John Kerry to U.S. Military

You should have stayed in School!

John McCain vs John Kerry

Yesterday Senator John Kerry said: “Education, if you make the most of it, you study hard and do your homework and you make an effort to be smart you can do well. If you don’t, you get stuck in Iraq.”

In response Senator John McCain said:"Senator Kerry owes an apology to the many thousands of Americans serving in Iraq, who answered their country's call because they are patriots and not because of any deficiencies in their education. Americans from all backgrounds, well off and less fortunate, with high school diplomas and graduate degrees, take seriously their duty to our country, and risk their lives today to defend the rest of us in Iraq, Afghanistan, and elsewhere.

They all deserve our respect and deepest gratitude for their service. The suggestion that only the least educated Americans would agree to serve in the military and fight in Iraq, is an insult to every soldier serving in combat, and should deeply offend any American with an ounce of appreciation for what they suffer and risk so that the rest of us can sleep more comfortably at night. Without them, we wouldn't live in a country where people securely possess all their God-given rights, including the right to express insensitive, ill-considered and uninformed remarks."

Today John Kerry said:

"I apologize to no one....."


Another reason to keep the Democrats out of power.... they look down on the men and women who guard our freedom!

Michael Barone on the Political Polls.

Barone says be careful in how much stock you put in the polls showing the Democrats ahead in some races. Click on the title above for a most interesting column.

Press Bias

This from Rich Galen's column:

During the Q & A at speeches, I make it clear that I have not been one of those who believes the national press corps participates in a conference all every morning to decide what stories they are going to push to make Republicans look bad.

I now think I may have been wrong about that.

Any Republican who, in the past two years, has sneezed in public without having first whipped out a clean and pressed hanky has run the risk of blaring headlines declaring them a hypocrite for being able to get free pharmaceuticals from the House Physician's office while having voted against the importation of (potentially counterfeit) drugs from Canada.

Democrats who sneeze are held up as brave men and women who are demonstrating their deep understanding of work-a-day Americans because, in spite of having a cold, they continue to go to work THREE FULL DAYS A WEEK.

Then, this from Drudge:

NYT SETS PHOTO ESSAY FOR PAGE ONE MONDAY: Burials of soldiers at Arlington National Cemetery nearly every day over the last week… Developing....

A post on PoliPundit.com says it all:

In 1943 Life Magazine published the names of the fallen. It ran for pages. But they published it to honor the dead in a national war for survival. The NYT doesn’t do a photo spread of Arlington Burials to honor the dead in a war against Islamic fascism. It has a political agenda-to undermine support for our forces overseas, and let’s be frank, to assist the Democrats in the fall elections.

If the intentions of the Times were honorable, I might excuse them. But they are not. They don’t a damn about the dead; to the Times, the fallen are tools to be used as a political club. That is inexcusable.

Me: It's outragious! The New York Times has let their hate for George W Bush cloud any good sense they may have had and it is unforgivable. To use the honerd dead for political advantage is outragious.

(Click on the title above for a link to Galen's column)

Oregon Ducks vs Washington Huskies :Part One

This is Washington Week! The Washington Huskies next Saturday are comming to "Our House" Autzen Stadium for a football game. The Ducks hate the Huskies and the Huskies hate the Ducks! Bring it on!This is what I posted last year for "Washington Week":

To every Oregon Duck Fan it's the week we play the University of Washington Huskies in football. This year it will be at Autzen Stadium in Eugene, Oregon. There has been bad blood between these two schools for years.. It started in 1948 when there was a tie between Cal and Oregon to go to the Rose Bowl. In those days ties were settled by a vote of the Pac 8 schools. (the Arizona schools were then not part of the conference.) Oregon expected the Northwest schools to stick together but Washington voted for Cal and as a consolation the Ducks led by QB Norm Van Brocklin went to the Cotton Bowl. Before Autzen stadium was built Oregon would play its home games against Washington at Multnomah Stadium in Portland. In the 50's it was not unheard of for fistfights to erupt in the stands between Duck and Washington fans. In 1968 I drove to Seattle to watch Oregon beat Washington 3 to 0 on a Ken Woody field goal during a rain swept game. During the 1970, 1980 and into the 1990 Washington dominated the Ducks and were the premier team in the Northwest. Husky fans would descend on Eugene and Autzen Stadium in their god awful purple and would almost outnumber the Duck yellow and green. They would fill up Eugene hotels like locusts and bring their large band. Husky fans became known for their arrogance. Once on a trip to Seattle I ask a Husky fan the outcome of a game and was treated like a fool to expect anything but a Husky win. My Dad, not a football fan, was treated the same way when he struck up a conversation with a Husky fan at a hotel before an Oregon/Washington game. I know it's only a game but I learned to hate the Huskies and their fans. At Husky home games they would blow their siren after each score as they beat the sh** out of hapless Duck teams. That all ended on October 22,1994!!! To be continued...

Goodbye Darkness by Willam Manchester

This weekend I kept thinking about the Clint Eastwood directed movie "Flags of Our Fathers" ( see review below) On my trip to Eugene to watch the Ducks this weekend I kept reliving scenes from the movie. William Manchester's book "Goodbye Darkness Memoir of the Pacific War" had the same effect on me. I read it at least twenty years ago and it is still one of my favorite books. Manchester is a famous author who wrote "The Death of a President" about the Kennedy assassination,American Caesar about Douglas MacArthur, and "The Last Lion" about Winston Churchill. In 1941 after Pearl Harbor Manchester dropped out of Amherst College and joined the United States Marine Corps. He said he was guided by a "compass that had been built into" him. His father had been a Marine in World War I and the first chapter of "Goodby Darkness" is titled: "From the Argonne to Pearl Harbor." Manchester fought in many of the battles of the South Pacific and in the 1980's went on a journey across the Pacific to the sites of many of those battles .
During his tour he relives his life as a US Marine. I have read a lot of history's of war but Manchester is able to bring it to life as no one else. Near the end of the book he points out how things have changed since then. He writes:

To fight World War II you had to have been tempered and strengthened in the 1930's Depression by a struggle for survival--in 1940 two out of every five draftees had been rejected, most of them victims of malnutrition. And you had to know that your whole generation unlike the Vietnam generation, was in this together, that no strings were being pulled for anybody; the four Roosevelt brothers were in uniform and the sons of both Harry Hopkins, FDR's closest adviser and Leverett Saltonstall, one of the most powerful Republicans in the Senate served in the Marine Corps as enlisted men and were killed in action. But devotion overreached all this. It was a bond woven of many strands. You had to remember your father's stories about the Argonne and saying your prayers and Memorial Day, and Scouting and what Barbara Frietchie said to Stonewall Jackson. And you had to have heard Lionel Barrymore as Scrooge and to have seen Gary Cooper as Sergeant York. And seen how your mother bought day-old bread and cut sheets lengthwise and resewed them to equalize wear while your father sold the family car... so that you could enter college. You also needed nationalism, the absolute conviction that the United Sates was the envy of all other nations, a country which had never done anything infamous.... could solve anything by inventing something. You felt sure that all lands , given our democracy and our know-how, could shine as radiantly as we did....Debt was ignoble. courage was a virtue. Mothers were loved, Fathers obeyed. marriage a a sacrament. Divorce was disgraceful. Pregnancy meant expulsion from school or dismissal from a job...All these an "God Bless America" and Christmas... and the certitude that victory in the war would assure their continuance into perpetuity-- all this led you into battle and sustained you as you fought, and comforted you if you fell and, if it came to that, justified your death to all who loved you as you had love them. Later the rules would change, But, we didn't know then. We didn't know.

