I Love Liberals

I love liberals, don't you? Only a liberal can pick a fight and then if you respond in any manner other than total capitulation they accuse you of attacking them and suddenly take the high road. Recently I had two email encounters that seemed to go that way. The first was quite a shock as seemingly out of the blue a business acquaintance sent me a brief tirade about President Bush and Vice-Pres Chaney. When I replied with some defense I got a haughty reply about how neither of us will likely convince the other so we should drop it. HE started it but WE should drop it. No problem there I deleted him form my address book. He was a flaky attorney from Dade County. He won't be missed.

This does explain how so many liberals can support Hillary Clinton. I find it totally unreasonable for anyone to attack then cry foul, hardly good sportsmanship or even adult behavior. Apparently many disagree and that makes it reasonable, for them and for Hillary to have it both ways. When Hillary accuses some imaginary "Vast Right wing Conspiracy" for making up lies about her husband canoodling with an intern that is a perfectly legitimate claim. When it turns out that her husband was doing exactly what he was accused of he is the only liar in the scenario no apology is offered. When asked by Tim Russert if she owes an apology for that accusation Mrs. Clinton reverts to innocent victim replying only "I wish that none of us had to go through that very difficult time. Never taking any responsibility for causing the "very difficult time".

When Hillary and others accuse the President of every evil imaginable including knowingly allowing September 11th to happen that is their Constitutional Right. If anyone dares to reasonably point out that these statements might damage our country and hurt our chances of winning the war in Iraq they scream foul! "How dare you" they cry! "How dare you impugn my patriotism". It's amazing to me. You can watch it time and time again, first outrageous behavior and then when that behavior is commented upon immediate highhanded victim hood. This passive aggressive ploy has silenced Americans nationwide. Millions of conservative and moderate Americans just pipe down to avoid the theatrics the left employs if you dare speak up.

One good example occurred at a women's bible class of all places. A very outspoken woman thought it appropriate to say in a bible class how she "hates" being in any group that thinks President Bush is so great. This was not in response to anything said in class, politics had not been mentioned. This woman just wanted us all to know that if we had anything positive to say about the President, that would be offensive to her. I think I would have been happier living in the 1950's when folks were more likely to be offended by negative statements about the President.

Here we are, in a country where you would hesitate to say in public "I think President Bush is doing the best job possible under very difficult circumstances". Hows that for muzzeling the opposition. Millions of people are afraid to voice and support for our President. Supporting the President openly has been deemed "rude" but defaming him venomously is perfectly allowed.

It's a crazy time! And, not in a good way.

Second Clinton Fundrasing Scandal - THIS WEEK

The Wall Street Journal reported earlier this week that a small home in Daly City, CA was one of the biggest Democrat donors. There was a connection between the occupants of that house, the Paw family and a New York businessman named Norman Hsu. Hsu, is a "Hillraiser", the title given to someone who has committed to raising $100,000 for Hilliary Clinton.

Today we learn that Mr. Hsu is a wanted man. There has been a warrant for his arrest in California since 1992. Many Democrats who have enjoyed Mr Hsu's financial support are returning the funds or giving them to charity. So far, only Minnesota Rep. Michael Honda is returning the donations from the Paws and another contributor Hsu lined up.

In an unrelated additional scandal another "fundraiser", Abdul Rehman Jinnah, is thought to have fled the country after an indictment on charges of conspiracy and making illegal campaign contributions. This gentleman, a Pakistani immigrant, disappeared in May after being indicted and is thought to have returned to Pakistan.

Prior to the indictment Jinnah directed $30,000 to Mrs Clinton's campaign and $50, 000 to Barbara Boxer. It is alleged that he organized fake fundraisers where he would collect contributions from friends and family members and reimburse them. His flight makes one think the allegations are probably true.

Please No Forwards on Politics

Today, as a second foreign Clinton contributor has reportedly fled the country to avoid indictment on charges of conspiracy and making illegal campaign contributions, I received a reply to my email about yesterday's Clinton campaign scandal. That reply from a family member was "Please no forwards on politics". That one line sums up the way we went through eight years of Bill Clinton and how some plan to get through Hillary's campaign and heaven forbid another Clinton administration. Normally rational people will close their eyes to any and nearly all Clinton misdeeds with their fingers in their ears chanting "la, la, la, la, la".

The same people who have openly expressed their desire to personally harm our President chide me for daring to bring some shady dealings to their attention. People who never hesitate to tell you how much they absolutely hate President Bush act as though you are behaving boorishly if you mention that Ms. Clinton has not one but two new fund raising scandals to explain. People who will believe our President capable of any evil up to and including knowing about the September 11th attacks in advance but allowing thy to occur in some mad grab for power go all huffy on you for questioning the character of a proved liar, swindler and generally despicable person.

My reply, which will go unspoken to that family member is "I'll respect your wishes but cannot respect your attitude".

Here Comes Another One Just Like the Other One

What is it with the Chinese and the Clinton's? Bill Clinton took tons of illegal donations from Chinese and Hillary appears to be doing the same.

There is a six member family, the Paws, who live in a 1280 square foot residence that sits in Daly City, CA under one of the flight paths for San Francisco International airport. Although Mr and Mrs Paw and their four grown children are of modest means they are some of the Democrat Party's biggest contributors. Since 2005 the Paws have donated a total of $200,000 to Democrats $45,000 of that going to Ms Clinton.

The Paws are Chinese and all got their Social Security numbers in 1982. They did not seem to be politically active until this recent generous support of all things Democrat. Five of the six Paws are registered to vote as Non-partisans and according to county election officials vote only "sporadically". There was no record of any political donations made by the Paws until they gave $3,600 to John Kerry during the 2004 presidential election . The Paws first donation to Ms Clinton was the maximum allowed (at the time) $4,000 to her Senate campaign in December of 2004. Odd that a member of a middle class family in Daly City, California would contribute to a New York Senate race. Another donation of $17,500 went to Ms Clinton in March 2005.

There is something else fishy about the Paw family donations. Another benefactor for the Democrats and specifically Ms Clinton is New York businessman Norman Hsu and his donations have been made on the same dates and in the amounts as the Paws donations. Oh, one other odd detail, Mr Hsu previously listed the Paw residence as his home address.

I'm sure there is a simple explanation for his but doubt it will ever be given or even asked for by our "main stream media" who always gives Democrats and especially the Clinton's a pass.

LEARNING TO READ

I really wish I could remember learning to read. For an unknown, to me at least, period of time I had "read" Green Eggs and Ham to my Dad every night. I had memorized the book from his prior reading to me and could recite every line on each page so I must of had some idea of the relationship between the words on the pages and the words coming out of my mouth. Although I think I associated the words I remembered with the pictures on the pages.

I have lots of memories from the first grade but do not recall the exact moment when I learned how to read. Kindergarten was optional at the time and no one had ever heard of pre-school. The first grade was my first experience with formal education. I clearly remember standing with the class and reciting the alphabet. There was also a version we did that went "A, apple, B, Ball etc. In that version X was a bit sticky as none of us had ever seen or heard of a xylophone. I later remember sitting in a circle on the floor of the classroom reading aloud when my turn came. I don't recall the reading matter but think I was in the "best readers" circle. Imagine the hue and cry if in today's first grade classroom the teacher tried to designate a small group as "the best" anything and allowed them to read from more advanced texts.

Still, I am sorry I cannot recall that moment of enlightenment when I realized that the letters made words and the words contained meanings. It must have been like discovering an amazing decoder ring that could unlock the mysteries of the universe. Or maybe it was just a quick "Ahhh" moment.

DO WOMEN HAVE FEET?

It is amazing how much time and money women spend on their feet. Shoes are a passion with most women and the prices for designer footwear are off the charts. A pedicure, once a luxury, is now a monthly necessity for almost all women. Why do we put so much effort into the most overlooked feature of our bodies? Sure your girlfriends notice your shoes but men don't. Most men are barely aware that women have feet. By the way, if you meet a man who takes notice of your shoes, kick those shoes off and run for your life!

CARTER SUPPORTS HAMAS

Former President Carters latest outrage clarifies his inclination to support thugs and terrorists.

Carter says the U.S. should stop favoring Fatah over Hamas. In a speech to a group of Irish "human rights activists" Carter said that "the Bush administration's refusal to accept Hamas' election was criminal". Funny, Carter thought his own refusal to accept the 1979 election results in Zimbabwe during his presidency was just peachy keen. Thanks to Carter and others on the Left who ignored the elected leader Abel Muzorewa and continued to support Robert Mugabe he was able to steal the 1980 election and seize power. How has Mugabe worked out for Zimbabwe? Well in the past 27 years thousands have been tortured and murdered, there has been genocide and mass starvation the world's highest level of inflation and lowest life expect ency. Carter leter claimed he had done the right thing but that Mugabe had become corrupted by power.

Since the last Palestinian election there has been a Fatah-Hamas power-sharing government. Last week Hamas fighters seized control of the Gaza Strip by force, driving Fatah out of the area. President Abbas then dissolved the government and set up a Fatah-led administration to govern the west bank. The Bush administration and the European Union (how often do these two entities agree?) decided to provide aid that has been withheld since the election to the interim Fatah government.

Despite the fact that there was a full out civil war going on in the region Cater claimed the decision to give aid to the new Fatah government only was an "effort to divide Palestinians into two peoples". Carter cares not a whit that the Hamas leadership refuses to renounce violence and continues to call for the destruction of Israel.

