Posts for February, 2008

Part 2 of the Crawfish Party Platform 2008

Once again, this post is by guest blogger The Crawfish.  It represents HIS views, and his alone.  The staff of vajoe, the management of vajoe, the advertisers of vajoe, the other bloggers of vajoe, and all of the readers and posters of vajoe, along with most of the civilized world have washed their hands of him and consider him to be, well…in need of some help!  The final portion of this manifesto will be published early next week.

Part Two of Three

A little refresher here.  The Swamp’s management has decided that there’s no political party this year that adequately adheres to conservative and Constitutional principles.  We have therefore produced a document sure to cause liberal heads to implode, the 2008 Crawfish Party Platform.   

Topics in our Party Platform include (in no particular order):

National Defense

10th Amendment Commission

Clean Bill Committment

Line Item Veto

The Fair Tax

Entitlement Programs

Foreign Aid

Glo-Bull Warming

What the First Amendment Really Says

Federal Courts and Their Jurisdictions

UnConstitutional Departments, Agencies, and Bureaucracies

Budget

End Social InSecurity Fairly

The English Language

Embryonic Stem Cell Research

Embassy Security

Border Control and Immigration

National Primary Plan

Campaign Finance Reform

Diversity and Multiculturalism

Self-reliance and Responsibility

Political Correctness

Disaster Relief

Abortion

Prisoner’s Rights

The War On Terror

Israel and the Palestinians

Energy Policy

Minimum Wage

Legal Reform

Honesty in Governmental Votes

The Second AmendmentTaking Care of Those Who Are Disabled

A Constitutional Amendment to Fix the 14th Amendment

In Part One of our essay, we explored the first 7 topics.  We will now go for a bit longer posting and print the next 16 topics, ending with the big political bugaboo called abortion:

Glo-Bull Warming: There’s a reason why Algoracle won the Nobel Peace Prize. It is because his fantasies and lies are unworthy of the Nobel Prize in SCIENCE! Most REAL scientists, climatologists, and meteorologists agree that the Gorons and their scripture, The Holy Goran, are full of it. Glo-Bull warming is caused by cyclical action of THE SUN! Hey, our Party is all for conservation and using the earth’s resources wisely. We even want to reduce pollution. We’re just not going to wreck the US economy to do so on behalf of science fiction.What the First Amendment really says: “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances.” So what does that mean? Does that mean that a local city council is forbidden to put a Manger Scene at City Hall in December, or a borough cannot put up a Menorah in a park? Of course not. Any federal court rulings that have forbidden those actions fail to take into account the first five words of the Amendment. “CONGRESS SHALL MAKE NO LAW” has absolutely nothing to do with the actions of any state, county, parish, or municipality in the USA. Those government entities are not Congress, so the federal courts have absolutely no say in the matter. The federal courts have also not paid attention to “or prohibiting the free exercise thereof.” They have taken the “establishment clause” to the extreme of saying it applies to almost any governmental acknowledgement of religion in America. What that Amendment really means is that there will be no official national religion along the lines of those seen in Europe in the previous few centuries. It does not mean that we cannot make it very clear that we are a predominantly Judeo-Christian nation, and that we will not accept muslims trying to bring about Sharia Law or any of their plans of dominance. Actually, it does mean that Sharia Law is banned. The third clause is also vitally important, and has been nullified by an illegal law in the past few years. “or abridging the freedom of speech”, which was described by the authors of the Constitution in The Federalist Papers, means that political speech cannot be stifled at all. McCain-Feingold did just that. It must be overturned.

Federal Courts and Their Jurisdictions: The First Amendment stance brings us to another related subject. Why is it that the federal courts are involved in so many aspects of life in the USA that the Constitution doesn’t allow the federal government to have a say in? In 1981, Wesley Cook (who took the muslim name of Mumia Abu-Jamal to show his hatred for America and white people) murdered Philadelphia Police Officer Daniel Faulkner. The State of Pennsylvania charged him with the state count of capital murder and a state jury convicted him, sentencing him to death. The state appellate courts and state supreme court upheld the conviction and sentence. Federal courts stepped in and have tied things up ever since. Since this was a STATE case, the federal courts have no jurisdiction whatsoever. The day after the state supreme court upheld the sentence, the needle should have been inserted. This is just one of thousands of cases from every year that make their way into federal courts but should never have done so. This must end!

UnConstitutional Departments, Agencies, and Bureaucracies: There’s a lot of bloated bits of government that need to simply be ended immediately. Show us in the Constitution where a Department of Education is authorized. How about the Housing and Urban Development. If it is not a government function as outlined in the Constitution with federal spending authorized by the Constitution, then this Party will call for its immediate end.

Budget: Ending unConstitutional programs and government entities, along with rejection of earmarks and wasteful spending proposed by Congress, will allow our budget to be in surplus even if we beef up military spending. Tax revenue will soar under the Fair Tax Plan, especially if we get rid of illegal aliens and give their jobs to those currently leeching off the taxpayers in the forms of welfare, food stamps, free slum/ghetto housing, etc. The only thing that would cause that surplus to be drained would be the five year plan to end Social Security, but once that’s over, the surpluses would be here to stay.

