If you’ve never heard of Gina Elise and her project Pin Ups for Vets prepare to become very informed and amazed. Gina Elise is a 24-year-old who majored in theater at UCLA. It’s not often that someone of Gina’s age gets interested in helping people. It’s even less often that someone from the state of California actively supports veterans and our troops like she does. Gina Elise is not your ordinary California girl, college graduate and with her Pin Ups for Vets calendars, specifically designed for troops and veterans, she is supporting the troops overseas, downrange, and veterans recovering here at home.

A year ago Gina Elise decided to take her, “love for retro and do something to help injured soldiers at the same time.” Gina told me that the inspiration for Pin Ups for Vets is, “The stories I hear about injured soldiers returning home from overseas really has a huge effect on me. Their lives have changed forever because of these injuries — because they served our country. The motivation and energy they have is inspiring to me. I want to do something for them.”

Gina Elise is supported by American Legion Post 360 in Lake Arrowhead, CA and makes calendars that she models in; the proceeds from which go to VA programs such as eyeglasses for Veterans, the home health program, recreational therapy, spinal cord injury & amputee programs, substance abuse program, women’s Veterans’ program, homeless program, reading materials and subscriptions for the Veterans, social relief fund, televisions, wheelchairs, and outreach programs for the visually impaired. She poses for each month in a World War II kind of retro look because Gina says she is a, “HUGE fan of all things retro. I’ve been a performer my entire life — love costumes, anything from another time period.” I’m just glad she decided to grace our time period with her looks (she’s a looker, ain’t she, fellas), grace, and caring nature.

Gina Elise has a member of the Greatest Generation in her family. Her grandfather took up arms during another tumultuous time in America’s great history, World War II. Gina has sent her calendars to, “MANY APO addresses. Iraq, Afghanistan, United Arab Emirates, Australia, Denmark, Canada, the list goes on and on,” supporting our nation’s current generation which is trying to rid the world of terrorism. “I am working with a couple that sends 200 care packages a month to Iraq. When someone specifies on the order that they want it to go to a deployed soldier, that’s how I get it out there. It’s just a matter of people choosing that option. Lately, everyone has been buying a calendar for themselves! Of course, the proceeds go to the VA.” But, Gina doesn’t sit back, model, and go to the post office she visits injured vets too.

“I have made deliveries to the VA. I’ve had an incredible response from soldiers and the vets in the hospitals love the calendar. It’s SO special delivering the donated calendars to them.” Gina told me during our interview, “Over the last month, I have been corresponding with a Marine Captain from San Diego who invited me to a medical holding platoon. My goal was to get fifty-five donated calendars for the 55 Wounded Warriors there. I JUST reached that goal so I am going to deliver those calendars.”

When I asked how many calendars Gina had sold through Pin Ups for Vets I was a little stunned when she told me, “About 270.” When I asked why so few, Gina told me, “I think its just a matter of people not knowing. No national publications that I’ve written to have covered it.” I find that surprising but given the fact that the main stream media likes to focus on the negative things in life it’s not surprising that, “the LA Times, NY Times, New Yorker, Oprah, Letterman, and Leno,” haven’t responded to her calls for help. It’s amazing that so many people have thanked Gina Elise, “you should see the hundreds of thank you notes I’ve received from ALL over the world,” but no one wants to help her help the troops.

I shouldn’t say no one supports Gina Elise’s Pin Ups for Vets though, “If it weren’t for bloggers and the blog readers the project would not have been as successful. This is where I received the majority of support and sales. I want to thank all of them.”

I’ve already ordered my Pin Ups for Vets calendar and you should definitely buy one for yourself and send a few overseas. I’m positive no one will be disappointed.

Originally Posted at Conservative Thinking

In past years I have posted an in-depth break down of the State of the Union Address, complete with quotes and such. This year, however, I will not be doing that style of wrap up. I will, however, still give my two cents on it. I will be speaking about this in depth on Sunday 28 January, 2007 on Wide Awakes Radio from 1PM to 2PM central time. I have already begun the arduous task of chopping the audio I have of the speech into clips and I will let the President say again what he said on Wednesday night, after which I will respond.

I am also working on a post such as most of you long time readers are used to, in case you cannot tune in on Sunday, but also remember, I will be podcasting as well. Until then.

