Turn Around

"Americans are now in favor by majorities for the Democrats to use reconciliation and even just completely changing the rules to either do away with filibusters or lower the number of votes it takes to kill a filibuster." Mike Hendricks, Turn Around

Posted Thursday, February 18, 2010, at 2:37 PM

Got proof?

"For all the talk of the Tea Parties I do not see them deciding much of anything. There will be a few states (mostly in the south) that will get a few Tea Party candidates into elected office but the Tea Party is really a regional entity and it's southern." Mike Hendricks, Turn Around

Posted Thursday, February 18, 2010, at 2:37 PM

Again, Got proof?

"The one true candidate to date that was endorsed by the Tea Party lost in a conservative district."

Mike Hendricks, Turn Around

Posted Thursday, February 18, 2010, at 2:37 PM

Who?

"I don't see the Democratic Party losing either house. I think the majority in the Senate will sink down to nil with the Democrats holding a one to two seat margin but in the House I see the Republicans gaining a majority there. "Mike Hendricks, Turn Around

Posted Thursday, February 18, 2010, at 2:37 PM

???

Thanks for pointing out that I had left something out of the original blog it has now been fixed and noted

As far as the filibuster goes there here is a poll on the filibuster:

http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/2010/02/poll-majority-want-filibuster-gone.ph...

I probably misspoke on the reconciliation though I will continue looking for the polls.

As for the Tea Party there is no fact that is my opinion thought it is bore out to an extent by where most of the Tea Party Express sites were.

Doug Hoffman in the New York 23rd District was the Tea Party candidate.

Yeah unfortunately liberals don't control anything in Congress, there are a handful, at best, of liberals in both houses. The moderates are in power right now.

As a "Southern Born and Bred" Old Line Republican, who actively worked in "uphill" GOP campaigns fighting the corrupt Democratic machines until my mid-30s, when "My Party" welcomed those lying, thieving, corrupt Dixie-Crats: Romney, Palin, McCain and their totally negative crowd have probably lost my votes for the remainder of my life.

Some total idiot here will blame the Sitting President for "quadrupling the national debt."

FACT -- Geo. Herb. Walker Bush and RR ran up more national debt that all previous presidents and created a serious recession in the mid-80s, which was still destroying most of the economy until after Wm. Clinton was in office.

I saw their disaster first hand as an independent factory rep servicing more than 3500 retailers in the western 22 states, when the only profit I saw from 1985 through 1990 came from helping buy and broker used capital equipment from farms and ranches, mines, timbering and lumber operations and the oil patch. We paid fire sale prices at foreclosure and bankruptcy auctions, shipped overseas at strong profits, thanks to Reagan/Bush.

Clinton/Gore cut the federal payroll, cut tens of thousands of pages of redundant and outdated federal regulations, balanced the budget and started paying down the federal debt for the first time in my lifetime.

Republicans do not want to believe it, but FACTS IS FACTS.

Then the George DubYah Bush/Cheney years brought two mismanaged wars, another doubling of debt -- which produced the BUSH-DIRECTED FEDERAL DEBT QUADRUPLING and finally -- near-total economic collapse.

Having survived the Great Depression and knowing how bad life can get -- I knew there was no way to keep this nation out of depression.

By reading and studying I am just now partially understanding how the Obama/Biden policies have worked for economic recovery.

They have accomplished more in one year, than FDR did in his first two terms, 1933 through 1941.

What has MY Republican Party contributed.

Not one positive ingredient.

My GOP is an embarrassment to me, the Constitution and this nation.

They have knowingly spewed vitriol, venom, hatred, outright lies and expanded lies in their desperation.

GOP congressmen and senators insisting upon Health Care Reform payment for family physicians providing "end of life" consultation -- and GOP "mouths" turning that into "Obama's Death Panels."

That was dishonest, corrupt and despicable.

Reading the record, it became clear that the vast majority of amendments approved by committees were presented by Republicans.

The Democrats welcomed positive contributions and supported them. Then, solid block party-line opposition voting on all Health Care Reform proposals.

I do not cast my ballots to elect "BLOCK HEADS" -- Republican or Democrats.

This administration would be more than justified to launch formal investigations into the unholy Cheney-Halliburton-Kellog, Brown & Root connection.

A blind man could see the fraud, theft and corruption contained in those No-Bid contracts. Theater commanders have reported more than 30 electrocution deaths in KBR buildings. Most of those people were killed in the showers.

VA Medical Centers and Hospitals were financially starved at the same time thousands more patients were being produced in those two mismanaged wars.

