Paul Ryan: Ready to Be Vice President

Representative Ryan is a decent, serious man who has shown real leadership on how to fix our national budget/debt problem. He is also a clear, compelling speaker. Those are traits we desperately need at the top.

Will the Obama campaign and its media allies be able to sandbag him as a number crunching misanthrope who casually pushes grannies in wheelchairs off cliffs?

H/T Gordon Durand

Ann Romney a Hit; and so is Chris Christie

I didn't see the speeches, but listened to them. So, I might have missed something important in the visual impact. But, to me, Ann Romney had the best "candidate's wife" speech I remember seeing at any convention. She was likable, believable, and the speech was very effective in underlining that the Romneys do know something about living frugally and having problems (breast cancer and MS), and did humanize Governor Romney as someone who made her laugh when they first met and still does so today. Also, Mrs. Romney underlined how he worked hard and was a guy you could trust to work super hard to bring something to a successful end. One of the most powerful parts of her speech was about the value of hard work, aiming high and succeeding.

You may not agree with Mitt's positions on issues or his politics. Massachusetts is only 13 percent Republican, so it's not like that's a shock.

But let me say this to every American who is thinking about who should be our next President:

No one will work harder.

No one will care more.

No one will move heaven and earth like Mitt Romney to make this country a better place to live!

It's true that Mitt has been successful at each new challenge he has taken on. It amazes me to see his history of success actually being attacked. Are those really the values that made our country great? As a mom of five boys, do we want to raise our children to be afraid of success?

Do we send our children out in the world with the advice, "Try to do... okay?"

And let's be honest. If the last four years had been more successful, do we really think there would be this attack on Mitt Romney's success?

Of course not.

Mitt will be the first to tell you that he is the most fortunate man in the world. He had two loving parents who gave him strong values and taught him the value of work. He had the chance to get the education his father never had.

But as his partner on this amazing journey, I can tell you Mitt Romney was not handed success.

He built it.
[emphasis added]

Some are criticizing Governor Chris Christie for focusing on himself. That didn't bother me as much as his wild praise for his mother and not much for his father--especially since his father was at the convention listening to the speech. Also, I am not a fan of Christie's normal bombastic, confrontive style, which sometimes resembles bullying. I lean a lot more towards the Reagan oblique style or the Palin straight forward style. "In your face" doesn't do a lot for me in personal or public interaction.

However, I thought this was a great speech by Governor Christie and good for Republicans and the country. Christie made a strong, clear case for our crying need for political leaders who will make the hard but right decisions.

We [Republicans] believe in telling hard working families the truth about our country's fiscal realities. Telling them what they already know – the math of federal spending doesn't add up.

With $5 trillion in debt added over the last four years, we have no other option but to make the hard choices, cut federal spending and fundamentally reduce the size of government.

They [Democrats] believe that the American people don't want to hear the truth about the extent of our fiscal difficulties and need to be coddled by big government.

They believe the American people are content to live the lie with them.

We believe in telling seniors the truth about our overburdened entitlements.

We know seniors not only want these programs to survive, but they just as badly want them secured for their grandchildren.

Seniors are not selfish.

They believe seniors will always put themselves ahead of their grandchildren. So they prey on their vulnerabilities and scare them with misinformation for the cynical purpose of winning the next election.

Their plan: whistle a happy tune while driving us off the fiscal cliff, as long as they are behind the wheel of power.

We believe that the majority of teachers in America know our system must be reformed to put students first so that America can compete.

Teachers don't teach to become rich or famous. They teach because they love children.

We believe that we should honor and reward the good ones while doing what's best for our nation's future – demanding accountability, higher standards and the best teacher in every classroom.

They believe the educational establishment will always put themselves ahead of children. That self-interest trumps common sense.

They believe in pitting unions against teachers, educators against parents, and lobbyists against children.

They believe in teacher's unions.

We believe in teachers.

We believe that if we tell the people the truth they will act bigger than the pettiness of Washington, D.C.

We believe it's possible to forge bipartisan compromise and stand up for conservative principles.

It's the power of our ideas, not of our rhetoric, that attracts people to our Party.

We win when we make it about what needs to be done; we lose when we play along with their game of scaring and dividing.

