http://www.liveleak.com/browse?q=TOUR Thu, 20 Jun 2013 00:46:23 -0400 Liveleak http://edge.liveleak.com/80281E/u/u/ll2/logo.gif http://www.liveleak.com/browse?q=TOUR Wed, 19 Jun 2013 10:56:08 -0400 http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=51d_1371653530 Grace37 Rihanna might be unapologetic about most of her actions, but the pop star might want to reconsider saying sorry for clocking a fan with her microphone. During the Birmingham stop of her Diamonds world tour, one overzealous fan in the front row grabbed Rihanna, 25, as she sauntered by during a song, refusing to let go of her. The singer tried to keep walking, but when she couldn't shake the fan's grip Rihanna turned around and hit the person with her microphone. It's unclear if the fan was injured or exactly where the person was hit, but according to reports the singer may have smacked the fan's face or head. Several viewers said the "Diamonds" singer should have let her security guards handle the situation - especially since the person can now take legal action if badly injured. http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=51d_1371653530 Grace37 Rihanna clocks fan with microphone rihanna, hit, fan, microphone, bitch, diamonds, tour Wed, 19 Jun 2013 22:24:18 -0400 http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=b31_1371694972 USMC_SRT The first female soldier to shoot a 120mm illumination round from a mortar tube in Afghanistan is from a Female Engagement Team (FET) attached to Charlie Battery, 2nd Battalion, 3rd Field Artillery Regiment. Spc. Nicole McFarland shot her first mortar round on the US Army's 238th birthday."I didn't know what was going on until they made me get up there and hang the round," said McFarland, "After I heard the round leave the tube, I felt relieved. It was a great birthday present." McFarland was not able to properly celebrate her birthday, May 10. Turning 42 years old during a two day mission is not what she expected. The mission was to support the Afghan National Security Force as they patrolled around a village, which they have not entered in four years. "My mission was to help set up an assembly area and stay the night," said McFarland, "During the night, my 1st Sergeant told me that he would give me my birthday present back on the COP." Combat Out Post (COP) Little Blue is the home to Charlie Battery, and Charlie "Carnage" Troop, 6th Squadron, 1st Cavalry Regiment. "Carnage" Troop operates the 120mm mortar tube, which McFarland used for the first time. "After many classes on how to load and shoot a mortar round, I knew what to do," said McFarland, "My 1st Sergeant then held a training exercise during the night hours. Everything looks different in the dark, especially trying to hang an illumination round over a mortar tube." After a successful training mission, McFarland was greeted with a flash from a camera and a surprise birthday message from 1st Sgt. Erick Figueroa. "I want to dedicate the round to not only my birthday, but also to my daughter who just graduated high school," said McFarland, "I'm so proud of her." McFarland has three daughters and one son. She joined the US Army three years ago as a transportation specialist driving trucks. She then joined the FET in hopes of making a difference in Afghanistan. This is her second deployment from an earlier tour in Iraq. Before she joined the Army, she owned a snow mobile business as well as owned a gun club. "I am very happy that 1st Sergeant Figueroa of Charlie Battery allowed me to shoot a mortar round," said McFarland, "I am also proud to be part of the FET." http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=b31_1371694972 USMC_SRT Female Soldier Takes First Shot in the Dark Female, Soldier, USA, Army, FET Wed, 19 Jun 2013 22:04:51 -0400 http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=ed4_1371693630 Detroit Iron By Steve Appleford Rolling Stone For a full decade, the Doors were at war with one another, entangled in dueling lawsuits and memoirs and locked in disputes over the licensing of their music and use of the Doors name on the road. But when keyboardist Ray Manzarek was hospitalized this year with a rare form of cancer, communications between the old friends and collaborators finally began to thaw. "The inner circle knew Ray had cancer for a while," drummer John Densmore tells Rolling Stone of his former bandmate, who died last month in Germany. "Then I heard he was really sick and called him. He said thank you for the prayers and told me chemo was fucked. So there was a closing, thank God." 500 Greatest Albums of All Time: The Doors, 'The Doors' In a new book, The Doors Unhinged, Densmore writes of the unexpected break in the band's long partnership that continued even after Jim Morrison's death in 1971. The trouble began when Densmore refused to sign off on a lucrative deal to sell "Break On Through (To the Other Side)" to a 2002 Cadillac commercial and intensified when Manzarek