Da Hawg Frog Blog

It is amazing how the Bush/Cheney apologists try to divert attention from the last administrations crimes by pointing a finger at Nancy Pelosi and accuse her of being complicit in those crimes. Pelosi is probably lying, but then that what politicians do. One thing is for sure, she had no say in the conduct of  interrogations under the Bush administration. Meanwhile, the people who were the architects of these war crimes, are doing their best to justify them.

During the last election campaign cycle, all three years of it, the Republicans tried to distance themselves from the Bush administration. Bush/Cheney were the lepers of the neocon movement to every one except the most die hard right wing extremist of the party. Sean Hannity, Rush Limbaugh, Glenn Beck  and Bill O’Reilly come to mind. They all mouth the same talking points. Hannity even went so far as to offer to be waterboarded to prove it was not torture. Keith Olbermann immediately offered to donate to charity $1,000 for every second Hannity endured the torture.

The debate over torture is getting personal for two of cable TV’s prime-time hosts. After Fox News Channel’s Sean Hannity made a seemingly impromptu offer last week to undergo waterboarding as a benefit for charity, MSNBC’s Keith Olbermann leapt at it. He offered $1,000 to the families of U.S. troops for every second Hannity withstood the technique.

Olbermann repeated the offer on Monday’s show and said in an interview Tuesday that he’s heard no response. He said he’ll continue to pursue it.

“I don’t think he has the courage to even respond to this — let alone do it,” Olbermann said.

Fox News Channel representatives did not respond to requests for comment. (Source: USA Today)

I’d like to see that on prime time TV.  It would be worth watching, even if I had to tune into Faux News to view it. So far Sean Hannity has avoided responding. Instead all we see it DICK Cheney. Eight years this guy hid in an undisclosed location and directed his minions in the art of torture. He needs to shut up. Better yet, he needs to be waterboarded until we get the truth out of him.

So now the Party of No is trying to rebuild their image. Their idea of change is finding a new slogan and having the same, tired, old crooks mouth it every night on the news. They have no new ideas. They offer no solutions. Yet they expect the new administration to listen to their tired old shit and take heed. To President Obama’s credit, he is not listening. He offers them a place at the table and when the cry babies refuse to show, he gets along with his agenda without their input, which is nothing but negativity anyway.

But the leadership of the GOP often waxes nostalgically about President Reagan. You know him, the co-star of Bonzo the Chimpanze in many old 1950s movies. The senile old windbag who got his movie career mixed up with his military history. He was a lieutenant in the Army reserve during WWII. The architect of deregulation that led to the economic mess we’re in today. The union busting crusader that put us all in peril by firing all the air traffic controllers in the 1980s.

The neocons are historical revisionist of the first order. They have canonized St Ronnie and worship his image and await his second coming. Yet they conveniently forgot that in 1983 Reagan had his Department of Justice prosecute a Texas Sheriff and his staff for . . . waterboarding prisoners.

George W. Bush’s Justice Department said subjecting a person to the near drowning of waterboarding was not a crime and didn’t even cause pain, but Ronald Reagan’s Justice Department thought otherwise, prosecuting a Texas sheriff and three deputies for using the practice to get confessions.

Federal prosecutors secured a 10-year sentence against the sheriff and four years in prison for the deputies. But that 1983 case – which would seem to be directly on point for a legal analysis on waterboarding two decades later – was never mentioned in the four Bush administration opinions released last week.

The failure to cite the earlier waterboarding case and a half-dozen other precedents that dealt with torture is reportedly one of the critical findings of a Justice Department watchdog report that legal sources say faults former Bush administration lawyers – Jay Bybee, John Yoo and Steven Bradbury – for violating “professional standards.” (Source: Truth Out Org)

It makes you wonder what is going through these neocon bastards minds. They must really think that Americans are stupid. You simply can’t rewrite history or cover it up in the 21st century. There are too many resources at the public’s fingertips to get away with these outright lies today. But that is exactly what Bush/Cheney’s legal stooges tried to do.

That law was not in existence when the Texas sheriff, James Parker, and his deputies were prosecuted and sentenced in the 1980s. But Bybee, Bradbury and Yoo had a duty to their legal profession to cite the case as it would have changed the substance of their legal opinions, said Scott Horton, a human rights attorney and constitutional expert.