On Monday of this week as hundreds of terrified civilians tried to flee the Gaza Strip for sanctuary in Israel, disguised Hamas gunmen blended in with the crowd and then threw hand grenades at Israeli soldiers. They killed one Palestinian and injured 15 others at Erez. That is the tactics of the group Carter wants us to treat like an ally.

Are We Ready NOW To Admit Israel Is NOT The Problem?

For the past week the so called "Palestinians" have been busy killing each other in the Gaza Strip. This is the stretch of land formerly occupied by Israeli forces that was handed over as a step in the "road map to peace". Well, thanks to Ha mas and Fatah we have veered sharply off the "road map to peace". Sympathy for the innocent aside I have no problem with these two groups of people killing each other especially if it precludes them from blowing up children and their grandmothers having pizza in Israel.

Hamas got a foot in the door in the recent election and are moving to take full control by force. If you have doubts about the need for us to finish the job in Iraq just look at Hamas in the Gaza Strip to see what Iraq will turn into if we leave prematurely.

Democrats Work Toward American Defeat

Please compare the following statements made by Democrat Harry Reid.............

WP reports that Senator Harry Reid provoked by an article in USA Today took some cheap shots at General David Petraeus. Petraeus, was unanimously approved by the Senate to take command in Iraq four months ago. Still after approving Gen. Petraeus Reid now claims that the General "isn't in touch with what's going on in Baghdad." Reid also indicated that he thinks Petraeus has not been sufficiently open in his testimony to Congress. Noting that Petraeus, who is now on his third tour of duty in Iraq, oversaw the training of Iraqi troops during his second stint there, Reid said: "He told us it was going great; as we've looked back, it didn't go so well.

The quote in USA Today was that the general sees "astonishing signs of normalcy" in the Iraqi capital. "I'm talking about professional soccer leagues with real grass field stadiums, several amusement parks -- big ones, markets that are very vibrant," Petraeus told the newspaper.
Reid went on to say "I was a little disappointed, to say the least, today reading the USA Today newspaper, where he's saying things are going fine." Seeing signs of normalcy is hardly saying "things are going fine." I sincerely doubt that you could find any instance of General Petraeus saying "things are going fine," in a war zone.

Reid had a conversation Tuesday with liberal bloggers, according to The Politico, in which he disparaged both Petraeus and Marine Gen. Peter Pace, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff whom the administration recently did not nominate for a second two-year term. Reid called Pace "incompetent," and then questioned the integrity of Petraeus by saying he is "waiting to see if General Petraeus can be a little more candid with this."

Compare to statements made by Harry Reid at the time of his last visit to Iraq, March of 2005. "I came away with the feeling that we cannot leave Iraq." He was one of seven Senate Democrats and Republicans that took a week-long trip to the Middle East and several countries near the region. He said, "I came away with the feeling we cannot leave Iraq. If we do, the terrorists will have won." Reid must have forgotten all about that as he actually said "Now I believe myself............that this war is lost" on April 19, 2007.

Harry Reid is a corrupt Democrat. It is well known that you cannot do business in the state of Nevada unless you grease the palms of one or more of the members of the Harry Reid family. However, for the majority leader in the Senate to undermine our war efforts in this way is much more egregious than his ethically questionable and highly profitable land dealings.

Who is more likely to be "out of touch" with the way things are going in Baghdad, the general running our operations there or a fat cat senator sitting in Washington D.C. trying to think up more ways to thwart the President and enrich himself? There is only one accurate description of Harry Reid's behavior and the word is treasonous.

"Bush Lied" Not!

Multiple Democrats have repeatedly tried to assert that President Bush "Lied us into the war in Iraq". Nothing could be further from the truth, but the truth is a small obstical to the left and their obedient minions in the media. Long ago it was alleged that Vice President Cheney pressured analysts in our intelligence organizations to find that Saddam hissain had WMD's. That fallicy was disproved by the 9.11 Report. So the left just waited a week or two and began again to make their "Bush Lied, Kids Died" claims.

Now that allegation is disproved by none other than Al Gore. A video taped speech from 1992 has surfaced. In it Al Gore, then running for Vice President, criticises the first President Bush for not confronting Saddam Hussein. Gore makes all the same arguments for attacking Iraq that were made by President Clinton when he made removal of Saddam Hussein the policy of the United states of America. Clinton never followed through on that policy with the exception of a few high altitude bombings.

If one had the time and the inclination you could put together an impressive collection of leading Democrats calling for action against Iraq and explaining how very dangerous Hussein is to us and the world. It is convenient for those Democrats to pretend that they never made those statements and that no one ever considered action against Iraq until Bush 43 came along. The Media willingly complies by reporting the Democrats current criticism and never mentioning the conflicting statements these same people made just a few years ago.

Unfortunately for the Media and the Left, some of us do have more than short time memories and there is always YouTube to fill in the blanks for those who have forgotten.

Who Really Hates the U.S.?

Our wonderful "main stream media" has been telling us since President Bush took office that our country is hated, truly hated throughout the world. Can we be sure this is true? This is the same MSM who told us that AID's was becoming an epidemic among heterosexuals, which was untrue. The same MSM warned us that the Avian Flu would be killing ten percent of America by now which hasn't happened. The same MSM who are telling us we have changed the climate of the earth, but can't prove it.

I admit that there will always be some anti-American factions out there and the MSM will dutifully report every protest they put on, but how widespread is this feeling? When they report on these protests take notice of the camera angle. If you are seeing an aerial shot of thousands in the streets then there are thousands in the streets. If the cameras are on the ground and the shots are rather narrow you might be looking at a small number of people filmed to look like a lot of people. This ploy was used at a Cindy Sheehan event a year ago. The picture was cropped to prevent readers from seeing that there were more reporters present than protesters.

Lets look at the way the rest of the world has been voting lately. According to the MSM America is hated because the world absolutely despises George W Bush whom we have had the bad taste to elect, twice. In Germany the candidate who presented herself as an ally of the United States was elected and the anti Bush candidate lost. In Australia, our second best ally in Iraq, Prime Minister Howard was re-elected. If you were asked which European country hates us the most you would probably say France. They just had an election in France. One candidate, an attractive woman was clearly anti-American and decidedly anti-Bush. She called her opponent, Nicolas Sarkozy "the Bush candidate" in hopes of using hatred of Bush to win the election. Sarkozy won with 53 percent of the votes!

Apparently it is the MSM that hated America and president Bush, not a majority of Europeans.

Happy Birthday to Me?

Happy Birthday to me,

I am not yet fifty,

fifty is the new thirty

you can take it from me.

Food To Burn

Which is a more pressing threat, world hunger or global warming? I recently lived in Illinois where the move toward Ethanol was heralded as a wonderful thing. Illinois is a state with lots of agriculture and they would profit from anything that would drive up the price of corn. There was no mention of the downside.

Since then the cost of food has been rising steadily. I heard yesterday that food costs are up 17%. Since the fanfare about the wonder of Ethanol I have learned that burning it causes more pollution than burning gasoline. We have been trying to drill for oil in Anwar for 20 years and haven't allowed another oil refinery to be built in this country in 30 years. Perhaps we should do something about those two causes for high oil prices before we take a chance of starving a small percentage of the world population to make ourselves feel good because we are using less oil.

Jimmy Who?

Jimmy Carter might be the most dangerous man in the world. In his life time he has given birth to radical Islam, helped the Marxist, Robert Mugabe, oust Abel Muzorewa, the elected leader of Zimbabwe, embraced Fidel Castro and made it possible for North Korea to have nuclear weapons. That is quite a list of accomplishments for one man. Recently Carter, who has run his mouth more freely than any former President in history called the Bush foreign policy the history of America but history will eventually lay that honor at his feet, one of which will undoubtedly be in his mouth.

Bush Haters, What's Your Beef?

Recently a very nice man I know mentioned with venom in his voice that there is no way this country would elect another Republican President after George Bush. I didn't ask him what President Bush has done that makes this so clear to him but I do wonder. There seems to be a lot of people who truly hate President Bush but I doubt even they know why. As a Bush defender I am simply exhausted and a little sad and resentful. I don't agree with everything President Bush has done but I know he has done nothing to merit the treatment he has received from the media, the Democrats and a portion of the American people.

The left in this country is nonsensical. They hated, absolutely hated Richard Nixon. What for, no one knows. They will say "Watergate" but they were after him long before that whole mess materialized. Richard Nixon tried to placate the left. Nixon created the EPA and OSHA, shouldn't the left appreciate that? Richard Nixon ended the Vietnam War, a war the left railed against for it's entirety. A war, by the way that was started by a Democrat, Kennedy, escalated by a Democrat, Johnson and ended by a Republican. The media was out to get Richard Nixon and Watergate gave them the opportunity to do so. Nixon was not involved in the break-in and had no knowledge of it at the time it occurred. He did come to know about it and was involved in the cover-up. When the time came he did the honorable thing, he resigned. At the time lying to the American People was a big deal, during the Clinton administration it was suddenly insignificant for the President to lie, even under oath which is an actual crime.

The most unfortunate product of the Nixon Administration is this, the leftists in the media learned that they could take down a President. Journalism schools thrived as young lefties lined up to learn how to be the next Woodward or Bernstein. Conservative voices were silenced as liberals took over the management of every news room in America. The New York Times depreciated under the management of a lesser Sulzberger. Arthur senior was nicknamed "Punch" Junior is called (behind his back I'm sure) "Pinch" and he took over in 1997. Since then the motto of the New York Times should have been changed from "All the news that's fit to print" to "All the news that fits our Agenda".

