Words to Remember

From the very first posting of this blog in 2006, I have never commented about sports (even though I love the subject more than politics). But this is different. Ever since ESPN Radio started the auction to support The V Foundation for Cancer Research five years ago, I have sent an e-mail about this various topic on the day of the auction to the other individuals in my office. In case you are unfamiliar with his back story, Jim Valvano was the former head men’s basketball coach at North Carolina State University, winning the national championship in 1983 as an enormous underdog and eventually leaving in 1990 after ten years with the institution. He was unfortunately diagnosed with bone cancer in June 1992 and then, at the inaugural ESPY Awards show in March 1993, delivered the following speech (http://www.jimmyv.org/remembering-jim/espy-awards-speech.html) after accepting the Arthur Ashe Courage Award. Now Valvano is certainly not a man without flaws but, aside the funny moments (especially the part about the Green Bay Packers), no one can deny that the speech is extremely moving and inspirational. I included the link to the text and video of the speech but I just love to see the words in front of me. By the way, Valvano passed away less than two months after his famous speech. His tombstone in Oakwood Cemetery in Raleigh, NC reads: "Take time everyday to laugh, to think, to cry."

Jim Valvano's Speech:
"Thank you. Thank you very much. Thank you. That's the lowest I've ever seen Dick Vitale since the owner of the Detroit Pistons called him in and told him he should go into broadcasting.

I can't tell you what an honor it is to even be mentioned in the same breath with Arthur Ashe. This is something I certainly will treasure forever. But, as it was said on the tape, and I also don't have one of those things going with the cue cards so I'm going to speak longer than anybody else has spoken tonight. That's the way it goes. Time is very precious to me. I don't know how much I have left and I have some things that I would like to say. Hopefully, at the end, I will have said something that will be important to other people too. But I can't help it.

Now I'm fighting cancer, everybody knows that. People ask me all the time about how you go through your life and how's your day and nothing is changed for me. As Dick said, I'm a very emotional and passionate man. I can't help it. That's being the son of Rocco and Angelina Valvano. It comes with the territory. We hug, we kiss, we love. When people say to me, 'How do you get through life or each day?', it's the same thing. To me, there are three things we all should do every day. We should do this every day of our lives. Number one is laugh. You should laugh every day. Number two is think. You should spend some time in thought. Number three is you should have your emotions moved to tears, could be happiness or joy. But think about it. If you laugh, you think and you cry, that's a full day. That's a heck of a day. You do that seven days a week, you're going to have something special.

I rode on the plane up today with Mike Krzyzewski, my good friend and wonderful coach. People don't realize he's ten times a better person than he is a coach and we know he's a great coach. He's meant a lot to me in these last five or six months with my battle. But when I look at Mike, I think, we competed against each other as players. I coached against him for fifteen years and I always have to think about what's important in life to me are these three things: where you started, where you are and where you're going to be. Those are the three things that I try to do every day.

When I think about getting up and giving a speech, I can't help it. I have to remember the first speech I ever gave. I was coaching at Rutgers University--that was my first job and I was the freshman coach. That's when freshmen played on freshman teams and I was so fired up about my first job. I see Lou Holtz here. Coach Holtz, who doesn't like the very first job you had? The very first time you stood in the locker room to give a pep talk. That's a special place, the locker room, for a coach to give a talk. So my idol as a coach was Vince Lombardi and I read this book called 'Commitment to Excellence' by Vince Lombardi. And, in the book, Lombardi talked about the fist time he spoke before his Green Bay Packers team in the locker room and they were perennial losers. I'm reading this and Lombardi said he was thinking, 'Should it be a long talk or a short talk?'. But he wanted it to be emotional so it would be brief. So here's what I did. Normally you get in the locker room, I don't know, twenty-five minutes, a half hour before the team takes the field. You do your little x and os and then you give the great Knute Rockne talk. We all do. Speech number eight-four. You pull them right out, you get ready. You get your squad ready. Well, this is the first one I ever gave and I read this thing. Lombardi, what he said was he didn't go in, he waited. His team wondering, 'Where is he?'. Where is this great coach? He's not there. Ten minutes, he's still not there. Three minutes before they could take the field, Lombardi comes in, bangs the door open and I think you all remember what great presence he had, great presence. He walked in and he walked back and forth, like this, just walked, staring at the players. He said, 'All eyes on me'. I'm reading this in this book. I'm getting this picture of Lombardi before his first game and he said, 'Gentlemen, we will be successful this year if you can focus on three things and three things only. Your family, your religion and the Green Bay Packers.'. They knocked the walls down and the rest was history. I said, 'That's beautiful. I'm going to do that. Your family, your religion and Rutgers basketball.'. That's it. I had it. Listen, I'm twenty-one years old. The kids I'm coaching are nineteen and I'm going to be the greatest coach in the world, the next Lombardi. I'm practicing outside of the locker room and the managers tell me, 'You got to go in'. Not yet, not yet. 'Family, religion, Rutgers basketball. All eyes on me.' I got it, I got it. Then finally he said, 'Three minutes'. I said, 'Fine'. True story. I go to knock the doors open just like Lombardi. Boom! They don't open. I almost broke my arm. Now I was down, the players were looking. Help the coach out, help him out. Now I did like Lombardi--I walked back and forth and I was going like that with my arm getting the feeling back in it. Finally I said, 'Gentlemen, all eyes on me'. These kids wanted to play, they're nineteen. 'Let's go', I said. 'Gentlemen, we'll be successful this year if you can focus on three things and three things only. Your family, your religion and the Green Bay Packers', I told them. I did that. I remember that. I remember where I came from.

