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	<title>FrontPage Magazine &#187; Mike Finch</title>
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		<title>Remembering the Heroes on This Memorial Day</title>
		<link>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2011/mike-finch/remembering-the-heroes-on-this-memorial-day/?utm_source=rss&#038;utm_medium=rss&#038;utm_campaign=remembering-the-heroes-on-this-memorial-day</link>
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		<pubDate>Mon, 30 May 2011 04:30:01 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Mike Finch]]></dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Daily Mailer]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[FrontPage]]></category>

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		<description><![CDATA[They made the ultimate sacrifice so we could be the most free, prosperous and extraordinary country in the history of mankind.]]></description>
				<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><a href="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/memorialday.jpg"><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-94658" title="memorialday" src="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/memorialday.jpg" alt="" width="398" height="515" /></a></p>
<p>It is Memorial Day and while we are enjoying warm sunny days (one hopes), a cold beer, listening to baseball on the radio and getting our BBQ’s ready, it is also time to reflect on the sacrifice made by the thousands of soldiers who have given their lives so we could be the most free, prosperous and extraordinary country in the history of mankind.</p>
<p>I for one am spending my weekend hitting on all the above notes, but also reading a terrific biography of the one of the greatest Americans ever to live.  The author, Robert Coram, should be applauded for bringing to light the incredible life of Marine General Victor Krulak.  It is an amazing story; it is indeed, the quintessential American story.  It is a story that runs through all of us; it is the real story that truly makes the American myth so real.</p>
<p>This book, <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Brute-Life-Victor-Krulak-Marine/dp/0316758469">Brute: The Life of Victor Krulak, U.S. Marine</a>, deserves a fuller review and I hope it comes into the hands of every American.  And I have to wonder why I had to wait until midlife to hear this man’s story and cannot help but ask, why hasn’t Hollywood told this story?  But at least these stories are still being told and we are remembering.</p>
<p><a href="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/brute.jpg"><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-94660" title="brute" src="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/brute.jpg" alt="" width="375" height="508" /></a></p>
<p>America has its skeptics and doubters, it is so easy to fall prey to those thoughts.  Perhaps we do stand on a precipice, but then I think, we always have.  I have been fortunate enough to meet some of the men and women who have come back from Iraq and Afghanistan and I see the same mettle and courage that was at Trenton, Antietam, the Somme, Iwo Jima, Chosin and Khe Sanh.  So long as America produces these warriors, there is more than hope.  Shake the hand and hear the story of a Marine who was at Fallujah and you will indeed know the flame for the last best hope of mankind still burns bright.</p>
<p>I can sit here and have a cold beer and light the coals on my BBQ, anguish over my White Sox as they struggle through another nail biting late finish, listen to my children play and laugh, all because of men like Victor Krulak and the many that fell in battle to keep us free.  May we continue to be blessed.  Thank you to all the fallen heroes.﻿</p>
<p><strong>Michael Finch is the chief of operations of the David Horowitz Freedom Center.</strong></p>
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		<title>Remembrances of a Giant Among Men</title>
		<link>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2011/mike-finch/remembrances-of-a-giant-among-men/?utm_source=rss&#038;utm_medium=rss&#038;utm_campaign=remembrances-of-a-giant-among-men</link>
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		<pubDate>Sun, 06 Feb 2011 21:39:25 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Mike Finch]]></dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Daily Mailer]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[FrontPage]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://frontpagemag.com/?p=84209</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[How Ronald Reagan restored a generation's faith in country. ]]></description>
				<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><a href="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/02/reagan-in-berlin.jpg"><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-84211" title="reagan-in-berlin" src="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/02/reagan-in-berlin.jpg" alt="" width="400" height="598" /></a></p>
