Earlier today, a lone gunman — described as Mexican-born with a “valid U.S. passport” — barreled into a shopping mall parking lot, stormed an IHOP, and marched to the back where a table full of uniformed Nevada National Guardsmen were dining. The Guard’s headquarters are about four miles from the restaurant.

Eduardo Sencio shot nine people, killed three people total including 2 Guardsmen, and then turned his AK-47 to his and committed suicide.

On the back of the minivan he borrowed from his brother? A yellow “Support Our Troops” sticker.

The gunman’s family members say he was mentally disturbed:

Five Nevada National Guard troops sitting together at the back of the restaurant were shot _ two of them fatally. Another woman was also killed, and the gunman, 32-year-old Eduardo Sencion of Carson City, shot himself in the head and died at a hospital.

Witnesses and authorities described a frantic scene, in which the shooter pulled into the large complex of retail stores and shops just before 9 a.m. in a blue minivan with a yellow “Support Our Troops” sticker on the back.

…In the bankruptcy filing, Sencion listed more than $42,000 in outstanding debts for a car, several credit cards and some medical expenses. At the time, Sencion reported having $200 spread over three bank accounts and $923 in disability income, mostly from Social Security.

At a Reno hospital, service members gathered, waiting for word on those killed and hurt. A hospital spokesman said four shooting victims were being treated there, but wouldn’t discuss their conditions or provide any other information. Two of the three wounded guard members were women. Authorities provided few details about the five other injured people, except to say one was a woman who was found near a motorcycle. Three of those wounded have minor wounds; the others were shot in critical areas of the body, Furlong said.

“You go a whole tour in Afghanistan and no one is shot. And you go to IHOP and several are shot,” said 31-year-old Sgt. First Class Cameron Anderson of Reno, a Nevada Army National Guard member. “It’s a shock. I came to work today and had no idea I’d be driving the chaplain here (to the hospital.)”

Another Guard member, 33-year-old Spc. Lee Amato, said he didn’t know the victims’ names but expected they were people he knew.

“It’s hard to believe something like this would happen to really good people,” Amato said. “It’s like a hole, something taken away. It’s mind-boggling and hard to comprehend.”

It certainly looks and smells like an intentional hit on our military. I’ll update as info comes in.

Meanwhile, don’t hold your breath for all the civility police to ask whether incessant anti-military rhetoric — hello, Soulja Boy — has created a climate of hate endangering our troops. Remember: Only conservative speech — Blame Righty!– can be held responsible for inciting violence.

***

Update 12:25am : A third National Guard member has died at the hospital. R.I.P.

My column today takes on trashy trash-talking Democrat Rep. Lynn Woolsey’s smear of Gen. David Petraeus. The Code Pink/MoveOn Democrats strike again. “Move On” is still stuck in 2007.

Democrat Rep. Lynn Woolsey: Capitol Hill’s Lindsay Lohan
by Michelle Malkin
Creators Syndicate
Copyright 2011

A grown woman in public office who acts like Lindsay Lohan has no business comparing one of America’s finest generals to Charlie Sheen. But anti-war Democratic Rep. Lynn Woolsey has never shown any restraint when it comes to trashing America’s military leaders before the world. That’s because being a Code Pink liberal — like being a Hollywood brat — means never having to apologize for your reckless words and deeds.

Woolsey took to the House floor on Wednesday to report on her “Congressional Progressive Caucus Peace and Security Task Force” hearing with critics of the Afghanistan war. She parroted Rolling Stone journalist Michael Hastings (he’d be labeled an “activist,” of course, if he supported the surge), who said: “Gen. Petraeus is giving us the Charlie Sheen counter-insurgency strategy, which is to give exclusive interviews to every major network, and to keep saying ‘we’re winning’ and hope the public actually agrees with you.”

Woolsey then went on to attack Gen. Petraeus’ “bland and tone-deaf talking points.” She can’t make up her mind. Is he a wild-eyed, Charlie Sheen-esque media beast, or is he a boring bureaucrat lulling America into oblivion?

