Democrats in Denial on War aginst Terrorism.

William Kristol has a great column today about the differences between the Republicans and the Democrats in the War against Islamic Fascist.

The country would be better off if there were bipartisan agreement on what is at stake in the struggle against jihadist Islam. But despite areas of consensus, there is still a fundamental difference between the parties. Bush and the Republicans know we are in a serious war. It's not the Bush administration that is in a "State of Denial" (as the new Bob Woodward book has it). It's the Democrats....


That's why last week's votes in Congress on the detainees legislation were so significant. The legislation had nothing to do with Iraq. It was a "pure" war-on-terror vote and the parties split. Three-quarters of the Democrats in the House and Senate stood with the New York Times and the American Civil Liberties Union for more rights for al Qaeda detainees, and against legislation supported by the Bush administration (as well as by John McCain and Joe Lieberman)....

No wonder voters think the country will be safer from terrorism if the GOP retains control of Congress. And no wonder that focus groups--according to the Democratic polling firm of Greenberg Quinlan Rosner--show that "attacks on Democrats for opposing any effort to stop terrorists . . . were highly effective." The Democratic pollsters recommended countering the attacks forcefully. But how? There are votes, in black and white in the Congressional Record, ready to be used in campaign ads.

( To read the entire column click on the title above for a link)

Oregon Ducks 48 Arizona State 13

Revenge is sweet. The Ducks beat Arizona State on ABC TV in Tempe Arizona. A few years ago my daughter met me in Arizona for an Oregon ASU game and the jerks at ASU confiscated our Duck calls even though we were not blowing them. They have been on my Shi* list ever since. I will never forget their lack of hospitality. We should have and could have run up the score even more today. Go Ducks... On to Cal. Beat the Bears.

Friday Night Lights

It was a good night for high school football. South Medford won and North Medford lost. South Medford beat the Wilson Trojans of Portland 44 to 13 in Medford. The North Medford Black Tornado lost in Portland to the Lincoln Cardinals 28 to 26. South West Oregon Conference play starts next week.

My wife had a cold so my friend Bob and I went to the South Medford game and it was a perfect night for football. South had their home coming which is always fun.

YES!... A 700 Mile Fence on the Mexican Border.

Republicans will go into the elections with a message that they've made great strides fighting illegal immigration, including authorizing a fence along one-third of the U.S.-Mexico border and making a $1.2 billion down payment on it.


Among its final tasks before leaving to campaign, the Senate on Friday night passed and sent to President Bush a bill authorizing 700 new miles of fencing on the southern border. No one knows how much it will cost, but a separate bill also on the way to the White House makes a $1.2 billion down payment on it. A 14-mile segment of fence under construction in San Diego is costing $126.5 million.


The fence bill was passed by the House two weeks ago. The Senate vote on it Friday night was 80-19.

Football Weekend

South Medford High plays Wilson High of Portland Friday Night in Medford and the Oregon Duck play Arizona State University in Arizona on ABC TV Saturday afternoon. Go Panters.... Go Ducks.

Fouad Ajami's take on the Iraq War

While I don't always agree with Fouad Ajami, a professor at John's Hopkins, I always find his analysis to be very informative. He has a long article in today's
Wall Street Journal and the following is just a small part of it.

"We waged a war against Saddam in 1991 and then spared him. We established a presence in the Arabian Peninsula to monitor him, only to help radicalize a population with religious phobias about the "infidel" presence on Arabian soil.....

It is idle to debate whether Iraq is in a state of civil war. The semantics are tendentious, and in the end irrelevant. There is mayhem, to be sure, but Iraq has arrived at a rough balance of terror. The Sunni Arabs now know, as they had never before, that their tyranny is broken for good. And the most recent reports from Anbar province speak of a determination of the Sunni tribes to be done with the Arab jihadists....

We needn't give credence to the assertion of President Bush--that the jihadists would turn up in our cities if we pulled up stakes from Baghdad --to recognize that a terrible price would be paid were we to opt for a hasty and unseemly withdrawal from Iraq. This is a region with a keen eye for the weakness of strangers. The heated debate about the origins of our drive into Iraq would surely pale by comparison to the debate that would erupt--here and elsewhere--were we to give in to despair and cast the Iraqis adrift."

Mr. Ajami, a professor at the School of Advanced International Studies at Johns Hopkins, is the author, most recently, of "The Foreigner's Gift" (Free Press, 2006). He is a recipient of the 2006 Bradley Prize.

To read the rest of his article click on the title for a link.

LEAKERS AND LIARS

Editorial from the New York Post on the leak to the New York Times, Washington Post and LA Times of classified information by anti war democrats.

"Leading Democrats are playing politics with the lives of U.S. troops in Iraq. By undermining U.S. policy there, they are emboldening the very terrorist movement they say they hope to defeat.

The Democrats - and their newsroom allies - thought the NIE would prove to be their smoking gun. But if Americans actually take the time to read the report, it will be seen for what it is.

Nothing of the sort."

(To read the entire Editorial click on the title above for a link)

4000 al-Qaida Terrorist who will NOT be getting Trials at "Club Gitmo!"

From the Associated Press"

"In a new audio message Thursday, the leader of al-Qaida in Iraq..................
said that more than 4,000 foreign insurgent fighters have been killed in Iraq since the U.S.-led invasion in 2003.

That comment was believed to be the first major statement from insurgents in Iraq about their losses.

"The blood has been spilled in Iraq of more than 4,000 foreigners who came to fight," said the man, who identified himself as Abu Hamza al-Muhajir also known as Abu Ayyub al-Masri the leader of al-Qaida in Iraq."

Iraq is like one of those ant traps where the ants are attracted to the sweet poison and are killed. Foreign al-Qaida terrorist are attracted to Iraq and are killed and there is not one ACLU lawyer who can protect them. Of course, if we cut and run we will be shutting down the killer trap.

O' Thank Heaven for Seven Eleven!

Convenience store operator 7-Eleven Inc. is dropping Venezuela-backed Citgo as its gasoline supplier at more than 2,100 locations and switching to its own brand of fuel....-Eleven spokesman Margaret Chabris said that, "Regardless of politics, we sympathize with many Americans' concern over derogatory comments about our country and its leadership recently made by Venezuela's president Hugo Chavez."

Is Paul Pillar the leaker of intelligence information ?

Check out Michelle Malkin's blog (by clicking on the title above for a link) for her evidence of who is the selective leaker of classified intelligence of the National Intelligence Estimate. The following quote from a Wall Street Journal Editorial two years ago is very relevant today:

Keep in mind that none of these CIA officials were ever elected to anything, and that they are employed to provide accurate information to officials who present their policy choices for voter judgment. Yet what the CIA insurgents are essentially doing here, with their leaks and insubordination, is engaging in a policy debate. Given the timing of the latest leaks so close to an election, they are now clearly trying to defeat President Bush and elect John Kerry. Yet somehow the White House stands accused of "politicizing" intelligence?

