Happy Birthday to the greatest nation on this earth. After seeing the Capitol’s 4th Celebration on PBS, NASCAR on ESPN2, and watching fireworks off of my patio, I was so truly proud to be an American on this day. It also reminded me of a stunning exchange I recently had with a former co-worker of mine, which left me wondering “aren’t all other people proud of their own countries?”

My company is based in Germany, and my colleague Ingrid (I’ll call her), was in town here in Atlanta to do training for my department. Ingrid has been with the company since the mid 1990s, and she was an integral part of the IT team that conducted software implementations and rollouts to most of the other sites around the world when they would come online with our global platform. So she’s been around the world quite a bit. I really didn’t know Ingrid very well, as I had met her only a few times. However, on her last trip to Atlanta, I was in a week-long intensive training with her, and really got to spend some time talking to her.

One day in training, she came in and said the night before when she arrived back in her hotel, she tuned in to C-SPAN. That particular night, they were showing Congressional hearings about whether or not to begin impeachment proceedings on President Bush and V.P. Cheney. She said she was fascinated by it, and remarked that if he was half as guilty of things as they were saying he was, she thought they should be impeached.

Not knowing she was talking to the department’s resident political person, my American colleague just shot me that look like “oh, no… please don’t go there,” but I just couldn’t help it. I told her that even without knowing or having seen the hearings she watched, I could tell her that probably the majority of those testifying were also buying into the 9/11 truther mindset. She said she had seen Michael Moore’s “Fahrenheit 9/11,” and believed every bit of it. Needless to say, my American colleague decided it was time for his lunch break.

Ingrid said she had a general impression that Americans didn’t like to discuss politics because in the past when she’s brought them up to folks in our Atlanta office, people would just not engage her, or they would give the pat response “I’m not into politics.” I told her that most likely she’d encountered others who were either unarmed in terms of what’s going on in the world, or those who had such a visceral response to American politics, that they could not effectively argue their points and they just refused to participate in a civil discussion.

We had to get back to our training, but we both agreed we’d like to have a further discussion later. On Friday after work, we decided to go out for a few beers and appetizers at a local Taco Mac restaurant by the office. I thought we’d be there for an hour or so, but I went home around 9 p.m.

We fully engaged in robust debate and discussion about the realities of the world today, and we both educated each other to some extent. Ingrid’s main contention as to why she hates George W. Bush is because she thinks the Iraqi war was his personal choice and that he was responsible for all the deaths of the troops, as well as the suffering of military widows, parents who’d lost children, etc., and that it was all President Bush’s fault. She hates war with such venom that she cannot see past that emotion. I told her that nobody likes war, and that sometimes, war is a necessary evil. I told her one of the phrases that most pisses off a lot of Americans is the phrase “this is an unpopular war.” What war is popular? Even the Revolutionary War was unpopular, as were all that followed, but it didn’t mean they weren’t necessary or warranted. The “unpopular war” theme is just a tag to further enhance Bush Derangement Syndrome.

She said she she felt there were too many casualties in war, not just on the battlefield, but all of the families back home who suffered when their loved ones were wounded or killed. That seemed to hurt her the most. I almost wondered if she thought we DIDN’T have an all-volunteer military? Did she think that President Bush was ordering folks into war against their will? I said “Ingrid… if I’m an American wife, or if I am an American mother who had a son who enlisted, I would know that part of what that entailed was the possibility that my loved one might not come home.” This seemed unrealistic to her. Did she think men and women were pulled from their homes to serve? I’ll never know. But in retrospect, it makes my next point even more clear to me now.

She related a story to me that really took me aback. She moved here to Atlanta for a brief period in 2004. When she was here, she did the typical “touristy” thing and went to Stone Mountain Park to see the famous laser show. The laser shows are put on seasonally, and during certain times they are nightly, and others just on the weekend. Stone Mountain is a mountain where the granite face has been carved with the images of Confederate leaders Jefferson Davis, Robert E. Lee, and Thomas “Stonewall” Jackson.

