Largest (since WWII) Texas National Guard group set to deploy

[rainbow4321]

http://www.mysanantonio.com/sharedcontent/APStories/stories/D87BJNROC.html


More than 25,000 friends and family members of Texas National Guard troops turned out Saturday for a sendoff ceremony for the 3,000 soldiers headed to Iraq this week — the largest Texas Guard deployment since World War II.


Several hundred members of the brigade, based in Fort Worth with soldiers from more than 20 cities, were scheduled to leave Saturday night and the rest within the week from Fort Hood in Killeen. They are to spend a year in Iraq.


Among the family members at Saturday's ceremony was Jamie Melendrez. She recently married Sgt. Augustine Melendrez of Amarillo, and the two are expecting a baby in April. "It makes me nervous," she said. "I don't like to watch the news now, so I don't know if I'll watch it when he's gone."

Augustine Melendrez, a corrections officer for Texas Department of Criminal Justice, was in the Army for 16 years and has been in the National Guard for five years. He said he's not looking forward to being overseas when his child is born. "It's going to be hard," he said.

[xultar]

1. Ooooo Those men and women should be PISSED!!!

I just find it so ironic that * used the TANG to go AWOL and now he needs the Nat'l Guard to provide troops for his quagmire in Iraq.

[Pirate Smile]

2. During their send off I guess this happened

according to Bouncy Ball.

"You HAVE to hear this comment by Gov. Rick Perry (TX-R)

Today we had the largest deployment of Texas National Guardsmen in 50 YEARS and when Gov. Rick Perry was addressing them, he said:

"You are heeding the call of your Heavenly Father."

Yep. Saw it for myself. GAG. "
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=132x1463649

[haele]

5. Sigh - why not just call it a crusade and be done with it.

The only difference is that the most of the troops in the armies sent by vassal fiefdoms to go at the call of the "king and holy father" are willing soldiers of the cause.
Most of them signed up to help their communities or to help the nation in a time of real crisis. Not to die in a made-up profit venture sold through the info-mercials known as "Main Stream Media".

Haele

[AwakeAtLast]

11. That would be why my husband enlisted.

He is now going to Iraq in two weeks. When he saw the coverage of the tsunami devastation he said, "My unit should be deployed there, not in the Middle East. That is where we are really needed." And God forbid we have any kind of major catastrophe or attack here in the U. S. A.! I guess we will just have to fend for ourselves!

[rainbow4321]

6. Cronyn and his comment about the children...

Me thinks it needs to be more like "the children present today will lose one of their parents so we can go over and kill more of the Iraqi children".


"When history is written, let it show that the Texas National Guard helped ensure that the children present today and the children of Iraq will have the opportunity to grow up as free men and women," said Cornyn, a Republican and member of the Senate Armed Services Committee

[AwakeAtLast]

8. Who? Bush or God?

Double Gag.

:puke:

[TexasChick]

14. Good grief!! WTF!!!!

You are heeding the call of your Heavenly Father."

Who are you talking about Perry, Chimp or God? You *ssholes make me sick!

[chelsea0011]

16. And he knows that it is the heavenly father and not satan because????????

These clowns think they are so in tune with god that they can't except the fact that satan may be at work here. I'm convinced that if there were a god and christ(I don't believe it) that they would come back and the first people striken from earth would be the right wing facists who have taken the word of god and turned into a hte group bent on death to all non-believers.

[TexasChick]

18. Thanks, Feeney2. I am Christian and this is what's upsetting me. Here,

we have a fake Christian who is running the free world. He twists God's words around to suit his needs, spews them out in soundbytes to the fundies. These people in the WH could care less about God or Christ. They use them as tools to gain the fundie vote. Now, the fundies just listen to soundbytes. They don't really divuldge the true word of God from the Bible. They'll listen to what anybody tells them, like Rudeass Limbaugh or Sean Insanity. It's that simple. These people really believe we should blow the smitherines out of people and force Christianity upon them. It is totally messed up!

Edited to tell you that I concur with your post.

[jamesinca]

35. If you buy into the Calvinist idea of Christianity it makes sense

There is an interesting report that I have seen in the last few weeks going around. It explains how they are being more and more Calvinist in their approach, once saved always saved no matter what you do. It explains how the teachings of Leo Strauss and Niccolo Machiavelli have influenced these people. Addresses the role of the PNAC and Pat Robertson's 700 Club in this so called "God endorsed" administration. It goes into a lot of detail about the punishment that God dispense in the form of poor being sinners and wealthy being blessed. This is the basis of their argument for getting rid of social security, Medicare and Medicaid.

