Recent Chain-letter Email

Normally, I don't put much into this, but hey... why not? -RD

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I don't know if all of this is true but it is interesting reading.

Subject: John Glenn
Subject: PLEASE BE SURE TO READ WHAT SENATOR JOHN GLENN SAID, Scroll down.

Things that make you think a little........

There were 39 combat related killings in Iraq during January.....
In the fair city of Detroit there were 35 murders in the month of January.
That's just one American city, about as deadly as the entire war torn country of Iraq.

When some claim President Bush shouldn't have started this war, state the following :

FDR...led us into World War II. Germany never attacked us: Japan did.
From 1941-1945, 450,000 lives were lost, an average of 112,500 per year.

Truman...finished that war and started one in Korea, North Korea never attacked us.
From 1950-1953, 55,000 lives were lost, an average of 18,334 per year.

John F. Kennedy. ..started the Vietnam conflict in 1962. Vietnam never attacked us.
Johnson...turned Vietnam into a quagmire. From 1965-1975, 58,000 lives were lost, an average of 5,800 per year.

Clinton...went to war in Bosnia without UN or French consent, Bosnia never attacked u s. Clinton was offered Osama bin Laden's head on a platter three times by Sudan and did nothing. Osama has attacked us on multiple occasions.

In the two years since terrorists attacked us President Bush has.... liberated two countries, crushed the Taliban, crippled al-Qaida, put nuclear inspectors in Libya, Iran and North Korea without firing a shot, and captured a terrorist who slaughtered 300,000 of his own people.

The Democrats are complaining about how long the war is taking, but...It took less time to take Iraq than it took Janet Reno to take the Branch Davidian compound. That was a 51-day operation.
We've been looking for evidence of chemical weapons in Iraq for less time than it took Hillary Clinton to find the Rose Law Firm billing records.

It took less time for the 3rd Infantry Division and the Marines to destroy the Medina Republican Guard than it took Ted Kennedy to call the police after his Oldsmobile sank at Chapaquiddick.

It took less time to take Iraq than it took to count the votes in Florida!!!!
Our Commander-In-Chief is doing a GREAT JOB! The Military morale is high!

The biased media hopes we are too ignorant to realize the facts.


Wait, there's more...

JOHN GLENN ON THE SENATE FLOOR
Date: Mon, 26 Jan 2004 11:13

Some people still don't understand why military personnel do what they
do for a living. This exchange between Senators John ! Glenn and Senator
Howard Metzenbaum is worth reading. Not only is it a pretty impressive
impromptu speech, but it's also a good example of one man's explanation
of why men and women in the armed services do what they do for a
living. This is a typical, though sad, example of what some who have never
served think of the military.

Senator Metzenbaum to Senator Glenn:
"How can you run for Senate when you've never held a real job?"

Senator Glenn:
"I served 23 years in the United States Marine Corps.
I served through two wars. I flew 149 missions. My plane was hit by
anti-aircraft fire on 12 different occasions. I was in the space
program. It wasn't my checkbook, Howard; it was my life on the line. It was
not a nine-to-five job, where I took time off to take the daily cash
receipts to the bank. I ask you to go with me ... as I went the other
day... to a veteran's hospital and look those men - with their mangled
bodies - in the eye, and tell them they didn't hold a job! You go with
me to the Space Program at NASA and go, as I have gone, to the widows
and orphans of Ed White, Gus Grissom and Roger Chaffee... and you look
those kids in the eye and tell them that their dads didn't hold a job.
You go with me on Memorial Day and you stand in Arlington National
Cemetery, where I have more friends buried than I'd like to remember,
and you watch those waving flags.
You stand there, and you think about this nation, and you tell ME that
those people didn't have a job? I'll tell you, Howard Metzenbaum; you
should be on your knees every day of your life thanking God that there
were some men - some men, who held real jobs. And they required a
dedication to a purpose - and a love of country and a dedication to
duty that was more important than life itself. And their self-sacrifice is what made this country possible.
I have held a job, Howard! What about you?"

For those who don't remember - During W.W.II, Howard Metzenbaum was an
attorney representing the Communist Party in the USA.
Now he is a Senator!

