2005 in Review - My Version

The worst U.S. natural disaster: Hurricane Katrina - August 29, 2005.

This one's a no brainer.

The worst worldwide natural disaster that everyone remembers: Indian Ocean Tsunami - December 26, 2004.

Yes, I realize that this actually happened in 2004, but it was so late in the year and the devastation has had such an impact on 2005, that I'm counting it as part of 2005.

The worst worldwide natural disaster that no one remembers: Asian Earthquake - October 8, 2005.

The people of the Kashmir region along the Pakistan-India border remember and are still suffering. More than 87,000 people were killed, and over 3 million were left homeless. Many of those are still homeless as winter sets in.

Most widely covered death: Pope John Paul II - April 2, 2005

Most likely to have the greatest impact on life in America: Two U.S. Supreme Court vacancies.

Most tragic death ordered by the U.S. judicial system: Terri Schiavo starved to death - March 31, 2005.

Click here to read my article written on this issue shortly after Mrs. Schiavo's death.

Most important U.S. story that no one cares about: Able Danger.

A military intelligence program that reportedly had, in 1999, identified a terrorist cell operating in New York. The cell included Mohammed Atta and three other 9-11 hijackers. Clinton administration officials reportedly prevented the information from being passed on to the FBI, and the 9-11 Commission failed to investigate or to make any mention of Able Danger in its final report, even though it had reportedly been informed on two occasions of the Able Danger information.

Least important U.S. story that everyone cares about: "Outing" of CIA agent Valerie Plame.

She was not a covert agent in the first place.

Most encouraging international news: Elections in Iraq

8.5 million Iraqis elect a transitional 275-member National Assembly – January 30, 2005

Almost 79 percent of Iraqi voters approve new Iraqi constitution - October 15, 2005

Iraqis elect a permanent 275-member Iraqi National Assembly – December 15, 2005

Best sports story: Chicago White Sox win their first World Series since 1917 - October 26, 2005.

I really wanted to list the Indianapolis Colts' 13-0 start to this NFL season as the best sports story, but they have to win the Super Bowl before I can honestly justify that.

Sunnis, secular Shi'ites, and Democrats

Sunni and secular Shi'ite parties in Iraq are alleging fraud in the December 15th parliamentary elections.

It sounds a lot like the Democrat party after the last two U.S. Presidential elections.

22 Democrats Oppose "Symbols and Traditions of Christmas"

On December 15, the House of Representatives passed a resolution supporting the symbols and traditions of Christmas. The text of H. Res. 579 is as follows:

Whereas Christmas is a national holiday celebrated on December 25; and

Whereas the Framers intended that the First Amendment to the Constitution of the United States would prohibit the establishment of religion, not prohibit any mention of religion or reference to God in civic dialog: Now, therefore, be it

Resolved, That the House of Representatives--

(1) recognizes the importance of the symbols and traditions of Christmas;

(2) strongly disapproves of attempts to ban references to Christmas; and

(3) expresses support for the use of these symbols and traditions, for those who celebrate Christmas.

There's not much of anything controversial here, is there? No one could vote against a resolution like this could they? --Wrong.

The resolution passed 401 - 22. Here are the 22 representatives who voted against the resolution - all democrats.

Ackerman D-NY
Blumenauer D-OR
Capps D-CA
Cleaver D-MO
DeGette D-CO
Harman D-CA
Hastings D-FL
Honda D-CA
Lee D-CA
Lewis D-GA
McDermott D-WA
Miller, George D-CA
Moore D-WI
Moran D-VA
Payne D-NJ
Rush D-IL
Schakowsky D-IL
Scott D-VA
Stark D-CA
Wasserman Schultz D-FL
Wexler D-FL
Woolsey D-CA

What does this tell us about one difference between the two major American political parties? You decide.

