Alan and Michele of The Command Post have a brilliant idea for channeling our anger and disgust at the Berg murder into a tangible good.

In the meantime, my husband and I will be writing letters to public officials involved in the war effort--from the President on down--expressing our support and gratitude.

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Final results on the Spirit of America Fundraising effort:

The Fighting Fusileers raised $26,597.39
The Victory Coalition raised $18,910.44
The Liberty Alliance raised $9,884

Therefore, the blogging part of this campaign is responsible for $55,391.83. With a total of over $1,500,000, we therefore brought in a bit over 1/30 of what was raised, nationwide. Not bad, considering that the blogosphere was "competing" with the likes of The Wall Street Journal. And we raised five grand over the goal originally set for the blogging portion of the campaign.

What blows me away, though, is the generosity of the American people. The fundraising goal was $100,000. Now there's a little left over for the Marines' next few charity projects in Iraq. Past work has included outfitting schools and hospitals, and buying toys for Iraqi children--who are apparently partial to Frisbees.

Here's the word from Jim Hake:

Today we delivered to Marines at Camp Pendleton, CA the equipment that will be used to equip Iraqi-owned and operated television stations in Al Anbar province. On Saturday, May 1 the Marines will fly the equipment from March Air Force Base to Iraq. This initiative and the original request is described here. We try hard to provide rapid response to requests we receive. Here is the timeline of this project:

April 8: SoA receives Marines request for television equipment.
April 14: SoA posts the request on our Web site and begins fundraising.
April 29: SoA delivers $82,687 of TV studio equipment to Camp Pendleton.
April 29: Marines pack donated equipment and prepare for shipment to Iraq.
May 1: Marines fly equipment to Iraq.

This rapid turnaround makes a difference in Iraq.

***

Please check FridayÂ’s Wall St. Journal, Dan Henninger talks about Spirit of America in his column on the editorial.

We have received $1,532,931 in donations in the last two weeks. Contributions from 7,438 donors have been made to every request and every area of Spirit of AmericaÂ’s operations. I canÂ’t begin to describe the effects this generosity will have on the ground in Iraq and Afghanistan - both in helping the people of those countries and in supporting the hard work of those serving there.

As encouraging as the last 14 days have been, I believe we are just at the beginning of seeing homefront support for AmericaÂ’s efforts in Iraq. WeÂ’re fortunate to receive emails, letters and handwritten notes from our donors that thank us for finally getting the opportunity to make a meaningful contribution. Since 9/11 many have felt helpless. That no longer need be the case.

You can find more on whatÂ’s happened and what next at Spirit of AmericaÂ’s blog. As promised, we have an accounting there of how the money was spent on the first phase of the Marines TV request.

And just about 100% of this is actually going to the people it purports to help. Excellent.

This is, by far, the best stunt pulled on behalf of this effort; some men just weren't meant to cross-dress, and I think he's one of them.

Joanie has pictures.

Smash got an interview out of this.

And Spirit of America made The Wall Street Journal again--alas, without any mention of the blogosphere's role in the fundraising effort.

Sleep well, my friends. And have a wonderful weekend: you deserve it.

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