If you can read this, thank a teacher.... If you are reading it in
English thank a Veteran. It might not be a bad idea to keep this
circulating 'till November....

Tom Feller's excellent flight

Have Moved Tom's flight to another spot: ValkingVideoBlog .
This will make it easier to have several good videos available at any given time.

This is the video mentioned in the previous post. Well done Tom, and thanks for sharing...

Tom Feller's video

So on the yahoo group, pilotsppgclub there's a fellow named Tom Feller. Well Tom attached a bulletcam to his helmet and made some video, this is the first. I have to say I am sure glad someone out there did this, and shared the face-plant. Makes the second video even more enjoyable. I'll have it up in a few days. It really catches the feeling of taking off, flying, and landing a powered paraglider. Bravo Tom!

Sunday 2:30 AM

Well this working night shifts must be getting to me.
I go to sleep, wake up a few hours later for a bit and then need to get back to sleep. Just like I do all during the week so that I can still have a life.
Problem is that the system doesn't allow for the weekends so it's taking some getting used to. Oh well...
So Saturday wasn't good. No EAA meeting, it was LAST Saturday. So I overslept and instead of getting out the door at 7AM I went for the in-laws at around 1:30PM.
No flying. Just three hours up, a short visit and three hours back. Oh, and I got lost. The one time I didn't take the GPS and I made one turn one street earlier near the end of the trip and ended up in BF Egypt 30 miles from where I wanted to be.
You know two wrongs don't make a right, but three lefts do? Didn't today. So I back tracked, found where I needed to be, visited, and hauled ass back home with my trusty large utility trailer in tow. Never mind that I'm now going to be late and maybe even miss bowling. Add to all this: Sprint's PCS service isn't really known for it's rural coverage. So I get home, get a voicemail a block from the house that Moni's wondering where I am, change to a jacket because it's chilly now and head to the bowling alley. It wasn't nice, I should have just stayed home.

So now it's 2:43AM and I'm thinking, "Hey let's try flying again this morning."
I think I'd better go find another alarm clock so I'll wake up when I want to this time.

=(
-Robert

Blogshares and Good Will

So there's this great stock game based on blogs. It's called Blogshares (www.blogshares.com). It's a lot of fun, one buys and sells shares to build personal wealth, starting with $B500 and going from there.
Most readers of this might have an idea already what it is. Well recently I hit a financal level where I could re-invest in the game itself by giving shares to newer players. Specifically I am trying to gift to players that are just in the first day or two of the game, perhaps three for all I know, where a gift will make a pretty big difference as I might be gifting them an amount of shares that might double or better the value they currently have. It's my way of sharing the wealth, eh? So there's a nice side to it also. The thank-you's. I guess that's the bigggest payoff, hearing from new players as they figure the game out and take the first steps in the game cautiously. One such recent player is Clara (http://freeclara.blogspot.com/)and her than-you was nice in that she added me to her blogroll and mentioned me in a recent post. I thought that was so nice I decided to do likewise. So here it is, thanks Clara, or to paraphrase one of my better one liners, "Thank-you for thanking me..."
-Robert

The Daily News Online

The Daily News Online: "When a crew of Cannon Beach, Ore., firefighters and a U.S. Coast Guard helicopter couldn't rescue a paraglider who blew into an old-growth spruce tree on Sunday, they unleashed 'The Human Squirrel' -- otherwise known as Bob Saari, professional tree climber.

The 52-year-old Rosburg, Wash., resident strapped on his spurs, hitched his way 140 feet up the tree, crawled out on a limb and swung a rope down to the stranded man, who dangled from a lower branch. It was the end of a seven-hour ordeal for Charles Phillips, a Portland emergency room doctor who'd been blown off course around 4:30 p.m. while floating over Seaside's coastline on a paraglider, a parachute shaped like an airplane wing.

Phillips' flying partner saw what happened and called emergency workers, who quickly arrived at the forested ridge in Ecola State Park. An attempt to pluck Phillips from the tree using a helicopter nearly blew him off the branch, and rescue workers eventually called Danger Tree Removal in Astoria.

