Red Nation

Democrats may speak of a divided nation. And they may talk of 'red states.' Yet a review of where donations were made by zip code clearly shows much more Republican support within each red state than the final red state /blue state electoral map.

Even in California, the Democrats must have cause for alarm. For, the red 'zip code zones' outweighed the blue by a narrow margin. When you look at it closer, its no surprise that in San Francisco the giving was widely Democratic, with just a smattering of Republican donators. However, Los Angeles shows plenty of red. Its only in the Santa Monica, Brentwood, Beverly Hills, Hollywood corridor that the Democrats managed to overwhelm the giving and turn the city as a whole to blue. Even so, you'll notice that there's no 'deep' blue anywhere in California.

Granted, this is the amount of donations, which is probably not the best indicator of actual voting. Still, it does give one another perspective on the matter.


Map of Donations by Zip Code - from Fundrace.org

General Thanksgiving

By the PRESIDENT of the United States Of America
A PROCLAMATION

WHEREAS it is the duty of all nations to acknowledge the providence of Almighty God, to obey His will, to be grateful for His benefits, and humbly to implore His protection and favour; and Whereas both Houses of Congress have, by their joint committee, requested me "to recommend to the people of the United States a DAY OF PUBLICK THANSGIVING and PRAYER, to be observed by acknowledging with grateful hearts the many and signal favors of Almighty God, especially by affording them an opportunity peaceably to establish a form of government for their safety and happiness:"
NOW THEREFORE, I do recommend and assign THURSDAY, the TWENTY-SIXTH DAY of NOVEMBER next, to be devoted by the people of these States to the service of that great and glorious Being who is the beneficent author of all the good that was, that is, or that will be; that we may then all unite in rendering unto Him our sincere and humble thanks for His kind care and protection of the people of this country previous to their becoming a nation; for the signal and manifold mercies and the favorable interpositions of His providence in the course and conclusion of the late war; for the great degree of tranquility, union, and plenty which we have since enjoyed;-- for the peaceable and rational manner in which we have been enable to establish Constitutions of government for our safety and happiness, and particularly the national one now lately instituted;-- for the civil and religious liberty with which we are blessed, and the means we have of acquiring and diffusing useful knowledge;-- and, in general, for all the great and various favours which He has been pleased to confer upon us.
And also, that we may then unite in most humbly offering our prayers and supplications to the great Lord and Ruler of Nations and beseech Him to pardon our national and other transgressions;-- to enable us all, whether in publick or private stations, to perform our several and relative duties properly and punctually; to render our National Government a blessing to all the people by constantly being a Government of wise, just, and constitutional laws, discreetly and faithfully executed and obeyed; to protect and guide all sovereigns and nations (especially such as have shewn kindness unto us); and to bless them with good governments, peace, and concord; to promote the knowledge and practice of true religion and virtue, and the increase of science among them and us; and, generally to grant unto all mankind such a degree of temporal prosperity as he alone knows to be best.
GIVEN under my hand, at the city of New-York, the third day of October, in the year of our Lord, one thousand seven hundred and eighty-nine.
(signed) G. Washington

Regarding Falluja

I'm sorry, but because of what happened to CB at "MyWar" I will not post a link to this site, or identify him any more than to say that he's a Marine in Iraq. But what he has to say'll give you a better picture of Falluja than everything else you've seen in the MSM combined:

Before the invasion of Falluja:

If there is another city in the world that contains more terrorists, I would be surprised. From the last two years, I just don't see a way that we can succeed in Iraq without reducing this threat. The cost of continuing on without taking decisive action is too high to dwell on.

The enemy inside the town have come to fight and kill Americans. Nothing will sate their bloodlust and hatred other than to kill everyone of us or at least die trying. It is hard to fathom as a Westerner as rational thought would dictate that we will only be here for a relatively short blip in their history and while we are here, billions of dollars in investments will pour in and opportunity that is beyond comprehension will open up for anyone willing to work. This is not Kansas and this enemy does not think like that.

If we build a school or clinic, they destroy it. They would rather deny medical care or education for the children of the citizens who live nearby than to have any symbol of the West in general and America specifically among them. It is hard to comprehend. Frankly, we are done trying.

For eight months, we have been on our chain. The enemy has fooled itself misinterpreting our humanity and restraint for lack of will and courage. For eight months, we have watched Marines, Soldiers and Sailors maimed and killed by invisible cowards hiding behind some wall or in a canal as he detonates another IED. For eight months, we have been witness to suicidal sociopaths driving vehicles laden with explosives into crowds of Iraqis and into our own convoys.

