground in these Latin American countries.

Nor will the White House or State Department answer WND questions about why the Department of Transportation is continuing to allow Mexican trucks across the border, when the severity of the drug war requires U.S. military aid intervention.

As WND has reported, commercial trucks remain the predominant way drugs are smuggled from Mexico into the United States.

Since introducing the program earlier this week, the State Department has fought to avoid calling this military aid program the “Mexican Plan,” seeking to avoid identification with the “Colombia Plan,” a much criticized earlier anti-drug initiative that also involved a package of U.S. assistance.

Instead, the White House and State Department are fighting to call this the “Merida Initiative,” seeking to identify this plan with the summit President Bush and Felipe Calderon held in the Yucatecan city of Merida in March 2007, where the idea of U.S. military assistance to help Mexico fight the drug war was first proposed.

The Colombia Plan was begun as a Clinton administration plan to reduce cocaine production in Colombia, but it has been criticized in South America as a covert U.S. military program whose real purpose was to fight growing leftist guerrilla insurgency.

Asked this question in the press briefing, Shannon tried to distinguish that while Mexico is faced with fighting three insurgencies, the government of Mexico is fighting organized criminal drug trafficking, not political insurgency.

Shannon did not address the concern that leftists in Mexico might not be impressed with the distinction.

Shannon was also asked how the United States would prevent the military aid being used by rogue criminal elements in the Mexican military to actually assist the drug lords, rather than combat them.

The question focused on another failed 1990s U.S. effort to support paratroopers from an elite Mexican air-mobile military unit (GAFE, according to the Spanish acronym), only to have the units turn and form “Los Zetas,” a paramilitary group now active in Mexico in support of the drug lords.

Shannon answered, “Well, you know, I guess the best way to respond is that human nature being human nature, these things can happen.”

Lt. Michael Murphy is awarded the Medal of Honor for operations in Afghanistan.

Lt. Murphy and his team came under attack from a large contingent of Taliban fighters. Lt. Murphy, the leader of the team, moved into an open position to radio for reenforcements. Even after being struck by a 7.62 round causing Lt. Murphy to drop his radio, he continued to call for backup.

To a great hero, we at Chandler’s Watch radio show, salute you sir. Semper Fi!

Navy SEAL to receive Medal of Honor

Lt. Michael P. Murphy, the first to be awarded the highest military award for combat in Afghanistan, was killed during a 2005 mission.
By Tony Perry, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer
October 12, 2007

CORONADO — A Navy SEAL killed in Afghanistan will be awarded the Medal of Honor, the first such award for troops serving in Afghanistan and the first for a SEAL since the Vietnam War, the White House announced Thursday.

Lt. Michael P. Murphy, 29, who had SEAL training here and was assigned to a SEAL team in Hawaii, was killed in June 2005 during a mission in the Hindu Kush mountains to find a key Taliban leader.

FOR THE RECORD:
Medal of Honor: An article in Friday’s Section A about the posthumous awarding of the Medal of Honor to a Navy SEAL who served in Afghanistan said Lt. Michael P. Murphy was commissioned a Navy ensign in 1999. That commission to the Officer Candidate School came in 2000. —

Ambushed by insurgents, Murphy’s four-man SEAL team engaged in a fierce firefight and was in danger of being overrun.

Although he was wounded, Murphy risked his life to save fellow SEALs and then maneuvered into an open position to send out an emergency call and to continue firing at the enemy. While making the call, he was hit again.

Only one of the SEALs on the team survived. Eight other SEALs and eight soldiers aboard a MH-47 Chinook helicopter sent to rescue Murphy’s team also were killed when the craft was brought down by a rocket-propelled grenade.

The incident was the worst single-day loss of life for Navy Special Warfare personnel since World War II.

“Mike Murphy was a true warrior, a true leader. No one cared more about his men than he did,” said a SEAL officer who asked to be identified only as Sean. Because their missions are secret, SEALs prefer to remain anonymous.

President Bush will present the Medal of Honor to Murphy’s parents on Oct. 22 at the White House.

Only two other military personnel — Marine Cpl. Jason Dunham and Army Sgt. 1st Class Paul Ray Smith — have been awarded the nation’s highest honor for bravery for actions undertaken since Bush sent troops into Afghanistan in 2001. Both of those awards were for bravery in Iraq and were posthumous.

The three other members of Murphy’s team — Matthew Axelson, 25, and Danny Dietz, 31, who were both killed, and Marcus Luttrell, 32 — have each been awarded the Navy Cross, second only to the Medal of Honor.

Luttrell is the author of “Lone Survivor: The Eyewitness Account of Operation Redwing and the Lost Heroes of SEAL Team 10.”

Murphy grew up on Long Island and graduated from Pennsylvania State University in 1998 with degrees in political science and psychology. He was commissioned a Navy ensign in 1999 and graduated from SEAL training in Coronado in 2001.

