Mark A. Kilmer (the weblog)

No kidding.

The father of Lance Cpl. Miguel Terrazas, killed by a roadside bomb in Haditha, Iraq last November 19 speaking on the Jack Murtha-ization/slandering our troops for political reasons of the Haditha incident:

“It’s very hard for me, I don’t even listen to the news,” Martin Terrazas said of reports of the mass killings in Haditha, in Iraq’s Anbar province. “The insurgents were hiding in there with the kids.”

I wasn’t there, but I respect and admire our Marines too much not to give them the benefit unless or until I am convinced otherwise by proof. Jack Murtha sees Genghis Khan under every one of his fifteen minutes.

CBSNews.com’s Dottie Lynch wants to know why kids these days aren’t throwing more ’60s style fits, protesting authority and law endorcement:

[A]s the war in Iraq rages on I keep asking myself: Where are the young people this time around? Where are the campuses? Where are the new Tom Haydens and Sam Browns and where are the Noam Chomskys, William Sloane Coffins and Daniel Berrigans?

For the past four months, I was at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government, surrounded by idealistic young people and their liberal professors. There was virtually no support for the war (except for the offspring of a few famous neo-cons) but neither was there serious organized activity to try to stop it.

Large groups of students traveled to New Orleans to help rebuild it and another group went to Washington to protest the genocide in Darfur. But why so quiet about Iraq? Could it be because it seems abstract?

Dottie, rebuilding New Orleans and deploring genocide are positive things on which most people can agree. Protesting the war in Iraq is misguided and often politically motivated, and it is an action with the disgusting ’60s connotations.

It’s the 21st century, Dottie. The 1960’s occured FOUR DECADES AGO. That is ancient history to current events.

The message is simple. Whether you are for the liberation of Iraq and the destruction of terrorism at its roots or agin it, retrograde nostalgia for a smellier time is counterproductive to the task at hand. Living. And no matter how you see the war, there are better ways to spend your time.

Earlier this afternoon, I posted It is past time to get serious at SwannBlog. It seems Lynn blew off Michael Smerconish at 1210 AM in Philadelphia this morning. The host had been boasting that Swann was going to call, and the station is huge in the Philly talk market with a conservative base Swann needs badly. Evidently Swann apologized, telling the host that he had to drive his kids to school.

Doesn’t Ray Zaborney have a driver’s license?

It’s things like this that… well, read the post at SwannBlog.

I told this to my wife, and she was disgusted. She makes no pretense whatsoever of being a political expert, but she noted: “He has to do those things if he wants to win.”

We need Lynn Swann, Someone call Karl Rove.

Tomorrow’s it for Katie at Today. They didn’t weep like this for Tom Brokaw, for Bryant Gumbel, for Willard Scott… who’s not technically “gone” gone. I assume he shows when Al Roker has flu.

The images flicker across the screen: Katie with Nancy Reagan. Katie at Ground Zero. Katie singing with Tony Bennett. Katie meeting Elmo and hugging Mister Rogers. Katie flying through the air as Peter Pan. Farewell messages from Hillary Clinton, Karen Hughes, Bill Gates, Ben Affleck, Paula Abdul.

Sorry I missed it.

But at least she’s perky about her new anchor role at CBS News:

“I’m going to give it my best shot,” she says. “I’m not going in there saying I’m going to change the face of the evening news or I’m going to be a huge success. Right now it’s a question mark. Hopefully I’ll have the opportunity to contribute something positive.”

Courage, Katie. (Although who knows what the term means at CBS News anymore?)

The brakes on an American vehicle failed in Afghanistan, and several Afghans were killed. A mob, representing a minority of Afghans, rioting and chating: “DEATH TO AMERICA!”

I am so sick of mobs acting on mob impulses when there is work to be done.

P.L.O. Chairman and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas has pledged to call a referendum on renouncing violence and agreeing to the terms of the various interim peace deals, including a recognition of the basic right of Israel to exist. P.A. Foreign Minister Mahmoud al-Zahar had the official Hamas response:

“This process needs money, we have no money. Nobody will recognize Israel, there is no need for a referendum,” Zahar told Reuters during a visit to Malaysia for a meeting of the Non-Aligned Movement.