No matter how hard people like Pinch Sulzberger and Dan Rather were pulling for the leftist Democrats to win they continued to pretend they were "objective journalists". Dan Rather is a good example because his bias was so poorly hidden. Recall the vicious interview he did with the First President Bush when he was still the Vice President, in which the usually genteel Bush turned the tables on him with the way his eyes welled up when then President Clinton called him on the phone during a broadcast with co-anchor Connie Chung. The "hardened news man" gushed "If we can just be one one-hundredth as great as you and Mrs Clinton have been...blah, blah, blah".

Once the 2000 election came around even the pretense of objectivity was dropped. Thank heavens by then Rush Limbaugh had been on the air for two decades and we had the Fox News Channel growing by leaps and bounds. The gloves were off on the left but normal Americans had alternatives. If we didn't want to see Chris Matthews tear up as he reported that Gore had finally given up his quest to overturn the election results in Florida we could tune to Fox News Channel. If we were horrified to learn that Dan Rather used forged documents to discredit President Bush and his service in the Texas Air National Guard we could read a book written by John Kerry's "band of brothers". Not the few he carried with him, but the over 200 who said he was unfit to be president.

You see, something else had happened in the recent decade. Books with conservative points of view which were once refused by publishers had been found to be huge sellers. Now those books were published and read by millions. If CBS refused to tell you about the many inconsistencies in Kerry's rendition of his military service (which they did) you could buy the book. Now the big network news folks wouldn't investigate the questions raised, they would only investigate those raising them, but word got out. Think about it, three purple hearts and he never spent the night in a hospital?

Anyway, I digress. The truth of the matter is Bush, however imperfect has never knowingly lied to the American people. Bush has consistently done what he thought was best for this country. Not was was most popular, not what was the most expedient but what he actually felt was in the best interests of the United States of America. So Bush Haters take heed. Your hatred of President Bush has nothing to do with him. it is a choice you have made and one day in the not to distant future Bush will no longer be the president but you will still be filled with hatred and rage. Which is what you deserve and compassionate conservatism aside, I hope you choke on it!

Feel Safe or Be Safe

Feel Safe or Be Safe, the Choice is Yours.

One small madman with two handguns was able to kill 32 innocent people. Some of the students who fled were licensed gun owners, some with concealed-carry permits. None had their guns with them because Virginia Tech is a “Gun-Free School Zone” except of course for the two handguns in the hands of the murderer.
A student had been disciplined the year before for bringing his gun onto school property. If only that student had been armed and present in Norris Hall Monday morning this terrible attack could have been cut short. Since the second amendment gives American citizens the “right to bear arms” gun free school zones have been challenged as unconstitutional.
Last January a bill that would have disallowed schools like Virginia Tech from disarming law abiding citizens was up for a vote. The Virginia General Assembly chose not to pass that bill. Larry Hincker is a spokesman for Virginia Tech and he made the following statement regarding that choice. "I'm sure the university community is appreciative of the General Assembly’s actions because this will help parents, students, faculty and visitors feel safe on our campus." How safe do you think the parents, students and visitors feel now.
Gun control laws give us the illusion of safety and embolden criminals and mass murderers. This is most clearly displayed by the sharp increases in gun crime in England as private gun ownership was outlawed. Washington D.C. is another good example of how criminals react when they are confident their victims are unarmed and unable to properly defend themselves.
As Economics Professors John Lott and William Landes explained in their book, “The Bias Against Guns”, there is just one policy proven to reduce mass murders like this one. That policy is to enact concealed-carry laws. In their study of all public, multiple-victim shootings in this country from 1977 through 1999 states that allowed citizens to carry concealed handguns reduced these attacks by 60% and the death and injury from the attacks by almost 80%.
It is time to stop disarming law abiding citizens and to actually encourage Americans to take responsibility for their own safety. Look how terrible the Katrina crisis turned out because the people of New Orleans waited on government rather than taking action and evacuating as they knew they should.
We are about to have another gun debate in this country and the media is tuning up to sway the public toward more gun control. Stand up and demand your right to protect yourself, your home and your family. As the one person who cares most about your family and home you are the person best qualified to make decisions about protecting them.

It's Time to Improve the View!

The View has gotten quite unsightly in recent months. Rosie O'Donnell seems to be, well, deranged. Like many liberals in America today, Rosie hates the President so violently she cannot think straight. In the past few weeks she has accused the Bush administration of bombing the World Trade Center on September 11th.

Rosie asserts that buildings can't collapse the way they did on September 11th. This is a statement that has been made by several people with no idea what they are talking about, like Charlie Sheen. Shortly after that terrible day a magazine, I think it was Popular Mechanics published a very complete explanation of how the WTC buildings "pancaked" when the floors hit by the airplanes gave way, dropping all the floors above on the floors below. There was some speculation that the structure might have held if the girders were coated with the fire retardant substance that was developed to replaced asbestos. The lower levels were coated but above a certain floor they were not. Although the new product is supposed to be enviormentally safe after all the asbestos lawsuits the builders didn't want to take any chances.

Rosie has attacked Donald Trunp, Miss USA, she has insulted Christians and the intelligence of everyone who has ever watched that show. Some examples of her comments include.......

In America we are fed propaganda

Do you want to know why we would go into Iran, for the money!

Radical Christianity is just as threatening as radical Islam.

This is a very angry and poorly informed woman and no one should be subjected to her rantings. Lets improve The View by removing this eyesore. Get Rosie off the air!

Anti War or Anti American?

I am sure that many of the folks calling for an immediate end to the war in Iraq are well intentioned, but that doesn't make then right. I am just as sure that some percentage of the anti war crowd have very bad intentions. There are some who want this country to be defeated, embarrassed and ultimately worse off.

The anti war groups had their chance to prevent this war and they failed. That chance was before we invaded Iraq and the peace activists need to know that their time is before the decision is made. Their time is before military action is taken. That is when they can try to convince Americans that they are right and no action should be begun. Once a majority of the American people support action and our elected representatives authorize that action the time for protests has passed.

Protesting the war once our forces are in harms way is wrong. It emboldens our enemies and gives them the hope they need to keep killing our young men and women. Placing the blame for every death in Iraq on America gives the terrorists a pass on their heinous attacks on innocent Iraqis. We are fighting an enemy that attacks and then hides behind women and children. The peace movement people never blame the terrorists committing these atrocities, they blame the coalition forces who are trying to stop the killing.

Calling our troops home to "protect" them is nonsensical. These are men and women who chose to defend their country. They did not join the military to be safe. They joined to keep us safe. Pulling them out before they have achieved their goals is the worst thing we could do to them. They are willing to die for a cause but you want to take their cause away, or say it is a worthless cause or an impossible cause. You say you want to protect our troops but the only way you try to do so is by forcing defeat on them.

One of the things I heard repeated often in the 18 months of discussion prior to the invasion of Iraq was "The first President Bush should have finished the job in the Gulf War". Well, now some of those same people want to leave the job unfinished a second time. If we do this is a battle that will have to be fought again in ten to fifteen years and by then the terrorists might have nuclear weapons. How many of our brave soldiers and marines will have to die to win that battle?

Thought for the Day

If oil is such a godawful substance, a pollutant and such shouldn't we remove it from the earths crust and get it the heck out of here.

Al Gore, Triple Threat!

Algore has had quite a week. First we learned that his home is a real energy hog. Apparently his home uses twenty times the energy used by an average home. Also, his energy use has increased since his movie was released. The Gores pointed out that they purchase "carbon offsets" to make up for their excessive energy use.

Next we learned that Al Gore was purchasing these useless "carbon offsets" from, wait for it, Al Gore. He owns the company that he is paying to absolve himself for his energy gluttony.

Finally, Algore testified in front of the U.S. Congress where when he was asked if he would sign the "Energy Ethics Pledge" which he asks us all to sign at the end of his movie. Algore didn't say yes, he dodged the question. Hypocrisy, thy name is Al!

On the light side the late night talk hosts had a field day commenting on the size of Al's ass. Finally Al Gore was bringing a little joy into the world.

Letter From General Cash

The following is so clear and to the point I have put it here in it's entirety.

LET'S BE SPECIFIC
By Jimmy L. Cash, Brig. Gen., USAF, Ret.

Due to the thunderous applause that I received from the far-left over the "I Am Tired" letter written by one of our troops in Iraq, I thought it prudent to follow up with one last attempt to be very specific about what I have observed and actually personally encountered during my 36 years of service to this Great Country. Unlike Bob McClellan, I will not continue to whine, twist and degrade our country's leaders on a weekly basis. Instead, this will be a one time input attempting to reach some of those who are confused by McClellan and his ilk's unethical rantings and give some insight through my personal experience as a professional military officer over the years. These examples are but a few. In real life there were many more which space and time will not allow.

As a young fighter pilot, flying F-4s in Vietnam, I was stopped in my tracks by the decisions made by Lyndon Johnson and Robert McNamara. I was young and naive, but even then I knew their daily interference was wrong and would not allow us to win this thing and go home. Decisions like not allowing us to strike enemy aircraft while still on the ground, keeping real targets off the target list, and allowing us to strike only rusted-out trucks made us basically a toothpick factory. However, the big one for me came the day I saw the President Lyndon Johnson on television, forcefully lying to the American people. I'll never forget the language, "I want to assure the American people that the United States of America has never, and will never, bomb or use force inside the borders of Cambodia". On and on he disavowed the reports that this was happening. I was amazed. Guess where I had put several F-4 loads of 750 pound general purpose bombs every day for the past five days. You guessed it, Cambodia!!! So much for Mr. Johnson. The only question in my mind was simply, "Was it just Johnson or was it the methodology of a particular political party?" I decided to delay answering that question until more experience was gained.

