Posted By:
MAF Blogger Danny
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from AZ Family.com

Mom honors son’s death overseas by supporting troops

Debbie says, “I feel Marc willingly gave up his voice that day, but I can be the voice that carries on and supports our troops and thanks them.” She decided to carry on her son’s mission by becoming the spokesperson for Move America Forward, the largest grassroots organization supporting the men and women serving in our armed forces.

Debbie admits, “I was the first Gold Star mom in history to be in the combat zone where her son laid down his life while the battle was still going on.”

Whether it’s going to Iraq to thank the troops or battle lawmakers on Capitol Hill, Debbie is making a difference. She says, “Definitely I would much rather have Marc back and not have had all these opportunities but if you have a son who willingly gave up his life for this country, and then you get these blessings in addition to that, I’m a very grateful mom that God picked me to be the mother of that hero.”

LINK TO VIDEO: http://www.azfamily.com/video/?nvid=368138&shu=1

READ MORE
FULL LINK HERE: http://www.azfamily.com/news/local/stories/Phoenix-news-060309-mighty-warriors-debbie-lee.4af13e2c.html

Posted By:
Catherine Moy
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Cindy Sheehan getting makeup for her TV station fans.

Cindy Sheehan, the mother of proud soldier Casey Sheehan, is going to protect at former President George Bush’s new home. I know a bit about Ms. Sheehan. I wrote for Casey’s hometown newspaper before I became a Fairfield City Councilwoman. Along with melanie morgan, I wrote a book, “American Mourning,” which you can find ef="http://www.amazon.com/American-Mourning-Intimate-Families-Beliefs/dp/1581825404/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1244070971&sr=8-1" title="here.">here.
Cindy’s life was tragically changed when her son gave his life for our country. She then went on to become the infamous woman who parked herself near Bush’s Crawford Ranch.

Anyway, Cindy has run out of ways to get attention. Instead of going after President Obama, who has continued the war in Iraq and is escalating war in Afghanistan, Cindy is hunting Bush.

Here’s the story from Park Cities Blog:

Remember the grieving mother turned war protester who camped outside the Bush ranch in Crawford during the blazing summer heat?

Well, Cindy Sheehan, whose son was killed in Iraq, is scheduled to lead a protest outside the Bush house in Preston Hollow this weekend, according to the Dallas Peace Center. Organizers say that she will lead a protest about “crimes against humanity that occured during the Bush Administration.’’

At 4:30 p.m. MONDAY (note: an earlier post gave an incorrect date), she and other protesters will meet at the southwest corner of Preston Royal Shopping Center and walk to the Bush home on Daria Place.

No word from the Bush office on whether the former president or his wife will be in town this weekend.

Move America Forward led a protest against Cindy’s libel of our troops and her attacks on America in the summer of 2005. We saw firsthand the thousands of people who showed up from across the nation who would not stand for her behavior.
I personally have let Cindy and her family know how sorry I am for the horrible death of Casey. I will never forget Casey, his friend Justin Johnson who died six days later in the Sadr City slums, or any of the other men and women who have given their lives for this country. Terrorists killed Casey and Justin, and we should go after them, not the leaders of this country who try to keep us safe from our enemies.

Posted By:
Catherine Moy
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When Move America Forward first started campaigning to keep the terrorist prison at Guantanamo Bay open, some dismissed us out of hand. We warned President Obama that closing the prison was a mistake, yet he forged forward with his misguided policy that will endanger Americans. These days even some in the Democratic Party have parted ways with their president.

And a poll released this week shows Americans agree with us and the brave Senators and Congresspeople who stood against closing Gitmo and against libeling our proud troops who keep us safe.

The USA Today reports:

WASHINGTON — Americans are overwhelmingly opposed to closing the detention center for suspected terrorists at Guantanamo Bay and moving some of the detainees to prisons on U.S. soil, a USA TODAY/Gallup Poll finds.
By more than 2-1, those surveyed say Guantanamo shouldn’t be closed. By more than 3-1, they oppose moving some of the accused terrorists housed there to prisons in their own states.

The findings underscore the difficult task President Obama faces in convincing those at home that he should follow through on his campaign promise to close the prison in Cuba, especially in the absence of a plan of where the prisoners would go.

The problem with Obama is that he made a campaign promise before doing any research. Once in office, Obama finally sent his adminstration to investigate the prison. He found out that the prison abides by all Geneva Conventions and, in fact, is a nice prison that rivals anything in the United States. We at MAF went ourselves to see and we found a climate-controlled, kushy environment with TV rooms, flat screens, specialized diets with fresh fish, and exercise yards, along with English and art lessons.

It is one of the few subjects on which most Americans side with the views of the Bush administration over its successor.

Coming up on eight years after Sept. 11, fear remains, and fear is politically potent,” says political scientist Paul Freedman of the University of Virginia, who studies public opinion. “When it comes to the issue of terrorism … people are inclined to err on the side of that fear.”

Former vice president Dick Cheney said Monday that Obama made “a mistake” in promising to close the facility by the end of the year.

“I think it’s going to be very difficult,” he said at a National Press Club luncheon, given the reluctance of U.S. allies and citizens to accept its prisoners. “These are bad actors. These are the worst of the worst.”

In a speech last month, Obama said the nation’s “Supermax” prisons could be relied on to hold detainees. Government lawyers are reviewing the status of the 240 prisoners at Guantanamo to determine whether they should be tried in federal court or before a military tribunal, released overseas or held without trial.

In the survey, Americans were inclined to accept the argument by Cheney and former president George W. Bush that the detention center had made the United States safer. By 40%-18%, they said the prison had strengthened national security rather than weakened it.