The War We Must Win

By Jeff Jacoby, of the Boston Globe

THE CONSENSUS in the intelligence community is that the war in Iraq has worsened the threat from radical Islamic violence and hurt US efforts to combat terrorism. So, at any rate, say The New York Times (``Spy Agencies Say Iraq War Worsens Terrorism Threat") and The Washington Post (``Spy Agencies Say Iraq War Hurting US Terror Fight"), which reported on the most recent National Intelligence Estimate in front-page stories on Sunday. But is it true?


The NIE was a classified document until yesterday, when President Bush declassified some of its findings. The Times and Post stories were written, it appears, by reporters who hadn't read the document they were characterizing. The papers' headlines were unequivocal, but the stories themselves never actually quoted the NIE. They merely passed along the spin -- and advanced the anti-Bush agenda -- of the anonymous sources who chose this moment to leak secret intelligence for political purposes.

Has the Iraq war undermined efforts to defeat the jihadis? Maybe, but the Times and Post stories don't come close to making that case. They claim that new terrorists are being enlisted at a growing rate and that America's presence in Iraq has become a major terrorist recruitment tool. That hardly adds up to a weakened war against Al Qaeda and its accomplices. D-Day and the battle of Midway triggered some of the most ferocious fighting of World War II and resulted in tens of thousands of additional Allied casualties. But would anyone say that they undermined the drive to defeat Nazi Germany and Imperial Japan?

After 9/11, the United States went to war against Islamic totalitarianism; since 2003 that war has focused most dramatically on Iraq. It stands to reason that Iraq is therefore the focal point in the jihadis' war against the West. President Bush has made that point repeatedly, quoting Osama bin Laden's declaration that the war in Iraq is ``the most serious issue today for the whole world " and will end in ``victory and glory or misery and humiliation." Has US military action in Iraq inflamed the global jihad? Undoubtedly. But just imagine how galvanized it would be by a US retreat.

This much we do know: There has been no successful terrorist attack on the United States in the years since 9/11, whereas the years leading up to 9/11 saw one act of terrorism after another, including the bombing of the World Trade Center, the destruction of the US embassies in Africa, and the attack on the USS Cole. The Bush administration must be doing something right -- something the Clinton administration, on whose watch bin Laden and Al Qaeda launched and escalated their
terror war, failed to do......

(To read the rest of the column click on the title for a link)

Clinton: "Pampered Peacock"

Bill Clinton interview on FOX NEWS

Bill Clinton, Pampered Prima Donna
By Brent Bozell III:

"It's easy to see from this display that Clinton is a pampered peacock, a prima donna who expects the media elite to love him, and explodes like a spoiled child when anyone dares challenge him. He only expects a challenge from the radical right-wingers at Fox. That's what he calls anyone who would ruffle a fine feather of his glorious legacy-building project."

(Click on the title for a link to Bozell's entire column)

UPDATE; Kathleen Parker's take on Clinton and his losing his temper on FOX NEWS;

Clinton's demeanor with Wallace betrayed something more than mere annoyance. His face assumed what the Irish called a "warp-spasm,'' a transformative anger that revealed a repressed rage and the kind of sneer that gets schoolboys punched in the nose.

Before answering the question, Clinton attacked Wallace's journalistic credibility, saying: "You did Fox's bidding,'' and calling it a "nice little conservative hit job.''

"You've got that little smirk on your face,'' Clinton said, "and you think you're so clever.''

Clinton's hostility was surprising because it was so disproportionate to the query...His inner Gollum was visible beneath a roiling rage.

Clinton, we are constantly told, is immensely charming and charismatic. Narcissists usually are. Their social and political success is owing to their ability to project what people want to see. Friends and foe agree that few are better at this than Clinton.

But narcissists also become enraged when things don't go their way, when the attention they covet is diverted. Experience tells us, too, that manipulators are always contemptuous of those they manipulate....the wagging finger. Clinton's marmish scolding of Wallace was a telling moment, much like another time he wagged his finger on television.

He did not have sex with that woman, Miss Lewinsky. And he did not fail to connect the dots concerning that man, Mr. bin Laden.

Home at last!

After writing about World War I last Friday this story was in the news today. From the Washington Post:

His generation passed away, with everyone who loved him, everyone who mourned him.
A lost doughboy. But now he is found.
Discovered by chance, unearthed in 2003 by archaeologists looking for ancient remains, Pvt. Francis Lupo of Cincinnati has returned from the front at last, nearly 90 years after boarding a troop ship for France. Today, the Army will bury him again, this time with honors at Arlington National Cemetery, laying to rest possibly the longest-missing U.S. soldier ever recovered and identified: a ghost of World War I.....

His battalion was pushing through wheat fields in northern France under German artillery and machine-gun fire that summer Saturday when Lupo was killed in the bombed-out French town of Ploisy. Hastily buried in a shell crater, he was left behind with the rest of the dead as the battalion kept up its advance....

Anthropologists and other specialists confirmed for the military that Lupo's bones were among those in the hole. But who was the other poor fellow?
Unknown. What's left of him is boxed on a lab shelf, a number without a name.
Another ghost.
Lupo's service record and a lab report describe a fireplug of a man -- muscular, 5 feet tall, maybe shorter, with olive skin, black hair and brown eyes. He was inducted Oct. 3, 1917, and went off to fight in size 51/2 boots.
His Sicilian-born mother, who grieved his loss terribly until she died in 1949, kept a big picture of him in uniform in her parlor.
The niece, Rachel Kleisinger, will be the only person at the service who knows for sure what Lupo looked like, from a photo she saw as a girl.
"Such a handsome boy," says Kleisinger, 73. "And very proud, I think."
Lupo grew up near Cincinnati's riverfront, one of eight siblings born to Sicilian immigrants, his father a laborer....
After a months-long U.S. buildup in France, doughboys began fighting in major battles in 1918 -- just as Lupo reached the French front -- and helped break a murderous stalemate that had consumed a generation of European youth.
The campaign, eventually known as the Second Battle of the Marne, was a victory for the Allies. Then the war ended in November.
The price for the United States: about 116,000 dead, roughly 53,000 in battle, most of the rest from illnesses.....
In 2004, bones and artifacts were delivered to the Defense Department's Joint POW/MIA Accounting Command in Hawaii. Specialists there work to find and identify missing U.S. military personnel. None had dealt with a doughboy before.
After the lab finished its work last fall, the Army searched for next of kin, eventually finding Kleisinger in Kentucky. She is a daughter of Lupo's youngest sibling, Rose, long deceased. Rose was 7 when her brother Francis went off to Camp Sherman.
So Kleisinger will get the tri-folded flag at Arlington. No old men of Lupo's E Company will be there; of the 4.7 million Americans in uniform during his war, all but a dozen or so are dead.
And his mother, in her grave 57 years.
"I used to go to church with her and help her light the candles," Kleisinger says of Anna Lupo. "She would always ask the Blessed Mother to please bring him home. And I kept telling her, you know: 'He can't come home, Grandma. He's gone.' But she could just never accept it."

