From The Frontlines, Ustream.TV.

Melanie Morgan and Michelle Malkin are hosting a fund raising effort to send care packages to troops in Iraq. If they live up to their own hype, it should be quite spectacular.

We’ve got a star-studded line-up of troops, military charities, celebs, and talk radio stars — from Rush Limbaugh and Mark Levin to Dr. Laura and Laura Ingraham to musician John Ondrasik and “Lone Survivor” author and Navy SEAL hero Marcus Luttrell — who’ll be joining us in our eight-hour marathon fund-raising drive to help send the largest number of care packages in history to our men and women in uniform serving overseas. – Michelle Malkin

Go check it out.

Disabled Iraqi children get wheelchairs, big smiles – CNN.com

Blauser points to one of his favorite photographs, of a father carrying his son in his arms, an endless desert road behind him. He had carried his son more than 6 miles to get a wheelchair. “In August 2006 we had a distribution in northern Iraq,” Blauser remembered. “We watched him [the father] come forward, and people rushed to take the boy from his arms. And he said, ‘No, I’ve been carrying this child all my life. I can carry him the last 100 yards to receive his wheelchair.’ ” – Brad Blauser

I won’t be posting anything else today, so check out the comments here to see what others are talking about, then go check out HotAir’s video about the Lumberjack in a Desert.

This is the Veteran’s Day edition of Open House, and comments and trackbacks are now open. If your site doesn’t support trackbacks, use the Wizbang Standalone Trackback Pinger.

What are you doing this Veteran’s Day?

Self proclaimed Iraq war vet/murderer is exposed as a fraud. Not really a big surprise, but I’m glad he’s officially being recognized as the fraud he is.

I got an e-mail from Russell Lee Klika a few weeks ago with a hint at some new photos he’ll have available on his site soon. I thought I’d share them with you today. I can’t wait for the rest.

We’ve seen this guy before., and it’s about damn time someone called him to task for his behavior.

Man who claimed war crimes in Iraq charged with falsifying record

SEATTLE — A man who tried to position himself as a leader of the anti-war movement by claiming to have participated in war crimes while serving in Iraq is facing federal charges of falsifying his record.

Jesse Adam Macbeth, 23, formerly of Phoenix, garnered much attention on blogs and in some alternative media after he began claiming in 2005 to have been awarded a Purple Heart for his service, which he said included slaughtering innocents in a Fallujah mosque. His story was contradicted by his true discharge form, showing that he was kicked out of the Army after six weeks at Fort Benning, Ga., in 2003 because of his “entry level performance and conduct.”

Other Macbeth posts:

• Jesse Macbeth takes Venezuela by storm
• Still say you were a Ranger?
• So, you’re a ranger?

h/t Michelle Malkin

Trackposted to Outside the Beltway, Right Celebrity, DeMediacratic Nation, Adam’s Blog, The Crazy Rants of Samantha Burns, The World According to Carl, Blue Star Chronicles, Nuke’s news and views, Webloggin, The Pink Flamingo, Phastidio.net, The Amboy Times, Cao’s Blog, and Jo’s Cafe, thanks to Linkfest Haven Deluxe.

I just got an e-mail from Russell Lee Klika. His Gallery #3 is now ready to view on his site. Go take a look… Then come back.

If you aren’t familiar with his work, you can view some that I’ve posted, or visit his site for more.

Trackposted to Blue Star Chronicles, Rightlinx, The Amboy Times, third world county, The Random Yak, stikNstein… has no mercy, and basil’s blog, thanks to Linkfest Haven Deluxe.

I got an e-mail from Russell Lee Klika over the weekend. His Gallery #2 is now ready to view on his site. Worth a look. If you aren’t familiar with his work, you can view some that I’ve posted, or visit his site for more. I recommend both.

Trackposted to Blog @ MoreWhat.com, Perri Nelson’s Website, Stageleft, stikNstein… has no mercy, Big Dog’s Weblog, Walls of the City, DragonLady’s World, Blue Star Chronicles, Pirate’s Cove, The Pink Flamingo, Cao’s Blog, Leaning Straight Up, and Hollywood Gossip, thanks to Linkfest Haven Deluxe.

Russell Klika is making some waves with his photography, as I knew he would. The first photo of his that I posted has won an award.

His photo was the winner of the Portrait Personality division of the Visual Information Awards Program.

