Required reading: Airborne mine sweeping history by Eagle1 and Maritme Monday 103 by Fred Fry.
BT

Born May 14th, 1905, he was destined to serve his Maker and our nation many years later.

LCDR Joseph T. O’Callahan, USNR (ChC) in 1945 Shortly after completing high school, Joseph entered the Society of Jesus shortly thereafter, to begin a 13 year path to ordination as a priest in 1934. Earning his Bachelor’s and master’s degrees along the way, he specialized in mathematics and science, as well as religious studies. In August, 1940, he entered the Naval Reserve as a LT(jg) in the Chaplain’s Corps.Father O’Callahan’s assignments are listed at CatholicMil.org:

At the outbreak of World War II, Fr. O’Callahan entered the chaplain corps and began a ministry focused on the sailors destined to serve in the Pacific. He was assigned to the Naval Air Station, Pensacola, Florida, from 1940-42, then served at sea aboard the U.S.S. Ranger from 1942-44, and returned to shore duty at Pearl Harbor into early 1945. His final assignment of the war was to the carrier U.S.S. Franklin, which was given orders taking it close to enemy territory.

Arriving aboard USS FRANKLIN (CV-13) seventeen days before March 19, 1945, LCDR O’Callahan was assigned duties as the Ship’s Chaplain. On the 19th, while sailing close to the Japanese coastline, a lone Japanese dive bomber penetrated the defensive screen of the allied forces, and dropped a single bomb on the aft of the FRANKLIN’s flight deck.SteelJaw Scribe detailed the struggle for the very life of the ship that resulted in his recent post. SJS gives a brief description of a bomb, slicing several decks down, wrecking combat loaded planes on the flight deck and ripping open AVGAS fuel lines below, which began an inferno that killed many of the crew, and threatened to sink the ship. The training and response of the surviving crewmen, working alone, in small and large groups, ended up saving the ship, with essentially no command level direction due to the battle damage.

This past week, I found the Spring 2008 issue of MHQ has an article by Joseph Springer about the attack on the USS FRANKLIN, too, but that is but an extracted piece from a newly published book: “Inferno: The Epic Life and Death Struggle to Save USS FRANKLIN in WWII” by Springer.

Chaplin O’Callahan was everywhere. Besides performing his duties to the dying and wounded, he helped jettison munitions into the sea, and made several trips below decks to lead his shipmates to safety. He organized firefighting teams to water down ammo magazines and was credited with saving 700 men. The Commanding Officer of the FRANKLIN said of him: “he is the bravest man I have ever seen.” As a result of his heroic efforts, LCDR O’Callahan was awarded the Medal of Honor.Citation:

For conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity at the risk of his life above and beyond the call of duty while serving as Chaplain on board the U.S.S. Franklin when that vessel was fiercely attacked by enemy Japanese aircraft during offensive operations near Kobe, Japan, on 19 March 1945. A valiant and forceful leader, calmly braving the perilous barriers of flame and twisted metal to aid his men and his ship, Lieutenant Commander O’Callahan groped his way through smoke-filled corridors to the open flight deck and into the midst of violently exploding bombs, shells, rockets and other armament. With the ship rocked by incessant explosions, with debris and fragments raining down and fires raging in ever increasing fury, he ministered to the wounded and dying, comforting and encouraging men of all faiths; he organized and led fire-fighting crews into the blazing inferno on the flight deck; he directed the jettisoning of live ammunition and the flooding of the magazine; he manned a hose to cool hot, armed bombs rolling dangerously on the listing deck, continuing his efforts despite searing, suffocating smoke which forced men to fall back gasping and imperiled others who replaced them. Serving with courage, fortitude and deep spiritual strength, Lieutenant Commander O’Callahan inspired the gallant officers and men of the Franklin to fight heroically and with profound faith in the face of almost certain death and to return their stricken ship to port.

Retiring from the Naval reserve as a Captain in 1953, he passed away March 18th, 1964.

The Navy honored the life of Father O’Callahan with the GARCIA Class frigate USS O’CALLAHAN (DE-1051) (later FF-1051), commissioned July 13th, 1968. Assigned to the Pacific Fleet, she was stationed in San Diego, CA. In 1968, she was decommissioned from service in the US Navy, then leased to the Pakistani Navy as Aslat (F-265). Eventually, she was broken up for scrap in Hong Kong.