The carved granite surface of Stone Mountain

The laser show is conducted to the sound of different music, but one segment surprised Ingrid.

Toward the end of the show, some images were shown on the rock face of our troops in Iraq and Afghanistan. Ingrid was frightened as she witnessed everyone around her jump to their feet, cheer, clap, “woo-hoo,” high-five each other, cry, hug, and chant “U.S.A.! U.S.A.!” and carry on about our men & women in the U.S. Armed Forces. She could not fathom the depths of our pride, as Americans, of our country. She told me she could not believe it that we were so proud! Now, for one who is not easily surprised, I dropped my fork, dropped my chin, looked her in the eye and asked “are you serious?” She said “yes, I’m completely serious - I was frightened!”

For the first time that night, I was truly speechless and incredulous. Was she really serious? She said that she later would have friends over to visit from Germany, and she would take them to Stone Mountain to see the laser show. She wanted them to witness the same thing she had. And she was not surprised they all reacted the same way she did. They were shocked at the overwhelming pride we have for our troops and our country.

I am only one voice in America and have my opinion. So it wouldn’t be appropriate to say all Germans feel the same way Ingrid does. But from what she explained to me, all of her friends and all of her visitors felt the same way. I would have thought that every person on this planet would be robust with pride of their own country. But apparently not, at least for this small group of Germans I knew. Did they have an undying shame for what Hitler did? Could they not overcome that and realize how far they’d come? Certainly America has had her flaws, and I am ashamed of slavery and other injustices of the past in America, but we have come a long way. And so has Germany. How can this shame be so ingrained and not be able to be shed?

I’m reminded of a recent book by Shelby Steele called “White Guilt.” And I wonder if some Germans didn’t feel some sort of “Hitler Guilt” for their past. Can’t they recognize how far they and the rest of the world has come? We have to learn to forgive what has happened in the past so we can move forward, but I wonder what it is in the German psyche that won’t allow that? Even if it’s just in the persons whom I know personally?

Ingrid still has her opinions of President Bush and America, and I told her that Al Qaeda has been attacking Western interests for a long time, and that the desire for the Islamic Caliphate is something that has long been festering. She seems to have been stuck in that guilt phase, and thinks all countries just should mind their own business.

Then she talked about the lack of WMDs found in Iraq. Oh, boy, here we go. I told her that whether or not she knew it, there were WMDs in Iraq (hundreds of ricin-filled weapons heads), and that all of the other intelligence agencies (including Egyptian Pres. Hosni Mubarak) had told us that Saddam had WMDs and would use them on our troops in Afghanistan. After all, why wouldn’t we believe them if he’d used them on hundreds of thousands of Iraqis? Plus, I reminded her, that as the world’s greatest superpower, what would have happened if Pres. Bush wouldn’t have acted, and Saddam DID use WMDs on any Western country? Bush was damned if he did and damned if he didn’t.

I reminded her of the attack on the U.S.S. Cole, the attacks in Kenya and Tanzania, the attacks on the U.S. Marine barracks, and countless other atrocities against the West since the 70s. Clinton lobbed a few missiles at an aspirin factory, but President Bush was finally the one to do something about the problem with Islamofascist terrorism. She said she still hated war and that’s why she didn’t like Bush. I respect that, but it just confirms my belief that our media (as well as the International media) are wholeheartedly to blame for the world’s opinion of the U.S.

I then asked her hypothetically, “who is it that the world comes to for help in times of need?” She correctly answered “America.” We talked about the Tsunami in Indonesia and the U.S.S. Mercy Ship being the first there, and that politics were the last thing the U.S. considers in times of need around the world. She also was not aware of Bob Geldof’s befuddlement about the world’s lack of recognition of Pres. Bush and his commitment to helping with AIDS in Africa. From a Washington Times article:

Mr. Geldof praised Mr. Bush for his work in delivering billions to fight disease and poverty in Africa, and blasted the U.S. press for ignoring the achievement.

