The Inside Straight

A Different Early Christmas Greeting

>This came in "over the transom" by email ...
>
>            It's a little early, but I wanted to share...
>
>            A Different Christmas Poem
>
>            The embers glowed softly, and in their dim light,
>            I gazed round the room and I cherished the sight.
>            My wife was asleep, her head on my chest,
>            My daughter beside me, angelic in rest.
>            Outside the snow fell, a blanket of white,
>            Transforming the yard to a winter delight.
>            The sparkling lights in the tree I believe,
>            Completed the magic that was Christmas Eve.
>            My eyelids were heavy, my breathing was deep,
>            Secure and surrounded by love I would sleep.
>            In perfect contentment, or so it would seem,
>            So I slumbered, perhaps I started to dream.
>
>            The sound wasn't loud, and it wasn't too near,
>            But I opened my eyes when it tickled my ear.
>            Perhaps just a cough, I didn't quite know,
>            Then the sure sound of footsteps outside in the
>            snow. My soul gave a tremble, I struggled to hear,
>            And I crept to the door just to see who was near.
>            Standing out in the cold and the dark of the night,
>            A lone figure stood, his face weary and tight.
>
>            A soldier, I puzzled, some twenty years old,
>            Perhaps a Marine, huddled here in the cold.
>            Alone in the dark, he looked up and smiled,
>            Standing watch over me, and my wife and my
>            child. "What are you doing?" I asked without
>            fear, "Come in this moment, it's freezing out here!
>            Put down your pack, brush the snow from your
>            sleeve, You should be at home on a cold
>            Christmas Eve!"
>
>            For barely a moment I saw his eyes shift,
>            Away from the cold and the snow blown in
>            drifts. To the window that danced with a
>            warm fire's light, Then he sighed and he said
>            "Its really all right, I'm out here by choice. I'm
>            here every night."
>            "It's my duty to stand at the front of the line,
>            That separates you from the darkest of times.
>            No one had to ask or beg or implore me, I'm
>            proud to stand here like my fathers before me.
>            My Gramps died at 'Pearl on a day in December,"
>            Then he sighed, "that's a Christmas 'Gram
>            always remembers." My dad stood his watch
>            in the jungles of 'Nam', And now it is my turn
>            and so, here I am. I've not seen my own son in
>            more than a while, But my wife sends me
>            pictures, he's sure got her smile.
>
>            Then he bent and he carefully pulled from
>            his bag, The red, white, and blue ... an American flag.
>            I can live through the cold and the being alone,
>            Away from my family, my house and my home. I
>            can stand at my post through the rain and the
>            sleet, I can sleep in a foxhole with little to eat.
>            I can carry the weight of killing another,
>            Or lay down my life with my sister and brother..
>            Who stand at the front against any and all,
>            To ensure for all time that this flag will not fall."
>
>            "So go back inside," he said, "harbor no fright,
>            Your family is waiting and I'll be all right."
>
>            "But isn't there something I can do, at the least,
>            "Give you money," I asked, "or prepare you a
>            feast? It seems all too little for all that you've done,
>            For being away from your wife and your son."
>
>            Then his eye welled a tear that held no regret,
>            "Just tell us you love us, and never forget.
>            To fight for our rights back at home while we're gone,
>            To stand your own watch, no matter how long.
>            For when we come home, either standing or dead,
>            To know you remember we fought and we bled.
>            Is payment enough, and with that we will trust,
>            That we mattered to you as you mattered to us."
>            * * * * *
>            PLEASE, Would you do me the kind favor of
>            sending this to as many people as you can?
>            Christmas will be coming soon and some credit is due
>            to our US service men and women for our being
>            able to celebrate these festivities. Let's try in this
>            small way to pay a tiny bit of what we owe. Make
>            people stop and think of our heroes, living and
>            dead, who sacrificed themselves for us.
>
>
>
>            LCDR Jeff Giles, SC, USN
>            30th Naval Construction Regiment
>            OIC, Logistics Cell One
>            Al Taqqadum, Iraq

Those Dadblasted Furriners

Three years ago , my wife was operated upon by one of "them dadblasted furriners" – a gentleman from India with a hard-to-pronounce name. He was assisted by an American –born doctor,and anesthesia was administered by a doctor from Ceylon – whose name twists my tongue.