(Click on the title for a link to the entire story )

Movie: Flyboys ****

Tonight after work my wife and I went to see FLYBOYS (4* out of 5*). This is a movie about Americans that volunteered to be fighter pilots for France during World War I in the Lafayette Escadrille. This is before the United States got into the war. (see post below for history of unit). I liked the movie and my wife was pleasantly surprised. Many of the critics have panned the movie because of the many war movie cliches; but, I think most of them work in this movie. There are a lots of production values in reproducing France in WW I. I liked the history, music, costumes and the cinimatography. The story is a typical one for this type of movie. The aerial combat scenes are very well done. There is a love story for the lady's. Is that sexist? I think that many of the movie critics are anti war pacifist who hate war movies unless they are blatantly pacifist. Go see it on the big screen. I will defiantly get it when it comes out on DVD. In watching the movie I kept thinking about Quentin Roosevelt the son of Teddy Roosevelt. Encouraged by his father, who was a war hero for charging up San Juan Hill during the Spanish American War, he joined the US Army Air Corps where he became a fighter pilot during World War I after the U.S. entered the war. Extremely popular with his fellow pilots and known for his daring, he was killed in aerial combat over France. His father died shortly thereafter of a broken heart. Again, Freedom isn't free.Click on the title above for a link to the Internet Movie Data Base (IMDB) page for Flyboys.

World War I

Most young people today have a very poor knowledge of World War II and even less of World War I. Both my Uncle Herman and my step Grandfather Louis fought in France during WWI. They were both in the American Army having traveled from South Dakota. They had probably never been more than 100 miles from home before. As a child growing up my uncle Herman would talk about his time in France. He in his later years gave me an American Heritage Book on WW I. In looking through it he had penciled in the place he had been. I still have that book. He would even sing French songs he had learned. My step grandfather talked less of the war. He was wounded in the war and had a metal plate in his head. He was a very smart man who spent the rest of his working years driving a bus. One thing he was very proud of was one of his officers in France was a guy by the name of Harry Truman. Their all gone now the WWI veterans or at least most of them. I can remember when the WW I veterans were the grandfathers and the dad's were the WW II Vets. Years after he had returned home uncle Herm would still talk of that French wine.In many ways It was the high point of his life, serving in France. After the war he came home to South Dakota and endured the depression "dirt poor". During WWII he followed my parents to Utah to work at a navy depo. He remained there after the war and retired there before moving to Coos Bay to be near my parents. I still have the giant American Flag that was given to the family by the Veterans Administration when he died. Freedom isn't Free.

Lafayette Escadrille

The Oregon Ducks have a bye this weekend so lets have a history lesson in preparation for the movie Flyboys that is opening this weekend. I will post a review after I see it Saturday or Sunday.

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The Lafayette Escadrille was a squadron of the French Air Service, the Aéronautique Militaire, during World War I composed largely of American fighter pilots.

The squadron was formed in April 1916 as the "Escadrille Américaine" (number 124) in Luxeuil prior to U.S. entry to the war. Dr. Edmund L. Gros, director of the American Ambulance Service, and Norman Prince, an American expatriate already flying for France, led the efforts to persuade the French government of the value of a volunteer American unit fighting for France. The aim was to have their efforts recognized by the American public and thus hopefully to rouse interests in abandoning neutrality and join the fight.

The squadron was quickly moved to Bar-le-Duc, closer to the front. A German objection filed with the U.S. government led to the name change in December.

The planes and their mechanics, and the uniforms, were French, as was the commander, Captain Georges Thenault. Five French pilots were also on the roster, serving at various times. Raoul Lufbery, a French-born American citizen, became the squadron's first ace.

The first major action seen by the squadron was at the Battle of Verdun. The squadron suffered heavy losses, but its core group of 38 was rapidly replenished by other Americans arriving from overseas. So many volunteered that a "Lafayette Flying Corps" was formed in part to take the overflow. Altogether 265 American volunteers served in the Corps.

Although not formally part of the Lafayette Escadrille, other Americans such as Michigan's Fred Zinn, who was a pioneer of aerial photography, fought as part of the French Foreign Legion and later the French Aéronautique Militaire.

Sixty-three members died during the war, 51 of them in action against the enemy. The Corps is credited with 159 enemy kills. It amassed 31 Croix de Guerre, and its pilots won seven Médailles Militaire and four Légions d'Honneur. Eleven of its members were flying aces. The core squadron suffered nine losses and was credited with 34 victories.

The Escadrille had a reputation for daring, recklessness, and a party atmosphere; the officers' club was notorious. Two lion cubs, named "Whiskey" and "Soda", were made squadron mascots.

On February 8, 1918, the squadron was reorganized into the U.S. Army as the 103rd Pursuit Squadron. For a brief period it retained its planes and mechanics. Most of its veteran members were set to work training newly arriving American pilots.

It can also be noted that the world's first black military aviator, Eugene Bullard, flew with the Lafayette Flying Corps.

The story of the Lafayette Escadrille has been adapted into the 2006 film Flyboys, directed by Tony Bill and starring James Franco.

Get Your Oklahoma Pouters Gear Here!

OREGON 34 OKLHOMA 33
Get : Hats, Shirts, Mugs, Stickers & Bumper Stickers Click on to the title above for a link to a site that will sell you "pOUters" gear! Go Ducks beat Arizona State!

Jihad Enablers by Jonah Goldberg

The best book for illuminating what's going on in the Muslim "street" isn't some weighty treatise on Islam; it's a short little tract called "White Guilt" by Shelby Steele. The book isn't even about Islam. Steele focuses on white liberals and the black radicals who've been gaming them ever since the 1960s. Whites, he argues, have internalized their own demonization. Deep down they fear that maybe they are imperialistic, racist bastards, and they are desperate to prove otherwise. In America, black radicals figured this out a while ago and have been dunning liberal whites ever since.

The West is caught in a similarly dysfunctional cycle of extortion and intimidation with Islam, but on a grander and far more violent scale. Whether it's the pope's comments or some Danish cartoons, self-appointed spokesmen for the Islamic street say, "You have offended a billion Muslims," which really means, "There are so many of us, you should watch out." And if you didn't get the message, just look around for the burning embassies and murdered infidels. They're not hard to find.

In response, the West apologizes and apologizes. Radical Muslims, who are not stupid, take note and become emboldened by these displays of weakness and capitulation. And the next time, they demand two pounds of flesh. Meanwhile, the entire global conversation starts from the assumption that the West is doing something wrong by tolerating freedom of speech, among other things.


