War on Terror Sceduled to End in October 2008!

This is an article from the “In the Loop” column from the Washington Post. Apparent the Defense Department is planning to wind down the so-called “Global War on Terror” by October of 2008 — a month before the presidential election! Why doesn’t that surprise me?

Pencil In That End-of-War Date

By Al Kamen
Wednesday, February 28, 2007; Page A17

The Democrats and other cut-and-runners are in disarray over their next move on Iraq. And they keep jabbering that the administration has no plan for the war other than the same old, same old.

Nonsense. The Pentagon, in a series of recent memos, is making the fight against terrorism synonymous with Iraq (although it has been pretty much confirmed that Saddam Hussein wasn’t involved in the Sept. 11 attacks) and has issued a clear call for getting the job done by the end of next year.

In a Dec. 6 memo to top civilian and military folks, Deputy Defense Secretary Gordon England outlined the Pentagon’s eight priorities for this fiscal year, and No. 1 was “Win the Global War on Terror,” or GWOT.

The No. 3 goal was “Meet the Challenge of Improvised Explosive Devices.” No. 8 was “Improve Effectiveness and Efficiency Across the Board.” England warned that meeting these goals “will inform our decisions on individual senior employee performance ratings.” That means their paychecks.

In a Feb. 15 memo, England spotted a key fact that most everyone in this town has overlooked. “At noon on Jan. 20, 2009,” he wrote, “many of the civilian Department of Defense (DOD) leadership positions will transition to a new Administration Team. This change, coupled with the normal rotation of military leadership, could disrupt many of the management process changes currently underway in the Department.”

So “to ensure that warfighters and taxpayers receive maximum benefit from on-going initiatives,” England suggested, “it would be highly desirable to complete current projects by the summer/fall of 2008.”

There’s a handy “notional” grid with the memos, with the eight priorities down the left side and quarterly milestones for 2007 and 2008 across the top. Little triangles denote the “expected milestone conclusion date.”

Sure enough, the GWOT looks to be over around October 2008, a month before. . . .

First Marine Wounded in Iraq Comes Out of the Closet!

Bravo, Sgt. Alva! America needs more men like you! I particularly like two of his points: first, that gay men and women are being asked to defend the “rights” of their fellow Americans AT THE SAME TIME they are denied their own! How foolish! Second, that the military is dismissing skilled workers who could aid in the so-called “War on Terror” simply because they are gay! Firing an Arabic linguist because of his/her sexuality is the definition of cutting off your nose to spite your face!

A true American hero.

From •The Washington Post•:

Defending His Country, but Not Its ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell’ Policy

Wednesday, February 28, 2007

Once a Marine, always a Marine. That pretty much sums up the life of retired Sgt. Eric Alva, who was sworn into the Marine Corps at 19, stationed in Somalia and Japan and lost his right leg when he stepped on a land mine on March 21, 2003, the first day of Operation Iraqi Freedom.

As the war’s first injured soldier, Alva was an instant celebrity. He was on “Oprah.” President Bush awarded him the Purple Heart. Donald Rumsfeld visited. And strangers in Alva’s native San Antonio still insist on paying for his dinner at Chili’s. Last fall Alva, 36, contacted the Human Rights Campaign, the gay rights group, and asked to be involved in its lobbying effort. Today he’ll stand alongside Rep. Martin Meehan (D-Mass.) when he introduces a bill to repeal the military’s “Don’t ask, don’t tell” policy on gay, lesbian and bisexual military personnel.

One of the Dumbest School Lessons I Have Ever Heard Of!

I am a fairly liberal person who often critiques the power-structure in the United States, but this is just plain rediculous! I found this article at •TechCentralStation•:

L’Eggo My Lego

By Maureen Martin : 28 Feb 2007

Lego Apocalypse

Some Seattle school children are being told to be skeptical of private property rights. This lesson is being taught by banning Legos.

A ban was initiated at the Hilltop Children’s Center in Seattle. According to an article in the winter 2006-07 issue of “Rethinking Schools” magazine, the teachers at the private school wanted their students to learn that private property ownership is evil.

According to the article, the students had been building an elaborate “Legotown,” but it was accidentally demolished. The teachers decided its destruction was an opportunity to explore “the inequities of private ownership.” According to the teachers, “Our intention was to promote a contrasting set of values: collectivity, collaboration, resource-sharing, and full democratic participation.”

The children were allegedly incorporating into Legotown “their assumptions about ownership and the social power it conveys.” These assumptions “mirrored those of a class-based, capitalist society — a society that we teachers believe to be unjust and oppressive.”

They claimed as their role shaping the children’s “social and political understandings of ownership and economic equity … from a perspective of social justice.”

So they first explored with the children the issue of ownership. Not all of the students shared the teachers’ anathema to private property ownership. “If I buy it, I own it,” one child is quoted saying. The teachers then explored with the students concepts of fairness, equity, power, and other issues over a period of several months.

At the end of that time, Legos returned to the classroom after the children agreed to several guiding principles framed by the teachers, including that “All structures are public structures” and “All structures will be standard sizes.” The teachers quote the children:

“A house is good because it is a community house.”

“We should have equal houses. They should be standard sizes.”

“It’s important to have the same amount of power as other people over your building.”