Another View Of Immigration Sweeps

CMPD UNDERCOVER SWEEPS
Last Friday the Costa Mesa Police Department engaged in an undercover operation designed to crackdown on people illegally soliciting work on our street corners. According to the article in the Daily Pilot, HERE, 11 "criminals" were arrested for this "crime", ten of whom subsequently proved to be in this country illegally. Those men were apparently deported post haste.

WHO COMPLAINED?
This operation, according to the Daily Pilot report, was launched because of "some complaints in the community". Those complainants were not identified, but anyone following politics in this city for the past decade will have a pretty good idea who "they" are, and why they complained, HERE.

I DO NOT SUPPORT ILLEGAL IMMIGRATION
I've made my views known for a long time on the subject of illegal immigration - I DO NOT support illegal immigration. However, the prospect of attempting to deport upwards of 12 million people living and working in this country illegally seemed to be not only impractical, but impossible. I firmly believe most of those folks were doing difficult, dirty jobs - many of which simply wouldn't be done by legal residents. They are still doing them - or trying to do them.

DOMINO EFFECT IN THE LABOR MARKET
However, with our economy in the tank thanks to our trainee President and his stupid programs, many of the jobs those folks held have gone by the wayside, along with hundreds of thousands of other jobs further up the food chain. So, folks losing higher paying jobs are having to settle for anything they can find, including some of those jobs being done by illegal immigrants. This, of course, has created much stress.

CRISSY BROOKS IN THE DAILY VOICE
Today, in the fledgling Newport-Mesa Daily Voice, Crissy Brooks - who, according to the Daily Voice, is "the executive director of Mika Community Development Corp, a faith-based nonprofit whose mission is to identify and equip leaders in low-income neighborhoods" - wrote a very poignant commentary addressing this sweep from a "those-left-behind" standpoint. I hope you will take the opportunity to read her commentary, HERE.

CMPD SHOULD GO AFTER "REAL" CRIMINALS
I hope the folks at the top in the CMPD will reassess their position on immigration sweeps and redirect their efforts toward the real criminals in our midst - those who engage in identity theft, run red lights and injure folks, etc.

Mansoor Trolling For Dollars, Again...

RED COUNTY PLUG FOR MANSOOR
Costa Mesa jailer/mayor, Allan Mansoor, is having another high-profile fund raiser according to Matt Cunningham over at the Red County/OC blog, HERE.

CUNNINGHAM: "MANSOOR WAS UNDERESTIMATED"
The premise of Cunningham's piece is that folks around Orange County have underestimated Mansoor's ability to raise bucks for his run at Van Tran's 68th Assembly seat next year. Cunningham also shrugs aside the only current Republican challenger for Mansoor in this race.

BIG EVENT TOMORROW
Mansoor has raised over $150,000 dollars for this race so far and it looks like he will just keep on going. At the bottom of the page linked above you will find a link to a pdf file of the invitation to this current event, scheduled for October 1st. At the top is a list of Mansoor's "team" - the hosts of this event - as shown here:


FAMILIAR NAMES
You will see some familiar names in the roster of supporters, among them is one Surat Singh. You will recall Mr. Singh's name from a dust-up raised by council candidate Bill Sneen following last year's elections in which it appeared that Mr. Singh was, at least, confused about dollars he provided to Gary Monahan in his campaign. I hope Mr. Singh is paying closer attention this time around. Either that or I hope he keeps his mouth shut this time!

GOOD OLD BOYS...
You will also notice the name of several Mansoor appointees to Costa Mesa commissions, including Planning Commission Chairman Jim Righeimer, Planning Commissioner Steve Mensinger and Parks and Recreation Commissioner Jeff Mathews.

POLITICAL PAYOFFS CONTINUE?
Mathews, some might recall, helped Monahan with his campaign last year. Rumors around town are that Mathews is in line for the Planning Commission seat left vacant by the departure of Jim Fisler to the Board of the Mesa Consolidated Water District. That would explain why the city is conducting a joint recruitment effort for both the Planning and Parks and Recreation commissions even though there is no current vacancy for the Parks and Recreation Commission. Cozy, huh?

