Oh, Thats just perfect....

You have probably heard, and seen the picture. A 3 yr old gets her Bush/Cheney sign ripped from her hands from Kerry/Edwards supporters. Story here.
"Meanwhile Democratic bloggers wondered whether Parlock staged the event that sent Sophia into tears as a news photographer captured her distress. Some even called him a serial protestor and a bad parent for putting his daughter in harm's way"
EXCUSE ME? Since when does a 3 yr old have something to fear from supporters of Kerry/Edwards? I certainly don't think Parlock should have taken his daughter there to protest. I wouldn't just because I wouldn't want her exposed to the comments and sneers that would surely happen. But should she be afraid of harm??? I mean this is what the democrat bloggers are saying, not the republican ones. They say he was putting his daughter in "harms way." I don't think even Parlock expected someone to rip the sign from her. Who are these people??

More outraged should be expressed over the forged documents for THIS reason.

I have to agree with Blackfive on this one. One aspect of the Dan Rather forged document story that is not being focused on is that they put words in a dead officer's mouth. I can only imagine how his family must feel. Using their loved one to affect a presidential election. And using him to be critical of a pilot that he obviously had a great deal of respect for. Rather owes them an extreme apology. But Rather hasn't apologized for anything yet, has he? I really could not be more disgusted with him. Shame on him and shame on CBS.

Take me out to the ballgame.

After many years of watching sons play sports, I am still bothered by the testosterone driven coaches that feel a need to yell, scream, and cuss the little athletes into playing this game RIGHT! Its as if they all make some sort of a "this will make them men" pact at the beginning of each season.
I have always felt one of the roles of women in this world was to nuture, love, and bring some sense of calm to THE GAME. So, imagine my horror when at my 11 yr old's football game 2 of the mothers started cussing one another. A lovely example white trash if there ever was one. Their sons will no doubt be the ones you see at the mall wearing wife beaters complaining about how "them there "spics' are taking all the good jobs. They will be the ones you see on future "COPS" episodes falling out of their pickups wearing a t-shirt that says "My Indian name is Runs With Beer," after the cop stops them for weaving all over the road.
It sorta reminded of something I read once about Feminists. We are becoming the men we hated.
I don't pretend to understand men or how the yelling and screaming helps the game. But I do understand women and its important that we come to the table with a whole different way of looking at things. Just to even it out if nothing else.

Lets Sum this up.

Shall we? Documents forged. Almost everyone involved in the story, with the exception of a elderly lady who even agrees that the documents were forged, have come out to say that either CBS lied to them or misled them and have come out against the story.
Lefty blogs reminded me of 6 yr old's desperate desire to believe in Santa, despite the obvious clues that suggest otherwise.

Can hardly wait for the next round. Aint politics fun?

Another Rough Man Goes To Ride...a Salute to Greyhawk.

Greyhawk from Mudville Gazette has left for Iraq. One day I spent a couple of hours reading his archives. I just couldn't stop. Not only is he a gifted writer, a man's man, but he touches our soul with the knowledge of a warrior's life. God be with you Greyhawk.
I wrote the following in a post sometime back regarding the protestors at the RNC, but it reflects what I feel about all those in the military in general.

"Our soldiers today are fighting a fight never seen or imagined before. They are our protectors, the ones who let us sleep in peace at night. They are the ones who let us leave our kids at school without worry, let us get on buses without fear, let us dream, work, learn, and live. Everyday since 9-11 that we have not been attacked is a tribute to their work. Honor is too small a word for these patriots. They give us much and ask so little. But what they do ask is to at least not smear their good name, not paint them as demented. This is the heart of the anger at Kerry by these vets. They were strong and true when it wasn't easy to be so. They endured much. Kerry spit in their faces. He took his medals and purple hearts and denounced them then, and now proudly holds them up for honor now. A betrayal of the highest order. Here we are facing the greatest threat to freedom ever. The men who seek to destroy us, want those that they don't murder to live without even the taste of freedom, to never be able to decide who is our leader, to never be able to voice dessent or concern, to never be able to listen to music, or dance, or wear what we wish, or worship as we see fit. Do the protestors not see the danger we face? Do they not see all that could be lost?"

