Project Hero: SSG Raymond Bittinger, Silver Star

Meet today’s hero, SSG Raymond Bittinger, an infantryman and squad leader with 2nd Battalion, 2nd Infantry Regiment of the 1st Infantry Division. On the day of this incident he was attached to the 1st Battalion, 6th Field Artillery Regiment.

So says McQ yesterday. A great story, made all the greater by the reaction of Bittinger, himself:

 “I consider myself a soldier, not a hero,” said Bittinger after the ceremony. “I’m an infantryman. It’s my duty; it’s my job.”

There is something, I think, in the breed of hero that demands such a downplay.

Go and read.

Project Hero, is a worthy attempt on McQ‘s part to remind us that we have heroes among us. Further, that these need to be honored as such. We at BitsBlog are proud to lend our voice to such a project.

Michelle notes that the charges against Lance Cpl Stephen Tatum have been dropped.

By the Marines… not by Democrat Jack Murtha, who accused the Marines of murdering people in cold blood.

Where’s Jack Murtha now?

Certainly, he is not where he belongs… in jail for his smears.

At the very least, Murtha needs to be on the street looking up to where his office used to be.

Let’s shine the ligght on John Murtha. Beware; like most cockraches, he’s going to try to run for cover, like he did here:

[wp_youtube]hMedVWUsSFU&e[/wp_youtube]

Time for you to leave, Murtha.

MSNBC is saying:

BAGHDAD – Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr on Sunday ordered his fighters off the streets nationwide and called on the government to stop raids against his followers and free them from prison.

Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki issued a statement calling the order “a step in the right direction” towards resolving six days of violence sparked by operations against al-Sadr’s backers in the oil-rich southern city of Basra.

Al-Sadr’s nine-point statement was issued by his headquarters in the holy city of Najaf and broadcast through loudspeakers at Shiite mosques.

So, once again, Sadr recognizes he cannot win.

 Ed Morrissey at Hot Air notes the same story and says:

When the Iraqi government finally took the long-expected action to establish control of Basra after the British pullback left it in the hands of militias and gangsters, suddenly the media declared that the country had reached the brink of collapse. They highlighted stories of defections from the Iraqi military and opined that the surge had failed. Moqtada al-Sadr would finally achieve his goal of controlling the South and would expose the Baghdad government as a house of cards.

Guess which side just sued for peace?

Really. Edgets into some detail that the press missed in all of this, and says.

 Did our media give anyone this context? No. They reported it as some kind of spontaneous eruption of rebellion without noting at all that a nation can hardly be considered sovereign while its own security forces cannot enter a large swath of its own territory. And in the usual defeatist tone, they reported that our mission in Iraq had failed without waiting to see what the outcome of the battle would be.

Almost like there was a pattern, here, or something. I can’t quite put my finger on it, though. Maybe soemthing todo with the election next November… but it couldn’t be that…. I mean, could it?

Yeah, THAT figures.

While this site was offline because of the server move…. (and I must admit the performance appears to be better at first glance) it turns out that WordPress has released a new version, too, and the system is demanding an upgrade.

I think I’ll be holding off on that just a bit, for two reasons;

1. We’re still waiting for the dust to settle at the host; that was a major move, and one of the worst things you can do is add complexity to keeping things running in such a situation.
2. As yet undiscovered errors may exist in the new WP, too.

As yet, I’m unwilling to combine these two situations. Forget it; I’ve got enough excitement in my life just now. Maybe next weekend. If past is prologue, it should take around 15 minutes to update the system.

Next weekend.

In 2000, Mrs Clintoin campaigned on promise to fix the upstate New York economy.   She did not.   Now Mrs. Clinton is promising to fix the national economy   Yet while Mrs.. Clinton claims this magical, albeit never demonstrated, economic genius, much like Barack Obama claimed ability to bring people together, Mrs. Clinton can not even manage in the finances of her own campaign, Kenneth P. Vogel, Politico, reports, “Cash-strapped Clinton fails to pay bills:”

Hillary Rodham Clinton’s cash-strapped presidential campaign has been putting off paying hundreds of bills for months – freeing up cash for critical media buys but also earning the campaign a reputation as something of a deadbeat in some small-business circles.

