Tonight we honor the memories of three Guardsmen and a Green Beret – all killed in action in Afghanistan last week. Making the ultimate sacrifice in service to their country was completely in character for these men who all had dedicated their lives to service at an early age.

Sgt. 1st Class Joseph A. McKay, 51, of Brooklyn, NY, was born on the 4th of July. He joined the New York Army National Guard more than 30 years ago, had also served in Iraq and had guarded Grand Central and Penn Station in the days following 9/11.

Sgt. 1st Class Matthew L. Hilton, 37, of Livonia, MI, had been a reservist for 18 years and served in Iraq prior to volunteering for his most recent mission to Afghanistan.

Spc. Mark C. Palmateer, 38, of Poughkeepsie, NY wanted to serve his country all his life and his daughter recalled he would do anything for anybody.

Staff Sgt. Travis K. Hunsberger of Goshen Indiana, may have only been 24, but had accomplished much in that time – excelling as a Green Beret on his second tour in Afghanistan.

Please join me beyond the fold to celebrate their lives and mourn their loss.

The second in a series of Iraq war studies has been released by the Army's Combined Arms Center.  The study concludes that "planning" for post-Saddam Iraq was ". . . not well thought out, planned for, and prepared for before it began."

"Additionally, the assumptions about the nature of post-Saddam Iraq on which the transition was planned proved to be largely incorrect."

Remember:  The Republicans are supposed to be the experts in national security and John McSame wants another 100 years of this nonsense.

The second levee breached in Des Moines Iowa, an evacuation of the city is now
under order. for the river districts

http://www.desmoinesregister.com/...

Plan A has Failed,  Plan B has Failed, They are now at Plan C.

This is no longer a prevention effort, it's now rescue and recovery.

keep watching the news.

(Hey I made the reccomended Diary list, It shows you folks care)

United Way of Central Iowa

At this time, we are asking that those interested in volunteering for the flood emergencies report IMMEDIATELY to the Volunteer Reception Center at United Way’s Human Services Campus, 1111 9th Street. The EOC has informed us that there is an immediate need for volunteers to begin sandbagging efforts due to the latest flood developments in our community.

We need Anderson Cooper to get out there.

I just saw a young man I worked with for five months today.
He joined the National Guard last summer. He told me today that he goes to basic training in twenty days.
This means that he could be in Iraq in a couple of months.
He's such a sweet kid. I am very upset, not just for him, but for all of our troops over there.

If it isn't one thing it is another for the people who agree to serve in our National Guard and reserve forces. If having to go to Iraq and Afghanistan wouldn't be a shock on their system enough, how about ignoring the requirements of their civilian occupations? That certainly won't help their return to civilian life.

My 9th grade daughter just got home from school and told me about the interesting presentation that was given at her high school today.  Recruiters from the National Guard made a presentation which all students were required to attend.  As I understand it, military recruiters often have a table in the cafeteria, so that students are free to come up and talk to them during their lunch hour.  This, however, was a different deal, and much more disturbing.

FROM MSNBC:

BAGHDAD - Four U.S. soldiers were killed by a roadside bomb in southern Baghdad late Sunday, raising the death toll for American forces since start of the war to 4,000, according to the Pentagon.

The grim milestone was reached less than a week after the fifth anniversary of the U.S. invasion to topple former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein and coincided with a spate of violence across Iraq on Sunday that left at least 61 people dead.

Top Army officials have told a Senate panel that the Army is under serious strain and must reduce the length of combat tours as soon as possible.

Gen. George Casey, the Army chief of Staff said, "The cumulative effects of the last six-plus years at war have left our Army out of balance."

Casey told the Senate Armed Services Committee Tuesday that cutting te soldiers spend in combat is an integral part of reducing the stress on the force. (Last year, Senate Republicans and President Bush sabotagedDemocratic attempts to ensure troops as much rest time at home as they spent on their most recent tour overseas.)

They've got our backs, but who has theirs?

Is VA burning? After the usual concern for People and animals, thoughts turn to drought, winds, cold, primaries and the ability of the National Guard to respond to such emergencies are in the comments.

Military readiness constantly is in the news. For a group who constantly proclaims that they Support the Troops and want to provide Homeland Security, a quick review shows so many shortfalls by Congress and the Executive.

Despite the 'closed door' policies of National Security, my first thought is that we are down to the Boy Scouts for such things as fires in VA and NC. But then I remember that Blackwater is available and well-equipped.

How scary? How sick? The world's only super power looking to MERCS. I really want to rant about this whole mess from Global Warming to MERCS, but I will stick to the state of the National Guard.

From the Amendment II Democrats blog on Myspace:

First, a little statement from the Brady Campaign website to set the tone:

In the 20th century, the Second Amendment has become an anachronism, largely because of drastic changes in the militia it was designed to protect. We no longer have the citizen militia like that of the 18th century.

Today's equivalent of a "well-regulated" militia - the National Guard - has more limited membership than its early counterpart and depends on government-supplied, not privately owned, firearms. Gun control laws have no effect on the arming of today's militia, since those laws invariably do not apply to arms used in the context of military service and law enforcement.

