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Six years ago, in Haditha, Iraq, in the wake of a deadly insurgent attack on their convoy, a Marine quick reaction force raided several houses from which they were taking fire. At the conclusion of the action it became clear that a number of Iraqi civilians had been killed, which was duly reported up the Marine Corps chain of command. The command determined that while the deaths were unfortunate, the engaged Marines had not violated the laws of war. Then, early in 2006, a reporter from Time Magazine got wind of the incident, and all hell broke loose. An...

Earmarks again are a topic in Congress, and people in this part of Pennsylvania shouldn’t condemn them. Back in the 1970s, when highway construction was booming around the biggest population centers of the Keystone State, places like Altoona, Johnstown, Ebensburg and Bedford were told that once those projects were completed, work would begin on their roadway needs.But as the large-scale projects around Philadelphia, Harrisburg, Pittsburgh and Erie were completed, the promises that had been made to Blair County and other smaller-population areas, didn’t materialize because of alleged money shortages.The message seemed to be: “We’ll get to you sometime, but for...

Dear Glenn Beck, I was so honored by the three interviews you did with me during the course of my congressional campaigns against John Murtha in 2008 to 2010. I will always remember how deeply you complemented me when you closed your first interview. I am writing with the hope my words will carry some influence with you and the messages you send over the airwaves. I greatly respect your endeavors to constantly educate yourself and your listeners as well as your promotion of reconciliation between opposing factions. My head almost exploded as I was driving and listening to your...

Dear Glenn Beck, I was so honored by the three interviews you did with me during the course of my congressional campaigns against John Murtha in 2008 to 2010. I will always remember how deeply you complemented me when you closed your first interview. I am writing with the hope my words will carry some influence with you and the messages you send over the airwaves. I greatly respect your endeavors to constantly educate yourself and your listeners as well as your promotion of reconciliation between opposing factions. My head almost exploded as I was driving and listening to your...

Haditha: Where Are They (the Accusers) Now? Diana West January 18, 2012 Eight charged; seven cleared; one, please, let’s hope, to go.Finally, the last “Haditha” trial is in progress, and, thanks to Nat Helms at Defend Our Marines, everything you need or want to know about the proceedings, the witnesses, the facts about the case of SSGT Frank D. Wuterich, the last of the Marine Mohicans, is here. Tim McGirk, source of the Haditha myth-acre. Of course, I still have a few questions — the exact same questions I had when I first looked at the case back in late...

I am pleased to report that Republican candidate Doug Cloud has finally brought down Democrat Congressman Norm Dicks, ranking Democrat on the powerful House Appropriations Committee. Scandals surrounding Norm Dicks are long, and deep. However, it was a Freedom on Information request by Doug Cloud, involving FBI files from the lobbyist PMA Group that finally caused Dicks to step aside. Here is a bit of background on the now defunct PMA Group: In return for campaign contributions, PMA group clients received over $200 million in contracts.In November, 2008 FBI agents raided PMA's offices and removed records of the firm's political...

The USS Medgar Evers? The USS John Murtha? The USS Cesar Chavez? Our Navy Secretary, Ray Mabus, has this diversity thing down cold. Each one of those ships was in a class that previous names of their sister ships had nothing to do with civil rights, or corrupt Democratic politicians. Ships are usually named after states, cities, even famous explorers and war heroes. But Mabus has injected partisanship into this tradition, naming another ship for Democrat Gabriel Giffords, who has shown courage in her recovery from an assassination attempt but had expressed little interest in the military during her career...

Navy Secretary Ray Mabus is back again using a U.S. Navy warship as a vessel of political pandering. At a hurriedly convened Pentagon ceremony Friday, Mr. Mabus announced that the next littoral combat ship, LCS-11, would be named for former Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, Arizona Democrat. Mrs. Giffords recently resigned her congressional seat to focus on recovering from wounds she received in a tragic January 2011 shooting. There are many appropriate ways to honor Mrs. Giffords, but this is not one of them.

Last week’s release of FBI documents finally put in writing what nobody had ever said on the record: The FBI suspected that former Rep. John Murtha (D-Pa.) and lobbyists close to him were running a scheme to funnel earmarks to sham companies and nonprofits to benefit the lawmaker’s friends and former staffers. Bits and pieces of this story were kicked around for years before Murtha died in February 2010. The Los Angeles Times, Roll Call, the Washington Post and others had documented the odd appearance of earmarks for tiny defense contractors that just happened to open an office in western...

The U.S. Navy's Name GamePosted by Mark Thompson Sunday January 9, 2011 at 8:30 pm Prospective parents battling over the names of their unborn kids have nothing on the U.S. Navy, which is in the middle of a spat over the wisdom of naming a new ship for the late Pennsylvania congressman John Murtha. In fact, it has kicked off a bigger battle over just who, or what, should be honored with their names on the great gray hulls of the nation's warships. "It comes down to two points," says military historian James Caiella. "Who and what we are as...