Condolences and Prayers for the Dungy Family

My condolences go out to Indianapolis Colts' coach Tony Dungy, his wife Lauren, and their family, on the loss of Tony and Lauren's son James. Please keep the Dungy family in your prayers.

Breaking News - Senate Votes to Block Defense Spending Bill

The U.S. Senate has just failed by a 56-44 vote to stop a threatened filibuster of the defense spending bill. 60 votes were needed to block the filibuster which has been threatened because of a provision in the bill that would allow oil exploration in ANWR.

The next time you think about the United States being dependent upon foreign oil, write a thank-you note to one of the senators who just ensured that we will continue to be dependent upon foreign oil.

Optimism - Straight from Iraq!

The internet is an amazing tool. With it, we can communicate almost instantly with anyone, any place in the world.

With that in mind, I decided to see if I could find out for myself what ordinary Iraqis are thinking about the current situation in their country. There are many blogs, just like this one, written by Iraqis. Many of them, fortunately for me, are written in English.

One such blog is IBN_ALRAFIDAIN . On Friday, December 16, Ibn_Alrafidain, a male Iraqi, wrote the following:

President Bush said:

“I want to congratulate the Iraqi citizens for being courageous and in defying the terrorists and refusing to be cowed into not voting. I believe freedom is universal. I believe the Iraqi citizen cares just as much about freedom and living a free life as the American citizen does.”

Well, thank you Mr. President for these nice words; allow me to say without the help of the US people and their brave men & women in uniform, nothing of this would have been achieved.

It is great relief to hear Mr. Bush making it clear:

“I've assured these good Iraqi citizens that the United States will stay with them and complete this -- complete this job. They've expressed concern about listening to the commentary that we'll leave before the job is done -- they don't have to worry. We're doing the right thing. And we've got partners in peace with the Iraqi citizens.”

Frankly, the Americans left a deep scar in every Iraqi's heart when they withdrew from Iraq in 1991. Many Iraqis, till now, believe that the Americans may pull out without any forewarning, leaving them to face their destiny with terrorists & Saddamists. Personally, on listening to Mr. Bush’s speeches, I’m accumulating trust in US day after another.
...
And may God bless America, Amen. Thank you Mr. President, people of the United States, US troops and every individual of the Multi-National Force for helping Iraq. I pray to God to protect these men & women.

In another blog, Democracy in Iraq (is here!) , Husayn Uthman writes

Despite the questioning put forth by so many people about my nation, about what we could do, we continue to move forward. Those of you who e-mailed me, those of you who have questioned this entire episode in history - the sands of time are proving you to be WRONG.

I am happy to say that the current elections are going on without any problems, it is strange that we have no violence during elections though, if anything - it shows me that our security forces are growing in strength and that is another signal that we are moving forward.

What else can I say - except to say to the naysayers that you must stop your nonsense, and realize that Iraq will be built in a democratic fashion - and that it will happen. Despite all the violence, carnage, and negativity, the Iraqi people continue on the path to freedom.

I wonder what naysayers he could be talking about.

I cannot emphasize this enough, I don't think that non-Iraqis understand the bloodshed here, everyday for the last three years, there has been some type of violence, someones family being robbed of love, someone being crippled, and yet, and yet, Iraqis have seen through this cancer and remain comitted to the goal.

This election is encouraging for this reason, and because we are finally seeing progress in unification, the Sunni leaders are finally seeing that we must stand united with our Shia and Kurdish brothers, or else our country will never be strong. How fitting is it that in this month, the animal Saddam goes on trial, and that we build a new parliament.

I am obviously excited, and optimistic, I look forward to the continuing progress, and the day when Iraq is a completely sovereign nation and that foreign troops leave our nation, and we stand on our feet. Then, all this bloodshed that we have been put through will truly be worth it, then it will be clear to us, that it was all worth it.

God Bless Iraq

The left likes to point out that Iraqis want American troops to leave their country. Of course they do, and Uthman's post makes it clear that he looks forward to that day. But he also makes it clear that he is very optimistic about what is happening in his country. Do you think we could hear a little of that optimism from liberals and media in this country?

