Hugh Hewitt has published a statement by Congressman John Boehner regarding the Jack Abramoff corruption scandal. Boehner is in a bit of a pickle since has received $32,500 in contributions from Abramoff, and clearly needs to come out against the pork-lobbyist axis of waste and sleaze. I don’t know much about Boehner, in fact, I know next to nothing about him, but I think the following paragraph from the statement is worth highlighting:

We should think seriously about bringing greater transparency to the lobbying industry. Anyone - anyone - can call himself or herself a lobbyist, recruit clients, and make appearances on their behalf on the Hill. Clearer standards and greater transparency would promote greater institutional integrity and protect us against those in the industry who put their own short-term interests against the public trust.

To me, that sounds like a big, fat “poor ol’ me, all innocent and helpless.” Transparency is good, but what I really want to know is why, why, Republican Congressmen sold themselves to this Abramoff character? I also want to know whether they were “transparent” about doing so with regards to their constituents?

I’ve unfortunately been unable to post over the past month because of other things that are going on in my life. However, I willl soon resume regular posting here at RightWeAre.com.

Until then,

MERRY CHRISTMAS AND A HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Deuce Four, the unit covered so well by Michael Yon in Mosul has had its Redeployment Ball, in reality its breakup and farewell ceremony. Yon files an excellent report from the proceedings. (HT: Hugh Hewitt).

Kevin Sites tells the story of Captain Scott Walton of the 6th Civil Affairs Group from the 2nd Marine Division. Walton is a reservist who oversees investment projects in battle-scarred Fallujah. Sites follows Scott through the city, from one place in need of infrastructure investment to another.

[Walton] says the Marine Corps understands how important the civil affairs component is to eventually ending the conflict in Iraq, and when he submits a project for funding, they rarely say no.

“I get just about everything I ask for,” Walton says. “But, yes, I’d like to have a whole battalion of civil affairs Marines out there backing me up. I wish there were more of us so we could be the main face of the Marine Corps that people see here.”

What I found most moving was this (emphasis mine):

“We want to build Iraq’s capacity to take care of its own problems,” Walton says. “It’s like the mother who holds the bottle for the baby. How long are we going to hold onto the bottle?”

Watching him work his way through town, he seems to be energized by the process, rather than burdened by it. That optimism may be the fresh outlook of a Marine in-country for only two months so far, or from one who truly believes he can help in Fallujah’s rebuilding.

Regardless, he says he has had to pay a personal price for his decision to come back to Iraq. He has three children and recently got a letter from his eldest, a 13-year-old daughter, who told him he “needed to concentrate more on being a father than going off to all these wars.”

“I told her I understood, but I couldn’t promise anything. I have a job I have to do” — a job where he is reminded daily what is at stake.

Former Marine tells wild tales about atrocities commited by U.S. Forces in Iraq. Former Marine becomes media hero. Eventually a journalist actually bothers to check the stories. Oops. Michelle Malkin has the dirt.

The 173rd Airborne Brigade is using classi flytrapping techniques to engage and defeat Taliban units. Small numbers of American’s - sometimes with Afghan national Army troops tagging along -move into Taliban-held territory in an attempt to lure Taliban fighters out in the open. When the tactic works, the result is deadly - especially for the Taliban. The Christian Science Monitor’s fourth installment in a series of article about our war against the Taliban describes two of the battles, both of which cost the Taliban dearly:

…reinforcements from the 1st and 3rd platoons have arrived. All escape routes are blocked. The Taliban are trapped.

“The fire was extremely close,” says O’Neal, who was with a second team providing covering fire lower down the hill. “But toward the end it got dark, so we just ran to the bottom.”

As night falls, American AC-130 Specter gunships arrive to engage Taliban fighters who have also decided to make a run for it. By the end of the day, 76 Taliban bodies are counted, and another nine Taliban fighters are captured.

To this day, the men of the 2nd Platoon, Chosen Company, can’t figure out what the Taliban were thinking. Were they suicidal? Why did they gather so many Taliban in one place? Did they really think they had enough men to defeat the Americans?

President George W. Bush has nominated Judge Sam Alito for Supreme Court Justice. Drop everything and join the fight. Confirming Judge Alito is an important step towards making the Supreme Court an intrepreter of laws, not a legislative assembly whose edicts can’t be vetoed.

Michelle Malkin has an important post related to Cpl. Jeffrey B. Starr, who was recently profiled in New York Times as one of the more than 2,000 U.S. soldiers who have died in iraq. Cpl. Starr had left behind a note explainign his motivation for signing up for a third tour od duty in Iraq. While the Times noted that he “believed strongly in the war, his father said,” the newspaper did not publish the powerful words of the soldier himself that were contained in his final dispatch:

I don’t regret going, everybody dies but few get to do it for something as important as freedom. It may seem confusing why we are in Iraq, it’s not to me. I’m here helping these people, so that they can live the way we live. Not have to worry about tyrants or vicious dictators. To do what they want with their lives. To me that is why I died. Others have died for my freedom, now this is my mark.

There’s more to read at Michelle Malkin’s blog. Do it.

At least not in the Supreme Court, and Harriet Miers finally realized it. Well, perhaps she did all along but didn’t want to tell George W. Bush no when he wanted to nominate her.

It would be nice to say that we can all just move forward now, but I doubt it will work out that way. There will most likely be repercussions somewhere, and perhaps in multiple places. Fingers will be pointed among Whote House staffers, and judging from the rumors that have been twirling around, most of them will point at White House Chief of Staff Andrew Card. President Bush, who clearly is not a man who takes kindly to losing, may well dish out retribution to those who opposed the nomination. from the outside, the nomination of Miers looks like a mistake, but the President obviously didn’t feel that way when he nominated her. I have the feeling he’s seething with anger right now, and looking for payback.

I imagine the Republican coalition will join forces to fight for the next nominee, whomever he or she turns out to be, but after that, I see ugly things for conservatives.

Longtime critic of unchecked illegal immigration, Texan Allan Wall who’s currently serving in Iraq, has a piece published on National Review Online today where he proposes that the National Guard should be deployed to protect America’s border to Mexico. This idea has been pushed for years by Fox News Channel host Bill O’Reilly, and I must admit I used to think it close to crazy, but, heck, why not do it?

Writes Wall:

Some say it’s impossible to secure our borders. I don’t believe it. Here in Iraq I’ve seen what a determined national policy can accomplish in a short time. Back home, borders could be secured, if the political will existed. The technical means exist already. We have the resources. We have the personnel. Some have suggested we use the National Guard to secure the borders.

I think it’s a great idea. An excellent idea. An idea whose time has come. Many of the tasks necessary to secure the U.S. border are the same tasks we are already performing here in Iraq. They could be carried out just as easily (and less expensively) on our own borders. Here in Iraq, National Guardsmen are patrolling 24/7, logging thousands of miles in armored humvees. Why can’t they do the same on our own borders ?

In Iraq, Guardsmen secure defensive perimeters, they man guard towers, they operate UAVs (unmanned aerial vehicles). They do surveillance in the dark with night-vision equipment. Why can’t they do the same on the borders of their own country?

Currently, Guard units are being called up on 18-month deployments to Iraq and other places. Why can’t they be deployed the same length of time to guard the border? When a Guard unit is not deployed, guardsmen train a total of about 40 days a year, one weekend a month and a two-week “annual training” period. Why not rotate National Guard units in and out of border duty for their yearly “training” period?

Yes, why not? Regardless of the level of immigration America should have, the immigration it does have should be legal.