Mrs. Clinton started out with huge name recognition and a campaign war chest of over hundred million dollars.  Now she trails a glib hick from Chicago by some seven points.  Mrs. Clinton, it is time for you to lean how to bake cookies.   Politics is just not your cup of tea.

From the Telegraph, today:

Plans for Al Gore to take the Democratic presidential nomination as the saviour of a bitterly divided party are being actively discussed by senior figures and aides to the former vice-president.

The bloody civil war between Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama has left many Democrats convinced that neither can deliver a knockout blow to the other and that both have been so damaged that they risk losing November’s election to the Republican nominee, John McCain.

Former Gore aides now believe he could emerge as a compromise candidate acceptable to both camps at the party’s convention in Denver during the last week of August.

Two former Gore campaign officials have told The Sunday Telegraph that a scenario first mapped out by members of Mr Gore’s inner circle last May now has a sporting chance of coming true.

Just to make sure I understand this; Gore was an unperson for years after the loss in 2000; Democrats have the habit of eating the remains of their losers, making sure nobody remembers they were ever a Democrat…and Gore certainly qualified.

He was labeled as a part of the Clinton White House, which many Democrat blame to be part of the reason for the major split in the Democrat party of today. Yet, we are to now believe the Democrats now don’t view him as Hillary Clinton Lite, but as the savior for the party? Oh, Please….

This is a desperation play, gang.

Here it is; The Democrats themselves can’t agree on lunch, much less on policy, much less yet, the person to drive it. The Democrat party of today is over-run with MOVEON types who can’t get their noses out of their copies of Das Capital long enough to recognize the real issues that face this country.  About half of them are still ticked at Gore for what they see as having squandered the 2000 election. Oddly enough, this is about the same percentage as the Democrats are split by today. What they do not understand of course is their perception of what’s needful policy wise, on just abot anything you can name is about 180 degrees out of phase with reality, which in fact is why Democrats ahve been out of the WHite House for the last 8 years.

Here’s the deal; Democrats have been screaming about how badly GWB sucks. Well, maybe. But then again, Gore… and then Kerry, still lost. Why’s that, do you suppose? Does this mean that Kerry and Gore were less qualified for the job? I suspect it does, though I also suspect you’d never get the Democrats to admit it.

And the American voters in majority, recognized this about Gore in 2000, and about Kerry in 04. And that image of being unqualified has been nothing but reinforced since then.  So now beacuse neither one of their current candidates can get a groundswell behind them even in their own party, much less the country as a whole, the Democrats rehab Al Gore and send him out? Comon, gang.

Look; Even aside from all of that and even assuming that Gore is able to patch up, rather than make worse, the wounds the Democrats are already suffering with, and takes the nomination, his being exposed as a fraud on Global warming certainly is not going to help him in the general election. Gore is a target about which there is much good information, enough to bring down ten such desperation plays.

Like any other desperation play, this ‘draft Gore’ business doesn’t stand much of a chance of doing anything but making the situation worse for the Democrats…. deepening, in this case, the split that is already in the foundations of the Democrat party.  Captain Planet isn’t going to solve that one; He’s part of the problem. 

This ‘Hail Mary’ pass will, however, make for good comedy.

Apparently all went well on their end.

We’d have been back sooner, but they apparently changed the database address, and I had to go hunting for it.

Normal posting will commence once i pick up the pieces here.

David and Fers, you’re good to go, too.

Ad Info: Looks like there’s a bit of weirdness going on in the time base. This will affect the order in which posts are shown.

I’m on it.

Udpdate:  Got it going. We appear to be at 100%.

It still seems a long shot, but could Rudi Guiliani still make to the White House, in 2013?    New York has been a stepping stone for governors aspiring to become president, both Roosevelt’s,  Thomas Dewey, and even George Pataki.    The New York Post reports that if David Paterson resigned and a special election if called, Guiliani may run, Maggie Haberman:
:

In the latest twist in New York politics, Rudy Giuliani is eyeing a run for governor in a special election this fall should Gov. Paterson be forced to resign, sources say.

