Just too many coincidences

In the post several below, I noted that not to believe in God requires that you believe in a very long list of coincidences and evolution. After a couple of days of thought, here are just a few of the most obvious coincidences that come to mind:

- Is it just a coincidence that the earth is perfectly positioned in relation to the sun to support life? By space standards, were the earth’s orbit moved a tiny fraction in any direction it would be just another lifeless rock floating in space.

- Is it just a coincidence that in the main, earth’s one year journey around the sun perfectly supports a growing season to feed us and a dormant season to replenish the earth? Imagine if the earth’s journey around the sun were accelerated. Would plants mature in time to support life? Imagine if it slowed. How many days of winter could we endure before starving? Of the endless possibilities, why 365 ¼ days?

- Is it just a coincidence that the earth rotates on its axis at a rate that perfectly divides night and day? Why not a 36 hour day? Or two sunrises in a 24 hour period? Of all of the possibilities why a perfect 24 hours?

- Is it just a coincidence that earth’s atmosphere is perfectly suited to support the plethora of life found here? Why can’t man with all of his genius recreate what is just an accident? We’ve all read about these stupid biosphere projects where man tries to sustain life in a sealed dome. By about day three, they have to adjust the air pumping toxins out and fresh air in. By about the third week they have to pump fresh water in. By about the third month they have to ship food in and excrement out. By about the fourth month, after everyone in the biosphere bails out of their living hell, the scientists declare the experiment a huge success.

- Is it just a coincidence that of all of the, I don’t know, thousands or millions of species and sub-species man is the only creature with a free will, capable of rational thought and the ability to exchange ideas? How unlikely is that?

- Now this is where it gets down right freaky. Study any part of any living thing. Study your own hand. Is it a coincidence that everything is perfectly matched form to function? Study a pine cone or flower. Is it a coincidence that they are at the same time simple in design but complex in function, beautiful but remarkably efficient? When man tries to make something, the more complex the task, the more complex the design. Think of the space shuttle here. And aren’t we more often than not forced to trade esthetics for efficiency. What’s pretty about a nail? If God made nails I suspect that each head would as intricate and different as a snow flake and the body would tiny different collored flecks throughout, oh yeah, they wouldn't bend when hit crooked. Some might say that man, through crossbreeding and cross-pollinating has created many new breeds. Sure, man tinkers, it’s his nature. It’s the whole free will thing. But Gods idea of a dog is a wolf. Man’s pathetic attempt to improve on God’s work, which depending on His mood caused either a chuckle or a raised eyebrow, results in a Lhasa Apso.

The doubter will argue that these designs occurred over millions of years and are simply due to evolution and natural selection. Why would evolution care about the beauty of anything? Evolution being what it is, shouldn’t the whole world look like the inside of a Klingon battle cruiser? But that’s an argument for another day.

Suspend all fun

Democrat shill disguised as AP reporter, Willie Lester and other libs are taking aim at President Bush – gambling in Casablanca? Shocking! This time Willie and his pals are zeroing in on the cost of the inaugural parade and balls. Most of the money comes from private donations. No matter to these do-gooders, that money could be better spent doing other things such as providing aid to tsunami victims. (7.2 billion dollars have already been pledged. By the time Kofi Annan’s family other UN officials get done looting the fund they’ll probably need to raise 10 times that amount.)

Basketball BILLIONAIRE do-gooder spokesman Mark Cuban wrote on his blog, "As a country, we face huge deficits. We face a declining economy. We have service people dying. We face responsibilities to help those suffering from the ... devastation of the tsunamis". Cuban challenged Bush to set an example: "Start by canceling your inauguration parties and festivities." Essentially Cuban is challenging America to cancel every party until the world is a perfect place. If your youngster is having a birthday party this weekend, cancel it. Send the money that would have been spent on that party to the tsunami victims. Your six year old will understand. Mark knows how to spend your money. For your anniversary is this year, you and your spouse can split a can of pork & beans and send any money left over into save the whales. Listen to Mark, he’s better than you. Hey Mark, Mr. Big Shot, let’s do the youth of America a favor and cancel the rest of the NBA season, which in light of the tsunami suffering seems so shallow, and send the money into the US Treasury to reduce the deficit. (Actually, the NBA season would seem shallow if it were compared to Jessica Simpson.)

Yo, Willie and Mark, why don’t we do both? Why not have the parties continuing life as normally as possible while at the same time maintaining our place as the most generous nation on earth? How about Mr. Billionaire big shot with the bigger mouth pledging a dollar to tsunami aid for every dollar spent on the inaugural? Hell, why not ten dollars? I think it’s because they really don’t give a hoot. They could quietly go about doing good deeds with their own money leaving the rest of alone but they choose to publicly thump their own chest, which doesn’t cost them a dime. It’s almost always easier to appear to be good than actually do the good dead. Nice try Mark, until you sell the team, donate until you’re forced to live in a 1,500 sq ft apartment and drive an 8 year old Chevy just shut your pie hole.

The rest of us will continue to give generously to the causes of our choice and still go about living normal lives, even going to, GASP! an occasional party or two.

Dumbest comment ever

Teddy Kennedy has claimed first place in “The dumbest comment ever uttered” category. Homer Simpson had been in first place ever since he told Bart, “…it’s every parent’s dream to outlive their children.” Teddy passed Homer yesterday when at The National Press Club he said "We as Democrats may be in the minority in Congress, but we speak for the majority of Americans." Hmmmm? Teddy’s most recent stupidity gives him the unfortunate honor of having two comments in the top five. While questioning Alberto Gonzales about water boarding is not that dumb, Ted’s failure to see the irony of him asking those questions puts him at #3 just behind Homer.

Yes, I believe in God

With a Tsunami killing 150,000 people and mudslides threatening life in California, the godless are asking how a good and merciful God could allow such things to happen. I guess these people forgot about all that smiting and smoteing that went on in the Old Testament - floods, plagues, cities destroyed, deaths of the first born, armies destroyed, and people wandering the desert for 40 years and to prove God had a sense of humor there was the Tower of Babylon. (No, had is the right word. I don't believe that God is dead. I just don't know if He has a sense of humor anymore.)

I believe in God. Not because I’ve studied the question. Though I own a copy of “Jamieson, Fausset & Brown’s Commentary on the Whole Bible”, I’ve never opened it. I believe because nothing else makes sense to me.

People of faith are trying to get God back into school by using euphemisms such as, Intelligent Design and Creationism. That strikes me funny. Schools in the US, when they actually taught and students learned, were created to teach the Bible. So now God has been booted out and is trying to get back in under an assumed name. To me this is sort of like Walter Camp being kicked out of the Football Hall Fame. Then a group or football purists try to re-introduce him to the hall of fame committee as Wally the rules dude. It also reminds me of the book “A Separate Peace” (Thank you Mrs. Donovan.) when Phineas tells Gene, “Always say a prayer just in case there is a God.” Well hey guess what, if there is a God and you try to BS Him, He’ll know. And that is what the terms Intelligent Design and Creationism are all about, trying to BS God, the city council and the school board. The first knows, for the other two, your cross, generosity and the polite way you speak give you away.

Yes, I believe in God, not because I’m a pious, self-righteous, religious right-wing nut but - because not to believe in God requires that you believe in an 800 page, single spaced, 3 point type (get your glasses and try it), list of coincidences and some unexplainable thing (to me anyway) called “evolution”. I hope to get my ideas on these coincidences and evolution down to something readable in the near future.

Abu Ghraib worse than Saddam

The worst thing that has ever happened in Iraq is not Saddam Hussein or terrorists attacking the innocents or Iraqi infrastructure. Ask any lib in DC or big media sound alike. The worst thing that has ever happened in Iraq is Abu Ghraib.

Alberto Gonzales’ confirmation hearing allowed prisoner abuse to again raise its ugly head. Let’s stipulate the prisoner abuse at Abu Ghraib demonstrates a breakdown of military discipline and is not a good thing. The only thing worse than the humiliation of the Iraqi prisoners, who, by the way, consist of murderers, bombers, anarchist and terrorist, is our own national humiliation brought on by the grandstanding and over-the-top feigned outrage of some politicians who smell a political opportunity.

While America is locked in a life and death struggle with Pan-Islamo-Terror-Fascist, these politicians and their supporters sense a political advantage and are willing to press it home no matter the cost to the nation and its fighting force. Facts mean nothing to this crowd. The fact that the military leadership announced to the world an immediate and thorough investigation of the abuse only days after the allegations surfaced is of no matter. The fact that the abuse centered on a dozen or so soldiers and contractors on one shift at one prison is immaterial. The fact that whatever abuses were occurring have long since stopped is not worth noting. The fact that military trials have been and are being conducted for those accused of wrong-doing is not important.

What’s important to this self-serving crowd is that there are pictures out there that might be used to drive the Secretary of Defense from office and embarrass the president. They seem more willing to put their women in burkas, buy prayer rugs and convert to the most extreme form of Islam than to allow this president to wage a successful fight on the maniacs who, given the chance, would slit all of our throats for their own now famous version of wackiest home videos.

War IS hell. In the summer of 1415 King Henry V met the French army at Agincourt. After initial success, when it appeared that the battle might turn against him, Henry ordered prisoners that numbered in the thousands killed. In September 1864, in reply to a letter from the citizens of Atlanta, GA begging relief from an order to evacuate and burn the city, Gen. Sherman wrote, "You cannot qualify war in harsher terms than I will. War is cruelty, and you cannot refine it; and those who brought war into our country deserve all the curses and maledictions a people can pour out. I know I had no hand in making this war, and I know I will make more sacrifices to-day than any of you to secure peace.”

So, in the grand scheme of the cruelty of war, what occurred at Abu Ghraib is rather insignificant. Those responsible, though they have made more sacrifices than most to secure peace, will and already have faced swift and sure justice for their actions. What makes this a national tragedy rather than a success is the endless, public, national self-flogging we’re engaging in for political advantage. I’m not sure any nation with such tender sensibilities can or should ever wage war irrespective of how many of its citizens might be slaughtered on a September morning.

Rather? Who cares?

