Books I read this month. Includes a bio of Chesty Puller, His Dark Materials, The Mote in God's Eye, a Spenser book, and several classic novels from way back when...

Crossposted to plf515's Friday book post, Bookflurries, and eenrblog, among other cozy book forums.

What's next to YOUR bed, bathtub or armchair lately?

Not much to report here. During a police car chase the other day, the car being driven by the suspect struck and killed two as-yet unidentified people on Hollywood Boulevard here in L.A.

It turns out that the man police arrested for driving the fleeing car is an ex-Marine who served in Afghanistan. His sister says his experiences during the war changed him.

update: title changed from Stop GOP Oil Mania:National Monument Designation Could Save Ecosystem

A coral ecosystem exists off the southeast coast that is roughly the size of the land area of South Carolina.  

Economically, that ecosystem:

1. Provides food for Millions of Americans

2. Protects our coasts from Hurricanes and Nor'easters(like a winter Hurricane)

3. Protects our ports like Savannah, Wilmington, Morehead City (supports a Marine base) and the nation's most important Hampton Roads where the entrance to the Chesapeake Bay guarding Norfolk Navy Yards, Portsmouth, Newport News and Baltimore.  (Newport News is where the large Navy ships are built like Air Craft carriers)

4. Provides Millions of jobs to American by providing fisheries, deep water ports (including the US Navy's biggest base), tourism nand forestry (much of the USA's pulp wood is grown in the coastal Southeast).

Why even worry about protecting something so important to the well being of the United States of America.  Surely NO USA CITIZEN would threaten such a valuable National Treasure.

Some of our marines need some items to help out.  I know this is a long diary.  I got this from a friend today. She tried to give you just a three paragraph summation to read:
My brother and his wife live in Littleton.  Bob signed up with the government to get help paying for him medical school.  In exchange he has to serve in this war.  I don’t think that when he signed up it occurred to him that he would really be in this awful war situation.  
Bob was dropped off with a day bag of medical supplies and left. What I mean by that is that they dropped him off by helicopter but didn’t tell him he wouldn’t be "coming back".  He sleeps on the floor of a dirt hut.  He has not showered or changed his clothing in 6 weeks.  He gets two meals a day.  Since his unit is surrounded by the Taliban no planes or helicopters land where they are.  There are two dead marines outside of his hut.  They can’t get the bodies out because they are surrounded by the Taliban and only get boxes dropped to them.  I can’t believe the government doesn’t even give them basis things like toothpaste, deodorant, bug spray, chap stick.    
Here is where you and I come in.  

AP: A Marine reserve battalion that suffered heavy losses in Iraq in 2005 is sending out members for training before expected assignment in Iraq.

More of the military carrying out the "crusades" and the muslim resentment of it. It is real and it is wrong. Yes there are Christian Iraqis and there are very few of them, but if they want to convert Muslims to Christianity then they should be the ones doing it, not military members of our Armed forces on security patrols or at check points anywhere in Iraq while on or off duty.

We supposedly took out the Saddam Hussein regime for WMDs which we now know did not exist, then it became to establish a democracy in the Middle East or more commoningly  known as "nation building" exactly what we are not supposed to be doing at the point of a barrel of a gun.

This afternoon I took my sister to see the new Indiana Jones movie.  She loves that kind of movie.  I'm more of a documentary kind of girl, but since she's recovering from bilateral knee replacement surgery and I can't in good conscience let her stumble around in the dark alone, we both saw the same thing for once.

Afterwards we went to a local burger joint.  It's a big place and was doing a brisk business, but not totally packed.  I let my sister out near the door and told her to take a seat on the bench outside while I parked the car.  As I was walking to the entrance, I noticed her in conversation with a boy wearing the uniform of the restaurant.  

As I approached her I jokingly said," are you winning friends and influencing people?"

She looked at me with a look of fear and said, "this young man is going to be a Marine."

As many of you know, Bill Cahir is still a drilling Marine and, like other reservists, Bill is obligated to serve his country one weekend a month and two weeks every year. This just so happens to be one of those weekends.

Now, I know that many of you also remember a certain Commander-in-Chief shirking out on his reserve duties many years ago and maybe doing some political work instead.  Well, that isn't going to happen on this campaign.  Bill made a commitment and he is going to keep it.

So, since Bill is serving his country, our staff and volunteers decided that we were doing to a service project of our own.  Today, we are gathering in State College to put together what we call Cahir Packages that will be sent to our Marines and Soldiers serving in Iraq and Afghanistan.  Yesterday, before Bill left, he went to the grocery store and bought a bunch of items that he knew they would like.

Sen. Clinton is being ridiculed everywhere for the blatant lie she told about her trip to Bosnia. No amount of spinning can hide the fact that she said she "ran with their heads down to the vehicles", while in the video she is shown chatting and smiling and posing for photographs. It does not matter that they were issued flak jackets.It does not matter that some people thought there were snipers in the hills. Sen. Clinton's lie was blatant enough to put her in the same league as Bill Clinton, but of course not even close to  Bush or Rumsfeld. Nobody died because of her lies.

