Monday, April 14, 2008
MAF Supports Gold Star License Plates and Siphoning Funds from Berkeley in California Legislature

Code Pink: Fails at What They Do Best, Disrupt.
AND
Common Sense? The Bizarre Fight for Gold Star Recognition License Plates

Proper Recognition for Families that Make the Ultimate Sacrifice

Midmorning today, Gold-star and Blue-star Families and pro-troop activists from Move America Forward gathered with California lawmakers and representatives from the Calif. National Guard on an issue that has been brewing into a tooth-and-nails fight, playing out in the California legislature.

Right now, over 22 states have Gold Star Family, Mother, or Wife license plates available to gold star families to apply for, or will have made such special plates available within the next few months. A list of which states is available from American Gold Star Mothers here:

For some reason though, California has not been able to institute such a program.

Last year, when the GS Fam License Plate bill was up for the first time, it passed the Assembly side no problem, however, when the Bill went to the State Senate, it was hung up in committee. There is an expectation that the same will happen this year, despite that fact that the bill has been reworked and it’s language has been improved quite a bit.

Salem-News piece on Gold Star Plates

Capitol Bureau Report

Senator Dave Cogdill, 14th District

Senator Jeff Denham, 12th District

Major General William Wade II, Adjutant General of Calif. Nat’l Guard

Mike Anderson, Gold-Star Father of Cpl Michael Anderson Jr. KIA Dec 12, 2004

Thomas J Fache, Secretary of Calif. Dept. of Veterans Affairs
He is holding a list of samples from other states that offer Gold Star Plates

A Chaplain with the National Guard who is ALSO a Gold Star Dad

Sample of the proposed plate design

The Press Conference for the Transportation Funding Bill

Later on in the afternoon Move America Forward also attended a press conference for Assemblyman Guy Houston who has a bill coming up before the CA Assembly Transportation Committee that would intend to strip some transportation funds (about $3.3M) from Berkeley coffers because of the misuse of city funds to subsidize one group’s point of view and freedom of speech over others (ie. Code Pink)

Assemblyman Guy Houston

With Blue-Star Moms

Deborah Johns, Mother of USMC Sgt. William Johns

In the press conference, Guy Houston explained this rationale for his bill, as quoted by the Contra Costa Times here.

“Berkeley’s City Council has granted anti-military activists a public resource to assist in barricading the Marine recruitment office,” Houston said. “The public right of way has been violated, and the state must not stand idly by.”

NBC 11 Coverage on Houston’s Bill

While it remains to be seen if this bill would ever make it through a democrat-controlled state legislature, this bill makes the statement that we cannot be allowing city governments to take sides on issues, especially when there are the civil rights of multiple parties to think about.

The city council has a right to pass a resolution stating their opinion on the war, and anti-war groups have the rights to protest like any other group but the situation is out of control and the city sanctions this type of thing. They called on citizens to “impede the work of recruiters” that is part of the resolution they passed and that language has never been rescinded.

It’s because of the city’s stance that Code Pink is bold enough and freely blocks roadways and sidewalks, parks their abomination of a vehicle in front of the office, graffiti’s and defaces the recruiting center regularly, blocks entry to the station, harasses the Marines who work out of there, and have no begun trespassing and occupying the recruiting station.

This goes beyond a simple protest: its harassment, it’s seditious and should not be permitted to continue.

It was not long after the press conference began that Code Pink’s Zanne Joi and friends began shouting out questions or making dissenting remarks out loud. One of them, who apparently has some kind of…Berkeley Liberation Radio credential (I guess you can get anything laminated at Kinko’s) posed a non-question along the brilliant rhetorical formula “what about…X”

I remember that one from 4th grade, I think the proper response is “So?”

Code Pink looking interested

Radio Personality

Anyways they tried to be disruptive as usual, but they just weren’t on their game today…or they just couldn’t bring enough whiney girls with them…so the troop supporters in the room easily drowned them out with the applause for Assemblyman Houston’s great bill.


Assemblyman Houston greets supporters of his legislation

After that press conference, both bills came up again in the Assembly Transportation Committee Hearing. Move America Forward and others testified their support for both bills, which went to votes. The License plate bill went out of committee, while Houston’s bill is waiting for more votes from members that were not present.