National Security Agency's Eavesdropping Program

When Chris Wallace asked Senate minority leader Harry Reid for his response to the National Security Agency's monitoring of phone calls and e-mails of Americans, Reid began with a highly insightful comment:

First of all, Chris, you know, I don't like the terrorists. They're evil. We should do everything we can to eradicate them.

Wow! I'm glad Senator Reid does not like terrorists. I feel better now.

Actually, that was the beginning of Reid's attempt to avoid the question. He continued trying to avoid answering Wallace's questions.

WALLACE: Well, let me ask you directly, because the president says the congressional leaders were briefed repeatedly over these four years. You've been the Senate minority leader for several years. Were you ever briefed on this?

REID: The president can't pass the buck on this one. This is his program. He's commander in chief. But commander in chief does not, I don't think, trump the Bill of Rights, and that's what this — Congress has not been involved in setting up this program. This is totally a program of the president and the vice president of the United States.

Has Reid answered the question? Didn't think so, but give Wallace some credit here. He asked again.

WALLACE: Well, I'm asking you, sir.

REID: Well, that's why I think we should have some committees look into this. I'm not going to speculate on a story in the New York Times, but Bob Graham, who everyone acknowledges is one of the finest members who's ever served in the Congress of the United States, says that he wasn't told about it when he was chairman, and...

Come on, Senator. Why won't you answer the question? Mr. Wallace asked once again.

WALLACE: But I want to ask you directly, Senator, because, you know, you're raising an issue about consultation. Were you ever briefed on it? Did you ever object?

REID: Listen, the program has been in effect. It's been in effect for four years, according to the New York Times. I was briefed a couple of months ago. The program had been in existence a long time prior to that time.

Finally, he answers. Senator Reid was briefed a couple of months ago. Of course, he's quick to point out that the program has existed much longer than that. But the question that needs to be asked is if this program was a violation of law as some are now claiming, why didn't Senator Reid say anything "a couple of months ago" when he found out about it?

Now, let's turn to another favorite person of mine: House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi. It seems that Congresswoman Pelosi was also aware of the National Security Agency's program.

I was advised of President Bush's decision to provide authority to the National Security Agency to conduct unspecified activities shortly after he made it and have been provided with updates on several occasions.

Ms. Pelosi also failed to mention any concerns she might have had about the program. Perhaps she didn't have any concerns about it - until now. She now says the program "raises serious questions as to what the activities were and whether the activities were lawful.

So what has changed Ms. Pelosi? You didn't have concerns when you were first advised of the program or when you were "provided with updates on several occasions"? Why now?

Furthermore, this type of high-tech eavesdropping is not new. On February 27, 2000, several months before 9-11, CBS News' 60 Minutes ran a report on Echelon, a Clinton administration era NSA spying/eavesdropping program. I don't remember anyone getting too worked up about Echelon. And it seems to me that in the post 9-11 world, there is more reason than ever before for programs like this to exist.

Aren't I afraid that the government will listen in on my phone calls or read my e-mails? Nope. They have better things to do. And even if they did, they wouldn't find much. It's kind of like the student who sues his school district, claiming a violation of his privacy because he was randomly drug tested. The drug testing may help find someone who has a drug problem, so the program is valuable. If you don't have anything to hide, don't worry about it. Pee in the jar and shut up.

Hillary Clinton says Bush “Mismanaged the Mismanagement of the War.”

Senator Hillary Clinton, D-NY, commenting on the exceedingly large turnout in today’s Iraqi elections, had harsh criticism for President Bush.

Everything was going according to plan. The President was mismanaging the war in Iraq. His approval ratings were low. Democrats were on the verge of regaining power. Now, suddenly, this happens. Iraqis have turned out to vote in huge numbers. Within a few weeks we will have the election results, and Iraq’s first democratically elected government will be in place.