“Any competent legal adviser would, among other things, have looked at the techniques themselves and checked to see how they have been treated in prior cases,” Horton said in an email. “Obviously the Anti-Torture Statute itself is a very recent invention and it has no enforcement history, so saying that and then suggesting on this basis that the situation is tabula rasa is highly disingenuous.”

Horton suspects that Bybee, Yoo and Bradbury were well aware of the case law, but simply chose to ignore it in order to give the Bush administration what it had asked for. (Source: Truth Out Org)

We have a moral obligation to insure that this never happens again in our name. Those who brought this shame on us must be punished. What punishment is warranted? 10 years like the Texas lawmen got? Or what we meted out to the Japanese water boarders after World War II?

They used water boarding to extract justification for their political motivations to attack Iraq. It was a war crime. Justice is due. Bush/Cheney, Rumsfeld, Rice, the whole damm lot of them should be brought before an impartial tribunal. The evidence shoud be presented and justice rendered. Obama needs to pull his head out of his ass and straighten this out or history will not judge him kindly for letting this slide. They have disgraced this nation and the only way to regain our integrity is to openly and honestly go forward with prosecution ourselves. Let’s not wait until the UN or Spain begins proceedings. We have an obligation to take care of our own dirty laundry. Their actions put every member of our military in danger. They threw out the Constitution, trashed the Geneva Convention and thumbed their noses at the rest of the world. Send them all to Gitmo, water board them and then try them based on the confessions we extract.

After September 11, 2001 many veterans felt the same way. They wanted to make those who attacked us pay. One of those who decided to return to service was Steven Hutchison, a psychology professor at Claremont College in California.

Major Hutchison served two tours in Vietnam with the 101st Airborne Infantry Division during 1968-1970.

He completed a year tour of duty in Afghanistan. But his deployment to Iraq ended in tragedy on Sunday when a roadside bomb exploded near his vehicle in Basra.

Major Hutchison, who would have turned 61 on June 5, signed up through a military Retiree Recall programme that allows older, experienced warriors to return to action. 

‘He’d been a soldier all his life, and that’s what he wanted to do,’ said his brother, Richard. (Source: Daily Mail)

Major Hutchison entered the service under a program that allows prior servicemen to return to active duty. He would have had to retire permanently at age 62. But he felt compelled to serve and did not hesitate to answer the call when his country needed him again.
His brother, Richard plans on meeting him at Dover AFB. Richard talks of a brother who was not only a warrior, but also a very caring person.

The last communication the brothers had was a routine e-mail Steven Hutchison sent from Iraq about two weeks ago. He rarely wrote about his experiences in Iraq, Richard Hutchison said.

However, there was one matter on the ground that the soldier involved his brother in.

“When he was in Iraq, they found a dog and were taking care of it. He sent me an e-mail asking me to send some dog food and dog supplies,” Hutchison said. The Army made Hutchison’s team give up the dog, but they left it in good hands, his brother said.

“He had a big heart.” (Source: CNN)

Major Stevens now has the distinction of being the oldest veteran killed in the war against terror. RIP sir and thank you for your service.

Not all of our armed forces personnel become heroes on the battlefield or in mortal combat. Sometimes they are save lives by recognizing problems and acting to correct them. Such was the case with Staff Sergeant Bartek Bachleda of the 909th Refueling Squadron. He saw a potentially dangerous situation while on a flight to Kadena, Japan and alerted the pilot and crew.

A fuel leak on a civilian aircraft caught the attention of Staff Sgt. Bartek Bachleda, 909th Air Refueling Squadron boom operator, during a flight from Chicago to Narita airport, Japan. After alerting the pilots and aircrew, the ranking pilot made the decision to divert the flight to San Francisco.

“I noticed the leak on the left side of the aircraft right behind the wing earlier during take-off,” said Sergeant Bachleda.  (Source: Air Force Link).

Sergeant Bachleda first brought the leak to the attention of a stewardess. She didn’t take it seriously. Not until the sergeant showed the video he’d been making of the leak. Soon the pilot arrived at his seat and after watching the video and observing it first hand through the window decided to divert the flight to San Francisco.

While conversing with the captain, the sergeant said he was hesitant at first to inform them about the leak, but he knew it was abnormal. The captain said they would have never made it to Japan if it wasn’t for him.

The two Airmen were placed in a hotel overnight and flew back to Japan the next morning. The airline company showed their appreciation by seating them first-class.