Those who want the prison to remain open feel more strongly on the subject that those who want to close it. A 54% majority of those polled say the prison shouldn’t be closed, and that they’ll be upset if the administration moves forward to close it.

Last month, Senate Democrats stripped $80 million to close Gitmo from a spending bill and blocked transfer of detainees to U.S. soil, at least for now.

Better to wake up late than never wake up.

Posted By:
MAF Blogger Danny
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Interesting point tonight coming from Scott Whitlock at NewsBusters.

I have been getting the feeling that this whole story has been getting less attention in the press than it deserves, especially since there was another controversial and tragic slaying this week, that of an abortion doctor. I would have thought that these two slaying happening in the same time frame would cause a lot of stir and cause both of them to get a lot of coverage, but I have noticed a significant lack of coverage regarding the shooting at the recruiting station.

In fact, at our headquarters here in Sacramento on monday night, I was actually having trouble locating the story on some popular search engines, such as on Yahoo! and MSN Live.  I was finally able to locate it buried among other things, but it wasn’t in the top featured stories on hardly any websites. Even Google News, which features 3 top stories throughout the day, never displayed the story of the shooting and killing of Army Private William Long, age 23 as well the critical wounding of another soldier Quinton Ezeagwula.  The only way to find the story of this tragic murder was to actually know about it ahead of time and SEARCH for it.

Now NewsBusters is reporting that NBC suspiciously left out some of the facts in their coverage of this act of Islamic Extremist Terror.

NBC Skips Islamic Conversion of Shooter, Trip to Yemen

Tuesday’s “Today” show completely ignored two facts about a man who murdered a soldier at an Army recruiting station in Arkansas: He had just converted to Islam and was being investigated by the FBI for a trip to Yemen. Instead, NBC’s Ann Curry, in anchor briefs throughout the show, vaguely explained that Abdulhakim Muhammad was “upset with the military.” Both ABC and CBS mentioned the conversion and the Yemen trip.

In the 8am hour, Curry confirmed, “Police say the suspect had political and religious motives.” (What kind? She didn’t say.) The reporter did note that the alleged shooter would be charged “with an act of terrorism,” but the rest of her comments were so vague as to be confusing. (The network journalist also never used the individual’s name.) “Good Morning America” reporter Pierre Thomas, however, very clearly defined the situation. He pointed out that police say Muhammad is “a Muslim convert” and “was specifically hunting U.S. soldiers.” Thomas added, “Sources tell us Muhammad had traveled to Yemen and had been arrested for allegedly carrying a fake Somali passport. Both countries are considered hotbeds of al Qaeda-inspired radical Islam.”

LINK TO FULL NEWS BUSTERS ANALYSIS WITH TRANSCRIPT: http://newsbusters.org/blogs/scott-whitlock/2009/06/02/nbc-skips-islamic-conversion-shooter-trip-yemen

Posted By:
Catherine Moy
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Michigan needs some cash, just like other states. And a couple of lawmakers there think they can bank of bringing terrorists to their state. Rep. Bart Stupak wrote a letter to President Obama suggesting that the prisoners from Guantanamo Bay be housed in a shuttered state prison.

Here’s the story from the Chicago Tribune:

MACKINAC ISLAND, Mich. - U.S. Rep. Bart Stupak wants to house Guantanamo Bay detainees at an abandoned prison in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula, but said Friday he would not pursue the matter without broad support from other officeholders in the state.

Stupak, a Menominee Democrat, sent President Obama a letter in February that suggested transferring the detainees to Camp Manistique in Schoolcraft County. The state prison closed in 2007 because of budget cuts.

Former Gov. John Engler, a Republican, also suggested the U.P. as a suitable location during a meeting with GOP legislators this month. He described it as an innovative way to attract federal money and reduce the state’s chronic budget deficit.

But other officeholders in Michigan have criticized the proposal, including U.S. Rep. Peter Hoekstra, the top Republican on the House Intelligence Committee, who is seeking the GOP nomination for governor next year.

During a debate Thursday on Mackinac Island, Hoekstra said it was “a really bad idea ... balancing Michigan’s budget on the premise of bringing 240 of the most dangerous people in the world to the Upper Peninsula.”

Two other Republican candidates, Secretary of State Terri Lynn Land and Attorney General Mike Cox, also opposed the idea. State Sen. Tom George, a Republican, and Democratic candidate Rep. Alma Wheeler Smith said it was worth considering.

“I don’t think Gov. Engler was talking about just releasing (the detainees) into the woods,” said George, of Kalamazoo County’s Texas Township.

President Obama has pledged to close the Guantanamo prison, a target of human rights activists around the world. But finding a place to send the remaining inmates, detained on battlefields since the 2001 terrorist attacks, is proving difficult. Officials in a number of states have said they don’t want to host the detainees.

In his Feb. 4 letter, Stupak said the 30-acre Camp Manistique grounds were well-maintained and near a railroad spur. He described the facility, which has a capacity of 216 inmates, as “a competitive choice.”

Stupak said Friday he had sent the letter at the urging of several constituents but wanted backing from local and state officials, including Gov. Jennifer Granholm and Michigan Sens. Carl Levin and Debbie Stabenow, before stepping up his efforts.

“Without a broad base of support I will not push for further consideration of Camp Manistique or other sites in the Upper Peninsula to house detainees,” Stupak said.

Granholm spokeswoman Liz Boyd said, “It is not something we are pursuing.”

Paul Lindsay, spokesman for the National Republican Congressional Committee, said Stupak either was “carrying water for his party’s unpopular policy, or he is completely out of touch with the Michigan families whose safety would be threatened if these dangerous terrorists were held in their communities.”

Mr. Stupak better read up on some of those Gitmo prisoners.