Follow Neal Boortz on

The world-famous Internet site of the Nationally Syndicated Neal Boortz Show!

Listen: Weekdays 8:30-1pm ET

Nealz Nuze

Posted: 1:00 a.m. Friday, April 23, 2004

Today's Nuze: April 23, 2004 

Previous Posts

By Neal Boortz

Today's Nuze: April 23, 2004

Friday, April 23, 2004


WHERE DO WE GET MEN AND WOMEN LIKE THESE?

As you must already know, Pat Tillman  died today in Afghanistan.  He died fighting for his country ... for us.  He died fighting the Al Qaeda.  Pat Tillman was 25 years old when he turned away from a multi-million dollar contract to play football for the NFL Arizona Cardinals.  He was 27 when he died in action fighting the war against Islamic terror.

Please read this column by Peggy Noonan which appeared in The Wall Street Journal on July 12, 2002.  I don't think anyone could say it better.

Privileged to Serve
by Peggy Noonan


In this war, not only the sons and daughters of the poor are enlisting.

Maybe he was thinking Ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country. Maybe it was visceral, not so much thought as felt, and acted upon. We don't know because he won't say, at least not in public. Which is itself unusual. Silence is the refuge of celebrities caught in scandal, not the usual response of those caught red-handed doing good.

All we know is that 25-year-old Pat Tillman, a rising pro football player (224 tackles in 2000 as a defensive back for the Arizona Cardinals, a team record) came back from his honeymoon seven weeks ago and told his coaches he would turn down a three-year, $3.6 million contract and instead join the U.S. Army. For a pay cut of roughly $3.54 million dollars over three years.

On Monday morning, Pat Tillman "came in like everyone else, on a bus from a processing station," according to a public information officer at Fort Benning, Ga., and received the outward signs of the leveling anonymity of the armed forces: a bad haircut, a good uniform and physical testing to see if he is up to the rigors of being a soldier. Soon he begins basic training. And whatever else happened this week--Wall Street news, speeches on the economy--nothing seems bigger, more important and more suggestive of change than what Pat Tillman did.

Those who know him say it's typical Tillman, a surprise decision based on his vision of what would be a good thing to do. When he was in college he sometimes climbed to the top of a stadium light tower to think and meditate. After his great 2000 season he was offered a $9 million, five-year contract with the St. Louis Rams and said thanks but no, he was happy with the Cardinals.

But it was clear to those who knew Mr. Tillman that after September 11 something changed. The attack on America had prompted a rethinking. Len Pasquarelli of ESPN reported last May that the "free-spirited but consummately disciplined" starting strong safety told friends and relatives that, in Mr. Pasquarelli's words, "his conscience would not allow him to tackle opposition fullbacks where there is still a bigger enemy that needs to be stopped in its tracks." Mr. Tillman's agent and friend Frank Bauer: "This is something he feels he has to do. For him, it's a mindset, a duty."

"I'm sorry, but he is not taking inquiries," said the spokeswoman at Fort Benning. She laughed when I pressed to speak to someone who might have seen Mr. Tillman or talked to him. Men entering basic training don't break for interviews, she said. Besides, "he has asked not to have any coverage. We've been respecting his wishes. And kinda hoping he'd change his mind." Mr. Tillman would, of course, be a mighty recruiting device. The Army might have enjoyed inviting television cameras to record his haircut, as they did with Elvis. But Mr. Tillman, the Fort Benning spokesman says, "wants to be anonymous like everyone else."

Right now he has 13 weeks of basic training ahead of him, then three weeks of Airborne School, and then, if he makes it, Ranger School, where only about a third of the candidates are accepted. "It's a long row," said the Fort Benning spokesman, who seemed to suggest it would be all right to call again around Christmas. Until then he'll be working hard trying to become what he wants to become.

Which I guess says it all.

