jclalor

This guys hysterical, with Chuck Todd this morning. http://youtu.be/mYQCObMI9sI

Although the presence of the Gadsden Flag does puzzle me a bit. Seriously?

FOX,CNN & MSNBC have stopped being any type of news source years ago, now they are simply editorial broadcast and nothing more.

About 3 extra patients a day at a single hospital, That's the best you can do to show that the ERs are being overrun?

Seriously? You cite a post from an online forum as fact? Better dreadfully boring than ill informed. http://www.cnn.com/2013/09/16/us/20-deadliest-mass-shootings-in-u-s-history-fast-facts/

After my 5 static line jumps in 1982, I did one "buddy jump", in hindsight, I can't believe we only jumped from 7500 ft and still managed to get stable by 6000 ft. I've never heard of a "Buddy jump" since then.

5 post on Dz.com, his profile says that his reserve is only a 150. This sure has all the makings of a serious question.

It I'll never happen.

like this guy's idol curiosity? Touché

is it any less fair than holding people indefinitely in Guantanamo without trial? And who would we trade for here - does Mexico actually want back their people who commit crimes in the United States? As I said, the State Department exists for these concerns, and it would be informative to see how they responded to the family. You're more concerned about the welfare of known terrorists than you are a U.S, Marine being held in a Mexican jail? I haven't seen where their own country has done anything until now to get them freed. The State Dept. has basically turned their back on that Marine. I'm having a hard time with the logic here. One thing I haven't heard, was this guy's weapons loaded or unloaded when he was arrested in Mexico? If they were loaded, he would already be in violation of California law Chuck

How many IDF soldiers were captured after Gilad Shalit was exchanged in 2006 for 1027 Palestinian prisoners with Hamas? Isn't the Israeli policy of dealing with terrorist the gold standard that the GOP espouse? The double standard shown by those here on the left is glaring Even out of touch with many in the gov who support this President (but not on this) So You can go off on any tangent you wish but, fact is, this president, who even ignored his closest advisors regarding this action, has endangered many more. He has broken from the policy of not negotiating with terrorists http://www.newsmax.com/Newsfront/Obama-Bowe-Bergdahl-Taliban-prisoners/2014/06/05/id/575362/ I wonder How many detainees would your family members be worth? Or mine for that matter? Might just depend on which religion they support?

The upcoming boogie at Davis would be a great time to make your first night jump, you could watch on Friday and Jump on Saturday. Except that (unless they're changing things this year) night jumps are only done on Friday night during the boogie. Your absolutely right. But it would still be a great place to make your first night jump.

