USAF vet and ofttimes embedded blogger Jeff Emanuel reports on the latest Democrat “mix-up” on using images of foreign troops. This time it’s anti-war Rep. Tim Mahoney (D-FL) who mistakenly used an image of a Soviet WWII veteran in a “pro-troop” flyer distributed in May.

As Gateway Pundit points out, this is not the first time Democrats have accidentally used images of foreign troops (as well as faux photos of cheering “Democrats”) when attempting to show how they support American troops. One would think with as defensive as some of these folks get over accusations that they don’t support the military that the least they could do would be to make sure the images they use in the political advertising designed to overcome that perception are actually US troops.

Is that really too much to ask??

Against the odds, he eagerly does what few would be willing to try (via Cassy Fiano):

FORT BRAGG, N.C. — When Capt. Ivan Castro joined the Army, he set goals: to jump out of planes, kick in doors and lead soldiers into combat. He achieved them all. Then the mortar round landed five feet away, blasting away his sight.

“Once you’re blind, you have to set new goals,” Castro said.

He set them higher.

Not content with just staying in the Army, he is the only blind officer serving in the Special Forces — the small, elite units famed for dropping behind enemy lines on combat missions.

As executive officer of the 7th Special Forces Group’s headquarters company in Fort Bragg, Castro’s duties don’t directly involve combat, though they do have him taking part in just about everything that leads up to it.

“I am going to push the limits,” the 40-year-old said. “I don’t want to go to Fort Bragg and show up and sit in an office. I want to work every day and have a mission.”

[...]

After 17 months in recovery, Castro sought a permanent assignment in the service’s Special Operations Command, landing duty with the 7th Special Forces Group. He focuses on managerial tasks while honing the group’s Spanish training, a useful language for a unit that deploys regularly to train South American troops.

“I want to support the guys and make sure life is easier for those guys so that they can accomplish the mission,” he said.

Though not fully independent, he spent a weekend before starting his job walking around the Group area at Fort Bragg to know just where he was going. He carefully measured the steps from car to office.

“Obviously, he cannot do some things that a sighted person can do. But Ivan will find a way to get done whatever he needs to get done,” Mulholland said. “What I am most impressed with, though, is his determination to continue to serve his country after all that he’s been through.”

Read the whole thing to find out more about this inspirational hero (here’s more, via a Feb. 2008 CNN article). God bless you, Captain Castro!

Happy days are here again?

Seeking to beat back reports of a continuing rift, the Obama campaign announced today that Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) and former President Bill Clinton have talked by phone.

Obama campaign spokesman Bill Burton said: “Senator Obama had a terrific conversation with President Clinton and is honored to have his support in this campaign. He has always believed that Bill Clinton is one of this nation’s great leaders and most brilliant minds, and looks forward to seeing him on the campaign trail and receiving his counsel in the months to come.”

Bill Clinton spokesman Matt McKenna said in a statement, “President Clinton had a very good conversation with Senator Obama today. He renewed his offer to do whatever he can to ensure Senator Obama is our next President.

“President Clinton continues to be impressed by Senator Obama and the campaign he has run, and looks forward to campaigning for and with him in the months to come. The President believes that Senator Obama has been a great inspiration for millions of people around the country, and he knows that he will bring the change America needs as our next President.”

Well, um, considering this story, I guess I should say, “what a difference a few days makes”:

Mr Obama is expected to speak to Mr Clinton for the first time since he won the nomination in the next few days, but campaign insiders say that the former president’s future campaign role is a “sticking point” in peace talks with Mrs Clinton’s aides.

The Telegraph has learned that the former president’s rage is still so great that even loyal allies are shocked by his patronising attitude to Mr Obama, and believe that he risks damaging his own reputation by his intransigence.

A senior Democrat who worked for Mr Clinton has revealed that he recently told friends Mr Obama could “kiss my ass” in return for his support.

A second source said that the former president has kept his distance because he still does not believe Mr Obama can win the election.

Mr Clinton last week issued a tepid statement, through a spokesman, in which he said he “is obviously committed to doing whatever he can and is asked to do to ensure Senator Obama is the next president of the United States “.

[...]

It has long been known that Mr Clinton is angry at the way his own reputation was tarnished during the primary battle when several of his comments were interpreted as racist.

But his lingering fury has shocked his friends. The Democrat told the Telegraph: “He’s been angry for a while. But everyone thought he would get over it. He hasn’t. I’ve spoken to a couple of people who he’s been in contact with and he is mad as hell.

With that in mind, it will be interesting to see when/if Obama and Bubba actually do end up doing some campaigning together:

Obama spokesman Robert Gibbs said the senator called Clinton after Obama landed in Missouri Monday morning, and they spoke for about 20 minutes. Gibbs said Obama asked Clinton to campaign with him and separately.

“I believe he’s excited to do it,” Gibbs told reporters traveling with Obama.

