Has anyone heard his story?

I imagine many people on this site have.  For those who haven't here's a  bit of  it.

(summary taken from notinourname.net)

June 4, 2004
On May 21, a US military court sentenced Staff Sergeant Camilo Mejia Castillo of the Florida National Guard to the maximum penalty of one year's imprisonment for desertion. He had refused to return to his unit in Iraq, citing moral reasons, the legality of the war and the conduct of US troops towards Iraqi civilians and prisoners. Amnesty International considers him to be a prisoner of conscience, imprisoned for his conscientious opposition to participating in war. full story here

More below the jump

I was taking a leap into the conservative blogosphere and found a transcript from a conference call held earlier today held between some conservative bloggers and former Texas Supreme Court Justice Craig Enoch and White House communications advisor Jim Dyke organized by the RNC.

Take the jump with me.

You know with the whole air of secrecy that surrounds the White House you would think they wouldn't release this note.

take the jump with me

I posted a comment and included lyrics from the song that's the basis for this diary on Zachary Scott-Singley's blog earlier today and received this response from another person.  Someone else mentioned his blog earlier, but if you don't know, Zach's a soldier over in Iraq.  Here's the response I got (references to the song in bold):

Chris, Chris, Chris....
"If it gets scary and the bullets fly", you'd be nowhere to be found.Show me the love brother, particularly on 9-11-01. "If you try to love everyone shouldn't that be enough?" Chris, tell that to the victims and family members murdered on 9-11 and especially tell that to the NYPD, NYFD, and Port Authority survivors. I am glad there is no draft because my son might have to serve with you...but then again you would probably take the "Run to Canada Option". I can only hope that later you wouldn't run back home to the USA and some weak a$$ President would grant you amnesty at a later date.

I was quite pissed off and offended by what that person said.

The lyrics for the song and a few more comments are below the jump.

With the constant questioning of the Dems' agenda and what we on the left stand for, I decided to take a minute and examine my beliefs and what I value in a political system.

Cross-posted on my blog.

"Let every man make known what kind of government would command his respect, and that will be one step toward obtaining it," writes Henry David Thoreau in "Civil Disobedience" arguably his most well known work.

The following is my attempt to take that one step.
(take the jump)

This is cross-posted on my blog.  I think it offers one perspective on the current image of the Democrats.  It definitely shows how good of a job the GOP is doing to perpetuate the "no agenda" "no backbone" message.  We have to work to turn this around!

The following (below the crease) is taken from a message board on which I'm a frequent poster (my emphasis added; spelling & grammar errors unedited).

I had a previous diary, What can I do as a young person? Please tell me., that inspired a couple of people here to suggest books for me to read.

Here's the gist of it.  I'm a college student taking a year off of school.  I'm a public policy and linguistics double major.  Somewhere down the road I want to start my own PAC or 501(c)(4) social welfare organization.  I haven't ruled out running for public office either.  While I'm taking time off, I want to read as much as I can on American politics, social welfare, capitalism, the progressive movement, etc.

If you have seen the film Network, you will recognize this. If you haven't, I recommend going to your local video store and renting it. I altered it a bit to make it more relevant to current events.

I've decided to take a year off from college.  I was burnt out after six years (counting high school) of rigorous academic work.

I want to work, intern, volunteer, whatever for some sort of politcal action group or non-profit organization.  I need to do something productive.  I'm sick of seeing the all of the problems facing our country and feeling like there's little I can do to fix them or at least make a difference.

Here you will find my attempt to enter the minds of they who are the Ridiculous Right.  I'm very interested to see if I receive any response.  Note: I tried my best to be as polite as possible so I wouldn't be banned or accused of being confrontational.

Dear B4B,
First, let me say that I don't agree with many of the views on this site as I am a liberal, left-winger, Kossack, whatever.  Next, let me stress that I am making no aggressive statements and am approaching this with the utmost consideration for your site.  I have found myself reading your site on occasion as I think it is important to try to understand the views of others regardless of whether or not I agree with them.