I am a native of Iraq and proud to be a U.S. Army soldier with a Purple Heart. I love the U.S. and that’s why I want to become a citizen. But my naturalization has been delayed. The U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) told me that it’s because, despite my combat service in the U.S. Army, I haven’t passed the FBI background check.

When I was serving this country and the U.S. Army in Iraq, a suicide bomber blew up just 10 feet from me and my buddies, and I was seriously wounded. After partially recovering from my injuries, I did another stint in Iraq until December 2007. For my service, I was awarded the Purple Heart, two Army Commendation medals, a Combat Action badge, Gold Combat Spurs and many certificates and letters of appreciation.

At one point, I was told by a USCIS official that my citizenship would be expedited because of my military status. At another point, I was told it would take longer because of my military status. By yet another official, I was told that the USCIS never does checks on military background before granting citizenship.

Specialist Polous is a permanent lawful resident of the United States, currently stationed in Fort Riley, Kansas. He is a native and citizen of Iraq. He immigrated to the U.S. in May 2001 and quickly applied for political asylum, which was granted in 2002. In 2005, he became a lawful permanent resident of the United States.

We translators need a political action committee.

Today we also got the bad news that Gary Gygax, co-designer of Dungeons & Dragons, passed away overnight.  Gary is considered the father of the role-playing game by many, and the first Game Master by many more.  Gary was 69.

So sadly this week we mourn both the old guard and the new guard in the gaming world.  My heart goes out to their families and close friends. - B

I met him at Gen Con, and he was a sight to see. With a name like Barron Vangor Toth, your mind will bring up a Viking, and he definitely had the size to pull it off. He was a gentle giant though, especially considering that it was literally a pin in the backside for him to attend large events, as back problems had been plaguing him for most of his life. And while I only spoke with him briefly, I did have a lot of contact with him online. Over the years, I went from being a customer that would communicate with him on the boards, even being confuse as Barron himself, albeit in disguise, on TeamCanadaOnline. Later, another mistaken identity situation would come up, where he mentioned me, from my posts on Yahoo to a friend of his, and his friend mentioned Walter Kovacs from TeamCanadaOnline, and when I first e-mailed Barron, he learned the two posters were one and the same.

 Barron had his "haters", as Stu would put it. He was the type of person that had an opinion, and wouldn't suffer fools gladly. While some had problems getting along with him, I never really did, even when I was arguing with him. However, those arguments are likely part of what allowed me to eventually work with him. As a lead playtester I was part of a group of about five people that were in continuous contact over the development process, and while it's nothing like a real friendship, I at least got to know a little bit more about Barron's thought process.

 Anyway, the World is a little less interesting with Barron Vangor Toth gone. Canaan-Axl was probably up there, waiting for him. And maybe he can let Andre know, personally, that he finally got his card.

Kenneth Herbert, einer der Köpfe hinter diesen drei Untergrundlaboratorien, hat sich jüngst schuldig der Anklage des Anabolikabesitzes mit der Absicht des Weiterverkaufs bekannt und kooperiert nun mit den Behörden, um ein möglichst mildest Urteil zu erhaschen. Unter anderem fallen gelassen werden hierbei die Anklage der Geldwäsche, was ein sehr gewichtiger Anklagepunkt angesichts des Umfangs der drei Untergrundlaboratorien war.

In Kenneth Herbert´s Haus wurden bei einer Hausdurchsuchung u.a. folgende Dinge gefunden:

• 4 Tablettenpressen

• ca. 8 Kilogramm unterschiedlicher Steroidpulver (!)

• über 100.000 Anabolika-Tabletten

• ein komplettes Labor inkl. diverser Ampullen und Zubehör

Mit den beschlagnahmten Dingen wäre die Produktion von ca. 50.000 Tabletten pro Stunden möglich gewesen!

Herberts erwarten 5 Jahre Gefängnis und/oder eine 250.000 $ Strafe. Da Herberts mit den Behörden kooperiert, wurde eine Strafe am untersten Ende der gesetzlichen Möglichkeiten vorgeschlagen.

Auf allen großen Ami-Seiten wurde dies alles dann heute aber erneut komplett dementiert. Lee sei die letzten zwei Tage gar nicht in Arizona gewesen sein, sondern in Kalifornien, wo er angeblich ein neues Auto gekauft hat.

Ein dummer Publicity-Streich? Wer hätte was davon? Oder doch die Wahrheit? Vorzustellen wäre es, da die Bodybuilder-Gemeinde ja krankhaft zusammen hält und mit Sicherheit das Thema "anabole/androgene Steroide" erneut ein Thema in den Medien gewesen wäre, was die Amis nach "Operation Raw Deal" natürlich möglichst vermeiden möchten, da die Quellen für ihre Mittelchen immer mehr versiegen :-)

Wie auch immer, ich wünsche Lee nur das Beste, da er in meinen Augen trotz seiner geringen Körpergröße ein wahrer Bodybuilding-Champion ist!

Was ist Hushmail? Hushmail ist ein kanadischer Email-Service-Provider, über den man nach Registrierung automatisch per PGP verschlüsselte Emails verschicken konnte - vorausgesetzt, der Empfänger hat ebenfalls eine Hushmail-Adresse. Der Anbieter wirbt auf seiner Seite damit, dass nach der Verschlüsselung außer dem Empfänger kein Dritter an den Inhalt der Emails kommt, nicht einmal Hushmail selbst. Dass hier ein wenig geflunkert wurde, kam dann vor kurzem heraus. Hushmail hat sehr wohl Zugriff auf die angeblich verschlüsselten Inhalte und gibt die auch gerne an die Justiz bei entsprechender Anfrage weiter, just geschehen bei zwei größeren Anabolika-Dealern aus den USA.

