I received this in an e-mail from a friend. I hope it brightens your day.
Subject: Going to Mexico
Dear President Bush:
I'm about to plan a little trip with my family and extended family, and I would like to ask you to assist me. I'm going to walk across the border from the U.S. into Mexico, and I need to make a few arrangements. I know you can help with this.
I plan to skip all the legal stuff like visas, passports, immigration quotas and laws. I'm sure they handle those things the same way you do here. So, would you mind telling your buddy, President Vicente Fox, that I'm on my way. Please let him know that I will be expecting the following:
1. Free medical care for my entire family.
2. English-speaking government bureaucrats for all services I might need, whether I use them or not.
3. All government forms need to be printed in English.
4. I want my kids to be taught by English-speaking teachers.
5. Schools need to include classes on American culture and history.
6. I want my kids to see the American flag flying on the top of the flag pole at their school with the Mexican flag flying lower down.
7. Please plan to feed my kids at school for both breakfast and lunch.
8. I will need a local Mexican driver's license so I can get easy access to government services.
9. I do not plan to have any car insurance, and I won't make any effort to learn local traffic laws.
10. In case one of the Mexican police officers does not get the memo from President Fox to leave me alone, please be sure that all police officers speak English.
11. I plan to fly the U.S. flag from my house top, put flag decals on my car, and have a gigantic celebration on July 4th. I do not want any complaints or negative comments from the locals.
12. I would also like to have a nice job without paying any taxes, and don't enforce any labor laws or tax laws.
13. Please tell all the people in the country to be extremely nice and never say a critical word about me, or about the strain I might place on the economy.
I know this is an easy request because you already do all these things for all the people who come to the U.S. from Mexico. I am sure that President Fox won't mind returning the favor if you ask him nicely.
The Washington Post's Pamela Constable has an interesting article about how different Afghanistan and Iraq are from the perspective of helicopter crews:
Afghanistan is rugged, poor and sparsely populated.
The Iraq combat theater is for the most part flat, comparatively developed and urban.
In Afghanistan, "our biggest threat is not Taliban or al-Qaeda shooting at us. It's the weather and the terrain," said Army Lt. Col. Mark Patterson, who commands Task Force Knighthawk. "It's a rugged, unpredictable environment that an agile, adaptable enemy can exploit."
[. . .]
There is danger in both theaters, the team members said, but it comes in distinct forms, degrees and disguises. Iraq's developed infrastructure includes power lines that can block low flight paths for helicopters, apartment complexes that can hide snipers, and long, paved highways that can be booby-trapped with remote-control explosives.
[. . .]
Afghanistan's trackless deserts and hillside villages mean troops and supplies must often be delivered to forward bases in Taliban territory by helicopter, exposing crews to rocket attacks as well as mercurial flying conditions. But it is easier to spot insurgent hideouts in the open desert, team members said, and the enemy's weapons here tend to be older, less powerful and far less accurate than those wielded by Iraqi insurgents.
There is more. Reading the whole article is worthwhile.
Soldiers, sailors, airmen and Marines stationed at Bagram Air Base, Afghanistan remembered Americans who made the ultimate sacrifice to ensure the freedom of our nation, during a Memorial Day weekend ceremony.
Army Maj. Gen. Benjamin Freakley, commander of Combined Joint Task Force 76, noted that for the past 138 years, our nation has paused at this time of year remember those who have died in our nation's service:
U.S. Army Staff Sgt. Wayne A. White plays taps during a Memorial Day ceremony at Bagram Air Base, Afghanistan, May 28, 2006. U.S. Army photo by Staff Sgt. Robert R. Ramon.
"What does this day mean to us as we stand here at Bagram, Afghanistan, fighting in the global war on terror?" Freakley asked the hundreds of servicemembers in attendance.
It is important, he said, for military members to pause and remember those who went before. "We stand on the shoulders of giants," he added. "From those who fought in the earliest days in the American military, to those who fell in Vietnam, in operations in the 90s in Panama, Grenada and Operation Desert Storm, to those who have fallen in the global war on terrorism, beginning with those members of our nation who fought right here in the opening days of Operation Enduring Freedom, as well as those who have recently fallen on our watch as CJTF 76."
[. . .]
"Simply put, their lives meant sacrifice and dedication to something greater than themselves -- their nation, their fellow soldiers, sailors, airmen and Marines, and dedication to a cause -- freedom," Freakley said.