It's so important to know where you are. I know where I am right now. How do you go from where you are to where you want to be? I think you have to have an enthusiasm for life. You have to have a dream, a goal. You have to be willing to work for it.

I talked about my family--my family's so important. People think I have courage. The courage in my family are my wife Pam, my three daughters here, Nicole, Jamie, LeeAnn, my mom, who's right here too. That screen is flashing up there thirty seconds. Like I care about that screen right now, huh? I got tumors all over my body. I'm worried about some guy in the back going, 'Thirty seconds'? You got a lot. Hey, va fa Napoli, buddy. You got a lot.

I just got one last thing. I urge all of you, all of you, to enjoy your life, the precious moments you have. To spend each day with some laughter and some thought, to get you're emotions going. To be enthusiastic every day and, as Ralph Waldo Emerson said, 'Nothing great could be accomplished without enthusiasm'. To keep your dreams alive in spite of problems, whatever you have. The ability to be able to work hard for your dreams to come true, to become a reality.

Now I look at where I am now and I know what I want to do. What I would like to be able to do is spend whatever time I have left and to give and maybe some hope to others. Arthur Ashe Foundation is a wonderful thing and AIDS, the amount of money pouring in for AIDS is not enough but is significant. But if I told you it's ten times the amount that goes in for cancer research. I also told you that 500,000 people will die this year of cancer. I also tell you that one in every four will be afflicted with this disease and, yet somehow, we seem to have put it in a little bit of the background. I want to bring it back on the front table. We need your help. I need your help. We need money for research. It may not save my life. It may save my children's lives. It may save someone you love. And ESPN has been so kind to support me in this endeavor and allow me to announce tonight that, with ESPN's support, which means what? Their money and their dollars and they're helping me--we are starting the Jimmy V Foundation for Cancer Research. And it's motto is: 'Don't give up, don't ever give up.' That's what I'm going to try to do every minute that I have left. I will thank God for the day and the moment I have. If you see me, smile and give me a hug. That's important to me too. But try if you can to support, whether it's AIDS or the cancer foundation, so that someone else might survive, might prosper and might actually be cured of this dreaded disease. I can't thank ESPN enough for allowing this to happen. I'm going to work as hard as I can for cancer research and hopefully, maybe, we'll have some cures and some breakthroughs. I'd like to think I'm going to fight my brains out to be back here again next year for the Arthur Ashe recipient. I want to give it next year!

I know, I gotta go, I gotta go. And I got one last thing and I said it before and I want to say it again. Cancer can take away all my physical abilities. It cannot touch my mind, it cannot touch my heart and it cannot touch my soul. And those three things are going to carry on forever. I thank you and God bless you all."

The V Foundation for Cancer Research awards 100% of all direct donations and net proceeds from the organization's events directly to cancer research and related programs. The foundation has raised more than $80 million to fund cancer research nationwide.

