Well, whether or not you agreed with the decision to allow IRI President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to speak at Columbia University, the good news is: we can all rest easier and sleep better at night. Obviously, Iran is no threat to us or any other country. Israel is probably dismantling its defense systems and designing new playground equipment even as I type. The entire brouhaha regarding Iran being a threat to us was much ado about nothing. Ahmadinejad said that Iran is not going to attack any country in the world.

That’s good enough for me. Maybe if I book our flights today, the kids and I can still get good accommodations in Tehran for Spring Break. After all, Ahmadinejad said that the Iranians are a peace loving nation, they hate war, and all types of aggression. When was the last time you heard anyone say that about the US or any of its domestic vacation destinations?

The audience on repeated occasion applauded Ahmadinejad when he touched on international crises.

Even with my SAT scores I didn’t stand a chance of being accepted at Columbia University - nope, those students know a lot more than I do and they consistently gave him standing ovations during his address. (Although I am a little curious as to how many of them could identify Iran on a globe…. What’s a globe? Never mind.)

Personally, I’m glad that Ahmadinejad got to speak his mind. The more attention radicals of any sort draw, the better. Many people who had previously been lulled into slumber by their new iPod or American Idol are waking up to the reality of radicals like Ahmadinejad and moveon.org. (If you want to include stock in the New York Times in your portfolio, btw, now’s a good time to buy - it’s at a ten year low.) It’s just too bad that Ahmadinejad didn’t make time for an appearance on Oprah with Elie Wiesel. Who would get more standing ovations, then?

So sleep well like I will, knowing our security is not at risk - not as long as Ahmadinejad has the wheel. I mean, what’s the worst that could happen?

like Scott, Jane, Ward, Ron, Grumpy, Carl and of course, badrose, have left questions for Atty. Gen. Bob McDonnell over at Charlie’s place. You should have Good Sense, too!

On September 11th, 2007, while most of us were remembering what we’d lost and feeling grateful for what we had, Ben (blogging as Not Larry Sabato) was thinking (as usual) “What can I do to stir the pot?”

What can I do to pay back those mean ODBA members for their baseless attacks on my best pal, Joey? All he did was link them to a group of pedophiles for crying out loud. Those big bullies. Where’s their sense of humor? I know! Racism! That always works! I’ll show them! And everyone will believe me because I’m a Democrat, I mean Democratic (almost forgot) and they’re just a bunch of conservatives! I’ll attack Jeff Evans, the bad man trying to unseat Joey’s pal, Roscoe! Once I declare Jeff a racist, issues and Roscoe’s abysmal voting record will be overlooked and I’ll be the hero! Clients will flock to Joey! We’ll be rolling in the dough and go to Red Lobster to celebrate! I’ll order calamari… no, make that two orders of calamari……

Since Ben couldn’t link Jeff Evans directly to being a racist, I’m sure he was delighted when he discovered Chip Hairston’s facebook page listing Chip as a member of a George Wallace Appreciation Society. I’ll bet that Ben thought he’d struck gold. After all, in BenWorld, a Republican candidate must certainly be held accountable for what one of their unpaid volunteers posts on their social networking page. It would also send a message to Chip and others like him that while we want his generation involved in the political process, they will only be recognized and respected if they are Democrats. Remember, this isn’t the first (and I doubt it will be the last) time Ben and his cronies attacked a Republican college student for what they posted on their facebook or myspace page. Goddess forbid a woman and/or person of color be conservative.

Chip took the high road and the time to respond to Ben’s attack post as well as some of the heartless comments left by those bold and courageous anonymous commenters. He explained that the group was formed to celebrate Wallace’s beliefs in states’ rights, an issue which should unite rather than divide us. Speaking of the comments section, this is where Ben states that he was aware that Chip was African-American when he made the accusation. I find myself questioning Ben’s mental health a little more than usual on this one:

So Ben, the point of all this is, the courtesy of a reply is requested. What were you trying to accomplish if not to smear Jeff and embarrass Chip?

If you choose to remain silent regarding this latest stunt of yours, I’ll accept that, Ben. But going forward, you must remember: No campaign is so important that any of us have license to recklessly play the racism card as you have. While you apparently can’t see past the tip of your own nose, ego or the next election, creating division between races can have dangerous consequences. If you don’t believe me, then ask the estimated twenty thousand people who gathered in Jena, Louisiana….

I used to love to have people come stay at my house but something very, very, almost indescribably tragic happened here and now I have to be more careful. I still enjoy having company but I have no choice but to set down certain rules to insure my safety and more importantly, that of my children. If you want to come stay with us, we’d love to have you! It’s important for my children to be exposed to as many different people from all different walks of life and cultures. I want them to experience and embrace as many different people as our house will hold. The global marketplace they will one day enter is so much larger than it was when I was their age and will keep growing.

So come see us - just follow some simple “House Rules.” First, please call or write (or e-mail) my secretary. She’ll need your full name and some other information like how long you plan to stay, who you’ll be bringing with you, etc. She’ll give your information to my security people who will do a background check and make sure that there’s nothing in your past that indicates you might pose a threat to my children and me. Loads of people have already come here after going through this process, and although it may seem extreme to some, we all agree that once they get here, we have a more enjoyable time. We trust each other more when our intentions are made clear.

