I apologize for every shitty thing I have ever done, said or thought ever. Even things I have been accused of that aren’t even remotely true and especially for the things I don’t even remember.
Especially to _____, who contacted me today after 15 years to bring up crap from over 20 years ago.
But please remember, I wasn’t a right wing radical racist intolerant KKK member way back then. I was a far left wing radical liberal. And you were high back then too.
You’re right, I was a big giant selfish fucking asshole. I’ve since become conservative.

PS:
There’s a delicious irony to calling someone a racist for saying “bad” things about Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton.
PSS:
I didn’t force you to ride any buses in Boston in 1975. As a matter of fact, we offered to give you a ride home one night in the 80s but you wouldn’t let us because you said it would be dangerous for US.

“I wasn’t trying to break the fence, I was just near people who were and I was supporting them.”

Earlier today I was contacted by a producer for ABC news after he was alerted to our post here on Sgt. Rudzinski. Apparently anchor Chris Cuomo reported from Afghanistan and had spent some time with Chris just a week or so ago ....and they were interested in doing a piece on him tomorrow on Good Morning America.
As of course I wasn’t at liberty to authorize any use of of the photograph etc and so forwarded it on to Mike.

Mike just e-mailed me and the piece is a go. So if any of you all are available to watch Good Morning America.......he said it should air a little after 7 am.

Here is the Good Morning America segment on Mike’s son, Sgt. Christopher Rudzinski: Rules of Engagement in Afghanistan

Our thanks to Chris Cuomo and the GMA producers for both their thoughtful tribute and respectful consideration towards Christopher’s family.

Senators diverted $2.6 billion in funds in a defense spending bill to pet projects largely at the expense of accounts that pay for fuel, ammunition and training for U.S. troops, including those fighting wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, according to an analysis.

Among the 778 such projects, known as earmarks, packed into the bill: $25 million for a new World War II museum at the University of New Orleans and $20 million to launch an educational institute named after the late Sen. Edward M. Kennedy, Massachusetts Democrat.

via Rodge

We will control the horizontal. We will control the vertical.

President Obama’s presidential campaign focused on “making” the news media cover certain issues while rarely communicating anything to the press unless it was “controlled,” White House Communications Director Anita Dunn disclosed to the Dominican government at a videotaped conference.

“Very rarely did we communicate through the press anything that we didn’t absolutely control,” said Dunn.

And, as the author of the story is quick to remind us:

Dunn has been facing some criticism since she led a White House campaign last week against Fox News, slamming the top-rated network as an “arm of the Republican Party” and “opinion journalism masquerading as news.”

Definitely puts those comments in a slightly different light.  One that suggests less about Fox’s partisanship than her resentment over an outlet that refuses to be controlled.

“America is not Europe and hasn’t been since 1776.
That’s the whole friggin’ point of America.” — DougM

An interesting paradox. Last year America elected a president who, in attitudes and policies, is closer to the elites of Western Europe than any of his predecessors. Yet in the nine months that he has been in office ordinary Americans have been moving away from those attitudes and policies and have increasingly embraced positions that over the years have made Americans distinctive from those in other advanced Western democracies. ...

via Powerline

A worker for the unsuccessful primary mayoral campaign of Atlantic City Councilman Marty Small pleaded guilty Tuesday to engaging in fraud involving messenger absentee ballots during the June Democratic primary.

Ronald Harris, 23, of Atlantic City, pleaded guilty to a charge of third-degree conspiracy to commit absentee ballot fraud before state Superior Court Judge Robert Neustadter in Mays Landing, according to state Criminal Justice Director Deborah L. Gramiccioni.

The indictment alleges that Small and the other defendants conspired to commit election fraud through the following schemes, among others:

* They allegedly solicited applications for messenger absentee ballots from individuals not qualified to receive them and had the voters not fill in the name of the messenger, so they could fraudulently designate themselves as the authorized messengers or bearers.
* They allegedly obtained messenger ballots from the county clerk and submitted them to the board of elections as vote s on behalf of voters who, in fact, never received or voted the ballots or, in some cases, were given only the security envelope for the ballot and were told to sign it. Those voters were not given the opportunity to vote in most instances.
* They allegedly picked up sealed absentee ballots from voters, unsealed them and, if they were votes for mayoral candidates other than Small, destroyed them, thereby disenfranchising those voters. If they were votes for Small, they allegedly resealed them and submitted them as votes.
* They allegedly illegally instructed voters to fill in messenger ballots as votes for Small.
* They allegedly submitted voter registration applications and messenger ballot applications on behalf of individuals who were not residents of Atlantic City, falsely representing they were.
* They allegedly forged the signatures of voters on messenger ballots.
* They allegedly fraudulently delivered messenger ballot applications and messenger ballots to voters simultaneously and instructed the voters to fill out both during the same visit.

A suicide bomber killed seven commanders of Iran’s elite Revolutionary Guards and up to 42 other people on Sunday in an attack that President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad charged had been plotted from neighbouring Pakistan.

The Foreign Ministry called in Pakistan’s charge d’affaires over the bombing, which targeted one of the Islamic republic’s most prestigious institutions.

Several tribal leaders in the majority ethnic Baloch Sistan-Balochistan province also died in the bombing, which left several others wounded.

The attacker set off his explosives belt as a meeting of Guards commanders and tribal chiefs got underway at around 8am at a gymnasium in the city of Pasheen, near the border with Pakistan, said the state broadcaster.

