Go here and do what you can to support a man who wants to help America.

My name is William T Russell. I am running for Congress against John Murtha as a Republican in the 12th Congressional District of Pennsylvania in the November 2008 election.

I would like to introduce myself to you. I am a family man, a husband, and a father. I am also a small business owner and entrepreneur, as well as an American Soldier.

My wife, Kasia, is one of my heroes.  For some strange reason, she saw fit to marry me eight years ago.  She was born and raised in Poland where her father was one of the local leaders in the Solidarity movement against the communist government in the 1980s. We met and married while I was stationed in Germany. She moved to the US with me after we married, learned English, and became a US Citizen. After surviving the attack on the Pentagon on 9/11 (while six months pregnant with our son), she also raised our children by her self for 19 months while I was deployed to Kosovo and then to Iraq.  

Until the August 31st of this year, I was a fulltime Lieutenant Colonel in the United States Army Reserve, stationed at the Pentagon and a little over 2 years short of full, active duty retirement. Until March of 2007, Kasia and I were simply looking forward to finishing out my Army career and moving to southern or southwestern Pennsylvania. We have been attracted to this part of the country since our first visit to the state in 2000.  We were attracted to people and lifestyle of the state as well as its natural beauty. We recognized it as a great place to raise our children and I saw it as a great place to begin a second career in business after retiring from the Army. Kasia and I were looking forward to moving here after I retired from the Army.

But last March I had the opportunity to meet with some of our Wounded Warriors during their visit to the Pentagon. I have always been impressed by the spirit and good cheer of so many of these wounded heroes but also understand the sullen responses from some. Seeing these Soldiers, Marines, and Airmen with missing and shattered limbs, two with missing eyes and wounded faces, I found myself wiping away the tears as I walked back to my office. I was both sadden and angered that the sacrifices these brave service men and women, like the others I have served with in combat, make for this country and the thought of how they are betrayed by politicians such as John Murtha.

I grew up in the shadow of the US defeat in Vietnam. On an intellectual level, I have long understood that a war may be lost politically, in spite of military victories.  But seeing those Soldiers, Sailors, Marines, and Airmen who have given so much to this nation, both enraged and saddened me. It also forced me to recognize that the United States is now engaged in a great political battle to determine whether this nation, founded in liberty and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal, can maintain the political resolve in its fight against a totalitarian political system, cloaked in religion, which is dedicated to the destruction of our liberty. I believe I must stand up and make a difference in this fight and not wait for two more years until I retire.

Congressman Murtha’s actions, whether resulting from incompetence, corruption, or cowardice, have done more to lead us toward political defeat in this war than the enemy could ever hope to accomplish by their own devices. His calls for withdrawal of our forces and limiting the authority of the Commander-in-Chief in executing this war, plays directly into the hands of our enemy. He is undermining our Soldiers in the fight and encourages the enemy to kill or maim a few more of our Soldiers and kill large numbers of Iraqi civilians on a weekly basis. The Islamic extremists, just like the communists in Vietnam, see his weakness of political resolve as the reason to keep fighting in spite of their military losses. He must be replaced with a candidate who understands the importance of an integrated political, military, and economic strategy that does not pit political ends against military and economic, but synchronizes and orchestrates them with the recognition of the imperative to achieve the victory that this war demands for the safety of our children and grandchildren.

Perhaps the best illustration of the importance of this issue is the story of  US Marine Lance Corporal (L/CPL) Justin Sharratt, from Cannonsburg, Pennsylvania (part of the 12th district). For those not familiar with him, L/CPL Sharratt is an American Hero.  On 19 November 2005, Justin’s convoy was attacked by an improvised explosive device (IED) killed his friend and squad mate L/CPL Miguel Terrazas.  This ambush included not only the bomb but also sniping and rifle fire at the Marines as they secured and evacuated the wounded out of the vehicle in which L/CPL Terrazas had been killed.  L/CPL Sharratt assisted in the security, recovery and offensive efforts to capture or kill the enemy combatants who initiated the complex ambush. When he moved into a building with some of his squad mates, Justin found himself in a close fight with four armed insurgents. When his machinegun jammed, he was forced to engage them with his 9mm pistol.

