Afghanistan Goes Gaga

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=haHXgFU7qNI&feature=player_embedded#!

APRIL 30--In what may be the most entertaining music video homage ever shot in a war zone, a group of American soldiers stationed at a military base in southwest Afghanistan star in a lip-synced version of Lady Gaga's hit "Telephone." The video, which yesterday began to spread online, was filmed recently inside what appears to be a garage at the Forward Operating Base in Farah Province. Posted to YouTube a week ago, the 3:45 production--complete with props, signs, and costumes--features an all-male cast from the 82nd Airborne Division. The video, which can be viewed above, was the brainchild of Aaron Melcher, a married 24-year-old soldier who graduated in 2004 from North Carolina's Gramercy Christian School. Melcher opens the video in a pas de deux, of sorts, with fellow enlistee Justin Baker, who is not nearly as enthusiastic a dancer as the gyrating Melcher, who incorporated elements of the original video's choreography in his desert remake. On the following pages, you'll find video stills of Melcher's co-stars, along with photos of most of the soldiers in their normal work clothes. Melcher, pictured below, can be seen in the video wearing, a la Gaga, a revealing top fashioned out of yellow police tape. The 23-year-old Baker, wearing a belly-bearing shirt, is accessorized with a pink "Drama Queen" sash. Soldier Kenneth Eichler wears short shorts and a pair of oversized yellow shades. Other performers include a shirtless James Conley, telephone-wearing Private First Class Kory Roberts, sign carrier Mike Castor, and Joshua Pilon, whose costume could not be discerned. Contacted last night, Melcher declined to answer questions. The video, he noted, was intended to be for "a couple of our friends and family and you can see that it has blown up way more than that...nobody in the video would like any further media coverage." When he first uploaded "Telephone: The Afghanistan Re-make," Melcher told Facebook friends to "feel free to share it with the world." He added, "it's the hotness." Melcher and several of his fellow soldiers have carefully monitored the spiraling number of views their video has received. On Wednesday, Pilon posted a brief update on his Facebook wall: "5,000 views...I'm going to be Famous!!!" In a post on his Facebook page, Conley wrote of the video, "this is what people do with they free time in Afghanistan. Its crazy out here. And yeah im in it too."

Vote NO on HR 2499

There is a bill to make Puerto Rico a state. Again, they are trying to pull one over on us and on Puerto Ricans, who have consistently said they do not want to become a state. Read below for more information (from Eagle Forum). This was also discussed by Rep Tom Price on a conference call yesterday.

Please consider this:

* The U.S. would transform, overnight, into a bilingual nation. At least half of Puerto Ricans do not speak English, the language of our U.S. Constitution and founding documents. The Washington Times article, "Puerto Rican statehood," analyzes all the implications of adding a foreign language-speaking state to the Union.

* It would bring immediate demands for massive federal spending. The average income of Puerto Ricans is less than half that of our poorest state, and infrastructure and the environment are far below American standards. Puerto Rico has a population with a median national income of $17,741, nearly a third of that for the U.S.

* Puerto Rico is already a democracy. Despite the bill's deceptive title, Puerto Rico already has an elected government and exists as a self-governed commonwealth of the U.S.

* Statehood would give Puerto Rico more congressional representation than 25 of our 50 states! It would inevitably give Democrats two additional U.S. Senators and 6 to 8 additional Members of the House.

H.R. 2499 is stealth legislation designed to lead to the admission of Spanish-speaking Puerto Rico as the 51st state, thereby making us a de facto bilingual nation, like Canada. The U.S. Congress should not be forcing Puerto Ricans to vote on statehood, especially since the Puerto Rican people have rejected statehood three times since 1991!

No Member of Congress who describes himself as a limited government, fiscal conservative should be casting a YEA vote for H.R. 2499,as Puerto Rican statehood would cause an immediate increase in federal expenditures, particularly for taxpayer-funded welfare state services.

Read the whole thing:

http://biggovernment.com/taylorking/2010/04/28/puerto-rico-51st-state-congress-scrambling-to-make-it-so/

The Puerto Rican government is even playing hardball with it own people! Read this by Ann Shibler :

The United States House of Representatives is set to vote on H.R. 2499, the Puerto Rico Democracy Act, as early as this week. This bill would mandate a non-binding expression by the voters of Puerto Rico as to their wishes with regard to retaining their commonwealth status or becoming a state or becoming an independent nation, but in conjunction with other legislation already introduced inside Puerto Rico, the commonwealth status of the island could be eliminated as early as this year.

