Operation Troop Aid Honors Gary Sinise With ‘Patriot Award’

Award winning actor joins Garth Brooks, Toby Keith and others as honorary board member for supporting U.S. soldiers

The following is from Operation Troop Aid (OTA):

Operation Troop Aid (OTA), a nonprofit organization which supports deployed U.S. soldiers, recently honored Emmy and Golden Globe Award winning actor Gary Sinise with the 2009 Operation Troop Aid “Patriot Award.”

Presented annually by OTA to celebrities that champion the men and women serving in the American Armed Forces, the CSI: NY actor was awarded the Eagle Trophy for visiting troops overseas and at local hospitals, securing funds for various military charities and for raising awareness for deployed military through being executive producer of Brothers at War, a documentary film about military families during the Iraq war. Well known for his role as Lieutenant Dan Taylor in the acclaimed film, Forrest Gump, Sinise further travels and performs for troops as a member of his own Lt. Dan Band.

“I am honored to receive this great award,” says Sinise. “I am just doing what I love to do – supporting our brave men and women who give their lives for our freedom.”

In addition to receiving the Eagle Trophy and a bottle of Red, White and Blueberry Valenzano Patriotic Wine, Sinise joins past Patriot Award recipients and OTA supporters Garth Brooks, Toby Keith, Darryl Worley, Aaron Tippin, Stephen Cochran and Adam Gregory as an Honorary OTA Board Member. $2500 worth of OTA care packages were also sent to deployed US Troops in Sinise’s name.

OTA founder and executive director Mark Woods says, “There are a number of gracious celebrities that are doing so much to support deployed U.S. Troops and Gary continues to go above and beyond the call of patriotic dedication. For that, OTA and all the men and women serving our country are grateful.”
Sinise currently stars in CBS’s CSI: NY as Detective Mac Taylor. He recently narrated a biography for Navy SEAL and Medal of Honor recipient Petty Officer 2nd Class Michael A. Monsoor at the Republican National Convention in support of John McCain’s candidacy for President of the United States of America. In December 2008 he was awarded the Presidential Citizen Medal, the second highest civilian medal awarded to U.S. civilians, for his humanitarian contributions to Iraqi school children and his involvement supporting U.S. Soldiers.

Founded in 2005 by 21-year military veteran, Mark Woods, Operation Troop Aid provides care packages for deployed U.S. Service Members with revenue generated through professional concert promotions and public financial generosity. OTA is a nonprofit corporation striving to make a positive difference and inspire the Armed Forces by letting them know Americans stand with them. For more information on OTA, visit www.OperationTroopAid.org or call 901-355-8844.

 

Post-Trauma Resources (PTSD, C-PTSD, PTSS)

In the process of providing resources for online activists over the last couple of years, we have discovered many things about online activists. One discovery we’ve made is that folks who are dealing with post-trauma issues (either from incidences occurring during military service or from personal trauma, or from a combination) often find that they are able to be productive and excel in the online environment, and often enjoy online activism as a way to retain their privacy while also sharing the wisdom and knowledge gained from their life experiences.

So, we are beginning a list of free online resources here, specifically for victims and their loved ones who are seeking information for coping with and recovery from PTSD, C-PTSD, PTSS, and other post-trauma issues (either professionally or self-diagnosed). This is meant to be just the beginning of a developing resource, so if you have additional links that you would like to share, either add them to the comment section so we can add them to the post, or send them to me, confidentially, at jennsierra@gmail.com.

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GENERAL INFORMATION ABOUT POST-TRAUMA AND OVERCOMING POST-TRAUMA

• Bill O’Hanlon, GetOverTrauma.com (First four links on the right – including videos)
• Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, PTSD Fact Sheet (Good list of resources compiled by the MFSO Spouse Chapter)
• NIMH Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) (General Information on diagnosis and treatment
• Facts about PTSD
• Mayo Clinic: PTSD (Definition, Symptoms, Causes, Risk Factors, Complications, Treatment, Prevention, etc.)