I suppose I ought to say something about Dangerous Dan Rather-not. First, I have not watched a network news broadcast since August 1991. It’s not because the news readers (Dan, Pete, and what’s his name that took Tom’s place) are all left-wing lib ideologues, though they clearly are. It’s because by 5:30 or 6:00 pm anything they have to say is old news. I can remember when I stopped watching network news because that’s when I came into the 20th century and bought a computer. I could look at three web sites at 1:00 and know everything that was going to be on the network news. OK the Mrs. O’Leary’s cat type stories that they do would be new, but who cares.

So, that said, Dan skated. Ask any navy man, when a ship runs a ground, the skipper gets the ax. It doesn’t matter that he was asleep in his state room when the ship found the bottom, he’s a goner. Dan was the skipper of that lie CBS tried to pass off as news. He should have been publicly and unceremoniously axed. They should have run a film of Rather leaving Black Rock with a box of his belongings on the six o’clock news about two days after the “story” ran. Rather’s culpability lies in his description of himself. He says he’s a reporter. Reporters don’t run BS obviously fake – fake to the point of being exposed with-in 30 min of airing – documents to destroy a sitting president. Now if Big Dan claimed, rightly, that he was nothing more than a news reader, well then that’s a different story.

As for CBS, they, like all major news agencies, have such a left bent that it’s ridiculous. And they don’t even know it. Bernie Goldberg’s theory is that the major media is so inundated with left thinking people that it never occurs to them that there might be another side to a story. They aren’t bias because they want to be but rather (no pun) because there is no one within the organization to say, “Wait a minute, who the hell is Bill Burkett?” or “Mary you’ve been working on this for five years. If there was anything to it, shouldn’t it have surfaced long ago?” or “Just because you want it to be true doesn’t mean that it is.” Baring some tidal shift in thinking, they are doomed. For me they’ve been dead since August 1991.

What's the problem? I'm covered.

There is a saying in the naval services, a polite way of pointing out a self-centered, one-way creep. The assaying goes, “Pull up the ladder. I’m aboard.” In the old’n days of naval service, when men were made of steel and ships of wood, if a party went ashore for liberty they likely were rowed ashore in a long boat. They would return in the same manner. To re-board the ship they’d have to climb a rope ladder up the side. The saying comes from some self-centered senior doofus who made the climb, and then with complete disregard for his shipmates still in the long boat, ordered the ladder hoisted up because, after all, he was aboard.

RINO Representative Rob Simmons who represents some 650,000 voters in Connecticut gives new meaning to that old naval saying. In comments on reforming Social Security one way Rob opined, "Why stir up a political hornet's nest .... when there is no urgency? When does the program go belly up? 2042. I will be dead by then." Translation: “Why should I, Rob Simmons, perhaps the most important person in the universe, risk my political career on a bill that won’t even line my own pockets with taxpayer money? Pull up the ladder. I'm aboard”

This Social Security thing is just heating up. The two things libs will try to obscure are: 1) It’s your money in the first place. (Don’t believe that employer matching crap. If the employer wasn’t matching it, he could pay it to the employee.) 2) You don’t have to participate. That’s right. If you think the people that run the post office, Amtrak, buy $600 toilet seats (I could go on for hours but you get the point.) can manage your money better than you can yourself, YOU DO NOT HAVE TO ENROLL IN THE PROGRAM.

Contact one-way Rob @ http://www.house.gov/simmons/email.html. (Which doesn’t work very well) or:

Congressman Rob Simmons
215 Cannon House Office Building
Washington, DC 20515

Phone: (202) 225-2076
Fax: (202) 225-4977

Give him the old lib mantra, “It’s for the children.”

Are we there yet?

Do the talking heads remind you of children on a long trip like Bart Simpson, “Are we there yet? Are we there yet? Are we there yet?” Looking for an easy way attack the president, they are once again obsessing on the Iraq exit strategy. Can we leave yet? Can we leave yet?

Here’s a hint, in WWII, Germany surrendered May 7, 1945. We still have over 100,000 US troops serving in Europe. Japan surrendered on August 15, 1945 but the 3rd Marine Division and the 7th fleet are still in Japan. After fighting the Moro Indians and the Japanese in the Philippines we remained until 19991. The cease-fire in Korea was signed on July 27, 1953. We still have over 37,000 troops in South Korea. Today, we continue our “one year” peace mission in the Balkans which began in 1995.

And what have we left in our wake in these places? Have we colonized them? Have we, as their conquerors and/or protectors, stolen their resources? No, for the most part we have established democracy and paid our own way. At great expense to ourselves, we have provided protection and assistance to the conquered. While we absorbed their military obligations, the money they would have been forced to spend on defense went to building their industry. Now, free of defense obligations for the last 60 years, they are able to compete with us to sell their cars, radios, TVs and airplanes to the world.

The talkers want to turn the whole thing in Iraq over to NATO or the UN. Besides the fact that neither has the…hummm…guts to take on anything meaningful, neither would exist were it not for the US. What would NATO be without US participation? It would be a fourth or fifth rate military alliance incapable of defending Europe from even a neutered Russia let alone projecting military power to the Middle East. The UN without the US acting as its host and its largest contributor would further degenerate into what it largely has become anyway a platform for dictators, thugs, strongmen, satraps, theocrats and communists to bash the US.

The short answer to the military and strategic thinkers obsessing on our Iraq exit strategy is: “At the earliest, when the mission is accomplished but if history is any indicator, we’ll continue a presence as long as our strategic interests dictate.” We need only look at the results of our early withdrawal from places like Vietnam, Lebanon and our first efforts in Afghanistan to predict the outcome in Iraq if we leave early.

No Rest for the Swiftboat Vets

As if listening to this pompous blowhard for a year weren’t enough, John Kerry has already renewed his bid for the presidency by criticizing US war policy from - the senate floor? nooo, from his Boston office? nooo, from Iowa? nooo, Mr. lout goes to Baghdad. That’s right, the traitorous creep that sold-out his buddies (if he ever had any) by supporting the North Vietnamese and Viet Cong in the streets of Washington D.C., across America as well as in Paris during peace negotiations is now undermining the US war on terrorism by speaking out against US policy in of all places - Baghdad. Just when you think one person couldn’t get any crasser, cheap, despicable, loathsome, boorish and un-American Mr. Doofus shows up in Baghdad to announce his candidacy for 2008.

Not able to comprehend, what by modern political standards was, his (and the Democrat party’s) monumental ass-whipping in November ’04, the ever self-absorbed Kerry must believe it’s still all about him. Forgetting that he supported the war when it was politically expedient, Weaselboy lamented, "What is sad about what's happening here now is that so much of it is a process of catching up from the enormous miscalculations and wrong judgments made in the beginning." Then with all of the brilliance of Mr. Peabody fresh from a trip in his Way-back Machine, Johnny Gigolo questioned the decision by former U.S. occupation leader Paul Bremer to disband the Iraqi army and purge the government of former members of Hussein's Baath Party. Time traveler John claims that both moves have fueled the Sunni insurgency whining, "Mistakes have been made."

First of all, I’d like to ask General John, “What Iraqi army?” The Iraqi army more or less disbanded itself. How would one have gone about reconstructing something that was utterly destroyed? Also, did we go about reconstructing the SS after WWII? How would the majority of the Iraqi people responded if a brutal minority Sunni army and Baath party remained in power? We’d likely be battling a legitimate insurgency made up of the majority Shia’ population. So now that Mr. Peabody knows the outcome of the Bush policy, he hops into his Way-back Machine and cites where the strong man stumbled advocating a policy that, while we’ll never know for sure, would likely have made matters worse.

Kerry is a spineless, slimy, little creature who warrants no respect, sympathy or serious consideration. The people that do warrant respect, sympathy and consideration are The Swiftboat Vets for Truth, who it appears, are going to have one more mission in the fall of 2008.

Dumb and Dumber

In a move that has to have Karl Rove rolling on the ground from laughing so hard, red state Democrat senators worried and shaking their heads and gives new meaning to the word losers, house Democrats led by John “The turkey thief” Conyers and Nancy “My face isn’t stretched tighter than a drum from botox” Pelosi and Democrat Senator Barbara “What me worry - I’ve already won reelection” Boxer are challenging the election results in Ohio. (No, I don’t think that wasn’t a run-on sentence.) This is after an expensive recount in Ohio gave John Kerry a staggering additional 300 votes thus trimming President Bush’s victory in Ohio to 118,457. If that rate holds, Kerry will overtake Bush on the 198th recount. Given that it took Ohio 56 days to get through the first recount, it’ll only take a little over 30 years for Kerry to gain the required Electoral votes. He’ll be 91 years old. Let the recounts continue!

To any sane Democrat left out there: This is why fewer and fewer Americans take your lunatic party seriously anymore. You have dopes like Boxer challenging the legitimacy the guy that won the Electoral College by 35 votes and the popular vote by more than 3,000,000 votes. Then you have Ted “More people have drowned in the back of my car than from water boarding” Kennedy complaining about water boarding of terrorist prisoners. Water boarding is technique that gives the prisoner the sense that he is drowning. By the way, most of America’s Special Forces and aviators under-go water boarding as part of their training. You’d think that somewhere along the way someone would have told Ted, “We’d better let someone else ask about water boarding. After all, you drowned that woman in the backseat of your car... remember?”

But when your adversary is bashing his head against a brick wall, why intervene? Because, like when a three-year-old is beating on a drum in front of the TV during the Super Bowl, there is only so much one can take.

Write Your Own Damn Check

Uninformed and/or lying UN bureaucrat Jan Egeland has created a fire-storm of controversy by calling the US stingy. He calls us stingy even though while the US makes up 5% of the world’s population, it contributes over 1/3 of the world’s total humanitarian aid. Only 1/3? How stingy can 5% of the world’s population be!! First, you’d think that after the mismanaged UN Iraqi oil-for-Chirac program people from the UN would quietly go about cleaning up their own cesspool of corruption before they point their crooked, boney, finely manicured fingers at anybody else.