This much is clear: Woolsey prefers the guerilla girl tactics of Code Pink to Petraeus’ adult straight talk. Heckling government officials, disrupting congressional hearings and breaching Capitol Hill security are the “progressive” means of public discourse about the war.

You may recall that Protest Party Animal Woolsey was the politician who reportedly gave State of the Union tickets to anti-war crasher Cindy Sheehan in 2006 and was part of a pro-Code Pink contingent of Democrats who supported the group’s 2005 inauguration antics — including chanting “Out of Iraq now!” and unfurling “Bring the Troops Home” banners in the middle of President Bush’s speech.

Instead of sober-eyed expert testimony on how U.S. troops are combating the Taliban in Kabul and the northern and western regions of Afghanistan, Woolsey favors Jane Fonda theatrics and bloody hand waving for the paparazzi.

Instead of honest assessments of the difficulties of training an Afghan national security and civilian defense force and waging a long war, Woolsey wants simpleton chants of “No War!” and “Give Peace a Chance!”

In January, the far-left exhibitionist congresswoman blasted the counter-terror efforts in Afghanistan as “an epic failure, a national embarrassment and a moral blight.” Does she know our troops, their families and our enemies are listening?

Nancy Morgan, relative of a U.S. soldier in Afghanistan, spoke for many when she wrote an open rejoinder to Woolsey: “Spitting on the graves of those who have died in their nation’s service is just one of the rights secured to Ms. Woolsey by the blood and sweat of others,” Morgan noted. “A free press is another right. This would be the same press that has maintained a deafening silence about this war ever since it became Obama’s war — the same press that reports Ms. Woolsey’s inane pronouncements without offering vital context.”

“Though Ms. Woolsey makes ten times the money my nephew does, he is the one who does the heavy lifting. He is the one on the front line, braving Taliban bullets and following orders. Ms. Woolsey, on the other hand, spends her time, along with fellow Democrats, improvising insane rules of engagement which make my nephew’s job much more dangerous. She is also busy ensuring that terrorists are given the same rights as the Americans they are so intent on killing.”

The Code Pink/Move On Democrats’ strategy of smearing Gen. Petraeus (“General Betray-US“) backfired miserably in 2007 — so much so that surge opponent Barack Obama rode to electoral victory after flip-flopping on the issue on the campaign trail, picked a Democratic vice presidential running mate who claimed credit for the surge after proclaiming its failure, and then finally adopted the very winning surge tactics he once attacked as fatally doomed.

So: Whose frenzied, media-pandering strategy looks more like Charlie Sheen’s?

Not long after the 2004 elections, Move On co-founder Eli Pariser famously said of Democrats, “Now it’s our party. We bought it, we own it, and we’re going to take it back.” The failure of “mainstream” Democrats to rebuke troop morale-undermining Woolsey shows that the left never gave up its ownership in the first place. Party on.

Lesson for the day: Just because a group believes their despicable behavior is covered under the First Amendment doesn’t mean somebody else has the duty to fix their car.

From Tulsa World by way of HAP:

McALESTER – Members of a Kansas church that protests at military funerals may have found themselves in the wrong town Saturday.

Shortly after finishing their protest at the funeral of Army Sgt. Jason James McCluskey of McAlester, a half-dozen protesters from Westboro Baptist Church in Topeka, Kan., headed to their minivan, only to discover that its front and rear passenger-side tires had been slashed.

To make matters worse, as their minivan slowly hobbled away on two flat tires, with a McAlester police car following behind, the protesters were unable to find anyone in town who would repair their vehicle, according to police.

I’d have had somebody fix their tires and after they were back on the highway told them that person was gay.

Update: Aaron Worthing adds to the comedic effect:

Maybe they tell them ahead of time [that the mechanic is gay] for extra comedy purposes. ”Sure we will fix that flat. But you know our tire specialist, Bob, he’s into men. Are you okay with that or do you think you will endanger your mortal soul with his gay cooties? And no, we don’t have anyone else available to help.”

