[leadpenny]

Durbin is a creep and unimportant, except that he is number two or three in the Senate leadership. Because he didn't serve in the military, I believe he tried to use Tammy Duckworth as a foil against the Republicans. Sort of a psycho guilt trip on his part. Sadly for her, she lost. As long as the Dems were going to take the House anyway, I sort of hoped she'd win. As for Webb and Durbin, I can't imagine that they will be buds for long. Maybe Webb will save his boxing skills for the fat, peachy loudmouth? Just wait, Durbin will over-reach now that the dems are in the majority and he has a leadership position.



I had not heard of the family from the Dells (I take it that is in Illinois?). I wonder how many of those sons were drafted? BTW, the new Intell Chair, Reyes, was drafted in 68, served as a Huey Crew Chief in Vietnam for 13 months and was awarded a Purple Heart. Hopefully, a good compromise choice since it was a lose-lose proposition if Pelosi chose either Harmen or Hastings.

Casualties

It's always apples and oranges to compare wars but my point is that during WWII we had over 16,000,000 men and women in uniform with over 10,000,000 drafted. I don't know what the population of the country was then but if you assume half it would have been around 150,000,000. Our military is somewhere around 2,000,000. To feel like WWII we would need to have 30,000,000 men and women in uniform. Of course the casualties don't compare but when you consider the casualties in just the Army and the Marine Corps, it's a heavy burden for those communities to bear.

Murtha

I think Murtha was dissed so bad that he is, right now, trying to determine the best time to make an exit. I think he'll retire before the 08 election.

[Chgogal]

The restaurant is in Wisconsin Dells, and to the best of my recollection, which is not as good as it used to be, they all volunteered. All their portraits hang over the bar. I believe at least one of these heroes is still alive.

We will see how Reyes serves this country.

And you are correct the casualties in the Marines and Army are very difficult to bear considering the size of the combat units. What is worse the country loses an exemplary citizen each and every time. We lose a citizen who is willing to do what is needed leaving behind lesser citizens to carry on. Now that last statement would be a party stopper this coming holiday season.

One of my adopted Marines will be going back to Iraq. Right now he is in training. His emails became shorter and shorter. At last he spilled the beans.
On his birthday night he visited a cemetery and just sat. It's very tough. We made it tougher on November 7th.

Durbin is a disgusting excuse of a Senator and because of the way the vote turned out, he has more power than he deserves.