Years passed, and I ignored politics as much as possible, as a good military man should. Then came Jimmy Carter. Our young people don't remember 18% interest rates and 18% inflation, but I'll bet someone in your family does. That is one really bad thing Carter did for our country, but it is not the worst. During this period, I was an F-15 Squadron Commander, located at Langley AFB, VA. Jimmy Carter and his democratic party stopped spare parts procurement for almost every weapon system in our military, and diverted the funds to social programs. The F-15 was brand new at the time with leading edge technology designed to provide air superiority anywhere in the world on a moments notice. That was my job. I loved it, but guess what? In a two year period from 1979 to 1981, there was not one day when more that one-third of my assigned aircraft were flyable. It is amazing the lengths we went to in those days, cannibalizing parts, expending twice the time and energy to fix every little item, and still two-thirds of the birds were always broken because of no spare parts. Had this country faced a really serious military threat during that time frame, only Montana Hunters could have saved us. The military had some equipment, but it was all broken. Do you want to know the really bad part for me and the young fighter pilots working for me? Our flying sortie rate was so low that pilot proficiency dropped to dangerous levels. The accident rate tripled. That obviously was totally unacceptable, as we were losing expensive airplanes and highly trained young pilots at a rate comparable to losses seen in actual combat. All of a sudden, even a Texas Aggie like me began to see a trend.

Forward a few years to 1986. I am an F-16 Wing Commander at MacDill AFB, Florida, and Ronald Regan is president. His change in attitude and policy toward the military had time to fix the spare parts problem. We were flying 26,000 flying sorties per year out of MacDill AFB, my aircraft fully mission capable rate (FMC) was above 90%, the aircraft accident rate was below 1.75 per hundred thousand flying hours, fighter pilots were flying and proficiency levels were at an all time high. The United States Air Force was ready to defend this Wonderful Country. Proof of the pudding is simple. Look what the USAF, and the military in general, accomplished in Iraq during Desert Storm. And, they did it in less than 100 hours. Yeah, at this point I was starting to realize there was a difference in mentality between Democrats and Republicans, or should I say, the Right and the Left.

Then, came everyone's favorite---Bill Clinton. If there ever was an individual 180 degrees out of sync with the ideals and the values of the US military, it was Clinton. He was a known draft dodger, military hating, self absorbed, unspeakingly shameless and immoral individual, who the Left managed to elect President of the United States of America. Clinton's antics in the White House would have brought court martial, conviction, and Dishonorable Discharge had he been a military member. We still suffer oral sex on school buses, because the President told the world it wasn't real sex, and some of our children believed him. It took a lot of years, but now I became certain. There is a big difference in the right and the left on all fronts, and for the first time I started feeling angry and shamed that the majority of the American people were actually willing to vote for such an individual.

Sometimes, an abstract such as the following tells the story in very simple terms: Jane Fonda, Tom Hayden, Lyndon Johnson, Robert McNamara, Ted Kennedy, Howard Dean, Bill Clinton, Hillary Clinton, Michael Moore, Tim Robbins, Susan Sarandon, Nancy Pelosi, Barbra Boxer, John Kerry, Benedict Arnold, and the list goes on. America, wake up. Giving in to the likes of these people and Abraham Lincoln's prediction of destruction from within just may come true. There is not a country in the world that can be considered a conventional military threat to the United States today. However, this country faces a new kind of threat---one that will not go away. It is a threat even more serious that WWII, because money, industry and technology will not defeat it. It is a threat of defeat from within. It is a threat of a faltering economy because of a lack of resources, or the even the simple threat of such a loss brought on by terrorism. It is a threat created by the American people trusting the inept. It is a threat created by the people wanting change, and perilously believing that the left can successfully deliver that change. Have you seen anything from the left that remotely resembles an answer to the Iraq situation? Have you seen anything more than continued Bush-Bashing? Is that an answer? If there was ever a need for a strong, well trained military, it is now. THE LEFT HAS HISTORICALLY DISMANTLED OUR MILITARY IN THE NAME OF REDISTRUBITION OF WEALTH FAVORING SOCIAL PROGRAMS. We just cannot afford to let that happen now. If we do, the entire country will be bowing to the east several times a day within the next 50 years, maybe sooner.

Now a final thought meant to upset as many as possible on the far-left. As you might guess, I don't believe in political correctness. So, let's look at the facts, not far-left rhetoric attempting to empower the democratic party. Initially, I was not a George Bush fan. I am not even a Republican. I normally vote Republican, because of my total despise of Communism, Socialism and the far-left in this country. I am a Conservative. However, during his watch, I feel President Bush just happened to stumble upon the leading edge of the greatest threat this country has ever faced. Mistakes have been made, because of the newness of the threat. Overall, the President has done a superb job dealing the threat, and at the same time held off the constant ranting, raving, deceitful and malicious escapades of the far-left attempting to regain political power. IF THERE WAS EVER A TIME THE COUNTRY NEEDS TO COME TOGETHER AND BACK OUR PRESIDENT, IT IS RIGHT NOW. WITHOUT CONCENSUS WE ARE EMPOWERING THE TERRORIST!!!! The far-left is totally absorbed with the power struggle and regaining control of congress. They could care less about defeating the threat. It literally disgusts me to hear the constant disagreement with everything the President tries to do, all in the name of trying to make him look bad to the voters. Unfortunately, by the time the American people really appreciate how bad the far-left really is, it may too late.

What are the real facts? On the home front this country's economy is the strongest that it has been in my lifetime. Interest rates are as low as they were when I was in high school forty years ago. Inflation does not exist for all practical purposes. For you youngster's, please remember the Jimmy Carter comments? The Dow is approaching 13,000. Unemployment is nonexistent. Wages are at an all time high. Home ownership is at an all time high. Taxes have been lowered to an almost acceptable level. Because of the surging economy the deficient is under control and projected to go away far ahead of schedule. The far-left is rich beyond its wildest dreams, so Mr. President when are you going to "fix" all these domestic problems? Bob and George, give me a break!!!!

On the war front this country has not been touched since 2001. I remember being part of a seminar at the USAF War College in 1983 discussing the terrorist threat. There were some good minds at that table and a lot of disagreement. However, one common thought was that the US would be hit within the next five years. Answers to the terrorist threat were just as hard to come by then as they are now. Well, it took a little longer than the projection, but the attack occurred. For an old military guy like me, the main point here is that it has not happened again. We have suckered the bad guys into entering the fight somewhere other than in our country. To hell with political correctness. The President can't say this, but I sure can. I smile every morning when I get up and realize that one of our great cities has not been blown away. And, there is zero doubt in my mind that if we pull out of Iraq prematurely, that will happen within a short period of time after our departure. I don't care what you might think of President Bush personally. He has done the best he can with what he has, and this country is not smoking because of it. So, back off McLean and McClellan. You honestly don't have a clue about what you are talking about. Call me, and I will tell you what I really think.

I realize there are different points of view on war, and I do not believe the meek will inherit the earth, at least not in the next few hundred years. To those like McClellan, McLean, poor Eve Kyes and Sinowa Cruz let me say, "This is a strong country!!!" It has survived the uneducated thinking of the far-left before, and I'll just bet it will again. Regardless of who is President, the people will not tolerate mass explosions on a daily basis, as our good friends in Israel have been forced to do. To protect that position of power, even Hillary will be forced to become a true hawk. To guarantee a few more votes Ted Kennedy may be forced to begin supporting a strong military. One more attack on America might even wipe the giddy, 'I-am-finally-somebody' grin from Nancy Pelosi's face, and make her realize that is not about votes and personal power. IT IS ABOUT PROTECTING THIS GREAT COUNTRY FROM ALL ENEMIES, BOTH FOREIGN AND DOMESTIC.

Jimmy L. Cash, Brig. Gen., USAF, Ret.
349 Jib Lane Lakeside, Montana

Who Else is Happy?

Well the Democrats are pleased with the election results of course, but who else is....................

The answer is Illegal Aliens, Terrorists, Socialists, and Dictators.

The leader of al-Qaeda in Iraq, Abu Hamza al-Muhajir was thrilled to see the Democrats take power. He posted a statement on the Internet which included the following "I swear by God we shall not rest from jihad until we blow up the filthiest house known as the White House".

Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei on Friday called U.S. President George W. Bush's defeat in congressional elections a victory for Iran. "Since Washington's hostile and hawkish policies have always been against the Iranian nation, this defeat is actually an obvious victory for the Iranian nation."

President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad of Iran was quoted as saying, "The result of this election indicates that the majority of American people are dissatisfied and are fed up with the policies of the American administration," Khamenei said military maneuvers in the Gulf this week in which Iranian forces tested new missile systems showed Iran was ready to face any threat. But, he said: "With the scandalous defeat of America's policies in Iraq, Palestine, Lebanon and Afghanistan, America's threats are empty threats on an international scale."

Falah Hassan Shanshal, who leads the parliamentary bloc of radical anti-American Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr said "We hope the Democrats don't forget their campaign promises. If they don't, we will deal with them in a brotherly way once the last American soldier pulls out from Iraq."

More than 200 Socialist members of the European Parliament hailed the American election results and gloated that the Bush administration had been seriously weakened. French author Bernard-Henri Levy described the 2000 and 2004 American election victors as "moral values maniacs". These are Socialists who want America to be more like Europe where "morals" are not currently in vogue. They apparently think all is well in Europe and aren't concerned with unemployment in excess of 10%, stagnant economies, regular riots, and the fact that there will be more Arab Muslims than Europeans in Europe in 10-20 years.

