TRIALS OF FAITH

I have just been informed that a friend from work and his girlfriend have suffered a tragic loss. Last night during labor their daughter's hear beat was lost and their baby girl was stillborn. This was their first child and a source of great anticipated pride and joy. I cannot begin to know the pain and anguish they are going through. All I can do is offer my support and prayers to help them cope with the loss of this precious child. For those of you who read this Blog if I can ask you to say a prayer for Kyle and Taylor and for their little angel Dakota Leigh, I would forever be grateful to you. As for me all I can say is: All children are born perfect in the eyes of our Father so you have nothing to fear. May the knowledge that Dakota is now laughing and smiling waiting for you up in heaven bring some level of comfort. Tonight I will say a special prayer blessing for you and Taylor, asking God to shine his grace on you to give you strength to get through these trials. I have spent enough time with you Kyle to know that you are a Honest, loving man and Taylor the occasions I have seen you show me you have a kind, gentle spirit. I have no doubt that all three of you will be together again in heaven someday. I know the clouds of sorrow are resting heavy on your hearts today, but do not loose sight of the light of Faith. It will guide you through the darkest storm. The power of prayer and the loving mercy in God's answers will bring you through this pain and in time will fill your hearts with joy again. If there is anything you need don't hesitate to call on me, and I leave these humble words with you in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen.

A letter from "The Green Side"

A Birthday Message for Dave - Sep 28, 04

Hi David:

Although you and your command are in our family's daily thoughts and prayers, you are especially present in our hearts here in St. Louis today on your birthday. While Megan and Emily remind their young classmates each school day at morning prayer at CPOP to pray for the safety of all our brave soldiers fighting for freedom & justice in Iraq, today they will add (as they did along with Kathleen and I at breakfast), and Lord most especially bless and protect Megan's godfather Dave - a brave Marine infantry officer from MO - who is spending this birthday in Iraq fighting for us & our country.

I have known you for nearly 30 years, and yet, during this, your 2nd tour in Iraq, you continue to ACT and LEAD in such a manner that continually humbles me and truly honors me to call you my good friend. While it is difficult to articulate, I sincerely hope you know and understand the prolific level of support that exists for you and your family here at home.

Your eloquent way of clearly and plainly painting the true story of what is happening on the ground in Iraq in your letters to your father is a gift to all that encounter them. And as many other visitors to this site have indicated, your message is being heard and understood despite that what is spewed by the popular press. We believe in you, your fellow Marines and Sailors and the mission you have been given. Let your men know they have the support and admiration of the American people.

John D., the man behind the greenside.com, recently advised me this site has experienced as many as an astounding 9000 hits on a single day - even the LA Times has (Sept 5) published one of your recent letters. Your words are not only being read they are anxiously anticipated by scores of persons throughout this country and others.

Anecdotally, the number of yellow "Support Our Troops" vehicle magnets in the STL area seem to multiplying like rabbits these days - actually see more of these magnets than political bumper stickers in this election season. I recently flew a regional jet from Atlanta where at least 1/3 of the passengers were Army coming home from 8 months in Iraq, and I witnessed dozens of "THANKS FOR YOUR SERVICE TO OUR COUNTRY" exchanged between business man and woman flying that day and those Army soldiers coming home.

You, my friend, are a true Patriot and Leader. I can't help but notice that a theme that runs through your letters is one that highlights the actions and achievements of those men in your command or others in the coalition effort. That is a trait of a true Leader, which you are. Your men are fortunate to have a Leader that inspires his command by example, and paints a clear and understandable vision of the mission ahead of them based on our American core values. You are a mentor and teacher to your command - they and America are fortunate to have such an intelligent, talented, motivational Leader as you at what is now the epicenter in this struggle to stamp out Fundamentally inspired terrorism.

Real leaders, like yourself, never take the credit for what is being accomplished, which is why we don't hear about your medal or your promotions - you instead shine the light on those in your command who, as you properly point out, are displaying heroism on a daily basis. However, the reason I and countless others hold you out as an example of what a true hero is to those most important to us, our children, is because you remind all of us what selflessness, commitment, bravery and honor are all about by your ACTIONS.

Hang tough my man - we will keep the home fire's burning, and will do all we can to spread your inspiring word and help make sure we, at home, have the stomach to see this through. We know you can accomplish all asked to do, when given the green light.

Please take care of yourself and your men. We, in the middle of this great country, are fully aware that we are able to enjoy this gorgeous Fall day because of the sacrifices you and your men are making today, like the sacrifices of those in the military who have gone before you. THANK YOU! from the bottom of our hearts.

May God continue to protect and bless you, your family, and you command on this your birthday. Please let me know if there is anything I can do to assist you/your great family during this second tour of duty.

Esto Vir, Rock Chalk Jayhawk, With Sincere and Utmost Personal Admiration,

Steve

Click here to see the source. The Green Side

Kids Visit Margaritaville

So do you have to pay extra for this kind of pirk?

Virginia grade schoolers accidentally served alcohol at lunch

Earlier this month, the staff, faculty, and Board of Trustees at Virginia's private Alexandria Country Day School had a Mexican-themed dinner complete with some tasty margaritas. For some reason, the leftover hooch was placed in a school refrigerator. You can probably guess what's coming next. On September 10, the booze was mistaken for "limeade" by school workers and actually served at lunch to students in the third, fourth, and fifth grades. The below letter from school head Alexander Harvey was sent home with the kids. The margarita mixup came after the school ran out of milk and apparently had no negative affect of the students, who "sipped it and said that it didn't taste good." They're young, they'll learn. An embarrassed and contrite Harvey promised that booze will now be banned on campus and all faculty parties will be held off-site.

Click here to see the source. Kids Visit Margaritaville - September 29, 2004

RNC Creates Web Sites to Criticize Kerry

Now this one made me chuckle. Check out the links below, they do have alot of good faith specific information.

Republicans have one message for followers of many faiths: Sen. John Kerry is wrong.

Wrong for Catholics, Mormons and Evangelicals say a number of Web sites that the Republican National Committee has created. Each Web site compiles excerpts of Kerry's comments and Senate voting record on social issues such as abortion, civil unions for same sex couples and school choice.

Some headlines on the Web site for Catholics say, "Kerry Said Vatican Should Not Instruct Catholic Politicians, Calling It 'Inappropriate'" and "Kerry Expressed 'Moral Outrage' With Vatican's Statement On Gay Marriage." Kerry is Catholic.

Kerry campaign spokesman Phil Singer said the tactic is "premised on the tactics of division, smear and insult. It's unfortunate, it's un-American and John Kerry is going to continue to make his case and make sure his record is not twisted by the Bush attack machine."

At least one religious coalition, the left-leaning Interfaith Alliance, has called the Web sites insensitive, saying the GOP is trying to interpret religious beliefs for political advantage. Interfaith Alliance president Rev. C. Weldon Gaddy called the tactic "abhorrent."

RNC spokeswoman Tara Wall said the sites are part of an effort by Republicans to reach out to diverse groups.

KERRY WRONG FOR MORMONS
KERRY WRONG FOR EVANGELICALS
KERRY WRONG FOR CATHOLICS

Click here to see the source. RNC Creates Web Sites to Criticize Kerry

So I'm a fanatic now?

Today during lunch me and a friend of mine were discussing the fact that we have all these television channels and nothing good to watch(at least not at noon time). During the course of the conversation I had recommended Dennis Miller's new daily TV show to him when this guy in his late fourties to early fifties piped in how he thought it was alright but he didn't like Dennis's politics. Right away this statement screamed "Liberal Hippie". Now during the course of the encounter this guy out of the blue he brings up the abortion issue. To make things clear I am not a supporter of abortions. But I am also not going to say that it needs to be banned. I believe that it is a very personal decision that is up to the individual women and is something that she will have to live with for the rest of her life. This may not be the most popular view with alot of religious people but it is the fairest way of looking at things. Before legalized abortion women were still getting the in them "back alley" clinics. This resulted in alot of problems after the procedure, so I believe it should still be legal. Ok now that I got that off my chest, there is one part about the abortion debate that I am nonflexible about. I am a strong proponent of manditory parental consent for all procedures administered to girls under the legal age of 18. There is no good argument you can give me that will change my mind so don't even try it. I believe since the minimum age to serve in the military is 17 and is a life and death decision that must have parental consent, the same should go for terminating an unborn child. So to make a long story short because of that one stipulation this "Hippie" labeled me a religious fanatic.

Man who swore Bush into Air Guard speaks out

Ed Morrisey Jr. has his opinion about rumors President Bush received preferential treatment when he was allowed into the Texas Air National Guard in the late 1960s.

The Blount Countian also has firsthand knowledge.

The 75-year-old Jackson Hills resident is a retired colonel with Texas Air National Guard. He swore Lt. George W. Bush into the service in May 1968.

On Thursday, Morrisey said the argument that Bush got off easy by being in the National Guard doesn't take into consideration the context of the 1960s.

"Bush and the others were flying several flights day or night over the Gulf of Mexico to identify the unknown,'' he said. "The Cold War was a nervous time. You never knew. There were other things going on equally important to the country, and the Air National Guard had a primary role in it.''

Morrisey said the commander he worked for at the unit in Texas was sent there to rebuild the image of the unit. There were only two to four pilot training slots given to them per year, he said. Individuals questioned by an evaluation board and then chosen by the commander had to be the best.

"Bush was selected and he turned out just fine,'' he said.

According to Morrisey, after Bush began working as a fighter pilot, he became regarded as one of the best pilots there. Unit commander Col. Maurice Udell considered Bush to be one of his top five pilots, Morrisey said.

"The kid did good,'' he said.

Each pilot had to perform alert duty where they patrolled for unidentified aircraft during the threat of the Cold War, Morrisey said.

"Bush Jr. did good for us,'' Morrisey said. "He pulled alert and he did it all.''

Morrisey said that while Bush didn't get preferential treatment, not everyone was allowed into the National Guard.

"We wanted the best we could get. We never knowingly took an unworthy individual in the units I belonged to,'' he said. "You're only as good your worst individual.''

This isn't the first time a reporter called Morrisey asking whether or not Bush received preferential treatment. Shortly after Republicans nominated Bush for president in 2000, a reporter from Texas called Morrisey.