Was heißt das nun für Klein-Manni, der sich von seinem Internet-Freund seine Kur aus 15 Deca und einer Dose Thais bestellt? Voraussichtlich nichts, da der Staat erst bei Verdacht an die Emails kommt. Erst wenn die Internet-Helden zum Vorschein kommen, die in einschlägigen Foren unbedingt erzählen müssen, dass sie bei xxx@hushmail.com (Adresse dient nur als Beispiel und ist frei erfunden!) für ihren Stoff nur einen Bruchteil vom Normalpreis bezahlen, wird es kritisch. Die Annahme, dass die Justiz in derartigen Foren nicht unterwegs ist, ist dumm und naiv. Wenn dann in solchen Foren noch ganze Threads zu einem Anbieter auftauchen, dann sollte sich die Person, die hinter dieser Emailadresse steht und sich bislang in Sicherheit wägte, entweder gleich selber der Justiz stellen (die optimale Variante) oder alternativ in ein Land auswandern, das nicht ausliefert.

Soll im Klartext heißen: Der Email-Verkehr zwischen Klein-Erna und Klein-Möchtegern-Dealer dürfte für die Justiz uninteressant sein. Möchtegern-Untergrundlaboratorien und Homebrewer, deren Hushmail-Adressen in jedem Forum herum schwirren, sollten sich schon eher den Wecker auf früh morgens 5:59 Uhr stellen, da bereits eine Minute später unangenehmer Besuch drohen könnte.

Fazit: Anabolika-Handel ist dumm, das Verlassen auf kommerzielle Produkte "bei der Arbeit" noch mehr.

Publicity, even slanted against its subject, can be beneficial. But the question remains: was this the raw story or yet another raw deal? You be the judge.

-- Psycheout

I guess they're envious and afraid of the good common sense wisdom that comes out of this blog day after day (except on G-d's day, on which we rest and honor Him). You can tell we're hitting a nerve when wave upon wave of far-left suicide commenters and Ron Paul cretins come in here to slam, smear and slime, squealing like stuck pigs when we have the temerity to post the honest to goodness truth. In short, the attacks from anonymous cowards come fast and furious day after day at B4B.

So we were rather surprised when Raw Story's Jason Rhine contacted Sam Brown, our blog administrator, over a week ago for comment on a profile he was writing about Blogs 4 Brownback. I had assumed that Raw Story was some kind of adult-themed pornography website, so pretty much ignored Sam's messages to contact this Jason fellow. We'd already suffered a smearing from the liberal media's Karen E. Crummy, after all. So I wasn't really interested.

Now that the article is out, I'm not sure what to think, so I'll leave it up to you. The title alone is a non-starter: "Suspected right-wing parody site has even pros buying in." Suspected by whom? And who are these pros who are buying in, and buying into what? The headline alone is a smear. Rhyne (probably a German propagandist) quotes nobody of any significance who's opinion about us matters save one.

What I was disappointed in the most was how Raw Story cornered Patrick Ruffini, a brilliant conservative activist and a man who I've respected for quite some time, and got him to say "I remember visiting Blogs4Brownback months ago and thinking it was a parody." Yeah, thanks Pat. Why didn't you clue us in? Why didn't you voice your concerns to us rather than airing your dirty laundry to the liberal press? Turncoat.

I can only assume you were a victim of ambush journalism and were taken out of context. How could you stoop so low as to turn on one of your own? The 2008 Political Wire has been like a second home to me. I can only assume you did not really intend to stab us in the back. The only thing worse would have been to coerce Sam Brownback himself, getting him to say, "I do not know you." I mean, how low can you go?

And what to make of this log cabin lunacy?

"It's sublime," said [openly gay "conservative" Andrew] Sullivan. "Colbert-level."

We're below the lime and at the level of some kind of cheese? Look up "irrelevant" in the dictionary. You'll find Sully Pooh's picture next to the definition.

As far as MSM reporting goes, the Raw Story profile may not be a complete and utter raw deal, but the subtext is clear. It's an attack piece, although a subtle one. It's a smile and a stab. But read it for yourself and make up your own mind. We always encourage people to come to their own conclusions, even if they're woefully wrong.

But I think Sam Brown, who was quoted in the article said it best:

"It seems these days that anything that falls outside of a certain range of 'acceptable' opinion is labeled parody or 'spoof,'" he said. "I think it's a defense mechanism. For some people it's far easier to simply dismiss that which falls outside of safe liberal dogma rather than to think outside the box."

And so it goes.

I give credit to Jason Rhyne for at least including the truth embedded within layers of innuendo. The MSM. What is it good for? Absolutely nothing. Say it again.

-- Psycheout

No Way!! You say? Let me continue.

Let's look at a little history.. The relationship between the man and the woman was a two night stand, and upon finding that the woman was pregnant, the man said " I cannot afford to have a child, nor do I want one at this time. There are two choices I will pay for the abortion, or I will stay with you through the birth and the baby is put up for adoption". The woman then decides that she wants nothing to do with the guy and never wants to see him again.

So now we have two people that have made decisions and yet in todays society, only one counts. The woman has clearly decided to raise a child on her own, so why does this guy have to pay back support? As far as I can see, this guy decided not to have a child.