For All of Those Parents Out There

An oldie but a goodie to hopefully make things a little brighter:

The Price of Children

The government previously calculated the cost of raising a child from birth to eighteen years old and came up with $160,140 for a middle income family. Talk about price shock! That doesn't even touch college tuition. But $160,140 isn't so bad if you break it down. It translates into $741.38 a month, $171.08 a week and a mere $24.24 a day. Just over a dollar an hour. Still, you might think the best financial advice is: Don't have children if you want to be rich. Actually, it is just the opposite.

What do you get for your $160,140? Naming rights: First, middle and last. Giggles under the covers every night. More love than your heart can hold. Butterfly kisses and Velcro hugs. Endless wonder over rocks, ants, clouds and warm cookies. A hand to hold, usually covered with jelly or chocolate. A partner for blowing bubbles and flying kites. Someone to laugh yourself silly with, no matter what the boss said or how your stocks performed that day.

For $160,140, you never have to grow up. You get to finger paint, carve pumpkins, play hide and seek, catch lightning bugs and never stop believing in Santa Claus. You have an excuse to keep reading the adventures of Piglet and Pooh, watch Saturday morning cartoons, go to Disney movies and wish on stars. You get to frame rainbows, hearts and flowers under refrigerator magnets and collect spray painted noodle wreaths for Christmas, handprints set in clay for Mother's Day and cards with backward letters for Father's Day.

For a mere $24.24 a day, there is no greater bang for your buck. You get to be a hero just for retrieving a Frisbee off the garage roof, taking the training wheels off a bike, removing a splinter, filling a wading pool, coaxing a wad of gum out of bangs and coaching a baseball team that never wins but always gets treated to ice cream regardless. You get a front row seat in history to witness the first step, first word, first bra, first date and first time behind the wheel. You get to be immortal. You get another branch added to your family tree and, if you're lucky, a long list of limbs in your obituary called grandchildren and great-grandchildren. You get an education in psychology, nursing, criminal justice, communications and human sexuality that no college can match.

You have all the power to heal a boo-boo, scare away the monsters under the bed, patch a broken heart, police a slumber party, ground them forever and love them without limits so one day they will, like you, love without counting the cost. That is quite a deal for the price! Love and enjoy your children and grandchildren and great-grandchildren. It's the best investment you will ever make!

A Village Is Losing Its Idiot

In a surprise announcement, Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin declared earlier today that she is resigning from her position, which would be effective at the end of this month. In an absolutely confusing and horrible speech (she is a truly horrendous speaker), Palin stated that she is not seeking re-election because she plans to "work for and campaign for those proud to be American and those who are inspired by our ideals and won't deride them". According to Palin, another reason for her decision is because she has always promised "no more politics as usual", a ridiculous phrase she uttered on five separate occasions during her speech. Her constant use of bad cliches reminds me of a quote from artist Salvador Dali: "The first man to compare the cheeks of a young woman to a rose was obviously a poet; the first to repeat it was possibly an idiot".

Palin's announcement comes on the eve of the release of e-mails between her and Steve Schmidt from October of last year, who was the senior campaign strategist and advisor to Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) during the 2008 presidential campaign. Highlighting the tension within the McCain campaign, the e-mail chain centers around Palin's husband, Todd, and his membership in the Alaskan Independence Party (AIP), an organization which advocates an in-state referendum containing the option of Alaska seceding from the United States and, in turn, becoming an independent nation.

Palin (in an e-mail to Schmidt, campaign manager Richard Davis and campaign advisor Nicole Wallace): "[Please] get in front of that ridiculous issue that's cropped up all day today - two reporters, a protestor's sign and many shout-outs all claiming Todd's involvement in an anti-American political party. It's bull and I don't want to have to keep reacting to it...[Please] have statement given on this so it's put to bed."

Schmidt (replying to everyone less than five minutes later): "Ignore it. He was a member of the AIP? My understanding is yes. That is part of their platform. Do not engage the protestors. If a reporter asks, say 'It is ridiculous. Todd loves America.'"

Palin (adding five more staff members to the distribution list): "That's not part of their platform and he was only a member because independent Alaskans too often check that 'Alaska Independent' box on voter registrations thinking it just means non-partisan. He caught his error when changing our address and checked the right box. I still want it fixed." Note: So her husband made a mistake and then quickly resolved the matter? I believe that Schmidt has something to say to the contrary.

