You Go Bush!!!

I was so proud of Bush yesterday. This is the side that conservatives like me wish we would see more often. Here are some great excerpts from the Press Conference:

"Earlier today, my staff met with congressional leaders about the resignations of U.S. attorneys. As you know, I have broad discretion to replace political appointees throughout the government, including U.S. attorneys. And in this case, I appointed these U.S. attorneys and they served four-year terms.

The initial response by Democrats, unfortunately, shows some appear more interested in scoring political points than in learning the facts. It will be regrettable if they choose to head down the partisan road of issuing subpoenas and demanding show trials when I have agreed to make key White House officials and documents available. I have proposed a reasonable way to avoid an impasse. I hope they don't choose confrontation. I will oppose any attempts to subpoena White House officials.

As we cut through all the partisan rhetoric, it's important to maintain perspective on a couple of important points. First, it was natural and appropriate for members of the White House staff to consider and to discuss with the Justice Department whether to replace all 93 U.S. attorneys at the beginning of my second term. The start of a second term is a natural time to discuss the status of political appointees within the White House and with relevant agencies, including the Justice Department. In this case, the idea was rejected and was not pursued.

Second, it is common for me, members of my staff, and the Justice Department to receive complaints from members of Congress in both parties, and from other citizens. And we did hear complaints and concerns about U.S. attorneys. Some complained about the lack of vigorous prosecution of election fraud cases, while others had concerns about immigration cases not being prosecuted. These concerns are often shared between the White House and the Justice Department, and that is completely appropriate.

I also want to say something to the U.S. attorneys who resigned. I appreciate your service to the country. And while I strongly support the Attorney General's decision and am confident he acted appropriately, I regret these resignations turned into such a public spectacle.

It's now my hope that the United States Congress will act appropriately. My administration has made a very reasonable proposal. It's not too late for Democrats to drop the partisanship and work together. Democrats now have to choose whether they will waste time and provoke an unnecessary confrontation, or whether they will join us in working to do the people's business. There are too many important issues, from funding our troops to comprehensive immigration reform, to balancing the budget, for us to accomplish on behalf of the American people."

I thought I heard him saying something about the Democrats and a witch hunt but I couldn't find it. I liked that line because that is exactly what this is. I am beyond frustrated at how this has been completely blown out of proportion.

As usual Tom Delay is right!! He had this to say about it all:

Former House Republican Leader Tom DeLay said Tuesday the scandal "is just a taste of what's goingt to be like for the next two years."

"And the Bush amdinistration sort of showed their weakenss when they got rid of Don Rumseld," the Texan said on NBC's "Today" show. "... This is a made up scandal. There is no evidence of wrongdoing whatsoever. ... They ought to be fighting back."

GG also has a good post with the perfect title, "Continuing the Hunt for Karl Rove".

Clay County Republican Lincoln Days

Missouri State Treasurer: Sarah Steelman

I got invited to my county's Republican Lincoln Days this past Friday. It was a lot of fun and I enjoyed getting to hear the different people speak and getting to talk to some of them in person. Missouri's State Treasurer, Sarah Steelman and my U.S. Congressman Sam Graves were the 2 main speakers although most of the Republican State Representatives spoke as well as the 2 State Senators that represent Clay County.

Missouri State Representative For the 35th District: Doug Ervin

I can't tell you how much I wish I lived in Doug Ervin's district. I think I was the most impressed with his speech of all the speakers and he spoke for less than 5 minutes. I also got to talk to him at length afterwards and this man just exudes integrity, honesty and character. He is very sincere and you get the impression that he really cares about what you have to say which we all know is rare. During his speech he recited a wonderful quote and I asked him who said it. Not surprisingly the quote was by Teddy Roosevelt so I made sure to look it up as soon as I got home. Here is the inspirational quote:

"It is not the critic who counts, nor the man who points how the strong man stumbled or where the doer of deeds could have done them better.

The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena; whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly...who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotions, and spends himself in a worthy cause; who, at best, knows the triumph of high achievement; and who, at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who know neither victory nor defeat."--Teddy Roosevelt

That quote just inspires and speaks to me beyond words so I'm putting it up for my quote of the week in the sidebar.


One of the other reasons I wished I lived in Ervin's district is because all of the State Representatives in Clay County are now Republicans except for mine. Quite the bummer. Yet, we at least got our great Republican State Senator, Luann Ridgeway in 2004. So I'm not totally represented by Democrats.

State Representatives Tim Flook, Bob Nance and Jerry Nolte spoke as well as State Senator Bill Stouffer.