(To read the entire column click on the title for a link)

Oregonian Newspaper in Southern Oregon

For the last three weeks I have been frustrated by the Sunday Oregonian newspaper. I have been a subscriber for the last 35 years. No this is not about their liberal bias! It's about the stale news and sports contained in the edition that is delivered here in Southern Oregon. Our Sunday Oregonian is published Saturday MORNING! Thus we get NO college football coverage on the Sports Page. In the past we always would get coverage of the early afternoon games. I can understand if they can't cover a late afternoon game or a Saturday night game but no coverage whatsoever. I called the local distributor and he said it was a decision made in Portland. He told me several subscriber were so upset they had canceled their subscription. I called the guy in Portland who set the policy and left a message on his voice mail. This is an example of a bureaucrat trying to save a few cents and creating a lot of ill will. No wonder newspapers are dying. In a day when USA Today, The Wall Street Journal and the New York Times are available overnight almost everywhere in the United States you would think the Portland Oregonian could truck down a later edition to Medford and the rest of Southern Oregon. But of course there is nothing south of Eugene! ( sarcasm)The newspaper says we can get the stories on their web site. Then why would I want to subscribe?

UPDATE: In a six-month period ending March 31, The Oregonian's weekday circulation dropped from 333,515 to 323,017 and Sunday circulation dropped from 394,992 to 384,729.

That was a larger decrease than the newspaper experienced in the six months ending Sept. 30, 2005, when weekday circulation dropped from 337,707 and Sunday circulation dropped from 405,295. I wonder why!

New Oregon Duck Uniform by Nike

University of Oklahoma President "Certified Idiot" (Oregon vs Oklahoma Football Game)

Matt Hayes of the Sporting News:

So this is what it has come to. Spineless punks have made death threats to the instant replay official who blew a call in Oregon's victory over Oklahoma.

You know who I blame? Oklahoma president David Boren.

Boys and girls, let me introduce you to a certified idiot.

Instead of defusing the situation, instead of stepping to a podium and stating that all the bellyaching must stop and that everyone needs a little perspective, he threw napalm on the already ridiculously inflamed situation.

He called the blown calls "an outrageous injustice" and demanded that Oregon's win over OU be erased from the record book.

Is this guy serious?

If I'm a student at OU, if I'm a professor at OU or an administrator, I'm utterly embarrassed and humiliated by Boren's reaction. Doesn't this guy have a land grant to chase down?

And while you're at it, Davey Boy, how about showing the same amount of outrage last fall when a terrorist blew himself up on your campus? Or how about some concern after your star tailback "loaned" a car from a local dealership and "returned" it a few weeks later and didn't pay a dime? Oh, that's right, we were told anyone in Norman who walks into that car dealership can get the same deal......

(To read the rest of the column click on the title above for a link.)

Oklahoma Reaction, from Indignation to Insanity (Oregon vs Oklahoma Football Game)

By Pat Forde of ESPN :

The Oklahoma reaction has become an overreaction. In fact, it has transitioned from righteous indignation to outright insanity.

Oklahoma president David Boren called for the OU-Oregon game to be eliminated from the record books.The actions of school president David Boren (3) make you wonder whether he isn't actually the booster club president instead of the guy running an institution of higher learning. The former governor and U.S. senator pushed out his pouty lip and dashed off a petulant letter to Big 12 commissioner Kevin Weiberg (4) that is embarrassing on multiple levels. "… The Big 12 should request that the game should not go into the record books as a win or a loss by either team in light of the level of officiating mistakes," ....

What's truly sad and deeply disappointing to The Dash is the fact that Boren should have such an inexcusable breakdown in perspective.

Is there really nothing better for the president to do at the University of Oklahoma? Like, maybe check in on the college of arts and sciences? Or, if he's that terribly concerned about the football program, perhaps he could lend a hand to the compliance office and help monitor players' jobs at local car dealerships. Y'know, make sure they actually show up and do some work.

If the president can put down his pompon for a minute, he'll realize a couple of things:

The officals' decisions surrounding an onside kick in the OU-Oregon riled up Sooner Nation.1. Bad calls happen. In every game. A few times a year, they can play a critical role in a game's outcome. Are we going to set a precedent of presidential hissy fits after each critical blown call?

2. The game did not end on this bad call. Oklahoma still had the lead, still had a chance to win. It didn't get the job done.

But instead of absorbing this as an object lesson -- life is not fair, but you have to deal with it -- the school president is setting the sore-loser tone.

Coach Bob Stoops (5) went off shortly after Boren, all but declaring the officials and the Pac-10 unforgiven for the damage done to Oklahoma's season. (Bob: You can still win the Big 12 title and go to a BCS bowl. And you weren't going to win anybody's national championship anyway. You might have sustained the illusion for another few weeks by winning this game, but it wasn't going to happen.)...

Then again, maybe Boren is simply following presidential precedent at Oklahoma. It was OU prez George Cross who once explained to the state legislature a need for more funding because, "I would like to build a university which the football team can be proud of."

In closing, The Dash will take the obnoxious step of quoting itself, just to help the honorable president Boren. This was from an August column enumerating 23 new rules of conduct for college football fans:


If the scoreboard says you lost, you lost. That's not going to change. Take an hour to vent postgame, then try to regain your sanity. Do not diminish your quality of life -- and the quality of life of those around you -- by spewing for days about the refs who cheated your team, the flagrant league bias against your team or the complete lack of class displayed by the team that beat your team. Your team l-o-s-t. Try to deal.


To read the entire column ckick on the title above for a link.

Sore Losers = Oklahoma Sooners

NORMAN, Okla. -- University of Oklahoma president David Boren sent a letter to Big 12 Commissioner Kevin Weiberg on Monday, asking him to push for the Sooners' game against Oregon to be eliminated from the record books and have the Pac-10 officials involved in the game suspended for the remainder of the season.

I know David Boren, the University of Oklahoma president, is a former Democratic Senator from Oklahoma which may explain his actions. He is following his role model Al Gore another sore looser. I used to have a lot of respect for the Sooners and their fans but no more. I was at the game and have watched the replay on TV and for every mistake by the refs that favored Oregon I can point to a mistake that helped Oklahoma.

For example where the play clock expired before Oklahoma snapped the ball, along with the mistake on properly marking the ball giving Oklahoma an undeserved first down, not to mention the most blatant offensive pass interference penalty I think I have ever seen that was not called aginst Oklahoma..

As an Oregon fan said, "Win with class, lose with class. Don't act like you're special just because you're Oklahoma."

Ducks Ranked # 12

Oregon moved up to No. 13 in The Associated Press poll of the media released Sunday after its dramatic 34-33 victory over Oklahoma the previous day.

The Ducks are even higher in the USA Today voting of coaches, at No. 12 this week.

Oregon has a bye this week before resuming Pac-10 play on Sept. 30 at Arizona State, with the Sun Devils ranked No. 20 now but facing a difficult game at No. 22 California on Saturday.

Oregon Ducks Beat Oklahoma Sooners 34 to 33

I just got back from Eugene. What a wild game! I am exhausted. The crowd was very loud and I did my part. I told my friend with the Ducks down by two touchdowns & 2 minutes to go that the Ducks would win the game with a touchdown an onside kick and a second touchdown in two minutes and they did!