I got to read the surgeon’s report yesterday,and was astonished at the delicacy of the work he performed ,and the extraordinary measures he took to prevent the tumors he removed from "shedding" onto surrounding tissues. (He had no way at that point to know they were benign,so he treated them as if they were dangerous.)

Most of the attending nurses were native-born Americans – but some were "dadblasted furriners" : Muslims from Pakistan, Hindus from the Indian sub-continent, Christians and Muslims from the Phillippines ; an Animist from Nigeria. They all provided competent and compassionate care.

Sooner than I care to think about, I shall entrust my wife’s life to another man who speaks English as a second language. He is not -strictly speaking foreign, as he was born and raised in Puerto Rico , which has long been a Spanish-speaking part of American soil ; but many of his fellow Americans consider him an outsider , and are angry -because he speaks Spanish : a language they identify with the "uninvited visitors" and " undocumented workers" who cross the border from Mexico in swarms.

People who live near the Mexican Border can tell you stories that would make a statue weep : stories of "Mexican invaders" who view illegal border crossing as a means of carrying out criminal enterprises in more lucrative territory ; stories of pregnant women who time their crossing to give birth on American soil –at American expense – and thus achieve "anchor baby" status , with attendant welfare benefits well beyond anything they could hope to earn in their homelands; people who cross as part of a "re-conquest" scheme , and who hope to seize a viable chunk of American soil for a Neo-Fascist "Aztlan republic".

Estimates of numbers vary : 12 million is the "official" figure ; 20 million the very possible figure. Either figure is staggering in its implications !

As you might imagine, there are people – especially in the Southwest- who are ready to "grab their guns and take to the hills" ; who talk openly of armed resistance – including the assassination of elected officials they believe are betraying them – and there are people from the extreme fringes of left and right who egg them on.

By now, you will have noticed an element of "schizophrenia " in what I’m writing ; because , like most Americans , I do feel conflicted – and I don’t like it a bit.

I grew up in a society in which immigrants were fairly common. Right after World War II, a flood of Displaced Persons reached our shores and spread out in big cities and small towns all across the Eastern seaboard : people from Poland ,and Czechoslovakia , Hungary,and the Low Countries ; Jews with SS-tattooed arms and haunted eyes,who had survived the death camps; Byelorussians , Greeks, Armenians,Ukranians: we had them all .

Some grumbled about "foreigners taking over the country" , but the opposite happened. The country took them in and made Americans out of them – just as China,centuries earlier, had absorbed the Mongol hordes and made them more Chinese than the original population.

It shouldn’t have worked – but it did.

There were successive waves of immigrants : most of whom came in legally , earned their citizenship , and became Americans . In my state,for example , we made room for Hungarians , Cubans , Africans ,and Arabs , and opened our doors to shell-shocked refugees from Lebanon and Kosovo. Most adapted-and became part of us ; but the feeling is growing that we have attempted to absorb too many people in too short a time.

The rapid influx across the Mexican border has strained facilities in the Border states – and their near neighbors - to the breaking point : reminding me of something I saw recently on television .

A python had subdued an alligator,but could not fully swallow the still-living creature. The hungry alligator began eating the python-from the inside . Both creatures died – miserably.

The big issue with our "dadblasted furriners" is not whether they will enrich our lives someday : given time and breathing space, they probably will – provided we can find some way to keep them from eating us alive !

Mid-Term Elections : T.C. Mits Has His Say

Last Tuesday , T.C. Mits had his say.

T.C. Mits , if you're not up on "lawyer-ese" is an acronym for "The Celebrated Man In The Street" - (as in "What would The Celebrated Man In The Street do in such a situation ? Why, Ladies and Gentlemen of the Jury, he would probably fit Tab "A" into Slot "B" : thereby injuring himself when this clearly defective framistan exploded.")