In conclusion, don't forget Teddy Roosevelt's words and get into the arena and fight for what you believe in. Fighting for a worthy cause is much more admirable then just being a critic. I for one refuse to do that. There will be some defeats but there will also be victory as well. Just ask Teddy Roosevelt, Ronald Reagan and Winston Churchill. They too saw some defeats but very important victories as well.

The Dead Sea Scrolls in KC

My 3 older kids and I went on a field trip with the American Girls' group yesterday to see The Dead Sea Scrolls at Union Station. They are here for 3 months and there has been a lot of talk about the exhibit. The tickets normally are pretty expensive at $20 a person but we were able to get a major discount since we had a Children's group.

I have to say that I was extremely impressed. It was well done and my kids and I got a lot more out of it than I expected. They gave each person a small device that looked like a TV remote control. At each section they had numbers that you pressed into the audio device and you could listen to commentary about what you were looking at in the displays. They also had a kid version and an adult version for each one. So not only did it keep my kids occupied but I think they learned more as a result. It also enabled everyone to go at their own pace and learn as little or as much as they wanted about each display. It was also fascinating to be able to see some of the actual scrolls.


Here is some of what I learned:

About the only thing I remembered about them from Bible College is that they were older than any other Biblical text even though they were found later than any other and as a result they were considered to be more reliable. So the rest was all new to me or were things I hadn't remembered learning.

The Dead Sea Scrolls were originally discovered in a cave in 1947 by a Bedouin Shepherd at Qumran. The Discovery led to more from 1947-1956 where archaeologists and Bedouin Shepherds found 800+ scrolls in 11 different caves along the shore of the Dead Sea.

The Dead Sea is 1371 feet below sea level and the climate around it is very dry which is what enabled the scrolls to be preserved for such a long time. Once the scrolls were brought to a different climate they started to deteriorate and the archaeologists initially, unknowingly did some irreparable damage. Soon efforts were made to handle them much more carefully and to preserve them.

Many believe the scrolls to have been written by a sect known as the Essenes who lived at Qumran during the related time period.

If you live in the KC area or even a couple of hours away I would highly recommend the exhibit!!

I Love Dennis Miller

I cannot say enough good things about Dennis Miller. He may still be a little liberal on some issues but he is spot on about so many things. He is as real and candid as they come which explains our mutual admiration for Rudy. Not only does he have regular segments on Hannity and Colmes now but O'Reilly is having him on every Wednesday night.

In this clip from last night's show he is talking about Ann Coulter, Bill Maher and Rudy. Go here to watch the video.

I posted yesterday at The Astute Bloggers that Rush had announced that The Half Hour News Hour has been picked up for 13 episodes. Woo-hoo!!! Libertarian Popinjay had this to say in the comments section:

"That is good news. Rush was saying that now that they've got the 13 show run, they'll be able to get a bigger budget and better staff on the show. As someone with some experience in television production, I can tell you that good people make all the difference, and often it takes money to get the good people.

Also, now that they're going to do several shows, they need to get Dennis Miller in the mix. Dennis is like the right-wing version of Bill Maher, but unlike Maher he's able to make funny, cogent points without crossing the line. We're lucky to have Miller on our side."

I could not agree more!!!!


Here is another recent video of Miller on O'Reilly where he is talking about Gore and the Oscars.

Monster John Couey is Convicted

If John Couey doesn't make your skin crawl then no one will. This monster kidnapped 9 year old Jessica Lunsford, raped her and then buried her alive. Justice was served yesterday when a jury took four hours to find him guilty. The jury still has to decide whether he gets life in prison or the death penalty. If Couey isn't a prime candidate for the death penalty I don't know who is.

The only good to come out of this horrific crime is that many people finally woke up and started passing Jessica's law which hands out harsher crimes for sex offenders.

Go here to hear Bill O'Reilly's talking points on this case.

Happy Birthday Calvin!

When I first made the South Park version of myself my kids thought it looked like great fun. So they all made SP versions of themselves. I have been meaning to post the Chatterbox family South Park Style but haven't gotten around to it.

Today is my oldest son's 11th birthday so I thought it would be fun to post the South Park version of Calvin that he designed himself. We are having a Pizza Party to celebrate tomorrow night.

Happy Birthday Calvin!!

Flags of our Fathers

I really wanted to see this movie in the theater but never made it. I just got it thru Netflix and was not disappointed. It is a very good movie although difficult to watch at times.


It paints a very realistic picture of how horrific the fight at Iwo Jima was for our soldiers. It reminded me of how D-day was portrayed on Saving Private Ryan. You are charging up the beach and men all around you are dropping. It is unfathomable!!


The movie also shows how difficult it was for the 3 surviving men from the famous Iwo Jima picture to cope with coming home and being regarded as a hero. I don't think we ever think about what that would be like.