RESOURCES FOR AMERICAN MILITARY (ACTIVE AND VETERANS)

• Wounded Warrior Resource Center (Very good list of resources for wounded combat veterans)
• Posttraumatic Stress Disorder Overview – Military.com Benefits
• Veterans Administration: Resources for Military Personnel, Veterans, and their Families (Comprehensive List of VSO’s and other information and resources)
• VetTrauma.org (Readjustment Support for Military and Civilian Combat Zone Veterans)
• Scientific American: Soldiers’ Stress: What Doctors Get Wrong about PTSD

BIBLICAL/CHRISTIAN RESOURCES FOR OVERCOMING PERSONAL OR WAR-RELATED TRAUMA

• A Biblical Approach to Overcoming PTSD, by William R. Kimball (5 free seminars available for download)
• Trauma in the Bible (A collection of Bible verses online readers have tagged as relating or being useful to cope with “trauma”)
• Hidden Hurt: The Bible on Abuse and Violence
• MilitaryMinistry.com (A list of Faith-Based websites dealing with military-related trauma)

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McCain Still Fighting for Vets – to Become Teachers

Michael Riley of the Denver Post is following a story on two U.S. Senators who would like to pass legislation that would pave the way for more military personnel to put their skills to use in the Nation’s classrooms:

Sens. John McCain and Michael Bennet want to put more battlefield veterans in classrooms as teachers, teaming up as a seasoned senator with military expertise and a freshman lawmaker who was superintendent of Denver Public Schools.

But in co-sponsoring a bipartisan bill known as Troops to Teachers, McCain, R-Ariz., is also handing Bennet, D-Colo., a potential campaign plum, an unusual move given McCain’s role recruiting GOP front- runner Jane Norton to race against the vulnerable Democratic appointee.

[...]

Although it provides financial assistance for veterans to train as teachers, the existing program has tougher qualification requirements and limits the number of schools that can participate.

The senators’ bill would increase the authorized funding from $30 million a year to $50 million. Another 1,150 schools would be eligible to participate just in Colorado, many of them in poor and underserved areas. It also would reduce from six to four the number of years of noncombat active duty someone must serve to be eligible…Continue reading McCain, Bennet on front line to turn vets into teachers >>

 

Also on Don’t Quit U, and The Yorktown Patriot

#NobeLOL

What else is there to say?! This is from College Politico (h/t Michelle Malkin – DNC humor czar condemns Nobel Prize jokes). Also, be sure to follow the #nobelol feed on Twitter.

 

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Also see: Peace Prize for Beer Summit

 

Newsbusted’s Jodi Miller: “Whoopi…idiot? Or IDIOT-idiot?

We knew Newsbusted’s Jodi Miller would have something to say this week about the POTUS FAIL in Copenhagen, David Letterman, and Roman Polanski, and she didn’t let us down:

 

Also see: Progressivism in a nutshell: Whoopi explains statutory rape of a drugged 13-yr old isn’t the same as RAPE-rape. (What?!)

 

We didn’t start the fire, but when we are gone, will it still burn on, and on, and on, and on…?

Awesome Michael Ramirez Cartoon…Courtesy of IBDEditorials.com/Cartoons.
(Hat-Tip GOPUSA.com/Cartoons)

 

Even the Vegetables Get it.

This little bit of satire comes from Arlen at IO.

 

‘That’s A Racist’ Parody of ‘That’s Amore’ (Video and Lyrics)

Got this, today from Rippin’ Richie, at PopAndLock.com, who talks about accusations by some in Washington D.C., and some in the media that those who oppose President Obama are “racist”:

These accusations are too ridiculous to be taken seriously, so It’s hard for me to be offended.

 

Lyrics, to That’s A Racist

 

When some congressman guy says the chosen one lies
That’s a racist

When some tax payer minds that we’re robbing him blind
That’s a racist

Though they screamed all of the same things, all of the same things
at that white Clinton fella

We will play race cards everyday, race cards everyday
cause we got nothing betta

When a man won’t be fooled by our dump trucks of bull
That’s a racist

When he takes to the street to protest the deceit
That’s just hate

Wanting government lean not utopian dreaming
and statist

Scuzza me, but you see, to us in the left wing
That’s a racist

 

At least 20,000 Oops…Somewhere between 60K and 2M attend #TeaParty in D.C.

Update 09/13/09: In the worst headcount in history of one of the greatest events in American history, we are not in a battle of numbers over the official head count. The Cypress Times explains, and Michelle Malkin as more.

FoxNews covered it live, HERE.

 

Mainstream Media Fails Again

By and reprinted with the permission of Nancy Matthis at American Daughter

The mainstream media made no mention of the controversy surrounding Van Jones until AFTER he resigned. The usual suspects, who have shaped the news for years, — CBS, NBC, the Washington Post, and the New York Times — carried no news at all until the Jones affair was over.