When confronted, Egeland retreated faster than the French army saying he didn’t say what he clearly said; that he didn’t mean what he clearly meant; that his statements that need no context, were taken out of context. When confronted on Fox News by Chris Wallace with tapes of his remarks, Egeland’s smooth bureaucratic style was of little use. He appeared to be either a very poor liar, like an eight-year-old kid caught with his hand in the cookie jar, “Honest mom, I was looking for my Gameboy.” or a complete psychopath who tells obvious lies straight-faced but doesn’t know that what he just said was a lie, like…oh I don’t know…Bill Clinton.

But liberals are like buzzards, all it takes is the scent of scandal against America for them to start circling. No hint of American failure real or imagined, large or small is too crazy or insignificant for liberals to forego a gathering to pick at the bones. So it is for Egeland’s comments. Liberals don’t call Egeland the uniformed dolt he is, like President Bush did in not the same words. They endorse and reinforce his comments.

But liberals have always thought that it is a government’s responsibility to dispense charity – and the more the better. Liberals always get their best ideas when they are spending other people’s money. They are the limousine liberals that oppose vouchers while sending their own children to private schools, who oppose gun owner’s rights while they are protected by armed body guards, who oppose SUVs because of poor gas mileage while jetting about the country in private aircraft and who are the most charitable when they are giving away your money. To Al Franken, The New York Times and all other liberals who think that the US response is inadequate – WRITE YOUR OWN DAMN CHECK and give until it hurts. Coerced charity, like that which comes from a government which confiscates funds from its people, is not charity at all.

Talk About Torture

The word is that the brilliant minds in the Democrat Party are going to try to embarrass Alberto Gonzales, President Bush’s pick for Attorney General, with prisoner abuse photos and videos. Asking Gonzales about the prisoner abuse is well within the purview of the senate’s oversight responsibility.

There are three problems for Democrats though. First, they always overreach. Some pompous bonehead (sadly not a unique description when dealing with politicians, sort of like saying, “the guy in red” at Ohio Stadium during a home game) will start railing about the lack of air conditioning, cable TV, feather beds, long distance phone service and the choice of dinner wines at Guantanamo. Next, aside from Democrats interested in scoring political points against President Bush and Michael Moore who thinks Johnny Jihad is a modern day Minuteman, nobody gives a rat’s derrière how a terrorist is treated. As the matter of fact there is probably a very large segment of the population that is of the opinion that terrorists ought to be afforded all of the humanity that they afford to others.

Last, when Chucky Schumer starts showing pictures of naked Iraqi men, much to the delight of Barney Frank, some Republican with a backbone, (sadly a very unique description) ought to run a film of a partial birth abortion. When it’s over, ask Chucky how a party that is not offended by a practice that sucks out the brains of innocent, nearly born, fully viable babies, can be offended by pictures of naked men who, given the chance, would hack Schumer’s head off on video in time to be shown on the Al Jazeera six o’clock news. Hell, how could they be offended by anything?

The Death of a Great American

At a time during which we contemplate in excess of 140,000 deaths from a tsunami and 175 from a fire in an Argentine night club, it might seem a bit odd to dwell on the death of one elderly American. But hey, it’s my blog. Besides, he was one of my heroes and most significantly, he was my dad. Below is the eulogy delivered at his funeral on December 23, 2004.


Good morning and thank you for braving the weather and joining us during this busy Christmas season as we celebrate the life and morn the passing of a father, a brother, a grandpa and great grandpa, an uncle and a friend.

Dad was born to immigrant parents on May 26, 1917 in Columbus, Ohio. His sister Anna and brother Tony preceded him into life. His younger brother Henry followed him into life.

To put that into perspective for us younger ones, in 1917 aviation, which influenced much of dad’s life, had been born just 14 years earlier in 1903 with the Wright brothers’ first flight at Kitty Hawk, Woodrow Wilson was the President of the United States and gasoline cost a whopping $.14 a gallon.

His youth was marked by a confident and strong nation fresh from victory in WWI, a period of American history know as the roaring 20s.

America was the nation his parents knew it would be when they left everything that was familiar to them to make a better life in this great nation.

Dad grew up on the south side of Columbus in German Village, where we learned of several physical and astronomical phenomenons. According to dad, life on the South side was tough, his walk to and from school, where he played football and basketball, was all up hill…in both directions. It snowed every day and no matter which way you turned, the wind was in your face.

But as it is in life where challenges often follow good times so it is for great nations, the Great Depression and WWII followed the roaring 20s.

These two great events marked not only dad’s character but also the character of his entire generation, many of whom are with us here today.

Like his two brothers, dad answered his country’s call to duty and served in the Army Air Corps during WWII, flying B-29s in the Pacific.

On June 20, 1943 dad married mom in Mexico City and began their near 60-year journey together, a journey which ended just a little over two years ago when we met here for mom’s passing.

After the war mom and dad raised six children, ran a painting business, then an independent advertising business. It wasn’t until late in life that they began the business that was dad’s true calling, the recreation of WWI and WWII aviation memorabilia.

Everything about my dad to me seemed larger than life. To start with he was 6 feet 4 inches tall with that booming voice and personality to match.

But it was more than that, everything he did - he did in some grand way.

We didn’t have a swing set that came from some local hardware store. No, Dad made ours from pipes he found on some job site. And it wasn’t 6 feet high. It was 10 or 12 feet high.

In addition to ordinary snow sleds, which we had by the dozen, we had a 10’ wood bobsled that dad and Rick built in the garage and which dad would tow around the neighborhood behind an ancient red station wagon affectionately known as “the bomb” while a dozen or so thrilled kids from the neighborhood would scream in delight from the sled tied to the back.

I don’t think we ever had one of those little kites from the dime store. No, ours came from Dad’s imagination and were built in the basement. They were four or five or even six foot box kites hand painted by dad in a bright colorful manner with really cool designs.

In summer, a slip and slide wasn’t some cheesy 4x6 piece of plastic that fell apart after two turns. It was a 6 foot by 20 foot piece of heavy duty plastic with two hoses turned on it so that the entire neighborhood could use it all day and it would still be good enough to be used again.

For dad, building a snowman wasn’t a matter of stacking three large balls of snow one atop the other. No, we piled the snow, then packed it and dad sculpted the snow to form the body and the arms. The head and face weren’t just a ball with carrot stuck in where the nose went, rather they too were sculpted and the hat didn’t come from the closet, it also had to be sculpted from snow. After all, as dad pointed out the obvious, “It’s called a SNOW-man.” Then just when I thought the whole thing was done, dad disappeared and retuned with paints and somehow he painted that snowman to look just like Santa Clause.

When we had a yard party, it wasn’t good enough to just mow the grass. Noooo, the grass had to be cut twice, once the long way and once the cross way. This demand, as you might guess, further endeared him to my brothers and me.

But when I think of how dad did things, I always recall ice – yeah, the ice spectacular he created in front of the house on Elburn Ave. One cold night about this time of the year the weather was below zero. I remember looking out the front window with my brothers and sisters watching dad throw ropes over the limbs of one of the big trees in the front yard and then turning the hose on them full force. I remember asking, “What’s he doing?” I don’t recall any of the answers, just a lot of laughing, but in the morning there was a ton of ice in our front yard frozen to the tree and those ropes. Over the next several days the hose remained turned on day and night. He’d get up at three o’clock in the morning, and even leave Christmas parties to move the hose until he had a perfect curtain of ice from the ground up about 20 feet. Then he backlit the whole thing with colored floodlights and dad even turned the hose onto three stepladders, then made a crown and gift for each to represent the three wise men. I don’t recall when all of the ice melted away, but I do remember being in a t-shirt with little patches of ice still in the front yard.

Even getting sick for dad had to be big. A cold or flu wouldn’t do. No he got lung cancer, and smoked his last Chesterfield the morning they operated to remove the effected lung.

For dad, a vacation in Mexico didn’t last a week, it lasted for a year.

Taking the camper out didn’t mean a weekend at the local park, it meant leaving Southern California for an 18 month odyssey driving up and down the AlCan Hiway, across Canada, down into the East coast of the US, half way across the US toward California then back to Ohio when Anna had an accident, before finally returning to California.

Yeah, he did things in a big way, but dad also did all of the little things. I’ve often wondered how many years of their lives and how much of their fortunes mom and dad and my aunts and uncles spent:
Going to little league games
Dance and music recitals
Brownie and Girl Scout meetings
Cub and Boy Scout meetings
Building pine wood derby cars
PTA meetings
Trips to the circus
Trips to the fair
Camping trips to Michigan
Columbus Jets baseball games
Columbus Owls hockey games
OSU football and basketball games
Parent teacher conferences – some of them not all that – shall we say - encouraging
Synchronized swim meets
Prom and wedding dresses
High school football and basketball games in every kind of weather
Nights spent awake waiting to hear the car pull into the driveway
Graduations
Weddings
Baptisms
First communions
Confirmations
And yes funerals
But all of our parents did it all, didn’t they, and they did it with enthusiasm, grace and hardly a complaint because they were from “that generation” and that’s just what you did. They did it all many times over and with too little gratitude from those of us who reaped the benefits.

Every holiday seemed to mark a large family gathering with aunts, uncles and cousins where dad told funny stories, sure they were often the same ones but with some new and funny twist. Mother’s Day he planted geraniums in the garden for mom. Easter was picture time with everyone in brand new Easter clothes - before they got covered in chocolate. Memorial Day was a trip to the pool and a backyard cook out. The 4th of July dad took us to the parades and the fire works and decorated our bikes. Labor Day it was soup or a ham slow cooked in the pit in the back yard. At every gathering he argued politics where back in the 1950s, I think it was, I heard he once even conceded that a certain Democrat wasn’t quite as bad as he had first thought.

Many families mark their children’s passage into adulthood at a graduation or with a driver’s license or the ability to buy their first beer – uhmm legally. The Schumick’s marked adulthood when a child was invited into Aunt Anna and Uncle T’s basement for the Christmas party. At my first Christmas party, an argument raged over who would win the Super Bowl. Before long dad had the pool organized was taking the money, writing down the winning team and point spread. Instead of asking for a pencil and paper, dad whipped out his fountain pen, one of the kind that you actually had to draw ink from a well, and wrote it all down in his unmistakable large print on the paper table clothe then tore it off and taped it to the wall.