This week, more U.S. and allies' troops are dying driving the Taliban drug gangsters from an area they had rarely dared enter prior to 2004.

Our men fought, were wounded and died driving Al Qaeda and the Taliban nearly to extinction in 2002 and 2003, before Bush/Cheney pulled out of a winning effort to invade Iraq, with their "budgeted war" - which left hundreds of tons of explosives, bombs, artillery shells, weapons and ammunition to be stolen and used against us.

Today, with a strengthened, entrenched and globally dispersed enemy threatening control of the Pakistani nuclear arsenal, our people and our allies are again dying to retake the same ground and again grind down the enemy.

Reports from over there reveal how our troops finally have effective equipment and weaponry and are properly supplied for victory.

No more of Dick Cheney standing before TV cameras denying combat soldiers were forced to salvage scrap steel plate to armor their thin-skinned vehicles.

For this Southern born Republican that may have been the Epiphany -- Cheney lying, with CNN going to a split screen and soldiers welding steel plates to HumVees in Iraq alongside his lying face.

No more humiliation for Republican voters watching that president arriving to a carrier off San Diego aboard the "mail plane' and strutting across the deck in a pressure suit before that stupid banner.

Fool, you quote me a cbs news/new york times poll after saying you only watch Gallup's polls in an earlier post.

Fool, Doug Hoffman was a Conservative party candidate.

Fool, indeed.

hankherndon aka -- My what an original non-intellect --

Are you certain that tingle on your leg isn't just you wetting your pants again?

Doug Hoffman was indeed a Conservative party candidate that was endorsed by the National Tea Party Organization and many of it's de facto leaders such as Sarah Palin who wouldn't even admit that he had lost and Newt Gingrich who was just on hand for the signing of "The Mount Vernon Statement" in which two signers were from a group that gives considerable money to National Tea Party Organization.

Also, I not once said I only follow Gallup polls. I said that Gallup was the most dependable especially compared to the Rasmussen, who's founder was a Republican operative in the 80s and supported George W. Bush in his second election.

None the less, Hoffman was a Conservative Party candidate, not a Tea Party candidate. Huge difference. I noticed you try to CYA with clutter that has nothing to do with your prior statements. Nice try.

Are you trying to win your argument with an unreliable cbs/nyt poll, while ignoring the more accurate Gallup? Again, nice try.

The only person here trying to CYA seems to be you. Odd, the Tea Party and conservatives absolutely loved Hoffman when he ran the Republican candidate out of the race but he lost so now there is a lot of distancing, even denying that there was ever any real support for Hoffman.

I just want to see if I am clear on this: you incorrectly credited me with a quote I never made, I corrected you and I'm the one that is trying to "CYA with clutter that has nothing to do with your prior statements"? Seriously? If you can reproduce my post where I said "I only read the Gallup poll" I will apologize and correct myself.

Again, the only one trying to cover themselves with clutter is you. But hey when it comes to you CPB I'm used to you changing the argument or crediting comments to people who haven't made them only to further chastise them when you're wrong. So thanks for not disappointing.

Where in the world did you ever get the idea there was no support for Hoffman? Correct me for what? You were the one who brought up the clutter about Sarah Palin denying Hoffman lost, I didn't. You are also the one who brought up the crap about Newt Gingrich and the signing of the Mount Vernon Statement, I didn't.

The premise of this argument was your using an unreliable, unscientific poll. Your statement of Doug Hoffman being a Tea Party candidate. And your incoherent statement about possible victory scenerios in the House and Senate.

The rest was just noise.

hankherndon --

It would seem impossible for you to embellish a past that never had anything in it -- just as you appear to have an empty life now.

To empty to provide your own original handle.

Somehow I suspect the anger toward my comments is generated more by frustration with obvious knowledge of reality, clear official misconduct during Republican administrations and proven incompetence of Republican leadership.

Three major swings of GOP administrations since 1970 --

Nixon -- the entire senior staff behind bars; The handpicked VP Agnew behind bars, and the president forced to resign by his own party.

Reagan/Ford -- massive economic dislocation, foreclosures, bankruptcies, the entire Rural West Economy in shambles (Farming, ranching, mines, timber, oil), the S&L disaster.

Bush/Cheney, the DDD -- The worst economic collapse in nearly 80 years, two mismanaged wars, massive bailouts for auto makers, major banks and the biggest financial markets insuror.

The capper will be if President Obama relaxes restrictions on the Justice Dept. and they actually file federal felony complaints against Chaney and the entire Halliburton/KBR crowd.