LOL. Give Gibbs an Academy Award for putting on a good front. I seriously doubt the Bubbster is looking forward to it, and probably will only be able to put on a warmer front than Hillary Clinton did at her first post-primary appearance with the O-man last week because Bill Clinton is such a master of deception. He’ll say and do just about anything to get his mug in front of the camera, even if it means kissing the ring of the young upstart who has, for all intents and purposes, just wrested the reigns of the party out of his and his wife’s hands.

Barack Obama and Bill Clinton in much happier times.
– Selma, AL - 3/4/07

He didn’t mention Clark by name, but it’s pretty obvious who he’s talking about here (from a speech in Missouri earlier in the day today):

Beyond a loyalty to America’s ideals, beyond a willingness to dissent on behalf of those ideals, I also believe that patriotism must, if it is to mean anything, involve the willingness to sacrifice – to give up something we value on behalf of a larger cause. For those who have fought under the flag of this nation – for the young veterans I meet when I visit Walter Reed; for those like John McCain who have endured physical torment in service to our country – no further proof of such sacrifice is necessary. And let me also add that no one should ever devalue that service, especially for the sake of a political campaign, and that goes for supporters on both sides. We must always express our profound gratitude for the service of our men and women in uniform. Period. Full stop.

Time writer Michael Scherer adds:

Sure enough, just as I was about to publish this blog post, I got an email from Obama spokesman Bill Burton: “As he’s said many times before, Senator Obama honors and respects Senator McCain’s service, and of course he rejects yesterday’s statement by General Clark.”

Maybe so, but it’s still rather interesting that the list of Obama surrogates who have disrespected his service this year continues to grow.

Related: The McCain camp fights back.

Just another example of how far some far left Obama supporters are willing to go to shut down criticism about the Obamessiah? Bloggasm and Stop The ACLU take a look.

I haven’t had much of a chance to dive too deeply into the controversy, but it wouldn’t be surprising to find out this indeed was happening, considering how so many far left Obama supporters react at the slightest hint of criticism of Barry Oh.

A couple of ‘em on the frontburner today.

—- First up: General Wesley Clark, an Obama surrogate, has once again attacked John McCain’s service to our country, this time on CBS’ Face The Nation:

Gen. Wesley Clark, acting as a surrogate for Barack Obama’s campaign, invoked John McCain’s military service against him in one of the more personal attacks on the Republican presidential nominee this election cycle.

Clark said that McCain lacked the executive experience necessary to be president, calling him “untested and untried” on CBS’ “Face the Nation.” And in saying so, he took a few swipes at McCain’s military service.

After saying, “I certainly honor his service as a prisoner of war. He was a hero to me and to hundreds of thousands and millions of others in the armed forces, as a prisoner of war,” he added that these experiences in no way qualify McCain to be president in his view:

“He has been a voice on the Senate Armed Services Committee. And he has traveled all over the world. But he hasn’t held executive responsibility. That large squadron in the Navy that he commanded — that wasn’t a wartime squadron,” Clark said.

“I don’t think getting in a fighter plane and getting shot down is a qualification to become president.”

The last time he did this was on a conference call back in March with other retired military “leaders” who at the time were endorsing Hillary Clinton.

About a month ago, I wrote about how these types of attacks from surrogates of Barack Obama were getting out of hand. It’s one thing to say that serving in the military in a war alone doesn’t necessarily make one qualified to be president, but considering the hell McCain went through for 7 years as a POW at the Hanoi Hilton, attacks of this nature - insinuating that McCain’s getting shot down was the sign of a weak fighter pilot - are below the belt, especially coming from a fellow military man. This is something that Barack Obama himself would never say, but his surrogates do and they get a free pass on it.

I can assure you, though: If this is a debate the Obama campaign wants to have through surrogates, I’m sure McCain would welcome it by calling out his opponent and demanding to know what his direct - not through a spokesman or other surrogate - thoughts were on the repeated attacks and belittling of his service.

McQ over at QandO asks a good question in response to Clark’s assertion:

[I]f the willingness to fight for your country, put your life on the line and suffer the brutality McCain suffered as a POW doesn’t make the cut as far as qualifications go, how far below that does a “community organizer” show up on the list of non-qualifications?

Didn’t McQ get the memo? Every move Obama has ever made “took courage” so obviously becoming a community organizer was an act of sheer bravery unlike anything we’ve ever seen before, and therefore ranks high on the list of qualifications people should consider when choosing a president for this country.

—- Second, the liberalistas over at HuffPo and Think Progress believe they’ve caught McCain in an “out of touch” moment, asserting that in a recent interview McCain said he didn’t know how much a gallon of gas cost and that he didn’t think it mattered that he didn’t know.

Only one problem: That’s not quite how the conversation went down. Patterico has the details, including a link to recent story that proves McCain does indeed know how much a gallon of gas costs.

Guess it musta been a slow news weekend for the leftosphere …

Monday AM Update: Wow - I think the title of this post, written by a popular far left blogger, says it all: “Honestly, besides being tortured, what did McCain do to excel in the military?”