Except for this. We are making a lot of Tillmans in America, and one wonders if this has been sufficiently noted. The other day friends, a conservative intellectual and his activist wife, sent a picture of their son Gabe, a proud and newly minted Marine. And there is Abe, son of a former high aide to Al Gore, who is a lieutenant junior grade in the Navy, flying SH-60 Seahawk helicopters. A network journalist and his wife, also friends, speak with anguished pride of their son, in harm's way as a full corporal in the Marines. The son of a noted historian has joined up; the son of a conservative columnist has just finished his hitch in the Marines; and the son of a bureau chief of a famous magazine was commissioned a second lieutenant in the Army last month, on the day he graduated from Princeton.

As the Vietnam-era song said, "Something's happening here." And what it is may be exactly clear. Some very talented young men, and women, are joining the armed forces in order to help their country because, apparently, they love it. After what our society and culture have been through and become the past 30 years or so, you wouldn't be sure that we would still be making their kind, but we are. As for their spirit, Abe's mother reports, "Last New Year's, Abe and his roommate [another young officer] were home and the topic came up about how little they are paid [compared with] the kids who graduated from college at the same time they did and went into business.

"Without missing a beat the two of them said, 'Yeah--but we get to get shot at!' and raised their beer bottles. No resentment. No anger. Just pure . . . testosterone-laden bravado."

The Abes and Gabes join a long old line of elders dressed in green, blue, gray, white, gold and black. Pat Tillman joins a similar line, of stars who decided they had work to do, and must leave their careers to do it. They include, among others, the actors Jimmy Stewart, Clark Gable and Tyrone Power in World War II; sports stars Ted Williams and Joe DiMaggio in the same war; and quarterback Roger Staubach in Vietnam. It is good to see their style return, and be considered noble again.

And good to see what appears to be part of, or the beginning of, a change in armed forces volunteering. In the Vietnam era of my youth it was poor and working-class boys whom I saw drafted or eagerly volunteering. Now more and more I see the sons and daughters of the privileged joining up.

That is a bigger and better story than usually makes the front page. Markets rise and fall, politicians come and go, but that we still make Tillmans is headline news.

 

THE INTRIGUE IS MAKING ME NUTS ...

... and I was quite nuts enough already, thank you.

Intrigue over what?  What Hillary is plotting, that's what.  Generally the news that The Poodle is slipping in the polls is good.  I cannot imagine the damage The Poodle could do with four, even eight years as commander in chief and the man guiding American foreign affairs.  Give him eight years and America could become as weak and pitiable as the worst of the Euro-weenie nations.

I say that "generally" The Poodle's slippage is good news.  My one regret is that the worst things look for Kerry, the less likely it is that we're going to find out just how The Clintons were going to torpedo his candidacy.  (At this point my Washington colleague, ace Cox Radio correspondent Jamie Dupree is rolling his eyes heavenward.) 

The absolute last thing in the world that The Hildabeast wants to happen on November 2nd is for The Poodle to be elected.  Right now Hillary is the presumptive Democratic candidate in 2008 ... a year in which there will be no obstacle of a Republican incumbent.  If Kerry wins he'll run for reelection in 2008, pushing Hillary back to 2012.  This would mean that Hillary would have to run for reelection in New York in 2006 ... and she knows that Rudy Giuliani might have something to say about that.  How can she run for president in 2012 if she's been out of the public eye for six years?

There is just no way that Hillary is going to let this scenario come to pass.  She's vicious and treacherous ... and nothing must come between her and her presidential dreams.  Remember those supposedly confidential FBI files that the Clinton White House gathered?  How many were there? I seem to remember a number between 700 and 1000.  Did one of those files belong to John Kerry.  You know that the FBI had a file on Kerry, you just don't know what was in it.  Maybe Hillary does.  She has no shortage of sycophants who would be all too happy to leak some as-yet unknown gem from those files to the media.

The national pucker factor goes up when the polls show a closer race.  So does my anticipation factor.  What is she going to pull?  When is she going to strike?  Will she deliver a warning rattle first?

LATEST sKERRY FLIP-FLOP

Kerry's past continues to haunt him, this time the issue is abortion.  Today, sKerry will speak at a rally for abortion rights and ask those in attendance to join him in his campaign for the White House.  Nothing out of the ordinary...except this. Check out what Kerry was saying in a 1972 interview uncovered by the Drudge Report.

"It's a tragic day in the lives of everybody when abortion is looked on as an alternative to birth control or as an alternative to having a child. I think that's wrong. It should be the very last thing if it has to be anything, and I say that not just because I am opposed to abortion, but because I think that's common sense.  I think the question of abortion is one that should be left for the states to decide. "  Oh really? Doesn't sound a bit like what 'ole sKerry is telling us today, does it?  When faced with this, he will no doubt say that was 32 years ago, and he has changed his mind since then, with the media giving him a pass (if they even bother to ask.)  But you have to ask yourself...would George Bush get the same courtesy?  Of course not.

[Note:  Just because I made a reference to abortion in the news doesn't mean we will discuss it on the air.  It is still a banned subject.  This reference was made only to show that Kerry can't stick to one position on anything.]

Kerry also shared this nugget of wisdom in the same interview: "I think liberals spend too much time pushing issues which just aren't relevant to the mass of people, including among such issues abortion, the death penalty and amnesty" (for draft-dodgers, probably.)  Whoa boy...that sounds more like George Bush than John Kerry. Wonder how he'll get out of that one.

Here's another sKerry tidbit from the vault. Back in 1971, at an appearance at a college in West Virginia, Kerry delivered this line: "Our democracy is a farce; it is not the best in the world."  Now, setting aside his general ignorance that the United States is not a democracy, just what country was he implying was better? He didn't say.

Kerry is running around writing off remarks such as this as "young and foolish."  However, at the same time, he is campaigning on his record of military service, which at the time he denounced. So which is it?  sKerry's having it both ways, and the mainstream media is letting him get away with it.

Oh ... and by the way.  Do you know that The Poodle has forgotten how to speak French?  What do you want to bet he would reacquire that skill in amazing time if he actually wins this election.

WHAT'S THE BIG DEAL ABOUT THE COFFIN PHOTOS

Some photos have found their way onto the internet with the flag-draped coffins of fallen soldiers returning to the United States at Dover Air Force Base.  The pictures show the very respectful handling of the deceased, along with some photos of the ceremony upon their arrival.  It's all very tastefully done, or course, and everyone in the military should be proud of the way the United States handles it.

The Defense Department didn't particularly like the photos being released, and the two contractors responsible for taking them were fired. They say they were just trying to show the victim's families that their fallen sons and daughters were handled with respect.  As the saying goes, no good deed goes unpunished.

The media, apparently thinking the photos have some sort of shock value, are ginning up the controversy. Is this supposed to turn people against the war when they see the casualties coming home?  It's regularly reported how many soldiers have died in Iraq...how did people think it was done?

We have two villains in this story.  Some media-types are showcasing these pictures in the hopes that they will turn people against the war and against George Bush.  Then we have the Pentagon which seeks to censor these pictures.  It's a sad sight, to be sure, but instead of trying to hide the images of loss from the American people, the Pentagon needs to remind Americans why those losses are necessary.  If you can't explain why some Americans should be put in harm's way for their country, then the cause for which they fight and die is not worthy of support.

INTEMPERATE AND RANDOM THOUGHTS

Yesterday's show sucked.  If it had been a horse I would have shot it.  I've decided to blame it on the listeners.

There's a thoroughbred race horse out there named "Boortz."  It ran a few weeks ago at Gulfstream Park in Florida.  This week it ran at  Aqueduct in New York --- and won  Boortz paid $8.50 to win.  My ego demands that I find out if this horse was named after me, and what it is going to earn when it goes to stud.

Train collision and explosion in North Korea.  Yesterday we hear that 3000 were killed.  Today we hear the number was closer to 200.  Later today Hillary Clinton will tell us that 2800 were brought back from the dead by North Korea's superior government-run health care system.