Easter, a day of resurrection and renewal. The Church has grown when threatened with persecution thousands of years ago, and, as it turns out, it is still. From the Joshua Fund Blog: Minor Details film

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:

THE BIG (UNTOLD) STORY IN THE MIDDLE EAST: Muslims converting to faith in Jesus Christ in record numbers — 2008 Update
“I will build my church,” Jesus said, “and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.” (Matthew 16:18)

Despite unprecedented press coverage of Afghanistan, Iraq, and the Middle East since September 11, 2001, one big story is not being told by the mainstream media. Hundreds of thousands of Muslims are converting to evangelical Christianity and will be celebrating their first Easter this year, even amidst widespread persecution and the very real threat of death.

I first began reporting this story in 2005 after interviewing some three dozen Arab and Iranian pastors and evangelical Christian leaders in the U.S. and the Middle East. Over the last three years, however, I have had the privilege of traveling to Iraq, Jordan, Egypt, the West Bank, Turkey, and Morocco. What’s more, I have had the honor of meeting with and interviewing more than 200 Arab, Iranian, Kurdish, Sudanese and other pastors and Christian leaders. With more data, the trend lines are becoming even more clear and the story is even more exciting.

The God of the Bible is moving powerfully in the Middle East to draw men, women and children to His heart and adopt them into His family in record numbers. More Muslims have come to faith in Jesus Christ over the last thirty years — and specifically over the last seven to ten years — than at any other time in human history. There is a revival going on among the ancient Catholic, Coptic, and Chaldean churches. Today, the Church is being truly resurrected in the lands of its birth.

Consider the latest evidence:
[…]

And then the article goes on to list specifics from Afghanisatn to Iraq, to Sudan and other countries in the Islamic sphere.

And then the leading Saudi cleric had this to say:

[…]
In December 2001, Sheikh Ahmad al Qataani, a leading Saudi cleric, appeared on a live interview on Aljazeera satellite television to confirm that, sure enough, Muslims were turning to Jesus in alarming numbers. “In every hour, 667 Muslims convert to Christianity,” Al Qataani warned. “Every day, 16,000 Muslims convert to Christianity. Every year, 6 million Muslims convert to Christianity.” Stunned, the interviewer interrupted the cleric. “Hold on! Let me clarify. Do we have six million converting from Islam to Christianity?” Al Qataani repeated his assertion. “Every year,” the cleric confirmed, adding, “a tragedy has happened.”
[…]

Analysis: That means 1.3B minus 36M…and counting.

Pray for the converts they will need all the support they can get.

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“Support Coast Guard Search and Recuse:  GET LOST!”

And….my idea today for a bumper sticker:  “Haptics:  Get the FEELING!”

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Winter Passing download

Here it comes from the National Heroes Tour:

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embedded by Embedded Video

BZ SSGT Bellavia, US Army.

Thanks for putting it into words we can grasp. Update 3/22/2008: Better yet, this man isn’t just a writer, he’s a bad ass. He’s a real, 100% certified, no holds barred man of courage, honor and guts. Think John Wayne, but not just on a Hollywood set, but in house fighting in Fallujah. SSG Bellavia has been nominated for the Medal of Honor for his actions there. Here’s the story. And just when will we see the movie out of Hollywood? Not for a long time, but it happened just the same.

Blatantly lifted from the full post on Black Five.

Sea stories? You want sea stories? Later…and I plan to bore you with one about life at sea….no kidding. More when I get “re-attached” at lunch time.

OK, it’s later. Life at sea…it’s not a wonderful life. Yes, the stars assail the eyes with displays “landlubbers” seldom are witness to. The sea life far out in the ocean will give you pause and let your mind settle on the moment for some time, considering the very different environment they occupy, where you are but an interlopper for a brief time, passing through, as it were, on your way to another part of the solid ground that emerges above the wave tops. Large and small, and sizes in between, were something of wonder to myself and my shipmates, mostly in a visual sense, but the sonar technicians also experienced the audible dimension of the creatures.

While we sail in formation, in the company of the ships of our battle or amphibious groups, where you have come to recognize voices on the radio, particular speech patterns, and associated watch changing schedules, there are many times you are “in transit,” alone with the sea and those trapped aboard with you, sometimes for weeks, but maybe only days at a time.