A top adviser to the former mayor, who pulled the plug on his presidential bid in January, yesterday dangled the possibility of Giuliani’s running in a special election

Giuliani hasn’t been impeccable, but compared to Eliot Spitzer and David Paterson, Rudi has been a boy scout. 

John McCain likely will not run in 2012.   If Giuliani can straighten the mess left by Spitzer and Paterson, and get three good years under his belt, he will be formidable candidate. ?

BitsBlog will be going offline at Midnight tonight, to return by Midnight Sunday night. This is to allow a server move.

(Sticky)

• John Venlet showed up to play, yesterday. Nice to see you, John. Missed ya. He says he’s going to be posting quite a bit in the next several weeks, apparently focusing on the mortgage industry.
• Me at Q&O today, about the delegate fight:
  

  The system involving Super-Delegates was contrived so as to prevent what the leadership sees as undesirable candidates from being nominated. In the original case, it was Jesse Jackson, who was seen as way too liberal. These days, it’s the wife of our first black President, who is seen as way too conservative.To my thought, that’s the best indicator of how the baseline politics of the Democrats have shifted to the extreme left… and how much MoveOn dictates what happens with the Democrats, anymore.

  What I find most amusing of all is that they’ve no clue the destructive course they’ve set for themselves.

  Amusing and amazing, really.

• We caught around 4 inches of snow, last night. Depending on how they came out, I’ll show you pics on Monday. Really pretty, even though the entire concept of snow, this time of year, bores me to tears.
• Remember, this blog will be offline for as much as 48 hours, starting on Friday night at Midnight, because of a planned physical move.
• They apparently caught that I-64 sniper.
• This bozo should be lined up in front of a firing squad, which is supplied with his own ammo. The squad should be instructed to keep firing until enough of the stuff works to get the job done.  Slow death? Painful? Deserved. I’m sure there are folks in Afghanistan who will like the idea… the ones, particulrly who had to deal with his crap.

It is funny that while Mrs. Clinton has been claiming, albeit with rather dubious success, foreign poliicy experienc she simply does not have, she has not yet claimed experience she does have.   Mrs. Clinton meet with a spy for Saddam Hussien and may have violated the Logan Act as well, Ira Stoll,  Sun(NY):

A Michigan man facing federal criminal charges of illegally working for Saddam Hussein‘s Iraqi Intelligence Service says he met with Hillary Clinton at the White House in May 1996.

Mums the word from Mrs. Clinton’s campaign:

Asked whether Senator Clinton recalls the meeting or whether the presidential campaign had any further comment on the meeting in light of Mr. Hanooti’s indictment, the Clinton presidential campaign yesterday offered no formal response

Steve Emerson, Investigative Project on Terrorism, has  a photograph which might refresh Mrs. Clinton’s memory:

Steve also has nice picture of Hanooti’ with Al Gore.

Meanwhile over at Hot Air, color Allah Pundit underwelmed:

In other words, he was there on behalf of Saddam even if he wasn’t technically there on behalf of Saddam. I’m underwhelmed, but only because my expectations of who the Democrats generally and the Clintons in particular are willing to entertain at the White House are so low that they’re almost impossible to disappoint. Of course she met with Hanooti; if memory serves, the foreign leader who visited the White House most frequently during the Clinton years was Yasser Arafat.

So Obama makes his second run at the problem on The View — a show with the intellectual depth of a small soap dish – confident that serious questions on the topic will not be asked. Should such questions ever get asked, Obama will likely point to The View to claim he answered them

Karl, Protein Wisdom.

Hume, last night:

The United Nations Human Rights Council was supposed to be better than the old Human Rights Commission, which became famous for bias and hypocrisy. Now the same charge is being leveled at the new body

The council elected Swiss national Jean Ziegler to its advisory committee. But Ziegler has a history of sympathizing with the regimes of Cuba’s Fidel Castro and Zimbabwe’s Robert Mugabe – and has criticized US and Israeli relations.

The same council also appointed Princeton International Law scholar Richard Falk to a post overseeing Israel’s conduct in the Palestinian territories. The problem is, Falk has a history of comparing Israeli treatment of Palestinians to Nazi atrocities against Jews.