For make no mistake, the problems are too big to let the American people lose – the slowest economic recovery in decades, a spiraling out of control deficit, an education system that's failing to compete in the world.

It doesn't matter how we got here. There is enough blame to go around.

What matters now is what we do.

I know we can fix our problems.

When there are people in the room who care more about doing the job they were elected to do than worrying about winning re-election, it's possible to work together, achieve principled compromise and get results.

The people have no patience for any other way.

It's simple.

We need politicians to care more about doing something and less about being something.
[emphasis added]

Kudos to Mrs. Romney and Governor Christie.

There's a little scuttlebutt out there that Thursday night's mystery speaker might be Sarah Palin.

From National Review's Jim Geraghty:

The good folks at the Journal offer a poll of potential mystery guests, but most are unrealistic: former Georgia Democratic senator Zell Miller, well-armed rocker Ted Nugent, CIA director David Petraeus, former first lady Nancy Reagan, heroic pilot Chesley Sullenberger . . .

. . . or Sarah Palin.

As they used to sing on Sesame Street, "One of these things is not like the other, most of these things are kinda the same . . ."

I have no inside information (yet), but at dinner with my NR colleagues, I pointed out that Palin is glaring by her absence from the program -- I mean Huckabee's speaking, and it's been longer since his name appeared on a ballot -- and that a surprise appearance would probably make the assembled delegates go nuts.

Team Romney Rules Changes Will Hurt Conservatives

UPDATE: Erick Erickson says the danger is bigger than this rule change.

Reports that the floor fight threat is over might be designed to calm the grassroots and get them to ignore what is coming at 2 o’clock.

The first rule to be proposed is one that would give the Republican National Committee the power to change rules between conventions with a three-quarters vote of the RNC. One source tells me, “With a Republican President, of course this is doable. Everybody will roll over if a President Romney asks them too. They’ll be able to get Ben Ginsberg’s proposal next year.”

In other words, if Team Romney prevails in this rules change, they don’t have to worry about Ben Ginsberg not getting his way today on the delegate changes. They’ll be able to do it later when the press and grassroots are not watching.

From Sarah Palin:

We have to remember that this election is not just about replacing the party in power. It's about who and what we replace it with. Grassroots conservatives know this. Without the energy and wisdom of the grassroots, the GOP would not have had the historic 2010 electoral victories. That's why the controversial rule change being debated at the RNC convention right now is so very disappointing. It's a direct attack on grassroots activists by the GOP establishment, and it must be rejected. Please follow the link to Michelle Malkin's article about this.

Here's Drew McKissick's summary from the Malkin article:

This past Friday, the RNC’s Convention Rules Committee voted – after several contentous votes – to change the party’s rules to allow future presidential candidates to have veto power over who can be delegates from any state – in other words, take power away from the grassroots and their ability to elect fellow conservatives as delegates.

This represents a brazen move by several Washington Beltway consultants and party insiders to diminish the power and influence of conservatives over the party.

Byron York has a similar take.

New York Sun: Pansy Republicans and Off-Target Romney

From Ira Stoll at the New York Sun on Republicans canceling a day of the convention because of wind and rain:

So the Americans that survived Valley Forge and stormed the beaches of Normandy and Iwo Jima have gotten so soft that the mere threat of heavy rain is enough to cancel an entire day of a national political convention.

Here is the chairman of the Republican National Committee, Reince Priebus, on “Fox News Sunday,” explaining the decision to call off Monday’s program at the Republican National Convention in Tampa: “the Secret Service took down the tents out in front of the forum. People would be standing in line in driving rain.”

My goodness. Have the Republicans not heard of raincoats? Umbrellas? If a mere tropical storm hundreds of miles away is enough to send Republicans running for cover, imagine how the Grand Old Party would deal with a genuine threat, like a major terrorist attack, war, or a federal fiscal crisis.

Green Bay Packers and Buffalo Bills fans regularly watch football games outside in snowstorms and freezing temperatures. Yet for a historically significant moment in an election to defend the free enterprise system and turn back a vast expansion of government spending and power that has mired America in economic stagnation, the Republicans won’t even brave raindrops on the doorstep to an indoor arena?

