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MAF Presents: The Daily File Blog
Here at the Move America Forward Daily File we chronicle the good news on the War on Terrorism you might
not have heard about on the evening news. We also shine the spotlight on those whose conduct against our
country and our military is unbecoming.
Friday, September 28, 2007
American Troops Kill Top Terrorist
The good news keeps rolling in the war against radical Muslim Jihadists. Call it the purge.
Brig. Gen. Joseph Anderson said the death of the suspected terrorist and recent similar operations have left the organization in Iraq fractured.
So Harry Reid, who’s losing? You and your allies, the Moveon organs and the rest of your white-flag brigade.
Thursday, September 27, 2007
Warrant for Peace Mom’s Arrest
Say it ain’t so, Peace Mom.
Just when it looked like Cindy Sheehan might bust a move on House Speaker Nancy “surrender first” Pelosi (which means Sheehan might get 8 percent of the vote in her bid to oust Pelosi),a judge issued a warrant for her arrest. Apparently Sheehan missed her court date - because she doesn’t have to follow the law. Officers arrested Cindy outside the hearings at which hero Gen. Petraeus testified. FreeRepublic.com has an article explaining the two “stories” on Cindy’s absence.
Maybe she can hide out in Iran, where she can pick up some support for her congressional campaign?
White-flag crowd: You Still Have Dennis
The surrender-now crowd must be crying in their all-natural granola this morning. The Democrat presidential debate showed an inconvenient truth: the front-runners will not immediately pull out of Iraq. Shocking,I know.
Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton is looking at, oh, 2013 as a pull-out date.
She said:
There may be a continuing counter-terrorism mission,” she said, while adding that “the vast majority” of American troops would be out of Iraq by the end of her prospective first term in 2013.
This new awakening can only mean one thing: the Democrat front-runners may want to protect America after all. I know this is a stretch, but after Iranian President Mama I’m-a-need-a-Job ranted at Columbia and the United Nations, maybe they realized that the Bible is accurante when it says evil exists.
This is indeed a sad day for the Code Pinkos and the Moveon-dot-organs of the world.
Michelle Malkin has an excellent piece on this here.
Friday, September 21, 2007
Me, the President and Darth Vader
As I stood in front of him, I saw just another man. His eyes were bright with sincerity, his face more weathered than the TV shows. I was without the nerves I felt all night when I woke every hour on the hour.
The White House invited me and many others who support the military for a breakfast and meeting with President Bush, First Lady Laura Bush, and Vice President Dick Cheney on Tuesday. (The lefties who marched against our country in anti-war, anti-Bush, anti-Cheney, pro-abortion, pro-Che Guevara rallies last weekend weren’t invited. Imagine that? And they’re upset? Get a grip).
 I didn’t think about what I would say when I met them, so I spoke off the cuff. “Mr. President, I am Catherine Moy from Fairfield, Calif., home of Travis AFB. I am Communications Director for Move America Forward, the largest . . ..” He smiled and put his arm around me. He thanked MAF and all of the nation’s patriots for supporting our troops. “Mr. President. I want to thank you for your patience in this war against radical Muslim Jihadists. As you said from the beginning, this will be a long war. I also want to thank you for your patience in waiting to take a picture with me.”
Bush laughed, a Texas laugh, and squeezed my shoulder. He felt like an old friend. And why not? He has protected my skin for seven years. Another friend tried taking a picture, but my camera’s battery went dead. Classic.
“OK California. Here we go,” President Bush said to me. We turned toward the photographer, who snapped away. I had watched all morning as President Bush spoke to us, then shared time with individuals. Many had lost a son or daughter in Iraq or Afghanistan. After meeting with the president, who hugged and kissed them, many walked away with tears streaking their faces, their souls touched by the man who so loves our country, he sent their children to fight for it. .Some looked as if a weight were lifted from their tired, broken hearts. Their legs moved slowly, as through setting concrete, their arms close to the chest that President Bush had held close. The sight moved me. I remember the pictures that ran in the Vacaville Reporter, for which I write a regular column, of Cindy Sheehan hugging and snuggling with President Bush. That was before she was poisoned by politics and a need to run from the grief that still grips her. “It’s important people hear from you. It’s important people hear your voice. And I want to thank you for organizing,” Bush said in his speech on the White House South Lawn. “I want to thank you not only for the grassroots support of our families; I want to thank you for going up to Capitol Hill. And here’s a message I hope you deliver: The commander-in-chief wants to succeed, and the commander-in-chief takes seriously the recommendations of our military commanders.” The crowd loved Bush because they love America. We cheered and spontaneously broke out in chants of, “USA.USA.” Men who lost their legs in the war against America’s Muslim enemies offered a standing ovation. Mothers and fathers whose sons gave their lives rose to their feet and shouted. World War II vets, civilians fighting the enemy within – the Cindy Sheehan’s of the world – pumped fists. After breakfast, I met with Mrs. Bush, who exudes class. She wore a pantsuit, but might as well have been sporting a Versace gown. She was gracious, soft, but strong.