Dennis Dixon and No. 18 Oregon rallied for two touchdowns in the final 72 seconds and the Ducks blocked a field goal on the final play to seal a wild 34-33 victory over No. 15 Oklahoma on Saturday.
Dixon's 16-yard keeper with 1:12 left brought the Ducks within 33-27 and set up the onside kick attempt.

The Ducks (3-0) recovered the kick on their own 48, with 1:02 to go.

After a pass interference call on Oklahoma again had Sooners coach Bob Stoops shaking his head on the sideline, Dixon threw a 23-yard TD pass to Brian Paysinger with 46 seconds to give Oregon the lead.

Oklahoma wasn't done, though, as Reggie Smith returned a squib kick 55 yards to the Ducks' 27.

With no timeouts the Sooners ran one play, run into the line by Adrian Peterson, then spiked the ball with a second left. Garrett Hartley's 44-yard field-goal attempt wasn't high enough to clear the line and the Ducks celebrated.

Oregon had jumped to an early lead, but Peterson's 17-yard touchdown run early in the fourth quarter put Oklahoma ahead 27-20. Peterson finished with 211 yards on 34 carries, including 145 yards in the fourth quarter.

Dixon completed 26 of 41 passes for 341 yards and two touchdowns. He was intercepted twice. Jonathan Stewart, often compared to Peterson, had 23 carries for 144 yards.

Stewart asserted himself in the battle of the backs first, scoring on a short dash on Oregon's first series before the two sides traded field goals.

Today's crowd of 59,269 is the largest ever to watch a college football game at Autzen Stadium, as well as within the State of Oregon. It also marks Oregon=s 44th consecutive sellout at Autzen Stadium

OREGON VS OKLAHOMA - ALL- TIME SCORES

10/4/58 AT OKLAHOMA: Oklahoma 6, Oregon 0
9/17/66 AT OKLAHOMA: Oklahoma 17, Oregon 0
9/23/72 AT OKLAHOMA: Oklahoma 68, Oregon 3
9/13/75 AT OKLAHOMA: Oklahoma 62, Oregon 7
9/18/04 AT OKLAHOMA: Oklahoma 31, Oregon 7
12/29/O4 AT SAN DIEGO : Oklahoma 17, Oregon 14 (Holiday Bowl)
9/16/06 AT OREGON: Oregon 34, Oklahoma 33

A day to cherish !

Football Weekend

Two big games for me this weekend.

The South Medford High Panthers will have their first home game Friday night against Tualatin a school from a suburb of Portland. My wife and I will be there. There is nothing like the smell of grass and hotdogs under the lights. Go Panthers!

The University of Oregon Ducks will host the Oklahoma Sooners on Saturday in Eugene. The game will be broadcast on ABC TV. The whole state of Oregon is excited about this game and the Sooners should expect a very loud crowd. Just ask Lloyd Carr of Michigan. I will ride up to the game (3 hr trip from Medford) with a friend of mine who will be driving his big black convertible. He is a bachelor who refers to the car as the "Babe Mobile." My wife will be staying in Medford to attend a wedding of the daughter of a good friend of hers. Who would schedule a wedding on the same day as the Ducks / Sooner game at Autzen Stadium in Eugene? I have told both of my children that if they get married on the same day as a Duck home game they can have it without me. Go Ducks!

Hot Day At Autzen Stadium In Eugene, Oregon

As I posted below It was a very hot day in Eugene at the Oregon vs Stanford football game Labor Day Weekend. A hand held spray bottle ( Green and Yellow of course) was very comforting on the 91 ++++ degree day in the sun. But, it was worth it as the Ducks won. Go Ducks!

End of Summer in Medford, Oregon

The Calling of Our Generation by President George W. Bush, 9/11/06.

THE PRESIDENT: Good evening. Five years ago, this date -- September the 11th -- was seared into America's memory. Nineteen men attacked us with a barbarity unequaled in our history. They murdered people of all colors, creeds, and nationalities -- and made war upon the entire free world. Since that day, America and her allies have taken the offensive in a war unlike any we have fought before....

On 9/11, our nation saw the face of evil. Yet on that awful day, we also witnessed something distinctly American: ordinary citizens rising to the occasion, and responding with extraordinary acts of courage....


Since the horror of 9/11, we've learned a great deal about the enemy. We have learned that they are evil and kill without mercy -- but not without purpose. We have learned that they form a global network of extremists who are driven by a perverted vision of Islam -- a totalitarian ideology that hates freedom, rejects tolerance, and despises all dissent....

The war against this enemy is more than a military conflict. It is the decisive ideological struggle of the 21st century, and the calling of our generation. Our nation is being tested in a way that we have not been since the start of the Cold War...

We face an enemy determined to bring death and suffering into our homes. America did not ask for this war, and every American wishes it were over. So do I. But the war is not over -- and it will not be over until either we or the extremists emerge victorious. If we do not defeat these enemies now, we will leave our children to face a Middle East overrun by terrorist states and radical dictators armed with nuclear weapons. We are in a war that will set the course for this new century -- and determine the destiny of millions across the world....
Al Qaeda and other extremists from across the world have come to Iraq to stop the rise of a free society in the heart of the Middle East...

Whatever mistakes have been made in Iraq, the worst mistake would be to think that if we pulled out, the terrorists would leave us alone. They will not leave us alone. They will follow us. The safety of America depends on the outcome of the battle in the streets of Baghdad. Osama bin Laden calls this fight "the Third World War" -- and he says that victory for the terrorists in Iraq will mean America's "defeat and disgrace forever." If we yield Iraq to men like bin Laden, our enemies will be emboldened; they will gain a new safe haven; they will use Iraq's resources to fuel their extremist movement...


We are fighting to maintain the way of life enjoyed by free nations. And we're fighting for the possibility that good and decent people across the Middle East can raise up societies based on freedom and tolerance and personal dignity..... This struggle has been called a clash of civilizations. In truth, it is a struggle for civilization.
We are now in the early hours of this struggle between tyranny and freedom. Amid the violence, some question whether the people of the Middle East want their freedom, and whether the forces of moderation can prevail. For 60 years, these doubts guided our policies in the Middle East. And then, on a bright September morning, it became clear that the calm we saw in the Middle East was only a mirage. Years of pursuing stability to promote peace had left us with neither. So we changed our policies, and committed America's influence in the world to advancing freedom and democracy as the great alternatives to repression and radicalism...


Do we have the confidence to do in the Middle East what our fathers and grandfathers accomplished in Europe and Asia? By standing with democratic leaders and reformers, by giving voice to the hopes of decent men and women, we're offering a path away from radicalism. And we are enlisting the most powerful force for peace and moderation in the Middle East: the desire of millions to be free.