On Romney's class warfare:

So the Romney campaign Web site on Sunday featured a note from WMR himself that concluded with the less-than-rousing line, “It's time for the American middle class to have an unwavering champion in the White House.” He sounds like Senator Schumer with this “middle class” stuff. Since when did Americans divide ourselves up into classes? I’d happily settle for a president who championed freedom and economic growth and let the Marxists, Democrats, and college professors handle the class warfare.

Romney on more Medicare spending is better:

On the same “Fox News Sunday” show on which Mr. Priebus justified his surrender to the prediction of raindrops, Mr. Romney faulted President Obama for “the way the president cut Medicare, $716 billion for current retirees.” In fact these are future promised cuts against ten years worth of inflated baselines. Medicare spending has gone up every year of the Obama administration.

Mr. Romney went on, “one thing is for sure, putting money back into Medicare helps it, it doesn't hurt it.” Here Mr. Romney is campaigning on the promise to spend more on Medicare than Mr. Obama would. And he’s defining his choice not on the basis of what is best for the country or for the health of American seniors, but what’s best for Medicare. Imagine if, at Bain Capital, Mr. Romney had tried to launch Staples with the theory that it would help your company [to] spend more money on office supplies than the competition.

Romney is for campaign spending limits:

Finally, in the same interview, Mr. Romney said he’d prefer that the presidential campaigns had less money to spend on informing voters about the choices in front of them in November. “I would far rather have a setting where we had both agreed to the federal spending limits,” Mr. Romney told Chris Wallace. “Look, what — what he's done has meant that both of us have to spend an inordinate amount of time fundraising. We can't spend as much time on the campaign trail. And, frankly, it increases the potential of money having influence in politics.”

The last Republican who ran against Mr. Obama on a campaign-finance-reform (or, more accurately, campaign speech limitation) platform was Senator McCain, and we know how that turned out for Mr. McCain.

Romney's misunderstanding of the difference between a board of directors and a presidential cabinet:

In [a] . . . Politico interview, Mr. Romney is paraphrased as saying he would “treat his cabinet like a board of directors.” One significant difference Mr. Romney apparently did not mention is that a CEO works for and is hired by the board of directors, while the cabinet works for and is chosen by the president. Another is that the cabinet has nearly two dozen members, which is so large as to be nearly unwieldy for a corporate board. Anyway, whatever the case is for replacing Mr. Obama, his poor use of his cabinet probably isn’t at the center of it.

Sigh. How about Ira Stoll for president?

NY Sun: Romney, the Fed and the Constitution

From the New York Sun:

Governor Romney’s latest statement in support of the independence of the Federal Reserve has brought a sharp warning from Congressman Ron Paul that the Constitution vests responsibility over monetary policy in the Congress.

The congressman’s riposte came in response to a statement by Mr. Romney — quoted Wednesday in the Christian Post — that, while the former Massachusetts governor supports an audit of the Federal Reserve, the Fed should maintain its independence from Congress.

Dr. Paul’s riposte suggests that even though Mr. Romney is preparing to run for president on a platform calling for an audit of Fed monetary policy and the establishment of a commission to look at a modern gold standard, it’s not yet clear whether Mr. Romney is on the same wavelength as the long-time campaigner for monetary reform.

“The Federal Reserve should be accountable," Mr. Romney was quoted by the Post as saying at a New Hampshire campaign stop Monday. "We should see what they're doing." But the online newspaper reported that in response to a question later, the governor qualified his support for an audit of the Fed by saying, "I want to keep [the Fed] independent.”

“There are very few groups that I would not want to give the keys to,” Mr. Romney was quoted by the Post as saying. “One of them is Congress.”

In an email Friday, Congressman Paul was asked by The New York Sun whether he was with Mr. Romney on the point. The congressman emailed a reply saying, “But weren't the ‘keys’ or responsibility over monetary policy given to Congress by the Constitution.” He added, “but of course without power to create money out of thin air to buy up debt in secrecy.”

The congressman was referring to Article One, Section Eight of the Constitution, which grants to Congress the power to coin money and regulate the value thereof, and of foreign coin, and to fix the standard of weights and measures. It also grants to Congress the power to borrow money on the credit of the United States.