His father, Daniel, an attorney and a combat veteran of the Vietnam War, said the assignment to Afghanistan was particularly important to his son. Murphy had friends in the New York police and fire departments and wore an NYFD patch on his uniform.

“He told me, ‘We’re going where the people who planned, plotted and recruited for 9/11 are,’ ” Daniel Murphy said.

Murphy’s mother, Maureen, said the Medal of Honor meant that “now the world will know what his family has always known: how special he was.”

At the SEAL base in Coronado, Murphy and his teammates were the subject of numerous conversations as word of the White House announcement circulated.

Though SEALs’ grief lingers, they preferred to praise Murphy’s steely determination and leadership.

“I’ll remember him and those other guys every day of my life,” said Cory, a SEAL petty officer first class.

I want you to make a special note of where this article specifies how each truck will be able to re-enter the country. A decal?! Are you frickin’ kidding me? By a show of hands, how many of you believe that the Mexican drug cartels will be able to buy a decal on the black market? (My hand is up.)
It is exactly as Sam Antonio of The John Birch Society described it. This pilot truck program and the NAFTA superhighway system will only increase the amount of drug and human smuggling. If the Mexican drug cartels will cut people’s heads off and make ‘mules’ swallow condoms of drugs, you can bet that they will pay anything to make their lives easier by getting a decal.
It blows my mind how ignorant our president is. This so saddens me too because I voted for the man. But, by his actions, he has turned his back on his oath and our sovereignty. Now, every time Bush talks about the security of our country, I can do nothing but shake my head in disgust and turn the channel.
I try to explain to people that the NAU (North American Union) is coming. People find it hard to believe that a conspiracy of such proportions could even exist. To all those that doubt, read up on the Thugge in India. Try googling “cosa nostra”. These were the same types of multi-national, multi-generational, conspiracies that remained secret for years and years. Do any of you actually taking the time to read this even know how the E.U. came into being? With an economic integration of the steel industry across Europe in the 50’s. Within fifty years, the elites had gained control and the masses merely work to put into it now. They are similar to the slaves of a hundred years ago in this country.
If you lose your patriotism, your spark of ‘jealousy’ as our founding fathers put it, you will lose the only Republic in history. The only country founded on the principles of Liberty for all, Freedom for all, and Happiness for all. Every other form of government in human history has not strived for these ends. They have only promoted despotism and human suffering. If our country is lost, we will become slaves once more, like our ancestors, and the greatest force for good in this world, will have been defeated forever.

Feds outsource Mexican truck safety
Trilateral trade association becomes chief inspector

________________________________________
Posted: October 22, 2007
1:00 a.m. Eastern
By Jerome R. Corsi
© 2007 WorldNetDaily.com

The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration has delegated key inspection requirements for Mexican trucks to a non-governmental trilateral trade association, whose goal is to impose North American standards on all commercial motor vehicles operating in Mexico, Canada, and the United States.

Since the early 1980s, the Commercial Vehicle Safety Alliance, or CVSA, operating as a non-governmental organization, has quietly knit together the motor-vehicle agencies in the three countries, building a common regulatory continental structure below the radar of public opinion, available now to function as the backbone of the FMCSA effort to allow approved Mexican trucking companies to run their long-haul rigs throughout the United States.

According to a Colorado law enforcement document obtained by WND, the FMCSA has made arrangements for the CVSA to provide inspection decals to all Mexican trucks who pass inspection in the Department of Transportation’s Mexican truck NAFTA demonstration project.

The CVSA is a non-profit association composed of “state, provincial, and federal officials responsible for the administration and enforcement of motor carrier safety laws in the United States, Canada and Mexico.”

CVSA membership includes all 50 states, the District of Columbia, all 13 Canadian provinces, Mexico, and various U.S. territories, including Guam, the Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico.

According to the group’s website, the CVSA has evolved from an informal gathering of western states motor-vehicle agencies in the 1980s, to a trilateral group setting uniform commercial vehicle safety requirements in all of North America.
The Colorado law enforcement bulletin specifies that Mexican carriers who are part of the “Cross Border Demonstration Project” must display a valid CVSA inspection decal.

The law enforcement notice further specifies, “In general, vehicles with valid CVSA decal(s) are not subject to re-inspection until the decal is expired. If obvious violations are noticed, the vehicle may be re-inspected.”

The key position of the CVSA in the FMCSA’s Mexican truck demonstration project is affirmed by a cross-border operating requirements handbook published on the FMCSA website.

The group’s website identifies CVSA as “a public/private partnership,” with open invitation to individuals and trucking companies to join as members, along with law enforcement organizations.