These are MY rules and they will be ENFORCED. You are not welcome in my home any other way. I promise I’ll have you arrested for trespassing and sent back to your own home. That’s the way it is and I’m sorry if things are bad in your home - I understand why you want to come here but I just refuse to take any more chances.

If you decide to ignore my rules and come anyway, then guess what! I will pay to send your kids to school with my kids. If you or your family gets hurt or sick (I hope you don’t) I will pay for that, too. You can drive my car. I want you to feel like my home is your sanctuary. Feel free to help yourself to my wet bar. I hope you don’t drink too much and then drive my car but if you do, and you happen to get pulled over for DUI, don’t sweat it. You won’t be arrested because I want you to feel safe and welcome while you’re here enjoying your sanctuary in my home. Besides, it’s too much trouble for me to contact proper law enforcement to deal with a person who came here against my wishes but I’ve allowed to stay.

If you get drunk and drive my car and eventually kill one or both of my children, well, that’s unfortunate. I should’ve seen the warning signs and I should’ve been more careful. Maybe I’ll be more careful in the future. Oh, I almost forgot! If you stay here long enough, Roscoe Reynolds wants to further reward you with in-state tuition for college! What a guy!

Isn’t this absurd? Does anyone else feel like I do? Yes. Jeff Evans does and that’s why he has my full support in his bid for a seat in the Virginia Senate. For 24 years, he served us as a Virginia State Trooper and knows full well the importance of having AND ENFORCING laws. It’s laughable that the majority of our law-makers are lawyers themselves. I’d prefer having more people like Jeff, with experience in putting their lives on the line enforcing the laws.

Take this to the bank: Some of the most honorable, upstanding, bravest and wisest people I know are currently in law enforcement or have been. If men or women like Scott White, Marshall Farley, Richard Brown or Darrell Bowling ever seek a seat in the VA General Assembly, regardless of their party affiliation, they also will have my full support.

Vote Jeff Evans. I am.

According to the Oxford English Dictionary, racism is a belief or ideology that all members of each race possess characteristics or abilities specific to that race, especially to distinguish it as being either superior or inferior to another race or races. I do not feel that my race is superior to another nor do I feel that my race is inferior to another.

A group on facebook, a social tool for college students, named George Wallace Appreciation Society is not a racist group. Furthermore, this group is not really a group. For example, there are no meetings, nor are dues collected; there are no lectures and no discussion among members. This ‘group’ functions as a way for people to express their favor for states’ rights in a lighthearted manner.

Using “BenLogic”, if Ben made a group on Facebook called “I am the world’s biggest loser” and many of his friends became members, others may view those members as insensitive people who attack someone that they know. There are so many ways to blow the George Wallace Appreciation group out of proportion, if you’re uneducated or unethical.

The ideology of George Wallace does not dominate my life, much like Pepsi does not dominate my life despite the fact that I would willingly join a group devoted to the appreciation of Pepsi-Cola. If I were truly in favor of George Wallace’s one-time belief in segregation then I would be more apt to join a group called ‘Overturn Brown v Topeka Board of Education’ or somesuch like that. But we are getting beyond ourselves. These analogies only serve for the sake of example.

To be quite honest, Ben’s great zeal for the research of my facebook groups may show a tendency on his part for devoting time that could certainly be put towards more fruitful activities. This brings up the issue of what, in our society, can be inherently understood as a joke and what, under all circumstances, can be understood as a serious action.

Chip Hairston

Vote Jeff Evans

“As far as I know, the only thing that Joe has done for me is to design a website. I don’t know much about blogs, and I am not aware of what this is about. I am just not into blogs.”

Senator Reynolds, if you’re “just not into blogs” then why did you attend a blog conference? Isn’t that you sitting with the yellow dog himself, Joe Stanley? At a blog conference?

Were you for blogs before you were against them? Like you were for Embarq before you were against Embarq? Like you were for the abusive driver fees before you were against them? Like you were against giving illegal immigrants in-state tuition before you were for it? It’s easier to keep up with a pair of expensive flip-flops at a water park than your legislative flip-flops…

Joe Stanley states in the article above that he created your website for free as a volunteer. I’m not sure how he stays in business creating free websites but just remember: You get what you pay for. He created a free website for the ODBA - one linking us to pedophiles.

I apologize for the delay in getting this posted. The Franklin News-Post Site is still down and I had a little trouble with my HP all-in-one while scanning the article:

He has the good sense to live blog at Good Sense!  Leave your questions for our attorney general now and then make sure you tune in on September 24th at 5:00 for the answers…

From today’s e-mail (emphasis mine):

This is from a guy who used to work here as an attorney but left for
his second tour of duty in Iraq (he came back to work after his first).
Thought you might find this interesting — a pretty good account of
what’s going on over there from a reliable source. John is a great guy.
Keep in mind that he has gone over there twice now on a voluntary basis.
The only reason he came back the first time was that he was injured when
a rocket hit his humvee.