It is quit a long read, but puts a lot into perspective. Mostly it is well worth the read.

http://www.yuricareport.com/Dominionism/TheDespoilingOfAmerica.htm

[TexasChick]

36. Thanks, jamesinca, for the link. When I get the stomach to do it, I will

definitely give it a read. Your analysis is so right on. I have heard somewhere too that Pat Robertson actually belongs to a club called, I think, the Bohemian Club. I think the Bushit family are Moonie followers. I don't know if they are tied into the Bohemian club though. Have you heard about that?

[jamesinca]

39. I don't know what fraternities or clubs they have joined.

I don't even know what those two clubs you mention represent. I guess I have a project for what is left of the weekend. Thanks for the ideas.

[rainbow4321]

41. Websites listing some of them...

http://www.bilderberg.org/bohos.htm


MONTE RIO -- The Bohemian Club's Annual Summer Encampment came to a close here Sunday, ending a two-week retreat for the rich and powerful that President Herbert Hoover once called "the greatest men's party on Earth." The club's famed annual gathering has been held for more than 100 years at the 2,700-acre Bohemian Grove in Monte Rio, about 70 miles north of San Francisco in Sonoma County. This year's event drew in notables such as former President George Bush, Texas Gov. George W. Bush, Henry Kissinger, retired Gen. Colin Powell, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich and Dow Chemical Chairman Frank Popoff, as well as actor Danny Glover.


http://www.thetunneller.co.uk/articles/bohemian_club.htm


The August 2, 1982 edition of Newsweek magazine reported: "... the world's most prestigious summer camp - the Bohemian Grove - is now in session 75 miles north of San Francisco. The fiercely guarded, 2,700 acre retreat is the country extension of San Francisco's all-male ultra-exclusive Bohemian Club to which every Republican President since Herbert Hoover has belonged.

With its high-powered clientele, coveted privacy and cabalistic rituals, the Bohemian Grove has prompted considerable suspicion. ... The most important events, however are the "lakeside talks" (past orators: Alexander Hague and Casper Weinberger). This year's speaker was Henry Kissinger on The Challenge of the '80s."

Mother Jones, August 1981 volume 6 page 28, reported a partial list of some of the prominent members: "George P. Shultz, Stephen Bechtel, Jr., Gerald R. Ford, Henry Kissinger, William F. Buckley, Jr., Fred L. Hartley, Merv Griffin, Thomas Haywood, Joseph Coors, Edward Teller, Ronald Reagan, A. W. Clausen, George Bush, William French Smith, John E. Swearingten, Casper W. Weinberger, Justin Dart, William E. Simon, and hundreds of other prominent politicos and businessmen. "Up to a few months ago, our knowledge of Bohemian Grove, the exclusive elitist hideaway by supposedly adult wheeler dealers, a.k.a. Washington statesman and prominent people (all male.)


We dismissed the behavior as immature, even pitiful by emotionally disturbed juveniles and not worth attention. This is where Kissinger, Ford, Nixon, Bechtel, Bush, Cheney, Hoover and their friends (2600 members) hang out and "relax." And if they want to behave as little boys that is their privilege, it is private property.

[TexasChick]

42. Thanks! n/t

[ilovenicepeople]

44. Heres another link for info on the Bohemian club Texaschick.

:hi: Alex Jones is a fellow Texan from Austin Tx. He has a daily radio show as well as this website. www.infowars.com

[TexasChick]

45. Thanks some more!

:hi:

[Pirate Smile]

17. Ha - this is the first time I have seen your "this is where I office"

quote. OMG, what a moron.

[TexasChick]

19. I got it from www.dubyaspeak.com. They have a lot more if you are

looking for some ridiculous Chimp talk!

[AFSCME girl]

37. Oh Good Grief! n/t

:eyes:

[Nikepallas]

3. Funny how it is the Texas National Guard... Is he trying to prove

a point or something?

[demosincebirth]

4. ..."and remember the Alamo!"

[gratuitous]

7. This is what Texas wanted, isn't it?

They voted for Stupidhead to keep killing people in Iraq. I'm sure they knew that that would include some of them and their own, right?

And this is the largest Texas Guard deployment since World War II? Where were these slack-ass fuckers during Vietnam and Desert Storm? Oh yeah, we can't be calling up the pampered offspring of the petroleum elite to fight for the country; that's for the po' folks from other states.

