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THE FINAL DEPARTURE

Let the recriminations begin! Unless you just woke up from a 24-hour nap, you've no doubt heard about what went on down in Miami yesterday with American Airlines flight 924.

The plane was on a stopover from Colombia to Orlando. It was during that time that 44-year-old U.S. citizen Rigoberto Alpizar decided to board an airplane and announce he had a bomb. After that, he disobeyed a direct order from two air marshals to stop and lay down. Then he appeared to reach into his backpack which marked the official end of the line and the beginning of the eternal celestial dirt nap for Rigoberto Alpizar.

The air marshals did what they were trained to do. They did what they were supposed to do. They did what they had to do. They shot him. DRT.

A search afterward revealed no bomb. His wife was shouting that he was mentally ill and off his medication...too bad. It is a tragedy for his family, but we live in times where airline security has to be absolute.

If you have a family member suffering from mental problems, make damned sure they're on their medications if you're going to put them on a commercial airplane. This "he's not taking his medications" thing was just a bit late. The airplane he was on can hold 180 passengers. It is the responsibility of air marshals to get those people where they are going safely. When you have someone who says they have a bomb, the threat has to be neutralized, and it was. These marshals didn't have the time to administer an ink blot test to Alpizar. They didn't have the time to call in a grief counselor from the nearest government school.

They had to act. They had reason to believe that Alpizar had a bomb. He told them he had a bomb. At that point they acted just the way any rational person would expect and demand that they act. They neutralized the threat. Remember...on 9/11, the passengers of the hijacked planes were scared not of the box cutters that the Islamic hijackers used, but of their threat of having a bomb. There was no bomb then either, yet 3,000 people died anyway.

And so Rigoberto Alpizar is dead. In retrospect that's sad. But there is nobody to blame for this except Alpizar, for not taking his meds, and his wife, for not making sure he did. Already, though, we have the condescending, sneering questions from the media. Since no bomb was found, they're insinuating that the shooting wasn't justified. He was bipolar, we're told, and wasn't responsible for his actions. Wrong on all counts. The lives of the people on board that plane are more important than the personal problems of any one passenger.

One particularly insipid remark I'm hearing is "why didn't they Taser him?" Taser? You have a man with a suspected bomb, and he's reaching into his backpack to presumably detonate that bomb, and you want to shock him? You think that he wouldn't have time to pull that detonation trigger if you stick electric needles into his leg? Come on, folks. Grow up here!

So they took him out. One Democratic congressman put it best yesterday. Ed Markey, who is on the Homeland Security Committee, praised the actions of the air marshal: "Air marshals put their lives on the line every day to keep us safe. Thanks to the efforts of an alert air marshal, an individual was prevented from causing a potentially dangerous situation on the American Airlines flight that could have harmed passengers and crew members." For once, Ed Markey gets it right.

MORE TAX CUTS

Perhaps there is still hope for the Republican congress. The House passed three tax cuts yesterday and are looking to put through a fourth today. Yes...you read that right...tax cuts. This is fabulous news. The Senate will probably kill it, but hey, we can enjoy the possibility, right? The cuts would amount to $94.5 billion over 5 years.

The tax cuts are for the hurricane-affected areas, investors, U.S.

troops, and taxpayers who pay the ridiculous alternative minimum tax. So what's not to like? Well, as usual, Democrats, the media and some weak-kneed "Republicans" are wringing their hands over how to "pay for"

these tax cuts. They say it will run up the deficit. You see, to them, their philosophy is that all of your money belongs to them, and it is only through their generosity do you get to keep any of it. Never mind cutting spending, either. It's all about increasing revenues. Government spending has almost doubled since Bush was elected in 2000 ... and the can't afford to get rid of the Alternative Minimum Tax? This is an outrage. These politicians are always so willing to take more money from you, but just suggest that we take some money away from their grandiose vote-buying spending bills and they act like you're killing babies!

Time for a plug. All of this nonsense would go away if the FairTax proposal were adopted. Everyone would be treated the same, and the only tax cut to worry about would be lowering the actual rate. Imagine that!

DEMOCRATS WANT BAD NEWS

George W. Bush has finally been giving speeches talking about the progress in Iraq. Yes, there is good news, and there has been for some time. So the president makes a speech detailing the progress, but Democrats can't have that. Because you see, good news in Iraq benefits America, and by extension, the president. That simply cannot be allowed to stand in the modern Democratic Party (except Joe Liebermann.) The Godfather has it right. Good news for America is bad news for Democrats. Good news for Democrats is bad news for America. Is that any way to run a political party?

First up in the doom and gloom offensive is Jack Murtha, Congressman Cut And Run. Speaking out after Bush's speech, Murtha said "I'm showing you that I don't see the kind of progress he sees. ... I don't know that you can call him dishonest, but certainly, the public is not buying it." We also heard from Nancy Pelosi yesterday, who said that "From day one, Bush has misled the American people. He didn't know what he was getting into or didn't know how to go about it. He wanted to go to Iraq in the worst possible way, and he did. Just because he says things are improving there doesn't make it so. It is not happening. We are not succeeding. ... Nothing that has transpired so far has made Iraq more stable." That about says it all...the Ba'athists in the Democratic Party still want a full surrender.

But you have to read between the lines on this one. It's not that Democrats don't think we'll win in Iraq, it's that they don't want us to. An American victory in Iraq would be vindication for George Bush. The left's hatred of Bush runs so deep, they're willing to abandon our troops and Iraq to the Islamic terrorists just to win political points. The Democrats politicization of this war is shocking and outrageous.

There are genuine public policy debates and disagreements out there, but when it comes to the cut-and-run strategy in Iraq there is no reasonable way anyone can look a the Democrats "let's call it a day and go home" proposals and not recognize the dangers that lie therein. If the US announced that we would be "redeploying" American troops in six months the Islamic terrorists and insurgents would immediately understand that victory is theirs. All they would have to do is lay low for a few months, let the Americans leave, and then move to seize control of the fledgling Iraqi government. Shortly after the Americans withdrew the terrorist factions would be fully in charge in Iraq. Terrorist training camps and weapons development would follow. Not only would the terrorist elements realize that they had won, but the Iraqi people would have to face the realization that once again the United States had failed to fulfill their promise of a stable and freely elected government for Iraq. Those in Iraq who cooperated in any way with the Americans would be marked for execution. As soon as the intentions of the United States were made know millions of Iraqis would suddenly express their opposition not only to the American presence, but also to the new government of Iraq. The people of Iraq would know that their continued safety would depend on their being on the winning side, and the winning side would be that of the insurgents and the terrorists. al-Zarqawai would be the new de-facto leader of Iraq. In the meantime, any move towards representative governments in Syria and Iran would be over. All progress made in the Middle East over the past four years would be erased overnight.

Democrats know this ... all of it. Yet they don't care. They are driven by their blind hatred for George Bush and the bitterness that still exists over their being removed from control of the Congress by the voters in 1994. Hatred robs you of logic and rationality. The left's hatred of Bush, and, in some cases, America, deprives them of the ability to see the consequences of their actions. Their hatred has made them politically and mentally unstable. If we don't recognize this dangerous pathology soon, we'll all suffer for it.

Remember...when a Republican is in the Oval Office....Democrats thrive on bad news. What's bad for America and bad for the Military is just fine for the left.

REDNECK SCRAP BOOK

Take your kid to see the space shuttle! Go ahead, he probably won't know the difference. More in the Redneck Scrap Book.

READING ASSIGNMENTS

Here's another fun product name that came up yesterday. Click it to find out more.

WHAT THE HECK ARE THOSE POINTY HAND THINGS?

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