A section of the group’s website describing CVSA inspections notes, “Inspections must be performed by and CVSA decals affixed by North American Standard Level I and/or Level V certified inspectors. The term ‘certified’ as defined in this section means the government employee performing inspections and/or affixing CVSA decals must have first successfully completed a training program approved by the Alliance.”

The website further specifies, “CVSA decals, when affixed, shall remain valid for a period not to exceed three consecutive months. Vehicles displaying a valid CVSA decal generally will not be subject to re-inspection.”

The language consistently reflects standards for North America, consistent with the group’s goal to standardize continental driver and vehicle safety requirements on a continental basis.

A Level I “North American Standard Inspection” is specified on the CVSA website to include examination of driver’s license and other driver’s records including alcohol and drug testing, as well as a vehicle inspection for multiple physical safety requirements.

A Level V inspection is a vehicle-only examination under the Level I North American Standard Inspection requirements, without a driver present.

The FMCSA website currently identifies five Mexican trucking companies and three U.S. trucking companies qualified to participate in the demonstration project.

As WND has reported, both the House and the Senate have overwhelmingly voted to remove the funding from the Department of Transportation’s FY 2008 appropriations bill.

DOT, however, has decided continue allowing approved Mexican trucking companies to run their long-haul rigs throughout the United States, arguing that the vote of Congress is not binding until President Bush signs the bill.

WND reported Rep. Peter DeFazio, D-Ore., the sponsor of the House amendment to block DOT funding, has charged the Bush administration with being “hell-bent” in opening our borders to Mexican trucks, while defying the will of the American public and failing to convince Congress that Mexican drivers and trucks will meet the same safety standards as U.S. drivers and trucks.

WND has also reported that Melissa DeLaney, spokeswoman for the FMCSA, indicated further defiance to Congress and the will of the American people by suggesting that the FMCSA might sidestep the amendments designed to cut off funding for approved Mexican trucks to continue to operate within the United States.

“We are committed to incremental steps in demonstrating the safety of the cross-border program,” DeLaney told WND, “but there is no requirement to have a demonstration project.”

FMCSA close working relationship with CVSA is demonstrated by “Operation Safe Driver,” a trucking industry program the two are launching together today in Orlando, Fla.

The program, subtitled “Cutting it Close Can Cut Your Life Short,” is aimed at addressing the 12 percent of fatal crashes in the U.S. involving trucks and buses.

The effort is aimed at “launching a new campaign concentrating on the unsafe driving practices of commercial and non-commercial drivers.”

The Colorado law enforcement document was provided to WND by the Peter Boyles radio show in Denver.

A copy of the document is available for viewing on the program’s website.

Good job Americans! This is the kind of story that warms my heart. Now those 8th century dumbasses will not be able to blow up as many American service members.

Smoke if you got ‘em.

19 tons of explosives found in Iraq
Sat Oct 20, 2007 9:55am EDT

BAGHDAD (Reuters) – U.S. forces in Iraq discovered nearly 19 tons of explosives in a weapons cache north of Baghdad this week, one of the biggest finds of its kind, the U.S. military said on Saturday.

The cache was discovered west of Tarmiya, some 30 km (19 miles) northwest of the capital Baghdad, in Salahuddin province where Sunni Arab militants have a strong presence.

The find was made up of 41,000 lbs of ammonium nitrate and 35 mortar bombs. U.S. forces destroyed the cache.

“It’s a crippling blow against the enemy, it’s really huge,” said Peggy Kageleiry, a spokeswoman for U.S. forces in northern Iraq.

Car and truck bombs are used on almost a daily basis by militants in Iraqis targeting U.S. and Iraqi security forces and civilians.

In the deadliest attack this year, 520 people were killed in August when two suicide bombers drove two garbage trucks packed with explosives into two villages in northwestern Iraq.

Patrick Russ is the Toys for Tots coordinator for all of San Diego county.  Patrick was on the Oct. 20th, 2007 show to speak about the upcoming events for Toys for Tots.

The Eagle Young Marines is a drug reduction program that mentors to high risk children.  MGySgt. Siegmann and Ms. Estep were in the studio to tell us about the program and their upcoming trip to D.C..  The Eagle Young Marines appeared on the Oct. 20th, 2007 show.