Review of Movie "Flags of Our Fathers"*****

A movie for the ages! Some movies are not to be judged by the gross take of the opening weekend and this is one.Long after the last member of "The Greatest Generation" is long gone and the "Baby Boomer Generation" is only a memory to their grandchildren people will be watching this movie. Based upon the book by James Bradley of the same title the movie tell the story of the six men who raised "Old Glory" on Iwo Jima and the picture that became a monument in Washington DC. The author of the book is the son one of those men. The movie is told in flashbacks between the US Bond tour the three survivors took during the war to raise money for the war and the battle of Iwo Jima. This movie ranks with "Saving Private Ryan" in it's realistic depiction of a World War II battle. Suffice it to say it is a good thing CNN was not there because if people knew the true nature of the carnage and "fog of war" there would have been a call to try negations with the Japanese. As you can tell I loved the movie and It will be in my DVD collection when it is released. This is a movie to pass from generation to generation to show that freedom is not free and to bring to life the sacrifice of those who have gone before.

For many years I have had a poster of John Wayne's "Sands of Iwo Jima" to the right of my big screen TV.A great movie but this is better.... yes I had to say it. "Flags of our Fathers" is directed by Clint Eastwood and this movie should get the Acadamy Award for Best Picture and Best Director if there is any justice in this world. My only criticism is the music. I would have liked a better score but apparently Eastwood did the score himself. Some people may be put off by the jumping forward and back in time but I think it adds to the movies dramatics effect. This is not a movie for only one viewing.... it should be viewed again and again. Thanks Clint.

For more information on the movie click on the title above for the IMDB (Internet Movie Data Base) page on the movie. For more information on the war read William Manchester's "Goodbye Darkness" an autobiographic account of his service in the US Marines in the Pacific during World War II.

Weekend at Bernie's Update

This from National Review Online:

This time the rumors are real: Castro is dying of stomach cancer. He may have already died, even before the funeral preparations were finished, so the news is not out. Confirmation of the terminal illness comes from the usual sources but in a non-conventional manner. The Cuban government has been summoning to Havana representatives of the major international media to negotiate the best seats, camera angles, and interviews with the despot’s political survivors, and to inform them of the ground rules for coverage of the state funeral.

We may soon be saying what Chevy Chase used to say on the first season of Saturday Night Live; "Generalísimo Francisco Franco is still dead!" Only the name of the tyrant will be changed!

(To read the entire National Review article click on the title above for a link)

Movie:" Flags of Our Fathers" Opens Friday in Medford

The movie which opened nationwide last week end will finally open this Friday in Medford, Oregon at Tinseltown. I will be there Friday and will post a review later on Sunday after I get back from the Oregon Football game in Eugene.

A Good Fence Makes Good Neighbors!

For many years going back to the 1980's if have felt the United States needed to build a good strong fence along the US border with Mexico to stop ILLEGAL immigration.Today George W Bush took an important step in that direction by signing a law passed in a Republican House and a Republican Senate to construct a 700 mile fence in the most populous areas of the US/Mexican boarder. A few weeks ago Newsweek Magazine had a good map of it location along with existing fences and it will do a lot to help secure our boarder Thanks George Bush.Would this have happened if the Democrats controlled even one House of Congress... I don't think so. The following is part of the AP story on the signing :

WASHINGTON - President Bush signed a bill Thursday authorizing 700 miles of new fencing along the U.S.-Mexico border, hoping to give Republican candidates a pre-election platform for asserting they're tough on illegal immigration.

"Unfortunately the United States has not been in complete control of its borders for decades and therefore illegal immigration has been on the rise," Bush said at a signing ceremony.

"We have a responsibility to enforce our laws," he said. "We have a responsibility to secure our borders. We take this responsibility serious."

He called the fence bill "an important step in our nation's efforts to secure our borders."

Alex P Keaton

I liked Michael J Fox more when he was the fictional character Alex P Keaton on the TV show Family Ties. For those of you too young to remember the show this from Wikipedia the Internet encyclopedia:

"Alex P. Keaton is a fictional character, portrayed by Michael J. Fox, on the 1980s American sitcom Family Ties. Alex is most famous for being a... conservative Republican, and a passionate student in economics, which is rooted in his obsession with money. In particular, he was a proponent of supply-side economics. Keaton kept a picture of Ronald Reagan above his bed, and noted an affinity for William F. Buckley, Jr. and Milton Friedman. His favorite television show was Wall $treet Week, then hosted by Louis Rukeyser. Keaton routinely read The Wall Street Journal, and was an ardent supporter of its conservative editorial page."

One of my parents best friends said Alex P Keaton reminded her of me when I was in high school. Of course my parents were not former hippies but survivors of the Great Depression.

Michal J Fox has now become a shill for the Democratic party. I wish him well from a health point of view because he has been dealt a terrible hand in the card game of life.I just wish he were more like Alex P Keaton from a political point of view.

Mid Term Elections

If you love politics as much as I do click on the title above for a link to Real Clear Politics. It's a political blog for conservative political junkies like me. I "live" there in the days leading up to a general elections. It's the best political blog on the Internet.

How Stands the House!

Michael Barone of U.S. News & World Report and the author of the Almanac of American Politics gives his analysis of the race for control of the U.S. House of Representatives. It's very close. He gives a rating on the 50 most contested seats. To read his analysis click on the title above for a link.

Ronald Reagan of Califonia

A statue of Ronald Reagan is on it's way to Statutory Hall in the U.S. Capitol. Each state of the Union can have two statues and the California legislature controlled by the Democrats is going to replace one of California's with one of the "Gipper". Click on the title above for the story of how one man made it happen. I can still remember all the people who told me in the 1960's and early 70' that Reagan was a "light weight". It will always be "Morning in America" in Statutory Hall. I Love that man!

Mainstream Media Time and Blog Time

John Podhoretz of the New York Post has an interesting article about the difference between the Mainstream Media ( or also the "Old Media") and the Internet Blogs and how the Blogs are much faster on the news cycle.

October 24, 2006 -- FOR those who follow political news, there are now two kinds of time: Mainstream Media Time and Blog Time.

If your clock's set to Mainstream Media Time, you believe for a certainty that the Democrats are poised to win 20 to 40 seats in the House of Representatives, thereby taking control of that body for the first time in 12 years. You also think Democrats are on the cusp of winning six Senate seats to take control of that chamber as well...

If your clock is set to Blog Time, you believed all that at the start of last week. By last Thursday, however, those of you on Blog Time began to discern a change: Suddenly, things weren't quite so bad for Republicans or quite so great for Democrats....

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

Welcome Home Republicans!

Good old Dick Morris.... you got to love him.... says the Republican Base is coming home and the Republicans COULD end up holding the House and Senate.

October 24, 2006 -- THE latest polls show something very strange and quite encouraging is happening: The Republican base seems to be coming back home. This trend, only vaguely and dimly emerging from a variety of polls, suggests that a trend may be afoot that would deny the Democrats control of the House and the Senate.

With two weeks to go, anything can happen, but it is beginning to look poss- ible that the Democratic surge in the midterm elections may fall short of control in either house.

For the evidence click on the title above for the entire column.

U.S. to take Holiday from History?

