I'm Sorry

Sipping Starbucks, extra bold, and enjoying a blueberry English muffin this morning. Son is irritated with me for nagging him to clean up a little extra for school photos today. Life is back to normal.

Had enough with the state of the world as is being reported in the news? Is your will to win the war on terror broken yet? The jihadists are counting on you to be a spineless, gutless, head in the sand, pampered American and demand we call the whole thing off. Let's all just talk about it and make meaningless promises. That's the ticket. Maybe a few more resolutions from the U.N. would give peace a chance.

This week brings two apologies in the news. One apology is from the New York Times ombudsman, the other from a senior U.S. diplomat. And there is no apology from CNN.

Byron Calame, NYT ombudsman, reversed his prior defense of the report leaking the banking data surveillance program that was big front page news for the paper. He now is willing to admit that there is no evidence that the program and its execution is illegal. The program was brought into effect in the Clinton administration but you didn't hear of it until we were a country at war and the President was so vehemently hated by this paper. Calame's apology was buried deep into the front section.

Time for Mr. Calame to go.

Sunday night brought an apology from Alberto Fernandez, director of public diplomacy in the State Department's Bureau of Near Eastern Affairs. Ah, a diplomat, you say. A voice of reason, you say. Let's look at what Mr. Fernandez said on al-Jazeera, as he spoke in Arabic : "...there has been arrogance and stupidity" by the U.S. in Iraq.

Again, he was speaking in Arabic on the al Jazerra satellite channel that takes pride in putting out the jihadist's propaganda so he probably thought it would not be picked up as a news item in the U.S., for whom he works. A day after he made the choice to voice his opinion instead of U.S. policy, his goose was cooked. His remarks were translated into English by the AP.

"This represents neither my views nor those of the State Department," he said. "I apologize."

Time for Mr. Fernandez to go.

Then there is CNN, a global news corporation, they proudly claim. This ain't no stinkin' American news organization. Nevermind that the founder of the company, Ted Turner, is an American and all of his money was made in America. The corporations buying ads to support the network are American. The headquarters of the organization are in Atlanta, a city in America. Are we seeing a pattern here?

CNN, showing their concern that the jihadist point of view be known, ran a propaganda piece on an insurgent sniper killing an American soldier. Yes, you read that correctly. The reporter has admitted he knew it was a propaganda piece and that he negiotiated with the head guy of this band of animals to get the tape. CNN justifies this decision to air the piece by stating on a blog by producer David Doss, "Whether or not you agree with us in this case, our goal, as always, is to present the unvarnished truth as best we can."

I am sure the family of this fallen American hero appreciates CNN's quest for the unvarnished truth.

So, here is where I am this morning: I am a political scientist. All wars are of a political nature. Politicians send our treasure off to protect our way of life. The commander in chief is a politican. I pledge to continue to support those who I think will protect our country and my family best.

I vote.

I am an activist. I pledge to support causes greater than myself. I sent a donation this morning to an organization that supports American snipers in the military. That's right. American snipers are highly trained, highly skilled American soldiers and military support who are taking aim, so to speak, at the jihadists in theatre. I encourage you to go to their website and read about them for yourself:
www.americansnipers.org
I'll be proudly wearing a rubber band style bracelet for the organization. Santa will be delivering a calendar from this organization to my husband this year.

That's the side I choose to align myself with in this battle.

That's the unvarnished truth from me.