Posted on 09/20/2002 4:06:42 AM PDT by Chairman_December_19th_Society
We will not tire, we will not falter, and we will not fail!
Good morning!! Do not let the victims of the attacks on New York and Washington, nor the brave members of our Nation's military who have given their lives to protect our freedom, die in vain!!
Reaction in Congress to the President's draft resolution was wholly along partisan lines. Republicans hailed the resolution and said it should be adopted. Demonflops, notwithstanding the language was based largely on a former resolution sponsored by IML Daschle, said changes needed to be made. Such changes would include, if the illegitimate chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, Senator Levin, had his way, requiring the President to get UN authorization for an attack before starting combat.
US intelligence agenices are trying to track down a missing Sudanese Air Force pilot who, it is said, is planning to hijack an aircraft and fly it into the White House.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed below 8,000 yesterday.
And the White House is furious over a German official's remark comparing President Bush to former German leader Adolf Hitler.
For AMERICA - The Right Way, I remain yours in the Cause, the Chairman.
We are going shopping soon, then are in for the rest of the weekend to just relax. Great weather expected too. I hope you are back to 100% health wise!!!
.......I, of course, am way too young to be a Grandma! ;o)
GRANDMA
Grandma's on the Net!
Grandma used to make us cherry pies and call us on the phone.
She would talk to us for hours; now she leaves us all alone.
We miss her homemade biscuits and I'll make this little bet
If you want to contact Grandma, you'll have to surf the net.
Grandma's surfin' the net, yes, she's surfin' the net.
We've been calling her all morning and we haven't got her yet.
She's on her e-mail network with all her electronic friends.
If you want to talk to Grandma, you'll have to surf the net.
Grandma's never surfed at Malibu or caught a wave at Waikiki.
She's never seen a surf board; hang ten doesn't mean a thing, you see she's never met a beach bum; to her Moon Doggie is just a pup.
But when she heads to her computer, you know the surf is up.
Grandma's getting older and her eyes are getting dim. Her random access memory is half of what it's been.
When St. Peter comes to call, she'll say I can't go yet.
He'll have to wait on Grandma, 'cause Grandma's surfin' the net.
--- Written by just another old Grandma ---
Neets/Bit shopping list:
1.) Boodles
2.)New sarong for Bit
3.)Pasta faggioli ingredients
4.)Boodles
5.)a couple of those big old cinnamon roll thingies
6.)Cawfee. Lots and lots of CAWFEE.
7.) Boodles
8.) Spinach
9.)Red carnations.
10.) Cheese curds
;^)
Or should I go and just pace myself.........
grapple, grapple...........
He explains why Democrats favor using our military when it is of no value to the united states (Haiti, Somalia, Kosovo) and oppose it when it serves the interstes of the USA (Gulf war, Sadam, Lybia).
He asks why do the Democrats think it is important to get the approval of China and other anti american nations inorder to protect our own interests.
The Democrats are going to fold. I caught about 20 seconds of Carville last night. Some audience SetUp on the show said, "Give bush his approval and get the emphasis on social security and health care for the November elections." Carville thought that was going to happen and he was all for it. He knew that is the new democrat plan d. A, B and C are failures.
I betcha this will backfire, too. When bush gets the approval for war, he will start the air war rapidly. I think it is now started in all but name. He will bomb blow and destory most of Saddams military from the air. We will be certain that every Iraqi that uses an illegal weapon will go to death as a war criminal. NO ONE IN Iraq thinks they can defeat us. Their choices are die with Saddam or live with us. That is not much of a choice.
We have total air superiority. I would bet we have much improved new smart weapons. Clinton had taken our stocks of smart weapons designed and built under Reagan and Bush I down to almost nothing. Anyone who thinks those designs were not upgraded to 2000 or better technology is not thinking clearly. Clinton had not ordered any replacements. Some of the companies that made them in the 80's were out of business. You can bet they are much better than what we had 10 years ago. Just as what we had 10 years ago had no comparison to what we had 20 or 30 years ago.
The new smart weapons will be as advanced as Windows is over DOS. That seems to me to insure that we can do a lot more from the air than we were able to do in even Afghanistan. In Afghanistan we were still using the few remaing weapons made in the 80's and early 90's.