This is unprecedented! It is this Marine’s opinion that, of course Mexico wants to be economically tied to the U.S.! This means that the elites in Mexico will gain in money and power. Do you honestly believe that the poor people of Mexico will see the benefits of this coming “integration”? I would speculate, no.
And another thing, I would not surprise me at all if Vicente Fox gets bumped off. This guy is traipsing around the country, bragging about the “plan” that he and President Bush hatched to economically and politically tie our two countries together. Either he will be bumped off or he will be allowed to live because the people behind the scenes don’t care anymore because it could be too late to stop the integration.
Vicente Fox’s book “Revolution of Hope” explains how Mr. Fox dreams of a North American Union like that of the European Union to allow the Americas to compete with the EU economically. Never mind the fact that the U.S.’s economic statistics are greater than those of the EU. Never mind the fact that some of the EU’s members are pissed off at the cost versus benefit ratio. England is being ass raped at the moment.
Mr. Fox has even talked about the “Amero”, the new monetary standard for the North American Union, on Larry King Live. In fact, the Council on Foreign Relations has said that they would like to see the Amero currency begin being implemented in 2010. That is less than three years from now. Isn’t it a little curious that Canada’s dollar has just become equal to the value of the U.S. dollar? If you were smart, you should put money into currency trading because the Peso is about to blow up. When all three currencies are worth the same, dip-shits like the CFR will argue that the time is right.
What is your country worth to you? What is the value of Liberty? To me, it is worth my life. If everyone else felt this way, this country wouldn’t be worrying about this crap.

Mexico’s Fox openly calls for North American Union
Merger with Canada, U.S. is part of his dream to compete with Europe, Far East

________________________________________
Posted: October 12, 2007
1:00 a.m. Eastern

© 2007 WorldNetDaily.com
WASHINGTON – Mexico’s former President Vicente Fox is making no secret of his desire to promote a “North American Union” to compete economically with Europe and the Far East.

In a promotional tour for his new book, “Revolution of Hope,” Fox told NPR’s “Talk of the Nation” audience: “That’s part of my Americas dream, that we can build our future together. We are partners with United States and Canada through NAFTA. There are other blocs in Latin America, but at the very end a continental trade agreement and union on the long term would be a way to develop ourselves and to be able to have the standards and level of living that we all need.”

Fox shocked many in the U.S. earlier in the week when he told CNN’s Larry King that he and President Bush had agreed to work toward a common currency not only for North America but for Latin America as well.

It was possibly the first time a top official of Mexico, Canada or the U.S. openly confirmed a plan for a regional currency. Fox explained the current regional trade agreement that encompasses the Western Hemisphere is intended to evolve into other previously hidden aspects of integration.

According to a transcript published by CNN, King, near the end of the broadcast, asked Fox a question e-mailed from a listener.
“Mr. Fox, I would like to know how you feel about the possibility of having a Latin America united with one currency?”

Fox answered in the affirmative, indicating it was a long-term plan. He admitted he and President Bush had agreed to pursue the Free Trade Agreement of the Americas – a free-trade zone extending throughout the Western Hemisphere, suggesting part of the plan was to institute eventually a regional currency.

“Long term, very long term,” he said. “What we proposed together, President Bush and myself, it’s ALCA, which is a trade union for all the Americas.”

ALCA is the acronym for the Area de Libre Comercio de las Américas, the name of the FTAA in Spanish.

King, evidently startled by Fox’s revelation of the currency, asked pointedly, “It’s going to be like the euro dollar (sic), you mean?”
“Well, that would be long, long term,” Fox repeated.

Fox noted the FTAA plan had been thwarted by Hugo Chavez, the radical socialist president of Venezuela.

“Everything was running fluently until Hugo Chavez came,” Fox commented. “He decided to combat the idea and destroy the idea.”
Fox explained that he and Bush intended to proceed incrementally, establishing FTAA as an economic agreement first and waiting to create an amero-type currency later – a plan he also suggested was in place for NAFTA itself.

“I think the process to go, first step is trading agreement,” Fox said. “And then further on, a new vision, like we are trying to do with NAFTA.”

When asked by WND White House correspondent Les Kinsolving about plans for the new currency, sometimes referred to as the amero, White House press secretary Dana Perino said she was not aware of any such efforts.

On the NPR program, host Neal Conan asked Fox: “You have called for much freer movement of labor. In fact, you’ve argued for a North American Union down the road. But a North American Union that would unite Canada, Mexico and the United States as an economic unit to compete with the European Union and with the tigers of the Far East.”

Fox answered affirmatively and added: “And I also speak about the immigration policies here in the United States and the need to pace the issue, the need to debate the issue, and the need to fulfill those empty spaces that are being filled by the xenophobic, by those who are guided by fear, and that’s what I notice in this nation. And its stand and we sit down and we look at the future with this vision. I don’t think building walls is the answer to the problem. I love this land. I love America. I love the United States.”

The issue of a unified currency is one discussed in “The Late Great USA,” and recently, WND reported BankIntroductions.com, a Canadian company that specializes in global banking strategies and currency consulting, is advising clients the amero may be the currency of North America within 10 years.

Coin designer Daniel Carr has issued for sale a series of private-issue fantasy pattern amero coins that have drawn attention on the Internet.

WND also reported the African Union is moving down the path of regional economic integration, with the African Central Bank planning to create the “Gold Mandela” as a single African continental currency by 2010.