The Visual Information Awards Program is designed to recognize, reward, and promote excellence among military photographers, videographers, journalists and graphic artists for their achievements in furthering the objectives of military photography, videography, and graphic arts as a command information and documentation media within the military.

His winning photo and those of the other winners are available at Defense Information School website. Since I like his photo best, I’ve posted it again here.

The competitions are open to enlisted active duty, reserve, and National Guard personnel of all the armed services, including the Coast Guard, holding the occupational specialty code (MOS, NEC, or AFSC) of graphic illustrator, photographer, journalist, photojournalist, videographer, mass communicator or equivalent.

All materials were produced between 1 Jan 06 and 31 Dec 06.

Trackposted to Outside the Beltway, Blog @ MoreWhat.com, Perri Nelson’s Website, The Random Yak, A Blog For All, Wake Up America, Adam’s Blog, basil’s blog, Shadowscope, The Bullwinkle Blog, The Amboy Times, Conservative Cat, Conservative Thoughts, LaTogaStrappata, third world county, Allie Is Wired, The World According to Carl, Overtaken by Events, Pirate’s Cove, The Pink Flamingo, Dumb Ox Daily News, Right Voices, and Gone Hollywood, thanks to Linkfest Haven Deluxe.

Cartoonist Chris Muir’s account of his embed in Iraq is now available. As humorous as you’d expect from someone who puts out Day by Day.

Report: Chris Muir from Iraq (The Fourth Rail)

We fly out on a cool C-130, which becomes somewhat less cool when the pilot does the standard “Figure 8″ missile avoidance landing in Baghdad. Everyone is strapped close together in in the cargo bay, hence projectile vomiting is frowned upon.

h/t Cold Fury

Trackposted to Perri Nelson’s Website, Allie Is Wired, Big Dog’s Weblog, A Few Shiny Pebbles, Overtaken by Events, Blue Star Chronicles, The Pink Flamingo, Dumb Ox Daily News, and Conservative Cat, thanks to Linkfest Haven Deluxe.

Michelle Malkinis posting about the Gathering of Eagles. It’s well worth reading. Here’s a few choice words from their Mission Statement.

1. Gathering of Eagles is non-partisan. While each member has his or her own political beliefs, our common love and respect for America and her heroes is what brings us together.

2. We are a non-violent, non-confrontational group. We look to defend, not attack. Our focus is guarding our memorials and their grounds.

3. We believe that the war memorials are sacred ground; as such, we will not allow them to be desecrated, used as props for political statements, or treated with anything less than the solemn and heartfelt respect they–and the heroes they honor–deserve.

9. We will accept nothing less than total, unqualified victory in the current conflict. Surrender is not an option, nor is defeat.

Sacred ground. In our society it’s rare that anything is considered sacred. It’s even rarer that someone acts upon this. I wish them well.

Trackposted to Perri Nelson’s Website, A Blog For All, stikNstein… has no mercy, basil’s blog, Pirate’s Cove, Blue Star Chronicles, The Amboy Times, Conservative Cat, and Pursuing Holiness, thanks to Linkfest Haven Deluxe.

Snopes has a story on the quality of service at Discount Floor Mats. Seems the customer service person responded in a less than friendly fashion when asked about shipping to a military base. I won’t steal Snopes thunder by excerpting them, but I think it’s safe to say that at least that customer service person does not support the troops.

Update: Employee fired for e-mail.

Trackposted to Outside the Beltway, Perri Nelson’s Website, The Random Yak, Big Dog’s Weblog, basil’s blog, Stuck On Stupid, Conservative Cat, Pursuing Holiness, Rightwing Guy, Wake Up America, Diary of the Mad Pigeon, Woman Honor Thyself, stikNstein… has no mercy, The Crazy Rants of Samantha Burns, The World According to Carl, Pirate’s Cove, Blue Star Chronicles, Renaissance Blogger, The Pink Flamingo, Dumb Ox Daily News, Right Voices, and Gone Hollywood, thanks to Linkfest Haven Deluxe.

Russell Lee Klika, who you may remember from earlier posts at this site, has set up a new website of his photography. His site was developed by MLT Innovations Inc. and really sets off his photos nicely. Go take a look, it’s worth your time.

