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I just want to take a moment in grateful remembrance of those who have fallen in defense of our country and our freedom. For those who have loved ones who have made the ultimate sacrifice to keep all of us free and safe I hope you know that most Americans share the gratitude and the sorrow for your loss.

They will not be forgotten.

As a Christian minister I am keenly aware that those who have fought and are fighting to defend us are protecting each individual’s freedom to worship as each believes to be right. The freedom that I consider so vital is protected by those who have defended our country in the past and especially by those who are fighting in the War on Terrorism and it’s front lines in Afghanistan and Iraq..

Like enemies of the past our current enemies seek world domination. But what’s unique about these is that they do so in the name of their religion. Their religion seeks to subjugate or destroy all other faiths. I don’t know of a time in our nation’s history when freedom of religion was at greater risk.

While the freedom of religion is especially important to me, I am also grateful for all of the other freedoms that I enjoy.

A couple of important posts on NewsBusters.Org.

First, a post about negative media coverage hurting the economy:

BMI’s Gainor: Media Negativity on Economy Hurts Consumer Confidence

Dan Gainor, Vice President for the Business & Media Institute, blamed part of people’s gloomy perception of the economy on the “constant drumbeat” of negativity coming from the news media.

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There’s a lot to be learned from economic bubbles. Have you ever stopped to think about who it is that actually blows the bubble in the first place?

Whenever there’s money to be made the ‘used car salesmen’ show up trying to get their mitts on some of the cash that’s floating around. Since they’re seldom able to add any real value to what’s happening (no real business skills, no tech skills, etc.) they find places to apply what little skill they do have.

The skill I’m talking about is a combination of emotionally manipulative banter and a lack of scruples. It’s the skills that created the stereotype that comes to mind when used car salesmen are mentioned.

Unfortunately, people with that ’skill’ aren’t restricted to peddling cars for a living. They’ll push any wares that are attractive to or needed by a large and ignorant audience. You’ll find them anywhere that you can find a lot of people willing to buy something that they don’t completely understand.
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It appears that yet another group of liberals is trying to claim that they speak for conservatives. The Republican party if full of those, from John McCain, as de facto head of the party that’s supposed to represent us (who told us to calm down), to the Western Washington Republican party leaders who call themselves ‘conservatives’ while work against religious conservatives (who usually make or break Republican campaigns).

This latest attempt is from the religious left. A group calling themselves ‘Evangelicals leaders’ is claiming that ‘Evangelicals’ are tired of politics creeping into their faith. This is just plain wrong in so many ways.
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Union workers shut down the Port of Tacoma today for an illegal protest of the war in Iraq.

What do unions have to do with foreign policy? The short answer is nothing. So why do they think they can protest on company time and the taxpayer’s nickel?

In case you weren’t aware, it’s illegal for public employees in the state of Washington to strike. Unions do it all the time, but just because public officials and judges don’t do anything about it doesn’t change the law. These people should be put on trial for breaking the law. Not that it would do any good. The union would hire their lawyers (and probably get money from other unions to support their cause… exploiting employers and members) and the judges would likely dismiss the charges or suits after lengthy and costly appeals. But I wouldn’t mind my tax dollars going to strike a blow against these union thugs and in support of the rule of law in our state.

They claim they’re supporting the troops in this protest but that’s just double-talk. Nothing about what they’re doing is supportive of the troops. You can’t support the troops without supporting their mission, you can’t support the troops when you’re wasting money for the businesses that hire our troops when they’re not deployed and you’re not supporting the troops when you waste taxpayer dollars to do something that won’t do a bit of good for anyone.
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I guess I’m not the only one concerned about the media’s portrayal of economic news. I was first impacted by it a decade and a half ago.

Since then I’ve watched a clear pattern of the media misreporting economic news based on the party of the current administration. Under a Democrat they report negative economic news as somehow positive and under a Republican they report positive economic news as negative. To put it another way if it seems to favor an administration they don’t like they won’t report good news or will spin it as bad, and vice-versa.
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Leave it to the media to report what they want to report, regardless of the facts. Here’s a link to the report (not the errant reports about the report) released by the Pentegon this week.

From the NY Sun (Report Details Saddam’s Terrorist Ties):

The report, released this week by the Institute for Defense Analyses, says it found no “smoking gun” linking Iraq operationally to Al Qaeda. But it does say Saddam collaborated with known Al Qaeda affiliates and a wider constellation of Islamist terror groups.

The Iraqi Intelligence Service in a 1993 memo to Saddam agreed on a plan to train commandos from Egyptian Islamic Jihad, the group that assassinated Anwar Sadat and was founded by Al Qaeda’s second-in-command, Ayman al-Zawahiri.

The report also undercuts the claim made by many on the left and many at the CIA that Saddam, as a national socialist, was incapable of supporting or collaborating with the Islamist al Qaeda. The report concludes that instead Iraq’s relationship with Osama bin Laden’s organization was similar to the relationship between the rival Colombian cocaine cartels in the 1990s. Both were rivals in some sense for market share, but also allies when it came to expanding the size of the overall market.

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Harvard economists Radha Iyengar, Jonathan Monten have found a link between “war critical statements” in the U.S. media and “insurgent attacks”:

Are insurgents affected by information on US casualty sensitivity? Using data on attacks and variation in access to international news across Iraqi provinces, we identify an “emboldenment” effect by comparing the rate of insurgent attacks in areas with higher and lower access to information about U.S news after public statements critical of the war. We find in periods after a spike in war-critical statements, insurgent attacks increases by 5-10 percent. The results suggest that insurgent groups respond rationally to expected probability of US withdrawal. As such counterinsurgency should consider deterrence and incapacitation rather than simply search and destroy missions. [emphasis added] (more…)

Not all of the anti-military protestors are thugs. Michelle Malkin, a blogger, Fox News guest host, syndicated columnist and former Seattle Times reporter, received a death-threat from a member of the Iraq Veterans Against the War (IVAW). I frequently link to Michelle on the anti-recruiter issue because she’s been watching the issue closely and blogs about most developments, even the ones that don’t make national news (but should).

The IVAW frequently holds rallies protesting the war in Iraq. Their organization is organizating events leading up to and surrounding the ‘Winter Soldier II’ gathering in DC this Saturday. The head of the organization has issued an apology and the leadership of the group has taken action to suspend the thugs who made the threat against Michelle and against others.

The previous actions were in fact a temporary measure until our internal process of handling disciplinary actions could complete. That process has resolved, and the final decision is as follows:
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The US Attorney who was fired by the Bush administration was recently asked to speak at a luncheon in Tacoma. While this was troubling to me at the time, I said nothing. Now we can see more of what he should have done to combat fraud in the 2004 gubernatorial election in Washington.

The Evergreen Freedom Foundation has been staying on top of the issue since the beginning. They’ve just released a letter that they obtained in a FOIA request (which the Justice Department took 9 months to fill) which McKay, the disgraced US Attorney, sent to the Department of Justice. What’s revealing in the letter is that his office basically admits that fraud occurred, but because it couldn’t be proved that it influenced the outcome of the election, his office wouldn’t investigate.

Does that mean that election fraud is all right as long as it doesn’t change anything? Or does it mean that it’s right or wrong depending on which party is helped by it?
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