Michael Barone from U.S. News and World report and author of the Almanac of American Politics hits the nail on the head in a column published today :

History is a nightmare from which I am trying to awake," the novelist James Joyce once wrote. From the fall of the Berlin Wall and the collapse of the Soviet Union up until the morning of Sept. 11, 2001, we were on a holiday from history. We were happy to pay little attention to the Islamofascist terrorist threat that should have been apparent from the first World Trade Center bombing in 1993. We left that to government officials, who took it seriously and did some things to address it -- but in hindsight not enough. Since then, we took the offensive and have had some successes in stopping terrorists. But we seem to be growing tired of the fight.

Now it appears that voters are willing to turn over Congress to a party most of whose representatives voted against allowing the National Security Agency to surveil without a court order al-Qaida suspects when they place calls to persons in the United States and against allowing terrorist interrogations under rules supported by John McCain.

We are weary, it seems, and ready to go back on holiday. Some things -- a nuclear attack on the United States, the successful release of a disease pathogen that could kill millions -- are just too horrifying to think about. But maybe we should think more about them. As Leon Trotsky is supposed to have said, "You may not be interested in war, but war is interested in you."

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

Ducks Lost!

The Oregon Ducks lost today to the Washington State Cougars and looked real bad with lots of fumbles and interceptions. I actually had a reasonably good time watching the game. A friend and I drove over to Grants Pass and watched the game which was not on TV at a sports Bar that picked up the satellite feed used for the taped delay broadcast of the game. There were a lot of Duck fans from all over Southern Oregon and lots of college games broadcast from all over the country on lots of TV sets. I will definitely go back the next time the Ducks have an away game without a live TV broadcast.

Bias of ABC NEWS & Good Morning America

I watched a political report this morning on Good Morning America by Jake Tapper and though it was very biased against the Republicans. Now there is an article from Newsbusters.org that confirms my view.

Who is Jake Tapper? He was the chief political correspondent for the lefty Salon.com. His book about the 2000 campaign, The Plot to Steal the Presidency, was so biased against Bush that even fellow liberal Jonathan Alter panned it.

Tapper now patrols the political beat for ABC. But his one-sided report on congressional scandals on this morning's GMA reveals that he has lost none of his partisan edge. While Washington University prof Steven Smith was shown stating that 20 members of Congress are currently caught up in sex or money scandals, Tapper focused on seven: six Republicans and only one Democrat.

In Tapper's Republican Hall of Shame were:

George Allen, for 'macaca' and other allegations of racial insensitivity.
Don Sherwood, whose apolgetic TV ad Tapper described as standing for the proposition: "yes I had a mistress but I did not try to strangle her."
DeLay, Ney, Cunningham and Conrad Burns: caught up in the Abramoff mess; and of course
Mark Foley.
Tapper actually played AOL's "you've got mail" while discussing the Foley scandal. Nothing like a touch of humor when it comes to allegations of child predation.

When footage of Harry Reid turned up [shown here in file photo], you naturally figured that Tapper was about to mention the Minority Leader's real estate deal with a shady Las Vegas figure, or Reid's illegal use of campaign donations to pay gratuities to employees at his condo.

But no, Tapper pictured Reid only for purposes of explaining how Democrats are using the Foley scandal to hit Republicans nationwide.

Tapper did discuss one Dem in serious ethics trouble - NJ senate candidate Rep. Bob Menendez, apparently under FBI investigation. But he failed to mention the allegations of the most blatant kind of bribery lodged against any current member of Congress - the $90,000 'cold cash' scandal concerning Dem William Jefferson of Louisiana. Unlike Republicans who have walked the plank when hit with charges, Jefferson continues to run for re-election.

To summarize: Tapper mentioned six Republicans hit with scandal, and just one Democrat. Fair & balanced coverage, GMA-style.

Between Jake Tapper and Mario Cuomo's kid (Chris) why would we expect anything different on GMA
(To go to newbusters.org click on the title above for a link.)

Oregon Ducks vs Washington State

Looks like I have found a sports bar in Grants Pass that will be able to pull down the live satellite signal of the game for the taped delayed broadcast.I will be there. The Cougs are always tough at home. Go Ducks beat the Cougs.

FRIDAY OCTOBER 20th , 2006

MOVIE: FLAGS OF OUR FATHERS OPENS
"LEST WE FORGET'
Update: Looks like it will not open in Medford today. I guess I will have to wait at least another week. Good things happen to those who wait I guess.

Tet's Real Lesson!

By James Taranto of the Wall Street Journal Editorial page:

We have long argued that America's mainstream media--because of what they see as the "lessons of Vietnam"--are actively working to promote American defeat in Iraq. (We gave this theme a lengthy treatment in a talk last November at the Hudson Institute, which later became an essay in the February issue of The American Spectator.) From CNN comes one of the most striking bits of evidence yet that this is the case. This promo for a "CNN exclusive" appears today on the homepage of CNN.com (we've captured it here for posterity as well):

"Almost 2,800 Americans have been killed so far in Iraq and one of the most dangerous insurgent opponents is the sniper. CNN has obtained graphic video from the Islamic Army of Iraq, one of the most active insurgent organizations in Iraq, showing its sniper teams targeting U.S. troops. The Islamist Army says it wants talks with the United States and some Islamist Internet postings call for a P.R. campaign aimed at influencing the American public. The video is disturbing to watch but CNN believes the story, shocking as it is, needs to be told."

By airing this video, CNN is participating in what it acknowledges is "a P.R. campaign aimed at influencing the American public" in ways favorable to America's enemies. And the network does not even seem to realize what a shocking admission this is.

With the midterm elections less than three weeks away, the media are filled with Tet talk. Here's Simon Hooper, in a commentary that also appears today on CNN.com:

"For veteran statesmen such as [James] Baker, the parallels with another era-defining American war must also be striking. In the late 1960s the U.S. military found itself fighting an unwinnable conflict, enduring mounting casualties against a growing chorus of dissent at home--in Vietnam."

On Wednesday [President] Bush himself acknowledged parallels between the current situation in Iraq and the 1968 Tet Offensive--widely considered to be the point when American public opinion turned against the war.

As we noted yesterday, Thomas Friedman of the New York Times also drew the analogy in a column whose description of Tet is worth repeating:

Although the Vietcong and Hanoi were badly mauled during Tet, they delivered, through the media, such a psychological blow to U.S. hopes of "winning" in Vietnam that Tet is widely credited with eroding support for President Johnson and driving him to withdraw as a candidate for re-election.

Tet, that is, was a military victory for the U.S. that turned into a propaganda victory for the communists because American journalists presented a false picture of what had happened.

The media today are eager to repeat their "success" in Vietnam--and it was a success inasmuch as the media were hugely influential over the course of events. But from a journalistic standpoint it was a gross failure. The real lesson of Vietnam is that journalists got the story wrong. We are not at all convinced that the American people are about to get fooled again.

Click on the title for a link to the column.

Press Election Coverage

The "News" stories put out by the main stream media , in their election coverage, are in many cases an attempt by the liberal press to suppress the Republican vote. Tony Snow said as much at his press conference today :

Tony Snow on election coverage: 'These stories almost look like suppression efforts to bring down Republican morale'...

You got that right Tony! Don't get mad get even VOTE!

UPDATE: David Reinhard, the token conservative, on the Oregonian Newspaper Editorial Board has a great column today titled "Evangelical Christians, don't forget to (not) vote." He says the media is telling us all to vote "unless, it seems, you're and Evangelical Christian or a member of the religious right. Then, it's OK to stay home." He goes on to give examples from CBS 60 Minutes, To read the entire column click on the title above for a link. I saw the same message on Good Morning America on ABC earlier this week.

