Rants from an Arkansas Housewife

Renee E. Taylor

August 27, 2006

I have been a few things to get off my chest regarding our recent travels out west and current news events.

To Schoolbus Nagin in New Orleans – your comments in New York only proved you are a moron. My suggestion is that you get back to your “chocolate city” and count your school buses before the next hurricane hits. Fox News already dispatched Shephard Smith to wait for it.

To the illegal immigrants – go home. If you really want to come here, come legally. Learn English. I am tired of going into businesses in Dallas, Denver and California only to be met by employees unable to speak the language of this country. It’s English. If Mexico is so great, stay there. I’ve been there and don’t wish my country turning into Amexico.

To those talking heads who are twisting words to make their agenda more pleasing to the average Oprah watcher – Illegal is illegal. If someone swims across the border, they are not a “guest worker”. They are a wet criminal. Oh, yeah, don’t forget the terrorists who are learning how to speak Spanish and hiring coyotes to bring them across the border with the criminals who don’t want to go swimming in the Rio Grande.

I will not go into my experience with Ebonics in South Carolina. Just that I not be fluent in any language but English. You remember that obscure language where the pronouns and verb tense mattered?

To Greta Van Susteren and the rest of the news media – John Mark Carr is a pervert, a pedophile and a criminal. We do not care if he ate lobster and drank champagne on his trip from Thailand. Don’t make a celebrity out of this demented creep. Put him in a cell with Bubba who hasn’t had a congical visit in twenty years. Chances are, Carr only confessed to the Ramsey killing to avoid what he had coming for his crimes in Thailand.

To those who haven’t realized it – John Kerry is a liar. Howard Dean is a fruitcake (my apologies to the fruitcake). This is a war. The president of Iran doesn’t want to play nice. Hezbollah isn’t honoring any cease fire. They are only regrouping and rearming for future attacks on Israel. And Bin Laden declared war on the US in the 1990s. Al Qaeda still wants to blow up airplanes and kill people. However, I’ll briefly concede to the appeasers who still think diplomacy works with these monsters. We’ll send Cindy Sheehan, John Kerry and Martin Sheen to visit with Hamas, Hezbollah, al Qaeda and the Al Aqsa Martyr Brigade armed with a few cases of “A Purpose Driven Life” by Rick Warren, a few guitars and the sheet music to Kumbiya. If they are not feeling all warm and fuzzy and in a group hug in a week, then we level the region and build the world’s largest Wal Mart.

And, finally, the guys caught with 1,000 cell phones? I am only an Arkansas housewife with a degree in legal administration, but I’m not stupid. They were caught taking the batteries out of the phones and throwing away the chargers and packaging. Their defense was they were going to resell them. A cell phone without the packaging, battery and charger is only good to someone who is building an IED.

That being said, I think I will go back to watching Stargate SG-1 on DVD. At least Col. O’Neil and the SG-1 team speak English.

UPDATE

The “All John Mark Carr Channel” has just changed its format to the “All Hurricane Ernesto Channel”. In the meantime, I will be getting Seasons Two through Four of “McGyver” to watch until Hurricane Season is over……

Winning the Hearts and Minds

Mark R. Taylor

August 28, 2006

While in Iraq as a convoy commander, I led mail missions out of the Joint Military Mail Terminal, Baghdad International Airport. The civilian drivers, known as “The Iron Pony Express”, along with our military escorts, the 1544^th Transportation Company, Illinois National Guard and the 497^th Transportation Company, US Army; the 256^th Personnel Service Battalion, New York National Guard; the civilian mail handlers and other members of the military and KBR employees witnessed history as Paul L. Bremmer turned over the facility to the Iraqis – their first post office since the fall of Saddam. Our military mail facility had been moved to an airport hanger and it was exhilarating to watch the handover of our former facility to the Iraqi people.

Many members of the new Iraqi media were there covering the event, along with other Middle Eastern media. They covered extensively this positive step as Iraq moved forward. Where was the American media?

I have watched with great interest how our American media and Hollywood are handling the War on Terror. In an effort to be “unbiased”, the media has sided with the terrorists. Hollywood’s efforts have been lukewarm at best. Yes, Steve Bocchco of “Hill Street Blues” fame, put out a thirteen episode series called “Over There”. It made for good television, but the attempt to show the good and bad led to creative liberties that made the series a parody of the truth.

I ask myself – where is the Bush administration? With the left wing media controlling the news out of Iraq, Afghanistan and other fronts in the War on Terror, the attempts to reach the mainstream of America by our Defense Department has been dismal.

Unless you watch the 24 hour news channels, you would never know we are in a world war against Islamic fascists. Since returning from Iraq, I have been disgusted and dismayed by what I have seen. John Kerry, John Murtha and Nancy Pelosi continually lie about the war. Their disrespect for our courageous troops is rarely challenged by anyone outside conservative radio. School teachers indoctrinate children in government funded schools with their anti-American agenda and Communist diatribe. College campuses are staffed by 60s hippies wanting to revive their hopes of destroying America by poisoning the minds of their students with their dreams of a Marxist utopia. Professors such as William Woodward of the University of New Hampshire are teaching the lies that the United States orchestrated the attacks of September 11. The attempts by politicians seeking votes, special interest groups and judges seeking their fifteen minutes of fame hamper the ability to track down the enemy.

I have pondered lately on the efforts by director/producer, Frank Capra, in World War II. Funded by the Department of War, Capra produced a series of films titled “Why We Fight”. Originally made for the military, the newsreels were shown at movie theaters before feature films to educate the public on why we were at war and who our enemies were. President Roosevelt held his famous “Fireside Chats”, which were covered on every radio station in America. He spoke to the population in a direct, no-nonsense style.

President Bush, Secretary Rumsfeld and the Department of Defense have to go on the offensive in the propaganda war. They must to find a modern day Frank Capra to produce films to be distributed to the masses. If necessary, buy air time on radio and TV stations to make sure the President’s weekly radio addresses are heard nationwide. Buy space in newspapers and magazines across the country outlining our mission in the War on Terror. Bring the message to the masses that we are in a World War. Islamic fascists are demanding our conversion to Islam or the penalty is death. This was proven recently as captive Fox News reporter, Steve Centanni, and his cameramen, Olaf Wiig were forced to convert to Islam at gunpoint or die. The enemy has killed thousands since bin Laden declared war on the United States in the 1990s.

This administration must take the message to the people, not rely on the people to come to them. They must go to the housewives watching Oprah and the young men watching Spike TV. Right down to children watching Saturday morning cartoons, they have to get truth out. No political correctness, no watering down the threat Islamic fascism poses to us.

We cannot win the hearts and minds in the Middle East if we cannot win the hearts and minds of the American people.

Mark R. Taylor served in Iraq from January 2004 to May 2005 as a civilian convoy commander. He has appeared on “The Captain’s America” and other radio programs and lives in South Arkansas with his wife and young son.