what I heard on CNN this morning is he had walked away from some training detachment but later returned this was in the U.S. From part of the Rollings stone article. Then, on June 25th, Bowe's battalion suffered its first casualty of the deployment. A popular officer, 1st Lt. Brian Bradshaw, was killed in a blast from a roadside bomb near the village of Yaya Kheyl, not far from the outpost. Though Bradshaw was in a different company, the 24-year-old's death rocked the unit, shattering the sense of invulnerability that accompanies those who have just arrived in country. Bowe's father believes that Bradshaw and Bowe had grown close at the National Training Center, and his death darkened his son's mood. It was all too much for Bowe. On June 27th, he sent what would be his final e-mai­ to his parents. It was a lengthy message documenting his complete disillusionment with the war effort. He opened it by addressing it simply to "mom, dad." "The future is too good to waste on lies," Bowe wrote. "And life is way too short to care for the damnation of others, as well as to spend it helping fools with their ideas that are wrong. I have seen their ideas and I am ashamed to even be american. The horror of the self-righteous arrogance that they thrive in. It is all revolting." The e-mail went on to list a series of complaints: Three good sergeants, Bowe said, had been forced to move to another company, and "one of the biggest shit bags is being put in charge of the team." His battalion commander was a "conceited old fool." The military system itself was broken: "In the US army you are cut down for being honest... but if you are a conceited brown nosing shit bag you will be allowed to do what ever you want, and you will be handed your higher rank... The system is wrong. I am ashamed to be an american. And the title of US soldier is just the lie of fools." The soldiers he actually admired were planning on leaving: "The US army is the biggest joke the world has to laugh at. It is the army of liars, backstabbers, fools, and bullies. The few good SGTs are getting out as soon as they can, and they are telling us privates to do the same." In the second-to-last paragraph of the e-mail, Bowe wrote about his broader disgust with America's approach to the war – an effort, on the ground, that seemed to represent the exact opposite of the kind of concerted campaign to win the "hearts and minds" of average Afghans envisioned by counterinsurgency strategists. "I am sorry for everything here," Bowe told his parents. "These people need help, yet what they get is the most conceited country in the world telling them that they are nothing and that they are stupid, that they have no idea how to live." He then referred to what his parents believe may have been a formative, possibly traumatic event: seeing an Afghan child run over by an MRAP. "We don't even care when we hear each other talk about running their children down in the dirt streets with our armored trucks... We make fun of them in front of their faces, and laugh at them for not understanding we are insulting them." Bowe concluded his e-mail with what, in another context, might read as a suicide note. "I am sorry for everything," he wrote. "The horror that is america is disgusting." Then he signed off with a final message to his mother and father. "There are a few more boxes coming to you guys," he said, referring to his uniform and books, which he had already packed up and shipped off. "Feel free to open them, and use them." On June 27th, at 10:43 p.m., Bob Bergdahl responded to his son's final message not long after he received it. His subject line was titled: OBEY YOUR CONSCIENCE! "Dear Bowe," he wrote. "In matters of life and death, and especially at war, it is never safe to ignore ones' conscience. Ethics demands obedience to our conscience. It is best to also have a systematic oral defense of what our conscience demands. Stand with like minded men when possible." He signed it simply "dad." Ordinary soldiers, especially raw recruits facing combat for the first time, respond to the horror of war in all sorts of ways. Some take their own lives: After years of seemingly endless war and repeat deployments, active­duty soldiers in the U.S. Army are currently committing suicide at a record rate, 25 percent higher than the civilian population. Other soldiers lash out with unauthorized acts of violence: the staff sergeant charged with murdering 17 Afghan civilians in their homes last March; the notorious "Kill Team" of U.S. soldiers who went on a shooting spree in 2010, murdering civilians for sport and taking parts of their corpses for trophies. Many come home permanently traumatized, unable to block out the nightmares. Bowe Bergdahl had a different response. He decided to walk away. In the early-morning hours of June 30th, according to soldiers in the unit, Bowe approached his team leader not long after he got off guard duty and asked his superior a simple question: If I were to leave the base, would it cause problems if I took my sensitive equipment? Yes, his team leader responded – if you took your rifle and night-vision goggles, that would cause problems. Bowe returned to his barracks, a roughly built bunker of plywood and sandbags. He gathered up water, a knife, his digital camera and his diary. Then he slipped off the outpost. Bowe might have spent his childhood hiking in the mountains of Idaho, but the terrain he now faced was nothing like back home. To get to Pakistan, he would first have to descend some 1,500 feet from the mountain outpost and skirt the village of Yaya Kheyl, a town known for harboring Taliban. At that hour, there would be few people on the main road through Paktiki, dubbed "Route Audi" by U.S. forces. But as dawn broke, a stream of motorbikes and pedestrians would start to pass by. Alone, white-skinned and likely wearing his Army uniform, Bowe would have stood out immediately. If Bowe made it through town, the next step would be even more daunting: He would have to slog eight miles through deep sand so fine that soldiers called it "moondust." If he was lucky, he might pick up a path used by Kuchi nomadic tribesmen to bring their sheep to market. Along the way, Bowe would pass grave sites: tall stacks of rocks marked by bright flags. Then he'd be forced to climb back up the switchbacks to Omna, where his platoon had been bogged down on its first major mission, traverse the Bermel Plateau, and once again scale mountain peaks to cross the border into Pakistan. At 9:00 that morning, the acting platoon leader, Sgt. 1st Class Larry Hein, called in over the radio to report a missing soldier. According to sources in the battalion, this was the last thing Hein needed, given all the scrutiny the unit had been under. The men needed a break. Instead, they had to find a member of their platoon. "That was a shitty week for all of them," says one soldier in the unit. By 11:37 a.m., a Predator drone was on station, monitoring the area with a call sign of VOODOO. At 2:10 p.m., a Pathfinder and a team of tracking dogs arrived at the small outpost. Five minutes later, another Predator drone began circling the area. At 2:42, Guardrail – an electronic intercept plane run by the same clandestine Army agency that killed Pablo Escobar – captured low-level voice intercepts picked up from radio or cellphone traffic. An American soldier with a camera was reportedly looking for someone who spoke English. The search quickly escalated. No one knew whether Bowe was a deserter,­ a prisoner or a casualty. At that point he was simply listed as DUSTWUN – short for "Duty Status: Whereabouts Unknown." But either way, the Army wanted him back, fast. At 4:42 that afternoon, Col. Michael Howard, the senior officer responsible for three eastern provinces in Afghanistan, ordered that "all operations will cease until the missing soldier is found. All assets will be focused on the DUSTWUN situation and sustainment operations." Within an hour, two F-18s were circling overhead. Afghan forces passed along intelligence that a U.S. soldier had been captured by the Taliban. By that evening, two F-15s – call sign DUDE-21 – had joined the search. A few minutes later, according­ to files obtained by WikiLeaks, a radio transmission intercepted by U.S. forces stated that the Taliban had captured­ three civilians and one U.S. soldier. The battalion leading the manhunt entered and searched three compounds in the area, but found nothing significant to report. The next morning, more than 24 hours after Bowe had vanished, U.S. intelligence intercepted a conversation between two Taliban fighters: "I SWEAR THAT I HAVE NOT HEARD ANYTHING YET. WHAT HAPPENED. IS THAT TRUE THAT THEY CAPTURED AN AMERICAN GUY?" "YES THEY DID. HE IS ALIVE. THERE IS NO WHERE HE CAN GO (LOL)" "IS HE STILL ALIVE?" "YES HE IS ALIVE. BUT I DONT HAVE THE WHOLE STORY. DONT KNOW IF THEY WERE FIGHTING. ALL I KNOW IF THEY WERE FIGHTING. ALL I KNOW THAT THEY CAPTURE HIM ALIVE AND THEY ARE WITH HIM RIGHT NOW." Then another intercept was picked up: "CUT THE HEAD OFF" Later that evening, a final intercept confirmed that Bowe had been captured by the Taliban, who were preparing an ambush for the search party. "WE ARE WAITING FOR THEM." "LOL THEY KNOW WHERE HE IS BUT THEY KEEP GOING TO WRONG AREA." "OK SET UP THE WORK FOR THEM." "YES WE HAVE A LOT OF IED ON THE ROAD." "GOD WILLING WE WILL DO IT." "WE WERE ATTACKING THE POST HE WAS SITTING TAKING EXPLETIVE HE HAD NO GUN WITH HIM. HE WAS TAKING EXPLETIVE, HE HAS NOT CLEANED HIS BUTT YET." "WHAT SHAME FOR THEM." "YES LOOK THEY HAVE ALL AMERICANS, ANA HELICOPTERS THE PLANES ARE LOOKING FOR HIM." "I THINK HE IS BIG SHOT THAT WHY THEY ARE LOOKING FOR HIM." A third voice chimed in: "CAN YOU GUYS MAKE A VIDEO OF HIM AND ANNOUNCE IT ALL OVER AFGHANISTAN THAT WE HAVE ONE OF THE AMERICANS." "WE ALREADY HAVE A VIDEO OF HIM." The next day, American forces had a chance to free Bowe. The battalion operations officer, call sign GERONIMO 3, met with two tribal elders from the nearby village. The elders had been asked by the Taliban to arrange a trade with U.S. forces. The insurgents wanted 15 of their jailed fighters released, along with an unidentified sum of money, in exchange for Bowe. The officer hedged, unwilling or unable to make such a bargain, and no deal was struck. Instead, the Army ordered all units stationed in the eastern half of Afghanistan – known as RC East, in military jargon – to join the search for Bowe. Read more: http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/americas-last-prisoner-of-war-20120607#ixzz33sbbKNVP Follow us: @rollingstone on Twitter | RollingStone on Facebook

