Video- Inside the White House: The Marine Sentries

I'm a sucker for history.

VIDEO: The First Lady Delivers Toys for Tots

By GottaLaff

With all this heated debatey health carey talk, the holidays tend to be ignored in the Blogosphere. So, here's a nice break:



I say this every time I post a Michelle video, but I lerve the First Lady. She never disappoints.

First Lady Michelle Obama visits the U.S. Marine Corps Reserves Toy for Tots warehouse in Stafford, VA to deliver toys donated by White House staff.

VIDEO: U.S. Marine found with weapons, explosives at airport

By GottaLaff



I believe a report on this due to come out tonight. I may be wrong, but I thought I heard Rachel Maddow mention it (or was that a different report?). Per our Commenter HippieCyndi:

Apparently the Pentagon has been either monitoring or firing soldiers who are involved with right wing extreme elements quietly.

Michael Savage may have to sue the Pentagon now.

A United States Marine is being held on $50,000 cash bail after airport officials found a gun, explosives and other weapons in his suitcase. U.S. Marine Justin Reed of Jacksonville, NC was stopped at Boston's Logan Airport shortly after 7 a.m. on Sunday - 04/19/09

H/t: HippieCyndi

Marine commander: 'Time is right' for Marines to leave Iraq

By GottaLaff

Six months. The top Marine commander says "six months":

The top Marine commander said Friday that his forces already had begun pulling equipment out of Iraq and that nearly all of his troops could be out in as little as six months.

"The time is right for the Marines to leave Iraq," Gen. James Conway, the commandant of the Marine Corps, said at a breakfast with reporters. Any "sustainment force" in Iraq, he added, will be almost exclusively from the Army. [...]

Throughout much of the war in Iraq, Marines were stationed in largely Sunni Muslim Anbar province, which was the heart of the Sunni insurgency and one of the most violent parts of the country.

Marines there faced some of the largest explosives detonated in Iraq and insurgent tactics such as snipers, causing devastating troop deaths. As the violence subsided, however, Conway pushed for the Marines to begin leaving Iraq, arguing that his forces aren't nation builders but fighters.

One "commander on the ground" has spoken.

Next!

Study: U.S. Marine Corps an Orgy Palace of Stoned, Drunk, Horny Teens

By GottaLaff

This is one heck of an enticement to enlist. Actually, it's more about how the military is scrounging for people willing to put their lives at risk after five years of a fraudulent, deadly, quagmirey occupation:

Thanks to desperate recruiting methods required to staff those wars, the U.S. Marines may be turning military service into a male sexual fantasy land, where recruits are paid actual money to cohabitate with drunk, stoned, horny teenage girls.

UCSF scientists tested and surveyed 2,157 female U.S. Marine recruits -- out of 2,288 possible respondents -- with an average age of 19. Researchers found that the young women were more than twice as likely as non-military young women to be infected with venereal diseases. And the recruits were prone to engage in behaviors likely to get them sick again.

The sexually-precocious female recruits "perceived that sex is more likely and enjoyable under the influence of alcohol, and were heavy alcohol and drug users before recruit training entry," according to a November 2008 UCSF study titled "Relationships among Sociodemographic Markers, Behavioral Risk, and sexually transmitted infections in U.S. Female Marine Corps Recruits."

[...] The Marines seemed to find their most sexually adventurous female recruits in rural areas, where a disproportionate number of them whiled away their high school years having drunken, stoned, unprotected sex, according to the UCSF report.

"Young women enter recruit training for the military with high levels of STIs [sexually transmitted infections] and increased risk for acquisition of STIs including sex under the influence of alcohol or drugs, sex with a risky partner, and infrequent condom use," the UCSF study said.

This is great news for randy young men weighing a career in the Marines -- as long as they're fastidious about wearing rubbers.

So, is this for real? And did they really just say "randy"?

Hawaii watch: Obama's first day

By GottaLaff

(For Mellowjohn: At Chicago's O'Hare International airport)

(Their Hawaii vacation home)

You know it's a slow news day when the New York Times devotes three paragraphs to P.E. Obama's salute:

He’s not the commander in chief yet, but was President-elect Barack Obama briefly practicing his salute on Sunday?

On the first morning of his vacation here, Mr. Obama arrived at the Marine Corps Base Hawaii for his daily workout. As he walked out of the Semper Fit Center, his gray T-shirt soaked in sweat, he lifted his right hand and gave a quick salute to two Marines in fatigues who were standing in the distance.

The brief moment was not captured by cameras. Photographs and video were not permitted to be taken on the military base, according to campaign aides.

That was about as newsworthy as Rahm Emanuel's Rod Blagourhauaegriouwoich phone calls. Those would be the very same phone calls in which there was no criminal wrongdoing. You know the ones.

He is receiving his daily national security briefing and his transition team is scheduled on Monday or Tuesday to release an internal review of any contacts between his advisers and the Illinois governor’s office over filling his vacant Senate seat.

