Come On In and Vote

The federal voting assistance program kicked off this week and the motivational posters are starting to show up in government buildings. This is the one that is right around the corner from my office.

Maybe I have a warped mind or maybe I'm just too sensitive but given the current climate in this country regarding illegal immigration, am I the only one that thinks that this is inappropriate? Just in case some of my fellow blondes (yes what I have left is blonde) don't get it, the poster indicates that regardless of which side of the border you are on, your responsibility is to vote in American elections.

I'm sorry, but I don't want my vote, which is very precious, to be diluted by the votes of non US citizens. We have a hard enough time trying to keep dead people from voting. Is the next thing we see boxes of absentee ballots at the water stations in the Arizona desert? Maybe the minutemen can pass them out as they find groups of illegal crossers.

But let's not limit ourselves to the southern border. We can print ballots in french and send them to our northern neighbors in Montreal too. We wouldn't even have to print anything special to send to most of Canada. Sheesh!

Terrorists Who Suck

It's been awhile since the last installment of "Terrorist Who Suck" and it looks like they haven't gotten any smarter. Here is the latest from Iraq.


Title:
2nd BCT SOLDIERS PREVENT TERRORIST ATTACK
Release Date:
7/26/2006
Release Number:
06-07-02PM
Description:
FOB KALSU, Iraq – Soldiers from Headquarters and Headquarters Company, 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 4th Infantry Division, detained a terrorist who was emplacing a roadside bomb July 18 in the southern Babil province.

Four roadside bombs were discovered moments before Multi-National Division – Baghdad convoys passed through the area.

“The key to our success was teamwork,” said Sgt. Jessie Sparks, squad leader, HHC, 2nd BCT.

The MND-B Soldiers patrol the roads every night in search of terrorists and to clear the roads of potential attacks to allow free movement for MND-B Soldiers in the area.

Very rarely do Soldiers see terrorists in the process of planting bombs on the sides of roads. Perhaps even rarer is when the Soldiers are from a brigade headquarters company.

The combat patrol was performing route clearance on its way back here when Staff Sgt. Epifanio Garcia, squad leader, HHC, 2nd BCT, and his crew, witnessed two men approximately one meter off the side of the road. The men saw the convoy and immediately began to run toward a culvert on the side of the road.

Garcia, from Fresno, Calif., called in what he saw to the rest of the convoy and ordered his driver to come to a halt. Before the vehicle came to a complete stop, Garcia was already out of the vehicle. His night-vision goggles fell off of his helmet, he said, but luckily he caught them in mid-air, tossed them into his vehicle and proceeded to chase the men.

“I lost sight for about four seconds,” he said.

With another Soldier on his heels for assistance, Garcia said he turned on his flashlight and continued the search. Moments later, the two Soldiers found one of the men lying on the ground and promptly detained him. Garcia proceeded to continue the search for the other man he saw running from the road.

As he was searching, he said he came upon a culvert, thinking it was a natural place for someone to hide. Instead of finding the man, Garcia discovered two three-foot long bricks with green detonation cord protruding from the back. He discovered an improvised-explosive device.

He immediately ordered the Soldiers and vehicles to clear out of the area and set up a cordon. Soldiers set up cordons so no one could come into the perimeter and possibly be injured or cause injuries to personnel controlling the situation, said Sparks.

Garcia put in a call to an explosive ordnance disposal team and informed them of the discovery. At the same time, Sparks and a four-man dismount team were clearing the area around the site, looking for anything out of the ordinary. Approximately 200 meters directly west of the vicinity where Garcia said he found the two bombs, Sparks and his men found another site, one intended for an ambush.

Behind a berm, they discovered a 60mm mortar tube, 10 60mm mortar rounds, two AK-47s and a video camera with night-vision goggles attached. About five meters from this site, the team found a rocket-propelled grenade launcher, five RPG rockets, and a large bag of machine gun ammunition.

“Bad stuff would have happened,” Garcia remarked.

While the detainee was being interrogated, the EOD team arrived on the scene. The Soldiers also found two more of the bombs, reiterating how big a find this was, said Garcia. They carefully removed the bombs and properly disposed of them.