Mr. Bush, said Mr. Geldof, “has done more than any other president so far.”

“This is the triumph of American policy really,” he said. “It was probably unexpected of the man. It was expected of the nation, but not of the man, but both rose to the occasion.”

“What’s in it for [Mr. Bush]? Absolutely nothing,” Mr. Geldof said.

Mr. Geldof said that the president has failed “to articulate this to Americans” but said he is also “pissed off” at the press for their failure to report on this good news story.

“You guys didn’t pay attention,” Geldof said to a group of reporters from all the major newspapers.

I told her that regardless of what other countries think of America, it IS America the world first looks to in times of need, and that we always come running. She acknowledged that and said the world should be grateful. However, she did say Germans were generally glad that their country refused to participate in the war in Iraq. And she railed about the U.S. not allowing the Red Cross to visit detainees in the War on Terror. Geez, what is the international media telling the rest of the world? She knew nothing of KSM, Abu Nidal, the Blind Sheikh and others. This conversation was a long one.

Lastly, she knew nothing of Gen. Petraeus, the counter-insurgency, what’s truly happening in Iraq, but was completely enamored with Barack Obama and his “change” mantra. That’s when I decided Ingrid needed one more gift to go back home with. I gave her my copy of Michael Yon’s “Moment of Truth In Iraq,” and told her if she was as hungry for knowledge as she said she was, she should read the book. I told her it was not all rosy about the war, but it was a first-hand account of what’s really happening in Iraq. She promised to read it, and before she left, she said she was learning a lot from it. But in the end, she said she still detested war.

I reminded her that we do, too.

But I love my country so much I can never understand her bewilderment in that pride.

FINALLY, at tonight’s Republican debate in Boca Raton, FL, someone (McCain) challenged Gov. Mike Huckabee on the FairTax. And even better than than, Tim Russert followed up with the 30% consumption tax fallacy that is always the primary anti-FairTax argument.

The FairTax is also being touted by noted professors of economics everywhere. Folks, if you have any doubts about the FairTax, please order the upcoming book, “The Fair Tax: The Truth - Answering the Critics” by GA Congressman John Linder and Neal Boortz. Or, if you don’t have the time nor desire to do that, just read the FAQs here.

Watch Huckabee explain his support of the FairTax here.

h/t Drudge

According to al-Reuters, the U.S. Military has found one big-ass cache of explosives in Iraq. From the story:

U.S. forces in Iraq discovered nearly 19 tons of explosives in a weapons cache north of Baghdad this week, one of the biggest finds of its kind, the U.S. military said on Saturday.

Effects of 50 Lbs. Ammonium Nitrate

The cache was discovered west of Tarmiya, some 30 km (19 miles) northwest of the capital Baghdad, in Salahuddin province where Sunni Arab militants have a strong presence.

The find was made up of 41,000 lbs of ammonium nitrate and 35 mortar bombs. U.S. forces destroyed the cache.

I lived in Oklahoma City when McVeigh bombed the Murrah Building. I know what ammonium nitrate can do. This is a huge find. A HUGE find!

I’ve checked 3 or 4 “major” news sites to see if anyone’s reporting this, and nobody seems to be. Not even Fox. ??? Am I missing something here, or is this like Charlie Gibson’s “no bad news is NO news in Iraq.”? I’m not going to hold my breath waiting on this one either.

I wasn’t going to post this, although I’ve had the video since the day it aired, because personally after previous experiences viewing the Montel Show and his blatant Bush-bashing, I am sick of him. Especially after the way he did Amy Proctor on his show. However, lately there’s been a lot of talk about a recent show where another soldier was purposefully cut off or edited after she stated positive things about her treatment after she returned.