and guitarist Robby Krieger began touring as the Doors of the 21st Century. The book opens with a scene of Morrison enraged and hurt after the band licensed "Light My Fire" for a 1968 Buick commercial in his absence, and picks up decades later in a courtroom, with Densmore suing to stop use of the Doors name on tour. He was countersued for $40 million in damages for the drummer's refusal to accept the Cadillac deal and other offers. Densmore prevailed, and along the way he shares stories from the band's history, about getting moral support from Tom Waits and Eddie Vedder, and of finally meeting Morrison's parents. The self-published book has Densmore on a new tour of indie record stores for signings, including a stop last week at Amoeba in Hollywood, which drew several hundred fans. Doors activity has never stopped, with last year's collaboration with Skrillex, "Breakin' a Sweat," and a comprehensive iPad app released in May; Densmore expects to join Krieger for a live tribute to Manzarek in Los Angeles. For years, the Doors always seemed to be on the same page, then something went sour. We were always on the same page musically. You did a VH1 Storytellers special in 2001, the American Prayer album in 1978 and many other things together after Jim died. The Doors are back on our hinges. Ray and Robby - I just think they made a mistake thinking the Doors without Jim, like the Police without Sting. That's straightened out. It was a really rough struggle. What made you want to write a book on this very specific event in the Doors story? When it was over, I was very pleased that Jim's estate and I persevered, but it was pretty rigorous. In the beginning, when I started the lawsuit, the hardcore fans thought I was ruining the band. I really wanted for anyone who was interested to see the journey I went through and what I was trying to do. And maybe it's metaphoric for other people's personal struggles with money. In there I say, "Money is like fertilizer: when it's hoarded, it stinks. When spread around, stuff grows." You include a moment when the Doors had new managers who approached Jim with something like "You don't really need these guys. You're the star." What was Jim's reaction to that? The managers said, "You're the money. Dump these guys." And at the next rehearsal, he says, "Let's dump them!" We were really equal. And that's why somehow, even for L.A. Woman, where Jim was clearly an alcoholic with a disease, when we were alone we were blessed by the muse. We don't own that. The book opens with a pretty dark scene: Morrison is enraged about a deal the band made to sell "Light My Fire" to a Buick commercial. I'm very proud of the first two words of the book: "Fuck you!" You describe it not just as a blowup but an actual turning point, shaking trust within the band. What blows my mind is that "Light My Fire" was primarily Robby's song - Jim threw in "love become a funeral pyre." Typical Morrison. If he flips out over "Come on, Buick, light my fire," what does that mean about his caring for the whole catalog, everything we represented? I'm not going to forget that. Early on, the Doors decided to split and credit everything equally. Was that from conviction, or were you not yet educated about the standard ways of the music business? That was Jim's suggestion before we ever had a record deal, before we had a gig. It was maybe na"ive, but he could have later changed it, and didn't. He was the lyricist and could have got half of everything. What does that say about what mattered to him? Community. Amazing. There's sacredness when people are committed together for something. It was once the norm for bands to refuse to sell their music for commercials, but now that's flipped around. If you're a new band trying to pay the rent, then what the hell, do what you've got to do. But if you get going and you've got a toehold on success, you might want to look at that again. Tom Waits wrote a letter in response to my article in the Nation that said, "You want to look at changing your lyrics into a jingle. Is that what you want to do? Then it's the sound of coins in your pocket." I love that guy. It's a big question. And I have Pete Townshend say in Rolling Stone, "You fell in love to Shirley to my song? I don't give a fuck about Shirley, I'll do what I want." True. The Doors aren't billionaires, but we have deep pockets. I know that Ray and Robby, like me, have a nice house and a couple of groovy cars, so I'm going to veto this stuff. If they were struggling, it might be different. I knew money was going to be a very volatile subject. I've already been called a socialist elitist weirdo from the right. In the book, you seemed especially hurt by the break with Robby. Well, we were best friends, and it really feels nice to connect again. I said to Robby a few weeks ago in an email: "Let's have our musical reunion for Ray. Let's play some Doors songs at the Whisky or Wiltern - there's a lot of great