TOSS HIM SOME BUCKS! (GAG ME!)
So, folks, open up your wallets and throw some bucks Mansoor's way so he can get the heck out of town and help fix the problems in Sacramento. Ouch! I didn't know a tongue so firmly planted in one's cheek could actually hurt! Unless a strong Democrat surfaces to contest him, there is really no reason to assume another Republican will have a chance against him in this race. He's the Orange County GOP's fair-haired boy - a guy they can manipulate like a blob of nutty putty, so they don't want anyone messing with that situation.

WHO WILL TUTOR MANSOOR?
If Mansoor is successful in his bid for the 68th Assembly seat, I wonder who is going to pay for his tutor? I mean, clearly he doesn't have the smarts to deal with the issues in our state capitol on his own. Do you think Scott Baugh and the OC/GOP will assign him a babysitter? Seems likely...

Remembering "The Member"....

CAN'T LET GO OF IT - SORRY
OK, it's taken me most of a week to stop laughing about the bonehead who had his "thing", "member" or "penis" - depending on the description you choose to use - removed from weight ring by the Costa Mesa Urban Search and Rescue Squad last week. The image of the rescue workers - sparks a'flyin' - sawing off that metal ring gives me the willies, so to speak. You can read Joe Serna's tasteful article, HERE, along with some very funny comments by the Daily Pilot readers.

THE HITS KEEP ON COMING
This story seems to have taken on a life of it's own. It's my understanding that the Daily Pilot alone had thousands of hits and certainly had plenty of letters, both pro and con, about publishing this story at all. For example, just run a simple Google search using "Costa Mesa+penis" and it will generate more than 50,000 hits! Yikes!!! This story has so much staying power you'd think the poor guy had been using Viagra!

MORE DAILY PILOT FLOGGING
Two days after the story ran Daily Pilot Editor Brady Rhoades posted an entry on his blog which also showed up in print, HERE, addressing this issue. Sunday - in the print version you finally received on Monday - former Costa Mesa mayor Peter Buffa ran a hilarious column addressing this story, HERE. There are stories about this "event" everywhere - Jay Leno even used it in his monologue Thursday night, for goodness sake.

WHO IS THIS IDIOT?
I certainly hope this guy's identity is never made public - this is the kind of thing that will stay with him forever!

THINK ABOUT IT...
In Serna's account, much of which was painful to even contemplate, he used this phrase, "The penis had blackened and swollen to five times its normal size, authorities said." I don't know about you, but after contemplating that mental image I will never again look at an eggplant in the super market without a chuckle.



I'M GONNA TRY, BUT....
I'm going to try not to comment on this subject again, but no guarantees. Some things are just too funny to forget about.

Say, What?!

JAW-DROPPING
Seldom do I find a story that makes my jaw drop, but this is one of them.

PUMPING IRON
In a story that gives a whole new definition of the phrase "pumping iron", the Daily Pilot reports this morning, HERE, that an unidentified man at Hoag Hospital required the attention of the Costa Mesa Fire Department's Urban Search and Rescue squad - to save his penis!

AH, "BULKING UP"?
As you can read in Joe Serna's story, the fellow - in an apparent attempt to lengthen his "member" - inserted it through a steel ring normally used to secure weights to a weight-lifting bar. It got stuck!

CUTTING IT OFF
Finally, three days later, with the "member" swollen and turning black because the circulation had been cut off, the rescue squad was called and they sawed the steel ring off.

Ouch, ouch, ouch!

*****

PARKS & RECREATION COMMISSION MEETING
In more mundane matters, at their meeting in the City Council chambers tonight the Costa Mesa Parks and Recreation Commission will consider a list of new fees and increases in some existing fees, including some for skateboard instruction.

Oh, yes - they will also consider requests to remove a couple trees...

Reporting Deaths and Tree Mayhem

OK, now I'm getting a little confused. Some would say that's kind of perpetual state for me...

MAN SHOOTS WIFE IN HEAD
Last week a Costa Mesa resident identified as Kenneth Joseph Leake, age 75, was arrested at his Eastside home for apparently attempting to kill his wife of 50 years, Doris. According to published reports Leake shot his wife in the head anywhere from one to five times, depending on which report you choose to believe. Leake is being held on $1 million bail and will be arraigned on October 16th in Harbor Justice Center.

TERRIBLE STORY
This, of course, is a terrible tragedy. It's hard to imagine what prompts a man to attempt to murder his wife of a half century so violently. It's amazing that she has survived this attack.

Here's my problem with this story. It's the way it has been portrayed by various media outlets.

THREE VIEWS OF THE SAME STORY
The Daily Pilot was the first to break this story. You can read their updated story HERE. In the story they identify Mr. Leake and his wife, Doris and describe the shooting, indicating that she was shot in the head three times. The Orange County Register ran a close second, HERE, and said Mrs. Leake was shot once. Today the Newport-Mesa Daily Voice presented a more detailed account of this event, including the fact that Mr. Leake shot his victim not once, but five times - four to the head and one in the wrist. In that story, HERE, they identified the victim not as Mrs. Doris Leake, but as Jane Doe - after two other media outlets had already identified her by name.

I JUST DON'T UNDERSTAND
Now, I certainly don't pretend to be a newsman - not even close. I'm just a guy who writes whatever dribbles out of his head on a given day, but tries to be sure it's founded in facts. All of those outfits are staffed by very experienced reporters and editors and yet the stories told are very different. I mean, how many times was the victim shot? Where? Why? And why, for goodness sake, did the Daily Voice not identify the victim as the shooters wife by her name when their headline clearly states that he shot his wife of 50 years?

DAILY VOICE ANNOUNCES DEATH
We had another similar event last week, too, in which Newport Beach socialite Debbie Simon died in her Harbor Island mansion. In this case, the Daily Voice broke the story and did a nice job of explaining who she was, described the good works she had done since arriving from New Jersey a few years ago. But, they didn't mention that she took her own life.

DAILY PILOT ANNOUNCES HANGING AS CAUSE
Joe Serna wrote a good story on this event, too, in which he very discretely mentioned that Simon had taken her life. However, Editor Brady Rhoades subsequently blogged about this death and mentioned that Simon had hanged herself. Rhoades followed that up with a column last Friday's print edition in which he reaffirmed her death by hanging.

WHO DECIDES WHICH "FACTS" ARE TOLD?
The question on this one is, "What determines when the complete facts of a story are told?" Personally, I think the fact that Simon took her own life is relevant to the story - the Daily Voice apparently did not. Considering the fact that she was a highly visible socialite who, from all reports, spent her wealth freely on many good causes in the area and was still in the midst of a very sticky divorce after something like six or seven years makes the fact that she died by hanging an important element of the story.

TOO MUCH TV DRAMA?
I don't know - maybe I've watched a hundred too many episodes of the CSI series and The Sopranos, but this kind of curious reporting just bothers me. I do know that I don't trust any single source if information any more - on almost any subject - for the very reasons illustrated above.

TREE BUTCHERY
And, to end this post on an even more sour note, how in the world do we explain the recent vandalism in Fairview and Canyon parks in which someone, or a group of someones, chopped a bunch of trees in half? You can read Candace Baker's story in the Daily Pilot HERE. Certainly, these crimes do not compare to the deaths mentioned above, but what kind of a strange, demented person attacks a specific species of tree in two different municipal parks for no apparent reason? We're living in strange times, my friends.

(All photos used in this entry courtesy of the Daily Pilot)

Patrick Swayze - A Remembrance

AU REVOIR, PATRICK
Many film fans were deeply saddened by the passing of actor Patrick Swayze earlier this week at age 57... I am among them.

A VERY SPECIAL TALENT
I never thought of Swayze as a "great" actor. I thought he was a good actor with a very unusual range of talents. Yes, he could act, but he could also sing and dance. My wife is also a huge fan and, as you might expect, loves "Dirty Dancing" - a seminal movie in Swayze's career. As only a guy deeply in love with a woman for 42 years and counting will do, I sit and watch that movie with her time after time after time.

OTHER MEMORABLE MOVIES
I've enjoyed many movies he made - Red Dawn, Ghost, Point Break and Road House, to name a few.

AN EXCELLENT REMEMBRANCE
There have been many, many remembrances written about Swayze since he died. One of the best I've read was written by film critic Betsy Sharkey in the Los Angeles Times. You can read it HERE.

MY SPECIAL INTEREST IN HIM
Although I've enjoyed Patrick Swayze as an actor for two decades, I developed a special interest when it was announced a couple years ago that he was suffering from Pancreatic Cancer. Both my father and his younger brother died of that ailment at almost precisely the same times in their lives. My uncle was 10 years junior to my father. They worked together in their business for more than 40 years. They shared the same environment, stress and cigarettes during that time.