Rough Men go to the wall for freedom, some don't come back. We honor you. We salute you.
Greyhawk, come back....and you write...YOU WRITE!!

Life...

My 7 year old was looking through the JC Penny Holiday catalog the other day. He shows me those small motorcycles that are all the rage now and says he wants Santa to bring him one for Christmas.
"Honey, those are small, but they are for grownups or much older kids. They are much too dangerous. Santa is not gonna bring you one."
He looks down at the catalog for a moment and looks up at me and says (very sweetly) "Mom, you know.... you really don't have much say in what Santa brings me."
I laughed so hard, I got him to laughing and then the dog jumps on us. And luckily I didn't have to explain why I was laughing.

I think we have kids so we can believe in everything again.
And I'm not talking Santa, here, either.

Know The Facts.

There were 39 combat related killings in Iraq during the month of January.....In the fair city of Detroit there were35 murders in the month of January.That's just one American city, about as deadly as the entire war torn country of Iraq.
When some claim President Bush shouldn't have started this war, state the following ...
FDR...led us into World War II.Germany never attacked us: Japan did.>From 1941-1945, 450,000 lives were lost,an average of 112,500 per year.
Truman...finished that war and started one in Korea,North Korea never attacked us.>From 1950-1953, 55,000 lives were lost,an average of 18,334 per year.
John F. Kennedy...started the Vietnam conflict in 1962.Vietnam never attacked us.
Johnson...turned Vietnam into a quagmire.>From 1965-1975, 58,000 lives were lost,an average of 5,800 per year.
Clinton...went to war in Bosnia without UN or French consent,Bosnia never attacked us.He was offered Osama bin Laden's head on a platter three times by Sudan and did nothing.Osama has attacked us on multiple occasions.
In the two years since terrorists attacked us President Bush has liberated two countries, crushed the Taliban, crippled al-Qaida, put nuclear inspectors in Libya, Iran and North Korea with out firing a shot, and captured a terrorist who slaughtered 300,000 of his own people.
The Democrats are complaining about how long the war is taking, but...It took less time to take Iraq than it took Janet Reno to take theBranch Davidian compound. That was a 51 day operation.
We've been looking for evidence of chemical weapons in Iraq for less time than it took Hillary Clinton to find the Rose Law Firm billing records.
It took less time for the 3rd Infantry Division and the Marines to destroy the Medina Republican Guard than it took Ted Kennedy to call the police after his Oldsmobile sank at Chappaquiddick.
It took less time to take Iraq than it took to count the votes in Florida!!!!
Our Commander-In-Chief is doing a GREAT JOB! The Military morale is high! The biased media hopes we are too ignorant to realize the facts.

Hat tip to my friend Buffalo Brown for this.

Love Is A Battlefield...