musicians in L.A. that we know and love and admire the band. I'd like to break the ice that way." It should happen pretty soon. The three of you did appear on a Skrillex track last year. That was fun. At first, I was like, drum machines? When drum machines were first invented, Ringo said, "I'm the drum machine!" We pride ourselves on the groove. But I was into electronic music in high school - Stockhausen, Stravinsky, Schoenberg. I met and he's a musician and plays guitar and piano. I needed to hear the stuff before I committed. It's got to feel right, and it did. In fact, I called him a month or two ago, and said, "I've got a beat that I think would fit with you . . ." You were joined in your lawsuit by Morrison's parents. I never thought that entering into this horrible train wreck would produce a blessing like meeting Jim's dad. Wow. Here's this guy who was on the other side of the fence during Vietnam. He was over there on a battleship, and we wrote "The Unknown Soldier" against it. He at 86 comes to support Jim's legacy? Whoa. Did you discuss "The End" with his father by any chance? I heard that he got nervous when he heard it. Getting to know him, did it tell you something about Jim that you didn't know before? Maybe there was a will, a strong sense of presence. Jim had that too. Jim had a will to get this rock concert he heard in his head before he even met us to come to fruition. Maybe there's something there. http://music.yahoo.com/news/q-john-densmore-reconciling-doors-160527506-rolling-stone.html http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=ed4_1371693630 Detroit Iron Q&amp;A: John Densmore on Reconciling With the Doors the Doors, John Densmore Wed, 19 Jun 2013 16:27:35 -0400 http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=5c0_1371673229 dcmfox By Marc Fortier and Tony Schinella CONCORD, N.H. - An anti-gun violence rally at the Statehouse plaza on Tuesday turned ugly when gun rights supporters turned out to protest the event and one pro-gun advocate had to be Tasered by Concord Police after resisting their efforts to detain him. Daniel Musso, 52, of Brentwood attempted to interject commentary while John Cantin of Manchester was speaking about his efforts to influence U.S. Sen. Kelly Ayotte , R-NH, on the background check issue. Musso, who was wearing a pro-Native American rights T-shirt, asked Cantin to take his glasses off and later, challenged Cantin's statements and statistics. Private security hired by the Mayors Against Illegal Guns group asked Musso to leave but he didn't budge. After a few minutes, Musso threw up his hands and left Cantin's side. ALSO READ: Gun Owners Crash Anti-Gun Violence Rally in Concord Later, police were led by the private security team to Musso's location, interspersed with other gun rights advocates and began speaking with him. A scuffle broke out and three officers attempted to subdue Musso. The three officers eventually pinned Musso up against the Greater Concord Chamber of Commerce information booth in the plaza and repeatedly warned him to stop resisting while he denied he was resisting. An officer kneed Musso and he was then Tasered by another officer and brought to the ground before being taken into custody. Musso was charged with disorderly conduct, resisting arrest, and two counts of simple assault, allegedly against a person who was attending the rally and a police officer. He was held on $5,000 cash bail, and will be on arraigned June 19. Police issued an all-units alert to Main Street, with at least eight or nine cruisers at the scene, and a number of state troopers. The 5 p.m. rally was organized by the Mayors Against Illegal Guns group , which is in the process of visiting 25 states this summer to raise awareness about gun violence and the group's belief that more laws are needed. Things started to get rowdy shortly after the rally began, as gun rights advocates staged their own counter rally. Some gun rights advocates at the scene were yelling things like "Bloomberg go home!" trying to interrupt the proceedings, but the speaker just continued, speaking louder. New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg is part of the Mayors Against Illegal Guns effort. As of 6 p.m. the anti-gun rally was continuing, with organizers continuing to read a list of names of gun violence victims. http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=5c0_1371673229 dcmfox Police Taser Gun Rights Advocate at Anti-Gun Violence Rally Daniel Musso, Mayors Against Illegal Guns, Patch Clips, Second Amendment, Statehouse, Taser, and gun rights Sun, 16 Jun 2013 21:05:48 -0400 http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=68a_1371430077 Omar-knows A poet in Colombia wants to go to Europe so much that he's willing to fund the trip in a very ballsy way: selling his testicles. Rafael Medina Brochero,52, is selling the matching set of semen-producing genitalia for the lump sum of $20,000 to fund a European