Seeing the movie also made me think about all the needless deaths that happened during that war. Hindsight is always 20/20 and looking back I'm sure there were things that could've been done to save lives. Yet, that is war. Wars are never planned perfectly or executed perfectly, war is hell! It showed me how unfair so many liberals are being in their criticism of our current war and of our president.

Wordsmith has been debating a liberal in the comments' section of one of my other posts. It is now up to 55 comments :-). Wordsmith made some excellent points that I thought were worth quoting here about the war & Bush:

WAR
1st comment

"Democracy, especially in the presence of an insurgency and those who are working actively to sabotage it every step of the way, takes time and effort and energy and sacrifice. It doesn't happen overnight, as much as we may wish it to. There is blood, there is dying, and there are setbacks amidst successes. It's hard work. It's difficult work. Now is not the time to lose one's resolve. Now is the time to do what's right and to do what needs doing, especially when things get tough and it looks like the darkest hour. What did you expect? For our enemies in Iraq to just roll over and play dead? For us to incur zero loss of life? Giving me the latest body count isn't an argument for invalidating this war. It's WAR. And people die. What would the cost in American and Iraqi lives have costed us, in the long run had Saddam remained in power? We will never really know.

We're there now. We're in this war. There's no excuse for not working toward victory. Defeat or a perceived defeat will not make America safer.
But how fair is it for civilians to armchair quarterback and micromanage this war, when we do not have all the facts available to us? Following the press releases is not sufficient to make educated, strategic decisions.

2nd Comment
So many things went wrong during the invasion of Normandy; so many lives that can be seen as avoidable losses. But that's the nature of hindsight. And it creates anguish in all of us- including our elected leaders who made the big decisions- to know that mistakes cost lives. But what's the solution? Fire the generals and Administration officials every time something goes wrong?

I understand you want leaders to be able to "adjust accordingly", and not stubbornly keep doing the same thing over and over again. But I think the situations and relationships are complex ones, and all we end up doing is armchair second-guessing. We are not there, sitting in the war-room, absorbing all the available intelligence and data.

"Stay the course" is a nice, silly little phrase, that unfortunately, has been political ammo for the critics. It shouldn't be. "Staying the course" doesn't mean you keep applying the same strategy when the war has evolved. It means, you have the intestinal fortitude to outlast the enemy, even when the going gets tough. Throughout the past 3 years, we have adapted and changed tactics; as has the enemy.

Now, that being said, some decisions in hindsight should have probably been made sooner (such as more troops) that weren't. But, again, this is the advantage of 20/20 hindsight.

BUSH
I see President Bush as someone who will go down as one of our nation's strongest leaders, precisely because he has faced so much opposition; that against the odds, I think he will emerge as having been right, and made the big decisions, even when they weren't the popular decisions. Leaders cannot lead a nation, based upon the latest gallup polls. Bush is someone who thinks big, and has tackled head-on, some of the big challenges of our time. He is a mover and a shaker, and has affected the world as a risk-taker, for better or worse you may argue.

I think 9/11 transformed Bush into one of our nation's best; it jumpstarted his greatness to think big and to go long. The status quo was a slow kill for the world, as terrorists festered through the 90's, like a malignant cancer upon the world, largely ignored and left untreated. Reagan was much hated around the world; and there were demonstrations even before he swore the oath, as protestors thought it would be the end of the world."

Carnival of Bauer LMC Style

Since I am one of Bill Buchanan's favorite chics he has been awaiting with eager anticipation for me to host the Carnival of Bauer. Today his wishes come true!!

I've learned some fun things from reading everyone's posts and info on their blog. Thus today's carnival is entitled, What did I learn?

K.B. Spends the Day with J.B. - Hour 10
I learned all kinds of interesting stuff from Kyle's post and blog. First of all he is a star in his own right and he earns extra points with me right off the bat for posting a pic of Sawyer on last week's recap. What else did I learn? He doesn't like the Chief's uniforms which should offend me since I'm from KC but it doesn't because I don't care about football. He doesn't like Bill Maher (scores more bonus points with me). He sometimes slept in his shower as a kid and wishes he had Chloe's line of "not metabolizing the alcohol" when he was pulled over by the police.

Latest 24 Rundown
I found out that CTU doesn't have a very tough screening process and Logan is Al Gore's long lost twin brother.

24 Day 6 3:00 PM - 4:00 PM
Jeff gets bonus points for the most analogies and references to a wide range of topics. The list would include a Tennyson poem, Monty Python, Star Trek, the Lifetime channel, congressional hearings and the "Don't ask, don't tell policy". He is also watching Firefly on DVD, thinks there is a type of music called boom-a-chicka music and he has a makenosensemeter.