Across the broader Middle East, the extremists are fighting to prevent such a future. Yet America has confronted evil before, and we have defeated it -- sometimes at the cost of thousands of good men in a single battle. When Franklin Roosevelt vowed to defeat two enemies across two oceans, he could not have foreseen D-Day and Iwo Jima -- but he would not have been surprised at the outcome. When Harry Truman promised American support for free peoples resisting Soviet aggression, he could not have foreseen the rise of the Berlin Wall -- but he would not have been surprised to see it brought down. Throughout our history, America has seen liberty challenged, and every time, we have seen liberty triumph with sacrifice and determination....

Earlier this year, I traveled to the United States Military Academy. I was there to deliver the commencement address to the first class to arrive at West Point after the attacks of September the 11th. That day I met a proud mom named RoseEllen Dowdell. She was there to watch her son, Patrick, accept his commission in the finest Army the world has ever known. A few weeks earlier, RoseEllen had watched her other son, James, graduate from the Fire Academy in New York City. On both these days, her thoughts turned to someone who was not there to share the moment: her husband, Kevin Dowdell. Kevin was one of the 343 firefighters who rushed to the burning towers of the World Trade Center on September the 11th -- and never came home. His sons lost their father that day, but not the passion for service he instilled in them. Here is what RoseEllen says about her boys: "As a mother, I cross my fingers and pray all the time for their safety -- but as worried as I am, I'm also proud, and I know their dad would be, too."

Our nation is blessed to have young Americans like these -- and we will need them. Dangerous enemies have declared their intention to destroy our way of life. They're not the first to try, and their fate will be the same as those who tried before....
The spirit of our people is the source of America's strength. And we go forward with trust in that spirit, confidence in our purpose, and faith in a loving God who made us to be free.

Thank you, and may God bless you.

Two Pines Smokehouse and John Wayne Saloon

On Sunday I performed a wedding ceremony at the River House in Shady Cove along the Rogue River in Oregon. My wife road along and after the wedding we had a late lunch at the John Wayne Saloon at the Two Pines Smokehouse also in Shady Cove. It was our first time and I was pleasantly surprised. I though they may have one or two pictures of John Wayen but there were pictures of "The Duke" everywhere with some nice statutes. It was very well done and the food was good and plentiful. They had a big screen TV with a 49ers game on. They also play John Wayne Movies. The other parts of the restaurant are also done in a western motif. There were lots of guns and mounted wildlife on the walls. To go to their website click on the title above for a link. They have got lots of pictures. As their web site states:

Two Pines Smokehouse and Western Museum is proud to present a comprehensive collection of Western artifacts and sculptures devoted to preserving and interpreting the rich history and traditions of the Old West. Beautiful flower gardens, waterfalls and sculptures, including a 9&? foot Frederic Remington statue entitled 'Rattlesnake', greet you as you enter the front of the building and set the mood for a journey back in time to the heritage of the American West

. A great place and I will be back.

"Beaver Nation" ?

Go Ducks!

A New Low in Bush Hatred!

Jeff Jacoby of the Boston Globe has written a column on how the left hates George W Bush as follows:

SIX YEARS into the Bush administration, are there any new lows to which the Bush-haters can sink?
George W. Bush has been smeared by the left with every insult imaginable.....What else can they say about Bush? That they want him killed?

They already say it.

On Air America, talk show host Randi Rhodes recommended doing to Bush what Michael Corleone, in ``The Godfather, Part II," does to his brother. ``Like Fredo," she said, ``somebody ought to take him out fishing and phuw!" -- then imitated the sound of a gunshot. In the Guardian, a leading British daily, columnist Charlie Brooker issued a plea: ``John Wilkes Booth, Lee Harvey Oswald, John Hinckley Jr. -- where are you now that we need you?"

Which brings us to ``Death of a President," a new movie about the assassination of George W. Bush.

Written and directed by British filmmaker Gabriel Range, the movie premieres today at the Toronto Film Festival and will air next month on Britain's Channel 4. Shot in the style of a documentary, the movie opens with what looks like actual footage of Bush being gunned down by a sniper as he leaves a Chicago hotel in October 2007. Through the use of digital special effects, the film superimposes the president's face onto the body of the actor playing him, so that the mortally wounded man collapsing on the screen will seem, all too vividly, to be Bush himself......

I can't help wondering, though, whether some of those who see this film will take away rather a different message. John Hinckley, in his derangement, had the idea that shooting the president was the way to impress a movie star. After seeing ``Death of a President," the next Hinckley may get a more grandiose idea: Shooting the president is the way to become a movie star.

To read the entire column click on the title above for a link.

Ducks Win!

The Oregon Ducks beat Fresno State in Fresno 31 to 24 in a hard fought night football game before a hostile crowd in a game that was not decided until the last play. The Ducks took the lead for the last time late in the 4th quarter when it scored a touchdown off a fake field goal. The Ducks then held on to prevent Fresno State from scoring to win the game. Go Duck! Bring on Oklahoma who will be in Eugene at Autzen Stadium next Saturday.

Bill O'Reilly: "And just as it was in the 1930's, the world is refusing to confront the growing danger"

It's Saturday morning and it's time for college football and I have a cold. But the words of Bill O'Reilly send a chill down my back and not because of my cold. AS someone who loves history I see history repeating it's self. Will the midterm elections be like the Draft Bill that passed the US Congress by ONE vote on the eve of WWII. What if the Draft Bill had not passed! Bill O'Reilly sometimes gets it wrong but today he is dead on:

Seventy years ago this month, Adolf Hitler began seizing the assets of German Jews. He had waited until the summer Olympics in Berlin were finished and the world had seen the might of the Third Reich. Already, Hilter had established concentration camps for "undesirables" and forced many Jewish professionals out of their jobs. He had also harassed Catholics and Protestants who dared speak against his racist policies.

The parallels between the rise of fascism in pre-World War II Germany and the rise of Islamic fascism today are startling. And just as it was in the 1930s, the world is refusing to confront the growing danger.

Iran, a nation committed to wiping Israel off the map, is defying the United Nations by refusing to obey the nuclear disarmament treaty. Hitler defied the League of Nations and rearmed, creating a fierce military threat while openly advocating the diminishment of Jews and "Aryan racial purity." If Iran manages to obtain nuclear weapons, it, too, will become a menace to the entire world....



But the most unsettling situation is here in the United States. According to polls taken in the 1930s, as many as 80 percent of Americans were against confronting Hitler at that time. Only Pearl Harbor caused public opinion to shift.

But today, five years after 9/11, many Americans still do not understand the worldwide jihad and buy into the false premise that there is no linkage between what is happening in Iraq, the policies of Iran, the murderous actions of al Qaeda, and the lethal anti-Jewish strategy of Hamas and Hezbollah.

While there are certainly rivalries and differences among all the Islamic fascists, their goals are very similar: Kill Jews and damage America.