Here's a Reuters headline "Arabs Relish US Republican Election Losses." Another headline from Madrid (in Spain where voters bent to terrorists demands): "Democrats Win in US, Embraced Overseas -- From Paris to Pakistan, politicians, analysts and ordinary citizens said they hoped the Democratic takeover of the House of Representatives would force President Bush to adopt a more conciliatory approach to global crises, and teach the president a lesson in humility."

Hugo Chavez said of the vote "It's a reprisal vote against the war in Iraq, against the corruption' within the Bush administration. All this fills us with optimism." If a viscous dictator is pleased this must be a good

This from Mexico: "'Gains by Democrats in the US congressional elections may help promote more liberal immigration policies sought by Mexico,' said a spokesman for President Vicente Fox. Mexico's been deeply disappointed by President Bush's failure to convince his own Republicans to accept a guest worker program." So I guess we can look forward to an "amnesty" program for illegal immigration. You might want to start learning to speak Spanish.

When so many enemies of the US agree I have to think that the American people have made some mistakes in the recent election. Heaven help us all, if I'm still allowed to say such a thing.

Look for the Bright Side

I am of course disappointed about the election. The thought of Nancy Pelosi leading the House of Reps makes me sick to my stomach (darn, my IRA was doing so well). The thought of a Democrat controlled Senate makes me fear the next Supreme Court appointment confirmation, or non-confirmation I guess. However, I like to look on the bright side whenever possible.

Here's one bright spot. We got to skip the post election tears and recriminations. There were lots of really close elections that the Republicans lost. If Democrats had been the ones to lose by such small margins we would have had to have recounts, lawsuits and allegations of election stealing. As Ann Coulter pointed out, suddenly the Dibold electronic voting machines work!

Also, some really lousy Republicans bit the dust, namely Lincoln Chafee and Mike DeWine. Hopefully both will leave politics entirely or switch parties. They were never good Republicans or good representatives or good anything in my humble opinion.

Finally, neither majority is large enough to override a Presidential veto. Consequently I doubt the Dems can raise my taxes until 2009. By then the house at least could be back in Republican hands especially if the Democrats who talked so tough and conservative prior to this election go to Washington and legislate like liberals.

My advice, pray for gridlock (my IRA would like that) and look on the bright side.

WE WON'T BE FOOLED AGAIN

The media is pulling out all the stops to discourage Republicans from voting. This isn't new. In the 2000 election returns the media called Florida for Gore before the polls closed in the very Republican panhandle of the state (costing Bush from 5,000 to 15,000 votes in Florida according to John McLaughlin). They managed to dampen Republican voter turn out nationwide by convincing many Republicans that the election was over and Bush could not win. This cost Bush the popular vote and made way for Gores attempt to steal the election with his three most liberal county"recount".

Then in 2004 they stacked the exit polls by steering Democrats to the voting booths at the times they knew pollsters would be present. Technically, they couldn't legally release the early exit poll results so they leaked them on the Internet. The word was that Kerry was winning in a landslide. Most didn't hear about it and voted. Those of us who did hear about it threw up, voted and went home to await the real results with fingers crossed that the exit polls would be wrong. We won with a large enough margin to avoid another attempt to steal the election.

DO NOT LET THEM FAKE YOU OUT!

Democrat Double Standard

I have in the past voted for Rep. Mark Foley. He was actually a rather good congressman and I don't think I was aware of his sexual orientation. I am shocked by the contents of his "IM's" to former pages and would be calling for his resignation if he had not resigned already. I apologize to all of the decent and moral homosexual men out there but must say that this is yet another example of the inability of many gay men to stay away from teenage boys. That said let's deal with the Democrats outrage.

Whenever a Republican is accused of misconduct the "holier than thou" Democrats go bonkers and call for the resignation of any and every Republican anywhere nearby. When a Democrat is involved the response is quite different. When a former Democrat Rep., Gerry Studds admitted that he had sex with a male teenage page in 1983 he did not resign and his party did not demand his resignation. Apparently his constituents had no problem with this behavior as he was re-elected six times afterwards and finally retired no doubt with his pension intact.

Okay, so that was some time ago as was a similar incident regarding Rep. Barney Frank. In 1989 Rep. Frank had a "roommate" named Stephen L. Gobie, a male prostitute who was running a prostitution ring out of Mr. Franks apartment. Rep. Frank claims he had no knowledge of the prostitution going on in his own home, a claim disputed by Stephen Gobie and by Franks own actions in "fixing" thirty parking tickets issued to "clients" of Gobie. Barney Frank still serves as a congressional representative for the state of Massachuttes. This was an actual crime and if you are saying that minors were not involved you know nothing about male prostitution. No Republican would have survived this series of events.

Finally, in the sex crime arena we have former Rep. Mel Reynolds who was indicted for having sex with a female campaign volunteer who was only sixteen. That was august of 1994 and Reynolds who claimed the charges were untrue and "racially motivated" was re-elected in November of 1994. A year after the indictment Reynolds was convicted on 12 counts of sexual assault, obstruction of justice and solicitation of child pornography. Yikes! At this point even a Democrat had to resign. Being from Chicago it turned out that Reynolds was guilty of additional crimes. Mr Reynolds was sentenced to a six and a half year sentence for wire fraud, bank fraud, lying to the Federal Election commission and the afore mentioned sex with a minor. When a Democrat is finally forced to resign he knows that he will be taken care of. Bill Clinton included Mr. Reynolds in his "Pardon-poluzza" and commuted the sentence. Reynolds was then hired by Jesse Jackson's Rainbow Push Coalition in what is probably a high paying job as a "youth counselor".

Once, everyone knew that it was wrong for a man in a position of power to become sexually involved with a younger subordinate and that to do so was "taking advantage". Then came Bill Clinton, if you'll pardon the expression. Although President Clinton had sexual contact with a much younger, entirely subordinate intern, suddenly that was nobody's business. Although Clinton blatantly lied about the affair to the American people and even lied under oath, suddenly that was okay too as "everybody lies about sex".Well, so far all Rep. Foley did was send some truly repugnant messages to a young man and he has resigned in disgrace. That is as it should be but the Democrats demands for more resignations is just partisanship and hypocrisy at it's worst!

WINDS OF WAR

I recently read Winds of War and highly recommend that you read it or re-read it if you read it years ago. The parallels are frightening. The authors creation, General Armin Von Roon provided the mindset behind the Third Reich and it was amazingly like the Islamo Fascist today. Germany always had a reason for every attack, usually placing the blame on which ever country they were attacking. Germany considered itself morally equivalent to the countries who dared to fight back or to object to their goal of global domination.

Currently followers of Islam are burning churches, flags and the Pope in effigy. A Nun has been murdered in Somalia and an Al-Queda web site promises the Muslims will "Conquer Rome" "Slit throats" and "Make their money and descendants bounty" which I take to mean enslave the descendants and take the wealth. All this because the Pope dared speak the words of an Emperor from several hundred years ago.

Hopefully the good guys in this world will get the message and unite against Islamo-fascism as we united against Hitler. If we don't get the will to fight this enemy soon be afraid, be very afraid.

Clinton Blows his Cool

Ex-president Clinton lost it during an interview with Chris Wallace on Sunday. Wallace dared to ask Clinton about his failures regarding Osama bin Laden. The Clintons', most Democrats and all liberals like to pretend that all terrorism (or anything else) began with the inauguration of George W. Bush. In the throes of a full fledged "hissy fit" Bill Clinton reverted to form and lied, lied, lied.

First Clinton insults the Fox News Channel and takes a swipe at ABC and their miniseries "The Path to 9/11". Then he misinterprets the question regarding Black Hawk Down and goes off on a tangent regarding that which distracts from the real question asked.

Clinton repeatedly named Richard Clark and his book as proof of his statements, but the book and Clark himself contradict many of Clinton assertions. Clinton claimed that he had done much more to fight terrorism than the Bush administration did prior to September 11th, 2001. In a background briefing to members of the press Richard Clark said the new administration had "changed strategy from a roll back of Al-Qaeda to elimination of Al-Qaeda" and that the new administration "decided in principle, in the spring to add to the existing Clinton strategy and to increase CIA resources -- for example, for covert action, five-fold -- to go after Al Qaeda".

Clinton said Clark was the best guy in the world to fight terrorists and that the Bush administration "downgraded him and the terrorists operation". In reality Clark states in his book that he chose to head up the new "critical infrastructure and cybersecurity" department outside of the NSC. Later Clark left the administration in a huff when he was passed over for a job he wanted but he was not "downgraded" or dismissed.

Clinton claimed he was ridiculed by "far right wingers" and "neocons" for being "obsessed" with finding and killing Osama bin Laden. However he never named any names and in his own autobiography barely mentions Al-Qaeda . There was some "wag the dog" ribbing from the media but Republican leaders like Newt Gingrich, Arlen Specter and Richard Pearl were very supportive of Clinton finally taking action against terrorists. Senate majority leader, Trent Lott was quoted as follows, "Despite the current controversy, this Congress will vigorously support the president in full defense of America's interests throughout the world." Wow, President Bush didn't have support like that from the "loyal opposition" one week after 9/11!

He laid the blame for not getting UBL at the feet of George Tenant, the CIA the FBI etal, but the man who carried the nuclear football related two instances when Clinton refused to answer or return calls to authorize action against Al-Qaeda.

Me thinks the ex-president doth protest too much.