Then they reported, briefly (trying to minimize the damage to Obama), that Jones had resigned as the result of a vicious right-wing smear campaign. That is a very biased way to characterize an exposé consisting entirely of video clips of the man’s own speeches. How do you smear someone by quoting his very words?

The bloggers, the radio and cable television talk shows, and the social networks were the only sources of information. Yet it was sufficient to inform the public, who raised an outcry that brought results.

It would seem that the mainstream media is no longer necessary. More than that, it is pretty obvious that they are not doing their jobs. So we will not feel sorry for them when they whine about declining subscription numbers.

At the Washington Examiner, Byron York asks — Why did the press ignore the Van Jones scandal?:

Certainly there’s bias involved. Given what we know from the formal and informal polling of journalists at mainstream organizations, most of the people involved in political reporting are liberals, and likely Democrats. They want the Obama administration to succeed….

There was a day, not too long ago, when … influential news organizations could kill a story … simply by ignoring it. Sometimes they still try. But it just won’t work anymore.

The erstwhile media moguls are not taking their downfall gracefully. At Townhall, David Limbaugh notes The Mainstream Media’s Temper Tantrum:

With the resignation of green czar Van Jones despite their efforts to protect him, the mainstream media have finally been reduced to sputtering incoherence, as they’ve observed the un-deification of their anointed messiah and experienced firsthand their own diminishing relevance.

The MSM are engaging in a colossal temper tantrum over their lost news monopoly — a monopoly they forfeited through their bias, arrogance and self-imposed insulation….

This is an especially hard pill for them to swallow considering that during the past year, they’ve been stewing in the intoxicating delusion that they were again supreme, as they appeared to be getting away with their conspiratorial enthroning of King Barack Obama. And they’re not handling rejection well.

If you have time, read the rest of Limbaugh’s piece. He details the arrogant and self-serving remarks made by the media dinosaurs in the aftermath — a sorry lot they are and it is so heartwarming to see them squirm. It puts one in mind of that famous remark:

“You couldn’t have a starker contrast between the multiple layers of checks and balances [in the mainstream media] and a guy sitting in his living room in his pajamas writing.”

It is a stark contrast indeed. Just not the way that he meant it.

 

Jon Voight: They’re taking away God’s First Gift to Man – Our Free Will

Jon Voight and Mike Huckabee talk about Obamacare on the Huckabee Show.

 

No, humans didn’t invent us…

Oh, my, no…humans didn’t invent us at all…We evolved from plastic, wires, and little microthingers.

 

For more, visit ReverendFun.com

 

Is the Oministry Seeking to Nationalize Private Cybersecurity?

We received the following from CEI today:

According to a breaking news report by CNET’s Declan McCullagh, a draft bill in the U.S. Senate would grant President Obama “cybersecurity emergency powers” to disconnect and even seize control of private sector computers on the Internet.  Back in May, when Obama proposed a “cybersecurity czar with a broad mandate” and the administration issued a report outlining potential vulnerabilities in the government’s information security policies, CEI Director of Technology Studies Wayne Crews cautioned about “the constant temptation by politicians in both parties to expand government authority over ‘critical’ private networks.”

“From American telecommunications to the power grid, virtually anything networked to some other computer is potentially fair game to Obama to exercise ‘emergency powers,’” Crews said today.  “Policy makers should be suspicious of proposals to collectivize and centralize cybersecurity risk management, especially in frontier industries like information technology.  When government asserts authority over security technologies, it hinders the evolution of more robust information security practices and creates barriers to non-political solutions—both mundane and catastrophic.  The result is that we become less secure, not more secure.”

Instead, Crews had urged the Obama Administration to focus on “securing government networks and keeping government agencies on the cutting edge of communications technology.”  As today’s news illustrates, the dangers created by such a “broad mandate” may come to pass.

Also see:

• Obama’s Cyber Czar Should Obey “Cybersecurity Commandment
• OpenMarket.org for ongoing commentary on tech issues
• Cybersecurity Finger-pointing: Regulation vs. Markets for Software Liability, Information Security, and Insurance
• Cybersecurity and Authentication: The Marketplace Role in Rethinking Anonymity – Before Regulators Intervene
• Giving Chase in Cyberspace Does Vigilantism Against Hackers and File-sharers Make Sense?

 

Hot Air’s Allahpundit: Insert “What if Bush did it?” hypothetical here.

 

Walk The Streets In Anger

Updated.