Schmidt, finally putting the matter to rest once and for all: "Secession -- it is their entire reason for existence. A cursory examination of the web site shows that the party exists for the purpose of seceding from the union. That is the stated goal on the front page of the web site. Our records indicate that Todd was a member for seven years. If this is incorrect, then we need to understand the discrepancy. The statement you are suggesting be released would be inaccurate. The inaccuracy would bring greater media attention to this matter and be a distraction. According to your staff, there have been no media inquiries into this and you received no questions about it during your interviews. If you are asked about it, you should smile and say 'Many Alaskans who love their country join the party because it speaks to a tradition of political independence. Todd loves his country.' We will not put out a statement and inflame this and create a situation where John [McCain] has to address this."

In case you were wondering, Palin was silent after Schmidt's second e-mail and the McCain campaign did not issue the statement Palin demanded.

New Address, Same Attitude

My family and I moved to a new house in the middle of June so we have spent the last few weeks cleaning, decorating, unpacking boxes, etc. But since the majority of that work has been completed, it is now time for me to start voicing my opinions again. Keep your eyes open for a new posting very soon!

The Worst Kind of Traitor

During a luncheon last week at the National Press Club, Mr. Cheney discussed a variety of topics, including gay marriage (of which he is surprisingly in favor), the bankruptcy of General Motors and President Obama's nomination of Sonia Sotomayor to the United States Supreme Court. Ironically, the event was honoring the recipients of the Gerald R. Ford annual awards for distinguished reporting on national defense and the White House. A portion of Cheney's comments focused on Richard Clarke's recent remarks in "The Washington Post". Serving as the chief counterterrorism advisor to both President Bill Clinton and Mr. Bush, Clarke had this to say regarding the former administration: "Cheney's admission that 9/11 caused him to re-assess the threats to the nation only underscores how, for months, top officials had ignored warnings from the CIA and the NSC staff that urgent action was needed to preempt a major al-Qaeda attack...Yes, Dick Cheney and Condoleezza Rice may have been surprised by the attacks of September 11, 2001 -- but it was because they had not listened."

Before specifically responding to Clarke's editorial, Cheney invoked images of the ashes of the World Trade Center and the individuals jumping from the North Tower, the smoking Pentagon and Flight 93. After he had finished tugging at the heart strings, Cheney then commenced to subtly drop possibly the biggest lie ever since that horrible day occurred in September more than seven years ago: "You know, Dick Clarke. Dick Clarke, who was the head of the counterterrorism program in the run-up to 9/11, he obviously missed it."

Why is it such a lie? Let's take a look at the evidence. First, on January 25, 2001 (five days after Mr. Bush took office), Clarke sent a memo to Condoleezza Rice, the National Security Advisor at the time, which recommended an immediate review of the al-Qaeda network and stated that "We would make a major error if we underestimated the challenge al Qida [sic] poses or overestimated the stability of the moderate, friendly regimes that al Qida threatens". In his book, "The Commission: The Uncensored History of the 9/11 Investigation", "The New York Times" reporter Philip Shenon reprinted other e-mails from Clarke which continued to warn Rice and other members of the Bush administration throughout 2001 about the threat from al-Qaeda. Apparently the titles of those e-mails weren't ominous enough to Mr. Bush and his team of irresponsible morons:

• "Bin Ladin [sic] Public Profile May Presage Attack" (May 3)
• "Terrorist Groups Said Co-Operating on U.S. Hostage Plot" (May 23)
• "Bin Ladin’s Networks’ Plans Advancing" (May 26)
• "Bin Ladin Attacks May Be Imminent" (June 23)
• "Bin Ladin and Associates Making Near Term Threats" (June 25)
• "Bin Ladin Planning High Profile Attacks" (June 30)
• "Planning for Bin Ladin Attacks Continues, Despite Delays" (July 2)

And then on September 4, 2001, Clarke wrote one last memo to Rice, which was titled "Imagine Hundreds of Dead Due to Government Inaction". As you can probably deduce from the name of the document, Clarke urged "policymakers to imagine a day after a terrorist attack, with hundreds of Americans dead at home and abroad, and ask themselves what they could have done earlier". Within this memo, Clarke also (1) criticized the military for its unwillingness to retaliate for the attack on the USS Cole or strike Afghan terrorist camps, (2) accused senior CIA officials of trying to block the Predator unmanned aerial vehicle program and (3) expressed his concerns that, if attacked, the United States would need to rely heavily on foreign governments for assistance. As we all know, this country was attacked just seven days later.

