Here's another note I got from Sgt. Joe Duran:

Something I was thinking about on the ride home today after talking with the guys: You can tell Cheney never served by the way he's handled this last issue. Military guys tend not to wait to be handled. They go on guts. Bush waits. Cheney waits. They all wait. To bad Hackett pulled out. Not a very strategic guy, at first, but sometimes its good to let it all hang out, like Murtha did. Its more genuine. And in times like these, I think thats what we need. Its been so long since we've had bare-your-soul honesty, f*&* the polls, focus groups, and donor lists.

Hackett should've taken this quote to heart: "Don't just fight the fights you can win, fight the ones worth fighting." Its gotten so bad that people wouldn't know the truth when they hear it. They'd just assume they're being handled and spun.To quote a movie-again: "People don't drink the sand because they're thirsty. They drink the sand because they don't know the difference." I just hope people like you can help the rest of us make the distinction between strategy and honesty. They've been serving us sand margaritas for so long.

Hope your "gigs" are successful because your wins are the people's wins.