**Written by Doug Powers

Twitter @ThePowersThatBe

Last March, I published a special report on the Left’s war against military recruiters in the U.S. It’s a topic I’ve covered extensively over the years. Unhinged devotes a sub-section of my chapter “They Don’t Support Our Troops” to the organized campaign of harassment against recruitment offices on college campuses nationwide. The anti-recruiter thugs have thrived thanks to a combination of public indifference, law enforcement fecklessness, and left-wing ideological apologism. I have personal experience with the anti-recruiter propagandists, who lie through their teeth, exploit media sympathy, and harbor nothing but raw hatred for the men and women who protect and defend their rights to bitch and moan.

The anti-military zealots have never relented. Tomorrow, a recruiter-bashing organization called “We Are Not Your Soldiers” is holding a national protest on the anniversary of the invasion of Afghanistan. Schoolchildren are being encouraged to distribute letters “to all high school teachers you know.” When protesting, they are also being instructed “to assure the media are present.” They’ve set up a Facebook page. And, unsurprisingly, the driving force behind “We Are Not Your Soldiers” is the anti-American Communist-founded World Can’t Wait:

What are you going to stand for? As school starts back up, look around at the world that our generation is going to inherit.

Over 1 million Iraqis are dead in the war, and 5 million have been forced to leave their homes. Despite President Obama’s promise to remove US troops, he’s calling them advisors while leaving them in Iraq. The war in Afghanistan, which we’re told is the “good war” where the “real” terrorists are, is going into its ninth year. It’s based on lies, just like the war in Iraq. What the United States is doing there is horrible and brutal, torturing people and bombing civilians while they sleep, just like the war in Iraq.

Is this OK because Obama — and not Bush — is in charge?

Obama sent 21,000 more troops to kill and die in Afghanistan, and plans to increase the size of the military by 92,000. Where are these soldiers going to come from? They are your classmates and friends, your brothers and sisters.

This is why the military recruiters are everywhere these days – at school in the cafeteria, on college campuses, at the mall, in the video games and the TV commercials… lying and trying to suck youth into fighting their wars. They roll up in their Hummers talking about strength and discipline, about how the military will give you a “life with a purpose”. But what kind of purpose?

You can kill and torture innocent people – and probably ruin your own life because of what you’ve seen and done – for an empire that causes misery for the planet, or… you can be about putting an end to all that and creating a better world.

Imagine if school administrations and teachers didn’t allow recruiters onto campus. Imagine if students looked at recruiters as the predators they are and no longer considered the Army a legitimate “career option.” We need a culture of defiance and resistance to military recruiters in high schools across the country.

As I’ve documented, this call to “resistance” has been a call to violence and vandalism against ROTC officers and offices on campuses across the country. WCW and We Are Not Your Soldiers are making an aggressive push into classrooms…

Go to high schools either before or after school and talk to students about Oct 6th.

Ask them if they could be a part of showing the We Are Not Your Soldiers presentation in classrooms. Ask them if they know teachers who would would want them to show it in their classroom. See what the situation is like at the school, do they have recruiters? Do recruiters call them at home? What do they say? Are they thinking about joining the military? Why or Why Not? Do they think recruiters should be able to recruit in high schools or in their communities? We should really learn from the students and their experiences.

Go into high school classrooms and do a presentation with the We Are Not Your Soldiers film.

This is video footage of Iraq Vets and World Can’t Wait organizers speaking speaking in classrooms about the war crimes being committed in Iraq & Afghanistan and what it means to join the military. Anybody can do this! Then afterwards talk with students about what kind of actions they want to do to stop this then make sure to give them the we are not your soldiers survey, so we can find out what students think.

…and on YouTube:

Parents, be forewarned and forearmed. Are your school officials prepared for the protest? What will they be doing to provide a counterbalance to anti-military bigotry — and to protect ROTC officers and offices on campus? Speak up.

Here is the entire statement:

“I am deeply saddened by this senseless act of violence against two brave young soldiers who were doing their part to strengthen our armed forces and keep our country safe. I would like to wish Quinton Ezeagwula a speedy recovery, and to offer my condolences and prayers to William Long’s family as they mourn the loss of their son.”

“Senseless?” It made perfectly good sense to a vengeful Muslim convert jihadi bent on “killing as many people in the Army as he could.”

