Bergdahl has been in militant hands since June 30, 2009, when he was captured in Afghanistan’s Paktika province.

More here Centcom

More here The Daily Beast

Not all of this on my part was meant to be silly. As a strong supporter of our Military I am very curious to hear what actually happened  to our soldiers in Sadr City.  The media has told their side but we haven’t been given the facts by the Soldiers who actually fought there.

“Despite ongoing progress and a never ending fight to have our voice heard, there is very little about our story that makes it onto the nightly news without a filter or an agenda.” Sgt Ludwig

Now  is that opportunity

I won’t try and speak for Sgt Ludwig you can find out who he is here and why telling this story is so very important to him.  I implore you to click on that link and read his story. We ask so much from our Soldiers and in return they give us everything they have. They ask so little in return and that is EXACTLY what we give them.  As little as we possibly can.  This just needs to change.

 It began as a confession, a letter to old friends, and an attempt to confront the things that I had experienced. My initial goal was to shed some light on what happened, the things I had to do, and why I’ll never be the same. As the project unfolded, however, it turned out that there was much more at stake than my own well-being…

Sixteen veterans commit suicide every day. Failed marriages among service members are more than 60% higher than they were in 2001. Pentagon studies now suggest that the average soldier who has spent ten years in the Army has spent more than five of those in combat. And even though we number in the millions, the veterans of Iraq and Afghanistan are still a relatively silent demographic. We are represented through faint caricatures of our true form, and surrounded by countless stigmas of assumption and stereotype. In reality, we are just like you: we are the same flesh and blood, with the same hopes and dreams – and yes, even the same political divisions and thoughts on the war.

Click here to view the video on YouTube.

Please support this project: Stryker : The Siege of Sadr City

Follow the project on Facebook

*Disclaimer – I am in no way affiliated with or receiving compensation for this project.

I pray that his family and friends will find peace in the grace of God.

RUSH:  How long’s it gonna be, folks, before we start seeing billboards all over, Florida, other upcoming primary states with Rick Perry on ‘em saying, “Miss me yet?”  How long’s that gonna be?  You remember when they had the George Bush billboards, “Miss me yet?” a couple months into the regime?

link here

There is no politician that will swoop down and save us and to believe that means we have abdicated our rights and responsibilities as American citizens. We can not expect change if do not stand up and do what needs to be done. We have no choice but to hold our government responsible on both sides. Sometimes this requires taking a stand that others may see as causing trouble or being provocative just for the sake of being so. I however salute Tim Thomas even though he is not a New York Ranger. (my team)

Bruins’ goalie Thomas declines White House visit

The Stanley Cup champion Boston Bruins visited the White House today to be honored by President Barack Obama, but the team’s star goaltender declined to attend for poltical reasons.

Goalie Tim Thomas releases statement explaining his decision.

“I believe the Federal government has grown out of control, threatening the Rights, Liberties, and Property of the People.

This is being done at the Executive, Legislative, and Judicial level. This is in direct opposition to the Constitution and the Founding Fathers vision for the Federal government.

Because I believe this, today I exercised my right as a Free Citizen, and did not visit the White House. This was not about politics or party, as in my opinion both parties are responsible for the situation we are in as a country. This was about a choice I had to make as an INDIVIDUAL.

Statement from Cam Neely President of the Boston Bruins.

“As an organization we were honored by President Obama’s invitation to the White House. It was a great day and a perfect way to cap our team’s achievement from last season. It was a day that none of us will soon forget. We are disappointed that Tim chose not to join us, and his views certainly do not reflect those of the Jacobs family or the Bruins organization.”

Cam Neely failed in his statement. He should have also included that even though the Bruin’s organization was disappointed by Thomas’s choice, They respected his right to have made it.

I’m heartbroken but I understand.  Governor Perry is dropping out of the race and it’s horrible but I get it. I’m not doing so well getting the “may endorse Gingrich thing” but I’ll work through it.

My hope is that someone else jumps in and we ride this thing like a wild bull right to the convention and tear down the walls. Conservatism needs to get louder and bang the drums harder. We need a more unified message so that good men and candidates like Rick Perry are not so easily destroyed.

We also need to revamp our primary system, what a joke it has become.

God Bless Governor Perry and his family – God Bless Texas and all the beautiful souls I have met that come from there.

Thank you Marcus Luttrell, Dakota Myer, Bobby Jindal, Sheriff Joe, and all the others who took this ride with us.  Thank you to the Perry supporters I’ve met on twitter.

I’m honored to have served on the same side as you.

Click here to view the video on YouTube.

SALEKHARD, Northern Siberia — In 1949, thousands of Russian political prisoners were ordered to a Siberian labor camp to build a railway. Many died trying to finish the rail line.

Today, Pastor Anatoly Marichev is honoring their memory by starting a house of worship, Good News Church, on the very spot that housed many of the prisoners.

The fruit is the Good News Church, a thriving evangelical congregation that has risen in the heart of the Siberian Tundra led by Marichev.

“People are turning to the Lord all over this region,” he said. “Families are being healed, people delivered from alcohol and drugs.”

The church was built in the exact location of Stalin’s 1950s railway labor camp.

“To have a spiritual center, a house of worship, in this location is not just symbolic — but also strategic,” Marichev noted.

“Once upon a time, a wish,
a promise of eternal love.
A smile, a lie, a last kiss,
and a simple ‘wait for me’.

‘Till death do us part’, you said,
and Death will part us for sure.
But to hold from that day forward,
my enslaved soul was left down.

And I hear the frogs croaking songs
telling me that it’s all my fault,
that I wait at the shade of the swamp
for a man that will never return.

Here, where the sun doesn’t shine,
the only woice I can reach
is the sad song of a lullaby
of a bell that tinkle in the air.

And when Death comes,
will you cry for me?
Will you be there by my side
at the edge of my last breath?

Past the point of no return,
there’s nothing left here for me.
My happy end is the curse
of a twisted fairy tale.”

Poem and artwork by Cris Ortega