I don’t usually post more article than commentary, but this story says it all.<\/p>\n
John Ward in the Washington Times<\/a> writes about the pen President Bush used yesterday to veto the Democrats’ cobbled-together, pork-laden defense spending bill – otherwise known as the Capitulation Proclamation;\u00c2\u00a0<\/p>\n \u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0The pen was a gift from the father of a U.S. Marine killed in Iraq, who asked Mr. Bush last month to use it when he vetoed a timeline for withdrawal from Iraq. \u00c2\u00a0“I looked the president square in the eye,” Mr. Derga said. “I looked at him and said, ‘Mr. President, if this Iraq supplemental comes down to a veto I want you to use my pen to do it.'” \u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0Yesterday afternoon, Mr. Derga was shutting off his computer at work, around 5:30, when he received a call from Jared Weinstein, Mr. Bush’s personal aide. I thought it was more than appropriate. Please read the rest of the story for more background.<\/p>\n UPDATE: The Washington Post is running the same story in an Anne Flaherty-written AP story<\/a> – well sorta. You have to plow through a\u00c2\u00a0page-and-a-half\u00c2\u00a0of anti-Bush blather until you reach a two-paragraph blurb followed by;<\/p>\n Minutes after Bush vetoed the bill, an anti-war demonstrator stood outside the White House with a bullhorn: “How many more must die? How many more must die?”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Then another page-and-a-half of anti-Bush blather. But, there’s no bias in the media.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
\n\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0Robert Derga, of Uniontown, Ohio, gave Mr. Bush the pen after an April 16 speech by the president at the White House.
\n\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0Mr. Bush invited a number of “Gold Star Families” — families who have lost a U.S. military member in Iraq — to the speech, and met with them afterwards in the Oval Office.
\n* * * * *<\/p>\n
\n\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0Mr. Bush “kind of looked at me funny for a moment and then said, ‘Absolutely,’ and then handed the pen to his assistant,” Mr. Derga said.
\n\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0“He assured me he would use it,” Mr. Derga said.
\n* * * * *<\/p>\n
\n\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0Mr. Weinstein was calling “to tell me that the president had signed the veto with my pen.”
\n\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0“They wanted to again give their heartfelt condolences on our loss of Dustin,” Mr. Derga said. “I was pretty blown away is one way of putting it. I couldn’t believe he actually did it.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n