BATAVIA, Ohio (AP) - The father of a soldier listed as missing-captured in Iraq since 2004 said Sunday that the military had informed him that his son’s remains were found in Iraq.

Keith Maupin said at a news conference in suburban Cincinnati that an Army general told him DNA testing had identified the remains of his son, Sgt. Keith Matthew Maupin, or “Matt” as he was commonly known.

Lt. Lee Packnett, an Army public affairs officer in Washington, confirmed that the Maupins were notified Sunday that their son’s remains had been identified. Packnett said an official statement about the identification would be released Monday.

Matt Maupin was a 20-year-old private first class when he was captured April 9, 2004, after his fuel convoy, part of the 724th Transportation Company, was ambushed west of Baghdad.

A week later, the Arab television network Al-Jazeera aired a videotape showing Maupin sitting on the floor surrounded by five masked men holding automatic rifles.

That June, Al-Jazeera aired another tape purporting to show a U.S. soldier being shot. But the dark and grainy tape showed only the back of the victim’s head and not the actual shooting.

Full Story Here:
Remains ID’d As Missing Ohio Soldier’s

Rest in Peace Matt, you served bravely and you did your duty, you’re coming home now, and your Mom and Dad can have some peace in just knowing your fate, I hate the word closure, but for lack of a better word, maybe they can finally have some closure.

All our love and sympathy to the Maupin family, and to ALL the families of our brave troops that have given their lives in the line of duty.

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A special thanks to these wonderful folks, they all either commented, blogged or did both regarding Matt Maupin, you folks are the very best!! If I have missed anyone, I DO apologize, drop me an email and let me know, I will gladly include you in this list of GREAT bloggers!!

The Ranando Report, Bloviating Zeppelin, RTaylor, Right Truth, Marilyn, Chicago Ray, The BoBo Files, Patrick Sperry, GM Roper, GuyK, ablur, Jenn of the Jungle, An Ol’ Broad’s Ramblings, Driving Out The Snakes , I’m Thinking of the “O” Word, Southern Sass on Crime, ARRA News Service

(CBS/AP) Congress is looking into the collection boxes of some of the nation’s best-known televangelists.

Their tax-exempt ministries take in millions and now Iowa Sen. Charles Grassley, the top Republican on the Senate Finance Committee, is asking whether these churches really are non-profits.

Georgia megachurch pastor Creflo Dollar is one of the televangelists who was asked to provide financial information.

“We don’t have any problems complying to a valid request,” Dollar told CBS News’ The Early Show co-anchor Julie Chen.

But he questioned whether it was appropriate for the Senate Finance Committee “to become a tax examiner and to get involved in the information of private, nonprofit organizations when the IRS has already been assigned that responsibility.”

Asked about some specific assertions by Grassley, Dollar denied that two Rolls-Royces were purchased by the church for him and his wife.

“That’s not true. First of all, we don’t have two Rolls-Royces,” he said. “And secondly, the one Rolls-Royce that was purchased was purchased by the donors, or the members of the church, and it was a surprise to me. I had no idea they were doing it.”

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Televangelist Defends Spending

Look, if the people that attend this guys church want to give their money to buy him and his wife a Rolls Royce, that’s their business, and I’m pretty sure it’s a nice ride, way the hell over rated in my opinion, but expensive, a show off, a lot like a trophy wife, that sort of thing…

Here’s something that I have to wonder about, wouldn’t a preacher be OK with living a normal, upper middle class lifestyle?? Wouldn’t that provide all the comforts needed?? Many of these mega-church guys are living an opulent lifestyle, one that could support MANY poor and underprivileged people, it seems to me that some folks, preachers included, are a lot more concerned with living a luxurious lifestyle in a palatial setting than they are with helping the less fortunate, and that’s good I guess, it’s their business and I am not trying to tell them how to live, IF they are rich themselves and paying for that lifestyle out of their own pockets from their own earnings, but I personally see it as pretentious to live that lifestyle as a preacher when the sole point of your ministry is to maintain that lifestyle for yourself…

I have nothing against anyone living a sumptuous lifestyle but when that person is a tax exempt organization, as these mega-churches are, well, it tends to throw up a few red flags for me, their leaders don’t have to live in abject poverty but living in the ostentatious style that many do just seems to project the wrong image in MY opinion…

They don’t have to live in poverty but don’t beg ME for money and then hang a new diamond necklace on your wife…

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(CBS/AP) Religious broadcaster Pat Robertson, a prominent Christian leader and social conservative, endorsed former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani for the Republican nomination for president.

