If you don’t do it regularly, set aside today, at least, to thank a soldier. If you know one, call or email ‘em your gratitude. If you see one at a restaurant, offer to pick up his or her tab. If you see one in passing, take a moment to personally thank ‘em for his or her service.

As we celebrate America’s independence today, let’s look back and remember those who started it all.

There were 56 signers of the Declaration of Independence; these men, from the original 13 colonies, participated in the Second Continental Congress, which helped draft and approve the document.

Pennsylvania sent nine delegates to the congress, followed by Virginia with seven and Massachusetts and New Jersey with five. Connecticut, Maryland, New York and South Carolina each sent four delegates; Delaware, Georgia, New Hampshire and North Carolina each sent three; and Rhode Island, the smallest colony, sent only two delegates.

Of the 56 signers, 18 were merchants or businessmen, 14 were farmers, four were doctors, 22 were attorneys and one was an active clergyman. Forty two of the signers served in their colonial legislatures and one, Stephen Hopkins, had served as Governor of Rhode Island. Almost all of the signers were Protestant Christians; Charles Carroll of Maryland was the only Roman Catholic signer.

Maybe if the ACLU had been around back then, they could’ve prevented these closed-minded, Christian-fundamentalists from holding “these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator…”

Damn bible-thumping rightwingers….

God bless ‘em!

While the world waits for Democrat John Murtha to apologize to soldiers he accused of “killing Iraqi civilians in cold blood” now that they’ve been fully exonerated, up pops another Democrat, Wesley Clark, attempting to diminish John McCain’s military service, saying McCain’s military service lacks the requisite “executive experience” to qualify him to become Commander-in-Chief. Of course, he makes these comments in an attempt to bolster the campaign of the candidate he supports, Barack Obama, who not only lacks said “exeutive experience”, but lacks even a day of military experience.

As usual, the Democrats show their utter lack of respect for military service, while simultaneously trying to claim they’re actually showing respect for the very soldiers they attack. But this shouldn’t come as any surprise. Hell, the Presidential candidate for the Democrats in 2004 was a man who accused his fellow soldiers of unspeakable war crimes while they were still in harm’s way.

And speaking of John Kerry, it wasn’t so long ago that Wesley Clark was praising his military service in Vietnam as qualifications for the White House.

John Kerry has heard the thump of enemy mortars.

He’s seen the flash of the tracers. He’s lived the values of service and sacrifice. In the Navy, as a prosecutor, as a senator, he proved his physical courage under fire. And he’s proved his moral courage too.

John Kerry fought a war, and I respect him for that. And he came home to fight a peace. And I respect him for that, too.

John Kerry’s combination of physical courage and moral values is my definition of what we need as Americans in our commander in chief. And John Edwards with his leadership and extraordinary intelligence, he’s going to be a great member of that command team.

John Kerry is a man who in time of war can lead us as a warrior, but in times of peace, he will heed the call of scripture to lead us in beating swords into plowshares.

John Kerry will lead America with strength and wisdom. He has the will to fight. He has the moral courage born in battle to pursue and secure a strong peace.

What a difference a campaign cycle makes. When confronted with his inconsistency, Clark showed his true colors in trying to explain it way…

ROBERTS: But when it comes to that same type of qualification, you were very robustly behind John Kerry’s military experience…

CLARK: Absolutely.

ROBERTS: … in your speech at the Democratic National Convention in 2004, where you talked about his experience of being there under mortar fire.

CLARK: Right.

ROBERTS: And let’s listen to the way that you summed that up.

CLARK: Right.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CLARK: John Kerry’s combination of physical courage and moral values is my definition of what we need as Americans in our commander in chief.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROBERTS: So, you said it’s what we need in a commander in chief. And I’m wondering how different was John McCain’s experience from John Kerry’s?

CLARK: Well, a lot, because John McCain basically served honorably and well in uniform. He did everything the country could have asked.

What John Kerry did is John Kerry got out of the uniform. He took a judgment, a judgment I didn’t agree with at the time, but he had the moral courage to stand up for himself and oppose the conflict in Vietnam.