End Social InSecurity Fairly: There is absolutely no reason for the government to be running a Ponzi scheme as a mandatory governmental retirement program. A 1% return on that kind of investment is horrid. The people of America should be in charge of their own money. They can do better for themselves. Our plan would end this fiasco, but in a way that is fair to all who have put in their money over the years. Anybody who is currently receiving benefits would have the choice of staying in the program or getting the remainder of what they paid in to the system returned to them. In Year One, American citizens who are aged 57 and above would receive refunds for every penny they have ever put in, with interest from the time it got put in. Year Two would see refunds for folks 49 and up. Year Three would have citizens 40 and above investing their own money. Year Four has the 30 and older citizens rejoicing. Year Five has all remaining citizens getting their money back. These ages could be adjusted after more studies to make the impact on our budget even across the years. Note that non-citizens don’t get anything. Oh well, that’s another bonus for being a real American.

The English Language: All government forms, with the exception of ones dealing with immigration, customs, tourist information, and international relations/business, shall be printed in English Only! Why are voting ballots printed in over 100 languages? To be authorized to vote, you must be a citizen. To become a citizen, you must be able to speak English. Our campaigns are conducted in English. Anyone who doesn’t speak English cannot get the proper information on the issues and the candidates. Don’t give us that tired equal opportunity line of reasoning. They have equal opportunity to learn English. People who desire to control and function within the official public sector of this nation need to do so in the language of the nation. Not being conversant in common or conventional English places an immense burden on the individual, their segment of society, and the community as a whole, and condemns otherwise talented and capable persons to secondary or lesser status. In short, English needs to become the official language of the United States of America.

Embryonic Stem Cell Research: If private companies wish to do that research, they can do so. The big issue is federal funding of this research. If this research showed any real promise, the pharmaceutical companies would be falling all over themselves to do it, and they could fund it themselves. There’s absolutely no need for government funding.

Embassy Security: In late February of 2008, the US Embassy in Belgrade, Serbia, was invaded and torched. The Marines there did nothing to prevent this action. They were acting this way on orders of the State Department, which was doing its own impression of the administration of James Earl Carter, as per usual. The Crawfish Party would tell the Marines to act as Marines. Any invasion of sovereign US territory is to be repelled. The government of Serbia is also to blame, and they would have received some unfriendly attention, along with having the distasteful task of cleaning up all of those bodies that the Marines disposed of.

Border Control and Immigration: The Crawfish Party supports legal immigration. Illegal aliens are invaders of our nation and will not be treated nicely. They take American jobs from Americans, without paying proper taxes. They commit crime on a level similar to the leeches of our public housing ghettos. Gangs like MS-13 are very dangerous, and many of them are made up entirely of illegal aliens. They overload the public medical facilities and don’t pay the bills. Their hordes of children are a drain on our public education system. The Crawfish Party would seal the borders tight, get rid of the illegals that are here, hammer businesses that harbor and hire illegals, punish “sanctuary” cities, and push for a Constitutional Amendment to end the anchor baby problem. To seal the border, a 12 foot tall chain link fence would be erected the length of the border, approximately 7 inches within the border (with properly guarded openings along the Rio Grande for irrigation and livestock water use). Another 12 foot tall chain link fence would be 15 feet inside of the first. The purpose of these fences would not be to hold back the illegals, but to slow them down and make them good targets for the watchtowers 100 yards back every ¼ mile or so manned by Marines, National Guardsmen, and Marine-trained riflemen. This would have the added benefit of feeding the wildlife along the border. Underground listening devices would also be placed to detect tunneling. Deportation would start happening on a large scale, with plenty of raids on suspected illegal alien work sites. Of course, many of the illegals would start returning to their homelands of their own accord because the jobs would dry up and all benefits currently available to illegals, including education and hospital care would END. Businesses that are found to have illegals on their payroll will face serious penalties, as will the company owners and the people in charge of hiring. The penalties would definitely include prison time, and they would go up based on the severity of the violations and would skyrocket for repeat offenders. “Sanctuary” cities and municipalities would see an immediate end to all federal funds coming their way, to include the cancellation of any federal contract with any business in said municipality. The only federal funds coming in would be for military recruiting.

National Primary Plan: Our Party makes the following proposal for the primaries of all parties to use. It would make things simpler while making all states meaningful in the process, so the bickering between the states could end. For starters, no candidate could file for election or start up any campaign machinery or do any fundraising until 366 days before the election (election year is always a leap year). In January of election years, the traditional starters of Iowa, New Hampshire, and South Carolina would happen. In February, a primary Tuesday would be held that would include enough states to bring the total committed delegate count to about 15% of the total in each party. At this point, the bottom feeding candidates would be dropped. Another round of approximately 15% would happen in March, again eliminating candidates. The third round of 15% would happen in April, and the fourth round in May. At this time, about 60% of the delegates would be committed, with the likelihood of any candidate having clinched being remote, so the remaining states still have a big say in the results.   Now, there would be only two or three candidates remaining in each party. They would have 2 months to campaign over the rest of the nation before the final primary day in mid-July. The conventions would occur in late July and early August, with the parties currently not occupying the White House going first.