[tx_dem41]

9. Why would you think that today's Texas Guard..

are "slack-ass fuckers" and "pampered offspring"? And, how do you know how they voted??? Psychic?

[rainbow4321]

12. Hey, clueless wonder------

38% of us Texans knew better--do a little Googling before you start spewing your nonense around...specifically the TX SoS webpage stats that will show you REAL info about us Texans and not your "ALL Texans voted for chimp". Blue: El Paso County, Travis County, Tex- Mex border. Deep Purple: Dallas County. Almost Half Blue: Harris County.
Even the reddest of counties have us Dems who stick around just to torment the repukes.

[gratuitous]

30. If 38% didn't vote for Shrub

Then 62% did vote for him, or is my math off? What I'm saying is that this is what people (whether in Texas or elsewhere) wanted when they voted for Bush. Or didn't they know that this is what Bush was going to do? If you didn't vote for Bush, good on you, and I obviously wasn't talking about or to you, so I'm puzzled by your umbrage.

But for folks who did vote for Bush, and Texas was strongly in his column of states, I presume that every Texan who voted for Bush knew what he was all about, especially having an extra six years during his time as governor to inform their decision. I therefore do not hear their slack-jawed cries of "Whaaa??" now that their own are being shipped off to kill and die.

I'm also a little peeved that Texas has so far appeared to be largely spared much of a call-up. A disproportionate share of the call-ups and the casualties have so far come from my own state of Oregon and its neighbor Washington. Our state's citizens in the National Guard have been fighting, killing and dying for the past 22 months. I'm certainly not happy about the call-up of additional troops, but some of the burden might as well fall on the state that gave us our current chief executive.

[tx_dem41]

31. The umbrage was because it wasn't obvious you weren't talking

about the 38%.

[rainbow4321]

32. Texas is No. 2 in killed soldiers....

just behind California...we have already lost 100+ already.
And my response was because of the generalization you used in your initial post---

"They voted for Stupidhead to keep killing people in Iraq. I'm sure they knew that that would include some of them and their own, right"


You remark was directed at Texans, and I am a Texan...your generalized comment is like someone from another country going to you: "Youre an American so you support Bush and get what you deserve".

Again...a little online research goes a long way and keeps egg off your face:

http://news8austin.com/content/top_stories/default.asp?ArID=127661


At least 119 Texas service members have died in Iraq since the war began March 20, 2003, according to the U.S. Department of Defense. The list includes overseas casualties related to Operation Iraqi Freedom, both in combat and otherwise, as reported by the Department of Defense.


Listed by state:

http://web1.whs.osd.mil/mmid/casualty/STATE_OEF_OIF.pdf



edited for additional website link...

[TexasChick]

15. Not what I wanted, I voted for Kerry. n/t

[pokercat999]

26. Trouble is

you probably would have gotten the same thing with Kerry. I'm hopeing after the "election/selection" in Iraq that *ush will declare final victory and withdraw our troops. The stinking repugs would eat it up. Kerry could have never gotton away with anything like that. I'm probably wrong about chimp withdrawing but if Rove is as smart as reported on DU that will be the course of events. A "victory" would allow chimp to carry on his plans to contuine the total F-ing of the middle class.

[TexasChick]

29. If you're talking about getting the same thing with Kerry as far as Iraq

goes, I don't know.

At the time of the election, my main concern was getting a job again, or at least having the opportunity for one. I wanted a president who was going to discourage companies from taking our jobs overseas. I haven't had a job in two years and the prospects are nil. Plus, with Kerry in office, he would have not started another war unless it was absolutely necessary. Of course, this is only my opinion. Yes, he probably would have stayed in Iraq, but only long enough to train the Iraqis and secure the elections. Plus, I voted for a healthier environment and a lower deficit. These neocons scare the living crap out of me. Kerry made me feel better about our future and our democracy/freedoms.

Plus, the Chimp has always said "Stay the course". And, the way things are going now, the elections look like a long shot. If they manage to have them, it will most likely be a shoddy election as this one here. He will never withdraw our troops. Unfortunately, these neocons have a lot more in store for us. IMHO.

[pokercat999]

47. I was referring only to Iraq.

And after thinking about it for a while I'm sure Kerry would do things differently just not different enough for me. I still voted for him with no other reasonable choices.

[Not_Giving_Up]

43. I'm in Texas

and I voted for Kerry.