... It has now become clear that the President has seriously mismanaged the mismanagement of the war.

Senator John Kerry, D-MA, suggested that the war was never being properly mismanaged in the first place.

The reality is that he misled us into believing he was mismanaging the war. Sure, I believed that things were going badly; we all did, but the truth is I would never have believed that if I would have had all the information available to me that the President had. And now that a democracy has been established in Iraq, let me just remind you that I was actually for this war before I was against it.

Democratic Party Chairman Howard Dean, who recently commented on a San Antonio radio show that “The idea that we’re going to win the war in Iraq is just plain wrong,” says that his comment was based on information that had been “cherry-picked” by the Bush administration.

I think the president owes democrats an explanation. He cherry-picked the information coming out of Iraq, making it look as though we had no chance to win. Now we see 10 million Iraqis voting in a free election with very little violence. What's up with that?

... It's now obvious that it's been for purely political reasons that the President has stubbornly refused to withdraw troops from Iraq. If this Iraqi election leads to a free and secure democracy in Iraq, Republicans will continue winning elections in this country and will maintain their hold on power. I hate Republicans.

Katrina Victims Racially Diversified

After the Katrina devastation of the New Orleans, we were all led to believe that the vast majority of victims were black. Cries of racism were rampant.

Michael Moore wrote about the victims of Katrina:

C'mon, they're black! ...Can you imagine leaving white people on their roofs for five days? Don't make me laugh!

Randall Robinson, entitlement activist and author of The Debt – What America Owes to Blacks, wrote,

This is what we have come to. This defining watershed moment in America's racial history.

Rapper Kanye West, exclaimed live on NBC that

George Bush doesn't care about black people!

Louis Farrakhan stated,

I heard from a very reliable source who saw a 25 foot deep crater under the levee breach. It may have been blown up to destroy the black part of town and keep the white part dry.

Anyone with any common sense knew immediately that these were nothing but the ludicrous rantings of politically motivated leftists. But now, we have the evidence to prove the absurdity of these claims.

Preliminary statistics released by the St. Gabriel Morgue in Louisiana show that blacks were not, in fact, disproportionately victimized by Katrina.

Of the 562 identified victims, 48% have been identified as African-American, 41% are Caucasian, 2% Hispanic, 1% Native American, and 8% unknown.

To put those numbers in better perspective, NewsMax.com reports that

New Orleans itself was more than two-thirds black [67 percent] when the storm hit. White residents made up less than a third [28 percent] of the city's population, according to U.S. Census bureau numbers.
...

The two hardest hit areas were Orleans parish, which is the city itself - with 720 people killed by Katrina - and St. Bernard parish, with 123 dead.

St. Bernard parish is 88 percent white, but the total population before the storm was just 65,554 people. The city of New Orleans, on the other hand, had 484,674 people before the storm, 67 percent of whom were black.

The two populations combined were still over 60 percent black - twelve points higher than the percentage of black residents killed by Katrina.

So it was not just blacks killed by Katrina? Maybe Bush doesn't just hate black people. Maybe he hates all people. What do you think, Kanye?

Iraqis More Optimistic than Liberal Democrats

An ABC News poll has found that "seven in 10 Iraqis say their own lives are going well, and nearly two-thirds expect things to improve in the year ahead."

The poll further found that

more than six in 10 Iraqis feel very safe in their own neighborhoods, up sharply from just 40 percent in a poll in June 2004. And 61 percent say local security is good — up from 49 percent in the first ABC News poll in Iraq in February 2004.

On the economic front,

household incomes have soared by 60 percent in the last 20 months (to $263 a month), 70 percent of Iraqis rate their own economic situation positively, and consumer goods are sweeping the country. In early 2004, 6 percent of Iraqi households had cell phones; now it's 62 percent. Ownership of satellite dishes has nearly tripled, and many more families now own air conditioners (58 percent, up from 44 percent), cars, washing machines and kitchen appliances.