You may be far from the sea lanes, where merchants ply the most cost efficient route from their departure to their destinations. There are times not even air travel crosses the sky above. It is a blessing and a curse. The radios, for the most part, remain silent. Even the usually cluttered VHF for international bridge-to-bridge communications speaks nothingness to the bridge watch team. You scan the horizon, straining for some glimpse, not a breaking wave some 7-8 miles away, but the hint of a tall mast, of some vessel “hull down” on the other side of the line that separates sea from sky, but none comes. The Quartermaster of the Watch brings you the weather observation message, coded in short, well established groups, to be released at under your signature, in the stead of the Commanding Officer, so the world may know the sea surface temperature, wind direction and speed and cloud cover in your locale, a time honored tradition, suspended only when your track is classified. It is the work of centuries of sailors, mundane in each instance, yet monumental in it’s reach, to pass along a greater understanding of the weather patterns of the planet.

The sweep of the radar beams only disclose “noise” in our eyes. Rough seas and periodic anomalies in the density of pockets of air are not items of great interest, but worthy of note. Grist for the mind’s mill, with possible indications of the future environment to be experienced. We still stare at the blackened background, and just behind the ghostly green or orange “sweep” indication, as it completes each revolution, and seamlessly starts over, without hesitation, to uncomplainingly do it once more, and many more times, too. You can suddenly realize, much like a long drive on a empty interstate, that you have been awake and almost sleep simultaneously, for having focused so intently on ensuring you would first see the track of a target appear.

The striking of the Ship’s Bell, to indicate the passage of the watch in unconsciously heard and recorded. The “Ship’s Routine,” from the pages of the Ship’s Organization and Regulation Manual (SORM), is passed, as modified by the Plan of the Day (POD), as it has been for days now. Those regular events, such as Muster for Instruction and Inspection, Officer’s Call, Messing and Berthing Inspection, early chow, the regular meals and the setting of the watches, once more, have become a part of your natural circadian rhythm, and you haven’t even realized it. Your body responds by going somewhere, or making certain log entries in a stage of awakening just below the surface. The words are even routine, to the newly assigned and those who have sailed the seas before you. They are placed there by those of the US Navy, and the British Navy before that, a part of custom and tradition and expectation, and, most importantly as a definition of normality, easily scanned by the eyes of the chain of command and others who may trouble themselves to peruse the records in the future, gathered from the Naval Archives, to help them tell a tale of events and lives at sea.

The sunset comes, lighting is altered, “darken ship” curtains are rigged in passageways leading to the weather decks. Despite the lack of any detected traffic, above, on or below the sea, only navigational lights will be displayed to any eyes, human or otherwise. Internal checks are performed by the damage control petty officers, to make sure spaces not in regular use for the night hours are secured, protected from flooding and fire. Others sweep assigned areas, and collect the trash, as the “20 to 24” watch teams settle in.

The darkness adds another dimension to the day. The body tends to relax and despite the mandate for full alertness, the tiredness becomes observable. It may come as inattention to the task at hand, preferring to “shoot the bull” with shipmates on things of other topics, or in people showing physical signs of the inability to stay alert. It is not the domain of the enlisted or officer, but that of all aboard.

Despite the low level of local activity, the ship is never out of reach of routine reports required from “shore duty” sailors and civil servants, nor the umbilical of communications via radio, with the requests and “ADTAKES,” that can flow like a small stream, or a breaking dam. In addition, the exercise of regular maintenance and training continues, providing a full daylight working experience, that still leaves other tasks undone. All who have them steal time from sleep in order to catch up, then hope to bag some shut eye before they must rise, dress, brush their teeth, maybe eat, before saying “I relieve you” to a shipmate at midnight or at 3:45AM.

On the bridge, your mind prods you to continue to seek out something “non-routine” just to keep the synapses functional so as to shun the tiredness. You try to comply, but the outside world does not comply. You find a gap between the commercial radar set bracket and a mounted radio speaker and handset along the front of the Bridge, where you might substitute their support for that of your own skeleton. The goal:  Remain upright in a posture of alertness to the eyes of the other observers, yet accepting some respite from the hard decks under your feet.  You lean in and are both refreshed and relaxed for a moment. Then the conscience goes to work, silently speaking words like “duty,” “responsibility,” and related ones to you, all the while beckoning you to close your eyes and allow the rest you need to be fulfilled.

In the Combat Information Center, or Combat Direction Center, seated at your console in a large padded chair, complete with arm rests, the call is greater, the struggle to resist more intense. Here, most watch standing tasks do not allow you to be able to rise and move about, which at least, the bridge team has the luxury of doing.

