(h/t Russ, S&R)

I love love love Google Earth. I can easily spend hours swooping all over the globe, looking at satellite pictures of the homes of friends and family, favorite vacation spots and dream destinations.

Sean, part of the content design team for Google Earth, has put together a special application for the program that is perfect for this Memorial Day: Map the Fallen.

This Memorial Day I would like to share with you a personal project of mine that uses Google Earth to honor the more than 5,700 American and Coalition servicemen and women that have lost their lives in Iraq and Afghanistan. I have created a map for Google Earth that will connect you with each of their stories—you can see photos, learn about how they died, visit memorial websites with comments from friends and families, and explore the places they called home and where they died. [..]
For this project I collected information from a number of sources, including the Department of Defense's Statistical Information Analysis Division, icasualties.org, MilitaryTimes.com's Honor the Fallen, Washington Post's Faces of the Fallen, the Iraq and Afghanistan Pages, and Legacy.com. I used the Google Maps and GeoNames.org geocoding services to get coordinates for each person's home of record and approximate place of death. The map includes data through March 2009. I'd like to point out the incredible time commitment the above organizations invest in maintaining this information; as I've learned, it is not an easy task. All of the data I have assembled and generated for this project will be made freely available for download in the near future.

During this project, I have sought the advice and perspectives of several groups directly tied to these losses, including Gold Star families, veterans' groups, active-duty servicemen and women, and leadership in the United States Army. I've done my best to incorporate their feedback and suggestions in creating something that pays tribute to the memory and service of these fallen heroes. Out of respect for the families of those people on this map who have taken their own lives, I have chosen to describe these deaths as coming from "non-combat" related causes. This is a broad category used by the Department of Defense to define other causes of death resulting from accidents or illness.

I recognize that this map is just a slice of the story in these conflicts. The Iraqi and Afghani people have incurred substantial civilian losses through these wars; there are also U.S. and Coalition civilians, contractors, and reporters who have died as well. For this project, I've chosen to focus on the U.S. and Coalition military casualties, but I recognize that the losses extend beyond what is mapped in this project.

Each figure on the map denotes a servicemember lost during the last six years. Tied to their hometown, each figure pops up a screen that gives information about that fallen troop. In addition, families can add photos, audio and a guestbook for others to give their remembrance and honor their service.

Please, take some time to look through Map the Fallen and honor the sad sacrifice these men and women have made.

VetVoice:

The ad features Peter Granato, Iraq War Veteran. In the ad, Granato fires shots from an AK-47 through the kind of flak jacket troops were given early on in the war, and modern Body Armor, featuring (Stand Alone Protective Insert (SAPI) plates. The shots go through the older vest, but are stopped by the newer armor. Granato explains that Chambliss voted against funding to give American troops the newer armor.

Chambliss did so twice, voting against an amendment offered by Senator Christopher Dodd in 2003 (S.Amdt. 1817), which would have appropriated $300 million more for needed equipment for the troops, including proper Body Armor, to make up for a funding shortfall that did not meet the request of the US Army. He also voted against an amendment by Senator Mary Landrieu ( S.Amdt. 452) in the same year that would have appropriated $1 billion for equipment on a list of priorities from the Marines, also including Body Armor, as Landrieu made clear in her press release on the amendment at the time.

"Senator Chambliss should be held accountable for these votes, and troops and veterans are doing just that," said Jon Soltz, Iraq War Veteran and Chairman of VoteVets.org.

Chambliss, the man who smeared triple amputee Max Cleland to win his seat in 2002 is now locked in a really close race against Democrat Jim Martin -- in fact, the state of Georgia is now a swing state -- and with your help, his seat could be part of our filibuster-proof 60 seat Democratic majority.

You can help Jim Martin at Act Blue. Do it for Max.

      Over at Blackfive, Uncle Jimbo is hyping Sarah Palin's position as Commander in Chief of the Alaskan National Guard to give her pretensions of national security experience befitting a Vice President.

He says that because of an Alaskan National Guard unit operating a missile defense base in Alaska she has a "unique role in our national security and homeland defense" and approvingly cites an email from one of his readers to that effect. He goes on to claim in comments that "she's privy to military and intelligence secrets no other governor is. She has to be. There's no way she could function as governor if she weren't." It's a story approvingly accepted by the likes of Jonah Goldberg and Kim Priestap.

There's a bit of a problem with his narrative though.

Maj. Gen. Craig Campbell, adjutant general of the Alaska National Guard, considers Palin "extremely responsive and smart" and says she is in charge when it comes to in-state services, such as emergencies and natural disasters where the National Guard is the first responder.

But, in an interview with The Associated Press on Sunday, he said he and Palin play no role in national defense activities, even when they involve the Alaska National Guard. The entire operation is under federal control, and the governor is not briefed on situations.

A couple of Jimbo's commenters pointed this out to him and he his readers  (EDIT: corrected attribution) went apoplectic, going so far as to denigrate the officer in charge of the ANG.

He's the commissioner of the Department of Military and Veterans Affairs. The fact that he has no role in national defense activities is a given. All you have to do is read his title.

And to claim that just because the Alaska National Guard's Strategic Plan for 2008-12 was written "in line with Governor Palin's priorities", Palin herself drew up the criteria for that plan  - even though that phrase is the only time Palin is mentioned in the whole document.

What a rotten milblogger Jimbo is - or simply dishonestly defending his thesis by focusing on only one of the Adjutant General's duties. Perhaps Jimbo should have corrected his readers, but he didn't. Here's the relevant part of Gen, Campbell's bio:

Major General Craig E. Campbell is the adjutant general for the State of Alaska, commander of the Alaska National Guard and the commissioner of the Department of Military and Veterans Affairs. He is responsible to provide Army and Air National Guard military forces, a State Defense Force, and a Navy Militia that are fully prepared to protect Alaska from any threat, disaster, or emergency. He is also responsible to ensure that Alaska’s National Guard forces are ready to deploy worldwide and accomplish military missions in support of the national defense strategy. As adjutant general and commissioner for the State of Alaska, he is responsible for emergency services, homeland security, veteran affairs, a Counter-Drug Support Team, a Civil Support Team, and a Youth Challenge Program.

What a great way to support the military...by boosting your wingnut Veep candidate at the expense of a general with 34 years in uniform. Classy.

Crossposted from Newshoggers.

(Note: Jimbo emailed to note that I'd wrongly attributed words from his commenter "Tom W" to Jimbo himself. As of this writing, Jimbo hasn't corrected his commenter, but he has my apology for the wrongful attribution anyway. The post has been edited accordingly.)