Politically,

three-quarters of Iraqis express confidence in the national elections being held this week, 70 percent approve of the new constitution, and 70 percent — including most people in Sunni and Shiite areas alike — want Iraq to remain a unified country.

Despite the fact that conservatives have long contended that positive news was plentiful in Iraq, ABC News must not have expected such positive poll results, calling the optimism "surprising."

However, I have to ask: Why is it surprising? If you recall, on November 29, Joe Lieberman wrote in the Wall Street Journal that

polls conducted by Iraqis for Iraqi universities show increasing optimism. Two-thirds say they are better off than they were under Saddam, and a resounding 82% are confident their lives in Iraq will be better a year from now than they are today.

Lieberman has been practically disowned by the Democratic Party for his comments; however, the results of this poll seem to support the truth of his comments.

Another Battle in the Attack on Christianity

After my last post on "A Little Good News" from Target, I now have to post another not-so-good news report. Why do I feel the need to report this kind of thing? Because I believe that it's important for people to understand what's going on.

There is an attack on Christianity occurring in this country. This attack is coming on many fronts. The current battleground is the attack on Christmas, but rest assured, it is not an attack on Christmas only, but on Christianity itself. The vast majority of Americans are not even aware that it's happening. That's why it's important to keep reporting information such as this.

Ridgeway Elementary School in Dodgeville, Wisconsin will not be having a Christmas program this year. Instead, they will be having a "Winter Program." But that's just part of the story. For the program, students will be singing a secularized version of "Silent Night" called "Cold in the Night."

The secularized version of the Christmas classic includes the following lyrics:

Cold in the night, no one in sight, winter winds whirl and bite, how I wish I were happy and warm, safe with my family out of the storm.

Evidently, school officials hope the "winter program" will be a celebration of diversity. Classrooms at the school are decorated with Santa Claus, Kwanzaa symbols, and menorahs. To complete the multi-cultural celebration, Labafana, a "mythical witch that's a part of traditional Christmas celebrations in Italy," is also part of the winter program decor.

So diversity is desirable as long as Christianity is not part of it. Make no mistake about what is happening. There are those who will say that there is no attack on Christmas or on Christianity. They are wrong. Look at the evidence. The easiest way for those who want to eliminate Christianity from our culture to succeed is for those who would oppose them to be unaware that it is even happening.

Update: After publishing this post, I received an anonymous comment which claims that the information in my post is inaccurate. The commenter gave me the address of the school website, which I then checked. The website denied that the school was secularizing Christmas. I invite you to go to http://www.dsd.k12.wi.us/, click on the "News & Information" link, and decide for yourself.

After reading the information on the school website, it does appear to me that perhaps, in this case, the report of the secularization of Christmas was premature. If that is the case, I apologize to the people of Dodgeville School District and Ridgeway Elementary School. However, the school website does link to an article on the ultra-liberal website Think Progress, which claims, "Sorry, Virginia, there is no 'War on Christmas.'"

Well, Virginia, I beg to differ. Even if the war on Christmas is not occurring at Ridgeway Elementary School, it is occurring in other places. My report on the Kokomo Markland Mall , for example, is a situation about which I have first hand knowledge. More importantly, as I said in my post, the attack on Christmas is really just one part of a larger battle against Christianity, and it is important to be aware that it is happening.

A Little Good News

In response to a boycott sponsored by the American Family Association (AFA), Target has announced that it will once again include Christmas in its advertising .

Over the course of the next few weeks, our advertising, marketing and merchandising will become more specific to the holiday that is approaching – referring directly to holidays like Christmas and Hanukkah. For example, you will see reference to Christmas in select television commercials, circulars and in-store signage.

As a result of Target's announcemnet, the AFA is ending its boycott.