These young men used the experience they had gained through their military training to save the lives of not only themselves, but the 300 other passengers aboard. Good job airmen.

In August 1942 the Marines were engaging the Japanese throughout the islands of the Pacific. They would meet the Japanese in battle where ever they could be found. On Makin Island they fought a short battle and lost 19 men. As the Marines retreated they asked the native people to bury their dead. In 1999 the Marines returned to Makin Island. Thay came to reclaim the remains of their fallen brothers.

These Marines were inserted on the Island by submarine in what came to be known as Carlson’s raid. Outnumbered and out gunned the Marines fought for two days and were extracted again by the submarines.
This tribute was written, sung and narrated by Pat Mendoza. To see more work by Pat Mendoza visit his website.

Through the tireless efforts of several veterans organizations Corporal Isaiah Mays will be reinterred from All Souls Cemetery in Phoenix, Arizona to the National Cemetery in Arlington, Virginia. Missing in America Project, the Buffalo Soldiers Motorcycle Club, American Legion Riders and VFW Riders have worked hard to bring this about. After resting in an unmarked grave in an empty lot beside the Arizona State Hospital for nearly 100 years, Corporal Mays is finally going to receive the honors he earned.

Corporal Mays was presented the Medal of Honor on February 19, 1890 for his heroic actions in the Arizona Territories. Little is known about the rest of this warrior’s life, except in 1923 he applied to Washington for a pension. He was old and indigent, living on the streets of Phoenix. He was turned down.

And this from the pentagon.

Corporal Isaiah Mays is being escorted from Phoenix, Arizona to Arlington by the members of many veteran’s organizations. The escort is meeting up with the riders from the Missing in America Project who are escorting two unclaimed Silver Star receipents from Sacramento, California in Topeka, Kansas. The remains of Boatswains Mate Johnnie Franklin Callahan, World War II veteran and Specialist James William Dunn, Vietnam veteran are being interred in Arlington the same day. These two heros from different generations will finally be honored also. Their remains languished for years, unclaimed in Sacramento funeral homes.

Anyone wishing to participate in this escort to honor Corporal Isaiah Mays, Johnnie Callahan and James William Dunn can get all the information they need at either the Missing in America Project homepage or the Old Guard Riders website. Da Frog will be joining the escort as they pass through Indiana and riding with these patriots to Arlington. These two organizations are going to be joined by riders along the way, many making the full journey, others only participating for a few hundred miles.

Da Frog is honored to stand a flag line for these fallen heroes. Veterans never forget. If you are interested in either of these organizations and their missions please contact them. If you cannot make the ride but would like to support their efforts, again, go to their websites. Donations are gratefully accepted. Tell them Da Frog sent you.

For thirty years Senator Specter has represented the State of Pennsylvania as a Republican.  Specter has always been a moderate voice for his party. Now he discovered that the lunatic fringe of the GOP has taken over and they want him out.  Senator Specter made the cardinal sin of voting for legislation that his party opposed. This immediately brought on the wrath of the likes of Hannity and Limpballs. His bipartisan stand will not be tolerated in the party of NO. The GOP is galvanized against him and he stands no chance of winning the Pennsylvania primary in the party he has represented for years.

Realizing he didn’t stand a chance of winning in Pennsylvania as a Republican again Specter announced he was changing parties and joining the Democrats. This was an act of rank opportunism reminiscent of Senator Joe Liberman. When the voters of Connecticut got tired of old Joe’s hawkish support of the Bush administration it became clear he could not carry his party again. So he formed the Joe Lieberman party and became an Independent.  Senator Specter should have done the same thing. He is not a Democrat and made clear the party could not count on him as the 60th vote in the senate.

Arlen has been welcomed into the party by the leadership. But then remember, the leadership of the Democratic Party is sorely out of touch with the people. Not as badly as the GOP, but still blind to the will of the people. Senator Specter was exactly where he belonged. He did the country more good as a moderate influence in the Republican party than he ever will as a conservative voice in the Democratic Party. Don’t expect any stellar ideas to come from this newly minted Democrat.

It will be an enormous mistake on the part of the Democratic Party if they throw their support behind Specter in a race against another Democrat from Pennsylvania. He is not really a Democrat and he can not be counted on in a fight on the floor. He is in it for his own self interests, not those of either party. He should stand down, accept defeat and retire. He’s been in Washington long enough. He may be a senior senator, but he is no statesman.