Can American's

[Sunshine]

delete

[Big Muddy]

Sorry, Sunny, but things have gone too far....we are screwed, blued, and tattooed.

Just try to enjoy life because things are only gonna get worse for the next two years.

The uninformed, blood-sucking, non-working voters are now in the majority.

[Fido]

This years mid term elections will tell the story. And how bout those that did not vote in 2012! If I recall barely over 32% voted. Now with the Obama Care kicked in those people along with others will suffer the consequenses! The mid term in NOV will be interesting!

[Big Muddy]

Agreed, Fido....we have one of the most hotly-contested races ever, going on down here....our Cong. Thad Cochran has been in office since 1972and he's just not mentally or physically capable of serving any longer....but, he's running, again, anyway.

Even his close friends couldn't talk him out of running, again....he's done a lot of positive things for MS over the years, but his voting history for the past 4 or 5 years have not been very conservative, and his conservative challenger is really going to be hard to beat.

On a side note, Benny Thompson, our black liberal Democratic representative, votes along party lines, no matter what....Reid and Pelosi are his idols....but, he will be re-elected infinitum.

My voting motto for all future elections is "vote out the liberal incumbent Dem. and Rinos.".

[Big Muddy]

Sunny, I can't keep up with this guy's violations of the Constitution....maybe we need a sticky thread or even a separate forum, and keep score. ;)

[Niner]

Wow! I try not to watch the news because it gets my blood pressure up, and generally gets me aggravated.
I turned it on this morning though, and this Bergdahl story seems to be all they can talk about.

SO, leeme see if I have this right....
A SARGENT deserts and is "captured" by the very folks he admires.
Five years later, our illustrious POTUS works up a trade for this deserter for five terrorists from GITMO.

And this is good for our country .....how????

Obummer's claim that "we leave no man behind" holds no water. Bergdahl was not captured in battle....or even in uniform. He "quit" our side..

Sunny... I did hear the "I" word mentioned on the TV this morning. Something about "aid and comfort to the enemy" on Obummer's part.

[BarryBobPosthole]

I suppose we should start a petition to send him back. Would that make everyone happy? I find it odd that people will get themselves all worked up over the possibility that we kill American citizens with drones who've gone over to the other side, yet they'd be perfectly happy to leave an American POW in the hands of the enemy because someone said he was a deserter. Mind you, after the Pentagon fully investigated him THEY didn't find he was a deserter but Fox News said he was so that's the truth of the matter. and the people we have at Gitmo are our own prisoners of war. You can call them terrorists if you like but we caprtured them in war and that is in fact what they are. We can't hold them forever regardless what anyone of any political persuasion thinks we can do. If they are terrorists, we need to put them on trial and prosecute them as such. If they're POWs then they'll need to be released as we have done all throughout history. We can't have it both ways.

I think we need to let the military decide what this guy is, deserter or not, after we get him back to health and back in the states. Then deal with him accordingly. If we'd have left this up to congress, we'd have never gotten him back alive.


BKB

[LJ3]

BBP, I think.... if I've come to know you as I have over the years... You're defending a position you BARELY believe yourself. I could be wrong :)

For me, we PUBLICLY, in front of the world, traded prisoners with the Taliban. That is a very bad precedent to start.

[BarryBobPosthole]

No, I think the prisoner issue at Gitmo is one we have to deal with now that the Afghan war is winding down. We can't hold them forever. If we're so damn sure they're terrorists, as Lindsay Graham and others seem to think they are, then we need to try them for that crime and afford them due punishment. If they are POWs, then we need to treat them as such and exchange them or free them. I'm not saying we never should have imprisoned them in the first place. I'm just saying we have to determine their status and then do the right thing. I have ZERO faith that this congress could hit the ground with its own hat. I don't think the president should have acted without notifying congress but then again that's something presidents have done throughout history and the other side squawks like hell when they do like they're doing now. I just want to know what they think we should have done with this American POW. Let him die because of what some of his platoon mates SAID about him? Or get him back and let him face military justice? To me I think the prez did the right thing although he should have notified congress like the law requires. Not an impeachable offense. Hasn't been in the past and isn't this time.