For contrast, here is Obama’s full statement on the Tiller murder, issued just hours after the shooting:

I am shocked and outraged by the murder of Dr. George Tiller as he attended church services this morning. However profound our differences as Americans over difficult issues such as abortion, they cannot be resolved by heinous acts of violence.

Caleb Howe is underwhelmed:

“It’s in keeping with the Obama administration’s passive language, such as the euphemisms “overseas contingency operation” or “man-caused disaster” … Obama’s statement on the murder of Pvt. William A. Long is just as passive in voice and blame. He’s not outraged, he’s saddened. Not by someone who committed a “heinous act” but rather by a senseless violence. It might have been a bolt of lightning for all the pushback Obama has to share.

He waits three days and then the best he can muster is an abstract sadness at something that, judging by his statement, might well have been a mere accident of fate…

***

Blood pressure alert from Doug Ross: Did White House order FBI to “back off” anti-terror investigations of radicalized Muslim converts?

***

Pvt. Long’s funeral is set for Monday:

Funeral arrangements have been set for an Army private fatally shot outside a Little Rock recruiting office.

Griffin Leggett Funeral Home in Conway says the family of Pvt. William Long will hold a public funeral at 10 a.m. Monday at the Harlan Park Baptist Church in Conway. The funeral home says Long will be buried at the Arkansas State Veterans Cemetery in North Little Rock at noon Monday.

Watch here.

Private Long, R.I.P.

God bless his family.

Matt Burden writes: “If the private’s father is any indication, young William was probably one helluva soldier already. Our thoughts and prayers are with the Long family, and with the family of wounded soldier Private Quinton Ezeagwula.”

Blogger Army Wife and her family were recently stationed in Little Rock, Arkansas. Her thoughts are here.

The news isn’t what he said in his statement about GOP Rep. John McHugh:

“As Secretary of the Army, he will ensure that our soldiers are trained and equipped to meet the full spectrum of challenges and threats of our time. And John [McHugh] shares my belief that a sustainable national security strategy must include a bipartisan consensus at home, and he brings patriotism and a pragmatism that has won him respect on both sides of the aisle. I look forward to working with him in the months and years ahead.”

The news is what he left out.

Not a word about the jihadi attack on the two Army recruiters in Arkansas. No condemnation of the heinous attack and senseless violence. No condolences for the families of the targeted men or praise for the military recruiters who have been under increasing attack on U.S. soil. No statements from the DOJ or Pentagon, either.

Nothing.

***

Jeffrey Goldberg at the Atlantic notices similar whitewashing by government-funded NPR, which failed to report the name and religion of recruiter-murdering suspect Abdul Hakim Mujahid Muhammad:

Why not tell people what is actually happening in the world? We saw this a couple of weeks ago, when the press only gingerly acknowledged that the malevolent though incompetent suspects in the synagogue bombing-conspiracy case in New York were converts to Islam. How is the public served by this kind of silence? The extremist Christian beliefs of George Tiller’s alleged murderer are certainly relevant to that case, and no one in my profession is hesitant to discuss them. Why the hesitancy to talk about the motivations of the man who allegedly killed Pvt. William Long?

Amy Ridenour: Some murders matter more than others.

***

Update: June 3. Still no word.

Holy crap: A shooting at an Arkansas Army recruiting center has left one recruiter dead and one wounded. Pray for the families, please:

One Army recruiter was killed Monday and a second was wounded in a shooting at a recruiting office, and a suspect was arrested, police said.

Police Lt. Terry Hastings said the recruiter was shot when a man in a black SUV opened fire on the office in west Little Rock at about 10:30 a.m.

The vehicle was stopped on Interstate 630 a short time later and a suspect was taken into custody. Hastings said the suspect pulled over and surrendered without incident.

Police said they found an assault rifle in the vehicle.

Hastings said he did not know whether the recruiting office was specifically targeted or was randomly chosen.

I wonder if the Justice Department will send marshals to beef up protection at recruiting centers — especially given the past targeting of military centers on campuses and elsewhere across the country.