The Path to 9/11 Reveals Clinton Truth Blockade

Although the MSM mostly ignored the attempts of the Clintonista's to silence "The Path to 9/11" this was just the latest in a long history of attempts to savage the critic and salvage the legacy of Bill Clinton. Before Clinton was elected there were scandals concerning his involvement with women. These were generally handled using a two step process. First deny the allegation. Second smear the accuser. This was also called the "nuts and sluts" defense as the counter allegation would generally include besmirching the woman's reputation and or questioning her sanity. These maneuvers were quite effective in most cases.

When Mrs. Clinton invested $1,000 in cattle futures and walked away with $100,000 she said she had accomplished this amazing feat by reading the Wall Street Journal every day. It turns out there was no mention of cattle futures made during the time of her investment but no one ever got to ask the follow up question.

Over the years the Clinton couple used misdirection to detract from Mr. Clinton misdeeds. When word got out that the President had been doing naughty things with a young intern just a few feet from the Oval Office he first denied the claim while his wife blamed the entire matter on a "vast right wing conspiracy". Once "the blue dress" forced Mr Clinton to fess up neither Clinton ever apologized for blaming others for the allegations. If the matter was brought up at all Ms. Clinton would revert to the convenient role of the wronged wife to avoid having to answer.

President Clinton was specially fond of using the following phrase "Mistakes were made, it's time to move on so that I can get back to working for the American people. This phrase was trotted out so often it became the mantra for Clinton apologists and inspired the name of a leftwing liberal web site and organization, Move On.org. Which turned out to be a bit ironic later on as they were completely unable to "move on" when Al Gore failed to win or steal the presidency in 2000!

When Mr Clinton pardoned a wide variety of misfits on his way out of office and was questioned about the rumors that some of the pardons were quid pro quo his response was "That is just something that some people are saying there's no proof". Which wasn't much of a denial, really. Later when proof did appear regarding pardons promised and payments received by Clinton family members Mrs Clinton would only say that she was "very sad and disappointed". Despite her reputation with some as the "smartest woman in America" when the stuff hit the fan she never knew a darn thing about anything.

When they took thousands of dollars of furnishings and valuables that belonged to the White House it was an inventory error made by a subordinate. I often think of the Clinton presidency being part of an old SNL skit, "it just goes to show you, it's always something".

Glad Not to be a Native

Labor Day is fast approaching and summer will soon be over. I'm glad I'm not a native of Illinois as they go through a painful transition this time of year. With each wonderfully cool evening or misty morning an apprehension grows within the native Illini. There is this nervousness, a sense of being on edge as the Illini silently wonder "Is this it, is summer over?" Despite the mild weather we had last year the specter of winter in Chicagoland looms. Memories of endless days with gun metal gray skies, below freezing temperatures, backbreaking drifts of wet snow and biting winds haunt and taunt.

The Illini put forward a brave front. Fall and Halloween are celebrated like nowhere I've been before with Septemberfests and Octoberfests, some of which are in September??? Still the barely disguised panic is there, bubbling below the surface, eating at the psyche of the native Illini as they assemble their elaborate display of pumpkins, scarecrow and spooky scenes. How much nicer it is to be new to the area and get a thrill at the thought of autumn leaves. I look forward to our first evening cool enough to merit a fire in the fireplace. I'll be happy to put summer behind me and pull out my sweats and sweaters. I miss my warm socks my flannel pajamas and wearing my jeans nearly all the time. I'm ready for the electric bill to go down and the gas bill to go up.

I would love to have snow in time for Thanksgiving but I'll keep that to myself and let my neighbors deal with the change of seasons without subjecting them to my private euphoria.

Happy Halloween everybody!

URBAN ADVENTURE CRUISE or Another Bad Hair Day In Chicago

Our cruise in Chicago Saturday was really a great time and sort of an adventure. Jack wanted me to reserve a specific cruise but with boats leaving every half hour and not knowing for sure when Jack would arise I didn't. Jack had chosen a $27 90 minute river cruise that would include commentary on over 50 buildings and had a bar aboard.

Well, he sort of slept in, then of course we had to go to breakfast and we caught the 11:05 into the city. I selected the correct exit from Union Station for the first time ever and the bus we needed was waiting there as we came out the doors. Still we arrived at the cruise Jack chose shortly before it sold out for the day (while I was in line with only 3 people in front of me). I was at a loss and not sure what to do.

Jack said, "Get in line for this cruise instead", and I stepped right up to the Mercury "Urban Adventure Cruise". The cruise was a Lake and River tour with commentary on 17 bridges and 82 buildings and landmarks and get this cost only $19. The only down side was no bar on board (which had to save us another $10+) and it was leaving in 40 minutes. While we were in line to board I mentioned to Jack that the boat we would be on was like the one in the movie "The Breakup". Later during the cruise our guide told us it is the boat used in that movie.

I didn't know there was a locks for boats to enter and leave the lake (to control the amount of water going from the lake to the river. It was interesting entering the lake, the water level in the lock went up 3-4 feet and then decreased on the trip back. In the lake we learned about the "adventure" portion of the cruise. The seats we had chosen were near a large bumper hanging off the side of the boat. This bumper threw up amazing amounts of water which dowsed everyone seated nearby, especially Jack who had traded seats with me. Poor Jack was drenched and we both missed small portions of the commentary on the skyline, distracted by the occasional cold wall of water falling on us!

Soon we were back in the river and no longer being drowned. Chicago has an amazing array of buildings and landmarks and the information provided by the tour guide was fun and fascinating. We cruised all the way to the Sears Tower and got to see and hear about a great deal of the city. Just as I was getting concerned about possible sunburn our cruise was over an we were back ashore. Two boats had unloaded at the same time and there was a delay to get up the stairs to the corner of Wacker and Michigan. Everyone seemed to be going to the top and I suggested we only go half way up. I can't fully explain but there is an Upper Michigan Ave and a lower Michigan Ave and get this there is Upper Wacker, Lower Wacker and Lower Lower Wacker?????

Anyway this worked well too as we wanted to go to the original Billy Goat Tavern which was at Lower Michigan and Wacker. We walked across the lower level of the bridge and were there (with one short stop for me to try and wring some of the water out of the tail of Jack's shirt). The Billy Goat Tavern was nothing special but the beer and double cheeseburger were great. If you every come here don't even consider a single burger, get the double or even the triple, (or as they say "Cheezborger! Cheezborger! No fries, cheeps! No Pepsi, Coke).

http://www.billygoattavern.com/history.html

Refreshed we decided we could walk back to Union Station and talked about stopping for another beer if we passed a good spot. However, once I checked the time and saw that we could catch the 4:39 if we moved along smartly instead of taking our time and getting the next train at 5:39. Jack was highly motivated and hurried me along the 10 blocks in time to catch the train. I really think this was one of my best trips to the city. If you ever get to Chicago, I highly recommend this cruise followed by a triple cheeseburger.

Bad Hair Day In Chi-Town

I went onto the city yesterday to see the DiVinci exhibit at the Museum of Science and Industry. As the train neared Union Station I saw the city was cloaked in the sort of fog you expect of Chicago but rarely see. I was standing at the corner of Adams and the Chicago River and could not see the top of the Sears Tower. Although there was a cool mist hanging in the air and occasional drizzle it was also warm and humid. I took a bus from near Union Station to the museum with no idea how far it was. The museum is just past Hyde park in the southernmost corner of Chicago. We drove past Soldier Field and the White Sox Cellular Field, got on an expressway for a bit and finally arrived near the museum.

Just as I entered the building a man with two children asked me the time and said something about the museum being free today. That struck fear in my heart. I had canceled this trip once before due to a "Free Admission" day sure to pack the place with children. The ticket lines were long and I wondered if I would even get to see the exhibit. Twenty minutes later I had tickets to enter in a little less than 1/2 an hour. I guess most of the crowd was getting general admission tickets or going to the Omnimax theater. I looked around a bit, got a Pepsi and waited for my 11:30 entrance time to the exhibit.

When my turn came I entered, saw a short film on the subject and got my headset for the audio tour. On clueless couple had their three children with them, the youngest girl was about 3 years old. Once she began to cry I found i couldn't hear the audio on my headset. So I slowed down a bit and allowed them to move ahead out of ear shot. As the group thinned out I was able to really see everything at my own pace and enjoy learning about all the devices DiVinci either invented or improved.

Near the end there is a "workshop" with lots of hands on items and two working catapults. A museum worker was there to explain how DiVinci improved the catapult and demonstrated it in action. Apparently DiVinci had attempted to make a name for himself as a weapons expert. When the Museum guide asked if there were any questions a woman asked "Why was DiVinci so interested in war". I had to bite my tongue not to answer "Because he was a genius not a pacifist" but the guide was even more of a realist and answered, "for the money". There is no way to know for sure what his motivations were but leave it to some people to assume that any great man must be anti war.

I had lunch and wandered around the museum for a while checking out lots of interesting stuff then walked to my bus stop at about 2:45. There I learned that the bus I took to the museum wouldn't be running again till afternoon rush hour. I took another bus planning to go to Navy Pier and catch the bus there to Union Station. Instead I got off at Adams and Michigan and walked from there. Back at Union Station I had time for a cold drink and made the mistake of seeing myself in the mirror in the ladies. The brush in my purse has been missing since Camp Auntie and the long walk in the heat and the steam had taken it's toll, oh well the anonymity of the big city is very liberating. I caught the rather crowded 4:50 home. I might not have walked the 10 blocks in the city if I had remembered that my car was parked 1/4 of a mile from the station. I guess the higher gas prices have more people using the train and a Grandmother managed to beat me to the last parking slot in the more convenient lot.