T.C. was unhappy with a lot of things.

He wanted the war in Iraq to be over : sooner,rather than later.

He was disgusted with those who had given a whole new meaning to "turning a Page" : the one who got caught and quit, the ones who got caught and didn't quit,and those who (he figured) were still out there, doing their alternative lifestyle thing.

He was more than a little fed up with those who turned the War on Terror into a war on their personal poverty.

The Republicans had come into power, mouthing slogans and pious platitudes (as all incoming politicians do) , and had made promises they could never keep (as the Democrats succeeding them will shortly do).

T.C. Mits could not help but notice the Republican Party was in disarray - with competing assorted factions demanding their agendas be met - or else !

He could see the Administration had come to resemble  a harried parent : trying to drive a shuddering minibus through a route lined with barricades, IEDs, and snipers, with a honking, snorting 18 wheeler  ( the Democratic Party) riding collision-close to the rear bumper - while the Administration's spoiled children screamed and squabbled in the back seats...

T.C. Mits took a long, thoughtful look at things, and decided ( as Richard C. Davies put it ) : "Politicians are like diapers. They need to be changed often-for much the same reasons."

Reuters: 11 Nations Contributing to War, Unrest in Somalia

According to Reuters Alert Net , 11 nations - most Pro-Islamic- are contributing to the continuing warfare in Somalia : a country that has been in turmoil for over a decade. Alert Net's sources have seen a recent report:

"They say the report says Somalia's powerful Islamist movement has in its ranks about 1,000 battle-hardened foreign jihadists and volunteer trainers expert in assassination, suicide bombing and sniping from militant groups including Lebanon's Hezbollah.

Syria, Iran, Libya, Sudan, Egypt, Eritrea, Djibouti and Saudi Arabia have all provided weapons or supplies -- including food, uniforms, fuel and doctors -- to the Islamists. "

Somalia , though it may not appear so on the surface, is a rich prize in terms of mineral wealth : light,"sweet" petroleum; tin, uranium ,iron, gold,lead, manganese, and aluminum ; and because of its political instability, a prize that can be seized and brutally exploited.

What the Reuters report does NOT mention is a 12th nation : China,which has its eyes on that prize and is quite willing to wait, while the warring factions wear one another down.

China, it should be noted , makes " constructive use" of the waiting time by selling weapons to the participants in this donnybrook: rifles,grenade launchers,shoulder-launched anti-aircraft missiles,aircraft, bombs , heavy machine guns, etc. - all in violation of a so-called arms embargo , and all while proclaiming its commitment to peace...

Dear Mr. President : Get Anthony Zinni !

Dear Mr. President:

The mid-term elections clearly indicate the American people want our troops out of Iraq : immediately,if not sooner !

We all know that is not as simple as your Opposition has suggested ; but - if we want to bring our troops home with banners flying and the cheers of a grateful people ringing in our ears , we are going to have to move fast ,and we're going to have to make the right moves. I know just the man for the job .

Mr. President, please get Retired Marine Corps General Anthony Zinni.

You've had your differences in the past, and I doubt he is high on your list of "favorite people" ; but he knows the Middle East ; he knows the movers and shakers in that world ; and he is well-respected. Given the situation, he might just turn out to be the best friend you could have !

He is, as you may recall, something of an expert on the type of warfare our troops have been facing in Iraq and Afghanistan . You may recall him as the man who embarrassed the Army and Navy prior to Operation Iraqi Freedom ,by showing- with a few squads of Marines-just how vulnerable a large force could be to a tiny,"inconsequential" one.

I know you don't want to "abandon" the Iraqi people - but we cannot become their nannies . It is high time to wean them of our presence .

They have their freedom now - the first they've seen in over 30 years - and it is up to them to make of it what they can - whether it meets our sometimes -hypercritical standards or not.

It's going to take a very tough, very knowledgeable negotiator to get this across to them , and,if you can persuade him to help, Anthony Zinni is just the man for the job !