Campaign Finance Reform: Our Party has one major plan to change how campaigns are financed, besides the repeal of the unConstitutional McCain-Feingold. Individuals, organizations, and businesses can only contribute to candidates running in the district/state that the individual lives or works in, or the organization/business has a branch in. Foreign and anonymous contributions are not allowed. All contributions are to be posted on the campaign’s website within 24 hours.

Diversity and Multiculturalism: This is The Big Thing on college campuses, businesses, and government entities. It is also huge for the media. It is a bunch of dung. We have a National This Month and a National That Month all over the calendar, along with special days honoring everything that makes us different from each other. It is time to STOP celebrating diversity and multiculturalism, and all of the other anti-white, anti-Christian, anti-male, anti-heterosexual, anti-moralistic, anti-folks who actually earn enough to PAY taxes, anti-legal American, anti-American stuff. Diversity didn’t make us a great nation. What made us great are the things that give us UNITY, so let’s celebrate them!

Self-reliance and Responsibility: Our nation has become a nation of victims and leeches. Too many of our people constantly have their hand out. Everybody wants something for nothing. Most of them are Democrats. You cannot watch television during the daytime and not get bombarded with commercials for lawyers. People will sue over ANYTHING! This is because our society tells people that they are never responsible for their own actions and lack of success. Nobody is willing to actually WORK for a living anymore.  This nation became great because Americans grabbed hold of life, took risks, and worked their butts off until they could support themselves and their families.   

Political Correctness: Screw it! If your skin is thin, move to France.

Disaster Relief: Many on the left side of the aisle have railed about the lack of response from the federal government after hurricane Katrina. This is in spite of the fact that the federal government has spent over $200,000 per resident for relief and recovery down there. We say the government has spent too much! If you live in a hurricane strike zone, you’d better have good insurance, because it isn’t the government’s job to make your life better after the storm. As for the immediate response and the problems in New Orleans, their local and state governments let them down. State law called for a mandatory evacuation of New Orleans and points south 72 hours ahead of a Category 3 or higher hurricane strike. Governor Blanco and Mayor Nagin ignored that law, then blamed Bush. Mississippi got hit harder than Louisiana, but folks there, led by Governor Haley Barbour, evacuated as necessary, then rolled up their sleeves and got to work with the attitude of “we’ll make it better than it was!” They didn’t whine in the national press about Bush not supporting them. They are Real Americans.

Abortion: Since this is a party platform, this issue is mandatory. Roe v Wade is the single worst case of Constitutional Law ever. The Supreme Court magically came up with some Constitutional ‘right of privacy’ that isn’t in the Constitution, and then they made it a reason to create federal law about baby killing. Jeffrey Dahmer killed and ate young men in the privacy of his apartment, but he was still a murderer. What does privacy have to do with killing babies? No Constitutional federal laws were in play, so the case should never have gone to the Supremes. It was a state law that was in question, so it should have stayed in the state courts. There is absolutely no reason for an American taxpayer to pay for an elective abortion. This will not cause women to “be forced to return to back alley abortionists” as the normal unhinged argument goes. Rather it simply means that they will be required to bear the burden of their own choice instead of having the taxpayers pay.

A Video on VA Loans

VA Loans Video

Our friends at VA Mortgage Center.com (who helped us with Charity for Charities and have a nice milblog in their own right) released a video today outlining some of the benefits of the VA Home Loan Program. You can watch it on YouTube here - VA Loan Video.

With the ‘housing crisis’ we are currently living through, it’s most important for qualifying Veterans and Active-Duty members to be aware of their options. Don’t forget to look into what the VA program might be able to do for you upon purchasing or even refinancing a home.

And heck, everyone loves a good time-waster video (especially if you are bored at work). Might as well learn a few things in the process. Give it a look and come on back to VA Joe!

Pending Financial Disaster

 Fixing the money thing!

We have tackled many topics regarding your personal finances, however it’s time we tackled the pending financial disaster in America.

Today the stock market fell once again. Sound familiar?

Remember 2000 to 2003?

The stock market has fallen more than 1000 points in the last month, most of that in one week. Is this just another minor market correction?

Why are the cost of goods going up at an alarming rate? Why are there so many forclosures on new homes? Why with so little unemployment are we seeing the kind of economic indicators we saw during the Carter administration? Should I be alarmed? What can I do to protect myself from a financial disaster if one should occur.

Joe intends to tackle these issues in this blog.

Lets look at some of the factors that have contributed to the unsettling times we are facing.

High national debt,the highest in history. High personal debt, also the highest in history. The blog host shows stastistics on his website that are alarming regarding personal debt and national debt.

Someone has to pay the piper.

Home forclosures are at a national record. In my sons 4 year old new home subdivision 1 out of every 5 houses is abandoned,  in forclosure or severely behind on their payments.

Why?

Builders, bankers, realtors and their lobbies influenced the Government to modify lending rules several years ago to keep the housing boom going. The lenders were able to get people approved for loans that 2 0r 3 years earlier they would not have approved.