Deborah Johns said “this is an organization that is designed to harass a particular class of citizens that is protected by our constitution.”

John Bringuel said “It was appalling to me, to be in Berkeley on February 12, and watch the City Council support Code Pink.”

“Move America Forward believes that the State of California should send the city of Berkeley a strong message that this state will not spend taxpayer’s money in cities that work to impede the lawful work of a United States office.” said Catherine Moy, our Executive Director. “Would you find it appropriate to use taxpayer’s funds to sponsor an organization’s efforts to occupy your offices and impede your daily work?”

There was also a representative from Berkeley there who said, in defense of the City, something to the effect of, “the city of Berkeley did have a follow-up meeting ….that lasted until 2 in the morning and everyone had the opportunity to speak and rescinded much of that language”

Yes, we’ve heard it all before. That the speech-loving Berkeley city council has gone to such lengths to accommodate both sides, and give everyone a voice…yeah right.

Move America Forward has been fighting these un-American, hateful groups that try to undermine our troops for years now, and we’ve been fighting against some of the inept and quite frankly…stupid…people of the Berkeley City Council for months.

They haven’t been genuine in any of their supposed ‘offers’
They’re aligned with Code Pink, and they’ve been doing everything in their power to support that group at the exclusion of dissenting groups.

There’s no other way to slice it.

Sunday, April 13, 2008
Patraeus testifies again: Liberals pile on

Helen Thomas has written another scathing opinion dripping with contempt for General Petraeus, Ryan Crocker and of course, we can’t forget, the President.

Surprisingly even Democratic would-be presidents Obama and Hillary could not escape her livid criticism.

In their disappointing comments, the Democratic rivals were as cautious as Petraeus.
Clinton said “it’s time to begin an orderly withdrawal of our troops.”
Obama told Petraeus that while he wants U.S. troops out of Iraq, he “would not initiate a precipitous withdrawal.”

Watching the testimony myself, and looking at the comments of liberal columnists, I cannot believe the complete willingness to ignore the situation. Liberals continue to stump from their imagined moral high-horse of ‘we should never have gone in the first place’ and draw the (il)logical conclusion of ‘lets pull-out and withdraw immediately’

Thomas pointed to the testimony of a dissident-general – oh wait, he was fired because he couldn’t do his job.

Odom testified before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee last week and urged an immediate withdrawal from Iraq. He claimed the troop surge (escalation) has prolonged instability in Iraq and that the only “sensible strategy” is “rapid withdrawal.”
In a separate speech last week, the outspoken general said, “We are certainly to blame for the chaos in Iraq” but “we do not have the physical means to prevent it.”

I had never heard of this remark before, but now that Thomas has brought it up, I can’t believe this guy ever made the rank of 3-star general! I mean just take ONE good look at any of the charts that Petraues had as part of his testimony and you can easily see that…the troop surge caused a drop in violence.

Charts from Patreus Testimony HERE

Not only do we HAVE the physical means to prevent this ‘chaos’ but Petraeus has DEMONSTRATED the ability to do so! No one can be given more credit than Petraeus for the success in Iraq, and it is he who is responsible today, for the fact that many Iraqis still live safely and feely in Iraq who otherwise WOULD HAVE been murdered or blown up in IED attacks in this past year – if not for the Surge.

When Hugh Hewitt Interviewed Odom over a year ago, it was clear from this excerpt that Odom does not think our forces being present kept anyone in Iraq any safer.

HH: But if we precipitously withdraw, do you expect genocide?
WO: I would call some of the things…I mean, you know, that’s a definitional term.
HH: Do the numbers…
WO: I mean, it depends on what you define as genocide.
HH: Do the numbers matter at all to your analysis? If someone came to you and said 100,000 people will die…
WO: Yes, they matter, and what I’m telling you is that we can’t affect, we cannot improve the numbers of survivors by staying longer.

Well I think its been a year since this statement…and we have stayed longer…and if you just looked at the charts then it’s obvious we HAVE improved numbers of survivors…by staying longer.

General Petraeus is the only person who had demonstrated an ability to make decisions that cause less chaos, less death and increased security…so who’s do you think is the more credentialed opinion?

Helen Thomas is just so funny, in another part of her opinion, she talked about Lyndon Johnson having the cajones to say no to sending more 240,000 troops to Vietnam in 1968. Well what a GREAT decision that was…why just look at what happened as a result.

