Neda

WARNING GRAPHIC CONTENT

CNN: Video Of "Neda" Before She Was Killed In Iranian Protest


CNN: "Death Of Neda" Video Becomes Symbol Of Iranian Protests




(Source for above image - http://may4.org/)

Kent State Shooting 30th Anniversary Part 1


May 4, 1970 - Kent State Shootings

A Dream No More

Martin Luther King Jr. - I Have a Dream

(Source for image - http://www.elcivics.com/martin_luther_king_jr )

John McCain still a Hero in Defeat

It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat.

Theodore Roosevelt
"The Man In The Arena" excerpt from
Speech at the Sorbonne - Paris, France
April 23, 1910

(Source - http://www.theodore-roosevelt.com/trsorbonnespeech.html)

(Source of image - http://www.minnpost.com/stories/2008/04/03/1364/considering_mccains_age_ageism_or_a_fair_question)

Barack Obama - President Elect

911 - 7 years

A link to CNN's September 11 Memorial -

http://www.cnn.com/SPECIALS/2001/memorial/

Happy 4th of July 2008

(Source of picture - http://www.statueofliberty.org/Statue_of_Liberty_Picture_11.html )

The New Colossus
by Emma Lazarus

Not like the brazen giant of Greek fame,
With conquering limbs astride from land to land;
Here at our sea-washed, sunset gates shall stand
A mighty woman with a torch, whose flame
Is the imprisoned lightning, and her name
Mother of Exiles. From her beacon-hand
Glows world-wide welcome; her mild eyes command
The air-bridged harbor that twin cities frame.
"Keep, ancient lands, your storied pomp!" cries she
With silent lips. "Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,
I left my lamp beside the golden door!"

(Source for poem - http://www.poets.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/16111 )

(Source of picture - http://www.statueofliberty.org/Statue_of_Liberty_Picture_04.html )

Stars and Strips Forever

Flag Day

You're A Grand Old Flag - Letter from Iraq


Click on the following for last year's Flag Day post.

D-day plus one

(Source - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Normandy )

The Invasion of Normandy was the invasion and establishment of Allied forces in Normandy, France during

Operation Overlord in World War II. It covers from the initial landings on June 6, 1944 until the Allied breakout in mid-July.

It was the largest seaborne invasion at the time, involving over 850,000 troops crossing the English Channel from the United Kingdom to Normandy by the end of June 1944.

Allied land forces that saw combat in Normandy on June 6 came from Canada, Free French Forces, the United Kingdom, and the United States. In the weeks following the invasion, Polish forces also participated and there were also contingents from Belgium, Czechoslovakia, Greece, and the Netherlands. Most of the above countries also provided air and naval support, as did the Royal Australian Air Force, Royal New Zealand Air Force and the Royal Norwegian Navy.

The Normandy invasion began with overnight parachute and glider landings, massive air attacks, naval bombardments, an early morning amphibious landing and during the evening the remaining elements of the parachute divisions landed. The "D-Day" forces deployed from bases along the south coast of England, the most important of these being Portsmouth.

(Source for "Great Crusade" letter - http://www.kansasheritage.org/abilene/graphics/ikesmessage.jpg )

SUPREME HEADQUARTERS
ALLIED EXPEDITIONARY FORCE

Soldiers, Sailors, and Airmen of the Allied Expeditionary Force!

You are about to embark upon the Great Crusade, toward which we have striven these many months. The eyes of the world are upon you. The hopes and prayers of liberty-loving people everywhere march with you. In company with our brave Allies and brothers-in-arms on other Fronts, you will bring about the destruction of the German war machine, the elimination of Nazi tyranny over the oppressed peoples of Europe; and security for ourselves in a free world.

Your task will not be an easy one. Your enemy is well trained, well equipped and battle-hardened. He will fight savagely.

But this is the year 1944! Much has happened since the Nazi triumphs of 1940-41. The United Nations have inflicted upon the Germans great defeats, in open battle, man-to-man. Our air offensive has seriously reduced their strength in the air and their capacity to wage war on the ground. Our Home Fronts have given us an overwhelming superiority in weapons and munitions of war, and placed at our disposal great reserves of trained fighting men. The tide has turned! The free men of the world are marching together to Victory!

I have full confidence in your courage, devotion to duty and skill in battle. We will accept nothing less than full Victory!

Good Luck! And let us all beseech the blessing of Almighty God upon this great and noble undertaking.

Dwight D. Eisenhower

This is the letter the World saw. Eisenhower had an another letter, in this letter Eisenhower accepted the sole blame if the invasion had failed. Of course the Invasion didn't fail.