The show in question was titled “The American Dream…Shattered?” and was to focus on how much we’re spending on the war, how many Americans are without healthcare, how the soliders are treated after they returned wounded from Iraq, and the Presidential race in ‘08. Montel’s guests included former New York Governor, George Pataki; Amy Holmes and Flavia Colgan, both political analysts; Keli Frasier, a returning veteran diagnosed with PTSD; and a woman named Meredith, whose child was born with a congenital disease, and she and her husband are broke and cannot afford medical care for their child.

Here’s how the site describes the episode:

As Washington debates how much longer the war in Iraq will continue, soldiers are beginning to come home and face a new reality. Americans are facing hard truths and struggles in their own lives, as well. They are striving for their own little piece of the American dream, but has it been hijacked? Will they ever get their own fair share of a healthy life, their civil liberties, and their own pursuit of happiness? Montel will be joined by former NY Governor and long-time rumored presidential candidate, George Pataki, and two political pundits, Amy Holmes and Flavia Colgan to debate these current issues. Throughout the show, we will also hear from Americans with personal stories that have larger sociopolitical implications. Keli is a returning soldier from Iraq who is trying to get back to her life here but is having trouble due to Post-Traumatic Stress Syndrome. We’ll also meet Meredith, a woman who just got out of debt. With little help from health insurance, Meredith has had trouble paying for her son Brian’s medical treatments for a condition he was born with.

Now here are some observations I had about the show. The most outstanding observation I made is that had his main guest, George Pataki, not been who he is, he would have edited out some of his responses and dismissed him from the show, as well, as he supports our troops and what we’re doing in Iraq, although he had some disagreements with the way some things have been handled (haven’t we all?). He also slams the dems for wanting to put a timetable/deadline/date for surrender on our military in Iraq, and although Montel looks like he wants to swallow his tongue, he has to bite his lip and say they’ll have to “agree to disagree” on that issue.

But before Pataki even comes out, Montel showed his audience a graphic with all the names of people who were officially in the race for ‘08, and asked his audience if anybody there, by a show of hands, realized there were that many candidates running.

Not surprisingly for a Montel audience, there was not one hand that I saw being held up. This speaks volumes about the intellect of audiences like Montels’ and the View’s; these people are just ignorant.

Montel also insisted that in the next election, we need to “take this country back.” Back from whom, Montel? From the conservatives? From the Republicans? And he said this with great passion. He hates George Bush and hates the Republican Administration, regardless of his apparent unabashed support for Pataki for President, being that Pataki is a Republican. I also probably think Montel cringed when Pataki called this current war a war against “Islamic radicalism and fundamentalism.”

Now, getting back to the reason for this post. Army reservist, Keli Frasier was on to discuss her PTSD, and according to a column by CNS News:

A syndicated television talk show was less than receptive to positive comments about the American government’s response to veterans’ needs, according to an Iraq war veteran who was a guest on the show.

According to Keli Frasier, an Army Reservist who served 11 months in Iraq, Montel Williams, host of “The Montel Williams Show,” quickly moved to the next segment after she made positive comments about the Department of Veterans Affairs.

“This soldier isn’t going to complain,” she quoted Williams as saying to other talk show staffers during a commercial break.

Frasier also said the portion of the taped interview in which she praised Veterans Affairs was cut out when the show aired Tuesday.

And she’s right. There is no comment by her about her positive view of the Veterans Affairs in the show that aired. The video has been edited for time’s sake and to capture the segments in question, but nothing was removed for political reasons on my part. Keli Frasier’s part is left intact, with the segue away from her after a much ballyhooed pre- and post-commercial intro about her “plight” with the V.A.

Others posting are Bryan Preston and Confederate Yankee, as well as CNS and the GJ Sentinel.

Watch the video here.

P.S. My apologies for the shoddy editing, because I’m used to posting video in full. But I hope at least you get the gist.

And thanks to Bryan at HotAir for his post.