"That floored me. The only people that got preferential treatment was when Jimmy Carter pardoned those guys that went to Canada,'' he said of individuals who fled to Canada to avoid the draft during the war in Vietnam.

Speaking of the controversy surrounding Bush's Guard service during the Vietnam era, Morrisey said: ``I think it's tragic. I think real people can filter through this. At least I hope so.''

Morrisey said he agreed with Bush's work as president and supported the administration's aggressive stance toward fighting terrorism and the war in Afghanistan and Iraq.

"We've got to eliminate terrorists,'' he said. "Let's get them where they're living instead of them getting my grandkids and great-grandkids here.''

Morrisey worked as the executive officer of the 147th Fighter Group from February of 1967 to July of 1968. From Texas he came to Alcoa where he was the first commandant of the Noncommissioned Officer Academy at McGhee Tyson Air National Guard Base. He also was "dedicated to the development'' of the Air National Guard Leadership School and the Officer Preparatory Academy to commission Air Guard officers.

He was commandant for all three schools and became the first commander of the I.G. Brown Professional Military Education Center.

Morrisey has been involved in the community, including being a former member of the Blount Chamber of Commerce, president of the Maryville Kiwanis Club, Blount County Boys Club board member and on the ALCOA Scholarship Selection Committee.

Click on the link to see the source. Man who swore Bush into Air Guard speaks out

Guess Who's a GOP Booster?

Now this was a little unexpected.

The CEO of CBS's parent company endorses President Bush.

With the scandal at CBS still festering, questions are being raised about whether a felony was committed when the network broadcast apparently forged memos in an attempt to discredit George W. Bush. Yesterday, the chairman of CBS's parent company chose Hong Kong as a place to drop a little bomb. Sumner Redstone, who calls himself a "liberal Democrat," said he's supporting President Bush.

The chairman of the entertainment giant Viacom said the reason was simple: Republican values are what U.S. companies need. Speaking to some of America's and Asia's top executives gathered for Forbes magazine's annual Global CEO Conference, Mr. Redstone declared: "I look at the election from what's good for Viacom. I vote for what's good for Viacom. I vote, today, Viacom.

"I don't want to denigrate Kerry," he went on, "but from a Viacom standpoint, the election of a Republican administration is a better deal. Because the Republican administration has stood for many things we believe in, deregulation and so on. The Democrats are not bad people. . . . But from a Viacom standpoint, we believe the election of a Republican administration is better for our company."

Sharing the stage with Mr. Redstone was Steve Forbes, CEO, president and editor in chief of Forbes and a former Republican presidential aspirant, who quipped: "Obviously you're a very enlightened CEO."

Mr. Redstone's unexpected declaration came at a time when an unwelcome spotlight is directed at him and his board because of the CBS airing of what everyone now believes was a fake memo alleging that Mr. Bush shirked his duties three decades ago in the Texas Air National Guard. On Tuesday, Republican National Committee Chairman Ed Gillespie alleged a leftist bias at Viacom. While it was well known that Mary Mapes, the producer who did most of the reporting on the memos, is a liberal, and that anchorman Dan Rather, has always been much tougher on Republicans, the Viacom board had heretofore remained in the background.
Mr. Gillespie said, "This demonstrates a serious lack of judgment separate and apart from the lack of judgment demonstrated in running a report based on discredited documents. Did this producer's own political viewpoint cloud her judgment? Is CBS News's decision to neither suspend nor release the producer in question a result of judgment clouded by Viacom and CBS owner Sumner Redstone's role as a Kerry fundraiser, or Viacom President Tom Freston's public support of John Kerry for President?"

Mr. Redstone's office immediately went into overdrive, denying on Wednesday that he's a raised funds for the Democratic presidential nominee. Then came yesterday's "I vote Republican" vow in Hong Kong.

It was all the more surprising because the Boston-born Mr. Redstone was co-chairman of Edmund Muskie's presidential campaign in 1972. He's also a close friend of the other Massachusetts senator, Ted Kennedy. Monday's New York Sun, quoting the Federal Election Commission, said that since 1998 Mr. Redstone had given $50,000 to the Democratic Party. He's also donated the maximum $2,000 to the Kerry campaign, after supporting Al Gore in 2000.

In his book, "A Passion to Win," Mr. Redstone wrote, "From my early days I have considered myself a liberal Democrat. . . . I had no respect for Nixon. . . . My efforts on Senator Muskie's behalf apparently landed me on Nixon's notorious 'enemies list.' I took that as a badge of honor."
Of his 13-member board, two are former cabinet members for Democratic presidents. It is this board that will ponder what to do about the Rather-Mapes-CBS mess. The bombshell from Hong Kong will not come as welcome news to those responsible for "memogate."

Click on the link to see the source. Guess Who's a GOP Booster?

House Blocks Court on Pledge Case Rulings

Now this is some good news.

WASHINGTON - The House passed legislation Thursday that would prevent the Supreme Court from ruling on whether the words "under God" should be stricken from the Pledge of Allegiance.

In a politically and emotionally charged debate six weeks before Election Day, Democrats said majority Republicans were debasing the Constitution to force a vote that could hurt Democrats at the ballot box.

Supporters insisted Congress has always had authority to limit federal court jurisdiction, and the legislation is needed to protect an affirmation of religion that is part of the national heritage.

The bill, which the House approved, 247-173, would prohibit federal courts, including the Supreme Court, from hearing cases involving the pledge and its recitation and would prevent federal courts from striking the words "under God" from the pledge.

The legislation has little chance of advancing in the Senate this year, but it laid down another marker for politicians seeking to differentiate themselves from their election opponents on volatile social issues of the day. Other "wedge" issues that have come up or may arise before the election include gay marriage and flag-burning.

In June, the Supreme Court dismissed, on a technicality, a 2002 federal court decision that the religious reference made the pledge unconstitutional.

Rep. Todd Akin, R-Mo., who wrote the amendment on legislation before the House on Thursday, said the outcome could be different if the high court rules on the substance, or "if we allow activist judges to start creating law and say that it is wrong to somehow allow schoolchildren to say 'under God' in the pledge."

In such a scenario, Akin said, Congress will have "emasculated the very heart of what America has always been about."

But Rep. Jerrold Nadler, D-N.Y., said, "We're playing with fire here, we are playing with the national unity of this country" by undoing 200 years of federal judicial review and letting each state make its own interpretation of constitutional law.

The vote paralleled another in July, when the House prevented federal courts from ordering states to recognize same-sex unions sanctioned in other states.

"Far from violating the 'separation of powers,' legislation that leaves state courts with jurisdiction to decide certain classes of cases would be an exercise of one of the very 'checks and balances' provided for in the Constitution," said Rep. James Sensenbrenner, R-Wis., chairman of the Judiciary Committee.

But many Democrats said the real objective of Thursday's debate was to force them into an unpopular vote just weeks before the election. Aside from the constitutional issue, a large percentage of Americans, and almost all members of Congress, think "under God" should stay in the pledge.

"This bill has been brought to the floor to embarrass some members, so I respect whatever decisions they have to make in light of the motivations behind it," said Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif. In the end, 34 Democrats voted for the bill and six Republicans opposed it.

A closer vote was on an amendment by Rep. Mel Watt, D-N.C., that would have returned the legislation to its original form, under which lower federal courts were barred from ruling on the pledge but the Supreme Court retained its authority.

There is no direct precedent for making exceptions to the Supreme Court's appellate jurisdiction, said Rep. Judy Biggert, R-Ill., who backed the original bill but opposed the changes.

"The issue today may be the pledge, but what if the issue tomorrow is Second Amendment (gun) rights, civil rights, environmental protection, or a host of other issue that members may hold dear?" she asked.

"Under God" has been part of the pledge since 1954, when Congress passed and President Eisenhower signed a law amending the pledge to include the phrase.

The bill is H.R. 2028.

Click here to see the source. House Blocks Court on Pledge Case Rulings

Kerry: Allawi's Take on Iraq Unrealistic

Ok, so a nothing Senator from one of the smallest states in the Nation now knows more about the state of another country than its Leader. John Kerry's arrogance is only over shadowed by his narcissism.

By NEDRA PICKLER, Associated Press Writer

COLUMBUS, Ohio - Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry (news - web sites) said Thursday that Iraq (news - web sites)'s Ayad Allawi was sent before Congress to put the "best face" on Bush administration policy.

Shortly after Allawi, the interim government's prime minister, gave a rosy portrayal of progress toward peace in Iraq, Kerry said the assessment contradicted reality on the ground.

"The prime minister and the president are here obviously to put their best face on the policy, but the fact is that the CIA (news - web sites) estimates, the reporting, the ground operations and the troops all tell a different story," Kerry said.

Allawi told a joint meeting of Congress that democratic elections will take place in Iraq in January as scheduled, but Kerry said that was unrealistic.

"The United States and the Iraqis have retreated from whole areas of Iraq," Kerry told reporters outside a Columbus firehouse. "There are no-go zones in Iraq today. You can't hold an election in a no-go zone."

Kerry's remarks come one day after he told The Associated Press that President Bush (news - web sites)'s statement that a "handful" of people are willing to kill to stop progress in Iraq was a blunder that showed he was avoiding reality.

"George Bush (news - web sites) let Osama bin Laden (news - web sites) escape at Tora Bora," Kerry said in a brief interview Wednesday. "George Bush retreated from Fallujah and other communities in Iraq which are now overrun with terrorists and threaten our troops. And George Bush said on the record we can't win the war on terror.

"And even today, he blundered again saying there are only a handful of terrorists in Iraq," Kerry said. "I think he's living in a make believe world."

Bush, campaigning in Pennsylvania on Wednesday, said: "It's hard to help a country go from tyranny to elections to peace when there are a handful of people who are willing to kill in order to stop the process. And that's what you're seeing on the TV screens. You know, these people cannot beat us militarily."

White House press secretary Scott McClellan said Thursday, "It only took 19 people to take down the World Trade Center towers and kill 3,000 people." He said that in Iraq, "you've seen how a small number of suicide bombers can have a dramatic effect."

Bush said Wednesday the insurgents "use the only tool at their disposal, which is beheadings and death, to try to shake our will. They understand the nature of America. ... We weep when we think about the families affected by those who have been brutalized by these terrorists."