“The number of martyrs ... could still rise,” reported the Mehr news agency. Provincial chief coroner Abbas Amian told the official IRNA news agency that his office had received 42 bodies.

The chief prosecutor in Sistan-Baluchestan, Mohammad Marziah, said that Abdolmalek Rigi, the head of the shadowy rebel group Jundallah, had “accepted the responsibility” for the attack.

Among the dead were the deputy commander of the Guards’ ground forces, the Guards’ commander in Sistan-Balochistan, the Guards’ commander for the town of Iranshahr and the commander of the Amir Al-Momenin unit. Three other commanders from the adjacent province of Kerman were also killed.

Parliament speaker Ali Larijani said the United States was implicated.

I hope you don’t mind me writing you and updating you on Chris’ return home. I’m not sure I can cry any more tears and remain strong for my family too without talking with somebody. My head is in a spin and my heart aches as we start the process of bringing Chris home. Today Natalie, Caroline, Ryan and I were flown to Dover Air Force Base to witness the dignified transfer ceremony. It is the ceremony where our men and women in uniform take heroes and render honors as they return to American soil. I’ve had to do some difficult tasks in my life and Army career, but I have to say that standing there in the rain and cold and watching our military men and women take loving care of my son, like they have with the thousands who have preceded him was about too much to bear. It was too much for Caroline, she collapsed at seeing her beloved husband and Ryan’s daddy, in a flag draped transfer case, being unloaded from the plane and put into the van which has taken Chris to the mortuary unit to prepare him for his trip home.

I was moved by the reverence and care the honor guard, the general officer, the chaplains the mortuary staff, the security detail and even the military families on Dover Air Force Base gave to Chris and my family on the way to and from the flightline and during the transfer. I can’t imagine where these people find the strength to do this over and over again. They too, are truly heroes-military and civilian alike.

But I thought you should also know about the other heroes we ran into today, because they made my heart swell with love and pride, even as it was breaking. It started with the United check-in clerk who moved or bumped somebody out of premium seating to ensure that Natalie and I could sit together on the flight to Philadelphia. It continued with the flight attendant who leaned over and whispered some tender words to my wife as she sat crying on the plane, holding the picture or her “baby and his baby” (Chris and Ryan) that I shared with you.

Then came the cascade of wonderful gestures, messages and visitors who were ensuring that my kids, family and friends who could not go with us, were being comforted and feeling the love and reverence for Chris that we received today. Finally I have to say two final events happened which made my soul soar and my tears start anew.

First, Caroline told me, that a gentleman on her flight overhead her talking with her military escort about Chris’ death and he politely asked Caroline to speak with him at the arrival gate when she got off the plane. When she got off the plane, the gentleman was standing there and he said he owned a business and he always supported the troops and he wanted to help her out. He placed several folded bills in her hand and said “buy something nice for your baby.” Then he walked away without introducing himself. Caroline put the bills in her pocket and went to baggage claim. Later today, Caroline was telling us about this kind gesture and she pulled out the folded bills. She said, “I think he gave me twenty dollars.” She was wrong. He had given her five hundred dollars. Natalie and I started crying for a stranger who’s only wish was to do something nice, without recognition or reward. When I decided to share this story with you, that ‘s when the second event occurred. I read all of the comments under Chris’ picture and the outpouring of care, concern and reverence that the readers of KisP offered to us. I couldn’t stop crying. We are overwhelmed that so many people took the time to offer a part of their heart in an effort to save ours. You all are heroes to me and my family. And I guess this brings me to my main point. What a wonderful country this is, surrounded by people who offer their treasure, their service, acts of simple kindness and even their hearts to help a stranger in need. I am confident we will prevail against the evil that is plaguing humanity. Thank you for putting Chris’ sacrifice into perspective for me. I think I might even get through these dark times.

May the Almighty God bless and keep you and reward you in this life and the next.

Mike

Rev. Al Sharpton is reportedly preparing to file a lawsuit against conservative radio host Rush Limbaugh, who Sharpton charged on Saturday had inaccurately portrayed his role in a famous 1991 New York riot.

The latest spat between the two public figures concerns an op-ed Limbaugh published in the Wall Street Journal on Saturday morning. In it, the radio host fires back at critics who said Limbaugh was too divisive to become owner of the St. Louis Rams’ football franchise—an argument advanced most vocally by Sharpton, who even wrote a letter to the league commissioner last week asking him to reject Limbaugh’s bid.

Limbaugh’s op-ed on Saturday attempts to answer almost all of those original arguments, but he also takes a shot at Sharpton’s remarks specifically. He writes:

“It didn’t take long before my name was selectively leaked to the media as part of the Checketts investment group [which was bidding for the team]. Shortly thereafter, the media elicited comments from the likes of Al Sharpton. In 1998 Mr. Sharpton was found guilty of defamation and ordered to pay $65,000 for falsely accusing a New York prosecutor of rape in the 1987 Tawana Brawley case. He also played a leading role in the 1991 Crown Heights riot (he called neighborhood Jews “diamond merchants") and 1995 Freddie’s Fashion Mart riot.”

Sharpton, however, said in a statement obtained by CNN that Limbaugh’s recollection of the facts was “blatantly wrong.” From the statement:

“Mr. Limbaugh’s blatant and defamatory statements regarding the Crown Heights Riots falsely give the impression that Rev. Sharpton was present during the violence…