Saturday, March 31, 2007

Sending a message?

By now you've seen this: Pelosi in Syria.

The head congresscritter is smoozing with enemy!

How do I hate this... let me count the ways.

Nah, all I feel is betrayal and rage, and that makes coherent (even by MY standards) discussion impossible.

How many ways can the word WRONG be said?

Maybe I'll repeat the use of my reality hammer... we have met the enemy and he is us! With apologies to Walt Kelly and Pogo.

Friday, March 30, 2007

Uncle Sam needs YOU!

There it is! We are on the cusp of a major thing, will we be a Spanish speaking Islamic State living under Sharia law? It's an old notion see: Al-Andalus
It was a wonderful time.

The Gathering of Eagles can be an historical footnote in several ways. Do we disappear as just a small bump in the decline or as a transition point where America said WHOA?

Veterans, even draftees, have stepped up for centuries. Has the decline gone on to the point that a second (or third) response is beyond us?

I'm not calling for open rebellion... I am asking that you stand up and be counted amongst the willing yet again.

We are a special few, those who have served, and we are called once again. Our country is on the brink... Of a greater reward or cataclysmic failure.

Future Gatherings of Eagles will be trying, there will be no laudatory press coverage and few awards for success. We will have to deal with politicians or raise up our own versions of the same. We'll have to do the 'dirty work', but failure is inconceivable.

Or is it?

Monday, March 26, 2007

Gestalt - My last post dealing with GoE

Gestalt: a structure, configuration, or pattern of physical, biological, or psychological phenomena so integrated as to constitute a functional unit with properties not derivable by summation of its parts.

After cogitating about the event for a few days (ain't hindsight wonderful?) I've begun to acknowledge a primary fact. We were present for a miracle!

Miracle: an extremely outstanding or unusual event, thing, or accomplishment.

There it is folks; providence and luck contained what could just as easily be catastrophic.

The late comers and Monday Morning Quarterbacks are, mostly, singing our praises, but those behind the scenes know we were sometimes hanging on by our fingernails.

The above is offered as a reality hammer, not otherwise negative. We did a job, and did it well, but the next iteration (in whatever form it comes) may not be so lucky?

Wednesday, March 21, 2007

Gathering of Eagles - my personal take

I didn't kick ass and take names. I saw, and heard, the moonbats and shitheads only from a distance.

I was a REMF, and that's it.

From the Operations Center I could see The Wall directly below me. Whenever I felt little guilty or particularly cold I drew warmth from the line of people slowly passing those names.

When Larry Bailey named me Petty Officer in Charge (NCOIC for you Army types) of communications for the event I admit I didn't quite realize how it would be on The Day. But you volunteer and you take your chances.

None of the above should be interpreted as complaint nor excuse... I am so proud of what we accomplished I could bust. I did my job and did it well.

Kind of a boring report... but there it is.

Reality - Stating the obvious yet again

Our country is at serious risk. There is a group that seeks power for power's sake, and will use any means to get it.

This group is essentially answerable to no one including government agencies tasked with enforcing our laws.

This group has been in power so long it feels it is entitled to make decisions for the rest of us. It has taken on the mantle of a royal class. Certainly some members come and go, but another prince is waiting in the wings.

This group does much of it's business in back rooms out of public view, deals are made, money changes hands, with little accountability.

This group maintains a facade that isn't always easy to penetrate, hence plausible deniability offers protection from all but the most pointed probes.

This group is not the Bilderbergs, the CFR, nor the Trilateral Commission, et. al. - though some may be members.

This group is our own Congress!

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Ask yourself; why can't we get term limits? A simple idea that would shift the role of congress to something closer to what I think our Founding Fathers intended. George Washington chose NOT to our King, yet congress HAS chosen to be royalty in the form of princes and princesses.

I've proposed taking term limits several steps further:

Congresscritters are chosen from the jury pool. This process is good enough for us as individuals.
Congresscritters are paid what out military is paid, I'd offer them mid-level officers pay. They would live in housing similar to that of said officers. They would have the exact benefits across the board except for retirement. Congresscritters would simply not serve long enough, although that service would probably fall under civil service rules so the time served would count if applicable

Term lengths would be as they are now, except, of course, no one would have consecutive terms.

Certain infrastructure elements would have to change to avoid bureaucratic inertia within the staffs. I haven't worked out all of the details.