Treasonous Spies Expunged from Tabernacle
Lone Star Pundit is a little confused and thinks that Jack Bauer actually does work for the Federal government :-).

24 Season 6 - Episode 10 - 3 pm to 4 am Summary
I didn't know before now that Gredenko spelled sideways is Tancredo. I also didn't know that “No one’s life is worth the destruction of everything I’ve built” is Microsoft’s secret company motto.

Your Weekly Dose of "24"
Besides learning that even liberals like Ricky love 24 I also learned some interesting tidbits about the main characters. Chloe's official title is, Socially Inept Computer Analyst, Jack went to the School of Ridiculously Hard Knocks and Bill Buchanan went to Michigan University.

Jack Bauer 'makes it work' a la Tim Gunn and Project Runway
I learned about 24 fashion styles and noticed a reference to Animal House.
New goals in life include...
I discovered all kinds of intriguing things about Kiefer Sutherland's personal life. Also, that Lou would like to hang out with Sutherland on one of his wild, partying nights on the town.

What the?!?!
I found out that Amy is a fellow Lost fan. She posted some great pics and she too has noticed the similarities between Logan and Al Gore. (I would like to add that they are probably similar in a lot of other areas apart from just the insane look.)
I also learned that some psycho in England officially had his name changed to Jack Bauer, thats what I call obsessive. Also, I suspect that Amy must either be a big Smurf's fan or loved "Goldilocks and the Three Bears" because she kept referring to Jack's dad as "Papa Bauer".

This Week's 24: So many questions, so many bitchslaps...
Pantrygirl predicts Al Sharpton will appear on 24 if another Palmer is assassinated. Knowing Sharpton's track record I'd say its pretty likely.

Father of the Year
I learned that there are such things as a local software pirate ring and a L.A. Political Correctness badge. I also noticed references to Justin Timberlake, N'Sync, Okinawa and Karl Rove.

The beard of evil
Tom is now the 3rd person to see the similarities between Logan and Gore, this is getting scary! He also brings up hanging Chads and thinks that Milo is the new Tony. I like Milo but Tony he is not!!

WTF? Moments From Hour 10, Day 6
Adam doesn't bring up Al Gore but he does think Logan is impersonating George Lucas and we get some comparisons to Richard Nixon. Logan has to be pretty despicable to be compared to both Gore and Nixon, yikes!
Leave Politics = Grow an Ugly Beard!
I spoke too soon. In Adam's 2nd post he brings up how there seems to be this tendency after leaving office to grow beards. Not only does he give us our 4th comparison to Gore but he also compares him to Saddam Hussein, ouch!!

A public service announcement from Jack Bauer
I learned that shooting a handgun really isn't that hard and that in Jack's spare time he has fought 767 wild grizzly bears.

Many thanks to the guys at Blogs 4 Bauer for allowing me to be the hostess for the Carnival of Bauer this week.

Flyboys

As many of you know I am a big history and war movie buff. My husband and I watched Flyboys this past weekend.


It is based on the Lafayette Escadrille which was a group of American pilots that fought in World War I. Here is a brief summary about them:

"The Lafayette Escadrille (LE) was made up of American pilots based in France that fought against the Jagdstaffeln of Germany prior to the United States entry into World War 1. Originally called the Escadrille Americaine, this group is perhaps as well remembered for their actions in the officer's club, as their success in the skies.

The Lafayette Escadrille had 38 American pilots that rotated to other squads within the Lafayette Flying Corps, a part of the French Air Service. In all, 65 Lafayette Escadrille and Lafayette Flying Corps members perished during the air war effort over France. The Lafayette Escadrille was formed in April 1916 and carried the cause of freedom to skies over western Europe until the squadron was absorbed by the United States Air Service in 1918."

James Franco did a wonderful job as one of the main pilots. He has also starred in 2 other movies that I love, Annapolis and The Great Raid.


It was a great movie and I recommend it if you like war movies based on factual events in history.

Sites about Lafayette Escradille:
American Volunteer Pilots in WWI
Wikipedia
LAFAYETTE ESCADRILLE SQUADRON

Carnival of Bauer at The Chatterbox Chronicles

Yes, stop the presses a chic is going to host The Carnival of Bauer. I think that I am the first female to have the prestigious honor of hostess. So tune in because this remarkable event will happen this Thursday, February 22nd.

Many of you know the drill- we're looking for reviews, commentary, humor pieces and anything else "24"-related. If you would like to participate, please have your posts to us by midnight on Wednesday (2/21).

You have two options to submit your articles:
1) Email your post to blogs4bauer@gmail.com with "Carnival of Bauer" in the subject, or
2) Use the Carnival submission form, linked via the button below.