Buyers with considerable credit challenges were approved and the builders and realtors were thrilled. They could now get people in homes that they would not have qualified  for before.

The problem comes in that the buyers were already in excessive debt and we just added hundreds of thousands to the burden. When you buy a new home the real estate taxes are based on the LAND only the first tax year.The second year the payment including taxes and insurance went up considerably. The third year,the loans were not fixed interest and the interest went up and so did the payment.

Buyers who were struggling to make the payment initially now were unable to make them at all.Thus forclosures! In many new home subdivisions people are just walking away from the home in the middle if the night.

The housing and mortgage industries are in a panic.The stock market is affected and so on and so forth.

Oh what tangled webs we weave in an effort to deceive!

 

 THE STOCK MARKET

In 1960 only 2% of Americans owned stocks.

Then came the Mutual fund!

Today most Americans have Mutual funds through employer retirement plans like 401k’s, 403b’s, 457’s, IRA’s, and Roth IRA’s.

What does that mean?

The stock market is vastly overinflated.

 Before mutual funds, the only people who owned stocks were people of means who were able to pay someone to watch, move, buy and sell on their behalf continuously.

Today the American people have been lied to by the brokers and agents who sell these mutual funds at big commissions and continued (Trail commissions ) even when the market goes down!

When the experts sell the mutual fund, owners are told to buy because the market is so good. When the market is low and the experts know what and when to buy the mutual fund brokers say again, buy now because the funds are a good value.

In other words, no matter what is happening they are giving you the exact same advice.

Sound a bit suspicious to you?

When in 2000 -2003 the market began it’s largest loss in history. The advice was exactly the same. It will come back, don’t worry!

Well, they were right! The market did come back.  Over all, the average holder of mutual funds and stocks had vertually NO GAIN for 7 years!

How often can you afford those kind of setbacks?

Now, with the largest one week loss in the history of the stock market earlier this month what do you suppose the advice of the mutual fund dealer is? Same old, Same old!

Why are we not suprised? They don’t want to give up those hefty commissions.

The stock market is more volatile than ever in it’s history and we predict a much longer and much larger loss than in 2000 -2003 over the next several years.

Can you afford it again?

What then should we do?

Lets start by using some of the common sense that our Government, Realtors, Builders , Bankers and Investment brokers seemed to have left on the Table of the BIG COMMISSION!

Start by developing an aggressive strategy to pay off all consumer debt!

First, make sure you have at least $2,000.00 in the savings accounts for immediate emergencies.

Then attack the debts one at a time starting with the highest intrest rate and going down.

Don’t add a little to each debt. Take all the extra money you can free up monthly and attack them one at a time!

Stop paying into retirement plans and eliminate consumer debt first.

That flies in the face of conventional wisdom due to the employers contribution.

Don’t let greed destroy you! Pay off the debt!!!

If a major economic downturn, recession or worse happens you will be on top and not at the bottom!

The choice is yours!

 

You can keep on doing the same thing you are doing now in whch case if the above happens you will be destroyed financially.

Or you can do something different.

The definition of insanity is doing the same thing and expecting different results.

Are you willing to bet we are wrong?

 

Joe Money Matters is a section of the VAJoe Blog to ask for quick financial tips and advice from an expert with more than 20 years experience in counseling families to live without debt and to reach there financial potential. Please leave comments on this Blog. You can learn more about the Joe Money Matters advisor at his website. The posts and comments by JoeMoneyMatters reflect his two decades of financial counseling expereince. VAJoe.com does not endorse any financial strategies, but offers this blog as a service to its site members for discussion.

2008 Crawfish Party Platform, Part One

As per usual, this post is the creation of The Crawfish’s addled brain.  It has no relation to anything resembling the ideas and ideals of the folks that run VAJoe.com, their advertisers, the other bloggers, the Dim-ocrat Party, the Party Formerly Known as the Republican Party, The Green Party, The Reform Party, Ross Perot, or anybody currently employed in the District of Corruption.

Just in case the blog readers haven’t figured me out through my other posts and my 290+ posts in Joe’s Forum, I have put together the 2008 Crawfish Party Platform.  This posting will be in three parts and will be done over the next week or so. 

Topics in our Party Platform include (in no particular order):

National Defense

10th Amendment Commission

Clean Bill Committment

Line Item Veto

The Fair Tax

Entitlement Programs

Foreign Aid

Glo-Bull Warming

What the First Amendment Really Says

Federal Courts and Their Jurisdictions

UnConstitutional Departments, Agencies, and Bureaucracies

Budget

End Social InSecurity Fairly

The English Language

Embryonic Stem Cell Research

Embassy Security

Border Control and Immigration

National Primary Plan

Campaign Finance Reform

Diversity and Multiculturalism

Self-reliance and Responsibility

Political Correctness

Disaster Relief

Abortion

Prisoner’s Rights

The War On Terror

Israel and the Palestinians

Energy Policy

Minimum Wage

Legal Reform

Honesty in Governmental Votes

The Second AmendmentTaking Care of Those Who Are Disabled

A Constitutional Amendment to Fix the 14th Amendment

Without further adieu, The Crawfish Party presents the first seven topics in our 2008 Party Platform.