This is from Cpl M of A Soldier’s Perspective and Conservative Thinking:

The VA Mortgage Center is currently holding a MilBlogging contest with cash prizes for the top ten blogs. The number one blog will receive $3,000, and the rest of the top ten will receive $250 each. My home blog of A Soldier’s Perspective is currently in second place with a great chance of taking over the lead. All money from this contest will be donated to the Camp Lejeune Ballerinas.

Please visit A Soldier’s Perspective for more on the Camp Lejeune Ballerinas and please support us by visiting the poll and voting for “Soldier’s Perspective”.

Looks like our old pal, Jimmuh-The-Disaster-From-Jawjah, finally get his just rewards.

Grabbing a Clue and Pulling the Loud Handle !!!!

Celebratory liquid consumption is in order…..

As our dead-tree media is busy masturbating over the coronation of “Mother” Pelosi and company.

Hugo Chavez goes all out, fully embracing, the ever-successful Socialist Utopian Plan™. This is NOT a good thing and nobody is going to give two-hoots in hell as we’re busy surrendering in the WoT.

Chavez sworn in for radical new term in Venezuela

Meanwhile Empress Pelosi enacts her first edict “No Smoking in the House Lobby”. Don’t you feel safer now?

“He rode a Blazing Saddle, He wore a shining star, His job to offer battle …”

*click*

*click*

“C’mon boys. The way you’s lollygaggin’ ’round here with them picks and them shovels … you’d think it was a hunnert and twenny degrees…”

“Cain’t be more’n a hunnert ‘n fourteen!”

“Ohhh!”

“Dock that Asian-American a day’s pay for nappin’ on the job.”

“How come I don’t hear no singin’? When you wuz bein’ oppressed during an error for which you should be entitled to reparations … you sung like birds…”

“How ’bout a good ol’ African-American work song.”

“Ebony and Ivory, live together in perfect harmony, side by side on my piano keyboard, Oh! Lord! Why don’t we…”

Continue reading…

That’s right, Mr. Our Troops are stupid plans on running for President in 2008. What a complete and utter moron.

It isn’t bad enough that he shot himself in the foot with his statement…

“You know, education, if you make the most of it, if you study hard and you do your homework, and you make an effort to be smart, uh, you, you can do well. If you don’t, you get stuck in Iraq.”

So where is the joke that he was supposedly speaking of? I don’t see it. Even with the correction there is no joke. I mean is he just so inept to choose to tell a joke that no matter the timing it is not funny and resembles a joke as much as a cat resembles a dog? I don’t think so. I just think that he is brain dead.

That aside, wouldn’t a rational person consider that whole debacle so inflammatory as to remove ANY chance of holding public office in the future? You and I may think so but Kerry doesn’t see it that way.

From the Transcript of Fox News Sunday November 19,2006:

WALLACE: Speaking to a former hockey player, have you been in the penalty box the last few weeks? Did Democratic leaders say to you that you were becoming a distraction in the final week before the election and that you should sit down?

Continue Reading

Wide Awakes Radio went off-line with live programming on November 10 with the close of the broadcast day with the intention to going back to live feeds with “Gribbit Live” on November 20th at 8:00 am Eastern. Those seem to have been high hopes as the time needed to install our new software and work out the tweaks needed to make the quality what we wish is taking longer than we had hoped.

W.A.R. personalities are currently testing feed quality with our California office and we will be up and running on November 27th for sure. We could actually pull off the original November 20th goal if we sacrifice quality. But with the upcoming Thanksgiving holiday, it has been decided to take the extra week to “get it right” so that we don’t have ANY quality issues when we come back live.

Don’t believe any rhetoric from the lefties that since the election was “lost” by the Republicans that we are done. This announcement of our demise is not only premature, but down right erroneous. We aren’t going anywhere. And despite the ill wishers on the left who want us to go the way of “Error Amerika“, we actually are going to benefit from being in the minority and are looking forward to pointing out the continuing errors of the leftists who will be taking power in January. It WILL be fun to point out.

So Wide Awakes Radio is reinventing ourselves and will be back, better, stronger, faster on the 27th of November at 8:00 am Eastern time with my show, “Gribbit Live“.

Crossposted from Stop The ACLU:

When the Democrats had their victory in the elections the ACLU cheered! So did our enemies.

Leading up to the elections the ACLU did not hide the fact that they wanted the Democrats in charge. The ACLU have a lot to cheer about. They know that the liberal left will help them further their agenda. We are already seeing it happen. The Democrats are the ACLU’s best vehicle towards shaping America into their vision.