Posts containing photos by Russell Lee Klika

• Photo from Iraq
• Faces of Iraq 1
• Faces of Iraq 2
• Faces of Iraq 3
• Faces of Iraq 4
• Faces of Iraq 5
• Faces of Iraq 6
• Rakkasans

Trackposted to Perri Nelson’s Website, The Random Yak, Adam’s Blog, Right Truth, Big Dog’s Weblog, basil’s blog, The Amboy Times, Phastidio.net, Conservative Cat, Pursuing Holiness, Wake Up America, Rightwing Guy, The HILL Chronicles, third world county, Faultline USA, Woman Honor Thyself, The Crazy Rants of Samantha Burns, stikNstein… has no mercy, The World According to Carl, Pirate’s Cove, The Pink Flamingo, Right Voices, and Gone Hollywood, thanks to Linkfest Haven Deluxe.

A sniper team was caught in Ghazaliya today. It may not seem like much, but it cheered me up to know that one more team isn’t going to be sniping our troops.

Press Releases – IA SOLDIERS FIND, DETAIN SNIPER TEAM IN GHAZALIYA

The soldiers stopped the vehicle with three suspects to conduct a preliminary search, which produced a pistol, expended 7.62mm rounds of ammunition and a video camera mounting bracket.

It seems that criticism of the study released by the Lancet medical journal isn’t confined to GOP shills.

In the light of such extreme and improbable implications, a rational alternative conclusion to be considered is that the authors have drawn conclusions from unrepresentative data. In addition, totals of the magnitude generated by this study are unnecessary to brand the invasion and occupation of Iraq a human and strategic tragedy. – Iraq Body Count

Maybe I’m just trying to reinforce my “political/ideological/ego trip*, but it seems the study doesn’t hold up well under criticism.

h/t Say Anything Blog

*In the comments

Clayton Cramer’s BLOG

the Lancet, the top British medical journal, has just published a paper claiming that we have caused the deaths of 2.5% of the population of Iraq…

Short of setting concentration camps, or intentionally spreading disease, or carpet bombing cities, I’m not sure that we could do that even if we were trying.

There comes a point in every statistical study when you need to do a sanity check.

“Gee, is it really true that birds can’t fly?”

“Wow! I had no idea that every third Californian is psychotic!”

“At this rate of growth, by the year 2050, every American will be named Miguel!”

I might argue that the Californian comment is provable, but the rest of his post is quite good.

My opinion of the statistics isn’t worth writing when Omar at IRAQ THE MODEL says it so much better.

To me their motives are clear, all they want is to prove that our struggle for freedom was the wrong thing to do. And they shamelessly use lies to do this…when they did not find the death they wanted to see on the ground, they faked it on paper! They disgust me…

This fake research is an insult to every man, woman and child who lost their lives.
Behind every drop of blood is a noble story of sacrifice for a just cause that is struggling for living safe in freedom and prosperity.

h/t Adam’s Blog and Fausta’s blog.

Photos taken at a brick factory in Balad Ruiz, Iraq.

Previous posts, Faces of Iraq 1
Faces of Iraq 2
Faces of Iraq 3
Faces of Iraq 4
Faces of Iraq 5

Update:
More of Russell Klika’s photos are now available at Russell Klika dot com. – hdw

What a fascinating idea. Artists to record events. I like the idea of putting photographers like Staff Sgt. Klika into service, but this is a good idea too. A different perspective I would think. I’ll be following their blogs to see what they’re up too.

Noble Duty Milblogger Coalition – A Soldier’s Perspective – Marine Combat Artists

Sgt Battles and WO Fay are two Marine Combat Artists (only three Corps wide) serving Country and Corps creating some awesome works of art. Both of them operate blogs that I’ve read for some time now. They don’t post everyday, but you should add them to your RSS reader or check in on them from time to time. You’ll be happy you did.

Photos of the Rakkasans of the 3rd Brigade Combat Team in Baghdad, Iraq.

Update: Blackfive is posting more Rakkasan photos. – HDW

Previous posts of Iraq Photos:
Faces of Iraq 1
Faces of Iraq 2
Faces of Iraq 3
Faces of Iraq 4
Faces of Iraq 5

Update:
More of Russell Klika’s photos are now available at Russell Klika dot com. – hdw

Power Line: A word from Sgt. Thul

I hope I’m not violating copyright law with the name or the logo, but it seemed appropriate.I started out with one bookshelf I bought from the PX. One bookshelf quickly became two… which then became three bookshelves. This one [the third] we built because the PX was sold out.

Sgt. Thul has written a thank you note that is posted at Powerline for books and other materials he received thanks to the A note to our Minnesota readers post in May. My personal contribution was small, but I’m very glad to see he got the response he deserves from others.