Justin and the other members of his unit were facing an enemy who fights by a different set of rules in which there is no such thing as atrocities when committed for their cause.  This enemy hides behind civilians in order to protect themselves and to create propaganda opportunities by accusing Americans of atrocities when innocents are caught in the crossfire.  The enemy does this because they are seeking to create My Lai type incidents for propaganda use on the Arab street as well as the anti-war movement in the US.  Innocents were caught in the cross fire in the heat of combat that day.  But those who were identified were safe guarded and protected by the Marines.

No one reading this account would argue that Justin and his family deserve our deepest thanks for his actions that day at a town called Haditha. Congressman Murtha’s thanks to Justin and his comrades for their risks and sacrifice was to publicly accused them of “cold-blooded murder” of innocent civilians.

By publicly stating that the US Marines committed murder and denying that there was a firefight and roadside bomb (specifically, the bomb which killed L/CPL Terrazas), United States Congressman John Murtha endorsed the enemy’s propaganda effort and confirmed in the minds of millions of Arabs, as well as many Americans, that US Marines had committed atrocities against Arab civilians as an extension of US Policy. By making such inflammatory statements of guilt against the bravest of Americans when the investigation had just begun, Congressman Murtha not only denied the Marines the rights that he and his colleagues so adamantly want to bestow on the terrorists at Guantanamo Bay, he helped the enemy fabricate a lie which has done more damage to our efforts in this war than any other politician. Mr Murtha not only threw a local hero under the bus for political expediency, he helped the terrorists create a lie that has been repeated by Al Qaida and other terrorist organizations for recruiting purposes throughout the Arab World.  It has also been repeated by Code Pink, KOS and other anti-war elements in their effort to undermine the US efforts in the Middle East.

I am entering this race because I believe it is imperative to our nation’s security and its future. The small economic sacrifice of leaving a secure, well-paying job, two years short of a guaranteed pension with health care for life, is nothing in comparison to the sacrifices of our Soldiers, Sailors, Marines, and Airmen who are on extended tours in active contact with an enemy and who are being undermined by politicians who are too corrupt, cowardly, or incompetent to recognize the nature of the war we are in. Surrender on the political, military, and economic fronts is not an option.

When I was looking at moving to this area to start a business career, I knew that it was economically challenged. But after moving here due to the imperatives of our national security, I have come to recognize the depth of the economic crisis facing this area also. Its economic future is at stake. To Mr Murtha’s credit, he has attempted to protect the jobs of this community with Congressional earmarks for a long time. But in trying to protect the economic past, we have lost sight of some economic realities and the future. The end results of the last 30 years of directed congressional spending has not produced the intended results.  After many years of congressional earmarks, southwestern Pennsylvania’s greatest export is young college graduates. Young people looking to start their careers believe they must travel to other areas to start their careers. This region has lost approximately 59,000 people in the last two years.  I have heard stories of churches that are conducting 40 funerals for every baptism. While I recognize this region as a great place to raise my children, I want my children to grow up and see this as a great place to raise their children.

We must build an embraceable future for our children to raise their children.  In order to do so, we must establish the national security framework to allow for our economic growth. Our economic growth must spring from a resurgence of market driven small businesses – we must relight the spark of entrepreneurial fire and raise the next generation of entrepreneurs.   We must build businesses which derive their purpose and profits from the demands of the market in keeping with the laws of supply and demand. The United States economy is booming (in spite of what we constantly see in the press). There is no reason for southwestern Pennsylvania to not share in our national prosperity. We have great resources and people. We can leverage our empty buildings, available housing, and wealth of natural beauty to build an economy that is attractive to future college graduates to begin their careers and to raise their families. 