"Not only freedom for the American people, but freedom for over 55 million Iraqis and Afghans who have had oppression and tyranny lifted from their shoulders and given the opportunity to form their nations to stand tall and live life in freedom and peace," he added.
Freakley said it is because of those who made the ultimate sacrifice that Americans back home are able to live tranquil lives.
"Those who have died have also guaranteed our own freedoms in the United States of America," he said. "Thankfully, since September the 11th, 2001, America has not been attacked. Some people could say, 'Well, we're just lucky.' I don't believe in that.
"I believe that we have taken the fight to the enemy worldwide, focused in Iraq and Afghanistan, and have prevented the enemy from returning to our shores, thereby ensuring our businessmen and women can go to work in buildings without fear that an airplane will crash into it; our children can go to school and not be concerned about being killed; our citizens can go to baseball games, cookouts, and picnics and have fun this Memorial Day weekend because it has been delivered to them by those who fell and those who stand in the ranks today."
[. . .]
"Today we dedicate ourselves, as we did before we deployed, to continuing the fight in the global war on terror and guaranteeing the American people freedom as well as the people in Afghanistan and Iraq," he said. "Remember those who gave their all to our nation. They did not die in vain, for they have given us a better world, a better Afghanistan, a better Iraq, a better United States of America."
Please take the time today to remember all those that sacrificed so that we are able to live in freedom. Or do as Ralph Kinney Bennett suggests in his phenomenal "Go and find a soldier's grave." Go and find a soldier's grave and think about what it means; what it really means to give your life, in its prime, for your country. Make this Memorial Day truly memorable.
The RNC has prepared this video honoring the patriots who defended and currently defend America. The video runs three minutes and I found it well worth the time.
The image above is from the National Cemetery in the Presidio in San Francisco. The image to the left is an arial view of the World War II Normandy American Cemetery and Memorial, which is situated on a cliff overlooking Omaha Beach and the English Channel in Colleville-sur Mer, France.
President Abraham Lincoln found the most appropriate words:
The Gettysburg Address
Gettysburg, Pennsylvania
November 19, 1863
Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent, a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.
Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any nation so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure. We are met on a great battle-field of that war. We have come to dedicate a portion of that field, as a final resting place for those who here gave their lives that that nation might live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this.
But, in a larger sense, we can not dedicate -- we can not consecrate -- we can not hallow -- this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated it, far above our poor power to add or detract. The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here. It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us -- that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion -- that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain -- that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom -- and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.
Barry Bonds hit his 715th home run, surpassing Babe Ruth for second on the all-time list on Sunday afternoon against the Colorado Rockies' Byung-Hyun Kim.
Bonds hit the homer off Colorado’s Byung-Hyun Kim and before his home fans. The home run was a two-run shot to center field in the bottom of the fourth inning.
Bonds is now 40 behind Hank Aaron, the all-time leader with 755.
MSNBC reports the death toll from yesterday's earthquake has reached more than 4,600. Survivors are digging through their crumpled homes Sunday in search of food and clothing:
The disaster zone stretched across hundreds of square miles of mostly farming communities in Yogyakarta province. The worst devastation was in the rice-farming town of Bantul, where more than 2,400 people were killed and 80 percent of the homes were flattened.
[. . .]
About 450 aftershocks had shaken the region as of midday Sunday, with the strongest measuring magnitude-5.2, said Handi, an official at the Meteorology and Geophysics Agency who uses only one name.
Survivors searched the ruins of their homes on Sunday for anything still usable and complained that they hadn’t received any aid.
“We’re short of everything — clothes, food, water, all are gone. We are poor people, but our lives still matter,” said Budi Wiyana, 63, whose house was destroyed.
Doctors struggled to care for the injured, hundreds of whom were lying on plastic sheets, straw mats and even newspapers outside overcrowded hospitals, some hooked to intravenous drips dangling from trees.
Bloodstains littered the floor at Yogyakarta’s Dr. Sardjito Hospital, along with piles of soiled bandages and used medical supplies.
“We are short of surgeons,” said Alexander, a doctor who goes by one name. “There are still so many critically injured people here.”
The death toll expected to rise further. Please go to "How To Help Indonesian Earthquake Victims" and consider donating to one of the charities helping with the relief effort.