Kerry's voice was scratchy and breaking from a cold on Wednesday. He canceled most public events for Thursday in Columbus and in Iowa to rest his voice, though his words were clear at the firehouse. The campaign said running mate John Edwards (news - web sites) would take Kerry's place in Iowa.

Kerry spoke to the AP in West Palm Beach, Fla., shortly before boarding a flight to Columbus and after Vice President Dick Cheney (news - web sites) delivered a scathing attack on the Democrat. Speaking to reporters after meeting with Republican leaders on Capitol Hill, Cheney argued that Kerry has a penchant for wavering that makes him a weak alternative to a "steadfast leader, which is exactly what we have in President George W. Bush (news - web sites)."

"John Kerry gives every indication that his repeated efforts to cast and recast and redefine the war on terror and our operations in Iraq and Afghanistan (news - web sites), of someone who lacks the resolve, the determination and the conviction to prevail in this conflict," Cheney said. "He has demonstrated throughout the course of this campaign that he lacks the clarity of vision and purpose necessary to lead our country during extraordinary times."

Kerry said he has laid out "steps to win the war, not to change, not to retreat, steps to win. George Bush is trying to fight a phantom here because he won't tell the American people the truth, so he sets up something that's not a real issue and attacks it."

Bush "missed a huge opportunity" at the United Nations (news - web sites) this week to try to persuade leaders of other nations to join the United States in Iraq and the broader anti-terror war, Kerry said.

"I don't think he's providing the leadership we need," Kerry said. "I will do a better job of dealing with Iraq and winning the war and fighting the war on terror, period."

In a day filled with rhetorical charges and countercharges at campaign stops and in advertising all four candidates found fault. Responding to Cheney, Edwards said in a statement that Bush and Cheney "are the last two people we need a lecture from about how to keep the American people safe."

"It is the height of absurdity for Dick Cheney, a chief architect of the Iraq quagmire, to talk about the leadership needed to fix the mess in Iraq that he created," said Edwards, reviving a word "quagmire" often used to describe the Vietnam War.

Clink here to see the source. Kerry: Allawi's Take on Iraq Unrealistic

Green still undecided on Yom Kippur games

Green still undecided on Yom Kippur games

Los Angeles Dodgers first baseman Shawn Green will definitely sit out at least one game of a key weekend series against the San Francisco Giants in observance of Yom Kippur, but will wait until Thursday to make his final decision.

With the Dodgers leading the Giants by just 1 1/2 games in the NL West, Green said Wednesday there's a possibility he'll sit out both Friday night and Saturday afternoon. He planned to talk to his wife and parents before deciding.

``I need another day,'' said Green, who added that the issue has kept him awake at night. ``I've been struggling hard with this. Obviously, it's very important to me, my religion is very important to me, too. It's a really tough deal.''

Green said he spoke Tuesday with members of the Dodgers' organization and was leaning toward playing one game and not the other.

``I've bounced back and forth and am just trying to do the right thing,'' he said before the Dodgers played the San Diego Padres. ``It's hard to know what that is. I've really been toying with two different options: Play one of them or not play at all. I will miss at least one game.''

Yom Kippur, the holiest day on the Jewish calendar, starts at sunset Friday, and the three-game series at San Francisco begins that night. Saturday's game was given a 1:05 p.m. PDT start because it will be televised by Fox, and the Jewish Day of Atonement does not end until sunset that night.

Green wants to make a final decision by Thursday.

``I'm totally committed to getting to the postseason and winning, and at the same time I'm committed to my religion and what I stood for in the past,'' he said. ``I wish there was an easy solution, but there's not.''

Asked if he's feeling pressure or support from the organization, he replied: ``Just support. Whomever I talk to has been supportive and the more I think about it, it's a really tough situation,'' Green said. ``I wish Yom Kippur could be in April, but it's not.''

Green has missed only 10 of 798 games in five seasons with the Dodgers, including Sept. 26, 2001, when he observed Yom Kippur and ended a streak of 415 consecutive games played.


Click the link to see the source. Green still undecided on Yom Kippur games

CBS Steered Forged Doc Source to Kerry Campaign

In what may be the most damaging revelation yet in the Rathergate document scandal, CBS News is admitting that it steered the source of forged military records damaging to President Bush to the Kerry campaign.

In exchange for the meeting with Kerry communications director Joe Lockhart, that source - former National Guard Commander Bill Burkett - agreed to give CBS copies of the Bush records. USA Today is set to report in Tuesday editions:

"Lockhart, the former press secretary to President Clinton, said a female producer talked to him about the "60 Minutes" program a few days before it aired on Sept. 8. She gave Lockhart a telephone number and asked him to call Bill Burkett."

"At Burkett's request, we gave his [telephone] number to the campaign," Betsy West, senior CBS News vice president, confessed to USA Today.

Late Monday, CBS said it was investigating the role of "60 Minutes" star producer Mary Mapes in setting up the contact between Burkett and Lockhart.

"The network's effort to place Burkett in contact with a top Democratic official raises ethical questions about CBS's handling of material potentially damaging to the Republican president in the midst of an election," the paper said.

Aly Colon, a news ethicist at the Poynter Institute for Media Studies, said the collusion between CBS and the Kerry campaign to damage President Bush "poses a real danger to the potential credibility of a news organization."

The White House reacted sharply to the Lockhart development, with Communications Director Dan Bartlett complaining, "The fact that CBS News would coordinate with the most senior levels of Senator Kerry's campaign to attack the president is a stunning and deeply troubling revelation."

Click here to see the source. NewsMax.com: Inside Cover Story

So now according to this very rich woman, I am a "Scumbag"

Teresa: My Critics Are 'Scumbags'

Hot-tempered would-be first lady Teresa Heinz Kerry has once again lashed out at her critics, this time during a Pittsburgh television interview where she called them "scumbags."

The ugly outburst, revealed nationally for the first time in a lengthy profile in the Sept. 27 issue of The New Yorker magazine, is the most outrageous so far by the billionaire ketchup heiress and pushes the bounds of behavior voters might accept in a first lady. The New Yorker's Judith Thurman chronicled some of Heinz Kerry's more well-known verbal gaffes before noting the videotaped vulgarity:

"She dismissed voters skeptical of her husband's health-care proposals as 'idiots,' and, in a television interview with a Pittsburgh anchorwoman, employed the word 'scumbags' to describe some of her detractors," Thurman said.

"There are these bizarre moments that make you shudder," one Kerry adviser told Thurman. "Like calling herself African-American to black audiences."

In an effort to put Heinz Kerry's vulgar verbiage in context, The New Yorker writer explained, "I doubt that she knows the literal meaning of 'scumbag,' but perhaps, after forty years in America, nearly thirty of them as a political wife, observing how the flaws and contradictions of a personality as complex as hers are melted down for ammunition by the other side, she should have learned it."

Click on the link to see the source of the article. Scumbags

Kerry Sets a Record: 14 Flip-Flops in One Speech

You just can't make up stuff this good.

Sen. John Kerry set some kind of record today in a speech to his fellow leftists at New York University. The Republican National Committee counted 14 flip-flops on Iraq.

Among the more egregious of the tragicomic whoppers noted:

Kerry now claims the "most important task" is to win the "war on terrorism." Yet Kerry, speaking to his pets at the New York Times in March, refused to call the war on terror a war, RNC recalled.
Kerry then: "The final victory in the war on terror depends on a victory in the war of ideas, much more than the war on the battlefield. And the war - not the war, I don't want to use that terminology."

Kerry now claims Iraq was a "diversion from" the war on terror. On Dec. 15 he said: "Iraq may not be the war on terror itself, but it is critical to the outcome of the war on terror."

Kerry now claims Saddam Hussein's evil was not enough to justify war. Here's what he said in a speech July 29, 2002:
"I agree completely with this administration's goal of a regime change in Iraq - Saddam Hussein is a renegade and outlaw who turned his back on the tough conditions of his surrender put in place by the United Nations in 1991."

Kerry now claims Saddam's "downfall has left America less secure." Oopsy: Here's his anti-Dean, anti-Saddam stand in December 2003, according to Newsday:
"Those who doubted whether Iraq or the world would be better off without Saddam Hussein, and those who believe we are not safer with his capture, don't have the judgment to be president or the credibility to be elected president."

Kerry now claims the decision to go into Iraq was a "colossal" failure. Yet on Aug. 9, Kerry said that had he known then what he knew now, he would still have voted for the use-of-force resolution, according to CNN:
"Yes, I would have voted for the authority. I believe it's the right authority for a president to have. But I would have used that authority as I have said throughout this campaign, effectively."

Kerry now claims Saddam was not a "threat to our security." Here's what he said in January 2003, according to the L.A. Times: "If you don't believe Saddam Hussein is a threat with nuclear weapons, then you shouldn't vote for me."

Kerry now claims Saddam's "capability to acquire weapons" was not reason enough for war. Yet according to the Congressional Record of Oct. 9, 2002, he called those who would leave the Iraqi dictator alone "naive to the point of grave danger."
And so on and so forth.

At least no one can say Kerry is two-faced. He has so many more faces than that.

Click on the link to see the source of the article. 14 Flip-Flops in One Speech

In honor of a real hero.

I felt compelled to post this. It is so important that we do not forget what someone who had everything was willing to give up to protect this country.

A true American hero

by Dan WetzelApril 23, 2004

It is not how Pat Tillman died that makes him about as great of an American hero as we can possibly know.
It is how he lived.
It is not what he gave up, but how and why he gave it up. It's the fact that all those sports phrases that we casually throw around - like sacrifice and commitment and courage - actually meant something to him.
It is how an NFL player, living the American dream, chose not what his country could do for him, but what he could do for his country.
So not long after Sept. 11, 2001, he walked away from football, away from the money and glory of the NFL and, along with his minor league baseball-playing brother, took his considerable physical gifts to the Army Rangers.

