Posted on 01/02/2011 4:39:19 AM PST by Article10
Fame is fleeting and humility takes a beating Print Email Mobile Share on Facebook ShareThis Reader comments
7 hours, 30 minutes ago
Quick, name "the leading conservative" in New Hampshire.
Time's up. Did the name Jack Kimball spring immediately to mind?
Well, it did in Jack's mind. He identified himself as such in a recent press release reporting himself pleased to announce that he seeks the chairmanship of the New Hampshire Republican Party. Editorial logo
That position is open because former Gov. John Sununu, whom some might find slightly more befitting of that title than Kimball, is stepping down.
Actually, quite a few names come to mind before Kimball's, and considering how important they all are and will be in helping Sununu's successor, whoever that is, Kimball might want to keep this in mind:
Jack be nimble.
Jack be quick.
Jack, get over yourself.
Who is Kimball? What does the author find wrong with him?
"Mind your own business" is a very strong feeling here, and, partly as a result, "social" conservatism is very weak. I think NH leads the nation, or is close, in unchurched population.
There was a huge swing in the legislature this year, from 216 (D) 174 (R) to 298 (R) 102 (D), in response to the avalanche of regulations and taxes unleashed by the Democrats from 2006-2010, but a lot of the new (R)s are libertarians.
It will be very tough sledding for Sister Sarah, and it will be interesting to see if she fights it out here and takes the early loss, or just bypasses it for better ground in Iowa and SC.
TEA party dude that ran for Gov, in NH against the NH GOP machine, now Kimball is running for the GOP Chair and the NH GOP RINO wing is in attack mode.
Good question, I just love how the Union Leader Editorial board lays out a good argument here, not. Just personal attacks...Sununu hates the TEA Party.
If she were smart she would just ditch NH.
NH is really RINO infested, McPain is worshiped in NH.
Jack Kimball is a business man and solid conservative. He ran for Governor in the last election. Unfortunately, he didn’t get in. I voted for him, and would vote for him again. I went to one of his meetings when he was campaigning. No nonsense guy. I think he’d be a good replacement for Sununu.
http://new.jackforgov.com/
The worship of celebrities, especially Hollywood and rap music stars just go to show the shallowness of many especially young Americans.
That is not to say there is not a dearth of hero types out there to celebrate.
The American military, our fighting force, is full of heroes and they prove their patriotism and bravery every single day.
They fight for this country and should be celebrated and respected and honored much more than they are already.
We should thank God for every single one of them.
They make us proud.
In our own country, law enforcement officers and firefighters are also heroes. They too save lives often risking their own lives in the process.
These are the people we should celebrate.
Subject: The Last Six Seconds
A Must Read before we go into the Holidays with OUR families:
God bless all our Soldiers, Sailors, Airmen and Marines.
LEST WE FORGET.
This summary about the two Marines makes the point of their courage and determination.
On Nov 13, 2010 Lt General John Kelly, USMC gave a speech to the Semper Fi Society of St. Louis , MO. This was 4 days after his son, Lt Robert Kelly, USMC was killed by an IED while on his 3rd Combat tour. During his speech, General Kelly spoke about the dedication and valor of the young men and women who step forward each and every day to protect us. During the speech, he never mentioned the loss of his own son. He closed the speech with the moving account of the last 6 seconds in the lives of 2 young Marines who died with rifles blazing to protect their brother Marines.
“I will leave you with a story about the kind of people they are...about the quality of the steel in their backs...about the kind of dedication they bring to our country while they serve in uniform and forever after as veterans. Two years ago when I was the Commander of all U.S. and Iraqi forces, in fact, the 22nd of April 2008, two Marine infantry battalions, 1/9 “The Walking Dead,” and 2/8 were switching out in Ramadi. One battalion in the closing days of their deployment going home very soon, the other just starting its seven-month combat tour.