BKB

[Niner]

Mind you, after the Pentagon fully investigated him THEY didn't find he was a deserter but Fox News said he was so that's the truth of the matter.
(Well.....they did have several of his, what do you call them, platoon mates...on the TV this morning telling their side of the deal.)


If they're POWs then they'll need to be released as we have done all throughout history. We can't have it both ways.
(Good point. The whole thing with them is a prickly issue.)


I think we need to let the military decide what this guy is, deserter or not, after we get him back to health and back in the states. Then deal with him accordingly. If we'd have left this up to congress, we'd have never gotten him back alive.
BKB
On this point, I could not agree with you more. He's in the military's hands (at least I hope he is), and they need to at least have an Inquiry, if not a Courts Martial, to determine persacly what he did and how the military wants to deal with him. He does not need to be tried in the court of Public Opinion....but he probably will be to an extent.

This moves the VA scandal off of the front page for a few days, I would imagine.

Like I said earlier.....I do not keep up with the day-to-day news anymore. It causes me to have a hard time keeping a positive mental attitude. I have a hard enough time of that as it is.

[Thumper]

Yeppers, pretty much ditto what Niner said. I watched the interviews with his fellow soldiers and they said he was an "okay" guy ... just a bit weird. He supposedly complained about the U.S. being involved over there, left his weapon/body armor behind and walked away from his post to "look for Taliban". Why? Without a weapon, he wasn't looking to kill them. Maybe he wanted to "join them", who knows? He wouldn't be the first.

Again, I agree ... there should be a Court-Martial to get to the bottom of it. I mean, there's no way around the fact he deserted (or at minimum, went AWOL). They'd have to find out what his intentions were to differentiate "desertion" from "AWOL". When I was in Intel, we were considered deserters if we were AWOL over 24 hours. In the regular military, I believe it's 30-days. BUT ... was he considered a POW? Who knows if he collaborated with the Taliban? He was disgruntled with the US military and supposedly walked out to FIND the Taliban. Why? To join their ranks? Did he breach the security of the post by disclosing information? Evidently the Taliban considered him a small fish in a big pond by treating him as a POW. Maybe he's just plain goofy!

[BarryBobPosthole]

Both CNN and Fox are committing what amounts to character assassination of this soldier in order to score political points. So much for a free and unbiased media. Lets get him home and let the chips fall where they may when he's back in our hands.

BKB

[Big Muddy]

Maybe we can get this Marine back, too???....I'm pretty sure he is NOT a deserter.


3065

[BarryBobPosthole]

Amazing how millions of people cross that particular border and hardly any of them get seized by the Mexican police and claim they took the wrong exit and went there inadvertantly. Maybe you'll buy that cockamamie story but I don't think the Marines will. He's AWOL, no matter what anyone may claim. anyone in the military knows the military holds you responsible for being where you're supposed to be and if you accidently go into a foreign country and get arrested, that's your problem. Not sure why all the sudden he's a hero. Because he's a marine?

BKB

[Big Muddy]

Which one had you rather be in a foxhole with, guarding your back??? ;)

[BarryBobPosthole]

Has nothing to do with it. I am a veteran too. If I crossed the border this summer into Canada with three firearms, there's no doubt in my military mind that the Canucks at the border would arrest me and throw me in the pokey and give me a court date when they'd hear my case. There's nothing different here except Greta Van Fucking Cistern has made it into a story of the Mexicans throwing an American War Hero into PRISON for 'accidently' entering Mexico. Give me a large MFing break.

I guess that's too black and white for some folks though.

BKB

[Big Muddy]

We shall see.

[LJ3]

I can give you two medium size breaks or perhaps 2.5 smaller breaks. The large MF'ing breaks are all out of stock.