To help accomplish this, I have already started working with entrepreneurs and business leaders who want to build businesses which are market driven, have applications outside the defense industry and not dependent on congressionally directed budgets. These are the people who will build our economy. I believe the role of government is to establish the framework for growth (provide security, law enforcement, laws to safeguard fair business and contract enforcement, and road networks and certain levels of infrastructure) and to allow the spirit of entrepreneurialism to grow and bear fruit. It is not the role of government to substitute for the forces of the free market. Excessive government involvement in the market produces a continual cycle of dependence, drives out naturally developing small businesses, and suppresses the development of new industries. 

But I am also entering this race with the recognition that I am the out of town kid who wants to join the local team which has some long time players. I hope the communities of the 12th District will welcome a new and unknown player who would like to try out for the team. Throughout this campaign, I will be visiting with people of every county and township in this district to listen and learn so that I can better understand how this team functions. The economic ideas, plans, and solutions that become part of this campaign must answer to the needs of the communities in the district.

I hope the people of the 12th District are willing to consider this career Army transplant who grew up as an Air Force brat and has lived in 11 different states and seven foreign countries. I believe I have a unique background as a soldier, small businessman, and student of international relations to help build an embraceable future for our children and their families. 

I thank you for your time, interest, and support.

Very Respectfully,

William T Russell

Who is winning? What is winning? I can’t understand the babbling and shrieking coming from the leftists, dhimmis, and Hillary staffers in the audience…

US Crime statistics from the FBI Web Page for the years 2003-2006 (i.e., the period of the Iraq War and followup):

Murder and nonnegligent manslaughter: 66,450, or about 1,384 per month (not including abortions)–46 per day!

Forcible rape: 375,774, or about 7,829 per month–257 per day!

Robbery: 168,0546, or about 35,011 per month–1,151 per day!

Aggravated assault: 3,429,484, or about 71,448 per month–2,348 per day!

Burglary: 8,638,474, or about 179,968 per month–5,916 per day!

Larceny-theft: 27,354,351, or about 569,882 per month–18,736 per day!

Motor vehicle theft: 4927745, or about 102661 per month–3,375 per day!

Are we civilized? Yes. Are we stable? Yes. Are we so much better than the Iraqis? No. We’re the same. And that’s why we want to help them free themselves from tyranny and oppression.

The damned "liberals" (self-proclaimed, but not accurately) of the world should get off their twice-damned narcissistic pedestals and roll up their thrice-damned sleeves and try to make this a more peaceful world instead of letting other people do all of the heavy lifting… Or don’t they believe that bit about teaching people to fish for themselves anymore?

Selfish twits…

Here is some more evidence...

Time to redirect the corn crop away from ethanol towards food before the headlines read, "Gore Lied, People Died"...

" The Archbishop of Canterbury has said that the United States wields its power."

Perhaps the jolly old hypocrite should quit spending his time worrying about foreign affairs and concentrate on spreading the Gospel.  Or don't Archbishops do "that Christian stuff" any more?  Instead, apparently, he has become a mouthpiece for al Qaeda. 

What a dhimmi!

In his haste to paint the USA (under GW Bush) as evil, he apparently doesn't remember why there were two Opium wars in China, how the East India Company tried to use the grease on their bullets to disgrace Hindu and Muslim soldiers in their Army, how Rhodesia was "won" (hint: gay men and drugs), who created Aparteid (and why), the massacre of starving innocents in India, Pakistan, Egypt, New Zealand, Ceylon, Burma, and so on.

He doesn't apparently remember the countless Irish dead--many burnt in their little sod huts because they were too old or sick to move when evicted for the sheepherders...  He doesn't remember the countless dead Scots--killed for sport!  He doesn't apparently remember very much at all...  He apparently doesn't remember the corruption and greed that was rampant in the "government" that founded Australia...

