Footprints of 9/11

Yesterday, there were nearly a dozen New York City firefighters in the San Diego area, helping to rebuild houses destroyed by last October's wildfires. Their visit was organized by the New York Says Thank You Foundation, an organization that spends each 9/11 anniversary helping U.S. communities that have been struck by disaster.

It's New York's way of showing appreciation to their fellow countrymen for the outpouring of love and support that followed 9/11.

It's one of the reasons that the terrorists will never win.

The Islamo-Fascists don't "get" America. They hate, resent, and envy us. They delight in seeing any of us dead. But they don't understand us, and they never will.

Americans build, terrorists destroy. Americans liberate, terrorists enslave. Americans look ahead with hope to the future; terrorists look back in anger to the distant past.

There's a brilliant line in Shakespeare's Othello that reads, "The robbed that smiles steals something from the thief." The NYC firefighters who traveled 3,000 miles to learn how to swing hammers under the shimmering California sun have forged another unbreakable link onto the chain of American spirit, goodwill, and generosity. They show, yet again, how the American people can find a way to shed the light of joy and goodness on the blackness of hatred and evil.

They leave footprints in which no terrorist can follow.

Never Forget

Today is 9/11 again.

Three years ago today, Americans were forced to confront the reality that the world has changed. While we were rationalizing, apologizing, analyzing, and excusing terrorist attacks for decades, the Islamic fascists who would like to see all of us dead had been very busy advancing their objectives.

How is it that so many of our countrymen seem to have forgotten? The stirring words that have described 9/11 sound empty now, they've been said so many times. The attacks were brutal, catastrophic, tragic, and all the grim adjectives in between. The word we don't hear often enough is "evil." The attacks were pure evil, perpetrated against innocents by mass murderers who took delight in destroying so many of us.

Never forget the cold deliberation and the fiendish glee of our enemies on that day. Never forget that the battle against Islamic fascists is still in its infancy. Never forget that, unless we kill them first, we are dead at their hands.

Those who rail against "Bush's war" have forgotten this hard fact. Afghanistan and Iraq are merely the first two of many battlefields the U.S. must face in the years ahead, if we are to survive as a nation and a people.

Yes, there is a terrible cost. So many of our brave men and women have died in this conflict. Yet I thank God this country still produces young people of the character and courage it takes to face death as they protect their families and homeland.

We Americans, lost in our lives of leisure and plenty, are noted for our short attention spans and quickly fading memories.

But today is the third anniversary of 9/11. Never forget that the fight is better waged in Fallujah than in Philadelphia.

Circus of the Day

Welcome to today's Major Media Circus--Imaginary Memos From the Left.

I happen to be enough of a fossil to have been typing in the early 1970s. There was no superscript function on any typewriter that I ever worked on, and I worked on plenty, both manual and electric.

If the CBS network thinks it can pass off that sorry excuse of a forgery on President Bush's National Guard documents, it will have to think again. And try to be a little more subtle and creative the next time you try to stuff garbage down the public's throat. In the words of the poet, "Less is more." Try to be less careless, less sloppy, less lazy, and certainly less arrogant.

Did you really think we were going to take your word for it? Have you honestly not figured out that both talk radio and the blogosphere are bursting with smart, savvy journalists, with millions of readers and listeners, who are not going swallow your trash anymore? Can you seriously be that dense, that unaware, that irrelevant?

It seems as though you are determined to lurch and stagger all the way to the November 2 finish line, flailing to prop up John Kerry with one lie after another. Will you always be shocked when the lies shatter under the laser beam scrutiny of new media? Or will you eventually get a clue that your tired tactics are doing more harm than good to your weakling candidate?

Time will tell. Meanwhile, those of us who are tuned in to the other side of the story will continue to enjoy a daily circus, courtesy of Old Media. I'd make popcorn and enjoy the show you're putting on, if only it didn't give me such heartburn and indigestion.

Memo to CBS: You blew it.

A Killer By Any Other Name...

….is still a murderer.

In the case of the slaughtered schoolchildren in Beslan, Russia, the killers are known by any number of euphemistic names in Major Media. They are gently referred to as “Hostage-takers”…”Extremists”…”Attackers”…”Insurgents”…”Rebels”…”Separatists.” It seems that Old Media will go to any lengths to avoid telling the truth about what really happened in that school at the hands of yes, say it: Islamic Terrorists.

They are brutal, cold-blooded murderers. They are sick in their souls, if indeed they possess souls, and subhuman in their emotional and intellectual processes.

And these are the creatures with which John Kerry would have us wage “a more sensitive war.” Merciful God, please protect us from such a stupid leader at this critical time in our history.

I have a few names for these subhuman beings. Monster is not strong enough. Butcher? There’s truth to it. Honestly, I think perhaps we’ve reached a stage in history where we need a new word to describe a creature that would deliberately torture, stab, shoot, or blow up hundreds of innocent children.