The Council on Foreign Relations has supported regional and global currencies designed to replace nationally issued currencies.
WND also has reported a continued slide in the value of the dollar on world currency markets could set up conditions in which the adoption of the amero as a North American currency gains momentum.

Presidential candidate and Chicago businessman John Cox appeared on the Oct. 13th, 2007 show.  We talked about his run for the presidency and his platform.

You may not agree with what I am about to say, but here it goes. If, in this country, we do not have people screaming “For the cause of Jesus!”, we will lose our country and our lives. Do you understand? Can you possibly wrap your brain around that one? Think of it. The best way to defeat an enemy is on their terms. To beat them at their own game so they never think of coming after us again. Let me give you an example from history…Japan. We hit them so hard that it altered their entire history from then on. Just look at them now. The Muslims understand nothing but strength and brutality. So then that is what we must be. It is time to rain hell on them the likes of which they have never seen before! Damn the innocents! Do you think that they care about our innocents?! Have you already forgotten about the AMERICANS that jumped to their deaths from the World Trade Center towers to keep from being burned alive?! Have you forgotten already, MY FRIENDS, that have died to defeat this enemy?! In their honor, I say we slaughter them all! In this country and overseas! Yeah, maybe you’re right. That would be overreacting. We could just export the homosexuals over to them; they would freak out on that. Or we could just do nothing while they taunt us to our face how they are going to kill us all. Tuck our tails between our legs like England as they slowly immigrate and create hate speech laws so that we can’t say or do anything… until you wake up one morning, and a knife is at your throat! You should have thought about it, huh?

Congressman Brian Bilbray appeared on the Oct. 6th, 2007 show as a pre-recorded interview from an event that Chandler’s Watch was at the weekend before (The Vietnam Veteran Memorial and Paddle out).

Bill Roggio is the blogger for Long War Journal.org and an expert of the middle east.  Bill appeared on the Oct. 6th, 2007 show to speak about Iran and the current state of affairs in Iraq and Afghanistan.  Bill also appeared on the Jan. 12th, 2008 show to speak about the Benazir Bhutto assassination and the current state of Pakistan.  Bill appeared again on the March 1st show to speak about the rumors of the death of Al-Zawahiri and Adam Ghadan in predator airstrikes this past week.

Slowly but surely, the truth is turning Rep. Murtha into a liar! As Leo says, “A truth will always chase a lie”. It is amazing that Rep. Murtha, a Marine, was so quick to condemn the Marines, and yet so hesitant in issuing an apology. Repeatedly confronted as to whether Rep. Murtha will issue an apology, he and his office merely cower in spinelessness. Mean while, back on the base, Staff Sergeant Wuterich is busy suing Rep. Murtha for slandering his name. Col. Chessani has also said that if the charges on him are dropped, he too will seek to sue Rep. Murtha for slander. Marines, attack!

Officer: Drop murder charges against Haditha Marine

Staff Sergeant Wuterich

By: MARK WALKER – Staff Writer
Official recommends Wuterich should be tried for negligent homicide in deaths of two women, five children

CAMP PENDLETON — A Marine Corps official has recommended that murder charges be dismissed against a Camp Pendleton squad leader accused in the deaths of 17 civilians killed in the Iraqi city of Haditha two years ago.

The official, Lt. Col. Paul Ware, said in a recommendation obtained by the North County Times that rather than face murder charges, squad leader Staff Sgt. Frank Wuterich should be tried for the lesser offense of negligent homicide in the deaths of five children and two women.

Ware recommended 10 other murder charges against Wuterich be dismissed.

“I believe after reviewing all the evidence that no trier of fact can conclude Staff Sgt. Wuterich formed the criminal intent to kill,” Ware wrote in reference to the women and children. “When a Marine fails to exercise due care and civilians die, the charge of negligent homicide, and not murder, is appropriate.”

Ware’s report, issued to prosecutors and defense attorneys this week, found the evidence against Wuterich contradictory. Ware’s role as the case’s investigating officer is akin to that of a judge presiding over a pretrial hearing.

“The case against Staff Sgt. Wuterich is simply not strong enough to conclude he committed murder beyond a reasonable doubt,” Ware wrote. “Almost all witnesses have an obvious bias or prejudice.”

Wuterich’s attorneys were reviewing the report and were unavailable. Marine Corps policy dictates that officials and prosecutors do not comment on an investigating officer’s findings.

The Haditha incident is one of two civilian killing cases arising out of actions by Camp Pendleton troops in Iraq. It evolved from an initial determination that the deaths were the result of urban warfare into a firestorm that mixed politics with the fog of war and the military’s rules of engagement.

Four officers were eventually charged with dereliction of duty at Haditha and four enlisted men charged with murder. Charges have since been dropped for two officers and two enlisted men.