He has just admitted that the Palestinian Authority government under Hamas is irrelevant. He said that they need money but are unwilling to do what it takes to get it. I could draw a parallel with the Dems and the war on terror.

Do good Moslems kill themselves? Bad question. Do good Moslems kill themselves, just themselves without taking as many with them as possible?

There were three wannabe Bobby Sands, a shorthand for a political hunger striker, in Gitmo. Now, there are 75 of them.

“The hunger strike technique is consistent with al-Qaida practice and reflects detainee attempts to elicit media attention to bring international pressure on the United States to release them back to the battlefield,” [Navy Cmdr. Robert] Durand said from the base.

Sands hunger struck in the Long Kesh prison to get attention as well.

Never mind former soldiers like Jack Murtha and John Kerry, who deliberately lie about our troops for personal political reasons. And this is not about those who recognize the men and women who have sacrificed everything for the cause they knew was right.

This is about the soldiers themselves, their part in our lives. Each drop of blood, each drop of sweat, shed on a battlefield fell for what truly is a haven in a world full of madness. Yes, there are other havens, just as there are other soldiers who gave for their homes and for the greater sanctuary, but today is about the American.

You are one of a kind. You’ve been told that before, I hope, and I also trust you can understand that you and your fellow soldiers are special. You are, in a very large sense, ideal. I’m proud to have had you working to defend me.

God bless you!

It’s Sunday night. Tomorrow is Memorial Day, a day to reflect on those called to keep a flame alight in a world of madness.

I’m listening to New Orleans jazz on XM, having listened to a little Christoph Graupner earlier, and the air conditioner functions.

All’s well, and the noise gives you a headache only if you listen. I probably should tune out a little better, but I suppose anyone whose soul is not a clod deserves to be heard by someone. That might, maybe, include me.

Senator Chuck Hagel of Nebraska and Congressman Jim Sensenbrenner of Wyoming, both Republicans, met on Meet the Press to discuss immigration. I thought that Hagel was the more articulate of the two and that Sensenbrenner offered only mantras and conceded part of Hagel’s point, but I do not think either made a case for a decent immigration policy.

(On a side note, I generally like Sensenbrenner, and Hagel often rubs me the wrong way.)

My MTP show notes are below the fold:

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Sunday, May 28, 2006

It’s a holiday weekend, and we’ve got a nifty, new logo.

On NBC’s Meet the Press, Chuck Hagel argued that it is not amnesty and his bill is not Simpson-Mazzoli. Jim Sensenbrenner countered that it is so amenesty and that Hagel’s bill is so Simpson-Mazzoli.

ON FOX News Sunday, Bill Frist said that the Senate is pushing Constitutional Amendments on flag desecration and gay marriage now of all times because of the flags that fly at Arlington National Cemetery and the cornerstone of our society which is marriage. In the next segment, Dick Durbin saw no Separation of Powers issue with the search of William Jefferson’s office and he promised that Nancy Pelosi will get serious about “culture of corruption” when she is in a leadership position.

On ABC’s This Week, Jack Murtha called the Marines murderers who might have been ordered to do so by Joint Chiefs Chairman General Pete Pace, USMC. Next segment, John Warner warned us not to rush to judgment and to let the Code of Military Justice work.

On CBS’ Face the Nation, Mitch McConnell argued that the Senate races will be determined individually in each State, while Chuck Schumer argued that the Dems are running against President Bush and his approval ratings.

On CNN’s Late Edition, the United Nations’ Jan Egeland surprised the world by not blaming the United State for the misery of Saturday’s earthquake in Indonesia, as he did with the 2004 tsunami. Later, Iraqi deputy prime minister Barham Salih told host Wolf Blitzer than the Kurdish Peshmerga would become the Kurdish national guard under the Iraqi constitution. Blitzer accused him of showing favoritism to the Peshmerga over the Badr Brigade and Moqtada al Sadr’s outfit.

Read the complete, show-by-show review at RedState.com.

Good morning!

I do the Sunday shows this morning for RedState.com….

At NRO, Victor David Hanson has a splendid piece for Memorial Day about what Iraq was really about. What our soldiers did there, made possible.

It’s a long break from the third-rate Cindy Sheehan whining we get from time-to-time as she travels the globe and whines for the Global Left, a much more dangerous creature than the chowder-heads in the American Left.