Sometime between teaching my son to drive and throwing my daughter's Britney Spear's CD away, ("why mom???!!", "Uh.. lets see, when she is not dressing like a prostitute, she looks like white trash. She sings a haunting melody about masturbation and she is so stupid she couldn't get a clue from JLo to NEVER marry one of her dancers!") I realized that I am a mom of teenagers. When did that happen? Wasn't I just 17 a few years ago?? I feel like I have been thrown down a time tunnel. In my daughter's whines I hear something familiar, something I know I have heard before. Then it hits me. ITS ME! Is this some sort of cosmic revenge? I have to relive my own overdramatic totally unreasonable emotions? Yes I do. And I can't even complain to my Mom, she just giggles uncrontrollably.
When my daughter was almost 13 I asked her, "please don't be a bratty teenager, please stay the sweet little angel you are now, don't change!" She hugged me tightly and said, "Of course I won't Mom!!".......LIAR!!! After 2 yrs of slammed doors, tears, and proclamations of how I am ruining her life, I asked her "Is my sweet little girl EVER coming back? Huh? Is She? I want to know, because I really really miss her!" My daughter rolls her eyes in disgust, clearly wondering how she lives with such stupidity.
Sometimes when we are arguing a little voice in my head says
" Whats wrong with a coed pajama party??? Oh, let her wear the skimpy halter top, you had one just like it!! When did you lose your sense of fun, your sense of adventure??" Hmmm.... I'm pretty sure I lost it when I saw "American Pie."
The other day a convertible pulls up with her friends ready to go. I rush outside and tell them to turn down the music so they can hear the traffic, buckle their seat belts, don't even think about drinking, and for God's sake button the top buttons of their shirts! My daughter closes her eyes hoping I will disappear in a puff of smoke. What she doesn't know is that I would give anything to hop in that car with them, turn up the music, have a beer, and remember what it was like to be young and carefree without the worry of motherhood. At the moment, this job sucks. First, its never fun anymore. Second, I am ALWAYS the bad guy, and third, I can't even get drunk. ( Ok, I know I CAN, I just don't think I should) Maintaining my wise and "lets always do the right thing" attitude is wearing me out.
It could just be my situation, but girls are alot harder. People tell me that they return to sanity around 22 or so. Good, just old to enough to pay for my stay in the mental ward. Where I will probably sit in small room with a telephone by my bed muttering "Why hasn't she called? Where is she? She is dead in a ditch! I know it!!"
Luckily my 3 boys seem to stroll through life happy and content. My oldest was born 30, I think. He has just always gotten it. He goes with the flow and obeys the rules (with the normal exceptions). The other two are young, still in that "Gosh, my mommy is so terrific!" stage that is the best part of being a Mom.
So, I guess I have the best and the worst parts of being a Mom going on. If anyone has suggestons on how to handle the worst not requiring medication, I would appreciate it. Right now I think I will crank up my old LP of Pat Benatar, "Love is a battlefield." That girl rocked, didn't she?

TONIGHT! RATHER ADMITS MISTAKE ON CBS!!

"Good evening, I'm Dan Rather. We start off tonight admitting a mistake. Yes, the documents are forgeries. But those pajama clad brownshirts blogging their HATE, did not have anything to do with exposing this uhh...mistake. We already had experts on the job testing the paper, fonts, EVERYTHNG! I swear its true! I, as a responsible journalist simply reported the story as I saw it at the time. In fact if we hadn't had all those computer nazis taking up all the time of the experts we would have had the truth out alot sooner. The real story tonight is that not only is the content of the memos true, a CBS pyschic has gotten in touch with late Jerry Killian and he has confirmed all that we suspected and more. Bush not only went AWOL in 1973, but was discovered 6 months later passed out from a cocaine binge in a Las Vegas motel singing "My baloney has a first name..." And finally, We have discovered that Karl Rove was behind the forgeries. James Carville overheard him at the RNC bragging about it. I hope this restores my credibility, as it should."

Lets take a look at Edwards

If you have ever wondered why your medical premiums are so high, look no further than lawyers like John Edwards. Heres why.

The first story I read about John Edwards told me all I needed to know about him. He made his millions off large jury awards from Celebral Palsy medical malpractice cases. Although studies have shown that doctor negligence is not the cause of CP, Edward's skills as a lawyer always brought in millions. But that is not what bothered me the most about Edwards. It was the fact that he has NEVER represented a family who had a child with CP who DIED in the birthing process. You see when the child is dead you don't have a child in a wheelchair to parade in front of a jury. Why take a case you might lose, when you have it in the bag with a child to show. We are a compassionate people, we are also a visual people. Show us someone in need of help, and we give it. Edwards banks on that.