As darkness was falling, the tree service company's owner phoned Saari, a competitive tree climber and log roller.

'There isn't anybody else I know who could've done this,' Danger Tree owner Tim Hill explained Wednesday evening. 'He's a master at what he does.'"

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Good to have a wingman, good to have a guy that knows how to climb big trees. Good read, take a look...
-Robert

Friday...Ah, the weekend's here.

Well it's Friday.
Work week's done, 8AM.
Time to drive up into the countyside and get my big utility trailer that my in-laws have had for a year. My fault really. I should have gone up earlier and gotten it.
Course Moni (she's off today too)thinks I should get it tommorrow, seeing as I want to go to the EAA meeting and get some flying in, and it's halfway to the trailer. Sort of a tempting thought, not sure which is going to be the case. Course If I put it off a day, I could get some sleep and sneak out the the beach this afternoon. That'd make it two days of flying, and goodness knows it's been a month almost since Cresent Beach (south of St.Augustine)...hmmmm. Decisions, decisions...
-Rob

Schumer vs. Kerry - October 18, 2004 - The New York Sun

Schumer vs. Kerry - October 18, 2004 - The New York Sun: "The winner in yesterday's debate among Senator Schumer, Assemblyman Howard Mills, and Marilyn O'Grady was President Bush. This became clear when Mr. Schumer, a Democrat, took on his two colleagues in the world's greatest deliberative body, John Kerry and John Edwards, who are his party's nominees for president and vice president. Mr. Schumer did not attack them by name, but anyone who has been even casually following the presidential race knows that Messrs. Kerry and Edwards both voted for the war in Iraq but against $87 billion to support the troops there. Mr. Schumer voted for the war and for the $87 billion. 'I voted for the $87 billion to back up our soldiers,' Mr. Schumer said. 'I'm never going to leave our soldiers high and dry, and I didn't when I voted for the $87 billion.'"

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I never thought I'd ever like anything Charles Schumer said, much less quote him, but hey strange times...
-Robert

Boston.com / News / Politics / Presidential candidates / FEC may regulate Web political activity

Boston.com / News / Politics / Presidential candidates / FEC may regulate Web political activity



FEC may regulate Web political activity
By Sharon Theimer, Associated Press Writer | October 13, 2004

WASHINGTON -- With political fund raising, campaign advertising and organizing taking place in full swing over the Internet, it may just be a matter of time before the Federal Election Commission joins the action. Well, that time may be now.

A recent federal court ruling says the FEC must extend some of the nation's new campaign finance and spending limits to political activity on the Internet.

Long reluctant to step into online political activity, the agency is considering whether to appeal.

But vice chairwoman Ellen Weintraub said the Internet may prove to be an unavoidable area for the six-member commission, regardless of what happens with the ruling.

"I don't think anybody here wants to impede the free flow of information over the Internet," Weintraub said. "The question then is, where do you draw the line?"

This election season has been a groundbreaking one online, as interest groups, campaigns and political parties use Web sites and e-mail to advertise, organize volunteers, reach out to donors and collect information about voters.

Former Democratic presidential hopeful Howard Dean made the most pronounced splash online when he stunned his rivals by raking in tens of millions of dollars through Web-a-thons, a far cheaper fund-raising method than traditional dinners and cocktail parties. And Internet message boards, known as blogs, have become as common a place for people to air their political views as talk shows and newspaper editorial pages.

The Internet also is where political players do what they can no longer do on television or radio.

The National Rifle Association, for example, has started an online newscast and talk show to air its views on presidential and congressional candidates. The Internet is exempt from a ban on the use of corporate money for radio and TV ads targeting federal candidates close to elections, part of the new campaign finance law that took effect this election cycle.

The November Fund, an anti-trial lawyer group partly funded by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, is posting Internet ads criticizing Democratic vice presidential nominee John Edwards, a North Carolina senator and former personal-injury lawyer.

The FEC exempted such ads from the law's ban on coordination between candidates and groups that raise or spend corporate money. Last month, U.S. District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly struck down the coordination exemption, ruling that it "severely undermines" the law.