Three times in the past 43 years Puerto Ricans have voted against becoming the 51st state in the Union, the last time being 11 years ago. But this time the bill is rigged to eliminate the commonwealth option and grant either full statehood, or total independence. Sen. Jose Hernandez-Mayoral of the island's minority Popular Democratic Party said, "Behind this innocuous bill lies a fully thought out assault on Congress to designate the island the 51st state." "With the commonwealth option out of the ballot, statehood is finally, albeit crookedly, assured a victory."

The whole article is here: http://www.jbs.org/us-constitution-blog/6230-legislation-promotes-statehood-for-puerto-rico

HR2499 text:

Puerto Rico Democracy Act of 2009 (Reported in House):

http://frwebgate.access.gpo.gov/cgi-bin/getdoc.cgi?dbname=111_cong_bills&docid=f:h2499rh.txt.pdf

Sanctions on Arizona??? Not on Iran??? End of the World is near.

The daily assault by the mainstream media and Democratic politicians, co-conspirators, would be bizarrely humorous if we weren't being fed our breakfast by a deft propaganda tag team and if the stakes were less than our freedom, our livelihood, our Democracy.

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-0428-arizona-boycott-20100428,0,3848260.story

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/mario-solismarich/america-must-boycott-ariz_b_539160.html

http://www.nbcbayarea.com/news/politics/SF-Supe-Calls-for-Arizona-Boycott-92095669.html

http://laeastside.com/2010/04/boycott-arizona-now/

It's that sense of disbelief, much like we experience when we hear news of a tragic loss of life, of personal loss. You hope you are dreaming, but you aren't. I experience these moments of heart- sinking surreality almost daily now.

The Democrat leaders appear to be more in line with the Mullah's of Iran than the principles of Democracy, and of the spirit of America, in their insecurity and intolerance of ideas that are different from their own.
Buffoonery in the media and our liberal politicians baffles me every day…Wait! Every minute I should say. There are calls to Boycott Arizona. That is code word for Sanctions.

At no time in the post war history of the United States has our security been placed at more risk than it is today by Iran. And our diplomatic support for our ally, Israel, has been marginalized. We cannot even deliver on full out Sanctions, by the way, that is code for Boycotting, on Iran.

The all out assault on our country men/women in Arizona is almost too much to take. Boycott (sanctions) on Arizona? Who the hell do you think that will hurt? That’s right American’s. But you see everyone, it makes sense. The left in this county hates their own and will stop at nothing to tear it apart. In their mind, breaking eggs along the way is part of their goal. The left is more in line with the Mullahs in Iran, than they are with good Americans in Arizona exercising their States Rights.

Support Arizona!!!

Author
Christopher "Hollywood" Cochran

If you ever wondered what side of the fence you sit on, this is a great test!

If a conservative doesn't like guns, he doesn't buy one.  If a liberal doesn't like guns, he wants all guns outlawed.

If a conservative is a vegetarian, he doesn't eat meat.  If a liberal is a vegetarian, he wants all meat products banned for everyone.

If a conservative is homosexual, he quietly leads his life.  If a liberal is homosexual, he demands legislated respect.

If a conservative is down-and-out, he thinks about how to better his situation. A liberal wonders who is going to take care of him.

If a conservative doesn't like a talk show host, he switches channels. Liberals demand that those they don't like be shut down.

If a conservative is a non-believer, he doesn't go to church. A liberal non-believer wants any mention of God and religion silenced. (Unless it's a foreign religion, of course!)

If a conservative decides he needs health care, he goes about shopping for it, or may choose a job that provides it. A liberal demands that the rest of us pay for his.

We aint gonna take it ANYMORE!!!

Pittsburgh Tea Party Movement

Tea party group for the greater Pittsburgh area and organizers of the Pittsburgh Tax Day Tea Party in Market Square, Pittsburgh Independence Day Tea Party in Schenley Park and July 17th Protest in Mellon Square Park.

http://www.pittsburghteapartymovement.com/

April 15th D.C. Bus Trip

We have arranged for buses to Washington, D.C. on April 15th for the FreedomWorks' Tax Day Tea Party at 7:00 p.m. Details of that event are provided at the very end of this letter. Because we have lined up outstanding speakers for our local event in downtown Pittsburgh, we planned our buses so you could attend both events.