Mark Critz, a former aide to the late John Murtha and the Democratic nominee to replace him, has pulled out to a 6-point lead in the special election for Pennsylvania's 12th district, according to a new Susquehanna poll. Critz leads Republican Tim Burns 44%-38% with less than a week to go. The Johnstown-based district in southwestern Pennsylvania has swing potential, despite the overwhelming Democratic registration advantage and Murtha's dominance in the district for the last 36 years. It's the only district that voted for both John Kerry and John McCain. Critz is running as a continuation of Murtha -- a...

Veterans and citizens both have become alarmed at the Navy's plans to name a new amphibious ship after disgraced Revolutionary War General Benedict Arnold. The Navy's newest vessel, a 684-foot, San Antonio class landing-ship, will be named the USS Benedict Arnold said Navy officials. Arnold was initially a hero of the Revolution before turning against his service and country. His name has become synonymous with traitors ever since. Despite the glowing comments about the traitor by Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, many are rising up in anger over this choice. A Facebook group called “People Against Naming A Navy...

JOHNSTOWN, Pa. (AP) -- The Navy is naming its next amphibious ship after the late western Pennsylvania congressman John Murtha. Navy Secretary Ray Mabus made the announcement Friday at the Johnstown-Cambria County Airport. Murtha's family and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi were in attendance.

Del Mar College proved to be an unlikely starting and ending point for an investigation by a citizen investigator and activist that resulted in the downfall of one of the most influential members of the US Congress. In the early 1980s, Congressman John Murtha and fellow house members were accused of participating in a scam, known as the infamous Abscam affair, a sting operation conducted by the FBI in which two FBI agents posed as advisors to a mysterious sheik named “Abdul” who was supposedly seeking asylum in the US. The agents said the sheik was willing to pay large...

12th District notes: Joyce Murtha out, Critz and Cernic in (Updated) A few more 12th District pieces came into focus Monday. The Fix reports that Joyce Murtha, the late Congressman John Murtha’s widow, won’t be running for the seat he held for decades. This clears the way for anyone who was waiting on her decision. Barbara Hafer, the former state treasurer and auditor general, had said she wouldn’t run if Murtha did. Meanwhile, CQ Politics reports that Murtha’s district director Mark Critz will soon enter the race, adding a candidate intimately familiar with the district into the mix. Former Cambria...

Congressman John “Jack” Murtha, who died last week at the age of 77, represented western Pennsylvania’s Twelfth District in the House for 35 years. But Murtha’s impressive longevity belies his more dubious political legacy. The narrative of Murtha’s legislative career was punctuated on virtually every line by self-absorption, self-interest, secret dealings, and an ugly brand of political hackery that placed Murtha’s own lust for power above the welfare of his country. A logical place to begin an examination of Murtha’s career would be the early 1980s, when the Congressman was named as an “unindicted co-conspirator” in the so-called “Abscam” (a...

HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) - The wife of the late congressman John Murtha is being urged to run for the House seat that he held for nearly four decades, a newspaper reported Friday. "While people have been mindful that this is a difficult time for the family, many have called to suggest Joyce as the perfect person to hold her husband's seat," Murtha spokesman Matthew Mazonkey told the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review.

While the liberal mainstream media sings John Murtha's praises, his legacy is nonetheless tainted ad infinitum by his Abscam involvement and his slanderous Iraq war criticism. Dying yesterday at Virginia Hospital Center from complications arising from gallbladder surgery, John Murtha was the exorbitantly long-serving congressman from Pennsylvania's 12th district, having been in Congress for a whopping, almost 40 years. To hear the liberal media tell it, Murtha was a stout defender of the military and noble, yet that conveniently glosses over many episodes in his too-long career that can only bring to mind the word "unethical" at best, or "misconduct"...

This is Not about Murtha and his passing .. (Well maybe in a way it is)! This is just a rant and observation of mine. As a former Combat Ranger, having seen two tours in Nam .. I feel that I have a right to say this.Something I am seeing almost everywhere that I go and Most Especially on Lefty, Liberal sites is this: "You shouldn't be "bad mouthing a decorated veteran".The crap that is thrown around by the lefties .. REALLY, REALLY is something to behold! It's the Lefty, Liberals who are always holding their Anti-war rally's and bad...

Justice: The latest Haditha Marine to be exonerated is considering suing Rep. John Murtha for calling him a cold-blooded killer. Will Barack Obama be a character witness for saying Murtha knows his stuff? (snipHaditha became an issue, and a crime scene, after McGurk's fallacious and dishonest March 27, 2006, story that the Marines were guilty of "massacring innocent civilians." The story was based on false evidence provided by a known insurgent propagandist. It took on added life after Murtha publicly said "there was no firefight" and the Marines at Haditha "killed innocent civilians in cold blood." Murtha said that their...