As in every life and worthwhile endeavor there were of course a few rough spots.
Enough wrecked cars to enable General Motors to stay in business.
For sure, enough spilled milk to start a dairy.
Enough broken toys for Mattel to turn a profit through about 1968.
Enough broken hearts and disappointments to sustain a Dear Abby column.
The unbelievable tragedy of the death of babies and then of their first-born adult child.

Through it all, with help of the people here today, and many who have already left us, mom and dad got through it, remained strong and set a good example for the rest of us. And that is how we will get through this.

Dad was a complex individual. He could establish a quick rapport with children; ask any of the grand kids or his great grand son. He could talk to a teenager, a 20, 30, 40 or 50 year old as easily as he talked to those of his own generation. He was a patriot, a soldier, an airman, a businessman, an author, historian, artist, sportsman and sports enthusiast, master of ceremonies, gardener, mechanic, bicycle repairman, plumber, electrician, carpenter, mason, painter, paper hanger and has even written a 1,000 page manuscript on Ohio history. Yet if you could ask him today what he was proudest of, after his family and friends, he just might quip, “Well, I had a valid drivers license until the day I died by golly.”

Dad seemed to have one of those one-liners for every occasion:
If one of the kids called and asked what he and mom were up to, he would likely respond with, “Spending your inheritance.”

If I called and said, “Dad, this is Doug.” He’d either say, “Doug? Doug who?” or “Doug, how much is it going to cost me this time?”

I was watching him dig in the back yard once, he gave me that, “Why don’t you get off your duff and help me look.” Then he walked over, gave me the shovel and said, “Do you know what the nice thing about a shovel is, Doug? It will fit just about anybody’s hands.”

If you called recently and asked how he was doing you likely heard, “Hey, old age isn’t for sissies.”

In an 87year life as full and rich as dad’s was there are, of course, a million stories and memories. These were just a few from the perspective of John and Katie’s youngest. I’m sure the older kids, who blazed a trail wide and deep enough for me to manage to stay within for the most part, along with dad’s family and his friends all have their own stories of “barrowed” cars and beer, late dates, parties, Notre Dame football trips, Rose Bowl games, OSU Michigan games, weddings, 7:30 on a Saturday morning yard cleaning detail, Christmas eve trips downtown to see the Nationwide Building and Lazarus window and even setting the house on fire once. These stories will continue as long as dad lives in our memories.

But sadly, for this time and for this place, even though we’re not quite ready for him to go, I think the time has come to say goodbye so that dad may go to meet his beloved Katie, Johnine, Erin and all of the family and friends who are waiting for him. Thank you dad for the wisdom, for the inspiration, for the discipline and for the joy you brought to each of us.

We thank each of you for being with us today. We know at this time of the year your time is often your most valuable commodity and you have honored dad and us by spending some of it here today.

Oh, and one last thing, OK mom, the break's over. He’s on his way home to you.

McCain Should Look at his Own Role

John McCain is positioning himself as the front runner in 2008 presidential derby by attacking steroids in baseball and defenses secretary Donald Rumsfeld. Given his criticisms of Rumsfeld, it’s clear Senator Sun Tzu, oops, McCain knows more about baseball than transforming the military.

First, when he says Rumsfeld should have increased the size of our armed forces, McCain must be under the misperception that the secretary of defense raises armies. Article 1 section 8 of our Constitution charges congress, not the secretary of defense or even the president, with raising armies and maintaining the navy. So when Senator Clausewitz… uh…McCain complains about the size of our armed forces he’s really noting his and congresses own incompetence and failure to act. That’s right, the same sanctimonious boobs that gutted our intelligence agencies then responded with outrage when they performed like gutted intelligence agencies, is complaining about the size of our armed forces when it was they who trimmed it for the “peace dividend” in the first place. Yes, very odd indeed.

Next, Senator Patton…uh…er…McCain, doing his best John Kerry, “I’d be smarter than the president.” imitation when he claims he’d simply add more soldiers to the Special Forces, intelligence and linguistics branches. This is like saying the NFL is going to add more Peyton Mannings or Jim Browns to the league. These forces are highly motivated, specialized, trained and equipped. It is not a matter of going out the formation, asking, “Who wants to be Special Forces?” and giving them a different color beret. It takes years to make one of these guys. Also, even if you went to the active forces and took all of the best NCOs available and turned them into Special Forces soldiers, what do you think might happen to the regular forces absent their leadership? Military professionals know that even the most mundane occupational specialties need quality leadership. It is what is referred to as a quality spread, where even some of the best and brightest are assigned a tour or two in mundane but important tasks such as the mail room or chow hall.

Last, Senator Lincoln…uh…McCain thinks the National Guard and Reserve forces are being over worked. There is one guy that agrees with McCain and has been trying to do something about it, Donald Rumsfed. Since 9-11 Rumsfeld has said over and over that force mix of guard, reserve and active duty is set up for the cold war. A lot of the unique forces required to fight the war on terror, civil affairs, MP, engineers etc. are found predominately in guard and reserve forces. But you cannot simply say to a guard unit, OK you guys who are trained as MPs are now artillerymen. Forces have to be recruited, trained, retrained and reequipped over several years to transform a single unit. Doing it on the scale that is now underway, is a monumental task.

It’s clear to me that given the Babe’s…uh…McCain’s bombastic rhetoric over the last several months, he is better suited to be the next Commissioner of Baseball than the next Commander in Chief. He should take Bud Selig’s job. It’s a win-win situation. He can get the dope out of baseball and America gets one dope out of congress. OK, that’s a bit too cute. I do have great respect for McCain. I think he is wrong for attacking Rumsfeld for the job he’s doing in Iraq with the military McCain and his buddies set up twelve years ago.

What Holiday is it?

I went to a “holiday party”. I have been wished a “happy holiday” over and over. The Scout leader asked us to bring a dozen “holiday cookies” to the Scout meeting. Holiday this and holiday that, I feel like yelling at the top of my lungs, “What holiday is it?”

It is, of course, the Christmas holiday. It’s the Christmas holiday not only because the Pope and religious prelates word wide said so, but also because the U.S. Congress and President Grant said so. It is a federally recognized holiday called Christmas. In that respect it’s no different from the 4th of July, Memorial Day etc.

Today 87% of Americans believe in Christmas. Of the remaining 13%, the vast majority if wished a Merry Christmas will likely say, “Thank you” and go on with their lives. That leaves a tiny minority, probably in the low single digits, that is trying to bring an end to Christmas as we know it in the U.S.

How can a tiny minority dictate to the overwhelming majority how we celebrate Christmas? First and foremost, social positions are like combat positions in that more are simply abandoned to the enemy than overrun. Because the ACLU, and a tiny percentage of hyper-sensitive whackos threaten every tradition of Christmas, you are more likely to be sued for wishing a co-worker or classmate a Merry Christmas than running a Ponzi scheme at the old folks home. So to avoid the hassle, many just give in, like getting whining children what they want just to shut them up.

But most parents know that the more you give in to the whining, the more the child will whine. Sooner or later the cry babies have to be told that enough is enough. So, Merry, Merry Christmas everybody! To the vast majority, take the greeting as it is intended, a message of hope, peace and joy, for a savior has been born. To the lunatic fringe, think of it as nothing more than glad tidings for the federal holiday that is, after all, Christmas.

No Time for Sergeants

There are soon to be upwards of 150,000 troops on the ground in Iraq. Most of them are patriots. They are serving in the armed forces to serve a cause larger themselves. They are serving to protect America from Islamo-terror-fascist who, given the opportunity, would destroy America overnight. Outside their family and close friends, they will be unremarkable, run of the mill Joes and Janes. Individually they would have little chance of affecting events on their local street corner. Collectively they are changing the world.

Unfortunately, you’ll see more Bush/Cheney bumper stickers in the faculty parking lot at Ivy League schools than mainstream media stories about the average Joes and Janes bearing the load of Iraq’s freedom. When you do see the occasional story, Joe and Jane will be painted as hapless pawns forced into the military by the Bush tax cuts. The American media hoping for an American defeat in Iraq, will give us a steady diet of a few disgruntled whiners and malcontents who wouldn’t be happy at Disneyland. Jeremy Hinzman the deserter from the 82nd Airborne who ran to Canada is the new cause-celeb for the mainstream media because he has alleged war crimes against men and women who are far braver than he. Spc. Thomas Wilson got his 15 minutes of fame by asking a reporter’s question to Secretary Rumsfeld.Our mainstream media heroes will seek out and glorify the Hinzmans and Wilsons and a score or so of others like them while ignoring the 10s of thousands serving proudly and honorably. No doubt Hinzman, who was fine with the Army until actually called upon to earn his pay after 9-11, will convene a Winter Soldier Project in his bid to become the Democrat front-runner in ’08.

Hinzman reminds me of briefing I attended during the first Gulf War. Someone asked the speaker, a very senior officer, about a doctor who refused to ship out with his unit. In answering the question, the speaker waxed eloquently for several minutes and threw around flowery words and concepts like conscience, religion, individual choice, duty, the law, understanding etc. When he was finished, there was a pause and silence long enough to hear a sergeant in the back say what I think everyone was thinking, “Yeah, well all that may be true, but I think he’s just a chicken s@*t coward.” Sometimes the obvious short answer is the best one. But no one wrote a front page article on the sergeant.

Limbaugh to Simulcast Network News

In the, “What planet are you living on?” category Bill Moyers whines, “I'm going out telling the story that I think is the biggest story of our time: how the right-wing media has become a partisan propaganda arm of the Republican National Committee…" Stop the presses!! FLASH, FLASH, FLASH, since last night’s sign off on the six o’clock news read by liberal icons Pete, Brian and Dan, the right-wing has taken over the media. Networks confirm that Rush Limbaugh will simulcast on all three networks tonight at six. Riiiight.

Christmas Fun With Liberals

Hey, it’s Christmas let’s have some fun.

Send a very religious Christmas card to your local ACLU office and tell them that the “normal” contribution is being withheld and sent to the Boy Scouts instead.

Every time you hear someone mention the “holiday party” ask them, “What holiday is it?”