The monetary powers are some of the most clearly enumerated grants to Congress in the entire Constitution. It is hard to remember a presidential candidate laying down such a blunt marker against Congress at the outset of a general election campaign.

The comments by Messrs. Romney and Paul come as the struggle over a Fed audit is heating up in the Congress. The House passed late last month and by a bi-partisan majority a measure that would authorize a major audit of the Fed — not only of its financial books but of its closed door deliberations. The measure, which faces an uphill battle in the Senate, is opposed by the chairman of the Fed, Ben Bernanke, on the grounds that it would interfere with the central bank’s independence. The plank calling for an audit of the Fed in the draft Republican platform emerged this week, on the eve of the Republican National Convention at Tampa.

Sarah Palin: Strongest Vote Winning Vice Presidential Candidate in Recent History

According to NBC-Wall Street Journal polling among registered voters, no other vice presidential candidate from 2000 to the present has gained more votes for the ticket than Sarah Palin who had a positive vote getting effect on an astounding 34% of registered voters. (see question 20)

In 2008 Sarah Palin made 34% of people polled more likely to vote for McCain, 25% less likely and for 40% she made no difference.

In comparison, Paul Ryan makes 22% of people polled more likely to vote for Romney, 23% less likely and for 54% Ryan makes no difference.

In 2008 Joe Biden made 24% of people polled more likely to vote for Obama, 16% less likely and for 58% he made no difference.

In 2004 John Edwards made 28% of people polled more likely to vote for Kerry, 7% less likely and for 65% he made no difference.

In 2000 Joe Lieberman made 20% of people polled more likely to vote for Gore, 7% less likely and for 71% he made no difference.

In 2000 Dick Cheney made 16% of people polled more likely to vote for Bush, 14% less likely and for 69% he made no difference.

Palin evoked the strongest positive response at 34%. This was 6% more than second place John Edwards who had 28%. Palin also brought the strongest negative response at 25%. This was 2% more than second place Paul Ryan at 23%.

Balancing positive vs negative, Palin at 9% comes in third as a positive vote getter after Edwards (21%) and Lieberman (13%). Biden is a close 4th at 8%. Cheney is 5th with 2%, and Ryan 6th at -1%.

Not reflected in the poll is the dive in approval ratings for John Edwards, a one time media favorite (who only the National Enquirer did serious investigative reporting on), which points to the bias and lack of serious vetting of Democratic candidates by the legacy media.

This polling does not take into account the strength of the vice presidential candidate as a campaigner. Ryan has shown himself to be a strong campaigner with a clear, concise message. So far he and his family have not been targeted with the media personal vendetta aimed at Palin and her family in 2008. With that he move from last place as a vote getter to being one of the strongest vice presidential picks since 2000.

H/T Ian Lazaran

17 Heroes Fighting in the Afghanistan War Who Died August 6 to August 17, 2012

August 6 - Cpl. Daniel L. Linnabary II, 23, of Hubert, N.C., died while conducting combat operations in Helmand province, Afghanistan.

August 7 - Petty Officer 3rd Class Clayton R. Beauchamp, of Weatherford, Texas, died when enemy forces attacked his unit with an improvised explosive device while conducting a dismounted patrol in the Shaban District, Helmand Province, Afghanistan.
- Spc. Ethan J. Martin, 22, of Lewiston, Idaho, died in Koragay, Afghanistan, of wounds suffered when he encountered enemy small-arms fire.

August 8 - Maj. Walter D. Gray, 38, of Conyers, Ga., died from injuries suffered during a suicide bomb attack in Kunar province, Afghanistan.
- They died in Kunar province, Afghanistan, of wounds suffered when they encountered an insurgent who detonated a suicide vest. Killed were:
- Maj. Thomas E. Kennedy, 35, of West Point, N.Y., and
- Command Sgt. Maj. Kevin J. Griffin, 45, of Laramie, Wyo.

- Master Sgt. Gregory R. Trent, 38, of Norton, Mass., died in Bethesda, Md., from wounds suffered July 31 in Baktabad, Afghanistan, when enemy forces attacked his unit with small-arms fire.