Her lying  is a tragedy for Democrats and the Nation, not just for the Clintons. Because it tarnishes not only her, but one of the shining moments of American foreign policy. The Bosnia intervention  stopped a humanitarian disaster, saving the lives of thousands of Muslims who would have been slaughtered without it. This  was accomplished without invading a country whole sale and without getting mired in a civil war.

Did you know Hillary sought enlistment in the Marine Corps in 1975?

In June 1994, Clinton told an organization trying to build a memorial for women who had served in the armed forces, that while living in Fayetteville, Arkansas, in 1975, “I decided that I was very interested in having some experience in serving in some capacity in the military. So I walked into our local recruiting office...”

This is while she was a young lawyer about to Marry Bill Clinton, a man widely seen as the next Attorney General of Arkansas.  The story is difficult to verify certainly, but there is a larger problem with the story, in telling the tale, she insulted the Military and accused the recruiter of being heinously sexist..

“He looked at me, and in those days that was before I learned how to wear contact lenses," Clinton said. "I had these really thick glasses on. He said, ‘How bad's your eyesight?' I said, ‘It's pretty bad.' …Finally said to me, he said, 'You're too old. You can't see. And you're a woman.…But maybe the dogs would take you.'”

If Berkeley, California were to be attacked, would the United States Marine Corps defend it? Of course. It's a ridiculous question. That such a notion would be spread through extreme right blogs is just as ridiculous, but it's expected.

SHAMEFUL: Berkeley City Council Attacks Marines!

Pull all recruiters and federal offices out of Berkley [sic], and cut off ALL federal funds. Including when they have any kind of disaster.

This language of fear and hate is repulsive but expected in the Right blogosphere. But this has much in common with words spoken and legislation written in the US Senate and House recently. Not cool.

I'm not one of the IGTNT Posters, that do such a Great Honor for those who have lost their lives to this Countries Failed Policies. And I doubt they'll mind me using the initials for I bring Sad News!

Back on Febuary 21st I posted an Alert about a missing Marine, Eric Hall {that link takes you to my site}.

I started that off with this:

No, I'm not making this shit up.

(CNN) -- The military is investigating a "shocking and deplorable" YouTube video that seems to show a Marine throwing a puppy off a rocky cliff.

The black-and-white puppy makes a yelping sound as it flies through the air.

Here's a picture of the United States Marine about to murder a cute little puppy-

Are you proud to be an American?

Cross posted from Sancho Press. http://sanchopress.com/

We had an article contributed two days ago on Sancho Press about investigations being launched about the delay since 2005 of special vehicles that cost hundreds of our militaries lives. http://sanchopress.com/...

In addition to the MRAP requests being ignored the same individual who has filed for whistle blower status reports that a special laser to save Iraqi civilian lives was delayed despite requests from the field.

Marines had been requesting since 2005 that they receive a special laser that diverts drivers from checkpoints who had not adhered to requests to stop which resulted in our troops firing on them.

Marines on the front lines sought the tool, known as a Compact High Power Laser Dazzler, but stateside acquisition officials did not deliver it, a civilian Marine Corps official said. A less capable laser was eventually sent, but delays of nearly 18 months may have led to an untold number of Iraqi civilian casualties, according to allegations by the official, an internal critic whose claims are being investigated.

It seems that Barack Obama has picked a fight with the current crop of Cheneyite Republicans who run the Pentagon on the long-running question of equipment shortages for our troops.  The Pentagon has responded (and Senator John Warner has decided to get involved as well), likely only for the purposes of exacting revenge on the whistleblower soldier.

Pentagon questions Obama’s soldier story

The Pentagon on Friday tried to cast doubt on an account of military equipment shortages mentioned by Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama, whose campaign team stood by the story.

In a debate with rival Hillary Clinton on Thursday evening, Obama said he had heard from an Army captain who served in Afghanistan and whose unit did not have enough ammunition or vehicles.

Obama said it was easier for the troops to capture weapons from Taliban militants than it was "to get properly equipped by our current commander in chief," President Bush.

Ouch.  So then a Pentagon spokesman issues a very Bushish, Katrinaesque statement in response despite reports from just last week that "hundreds" of preventable deaths have occurred due to oilmongering on the cheap:

I've posted twice now on the Berkeley versus the Marines battle going on.  

Lots more has happened on this front, including unconfirmed reports of what appears to be fighting between protesters.  And Harry Reid is showing his brave, brave face by running away.  Read on for more!

Toledo Mayor Carty Finkbeiner (Democrat) kicked the Marines out of Toledo right in the middle of their exercise/rehearsal for enforcing Marshal law. Of course the cops cooperated with the Pentagon but didn’t mention it to the Mayor's office. Trouble ensued.

I compeletely agree with your position.

This war is not only wrong, it is a crime.

I believe that both political parties are complicit before and after this war crime.

So please understand that what follows in no way disputes or negates opposition to the war or the criminal government that initiated it.