Here we go again, only this time it isn't that drunken lout Senator Kennedy, but a Republican Senator who is trying for his weekly soundbite by claiming we are "bogged down" like Vietnam. First of all, Senator Hagel needs a history lesson ... we lost no battles, we lost nothing in Vietnam except our self respect at the hands of a bunch of hippie anti-war agitators who captured the country during a Presidential crisis caused by a completely different set of facts than the war in Vietnam. I am only a former military wife and not a combat veteran, but it makes my blood boil to hear any American trying to draw analogies between today and the agony we who were connected to the military sufffered during the final years of the Vietnam conflict. I believe I have the full support of hundreds of thousands of Veterans when I say to you, Senator Hagel, you are full of of it and an insult to all of us who are old enough to remember what the same crowd who are part of the Cindy Sheehan brigade did to this country and to the pride of our military men and women. This Senator supposedly has presidential aspirations for 2008 ... is he living in some dream world? If I sound mad now, you should have heard me during this broadcast. Perhaps if Senator Hagal spent less time preening for the news media and more time talking to real people ... nah, he's made his choice and I hope that veterans make their's and let Senator Hagel know how you really feel. You can contact him through his website at: hagel.senate.gov. And while you're at it, you might consider writing a quick thank you to Senator Allen for being a stand up guy on the same show. You can contact Senator Allen through his website at allen.senate.gov

And on another Senatorial front ... kudoes to Senator Diane Feinstein for being a standup gal. We don't agree with her politically very often, but the woman definitely has class.

SAN FRANCISCO Feinstein blazes after supes sink bid for battleship She calls board vote a 'petty decision' in light of war effort   Edward Epstein, Chronicle Washington Bureau Thursday, July 14, 2005         Washington -- Sen. Dianne Feinstein, a former mayor of San Francisco, blasted the city's Board of Supervisors for its 8-3 vote against a resolution supporting a bid to move the historic battleship Iowa to the city as a floating museum. "This isn't the San Francisco that I've known and loved and grew up in and was born in,'' Feinstein said Wednesday in Washington. "I was very surprised,'' added the senator, who served as mayor from 1978 to 1989 after eight years as a supervisor. Referring to the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and efforts to defend the country against possible terrorist attacks, she added, "I thought that in view of what's going on and in view of the loss of lives of our men and women, it was a very petty decision.'' The supervisors' Tuesday action made it much more difficult for those working to bring the 887-foot-long, 45,000-ton Iowa to San Francisco, said Feinstein. The senator secured $3 million several years ago to move the decommissioned ship to California. It is now moored in Suisun Bay, amid a fleet of other old Navy vessels. Supervisors said their rejection of the Iowa resolution stemmed from a variety of factors. Some criticized the military's "don't ask, don't tell'' policy against service by gays and lesbians. Others said San Francisco, a bastion of anti-war sentiment, doesn't want another military museum. Lukewarm support from Mayor Gavin Newsom and the Port of San Francisco left them worried the city might be getting into a financial hole it can't afford. Board of Supervisors President Aaron Peskin, who voted against the resolution, reacted to Feinstein's criticism by saying, "She's entitled to her opinions. But I don't think they reflect the sentiments of a majority of San Franciscans ... (who) don't want to see a warship docked here.'' Stockton is making a bid for the ship and has a major champion in Rep. Richard Pombo, R-Tracy, who chairs the House's powerful Resources Committee. In May, the House passed a Pombo-sponsored bill directing the secretary of the Navy to transfer the Iowa to the Port of Stockton rather than making the ship the subject of an open bidding process as is usually done. The Senate hasn't acted. Stockton plans to donate 1,000 feet of dock space for the ship, along with a 90,000-square-foot building for a museum and 10 acres of land for parking. Supervisor Bevan Dufty, who is gay, said the military's policy on gays and lesbians influenced his vote and that of Supervisor Tom Ammiano, who also is gay, against a battleship Iowa museum for San Francisco. "For Tom and I it's very difficult to advocate for some military honor thing when people are being harassed and even killed and are unable to serve in the military because they are gay and lesbian,'' Dufty said. But he said Feinstein was wrong if she thought the board was against Americans serving abroad. "People didn't cast votes based on their unwillingness to support the troops in Iraq,'' he added. Feinstein, who was elected a supervisor citywide and from a district, said the vote showed yet again why she has long opposed district elections for the board. "District elections mean people are involved with their little constituencies, not with the overall good of the city," she said. "I've always thought that.'' Without the board's support, Feinstein added, there's little hope that the nonprofit group seeking the ship, Historic Ships at Memorial Square, can hope for help in Washington. "I think it's very difficult if you're not supported very strongly by the mayor and the legislative body of the city," she said. "I think it's really too bad that that support is not there.'' E-mail Edward Epstein at eepstein@sfchronicle.com.