The night goes on, the sunlight, possibly muted by cloud cover will come, soon, soon, you hope, before you are numbed completely.

And then it begins again, with the coming of the dawn.

Post your trackbacks in the meantime, or anytime.

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Baseline Killer rip

Reader Max K. found another Islamic website with a Mecca-direction calculator. It can be used to construct yet another graphical demonstration that the Flight 93 memorial points to Mecca.

Muslims face Mecca for prayer, with the direction to Mecca calculated by the great circle method. Enter your street address into the search field at QiblaLocator.com and it brings up a Google map with a red line showing the Muslim prayer-direction (or “qibla”) from your home.

At the Flight 93 crash site, Skyline Road passes through the center of what is to become the giant central crescent of the planned memorial. Enter “Skyline Rd, Shanksville PA” into the QiblaLocator search box and it generates this map:

Red line points to Mecca. (Azimuth, also in red: 55.19° clockwise from north.)

To see how this direction to Mecca compares with the orientation of the planned memorial, first impose some orientation lines on the Crescent of Embrace design:

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The short black line connects the two most protruding tips of the half-mile wide central crescent. The long black arrow shows the orientation of a person standing between the crescent tips and facing into the center of the crescent. (Every particle of this original design remains completely intact in the so-called redesign, which only disguises the giant crescent with a few additional trees.)

Next just lay the site-plan graphic on top of QiblaLocator’s Google map:

The red and black lines are almost parallel.

To be precise, the upper crescent tip is the end of the thousand foot long, fifty foot tall, Entry Portal Wall. The bottom crescent tip is the last pair of red maple trees at the bottom end of the crescent walkway. Connect these tips, and the perpendicular bisector (black arrow) points 53.5° clockwise from north (within two degrees of the exact direction to Mecca).

A crescent that Muslims face into to face Mecca is called a mihrab, and is the central feature around which every mosque is built. The Flight 93 Memorial will be the world’s largest mosque.

Earlier Mecca direction graphics

In 2005, Sarah Wells constructed a somewhat similar graphic. She used the Mecca direction calculator at Islam.com to get a qibla line that she superimposed onto the memorial site plan:

Green “qibla” circle shows direction to Mecca from nearby Pittsburgh. Again you can see that a person standing between the tips of the crescent and facing into the center of the crescent will be facing almost exactly at Mecca.

Sarah’s graphic and the QiblaLocator graphic both demonstrate that the giant crescent points to Mecca in the way that Muslims define the direction to Mecca (by the “great circle” or “shortest distance” method).

The first graphic to show the Mecca orientation of the crescent memorial was posted by the pseudonymous Eaotin Shrdlu on September 10, 2005, two days after the crescent design was unveiled:

The large map projection and the small site-plan inset both have north at the top. Etaoin’s graphic shows that direction to Mecca from crash site (green line) and direction of person facing into crescent (red line) are the same.

University of Pennsylvania Professor Tim Baird, a member of the Flight 93 Advisory Commission, says that everyone involved in the Memorial Project is fully aware of the factual accuracy of the Mecca direction claim. Nevertheless, they all stand by as Project spokesmen keep denying the Mecca orientation in the newspapers. The Project even found an academic fraud to tell the press that there is no such thing as the direction to Mecca:

Daniel Griffith, a geospatial information sciences professor at the University of Texas at Dallas, said anything can point toward Mecca, because the earth is round. (Pittsburgh Post Gazette, August 18, 2007.)

Any Muslim would have denied this absurdity, but the Post Gazette does not want Griffith’s fraud exposed, because the Gazette itself has been fully complicit in covering up the Mecca orientation of the memorial since 2005. Post Gazette reporter Paula Ward told Alec Rawls in 2006 (download 3, p. 108) that editors and reporters at the Post Gazette saw all of the demonstrations of the Mecca orientation of the giant crescent back in 2005 and made a top level editorial decision not to publish this explosive information. Editor Tom Birdsong thinks it would hurt the Democrats, so he is not going to publish it, and neither are other newspapers.

This shouldn’t be a right-left issue, but try telling our newspaper editors that. Which leaves it up to the rest of us to get the word out about Islamic and terrorist memorializing symbolism in the Flight 93 Memorial. This is going to have to be passed person to person.

You can help. To join our blogbursts, email Cao (caoilfhionn1 at gmail dot com) with your blog’s url.