[Benhurst]

10. Bye! Bye!

[Historic NY]

13. Heard * got his notice to report to finish out his service.........you

know that backdoor draft.........:eyes:

[Florida_Geek]

20. Gee am I missing something

" 21,000 " in the TNG... Why not more of them than the 3,000-4,000

[llmart]

21. During VietNam......

there were a disproportionate number of blacks sent to the war zone. I may be wrong but it seems to me like there are now a disproportionate number of Hispanics being sent to do *'s bidding. I believe I read an article that said African Americans have wised up because of Viet Nam and aren't so quick to join the military.

[tabasco]

46. Not correct.

The composition of the infantry and other combat units was not disproportionate as to race in Vietnam. Of course, it was working class men fighting the war when rich kids got college deferments, but it is a myth that the combat arms were disproportionately black.

[Malva Zebrina]

22. I am getting to the point where I just shrug my shoulders

the people voted him in and this is the result. NOthing more to be done.

In fact, the majority of congress voted to let him do this.

Texas also voted to send their sons and daughter to Iraq to fight for their "freedoms"

I can only shrug my shoulders, although my gut instinct is to preserve the lives of any human being.

So be it.

May they enjoy their tour.

[tx_dem41]

23. Yes...since about 60% of Texans voted for him.....

...you just kind of shrug your shoulders at any Texan's fate. :eyes:

[Malva Zebrina]

24. Yes, because there is nothing I can do about it.

and neither can you. They are going. Period, and no amount of angst or complaint will stop it from happening.

None

I am simply exhausted by the frustration of it all and at this point need to regroup my own reactions and save my sanity.

[tx_dem41]

25. Okay....I can understand the frustration...

didn't mean to jump on you like that. I apologize.

[Malva Zebrina]

27. where I come from people say "never happened"

as a tactful way of accepting an apology and not making it a win situation, and I know that because I myself have had to apologize more than once to many people.

:hi:

[TexasLawyer]

28. So Tragic

It's especially sad to think of our soldiers going into harm's way when they're real people with real names, not abstractions. I will keep the Melendrez's in my thoughts and prayers. They ALL need to be back home where they belong-- not fighting *'s insane war.

Among the family members at Saturday's ceremony was Jamie Melendrez. She recently married Sgt. Augustine Melendrez of Amarillo, and the two are expecting a baby in April. "It makes me nervous," she said. "I don't like to watch the news now, so I don't know if I'll watch it when he's gone."

Augustine Melendrez, a corrections officer for Texas Department of Criminal Justice, was in the Army for 16 years and has been in the National Guard for five years. He said he's not looking forward to being overseas when his child is born.

"It's going to be hard," he said.

[LeinesRed]

33. Did anyone see the video coverage?

It breaks your heart. And...we aren't talking young fresh recruits. When the group was marching in the stadium, they looked like war vets from a decade or two or three back. I have absolutely nothing against older soldiers... and to not want to impugn ther service in ahy way...but it was a little unsettling to see that these older men have to go. (added on edit)...Heck, NO ONE should have to go!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[reprobate]

40. Our military leaders must just hate this 'army of the elders' idea.

They know that to have an aggressive force you must have mainly the young, with some older experienced as non-coms. It's the young that are invulnerable and eager. The older civilian-soldiers have families and responsibilities back home. They won't be the ones to charge the machine gun nest.

Not that the older troops aren't as brave or dedicated to their brothers, it's just that moment of hesitation at seeing their family in their minds eye that separates them.

Military leaders know this. Bet they are as pissed as anyone at Lil Boots.

[tiredofthisstuff]

34. This reminds me of a scene from a recent movie.

In the movie "Lord Of The Rings - The Two Towers" right before the battle of Helms Deep there was a scene where all of the children and elderly people where preparing for battle. It was a sad scene because you knew that most of them would die.

To me this is a stark comparison to what we are seeing today. Our own military put into the position of sending inexperienced or aging soldiers into combat while listening to religious fervor.

The big difference here is that the people in the movie where fighting for their lives. Not for the ambitions of a sick and twisted few.:cry:

[infusionman]

38. Like sheep to the slaughter

[Massachusetts]

48. Douglas Mueller 25 years old said

"he felt violated after the Sept11 terrorist attacks and wanted to help fight the war on terror."

Doug, good luck, but I just want to tell you a little secret, Iraq has NOTHING TO DO WITH THE WAR ON TERROR!:wtf:

Doug, stay home with your wife and 2 year old daughter, THEY MUST NEED YOU!:wtf: