Drivers, Start Your Engines

Memorial Day is Indy 500 Day. Picnics, barbecues and the race. This year's pre-race entertainment includes an address from Indiana University graduate General Victor E. Renuart, Jr., Commander of the North American Aerospace Defense Command and U.S. Northern Command, and Florence Henderson will sing "God Bless America." Did you know that the Brady mom is a native Hoosier, born in Dale, Indiana?

I'm first generation Southern, having both parents from the state of Indiana and most of my family tree still in the state. My husband is a native Hoosier, his mother still there, too.

I'll be rooting for my girl, Danica, and rolling my eyes as my husband repeats his Indy 500 stories for the billionth time.

Also known as Decoration Day, the day commemorates U.S. men and women who have died in military service to our country. I have memories of a small family cemetery on land owned by my mother's family and the aunts meeting there to decorate the headstones of family members lost in war.

In contrast to his last appearance for testimony on Capitol Hill, General Petraeus was there last week and actually shown a bit of respect from the left side of the aisle. No 'willing suspension of disbelief' or lectures from the naive who believe they know best on how to conduct a ground war. This time, the General who wrote the book on counter-intelligence and who should have been listened to in 2003, appeared and was able to claim success, even to the point of stating he has enough confidence to say he will be able to order more troop drawdowns by September.

Senator Carl Levin, D-MI, chair of the Armed Forces Committee, said "Regardless of one's view of the wisdom of the policy that took us to Iraq in the first place and has kept us there over five years, we owe General Petraeus and General Odierno a debt of gratitude." A backhanded nod to success is better than nothing, I guess.

From blog friend Jo's latest post, I read an interesting post from Jeff Emanuel entitled "Congressman admits Democrats "stretched the facts," misled anti-war supporters about supposed plans for ending War". Congressman Paul Kanjorski (D-PA) has represented his district for almost a quarter of century by bringing home the pork. He is a member of the Financial Services Committee and uses tactics behind the scenes to the betterment of his district.

He now admits the deception of the left in the run up to the 2006 elections when they claimed they would end the war in Iraq if only they were given back the leadership in Congress. "I'll tell you my impression. We really in this last election, when I say we ... the Democrats, I think pushed it as far as we can to the end of the fleet, didn't say it, but we implied it. That if we won the Congressional elections, we could stop the war. Now anybody was a good student of Government would know that wasn't true. But you know, the temptation to want to win back the Congress, we sort of stretched the facts...and people ate it up."

The Republicans knew this and let the left hang themselves with it. Since they took over, time after time the President and the administration has stopped any demands of timetables and stopping funds to the troops. Most voters don't really study issues and so many Americans are just not schooled anymore on the workings of our government that whole segments of voters believed the lies told in campaign speeches. How refreshing to have a bit of truth of the condescension of the Democrats towards their constituency. They were betting on ignorance and were rewarded for it.

"We sort of stretched the facts," he says. "And people ate it up."

Sound familiar?

From his Profile page on his blog: Jeff Emanuel served n the U.S. Air Force from 1999-2004 as a Tactical Air Controller, working as a member of conventional and Joint Special Operations units as a communications expert and precision airstrike controller. His assignments included a year in Korea and combat duty in Iraq, where he was a member of the special operations task force responsible for the rescue of prisoner of war Jessica Lynch, among other missions. He returned to Iraq as an embedded reporter working on the front lines in Baghdad, Salman Pak, Samarra, Tal Afar, Balda, Kirkuk, and elsewhere.

Emanuel earned a degree from the University of Georgia in 2004 in Classics and served as a leadership fellow with the University's Center for International Trade and Security, researching nuclear proliferation and radiological terrorism and editing texts. He also holds a degree in Information Systems Technology (2002).

He is currently a Contributor to MESHNet, a members only forum for discussion of U.S. Strategy in Middle Eastern affairs that falls under the purview of the Institute for Strategic Studies' Middle East Strategy at Harvard project.

Currently an Associate with the Patriot Group in Austin, Texas he has been a nominee for the Eric Breindel Professional Journalism Award and for Cosmopolitan magazine's "Bachelor of the Year." He lives in Austin with his Labrador puppy, Emma.

Good to learn about up and coming patriotic movers and shakers. There is hope for the real change out there.