Today Mike Gallagher and the ever pixie-like Laura Schwartz go toe-to-toe on Your World to discuss the New York Time’s piece on the execution of the brutal tyrant. Seems the NYTs is posing the idea that maybe there was a rush to execute Hussein. Hmm…. rush to execute. Sounds to me more like they’re confusing the new Iraqi justice system to the American judicial system’s 20- to 30-year time frame it takes to execute a convicted person on Death Row. I am personally thinking the U.S. could take a few clues from the Iraqis on this one. We spend way too much money and time on these executions, and some never go off at all.

As usual, Mike is the voice of reason over the peace-at-any-price kumbaya freaks on the left who don’t ever want to see anybody given justice. Well, maybe except for those Republicans or U.S. military members who’ve pulled frat pranks on insurgent detainees, or who are on trial for something in another country, for which there are no witnesses save a few locals who are shielded from the court proceedings altogether, and their testimony never questioned.

I guess justice is only for those whom the liberals deem it necessary, but for nobody else.

Watch Laura and Mike duke it out here.

Noel Sheppard of Newsbusters has it covered. Ian’s covering it, too.

Yesterday Jamie Colby had Marvin Kalb and Sandy Rios on Fox News Live to talk about the media bias in reporting what was put out in the Iraq Study Group report. Of course, Kalb didn’t find any bias, but Sandy merely had to tell Jamie she answered her own question when she was reading the responses of the media.

Couric called the war in Iraq a nightmare; Charles Gibson said the war is “not working,” and “time is running out.” Wolf Blitzer noted that the President said he would consider the report, but “made no promises,” and that Brit Hume said the report is “in tune with what the Administration is already doing.” Okay, so there’s no liberal bias there, Mr. Kalb? Gimme a break!

Watch the exchange here.

I know I’m late on this one, but it bears repeating. Why does it take someone like Lynn Cheney to call CNN on the carpet for their terrorist-appeasing ways? Their airing of the sniper snuff films recently shows they obviously don’t give a damn about our troops’ widows, but they were oh-so-concerned about offending Muslims with the Mohammed cartoons.

Moral relativism? Not even in the same category. Shame on CNN, and BRAVO Mrs. Cheney for Blitzing Wolf with the truth about CNN!

Folks, this is the lowest of the low. Wild Bill and myself were recently on Larry and Eric’s “Regular Guys” morning drive-time show at 96Rock about the IMs Foley with an adult page, Jordan Edmunds, and they were very fair to us. Larry and Eric are known to be conservative-leaning, and they have been suspended in the past by Clear Channel for a mishap on an audio segment that wound up going awry (a sex chat that was supposed to have played backwards, but by accident it didn’t. And they were fired). The Regular Guys are one of the, if not THE, most popular morning FM show in the Atlanta area, and every time they turn around, somebody’s trying to screw them.

Well, the latest was a tiff over a Mexican radio station crew who has taken over 105.7FM in the same building. Apparently the Mexican hosts can’t understand American humor, so racial insensitivity complaints were lodged, and eventually the Regular Guys were suspended again for some stupid PC bullshi*. Larry and Eric gave both Bill and I a fair shake, and unlike most of their interviews, they didn’t joke about us or make fun of us after the interviews. These are some really good guys, and the ethnic PC forces are at work here. I need ALL of you to please do what you can to tell Clear Channel Communications just what you think about their selective punishment of the Regular Guys just recently. I guess in the liberal bastions of some “shock jock” shows just cannot tolerate either Libertarian or Conservative views.

Here’s what Larry Wachs had to say on his blog:

I HAVE A STATEMENT TO MAKE
Bloggers, journalists, broadcasters, listeners, and friends—

As you may have heard, The Regular Guys Show has been terminated once again by Clear Channel Radio. In the past week, my partner, Eric Von Haessler, and I have been silent during a paid suspension while we awaited the results of a company investigation into a minor incident that has since snowballed into something that now demands a public response due to the fact that the principals on the other side are attempting to distort the facts and smear my reputation as a citizen and broadcaster and, in the short term, withhold my income without review or discussion with us.