Fred Wertheimer, president of the campaign watchdog group Democracy 21 and member of the legal team that successfully sued to overturn that and several other FEC rules interpreting the law, said campaign finance laws should apply to the Internet because substantial amounts of money are being spent on online at election time.

The laws may not always apply to the Internet as they would to other venues, Wertheimer said, "but by the same token the Internet cannot become a major avenue for evading and circumventing campaign finance laws on the grounds that people just want the Internet free from regulation of any kind."

Max Fose, a Republican Internet consultant who helped Arizona Sen. John McCain, a sponsor of the new campaign finance law, raise millions of dollars online for his 2000 presidential bid, is wary of the judge's ruling.

"Whenever there's something new and emerging and it's still developing, to place restrictions on it I think is going to hurt how political candidates and elected officials look to use the Internet, to not only be elected but look to get voters involved," Fose said.

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What you wanna bet, blogs are seen as needing regulation too?
-Robert

ABC's memo problem - The Washington Times: Editorials/OP-ED - October 12, 2004

ABC's memo problem - The Washington Times: Editorials/OP-ED - October 12, 2004

ABC's memo problem

Three weeks before the election, ABC News Political Director Mark Halperin apparently doesn't think the campaign season is going too well. He thinks ABC News must help the electorate by sorting out the relevant facts from the spin; holding the liars accountable; and openly campaign for the election of John Kerry — stuff like that. Mr. Halperin issued these instructions to ABC News employees last week in a memo, which was subsequently leaked to Internet news-guru Matt Drudge just before Friday night's second presidential debate. ABC News' Charles Gibson, coincidentally, moderated the debate.

The memo states in glaring, if improper, language just why the campaign isn't going as swimmingly for Mr. Kerry as Mr. Halperin would like: "[T]he current Bush attacks on Kerry involve distortions and taking things out of context in a way that goes beyond what Kerry has done." Ergo, writes Mr. Halperin, ABC News has "a responsibility to hold both sides accountable to the public interest, but that doesn't mean we reflexively and artificially hold both sides 'equally' accountable when the facts don't warrant that ... It's up to Kerry to defend himself, of course. But as one of the few news organizations with the skill and strength to help voters evaluate what the candidates are saying to serve the public interest [sic]. Now is the time for all of us to step up and do that right" (quotes in original).
The obvious point of course is that Mr. Halperin's memo adds further proof — this time, neatly typed out in black and white — to the growing mound of evidence that the mainstream media leans liberal. A Pew Research Center and Project on Excellence in Journalism released a report over the summer that found 34 percent of national journalists identified themselves as liberal, while just seven percent said they were conservative. An August New York Times article conducted an "unscientific" survey that found that by a 12 to one margin, Washington journalists favor Mr. Kerry in the upcoming election. But entrenched liberalism isn't really the problem here; shameless arrogance is.
The Pew survey contrasted its findings with the breakdown of the American public, 20 percent of which identifies itself as liberal, 33 percent as conservative. No wonder Mr. Halperin thinks ABC News, with all its "skill and strength," should "help voters evaluate what the candidates are saying": The poor dolts are too conservative for their own good. In the wake of the Dan Rather uproar, one would think that executives like Mr. Halperin would be a bit more guarded in revealing their bias, especially three weeks before the election and right before his own Mr. Gibson was about to host a presidential debate. But when someone like Mr. Halperin doesn't think he has a bias, it's particularly difficult to guard against it.

Union Thugs target Republicans

WSJ.COM Opinion Journal from
THE WALL STREET JOURNAL Editorial Page


JOHN FUND ON THE TRAIL

Getting Physical
Union thugs target Republicans.

Monday, October 11, 2004 12:01 a.m. EDT

We may be about to experience an election unlike any we've seen in a while. The Florida recount in 2000 raised passions and blood pressure and featured some demonstrations on both sides, but there was no violence. This year, lots of groups are jostling with each other to monitor the elections in battleground states. For its part, the AFL-CIO has promised to dispatch thousands of election monitors to battleground states to watch for any hint of trouble at polling places. From the initial reports, they may be the ones for have to be watched as potential troublemakers.