This was cross-posted at the SwannBlog. Lynn Swann was interviewed by the AP recently, and I’ve yet to find a transcript of the thing. I did, however, find this cheap AP summary reporting “Swann on the issues.” They got the gambling paraphrasation wrong, of course, but this is all we have. And it is reassuring about the candidate himself.

The AP has released a piece entitled Where Lynn Swann stands on the issues, based on their recent interview with the candidate. I have no seen a transcript of the interview, so I’m taking the Associated Press’ word for it. (A risky proposition anyway, but since I’ve heard no objection to the piece from Team88, it’s what we have.)

Here are a few excerpts from the story:

On Abortion:

He would sign a bill outlawing abortions except under limited circumstances if the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade. He agrees with current restrictions in Pennsylvania law.

In a May 9 interview with KDKA TV-2 Pittsburgh [vid], Swann specified that these exceptions are rape, incest, and the life of the mother. This was a clarification of a statement from a February interview with ABC News’ George Stephanopoulos, in which he listed “health of the mother” as an exception, unaware of the particulars of the parlance of the arguments of the abortion advocates. The phrase “health of the mother” could mean anything a doctor or the courts say it does, and this was not what Swann had in mind.

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For Sunday, May 28, 2006

Meet the Press (NBC): Host Tim Russert will have Chuck Hagel and James Sensenbrenner on to talk immigration.

FOX News Sunday (FNS): Host Chris Wallace talks to Bill Frist and famed Nazi hunter Dick Durbin about immigration, gas prices, etc.

Face the Nation (CBS): Host Bob Schieffer will talk to Mitch McConnell and Chuckie Schumer about the election and politics.

This Week (ABC): Host George Stephanopoulos talks to John Warner about Iraq and the “Hadttha revelations.” Then he talks to Jack Murtha about what the show’s site calls the “massacre in Haditha, Iraq.” Oh, and Steph talks to singer Tony Orlando.

Late Edition (CNN): Host Wolf Blitzer talks to Iraqi deputy prime minister Barham Salih; Prince Hassan of Jordan, the king’s uncle; LA Mayor Anthony Villargaiosa; and Tim Russert.
—–

Is there really anything left to discuss on immigration? To me, it seems that the lines have been long drawn on that matter. Perhaps Chuck (FTN) can discuss the recent spate of Presidential nominees flying through the Senate, despite a hostile Dem Party, the President’s low job approval ratings, and the supreme influence of the lefty blogosophere.

I don’t know if Jack Murtha (TW) is going to go on about “raped, cut off ears, cut off heads, taped wires from portable telephones to human genitals and turned up the power, cut off limbs, blown up bodies, randomly shot at civilians, razed villages in fashion reminiscent of Genghis Khan, shot cattle and dogs for fun, poisoned food stocks, and generally ravaged the countryside,” but it wouldn’t surprise me.

I’ll report on these shows tomorrow afternoon at RedState.com.

Rick Santorum and Lynn Swann, the State’s two top candidates this fall, have decided to endorse Cambria County GOP Chairman Rob Gleason as the next State chair. Philadelphia gymnasium owner Bob Guzzardi has declared that Lynn Swann is not a “reformer” because he blocked the nomination of pro-abortion former Lt. Governor Bill Scranton to be State chair.

Montgomery County businessman Bob Guzzardi, who financially supported anti-pay raise challengers to incumbent lawmakers, doesn’t understand why the party would choose a new leader from the old guard.

Because, Bob, for reform to be effective, it must be undertaken with a clear head, without the pitchforks and death-to-everything menatlity which characterized the French Revolution, as opposed to our own, and smells like the lefty netroots of today.

The idea, Bob, is not to beat the Dems at their own game; it is to win our own. Once we get Republicans elected, we can enact meaningful reform. (I don’t want Guzzardi to be a part of it. This has to be conservative after the Reagan model.)

If the State GOP were to elect a pro-abort chair at this critical moment, the party loses its soul. We became, fairly or unfairly, the party of the “Alabama of Pennsylvania” — which, I’ve found, to my embarrassment, does exist — run by a pro-abort with that special TM je ne sais quoi, justly or unjustly.