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Letter to Editor in today's Rapid City Journal:Open invitationThis is an open invitation to all of those people who wrote opinion letters blaming Sen. Thune for Ellsworth's possible closure. I invite all of you to take the time again to...

I'm up in South Dakota right now for my birthday weekend, so expect blogging to be light. I'm also going to be helping my grandmother move today, so there's that. However, fear not: the drive for our local Sheriff's Relief...

From Rush Limbaugh: What we have seen in New Orleans -- and we have not seen it in Mississippi, and we have not seen it in Alabama -- what we have seen in New Orleans is first and foremost the...

Many would like you to believe that George Bush and our Congress were content with throwing the city of New Orleans to the wolves by cutting funding for flood control. Or maybe Congress was just listening to the New York...

I'm home in Nebraska from South Dakota, and am feeling quite cruddy. When you combine not feeling well with a "catch up" day at work (and add in some household chores you've been letting slide), this is not the way...

FEMA Dumps Brown As Katrina Relief Chief

Call a spade a spade: Pres. Bush appointing this guy as head of FEMA was NOT a positive move. Pulling him out of the Katrina situation into a role of "overall supervision" is effectively kicking him upstairs to get him out of the way.

This is a necessary move, and frankly, the Chief hopes that he is gracefully moved out altogether after some period of time, to complete the process of error correction.

His replacement, Coast Guard Admiral Thad Allen has HIS ducks in a row, and will be a major improvement.

I'm tremendously touched by the donations I've received so far for our local Sheriff's Relief Fund, a venture that aims to get a truckload of supplies delivered to Mississippi for distribution to local law enforcement/fire/EMT folks. (Click the link for...

Maybe you'd like to hear about a real American, somebody who honored the uniform he wears. This was e-mailed to the Chief, you may have seen it, but I haven't before, & think it it well worth some attention and thought:

Meet Brian Chontosh. Churchville-Chili Central School class of 1991. Proud graduate of the Rochester Institute of Technology. Husband and about-to-be father. First lieutenant (now Captain) in the United States Marine Corps. And a genuine hero. The Secretary of the Navy said so yesterday.

At 29 Palms in California, Brian Chontosh was presented with the Navy Cross, the second highest award for combat bravery the United States can bestow.

It was on the march into Baghdad. Brian Chontosh was a platoon leader rolling up Highway 1 in a humvee. When all hell broke loose. Ambush city.

The young Marines were being cut to ribbons. Mortars, machine guns, rocket propelled grenades. And the kid out of Churchville was in charge. It was do or die and it was up to him. So he moved to the side of his column, looking for a way to lead his men to safety. As he tried to poke a hole through the Iraqi line his humvee came under direct enemy machine gun fire.

Brian Chontosh gave the order to attack. He told his driver to floor the humvee directly at the machine gun emplacement that was firing at them. And he had the guy on top with the .50 cal unload on them. Within moments there were Iraqis slumped across the machine gun and Chontosh was still advancing, ordering his driver now to take the humvee directly into the Iraqi trench that was attacking his Marines.

Over into the battlement the humvee went and out the door Brian Chontosh bailed, carrying an M16 and a Beretta and 228 years of Marine Corps pride, and he ran down the trench, with its mortars and riflemen, machine-guns and grenadiers.

He fought with the M16 until it was out of ammo. Then he fought with the Beretta until it was out of ammo. Then he picked up a dead man's AK47 and fought with that until it was out of ammo. Then he picked up another dead man's AK47 and fought with that until it was out of ammo. At one point he even fired a discarded Iraqi RPG into an enemy cluster, sending attackers flying with its grenade explosion.

When he was done Brian Chontosh had cleared 200 yards of entrenched Iraqis from his platoon's flank. He had killed more than 20 and wounded at least as many more. But that's probably not how he would tell it. He would probably merely say that his Marines were in trouble, and he got them out of trouble.

The citation concluded: "By his outstanding display of decisive leadership, unlimited courage in the face of heavy enemy fire, and utmost devotion to duty, 1st Lt. Chontosh reflected great credit upon himself and upheld the highest traditions of the Marine Corps and the United States Naval Service."

NOT TYPICALLY BEING REPORTED BY THE MSM ? BUT CERTAINLY WORTHY OF NOTICE.

?People sleep peaceably in their beds because rough men stand ready to do violence on their behalf.? ? George Orwell

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