Last week, in Orlando, Fla., approximately 60 union protestors stormed and ransacked the local Bush-Cheney headquarters causing considerable damage and injuring one campaign staffer, who suffered a broken wrist.

According to an Orlando Police Department report, Rhyan Metzler, a field director for the Republican Party, was at the headquarters about 1 p.m. last Tuesday when 60 protestors barged in. Van Church, a 53-year old protestor, forced the door open and caused Mr. Metzler's arm to be caught in it. His left wrist was fractured in the altercation. Police say Mr. Church will be charged with two counts of battery.

But Mr. Church is unrepentant. "If his wrist was fractured, it's a result of his own actions in jerking the door the way he did," he told the Orlando Sentinel. "He jerked the door out of my hand and cut it in the process." But since it is Mr. Church who is being charged, the police apparently didn't think Mr. Metzler did anything wrong.

Orlando's fracas was mirrored in Miami, where police reported that more than 100 union protestors stormed the Bush-Cheney office and shoved volunteers aside. No one was charged because most of the protestors left before the police arrived. In Tampa, about 35 protestors filled the local GOP office and intimidated the elderly volunteers working there.

The AFL-CIO took credit on its Web site for similar demonstrations--apparently all coordinated--in Independence, Mo., Kansas City, Mo., Dearborn, Mich., St. Paul, Minn., and West Allis, Wis. In what could be a related incident, the Bush-Cheney office in Knoxville, Tenn., had its plate-glass windows shattered by gunfire on Tuesday morning before volunteers showed up for work. Another Republican office, in Seattle, was broken into and had computer files stolen.

Esmerelda Aguilar, an AFL-CIO spokesman, says Republicans are "trying to politicize [the Orlando incident] and exaggerate the event." She maintains that all of the demonstrations "were peaceful protests" designed to call attention to new Bush administration regulations on overtime pay.


Rep. Tom Feeney (R., Fla.) is skeptical. He was speaker of the Florida House in 2000 and knows how important it is to address election-related problems early and not wait for Election Day. Mr. Feeney and 49 other GOP members of Congress have signed a letter asking the Justice Department to investigate if the coordinated protests violated any federal laws on protecting the rights to campaign and vote.
Rep. Feeney also says the Justice Department needs to let people know it is watching this election more closely than most. "We ask that you work with state law enforcement agencies in investigating a series of voting irregularities including forgeries in voter registration forms, casting simultaneous ballots in different states (double voting), and absentee voter fraud. Such activities disenfranchise those who properly register to vote and cast valid ballots."

Look for the Justice Department to become a major political football in this election. Already, its warnings that terrorists may well try to disrupt the Nov. 2 election is being greeted skeptically by some local election officials. New Mexico Secretary of State Rebecca Vigil-Giron, a Democrat, is openly asking if Attorney General John Ashcroft's warnings are part of a GOP effort to suppress voter turnout. Last week, Democrats responded by creating their own SWAT teams of lawyers that will be dispatched to any place where voting problems are recorded. One issue certain to be disputed will be provisional ballots, which are cast when someone doesn't find his name on the registration rolls. Such ballots are set aside and verified later. A flood of provisional ballot lists could tilt the election in close states one way or the other with Democrats demanding that officials "count every vote" and Republicans questioning the validity of some of the ballots.

California Assemblywoman Bonnie Garcia, a Republican, says she has found 3,000 new duplicate registrations in her district. "The current process today is really Third World conditions," she told CNN's Lou Dobbs program. When asked what she thinks about Democratic charges that her calls for investigations into the duplicate registrations will scare voters away from the polls, she refuses to back down. "You're damn right, I'm going to try to scare away the crooks."


Let's hope the lawyers don't take over this election's aftermath the way they did in Florida in 2000. To prevent that the Justice Department needs to step in now and enforce everyone's civil rights. That means protecting campaign workers from intimidation as well as preventing fraudulent votes from canceling out legitimate ballots. Allowing double voting, ballots to be cast from the graveyard and those who have been disqualified because of criminal convictions to dilute the process only calls into question the sanctity of the election itself. It's no way to run a modern democracy.