John Kerry told students at Bethany College in the 1970's that  communism was not a threat to the United States.  Well ... maybe not as great a threat as he is.

Did you know that pollsters can't call cell phones?  They're not allowed to place a call that could cost the person they're calling any money.  This means that if you have abandoned land lines for cell phones you don't count in the polls.

Now here's a good question:  "If Harley-Davidson built an airplane, would I fly in it?"  No.

Marketing idea for Johnson & Johnson.  The "Purple Heart" Band-aid.

John sKerry has a secret plan for your Social Security.  It's simple.  Your benefits get cut.  Remember ... there is no law which guarantees that you will get back any, let alone all, of that money you paid into Social Security.

READING ASSIGNMENTS ... READ THEM AND BE A WISE ASS KNOW-IT-ALL LIKE ME

What would you think of someone who can't find anything that The Godfather says that they agree with, except the issue over the seizure of his medical records -- and the only reason she agrees on this issue is because the ACLU is involved.   This woman doesn't believe that America is a good country.  She doesn't believe in economic freedom.  She doesn't believe in the value of the American family.  She doesn't believe in fidelity.  What a miserable woman she must be indeed.

Who was it that said "You don't professionalize unless you federalize."?  Oh yeah, it was Tom Daschle.  And what was he talking about?  Airport security screeners.  And just how professional are our now-federalized airport security screeners?  Not very.

The Federal Censorship Commission (FCC) is on a roll lately. Do you really want the federal government deciding what you can and cannot hear on the radio? Listen up, because your Talkmaster will set you straight. 

As for Howard Stern?  Well, his show may still be on the air, but Brian Doherty says that the FCC has already killed Howard Stern.

It looks like bad news for Bush is even worse news for Kerry. The more the media perceives things don't look so good for the president, the higher his poll numbers. Richard Cohen explains.

Maybe now that their workers are dying while working in Iraq, people will stop blaming Halliburton for everything. Max Boot says they're getting a bad rap.

John Kerry says that if he is elected, he will go back to the U.N. over Iraq.  What exactly would he be going back for? Charles Krauthammer takes a look.

When pressed on Sunday's 'Meet the Press,' Kerry recited the same line about what he would do about Iraq.  Where's his plan, asks Jeff Jacoby.

With few exceptions, throughout history liberals have been on the wrong side of just about every war America has fought. Jonah Goldberg wonders why they don't want to look the current enemy in the eye.

In addition to being a complete waste of time, the 9/11 Commission  hearings have turned into a complete sideshow. What's the point? Here's some insight from Paul Greenberg.

Looks like some on the 9/11 Commission need a dictionary. They're using a lot of words without knowing their exact meanings, says Mona Charen.

The fraud and corruption in the U.N. food-for-oil program is finally coming to light.  Not only was it a complete disgrace, but it hurt the people it was suppose to help the most. Where's the outrage?  Here's more from Helle Dale.

Think Martha Stewart deserves to go to the slammer?  Actually, her recent conviction is a sad sign of our times, says Thomas Sowell.

GOLF THE BAHAMAS WITH NEAL!
Golf, beach parties, casinos, all to benefit charity--and Boortz listeners are invited. Find out more here!

BOORTZ BLAST NEWSLETTER
Everyone is talking about the Boortz Blast newsletter. Do you want yours? Sign up here and we'll deliver it directly to your inbox every 2 weeks. If you signed up but aren't receiving it, either your company or your spam filter could be keeping it from you. Try using a personal email address and check your spam filter's junk folder for wayward newsletters.

NEAL'S FANS GET TOGETHER
If you like Neal and are looking for like minded people to hang out with online or off, check out these places:

 

Belinda Skelton, Ken Rogers, Laura Nunemaker and Brian Ganey assist in the daily preparation of Nealz Nuze!

 
 

Neal Boortz's Latest Tweets

 
 

© 2013 Cox Media Group. By using this website, you accept the terms of our Visitor Agreement and Privacy Policy, and understand your options regarding Ad ChoicesAdChoices.