1389 Blog – Antijihadist Tech
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or…maybe better titled “Fallout of Technology Tuesday.”

From Engadget:

Compulsive e-mailing, texting could be classified as bona fide illness

Posted Mar 17th 2008 8:11PM by Darren Murph
Filed under: Cellphones, Handhelds
Considering the plethora of facilities that have opened just in the past few years to deal solely with individuals that have become undoubtedly addicted to video games, the internet and all things Hello Kitty (we jest, we jest), we’re not surprised one iota to hear that uncontrollably texting / e-mailing could soon become “classified as an official brain illness.”
[…]

Watch your usage….before your freinds and family show up for an “intervention.”

Required reading: Eagle1’s tale of the “MoBoard”

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, the indispensable tools of officers and enlisted alike, who made a profession of handing ships at sea and Fred Fry’s Maritime Monday 102 @ the gCaptain Maritime site.
BT

Arthur J. Elliot was born April 9th, 1933 in Maine. The oldest of three boys in the family, and a sailor at heart, having grown up in and around the family owned shipyard Dunn and Elliot in Thomaston, ME. Completing his Bachelor’s degree in 1955, he applied several times to the Navy Officer Candidate Program and finally was accepted in 1956. Arthur was began his commissioned career in the Engineering Department of the USS LYMAN K. SWENSON (DD 729) in 1956, where he also served as Anti-Submarine Warfare Officer and Gunnery Officer. After this tour, he resigned from active duty, but retained his Naval Reserve commission, only to volunteer to return to active duty in 1960, when he was assigned to the USS LITTLE ROCK (CL-4). Other assignments followed as the Flag Aide for Commander, Service Forces, Pacific Fleet, and then Operations Officer aboard USS JOHN KING (DDG-3) (One of my sea stories about my interactions with USS JOHN KING (DDG-3) during my career is here). LCDR Elloit volunteered for duty in Vietnam and in 1968, was assigned as Commanding Officer of Patrol Boat Squadron 57. On December 29th, LCDR Arthur Elloit was killed in action in the operations in the Mekong River Delta area. He received the Bronze Star with Combat “V” for heroic achievement in coordinating suppressing fire and personally directing his patrol boat to provide covering fire for the other units during the action in which he was hit by enemy rocket fire. In honor of LCDR Elliot, the fifth ship of the SPRUANCE Class destroyers was put to sea: USS ELLIOT (DD-967).The USS ELLIOT was assigned to the Pacfic Fleet and conducted 12 forward deployments after her commissioning on January 22nd, 1977.One of the highlights of the ELLIOT’s service was the detection of the newly built Soviet aircraft carrier, the MINSK

in the Indian Ocean. In addition to just locating the ship, ELLIOT’s embarked SH-2F Sea Sprite helicopter was able to photograph the MINSK and a Soviet frigate conducting alongside underway refueling operations. The method of refueling while alongside and underway had long been the domain if the US and Allied Navies, but was still in it’s infancy in the Soviet Navy at that time, so this was quite an intelligence gathering opportunity. More details of that story in the Ship’s history are found here.The USS ELLIOT (DD-967) was decommissioned on December 2nd, 2003 and sunk in the Coral Sea as a target for US and allied forces on June 24th, 2005.Update 3/25/2008: RMCM Robert Grey, USN (Ret) left me a note about RIVDIV 572’s web site Just Buried ipod , where LCDR Elliot served as Commander of River Squadron 57. Get over there and read and see more about the Navy’s “River Rats” in Vietnam.

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The current events continue to highlight the friendship and mentoring relationship between Barack Hussein Obama and Pastor Jeremiah Wright. One man tells us (the younger one) he wants us to live together in peace. His mentor tells us to divide ourselves and continue to remind each other of a struggle that has gone from horrific to uncomfortable, but to keep in mind the horrific of past centuries, as though it may re-occur at any minute.

I have had mentors in my life, at various stages, and for both professional and personal matters. I was in such relationships because their experience and their counsel had common ground with my life views and philosophies. most of those still in the immature stages of development in my life (which was why I was seeking assistance to grow). Yes, their words and direction have become part of me, and I have been blessed with opportunities to use their wisdom and help others as a result. The end game? Their ideas, logic and morals have guided me.