During the trials that Edwards has been a part of, he often spoke touchingly of the unborn child in distress in their mother's womb. Yet when the time came to vote for the "Unborn Victims of Violence Act," his compassion was nowhere to be seen. When Laci Peterson's mother wrote a heartfelt letter encouraging congress to vote for the passage of this act, she made it clear that there were two victims that were pulled from the water that day. Laci and her son, Conner. It seems when the "unborn victim" will not make you millions and you will have to answer to the abortion rights lobby, compassion goes out the window.

Not that you heard anything about that at the DNC convention. Edwards spoke on such controversial issues as opposing "negative attacks." He supports a "public school system that works for all our children." Oh, and a "safe place to go after school." And really taking it to the edge he said " the color of your skin should never control your destiny." Who knew I would agree with Edwards? Wait....Who wouldn't agree with that?

The "2 Americas" theme he tried was nothing short of class warfare. Amusing, being that he is in the America of the filthy rich. I am sure he sees himself as one of those democrats who are there to help the little people. The fact that he makes millions off of them isn't really important, is it?

What is important is that John Edwards is the perfect politician. Hes goodlooking, charming, and youthful. He has a sad story in his past, and he "made good." He knows how to spin and charm with the best of them. After he is done you feel good, you agree with everything he said, but your not sure exactly what he did say.
John Edwards isn't dumb and he isn't going away. He will be here long after we have filed Kerry under "defeated candidates for president." He is laying his case out and will be back to give his final summation. You can count on that.

The Iraq and Al-Qaida connection...now shutup...

September 11 Commission report (p. 61)

With the Sudanese regime acting as intermediary, Bin Ladin himself met with senior Iraqi intelligence officer in Khartoum in late 1994 or early 1995. Bin Ladin is said to have asked for space to establish training camps, as well as assistance in procuring weapons, but there is no evidence that Iraq responded to this request . . . [but] the ensuing years saw additional efforts to establish connections.

September 11 Commission report (p. 66)

In March 1998, after Bin Ladin's public fatwa against the United States, two al Qaeda members reportedly went to Iraq to meet with Iraqi intelligence. In July, an Iraqi delegation traveled to Afghanistan to meet first with the Taliban and then with Bin Ladin. Sources reported that one, or perhaps both, of these meetings was apparently arranged through Bin Ladin's Egyptian deputy, Zawahiri, who had ties of his own to the Iraqis.

September 11 Commission report (p. 66)

Similar meetings between Iraqi officials and Bin Ladin or his aides may have occurred in 1999 during a period of some reported strains with the Taliban. According to the reporting, Iraqi officials offered Bin Ladin a safe haven in Iraq. Bin Ladin declined, apparently judging that his circumstances in Afghanistan remained more favorable than the Iraqi alternative. The reports describe friendly contacts and indicate some common themes in both sides' hatred of the United States. But to date we have seen no evidence that these or the earlier contacts ever developed into a collaborative operational relationship. Nor have we seen evidence indicating that Iraq cooperated with al Qaeda in developing or carrying out any attacks against the United States. Bipartisan Senate Intelligence Committee Report (Conclusion 92, p. 345) The Central Intelligence Agency's examination of contacts, training, safehaven and operational cooperation as indicators of a possible Iraq-al Qaida relationship was a reasonable and objective approach to the question. Bipartisan Senate

September 11 Intelligence Committee Report (Conclusion 93, p. 346)

The Central Intelligence Agency reasonably assessed that there were likely several instances of contacts between Iraq and al-Qaida throughout the 1990s, but that these contacts did not add up to an established formal relationship. Bipartisan Senate Intelligence Committee Report (Conclusion 94, p. 346) The Central Intelligence Agency reasonably and objectively assessed in Iraqi Support for Terrorism that the most problematic area of contact between Iraq and al-Qaida were the reports of training in the use of non-conventional weapons, specifically chemical and biological weapons.

Bipartisan Senate Intelligence Committee Report (Conclusion 95, p. 347)

The Central Intelligence Agency's assessment on safehaven--that al-Qaida or associated operatives were present in Baghdad and in northeastern Iraq in an area under Kurdish control--was reasonable.