Ware’s recommendations are headed to Camp Pendleton’s Gen. James Mattis, who will decide what happens to Wuterich. The 27-year-old Connecticut native, whose first combat experience came at Haditha, could face a life sentence in prison if convicted of murder at trial. Negligent homicide carries a maximum three-year prison term.

Mattis can accept or reject Ware’s recommendations. The general’s power under the military justice system includes authority to drop the case altogether, which he did for two officers and two enlisted men.

The civilian deaths came after Wuterich led his squad in an attack on a group of homes following a roadside bombing that destroyed a Humvee, killing a lance corporal and injuring two Marines.

Five Iraqi men were the first to die when Wuterich shot them shortly after they emerged from a car that drove up immediately after the bombing. Ware recommends the charges in those deaths be dismissed, accepting Wuterich’s statement that he believed those men were insurgents taking part in the attack.

The Marine Corps initially reported the Iraqis died in the bombing and subsequent small arms fire. Several weeks later, the military corrected the number of deaths to 24 after questions were raised by a Time magazine reporter who spoke to relatives of the slain Iraqis.

The first media reports resulted in an international outcry, prompting military officials to order a full-scale investigation, which brought on criminal charges.

A decision on whether Wuterich’s battalion commander at Haditha, Lt. Col. Jeffrey Chessani, will face court-martial on dereliction charges is pending, as is a recommendation that murder charges against Lance Cpl. Stephen Tatum be dismissed.

Murder charges against Lance Cpl. Justin Sharratt were dropped after the general found he acted within the rules of engagement. Ware also presided over the hearings for Sharratt and Tatum and recommended their charges be dismissed.

The fourth enlisted man in the case, Sgt. Sanick Dela Cruz, had murder charges against him dropped in April in exchange for his testimony.

Dereliction charges have been dropped against Capts. Randy Stone and Lucas McConnell. A pretrial hearing for 1st Lt. Andrew Grayson is set to begin later this month.

During Wuterich’s hearing, which concluded in early September, he told Ware that he regretted the civilian deaths but maintained he and his men acted in response to their training and within the rules of engagement.

“I will always mourn the unfortunate deaths of the innocent Iraqis who were killed during our response to that attack,” Wuterich said. “As a sergeant and a squad leader, I am responsible for the decisions made to employ the tactics we used that day.”

Former Marine Corps judge and prosecutor Gary Solis, now a military law professor at Georgetown University, said the outlook for Wuterich is a lot brighter now.

“We are seeing the system at work,” Solis said, “and the question now is if he does face trial on negligent homicide, will a jury at Camp Pendleton convict him?”

The Haditha charges came six months after another Camp Pendleton group was charged in the abduction and slaying of an Iraqi man in the village of Hamdania. That case resulted in convictions for seven Marines and a Navy corpsman.

The “gay rights” movement in this country has gained unbelievable momentum. How is this possible when approximately 2% of the population is gay? From “hate crime” legislation for the military to gay TV shows, our society is bombarded by this not-so vast minority. The mayor of San Diego, Jerry Sanders, announced last week that he was going to support the city council’s resolution supporting a state legal action to overturn prop 22.  The voters of California approved Prop 22 by 61.4%!  All because his daughter is gay. He ran for mayor touting an opposite view. What is going on in this country that the majority is made to feel guilty and forced to suffer the tyranny of the minority? And another thing, I guess these dumbasses never studied history because ALL of the overtly gay civilizations that were democratic in nature were either overrun, or destroyed from within! And they want to recreate that again. Holy definition of insanity, Batman!

This is from the Pew Forum on Politics and Religion’s website:

That is all.  Chandler

It would seem that everything is running so smoothly in Iraq that even Journalists are starting to take notice. Published this week in the Wall Street Journal was an Opinion piece, by Bartle Bull, that outlined our successes in Iraq. Posted on Long War Journal today (Oct. 4th), is an article about Al-Douri and his willingness to negotiate and denouncing of Al-Qaeda. It is only apparent now that Al-Qaeda has shown themselves to be brutal killers of Sunni and Shiites alike. This undercurrent of support for American forces is a major contributor to our success there. Even Al-Douri is demanding the U.S. stop the raids in urban areas, and I can only reason that they are too effective for Mr. Al-Douri’s liking. This week, we will talk to Bill Roggio of Long War Journal. Bill is a former Army soldier and has embedded in Iraq multiple times. His take on our involvement and success there should be enlightening.

The Realignment of Iraq

We’re winning because the Iraqis want us to–Moqtada al-Sadr included.

BY BARTLE BULL
Wednesday, October 3, 2007 12:01 a.m. EDT

The war in Iraq was always going to be won by the Iraqis, and so it has proven. But the Iraqis who have won it are on our side.

