Bringing the Rodgers Home, Day 1

Ward of Beaucham Tower Corporation, John of Argghhh, and the gang have landed safely in Mexico, some of their luggage, not so much. Why should you care about this? They're live blogging the return of the USS John Rodgers.

John is providing the play by play at his site.

Today's riddle

See that bandwagon? I'm fixin' to jump right on it...

Besides a great climate, great health care, tons of cheap (read illegal) labor and a great educational system what does North Carolina have that Canada doesn't?

This

Note: I've never claimed to be a gracious winner.

Tryin' to reason with Hurricane Season

As Tropical Depression Alberto, the first named storm of the Atlantic Hurricane season, makes it's way across my fair state today the squalls associated with it serve as a grim reminder of storms past and offer a scary outlook into what mother nature may have in store for us this year. It's June 14th, only fourteen days into the season and King George has already fired up his evil weather machine in hopes of white-washing the Southeast. Never before has any administration taken stance on ethnic cleansing and yet the Chimperor hasn't been impeached, yet being the operative word, there's still hope.

When, when I ask will the Rethuglican party wake up and realize that the Glaciers are melting and King George is creating hurricanes to kill the poor defenseless folks who've sought refuge in multi-million dollar homes along the eastern seaboard and the Atlantic Coast's waterways. Why Mr. President are you so hell bent on whipping out your evil devices to torment us? Why must you send the wind and rain and lightening, we know all to well that you're in control and have been pleading endlessly for your mercy over the past several years.

When will the NeoCons of Amerikkka wake up and realize that the coastal inhabitants of Corolla, Duck, Nags Head and countless other seaside resort towns are just trying to get by.

Many of these residents are forced to spend their summers in homes with sometimes only five bedrooms, three bathrooms and only two large screen plasma tee vee's. Many of the cable companies, obviously under Bushitler's control, have abandoned these areas and the residents are forced to subscribe to DirectTV or Dish Network. These poor people are dependant upon locals and college students to provide support services for them, bringing them meals in upscale restaurants, to deliver their organic fruits and vegetables, to clean their homes and yet they are being overlooked on a daily basis. They're crying out for help, but they're being overlooked.

How long can Amerikkka continue this trend of ignoring a subset of our population that so obviously in need? How long will we sit idly by waiting and watching as our fellow statesmen battle with the plague of Global Warming that Chimperor Bush and KKKarl Rove have brought upon us?

One down....

several more to go.

Earlier this week Ward Brewer of Beauchamp Tower Corporation and The Mexican Navy signed the official Document of Transfer Agreement for the transfer of the USS John Rodgers(aka E-01 CUITLAHUAC).

As Ward stated "It should be noted that this is the first time in history that the Mexican Government has donated a ship to a United States organization for a museum and the Mexican Navy takes this donation very seriously--as do we."

And so Ward's transcendence to the top of the Gun Blogging world begins. Sure there are folks with "Commie Cannons" and other large guns, but does anybody have a destoyer? I think not.

---

With USS John Rodgers is secure, it's time to hammer MARAD for trying to scrap the USS Howard Gilmore before it can be utilized to aid in hurricane relief. YOU can stop them with a call to your Senators and Congress people.

USS Orion (AS-18) left. USS Howard W. Gilmore (AS-16) in dazzle paint on Navy Day Celebration, Hudson River, October 27, 1945.

Our first post about Operation Enduring Service was almost a month ago and the calls you've made have helped. Things are progressing. However someone is standing in the way:

...yesterday I received an overnight letter informing me that we had until January 6, 2006 to tow the USS Howard W. Gilmore out of the fleet or they were going to scrap her. That is two months ahead of our donation hold schedule and only gives us two weeks to move her due to the Christmas holidays. MARAD knows that this is impossible and only offers this time because they know it can't be done--you can't get a tow company that fast during the holidays. This way, they can look like they are "trying to work with us" and still make sure we can't perform.