We got this today from Anne Harpen, of the Anntones:

I am Anne Harpen. I am a songwriter/performer from Cincinnati. My brother Tony and I have a group called the Anntones. We play music around Cincinnati.

This song came to me while I was sleeping because my country is so important to me and so many of us are so upset about everything that seems beyond our control. I found myself back in March and April of this year walking the streets of Cincinnati in anger with 5000 other people who shared my same intensity. Now I have seen more and more people ready to stand up and take our country back!

 

Gov’t Transparency Tool, ‘Money Near Votes,’ Zooms in on Banking Industry Contribs given w/in 2 wks of Credit Card Bill Vote

The following is from Pamela Heisey, of MAPLight.org:

MAPLight.org, a nonpartisan, nonprofit research organization that shows the connection between money and politics, released ‘Money Near Votes,’ a new government transparency tool. This public, web-accessible data mashup combines information on campaign finance and congressional votes. Journalists, citizen activists and bloggers can easily track campaign contributions from special-interest groups given within a month, a week, or a day of each vote in Congress.

This new level of transparency hones in on the role special interests play in shaping public policy. “Never before have these ‘well-timed’ campaign donations been highlighted in such an exhaustive, easy-to-locate format,” said Daniel Newman, MAPLight.org’s executive director.

MAPLight.org’s Money Near Votes tool uses campaign contribution data from the Center for Responsive Politics.

For example, if you use the Money Near Votes tool to follow the money for the House vote on H.R. 627, the Credit Cardholders’ Bill of Rights Act of 2009, you’ll see that the banking industry contributed $271,029 in campaign contributions to House legislators within two weeks of the House’s vote on this bill.

The Money Near Votes tool shows each legislator along with their campaign contributions and votes. For example, Rep. Addison Wilson (R-SC) voted ‘No’ on the Credit Card bill on April 30, 2009. He received $2,000 from the American Bankers Association on April 27, three days earlier, and $5,000 from the Credit Union National Association on April 29, the day before the vote. Both groups opposed the Credit Card bill.

Credit Cardholders’ Bill of Rights Act of 2009: Money Received Within Two Weeks Before or After the Vote

Click to enlarge, and see full list.

Contributions shown include contributions from companies, industry political action committees, and company employees.

“Companies would not invest in politicians’ election campaigns if it didn’t buy them influence or access,” said Newman.

Consumer-First Energy Act

In another example, last year the Senate failed to pass an energy bill that would have revoked $17 billion in tax breaks to oil producers and placed a 25 percent windfall profits tax on companies that did not invest in new energy sources. MAPLight.org’s Money Near Votes tool shows that Mary Landrieu (D-LA) voted ‘No’ on passage of the bill on June 10, 2008. She received $5,000 from Chesapeake Energy three days later, on June 13. Chesapeake Energy was among the firms potentially subject to the proposed windfall profits tax.

According to the Center for Responsive Politics, Senator Landrieu has received $711,644 from oil and gas interests since 1989.

“Never before has it been so easy to connect the dots between campaign contributions and legislators’ votes,” said Newman. What used to take days of manual research is now available at the click of a mouse.”

MAPLight.org’s research department reveals how contributions correlate with legislation so that citizens have key information needed to draw their own conclusions about how campaign contributions affect policy. Campaign contributions are only one factor affecting legislator behavior. The correlations we highlight between industry and union giving and legislative outcomes do not show that one caused the other, and we do not make this claim. We do make the claim, however, that campaign contributions bias our legislative system. Simply put, candidates who take positions contrary to industry interests are unlikely to receive industry funds and thus have fewer resources for their election campaigns than those whose votes favor industry interests.

MAPLight.org invites you to connect with us on Twitter and Facebook to stay up-to-date on the money and politics issues that affect you. You can also bookmark or subscribe to our blog’s RSS feed

About MAPLight.org:

MAPLight.org is a nonpartisan, nonprofit, 501(c)(3) organization based in Berkeley, California. Our mission is to illuminate the connection between Money and Politics (MAP) using our groundbreaking database of campaign contributions and legislative votes. MAPLight.org combines data from the Federal Election Commission, the Center for Responsive Politics, GovTrack.us, the National Institute on Money in State Politics (NIMSP), the Los Angeles City Ethics Commission and other sources to better inform Americans and local and national media about the role of special-interest money in our political system. Hundreds of newspapers, TV stations, radio shows and online news sites have cited MAPLight.org’s research, including CNN, the public radio show Marketplace, Harper’s magazine, The Washington Post, R