During the invasion:

Just came out of the city and I honestly do not know where to start. I am afraid that whatever I send you will not do sufficient honor to the men who fought and took Fallujah.

There is an image burned into my brain that I hope I never forget. We came up behind 3/5 one day as the lead squads were working down the Byzantine streets of the Jolan area. An assault team of two Marines ran out from behind cover and put a rocket into a wall of an enemy strongpoint. Before the smoke cleared the squad behind them was up and moving through the hole and clearing the house. Just down the block another squad was doing the same thing. The house was cleared quickly and the Marines were running down the street to the next contact. Even in the midst of that mayhem, it was an awesome site.

The fighting has been incredibly close inside the city. The enemy is willing to die and is literally waiting until they see the whites of the eyes of the Marines before they open up. Just two days ago, as a firefight raged in close quarters, one of the interpreters yelled for the enemy in the house to surrender. The enemy yelled back that it was better to die and go to heaven than to surrender to infidels. This exchange is a graphic window into the world that the Marines and Soldiers have been fighting in these last 10 days.

I could go on and on about how the city was taken but one of the most amazing aspects to the fighting was that we saw virtually no civilians during the battle. Only after the fighting had passed did a few come out of their homes. They were provided food and water and most were evacuated out of the city. At least 90-95% of the people were gone from the city when we attacked.

I will end with a couple of stories of individual heroism that you may not have heard yet. I was told about both of these incidents shortly after they occurred. No doubt some of the facts will change slightly but I am confident that the meat is correct.
The first is a Marine from 3/5. His name is Corporal ------ [Deleted - NAS]. As the Marines cleared and apartment building, they got to the top floor and the point man kicked in the door. As he did so, an enemy grenade and a burst of gunfire came out. The explosion and enemy fire took off the point man's leg. He was then immediately shot in the arm as he lay in the doorway. Corporal ------ tossed a grenade in the room and ran into the doorway and into the enemy fire in order to pull his buddy back to cover. As he was dragging the wounded Marine to cover, his own grenade came back through the doorway. Without pausing, he reached down and threw the grenade back through the door while he heaved his buddy to safety. The grenade went off inside the room and Cpl ------ threw another in. He immediately entered the room following the second explosion. He gunned down three enemy all within three feet of where he stood and then let fly a third grenade as he backed out of the room to complete the evacuation of the wounded Marine. You have to understand that a grenade goes off within 5 seconds of having the pin pulled. Marines usually let them "cook off" for a second or two before tossing them in. Therefore, this entire episode took place in less than 30 seconds.

The second example comes from 3/1. Cpl XXXXX [Deleted - NAS] is a squad leader. He was wounded as his squad was clearing a house when some enemy threw pineapple grenades down on top of them. As he was getting triaged, the doctor told him that he had been shot through the arm. Cpl XXXXX told the doctor that he had actually been shot "a couple of days ago" and had given himself self aide on the wound. When the doctor got on him about not coming off the line, he firmly told the doctor that he was a squad leader and did not have time to get treated as his men were still fighting. There are a number of Marines who have been wounded multiple times but refuse to leave their fellow Marines.

It is incredibly humbling to walk among such men. They fought as hard as any Marines in history and deserve to be remembered as such. The enemy they fought burrowed into houses and fired through mouse holes cut in walls, lured them into houses rigged with explosives and detonated the houses on pursuing Marines, and actually hid behind surrender flags only to engage the Marines with small arms fire once they perceived that the Marines had let their guard down. I know of several instances where near dead enemy rolled grenades out on Marines who were preparing to render them aid. It was a fight to the finish in every sense and the Marines delivered.

I have called the enemy cowards many times in the past because they have never really held their ground and fought but these guys in the city did. We can call them many things but they were not cowards.

My whole life I have read about the greatest generation and sat in wonder at their accomplishments. For the first time, as I watch these Marines and Soldiers, I am eager for the future as this is just the beginning for them. Perhaps the most amazing characteristic of all is that the morale of the men is sky high. They hurt for the wounded and the dead but they are eager to continue to attack. Further, not one of them would be comfortable with being called a hero even though they clearly are.

By now the Marines and Soldiers have killed well over a thousand enemy. These were not peasants or rabble. They were reasonably well trained and entirely fanatical. Most of the enemy we have seen have chest rigs full of ammunition and are well armed are willing to fight to the death. The Marines and Soldiers are eager to close with them and the fighting at the end is inevitably close.