<p>When my mother shook me awake, to not only let me know it was time for school, but to announce that Jimmy Carter had just been elected President of the United States, even at 15 years of age, I knew this was not good news for America.  It wasn’t that I was waiting breathlessly for Gerald Ford, who was?  But what captured my 15 year old emerging political and patriotic heart during the Republican primary was Ronald Reagan.</p>
<p>There are giants among men in all of our lives, ones who seem to rise above others and touch the heavens.  Mortal they may be, but they transcend the times and history and gain an immortality.  For me, Ronald Reagan forever will stand taller then the rest of us.</p>
<p>I was only 17 when I enlisted in the Air Force and after training was shipped to a tour in West Germany.  What a different world it was back in 1979 and 1980.  There was a cartoon that ran in US News &amp; World Report, of two soldiers dressed in rags, trying to push a 18<sup>th</sup> century cannon up a hill in the dead of winter. One observer asked another “is that a movie set for Napoleon’s retreat from Moscow.”  And the other observer says, “no, it is NATO on maneuvers.”  The truth was not far off.  There were military families on food stamps, 5 men to 2 men dorms, mechanics working on trucks outside in the dead of winter due to lack of enclosed garages.  Vietnam had just ended a few years before, Americans were being held hostage in Tehran, the Soviets seemed to be on the march and morale was low, in society at large, and in the military in particular.</p>
<p>Then the world changed, and oh so dramatically.  On November 4<sup>th</sup>, 1980 a new man rode in on a white horse, my hero of a few years before was now President.  It might sound like an exaggeration, but the mood within the ranks of the military changed with the speed of light.  We <em>knew</em> that America had been saved.  I can’t list all that was to change; we all know the story that unfolded over the next 8 years and how this man forever changed the world.  For us in the military, it might be selfish to say that we loved Reagan when in the first days of his Presidency he instituted a significant pay raise for all the men and woman in uniform.  But it was more than a pay raise, a message was being sent.  That money was put into not just planes, tanks, and ships, but also in military housing, base facilities, and yes, even garages for our mechanics.  Above all else, what Ronald Reagan brought to all of us in uniform was a strong esprit de corps that had waned in the preceding years.  He made us <em>all</em> proud to be Americans again and for one 18 year old, who in voting for the very first time was able to punch the ticket for Ronald Reagan, he became a larger than life hero.  He became our generation’s George Washington.</p>
<p>On the 100<sup>th</sup> celebration of his birth, we all celebrate a great man, a great President and an example of what the times can bring out this great country and the great people of America.  We can reach back and touch the examples of greatness and leadership and when we think the times are dark and that there won’t be another Washington, Lincoln or Reagan, one appears.  Happy Birthday and thank you President Reagan!</p>
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		<title>The Arizona Shooting and the Blame Game</title>
		<link>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2011/mike-finch/the-arizona-shooting-and-the-blame-game/?utm_source=rss&#038;utm_medium=rss&#038;utm_campaign=the-arizona-shooting-and-the-blame-game</link>
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		<pubDate>Mon, 10 Jan 2011 04:17:48 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Mike Finch]]></dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Daily Mailer]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[FrontPage]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://frontpagemag.com/?p=81443</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[The mainstream media finds the Tea Party responsible for a deranged psychopath's shooting spree. But what's the evidence?]]></description>
				<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><a href="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/01/loughner.jpg"><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-81477" title="loughner" src="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/01/loughner.jpg" alt="" width="304" height="345" /></a></p>
<p>What a relief!  President Obama can pull FBI Director Mueller back from Arizona and call off the investigation into the shooting of Congresswoman Giffords.  The smoking gun has been found.</p>
<p>It is obvious after listening to the Sunday morning news shows that the shooter had been listening to conservative talk radio, was heavily influences by the Tea Party, Sarah Palin, loose gun laws in Arizona, and the hate discourse that is created by right wing organizations and politicians.  Sherlock Holmes has nothing over David Gregory.</p>