Sorry, unoriginal thinker -- or is that nonthinker?

I'll keep presenting facts regarding the Bush family and their record, so long as there are small minds defending them.

"Gallup has always done their polling fair and straight down the middle."

Posted by ekimsitruc on Thu, Jan 7, 2010, at 11:34 PM

OK, Gallup is not your preference, MY APOPLOGIES!

Isnt this an opinion blog?

bigdawg,

Amazing someone would notice.

The problem with Neo-Cons is very simple:

In their world, there is no diversity of opinion.

The big donors to today's GOP politics issue marching orders, national GOP party and congressional leadership issues the orders;

Voila -- All good little boys and girls march lock-step to follow those orders.

The thing they will never understand.

The Democratic voters and their party leaders understand elected office holders are just that ---- ELECTED.

They are ELECTED to think individually, consider issues individually, consult with voters in their districts individually -- and go into the House or Senate to vote -- individually.

That Terrible Grandmother Nancy Pelosi and Terrible Grandfather Harry Reid do not give orders, ala GOP dictators.

They consult with their members, attend each caucus, discuss and encourage support for the Democratic President's proposals -- or if they disagree with that President, they argue in opposition.

Back around 1925, Will Rogers said it best, "I don't belong to any organized political party, I'm a Democrat."

After the last presidential elections and in published books, it seems at times the GOP has found its own interesting level of disorganization.

However, after a full year of rigid opposition with virtually 100% block voting on every issue -- this 21st Century Republican Party is still operating in the same "Kiss the Rich Man's Rear," everybody stay in the militarily precise formation and nobody thinks as an intelligent human being.

EVERYBODY DO WHAT THEY ARE TOLD!!!

The Neo-Cons here fit totally into that mold --

"We must all think alike -- noone is allowed to think, speak or write anything that differs with the party line as delivered by Saints Rush, Beck, Hannity, Coulter and Savage."

"We will listen to those people and repeat their message word for word, without consideration."

@@@@@@@Back around 1925, Will Rogers said it best, "I don't belong to any organized political party, I'm a Democrat.">>>>>>>

And look at what the Democrats did for the civil rights of African Americans.

"...a tired old man whose life has passed him by ..." -hankherndon

Joe Buck! You're not fooling all of us. Your grammar is very simple and instantly recognizable regardless of the weak efforts you have taken to sound smarter. Still trolling, the only difference is, you haven't said anything bad about black people yet! Good job! (But I remember, Joe Buck)

CPB,

You said "Hoffman was a Conservative Party candidate, not a Tea Party candidate"

My response was to that statement. The Tea Party rose millions of dollars for Hoffman. Sarah Palin, who's biggest supporters are in the Tea Party, said the day after Hoffman lost that he hadn't really lost because the election was not over.

So, I really don't know where the disconnect is on this portion.

Yes Wallis let's look at the what the Democratic Party has done for blacks with civil rights. Now I know you are going to try to push the revisionist version of what actually happened, but it was the Democratic Party that passed Civil Rights for blacks. I'm sure you'll also bring up the Dixiecrats in an effort to discredit the Democratic Party. But here's the thing, what happened to the majority of Dixiecrats in the 70s? They became Republicans. The Dixiecrats only Presidential candidate was Strom Thurmond who became a major voice in the Republican Party.

Those are the facts, so I guess you can give us the revisionist version of Civil Rights now.

And the Republicans pulled off a controlled demolition of the Twin Towers to maintain business interests in the middle east! Your move, Joe.

Backwards Hank,

Having been involved in the Civil Rights issues since the early 1950s, your BS that the national Democrats are fomenting racial hatred is a total joke. We were fighting the DixieCrats in the 1940s, 50s, the 60s and well into the 70s and 80s.

When LBJ signed the first Civil Rights legislation, passed almost exclusively with only Democratic votes -- and none from the DixieCrats, those same DixieCrats bolted to the GOP.

The DixieCrats took over the original Republican Party and brought all of their lying, thieving, corrupt racism with them -- George Wallace, Strom Thurmond, Jesse Helms and all their crowd.

Who were the effective leaders for Civil Rights -- Try Hubert Humphrey, Lyndon Baines Johnson, Jimmy Carter, Harry Truman with his revolutionary integration of the military, Adlai Stevenson, Bobby and Ted Kennedy-- the list of Democrats fighting to achieve full Civil and Human Rights for all would take four issues of the Gazette to include -- in eight point type.

