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Remember, democracy never lasts long. It soon wastes, exhausts, and murders itself. There never was a democracy yet that did not commit suicide. – John Adams
Actor Val Kilmer hints at guv run -- again
Thinks Vietnam Veterans are punks, criminals & more
New Mexico Independent
By Matthew Reichbach
1/21/09 10:36 AM
 One of New Mexico's most famous residents is once again telling people in the press that he wants to run for governor.
According to The Hill actor Val Kilmer is still thinking about running for New Mexico's top job in 2010 when the current governor, Bill Richardson, is term-limited out of office.
And Kilmer hinted that he has the backing of Gov. Bill Richardson.
The Hill reports that Kilmer said the mysterious "they" have asked him to run.
He told The Hill at Monday's Huffington Post party at the Newseum that he has been approached to run for the highest office of the state where he owns a ranch and has family roots.
"Actually, they've asked me to run for governor," he said, not specifying who "they" are. "People seem to want me to."
But the most eyebrow-raising part of the article comes further down, where it looks as if Kilmer is claiming to have the backing of Richardson.
Richardson publicly declared his support for a potential Kilmer candidacy last year, and on Monday the actor returned the praise to the current governor, who now plans to stay put after an ongoing ethics investigation forced him to decline President Obama’s invitation to become Commerce secretary.
Last year, a Richardson spokesman told the Santa Fe New Mexican that Richardson did not endorse a run for governor. Instead, Richardson seems supportive of the idea of Kilmer's running, saying of Kilmer, "If he jumps in a race he's got name ID, so it can't be discounted."
I still think that if people want to learn a little more about Kilmer-- besides that he was Doc Holliday in "Tombstone," Iceman in "Top Gun" or Batman in "Batman Forever" -- the Chuck Klosterman profile for Esquire is a good place to start.
This exchange is particularly … well, just read it.
[Klosterman]: You mean you think you literally had the same experience as Doc Holliday?
Kilmer: Oh, sure. It's not like I believed that I shot somebody, but I absolutely know what it feels like to pull the trigger and take someone's life.
[Klosterman:] You understand how it feels to shoot someone as much as a person who has actually committed a murder?
[Kilmer] I understand it more. It's an actor's job. A guy who's lived through the horror of Vietnam has not spent his life preparing his mind for it. He's some punk. Most guys were borderline criminal or poor, and that's why they got sent to Vietnam. It was all the poor, wretched kids who got beat up by their dads, guys who didn't get on the football team, couldn't finagle a scholarship. They didn't have the emotional equipment to handle that experience. But this is what an actor trains to do. I can more effectively represent that kid in Vietnam than a guy who was there.
Please go to the story and leave a post, let's introduce Mr. Hollywood to real life experience.
URL: http://newmexicoindependent.com/15922/kilmer-hints-at-guv-run-again
An open letter to Val...
http://kabukivillage.typepad.com/my_weblog/
Conservative Groups Declare Obama's Stimulus Bill a War on Prayer
A provision in the House-passed stimulus bill -- banning money to be used to renovate schools from being spent on facilities that allow "religious worship" -- has ignited fury among those who claim itdiscriminates on the basis of faith and violates the right to free speech.
By Cristina Corbin
FOXNews.com
Wednesday, February 04, 2009
|
The United States Naval Academy Chapel in Annapolis, Maryland, is one of two houses of worship on the grounds of the Navy's service academy (AP). |
| Democrats in Congress have declared war on prayer, say conservative groups who object to a provision in the stimulus bill that was passed by the House of Representatives last week.
The provision bans money designated for school renovation from being spent on facilities that allow "religious worship." It has ignited a fury among critics who say it violates the First Amendment and is an attempt to prevent religious practice in schools.
According to the bill, which the Democratic-controlled House passed despite unanimous Republican opposition, funds are prohibited from being used for the "modernization, renovation, or repair" of facilities that allow "sectarian instruction, religious worship or a school or department of divinity."
Critics say that could include public schools that permit religious groups to meet on campus. The House provided $20 billion for the infrastructure improvements, of which $6 billion would go to higher education facilities where the limitations would be applied.
