Okay, So I LIED

I am usually one of those frank, tell the truth no matter what kind of gals. I wouldn't want you to think I lied on purpose. It was an accident, really. Kyrie's good friend from B'ham is at Disney World with her bro and dad and wants Kyrie to come for the day. Sigh....Kyrie, who claims she HATES theme parks, Kyrie who every time I MAKE her go with the family sits on a bench while we do the fun stuff, giving us all dirty looks, and only smiles or has fun when I'm not looking. Kyrie, who would rather sleep in until 12:00 noon every day, who went to bed late last night, is up bright and early before 8:00am getting us all out of bed so she can be there on time.

I've decided since I have to drive there anyways, I will take the boys for the day too. I just love fighting the crowds, especially with a stroller.

In other news. I will never be embarrassed or disappointed that I voted for the Bush/Cheney ticket twice. While I certainly don't agree with the bailout crap that has been going on, or his policy on immigration/illegals/amnesty, I think he has a bit more insight into these issues and probably knows more about them than I do and did what he thought was right. Both of these men are heroes in my book and here is just one reason why.

Washington Times:

Bush, Cheney comforted troops privately: Met with thousands of war injured, kin out of spotlight

by Joseph Curl and John Solomon

For much of the past seven years, President Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney have waged a clandestine operation inside the White House. It has involved thousands of military personnel, private presidential letters and meetings that were kept off their public calendars or sometimes left the news media in the dark.

Their mission: to comfort the families of soldiers who died fighting in Afghanistan and Iraq since the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks and to lift the spirits of those wounded in the service of their country.

On Monday, the president is set to make a more common public trip - with reporters in tow - to Walter Reed Army Medical Center, home to many of the wounded and a symbol of controversy earlier in his presidency over the quality of care the veterans were receiving.

GIVING SUPPORT: Vice President Dick Cheney, an avid fly-fisherman, practices his cast with wounded troops from Walter Reed Army Medical Center during one of the half-dozen barbecues he’s hosted at his Naval Observatory home. (White House photo)

But the size and scope of Mr. Bush’s and Mr. Cheney’s private endeavors to meet with wounded soliders and families of the fallen far exceed anything that has been witnessed publicly, according to interviews with more than a dozen officials familiar with the effort.

“People say, ‘Why would you do that?’” the president said in an Oval Office interview with The Washington Times on Friday. “And the answer is: This is my duty. The president is commander in chief, but the president is often comforter in chief, as well. It is my duty to be - to try to comfort as best as I humanly can a loved one who is in anguish.”

Mr. Bush, for instance, has sent personal letters to the families of every one of the more than 4,000 troops who have died in the two wars, an enormous personal effort that consumed hours of his time and escaped public notice. The task, along with meeting family members of troops killed in action, has been so wrenching - balancing the anger, grief and pride of families coping with the loss symbolized by a flag-draped coffin - that the president often leaned on his wife, Laura, for emotional support.

“I lean on the Almighty and Laura,” Mr. Bush said in the interview. “She has been very reassuring, very calming.”

Mr. Bush also has met privately with more than 500 families of troops killed in action and with more than 950 wounded veterans, according to White House spokesman Carlton Carroll. Many of those meetings were outside the presence of the news media at the White House or at private sessions during official travel stops, officials said.

The first lady said those private visits, many of which she also attended, took a heavy emotional toll, not just on the president, but on her as well.

“It is just so unbelievably emotional to be with the families, for everybody involved. I mean for us and for them and for everyone,” she said in a telephone interview with The Times on Saturday. “I’m very aware of how emotional it is and how draining it is for the president and for me, too. Both of us. But I think we do support each other, not by saying anything so much, but just by the comfort of each other’s presence, both when we are with the families and then afterward when we are alone.”