Individuals at the Maritime Administration (MARAD) are intentionally speeding up the process of trying to scrap a ship earmarked to be donated to a disaster recovery mission that has the stated goal of saving American lives.

Call your Senators and Congress people today.

Be sure to tell your elected representatives. that the men responsible for this travesty at MARAD are William H. Kahill, Deputy Director, Office of Ship Operations (202-366-1875 ext. 2122), and Eugene Magee, Division of Reserve Fleet Chief (202-366-5752 ext. 2112).

Of natural disasters...

Don Surber is up in arms about Mississippi and Louisiana requesting additional federal funds to help recover from the Hurricanes that demolished their states several months back. He wants to know "What is wrong with Mississippi paying for the rebuilding of Mississippi? Ditto Louisiana."

Maybe he's forgotten the One Nation part of the pledge of allegiance that most grade school children learn at an early age. Maybe a simple economics lesson is called for considering a majority of the goods brought into our country come in from ports along the eastern seaboard, ports located in the dozen or so states that get hit by hurricanes.

Yes we happen to live in states that get hit by hurricanes every now an then. Care to take a guess how much the fresh fruit that is so readily available at your local grocery store would cost if the ports from Morehead City, North Carolina to Port Isabel, Texas weren't available? Surely you remember the price spike for a gallon of gasoline just a couple of months ago. I could keep going on about the economic value the coastal states bring into the country, let me know if you need a couple more examples.

When Mississippi lured companies to build casinos along the Gulf Coast, that was one of the factors in the negotiations. Last time I checked the casinos were a tiny portion of the income generate along the gulf coast. The seafood so readily available isn't being flown in from the Caribbean; it's coming from the hard working folks that live a couple of miles inland from the ocean, in modest housing away from the million dollar ocean front homes. I also don't recall FEMA sending checks to the casino companies, maybe I missed that news report.

Northern states take a few blizzards each winter. It is called weather. It happens. Please do tell me the last time a blizzard unleashed the energy of a ten megaton nuclear warhead every twenty minutes. As LostInLima likes to point out, she made a choice to live in Ohio and when an ice storm left thousands of people without power for over a week, really a whole week, she resigned to the fact that she'd made a choice to live there. What she's forgetting is that a large number of the utility workers that came in to repair the damaged electrical and telephone grid were from the dozen or so states often pounded by hurricanes. Why from the Atlantic seaboard states? Because we're the states familiar with staging and transporting our utility workers in the event a natural disaster occurs.

So yeah, maybe the best thing to do is let Mississippi and Louisiana fix this themselves with help from the rest of the Atlantic states, as the old saying goes: Lead. Follow. Or get the hell out of the way.

From your post Don I'm guessing the next time West Virginia starts flooding you don't want North Carolina to send their swift water recovery teams to rescue the residents that didn't evacuate? Flooding which also happens to be one of the most costly disasters in U.S. History. Maybe there is something to the folks crying about others hogging the spotlight.

The next time a natural disaster strikes we'll send our teams, we'll give our pay checks and we'll donate our time, not because we have to, but because we remember what it means to be neighbors and Americans, I just wish everybody did.

Don, do you really want to mention Misuse of Tax Payer Funds?

OES On the Air

Our friend Ward Brewer, CEO of Beauchamp Tower Corporation, was on Raleigh, NC's News-Talk 680 WPTF this morning, talking about Operation Enduring Service, a bid to build a small fleet of disaster response cargo ships from obsolete ships no longer needed by the United States Navy.

See previous posts here talking about the former USS Orion and USS Howard W. Gilmore and here starring the former USS San Diego.

Of course, I wasn't able to listen to the show, so if anyone in the Raleigh area heard it, please let me know how you think it went.

You've almost certainly heard a lot about the blog initiative Porkbusters sponsored by N.Z.Bear at The Truth Laid Bear and Glenn Reynolds of Instapundit. I haven't said much about it, not because I don't support it (I'm very much behind it), but because so many others have done a much better job saying what needs to be said (As a side note, that is why you don't see me offering a lot of commentary on SCOTUS nominations).