"What the government is doing is discriminating against religious viewpoints," said Mathew Staver, founder and chairman of Liberty Counsel, a Washington-based nonprofit organization that works to advance religious freedom.
"President Obama's version of faith-based initiatives is to remove the faith from initiative," said Staver, who believes Obama has "a completely different view on faith" from what he said during his presidential campaign.
"He is not the infallible messiah that some thought he would be," Staver said.
Civil liberty groups like the Americans United for Separation of Church and State vehemently defend the stimulus bill's provision, arguing that it in no way violates the Constitution.
"This provision upholds constitutional standards established by the U.S. Supreme Court and in no way affects student groups that meet on public school campuses," said the Barry W. Lynn, executive director of Americans United for Separation of Church and State.
The American Civil Liberties Union also defends the constitutionality of the restriction, which they say has been the law since 1972.
"It's almost a restatement of what the Constitution requires so there's nothing novel in what the House did in its restriction," said Christopher Anders, senior legislative counsel to the ACLU. "For 37 years, the law of the land is that the government can't pay for buildings that are used for religious purposes."
Not so, says the Traditional Values Coalition, which issued a statement Wednesday charging that Obama is using his stimulus plan to restrict the exercise of religion in public facilities -- a provision it says violates the right to free speech.
"The economic crisis is being used as a pretext to curb religious liberty at institutions of higher learning," said Executive Director Andrea Lafferty.
"We are not asking that federal funding be used to construct a church, but if a campus ministry wants to hold a Bible study or Mass in the student activity building, we should be encouraging that -- not punishing a college for permitting it," she said.
According to some constitutional law experts, any complaint filed against the provision will gain little ground in court.
"Certainly the provision is treating the act of religious organizations differently from the activities of the school itself," Harvard University constitutional law professor Mark Tushnet told FOXNews.com.
"It's not frivolous to say there's a constitutional problem with excluding religious facilities from these grants, but I think the way of the law is in the other direction," he said.
Tushnet cited a 2004 Supreme Court case in which a Washington student lost a college scholarship awarded by the state after it was revealed that he planned to pursue a degree in pastoral ministries. Though the student argued that rescinding the money discriminated on the basis of religion, the court ruled in the state's favor -- declaring that the taxpayer-funded scholarship's restriction is constitutional.
The White House said Wednesday that it plans to keep in place the basic structure of the faith-based initiative office established by former President George W. Bush.
Administration officials said the office is a substantial programming and policy arm of the federal government, which allows federal agencies to connect with local neighborhood and faith-based groups to deliver social services.
URL: http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2009/02/04/conservative-groups-declare-obamas-stimulus-war-prayer/
Obama's Defense Budget Mystery
By Tony Blankley Feb. 4, 2009
There has been some confusing reporting in the past few days regarding President Barack Obama's plans for the Defense Department budget. Officially, the Office of Management and Budget is claiming that it will increase the budget by 8 percent. But because most of the Iraq and Afghanistan war costs have been funded through supplemental appropriations rather than the regular department budget, total military funding remains a mystery. Mark me down as suspicious. I have been told by sources at the Pentagon that they have been told not to expect full funding of all existing programs. And there is evidence that Obama has been planning to force cuts on our military for some time.
According to The Boston Globe on Nov. 10, 2008, the need for budget cuts at the Pentagon (prepared last year by a Defense Department advisory committee that proposed possible program cuts on the assumption that the DOD would not be appropriated enough money to cover all current defense programs and weapon systems) was the enthusiastic subject of an Obama transition group study back in October:
"'Business as usual is no longer an option,' according to one of the internal briefings prepared in late October for the presidential transition, copies of which were provided to the Globe. 'The current and future fiscal environments facing the department demand bold action.'"
However, Obama gave no hint of these plans (if he has them) during the campaign. At the time, I preserved the Obama-Biden campaign Web site pages on defense policies just in case the day would come when Obama started to cut the defense budget. Here (in part, but it goes on for pages like this) is what Obama's Web site promised during the campaign:
"A Military Under Strain: Currently, our soldiers, seamen, airmen and Marines are deployed around the globe, working valiantly to defend our nation. Yet, these heroes are under-resourced and asked to do too much by a policy that has too often taken their sacrifice for granted. Due to their incredible courage and ingenuity, they persevere, but at incredible cost to themselves and their families.