Memorial Day - Get us out of here! - A True Hero

Source for picture http://www.medalofhonor.com/RoyBenavidez.htm

.....“Get us out of here! For God’s sake, get us out!” The voice coming over the radio was frantic. A twelve-man Special Forces reconnaissance team had been inserted forty-eight kilometers inside Cambodia on a top-secret intelligence-gathering mission but had come under fire from a much larger North Vietnamese force. Now the team leader was calling the base at Loc Ninh urgently to request helicopter extraction.
.....Special Forces Staff Sergeant Roy P. Benavides, standing inside the radio shack at Loc Ninh that day, May 2, 1968 was amazed at the sound coming over the radio. “There was so much shooting,” he remembered, “it sounded like a popcorn machine.” Benavidez rushed to the helicopter pad as the first chopper returned from Cambodia. The wounded door gunner spilled out of the aircraft and died in Benavidez’s arms. A few minutes later Benavidez jumped into a UH-1 “Huey” helicopter as it readied for takeoff. “Where are you going?” asked the surprised pilot. “I’m going with you,” Benavidez said.
.....Over the border, enemy fire around the men on the ground was too heavy to allow the Huey to land near them. The pilot reached another clearing seventy-five yards away, where Benavidez crossed himself, jumped ten feet to the ground, and started running toward the American position.
.....Enemy fire poured at him from trees and bushes all around. Benavidez felt the bullets cut into his legs and face. The fire knocked him down several times, but he kept on going. “When you’re shot, you feel a burning pain, like you’ve been touched with hot metal,” Benavidez explained later. “But the fear that you experience is worse-and that’s what keeps you going.”
.....Reaching the team, Benavidez found four men already dead, and the other eight lying wounded in the grass. He set off a smoke grenade to mark the spot for the helicopter and ordered the men to provide covering fire for the landing. When the helicopter touched down, a few Americans climbed aboard while Benavidez ran to the body of the team leader to retrieve classified documents and a camera. While retuning, Benavidez was shot in the back and knocked down; looking up, he saw the helicopter crash and burn after being hit by sniper fire. He ran to the aircraft and pulled out two crewmen, then led them and the remaining six men to the edge of the pickup zone, where they drew a small defensive perimeter.
.....Benavidez called for additional air support on the radio and distributed water and ammunition to the men. He gave the wounded shots of morphine, injecting two doses into his own veins. Then he was hit in the thigh by another bullet. By now he was bleeding heavily from bullet wounds all over his body, and the blood from his head wounds made it practically impossible for him to see. He could hear the moans of the men above the gunfire. One man whose leg had been blown off begged Benavidez to kill him. “Shut up!” he said. “We don’t have permission to die!”
.....Benavidez and the others were on the ground almost eight hours. Several helicopters were shot down trying to evacuate the men, but finally one got close enough to land. After taking some men to the aircraft, Benavidez was about to pick up another when he was struck on the back of his head by a rifle butt. Wheeling around he saw a North Vietnamese soldier thrusting a bayonet toward his midsection. Benavidez grabbed the blade, cutting open his own hand, pulled the man to him, and stabbed him with his knife.
.....Stumbling back to the helicopter, Benavidez helped load the wounded onto the aircraft, pulling in anyone he could make out through the blood dripping into his eyes. He picked up a rifle and killed two enemy soldiers as they charged the ship. Finally he was pulled aboard and collapsed near the pile of bodies in the back, holding his intestines in with his hands. As the Huey rose, blood trickled out its side doors.
.....The helicopter made it back to Loc Ninh with seventeen men, both dead and alive. As the bodies were unloaded, a doctor thought Benavidez was dead, and a body bag was prepared for him. Unable to move or speak, Benavidez spit into the startled doctor’s face. The doctor ordered him flown to Saigon for treatment.
.....The men at Loc Ninh assumed that Roy Benavidez would die. His commanding officer, Lieutenant Colonel Ralph Drake, awarded him the Distinguished Service Cross so that he would receive some recognition before he died. But Benavidez slowly recovered from his wounds and was discharged from the Army in 1976 with 80 percent medical disability classification. Meanwhile, Lieutenant Colonel Drake learned that his former sergeant was alive and petitioned the army to elevate his award to the Medal of Honor.
.....The web of regulations that govern Medal of Honor reviews slowed Drake’s recommendation. In order for Benavidez’s case to be reopened, at least two eyewitness statements were needed: one to verify that he jumped on the helicopter at Loc Ninh and another to account for his actions on the ground. There was verification of the former action, but as far as Benavidez knew, all of the eight men whose lives he had been credited with saving had since died.
.....But one had survived. In 1980, after publication of a national newspaper story concerning Benavidez’s campaign for the medal, the sole surviving member of the team that he had saved was located on the Fiji Islands. Like the others, he had thought Benavidez had died from his wounds. Finally, on February 24, 1981, almost thirteen years after the episode in the Cambodian jungle, President Ronald Reagan awarded Roy Benavidez the Medal of Honor. Benavidez was the last living man to receive the medal for the Vietnam War.
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(Source: Above and Beyond – A History of the Medal of Honor from the Civil War to Vietnam, Boston Publishing Company, Boston, Massachusetts, 1985, pages 290 - 91 – ISBN: 0-939526-19-0)