I do not really understand this controversy as my religious training and study leaves room for both Intelligent Design and Evolution. It is a simple philosophy and idea that basically boils down to "the Glory of God is Intelligence." Actually, to modify that a bit, "the Glory of God is Conscience."

If you read the Genesis creation story carefully and juxtapose the idea that we all started from amino acids in the primordial soup ... the Bible starts out with a pretty much scientific bent with the words:  "In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters." How did the writers, pre-stone age Nomads, know the order of scientific beginnings?  How did they know that the earth was without form and empty and dark? What would make them even imagine an earth like that? We add light and water and finally land appears. We move on to the land as vegetation that "produced seed and fruits according to their kinds" begins to appear. The first life. So far so good evolution-wise. Intelligent Design would follow with the end of the verse, "And God saw that it was good." So what's wrong with that?

Moving on, we now learn that lights were added to separate the day and night. So I learned that at some point a big chunck got blasted away from the earth and captured to form our moon with its influences on the gravitational pull and because of its regular orbit, the moon and earth's orbit around the sun combine to influence our seasons and our weather. Genesis tells us: "And God said, "Let there be lights in the expanse of the sky to separate the day from the night, and let them serve as signs to mark seasons and days and years, and let them be lights in the expanse of the sky to give light on the earth."

Moving on again, we begin to see the amphibians, then the reptiles and then the birds. Sounds pretty much on the evolutionary track as the Bible describes: God said, "Let the water teem with living creatures, and let birds fly above the earth across the expanse of the sky." Did you see that Terradactile? So God created the great cretures of the sea and every living and moving thing with which the water teems according to their kinds, and every winged bird according to its kind. And God saw that it was good and so he blessed them to "be fruitful and increase in number and fill the water in the seas, and let the birds increase on the earth."  And then we get to Number Six, the biggie.

Mammals appear. How do we know? Well, we read in Genesis that God said, "Let the land produce living creatures according to their kinds: livestock, creatures that move along the ground and wild animals each according to its kind." The verse ends: And it was so. And wasn't it so? Ask an Evoluntionist.

Now we get to the part that freaks out the nonbelievers and causes all this discension over Evolution vs. Intelligent Design. We've eclisped 10s of millions of years at this point when God says, "Let us (notice the plural here) make man in our image, in our likeness, and let them rule over the fish of the sea and birds of the air, over the livestock, over all the earth, and over all the creatures that move along the ground. But what does it mean this word image? In this sense, image includes such characteristics as righteousness, holiness and knowledge. And the Bible tells us that God bestowed on this last of his creations a type of kingship or dominion over all the seeds, fruits and animals. Sounds like the beginnings of homosapiens with their larger brains, their ability to form groups and learn from each other, an ability to design and manufacture tools, to move from being foragers and hunter/gatherers to farmers and ranchers and hey, eventually even computer nerds.  Intelligence is what sets us apart. We think and that thinking sets us apart from all the other "creatures" who exist and survive on instinct. And when God breathed "life" into the last of his creations by imparting this dominion, the seeds were set for the final item that sets man apart from all other living things, whether plant or animal and that was ... spirit and/or conscience. And how do you explain conscience as an evolutionary concept? What earthly or universal genetic mutation could come about that imparts conscience and spiritual awareness?  And how did this now spirit-filled creature called man discover all this in order to pass the story down through the ages when this same evolutionary man had barely gotten to the stone tool stage on the evolutionary scale?

The theory of evolution is far too limiting and it stifles understanding. It explains the nuts and bolts but nothing more. It is to the totality what ordering a T-Bone, Sirloin or Filet Mignon, rare, medium or well done is to the diner's understanding of cattle breeding and the gene pool. Although the Bible is specific about God creating each to its own kind, there is nothing that says that within those broad boundaries there is no room for selective breeding and survival of the fitest. In fact, one of the very first things we are told is that God gave Man the right to choose and by extension the creatures of the sea, land and air could choose as well. And once man was trusted with "dominon" he was given the ultimate power to make choices for all the other creatures. I think that is called farming, ranching, marriage, science and just about anything else you can think of and probably much we haven't thought of yet.