National Defense: The Party is committed to a strong national defense. We will strive to build up our forces and give them every tool they need to fight any enemy, anytime. Whether it be a conventional battle or a fight against unconventional forces, we will have the advanced gear our folks need to win and to take as few casualties as possible. This includes many new and advanced ships for the Navy, an all-new model force of aircraft for all services within 10 years, the best body armor that can be had for our ground forces, and the vehicles they want. We will also greatly increase the quality of medical care our service members get. That will be costly, but worth it. We are committed to giving every member of our armed forces (and retirees) a 10% raise in each of the next 3 years, and 5% raises thereafter. If anybody wants to screw with us, they will quickly assume room temperature. Do something really nasty to us and you will see a lot of large, bright mushrooms…capiche? If war again becomes necessary anywhere, our troops must be ordered to participate with maximum effort necessary to ensure total, absolute, unconditional victory.

10th Amendment Commission: An idea that The Crawfish has considered for years, and that has been made famous recently by Neal Boortz, would be a commission made up of a few politicians (national, state-level, and municipal) and Constitutional experts that would go through the current federal laws, statutes, regulations, bureaucracy, departments, budgets, etc. Everything that doesn’t meet the governmental restrictions found in the Constitution would be highlighted and reported to the President for his weekly television address (Tuesday nights on your local network affiliates). In these weekly addresses, the President will show the American people how their government is acting outside of the Supreme Law of the Land and he will demand that Congress to immediately cancel/slash/zero-out/get rid of/nuke these items. 

Clean Bill Commitment: Any bill that comes from Congress that is not clean has exactly zero chance of being signed into law. Any amendment or addition to a bill must be fully voted upon and must be germane to the rest of the bill, or the bill will face certain veto. Even if the President agrees with the non-germane amendment/earmark/addition, if it isn’t in-line with the salient point of the bill, it’s outta there!Line Item Veto: Kinda goes hand-in-hand with the 10th Amendment Commission, and the Clean Bill Commitment. It is a MUST! The Fair Tax: This is the most well-thought out and researched tax plan in the history of the USA. If you don’t know the details, read the books. We get rid of the IRS, make taxes simple and fair, tax the underground economy, and stimulate the economy.

Entitlement Programs: These unConstitutional programs have been a cancer upon America since our first socialist President, FDR, and were exacerbated under his disciple, the Fake Texan, LBJ. There’s no place in the Constitution that authorizes the federal government to pay for housing for thems that are too lazy, drug addled, constantly prego with kids from who knows how many daddies, and are just plain criminals. There’s no place in the Constitution that authorizes the federal government to pay welfare or food stamps to those who are too lazy to work. Once we get rid of the illegal aliens, there will be plenty of jobs to go around. If people think those jobs are beneath them, well…those jobs give more of a paycheck than not having one. Real Americans do what they’ve gotta do to survive and thrive. It is time to END the cycle of dependency on the government that has caused so many to be entrapped in poverty.   The War on Poverty has spent trillions of dollars, and hasn’t reduced poverty at all. It has just created a permanent underclass of dependency.

Foreign Aid: Most would end. Period. If your nation doesn’t support our policies and freedom, you don’t get the money our taxpayers earned. AIDS in Afreaka? Try monogamy and condom use. Global poverty? Try getting rid of your own corrupt governments and tin-pot dictators. About the only people who could rely upon our support would be Israel and Iraq. The rest would need to EARN it!

She must have HATED her son!

Once again, this post is the sole opinion of The Crawfish. It bears no resemblance to the policies, opinions, or anything else of vajoe, the people that run vajoe, the advertisers at vajoe, George W Bush, John McCain, The Republican Party, the NFL, and the broadcasters of this station. (Although I think it SHOULD be their opinions, and your opinion)

Once again, Cindy She-Hag has let her hatred of W and the USA send her off to do something to dishonor the memory of her son, Casey. Now she is openly supporting Islamic terrorists, and it was Islamic terrorists that her son died fighting.

By Cynthia Johnston

CAIRO, Feb 13 (Reuters) - U.S. peace activist Cindy Sheehan pressed Egypt on Wednesday to free members of the opposition Muslim Brotherhood who are on trial in a military court, urging leniency for the sake of their families.

She’s not a PEACE ACTIVIST. She’s an agitator supporting whoever hates the USA.

Egypt sent 40 members of the Brotherhood including its No. 3, Khairat el-Shater, to a military court a year ago. The men, six of whom are being tried in absentia, are the first Brotherhood members to face military trials since 2001.

Most of the serious charges, including terrorism and money laundering, were dropped in December, but the men are still charged with belonging to a banned group. A verdict is due on Feb. 26.

Why did they drop the charges? The Muslim Brotherhood is a terrorist organization supporting the Koran’s commandments that all infidels are to be converted, enslaved, or shot, and that all governments shall be run by Sharia Law.

“I’m a mother whose son was killed in Iraq. I know what these families are going through — stress and trauma,” said Sheehan, who became a leading U.S. anti-war activist after her son Casey was killed in Iraq in 2004.

