It looks like the Democrats in Congress, lacking any real plan of their own for fighting Islamic terrorism and the fighting in Iraq, are going to pontificate until hell freezes over in committee hearings. Last week they had a panel of intelligence experts both civilian and military sitting before them and did little more than bombard them with questions and political b---s--- . They weren't interested in answers. A few days earlier they did the same thing to Condi Rice before her trip to the Middle East. The Democrats would have us believe that they are all experts in military strategy and tactics and that our military leaders are stupid. They're all foreign relations experts as well and Condi Rice is a dummy.

Let's get a few things straight. Our military leaders are people who have worked hard in K-12 to meet the tough entrance requirements of four years in one of the nation's military academies, months of hard study at Command & General Staff School and War Colleges. In the latter institutions they are taught more than military tactics and strategies. Most are also combat veterans. Others may not have gone through the academies but are products of Reserve Officer Training Corps programs at our nation's public colleges and universities who have undergone experience and advanced training similar to those who have graduated from the academies. In general all of these leaders are way ahead of the would-be military strategists in Congress and certainly those in the media who see themselves as knowing more than our leaders.

I've got to hand it to the Democrats, they succeeded in convincing enough people that we were wrong to invade Iraq to get them to vote against Republicans in last November's election. Of course, they did it with the help of a heavily biased news media that never did forgive Bush for beating Gore in 2000 and Kerry in 2004. The Nazis used the same biased media ploy to raise hatred against Jews in Nazi Germany. A biased media is a dangerous and deadly animal.

When I was a youngster we were taught the importance of free speech. We tended to believe what we read in the newspaper and heard over the radio. There seemed to be little if any bias in the reporting of news. Bias didn't begin to show up until after World War II. My first personal experience with biased media occured in Guyana, S.A. in 1974. I was part of a touring team from the oil company I worked for in the Caribbean and Latin America to educate major oil consumers on the crisis created by the 1973 Arab oil embargo and what they could do to reduce their consumption while keeping their economies functioning.

The morning following our late arrival the previous night, we met with the Prime Minister and his cabinet to make our presentation and answer their questions. The media present consisted of the nation's major newspaper and radio personnel. The PM used the meeting to pontificate against " imperialistic oil companies " and cared little that we were there to help locally owned businesses and the people of his country. Needless to say, that afternoon's edition of the puppet newspaper, in banner headlines, reported in detail the PM's words and none of ours. That is the kind of nonsense that continues to this very day, not only in Latin American countries, but through out much of the world. Here at home it differs only in the fact that the government doesn't control the media and the media crucifies non-liberal political leaders with abandon.

Free speech, like all rights guaranteed us under the Constitution in this country, carries with it a responsibility to exercise it with prudence and a basis in fact. not half- truths, ideology or outright lies.