Too early to say anything about suspect, motives, etc. But these facts are worth bearing in mind:

Flashback: Special report: Tracing the Left’s escalating war on military recruiters

Flashback: The continuing war on recruiters that the Left doesn’t want to talk about

Flashback: Document drop: Unclassified memo warns military personnel of anti-war threats to recruiters, Army installations/facilities

Flashback: Bastards: Vandals strike at Berkeley Marine recruiting center again

Flashback: Explosion at Times Square recruiting station; Update: Bloomberg blasts the blast; Update: Security video released; Update: House Dems received letters, photo of recruitment center; Fox reports maybe more than 8 received letters; AP says manifesto was anti-Iraq war screed, “Happy New Year, We did it;” Newsday: At least 10 got the package

***

President Obama issued a statement yesterday after Tiller’s murder: “However profound our differences as Americans over difficult issues such as abortion, they cannot be resolved by heinous acts of violence.”

I hope he will be just as vociferous in condemning heinous acts of violence against our military recruiters.

***

Meet Abdul Hakim Mujahid Muhammad:

The shooting of two young soldiers, one fatally, outside the Army recruiting station on Rodney Parham about 10 a.m. this morning, has taken on a much broader dimension.

At an afternoon news conference, police said the man who’s suspected in the shooting did not know the victims but shot them because of “ideological reasons.” The suspect was described as a convert to Islam who specifically targeted soldiers for the attack.Police Chief Stuart Thomas said he didn’t appear to be part of a larger conspiracy and appeared to have acted alone.

“He has a disagreement with military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan,” Thomas said.

Federal agencies are on the case.

The suspect, Abdulhakim Mujahid Muhammad, 24, lived on Mara Lynn Drive. He was formerly known as Carlos Bledsoe and apparently moved to Little Rock from Memphis two to three months ago. He also had lived in Nashville, Tenn. recently.

Police identified the dead soldier as Pvt. William Long, 24, of Conway. Wounded was Pvt. Quentin Ezeagwula, 18, of Jacksonville. He’s in serious condition, but isn’t believed to have life-threatening wounds.

ABC News says Muhammad traveled to Yemen using a Somali passport.

***

11pm Eastern update: No condemnation from the White House yet.

***

June 2, 12:47pm Eastern: Still no condemnation.

President Barack Obama saluted veterans and urged his countrymen to do the same this Memorial Day weekend, saying the nation has not always paid them proper respect.

In his weekly radio and Internet address Saturday, Obama said people can honor veterans by sending a letter or care package to troops overseas, volunteering at health clinics or taking supplies to a homeless veterans center. He said it could also mean something as simple as saying “thank you” to a veteran walking by on the street.

“We have a responsibility to serve all of them as well as they serve all of us,” Obama said. “And yet, all too often in recent years and decades, we, as a nation, have failed to live up to that responsibility. We have failed to give them the support they need or pay them the respect they deserve.

Who is this “we?” Let’s name names:

Tell it to Janet Napolitano.

Tell it to the Gen. Betray Us smear merchants at Move On.

Tell it to the anti-military academics at Penn State and Columbia and every other ivy-covered institution.

Tell it to the anti-military recruiter thugs on campuses across the country.

Tell it to all the Winter Soldier fakers and phonies .

“We have a responsibility to serve all of them as well as they serve all of us,” Obama said. “And yet, all too often in recent years and decades, we, as a nation, have failed to live up to that responsibility. We have failed to give them the support they need or pay them the respect they deserve.

You can say that again, Mr. President.

More to the point: Does Obama know the difference between Memorial Day and Veterans Day?

Reader RJD e-mails: “I do believe that Obama means well, but Memorial Day is a day to remember our fallen. We have Veterans Day and Armed Services day to thank the currently and past service members. Memorial Day is specific to thank and remember those who have given the ultimate sacrifice. Why then does Obama ask us to thank service members on the street? While I think this is a good thing to do anyway, I am not sure he understands what the whole day is about!”

Well, remember that last Memorial Day, Obama said he saw fallen heroes in the audience:

Flashback 2008:

On this Memorial Day, as our nation honors its unbroken line of fallen heroes — and I see many of them in the audience here today — our sense of patriotism is particularly strong.