Two Marines, Corporal Jonathan Yale and Lance Corporal Jordan Haerter, 22 and 20 years old respectively, one from each battalion, were assuming the watch together at the entrance gate of an outpost that contained a makeshift barracks housing 50 Marines. The same broken down ramshackle building was also home to 100 Iraqi police, also my men and our allies in the fight against the terrorists in Ramadi, a city until recently the most dangerous city on earth and owned by Al Qaeda.
Yale was a dirt poor mixed-race kid from Virginia with a wife and daughter, and a mother and sister who lived with him and he supported as well. He did this on a yearly salary of less than $23,000.
Haerter, on the other hand, was a middle class white kid from Long Island . They were from two completely different worlds. Had they not joined the Marines they would never have met each other, or understood that multiple America’s exist simultaneously depending on one’s race, education level, economic status, and where you might have been born. But they were Marines, combat Marines, forged in the same crucible of Marine training, and because of this bond they were brothers as close, or closer, than if they were born of the same woman.
The mission orders they received from the sergeant squad leader I am sure went something like: “Okay you two clowns, stand this post and let no unauthorized personnel or vehicles pass.” “You clear?” I am also sure Yale and Haerter then rolled their eyes and said in unison something like: “Yes Sergeant,” with just enough attitude that made the point without saying the words, “No kidding sweetheart, we know what we’re doing.”
They then relieved two other Marines on watch and took up their post at the entry control point of Joint Security Station Nasser, in the Sophia section of Ramadi, Al Anbar, Iraq .
A few minutes later a large blue truck turned down the alley way-perhaps 60-70 yards in length-and sped its way through the serpentine of concrete jersey walls. The truck stopped just short of where the two were posted and detonated, killing them both catastrophically. Twenty-four brick masonry houses were damaged or destroyed. A mosque 100 yards away collapsed. The truck’s engine came to rest two hundred yards away knocking most of a house down before it stopped. Our explosive experts reckoned the blast was made of 2,000 pounds of explosives.
Two died, and because these two young infantrymen didn’t have it in their DNA to run from danger, they saved 150 of their Iraqi and American brothers-in-arms.
When I read the situation report about the incident a few hours after it happened I called the regimental commander for details as something about this struck me as different. Marines dying or being seriously wounded is commonplace in combat. We expect Marines regardless of rank or MOS to stand their ground and do their duty, and even die in the process, if that is what the mission takes. But this just seemed different. The regimental commander had just returned from the site and he agreed, but reported that there were no American witnesses to the event-just Iraqi police. I figured if there was any chance of finding out what actually happened and then to decorate the two Marines to acknowledge their bravery, I’d have to do it as a combat award that requires two eye-witnesses and we figured the bureaucrats back in Washington would never buy Iraqi statements. If it had any chance at all, it had to come under the signature of a general officer.
I traveled to Ramadi the next day and spoke individually to a half-dozen Iraqi police all of whom told the same story. The blue truck turned down into the alley and immediately sped up as it made its way through the serpentine. They all said, “We knew immediately what was going on as soon as the two Marines began firing.” The Iraqi police then related that some of them also fired, and then to a man, ran for safety just prior to the explosion. All survived. Many were injured...some seriously. One of the Iraqis elaborated and with tears welling up said, “They’d run like any normal man would to save his life.” “What he didn’t know until then,” he said, “and what he learned that very instant, was that Marines are not normal.” Choking past the emotion he said, “Sir, in the name of God no sane man would have stood there and done what they did.” “No sane man.” “They saved us all.”
What we didn’t know at the time, and only learned a couple of days later after I wrote a summary and submitted both Yale and Haerter for posthumous Navy Crosses, was that one of our security cameras, damaged initially in the blast, recorded some of the suicide attack. It happened exactly as the Iraqis had described it. It took exactly six seconds from when the truck entered the alley until it detonated.
You can watch the last six seconds of their young lives. Putting myself in their heads I supposed it took about a second for the two Marines to separately come to the same conclusion about what was going on once the truck came into their view at the far end of the alley. Exactly no time to talk it over, or call the sergeant to ask what they should do. Only enough time to take half an instant and think about what the sergeant told them to do only a few minutes before: “...let no unauthorized personnel or vehicles pass.” The two Marines had about five seconds left to live.