August 10 - They died while conducting combat operations in Helmand province, Afghanistan. Killed were:
- Capt. Matthew P. Manoukian, 29, of Los Altos Hills, Calif.,
- Gunnery Sgt. Ryan Jeschke, 31, of Herndon, Va., and
- Staff Sgt. Sky R. Mote, 27, of El Dorado, Calif.
This incident is under investigation.

- They died while supporting combat operations in Helmand province, Afghanistan. Killed were:
- Staff Sgt. Scott E. Dickinson, 29, of San Diego, Calif.,
- Cpl. Richard A. Rivera Jr., 20 of Ventura, Calif., and
- Lance Cpl. Gregory T. Buckley, 21, of Oceanside, N.Y.
This incident is under investigation.

August 15 - Pfc. Andrew J. Keller, 22, of Tigard, Ore., died in Charkh, Afghanistan when enemy forces attacked his unit with small arms fire. From the Oregonian:

It had been just Tuesday night when Army Pfc. Andrew Keller, 22, texted his family that he was safe, that he loved them, said Debbie Silva, a neighbor.

The next day, Keller was killed when insurgents attacked his unit in Charkh, in the southern part of Logar province in Afghanistan, the U.S. Department of Defense reported. He is the 34th soldier from Oregon to be killed in Afghanistan.
. . .
As a child, Andrew Keller grew up around the love of sports. He played in the Southridge Youth Football program, and his father, Jeff Keller, managed a Murrayhill Little League team that went to the Little League World Series in 2006.

Keller was a gifted athlete in football and enjoyed mentoring others at youth camps, said Jeff Martin, a former coach from the youth program.
. . .
In the youth program up until eighth grade, Keller played as a linebacker and running back, sometimes even in pain with injuries so that he wouldn't let his team down, Martin said.
. . .
Keller carried his strong work ethic to the varsity football team at Southridge High, where he mostly played as an outside linebacker. During one game leading up to the championships against Jesuit High School, Keller continued to play with a torn-up shoulder so he could support his team, said Doug Dean, who at the time was a defense coordinator.
. . .
Connie Jolley, a former Southridge High School health teacher, said she has taught thousands of students, but Keller was one of the few who affected her the most.

"His smile could make anyone's day brighter and he was liked by many," Jolley wrote in an email. "He was hilarious and the kind of kid that people just wanted to be around."

Jolley was impressed by Keller's diligence in his schoolwork, especially his research on dietary supplements, she wrote. She also lived down the street from him and often saw him when she went on a jog, she wrote. When she passed him, he would yell, "Go faster, Jolley." Those words always gave her a burst of energy, even if she was huffing to get up the hill.

After Keller graduated in 2008, he didn't feel college was the best route for his future, Dean said.

"He really wanted to do something positive and productive with his life," Dean said. "You can see why he went into the armed services."

Keller was proud of his decision to join the U.S. Army, Dean said.

From another Oregonian piece:

The military record will show that Army Pfc. Andrew Keller, 22 and the leader of his unit, was killed in action Wednesday in Afghanistan. He was shot by insurgents on a hillside in Charkh, and when the "Soldier down!" call came, two men in his unit ran up the hill two miles to his body.

Keller was dead from a gunshot to the head.
. . .
Soldiers are brothers. We hear that all the time. But you don't fully grasp it until you hear Jeff Keller talk about those two soldiers who ran to his son's body. They saw that he was dead, and pulled off their shirts to shield him as a helicopter stormed in. As the rotors hurled rocks and debris everywhere, they covered his dead body with their bare backs to the sky.

"They got," Jeff said, choking up, "all torn up protecting his body."

----------

Andrew struggled after high school to find purpose. Football was over. He got engaged to Marissa Jones, his eighth-grade sweetheart and, after being talked out of going into the military, enrolled in community college.

Then, in his second year of college, he told his parents, "I'm thinking of joining the Army."

Dad said, "Now, let's talk about this."

Andrew said, "I've already joined."

Andrew was 22, an adult, and the exact kind of proud, confident, capable soldier that our country has long relied upon. His parents, while worried sick at the idea of their first-born seeing combat, knew he had to make his own journey.

It was one that ultimately led to what was supposed to be a 48-hour mission to secure an observation post.

One that led to Andrew’s final communication to his father:

"I'm safe. I'm on a hill in some God-forsaken place. Text you as soon as I can."