So if they think Bush will wait until February when we have the ground forces in place, they may be very wrong.
When we write the history of this period, we well ask could Democrats and the Media really have been that out smarted? And the answer will be yes they certainly were.
Just one year ago all Muslim States were pretty much against us. Now Pakistan, Afganistan, a few small ones are our client states. In a few months Iraq will be a client state. Then Iran, and Saudi will fall into our control.
IN a year or so much of the Arab world will be our Client states in the way Eastern Europe was made up of Russian Client states.
You can understand why that scares the Crap out of France and Germany.
Long term I think Europe's mainland is uniting to become our enemy. They did it twice in the 20th century. Why is it outlandish to believe they will do it again?
We will need client states all over the world. We will not be the worlds only super power for long. History teaches otherwise. I think a United Europe will be the next superpower and they will not be our friends.
This is a long term game. Thank God Dubya knows enough to play it.
Whoohoo!!! Fox News has reported this guy is now in US custody.
Molly thank-you so much for the Peggy noonan article! Makes me want to copy it and pass it around on car windows atthe local shopping center!
Among other things it says that we will NEVER give up our military superiority.
I want to see the whole thing. I am going back again to try and get it copied.
The National Security Strategy of the United States
It is in pdf format and is 35 pages long, with lots of interesting things. I hope they post it in text format so that phrases can be copied.
We awoke early, and the kids were excited. Today, finally, we would reach the Grand Canyon. It was easy now to forget the long miles of driving across seemingly endless streches of forest, plains, steppe, and desert over the previous days.
After the usual stop at McDonalds, we drove on to Flagstaff - getting there in a little over an hour. A little bit before you reach that city, one climbs out of the desert and into forest land. Good sized pines - not what one usually thinks about when someone says "Arizona."
We needed to restock toothpaste (didn't have a lot when we left - which we knew - and it was about to run out) and some other sundry items, so we stopped at Target for awhile.
Finishing up at Target, we headed north on US 89, which winds up through a pass on the east end of the San Francisco Mountains. As you begin to descend, the forest ends and views of 40 to 50 miles across the desert open up. While the viewing distance is out to the Painted Desert - the extreme distances don't allow any features to be discernable.
For the next hour, US 89 heads north, almost on a rope-straight line, until the intersection with Arizona 64 is reached - a few miles south of Tuba City (the western administrative capital of the Navaho Nation). Arizona 64 is the main road into Grand Canyon National Park from the east. Somewhat south of the intersection - the point is not signed - you enter the Navaho Nation (check those clocks - Flagstaff was on PT, at this intersection you were back on MT). While heading north, clouds were building and getting more numerous.
The Navaho Nation believed the intersection warranted a speed zone - slowing everyone down from 65 to 45 to pay careful attention to the three buildings located there - a gas station, a food store, and the Navaho Arts and Craft Enterprise (NACE). That was all right - we had planned on stopping at NACE in any event.
We spent about an hour or so looking around in NACE at all of the Navaho stuff. The place had lots of jewelry and metalwork (interestingly, it had a fair amount of non-Navaho stuff too, like shirts made in China, for sale). The children both bought necklaces. I purchased genuinne leather moccasins (and they are downright real comfortable - let me tell you!) - at a dear price. Mrs. Chairman opted not to buy anything - she was hoping to find a pottery urn; they had none, which suprised both of us.
While in NACE, it rained. (Yep, so far, each day had seen rain.) A spectacular thunderstorm. The first rain at this location in six weeks (and we were there, oh goodie!). It lasted about five minutes. Back in the car, we drove west on Arizona 64. The road climbs steadily - one's ears pop several times due to the changes in altitude. After a few miles, we turned off at an overlook. The view was of the "Little Colorado Gorge." The Little Colorado River at this point cut a rather impressive canyon on its way to the Colorado in the Grand Canyon. I told boy child he had now seen the Grand Canyon and we could go home (a la the scene from Vacation). He wasn't buying it.
After spending some time looking at the gorge, we walked back to the starship Enterprise. On the way back, there was a stand with a Navaho selling signed urns - just what Mrs. Chairman was looking for. We looked around and settled on a nice 6" urn, had it packaged up, and took it with us.