He is, in short, a disgrace to what tattered remnants exist of a once proud people.  And a reminder of why my family left that land many years ago.  Their so-called "lords" and "ladies" are nothing more than spoiled, bored, and narcissistic inbreds...  And the  Archbishop of Canterbury is more like a character from Chaucer than a man of God...

The Junkyardblog reminds us about Reagan's Famous Speech in 1964.

We can avoid war if we are willing to surrender and become slaves.

Well of course they do...  I mean, he had to get in with the terrorists in order to get those good photos, right?

The Pope is considering a dramatic overhaul of the Vatican in order to force a return to traditional sacred music.

Democrats like to define themselves as the party of poor and middle-income Americans, but a new study says they now represent the majority of the nation's wealthiest congressional districts.

In a state-by-state, district-by-district comparison of wealth concentrations based on Internal Revenue Service income data, Michael Franc, vice president of government relations at the Heritage Foundation, found that the majority of the nation's wealthiest congressional jurisdictions were represented by Democrats.

Forget about the threat that mankind poses to the Earth: our activities may be shortening the life of the universe too.

Best news I've heard lately.  We may soon be rid of the enviro-nazis!!

Congressman Murtha displayed all of his usual wit and charm when he wrongly said:

This week, around our Thanksgiving tables, there will be two families: One who say they support the troops, and they do, but they have sacrificed very little. They haven’t had their taxes raised, they haven’t been drafted, and they don’t really participate in the war. The other are military families who have husbands and wives, sons and daughters, mothers and fathers, brothers and sisters in the war theater. It’s them who shoulder the burden of the President’s Iraq policy. America owes them our thanks in this Thanksgiving weekend.

VETERANS DAY is the day to remember the sacrifices of or men and women in the military. What was “Haditha Jack” saying and doing two weeks ago?  And, while it is true that Americans have not been as supportive of the troops as we ought, where are the APPROPRIATIONS BILLS that fund the support systems for our heroes?  STILL BEING FOUGHT OVER BY DEMOCRATS, THAT's WHERE!!!

THANKSGIVING is a day set aside to thank GOD, not humans for the many blessings He has given us. It is supposed to be a day of sober reflection and prayer, a day of serious contemplation. I seriously doubt that conspicuous gluttony and arena sports were foremost in President Lincoln’s mind as he proclaimed the first official day of Thanksgiving…

But in Murtha’s haste to misuse the things of God for his own callous and crass political ends, let us not allow this carrion-crawler to distract us from Our higher purposes. Jesus said his followers would be known by their love.

The Apostle Paul wrote about this extensively, including this famous passage:

1 Corinthians 13:1-13, NASB

The Excellence of Love

If I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but do not have love, I have become a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. If I have the gift of prophecy, and know all mysteries and all knowledge; and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. And if I give all my possessions to feed the poor, and if I surrender my body to be burned, but do not have love, it profits me nothing.

Love is patient, love is kind and is not jealous; love does not brag and is not arrogant, does not act unbecomingly; it does not seek its own, is not provoked, does not take into account a wrong suffered, does not rejoice in unrighteousness, but rejoices with the truth; bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.

Love never fails; but if there are gifts of prophecy, they will be done away; if there are tongues, they will cease; if there is knowledge, it will be done away. For we know in part and we prophesy in part; but when the perfect comes, the partial will be done away.

When I was a child, I used to speak like a child, think like a child, reason like a child; when I became a man, I did away with childish things. For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face; now I know in part, but then I will know fully just as I also have been fully known.

But now faith, hope, love, abide these three; but the greatest of these is love.

And the hardest thing for an American to do is lower his (or her?) pride enough to follow these words…

We have to love others to show we love the Lord. And we have to do it while protecting those among us who are weaker than we are from those who would take advantage of them.

Christian Love does not mean submission to foreign invaders, nor does it mean submission to false religions. And it does not mean we have to accept obviously sinful practices, just because someone claims to be a believer. There are ways to deal with this (for example, Matthew 18:15-20, 1 Corinthians 5:1-13, 2 John 1:7-11).