“It is my pleasure to announce my support for America’s Mayor, Rudy Giuliani, a proven leader who is not afraid of what lies ahead and who will cast a hopeful vision for all Americans,” Robertson said during a news conference with Giuliani in Washington.

CBS News senior political editor Vaughn Ververs said Robertson’s endorsement should provide a boost for Giuliani’s campaign.

“Conservatives suspicious of Giuliani’s positions on issues like abortion and gun control may give the former mayor another look as a result of Robertson’s support,” Ververs said. “Many other conservative leaders have endorsed other candidates and, as long as they do not coalesce among one single candidate, that’s good news for Giuliani.”

The former New York mayor backs abortion rights and gay rights, positions that put him in conflict with GOP orthodoxy, and has been trying to convince cultural conservatives to overlook their differences with him on those issues. That makes the support of a high-profile religious conservative like Robertson a particular boon.

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Pat Robertson Endorses Giuliani

Hypocrisy at it’s VERY best, Pat Robertson is a pandering slug himself, if he can support Giuliani, in ANY way, given Giuliani’s supports of abortion and queers, then Robertson is as big a moonbat as Giuliani, not to mention the previous statements made by Robertson…

Giuliani is best known to voters for leading New York in the aftermath of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. Shortly after 9/11, Robertson released a statement in which he said the attacks occurred because Americans had insulted God and lost the protection of heaven by allowing abortion and “rampant Internet pornography.”

One moonbat offering support to another, this SOB makes John F’n Kerry look pretty good, Robertson has ‘flip-flop’ down to a science, and he looks so damned sincere in doing so and Giuliani is convincing the Repubs that he’s a sincere conservative…

America is already in some deep crapola my friends, and if we happen to get Rudy Giuliani foisted off on us as POTUS, then America is done, and if you are supporting Rudy Giuliani all you’re really doing is supporting an ultra-lib Democrat in disguise…

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WASHINGTON (AP) — Several hundred U.S. diplomats vented anger and frustration Wednesday about the State Department’s decision to force foreign service officers to take jobs in Iraq, with some likening it to a “potential death sentence.”

In a contentious hourlong town-hall meeting, they peppered officials responsible for the order with often hostile complaints about the largest diplomatic call-up since Vietnam. Announced last week, it will require some diplomats — under threat of dismissal — to serve at the embassy in Baghdad and in reconstruction teams in outlying provinces.

Many expressed serious concern about the ethics of sending diplomats against their will to serve in a war zone, where the embassy staff is largely confined to the protected “Green Zone,” and safety outside the area is uncertain while a review of the department’s use of private security contractors to protect its staff is underway.

“Incoming is coming in every day, rockets are hitting the Green Zone,” said Jack Croddy, a senior foreign service officer who once worked as a political adviser with NATO forces.

He and others confronted Foreign Service Director General Harry Thomas, who approved the move to “directed assignments” late last Friday to make up for a lack of volunteers willing to go to Iraq.

Full Story Here:
U.S. diplomats vent over forced Iraq duty

Our troops don’t have a choice, they have to be there, if you want PEACE then you have to have DIPLOMACY to make it happen, that endeavor requires diplomats, and that’s YOUR job, DO IT or get out of the business, suck it up and stop crying, life is NOT fair, this is the job YOU signed on for and you ALL sound like a bunch of wussies…

Anyone want to take bets as to how long before this bunch of cowardly asshats will be screaming that they REALLY DO need people like Blackwater USA to protect them??

“Who’s going to take care of our families if we get hurt or killed?”, that pretty much seems to be the biggest excuse we’re hearing for NOT wanting to go to Iraq and to that I have to say, why, the very same people that are taking care of our wounded troops and the families of our deceased troops, cheer up, you’re in good hands, don’t worry, YOUR government is in charge and will provide care for you…

As far as I am concerned the most serious point of this story would be the questions it poses??

Aren’t we being told, EVERY DAY, that Iraq is safer, Iraq is under control, we are winning hearts and minds, deaths and injuries are WAY down, we are IN CONTROL, isn’t that what the White House is telling us, every day?? Isn’t that what all the Bush Bots sites preach to us??

Isn’t that the rationale being used to BS the American people into being quiet as even MORE of our BILLIONS in tax dollars are wasted in an effort that is NOT going to end in our lifetime??

Well, my BIG question is this, IF Iraq is all those things, WHY are the guys in the Diplomatic Corps crying like little yard bitches that just got slapped?? You don’t suppose they actually know something that the Bush administration isn’t telling us do you?? Like maybe the REAL story about Iraq?? The story that I and many others have been trying to convince folks of for quite some time now??

Surely not…

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