tour in which he'll participate in "Poetry for Peace in Colombia," according to ColombiaReports.com. Brochero did not say whether the surgery would be covered in the $20,000, but he said the presumedly used testes might be able to be transplanted into a sterile person or used to make soup, Yahoo! Australia reported. It might be a desperate way to raise money, but Brochero sees it as addition by subtraction. The poet simply doesn't want to repeat an experience he had while touring Bolivia last year when he ran out of cash and had to pawn his wedding ring,TheNewAge.co.za reported. Journalist Scott Carney , author of "The Red Market: On the Trail of the World's Organ Brokers, Bone Thieves, Blood Farmers, and Child Traffickers" (Harper Collins), said Brochero's ballsy sale must be considered an art project because there is no real market for testicles. "There is no real value for any body part," Carney told The Huffington Post. "It's what gets negotiated, like a used car." -------------------- Read The Rest On HuffingtonPost.. http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=68a_1371430077 Omar-knows Colombian Poet Selling His Testicles To Raise Money For His European <span class="highlight">Tour</span>.. testicle, selling, Colombian, man, raise, fund, tour, Europe, body, part, poet, poetry Thu, 13 Jun 2013 15:47:20 -0400 http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=e80_1371152650 white tigers france is being over taken by muslims http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=e80_1371152650 white tigers <span class="highlight">Tour</span> de france muslim, france, cowards, surrender monkies , cheese , snails, garlic Sun, 16 Jun 2013 11:05:35 -0400 http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=0dd_1371394255 JohnnyZap This is an older video but I searched and have not found it ever on LL. Was filmed by EU and USA manufacturers on a tour of factories best practices in China. The press the workers are sitting in is about 600 - 1,000 tons of pressure. Normally, there are metal guards/screens all around the press that would prevent you from getting close enough to get hurt and the parts are removed either by machine or by hand only after the press has stopped and is locked in the up location. This answers the question of why the Chinese can make parts so much cheaper than the rest of the world. And if a worker gets hurt or killed, there's a line of 50 waiting to take his place. http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=0dd_1371394255 JohnnyZap Chinese Stamping Press Load/Unload System.. On the cheap Dangerous, Stamping Press, Chinese, China, manufacturing, worker safety Sat, 15 Jun 2013 22:33:16 -0400 http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=14a_1371349793 USMC_SRT Military dog tags serve a grim purpose, to identify the war dead. They are at once the most generic and personal artifacts of any veteran's service. Lanny Martinson lost his during the Vietnam War. On June 4, 1968, he was a 23-year-old Marine at Khe Sanh when his right leg was blown up by an enemy land mine. He came home after the amputation in a wheelchair, without his dog tags. "I just figured they'd gotten rid of them when they ripped off my clothes to operate on me," he said. Martinson loved the Marines, wanted a career out of it. So even as that dream died, even as he suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder and survivor's guilt - others died in the same minefield that took his leg - he didn't regret his time in the military. In fact, he'd finally decided he should order new dog tags when the phone rang recently at his house in Sugar Land, Texas, near Houston. The caller asked for his name and said, "I think I have something that belongs to you." It was one of his dog tags, found amid the overgrown remnants of the airstrip at Khe Sanh. Now, thanks in part to the efforts of a Chula Vista woman, the tag will soon be back in the hands of its owner, 45 years after it disappeared. "Overwhelming," Martinson said. "It's like I left a part of me over there and somehow it's made its way back to me from a dark place." The welcome home that Vietnam vets never got after the war - he feels like he's getting it now, Martinson said. It makes him cry. It makes Tanna Toney-Ferris cry, too. She's the Chula Vista woman, a Harley-riding wife of a Navy vet. She has a soft spot for the military and a knack for reuniting veterans with their lost dog tags. She's done it two other times in the past seven years. This time she had a lot of help, from a Vietnam War buff in Australia to a motorcycle mechanic in Glendora to legions of Marines on the Internet. Sometimes it really is a small world. "A dog tag," she said, "is the closest thing to any soldier's heart." Spreading the wordFor the past seven years, John Naismith has traveled from Australia with his wife to teach English to children in Vietnam for a nonprofit called Project Indochina. When he's not in