Semper Gratus!

I don’t know how them boys do it,… but they’s doin’ it agin!

This time they’re promoting all of the Military themed Charities and giving away $2000 to the one that gets the most votes from us, the public. First, the site is accepting nominations for charities, then beginning Aug. 5th we get to vote for the winner. You need to be a member of VAJoe.com to nominate or vote, but it’s free and you get to participate in the forums. So, get to it!

Today I nominated America’s Wounded Heroes! It’s a charity created by Sgt. Joshua and Mike Sparling.

It time to play Tag! You’re IT!

conretebob has done me the honor (hack!) of including me in a wee game of “spill your guts and pass it on“. So, without further ado…

1. I once saw Nazereth and Blue Oyster Cult at the Alexandria Roller Rink.

2. My first car was a ‘72 Grand Torino Sport with a 351 Cleveland. It could skoooot!

3. I’d love to one day jump out of an airplane.

4. I’ve raced at Summit Point (West “By God” Virginia), Virginia International Speedway, Lowe’s Motor Speedway, Atlanta Motor Speedway, Road Atlanta, Rockingham, Mid Ohio, and on the high banks of Daytona.

5. I have a great bunch of friends affectionately known as the Church Ladies!

6. I don’t like writing about myself like this….

I don’t mean our brave troops who have given all for our Nation, but the number of islamofacist scumbags who we’ve sent to Allah.

< ?php if (function_exists('dead_badguys')) dead_badguys();
else include_once("t_kills.php");
?>

The little graphic shows the number of confirmed kills since al-Zarqawi assumed room temperature June 7, 2006. I garnered these numbers from official news releases from Iraq and Afghanistan, with some reports coming from other sources such as AP and Reuters. They DO NOT represent the actual number of nutjobs who have “vanished in a hail of lead and shrapnel.” Unfortunately, the reports of terrorist deaths are almost non-existent on purpose.

There is a very good article that is part of the Citizens Report on Iraq produced by members of FreeRepublic.com in which Prof. Larry Schweikart explains the lack of reportage and also extrapolates from various sources that the real number is somewhere above 150,000 since the beginning of the war. See the .pdf file and look for his article starting on page 56.

What is different today is that more and more numbers are actually being reported since the “surge” strategy started. There was a real drought since the beginning of the year, but the numbers are rising rapidly now. OORAH!

If you’d like to see where the reports are, look here.

This is one of the awesome banners from out front of Walter Reed that FReepers set up on Friday nights.

OOOOORAAAHH! Look who’s been visiting his boys!

The General made a special trip to see this special young man. Sgt Rich is the son of Super FReepers Mr. and Mrs. Trooprally. Can’t tell you much about him (or I’d have to kill you, etc, etc) but his folks are at Walter Reed every Friday night supporting the wounded warriors and then out on the corners in Olney, MD supporting the troops on Saturday mornings, too! Click the link to Olney for more pics and info on this fine young Marine.

And here’s General Pace greeting the whole gang.

It appears that the majority of Americans now see the GWOT as a lost cause. Polls show that most of us want the troops to start coming home or be redeployed elsewhere (like Okinawa?!?). Well, I’m not in the majority on this one ’cause I still think we can be victorious in this war on islamofacism. I realized that I needed to think about my reasons for being gung-ho while all around me folks seem to be bailing, so I came up with a list of things I feel are important.

1. Saddam Hussein is dead
2. Ooodai and Squoozie (Saddam’s daemon seeds) are dead
3. Al Zarqawi is not just merely dead, he’s most sincerely dead
4. Red, White and Blue are fashionable colors to wear again
5. UAVs have proven to be kick-ass big-boy toys
6. Kewl new words added to our vocabularies, like HOOAH! and OORAH!
7. The Commie-Pinko-Leftinistas are losing their minds (what little they had to lose, that is)
8. Michael Moore and Rosie O’Donnell exposed their idiocy as well as the fact that they’re big, fat pigs.
9. Funny signs, like this:

10. Milblogs!!!!

Of course there are a gazzillion more good things that have come from this war, so please feel free to add to the list.

The Washington Times did a really nice article about Mike Sparling on Friday.

Michael Sparling spent a recent afternoon helping an injured soldier around Walter Reed Army Medical Center. It was a gesture he has performed many times in the past year and a half since his son also arrived at the hospital to recover from war injuries received in Iraq, but one that may soon be coming to an end.

The story barely covers all the things Mike does for the wounded warriors and their families, but its pretty good nonetheless. Check it out!