It was in the spring of 2004–a month or so before I first arrived in Baghdad in a taxi to stay in a small hotel–that the Sunnis launched their disastrous insurgency. Its defeat is becoming ever more clear this autumn as new reports reach us of the patriotic stand of the Anbar tribes, the pacification and nascent prosperity of Fallujah and Ramadi, the isolation of al Qaeda, and the peace overtures of defeated Baathists.

That first season of serious fighting also included the time of the original uprising by the poor Shiites of Iraq, led by Moqtada al-Sadr and his Mahdi Army. Six times during that fighting I drove with Iraqis through the so-called Death Triangle of Sunni towns south of Baghdad to cover the events in Najaf. Surrounded on the highway by pickup trucks carrying chanting Mahdi Army fighters and caskets bearing the dead from the Sadr City fighting, one would see the green and black flags of the Shiite saints atop houses and feel safe.
Why did it feel so good to see those Shiite flags? Why was the Death Triangle so lethal? What on earth were the Mahdi fighters doing trying to fight the U.S. Marines and Cavalry head-on in pitched battles?

The last three years in Iraq have evolved as the answers to those questions suggested they would. The leaning, rag-like Shiite flags were good news because it was Sunnis, not Shiites, who beheaded people. Islamic violence in Iraq was then as now a phenomenon of the Wahhabis–Sunni fundamentalists. The Sunnis also did the kidnapping, and were the ones behind the car bombs that targeted random civilians.

The Death Triangle was so bad because the Baathists who lived there, angry to have lost their apartheid privileges, desperate for the chaos that might derail the new project, would sell you to the Wahhabis, who would cut your head off to make good TV to erode the will to fight the chaos. The Mahdi fighters were dying not because their leaders thought they could beat the Americans in battle, for their leaders were too clever to think that, but to earn Mr. Sadr his nationalist credentials as the only important Iraqi–Shiite or otherwise–to stand up and fight the Americans.

Mr. Sadr’s eyes, we learned at Najaf, were on domestic politics. It was clear then that his skinny men with their pickup trucks and light arms, men who on that road down from Baghdad were as scared as I was of the Sunni minorities, lacked the muscle to take over the country. Domestic politics for Mr. Sadr could never mean the whole cake, but only as much of it as he could grab. If he was as rational as his success in pushing the Americans to the very brink of his destruction–but never beyond it–in both of his two rebellions indicated he was, the ballot box, promised for 2005, would be where he fought his next battles.

These outlines of Iraqi politics duly asserted themselves over the last three years, providing the basis for the victory that is happening today. The Baathist Sunnis continued to kill to get back what they used to have, until accepting this past summer that they had suffered an historic defeat in a Battle of Baghdad of their own calamitous making. Shiite Iraq has arrived to stay, and today the drawing rooms of Baghdad’s dealmakers are full of Baathists, cap in hand, terrified of the Shiite death squads they inspired and hungry for their slice of the coming oil pie. Meanwhile the Wahhabis, mostly foreigners, answering to a higher power and blind to selfish thoughts of wealth and survival, continue to kill but find themselves increasingly unwanted.

A third element of the Sunni violence was tribal. This was particularly prevalent in Anbar province in western Iraq, where Sunni tribes have traditionally prospered from banditry on the Damascus road. Fighting outsiders is an old habit in Iraq’s Sunni bandit country. So is making money, and Anbar today, as Iraqis prepare to gorge themselves at the oil trough, is one of the safer places in Iraq.

It was always clear that Iraq’s Sunni tribes would eventually take up arms against the Saudis, Jordanians and Syrians in their midst who were banning smoking, killing whisky vendors, blowing up their utilities and oil infrastructure, executing sheikhs of ancient tribes, and forcibly marrying local girls to “emirs” of the absurd Islamic State of Iraq. Anbar’s tribal leaders and Baathists were going to be bought off eventually, either directly or by the indirect promise of owning a chunk of what will be a very rich country.
At least 14,000 Anbari young men have joined the state security services since the surge began in February and Nouri al-Maliki, the Iraqi prime minister, started reaching out to the chiefs. Now the insurgency has decamped to other provinces, where it does not want to be. Beating them there will be even easier, as is proving to be the case in Diyala.

As for Mr. Sadr, I reported the first hints of his democratic conversion in 2004 when a member of his top political committee told me Mr. Sadr was going to start a political party and contest the elections when they came. He still has not formed such a party, but as I saw up close when I later spent five weeks of the December 2005 election period embedded in Sadr City with his Mahdi Army, he embraced electoral politics with subtlety and enthusiasm.

Of course he did: He is the leader of the country’s biggest popular movement. Today, controlling five major ministries and about 30 members of Parliament (one of the two largest blocs in the government) he underwrites the pluralist project in Iraq as he has done since late 2004.