the classroom, his "keen interest" in the war takes him to battlefields and monuments. About two years ago, he was at Khe Sanh, site of a famous, months-long siege in 1968. He visited a museum there and then walked over to what used to be the airstrip, now mostly covered with brush and trees. "As I was walking through the undergrowth," he said in an email, "I saw something bright shining in the sunlight." He brought the tag home. It had the last name "Martinson" on it and the initials L.P. It listed the service branch as USMC and the religious affiliation as Lutheran. Naismith checked the names on the Vietnam Wall of those killed in the war, available through the Internet, and none matched what was on the tag. He figured the Marine had survived the war, and tried without success to find him. Eventually he gave the tag to a friend, Charlie Fagan, who runs Good Time Charlie's, a motorcycle repair shop in Glendora. "It touched my heart," Fagan said. He contacted a Vietnam vet he knows, and word eventually got to Toney-Ferris in Chula Vista. "Everybody's put on this Earth for a reason," the 54-year-old self-described housewife said. "I guess this is mine." Back in 2006, she returned dog tags she found encrusted in a fist-sized rock in Imperial Beach to their owner, a Wisconsin tour-bus driver who lost them in the surf during Navy training off Coronado in 1969. She also returned dog tags from World War II, found in a San Diego dump, to a deceased Marine's son living in South Carolina. "It was amazing that someone would go to the effort to find me," said Don Aycock. "It wasn't just a piece of metal to her." He put the tag on a chain and wore it for several years until he got worried he'd lose it. Now he keeps it in a box. With Martinson's tag, Toney-Ferris flooded the Internet with postings on various veterans websites. She sent a friend request to a Vietnam vet Facebook page, where the administrator, Bob "Sparky" Sparks, who lives in Florida, saw it. "We gotta do this," Sparks said. Last Wednesday, he sent the post through a Marine network that has some 550,000 members. The hunt was on. Eventually a Marine sleuth found Martinson in Texas and called him. Another sent a message to Martinson's Facebook page. "I can't tell you how much this means to me," Martinson wrote in an email to Sparks. "It brings it all back again, the men I lost, whose names are on the Wall, and the wounded that are now like me. I am trying to write this with tears running down my cheeks." Changing his mindLike a lot of Marines in Vietnam, Martinson wore one dog tag around his neck and the other laced into a boot because the awful truth is that sometimes the killing didn't leave bodies intact. Tags in different places improved the odds for a successful identification. He doesn't know which tag is the one Naismith found. He doesn't know how it got on the airstrip. He doesn't much care. It's precious regardless. "I have to tell you, I've gotten a little cynical about whether people care anymore," he said. "Memorial Day for most people is just a day off, a good excuse for a picnic or a barbecue. They don't remember what it's supposed to be about." But this business with the dog tag "may be making me change my mind about all that. All the efforts to find me are just incredible." People have been sending him friend requests on Facebook, calling him a hero. He doesn't like that. "The ones who came back are survivors," he said. "The ones who are on the Wall, those are the heroes." Other people have sent him a different message, one that suits him just fine. "Welcome home," they say. http://bcove.me/7a67wgfw http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=14a_1371349793 USMC_SRT Long way home for Marine's dog tag USMC, Marine, Vet, Dog, Tags Sat, 15 Jun 2013 08:49:55 -0400 http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=e12_1371299969 dfaugust ~......for the children. You may not be able to tour the White House because of the spending increase slowdown from sequestration, but the Obama family can tour Africa for the small sum of $60 or $100 million. President Barack Obama will hold bilateral meetings with leaders in Senegal, South Africa, and Tanzania between June 26 and July 3, and the wife and kids are going along for the ride. The Obama family vacation will include air transportation for 56 vehicles, among them 14 parade limousines, trucks carrying bulletproof glass to install at hotels, and two ambulances: one for dealing with biological and chemical contaminants, one with x-ray equipment. Adding to the costs are 100 Secret Service Agents for the first three cities on the itinerary, 65 agents at the fourth, and 80 to 100 more to guard the Obama family 24/7. Further, a U.S. Navy aircraft carrier functioning as a hospital comes with the package, and fighter jets will patrol the area 24/7. The White House had planned a safari with 35 more security agents. Why so many? The Washington Post , which saw