I just wanted to share with you all, an excerpt from my Air Force buddy"s retirement speech he is giving Monday.  I think it speaks for itself:

FINALLY I WANT TO LEAVE A FEW PARTING WORDS FOR THE MILITARY, CIVILIAN AND CONTRACTOR FOLKS I AM LEAVING BEHIND.

YOU ARE IN THE MIDDLE OF WHAT HAS BEEN REFERRED TO AS THE LONG WAR.

THIS CONFLICT DID NOT BEGIN ON SEPT 11, 2001.  IT HAS ACTUALLY BEEN GOING ON SINCE NOVEMBER 4, 1979.  THAT IS THE DAY THAT IRANIAN MILITANTS CAPTURED THE U.S. EMBASSY IN TEHRAN AND HELD AMERICAN AND CANADIAN HOSTAGES FOR 444 DAYS.  SINCE THAT TIME THERE HAVE BEEN MANY OTHER INCIDENTS:

THE FIRST BOMBING OF THE WORLD TRADE CENTER IN 1993;

THE DESTRUCTION OF KHOBAR TOWERS IN SAUDI ARABIA;

THE BOMBING OF THE EMBASSIES IN KENYA AND TANZANIA;

AND THE ATTACK ON THE U.S.S. COLE OFF THE COAST OF YEMEN.

I POINT THIS OUT TO YOU TODAY TO HELP YOU UNDERSTAND THAT AL QAEDA HAS BEEN AT WAR WITH THE U.S. A LOT LONGER THAN WE HAVE BEEN AT WAR WITH THEM. 

UNFORTUNATELY THE AMERICAN PUBLIC HAS A VERY SHORT MEMORY AND A VERY LOW TOLERANCE FOR WAR.  THE CURRENT ANTI-WAR DRUMBEAT BEING POUNDED DAILY BY THE AMERICAN PRESS IS BEGINNING TO TURN THE TIDE OF AMERICAN OPINION AGAINST THE DEFENSE OF OUR NATION.

IT IS MY SINCERE HOPE THAT IT ALSO DOES NOT TURN AGAINST OUR FINE MILITARY.

REGARDLESS OF PUBLIC OPINION, WE NEED YOU TO CARRY ON THIS FIGHT.  OUR LIVES DEPEND ON IT AND OUR WAY OF LIFE DEPENDS ON IT.  I WANT YOU TO KNOW THAT REGARDLESS OF WHAT THE “PUBLIC OPINION POLLS” SAY I AND MY FAMILY, ALONG WITH MILLIONS OF AMERICANS WHO UNDERSTAND HOW IMPORTANT THIS IS WILL CONTINUE TO SUPPORT YOU.

SO KEEP UP YOUR CHIN, CONTINUE TO FIGHT THE GOOD FIGHT AND GOD BLESS AMERICA.

THANK YOU.

Something NewsBusters had in the past which I wish we would see again:

Polls.

I love a good poll.

Here's one.

During the recent try by Congress to force the shamnesty bill (I didn't come up with that name, dunno who did) down our throats, which of the following did you do?

A: Nothing

B: Phoned your Congressman

C: Faxed your Congressman

D: E-mailed your Congressman

E: Visited your Congressman

F: A combination of the above

I would have loved seeing the numbers.

D

I don't support our liberals or their mission.

Seventy-three years ago today, Ernst Röhm had a bad day.

Happy 44th, Yngwie!

Here's a cute article

Supreme Court,  National Security,  Borders,  Fiscal Restraint, my litmus test for President.   

Just when you thought that VP Cheney’s stock couldn’t fall any further after his deranged claim to be a branch of government unto himself and the four-part series in the Washington Post detailing Cheney’s Machiavellian influence and method of operation, there comes an interview in Newsweek with an old Cheney and Bush friend whose book that was published back in April titled "Invasion of the Party Snatchers: How the Holy-Rollers and the Neo-Cons Destroyed the GOP"..  The author is Vic Gold, a 78 year old veteran Republican operative who once shared office space with Lynne Cheney and was prepared to support Dick Cheney for president in 1996.

In an interview with Elenor Cliff of Newsweek, Gold described Cheney as a "mega-maniacal paranoid" whose secret empire within the government had captured the Bush presidency and helped bring the Republican Party to the brink of ruin.  Cliff details how Bush the Elder helped put Cheney in the co-pilot seat to provide adult supervision for Junior.

Cliff writes:

Gold, a slight man with wispy white hair and a hair-trigger temperament calls Bush "President Dodo." He's known Bush since the '80 campaign, and while he doesn't really think he's dumb, he knows he can be manipulated. "He's playing the role of president, strutting around," says Gold. "He's the weakest president in my memory."

The Bushes prize loyalty, but about a year ago, Gold had reached a point where his respect for the elder Bush, whose autobiography he had helped write, was not enough for him to keep quiet. The administration in his view had become a danger to the Constitution and what America stands for in the world. He wrote to tell 41 about the book he was writing, and he got a letter back saying, "We've been friends a long time and we'll continue to be friends. I am sure I will not like what you say about our son." And then in a grace note typical of the old man, "but I don't think too much of the neocons myself."

Cheney's great selling point was that he did not plan to run for president, setting him apart from most vice presidents who harbor personal ambition. He didn't have to worry about being popular. But the idea was flawed. In the end, Cheney's lack of viability as a political figure became his license to do whatever he wants, an outcome nobody foresaw, least of all his unsuspecting patron, George H.W. Bush.

Sounds like an accurate assessment to me.  

My question to all of you is why more people DON’T have Bush Derangement Syndrome?  How can anyone look at this train wreck of an administration and not lose it?  I mean, where do they FIND the twenty-some percent of Americans that actually think these clowns are doing a good job?