"Small Movement toward the GOP ?"

This item was just posted on the "Real Clear Politics" website. Click on the title above for a link. The analysis there confirms my own analysis of the last 24 hours that the hemorrhaging has stopped for the Republicans as we near the midterm elections. The Republican have hit bottom and are starting to recover from the bad news of the last three weeks. Lets hope the trend, and that is all it is a trend, continues and we could end up holding both the US Senate and House.

The Search for Satellite Coordinates

This week the Oregon Ducks play the Washington State Cougars in Pullman Washington (Pullman is in the middle of nowhere near the Idaho panhandle border) and there is NO live TV. So far this season every Oregon Duck football game has been on live TV and it is driving Oregon fans craze that they will not be able to watch this game live unless they are in Pullman. However, there is ONE exception. The Oregon Sports Network (OSN), the Ducks own network is taping the game for a delayed broadcast on their network around the state of Oregon. They send the taped broadcast live to a satellite AND if you have the satellite coordinates you can watch the game LIVE. The trick is there to find a sports bar that has a large programmable satellite dish. The following was posted on one of the Duck Fans sites:

Call ahead of where ever you plan to go and make sure they can receive the "K BAND SIGNAL". Only the older type large programmable satellite dish can pick that up! ...Many of the older sports bars & taverns have the large satellite dish, but not many of the new trendy sports bars have em. Just a little heads up.

One fan from Southern Oregon stated that last year we had the same situation when we played the Cougs and he and some friends drove from Ashland through Medford and on to Grants Pass before they could find a sports bar that broadcast the game.

The Duck web forums are full of request for the satellite coordinates which are kept very secret by the Oregon Athletic Department because of TV contractual agreements with the Pac 10 and ABC. Ducks through out the country are searching for spots bars that will broadcast the game. I have been e-mailing with a fan who lives in Hawaii and will be in Washington D.C. on Saturday about where he can watch the game in the DC area. Summers Bar and Grill in Arlington Virginia is where Oregon Ducks like to hang out on game day. Once we get the TV issue taken care of we need to worry about winning the damn game. Go Ducks

Pigs Do Fly

The Oregonian, Medford Mail Tribune, and the Bend Bulletin all endorsed Republican Ron Saxton for Oregon Governor.

The Joke is on Ted Kennedy

James Tranto of the Wall Street Journal:

"Former U.S. Rep. Gerry Studds, the first openly gay person elected to Congress, died early Saturday at Boston Medical Center, several days after he collapsed while walking his dog, his husband said," the Associated Press reports. We suppose this is something of a journalistic milestone, one of the first ever uses of the phrase "his husband."

Studds fell Oct. 3, four days after Mark Foley resigned from Congress. He was later diagnosed as having suffered a blood clot in his lung. We mention Foley, of course, because Studds had his own page scandal:

In 1983, Studds acknowledged his homosexuality after a former Congressional page revealed he'd had a relationship with Studds a decade earlier

Studds was censured by the House for having sexual relations with the page. He acknowledged having sex with a 17-year-old male page in 1973 and making sexual advances to two others and admitted an error in judgment, but did not apologize.

The Boston Globe quotes a fellow Massachusetts Democrat paying tribute:

"Gerry's leadership changed Massachusetts forever and we'll never forget him," US Senator Edward M. Kennedy said in a statement. "His work on behalf of our fishing industry and the protection of our waters has guided the fishing industry into the future and ensured that generations to come will have the opportunity to love and learn from the sea."

Ah, Ted Kennedy--always a bridge over troubled waters."

Rich Galen's column

Rich Galen's column is on fire today over press bias towards Republicans!

"Some of the biggest names in the Popular Press - Time & Newsweek, and the Washington Post are all but swooning with the sure knowledge that their universe will soon return to its proper alignment - at least one chamber of Congress in Democratic hands; maybe both.

I have spent most of the past three decades in Washington, DC dealing with some formation of the national press corps. For the most part, I like them. In fact I can't think of a single senior reporter with whom I have had one-on-one dealings over time, that I don't like.

I suspect they are mostly Liberal in their outlook and I believe they have different rules, not for covering Republicans, but for assigning motives to what Republicans do as opposed to what Democrats do."

(click on the title for a link to the entire column)

Countdown to "Flags of Our Fathers"

Opens this Friday October 20th at a theater near you! See you there. (click on the title for a link to the INDB (Internet Movie Data Base) page for the movie.)

It was a Perfect Day for a College Football Game

It was a perfect day in Eugene Oregon for a football game. The sun was out and the temperature was in the high 60's. Autzen Stadium was full with 59,000 fans and the Oregon Ducks beat UCLA 30 to 20. My wife an I left Medford about 7:30 am for the trip to Eugene on I-5. On the way up we listened to my MP 3 player (a Zen) with a selection of hits popular when I was in college. Lots of Simon and Garfunkel,The Mama's and the Papa's, The Beatles etc. When we got to Cottage Grove we could pick up the pregame show on radio station KUGN with Jerry Allen voice of the Ducks. We parked on the campus side of the Willamette River and took the foot bridge over the river and through to woods to Autzen in all it's glory. We checked out some of the tail gate party's and then had lunch in the Mo. Center. My wife doesn't like crowds so she watched the game at the Mo Center on TV and I watched from my seat in section 13. The Ducks led the entire game but as an old Duck fan I learned a long time ago no lead is ever enough for my Ducks. They beat UCLA 30 to 20 and every one was happy except for a few UCLA fans. It's interesting how expectations have changed. UCLA used to beat the Ducks with regularity. As late as 1990 the Duck fans tore down the goal posts after beating UCLA in a come from behind victory because it was soooo rare. After the game I met up with my wife and we took the path through the woods and across the foot bridge back to our car. The path was one long snake of yellow and green. We then drove to Rolling Rapids Pizza Parlor (formerly Pietro's many years ago) for a pizza and watched part of the USC vs Arizona State game on TV and then headed down I-5 and over 4 passes to Medford. We got home about 8:30 PM. Our cat Gabby was happy to see us. A perfect fall day with fall foliage and all is right with the world. While I was watching the game I was thinking of my first game at Autzen Stadium in 1967 (also Autzen Stadiums first game) and of the 39 years I have been going to games there. Regardless of the wins and losses my trips and the people I have shared the trips and games with are a tapestry of my life. Go Ducks!

"Bowerman & The Men of Oregon"

I just finished reading the book "Bowerman and the Men Of Oregon." by Kenny Moore one of his former runners. Amazon.com describes the book as follows:

"During his tenure as track coach at the University of Oregon from 1949 through 1972, Bill Bowerman won 4 national team titles, trained dozens of milers to break the 4-minute barrier, and his athletes set 13 world and 22 American records. Single-handedly he helped turn the college town of Eugene, Oregon, into the running capital of the world. In Bowerman: The Wings of Nike, Kenny Moore, a world-class marathon runner and one of Bowermans Oregon men, tells the story of his mentor and hero, drawing on years of taped interviews and the full cooperation of the Bowerman family and Nike, the company that Bowerman helped to found through his invention of the waffle-soled running shoe. Whether providing a fresh look at the tragic siege at the 1972 Munich Olympic Games, where Bowerman coached the track and field team; offering a close-up view of the coachs relationship with runner Steve Prefontaine (subject of the movie Without Limits, co-written and co-produced by Moore); or exploring Bowermans role as a Nike innovator, this illuminating portrait is compelling reading throughout and ample evidence of why Bowermans widow, noting how well the author understood her husband, said: If anyone should write Bills life story, its Kenny Moore."