The ACLU rely on activist liberal judges as their avenue of enacting their goals. It violated its own policy in order to stymie the nomination of William Rehnquist to the Supreme Court. It led the fight to defeat the confirmation of Robert Bork. It fought against John Roberts, and fought hard to keep Samuel Alito from joining the Supreme Court. They definitely have a preference for what type of judges they want on the Supreme Court. No doubt, one of their strongholds is having one of their own on the bench. With the current rumors on John Paul Steven’s health, I’m sure they are thrilled with Schumer’s latest proclaimation.

More than the inability to influence Iraq policy or the President’s tax cuts, Chuck Schumer says that the single greatest failure of the Democrats as an opposition party was allowing Samuel Alito to join the Supreme Court.

“Judges are the most important,” said Mr. Schumer, who orchestrated the implausible Democratic takeover of the Senate last week. “One more justice would have made it a 5-4 conservative, hard-right majority for a long time. That won’t happen.”

Schumer seems to be on a roll too.

The ACLU have much more to cheer about. When it comes to the war on terror the ACLU consistently choose the wrong side. Despite recent polls indicating that most Americans do not feel civil liberties have been harmed by the war on terror, they have made a mantra over over the NSA surveillance program. They have called on their Democrat friends in Congress to shut down any attempt by the lame duck Congress to pass legislation that would further this program. They have reason to cheer once again as the Democrats have every intention to block NSA legislation. The Democrats have the ACLU talking points down pat.

There are a lot of bad bills that the Republicans may try to ram through, but here’s the worst of the worst - a bill to legalize the President’s warrantless wiretapping program. The White House is desperate to enact this bill, which allows the government to spy on American citizens, on American soil, without a warrant.

If we want to show people that we have what it takes to govern, we need to start proving ourselves right now, from day one.

Proving ourselves means standing up for Democratic values, and stopping the worn-out Republican agenda that Americans just rejected at the polls.

The ACLU expressed outrage when President Bush signed the Military Commissions Act of 2006 allowing us to harshly interrogate captured terrorists. Now that the doors of Congress have been opened up to the ACLU’s buddies in CAIR, the ACLU have more reason to cheer. Sen. Patrick Leahy is drafting a bill to undo portions of the new law in an effort to create habeas corpus rights for enemy combatants.

The ACLU has opposed searches of all kinds whether they are profiled, random, or across the board. I’m sure they are applauding the recent words of Pelosi, our new Speaker of the House. Read in full at Sweetness and Light.

“Since September 11th, many Muslim Americans have been subjected to searches at airports and other locations based upon their religion and national origin, without any credible information linking individuals to criminal conduct,” Pelosi continued. “Racial and religious profiling is fundamentally un-American and we must make it illegal.

Rumsfeld’s resignation was not enough for the far left at the ACLU. They smelled blood and wanted more. They applauded but called for an immediate investigation into direlection of duty.

The American Civil Liberties Union today applauded Donald Rumsfeld’s resignation from his post as Defense Secretary, and called on Congress to investigate the gross abuse of power committed under his watch.

“Donald Rumsfeld’s resignation is a step in the right direction,” said Anthony D. Romero, ACLU Executive Director. “Rumsfeld is responsible for the torture and abuse of detainees in U. S. military custody and must be held accountable for the failures that occurred on his watch. He has placed the blame on junior military members and has been nothing but derelict in his duty. Congress must initiate an immediate and exhaustive investigation into his six-year-long record of unlawful activity, violations of the rule of law and complicity in the executive branch abuse of power.”

No wonder the ACLU cheered the Democrat victory. They have much to be happy about. The ACLU rode into town on the back of the donkeys. While things have changed in their favor, the reality of the treat we face has not. It is more important now than ever for the Republicans, despite being the minority, step up to the plate and fight against this far left agenda.

This was a production of Stop The ACLU Blogburst. If you would like to join us, please email Jay at GribbitR@gmail.com. You will be added to our mailing list and blogroll. Over 200 blogs already on-board.

The House Democratic Caucus has selected Steny Hoyer to become the House Majority Leader Designee. In a bitter internal battle the House Democratic Caucus by secret ballot elected Hoyer by a vote of 149 - 86.

Hoyer you may remember was locked in a bitter battle against Nancy Pelosi for House Minority Leader a few years ago. Earlier in the day, the Caucus unanimously elected Pelosi Speaker Designee after which she nominated and put her full support behind Jack Murtha for Majority Leader.

Only time will tell now if there will be internal strife within the House Democratic Caucus in the next 2 years.

Developing….

