I've been a Democrat all my life. I voted D in the last nine presidential elections. I was a leftist in my youth.

For the last several years I've chaffed at the silliness of the political correctness movement and recognized the need for a strong military, but still drank the liberal Kool-aid. I suffered from the selected not elected angst of the 2000 election. I couldn't stand resident Bush.

Then 9/11 happened and I saw the President stand up in the aftermath as the leader of our country and the Commander in Chief. I started defending our policy of liberating Afghanistan to my liberal friends who complained about how we were just bombing rocks. I started seeing the Democrats become more interested in partisan political gain and less interested in standing in a united front in our war on terrorists. I started listening to Glenn Beck and saw how the media misrepresented the efforts to support our troops. I discovered Fox news when we liberated Iraq and was shocked, awed and profoundly disappointed at how the MSM was reporting the war. I started agreeing with Rush instead of loathing him. I discovered F***France and FreeRepublic.

To cut to the heart of the matter, once you start to see that a lot of the things you took for granted had been based on false assumptions you start wondering what else you were wrong about. I really no longer consider myself a Democrat. I've moved on.

My most sincere thanks to those of you in combat for your service to our country. My most sincere thanks to your brothers and sisters in arms, those in military service around the planet, those who have served in times past and those who paid the ultimate price for our freedom. A special thanks also to our Police, Fire-Rescue and EMS personel here at home. You are True Hereos, all.