In reading the book I particularly enjoyed reading about Bowerman growing up in Eastern Oregon ( his father was an Oregon Governor) and in my town of Medford Oregon where he went to high school. After high school he went to the University of Oregon and was on the track and football teams. He met his wife at Medford High school and in college she was torn between Bowerman and a football player as UCLA and told both men she would marry the winner of the Oregon UCLA game. I am not making this up. Bowerman's Oregon Ducks lost to UCLA but she married Bowerman anyway. The UCLA player became a movie producer and Bowerman after college went back to Medford as a football coach until World War II broke out. He became an officer with the 10th Mountain Division and saw action in Italy where he arranged for an entire German unit to surrender. After the war he returned to Medford as a football coach until he was hired by the University of Oregon as a football and track coach and as they say the rest is history. If you like track this book is a must read. There are so many things I liked about the book. The description of Medford in the 1930's, The Birth of Nike, His relationship with Steve Prefontaine. My family and I were present for one event described in the book when the movie "Without Limits" was being filmed in Eugene at Hayward Field.( The track stadium) The movie was Directed by Robert Town about the Oregon runner Steve Pefontaine with Donald Sutherland playing Bowerman. The passage from the book is as follows: "

"Bill did pay a call to the set. One Sunday after church. When the 2000 Eugene extras in the stands got a glimpse of Bill they stood in ovation. Bowerman walked along the whole backstretch, waving, glowing in the full and transparent knowledge that he deserved it. He was the only star on the set. Sutherland, affirming this genuflected. Bill then sat down and was mightily impressed to see Crudup (actor playing Steve Prefontaine)... reenacting Pre's finish against Frank Shorter in the 1974 Restoration Meet three mile."

I was in my glory that day. As a movie extras there was a joining of my love for the University of Oregon; my love of movies and how they are made; I was with my family; I grew up in Coos Bay and my parents and Steve Prefontaine's parents were good friends. All those things came together in that family trip to Eugene.Next time you see the movie on DVD look for the four Wickres wearing yellow "Go Pre" tee shirts.

(To see the Amazon.com page for the book click on the title above for a link)

Football Weekend

This weekend the South Medford Panthers will host the South Eugene Axmen in Medford on Friday night and the Oregon Ducks will host UCLA in Eugene on Saturday for a game which will be broadcast on ABC TV. Both South Medford and the Oregon Ducks lost last weekend and are in hope of turning things around. I love football. Lets GO!!! Go Ducks, Go Panthers.

Who turned the lights off?

Nightime in North and South Korea. North Korea may have the bomb but they are a backward primitive country. U.S. Secretary of Defense, Don Rumsfeld showed the picture to illustrate how backward the northern regime really is - and how oppressed its people are. Without electricity there can be none of the appliances that make life easy and that we take for granted, he said.

"Except for my wife and family, that is my favourite photo," said Mr Rumsfeld.

"It says it all. There's the south, the same people as the north, the same resources north and south, and the big difference is in the south it's a free political system and a free economic system.

"The people in the north are starving, their growth is stunted. It's a shame, a tragedy."

An aide added: "This oppressive regime is too busy trying to make war to make life comfortable for its people."

From A Michael Barone Column

I found this gem in a Michael Barone column

As Juan Williams points out in his book Enough: The Phony Leaders, Dead-End Movements, and Culture of Failure That Are Undermining Black America—and What We Can Do About It, no one in America is stuck in poverty if he or she does three things: graduates from high school; gets a job, any job; refrains from having children before getting married. Poverty comes not from any structural failure of society but from dysfunctional behaviors.

Edwin Bearss - Civil War Expert

If you watched Ken Burns PBS documentary on the Civil War you can't have forgotten one of the talking heads.... Edwin Bearss. Did you know his father was a marine and his cousin was awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor? That ED Bearrs followed in his fathers footsteps and was a Marine Raider in WWII and was seriously wounded and lost the use of an arm. He has a book out now and the following is an excerpt from a review of the book. Fields of Honor Pivotal Battles of the Civil War by Edwin C. Bearss National Geographic, 464 pp., $28

I don't think anyone knows who the first person was to earn a living as a guide to Civil War battlefields, but no member of that charmed profession has achieved the fame or longevity of Edwin C. Bearss (pronounced Barsssss), who captained his first lucky group of tourists around Vicksburg in 1955 and can still be found, from one weekend to the next, at one battlefield or another, leading a fanny-packed and be-visored platoon of customers into the pleasures of vicarious combat.

Over the last 50 years, like most enduring enterprises, Ed has diversified. This year alone he's taken several hundred people on tours of Anzio and Messina in Italy, the Oregon Trail in Idaho and Nez Perce encampments in Montana, scenes from the Mississippi floods of 1927 and from Abraham Lincoln's service in the Black Hawk War in the 1830s--on top of a schedule already filled with your basic Antietams, your Gettysburgs, your Shilohs and Chickamaugas and Spotsylvanias. He also found time to celebrate his 83rd birthday.

But Ed's first and last love is for the Civil War, and this, along with his standing in the trade, gives an air of inevitability to the publication of Fields of Honor. Somebody was going to have to put out this book sooner or later. For the last several years members of the self-named Bearss Brigades--a particularly tenacious species of the genus Civil War Buff--have armed themselves with tape recorders and gone chasing after Ed as he charges over the battlefields, hoping to preserve for the ages his incomparable observations and narrative spiel. Dozens of volunteers have transcribed the hundreds of hours of tape into thousands of pages of prose, and from these, culled and whittled, have come the 13 chapters of the book, offering definitive commentary on engagements from Fort Sumter to Appomattox. The literature of the Civil War is vast, of course, and nearly limitless in its variety of literary forms; but even so, I don't think there's another book quite like Fields of Honor.

And the reason is--forgive me if I sound like a Bearss Brigadier for a moment--there's never been a Civil War authority quite like Ed. Growing up on a ranch in Montana, he christened his favorite cows Antietam and Sharpsburg. His father was a Marine, and so was a cousin--"Hiking Hiram" Bearss, as the newspapers called him--who earned the Medal of Honor during the Philippines Insurrection and became, up to that time, the most decorated Marine in the history of the corps. Hearing their experiences led the boy to read every book he could get hold of about war. And when a real war made itself available, after the bombing of Pearl Harbor, Ed enlisted and became a Marine Raider. He was sent to the Pacific theater, moving from the Russell Islands to the Solomon Islands to the assault on New Britain. His fellow Marines remember him for his almost empty backpack, containing only a few grenades, extra ammunition, and a copy of the World Book of Knowledge.

On patrol in New Britain one January morning in 1944, he was nearly shot to pieces. Approaching a stream, he and another scout couldn't see the Japanese pillboxes dug in just below the lip of the declivity leading to the creek bed. I asked him once what his own battlefield experience had taught him as a guide, and he said, with a small grin, "The importance of terrain." And it's true. Walking a battlefield with Ed, you're struck by how intently he wants you to see the landscape as the combatants saw it: What ordinary soldiers could and couldn't see from any given position often determined the course of battle.

In 1944, a trick of the terrain enabled the Japanese gunners to catch him by surprise. He took bullets in his ribs, heel, buttocks, right shoulder, and left elbow. Marines who came to fetch him were pinned flat themselves but managed, after several hours, to pull him from the line of fire--dragging him with their toes. He was two years in hospital. His left hand and arm don't do him much good, other than to help balance the riding crop he uses as a pointer when he's on a tour.