On Fox News Sunday, the Tennessee Republican said a failure to hold out the hope of citizenship to people living illegally in the United States would encourage the estimated 12 million illegal aliens to "stay in the shadows."
"The reality is you can't just take 12 million people here, millions of whom are fully assimilated into our society ... and send them back" to their countries of origin, Frist said.
"If the goal is national security, for example ... it is mighty hard to say that we've got 12 million people living out around this country ... and say 'you stay in the shadows, everything will be OK'," Frist said.
We do, I feel, have to address the 12 million people to bring them out of the shadows.
[. . .]
"First and foremost you've got to lock down the borders," Frist said, but "we've got to address the fact that we are a magnet here," and that employers in construction, hospitality, agriculture and other industries need entry level workers they might not be able to find inside U.S. borders.
Frist is wrong.
First and foremost, the Senate's path to citizenship for illegal aliens will result in even more illegal aliens. The only lesson those who want to migrate to the U.S. will learn from the proposed legalization is that they should get into the U.S. any way they can, because eventually the U.S. will make them legal. Unfortunately, we have historic validation of this. We tried amnesty before with the Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1986. That reform legalized nearly 4 million illegals. That policy has proven to be an abominable failure, resulting in 12 million illegal aliens seeking to be legalized like those who came before them. Why can't Senator Frist see that if amnesty is given now to these 12 million, then in another 20 years, there will be 36 million illegal aliens demanding to be legalized?
Second, If the good Senator was truly concerned about the threat illegal aliens pose to national security, why does he not do something to force the government to take action against employers who hire illegal aliens? Why doesn't he do something to prevent state and local governments from providing non-emergency services to illegal aliens and enacting “sanctuary” policies, prohibiting government employees, including law enforcement personnel, from reporting an illegal alien’s status? Why doesn't he require the government to obtain adequate facilities to detain illegal aliens when they are caught, instead of releasing them knowing few will show up later for a court appearance?
Third, the illegals wouldn't come -- and might leave -- if they couldn't get a job because those that employed them went to jail, if they couldn't obtain government services, or if they actually thought they might be detained for coming here illegally.
Fourth, just how stupid do Frist and the other senators who voted for the Senate's so-called immigration reform think we are? Twenty years ago, we were told we should grant amnesty to four million illegal aliens in order to stop stop the illegal migration. Frist and the Senate are telling us exactly the same thing now. As they say, fool me once, shame on you ....
It shouldn't be too hard. If you're not near a military cemetery, just about any cemetery will do.
Look for the little American flags fluttering by the stones or the little bronze markers placed by the veterans' organizations.
Or walk the rows and look for those stones that impart terse histories of short lives -- "Killed in Action on the Island of Iwo Jima," or "KIA Republic of Viet Nam," or "Iraq 2003."
I know, I know. You do plan to watch that short parade, and the ceremony at the flagpole. But then relatives are going to be over for that big cookout. There's baseball and auto racing on TV, not to mention the "Memorial Day Mattress Event" or the "Memorial Day SUV Salesathon."
Look, just take an hour away from all that. An hour. Go out early in the morning if you have to.
Go and find a soldier's grave.
Put some flowers there. Or just pause and say a prayer. Nothing elaborate. "Thanks" will do.
Or just stop and think about what it means; what it really means to give your life, in its prime, for your country. Look at that name there on the stone. Think what might have been... and what was.
Some of these men and women were in uniform by choice. Some because they had no choie. Some were heroes. Some were not.
But they were there where all hell was breaking loose. They probably had no idea they were giving "the last full measure of devotion." They just had some instant, desperate job to do. In a cockpit or a turret or a hole in the ground.
Did they grasp the "policy implications" of their presence on the high seas, in the air or on some foreign soil? Did they have time for a curse or a prayer when they saw the muzzle flashes or heard that rushing sound, or when the bomb sent the Humvee into the air?
Go and find a soldier's grave.
You can have that hamburger and beer later, and maybe relax in the hammock and not give a thought to that one whose life span is now an incised line in stone -- that one who represented you, like no Congressman could.
Go and find a soldier's grave.
Remember what duty costs.
Then just bow your head and, as Gen. George S. Patton said, do not mourn that such men died, but thank God that such men lived.