No you don’t. Your son was fighting for his country and died in battle. These folks are being tried as criminals and will have plenty of warning as to when their deaths will occur. Their families will have a final goodbye. Their families support their cause, unlike Casey’s.

On a visit to Cairo to protest against the military trials, she added: “So as a mother, I’m asking for leniency from the Egyptian government, not only for the Muslim Brotherhood people, but for their children and their families also.”

Do the terrorists have leniency to infidels, their children, and their families?

Dozens of police kept Sheehan and 200 Egyptian protesters cordoned off on a Nile river promenade in central Cairo as foreign tourists gawked, but they did not stop the protest.

Speaking over a loudhailer opposite government and ruling party offices, Sheehan accused Egypt of using the military court “as a last resort to guarantee a guilty verdict” and said U.S. aid to Egypt should be tied to better human rights practices.

She called the trials a violation of international law. A) Their crimes were against Egypt, not any other nation, so they are to be tried under Egyptian law, and international law is not applicable, and B) since when do Islamic terrorists give a damn about international law?
As for the military court being a last resort to get a guilty verdict……the problem is??????
The Crawfish is all for getting rid of aid to Egypt…and danged near every country in the world except Israel, Iraq, and Afghanistan!

Local and international rights groups including Amnesty International have criticised the military trial as unfair. Egypt has barred independent observers from the court.

If Amnesty International opposes it, it must be a GOOD THING!

“Freedom, where are you?” read a banner held by one protester. Probably somewhere that Islamic terrorists aren’t! “We miss you, dad” read another, with a photograph.

Several protesters, mostly the wives and children of the Brotherhood detainees, held banners or wore shirts emblazoned with slogans comparing the children of the Muslim Brotherhood detainees to Sheehan’s son. “She lost her son, we lost our husbands and fathers,” said Brotherhood detainee Khairat el-Shater’s daughter Zahraa, 30.

Don’t you DARE compare someone fighting for FREEDOM to a bunch of Islamic terrorists trying to turn the whole world into 7th century Arabia.

Aisha Hassan Malek, the 11-year-old daughter of one of the Brotherhood men, said: “I just want them to be found innocent and return to us and their families as soon as possible.” The non-violent Muslim Brotherhood, which holds a fifth of the seats in Egypt’s parliament, seeks an Islamic state through democratic means and operates openly despite a decades-old ban.

Non-violent????? Let’s see….attacks on tourists and Christians, the murder of Anwar Sadat….other acts of terrorism….the only non-violent ones are the mouthpieces in Parliament.

The government often detains Brotherhood members without charge, and a spokesman for the group said nearly 350 are currently in detention. (Writing by Cynthia Johnston, editing by Tim Pearce)

http://www.reuters.com/article/latestCrisis/idUSL13901254

Maeva Design Introduces Handbags for Mil Spouses

Laura from Maeva Design sent us an email today to let us know about a new program honoring and supporting those who serve. Maeva is taking cloth from military uniforms and fatigues and turning it into handbags for women. 10% of all profits from the sales will be donated to military organizations. We have to admit -they are some cool bags! Check out the different styles offered on their website at Maeva Design.

The idea was inspired by an Army Major named Dan Carroll who originally conceived the idea to create gifts for his mother and sister. If you’re looking for a nice gift for the lady in your life, why not help a good cause?

Maeva Design Bags

Wall of Memories: Remembering Red at 46E–Line 51

This post was contributed by Marilyn Aagaard Martin from www.mmartinbooks.com.

Several months ago my daughter invited me to accompany her on a two-day business trip to Washington, D.C. I readily accepted. And early on the first Saturday in February of 2005, Laura and I flew out of Orlando headed for Dulles Airport. We had two extra days to tour our nation’s capital. I was excited not only to spend time and see the sights with Laura, but also to fulfill a personal vow I made twenty-four years ago
when the Vietnam Veterans Memorial was erected.

Stashing our luggage in our hotel room about three hours later, we set out for Pennsylvania Avenue, both eager to begin our visit in the city of memories. We wandered for hours. As I walked down the steps of the Lincoln memorial my emotions began to build. My long-held promise was nearing an end, for just across the way was the granite wall.

“Sir,” I addressed a guard near the entrance, “I graduated high school along with a tall, redheaded soldier whose name I’m sure is engraved on the wall.” Supplying his last name, I asked if they were listed in alphabetical order. The guard explained they’re listed by the war year, the month, and then the day of the week in which a man died.

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Nickelodeon Show Looking for Kids of Military Personnel

VA Joe.com was contacted by Jessie Findlay over at Nickelodeon recently with this announcement. Help spread the word!

“The Nickelodeon news series “Nick News with Linda Ellerbee” is looking for kids of soldiers currently home from deployment who are willing to be interviewed about the readjustment process. We’re looking for a few well-spoken kids around 11 to 15 years old to talk about how life has changed now that Mom/Dad has come home - particularly those dealing with a physical injury, divorce or PTSD. This show will recognize that war affects whole families, acknowledge the sacrifices of American troops and their families - especially their kids, and portray the good feelings that come with being reunited. Filming will be completed by the end of February.