<p>Gregory in questioning newly elected Congressman Raul Labrador of Idaho, said “I mention the Tea Party, not to assign blame, but….”  Well, then why mention it?  By opening the discussion with that statement, Gregory, of course, is doing exactly what he says he isn’t doing.  Assigning blame.  Gregory’s performance this morning, from someone who once in awhile, shows signs of even handiness, was shameful.  Feeding the idea that this deranged idiot in Arizona was a Tea Party, Sarah Palin plant, is despicable.</p>
<p>A quick look at Loughner’s background shows that he read the Communist Manifesto, Mein Kampf, was anti-God, and if holds any political philosophy at all, would be classified as an extreme anarchist.  What in the fuzzy reaches of the minds of the parade of Democratic politicians and their lackeys in the mainstream media would connect that philosophy with Constitutional Conservatives?  It doesn’t connect at all, but that is not the point, this is a teaching moment for the left.</p>
<p>Which is why, following immediately on the heels of their dissecting the causes of the shooting, the post counseling has already begun.  On Meet the Press, we got schooled on ethics, racial harmony, peace and justice by the Congressmen Cleaver and Grijalva and Congresswoman Wasserman Schultz.  We must tone down the criticism and our political discussion must become more “civil” or more violence will ensue.</p>
<p>Our heated discourse must give way to civility of yesterday.  By that of course, they must be speaking of the civility of “Blood for Oil”, “Bush lied, people died” the Jim Crow Republicans, Republican Nazis and the mantra that the religious right is more dangerous than the Taliban.  Yes, the nostalgia for those “civil” days of discourse makes me wistful.</p>
<p>We know what is happening of course.  “Civility” in politics means Conservatives agreeing with the Left, it calls for muted objections and ceding the moral high ground to the other side.  Then, and only then, we will all get along and have peace and civility in our politics.</p>
<p>A cursory glance at American history would show that civility in politics has never been the norm.  American politics is raucous, heated, fiery, yes, at times hate filled and dirty and in tragic rare cases, turns violent.  19th Century American politics was filled with the dirtiest campaigns, fights (literally) at conventions, and the often final arbiter of politician “discussion”, the duel.</p>
<p>Obviously, we are not calling for the return of fist fights at Conventions and duels to settle our political differences, but in a free and open democracy, that allows for dissent, in fact, encourages dissent, politics often is a raucous mud slinging enterprise.  And we are thankful for it, for that freedom is what has kept this government thriving and free for over 230 years.</p>
<p>Cuba has political harmony, no disagreeable discourse happens down there.  Is that what we want?  In the spirit of cooperation, I will not assign any preference for those thoughts to Messrs Grijalva and Cleaver.</p>
<p>We allow freedom and dissent, but we are also a nation of laws.  Loungner needs to be dealt with swiftly and once found guilty needs to be sent to his maker post haste.  Our love of freedom did not cause this tragedy, human nature did.</p>
<p><em>Michael Finch is the Chief of  Operations of the David Horowitz Freedom Center, a non-profit  organization based in Los Angeles and headed by author David Horowitz.  He is a regular contributor to FrontPageMag.com and NewsRealBlog.com.</em></p>
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		<title>Invading the U.S.A.</title>
		<link>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2010/mike-finch/invading-the-u-s-a/?utm_source=rss&#038;utm_medium=rss&#038;utm_campaign=invading-the-u-s-a</link>
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		<pubDate>Tue, 25 May 2010 04:30:55 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Mike Finch]]></dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[FrontPage]]></category>
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		<description><![CDATA[The borderlands descend into lawlessness. ]]></description>
				<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><a href="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/05/finch.gif"><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-61028" title="finch" src="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/05/finch.gif" alt="" width="400" height="296" /></a></p>
<p>Pirates prowling the shores, kidnappings and abductions, the murdering of American citizens on our own soil.  A borderland in chaos, full scale anarchy, lawlessness and armed gangs ruling the borderlands.</p>