[Thumper]

Which one had you rather be in a foxhole with, guarding your back??? ;)

Not sure I'd want to depend on either one of them. One wanders off his post in Afghanistan and gets "captured" by the enemy. The other gets "lost" in his own country ... somehow crosses an International Border by "accident", with guns in his car, then gets "captured" by the Mexican Federales. I think I'd rather go it alone as I'm not so sure I'd want to trust my back to Mutt & Jeff.

[BarryBobPosthole]

I can give you two medium size breaks or perhaps 2.5 smaller breaks. The large MF'ing breaks are all out of stock.

I'm always a day late and a dollar short.

Aren't the federales supposed to let him slip away, out of kindness I suppose? I mean, they could have had him any day ya know.

BKB

[LJ3]

I'm with ya on how Fox is spinning this silliness. Armed dude in Mexico was accidentally there? 'gah please.

[DeputyDog]

They should of looked the other way since we let so many Mexicans "accidentally" cross the border the other way with guns and dope.

[Big Muddy]

They should of looked the other way since we let so many Mexicans "accidentally" cross the border the other way with guns and dope.

BAAAAAAAMMMMMMMM !!! ;)

[Arty]

I agree you don't cross the Mexican border by accident. That's complete poo-poo

This guy we traded for... I think we need to establish his mental state prior to doing anything with him, which I am sure they will.
There is also a possibility there is behinds the scenes shit that we will never know about. You know, CIA and secret 007 stuff.
So... I will not cast a stone for either side. However trading these Taliban towel heads for this guy does on the surface seem crazy as hell.

Until I know more details, I'm going to lean on it being some of the secret CIA 007 stuff....makes me feel Better about the state of my country.

Holy Shi-ite Muslim, I need to go find my tin foil hat.

[Big Muddy]

This might explain the difficulty of navigating that border crossing.....I've crossed the border twice at that exact same crossing, and it'a cluster-fokk, putting it mildly.


Border Crossing Where Marine Entered Mexico By Mistake Difficult To Navigate
By Rebekah SagerPublished May 27, 2014. News Latino


"""The San Ysidro border crossing is approximately 13 miles south of downtown San Diego. It’s the busiest border crossing in the world.

On March 31, Andrew Tahmooressi, a decorated United States Marine who served two tours in Afghanistan, made the mistake of taking one bad turn – and the chain reaction to that turn has set off an international furor.

According to Tahmooressi’s mother, Jill, earlier that day her son crossed into Tijuana, Mexico, on foot, leaving his car parked on the California side of the border. After dinner with friends, he walked back to the U.S. at about 10:30 p.m. He got into his car and entered the ramp he believed would take him onto the I-5 freeway leading north back to San Diego.

What happened next has become a sore point in diplomatic relations. After crossing the San Ysidro checkpoint into Mexico, Tahmooressi was stopped by law enforcement officials there and charged with possession of three firearms: a 12-gauge shotgun, a .45 caliber pistol, an AR-15 and 400 pieces of ammunition. All were legally registered in the U.S.

Tahmooressi’s mother told Fox News Latino that her son keeps a collection of guns because it makes him feel “prepared.”

“Andrew was in a crisis point with his [post-traumatic stress disorder] when he moved out to San Diego. He was at the peak of his PTSD with a symptom called hyper-vigilance,” she said. Hyper-vigilance is a persistent sense of insecurity and a preoccupation with unknown threats, and it manifests itself with the person constantly watching and scanning his or her surroundings. "It’s all documented in his medical records."

Tahmooressi, his mother said, felt safer having the weaponry.

"He needed those weapons," she said. "It’s not uncommon, especially for those in the infantry."

Once on the freeway heading toward Mexico, cars are funneled into lanes separated by concrete dividers. The only U-turn back to the U.S, before crossing into Mexico, is in the far left lane. Tahmooressi was in the far right lane – blocked from the left by divided lanes. The Marine, who had been living with his parents in South Florida, had recently moved to San Diego to start his treatment for PTSD.