 Me, Laura Bush and Deborah Johns, Director of Military Relations, Move America Forward I noted a long, fresh surgical wound on her neck, stretching from her hairline down her back. Secret Service grabbed the arms of admirers who hugged Mrs. Bush and gently glided them down her back to avoid causing her pain. She hurt, but invited us into what she called the People’s House. A First Lady gives so much to the country. No visit to the White House would be complete with out rubbing elbows with Cheney. I introduced myself.
 “Mr. Vice President, you and I almost danced once. During your first inauguration. You know, when you and Dubya stole the election,” I said, winking. Everybody laughed. Even the Secret Service. Cheney gave that cock-eyed smile. The official photographer yelled out, what’s your name? “Catherine Moy – rhymes with Joy!!!” Cheney and I chatted. He had a comfortable manner, like my Texas relatives. Sweet, loving. Hillary Clinton called him Darth Vader this week. Haha. Michael Moore must stop writing her comedic lines. Seems she hasn’t taken the time to speak with the Vice President. Or she’s a liar. Or both.
I left the White House Tuesday knowing we are in good hands. The best. Thank God.
A friend to the U.S.A. Goes Home
Lt. Col. Buzz Patterson, vice chairman of Move America Forward, told us of the dark news: His friend, his “hero,” his “son” was killed in Iraq.
He was stunned, though the Colonel knows the sights and smells of war first hand.
Sgt. Eddie Jeffers was his family, and so he is ours. Our sincere condolences to Eddie’s family and friends, and to the Uninted States which has lost another of its best.
As Gold Star Mom Debbie Lee says about her brave son, “Sgt. Jeffers has been redeployed to Heaven.”
God Speed, Sgt. Jeffers.
And here is an article Eddie wrote. Nobody could say it better:
Hope Rides Alone
I stare out into the darkness from my post, and I watch the city burn to the ground. I smell the familiar smells, I walk through the familiar rubble, and I look at the frightened faces that watch me pass down the streets of their neighborhoods. My nerves hardly rest; my hands are steady on a device that has been given to me from my government for the purpose of taking the lives of others.
I sweat, and I am tired. My back aches from the loads I carry. Young American boys look to me to direct them in a manner that will someday allow them to see their families again...and yet, I too, am just a boy....my age not but a few years more than that of the ones I lead. I am stressed, I am scared, and I am paranoid...because death is everywhere. It waits for me, it calls to me from around street corners and windows, and it is always there.
There are the demons that follow me, and tempt me into thoughts and actions that are not my own...but that are necessary for survival. I’ve made compromises with my humanity. And I am not alone in this. Miles from me are my brethren in this world, who walk in the same streets...who feel the same things, whether they admit to it or not.
And to think, I volunteered for this…
And I am ignorant to the rest of the world...or so I thought.
But even thousands of miles away, in Ramadi, Iraq, the cries and screams and complaints of the ungrateful reach me. In a year, I will be thrust back into society from a life and mentality that doesn’t fit your average man. And then, I will be alone. And then, I will walk down the streets of America, and see the yellow ribbon stickers on the cars of the same people who compare our President to Hitler.
I will watch the television and watch the Cindy Sheehans, and the Al Frankens, and the rest of the ignorant sheep of America spout off their mouths about a subject they know nothing about. It is their right, however, and it is a right that is defended by hundreds of thousands of boys and girls scattered across the world, far from home. I use the word boys and girls, because that’s what they are. In the Army, the average age of the infantryman is nineteen years old. The average rank of soldiers killed in action is Private First Class.