We don’t need to get “revenge” (that is the Lord’s part); but we do need to support our families to the best of our abilities. And that means keeping them away from evil as much as possible.

May God grant us wisdom to follow His path, not the false piety of the political schemers…

Some say yes.  Some say no.

I am still going to vote for Hunter.

From the Wikipedia entry:

Middle East Historian Bernard Lewis points out that some modern Muslims sources try to portray jihad in a spiritual and moral sense when addressing non-Muslims. Muslims tell people that they shouldn't try to define jihad by the actions of extremists, but at the balanced Muslims. For most of the fourteen centuries of recorded Muslim history, jihad was most commonly interpreted to mean armed struggle for the defense or advancement of Muslim power. In Muslim tradition, the world is divided into two houses: the House of Islamic Peace (Dar al-Salam), in which Muslim governments rule and Muslim law prevails, and the House of War (Dar al-Harb), the rest of the world, still inhabited and, more important, ruled by infidels. The presumption is that that by natural law these domains will compete and fighting is inevitable therefore the duty of jihad will continue, interrupted only by truces, until all the world either adopts the Muslim faith or submits to Muslim rule. Those who fight in the jihad qualify for rewards in both worlds—booty in this one, paradise in the next. For most of the recorded history of Islam, from the lifetime of the Prophet Muhammad onward, the word jihad was used in a primarily military sense.

YMMV; but to me, the current version of "yes; but only extremists do that anymore" smacks of al-Taqiyyah to me...  I just wish I had the faith to witness boldly to the people in my neighborhood...

Moslems are headed for Perdition just like anyone else who rejects the free gift of Salvation offered by God through the atoning sacrifice of Jesus Christ on the cross.  Our sin debts were paid at Calvary.  We cannot earn a place in Heaven.

Please choose life!

Hitler, Mussolini, and Tojo were determined people. Mao, Pol Pot, and Stalin were sincere and determined.

John Wayne Gacy, Charles Manson, Ted Bundy, and Lee Harvey Oswald were sincere about their beliefs and determined.

One can appreciate the depth of their feelings by the piles of rotting corpses they left in their wake.

There have been over 50 Million legal abortions in America since Roe v. Wade. The supporters of racist Margaret Sanger have been as diligent, sincere, determined, and energetic as the commissars of Stalin’s USSR…

That’s an obscene and detestable stain on our flag.

—-

If being a Christian was a crime, how many of us could be convicted by our actions, not our words? How many of us have spoken to our next-door neighbors about our faith. How many of us will hear “I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!“?

I’m not saying go out there and compel people to act any certain way–that’s legalism, like the pharisees–but we need to be witnesses to everyone around us; and we need to be prayer-warriors for our communities and our nation…

Veterans Day Mike Royko Style

Posted By Blackfive

"A man who is good enough to shed his blood for his country is good enough to be given a square deal afterwards." - Theodore Roosevelt

I wanted to offer up my favorite Veterans Day article from the late, great Mike Royko (1932 - 1997) who penned it in 1993.  I don't care if you were a paratrooper, cook, medic, grunt, pilot, or ran the laundry and bath point, you have my thanks for serving our country.

I think Mike's got the right idea about how to celebrate Veterans Day, GI-Style:

I just phoned six friends and asked them what they will be doing on Monday.

They all said the same thing: working.

Me, too.

There is something else we share. We are all military veterans.

And there is a third thing we have in common. We are not employees of the federal government, state government, county government, municipal government, the Postal Service, the courts, banks, or S & Ls, and we don’t teach school.

If we did, we would be among the many millions of people who will spend Monday goofing off.

Which is why it is about time Congress revised the ridiculous terms of Veterans Day as a national holiday.

The purpose of Veterans Day is to honor all veterans.

So how does this country honor them?...