those plans nixed once it asked questions about the cost of the Africa trip, said the 35 agents were "the president's special counter-assault team to carry sniper rifles with high-caliber rounds that could neutralize cheetahs, lions or other animals if they became a threat, according to the planning document." Obama's deputy national security adviser Ben Rhodes explained the trip's cost are so high because it is the first substantial presidential delegation to sub-Saharan Africa. He added, "The infrastructure that accompanies the president's travels is beyond our control. The security requirements are not White House-driven, they are Secret Service-driven... Part of this is the nature of making sure we travel to emerging areas in Southeast Asia, Latin America and Africa. They are not as designed to facilitate the footprint of the United States president." http://www.breitbart.com/Big-Government/2013/06/13/Report-Obama-Family-s-Africa-trip-Will-Cost-60-To-100-million http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=e12_1371299969 dfaugust Report: Obama Family's Africa Trip Will Cost $60 to $100 Million obama, clinton, kerry, joe biden, pelosi, reid, bohener, liars, thieves Thu, 13 Jun 2013 21:57:12 -0400 http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=460_1371174926 USMC_SRT The drive to become a Marine and gain acceptance into the tight-knit family is what drove SSgt Monica Paz to enlist during July 2000. A veteran of two previous combat deployments to Iraq, Paz is currently serving as the accounting division chief and squadron support division chief for Marine Aviation Logistics Squadron 16, 3rd Marine Aircraft Wing (Forward), in Helmand province, Afghanistan. "I originally wanted to go to college, but I really wasn't set on what I wanted to study and didn't want to waste my parents' money," said Paz, from Miami. "The Marine Corps was the hardest. It seemed like it was the most challenging branch of the military. I didn't want to regret something that I didn't do, and my mother always encouraged me to go ahead and accomplish something no matter how hard it was." When Paz left for recruit training , she had no idea what her job would be in the Marine Corps. "My main focus was, 'I'm going to be a Marine.' I didn't care what job they gave me," Paz said. Although Paz came in with an open contract, she has worked to become a proficient leader along with being skilled at her job. "As a Marine, she's top notch," said MGySgt Robert Mena, aviation supply chief with MALS-16, 3rd MAW (Fwd). "She's well rounded and embodies the whole Marine concept. She definitely has a very positive staff noncommissioned officer future ahead of her. She's a mentor to a lot of Marines. She's fantastic at her job, and I couldn't ask for anything better. She's motivated and is constantly seeking improvement and trying to make processes better. I always admire SNCOs who try to streamline processes for their Marines." During her 12 years in the Marine Corps, Paz's most difficult tour was her time as a drill instructor at Marine Corps Recruit Depot Parris Island , S.C. Paz reported to the drill field during July 2007. Paz noted both the mental and physical challenges associated with becoming a drill instructor. "It was the toughest thing I have ever done," Paz said "In my mind, it's harder than deploying. Physically it hurt. It was one of the biggest sacrifices I've ever had to make both to my time and my body, and mentally, it was hard." Paz credits her desire to be a drill instructor to her former drill instructors. "My drill instructors are what motivated me to follow in their footsteps," Paz said. "I saw them, and they were extremely tough. They didn't allow us to be mediocre, and they pushed us to the limit. I know that they changed my life." Since leaving the drill field, Paz has run into several of her former recruits both in garrison and while deployed to Afghanistan. "It's really good when you get to see former recruits be successful," Paz said. "Even if they don't re-enlist and decide to get out, they're on the right path to having successful futures . They've gained a lot of knowledge being in the Marine Corps." Sgt Brenna Aspera, a radio chief with Marine Wing Support Squadron 373, 3rd MAW (Fwd), is a former recruit of Paz's and was able to see her former drill instructor while deployed to Afghanistan. "It's pretty cool because the Marine Corps is pretty small, so being able to run into someone you knew from so long ago out here in Afghanistan is crazy," Aspera said. Aspera has plans of becoming a drill instructor herself and said she will try to mirror Paz's dedication. "I was actually thinking about becoming a drill instructor because I need to do a (secondary billet) soon," Aspera said. "I will definitely try to emulate Sgt Paz and what she was as a drill instructor. She was a good drill instructor. She was definitely somebody to look up to." After completing her tour on the drill