The driving idea behind Porkbusters was to cut wasteful government spending, called "pork," to help pay for the massive clean-up and recovery costs associated with the catastrophic damage caused by Hurricane Katrina (and later, Hurricane Rita).

While independent of the Porkbusters, Operation Enduring Service is the near-perfect execution of the Porkbusters project. Operation Enduring Service will save American taxpayers $100 million dollars spent to scrap retired American naval ships, overseas. It will efficiently use the salvage and sale of certain ships to pay for the scrapping of less desirable vessels, and will actually generate enough profits to help pay to upgrade and refit several ships to be used in future disaster relief efforts.

The project will even help teh economies of storm-tossed Gulf states by creating between 1,500-3,000 shipbuilding-related jobs.

Operation Enduring Service will save $100 million in wasteful government spending, creates thousands of jobs in the Gulf States devastated by hurricanes this past year, and will build a fleet of disaster response vessels that will greatly enhance our nation's ability to respond to future disasters, at no cost to the taxpayer.

We are literally talking about a privately-funded and self-supporting "Salvation Navy" that will greatly assist FEMA and become the most technologically advanced ships available for use by the United States Coast Guard.

Corporate donors will pick up other costs of preparing these ships for service, and the United States Coast Guard Auxiliary will crew these vessels, but we have to get them first, and time is running very, very short.

The legislation required to make this happen is dangerously close to falling by the wayside. It has to pass before Congress ends this Session, in approximately one week, or the corporate sponsors will be forced to pull out.

BTC has obtained the support of a number of Congressmen and Senators. Each of the senators has the ability to submit this legislation for Operation Enduring Service and should be contacted via phone, fax or electronically and encouraged to submit this legislation immediately.

Senator Cochran, (R-MS) (Chairman of Appropriations)
Phone: (202) 224-5054
Internet Contact Form

Senator DeWine, (R-OH)
Phone: (202) 224-2315
Fax: (202) 224-6519
Becky Watts has the legislation for his office
Internet Contact Form

Senator Shelby, (R-AL)
Phone: (202) 224-5744
Fax: (202) 224-3416
Ryan Welch has the legislation for his office
senator@shelby.senate.gov

Senator Sessions, (R-AL)
Phone: 202) 224-4124
Fax: (202) 224-3149
Stephen Boyd has the legislation for his office
Internet Contact Form

Without this legislation the Corporate Donors will withdraw, the ships will no longer be available and the emergency relief program will collapse.

This is not a partisan exercise; each and every one of us has been directly affected by the recent hurricanes and will be affected again.

This requires immediate action, of the project will collapse. Contact with your House Representative and Senators, let them know the senators above have the legislation to make this happen and to support it or to submit it themselves.

Questions and comments can be directed to:

Email: info -at - btcorp.us
Website: www.btcorp.us
Weblog: www.btcorp.us/mt

Thank you.

Help These Veterans Return to Service

Beauchamp Tower Corporation has created Operation Enduring Service which will rebuild and refit obsolete military ships to provide state-of-the-art emergency relief and disaster response at no cost to the taxpayers and a savings to the government of at least $100 million.

In addition, the rebuild/refit of these ships will result in the creation of approximately 3,000 jobs in the areas hit by Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, while increasing the operational capability of the United States Coast Guard.

A number of organizations and corporations are working closely with Beauchamp Tower Corporation to make this happen, including:

• United States Coast Guard Auxiliary
• Dell Computers


• Microsoft Corporation
• Sherwin Williams
• Bender Shipyard
• Alabama Shipyard
• IPSCO Steel
• Erikson Aircrane Heavy Lift Helicopters
• AEPCO Shipyard
• ERM North America
• KME Fire Apparatus

and many, many more.

But due to time constraints, the legislation required to make this happen is dangerously close to falling by the wayside. It has to pass before Congress ends this Session, in approximately one week.