Looks like Uncle Fidel continues his slow assumption of ambient body temperature.

Bring Out Yer Dead cross posted from the Rott.

Now if management would only give me a posting “category” of my own.

Who left the dogs out?

Cross-posted from Right on the Right:

Today, the Iraqi people made a positive step in their Democracy, ruling that Saddam Hussein is guilty of the systematic massacre of 148 Kurds and Shi’ites in the Iraqi City of Dujail in 1982. This ruling is the first of many, as Saddam is being tried in several crimes. The first trial started over the summer, and his second trial is already underway, having begun in August. The sentence in this case is death by hanging. He is to be executed within 30 days, as per the Iraqi Constitution.

DEATH PENALTY FOR SADDAM HUSSEIN

Former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein has been convicted of crimes against humanity by a Baghdad court and sentenced to death by hanging.

He was found guilty over his role in the killing of 148 people in the mainly Shia town of Dujail in 1982.

Obviously, this guilty verdict doesn’t surprise any of us. The Iraqi people have taken justice into their own hands. The execution of Saddam will mean closure to many Iraqis, and while we will be seeing an increase in violence temporarily, this is a huge positive step for Iraq. The death of Saddam is the death of a Dictator.

Also, in an interesting development, former U.S. Attorney General Ramsey Clark was thrown out of the verdict session. We’ll be bringing more information on this as soon as more details are released.

The New Yorks times confirms that in 2002 Saddam Hussein’s “scientists were on the verge of building an atom bomb, as little as a year away:”

Among the dozens of documents in English were Iraqi reports written in the 1990’s and in 2002 for United Nations inspectors in charge of making sure Iraq abandoned its unconventional arms programs after the Persian Gulf war. Experts say that at the time, Mr. Hussein’s scientists were on the verge of building an atom bomb, as little as a year away.

Had the United States not eliminated this threat, today we would be facing a nuclear armed Iraq and possibly a nuclear armed Iran. Well, there is your talking point Tony Snow. From National Review:

I’m sorry, did the New York Times just put on the front page that IRAQ HAD A NUCLEAR WEAPONS PROGRAM AND WAS PLOTTING TO BUILD AN ATOMIC BOMB? What? Wait a minute. The entire mantra of the war critics has been “no WMDs, no WMDs, no threat, no threat”, for the past three years solid. Now we’re being told that the Bush administration erred by making public information that could help any nation build an atomic bomb. Let’s go back and clarify: IRAQ HAD NUCLEAR WEAPONS PLANS SO ADVANCED AND DETAILED THAT ANY COUNTRY COULD HAVE USED THEM. I think the Times editors are counting on this being spun as a “Boy, did Bush screw up” meme; the problem is, to do it, they have to knock down the “there was no threat in Iraq” meme, once and for all. Because obviously, Saddam could have sold this information to anybody, any other state, or any well-funded terrorist group that had publicly pledged to kill millions of Americans and had expressed interest in nuclear arms. You know, like, oh… al-Qaeda. The New York Times just tore the heart out of the antiwar argument, and they are apparently completely oblivous to it. The antiwar crowd is going to have to argue that the information somehow wasn’t dangerous in the hands of Saddam Hussein, but was dangerous posted on the Internet. It doesn’t work. It can’t be both no threat to America and yet also somehow a threat to America once it’s in the hands of Iran. Game, set, and match.

Blog Reaction Roundup At Stop The ACLU

Crossposted from Stop The ACLU I was going to talk about the dishonest argument the ACLU made in its attack on Hazelton, PA for trying to crackdown on illegal immigration problems. They argued that it was not the place of small communities to create laws fashioned to their own unique problems on illegal immigration, but the Federal government’s responsibility. Of course this argument does not reflect the ACLU’s true beliefs on the topic. If the Federal government created a similar law as Hazelton the ACLU would find a different argument to oppose it. The argument was, however, good enough to convince a Clinton appointed judge to temporarily block their ordinances. I was going to show the ACLU’s real agenda for illegal immigrant. Well, they just showed a lot of it themselves in press release. ACLU

The American Civil Liberties Union, the National Employment Law Project and the Transnational Legal Clinic at the University of Pennsylvania School of Law today filed a petition urging the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights to find the United States in violation of its universal human rights obligations by failing to protect millions of undocumented workers from exploitation and discrimination in the workplace.