field, Paz found out she had an issue with her spine. "For a moment I thought I was done with the Marine Corps," Paz said. "I thought that I wouldn't be able to stay in. I had spinal cord surgery after completing my time in the drill field and finding out I had a serious spinal cord problem. They had to go in there and take out bits of my spine and everything. So it's been very hard to get back physically to where I am now." Despite her spinal cord injury, Paz will continue to push forward in the Marine Corps and hopes to serve 20 years before pursuing a job as a pharmacist. "It crosses every Marine's mind whether they want to stay in for the full 20 years or get out," Paz said. "It crossed my mind once or twice. But just the thought of waking up in the morning and not putting on my uniform or never being able to go to a Marine Corps Ball again just didn't feel right." During this deployment, Paz was working near the flight line when Camp Bastion was attacked, Sept. 14. "I was on the flight line when the Bastion attack was happening," Paz said. "It was very real. Being in the air wing, it's not very common for us to go through something like that. It was definitely an eye opener, but once everything was said and done and you saw how the Marines reacted, you witnessed that they did good things and what you taught them in boot camp still sticks with them to this day. They weren't afraid and they just did what they had to do." While deployed to Afghanistan in support of Operation Enduring Freedom, Paz will continue to look after the funding and ensure MALS-16 has enough equipment to accomplish their mission. * Motivated to become a Marine and defend her country, Staff Sgt. Monica Paz, a Miami native, enlisted in the Marine Corps during July 2000. A veteran of two previous combat deployments to Iraq, Paz is currently serving as the accounting division chief and squadron support division chief for Marine Aviation Logistics Squadron 16, 3rd Marine Aircraft Wing (Forward), in Helmand province, Afghanistan. http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=460_1371174926 USMC_SRT Despite spinal cord surgery, Marine continues to push forward on third combat deployment USMC, Marine, Spinal, Cord, Injury Sat, 08 Jun 2013 14:05:26 -0400 http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=9c7_1370714215 RECEP T ERDOGAN 5-6-13 Syria Rebel Commanders Tour Liberated Areas of Bosra Al Sham http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=9c7_1370714215 RECEP T ERDOGAN Syria Rebel Commanders <span class="highlight">Tour</span> Liberated Areas of Bosra Al Sham Syria Rebel Commanders Tour Liberated Areas of Bosra Al Sham Thu, 06 Jun 2013 10:48:42 -0400 http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=e80_1370530378 cajunmojo Philip Klein of the Washington Examiner observes that although the administration mocked Mitt Romney less than a year ago for suggesting that President Barack Obama undertook an "apology tour" to the Middle East in 2009, Obama's nominee to replace Susan Rice as UN Ambassador, Samantha Power, advocated just that.In a 2003 op-ed attacking the Bush administration in the liberal New Republic, Power proposed a "doctrine of the mea culpa" that would supposedly raise America's stature in the eyes of the world, likening it to the historic example of German Chancellor Willy Brandt kneeling at a Warsaw ghetto memorial: We need: a historical reckoning with crimes committed, sponsored, or permitted by the United States. This would entail restoring FOIA to its pre- Bush stature, opening the files, and acknowledging the force of a mantra we have spent the last decade promoting in Guatemala, South Africa, and Yugoslavia: A country has to look back before it can move forward. Instituting a doctrine of the mea culpa would enhance our credibility by showing that American decision-makers do not endorse the sins of their predecessors. When Willie Brandt went down on one knee in the Warsaw ghetto, his gesture was gratifying to World War II survivors, but it was also ennobling and cathartic for Germany. Would such an approach be futile for the United States? Contrary to Democrat accusations that Romney made up the apology tour scenario out of thin air, Power is on record pushing for U.S. foreign policy to be completely re-worked so as to tell the world we are sorry. Power even implied that the kinds of horrors Nazis committed toward Jews have been carried out by the U.S. against other people around the world. In that context, Obama's puzzling 2009 visit to Allied-bombed Dresden, on a tour that included the Buchenwald concentration camp, may seem to make sense after all. http://www.breitbart.com/Big-Peace/2013/06/05/Samantha-Power-Pushed-For-Apology-Tour http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=e80_1370530378 cajunmojo SAMANTHA POWER PUSHED FOR APOLOGY <span class="highlight">TOUR</span>; 'MEA CULPA' FOR U.S. 'CRIMES' obama, democrats, liberals, apology tour