Thing is... My idea is about as likely as simple terms limits, so why not shoot for the moon?

Sunday, March 18, 2007

Gathering of Eagles - technical After Action Report

I'll address my feeling about the event in a separate post. This is my technical AAR for my own later reference.

Arrived Wednesday March 14 around 7 pm with OWB.

NOTE: OWB was the GoE security chief and I was responsible for communications.

Thursday March 15:

OWB and I met up with Kristann Taylor and Larry Bailey at Air America Studios. Larry and Kristann were interviewed by The G Man himself, OWB and I listened from the booth... never got the picture or handshake I'd hoped for, sadly Mr. Liddy was in the middle of his show.

OWB and I then proceeded to The Mall to do radio checks and Reconnoiter the area. Captain Bailey and Kristann arrived a bit later. Temp was in the low 80's. Luck had it that our permitted area had a knoll that provided a clear view of all the Memorials (WWII, Korea, Vietnam, etc. that we were planning to secure on Saturday. Radio coverage was excellent.

I advised Kristann that I wanted the knoll for the operations center, and he advised me to be there early Friday to meet with the crew erecting the stage and shelters. Met later with civilian contract security personnel who were responsible for the stage and other equipment from 4pm on the 16th to 4pm on the 17th. GoE would be responsible during the erection phase and/or until 4pm

Friday March 16:

1st CAV and I arrived at about 9:30 am the weather turned rainy, but we met with the crew and confirmed the location of the Ops center. More area check out. When we left at around 11:30 the rain was heavy and steady.

Returned to the hotel to prepare for the influx of volunteers. Made a run to Target to grab some prepaid type cell phones for backup commo. Saw to the rotation of our security volunteers who were on site. They arrived back wet, cold, and bedraggled.

Returned to hotel to continue dealing with the volunteers and other arrivals. Watched the weather turn to snow and sleet.

Saturday March 17:

OWB, TACAN, The Gray Dog, and I arrived on-site at about 7am.

Ground was snow and ice covered, there was also a fair amount of flooding from the rain. Temp was about 30 or less. No precip but the wind drove the wind chill down.

TACAN and I did a final radio check and began distributing radios to our marshals. We had two loggers who were tasked with logging every transmission.

Aside: I had managed to misplace my winter coat the night before so I had two sweatshirts and a plastic poncho for warmth (and no gloves). others were as cold or colder, and my great location caught the worst of the wind.

I was at the Ops Center until about 2:30 when we started closing down. We changed batteries and generally saw to it the the marshals had what they needed, when they needed it. The radios performed perfectly.

More personal details and impressions follow.

Thursday, March 01, 2007

Tick Tock - Tick Tock

March First!!! Just Two weeks from today I (and others) will be boots on the ground just outside Washington, DC.

One month ago I did my first post regarding The March on the Pentagon , titled "The Pendulum Swings".

Wow, is it ever... There's no practical way to translate the outpouring of support into actual numbers but I can note that as a participant at the Kerry Lied Rally and the recent effort in Johnstown, PA to unseat Murtha - I've yet to see anything like it.

Underfunded, and staffed by unpaid volunteers, it looks to be a miracle in the making.

The miracle is NOT only the potential for a huge turnout. The real miracle is the number of voices in the growing chorus saying "Enough is Enough!"

However March 17th turns out it can mark a beginning. Enough of us will return home filled with a new resolve to take a stand.

Remember, The Wall and other memorials are symbols, no one is buried there. They are symbols of things that ARE America.

I'll steal these words from Rurik, not only because they simply bear repeating, but because I thought they were a bit over-the-top when I first read them.

History happens when you’re doing mundane things with little concern beyond the present need. Two hundred and forty-two years ago a small group of angry farmers at Concord chose to make a stand for their musket rights. They knew it might mean trouble or it might lead to nothing. None of them guessed they were about to change the history of the world.

3-17-07 will not be as important as Concord. But if our showing is large enough, it can become a turning point in our own war for national self-respect. Might we be about to make history? May we make history! Help make that happen. You are offered a chance to be there and share the honor of honoring our Fallen Brothers. Or will you be one of King Henry’s “gentlemen in England now-a-bed (who) Shall think themselves accurs’d they were not here”. What will you say to yourself while listening to the evening news on March 19?

Read the rest here

What if this awakens the 'silent majority' to what is going on? What if...

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