“Everything he owned was in that truck – along with the guns and ammo," Jill Tahmooressi said, adding that he had been struggling recently and had had his first group therapy session on the same day that he took the drive south.

Mexican border officials said they stopped Tahmooressi's truck because his pickup didn't have a front license plate, Alejandro Gonzalez Guilbot, head of Mexican customs in Tijuana, told the U-T San Diego newspaper.

Florida, where Tahmooressi had been living, is one of 19 states in the U.S. that do not require front license plates. California is not one of them.

The night Tahmooressi was arrested, his first call was to 911. He told the operator that he’d been stopped at the border and the officials were “trying to take my guns away.” He went on to ask, “They have a right to just take my guns away?” He also told the operator that he’d crossed accidentally and thought there was a turn-around point.

Alejandro Tamayo, a Mexican-American photojournalist, said that if you are not familiar with the area it's easy to get lost.

“I drive across the border every day for work. The concrete dividers have been there since 9/11, and once you pass the last U.S. exit, if you’re in the right lane, there is no way to get over to the far left lane to make a U-turn back to the U.S.," he said. "You have to go through to the border.”

Signs for the U-turn lane back to the U.S. are visible on the freeway. Tamayo says that about a month after Tahmooressi’s arrest, a huge lighted sign was added to make it more visible.

“My son was corralled into his lane. He was held captive essentially. He made a mistake, and there was no way for him to turn back," Jill Tahmooressi said.

Now the Marine, who has been in jail for almost two months, is mired in the Mexican legal system and it’s unclear when he'll be released.

"I’m as angry with the U.S. side as the Mexican authorities. Why can’t they work together?" Jill Tahmooressi asked. "Once it was proven that he was innocent and a military veteran, they should be releasing him.”""

[Thumper]

I've crossed at that same crossing about elebenty-bazillion times, usually headed for Rosarito or Ensenada. I'd hit Mexico on average about every other weekend for many years for organized motorcycle races or just to hang out at the beach, drinkin' and chasin' wimmins. I even came REAL close to buying a piece of property in Rosarito at one point. It may have been a cluster-fuck at the border, but I don't really remember any problems GOING IN ... coming out was a different story. The lines were the biggest problem, although I was detained a few times (long story), it was pretty basic ... just a long wait. :D

As far as him "making a wrong turn", yep, it could happen and probably happened persactly as stated. I'm not so sure the story now released is going to help matters though, especially now that he's moved to one of the most Liberal states in the country with some of the toughest gun laws. The article makes it sound like he's right on the ragged edge, feels threatened and could possibly have a "hair trigger" (no pun intended). Once he is released, I wouldn't doubt the State of California will probably try to take those guns away from him anyway. Should one with a "persistent sense of insecurity and a preoccupation with unknown threats" really be running around with these weapons in the first place? He's been officially diagnosed with PTSD. To make matters worse, (and I'm rusty on California law as it's been a while since I was there) it's illegal in California to drive around with an "assault weapon" in your car ... you can only transport it to/from the range, to a dealer, etc. etc. He's even driving around with a handgun. I "think" they've loosened a lot of their laws since I lived there, but the AR throws up a big red flag as all California laws have to be met BEFORE moving into the state with one'a those.

The whole story is a big stinkin' mess ... but, living in California, he may be in as much trouble once he's released, as he's in right now. With this statement, I'm not even sure he's allowed to be in possession of these weapons in California, much less driving around with them in his truck.

“Andrew was in a crisis point with his [post-traumatic stress disorder] when he moved out to San Diego. He was at the peak of his PTSD with a symptom called hyper-vigilance,” she said. Hyper-vigilance is a persistent sense of insecurity and a preoccupation with unknown threats, and it manifests itself with the person constantly watching and scanning his or her surroundings. "It’s all documented in his medical records."