Now I have heard a lot of bullshit come out of Cheney's mouth over the last eight years but this certainly takes the cake. Instead of taking responsibility for how he, Mr. Bush and their cronies turned their backs on credible intelligence from within their own administration and, in turn, allowing 9/11 to take place, Cheney wants to blame Richard Clarke, despite the evidence in front of him. I only wish that President Obama would call for the prosecution of numerous members of the previous administration.

Vacationers Are Apparently Acceptable, Part II

As I mentioned in my previous posting, various Republican members of Congress are criticizing President Obama's plans to close the prison at Guantanamo Bay. Through their remarks, these individuals are creating a perception that the facility is bulging at the seams with terrorists anxious to be released so that they continue the horrors of September 11th. Or those terrorists will be placed into minimum security prisons within the United States with access to all types of weapons. Or, even worse, allowed to freely roam our streets without any sort of supervision. All of those are extremely inaccurate. However, certain Republicans from Kansas (Sen. Samuel Brownback, Sen. Patrick Roberts and Rep. Todd Tiahrt) are contributing to this ridiculous chatter about these "dangerous criminals".

What is amazing about these three politicians from the Midwest is that, while they openly speak out against closing Guantanamo Bay, they seem to forget about the inmates currently incarcerated in their own state. Take a look at the following list and let me know which group you are more scared of:

• Scott Roeder has been charged with first degree murder and two counts of aggravated assault for shooting and killing George Tiller just three days ago. Before he was assassinated during Sunday morning's service at his church, Tiller was the Medical Director of the Women's Health Care Services clinic, which provides abortions to consenting women.
• Previously named "Man of the Year" by a local charity, John Robinson is currently on death row for murdering six women. Nicknamed the "Slave Master", Robinson met some of his victims through the Internet.
• Once the President of the Congregation Council at his church and a Cub Scout leader, Dennis Rader is serving a life sentence for murdering ten people, including four in the same family. The "BTK Killer" received his nickname from his method of binding, torturing and killing his victims.
• Sentenced to five life prison terms, Don Nemechek was convicted in February of 1977 for killing five individuals (including a 2-year-old boy) within a twenty month period.
• Gary Beach was convicted of first degree murder after investigators discovered the bodies of five victims (including his step-nephew) decomposing in his house.

Plus someone should remind the right wing that we are currently and safely imprisoning these domestic terrorists within our borders:

• Terry Nichols, a veteran of the U.S. Army who conspired with Timothy McVeigh in the bombing of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City, OK. Nichols is serving 161 consecutive life terms without the possibility of parole for this horrendous event, which claimed the lives of 168 people.
• Eric Rudolph, serving five consecutive life sentences for committing a series of bombings (including during the 1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta, GA) which killed two people and more than 150 others.
• Theodore Kaczynski, the "Unabomber", who carried out a campaign of mail bombings which killed three people and injured twenty-three others.
• Richard Reid, convicted on charges of terrorism and serving a life sentence for attempting to destroy a commercial aircraft by detonating explosives hidden in his shoes.

Vacationers Are Apparently Acceptable, Part I

Nearly every day for the past five weeks, Sen. Mitchell McConnell (R-KY), the Minority Leader since January 2007, has delivered remarks on the floor of Congress regarding President Obama's plans to close the prison at Guantanamo Bay (which, as I have mentioned in previous postings, is an illegal facility) and, in turn, the eventual destination of the detainees still held behind its walls. During one of those speeches, McConnell commented that "Guantanamo currently houses some of the most dangerous men alive...who are proud of the innocent lives they have taken". Not to be outdone by McConnell, Sen. Samuel Brownback (R-KS) declared that "The people in the community are going to feel very threatened -- this is in an urban environment, an urban setting, and for what? Why are we doing this?" Sen. Patrick Roberts (R-KS) and Rep. Todd Tiahrt (R-KS) echoed their colleague's theme by stating "Not in our backyard. Not in Kansas. Not on my watch." and "Do you want the terrorists in your hometown?", respectively.