http://www.biblio.com/details.php?dcx=168694895&aid=frg

Hillary wins!!! McCain clinches!!!

(Source for Hillary picture - http://timpanogos.wordpress.com/category/voodoo-history/ )

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(Source for McCain picture - http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/18348393/ )

PS Obama wins Vermont

Malcollm X

A somber and sad anniversary:

"On February 21, 1965 in Manhattan's Audubon Ballroom, Malcolm had just begun delivering a speech when a disturbance broke out in the crowd of 400. A man yelled, "Get your hand outta my pocket! Don't be messin' with my pockets!" As Malcolm and his bodyguards moved to quiet the disturbance, a man rushed forward and shot Malcolm in the chest with a sawed-off shotgun. Two other men charged the stage and fired handguns at Malcolm, who was shot 16 times. Angry onlookers in the crowd caught and beat the assassins as they attempted to flee the ballroom. Malcolm was pronounced dead on arrival at New York's Columbia Presbyterian Hospital.

After the assassination: Malcolm X on a stretcher, en route from the Audubon Ballroom to Columbia Presbyterian Hospital.
Two suspects were named by witnesses — Norman 3X Butler and Thomas 15X Johnson, both members of the Nation of Islam.

Three men were eventually charged in the case. Talmadge Hayer, also a Black Muslim, confessed to having fired shots into Malcolm's body, but he testified that Butler and Johnson were not present and were not involved in the shooting. All three were convicted."

(Source - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Malcolm_X )

This is not the first time that I've noted this sad event (see - February 21, 1965 - Malcolm X Remembered ). I learned of Malcolm X from the Spike Lee movie. The events and life chronicled in that movie compelled me to read a biography of Floyd Little – who would eventually changed his name to Malcolm X.

The assassination of Malcolm X, as well as the tragic murders of other great historical people and current leaders (Benazir Bhutto, etc.), forces us all to wonder what the World would be like if these great leaders would have lived.

PS Malcolm X is the role that Denzel Washington should of won the Oscar and not the role he played as a rouge cop in Training Day. ;-) GC

Twas the Super Bowl before Super Tuesday

Twas the Super Bowl before Super Tuesday and all through the land
Not a candidate was stirring, nor even committee.
The reporters and pollsters were readying their skills
With hopes of predicting the Presidential candidate winners.

The voters were praying, hoping and waiting to vote.
Maybe next year the President will deliver; bringing prosperity, security, and hope.
Do we believe in past policies or demand change?
Do we stay with the status quo or rock the nation and vote?

Some call for the security of the Nation and safe borders.
Others want driver licenses for illegal immigrants and national health care.
While fears of inflation and joblessness abound. Voters are dazed.
Plagued by fears of foreclosures and empty wallets. Confused by policies foreign and domestic.

Whether Hillary, Obama, McCain, Romney, or Huckabee is right.
Have faith. Hope, pray, and prepare to vote Tuesday.
The underdog and underprivileged will have their day.
Some Patriots did lose but we have always lived in a land of Giant dreams and hopes.

Congratulations to the underdog Giants. God save the United States of America.

(With apologies to Clement Clarke Moore's Twas the Night before Christmas - http://www.carols.org.uk/twas_the_night_before_christmas.htm )

Mitt takes Michigan - On to South Carolina

(Source for picture - http://www.mymanmitt.com/mitt-romney/uploaded_images/Mitt-Romney-Photo-773809.jpg )

Huckabee - Iowa

McCain - New Hampshire

Romney - Michigan

New Hampshire - the Comeback Kids

Hillary wins New Hampshire!!!!!


Don't send a man when a woman can do the job.

Congratulations. Hillary.









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McCain wins New Hampshire!!!!!


At 71 years old, he's not a kid. But, he's a winner.

Congratulations. Senator McCain.

PS Hillary's 60 years old.