Free Speech for Non-Christians Only

The Markland Mall in Kokomo, Indiana recently commissioned a group of local artists to paint the large windows of a now vacant Macy's department store. The artists covered the windows with a variety of winter scenes. One of the scenes is of a country winter, with a little church sitting on a snow-covered hill. The church is a traditional looking country church, complete with a steeple. However, there is one thing missing: the cross at the top of the steeple.

The artist who painted this scene had originally placed a cross at the top of the steeple, but was told by Markland Mall management that the cross had to be removed.

Can we expect our liberal friends, who are constantly assailing any and all attempts at censorship, to come to the side of this artist? Should we expect the ACLU to rush to the defense of her civil liberties and right to free speech? Don't count on it. The right to free speech only applies if we're talking about non-Christian free speech.

The Markland Mall in Kokomo, Indiana can be added to the list of businesses that want to reduce Christmas to nothing more than a secular shopping spree.

Able Danger Update VIII

It seems like the Able Danger story has completely fallen off of the radar. I haven't written an Able Danger update since October 22 , simply because there just doesn’t seem to be anything going on with this story.

However, writing today in the Philadelphia Daily News, Michael Smerconish reports that he recently asked ex-FBI director Louis Freeh for his response to comments made last weekend on Meet the Press by September 11 Commission chairman Thomas Kean and vice chairman Lee Hamilton.

According to Smerconish, Freeh's response was

Why is the 9/11 Commission talking about hurricanes and tunnels and all these other things when it looks like they may have missed the single most important fact with respect to Sept. 11? We didn't make it to the FBI, and that was the problem. We had information initiated by the Army. It was what they call 'open source' information which suggested that some of those bad guys, including Atta and three of his associates, were themselves associated with the Brooklyn cell. That was information that the lawyers said, 'Ah, they are here legally,' and put stickies over their faces.

By stickies , Freeh is referring to post-it notes that were put over the faces of terrorists whom government lawyers deemed were here legally, indicating that they could not be investigated.

Smerconish then asks us to “fast-forward two years after 9/11.” The 9/11 Commission was busy with its investigation into the events leading up to the 9/11 attacks, and asked that anyone with any significant information about those events come forward. Army intelligence officer Lt. Col. Anthony Shaffer, an Able Danger team member who has publicly stated that a terrorist cell which included Mohammed Atta and three other 9/11 hijackers had been identified operating in New York over a year before the terrorist attacks, did come forward. Shaffer told 9/11 Commission executive director Philip Zelikow what Able Danger had known about Atta.

"My bottom line to them was that through a data-processing exercise, we were able to identify two of the cells which conducted the 9/11 attack to include Atta."

As amazing as it seems, the Able Danger revelation was not mentioned in the 664-page final 9/11 Commission report. My only question is - why not?

John Kerry Claims American Soldiers Terrorize Innocent Women and Children

Democrats have long been fond of comparing the war in Iraq to the war in Vietnam. The fact is that these two situations are very different; however, Senator John Kerry, D-MA, recently provided one very real similarity between Iraq and Vietnam: his own testimonies about each war.

April 22, 1971 - John Kerry testifying before the United States Senate Committee on Foreign Relations

They (the American veterans Kerry claimed he was representing) told the stories at times they had personally raped, cut off ears, cut off heads, tape wires from portable telephones to human genitals and turned up the power, cut off limbs, blown up bodies, randomly shot at civilians, razed villages in fashion reminiscent of Genghis Khan...

December 4, 2005 - John Kerry speaking to Bob Schieffer on CBS's Face the Nation

...there is no reason, Bob, that young American soldiers need to be going into the homes of Iraqis in the dead of night, terrorizing kids and children, you know, women...

So, according to John Kerry, American soldiers are basically terrorists. They terrorized innocent Vietnamese. They are terrorizing innocent Iraqis.

Too bad John Kerry was not elected President. We could have declared war on ourselves!