It’s never over. Bush is out of office. Obama is moving to withdraw troops from Iraq. Last October, Code Pink gave up on its daily harangues against the Marines who staff a recruiting office in Berkeley after a counterinsurgency of pro-troops groups stood their ground.

But it’s never over.

Yesterday, thugs smashed the windows of the Marine recruiting office and defaced the Marine logo. The masked vandals caused an estimated $5,000 in damage. (You may recall that in 2007, Code Pink defaced the Marine recruiting office by pasting the misspelled word “Assasination” on the window.)

Bastards:

Police are looking for the vandals who damaged a Marine recruiting center in Berkeley that’s been the target of ongoing war protests.

The attack shortly before 9 p.m. Wednesday was caught of tape by a surveillance camera. About a half-dozen people wearing dark clothing with their faces covered are seen breaking windows and defacing the Marine Corps logo.

The property owner says they caused as much as $5,000 in damage.

Police have not made any arrests in the case, but say they’ve arrested a “person of interest” on an unrelated warrant.

The recruiting center has angered anti-war activists and some local residents, who say military recruiting is unwelcome in this liberal-leaning city. But the Marines have said they have no intention of moving out before their lease is up at the end of the year.

More from KCBS:

Police Sgt. Mary Kusmiss says it happened Wednesday just before 9 p.m.

Kusmiss says police received several calls from witnesses in the area that a group of 3 to 4 males were smashing the windows of the recruiting center.

“In the history of our experience at the recruiting center this is the most expensive damage ever committed there,” said Kusmiss.

She says although the office has been the target of several anti-war protests over the years, this is the first that’s totaled over $5,000 damage.

The suspects are facing felony vandalism charges.

Kusmiss says they don’t know for certain whether the vandalism was in response to today’s 6th anniversary of the Iraq War.

No, it’s no coincidence. IndyMedia extremists gloat about the vandalism:

At 9PM on March 18th, the eve of the 6th anniversary of the war in Iraq, a group of persons wearing masks smashed the windows and splattered red paint at the U.S. Marine Corps Recruiting Center in Berkeley, California.

The center has been the target of protests for the last 18 months, and stands as a symbol of U.S. militarism and imperialist wars. The act of property distruction stands alone as the embodyment of frustration of a people whos government does not listen to or care about them.

Police have not made any arrests but are reviewing the tape, said Sgt. Mary Kusmiss. A sledgehammer and a crowbar were found in a nearby garbage can nearby, and are being reviewing as evidence. After breaking windows and improving the Marine Corps logo at the center, the group wearing masks and dark clothing scattered in three different directions, police said.

As of the time of this posting, no one involved has been arrested. The act was easy. You and a few friends could have pulled it off any day.

NO MORE IMPERIALIST WARS!!!

NO MORE GOVERNMENT!!!

SMASH THE STATE!!!

And it is no coincidence that anti-war groups are gearing up for new protests tomorrow and a March on the Pentagon.

If you are in Washington, there will be a counter-protest by Freepers, Gathering of Eagles, and Eagles Up activists. Join the counterinsurgency here.

Please show your support of the troops who support you.

High school students fighting anti-military bigotry in the Bay Area collected 13,600 signatures and submitted them to save the JROTC program in San Francisco. (I blogged about their signature-gathering efforts last month here.)

Keep the counterinsurgency going.

***

Previous:

Save JROTC in San Francisco
JROTC in San Francisco rescued
San Francisco educators put JROTC reprieve on ice
Intolerant San Francisco & JROTC
San Francisco kills JROTC program
Waging war on JROTC
They don’t support our troops
An attack on the ROTC
More recruiters under attack
I am not afraid of you
The moonbats strike back
Seditious Santa Cruz vs. America
UC Santa Cruz hates our troops
The moonbats lose
SCOTUS Watch: Rumsfeld vs. FAIR
The campus war on military recruiters
Military recruiters under fire

Excerpt:

Members of the Greatest Generation – especially those with weak hearts – might want to steer clear of an upcoming PBS documentary that suggests the Allied victory in World War II was “tainted” and questions whether it can even be called a victory.