- Staff Sgt. Eric S. Holman, 39, of Evans City, Penn., died in Ghazni province, Afghanistan, of wounds suffered when he encountered an enemy improvised explosive device.

August 16 - Pfc. Michael R. Demarsico II, of North Adams, Mass., died in Panjwa’l, Afghanistan, of wounds suffered when he encountered an enemy improvised device.

August 17 - Spc. James A. Justice, 21, of Grover, N.C., died at Landstuhl Regional Medical Center, Germany from injuries suffered on Aug. 14 from enemy small-arms fire in Wardak province, Afghanistan.

Ryan a Good Pick

Rep. Paul Ryan is a good pick for VP. He's serious, intelligent and able to articulate his views and the conservative case. However, the GOP establishment and too many "conservative" pundits are still lame. From Tony Lee:

"I don't like MSM/Republicans using Ryan pick to take cheap shots at Palin. If they do, shd also then compare crowd sizes on stump."

For those who want to compare, at least do a full comparison. From Ian Lazaran:

"Prediction: whomever Romney chooses will underperform Palin's convention speech and her debate performance in the polls."

Both Ryan and Palin have excellences. Though Palin has shown greatness in the last four years under withering attack not only on her personally but on her family. And she has posted the most powerful endorsement/victory (2010 / 2012*) record of anyone on the current public scene. May Paul Ryan find the inner character to rise to greatness too.
____
*Unfortunately, the Wall Street Journal shows its incompetence in this article. Doug Brady points out that WSJ reporter Neil King Jr. didn't even do basic research to find out that Palin didn't endorse Sharron Angle in the 2010 primary. (Actually Palin's father and brother endorsed Danny Tarkanian in the primary.) Palin did endorse Angle over Harry Reid in the general election. What would be the brights standard for any Republican who endorsed Harry Reid over Angle? Or the brights standard for a reporter who thinks a Republican should have endorsed Harry Reid?

New York Sun: Palin a VP pick to emulate

Amen to the New York Sun!

"As Governor Romney moves closer to choosing a running mate, the Daily Beast is out with a headline warning against what it calls a 'dull white guy.' It runs out the story under the headline 'Worse Than Palin?' It prompts us to reprise just why it was that we reckoned that the governor of Alaska was, as we put it at the time, 'a brilliant pick' for vice president and why we have stood by that opinion through all the ensuing contretemps. We understand completely that she is not seeking to run in the current contest. But the theme that she introduced into American politics, well, let us just say that more than any other candidate in the past decade she has dug down to what we like to call American bedrock, and that is the ground on which to run.

"By American bedrock we mean the deep constitutional principles that undergird our republic. The written constitution. Enumerated powers. Reserved powers. God-given rights. More than any other politician of her generation, Mrs. Palin has stood for what she over and over again has called 'constitutional conservatism.' It’s not 'neo-' conservatism exactly. That magnificent strain to our politics was opened up by former leftists who saw that the ideals to which the left once gave lip service were better vouchsafed by classical liberalism. It’s not 'paleo' conservativism of what was sometimes called the country-club or old-right. What Mrs. Palin has been talking about is a fealty to original principles, on taxation, monetary affairs, war, and spending.

"More to the point, in the past four years, she has taken these conservative constitutional principles to the hustings with astounding effect and shaken up not only the national debate but the Republican Party itself. All over this country, she has swung behind candidates hewing to these principles and given them a leg up onto the November ballot. We speak of Ted Cruz at Texas, Richard Mourdock at Indiana, Deb Fischer at Nebraska, and — in the last election — Nikki Haley of South Carolina and Kelly Ayotte of New Hampshire. Mr. Cruz is a kind of archetype of the Palin pick, superbly educated in politics and law, fluent in the Founders and what they stood for, keenly sensitive that when the Founders gave us a written constitution it was so that we would pay attention to its plain language.