<p>Such a description certainly fits today with our border with Mexico.  Stories of murder, mayhem, abductions, drugs and trafficking fill the news on a daily basis.  The border area and the cities of Juarez, Tijuana and Nogales are war zones, the violence spreading across the border at a frightening rate.</p>
<p>But the description is not for today alone.  In the aftermath of the War of 1812, with the defeat of the British and New Orleans secure, only Spanish Florida remained out of American hands, the last European colony east of the Mississippi.</p>
<p>But Spain was weak, its once great Global Empire a faded memory as it struggled to hold on to its prize colonies in the Western Hemisphere.  Florida however, like most of Spain’s other colonies in the present day United States, was not considered significant.  Outside of a few military outposts and scattered missions, the disease infested swamps and marshlands were left uninhabited.</p>
<p>By the early 19<sup>th</sup> century, Florida had become the home of ruffians, outlaws, buccaneers, runaway slaves, and Indian bandits.  The Spanish garrisons in Pensacola were hard pressed to protect their own settlers, much less patrol the anarchy on the border of the U.S.  By 1817, with Americans being attacked and murdered on our side of the border, the crisis had reached a boiling point.  It was one thing to have chaos across a border, but when it spilled over to our side, endangering American lives and property, it became a crisis that had to be dealt with.</p>
<p>Fortunately, America at that time had the strength of General Andrew Jackson, fresh off his victory at the Battle of New Orleans. He was a national hero.  Politicians in Washington, as is often the case, were hesitant and adverse to conflict, even in the case of protecting American lives.  But President James Monroe, sensing that something had to be done, gave orders to U.S. troops to chase raiders across the border.  Jackson took his cue, and within a short period of time, Florida was cleared of trouble. Spain meekly retreated and paved the way for annexation and later statehood for the territory.  Most critical, Americans were safe.</p>
<p>What is the lesson?  There are many and though history never runs a straight line to the present, we can draw from the parallels.  The first and most important lesson of course, is that the protection of American lives and property is paramount over any other consideration.  All options go on the table in the defense of protecting our citizens against harm.  Second, we should not be afraid, averse, or even hesitant to use force, including military force to interdict, across the border if necessary, those committing crimes against American sovereignty.</p>
<p>If the Mexican government cannot control the border, much as the Spanish government could not control Florida in 1817, it is incumbent on the Federal Government of the United States to take whatever steps are necessary to curb the violence.  And let’s call this what it is.  When foreign nationals with weapons cross a border and murder, destroy property and kidnap Americans, that is an invasion.  We have every right to defend ourselves; now the only relevant question is where has America’s pride gone when we don’t care enough for protecting Americans from violence being committed across an international border.  That is singly the Federal Government’s responsibility.</p>
<p>Does this mean we should invade northern Mexico?  Probably not yet, but we do need to militarize the border and prepare for whatever actions become necessary.  As history shows, the precedent is there.</p>
<p>America can and should not stand by and allow a lawless borderland to continue.  The drug cartels have taken control of the border and murdered thousands of Mexicans and now that violence has come north.  Call it what you want, but it is a war.  And if Mexico won’t or can’t fight this war, we will.  If we can send hundreds of thousands of American troops to protect the life and liberty of Iraqis, Afghans, Vietnamese, Koreans, Bosnians, and millions of others, then we can surely do the same for our own American citizens.</p>
<p>It is time to heed the call of Andrew Jackson. “The conduct of this banditti is such as will not be tolerated by our government, and if not put down by Spanish authority will compel us in self-defense to destroy them.”  Such were the words given by Jackson to the Spanish Governor at Pensacola.  Such words should have been spoken by our President instead of the cowardly and treacherous apology that he gave President Calderon last week in Washington and his arrogant elitist blather about shopping for ice cream cones.  Has he forgotten the oath that he took just a year and a half ago?</p>
<p>A message needs to be sent to Washington <em>and</em> to Mexico City.  American lives deserved to be protected from foreign invasion.  It is the one duty of the Federal Government above all others.  It is time this warning is heeded.</p>
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