Tomorrow Jack and I plan to take one of the Architectural cruises and have lunch in the city. I plan to see the King Tut exhibit at the Field Museum also, but will wait until all the kids are back in school. Summer heat will be gone soon, and fall is fabulous here. Come visit if you can!

Where Have all the Hurricanes Gone

Last year when a record number of hurricanes hit densely populated areas we were told by everyone (except the hurricane experts) that "Global Warming" was responsible. Today is August 7th and we are all the way to the letter "C" and there hasn't been a real hurricane yet. So, what's the explanation? Did "Global Warming" stop, reverse, peter out? I recently read a report that stated "Global Warming" stopped in 1998. This is "Global Warming" season, previously known as "summer" and we keep hearing about "record high temperatures". However, most high temp records still belong to 1936. What exactly was causing the "Global Warming" way back then? Why did it stop so completely that by the 1970's we were reading frantic warnings of the coming ice age?

Well the earth may be warming. Personally I'm not positive that even today we have the ability to determine the temperature of the entire planet. I am positive that it is not logical to assume that if the planet has been warming for the past 30 years it will continue to do so, indefinitely. Especially when we have every reason to believe that the earth has been warming and cooling for hundreds of thousands of years.

"NORM!"

At long last for reasons unknown Norm Mineta is stepping down as Transportation Secretary. Mr. Mineta, a leftover from the Clinton adminsitration has been too politically correct to be effective in a post 9/11 world. Mr. President, you are too kind to the weak links in your adminsitration and should have began your 2nd term with a wholesale house cleaning.

Chicago Style Politics

Chicago is nefarious for a certain style of politics. The phrase "Vote early and vote often" is said to have originated in Chicago and our Mayor Daly (Jr) was called to Florida when Al Gore needed his expertise to attempt to steal the 2000 election. Currently the president of the Cook County Board of commissioners is MIA. John Stroger who is 77, overweight and diabetic suffered a massive stroke on March 13th while running in the primary for the November 2006 election. Mr Stroger has been a member of the board since 1970. The newest hospital in Cook County is named after John Stroger but he didn't go there as it is considered an inferior medical facility and the only patients who go there are those who have no choice in the matter.

Immediately after Mr Strogers stroke his supporters swung into action to make sure his name was not removed from the primary ballot. They were successful and he won the primary. Now what? In the ensuing 3 months he has been released and then returned to the hospital and has been kept out of the public eye. Reports on his condition come from family members and no one is sure that his condition isn't being downplayed. We do know that he has been unable to come to work at his $170,000 a year Cook County job and that his family will hear no talk of him stepping down. As more time passes the whole thing becomes more suspicious. If he were able to sit up and speak wouldn't they get a camera crew in his room, as Reagan did after he was shot? Jokes are going around comparing Strogers situation with the movie "Weekend at Bernies". Strojers' family and supporters keep harping on what a great man he is (was?) and how cruel and unfair it is to question when and if he will be able to do his job again.

The man is up for reelection in November! How can people vote when they don't know if their candidate is awake or not? Well, he is the Democrat candidate and as history has shown there are democrats who will vote for a dead person before pulling the lever for a Republican. Well, that's their choice, but they at least have the right to know if they are voting for a dead man or not!

A Good Day

You may disagree with this statement "A good day for this country is a bad day for the Left", but there is supporting evidence. Today the President has made a "surprise" visit to Baghdad where he will attend a meeting with the Iraqi Prime Minister, most of his cabinet and a group of advisors assembled at Camp David. This is the second successful secret visit to Iraq our President has made. I'll never forget seeing President Bush appear at a big Thanksgiving Dinner for the troops in Iraq. That really took the shine of of Hillary Clintons' simultaneous visit to Afghanistan, where it was rumored troops had to be ordered to eat with her.

Pay attention to the way today's meeting in Iraq is reported and how the Democrats attempt to downplay the importance of this event. Since just a week or two after the Senate and Congress voted to give President Bush the authority to invade Iraq the Democrats have been undermining our war effort by marginalize any good news from Iraq and shouting any potentially bad news from the nearest mountain top. New York Congressman Charlie Rangle reacted to the elimination of Uday and Quesay with the following "I personally don't get any satisfaction that it takes 200,000 troops, 250,000 troops, to knock off two bums." Rangel went so far as to accuse the U.S. of acting illegally in killing the Hussein boys despite the fact that they were killed in a fire fight after refusing to surrender.

Since then we have seen the capture of Saddam Hussein, two very successful elections, the creation and ratification of a Constitution and the assembling of a freely elected Iraqi government. Each of these mile stones had drawn a yawn from the MSM (mainstream media) and the odd assortment of Democrats have taken every opportunity to undermine our effort. Democratic Party Chair Howard Dean said "The idea that we're going to win the war in Iraq is just plain wrong," A remark that flew through the news and undoubtedly heartened the hopes of every terrorist fighting us and the Iraqis. Most recently when the top al-Qaida terrorist Abu Musab al Zarqawi was killed the Democrat Speaker Nancy Pelosi said "This doesn't change anything in Iraq", but it does.

Another front in the MSM and Democrat war against the Bush administration suffered a blow today. Liberal Democrats are distraught over reports that Leakgate Special Prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald has decided there is no reason to indict senior White House advisor Karl Rove. Beginning with the Gore "Recount" fiasco the Left has tried every method they can invent to weaken the Bush Presidency. A memo written by an aide of Senator Rockefeller laid out the Democrats plans to throw one roadblock after another in front of the Bush Administration and use every trick they could access to trump up charges of wrongdoing.

Watch how they spin all the success in Iraq. Already today Senator Chuck Schummer (aka Schmuckie) has taken the opportunity of this momentous and historic meeting in Iraq to throw out the "Q" word once again, calling Iraq a "quagmire". Never mind that a brand new democracy is getting on it's feet and that we will have an ally in the Mid-east for the first time since Jimmy Carter allowed the overthrow of the Shah of Iran. If the Democrats no longer have any faith in democracy, it's time for them to change their name.

I'm Not in Florida Anymore

Yesterday was a sunny warm day and for the first time since our move to Illinois I wore a favorite outfit from last summer. The mostly green floral print blouse was one of my last purchases at Burdines, a store that is no more but which was for my entire life "the Florida store". Apparently such bright colors aren't as common here in the Midwest where I received three "compliments" on my quote "Hawaiian print blouse". Thank heavens I was wearing white shorts instead of the yellow capris I used to match with this particular blouse. The addition of even more color might have stopped traffic.

I was reminded of a conversation I had with an American woman in London. This women said she was leaving that day which should be obvious from the bright colors she was wearing. The inference was that one would never dress in bright colors in London, something I hadn't known. After that conversation I did notice that there was a decided lack of bright clothing on, well everyone I saw. I'm all for "When in Rome" but I like my bright tropical clothing and will wear them whenever I choose.

Clinton the Cheater

I was once on a ski trip to Steamboat Springs in Colorado with the Gator Snow Ski Club. I was at that time the President of the club but just an intermediate skier. I chose a ski run one day based solely on the name, Rolex. Shortly after starting down the run I knew I was well beyond my skiing ability. I chose to ski nearly horizontally across the slope. This meant I was moving downhill at just a few feet per pass and it took dozens of passes and timid turns, about an hours worth, to slowly work my way down the terribly steep slope.

Later when I told someone about my experience they asked, "Why didn't you just scoot down on your butt". I replied, "Because I am the president of the ski club, I'm not going to scoot down a slope on my butt, that's like cheating, what if someone saw me?". Apparently I had more respect for my office as president of a ski club than Bill Clinton had or has for his office as President of the United States of America.

Ex-president Clintons' penchant for cheating at golf has been legendary and is recently reinforced by Tiger Woods. Woods was in Arkansas for a children's golf clinic, and was asked about playing golf with former President Bill Clinton. Woods described one hole with Clinton during which the former president first took a mulligan (golf lingo for a do over, a practice frowned upon by honorable golfers) then picked up a ball that was six to seven feet from the hole. In golf if your ball is so close to the hole that it is very unlikely you would miss the putt your opponent might give you a nod indicating that you can skip the actual putt, count the stroke and assume you made it. However, no one would allow a six foot putt and you shouldn't assume that allowance yourself even if it is a six inch putt.

Finally, Woods mentioned that when Clinton tallied the scores he didn't count his "mulligan" and recorded the count for the hole as Clinton 3, Woods 4. There was no mention of any bets on the round of golf which was a good thing for Tiger. I have it on good authority that in addition to playing fast and loose with the rules Clinton is also known to welsh on his bets (meaning he makes bets and collects when he wins but forgets to pay when he loses).

The Battles of the Bird Feeders

It's me vs Nature in my own back yard. Shortly after we settled here in Carol Stream I bought a bird feeder and a 20 pound bag of wild bird seed. I dutifully filled the feeder and hung it in the tree outside my back door. No bird went near the feeder for months. Occasionally a squirrel would hang above the feeder and brush it with his tail, then retrieve the seeds from the ground under the feeder. Finally the birds discovered the feeder and I had a few weeks of enjoyable bird watching.

Then, disaster! A squirrel climbed onto the feeder and caused it to fall and break (the squirrel escaped unscathed). I bought a new feeder that was attractive and held about three pounds of seed. I thought it would be much better than the original feeder. Alas, the bird seed streamed through this feeder like a sieve. The birds could empty it in about four hours by taking turns perching on it and brushing seed off the feeder to fall to the ground where it could be enjoyed in a leisurely fashion by birds, squirrels and the dreaded Canadian Geese. I taped half of the openings closed but only delayed the emptying of the feeder slightly. In addition to the messy, noisy and unwelcome geese I now had two big black crows pigging out and intimidating my target customers the small and more attractive birds.