Even a college student has a better understanding of Vietnam than Thomas, who probably only remembers the LSD-induced love-ins that did SOOOO much to accomplish peace...pat yourselves on the backs hippies.

Thomas wants President Bush to respond like LBJ despite the fact that all the evidence points to another Vietnam-like massacre occurring in the absence of US Military-provided security. Millions died in the violence that followed and if we pull out of Iraq, the same will happen here.

It is clear from this liberal’s interpretation of Petraeus’s expert testimony...no amount of evidence can sway the liberal mind.

Tuesday, April 08, 2008
Gen. Petraeus Thanks All who Support Our Troops

Gen. David Petraeus ended his formal, prepared remarks today in front of the pompous Senators by thanking all of those who support our troops. He said support from home is important to the troops on the ground and that he appreciates it very much.

Congratulations to all of you who support Move America Forward, the largest pro-troop organization in the country. Your prayers, contributions and physical help is recognized by our men and women on the ground and by their leader.

Such a gentleman. Especially when you stack him up against Ted “The Swimmer” Kennedy and other blowhards in the Senate. What is wrong with the folks who keep electing the likes of Kennedy. This guy is pickled. Done. Put a fork in him.

Kennedy and other lefties grilled Petraeus, whose expertise and honesty overwhelmed the nitpickers.

The very condensed message from Petraeus who, at this hour, faces more Senate questioning.

Things are a whole let better in Iraq than a year ago. American troops are the best ever. We are winning (my words). We need to be careful about pulling out troops or we will give al Qaeda a “safehouse,” if you will, from which to operate its killing operations.

I’m going back to listening here. Will down some Tums so these America-haters to make me lose my breakfast.

Monday, April 07, 2008
Liberal Mass Media: Patraeus can do nothing right and Maliki fighting sectarians undermines peace?

According to several media reports today, the situation in Iraq is deteriorating and General Petraeus has nothing good to report...despite the fact that he’s hasn’t even reported yet.

Does this sound familiar? oh yeah, it’s like the last time Gen. Petraeus came before congress, and even before they heard what he had to say, news media as well as anti-war types were already denouncing him as a liar and a puppet for the Bush administration.

Today’s various news outlets painted a gloomy picture of Iraq for tommorows report.

One report available here seemed to recognize some of the surge’s successes but was quick to detract from the relatively steady stream of good news:

Violence in Iraq recently had dropped to a nearly three-year low. The once-intransigent Iraqi parliament had passed some key pieces of legislation. Only five U.S. service members had been killed since October in Anbar province, a fraction of the toll a year ago

But that was before the offensive that Prime Minister Nouri al Maliki launched in the southern port city of Basra and in Baghdad two weeks ago. Instead of ridding the city of rogue Shiite Muslim militias, the operation exposed the frailty of the U.S.-trained Iraqi military, emboldened rebel Shiite cleric Muqtada al Sadr and his fighters....

Another report from the New York Times also concludes that Maliki’s fighting against the JAM Militia actually represents instability:

A crackdown on the Mahdi Army militia is creating potentially destabilizing political and military tensions in Iraq, pitting a stronger government alliance against the force that has won past showdowns: the street power wielded by the radical cleric Moktada al-Sadr.

The paper is quick to characterize the outcome of Maliki’s Basra operation as a complete defeat

Although Mr. Maliki’s military operation in Basra foundered against Mahdi resistance and the Green Zone has been pounded with rockets fired from around the Shiite stronghold of Sadr City, the prime minister has been freshly embraced by several Shiite, Kurdish and even Sunni blocs who at times seemed to support him mainly because there was no obvious alternative.

Ironically, according to other news sources, the Basra thrust could produce long-term security gains.
This story from the Associated Press seems to indicated that rather than emboldening the JAM, the operation actually pounded the JAM to the point where they are calling for a non-military resolution!

Aides to Muqtada al-Sadr called Monday for dialogue to resolve a violent standoff with the Iraqi government, saying that the radical Shiite cleric would disband his militia if senior religious leaders ordered it.

So here we clearly see there are some media outlets calling Maliki’s offensive a huge blunder, saying it’s undermining the peace that has been built around Iraq when the truth is clearly quite the opposite, according to conflicting stories.