Injured, angry, determined, Swiftees unite to fight Kerry

Injured, angry, determined, Swiftees unite to fight Kerry


By Stephanie Mansfield
THE WASHINGTON TIMES


Midnight in South Vietnam, and the river is black. Past the rice paddies and shacks, small fires are burning by the shoreline as Lt. John H. Davis' 50-foot aluminum swift boat — PCF 19 — makes its routine patrol through the reeds.
In a split second, rocket fire shatters the silence, and through a plume of oily smoke, the boat sinks to the river's bottom.
"My whole crew lost their lives that night. I was the only one who survived," Lt. Davis says.

Lt. Davis, now 62, lost his left eye. The bones in both legs were shattered. But the scars of war are nothing compared to the demons that wake him from his sleep, leaving him drenched in sweat and trembling with fear.
"My latest nightmare was that I was pulling my crew out of the water. When it came to the last body, it was me."
Lt. Davis has come to Washington at his own expense, along with 89 other Swift Boat Veterans for Truth, to tape the eighth 60-second TV spot questioning Sen. John Kerry's fitness to be commander in chief.
They come from Oshkosh, Wis., and Orlando, Fla., San Francisco and Virginia Beach. One is on crutches. Others, former prisoners of war, walk stiffly, a result of being bound and tortured. Some wear their medals. Two are in cowboy boots.
Snow-haired Bud Day, a 79-year-old former POW, stands at attention. He is wearing a brown leather flight jacket befitting an Air Force major, complemented by the Medal of Honor around his neck. Others have donned "Swift Boat" baseball caps.
The silver-haired men — in natty ties, navy blazers and spit-shined shoes, their faces bronzed with Ben Nye matte foundation ("tan suede") — line up under the hot lights in the cavernous soundstage at Atlantic Video on Massachusetts Avenue.
One by one, they share their stories with the cameras and defend their honor.
These Swiftees, at times jocular (breaking into "Row, row, row your boat") and at other times on the verge of tears, are angry and frustrated. Not only because they say Mr. Kerry has lied about his service and refuses to sign the form that releases his military records to the public, but because 30 years ago, the candidate threw away his medals and called his fellow servicemen murderers, rapists, baby killers and cowards.
The weekend began with a dinner at the Key Bridge Marriott on Friday night, attended by a wealthy backer from Texas, T. Boone Pickens.
So far, they have raised more than $13 million — more than $4 million of which was contributed through their Internet site — and plan to step up their assault on the Democratic presidential candidate in the final weeks of the campaign. They raised an additional $2.5 million over the weekend and plan to spend $5 million more by Election Day.
The weekend shoot produced enough footage for two or three more ads, which the Swiftees plan to run starting Thursday in Pennsylvania and Ohio and in a few heavily military areas of Florida. Campaign analysts say the Swiftees have been highly effective in planting doubts about Mr. Kerry's fitness for office.
Vernon Smith, a 74-year-old Swiftee from Virginia Beach, didn't see any reason to come forward before, but when he read "Tour of Duty," Mr. Kerry's account of his Vietnam service as written by historian Douglas Brinkley, he got angry.
"I don't like the fabrications. Why does a man have to lie like that? He is totally unfit for command," he said.
Their beef with Mr. Kerry has driven them to action, the Swiftees say, as they search their collective memories for the truth. Many say they felt shame before, but now they are a band of brothers. "Unfit for Command," which was co-authored by a leader of the group, is a best seller. And on Saturday, they received a wire for $500,000.
"In more than one firefight, Kerry actually pulled our boat out of it and ran out of the canal. I don't think John Kerry was a coward," says 57-year-old Steve Gardner, from Clover, S.C., who spent more than two months with Mr. Kerry on PCF 44 as a gunner's mate 3rd class.
"I think John Kerry was an opportunist. And he was very ineffectual. He did everything in his own best interest. He was always carrying a little notebook with him. I assume it was his diaries. He was very aloof and disdainful of people under him," he said.
Sgt. Chris LaCivita stands behind the monitor, as the men rehearse their lines. He is producing the spot, with help from Republican media consultant Rick Reed.
Sgt. LaCivita, a tall energetic former Marine who received a Purple Heart after he was shot in the face in the first Persian Gulf war, defends the TV spots against critics who say what happened 30 years ago shouldn't matter.
"Character has always been and will always be a major focus on every candidate running," he said. "So many of the men who were there have legitimate questions about whether he deserved his citations. These men have earned the right to be heard."
But the group has become a lightning rod in recent weeks. In late August, Benjamin Ginsberg resigned his post as legal counsel for the Bush campaign when it became known that he was advising the Swiftees as well. Under scrutiny, several statements made by former "crewmates" of Mr. Kerry have been recanted.
One serious misstatement on Mr. Kerry's part, they say, was his claim that he was ordered to go to Cambodia in December 1968, an illegal act. Not true, says Mr. Gardner, who was on the boat with Mr. Kerry at the time.
"We were never in Cambodia," he says. "Not even close."
Some question Mr. Kerry's discharge from the Navy, information about which is still under wraps.
"If he's a war hero, why not release the missing information?" their thinking goes.
"Good question," Navy Lt. Paul Galanti says. "Everybody in this group wants to find out the truth about his service record. I think there's a lot more there."
Shot down over North Vietnam in 1967, Maj. Day suffered numerous injuries, managed to escape from his prison, walked for two weeks through the jungle eating live frogs before he was recaptured.
He then spent the next six years as a prison cellmate of John McCain, who would become a Republican senator, at the prison the Americans called, with bitter irony, the "Hanoi Hilton." Maj. Day's presence in the room is palpable. Even in a group of decorated war veterans, he stands out as a living legend.
The others sheepishly introduce themselves and are honored just to shake his still-firm hand.
"Kerry betrayed us by telling the people we were committing atrocities," Maj. Day says. "A man who does that is not fit to lead. It's impossible to let this man masquerade as a war hero and someone who has leadership. To imagine this guy who betrayed us becoming president and him being the leader of our armed forces is just unthinkable."
Standing next to the major, 57-year-old Jim Hoffman from Oshkosh, Wis., said Mr. Kerry was never a leader.
"He was an arrogant snob," said Mr. Hoffman, an engineman 2nd class on the swift boats, adding that he felt afraid and alone for many years, but now feels buoyed by his Swiftee peers and their mission.
Mr. Gardner says Mr. Kerry used to boast to his fellow servicemen that he would be the next JFK.
Says Sgt. LaCivita: "JFK must be rolling in his grave."