Greg Palast Claims GOP Stole the Mid-Term Elections

On Monday, November 6,2006 (the day before elections) " Investigative Journalist" Greg Palast told his eager "Guardian" audience the Republican Party had stolen the mid-term Congressional elections.

For those of you unfamiliar with Greg Palast, he is an expatriate American who lives in Britain : having found it expedient to put an ocean between himself and the local Draft Board during the Vietnam war. He was thus able to avoid being ordered around and shot at - like the lumpenproletariat he professes to love. (This is called Socialist Realism , in case you are taking notes.)

The newspaper he writes for is a polite British version of "The Daily Worker" : better grade paper, less smudgy ink , and  superior coverage of "football" .

Greg is a very Progressive chap.He is fond of struggling Communist dictators (Hugo Chavez is one of his special heroes) , and impatient with us "stay-at-home" Americans because we have not become enlightened enough to embrace Marxism.

But I digress !

Leafing through Mr. Palast's provocative prose , I see he took great umbrage in the removal of convicted felons (and illegal aliens, and dead people) from the Voter Registration rolls - ostensibly because many of them were  from (Ta-dah !) Minority groups and therefore would have voted against Republicans.

Ho......kay !

This brings us to the subject of reality : something Greg Palast's fearful fantasies usually have a problem with.

As anyone who can read a newspaper or sit through a TV program will tell you , the Republicans did not win the mid-term Elections ,and the story Greg Palast told was either a bald-faced lie or a monumental display of stupidity.

So Greg: which was it ? Stupidity or a lie ?

ps: Greg, you might want to review your stock portfolio - rather soon !

Gee ! What a Surprise !! VOTING MACHINE Problems !!

A few days ago, I posted my concern about the Sequoia/Smartmatic voting machines that have been coming into use : the same machines Hugo Chavez used to "guarantee a suitable outcome" for elections in Venezuela. It should come as no surprise these machines are owned by "sock puppets" for the Chavez regime.

Now , right here in the good ol' USA , problems are developing with these self-same machines...in an area where the outcome of the election is rather tightly contested.

If you think folks in this country are "too high-minded" to adopt the "Chavez Method" ...I have some lovely swampland that might interest you !

If you think voter intimidation and other interference with the electoral process are things that USED to happen "back in the bad old days" , this short bulletin should give you second thoughts.

" In precincts 7, 19, 51 in Philly, PA, the crowds are going wild. Inside several voting locations, individuals have poured whiteout onto the polling books and the poll workers are allowing voters to go into the polls and vote without first registering. Several individuals are on hand demanding that voters vote straight Democrat.

RNC lawyers have headed to the scene of the incidents, which are occurring in mostly hispanic precinct locations. The District Attorney has also been contacted.

More from the ground: Reports of voter intimidation by son-in-law of Philadelphia City Commissioner in 19th Ward. Carlos Mantos is not allowing Republican poll watchers with valid poll-watching certificates monitor polling places.

Electioneering-Chavez Style

There hasn't been an awful lot about it on TV or in the papers , but Hugo Chavez is (Surprise !) running for re-election , and is apparently worried that the voters might favor his opponent , Manuel Rosales.

While Rosales is using fairly conventional means to gather supporters , Chavez has a big edge: He runs the government and is in a position to tell people who work for the petroleum industry to vote for him...or get fired !

Chavez , of course , doesn't handle such matters personally - not when he has government ministers at his beck and call - but he does support these ministers when they are caught in the act of violating Venezuela's election laws - even when they are caught on videotape.

Hugo believes those who do not support him do not need to be employed - and he suggests - quite bluntly - they go to Miami if they don't like it.

He's Hugo Chavez and he approved that message !

Saddam to Hang for Crimes Against Iraqi People - His American Supporters Claim Sentence an Effort to Affect US Elections (!)

An Iraqi jury, taking part in one of the most transparent trials in modern history , found Saddam Hussein and some of his henchmen guilty of crimes against the Iraqi people , and sentenced Saddam and two of his closest advisers to death by hanging. Other defendants were sentenced to lengthy terms of imprisonment.