Although I completely understand anyone's concern with the future location of any of the dangerous individuals currently being detained at Guantanamo Bay (although no one really knows how many of them are actually dangerous), I am amazed at how much Brownback, Roberts and Tiahrt speak out against this issue when members of the Afghan National Army and Afghan National Police frequently make trips to their state. Four times each year, soldiers from the Afghan National Army and officers from the Afghan National Police are selected from their respective units and are awarded a working vacation to either Fort Riley in northeast Kansas or a United States Army training area in Germany. During one of those trips to Fort Riley, U.S. Army soldiers instructed the Afghans on such things as proper etiquette while traveling on an aircraft, appropriate hygiene standards and the cultural differences between the two countries. Aside from participating in a training exercise, the visitors were provided with shopping trips to Wal-Mart and the post exchange and a tour of a sporting goods warehouse, treated to lunch at a local restaurant and entertained with an outing to a major league baseball game. Considering Brownback's previous comments, these trips to the U.S. are an utter disgrace, given the fact that Fort Riley is just more than an hour away from the Senator's home.

Now before anyone attacks me for being a racist and for trying to link these Afghan soldiers and police officers to the Taliban or al-Qaeda, I am certainly not doing that. (I will leave those baseless accusations up to the Republicans above and other naive members of the right wing.) However, it is amazing that these conservative politicians have no issues with soldiers from the Afghan National Army visiting the U.S., despite the fact that this military was trained and equipped by the Soviet Union for thirty years and then ruled by the Taliban for five years until this regime was "removed" in late 2001. And we shouldn't forget that the all levels of the Afghan National Police have been easily bribed in the past by members of the Taliban, especially considering the fact that those police officers generally earn between $30-100 per month.

Of course, the Republicans don't bother to mention the fact that President Obama has revived the Bush era military tribunals for top terror suspects imprisoned at Guantanamo Bay. They only want to focus on the overwhelmingly small percentage of those individuals who are even guilty of any sort of crime.

Faulty Moral Compass

On May 15, Mark Hine, the Vice President for Student Affairs at Liberty University (LU) in Lynchburg, VA to Brian Diaz, the President of the school's College Democrats, will no longer be recognized as an approved club at the educational institution. According to Hine's e-mail, the school is "unable to lend support to a club whose parent organization stands against the moral principles held by Liberty University...The Liberty Way states, 'It is the duty of every student to respect Liberty's Statement of Doctrine and Purpose. They may not engage in any activity on or off campus that would compromise the testimony or reputation of the university or cause disruption to Liberty's Christian learning environment.'" Hines goes on to state (in poor grammatical fashion) that "The Democratic Party platform is contrary to the mission of LU and to Christian doctrine (supports abortion, federal funding of abortion, advocates repeal of the federal Defense of Marriage Act, promotes the 'LGBT' agenda, hate crimes, which include sexual orientation and gender identity, socialism, etc.)."

In an attempt to back pedal from Hine's e-mail, Jerry Falwell, Jr., the Chancellor and President of Liberty University and the son of Jerry Falwell, Sr., the school's founder, posted an op-ed piece on the school's web site on Monday. The main reason for the piece was to emphasize the fact that the media was supposedly erroneously reporting on the controversy. For example, reports that the school was banned from campus and, in turn, prohibited from meeting on campus. And that's erroneous to you? Well, Jerry, the Student Clubs and Organizations Policies currently posted on your web site states that "No student club or organization shall be approved, recognized or permitted to meet on campus, advertise, distribute or post materials or use university facilities if the statements, positions, doctrines, policies, constitutions, bylaws, platforms, activities or events of such club or organization, its parent, affiliate, chapter or similarly named group (even if the similarly named group is not the actual parent, affiliate or chapter) are inconsistent or in conflict with the distinctly Christian mission of the university, the Liberty Way, the Honor Code or the policies and procedures promulgated by the university". And if you refer back to Hine's e-mail, he clearly states that "Even though this [College Democrats] club may not support the more radical planks of the Democratic Party, the Democratic Party is still the parent organization of the club on campus...The candidates this club supports uphold the platform and implement it. The candidates supported are directly contrary to the mission of LU. By using LU or Liberty University and Democrat in the name, the two are associated and the goals of both run in opposite directions." To hammer the point home, Hine declared in his e-mail that the school was "removing the club from the Liberty web site and you will need to cease using Liberty University's name, including any logo, seal or mark of Liberty University. They are not to be used in any of your publications, electronic or Internet, including but not limited to any web site, Facebook, Twitter or any other such publication." Jerry, I don't know about you but, to me, it doesn't sound too good for the College Democrats. However, we shouldn't expect too much from an institution of higher learning which has approved clubs with forward thinking names such as the Blue and Gray Society, Huntin' and Fishin' Club (yes, they actually used apostrophes) and Lord's Warriors.