Moreover, the documentary, titled “The War of the World: A New History of the 20th Century,” asserts that the war could only be won by forming an unholy alliance with a dictator – Joseph Stalin, who was as brutal as the one they were fighting, Adolf Hitler – and by adopting the same “pitiless” and “remorseless” tactics practiced by the enemy.

The three-part documentary is a companion to the best-selling book, “The War of the World: Twentieth Century Conflict and the Descent of the West” by Harvard and Oxford historian Niall Ferguson. The one-hour Part One of the documentary premieres Monday night at 10 on Ch. 13 [in NYC; check your local listings]. The other two parts air the following two Mondays. World War II is the focus of Part Two.

…it is Ferguson’s revisionist view of the tactics applied by the Allies in World War II that is likely to raise the hackles of those who have always believed in the “necessity” of bombing German and Japanese civilians, culminating in the atomic attacks on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, to end a war we did not start.

“I think it’s very hard for those who have imbibed the idea of a ‘great generation’ that what the Allies did to defeat the Axis was in some measure to adopt totalitarian tactics,” Ferguson says in a Q&A on PBS’s Web site.

Tune in and let me know what you think.

Now, there’s a new petition drive to show support for saving the program. Families of JROTC students gathered signatures this weekend to put a measure on the ballot in November:

The proposed ballot measure would be advisory only, meaning it couldn’t save the district’s JROTC program, but it would show school board members how the majority of San Franciscans feel about the program, said Mike Bernick, the campaign’s co-chair.

Bernick, an attorney and former director of California’s labor department, said the effort “reflects really the outpouring of support we’ve found among San Franciscans across the political spectrum.”

The group will kick off the petition drive at 9 a.m. Saturday at the Taraval Police Station community room. To qualify for the ballot, the group must submit about 7,200 signatures by July 7, Bernick said. The group has collected about 1,000 signatures already.

Four school board seats are up for election in November, including the seats of Eric Mar and Mark Sanchez, who oppose the JROTC program and are running for the county Board of Supervisors.

Jill Wynns and Norman Yee, who voted against eliminating the program two years ago, are expected to run for re-election.

About 1,200 students are enrolled in the JROTC program this year, down from about 1,600 in 2006, said Robert Powell, a JROTC instructor at Lincoln High School.

“It’s not that kids are losing interest,” Powell said. “It’s because they don’t know whether it’s going to be around or not.”

Reader Matt e-mailed me a few photos of students taking their case to the streets at Lakeshore Shopping Center in the Bay Area. Good for them. If you’re in SF, make sure you sign!

***

Previous:

JROTC in San Francisco rescued
San Francisco educators put JROTC reprieve on ice
Intolerant San Francisco & JROTC
San Francisco kills JROTC program
Waging war on JROTC
They don’t support our troops
An attack on the ROTC
More recruiters under attack
I am not afraid of you
The moonbats strike back
Seditious Santa Cruz vs. America
UC Santa Cruz hates our troops
The moonbats lose
SCOTUS Watch: Rumsfeld vs. FAIR
The campus war on military recruiters
Military recruiters under fire

***
Michael Yon e-mails word of outrageous behavior by anti-war loons harassing uniformed military personnel on the D.C. Metro subway system:

Dept of Transportation Federal Transit Administration sends:

Recently, there have been local incidents in which military personnel have been verbally assaulted while commuting on the Metro. Uniformed members have been approached by individuals expressing themselves as anti-government, shouting anti-war sentiments, and using racial slurs against minorities.

In one instance, a member was followed onto the platform by an individual who continued to berate her as she exited the metro station. Thus far, these incidents have occurred in the vicinity of the Reagan National Airport and Eisenhower Ave metro stations on the yellow line, however, military members should be vigilant and aware of their surroundings at all times while in mass transit.

Should you be approached by any individuals expressing anti-government/anti-war sentiments, or any other types of direct verbal assault, immediately notify your local police jurisdiction. If riding metro, exit the train at the next stop, distance yourself from the individual, and notify the Metro Transit Police Department.

Read all about it.