As John Hindraker correctly points out, “So Kerry’s military experience was better than McCain’s because after serving for four months in Vietnam, he returned to the U.S. and falsely accused his fellow servicemen of being war criminals.”

That sounds about right for a Democrat.

Ed takes a look at what’s happened in the year since Nancy Pelosi and her Democrats in Congress announced “Energy Independence Day” on July 4, 2007. In the face of gas prices having risen 30% in the first few months of the newly Democrat-controlled Congress, Pelosi and crew announced their typical strategy - block efforts to build new refineries or drill into known U.S. reserves, punish “big oil”, mandate more Priuses and sing a chorus or two of kumbaya.

The result? Gas prices jumped another 30% since Pelosi’s speech. Great work, guys. (and their Presidential candidate wants to tack on more costs for “big oil” - and who do you think will end up paying for those)?

As Ed points out, Pelosi even admits the highest prices are in her own district, though she conveniently fails to finish the line with the bit about her state and her district tacking on some of the highest taxes in the country.

How progressive…

Where are all of the Hollywood celebrities holding telethons asking for help in restoring Iowa and helping the folks affected by the floods?

Where are the Senate investigations?

Where is all the media asking the tough questions about why the federal government hasn’t solved the problem? Asking where the FEMA trucks (and trailers) are?

Why isn’t the Federal Government relocating Iowa people to free hotels in Chicago?

When will Spike Lee say that the Federal Government blew up the levees that failed in Des Moines ?

Where are Sean Penn and the rest of the useless Hollywood idiots?

Where are all the looters stealing high-end tennis shoes and big screen television sets?

When will we hear Governor Chet Culver say that he wants to rebuild a ‘vanilla‘ Iowa , because that’s the way God wants it?

Where is the hysterical 24/7 media coverage complete with reports of cannibalism?

Where are the people declaring that George Bush hates white, rural farmers?

How come in 2 weeks, you will never hear about the Iowa flooding ever again?

(Based on an email from OldSoldier)

It’s nice to see justice served.

A Harris County grand jury decided today that Joe Horn should not be charged with a crime for shooting two burglary suspects he confronted outside his neighbor’s home in Pasadena last fall.
…
Horn called authorities after hearing breaking glass and seeing two men climb through a window into his next-door neighbor’s home in the 7400 block of Timberline.

The 911 operator urged Horn to remain inside, but he went outside with his 12-gauge shotgun and came face-to-face with Diego Ortiz, 30, and Hernando Riascos Torres, 38.

According to a transcript of Horn’s 911 call, which he made about 2 p.m., the operator repeatedly urged Horn to stay in his house, but Horn said he did not believe it would be right to let the burglars get away.

We need more neighbors like Joe Horn.

The two dead criminals were illegal immigrants from Colombia. One had been sent to prison for dealing cocaine and was deported in 1999. Maybe we should’ve just offered him a path to citizenship.

1. While all the mouth-breathing Democrats and their cohorts in the media keep claiming we’re in a recession, the economy continues to grow.

2. As if there weren’t enough reasons to not vote for Obama, how about the rumor that he’ll appoint Hillary Clinton to the Supreme Court?

3. And it’s another week and another Obama flip-flop. The moron apparently hasn’t learned about the YouTube effect. Democrats can no longer hide behind their inconsistent statements and outright lies knowing the MSM will cover for them.

Barack Obama is wasting no time touting his experience as a politician. He’s been the presumptive Democrat nominee for barely 2 weeks and already he’s showing expert skill at breaking campaign promises.

Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama said Thursday he’ll bypass the federal public financing system in the general election, abandoning an earlier commitment to take the money if his Republican rival did as well.

Obama, who set records raising money in the primary election, will forgo more than $84 million that would have been available to him in the general election. He would be the first candidate to do so since Congress passed 1970s post-Watergate campaign finance laws.

Obama is proving his political expertise by telling voters whatever is convenient at the moment to gain support. But this is the same guy who not only agreed not to opt out of the public financing system, but also promised to “aggressively pursue an agreement with the Republican nominee to preserve a publicly financed general election.”

Question I-B:
If you are nominated for President in 2008 and your major opponents agree to forgo private funding in the general election campaign, will you participate in the presidential public financing system?