People like Cindy Sheehan are ignorant. Not just to this war, but to the results of their idiotic ramblings, or at least I hope they are. They don’t realize its effects on this war. In this war, there are no Geneva Conventions, no cease fires. Medics and Chaplains are not spared from the enemy’s brutality because it’s against the rules. I can only imagine the horrors a military Chaplain would experience at the hands of the enemy. The enemy slinks in the shadows and fights a coward’s war against us. It is effective though, as many men and women have died since the start of this war. And the memory of their service to America is tainted by the inconsiderate remarks on our nation’s news outlets. And every day, the enemy changes...only now, the enemy is becoming something new. The enemy is transitioning from the Muslim extremists to Americans. The enemy is becoming the very people whom we defend with our lives. And they do not realize it. But in denouncing our actions, denouncing our leaders, denouncing the war we live and fight, they are isolating the military from society...and they are becoming our enemy.
Democrats and peace activists like to toss the word “quagmire” around and compare this war to Vietnam. In a way they are right, this war is becoming like Vietnam. Not the actual war, but in the isolation of country and military. America is not a nation at war; they are a nation with its military at war. Like it or not, we are here, some of us for our second, or third times; some even for their fourth and so on. Americans are so concerned now with politics, that it is interfering with our war.
Terrorists cut the heads off of American citizens on the internet...and there is no outrage, but an American soldier kills an Iraqi in the midst of battle, and there are investigations, and sometimes soldiers are even jailed...for doing their job.
It is absolutely sickening to me to think our country has come to this. Why are we so obsessed with the bad news? Why will people stop at nothing to be against this war, no matter how much evidence of the good we’ve done is thrown in their face? When is the last time CNN or MSNBC or CBS reported the opening of schools and hospitals in Iraq? Or the leaders of terror cells being detained or killed? It’s all happening, but people will not let up their hatred of President Bush. They will ignore the good news, because it just might show people that Bush was right.
America has lost its will to fight. It has lost its will to defend what is right and just in the world. The crazy thing of it all is that the American people have not even been asked to sacrifice a single thing. It’s not like World War II, where people rationed food and turned in cars to be made into metal for tanks. The American people have not been asked to sacrifice anything. Unless you are in the military or the family member of a servicemember, its life as usual...the war doesn’t affect you.
But it affects us. And when it is over and the troops come home and they try to piece together what’s left of them after their service...where will the detractors be then? Where will the Cindy Sheehans be to comfort and talk to soldiers and help them sort out the last couple years of their lives, most of which have been spent dodging death and wading through the deaths of their friends? They will be where they always are, somewhere far away, where the horrors of the world can’t touch them. Somewhere where they can complain about things they will never experience in their lifetime; things that the young men and women of America have willingly taken upon their shoulders.
We are the hope of the Iraqi people. They want what everyone else wants in life: safety, security, somewhere to call home. They want a country that is safe to raise their children in. Not a place where their children will be abducted, raped and murdered if they do not comply with the terrorists demands. They want to live on, rebuild and prosper. And America has given them the opportunity, but only if we stay true to the cause and see it to its end. But the country must unite in this endeavor...we cannot place the burden on our military alone. We must all stand up and fight, whether in uniform or not. And supporting us is more than sticking yellow ribbon stickers on your cars. It’s supporting our President, our troops and our cause.
Right now, the burden is all on the American soldiers. Right now, hope rides alone. But it can change, it must change. Because there is only failure and darkness ahead for us as a country, as a people, if it doesn’t.
Let’s stop all the political nonsense, let’s stop all the bickering, let’s stop all the bad news and let’s stand and fight!
Sergeant Eddie Jeffers was a US Army Infantryman serving in Ramadi, Iraq at the time he wrote this piece.
Monday, September 17, 2007
Day Thirteen - Washington DC - Gathering of Eagles III vs. ANSWER
Answer people!!!
Saturday, September 15, 2007
Of Troops and Treason
Unbelievable. From the powerful rally of red, white and blue to a miles’long contingent of patriots, thousands of people came out today to show unwavering support for America’s troops.
Melanie Morgan, chair of Move America Forward, and Kristinn Taylor co-emceed the Gathering of Eagles, a several-thousand-person strong contingent of red-blooded Americans on the Capitol Mall.
 The respecful gathering contrasted with the anti-war crowd that carried signs saying “f..k Bush” and other enlightening phrases. About 5,000 losers marched from the White House to the Capitol where a group of the held a die-in. They carried names of America’s heroes who gave their lives, despite pleas from the parents and families of those soldiers who asked that they not dishonor the troops. After the morning rally of patriots, which was bolstered by hard work from Free Republic, Gathering of Eagles, Families United and other pro-troops groups, lines of red,white and blue America-lovers lined the streets where Code Pink and other anarchist, communists and socialists marched. It was quite a gauntlet.
As of this writing, our brave police had to arrest the miscreants who lay in the streets. It was sickening to see.