We will be returning to the Pittsburgh area around 2:30 a.m. and we figured most of you would not want to be walking around downtown at that time of night. Accordingly, we have arranged for you to park at Ross Town Center in front of Roomful Express, at Lowe's in Monroeville near Miracle Mile and at Butler Motor Transit's parking lot. We will also have a downtown departure for those who don't mind paying for parking and finding cars at 2:30 in the morning downtown.
Here is how the bus logistics will work. Passengers will be picked up from each of the following locations at the designated times and will be driven to Mellon Square for the Pittsburgh event.

Butler Motor Transit 9:30 a.m. (210 S. Monroe Street, Butler 16001)
Ross Towne Center 11:00 a.m. (7219 McKnight Road, Pittsburgh 15237)
Lowe's11:00 a.m. (4200 William Penn Hwy, Monroeville 15146)

You may leave your belongings for Washington, D.C. on the buses as it will be locked while you are at the Mellon Square event. When the Mellon Square event ends, you will have until 1:20 p.m. to board the same bus at the same place where you were dropped off downtown. Once fully loaded, the buses will leave for Washington, D.C. One of the buses will make an additional stop at Lowe's on the way to the turnpike to pick up those who cannot attend the downtown event but want to go to DC.
We are asking everyone to bring bag lunches and dinners to save time as we would like to arrive in Washington at 6:30 for the event which starts at 7:00 p.m. We will have one brief 15 minute restroom stop instead of our usual 30 minute breakfast break.
Reservations will be taken directly at our email address. Reserve a seat only if you are definitely planning on going. You will need to sign up for a departure location when making this reservation. I will send a confirmation to you within 24 hours of your reservation. Please provide your cell phone number. If you do not have a cell phone, please provide your home phone number. Our email address is PittsburghTeaParty@gmail.com.Please sign up as soon as you are certain you can commit to going and you are certain of your departure location as it will give us more time to secure additional buses if needed. The cost is $50 per person round trip, including tips to the drivers. Money will be collected on the bus. The deadline for signup is April14 at noon.
Confirmed speakers for the FreedomWorks Tax Day Tea Party event include: Andrew Breitbart; Lord Monckton; Rev. C.L. Bryant; Nic Lott; Deneen Borelli; Tucker Carlson; Brendan Steinhauser; Andrew Moylan; Neal Boortz; Congressmen Michele Bachmann, Ron Paul, Jim DeMint and Tim Price; and FreedomWorks' Dick Armey, Matt Kibbe and Tom Gaiten. Updates will be available at www.FreedomWorks.org . The event officially starts at 7:00 with warm-up speakers and musicians beginning earlier.
Attendees are welcome to bring small umbrellas, bottled water, bagged lunch (no glass containers), lawn chairs, cameras, blankets, small coolers and backpacks. (Everything may be subject to search.)
FreedomWorks is expecting buses from Wisconsin, Oklahoma, Florida, Georgia, and North Carolina, which to me means attendance is likely to be at least in the tens of thousands.

Obama: America a Superpower 'Whether We Like It or Not'

In a little-noticed remark at the close of the two-day nuclear security summit in Washington, D.C., this week, President Obama suggested the United States was somehow burdened by its military might.
Being a superpower ain't all that, at least according to President Obama.

In a little-noticed remark at the close of the two-day nuclear security summit in Washington, D.C., this week, President Obama suggested the United States is somehow burdened by its military might -- a comment that drew a stern rebuke from his former rival in the presidential campaign.

Obama was responding to a question Tuesday about how the summit would play into peace-making efforts in the Middle East when he addressed the downsides of -- by virtue of America's world stature -- being obligated to intervene in international conflicts. "It is a vital national security interest of the United States to reduce these conflicts because whether we like it or not, we remain a dominant military superpower, and when conflicts break out, one way or another we get pulled into them," Obama said. "And that ends up costing us significantly in terms of both blood and treasure." The remark got little attention in mainstream coverage of the summit, but was picked up on several conservative blogs, which panned the president for suggesting Americans had grown weary of superpower status.