The law enforcement officers trying to turn around black voters from Floridas 2000 election polling places knew they were discouraging votes.

OHIO'S REPUBLICAN ELECTION OFFICIALS IN 2004 who supplied major Democratic-oriented BLACK precincts with two broken voting machines were not trying to stop Republican voters.

Two elections stolen by crooked GOP politicians.

At the same time, the list of Republicans and Dixie-Crats who fought integration, civil rights and human rights is just about as long.

The GOP resisted and fought all minorities from the 1940s to the present, where uber-conservative Republican Art Pope in NC funded a local school board election with $38,000 to eradicate every trace of integration. His stated intent. Not improvement of education -- but elimination of diversification. "Our wealthy white suburb should not have poor black children in the schools."

"And look at what the Democrats did for the civil rights of African Americans. -- Posted by wallismarsh on Fri, Feb 19, 2010, at 5:59 AM"

Wallis, the Oil Industry's Houston Mouthpiece -- everything above applies to your nonsense.

It was a Democratic Congress which passed the first Civil Rights legislation and LBJ who signed the bill. Check the history books.

There have been a handful of Republicans who crossed lines in support of Civil Rights legislation, but the standard practice of Republicans in House and Senate who could not vote against those bills, was to just skip that session and "fly home" for some important district and state business.

Your benighted Strom Thurmond verbally condemned all African-Americans ["Nigras" in his language} filibustered every Civil Rights gain -- while maintaining a "colored" mistress and fathering a bi-racial family.

I was directly involved in gaining integration of one major university and multiple elementary and secondary public school districts.

NOT ONE TIME was there a Republican of stature helping achieve integration. One incredible lady in Virginia devoted nearly two months fulltime to the fight -- when her husband, a GOP county committee member, learned of her actions, he attempted to keep her from getting a dime and battled for a divorce giving him 100% because she had publicly disgraced him and his reputation by supporting civil rights.

Republican involvement with Civil Rights -- Hell, the GOP welcomed Attack Dog Bull Connors in Birmingham gladly after he directed the police riot attacks on the marchers and changed registration.

Connors was the poster boy for violent opposition to civil rights -- and the Republicans had him speaking at conventions as a result.

Somehow you Neo-Cons actually believe you can tell any lie and have it believed -- because you claim to believe in God, the Constitution, family values and mom's apple pie.

What the GOP believes in is control of the U.S. Treasury so your elected officials can fill the pockets of their cronies -- HALLIBURTON, KBR AND BLACKWATER, for example.

Mike -

A friend of mine just forwarded me a link with some of your info.

Good for you on what you have accomplished.

While you and I disagree on politics - we have lived a different life. We have made different choices in life. We would not be where we are today had we not.

Any way - politics aside - You have accomplished a lot over the last 10 years.

Just understand - that some of us have made different choices and have worked hard also.

Not all Republicans are pure greedy devils and not all Democrats are socialist lazy pigs.

Anyway - try and have a open mind and your blog might actually be a place for people to learn instead of the free for all - whoever slams the best wins until someone slams you.

Reformed Right Winger,

Just as "it" expected -- the clueless phony who calls himself "...hankherndon..." has got you confused.

I've been on here for some time as "HerndonHank" and the artificial nutcase came on with the reversed handle for this very purpose.

He ain't me, and I ain't him -- and first thing every morning I give thanks for that one fact.

Clueless Certifiable Rectal Orifices who only know insult and negativity as their way of life don't deserve respect.

Thank God, at my advanced age, I still accomplish more for myself and other people in the first hour weekly than whatever it is that calls itself "....hankherndon..." achieves in a month.

Suspect, that may be the guy who usually lounged at the back of pool halls waiting for cigarette butts to pull apart for his "chaw."

Wallis Marsh,

Consider this my last response to you. Your last post left me unnerved and with a huge feeling of having my privacy completely violated. You said a good "friend" sent you a link on me but I'm left feeling that the information wasn't received without having been asked for first.

It still amazes me that you could hold to an assumption you held onto about me because you couldn't find me on an alumni website and you jumped to tell everyone on the boards vast misinformation about me. Even after you finally admitted that you had been wrong you still decided to make one final assumption about how I feel about McCook.

Truth is I absolutely love McCook and if I had to opportunity to move back I would in an absolute second.

I understand that you own a lot of property in the McCook area and are a big wig in the town despite living over 900 miles away and I guess now that makes more sense that even though I flagged your original misinformation about me as a violation of McCook's website terms of service the comment was never removed.