So why is history repeating itself? Why can't we Americans wise up and see the Islamic fascist threat? I blame the news media first, and irresponsible politicians like Howard Dean second. The hatred the committed left-wing press has for President Bush is almost unprecedented. The liberal media is obsessed with Bush and devalue him 24/7. This means that even when the president is correct on policy, the Bush haters will not admit it. They have succeeded, especially overseas, in convincing millions of people that Bush is the world's greatest threat, not the fanatical Muslim jihad...



The Iranian mullahs, bin Laden, Hezbollah and the rest of the racist killers well understand that America is a divided nation. In the new book "The Looming Tower," it is well documented that bin Laden preached openly about America's lack of resolve. Time after time, the Islamic fascists have attacked; time after time the USA and world have failed to respond with a knockout punch.

And that is the crux of this matter. Americans are certainly entitled to debate the wisdom and effectiveness of the current campaign to defeat Islamic fascism, but defeat it we must. For if we don't, it is just a matter of time before more of us lie dead in the streets. Like Hitler and his evil ambitions of seven decades ago, the jihadists of today are not going to stop until we make them stop.

Somebody tell Howard Dean.

To read the entire column click on the title above for a link.

Harry Carey, Jr

Harry Carey, Jr is one of the last surviving members of the "John Ford Stock Company" or in other words actors who Director John Ford would use over and over again in his movies. Harry Carey Jr has written a book about his acting career working with other actors like John Wayne. The picture above is from the cover of that book. Click on the title above for a link to Harry Carey Jr.'s web site where you can purchase a personally autographed copy of the book. I did A few year ago and if you are a fan of John Wayne or John Ford it is a good read. Harry's father was a star of silent westerns and a friend of John Ford's and that is how Jr met John Ford. His father was the actor who played the Vice President who presided over the U.S. Senate in Mr. Smith Goes To Washington with Jimmy Stewart.

Censorship of ABC 9/11 Movie

From Michelle Malkin's Blog

It's Fascism -- And It's Islamic: by Victor Davis Hanson

George Bush recently declared that we are at war with "Islamic fascism." Muslim-American groups were quick to express furor at the expression. Middle Eastern autocracies complained that it was provocative and insensitive.

Critics of the term chosen by the president, however, should remember what al-Qaida, the Taliban, Hezbollah, Hamas and other extremist Muslim groups have said and done. Like the fascists of the 1930s, the leaders of these groups are authoritarians who brook no dissent in their efforts to impose a comprehensive system of submission upon the unwilling.

Osama bin Laden urged Muslims to kill any American they could find, and then tried to fulfill that vow on Sept. 11. Hezbollah's Hassan Nasrallah bragged that "the Jews love life, so that is what we shall take away from them" - and then started a war. Iran's president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, promises to "wipe out" Israel, and is seeking the nuclear means to do so....

Islamic fascism is also anti-democratic and characteristically reactionary. It conjures up a past of Islamic influence that existed before the supposed corruption of modernism. Like Hitler, Mussolini and Tojo, who sought to recapture lost mythical Aryan, Roman or samurai purity, so Islamic fascists talk in romantic terms of the ancient caliphate.

Anti-Semitism is a tenet of fascism, then and now. But so is a generic hatred for unbelievers, homosexuals and blacks. The latter are slurred in the Arab media, while homosexuals were rounded up under the Taliban and the Iranian mullacracy...

Even now, it is hard to distinguish the slurs against Jews ("pigs and apes") used in the Middle Eastern media from the venom of Joseph Goebbels' propaganda. Goose-stepping and stiff-armed salutes at Iranian and Hezbollah parades are conscious imitations of past fascist armies....

The real problem is not that "Islamic fascism" is inaccurate or mean-spirited, but that this identification earns such vehement disdain in Europe and the United States. That hysteria may tell us as much about the state of a demoralized West as the term itself does about our increasingly emboldened enemies.

Victor Davis Hanson is a classicist and historian at the Hoover Institution, Stanford University,

Click on the title for a link to the full article

Abraham Lincoln

I have always been fascinated by Abraham Lincoln. One of the few Items I still own from my childhood is a metal bust of Lincoln that was a given out by a local Bank. It has a place of honor in our home. In times of stress I read from Carl Sandburg's "Abraham Lincoln: The War Years". I am not a religious person so I gain strength from the knowledge my problems are very small compared to what Lincoln faced in holding the Union together during the Civil War. It has gotten me through the death of both of my parents. I love the picture above as it was the last known picture taken of Lincoln before he was assassinated. In a large clear picture you see the weariness and sadness in his eyes and the toll the war has taken on him. For many year I thought the Gettysburg Address was the best thing he wrote but in recent years I have been drawn to his Second Inaugural Address. Both are carved into the walls of the Lincoln Memorial.In his Second Inaugural Lincoln was attempting to deal with the terrible slaughter of the war when he said:

If we shall suppose that American slavery is one of those offenses which, in the providence of God, must needs come, but which, having continued through His appointed time, He now wills to remove, and that He gives to both North and South this terrible war as the woe due to those by whom the offense came, shall we discern therein any departure from those divine attributes which the believers in a living God always ascribe to Him? Fondly do we hope, fervently do we pray, that this mighty scourge of war may speedily pass away. Yet, if God wills that it continue until all the wealth piled by the bondsman's two hundred and fifty years of unrequited toil shall be sunk, and until every drop of blood drawn with the lash shall be paid by another drawn with the sword, as was said three thousand years ago, so still it must be said "the judgments of the Lord are true and righteous altogether."

One of my proudest accomplishments in life is I have transferred my interest in History and in particular Lincoln to our Son a graduate student in history. His undergraduate senior thesis was on Lincoln. The best present I ever gave him was Carl Sandburg's 6 volume set on Lincoln. As is usually the case he has become much more the student of Lincoln that I ever was and for that I am very proud.

Is There Room for One More Terrorist at "Club Gitmo"?

Diplomats at the United Nations were sent into disarray yesterday when President Ahmadinejad of Iran declared that he intended to attend the General Assembly of the world body on September 19 and to debate his country's nuclear program with President Bush, who is due to address the Assembly that day.



It would be Fun if there was a debate between George W Bush and the Iranian President and during the hand shake before the beginning of the debate George W Bush puts handcuffs on Ahmadinejad and sends him off to our prison for terrorist at Guantanamo in Cuba. Diplomatic immunity you say.... Iran didn't follow diplomatic immunity when they held our embassy staff for 444 days.

The Iran hostage crisis was a 444-day period (about 14 months), during which student proxies of the new Iranian regime held hostage 66 diplomats and citizens of the United States inside the U.S. embassy in Tehran. The standoff lasted from November 4, 1979 until January 20, 1981.

So come on over to New York! Hay, maybe we can get the UN out of New York at the same time.