BTC has obtained the support of a number of Congressmen and Senators. Each of the senators has the ability to submit this legislation for Operation Enduring Service and should be contacted via phone, fax or electronically and encouraged to submit this legislation immediately.

Senator Cochran, (R-MS) (Chairman of Appropriations)
Phone: (202) 224-5054
Internet Contact Form
Senator DeWine, (R-OH)
Phone: (202) 224-2315
Fax: (202) 224-6519
Becky Watts has the legislation for his office
Internet Contact Form
Senator Shelby, (R-AL)
Phone: (202) 224-5744
Fax: (202) 224-3416
Ryan Welch has the legislation for his office
senator@shelby.senate.gov
Senator Sessions, (R-AL)
Phone: 202) 224-4124
Fax: (202) 224-3149
Stephen Boyd has the legislation for his office
Internet Contact Form

Without this legislation the Corporate Donors will withdraw, the ships will no longer be available and the emergency relief program will collapse.

This is not a partisan exercise; each and every one of us has been directly affected by the recent hurricanes and will be affected again.

This requires immediate action from every one, contact with your House Representative and Senators, let them know the senators above have the legislation to make this happen and to support it or to submit it themselves.

Questions and comments can be directed to:

Email: info -at - btcorp.us
Website: www.btcorp.us
Weblog: www.btcorp.us/mt

Please help these Navy veterans return to serve their nation once more.

Operation Enduring Service

Note: This post will stay at the top for the next couple of days, new content is below.

Your phone call to the senators listed below will free the USS Orion AS 18 and the USS Howard W. Gilmore AS 16 to become emergency relief and disaster response vessels at no cost to taxpayers.

A record breaking hurricane season has opened our eyes and brought to the forefront our need for improvement in response time to areas damaged by these massive storms. The first hours after a hurricane has made landfall are the most crucial. Without immediate relief those who've survived the massive winds and driving rains may very well succumb to rising waters, heat, water born illnesses and as well as fatigue and stress.

Beauchamp Tower Corporation has created Operation Enduring Service which will utilize obsolete military ships to provide emergency relief and disaster response at no cost to the taxpayers and a savings to the government of at least $100 million.

Due to time constraints the legislation required to make this happen is dangerously close to falling by the wayside-in fact it has to pass before Congress ends this Session (less than 14 days). BTC has obtained the support of a number of Congressmen and Senators. Each of the senators has the ability to submit this legislation for Operation Enduring Service and should be contacted via phone, fax or electronically and encouraged to submit this legislation immediately.

Senator Cochran, (R-MS) (Chairman of Appropriations) Phone: (202) 224-5054 Internet Contact Form

Senator DeWine, (R-OH)
Phone: (202) 224-2315
Fax: (202) 224-6519
Becky Watts has the legislation for his office
Internet Contact Form

Senator Shelby, (R-AL)
Phone: (202) 224-5744
Fax: (202) 224-3416
Ryan Welch has the legislation for his office
senator@shelby.senate.gov

Senator Sessions, (R-AL)
Phone: 202) 224-4124
Fax: (202) 224-3149
Stephen Boyd has the legislation for his office
Internet Contact Form

This is not a partisan exercise; each and every one of us has been directly affected by the recent hurricanes and will be affected again. This requires immediate action from every one, contact with your House Representative and Senators, let them know the senators above have the legislation to make this happen and to support it or to submit it themselves.

Without this legislation the Corporate Donors will withdraw, the ships will no longer be available and the emergency relief program will collapse; thus leaving the disaster response efforts to be further mishandled by FEMA.

Directly from the O.E.S. Project Weblog:

We are preparing to receive at least two ships (if everything goes as planned) to begin the conversion to Fast Attack Emergency Cargo Ships to respond to disaster incidences in Coastal States (East Coast, Gulf Coast, and in some instances West Coast). It is estimated that we can removed about 27% of the federal burden for Ice, Water, and food within the first 10 hours following a CAT-4 landfall. There is also the ability of providing climate controlled medical and staging facilities for up to 40 percent of the same disaster area.