SWAYZE FOUGHT LONGER
My father retired at age 62 and passed away from pancreatic cancer at age 64 following a short - 3 month - illness. His brother retired at 62 and died at 64 - almost 10 years to the date of my father's passing. Fortunately for both of them, their illness was brief. Swayze suffered with his disease for much longer and kept working right up to the end.

A FEW VIDEO REMEMBRANCES FOR YOU...
I leave you today with some YouTube videos to help you remember the talented man Patrick Swayze was. The first, with Patrick and Jennifer Gray dancing to "The Time of My Life" from Dirty Dancing is a signature recollection of him.

The second is Patrick and his wife of 34 years, Lisa Nieme, dancing at the 1994 World Music Awards.

The final one, from the sound track of Dirty Dancing, is Patrick singing "She's Like The Wind".

Patrick Swayze - Rest In Peace

Homeless Funds, Grumpy Geezers and Red Light Cameras

HPRP FUNDING APPROVED
As anticipated, the Costa Mesa City Council, when confronted with facts, came to it's senses and passed unanimously the request for HPRP funds at their meeting tonight. Once the lationphobes on the council received sufficient assurances that none of those dreaded illegal immigrants would see one single penny in the federal dollars they voted to move forward. I thought for awhile that they were going to require the vendors to sign in blood...

"THE MOUTH" IS "SCROOGE"
This, of course, is good for all residents of Costa Mesa because it helps those among us who are less fortunate. And, also as anticipated, The Mouth From Mesa North stood before the council and recommended rejecting the federal dollars. His solution was to just tell those among us who are homeless or about to become so to just hit the road and find somewhere else to live - somewhere they can afford. He suggested Santa Ana. I guess we all now know what Scrooge does in the off season.

RED LIGHT CAMERAS REVISITED
Another interesting event occurred tonight, as well. The issue of red light cameras was again presented to the council. Answers were provided to questions some council members had at an earlier meeting and it was announced that the vendor, Nestor Systems, had been purchased by another outfit - the deal closed on Tuesday. The other group apparently has successful contracts for red light systems in 170 cities around the country and, according to their representative, have no problems anywhere. He asked for a chance to present his pitch to the staff before a decision was made regarding Nestor. The council could have chosen to simply cancel the contract tonight.

MANSOOR VS. THE FACTS
When it came time to vote Mayor Allan Mansoor demonstrated, once again, that he's not a guy who will let facts cloud his opinion. He made a motion - read from a prepared script that could only have been made BEFORE the meeting - recommending the cancellation of the contract. Gary Monahan seconded it. Katrina Foley offered a substitute motion recommending the issue be postponed for 30 days, during which the staff could meet with the successor vendor to hear their pitch and make recommendations to the council. Eric Bever and Wendy Leece tied offering the second to Foley's motion. That motion passed, 3-2, so the issue of red light cameras in our city is not yet dead.

GRUMPY FEENEY'S STRIKE AGAIN
And, once again, the perpetually irritating Ernie Feeney stood before the council with her gripe du jour about the Senior Center Management. I think she needs to find a physician to surgically remove that burr from her behind. Once again she attempted to influence the council with half-truths about Senior Center issues. In recent months her unfounded, but adamantly-expressed, complaints and insinuations about the Senior Center and it's management have generated way, way too much staff time trying to sort facts from her fiction. Yes, she has every right to express her opinions, but she needs to realize that before too long they will be falling on deaf ears because they are proving to be consistently baseless. In any event, she and her loud-mouthed husband need to find another hobby... perhaps they can help the aforementioned Scrooge fill his bag with lumps of coal for Christmas Eve.

FISLER HONORED AT MONDAY'S PLANNING COMMISSION MEETING
On a happier note, I forgot to mention the very nice proclamation that was presented to former Planning Commissioner Jim Fisler Monday night at the commission meeting. Chairman Jim Righeimer read the plaque to Fisler, who resigned last month to become a member of the Mesa Consolidated Water District Board, and his former peers all expressed their appreciation for his service to the city during his time on the Planning Commission. Fisler acknowledged those who had influenced him and mentored him on the commission, including Bruce Garlich, Eleanor Egan and Donn Hall. Even though I've teased Fisler over the years, no one can refute his work ethic while on the commission. It should serve him well on the Mesa Consolidated Water District Board. Good luck, Jim...