The upcoming boogie at Davis would be a great time to make your first night jump, you could watch on Friday and Jump on Saturday.

There's just something about a girl in uniform.

I wonder if she had any tunnel time?

http://time.com/#2826534/bowe-bergdahl-taliban-captors/ How ugly do you suppose a topic or an act has to get that would get Senator Feinstein and Time to slam this president??? How many IDF soldiers were captured after Gilad Shalit was exchanged in 2006 for 1027 Palestinian prisoners with Hamas? Isn't the Israeli policy of dealing with terrorist the gold standard that the GOP espouse?

you think his daddy will trim the beard for the trial? Nope... He's absolutely clueless.

Just out of idol curiosity; Why is Bergdahl being kept incommunicado? I find it bizarre that his parents have not yet been allowed to speak with him.

Terrorism and politics are a bit hard to define in that part of the world. The US did not capture any of the five Taliban that we released, they were either captured by the Northern alliance or by Pakistan. I don't think any were tied to 911, if they were, there's no way we would have not heard anything about it. They were bad people, responsible perhaps for the deaths of thousands of Afghanis prior to 911, living under Taliban rule. I think that if they ever do anything remotely threatening to us, they'll get a Hellfire missile on the top of their head. You can argue about the merits of the trade all day long. Arguing about the wisdom of a President taking a victory lap at the Wh with this guys parents is a whole other question. There would have been plenty of time for a WH reception after a military investigation into the circumstances of his capture. It will be interesting to see what his poll numbers are with active duty and veterans after this. http://www.stripes.com/news/us/files-describe-the-5-taliban-commanders-traded-for-bergdahl-1.286768

That was "Enhanced interrogation" not torture.

Why not just make the trade and keep it at that? Obama could have simply said that the family wants privacy at this time and when he's in better condition there will be a statement. Having Susan Rice saying he served with "Honor and distinction" is one of the biggest face palms of the year. Parading the family around the WH was the worst PR mistake of his presidency. Having the pops speaking Pashtun with his ZZ Top beard in the Rose Garden looked like hell, that's guaranteed to be in some 2016 campaign commercials. The question is how will the GOP handle a real opportunity too seriously hurt this presidency.

Yup. My dad died back in '97, a month short of his 90th birthday. He was in the Navy in the Big One. My mother, who will be 92 one month from today, was a welder in the shipyards. Time passes, JerryBaumchen Every time I'm still fortunate enough to meet a veteran of WW2, I'm more and more in awe.

You are 100% correct on our countries policy to leave no soldier behind. The President could have toned it down a bit in the press, Knowing that there were legitimate questions concerning his capture. This will not help the Democratic party in the least.

Very good Rolling Stones article from 2 years ago. http://m.rollingstone.com/politics/news/americas-last-prisoner-of-war-20120607