If you follow any of the wonderful Discovery Channel science shows, you have probably seen the "Story of Eve." In this documentary, the "out of Africa" migrations of the very first homospaiens is traced through DNA and the DNA mutations that occur naturally. Surprise, surprise, we find that all peoples, all races, all ethnic groups whether Eskimos or Islanders, Africans, Asians, Europeans, it doesn't matter, they all track back to the four daughters of one woman's DNA. When Genesis moves to Chapter Two to give an "account" of Adam and Eve, how did they know, how did these stone-age dwellers know that their entire genetic line tracked back to one woman's DNA? Maybe it is "just" evolution, but I don't believe it.

As an aside and conclusion, my interests have always leaned toward understanding how prehistoric man developed a God-concept. To me, the very fact that they did speaks to more than "just" evolutionary forces and genetic memory at work. Evolutionary thought is the result of the arrogance of man. That arrogance has already taken some major blows with the discovery of such things as black smokers under the sea where creatures live and die without the necesarry light and oxygen that science was saying only a few short years ago was necessary for life to exist. I don't believe in a "He" God that spews fire and brimstone and makes all kinds of rules meant to set man up for failure. That is a "man creation." But, I am hard pressed to say I don't believe in some kind of over all DESIGN.

The results of our first poll:

Who do you support for the Republican nomination in 2008

Condoleezza Rice	27%
Colin Powell	9%
Rudy Giullani	27%
George Petaki	0%
Bill Frist	5%
Elizabeth Dole	14%
Marc Racicot	0%
Jeb Bush	5%
Other	14%
Other view suggestions (0)	0%

Cindy Sheehan needs to take a lesson from Phil Randazzo. I'm sure Casey would rather see his mother helping his fellow soldiers than denigrating them.

Mission Possible: Support the Troops By Steven Donald Smith American Forces Press Service   WASHINGTON, Aug. 19, 2005 – Phil Randazzo is man on a mission: Support American servicemembers. And he's carrying out his Job No. 1 in a variety of ways.   Phil Randazzo talks with Fox News about his nonprofit organization, DefendingFreedom.net. Randazzo has sent more than 310,000 Defending Freedom wristbands to servicemembers overseas and has donated more than $216,000 to various military charities. Courtesy photo   (Click photo for screen-resolution image);high-resolution image available. For instance, he recently appeared on Fox News where he presented a $20,900 check to the Wounded Warrior Project, and he has partnered with the U-Haul company to raise $260,000 more for the group. WWP assists wounded servicemembers with their return to civilian life. "It's critical that we support these guys," Randazzo said. Randazzo has been actively involved in supporting the troops for more than two years. Shortly after the start of the war in Iraq, he began raising money for military families and has orchestrated two pro-troop rallies in his hometown of Las Vegas. The first rally drew more than 5,000 supporters and raised $30,000 for the United Service Organizations, he said. Randazzo's nonprofit organization, DefendingFreedom.net, has donated more than $216,000 to various military charities and has sent roughly 310,000 Defending Freedom camouflage wristbands to troops stationed overseas, he said. The Defending Freedom wristbands have also been donated to military bases and military charities around the country. The charities then sell the wristbands for $3 and keep the proceeds for their respective causes, Randazzo said. "One hundred percent of the wristband proceeds go to military charities to support the men and women in uniform and their families. In doing this, we have made a difference in many people's lives worldwide," he said. Randazzo was inspired to start the wristband project by the death of NFL-player-turned-Army-Ranger Pat Tillman. Tillman gave up a lucrative NFL contract to join the Rangers and was subsequently killed in Afghanistan in April 2004. "Tillman was more interested in serving his country than making a ton of money. I totally respect that," Randazzo said. In July Randazzo visited Walter Reed Army Medical Center here, where he gave 13 mini-DVD players and 50 DVDs to the hospital so that wounded troops can enjoy movies and television programs during their recovery, he said. "These are the people who make our country great," Randazzo said. "The greatest thing is that we got to personally deliver these items directly to the soldiers. That made it much more meaningful than mailing the items." In addition, Randazzo made a $10,000 donation to the Fisher House at Walter Reed where the families and loved ones of wounded troops can stay while they visit their recuperating servicemembers. He has sent more than 400 teddy bears to U.S. troops in Iraq, who then distribute them to Iraqi children. "They were a huge hit," he said. In an e-mail to Randazzo, one soldier wrote that while he was handing out the stuffed animals, he "almost got trampled ... it looked like there were about 20 kids, and the next thing I knew hundreds started showing up. The kids love them and it is certainly nice to see a smile on their faces." "I've had the opportunity to talk to several hundred of our troops on the ground in those areas and they tell me awesome stories you won't hear on any news station," Randazzo said. "Morale is still very high but they need to hear that our country is still behind them 100 percent." Related Sites: Wounded Warrior Project America Supports You An American servicemember poses with Iraqi children after he handed out teddy bears. Phil Randazzo's nonprofit organization DefendingFreedom.net has sent more than 400 Teddy bears to U.S. troops in Iraq who then distribute them to Iraqi children. Courtesy photo   Download screen-resolution    American troops hand out teddy bears to Iraqi children. Phil Randazzo's nonprofit organization DefendingFreedom.net has sent more than 400 Teddy bears to U.S. troops in Iraq who then distribute them to Iraqi children. Courtesy photo   Download screen-resolution