"Recruitment and Retention Problems: A country of 300 million strong should not struggle to find enough qualified citizens to serve. Recruiting and retention problems have been swept under the rug by an administration that does not understand the value of service to our nation.
"A System Not Serving our Troops as Well as They Serve Us: As the shameful events at Walter Reed Army Medical Center and the recent reports on growing numbers of homeless and unemployed veterans show, we simply are not taking proper care of our wounded warriors and veterans.
"Fully Equip Our Troops for the Missions They Face: Barack Obama and Joe Biden believe we must get vitally needed equipment to our soldiers, sailors, airmen and Marines before lives are lost. We cannot repeat such failures as the delays in deployment of armored vehicles, body armor and Unmanned Aerial Vehicles that save lives on the frontlines.
"In this Section"
• Invest in a 21st Century Military "
• Build Defense Capabilities for the 21st Century "
• Restore the Readiness of the National Guard and Reserves "
• Develop Whole of Government Initiatives to Promote Security "
• Restore Our Alliances "
• Reform Contracting"
That makes it sound as if he was planning to increase spending dramatically. We shall see.
But even his decision to keep former President George W. Bush's defense secretary, Robert Gates, could be judged shrewdly if he plans cuts. A Republican holdover is in the weakest possible political position to defend his department's budget. If Obama had selected his own powerful Democratic Party politician for defense secretary (as he did with Hillary Clinton at the State Department), that person would fight to defend his or her budget. You can bet Hillary will bring all her power to bear on increasing the State Department budget. But as a Republican, Defense Secretary Gates has no stick to fight possible defense budget cuts.
Even Obama's decision on which Republican political appointees Gates could keep was revealing. He let Gates keep about two-thirds of his appointees -- mostly in the war-fighting parts of the Pentagon budget. But Obama insisted on his own appointees (which he, of course, had every right to do) for those slots that managed family support and other social services (as opposed to war fighting). Now, those are also vital -- taking care of the health, housing and education of our troops and their families.
But it is revelatory that politically Obama wants to manage DOD social services closely. However, in the war-fighting and weapons-systems part of the Defense Department, he will leave Bush appointees in charge. They will not be able to defend their vital budgets politically, and Obama can hold them responsible for gutting their own programs, should he try to do so.
Of course, at a time when he is proposing trillions of dollars of deficit spending -- and at a time when our military needs at least $100 billion just to replace war materiel (such as trucks, other vehicles, munitions, communications equipment, etc.) that has been used up in Iraq and Afghanistan and not yet replaced -- he is not allocating any of the trillion-dollar "stimulus" deficit to pay for such assembly line-starting and militarily necessary new spending. That might be taken as a hint of his long-term plans for defense needs.
We have elected ourselves a true artist. But beware: "Ars est celare artem." (Translation: "True art conceals the means by which it is achieved.")
URL: http://www.jewishworldreview.com/0209/blankley020409.php3
National
Posted on February 3, 2009 at 9:14 AM by Kathy
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Soldier on 1st skydive leads dying instructor down ...
Posted on February 3, 2009 at 8:20 AM by Kathy
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Navy SEAL gets Silver Star for Iraq heroism ...
Ted Nugent, rock star and avid bow hunter from Michigan, was being interviewed by a French journalist, an animal rights activist. The discussion came around to deer hunting. The journalist asked, 'What do you think is the last thought in the head of a deer before you shoot him? Is it, 'Are you my friend?' or is it 'Are you the one who killed my brother?' Nugent replied, 'Deer aren't capable of that kind of thinking. All they care about is, what am I going to eat next, who am I going to screw next, and can I run fast enough to get away. They are very much like the French.'
The interview ended.
Delta Company
2nd BN.
27th Inf. Reg.
25th Inf. Div.
WOLFHOUNDS
"The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing"
"One Nation Under God"
Only two defining forces have ever offered to die for you, Jesus Christ and the American G.I.
~One died for your soul, the other for your freedom.~
Si Vis Pacem, Para Bellum
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