Yes

Comments (please limit to 250 words or less):
I have been a long-time advocate for public financing of campaigns combined with free television and radio time as a way to reduce the influence of moneyed special interests. I introduced public financing legislation in the Illinois State Senate, and am the only 2008 candidate to have sponsored Senator Russ Feingold’s (D-WI) bill to reform the presidential public financing system. In February 2007, I proposed a novel way to preserve the strength of the public financing system in the 2008 election. My plan requires both major party candidates to agree on a fundraising truce, return excess money from donors, and stay within the public financing system for the general election. My proposal followed announcements by some presidential candidates that they would forgo public financing so they could raise unlimited funds in the general election. The Federal Election Commission ruled the proposal legal, and Senator John McCain (R-AZ) has already pledged to accept this fundraising pledge. If I am the Democratic nominee, I will aggressively pursue an agreement with the Republican nominee to preserve a publicly financed general election.

So Obama was for it, before he was against it… that campaign message sounds familiar.

But wait… there’s more. In order to position himself as the messiah of hope and change, the candidate who just opted out of the public financing system in order to raise hundreds of millions in private campaign contributions previously said:

“I am a cosponsor of the Fair Elections Now Act because I believe it is imperative that we get big money out of the political process.”

And what does he consider “big money”? Those evil 527 groups, of course.

“And we’ve already seen that he’s not going to stop the smears and attacks from his allies running so-called 527 groups, who will spend millions and millions of dollars in unlimited donations,” Obama said.

Someone might want to remind the messiah that liberals receive the support from those 527 groups by more than a 2-to-1 margin over conservatives.

This ought to make every American sleep comfortable at night… while terrorists are sneaking around the globe looking for new and exciting ways to decapitate every freedom-loving man and woman on the planet, Obama’s likely National Security Adviser told a major foreign policy conference in Washington that the future of US strategy in the war on terrorism should follow a lesson from the pages of Winnie the Pooh.

Richard Danzig, who served as Navy Secretary under President Clinton and is tipped to become National Security Adviser in an Obama White House… told the Centre for New American Security: “Winnie the Pooh seems to me to be a fundamental text on national security.”

Al-Qaida better think twice before attacking the Hundred Acre Woods…

I know I feel safer already.

…and increase your energy consumption. That’s right, increase. Apparently since embarking on his globetrotting tour in jumbo jets and private SUVs to tell everyone else how they should live and advising everyone else to cut down on energy consumption, the Goracle has been offsetting everyone else’s energy conservation:

In the year since Al Gore took steps to make his home more energy-efficient, the former Vice President’s home energy use surged more than 10%, according to the Tennessee Center for Policy Research.

“A man’s commitment to his beliefs is best measured by what he does behind the closed doors of his own home,” said Drew Johnson, President of the Tennessee Center for Policy Research. “Al Gore is a hypocrite and a fraud when it comes to his commitment to the environment, judging by his home energy consumption.”

In the past year, Gore’s home burned through 213,210 kilowatt-hours (kWh) of electricity, enough to power 232 average American households for a month.
…
Since taking steps to make his home more environmentally-friendly last June, Gore devours an average of 17,768 kWh per month –1,638 kWh more energy per month than before the renovations – at a cost of $16,533. By comparison, the average American household consumes 11,040 kWh in an entire year, according to the Energy Information Administration.

Sure, the Goracle thinks climate change is a serious problem… because if everyone else doesn’t buy into his climate change fraud, it will cease being a money-making venture for him. And that’s a serious problem… for him.

A few weeks ago, Democrat Congressman Paul Kanjorski accidentally told the truth. He admitted that Democrats were just exploiting the Iraq war for political purposes and had been dishonest to voters simply to “win back the Congress.”

So when confronted with his own truth about the lies, he lies about the truth… like any good Democrat would do. (Notice the great video overlay of Kanjorski’s very speech last month on top of video of Kanjorski denying he ever said the words)

It’s no wonder politics these days seems more hostile than it used to. Now access to Democrat lies and political tricks is available to anyone, anytime, anywhere… and they’re not liking it one bit.

(ht: AP)