Aggravate your liberal anti-gun, PETA nut friends. Mail them one of those outdoorsy Christmas cards from Cabela’s with rifles and dead game on it.

Give your liberal friend a subscription to the Limbaugh Letter, American Sportsman or Weekly Standard. The truth will set them free.

When some agnostic whacko starts talking about the holiday this and the holiday that, remind them that the word holiday is derived from “holy day” and watch them struggle referring to everything as the winter solstice this and the winter solstice that.

Brag to a liberal friend about your SUV’s gas mileage.

At work, reset the liberal’s computer home page and password protect it to http://www.crushkerry.com/index.php.

Tell a liberal you can’t make his “holiday party” because there’s a Christmas party the same night.

If a liberal asks you out to the “holiday party” say, “Saturday? Oh, I’m sorry there’s a best of Rush on the radio Saturday.”

If you’re the boss, pass out “Christmas bonuses” omitting the weasel who insists on telling everyone in the free world that he doesn’t believe in Christmas and wait for him to bitch or convert.

At the close of business on the 24th assign the same guy some menial tedious task to complete which is due back to you at 0800 on the 26th.

The day after Christmas, when your liberal friend asks, “So what did you get for the winter solstice celebration?” You can say, “Oh, Christmas? I got a brand new 223 hunting rifle, a gun rack for my giant Ford Excursion, a box Dominican cigars, a chain saw to get rid of that damned tree out back and a stuffed Spotted Owl from the old forest in Oregon before it was razed for the new condo complex. What’d you get?”

Rumsfeld was Right

The media and ever present Democrat opportunist like Senator Chris Dodd are taking great delight, as always, in the tough questions Secretary Rumsfeld fielded yesterday in Kuwait. One soldier, who was prompted by a media embed it turns out, complained they had to dig through the trash to find armor and ballistic glass to upgrade their vehicles. The secretary’s response was, “As you know, you go to war with the army you have, not the army you might want or wish to have at a later time...”

That was a good response. A better one might have been, “That’s fantastic! You are following in the footsteps of your forefathers who were known for their ‘Yankee ingenuity’ and ‘can-do’ attitude. In July, 1944 when the 2nd Armor Division was bogged down in the hedgerows of France, it was an ordinary soldier like you named Culin that came up with the bright idea of welding a cutter to front of tanks to cut through the hedgerow. It worked! I commend your ingenuity! Carry on. Next question.”

Essentially, Rumsfeld had it right. You go to war with the army you bought and planned around a decade earlier. How else can you do business? You can not wait to see what develops before equipping the force. Once engaged and new requirements are identified, the DoD procurement branch and American industry take over. In 1950, S. L. A. Marshall wrote a book on this subject entitled “The Soldier’s Load and the mobility of a Nation”. Senator Dodd and his media lackeys ought to get a copy.

It’s odd that the press and other opportunists are attacking Rumsfeld. He more than anyone has been trying to drag a 1990s and in some cases 1980s military into the 21st century since he started his second tour as Secretary of Defense. He has been met with less than open arms from the military Bigs who are always fighting the last war and, of course, the press who loath anything connected to George Bush.

Adding a New Bureaucracy

I’m feeling safer already. Thank goodness that after 30 years of liberals like Frank Church and Bob Torricelli destroying our intelligence agencies congress has acted to restore them. Well, that’s their intention. The proof will take years to show itself.

I’m a bit skeptical for a number of reasons. First I’m skeptical that anything that comes from congress can be “the solution” to anything. Next, the speed with which this legislation came into being makes me wonder. Also, who on the 9-11 commission is the subject matter expert on intelligence gathering? Wouldn’t it have been better to convene a panel of people who make and have made a living gathering, analyzing, disseminating and acting on intelligence to make recommendations for intelligence reform rather than a bunch of washed up politicians? Last, the over riding goal of any D.C. bureaucracy is to sustain and grow the bureaucracy. I don’t see this new bureaucracy being much different.

It doesn’t take a business management guru like Steven Covey to figure out that 15 scattered agencies with separate missions, priorities, and budgets isn’t a great model. But is adding a 16th agency to overlook the other 15 the best fix? Given what we know about government agencies, is adding another one likely to resolve or exasperate the problem? This sounds more like a further growing of the intelligence bureaucracy which will likely lead to a slower more sluggish application of intelligence.

Whatever the flaws with the bill as it now stands, we should thank Duncan Hunter for changing it to better protect our frontline troops. Speed in the intelligence business is crucial. It is most crucial at the tactical level where forces need to get inside the decision cycle of the enemy or what former Air Force Colonel John Boyd called the OODA loop. According to Boyd, decision making occurs in a cycle of Observe-Orient-Decide-Act. Among adversaries, the organization which can consistently complete the cycle quickest can get inside the opponent's decision cycle and gain an advantage. That is a difficult task to accomplish under the best circumstances. Imagine the degree of difficulty when the enemy is a three man terrorist cell, which can act almost on a whim with little planning or coordination.

Hunter’s actions assured the frontline troops immediate access to intelligence without added layers of intervening D.C. bureaucracy. For his efforts, Democrats labeled him an obstructionist. We need more politicians like him in Washington who will not allow principle to be trumped by the emotions four women from New Jersey.

Democracy is Hard Work

If you favor a neat and orderly progression of events in government, you probably favor some dictatorial form of government. Kings, emperors, dictators, caliphs, emirs, and other supreme rulers, usually backed by the overwhelming force that only a nation state can bring to bear, need not concern themselves with the differing wills and needs of a diverse people. They simply get up in the morning and tell their ministers, who are in power because of their loyalty or family relationship to the potentate, to enact a certain policy. Those who resist are simply crushed with military force.

Democracy is not so neat. America is the world’s oldest democracy and had some serious problems in its first 100 years. When the opening gavel fell at the Federal Convention in Philadelphia in the spring of 1787 to hammer out a new constitution, only seven states were represented. Eventually, all of the states except Rhode Island attended, but even then the delegates came and went like Christmas shoppers looking for stocking stuffers at a Spencer’s Gift Store.

There were three serious rebellions in the United States between the signing of the peace accords that ended the Revolutionary War in 1783 and 1794. In 1800 the presidential election was a dead heat in the Electoral Collage between Thomas Jefferson and Aaron Burr and was thrown into the House of Representatives for resolution. Jefferson became President and Burr Vice President. Those who think the current vice president was a bit harsh in cussing out a prominent Democrat using the f word, are reminded that in 1804 Burr shot Alexander Hamilton in a duel to settle a political dispute. That’s harsh.

In 1846 President James Polk started a peremptory, unilateral war of aggression against Mexico. Through the first 100 years there were raging Indian wars and an untold number of political and civil battles concerning states rights centered primarily on the slavery question. The question was finally settled through the bloodiest war America has ever fought. All this happened in the first 100 years. How did we ever survive?

By contrast, Iraq is scheduled to become the world’s newest democracy at the end of January, 2005. Our glorious media would have us believe that the entire country is in chaos and that there is no chance of stability in Iraq. This same media no doubt would have given an infant America slim chance of emerging as a stable nation in 1787 let alone becoming world’s lone hyper-power 225 years later.

Iraq faces tough problems, perhaps more difficult problems than those faced by our own founding fathers. They reside in a neighborhood were no government wants their experiment in democracy to succeed. They have a stubborn, foreign led and financed terrorist insurgency. They have a dilapidated infrastructure and no experience with freedom. For sure, the deck is stacked against the Iraqi people.

But what is the alternative? Our media would have us throw up our hands and quit. America’s road to a stable democracy has been anything but a smooth road. Iraq’s road is likely to be rockier yet. But we won’t get where we want to go by sitting in the driveway complaining about all the potholes that we are likely encounter along the way.

WOUNDED WARRIOR PROJECT

Have you ever encountered someone who waxed philosophical about supporting the troops but not the war? My only comment to these people has been, “That’s sort of like supporting the police unless they are issuing a ticket or using their clubs to break up a riot.” Well now I have a better comment for these people, “What have you done for the troops? Have sent a note or care package? No? Well if you support them, shouldn’t you be doing something tangible for them? Here take this card. It tells you how to get in touch with the Wounded Warrior Project. How much can I put you down for?” Their response will give you a pretty good idea if they really support the troops.

The Wounded Warrior Project’s Mission Statement:

The Wounded Warrior Project was founded on the principle that veterans are our nation's greatest citizens. The Project seeks to assist those men and women of our armed forces who have been severely injured during the conflicts in Iraq, Afghanistan, and other hot spots around the world. Many of the injuries are traumatic amputations, gunshot wounds, burns and blast injuries that will retire these brave warriors from military service. These wounded soldiers will return to civilian life minus one or more limbs, or with serious wounds or disfiguring scars, and will face greater challenges today obtaining assistance and finding opportunities that would enable them to provide for themselves and their families.The Wounded Warrior Project was founded to give a voice to this new generation of veterans facing unique issues and problems. The Project fills the vital need for a coordinated, united effort to enable wounded veterans to aid and assist each other and to readjust to civilian life.

THE GAME OF LIFE

Sports are filled with out-on-bail, over-paid, over-drugged, over-sexed, over-hyped and over the top personalities - filled almost to the point that you can’t watch anymore. Big bad Ron Artest of the Indiana Pacers foregoes a fight with Ben Wallace who pushed him around like an 8th grade bully pushes around 2nd graders on the playground to jump into the stands, rush by a big guy who threw a beer on him to punch some skinny white kid who did nothing. Indianapolis Colts players have taken to wearing Artest jerseys as a sign of support. Good move guys. What’s next, “Free Saddam” T-shirts? I hope New England kicks their butts…again!

Jason Giambi admitted to using steroids. Shocking! Who knew? Barry Bonds is the only person in the world saying that Barry Bonds doesn’t use steroids. Maurice Clarett the under sized over-achieving running back at Ohio State couldn’t finish his freshman season in the Big 10 without serious injury but thought so much of himself he wanted to turn pro. Since the pro gig didn’t pan out and not smart enough to write his own tell-all book, Clarett has taken to telling ESPN about all sorts of shenanigans going on at the OSU athletic department - gifts, car, clothes, jobs etc. Hey Maurice why didn’t you just say, “NO THANK YOU!” Notre Dame fires a good man, Ty Willingham, in the uncertain hope of winning a few more games. There is a perfect time to fire college coaches not involved in criminal or immoral activities, at the end of their contracts.