Duty. Honor. Country.
Tillman, 27, was killed in action Thursday in Afghanistan, where coalition forces continue to search for Osama bin Laden.
Tillman is just one of hundreds of brave soldiers from around the globe who have given their lives trying to help make ours safer since Sept. 11. Sadly, there will be more.
Maybe most telling about Tillman is that he, it would seem, would be embarrassed about articles like this, ones that focus on his passing rather than that of Army Spc. Christopher Gelineau, 23, of Portland, Maine, who was killed in an explosion outside Mosul, Iraq, on Tuesday.
Or Marvin Camposiles, 25, of Austell, Ga., Jonathan Hartman, 27, of Jacksonville, Fla., Michael McGlothin, 21, of Milwaukee, Wis., or Robert Henderson II, 33, of Alvaton, Ky. - among six Army personnel and four Marines killed Saturday in Iraq.
No, Tillman isn't a hero for dying, but for living. For putting his morals where his mouth was and not just enlisting, but doing it in the most humble and honorable way.
When he and his brother arrived at Georgia's Fort Benning to begin their training in July 2002 he "came in like everyone else, on a bus from a processing station," the base's public information officer said then. Tillman promptly turned down hundreds of requests for interviews and went about anonymously being a soldier.
No press. No fanfare. No "look at me" publicity stunts.
His move shocked professional sports, populated by so many of our most able-bodied Americans. Tillman was the only one to enlist from the NFL, which is fine - there is no shame in not enlisting.
But it is difficult to cheer ever again for a knucklehead like Simeon Rice who went on Jim Rome's radio show and said about Tillman, "He really wasn't that good, not really. He was good enough to play in Arizona, [but] that's just like the XFL."
After Rome stopped him, Rice finally relented. Sort of.
"I think it's very admirable, actually," Rice said. "You've got to give kudos to a guy like that because he did it for his own reasons. Maybe it's the Rambo movies, maybe it's Sylvester Stallone, Rocky, whatever compels him."
Or maybe it was just serving his country. Maybe it was being a part of a cause greater than his own self-interest. Maybe it was trying to help in a seemingly helpless situation.
In actuality, what Tillman did was no different than what thousands of other American men and women have done. The country needs them and they answer the call. He may have been the only one staring at a $3.6 million contract, but that's money.
This, obviously, is something more valuable than that.
Tillman probably would cringe at the outpouring of attention and affection that his death will bring. He didn't get into this for that. But if his death can remind Americans about the sacrifices of our soldiers, rich and poor, famous and faceless, then maybe something positive can come of it.
Our volunteer military has performed brilliantly overseas. They've served with great skill and made great sacrifices.
Not just the NFL millionaire. All of them.
It seems that is all Pat Tillman wanted to be. One part of the Army. Part of the Army of one.
"The quintessential definition of a patriot" is how John McCain, the Arizona senator and former prisoner of war in Vietnam described him.
And he was.
An American hero not for where and when he died, but how and why he lived.

Cardinals Retire Pat Tillman's Jersey

TEMPE, Ariz. - The Arizona Cardinals honored Pat Tillman on Sunday in an emotional halftime ceremony that featured the fallen player's widow and other members of his family.

In her first public comments since her husband's death, Marie Tillman thanked all who had supported the family.

"It really helps us knowing that his spirit and memory live on in all of you," she said to the rousing cheers of the crowd.

She was joined at midfield by Tillman's brother Richard and his parents. Cardinals vice president Michael Bidwill presented Tillman's widow with a framed Pat Tillman jersey.

A giant No. 40 jersey was unfurled in Sun Devil Stadium, where Tillman played as a star linebacker for Arizona State and an overachieving safety for the Cardinals.

Tillman left a lucrative contract in the NFL in 2002 to join the Army Rangers with his brother Kevin. He was killed April 22 in the Khost province of Afghanistan, the first NFL player to die in combat since the Vietnam War. He was 27.

A military investigation concluded he was likely killed mistakenly by fire from other U.S. troops.

In a video message on the giant screen at the stadium, President Bush praised Tillman and others who have died in combat in Afghanistan and Iraq.

"As much as Pat Tillman loved competing on the football field, he loved America even more," Bush said. "...Courageous and humble, a loving husband and son, a devoted brother and a fierce defender of liberty. Pat Tillman will always be remembered and honored in our country."

Tillman was shown talking about what the flag meant to him in an interview conducted after the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.

"My great-grandfather was at Pearl Harbor," Tillman said. "A lot of my family has done far more. I really haven't done a damn thing as laying my butt on the line like that, so I have a great deal of respect for those that have, and what our flag stands for."

Also speaking via video, Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., who was a prisoner of war in Vietnam, said of Tillman, "While many of us may be blessed to live a longer life than Pat did, few of us will ever live a better one."

Every NFL player wore a decal bearing Tillman's No. 40 this weekend. The Cardinals will wear it all season. No. 40 commemorative pins were distributed to everyone who came to Sunday's game.

"We're very humbled," Tillman's brother-in-law Alex Garwood told reporters before the game. "I don't presume to speak for him certainly, but if he were here, you can bet that he would be looking each and every one of you in the eye and saying 'Thank you.'"

The NFL and Cardinals are donating proceeds from the sale of Tillman's jersey to the foundation that bears his name. Garwood is the executive director of the fledgling foundation. Kevin and Marie Tillman serve on its board of directors.

"First and foremost, we're going to carry Pat's legacy forward," Garwood said. "We're going to do that by inspiring others to make positive change in themselves and the world around them."

He said the foundation already had received personal checks from about 450 people. Some wrote the word "hero" at the bottom of the check.

Click on the link to see the source of the storie. Cardinals Retire Pat Tillman's Jersey

CBS News claims: We were deceived

Duh!!!! I think I'm going to get dizzy from all this spinning.

Officials at CBS News now say they have serious doubts about the authenticity of National Guard documents regarding President Bush's military service, claiming the network was misled about the memos.

Published reports cite unnamed CBS sources who said the network would likely make an announcement as early as today to acknowledge it had been deceived about the documents' origins.

"The statement would represent a huge embarrassment for the network, which insisted for days that the documents reported by Dan Rather on '60 Minutes' are authentic," writes Washington Post reporter Howard Kurtz. "But the statement could also help defuse a crisis that has torn at the network's credibility."

It was unclear if an apology would be included for broadcasting a report now thought to be based on forged documents, though it was said to be under consideration.

The New York Times reports network officials met last night with Rather to go over the information it had collected about the documents one last time before deciding on any final course of action.

The admission the network was misled into putting false information on the air is a major reversal from previous statements by CBS News chief Andrew Heyward.

"We established to our satisfaction that the memos were accurate or we would not have put them on television," Heyward said last week on the CBS Evening News. "There was a great deal of corroborating evidence from people in a position to know. Having said that, given all the questions about them, we believe we should redouble our efforts to answer those questions, so that's what we are doing."

As WorldNetDaily reported, CBS News has stood by its claims in the face of widespread accusations that early 1970s documents used on a Sept. 8 "60 Minutes II" segment to discredit Bush are forgeries, created with a modern word-processing program.

Among the assertions "60 Minutes II" derived from the documents – four memos by Bush's late squadron commander Col. Jerry Killian – were that the commander was pressed to "sugar coat" a performance evaluation for Bush and that the future president did not follow an order to report for a physical.

According to the Times, document specialist Emily Will who inspected the memos for CBS and said she raised concerns about their authenticity, confirmed a Newsweek report that "a producer had told her that the source of the documents said they had been obtained anonymously and through the mail."

She reportedly declined to name the producer who told her this, but indicated the producer was in a position to know.

Click here to see the source of the article. WorldNetDaily: CBS News claims:
We were deceived

Religion of what?

PA clergy call for genocide of Jews

Use TV broadcasts to urge killing of 'brothers of the monkeys and pigs'
Twice in three days, Palestinian television has shown religious leaders calling for the mass killing of Jews.

Both clerics said such a slaughter is a necessary stage in history and must be carried out quickly, reported Palestinian Media Watch. Each cited the same Hadith, Islamic tradition attributed to Muhammad.

Palestinian leaders traditionally have taught that the following Hadith applies today:

The Hour [Resurrection] will not take place until the Muslims fight the Jews and kill them. And the Jews will hide behind the rock and tree, and the rock and tree will say: oh Muslim, oh servant of Allah, this is a Jew behind me, come and kill him!
Says Palestinian Media Watch: "This teaching may well be a dominant motivating factor that drives terror against Israeli civilians, because it presents the killing of Jews as a religious obligation, not related to the conflict over borders, but as something inherent to Allah's world."

Sheik Ibrahim Madiras' sermon of last Friday was broadcast the same day on PA TV.

Madiras declared, "The Prophet said: The Resurrection will not take place until the Muslims fight the Jews, and the Muslims kill them. The Muslims will kill the Jews, rejoice [in it], rejoice in Allah's Victory. The Muslims will kill the Jews, and he will hide.

"The Prophet said: The Jews will hide behind the rock and tree, and the rock and tree will say: oh servant of Allah, oh Muslim this is a Jew behind me, come and kill him! Why is there this malice? Because there are none who love the Jews on the face of the earth: not man, not rock and not tree; everything hates them. They destroy everything – they destroy the trees and destroy the houses. Everything wants vengeance on the Jews, on these pigs on the face of the earth, and the day of our victory, Allah willing, will come."

Two days later, on Sept. 12, Dr. Muhammad Ibrahim Maadi made the following comment on his weekly television show:

"We are waging this cruel war with the brothers of the monkeys and pigs, the Jews and the sons of Zion. The Jews will fight you and you will subjugate them. Until the Jew will stand behind the tree and rock. And the tree and rock will say: oh Muslim, oh servant of Allah, there is a Jew behind me, come and kill him!"

The reference to monkeys and pigs is from a story in the Quran that claims Jews were cursed by Allah and turned into monkeys and pigs.


Click on the link to see the source of the story. PA clergy call for genocide of Jews

Interresting read from the Vatican

This is actually not the first time I had heard the War against Terrorism(IE: Islamo-Facist) as the 4th world war.

Rome - A leading Vatican cardinal said on Tuesday that terrorism was a new world war and fighting it may involve the loss of some civil liberties.

"We have entered the Fourth World War," said Cardinal Renato Martino, head of the Vatican's Council for Justice and Peace, saying he believed that the Cold War was World War 3.

"I believe that we are in the midst of another world war," he said in comments published in Italian newspapers on Tuesday.