End of Summer

We put our daughter on a "red eye" flight back to Washington DC tonight. We had a good 6 day visit. On Wednesday when we picked her up at the Medford airport we stopped at the Red Robin for lunch. On Thursday we had lunch at Galice on the Rogue River and spent time at Indian Mary Park on the Rogue. That night she and I watched my DVD of Stand By Me. Friday we went to see the movie Invincible at Tinsel Town and had dinner at Callahan's the day before it burned down (see post below). We then walked around Ashland. On Saturday she and I went to the Oregon Duck football game in Eugene (see post below). On Sunday she spent some time with her grandmother and we had dinner at The Bella Union in Jacksonville outside on their back patio. Sunday night she and I watch John Wayne's The Searchers on DVD. Today, Labor Day we had a BBQ at home and she rested for her all night flight to Washington DC via San Francisco. Summers gone but college football is just starting and of course there is the mid term elections coming up. The fun never stops. It was good to have her home again! Later tonight we had a nice conversation with our son who is in North Dakota. As Paul Simon says, tomorrows another working day and I need to get some rest.

"Et Tu Colin" by John Burtis

"Caesar was stabbed, in the end, by one of his closest and most loyal friends, Brutus. And George Bush was betrayed throughout the course of the entire Fitzgerald inquisition by his one time friend and close confidant, Colin Powell, who knew all along the involvement of Richard Armitage, and chose to keep quiet.

Loyalty runs between many extremes.

Loyalty motivates US Marines to leave cover, under enemy fire, to rescue wounded comrades, often at the cost of their own lives, and pull them to safety and their comrades.

Fidelity will send firefighters rushing back inside a burning building when they hear the shrill scream of a personal alarm locator from a fallen brother or sister...

And on the other end of the scale, we should be able to find men in the United States willing to serve our government, capable of showing an understandable loyalty to the President with enough inner strength to tell him of the nature of gross and harmful injustices being committed against him when they occur, particularly when those having knowledge of the ongoing perfidies are the Secretary of State and his assistant, especially when we are at war....


However, it has become readily apparent, with the increasing evidence at hand in the great Patrick Fitzgerald total miscarriage of justice case, that Colin Powell knew that Richard Armitage let slip the dogs of rumor which consumed the press, the White House, the Democrats, and America in a nigh on three year flurry of accusatory affirmations about the current Administration, and kept his mouth shut about the affair, while knowing that his display of knowledge could have halted the entire affair, and spared the President gross rumors of dishonor. And with the knowledge of the cause of this base dishonor, came their heedlessness to the protection of our Constitution.

By lying doggo, Mr. Powell demonstrated his lack of loyalty to the President, yes, but to America, his country, and allowed a circus of enmity rivaling Watergate to engulf the government, causing no end of damage to everyone, high and low, from the President, to Dick Cheney, to Karl Rove, and to Scooter Libby, and to untold others.

In addition, his silence provided the most damaging of vile ammunition to the Democrats, their lickspittles in the mainstream "press," the empty talking heads limning the Democratic echoes found on the likes of CNN, and for the professional baiters and road weary hucksters like Bob Beckel, James Carville, and Eleanor Clift.

Why would the Secretary of State choose to allow such destruction to take place, knowing that he had the duty to stop it and could have at any time by simply walking to the White House, picking up the phone, or calling one or two newspapers?

What did Colin Powell have to gain by his reticence and why was Mr. Powell so eager to protect Mr. Richard Armitage?

Did Mr. Powell anguish over some slight? Was his advice not heeded on some major or minor international caper? Did Mr. Rumsfeld trump Mr. Powell on the great board game of political chess which is played every day in Mr. Bush's eight year home? Did Mr. Powell get scratched from a favored seat on Air Force One? Was Mr. Powell rebuked in a meeting, which rankled?

And if so, didn't Mr. Powell have the duty to speak his mind and then resign?

Does Mr. Powell carry some grudge from his time as Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, when serving at the behest of President Bush 41? Is there a problem packed in his ditty bag from the time of the cease fire ordered during the massacre on the Highway of Death during the waning hours of Gulf War I?...


Mr. Powell does, after all is said and done, share a good deal of the responsibility for the fate of this country. And if he cannot exercise his duties fairly, without carrying forever the stench of Brutus, then every one of us would have been far better off without his service, storied or otherwise.

But the idea that a Secretary of State, fourth in line to assume the office of the Presidency in case of a national emergency, should choose to openly allow an unprecedented three year attack on the Presidency, utterly diminishes Colin Powell in stature, character, and in the professed love of his country, to say nothing of totally abrogating his oath of office.

it seems that Colin Powell simply stabbed the President of the United States in the back because he could, because he would get away with it, because he would not be held to task for his grave misdeeds by a man known to turn the other cheek, and because an acceptable form of loyalty in American government to the United States of America, above all else, simply no longer exists.

With Colin Powell, as with Mr. Armitage, loyalty has finally gone the way of the Model-T.
And sadly, Mr. Powell's damage will be enshrined forever by the left in what appears to be their longest running hit piece of modern times.

Et tu, Colin"

To read the entire column click on the title for a link

Callahan's Restaurant- Lodge Destroyed By Fire

One of our favorite restaurants was destroyed by fire yesterday. Just Friday night my wife and I took our daughter(visiting from D.C.) out to dinner there. It burned down the next afternoon on Saturday. My wife and I have eaten there for the last 35 years but got to frequenting the place in the last 4 months. We celebrated my wife's Birthday there and took our Son there when he was home for the Summer. It was located at the top of the Siskyou Pass on I-5 as it goes over the mountains into California. It was a very homey place with a large fireplace. A very woodsy location. It had a folk singer with a guitar who played there most nights and and added a real restful atmosphere to the place. We in fact had eaten there five time in the last few months. It will be missed. I hope they rebuild. To read the news story from the Medford Mail Tribune click on the title above for a link.

Oregon Beats Stanford 48 to 10 & Dan Fouts Too!

On Sunday our Daughter and I drove up I-5 from Medford to Eugene to watch the Oregon Ducks beat the Stanford Cardinal in Oregon's first football game of the season. It was 92 degrees on our North side of the field in full sunshine. When you get almost 60,000 people in a bowl with very little breeze it gets very hot. Had a nice dinner after the game at Rolling Rapids Pizza (formerly Pietros) and got back to Medford by 9 pm. It was good to go to a game with her again. She was with me 12 years ago when Oregon beat Washington with the "The Pick" play when Kenny Wheaton intercepted a Washington pass to win the game. Yes, they played it on the stadium big screen TV as they always do.

One interesting thing that happened on the way home is we ran into Dan Fouts in Cottage Grove. Yes, the former Oregon and San Diego Chargers QB Dan Fouts. You know the one in the NFL Hall of Fame who worked with Dennis Miller on Monday Night Football. He is now a play by play broadcaster for ABC TV Sports and had just done the TV broadcast of the Oregon/Stanford game. We had stopped at a gas station in Cottage Grove and had gone into the mini mart and were walking down the small hall to the restrooms. Out from the Men's restroom comes this guy with a tie and dress shirt and a beard. My daughter later said he "looked familiar" and I later told her it was Dan Fouts. Just think he used the same towel dispenser I did!

Go Ducks.... on to Fresno State.