12-10-2004 2 Timothy 4:7 and better off dead


Mark,

It's about that time again. Christmas time. Woohoo. Time to celebrate our lives, count our blessings, and help others. Hey buddy, I will be dropping some dolla in the bin this year as well…secret Santa again. I wish I could see the face of the little boy or girl that receives an unexpected gift. Pure joy. It's not about the gift. It's about the way it makes them feel.

You know that I have gone through a difficult three years, but things are improving and this time of year always makes me reflect on the good things I have…my kids, my family and friends, my job, my home…a special someone that has entered my life.

'Tis the season to be jolly,
but for Walter, 'tis quite a folly.
Just one Silent Night,
instead of a fight,
how 'bout it Walt…good golly!
Oh well…a poet I ain't. Saw a very funny bumper sticker: "Guns kill people like spoons made Rosie O'Donnell fat."

More from the unity front.

***MILWAUKEE (AP) - A radio talk show host drew criticism Thursday after calling Condoleezza Rice an "Aunt Jemima" and saying she isn't competent to be secretary of state.

John "Sly" Sylvester, the program director and morning personality on WTDY-AM in Madison, said in a phone interview Thursday that he used the term on Wednesday's show to describe Rice and other blacks as having only a subservient role in the Bush administration.

Rice has served as President Bush's national security adviser and was named this week to replace the departing Colin Powell as secretary of state.

Sylvester, who is white, also referred to Powell as an "Uncle Tom" - a contemptuous term for a black whose behavior toward whites is regarded as fawning or servile.***

Gosh, this stuff makes me sick. Subservient roles? Where was this guy 6, 8, 10 years ago when Bubba promised us he would hire a cross section of America. Well, I guess he did, 65% of the world lawyers are in the US, so I guess his hiring reflected that. And what a selection Madeleine Albright was…dumb as a doorknob. Dr. Rice or Doorknob? And Janet "Gung-ho" Reno? Now George W. Bush could learn a few things from her-"Compound Crashing Made Easy."

Here's another great news story…does any of this surprise anyone anymore? I'm not surprised at all anymore. ***Jerusalem (CNSNews.com) -The West should be "very suspicious" of the agreement between Iran and three European Union nations, in which Iran is pledging to suspend uranium enrichment for its nuclear program, an analyst here said on Thursday.

Iran agreed to a deal on Sunday with three EU members -- Britain, France and Germany -- in which it would suspend its uranium enrichment program in return for what are being described as incentives.***

Pledges for food? Then we have Mr. Clean: Come Clean, Kofi

The U.N. secretary-general ducks responsibilty for the Oil for Food scam.

BY CLAUDIA ROSETT
Wednesday, November 17, 2004 12:01 a.m. EST
With estimates soaring of graft and fraud under the United Nations Oil for Food program in Iraq, we are hearing a lot about the need to "get to the bottom" of this scandal, the biggest ever to hit the U.N. To get to that bottom will need a much harder look at the top--where Secretary-General Kofi Annan himself resides.

That violates all sorts of taboos. But so, one might suppose, does a United Nations that allowed Saddam Hussein to embezzle at least $21.3 billion in oil money during 12 years, with the great bulk of that sum--a staggering $17.3 billion--pilfered between 1997-2003, on Mr. Annan's watch.

These are the record-breaking new estimates released Monday by the Senate's Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, whose staffers, despite Mr. Annan's refusal to cooperate, have spent the past seven months voyaging deep into the muck of Oil for Food. At a hearing Monday, these investigators surfaced to tell us the theft and fraud under Oil for Food was at least twice as bad as earlier reports had suggested, and that all this is just a preview of yet more appalling disclosures they expect to release early next year. Sen. Norm Coleman, the subcommittee's chairman, underscored the urgency of such investigations, noting not only that the size of the fraud "is staggering," but that some of Saddam's vast illicit stash might right now be funding terrorists and costing American lives.

Mr. Annan, by contrast, seems to inhabit a different universe--one in which the chief problem lies not in the U.N.'s complicity, including his own, in the biggest fraud in the history of humanitarian relief, but rather in the attempts to shine any light on all that sleaze. In Annan Land, there was earlier this year no need for any probe into Oil for Food; and even now there is no need for any investigating beyond the U.N.'s own "independent inquiry" into itself, led by former Fed chairman Paul Volcker, required to funnel its findings first through Mr. Annan, funded to the tune of $30 million out of one of the old Oil for Food accounts it is supposed to be investigating, and not planning to clock in with any specific results until sometime next summer.***

And on and on it goes. Where it stops nobody knows. But lets hope someone finds out. Could anyone imagine what the UN would be like if Bubba was in charge-"free cigars and interns for everyone." "All the world's a playground." And if Hillary becomes President, does anyone doubt or nations sovereignty would be in danger?