So, you want to see what these old girls will be able to do? Here's a list of only a few things we can provide during a Coastal State disaster (such as flooding or a hurricane)
----Service a disaster area of up to 10,000 square miles (up to 100 miles inland) with minimal (if any) outside support
----Provide complete berthing facilities for up to 400 emergency responders "on scene" at a disaster site
----Fully integrated communications system serving all local, state, and federal agencies, as well as cell phone coverage and military band frequencies--allowing for seamless communications between all disaster scene personnel, no matter what radio frequency or cell phone is being used.
----Daily provide 110 tons of bagged and palletized ice to the disaster region
----Daily generate, bottle, and palletize up to 50,000 gallons of fresh water
----Provide refueling station and loading platform for helicopters operating in the disaster area
----Carry over 7,000 tons of food and supplies for a disaster area
----Store (and provide delivery of) 700,000 gallons of diesel, gasoline, and aviation fuel for use in the disaster area on emergency vehicles and critical needs generators (hospitals, emergency operation centers, etc)
.......and that's just one ship.

It's time to realize that the government can't do it all during a disaster--we've got to roll up our sleeves and get to work to make sure the needs get met--one way or another.

Best part? The first two ships can be ready before next hurricane season--if things go as planned and all of you help us as we've asked.

It will only take a couple of minutes to provide comfort for someone that has had their life devastated by a natural disaster. Your immediate support by contacting your governmental representatives or by spreading the word about this project is greatly appreciated; because tomorrow may be too late.

If you have questions, leave a comment or send an e-mail, I'll find out the answer and get back to you. Or if you like contact O.E.S. directly:
Ward Brewer, CEO
Beauchamp Tower Corporation

Email: info at btcorp.us
Website: www.btcorp.us
Weblog: www.btcorp.us/mt

Pearlington

The small town of Pearlington, Mississippi is looking for someone to adopt it. Michelle Malkin has a post up with an e-mail from a woman pleading for someone to adopt the all-but-forgotten tiny town of Pearlington:

Hi Michelle, I am an aid coordinator for the Katrina effort. My entire community jumped in with me and we adopted the town of Lumberton Mississippi. I have been working with Lumberton for a month now getting to know the people. My adoped town is inland a ways and as we ship aid to them they have been sharing with towns harder hit south of them. Yesterday my distribution contact in Lumberton got a call from Pearlington for help. He and the pick up truck brigade took what they could to Pearlington. He called and said to me "Nora, is there anything you can do for those folk? It's the worst I have seen. They have 300+ people sleeping on the ground on their football field. The whole town is just flattened. " ...This small town needs someone to adopt them so they get some attention.

I have kicked what ant hills I can in Mississippi Municipal League and elsewhere but more is needed. I don't know how to blog and get word out via web media. I've been using telephone and fax.

CAN YOU HELP ME get this poor town adopted and get them help. Their population is only about 1500. They are the small whistle stop no one will care about unless we can get the word out they are in dire need.

They are right across the water from New Orleans. I am so distressed that N.O. gets all the media and the little towns get nothing. Please can you help me find a way to raise visibility to the plight of the small Mississippi towns?

Nora Craig

If you'd like to help contact Michelle Malkin (malkin@comcast.net) and she will put you in touch with Nora Craig.

Hattip: Thoughts By Seawitch

For once it wasn't Rove

Finally a conspiracy theory that doesn't involve Rove and Chimpy McBushitler.

I'm betting that he spilled coffee on his talking points memo, I know I've made similar mistakes when I misunderstood the subliminal messages Chimpy sends out every morning.

Charities are for Suckers

At least that's what Ted Rall, cartoonist turned relief funding expert, would have you think in his article posted on Yahoo News.

He unleases a barage of ingorant and hate filled comments such as:

Hurricane Katrina has prompted Americans to donate more than $700 million to charity, reports the Chronicle of Philanthropy. So many suckers, so little foresight.