U.S. Air Force Master Sgt. Jennifer Smith talks with two Bedouin children during an operation to give local Bedouins donated food and clothing at Ali Base, Iraq, on Aug. 10, 2005. Smith is assigned to the 407th Expeditionary Operation Support Squadron at Ali Base, Iraq. DoD photo by Master

Apparently I'm too old and too out of touch skill-wise to be employable. At least that is what the consensus of employers have said to me in the past few weeks as I struggle desperately to find a job. I made it through two interviews with one employer who had a job listed where the requirements looked like they had copied my resume. It was for the type of work that I have over 20 yeras of experience doing. Yet, when I got down to the final cut I was told that since I hadn't used Powerpoint on a job for over five years, my skills weren't up to their level of need. The fact that I'm a Powerpoint expert who has used Powerpoint and other more up-to-date or sophistiated presentation  programs outside a paid job setting during that same five year period doesn't count.  I heard the same type of rejection language from another company who said that because I had not worked outside the home for the past five years, they could not rely on my "really" knowing how to navigate the Internet. I thought they were joking and so I pointed out that I not only know how to navigate the Interent (I've been navigating online since 1987), but that I design websites and have several of my own. Ah, but I couldn't point to an employer who had paid me to do my Internet navigating. What a crock!

Of course, what they can't say because the law doesn't allow it is: "you are too damn old!" I'd like to know what a person is supposed to do who is too young to draw retirement or social security, yet still needs to make house payments, drive a car, and, oh yes, even eat.

I knew it! And thanks to the following article my sense of Casey Sheehan appears to have been right all along. But having my internal feelings confirmed just makes me feel even more dismayed at what low levels grief has caused a devoted Mom to fall. Cindi, you need a grief counselor far more than you need to speak for a second time with President Bush. A few days from now will be the one year anniversary of my Mother's death and this only child has been through hell and back emotionally  this year. I had a hard time separating my loss and the frightening thought of facing the world the day after without the one person in my world I knew loved me unconditionally. It took months for me to work through my grief enough to be able to sit down and start reading some of my Mother's letters, journals and personal history she left behind. At first, I could barely get through a paragraph without sobbing uncontrollably, but little by little her words, thoughts and feelings began to penetrate my own anguish. I began to know my Mother in a way I never knew her when she was alive. At first this thought made me even sadder until I came to the realization that it was the way she wanted it. She didn't let me down. She left behind a wealth of advice, guidance and insight, intermingled with wonderful stories of her own memories going back to the early years of the last century. I say to you Cindi, get some grief counseling so that you can bring the focus of that grief back to Casey and what Casey wanted, how Casey felt, what Casey thought. Casey obviously thought America was worth dying for and his actions prove it. Give Casey back his own story. That is the legacy he deserves, not the one you are laying out for him now. No one doubts your grief, no one begrudges you your anger, no one wants to dismiss or belittle the inconsolable loss you feel, but these are the very reasons you owe it to Casey's legacy to carry on his mission, not work against the very thing he believed in enough to give his life for it.