Howard Dean - An Embarrassment to America

Howard Dean is an embarrassment to the United States of America. That he is not an embarrassment to the Democratic Party can only be explained by concluding that many democrats must agree with him.

In a radio interview in San Antonio, Dean stated that the "idea that we're going to win the war in Iraq is an idea which is just plain wrong."

Now there's a guy who inspires confidence! I bet our troops (whom I am sure Dean claims to support) will be really excited to hear that the Chairman of the National Democratic Party says they have no chance to win.

I'm often asked by those who don't really follow politics, "What's the difference between Democrats and Republicans?" Maybe I should add the following to my answer: "Democrats believe in America's failure; Republicans believe in America's success." I know that sounds like an absurdly partisan answer, but what other conclusion can we reach when we hear statements like this out of the mouth the leader of the Democratic Party?

Note to Howard Dean: This kind of statement is just one more reason that the idea that democrats are going to start winning elections is an idea that is just plain wrong.

Have Yourself a Secular Little Christmas

I started my Christmas shopping today. Granted, the very act of shopping for Christmas presents is part of the secular side of the Christmas holiday; however, in the past, while doing my Christmas shopping, I've always felt an almost palpable sense of joy in the air.

I didn't feel that today. Today, Christmas shopping was just - shopping. There was no sense of joy, and I knew why.

I had shopped in two malls, and not one time did I see the word Christmas written anywhere. Not one time did I hear the word spoken. Santa was in one of the malls; children were sitting on his lap, whispering in his ear what they wanted him to bring. But there was not one nativity scene on display anywhere. Christmas music was pumped into the mall and into some of the individual stores, but it was all secular Christmas music. I did not hear one "Silent Night," one "Away in a Manger," or one "Hark! The Herald Angels Sing." I didn't hear one single Christian Christmas song.

It occurred to me that this is what Christmas would be like without Jesus: no joy, no spirit, no meaning. Then, it further occurred to me that this is what all of life would be like without God: again, no joy, no spirit, no meaning.

I have nothing against Santa Claus, Rudolph, or Christmas presents. I enjoy "Jingle Bells," "Silver Bells," and a "Holly Jolly Christmas" as much as the next guy. That's all part of our Christmas tradition. But when that's all there is, there is nothing lasting.

Christmas didn't become the celebration it is simply because we spend more money than we can afford so that we can give each other more gifts than we need or deserve. Most of the gifts we receive are forgotten anyway within a short period of time. It's the joy, the cheer, and the wonder of the season that we remember. When we remove Jesus from Christmas, all of that is lost. All we're left with is last year's hot video game that we no longer want because a newer and better version has been released.

Without Jesus, the joy will vanish, the memories will fade, and Christmas will die away.

Murtha's Latest Comment

More of the constant barrage of negative comments from democrats: speaking on Wednesday to a group of community and business leaders, Representative John Murtha, D-PA, called the U.S. Army “broken, worn out.”

While I respect Murtha for his service to our country, that service does not make him the final authority on all things military. On what basis does he conclude that the army is broken and worn out? Is it so just because he says it is?

When you listen to commanders in the field, you hear that morale is high. They do not, however, ignore the possibility that all the negativism on the home front could have a negative effect on the troops.

A recent Washington Times article addressed this very issue.

"They say morale is very high," said a senior Pentagon official of reports filed by commanders with Washington. "But they relate comments from troops asking, 'What the heck is going on back here' and why America isn't seeing the progress they are making or appreciating the mission the way those on the ground there do. My take is that they are wondering if America is still behind them."

Imagine ourselves, away from our families, putting our lives on the line every day, fighting for the freedom we believe in. Now imagine hearing, day after day, from the very people we are fighting for, that nothing good can come from what we are doing, that we are making the situation worse just by being there, that we are “broken, worn out.”

How can anyone believe that comments like Murtha’s latest are not doing great harm to the troops they claim to support?