Just when you think sports couldn’t get any worse than a Saturday night Zamphier “The Master of the Pan Flute” concert with a blind date who “makes her own clothes” something great comes along to restore your faith. That something this weekend is the Army-Navy football game. These are true college student-athletes who play the game for the honor of their school and their military branch of the service. No taunting. No chest pounding. No individual self-indulgent dances for the camera. No disrespect toward the opponents or their fans. Hard play, sportsmanship, and hand shakes all around after the game is what will be on tap Saturday.

Whatever happens on Saturday, the players know that they will eventually end up playing for the same team. What’s at stake in the game will pale by comparison to the stakes that await them. Two years ago JP Blecksmith was engaged in the great American struggle know as the Army-Navy football game. Last month he was killed in a truly great world struggle in Fallujah. If that doesn’t put sports and the “big game” into perspective, nothing will. Go Navy!

ANNAN SHOULD TURN HIMSELF IN TO THE HAGUE

John Kerry should use some of the left over money from his failed presidential campaign to issue a public apology for his absurd Iraq war position. Oh yeah, that will take some splanin as to which of his dozen of so Iraq war positions is in need of a public apology. That would be the one where he claimed that the president “rushed to war” without UN approval. It is clear now that Stalin and Hitler would be having a snowball fight in their eternal accommodations before the UN was ever going to seriously consider doing anything to send Saddam Hussein to join them.

Senator Norm Coleman has noted everything anyone needs to know about how corrupt the UN and its Nobel Prize winning Secretary-General has been with regard to Saddam Hussein. Kofi Annan, the French, German and Russian governments have the blood of hundreds of thousands of innocent Iraqis on their hands. Every coalition casualty is also on their collective hands. Had there been one shred of integrity in the UN sanctions program against Saddam and had money from those very programs not been used to bribe UN, French, German and Russian officials, Saddam could have been check-mated without war.

Annan’s Nobel Prize citation reads in part, “While clearly underlining the U.N.'s traditional responsibility for peace and security, he has also emphasized its obligations with regard to human rights. He has risen to such new challenges as HIV/AIDS and international terrorism, and brought about more efficient utilization of the U.N.'s modest resources. In an organization that can hardly become more than its members permit, he has made clear that sovereignty can not be a shield behind which member states conceal their violations.” We now know that there are no “human rights” violations that can not be overlooked if the price is right. We also know that while “sovereignty can not be a shield behind which member states conceal their violations” money can be.

So François Kerry needs to take to the airways and admit, “I was an idiot to have thought that an organization as corrupt as the UN could be made to do the right thing. Kofi Annan, the French, German, and Russian governments as much as murdered hundreds of thousands of innocent Iraqis and are responsible for every coalition casualty. If they had any honor, they’d turn themselves over to the Hague for trial and a public hanging. Thank God that George Bush was and is President.”

RATHER NOT WATCH NETWORK NEWS

Dan Rather is stepping down at C-B(ull)S(#@*). Who cares? Besides Mrs. Whitley’s cat, for whom the TV set is always left on, who’s watching Dan? In the three man race between evening news readers, Dan has been a distant third for over a decade. He’s dead last in a three man race of networks hemorrhaging viewers like a hemophiliac packaging razor blades at the Gillette factory.

Oddly, Rather is stepping down as the C- BS news reader but staying on at 60 Minutes where he aired obviously fake documents produced by deranged Democrat wacko Bill Burkett. Excuse me but this like an airline pilot who also collects the passengers’ tickets, being forced to stop collecting tickets after he lands at the wrong airport…5 or 6 times. Maybe the guy is better suited to collect tickets than find the right airport. In Dan’s case, maybe he’s better suited to read the news for a ½ hour on weekdays when nobody’s listening than find the truth.

Even after the documents were demonstrated to be fakes by any reasonable standard, Dan stood by the story. He made the “rather” foolish argument that even if the papers were fakes, what they alleged was true. Sort of like the fake letter that has turned up from Dan’s mom that says he has always been a pompous, lying, airhead…right? No such letter exists but the allegations are true.

Even Bill O’Reilly has come to Dan’s defense. O’Reilly claims, “There is no way on this Earth that [Rather] would have knowingly used fake documents on any story.” I don’t believe that, but let’s say it true. Why didn’t Dan interview the widow and the son of Lt Col Jerry Killian, both of whom disputed the story? Why didn’t C-BS include its own document experts, who said the documents were fakes, in the story? Why AFTER the documents were demonstrated to be fakes did Dan rush out to interview Killian’s 86 year old former secretary Marian Carr Knox in an effort to prop up the story? Why hasn’t C-BS and Dan to this day admitted that the story is about as believable as an overweight old man in a red suite with flying reindeer sliding down every chimney in the world on one night to deliver presents to kids?

No, Dan knew the story was crap when he went to air with it. When he got exposed as the BS artist that he is, he tried desperately to save himself. But the truth, as it often is, was overwhelming. Why O’Reilly feels the need to condemn the people who exposed the fraud is puzzling. More puzzling is this little tidbit from O’Reilly, “Unfair freedom of speech did [Rather] in. This is not your grandfather's country anymore.” So we have a guy that tries to perpetrate a fraud on the American people using one of the three major networks and when he gets exposed it’s “unfair freedom of speech”. Think about that one for minute, “unfair freedom of speech”?? Very odd!

You’re right about one thing though Bill, this isn’t grandpa’s America anymore. In grandpa’s day Rather, his producer, writers and anyone who had seen or even heard of this crude and obvious fraud would have been immediately sacked with great fanfare and public humiliation. Only in today’s America is it a given and accepted fact that “news organizations” are in the tank for the Democrat party. In grandpa’s day there was at least an appearance of objectivity.

ENEMY OBJECTIVES AND CENTERS OF GRAVITY

In several postings below I looked at what I believe might be our objectives and centers of gravities at the three levels of military planning. I also looked at our media’s willingness to act as the propaganda arm of the terrorist forces. Chief among the propagandists is Kevin Sites. Sites claimed he “didn’t know” how other news agencies would use the video of Marine apparently shooting an unarmed wounded terrorist. This is just plain crap and a kin to an arsonist claiming he “didn’t know” that jet fuel was an accelerant when he tried to dowse a fire with it.

Here are what might be our enemy’s objectives and centers and gravity in Iraq.

Enemy strategic objective: Establish a friendly sympathetic nation state from which to operate world wide Islamo terror fascism. The terrorists want to use a dysfunctional Iraq for that purpose. They also know, as the president knows, that once democracy is established in the Middle East, it will grow and act as a stabilizing force in the region. That is why they are fighting so hard in Iraq. Once Iraq is stabilized, terrorist know that it may signal the beginning of the end for them in the region.

Enemy strategic center of gravity: The terrorists in Iraq are receiving assistance from a plethora of nation states that don’t want the US to succeed in Iraq - Syria, Iran, Saudi Arabia to name but a few. The strategic center of gravity for the terrorists in Iraq is to isolate them from their foreign support. Coalition forces need to isolate the battlefield. Like "ten years in prison", it’s easier said than done. We have a great problem securing our own border. Our problem is ten fold in Iraq. The use of more troops on the borders is the answer – not ours – Iraqi troops.

Enemy operational objective: Break the coalition and cause it leave Iraq before stability can be achieved. It’s clear that the terrorists' strategic objective can not be achieved while the coalition is in place in Iraq. They will try to drive the coalition from Iraq using the Vietnam model – drag the war out, employ the useful idiots in our own media as their propaganda arm and wait for popular support of the war to die. But this isn’t Vietnam. The Vietnamese never blew up 3,000 innocent Americans on American soil. Also, there are now any number of information sources outside the MSM who are not quite as useful a bunch of idiots as the MSM.

Enemy operational center of gravity: The terrorist know that the leadership of their various organizations is what holds the effort together. They also know that the leadership is being relentlessly hunted. Protecting the leadership is the terrorist’s operational center of gravity. The seclusion of the leadership is in itself a minor victory. How much more effective could the terrorists be if they could openly communicate and coordinate? Our forces are keeping the terrorists leadership on the run and always in fear and suspicion of their surroundings and any new face. These organizations deep secrecy is in itself a hindrance.

Enemy tactical objective: The terrorist’s tactical objective is to keep the Iraqis from standing up their own security forces before breaking the coalition. Once the Iraqis are capable of providing their own security it will be game over for the terrorists in Iraq. Terrorists have been going after the Iraqi security forces all their energy. Right now it is true test of wills between the provisional government and the terrorists. If there is not a significant increase in the number and quality of Iraqi security forces by spring next year, it may signal an extended stay for coalition forces.

Enemy tactical center of gravity: Maintaining security in their tactical cells is the terrorist’s tactical center of gravity. When we can infiltrate these cells and begin to gather intelligence to break down the organization from within it will be like pulling on the thread of a button on a cheap shirt, it will easily come apart.

JOURNALIST: SERVE THY SELF

Kevin Sites has a self-serving piece on his website about the shooting in the mosque in Fallujah. Why is it self-serving? Here are a few reasons that come to mind:

Sites titles his self-glorifying piece “Open Letter to Devil Dogs of 3.1”. Devil Dog is a nickname given to the Marines by the Germans during WWI. It is now a term of honor for Marines. Coming from Sites’ the use of the term is more a kin to the hangman saying, “Hey ‘buddy’ let me help you with that hood.” right before he pulls the lever to spring the trapdoor.

Sites goes to great lengths to portray himself as a fellow warrior. He is not. He is a journalist who can go where he wants and say no when he wants. Warriors do not have that option. The fact that, by his choice, he is with the mopping up operations instead of the frontline is telling. The fact that he feels compelled to tell us how brave he is, like the loudmouth drunk at the VFW who spent his service time in the rear with the gear and warm beer, tells me he is not. Professor Combat even takes credit for saving Marines when he points out that there are munitions near a fire started by the Marines. Like a rooster taking a bow for the sunrise, I think he gives himself too much credit.