"And it involves absolutely everyone because we don't know what will happen when we leave a hotel, when we get on a bus, when we go into a coffee bar. War itself is sitting down right next to each and every one of us," he said.

"Every state has to put in place the best possible policing method and this, naturally, might affect some personal freedoms. States have to carry out a defensive policy," he said

Martino, who served for many years as Pope John Paul's ambassador to the United Nations, was opposed to the war in Iraq and last year criticised the United States treatment of former Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein after his capture.

Martino said at the time that US forces had treated Saddam "like a cow".

Click on this link to see the source of the story. IOL: Europe

Quiet reflection and steel resolve.

As tomorrow 09/11/04 quickly approaches I feel it is time to take a step back and remember those whose lives were mercilessly taken 3 years ago. This was an act of pure cowardess, perpitrated by small men with big evil dreams. My biggiest issue with what will happen tomorrow is what will not be shown by the old guards in the media. I venture guess that you will be hard pressed to find video footage of the attack actually shown. That last thing the dinasours in the newspaper industry and the alphabet channels want to do is reinvoke that feeling of sadness and outrage that made our country rise up and call in righteous anger for the just punishment the muderous islamo-facist deserve. I hereby rest my case.

Russia Threatens to Strike Terror Bases

Col.-Gen. Yuri Baluyevsky, chief of the Russian General Staff, reasserted Russia's right to strike terrorists anywhere in the world.
"As for carrying out preventive strikes against terrorist bases, we will take all measures to liquidate terrorist bases in any region of the world," Baluyevsky told reporters.

Did I ever mention how much I enjoy the straight forward statements made by Russian Generals? These guys are from the old school. If you ever wanted to extract intelligence from a prisoner these are the guys you call. Now granted the prisoner would probably not survive, but in reality who cares. I know alot of you are going to say that is not very Christian like. To you folks all I can say is "Sorry", we are in a war against pure unencumbered evil. The folks we are fighting against have no morals. They fight without rule(to me rules and war never really made good bed fellows). They fight to achieve the total subjugation or the complete extermination of ALL Christians and Jews. So ladies and gentlemen the gloves must come off to win this one and win we must or as President Reagan once said "You and I have a rendevous with destiny. We'll preserve for our children this the last best hope of man on earth or we'll sentence them to take that last step into a thousand years of darkness."


Click here to read the source of the quote. Russia Threatens to Strike Terror Bases

Mighty Miller: Say it louder, brother!

This is a great article by Mike Novak

I didn't know until I saw replays on television that Zell Miller looked angry during his convention speech - like a Baptist preacher going after flagrant sins. From where I sat in Madison Square Garden, Miller looked like he was having a grand old time, getting something big off his chest with as much zest, gusto, and good ol' Baptist invective as he could.

People all around the country reacted to Zell as I did. My sister, who was in Cincinnati at a six-week consultation of nuclear engineers and other technicians from all over the country, told me the next morning that all anybody could talk about in the usually silent and grumpy early-morning breakfast room was Zell Miller. They loved the speech. Some were former Democrats, some were Republicans angry at Bush for one reason or another (the war, the spending, etc.), but Miller was speaking for many of them when he explained why he did not want to vote for this Democrat. My sister was the co-chair of Jimmy Carter's winning campaign in Michigan in 1976, and Zell spoke for her, too.

To quibble over whether Zell was right on this or that point, or as fair and balanced as the reporters of the Associated Press, or as evenhanded as Joe Klein, is to miss the point when listening to a Baptist sermon, rendered by a Southern populist who relishes his heritage. He has the obligation of fitting into a literary form, as demanding in its way as a sonnet. His task is to penetrate through the details, fire like a laser straight into the heart, spear the essential sin and betrayal thriving there, and explode the grip of their tentacles. His task is to lead the sinner, with the light of that explosion, to mend his ways.

Zell Miller nailed the political correctness of the little liberal in the heart of all of us (driven into us by the monolithic liberal media of the last generation) - the political correctness that leads us to be ashamed to speak forthrightly about good and evil, ashamed to face the desperate need to rally to the defense of our country against one of the worst evils to ever threaten it.

The left wing of the Democratic party doesn't like either the war on terror or the war in Iraq, and refuses to see the vividly clear connection between the two. The left wing wants to change the subject to domestic policy, and even that is absurdly characterized by them. The left wing wants to forget its own wartime heroes Franklin Roosevelt, Harry Truman, and John Kennedy - "bear any burden, meet any hardship."

Preacher Zell reminded us of what Democrats of his age, and ours, once used to stand for.

POLITICS OF HATE
I am a lifelong Democrat, and I have always loved the ethnic, religious, and regional varieties of Democrats and all their rhetorical exuberance and excess. When Zell says he hasn't left the Democratic party, the Democratic party left him, I nod my head vigorously and want to pound the pew saying, Say it louder, brother, say it louder! Say it loud so they all can hear!

Zell Miller took my breath away. He laid out bare the essential point of the last 35 years, ever since the call for surrender in Vietnam. John Kerry told the U.S. Senate that not more than 2000 or 3000 Vietnamese would have to flee from the democratic [i.e, Communist] forces leading the Vietnamese revolution. Hanoi and the Viet Cong were not our enemy, he said. We are the evil ones.

That was the exact point on which the great tradition of the Democratic party was destroyed from within. It was destroyed by leading Democrats of the left and by the educated class into whose hands the party's leadership increasingly fell. It became the new party of the rich and the movie-actor/professor/journalist axis, claiming to speak for the poor: the frauds.

Well, a lot of Democrats were from the families of poor whites, and whatever our education we did not want to abandon our families. In fact, we saw in them a lot more wisdom than we found on the campuses. Especially on the question of what is and is not a threat to the survival of this marvelous country of ours - its decency, its honor, its goodness - Zell Miller speaks for us.

As I listened to Miller in the Garden that night, I asked myself, how can the Democrats reply to this? It is so manifestly true. They are not the war leaders Roosevelt, Truman, and Kennedy were. They are not the party I still love and admire, and wish existed still.

"Grumpy old man," is what they came up with. "Angry," "exaggerated" (wow, is that to miss the point of this literary genre), and then, as in Joe Klein, "filled with hate." No, Joe, it wasn't hate, it was disdain, and if you felt it coming down on you, look to where you stand and how you think. From where I sit, I think it fits you. I could be wrong about that - that's up to you to decide. But your reaction is giving you away, more than you imagine. And, you know, Zell began with his love for his family, and his love for his country, and his love for the Democratic party we all used to know, and his love for a bygone era of bipartisanship in times of danger and war. Zell's speech was all about love, disappointed love, and if you missed that you did not get the passion, didn't get it at all.

It is the Democrats who have called their own passion this year hate, and argued publicly that hate is a suitable and defensible passion to have toward George W. Bush and Dick Cheney. Zell began by pointing that out. Those of us born Democrats in the years of FDR don't remember Democrats who hated, as this year's Democrats do. Democrats used to be the cheerful party, the "happy days are here again" party. We don't remember obsessive hatred. We used to poke fun at the opposition, not hate them. We felt a little sorry for them. (Well, hating Nixon at least a little bit was probably approved of, but mocking him was more fun.)

BUSH DEMOCRATS
Zell Miller nailed the difference that has overtaken the Democratic party between then and now, and as far as I can see, most of the Democrats in the press (which means nine-tenths of the major media) don't dare to see what Zell sees. They are mistaken, however, if they don't see that the 1980s "Reagan Democrat" phenomenon is in full bloom again. Think not only Ron Silver the actor, but also Ed Koch the Mayor, and a swelling tide of Democrats in Ohio and Pennsylvania, in heavily Democratic districts, coming out to cheer for a president who is leading the most crucial fight of this and the next 50 years.

George Bush is going to win a surprising share of Democratic votes this year. The firemen's and policemen's vote. The Nascar vote. The motorcycle vote. All of them, Zell's Angels.

George Bush, taking abuse few presidents have ever had to bear, is unmoved and upright and good-humored and generous of spirit (honoring Senator Kerry's valor in Vietnam, for instance; telephoning Bill Clinton in the hospital; honoring Ted Kennedy at Texas A&M; gently and grandly praising the Clintons in the White House as their portraits were unveiled). Ex-Democrats admire both his steadiness and his thoughtful kindness.

Let me close by mentioning one other perception I took away from my exciting four days of stirring speeches from truly distinguished leaders: Among all of them, the greatest of all and the most reliable, focused, disciplined, plain-speaking, and trustworthy was our president. He stood with some great ones, but his moral stature rose at least a shoulder's height above all the others. He stood the steadiest of all.


Click here to see the source of this article. Mighty Miller: Say it louder, brother!

The Terrible Wrath of Zell. The cry of the Disgruntled Democrat.

By Hans Moleman

The commentators seemed universally baffled by Zell Miller's speech at the Republican Convention. "He looked angry," they couldn't help noticing. "What was that about?" Red-faced and scowling, Zell delivered what several talking heads called a "jeremiad." Wasn't this a miscalculation? Wasn't it too hot for a national TV audience? How could it possibly play in Peoria? Why did he do it?

They all missed the obvious explanation. Zell looked angry because he really was angry. And only a disgruntled Democrat could understand why.

Disgruntled Democrats have over time become an evergreen brand. Every few years, when the national party leadership takes another embarrassing lurch towards partisan pacifism, a new generation of Disgruntled Democrats is born. And they always come out angry.

As a card-carrying DD, let me explain this state of mind.

We are angry because the party we believed in has once again proven itself to be what its enemies had accused it of being: left-wing isolationists with an aversion to national defense or a robust military. A party that tends to "blame America first" (in the words of Jeane Kirkpatrick, herself a former DD) for every international problem. A party that believes all Americans must rally 'round the wartime flag, except when a Republican president is carrying that flag.

Once that dawns on you, your anger comes from two sources. You feel betrayed, let down by the party that always claimed to stand foursquare for national defense. You realize that your party is willing to sacrifice election after election, and with it your hopes for a progressive domestic agenda, to the pursuit of partisan cheap shots against a wartime Republican president.