Too much happened, too much was said, too much was embraced for words. Gold Star families, those whose loved ones gave their lives for America, spoke about their continued support for our troops, the need to win in Iraq.
 Rep, Duncan Hunter, who is running for the Republican nomination for president, spoke at the rally. A veteran himself, Congressman Hunter always pushes an agenda to protect and honor our troops. His son has served in Iraq and is now in Afghanistan. We will write more about this soon. I wanted to give a quick update on Move America Forward and all of the individuals who came out today. We will also post photos - we have lots of them. I want to thank everybody who helped, everybody who prayed, and everybody who attended today. And remember… as the banners on our caravan vehicles said… WE DON’T SURRENDER TO TERRORISTS!
Friday, September 14, 2007
Day Twelve - Walter Reed National Army Medical Center, Washington, D.C.
I just had the privilege of speaking with Debbie Lee as she just came from Walter Reed Medical Center VA Hospital.
She described the visit that she, Deborah Johns and others from Move America Forward paid to wounded vets and talked with me about some of the things she saw. It was an amazing little story and I feel very lucky to be able to relate it to all of you out there.
When the Move America Forward group arrived at the hospital they were ushered into the main building where military or their families might be receiving treatment for any number of things, whether it be a simple physical, maternity, getting blood work or any other sort of every day ailments like an ear infection or sore throat.
One important factor in this visit is that the rules for visitation had changed since the last time the Debs visited Walter Reed last year. This time around, rather than be allowed to roam the halls freely, the group was strictly held together and could only visit one room at a time, as a party. There was limited opening for visitors too, so only a few MAF members went in, joined by some visitors associated with Gathering of Eagles and some of the other pro troop groups that are converging on Washington DC at this very moment.
The group spent several hours making their way through four floors of the main building there, all the while meeting individual soldiers and their families who were often visiting at the same time. Meeting a wounded vet is different every time. Sometimes they are alone, sometimes they are with family, sometimes they are alone, but get visited often and prefer that the group visit with another soldier who doesn’t get as many visitors. Even wounded and in recovery these guys look out for their brothers. The mood of the visits depends on the personality and what stage of healing the soldier is in too. For the most part though, Debbie said all the soldiers were grateful, upbeat and positive. That’s very relieving to me personally. Another thing was that Debbie wasn’t really sure if she should tell the vets that her own son had died in Iraq, not knowing if they would be oversensitive to that sort of story, but according to the VA Hospital guide, and also in her experiences with actually talking to the soldiers there, she has found that most of the wounded vets love to hear Marc’s story and often connect to Debbie on a much more personal level when they realize what her son sacrificed and how much they all have in common because of that sacrifice which they all share.
The group spent several hours just at this building, they met with the wounded vets, talked with them, shared stories and delivered cards and notes of encouragement. They also dropped off the cookies, beef jerky, and bags of candy that we had all packed up in boxes. The hospital prefers this method over individual packages that contain one of each thing, because this way they just lay all the jerky in a pile, all the cookies in another pile, all the books, candy and little gifts in different piles. That way the soldiers all just come in a line and pass by the table taking only the items they will actually use.
The party left the main building, after going through about four floors of the unit, and proceeded down the road about a miles walk to the next building or house as they call it here. The next house, their guide told the group, was most often overlooked by visitors because the men and women recovering there were at a later stage of recuperation and the building is a little out of the way, so typically visitors don’t go to see those soldiers. But Move America Forward did, so they proceeded to the seldom visited house, the name of which I cannot recall at this time. There, we found out the name, Abram House.
As they approached, Debbie recalls that the group could see several fire trucks in front of the building and droves of soldiers milling around the front. They were the wounded vets who were living in that barracks and they were standing around because someone had pulled a fire alarm or there had been a routine drill or something like that. The Move America Forward entourage began talking to the troops standing outside, while the fire department checked out the barracks, and also started handing out the cards, cookies, jerky, books, etc etc, etc. After a while the coast was clear and many of the soldiers started going back into their barracks. It was decided that the group would move on to the next building, Malone House.
Debbie was talking to the last guy who was standing outside, and they were JUST about to leave when the veteran she had been speaking to made a comment about Debbie’s shirt. She was of course wearing her Navy Seals shirt, because Marc was a S.E.A.L. The young man Debbie had been talking to said that he had served with some Navy SEALs. It was then that Debbie first told the man that her own son Marc has been a SEAL and that he was in fact the first US Navy SEAL to have been KIA in Iraq.