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Click on the following to hear John Stewart (formerly of the Kingston Trio) sing - Mother Country

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yWwayDfJtkE&NR=1

Click on the following for the lyrics - http://www.marcogiunco.com/Testi/001564_07.htm

Iowa, 1 down. On to New Hampshire, Round 2

(Source for Obama picture - http://www.smh.com.au/news/world/the-first-black-us-president/2007/01/17/1168709786906.html )


Obama wins in Iowa!!!!!









(Source for Huckabee picture -http://lighthousepatriotjournal.wordpress.com/2007/08/20/huckabee-mike-election-2008-dossier/ )


Huckabee wins in Iowa!!!!!












The Times They are a Changin'

(Click on the following for video of song - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lZ_XwLSN45I )


Register to Vote!!!!!

Happy - 4th of July

John Adams wrote that the Fourth of July
"...ought to be celebrated by pomp and parade, with shows, games, sports, guns, bells, bonfires, and illuminations from one end of this continent to the other..."

The Declaration of Independence itself has become one of the most admired and copied political documents of all time. It was written by Thomas Jefferson and revised by John Adams, Benjamin Franklin, and Jefferson.

The Declaration of Independence is a justification of the American Revolution, citing grievances against King George III. It is also a landmark philosophical statement, drawing on the writings of philosophers John Locke and Jean Jacques Rousseau. It affirms that since all people are creatures of God, or nature, they have certain natural rights, or liberties, that cannot be violated.

The Declaration and the American Revolution have since inspired freedom-seekers the around the world.

(Source - Fact Monster - http://www.factmonster.com/spot/independenceday1.html )

Stars and Stripes Forever

Vicksburg and Grant

Vicksburg
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The Battle of Vicksburg, or Siege of Vicksburg, was the final significant battle in the Vicksburg Campaign of the American Civil War. In a series of skilled maneuvers, Union Maj. Gen. Ulysses S. Grand and his Army of the Tennessee crossed the Mississippi River and drove the Confederate army of Lt. Gen. John C. Pemberton into defensive lines surrounding the fortress city of Vicksburg, Mississippi. Grant besieged the city from May 18 to July 4, 1863, until it surrendered, yielding command of the Mississippi River to the Union. *

*(Source for above citation - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Vicksburg )

(Source for above picture - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Battle_of_Vicksburg%2C_Kurz_and_Allison.png )

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Click on the following for a battle summary by Heritage Preservation Services - http://www.nps.gov/history/hps/abpp/battles/ms011.htm


Grant

In an attempt to capture the Mississippi River fortress of Vicksburg, Mississippi, Grant spent the winter of 1862–1863 conducting a series of operations to gain access to the city through the region's bayous. These attempts failed.

However, his strategy to take Vicksburg in 1863 is considered one of the most masterful in military history. Grant marched his troops down the west bank of the Mississippi and crossed the river by using U.S. Navy ships that had run the guns at Vicksburg. There, he moved inland and—in a daring move that defied conventional military principles—cut loose from most of his supply lines. Operating in enemy territory, Grant moved swiftly, never giving the Confederates, under the command of John C. Pemberton, an opportunity to concentrate their forces against him. Grant's army went eastward, captured the city of Jackson, Mississippi, and severed the rail line to Vicksburg.

Knowing that the Confederates could no longer send reinforcements to the Vicksburg garrison, Grant turned west and won the Battle of Champion Hill. The Confederates retreated inside their fortifications at Vicksburg, and Grant promptly surrounded the city. Finding that assaults against the impregnable breastworks were futile, he settled in for a six-week siege. Cut off and with no possibility of relief, Pemberton surrendered to Grant on July 4, 1863. It was a devastating defeat for the Southern cause, effectively splitting the Confederacy in two, and, in conjunction with the Union victory at Gettysburg the previous day, is widely considered the turning point of the war. For this victory, President Lincoln promoted Grant to the rank of major general in the regular army, effective July 4.

A distinguished British historian has written that "we must go back to the campaigns of Napoleon to find equally brilliant results accomplished in the same space of time with such a small loss." Lincoln said after the capture of Vicksburg and after the lost opportunity after Gettysburg, "Grant is my man and I am his the rest of the War." **

** (Source for second citation - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ulysses_S._Grant )

(Source for Grant's Picture - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:GenUSGrant.jpg )

PS Have a Happy and Safe 4th of July!!! ;-) GC

Gettysburg

Gettysburg – July 1st, 2nd, and 3rd, 1863

THE CIVIL WAR IN ITS THIRD YEAR *

Fought over the first three days of July 1863, the Battle of Gettysburg was one of the most critical battles of the Civil War having occurred at a time when the fate of the nation hung in the balance - the summer of 1863. Often referred to as the "High Water Mark of the Confederacy", it was the culmination of the second and most ambitious invasion of the North by General Robert E. Lee and the "Army of Northern Virginia". The "Army of the Potomac", the Union army that had long been the nemesis of Lee, met the Confederate invasion at the crossroads town of Gettysburg and though it was under a new commander, General George Gordon Meade, the northerners fought with a desperation born of defending their home territory. The Union victory at the Battle of Gettysburg resulted in Lee's retreat to Virginia and an end to the hopes of the Confederacy for independence.