It is my wish that you no longer post comments on any of my blogs. I can't stop you from doing that, despite what a lot of the posters on here believe I don't have the power to preclude you from posting on my blogs. It has been proven that you and others can break as many of the rules clearly laid out in the Terms of Service but if you claim that you are having your right to free speech violated your comments no matter how libelous no matter how disgusting will not be removed.

I don't know what kind of person you are out there in the real world but I know that on here you berate those who don't agree with you on a constant basis, make statements on blogs that have nothing at all to do with the stated purpose of the blog, and make defending a relative seem sinful, wrong, and evil.

I have said in the past I believe you to be nothing more than a troll, or to put it more simply, you are a person whose sole purpose is to come on websites and make statements designed to a get reaction from other posters.

You can claim that I am doing this in defense of my dad, that's fine there's nothing wrong with defending family ... but that's not why I'm doing this. I am doing this because I feel that you have violated my privacy by having a "friend" send you information on me. If you wanted to know what I've been doing for the last ten years, you could have simply asked me instead of doing it so seedily.

As I said I will not respond to anything else you have to say from this point forward.

Michael Hendricks

I was attempting to be sincere.

You took it the wrong way.

Wallis,

Screw you head back on.

"Love of Obama"

"Hatred of Bush"

I don't hate. Where DubYah and the Draft Dodgers are concerned -- I have NO RESPECT, period.

Anyone who ever sat in Texas Stadium when the Texas Ranger's Franchise president came wandering down with a 16-ow plastic cup of his favorite beverage and had to be golf-carted to the Club House will lack respect for him. Combine that with his public business record, along with his ducking of active duty during Nam -- along with his suddenly developed Super Patriot pose at a late point in his life -- PLUS his choice of close political associates from among the ranks of draft dodgers -- That's well earned lack of respect.

Find me another "oil developer" in the Permian Basin who never found oil.

As for LOVE for any politician -- Forget it.

Obama I respect.

For good reason.

He admits he was a typical "windward shore" Hawaiian kid, multi-racial, laid-back, capable in sports and casual.

Then, at some point, his brain kicked in and he developed a fire in his belly to achieve something in life.

He could have taken his Columbia degree and parlayed it into millions in NYC within a decade.

Instead -- he went into South Chicago to help people devastated by steel mill closings.

After that, one of the top graduates of the best law school in the world.

Unlike DubYah, no platinum spoon in his mouth.

Actually, with DubYah that seems to have been a platinum funnel.

Unlike McCain, no AWSOME LEGACY to disgrace at every opportunity. Reality, without the two admirals to support his misconduct and classroom indolence, combined with insolence -- John McCain would never have received appointment to a military academy. He would not have survived at Annapolis. He would not have remained in Naval Aviation. He would never have been a Navy officer.

Which means he would never have had the opportunity to walk into that cancer ward and present his first wife with divorce papers.

What I hate this past year is the unrelenting lies, deception and hatred hurled at the President of the United States.

This President won election with a huge majority, efectively defeating a half-dozen well-financed and staffed political machines with his crew of amateurs backed by $10-$90 donations on the internet.

He did not steal an election, a la DubYah and his brother in 2000, or by preventing thousands of Democratic votes from being cast in 2004.

In actual fact, this administration has accomplished more to bring the U.S. and the world out of economic collapse in one year than FDR did in his first nine years in office.

The mess in Iraq is in process of being cleared.

The Taliban stronghold in southern Afghanistan has been occupied with one American killed and less than a dozen Allies and Afghan army deaths, while hundreds of Taliban suicide fighters have been killed. Tragically, the Taliban held civilians as shields and several have died.

Our people went in there with new "low-cost" equipment developed for conditions.

Lives were saved.

With a Commander in Chief, who listens to the military professionals, consults with economic specialists, extracts maximum information from the State Department and brings all together to openly debate and argue their ideas.

This is a president who does not surround himself with tail kissers. He not only encourages open debate among his advisers -- He demands it.

With DubYah -- those who disagreed or opposed his mistakes, before or after they were proven to be dumb mistakes -- were ejected from his court.

This is the huge difference -- Bush who was promoting some sort of dried-out zealotry.

Obama -- Who recruits the best of the best to work with his appointees and himself -- and listens to them in developing solutions that work.

Foreign leaders have been alike in praising his interest in having honest discussions -- rather than engaging in hours of lectures based upon total ignorance of the particular subject.

Most Americans have no concept of how totally the rest of the world's leaders distrusted and disliked DubYah and Cheney.