Let there be wings...

Ah, the things one does to fly PPG (powered paragliders)...


Lay out the wing...


Make sure the lines are all clear and reset if needed...



Strap on a motor...



Hook in and make final checks...



When ready...



Pull up the wing...



Turn and run, run, run...power up the motor...



Up, up, and away...

Good Morning Sunshine...

Well It's 7am and my day is done. All I have to do now is go to bed and get a nice days sleep. Why, you ask? Because my day started last night at about 9pm. I am now on the midnight shift for about the next three months. Looks like there might be some good to it. I work Sunday-Thursday. So Friday night's off. It's only an 8 hour shift so I'm off at 6:15 am, actual shift is 9:45pm-6:15am, in case there's any confusion from my saying that my day started at 9 last night. Nine was get up an dressed, since I'm only ten minutes from the shop, I can afford to sleep a little longer... Boy do I remember when I had to leave an hour to an hour and a half before a shift to make the commute. Now it's just pop into work clothes and zoom on off to work. Back home's the same, home by 6:30am. Thought about it all night, with this schedule I should be able to get a lot more flying in. Reason being that morning flying takes a bit of getting up early and on the road to be where you fly as close to sunrise as possible. First two and last two hours of the day are the best for flying powered paragliders... So working all night has me already up if the mood strikes. And honestly, I'm itching to go, been a few weeks since any flying thanks to all these hurricane visits... My log book's getting lonely.
Well, off to bed. I'll be thinking of all ya'll.
-Robert