From a FrontPage article back in May, here is a little about Casey Sheehan: While one might dismiss some of Sheehan’s hyperbole due to grief over her son’s death, a little research about Casey Sheehan revealed that contrary to being tricked by military recruiters, Casey Sheehan had re-enlisted in the U.S. Army voluntarily when he was 24-years-old, after serving his first hitch successfully. Casey Sheehan was in fact a hero who received a Bronze Star. He was attached as a mechanic to the artillery division of the 1st U.S. Cavalry in Iraq. When a convoy of soldiers from Casey’s unit was attacked in Sadr City by insurgents, Casey volunteered to join a rapid rescue force to get them out. His commanding sergeant told him he did not have to go into combat, because he was a mechanic and not an infantryman. Casey was quoted telling his officer, “I go where my chief goes.” He was tragically killed during the rescue attempt. The source for this story? Cindy Sheehan herself. Meanwhile, here's his "grieving" mom: Sheehan said she considered Lynne Stewart her Atticus Finch, the lawyer who defended an innocent Black man accused of rape in the book and film “To Kill A Mockingbird.” “They’re not waging a War on Terror but a War of Terror,” she said. “The biggest terrorist is George W. Bush.” She claimed “it costs $66,000 to recruit one soldier, not including training, and $49,000 a year to house a prisoner, yet only $6,000 per year is spent to educate a child in California. (Recruiting costs are actually $15,000 per soldier, the cost of housing a prisoner in California for one year is $26,000.) Sheehan continued, “9/11 was Pearl Harbor for the neo-conservatives’ agenda” and declared the U.S. government a “morally repugnant system.” Then she raged: We have no Constitution. We’re the only country with no checks and balances. We want our country back if we have to impeach George Bush down to the person who picks up the dog sh-t in Washington! Let George Bush send his two little party animals to die in Iraq. It’s OK for Israel to have nuclear weapons but we are waging nuclear war in Iraq, we have contaminated the entire country. It’s not OK for Syria to be in Lebanon. Hypocrites! But Israel can occupy Palestine? Stop the slaughter!   So who is this Lynne Stewart That Cindy Sheehan holds in such high regard? The terrorist lawyer, who billed herself as a “Civil Rights Lawyer and Political Prisoner,” was recently convicted of conspiracy and for passing along fatwas (Islamic religious edicts) from Sheikh Omar Abdel Rahman to his terrorist followers in Egypt’s Islamic Group. Rahman is the blind sheikh responsible for the first World Trade Center bombing in 1993 that left six Americans dead and more than 1,000 people injured. Her trial lasted seven months, and the jury deliberated 13 days before convicting her and two co-conspirators, one of whom (Ahmed Abdhel Sattar) was wiretapped making calls to al-Qaeda while the other (Mohammed Yousry) translated messages to be sent to a terrorist leader overseas.   Here's a quote from Ms. Stewart: We now resume our everyday lives, but we have been charged once again, with, and for, our quests, and like Hippolyta and her Amazons; like David going forth to meet Goliath, like Beowulf the Dragonslayer, like Queen Zenobia, who made war on the Romans, like Sir Galahad seeking the Holy Grail; and modern heroes, dare I mention? Ho and Mao and Lenin, Fidel and Nelson Mandela and John Brown, Che Guevara. Casey Sheehan would have been ashamed of his mother and her newfound "friends." Posted by: Reverend Scaramonga at August 17, 2005 09:55 AM

I hear active duty Generals and retired General pundits, returning soldiers and marines, and almost all who visit Iraq come back and say the media is skewing the picture in Iraq and supporting those who want us to cut and run. Now we know that the agenda of the cut and run crowd is simple ... trash the military and anyone who believes in them. Oh they say they support the troops but their hatred runs too deep to believe that fallacy. We aren't supposed to criticize those who have captured Cindy Sheehan even as she desecrates her son's sacrifice and encourages our enemies. Bill O'Reilly (FOX) says "those who want us to lose in Iraq are bad Americans." I'm sure his mailbox is overflowing tonight with all the idiots who will say we are losing in Iraq and then go into a long littany of why we shouldn't have gone in the first place. I say who cares? We are there and we aren't losing and we have no intention of losing and we aren't coming home until the job is done.

Some perspective is needed. The following charts have been pulled from a report to Congress measuring the Stability and Security of Iraq. It is obvious that the majority of Iraq is relatively secure. It is also obvious that we are not losing. Is there much to be done? Yes, of course there is. Where were we after 2 years into WWII? Or after the war with German reconstruction? And more importantly, consider the other positives that we've accomplished since 11 Sep 2001 with Afghanistan, Libya, Lebanon, even some reform in Saudia Arabia. This isn't an hour long TV program that gets neatly wrapped up in 50 minutes, this is real life. Over 50+ million people have experienced democratic elections and are beginning to get comfortable with self-government. Considering that the mental state of the entire country was akin to an abused spouse trying to find independence after years of abuse and iron-fisted control, I think both the U.S. and the Iraqis are doing a pretty good job.

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- A fast-moving computer worm Tuesday attacked computer systems using Microsoft operating systems, shutting down computers in the United States, Germany and Asia.

Among those hit were offices on Capitol Hill, which is in the midst of August recess, and media organizations, including CNN, ABC and The New York Times. The Caterpillar Co. in Peoria, Illinois, reportedly also had problems. Read more ...