If you have family or friends in California as I do, there is a live blog at the LAT which might be helpful in keeping up with the latest information involving these terrible fires.

Let’s hope the winds die down enough to allow those planes in the air so as to assist the weary firefighters.

Hope you find the above site helpful if you are following this story.

In a moving ceremony yesterday where the parents of Navy SEAL Lt. Michael Murphy presented President Bush with a gold dog tag with their son’s name on it, the president put the medal under his shirt and then presented the Medal of Honor posthumously to Lt. Murphy’s parents.

“What we were most touched by was that the president immediately put that on underneath his shirt, and when he made the presentation of the Medal of Honor, he wore that against his chest,” said the father.

After the ceremony, Dan Murphy said, Bush told the family: “I was inspired by having Michael next to my chest.”

The father, who fought back tears during the ceremony, said they were “deeply moved” by Bush’s gesture.

“It was very emotional on everybody’s part,” said Maureen Murphy.

Bush presided over a solemn ceremony honoring their son’s battlefield decision to expose himself to deadly enemy fire in order to make a radio call for help for his elite combat team.

“While their missions were often carried out in secrecy, their love of country and devotion to each other was always clear,” President Bush said. “On June 28, 2005, Michael would give his life for these ideals.”

Murphy’s parents both cried at points in the ceremony as they stood next to the president and listened to their son’s heroism recounted.

“There’s a lot of awards in the military, but when you see a Medal of Honor, you know whatever they went through is pretty horrible. You don’t congratulate anyone when you see it,” said Marcus Luttrell, the lone member of Murphy’s team to survive the firefight with the Taliban.

Murphy, Luttrell and two other SEALs were searching for a terrorist when their mission was compromised after they were spotted by locals, who presumably alerted the Taliban to their presence.

An intense gun battle ensued, with more than 50 anti-coalition fighters swarming around the outnumbered SEALs.

Although wounded, Murphy is credited with risking his own life by moving into the open for a better position to transmit a call for help.

Still under fire, Murphy provided his unit’s location and the size of the enemy force. At one point he was shot in the back, causing him to drop the transmitter. Murphy picked it back up, completed the call and continued firing at the enemy who was closing in.

He then returned to his cover position with his men and continued the battle. A U.S. helicopter sent to rescue the men was hit by a rocket-propelled grenade, killing all 16 aboard. It was the worst single-day death toll for U.S. forces in Afghanistan.

By the end of the two-hour gunfight, Murphy and two of his comrades were also dead. An estimated 35 Taliban were also killed. Luttrell was blown over a ridge and knocked unconscious. He escaped, and was protected by local villagers for several days before he was rescued.

Murphy, who died before his 30th birthday, is the fourth Navy SEAL to earn the award and the first since the Vietnam War.

As we reported a couple of weeks ago the NYT saw fit not to tell this story of heroism in Lt. Murphy’s hometown newspaper.

May he rest in peace, and may his parents take comfort in the fact their son died performing an act of bravery above and beyond the call of duty.

We here at J’s salute Lt. Murphy.

These invididuals spoke volumes on the prospect of a Hillary Clinton Presidency.

HT: Real Clear Politics

Michael Yon takes on the media here at home in his latest post:

Clearly, a majority of Americans believe the current set of outdated fallacies passed around mainstream media like watered down drinks at happy hour. Why wouldn’t they? The cloned copy they get comes from the same sources that list the specials at the local grocery store, and the hours and locations of polling places for town elections. These same news sources print obituaries and birth announcements, give play-by-play for local high school sports, and chronicle all the painful details of the latest celebrity to fall from grace.

There are several key items in this post, but Michael has always had a limit on how much of his work can be reproduced and I have always honored that request.

Please take the time to read his work. This analysis is compiled by a man who has served alongside coalition and Iraqi troops for quite some time now. His dispatches have always been fair and truthful, he calls them like he sees them. No rose colored glasses for Mr. Yon.

There is a section of this article which lays out an idea for improving the quality of information from Iraq which is reported here at home. If you agree this is an idea worth pursuing, please take the time to make that one phone call or send an email to a local paper.

Americans deserve more than we have experienced through the MSM when it comes to reporting on this war, but most of all, our US military deserves credit for their many accomplishments. Perhaps Michael Yon will be the one who finally breaks through that barrier.

It’s an opinion. The thoughts of a woman who is a Nobel Laureate.

Pull yourself together America. September 11,2001 was no big deal. That’s right, we folks here in the USA just don’t get it. So please allow Ms. Lessing to enlighten us.

Nobel laureate Doris Lessing said the Sept. 11 attacks in the United States were “not that terrible” when compared to attacks by the IRA in Britain.
“September 11 was terrible, but if one goes back over the history of the IRA, what happened to the Americans wasn’t that terrible,” the Nobel Literature Prize winner told the leading Spanish daily El Pais.

“Some Americans will think I’m crazy. Many people died, two prominent buildings fell, but it was neither as terrible nor as extraordinary as they think. They’re a very naive people, or they pretend to be,” she said in an interview published Sunday.

“Do you know what people forget? That the IRA attacked with bombs against our government; it killed several people while a Conservative congress was being held and in which the prime minister, Margaret Thatcher, was (attending). People forget,” she said.

Nearly 3,000 people were killed in the Sept. 11 attacks. About 3,700 died and tens of thousands of people were maimed in more than 30 years of violence in Northern Ireland. The Irish Republican Army guerrilla group, which caused most of the deaths, disarmed in 2005.[Emphasis Added]

Following the logic of this Nobel prizewinner, those killled at the hands of the IRA would not be significant historically as they lost fewer people than were murdered during the Holocaust and those in Israel who have suffered due to terrorism for any years should just keep a stiff upper lip because after all their numbers simply cannot compare with the death toll overall in WWII.

To follow this pattern would be simple poppycock. Ms. Lessing is out of line in her comments.

We in the United States mourn the deaths of innocents all over the world, not just our own, but 9/11/01 will live forever in the minds of those who experienced the horror of that day. The lives lost not only in those two tall structures but in Washington and Pennsylvania will not be forgotten.

We are not a naive people and we certainly are not ignorant enough to tell you Ms. Lessing that any life is deemed more important than another when it is wiped away in an instant by those who hate. You may have your esteemed prize, but we in the United States have dignity, compassion and a deep sense of committment to our allies and friends around the world and the many they have lost in senseless acts.

By the way, when Ms. Lessing was contacted for comment this was the reply:

Attempts by The Associated Press to reach Lessing in London for comment Monday were unsuccessful. Her agent’s office said the author was unavailable because she was not feeling well.

Indeed.