But there is something else. You also feel like a sucker for being taken in by such a transparent con. It's embarrassing. You were the one who told your friends after 9/11 (and after Desert Storm and Kosovo and...) that we Democrats had now put the Vietnam Syndrome behind us. Then it all happens again, when party leaders begin muttering "quagmire" after the third day in Afghanistan. Or screaming "fascism" over the Patriot Act. Or when they start playing politics with the homeland-security bill (Zell's moment of truth).

And then you feel very much alone, like a Philip Nolan, man without a party. Or like a Joe Lieberman, a voice crying in the Democratic wilderness.

From time to time, that voice reaches a truly national audience, as it did on Zell's big night. Those who haven't felt what we feel have trouble hearing the message. But we get it. And there may be more of us than you'd think. (Or so I pray.)

As for the panning of his "jeremiad," Zell doesn't seem worried. He must know that Jeremiah got similar reviews in his time.


Click here to see the source of the article. The Terrible Wrath of Zell. The cry of the Disgruntled Democrat.

George W. Bush RNC Speech

In Acceptance Speech, President Bush Shares His Plan for a Safer World & More Hopeful America

Republican National Convention
New York, New York

Mr. Chairman, delegates, fellow citizens: I am honored by your support, and I accept your nomination for President of the United States.

When I said those words four years ago, none of us could have envisioned what these years would bring. In the heart of this great city, we saw tragedy arrive on a quiet morning. We saw the bravery of rescuers grow with danger. We learned of passengers on a doomed plane who died with a courage that frightened their killers. We have seen a shaken economy rise to its feet. And we have seen Americans in uniform storming mountain strongholds, and charging through sandstorms, and liberating millions, with acts of valor that would make the men of Normandy proud.

Since 2001, Americans have been given hills to climb, and found the strength to climb them. Now, because we have made the hard journey, we can see the valley below. Now, because we have faced challenges with resolve, we have historic goals within our reach, and greatness in our future. We will build a safer world and a more hopeful America -- and nothing will hold us back.

In the work we have done, and the work we will do, I am fortunate to have a superb Vice President. I have counted on Dick Cheney's calm and steady judgment in difficult days, and I am honored to have him at my side.

I am grateful to share my walk in life with Laura Bush. Americans have come to see the goodness and kindness and strength I first saw 26 years ago, and we love our First Lady.

I am a fortunate father of two spirited, intelligent, and lovely young women. I am blessed with a sister and brothers who are also my closest friends. And I will always be the proud and grateful son of George and Barbara Bush.

My father served eight years at the side of another great American -- Ronald Reagan. His spirit of optimism and goodwill and decency are in this hall, and in our hearts, and will always define our party.

Two months from today, voters will make a choice based on the records we have built, the convictions we hold, and the vision that guides us forward. A presidential election is a contest for the future. Tonight I will tell you where I stand, what I believe, and where I will lead this country in the next four years.

I believe every child can learn, and every school must teach -- so we passed the most important federal education reform in history. Because we acted, children are making sustained progress in reading and math, America's schools are getting better, and nothing will hold us back.

I believe we have a moral responsibility to honor America's seniors -- so I brought Republicans and Democrats together to strengthen Medicare. Now seniors are getting immediate help buying medicine. Soon every senior will be able to get prescription drug coverage, and nothing will hold us back.

I believe in the energy and innovative spirit of America's workers, entrepreneurs, farmers, and ranchers -- so we unleashed that energy with the largest tax relief in a generation. Because we acted, our economy is growing again, and creating jobs, and nothing will hold us back.

I believe the most solemn duty of the American president is to protect the American people. If America shows uncertainty and weakness in this decade, the world will drift toward tragedy. This will not happen on my watch.

I am running for President with a clear and positive plan to build a safer world, and a more hopeful America. I am running with a compassionate conservative philosophy: that government should help people improve their lives, not try to run their lives. I believe this Nation wants steady, consistent, principled leadership -- and that is why, with your help, we will win this election.

The story of America is the story of expanding liberty: an ever-widening circle, constantly growing to reach further and include more. Our Nation's founding commitment is still our deepest commitment: In our world, and here at home, we will extend the frontiers of freedom.

The times in which we live and work are changing dramatically. The workers of our parents' generation typically had one job, one skill, one career ? often with one company that provided health care and a pension. And most of those workers were men. Today, workers change jobs, even careers, many times during their lives, and in one of the most dramatic shifts our society has seen, two-thirds of all Moms also work outside the home.

This changed world can be a time of great opportunity for all Americans to earn a better living, support your family, and have a rewarding career. And government must take your side. Many of our most fundamental systems -- the tax code, health coverage, pension plans, worker training -- were created for the world of yesterday, not tomorrow. We will transform these systems so that all citizens are equipped, prepared -- and thus truly free -- to make your own choices and pursue your own dreams.

My plan begins with providing the security and opportunity of a growing economy. We now compete in a global market that provides new buyers for our goods, but new competition for our workers. To create more jobs in America, America must be the best place in the world to do business. To create jobs, my plan will encourage investment and expansion by restraining federal spending, reducing regulation, and making tax relief permanent. To create jobs, we will make our country less dependent on foreign sources of energy. To create jobs, we will expand trade and level the playing field to sell American goods and services across the globe. And we must protect small business owners and workers from the explosion of frivolous lawsuits that threaten jobs across America.

Another drag on our economy is the current tax code, which is a complicated mess -- filled with special interest loopholes, saddling our people with more than six billion hours of paperwork and headache every year. The American people deserve -- and our economic future demands -- a simpler, fairer, pro-growth system. In a new term, I will lead a bipartisan effort to reform and simplify the federal tax code.

Another priority in a new term will be to help workers take advantage of the expanding economy to find better, higher-paying jobs. In this time of change, many workers want to go back to school to learn different or higher-level skills. So we will double the number of people served by our principal job training program and increase funding for community colleges. I know that with the right skills, American workers can compete with anyone, anywhere in the world.

In this time of change, opportunity in some communities is more distant than in others. To stand with workers in poor communities -- and those that have lost manufacturing, textile, and other jobs -- we will create American opportunity zones. In these areas, we'll provide tax relief and other incentives to attract new business, and improve housing and job training to bring hope and work throughout all of America.

As I've traveled the country, I've met many workers and small business owners who have told me they are worried they cannot afford health care. More than half of the uninsured are small business employees and their families. In a new term, we must allow small firms to join together to purchase insurance at the discounts available to big companies. We will offer a tax credit to encourage small businesses and their employees to set up health savings accounts, and provide direct help for low-income Americans to purchase them. These accounts give workers the security of insurance against major illness, the opportunity to save tax-free for routine health expenses, and the freedom of knowing you can take your account with you whenever you change jobs. And we will provide low-income Americans with better access to health care: In a new term, I will ensure every poor county in America has a community or rural health center.

As I have traveled our country, I have met too many good doctors, especially OB-GYNS, who are being forced out of practice because of the high cost of lawsuits. To make health care more affordable and accessible, we must pass medical liability reform now. And in all we do to improve health care in America, we will make sure that health decisions are made by doctors and patients, not by bureaucrats in Washington, DC.

In this time of change, government must take the side of working families. In a new term, we will change outdated labor laws to offer comp-time and flex-time. Our laws should never stand in the way of a more family-friendly workplace.

Another priority for a new term is to build an ownership society, because ownership brings security, and dignity, and independence.

Thanks to our policies, homeownership in America is at an all-time high. Tonight we set a new goal: seven million more affordable homes in the next 10 years so more American families will be able to open the door and say welcome to my home.

In an ownership society, more people will own their health plans, and have the confidence of owning a piece of their retirement. We will always keep the promise of Social Security for our older workers. With the huge Baby Boom generation approaching retirement, many of our children and grandchildren understandably worry whether Social Security will be there when they need it. We must strengthen Social Security by allowing younger workers to save some of their taxes in a personal account -- a nest egg you can call your own, and government can never take away.

In all these proposals, we seek to provide not just a government program, but a path -- a path to greater opportunity, more freedom, and more control over your own life.

This path begins with our youngest Americans. To build a more hopeful America, we must help our children reach as far as their vision and character can take them. Tonight, I remind every parent and every teacher, I say to every child: No matter what your circumstance, no matter where you live -- your school will be the path to the promise of America.

We are transforming our schools by raising standards and focusing on results. We are insisting on accountability, empowering parents and teachers, and making sure that local people are in charge of their schools. By testing every child, we are identifying those who need help ? and we're providing a record level of funding to get them that help. In northeast Georgia, Gainesville Elementary School is mostly Hispanic and 90 percent poor ? and this year 90 percent of its students passed state tests in reading and math. The principal expresses the philosophy of his school this way: "We don't focus on what we can't do at this school; we focus on what we can do -- We do whatever it takes to get kids across the finish line." This principal is challenging the soft bigotry of low expectations, and that is the spirit of our education reform, and the commitment of our country: No dejaremos a ningún niño atrás. We will leave no child behind.

We are making progress -- and there is more to do. In this time of change, most new jobs are filled by people with at least two years of college, yet only about one in four students gets there. In our high schools, we will fund early intervention programs to help students at risk. We will place a new focus on math and science. As we make progress, we will require a rigorous exam before graduation. By raising performance in our high schools, and expanding Pell grants for low and middle income families, we will help more Americans start their career with a college diploma.

America's children must also have a healthy start in life. In a new term, we will lead an aggressive effort to enroll millions of poor children who are eligible but not signed up for the government's health insurance programs. We will not allow a lack of attention, or information, to stand between these children and the health care they need.

Anyone who wants more details on my agenda can find them online. The web address is not very imaginative, but it's easy to remember: GeorgeWBush.com.

These changing times can be exciting times of expanded opportunity. And here, you face a choice. My opponent's policies are dramatically different from ours. Senator Kerry opposed Medicare reform and health savings accounts. After supporting my education reforms, he now wants to dilute them. He opposes legal and medical liability reform. He opposed reducing the marriage penalty, opposed doubling the child credit, and opposed lowering income taxes for all who pay them. To be fair, there are some things my opponent is for -- he's proposed more than two trillion dollars in new federal spending so far, and that's a lot, even for a senator from Massachusetts. To pay for that spending, he is running on a platform of increasing taxes -- and that's the kind of promise a politician usually keeps.