In the mean while, the term “Islamic Terrorist” will suffice.

What's News?

Okay, I realize that Hurricane Frances needed some air time. It burned eight-plus minutes on the CBS Evening News. The possible capture of an Iraqi kingpin captured about half that length of time, as did the Muslim terrorist attack on a Russian school that resulted in the brutal deaths of so many children.

There was gushing coverage of Bill Clinton's heart troubles and his upcoming surgery, then a terse mention of President Bush's "missing records" from the National Guard that "may not be found." (I waited in vain for the theme from "Jaws" to play).

As for the upcoming national election, and President Bush's double-digit lead in the latest polls--What? Hello? Did you say something? Election? What election?

Kerry? Who? JOHN Kerry? Do you mean the guy who's running for president? The guy whose military records are being investigated at this moment by the U.S. Navy? Oh, no, sorry. CBS didn't mention him at all tonight. It was as though I was back in that Alternate Universe for a half hour.

So please tell me, Major Media, what constitutes news these days? From the looks of things on the evening news, just those things you'd like me to know and nothing more.

Rudy and Arnold Rock the House

I don't usually sit through television broadcasts of political campaigns, but this year is different. This year, we Americans are at war and in danger.

I didn't watch the Democratic convention, because I had already decided that a vote for John Kerry is unconscionable. But I'm watching the Republican National Convention, and I'm finding myself uplifted.

Rudy Guiliani, the Mayor of New York City on 9/11/01, last night reminded us, with his poignant recollections of that tragic day, of the moral justice of protecting our country by pre-emptive strikes against terrorists. Rudy's speech strengthened the soul of our national purpose and rekindled the spirit of unity that bound Americans together in the days following the vicious attack on our homeland. Tonight, California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger explained his exhilaration as a young immigrant arriving in the United States and, through the boundless opportunities offered by our country, making all of his life's dreams come true. Arnold's speech celebrated the joy and freedom of being an American, the rightness of defending our freedoms, and the hopefulness inherent in extending those freedoms to other nations.

Both men radiated the joy of being an American. Both men offered heartfelt thanks to the men and women of our military. Both men reminded us to be grateful, to be appreciative, to be respectful of this wonderful country we are blessed to be a part of. And both men reiterated the importance of keeping a strong, principled, resolute leader, George W. Bush, in office at this crucial time in our history.

Rudy and Arnold, a dynamic duo of highly refreshing and inspiring speakers. Not a negative note sounded by either one about our country. They both love America. They said everything so many of us wanted, and needed, to hear. They said it straight, and they said it strong.

They rocked the house.

Moore's Mental Meltdown

Michael Moore needs to take some time off. As his most recent open letter to President Bush displays, he's been working way too hard converting every last speed bump in the Kerry campaign into direct results of President Bush's evil designs. The poor man (Moore, I mean, not Bush). He's got to be completely worn out with all this frustrated news content control.

Michael would benefit from a recitation of the Serenity Prayer. "God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I can not change, the courage to change the things I can, (and here's the really hard part, for Michael), the wisdom to know the difference."

Here's my open letter to Michael Moore:

Mike, oh Mike. It's not the President's fault that hundreds of Swift boat veterans who served concurrently with Kerry are determined to clear their name of his slander against them. It's not the President's fault that Kerry doesn't have the stomach to face the press in a news conference that, if handled well, could end much of the noise. It's also not the fault of the President that people are watching the veterans' news story with interest, seeing Kerry's 1971 anti-war testimony, and hearing about his Senate voting record. Lastly, it is completely out of the President's control that people are taking all these completely legitimate factors under advisement as they consider their 2004 vote.

They are allowed to do that, aren't they, Michael? I mean, if they're not allowed to consider the facts before them--many of said facts from the Senator's own mouth, on tape--and make an independent decision as to what's best for America...well, then, Dude, Where's My Country?????

Accept the fact that John Kerry has pooped his own bed by gleefully bellowing "Bring it on!" with regard to Vietnam records. He's the one that made war service into a big magilla. Now that the big magilla has turned into a 900-lb. gorilla that he can't seem to shake off his back, Kerry wants to change the subject. His whining, threatening, outraged attacks upon fellow veterans who are his critics are most unseemly in a would-be president. President Bush repeatedly has been compared to Hitler in Leftie publications, and I haven't heard him complaining. I think he's probably too busy trying to keep Americans alive to worry much about the sticks and stones of the hysterical left wing.

Oh, but those are all facts, and facts--those "stubborn things," as John Adams called them--are things in which you've never demonstrated too much interest. As you so bluntly phrased it at the Academy Awards, we live in "fictional times"--as anyone who has seen "Farenheit 911" might agree.