(National Park Service)
The "High Water Mark" of the Confederacy.






*The Story of the Battle of Gettysburg - http://www.nps.gov/archive/gett/getttour/main-ms.htm

* July 1, 1863 - The Battle Begins - http://www.nps.gov/archive/gett/getttour/day1.htm
* July 2, 1863 - "A most terrible day..." http://www.nps.gov/archive/gett/getttour/day2.htm
* July 3 - "I will strike him there..." - http://www.nps.gov/archive/gett/getttour/day3.htm
* "the last full measure of devotion..." - http://www.nps.gov/archive/gett/getttour/day4.htm

*(Source the National Park Service – Gettysburg -http://www.nps.gov/gett/historyculture/index.htm )

Click on the following for a battle summary by Heritage Preservation Services - http://www.nps.gov/history/hps/abpp/battles/pa002.htm


Click on the following for information on the movie Gettysburg (1993) - http://imdb.com/title/tt0107007/









Click on the following for the companion book for the 1993 movie - Gettysburg The Paintings of Mort Künstler - Text by James M. McPherson - http://www.mortkunstler.net/gallery/product495_lastcat100.ihtml or http://www.amazon.com/Gettysburg-Paintings-Kunstler-James-McPherson/dp/1558536175 **

** Found a copy of this book in my local library

Click on the following for books on the Battle of Gettysburg by the Battle of Gettysburg Resource Center - http://gburginfo.brinkster.net/booklist.htm

Click on the following for information on Joshua Chamberlain - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joshua_Chamberlain
(Chamberlain is an important character in both Gettysburg & Gods and Generals. Chamberlain is played by Jeff Daniels in both movies.)

Click on the following for YouTube clips from Gettysburg the movie -http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LLHRXrlqq_s
or the 20th Maine's Bayonet Charge on Big Round Top- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wYDhAmjmxYk&mode=related&search=
or Pickett's Charge - The High Water Mark - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oW3DfXrn8Yc
or Pickett's Charge - The Aftermath - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ke7ltmCa0vo&mode=related&search=

Stonewall Jackson

(Source of picture NNDB: Tracking the entire world -
http://www.nndb.com/people/596/000050446/ )

Stonewall Jackson *

Thomas Jonathan "Stonewall" Jackson (January 21,1824 – May 10, 1863) was a Confederate general during the American Civil War, and probably the most revered Confederate commander after General Robert E. Lee. He is most famous for his audacious Valley Campaign of 1862 and as a corps commander in the Army of Northern Virginia under Robert E. Lee. His own troops accidentally shot him at the battle of Chancellorsville and he died of complications from an amputated arm and pneumonia several days later.

Military historians consider Jackson to be one of the most gifted tactical commanders in United States history. His Valley Campaign and his envelopment of the Union Army right wing at Chancellorsville are studied worldwide even today as examples of innovative and bold leadership. He excelled as well at the First Battle of Bull Run (where he received his famous nickname), Second Bull Run, Antietam, and Fredericksburg. Jackson was not universally successful as a commander, however, as displayed by his weak and confused efforts during the Seven Days Battles around Richmond in 1862. His death was a severe setback for the Confederacy, affecting not only its military prospects, but the morale of its army and the general public; as Jackson lay dying, General Robert E. Lee stated, "He has lost his left arm; I have lost my right."

*(Source for above info. - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stonewall_Jackson)

To learn more about Stonewall Jackson, you might want to rent or buy the following DVD - Gods and Generals. Stephen Lang as Jackson is excellent.

(Source for Gods and General DVD cover - http://www.amazon.com/Gods-Generals-Jeff-Daniels/dp/B00009OOFA/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1/102-9045144-6758528?ie=UTF8&s=dvd&qid=1183176427&sr=1-1 )

Click on the following for information on Gods and Generals - http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0279111/

Click on the following for a video clip from Gods and Generals - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TYzt1ao81jU&mode=related&search=

Mary Fahl - Going Home - song from Gods and Generals (2003)

Lower the volume before playing

Hilton: 'I'm so much more grateful' *

* click on the above for the current news on Paris