Jack said, "You're not going to be able to determine which birds you feed and which you don't". You would think that after almost 13 years of marriage he would know that I consider a statement like that a personal challenge. I was in Target shortly thereafter and thought I had found my solution at a very low price. I bought a bird feeder designed for finch and other small birds costing only $4.99. I was so confident the crows were defeated I bought another twenty pound bag of seed as the first was nearly gone. The feeder is a tall narrow tube with very small perches each with it's own feeding port. Initially the crows were stymied. If they could manage even to lit on the tiny perches they were too tall to eat from the portal nearest that perch. I was pleased and sure I had outsmarted the crows which at last count were now six (I'm reduced to counting crows, I don't even like Cheryl Crow).

Well the feeding frenzy continued and it took the crows only a day to learn how to half perch and reach around to the portal on the other side of the tube. This made eating the seed nearly impossible for the crows but allowed them to knock lots of seed to the ground where they and any other unwelcome creature could get to it. There is a landscape and gardening store nearby where I can get expert advice on my bird feed problem, I'm not giving up quite yet. In the mean time I can quit filling the bird feeder, there's nothing those crows can do about that.

Wow, What a Month!

I haven't posted for nearly a month. A great deal has happened in that time.

Jack's appendix partially burst on May 8th after a weekend during which we thought he had at the stomach flu. Consequently he had an internal infection that made it impossible to remove the appendix immediately. His white blood cell count was 20,000 when it should be 12,000 and he had a fever. We originally thought he would be home in a day or two but he had to stay in the hospital for a week on an IV of antibiotics to bring the infection under control. That was followed by 5 days of oral antibiotics He will have the remains of his appendix removed in about 5 or 6 weeks which will be handled as an outpatient procedure which should be no big deal with him coming home the same day.

Jack got out of the hospital on Monday May 15th and went back to work the next day working half days the rest of the week. When Jack came home from work for lunch on Tuesday it seemed fun and I made him grilled cheese and tomato soup. When he came home the next day expecting lunch again, I was less motivated. However I made a nice save, whipping up a box of mac and cheese and leaving the house to run all my errands.

Jack insisted that I should fly to Florida on Thursday as planned so, I went. I hadn't seen my parents since March and spent lots of time with my niece Madison and nephew, Cameron. I flew back on Sunday and jack picked me up at O'Hare with the usual confurion and frustration of dealing with a major airport under renovation.

Flight 93

I'll be in a theater Friday with a box of Kleenex on my lap. I would like to say something to those folks who think the subject matter is too "depressing" or that it is "too soon" for this movie. Even if you believe that this flight was shot down by US forces, a theory for which there is no evidence, we have enough proof from calls and cockpit recordings to confirm that these brave people banded together and were the first to fight back against the terrorists. The flight 93 passengers may have failed to save their own lives but undoubtedly, they were fighting to save the lives of unknown others who were the targets of this terrorist attack.

Now with that said I have heard that the audio tapes released in the Moussai trial have revealed a clearer picture of exactly what happened on flight 93. Since the movie makers had no access to this information some aspects of their depiction are now proven incorrect.

Happy Easter

We really had a very happy Easter. Jack's daughter, Jenny and youngest son, Tim came to visit along with Jenny's soon to be fiance, Tobin. The young people arrived before 7pm on Good Friday and we dyed eggs while we waited for our chinese food to arrive, well some of us did (not Jack). Saturday afternoon we went to the Willow Community Church for a very nice Easter service and Jack made Bar-B-Qued chicken on the grill for our dinner.

Sunday, thanks to the sleeping habits of my guests, I had time to go to the 7am mass, buy candy, assemble a large Easter basket and hide the eggs for our egg hunt. Jack hid most of the small plastic eggs I had filed with candy or cash. It was so funny watching three 20+ year olds frantically trying to find all of the eggs we had hidden. We had a nice brunch with french toast, ham, bagels, strawberries and cantaloupe and of course champagne. The young folks hit the road shortly after noon and Jack and I relaxed and nibbled on leftover the rest of the day.

I was still chuckling over Jack trying to deviously hide the eggs, Jenny crying fowl when Tobin reached around her to grab an egg, and all the fun we had had over the weekend when I went to bed Sunday night. It was a very nice Easter weekend.

Before You Fight a GAS WAR Identify the Enemy

I recently received an email titled "Gas War an Idea that WILL Work" suggesting that I should, after forwarding the email to 10 people, not purchase any gas from Exxon/Mobile, forcing them to lower their prices. My husband and I have those cute little "fast pay" tokens which we both use to buy gas from Mobile. Since I like the convenience provided to me by Exxon/Mobile I'll pass on this boycott. I replied to the message that I won't buy gas from BP as they are French owned and make commercials that make me change the channel.

The following was my husband's response when he received the same email from another source ..............................................

We have decided we don't want oil refineries built, to save the environment.
We have decided we don't want nuclear power plants built, same reason.
We have decided there will be no off shore drilling, same reason.
We have decided the Alaskan caribou is sacred, same reason.
We have decided to add expensive anti-smog chemicals to the gas, same reason.

At the same time, being the full of shit generation we are, we have bought bigger cars and built bigger houses.

Then, when the price of oil and gas goes up, we whine about ExxonMobil.

My suggestion: Build refineries, build nuclear plants, and drill wherever the oil is. If we don't want to do that, then buy oil company stock. As long as the leftist environmentalists control our energy policy, oil company profits will increase as will the value of their stock, then we can afford to buy gas at any price.

Boycotts are for communists. {end of husband's response}

Now, I think boycotts are perfectly fine for a democratic republic like the United States of America. I don't join the screaming mobs who blame everything on "Evil Corporations" you know, those horrible organizations who provide jobs, benefits, investment opportunities and goods and services. Communists and Socialists decry Capitalism and the profit motive as inherently evil. I know that the "profit motive" is the best encouragement to provide goods and services for the lowest price, best quality and using the least resources. Productivity has been increasing over recent years and workers benefit from this. Anti-Capitalists always point to the workers who are not needed once productivity increases ignoring the higher wages paid to the now skilled workers who are producing more with less.

Here's a question, why is the amount of tax we pay when we buy gas kept hidden from us? When I buy groceries the amount of sales tax I paid is clearly listed on my receipt but the receipt for gas shows what I paid per gallon in total without mentioning the tax amount. I'm told it is illegal for gas stations to breakdown the price for us. Here in Illinois I'm told the amount of tax is not per gallon but per dollar of gas purchased. This way when the price goes up the tax goes up too, increasing the burden on the consumer and providing a windfall in tax revenue.

Throughout history and all over the world today dictators hold power by providing the people an enemy to blame for all their problems, that way the people don't rise up against their real oppressor, said dictator and his or her corrupt regime. Socialists, Communists and Big Government liberals use this same tactic in stoking animus against "BIG OIL". Using misdirection the media reports endlessly on the oil company profits ignoring the reasons for the increase in gas costs just like they ignore any decrease in gas costs when those occur.

Oh, and regarding the sacred caribou, when we built the Alaskan Oil Pipeline we were assured that this would kill all the caribou. Since the completion of the pipeline the caribou population has quadrupled. Apparently the caribou appreciate the small amount of heat that the pipeline generates. So the enviormentalists were WRONG AGAIN!

Final Nail in the Coffin of CBS News

The addition of Commie Katie Couric to the CBS evening news should finish off that entity for good. Sure some women may flock to CBS briefly but how many men want to get their news from the "perky one"? Remarkably, interim replacement, Bob Schieffer, has increased the number of viewers in recent weeks.

The downfall of what used to be called the "Tiffany Network" has been a long process. The organization has been on the downslide since Walter Cronkite lied to America about the effectiveness of the Tet Offensive. The top contributor to the destruction of the credibility of CBS News has got to be Dan Rather (AKA Dan Blather or Rather Biased). Dan attacked then vice President George Bush in an interview in 1988 but Bush 41 was ready for him. Bush suggested that Rather focusing on one incident during the 8 year Reagan administration was as unfair as judging Rathers career on the time he threw a hissy fit and walked off the news set. Rather had no comeback but has had a chip on his shoulder against the Bushes from that day forward, although he was never a supporter.

Dan had no such problem with President Clinton as displayed by his sickening response to a congratulatory call he took from Clinton during a newscast with Connie Chung as Co-Anchor. Rathers' eyes filled with tears as he said "Mr President, if we can be one onehundreth as great as you and Mrs Clinton have been I'll be more than satisfied". Yuck! That's the CBS version of an independent and unbiased news anchor. Check out the website, "RatherBiased" for endless examples of Rather giving Democrats a pass while attacking Republicans but the final straw has to be the Bush 43 Texas Air National Guard story. To this day Dan Rather will not admit that the documents he used to source that story were phonies and not especially good phonies at that.

The chipmunk cheeked Couric isn't any more neutral or fair minded than her predecesor. On the Today show Katie gives soft ball interviews to liberals and attacks conservatives with hammer and tong. I can't give you many examples because I do not watch the Today show. I am aware of the way she attacked Ann Coulter who had rightly pointed out that the Today show should not be calling President Reagan an "airhead".

I may be wrong but I expect Anchorwoman Couric will last about as long as the pet rock did. Time will tell.

Back of the Bus Follow Up

Earth to George Clooney. Hollywood, in all its self rightous virtue did award an oscar to Hattie McDaniel, a black woman, for her part in the 1939 film, Gone With The Wind. However, when the time came for McDaniels to receive her award she was seated in a "special" section for her and her guest in, you guesed it, the back of the theater.