"I'm a man of the battlefields," Ed likes to say--and a man of one battlefield in particular, in Gloucester Bay, New Britain. "I know how a battlefield feels, sounds, and smells."

To read the rest of the review click on the title above for a link)

Democratic Culture of Corruption

WASHINGTON (AP) - Senate Democratic leader Harry Reid collected a $1.1 million windfall on a Las Vegas land sale even though he hadn't personally owned the property for three years, property deeds show.

In the process, Reid did not disclose to Congress an earlier sale in which he transferred his land to a company created by a friend and took a financial stake in that company, according to records and interviews.

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

I wonder why this was noton NBC, ABC or CBS.

John McCain on North Korea and the BOMB

"I would remind Senator (Hillary) Clinton and other Democrats critical of the Bush administration's policies that the framework agreement her husband's administration negotiated was a failure,...The Koreans received millions and millions in energy assistance. They've diverted millions of dollars of food assistance to their military,"

MOVIE: "Flags of our Fathers"

Variety has a review of the Clint Eastwood directed movie "Flags of our Fathers" about the men who put up Old Glory on Iwo Jima in World War II. Click on the title above for a link to the complete review. Some of the highlights of the review are as follows:

"One way to think about "Flags" is as "The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance" of this generation. That 1962 John Ford Western is famous for its central maxim, "When the truth becomes legend, print the legend," and "Flags" resonantly holds the notion up to the light. It is also a film about the so-called Greatest Generation that considers why its members are, or were, reticent to speak much about what they did in the war, to boast or consider themselves heroes...
But the camera focuses on a handful of the 30,000 troops that landed on the inhospitable spec of volcanic ash and tufa that is Iwo Jima on Feb. 19, 1945, to dislodge some 20,000 well-fortified Japanese....Such is the carnage at the initial landing (the Americans suffered 2,000 casualties that first day alone).....
On the fifth day of fighting, some Americans reach the summit where a great deal of the Japanese firepower is concentrated, and six soldiers plant a small stars-and-stripes. Shortly after, a larger flag is sent up and, in an event only shown in the film considerably later, six different men, Bradley, Gagnon and Hayes among them, responding to a photographer's half-joking question of, "O.K., guys, who wants to be famous?," put their muscle behind pushing up the new flag held in place by a heavy length of pipe.

At once, AP photographer Joe Rosenthal's shot became arguably the most iconic image of the American war. No faces were identifiable in the photo, leading to some confusion as to who was even in the shot, and three of them were killed soon after..
But the surviving three are spirited back to the mainland to spearhead a final war bonds drive. Bradley, Gagnon and Hayes are treated like gold-plated heroes everywhere, all the while being confronted by replicas of the flag raising made of papier-mache or even ice cream....And once they've done their bit raising billions for the government, they're left on their own to put their lives back together. It's not an easy road, particularly for Hayes, who in one moving, genuinely Fordian moment, treks a long distance for a brief visit with the father of one of his fallen comrades...."

OPENS OCTOBER 20TH

Movie: The Departed *****

Tonight on a "school night" my wife and I went to see "The Departed." I give it 5 * out of 5. Basically the movie takes place in Boston and is about gangsters and cops. The cops have an informer inside a Boston gang headed by Jack Nicholson who plays "the bad" Jack Nicholson as only he can. He is worth the price of admission. Matt Damon plays the informant inside the Massachusetts State Police and Leonardo DiCaprio plays the informant inside Nicholson's gang. Normally I don't like these kinds of movies but this is very well done. The Godfather meets The Bourne Identity. Directed by Martin Scorsese there is lots of blood and the language is full of "F" bombs. While I was watching the movie I kept thinking, "now I know why Massachusetts keeps sending Ted Kennedy and John Kerry to the Senate." The movie gives a real feel for the class tensions in Boston.(Click on the title for a link to the Internet Movie Data Base (IMDB) page for the movie)

North Korea gets the BOMB;"Peace in Our Time!" NOT

Clinton Secretary of State Madeline Albright drinks a toast with North Korean mad Man Kim Jong-il giving concessions to North Korea in return for North Koran agreement to not make nuclear weapons. Yes, peace in our time. Picture on right is British Prime Minister Nevil Chamberlain when he sold out Czechoslovakia to Hitler at Munich before Wold War II.On his return to England he said he had achieved "Peace in Our time." Appeasement does not work. It didn't work in the past and It will not work now. We should impose a naval Blockade on North Korea.

MOVIE: "In Country"*****

Tonight after the Oregon Ducks lost to The Cal Bears I watched on DVD the movie "In Country",5 * our of 5. I performed two wedding ceremonies today and after the first one I stopped by BI-Mart and found it on DVD for $7.98. What is ironic is my wife and I first saw the movie at a theater in Springfield, Oregon in 1989 while we were in the Eugene/Springfield area for a Oregon game after the movie was first released. It is a very good movie. The IMDB summary of the movie is as follows:

Samantha Hughes, a teen aged Kentucky girl, never knew her father, who died in Vietnam before her birth. Samantha lives with her uncle Emmett (Bruce Willis), who also served in Vietnam. Emmett hangs around with Tom, Earl, and Pete, three other Vietnam vets who, like Emmett, all have problems of one kind or another that relate to their war experiences. Sam, as Samantha is known, becomes obsessed with finding out about her father and his experiences, but Emmett and the other vets don't want to talk about the war. Sam pushes everyone to attend a dance honoring the town's veterans....
When Sam reads her father's diary, she begins to understand what his life and death meant, and she and Emmett, with a trip to the Vietnam Veteran's Memorial,in Washington DC, come at least temporarily to terms with the war in their lives.(Have tissue ready)

A very moving movie and a little known one that is a hidden treasure. Click on the title above for the IMDB (Internet Movie Data Base) page on the movie.

Life is not always fair

Read the post below about former President George H.W. Bush and you realise how true the saying is "Life is not fair". George H.W. Bush joined the navy and became a pilot as soon as he graduated from High School and became one of the youngest naval aviators flying against the Japanese off of very small aircraft carriers in a very large ocean. Bob Dole caries the scars of fighting in Italy during World War II and can not dress himself. Both of these Heroes lost to Bill Clinton of blue dress fame and who lied to get out of service to his country. Life is not always fair. Following their defeat they have both conducted themselves with honor and dignity. Class wins out all the time.

President George W Bush at the Chrisatening Ceremony of the George H.W. Bush Nimitz Aircraft Carrier

The George H. W. Bush is named for a man who exemplifies the great character of our country. On the day Pearl Harbor was attacked, George H. W. Bush was a teenager, he was a high school senior. Six months later, he was sworn into the Navy. A year later, he received his wings at a ceremony in Corpus Christi, Texas. Here is what he said. He said, "I had an ensign's stripe and an admiral's confidence." (Laughter.) "I was a Navy pilot."


Our dad would become known as one of the Navy's youngest pilots. But that wasn't his only distinction. While training along the Chesapeake Bay, the pilots in our dad's flight class learned about a beach across the way where young ladies liked to sunbathe. It became popular for the pilots to fly low over the beach. So one day he came in low to take a look. It just so happened to be the same day that a traveling circus had set up its tents. Dad's flyover upset an elephant, causing him to break lose and make a run throughout the town. He was called in for a reprimand from his commander. He puts it this way, "I was grounded for causing an elephant stampede" -- probably the only Navy pilot in American history who can make that claim.