“Everything just fell into place,” Garcia said. “We always perform route drills, actions on contact drills and how to react if we find an IED. The Soldiers did great and were very calm and professional.”

It was later learned that a convoy of MND-B vehicles bringing supplies to Soldiers stationed at FOB Kalsu was preparing to pass through the area. Another convoy headed north for Baghdad was also approaching the area. The detained terrorist admitted that those convoys were the targets of the bombs, Garcia said.

“It was an amazing feeling,” Sparks said of the mission. “Nobody likes to hear about the death of a fellow comrade, and to be able to prevent that from happening just feels great.”

Each of the Soldiers were recognized for their efforts by Lt. Gen. Peter Chiarelli, commander, Multi-National Corps – Iraq, two days later. Garcia and Sparks were awarded Army Commendation Medals, and the rest of the platoon was presented commander’s coins by Chiarelli.

“It has allowed our Soldiers to appreciate the constant training we give them every day,” Sparks said. “Since that mission, they now have a desire to train. They see the big picture of what our mission is on those roads.”

FOR ADDITIONAL INFORMATION CONCERNING THIS RELEASE, CONTACT THE MULTI-NATIONAL DIVISION - BAGHDAD PUBLIC AFFAIRS NCO IN CHARGE, MASTER SGT. ERIC LOBSINGER AT: eric.lobsinger@mnd-b.army.mil , COMMERCIAL: (914) 822-8174 OR IRAQNA 011-964-790-192-4675.

You're Too FAT!

Reuters has a three page article today on a crisis of obesity rendering x-rays and other medical imaging systems useless. The basis for this revelation is a search of radiology reports using the phrase, "...These images are limited due to body habitus." Translation: This person is so fat that Superman can't see inside.

The story goes on to describe how patients are sometimes too rotund to fit into an MRI machine. Have they tried Duralube? The infomercial that I saw said that it has the lowest coefficient of drag of any lubricant. Maybe they could stick the patient in a big bag and use a vacuum to suck out the air and compress their bodies like that thingy that can shrink a king size comforter into a bag the size of a dinner napkin.

A closer study of 200 of the records showed that the average patient was 239 lbs. That's 17.071 stones for our UK brethren. That doesn't seem like very much to me. Are the openings on these machines the size of a Jimmy Dean sausage? I suppose that height has an impact. I mean that if mini-me weighed 239 pounds he might be fairly round. But I bet he would still fit in the machines.

I read the article closer and saw that 0.15 percent of the over 5 million reports that were studied contained the 'you're a fat slob' excuse. Was this a typo? surely to rise to crisis status they meant 15 percent. Or at least .15 of all reports. But no, the number was right. Just over one tenth of one percent of the reports had the 'you need Jenny Craig' line.

Why is this a crisis? The report stated that the number of times the statement was found has doubled in the last few years. Could this be because more technicians are becoming familiar with it and using it more often? Or maybe it's because the technicians are too lazy fix their errors so they blame it on the patient's weight. Is this a conspiracy of the diet companies to get you to buy their products? I don't know. I'm going to have an ice cream cone and try to figure it out.

Semper I

Old War Dogs posts about John Murtha. I always appreciate those who are able to articulate my feelings better than me.

Hat tip to Black Five

It's Time

It’s started. You can hear the shouts of men and whistles being blown at your local practice fields. The smell of freshly cut grass watered by the sweat of young men joining together in the pursuit of one goal, a championship, pounds the senses.

Football season has begun. Voluntary workouts are giving way and soon the annual rite of two-a-day practices will once again usher in a new season of hope. Nothing is as difficult and as rewarding as joining together with other like-minded people to achieve a common goal. The sweat equity and hard work of the coming weeks will pay off in November, December, and January.

Of course, many have been working for this fall season since the last season ended. Usually, it ends in disappointment. Only one team wins the championship. But after the tears of broken hearts have dried, reflection casts a warm glow on the spirit of teamwork. The common effort of giving your all every week, regardless of the outcome results in a sense of pride and accomplishment.

No individual sport can give that same feeling. A team must rely on each other to succeed. The team may have one or two superstars but they will fail if all members of the team do not equally contribute every ounce of their energy, skill, and devotion to the cause.

Yes, football season is here. Hallelujah!