Professor Chaos' Blog

I recently got an email from a friend telling me that the CO of USMC Regimental Combat Team (RCT) 6 in Iraq, is asking for positive emails to his Marines.  It included an email address to send your message to.  It sounds like a great idea, but I just wanted to make sure it was legit and I wasn't going to end up on a email list for a bunch of porn sites or something.  So after a quick search, I found the following at freerepublic.com:

From Matt at Blackfive:

With combat operations in Iraq as kinetic as they've ever been, the Marines could use your support. No links, just please use the info below at your discretion. At Blackfive, we have been trying to improve our relationship with the Public Affairs Officers in Iraq and Afghanistan. Not surprisingly, the Marines have begun a really intense exchange of ideas with us. One Marine Combat Commander embraced our offer of support. One of the requests that they had of us was to attempt to get 6,000 positive and supportive emails - one for each Marine, Sailor and Soldier in the Marine Regimental Combat Team - 6. Grim, our resident thinker and former Marine at Blackfive, has taken responsibility for this project.

From Grim's interview with Marine Colonel Simcock, Commander of RCT-6: http://www.blackfive.net/main/2007/06/roundtable_with.h
tml

COL. SIMCOCK: (Chuckles.) I'll tell you what, the one thing that all Marines want to know about — and that includes me and everyone within Regimental Combat Team 6 — we want to know that the American public are behind us. We believe that the actions that we're taking over here are very, very important to America. We're fighting a group of people that, if they could, would take away the freedoms that America enjoys.

If anyone — you know, just sit down, jot us — throw us an e- mail, write us a letter, let us know that the American public are behind us. Because we watch the news just like everyone else. It's broadcast over here in our chow halls and the weight rooms, and we watch that stuff, and we're a little bit concerned sometimes that America really doesn't know what's going on over here, and we get sometimes concerns that the American public isn't behind us and doesn't see the importance of what's going on. So that's something I think that all Marines, soldiers and sailors would like to hear from back home, that in fact, yes, they think what we're doing over here is important and they are in fact behind us .

The Marines have set up a special email address to send a supportive message to the Marines is: RCT-6lettersfromh@gcemnf-wiraq.usmc.mil . The emails are being scanned by the PAO before being printed and distributed to individual Marines.

And, guess what?, the RCT-6 has a blog at http://fightin6thmarines.vox.com/

AFTER A FEW DAYS, WE HAVE ONLY GOTTEN THE MARINES ABOUT 2,000 EMAILS. WE COULD USE SOME HELP IN GETTING THE WORD OUT.

What do you say folks?  Even those of you who are against the war always say you still support the troops.  So take a quick moment and shoot an email to our marines.

Semper Fi!

As much as the press continues to beat us over the head with the President's approval ratings, the latest Zogby poll has Congress at only a 17% approval rating.  At least Bush had about 1/3 giving him a positive response.  Isn't this the Congess that was a referendum on the Bush administration?  If the Democrats have all this power, why aren't they doing anything with it?  And before anyone asks where I got these numbers, here's the link:

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20070718/us_nm/usa_polit
ics_poll_dc_2

No, not Ted Perry.  I'm talking about Ted Kennedy.  It was 38 years ago today (July 18) that Ted Kennedy and Mary Jo Kopechne drove off a bridge on Chappaquiddick Island in Martha's Vineyard.  The car sank into the pond landing upside down.  Ted managed to escape the car.  He then claims to have tried to swim down and help Mary Jo a number of times.  When that didn't work, he sat on the bank for a while trying to think of what to do next.  He walked back to the party (where there was a phone) and brought a couple people back to try and help.  When that didn't work, he decided to return to his hotel.  But it was so late that the ferry had shut down for the night.  So Ted swam across the 500 foot channel.  It wasn't until the next morning that the car and Mary Jo's body were recovered and Ted finally spoke with police.  No autopsy was performed and it was ruled and accidental drowning.

It's one step forward and two steps back.  German scientists have announced that worm composting could be doing more harm than good in the battle to save the environment.  When worms are used for composting they produce nitrous oxide gases.  These gases can be "290 times more potent than carbon dioxide and 20 times more potent than methane."  Something to think about before you dump tonight's table scraps into the compost barrel.

When I heard about this tragedy, one of the first things I thought of was "why wasn't anyone able to stop this guy before he killed so many people?"  My next thought was that Virginia must not have a concealed carry law.  Not true.  Like 39 other states, Virginia allows citizens with training and legal permits to carry a concealed weapon.  However, that is not the case on the Virginia Tech campus.  Administrators decided to override that law and threatened to fire or expel anyone on campus with a concealed weapon.  Virginia residents tried to lobby legislators to change the policy to exempt those over 21 who have taken a training course and passed a background check, but university administrators pushed against the effort and eventually won.

So where did that leave us?  It left us in a situation where a lunatic was able to march across a college campus and murder, one by one, 32 innocent people.  How do you think that number would have been different if one of those 32, or someone else, would have been able to carry a weapon to defend themself?.  Day after day, the goverment encourages citizens to work the front line to fight crime.  From Amber alerts to neighborhood watch groups, regular people are helping stop crime or preventing situations from getting worse.  Seung-Hui Cho certainly wasn't discouraged by the campus policy.  It's unfortunate that it was there at all.

First of all, some of you may be asking "Who the heck is Fred Thompson?"  Trust me, I'm sure you know who he is.  Currently he plays DA Branch on "Law & Order."  You may also know him from "The Hunt For Red October" or "Die Hard 2."  Still not ringing a bell?  Here's a picture.

You may also know that Mr Thompson served as Senator from Tennessee from 1994 to 2003.  But this wasn't his first venture into politics.  He actually has a historic legal career.  He served as assistant US attorney from '69-'72 and was the campaign manager for Tenn. Senator Howard Baker's reelection in '72.  Their relationship lead him to serve as co-chief counsel during Watergate and he was responsible for Baker asking "What did the President know and when did he know it?"  A question that some believe lead to the downfall of Nixon.  More directly, Thompson was the one who asked, "Mr Butterfield, are you aware of the installation of any listening devices in the Oval Office of the President?"

His Senate career began when he ran for the spot left vacant when Al gore resigned.  He won the '94 election with the most votes ever received for a statewide office in Tenn. up to that point.  In the 2000 presidential primaries he also worked as national co-chair for John McCain.

Now there are rumors that he may be considering his own Presidential bid.  A USA Today/Gallup poll from over the weekend places him as the #3 GOP behind Giuliani and Romney, with most of his support appearing to have come from people who previously supported Romney.  And a recent Rasmussen poll, placing him against Hillary Clinton, has him at 44% to Cliton's 43%.

What do you think?  Could Thompson make a strong bid for President?  Would he be able to follow somewhat in the pattern of Reagan?  And what kind of impact would this have on the Republican primaries?