Kossacks,
My name is Peter Laesch and I am the brother of John Laesch. Bear with me as I am still somewhat of a novice with the whole blogging bit. I am going to try and write in an organized fashion so as to discourage any deleterious drivel that might come forth from my keyboard. A phone conversation, the fobbit life, and a little snippet on the drive to defeat Dennis Hastert and the signifigance it holds for democrats and the nation is what lies ahead in this diary. In case you were wondering I am stationed somewhere in or around Baghdad, Iraq. Previously, I had spent six months in Taji, Iraq.
A Phone Call- While, most of the phone calls I make to John are relatively short due to our both constant busy schedules, I did get a chance to speak with him for a considerable 30-40 minutes around the 15th of June 2006. This was two days prior to my departure from Taji. While, John, the NSA, AT&T, and myself already know what we talked about, most of you all out there and Dennis Hastert do not know. (Yes, I am aware that Denny Hastert's staff reads this blog.) (Everyone pause now and Say HI DENNY!)
Most of the events we covered revolved around what happened after I left Illinois and the 14th of June in his campaign. As most of you already know Denny Hastert attended a John Laesch campaign event at Panera Bread on May 20. That story can be found here at:
http://www.dailykos.com/...
I believe the whole point of that little visit was primarily to assess John in person. I believe Denny was impressed with the viability, vim, and vigor of John as a candidate. Two to four hours later a story appeared on AP news wire on Yahoo that had Denny Hastert quoted as saying He "Wishes" the troops will be home soon. (I was wondering if you all could maybe find that link as I thus far have been unable to do so.) I was in England at the time and I called up John's office and told him about the "wishful" thinking on the part of Denny. I don't know where the real Denny Hastert is, but if that was him then we are all still waiting for him to stand up. I get the feeling we will be waiting for awhile. Denny then took a public change of character in the next two weeks and got tough on the war. From what I've heard he flew over to Baghdad and had "meetings" with the Iraqi government. Supposedly, he also met with soldiers from Illinois 14th CD, but I was not one of them. What followed upon his return though was that "phony" debate in the house that was designed to bait democrats into a yes or no vote. (I believe there were five democrats that voted present.) The thinking of Karl Rove and I do believe it was Karl Rove is obviously to paint the democrats as "anti-troops." Following that of course came lots of lame talk about flag burning, gays, and of course the now infamous land deal. What I told John that was missing was the details on the meeting. The meeting where Karl Rove sets Denny Hastert straight and back on the party line. The meeting where it is planned for both George Bush and Denny Hastert to go to Baghdad. I have no evidence it took place, but I bet my life that it did. At the age of 64, I think deep down inside Denny Hastert probably feels, and wishes that he was an independant free thinking man. The kind of man or woman that all Americans were born to be. Wouldn't it be nice to not be owned by George Bush and Karl Rove and say something that was um... Well your own true feelings? Then again, this is all rather speculative and maybe I am reading too much into the little word "wish."
Back to the war-
A Fobbit is one who lives and works on the FOB (Forward Operating Base). It is a word that has become part of the language of this war. The warriors are distinguished as those who go outside the wire and the fobbits, well they live on the fob. For the greater part of the last ten months I have been blessed to live the life of a fobbit. It has its perks and disadvantages. One of the perks is living on the fob. IED's have difficulty finding their way onto fobs. While, I will not go into the specific work I am in, I will tell you that it is and can be positively grueling at times. I work in the sun on average for five critical hours of the day. Temperatures are now creeping up towards 124 degrees in the shade. My parents mailed me a thermometer that taps out at 140 degrees F. The temperature reads the usual 120-125 in the shade and promptly moves up to 140 degrees within two minutes. We have a wet bulb thermometer as well, but the scale of conversion stops well before the temperatures we reach. It could be worse, we could be wearing body armor.
Recently, I tried to cook a steak in the sun. The fat started to melt off and the steak did sizzle. Unfortunately, it was still rare. In other news, it appears they have killed the industrious individuals who were mortaring us. (John, you can add your caveat to that if you like.) I make that presumption based off the notice in the local paper and the fact that the mortars have for the moment stopped falling. Some of you might be wondering about the "situation" on the ground out in the streets. Honestly, I couldn't tell you. I can tell you that lately, my little corner of this jungle gym has been pretty quiet. The flares have dropped to a minimum, the sporadic gunfire one hears over the wall has been kept to the early morning cool hours, and I guess the individuals who tried to make a living out of driving car bombs around decided to go work at the local haji mart and pray it turns into wal mart. It is so nice to live in paradise. If you haven't already given to John's campaign you can do it here at
http://www.john06.com
(Just to let you know John, I will have pops pull another couple of hundred out of my account for ya too.)