"So when the left carps about the prospect of a 'dull white guy,' let us just say we’re indifferent to race, religion, national origin, all these factors. We’re not so much interested in a ticket that 'looks like America,' in President Clinton’s phrase. We want one committed to the common-sense, constitutional principles that Mrs. Palin has been pushing. The big question is whether Governor Romney himself gets these points. We’re not of the view that what we need is a person who can read a balance sheet. We’re of the view that what we need is a person who can read the Constitution. The rest will follow. If the jury is out in respect of Mr. Romney on the constitutional fundamentals, we will learn a lot about him by whether he picks a candidate who can carry these points the way it has been done so heroically by the woman we like to call the Alert Alaskan."
[emphasis added]

25 Heroes Fighting in the Afghanistan War Who Died July 19 to August 2, 2012

July 19 - Pfc. Jeffrey L. Rice, 24, of Troy, Ohio, died July 19, in Kandahar, Afghanistan.
- Spc. Darrion T. Hicks, 21, of Raleigh, N.C., died in Ghazni, Afghanistan, from injuries sustained from an enemy improvised explosive device.

July 21 - Staff Sgt. Brandon R. Pepper, 31, of York, Pa., died July 21, in Ghazni province, Afghanistan.
- Petty Officer 2nd Class Michael J. Brodsky, 33, of Tamarac, Fla., died at Landstuhl Regional Medical Center, Landstuhl, Germany, of injuries sustained July 7 in Kandahar province, Afghanistan, related to a dismounted improvised explosive device blast.

July 22 - They died in Kandahar, Afghanistan, of wounds suffered from an enemy improvised explosive device. Killed were:
- Pfc. Julian L. Colvin, 21, of Birmingham, Ala.,
- Staff Sgt. Richard L. Berry, 27, of Scottsdale, Ariz.

- They died of wounds suffered when enemy forces attacked their unit in Pul-E Alam, Afghanistan, with an improvised explosive device. Killed were:
- Spc. Justin L. Horsley, 21, of Palm Bay, Fla., and
- Pfc. Brenden N. Salazar, 20, of Chuluota, Fla.

July 23 - Sgt. Eric E. Williams, 27, of Murrieta, Calif., died in Pul-E Alam, Afghanistan.

July 24 - Pfc. Adam C. Ross, 19, of Lyman, S.C., died in Wardak province, Afghanistan, of wounds suffered when he encountered small arms fire.
- Sgt. Justin M. Hansen, 26, of Traverse City, Mich., died while conducting combat operations in Badghis province, Afghanistan.

July 26 - They died in Khakrez, Afghanistan, of wounds suffered when they encountered an enemy improvised explosive device. Killed were:
- 1st Lt. Sean R. Jacobs, 23, of Redding, Calif., and
- Sgt. John E. Hansen, 41, of Austin, Texas.

July 27 - Pfc. Theodore M. Glende, 23, of Rochester, N.Y., died in Kharwar, Logar province, Afghanistan, of wounds suffered when enemy forces attacked his unit with small-arms fire.
- Spc. Benjamin C. Pleitez, 25, of Turlock, Calif., died in Mazar E Sharif, Afghanistan.

July 28 - They died in Wardak province, Afghanistan, of wounds suffered from enemy, small arms fire. Killed were:
- Sgt. 1st Class Bobby L. Estle, 38, of Lebanon, Ohio, and
- Pfc. Jose Oscar Belmontes, 28, of La Verne, Calif.

July 29 - They died while conducting combat operations in Badghis province, Afghanistan. Killed were:
- Gunnery Sgt. Jonathan W. Gifford, 34, of Palm Bay, Fla.; also,
- Gunnery Sgt. Daniel J. Price, 27, of Holland, Mich.

August 1 - Lance Cpl. Curtis J. Duarte, 22, of Covina, Calif., died while conducting combat operations in Helmand province, Afghanistan.
- Spc. Kyle B. McClain, 25, of Rochester Hills, Mich., died in Salim Aka, Afghanistan.

- They died in Paktika province, Afghanistan, of wounds suffered when they encountered an enemy improvised explosive device. Killed were:
- 1st Lt. Todd W. Lambka, 25, of Fraser, Mich., and
- Pfc. Jesus J. Lopez, 22, of San Bernardino, Calif.

August 2 - They died in Kandahar province, Afghanistan, of wounds suffered when they encountered an enemy improvised explosive device. Killed were:
- 1st Sgt. Russell R. Bell, 37, of Tyler, Texas, and
- Staff Sgt. Matthew S. Sitton, 26, of Largo, Fla.