Before Debbie could even begin to tell Marc’s story, the young US Army Specialist Brent Matchison, 22, asked if it has been in Ramadi, which is exactly where Marc died. Now at first Debbie thought that this guy had just read about Marc. Being the FIRST Navy SEAL to have been KIA, Marc’s story is somewhat well known in the community. But this soldier insisted “I served with your son, I knew Marc.” Debbie didn’t know how that could be, since this guy was in the Army and Marc was in the Navy, but Brent knew exactly the name of the Army Captain whose detail it was that Marc’s SEAL team was attached to.
It was then absolutely clear that this young guy, only 22 years old, from Villa Hills, KY served in the Army unit that Debbie’s son had been assigned to. Brent and Marc had lived and fought together in Iraq before Marc sacrificed his life for Americans everywhere. After much hugs and tears Debbie had acquired yet another surrogate son. It also turns out that Brent has lots of photos of Marc in Iraq, photos the likes of which Debbie has never seen, so it was an absolute Godsend that these two found each other!
The group continued on to the Malone house and dropped off more treats, books, cards and other gifts to the lobby there. Debbie said that she saw two soldiers at Malone house that actually remembered Move America Forward from the last time they visited Walter Reed. Altogether Debbie estimates she spoke (personally) to about 50 soldiers and families. But we did not even scratch the surface of all the soldiers out there, and Debbie said she wants to go to Bethesda, MD to the VA hospital there, next week.
We were talking, Debbie and I, a bit about the general feeling she gets whenever she visits a VA hospital. Aside from the happy greetings and grateful soldiers, I mean. Debbie got the impression that a lot of these soldiers are visited quite frequently by any number of groups or individuals, not family, visiting the soldiers for charity, just like Move America Forward. Some of the wounded vets, Debbie said, had already been visited twice or three times today even before Move America Forward got there. This represents (to me) a sense that there is a huge community out there involved in giving to the troops and supporting the troops with prayers, care packages, letters and cards, and visits. And there are a LOT of groups doing it. I have never seen any statistics on this, but if I did, I get the feeling that those stats would show a massive, really huge, underground movement of these charitable groups out there actively supporting the troops.
The thing is, and this is why I was surprised to have Debbie tell me it, the idea of the American people ACTUALLY SUPPORTING the troops (more so than saying it or putting a little yellow ribbon magnet or sticker on your car bumper) is hardly EVER mentioned by the mass media. It seems like we see all the stories about protesters but never the supporters who are actively working to help the troops. Actively but QUIETLY working. These groups don’t care about getting their faces on TV for doing good work and helping the troops, to them, like for us, the main objective is to get results that help our troops recover, or to do their jobs better or be more comfortable in doing that job.
It’s just encouraging to know though, that even though they don’t get publicized, those groups are OUT THERE. They’re doing great things to help our troops, and they’re doing it HEAVILY. Out there, across America there is a MASSIVE movement to support our troops, quietly mobilizing to help and support the mission to win in Iraq by giving our fighting men and women the tools and support they need to WIN the war on terror.
Finally I just have to comment about how BLOWN AWAY I was about Debbie’s story tonight. I just can’t believe the coincidence of it. I mean, it’s not a coincidence, it simply can’t be. This had to be fated, undeniably an act of God, at least in my eyes. I mean all those soldiers were going back into the barracks and the group was just about to move onto another building. Brent could have easily been standing right NEXT to the guy Debbie talked to last before moving on. He could have gone back in the barracks 15 seconds earlier and NEVER talked to Debbie. But none of those things interfered, and Debbie got to meet another of the brave men who served with Marc. Absolutely astonishing that The Fight For Victory Tour is blessed with such miracles.
Move America Forward Confronts Senator Reid’s Office on Betrayal of Troops
Sen. Harry Reid Refuses to Meet with Grieving Mother
Debbie Lee and Deborah Johns stopped by Sen. Hary Reid’s Senate office Friday, but the senator refused to come out of his office to meet the women.
Johns son has served three tours in Iraq and has signed up for a fourth.
The two Debs were with a few people represnting Move America Forward, the largest nonprofit, protroops organization in the country.
Reid has a strange way of showing his support. He has said they are losers - that U.S. troops have already lost in Iraq.
Then he refused to condemn a vile advertisement a radical leftwing group published in the New York Times calling their Iraqi commander, Gen. David Petraeus, a betrayer.
If that’s showing support, I wonder what Reid would do if he didn’t support our troops!
FOX News filmed the discussion among the military mothers, Morgan, Patterson and Reid’s aide.
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