At the same time, this combination of hypocrisy and extreme conservatism shouldn't be a huge surprise to everyone outside of Liberty University. This is the same school which has:

• Accepted almost $4 million in loans in the mid-1990s from two organizations owned by Sun Myung Moon, the controversial founder of the Unification Church.
• Allowed the debate team, despite the above criticism of the Democratic Party platform, to argue for abortion rights in previous competitions.
• Continually supported and worked with Young Earth creationist organizations, which believe the heavens, Earth and life on Earth were created by direct acts of God between 6,000 and 10,000 years ago.
• Implemented a code of conduct which distributes reprimands and fines for completely harmless activities, including attending dances, viewing R rated movies or sexually explicit material, smoking, entering the bedroom of a member of the opposite sex and participating in unauthorized petitions.
• Announced in the summer of 2005 that the in-class dress code was being relaxed to permit flip-flops, capri pants, jeans and other casual articles of clothing (but not shorts) as long as the clothing does not have any holes. (Rules such as collared shirts for male students still apply.)

But this can't be a shocker from a school which accepted 94.3% of all students entering in 2008, making Liberty University one of the least selective schools in the United States.

Memorial Day

First recognized in 1868, Memorial Day was established to commemorate the men and women of the United States military who have died while serving their country. Designated as "a fitting tribute to the memory" of those individuals who have made the ultimate sacrifice, the holiday obviously has an even greater meaning right now with our troops still in the Middle East.

On this Memorial Day, it is important to note that "The Washington Post" has created a web site called Faces of the Fallen (http://projects.washingtonpost.com/fallen/) to honor each U.S. service member who has died in Iraq and Afghanistan during Operation Iraqi Freedom and Operation Enduring Freedom. The site includes important information for the service member, including a photograph, age, hometown, military background, the date on which the individual died and a description of the incident, as well as related links. With that being said, there are a few statistics to point out from the time that the United States has occupied the Middle East:

• 4,986 U.S. service members have died in the Middle East (as of May 22).
• 31,193 U.S. service members have been injured (as of April 14).
• 45,167 Iraqi civilians have been killed (as of May 26).
• It has unfortunately been 2,216 days since Mr. Bush declared "Mission Accomplished" in Iraq.

Facts, Lies and No Videotape, Part II

In my previous posting, I commented on President Obama's recent proposal to charge service related treatments to military veterans with private health insurance. I also took the time to compare the lack of funding that the Department of Veterans Affairs received from Mr. Bush with the plans President Obama has for the agency in his increased 2010 budget. The second part of this subject is reserved for something much more important. On the Internet and in e-mail format (http://www.moaablogs.org/battleofthebilge/2009/04/bilgealertapril2/comment-page-1/ ), an extremely irresponsible lie is being circulated throughout the world for everyone to see. In that despicable lie, President Obama is "quoted" while expressing his dismay with the opposition to his proposal: "Look, it’s an all volunteer force. Nobody made these guys go to war. They had to have known and accepted the risks. Now they whine about bearing the costs of their choice? It doesn’t compute. I thought these were people who were proud to sacrifice for their country. I wasn’t asking for blood -- just money. With the country facing the worst financial crisis in its history, I’d have thought that the patriotic thing to do would be to try to help reduce the nation’s deficit. I guess I underestimated the selfishness of some of my fellow Americans."

The members of the right wing who are stoking the fire of this pathetic sham are clearly poor excuses for human beings because this entire item is based in complete and utter bullshit. In case you wonder why I say that:

1. The majority of the text was pulled directly from the original posting (http://www.azconservative.org/Semmens188.htm) on March 21 by John Semmons on his personal blog. The name of his blog? Wait for it...It's called "Semi-News -- A Satirical Look at Recent News". (Apparently Republicans are unfamiliar with the terms "semi" and "satirical".) Therefore, the supposed quote from President Obama has been completely fabricated.

2. The remaining text (including the rant) has since been added from an unknown source.

3. Anyone with even an eighth of a brain would realize that any sitting President of the United States would not speak about the country's military in such a manner. This is certainly true of President Obama, whose every move is watched and whose every comment is analyzed.

One of the biggest problems with a situation like this is that the Democrats don't have their own versions of Sean Hannity, Rush Limbaugh or Bill O'Reilly. As a result, the mindless and conscienceless Republicans continue to get away with stuff like this without any retribution from the left.