(From a Green Mtn Daily crosspost... sorry, I don't have all the links to these articles available yet)

(UPDATED - with link fixes, and a couple tweaks for specificity)

Gone virtually unnoticed by the media was a true rarity: a Bush power grab, pushed through by the previous Republican Congress actually rolled back.

And yes, it took dragging the appropriate Democratic leadership into action - in this case, the Chair of the Senate Armed Services Committee. Here's the GMD diary from back in early 2007:

Of the many disturbing things this President and his GOP Congress did, this was one of the more chilling. Passed and signed into law in a very hush-hush manner, the law opens up the door for Bush to use the National Guard and other military forces domestically for almost any purpose he might deem appropriate.

The "Insurrection Act Rider" was pushed by then-House Chairman Duncan Hunter, and the GOP leadership in the Senate picked it up. Leahy made a lot of noise about it at the time, but the Republican lockstep was in full play.

the dallas morning news reports

A congressionally mandated commission issued a blunt warning Thursday that U.S. military reserves are not ready ,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,because of badly insufficient equipment and training.

The National Guard and Reserves, already under significant stress from continuing combat operations in Iraq and Afghanistan, face "appalling" shortages of troops and equipment and are less combat-ready than they were last year, when the commission reported that 88 percent of Guard and Reserve units were not ready

now lets get into semantics lets look at the big picture

State legislators in Vermont introduced legislation Wednesday demanding the state's National Guard troops return from Iraq. Lawmakers in Minnesota, New Hampshire, and Pennsylvania are poised to push similar legislation.

At the heart of the matter is a contention that President George W. Bush's legal authority to deploy the National Guard to Iraq has expired.

You can listen to my interview with the bill’s author, Vermont State Representative Michael Fisher here.

Also this week, the Commission on the National Guard and Reserves released a new report showing  88 percent of the units were not prepared for the fight. The commission's 400-page report concludes that the nation "does not have sufficient trained, ready forces available" to respond to a chemical, biological or nuclear weapons incident, "an appalling gap that places the nation and its citizens at greater risk."

The war in Iraq and Afghanistan has already cost the United States upward of $700 billion – but we can’t afford the war in more ways than just monetary value.

A new congressional commission report was released yesterday that said there is an "appalling gap" in our readiness to defend ourselves against a catastrophic event within our borders. The Washington Post reports that:

"The situation is rooted in severe readiness problems in National Guard and reserve forces, which would otherwise be well-suited to respond to domestic crises but lack sufficient personnel and training, as well as $48 billion in equipment because of deployments to Iraq and Afghanistan, according to a report by the Commission on the National Guard and Reserves."

From my sister, in Tulsa, where hundreds of thousands are without power, in the cold, because of the ice storm:

Still without power, and the electric lines are bent way under three different tree branches in our back yard, and torn from our house.  We are told that we first have to arrange to have the trees removed, then find an electrician to reattach the power line and THEN wait for the PSO to connect the power... but all this is guesswork.  There is clearly no emergency info system up and running, so everyone is just working off of
rumor!

Apparently Bush has declared the area an official disaster site.  A friend's mother has been home dying of pancreatic cancer--without light but at least with a gas heater--stories like this make our travails seem very minor.

Two thousand six hundred Oklahoma National Guard are currently in New Mexico, where they've just completed training prior to being deployed in Iraq. They were scheduled to be bussed home for Christmas before being shipped off in early January. Anybody know if they've been shipped back to where they belong -- in OKLAHOMA helping a natural disaster?

The death of an Indiana National Guardsman who died while receiving treatment at Fort Knox was an anomaly that was quickly addressed. At least that's the case if you listen to the Secretary of the Army Pete Geren.

"Thankfully, so far it has proven to be an isolated incident," Geren told the Senate Armed Services Committee Thursday. "We took steps to address it."

Sgt. Gerald Cassidy, who suffered head injuries in a roadside bombing in Iraq, died Sept. 21 in an Army medical facility at Fort Knox, Ky. An autopsy performed for his family indicated he had been dead for hours before he was found by hospital staff and that he may have been unconscious for two days before that.

Remember the Read the Bills Act? That's the first time I ever paid much attention to a Daily Kos diary. I've always been activist, and always been a cynic, but this diary gave my Cynic Meter™ new life. As in "What? They have to pass a law to make Congress read the legislation they intend to vote on?" Who's gonna vote on it?

Well, fast-forward from 2005, and color me shocked--near as I can tell, this bill still hasn't seen the light of day much beyond a website and a Wiki entry. But, to my pleasant surprise, last night as I was reading, I ran across this diary, which clearly shows there is at least ONE Democratic candidate for President who doesn't need to be legislated into actually doing his job! Good to know--and one more reason to like Dennis Kucinich.

Then, during the ensuing discussion, this post popped up from citizen k, who highlighted something most startling.

WTF is this all about? Please help me work through this...

Or rather, he is a sunshine patriot, one who says he supports your participation in the Reserves or National Guard until you actually have to go do whatever it is you've been going to weekend drills to train for.  As the war in Iraq grinds on year after year, the percentage of returning troops experiencing discrimination is getting larger and larger.  And don't expect help from the Department of Labor, either.  The percentage of troops who say they got adequate help from the DoL on their discrimination complaints has soared to 44%.

http://talkingpointsmemo.com/...