The reality of the situation is that while this military operation COULD have gone much better if it had been planned a little better, perhaps in coordination with coalition forces...BUT the simple fact that it WAS NOT planned with coalition forces, nor was it carried out with their material support (at least not initially) is a great step forward for Iraqi autonomy.

This simple, but VERY significant fact, seems lost upon all the major media reports.

The Iraqis are beginning to carry out military operations on their own, and to an extent, they are showing off their growing strength against the same Militia that was giving the coalition a run for it’s money before the Surge!

How is this not a good story?

Not only that, but after the battle is over the JAM’s representatives have said that they are considering disbanding the whole militia. That’s much beter than a cease-fire! With the JAM itself officially disbanded, the only Shiite groups left would be the groups that splintered away from JAM months earlier when they did not want to honor al-Sadr’s ceasefire agreement.

In my view, we may be on the verge of reaching a huge milestone for lasting stability and peace in Iraq, but according to the media’s characterization, all the successes won by the surge are falling apart around Petraeus.

Thursday, April 03, 2008
Berkeley Buckling After Attack on Marines

The Berkeley City Council supports this type of confrontation

The San Francisco Chronicle today wrote a story about the financial hardships Berkeley has suffered since it called the Marines “unwelcome” and “uninvited.” The pushback from (Move America Forward and other pro-troops groups is having the desired effect: Groups are canceling trips to Berkeley; hundreds of thousands of dollars have been spent on police overtime; businesses have left; outsiders will no longer do business in Berkeley.

The Chronicle reports: 

Berkeley is finding that having its own foreign policy isn’t cheap. The city’s recent dustup with the U.S. Marine Corps has so far cost the city more than $200,000, while businesses say they’ve been slammed by related protests. . . .

But some business owners, residents and officials say the Marines dispute, which brought international headlines and boycotts, is a perfect illustration of why Berkeley should spend less money on foreign policy and more on filling potholes.
City Councilman Gordon Wozniak put forth a plan last week to make the commissions more accountable. The plan, approved by the City Council, requires the commissions to post their full reports on the city’s Web site, to be more diligent about posting their agendas and minutes and to pass along more background information to the City Council, especially on controversial items.
“I think it’s out of hand,” Wozniak said of Berkeley’s commissions, most of which meet monthly and have two or three subcommittees that also meet regularly. “When we spend a lot of time debating things like the Marines issue, we’re not spending time on the serious problems in this city, like fire station closures. It’s easier to tackle international issues than deal with messy local problems.”

The council approved the item with little fanfare, but pro-military groups seized on the issue, calling the council’s move treasonous and demanding an apology. The council rescinded the resolution on Feb. 13, but protests on each side have cost the city about $208,000 in police overtime, city officials say.
Additional costs include city staff time to handle permits, the media, security and the thousands of e-mails that have intermittently crashed the city’s computer server. In addition, businesses around the recruiting station have been hurt by the protests, and at least four hotels and a handful of restaurants have reported cancellations as a result of the boycott.

And businesses are victims of the idiocy by the City Council:

“The city is raising business fees and parking meter rates at the same time they’re spending all this money on international issues and handling protests. It doesn’t make sense, in these difficult economic times,” said Ted Garrett, director of the Berkeley Chamber of Commerce. “We’re very concerned about the effect this is having on business.”
An Oregon Ducks football fan club and a Lafayette golf club are among the groups that have canceled junkets to Berkeley this fall, Wozniak said. A San Diego resort developer said he canceled three contracts with Berkeley suppliers and has persuaded other businesses to follow suit.

We at Move America Forward love free enterprise. But we will stand against any city that makes policies attacking our military. So here are a couple important safety tips for Berkeley:

And all the City Council has to do to reverse its bad fortune is to:
1. Rescind its resolutions giving special favor to the radical group, Code Pink. The city gave the anti-war agitators free permits and a free designated parking space in front of the Marine’s recruiting office so the group can harass the Marines and try to run them out of town.
2. Make a formal apology to the Marines for its anti-American attacks on the military.

Until then, Move America Forward will continue its pushback against Berkeley, its allies Code Pink, World Can’t Wait and all anarchist America-haters, and enemies of the state.

And to the Americans who are giving Berkeley hell: Thank You!! You are patriots and you are making a difference!