Costa Mesa Council To Reconsider HPRP Funds

RECONSIDERATION OF A SENSITIVE ISSUE
This evening the Costa Mesa City Council will, once again, consider the question of whether or not to formally accept more than $560,000 federal dollars designed to provide temporary relief to some Costa Mesa residents currently without housing or soon to be without housing. These folks, punched in the gut by the current economic crisis, may be living on the street, in their cars, in homeless shelters, in motels or temporarily with friends or relatives.

THROW OUT THE BABY WITH THE BATH WATER
The funds, identified as Homeless Prevention and Rapid Re-housing Program (HPRP) funds, were authorized by the federal government for use in our city based on our successful application earlier this year, but were on the verge of being rejected at the previous council meeting on September 1st. Mayor Allan Mansoor and Mayor Pro Tem Wendy Leece expressed great displeasure at the possibility that some of the funds might find their way into the hands of illegal immigrants. As was mentioned in a recent Daily Pilot article, they seemed willing to throw the baby out with the bath water.

MONAHAN SAVED THE DAY
Councilman Gary Monahan stalled the rejection by suggesting that the item be continued until the meeting tonight, at which they may have a full council to consider the issue - Eric Bever was absent again on the September 1st meeting. Monahan implied that perhaps additional clarification could be found on the subject of just who may or may not get these funds in the interim.

ILLEGALS WILL BE SCREENED OUT
After reading the current staff report it is clear that a solution is at hand - one that will insure to Mansoor, Leece and any other latinophobes in our city - that no illegal immigrants will receive any of the funds. The two contractors selected by the city to manage this process for us have apparently agreed to use a screening tool provided by the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) that will exclude any applicants who are in this country illegally.

GOOD NEWS/BAD NEWS
In my view, this is one of those "good news/bad news" situations. The good news is that some members of our community who are in dire straits financially will be provided temporary assistance to acquire a roof over their heads until they can get established and become self-sufficient. The bad news is that Mansoor and Leece's reaction to this issue demonstrates to the world, once again, that Costa Mesa is a community in which some elected leaders are intolerant of a demographic group in our city that makes up approximately one-third of the population.

ANTICIPATED AUDIENCE REACTION IS NOW MOOT
I expect that there will be more than a few folks in the audience tonight to make their views known on this subject. While some may express their displeasure with Mansoor and Leece, it looks like that issue - like the long gone buggy whip - is now irrelevant. I can see no reason why this program will be rejected this evening.

IGNORANCE AND INTOLERANCE
What is quite disturbing about this whole drama was the willingness of Mansoor and Leece to simply reject this program without asking probing questions. Had it not been for Monahan's quick intervention these dollars would have been rejected by the council two weeks ago, turned over to the state and homeless residents would continue in their downward economic spiral. I can only chalk up their actions to a combination of ignorance, an inability to grasp even slightly complex issues and deep-seated intolerance of Latinos in our city. This kind of narrow-minded approach to governance should not be forgotten at future elections.

Marc Puckett Resigns as Costa Mesa Finance Director

PUCKETT RESIGNS
In a press release today the City of Costa Mesa announced that Marc Puckett, Finance Director the past decade, has tendered his voluntary resignation effective September 2, 2009.


CONFIDENTIALITY PROHIBITS DISCLOSURE OF REASON
The circumstances of Puckett's departure are unknown, although rumors abound throughout City Hall. Allan Roeder, City Manager, cited confidentiality issues when he made the announcement of Puckett's departure and subsequent resignation.

HIS EXPERTISE WILL BE MISSED
Puckett was the ramrod for the city in all financial matters, to which he brought significant expertise. Under his guidance the city has received numerous awards for budget presentations year after year.

ACTIVE LEADER IN FINANCE COMMUNITY
Puckett was also active in several professional organizations. He was the President-elect of the California Municipal Treasurers Association, a position from which he resigned last month.

HEADED THE PURSUIT OF LOST LEHMAN BROTHERS DOLLARS
He started an organization to pursue the lost dollars involved in the Lehman Brothers bankruptcy, the anniversary of which fell on this date. It is unknown whether he will continue in that role following his departure from his position in Costa Mesa.

INTERIM FINANCE DIRECTOR SOUGHT
Roeder indicates that an interim Finance Director will be sought before a decision is made regarding filling the job permanently, and mentioned that the city is undergoing significant downsizing in personnel, including Public Safety and other government function.