After training, he was assigned to a light carrier. He took part in the Great Turkey Shoot of the Marianas. He knew the horror of kamikaze attacks. He would complete 58 combat missions. These were tough days, but he had something that kept him going. And if you look closely at the photographs of the planes he flew, you will find what kept him going in the name he had painted under his cockpit: Barbara.


One of Dad's most important missions was a strike on a radio tower on an island called Chichi Jima. The Japanese were using that tower to intercept U.S. military radio transmissions and alert the enemy about impending American air strikes. On September 2, 1944, his squadron was given a simple assignment: to take it out. The pilots knew they would face heavy enemy fire, because the Japanese had fortified the island. But Dad and his fellow pilots did their duty without complaint or hesitation. During that raid, his plane was hit by anti-aircraft artillery and it caught on fire. Yet he kept his plane on course, he released his four bombs, and scored four direct hits on that tower. He headed out to sea, he ejected.


Japanese boats were sent out to capture him. And after more than two harrowing hours at sea alone in a rubber life raft, he was rescued by the crew of the USS Finback. For his action, he earned the Distinguished Flying Cross. Yet it is characteristic that from those moments aboard his life raft to this ceremony today, Dad's thoughts have always been of the two fine members of his crew who did not make it home: Radioman Second Class John Delaney and Lieutenant JG Ted White. On that day over Chichi Jima, a young American became a war hero and learned an old lesson: With the defense of freedom comes loss and sacrifice.


The George H. W. Bush honors a generation that valued service above self. Like so many who served in World War II, duty came naturally to our father. In the four years of that war, 16 million Americans would put on the uniform. And the human costs were appalling: from the beaches of Normandy to the jungles of Southeast Asia, more than 400,000 Americans would give their lives.

(To read the entire speech click on the Title above)

Weekend at Bernie's Update

U.S. intelligence reports now say the Cuban leader's condition appears terminal, government officials tell TIME ......But U.S. officials tell TIME that many in the U.S. government are now convinced that Castro, 80, has terminal cancer and will never return to power. "Certainly we have heard this, that this guy has terminal cancer," said one U.S. official

(Click on the title for a link the full Time Mag story)

ABC NEWS Fooled Again!

I picked this up from a conservative Blog called Free Republic and thought it was very funny:

I was freeping here the other day and someone posted that ABC news was soliciting for more Foley emails.

I went to the link and sure enough they where, so I sent them.....

Hi, I was an intern and I had sex many times with a high ranking Government official, we used sex toys, we had phone sex many times, please contact me for details.

This is the response.....

I'm the Senior Investigative Producer of the Brian Ross and your message was sent to me. I would be very interested in speaking with you.

Please feel free to call me - either in my NY office 212-456-6450 or on my cell phone 301-529-5434 at any time.

Thank you for contacting us and I look forward to speaking with you,

Best regards,

Rhonda Schwartz Senior Investigative Producer ABC News

Rhonda Schwartz / Senior Investigative Producer /ABC News /147 Columbus Ave / NY,NY 10023 / 212-456-6450 / Mobile 301-529-5434

This is my response back.....

Thank you for responding, Its refreshing to see that ABC news cares so much about the “chchildrennd has its crack news teams working to clean out the perverts in Washington.

Expect my call soon with the details.

Thanks Again

Monica Lewinski

This is Bush's Fault! Reagannomics Works!

This from AP:
The federal budget estimate for the fiscal year just completed dropped to $250 billion, congressional estimators said Friday, as the economy continues to fuel impressive tax revenues.
The Congressional Budget Office's latest estimate is $10 billion below CBO predictions issued in August and well below a July White House prediction of $296 billion.

The improving deficit picture _ Bush predicted a $423 billion deficit in his February budget _ has been driven by better-than-expected tax receipts, especially from corporate profits, CBO said.

Time to Fight Back!

Rich Galen speaks for me when he says:

I am officially sick and tired of the Republican staffers, lobbyists and consultants in who have spent this week running in little circles, sobbing like a bunch of five-year-olds who just got off the class-trip school bus only to find out the pony is sick and there won't be any rides today.

Here's the wail: Woe to us. We had a gay guy in the Republican conference who was preying on pages. He's going to cause us to lose control of the House of Representatives. Whatever shall we do?

Here's what you do: You strap your helmet on your head; run onto the field; get into a three-point stance; and, at the snap of the ball, hit somebody. Hard.

And then, do it again. And again. And again. Until the final gun sounds.

You might lose the game, but not because, trailing 21-17 at the half, you took off your uniform and went home. If you lose, you should have to be dragged into the locker room; having left every ounce of energy and experience on the field.

You can never know in advance, how something like the Foley-page scandal is going to play. You don't know if, having lit the match, it will simply emit a bit of heat and light and then go out; or, that exactly right mixture of combustible gas and oxygen is available and the match creates an explosion such as we've seen this past week.

Not only that, but you can't know, until after it's over, how long the fire created by the explosion will burn and how much damage it will have done.

Anyone who believes they know what's going to happen on November 7 based upon the data they are seeing on October 6 is … full of it.

(To read the rest of his column cick on the title above for a link)

Dirty Online Chat Just a "Prank"

Matt Drudge Does it again!

CLAIM: FILTHY FOLEY ONLINE CHATS WERE PAGE 'PRANK GONE AWRY'
**World Exclusive**
**Must Credit the DRUDGE REPORT**

According to two people close to former congressional page Jordan Edmund, the now famous lurid AOL Instant Message exchanges that led to the resignation of Mark Foley were part of an online prank that by mistake got into the hands of enemy political operatives, the DRUDGE REPORT can reveal.

According to one Oklahoma source who knows the former page very well, Edmund, a conservative Republican, goaded an unwitting Foley to type embarrassing comments that were then shared with a small group of young Hill politicos. The prank went awry when the saved IM sessions got into the hands of political operatives favorable to Democrats.

The primary source, an ally of Edmund, adamantly proclaims that the former page is not a homosexual. The prank scenario was confirmed by a second associate of Edmund. Both are fearful that their political careers will be affected if they are publicly brought into the investigation.

The prank scenario only applies to the Edmund IM sessions and does not necessarily apply to any other exchanges between the former congressman and others.

The news come on the heels that Edmund has hired former Timothy McVeigh attorney, Stephen Jones.

Developing...

(For a link to the Drudge Report click on the title above)

Statement by Parents of House Page who got "Overly Friendly" emails

We wish to remain anonymous in an effort to prevent any further harm to our family.

There has been much media inquiry regarding our son and his time as a house page. Although our son bravely came forward with information regarding Congressman Foley, his experience as a House page was not marred by the kind of wrongdoing that appears to have occurred with respect to other House pages and Congressman Foley.

In fact, we are pleased that he had the opportunity to serve as a page in the U.S. House of Representatives and if given the opportunity, he would serve as a page again.

We would like to express our support for our congressman, Rodney Alexander, whose office sponsored our son's position as a House page. As far as we know, Congressman Alexander's conduct in this matter has been beyond reproach. He has tried his best to do what we have asked him to do from the very beginning: Namely, to protect the privacy of our son and family from the intense media scrutiny we are now having to endure.

In the fall of 2005, as soon as Congressman Alexander became aware of the e-mails received by our son, he called us. He explained that his office had been made aware of these e-mails by our son and that while he thought the e-mails were overly friendly, he did not think, nor did we think, that they were offensive enough to warrant an investigation.
Rather, we asked him to see that Congressman Foley stop e-mailing or contacting our son and to otherwise drop the matter in order to avoid a media frenzy. He did so. If we had any other knowledge or evidence of potential impropriety, we would have asked for the matter to be treated differently. For instance, we were not aware of the instant messages that have come to light in the past few days.