Cutting a check to the Red Cross isn't just a vote for irresponsible government. It's a drop in the bucket compared to what you'll end up paying for Katrina in increased taxes.

As we watched New Orleanians die of thirst, disease and anarchic violence in the face of Bush Administration disinterest and local government incompetence, millions of us did the only thing we thought we could to do to help: cut a check or click a PayPal button. Tragically, that generosity feeds into the mindset of the sinister ideologues who argue that government shouldn't help people--the very mindset that caused the levee break that turned Katrina into a holocaust and led to official unresponsiveness. And it is already setting the stage for the next avoidable disaster..

It's time to "starve the beast": private charities used by the government to justify the abdication of its duties to its citizens.

I know it isn't the proper attitude; however if there's ever been anyone deserving of a smiting it's Ted Rall. My hope is that he catches the syphilis during a blood transfusion necessary because he was gang raped by a pack of rabid herpes infected squirrels on his way home from group therapy required before he completes his sex change operation.

Hopefully this isn't going to be the next battle cry of the uberliberals and hopefully it won't curb the benevolence of our society.

Secret Message to Ted: If you're bitter and in pain due to the most recent flare up, you can get information about Valtrex here. I hear folks go for months without flare-ups.

Ask Auntie Llamkette

Dear Llamkette,

Over the past week America has watched as Ophelia has plotted her course and now prepares to unleash her fury on the coastal inhabitants of Eastern North Carolina. The poor unsuspecting North Carolinians will definitely be at a loss for words and how will they get their pleas for help and message out unless I'm allowed to capitalize on their misery help them?

Nobody covered the catastrophic losses of Hurricane Katrina like I did. I was the first Reporter in New Orleans and one of the last to leave. Oh sure there were the locals, but who wants a bunch of half baked crawfish eatin' creoles telling them what's going on? I mean it takes an anchor from a cable news network to get the message out. Much like an anchor holds a ship in place I was there to stay the course and get the message out about the travesties taking place in New Orleans. Sure that doesn't make much sense, but you try to make an anchor reference okay?

I just don't understand why the big meanies at Fox News won't let me go? Is there anything I can do?

Your pal,
Shep "The Hurricane Master" Smith

Dear Shep,
The reason you haven't been allowed to head to North Carolina is because your blazon displays of idiocy while coving the stories unfolding during the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina proved you lack self-awareness. If those "big meanies" in the offices of Fox News allowed you to head to North Carolina you'd probably end up locked in Bubba's basement squealing like a pig for days on end.

What you don't understand Shep is that hurricanes aren't a new phenomena and North Carolinians have been dealing with them for decades. The "big meanies" seem to understand that the coastal inhabitants would whip your ass when you interrupt their recovery and rebuilding efforts to ask your stupid questions about; how they feel and if their lives will ever be the same.

You're probably also itching to find stories displaying the worse side of human nature, the dregs of society waiting for an unfortunate situation to take advantage of. Well Shep you're probably not going find that in North Carolina. See when the area was ravaged by Hurricane Floyd in '99 the residents rolled up their sleeves and started helping each other out; instead of waiting for the Government to get in and do something for them. They acted much like the folks in outside of New Orleans that were affected by the Hurricane; you know the people the media has dodged like the plague the past couple of weeks.

See Shep, the reason those "big meanies" won't let you leave if because they got tired of screaming "SHUT.THE.HELL.UP.SHEP." at the TV screen also. So it is personal and but it's in your best interest.

Your pal,
LLamkette

Idiots abound

Am I the only one amused by the guy from New York who when questioned by the report about whether or not he understood the severity he said: "Well theres always survivors, and ain't no storm gonna bother us from New Yawk, plus back when the Titanic sunk in 1969 peoples survived, so's I ain't worried".

The reporter kindly held back his laughter and waited until the yank had walked away to mention that the Titanic had sunk at least a couple of years before 1969.