When Sites writes, “I had no idea how our other ‘pool’ partners might use the footage.” he is either dumber than a hoe handle or lying through his teeth. Anybody watching coverage of the Iraq war knows that every story will be used to put Americans in a bad light. Abu Grhaib, the ammo dump story, looted museums were all stories that were sensationalized by the media in an attempt to place the Americans in a bad light. When the facts about these incidents started to trickle out, the stories just went away. NBC and Sites knew damn well that as soon as that tape hit the air al Jazeera would scoop it up, remove any context and play it 24-7 adding commentary on how barbaric the American occupiers are.

Sites goes to note, “So here, ultimately, is how it all plays out: when the Iraqi man in the mosque posed a threat, he was your enemy; when he was subdued he was your responsibility; when he was killed in front of my eyes and my camera -- the story of his death became my responsibility.” And the only way to fulfill that responsibility was to air the story that you knew would be used as propaganda to undermine our strategic objectives in the region, right? This is where I believe that the media are borderline treasonous. If there was any good in this story, it was outweighed 1,000 to 1 by the negative impact. How about turning the tape over to military until the investigation is complete? Once the facts of the case are known go with the story and the results of the investigation.

Prediction: If the Marine receives a courts martial, I can’t see him being him convicted by a panel of his peers. Reasonable doubt? Of course there is. The Marine’s acquittal will give Mr. Sites and his leftist buddies a whole new issue with which to bash the military and America. I can see the headlines, AMERICAN MURDERER FREED – KEVIN SITES WEEPS. But, what really makes these media people weep is American success.

OUR OPERATIONAL AND TACTICAL OBJECTIVES AND CENTERS OF GRAVITY

America’s Strategic objective in Iraq is a free and independent state that will not pose a threat to its neighbors or the rest of the world. The strategic center of gravity is the American will to see this project through to completion. So what are our operational and tactical objectives and our center of gravity for each?

Our operational objective is Iraqi security. To achieve this, unless we are willing to stay indefinitely, we need to stand up an Iraqi force capable of securing its own borders, fighting crime and killing terrorists. Our operational center of gravity is the Iraqi security forces. This is why the terrorists are targeting Iraqi police stations and recruiting places. The terrorists know that once Iraqis are largely responsible for their own security, the terrorist have a huge problem. It will no longer be occupying US forces pursing terrorists but the average Iraqi citizen.

That makes a huge difference. Right now Iraqi forces are being portrayed as occupation force collaborators. They are seen as no better than the Coalition forces. Once they gain their strength and confidence, they will begin to operate on their own. This poses three major problems for the terrorists. One, they will be killing more and more Iraqi citizens and fewer and fewer Americans. Two, the Iraqi forces are not likely to be as constrained as American forces in dealing with the terrorists. Three, Iraqi forces will be better able to exploit available human intelligence from the Iraqi people. We will be able to tell that we are winning operationally when Iraqi forces begin to shoulder more of the load, as in Fallujah, and their casualties begin to increase.

Our tactical objective is the terrorist leadership. These terrorists forces tend to center around charismatic leaders. Al Zarqawi and Sadar are two such leaders. While the latter has been somewhat neutered, the former is still at large inciting terrorists activity against coalition forces. Since US forces tried to find Manual Noriega in Panama, we have known the difficulty in finding one man in a city let alone in a country the size of California. Our forces simply cannot go door to looking for Zarqawi. We have to rely on timely actionable intelligence. Intelligence gathering is our tactical center of gravity. Terrorist’s cells are extremely difficult to penetrate. Even if successfully penetrated, the cells are extremely compartmentalized which makes it difficult for even an inside man to see the forest for the trees.

STRATEGIC CENTER OF GRAVITY

When the military develops plans they think on three levels. The highest is the strategic level. At the strategic level, military planners consider overarching national objectives. Military strategic planning is subordinate to the national strategy and must consider all elements of national power. The next level is the operational level planning. Operational planning is theater wide planning that links tactical actions to the larger strategic aims or to get “strategically meaningful results from tactical efforts”. (MCDP 1-2 pg 15) The lowest level is the tactical level of planning. This is where the rubber meets the road – combat actions to close with and destroy the enemy by fire and maneuver. To be effective, these tactical actions need to be highly coordinated.

Planners need to think on all three levels simultaneously. During the planning process the planners will identify an enemy “center of gravity” at each level. The center of gravity is the key source of strength at a given level. If not complicated enough already, the planners must also consider the enemies three levels of planning as well as our own centers of gravity at each level. This process allows planners to mass friendly forces against the enemy’s key sources of strength while defending our own vulnerabilities against enemy actions. Of course the enemy is doing the same thing.

As noted below, America’s strategic center of gravity is its national will to see a conflict through to completion when casualties build. Our enemies have identified that if they can draw the conflict out and bloody America, the American people will quickly tire of the effort and begin to clamor for withdrawal of the troops, a la Somalia. They have also identified correctly that the American media will help them to achieve their goals. The military can protect installations from attack and protect troops with body armor and sound tactics, but the military has a much more difficult time defending against an antagonistic press corps.

Were we not a democracy, we could simply sensor the media or turn them into an Al Jazeera type propaganda machine. Left to their own devices, our media are serving the same purpose - for the enemy. The military is hard pressed to deal with a media that is more interested in sensational headlines than waiting to put the story into context. The military strategy for dealing with an irresponsible media intent on undermining its operations is two-fold. First the military quickly makes facts available to debunk much of the media’s sensationalism. Two, where there is wrong doing the military admits it and takes action to correct the problem. Of course the sensationalism travels like a shot while the truth travels like a snail.

Our strategic aims will be achieved in spite of media by holding elections and demonstrating to the people, American and Iraqi, that there is a path to democracy in Iraq. This is problematic as the insurants and our own media will strive to create the appearance of a chaotic environment unsuitable for meaningful elections. Iraqi and American forces will have to tamp down the violence and secure upward of 3,000 polling places. This may require some additional troops for the short term. The irony in this is that the complicit media will portray any troop build up as a defeat.

The military should bite the bullet in the short term and keep their eye on a strategic objective – elections. Whatever happens with the elections, our media will portray them as a failure. It doesn’t matter. What matters is how the Iraqi’s feel about the process. Americans should keep in mind our own elections during the Civil War. A whole region of the country did not participate, but the elections went forward and, as history has shown, where a great success.

US MEDIA ATTACKS AMERICA'S STRATEGIC CENTER OF GRAVITY IN IRAQ

Since John Kerry and similar anti-American anti-war activist chased the US out of Vietnam, America’s strategic center of gravity has correctly been recognized by our enemies as our will to stay engaged. We had quick victories in Granada, Iraq and Panama - too quick for anti-American, anti-war at any cost whackos and their willing accomplices in the press to turn the American people against their best interests. We were not so lucky in Lebanon and Somalia where casualties caused us to lose our nerve before the job was done.

Our current struggle is a bit different. After 3,000 dead Americans, we seem to have a bit more staying power. Terrorists are completely incapable of driving us from the battlefield. What the terrorist in Iraq can not achieve in a battle with US troops, the US media may hand to our enemies on a silver platter. After sensationalized stories about Abu Ghraib and missing explosives, the media are now zeroing in on the actions of one young Marine in Fallujah to help the terrorists to turn American opinion against our efforts in Iraq (See the post under). This is going blow up in their collective faces when the truth becomes known.

Here’s the rest of the story about this young death deifier and hero from Power Line:

This is one story of many that people normally don't hear, and one that everyone does.
This is one most don't hear:

A young Marine and his cover man cautiously enter a room just recently filled with insurgents armed with Ak-47's and RPG's. There are three dead, another wailing in pain. The insurgent can be heard saying, "Mister, mister! Diktoor, diktoor(doctor)!" He is badly wounded, lying in a pool of his own blood. The Marine and his cover man slowly walk toward the injured man, scanning to make sure no enemies come from behind. In a split second, the pressure in the room greatly exceeds that of the outside, and the concussion seems to be felt before the blast is heard. Marines outside rush to the room, and look in horror as the dust gradually settles. The result is a room filled with the barely recognizable remains of the deceased, caused by an insurgent setting off several pounds of explosives.

The Marines' remains are gathered by teary eyed comrades, brothers in arms, and shipped home in a box. The families can only mourn over a casket and a picture of their loved one, a life cut short by someone who hid behind a white flag.
But no one hears these stories, except those who have lived to carry remains of a friend, and the families who loved the dead. No one hears this, so no one cares.
This is the story everyone hears:

A young Marine and his fire team cautiously enter a room just recently filled with insurgents armed with AK-47's and RPG's. There are three dead, another wailing in pain. The insugent can be heard saying, "Mister, mister! Diktoor, diktoor(doctor)!" He is badly wounded. Suddenly, he pulls from under his bloody clothes a grenade, without the pin. The explosion rocks the room, killing one Marine, wounding the others. The young Marine catches shrapnel in the face.
The next day, same Marine, same type of situation, a different story. The young Marine and his cover man enter a room with two wounded insurgents. One lies on the floor in puddle of blood, another against the wall. A reporter and his camera survey the wreckage inside, and in the background can be heard the voice of a Marine, "He's moving, he's moving!"

The pop of a rifle is heard, and the insurgent against the wall is now dead. Minutes, hours later, the scene is aired on national television, and the Marine is being held for commiting a war crime. Unlawful killing.

And now, another Marine has the possibility of being burned at the stake for protecting the life of his brethren. His family now wrings their hands in grief, tears streaming down their face. Brother, should I have been in your boots, I too would have done the same.
For those of you who don't know, we Marines, Band of Brothers, Jarheads, Leathernecks, etc., do not fight because we think it is right, or think it is wrong. We are here for the man to our left, and the man to our right. We choose to give our lives so that the man or woman next to us can go home and see their husbands, wives, children, friends and families.

For those of you who sit on your couches in front of your television, and choose to condemn this man's actions, I have but one thing to say to you. Get out of your recliner, lace up my boots, pick up a rifle, leave your family behind and join me. See what I've seen, walk where I have walked. To those of you who support us, my sincerest gratitude. You keep us alive.