These instant messages, which have only recently surfaced as a result of the news of the ambiguous e-mails received by our son, are separate matters.

As a young man with integrity who had the courage to question the intention of the e-mails, we respect and honor our son as a hero. Despite his courageous actions, he is becoming a victim due to the harassment by some of the media. Please honor our request that we be left alone. There is nothing more that we can contribute to this ongoing matter. He is not the story, and we feel this intense media scrutiny could endanger our son and family.

We have no intention of discussing this further. Thank you.

Hang In There Big Guy!

Dennis Hatert Speaker of the U. S. House of Representatives

ABC NEWS LIED!

Dirty talk through Instant Messaging (IM) between two single consenting adults! Brian Ross of ABC News should resign! This from the Drudge Report:

On Tuesday ABC news released a high-impact instant message exchange between Foley and, as ABC explained, a young man "under the age of 18."

ABC headlined the story: "New Foley Instant Messages; Had Internet Sex While Awaiting House Vote"

But upon reviewing the records, the DRUDGE REPORT has learned, the young man was in fact over the age of 18 at the time of the exchange.

UPDATE: This from newsbuster.com;

From ABC News [emphasis added]:

ABC News now has obtained 52 separate instant message exchanges, which former pages say were sent by Foley, using the screen name Maf54, to two different boys under the age of 18.
This message was dated April 2003, at approximately 7 p.m., according to the message time stamp.

But blogger William Kerr of Passionate America says that he has identified the former page, that he is 21 now, and that he was 18 at the time the instant messages were exchanged.

Kerr says that he discovered a copy of the instant messages on ABC's website that did not have the former page's screen name redacted. Using the screen name, Kerr and fellow blogger Ms. Underestimated say they were able to identify Foley's correspondent as a 21 year old former page, who was apparently 18 at the time of the instant messages with Foley.

That would make ABC's story of an "underage" page being stalked by a predator a story about two consenting adults exchanging instant messages. Did Brian Ross know this, or did he willfully lie in order to run with the story and "get" the Republicans five weeks before the elections?

Update 8:55PM: ABC Trying to Hide Foley Mistake? Changes Text of 'Blotter' Entry This post pointed out that ABC had mislead the public by misstating the age of one of the former pages who was instant messaged by Mark Foley as under 18. ABC News has changed the copy on their story about the Foley IMs:

ABC News now has obtained 52 separate instant message exchanges, which former pages say were sent by Foley, using the screen name Maf54, to two different boys who began their exchanges with Foley at the age of 16 and 17, and continued through the age of 18.
But the original wording is still in the Google cache:

ABC News now has obtained 52 separate instant message exchanges, which former pages say were sent by Foley, using the screen name Maf54, to two different boys under the age of 18.
The "Blotter" entry does not acknowledge the correction.

(Click on the title for a link)

"Friday Night Lights" (The TV Series)

Tonight I watched the premier of the TV series "Friday Night Lights" and it is very good. I read the book, saw the movie and own the the DVD of the movie. The TV series is at least as good as the movie and in some respects better. I just hope they can keep up the quality for the rest of the season. I will be watching.

Must be Bush's Fault! (Part II)

LONDON (Reuters) - Oil tumbled $2 on Tuesday to below $60 a barrel, sinking to the lowest level since February and prompting OPEC's president to call on the exporter group to deepen supply cuts.

Prices fell for a second day, pressured by ample fuel stockpiles in top consumer the United States and no public evidence of other OPEC members joining Nigeria and Venezuela in cutting output.

Must be Bush's Fault!

DOW JONES IND. AVG. SOARS THROUGH 11,750 TO ALL-TIME HIGH

Dennis Miller on Iraq War

"Iraq is a psychotic salt lick for terrorist" Dennis Miller on FOX NEWS Oct 2, 2006

Fouad Ajami on Islamic terrorist

There is a strand of liberal thinking that aims to explain the terror and succeeds only in explaining it away. Terror is justified if we drown it in the search for "root causes" or if we insist that the terror sprang from "legitimate" grievances. In this vein, nowadays it is maintained that Islamist terror was fed by the rage over the American invasion of Iraq. This argument is off the mark, the product of naivete' or of a determined opposition to the war. We should know better. The trail of radical terror, emanating from Islamic lands and Islamic movements, predates the Iraq war. We have three decades of this kind of terror behind us. Our consolation perhaps lies in the fate that awaited the original cult of assassins. In their time, they had fame, and their potential victims feared them. But the world of organized states in the end triumphed, and the fury of the zealots was no match for the determination of mainstream society to shake off the assassins and to defend the normal order of things.(Click on the title for a link to the US News and World Report column)

"Deja Vu all over again"

On July 14, 1983 the House Ethics Committee concluded that Rep. Dan Crane (R-Ill.) and Rep. Gerry Studds (D-Mass.) had engaged in sexual relationships with minors, specifically 17-year-old congressional pages. In Crane's case, it was a 1980 relationship with a female page and in Studds's case, it was a 1973 relationship with a male page. Both representatives immediately pleaded guilty to the charges and the committee decided to simply reprimand the two.

However, Rep. Newt Gingrich (R-Ga.) demanded their expulsion. On July 20, 1983 the House voted for censure, the first time that censure had been imposed for sexual misconduct. Crane, who tearfully apologized for his transgression, lost his bid for reelection in 1984. Studds, however, refused to apologize and even turned his back and ignored the censure being read to him. He called a press conference with the former page, in which both stated that they were consenting adults at the time of the relationship (the page was 17 at the time) and that it was therefore not the business of others to censure them for their private ephebophilic relationship, and he continued to be reelected until his retirement in 1996. (Source: Wikipedia click on title for a link)

Good thing Foley is a Republican because at least Republicans have a sense of shame. Massachusetts's has sent us Gerry Studds and Teddy Kennedy. When ever I think of Teddy I think of the line from Animal House; "Fat, drunk, and stupid is no way to go through life, son."

Movie: The Guardian ****

Just got back from the Kevin Costner movie "The Guardian" (4* out of 5*). The movie is about an ageing U.S. Coast Guard sea swimming rescuer. You know, the guys who jumps out of a helicopters into the ocean to rescue folks who are in trouble. He is transferred to a Coast Guard school where they train new sea rescuers and Ashton Kutcher is one of his students. Sela Ward plays Costner's wife. The critics are out of their minds this is a good movie. I think it is interesting that on Yahoo Movies the critics on average give this movie a "C" and the public on average give this movie a "B+". There was a big crowd today in Medford for the movie and the audience seemed to like the movie as did I. This is an old fashioned movie about men who are real hero's. Hero's like the "first responders" who went into the World Trade Center on 9/11, or the hero's who are standing for freedom in Iraq or Afghanistan. No Alen Alda types here! If this movie had been made 50 years ago John Wayne would have had the Kevin Costner role and Sela Ward's part would have been played by Maureen O'Hara. I just figured out why the critics pan this movie. No moral ambiguities here. Go see this movie. (Click on the title above for a link to Yahoo Movies page on The Guardian)

Also got to see a preview for the Clint Eastwood Movie about the men who planted Old Glory on Iwo Jima in WW II called "Flags of Our Fathers." It opens in a few weeks and I will be there the first weekend. I read the book ....can't wait for it to open!