His policies of tax and spend -- of expanding government rather than expanding opportunity -- are the policies of the past. We are on the path to the future -- and we are not turning back.

In this world of change, some things do not change: the values we try to live by, the institutions that give our lives meaning and purpose. Our society rests on a foundation of responsibility and character and family commitment.

Because family and work are sources of stability and dignity, I support welfare reform that strengthens family and requires work. Because a caring society will value its weakest members, we must make a place for the unborn child. Because religious charities provide a safety net of mercy and compassion, our government must never discriminate against them. Because the union of a man and woman deserves an honored place in our society, I support the protection of marriage against activist judges. And I will continue to appoint federal judges who know the difference between personal opinion and the strict interpretation of the law.

My opponent recently announced that he is the candidate of "conservative values," which must have come as a surprise to a lot of his supporters. Now, there are some problems with this claim. If you say the heart and soul of America is found in Hollywood, I'm afraid you are not the candidate of conservative values. If you voted against the bipartisan Defense of Marriage Act, which President Clinton signed, you are not the candidate of conservative values. If you gave a speech, as my opponent did, calling the Reagan presidency eight years of "moral darkness," then you may be a lot of things, but the candidate of conservative values is not one of them.

This election will also determine how America responds to the continuing danger of terrorism -- and you know where I stand. Three days after September 11th, I stood where Americans died, in the ruins of the Twin Towers. Workers in hard hats were shouting to me, "Whatever it takes." A fellow grabbed me by the arm and he said, "Do not let me down." Since that day, I wake up every morning thinking about how to better protect our country. I will never relent in defending America -- whatever it takes.

So we have fought the terrorists across the earth -- not for pride, not for power, but because the lives of our citizens are at stake. Our strategy is clear. We have tripled funding for homeland security and trained half a million first responders, because we are determined to protect our homeland. We are transforming our military and reforming and strengthening our intelligence services. We are staying on the offensive -- striking terrorists abroad -- so we do not have to face them here at home. And we are working to advance liberty in the broader Middle East, because freedom will bring a future of hope, and the peace we all want. And we will prevail.

Our strategy is succeeding. Four years ago, Afghanistan was the home base of al-Qaida, Pakistan was a transit point for terrorist groups, Saudi Arabia was fertile ground for terrorist fundraising, Libya was secretly pursuing nuclear weapons, Iraq was a gathering threat, and al-Qaida was largely unchallenged as it planned attacks. Today, the government of a free Afghanistan is fighting terror, Pakistan is capturing terrorist leaders, Saudi Arabia is making raids and arrests, Libya is dismantling its weapons programs, the army of a free Iraq is fighting for freedom, and more than three-quarters of al-Qaida's key members and associates have been detained or killed. We have led, many have joined, and America and the world are safer.

This progress involved careful diplomacy, clear moral purpose, and some tough decisions. And the toughest came on Iraq. We knew Saddam Hussein's record of aggression and support for terror. We knew his long history of pursuing, even using, weapons of mass destruction. And we know that September 11th requires our country to think differently: We must, and we will, confront threats to America before it is too late.

In Saddam Hussein, we saw a threat. Members of both political parties, including my opponent and his running mate, saw the threat, and voted to authorize the use of force. We went to the United Nations Security Council, which passed a unanimous resolution demanding the dictator disarm, or face serious consequences. Leaders in the Middle East urged him to comply. After more than a decade of diplomacy, we gave Saddam Hussein another chance, a final chance, to meet his responsibilities to the civilized world. He again refused, and I faced the kind of decision that comes only to the Oval Office -- a decision no president would ask for, but must be prepared to make. Do I forget the lessons of September 11th and take the word of a madman, or do I take action to defend our country? Faced with that choice, I will defend America every time.

Because we acted to defend our country, the murderous regimes of Saddam Hussein and the Taliban are history, more than 50 million people have been liberated, and democracy is coming to the broader Middle East. In Afghanistan, terrorists have done everything they can to intimidate people -- yet more than 10 million citizens have registered to vote in the October presidential election ? a resounding endorsement of democracy. Despite ongoing acts of violence, Iraq now has a strong Prime Minister, a national council, and national elections are scheduled for January. Our Nation is standing with the people of Afghanistan and Iraq, because when America gives its word, America must keep its word. As importantly, we are serving a vital and historic cause that will make our country safer. Free societies in the Middle East will be hopeful societies, which no longer feed resentments and breed violence for export. Free governments in the Middle East will fight terrorists instead of harboring them, and that helps us keep the peace. So our mission in Afghanistan and Iraq is clear: We will help new leaders to train their armies, and move toward elections, and get on the path of stability and democracy as quickly as possible. And then our troops will return home with the honor they have earned.

Our troops know the historic importance of our work. One Army Specialist wrote home: "We are transforming a once sick society into a hopeful place ... The various terrorist enemies we are facing in Iraq," he continued, "are really aiming at you back in the United States. This is a test of will for our country. We soldiers of yours are doing great and scoring victories in confronting the evil terrorists."

That young man is right -- our men and women in uniform are doing a superb job for America. Tonight I want to speak to all of them -- and to their families: You are involved in a struggle of historic proportion. Because of your service and sacrifice, we are defeating the terrorists where they live and plan, and making America safer. Because of you, women in Afghanistan are no longer shot in a sports stadium. Because of you, the people of Iraq no longer fear being executed and left in mass graves. Because of you, the world is more just and will be more peaceful. We owe you our thanks, and we owe you something more. We will give you all the resources, all the tools, and all the support you need for victory.

Again, my opponent and I have different approaches. I proposed, and the Congress overwhelmingly passed, 87 billion dollars in funding needed by our troops doing battle in Afghanistan and Iraq. My opponent and his running mate voted against this money for bullets, and fuel, and vehicles, and body armor. When asked to explain his vote, the Senator said, "I actually did vote for the 87 billion dollars before I voted against it." Then he said he was "proud" of that vote. Then, when pressed, he said it was a "complicated" matter. There is nothing complicated about supporting our troops in combat.

Our allies also know the historic importance of our work. About 40 nations stand beside us in Afghanistan, and some 30 in Iraq. And I deeply appreciate the courage and wise counsel of leaders like Prime Minister Howard, and President Kwasniewski, and Prime Minister Berlusconi -- and, of course, Prime Minister Tony Blair.

Again, my opponent takes a different approach. In the midst of war, he has called America's allies, quote, a "coalition of the coerced and the bribed." That would be nations like Great Britain, Poland, Italy, Japan, the Netherlands, Denmark, El Salvador, Australia, and others -- allies that deserve the respect of all Americans, not the scorn of a politician. I respect every soldier, from every country, who serves beside us in the hard work of history. America is grateful, and America will not forget.

The people we have freed won't forget either. Not long ago, seven Iraqi men came to see me in the Oval Office. They had "X"s branded into their foreheads, and their right hands had been cut off, by Saddam Hussein's secret police, the sadistic punishment for imaginary crimes. During our emotional visit one of the Iraqi men used his new prosthetic hand to slowly write out, in Arabic, a prayer for God to bless America. I am proud that our country remains the hope of the oppressed, and the greatest force for good on this earth.

Others understand the historic importance of our work. The terrorists know. They know that a vibrant, successful democracy at the heart of the Middle East will discredit their radical ideology of hate. They know that men and women with hope, and purpose, and dignity do not strap bombs on their bodies and kill the innocent. The terrorists are fighting freedom with all their cunning and cruelty because freedom is their greatest fear -- and they should be afraid, because freedom is on the march.

I believe in the transformational power of liberty: The wisest use of American strength is to advance freedom. As the citizens of Afghanistan and Iraq seize the moment, their example will send a message of hope throughout a vital region. Palestinians will hear the message that democracy and reform are within their reach, and so is peace with our good friend Israel. Young women across the Middle East will hear the message that their day of equality and justice is coming. Young men will hear the message that national progress and dignity are found in liberty, not tyranny and terror. Reformers, and political prisoners, and exiles will hear the message that their dream of freedom cannot be denied forever. And as freedom advances -- heart by heart, and nation by nation -- America will be more secure and the world more peaceful.

America has done this kind of work before -- and there have always been doubters. In 1946, 18 months after the fall of Berlin to allied forces, a journalist wrote in the New York Times, "Germany is ... a land in an acute stage of economic, political and moral crisis. [European] capitals are frightened. In every [military] headquarters, one meets alarmed officials doing their utmost to deal with the consequences of the occupation policy that they admit has failed." End quote. Maybe that same person's still around, writing editorials. Fortunately, we had a resolute president named Truman, who with the American people persevered, knowing that a new democracy at the center of Europe would lead to stability and peace. And because that generation of Americans held firm in the cause of liberty, we live in a better and safer world today.

The progress we and our friends and allies seek in the broader Middle East will not come easily, or all at once. Yet Americans, of all people, should never be surprised by the power of liberty to transform lives and nations. That power brought settlers on perilous journeys, inspired colonies to rebellion, ended the sin of slavery, and set our Nation against the tyrannies of the 20th century. We were honored to aid the rise of democracy in Germany and Japan and Nicaragua and Central Europe and the Baltics -- and that noble story goes on. I believe that America is called to lead the cause of freedom in a new century. I believe that millions in the Middle East plead in silence for their liberty. I believe that given the chance, they will embrace the most honorable form of government ever devised by man. I believe all these things because freedom is not America's gift to the world, it is the Almighty God's gift to every man and woman in this world.

This moment in the life of our country will be remembered. Generations will know if we kept our faith and kept our word. Generations will know if we seized this moment, and used it to build a future of safety and peace. The freedom of many, and the future security of our Nation, now depend on us. And tonight, my fellow Americans, I ask you to stand with me.

In the last four years, you and I have come to know each other. Even when we don't agree, at least you know what I believe and where I stand. You may have noticed I have a few flaws, too. People sometimes have to correct my English -- I knew I had a problem when Arnold Schwarzenegger started doing it. Some folks look at me and see a certain swagger, which in Texas is called "walking." Now and then I come across as a little too blunt -- and for that we can all thank the white-haired lady sitting right up there.