All of this current mess took root, to my knowledge, in March, when the first national Hispanic illegal alien protests were taking place. We were doing our show in Orlando, from Braves spring training. Listeners started calling us on the air to get our opinion of the boycotts that were going on throughout the metro area and in other major cities across America. As the calls increased in volume, it became the only topic that day as it was on many talk shows across the country.

At one point in the show, we asked a producer to go down the hall and invite Yogi and Panda from Viva 105.7, also owned by Clear Channel, on the air to discuss the issue since some listeners had told us that they were exhorting their audience to boycott and take the day off. They agreed to come on and were ushered into our studio with our board operator, and we had a spirited discussion on the air.

In subsequent days, they complained to local Clear Channel management that they had been “disrespected” and that we should be lectured and punished for being in disagreement and making humorous comments about their point of view, all of which occurred exclusively on the air. Clear Channel management told them on more than one occasion that the opinions we express on the air are fair game, as are theirs, and protected not only by CC company policy, but also the 1st Amendment, and that if they didn’t want to look bad on the air, perhaps they shouldn’t agree to come on our show in the future. Nonetheless, the complaints continued unbeknownst to me through the year.

Fast forward to two weeks ago.

I was in the restroom down the hall from our studios after our broadcast was over on October 9, 2006. I carry a voice recorder on me and had it out to make some notes for a show meeting five minutes hence. Into the restroom walked Mr. Tapia and Mr. Carias who passed me at the urinal and headed for the two stalls in the corner. It’s a small restroom and there is no way they could not have seen me, further evidenced by the recording of them yelling insults at me from behind the stall doors which proves they knew I was there, knew I was recording, blowing up their claims of expectation of privacy, and that they still had an axe to grind about my on air opinions going back 7 months. They refused to talk to me like men. They chose to go into the bathroom stall and shout epithets in Spanish, not knowing I understand enough to know they were insulting me. Never have I engaged them in anymore than a simple wave hello off the air in the entire time we both worked there. In addition, the company has approved similar bits like this in the past.

This sparked another round of complaints to the company, who offered reasonable solutions to satisfy their ongoing and baseless grievances, but, insisting it was about the “honor of their culture,” Mr. Tapia and Mr. Carias went ahead and filed the criminal charge in Fulton County Magistrate Court against me and then filed civil complaints in Superior Court of Fulton County, GA against the company for “negligent hiring” and harassment and invasion of privacy chargess against me personally, omitting in the affidavit the salient fact that all remarks made about them and immigration were on the air, never off the air.

I have been more than willing, at the company’s request, to agree in writing not to even so much as speak of Yogi and Panda on the air going forward, for the sake of company harmony, and clear up any misconceptions they have about my opinion of them personally, which was on the favorable side, since they serve their audience well and deliver good ratings numbers and revenue.

A case of a humorous prank has turned into a culture clash, a suppression of 1st Amendment rights, and a ridiculous smear campaign against me as well as termination of my income without due process.

My friends, if crap like this is allowed to happen, I see the “Fairness Doctrine” looming mightily on the horizon, and all conservative talk radio hosts will be doomed; and for no other reason than liberal talk radio has failed miserably.

Here’s the contact info for 96Rock.com:

Additional 96Rock telephone numbers:

Studio Line: 404-741-9696

Office Line: 404-325-0960

And here’s Clear Channel’s Corporate info (PLEASE CALL OR WRITE!):

Corporate
Clear Channel
200 East Basse Road
San Antonio, TX 78209
Phone 1-210-822-2828

Folks, Larry and Eric need our help. This is just NOT right. The Mexican stations are taking over here in Georgia, and they’re using their “you’re offending my race” excuse to drown out American radio voices. It’s time to take a stand.

A good article where Eric responds to what happened, and here’s a petition to bring back the Regular Guys. Please, folks… get involved. These are two really great guys who are getting the shaft.

Wild Bill and WideAwakesRadio will soon have posts about this as well. This is just wrong.