In additon I will add this from National Review Online and stolen from the Big Dog's house site:

Friday, September 10, 2004

Iraq and Terrorism
W. Thomas Smith Jr. writes:"Reflecting on the attacks of September 11, 2001, Navy SEAL Lt. Commander Mark Divine told National Review Online: "There are enormous numbers of foreign fighters in Iraq right now. Whether some of those fighters were there before September 11, 2001, or as a call to arms later, will be argued by both [Democrats and Republicans] until they are blue in the face. What I can tell you is that there is tremendous evidence to suggest there were terrorist training camps in Iraq before 9/11."
"Divine should know. Having just returned from Iraq, where he's been tasked with observing the work of U.S. special-operations forces, he says, "There is no doubt in my mind — or the minds of other SEALs — that the war in Iraq is part of our overall response to what happened in our country, three years ago."

The forgery saga continues...

One wonders if CBS is scrambling to find 30 yr old paper and an old xerox machine.

Lets break this down, shall we?
1) 2 of the most respected documents experts in the country say they are pretty sure they are forged with what they see now.
2) The Globe says the document expert Dr. Bouffard is changing his mind about the documents from when he said he was 90% sure the documents were forgeries.
3) Then Dr. Bouffard says,,,,uuhh, no I'm not.
4) Then the "source" that Rather used, Gen. Hodges says that CBS lied to him about the documents telling him they were handwritten and then misquoted him. ( and oh was he ticked!)
5) Jerry Killian's wife and son say they believe the documents are forged, that Lt Col. Killian never used typewriters or kept personal files.
6) The military officer Gen.Staudt mentioned in the document as pressuring Hodges actually retired a year 1/2 earlier than the date on the document. (He has refused to speak to the press)
7) Miltiary personel are saying the acronym "OETR" on the document does not stand for "Officer Efficiency Training Report" and is not a report at all, but an office at the Air force Institute of Technology. The correct acronym would have been "OER" well known and often used report for, among other things, evaluating a promotion. The idea that an officer would get these two confused is absurd.
8) An officer in Bush's guard unit points out that the date mandated to take his physical is not correct. The date was always based on one's birthday.
9) Eugene Hussey, a certified forensic document examiner in Washington State, studied Jerry Killian's signature on the documents compared to Mr. Killian's actual signature, and concluded (in a limited opinion, meaning he would have to have the original documents to have a full opinion) that they are forged.

Yet Old Dan just wants us to trust him. Riiight. CBS says the documents are a first generation copy. Lets get real here and test the paper, shall we?
What is CBS waiting for? Wouldn't a test put all this to rest? Come on, are they afraid or what?

Ohhh, I forgot to mention the problems with the typography, but the leftys aren't gonna believe any of that anyway. Will they believe the above mentioned people perhaps, especially since Dr. Bouffard is a Kerry supporter and Gen. Hodges was a Howard Dean supporter ? .......nah

UPDATE: Have to include this because its the one thing I haven't seen mentioned elsewhere, and it seems important to me.

"If you compare the documents that CBS produced with the documents we know to be authentic, that did come from Bush's National Guard unit, none of those documents use proportionate spacing." via The Washington Post

So we are left wondering....Why didn't anyone else or even Killian himself use this proportionate spacing IBM machine to type ANY OTHER documents from that time period?

And to lighten the mood, this is hilarious.

Note to Dan Rather: I'm not a guy and I don't wear jamies unless I am sleeping. Yeah...so...get used to the "new media" oh annointed one.

UPDATE: Fox news reported this morning that Dan Rather called Gen. Hodges Fri. night after the story broke and Hodges said he went through the documents with Rather pointing out why he thought they were forgeries. Rather told him that the documents had been authenticated.

Lets get real here. CBS needs to give the documents to a objective 3rd party NOW. It is clear that the investigative team of CBS is either corrupt or have the investigative skills of the Scooby Do gang. Except the Scooby Do gang reveal the answer at the end.