One thing I have learned about the presidency is that whatever shortcomings you have, people are going to notice them -- and whatever strengths you have, you're going to need them. These four years have brought moments I could not foresee and will not forget. I have tried to comfort Americans who lost the most on September 11th -- people who showed me a picture or told me a story, so I would know how much was taken from them. I have learned first-hand that ordering Americans into battle is the hardest decision, even when it is right. I have returned the salute of wounded soldiers, some with a very tough road ahead, who say they were just doing their job. I've held the children of the fallen, who are told their dad or mom is a hero, but would rather just have their dad or mom.

And I have met with parents and wives and husbands who have received a folded flag, and said a final goodbye to a soldier they loved. I am awed that so many have used those meetings to say that I am in their prayers ? to offer encouragement to me. Where does strength like that come from? How can people so burdened with sorrow also feel such pride? It is because they know their loved one was last seen doing good. Because they know that liberty was precious to the one they lost. And in those military families, I have seen the character of a great nation: decent, and idealistic, and strong.

The world saw that spirit three miles from here, when the people of this city faced peril together, and lifted a flag over the ruins, and defied the enemy with their courage. My fellow Americans, for as long as our country stands, people will look to the resurrection of New York City and they will say: Here buildings fell, and here a nation rose.

We see America's character in our military, which finds a way or makes one. We see it in our veterans, who are supporting military families in their days of worry. We see it in our young people, who have found heroes once again. We see that character in workers and entrepreneurs, who are renewing our economy with their effort and optimism. And all of this has confirmed one belief beyond doubt: Having come this far, our tested and confident Nation can achieve anything.

To everything we know there is a season -- a time for sadness, a time for struggle, a time for rebuilding. And now we have reached a time for hope. This young century will be liberty's century. By promoting liberty abroad, we will build a safer world. By encouraging liberty at home, we will build a more hopeful America. Like generations before us, we have a calling from beyond the stars to stand for freedom. This is the everlasting dream of America -- and tonight, in this place, that dream is renewed. Now we go forward -- grateful for our freedom, faithful to our cause, and confident in the future of the greatest nation on earth.

God bless you, and may God continue to bless America.

Click here to see the source. GeorgeWBush.com :: In Acceptance Speech, President Bush Shares His Plan for a Safer World & More Hopeful America

Text of Speech by Sen. Zell Miller

Last night I stood in amazement that the most powerful, motivating, and awe inspiring speech given so far at the Republican national Convention was delivered by a Democrat. Zell Miller has always had a special place in my heart. After all you just have to love a former Marine who's not afraid to speak his mind in plain, simple, to the point language in this insane politically correct world. His speech was delivered more like a sermon of biblical proportions. It gave me chills to listen to this presentation of pure unadulterated truth. I know it's not the same reading text as it is to here it spoken live but give it a chance. I think everyone should here this message.

Text of speech by Democratic Sen. Zell Miller of Georgia as prepared for delivery Wednesday at the Republican National Convention:

Since I last stood in this spot, a whole new generation of the Miller Family has been born: Four great grandchildren. Along with all the other members of our close-knit family, they are my and Shirley's most precious possessions.
And I know that's how you feel about your family also. Like you, I think of their future, the promises and the perils they will face.

Like you, I believe that the next four years will determine what kind of world they will grow up in.

And like you, I ask which leader is it today that has the vision, the willpower and, yes, the backbone to best protect my family?

The clear answer to that question has placed me in this hall with you tonight. For my family is more important than my party.

There is but one man to whom I am willing to entrust their future and that man's name is George Bush.

In the summer of 1940, I was an 8-year-old boy living in a remote little Appalachian valley. Our country was not yet at war, but even we children knew that there were some crazy men across the ocean who would kill us if they could.

President Roosevelt, in his speech that summer, told America "all private plans, all private lives, have been in a sense repealed by an overriding public danger."

In 1940, Wendell Wilkie was the Republican nominee.

And there is no better example of someone repealing their "private plans" than this good man. He gave Roosevelt the critical support he needed for a peacetime draft, an unpopular idea at the time.

And he made it clear that he would rather lose the election than make national security a partisan campaign issue.

Shortly before Wilkie died, he told a friend, that if he could write his own epitaph and had to choose between "here lies a president" or "here lies one who contributed to saving freedom," he would prefer the latter.

Where are such statesmen today?

Where is the bipartisan in this country when we need it most?

Now, while young Americans are dying in the sands of Iraq and the mountains of Afghanistan, our nation is being torn apart and made weaker because of the Democrat's manic obsession to bring down our Commander in Chief.

What has happened to the party I've spent my life working in?

I can remember when Democrats believed that it was the duty of America to fight for freedom over tyranny.

It was Democratic President Harry Truman who pushed the Red Army out of Iran, who came to the aid of Greece when Communists threatened to overthrow it, who stared down the Soviet blockade of West Berlin by flying in supplies and saving the city.

Time after time in our history, in the face of great danger, Democrats and Republicans worked together to ensure that freedom would not falter. But not today.

Motivated more by partisan politics than by national security, today's Democratic leaders see America as an occupier, not a liberator.

And nothing makes this Marine madder than someone calling American troops occupiers rather than liberators.

Tell that to the one-half of Europe that was freed because Franklin Roosevelt led an army of liberators, not occupiers.

Tell that to the lower half of the Korean Peninsula that is free because Dwight Eisenhower commanded an army of liberators, not occupiers.

Tell that to the half a billion men, women and children who are free today from the Baltics to the Crimea, from Poland to Siberia, because Ronald Reagan rebuilt a military of liberators, not occupiers.

Never in the history of the world has any soldier sacrificed more for the freedom and liberty of total strangers than the American soldier. And, our soldiers don't just give freedom abroad, they preserve it for us here at home.

For it has been said so truthfully that it is the soldier, not the reporter, who has given us the freedom of the press. It is the soldier, not the poet, who has given us freedom of speech.

It is the soldier, not the agitator, who has given us the freedom to protest.

It is the soldier who salutes the flag, serves beneath the flag, whose coffin is draped by the flag, who gives that protester the freedom to abuse and burn that flag.

No one should dare to even think about being the Commander in Chief of this country if he doesn't believe with all his heart that our soldiers are liberators abroad and defenders of freedom at home.

But don't waste your breath telling that to the leaders of my party today. In their warped way of thinking America is the problem, not the solution.

They don't believe there is any real danger in the world except that which America brings upon itself through our clumsy and misguided foreign policy.

It is not their patriotism -- it is their judgment that has been so sorely lacking. They claimed Carter's pacifism would lead to peace.

They were wrong.

They claimed Reagan's defense buildup would lead to war.

They were wrong.

And, no pair has been more wrong, more loudly, more often than the two Senators from Massachusetts, Ted Kennedy and John Kerry.

Together, Kennedy/Kerry have opposed the very weapons system that won the Cold War and that is now winning the War on Terror.

Listing all the weapon systems that Senator Kerry tried his best to shut down sounds like an auctioneer selling off our national security but Americans need to know the facts.

The B-1 bomber, that Senator Kerry opposed, dropped 40 percent of the bombs in the first six months of Operation Enduring Freedom.

The B-2 bomber, that Senator Kerry opposed, delivered air strikes against the Taliban in Afghanistan and Hussein's command post in Iraq.

The F-14A Tomcats, that Senator Kerry opposed, shot down Khadifi's Libyan MIGs over the Gulf of Sidra. The modernized F-14D, that Senator Kerry opposed, delivered missile strikes against Tora Bora.

The Apache helicopter, that Senator Kerry opposed, took out those Republican Guard tanks in Kuwait in the Gulf War. The F-15 Eagles, that Senator Kerry opposed, flew cover over our Nation's Capital and this very city after 9/11.

I could go on and on and on: against the Patriot Missile that shot down Saddam Hussein's scud missiles over Israel; against the Aegis air-defense cruiser; against the Strategic Defense Initiative; against the Trident missile; against, against, against.

This is the man who wants to be the Commander in Chief of our U.S. Armed Forces?

U.S. forces armed with what? Spitballs?

Twenty years of votes can tell you much more about a man than twenty weeks of campaign rhetoric.

Campaign talk tells people who you want them to think you are. How you vote tells people who you really are deep inside.

Senator Kerry has made it clear that he would use military force only if approved by the United Nations.

Kerry would let Paris decide when America needs defending.

I want Bush to decide.

John Kerry, who says he doesn't like outsourcing, wants to outsource our national security.

That's the most dangerous outsourcing of all. This politician wants to be leader of the free world.

Free for how long?

For more than 20 years, on every one of the great issues of freedom and security, John Kerry has been more wrong, more weak and more wobbly than any other national figure.

As a war protester, Kerry blamed our military.

As a Senator, he voted to weaken our military. And nothing shows that more sadly and more clearly than his vote this year to deny protective armor for our troops in harms way, far away.

George Bush understands that we need new strategies to meet new threats.

John Kerry wants to re-fight yesterday's war. George Bush believes we have to fight today's war and be ready for tomorrow's challenges. George Bush is committed to providing the kind of forces it takes to root out terrorists.

No matter what spider hole they may hide in or what rock they crawl under.

George Bush wants to grab terrorists by the throat and not let them go to get a better grip.

From John Kerry, they get a "yes-no-maybe" bowl of mush that can only encourage our enemies and confuse our friends.

I first got to know George Bush when we served as governors together. I admire this man. I am moved by the respect he shows the first lady, his unabashed love for his parents and his daughters, and the fact that he is unashamed of his belief that God is not indifferent to America.

I can identify with someone who has lived that line in "Amazing Grace," "Was blind, but now I see," and I like the fact that he's the same man on Saturday night that he is on Sunday morning.

He is not a slick talker but he is a straight shooter and, where I come from, deeds mean a lot more than words.

I have knocked on the door of this man's soul and found someone home, a God-fearing man with a good heart and a spine of tempered steel.

The man I trust to protect my most precious possession: my family.

This election will change forever the course of history, and that's not any history. It's our family's history.

The only question is how. The answer lies with each of us. And, like many generations before us, we've got some hard choosing to do.

Right now the world just cannot afford an indecisive America. Fainthearted self-indulgence will put at risk all we care about in this world.

In this hour of danger our President has had the courage to stand up. And this Democrat is proud to stand up with him.

Thank you.

God Bless this great country and God Bless George W. Bush.

AMEN Zell Miller!!!