Israel’s ambassador to the U.N. said Falk is not impartial, as did the Canadian ambassador. And Florida Congresswoman Ileana Ros-Lehtinen released a statement, “This sad occasion reinforces the need for the United States and other responsible nations to demand fundamental reform of the United Nations.”

The problem is, it can’t be reformed.

I’ve been saying for years, the United Nations is a basket case, and the best thing we could do for the cause of peace would be to call in an air strike on Turtle Bay. That’s a statement I stand by today, having had my original assessment reinforced by these people. Bottom line is, the whole of the thing is corrupted beyond repair, and shuffling the deck chairs does not constitute effecting repairs.

The first step to fixing the damage this org has caused, is admitting it shouldn’t be fixed, but destroyed. The problem here is that we should not be just replacing the org as such, but rather we should be questioning the entire concept of a UN…  Not just labeling it something else and using the same type of moron that gravitates to such an org.

Addenum:  (David L)

The problems of the United Nations are structural, the flawed notion of one nation, one vote,without regard to either population or legitimacy of the government.  For example, India has over one billion people and a republican form of government.  Cuba has  eleven million people and a communist dead pot dictator for life and beyond.    Source:  CIA – World Fact Book.   Yet by some strange United Nations calculus, both are entitled to one vote in the General Assembly.  I hold that it is absurd to give India and Cuba equal representation. 

The institution which replaces the United Nations should represent people and not unelected dictators, a League of Democracies.

Addendum:(Bit)

Agreed…. and here I have to credit John McCain. who apparently has this one right.

When it rains, it pours and disgraced former New York governor Eliot Spitzer is in sore need of an umbrella.  Jame Schram et al, New York Post:

Disgraced former Gov. Eliot Spitzer has been identified as a long-standing client of a second high-priced call-girl ring, The Post has learned.

The ex-governor regularly patronized Wicked Models

If you thought that Spitzer’s trouble sounds like fodder for a Law & Order episode, read on:

Davis’ alleged multimillion-dollar empire was smashed by city vice cops as she made plans to skip town. Prosecutors say she netted some $2 million last year by pimping out ladies of the night for as much as $1,000 an hour through four Web sites.

Dick Wolf is just going to have to find a dead body so as to move the case from vice to homocide so that detectives Green and Lupo can make the bust.  Heck I might even stay up late to watch.

Bonus: All Eliot’s hos.

 Addendum: (Bit) Michelle notes the last line of the Post story

“She personally interfaced with Spitzer a number of times” since 2003 before she became a madam, a source close to Davis said.

and says:

“Interfacing”… a new Spitzerism.”

Heh.

Well, it’s not like it’s original. Years ago, I used to have a computer shirt… Commie 64 on it… the caption was: “May I interface with your floppies?” The girls at the bar got a charge out of that shirt, for reasons I’m sure Eliot would understand. Wish I had a photo of it. Make a great graphic.

Bit Rambled about Chelsea Clinton.   Now I grant you that it is not comfortable being questioned about your parents’ integrity or lack thereof.   However Miss Clinton is endorsing and campaigning for her mother, Mrs. Clinton.   The character of a candidate is a legitimate question.     See Snark of the Day.  Mrs. Clinton’s character, or lack thereof, is a subject of discussion.   I make darn sure it is.

I am simply not willing to give adult children a free pass on the sins of their parents.   I so held Caroline Kennedy Schlossberg’s feet to the fire:

So Caroline Kennedy Schlossberg’s endorsement of Baack[sic] Obama only shows that she learned her history at the family dinner table and not in the public library.   

Just as Mrs. Schlossberg is not free to gloss over the sins of her father, Miss Clinton is not free to ignore the sins of her parents.    If Miss Clinton is not willing to discuss the character of the candidate whom she is endorsing,  her only honorable option is to withdraw her endorsement and to retire from the campaign.   It would be nice to see a Clinton do the honorable thing once.

Bonus, B.J. Clinton is fond of issuing apologies for what was not responsible. like slavery.   In the Clinton family spirit, maybe Miss Clinton should apologize for her parents’ behavior?