Interested families please contact Coordinating Producer Jessie Findlay at Lucky Duck Productions -jessie@nicknews.com. Thank you. “

Super Bowl Sunday

As promised, I hereby submit a column that does NOT require a disclosure.

(I dunno what happened here, but the colors went all weird.  I apologize to my readers.  To get it in the regularly colored version (not half of it green), please go to my other blog at http://constitutionalcrawfish.townhall.com and scroll down to it.  The Crawfish 2-16-2008) 

How The Crawfish graded the festivities and the game.Every year, my wife and I watch the Super Bowl and actually pay attention to the ads.  We keep track of which ads ran at which time of the game, what company ran them, what the content was, was it effective, boring, funny, really good, etc.  Only NATIONAL ads are graded, so the local ones can be used for potty breaks.  For the before-game time period, only NEW ads were graded.  TV and movie promos are usually not graded unless I find them to be worthy of mention.  I can’t help it…my Dad was in advertising for a long time.  We also grade the National Anthem and the halftime performance.  So now, I present the scorecard for Super Bowl 42.Before the game:
The Declaration Of Independence:
  VERY well done!  There were tears in our eyes for sure.  Did y’all actually think this patriotic Texan could get through that without ‘em?
Ronald McDonald House Charities: It takes years.  Good ad that touches the heartstrings.
Microsoft Sync in Ford Cars: “Anesthetic On!” That one was good and funny.
NFL: Matt Hasslebeck’s fan mail.  Cute.
National Anthem by Jordin Sparks: Pretty good job, but it wasn’t up to the 1991 (Desert Storm) version by Whitney Houston.  Question: Normally in a mixed forces color guard, the National Ensign is carried by a MARINE, but the Army was carrying it this time.  Why?
Dell computers: Exploding computers, XPS One.  Okay, but not special.  Was repeated again later.
FOX TV’s “Prison Break”: They escape to a spider hole leading to the middle of the field and get whacked.  Didn’t see the end of that one coming!  Was just expecting a regular TV promo.
Ford Trucks: Truck held to centrifuge by tow hooks to show strength.  Good and effective ad.  Mike Rowe’s got a good gig with Ford Trucks.
1st Quarter:
Bud Light:
Breathe fire.  Bud Light makes it’s first appearance with an ad that has been shown a couple of times over the past couple of weeks, but it is still a good one and worthy of early in the Super Bowl.
Audi R8: Knockoff of “The Godfather” with the Rolls grill in the old guy’s bed.  I found it good, but the wife thought it lame.  That’s how the experts have said men and women felt about this ad, so we are (somewhat) normal.
Pepsi Max: Falling asleep and heads bobbing.  It was funny and, with the music, just plain WRONG on a few levels!  Effective.
SalesGenie.com: Acme Widget Company.  Okay, but that’s it.  Not really Super Bowl stuff.
Bud Light: Hidden beer.  Their 2nd ad of the quarter was pretty good.  I’m hoping for better as the game progresses.
Under Armor: Us vs Them, the future is ours.  As is the case for most Under Armor ads, this was pretty lame and aimed almost exclusively at the young black male audience.
FOX TV’s “House”: Offensive coordinators.  Fox is doing well with their TV promos. 
Bridgestone Tires: Squirrel’s scream.  This one had us laughing out loud.  Very good!
Doritos: Message from your heart music, the rest is up to you.  Okay, but that’s it.
Nissan Murano: OK
2nd Quarter:
Gatorade G2: Derek Jeter, Peyton Manning, Bill Parcells, field special effects.  Effective, but just OK.  I expect better from Gatorade.  They’ll probably have more later.
GoDaddy.com: Danica Patrick exposure.  Tantalizing.  I might need to check that website later on!
Dell Computers: Red.  Stupid.  Save the world by buying a red colored computer.  Puh-leeeze.  If you want to stop AIDS, tell people to stop having unprotected gay sex and quit sharing needles, not to buy a computer.
FedEx: Carrier pidgeons.  Now THAT is another Super Bowl quality ad!  Very good!
Cars.com: Stone circle death match.  OK.
Tide To Go: Shirt stain talks over job interview.  Effective and entertaining.
Budweiser: Clydesdales.  Hank doesn’t make the team.  Dalmation trains him to the tune from “Rocky”.  This is another fantastic clydesdales ad by Bud.  They ALWAYS have one really good’un with those horses.
Toyota Corolla: Sleeping badgers, so keep quiet.  Entertaining and effective.  Probably did well in Wisconsin.
Garmin: Napoleon driving.  OK, but I expected better from them.
Careerbuilder.com: Heart runs to boss’s office and quits.  Pretty good with a solid message for the company.
Sobe Life Water: Dancing Lizards.  Another that had us laughing.  Good job!
Parents, Theantidrug.com: Drug dealer can’t compete with the medicine cabinet.  Effective.
GMC Yukon Hybrid: Cissiphus and the rock.  Pretty good, but not special.  Audi, Ford, and Toyota have done better than GM so far.
Bud Light: Carlos Mencia and immigrant pick-up lines.  “Boood Light!”  Continuing from last year’s immigrants learning to speak English to order a Bud Light.  Good surprise ending.  Bud Light has done well this year!
Planters: Can’t take my eyes off of you.  Funny, but W-R-O-N-G!!!!!!!!!!
T-Mobile:
Sir Charles and D-Wade Fave Five, call anytime.  Very good!
Pepsi: Suction and Justin Timberlake.  I THOUGHT is was a Pepsi ad and was wondering where it was going.  Good and funny.
Doritos: Mousetrap and revenge of the giant mouse.  That one made up for the boring one in the 1st quarter.  Very good.
Halftime:
Kia Sportage: Run, boy, run!  Drive away from gas vendors.  OK.  GMC still in last place for autos.
Dunkin Donuts: Doin’ things is what I like to do.  OK.  Probably should have done a new Rachel Ray spot instead.
Acura MDX: An old repeated ad.  An auto company that scores BELOW GMC.
Geico:  The cavemen reviewing the “Cavemen” TV show.  Not up to Geico’s standards by any means.  Those characters have outlived their usefulness.
Toyota Tundra: old commercial.  Guess they figure nobody’s paying attention to the old geezer halftime show.