Two days ago, before the jury had begun its deliberations , Saddam's "cheerleaders" in the United States claimed the verdict was being "timed" to secure a Republican victory in the forthcoming mid-term elections : a sentiment picked up on (if not originated by) Saddam's defense counsel.(Following is a quote from the AP report.)

Saddam's counsel said the verdict was timed to help President George W. Bush's Republicans at Tuesday's congressional elections, and had urged a delay to prevent the sentence triggering bloodshed "for generations to come".

It should be pointed out Saddam's American "support group" is made up of a few "true believers" in Socialism - plus an overwhelming percentage of BDS sufferers: people so violently opposed to anything the Bush administration says or does ,they are said to be subject to "Bush Derangement Syndrome".

This is the group that totted up US casualties in Iraq , and chortled gleefully when the number approached the number of people murdered on 9/11; the group that multiplied the probable number of Iraqi casualties by a factor of 10 - and tried to palm it off as the truth; the group that trumpeted every mis-step , every mis-deed , every negative story to the world : thereby giving "heart" to the "heroic Iraqi Resistance" , and encouraging them to kill a few more Americans.

It includes such diverse groups as Socialists, Communists ,New Klux Klansmen, Alex Jones Liars (somehow,calling them "truthers" seems inappropriate !) ; Isolationists, and (Lord help us !) Immigration fanatics from both sides of the issue - plus a goodly serving of Straight Ticket Democrats who refuse to believe the American people have the right to reject their candidates from time to time.

In the Immortal words of Porky Pig : "A-thee-a-thee-a-that's all, folks ! "

Rep. Hoekstra on NY Times' Revelations -Saddam's Nuke Program

"Yesterday's article by the New York Times highlights a number of important issues with respect to Iraq's WMD programs, as well as the importance of the documents that have been recovered in Iraq," said U.S. Rep. Pete Hoekstra (R-MI), Chairman of the House Intelligence Committee. "I am pleased that the document release program continues to stimulate public discussion of these issues.

"With respect to the possibility that documents may have been released that should not have been released, I have always been clear that the Director of National Intelligence should take whatever steps necessary to withhold sensitive documents. In fact, as of today the DNI had withheld 59 percent of the documents that it had reviewed, and has become more risk-averse over time. If the DNI believes that the documents that were released were in the safe 40 percent, imagine what the 60 percent being withheld must contain.

"That said, it is also important to emphasize that the IAEA, contrary to its assertions, never raised any concerns about this material with the United States Government before going to the press. Similarly, the DNI's office has informed me that no agency of the U.S. Government had raised any issues about the potential or actual release of these documents before yesterday. If there were such problems, they would have been better addressed through the appropriate channels rather than the press.

"These documents also raise several additional issues of interest. First, it is extraordinary that the New York Times now acknowledges that the captured documents demonstrate that '[Saddam] Hussein's scientists were on the verge of building an atom bomb, as little as a year away.' This only reinforces the value of these documents in understanding the threat posed by Saddam Hussein's regime. Only 1 percent of the estimated 120 million pages of captured documents have been reviewed, and we must continue working to promptly understand these materials. If there is concern about Saddam's nuclear program, there should be similar concern about potential connections between Saddam and al-Qaeda suggested in the documents.

"Second, my staff's preliminary review of the documents in question suggests that at least some of them may be internal IAEA documents. There is a serious question of why and how the Iraqis obtained these documents in the first place. We need to explore that carefully - I certainly hope there will be no evidence that the IAEA had been penetrated by Saddam's regime.

"Finally, it is disappointing but not surprising that the New York Times would continue to participate in such blatant and transparent political ploys, including what I believe are improper efforts by the IAEA to interfere with U.S. domestic affairs. The sad reality is that the New York Times has done far more damage to U.S. national security by the disclosure of vital, classified, intelligence programs than is likely to be caused by the inadvertent disclosure of decades-old information that had already been in the hands of Saddam's regime."