Updated May 28, 2006 at 1:50
Originally posted May 26, 2006
By now you have probably heard about the powerful earthquake that hit Indonesia this morning killing thousands of people and injuring thousands more. While not as devastating as the 2004 tsunami, Katrina or the 2005 South Asia Earthquake, aid organizations are already asking for donations to help with the relief effort.
You can help the earthquake victims by making a financial donation to any of the following charities:
US citizens can make a tax-deductible online donation on Oxfam America's website. Click here to donate to this organization.
Reuters reports other organizations, that don't yet a specific Indonesian earthquake appeal, are helping:
Caritas Internationalis
Indonesian Red Cross (International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies)
Malteser International
MSF
Plan International
Contact information for these organizations is available here.
Charity Navigator offers these suggestions to ensure your donations get to those who need it:
Give To An Established Charity: Don't let an unscrupulous charity take advantage of your goodwill. Find a charity with a proven track record of success with dealing with this region and this type of disaster. Even well-meaning new organizations will not have the infrastructure and knowledge of the region to efficiently maximize your gift. If you do feel compelled to give to a new charity, be sure to get proof that the group is in fact a registered public charity with 501 (c) (3) status.
Designate Your Gift: Worried that your donation will go towards the charity's general operating fund or saved for an upcoming crisis? This is a very understandable concern. Many charities do encourage donors not to designate their gifts so that the charity can decide how best to utilize the money, but depending on your confidence in the charity's ability to make that determination, you may want to tell the charity exactly how to use your gift. By designating your gift specifically for the earthquake relief efforts, you'll ensure that your donation will be used for the victims of this particular disaster.
Avoid Telemarketers: Be wary of fundraisers who pressure you to make a contribution over the phone. Never divulge your credit card information to someone soliciting you via the phone. Instead, ask the fundraiser to send you written information about the charity they represent and do some research on your own. Once you feel comfortable with the charity, send the organization a check directly in the mail, or give through their website, thus ensuring 100% of your gift goes to the charity and not the for-profit fundraiser.
Research And Follow Up: As always, take the time to find a charity you can trust. Be sure to follow up with the charity in a few months to find out (a) how your donation was put to use and (b) if they need additional support to complete the recovery effort.
The Associated Press reports a magnitude-6.2 earthquake flattened buildings in central Indonesia early Saturday, killing at least 2,900 people and injuring thousands more:
The magnitude-6.2 quake struck at 5:54 a.m. near the ancient city of Yogyakarta, as most people were sleeping, causing death and damage in many nearby towns.
One geologist warned that the temblor could spark a large eruption at nearby Mount Merapi, one of the world's most active volcanoes.
Houses, hotels and government buildings collapsed, sending hysterical people running through the streets. Many roads and bridges were destroyed, hindering efforts to get taxis and pickup trucks filled with wounded to hospitals overflowing with patients.
Fourteen hours after the quake struck, the number of dead stood at 2,914, said Social Affairs Ministry official Sopar Jaya.
UPDATE: Agence France-Presses reports whole villages were reduced to rubble and victims were buried alive:
An official at the social affairs ministry's disaster relief centre said at least 3,002 people were dead and more than 2,500 seriously injured in the quake on the south coast of Java island.
The Indonesian Red Cross said some 200,000 people had been displaced. The death count was being updated almost by the hour.
Victims who survived went streaming into overwhelmed hospitals, bloodied and terrified, as tens of thousands more were left homeless around the ancient city of Yogyakarta on Java's densely populated south coast.
UPDATE: 05-27-2006 at 3:00 PM
NSNBC reports the death toll from the Indonesian eathquake now stands at more than 3,500.
U.S. Army soldiers of the 3rd U.S. Infantry, The Old Guard, place American flags in front of grave markers during the "Flags In" ceremony in Arlington National Cemetery, Arlington, Va., May 25, 2006. All photos courtesy of the Defense Dept. by William D. Moss
A flag waves in front of the Tomb of the Unknowns also known as the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier for the "Flag's In" ceremony at Arlington National Cemetery, Arlington, Va. May 25, 2006.
The wall of the Memorial Amphitheater at Arlington National Cemetery reads "When we assumed the soldier, we did not lay aside the citizen." These words of President George Washington are remembered for the "Flag's In" ceremony at Arlington National Cemetery, Arlington, Va., May 25, 2006.
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