SOME DAY WE MAY KNOW...
I suppose some day an enterprising reporter will discover the reason for Puckett's departure. In the meantime we are left to speculate . We know Roeder and the remaining Finance Department staff will continue on guiding the city through the financial rapids ahead.

It's Time To Stand Up And Speak Up!

MILLIONS MARCH TO SHOW CONCERN
It was an interesting weekend in this wonderful country of ours. On Saturday, September 12, 2009 - while many of us were enjoying college football on a perfect fall day - well over 1,000,000 people gathered on the National Mall in Washington, D. C. to protest the policies of our trainee president, Barack Obama. Some estimates were as high as 2,000,000. If you view the following time lapse video taken between 8:00 a.m. and 11:30 a.m. as the crowd was marching toward the Capitol you can make your own judgment as to the numbers involved.


YOU TELL ME... ARE THEY "WACKOS"?
Some will say that it was just a mob - a bunch of wackos - intent on disrupting the "great works" the president has embarked upon. They will describe the attendees as "extremists" and "nut cases", whipped into a frenzy by conservative talk radio personalities. I wasn't there, but I have viewed many of the videos of the event posted on YouTube. Here's one that might give you an idea about some of the folks that spent their Saturday on the National Mall.



I DON'T HAVE THE ANSWERS
I don't have answers to many of the questions posed by this grand national debate. I do feel, however, that Obama is moving too fast with too many programs that will bankrupt this country if we, the people, don't speak up. I think he and his liberal buddies will use the power they now have to ram new programs and taxes down our throats if we don't speak up. I don't kid myself that I can influence the national debate, but I can make my opinion known here and encourage you to do the same.

IT'S TIME TO STAND UP AND SPEAK UP
It has taken 250 years of blood, sweat and tears to create this wonderful country and to protect and preserve the way of life it provides to us. It is possible that it will take only a matter of months to destroy the country as we know it if we don't speak up against this current administration. Those folks who took the time to do just that on Saturday are an example of what can become a much broader national statement of concern.

CALL OR WRITE... AND DO IT NOW!
Pick up the telephone and call your congressional representative. Call the White House and express your concern. Sit down at your computer and write a letter to the president.

A Day Of Remembrance...

"The United States loves life. We love death.
That is the difference between us."
-Osama bin Laden

PATRIOT DAY, 2009
Today, September 11, 2009, marks the 8th anniversary of the attack on the United States - 9/11/01. This day, Patriot Day, was designated by then-President George W. Bush as a day of remembrance for our country. This is a day when we should reflect on the events that occurred on that date nearly a decade ago - the events that launched our country officially into the War on Terror. It is a day when we can, once again, remember nearly the 3,000 people killed in the cowardly attacks on New York City, Washington, D.C. and in the sprawling fields near Shanksville, PA. CNN maintains a web site with the names and photos of those lost souls. The link to that site is over on the right side of this page. Visit it to put faces on this tragedy.

REVISIT MY PREVIOUS POSTS
I've written about those events on that date several times. You can read some of those entries below by clicking on the title:

9/11/01 Remembered - 9/4/05

Putting 9/11/01 in Perspective - 9/10/07

Observing Patriot Day - 9/10/08


STRIDENT VOICES DEMANDING US TO QUIT
Today it is not unusual to hear strident voices beseeching our leaders to extract us from the conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan - to walk away from those countries before the job is finished. Some of those voices come from our elected leaders themselves. In my view, that is a huge mistake.

NO MORE DEATHS OR INJURIES, BUT...
I don't want to see another young American killed in foreign lands. I don't want to see any more limbs blown off by Improvised Explosive Devices (IEDs). None of us do. However, the Middle East is full of people ready, willing and able to attack our country again if given the chance. We need to cut the head off that snake, just as they did to American Nick Berg. We need to find Osama bin Laden and either bring him to justice or martyr him... my preference is the latter.

TAKE SOME TIME TO REFLECT
Please take a few minutes to re-visit my previous comments on this subject and take some time to view the video clips below. Some of the images will be redundant, but they will help you recall the tragedy that befell our country on September 11, 2001 and strengthen your resolve to encourage our leaders to stay the course and finish the job. Don't make the sacrifice of so many young American lives be for nothing. A word of caution - some of the images will be VERY intense.

A 911 TRIBUTE

HAVE YOU FORGOTTEN?

I JUST CAME BACK FROM THE WAR

NEVER FORGIVE AND NEVER FORGET