Moving on, another few miles up the road one crosses the boundary the National Park, and pine forests return. A short while later, there is an individual with her hand out, looking for a $20 bill, failure to provide same will result in a denial of entry into the Park. I hand her my National Parks pass (which we bought knowing its cost was a little higher than the fees we would pay at National Parks on the trip, but we would still be able to use it at Great Falls Park and have an overall net savings over the next year), she looks at it and returns it to me, and we're off.
First stop - lunch, as it was now after 12 PM PT (yes, as soon as you cross into Grand Canyon National Park, there's that time zone stuff that is uniquely Arizona again). There is a small cafeteria just inside the east park entrance which serves hot dogs, hamburgers, chips, and the like.
After lunch, we walked over to something called the Watchtower. It is a stone structure recently built, but designed to look much older. Inside, there are several drawings on the wall either done or resembling Indian art work (not sure which). There are also a number of levels (three) one can climb up to and get views over looking the canyon - which was nothing short of impressive, in spite of the weather.
Looking out into the canyon, two things were visible. The wind pattern that day was bringing in a lot of smoke from forest fires north of the area, cutting visibility to about 40 miles. There were also several thunderstorms with their rain shafts over the canyon as well (and we all thought this was a desert climate). The thunderstorms were rather interesting, because the rain shafts stood out starkly against clear air next to them - we have several interesting pictures capturing this.
After some time, we left this area and moved on to the next vantage point - Lippan Point. While at this overlook, it was apparent the storms over the canyon were coming closer. We figured we had about 10-15 minutes before we would have to seek the shelter of the SUV, during which we could take more pictures. Thunder was definitely audible, and lightning was visible many miles away over the canyon, to the left - awesome.
After just a couple of minutes, however, there was a brilliant flash just off to our right (east), and an extremely loud bang. Everyone on the overlook felt a rush of heat. No one mistook what had just occurred - an extremely close anvil to ground lightning strike - and all were quickly running back to their cars, as light rain began to fall. Soon the rain became heavy, and dime-sized hail was pelting the windshield. Mrs. Chairman was concerned, and said I should move the truck to protect it, to which I responded: "I'm open to suggestions on exactly where that might be." She did realize the falacy of her request, but was still nervous about the weather - not to say anyone else wasn't.
After a few moments, the hail stopped (with no damage to the SUV), but the rain continued. The rain would continue for about another 15 minutes - with everyone who was there continuing to wait patiently for it to stop.
The rain did stop, and we went back out and took more pictures - being careful to watch our steps with all the ice still on the ground (it did melt by the time we left). Then we moved on to the Tusayan Ruins. Here they have a small musuem that gives information about the Anasazi that lived in the area once upon a time, and there are ruins of Anasazi kivas and huts a short walk away.
The rest of the day was spent going to various overlooks along East Rim Drive - all with their unique views of the canyon. While in the generic one looks out over Grand Canyon, each overlook had its own unique things, so it was worth stopping at each one. A few of the overlooks also provide a view of the Colorado as it goes through the canyon.
As we finished our last look out over the canyon for the day, we had a unique photo opportunity. A coyote had decided he wanted to pose for photographs - almost quite literally. Several cars were stopping, one at a time, while folks took pictures, and the coyote was more than willing to just stand there and let us do that.
We drove on to Grand Canyon Village, and checked into our cottage. We didn't have "over the rim" accommodations - but we were within a 1/4 mile, so no one minded. The cottage actually contains four separate rooms, all small, but designed in such a way that it doesn't feel too cramped. The cottage gives the real feel of being in a park, though, from its external appearance. (I'll have to post a picture of it when the photos have been "web-enabled".)
Wandering over to the Bright Angel Lodge - which is on the rim - we sat for dinner. The dining room has a wood motif, and large chandaliers, which are actually oversized wagon wheels designed for the purpose of lighting.
After having a nice dinner, we went back to the room to await darkness. Girl child wanted to see the stars in an area where "light pollution" was not a factor. We all thought that might be neat, so we all went outside. The skies having cleared from the earlier thunderstorms, it seemed conditions were good to look at the heavens. Except the heavens didn't cooperate - it was nearly a full moon, so many of the stars were washed out anyway.
Being tired, we went back into the cottage and retired for the night.
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