I will write you more the next time I come in about what we have found inside the city. All I can say is that even with everything that I knew and expected from the last nine months, the brutality and fanaticism of the enemy surprised me. The beheadings were even more common place than we thought but so were torture and summary executions. Even though it is an exaggeration, it seems as though every block in the northern part of the city has a torture chamber or execution site. There are hundreds of tons of munitions and tens of thousands of weapons that our Regiment alone has recovered. The Marines and Soldiers of the Regiment have also found over 400 IEDs already wired and ready to detonate. No doubt these numbers will grow in the days ahead.

Scotsman.com News - Opinion - Bushwhacked: How Dubya won America

Scotsman.com News - Opinion - Bushwhacked: How Dubya won America: "The idea that intelligent voters plumped for Kerry and were defeated by the overweight, god-fearing, fag-hating rubes of middle America is easy to grasp but it�s an inadequate explanation for Kerry�s failure. Exit polls showed, for example, that Bush won the support of 44% of voters who had embarked on at least some post-graduate study. Clever people can vote Republican too. "

In the spotlight - and bringing us more pics? - for four more years !

Left's vs right's view of the world

Just two comments about election night:

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I love watching the MSM on election nights when republicans win. They get so serious and depressed. (Did you hear Chris Mathews asking Reagan about being depressed, and each replied it was depressing?). They have completely different reactions when democrats win. On those occasions they're enervated and joyous. This was my first clue, many many years ago, as to their bias.


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The left views the world much differently. During Reagan's answer to the question on being depressed, he stated that with the repulicans in charge things like the environment, and stem cell research, would suffer. He went on to say that this is because republicans are more interested in faith than science. I wish I had recorded it, because without his exact words its hard to explain the distain in his tone and words. Its obviously his viewpoint that to be a liberal is to a member of an elite crowd: the intellectual crowd; the crowd who believes in facts, and science.

He's wrong. Republicans are interested in the truth. Such as, the environment today is much better than 20 to 30 years ago, and in many respects even better than 300 years ago in some areas. We're also interested in using science morally. So when it turns out that adult stem cells are providing more than adequate research material, then there seems no reason to move into the grey area of embryonic stem cells.

Another way that the left views the world differently from the right was also pointed out last night, on Dan Rather's election eve coverage. An analyst was up at the boards after Fox had called Ohio for Bush but before CBS would (I don't have the analyst's name - another program I didn't record). He gave a good analysis of Ohio, stating that more jobs had been lost there (approximately 200,000) than in nearly any other state. And he noted that the most jobs had been lost in Harris county. Then he pointed out that Gore lost the state in 2000 by just 165,000 votes, so if everyone who lost their job voted for Kerry the state would flip blue. However, he noted, something was wrong. Because Harris county had flipped red. There must be something else at work, he said. Moving to another screen, he showed a spreadsheet of exit poll data which pointed out that 24% of the people had been motivated to vote republican not by the economy, but for good morals (recall that this is one of the states with a gay marriage item on the ballot). I can't say that the analyst was incredulous, but he definately seemed a little puzzled about these circumstances.

Because, you see, the left's worldview is that it is economics which drive behavior. If people were not poor, there would be less crime. Palestinians would stop blowing themselves up in Israel. There are "two Americas." The rich deserve to be taxed more.

This is a Marxist worldview. Not only does it often contradict itself (after all, the biggest villans in their minds are those evil, and extremely wealthy CEO's), but is also not born out by facts. For instance, why do business travellers steal hotel towels? It may seem like a little thing, but if the only reason for crime is lack of money, then how do you explain this? Why don't people in India blow themselves up? They're much more oppressed and poor than Palestinians? And perhaps most confusing to them, why does the religious poor vote republican?

The right has a different worldview. They believe that people make choices to act rightly or wrongly, irregardless of their economic situation. That simply throwing money at a situation (education, for example) will not solve every problem (and facts show this to be the case in education). Further, religion gives one a peace beyond this world, and teaches one not to envy, but be grateful for what you have. It teaches that being good is better than being rich, or even successful - - though there's nothing wrong with being both good and successful!

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PS: Did you hear Rather's explanation why they didn't call Ohio after other networks had? "We want to abide by our long standing principles, uh, we'd rather be last than wrong." Hehe. He actually said it more than once!

Thank God !

I refrain from using that phrase, even though I am a strong believer in Jesus Christ. However, the election of George Bush is fairly important.

:)