When he's not working, one guess what the prez-elect is up to:

Mr. Obama and his wife, Michelle Obama, opened their day with a 45-minute workout inside a large gymnasium at Marine Corps Base Hawaii...

Not to mention:

The president-elect, after filling his Cabinet in record-setting pace, is taking a break. On tap for the rest of his Sunday? An afternoon tee-time and 18 holes of golf.

Rest up, P.E. Obama, you've got your hands full once you get back to the mainland.

New Christmas Poem, written by a Marine

By GottaLaff

NOTE: Paddy thought this post might have been a bit misleading, but I assumed that my saying Nick is a Navy guy would differentiate him from a Marine.

I'll clarify just to make sure. The poem was written by a Marine. My former student is in the Navy. He didn't write this, but his mother sent it to me as a tribute to everyone serving in the military, and their families.

ORIGINAL POST:

This poem was sent to me by a friend. Her son was one of my favorite theatre kids of all time, and he is now serving in the Navy. She asked that I share this with a friend, so I chose all of you:

New Christmas Poem

TWAS THE NIGHT BEFORE CHRISTMAS,
HE LIVED ALL ALONE,
IN A ONE BEDROOM HOUSE MADE OF
PLASTER AND STONE.

I HAD COME DOWN THE CHIMNEY
WITH PRESENTS TO GIVE,
AND TO SEE JUST WHO
IN THIS HOME DID LIVE.

I LOOKED ALL ABOUT,
A STRANGE SIGHT I DID SEE,
NO TINSEL, NO PRESENTS,
NOT EVEN A TREE.

NO STOCKING BY MANTLE,
JUST BOOTS FILLED WITH SAND,
ON THE WALL HUNG PICTURES
OF FAR DISTANT LANDS.

WITH MEDALS AND BADGES,
AWARDS OF ALL KINDS,
A SOBER THOUGHT
CAME THROUGH MY MIND.

FOR THIS HOUSE WAS DIFFERENT,
IT WAS DARK AND DREARY,
I FOUND THE HOME OF A SOLDIER,
ONCE I COULD SEE CLEARLY.

THE SOLDIER LAY SLEEPING,
SILENT, ALONE,
CURLED UP ON THE FLOOR
IN THIS ONE BEDROOM HOME.

THE FACE WAS SO GENTLE,
THE ROOM IN SUCH DISORDER,
NOT HOW I PICTURED
A UNITED STATES SOLDIER.

WAS THIS THE HERO
OF WHOM I'D JUST READ?
CURLED UP ON A PONCHO,
THE FLOOR FOR A BED?

I REALIZED THE FAMILIES
THAT I SAW THIS NIGHT,
OWED THEIR LIVES TO THESE SOLDIERS
WHO WERE WILLING TO FIGHT.

SOON ROUND THE WORLD,
THE CHILDREN WOULD PLAY,
AND GROWNUPS WOULD CELEBRATE
A BRIGHT CHRISTMAS DAY.

THEY ALL ENJOYED FREEDOM
EACH MONTH OF THE YEAR,
BECAUSE OF THE SOLDIERS,
LIKE THE ONE LYING HERE.

I COULDN'T HELP WONDER
HOW MANY LAY ALONE,
ON A COLD CHRISTMAS EVE
IN A LAND FAR FROM HOME.

THE VERY THOUGHT
BROUGHT A TEAR TO MY EYE,
I DROPPED TO MY KNEES
AND STARTED TO CRY.

THE SOLDIER AWAKENED
AND I HEARD A ROUGH VOICE,
'SANTA DON'T CRY,
THIS LIFE IS MY CHOICE;

I FIGHT FOR FREEDOM,
I DON'T ASK FOR MORE,
MY LIFE IS MY GOD,
MY! COUNTRY, MY CORPS.'

THE SOLDIER ROLLED OVER
AND DRIFTED TO SLEEP,
I COULDN'T CONTROL IT,
I CONTINUED TO WEEP.

I KEPT WATCH FOR HOURS,
SO SILENT AND STILL
AND WE BOTH SHIVERED
FROM THE COLD NIGHT'S CHILL.

I DIDN'T WANT TO LEAVE
ON THAT COLD, DARK, NIGHT,
THIS GUARDIAN OF HONOR
SO WILLING TO FIGHT.

THEN THE SOLDIER ROLLED OVER,
WITH A VOICE SOFT AND PURE,
WHISPERED, 'CARRY ON SANTA,
IT'S CHRISTMAS DAY, ALL IS SECURE.'

ONE LOOK AT MY WATCH,
AND I KNEW HE WAS RIGHT.
'MERRY CHRISTMAS MY FRIEND,!
AND TO ALL A GOOD NIGHT..'

This poem was written by a Marine.

Christmas will be coming soon and some credit is due to our U.S. service men and women for our being able to celebrate these festivities. Let's try in this small way to pay a tiny bit of what we owe. Make people stop and think of our heroes, living and dead, who sacrificed themselves for us. Please, do your small part to plant this small seed.

Thank you, Yvonne. Much love to you and sweet, amazing Nick.