So–with the Sunni insurgency defeated, the Shiite nationalists inside the government, breakup and true civil war avoided, Iran a pest at worst, regional sectarian disruption a fantasy and a White House that will not be forced into declarations of defeat by three IEDs a day–the main questions of Iraqi politics have been resolved. Despite the huge prices paid for these victories, the resolutions have mostly been for the best.
Violence continues in Iraq, but it is mostly local: revenge cycles, factionalism, crime, brutal neighborhood power plays. And it is declining. Iraqi civilian deaths in September, like U.S. military deaths, had halved since their highs earlier this year. By December they will be much lower.

Meanwhile reconciliation, which will never be complete, is happening. We saw, with the huge success of the two 2005 elections and the week-long nationwide celebrations attending the soccer victory this July, that deep unities have survived the 35-year Baath nightmare. The Kurds and Shiites can be forgiven for not wanting to reward the Sunnis immediately for the destructive insurgency that followed those 35 years of apartheid and genocide.

But from the local level to the national, the huge majority of Iraqis are showing enormous tolerance. Federal money is being pumped into Anbar, and in Baghdad this year over 30 Sunni mosques have been reopened by the government, mostly in the mainly Shiite east of the city. Today the Mahdi Army and the Sunni tribes in the Death Triangle are negotiating a modus vivendi. Sheikh Fawaz al Gerba, a Sunni sheikh and former general, is doing the same around Mosul. And Shiekh Harith al Dari, as head of the Association of Islamic Scholars, the leading Sunni group, which many Iraqis used to call the Association of Islamic Kidnappers, is doing it with Shiites in various parts of the country.

The biggest unifier of all currently might be the most predictable one. Help from foreigners is welcome in Iraq. The country’s elected prime minister, possessing after Iraq’s heroic elections more popular legitimacy than almost any leader in the world, often points out that the Coalition is there as invited guests. When the U.S. Senate passed its disingenuous “plan” for extreme federalism in Iraq last week, the uproar in the country crossed the sectarian divide. Iraq already has a constitution. It was written by freely elected Iraqis and ratified overwhelmingly by the public in a brave vote two years ago.

Thousands of Americans and their allies have died helping to give Iraqis this opportunity. We have shown enormous skill and bravery in helping them fight their enemies, and immeasurable goodwill in sending our young men to protect Iraqi schools, mosques and polling booths. The reason we and Iraqis are winning this war together is that its purpose is to give Iraqis what they want.
Mr. Bull is the foreign editor of Prospect magazine and editor of Middle East Monitor. His next book, “Babylon,” is due out next year from Grove/Atlantic.

S.AMDT.2934

Amends: H.R.1585 (Defense Approriations bill for 2008), S.AMDT.2011

Sponsor: Sen Cornyn, John [TX] (submitted 9/19/2007) (proposed 9/19/2007)

To express the sense of the Senate that General David H. Petraeus, Commanding General, Multi-National Force-Iraq, deserves the full support of the Senate and strongly condemn personal attacks on the honor and integrity of General Petraeus and all members of the United States Armed Forces.

9/20/2007:Amendment SA 2934 agreed to in Senate by Yea-Nay Vote. 72 – 25. Record Vote Number: 344.

NAYs —25

“I wanna see all those Doggone ‘nays’ on my doggone quarter deck!  RIGHT STINKIN’ NOW!!!!!!!!”

That is what these Senators that “support the troops” would have heard moments after the vote was concluded, if they were transported to Marine Corps Bootcamp.

How is it that these same Senators that proclaim their support for the troops cannot, or will not, back it up with a vote? They voted to install him as the brains of the surge. The Democrats got the change of strategy they campaigned on and are not happy because it is working. WAIT ONE!!! Did I just hear myself correctly? These Senators are not happy that they got exactly what they asked for and they are mad about it? Oh yeah that’s right, the fact that the Surge is working means that it will only be harder for the Democrats to pull our troops out prematurely. The pull out to win method sounds like a form of birth control doesn’t it? Don’t shake hands with these Senators, I bet they’re sticky!

It really makes you stop a minute and think. Look at the second name in the third column; she is in the process of applying for the position of Commander-In-Chief. How can you lead anyone that you feel utter contempt for? You can’t.

The most telling aspect of the above list is the first letter in the parenthesis. There is only one that is not a ‘D’, and that is an Independent from Vermont. Well, that and the fact that the party that when challenged calls it the “Politics of Personal Destruction. General Petraeus is not political, nor is he in a politically appointed position. He, and the troops, are the real public servants! They go and do the business that needs to be taken care of regardless of politics, conscience, or feelings. Soldiers, Sailors, Airmen, and Marines take orders and get the task at hand accomplished, no questions asked, no politics, no polls. These men and women do the work necessary to ensure that MoveOn.org, and flag burners can continue to spit on America, and sometimes they pay the price in blood.

And twenty-five of our “esteemed” Senators cannot vote to condemn those that slander them. Someone come and get me out of the Twilight Zone!!!