Look at the way the UN treats the US now. They love the color green that is for sure. But they attack our every move and create "agreements" to cripple us, while ignoring every other country. Hey, you want to see dirty, go to France. You want to see poverty, go to Italy and Mexico. You want to see industrial waste, go to China and Malaysia. You want your high taxes for no services, go to Germany-their middle class lives worse then our welfare population. But, it's all the US's fault, so was every war, every calamity, oppression, why even Communism is our fault. Damn that freedom anyway.

More bashing. Just when is this election going to stop? Or at least the total destruction of people that didn't support Kerry?

***How Kerry whistleblower suffered for truth
November 29, 2004
BY MARY LANEY

This is the story of a military veteran whistleblower. He spoke out against someone he thought was dangerous for the nation, talked to local newspapers, and appeared on talk shows. In return, he was vilified by reporters, threatened by a political operative, fired by his company, and now he's broke.

His name is Steve Gardner. He's also known as "The 10th Brother," as in Band of Brothers. He's one of two members of Sen. John Kerry's 12 Vietnam swift boat crew members who refused to stand with Kerry at the Democratic Convention. The other man remained silent.

"They said I had a political agenda. I had no and have no political agenda whatsoever. I saw John Kerry on television saying he was running for the Democratic nomination for president, and I knew I couldn't ever see him as commander in chief -- not after what I saw in Vietnam, not after the lies I heard him tell about what he says he did and what he says others did." ...

Gardner's story is one that bears telling. He volunteered for the Navy, enlisting on his 18th birthday in February 1966. After training, he was shipped to Vietnam and served for two years as a gunner in the swift boat division. His superior, for four months, was none other than Lt. j.g. John F. Kerry.

"I had confrontations with him there. He nearly got us rammed by the VC one night because he wasn't watching the helm. I heard the motor coming close, turned on the spotlight, and the boat was only 90 feet away, coming fast. The VC was aiming an AK47 at us. I shot him out of the boat. We pulled a woman and a baby off the boat. Kerry wrote it up that we captured two VC and killed four more on the beach. None of that was true. The only thing true on Kerry's report was the date. The woman was catatonic and wouldn't call her baby VC and there were no VC on the beach. If we had seen that report before Kerry sent it up the chain of command, he would have been court-martialed and never allowed to run for office. And that's just the San Pan incident. There was much more. He is a self-aggrandizing bold-faced liar. I believe he caused the extension of that war."

Gardner told this story and others to radio stations and he wrote a piece for the local paper. Then, he says, he received a phone call from John Hurley, the veterans organizer for Kerry's campaign. Hurley, Gardner says, asked him to come out for Kerry. He told Hurley to leave him alone and that he'd never be for Kerry. It was then Gardner says, he was threatened with, "You better watch your step. We can look into your finances."

Twenty-four hours later, Gardner got an e-mail from his company, Millennium Information Services, informing him that his services would no longer be necessary. He was laid off in an e-mail -- by the same man who only days before had congratulated him for his exemplary work in a territory which covered North and South Carolina. The e-mail stated that his position was being eliminated. Since then, he's seen the company advertising for his old position. Gardner doesn't have the money to sue to get the job back.

"I'm broke. I've been hurt every way I can be hurt. I have no money in the bank but am doing little bits here and there to pay the bills," he said.***

I guess we should all count our blessing right about now. But I really wish the media hawks would give the Bush bashing a rest. "All I want for Christmas is one good news report…" My new favorite was the report that the all time historical low battlefield casualty report that just came out was treated as a huge loss for Bush and the US. Why? Because it means that more of our guys were saved from dying by our advanced field surgens (which of course is bull). Yes, in the mind of some reporters, to live with a severe injury is to not live at all-be better off dead. Tell that to the man fighting for you that just got a round through his shoulder or leg. Or to his family and friends. Stupid reporters. Obviously, we are dumbing down our kids because they are growing into reporters that live in an alternate reality. I haven't seen one report from Iraq lately that even makes sense. No news, used to be good news. Today good news is bad news. Maybe for half of America-the rest of us know better.

Keep the faith.
Private Sector Dude.