The ACLU is basing its argument on stating the United States has violated a vague International Human Rights Treaty signed in 1948 called the AMERICAN DECLARATION OF THE RIGHTS AND DUTIES OF MAN. This treaty states that, “Every person has the right to work, under proper conditions, and to follow his vocation freely, insofar as existing conditions of employment permit.” As I said, the treaty is vague. Nowhere in the treaty does it define what proper conditions are, however another section does state that the duty of every person to obey the law of the country in which he may be. Current immigration law provides criminal sanctions for employers who hire illegal aliens. In other words it is a crime to hire an illegal alien…period. The ACLU tries to hide this fact by omitting the word “illegal” and replacing it with “undocumented”. Illegal aliens are criminals and hiring a criminal to work is a crime also. In essence the ACLU is attempting to grant the same rights and benefits that a law abiding citizen enjoys to international criminals.

“The most poorly paid and least desirable jobs in the United States are filled by undocumented immigrants, yet the government increasingly limits the safeguards available to this population, leaving them vulnerable to exploitation and workplace discrimination,” said Claudia Flores, an attorney with the ACLU Women’s Rights Project. “The United States government has an obligation under universal human rights norms to protect vulnerable populations, such as immigrant women, and has failed in this regard.” Undocumented immigrants make up nearly five percent of the U.S. labor force. However, employment and labor protections under state laws have been either eliminated or severely limited for undocumented workers in some states. These include such basic workplace protections as freedom from workplace discrimination and entitlement to hold an employer responsible for a workplace injury.

The ACLU ignores the fact that these “undocumented workers” don’t have a right to work here in the first place, and that those hiring them are breaking the law. The United States can not enforce or provide protections for criminals in the work place. They can’t even enforce laws against hiring them in the first place. If any illegal immigrant is being exploited it is from an employer that is providing them with much more of an opportunity than they could ever find in their own country and at the expense of American jobs and law. The real way to stop the exploitation is to stop the illegal hiring.

“International human rights law requires the United States to apply its workplace protections equally and without discrimination based on immigration status. We bring this petition to cast a global spotlight on the U.S. government’s poor human rights record in protecting undocumented workers from discrimination and to demand accountability from states and the federal government, all of whom are obligated to protect and defend human rights,” said Chandra Bhatnagar, a staff attorney with the ACLU Human Rights Program.

What a load of bull! The ACLU goes on to list the individuals on their petition which includes illegals that want handouts for injuries in jobs they acquired illegally instead of accepting the responsibility they knowingly took upon themselves by breaking our laws. The ACLU fights every effort the U.S. attempts to secure its borders and enforce illegal immigration laws. Their hostility towards the Minutemen’s efforts to enforce the border is all too telling. They align themselves with open border advocates and even help illegals get into the country.

The head of the ACLU is also an adviser to the IFC and of course, ACLU is among the most important and dangerous members of the open borders combine, using its considerable resources in support of causes that will encourage illegal aliens to enter the US and facilitate their remaining here: granting them drivers’ licenses to illegal aliens, granting instate tuition to illegals, welfare and free health care etc. The ACLU has even opposed rules to speed the deportation of illegals convicted of violent felonies.

Front Page Magazine has a lot on this issue. Here is more on the ACLU’s opposition to fighting the illegal immigration problem.

The ACLU has opposed any Department of Justice plan to fingerprint and track immigrants and foreign visitors to the United States. “The ACLU has long opposed immigrant registration laws, saying that they treat immigrant populations as a separate and quasi-criminal element of society and that they create an easy avenue for surveillance of those who may hold unpopular beliefs,” read a press release, “The fingerprinting and tracking proposal is only the latest Bush Administration action targeted at Muslims and people of Middle Eastern descent since September 11. Other discriminatory measures have included round-ups, dragnet questioning, the detention of more than a thousand young men and the targeting of Middle Eastern communities for heightened enforcement of minor immigration law violations.”[20] The ACLU also opposes the use of immigration law violations as the means for holding or deporting suspects with ties to terrorism, and the use of secret or classified evidence in deportation hearings.

The ACLU is attempting to circumvent our current laws with a vague international treaty all in the name of granting criminals rights and benefits at the expense of law abiding Americans. If you think that illegal immigration is a problem now, just imagine how it will increase if the ACLU is successful. In the process the ACLU is threatening our very sovereignty. This was a production of Stop The ACLU Blogburst. If you would like to join us, please email Jay at Jay@stoptheaclu.com or Gribbit at GribbitR@gmail.com. You will be added to our mailing list and blogroll. Over 200 blogs already on-board.