I have very limited respect for, and no affection for the English Royal Family. But, during the past half century, Queen Elizabeth has never before displayed such obvious liking for any other public official or family.

Elizabeth does not suffer fools or phonies gracefully.

She has always fulfilled her formal duties toward U.S. Presidents and officials.

But, with the Obamas there is a tremendous difference. She has openly shown affection and personal liking.

With the hidebound, autocratic Royal Household protocol and choking tradition, to see the Queen of England slide her arm around any younger woman and hug her while standing in a Buckingham Rose Garden reception line was astonishing.

Elizabeth was not unaware of the political sensation it would cause.

Naturally, the first reaction came from Neo-Con haters condemning Michelle Obama for being part of the queen's gesture.

Just as the haters have pounced on every detail to attack the President and his family.

There can be no doubt that much of this hatred is racially based.

But much more is directed from those who are losing their gluttonous place at the public trough.

The Healh Insurors don't want to give up their #12.5-BILLION annual net profits.

The oil and gas industry does not want to relinquish one dime of its Several Trillion Dollar annual entitlement.

The banks do not want to be curtailed from raping the public.

(Any doubt, this Wednesday morning look at the bonus announcement for the NYC banks.)

Understanding the motivation for the attacks is not difficult.

What is impossible to understand are the "Little Fish" private millionaires, who are naive enough to believe they are part of the truly wealthy power wielders -- and support their actions and policies.

There are at least 1000 old-money families around the Western World and probably more in the so-called developing nations and Russia -- who toss away more in casual discretionary spending monthly than most self-styled wealthy U.S. citizens possess in total assets.

wallismarsh, you have just experienced the deadly venomous bite of the narcissist. They are always right, they are always the smartest, they are always the best. Any one who challenges their absolute authority must be personally destroyed. We here at the blogs have seen Mike's debate style and know difficult it is to challenge him. The assumptions that all republicans are conservatives, that all conservatives are far-right. The additions of caveats to the argument that dilute and weaken our arguments so he can claim victory.

Yes wallis, it may be best to not respond to Mike. In fact it may be best to just ignore Mike, I will.

Wow, NatsoGouda, --

Great original handle.

Only a few slight problems with your numbers.

All of us with VA medical benefits are among the "insured" classification.

All the Medicare/Medicaid recipients are included.

All those covered in fraternal, religious and other programs are included.

I haven't time to do new research right now, but I seriously doubt if the total number of those covered with For-Profit Private Insurance Companies' policies exceed 150-Million, would not be surprised if the number is less than 100-Million.

That sort of changes the per-person profit.

Then consider the excessive management compensation packages.

One monopoly single-state Blue Cross president taking home more than $4-Million annually. About a dozen other executives in the seven-figure range.

Their organization enjoys a legally mandated monopoly [With more than 99.5% of the state's health insurance coverage).

Why should managers take $12-Million-Plus as annual compensation to oversee a non-competitive, monopoly operation, which routinely announces huge premium increases?

By the way, Blue Cross/Blue Shield are supposedly not-for-profit operations nationally -- their huge numbers do not go into the For Profit Private Insurors' profit picture.

Same for all other "non-Profit" Insurance firms.

This small town buried a hero today.

Josiah, the fun-loving boy everyone knew as "Biker Joe" came home the final time.

From the Interstate, along the state highway, along the narrow Main Street, all traffic stopped for the six miles to the cemetery. Seemingly every U.S. flag in two states was visible.

Every deputy sheriff and reserve deputy, every police officer and reserve , every cadet for six departments in the area was either in the funeral procession or posted at an intersection.

Every full-time and volunteer fireman, on-duty and off duty alike, were ranked in full uniform before the fire station.

All Post Office employees were at attention, in uniform.

Four scout troops lined the courthouse square, each scout presenting the flag.

Ranked behind, greying members of the VFW, American Legion and Disabled American Veterans.

City hall and courthouse staffs were at attention, Judges in robes, bailiffs in uniform, overweight men and women in business dress -- everyone at attention.

The funeral procession was preceded by single motorcycle officers from the six departments , two county Sheriff's departments and the State Police, followed by the hearse bearing a small town's Hero.

Behind the hearse, at least one hundred of "Biker Joe's" cycling buddies, his brother leading the group with Joe's favorite dirt bike.

Behind from the biggest and most loaded Harleys down to stripped down motocross racers.

Then the procession of autos, the white stretch limos with the family and three miles of Joe's friends.

Joe came home to be with his family and friends, Americans all..