That’s the upside. In one particular case a few years back, a situation arose and it became clear that the common life view we had in common was tossed aside by my mentor and his help in making a decision ran counter to the teaching we had both accepted on faith. In my readings, he and his group were wrong, and, essentially admitted it, but…the bottom line was about a money issue, and therefore, they said the decision had to stand. I politely listened and since that day, have not revisited my relationship with that man. He also happened to be one of the organizations top leaders. Not only do I not meet with him, or correspond, I found another place to invest in relations in, but not before spending time to find out what the new organizations leadership subscribes to, to assure myself I wasn’t associating with others who did not read the same documents throughly and understood the philosophy contained therein.

The issues I left one group over pale in comparison to the hate filled sermons of Pastor Wright, yet to me, putting aside the Bible for money was sufficient to have me make my decision. Why? It was wrong, and there is specific scripture to point out the danger of placing monetary decisions ahead of all other factors, let alone the plethora of teachings, from the Old and New Testaments that would also indicate it was a bad decision. When man begins to limit access to spiritual growth, to keep the money in the building, I cannot understand how the leadership will profit in the larger world view they are directly charged with keeping true to.

For Barack Obama to continue a relationship, at any level with a man who would ask God to damn this nation, let alone speak the things he did about Hillary Clinton, indicates only one thing to me: He agrees with viewpoints presented at some significant level. Barack not repudiating Pastor Wright speaks more extensively of Barack’s “buy in” to the hate mongering of Jeremiah Wright. The word defined (from Dictionary.com: Colour Me Kubrick: A True…ish Story film :

Dictionary.com Unabridged (v 1.1)
re·pu·di·ate /rɪˈpyudiËŒeɪt/ Pronunciation Key – Show Spelled Pronunciation[ri-pyoo-dee-eyt] Pronunciation Key – Show IPA Pronunciation
–verb (used with object), -at·ed, -at·ing.
1. to reject as having no authority or binding force: to repudiate a claim.
2. to cast off or disown: to repudiate a son.
3. to reject with disapproval or condemnation: to repudiate a new doctrine.
4. to reject with denial: to repudiate a charge as untrue.
5. to refuse to acknowledge and pay (a debt), as a state, municipality, etc.
[Origin: 1535–45; < L repudiātus (ptp. of repudiāre to reject, refuse), equiv. to repudi(um) a casting off, divorce (re- re- + pud(ere) to make ashamed, feel shame (see pudendum) + -ium -ium) + -ātus -ate1]

I see definitions 2,3 and 4 would all help Barack understand why he must do so, or, if not, he is telling us he does not reject the teachings of Pastor Wright.

This case also helps me understand why Barack Obama does not place his hand over his heart at eh playing of the National Anthem, nor will he wear an American Flag lapel pin and he tells us why himself:

“The truth is that right after 9/11 I had a pin,” Obama said. “Shortly after 9/11, particularly because as we’re talking about the Iraq war, that became a substitute for I think true patriotism, which is speaking out on issues that are of importance to our national security.

“I decided I won’t wear that pin on my chest,” he said in the interview. “Instead, I’m going to try to tell the American people what I believe will make this country great, and hopefully that will be a testament to my patriotism.” (Fox News)

In reading those words from his own mouth, and putting in context of the present uproar, one might easily make the logical conclusion that Barack’s idea for America is to be punished and we should no longer be “patriotic” in the way we have. I suspect, after 20 years of close association with Pastor Wright, with no denouncement on record, Barack agrees all too much with the espouse positions.

Interesting, when we had a former governor in the race, who happened to have over a decade ago, had been a Baptist pastor, the left was unhinged and predicting a complete Christian theocracy if Governor Huckabee was elected. The media also continually reminded us that Governor Romney was a Mormon, strongly suggesting he would do the same as the Baptist Preacher he was running against. According to others, President Bush has let the “Right Wing Christians Conservatives” take over the country. Ron Paul was connected to Neo-Nazi groups, but that actually got very little play outside the conservative talk show circuit. No other candidates for office can come close to Obama’s supporters divisive viewpoints.

Here we have a Senator who has remained connected (and, as we all know, if there is a celebrity in the Church, they get some degree of special attention from “leadership,” whether they ask for it or not – they are known and they know the leadership well enough to know what underlying philosophy they hold), to a man who hates America. If Barack is so gullible as to have missed that message all these years, he had better be able to produce attendance records indicating he only set foot in the Church 3 times (a marriage and two baptisms), and only otherwise mailed in his checks for his offerings. He wants us to accept that he is smarter than GWB, yet, like Hillary’s “forgetfulness” spells over the Rose Law Firm, missing and Whitewater issues, that he honestly can’t recall such significant interactions with Pastor Wright.