It took maybe another two seconds for them to present their weapons, take aim, and open up. By this time the truck was half-way through the barriers and gaining speed the whole time. Here, the recording shows a number of Iraqi police, some of whom had fired their AKs, now scattering like the normal and rational men they were-some running right past the Marines. They had three seconds left to live.
For about two seconds more, the recording shows the Marines’ weapons firing non-stop...the truck’s windshield exploding into shards of glass as their rounds take it apart and tore in to the body of the son-of-a-bitch who is trying to get past them to kill their brothers-American and Iraqi-bedded down in the barracks totally unaware of the fact that their lives at that moment depended entirely on two Marines standing their ground. If they had been aware, they would have known they were safe...because two Marines stood between them and a crazed suicide bomber. The recording shows the truck careening to a stop immediately in front of the two Marines. In all of the instantaneous violence Yale and Haerter never hesitated. By all reports and by the recording, they never stepped back. They never even started to step aside. They never even shifted their weight. With their feet spread shoulder width apart, they leaned into the danger, firing as fast as they could work their weapons. They had only one second left to live.
The truck explodes. The camera goes blank. Two young men go to their God. Six seconds. Not enough time to think about their families, their country, their flag, or about their lives or their deaths, but more than enough time for two very brave young men to do their duty...into eternity. Those are the kind of people who are on watch all over the world tonight-for you.
We Marines believe that God gave America the greatest gift he could bestow to man while he lived on this earth-freedom. We also believe he gave us another gift nearly as precious-our soldiers, sailors, airmen, Coast Guardsmen, and Marines-to safeguard that gift and guarantee no force on this earth can every steal it away. It has been my distinct honor to have been with you here today. Rest assured our America, this experiment in democracy started over two centuries ago, will forever remain the “land of the free and home of the brave” so long as we never run out of tough young Americans who are willing to look beyond their own self-interest and comfortable lives, and go into the darkest and most dangerous places on earth to hunt down, and kill, those who would do us harm.
God Bless America , and....SEMPER FIDELIS!”
WHAT A STORY.... INSPIRING
This explains what happened that resulted in Frances Scott Key writing our national anthem.
http://www.youtube.com/watch_popup?v=Iwa-lSVqA1M&vq=medium
Tall man with a dark beard.
Tall man with a dark beard.
LOL..................
People like this should be supported bigtime. Alot of good money went to waste on a candidate with a closet full of skeletons.
Campaigning in those freezing NH winters would seem like being home in Alaska to her.
She’d probably enjoy the weather and say so.
ATTENTION ALL FREEPERS! !
RINO SEASON IS NOW OPEN.
Regulations for the Constitutionally mandated, non-commercial taking of RINO’s are:
1. Season is all year.
2. RINO’s may be hunted at any hour, day or night.
3. There is no bag limit.
4 There is no minimum size or weight.
5. Tags are not required.
6. RINO’s may not be kept as pets.
Happy hunting.
Palin will fail in NH. Why? She is a Christian, is not highly educated with a PHD and she is just an average person. NH is full of self important, wealthy, “educated” people that don’t go to Church. In NH “work” is the new Church for a lot of people, especially on the Seacoast where the bulk of the money resides.
I personally think Palin is what the US needs period. From a political perspective, NH is not fertile soil for Mrs. Palin or any true Conservative. She should skip it and make the lame stream, RINO NH GOP understand why. If she does make a trip to NH it should only be at a TEA Party event and avoid the NH GOP like the plague it is on NH.
By the way I am not a Free Stater, libertarian or new resident to NH, just a Conservative. My values have not changed, the NH GOP left me.
I think you might be on the wrong thread, interesting links and stories though!
Nice thoughts for a bumper sticker or conversation over a beer or as a Cheer Leader, but in reality your comments accomplishes nothing.
I have no time for Cheers.
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