I will try to take more time later to illustrate my reasons, but my wait and see attitude is waning, and my support is dwindling for the bill.

Listening to the radio I have to agree with both of the Commentators.  Ken Schram notes that doing anything without securing the border cutting off the influx of illegal immigrants is a wasted effort.  He is partially correct.  Border security is something I am very upset about.  All these years and nothing has been done beyond a wisp of a fence.

But he is only partially right.  Cutting off the source is fine, and necessary, but it does no good unless you deal with the people here already.  You also have to consider that no fence on the southern border is proof against all illegal incursions, and there is also a very porous northern border, as well as a couple of wet ones to the east and west.

So to deal with the people here, you can make suggestions of amnesty and all that, but the first line of defense and enforcement has to be in the work place.

Hillary is under attack on all sides.  The Conservatives have never held her in any esteem, but the nutroots, the far left of her own party have found her unappetizing.  Her early support for the war left them with a deep distrust, fueled by the efforts Cindy Sheehan and her ilk.

She has been caught in numerous campaign exaggerations, she has had fund raising scandals, and her accent usage during speeches is nothing short of patronizing.  She is hardly a “lil southern gal”.

And that isn’t even addressing the drama that surrounds her Husband.

Her recent vote against the war funding is a good example of the tap dance she is constantly doing as she tried to be appealing to all. She knows this will alienate her from the moderates and the war supporters, so she mitigates it by claiming she was sending a message, which again leaves the sense to the nutroots that she is not sincerely in their camp.

http://apnews.myway.com/article/20070530/D8PEVA5G0.html

White House hopeful Hillary Rodham Clinton on Wednesday defended her vote against an Iraq war funding bill, saying she believes President Bush will begin withdrawing troops from Iraq soon.

Hillary Clinton again hints at a socialist agenda:

http://biz.yahoo.com/ap/070529/clinton_economy.html?.v=1

Presidential hopeful Hillary Rodham Clinton outlined a broad economic vision Tuesday, saying it’s time to replace an “on your own” society with one based on shared responsibility and prosperity.

The Democratic senator said what the Bush administration touts as an ownership society really is an “on your own” society that has widened the gap between rich and poor.

“I prefer a ‘we’re all in it together’ society,” she said. “I believe our government can once again work for all Americans. It can promote the great American tradition of opportunity for all and special privileges for none.”

That means pairing growth with fairness, she said, to ensure that the middle-class succeeds in the global economy, not just corporate CEOs.

“There is no greater force for economic growth than free markets. But markets work best with rules that promote our values, protect our workers and give all people a chance to succeed,” she said. “Fairness doesn’t just happen. It requires the right government policies.”

I had hoped this weekends shameful events were isolated but a few more have surfaced.

I still cannot bring myself to blame the anti war movement or progressives in general.  I can admit that when John Edwards calls for war protests over Memorial Day and these things happen, I can easily understand why others might want to connect the dots.

http://www.nbc10.com/news/13403099/detail.html?dl=headlineclick

As veterans and their families filtered in to a local American Legion on Memorial Day, they found a somber scene.

Swastikas were sprayed all over the Manoa American Legion building in Delaware County, prevalently displayed and polluting the patriotic look of the veterans’ sanctuary.

“I was just shocked to think that someone would come to a place like this and desecrate it with a swastika,” said Phil Miller of American Legion Manoa Post 667. “Especially on Memorial Day. It’s just horrible.”

 And the local case has at least one person absolutely convinced this was not a gag, it was a professional Nazi event.

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,276089,00.html

Thats 6 figures of hits, as in page hits.  At 11:53 I passed the 100,000 visitors mark thanks to a reader from Bothell Washington.

Thanks to all my readers who helped me reach this milestone.  Half a million, here we come.

A woman mourns her dead fiance at Arlington National Cemetery 27 May on the outskirts of Washington D.C.

(via Hot Air)

I saw this on news tonight, and Michelle Malkin beat me to it tonight.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070529/ap_on_re_us/flag_vandalism

Vandals burned dozens of small American flags that decorated veterans’ graves for Memorial Day and replaced many of them with hand-drawn swastikas, authorities said Monday.

Forty-six flag standards were found empty and another 33 flags were in charred tatters Sunday in the cemetery, authorities said. Swastikas drawn on paper appeared where 14 of the flags had been.

Members of the American Legion on this island off Washington’s northwest coast replaced the burned flags with new ones Sunday afternoon.

The vandals struck again on Memorial Day after a guard left at dawn, the San Juan County sheriff’s office said. This time, the vandals left 33 of the hand-drawn swastikas.

“This is not an act of free speech. This is a crime,” Sheriff Bill Cumming said in a statement released Monday afternoon.

Investigators believe there’s more than one culprit, based on the number of flags that were vandalized, Cumming said in a telephone interview. But authorities have no suspects, he said.

All along I have written and believed that Cindy Sheehan was a useful idiot for the left, a sympathetic morally untouchable figurehead for the anti war anti Bush left.

And Like Watada, their latest useful idiot, as soon as her effectiveness and usefulness is gone, they will turn away.

Cindy finally got that message.  This is her message on Daily Kos.

I have endured a lot of smear and hatred since Casey was killed and especially since I became the so-called “Face” of the American anti-war movement. Especially since I renounced any tie I have remaining with the Democratic Party, I have been further trashed on such “liberal blogs” as the Democratic Underground. Being called an “attention whore” and being told “good riddance” are some of the more milder rebukes.

I have come to some heartbreaking conclusions this Memorial Day Morning. These are not spur of the moment reflections, but things I have been meditating on for about a year now. The conclusions that I have slowly and very reluctantly come to are very heartbreaking to me.

Sorry, but in my list of holidays, it is not a happy one any more.

A couple things occurred to me as I was thinking about what to write about.

First was a guy on a discussion list who wrote the whole wish and wished everyone a happy Memorial Day.

Maybe he meant no harm, but in a sense I was offended.  He is wishing happy celebration of a day to memorialize the death of patriots who gave the ultimate sacrifice.

Sure they deserve acclaim, memorializing and respect.  But I dunno, I am not happy about it at all.  For every death given for our freedom there is a bereaving family. the loss of loved ones and often children now living without a parent.  “Happy Memorial Day” to my curmudgeonly mind seems too flippant.

I celebrate with grim sobriety the lives lost, the stories never told of valor and bravery and the heroes forgotten.

But my second thought reminds me how shallow that is.  Shopping tonight I saw flags and banners and cakes and stuff.  I even hung a new crisp flag out front.

After the infamous fight with Elisabeth Hasselbeck a few days ago, rumour circulated that she trashed her dressing room and bailed.  Taking a day off for her partner’s birthday was prearranged, but now the report is she won’t be back.

On the heels of that was another report that her chief writer was escorted from the studio, for defacing Elisabeth’s pictures in the hall.

Both of these events, though by separate individuals, illustrates the same attitude which has seemed to permeate O’Donnell’s character:  Childishness.

Her mockery and resulting feud with Trump, her condescending attitude toward Elisabeth, her blind belief in ridiculous theories (and refusal to recant in the face of solidly rebutting evidence), her racists remarks and resulting denial and her piteous gay baiting tactics to avoid debate, all speak to the behavior of a child.

Her comments about the troops are a classic example.  Her denials to the contrary, she actually did call the troops terrorists.  Oh she didn’t say it directly, she merely suggested it as a faux hypothetical question with only one possible answer.  The effective result is the same, it is a difference that makes no difference.