I say it’s time to declare defeat in the war for social justice. The forces of integration have lost, the forces of division are alive and well, but this time, on the opposite end of the spectrum. The Black Supremacists are being given a pass, because “change” is important to have. As long as Pastor Wright is involved in Barack’s life, he will be accepting those views.

Free advice to Barack: Walk away now and tell us what you think in counterpoint, otherwise, prepare to become relegated to a label as a left wing divider. Sir, you are no John F. Kennedy and Paster Wright is no Dr. King. Move forward now, knowing that.

It’s time to abandon the dream of Dr. Martin Luther King, and return to another time, but with an upending of the social order. I recall, many years ago, reading a scholarly study of the the Soviet Union and the quote something like “All the Russian Revolution did was put the top people on the bottom and the bottom people on the top.” Pastor Wright would most likely like to see that phenomena here…and it would be all about the money. How about Obama? Ah, the love of money is…..you fill in the blank.

Update:  It looks as if I was writing this, <a href=”http://therealrevo.com/blog/?p=596″>Barack Obama has done the politically expedient thing,</a> putting distance between himself and Pastor Wright…and claims he never heard him say any of these things.  See my note above about attendance records.  I’d love to cross reference them with the recorded sermons, you know…just to validate Senator Obama’s assertion.  Still, as the link asks:  Why did it take so long?  Momentum, it’s a real force in physics, and a “realer” one in politics.  Yep, I want that guy for my President…he sleeps through “meetings” and can’t read people, and then freezes when it’s decision time….

I found this chasing links via Little Green Footballs.

Not only does this man tell us something of the actuality of Al Qaeda in Iraq, before 2003, but also of how they are among us now, and others are being actively recruited as they arrive in the US. The oft asked question: Where are the moderate Muslims? Here he is, and he is not just saying it, he is engaged in helping in the hunt to track and contain the very real threat to our very safety while doing that for the sake of his family. His vision is a large one, which seeks to protect us all, in order to protect his family All I can think is how is he being selfish for us all and I’ll accept that any day from a fellow human being. He’s more than moderate, he’s a man we should one day be able to bring into public and award him for his courage and desire for real peace among humanity.

The “teaser,” but I’d recommend you sit and read the entire interview at FrontPage Magazine carefully. Sobering, insightful, myth destroying, and uplifting to know at least one man will take a stand, even if Harry Ried, Nancy Pelosi and their majority will not:

Al Qaeda in Iraq Under Saddam
By Jamie Glazov
FrontPageMagazine.com | Thursday, March 13, 2008

Frontpage Interview’s guest today is Osama al-Magid, a former police officer in Iraq (1992- 2003). He can be contacted at [email protected].

FP: Osama al-Magid, welcome to Frontpage Interview.

Al-Magid: Thank you Mr. Glazov. I hope to provide information to the American public that will help them understand that terrorism in the U.S. from Al Qaeda did not end on September 11th, 2001. There are currently supporters of Al Qaeda not only outside of the U.S. but also inside of it.

This is my first interview pertaining to many of the issues I am going to discuss with you. Right now I can provide some details, but as time goes by I will be providing the Americans with more about the truth in Iraq. There have been friends of mine who have tried to inform the American people about things in Iraq before 2003 and after the Americans came to Iraq, but for some reasons the information has not been widely publicized. I will tell the American people that a person who is like a brother to me has risked his life to tell people about many important issues in Iraq. I met Special Agent Dave Gaubatz in 2003 (Nasiriyah). Dave and I started working together to obtain intelligence about threats against the U.S. forces. We traveled in Nasiriyah and other cities. We protected one another and today in 2008 we are still working together. I can’t explain everything right now for security reasons, but we are traveling through America and trying to identify terrorists and their supporters who want to attack America like in 2001. We are trying to help law enforcement so they can protect America.

Both of us have families and we do not want the children in America, Iraq, or any country to suffer from terrorism.
[…]

A man for the times. A man who stands for a future of peace, exactly the left says they want. Will they acknowledge him and lend their support?

Update: Maybe we are witness to the dam breaking, first the article above, then about a Muslim who equates Islam with fascism. Brave men, these two, and needed urgently to stay strong.