I am a Marine currently doing his second tour in Iraq. These are my opinions and mine alone. They do not represent those of the Marine Corps or of the US military, or any other. [end]

At some point we need to hold the media accountable for their efforts to undermine our strategic interests. This is not call for censorship or a lap-dog media. It is a call for getting the whole story in an accurate way the first time. The media are quite happy to obsess over these stories while they seem to put our service people in the worst possible light. When the complete truth becomes know, a truth that demonstrates that the military is competent, after months of sensational reporting, the media response is that of Emily Litella on Saturday Night Live, “Nevermind”.

MEDIA HOPES FOR WAR CRIMES

Arabs who are not offended by the occasional hacking off of the head of a woman aid worker or the more frequent hacking off of the heads of foreign workers for no other reason than are “foreign workers” are angered by the oddest things. We know, when given enough over the top coverage by the US media, Arabs anger at the sight of terrorists being photographed naked. People of the peaceful religion of Islam who stand mute when innocent men women and children are blown up by the hundreds and thousands in cafes, buses, airplanes and tall buildings finally find a their voices when a lone wounded terrorist is killed in the heat of battle. (I heard about an American who shot a wounded unarmed Vietcong in the back and got a medal for it. Except for the getting a medal part, the media were not interested in the story. Now what was that guys name? Oh yea, it was that John Kerry guy.)

How do we know the Arabs, presumably every one of them, are angry? Well, our alert conniving media, never ones to miss a story that might put an American serviceman in a bad light, seek out the offended ones and tell us their story over and over. Even before any of the facts are known about this latest media inspired brouhaha, well dressed media elites fresh from dinner or lunch at some high-brow restaurant intone somberly between sips of their double all-natural chocolate-vanilla soy lattes that the Marine MIGHT have committed a war crime. Well hells-bells here are some other news flashes that might be interesting under these strict journalistic standards; The sun MIGHT explode…details at six! Bill Clinton MIGHT tell the truth…our microphones will be there if he does! The mainstream media MIGHT stop making the news up…a special report! CBS has produced (literally) documents that the man who was killed MIGHT have been a Red Crescent worker considered by many to be candidate for the Noble Peace Prize…see the whole story on 60 minutes Wednesday!

I recall years ago my Dad giving me his copy of Ernie Pyle’s book Here’s Your War. In it Pyle tells how people from every walk of life and every section across America fought for victory in North Africa. The book is a compilation of the brave deeds, sacrifices and yes sense of humor of the American fighting man. Pyle writes in detail of the unique personality and good nature of the American fighting man. I don’t believe there was even one war crimes story included. In today’s media Pyle would be shunned, relegated to the social page or an occasional feel good feature about a three legged dog. One could imagine the conversation between today’s media Bigs and Pyle;

“Look, Pyle the last thing we need here are inspirational stories about the war and the people fighting over there. After all, we’re trying get rid of George Bush not prop him up.”

“Yea, but we’re at war with international Islamo terror fascist. Shouldn’t we be trying to win that? Besides, these are Americans putting their lives on the line for us, shouldn’t we try to honor them and their cause?”

“Pyle, Pyle, Pyle there will be plenty of time to win this thing when the Democrats are back in power. Until then I want all war crimes and hopelessness all of the time. We need to turn people against this war and the president. Now get over to Elm Street. The scanner just picked up that Mrs. Crump’s cat Mittens is stuck in the tree again.”

RENDERING UNTO GOVERNMENT DEMs IDEA OF VALUES

The post mortem on our last election has Democrats believing that they got their brains bashed in over moral values issues important to Evangelic Christians. Their first instinct was to blame the whole thing on Evangelical’s reaction to gay marriage. Someone must have clued them in that Joe and Mary Six-pack could care less what Steve and Bruce do as long as they aren’t shoving it in their faces and more importantly in their children’s faces. Listening to the latest Democrat talking points it is clear that they are well on their way to another drubbing in 06. Now these Democrat spinners make it clear that their party believes that moral values should translate into more, bigger government programs and taxes.

While Jesus did say, “Render therefore unto Caesar the things which be Caesar's, and unto God the things which be God's.” He didn’t say, “Render unto Caesar all that Caesar wants so that Caesar may create a huge wasteful government bureaucracy to do the good deeds that I expect each of you to do on your own.” He didn’t say, “Render unto Caesar even as Caesar uses your renderings to kill the unborn and support ‘art’ and other activities which mock and shun me.” He did not say, “By his taking, Caesar relieves you of your responsibilities to do good works.” How impressed is St. Peter going to be at the Golden Gate when he asks, “What good deeds did you do?” and the only answer is, “Well, let’s see, I’m a life long Democrat, so I paid my taxes and hoped Uncle Sam would cover for me.”

So the Democrats, as is their habit of late, are barking up the wrong tree. For most voters, even leaving aside Evangelical voters, moral values will never equate to supporting wasteful government programs. “Moral issues” are not important only to Evangelicals. I mean in a race between Eddie Haskell and George Bush most voters, irrespective of religious persuasion, will recognize that Eddie is smarmy, conniving dope and vote accordingly. Sadly though, a large number of Democrats, up to 70% by some estimates, would vote for Eddie simply because he was not Bush. To get back into the values game Democrats need to start with something as simple as finding a non-Eddie candidate one that tells the truth most of the time. (See “Why Reds and Blues Are Divided on Values” below.)

CIA NEEDS TO BE OVERHAULED

The Washington Post is sounding the alarm that there is chaos at the CIA. The Deputy Director has resigned the Deputy Director of Operations and several other top level officials are threatening to resign. The agency is in “turmoil” according to the Post.

I don’t understand why there should be turmoil over the resignations real or threatened of a bunch of people who should have been fired years ago. While the Post runs in circles shouting, “The sky is falling! The sky is falling!” Director Goss is no doubt doing what he was hired to do, clear out the dead wood. When it gets the ax, the dead wood runs to the Post and screams about chaos and turmoil. The post never wanting to miss an opportunity to bash Bush gleefully publishes the story.

Well how could the agency that missed, Saddam’s move into Kuwait, Korea’s, India’s and Pakistan’s acquisition of nuclear weapons, 9-11, and Saddam’s disposal of his WMD be any worse off for cleaning house? It’s not as if the CIA were a well oiled machine, hitting on all cylinders that is now being tinkered with by some shade tree mechanic. It’s a jalopy that hasn’t run right in years. It is now being overhauled in the hope that it can be returned to useful service. The process may require some new parts.

THE GOOD THE BAD AND THE UGLY

The Good
John Ashcroft will step down as Attorney General upon the confirmation of White House Counsel Alberto Gonzales. This will be a tremendous disappointment to left-wing kooks who loved to vilify John Ashcroft. The libs don’t get it but this is why they lose elections. They take a fundamentally good man trash him in the most personal way.

When the history of 9-11 is written, John Ashcroft may go down as one of the great unsung heroes. His justice department’s relentless pursuit of domestic terrorists may be cited as the main reasons why Al Qaida was unable to hit us again after 9-11.

But John Ashcroft goes down as “the good” in this piece for his conduct after he lost his senatorial campaign to Mel Carnahan who had died with his son in a plane crash before the election. The Governor of Missouri appointed Carnahan’s widow Jean to the sneate seat. Republicans wanted to mount a legal challenge to the election and the appointment of Mrs. Carnahan. Ashcroft would have none of it. In his concession speech Ashcroft said,

"I will not initiate and I will not participate in any legal challenge, I believe that the will of the people has been expressed with compassion, and that the people's voice should be respected and heard. I hope that the outcome of this election is a matter of comfort to Mrs. Carnahan. ... I hope that she has every success in representing the people of Missouri effectively."

Contrast Ashcroft’s statement to the recent graceless statements of leading Democrats after our last election.

The Bad
I don’t know why but there is a great deal of angst and gnashing of teeth at the fate of Yasser Araft. Now that he’s finally gone, Bill Clinton’s favorite White House slumber party guest will be lionized by a liberal media. A state funeral is being planned in Egypt. Why all of this attention for an unrepentant murdering, Jew hating, thieving terrorist. May the fleas of a 1,000 camels dine on his mangy hide for eternity.

The Ugly
(Sure Yasser could take two out of three but…) Any of the scores of Democrat “thinkers” and “leaders” shooting their mouths off in the most vile manner after the election. Compare these examples to Ashcroft's above:
-- "The Daily Show's" Lewis Black put it last week, Americans remain free to pursue their dreams, "so long as that dream doesn't make Midwesterners feel 'icky.' “Did you ever notice that the people preaching love and tolerance as in, oh I don’t know gay marriage, are the first to start spewing hate and intolerance when they run into someone who does not agree with them?
-- Elizabeth Edwards and Babs Streisand (Female equivalent of Dumb and Dumber?) lifted this tidbit from a Jefferson quote condemning the sedition acts “A little patience, and we shall see the reign of witches pass over, their spells dissolve, and the people, recovering their true sight, restore their government to its true principles.”
-- ABCs Carole Simpson held up a map of red states alongside a map of slave states from the 1860s. “See”, she said, “present-day red states are the same states that were pro-slavery!” That’s real nice Carole Red voters the same as slave holders. Hey Carole why didn’t mention that Republicans supported LBJ’s Civil Right Bill in greater proportions than the Democrats? Why didn’t you mention that every segregationist and bigot worth mentioning in the South from Bull Connor to George Wallace to Bob Byrd was/is a Democrat?
-- "The election results reflect the decision of the right wing to cultivate and exploit ignorance in the citizenry," writes Jane Smiley. Yes, yes, I’m sure the election was the result of the ignorance of over half of the voting population. What does that say about the public school system? Vouchers anyone?
-- The ever self-absorbed Michael Moore who wrote at his web cite “the first thing that comes to mind after George Bush’s reelection” and goes on to list all of the names those killed in Iraq. Then he uses these heroes’ photos to create a mosaic of Bush. Let’s face it, the ONLY time Michael Moore gives a damn about any of these people is when he is figuring out how to exploit their deaths.