So get some rest, Michael. And you would do well to learn that Serenity prayer by heart. Although you may be incredulous of this stubborn fact, you aren't always correct. And you aren't always successful in shoving your agenda onto the general public, either.

Let's hope that November 2 delivers you one of your well-deserved failures. I sincerely hope that Kerry's resounding defeat becomes one of the "things you can not change."

He Said, They Said

John Kerry and a few of his Vietnam war cronies say one thing.

Over 250 Vietnam Swift Boat Veterans For Truth (SBVFT) say something else.

Who's a voter to believe?

The story is 35 years old, so everyone involved is entitled to be a bit hazy on details. Although, I've never been in a war...I suspect it might sharpen one's memory skills, but I don't know. I do know that if someone says a thing is "seared" in his memory, it should be a factual representation of what happened. But that's not how it turned out for John Kerry's "Christmas Eve in Cambodia, 1968" -- so many swift boat veterans stepped forward to object to that story that Kerry had to recant.

What about the veterans who support Kerry? Although far fewer in number than the SBVFT, they speak unchallenged. Mainstream media chases their statements and features them prominently. The SBVFT are threatened with lawsuits for presenting their case. Bookstores won't even stock Unfit For Command (www.amazon.com). Yet Kerry blusters at the Internet book distributors to stop shipping the books, in effect calling for a modern day e-version of book burning.

Apparently, in John Kerry's world, the First Amendment applies to his supporters only.

The media storm swirling about this insistent controversy grows stronger with the force of the blogosphere's powerful winds and the high pressure system of conservative talk radio. It's not going to go away, Senator. And the more you scream in protest, the more guilty of dishonesty you appear. That is the stark truth that will be seared--seared--in the minds of many swing and independent voters, come Election Day.

The hundreds of voices of your peers are going to be impossible to shout down. As Bob Dole so wisely noted, you weren't the only serviceman in Vietnam. It seems that more than a few of them have their own searing memories, especially of how you slandered them when you returned to the U.S.

Now it is their turn to come after you, and they are doing so "in a style reminiscent of Genghis Khan."

Now, where have I heard that before?

And Now, I Have a Sailor

There's a sailor stationed overseas that I've just met in the past few days, via e-mail. He's my e-pal, assigned to me at my request by Soldiers' Angels.

We've only exchanged a couple of messages so far, but I can tell my sailor and I are going to be good friends.

I can not say enough positive things about the Soldiers' Angels Foundation. If you want to feel that you are doing something tangible to support our service men and women overseas, who are risking all to defend us against the terrorists who want Americans dead, then Soldiers' Angels is worth looking into.

We can never repay the brave men and women of our military who are fighting this war for us. But we can be there for them, through Soldiers' Angels. The Foundation's slogan is, "May no soldier go unloved."

For me, becoming an Angel has been a life-changing experience. If you want to treat yourself to an exhilarating feeling of purpose and accomplishment, sign up for your own wings today, at www.soldiersangels.com.

It's not about war. It's about love.

The Five W's

Back in medieval times, when I was a college journalism student, I was taught the fundamental elements of building a solid news story. Within the first paragraph, five questions must be answered. There were no exceptions, at least not in my class. A student had to be prepared to accept deep deductions if any of the Big Five were left unaddressed.

Those questions were: Who? What? When? Where? Why? Subsequent paragraphs were devoted to the more flexible question, How? But those five W's were upfront and center. According to my professor, it wasn't news reporting if an article's opening sentences didn't contain the answers.

I'm happy to report that I got an "A" in Journalism. If I were a working journalist today, I might want to start a news article this way: "John Kerry today refused to answer reporters' questions regarding the discrepancies in various accounts of his Vietnam military service. From his vacation retreat in (Idaho, Martha's Vineyard, Washington state, other), Kerry announced through a spokesperson that he had no more to say on the subject because he stood by his previous stories, all of them, regardless of conflicting details."

Okay, I'm a big girl now. I know I wouldn't be a working journalist for long, if I handed that bit of reality to my editor. But tell me, please, what is untruthful about my opening paragraph? What part of the facts have I neglected to address? Have I given the reader all the information I have on the story, without embellishing or editorializing? The answers to my questions, in order, are: nothing, none, yes. Mission accomplished; Five W's addressed.

Why can't the elite media machine ask an honest question on the subject of John Kerry's war record? Why can't they even admit the possibility that he's in deep, dark yogurt over his Walter Mitty whoppers? As they editorialize at the height of emotion, even on front pages, how can they presume to call themselves journalists?

Speaking of Walter Mitty, here's my dream--A news story on my daily paper's front page that annouces, "The American media today admitted, in a televised news conference in Washington D.C., that they are guilty of journalistic malpractice in their coverage of John Kerry's presidential campaign."

The Five W's, beautiful in their simplicity. To quote the Bard, "Truth will out."