—–Original Message—–
From: John Teer [mailto:johnteer@yahoo.com]
Sent: Thursday, September 13, 2007 1:52 PM
To: john teer
Subject:

Salam Alaikum from Baghdad. For my second trip to Iraq, I lead an Army
Reserve civil affairs team attached to a brigade combat team of the 1st
Cavalry Division in central Baghdad, covering some of the same territory
that I patrolled during my first tour. With the exception of a very
tiny minority trying to kill us, the people are really friendly, wave to
us while we’re on patrol and are almost always happy to have a
conversation with us. The kids are the exact same as last time - always
eager to shake hands and try out a few phrases of English with the
soldiers.

On a typical day, I attend a patrol and intelligence brief before 6 am,
go on one or two patrols or missions, which are generally about four to
six hours each, attend a couple of meetings with either Iraqis or
Americans and write a few reports. If lucky, I can usually hit the rack
around midnight. On Fridays, we rest and prep for the other six days
(and I’ll maybe attend few meetings). We like Fridays.

The military has developed a bizarre fetish for Powerpoint slide
presentations. Find a bomb, meet with a tribal sheik, build a school,
capture a bad guy or save the world? All the same - you have to paste a
few photos into Powerpoint, add captions and email your digital
concoction to higher headquarters. The chow is great. Last time the
Army gave us month after month of nothing but MREs (so we’d sneak off
and eat at local Iraqi restaurants). This time there’s a huge dining
hall in our Forward Operating Base (hooray for KBR!), which was one of
Saddam’s many palaces. Our FOB borders the Green Zone, where I’ve seen
soldiers from around the world, including Canada, El Salvador, Fiji,
Britain, Georgia, Ukraine, Uganda, Italy (actually, their paramilitary
police), Denmark and Finland. The United States is building its largest
embassy in the world next door to where I lived last time I was here. I
think it is scheduled to open this winter.

While it’s regularly been around 110 to 120 degrees this summer, within
another month the temperature here will be about the same as North
Carolina’s until next summer. With the days now growing cooler, it’s
much easier to walk around with the typical 75 pounds of body armor,
weapons and ammo. Our vehicles are up-armored Humvees with huge gun
turrets on top. Each door weighs more than 700 pounds. Last time, I
didn’t even have doors on my Humvee. And we have more and better toys,
from improved night vision to new, non-lethal “Nerf” rounds that are
fired from M203 grenade launchers. One of our gunners got to nail an
un-compliant Iraqi with a Nerf round just the other day. That’s good
stuff.

Of the civil affairs tactical teams in Baghdad, my team’s work is some
of the most complex because we also oversee substantially all of the
reconstruction projects in central Baghdad that are over $200,000.
Typical projects include coordinating and contracting for the
installation of huge generator stations in neighborhoods, rebuilding the
war-shattered Haifa Street area (a real miracle - from raging war zone
to shining example in less than a year), running new water mains and
rebuilding schools. With about $40 million in projects underway right
now, many of our patrols necessarily entail driving and walking between
various construction sites around Baghdad. I also meet with the
construction executives on a regular basis to review the progress of
their projects and try to work through any issues.

Iraq faces huge obstacles, and no one can claim that it’s safe, yet. In
the last few days we’ve had four car bombs blow up on our patrol routes
(fortunately, in each case, when we were a safe distance away).
Unfortunately, Iraq seems to have been stagnant and decaying for the
last three years. But in the last few months, there have been real and
visible signs that Iraq is moving forward again. Projects are being
completed before they get blown up or stolen in the dark of night. New
solar-powered street lights make it safe to go out after sunset and
create bright bubbles of thriving coffee shops and teenager-packed
internet cafes. The city of Baghdad is beginning to tackle new
projects, such as water and sewer lines, totally independent of the
coalition forces.

Iraq is far from being in a civil war. Most of Baghdad’s residents -
the vast, vast majority - are good people. They don’t care what
religion their neighbor is. They just want to live in relative peace
and safety. Tiny groups of terrorists kill indiscriminately, hoping to
spur reprisals, divide opinion and drain resolve. The good news is that
we’re crushing those evil bastards and seem to have them on the run for
the first time. It will take time. I hope against hope that before the
end of my tour, I’ll be able to take off my body armor, helmet and
weapons and join some kids playing a neighborhood game of soccer, if
only for five minutes. At that point, I’d know their future is secure.

Which brings me to a final thought. If you are looking to make a
non-deductible donation, send me a soccer ball to pass along to a kid.
Or a box of crayons or magic markers. And someone just told me that
Beanie Babies are a hit with the toddlers and girls. Many of these kids
have never had a single toy of their own.

CPT JOHN TEER
CAT3/B/422 CAB
FOB PROSPERITY
APO AE 09348

Ma’is salam.

Finally, something we can all do to show our support of our troops. Please join me in what we’ll tentatively call “OPERATION SOCCER BALL” and drown John with soccer balls. Crayons, magic markers and Beanie Babies are accepted, too.

I want John and the thousands like John to come home, too, but like he said, not until they know that they’ve secured the futures of those children. Now go find those soccer balls!

Update: We’ll have to tentatively call it Operation Soccer Ball, part deux.