Zantac 150 Cool Mint: old
Claritin: Carl Edwards.  Boring!
Halftime Show by Tom Petty: Geez, how that band has aged, and not well!  I thought the Stones were bad a couple of years ago, but at least they had energy.  I like TP’s music, but this was NOT a good promo for his tour this summer.  The songs were slowed down, and were completely lifeless.  I definitely will NOT be buying tickets for his shows this summer in Philly.
3rd Quarter:
Cars.com:
Witch doctor.  Pretty good.
SalesGenie.com: Pandas.  Lame.  These guys spent an awful lot of money during the game and pregame, but failed to produce ads worthy of the timeslots.
Vitamin Water: Shaq as a jockey.  Cute.  Effective.
Bud Light: Cavemen going to party with the wheel.  Bottle opener doesn’t work right.  Good.
Ice Breakers: Carmen Electra photo op.  OK.
Bridgestone Tires: Alice Cooper, Richard Simmons.  Bridgestone has done themselves right with their ads tonight.  Another funny one.
Careerbuilder.com: Singing bug gets eaten by spider.  Another good one for these guys.
Hyundai Genesis: Big twist.  Effective, but boring for the Super Bowl.
Disney PIXAR: “Wall-E” movie trailer.  Funny.
E-Trade: Baby investor.  Funny.
Bud Light: Ability to fly.  Reminds me of the old saying, “Eagles may fly, but weasels don’t get sucked into jet engines!”  That said, it was weak by Bud Light standards.
NFL: Guy who played the oboe, Chester Pitts.  Very good!
Ford Fusion: Boring.
Jeep: GPS system at no charge.  OK, but nothing special.
4th Quarter:
Sunsilk Shampoo:
Hair makes it happen.  So-so.
Coke: Macy’s balloons.  Stewie vs Underdog, but Charlie Brown wins.  Very funny.
Coke: James Carville joined by Bill Frist, sight seeing in DC.  Good.  Coke put all of their eggs in one back-to-back basket.
Toyota Sequoia: Big Wheel racing.  Entertaining.
E-Trade: Baby investor rents a clown and is disturbed by him.  Very good follow-up to their previous commercial.  They did that pair well.
Taco Bell: Fiesta Platters, mariachi band.  Pretty good for Taco Bell.
Gatorade: Dog drinking, man’s best friend.  Another good one for Gatorade.
Bud Light: Jackie Moon (Will Farrell).  Entertaining, but not spectacular.
Hyundai Genesis: Other luxury cars won’t like it.  OK, and a good follow-up to the previous one.
Victorias Secret:  Adrianna Lima.  She is just simply SMOKIN’!  Now what did the ad say?
AMP: Battery hooked to man’s breasts.  OK.  They should have used the Dale Earnhardt Jr. ad about camel races here instead of debuting it on some other show over the weekend.
FOX TV’s “American Idol”: Big Ben in the Steelers locker room.  That was funny!
The game itself: I thought the Giants played an absolutely terrific game, and this comes from someone who cheers against the Giants most of the season (Well, I AM a fan of the DALLAS COWBOYS after all!).  Their Defense was fantastic.  Brady got sacked more than he had ever been sacked in a single game, and was hit or hurried throughout the game.  The Giants offense wasn’t spectacular, but the controlled the ball, the clock, and the field position enough to have a chance late.  The final touchdown drive was the best drive of Eli Manning’s career so far.Post Game (only a few notables mentioned here):
Overstock.com:
Package on the move.  Pretty good for a post-game commercial.  This is when most folks are draining their used beer, so the ads are mostly re-runs or boring stuff.
Barak Obama: Lots of left-wing hippie crap that means nothing.  Proving he’s an empty suit who can sell a bunch of platitudes.  I thought FOX said there would be
NO POLITICAL ADS DURING THE SUPER BOWL COVERAGE!Well, there you have it.  Let’s see what y’all think of my report.